Santiago stood arrogantly in the Dragonfly’s fifth holodeck, with his arms folded, much to Seth’s annoyance. Seth had not anticipated how quickly Santiago’s team would come up with a weapon against the Annecta. Santiago rested his personal PADD that he brought aboard from the Excelsior on the computer display, and the computer immediately extracted the information. “This, is a holographic simulation of an experiment that I had my doctor run on an experimental new toxin.”
The room lit up with an image of the Annecta creatures on the Excelsior, also in a similar container as the one on the Dragonfly, but smaller.
“I didn’t know that you took samples of the aliens from the planet,” interrupted Dr. Min, clearly annoyed.
“With respect, Doctor, that’s not your concern. May I continue?”
Dr. Min raised a brow, like any Vulcan would, and made a sarcastic hand gesture to Santiago to continue. A holographic image of Dr. Centress stood by the computer. He punched in the commands for the computer to release a solution spray within the containment field. Everyone could see the connections between each of the organisms began to darken and shrivel up. Eventually, they reverted back to individuals, and started walking around again. But they looked rather clumsily while doing it.
“My doctor has identified a chemical that can impair their ability to interface with each other,” explained Santiago. “It’s actually a derivative of a marine toxin found on Earth, one that affects nerve impulses. The effect lasts for only four or five days, but my doctor says that they cannot operate effectively independently for much longer than thirty-six hours. He predicts that the hostile organisms on Draloos V will annihilate them even faster than that.”
“Destroyed by their own creations,” Seth said.
“Their intelligence allowed them to dominate the planet in the first place, and manipulate their environment at will. Take that away from them, and they completely lose that advantage,” Dr. Min added.
“We will have to get low enough near the surface to deploy the weapon. The problem will be getting it to wide enough area as to seriously disrupt the neural net before it is able to launch a counter-attack,” Santiago explained. “We can see that the effect is nearly instantaneous.”
“But if it’s a chemical, then the effect is going to be localized. I estimate that the Annecta are spread across the whole world. How would you get it across the entire planet?” Dr. Min asked.
“We will need to deliver the chemical through some sort of carrier. Some encapsulation particle that can spread the chemical throughout the entire network. Dr. Centress and my engineering team aboard the Excelsior are working on it right now,” he explained. “A nanomolar concentration is all that is needed to kill them, but on a planetary scale, that’s still quite a bit. The added challenge is spreading it in a way that will affect the entire network.”
“You will need to find some way to see that your encapsulation particles withstand the explosion, sir,” noted LeCroy. He then cocked his head towards Captain Santiago, “Not that I will have anything to do with helping you design it,” he sneered.
Jerad’s face brightened. It was the kind of thing that he wished he could have developed on his own, had he had the resources and equipment. “Captain, this would save all of us on Draloos IV. This is what we’ve been waiting for…”
Captain Seth folded his arms as he digested all of the new information. He looked at Dr. Min, who he could tell did not like this plan one bit. Dr. Min pulled him to the side. “Captain, we are talking about annihilating an entire species,” Dr. Min whispered. “That is unconscionable, whether the species is sentient or not, intelligent or not. No matter their intentions, however cruel, it does not give us that right.”
Both Captain Santiago and Jerad clearly had irritated looks on the faces having overheard them.
Dr. Min pushed further. “Captain Seth, we’ve already messed up First Contact. The Federation has a new enemy. Do we really want to drag the Federation into a war? It is, quite frankly…” Min started, but hesitated to fill in the last word.
“…What? Illogical?” Seth filled in.
“You know I never use the term…but yes.”
Santiago stepped into the conversation. “Darren, can I talk with you alone?” Santiago interrupted. Seth reluctantly made a gesture with his head to instruct the others to move towards the door.
“We finally have something against the aliens. We are running low on options. You said so yourself, they are implementing a plan to attack the people of Draloos IV. The situation there is escalating and there is social unrest. We have to use the toxin.”
“I know, Alan, I understand that. But I want to exhaust all other options first.”
“What other options are you talking about?”
“Dr. Min and his team are working hard to create a vaccine to the virus. I’m confident that Min can come up with one, but just as importantly, we need to dissipate the tension between the two worlds. Obviously, the people provoked the aliens first, which means that the aliens react to hostility. They might respond to calls of peace.”
Santiago sneered.
“I’m doing this by the book, Alan. In Dr. Min’s words, this is a First Contact scenario that has gone horribly wrong, but I can fix it. I will only use the weapon as a last resort.”
Santiago paused for a moment to consider his comments, which were sound, but simply didn’t sit well with him. From the beginning, he could sense that something was not at all right with the aliens, and that he and Seth desperately needed a viable defense against them. At the very least, a weapon would help increase their leverage against them, even if the weapon was never to be used. Yet, he acknowledged that a by-the-book approach and calls for peace should at least be attempted. He had to admit that Seth and Dr. Min were right in that this was a First Contact scenario gone very, very wrong.
“This is my mission, Alan,” Seth reminded him.
“Alright, Darren. We’ll do it your way for now,” he said. “Just get one thing straight. I’m going to finish my weapon anyway, with or without you.”
