From:	"Paul J. Adam" <shadowtk@********.DEMON.CO.UK>
Subject:	Research
Date:	Tue, 24 Feb 1998 17:58:30 +0000

>>>>>[There's a couple of other reasons I haven't ended up on a lab
slab, Irish. One of them being that - when shapeshifters _were_ being
folded, stapled and mutilated in Federal and corporate laboratories,
right next to magicians and metahumans - a fair amount was learned,
enough that simple anatomical studies aren't needed any more, and for
many of the biological analyses (like our healing ability, for instance,
and the obvious one of our changeable form) vatgrown tissue is superior
- more controllable, more repeatable.

Other things are occupying the scientists now. Such as genus _Pantera_'s
superior situational awareness, which comes from having to track a herd
of prey by hearing and smell during a covert approach. Our higher G-
tolerance. Our faster reflexes. That makes us _excellent_ combat pilots,
for instance, which is one of the reasons I'm a citizen. Others like me
are assisting with submarine warfare, where the need is to process and
handle a great many indistinct passive tracks and turn them into usable
targeting data. Ditto electronic warfare, air warfare control,
battlespace management...All fields where we can contribute.

Of course, for this you need voluntary subjects working of their own
free will...


In many ways I _am_ a research project. How do you implant a VCR into a
shapeshifter? (The unclassified answer is 'extraordinarily carefully').
How well does a shapeshifter integrate with other pilots? (Generally, if
you can fly you're in. If you're a bad stick you're out. Simple as that,
these are after all pilots we're talking about here). How many aircraft
can I keep track of, in a many-vs.-many furball, before saturating?
(Rather more than a human...) These are some of the questions that the
researchers are asking, and that I'm helping to answer.

Not all research involves dissection.]<<<<<
-- Lilith <18:02:23/02-24-59>