Lt. (JG) Ko-Antin: Ex luce et tenebris (Tags: Sissons, Kors, Kovis)

[tomhottinger]

(Terraforming camp, Planet's surface)

Velana:  We're looking for anything that they all came into contact with.  If this is where they came into contact with the virus, it's still here in some form or another.  Let's get to work.

:They started their search. Ko-Antin was taking a tricoder and starred at the display. He did not notice anything unusual.:

Sissons: I'm not picking up any unusual readings of the surrounding area commander, which would indicate there's been no infectious barrier set up. :she looked up at Velana: Are you of the opinion that the virus was spread purposefully?

Velana:  In my experience, natural outbreaks aren't usually as quick to spread as this one.  It does make me suspicious. Are you all right, Ensign? Are you sensing something?

Sissons: I do sense a feeling of dis-ease, of imbalance. I'll head straight to the sleeping quarters.

Velana: Why don't we all go?  Just in case.

Sissons:  ?

Ko-Antin: Ok, I'm in. 

Kovis: ?

:Ko-Antin started to wander about. His tricoder in his hands, but his eyes where closed. As Sissons mentioned, something here was just not right. He could not tell what. He decended into a cistern. The cistern had beautifully painted interior walls that remind him of some historic mosaic he visited when he was a child. Ko-Antin got down to his knees to bring the tricorder sensors close to the reflective surface. His hands started to tremble a bit and he touched the water with the tricoder. He observerd some illumination of the water.:

Ko-Antin: o Plankton!, Freshwater Plankton! What a Surprise! o 

:Ko-Antin picked grabbed a testtube from his sachel and got a sample of the water. and made his way back to Velana. When he approached Velana, he noticed that she was a bit absent.:

Ko-Antin: o Here comes a nice surprise... o 

Velana:  Lieutenant? 

Ko-Antin:  Commander, I was checking for air and water. I found something very strange in the cisterns of the settlement. Do you have any idea if they collected the water from the planets surface?

Velana:  As I understand it, the terraformers get their water from the Outpost.  Why?  

Ko-Antin: The water is polluted. Well, not exactly...  It contains plankton. Plakton is usually not posionous at all. But we should exmine it thourougly. 

Velana:  That doesn't make any sense.  Water from the Outpost would be replicated; it would show microscopic traces of the photons from which it originated, but nothing else.  So, are you saying the water in the decon chamber isn't from the Outpost?

Ko-Antin:  Possibly. Or at least, they have been polluted with the plankton. Either by hand or by a defect. We should see if the DNA of the virus is close to the one of the plankton. Maybe the plankton's DNS does some sort of methylation or demethylation when it comes on contact with foreign organisms. Or maybe there is another kind of activation mechanism, like a mutation to a virus.   

Kors: ?

Velana:  Then where would it have come from?  Surely not from Eden.  

Ko-Antin: It seems a strange to me as the waterplant that attacked drake when we set out the octopodi on Aotearoa.  

Velana:  :frowning:  Ensign Sissons, can you do a search for the geological surveys of this area.  We're looking for any underground water supply.

Sissons:  ?

Velana:  Could groundwater have seeped up to the surface or would it have to have been tapped into?

Sissons:  ?

Velana:  Compare the scans of this water with the ones Lieutenant Drake took of Patient Zero's blood.  Search for any common DNA traces.  :She paused.:  If these terraformers brought up something that's been buried in this planet for years, no wonder we don't have a cure.  Everything on Eden was designed to kill.

Ko-Antin: Don't forget to run the same tests with the blood of Elena Fairchild. She survived the infection. She has a chronic hormonal disbalace. Maybe we can track the activation mechanism if we can compare the two samples. 

Sissons:  ?

Kovis: ?

Kors: ?

TBC

Lt. (JG) Ko-Antin

Counselor

Outpost Eden.