A Thought

Posted on 18 Aug 2013 @ 5:55pm by Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm

1,079 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 1, Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD 02 0850hrs

ON:

Allyndra yawned. She had been going for more than a day and it was starting to wear on her. She looked at the chronograph on the wall. "By the Twins," she muttered not realizing the time. She had requested a little of the Captain's time and when asked she had said she had a thought on the situation but it would take a little more time to explain.

Though it was frowned upon to run unless a dire emergency she did everything but heading for the bridge. As the doors opened, heads swiveled her direction. The tension was high as she expected and sudden appearances of a medical officer did not help. She only nodded and hurried to the doors of the Ready Room and rang the chime. Her eyes drifted to the time and she gritted her teeth realizing that she was a couple of minutes late. On her home world when she was young she had learned painful lessons about arriving late.

"Enter." came Lirha's reply from inside her office, and the locking mechanism to the door released to allow her visitor to enter. It was less than an hour into her morning shift but already it had been quite a busy day, filled with two new crew members - survivors from USS Venture - reporting for duty, and a plethora of administrative work.

Allyndra was still standing and yawning when the doors slide open. She felt like a fool and quickly apologized. "Captain, forgive me, it has been rather long, I did not mean to greet with such a display."

Allyndra could see the pile of PADDs and no doubt there was as much work as anything she had been doing. Command had its privileges, but it also had its price and that was unending paperwork, though no longer paper. She herself for her brief time had come to detest that administrative hustle.

"Thank you Captain for the time and I shall try not to take too much of it," she nodded her chin at the pile as she took a seat. "I am here because of a conversation we had when you came to sickbay for a suppressant shot."

Lirha nodded and leaned back in her chair, delicately crossing her legs beneath the desk and reaching up to push a stray lock of hair back behind her ear. "Ah yes, the suppressant." her ears perked up. Perhaps the new chief medical officer had come to tell her she had found a more long-term solution? "Have you made any progress with that?" she asked.

"Oh! no not that," Allyndra realized the Captain had jumped to that with the mention of the suppressant. "My other research, the DNA scissors. If you might remember I mentioned that these scissors had the property of reading none biological templates and then inserting atoms. It was based on constructing nanomolecular machines but they can be programmed to interfere with nanomolecular machine assembly as well. Nanomolecular machines or nanites is what the Borg use to assimilate. If we could interfere with that assimilation?" Allyndra shrugged her shoulders in an odd way that caused her wings to rustle slightly.

"Oh..." Lirha suddenly remembered the project Allyndra had explained to her in sickbay. Well, as much of it as she could remember with her own limited medical background. "I am not sure I follow your thoughts...are you suggesting you can disrupt the Borg's assimilation process?" she asked, hoping the medical officer could connect the dots and clarify.

"It may be a possibility, at least the initial phase when the nanites are injected. They use materials in the blood and cells to replicate themselves but as I mentioned before a disruption of their template would cause them to fail in their assembly and thus disrupt the initial assimilation process."

Considering the possibility of having a potent anti-Borg weapon at her disposal, the captain stroked her green chin in thought. "How certain of a possibility? Is this idea plausible for implementation?" she asked, wanting to know how much theory versus actual application was being discussed.

"It would be highly experimental at its current stage. I do have the insertion process working well but reading of the template of the nanite and then translating that is...well problematic at the moment. Sometimes it works and sometimes it fails and I have not had sufficient time to work further on it."

"Hmm..." Lirha continued to ponder the idea for several long moments before eventually deciding it could be an ideal yet experimental solution should any Borg attempt to invade her ship. "This is an excellent idea...as long as it is successful. I would like you to make your nanite research a priority. We do not have much time before we possibly encounter the Borg, so if this experiment is to work, it must be refined within the next several hours." she replied. "You have my permission to recruit any additional staff you may need for the research and development."

Allyndra was not sure it could be done in hours but she nodded in the affirmative anyway. It was a thought and maybe there would be a breakthrough.

"Thank you Captain. I shall, and I shall endeavor to do my best. I will be fair though and warn you that I do not know if a few more hours it will be ready."
She said standing with concern on her face.

Resting her head against the side of her hand, Lirha replied, "I understand. Do the best that you can, lieutenant. Unfortunately it is not my time frame which we have to worry about. If we encounter the Borg before your experiments are finished..." her voice trailed off, hoping the implications were somewhat obvious.

Allyndra paused in the door and turned her head. "On my world Captain we have a saying: 'If one is afraid of falling, then never try one's wings'. I have heard of similar saying on Earth..." Allyndra paused trying to remember.

Her face brightened. "Ah yes, 'No guts, no glory'"

"Yes, I believe that is the expression." Lirha was not from Earth but had spent enough time there to become somewhat familiar with their euphemisms. "Keep me informed of your progress, lieutenant."

"That I will, Captain. Good day." Allyndra knew she had little time and needed to get some help.

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. Allyndra illm Warraquim
CMO
USS Galileo

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