Two Streams Facility

'The Two Streams Kindness Facility (Two Streams''') was a kindness facility on Apalapucia designed to care for Apalapucians who had contracted Chen-7, a plague that would ordinarily kill any two-hearted being in a day.

Functions
The Two Streams Facility was designed to fulfil two goals: quarantine of the infected to stem the spread of the plague, and palliative care for those infected Apalapucians.

Two Streams achieved both with temporal technology. The infected were sent to live in separate, "compressed" time streams from the main one, all held in place with "Temporal engines", hence the name of the facility. The compressed time streams were collectively known as "Red Waterfall" and the single normal one was known as "Green Anchor", with matching emblems for each.



Whilst the separate time streams prevented infected Apalapucians spreading their disease to the rest of the population, they also served another function. Because Red Waterfall time was compressed, Green Anchor time would seem dilated to those in Red Waterfall. In turn, this meant that for any given period of absolute time that passed, Red Waterfall occupants would "experience" it for longer than Green Anchor occupants. Several seconds in Green Anchor could equate to a whole week from the point of view of the Red Waterfall occupants, and likewise a day in Green Anchor could potentially equate to a whole lifetime. Since Chen-7 killed in a day of absolute time, this curious effect of Red Waterfall's compressed nature gave Chen-7 sufferers a chance to live their lives before their inevitable death.

Whilst patients were physically isolated from the uninfected, further temporal manipulation allowed safe visits. An object resembling an oversized magnifying glass (known as a Time Glass) synchronised the parallel streams. Visitors could speak with the patients through the Glass, though they could not travel through it. Patients were kept entertained by entertainment zones throughout the Red Waterfall parts of the facility, accessed through an area known as "The Gate".

The Gate contained a console that controlled access to Two Streams' entertainment zones, of which five are known: Mountain zone, Roller-coaster zone, Cinema, Aquarium and Garden; the last a perfect replica of a Shill governor's mansion on Shallanna. Alien works of art were scattered about the facility, also for the pleasure of the patients.

The facility was largely maintained by two parties: the Interface and the Handbots. The Interface was - as the name suggests - the main method of communication between residents and the computer system that ran Two Streams, answering the residents' questions to it as best it could.

Side Effects
Another strange effect of Red Waterfall's compressed time stream was that it eliminated the need for food. It did not, however, affect the progress of ageing. (DW: The Girl Who Waited)