Everybody's Workin' on the Ferengi Cure

Posted on Sun Oct 29th, 2023 @ 11:04am by Commander Chalan Kendri

1,823 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: Campor III - Resupply
Location: Deck 12 Sickbay
Timeline: MD C13 1230 hours

=/\= ON =/\=

Commander Chalan walked into Sickbay to check in on Dr. Takanashi and the team she had put together to work on the lab results. She made her way to the laboratory area of Sickbay and found Takanashi and McIntyre working diligently.

"I know it's still early to know much, but I came to check in anyway. See if you needed anything?" Kendri asked from the doorway.

As the Commander enters, she could hear music playing from the integrated speakers in the walls of the lab. Old Earth music of the Rock Genre, a song called "Main Street" by the Earth musician Bob Seger. It was a slower song but it had a good beat to it. The Gruff Caitian was hard at work over a sample, carefully using an eye dropper over a Petri dish. His glasses were perched on his nose and he had an expression of serious concentration.

J.R. then looks up from his work, a curious purr coming from his lips. He was now wearing a while lab coat over his uniform.

“Oh Commander.” He said not having noticed her entering. “Computer, pause music” The computer beeped and the music stopped.

"Not at the moment. We're waiting for samples to run through analysis and such." He accentuated his point by the eye dropper and petri dish in his gloved hand, as he turns his head curiously to Dr. Lenn.

Dr. Lenn piped up from the corner, hyper-focused on a simulation she was running. "We had some ideas late last night. I'm running a few simulations over here. I think it is a fair assessment that we are closer than we were yesterday," Maya commented. "Last night's medical team brought in some more blood samples after shift, Ensign Kerr is testing them now to see if we can find anyone else with antibodies."

Lenn didn't require as much sleep as most humans, she'd been working late into the night and was at the lab early this morning.

"Let me know if we need to get you anything," Kendri offered. "It's lunch time, have either of you eaten? I could bring you something."

"I haven't eaten and I'm most positive that the good doctor might be in need of food." J.R. nods as he sets down his work, snapping off his gloves as he came around the table."I could use a break anyhow."

"What can I get you guys?" Kendri asked, "I can grab you something from the replicator for now, but if you want something delivered for dinner, there's a barbecue place on Deck 19 you might like."

"I wouldn't mind some Barbecue, but for now, a small cobb salad with no tomatoes would be lovely," J.R. replied with a friendly smile.

Maya didn't leave her station. "Perhaps just a vanilla protein drink, formula four if you don't mind, Commander."

"My pleasure, Doctors." Kendri went to the replicator and brought the team their orders.

J.R. nodded in appreciation.

While the others were eating, Nurse Kerr exited a nearby room carrying two vials of yellow Ferengi blood in small flat case made for that purpose. She saw that the doctors were taking a meal break. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but we have another individual with antibodies. From the samples brought in last night."

Dr. Lenn stood up from her seat and walked briskly to Lissa, taking the PADD Lissa was carrying with the results. Maya passed the PADD to J.R. "This could help us correct the stabilization process we've been having. This individual is female, and has a different blood type."

J.R. took the PADD with a nod, readjusting his glasses to read over the reports.

"You're right, this could be what we need. Let's run a full work up and extract the antibodies from the samples and compare them to the others. I also want to get more blood samples of different blood types and compare the findings between them. Maybe we can find a link that'll help us nail this down."

"We have almost 200 samples," Lissa offered. "Between what we brought back with us after two days planetside, and the medical teams bring more back with them each shift. What do you need, Doctor?"

J.R. pondered for a moment, parsing his lips in thought before he replied.

"I'd like to read over the contract tracing reports, the water quality samples and have the ship's virologist meet with me to bring me up to speed on how this virus was spread in the first place. How was it introduced? Is it naturally occurring to the planet or was it introduced by a third party?"

J.R listed off what he wanted done, taking charge with a professional demeanor. "What I am looking for is how the virus works. How it only attacks certain blood types. Why is it only targeting Ferengi blood, but not anyone else. Why doesn't it affect Humans or Caitians? Is there something in the Ferengi blood that makes them more prone to catch the virus." J.R took down notes on his PADD.

"Our theory quickly became that it was bio-engineered, and it's getting to them through the water supply. Ferengi who only consumed water from matter synthesizers were not falling ill," Chalan replied. "It didn't appear to be naturally occurring. The water was clean, until it wasn't - right before the treatment facility we starting seeing the virus. Ensign Kerr took samples from the pipeline leading from the tower to the settlement, and the concentration of the virus there was even higher - after going through the treatment facility."

"Ensign Kerr can get you up to speed, but I'll have Lieutenant Foley report to you right away. He's been helping the science team figure out how to treat the water." Kendri nodded as she turned to leave. "Looks like you guys have some promising leads, I'll let you get to work."

J.R. nodded to Chalan as she turned to leave. "Thank you, Commander. We will keep you apprised of any new findings we may come across.

He turned back, studying his notes as he went to sit back down at the table.

Lieutenant Foley stepped into Sickbay, and made his way to the laboratories. "The XO told me to report here. How can I help?"

J.R. looked up as Foley entered. "Dr. Foley, I need your opinion on this virus, as you are the Ship's Virologist, I figured I would you to bring me up to speed on the virus and what you know of it. The Commander also told me you helped with the water system alongside the Science Team."

"We have a working theory. We can do some now, but until the sabotage threat is gone, we're hesitant to build anything, or even share our plans," Foley answered.

"I had a thought: How does this virus interact with the Pyrocytes in Ferengi blood? I remember a class on blood-typing and the study of different blood types and Ferengi blood carries a special cell called Pyrocytes to help ward off major diseases and infections. Could this virus be interfering with those cells." He posed to the group like an academy lecturer.

"The pyrocytes..." Foley repeated. "There aren't many people in Starfleet who even have them, so our standard testing protocols would not have been set to detect any changes the virus may have caused. We can a look the good old fashioned way, though.

"Let's run a level one scan on the samples, checking for pyrocyte interactions with the virus, hmmm?"J.R. ordered calmly, professionally, hoping that he may have stumbled onto something. "If it is the Pyrocytes then we may have struck on a way to aid in the creation of a vaccine. Once we've done that, let's meet back and compare notes."

"I can do you one better, Doc. Lissa get me a sample would you?" Alex asked as he accessed the labs micro-cellular microscope. When Lissa handed him the sample, he placed a few drops in a petri dish and inserted it into the machine. "Let's just take a look first."

The main viewscreen displayed the small blood sample on the cellular and micro-cellular level. Alex also displayed an image of a healthy pyrocyte next to the blood sample. There was a distinct difference.

"From what I see already, there is a massive difference in these cells. The virus seems to be latching onto the pryocytes and attacking them directly," J.R. commented as he looked over the images on the screen.

"If a course of treatment kills the virus, but the patient's immune system is unable to repair these cells, the patient will still be in a very weakened state. Since the pyrocytes are such a key component of the Ferengi immune system, they likely won't be able to recover," Maya added. "This could be the stability issue we've been having in our simulations."

“Agreed. Let’s focus our efforts on the Pyrocytes. If we can find a way to keep the pyrocytes from dying from the vaccine, it’ll go along way. Lieutenant Foley, do you concur with this?” J.R. asked Foley.

"I agree. It's usually easy to kill a virus, it's not damaging any other systems in the process that is the challenge," Foley responded.

"Perhaps the metabolic scans I did would be useful?" Lissa suggested. "We did a complete workup of endocrine, immune, metabolic, and nervous systems of both Krata and Kephi. Kephi doesn't have the antibodies that Krata has."

"Indeed, let's get them punched up on the screen there, we'll compare the data and see if we can sniff out anything useful from them," J.R. beamed at Lissa with that happy kitty smile.

"Right away, Doctor." Lissa typed a few things into her PADD, and placed it on a table, and the results of the internal systems' scans projected as a three-dimensional holo-image next to the screen that Alex was using.

Dr. Lenn walked from behind her station to the holo-projection, her eyes scanning the results. "Indeed, there is an enzyme that Mr. Krata's immune system is producing in much greater quantities than Nurse Kephi's." Maya walked back to her chair and searched the data that the Ferengi hospital had shared. "Yes, his numbers are more elevated than the average Ferengi. We should run some simulations that add the enzyme to our current formulas and see how it reacts."

"Good Idea, if we get a base comparison on how the virus interacts in different subjects, we can use that to determine the best dosage that can be applied to everyone." J.R. typed into the computer, adding the notes into the simulations to run. He purred in thought, hoping that this would be the breakthrough they'd been looking for.

"Let the simulations run for a bit, we can return to them later and then have a better picture to come back too."

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