Rejuvenation chambers

A chamber that is used to turn somebody into a preteen child

Not totally understood, the rejuve technology uses a series of radiating crystals, data storage and several new substances to generate Chronostatic Radiation. Chronostatic Radiation seams to effect the flow of time within the localised capsule. The exact exchange rates of energy, way the procedure works and limitations of the device are not fully understood but the device seams to manipulate a time field and use it to make the individual in the chamber younger.

History
Having already discovered Chronostatic radiation in the 22nd century by analysing left over technology from the Forerunner race, the discovery several functional rejuvenation chambers on a planet orbiting Tau Ceti. The technology was not however made practical until friendly relations were made with the race known as the Drakonians.

The first human experiments take place about 4 years later, using conviced criminals. After about 30 years, we are able to reproduce the chambers by an exact-copy process, although we still do not entirely understand how they work. In particular, the software can only be copied--we are only beginning to learn to understand that.

Nobody knows who invented the original rejuve chambers. Technology was reverse engineered and the process was far from controlled until a young computer nerd called Melvin Feinburg decoded the programming system and, with the assistance of the Drakonians the programming of the chambers was modified and corrected to make up for it's inability to process human DNA properly

Repression and Insertion
Thanks to the innovations created by Melvin in adapting the programming to cater for human DNA, it is now possible both to insert or suppress Y chromosone on a rejuve, so that even if Female was their original gender. This ability to arbitrarily swap an individuals gender is called Repression and Insertion and is a common tool when dealing with violent crimes or crimes that show a disregard for the opposite sex.

It is important to note that Pennies are not the only cases of purposely repressing or inserting the Y chromosone. Psycholos and Voluntaras occasionally undergo the procedure to widen their personal perscpective and not all cases of a swapped gender are corrected. Some experimentation has been done with using the process to fix genetic errors.

The Puberty Barrier
The rejuve units are inabile to rejuvenate someone to an age greater than early puberty, the puberty barrier. Everybody who takes a rejuvenation comes out no older than eleven to thirteen years old, usually around twelve. Younger ages are easily set, but nothing older is possible. At first thought to be inherent in the design, but the Drakonians do not have the same problem. While their rejuves frequently do abort early, it is usually in late adolescence to early adulthood. The problem is apparently with the genetic modeling system that simply cannot deal with the complex physical and hormonal changes of human adolescence. This is one reason research keeps on going into the phenomenon (with little luck).

Three year limit
When rejuvenating, at least three years must be removed from the subjects age (actual limit 2 yrs 9 months 7 days). This limit seems to cross species boundaries, even animals with a lifespan less than three years are subject to it. It apears to be a restriction of the memory capacity and some experiments have been performed in this field but with little results.

Minimum age
Although it is rarely a problem, if a person is rejuved younger than the age of about 3, the rejuve system is unable to download the person's memories and personalities into his/her body. Working from rejuves and children who had to be rejuvenated or die - it was found that under the age of 2 years 6 months their bodies lived but their memories and personalities didn't. Essentially rejuve below the age of 3 causes personality death. As a result, while the physical form is fine, it is no longer really the person any more.

Actual children can be rejuvenated to slightly younger ages (2yr3mo) because their memories and personalities are less well developed.

Recent experiments have dounf a way to maintain Personality and Memory beyond this (The infamous Ellen Miller case where an individual succRecent experiments essfully retained memory in a rejuve down to age 1 years and eight months. However this required a fundamental rebuild and a much larger machine and a lot of memory is lost in the rejuvination..

Millenium Problem
About 1% of the time, (act: 0.954%) a male human undergoing rejuve will come out of the chamber physically female. Although his Y chromosome is still present in his cells, it has been totally suppressed and will not affect her development at all. There is no effect on future rejuves, and usually (99.046%) a second rejuve will correct the problem (although with a 3 year age loss). It is believed that the Forerunners were a hermaphroditic people, with no unpaired chromosomes, and the system occasionally misinterprets the Y chromosome as a genetic error to be fixed. This is borne out by the experience of the Drakonians. About 1% of Drakonian females (with the J-K pair) come out of rejuve as male (J-J) Drakonians.

Emergency Rejuvenation Chambers
Rejuvenation chambers are typically very heavy, requiring five 20kg Johnson crystals to function fully, however due to an accident where a chamber was damaged it was made possible to strip down the weight. Modern Medical Response Teams are now equipped with Emergency Rejuvenation Chambers. These are used only when a person is in IMMEDIATE threat of loss of life. Since a rejuve will repair ANY injury or disease, even restore lost limbs, etc, this has been a great boon. But to save weight, only 1 Johnston crystal is used--making the system subject to the same restrictions as in Higgins: Max age between 6 and 8, and ALL female.