Counselor Jenovia breathed a sigh of relief having returned home to the Dragonfly. Although she would have stayed on Draloos IV longer to help the citizens in need, the situation with the deadly virus made her very uneasy, as it would anyone. And with the cargo ships no longer coming in and bringing shipments, the terrorist attacks would most likely escalate and working to help them would not likely be very efficient. Someone had to get to the root of their problems, or nothing could realistically be accomplished. She hoped that that someone would be Captain Darren Seth.
She sat patiently in sickbay on one of the beds. Dr. Min was doing multiple scans on her from his medical tricorder. “Well, Counselor, you’ll be happy to know that you’re not showing any signs of infection. I don’t think you’ve contracted the virus. It doesn’t even look like it is compatible with your species.”
“That’s good to hear, Doctor.”
“The Villenes must be more resistant to viral infections in general. I’m detecting a relatively high level of functional killer T-cells in your blood for a humanoid. These levels would be alarmingly abnormal for a human.”
“We’ve had our fair share of major outbreaks on our world. Our species probably just adapted over the generations. How is the patient I brought aboard?”
“Stable for now. I’ve extracted her blood to analyze the chemistry of the virus. But it’s going to take the computer a little time to read out the whole genome of the virus and to understand its structure and mechanism.”
“What’s happened to her?”
“I can’t say yet. I have my suspicions, but I’m hesitant to say at the moment. There are small ‘sacs’ that are growing as lesions just below the surface of the skin on various parts of her body. Jenovia, I need you to tell me everything that you know from your experiences on Draloos IV. I need to know everything about this virus.”
“At the moment, only a small percentage of the people are infected. I first noticed that something was going on when I consistently saw people with slight fevers. They seem to develop flu-like symptoms in the beginning stages of the infection…but I haven’t been around long enough to see what happens in the later stages.”
“Well, it’s a good thing that the virus is not airborne. I’ll wait for the results of the computer, but my suspicion at the moment is that it is transmitted primarily through saliva and blood.”
“That’s good to know. Well, Doctor, I’ll leave you now to your patient,” Jenovia said.
“Thank you again, Counselor. If I have any more questions…”
“…You’ll know where to find me.”
Dr. Min nodded. He quickly looked over at the new patient that they were discussing. She looked extremely ill; her skin was pale, and overall looked extremely malnourished. Small ‘cracks’ appeared on the surface of her skin, where there appeared to be something growing underneath. He had her immediately quarantined as soon she was transported aboard.
He had his medical assistant, Dr. Crimson Zable, remove a sample from the growths that littered her body. He did it with surprising ease; Zable was always quite proficient at surgical and laboratory techniques.
“Computer,” Min said aloud, “analyze the sample that Dr. Zable is about to feed you and read out the genome. Then, based on the current database on what we’ve collect on the species of Draloos V, extrapolate a ‘best-guess’ profile of what the organism might become once fully developed. When finished, display it on screen.” Since the organisms on Draloos V still used DNA as the carrier of genetic information, the computer was still able to recognize several codons and what proteins could be made, assuming it was similar to that of Earth. From there, it could recognize which biochemical pathways were likely, and what the biomolecules were used for. The process was lengthy, and unfortunately, still far from being accurate.
“Analysis complete,” the computer announced. “Accuracy for extrapolation is 54.4 percent.”
When the computer finally finished, it put the image onto the screen. But when Dr. Min and Dr. Zable turned to look at the image, they were stunned. It looked very much like one of the Annecta.
“From a visual standpoint, they look like small, undeveloped embryos developing near the surface of the skin. Masses of smaller cells. Each one of those could be an egg for the Annecta,” Dr. Min said aloud. “Someone’s using these people as hosts to carry and introduce the Annecta into the Draloos IV ecosystem.”
“But how are these people getting infected in the first place? Last I checked, they haven’t exactly mastered space travel yet,” Zable asked him.
“I don’t know,” Dr. Min said. He stared at the patient for a moment. “Computer, based on the extrapolation from the genetic sample, you assigned a 54.4 percent probability that it is indeed the Annecta. I’m going to give you a tissue sample from an actual species of Annecta. I want you to run a genetic read-out of both tissues and compare. Understood?”
“Affirmative,” the computer obediently replied.
Dr. Min pulled out a syringe that allowed it to transport a tiny amount of tissue to give to the computer. “Working…analysis complete. A genetic match is confirmed. The genetic read-out is identical up to 99.7 percent,” answered the computer.
“Wait, they’re off by over 0.3 percent?” Dr. Zable asked. “That’s a lot of genes to be different between members of the same species. Especially for a species with a genome as dense as this one.”
“They’re essentially the same, but they’ve reengineered themselves to reproduce an entirely different way,” Dr. Min surmised, “just so that they can move some of its kind to Draloos IV. I can’t believe it.”
Dr. Zable had a bit of a nauseated look. He was still in medical training, but most of his experiences in medical school were standard human problems. Cuts and bruises, broken bones, and sore throats. Simple stuff.
“I’ve got to tell the captain.”
“Why would they go through so much trouble? This doesn’t make any sense.”
“It’s a weapon,” Dr. Min explained. “They’re retaliating against the people of Draloos IV and they’re doing it by deliberately infecting them with this virus. And they want to replace them with themselves.”
