Non-singer Ballybranians

[Jax]

Ok as mentioned in my other thread, I am wondering why the other people on Ballybran can't leave the planet...
Is it something to do with the crystal in the singers blood that allows them to leave for long periods at a time? Surely the others would be able to manage being off planet for a month or two?

[granath]

Something to do with the better adaptation to the spore allowing longer absences from the planet. As far as I know, non-singers can't get further than the moons without risking further impairmets to their faculties. I'm not sure why good adaptations like Antona couldn't travel a bit, but they apparently can't, BASS.

[Jax]

BASS?

I wonder if they'd be able to find a way to allow for them to go offworld, in small doses - I know they agree to coming to the planet knowing full well they won't be able to leave again (I think :-/) but some of the people who aren't singers must be scientists.... with so many storms on the planet they'd be shelter bound for a lot of the time, even though there are places to go on the planet, it'd get a bit stuffy I reckon - LOL having said that though, /we/ seem to manage ok on one planet...

[BD1]

BASS stands for Because Anne Says So. :bouncy: :bouncy: :) :D :D

[Bronze-Dragonrider]

Ok, I just read this part in the book, my first time reading it :D

Non-singers are unable to leave at all due to unsuccessful/partial cellular adaption to the symbiont. With something that's so directly tied with DNA/RNA in the nuclei, I doubt there's anything that can be done to assist non-singers to leave the planet. The stresses on the symbiont of being apart from the planet without having the proper partnering would result in damage to the DNA - I'm guessing the symbiont feeds off its host for energy until it absolutely needs to be recharged, and the strength of the adaptation increases efficiency? - it's too risky and delicate to try.

[Jax]

I thought that unsuccessful adaptations were the ones who died during the first few weeks on planet. Everyone who survives through the process is then adapted to some form of the symbiote...
I'm not sure if being a singer is the full transformation/adaptation to the symbiote, or just one type of adaptation though.

My theory is that the singers get the full blast of crystal in their blood, because they're out in the ranges all the time, kind of like, storing it up, which is why they're able to manage going off planet - until they use up their crystal resources in their system and have to go back or die, but the other people living on Ballybran just don't get that exposure needed to get high enough levels to be able to make it off planet for long enough to go anywhere.
Surely, with all the extra people they get who don't make it to singer-hood, they'd have researchers who'd be looking in to some way of making something artifical as a substitue so they /could/ go offplanet for leisure - as well as allowing singers to go for longer (though I know the guild wants the singers to stay!)

Course, there's always the theory about how the singers are the ones who get the high pay, and the rest of the workers wouldn't be able to afford to go offworld even if they could (what do they need omney for anyways, stuck on Ballybran? There's not a whole lot to do there!)

[Apocalypse]

Well, I want to know why the adaptations are so commerically viable! ;) What on earth is the biological advantage of being able to 'zoom' in with your eyes? :confused:

[Greenrider Tresa]

Being able to see small things close up, without the use of a magnifier/microscope? Thus you'd still have your hands free...

[Bronze-Dragonrider]

I thought that unsuccessful adaptations were the ones who died during the first few weeks on planet. Everyone who survives through the process is then adapted to some form of the symbiote...
I'm not sure if being a singer is the full transformation/adaptation to the symbiote, or just one type of adaptation though.

My theory is that the singers get the full blast of crystal in their blood, because they're out in the ranges all the time, kind of like, storing it up, which is why they're able to manage going off planet - until they use up their crystal resources in their system and have to go back or die, but the other people living on Ballybran just don't get that exposure needed to get high enough levels to be able to make it off planet for long enough to go anywhere.
Surely, with all the extra people they get who don't make it to singer-hood, they'd have researchers who'd be looking in to some way of making something artifical as a substitue so they /could/ go offplanet for leisure - as well as allowing singers to go for longer (though I know the guild wants the singers to stay!)

Course, there's always the theory about how the singers are the ones who get the high pay, and the rest of the workers wouldn't be able to afford to go offworld even if they could (what do they need omney for anyways, stuck on Ballybran? There's not a whole lot to do there!)
Ok, maybe it's just the completely unsuccessful adaption or more lower end of it that die... but the partial adaptions are the ones who can't sing crystal. But if it were just the amount of time out in the ranges that dictate how far away or long they can stay, that doesn't explain why ONLY the full adaptions can sing in the first place, otherwise everyone would be in the ranges charging up to be able to leave. I thought it was the other way around, it's the symbiont that's the one that gets weak the longer it's away from Ballybran, and needs to go back to be recharged. It's the weakening of the symbiont that causes the intense shakes and spasms when they're away too long, and their regenerative assistance wears off and the human's true age begins to show. And once the symbiont dies, then their host dies.

[granath]

I think you got it, Bronzie. The symbiont can't survive for long outside Ballybran unless the host is charged with crystal resonance, and only singers get that. Some advantages non-singers get as well: Enthor didn't need gloves as Killa did before her symbiosis, so even non-singers get the fast healing and longer lifespan.

[Sandi]

I currently reading these books (again!) an I've been wondering about that too. I wonder when and how often Trag cut in order to be able to leave for so long when he went to Optheria. I also think it strangely ironic that the Guild Members were so outraged by the laws of Optheria banning travel for its citizens when Ballybran does the same thing to the majority of its people.

[Bronze-Dragonrider]

Ok, I haven't read far enough yet to know what the circumstances are for Optheria, but Ballybran doesn't so much BAN (off-world) travel for it's citizens/technicians, as it is impossible for them to travel without damaging themselves. Big difference between depriving the capable, and restricting for the safety of their life.

[granath]

Right, and even the non-singers can go to the moons, where the air isn't saturated with spores.

[JayEgo]

So, if they carried tanks full of Ballybran air, or filled a spaceship with such, could they travel then? The air would surely contain the spores...?

Jayson xx

[Jax]

Or perhaps couldn't they grow the spores specifically for the non singers travel? :D

[Lady Arwyn]

And risk infecting other people? Imagine the uproar if the Ballybran air escaped and infected fellow travellers, who would then be sentenced to a life on Ballybran... or die.

Considering how many people spend their entire life in a small town without ever travelling out of their own small region here on earth right now, I'm sure being restricted to one planet isn't so bad. I know there are lots of luxuries offered to keep people sane, and during the "safe" season they can visit other parts of the planet. Killa and Lars manage to go sailing, I bet there are beaches worth visiting, etc.

If I were them I would build underground storm shelters on various parts of Ballybran that may be good to visit as sort of resort-centrals, places for R&R for anyone unable to get off-planet but still able to make it to safety if a storm *does* head their way.

[granath]

The shuttle that brought Donalla to Ballybran had air processed on the planet, and Killa warned her parents off, asking them to say their goodbyes at the moon spacedock instead.

[JayEgo]

The shuttle that brought Donalla to Ballybran had air processed on the planet, and Killa warned her parents off, asking them to say their goodbyes at the moon spacedock instead.So it may well be possible for prolonged space travel using Ballybrian air then?

Alter xx

[C_ris]

Depends how long the spores last off the planet!

[Sharon]

Another thing to consider is that in the days before Lars became guildmaster, non-singers were very much considered second-rate citizens. They just didn't get the same sort of considerations that Singers did. I doubt there was much research resources used on trying to enable non-singers to leave the planet safely.

[C_ris]

They were probably so busy keeping the Singers happy that they didn't have time or money available to focus on the non-singers.

[Sharon]

Exactly!

[Jax]

Well, now that they've got the singers somewhat sorted out, dyu think they'll start putting some energy into research about that then?

[C_ris]

Probably not, at least straight away, since it is probably become deeplym ingrained that only Singers leave Ballybran - and it also would need enough non-Singers to push for it.

[Sharon]

Actually I think Lars might push for it, after all it would fit in with his recruitment ideas. He wants to recruit non-singers in support capacities, but people might not want to go to a world they can never leave even for a vacation/holiday.

Lars is after all changing so many of the deeply ingrained aspects of the guild. He realizes even if the singers do not, that the non-singers are just as important in different ways as the singers themselves.

[Jax]

Well what's the proportion of singers vs non singers on Ballybran? Didn't they say only a fraction actually become singers with the symbiosis? Surely you'd think someone would start thinking about it at some point! Especially when they start finding ways of singers to be more lucrative, meaning that can afford to go offworld whenever they want to whereever they want, instead of just a desperate 'how far can I afford to go on this?'. I know part of the solution is solving the whole thing with singers needing desperately to get offworld too... Hmmmm...

[JayEgo]

I was of the impression that non-singers were given quite a lot of consideration and luxury to compensate their not getting off planet... Otherwise why would anyone without perfect pitch even bother to apply to the guild. Antona(?) the medic stated she applied specifically to be a medic rather than a singer. For some, it was even mentioned I thought that they became singers purely because of their great transition and perfect pitch when they'd actually planned on a different career on Ballybran - or am I talking nonsense?

Jayson xx

[Sharon]

Well, IIRC in Crystal Singer before Killashandra and her group had transitioned, they talking about how long it would take to clear their initial debt at various rates of pay. My impression was that the pay rates weren't all that spectacular. Although luxuries were imported and available, they still had to pay for them. Not all payrates would allow one to get those luxuries. As for consideration, it was said more than one that the singers were the ones who had to be accomodated and everyone else was just support for them.

Yes, Antona specifically wanted medical duties/research, but I believe she remarked that if she had a full transition she'd have had to sing crystal. To me that means her personal preference for occupation would have been ignored and that was permissible by Guild law. Another negation of non-singer considerations.

[Madrigal]

I was of the impression that non-singers were given quite a lot of consideration and luxury to compensate their not getting off planet... Otherwise why would anyone without perfect pitch even bother to apply to the guild.


Well... there's the health benefit. (Anyone remember that girl--what was her name?--in Crystal Line who would have died without the symbiont?) There's the fact that you get to live a long time. And so on. Also... Ballybran doesn't seem like too bad of a place to live to me. I wouldn't mind being stuck there for life.

[Brenda]

Anyone remember that girl--what was her name?--in Crystal Line who would have died without the symbiont?Wasn't it Donalla?

[Madrigal]

Wasn't it Donalla?

Yeah, that's the name. Thanks.

[Sharon]

Well... there's the health benefit. (Anyone remember that girl--what was her name?--in Crystal Line who would have died without the symbiont?) There's the fact that you get to live a long time. And so on. Also... Ballybran doesn't seem like too bad of a place to live to me. I wouldn't mind being stuck there for life.

But Madrigal, there are not Cats on Ballybran. ;)

[Madrigal]

But Madrigal, there are not Cats on Ballybran. ;)

But that's what smuggling is for!

[Lady Arwyn]

Imagine a Ballybran-enhanced cat. :eek:

[Brenda]

Assuming the cat survived the symbiont.

[Sharon]

Trust me, cats would adapt. They'd probably all have Milekey adaptions, and be able to find crystals of darker colors. They'd find it and let their humans cope with cutting, packing and hauling it out while they catnapped in the sun.

[Brenda]

Cats would be able to find crystals of darker colors Unless these are also superintelligent cats with perfect pitch, I don't think cats would have any particular interest in crystal. With their acute hearing just normal wind on crystal would probably be painful.

[Sharon]

:erm: Brenda, that was a joke. As many people here know, I reside with a cat. I've resided with cats most of my life. I have quite a skewed sense of humor regarding cats, the secret masters of the universe.

[Brenda]

Oh, I know, but your joke got me thinking seriously about cats on Ballybran, and that for the sound alone they probably wouldn't do very well. Sorry to get all serious on your humor!

[Stewart]

i too am owned by a cat and a ballybran enhanced cat would be fun to have .Now where did i put that toy ball. Here puss here puss:laugh:

[Sharon]

Serious is good too. Because of the sound of a mach storm and the winds I imagine many terrestrial animals would not do well there. So many have hearing that is much more acute than that of humans.