Subject: (Untitled)

(Continued two days after "Antidote, part II"

<Sickbay>

Oku Ramin was there, in his chair, inside the cursed BioLab that had been his home for two bloody days. He was able to get samples from Lt. Taralak, but the tests were for no good. The only results he got were to control the infection and extend the patients' lifetime, but besides that...

Then Oku had that kind of dizziness when you are the hell of tired. And he saw.

That old man, the one with the white clothes, white beard, was in front of him again.

"What is it now?" asked Oku to him.

"Remember that you are a team, you are not alone in the ship and the people who command this ship is good. Ask their help. So they will help you."

Then Oku kinda woke up. There was again the sight of the green gauge of bacterial growth on the computer's console. Then he decided to get serious.

=/\= Oku Ramin to Captain Terrakian - he said with a dizzy voice - please, need to talk.

=^=Terrakian here. Doctor, are you all right? Nevermind. I'll be right there.=^=

=/\= Ramin to Dr. Ramius, please come to SickBay. I need your assistance

<"On my way," came the response.

Willaim strode into sickbay, cleaning his glasses with a corner of
the blue jacket that he wore almost all the time. He strode over to the
biolab, where Ramin was waiting.

"Captain, Dr., I have to speak seriously with you" Oku said, pointing at the console.

"Remember the screen I showed you last time?" Oku said with a worried face.

Ramius nodded.

Epic could sense the young doctors fatigue, but more than that, he
felt... fear. Maybe not fear, but deep... concern.


"Well" Oku went on "Mixed Romulan-Human blood antibodies had partial but not complete success in the treatment of the patients. And I think some of them would be experiencing neurological problems by now. I recommend to bring those wounded officers here for observation"

Ramius grimaced and ran his hand through his hair slowly. "I was afraid of that. The incompleteness of his Romulan DNA wasn't something we foresaw."
"The solution I am about to suggest" continued Oku, a bit scared and with a weak voice, "will be for no good, but I am wiling to take the risk."

Epic placed his hand on the mans shoulder and levelled an even gaze that emoted conviction. "We share risks here, Doctor. No one on the Grail fights alone."


"I need whole Romulan blood, and the only source for that is a true Romulan. Please send me in a shuttle or runabout to the Neutral Zone and I'll get one. I know the risks, but I prefer to do that rather than watch those patients die and not only those, but the entire ship because containment failed and... I am infected as well."

Epic considered the mans plan for a moment and nodded with a grimace. "If it comes to that, Doctor, the Grail will divert from its course and find a Romulan."

"It might not come to that, Oku," interjected Ramius. "I think that I've hit upon a way to keep those infected stable. Even though this bacterium is very tough to combat, we can try and stiffen the body's natural obstacles to it spreading. We can place the patients into an artifically induced fever. We can boost their T-cell count; even place neurological inhibitors that retard brain activity, keeping the bacterium from reaching the brain quickly but allowing the patient to remain alive. Now that we have identified the bacterium, we can engineer B lymphocytes in the patient's bloodstream to hunt for and specifically disable the bacterium, once we find out how we can defuse it."

"In that case, Dr." Oku replied, anxiously, "I volunteer myself for the preliminary tests. But as I can see, the only way to prevent the bacteria from reaching the central nervous system is by not only decreasing activity but also inducing mild ischemia (i.e. decrease of blood flow) and see what comes about.

"I have to leave the work to you, but I'll prepare the results of the patients' analyses at once."

"Of course, gentlemen, I trust your skills and your dedication to your science, but I must order you to perform these tests on others and not yourselves. If it should fail, we will need you both to continue to find a solution. I hope you understand."

OOC: Now it's up to you, Dr. Ramius

Joint post by: Capt. Epic Terrakian, Dr. William Ramius and Dr. Oku Ramin