I'm sorry to have to tell you...the prognosis isn't good....

Posted on 19 Apr 2016 @ 9:18pm by Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D. & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn

3,109 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Episode 11 - Divinum Mundi
Location: USS Galileo: Sickbay
Timeline: MD01 1830hrs

[ON]

Still quivering in his arms, Dru burrowed her head in further against Markum's should as if she could make it all go away. Over and over it played out in her mind...the smell of their bodies as they came ever closer, the bruising grasp of her arm as she heard them laugh before the cold press of steal went in against her neck.

Sobs shuddered through her chest as she tried to fight them back but over and over she felt how weak her body had become...how defenseless she was when all she could do was watch in horror.

Markum stepped back as the medical staff started their thing, but not before he whispered something comforting into Dru's belly, then kissed Dru's forehead.

With Dru lying down on the biobed, Tuula moved in closer and scanned her with the medical tricorder. "What happened?" she asked in a soft voice as she waved her favourite tricorder over Dru's body.

Markum shrugged his shoulders. "I haven't the foggiest idea, Doc. I got a combadge call from someone that was in her office that an emergency was going down, so I site to site beamed in and then brought her here."

Tuula continued her scans and looked up at Dru. She had all the symptoms of an acute anxiety attack, but there was something more. She would have to do more detailed scans on the developing child to be sure. "Dru," she whispered, "are you all right?"

Dru's body had moved to curl into a fetal position but her hand was pressed in against her abdomen, she was aware of voices talking...voices that were so familiar but so far away. Forcing her eyes to open, their depths were mared with a deep rooted pain but also, if you looked close enough, panic. "The baby...please...."

Quinn went back by her side and held onto her hand. "Do something, Doc, please. I don't want to lose her or our baby."

Tuula stared at her tricorder and furrowed her brow. Dru was having an acute anxiety attack, that was for sure, but there was something else. Something going on with the baby. "Tuula to Allyndra," she said, tapping her comm badge. "I need you in sickbay"

It was early for her shift yet but Allyndra was just getting ready to take the gamma shift when Tuula called. The voice was even but there was an urgency to it. =^=Allyndra here, on my way=^=. She hastily finished donning her uniform and headed out tying her long blue metallic streaked black hair as she went. Luckily or perhaps it was designed that way, her quarters were not very far from sickbay.

"Markum," said Tuula, looking up at him, "I need 10 ccs of novozine." She looked back down at Dru. "Just try to take deep breaths. Focus. You're having an anxiety attack, so just try to relax."

Allyndra entered and looked at the people gathered there. "What is the problem?" It did not look like an emergency on the surface but then sometimes they did not.

"It's what we feared," replied Tuula, having had conversations with Allyndra before about this. There had never been a case of a Reman/Human hybrid baby before in their medical records. There was no way to tell if such a hybrid was even viable, or what sort of impacts it might have on the mother. "Pregnancy complications, probably due to the baby's Reman anatomy. It's exacerbating her anxiety attack. I gave her some novozine to calm her..."

Tuula trailed off. Even with all her studies of xenoanatomy, she didn't have the knowledge to know what exactly to do. No one did.

When Markum left her to get the drugs, Dru felt her anxiety intensify as she tried to force her eyes open to reassure herself that he wasn't gone. "Please...baby...wrong...please." The sheer effort to describe the feeling inside of her body was beyond her capabilities...she went even sure herself except that she knew something was oh so very wrong.

"Alright," Allyndra put on her professional tone. "Let's get a scan and get some testing done. Tuula would you mind getting a sample of amniotic fluid please for me while I start the scan."

"Sure," replied Tuula, as she pushed herself towards the medical supply cabinet. This procedure would require some more specialized equipment than normally found in their basic medcarts.

"Drusilla we will do all we can, we just need to figure out what exactly is the problem." There had not been a spontaneous termination...yet, but as Allyndra started the scan she could see there were some development problems. The amniotic fluid sample should reveal more once she got it to the lab.

Quinn looked at both physicians, feeling helpless for the first time in a very long time. "What can I do to help, anything?" Quinn was terrified, terrified for the baby, terrified for Dru, terrified that he may lose both. Markam wasn't willing to give up, but he did not have the medical knowledge to know what to expect, let alone what to do.

Allydnra patted him and took the sample from Tuula. "Be here for her, now let me get an analysis in and see what is going on. I need to confirm a suspicion." She headed toward the lab area leaving the group, her mind was already thinking on what to look for. That the was the way she was, a problem or something new just put her attention on that and the rest got pushed right off to the sides.

Dru was aware of people moving away from her. As a sudden fear ran through her mind, her hand grasped out for Markum as ever so softly she struggled to whisper, "I can't hear her...I can't feel her...please...Markum...."

Quinn held onto Dru's hand and brushed her cheek. "It'll be okay, the Docs are working on it."

Dru pressed her cheek in harder against Markum's hand as fear threatened to overwhelm her. In recent times she'd found the baby presence to be unpredictable but there was always something...she couldn't have ever put her finger on it but she always felt the baby there but now it was gone...it was almost as if she felt empty.

Allydnra spent longer then she wanted to but she wanted to make sure everything was as she thought and frowned when the results were confirmed. She made her way back out wondering how do you tell someone that their baby was not going to viable. It was the more unpleasant duties that one had to do. She waved Tuula over.

"Well we have some results." Allyndra was not sure if that had been the best way to start but it was out there now. "I am afraid I have some bad news."
There it was out.

"No..." whispered Tuula, looking up into Allyndra's eyes, which told the whole story. She knew that after all the pain she went through, Dru wanted to keep the baby. She knew that if she had to give it up, it would completely devastate her. "I... I suppose I should tell them?" asked Tuula, her voice quivering slightly.

"Yes, go ahead. There is a problem with a genetic mismatch, I can explain more fully if need be. Shall we?" Allyndra indicated.

Tuula sighed. "Yes, let's do this... together."

Quinn was still holding Dru's hand, trying his best to comfort her, although he was terrified for what may be a helpless situation, but Quinn refused to give up hope. He refused.

As she rolled out of the office with Allyndra, the expression on Tuula's face told all. The news wasn't good. "Dru..." she started, trailing off.

Dru's hand gripped Markum's even harder as she heard the tone of Tuula's voice, she didn't need to see the woman to understand that things weren't as they were meant to be. Tears flooded the counsellor's eyes as she closed them tight as if she could make all the problems go away. "No...please...my baby...."

Allyndra knew how she felt. It was the same feeling she felt when she stood in the warm shallow water waiting and waiting and waiting until the Twins began to rise. Not a single of her K'tareth had returned. It was a feeling of the deepest despair and loss.

"There might be a way," she said and almost regretted the words going out of her mouth. What would be required was technically or border line illegal and still no complete guarantee which would only bring more heartbreak. However the words had been said and now to deal with that.

Tuula's head snapped back toward Allyndra. "A way?" she asked, her voice weak with shock.

Quinn looked up at Allyndra, "Whatever it is, let's do it."

Allyndra held up a hand. "I said might but let me explain first the problem."
She got a panel down and put into place and waited until everyone had a chance to at least glimpse the viewscreen.

"Alright, let us say we have species A with a gene chromosome that is say XX. We have species B with a gene chromosome that is say xx in the same location. If we cross them, we get Xx, now in some cases one of those genes say X is dominant and will mask x, in many more cases we get partial dominance in which we get a blend. The problem here is that the combination your baby has inherited Xx in some locales is something we call underdominance. That is each gene masks the other and leads to basically an un-viable gene, when it is a gene that encodes for something important then it is basically a lethal combination. Your baby is being supported by you mom, but once born it has not the correct combination to survive. Now it is possible now we already know the map of the inviable genes to edit them with say a full gene from someone else. Now before you consider this there are problems. The first of which is that it will require some very fine work which could compromise both baby and mother. Second, there is no guarantee that if the gene therapy is done it will take." Allyndra cast a look at Tuula knowing that her work on trying to transfer some of hers to Tuula were not viable for long, the body had excised the foreign DNA out, but this was a bit different.

"The third is that technically under current Federation laws, genetic manipulation is illegal without permission. Thus we would need to obtain permission to even do the procedure, go to non-Federation space and then as I mentioned there can still be problems."

Tuula's mouth hung open in shock. "Allyndra, can we talk in the office?" she managed to utter, amazed not only at the suggestion but also at the fact that she was talking about doing something so illegal and so much like playing god with genetics.

The hand holding Markum's tightened to almost rock hard proportions as Dru listened and tried to follow what the Doctor's had said; words jumping out at her such as hope, chance, what else should matter, why were they still all talking? Still feeling shook up, the woman looked to Markum as her eyes pleaded with him...save the baby.

"Wait," said Quinn with urgency in his voice, "I don't give a rats ass if it's illegal or not, it's two lives here that we are talking about. The Federation Council can kiss my ass, Dru's life and our child is my top concern right now. I don't care if I have to go off this ship at warp speed, and steal a runabout and go into Breen space if I have to. I will be the donor. Either we do this here, in a sterile and safe environment, or I take my family elsewhere. Who are the lawmakers to decide what life can be saved or left to die? We are willing to take what ever risks there are."

Allyndra knew that what she said was controversial but this was not the same as adding extra genes like she had been doing with Tuula and Kohl but just replacing defective ones.

"We have a bit of time, but we need to tread this carefully and again there is no absolute guarantee. The very surgery if we can do it will carry dangers to both mother and baby as well. I know you are passionate at the moment but I think you need to think first." She then turned her attention to Tuula. "Come let me discuss this with Tuula while you two think more on it. Shall we doctor?"

Quinn took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled as he nodded towards Allyndra. "Okay." He then turned back to Dru and kissed her forehead. "We will do whatever we can."

Dru closed her eyes as she felt Markum's lips press against her forehead, the fears and the worries threatening to overwhelm. "This...this is my fault..." The words were whispered but the pain was in noway masked as the woman held herself to blame. "I spent all that time realising I wanted this baby..time I should have spend embracing her...now it's too late."

"No, no, sweetheart." whispered Quinn softly, "We will get through this, have faith."

Quinn's words did little to elevate Dru's fears as her hand moved to cradle the child her body held. It was envitable...she'd known it from the beginning that this may never have met to be but it made the pain no less. Those tiny movements...the flicker in her womb eachtime her baby reached out to just say hello...those moments where time seemed to stand still as her daughter reached out through the bond that they shared to remind her Mum that never was she alone. She didn't want that to end...it couldn't end.

==Office==

Allyndra went into the office and waited on Tuula. She knew the woman might be uncomfortable with what she mentioned. It was obvious, but there was a big difference between what she proposed here and what that other Tuula and her own efforts were. Perhaps, that was it, perhaps it was something else but it gave time for her to discuss her apprehension and time for the couple in the other room to think through what had been said.

She took a seat on the edge of the desk not wanting that barrier between them and said, "I should have told you earlier. My mind has been on a lot of other things lately."

"This... isn't a simple matter," said Tuula, pulling herself up next to the adjacent edge. "I don't think anyone has ever done this complete of a genetic restructuring on a fetus this far along. Even if this works -- which is a long shot -- there are enormous ethical implications to playing god with genetics. And ever since the eugenics wars..."

Tuula shuddered. During her medical ethics class, she studied the horrors that were the eugenics wars, one of the darkest times in Earth's history. "Correcting a genetic disorder is one thing, but we're talking altering the fetus' entire genetic makeup here."

"Not competely, we are just replacing, though I will concede that it might be extensive, non-functioning genes with functioning ones. Unlike what we tried to do with you and with Kohl, we are not adding new genes. Still is not going to be easy and yes we would have to get permission or get away from Federation law." She smiled wryly. "I suppose I could always call for a Fold Ship but I would prefer that not that many more know about them."

Tuula sighed. It was one thing to perform a risky, cutting-edge medical procedure, but skirting the law to do it was another. "Fold ship or no, what we're talking about is replacing 50% of the fetus' DNA. We're changing the identity of the father." She sighed again. "If the fetus isn't viable, it isn't viable. Trying to make it into a completely different person... this is why we took all those classes on the eugenics wars."

"Not really completely different. There is only a few spots that might change phenotype. Look," Allyndra said shifting slightly. "If it was conjoined twins that had virtually no chance of survival would you not do anything to save at least one of them? Surgically splitting what was one organism, entity into two?"

"Surgically separating cojoined twins is one thing; doing this kind of extensive genetic modification on an unborn fetus is another," protested Tuula, raising her voice slightly.

"We are trying to save a life," Allydnra countered. "Is that not our duty we swore to do? Better to try one's wings and fall then never have tried at all." Allyndra gave an Akkadian proverb.

"Save a life?" asked Tuula. "This is a non-viable fetus who we're replacing half the genetic material on. I know of our oath, but what of our ethical guidelines around genetics?" Tuula paused for a moment and looked into Allyndra's eyes. She didn't want to have another fight, like they did over the research data from the mirror Tuula. "Allyndra, I'm not sure I can participate in this procedure."

"I am not going to disagree fully with you. I will also admit that having none of my first set of K'tareth not survive and not knowing the second will either that I have perhaps a skewed view of things. That is why," Allyndra put a hand on the other doctor and nodded. "I depend on someone else like you. Tell you what, let me approach the Admiral and the captain. No means no and that will be that."

"No," replied Tuula. She sighed and took a deep breath. "This is a question of medical ethics. They don't have the same training; it is best for us to handle this ourselves."

"I would agree if we were trying to enhance but to me this trying to save. Still I value your opinion but it is a moot point if one cannot get the permission." Allyndra stood up. "I will tell McCarthy and Quinn that."

Tuula nodded in agreement. "I guess..." she said, "as long as everyone agrees."


---
LCmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy
Chief Counsellor
USS Galileo

CMCPO Markum Quinn
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo

RSS Feed