Something On Which To Base The Speculation

[DJ McKinny 0]

Med Lab 2.....not a bad place.....quite nice really.....as far as med labs are concerned. It was larger than the labs found on starships and it was nicely appointed as well.....stocked with state of the art equipment some of which was brand new....meaning it wasn't standard issue on most Starfleet vessels and facilities. In some cases, the equipment wasn't even available to Starfleet...at least not yet.

 

No matter what Drankum might think about "torturers" and their "evil" accessories, he never denied the medical department whatever they asked for. Some suspected he was quick to bring in the newest and most expensive equipment because he received handsome kickbacks on all of the orders. Of course, there was no proof of that and nobody was anxious to look into it. Some questions were better left....unanswered.

 

DJ was grateful for the comfortable environment. She had spent pretty much all of her time in Med Lab 2 searching for answers on the mysterious Athra. She managed to get home every evening in time to shower and sleep for a few hours. Gilbert was annoyed with her. He didn't appreciate the lack of attention and for the past couple of nights, he'd begun to express his displeasure.

 

It wasn't as though she'd abandoned him. Shelly, the 13 year old daughter of one of the engineers, was a great dog sitter. She spent a lot of time with Gilbert....made sure he ate and walked him two or three times a day. She even took him home with her after the 3 o'clock walk so he wouldn't be lonely. Shelly always brought Gilbert back around 2100 hours. DJ would usually make it in by midnight so her aging basset hound wasn't left alone too long during the evenings. But last night and the night before, instead of greeting her at the door, Gilbert looked up from his spot on the living room floor and gave her what could only be described as a dirty look. Then he got up, plodded into the bedroom and settled into his doggie bed. He refused to have anything to do with DJ.

 

She felt terrible about it and made all sorts of promises to Gilbert. She would take him to the holodeck for a romp on the beach and to one of their favorite spots in the Smokey Mountains or wherever he wanted to go. Through it all, he remained aloof and he didn't get up to say good-bye in the morning either. And it was all the Athra's fault.

 

It was now almost 1800 hours. DJ was still in Med Lab 2 where she usually was at this hour. But her heart was elsewhere and her stomach was growling....loudly. But there were still so many questions. She couldn't help thinking the answers were there, right in front of her, hiding in plain sight.

 

So what did they know? Quite a bit but not enough. These creatures, now called the Athra, were highly developed and extremely intelligent. They possessed 64 genes on a regular double helix DNA. However, they bore a striking resemblance to Terran crustaceans. One big difference between the Athra and a crustacan.....these guys had reinforced shells. They were augmented with some kind of metal. What type remained a mystery.

 

The Athra had organs but they were quite different from what you would find in a typical humanoid. Their livers and kidneys were merged as were the heart and lungs...all very efficient. They did have a separate stomach and intestines.

 

They had spinal cords and brains with nerves and those nerves contained neurons....just like humanoids. The neurons were typical. They consisted of soma, dendrites and axons.... again similar to humanoids. But their neural response times were considerably longer than that found in most humans. The axons arose from an axon hillock and they had a myelin sheath. So why did the Athra have such slow neural response times? DJ suspected it was because the axons were so much longer than those found in the typical humanoid. If this data proved accurate, Aegis might be able to use the Athra's slower neural response time against them when these mysterious creatures eventually reappeared.

 

The Athra had proven to be true blue bloods with extremely high erythrocyte counts. In many humanoid species, the erythrocytes were red due to the presence of iron to bind oxygen. The iron binds one oxygen atom per erythrocyte. In Vulcans, copper was the metal of choice The Athra's blood contained osmium which bound three oxygen atoms per erythrocyte and gave the blood its bluish color. Even more intriguing was the proportion of blood volume occupied by the erythrocytes. In humans, it was approximately 38% to 48%. The ratio in the Athra was 76%. In short, this new and challenging enemy functioned quite comfortably in low or no oxygen environments. The Athra were perfectly suited for long distance space travel. They didn't have to breathe very much....if at all.

 

On the flip side, their leukocyte count was extremely low. The leukocytes are part of the immune system, responsible for clotting and closing wounds. The Athra bleed easily and profusely when injured. This weakness might also be used against them.

 

There was another interesting question raised by the discovery of the osmium in the Athra's bloodstream. Osmium is a very heavy metal. The fact it is present in their blood led DJ to believe they originated on a planet with very low gravity. They came from Breen space, an area the Federation knew very little about. It seemed likely there was at least one planet in that sector with both low gravity and an abundance of osmium.

 

One of the newest and most promising discoveries was the presence of high levels of psilosynine. The Athra were likely telepathic and used that trait as their primary means of communications. Lillian seemed to think she might be able to reach out and touch them telepathically. DJ thought it sounded like a reasonable theory but it was extremely risky. If the Athra possessed a hive minded community, Lillian might suffer irreparable damage. Perhaps if they could capture a single living Athra. Even if it was wounded, if they isolated it in a quarantined environment, then Lillian might be able to communicate with that lone individual without threat of a mass attack from the entire hive. Again, it was all speculation at this point but at least they had something on which to base the speculation.

 

Her grumbling stomach disrupted her review of the data. Without another thought, she slipped off her work stool and started shutting down the equipment. She was going home for now. She'd pick up Gilbert on the way and treat him to some human food for dinner. Then they'd go for a long stroll along the dog walk. She could use the break to clear her mind. Perhaps she would come up with a new idea while she was spending a little quality time with her four legged pal. As she ordered the lights off and closed the door behind her, she wondered how much time they had left. The Athra would be back. It was just a question of when and there were still so many unanswered questions.