Tribble Birth Control

Posted on 28 Aug 2014 @ 12:27pm by Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D. & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Ensign Jaana Voutilainen
Edited on on 28 Aug 2014 @ 1:04pm

1,401 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 3, Sickbay
Timeline: 0215 hours, MD9

[ON]

With Jaana in tow, Tuula entered sickbay, flashing T'Vanna and Emmeline a smile as she rolled past to see Allyndra. They were both napping; it was a beautiful sight to see them lying down so peacefully after the intensity of the birthing process and Tuula figured it was best not to disturb her; she could use the rest.

"Allyndra, this is the funniest thing," she said as she rolled into her office, "I operated on Gilbert yesterday and left him in my sock drawer so he could heal, and kind of forgot about him while I was delivering Emmeline. I expected my drawer to be filled with tribbles, but when I opened it up, there was only Gilbert."

Allyndra heard the doors open and that sort of whisper sound of the wheel chair so she knew who it was. She licked her lips and pushed the cup off to the side and waited.

"Interesting, but first off let me remind you that keeping un-neutered tribbles as pets is strictly against regulations." Allyndra said in a tone that broached no argument. Her features softened and her tone lightened, "Now that I have that out of the way stop and back up. What was wrong with Gilbert?"

"Gilbert isn't a pet, he's a patient," Tuula shot back. Realizing her tone was perhaps more aggressive than intended, she softened it slightly. "I was only keeping him in my quarters while he was recovering because we don't have a veterinary ward."

Jaana looked from one to the other, not really sure how she could help. When they were young she had assisted during one of the many surgeries Tuula performed on their stuffed animal. But that wasn't going to help her here. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she looked around to locate a replicator. She could really use some coffee.

"It's not so much that something is wrong with Gilbert," continued Tuula, "he just hasn't been reproducing since I operated on his burns. Which is probably for the best considering the infestation we're dealing with. I just thought if we found out why, maybe we could come up with some sort of birth control method for tribbles."

Allyndra thought a moment. "Pull up a list of the compounds you gave Gilbert. I suspect perhaps a metabolite of one might have interfered with a hormonal receptor site." She paused, "You know we will have to take samples, well, one of you will. Gilbert will probably not like me much."

"I gave him some anetrizine to put him to sleep for the operation," started Tuula, her finger on her chin as she tried to think back to before the ordeal with T'Vanna. "Also, I gave him some bicaridine for the pain. I didn't want to risk a reaction to metorapan." Metorapan was the preferred analgesic in most situations, given the addictive properties of bicaridine. However, allergies to metorapan were common in some species, so bicaridine was a common substitute. "But these are both very common drugs, and there have been no history of either of them having these sort of side effects. Not with any species."

"Hence why I suspect a metabolite. There maybe something about the way the Tribble liver processes the drugs for excretion. " Allyndra said and was already heading toward the medical lab. "Come on, let's get some samples and take a look." She continued her thoughts, "It could be that it might be also that this metabolite is not excreted well."

"Jaana, do you mind taking a blood sample?" asked Tuula, passing her sister a hypospray.

"Tuula..." started Jaana, her hand held out to push away the hypo that her sister was practically forcing on her. It was just like Tuula to try to push her boundaries all the time.

"Oh come on," replied Tuula, "It's just like when we operated on karhu back home." She pressed the hypo into Jaana's open hand and with the other, parted some of the tribble's fur. "Right there? Just press the hypo against it and tap the blue button to draw a little sample. This whole thing is one big haemocoel, so you can't possibly make a mistake.

Allyndra shook her head but decided that absenting herself from here to the laboratory would be better. Gilbert as the tribble was named was cooing and rocking for all it was worth. She gave a glance back and whispered before disappearing into the lab, "Bet you don't even taste good."

Jaana handed the hypo back to her sister. "Now what?"

"We need to analyze the sample; see what this little guy has been exposed to," started Tuula, placing the hypospray in her lap. She paused for a moment; she wasn't sure if Jaana knew much about biology or chemical analysis. Though as a stellar cartographer, she had to know her way around a spectroscope. "Come on, you can hold on to Gilbert and be my lab assistant," she said, wheeling her way towards the lab. "Allyndra, I have the sample," she called out upon entering.

"Excellent, I have mass spectrometer all set up." Allyndra replied. She had put up a schematic of the main molecules and was looking at them intently. "Possible metabolic sites here, and here," she said almost absently as her finger traced along the chemical structures.

"Well, lets see what we have here," said Tuula as she prepared a slide with the sample from the hypo. "We should be able to isolate any unusual compound in Gilbert's blood. Hopefully we can find something to solve this mystery." She slipped the slide into the spectrometer and pressed the button to begin the analysis.

Allyndra watched the results. The metabolic sites were as she had thought, a hydroxlyation on that sixth carbon, a secondary glucoronidation and a few other minor metabolites but nothing that was different from the tribble to a humanoid metabolism.

Allyndra shook her head, "I am not seeing anything significantly different than what one sees with humanoid metabolism for main products. None of those are noted for having any problems, just excretory products. Is there anything else you can think of?"

Tuula wracked her brain. "All I gave him was bicaridine and anetrizine. I can't think of anything, else, unless it was exposed to something in the replicator." She paused for a moment. "Jaana, could you take a fur sample for analysis?"

Jaana walked to the cooing tribble with a scissors in her hand. Before she starting cutting something off she blinked her eyes a few times. "I might be a little sleepy, but was his fur not way shorter earlier? Didn't you shave a whole patch before your experiment?"

"Of course!" exclaimed Tuula. "Jaana, you're a genius!"

"I am?" she asked surprise. Having totally no idea what she did to become a genius.

"The hair growth supplement." She turned to Allyndra. "I had to shave Gilbert for the operation. I applied a topical hair growth cream to encourage his fur to grow back. I forgot all about it , but it's got all kinds of hormones in it. If it was absorbed through the skin, it could be wreaking havoc on his endocrine system."

"Hmmm.....that could be. There are quite a bit of Langerhans cells located in skin. Can you fetch me a sample of the cream and let's take a look at the ingredients. I am suspecting one or more of the active ingredients." Allyndra mused. "I would almost bet my wings that there is a glutathione toxicity preventing metabolism. Let's take another look for Glutathione conjugated metabolites."

"It's in my quarters," replied Tuula, stifling a yawn. She had had a long day, and judging by the dark circles around Jaana's eyes, so had her sister. "I can go get it for you."

"Excellent," Allyndra replied and began to set up the spectrometer to look for GSH conjugates.

Jaana followed her sister out of sickbay. She needed to get back to sleep. Tuula slowed down to allow her to catch up, and then turned to her sister. "Jaana, isn't this exciting!" she exclaimed. "We've only been on board two and a half days, and we're already pioneers in the field of tribble birth control!"

[OFF]


Lt Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Gallieo

Lieutenant (J.G.) Tuula Voutilainen
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Jaana Voutilainen
Stellar Cartographer
USS Galileo

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