CmdrEthanHawke

From Titanic: "I'm the King of the World!"

A joint log between myself (as Mid. Betile Amelin), and Dr. Lepage. Amelin had just arrived in the science lab. This was only her second week on the station. She was so fresh from the academy that you could still see a little moisture behind her ears. A tall, pretty Bajoran woman, she appeared relatively young: perhaps 18. Setting down one PADD, she brought up the day's "To-Do" list. Doctor Lepage left his quarters. He had slept well for the first time in about 3 weeks. The counselor’s advice had been good. Now he was looking forward to continuing the research. He somehow had the feeling something intersting would happen today. Five minutes later he entered the lab and looked around. Hearing the doors open, Midshipman Betile turned around and smiled. "Good morning, sir. Can I help you?" She exuded the enthusiasm of youth and a positive outlook. Lepage inquired about Hiller, the science officer he had previously worked with. "He's got the day off, sir. Is there something I could help you with? You're Dr. Lepage, aren't you?" Nick was surprised that the woman knew his name. "Yes, I am. And whether or not you can help me depends on what you know about the Rixian Plague. Miss...?" She smiled, if it were possible, even more brightly, "Yes, I've read your reports on it. It's very interesting. Oh.. I'm Midshipman Betile Amelin. Very pleased to meet you, sir." His face took on an amused look. "It's my pleasure." Lepage paused to think for a second. "Would you like doing some research with me today?" This Midshipman seemed interested in the project and that's exactly what they needed now. If she were any more happy, she'd probably be bouncing. "Yes, sir! I'd be honored." Suddenly she paused, her mood seeming to cool, "But.. umm.. Can I ask you a few questions about it first?" Nick grinned. She hadn't managed to hide her excitement the least bit. "Yes of course. Ask as many questions as you like. I'm sure some of the reports where not quite clear." He looked around the lab walked over to a few chairs and motioned for her to take the one opposite him. "Thank you, sir. And my apologies in advance if these are stupid questions... but, I didn't find a genome comparison in the reports. Could I get that? How long have they been conducting the engineering? How is Dr. Lanvin?" She asked several questions almost at once, hardly pausing to take a breath. Finally, she realized she was speaking too fast, and stopped suddenly, to allow him to answer. Lepage chuckled. "There are no stupid questions. And now for the answers. A genome comparison is a good idea. We haven't had the time to do it, yet. Maybe we should do it with several humanoid species. That would give us better results. How long they've been conducting genetic engineering...that's a good question... the answer to that would probably be 'for as long as we can remember' if you asked any of the Rixians. As for Doctor Lanvin, when I last talked to her she seemed to be fine. I got some information from her. The treatment seems to be working." He looked into her eyes. "You got some information from her? More than that it's working, sir? How long as the plague been occurring?" "Yeah she told me more than just that it's working." He shook his head. "It seems like more and more children are affected by the plague. This just means that we do have to find a cure soon. The disease is not new on Rixis but usually there were only a few cases each year. Only lately did the disease spread like this. The treatment will buy them some time, but if we don't find anything permanent soon I don't think there's much hope." Nick's gaze wandered around the room. He couldn't bear to look at the young woman's face while he told her that the Rixians might well be dead before they had a solution. She reached over and patted his shoulder, "We'll find it, sir. I know we will." She smiled again, a gentle, encouraging smile. "Okay, just a few more questions, I promise. When was the first recorded case of the disease?" He was surprised that she tried to encourage him. Usually it should have been the other way round but this woman didn't need any encouragement. Neither did he, really. "We don't know when the first case was. Let's just say that circumstances did not allow a thorough approach to the problem. If I remember correctly the station was attacked at that time and we had to deal with a lot of casualties. So you see our attention was divided so that we only concentrated on the most important facts. If you want to find that kind of information, however, the best place to look are Midshipman Vatric's old files. If it's not in there, we simply don't have it." Amelin suggested they try to get permission to visit Rixis in order to collect further information about the plague. Nick shook his head. "I'm sorry to say that the chances of the Rixian government letting us conduct research on Rixis are very slim. We can try to contact Dr. Lanvin but I don't think it's a good idea. The Rixians are not very happy about Star Fleet being involved in this whole thing and I doubt they'd be happy if we showed up on their planet. In fact, from what I learned from Dr. Lanvin the government makes things a bit difficult for their scientists. We need to be careful. We're dealing with a very sensitive subject." She frowned, her eyebrows almost touching the top of her nose ridges as she scowled. "That's Stupid!... sir. Their people are dying, and they don't want help? Bunch of idiots." She paused again, removing the frown, though no smile appeared in its place. A glint of mischief appeared in her green eyes, "Well, what if they didn't know we were there, sir?" Nick's smile returned. "You don't have to curse their..euh...peculiarity... I did that enough for the two of us. And what do you mean by 'what if they didn't know we were there?' " She suddenly realized that perhaps she had spoken out of turn. "Uh.. nothing, sir. Sorry. Bad idea. Forget I said it. We work with what we have... and we'll find a solution whether they like it or not." "No,no no, go ahead. I would like to know what you were thinking of." She blushed slightly, "Well, I was just thinking that we could sneak in... do a little judicious grave robbing..." Then, thinking he might be appalled at that idea, she looked up, "For research. If we had samples of past generations, perhaps we could find where they went wrong, or a properly working version of that protein." He nodded, lost in thought before answering. " I appreciate your interest in solving the case but I think I'd better officially request such samples. Indeed we were preparing a list of tissue samples we need in order to file the request." He smiled mischievously. "If that fails I might promote you to grave robber. Until then I'd prefer doing research here on Aegis." She sighed, "So much red tape, all for them to probably say no. But, yes sir. Shall I start with the genome comparison? Who all did you want to include? Human, Trill, Betazoid, I'm sure... Vulcan? Klingon?" "You'll have to get used to accepting a 'no' even though it means your work gets a bit more difficult. We have to respect all kinds of ethic issues when dealing with other cultures. I think we should definitely include Vulcan, too. We can do it together. That way we'll be faster." She smiled happily again, "Yes, sir. Have you already sequenced the Rixian samples? Or shall we start there?" He got up and walked over to a console. "Yes, we have sequenced the Rixian samples. We just have to call up the different genomes and compare them." He turned around. "May I ask how long you've been on this station?" She blushed slightly again, "Uh... one week, sir." Moving to the console, she brought up the relevant genome information for the three humanoid species she had mentioned. Despite her apparent youth, she moved quickly and confidently through the computer system, bringing each species up on adjoining screens. "There... Where is the Rixian file, sir?" He watched her while she was working her way through the computer. He couldn't help but smile. "One week, well...welcome to the station then." Nick walked to her station and stood beside her. Tapping a few buttons he quickly found the file he was looking for and brought it up on another screen. "There, now we only have to tell the computer what to look for. I'd say we try and find identical genes first, what do you think?" She nodded, her usual exuberance now channeled into the work before her. "Yes, sir. That seems logical." She tapped in several commands, her hands moving very quickly, and a moment later was rewarded with the computer's reply of 'Working.'. Lepage looked at the screens to monitor the progress the computer was making. He asked the Midshipman whether she was interested to work on the project permanently. While she seemed happy about the suggestion, she expressed her doubts as to whether Lieutenant Raumuk would let her. "I'll beg if I have to,"Nick said and with that he bent over one of the screens to look a bit closer at the comparison between Human and Rixian DNA. She smirked at the image in her mind of the handsome doctor on his knees begging, but pushed it aside as the computer highlighted the first match. Nick looked at the first results, too. "We'll get quite a few matches but it will be interesting none the less. Are you expecting anything in particular?" He turned back to face her. She frowned. Was he testing her? Finally she replied, "No, sir... It isn't good science to expect an outcome from a particular test... It's too likely that you'll end up biasing the results." He raised his eyebrows. " I thought you might have an idea. I wonder, for example why the protein only exists in Rixians. We haven't found it in any species we're testing now." "You say it only exists in Rixians? Just that it only exists in that particular shape & form. But we haven't mapped the genomes of every species in the universe..." She paused, then added as a sidebar, "No, I don't want to be assigned to that project!" Grinning, she continued her original line of thought, "But it sure would be helpful to know where they came from. Oh, should we add Bajoran or El-Aurian to the mix at some point?" Nick sighed. "We can't compare this DNA to that of all known species. We're just guessing anyway. I don't say that at some point we might not want to add another species but right now these three will do. I'm waiting for important results anyway. I am expecting them today. If we're lucky we'll know what exactly the protein does. That might also answer our question." He thought it might take a bit of work to keep her from doing unnecessary work and make her focus her energy in the right direction. She definitely needed more experience but he was willing to give her the chance to gain it. She nodded, not prying into what that information might be. "I'll keep watch here, sir, if you'd like, and call you if anything interesting pops up?" "Okay I'll be in sickbay. I'll expect a preliminary report at the meeting this afternoon. 1300 hours in this lab. The rest of the team should be here, too." She nodded. "Yes, sir. I'll be there."