“Perhaps we should set the protocol issues aside for the moment,” Counselor Cambridge suggested.
Janeway inhaled deeply and released the breath in a long, slow count of five. On a good day, she could make ten. Today was clearly not going to be a good day. Apart from trying to make sense of Ensign Gwyn’s report, she was also struggling to wrap her brain around the fact that apparently Lieutenants Kim and Conlon had recently become parents.
“For the moment,” Janeway agreed. Turning back to Sal she asked, “How certain can you possibly be that Ensign Gwyn completed this bonding with an embryo?”
Sal shook her head. “Not as certain as you would probably like. Not certain enough to unequivocally support you ordering the fleet to seek out creatures that could easily do to us what they did to the Galen. I’ve lived long enough to know that fear can be healthy. The biggest mistakes I’ve ever made were when I consciously chose to ignore mine.”
“But it is possible?” Janeway asked of both Sal and Cambridge.
“It seems so,” Cambridge replied. “I’ve never encountered a bonded Kriosian, so I, too, am shooting in the dark here. That said, Gwyn’s assertion rings true to me, and it does explain her miraculous recovery from a state that, while synthetically created, certainly appeared to be serious and terminal at the time.”
“Go through it once more,” Janeway requested.
“Ensign Gwyn—” Cambridge began.
“Not you,” Janeway said. “Doctor Sal, please.”
Sal reached up to rub the back of her neck. “Starting where?” she asked.
“Close enough to the beginning so that I have all relevant facts,” Janeway suggested. “Bearing in mind, of course, that time is very much of the essence if Ensign Gwyn is right.”
Sal nodded in understanding. “Thirty years ago…”
At this, Janeway stepped back and rested on the edge of her desk. “Is it possible to bottom-line anything that didn’t happen in the last few days?” she asked.
“All right,” Sal continued. “Suffice it to say, the people of Krios were not completely honest with their fellow Federation members when they joined our union. There is always the possibility that those who negotiated their entrance into the Federation were aware of the facts I am about to provide, but our official history has certainly forgotten it.”
“Bottom line, Doctor?”
“Bottom line, while the Kriosians have always maintained that a very small portion of their population contain the genetic tendency toward empathic metamorphism, the biological fact seems to be that most Kriosians carry the necessary gene, even if it is a recessive variation.”
This was news to Janeway, who could count on one hand the number of full Kriosians she had met in her years of service. Her understanding was that Ensign Gwyn shared half her genetic heritage with that species.
“Apart from the ethical dubiousness of rewriting their history, why is this important?” Janeway asked.
“For most people, it is a curiosity, nothing more,” Sal allowed. “But for me, and for Nancy Conlon, it recently became a matter of life and death.”
“How so?”
“Metamorphic cells are the most malleable that exist, eclipsing even embryonic stem cells in their capacity to rewrite damaged genetic code. Lieutenant Conlon’s condition is such that it is likely only these cells would be capable of curing the defect in her DNA’s ability to repair itself, which has been the cause of her most troubling symptoms since the diagnosis was first made. We were unable to use Lieutenant Conlon’s embryonic stem cells, as we did not receive permission until they were too developed to be of use to us. The only other option I could see was to gain access to a group of metamorphic cells.”
“Did Ensign Gwyn possess these cells?” Janeway asked, beginning to see what might have driven Farkas to bench her CMO.
“In theory. I tested her blood cells and found the appropriate genetic sequence. I then replicated a series of hormonal injections intended to activate those sequences.”
“Ensign Gwyn agreed to the procedure?” Janeway asked, surprised.
“She agreed to allow me to use her cells to help one of my patients. I didn’t feel comfortable going into too much detail out of concern for Lieutenant Conlon’s privacy.”
At this, Cambridge shot Sal a look of clear derision.
“It would have worked,” Sal bellowed in response.
“We’re going to discuss the ethical boundaries you may have already run roughshod over in due course, Doctor. For now, please continue.”
“Between the time I administered the injections and could retrieve the activated cell cultures, Ensign Gwyn was sent on an away mission. During that mission she was attacked by something that breached her EV suit and exposed her to a great deal of exotic radiation. Upon her return, she was immediately given a course of antiproton therapy by your old EMH.”
“So, what you’re saying is that had it not been for the unfortunate radiation incident, your therapy protocol would not have actually activated Gwyn’s metamorphic cells,” Janeway surmised.
“The point of the procedure was to isolate a small number of metamorphic cells,” Sal said, nodding. “The radiation exposure kicked the process initiated by the hormonal injections into overdrive, producing billions of additional metamorphic cells, and once that happened, Ensign Gwyn began to experience the finiis’ral.”
“Got it in one this time,” Cambridge teased.
“Shut up,” Sal retorted.
Janeway favored them both with an impatient glare.
“We were still in the process of attempting to find a cure for the finiis’ral that did not include Gwyn bonding with any of the available crewmen, thereby permanently suppressing her own personality, needs, and desires in favor of her mate’s, when the condition appeared to reverse itself,” Sal finished.
“Did you run any tests to determine how that had happened?” Janeway demanded.
Here, at least, Sal had the grace to appear appropriately chagrined.
“It was a little difficult. The fleet had been ordered to leave orbit and Gwyn had left sickbay and stolen a shuttle. I asked her to report to Vesta once she returned, but before she could do
