Ok, here's the thing.
My protagonist, a teenage girl from Earth, ends up on a very earth-like planet and takes shelter there from the Bad Guys that are after her with the help of a native alien who, though first-contact has not yet happened for his kind, is very open minded and helpful to my MC, and though he is uneducated, he knows a lot about the environment around him and tries to 'take care' of an 'alien.'
She arrives in that planet's winter season, but as spring approaches, she will start to suffer from all the strange pollens and spores in the air. She has asthma to start with.
Before she has to leave due to Plot, I need to figure out how she avoids getting sick from simple contact with microbes? I know that native life contains a widespread and mostly harmless substance. Since the MC lacks this chemical at the cellular level, I thought I could use it somehow.
How would you get around the problems of survival on an alien world? I might add that the planet has slightly lower gravity (but not much), a few degrees warmer global temperature, and an atmosphere that has a little bit higher percentage of oxygen.
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50,197 / 50,000
Nov 20, 2009 - 03 52
Absurdly simply as it may seem what about central air?
Aside from that I think you'd get a long way with a mask. Just a simple surgical kind of mask or even one made of a tightly woven fabric tided around her mouth and nose would keep a lot of stuff out.
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50,031 / 50,000
Nov 20, 2009 - 04 17
to be fair the likelyhood that human physiology would be compatible with alien microbes and stuff is pretty unlikely, unless there is a common genetic ancestor. also alien pollon might not affect her athsma because her immune system is unable to recognise the foriegn objects.
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109,398 / 50,000
Nov 20, 2009 - 05 04
In this particular case, though the MC doesn't know it, the planet's inhabitants do have common ancestry with Earth's.
Oooh, but you're right. Allergies to things that you don't come into contact with in your natural environment don't typically occur. It's why I have to feed my puppy food made from kangaroo (awful I know.)
50,031 / 50,000
Nov 20, 2009 - 05 30
that's not to say that the pollons could irritate her respiratory system in other ways, she might sneeze if a lot of pollon gets up her nose, but she won't dispaly any hayfever symptoms for example.
i'm thinking that if the planet has sufficiently higher oxygen in the air, she may be less likely to have an asthma attack.
if there is a common genetic ancestry as you say, but evolution has taken a different path, microbes might affect her in different ways, she might be immune to native diseases for example, but might be severely affected by something harmless to the locals.
how long ago did earth's and this planets common ancestry branch off?
----------If a picture is worth 1000 words, would 50 pictures win NaNaWriMo?
109,398 / 50,000
Nov 20, 2009 - 16 40
Probably about 50,000 years. The inhabitants of this planet were genetically engineered using human and another species that was fairly different, and highly advanced. Before the creators left, they made sure their 'children' had a planet that would suit them. Most of the species on the planet are native to it, but some are derived from Earth's. Evolution of course has played a small part thus far, but it hasn't been long enough for this species and humanity to become so different that they can't interact. They look very different to human eyes, but compared to most of the other aliens out there, they are very similar. Bipedal mammals, similar thought patterns, equal in intelligence.
As for microbes, those of course have a much faster rate of metabolism and so they evolve faster. So there would be enough differences between the two that major illnesses of the alien species might not affect a human as badly. Or it could be much worse.
That is a good idea, about the oxygen content improving my MC's condition. I'm ashamed I didn't think of that!
50,169 / 50,000
Nov 20, 2009 - 21 41
The slightly lower gravity would probably mean that your MC would be slightly stronger and have slightly faster reactions than the average aliens (why faster reactions? Because falling objects fall faster on Earth), but would also be noticeably more clumsy (not used to the lower gravity, and always expecting things to fall faster).
Oh - and she would probably be carrying microbes harmless to her with some (hopefully minor) effect on the aliens, as well. (Perhaps every alien who gets too close to her starts sneezing... then if there's an alien who's supposed to find her but not to be obvious about it, have him start sneezing as well after he's done so)