C-28
Chapter 13
See Chapter 1 for disclaimer, etc.
A/N: Thanks to all who have reviewed, I appreciate your feedback! Also, I apologize for any scientific inaccuracies that may be present in this chapter. My area of study is computers, not medicine.:)
A couple of hours passed, and the doors to sickbay slid open again, revealing Jonathan Archer, who made a beeline for Phlox's office. Not finding the Denobulan, he continued through to the lab. "Doctor, I just heard what happened. Is Trip all right? Malcolm said-" The captain stopped speaking when Phlox held up a hand, his back still facing Archer.
Archer stood quietly for a few moments, but his impatience got the better of him. "Phlox! What are you looking at in that microscope that's so damned important!"
"Please give me a moment, Captain. I believe I have discovered the key to treating Mr. Tucker's reaction to the enzyme," Phlox answered calmly, not turning around.
The look of annoyance on Jon's face turned to one of hope, and he waited anxiously while Phlox finished studying the sample he had under the microscope and took down some notes on a padd. At long last, the doctor stood up and turned to Archer, a smile on his face.
"Well?" Archer asked.
"To answer your first question, Commander Tucker is all right. He tore a few of the stitches in his leg, which I have already taken care of, and I'm sure he has an extra bruise or two, but for the moment he is resting comfortably. The Xindi is currently restrained and under guard."
"As he should have been in the first place," Archer said, angry at himself for not taking more careful security measures.
"I assure you captain, I had no idea that the Xindi was capable of moving in his condition. What I recently discovered about his physiology explains how that was possible though, and also gave me direction to work toward a treatment for Mr. Tucker. It's quite remarkable really. I've never seen such a mechanism evolve in any other species."
"I'm sure it's fascinating, Doctor. Please enlighten me."
"Of course." Phlox tapped a few buttons and the lab's main screen came to life. "You're looking at the Xindi's muscular system. The muscles highlighted in orange are easy to identify, as they are virtually the same as those of a human." Phlox touched another button, causing an outer casing to appear in yellow around each of the muscles. "The areas in yellow are what are of interest. At first glance, they look as if they're a part of the muscles they're attached to. Upon closer inspection, though, they're an entirely different group. This is why I didn't notice them in my initial exam. I wasn't expecting anything so sophisticated."
"I'm still not quite understanding the significance," Archer shook his head.
"This is how he was able to attack Commander Tucker. These secondary muscles are only semi-voluntary. They evolved, as far as I can tell, for survival purposes. This is why the Xindi cannot consciously control them. Only the high level of adrenaline from the survival instinct kicking in seems to activate them and only then if the primary muscular system is nonfunctional."
"As is the case with our guest."
"Correct. Since these muscles effectively encase his primary ones, he was able to move, albeit somewhat awkwardly, as the Commander observed." Phlox was about to continue when a shout came from the other room.
"NOOOOOOO!"
"Trip!" Jon exclaimed, greatly alarmed. He was instantly in motion, his first thought being that the Xindi had somehow escaped. Phlox was right behind him. The Captain reached Trip first, and relief washed over him as he saw that the engineer was in no danger. "Trip? Come on, wake up." Archer said, gently shaking his friend's shoulder.
"Get the hell AWAY from me!" Trip shrank away from the captain's grip.
"It's okay, Trip. You're dreaming, just open your eyes."
"NO! Let 'em go! I swear I'll use this!"
"Trip!" Jon firmed his grip to try to stop the engineer from thrashing about.
"Ya had your chance!"
Before Archer knew what was happening, Trip had freed his good arm and his fist connected with Archer's face. Despite the force of the blow, Jon regained his hold on Trip. "Commander! Wake up immediately, that's an order!" the captain instructed rather loudly.
Trip's eyes snapped open and he looked around wildly. "Where is he?" he whispered hoarsely.
"Who?" Jon asked.
"The Xindi!"
"Sedated, restrained, and under guard in another room. You're perfectly safe, as is everyone else," Phlox assured him.
The fear and anger left Trip's eyes then and he slumped back in relief ashis breathing slowed to normal. Suddenly his eyes opened again and grew very wide. "Cap'n, did I…"
"Yes you did," Archer said, grinning at the engineer's look of horror. "Don't worry about it, Trip. I know you didn't mean to, and it's not as if my face is bruise-free at the moment anyway."
"Aren't we a pair?" Trip laughed.
Jon also laughed, then winced as the action brought more pain to his already-throbbing face.
"Yes you are," Phlox answered Trip's rhetorical question as he passed Archer another ice pack. "I can't even explain a simple medical finding without someone getting hurt." The Denobulan sounded exasperated, but his face betrayed the humor he found in the situation.
"In that case you'd better finish explaining quickly, Doctor. Trip might knock one of us out next time."
Trip gave Jon a mock glare, before looking to Phlox. "What'd you find, Doc?"
"The reason the Xindi was able to attack you and a potential treatment for the Draden enzyme."
"Really?"
"I'll need to run some more specified tests to develop an exact treatment of course, but it seems that our guest possesses a secondary muscular structure able to operate completely independently of the muscles they surround. Since this type of movement is more instinctual in nature, it explains why he didn't appear to be completely in control of his body. What I haven't yet had the chance to explain is how this helps in the direction of a treatment.
"For these secondary muscles to function the way that they did," Phlox continued, "I began to suspect that his body must also have had a separate means of controlling them. What I found was a variant of the neurotransmitter responsible for muscle control in the Xindi. Because the variant uses a slightly different receptor, it was still able to function despite the enzyme being at work.
"Now, if the Draden enzyme was responsible for blocking the receptors of the neurotransmitters, these findings would be of no real use, but this is not the case. The enzyme actually causes a partial breakdown in the composition of a certain neurotransmitter in the Xindi, and has a similar affect on the human counterpart. Therefore, the neurotransmitter matches the receptor enough to act normally part of the time, but in other cases it malfunctions and the wrong signal is sent, causing the unpredictable spasms you experienced, Commander."
"Well, if I remember my biology classes, Doc, humans don't have a second set of muscles and neurotransmitters, so how does all this help?" Trip asked.
"I believe I can use the Xindi neurotransmitter as a model to synthesize one that will complement the one naturally occurring in the human body. It's a matter of reshaping the molecules so they will again match the receptors."
"Sounds like a plan."
"How long do you think it will take to synthesize?" Archer asked.
"With no complications, I should be able to have it by later this evening." Phlox smiled.
"Keep me informed, Doctor. I need to go check in with T'Pol…oh, and Trip, if I hear about you beating up any more crewmembers, I'll throw you in the brig," Jon said as sternly as he could manage while keeping a straight face, then turned toward the door. He was about to set the ice pack down on a nearby counter, but took it with him at Phlox's warning look, not wanting to deal with another of the physician's lectures.
TBC…
