Kira’s Health: How did he not catch nor spread a contagious illness?

Today, I present you a special extra for everyone. 

At the stages we are nowadays, with the COVID-19 virus bringing every country to its knees, I was asked by many readers on how Kira has not gotten ill by new diseases, and why he didn’t bring an old disease with him.

The questions are fascinating, so I thought I want to write up a little extra explaining how Kira won’t get easily ill, and how he won’t be spreading old, formerly eradicated diseases.

To find the answers, we have to go back, before Kira was awakened.

The moment the awakening notification appeared on the monitoring equipment of the Cryogenic Lab, a standard protocol was activated. This protocol encompasses a myriad of health checks. Once the responsible nurse was called in, they check all the data of the cryogenic patient. In Kira’s case, that nurse was Aia.

In most cases, the procedure is mostly automatic, and a quarantine, sill inside the cryogenic capsule, is imposed. During this time, the body will slowly regain its movements. However, the patient is still unconscious while they recover from the physical stress the body was subjected to. The patient will only be formally awakened after roughly a week of constant monitoring.

During that time of quarantine and of unconsciousness, the patient goes through medical checks, vaccinations, and treatments, if required.

Kira’s case, however, was different. His old cryogenic capsule did not have all the required connections, or were utterly outdated, to interface directly with the Lab’s computer systems. He had to be removed from the capsule earlier than any other standard patient.

Kira was quarantined in one of the few isolation rooms fit for such patients. Aia looked after him over the few days while he was still unconscious.

During that quarantine period, Kira’s body was analyzed for any possible pathogen still in his body. If some were found, the quarantine would be extended, and appropriate medicines would be provided. 

Luckily for Kira, he didn’t have any illness, just antibodies of some ancient pathogens. This had to do with the experiment’s conditions. He had to be at the top of his health to be admitted.

The lack of any known illnesses, meant that the quarantine could be reduced to the minimum required. Meanwhile, he was inoculated with all the obligatory vaccines for an Awakened. Only when the patient’s body reacted, and antibodies were found, they will be awakened.

Until Kira was deemed fit to be awakened, Aia had to wear specialized personal protective equipment to avoid any possible infection. They are no dissimilar to what we see wear the intensive care workers nowadays during the pandemic, just less bulky.

During the quarantine period, Kira’s body was slowly “revived” in a controlled way. To reduce mental stress, he was kept unconscious for the duration of his physical recovery. The patient’s blood is kept in motion by two dedicated machines to assist the weakened heart muscles. Oxygen is provided by a set of machines that assist the lungs until their muscles are fit enough to function by themselves. All muscles are slowly stimulated via electrical inputs into the nervous system until they regain their former strength.

Once Kira was given the all okay, he was transferred to an “Awakening Room” which is doted with all the needed equipment to assist his awakening.

The “proper” awakening process varies from person to person and how they reacted to the treatment of their quarantine. In Kira’s case, it was quite fast, as Aia remarked in the first chapter.

As Kira awakened, Aia administered him further stimulants as she saw fit, given the readings of the constant analytics.

Kira’s feeling of coldness was mostly due to the lack of movement, not due to the cryogenic process. His blurry eyesight was because of the lack of visual stimulation, despite a special pair of glasses were doted on him while isolated to ease the process. His muscle soreness should be obvious, his muscles had received no real inputs but for the electro-stimuli he received during his quarantine.

The overall process is designed to ease the awakening and that the Awakened may leave the Lab’s care in a span of 24 hours.

The Cryogenic Lab’s protocols are designed and established to avoid any ancient, eradicated illness to spread, and to protect the Awakened from falling ill the moment they leave the capsule. Basically, the intention is to avoid what happened to Fry in Futurama’s episode Cold Warriors and, consequently, a pandemic as we live one through right now.

Honestly, I never had thought the whole cryogenic awakening process through, at least not to all the details. I did, however, think about the possible illnesses and infections, and about the basic process. What, however, is clear, is that Kira had to go through a lengthy process without him noticing.

Why has Aia never explained to him the details? I guess she never thought it to be relevant to tell… basically, it was never needed for narrative purposes.

I hope you’d enjoy this little extra.

The next extra will continue with Aia’s Mini-Bio (part 2 of 2) for patrons.

Thank you all, dear readers and patrons, for keeping SpaceHighway alive and encouraging me to go on,
Siggy Simon Jr.