Skyfire Cure
| Crew of the USS Astraeus | ||
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| Lieutenant Commander Chythar Skyfire, MD | ||
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Report Content: Results of the Medical Mission to Argurtha -- Romulan Plague Aid
Ensign Chythar Skyfire Medical Officer
USS Excalibur NCC - 41903 - A
Author's note:
Anything denoted by * is going to be explained in the addendum, as well as any personal thoughts on the subject matter.
This report is compiled in regards to the errand of medical urgency we were sent upon Argurtha. Very little personal thought has been included for the cohesion of this report.
After hearing of a plague that was threatening to wipe out the population of the planet, the weight of the problem was pressed onto the CMO of the Excalibur, Lieutenant MacLaren. The Romulans appear to have been using a set of substandard RFID tags to track the infected. This wasn't effective, as another team found additional data and were analyzing it while the substandard tags issue was being dealt with. Starfleet Intelligence had come up with a theory as to where the plague started, and that is where the medical team began its search for answers. The CMO of the Romulan settlement the team was investigating was deceased before our arrival -- a victim of the plague who (according to the logs) died 24 hours before our arrival. Ensign Folds of the medical team posed the suggestion of examining the CMO's records. Updates were supposed to occur hourly, although it wasn't the way it went down.
Ensign Folds had taken Ensign Cuthbert down to the morgue to examine tissue samples. I was in charge of examining contagion matrices. The symptoms, as determined by Lt. Hiram Baker and Crewman Banks, included rapid tissue degeneration that mimicked E-coli and hemmoragic fever. There were additional questions that followed whether the degeneration of the internal organs was accompanied by either vomiting or diarrhea. It was, in both cases. I felt that it was similar to the norovirus of Terra's 21st century, though this idea was quickly quelled. Letant's version of the incubation period said that it varied considerably, although he stated 2 weeks as his final answer. The data I found suggested that it had a 99% communicable rate, and has an incubation period of 2 weeks, and no signs of variance. It was found later by Dr. Folds to be 100% communicable. The pattern of symptoms seemed to be 50-50, the viral colony inside the host had a set genetic makeup that when exposed to the host's DNA became fatal.
The plague seemed to be transmitted by a strange amphibioid that was unaffected by the disease, and the only amphibioid the team examined had died from injuries that weren't caused by the plague. The security detail and I headed over to Commander Orman's location to collect blood samples from folks who were resilient to the disease, as all reading material had exhausted its usefulness. Apparently Lt. Luna Walker had stumbled into the scene where I was working at the time, and had been confirmed to be a carrier but not infected. The lieutenant seemed lucid, from what I can recall. The interesting thing is that she appeared to be infected with two strains, but even more interesting is that she is a human/Romulan hybrid. Her human genetics must have developed antibodies once it hit her system. The blood samples I collected from the other group of hybrids also aided in the research, and during that time I heard rumors that it all started at a school with children.
A young Romulan named D'Rantho came in contact with one of these amphibioids -- the one that Dr. Folds had examined. The Romulan had only been in contact with the amphibioid for a short time, but he looked like he was about to die. Lt. MacLaren saw to him while I and the nanite colony known as B were analyzing blood samples. The hybrids' resilience to the virus was impressive, although apparently an explosion interrupted my research.
The disease had no effect on humans*, or Betazoids*, or Orions*. This was determined during the aftermath amidst the chaos that erupted in Sickbay during the time bracket that followed the aftermath. Ensign Cuthbert* seemed to be showing signs of infection during the event. The hybrids' resilience seemed to be in-line with the human resilience I found in Luna Walker*, where all the hybrids appeared to have some human genetics thus able to produce the antibodies; which were due to a high concentration of vitamins C and D that I didn't find in any of the Romulan samples -- thus making the human genetics capable of producing the necessary antibodies. I'd found a few similarities between the amphibioid and Lt. Walker, but not enough for me to make a positive declaration of anything. Both samples had similar pathology, but each was composed of a separate set of genetic markers. I wasn't able to make sense of it at first. Initial scans suggested that it began at the sight of contact, and that the virus affects different systems in different ways: while centered on the respiratory system for both intake and reproduction, it destroys other systems -- the lungs manage to sustain the least amount of damage.
The key to the antiserum takes the antibodies we collected from the various hybrid samples and combines with a healthy human's normal level of vitamins C and D. It is as thermostable as a cup of warm coffee, so it shouldn't be a problem to synthesize. If there are any additional complications with what Brek has labeled "The Skyfire Cure* ", it is possible to contact me*.
ADDENDUM: Personal Thoughts
I was very nearly pulled off of this project due to bad hearing. My mentor, Lt. MacLaren lies injured and I became the point man on this antiserum. I hope I didn't disappoint you, Johanna. I hope you survive so we may speak again. I am not after awards, or the CMO position of the USS Excalibur. If I wind up earning an award, I will accept it as an unexpected surprise. If I wind up promoted, I will accept that too and be even more surprised. I didn't mean to be a hero.
ADDENDUM: Betazoids, Humans, Orions
Since all the scans run (Cuthbert, Shedet, MacLaren et al) showed no sign of a species jump, we concluded that the disease did not spread beyond what it had already. The disease seems to have been limited to the amphibioids and Romulans.
ADDENDUM: Lieutenant Luna Walker, Engineer
She was a unique one, and I believe that it was her blood that played the most signifigant role. Her unique gentic structure was such that she was capable of being infected with two strains of the virus, and she has miraculously been able to provide the antibodies I needed to exploit in order to develop the serum.
ADDENDUM: Ensign Alden Cuthbert, Security Officer
Cuthbert was wounded in the line of duty when he was providing an escort to Dr. Folds to the morgue on Argurtha to examine the amphibian. The blade he was stabbed with was not recovered, though the fact that it was a contact poison that had symptons which mimicked the plague symptoms at first is why it was believed early on that it had made the jump from Romulans to humans. If there is an award for sustaining injury in the line of duty, I vote he be nominated for it.
ADDENDUM: THE SKYFIRE CURE
As it was previously stated, the antibodies from Lt. Walker and several other hybrids were combined to make this serum, and infused additionally with a human's typical level of Vitamin D and Vitamin C, both of which are beneficial to the human immune system. Levels of both vitamins have been adjusted by -10% to account for Romulan physiology.
ADDENDUM: Contacting Doctor Skyfire
It is assumed that Lt. Commander Brek of the Diplomatic Corps has been or will be including all necessary information to contact me in the event additional problems arise as a result of this antiserum.