Commander Alora DeVeau, Lt. Jania Nis, and Ensign Halla Faun - JP - How Does Your Vala Grow? (2/2)
Jania Nis
((Medical Laboratories, Deep Space 14))
(OOC: this takes place before Morton’s convo with Chen)
Alora DeVeau hadn’t expected there to be multiple frequencies coming from the Vala tree, but as Alora sat there and thought about it, she realised it wasn’t really all that strange. On the one hand, Vala was Haliian. On the other hand, she was as a vascular plant. Caught as an amalgamation of the two, that meant she didn’t exist in the same way any of them did.
DeVeau: I’m guessing that we don’t know what her frequency was before she became a tree?
Nis: We do have DNA samples collected during her initial consultation. Frequency analysis isn’t standard practice, but nothing stops us from doing it now.
Faun: If there are any lingering analyses of the original entity’s frequency, we should compare them to her current state.
Nis: It’s a good point. We can pull that up right now, actually.
Alora nodded, each one of them had valid points and good ideas and she knew any and all information was valuable. They’d have to sift through, use trial and error to pinpoint the treatment, but they would get there. She had every confidence.
DeVeau: Let’s do it. Get that info, we’ll start from there. Tell me what you’ve been able to do thus far. If we change her back, we need to make sure she’s not only stable, but healthy and thriving.
Faun: Yes, any transformative therapies need to be done with Vala at her best health wise or complications could arise.
Nis: :: as she searches her PADD:: We’ve got ways of providing nutrients in lieu of a root structure, but scaling back the roots themselves has proven difficult. Everything we’ve tried so far has hurt the patient.
Wincing, Alora shook her head. That wasn’t good, and they would have to make sure they didn’t hurt her with further treatments, because the last thing she intended was to cause more harm.
DeVeau: We’ll need to make sure that she can consume nutrients - preferably the old fashioned way.
Faun: And assure other plants aren’t siphoning from her. ::She does a little spin in thought:: We’ll need to focus on transitioning to gene therapies soon.
The Dokkaran’s gaze became distant as she imagined her distant home world and the Lady towering above all else.
Nis: Right. A return to more mammalian methods of locomotion.
DeVeau: Which is still possible even if she remains more flora.
Could they get her back to her old self? That remained to be seen. Perhaps if Alora had been able to experience the creature, seen it, interacted with it, she might have been able to get a better picture. Then again, maybe not. Everything she’d seen thus far had been pretty darn comprehensive, and just experiencing the creature didn’t mean she’d have more than she already did. No, she trusted that all the scientists did their best to get as much information as they could. She couldn’t have done any better.
Faun: Would be strange if it wasn’t. ::giggles a little:: Comparative data between our two structures may certainly serve as a guide for gene therapies and evolving nutritional guides.
Nis: This is actually why we’d wanted a Dokkaran in the first place. Does this data look familiar to you?
Alora tapped on her screen and accepted the information that Nis transferred so she could review it. Her eyes scanned the screen, pondering the data shown and she pursed her lips. Tapping her lips, she then turned her finger to the screen and tapped on it instead.
DeVeau: There’s multiple layers here. I’m trying to separate them.
Her fingers froze and hovered over the surface a moment, her eyes seeking, her brain churning. Finally, they moved again and she set a series of commands, opened another application, sifted through frequencies listed, They were so tightly packed, they couldn’t discern anything.
DeVeau: Let me try something.
Again, she went to work, her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth as she furiously sifted through the layers, ran the parameters and equations, sifted through them again, compared and recompared. Finally, her eyes brightened and she nodded.
DeVeau: I think I have it. I hope.
Faun: Ah! Look at that! ::She peers over Alora’s shoulder before looking to her own padd:: What a unique harmony.
Nis: So you think this is the “Vala” frequency?
DeVeau: I think so. It’s faint, but it’s the only one that repeats throughout the entire frame work. It’s there over and over again, but mixed in with everything else. Nothing else repeats. This does. A lot, but again, it’s buried in those layers of everything else. That’s making it more difficult, because the interference of the others makes it hard to pinpoint.
Taking a deep breath, she turned to the others.
DeVeau: No we need to find a way to tune her frequency back to this one. And I think it’s going to take more than one try. That thing messed with her so completely, that if my theory is correct, this is going to take multiple…well, doses for lack of a better term. We need to get her…hmm…maybe vibrate’s the best thing I can describe it. Literally, all of her. I don’t just mean the big parts, like her limbs or organs, but down to the cell, to the very DNA…her very atoms.
Faun: Is there a way to transform her frequency pattern into a harmony to be reflected… or perhaps sound wave generator with PADDs pressed to her to help sychronize and strengthen her frequency? ::She frowns:: None of these are trialed methods, however.
It was certainly unconventional, and it was a method that would require specialized tools--tools that might have to be built on spec. But Jania already suspected that. No dermal regenerator was going to fix this problem.
Nis: Hmm. End of the day, we’re not a research scientist. We’re happy to try any approach you think might work.
DeVeau: The creature used sound to change her from one thing to another, the only way that I can see to change her back outside of this is to do some really extensive genetic therapy that may or may not work and could have some really painful side effects until it’s completed. This, I think, would be less invasive, and less painful.
And hopefully just as effective.
Faun: …I’d agree and I am uncertain the success rate of gene therapy on something so different, many Dokkaran have not undergone such a process.
It was hard to say how Jania felt. She wanted to have hope, but gene therapy was one place Federation science lagged, of course.
Nis: Hmm. Is it even possible?
DeVeau: Nothing’s a guarantee. I learned a long time ago not to make too many promises. Too many times, we might not be able to keep them. The only thing I can promise is that I won’t stop working until there’s nowhere else to go.
Whether that meant they managed to get her back to normal or she had to find a new normal, Alora didn’t know. Only time and attempts would reveal that.
Faun: Might I suggest some additions for consideration? They are unusual to most but I feel they may help the plant aspects of herself.
Nis: Please do.
Alora was all ears. Just because she made suggestions didn’t mean she was the only one that had ideas that could be viable.
With the approval Halla tossed the PADD onto a nearby counter rather haphazardly as she moved to some of the samples they had already extracted.
Faun: Dokkaran’s are calcivores, as her transition begins I believe a dietary shift will become necessary as she enters the in-between state. Branches returning to bone and muscle, she’ll need to fuel them.
A memory of being doused in applesauce the last time she had attempted to use the replicator flashed through Jania’s mind.
Nis: Easy enough to replicate, as long as the dang thing isn’t still on the fritz.
Again, Alora nodded. She’d thought of that a little when it was mentioned about mobility. That hadn’t been lost on her, but she wanted to see where the woman was going with it.
DeVeau: Please, continue.
Faun: To help solidify her Haliian half-state, you could import dirt from her home planet and mix it with that of the Arboretum, her second home. ::She motions to herself:: Dokkaran cannot heal when not rooted in the dirt of their home, there would be a resonance in the dirt that aligns with a piece of Vala that may also help embolden her frequency.
Nis: Hmm, interesting. Similar to strontium buildup. It makes sense. :: making a note on her PADD :: Yes, we’ll put in a request for some. Shouldn’t take too long with the wormhole.
Alora wasn’t sure about the resonance, but hey, no idea was a bad idea when dealing with a situation never encountered before.
DeVeau: It couldn’t hurt. Let’s do it.
Now Jania felt in her element. There were real things they could try. There was a treatment plan. Now she could start working for real.
Nis: This feels like a great start. We have an actionable treatment plan. We can do this.
Again, Alora nodded, that time with determination set clearly on her face. While she didn’t know Vala, the woman-tree was still a Starfleet officer. That made her family. Alora wouldn’t stop trying to help her family.
DeVeau: Yes we can!
Alora’s enthusiasm was shared by the Dokkaran. Her words met with a few gentle claps before Halla snatched back up her PADD.
Faun: Now… we get to work!
(End Scene)
Commander Alora DeVeau
Chief Science Officer
USS Thor
M239008AD0
&
Lieutenant Jania Nis
Chief Medical Officer of Physical Health
USS Octavia E. Butler NCC-82850
O240108JN2
she/her/they/their (character accepts either); he/his (player)
"Let your heart guide your hand."
&
Ensign Halla Faun
Science Officer
USS Thor
A240105SS2