Beth6787
August 2018
Delta Pioneers - Episode 4 -Defence.
The first full council meeting highlights some serious challenges ahead...
Hope Township Mess Hall - New Earth calendar: Day 45 - Full Council Meeting...
Eight of the nine appointed council members took their seats. At the empty place setting was a hastily assembled link up to the temporary sickbay facility, so that the Doctor could join them. One of his current patients being the ninth Council member, Tuvok.
The three 'neutral' councillors had drawn lots to decide who would hold the Chair for the first year and Kes had 'won'. She was uneasy about accepting, not because she could not do the job : but she did not relish either the public speaking aspect nor having to keep order and assert her authority over the likes of B'Elanna Torres or Kathryn Janeway! Still, she would do her very best.
Standing, she had called the room to order and the others had duly fallen silent. Once B'Elanna had patched the Doctor and Tuvok through she tested the connection, then began.
"Fellow councillors, welcome to our first full meeting. Today's agenda is very much focussed on defence of our fledgling township and its citizens. The first item on our agenda is Tom Paris's report on the mission to shut down and retrieve the marker buoy in geostationary orbit. Over to you Tom."
Tom Paris stood up and looked around at everyone, before asking for the projector control. The image on the VDU of the Doctor or Tuvok would be expanded onto the wall behind the empty chair to ensure they could be fully seen and heard to the same extent as all those physically present. Tom cleared his throat and began. "Firstly, may I confirm that the buoy has been retrieved and stored temporarily in the shuttle's hold. It has been deactivated and the black box data analysed. I can confirm that it did not encounter any passing spacecraft nor was it scanned remotely."
B'Elanna Torres interrupted " We can't be sure of that Tom. Only that the buoy did not detect any scanner activity. It was placed in orbit by Kathryn as a marker for landing Voyager, that was sixty one days ago..."
Kathryn interrupted "Duly noted Councillor Torres. We will consider the ongoing security issues once Mr. Tuvok had made his report."
Kes realised she needed to bring the meeting back to the scheduled agenda. "Please Tom, continue with your report. There will be time for comments and questions at the end of the session." Neelix beamed at her, his fiancee was more than up to the job.
Smiling at Kes, Tom continued by showing them a recording from the shuttle's log of the retrieval operation. At the end, no one spoke.
Although the retrieval of the hardware itself had been a routine procedure, events in the shuttle had taken a dramatic turn as Tuvok had rapidly succumbed to the New Earth virus's full effects. Within fifteen minutes of leaving the planet's upper atmosphere he had been unable to perform any duties, leaving Tom to place the shuttle on autopilot; switching into amateur field medic mode to treat Tuvok , whilst simultaneously attempting to dock with and retrieve the buoy. In hindsight they should have sent at least a three person team, but then again, everyone had been vaccinated over a month ago...
He resumed his report " As you can see, the retrieval took longer than was anticipated and it was not a text book manoeuvre. As a consequence, the shuttle bay doors sustained minor damage and the impulse drive power reserves are down to forty seven percent instead of the expected seventy two percent."
"Thank you Tom. Doctor, could you please give us your report on what happened to Tuvok during the mission as just witnessed by us all." Kes sat down and an image of the Doctor was projected to appear as though he was standing just in front of Tuvok's council seat.
"Certainly Miss Chair lady. ..."
There were badly suppressed giggles around the table as Kathryn interrupted " Let's just stick to addressing everyone by their given name shall we Doctor." She spoke in her unmistakeable 'Captain's voice' to ensure he understood that that was not merely a suggestion.
Only very slightly chastened, he continued "As I was saying ...unfortunately Tuvok failed to respond to the anti-serum. Although he initially mounted an antibody response, as did everyone - I checked and have the data to prove it - it would appear the antibodies have been completely cleared from his system. He is now recovering from the phenotypical symptoms displayed in the acute phase of the infection's re-emergence however..."
Mike Ayala, Joe Carey and B'Elanna Torres had been exchanging glances and Chakotay did not need them to utter a word to understand. "Excuse me Doctor but can you just give us the upshot in plain language. Are you saying that the anti-serum is useless and that we are all trapped on this planet's surface for good?"
The Doctor felt aggrieved. How was he expected to function as not only the CMO but the only medical officer when he had to deal with an effective senior staff who couldn't understand even the fundamentals of medical practice! "No. That is not what I am saying at all. If you would just allow me to complete my report?"
Kes nodded at him and looked sympathetically at Chakotay and his friends. "Perhaps you could simplify a little Doctor and highlight the practicalities of your findings?"
The Doctor rolled his eyes "Very well. I'll present the abridged version of my extensive research into this phenomenon. It would appear that the anti-serum is only effective in some species for a prolonged period of time. Having taken a fresh blood sample from both Tuvok and Tom on their return in the shuttle it would appear that the vaccine is working perfectly well for Mr. Paris. He had a high residual titre of antibodies and thus fought off the re-emergent virus with no ill effects. Having ascertained this differing response I naturally obtained a second blood sample from Mr. Vorik. In order to ascertain whether the loss of antibody response was an individual phenomenon or species specific."
He looked carefully at each council member to ensure that they understood. He had stated the obvious but then again...was it his imagination or were Janeway's eyes narrowed and he was sure he could detect an elevated pulse rate and flush to Torres face...better get on with it and quickly!
"Thus I subsequently determined that the anti-serum does not appear to work long term for Vulcans, Bolians, Bajorans or Andorians. Although it seems to work perfectly efficiently for humans, Klingon/human hybrids, Talaxians and Ocampans. As I do not have a full blood Klingon to test I cannot say whether B'Elanna's immunity is purely derived from her human parentage or not..."
Chakotay interrupted "So, as it stands, none of our Bajoran, Bolian, Andorian or Vulcan citizens can go on any 'away missions' in the shuttlecraft?"
The Doctor butted in "Obviously. Haven't I just told you so?"
Before the Doctor could offend anyone else Kes interjected "So... could you please update us on Tuvok's current condition?"
"Certainly. Having given him a booster of the vaccine, his body was able to suppress this re-emergence and he should be asymptomatic again within the next forty eight hours or so. I will continue to monitor his body's immune response...though it is possible that some of the non-responder species may be able to function for short duration missions were they to be given a booster shot before hand. Obviously I cannot be more specific without further extensive research."
"Which would logically be a priority for our CMO." This from Tuvok who was sitting up in his biobed behind the Doctor.
"I agree. Tuvok is our senior tactical officer and his extensive knowledge may well be needed first hand on future situations requiring shuttle use." This from Mike Ayala.
There were nods of assent from everyone gathered around the table. Kes asked those in favour to raise their hands and it was unanimous. "Doctor, it has been agreed that you make it your top priority to mitigate the effects of the viral contagion in all our remaining susceptible citizens. The council will make a public address tomorrow and explain the situation. I'm confident most, if not all, those affected will agree to participate."
Kes then passed the meeting over to Joe Carey who gave a detailed report on the current status of the shuttlecraft systems followed by Chakotay and Mike who had been concentrating on setting up holo-emitters in the Mess Hall to enable the Doctor to be transferred to the only building large enough to house over one hundred people at once - should there be a catastrophic future event requiring a large field hospital. Chakotay reported that the grid should be completed by the end of the week and Joe would be commissioning it along with Harry Kim.
After that it was over to B'Elanna Torres and Tuvok. They had been assigned to investigating the best options for defending the colony from 'hostile situations'.
The remit was broad : natural disasters such as the extreme ion storms encountered by Kathryn & Chakotay earlier in the year; an outbreak of a serious or deadly disease; attack from one or more of the native species; hostilities from outer space.
B'Elanna stood to make her report, having agreed before the meeting that she would put forward their suggestions and Tuvok would field any subsequent queries from his hospital bed. Although she was sure that she could do a better job of the latter, she was aware that he felt out-of-the-loop and embarrassed by his physical frailties confining him to 'sickbay'. Since the events only a short while ago with Dalby feelings were still raw and the council, in particular, had to be seen to be cooperating with one another and - if possible - to be forming genuine friendships across the board. Awaiting Tuvok's nod for her to begin she glanced towards Kathryn to make sure she had all the technical specs to hand should they be called for. Although their former Captain had been heavily involved in the specifics, it had been decided that she would take a back seat publically for the first few months. There had been no further overt hostilities directed at her but she had been as keen as the others to demonstrate that the council leadership was real , not just a one woman dictatorship given a thin veil of democracy.
Gathering her thoughts she began "As you all know, our remit was broad. Heck, it was pretty much all encompassing. To come up with a plan to protect this colony from all possible contingencies i.e. mission impossible. Fortunately for you, that was pretty much what my former bosses on the Val Jean and Voyager expected on a daily basis so all par for the course in the life of a starship engineer."
This gleaned the much hoped for laughs and smiles from those around the table. They may all be supposedly equal ever since the formal inaugeration of the Council, but it would be a while yet before she mentally and emotionally adjusted. She knew that Joe, Mike, Neelix and Kes all felt the same way and suspected that probably only Chakotay truly felt on a par with Kathryn Janeway. Taking a deep breath to steady her unwelcome nerves she continued.
"As already highlighted by the unfortunate events surrounding the recovery of the marker buoy, it is very apparent that we need to focus additional resources on our medical facilities. In particular in research and development. The overriding issue here is lack of manpower. Even running the Doctor's program 24/7 does not allow him sufficient time to carry out all his routine clinical duties and respond to crises as they develop. It is also inevitable that he will begin to malfunction and degrade if his subroutines are not deactivated and any accumulating processing errors not purged on a regular basis. In my assessment that means a minimum of two hours downtime for every week he is active. Possibly more as the hardware that supports his systems ages without our being able to obtain replacement components as the EMH programs were designed to expect." Glancing up at the VDU she saw the Doctor appear to gulp. Perhaps this was the first time he had considered that his ongoing existence was every bit as precarious as that if his flesh and blood colleagues.
"Having discussed his projected workload for the foreseeable future and conferring with my fellow councillors holding a scientific background" she glanced up at Kathryn and Chakotay. "It has been decided that the Doctor requires a minimum of three personnel that he can train as medical technicians in the first instance and perhaps later, a second Doctor, if any show an exceptional aptitude. Although we were loathe to add further burdens to the responsibilities of existing council members, Kes has agreed to be one of those three. She already has extensive experience of assisting the Doctor with both clinical and research tasks, and besides, they have become good friends." She fervently hoped this would mollify the Doctor who considered all the former Voyagers to be 'inadequate' for his needs. "The other two will be Samantha Wildman and Tal Celes. Samantha to assist with research projects and Celes to train as a nurse assistant and diagnostic technician."
This met with positive mumbles from the assembly and any objections the Doctor might be tempted to voice were silenced by Tuvok who had risen from his bed to stand beside the Doctor as she had been speaking.
"As regards the myriad other possibilities it is evident that we need a stop gap solution that can be rapidly implemented until such time as each possible threat can be addressed in a streamlined manner. Given our limited power and hardware resources but utilizing the fact that our former crew is engineering stream 'top heavy' : I propose we manufacture a single shield grid to encompass this building and the food and water storage areas. In the event of a significant threat, personnel and any urgently required additional supplies can be moved by hand into this building, at short notice. We obviously need to integrate an alarm system that encompasses the entire settlement that can be linked to the comm badges we all still wear."
At this point B'Elanna handed over to Kathryn who gave a detailed presentation of the schematics of their proposed system. When she had finished she nodded to Kes to call for questions to be addressed to Tuvok.
It was Joe Carey who spoke first. "That all looks great in principle, the main problem I can see is that nearly all our competent engineering technicians are from the originally assigned Voyager crew." Joe could see that they were not cottoning on to his line of thought, so he would just have to spell it out and hope he didn't offend anyone's sense of pride. "They are all used to working from schematics of standard Federation configurations. I realise that B'Elanna and Kathryn have been highly creative with the limited resources that we have left but...I'm just not sure my guys will be able to follow and deliver what you want. At least, not in a very short period of time and without a lot of additional instruction."
Damn! He was right. If only a few more of the former Maquis were trained engineers. It looked as if she and Kathryn would pretty much be working alone on this. If that was the case it would take weeks instead of the five days or so she had initially anticipated.
Tuvok thought for a moment "Then I suggest we consider the talents of those not assigned primarily to the engineering stream. For example Harry Kim, whose talents were not fully utilised at Operations. I believe you also have a good grounding in engineering, having assisted Miss Torres on multiple assignments to 'save the day' whilst we were all serving aboard Val Jean, is that not so Mr. Ayala?"
Of course! "Thanks Tuvok, we'll ask around." Perhaps that was one less problem than she had anticipated after all.
At this point Kathryn chipped in. "I have a good working knowledge of the background personnel files of all the original Voyagers and I'm sure Chakotay does for his former team. I suggest we both meet with B'Elanna and Joe and create a list of those best suited to assist us after this meeting concludes."
B'Elanna smiled at her and agreed with some relief. She was truly beginning to warm to this woman. Who would have believed that she, B'Elanna Torres who was kicked out of the Academy for insubordination not yet five years ago, would count a Starfleet Captain - no less - amongst her friends ! Life sure threw up some bizarre curveballs at times!
Kes then ran through some 'any other business' run of the mill practicalities before wrapping the meeting up. They would reconvene in ten days time to report on progress, leaving B'Elanna to make the final decision on the permanent engineering crew and the Doctor to start training his new clinical staff.
—
One month later, temporary sickbay research laboratory...
Kes checked her findings for the third time. There was no mistake. Ever since Tuvok's unfortunate relapse during the shuttle flight to recover the marker buoy, he had been supplying the Doctor's research program with a small blood sample (10mls) every three days. The initial idea had been to culture the blood containing the active virus and assess how long the anti-serum was effective for as a single booster shot. To further their studies, Tom Paris and a couple of other human volunteers had also given identically timed blood samples to act as controls (since Tom had retained his immunity it was assumed that would be true of the other humans too).
Samantha Wildman had suggested sending Tom and another human - such as Chakotay who had succumbed to the virus rapidly pre- Voyager's return with the anti serum - up for a controlled test flight to check that the human contingent of the population were indeed still effectively immunized. However, so far the Council had refused, citing the need to keep wear and tear to their only remaining space craft to a minimum. Power reserves sufficient to maintain full impulse flight were also an ongoing problem and B'Elanna had insisted that priority must be given to her engineering team's project to get the shield grid built and operational as soon as possible.
So a lot of - far from ideal - assumptions had had to be made. Matters had been improved when Neelix had assisted Kes in recruiting volunteers from amongst the Bajoran and Bolian citizens to supply additional blood samples and, of course, she and Neelix had added their unique species genomes to the pool.
Now she was looking at her and Neelix's results. It was impossible. Even had their been a common reaction amongst all the disparate Alpha Quadrant species, then both Neelix and her own samples should have been free of the protein. But it was here too. It was being excreted through the membranes of the oxygen carrying cells in every single blood sample and seemed remarkably stable in the plasma. But what was it and what did it do? Calling Samantha over they spent the rest of the day trying to induce one of the live viral cultures to express it, to no avail. Hitting a blank wall, they had to admit defeat. Kes was disappointed and worried the Doctor would know it to be something obvious that she should have understood by now. Somehow, discovering that Samantha was none the wiser, made her feel a little less inadequate. Perhaps it was something they would only encounter towards the end of their medical studies? Samantha went to find the Doctor whilst Kes made sure that all her research notes were in order and the samples ready for him to re-run any tests he thought necessary.
Five hours later...
This was truly astonishing! He had to admit that Kes had an exceptional eye for detail and a genuine instinct for medical research. He had initially trained Kes and Celes together to work on patient diagnostics and separated Samantha to pursue the research aspects of their work but, he had to admit, Kes had seen something that Samantha had not. Worryingly, neither had he. The novel protein was not being produced by the virus itself or indeed by the virus infected host cells. It was being made by cells that came in contact with the vaccine supplied by Denara Pel even if those cells had never seen the virus. He knew this because, although everyone now living in Hope Town colony had been exposed, he still had a few blood samples rescued from Voyager's medical lab at the time they originally crash landed and he had been re-assigned here. Those cells were from crew members of various species collected very soon after the Maquis had joined their original crew, over two years ago. None of them would be contaminated. When he added the vaccine to those cells in culture, sure enough, the oxygen carrying blood cells secreted the protein into the culture medium.
So why would the anti-serum to a viral infection have any effect on cells where the virus was completely absent?...
He thought back to his time with Denara aboard Voyager. He had given her her life back and, most importantly, love. For her, not the perfected replacement holo-body, but the true woman inside the phage ravaged shell. Then she had risked everything to get that serum to him in order to retrieve just two of their crew. Denara had said that the Vidians knew of New Earth, had obviously visited in order to have needed a vaccine for the virus, yet they seemed not to have returned. Even knowing that the entire crew of Voyager may well be here now. All those potential organ donors, sitting ducks for the taking and yet...nothing. Could it be...? Surely not... the only way to be sure would be to take a few of Denara's cells out of storage and add the protein... He would need to isolate it first then culture as many exposed blood cells as he could, if he was right then...
Excitedly he called Kes and Samantha to return to work right away. Supper and bed could wait!
—-
Four days later, Mess Hall - Emergency Full Council Meeting.
Agenda: Medical Research Team findings on viral vaccine efficacy.
The eight other councillors sat in their chairs facing the end of the hall. The usual round table had been removed and the new holo-emitters were now online, allowing the Doctor to stand at the front of the room flanked by Kes and Samantha Wildman. A microscope had been set up and a portable incubator containing a selection of samples to allow the councillors to observe the effects in real time.
As Kes was a member if the presenting team, Neelix was acting Chair for the session.
Bouncing with excitement he called the room to order. "Fellow councillors, it is with great excitement that I call you hear today to learn of the Doctor's remarkable discovery. He truly is a genius amongst men...well holographic ones in any event.."
Tuvok raised an eyebrow in warning "Mr. Neelix, if you would be so kind as to limit yourself to the facts."
Oops! He was getting carried away but this was just such great news! It was only when Kes looked at him pleadingly he pulled himself together. He was doing this for her after all...
"Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to be here today. Without further ado I hand you over to the Doctor." with that Neelix hastily resumed his seat next to Kathryn.
The Doctor smiled indulgently and began. "Neelix is indeed correct, although the credit for this remarkable discovery has to be shared with my student, Kes. As you know, at the last full council meeting you tasked me and my novice research team to determine the cause of the apparent vaccine failure in my patient, Mr. Tuvok. After many days of intense research and analyses of swathes of very detailed data" he paused for maximum dramatic effect... "I can report that the serum supplied by Dr. Denara Pel is not a cure for the viral infection at all. In fact, it had another function entirely."
There were expressions of astonishment, incredulity and some trepidation too. Mike Ayala piped up first "So you are telling me that you injected all of us with this Vidian concoction for nothing?"
Chakotay immediately added "It can't be doing nothing. If it doesn't cure the infection then it must be designed to harm us. Just what have you done!"
Before the meeting could descend into abject panic, Kes spoke. "Not at all. Chakotay, you and everyone here should be enormously grateful to Dr. Pel. This vaccine will save all your lives."
The room fell quiet again at that and the Doctor saw his chance "As young Kes so rightly points out, the vaccine is a preventative. Once an individual is inoculated their oxygen carrying blood cells, regardless of their species of origin, start to express a protein into their blood plasma. I have named it Pellarium in honour of, I strongly suspect, it's creator."
Barely containing her frustration at being kept out of the loop until now, Kathryn voiced the question on all of their tongues "So Doctor, what does it actually do ?"
With a flourish of his hands he indicated to Kes and Samantha to start the demonstration. Linking the visual feed from the microscope to the screen behind him he announced "Let me show you. In the first dish are human cells from Voyager's stocks that I transferred to my temporary sick bay on arrival here. They were taken by myself within days of our crew being stranded here in the Delta Quadrant so are uninfected by the New Earth virus. Kes will now add a small sample of the vaccine to their culture medium. The effects are almost immediate. I have added a fluorescent green tracer to the culture medium which will glow when it binds to the excreted Pellarium protein. Observe."
Sure enough, within eight minutes specks of green light appeared rapidly around the cells and started to diffuse throughout the culture.
The Doctor continued. "Samantha has been isolating this Pellerium and concentrating it. We now have a batch of 315mls at a concentration of 100ug/ml. It appears to be stable when stored at 4 degrees celsius for short periods. The first batch of 100mls was frozen at minus 20 degrees yesterday. I intend to defrost it and test it's remaining efficacy in two weeks time."
Turning to Kes he indicated that she should prepare the second demonstration. "In this second dish are cells collected from Denara herself when she was a patient on board Voyager. There are a mixture of blood and lymph cells and a few skin cells too. All, of course, infected with the Vidian phage. Kes will now add 1ml of the Pellarium concentrate tagged with the green marker to make it easy to visualise. Observe."
Then something truly remarkable happened. The moment the Pellarium came in contact with the Vidian cell walls it was absorbed. There was a brief delay of about five seconds and then the Vidian cells ruptured and died. All of them.
Kathryn was the first to realise the significance "So, anyone given Denara Pel's 'vaccine' would be useless to the Vidians as an organ donor. As all our blood will carry Pellarium protein it will be found in every one of our organs too. If the Vidians decided to attack us and attempt to use our organs they would be committing suicide."
The Doctor beamed. "Precisely. We will never be bothered by the Vidians again. They must have realised what Denara had given me and written us off..." Suddenly looking pensive he added, "I just hope she is safe. After all, we all owe her our lives."
"Actually we owe Kes too Doctor. It was she who persuaded me to contact the Vidians when the Captain and Commander were stranded here alone and, I understand, it was Kes who first brought the Pellarium to your attention." noted Tuvok.
Kes just blushed and the Doctor looked disconcerted.
"Well I for one think we should raise a toast to Dr. Denara Pel. She'll always be welcome here on New Earth." This from Tom Paris who had risen in search of one of the few bottles of real wine they had managed to salvage from the charred hulk of Voyager.
Glasses found and drinks duly poured it was Kathryn who made the final toast " To Denara Pel, Kes and our truly exceptional EMH. Thank you. Today all our futures look that much rosier."
To much clinking of glasses and cheers of "Here, Here" the Doctor basked in his well deserved glory.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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