Selena was raised by her parents to be a good girl. Always attended church with them. Always got the best grades she could, and her ability to quickly retain and remember details lent well to this. She was usually rather shy of boys, and never had much interest in romance.
She was somewhat ambitious, and by the start of her first middle-school year, had already decided the general topic of her career. Snakes. Despite the stereotype of her shyness, she was fascinated by them. The way that, despite their lack of limbs, the way they seemed to effortlessly slide, and even "glide" over the ground, tree limbs, rock walls, or nearly anything else. She kept posters, books, and dvds, many of them all about the scientific information on them. Much to the confusion and chagrined dismay of her single mother and three sisters, she kept a pet corn snake, regularly feeding it small mice or insects.
By the time she had gotten about halfway through high school, Selena had already decided what she wanted to pursue in a career. She would research and experiment the reptilian cold-blooded metabolism, the reason being that cold-blooded creatures are able to enter suspended animation with little apparent effort.
If an astronaut on a mission to Mars were in suspended animation, his muscles would diminish as a lack of being used under the effort of Earth's gravity. He might also easily get "cabin fever." He would be safer from the effects of space radiation. Less effort at keeping him alive and comfortable during the trip to the red planet.
For reasons like this, Selena's research was to examine how, if at all, a human's metabolism could be altered so that he or she could enter suspended animation at will in cold temperatures, and exiting it by using a implanted timer device. While awake, the altered human would still be keeping the benefits of a warm-blooded metabolism.
