Possession - J.M. Dillard [76]
“Aye, sir,” Crusher said meekly, but it was clear she didn’t like the order.
“Mr. Worf,” Picard said, “regarding Skel—I believe it is in our best interests to request he once again resume his residency in the quarantine unit. I’ll explain this to him myself after our meeting. I’d like you to accompany him to sickbay, but under no circumstances are you to permit any physical contact between you, nor are you to meet him eye-to-eye. Physical and eye contact are both critical in the transference of these entities, and we have no way of knowing what their effect would be on a Klingon metabolism.” It was a notion Picard didn’t care to consider at the moment.
“Aye, sir,” Worf agreed.
“It may be safe to assume that Mr. Data may be the only member of the crew immune from these entities,” Picard told them, “though I can’t guarantee that.”
Data nodded. “Theoretically, you are probably correct. My optic nerves are more mechanical than organic, and organic optic nerves appear to be critical for transference. Even if I could be infected, my lack of emotional response might be, for once, a distinct advantage. Once within my positronic network, the entities would no doubt starve to death.”
Picard nodded. “The next problem we must consider is the Vulcan science vessel, Skal Torr. She will be arriving here within ten hours. We can still advise her to return home. I hesitate involving the Vulcans in this, especially when you consider how profoundly they were affected by this same disease years ago.”
“Excuse me, sir, but the Vulcans have come a long way to be told to go home again,” Riker said. “And suppose the entities aren’t on board? Counselor Troi has impressed upon me the importance of getting those artifacts off this ship. For all we know, their very presence could be what’s affecting Deanna. If so, she might not recover until they’re removed. I don’t think warding the Vulcans off at this stage is our best move.”
“Just how did the starship crew cope with the infection when it appeared on their ship?” Worf asked.
“They discovered the entities could literally be starved to death,” Picard explained. “They require almost continual feeding unless they’re in stasis confinement, such as the artifacts provide. Their feeding is what causes their host to act violently, and the more violence and strong emotions the host experiences, the more feeding his entities can enjoy, which is why the violence always escalates. The crew anesthetized the entire ship with a gas inhalant that put everyone to sleep for twenty-eight hours. This caused the entities to starve and die. When the inhalant wore off, the crew was cured—and all displayed the sort of memory-loss pattern that appeared in Ensign Evans’s brain scan. I considered trying that again, but we don’t have twenty-eight hours to spare. The Vulcans will be here in ten.”
“I might have a solution,” Crusher chimed in. “Technology has improved in the last eighty years. We could anesthetize the crew successfully while at the same time adding a compatible compound that would accelerate everyone’s metabolism so that their bodies would literally speed up, shortening the amount of time we’d need to keep them under.”
“How much time would we need to sleep?” Picard asked.
“I’d have to calculate several variabilities to take into consideration the alien metabolisms on board, but I suspect I could collapse the time needed down to as little as four hours.”
“Excellent!” Picard said. “Number One, I’ll leave it to you to coordinate the shipwide shutdown of all unnecessary activities for this period. You’ll need to notify team leaders, liaison officers, and family group leaders so that everyone is prepared for the shutdown. Normally, I would ask Counselor Troi to assist you; however, considering