Seeking New Life: Part 4

Posted on Wed Jan 6th, 2021 @ 9:55pm by Lieutenant Commander Deannen Roinu & Lieutenant Commander Arianna Sky Kamar & Major Naomi Sylan Griffiths & Lieutenant Shri'Rao Sh'veqan & Lieutenant Commander James Trallos MD & Lieutenant JG Vespa Kale & Ensign Wulfgar Duergar & Ensign Paul Sleeford

Mission: Survival of the fittest
Location: Shuttle Bay Two

Frank waited three days after the test subject was brought aboard to call a meeting with his department head's and their assistants. He wanted to discuss things with all of the senior and junior staff at the same time. "Ok Doc, what can you tell us about the virus?"

Sleeford sat beside Hunter as the rest of the department heads arrived, with their assistants in tow, as everyone sat and made their salves comfortable, waiting for the meeting to begin, he was interested to know more about the virus and the plague that was ravaging the planet below was it a failed warp drive experiment or had someone deliberately detonated an antimatter device in the upper atmosphere. If it was the latter then there was at least one space-faring race in the sector and was this a prelude to an interstellar war.

Jane had taken the liberty of laying out some light refreshments as well as some padds for those who might want to take notes. The situation as she understood it was serious indeed. Though she didn't pretend to understand it entirely as of yet. Like the rest, she was here to get the latest rundown. Her small preparations done she had taken a seat towards the back of the room and set up to take notes of her own.

The doctor stood up and made his way forward to the screen mounted in the wall next to the Captain. He tapped a few screens until an image began to rotate slowly.

"After some research and analysis, we know the virus is seminatural. It was a normal benign virus that more than likely was undetected prior to the antimatter warhead being used. Since that time, the antimatter radiation that was released had the off chance of mutating the virus structure. The virus that had until recently avoided the native human population entirely, was now extremely compatible with the populace genome."

He paused a moment. "Essentially, the protein shell that the virus has makes it inviting to the host cell. The cell immediately accepts the virus without trying to repel it as foreign. Mechanically, it functions to throw off all form of rational replication and forces the cells to split rapidly and before everything is ready. The cells burn out, rupture, and release the virus further. Most humans are immune to this specific virus as it uses a very rare protein only found so far in the DQ apparently."

He took a moment to pause and to take a deep breath. "I have only run into this protein once. When I did a genetic scan on Hannah Kamar. I believe we found her home."

The new Intelligence officer nodded. "Quite." Ana agreed. "Near as I've been able to tell, they weren't aware this was a possibility. It may have been something on hard copy that never left a lab but as far as I can see, they aren't aware that using warp drive tech in a planetary gravity bubble is dangerous." Ana paused to look towards the Captain. "As far as I can tell." She reiterated. "For the most part, the primitive security didn't provide me with any problems but they've got a lot of hard security. Offline systems that don't connect to the network aren't hackable unless we're physically at a terminal connected to that system. I can tell you the war is unstable and they're likely to blow their planet into a black hole. I can also tell you that there are scientists who have opposed their use of antimatter and according to records, they-" Ana paused to do air quotes. "Mysteriously disappeared."

Frank sat silent for several minutes, they found Hannah's home, should he return her or allow the young child to remain aboard. He was torn about how to respond. He pulled an unlit cigar from his pocket and began to play with it absentmindedly.

Shri'Rao listened carefully. Her antennae facing forward, trying to absorb this data. "If someone detonated an antimatter warhead in the upper atmosphere it would take a hundred years for the planet to heal itself and even then there would be massive radiation poisoning for at least 4 to 6 generations." Shri'Rao stated.

"So to sum it up, they are on the brink of using a functional warp engine but instead used it as a weapon. This weapon has reacted negatively to a naturally occurring virus, and the inhabitants of this planet are the family of Hannah, the child we rescued from the Hirogen?" He asked knowing the answers already.

"Lieutenant Marrow, with the state of affairs on the surface, do you think they will reach a peace accord on their own without any outside influence?" Frank was afraid to know the answer. If he was to return Hannah, he wanted to ensure her safety.

Ana laughed. "Good one, sir." She paused, before realizing he expected a serious response. She faked a cough awkwardly. "As many wise people like to say, there are always possibilities, but this situation doesn't seem to be nearing any natural end anytime soon. That being said..." Ana recollected her composure. "The Prime Directive technically doesn't apply. The planet is warp-capable. If you were of a mind to try and stop another attack or intervene in other manners, you wouldn't be violating any Starfleet regulations."

"That is an awfully loose interpretation of the Prime Directive, Lieutenant," Shri'Rao said.

Arianna's face suddenly changed as she felt Frank's emotions. "Captain, what are you thinking of doing with our daughter? I know you can't be seriously....." shutting her mouth suddenly.

Frank remained silent, unwilling to work up the nerve to respond to his wife.

Griffiths sat there silent and listening, she was not a scientist nor a doctor so most of what was being said went over he head, but she got enough to know that it was not good this virus and giving help to a Pre-warp civilization would be going against the Prime Directive.

"Doctor is there a way to formulate an antidote to this sickness?" Frank asked his friend.

"I believe so Captain," he said and tapped a button on the wall. The image changed to a different view of the virus. "We could manipulate the genetic code of the virus and use it to infect the cells and alter their protein to resist the primary infection. Essentially, make this into a retrovirus. It would move as fast as a pathogen and would need to infection others, so planetary inoculation would take some time, but without tech like ours, they would not know it has been altered. They would see it as another mutation of the virus."

"And with the right information-" Ana added, pulling something up on her PADD. "We could target delivery sites to maximize exposure, and reduce retrovirus spreading time. Thankfully, they keep good records of trading and travel."

"It is possible that we might try another delivery system. Do you remember the Enterprise mission with the duck blind? They had drones with darts that would tag people for the transporters. Well if we could use something like that to deliver the antidote it would save time and be more effective," Arianna said.

Wulfgar thought a moment at Arianna's words. "Could we use nanites to deliver it? If their tech is not as sophisticated, the nanites could go undetected or we could program them to breakdown after the retrovirus is administered." He suggested as he stepped from the wall. He wasn't senior staff so he would hang back against the way partway between Arianna and Jane. He looked over at Morrow. "Would their tech be able to detect nanites?" He asked.

"The retrovirus, itself could contain a self-destruct strain. Nanites can be very dangerous, particularly if they later develop the technology to detect them, and their technology is mostly driven in reactionary measures, meaning that using nanites could be what causes them to develop the technology to adapt, and possibly weaponize them if detected in routine blood screenings." Ana shook her head. "The original concept of a retrovirus is much easier to implement without nanites, though clandestine drones helping to spread the retrovirus or an antidote would help spread it along."

"The drones, are too advanced, if they fell into the wrong hands, we could again violate the directive," Frank replied. "How long will it take you to formulate the Infected Cure, Doctor?"

Arianna stood quickly, "What if we could spread the retrovirus airborne style? Think of it like crop-dusting. An old Earth style of spraying crops to kill bugs? We could do a test area with a camouflaged shuttle than can be rigged to spray the air close to the ground. It would land on everything, food, water, animals, people, ground.....If it works, then we could do it on a larger scale. We would then save the planet without playing with the Prime Directive," she finished saying.

James looked at Arianna. "Crop dusting would generally be the most effective way to distribute the virus, however, we would need to have the shuttle release the retrofits in low altitude and probably be seen with the naked eye." He said and looked to the Captain. "The virus is not terribly strong, so a high altitude release would have minimal effect and most of it be inert prior to getting to anyone. It would take quite some time for me to fix that and I'm not sure the people have that kind of time."

"Alternatively." Anastasia paused. "We wait for one of the regular interplanetary fights to break out and crop dust with detonated devices in the air. In the chaos, they wouldn't even know what was happening. It would be essentially ended the way it started."


"I can rig the shuttle for low altitude flight with the spraying mechanisms and hide the whole thing with a small holo emitter so the shuttle looks like the landscape. If you are looking for low altitude flight for the better effect it can be done," Arianna said, hopeful at best.

Wulfgar stepped forward to Arianna's side. "Ma'am, if I'm not needed, I'll be down in Engineering overseeing the continued repairs and system operations."

"No, stay put. If this shuttle idea is approved, we need your smarts to make this work", Arianna said smiling at her protégé.

"What about groundwater?" Vespa spoke up finally. "It's not just the people we need to consider. I mean, what's the point of fixing the people if they're just going to eat a contaminated..."

"... fish in two weeks, or if all the fish die-off?" she offered. "Aerosol dispersal works for the surface, but we need to consider at least the first ten feet of ocean and waterway life..."

"... as well. Something akin to a freeze-dried concentration, beamed directly into key currents and water sources, should maximize dispersal. Plus, anyone in a shelter..."

"... might not be around for the dispersal, but their next meal would carry the cure." she pointed out.

"Maybe Arianna's idea of the shuttle with the holo emitter would work, Doctor do you think that will be sufficient dispersal?" Frank asked.

"The shuttle should work, assuming the holo emitter will fool whatever scanners they have." He said looking at the Captain. "I can only replicate enough for one small city. If we went any bigger, questions would arise as to why did the virus all of a sudden stop everywhere. If we keep our presence secret, they could eventually figure out the virus was tampered with and then finger-pointing would begin and they may start shooting all over again. It may be a slower dispersal but will look more like natural mutation, but the virus is plenty contagious so it would not take terribly long for it to spread to most of the planet."

Suddenly speaking up "Ensign Duergar, why don't you do the engineering stuff on what the CIO reported on, make sure things work as-is and all!" Griffiths said smiling at the Engineer.

Sleeford sat there and listened to the ideas as they floated back and forth, some of them a little radical, the idea of placing the antidote in the water system had merit, thinking for a couple of seconds he spoke up from beside Hunter, "Why not seed the clouds? Then when or if it rains, would it not disperse the anti viral agent over a wider area?"

"Its possible, but to chance it on a weather pattern? I think the shuttle is a better solution," Arianna said looking at Wulfgar and the XO.

"Gambling on weather doesn't give us enough of a chance to eradicate this monster. I think the risk vs reward with the shuttle is the best option. I would recommend letting Ensign Duergar pilot and let him take a security and science officer along to assist. Thoughts or opinions?" Frank asked.

"I agree, Captain, and giving this to Wulfgar to do is the right thing to do. He has the gumption and ideas to make it work even if I suggested it. He has the knowhow," Arianna said smiling widely at her protégé.

Wulfgar nodded. He appreciated Arianna's confidence in him but he had his own doubts.


"Lets go ahead and make preparations," the Captain stated as the meeting closed.

Continued on conclusions