Notes: I *think* this chapter is good to go as well. I consider the last chapter a bonus. 10 re-reads of this chapter later and I get concerned that I'll start to go blind. This is where the complete BS sciency and medical stuff starts. I *hope* it at least *sounds* plausible. Thanks for all the reviews, I really appreciate the feedback.

Chapter 6

Voyager's Emergency Medical Hologram, Chief Medical Officer by default, did not have to sigh, nor did he have to shrug, pinch the bridge of his nose or feel exhausted. Yet, over the course of this one day, he did all of those things. He thought briefly that it might have to do with the evolution of his holomatrix personality subroutines, or it was part of the original 'Zimmerman' programming, but it didn't really matter. Even with the programmed medical knowledge of thousands of doctors and his experiences here in the Delta Quadrant, he was still able to be surprised far too often. Going over his current medical reports to the Captain he still wasn't truly sure why Lieutenant Torres was still alive. Why she had survived.

*Several hours earlier*

"Lieutenant!" The Doctor rushed to the prone form of Voyager's Chief Engineer inwardly chiding himself for being so initially distracted by Seven's condition when they first beamed to Sickbay. He didn't scan the Lieutenant because he assumed all the blood on her under garment tank top had been from Seven and Torres didn't let on that she was wounded at the time.

I've let Lieutenant Torres get away with far too much self-diagnosis. My programming shouldn't have allowed this.

Opening the back of her OR scrub top, he saw distinct claw marks and dried blood on her upper back. What concerned him was the distinct discolouration and vein-like tracks spreading from the wounds not unlike the first indications of assimilation from the Borg. Running his tricorder over the infection, he saw what appeared to be some kind of neuro-toxin that had spread from the wound slowly into her central nervous system and was overloading all the nerve endings in her body.

She must have been in incredible pain throughout the entire operation on Seven.

The Doctor once again cursed the Klingon hybrid under his breath for her stubbornness. Quickly lifting B'Elanna over to another biobed, the Doctor set her down on her stomach. He opened her top to expose her back and quickly cut her tank top strategically so it could be removed. There he saw that the infection was covering her whole back. He quickly set up several diagnostic instruments and began a new series of scans.

"Doctor to Mr. Paris" As the scans were beginning on B'Elanna, the Doctor moved to Seven to do another scan for the toxin in her system.

"Paris here Doc, can this wait, Harry and I are finally going to defeat the Sisters of DOOM…" The Doctor could hear the groans from the other occupants in the Holodeck. "Mr. Paris, Lieutenant Torres is lying on a biobed in critical condition, shall I ask her to wait while you impress your black-and-white egotistical constructs?"

On the Holodeck, Harry and the Delaney sisters suddenly looked as horrified as Tom felt. The last four hours had been a blast and none of them wanted to leave the interactive program unfinished but with B'Elanna in Sick Bay, there would be no question of what needed to be done.

"On my way, Paris out." Tom was running out the door to the Holodeck while stripping off the `Captain Proton' jet pack. Even though they weren't together anymore, he still cared a great deal for B'Elanna and didn't want to ever see her hurt.

Megan Delaney found herself climbing into Harry's arms while Jenifer closed down the program. Finding himself more comfortable around Megan as the evening went, Harry gave her a quick squeeze in the embrace they shared before the three of them exited the Holodeck.

The Doctor once again looked over his scans of Seven. There appeared to be no trace of the toxin that he had seen in Lieutenant Torres. Going over his initial scans of Seven quickly, he saw that her nanoprobes had immediately targeted the toxin when it first entered her system and destroyed it. Seven was safe, but it didn't really help the situation with B'Elanna.

More thorough scans had shown that this toxin or whatever it was, had migrated not only through B'Elanna's central nervous system and circulatory system but also to her bone marrow and was affecting her stem cells in some way he couldn't readily identify. Ironically enough, the Doctor WAS able to conclude that had she been fully Klingon, or fully Human, whatever this aggressive toxin was, it would have killed her shortly after she had been attacked. The toxin was behaving almost like a virus but it contained a DNA encoding sequence the Doctor had never seen before. In order to eliminate certain lines of diagnosis, he had done simulations on pure Klingon and pure Human DNA that showed that it attached junk code to the DNA which caused the infected cell to replicate a new cell and then die. The new cells were incredibly unstable and immediately de-coalesced which would likely have caused an immediate shut down of all major organs in response to the shock of the body's inability to naturally adapt and the host would die.

B'Elanna's hybrid DNA seemed to absorb the junk DNA attachments and simply produce new cells. Tissue throughout her body was simply dying and regenerating as if her entire composition was being renewed. The first areas affected were her bone structure and cartilage. Whole sections were cracking off and breaking into microscopic chunks which seemed to feed the virus and accelerate the process. While working to counteract the effects with no success, the Doctor had Tom monitoring B'Elanna's life signs which at first dropped rapidly after she had fallen unconscious, but had seemed to stabilize shortly after this new cellular replenishment began.

Harry had come in offering his support and nearly keeled over himself upon seeing Seven lying on a surgical bed and then B'Elanna next to her. The Doctor had sent Harry away and contacted the Captain to find out what she had discovered about the creature in order to gain some sort of insight into what might be happening to B'Elanna.

After hearing the Doctor's report, Captain Janeway and Lieutenant Myles shared a look that told them that they both felt ashamed that neither of them had noticed B'Elanna's condition and had paid her little mind in deference to Seven whom they believed to be in greater danger. Finally composing herself, Janeway believed she was able to perhaps shed some light on what could possibly be happening with B'Elanna.

"So Doctor, as far as you know, B'Elanna is stable for the moment?" Janeway gave a brief glance to Lieutenant Myles to see the relief she felt reflected in the younger woman's eyes. Ensign MacKennie and Crewman Tallis both glanced at their Captain before resuming their work.

"Yes… as far as I know. Which bothers me as this situation is unlike any I've ever come across. Needless to say, you need to be careful near the creature's claws and since none of you are in Sickbay dying, I'll assume you have been. What else have you discovered from the creature?" The Doctor was hopeful they might have found something that could help him understand what was happening to the Engineer.

"Well, yes, after we arrived, Ensign MacKennie and Crewman Tallis were able to determine that there was a toxin of sorts secreted through tiny hollow tips in the creature's claws which matches the 'unknown contaminant' that the main computer had detected upon initial transport and measures have been taken to ensure no one else will be harmed by them, although it seems that with death, some of the offensive and defensive capabilities of this creature shut down. It really is a fascinating life form. Its hide is laced with a crystalline fibre chain lattice that is connected via unique synapses to a sort of `powered' nerve system that is separate from its central nervous system. This unique system is powered by a central organ near its heart that is protected by a dense bone casing not unlike the idea of a spinal vertebra but with thousands of thin yet long nerve tendrils that snake through the creature's body to its hide. Apparently, when this creature is alive, this unique `powered' system alters the natural bio-electric field of the creature causing it to basically act as a null field which absorbs all manner of scanning technology. We hypothesize that there are herbivores on the planet that have developed an instinctual organic sensory ability similar to that of our tricorders and other scanning technology. This system seems to be an evolutionary response to that ability. The outer scales are even designed to absorb sound waves which prevents detection by echo location as well as dampening the sounds that the creature itself makes. Without a herbivore as a specimen, it is hard to say just what the purpose of the `deoxi-mutating toxin' -as we're now calling it- is. From what you are saying about the nature of it altering DNA sequences, it's possible that there are other defensive capabilities of this creature's prey that it counteracts by essentially `shutting them off' by forcing a new replication of cells and tissue that do not produce defensive capabilities. One claw swipe might not even really wound the creature, but make it more vulnerable to attack over time."

Captain Janeway, despite the originally desperate nature of her Chief Engineer's situation couldn't help but be fascinated by the potential that this creature presented as well as the wealth of scientific knowledge that it seemed to hold for her. It was Lieutenant Myles that deduced the longer limbs and claws were more for initially wounding its prey. Janeway had that same gleam in her eyes she always got when working on a scientific problem. She continued studying scans of its internal systems as the Doctor pondered this new information.

"Hmmm. I wonder if the nature of the DNA of the creature's prey isn't an `amalgam'-type of DNA similar to humanoid hybrid DNA structures. It would explain why the Lieutenant's condition seems to be continually improving and her new tissue is stable. The creature would not want the flesh of its prey destroyed, simply that its defensive capabilities are removed."

Thinking for a moment and tapping her chin, Janeway was coming to an understanding. It was Myles who spoke. "So with no detected `defensive' capabilities then, the newly encoded DNA simply reproduced an optimally healthy body then?" Janeway nodded in agreement and smiled slightly. The young security officer had taken to their time in the Bio-Science lab quite well.

"While I believe it is too early to draw any conclusions, I am hoping that you are right Lieutenant, a healthy body is the best food. Captain, I will be keeping Lieutenant Torres at least overnight if she does or doesn't wake up and then will re-evaluate her condition in the morning. I believe however that we are beyond reversing the process as the speed that the changes are occurring is nothing short of astounding."

"Very well Doctor, keep me informed, Janeway out." With a self-satisfied smile on her face, she couldn't help it as she looked over to Myles. "At least he didn't get the memo..." Myles chuckled and shared the details of the in-joke with the other two women in the room and the Captain found herself shaking her
head at the three laughing women.

Sitting in his office after sending Paris home for the night, the Doctor glanced briefly at his monitors for both Seven and B'Elanna to make sure they were both stable and recovering. Going over his current medical reports he still wasn't sure why Lieutenant Torres was still alive. Why she had survived.

"I guess Lieutenant, you finally have something to thank your hybrid nature for."

End Chapter 6

*** I hope it's not too confusing.***