The atmosphere in sickbay was tense. Janeway stared Kessel down as if angry with her. Kessel eyed the floor, dejected. He didn't understand it. He'd only had a moment to glance at the readings, but it was enough to see she was human. So why did it suddenly seem that all hell was breaking loose?
"You have been genetically enhanced," Janeway said icily. "Quite extensively, too. The only place I've ever seen DNA resequenced to quite that extent was in the history books. The Augments, from the Eugenics Wars."
Kessel swallowed and looked away silently. Her shoulders slumped and her eyes slitted in despair. Paris tried not to gawp.
An Augment? He knew about the Eugenics Wars, and how Khan Noonien Singh had tried to take over the world with a bunch of his superhuman buddies, and how he'd been found by the USS Enterprise a couple of centuries later. Although politics weren't his main interest in the twentieth century, he knew enough. Dimly he remembered one other time, a couple hundred years ago, that Augments had created some kind of ruckus between Earth and the Klingon Empire.
He couldn't see how it could work. The only way he could see would've been if she had been frozen during the Eugenics Wars and thawed out, like Khan. But the Botany Bay had been the only ship launched in those days, and it left one big hole: Khan and his Augments had been killed a hundred years ago. If Kessel had been one of Khan's string of genetic superbabes, she'd have been splattered all over the Mutara Nebula with the rest of them.
"I know what you've seen," Kessel began timidly. "And I know what you have to do. But first, let me help. I can...here, with this." She took a breath. Her eyes skittered up to the captain as if hoping for understanding. Whatever she was looking for, it seemed she wasn't finding it.
"It's a question of the immune system," Kessel said. "You – well, the average human -- has between four thousand and eleven thousand white blood cells per microliter of blood. I have sixteen thousand. That's why I'm in better shape than they are." She smiled wryly. "I know my own readings. More CD4 cells and more CD8 cells. Lots more."
Janeway didn't soften an iota, but seemed interested. "Helper T cells and killer T cells."
"Yes," Kessel said.
The doctor came over and frowned. "You seem to know your way around the immune system, Ensign," he said, trying to lighten the mood.
Kessel nodded slowly. "I'm a biologist, doctor. We study a lot of the same things. But that's not the only thing you and I have in common. We are both...artificial." She paused and her throat worked. "Created by man, rather than natural." Her eyes touched Paris's for a moment, glaring openly at him. He swallowed, feeling extremely uncomfortable.
"What you have to do is increase their CD4 and CD8 cell count up to my level," Kessel said, gesturing at the other patients. "If we do that, they'll be able to fight off the virus, the same way I am. It may not do the whole job, but it'll buy them time."
The doctor frowned. "We can't stimulate their cell production," he pointed out. "Their bodies are already under substantial demand fighting off the virus."
"You don't do it in their bodies," Kessel said. "I'm not making this up. It's from an article in Robard's Journal of Cell Biology. It suggested that one could use cloning to fight fast-acting viruses, like this one. You take a sample of their bone marrow and a sample of cells from their thymus and clone them in a petri dish, and then you work up some blood to supply the whole thing. That can be stimulated. Then inject the new cells back into them, and there you go. It won't be easy to keep the cloned cells for more than a week...but that might be all it takes."
Janeway observed the ensign tensely for several moments. "Genetic engineering is banned and unethical. What you're suggesting comes perilously close to that."
Kessel turned her hands palm up. "How is it unethical if it saves lives?"
Tom Paris agreed wholeheartedly, but he didn't think he should interrupt.
"I'm all for saving my crewmen's lives," Janeway said. "But there's a reason genetic engineering is unethical...although you may well disagree."
Kessel winced and her shoulders slumped. "Captain Janeway, ethics is the only reason I'm here in front of you today," she said softly. "And yes, captain. I admit it. I am genetically enhanced. I--,"
Janeway raised a hand and cut her crewman off. "Stop right there, Ensign. I'm going to tell you now: you have rights under the Starfleet Code of Military Justice, and the Federation Constitution. You have the right to remain silent, and you have the right to counsel. But this is not the time."
Paris stared and suddenly felt the floor spin under him. Starfleet Code of Military Justice? Rights? Where the hell was this going? Now Kessel was a criminal? Okay, maybe she was genetically enhanced, but so far as he knew you had to be the one doing the genetic enhancement to get in trouble. In his humble opinion, he was the ship's expert on criminals, and Kessel didn't seem the type. She seemed like a pale, sick woman facing a horrible fate.
Just what the heck had he let loose? Kessel wasn't going to get in trouble just for being genetically engineered, was she? Heck, if she had an idea that might help Harry and B'Elanna, she could have scales and horns for all he cared.
"Captain, I--," Kessel said, sounding like she was begging the captain's forgiveness. Janeway raised her palm again.
"I don't want you to say anything more right now, Ensign Kessel," she said. She paused, and seemed to be weighing something in her mind. "Not about that. I want to know about that Robards article."
Kessel sighed. "Stardate 48315.1, volume 2, issue 15, captain."
"And that method doesn't involve any sort of resequencing, or changing the cells in any way?" Janeway pressed.
"No, captain," Kessel said. "It would be the same CD4's and CD8's. Just produced in a lab rather than in their bodies. Cloned cells are not banned."
Janeway nodded slowly and grabbed a PADD. She brought up the article and looked over it. Whatever she saw seemed to please her. Paris craned his neck to try and see it himself. That sort of biochemistry stuff wasn't his strongest point. But if it could help his friend and his wife and daughter, then he was all in favor of it.
"Thank you," Janeway said, a little more stiffly than he expected. "Your cooperation is appreciated. Mr. Paris, I'll be in the biolab. Have the doctor look over this article. I think we may be on to something here."
She turned on her heel and headed out at a businesslike pace. Paris watched her go and felt uncomfortable. He glanced back at Kessel, who sat despondently on the biobed, looking as if the entire world had just crumbled around her. Why was she taking it so hard? He felt like he ought to do something other than just sit there and let her be miserable.
"So," he said. Kessel glanced up at him, barely concealing her distaste. He cleared his throat. Where was that easy line of patter he'd always had with the ladies? It wouldn't come. Of course, it didn't help that Kessel was watching him distastefully, the way she might watch a monkey that had flung its droppings at her.
"So," he tried again, hearing the word fall lamely. "Are you really an Augment?"
Kessel waited a moment before answering. "Do I have to answer that?" she asked, her voice sounding bitter and lost.
Paris blinked. "Uh...I guess not," he said. "Look, I'm not asking to get you in trouble. You're not in trouble. It's all going to be okay."
Kessel shrugged, staring at nothing. "For you, perhaps. For them." She gave him a direct, unforgiving look. "You scanned me after I asked you not to."
Paris felt a hot flush rise over his face. "Yes," he said. "They're dying, Kessel. If you'd said something you knew beforehand, maybe I could've done something, but what's the big deal anyway? The important thing is to save their lives."
Kessel gave him another look, clearly weighing whether or not to say anything more. He suspected there were a few words she wanted to say to him, none of them being Happy Birthday. There wasn't any point in bothering any more and checked on B'Elanna and Harry. Both of them were still out cold, as they would be for a while. Maybe he ought to see how Captain Janeway was doing.
The doctor was cool and barely acknowledged him as he left. He supposed the doc was annoyed that he'd scanned Kessel. Well, that was just as he'd said to her. Their lives mattered, and Kessel would get over it. So what if she was an Augment? She hadn't tried to take over the ship, or stuff Captain Janeway in a decompression chamber, or stick weird eels in anyone's ears, so she'd be fine.
The captain had apparently decided to take the ensign's suggestion. The article she had mentioned was on a big viewscreen for easy reference, and she had some of the biolab's equipment online and humming. Several petri dishes were arranged in a neat pattern over the lab table, filled with nutritional goo.
"Hi," he said.
"Hello, Tom," Janeway said crisply. She didn't look up, but that was fine.
"So are you going to do that...cooking up some extra CD cells thing?" he asked.
She smiled tensely and nodded. "I think so," she said. "It's a good idea. It'll buy us some time to study the virus. It might not be a cure, but it's a lot better than risking...damage." She didn't add anything more to that, perhaps remembering that his unborn daughter was in harm's way.
"Maybe Kessel could help you," he suggested. "She seemed to know what she was talking about."
Janeway's mouth twitched. "No," she said. "For one thing, she is sick, just not as bad as the others. And besides...I don't want to make this any worse than it has to be."
Paris let that sit for a moment or two. "Make what worse than it's supposed to be?" he asked. "I mean, maybe I'm missing something here. I probably am. But I just don't get what's so horrible about Kessel being an Augment. She hasn't done anything, so why is everyone treating it like it's such a horrible thing?"
Janeway stopped then and stared up at him for several moments. She shook her head and and pressed her lips together, like a woman with a duty she really didn't want to do.
"You really didn't know, did you?" she said quizzically. "I guess you had no reason to."
"Know what?" he said, closer to an outburst than was smart with the captain.
Janeway sighed.
"Ensign Kessel has been genetically enhanced," she explained. "Those who have been genetically enhanced are not eligible to serve in Starfleet. They're also banned from certain professions – medicine, sciences, that sort of thing. That's why we have to be careful with this method of helping the away team. If the white blood cells I produce here in these petri dishes are different from their own cells, their own naturally produced cells, then they could fall under the same ruling. It means I have to be very careful."
"What would happen?" Tom pressed. "So what if these cells aren't exactly the same? As long as they do the job, who cares?"
"Tom," Janeway said patiently, "just stop,and listen to me. Nothing is going to happen right now. Chakotay, Harry, and B'Elanna are our priorities. I'll do what I can, and we'll hope for the best. As far as Ensign Kessel goes, I'm not unsympathetic, but regulations are clear and my hands are tied."
"What do you mean, your hands are tied?" he persisted.
Janeway stopped and stared at him as if he was a diligent but dull student trying and failing to grasp a lesson. She exhaled sharply through her nose.
"Once all is said and done with the away team," she recited, "we will hold a hearing under Starfleet Article 244-3, violation of eligibility standards. We will convene a council of officers to determine if Ensign Kessel is, in fact, genetically enhanced."
"But she already said she was," Paris said, feeling like he was that diligent but dull student
"Yes. But I do things the right way, Tom. You should know that by now."
"Okay," Tom said. "So we have our official hearing and our official council makes our official finding that Ensign Kessel is officially an Augment, and everything's all nice and official. Then what?"
Janeway pulled a distasteful face. "Then," she admitted, "under Starfleet law, I have no choice other than to dismiss her from Starfleet."