"More Revelations"

[Aidan Driscol 0]

"More Revelations"

A Log by Ensign Lexia Tordai and Midshipman Aidan Driscol

 

Lexia stood in the medical office just off Main Sickbay. She had been avoiding going out into Main Sickbay for a while now; recent events had her more upset then she would prefer to admit. She laid the PADD she had been reading on the desk in front of her, sighing and rubbing her temple.

 

Aidan had heard that the Gareem had been killed, so he felt more than reluctant to go back to sickbay. As he walked down the corridor carrying a PADD and two mugs of coffee he thought about the results his experiments had just revealed. The coffee was a peace offer to Doctor Tordai, he knew he had been annoying on purpose and as they were going to work together now he thought he might at least try to get along with her. Taking a deep breath he entered Sickbay and walked over to the office the nurse indicated when he asked for Dr Tordai

 

She heard the chime and looked up. Walking over to the door she began preparing what she would say to Merril; he was probably concerned after she left in such a hurry. She was just putting the finishing touches on her excuse as she opened the door. She opened her mouth to speak, but as the door slid open she sighed instead. What stood before her bore no spots, was shorter, and had skin quit a bit lighter then the man she was expecting. He did, however, have coffee. "I said no coffee, Midshipman," she said turning around and heading back towards the desk.

 

Aidan smiled and followed her in. "I know Doctor, but we both know that neither of us got enough sleep lately so I thought you might appreciate it. And I came with more than just coffee." Without invitation he sat down in the chair in front of the desk, he had done enough pacing in the science lab and was starting to feel very exhausted. "Oh, and don't think I didn't catch that sigh of disappointment."

 

Lexia glanced at Levy's chair behind the desk, but threw away that thought as soon as it came to her. She instead sat down in the only other empty seat in the room. "Had I not intended for you to hear it, you would not have heard it," she replied dryly. "What other gifts do you bear, Driscol?"

 

Aidan frowned and observed her for a moment. He couldn't help but wonder why Tordai was so hostile towards him. In a way it amused him, in another way he would like to get along with her. Although one might call this getting along to some extent. "Ah yes, getting right to the point as usual. Well, I conducted further experiments on the virus, we're still light-years away from a cure, but there is news; news which might be good or bad. I don't think I have to tell you how tricky a virus can be." Aidan took a sip of coffee and hoped to maybe relax the situation. On the other hand, if she wanted to do this the hard way he was ready for it. Maybe he was just a Midshipman, but he knew what he wanted and how to obtain it.

 

Lexia rubbed her temple, her body was still adjusting to alpha shift and her recent lack of sleep was not helping any. To make matters even more complicated, she could not understand for the life of her why this scientist was trying to make friends. Most people ran after two or three brushes with her. Why was he being so persistent? She smirked, too subtle for him to notice. He was probably one of those chipper types; the ones who tried to make friends with everyone. Lexia hated those types. "No, you need not inform me how tricky a virus can be. What have you discovered?"

 

Aidan shook his head and pushed the mug towards her. "Have some coffee; don't let your pride get into the way of receiving a rare treat. I can't imagine many people around here provide you with hot beverages." She was a tough one but he knew that in order to work well together they didn't have to like each other. "You might actually not be surprised to hear this, but this isn't your usual virus. Instead of a DNA or RNA plasmid it simply carries start and stop sequences. Which of course means it can totally screw with your DNA."

 

Ignoring the mug she pushed on. "Of course. Which also makes it incredibly difficult to diagnose or treat." She crossed her legs trying to put the pieces together in her mind. This virus was trickier than most, and far trickier than anything she had seen in this life or any other.

 

Fine no coffee then, suit yourself, Doc. He bit his tongue, no need to annoy her even more. "Yes, it means that the virus basically works with what is there and just changes it around a bit. I had been wondering about that, because there just didn't seem to be a way. But if you can basically switch genes on and off the possibilities are endless. Mind you, we have to keep in mind that a differentiated cell still stays the same; a Gareem liver cell is just turned into a Soltan liver cell. Which is bad enough I suppose."

 

"So it is a form of mutation. The cells are not completely changing into other cells, but rather mutating into another form of the same cell," she was awake now. "The basics of the cell remains intact, it is simply the form it takes."

 

"Well, one might call it that I suppose, but it's not really, no. It's basically taking advantage of the full genome. In every cell there is so much info that is not used, the virus just picks the combo it needs and switches it on, thus producing the enzymes it needs. Or, rather, the enzymes a Soltan cell would be producing."

 

Lexia stood, genetics had never been her strong suit, and she knew that, but she was begging to get the picture. "It is using their own unused genes against them?"

 

Aidan looked at Tordai. "Wait, let me draw up a visualization of it all" He got the PADD and showed Tordai what he meant. "As you know genes encode proteins, one gene encodes one protein, proteins are the building blocs of life... well amino acids are, but proteins are strings of amino acids..." Aidan broke off and shook his head "Sorry Doc, you know this of course. I got carried away."

She crossed her arms and bit her tongue. She would address the use of Doc later, the kid was on to something; even if he was annoying. "Yes, get to the point."

 

Impatient as always, she wouldn't ever appreciate good storytelling. "The point is that a gene is made up of triplets of bases, one triplet encodes an amino acid, and many triplets encode a protein. Now the start sequence tell the enzymes where to start "reading" the DNA to get a protein, right. So a start sequence says 'this is where the gene starts' and the stop sequence... well, needless to say. So this virus basically alters these start and stop sequences, its restriction enzymes cut out the original ones where they're not needed and 'glue' in the ones it carries where they are needed. As the genomes are fairly similar, there's surprisingly little to alter. I mean, considering humans and pigs are genetically about 90% alike, if I remember correctly." Lexia nodded, " I would imagine that Gareem and Soltans are quite similar genetically. Continue."

 

Aidan felt that this was his chance, not to make her like him, she probably never would, but to show her that he was more than just a 'Middie'. "Yes, even Soltans and humans are similar enough. We have proof of that in the brig. So it only takes a few alterations, a couple of genes switched on and a couple switched off to make a Gareem or a human cell produce Soltan enzymes and pretty much turn the infected person into a Soltan."

 

Lexia paced a bit, her mind getting into gear. The kid was sharp, although she would be the last to tell him that. "Now the question becomes how to reverse or prevent the virus from altering the genetic structure of the Gareem."

 

"HAH!" Aidan wasn't able to hold that back. "Yes indeed doc, the cure, I'm afraid I can't really help you with that. You see even if we change the DNA back by re-sequencing, which is possible, it still wouldn't take care of the virus. Plus re-sequencing a whole organism with differentiated cells and such would take... longer than I dare to think through. We'll have to come up with something else." Aidan sat back and felt his headache coming back. In fact it always hit him when he thought about the cure, he just couldn't see a way to find one, not yet at least. He it was his turn to rub his temples.

 

Lexia turned, "If we entered an infected Gareem into light stasis, it might slow the process enough for us to examine it in action without slowing the patient's systems enough to leave them undefended."

 

Aidan frowned more because of the headache than because of what Tordai had said. "The problem is that we have no clue how to deal with the virus. The virus does not have a metabolism which we can play with, it's just a deadly breeding machine. On top of it all, we don't even know yet if it's naturally evolved or artificially created. If it was artificially created whoever did this would be plain stupid to not have invented a cure at the same time."

 

Lexia leaned against the wall. "True," she looked up at Driscol and caught him rubbing his temples. "We should take this information to Merril and the Command team."

Aidan looked at her. "Not a 'Middie's call, is it? I'm informing my Chief as soon as I get the chance; otherwise feel free to do it yourself." He started to massage his neck hoping it would release the tension some.

 

Lexia was not sure if she caught a hint of bitterness in that sentence or not. Either way it was indeed not a midshipman's, or an ensign's for that matter, call. "Sounds good to me," she said walking back over to the desk and picking up a blank PADD to record all this on. "If there is nothing else?"

 

"Well, actually there is." Aidan decided to try one more time to get along with the Doctor. He wasn't happy about the fact that someone else was going to get rewarded for all the work he had put in, but he knew that was just the way it was.

 

"Oh?" Lexia asked without turning towards him.

 

"First of all, I'm sorry if I've been a bit of a jerk, but that's just me. Look, I don't have to get along with everybody, not even people I work with, but I don't mind getting along with people either. And secondly, I have a major headache; probably due to lack of sleep and too much work, I would very much appreciate it if you could do something about it."

 

Lexia was taken a bit aback at his bluntness; she opened her mouth then closed it. Taking a slow breath she spoke, "First, I believe a working relationship does not require people to like each other. I also do not mind 'getting along' with people either; I just tend to not. Secondly..." she took a pause, a breath, and picked up a tricorder, "secondly you need sleep." She began to scanning him as she continued. "The human body can only function so long without sleep, and there is no medical substitute." She walked to the replicator and punched a few buttons. "However, this should counteract some of the pain," she said as she placed the hypo from the replicator to his skin and pulled the trigger.

 

Aidan smiled. "Thank you Doctor, I needed that. And yes, I should sleep and I probably will once I've been to the gym. As far as the getting along thing goes, it doesn't hurt to be nice, at least not as much as you seem to think. Insult me as much as you like, I haven't given up on you yet, Doc." Aidan got up and walked towards the door "Well, either way, thank you. I think I'll be seeing you sooner than you'd like."

 

The kid was blunt, she would give him that. "Driscol,"

 

Aidan stopped and turned around. "Yes Doctor Tordai?" He made a point of addressing her correctly this time.

 

Lexia leaned back on the desk and glanced at the coffee mug. When she spoke, her tone had softened a fraction...a big fraction for Lexia Tordai. "When I was young, my father was obsessed with coffee. He used to say it was the best thing the humans ever gave the galaxy. Our breakfast table was never without a pot," she paused for a moment, the barest hint of a smile drifting across her red lips, "I drank it all through med school and the Academy." She paused for a moment and looked at him, as if about to relinquish a deep dark secret. "I hate coffee; always have, always will. I swore it off after the Academy. I prefer tea."

 

Aidan was stunned and didn't know what to say. The usually so self confident Midshipman was actually speechless for a moment but then recovered and said seriously. "I'll keep that in mind for next time." He didn't want to push his luck so he turned and left the office inwardly smiling. He'd known she could be nice.

 

The door swished shut as the Midshipman exited. Lexia stood there for a moment, and then returned to work.