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Richard notices that as the elevator starts to move not only does it seem to be constantly turning a little bit but is neither moving vertically or horizontally but rather at somewhat of an angle. But for the time being figures asking how an elevator works in this strange place as one of the least important issues for the time being.

"If you're wondering we're currently in the process of accelerating to the appropriate rotation to match that of the station while we make our approach to the station proper. Then we'll hitch a lift to where we want to go." Chris states casually.

"You know, why are you being so helpful to me? I figured when that blue guy said that I was going to be escorted it'd be essentially with a gun to my back or at least the threat of such."

"It's because you are a TD14. One of my friends back home was one and I remember him saying just how traumatizing it was for him right after showing up. As much of an annoyance as you might be to us, our lives were not destroyed as completely as yours just has been. At the end of the day I can go home to everything familiar to me. You cannot."

Eventually the elevator stops moving and Richard can hear the distinctive sound of something latching into place. The door then opens and he can definitely tell a massive difference in the gravitational pull compared to where he was previously. That isn't to say it's anywhere nearly as much as he was used to. The hallways here are about as wide as he'd expect in a mall. In fact everything about the area when he first steps out of the elevator reminds him of a mall or the pathways in an airport. There's a bunch of people that are just milling about and there are what look to be some souvenir shops right near the exit as well as places to eat. Almost more so than when he was going through customs he is taken back by just how alien this place seems. It is extremely off-putting to see so many people behave in exactly the way he would expect any normal person to act in this location. And yet, they don't look normal. In fact, humans seem to be in the vast minority. There are a lot of different species of different sizes all roaming around and some seem to be in encounter suits of some shape or another.

"I know, we could have gone to the human sector, but it's a bit more of a hassle to have you processed in the human sector. A lot more forms that need to be filled out, a lot more fighting bureaucratic nonsense, not to mention getting the personnel to handle the processing. It'd probably take about five days to have you full processed in the human sector. It's just so much easier to go through this one. You'll eventually need to go through all the hoops if you want to ever go to a human world, but for now it'll at least get you started going things this way. Anyway, on to the lift."

Chris leads the two of them into what almost looks like a storage closet door. He pulls out a sort of semi-transparent pad and begins typing things on it as he approaches and it opens up immediately. He ushers Richard in and once both are inside the thing immediately starts moving around, following some sort of track as far as he can tell, though it does seem to periodically make changes. Richard notices that there doesn't really seem to be any sort of buttons or displays anywhere in the lift. It doesn't even really have any sort of designation about their current location. It's almost like they're in just a solid box that is moving somewhere and after a minute he can start feeling the thing slow down, though doing so gradually. He walks over and touches the wall but it doesn't feel any different than what he might at any other location.

"This is a Guardian Lift. We need to be able to get around the station really fast, so there's a whole maze of paths throughout the station that we can use one of these lifts to get to where we want to go. Course only Guardians can use them and then we need approval to do so. But as we need to get you into quarantine, the less exposure to others the better. And before you ask there are obviously other means of travel provided to the general populace. If you didn't notice on your way in this is a fairly large station and it would take people a very long time if they had to walk everywhere. So naturally there are lifts like this all over the station. Those are generally much bigger. Some run down the center of the pathway, usually on the roof to make full use of all the space the station provides. But these have very specific paths they take and stop at each designation location. Not to mention then having to expose you to everyone on one of these. These Guardian Lifts are probably the best way of getting to where you want without any stops and minimizing the interaction with others as much as possible."

Richard nods, figuring it'd probably look very similar to a subway map back home if he saw one, and probably about as confusing for those that haven't yet had any time to really learn the correct routes. And as they still haven't made the final approach to wherever this thing is going on the station Richard decides to go ahead and ask about the zero thing.

"So that badge thing you're wearing, what do the zeroes mean?"

"Oh, this," he looks down and touches the badge. "It's my mage ratings. Everyone is expected to test to see how strong their magic is and for some have to retest on it every so often to make sure it stays current. The top two numbers are the Sym magic scores, this one," he points at the one closest to his heart, "is the standardized Sym score, the other one," he points at the other one on the top, "is the Raeshael Sym test score. The bottom one is the Dis magic score. In general the larger number the stronger you are at using magic. But I'm not at all capable of using magic so that's why all my numbers are zeroes."

"Is magic common?"

"Eh, depends on the species. Some races are really good at it. Others not so much. Eventually you'll be expected to take the tests and have to wear one of these badges as well, at least on the station. Some other locations that don't have as much magic to have to deal with often will have much more lax regulations regarding its use."

The step out of the lift once it's done moving and Richard notices just how much narrower the hallways seem to be here than they were earlier. Not quite cramped feeling but noticeably narrower. Whereas before there was more than enough room that you could have half a dozen people lie down and be able to fit one from end to end and likely have a bit of room leftover. With this hallway there's enough room for maybe four people to stand side-to-side and not have issues. Richard guesses that it might have to do with traffic. It would make sense that when trying to maximize space usage, that more highly populated areas would get much wider halls while less populated areas would have much more narrow corridors. Richard is escorted down the mostly empty hallways until they seem to have a much larger building coming up. The sign on top doesn't seem to be of a language he can particularly understand. It doesn't even look remotely similar to any of the written languages that he knows of. It does, however have two symbols on it that are blatantly trying to make you aware of them. The first is that somewhat snake and stick symbol he had seen before. The other he can't make head or tails of what it's supposed to represent. As the two of them enter the room they are confronted with a kitsune doctor that has all sorts of devices nearby. He sees the two of them and immediately urges them on.

"Well, come along then. No need to dawdle. If anything the faster we get this part over with, the better," The doctor states.

"Not really one for bedside manner, is he?" Richard half jokes as he walks forwards and further into the room.

"Bedside manner, as you call it, has a time and a place. This is not that. I'm just putting you in quarantine and giving you your first dose of vaccines. But before that I need to scan you so I can get a full list of everything we'll need to immunize you against."

"I had thought that since this is the future and all that disease would be completely eradicated by this point."

"What sort of idiot garbage is that?" the doctor laughs. "Eliminating disease is an idiot's notion of how things go. Remove all disease and the body loses any reason to be able to fight disease, then the next thing that comes up will just wipe the entire population, regardless how weak it is. No, you'll find we aren't retarded and instead have put all our research into making sure everyone's immune system is strong enough on its own that no one will die from disease."

Richard stands somewhat awkwardly, not really knowing how best to respond to such a statement. Meanwhile the doctor has grabbed a thin little device hooked up to a cord and is has begun waving it over Richard's chest. The device makes a soft little humming sound but doesn't seem to be doing anything else.

"So what's this quarantine thing you keep talking about?" Richard eventually asks more to break the silence. "Do I have to go into a confined room for a while or something?"

"Please, it's nothing so barbaric," the doctor states and then continues scanning without actually answering the question beyond that. After another moment and sensing Richard would likely just ask the question again continues. "A quarantine is the term we use for when we use nanites to lock your internal composition in place. Nothing is allowed to change inside your body unless it's been specifically allowed to. Nothing that is in your body is allowed to grow or leave. Nothing not in your body is allowed to enter. And before you ask like the idiot most you TD14's are, no, that isn't just a cure-all for disease. The nanites only last about nine days before running out of power and are then expelled through the urine. Theoretically it is possible for someone to stay completely immune to all disease this way, but then the same problem applies from before. If they ever get put into a situation where they run out of the nanites then they'll generally die within a week. Not to mention all the long-term problems involved with not permitting a system that wants to be able to change to be completely unable to ever do so."

The doctor puts away the device he was using and begins adjusting the settings on a console. "So, what I'm going to be doing is starting a regimen to get you fully vaccinated in time. I'll be injecting you with quarantine nanites that are going to be programmed to fight off everything but the things I'm vaccinating you for. Then in a week when those have gotten out of your system you will return and I'll put more nanites into you, these will be blocking off less than the first batch. And then we keep doing this until your body has gotten through all the necessary vaccinations and I don't have to see your face ever again ideally."

Once done with the settings he pulls out something from the console and walks over. The doctor doesn't even bother waiting for a response but immediately reaches out and jabs the injector into Richard's arm, flooding his system with the nanite and vaccine cocktail. He then makes a shooing motion at the pair of them while Richard rubs at the injection site, indicating he's done with them.

"And before you ask, because you look like the kind that's from a retarded time that doesn't know how to handle its sick, no, you don't have to pay for these treatments. You see, in the present, we aren't complete morons. You can't go about keeping everyone healthy if you bankrupt them in the process. So things that are directly about your health are free. Things that are more elective, that you have to pay for. These quarantine injections are free because if you don't get them you'll probably die. Once you're up to date and don't need the nanites anymore, then you'd have to pay to get another dose."

And having nothing else to do in there Richard and Chris head back out and without a single word spoken Chris starts heading down the halls further into the interior of the station.

"So is he always like that?"

"He can be at times yes. His people skills does frequently need a lot of work, but it gives him the freedom to do his job to the best of his ability. You see, he actually turned down a lot better jobs in order to come work at this station, to be able to help and study diseases and conditions from a wide variety of species. Unfortunately, reality didn't exactly live up to his expectations as many races will rather see a doctor of their own kind anyway. He still is one of the best at the station and as mean as he may seem, you have to consider the fact that he won't be pulling up just some random list for you. He'll probably spend about an hour or two just coming up with the order that he's going to inoculate you in order to get you through it all as safely and quickly as possible."

"I see," Richard says while walking, turning to look back in the direction where that infirmary was, trying to get a feel on if Chris is being over-generous or if that doctor was the kind to do that. "So why didn't he have one of those yellow ball things?" Richard asks, noting how odd it'd be that there wasn't much of a delay with the doctor since he didn't have to wait for a translation like he has to do with Chris and everyone else so far.

"It's called the Language of Intent. Most infirmaries are equipped with a device that will switch you over to it the moment you step into it. Not only does it help with diagnosing conditions or injuries when you don't have to worry about correct translations but in a life or death situation every second counts and waiting on the translator could get someone killed. If you were to encounter him outside of the infirmary you'll find he uses the translation orbs just like everyone else. More so, perhaps, since everyone comes up to him and expects him to be able to understand them since he had no trouble with it last time they were there."

"That's the second time I've heard of this thing," Richard says. "If this Language of Intent thing is so useful, why isn't everyone simply using this instead of lugging around a ball everywhere?"

"Because ignoring the issues with invasion of privacy it isn't exactly that easy to perform. We are talking about a means to tap into someone's mind and fundamentally alter how it operates in regards to language. Many people are very wary about that, even more so when it comes to it being on an official capacity. No one ever wants to trust a government mucking about in their heads more than necessary. Hospitals and infirmaries are one that people are okay enough with simply because it's virtually impossible to argue with the logic for them to have it. Very few people will claim that they would rather die waiting for the ball to translate for them than to simply have a machine in a very specific area translate everything for them. Especially since it means that you don't even need to be able to speak coherent sentences in the first place. Granted there are those that do prefer to have their medical care without that and so will make appointments for the doctors to meet them outside of the infirmaries. So I take it that even with how little time you've been in our time that you've already met someone else that is using it?"

"Uh, yeah. A fox thing called Meday or something. I don't really remember their name all that much, only that they flicked their head and then I was able to understand them perfectly for a little while. They didn't make it sound like it was all that big a deal."

"It might not be a big deal to them," Chris responds while pulling out a small device and punching some stuff into it, likely informing the station that there's someone on the station using the Language of Intent. "It's not exactly all that easy to pull off. But there are some areas where it is simply far too cumbersome to use the orbs and they simply got used to using the Language of Intent. But not everyone is okay with someone using that on them. It's not illegal per se, but it is strongly discouraged. Think of it like hugging. Some cultures it is perfectly normal to hug just about anyone they meet. And in others the mere act of touching someone without permission can be extremely offensive. And this place has a lot of different cultures. Anyway, here we are."

Richard looks around but doesn't really see anything special, just another long corridor that can go about as far as he can see.

"Just wait here a moment, I'm sure it'll come around in a bit. Next step is to go and get you processed as a TD14. But he's a bit too far to just walk to, so we're going to go take this tram to close the distance for us. You'll probably do fairly well to learn where all these are, they will be your best friend as it were on the station."

"I didn't see us pass a terminal or something. Is it something people have to pay to use?"

"Yes and no. There are public ones that only use the main track. These are free to use but you're probably going to have to expect quite a walking and a map to really get around until you're used to what you're doing. There are some more personal ones that you can get at, these will even go and use the side tracks as well and get you as close to where you want to be as possible. These you have to pay for, unless you're station personnel and you're using it as part of your job, like the Guardian Lift we used earlier. But where we're going is close enough to one of the main stops that we'll be fine with a public ride."