Chapter 26 – Swap

Denara Pel materialized on the same biobed she'd first awoken as a hologram. However, this time her actual body took up that space, and it was a sight to behold.

She and the Doctor had been working in one of the holodecks on yet another simulation, this time of how one might fight the tendency of dead viruses to accumulate as phages died due to Klingon proteins in the host's blood. The holoemitters on her side of the holodeck overloaded, exploding one after another and momentarily destabilizing the Doctor, though he came back online quickly enough to see what happened.

"Third-degree burns, electrical" muttered the Doctor as he grabbed derma regenerators. He began to treat for severe cardiac shock.

"Red Knight 1 to Voyager, we are standing by for medical casualties."

"I think we can treat our own casualties just fine!" replied Janeway, slightly insulted.

"If you change your mind, our bacta tanks are always available. Red Knight One out."

The space around Voyager boiled with weapon fire from both sides. Visual indicated the Federation ship simply suffered awful luck as the Hirogen gesture to throw them out of combat placed them directly in the path of an arriving Malon mercenary vessel. Without anything more than navigational particle shields between the hull and any collisions, Voyager sustained massive damage.

"Sickbay to the bridge!"

"What is it, Doctor?"

"Our friends certainly gave us new ways to kill each other, would it be too much to ask for them to also do the opposite?"

Janeway rolled her eyes at this development.

"Janeway to Red Knight One. We have one severe casualty, beaming directly to your medical bay. Lower your shields and prepare for transport!"

Meanwhile, Red Knight 2 hailed Voyager.

"Shall we intervene?" asked its captain.

"No!" insisted Janeway. "Fire only if fired upon."

"Species!" snapped an intake nurse.

"Vidiian" replied the Doctor, mobile emitter visible on his shoulder.

"Ooookay. Don't know what that is. Humanoid enough. Throw her in the nearest bacta tank!"

"What is a bacta tank?" asked the Doctor to an entering attending physician, who laughed at the question.

"It makes me somewhat redundant. Bacta is a fluid that turbocharges healing. They say if there's a single spark left in you, bacta will keep you going. It's worked on blaster shots, lightsaber strikes, and all sorts of other maladies."

"So what is the point of doctors, then?"

"It doesn't fix everything" he replied. "Even the miracle fluid has its limits."

Outside, the fight wound down and dissipated. The extra Hirogen ships ground their way to a victory, after which it was only "out of grudging respect for Custosan that we are not bombarding this planet!" They then departed, claiming two Vidiian ships as prizes. Notably, one was the first to open fire and the other rammed itself into a larger Hirogen cruiser, making its removal difficult.

Warning klaxons screeched within Red Knight 1's medical bay.

"The patient is experiencing a hyper-inflammatory response to the bacta" shouted one medic. "Organs are failing!"

The Doctor, programmed to remain calm even now (though he did later admit to some level of anxiety), suddenly realized what might have caused the unexpected turn for the worse.

"The cure. The cure!" he shouted. He handed a tablet with information pulled from Voyager about the phage and its cure to a nearby physician.

"The cure is supposed to work slowly. Otherwise, the virus reacts and defeats it. But the bacta is causing everything to speed up, the phage is adapting, and the host body is…dying." An internal struggle ensued between expected response and adaptation that pushed him toward sadness, even anger.

"Get me a Jedi Guardian on the double!" barked the physician.

Jaina Raynor, grateful to be reassigned from boring duties aboard Redemption, pelted into the room.

"Prognosis?" she demanded.

"Just do your thing" replied the attending doctor. Between bacta and Jedi healers, he felt quite useless.

It didn't take long for Jaina to also give bad news.

"What about your computers? We stored her memory engrams in the holobuffer once, why not do it again?"

"Our computers are not designed to handle a conscious mind" replied Jaina. "But, there is an alternative…"

A very stiff-looking woman wearing a green jumpsuit entered medical, followed closely by a frazzled technician.

"If this HRD crashes, it's not my fault" he fumed.

"All we needed was to walk the droid up here" replied Jaina. "Thank you for getting this working on such short notice."

Force Transference, while considered a power of the dark side, was not automatically so. The alignment of the power depended more on how it was used than anything else, and being that Jaina Raynor sought to move a consciousness into a blank AA2-X VerboBrain rather than a resisting mind there was no need to draw upon the darkness to bludgeon another being into submission.

After some meditation, Jaina took her hands off both body and droid.

"Switch her on."

"Switch? What?" blabbed a flabbergasted Doctor.

"I have placed Denara Pel's consciousness into this Human Replica Droid. I am not sure how long this will last, but for the moment she is no longer in immediate danger."

Jaina Raynor burst out laughing.

"What could possibly be funny?" asked the Doctor, offended.

"This Human Replica Droid was of a woman also named Jaina, which as far as searches of galactic records go, is not the most common name. She was created to be a replacement for Jaina Solo, an accomplished Jedi and pilot, by Imperial Remnant conspirators. Consequently, this unit could probably kill a man by looking at him funny."

The tech took over.

"Running diagnostics…"

A hand stuck straight out, after which tools from a shelf opposite zoomed into the droid's hand.

"Well, the tractor beam works. Drains a lot of power though! I wouldn't use it much."

"You will clap your hands."

First time anyone except those who knew the project were aware of these words sounding sexual.

"Subsonic influencer functioning at 87% effectiveness."

The unit then proceeded to perform a set of impossible gymnastics.

"Looks like the General Emulation and Duplication Initiative portions are working. Heh. GEDI."

"What now?" asked the Doctor.

"Never mind" insisted Jaina. "Bring Denara's consciousness out from under the maintenance routines, but lock out the GEDI functions."

"Am I dead?"

"Your neural patterns have been transferred again. Now, you are being housed in a…some kind of android" explained the Doctor.

"Denara's" face fell. "But I have to go back again, don't I?"

"Actually, you can't" said the attending physician. "This body is, for all intents and purposes, clinically dead."

"The cure was working!" protested the Doctor.

"Indeed it was, but I consider this good fortune. Though, by the looks of it, I am not quite Vidiian anymore. I'm not sure what to think of that—part of me feels…well…wrong."

"I have never heard of that species. There is a reason this is called a Human Replica Droid—in fact, as far as quick medical scans are concerned, you are fully Human. Just very strong, extremely resistant to disease, and have an indeterminately-longer lifespan."

"Well" replied the Doctor. "This has certainly been an enlightening way to learn that your supposedly-more-advanced medical technology is not going to help cure the phage."