Lt. Commander Tahna Meru - Narrowing The Lense
Tahna Meru
((Medical Laboratory, Gibaria Outpost))
How were the other teams doing? Well, she hoped. At least she knew one was still…solid… Meru began walking back to her work station, but she paused partway there to catch V’Lar’s eye. It wasn’t that she was unsympathetic to the stress of the medical personnel, or the distress of their patients. But she was stuck between a fire cave and a pagh-wraith.
Tahna: I can’t order more crew into a quarantine zone for something we can’t cure. But I will ask for qualified volunteers to support local medical staff.
V’Lar: Thank you, Commander.
Doctor V’Lar picked up the tray loaded with the airthrazine she’d replicated and walked through the door to the infirmary. Her departure caused a brief crescendo in the noise from the adjoining room, though hopefully, with one experimental treatment beginning, things would only improve. Meru quickly sent a message to the Gorkon, as she’d said she would, stating that a limited number of volunteers from medical would be permitted on the surface as support staff. She hoped it was the right decision…but then again, it was possible no one would volunteer, and she wouldn’t blame them. Possible, not probable: it was the Gorkon, after all.
Pace: Sir? ::She paused.:: How are you doing?
Tahna: I should be asking you that.
Meru began scanning over the data they’d received.
Pace: Well, at least this data from Commander Neathler isn’t corrupted. It’s very helpful so far!
Tahna: I’d say we owe her one, but if we develop an inoculant she’ll probably call it even.
The telltale sound of the doors behind her announced V’Lar’s return. Meru turned to look at her, but if she was expecting to be able to read anything in the Vulcan’s expression, she was wrong.
V’Lar: The immediate crisis in the adjoining room has been temporarily structured. The local physicians have been briefed on the arithrazine administration and instructed on strict triage prioritisation.
Pace: Thank you, sir.
Tahna: Good work.
V’Lar: Their resilience is being tested and their operational efficiency remains suboptimal, but I believe they are doing the best they can under the circumstances. Given their psychological state and physical exhaustion, I recommend they be relieved as soon as possible, although it should be noted that their existing patient numbers will begin to decline imminently.
Pace: Well, all we can do is our best… Which I think is what we’re doing.
Pace made her best effort at what Meru thought was supposed to be a confidence-boosting smile. While Meru was grateful for the hopefulness of the gesture, she found it hard to feel anything other than crushed. When V’Lar said the patient numbers were going to decline rapidly, she did not mean people were going to begin improving beyond the need for medical aid. She meant they were going to die. Maybe Meru could have saved them if she’d been able to dedicate more resources…but that was a useless line of thinking. She had no more resources to dedicate right now. By the time the Gorkon had arrived, Gibaria Outpost was no longer a question of saving everyone, it was a question of reducing casualties.
Tahna: It’s awful, but we’ll save as many as we can.
V’Lar: It is a necessary reality of the mathematics we face; many are simply beyond saving regardless of the skill or will being employed.
V’Lar paused, almost as if she was gathering herself, then changed the subject. Meru wanted to ask if she was alright, but this was definitely not the time. And anyway, how could she be alright? She'd just declared some of their patients living dead. Even knowing she'd made the right decision would be cold comfort.
V’Lar: I was able to successfully devise a retroviral framework and delivery vector. Have you been able to isolate the relevant genomic sequences?
Pace: Yes, sir! ::She tapped a few buttons on her PADD and transferred the data, relevant bits highlighted.:: I see hemicellulose microfibrils present, along with chitin, and pectins… There also seem to be a few metallic sequences which I wasn’t expecting…
Tahna: There’s some sort of unidentified energy running through the vines. Between that and the metallic elements, it’s almost…cyborg-ish. Some very fluid mesh of technology and biology.
V’Lar: Response
Pace: The chitin is interesting too. That could be helpful in the long run with its presence in arthropods and its biomedical properties!
Tahna: Doctor, do the medical problems we’re seeing appear to be purely biochemical in origin?
If so, that would help them narrow their focus. If not, they’d need to dig further into how exactly technology was incorporated into the vines. Then again, they didn’t know for certain that it was the vines that had caused these symptoms, and not some other threat from the Gateway. But if the vines could survive there, they may hold the key to salvation regardless of whether they were the cause of the torment.
V’Lar / Pace: Response
Tahna: The first group to encounter the Gateway, Alpha Team, their bodies were never recovered. Everyone currently being treated was exposed after the Gateway locked open, and they weren’t all in the same part of the facility. So it’s likely their symptoms were caused by things that came through the Gateway, rather than by direct exposure to the other dimension.
V’Lar / Pace: Response
Tahna: Pace, your chitin lead is promising, especially for halting and fortifying against liquefaction. But is the chitin from the gateway creatures compatible with humanoids?
V'Lar / Pace: Response