S2 M5: Old Wounds

[Julia Rellek]

Bridge

Klizh emerged onto the bridge just in time to hear the Admiral's request for information, only for Jada to proffer it before he could reach his station. It was a chilling story, and a frightening scenario they were currently hurtling themselves towards at faster-than-light speeds. He brought up the files to review himself. Fortunately, their databanks had been updated with everything there was to know about the Dominion War and Deep Space Nine, including the medical information of Bashir's research into the plague. Back then, it had only affected the biology of the native species, allowing humans and Trills to walk about the planet safely. Hopefully, it hadn't mutated since then. K'lizh planned to stress full biohazard protocols for this away mission."Hopefully Odo had an influence on the Founders," K'lizh said. "I've always wondered just how much influence he would have had on that 'Link' of theirs. If he managed to pass on his respect for the value of Humanoid life to the rest of them." He realized he sounded naively optimistic as he said it. But the Dominion had kept their borders closed since the war, and there was no way of knowing what was going on with them these days. And K'lizh would have really liked to know.

[Bridge]

"But remember Commander, when inside the link there is no distinction between the link and the individual." They were right, the old Dominion was brutal and relentless in their quest or domination and would take out anyone who stood in the way of them creating their Utopian universe.

[Bridge]

"You called, Captain?" Kintiss asked as he stepped out of the turbolift just in time to hear Galloway's remark about Dominion bio-weapons. Hopefully, they weren't dealing with those. Biogenic weapons were a nightmare, even in the best conditions.

"Ahh Doctor thank you or joining us. We are en route to a planet previously visited by the crew of Deep Space 9 several years ago. Their doctor worked towards a cure."

Julia gestured to Jada indicating that she should pass the information to the docotor and elaborate further.

[Jada]

[USS Tempest, Bridge]

"Can you download all o the information you have. We'll have the Doctor review it beore we arrive." She asked.

'Aye, captain. I've linked the relevant documents in the current mission folder.' Jada reported as she accessed the LCARS and prepped a new mission folder. She began to scan the reports in more detail as preparation for the upcoming mission. Hopefully, it would be no more than a relief effort, but the violent end to the distress call suggested something else going on.

"Helm answering warp eight Ma'am. The Dominion were a soulless lot weren't they? Biological weapons as a lesson? That's beyond barbaric."

Listening from her station, Jada grimaced tightly, bitterly recalling a similar incident from Orion history. 'When the Orion slave race rebelled, fourteen thousand of your years ago, the alien masters exploded their atomic bombs on the homeworld. After the Atom War and the Long Winter, eighty percent of the population was killed. It took five thousand years to repair the ecosystem. The corporations estimated they could afford to cull the more uppity slaves.' Jada had read the accounts of the survivors and clean-up crews in the Book of Tears, as many Orions had; it was why many Orion men shaved their hair, in solidarity with those who'd lost theirs, and why she kept her own hair shorn. She had taken to heart their calls for Orion independence and to not let such atrocities occur again. So she felt compelled to help the Teplans now, before they underwent further suffering, or became as untrusting of aliens.

"But remember Commander, when inside the link there is no distinction between the link and the individual."

Jada snorted. 'Sounds like a corporation.'

Julia gestured to Jada indicating that she should pass the information to the docotor and elaborate further.

Jada brought up the files again, and let Doctor Kintiss examine them for himself.
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Teplan

[Klizh]

[Bridge]

"But remember Commander, when inside the link there is no distinction between the link and the individual." They were right, the old Dominion was brutal and relentless in their quest or domination and would take out anyone who stood in the way of them creating their Utopian universe.

[USS Tempest, Bridge]

Jada snorted. 'Sounds like a corporation.'

K'lizh considered Jada's analogy. "Sounds like it, but I don't think there are words in any of the languages I we know to truly quantify it, if we can even comprehend what it is like. I would think the closest comparison is the Borg hive mind, albeit far less... rape-y.

If they are like a hive mind, then Odo represented more than one man changing a culture. He was... a whole new set of memories for the Link. A new set of experiences. Experiences of a Changeling living amongst humanoids as one of them. And nothing changes a mind like experiences. There's no way for us to know for sure until we get the chance to talk to the Founders again. I'm just saying there's a possibility, a small possibility, they might treat us with the same respect Odo treated his companions."

Of course, this as purely an academic discussion. It was extremely unlikely that the Dominion were behind this new outbreak. What would it behoove them? The planet and its people were already in ruins. No, the most likely explanation was that the virus had mutated.

[Naga Rylu]

[Hallway, outside of Deck C Science Bay.]

Naga was, for the moment, particularly perturbed by the general size of her body overall.  "A little more to the left, please, DeWinter."  She said, tongue flicking out past her teeth in a show of some nerves, spike-ridge raised along her neck and head.  She was directing a rather delicate operation from outside the room, because her claws were not well suited for this particularly delicate task of removing a Cyanite microprocessor from a Ferdekkian minicomputer.  They had confiscated it from a smuggler captured in a recent encounter, and were hoping to use the information from the device to crack the ring.  So long as the Chief Science Officer didn't accidentally break it in the meantime with her great, clumsy claws.

[Kintiss]

"Ahh Doctor thank you or joining us. We are en route to a planet previously visited by the crew of Deep Space 9 several years ago. Their doctor worked towards a cure."

Julia gestured to Jada indicating that she should pass the information to the docotor and elaborate further.

Jada brought up the files again, and let Doctor Kintiss examine them for himself.

[Bridge]

Kintiss moved to a free station and examined the files. As he looked over the files, he frowned. So it was a biogenic weapon. That made things a tad more interesting. And it wasn't just any old biogenic weapon, either. It was one of the most famous examples of such a feat. The people who'd been afflicted called it the Blight, but Starfleet Medical had decided to name it...

"The Quickening," Kintiss said at last. "Are you ssssure that'ssss what we're dealing with?" If it was, then they were in real trouble. It was one of the worst biogenic weapons ever developed. It killed slowly and painfully, but that wasn't the worst part. It brought shame to Kintiss and, indeed, the entire medical profession, to admit that there was still no cure for it. Years and years of research and study, even being required reading for anyone studying field medicine, and the best minds at Starfleet Medical couldn't come up with any way to neutralise the pathogen.

[Jada]

[USS Tempest, Hallway, outside of Deck C Science Bay]

Recently arriving, s'Metra waited in the corridor beside Chief Naga, and almost entirely within the Gorn's shadow. She tried to peer between the door frame and her scaly bulk to get a sense of the proceedings. 'Chief Naga, why are we in the corridor? A minicomputer doesn't take up a whole room, does it?' she wondered. She'd been lucky enough to see her cousin beat up the smuggler; Jada was a true artist. 'And, of course, if you want something lifted illicitly, you can't go wrong with the fingers of an Orion woman.' Half the galaxy might say that, but it was true; the cadet was the smallest on the staff and had her race's natural dexterity, not to mention knack for criminal enterprise. She wiggled her green digits by way of demonstration.

Today's uniform violation was a revival of the classic miniskirt variant.

[Jada]

[USS Tempest, Bridge]

Jada didn't think much of K'lizh's estimation of their chances for reasoning with the Dominion. The Founders seemed to be cut from the same cloth as the Old Masters; their tools might be different, faith and genetics rather than business and breeding, but the end product was the same: slavery and tyranny. They'd already seen it with the returned Jem'Hadar and the usurping of Okekai.

'The distress call said the Blight had returned.' Jada clarified for Kintiss. 'But the caller didn't have a lot of time to explain.' For the doctor's benefit, she replayed the audio message, even the rather final-sounding ending.

'Teplanea to the Federation! Doctor Bashir! The Blight has returned, we need you!'

'Stop him!' A scuffle, a crunch, then the static noise of space.

She let that sink in, then asked about something she'd noticed in the reports. 'Doctor, there's some kind of prohibition against EM fields?'

[Ian Galloway]

K'lizh considered Jada's analogy. "Sounds like it, but I don't think there are words in any of the languages I we know to truly quantify it, if we can even comprehend what it is like. I would think the closest comparison is the Borg hive mind, albeit far less... rape-y.

If they are like a hive mind, then Odo represented more than one man changing a culture. He was... a whole new set of memories for the Link. A new set of experiences. Experiences of a Changeling living amongst humanoids as one of them. And nothing changes a mind like experiences. There's no way for us to know for sure until we get the chance to talk to the Founders again. I'm just saying there's a possibility, a small possibility, they might treat us with the same respect Odo treated his companions."

Of course, this as purely an academic discussion. It was extremely unlikely that the Dominion were behind this new outbreak. What would it behoove them? The planet and its people were already in ruins. No, the most likely explanation was that the virus had mutated.

[Bridge]

Ian ran his fingers through his hair and scoffed.

"Talkin' with the Dominion lot is bollocks. From what I have read, this Odo seems to have had some influence on the Founders based on the reasons you state, but the fracturin' of the Dominion is all the evidence I need that there is a hard line faction that will never change.

"Dominion politics aside. I agree that the most likely cause of this Blight returnin' is simple mutation, which in my book makes it all the more dangerous as it may not just affect the Teplans this time."

[Naga Rylu]

[USS Tempest, Hallway, outside of Deck C Science Bay]

Recently arriving, s'Metra waited in the corridor beside Chief Naga, and almost entirely within the Gorn's shadow. She tried to peer between the door frame and her scaly bulk to get a sense of the proceedings. 'Chief Naga, why are we in the corridor? A minicomputer doesn't take up a whole room, does it?' she wondered. She'd been lucky enough to see her cousin beat up the smuggler; Jada was a true artist. 'And, of course, if you want something lifted illicitly, you can't go wrong with the fingers of an Orion woman.' Half the galaxy might say that, but it was true; the cadet was the smallest on the staff and had her race's natural dexterity, not to mention knack for criminal enterprise. She wiggled her green digits by way of demonstration.

Today's uniform violation was a revival of the classic miniskirt variant.

[C Deck Science Bay]

"Certainly, these computers do not usually require this much breathing room, Miss S'Metra."  She replied, keeping her eyes on the proceedings.  "However, after failing with the other three, we were able to learn that there was some sort of proximity detector on the amount of living beings within a certain radius that triggers a self-destruct, but a certain lack eliminates the usage of machines.  Seeing as how engineering has more important things to do, we're making do with what we have."  She rolled a silvery eye in the Cadet's direction.  "Also, Cadet, you must be quite fond of gaining punishments for failing to adhere to the dress code for this ship."

[Jus'draal]

[USS Tempest | Just Inside Main Engineering]

Thre crewman who Jus'draal finslly managed to find was a human, but he looked older than she recalled most humans on the ship looking.  She was not really sre how human aging ran, but if it was like Klingon, then he must be quite old to look even like this.  Her own people were robust even into their twilights, the only sure sign of age was greying hair.  He seemed to be in chare so, although he was not Solluk, she decided she should give er report.  She was not sure that he would forget, after all, one did not for the mot part recieve reports from Klingons aboard the Tempesrt.  In fact she was the sole Klingon, the last having departed before her own arrival.

"Sir, Ensign Jus'draal, Operations.  I came to report on the Optical Data Network repair progress.  I was, ah, looking for Lieutenant Solluk,  I wanted to report that I have completed the Network repair.  I have cleaned up the work area and closed the access.  I believe all is in order.  Is there anything else I can assist with here before I return to the Operations deck to finish rerouting the data back through those network fibers?"

She asked, she fif not want tit toappear that she had left anything undone.  She did not hear the Lieutenant approach, as she was too intent on not leaving out any part ofher report.

[Kintiss]

'The distress call said the Blight had returned.' Jada clarified for Kintiss. 'But the caller didn't have a lot of time to explain.' For the doctor's benefit, she replayed the audio message, even the rather final-sounding ending.

'Teplanea to the Federation! Doctor Bashir! The Blight has returned, we need you!'

'Stop him!' A scuffle, a crunch, then the static noise of space.

She let that sink in, then asked about something she'd noticed in the reports. 'Doctor, there's some kind of prohibition against EM fields?'

[Bridge]

As Jada played the message back, Kintiss furrowed his brow. Why the Teplans were trying to keep the return of the Blight from others was a mystery. The Teplans didn't have the medical know-how to treat the Quickening properly, and there was little shame in asking for help.

"EM fieldsss can sssspeed up the development of the Quickening in a patient," Kintiss explained. "The Dominion clearly anticipated modern medicine. It'sss a crafty little agent that way. Any attempt to cure it can accelerate itsss progressss, making it almosssst impossssible to treat, even in the early sssstagessss of infection. Even Dr Bassshir couldn't find a cure, and he wassss working on it right up until he retired." Bashir's field logs noted that early prevention through inoculating pregnant Teplans was the only way to prevent future generations of Teplans from catching the Quickening, and that was more of a vaccine than a cure.

"Dominion politics aside. I agree that the most likely cause of this Blight returnin' is simple mutation, which in my book makes it all the more dangerous as it may not just affect the Teplans this time."

"I doubt that. The Dominion engineered the Quickening sssspecifically for Teplan physssiology." The slow knife cut the deepest, after all.

"I take it we're ressssponding to thissss call for help," he said at last.

[Ian Galloway]

[Bridge]

"I doubt that. The Dominion engineered the Quickening sssspecifically for Teplan physssiology." The slow knife cut the deepest, after all.

"I take it we're ressssponding to thissss call for help," he said at last.

[Bridge]

Although Kintiss never ceased to make Ian uncomfortable, his response caused him to smile.

"Thank you Doctor, that is most reassuring. I doubt you can call it good news when you are talkin' biologically induced genocide, but at least it's not more bad news."

[Jada]

[USS Tempest, Bridge]

"EM fieldsss can sssspeed up the development of the Quickening in a patient," Kintiss explained. "The Dominion clearly anticipated modern medicine. It'sss a crafty little agent that way. Any attempt to cure it can accelerate itsss progressss, making it almosssst impossssible to treat, even in the early sssstagessss of infection. Even Dr Bassshir couldn't find a cure, and he wassss working on it right up until he retired."

'And everything produces an EM field.' Jada realised; she knew that much from basic science training. 'Even the body itself.' She was disgusted with the Dominion's insidiousness; the Teplan's own bodies would inevitably trigger the Quickening, and there was no way of eliminating something so fundamental to nature. 'And especially high technology.'

She considered the Starfleet-issue phaser; although it fired nadion particles (and she had no idea of the effects of those), it used EM fields in the form of a low-power laser beam for automatic guidance (a high-speed particle beam or laser would wobble too much in humanoid hands, so it needed some degree of automatic aiming to keep a beam straight), and a stronger EM beam to shape and control the nadions. Furthermore, the stunning effect largely depended on the EM beam to shock the nervous system. Then there were the EM fields of the circuitry and discharge of the plasma power pack.

'Captain, our phasers rely on EM fields. I'd like to work with Engineering to produce a safe alternative, in case we run into trouble on Teplanea.' And they'd thought she was mad for training her Security personnel in low-tech weaponry like swords and bows.

[Jada]

[USS Tempest, Hallway, outside of Deck C Science Bay]

"Certainly, these computers do not usually require this much breathing room, Miss S'Metra."  She replied, keeping her eyes on the proceedings.  "However, after failing with the other three, we were able to learn that there was some sort of proximity detector on the amount of living beings within a certain radius that triggers a self-destruct, but a certain lack eliminates the usage of machines.  Seeing as how engineering has more important things to do, we're making do with what we have."  She rolled a silvery eye in the Cadet's direction.  "Also, Cadet, you must be quite fond of gaining punishments for failing to adhere to the dress code for this ship."

'It's a cultural requirement.' s'Metra answered pompously, leaving it unclear whether she was referring to wearing a skirt, not following the rules, or getting punished. She pointedly considered the Gorn's own strange alterations to the uniform to include a tail and claws and whatnot. Especially the whatnot.

She changed the subject. 'Why not use a robotic arm, ma'am?'

[Julia Rellek]

[Bridge]

Kintiss moved to a free station and examined the files. As he looked over the files, he frowned. So it was a biogenic weapon. That made things a tad more interesting. And it wasn't just any old biogenic weapon, either. It was one of the most famous examples of such a feat. The people who'd been afflicted called it the Blight, but Starfleet Medical had decided to name it...

"The Quickening," Kintiss said at last. "Are you ssssure that'ssss what we're dealing with?" If it was, then they were in real trouble. It was one of the worst biogenic weapons ever developed. It killed slowly and painfully, but that wasn't the worst part. It brought shame to Kintiss and, indeed, the entire medical profession, to admit that there was still no cure for it. Years and years of research and study, even being required reading for anyone studying field medicine, and the best minds at Starfleet Medical couldn't come up with any way to neutralise the pathogen.

[Bridge]

"Unfortunately the message seemed to cut off before they mentioned what they needed. This is just an assumption that we are making based on the fact that they asked for Bashir. Do you have all of his files there? Should i submit an emergency request to Starlfleet medical for additional files?" She asked.

'And everything produces an EM field.' Jada realised; she knew that much from basic science training. 'Even the body itself.' She was disgusted with the Dominion's insidiousness; the Teplan's own bodies would inevitably trigger the Quickening, and there was no way of eliminating something so fundamental to nature. 'And especially high technology.'

She considered the Starfleet-issue phaser; although it fired nadion particles (and she had no idea of the effects of those), it used EM fields in the form of a low-power laser beam for automatic guidance (a high-speed particle beam or laser would wobble too much in humanoid hands, so it needed some degree of automatic aiming to keep a beam straight), and a stronger EM beam to shape and control the nadions. Furthermore, the stunning effect largely depended on the EM beam to shock the nervous system. Then there were the EM fields of the circuitry and discharge of the plasma power pack.

'Captain, our phasers rely on EM fields. I'd like to work with Engineering to produce a safe alternative, in case we run into trouble on Teplanea.' And they'd thought she was mad for training her Security personnel in low-tech weaponry like swords and bows.

"Not a bad idea." Julia commented. "You may want to reach out to Solluk; he always seems to have a trick up his sleeve." She added.