Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Aasrel Izei (Chief Medical Officer) in Nothing is Guaranteed

Posted by Captain Sara Kiernan (Commanding Officer) in Nothing is Guaranteed

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Bethany Kovra Gadi (Chief of Security) in Nothing is Guaranteed
Posted by… suppressed (12) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
It took only moments for the tests to be run on the sample, especially when the alarm sounded on the tricorder. There were only a few things that set of such alarms: contagions (none detected), unknown matter present (none detected), toxins (none detected), foreign bodies (none detected), foreign organisms (none detected)… or illicit substances or other Security triggers (… … …). But to complicate things, the result that set off the alarm was locked and required Command Level Security Access to view. That meant one of three people: the CO… the XO… or the ship’s Chief of Security.

GM

Bethany sat up. She’d heard enough alarms in sickbay the last few weeks to know something was wrong. “What is it?”

Bethany

“Security alert, my credentials aren’t high enough to access the results of your blood tests.” Aasrel said, giving the PaDD a confused look. “Here. Do yours.” He said and handed her the PaDD.

~ Aasrel

Bethany sat all the way up. “What?” He didn’t need to be empathic to pick up the incredulous confusion in her voice. “You’ve done dozens of blood tests on me in the last months. You’ve never been locked out.” She took the PaDD and started to put in her clearance code and stopped. She had this gut feeling that once she did, she would be in a living nightmare that she would never wake up from.

T’Jal had always told her, ‘Your ignorance won’t protect you from reality.’ Better to know. She entered her access code…

Bethany

Ahe entered her code, and what was displayed made no sense.

The alarm was triggered by a centuries old alert designed to identify specific genetic sequencing models; specifically those in Human DNA. And while Bethany’s normal blood had been tested many times through the years of her career… the majority of blood inside her wasn’t her own. Hence the alarm when the tricorder, which as a mobile device that still had Federation data current to the moment the ship’s computer core was severed from the Fleet, made the connection and sent out the Priority alarm.

An alarm indicating sample that was tested was from an Augment.. Not a modern illegal genetic-manipulation… but a sequence specific to the program that Augments who nearly destroyed humanity and who ushered in a Second Dark Age on Earth.

Augments like Khan Noonien Singh.

Bethany was saved by perhaps one of the most dangerous and destructive enemies the Federation had ever known. A single Augment destroyed dozens of Federation starships. Destroyed entire planets. Killed millions of individuals across myriad civilizations.

And, as of a few minutes ago, was on board their ship.

GM

Bethany read over Aasrel’s shoulder. She didn’t know exactly what that meant for herself. What it had done to her, but she knew what she had to do. She cursed softly. “We have to tell the captain. We could get in a lot of trouble for this. Me especially, but we can’t not tell her.”

Bethany

Aasrel nodded. “I really don’t want you in trouble but we can’t not say anything.” He frowned to himself. “I should’ve had someone watching him. He’s probably gone by now.” He shook his head. “No wonder you healed like that. It’ll wear off as your own blood recovers, thankfully. But some.... Uhm, ally you have.”

~ Aasrel

Bethany couldn’t think about that now. It was too late to tell her people to lock the ship down. If the mysterious donor was worried about being caught he would have left already. If not, they were all in trouble. She couldn’t even begin to contemplate what the person’s motives were or why they would risk being discovered now. And for her. “We didn’t know, you just needed a blood match. If we hide it, we’ll be in more trouble. Not to mention the havok this person could cause if we don’t find them and make sure people are looking for them. We might lose our careers,” she shrugged. That was a small price to pay for doing the right thing.

=/\=Gadi to Kiernan. Captain I need to see you in the CMO’s office, right away. It’s urgent.=/\=

=/\=On my way.=/\= She responded.

“You’re office will be more secure.” Bethany got up and crossed sickbay and went into his office to sit down.

Gadi, COS

A few moments later the Captain walked in. Seeing Gadi, she sat down on the edge of the desk, looking down at the Security Chief. “So? What’s the emergency?” Sara had been tense since this assignment began and something about this situation promised not to help.

-CO

Aasrel sat behind his own desk. He glanced at Bethany and then the Captain. “Commander Gadi here, just a few hours ago, was dying of an internal bleed.” He began. “I found her a donor, under the name of Petty Officer Michael Sorov…” he recounted the tale of going looking for the officer while trying not to blow covers, encountering the bajoran, the way that man had suggested it wasn’t worth helping if he didn’t know who needed the help, then the way he had reacted to Bethany’s name. “He threatened the lives of the crew if Gadi were to die.” Aasrel said. “Then I connected him as a blood donor to Gadi and… All the sudden, she was healed. No bleeding, no injuries, not even a scar. No illness, either. No meds, no racing heartbeat, none of it.” He shrugged. “So we ran a blood test on Gadi and received these results, locked behind a command level access code.” He gave the Captain the PaDD. “Whoever that donor was, he was an Augment. Like, from the Earth Eugenics wars, almost three hundred years ago.”

~ Izei, CMO

“I used my command codes to unlock the restriction. I have no idea who the man was. I have no one on this crew that I know of that would feel so strongly about it. I don’t know why he was such an accurate match.” She sighed. “I don’t know what this means for me, Captain. I know there will be repercussions later on, but right now, we have someone very very dangerous on this ship, we don’t know who he is, why he is here, or where he came from.”

Gadi, COS

Sara sighed a long, deep, frustrated sigh. “Well thank you for keeping me in the loop on your adventures. Have you discovered anything… unusual in Gadi’s biology? Anything to explain the rapid healing? And what exactly became of this man with the miracle blood?” She sincerely hoped that he was nearby and available for questioning. “You keep referring to him in the past tense.”

-CO

“She’s part El-Aurian, but that doesn’t explain the healing.” Aasrel said, shaking his head. “He disappeared once Gadi was healed. He could be anywhere by now. Sorry, Captain.”

~ Izei, CMO

“The blood came from an augment. They were designed to heal rapidly. I would assume that carried over in the transfusion. I don’t know. I didn’t even know I had El-Aurian ancestry until I got sick, and Dr Izei did a genetic test on me.” Gadi sighed heavily. “If he wasn’t afraid of being found out, he wouldn’t have run after the transfusion. It’s been long enough since he disappeared that if he wanted to be gone, he is. I only woke up…” she glanced at the doctor, “20 minutes ago? I’ll run the security tapes and do a search.” She didn’t have hopes of that working though. “But, Captain, the only thing saving us from the FedSec, Section 31, Intel, SFSecurity, and a joint task force of our allies from coming down on us, is that our ship is no longer connected to Star Fleet HQ. They haven’t received notification of the alarm. Once this is over and they do, we’re all going to be in deep trouble. If you feel the need to lock me in the brig to protect yourself and Dr Izei, I understand.”

Gadi, COS

“That is one of the worst ideas I’ve ever heard.” Sara stared daggers at Gadi. “I cannot lock you in the brig for receiving a transfusion. Break a rule and then we’ll talk. FedSec and Intel… we have them onboard. We can figure this out without calling external officers. Before you run the security tapes, feed any biometric data we have on the donor to the transporter crew. If they find him at any point, beam him directly to the brig. I want to have a conversation.”

-CO

Aasrel sighed in relief at the Captain’s disdain of locking up Gadi. “I have plenty of biometric data, Captain, but he has some way of hiding it from the scanners.” He said with a frown.

~ Izei, CMO

Bethany appreciated the Captain’s disdain, but she also knew the laws didn’t look at cause or fault when it came to augmentation. “I’ll do my best to find this person, but I honestly will be surprised if they stayed in board. And if he can hide is biometrics, it will be harder.” It was going to be an old fashioned man hunt. “We’ll have to talk to Pikelsimer and Blue. They know who was ‘altered’ into whom. This is a nightmare.” She didn’t want to involve them, but it wasn’t up to her. Thankfully that was the captain’s call. She didn’t envy Kiernan her job.

Gadi, COS

“Go to your office. Run the cameras. If you find him, bring him in. Alive if at all possible. Send a lockdown order for all shuttles, but keep it quiet. If anything leaves this ship, I want to know about it.” Sara stood up. “Izei, still send all the data you have to the transporter crew. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll make a mistake. Make sure they’re looking on and off the ship. Anywhere he could possibly be. Anywhere at all.” She turned back to look at Gadi. I’ll talk to the spies and see where we stand. If they try to lock you up- I will. Not. Allow it. Is that clearly understood?”

“Yes, Ma’am.” Bethany stood concealing a grin. Well at least she wasn’t going to jail, yet. This was a nightmare. She knew she shouldn’t have unlocked that PaDD. Too late now.

=/\=Blue, Pikelsimer, and Calloway meet me in my ready room in 5.=/\=

-CO

With a couple clicks of his PaDD, the data was sent to all who needed it. “Done. Both the fake scan and the real one, sent off.” He looked at Bethany, “I want to stay with you.”

~ Izei, CMO

“I’m still under medical observation as far as I know. If I need a chaperone, I’ll deal with it. Besides I didn’t see him. I need you to identify him, Doc.” Once the captain had left (for a meeting she wished the woman luck with), she moved out of medical and headed toward the nearest turbolift.

Gadi, CoS