| When the first colonists portalled from Earth to Adonis, two of them died because they were Handicapped,” said Raven. “The first names carved on the walls of the Courtyards of Memory are Ernst Novak and Esperenza Nadal. | ||
–narrative, [1] | ||
Novak-Nadal Syndrome is an immune system disorder in the Portal Universe that prevents a person with this condition from living on certain planets. The previous official term for people with Novak-Nadal Syndrome was "Handicapped". At the end of Earth Flight the disorder officially is named Novak-Nadal Syndrome in honor of Ernst Novak and Esperenza Nadal, the first two off world colonists who died from the condition. Novak-Nadal Syndrome is often shortened to "Immune Syndrome" or "Syndrome".
The series protagonist Jarra Tell Morrath has Novak-Nadal Syndrome.
For information on lives of people with Novak-Nadal Syndrome.
Cause[]
Researchers had failed to find the cause or cure in the hundreds of years since the immune condition was discovered. They were only able to establish three facts - a child had one in a thousand chance of having the condition if both of its parents did not. The chance rose to one in a hundred if one parent had the condition, and one in ten if both parents had the condition. In Earth Star, Jarra helps discover a research lab in the ruins of Eden that contained long lost research into the immune system condition. In Earth Flight it is revealed that the lab's researchers discovered that the cause is correlated with solar storms. The Handicapped immune system is supported on planets with higher levels of solar storms than Planet First criteria accept, such as Earth. As a result, all of humanity's currently colonized planets have insufficient levels of solar storms to support the immune disorder.
| [...]“The Eden data shows the Handicapped immune system is only adversely affected by conditions on a small percentage of worlds. Unfortunately, the Planet First teams have been deliberately selecting colony worlds of this specific type, because they’re also worlds that experience low levels of solar storms.” | ||
–Mason Leveque, [2] | ||
Cure[]
The lab's research also revealed that there is no actual cure. The only viable treatment is an implanted whole-body web that overrides the body's natural immune system. This is a very high risk operation and had never been attempted before. In Earth Flight, Jarra is the first person that this operation was performed on.