“I haven’t,” Sal admitted. “But that’s largely because I didn’t try. I assumed that it was a result of her possession by the Seriareen consciousness, but none of the scans made while he was still in control of her revealed any obvious injuries or mutations that could account for the changes to her DNA. Frankly, I was operating under the belief that her own immune system, reacting to the alien presence, attempted to respond and that resulted in the alterations to her DNA.”
“A reasonable assumption,” Sharak agreed. “One we all shared.”
“I focused entirely on finding a way to help her DNA regain its damage repair functions…”
“While we monitored her for any new disease processes resulting from the damage to her DNA,” Sharak finished for her.
“So, this is my question: Did we miss something?” Sal asked.
Sharak considered this for a moment, then said, “You believe we acted precipitously?”
“Given that this was a singular case, and none of our test results showed a possible cause, we dismissed the notion of searching for one,” Sal said. “But maybe we shouldn’t have?”
“None of her work-ups showed any evidence of an obvious infectious agent,” Sharak reminded her. “But that does not mean none was present.”
“Where would you even begin to look?” Sal asked.
Sharak shifted his gaze from the screen, sitting back. “As an intellectual exercise, let us assume that the invasion of her consciousness was the cause of the damage to her DNA. This would suggest that the mechanism was introduced by the consciousness itself.”
“It’s not like we have numerous, or really any, other examples to study,” Sal said, “but from the point of view of the Seriareen consciousness, an entity that had evolved to infect multiple host bodies, it does seem possible that it also evolved a means to limit the host’s ability to reject it.”
“You believe it altered her DNA intentionally?”
“Maybe?”
Sharak nodded. “Anything is possible. Without evidence, however, it is only an interesting supposition.”
“The attack was centered in her neural pathways,” Sal said. “And most of the secondary disease processes we have treated were also neurological.”
“The invading consciousness would have to target individual cells, effect the alteration to her DNA in such a way that would compromise her immune response, and suppress her normal repair mechanisms. Very specific knowledge of the host would be required to do so without also killing the host, and I would assume that evolution would select for modifications that did as little damage as possible.”
“I don’t know about that,” Sal said. “I mean, they had the ability to jump to new hosts at will. Any old body would do. Maybe keeping their hosts alive indefinitely was never a priority or was secondary to preventing rejection.”
“It is, forgive me, what is the term? Upside-down thinking?”
“Counterintuitive,” Sal offered, remembering that Sharak’s mother tongue was not Standard. “But only because we’re not used to thinking like the Seriareen.”
“A moment,” Sharak requested, then began to work his data panel.
“What is it?”
“It occurs to me that while there are no other human patients to consider, we do have thorough scans in our database of three other individuals who were compromised by the Seriareen.”
Sal was struck by the revelation. “I am an idiot.”
“Not in my experience,” Sharak retorted kindly as he continued to work.
“You’re talking about the other three possessed individuals, ones we transported to our ships and detained,” Sal said.
“Precisely,” Sharak said. “All were processed through sickbay prior to their incarceration. No infectious agents were detected, but the scans themselves might prove illuminating.” After a moment he added, “I have transmitted the files to you. I suggest we begin a new analysis. Let us search these scans for any evidence of DNA damage to the other hosts, Emem, Tirrit, and Adaeze.”
“Do we have baselines for these species?”
“We do. You should have files in your database for the Devore, Turei, and Vaadwaur, respectively.”
“Thank you, Doctor Sharak.”
“It is nothing,” he replied. “ Niana at Rorestan.”
“I apologize, Doctor. I don’t understand that reference.”
“Good hunting,” Sharak said.
“To both of us,” Sal agreed.
“So, the good news is that there are literally thousands of asteroids within the inner belt that could be used to attract the attention of the Edrehmaia,” Admiral Janeway said. “And the bad news is that we have no way of creating the necessary conditions to activate them.”
“It appears so,” Seven replied.
As soon as the away teams had returned with this new intelligence, Janeway had called a late-night briefing with Seven, Patel, and Torres. The four sat in the admiral’s office around a low table strewn with sandwiches, fruit, and mugs of tea and coffee. More casual than most official briefings, the gathering reminded Janeway of the many times she and her fellow cadets had pulled all-night study sessions in preparation for particularly difficult exams.
“How hard would it be to capture one of the smaller asteroids and bring it aboard?” the admiral asked.
“To what end?” Seven inquired.
“To access the inert Edrehmaia substance,” Janeway replied.
“I would not suggest coming within arm’s length of it,” Seven said.
“Without proper containment, I agree with you,” Janeway replied. “But Commander O’Donnell is working, as we speak, on a way to safely experiment with it.”
“Clearly, it can be done,” Patel said. “I expect he’s using the metal fragments we found at Station One.”
“Yes. And I have great faith in his persistence. I think he’s taken personal offense at the notion that other species have already done so with apparent ease.”
“It is absurd to base one’s self-worth on comparisons with others,” Seven noted.
Janeway turned to Seven with a quizzical smile. For a moment she was transported back in time to Seven’s first days aboard Voyager. Even now, there remained occasional rare hints of the angry, superior, dismissive, and completely lost young woman Janeway had forcibly severed from the Collective. But she had come so far in eight years of exploring her humanity. Even this small insight would have been well beyond Seven once.
“The species
