Panspermia

[Savros 0]

To: Grima Center

 

CC: Alexi Juno, Zen Ba'alyo, Hans Seiben

 

Subject: Disturbing insights into a Space Virus

 

Encryption: Restricted access, Secret Clearance

 

Grima Center,

 

I am not an expert in microbiology or even a medical doctor. However, my recollections of the events at the Obi VI colony cause me great concern and I have decided to pass on my insights in this memorandum. I have restricted the access to Secret Clearance and encrypted this file accordingly. I trust that you can modify the clearance requirements as you deem appropriate.

 

It was determined through investigation that the Obi VI virus originated from space. The Challenger's sensor logs show the pathogen was detected on a comet, some debris of which was in orbit around the planet at the time of our response to the disease outbreak. The confirmed presence of a pathogen that can travel through space without the aide of a starship is disturbing.

 

Most humanoid species are quite frail. They require a narrow range of temperatures, atmospheric gases and are easily damaged by any number of things not the least of which is the vacuum of space. If we were to consider the possibility of prolonged survival in space without a suit, a humanoid would have to put its body into a dormant state. The pores of its skin would need to close with the strength to prevent the body from losing any number of fluids and gases such as: blood, tears, sweat, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, etc. The body would likewise need to suppress a number of regulatory processes such as: digestion, follicle growth, cell reproduction (blood, skin, and organ), etc. As it travelled through space, it would be subject to extremes of temperature and radiation at levels that would destroy cell and tissue both exterior and interior to the body. In order to survive, the body would have to become a sort of capsule, providing only the minimal amounts of these functions necessary to sustain life.

 

Certain microorganisms are known to go into a dormant state. Bacterial spores on earth, for example, have been reanimated from the digestive tracks of amberized bees thought to be some 25 to 40 million years old. Some scientists in the 20^th Century claimed that they have found spores that survived temperatures ranging from -269 to 3000^oC. They propagated the theory that single cell organisms traveled through the stars over millions of years to begin life of new worlds. This theory has not received acceptance by the Vulcan Science Academy, which questions the validity of the research.

 

The current condition on Obi VI may be the first real evidence of panspermia, the theory that life originated from microorganisms drifting in space. Although bacterial or fungal spores are more likely, it is theoretically possible for other agents (like viruses) to be carried in such seeds. Whether the virus travelled in a spore of its own making, in a host, or by some other means is not known. It arrived and is capable of mass destruction.

 

I see two possible outcomes of attempting to kill such space travelers. One, we will kill it through conventional means. Two, we discover that this pathogen is highly evolved and is difficult to destroy. If the latter, a glancing blow from a phaser may not destroy it. Thus, we may see it again.