Luxa Lorana - Brilliant Minds
Ava Munro
((Intensive Care Unit - Primary Sickbay - Deck 07 - USS Artemis-A))
Luxa had explained, as simplistically as she was able, the details of the Genetic Targeted Therapy. She was heartened to see that the medical doctors seemed to grasp it. She hadn’t explained the method of delivery, as yet. That conversation could wait. They had a more pressing issue to discuss.
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.
She noticed a shift in the various crew members. Her Caitian senses had long ago adapted to the differing species she had to work alongside, and the many nuances in their bodily language. Yet, much of her research and work had been conducted on Cait, alongside her Caitian colleagues and she was finding that she missed the ease in which one Caitian could relay information to another with a gesture, the shakes of a tail, or even with one glance.
The human frowned, and told her that he didn't approve on some level of Meyers’ direct observation. She wasn’t thrilled with an arbitrary timeline being placed upon them especially since her point was to highlight the differences between the presenting concerns. Not to be alarmist.
Jaran: ::quietly:: Three weeks. Optimistically.
The human doctor clasped his hands behind his back. A gesture Luxa noted that usually indicated restraint. He then made a noise from the throat. Luxa, ordinarily, found humans to be adorably bald in strange places and often wondered as a youngster how they even functioned but she had since learnt that they were are as evolved as any other species. BUT she would never get used to the strange and weird noises they made at every opportunity.
oO I need to get used to this again Oo
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.
The Bactrican appeared relieved.
Lorana: We also have a lot more to go on. Sencha Wave and Soliton particles are complex, unstable and unpredictable. The genetic mutations we are seeing are less unpredictable so whilst we have limited time, we have some advantages :: smiles in Caitian, tail flicks :: Imril, your DNA is going to be studied for generations.
Luxa, was a scientist before she was a diplomat and she considered that a gentle way of comforting the officer. In a way she just told them that they’d live forever and they may even get their own spot in the Daystrom Institute. She considered that good news for anyone. She had no intention of letting them perish.
Luxa purred as she thought about it, before turning her attention back to her PADD as Meyers spoke again.
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.
Luxa agreed with the doctor.
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.
Luxa nodded, she also lowered her eyes and her tail looped. If he understood the Caitian micro language, he’d know that she deferred to his opinion. But, as humans needed verbal soothing much of the time she opted to vocalise as well.
Lorana: Agree, Lieutenant.
Meyers: As a Pharmacologist, my skillset lends best to working with the crystal components.
Jaran: Go team.
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.
Luxa had other reasons for wanting the Bactrican on their team, but if Bancroft thought they had expertise to offer as well then she wasn’t going to get in the way. But how an engineer could help with biomolecular science at an atomic level would be her first question. Then again, her experiences with engineers tended to be that they were generally unsafe given that the Chief Engineer on the Ronin almost set her on fire, several times. Perhaps, Imril was more competent.
Imril: Thanks for the vote of confidence, Roy. I’ll do my best not to let the team down.
Lorana: Remember to take it easy as well, Imril. What your body is going through is a battle for its own molecular stability.
She inhaled a breath as she remembered that same painful battle that she had endured for months. Her molecules held together by containment fields that trapped her in a chair that monitored her vital signs, that regularly dropped to dangerous levels.
Lorana: You are going to need every last drop of energy you have.
As the teams broke away, Luxa took several seconds to reconfigure and send data across systems.
Jaran: So what's the first step, sir?
Luxa assumed that the Bajoran was asking this of Meyers.
((OOC: I am going to assume at this point Meyers and Jaran have went to their own workspace:
The genetic mutation team is Lorana, Bancroft and Imril. The crystal team (because its always crystals with the Artemis haha) is Meyers and Jaran))
Imril: The crystal Valhjeahn used warmed as the ritual, as their concentration on it, continued.
Luxa looked to Imril confused, it felt like the Bactrican was responding to someone else. She then looked across the room to the crystal team. She glanced towards Bancroft, her concern was told in her whiskers and her tail that dropped down halfway and had begun to twist around her waist.
Lorana: I assume the telepathic link with Doctor Jaran is increasing?
Bancroft moved to a nearby console and called up a DNA analysis. On the display, Luxa observed the colour tagging that had been overlaid from the biomolecular scan. The affected areas along with the different types of DNA. The intensity of the colour told her more granular information.
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.
Imril: As though the results of the teleportation weren’t really accidental? But guided by deliberate design?
Lorana: You forget that bodies are products of design. Billions of organismic patterns that are programmed to behave in very particular ways. What you’re seeing here is a biomolecular version of an overwrite. But, Doctor Bancroft is correct that it does seem to be following a very specific, intentional pattern - a quirk of the technology and its function?
Bancroft 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?
Imril: Commonalities like the repetitious molecular sequences in replicated food? A replicated apple doesn’t taste as good as naturally grown one because they’re ‘the same’ everywhere. A natural apple has subtle changes in texture, sugar content, moisture. It keeps your tongue guessing, on a molecular level.
Luxa nodded in agreement.
Lorana: You are correct, Imril. But also it’s not replication we’re looking at. It’s contamination. Transporters have evolved over centuries but they still work on the same basic principles of converting matter to energy and relocating it. But what we’re seeing here is directive, aggressive gene alterations at the atomic level.
Bancroft 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.
Lorana: It would be made all the easier if we had those teleport machines.
Imril: No one ever checked to see if the Callisian transporters had a component similar to our pattern buffers. There was too much going on, too much to risk experimenting with the system. Assuming they do have buffers, we may have been cycled through them repeatedly. Dozens or more times in a single second, faster than anyone could have noticed. And in each cycle, we got ‘zapped’ with the same mutative factor, over and over. Hence the systemic commonalities.
Lorana: But you used multiple machines. That would mean that this repeating cycle was intentional :: sighs :: There’s several reasons why they would do this. They may have been insane, or didn’t realise. Or they were trying to correct themselves with technology that they believed served that purpose. Could it be that the transporters also served a medicinal purpose? That would explain the widespread alterations we’re seeing.
Bancroft: Response
Imril: If that’s just how those transporters work, like their version of a biofilter, the resulting damage needn’t have been deliberate. A genuine error could have been repeated enough times to appear intentional.
Lorana: Questions we may never fully get the answers too. I am more inclined to believe that on some level this began as intentional gene alterations. Perhaps they felt it was necessary to alter themselves to survive in the harsh conditions of their world after the disaster befell them?
Imril: Wait, wait, wait! Back up! ::To Jaran:: Structure in and around my hypothalamus? As in something other than and distinct from my hypothalamus?
Luxa took a few seconds at the sudden turn in the conversation before realising that Imril must be responding somehow to Jaran. Another gloomy look to Bancroft.
Lorana: Remember what I said about your energy, Imril.
Luxa indicated for Bancroft to come to the side with her for a private discussion.
Bancroft: Response
Lorana: I'm going to send you a data file. It’s the delivery method and treatment. Now that we understand more about the extent of the issues, and if we can get the correct infusion of the crystalline substance from Doctors Jaran and Meyers, we can begin to administer the treatment.
Luxa sent the file using her PADD to Bancroft. She allowed the doctor to read over the treatment process.
Bancroft: Response
Lorana: It’s crude :: nods :: But aggressive and the only way we can replace the genetic abnormalities. Your expertise in microsurgical procedures are going to be invaluable. We target the key areas, and if the transplanted gene therapy is successful we should see the patients own DNA profiles take control.
Bancroft: Response
Lorana: There is a clear reason why we don’t use transporters to cure disease :: shakes her head, sadness :: The Callisians must have had brilliant minds but I fear that it was that cleverness that was the invention of their own end :: refocused :: You wish to inform Imril?
Bancroft/Imril: Response
Tags/TBC
Luxa Lorana
