Chief Science Officer’s Log, supplemental…

 

Doctor Nelli, Lieutenant Jurij, Ensign Door and I have successfully rescued our wayward away team.  Although the transporters still aren’t safe to use through the scattering field, Cellar Door was able to pilot the shuttle through to a safe landing.  We believe the jury-rigged holographic projectors were satisfactory in masking our arrival and our only interaction was with the massive fungus creature that was holding Ensign Danbo captive.  Danbo’s release was manufactured by little more than my own cunning.  Our escape to the shuttle and back to Constellation is complete.

Quickly cocooned in over a dozen holographic LCARS panes, Yuulik settled into the med bay’s nursing station for the long haul.  

She changed the height of the charge nurse’s chair and increased the brightness settings on the holographic projections.  Simultaneously, Yuulik reviewed Dolan’s tricorder readings of the mushroom lifeform on the planet, the Estéron’s sensor readings of other sentient plant beings, her tricorder readings during the rescue mission, and Addae’s current vital signs.  When Nurse Rals attempted to access another patient record from the far edge of the station, Yuulik shooed him off.  She would need that space later.

Addae and Dolan had reported on their experiences on the planet, but Yuulik felt confident there was more to learn about the mushroom’s strange dominating behaviour.  It presented as vastly different from the other plantlife Nelli had met on their undercover survey of the planet.  Yuulik wasn’t prepared to allow Dolan nor Addae out of her sight until she had drained every drop of knowledge from their little heads.

Only when Captain Taes strode into the med bay did Yuulik look up from her sensor data.  She made a hand gesture through the air and the holographic displays parted into two columns.  While still scrolling through the data columns, Yuulik watched Taes approaching Addae Danbo in the surgical alcove.

“Doctor Nelli, how is our patient?” Taes asked.  Reaching the foot of the surgical biobed, Taes touched the surgical support frame.  Addae looked up at her and smiled weakly.

A nurse said, “T-cell stimulator has had no effect, doctor.”

“Increase field strength on the protodynoplaser, ensign,” Nelli said to the nurse.

Nelli’s eye-stalks swivelled to monitor the changes on Addae’s biofunction monitor and then turned their trunk to face the captain.

“As you can see, captain,” Nelli reported, “Ensign Danbo is conscious and his vitals are stable.  However, his immune system has been suppressed and is slow to respond to treatment.  The risk is low in the med bay’s sterile environment; there are no indications of infections.”

Taes shook her head and asked, “Then what’s compromising his immune system?”

Swaying their vines to the right, Nelli indicated the tall LCARS panel set into the bulkhead beside Taes.  A sensor composite of RNA helixes rotated on the display.

Nelli said, “The gene expression of his immune cells has been altered by fungal RNA.  Evidently, the sentient fungi on this planet have achieved mycorrhiza symbiosis with humanoids.  On your birth planet, this can only be achieved between fungi hyphae and the root systems of flora.  Fungus provides water to the flora, and the flora provides sugar to the fungus.  Exchanges of RNA to change the immune system of gene expression is far more complex.”

Taes lowered her voice slightly to ask, “As complex as the symbiosis capable on your homeworld.”

Returning their vines to adjust the controls on the surgical support frame, Nelli said, “Phylosian mycorrhiza can achieve exchanges as complex as immune system adjustment and… more.  But never with humanoids.”

“Then how is this possible?” Taes asked.

“When our away team recovered Addae from the planet,” Nelli continued, “Yuulik examined the fungi.  She identified Borg nanoprobes in the cell structure of the fungi.  The nanoprobes had degraded, showing signs of dysfunction.”  Swaying a vine toward Addae, Nelli added, “No nanoprobes were transferred to Ensign Danbo.”

From another biobed, Ensign Dolan added, “The fungus accused us of being Borg drones.  They spoke of the Borg trying to assimilate them ‘seasons of seasons ago.’  Given the state of the nanoprobes, that would have been hundreds of years ago.”

Chiming in from the nurses’ station, Yuulik added, “We detected no nanoprobes among any other plant life.  Our analysis from the duck-blind suspected the eldest were only decades old, not hundreds.  They wouldn’t have been around when the Borg came.  We suspect the fungus is much older and extends for kilometres beneath the forest.  Those nanoprobes must have been the sensor ghosts that delayed our search for the Borg power source.”

On another LCARS panel behind the biobed, Nelli brought up sensor records of neurotransmitters.

“The neuro-electric transmissions within all of the sentients on this planet appear erratic by our understanding,” Nelli said.  “They have more in common with electric storms than the neurotransmitters in even this one’s body.  We suspect the chemistry of their minds was too disruptive for the subspace transceivers that connect Borg to the collective.”

Yuulik surmised, “When the Borg couldn’t assimilate the fungi and others of their generation, they must have abandoned this planet.  But they left the nanoprobes behind in the fungi.  That’s how I rescued Addae.  Once I recognised the nanoprobes in the fungi, I generated an electromagnetic pulse from my tricorder to destroy the nanoprobes, stunning the creature.  In their state of disrepair, the nanoprobes were susceptible to the pulse, but my range was only 10 metres.”

“If it’s utilising the nanoprobes to enhance its ability to trade RNA with other beings,” Yuulik said, “it’s our duty to destroy them all.  The Borg interfered with this planet and then abandoned it.  The prime directive demands that we remove the Borg’s influence and allow these beings to evolve independently without any of us.”

Taes frowned.  “The prime directive allows some leeway in removing an alien influence from this civilisation, but an orbital bombardment of electromagnetic pulses strikes me as… severe.”

Yuulik insisted, “The Borg already came back for whatever probe thing they left behind, captain.  If the collective has become so devastated, they’ll come back for the nanoprobes next and shred the fungi in the process.”

Taes looked at Yuulik, looked right at her.  

“You can begin simulations for orbital EM pulses from the deflector dish,” Taes said.  “I want your recommendations on how short the bursts will be, and what level of the atmosphere to target, to avoid the heating effects and magnetic fields from harming any life on the surface.”

“If you’ll excuse me,” Taes said, already moving for the exit, “I must reflect on the implications of your proposal.”

Taes had hardly strode into the corridor when Yuulik was up and clearing the displays on a few biofunction towers.  With their tall screens blanked, Yuulik accessing data about nanoprobes and the fungi instead.

“Dolan,” Yuulik instructed, “contact Nune, T’Kaal and Parze.  I want them down here in five minutes to work the problem!”

Trotting towards Yuulik on their four motor limbs, Nelli said, “Pardon, Yuulik, this is a med bay, not one of your science labs.”

“Look, I’m doing this to respect you,” Yuulik said patiently.  Or at least, in a timbre, she thought sounded patient.  “You want Addae and Dolan on bed rest.  They can stay in their beds, but I still need their insights now.  They know the fungi better than anyone at this point.”

“No, I cannot allow this,” Nelli said.

Shaking her head, Yuulik said, “Just pretend we’re all patients.  Nune has been looking awfully dehydrated.  It just so happens that his engineering know-how is just what we’ll need to murder those geriatric nanoprobes.”

“Yuulik, no,” Nelli said.

“What’re you going to do?” Yuulik asked.

“Computer,” Nelli said, “initiate a level seven quarantine of the med bay.”

“Ah,” Yuulik said.  “That?”