The Genesis Directive (Part 4 of 6)

Posted on 30 Apr 2019 @ 6:13pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Lieutenant Commander Ryan Alexander & Ensign Callin Mastrel & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & EMH Mark X-C "Shirley" & Elegy Reiko & LuAnn Lovegood PhD
Edited on on 30 Apr 2019 @ 6:22pm

4,074 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: USS Galileo-A - Sickbay, Bridge
Timeline: MD 01, 0432 hrs

Previously, on The Genesis Directive (Part 3 of 6)...

Gabriel's jaw was tight as he strapped himself in, shaking his head lightly. He hated the cloak and dagger stuff. How could he ensure security if he didn't know the whole deal? He frowned to himself, settling back to get ready for the flight.

Azra took the co-pilot's seat. She wasn't a fan of going in blind, but she would do what she had to. She allowed the safety harness to secure itself automatically. Her seat slid forward so that her arms were within easy reach of all of the relevant controls.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Deck 3 - Sickbay

Breathing heavily, Elegy Reiko had been stretched out on the surgical biobed for a long time, and then he wasn't. He sat fully upright, his shoulders squared, his back erect. There were more amber crystalline protrusions growing from his collar bone now, cutting up through his skin and through his white Federation-issued jumpsuit. He rubbed his fingers over his eyes --trying to rub the sleep away-- which revealed that several of his fingernails had turned a shimmering shade of amber to match his transformed eye. "I don't know what you did to me, Doc," Elegy said aloud, "but I'm feeling more myself. My head hasn't been this clear in months." He sounded more self-assured, his pronunciation more defined. "I'm clear. Crystal clear."

Alexion resisted the urge to try and physically push him back down with the quarantine still firmly in place. He was frowning as he watched him, looking him up and down, at the advancing state of...whatever it was. Crystal, was perhaps, the key word. "That's good..." he replied lightly, when the truth was, he hadn't done anything. Which worried him. But there was no need to let him know that. "Does that mean you remember more now?"

Defensively, Elegy clapped back at Alexion. "I never forgot anything," Elegy was quick to say. Almost as quickly, his gaze went fuzzy and he rubbed the back of his neck. He could feel the crystals growing from his shoulder blades had spidered farther up the back of his neck. "I think?" he said. "It was... hard to speak? I was feeling too... too... What's the word? It's like..." --he started snapping his fingers for inspiration-- "Unfulfilled? Almost like an existential dread...?"

Elegy snapped his fingers one more time and an expression of triumph crossed his face. He swung his legs down from the biobed and his dirty boots connected with the deck plating. "That's it," Elegy said. "Hungry."

"You need to stay there for the time being," Alexion said firmly, holding his hand up in a clear 'stop' sign for good measure. "We can get you something..." he looked over to the still active EMH, glancing to the console she'd been monitoring. "Shirley, can you take some food in? A light broth would probably be a good idea for now," he added with a slight frown. In truth, the professional somewhere deep and dark and hidden inside of him was curious to see how he reacted with food. His body was going through changes, who was to say he'd even be able to palate it?

Perched on the edge of the surgical bed, Elegy clasped both of his hands over his stomach. He groaned in an undertone and he rubbed the aching in his abdomen. Whether that pain came from the hunger, or from the crystalline formation beneath his jumpsuit, he couldn't really tell. All the same, he made no movement to lay back on the biobed. "Might need more than broth here, Doc," Elegy said, with a rising note of urgency in his voice. There was a sudden hint of panic in his tone, but it became clouded with the sense of confusion that had defined Elegy as a mystery patient earlier. "I can't remember when..." he said, trailing off softly. "It can't have been...? Didn't I run out of rations weeks ago?"

Commonly, the replicator within the surgical alcove was utilized for pharmaceuticals. What this patient seemed to need was good ol' chicken soup, and so a broth was what materialized, by the Emergency Medical Hologram's command. Shirley blinked out of existence and then her photonic form reappeared inside the patient's quarantine field. In a hurry, Shirley made her way to the replicator to collect the bowl and proffer it to Elegy.

Elegy snatched the bowl greedily and he drank deep of the broth. The lukewarm liquid had hardly touched his tongue, when he spat out a mouthful of it; Shirley took a splash to the face. Elegy jumped to his feet, as if electrified, and tossed the bowl to the floor. He growled in disgust before the bowl even touched the ground. "It tastes like ash," Elegy spat out. The bowl skittered across the deck and came to a sudden halt when it collided, with a buzz, against the quarantine field.

Approaching the patient with her arms outreached and her palms open wide, Shirley spoke to Elegy in a tightrope walk between stern headmistress and kindly flight attendant. "Sir, I think you heard Doctor Wylde," Shirley said, giving him the benefit of the doubt. "Now, I have to ask you to sit--"

"Don't touch me!" Elegy interjected at the top of his lungs. He shoved his palms at Shirley as he belted out the words. Fully, he had expected to knock her back a couple of inches, maybe a few more. Rather, his hands pushed into Shirley's midsection -- they pushed right through her.

Shirley's photonic body fizzed where it came in contact with Elegy's hands, and even when Elegy recoiled from her, there was a hole in her chest where her body should have been. Clawing at her own face with her hands, Shirley shrieked with a guttural sound no artificial lifeform should be able to comprehend, let alone mimic. As a sad, sad Starfleet officer had once said, what we got back didn't live long... fortunately. Shirley's holographic matrix collapsed in on itself; her physical form dissolved in a juttering shimmer of distorted light.

Alexion watched the event unfold with a mixture of fascination and horror. All of his intincts told him to go and literally get a grip on the patient, but the continued quarantine prevented him from jumping directly in. He tapped his commbadge, unwilling to risk further incident after the impossible turn of events, calling security for some extra backup. When trying to relaunch the EMH failed, he put another call into Engineering. "Wylde to Engineering, we've lost the EMH and need it back asap..."

Wylde turned his attention back to the volatile man, his cool eyes narrowing ever so slightly. "You need to calm down," he said firmly, maybe even sharply, his hands set on his hips. "We are doing everything we can to help you. Lashing out at the hands that are healing you doesn't exactly motivate or help us fix this, does it. Does it," the repeated words from the doctor, who had never been known for tact or patience with his patients, were an even stronger shade of firm, and most definitely not really a question.

While Wylde called for help, Elegy paced around the biobed on a compulsive footing. Staring down at his outstretched hands, Elegy asked, "Why did that-- how did-- why did that happen?" He shook his hands out, experimentally. Echoing Wylde's earlier words, Elegy asked, "Lashing out...?" in an incredulous manner. He sounded like he couldn't believe anyone would describe him in that way; he almost sounded like he didn't even know what those words meant. Then he stopped.

Elegy breathed out through his nose once and then his gaze snapped in Wylde's direction. His focus tightened on the doctor. Stalking towards Wylde, Elegy said, "I didn't-- I told her not to touch me. I'm a Federation citizen. I have the right not to be touched if I--" Elegy stopped talking when his left shoulder connected with the quarantine field. The forcefield projectors hummed louder as they compensated for the man's body against the field. The inset emitters glowed brighter and the forcefield sparkled against Elegy's shoulder like a hundred fireflies were dancing in tandem. When he didn't step back from the forcefield, the emitters buzzed even louder than before and the flat plane of the forcefield began to bow out, away from Elegy. A carbon-based humanoid body could make little impact to a forcefield, but this forcefield was bending itself away from Elegy.

Alexion in the first moment stared in awe...how could he not when something so impossible was unfolding in front of his eyes. He physically shook his head clear and moved quickly to the console, his fingers moving fast over the surface to create a second barrier with distance between the first, effectively producing an airlock effect in case he somehow managed to penetrate the first barrier.

Breathlessly, Elegy asked, "What's--?" as the flat plane of the forcefield continued to bow out and away from his crystal-encrusted shoulder. "Going to--?" he continued, while the integrity of forcefield could compensate for the intrusion no further. The hole in the middle of the forcefield widened, until the entire field collapsed. Without the forcefield holding him up, Elegy stumbled a couple of feet further, directly into the new quarantine field. Clearly frustrated by his confinement, Elegy slapped his palms against the forcefield. "Don't. Treat. Me. Like. An. Animal!" he demanded; every single word was punctuated by another slap of his hands against the forcefield. As with the last forcefield, pinpricks of energy danced across the palms of his hands, and by the time he said the word animal, this forcefield too was starting to bend around the curves of his hands.

LuAnn had been in the background to keep out of the doctors' way. Now she moved forward. "It's not you, Elegy. It's the crystal they're concerned about. We're trying to help you get better, but we're not quite sure how. That field is to protect you."

"This garbage is in here with me!" Elegy snapped back. "You're not protecting me from it. I don't need protection. I need fooooood." In a rather ineffective attempt to indicate to the crystal crowing out of his body, Elegy gesticulating his arms wildly. As with the last quarantine field, the forcefield emitters struggled to maintain the flat plane of the forcefield in proximity of his body. Whatever interference was being generated by his body caused the final forcefield to collapse.

Instantly, a distinctive klaxon blared from every communications node in Sickbay. At the same time, every LCARS panel --that wasn't dedicated to patient vital signs-- flashed red and presented a text message that matched the Computer's verbal announcement. "Quarantine alert," announced the Computer. "Extreme caution! Do not enter Sickbay. Quarantine alert."

Protecting himself from the roaring klaxons, Elegy clamped his hands over his ears. Shouting a frustrated, "Ahhhhhh!" he ran from the surgical alcove, charging across the compartment.

"Elegy, let us help you. Let us find out what this is and help you" LuAnn said, trying to forestall him.

"I'm hungry," Elegy snapped at LuAnn, waving his hands in the air to excise the immense frustration he felt. These Starfleeters were liars and thieves, to his eyes. They said he himself was a threat, and yet they were the ones trying to kidnap him. They said they wanted to help him, and yet they wanted to tie him down. He could not trust them; that much was clear to Elegy. Pushing past LuAnn, Elegy charged towards the doors out of Sickbay. "I don't need any help," he insisted; "I'm only hungry."

"Hungry for what? What can we get you?" LuAnn asked, turning around to watch him.

"I don't know," Elegy replied, speaking loudly over the klaxons. There was a wild look in his eyes that betrayed that he couldn't understand how he could feel a craving for something unknowable, unfamiliar. "But I can smell it."

"Wylde to Warraquim, quarantine has failed," Alexion's message had to be short and not so sweet as he moved quickly. One good thing to come out of quarantine breaking was the fact he could finally get his hands on him. He took the chance of him being preoccupied at the door to press the hypo with the strong sedative to the back of his neck, his other hand moving in afterwards to brace him.

Alexion's outstretched arm proved unneeded. Certainly, Elegy was slowed down when the doors refused to open for him --as part of the quarantine procedure-- but his consciousness and awareness remained keen. The sedative forced into his bloodstream could only impact the parts of his body that were still carbon-based, and there were fewer and fewer of those. "I said," Elegy shouted, "Stop! Touching! Me!" And he punctuated each and every word with the heels of his palms shoving Alexion away from him. Buying himself that little bit of breathing room, Elegy edged his crystalline fingertips between the seal of the double doors. Heaving with inhuman strength, Elegy yanked both doors aside, providing himself sweet release from Sickbay.

In the corridor beyond, red lighting flashed across the LCARS panels and the distinctive klaxon sounded out. "Quarantine alert," announced the Computer over a wider area of the ship. "Extreme caution! Do not approach Sickbay. Quarantine alert."

Alexion struggled to push himself off the ground having been virtually thrown back with a type of strength that shouldn't have been possible. By the time the chaplain had helped him up, Elegy had already forced himself out of the door. Alexion lurched forward to try and get a hold of him, but the sharp pain that wrenched through his leg and lower back ended with his coming up short.

Wylde swore loudly as the patient started to sprint away. He forced himself into a run after him, but his injured body was no match for the unnatural speed of the runaway. It didn't stop him trying though, his jaw set tight against pain with his determination to get his hands on him.


Meanwhile, Back on Deck 1...

Ensign Mimi and Lieutenant Plumeri left the room, and as soon as the door hissed shut behind them, Saalm scanned her PADD then started starship-wide preparations with her remaining senior officers. "Before we dismiss,

"Amaranai," she looked to her acting chief of security and partner, "I need two photon torpedoes readied for atmospheric air-burst detonation, 100-meter elevation fuses. Set each warhead for a fifty-isoton yield." The simulations she'd run in her office deemed these strike parameters to be the most efficient at wiping any trace of Genesis from the world without blasting it to fragments.

Lirha then turned to her Romulan chief counselor. "Lake, check every personnel file on this colony's manifest as well as those from Latari B III. Look for anyone with a scientific background in physics, genetics, or terraforming, then cross-check those personnel and their families with any known records of criminal history or political dissent." It was a shadowy and perhaps extreme measure, but it was as the Genesis Protocol dictated.

"Sofie and Callin, keep all ventral sensor arrays pointed at the Genesis signal source and send all information to my station on the bridge. If anything changes...I want to know about it.

"And Ryan," she added, "mission operations are to be your priority. We need to maintain eyes on both of our away teams."

"Hmmm," Lake ir-Llantrisant vocalized softly. Looking down at his PADD on the tabletop, Lake idly tapped a couple of inquiries into the LCARS access for the Federation's personnel manifest. "I imagine it will be a short list, Captain," Lake said, looking up from his PADD. "There can't have been too many colonists with the means, the motive and the opportunity to create something like this. Unless it was some kind of haven for mad scientists..." Glancing down at his PADD again, Lake squinted at the initial results and he excused himself momentarily to use the head.

Amaranai heard the request and made a note. The warheads wouldn't be an issue to program. Despite not wanting to go on the Away Mission, Amranai was a little unsure of the need for that large of a payload, but it wasn't going to be something she questioned her captain about. Especially not in front of the rest of the staff.

"Aye, captain," she said. "I'll get right on that."

With a solemn nod to the Captain Ullswater glanced over to Callin and spoke up "We'll keep you in the loop Captain." She put as much confidence as she could muster into the declaration but was still feeling altogether quite shaky after everything they had witnessed today which could still be heard through her bravado.

Callin reached out to squeeze Sofie's shoulder briefly, in support and understanding of his friend. He just wasn't sure what to think just yet, besides knowing he was likely as troubled by all of this as he sensed everyone else was too. "No worries, Captain," he chimed in, offering a smile he didn't quite feel for both Sofie and Saalm, "we'll keep our eyes open. We could start with a meteorological scan of the landing area..." His voice was subdued as he headed chatted to try to get a smile out of Sofie.

Sofie's tried to push worry out of her mind and focus on the coming work. "A surface analysis of the colonies could give us a much better picture of what happened here." She nodded to Callin, pullling herself together a bit. With both of the more senior officers away from the ship it would fall to the two of them to organise the science department's response until the away team was back.

Ryan nodded. "Aye ma'am, you can count on my team and me." Ryan replied having spent the last short while compiling and parsing out system resources. "You will have those feeds before you get back to the command chair."

The acknowledgements sounded off then Lirha turned to the ship's second officer and head doctor who was present at her side. "Doctor Allyndra, what can you tell us about the survivor we recovered? Have you come to a diagnosis yet?"

"The patient turns out to be one of the colonists. There is little information we have gleaned as to what happened, what happened to the ship as well, how the patient came to lodged in a escape pod and even how the patient managed to survive for such a long time. As for the condition of the patient there seems to be some sort of silicon based infection that seems to be slowly taking over the patient's body. Considering the clash of biochemistries I am surprised that the patient has lasted as long as they have. At this point all we have been able to do is try to provide as much comfort as possible. In my opinion, medically I put the patient's chances at survival as very low. My staff and I are pretty much working in unknown territory as to proper treatment." Allyndra shook her head. It was frustrating but that was the simple truth of the matter.

The captain digested the robust report then quickly frowned and did a slight double-take. "A colonist suffering from an infection? In one of Franconia's escape pods?" she repeated, her mind now racing for possible answers. "...Was there an evacuation from the planet? What else did the survivor reveal?"

"Yes captain. The patient said that the Franconia sent down doctors. I am not sure why but he mentioned something about tremors. He was not very coherent but I cannot blame him for that considering the time possibly in the pod and the infection. He said the captain of the Franconia told everyone to evacuate and why he ended up in a pod though one would think a medical person would have gotten him there or be with him. Why the captain of that ship called for a general evacuation was not elucidated." Allyndra made that odd rolling shrug which caused the wings to rustle slightly indicating a somewhat confused state and continued, "Whatever is happening with the infection I believe has spread at least partially to his mind. I am not sure how much more we are going to get and when the Genesis directive caused a momentary black out we thought it best just to let the patient rest."

"I see. Is this 'infection'..." Lirha feared to call it despite the same words from her CMO, "..contagious?" She shifted uncomfortably on her feet and briefly referred back to her PADD.

"Unknown captain," Allyndra replied shaking her head. "The contagion fields went up with the transport and medical has kept them in place since with no direct contact with the patient. I am not even sure exactly what is going on," she continued. "It's as if whatever the agent is, is attempting to take over or convert the body to a silicone chemistry. However as long as we have the fields in place I do not see that there will be a problem."

"Wylde to Warraquim," a terse communication suddenly interrupted and came through the doctor's comm badge pinned to her breast. "Quarantine has failed."

The Orion Fates often played devious games with the Spirits, but even Lirha - she herself risen from the dead a year ago - quickly realized that what the Humans called 'Murphy's law' was in fact, a real and credible hypothesis. Her lithe and curvy form visibly straightened and her green eyes tensed before they snapped to the acting security chief. She didn't need many additional details to know that something had gone wrong.

"Amaranai and Allyndra, go. You too, Lake. And someone find Luke," the captain ordered, then tapped her communicator. "All hands, we have a medical quarantine failure. Initiate shipwide biohazard protocol and isolate all compartments." The overhead lights dimmed and the alert strobes now pulsed with deep blue flares signifying the unique nature of the ship-wide emergency. "The rest of you, get back to your stations and coordinate internal scans. Dismissed!"

Allyndra nodded and called on the go, "Computer set sickbay to zero degrees Celsius. Authorization, Allyndra zero theta phi."

=^=To Wylde and Franklin if you locate the patient and can confine set the temperature to freezing. The silicone biochemistry will shut down putting the patient comatose. Whatever you do, do not expose to large quantities of water.=^=

"Aye, aye ma'am." Ryan acknowledged just after Allyndra made the call to sickbay. He stood and made his way to his station on the bridge, already having a couple of ideas on how to help track or locate the individual. Everything that had been discussed in the briefing was curious to say the least, he couldn't help but be fascinated by what had been revealed about the Genesis Project. Ryan could understand the reason for the Starfleet wanting to keep this project classifed. Ryan also wondered how the patient in, previously in he corrected, sickbay tied into the project.

Following Allyndra out of the conference room, Lake leaped out of his chair and chased her to the door. As much as Lake knew he would need to determine what the patient wanted, why the patient wanted to escape Sickbay, his mind wouldn't focus. His thoughts when to Verity and LuAnn. "I hope," he whispered to himself, and a little bit to Allyndra, "our teams are all right..."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

Elegy Reiko
Colonist Survivor
Latari B III
[PNPC ir-Llantrisant]

CWO3 Alexion Wylde
Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Blake]

EMH Mark X-C "Shirley"
Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC ir-Llantrisant]

LuAnne Lovegood
Counselor
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Sandoval]

CMDR Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A

LT Lake ir-Llantrisant
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo-A

LT Amaranai Franklin
Deputy Security Officer
USS Galileo-A

ENS Ryan Alexander
Operations Manager
USS Galileo-A

ENS Sofie Ullswater
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

ENS Callin Mastrel
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

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