Virus Investigation

Posted on Fri Aug 25, 2017 @ 7:00pm by Lieutenant Commander Alex Rho & Commodore Michael Aravan & Lieutenant Commander Kelani Tetanal & Lieutenant Gilah & Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Barnes & Lieutenant JG Zander Devereaux & Ensign Athyle sh'Paveress

Mission: Strange Matter
Location: Hazmat lab 1, sick bay complex

Gilah sighed as she pulled the hazmat suit up over her uniform. Her daughter Yolana was sleeping now in sickbay having suffered another telepathic incident. She was one of a few Betazoids born with telepathic ability and was still going through the process of being able to control of the sensory information that flooded her young mind. The sudden move from Starbase 43 to the Triumphant had affected her ability to cope and these episodes, something that Gilah had hoped were a thing of the past had resurfaced with a vengeance. Much as The Klingon wished to be by her adopted daughter's side in the paediatric unit there was much work to be done.

As she fastened and pressure tested the hood of her suit Doctor Gilah tried to put the events of the last hour, in fact the last day from her mind and focus on the investigation of the virus they had discovered on the Romulan warbird. So far her first big test as head of department had not gone well. She was determined to change that.

Suit tested Gilah hit the door release and moved into the lab, spying Lieutenant Tetenal already at work.

"You have my apology for my tardiness, Lieutenant" she started, moving into close proximity with the half Betazoid Science officer. "Have you discovered anything so far?"

"No apology necessary, Doctor,". Kelani replied quietly. "For me, family must come first. Is your daughter all right?"

"That remains to be seen. She is resting, sedated now." Gilah's normal outer wall of Klingon bravado was strangely absent - it was clear she was worried. "She is more capable of controlling the telepathic information after a rest. It is a lot for a young mind to handle."

Kelani tried to hide her surprise--a Klingon with a telepathic child? She spoke slowly, unsure of Gilah's reaction to what she was about to offer. "Perhaps I can be of help Doctor. I am half Cairn--born telepaths--and I had to devise methods to protect my mind from unintentional contact. If you wish, I could try to teach your daughter...."

"That is a kind offer" Gilah smiled slightly in return. "Yolana is one of the few Betazoid children to be born with telepathic ability. Even on Betazed they can struggle. Your experience would be very welcome. Perhaps we can arrange that after we have made some progress here?"

"It would be my pleasure," Kelani answered. "I remember very well what it was like before I learned to protect myself. I hope I can be of help to Yolana"

Kelani sighed, "To answer your question, Doctor, I have not made a great deal of progress as of yet. I have been attempting to isolate the components of the virus producing compound, but the analysis so far is ambiguous at best." She looked up at the Klingon woman saying, "Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated."

The Doctor Nodded slowly, considering the issue at hand.

"Are you certain the virus came from this compound? Could it be an unfortunate Coincidence that the two appear to have travelled together?"

"That is a possibility,". Kelani said, considering in her turn, "That begs the question--how was the virus transmitted?"

Gilah's brow furrowed as she looked at her colleague.

"I'm not sure I understand what you are asking Lieutenant."

"I had assumed that the compound was the means of transmitting the virus. If it was not, we have a deeper mystery." She felt a chill run up her spine as another thought hit her.

"That leaves only the probe as the means of transmittal."

Ensign Corved Vol was monitoring the readouts of the probe and listening the conversation. "What if your assumption is correct, Lieutenant? As long as we're brainstorming avenues to research, I'd like to look into that one more. The fact that the virus and the compound were meant to be together." It was then that the Trill's console started beeping erratically. "Uh oh, Lieutenant's we're about to have a major...." He was cut off in mid sentence when the radiation alarms started going off. "An extremely high yield electromagnetic energy is flooding sickbay!"

"Is the Hazmat lab containing the problem?" Gilah asked the Ensign quickly."

The Trill tapped away at the console. "No...we're losing containment. I can't keep the quarantine forcefields up. Must still be some damage from the attack."

Kelani rushed to a console, saying, "We must use emergency power to try to augment the field. If that does not work, we must leave this area and jettison the pod--hold it in place with a tractor beam."

She worked feverishly, sparing a quick look to Gilah, saying, "Doctor, could you please inform the Commodore?"

Gilah nodded, her face a picture of tension. She thumbed the internal communications.

=/\= "Gilah to Commodore Aravan, we have suffered a containment breach in hazmat lab one. Quarantine force fields are failing!" =/\=

Michael tapped his combadge when he got the message. =^=I'll have someone down there soon as possible.=^= He thought about all the damage reports that were already being sent in and looked over at Barnes. "Think you can handle a containment breach, Chief?"

Tom had looked up from his console the instant the message came through from the lab. Whether Tom thought he could handle the situation or not did not matter. It had to be averted. He nodded to the Captain and instantly rose from his chair. Slapping his badge, he called out, "Damage Control Team Charlie to Hazmat Lab One. Operations, bring the auxiliary generators online and seal off that section. Forcefields, ventilation, everything!"

Various confirmations came through as Tom disappeared into the turbolift. There was likely no time to put on a hazmat suit, especially if that virus managed to escape.

Ensign Vol was tapping away at his console trying to get...something up. "The forcefields haven't come back up yet. And according to what I'm seeing, the radiation is getting out."

"Send me a map of the affected areas" Gilah told the Ensign. Once she had it Gilah attached it to text orders and sent them through to her assistant mobilising the medical staff to start treating crew in the affected areas with anti-radiation medication.

"ETA of The engineers?" she asked him after.

The swish of the doors served as an answer to the Doctor's question. Chief Barnes and Ensign sh'Paveress both entered, each one carrying a toolkit and open tricorders. "Ensign, see what you can do about that EM surge," Tom said, moving to join the other senior officers. "I've got secondary containment parameters in place for the surrounding sections in case this totally fails," he told the group.

Standing at the console next to the Science Officer, Tom began to access the local controls for the forcefields and EPS grid. "I'm going to pull power from everything around here, replicators, life support, whatever else. Try and refocus the field emitters into a narrow band frequency. We may have to rebuild the quarantine field in phases."

"Working on it, Master Chief," Vol said. He input the parameters for refocusing and watched. Grimacing, he adjusted them in the hopes of getting it to the right frequency so that it would work. Well, at least this phase of it. "How's that?"

"Ensign!" Tom called out to Athyle, hoping for a status update.

Her console only buzzed in reply. "There isn't much I can do!" she cried back.

Looking over to Vol's work, Tom winced. It wasn't much, but it'd have to do. "Good. I'm going to reset the power modulators and polarize the couplings. That should buy us a bit... more... time..." During his speaking, Tom's hands were flying as fast as humanly possible along the controls. "This should do it..." he said after a few moments. "Engaging forcefields now."

=^=What's going on in Medical?=^= the voice of Zander Devereaux called over the comm. =^=We just got a huge power drain and we're only working with two warps right now. Warn a DCS next time!=^=

=^= The hazmat field has been compromised,=^= Kelani replied, allowing Tom to concentrate. =^=There was no time for notifications.=^

Ending the communication, Kelani returned her attention to the forcefield monitors, watching for any fluctuations.

"If we can stabilize the field long enough to evacuate the pod and seal it off, it will be a relief," she said tensely.

"Get a transporter lock on the probe" Gilah added quickly. "I will not risk the safety of the crew for this... thing."

Though they were a couple seconds delayed, the forcefields sprung back to life. Energy and sparks flickered on both sides for a second until they began to run solid. Tom quickly performed a level five diagnostic to confirm they were stable before he began work on reinforcing the integrity of the field. "Looks like we got it," he said after a few moments. "We're stable."

Ensign Vol returned to where he had been working prior to the whole...mess. "Electromagnetic radiation is decreasing throughout Sickbay. Looks like it's just a matter of cleanup, treatment, and back to whatever this is."