The Report

Posted on Tue Feb 19th, 2019 @ 7:18am by Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox & Lieutenant Asa Dael

Mission: Recovery Trek
Location: Deck 8, Crew Quarters
Timeline: 2396

Personal Log, Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe Dox. Stardate, 2396.

My name is Mnhei'sahe Dox. I am a pilot and a Starfleet Lieutenant. I am the Chief Flight Officer of the U.S.S. Hera, and I am Rihannsu.

That is what the PaDD in my hand says. A report from the ships Chief Medical Officer, Doctor Asa Dael, compiled after a day and a half of extensive medical testing. Deep genetic scans, bone marrow extraction, spinal fluid sampling and more. I'm still a little sore, but it was all very necessary to get to the bottom of what I had recently learned to determine how it was possible.

Two days ago, Asa and I had sat down with a unique friend of ours that shared with me a secret that she knew. Our friend is Death. The literal manifestation of Death... and she's quite nice. She answered a question I had been struggling with for weeks now. She told me the identity of a Romulan man I remembered from my earliest youth named Dralath tr'Rul. She confirmed that he is my Father.

Not the human, Declan Dox. Dralath tr'Rul is my Father. Which means that I'm not truly half-human. I'm fully Rihannsu... Romulan. Which raised many troubling questions that the Captain insisted we have answered medically, hence the report on my PaDD. Simply a copy of what Asa had already sent to Captain Telvan for her review, it answers to the best of our ability how it's possible that I can have two Romulan parents and still carry Human DNA from Declan Dox.

I already knew that I had been somehow genetically altered as a child. I had been led to believe it was done to me along with surgery to remove the tips of my pointed ears when I was about 5. When this was discovered, Doctor Dael confirmed that my human DNA had been artificially given dominance by forcing my Romulan genes to become recessive. But it was causing me long-term genetic damage that would have eventually led to complications and an early death. After a week of genetic therapy, Asa was able to reverse that damage. That human DNA returned to its recessive state and my Romulan DNA became prominent again. My blood was restored, as was my long-term health. And we thought that was the end of it until now.

Reading the report, it's startling. To the best of Asa's determinations, my genome was altered either when my Mother was pregnant with me, or at least within the first year of my life. Declan Dox's DNA was imprinted over my own, creating a third set of genetic information. It was this that was causing the damage that Asa fixed. And according to Asa, the manipulation was extremely well done as it was essentially invisible to all but the most invasive of scans and tests. It means it had to have been done by someone with a lot of resources. It was done to HIDE Dralath's DNA, apparently. And it was done well.

The overwriting was extensive, and as it is of no harm to me, Asa does not recommend trying to separate it from my genetic code as that would very likely cause me more harm than good. I may not have been born of humanity, but I carry Human DNA intertwined with my own, making me, I suppose, still part-Human in a different way. And it's been there my entire life, influencing my development to make me what I am now. I carry Declan Dox's Red hair. I carry his portly body type and freckles. These are all parts of me even if he isn't my Father.

I also carry his name. And I am choosing to continue to do so. In part, because my status as a genetically modified individual is considered classified between myself, Starfleet intelligence and the handful of crew that knows. But for me, because it is the name of Shawn and Juliet Dox. Declan's parents that took me in as an angry, sixteen-year-old girl who they never even knew existed and accepted me as their Granddaughter without reservation. I never let them in when they were alive, and it's a regret I will carry to my grave, but I will carry their name with me. A way of honoring them and that part of myself. It's something to carry to remind myself to be better.

Rita Paris knows. Captain Telvan and her wife Maica know. Asa and the EMH know. And, of course, Mona Gonadie knows. In a very short time, I'm kind of scared with how much I love her and how important she is to me. She's Miradonian and she says her people mate for life, and that scares me. It scares me because I'm afraid that I'll fail her with my insecurities and my anger and my weakness. And I'm scared because I know Miradonian's have a lifespan a fraction of a Romulans. I fell in love with her and I will potentially have to say goodbye less than halfway through my own life and that thought is heartbreaking already. But I told her everything, and of course, she doesn't care about what my parentage is. She just loves me and wants me to be happy. I hope that she helps me learn how to do that.

When I talked with Death, she said that my parents did this to protect me, somehow. I don't know what that means yet, but I mean to find out when next I talk to my mother. She'll tell me or it may be the last conversation we ever have. But I will also heed Death's advice and try to approach her with an open mind and without anger. It will be difficult, but I'll try. I also have to consider what I learned from the Baroness and the Captain. When we were smugglers, my Mother and I ferried many refugees from Romulus to freedom, and many of those Romulans are now pirates in the Captain's Artan family. A family I am now also a Baroness in. And the Captain's upcoming tribunal against her Mother for control of that family may rest on what side those Romulans fall on, so there's extra incentive for me to somehow make peace with my Mother for the Captains sake. That will... not be an easy thing for me. Especially now.

Rita Paris once told me to hold on to my human heritage. To not lose it in my desire to reconnect with my Rihannsu roots. And oddly enough, I feel that might be even more important for me to remember now that that humanity is only an adopted one.

Since joining the crew of the Hera, my life has changed in ways I couldn't have imagined possible. I have friends and family here. I have made connections that I will fight until my last breath to keep. I've made relationships more important to me than any I've had before. And I have a future to live up to. I know more about that future then I probably should, but I can't unknow what I've been told. I can only hope that I live up to that potential and don't let everyone down.