OptGen Services (short for Optimal Genetics) is a gene therapy corporation based on Oracle's 9th ship, Hagal. While their work focuses on the correction of basic human genetic flaws (such as nearsightedness) in utero or shortly after birth, a pair of scientists funneled their efforts into in vitro work. Sanda and Otan Ukoshi's research paid off in AP 212 when they were able to not only fertilize a human egg outside of the mother's body but also were able to modify and nurture the resulting fetus in a lab tank without the need for a typical pregnancy process. This enabled closer inspection and deeper DNA modification of the offspring, a breakthrough that promised the elimination of genetic diseases from the human gene pool as a whole. The couple adopted the resulting girl (these experiments were much easier without having to consider the Y chromosome) and named her Riiko, who grew up to be the Ukoshi's only child.
The effects of being raised by two distinguished geneticists was quickly seen and young Riiko was recognized as a child prodigy. By the time she was 6 years old in AP 218, the distinction earned her the disdain of the other children and the praising attention of her instructors. While her confidence and education soared, she grew without learning the social norms that come with early interaction and found it hard to maintain friendships. Although it was obvious that her parents stressed education, Riiko assumed that her heightened intellect was the direct result of gene therapy and gained an interest in the sciences like her parents.
By the time Riiko was 14 she had exceeded all of the expectations of the general education program at the Hagallian Academy. Because of her age, she elected to continue studying until adulthood instead of deciding her fate then and there. Without a set curriculum, Riiko dove into the subjects that she loved, homing in on astronomy due to its promise of world after world to discover, each with its own ecosystem complete with unique and exotic wildlife. Her interest in the stars was eclipsed only by medical science, a dying field that mixed biology, chemistry, physics, and physiology into one challenge-filled package. Her decision was quickly met with criticism for "wasting precious potential in a field that was mostly 'figured out,'" but Riiko knew that there were some injuries and maladies that a Resta just couldn't fix and decided that she'll be the one to fix them.
In AP 232, four years after her controversial decision (at least to her parents), a 20 year old Riiko started her residency in Hagal's Med Clinic. For four long years she studied both the empirical sciences and the healing techniques, the latter of which introducing her to a bizarre, mystical world that clashed with her logically-inclined mind. As absurd as it all was, Riiko could not deny the effectiveness of the techniques and approached them with the same fervor that she did any other subject. The Clinic placed her exactly where she wanted to be: overseeing the Arks hunters who ran into unfortunate accidents on the surface. She distinctly remembers one hunter with fiery red hair who rolled into the E.R. one day. His face was slashed open from forehead to cheek as if ripped by a savage feline. Knowing that no Monomate would ever cure his wounds, Riiko exercised her expertise and closed him up properly. At that point, Riiko had no regrets regarding her decisions.
It would be another four years before Riiko earned her license as a doctor and surgeon, proudly accomplishing what she had set out to do many years ago. She then turned her efforts towards repairing her underdeveloped social skills, often making small talk with her patients as an exercise in interaction. With each patient that she befriended came a story of the wild planet that Oracle had visited, of the exotic creature that managed to maim the seasoned hunter. Slowly but surely these tales piqued her interest and tickled the same sense of discovery that her astronomy textbooks had. It wasn't until AP 238, when the stories started including more and more D-Arkers, that Riiko set aside her scalpel and signed up to become a member of Arks herself.
Again she was met with criticism, but in her mind the only way to acquire more knowledge and understanding was to be on the front-lines herself.
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