The sickbay was a fury of activity when D'Nal arrived. He quickly scanned the room trying to locate the young medical officer which whom he had grown rather fond of. After several minutes he located her off to his left and already situated in a bio-bed. Ignoring the stares of those around him, he quickly closed the distance between himself and Kira. He was mindful to stay out of the medical personnels way but stayed close enough to see what was being done.
Doctor Rodger Horomotshu, the temporary CMO until Kira finished with negotiations, was wary of the Romulan Ambassador hovering around his patient. With a sigh he turned his attention away from the imposing figure of D'Nal and back to the scan that he was performing on the prone young Lieutenant Commander. He frowned and punched in a series of numbers before performing the scan for a second time to confirm what he was seeing. His eyes strayed from the scan results to Kira's pale face. He tried to see what the scan was telling him was there but couldn't. He tapped the comm badge that sat on the left side of his uniform. "Captain Sanders, this is Doctor Horomotshu, I think you should see this sir. The latest scan has shown up something rather...odd."
"I'm on my way, Sanders out."
"What have you discovered, Doctor?" D'Nal asked as he stepped up beside the Doctor.
Doctor Horomotshu jumped, not having heard the Romulan move from his place on the other side of the bio-bed. Clearing his throat, he tore his eyes away from his patient to address the Ambassador. "I'm afraid that I cannot tell you that without the permission of Captain Sanders." He tried to sound apologetic but wasn't, in the least bit, sorry.
D'Nal narrowed his eyes at the younger man before turning his attention back to Kira. "Can you at least tell me if she can be...treated?"
Rodger crossed his arms, defensively. "I cannot tell you that without the permission of Captain Sanders." This time he couldn't keep the disdain from his voice. Him, like so many others, despised the Romulans.
The sickbay doors hissed open and Captain Sanders stepped into the room, not in the least surprised to find Ambassador Jarok at Kira's bedside. "You have something to show me, Doctor?" He questioned, getting right to the point of his visit.
The doctor turned away from D'Nal to address the Captain. "Yes sir. At first I thought the scan was malfunctioning but I ran it a second time with the same results." He pressed several buttons which brought a three-dee imagine of Kira's body. A press of another button brought up just the scan of her upper body and then finally a close up of her face. He motioned with his finger to several areas on her face which showed dark shadows mostly along her forehead and around her eyes. "This is what I wanted you to see, sir." He fell silent while the Captain studied the image.
Captain Sanders moved closer to the image and unconsciously mimicked the Doctors previous actions by looking at his young CMO's face, trying to find evidence of what the scan showed. He hissed through his teeth. "Are you certain of this?" He moved back out of the way.
D'Nal quickly scanned the imagine before he could be stopped by the rather rude Doctor. He had no medical training besides the basic but there was no mistaking what he was looking at. He chose to stay silent and listened to the Captain talk to the Doctor.
"The scans do not lie, sir." Doctor Horomotshu shook his head to make his point. "I will have to report this to Starfleet."
Sanders narrowed his eyes at the Doctor. "What's the rush? She, obviously, isn't going anywhere. Reporting this isn't your primary objective, Doctor. Making her better is. Do you even know what is wrong with her?" He motioned for the Doctor to follow him into the office so they could speak, privately.
Following, the doctor almost snorted but knew better, Sanders was the Captain after all. "It's a virus. I have started her on a aggressive antibiotic and it seems to have slowed it's progress down. And I am bound to Starfleet as a Doctor and as such I must report this."
"I know you must report it but shouldn't you be focused on treating her instead of rushing off to Starfleet? As I said before, she isn't going anywhere." Captain Sanders crossed his arms over his chest. "Do you even know the extent of her...condition?"
"I started a DNA scan after the second scan finished. I am awaiting the results. Does she have any family that needs contacted?" Doctor Horomotshu asked his Commanding Officer.
"Why does her family need contacted? I thought you said she was responding to the antibiotic?" He eyed the young doctor. "You don't really know what's wrong with her, do you?" Sanders asked in a deathly quiet voice.
The Doctor shifted his weight from one foot to the other then crossed his arms, defensively, over his chest. "I said that the antibiotic has slowed the virus down. And I do know that it's a virus but the computer was unable to identify which virus it is." He grudgingly admitted.
Captain Sanders narrowed his flashing blue eyes. "So you lied to me?" He couldn't believe he was actually having this conversation let alone with a Doctor. "You're supposed to care!" He sputtered out, angerly.
"I am doing my job, Captain." Rodger Horomotshu all but sneered. He couldn't wait to get off this ship and back on land. A beeping coming from the console on his desk distracted him from the angry Captain. "DNA results are in." He moved around the Captains imposing form and glanced over the information on the screen. He snorted and brought his gaze up to meet Sanders. "I had the computer compared the DNA I took from Doctor Cross to a sample that was on file...it doesn't match."
Captain Sanders eyed the Doctor. "What do you mean it doesn't match?" He reached across the desk and turned the screen towards him. He skimmed the results. "It matches, partially." He pointed to where the similarities were. "Her mother is Luna Roslin Reed-Cross but her father wasn't Vulcan." He frowned. "When was the scan you compared this one to entered into the database?"
Doctor Horomotshu sighed. "I believe the year was twenty-three sixty-one. A rather old scan but the only one that was on file."
"Twenty-three sixty-one?" Sanders was mentally doing the math. "She would have been seven when that scan was entered. Did it say who the acting Doctor was?"
"Doctor Seth Cross, Chief Medical Officer onboard the U.S.S. Philadelphia, now deceased. Any relation to Doctor Cross?" The Doctor titled his head towards the sickbay where D'Nal was still by Kira's side.
"Her step-father." Captain Sanders mumbled as he stepped out of the office and back headed back to the bio-bed.
The Ambassador was growing frustrated with being left in the dark and wished to know what he was so hell bent on telling Starfleet about. Seeing the Captain had returned, he turned his attention to him for a brief moment. "Captain Sanders, what seems to be the problem?" He asked, moving up to the head of Kira's bed so that he could run his hand, gently, through her black hair as if he were comforting an ill child.
Captain Sanders waved for the Doctor to join them. He sighed, tiredly. "Starfleet has been cracking down on genetic enhancements, it's illegal actually. They are to be alerted if evidence of genetic tampering is discovered on any of their officers." He waved towards the screen that still had a picture of Kira's face.
"The dark areas are bones, correct?" D'Nal received a nod. "But there is no evidence of bone ridges on her face." He paused before continuing. "What would be gained from an enhancement that cannot be seen?"
"I don't think it's an enhancement. I think it's a form of genetic manipulation. But it still has to be reported. But if it's manipulation instead of enhancement it will turn her into a victim instead of the guilty party." Sanders turned towards the Doctor who was hovering just behind him. "Now I didn't take as many biology courses as Doctor Horomotshu or Doctor Cross but...those look like immature bone growths to me." He motioned for the Doctor to continue.
Doctor Horomotshu cleared his throat and launched into lecture mode. He may have been young but before this assignment he was an assistant to Doctor MacMillan, an instructor at Starfleet Medical. "You are correct, Captain, on both accounts. As you well know, genetic enhancement is used to chance your physical appearance. I have found no evidence that this is the case. I have, on the other hand, found minuet traces of a drug called Byozyne in her blood stream. There are several drugs, that I know of , per cured by the Maquis, that can stop bone growth. Byozyne is one of the older, less documented of the drugs. Starfleet doesn't know much about the drugs, themselves, since samples are very hard to come by. What is known is that all of the drugs must be administers when a subject is young and the bones aren't fully formed. It is a very painful process that must be done several times a year until a certain age is reached. Then followup doses, usually administers in small white capsules, must be taken to prevent infection. As I have said before, not much is known." He excused himself and retreated into his or rather Kira's office to make the necessary transmission to Starfleet.
D'Nal traced a finger over the point of Kira's ear. "Why would anyone do that to a...a child?" He asked after a moment.
"Because Kira, Doctor Cross, is half Romulan. Right there would be reason for someone to put a child through such...torture. Hatred between our people is not a recent development, as you know Ambassador, and having a half breed child back when the Rebel Romulan factions were just starting out would have been...blasphemes. The most loyal of Starfleet Officers would have done anything in their power to make sure nobody found out. And I'm guessing since Kira's mother is human, that her father was Romulan. The union between Captain Cross and the Romulan would have been considered adultery and her marriage to Doctor Cross would have been dissolved unless..." Captain Sanders trailed off as he searched his mind for some stray fact that would put everything in focus.
To say that Ambassador Jarok was shocked would have been an understatement. "So she is Romulan?" He asked once he found his voice.
"Half Romulan, yes." Sanders answered, absentmindedly.
D'Nal brought himself up to his full height. "Then she is Romulan. Her being half human does not matter. A great injustice was done to her as a child and being of Romulan blood, she falls under our protection. I demand, on her behalf, for justice to be done."
"I'm afraid that justice is eighteen years too late in this case." Eric Sanders looked at his friends pale face, sadly. "Growing up must have been...difficult for her. I met her mother a couple times and she is not an easy lady to get along with. I got the feeling, on more than one occasion, that she resented her daughter. Now I know why." He looked back to the silent Ambassador. "Her step-father was a Doctor. He was killed, when the ship he was stationed on was attacked by Romulan Rebels. I think Kira was fourteen at the time. No wonder she is estranged from her family." Things were slowly, but surely, snapping into place like pieces of a jig-saw puzzle.
"Not all of her family. She has a father out there that has the right to know his daughter." D'Nal stated firmly. "I will take a DNA scan and send it to Romulus. Records will be searched and the father will be notified."
The Captain raised an eyebrow at the tall Romulan. "What makes you think her father will want anything to do with her after all this time? What makes you think he even knows she exists? It could have been an unwanted coupling or even a one-night stand." He thought it was important to point this out.
"Romulans, unlike humans, take their responsibilities to their families very seriously. We do not have...one-night stands." D-Nal sneered. "He will want to know of her existence for many reasons but the main one is if he has no children of his own, she will become his eri'hfirh, heir. Through her, her fathers name would live on. And what of her? Does she not have the right to know who, besides her mother, helped create her? Or maybe she already knew? Is that what you're afraid of, Captain? That she knew about this all along and didn't tell a soul. Not even your precious Starfleet?"
Sanders was silent for a moment then started speaking. "Are you familiar with a Starfleet mission labeled Freeman, Ambassador?" Not receiving a reply he continued. "From what I know and have read, Freeman was solely based on information obtained from a Starfleet Ensign who escaped from a prison camp on Romulus. He made it to a Starbase where he sent word to Starfleet before dying from wounds received during his escape. In that information was the locations of four Starfleet officers and a human woman that had crashed on the planet." Captain Sanders looked at D'Nal and then to Kira. "Starfleet demanded their release and your government complied. Official records show that all five of the prisoners were released and relatively unharmed. But unofficially, records show that six instead of five were removed from Romulus. The sixth person was never identified and neither was the woman." He turned back to the Romulan. "Kira's mother has a brand on her collar bone. I caught a glimpse of it once and I'm pretty sure it's the mark of a Romulan prisoner. I'm telling you this because I believe Kira has the right to know where she comes from. I believe Captain Cross was the woman that was rescued during Freeman. I hope that will help you narrow your search somewhat. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm needed on the bridge." He stepped around the Romulan Ambassador and left sickbay.
Ambassador D'Nal was silent as the Captain spoke and then shock kept his tongue immobile long after Sanders departure. He shifted so he could get a better look at the little spitfire would-be diplomats face. He tried to imagine her twenty years younger but with the same intensity that he had come to expect from the young Starfleet officer. If the Captain was right then the young Doctor could possibly be his Rhian. "Are you my paenhe?" He whispered knowing now the DNA scan was imperative. He had to know if the pale figure on the bio-bed was his long lost daughter.