Solving the Medical Mystery

Posted on Tue Sep 3rd, 2024 @ 6:17am by Commander Samantha Howard & Lieutenant Commander Shoniara T’ghann-Travis Dr & Lieutenant Commander Deanna Celes

Mission: The Andromeda Strain
Location: USS Washington
Timeline: Backpost

Deanna entered the medical lab and saw Shon looking over something in the microscope. "I assume you are looking at this strange illness. I have updated data for you and Sam to look at."

Shon looked up, how are you feeling Deanna?” She asked.

Deanna smiled. "I feel fine. Despite me still having the disease, it has not impacted me further."

Sam headed over from the postmortem she had been conducting in the room next door, the one-way glass allowing her to see the main ward of sickbay and the lab without anyone else being able to see the grisly work she was performing. Wiping her hands on a nearby towel she approached the pair. "New information?" She asked with hope in her eyes.

She handed the PaDD to Sam. "Yes, it seems that this disease is relatively inert when not being stimulated by temporal energy coming from the anomalies. We have also determined that the tachyons are being altered by the anomalies, so they should dissipate once we close them. But we are still working on doing that. The amount of energy required by these aliens to open these rifts is staggering to consider." She looked at Shon, "Have you learned anything from a medical perspective?"

"Nothing concrete yet. The autopsy findings have been input into the ships computer and we are awaiting a detailed analysis" Sam replied, answering for her side of the issue. She looked at Shon, not having had time to check in with her 2IC over the last few hours. "Any progress from a viral perspective?"

"Alright, I'm leaving you two to work. We are still working on the problem of the anomalies, but we are moving towards a solution" Deanna said, exhaustion present in her voice. "Keep an eye out for the intruders. Still dealing with them as well."

Sam nodded and reached over for a hypo that contained a potent mix of vitamins and minerals key to keeping alert. "This will keep you on your feet a while longer, but you'll need a longer recovery when this mess is over." She commented to Deanna.

"I look forward to it. I'm going to request the captain take us back closer to some of the garden spots, maybe even Betazed. We all deserve some R&R." With that she headed out.

As Celes left the lab, Sam allowed Shon to keep working on the virus, she was about to head back to the morgue when intruders materialized, reaching for her weapon she came up with a hypospray and a tricorder, neither particularly useful in the current situation. The security detail moved quickly but were hampered by the large number of patients streaming through the doors.

Shon looked up she had not heard Sam as she was deeply involved in base pair sequencing. “Nothing yet,” she declared absentmindedly pushing her hair behind her ears.

Sam nodded and left Shon to her work, heading back to the autopsy bay and delving into the mysterious intruders. Deanna had mentioned that the virus had a temporal signature, so perhaps these creatures activated it by simply beaming in.

She sat on a nearby stool and cradled her chin in her hands, a traditional comfy position for thinking. What if...the initial temporal dysphoria the crew had experienced planted the virus, and these beings activated it? Meaning...the crew was already affected and would succumb without treatment. She didn't want to hurry Shon in the sensitive work of virology but now she had a working theory. Tapping notes into a PADD she sent them to the senior management team with her theory supported by the biological evidence she had found in both Deanna's scan and the autopsy.

Shon knew that time was of the essence but, this virus was unlike anything else she had ever seen. Its makeup was artificial. The genome was scattered, every piece had another and another and kept changing. There had to be some way in she thought.

Having sent her working theory to the rest of the senior staff, Sam returned to the medical lab and began testing her hypothesis. Whilst she hadn't directly been affected by the temporal dysphoria, most of the crew had been. Why was that? She felt she wasn't unique herself in any way, yet she didn't experience the same visions and trauma as the rest of the crew. Her mind kicked into overdrive, and she drew a blood sample from herself, loading it into the scanner and running a genetic sequence study on it. She was specifically looking for T cells that she either had or didn't have where most of the ship's population were the opposite.

"Results will be available in approximately one hour" the computer intoned, inciting an audible groan from the CMO. She needed food and coffee and headed back to the main sickbay ward in order to get it. Grabbing some foe Shon as well she was heading back to the lab when more intruders appeared.

The security detail leapt into action, hampered by the myriads of injured bodies already in Sickbay. Sam heard the commotion and turned around, quickly setting the coffees down and reaching for her weapon. Her hands came up with a tricorder instead of a phaser, never a good sign. She patted the other side and came up with a hypospray from her pocket. Against protocol she had opted to wear the tools of her trade to heal the injured against a weapon and now stood against armed intruders without one. She ducked and headed for the nearest emergency weapons locker, several meters to her right. As she did, she watched one of the intruders press something on its arm, and a mist, ultra fine and very hard to discern emerged from a canister on its back. So, the activation system for the virus was a mist. Hard to protect against.

Shon heard the commotion grabbed a phaser and raced down the corridor, entering she took in the madness that was sickbay. She looked for Sam and saw her opening the weapons locker. Shon cannoned into one of the intruders aiming and firing her phaser at the other one. There was a sweet damp smell in the air as she applied a neck pinch to the alien who was struggling underneath her. Surprisingly it worked as she had expected their physiology to be completely different. “Sam” she shouted.

"Watch the mist!" Sam shouted, realizing that it may have been too late "I think it triggers activation of the virus" she thumbed her phaser to the appropriate setting and took out two more of the intruders.

Shon shouted, "There's one behind the med console!" she realized that she had already ingested some of the sweet mist. she swore and moved over to try to protect the patients. she didn't know if Sam had been compromised also.

It took another five minutes to dispatch the last of the intruders, leaving Sam gasping for breath. Thankfully only one of their patient's had been injured further, and Sam saw one of her staff had that situation under control. She headed over to Shon.

"Are you okay? Did you cop any of the mist?' She already had her tricorder out and scanning.

Shon nodded, “I ran into it before you shouted. “I feel fine, however you, on the other hand my friend, look a lot worse for wear. Did you breathe any of it?”

Sam paused and recalled the battle. The intruder who she had shot first had been quite close and had been actively releasing the mist. She remembered the metallic range of it in the air just before she nailed him.

" Uh... I must have." Sam shook her head, realizing the implications. If she had dodged the previous bullet with the dysphoria she'd literally walked straight into this one. "I'm detecting a huge immune response in your body." She changed the subject.

Shon looked at Sam realizing they would have to have another conversation. "That is surprising, do any other of the Vulcans who are affected showing the same response?"

Sam looked at her blankly before her brain kicked into gear. "Right, let me check" she moved to the nearby wall panel and pulled up the bioreading of all Vulcans in board. "This kind of response seems localized to you Shon." She replied, then widened the sample data to include all crewmembers. "Noone else is producing this many antibodies. Most people are beginning to show the first signs of this illness. They wouldn't be feeling it yet though..." her voice trailed off.

Shon looked at Sam closely kicking open her own medical tricorder to scan her. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

Sam asked herself the question again after Shon had asked it, as though her brain were sluggish and needed a second reminder as to what the original question was. "Foggy" she admitted but attempted to refocus. As she did so an energy wave passed through the ship.

The energy wave broke through the bulkheads and into sickbay. The air shimmered and everything went out of phase. Dizzy Shon fell into Sam and the two of them went down. Shon helped her up and the two of them leaned on a biobed. Shon checked Sam once again. "You're getting worse, the effects should soon be quite marked." she said with Vulcan composure. "We need to see what is in my blood that is stopping the effects of the mist, synthesize it and begin to inoculate the crew.... hopefully," she said the human side coming to the fore.

Sam nodded, the fogginess increasing until she felt it difficult to concentrate. "Yep, right. What do you need me to do?' She asked, acutely aware that she was now essentially patient zero. "Test your serums on me"

She took Sam’s hand, “Listen to me, it will take me a while to synthesize something I can use on you. I’ll get it started and take over here for you. Go to your quarters or stay in the office.”

"I want to be nearby; I'm not that far gone yet" Sam smirked as she headed back to her office. "I'll work on the immune response from the crew and formulate a way to treat the symptoms whilst you nail the virus"

------------------------

Sometime later Sam rested her head on her desk, feverish and exhausted from the virus ravaging her body. Sickbay was filling fast with those with similar symptoms. Soon, she hoped Shon would have a cure.

Shon came out of the lab a hypo in her hand. “Sam, I think this is it, I restructured the DNA with actinoids that were in my blood, specifically………………oh hell! Give me your arm?” She pressed the hypo into Sam’s upper arm. “This should work almost immediately.”

It only took a short time for Sam's immune system to show signs of a comeback, turning the tide against the virus and starting to show small signs of recovery
Finally they had something to work with.

TBC