Act Two, Scene One

[Vertroue]

Arriving back to the Thunderchild, Erica knew she had work to do. She knew that she needed to get a hold of the Captain and brief him on what happened with The Gul, but all she could think about was the manner in how that interview went down. Going to her quarters, she needed a chance to just be alone. Turning off any but emergency calls she takes a shower trying to wash away the feel of water The Gul had done to the Major. After 15 minutes of standing there she knew she had to push on until the cycle came up for rest again.

Getting out of the shower and putting on a clean clothing, Erica pulls her thoughts together and started going through the messages she had on her terminal. Sending the ones needing attention others on her staff could handle, she selected the few remaining that needed her personal attention.

Reading through the findings on some of the queries that she had placed in regards to the questions that had been asked of her by the Captain before the interview. Many of the results were in, and after reading and rereading the ones from Dr. Bell she placed a call for him to meet her in her office for a quick briefing within next 10 minutes. The results of Dr. Bells review regarding the DNA samples from the captain, Major MacConnell and Soena were all very troubling to say the least.

Taking this time to change into a Starfleet uniform, Erica transfers her notes to a datapad and head to her office. There she finds the doctor waiting on her, Erica opens the door to him.

"Please sit Dr. Bell." Motioning to one of the leather chairs in the room Dr. McCoy brings up the files from Dr. Bell's research. Dr. McCoy sat there at her desk going over them yet again as Dr. Bell sat across from her. He was nervous and his emotions ran high. It was almost distracting for her as she continued to read.

She took in a deep breath, "This is remarkable work, Dr. Bell" she said. The man was clearly gifted at what he did even if he had the social skills of a cactus. "I think the senior staff needs to know this information" she added as she slowly rose up. "I also think it would serve you well to give this presentation to them."

He shook his head, "I...." he said as his eyes shifted, "I don't think so. I just don't know how to talk to them" he added.

She smiled, "Don't worry Doctor, I will be there with you." Normally Dr. Bell would have very limited social contact with the crew as he was in charged vast medical labs of the Thunderchild. While his follow laboratory techs have learned to coup with him, other crew members view him as standoff. Something Dr. McCoy wanted to help him with. She could not deny what he was able to do. In just a few short hours he had been able to do something that would have normally taken a lab twice the size of what the Thunderchild had days if not weeks to do.

She tapped her com-badge, "Dr. McCoy to the Captain" she said softly and waited for a reply. "Could you please summon the senior staff for a briefing? Dr. Bell would like to give you his findings." She said with a soft smile to the older Doctor next to her. "We will meet you in your ready room." She closed the link as she transferred her files to the Captain's Ready Room. She and Dr. Bell headed off for the briefing. Once the senior staff was formed, she allowed Dr. Bell to give his presentation.

Dr. Motya Bell was a small build of a man. He wore his Starfleet uniform well and his features were pleasing to the eye. But he had carried that almost nerdy aura about him as he stepped forward and spoke. "Thank you Dr. McCoy for inviting me to help you out on this remarkable project" he said looking at Dr. McCoy. He then turned his attention back to Captain Campbell, "and sir, I promise that my findings while shocking are accurate."


He paused and took a deep breath, "I must ask Sir, that you hold all of your questions till I am finished." He stepped forward and handed a data pad over to the Captain and added with a smile, "but I know it will be hard for you. So I have supplied a data pad so you can take notes so that you can ask me your questions at the end of my presentation." It was clear why Dr. Bell was not Chief Medical Officer. While the man was extremely intelligent, he lacked people skills. The kind of skills that Dr. McCoy had more than enough of.


Dr. Bell walked over to a terminal and activated it. "So we will break this down in to three separate parts. First we will look in to your own genetic makeup and history. Next we will dive in to your not so distant relative, Major Maura MacConnell. And lastly, we will spy in to the world of the all mysterious Lance Corporal Seona Melville. But before we begin, I have to tell you Sir. Before you ask, why are we only learning of this now? Normally the level of these screenings are time consuming and take up a considerable level of man power to complete. I personally had to call in a number of favors to get what we have now. These level of screenings are only done when there is reason to do them. And sadly there just hasn't been any reason to complete them on the three of you till now." He paused and brought up the first display of a genome.


"SO....." he said dragging out the ‘oh’ sound. It was clear that he didn't have experience in speaking before people, let alone superiors. "I will begin with saying this. You have a mother and father. And they are who you think they are." he said then paused to make sure he worded that right. "Yes, your parents are who you remember them to be. Yes you were also tested positive for Krussk Syndrome. I was able to pull your medical reports of the blood tests while you were still in your mother's womb. There was a second opinion and a referral within those medical reports that indicated that abortion was being considered. However as you can tell that didn't happen."


He brought up a new image but did little to explain this one just like he failed to explain the last one. "What I found was that your genome was over written after birth. From what I can tell, there is no pattern to what these over writes were supposed to do. I have dug in to a number of simulations only to have my simulated Captain Campbell die between age ten to twelve. So I can't guess to why they are there. Now I did discover that you share common markers with both MacConnell sisters, your parents and with an unknown subject. Don't worry, this unknown subject only accounts for fourteen percent of your genome."


"Now this is where it gets really cool. So you share markers with your mom, which would be expected. But you also share markers that would indicate that Major MacConnell is your mother. But it doesn't stop there. She also share markers with you that would make her your father, sister and cousin. Sounds crazy? Yeah I know. But these markers are not conclusive. One set of markers you share, we would expect to see those similar markers further down your genome shared also. However that is not the case." He sped through the image showing off the different markers but not explaining anything about the.


Winded, he paused to take a breath before continuing. "Now, allow us to look at Major MacConnell. As you know, she is your not so distant relative. But what you don't know is that she had no parents. I know, the reports called her an orphan." He said laughing as he found something humorous about all of this.


"And that couldn't possibly be closer to the truth. I have never seen this before. But her genome clearly shows no common markers for any mother or father. Her genome does have links to yours and this unknown subject, and there is genetic material to fill in gaps in the genome. But these gaps were not filled by a single mother or father like we have. She shares forty percent of her genome with you and twenty percent with this same unknown subject. I was not able to confirm any markers from your mother or father. But they may be there at very small margins. I guess you would be the closest thing to a father, mother and sibling that she might have. Well beyond her sister. Now, she too had Krussk Syndrome. IN FACT!"


"Her strain of this genetic disease was completely identical to your own. I can't explain this, or give reason why anyone would do this. But it appeared as if your strain was cloned and the Major was infected with it. But if this is true, than it happened before her birth. Now her genome has markers that seemed to be able to fight the disease. Simulations shows that her body was much more resilient to fighting off your strain of the disease. But like our simulated Captain Campbell, our simulated Major MacConnell also died around age thirteen."


He paused to shift through his slides that he had neglected to change. He started to get frustrated over the fact that he lost his place in his slides. Finally Dr. McCoy stepped up and turned off the terminal, "you are doing fine. Just keep going."


He nodded and turned to face the captain, "So Corporal Seona Melville, like her sister has no parent within her genome. And shares markers with you and her sister as well as this unknown subject. In fact she shares nearly forty five percent of her genetic markers with this unknown subject. She doesn't share your infection with Krussk Syndrome. I did notice that where her genome shares markers with yours and her sister's, it was from Seona's over writing on to your genome. Again, I can't explain why this was done. I can only tell you it was done."


"There is a couple of notes that I should share. Maura's genome showed a heavy influence in the same area as would be expected from Betazoids. So I can verify that Maura was most likely telepathically strong. While Seona shares the same level of influence in these markers, it is not as strong or heavy. There is a likely hood that she might be telepathic, but more so kind of like an empath. Also, both sister's Starfleet Medical files as well as sections of your own were sealed by the orders of an Admiral L'tus. So this is the strange thing about it. I could find no trace of this Admiral serving in Starfleet or why these files were sealed. The information I have given you today comes from friends who owned be favors. LOTS of favors." He finished and allowed Dr. McCoy to step forward.

"Thank you Dr. Bell. Captain," Also looking to the rest in the room."Before we start on some of the other question you had for me, do you have any for Dr. Bell?"