SD 241211.26 JL | Lovok, Keal, Terax | Built In A Day But Rome It's Not

Posted on Tue Nov 27th, 2012 @ 3:10am by Crewman Moriah Terax

1,058 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Romulan Ale.. I mean Aide
Location: Romulan Colony, Field Treatment Facility

The structure went up quickly, but organizing the interior so that it was functional had taken the better part of the day. Doctor Keál was buzzing back and forth from the Romulan medical center next door, acting like a giant insect, never staying in one place long enough to be caught. Terax was showing the crewmen where to put the last of the five biobeds included in the standard field treatment kit when Doctor Keál nearly ran her over.

"Nurse Terax, have you seen the bio-replicator I asked for. I have a sample of Romulan blood and need to synthesize a histidine substitute." Keál was anxious to get started on the temporary cure as there were several Romulan patients whose blood oxygen was critically low.

"Yes, Doctor, it's on the workbench at the back of the room, starboard side, second shelf." Moriah thought the gangly Caitian would jump out of his skin if he didn't slow down. She walked over to him and said, "Doctor Keál, take time to remember that you are no more than you are. The first rule of a physician is do no harm, that includes to yourself." She reached up and pulled a sterile hypo-tube from a rack full of them. "You will need this for the serum once you replicate it."

Keál knew she was right but he had left Doctor Lovok with a patient on the verge of death from hypoxemia. His drive to succeed was getting ahead of his ability to do so and that bothered him. "You are right, of course, Nurse Terax. Could you spare a few moments to help with the bio-replicator. We need to get the histidine to match up with that found in this sample." Keál held up a vile of green blood. "Doctor Lovok had this in cold storage from a time before the epidemic began and it shows healthy Romulan blood oxygen levels and an uncorrupted histidine structure. The trick will be to synthesize only the histidine complex and not the bonded oxygen as well. This will need to work in conjunction with the patients respiratory system or we could flood their bodies too rapidly with oxygen and give them oxygen toxicity."

Terax imparted a piece of knowledge from one of his former hosts giving Moriah an idea to speed the process. She collected the sample for separation in the centrifuge. and within a few minutes handed the base components of the blood now separated in individually labeled viles to Doctor Keál.

"Thank you, Nurse." Keál took the vile labeled "Histidine Complex" and placed it in the bio-replicator just as Doctor Lovok entered into the new field treatment facility looking slightly pale.

The last day had not been kind to Lhaerrh. Even before showing symptoms of the same illness he was tired and worn out from trying to save so many on his own. Now it was very much looking to take its toll.

"It seems your field facility will do the job nicely, doctor." he commented with a slightly strained voice.

"Doctor Lovok, have a seat, please. We will be ready to test this synthesized histidine in just a few moments, but in the mean time I would like to take another look at your blood oxygen levels you seem much more pale to me today." Keál pulled the tricorder from his belt and detached the scanner while walking over to Doctor Lovok. Keál waited for the scan to register its results on his tricorder and then compared the previous days reading. "Nurse, could you help Doctor Lovok into a biobed please?"

Moriah held out her arm to help steady her latest Romulan patient. "Doctor, could you follow me, please."

Lovok grew visibly worried, "How bad is it?" he asked as he was helped by the nurse.

"Your blood oxygen levels are dangerously low, Doctor. To be honest I don't know how you are still up and walking around."

"Romulan fortitude, Doctor." Lovok offered.

Keál walked over to the bio-replicator and loaded a hypospray with the newly synthesized histidine compound. "As I told you yesterday, this compound will break down just like your natural histidine so long as you are continually exposed to whatever is causing this deterioration. It should, however, keep you alive in the meantime." Keál held the hypospray up the the Doctor's neck and injected in directly into his blood stream. "Take a few deep breaths, Doctor. You should start to feel the effects within a minute or two." Keál stood back with his tricorder, scanning his patient as the histidine spread through his system.

Lhaerrh started taking several slow deep breaths of air and could almost feel some life return to his body after a few minutes, "Yes, better. I still feel fatigue but I am clearer."

"Good." Keál said as he monitored his patients vitals on the biobed readout. "We are not out of the woods yet, though. I would like you to stay here for another hour or so to allow us to observe how fast the histidine breaks down in your system. After that we can administer this to the rest of the colony on a schedule to avoid any casualties."

Keál wondered how the search for the source of the enzyme causing this problem was going. He had been running an atomic breakdown on both the pure sample of Romulan blood and a sample taken from an affected colonist. The process was slow based on the countless possible DNA and RNA codes that made up a single species but finding the enzyme responsible for histidine breakdown was paramount to the survival of the colony and Keál knew the science team would be looking for a needle in a needle stack if he couldn't isolate it. He had tied one of the field treatment facilities data consoles into the ships medical computer in hopes of speeding up the process. In addition he had the computer cross reference Doctor Lovok's notes and the Romulan medical text Lovok had given him for any oddity or undocumented abnormality. Thus far it had all been for not, and Keál was feeling the pressure. There was noting else left to do now but wait and that had never been Keál's strong suit.

 

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