The Quest for Knowledge

Posted on Fri Nov 22nd, 2019 @ 8:05pm by

2,299 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: What Stalks The Night
Location: Away Team

There was near silence across the away team, aside from soft footfalls on the concrete floors and the occasional hushed whisper of a word or two. It was only as the group approached the first junction in the corridor that Bianca faltered. From her cursory glances at the map they had up in the original control room, she seemed to recall that that corridor housed the primary science labs. They had the key card from Stefan. Maybe they could find out what was going on, maybe the science labs would give them a way to beat this alien that was plucking them off one at a time.

Bianca set her hand on Vic's shoulder to stop him, pointing down the corridor leading away from them. "The science labs are down there, we should go and check them out. They might be able to give us some answers."

Vic gave her an unhappy look. He really just wanted off this station, but she was the boss. Even more then he disliked the detour he hated standing still. instead of objecting he went in the direction she had pointed. "Keep moving" He said in a hushed tone to the group.

Stefan followed, little else he could do at this moment in time but deep inside he knew sooner or later the secrets of this facility were about to be revealed. While he didn't know the extent of the damage to the labs he could only hope that inside proved to be a far safer place to be.

Xavier kept pace with the team as they moved hoping not to have a face to face encounter with what ever was hunting them. While glad that James was able to stave off impending death by explosion for the time being he couldn't deny the nagging want to find out why all the secrecy that shrouded this place.

As they edged down the corridor, Bianca checked each lab carefully. With the power stabilized, it was easy to see which labs were active and secured, she was looking for the one that James had taken offline.

They stopped walking, the security detail flanking around them, weapons drawn and ready as Bianca turned her attention to Stefan, almost as if she were about to ask him a question. Changing her mind, she bit back the sigh and pushed past Vic, opening the door and walking into the lab, the rest of the group right behind her.

Bianca stopped as they moved into the room, the security detail almost immediately dispersing around the room. "Stay within visual range," the Executive Officer cautioned as they started moving further into the lab.

Despite the lack of power, there was some visibility through the room from the emergency lighting, but even with limited visibility the stench of death and decay was overpowering. She could hear someone gag behind her and didn't blame them one bit. Instead, she pulled her sleeve down over her hand and covered her nose with it.

One end of the lab had an array of filing cabinets, one was still open as if the person who had been working there had departed suddenly. Looking back toward the door, Bianca noticed what looked like a severed forearm laying on the floor, blood pooling around it. It seemed like chances were they hadn't departed willingly.

"What the hell..." Bianca murmured as she looked around again before moving slowly forward, phaser and tricorder both drawn, Bianca glanced side to side, taking in everything around them.

A series of desks were in place near the filing cabinets, one had what looked like once upon a time it may have been a mug of coffee that was now a rancid mess. Papers were scattered across both the desk and the floor. She picked up one sheaf of papers, glancing at it quickly before she handed the papers across to Xavier. "Does this mean anything to you?" she asked before she continued moving forward.

Another line of cabinets and shelving stood in the middle of the room, acting as a divider. It was only once they moved beyond the divider that the rows of vats came into view, each vat containing various body parts. "Commander Patrovski..." If anyone was going to understand what was going on here, it was going to be their medical guru.

In the middle of all the vats was what looked like a metal surgical table, implements still on trays and tables surrounding it, their last 'patient', or at least what was left of it, seemed to be slowly starting to rot away.

Resisting the urge to gag at the visual, Bianca stepped back so Xavier could pass before turning her attention toward Vic and motioning toward Stefan. "Make sure he doesn't move," she said, her voice, although quiet, almost steely cold. "He knows what's going on and now he's going to start talking."

Xavier looked at the paper he was handed, then fished for another on the table to go with it. Engrossed in his reading he almost didn't hear the Commander calling to him. "One minute Commander, something like this I can't just give a quick answer."

Several minutes passed as too did several pages. "These are RNA re-sequencing tests including mRNA & ds-cDNA testing, cellular transcriptomes." Xavier looked up at the group. "Robosomal profiling, exon/intron boundaries." Another pause. "Single cell sequencing, situ sequencing of tissue samples."

Xavier looked up to consider that perhaps that meant nothing to almost everyone, but Stefan.

"They were taking samples of tissues from these various items." Pointing to the vats around them. "Plotting the genetic growth and development. They spliced together DNA. Created a suitable base template in which to grow physical material." Looking up at the group again. "Its almost like the genetic engineering that the Federation outlawed, they took a baseplate and spliced together DNA factors from other sources..." Xavier explained.

"A drop of blood contains DNA code, its incredibly complex, but if you splice it with factors from other sources you can influence the make up of the final product. Intelligence, strength, coordination, memory. Even in ideal conditions the outcomes can be varied....but this....without seeing more I can't begin to tell you what the end would be."

Bianca moved forward, listening to everything Xavier had said, not really understanding much but nodding anyway. She moved forward, holding her sleeved hand firmly over her face as she looked amongst the vats before turning and moving toward the table, looking down at the table, her face paled slightly before turning an unsightly shade of green.

It wasn't a patient, it was a creature. A creature that was alarmingly familiar, though instead of this one ripping her crew to shreds, it seemded like it had been ripped to shreds instead, or at least started disecting it anyway. It had been pinioned to the table, the contorted look of terror on it's face making it clear to anyone who bothered to look that it was not there willingly.

Bianca sucked in a breath through the fabric of her clothing before moving her hand away and looking at Xavier. "This is the creature we saw attack Jack, or at least something similar..." She turned her attention to the vats again, looking at the very last one in the row. "That looks similar too..."

As her gaze travelled along the row of vats, realisation dawned clearly on her face and she turned to Xavier. "They're running genetic experiments," she said quietly.

Without waiting for an answer, she turned around and stormed back toward Stefan, her hand grabbing him by the throat and pushing him backward against the filing cabinets. "You have five seconds to start talking," she threatened.

Stefan was mildly shocked by the outburst of the Commander who had swiftly taken him by the throat and backed him into some cabinets. He however was not without his own surprises as he grabbed her wrist with one hand and with the other pressure pointed sharply under the attacking arm. It was enough to free him and push her away. "If you can restrain yourself, you might think more clearly given whats just been told to you."

Stefan straightened his attire before he resumed speaking. "You have no idea what we do here. So take your pious moral high ground and file it away." He opened a draw and pulled out a PaDD. "That one bolsters the immune system against fungal viral agents." He pulled out another. "This one combats age related infirmity."

Stefan produced 3 more all with medical benefits. "None of this will see the light of day, not because of what it does but because of how it was discovered. Now, as you can see, medical discoveries are not the only things done here. Genetic Engineering helped Dr Julian Bashir of DS9 become a medical genius, what if you could create something that could be a weapon?"

Stefan pulled out another PaDD, on it showed information on very early trials of what they were doing currently before the disaster. "Look at the Jem'hadar. Genetically engineered, from birth to adult in 3 days, excellent vision, strength several times that of a human, the ability to shroud themselves, extremely resilient physical structure." Stefan continued. "Someone, somewhere is conducting experiments and if the Dominion war taught us anything is that no matter how detestable it is, how immoral it might be, we need those tests and its better we do them to than be left behind and have them used on us to see the effects." As if the Dominion war was not proof enough of the capability of genetics.

"You may not like what we do here, but consider for a moment what you enjoy now in life because of those experiments and the knowledge learned from them, used in moral and correct means for the betterment of all?" Stefan said glaring at the Commander. "In tests people die, sometimes for the right reasons, sometimes not. Ask him..." Pointing to Xavier. "Ask him if hes had to stop trying to save a life because it was the right thing to do? Ask him if hes had to look a parent, a lover, a sibling, a friend in the eyes and convince them that it was for the best? Because the way of life for the patient afterwards would be too dire?"

"Commander.." Xavier spoke towards Bianca. "As much as I disagree with whats going on here, he's got a point. Without experimentation we wouldn't learn, if something is hot how do we know, through sight, feel and touch. I may where this blue uniform, I may take an oath to do no harm and Im not saying the profession isn't without its stains, but there is an ugly truth to what hes saying."

Bianca didn't reply immediately. It took a lot to still the thundering of her heart and the white hot rage she could feel coursing through her body.

Turning toward Stefan, her voice was ice cold as she finally spoke. "Doctor Bashir was the recipient of mild genetic manipulation. Genetic engineering, what you are doing here has been outlawed by the Federation since the Eugenics Wars. *IF* your people had been honest about what you were doing there is NO way the Federation would ever have supplied you with the gel and we would never have been caught down here. Now, I've lost three crew members because you want to play God."

She drew in a sharp breath, turning away momentarily. Every fiber of her being was raging at her to just shoot him and be done with it. Instead, she turned a steady gaze on Xavier. "No," she said quietly. "There is no truth to what he's saying, just ugly. He has no point. What they have done is illegal. What are we supposed to tell the families of the three crew members that died? That it's okay? Doctor Frankenstein here has a point?"

Bianca shook her head again and turned back toward Stefan, rage still seething within her. "I want access to your communications system. Now."

"Who do you think put all this together Commander? Who do you think provided the funding, the materials, the gel?" Stefan mocked. "Thats right, the mighty Federation. The Federation that you seem to think can do no wrong well guess what Commander, welcome to my world and as distasteful as it might appear to you, you are stuck here." Stefan barked back. "And in case you missed it, there ARE NO communications systems down here. Access to the surface is from the control room and as your famed Engineer reported, that system is damaged and needs repairs."

Bianca stood for a long moment staring at Stefan, a look of pure disgust on her face until she turned around and cast a brief glance at Xavier. "Take anything you think you might need," she said calmly. "We're going back to the control room." With a sharp intake of breath, she turned toward Vic. "Keep him on a short leash, and I mean VERY short."

Finally, she turned a cold glare toward Stefan. "You had better hope and pray that our 'famed Engineer' can find a way to contact our ship, or so help me I'll feed you to the damned creature myself, piece by piece if I have to."

It seemed all the talking and raised voices didn't go unnoticed. A loud bang was heard, a hard thump against a door, a screech. The creature had returned lured by the noise made by the arguing. Stefan ran to the door arm out to press the emergency close button. Just in time too as the large thick window showed the creature crawling along the ceiling of the corridor towards them.

They were safe......for now.

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