G.F.G.F.C.R.

The Galactic Federation of Green Flu Cure Research

Part 1

By: WAZeigler

Captain's Log, Star Date 2319-1:

My name is James T. Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise and this is my first captain's log so I might as well give a few details on why I am here. Starting in the early 21st century, a devastating plague known as the Green Flu almost turned every human being on Earth into zombie like mutants that would attack anything that moved. This forced us to retreat to underground bunkers and eventually leave the planet entirely.

Our seemingly endless mission: Explore strange new worlds and tell the tale of our struggle to the civilizations that inhabit them, to boldly go where no man has gone before in order to find a cure.

End Entry.

Kirk looked up from his desk and played back the entry over and over. He wanted to make sure he sounded like a hero from the start. He wanted to be remembered as the man who found the cure and when they played back his entries he wanted to sound heroic the whole time even though he had no idea where to start. He didn't even know if there was any hope left. The Klingons, Vulcans, Romulans, even the Breen in their encounter suits were vulnerable to the flu. Kirk did not know how he and his crew of roughly 400 as supposed to scour the galaxy to find a species that was immune and bring back a blood sample for research. He just knew he had to.

He pressed his com badge. "Kirk to Spock" he spoke into the microphone. "Spock here, I believe it would be logical to assume you are asking how much longer until we reach the next planet?" Kirk rolled his eyes and responded, "You must by psychic." Spock, in the naturally calm tone that all Vulcans had responded "Look out your cabin window; you should be able to see it. Spock out."

Kirk looked out his window to see the planet. It was class M and was almost identical to Earth in atmosphere minus all the smoke, smog, and ashes from all the fires and factories. The water was a murky green color. There were almost no land masses on the planet except for a few islands dotting the globe here and there. It was a bi-star system and the planet was close to the sun suggesting this planet could easily be the galaxy's biggest hot-tub. It made Kirk sick what he had to do next.

"Captain to command bridge, got any civilizations down there?" Agoura responded, "Yes captain, we found something. Sensors are picking up radio wave messages going in between points on the planet." Kirk frowned a bit to hear this, it was another thing when the Klingons and Vulcans willingly colonized a planet to be infected with the Green Flu for the good of the galaxy, but now. Now they were just doing to those people on the planet what happened to humanity. It did not feel right, but he had to do it. He pressed on his com badge, "Captain to command bridge, tell weapons to aim at the highest concentration of radio signals and fire the missile. Kirk out."

The missile was not a missile you would see in an old war movie that would explode and cause heavy damage to anything caught in the blast. The missile was designed from an escape-pod made to hold any of the types of infected and send one of them to the planet's surface in a highly populated area. Then the one infected would start attacking the people on the planet. If they were immune, the bites and other forms of physical contact would not infect them. If they were not immune, the plague would start all over again on another world.

The missile was launched, and as Kirk saw it enter the atmosphere, a single tear came to his eye. Knowing he was going to be responsible for millions of deaths on an innocent world. They got the confirmation signal from the missile that it landed and the infected survived. It was only a few days before the infected died though possibly through natural or military intervention. Kirk, Spock and a full eight man security team beamed down to the last known position of the "Patient Zero", making sure to bring phaser rifles and masks to filter the air.

For a planet that was almost 95 percent water, the locals knew how to make the most of the 5 percent land they had. The city they were in, had no roads, only a vast network of narrow catwalks connecting buildings and there were no windows. The buildings were very organic in shape, the buildings were all hundreds of stories tall and were twisty and curved with flat tops with gardens on the roofs, making the whole city look like a massive forest of odd grey, metallic plants. But there was not a life form or an infected in sight, the city appeared completely abandoned. "Kirk to Enterprise. We have arrived at the sight of Patient Zero's death but there seems to be nobody here. Not even sign of a struggle. We shall keep investigating." Kirk said into the microphone then ended the transmission, and led him and his team around the city.

In every room, there was no sign of anything. In the rooms of the houses where was no furniture, only grey, soft disks of an unknown material that seemed to be beds. There were no forms of video communication, the controls on every machine was either a button you had to hold down or a switch you had to flip in order to activate or deactivate the machine. Everything else was automated. There were no signs that the culture that made these buildings had developed a need for recreation. There were no buildings that resembled theaters, museums, or even combat arenas. All that was there was a small device that seemed to have several buttons on it. Each one caused the device to play a different song. None of them had lyrics, but the melody was quite soothing. Spock looked around and said, "According to these observations, either the species that created this city are very primitive or blind. Either can be said based on the lack of recreational activities, or lack of complex activities that require you to see." Kirk agreed and they kept searching.

A few hours later, they ran a scan of a large building in the center of the city. Spock's eyes widened, which is odd because Vulcans usually refrain from becoming frightened or excited and he said very quietly, "Sir, I am picking up a very large amount of life forms in that building. We should proceed with caution." Kirk nodded and stepped inside, with his phaser rifle raised and set to kill, Spock and the others followed.

They came into a large room. There were thousands of them, possibly millions, possibly billions. They were tall, with pale scaly skin from the infection. They had no eyes but pulsing blue and black veins on their faces suggest some form of sensory gland was being manipulated by the virus. Their gills were opening and closing rapidly, a large sack on their throats was inflating and deflating just a quickly. Their mouths were slightly open and Kirk could see small razor sharp teeth like a shark. They had webbed feet and hands but most of the webbing had been eaten away by the virus or by the infected themselves. Their breath was short and raspy they all stared at Kirk and Spock as if they were their next meal.

The infected aliens advanced on Kirk and his team, Spock was trying very hard to not scream in terror and the other security team members were slowly backing away with their phaser rifles raised. "Any ideas? Maybe they can't see us…" Kirk asked, as if the aliens would attack as soon as they heard him. Then something happened to make this go from bad to worse. A Tank showed up.

This Tank was very similar to the human Tank. It has the same sort of massive, heavy, muscular build to it with massive arms and its jaw permanently open, but no tongue, also, the skin and scales have grown over one hand completely with the fingers calcified and protruding from the fleshy club in strange angles to give it spikes, one of which had a head still impaled on it. Its bruised sensory glands pulsing grotesquely, several lesions on its body were bleeding a greenish blood profusely. It smelled the air, and when it picked up the scent of the human intruders it let out a loud CROOOOAAAAAAAK and charged at Kirk, Spock and the security team, swinging its massive mace arm wildly knocking over entire rows of the other infected as it ran at them.

"Kirk to enterprise, beam us up now!" Kirk shouted into the microphone of his com badge and in a matter of seconds, Kirk, Spock, and the security team was in the transporter room, looking terrified at what they saw. Spock was the first one to calm down and resume the stereotypical Vulcan emotionless and unattached tone of voice and say, "I am sorry to inform you that the local species were not immune to the Green Flu virus and that the mutations seen in the infected were far from pleasant…" Then Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the crew began the post-failure procedures.

They went about filing paper work documenting how long it took for the local populous to be overrun and what mutations were seen in the infected. The also put a beacon in orbit warning all ships that they should not go to the planet's surface under any circumstances. Also, Spock told the people manning the transporters to beam one infected directly to the high security sick bay. Unlike the normal sick bay that all Star Fleet ships came equipped with, the high security sick bay was as far away from the living quarters as possible with its own power supply and ventilation system. Behind the heavily guarded, blast proof doors were hundreds if not thousands of pods containing different varieties of infected. Mostly human, but also containing samples of Klingon, Vulcan, and many other species of infected. Spock though it would be only logical to keep a sample for further studies and to see if maybe the immune system's reaction to the virus was delayed and, given time, the body will cure itself. But so far they have had no such luck.

Captain's Log, star date 2319-2:

Another failed attempt at finding a species that was immune to the virus. The lab boys have come to the conclusion that since the virus originated on Earth, there would be no species in the galaxy that was not Terran in origin that would be immune. That is… unless it had a way to give information to the entire species before the infection could spread so the others can adapt to become immune. But that would not only require abilities never before seen in federation space, but also some sort of collective consciousness. But what are the odds of that happening in anything more intelligent than a honey bee?

End Entry.

Kirk paced around his cabin for a while. He though good and hard before he finally gave the order, then he came onto the bridge and said. "Sulu, put us in the fastest route out of the alpha quadrant and go at warp 8. I want to be out of charted waters by the next month." Sulu followed his commands and by the next month they were deep in unexplored space.

They encountered hundreds of species. None of them were immune, each one reacting in different ways both biologically and philosophically to the plague they inflicted upon them. Some saw it as the end of days. Others saw it as the beginning of a new phase of life. Panic, embrace, resentment, thankfulness, it was all the same. Kirk felt terrible for having to end thousands of societies in order to save his own. But when they do find the cure, Kirk promises to give it to everybody who he caused to be infected. No matter how little of a chance it had to fix them. He just had to, even if he was kidding himself, it was the only way he though he could keep sane.

A few months later, they came across a strange object. It was a cube; several hundred miles wide that was irradiating dozens of unknown frequencies on the electro-magnetic spectrum. "What the hell is that thing?" Asked Kirk as he looked at Agoura. She looked back at him and replied, "We do not know. No culture we have seen so far has used such basic geometric structures. But sir, it is hailing us." Kirk looked a bit worried and replied to the hail. The being that appeared on the view screen had pale skin, with grey dull eyes and no hair of any kind. It most of its face was covered in mechanical implants. It spoke in a very mechanical and precise tone, as if it was bored and tired of saying the phrase yet at the same time it loved saying it.

"We are the Borg, resistance is futile. Lower your shields and prepare for assimilation…"