Post 173 - Getting some information

Posted on Thu Dec 19th, 2024 @ 5:54pm by Lieutenant JG Maddy Dale & Lieutenant Thomas Ryan MD

1,306 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Secrets

The existence of a Synthulan expert was, depending on who you were, either a blessing or a curse. For Maddy it was most certainly the former, despite having the nickname 'Miracle Maddy' she felt like she was stumbling around in the dark with the Admiral's case, she understood the theory of the situation, she'd read enough on nanotechnology to know how it worked but she also knew that nanotechnology was a very tricky science and depending on programming it could be either harmless or extremely dangerous. As such she had to regard the nanotechnology they'd found inside Admiral Bradley as an unknown variable, a wild card to put it simply. What she hoped was that this expert, this Doctor Ryan, would have answers to a few key questions that they were facing. Tracking the Doctor down to a lab was easy enough.

"Doctor Ryan." Maddy said "Doctor Maddy Dale, ACMO. I need to ask you some questions about a bit of nanotechnology."

Tom had been working on getting all the information he had transferred up to the ship. Most of it was under lock and kjey but he was able, due to the circumstances and Dakota's yelling at the right people, to get everything up. He had been plugging in some information with what he knew about what happened to Chris when Maddy appeared in the doorway. He turned around from the desk and got up walking towards her hand extended to shake.

"Doctor Dale, a pleasure. I gather you had been working on Chri... Admiral Bradley's case. Ask your questions. I'm rather angry at myself for not noticing anything was going on. I am his personal physician as well as a best friend, and I would have thought I'd have seen something." Tom said.

Maddy went over to a wall console and brought up the image of the nanotechnology they'd found in the Admiral's bloodstream "Nanotechnology in the Admiral's blood, it's been attaching itself to his blood cells and self replicating slowly and presumably been doing so for the last eight years. If the Admiral's the needle in the haystack that the Synthulans were looking for then this is likely the magnet." she took a breath "I know the treatment methods that are considered when dealing with this sort of thing but I've never seen nanotechnology like this before. So my primary question is what is this technology going to do if we attempt to remove it or fight it? Is it going to ignore the effort or is it going to fight back? Does it harm the Admiral if we try to get rid of it?"

Tom looked at the screen. "Damn. That's more complex than we had previously seen from them. But, this I know. It has to be disabled prior to removal. Otherwise it will kill him. However, disabling it is complecated. That is actually something we hadn't figured out. Long story short, we had captured a Synthulan and were using their information and technology to learn from it. And they all have these... injectors in their fingers to inject these trackers into people they want to find again. The closer that person ends up to the Synthulan that injected them, that tracker starts to leak toxins. It's pretty interesting technology but that is only the good news. Unless we can find the Admiral soon, those toxins become poisonous and can kill him. He'll likely go insane first, and become very sick. "

Tom walked over to his console he was working on. "We have to find a way to disable their internal communications with each other. That in itself makes them vunerable. It would be perfect to rescue Chris at that time when they are in a mass confusion. However, we only have a limited window of time. Because they will eventually reset their communications with each other and everything will reactivate. We would have to rescue the Admiral, and then perform the surgery to get that device out of him all within a certain timeframe. Which is what I've been working on figuring out here. The issue is the slightest second off, could cause disaster."

"This may seem like an odd question." Maddy said "But what would that technology do if the Admiral did die?"

"Not odd at all. In the tests we have done, it has deactivated it self... Why what are your thoughts?" Tom said.

"Neelix." Maddy said "Stardate 51449.2 the USS Voyager had an away team do a protomatter retrieval mission in a nebula, in the course of that Neelix, the Talaxian on the crew was killed. He was revived using Borg nanoprobes from Seven of Nine aka Annika Hansen. That technique means the Admiral can die, we can then remove the nanotechnology from the corpse, pump fresh blood in and then inject nanoprobes to bring him back. If we don't know how to disable it then let's have it disable itself."

Tom nodded. "OI agree this might be the best thing to do. As long as I am there with you when we do this, I don't see any issues... as long as the higher ups are fine with it."

Tom thought for a moment. "I know this is a random request but do you happen to know of a person who specializes in nanotechnology? I was thinking, with the right codes, we may be able to reverse the tracking on the device and be able to find where the Admiral is exactly."

"The closest I know to that is Ewan Barker, he's a cyberneticist but he's not of the nanotechnology school shall we say." Maddy said "Doesn't mean he doesn't know theory but there are plenty of science nerds aboard the base."

"Ok. I think that might be a good theory to start then - trying to locate him that way. If we can figure that out, we will at least have that step up. I've also started working on a listing of weaknesses and other things we have learned through our research about the Synthulans. I Have a copy sent to the Captain, and would like to send it to the person leading the mission to locate the Admiral... I believe a Major if I'm correct." Tom said

"Lieutenant actually if you mean Charlotte Thrace." Maddy said

"Yes, that name sounds right. She would be the one I need to speak to I guess. Just so you know in regards to the Admiral. He's been healthy in all of his last physicals. Nothing truly out of the ordinary at all." Tom said.

"Out of the ordinary rarely counts for anything out here though." Maddy said "I suspect you'll find Lieutenant Thrace aboard the Inquiry Class that we've got docked."

Tom nodded. "What do you think the possibility is of me being on that mission? You know her better than I do."

"Normally I'd say none." Maddy said "She doesn't like putting people in harms way who aren't marines or security personnel, let alone those not in uniform. However you are also the only expert we've got and even after we get him out the Admiral's life is on the line so the odds may well be in your favour."

Tom nodded standing up. "Ok. Well, I will go try. After speaking with her, I'm going to continue looking into everything here. Making sure we aren't surprised by anything. If we do let Chris die and attempt to revive him, I don't want to be the one telling his wife, so I will leave that to you and the Captain for now. Let me know if you need anything else from me."

"If I think of anything you'll be the first to know." Maddy said

Tom headed out to look for Charlotte.


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Dr Thomas Ryan
Research & Intelligence

Ensign Maddy Dale
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
Starbase Obsidian

 

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