Arana's Tale - Chapter 8
By Kudara
Disclaimer: Star Trek Voyager and all who sail in her belong to Paramount/Viacom and no infringement of copyright/trade marks is intended.
Disclaimer: The Dungeons and Dragons Roleplaying System is owned by Wizards of the Coast and no infringement of copyright/trademarks is intended. The only thing I would like to lay claim to is the original D&D character used in this story.
Rating: T (13+)
Feedback: Always welcome, feedback is what encourages me to keep writing. Please let me know what you like and what you dislike about the story.
Revision History:
Summary: Arana finishes her story about the red dragon.
Notes : Arana is a 8th level cleric; 8th level Paladin; for an overall 16th level character. For the purposes of this story I'm limiting the spell equivalencies to Laying on of Hands, Cure Blindness/Deafness, Disease, Poison 1/day; Divine Wrath (Champion Of Torm ability ) 1/day
When I had managed to find my way back to the research lab I was greeted rather enthusiastically by the children who wanted to take a break from their studies so I could finish the story I had started at breakfast.
"And I shall finish telling you about Alessea and the red dragon but I think you will all agree that it would not be right to do so without Lady Seven being present as well," I chided them gently.
Four pairs of curious eyes looked back at me. Metozi said, "Why do you call Seven of Nine Lady Seven?"
"She is well born and holds a position of responsibility aboard the ship, does she not?" I asked them.
"She is Chief of Astrometrics," said Icheb helpfully.
"Then by the ways of my world her proper address would be Lady or Milady," I replied. "Except by the Captain's own request I would more properly be referring to her as My Liege or My Liege Lady."
The younger children looked puzzled by this but Icheb's eyes got wider, "From my studies that would mean that you swore fealty to the Captain?"
"Yes I did. Now enough questions, Seven will not be pleased with any of us if we do not complete our studies," I smiled understandingly as they almost in unison sighed resignedly and returned to their assigned task. Seven had left my language lesson open on the console and I returned my attention to it, desirous of learning how to read and speak the language of my new comrades as quickly as possible.
I looked up from my Federation language lesson almost an hour later to see Seven walk into the science lab and smiled in welcome, "Milady," I acknowledged her warmly.
"Arana," she replied as she walked over and looked to see where I was in the lesson. I was quite certain of her surprise at my progress this time and permitted myself a small moment of satisfaction at it. I had always been a quick study and when I felt safe, as I did on Voyager; my ability to completely focus on the subject material only improved my learning rate.
"If you continue this rate of progression you should be conversant in spoken and written Federation Standard in four more days and proficient in ten," Seven commented with a measuring look in her eyes.
I could tell she was wondering if I was actually absorbing my lessons or just skimming over them. I would be wondering the same thing if I were her. "Is there a way to have the computer only translate words that I have not yet learned, Milady?"
Seven raised a brow at my question and considered it silently for a moment, "Computer, link translation for crewmember Arana with file Arana Federation Standard Language Lesson Zero One."
"File linked," replied the computer's voice.
"Do not translate words contained in completed lessons," Seven instructed.
"Translation file limited," came the voice of the computer in Federation Standard as those were some of the words I knew.
"Thank you, Milady," I replied in Standard.
Seven nodded and briefly smiled at me, "It is time for lunch, Arana you will be accompanying us?"
"Of course, I have promised Icheb, Metozi, Azan and Rebi that I would continue telling them about Alessea and her children," I replied to her in both Common and Standard.
Seven raised her brow again at the children's enthusiastic response to my statement and I could tell she was amused. "I'm sure everyone will enjoy hearing you continue your account from this morning," she rather dryly remarked.
I could tell she was referring to the wider audience I had at breakfast and I grinned broadly at her in response, "I would hate to disappoint any of my earlier listeners."
She shook her head slightly at me, but I could tell she was amused by my response, "We should proceed to the mess hall."
As we entered the mess hall I recognized several people in the mess hall from this morning and nodded politely to Lt. Torres, Lt. Paris and Ensign Kim who were all seated at one table together. Lt. Paris stood and looked as if he would invite me over but then he saw that Rebi and Azan were each holding one of my hands and sat back down. I noticed him talking to his two companions who glanced over to give us a curious look. We all got our lunches and sat down at one of the empty tables.
I quickly ate most of my meal then looked quizzically at the impatient children, "Now where did I leave off telling you about my meeting with Alessea?" I knew of course exactly where I had stopped the story but I wanted to give them the chance to remind me. I had seen countless storytellers employ this technique and I was pleased to note it worked for me as well as it had for them.
A chorus of voices, including Icheb's quickly filled me in on the details of the story so far and then waited expectantly for me to continue. Seven gave me a look that let me know she doubted that I had forgotten anything but I blithely ignored it for the moment and gave her an innocent look that I knew was at odds with the amusement in my eyes.
The metal implant above her eye had been raised for an entire ten seconds now during my performance but I could see and sense the small smile she was hiding.
"Ah yes that is where I left off, Alessea had just landed in dragon form in front of me at the place she designated for us to meet," I nodded to them and took a preparatory drink of my water. "Now on a silver dragon there is only one place for a person to possibly sit, and that is just in front of the wing joints where their neck crest is very short and before their back crest begins. The particularly wonderful thing about that spot is the view it affords when you are airborne."
"To be certain, I thought my neck was going to snap when she leapt off the ground to get airborne, but once we had gained some height…" I paused remembering how everything had looked from the sky. "The North Mountains are tall, snow covered and rugged. They are treacherous to cross on foot and from the ground they appear rather intimidating, from the air, however, with the sun shining brightly upon their snow covered peaks they were magnificent."
"It only took us a few more minutes to cover the area from where I meet her to where she had located her lair." I smiled at the children and Seven for a moment before saying, "Dragons land much more gently than they take off so my neck was spared from further threat of injury when we landed at the edge of a scrub covered ravine. After winding our way through the short pines we came upon the cavern entrance to her lair. Alessea used a simple light spell for illumination and we made our way past several traps and illusions deeper into the mountain."
"Why did she need those?" Rebi spoke up curiously.
I frowned slightly as I pondered how to answer the question, "There are those who follow the paths of evil who would not hesitate to kill the young of a silver dragon, whether for profit or just for the pleasure of killing a good being." I could sense Seven's disquiet at my answer but the children and Icheb nodded soberly. "Eventually we reached Alessea's lair and I was greeted by five young dragon wyrmlings."
I paused for a moment and cast back in my memory to recall their names, "Let me see there were three males, Ariw, Rayet, and Seral; and two females Laess and Karysa. And they all enthusiastically greeted me when they saw their mother and I approaching." I winced internally as I remembered how enthusiastically I had been greeted, five wyrmlings, no matter how small individually, were a bit overwhelming when they were flying and or crawling over you.
"After playing with them for a few hours I found myself rather weary and hungry." I paused for a brief moment to think of how to tell the upcoming moments in my tale.
"How do wyrmlings play?" Metozi asked interrupting my thoughts.
"Well Alessea's young were only a few years old, so their play was still fairly basic. It mostly consisted of chasing one another interspersed with pouncing on the shiny paladin whose shoulder then got used as a handy launching post," I commented wryly remembering. The three children and Icheb all smiled at that and I detected more than a hint of amusement in Seven's eyes as well.
I was struck by how the children, Icheb and Seven all muted their visible emotions. I wasn't sure how much of it was intentional but they definitely all did it. Now that I was aware that my ability to sense good or evil intentions was actually sensing emotions, I was much more conscious of the fact that I was doing more than reading Seven's slight facial expressions. I was actually sensing her emotions and those of the children.
I looked again at Seven searching for the amusement I knew she was feeling and found it, but I could see how other's without my ability, would miss such a small sign. I had the feeling that I had identified one of the reasons I perceived Seven differently than many of the other members of the crew. Noting the curious faces of the children at my silence I brought my attention back to my story.
"After a few hours of play the wyrmlings were tired out and more than ready to settle down for a nap, during which Alessea and I prepared food for all of us. After we had eaten and the wyrmlings settled down for the evening Alessea changed into her human form and we walked up toward the cavern mouth to catch each other up on the past few years," I paused for a moment remembering.
"I was the one who sensed the presence of evil nearby before we exited the cavern. I quietly warned Alessea and we retreated a good distance back into the cavern to confer. Now, walking blind into a fight when all you know is that something evil is about is not my favorite situation," I admitted with some humor. "However, having a full grown silver dragon as your fighting companion evens the odds for most fights."
I paused and took a sip of my drink, this time by design to draw out the moment of revelation. "Unfortunately Alessea informed me that she suspected the creature I was sensing was an old red dragon she had caught a glimpse of a week before. Alessea hadn't seen any sign of it in the past seven years so the dragon must have recently moved into her territory. The problem was that it made a lot of difference whether or not the evil I sensed was a dragon or something else. If it wasn't a dragon the best plan was for Alessea in her true form to exit the cavern's mouth first, if it was the old red dragon the best plan was for me to exit the cavern's mouth first."
I saw mirrored looks of puzzlement on several faces and Seven raised the implant above her eye at me questioningly. I was becoming so familiar with that look of hers that I couldn't help but reflexively smile warmly at her in response to it. "All dragons love to hoard treasure, whether good or evil, but red dragons are the most avaricious of all. Each color dragon has a distinctive breath attack and red dragons breathe fire. However, if there is any chance of their target bearing treasure they will not risk melting it so they will land and attack using tooth and claw."
"That is why I would be the better choice to exit the cave first, if there were a red dragon waiting, I would be able to lure it to the ground where Alessea could attack. If Alessea were to exit first and the red dragon was waiting it would attack with its breath and follow up with a physical attack. Red dragons are physically larger than silver dragons of the same age and if an old red dragon caught Alessea on the ground she would likely be hurt very badly. In the air though, silver dragons are quicker than red dragons so it's more of an even match," I paused to take a breath before continuing and looked around at my audience for a moment.
The children and Icheb were staring at me intently, entirely caught up in the story; Seven met my eyes and tilted her head questioningly as if to ask why I had stopped. A quick look about the room verified that few people had left the mess hall, most were slowly eating their meals or finished and obviously waiting for me to complete my tale before leaving.
Lt. Torres, Lt. Paris and Ensign Kim were among this latter group and I met Lt. Torres's brown eyes for a moment before I returned my attention to Seven and the children. I found it interesting that the hostility and then confusion Lt. Torres had shown me earlier had been replaced by what seemed to be a measuring look. Idly I wondered what standards she was evaluating me by and how I would fare against them.
"Given what she had told me I choose to exit the cave mouth first, I felt that the slightest chance that the presence I felt was a red dragon was reason enough for the decision. Alessea tried to argue with me but I pointed out that she was a mother now and could not afford to take such a chance with five little ones depending on her. Our plan was simple; Alessea would change back into her true form and wait just inside the opening of the cavern while I walked outside. With any luck, we thought, I could get the red dragon to turn its back on the cavern allowing Alessea the opportunity of disabling its wing's."
"Following our plan, I walked outside the cavern mouth and looked around for whatever had alerted me. It was only after I had turned entirely around and was facing the cavern again that I looked into the eyes of the red dragon; the size of it was truly amazing. If Alessea was thirty foot tall it must have been around fifty foot tall and was perched directly above the cavern mouth." I paused for a moment remembering the dry mouthed sensation I had gotten upon turning around and seeing the terrible creature. "Paladin's are immune to dragon fear, but we are not fools, I felt a definite chill when I realized where the dragon was waiting. If Alessea were to come out before I got it to move from its perch she would be an easy target for it."
"I knew that Alessea would be watching me so I kept my gaze fixed upon the dragon hoping that she would be able to discern where I was looking and began to back away," I explained.
Deepening my voice I spoke, "'Where do you think to flee to warrior that I will not find you. Surely you do not think that your puny weapon can harm me?' said the dragon."
"He, for the voice was definitely male, was of course referring to my longsword which I had drawn when he spoke," I said in my normal voice. My eye was caught by a movement near Neelix's kitchen and I glanced over to note that the Captain and Commander Chakotay had entered the mess hall and were getting their lunches. Neelix was whispering to them in a low voice doubtless explaining why so many people were still in the mess hall.
"You do not think I would give up my armor and weapons to your hoard without a fight do you dragon, I replied to him hoping it would increase his greed for them."
"'Hmm, I smelt the scent of magic about you elf and wondered if you were a wizardling of some type. So what magical weapon have you stolen from some crypt, let me guess a dragonslayer sword!' he said to me in a mocking tone but he had taken the first step toward me. I kept backing away from him weaving my way through the scrub pines hoping he would keep talking for a while longer." I noted the Captain looking about the full room with a look that was equal parts amusement and annoyance as she sought a place to sit down with her lunch. Ensign Kim noticed as well and caught her attention and pointed to the empty chairs at their table invitingly.
"I wish it was a Dragonslayer sword, I admitted to the dragon as I kept backing away. But mine is just an ordinary magical longsword."
"He snorted and moved toward me again for red dragons enjoy playing with their prey. 'There is nothing ordinary about a magical longsword warrior as you well know', the dragon replied to me. By this time I had traversed the screening of pines that hid the opening of the cavern and was attempting to back down the side of the mountain without falling."
I deepened my voice, "'Where do you think you're going warrior, there is no place for you to hide on this mountainside, or do you think I will let you retreat until we reach the bottom?' The dragon inquired of me."
"I was having difficulty telling whether or not I had lured the dragon far enough from the cavern entrance, for it was dark and his bulk hid the entrance from my view. I could tell though, that he had moved enough so that all four of his feet were now in front of the cavern entrance. If I could only move him another fifty or so feet he would be in a good position for Alessea to attack him."
"True, I replied to the dragon. Ordinary longswords are made of ordinary metals such as iron and steel, as is ordinary armor. Mind you," I told the children, Icheb and Seven. "I was not lying; I just did not add that my armor was of ordinary metals that had been enchanted by the smith while he crafted the suit for me. The dragon of course assumed that I was implying that my armor and weapon were made of a magical material such as mithral or admantium, as I knew he would."
I got what I thought was a sardonic raise of Seven's eye implant at my acknowledgement that I was not above deliberately misleading an enemy. I ducked my head and shrugged at her, but was not particularly abashed of my behavior. I was required not to lie, which didn't include being stupidly truthful and jeopardizing the life of others to my way of thinking. "Thankfully it worked, if a little too well," I shook my head at the memory.
"He lunged at me and it was only by luck that he did not seize me in his fore claw. I had been stepping rearward when a rock beneath my heel rolled, causing me to fall backward down the mountainside just as he reached for me. Alessea told me later that she had seen me fall and decided to attack at that moment. All I knew was that suddenly the red dragon was screaming and Alessea was on the red dragon's back attacking his wings with her claws and biting his neck."
I was caught up in my own story now but I did notice that the Captain and First Officer were quietly eating at the table with their three other officers and listening to my story as well. "I scrambled to my feet and stared at the scene in front of me trying to see how I might help Alessea. For many minutes I stood helpless watching the two dragons fight, finally the red dragon lost it's footing on the loose soil of the mountainside and it fell briefly to his chest. Calling upon Torm's divine wrath I charged and attempted to slice through the red dragon's chest scales."
I took another sip of my water and a deep breath; I was lucky that I hadn't died that day. "Knowing what I do now about dragon scales it is amazing that I managed to actually cut through the scale, for they are as hard as steel and very thick. Unfortunately I didn't really do any damage to the red dragon, only enough damage for it to notice me. The red dragon mean to kill me with it's bite. What actually happened though was that Alessea noticed the red dragon's attention shifting and tried to knock its aim off enough to miss me."
"She didn't exactly succeed, though she did save my life, instead of snapping me in two the red dragon found itself with his muzzle buried in the dirt and me within its mouth standing underneath my shield which I had just managed to raise over my head." It hadn't been particularly amusing at the time but now looking at the amazed faces of the children I had to grin.
"One immediately notices when one is in the mouth of a fire breathing dragon, the stench of…" I thought the better of mentioning the pieces of decomposing meat in the dragon's mouth given the age of my listeners, "Well red dragons do not clean their mouths after they eat so they have very bad breath along with the sulfur and pumice stench of their fire. I took one breath and nearly passed out from the smell alone. I held my breath after that and started stabbing the dragon as deeply as I could from the inside of its mouth."
Matching 'ugg' disgusted expressions were apparent on the children's faces as well as some of the adults in the room. Even Seven's face was briefly touched by an expression of distaste. "Not surprisingly the red dragon was not particularly enthused by my attack and whipped his head out of the ground and tried to shake me out of its mouth. As I could tell that I was a fair height in the air at the time I braced myself as well as I could and held on with all my strength to my sword which was embedded in the dragon's mouth."
"At this point Alessea thought I had been swallowed and attacked the red dragon with her breath of cold, doing considerable damage to him. The red dragon roared, most likely in anger and pain, and I was deafened by the noise. I was stunned and forgot to hold my breath but as he had opened his mouth I was able to get some cleaner air. When I regained my senses, I found myself standing on the dragon's tongue with him standing still. I did not know what had caused this but I guessed that Alessea had successfully paralyzed him with her paralysis gas which is the other of her two breath attacks."
I paused to take a breath and continued, "I took advantage of his stillness to continue my attack as a glance out the dragon's mouth showed that I was likely over one hundred feet in the air. I kept attacking the same spot hoping to do some damage to him. I'm still not certain if I actually severely hurt him but I did keep him distracted enough that he died from the damage we had done. That took about ten more minutes though during which I alternately hung onto anything I could to keep from being thrown out of the dragon's mouth and continuing my attack. Finally he fell with a great thud which shook me from my feet."
"I began yelling for Alessea to open his mouth, which of course was shut trapping me inside. I almost wept with relief when I saw her claws prying open his jaws for I thought the stench would make me pass out before she freed me. I stumbled out covered with blood, gore and an odious slime. Alessea was overjoyed to see me alive, even when she caught a whiff of me."
I took a moment to glance around the room seeing several amused looks on various faces as I wound down the story. The children all had disgusted looks from my description which elicited a chuckle from me. From Seven I sensed amusement which was mirrored in the restrained smile she permitted herself. "Alessea insisted that I bathe in the small lake nearby and even gave me a lift there, though she refused to let me on her back and I had to make the trip dangling from her front claw." I was openly grinning now and several people in the mess hall chuckled at my description.
"And that is how I met my first red dragon, rather a bit too personal of an introduction for my liking. But at least I'm still here to tell you about it, and I got lectured for days by Alessea on the proper way to fight chromatic dragons without scaring her half to death," I finished my story and sat back in my chair.
Seven gave me an inquiring look, asking I guessed whether or not I was finished. "And that ends my story at least for the moment, perhaps later I will tell you what happened after the red dragon died."
Seven nodded, "We are late for our afternoon lessons, and Arana should go meet the Doctor," said Seven standing up and taking her tray.
I stood up and did likewise as did several other people in the room, including the table of senior officers. As we stood waiting for the line to the tray recycling machine to clear out I asked Seven, "Is there a training room available for physical exercise Milady?"
"Holodeck 1 is available as a gym between 1600 and 1900 hours and 0100 and 0400 hours. I can explain its function to you when it opens," Seven informed me. I sensed that she was uncertain of something and realized that she had actually asked me if she could show me the gym, though she had not clearly phrased it as a question.
"If you have the time Milady I would be most appreciative if you would escort me there," I replied. A short nod was all I received but I knew I had guessed correctly.
"Do you need any assistance in finding Sickbay?" asked Seven.
The Captain who was standing near us overheard this, "I'll go with Arana to Sickbay Seven, it will give me the opportunity to catch up." The Captain smiled at me as she said this and Seven nodded in acquiescence.
I noted the term 'catch up' getting the sense that she meant that she wanted to find out what I had been doing since I saw her last. "I have been learning how to read and speak Federation Standard Captain. This," I said pointing at the combadge, "did an excellent job of translating but I need to learn your language before I can study other things."
We separated from Seven, Icheb and the children at the turbolift, the Captain and I exiting from the lift before they. I directed a smile at them before leaving and got return smiles in one form or another from all, even Seven.
"I will contact you later to show you the gym, Arana," Seven informed me as the Captain and I were leaving the lift.
I bowed slightly, "Until then Milady, be well and your charges also."
The doors closed and I turned and waited patiently for the Captain to proceed. Captain Janeway was studying me intently and I could sense curiosity from her thought I did not know the reason for it.
"Seven is going to show you the gym this evening?" the Captain asked.
"Yes, Captain. I inquired of her earlier whether there was a training room and she informed me that the Holodeck was used as one at certain times," I answered.
The Captain shot me a look, "Do you know what a Holodeck is?"
She began walking down the hallway and I began walking with her, "No Captain I do not."
The Captain sighed and frowned slightly, "I'm not certain I can explain it in anyway that will make sense to you right now. Holodecks create solid matter from energy, but the items it creates can only exist in the Holodeck. Holo-environments and the holo-characters within them are not real in the sense that…" The Captain paused for a moment then continued, "In the same sense that Voyager is real. As for holo-characters most of them are not considered real and are not sentient. Our EMH, the Doctor is an exception. He became self aware a few years ago and is now considered a member of the crew." The Captain gave me a stern look as she told me this.
I nodded to her as we paused outside what I could determine where the door's of the Sickbay. "Of course, Captain I would never treat the Doctor with anything less than the respect he deserves as a healer and as a crewmember."
The Captain reached out and stopped me just before I stepped forward to enter Sickbay with a thoughtful look on her face, "You couldn't tell that he wasn't like the rest of us? You sensed emotions from him?"
"I could tell only that he did not smell nor give off heat, as for emotions, he feels similar to humans and he has a good soul," I finished not quite understanding what my liege wanted of me though it was fairly obvious she was searching for confirmation that the Doctor was more like the rest of the crew than unlike. I gathered that I had answered with the information she needed for she relaxed and motioned me forward.
Going over the interaction I tentatively decided that the Doctor's status as a crewmember was not quite as accepted as the Captain would like. If what she said earlier was true, that most holo-characters were unaware machines, I could see how it would be difficult for the crew to accept that this one was so different from the others. Especially as it called into question whether or not these holo-characters they created in their holo-environments had the same ability.
We stepped into Sickbay together, the Doctor was within talking to a crewmember while running a small cylinder over him and intently watching the display of what I recognized from yesterday as the instrument they called a tricorder.
"Next time stretch before you work out strenuously, while I applaud your efforts to improve your physical health you need to work up to it gradually, not all at once." Obviously he was lecturing the unfortunate crewman who had apparently injured himself while exercising. I wondered whether it had been a muscle injury, from my time as a trainer I was rather familiar with those injuries in young men and women who were either not as fit as they thought themselves to be, or wished themselves to be, one or the other.
The crewman turned and glanced at us and I could see the surprise on his face at seeing the Captain, "Yes, Doctor I'll be more careful," he promised looking suddenly as if he would rather be somewhere else now.
"Well your trapezoid muscle is mended now, take care not to tear it again," responded the Doctor.
"I will, am I free to go now Doctor?" said the crewmember.
"Yes of course," the Doctor replied and then had to step out of the way as the young man got up hurriedly and escaped Sickbay with a quick acknowledgement to the Captain as he passed.
"I'm not that scary am I?" the Captain asked me as she glanced after the retreating crewman.
I chuckled, "I gather he does not usually come into contact with the senior officers?"
"Honestly, I could probably count on both hands the number of times I've seen Crewman Murphy, if it weren't for the fact that the crew has been together for six year's I doubt I would even know his name." She looked slightly sad at this fact, why I did not know.
"Ah, Captain, Arana," the Doctor said greeting us and all but rubbing his hands together with anticipation. Now that I knew he was a holo-person I tried to see the difference between him and the Captain and myself but besides the differences I had already noticed I could detect none. He seemed the rather self absorbed scholar healer, a type I had met several times in my life. Perhaps not the type of person a patient preferred, but usually one of the more skilled healers available. In this case he was the only healer available I gathered.
"If you will sit here Arana, I will begin my scans," the Doctor said.
"Will it interrupt your scans if Arana and I talk?" asked the Captain of the Doctor.
"No, though I would prefer it if Arana attempted not to use her empathic abilities for the moment," the Doctor said to me.
I nodded to him, "I will try not to Doctor."
The Captain and I shared a small smile then she asked, "So how has your second day aboard Voyager been going Arana?"
"Well Captain," I paused for a moment thinking of how to phrase what I wanted to say next, "Even though I know I have had the ability to sense good and evil for years it seems that knowing that I am actually sensing emotions has made me more aware of them."
"Not surprising," broke in the Doctor, causing the Captain and I to turn and look at him inquiringly. "You interpreted the emotions you were receiving in the way you were taught to conceptualize them. And you probably assumed everything else was merely the proper insight that all clerics and paladins have to people's motivations and thoughts. From my reading, I would gather that most clerics and paladins are empathic to some degree. Whether you are born with the ability and naturally gravitate to such professions or whether or not you are granted it by your deities is something I haven't been able to determine yet. I'm hoping a detailed analysis of your genes will answer that question."
"Genes?" I asked puzzled.
"Hmm, think of them as individualized blueprints. Each person has a unique pattern, unless they have a twin of course, that determines exactly how they will grow from just a few cells to a fully developed adult," the Doctor explained.
I stared at him for a few moments trying to understand what he had just told me. "So these genes will tell you whether or not they instructed that these organelles I have be made?"
He smiled at me approvingly, "Exactly."
Apparently my guesses had been correct, or correct enough. As the Doctor continued about his tasks, which seemed to entail a lot of scans with the cylinder and tricorder the Captain said, "I should probably tell you a bit about Voyager. And the particular part of space we find ourselves in."