Lieutenant JG Roy Bancroft - Mr. Dee-En-Eee
Carter Schimpff
(( Intensive Care Unit, Primary Sickbay, Deck 07 – USS Artemis-A ))
Jaran: Knowing Sam, there's probably one hidden somewhere in Sickbay.
Meyers: I fail to see how the flippant disrespect with which Miss Richards treated the sterility of our place of employment, and the primary health center of the entire crew, can be considered amusing, Doctor.
Imril: ::Looking around:: I thought all the mystery rocks were found?
Roy offered a half-shrug.
Bancroft: I’ve learned never to underestimate Richards’ gift for being both masterfully inconvenient and alarmingly resourceful when sufficiently motivated.
Lorana: So, how open would the Boraxians be in sharing their information?
Imril: You’d probably have the best chance talking to the splinter group that broke off from the city-ship. They departed on a vessel called the New Hope.
Roy winced slightly.
Bancroft: Imril’s right. When we left, the city-ship faction was still trying to rebuild a functioning society out of the smoking remains of religious extremism. ::beat:: And the splinter group… well, they were scarcely more stable. If they know anything useful, I’d be delighted to be wrong – but I would not build our treatment plan around it.
Lorana: Oh, so not very willing to share. Zealots are tricky :: looks to Imril :: We should run a full biomolecular scan. Whatever effect the Boraxian crystals may have had must still be present within their Bactrican DNA.
Meyers: I shall go procure one of the samples kept for logkeeping in the Science Center.
Jaran: If I may, I would like to perform this scan, in the interest of limiting the number of variable factors.
Imril: The more variables removed, the better.
Lorana: Afterwards, we perform the same scan on you Doctor Jaran. Doctor Bancroft, are you able to conduct that scan?
Bancroft: ::easily:: Of course, ma’am. ::to Jaran, with a faint smile:: I promise not to pat you on the head this time, Jira.
Jaran crossed to the biobed and patted the cushion.
Jaran: Lt. Imril, if you would be so kind?
Imril: ::Raising a hand:: Little help?
Roy offered his hand, grasping Imril’s firmly.
Bancroft: ::gently:: Easy does it, my friend.
Jaran: Please try to stay as still as possible, Lieutenant. This is a very delicate scan.
Imril: Can do.
The arch retracted, and Jira loaded the scan onto a nearby screen, staring at it in silence for a moment.
Jaran: ::hesitantly:: This can't be right. What I saw in the hypothalamus can't have caused this. Can it?
Imril: ::Concerned:: Caused what, exactly?
Jaran: Dr. Bancroft, can you confirm what I'm seeing first?
Roy leaned closer to the screen, taking more than a few seconds to ensure he was reading the data correctly.
Bancroft: Their DNA has been altered – enhanced, even – at the submolecular level. There’s a crystalline lattice integrated along each strand… and unless I’m badly mistaken, that lattice appears to be at least partially immune to the mutagenic effects.
Lorana: If I'm understanding you correctly, then what you're saying is that the crystalline has metastasized in Imril's DNA structure, giving him a natural barrier to the effects of the teleporter?
Jaran: I probably would have stammered and stuttered around it a little more, but that's about right.
Bancroft: It’s extraordinary. I’m honestly stunned we didn’t catch it sooner – though in fairness, full genomic screening isn’t exactly standard procedure after every away mission unless someone gives us a reason to go looking.
Imril: Does this give us a path for helping the others?
Lorana: My research and treatment is based on Genetic Targeted Therapy. Essentially, we locate the corrupted DNA at a micro cellular level and we replace it. That's a very simplified explanation.
Jaran: Doctor, that's a huge task. Do we even have the time for that sort of process, if we're going to stay ahead of the changes?
Bancroft: ::under his breath at Lorana:: Brilliant.
Imril: Response
Meyers: It is somewhere to start. And I presume the Boraxian crystal sample should be able to help with that?
Lorana: Yes, but that's only the first step. Once we've detected the corrupted cells we use healthy genetic coding from, in this case, another Bactrican or if we have a sample of Imril's DNA that is viable?
Meyers: I will cross-reference Imril’s medical documentation. Otherwise, the transporter logs should have full copies on file.
Jaran: Is it safe to assume a scan of myself won't be needed at this point? I'm pretty sure I don't have a fun crystal shield in my brain.
Roy gave Jaran a lopsided, half-teasing smile.
Bancroft: Only one way to find that out for sure, Doctor.
Imril: Response
Lorana: The issue is, the treatment method needs to be adapted :: Luxa moves to the console and swipes several times :: You'll see that it's specifically used to target DNA or Sencha Wave radiation and Soliton Particles :: sad :: And that took almost a year of daily research :: looks to Commander Munro :: I don't think we have a year.
Meyers: We do not. At most, I’d say we have three weeks, and that is in the optimistic range.
Roy frowned slightly at that. Meyers was, as ever, unfailingly blunt. Useful in a crisis, undeniably – but to flatly issue an expiration date in front of two live, breathing patients? Well. It wasn’t strictly against the rules – but in Roy’s opinion, it certainly didn’t help patient morale any.
Jaran: ::quietly:: Three weeks. Optimistically.
He clasped his hands behind his back and cleared his throat.
Bancroft: ::pointedly:: Three weeks is a projection, not prophecy. We have time enough to work, and more importantly, we have minds in this room more than capable of making very good use of it.
Imril/Lorana: Response
Meyers: If time is our main concern, it seems obvious that we must divide our efforts to speed the process up. Our two primary tasks are to separate out the mutating DNA codes contained within Imril and the others, and isolate them in a way that will allow us to replace them one by one, while also figured out how to isolate the component of the Boraxian crystals that has made certain elements of Imril’s physique resistant to the Callisian mutations.
Jaran: I believe my experience with the Boraxian crystals would be of most use with that team.
Bancroft nodded.
Bancroft: Makes sense to me. I’ll assist Madam Lorana with identifying and isolating the mutated DNA strands. ::casting a glance at Lorana:: Provided you agree, ma’am.
Imril/Lorana: Response
Meyers: As a Pharmacologist, my skillset lends best to working with the crystal components.
Jaran: Go team.
Roy cast a sidelong glance at Jaran. Well, they’d had a fairly good run on the Artemis. It was a shame that it was all going to end this way – driven mad by the Phantom of Pharmacology.
Bancroft: ::to Lorana:: If I may make a case for borrowing our patient – Lieutenant Imril’s firsthand experience with the crystal would certainly benefit the other team, but their value here may be even greater. Their ability with code and systems logic translates rather beautifully to the sort of pattern recognition this work will require.
Imril/Lorana: Response
Jaran: So what's the first step, sir?
Roy kept his mouth shut. To Jaran, he was technically ‘sir’ – but in this case, with Lorana and, yes, even Meyers present, he knew there was absolutely no way that particular question had been directed at him.
(OOC: Looping in Lorana to these tags)
Meyers/Imril/Lorana: Response
Jira nodded and set to work. They placed the crystal that Meyers had retrieved on a small scanning platform and calibrated the sensors.
Jaran: It's been a bit since I've had any contact with these crystals. The ritual to activate them seemed pretty complex, but, just in case, no one... think too hard at it.
Bancroft: Response
Meyers/Imril/Lorana: Response
Jaran: It's looking almost exactly like what I would have expected. The structure in and around Lieutenant Imril's hypothalamus has a nearly identical crystalline structure to the Boraxian crystal.
Roy moved to a nearby console and called the sequencing architecture back onto the display, forcing himself to drag his attention away from the other team’s crystal analysis and into the quieter, infinitely more maddening battlefield of genetic code.
On the screen, the altered strands unfurled in elegant, hostile little ribbons – sections of healthy Bactrican DNA interrupted by invasive sequences that did not belong and yet had, somehow, made themselves terribly at home.
He narrowed his eyes as he studied it. It was one thing to identify a mutation – quite another to teach the scanning system where personhood ended and contamination began, even with a clean reference set of DNA to work with.
Bancroft: I don’t know about you – but this doesn’t look like simple genomic damage to me. Damage is random… chaotic. This looks almost… intentional.
(OOC: Leaving tags joined until someone more responsible than me decides how/if teams are split)
Meyers/Imril/Lorana/Jaran: Response
Roy nodded, calling up two random strands of Imril’s (partially) affected DNA.
Bancroft: We’re edging into terrain where my expertise grows a touch less authoritative – but unless I’m misreading this, there do appear to be synthetic commonalities here. ::indicating the screen:: Would you agree?
Meyers/Imril/Lorana/Jaran: Response
He took a step back from the console, crossing his arms and frowning at the screen.
Bancroft: If that holds true – and I rather suspect it does – then this may be our way in. A means of systematizing the search, and with it, the isolation of the affected strands.
Meyers/Imril/Lorana/Jaran: Response
TAG/TBC!
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Lieutenant JG Roy Bancroft
Medical Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240205RB1