Over Troubled Water, Ferengi Medical Crisis

Posted on Sat Oct 28th, 2023 @ 6:45pm by Commander Chalan Kendri & Lieutenant Commander Johanna Lyngstad & Ensign Ivitha zh'Vaoreth

1,330 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: Campor III - Resupply
Location: Science Labs
Timeline: MD C12 1500 hours

=/\= ON =/\=

Earlier in the day, when the team had arrived back to the Columbia, Lt. Foley had left the blood samples with the medical department, but brought the water samples along with the settlement's water treatment facility schematics back to the science department. The schematics were up on the view screen and the samples still in their protective cases on the main lab tables.

Johanna had looked at the duty roster for her science team to see who was free to work on the water supply dilemma. Foley was a must, as the team's expert in virology. The archaeologist Ensign zh'Vaoreth would be a good addition as an expert in water treatment facilities on other worlds and how they had handled similar crisis. She scanned the duty roster and found Ensign Vashir was on duty right now. This would be a good experience for the physicist.

Her team now settled, Johanna called for them to assemble in the lab.

Foley was already in the lab, and had begun running samples through the more sophisticated equipment on board the Columbia.

Ensign Vashir was excited to be assigned to a project with the Chief Science officer. She had been hoping that she would be given more opportunities to work on major projects. To work on a project with her commanding officer was a great opportunity. She walked into the lab with a smile on her face and a PADD in her hand.

"Hello, Commander," she said nodding to the Chief Science Officer.

"Ensign Vashir. Good to see you again. I assume you are up to speed on what are doing here."

"Yes, Ma'am," Vashir nodded, holding up PADD. "Find a water treatment plan that kills this virus."

"...right, yes. Thanks, Tolana, I appreciate it." Ivitha smiled sweetly at the redheaded lab tech just beyond the doorway before stepping into the lab. She had a huge stack of PADDs in hand, which she dumped onto the table. "Right! Here's nearly every conceivable way we could possibly help these people. Well, I suppose that's a bit of an exaggeration, but-" Ivitha grinned and picked up a PADD. "-I think we have something. Has anyone ever been to Savit IV? The colony of Vulcans? Well, I think they may have something that might help."

"That's an interesting idea, Ensign. But if we do that, we have to make sure that nothing else if affected by the treatment plan." Johanna picked up one of the PADDs. She turned to Ivitha. "What is your idea, Ensign?"

Alex turned his attention to Ivitha, curious if her plan would work on the stubborn virus.

"So! Once upon a time they too encountered a virus targeted towards... Vulcans! Yes! There's something in their biology that makes them a little more susceptible to heat retention disorders, being from a hot deserty planet and all." Ivitha grinned. "Guess how it was transmitted? In their water, of course! Their solution was to simply use a powerful filtration screen in their main supply, where it was, made up of nurazon particle generators. Nurazon particles don't alter the chemical composition of water, thank goodness, but microbes and such are really, really susceptible to it! Especially viruses." Ivitha picked up her PADD, swiped on it and pulled up a report of the incident as well as schematics for the Vulcans' final design.

"Think of it as pushing water through laser beams." She summarized after letting the rest read through what she'd prepared. "The best bit? Those generators are very, very easy to make with our industrial replicators and can be focused with particle beam compressors - which are also easily replicatable! So, what do you all think?"

"We'll need to test the nurazon particles against this particular virus before moving into any large scale plans," Alex stated. "Ensign Vashir, if this works, would there be a way for us to treat the entire water supply all at once with some kind of blast, and then let the filtration system continue to work if the virus is reintroduced?"

Vashir had a thoughtful look on her face. "Possibly. I'll do some research. I'm not aware of it being done before, but if it looks like the particle are effective against the virus, I can work with engineering on whether we can use the deflector array to deliver something like that," she pondered. "Otherwise, we may consider equipping a few of our science probes to methodically traverse the water supply and irradiate the water starting at the tower, and moving their way from downstream up."

Alex nodded, "We can test the particles against the water we brought back, but if it works here, that's too controlled to know for sure. We'll have to follow up with simulations, and a trip back to the planet to set up a small scale model."

"OK, that sounds like a plan. Start the test of the particles against the contaminated water and see if destroys the viruses but leaves the water safe for the Ferengi to drink. Once we are sure it works, we can use a larger blast to treat all the water on the planet." Johanna liked the sound of the plan.

"Alright, Vashir want to help me get these nurazon particles ready to test against the virus?" Alex asked. "Ivitha, can you get a simulation ready to run? We can input the data after we run some preliminary tests.

"Can do. I'll be back." Ivitha scampered off to one of the computers and began typing rapidly. Her antennae swivelled to point straight at the screen; she was in the zone, alright, and focused.

TAG IVITHA &/OR JOHANNA

As Alex and Vashir worked together for a few hours in a controlled environment, the radiation seemed to have an effect on the virus. "Why not use something stronger?" Vashir asked. "I can think of half a dozen things we can zap this water with that would kill everything."

Alex laughed. "Well the goal isn't to kill everything. Though I'm afraid that even if this works, there's a bigger problem to solve before we install it."

"The sabotage," Vashir nodded. "If we build it and whoever is behind the virus finds a way to override it, we'd have done pretty much nothing."

"Commander Lyngstad," Alex announced. "I think we're ready to run some computer simulations with Ensign Ivitha's concept. We have the data we need."

"All right. Let's run those simulations and see what happens." Johanna was confident.

Alex started the simulation, the simulation itself and coordinating results on the lab's large viewscreen. It displayed the design of the filtration system, how the nurazon particles would be exposed to the water, and it's effects on the virus in the concentration levels currently present in the water. When the simulation completed, it showed an 88% effective rate.

"Better than zero." Ivitha remarked, antennae twitching. "I'd like that to be closer to one hundred, actually- computer, please adjust simulation parameters to ensure maximum effectiveness?" She watched with satisfaction as the computer adjusted some of the parameters of their simulation, such as the position of the generators and power settings of said equipment, bringing effectiveness up to 94%. "Better." Ivitha glanced to Johanna and the rest. "I think we'll have ti run a few more simulations to ensure consistency, but I think we're on the right track!"

"Agreed," answered Johanna. "Good work so far."

"If we decrease the concentration of virus that is in the water, this may work to remove all traces of the virus from the water," Vashir commented. "It's a good design, it's just working too hard."

Vashir turned to Commander Lyngstad, "Permission to coordinate with an engineering team? I believe we should be able to use the deflector array to treat the water supply. Even if it drops the viral load by ... say 50% the filtration system wouldn't be so taxed."

Johanna answered, "Permission granted. Good luck, Ensign." Johanna was glad she had added Vashir to the team. It was good experience for her too.

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