Further questions, A few more answers and Mystery yet abounds

Posted on Sun Nov 26th, 2017 @ 5:42am by Captain Remas McDonald

1,301 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: S1: These Are The Voyages...
Location: Sickbay

[ON]

[Sickbay]

Twenty minutes later Tolkath returned with the results. "Petty Officer Burke has a virus." He announced "One that is not naturally occurring, one that has been artificially modified to simulate human DNA. This is because Burke is not Human, he is a Klingon. " He announced this with no fanfare or emotion.

After a brief pause the Vulcan continued "I suggest the real Burke died with the USS Countryman. The Klingons found the wreck and replaced Burke with a surgically and genetically modified Klingon"

He explained the results. "Whoever he is, he has some form of viral serum in his blood, it is self replicating and it somehow simulates human DNA.

However, when it leaves the blood stream it begins to break down and it's true form can be seen. The samples in his hair show a marked degeneration over several weeks, the oldest ones are clearly artificial while the newer ones appear human.

There is one other thing, the virus has a slow mutation coefficient, as it replicates itself the simulation effect increases. As this increases it begins to attack it's own previous generation of cells. It is essentially cannibalizing itself and killing it's host.

Whoever Burke is, he is dying Captain, not rapidly, but there is no doubt, he is terminally ill" Tolkath concluded.

"Given by the blade, and the generally cavalier attitude towards safety regulations the Klingons have with medical trials, I am getting a suitably bad feeling about all of this. Is there any way we could retool the Traveller's sensors to, if not track for possible sabotage, but instead track for the masking virus?" Remas asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he pondered.

"We have guards at every key system, both here and the Accelerator itself. The bomb makes sense, but going to the party to knife someone? That seems if you'll pardon me stealing your thunder, 'illogical'."

"In my experience Kilingons are driven much more by emotional reaction than logical thought Captain, perhaps more so than.... other species" Tolkath replied, politely refraining from mentioning Humans

There is also their sense of honor." he added "It is possible he was showing the Doctor a measure of respect, by engaging her in combat and also seeking a warrior's death for himself, rather than succumb to his virus"

"As for the ship's sensors, that may prove difficult Captain" Tolkath thought for a moment. "The virus mimics Human DNA when the cells are alive. It is only after they leave the host body that they begin to decay. I'm am not sure the sensors could be configured to accurately detect that."

However, a tricorder could be reprogrammed for such a task and used to test personnel on an individual basis. I could have six tricorders ready for Mister Reynolds' Security teams in approximately seventy-three minutes."

"If your tricorders don't work, can we use blood tests? Similar to what we did when we were fighting changelings, god I don't miss those times." Vic said with a visible shudder.

"The crew have a lot of work to do, I would prefer not to ruin their good work ethos with time out for the paranoia blood drive," Remas said, nodding in agreement to his security chiefs words.

"There is also the matter of Petty Officer 1st Class Thomas Samno" Tolkath brought up the other suspect. "I would like to check something" He crossed to the terminal and tapped in some entries.

After a couple of moments he turned the screen around to show the others.

"As I suspected. Samno's physical test results are identical to Burke's. Ever since they left Starbase 19, whenever they have a medical examination the same test results are placed on both of their files. Someone has falsified their medical records to cover their virus..."

Vic turned to the Captain,"Sir, I suggest we alert the base as well as Starfleet command of more potential fake people."

"The USS I Know I Forgot To Tell You Something is already on alert. They're having the devils own time punching a subspace signal through Far Far Away's solar radiation. And ever since the accelerator's begun powering up...we're very much on our own. The plan is to send a shuttle pod out at high impulse with a comm's beacon strapped to the undercarriage. By the time we launch, it'll be far enough away to ping the relay network on Maridon's World," Remas said. Maridon's World was little more than a botanical research colony, but they had a subspace relay in orbit that should get them a clear signal to Earth.

Remas tapped his foot irrtably.

"What about prevention? How are your ExSec officer's holding up with gaurd duty? Do we have any thin spots on the roster we can bolster?" Remas asked, eyeing Victor.

"We're sittin pretty right now Captain, our numbers are as good as their gonna get." Vic responded.

"The tricorders are the best option for now" Tolkath offered "A blood test would indeed work, but would take much more time to complete on all crew"

"Yeah I'm not about to put everyone through that work unless absolutely necessary. PR nightmare to say the least." Vic replied.

"Alright. As much as it pains me we need to up the timetable. We are launching tomorrow as early as we can. Tolkath, I need you to run herd on getting all departments ready now. Knock heads if you have to. I'll get on the blower to the Accelerator team, see what steps in the checklist they can skip," Remas said firmly. That sort of thing turned a 0.1% chance of failure into a more likely 5-8%. But it was given the enemy time, or do some proactive ass kicking.

Tolkath raised an eyebrow "I believe the launch calculations have been devised for specific stellar events along our route. Launching ahead of schedule could cause us to collide with an object that had previously been calculated to have moved out of the space we would be occupying when we arrive at it's prior location."

He was thinking of a number of comets and other extra-system bodies whose paths had been plotted into the launch vector.

"Captain, even leaving a few minutes early could result in total mission failure, including the loss of the ship, convoy and all aboard."

"Leaving on a terrorists schedule could result in us all meeting out maker in a fine assortment of pieces. Right now the Accelerator is on, and it is a pile of math of energetic particles I do not tempt lightly. Minor energy spike from the Traveller could see this star we orbit gaining itself a dent. Not how I intend for us to go into the history books. We leave sooner, not later," Remas stepped closer, his voice dropping. "This is a point for which discussion is not optional my friend."

"Very well, I will do all that I can to expedite the process." Tolkath agreed having passed on his warning and accepting the Commander's decision. "I will also have the launch computers begin to recalculate the route for an earlier departure. At least the first stages, where the probability of navigational error will be greatest."

"One thing though Captain" His brow furrowed "I am not convinced striking the crew on the cranium will improve their performance"

"There's that wry Vulcan humour again," Remas said with a smile, nodding to the pair of them. "You have your assignments. Let's be about it."

"Aye Sir" Tolkath acknowledged and turned to the Security Chief "Mister Reynolds, I will have the Tricorders delivered to the Security department as soon as they are modified" He nodded and left.

"Kindly appreciated." Vic said as he too set about his tasks, this assignment was already proving interesting.

[OFF]

 

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