Black Blood Discussion

Posted on Thu Dec 28th, 2017 @ 11:38pm by Petty Officer 2nd Class Ila Dedjoy & Lieutenant Nathanial Summers DSci & Lieutenant Cassiopeia Yale Md & Staff Warrant Officer Nexi

Mission: When Iconians Deserve to Die
Location: Science Lab Three
Timeline: En route to Tortuga Station

It took everything Crewman Dedjoy had to arrange this meeting between the new Science and Medical Chiefs and herself. She just hoped she could answer all their questions satisfactorily. Tapping away at the main testing stations, she monitored the samples inside the level ten forcefield for any further changes to the ongoing tests. Nothing seemed to affect this black blood at all unless they wanted to make more of it - it seemed to feed on just about anything she tried to kill it with.

Nathan Summers arrived first after Crewman Dedjoy looking exhausted. "Good morning, Crewman. How are you today?" he said as he moved to her side. "What are we working on?" he asked when he saw the black bile-like fluid in the containment fields.

"Black blood, Sir. I've been ordered to brief you and the CMO on my progress on it. I'm Crewman Ila Dedjoy, by the way. It's a pleasure to meet you." Ila pulled up a holographic listing of the various samples as she spoke. "We have one sample from the being known simply as 'The Master' and the rest are from Staff Warrant Officer Nexi and Commodore Farenia Meowlith."

Ila hoped the CMO would be here soon so she could brief them both and not have to repeat too much, but that was unlikely - she'd heard medical was pretty busy getting ready for this mission and Lieutenant Yale was likely going to be a bit late. "Do you have any questions before we begin?" she asked with a smile at the handsome Science Chief as she tried to stall a few moments.

"Actually, Crewman, I have many questions but not of you. I am beginning to question Command's decision to place me here. Biosciences are not my strong suit; I've always been more interested in stellar phenomena and the like. That's not to say I didn't pass my bio classes at the Academy. But my head has always been in the stars. So I hope you're not expecting much out of me."

Ila stared at her department chief with a deadpan look for a few seconds before replying. "Sir, with all due respect, I'm a geologist by trade. My people earn our names through great deeds and mine was through the discovery of a new type of decalithium during a planetary survey as well as coming up with a way to extract it from selenium deposits. The Captain has me tasked not only with this but several other Intel related things in the pod. I have not touched anything related to geology since coming aboard. I'm sorry if this is too forward or out of line sir, but I'm a scientist first and if there's anything I can do to save lives, I'm fully dedicated to that mission." Turning back to the consoles in front of her, she started pulling up a bit more data. "Especially since my twin sister's death on the USS Katana."

Nathan stared at the brashness of this Crewman, a mere non-com but he understood her line of reasoning. He cleared his throat before speaking "Thank you for that background, Crewman, but never forget who you're speaking to...your superior officer. I understand that our captain is asking a great deal from us and it is my intention to not let her down in this or any other assignment. But there comes a point where our knowledge of topics will let us down. But despite all that, I plan on giving this task my all."

"Yes, sir. I will lend my power to you and together we will be stronger for it." Ila replied, quoting one of her people's axioms. "Should we wait for the Chief Medical Officer before continuing or would you like to start now?"

"Of that I have no doubt, Crewman Dedjoy. Let's wait a little longer for her. I hear she's very busy at the moment."

"I'm here, I'm here," the CMO called, hearing the final question as she entered the science lab. "Ila Dedjoy and Nathanial Summers, I presume?" she completed the introductions, pointing to the correct people as she spoke. Small talk was hardly her specialty, and she would rather proceed with the meeting than have to go through everyone's mini biography. "I'm Doctor Yale - but you know that already. I read through some of the reports, but I'm still catching up on the situation. What can I do to help?"

"Yes, Doctor." Ila replied with a polite nod, the doll-like Illaran preferring not to leave her station and wanting to proceed with the meeting as well. "Thank you for being here. I'm here mainly to bring you both up to speed, answer questions, and get your ideas on where you'd like me to go on this project."

Pointing to the three sets of samples and the data being displayed, Ila continued. "As you can both see, we have one small sample of the one known as 'The Master' and we suspect that he is actually an Iconian of some sort from other reports. His DNA is primarily from the black blood but is mixed with that of many vulcanoid species, including several we can't identify. I am unable to determine an origin DNA, if there is one - just that many of these Vulcanoid DNA strands are added at a later date. Staff Warrant Officer Nexi's sample has DNA from the black blood and her own original DNA. Commodore Meowlith's sample has the black blood DNA and her own original DNA. Do either of you have any questions so far?"

"None from me at this time, Crewman. Please continue," Nate said standing 3 feet away from the console with his arms folded over his chest. He was thinking about how much help he could possibly bring to this meeting.

"Very well," Ila continued then. "This is where I put my knowledge as a geologist and experience in Intel to good use. Using some tech I invented for processing decalithium coupled with some classified tech used for printing data on atoms up in the pod... I was able to isolate and stabilize the black blood, preventing its own form of cell division, which seems to do so by consuming other blood cells. Doctor, I worry that this may have permanent lasting long term health issues of its own, but the black blood has far worse short term health issues and without the belts i designed, both of our patients would likely now be dead."

Taking a deep breath, Ila nodded and dived into the next part without asking forgiveness or if they had questions. "As for further data, the important things of note are that the transporter can't differentiate between the original blood and the black blood. I've tried discrimination buffers and DNA extractors and it refuses all forms I've tried, including a piece of Dominion tech the Artan family had lying around for some reason. Also, I know it's not the most reliable form of dating things anymore, but Staff Warrant Officer Nexi's quantum date signature hasn't moved since her infection."

Ila let that sink in for a moment before turning to the other two to reiterate. "None of the samples I have have quantum date signatures that move. None of them are aging."

"Most peculiar. I was under the impression that all biologicals aged; it's a natural part of being alive. What exactly is this 'Master' supposed to be that he commands this much power?" Nate started to get that the Master wasn't your typical biological entity. But beyond that, he had no thoughts on how to proceed or what to suggest to them. He knew this would require some additional thought on his part at least. What he wouldn't give to have a exobiologist here. But then maybe he did have someone to fit that role; Lieutenant Commander Tyler Elbrun, while not having any exobiology training that Nate had, had a background in Genetics and perhaps he would have a thought or two. But then he remembered to comm blackout the captain had ordered.

"There are examples of 'immortal biologicals,'" Doctor Yale replied. "It's not common, and generally unheard of in complex living organisms. But the example I can most easily think of is a small sea creature on Earth called a hydra. It has special stem cells that can replace a significant portion of its body if needed. And, in all appearances, it does not age whether it's newly created or has been around for five hundred years. But, they can die..."

"There's also the common tardigrade," Ila added, bringing up a DNA reference of the tiny creature. "They too can die, but it supposedly took humans several hundred years to find an environment that could kill them. I've compared this infection to the Tardigrade DNA and while they share a few similarities in overall design, the commonalities end there."

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Ila pulled up another set of scans, but they were incomplete and from the logs of an away mission of another crew years ago. "These are the closest scans to a similar being I could find in the Federation database. It's of a being called Armus on Vagra II and was discovered by an away team of the former USS Enterprise. It claimed to be pure evil and though the tricorders at the time couldn't really scan it very well, the energy readings the away team did get are still somewhat revealing."

Pulling up the energy patterns of all the samples of black blood and the readings taken of Armus, she lined them up on the overhead monitors. "They're synced a bit different, but they're very close. In geology we can use harmonic resonance cutters to slice through crystal faces to take samples and for mining and manufacturing. This then gave me the idea of the belts that are now worn by the infected to suppress the spread of the black blood. The downside is that I have yet to develop a full counter harmonic system that won't also kill the patient in the process. If the belts are any more powerful than they are now, then the patients' cellular structures will dissolve as well as that of the black blood just from the vibration."

"I will need more time to research this," Cassi said. "This is not something I have ever worked on before. Nor have I ever seen anything like it in medical journals. But, the scenario, as it's presented, doesn't look to have a happily-ever-after ending."

"Indeed," Ila agreed as she nodded. "The Captain seems to almost pin our hopes on finding a... Greek yogurt god? I think I may have misunderstood her intentions a little..."

"I hate yogurt," a surly voice grumbled in accompaniment to the swish of the lab doors."Hey, here for my schedule check-in," Nexi said to Dedjoy as she strode up to the group, her usual scowl tacked on her face.

"And here we have the patient herself. It's good to see you again, Staff Warrant Officer Nexi. We were just discussing your condition," Ila replied as she grabbed a tricorder and a hypo and began the checkup. "This will only take a moment and I think that's all the information I needed to brief the two of you on. If you need anything else, please let me know."