Getting a Read on Things

Posted on 30 Aug 2013 @ 4:00pm by Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant JG Victoria Crawley & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Petty Officer 3rd Class Arown 164 & Nesh Saalm
Edited on on 01 Sep 2013 @ 8:21am

2,671 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 4 - Medical Lab
Timeline: MD02 - 0900

ON:

Allyndra put out a request to the science department for help with her project.
Considering the situation and time she was not sure who would be able to help.
However, any other thoughts, insights, speculations, anything would prove helpful at this point.

She had already settled back into her seat at the monitor and began to set up the scenario once again. The trick seemed to lie in getting the 'scissors' to recognize the proper part of the assembling nanites.

Arown had been looking through the morning internal ship memos when s/he had come across a filing from a new medical officer soliciting assistance from the Science department in nano research. Duly intrigued, s/he made hir way to the medical labs to investigate further.. S/he entered, primly tucking hir hands behind hir back, and approached the doctor - with her enormous wings and distinctive colouring, she was hard to miss.

"Dr. Allyndra, I presume? Technician 3rd Class Arown 164," s/he introduced herself. "I was told you might require assistance on a lab project?"

Allyndra looked up as the voice broke her reverie. She had been concentrating on the dance of molecules that she had not heard the door open to the lab. "Ah yes," Allyndra felt a relief for going though the science files Arown 164 was listed as a nanobiologist.

"Thank you for coming. Please pull up a seat and let me show you what is going on." Allyndra indicated a seat. "The idea is based off the use of structural DNA nanotechnology with branched DNA motifs with cohesive ends that can be programmed to produce nanomechanical devices. As such these DNA motifs which I like to call 'scissors' could also be programmed to interfere with the production of such devices. I think you can see where this idea is going."

Victoria wandered down the corridor to the medical lab. Earlier, back in the science lab, she had noticed that one of the medical officers needed help with a project she was working on. Intrigued and in desperate need of a break from her own frustrating projects, she had decided to help out in any way she could.

She walked into the lab and immediately saw two crew members chatting about the project. Crap, I'm late. Why am I always late?! Clearing her throat and looking at the two of them, she asked, "Excuse me, but is one of you Dr. Allyndra?"

Arown turned to Victoria and smiled gently, showing a flash of hir sharp teeth. "This is Dr. Allyndra," s/he explained with a gesture of hir hand to the seated Akkadian. "We were just discussing the nature of the project, Lieutenant."

Ever respectful, s/he took a step back, deferring to the two officers, and looked around for a chair, which s/he drew up to join them. The doctor's idea had promise, s/he thought, but it was also ambitious.

"An interesting approach," s/he said. "But I have to ask how we are actually proposing to test this out: it would not seem prudent to start letting Borg nanites run around without being first certain we have a means of combatting them."

Allyndra gave a quick rundown to the new Lieutenant and gave a quick update.

"Absolutely," Allyndra agreed. "I do have a pretty good ability to get the 'scissors' to interfere with assembly. These are medical nanites and similar to how Borg one's work, but my real problem is that I am having trouble having them get a 'read' on the inorganic template and then reprogramme the 'scissors' on the fly. I had hoped to base this off the way Species 8472 immunity could read the nanites but the data on their systems is lacking in detail."

Jacob had been reading up on the incoming reports, proposals and other errata from the Science staff and found a recent one so intriguing he just had to go and take a look at it; so he walked on down to the Medical Lab and walked in. There before him stood several people he had not yet met. He cursed himself in his mind for not meeting them sooner. He looked over to Victoria, "Hello Lieutenant Crawley. Good to see you. I am at loss however as to the new members of the Science team, and that is my fault and oversight." He looked at all the newcomers and said, "I am Chief Research Officer, Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton, well met to you all." He smiled at them.

Arown nodded politely. "Technician 3rd Class Arown 164," s/he introduced hirself simply to the massive newcomer.

Allyndra looked up as yet another person entered. She was not familiar with the person either but then she had more or less sent a wide 'plea' to anyone in the science department. Then the man introduced himself and Allyndra felt another little relief go through her. She was not sure in the few hours how far they could get, but more minds, more ideas, more points of view.

"Good day Lieutenant Pendleton. I am Allyndra, a medical officer aboard this ship." She still felt funny about the whole affair with Fleet and Kohl. "I mentioned some of the research I have been pursuing to the Captain and thought it might have some application in case we encounter the Borg. Did you need an update?"

"I do Lieutenant Allyndra, please fill me in." Jacob's deep voice was filled with excitement and curiosity.

"Perhaps let me show you." Allyndra reset her experiment. "Now then what I am introducing is some medical nanites in this culture and have removed the self-regulation. Now as you can see the nanites will began to recruit elements to make more of themselves." Allyndra touched a control. "And here I introduce the 'scissors' now what will happen is that the nanites will began to incorporate silicon but the 'scissor's......" She pointed to the screen, "will interfere and substitute a germanium atom instead." The dance of the odd looking DNA and the tiny machines was always fascinating to her and as before the nanites ceased to replicate as their chemical space changed the bonding patterns and interfered with the delicate and precise location for the tiny machines.

She looked up, "Now what I am having trouble with is these are pre-programmed and will not always work on all nanite templates. I have been trying to get the 'scissors' to reprogramme themselves to recognize a new template and act accordingly.

"I tried to base the DNA walkers to reconfigure from B-DNA to Z-DNA upon recognition enzymes that allowed species 8472 to be resistant, but there was not enough information on exactly how the translation went to the obviously more complicated 8472 DNA."

Allyndra knitted her brows. "I would be reluctant to offer this in its current form for while it might work, it might not work either."

"Fascinating!" Jacob smiled. "I am MOST intrigued. Let me take a good look at your data, thesis and notes if you'd be so kind."

Allyndra suddenly felt a real reluctance to do that. She had spent quite a bit of time on and off. She had asked for help though and especially if it was to be useful. "Very well, I will have the computer grant you full access to what I have."

Victoria spoke up, haltingly, not wanting to sound like an idiot, but feeling a bit lost. "So, these 'scissors' are supposed to reprogram the nanites to do what you tell them?" Her face turned a bit red, embarassed that she didn't know more about this. "Sorry, nanotechnology confuses me. A lot."

"Actually they interfere with their assembly. Think of it sort how interferon works to interfere with the assembly of a virus."

Nesh frowned from where she sat, holding a pad. She was worried. And she didn't want to be here in the lab when all she wanted to do was sit and cry and swear and shout. "It's a computer," she said quietly. "Why don't you just make up a virus? More aggressive, but also more...focused. You're building helpers, right? What about making them a bit more kick ass than that?" she stopped herself, knowing she sounded stupid for saying it.

Allyndra thought about that. She could multi-matrix the 'scissors' so they would be less specific in what they substituted. It was not exactly what her original research aimed for but it might work.

"Interesting, we could set up multiple forms of the 'scissor's' such that instead of working on a specific template they could interfere on multiple levels, basically a mix of things. Not exactly elegant but then there is little time for elegance."

Jacob nodded as he listened to everyone, "Good input and good point Ms. Saalm." Jacob began to do some calculations on his PADD just for hypothetical purposes.

Arown had kept quiet as the officers discussed their plans, but s/he finally spoke up. "We have a civilian nanoengineer on staff, Dr. Robinson, who would perhaps be of greater assistance than me. But I must speculate whether it is strictly necessary to replicate the Species 8472 biomechanisms."

The petite Hermat officer rose to hir feet and walked over to the lab bench area to begin working on a PADD. "Species 8472 DNA is typically too complex to replicate in a nanolab setting. But if any means of 'reading' the Borg nanites would suffice, then a more biophysical solution might be possible. For example, they contain nanocircuitry, meaning they must emit a - very small - EM field. Could we perhaps consider an approach that would cause the substitution reaction to be triggered by the presence of such a field?"

Allyndra thought on that for a moment. "Yes, yes that might work, a shift in the nucleotide sequence of the 'scissors' based off changes in nanite template EM field. It should work to cause enough conformational changes to continue to interfere with nanite formation even if the nanites try to change."

Allyndra pushed back in her chair and stood up. "Shall we get to work?"

"First priority is to make sure we have a proper containment field set up. We don't want these things getting loose," Arown said firmly, hir expression neutral, but hir mind racing with exciting possibilities.

"Very well, this is a medical isolation laboratory as well."

Jacob nodded in agreement, "Ok folks, looks like time for action."

Allyndra got up and began preparations for setting up the isolation laboratory. She was going to set this at the highest level, which meant the first sign of any breach the chamber would basically do whatever it had to including demolecularizing the components.

"Would someone like to programme the medical nanites to simulate Borg ones? While I reprogramme the scissors?"

Victoria stepped forward and gave a nervous smile. She was starting to to understand a little bit better, but she was still feeling slightly behind. "Just tell me what to do."

"Basically we need to have them be extremely aggressive. On the programming monitor there is an override function and one can reprogramme them. Be creative."

Jacob kept a close eye on the data. "I'll be overwatch of the process if that is ok, I think a focused detail on the process is imperative, especially if we start getting unexpected readings."

Allyndra was already incorporating the idea of the way to shift the 'scissors' in response but she was also going to make multiple forms as well. She nodded her head looking up from the delicate work. "Thank you."

"Nesh, if I could prevail upon you to document everything?"


Nesh nodded weakly, but with a frown. Of course. Back to playing secretary and let the adults do their thing.


Allyndra sat back and brushed a black streaked with metallic blue strand away. "I think I have the 'scissors' set as we discussed." She looked at Victoria, "Lieutenant are the nanites ready?"

Victoria made one final adjustment and turned to Allyndra, nodding her head. "Yes, Lieutenant."

"Alright here we go. I will try this first with the 'scissors' in place as a pre-immunity. Initiating nanite infection now." Allyndra started the experiment and watched. The dark stream of nanites entered the tissue and there was a brief moment that dark veins began to creep as the nanites began to replicate themselves. However, a few moments later the dark bands stopped and then slowly began to retreat and finally fade away as the natural circulation through the tissue cleared the now inactive nanites. She felt a thrill, it worked in that respect.

She looked up and smiled without saying a word.

Arown ran a scan of the tissue sample with the submolecular imagining resonator. "It looks as though an immune response has been triggered," s/he confirmed, hir voice alive with excitement even as hir features remained stoical and composed. "There is only a 13% tissue degradation rate: that's definitely within the treatable range of the bio-regenerative fields."

"Excellent," Allyndra responded.


"Now let's reset with the nanites first and the 'scissors' second, sort of like an epi pen."

The whole experiment was purged and reset but with opposite conditions. The nanites were introduced and then the 'scissors'. Allyndra tried it with almost an immediate application and again the results were the same. Several more times with more delay between nanite infection and the application of the 'scissors'. The results seemed to be pretty clear, even on retest, there was only about a three minute window, after that the nanites were just too far along and too well adapted.

"I was hoping for a longer window but......" she shook her head. There was remarkable progress but she did not think they would get further without a lot more effort and time and time is not what she had currently.

Jacob spoke up, "What if we increased the electron particle speed in and around the immediate tissue area where the nanites first contact it? Wouldn't that facilitate faster reactions which should facilitate quicker results and thereby give us more to research within that three minute window?"

"It might," Allyndra replied. "However, the Captain only gave me a few hours to come up with anything." Allyndra nodded her chin toward the wall and chronograph that was there.

"Let's give it another try." Allyndra said resetting the experiment. She kept on eye on the experiment and one on the chronograph. She incorporated a stimulator as suggested and reran the experiment. Indeed it did help and over and over the experiment was rerun with an ever increasing time.

Though they did not have the time to get full real time results the computer could project theoretical time point end. Allyndra looked up, "Computer projection with electron stimulation of the tissue and the 'scissors' indicates three hour maximum post infection. Everyone, I think we have something we can use."

Jacob nodded and made sure he had double the copies of the work done.

"I should say, I am concerned about the possibility of free radical formation," Arown noted severely. "Adding supercharged particles to tissue may work fine in a lab, but in a total organism there could well be long-term effects we can't predict here. Nonetheless, the possibilitty of preventing assimilation clearly outweights such risks, so I have no hesitation in signing off as the resident Biological Safety and Hazard Oversight officer."

S/he added hir approval to the others and gave Allyndra an encouraging smile - a great rarity given hir usually reserved demeanour.

Allyndra sent a brief note to both the Captain and the Executive Officer with a quick summary: 'Due to several excellent suggestions and help from several of the Science Department Members whose names are included on this report. We have a way to help prevent Borg nanite assimilation infection and up to three hours to reverse effects.'

OFF:

Lt. Allyndra illm Warraquim
CMO
USS Galileo

Lt. JG Victoria Crawley
Psychologist
USS Galileo

Jacob Pendleton
CRO
USS Galileo

PO3 Arown 164
Nanobiologist
USS Galileo

Nesh Saalm
Scientist's Mate
USS Galileo
-----------------

RSS Feed

Comments (1)