Exogenesis

Posted on Fri Jun 30th, 2023 @ 9:29am by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Commander Samantha Howard & Lieutenant Commander Shoniara T’ghann-Travis Dr & Lieutenant Commander Callie Raven-Grayson

Mission: Writing the Q Cards
Location: Sickbay, USS Washington

“Sometimes, by near accident, something exceptionally rare and special crosses your path. Life turns on your seeing clearly what’s in front of you.”

― Professor Avi Loeb, Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth.


“Yes, thank you Admiral” Linds stuttered at Janeway’s offer to help. “Do you know much about spliced RNA Ma'am?”

"I worked on several projects in my time with such things, and during my time in the Delta Quadrant I got a whole new appreciation for it between our Doctor and Seven. Icheb though may be the most gifted geneticist I have ever had the privilege to work with truthfully" Janeway replied.

"Itchy! I haven't seen him in forever" Q replied, suddenly excited about something being discussed.

"Icheb is a StarFleet officer now" Janeway replied, looking at Q. "He has made good use of his time."

Joe listened intently, fascinated listening to characters that he knew from the show discuss other characters as if this was all real life, which it was, in this universe. He wondered if Icheb's fate would be the same as it was in the Kelvin timeline, or if they could keep him from such a grizzly end. Icheb was a character he had truly liked from Voyager. "Admiral, apologies for interrupting, but it isn't every day I get the opportunity to speak with a fellow Hoosier."

"Are you from Indiana as well captain?" Janeway asked with a smile.

"Indianapolis as a matter of fact, though I keep a home south of there in a small town called Nineveh" Joe replied. He looked at Linds, "Apologies for interrupting your medical discussion doctor. I allowed my fandom to get the better of me."

Linds smiled wishing Janeway had brought Seven with her. “No problem Captain. Admiral if you wish to help you will need to suit up just in case this cure has twisted and we need to begin again? If you will excuse me a moment I need to collect another sample from Amethyst.”

Janeway smiled and put her hands up in the air, "Why not. If I'm here, I might as well enjoy the experience." She looked at Q, "And you and I will talk more later."

Q nodded, a look of dejection on face, "Yes aunt Kathy."

Linds walked over to where Julia was observing Amethyst. “How is our patient Doctor?” She asked whilst filling a vial of blood.

"Stable again - I think" Julia replied, taking another series of readings from the tricorder and biobed. She looked over to where Janeway was working with Linds and couldn't help but be just a little bit awestruck.

Janeway arched an eyebrow, intrigued by Julia's answer. "Are you feeling alright doctor?"

Joe saw where this was going. He needed to protect Julia from Janeway's curiosity. "I'm sure she is just a bit fatigued admiral. My medical staff have been quite taxed since the arrival of Q."

Janeway seemed to accept that answer. "Understandable" she replied as she glared at Q who seemed to shrink under the sudden spotlight.

Linds tried to take Janeway’s attention off Julia. She had entered the latest sample from Amethyst and was digging into the DNA RNA coding. “Admiral look at this?” she said excitedly. “As I see it the process by which introns, which are the noncoding regions of genes, are excised out of the primary messenger RNA , and the exons are joined together to generate mature messenger RNA.” Linds looked up, “I hope I am not going over something you know Admiral?”

Janeway smiled. "It's fine doctor. Been a while since my days as a junior science officer. Feel free to refresh me as you see fit."

"The latter serves as the template for synthesis of a specific protein. Now the protein has been recognized by the RNA and DNA of both the Kilrathi and the human genome. However,” Linds rubbed her forehead. “I am unable to find any record of this protein. I have checked all Federation databases. On our initial Electrophoretic Analysis this protein was not indicated either. I have no idea where this protein has come from but, I believe if we increased it in the vaccine that might give Amethyst’s genetic coding the push it needs to deliver the cure?”

Janet had been keeping a somewhat low profile just keeping a watch on what was going on, having accompanied Joe. She now spoke up, “Is it possible this protein is a side effect of the first attempt with the cure? A side effect of sorts?”

“No, no good idea but I don’t think,” Linds whispered half only to herself, “I think this might be Exogenesis! This might prove that aliens visited Earth and many other planets in prehistory seeding them with their DNA hidden deep within our own.” She stood up and immediately sat down again feeling dizzy. “We need to extract this and place it in the forefront of the cure that way it will bind on to any other DNA RNA.” she announced excitedly.

Joe thought about it and recalled an episode of TNG. "I believe what you are referring to Linds happened on an episode of..." he stopped himself, "sorry. I meant to say that what you are referring to was proven by Capt. Picard and the Enterprise-D crew when they followed up on the work of Prof. Galen, who had been killed while trying to prove the theory. As I recall, the Enterprise had to fight and work with the Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians regarding this matter, which proved that virtually all sentient species in the Alpha and perhaps even Beta Quadrants share an ancient ancestry."

"I recall that discovery. It made quite a splash amongst the scientific community. The fact that it was made by an archaeologist rather than by a geneticist or biologist ruffled quite a few feathers" Janeway remarked.

"Something you definitely can't blame on me" Q remarked somewhat sarcastically, his arms folded against his chest.

Linds stood excitedly. “Yes J..I mean Captain, I do remember the episode….erm I mean the episode in the day I read the report.” She turned to Q “however Q there are a lot of things we CAN blame on you. Shut up or I will slap you again.!”

Julia breathed a sigh of relief and nodded in thanks towards Joe and Linds taking the spotlight in this instant. Her confidence had taken a heavy beating and she felt that Q was just waiting to pounce again. She recalled the episode in question, one of her favorites where Picard was torn between archaeology and captaining the Enterprise and managed to do both. Somehow she couldn't help but recall the being looked a lot like a Founder.

"So, are we saying you have figured out how to cure this Kilrathi fever?" Joe questioned.

“I think so!” Linds exclaimed excitedly looking at Janeway. “It just needs an adjustment to bind this protein to the RNA of the vaccine. This, hopefully should make it more stable. Enough to wake Amethyst and hopefully curing her.” Linds inserted the discovered protein into the decoding, splicing machine. It took a minute before the vial of the new vaccine was ready. “Right, this should work,” Linds walked over to where Amethyst lay, she took a deep breath and prayed hoping she was right. Depressing the hypo into Amethyst’s carotid artery she turned off her life support. “Now we wait” she announced using her medical tricorder to monitor her waking.

Joe walked over to Julia and whispered, "Am I the only one that is a little hesitant about using a crewmember as a guinea pig? This seems like what they were doing with covid than what I would expect from medicine in this century."

"I believe the options were rather limited when it came to both test subjects and timeframes. Another similar vein to the recent pandemic. We both believed Amethyst would have been more than willing to trial any possible cure, her alternative was certain death." Julia explained whilst watching the interaction between Janeway and Linds. Both were brilliant in their own right and holding their own in the research.

Amethyst started to come round, as she did so her breathing increased as her emotional state started to ramp up. Moments later she reached out a hand, grabbing Linds by the throat. “What’s going on!? What’s happening to me!!?”

Linds was totally shocked as the grip tightened round her throat her hands flailing dropping the hypo that had been in her hand. The air was no longer moving into her lungs and she began to see black spots in her vision. She began to turn blue, unable to pry Amethyst’s fingers from her throat she lost consciousness.

Joe turned to look at Amethyst grasping Linds by the throat. "Let her go this instant!" he exclaimed, his voice loud and commanding, startling the others in sickbay. It was the first time any of them had ever heard him sound that way, and even Q was taken aback.

Amethyst suddenly released her grip a look of sheer terror on her face. “Captain...I didn’t mean...” she looked down at Linds. “Linds! Linds!!”

Joe ran to Linds and got her, her body limp. He looked over at Julia, "I don't think she is breathing. She appears to be cyanotic."

"Restrain Amethyst until we work out what's going on, I'll deal with Linds" Julia announced as she left Joe to deal with Amethyst and turned her attention to her 2IC. Tricorder in hand and hypo in pocket she ran a quick scan before dialing up the recommended dosage of a trio of drugs that would kick start the other woman's breathing again.

Joe moved Linds over to a biobed for Julia to deal with and then moved to restrain Amethyst. I used his significant strength and pinned her to her biobed as she attempted to wiggle free, to no avail. "Don't make me hurt you" he said in a low firm tone that was chilling to hear.

Janeway grabbed a hypospray, input the vile she wanted, set a dosage, and quickly injected Amethyst, who became unconscious moments later. "Does this disease cause hysterical psychosis?"

"It does aunt Kate" Q responded. "It is quite exotic and powerful pathogen."

Joe slowly removed his hands from Amethyst and gave a quick look at Q before giving attention to Janeway, "Appreciate the assistance admiral. That was quick thinking on your part."

"It seemed the better option since you had her restrained" she replied.

Joe raised an eyebrow, "What was the other option?"

"A phaser" Janeway replied with a sly grin that Joe had seen on so many episodes.

Joe looked over at Julia who was tending to Linds. It looked like she had the situation well in hand. Once that matter was handled, they only had to figure out this Kilrathi fever. One step at a time.