"Just another pilot, he says," Shira rolled her eyes with a smile. He was far more amiable than she expected. "and then calls me an attention grabber. If I'm an attention grabber, then you're a major celebrity. They've been making you and the other ace pilots into big news lately." It was, mostly, a marketing ploy to help boost morale and encourage people to take a more active role in helping with the ship. And, considering Shira's minor obsession, it worked fairly well. "I'm probably just one of many fans. Guess you were assigned to the Omen for quite a while, huh?"<br/><br/>She took the opportunity to look at him a bit closer too, given he was clearly eyeing her just now. Shira had calmed down considerably, largely in part to Kaz's own awkwardness. He was tall, and if the way the uniform hit him wasn't lying, in great shape. As she had expected though, the poster had taken some...liberties...with his build. Mostly, she just tried to not stare at his frame too much to make it any more awkward.<br/><br/>"I'm always happy to meet someone who's heard of my work! You, handsome, can just call me Shira." She smiled wide. Indeed, Shira was always happy to talk about her work and discuss ideas. "I'll admit, I'm proud of that paper, but it's far from the only thing I've written about. As for your question?" Shira's expression became a bit more thoughtful, her lips pursing. She was always able to push any distractions out once the more intellectual side kicked in.<br/><br/>"There's not really a good answer. Back on Earth, we were shielding from 99.9% of all cosmic radiation by it's magnetic field. On here, we compensate for it's lack with our own radiation shielding on the ship - both the EM field it generates and solid metal, but it's difficult to match the effectiveness of what we had on Earth." She gestured at Kaz with her metal arm. "It's worse for pilots like you who sortie outside of the ship. Say we run into some alien threat - you're relying on the shielding of the mechs to protect you, as you'd be engaging too far from the ship to benefit from it's shield. So while we do our best, some effects, we're only starting to see now."<br/><br/>Her left eye glowed a bit and a holographic projection suddenly hung in between them, displaying the headlines from the morning news. She pointed out the top one of the hour, and the projection zoomed in on it. "You read the news much, Mr. Markin? Right now on Pioneer that organ failures are on the rise again, after we had a good dip last year. Some say it's a lack of maintenance on the EM shielding, but that's mostly an early, uninformed opinion," Shira didn't quite scoff, but she came pretty close. "according to both myself and most other professionals. The EM shielding isn't strong enough, yes, but the current crop of organ failures are due to prior exposures. From what I understand, the ones who are feeling it the hardest are those on engineering teams, pilots, and maintenance - especially those that have been in that line of work since launch. All personnel who spend the most time out of the main residential areas which are the heaviest shielded. They were the ones exposed to cosmic radiation in the largest amounts earlier than everyone else."<br/><br/>Shira dismissed the projection. The lights on her spine were glowing a bit brighter now, and the pace of her voice quickened as she spoke with increasing authority. "The media just hasn't caught on yet, but I'm sure one of my colleagues or myself will end up setting them straight. Now what did you ask? What is the answer and how would I handle it?" She licked her lips as her gaze went over Kaz's body again. Shira took another few steps towards him, almost uncomfortably close. Her eyes, once again, scanned his body, but this time in a more...inquisitive way, like she was trying to construct a mental image of him in her head.<br/><br/>"You're body is mostly un-enhanced, right? Minimal cybernetics? Eventually, you'll start to feel your body giving out on you too, that's what's been happening to the others." Her voice dropped in volume, her tone bitter. "The answer, were we on Earth, would be stem cells and organ transplants. On here, those aren't great options. The former is too expensive and limited in quantity, and the latter...well, where are you going to get the organs? There's rumors about some shadier transplants," her eyes narrowed, "and no one really knows where they're harvesting the organs from, or where they're being grown. But some people have money to drop, and frankly, it'd surprise me if there wasn't at least<i>one</i>higher up running around on borrowed parts." Shira sighed, leaning against the wall next to him. Her voice returned back to it's normal volume, but she didn't quite back away.<br/><br/>"For everyone else, there's cybernetics." She gave Kaz a wry grin and raised her left arm. "It's by far the more ethical option, and they're pretty sophisticated these days. Some people like holding onto their human parts for as long as possible, others go right for them once they have the money. Most prosthetics are made to look like a human part, since it seems to set people more at ease when they jam a human=looking leg into an empty socket every morning, I guess. But they're getting more popular these days, especially as organ replacements. Is it perfect? Not at all, but I'd be a crippled one-armed cyclops without them so they're doing something right." Shira laughs, shaking her head. The elevator had almost reached their destination.<br/><br/>"Sorry about that. I tend to ramble when it comes to my work, and then...well, I veer into tangents often. What's your take on the problem? Your position as a pilot give you any interesting perspectives?"