Living On Kaleida
Information about living on Kaleida.
Kaleida is an undeveloped planet, which means that all job or fieldwork postings must be assumed to be 'live-in' roles. Weekends on your home planet will not be possible; we cannot stress enough that this should be anticipated.
While teleportation technology is available to be used to bring staff and students to their postings, the technology is costly to use, so is used as sparingly as possible. This means that the technology is used at the start and and of a job or fieldwork posting, at six-monthly intervals, and on the occasion of a medical emergency or pregnancy.
Your lifestyle on Kaleida will vary depending on your location, however the following should serve as an approximate guide:
Food
Foraging is encouraged in order to minimise the introduction of exotic chemicals to Kaleida, and to improve relations between natives and non-natives. However, we understand that foraging may be impractical for some individuals, and that most applicants will experience calorie deficit due to inexperience, time limitations, or uncertainty over suitable food items. We recommend, wherever possible, a diet comprising 2/3 meat, fish, and insects, and 1/3 plant matter.
Locals can assist with hunting and gathering at their own discretion. Please understand that the natives reserve the right to refuse this for any reason.
Cooking your food is recommended, as this releases more calories from the same type and weight of food.
Information can be provided by the research teams about what foods are safe and pleasant to eat, and which contain the highest number of calories.
Supplementary high-calorie foods would be provided in regular deliveries to supplement foraging, however we advise against over-relying on this. These foods include:
- bread or breadcrumbs
- chocolate/hazelnut spreads
- cooking oils
- crisps/potato chips
- dates (de-seeded)
- dressings (no seeds) and pestos
- macadamia nuts (crushed)
- maple syrup
- nougat
- oatmeal (as cookies or offered as is)
- pasta
- peanut butter
- pecans (crushed)
- raisins
- sugar
- salami and other dried meats
The following may also be available. However, discretion is advised as some natives consider the consumption of dairy products to be unsavoury:
- caramel
- cheeses
- chocolate
- mayonnaise
Hygiene and Sanitation
Soap is not permitted to be brought on-planet. In some parts of Kaleida, soap-nuts may be used, and in others, alternatives methods of preserving hygiene may be available.
Visitors, working or vacationing, are advised to use water sparingly, especially in areas where the Mukash provide water. Please be mindful of the effort required to provide your team with water where this is the case.
Composting toilets are built and maintained at each site. Teams are encouraged to use the resulting compost, however they cannot bring off-world plants onto Kaleida. Your local natives can advise on suitable plants to grow.
Non-biodegradable refuse / garbage can be sent to the Kaleida Space Station, where it will be properly disposed of.
Heating and Cooking
Most, if not all, ranger and researcher bases are furnished with small-scale renewable energy equipment. This is generally the most efficient equipment the intergalactic community has to offer, and in many cases has been kindly donated; our thanks to the Stull, Eborgine, Kz-cutl, and Ispep civilizations.
The bases are located in a wide variety of different climates, with differing local energy-harvesting opportunities depending on the camp, so your exact energy-generation equipment will be tailored to your camp. Overall you may have access to wind energy, hydro-electricity, and solar energy. Wherever possible, solar water-heating technology is installed, and this can produce boiling water. This will improve your ability to make your water supplies safe for drinking.
Despite the advanced technology involved, please note that your energy is generated by your own equipment and you are not connected to a grid; as such you cannot fully rely on having access to energy 100% of the time. You will need to priorise your energy consumption for research purposes (e.g., video, charging of drones, etc.), cooking, and heating.
In addition to the energy-generation equipment provided, bases in cooler climates include insulated, 3D printed buildings; our thanks to the Eborgine civilization for providing these.
We recommend that bases cook in order to maximise the calorific output of their meals, but to do so efficiently - by cooking for larger groups, and by cutting any meat into thin strips.
Living Quarters and Laboratories
In warmer climates, canvas tents are provided, which include raised floors. In coldar climates, 3D-printed buildings will be provided; many thanks to the Eborgine civilization for providing this useful and flexible technology.
You will find that your laboratory equipment is state of the art; this too is thanks to the generosity of the Eborgine, whose advanced 3D-printing technology allows for easy creation of new equipment on-site.
Communication / Contact With Home
Working on Kaleida presents a variety of barriers regarding language, including the language barrier between different members of a research or ranger team, who may be from different planets, and between off-worlders and natives. The Kz-cutl have provided a 3D-printable device that can be worn unobtrusively around the neck which connects bio-digitally to the linguistic centre of the brain of most species to facilitate communication. Some visitors however like to learn the various Kaleidan languages to allow for conversation with locals without the use of these devices.
Communication with the rest of your team or with other teams will be done by radio. You will have a local repeater tower for this purpose. Your local natives will have been primed about the nature of these towers.
Kaleida has a dedicated IUPC representative, and key ranger teams will have regular meetings with them via screen contact. Your current IUPC rep is Mantor 8-Sersi. Mantor will initiate contact at 10am each Thursday (according to the Earthian calendar) via Kaleida's geostationary satellites.
It must be understood that communication with home will be sporadic. Family will not be able to visit you. Visits back home will be subject to quarantine, and all visitors to Kaleida are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement. No Internet/telecommunication service will be available. However, workers are allowed to send letters along with the supplies shuttle, and most ranger team members arrange for their salary to be paid into a bank account on their home planet.
Transport
Transport will be very sparing on Kaleida. Vehicles can be provided via 3D printing if required, however some natives of sufficient size and strength will offer riding services. Discuss this with your local native representative.
Medical
The IUPC are aware of the ethical questions that accompany the discrepancy between the medical knowledge accumulated by the various space-age civilisations who visit Kaleida, and that accumulated by the natives of Kaleida. The decision has been made, aside from vaccination programmes, to avoid sharing medical knowledge with the natives.
On the subject of vaccines, all visitors are required to attend mandatory quarantine. This is to protect the natives. In addition, the native tribes most likely to have sustained contact with off-worlders have been vaccinated with most of the available vaccines available on various planets for respiratory and eye infections. This is a precautionary measure as most illnesses are not expected to affect the species native to Kaleida, and no outbreaks of disease associated with alien contact with Kaleida have been recorded.
Your ranger team will include a paramedic who will be able to advise in the event of illness or accident. Any serious illness or injuries may require visitors to be teleported off-world for treatment. Please note that we do not support egg-laying, birth, or other reproduction to take place on Kaleida and will automatically send individuals who are believed to be preparing to reproduce home.
Magic
It is understood that some visitors to Kaleida will have access to any one of a variety paranormal methods of energy-transfer known collectively as 'magic'. Any visitor with magical ability, active, or passive, is required to declare this along with their initial application. Any failure to present an accurate picture of your magical ability will be taken extremely seriously. An assessment will be completed of the precise nature of your magical ability.
Magical adepts are not necessarily prevented from visiting Kaleida for work or pleasure, but if you are capable of inflicting damage to other life-forms or your environment, you will be required to accept a temporary blocking or limiting spell or device for the duration of your visit.
Aside from this, use of magic is accepted for the purposes of cooking food, keeping warm, and other practical reasons. Depending on the nature of your magical ability, you may find yourself unable to use magic while on Kaleida.