Episode # 40: Agricorp and Colacorp

(Stardate 49566)

By

Jay P. Hailey

And

Dennnis Washburn

 and

The Star Trek Players

"We have to save those people!" Dr. Burlington exclaimed.

I rolled my eyes. "Please, Doctor. We don't want to make a rash decision, here."

"While you're thoughtfully considering all the ins and outs of the situation those astronauts are gasping their last breaths!" Burlington said bitterly. "Lives are at stake and time is of the essence, now make a decision!"

I looked pleadingly at Carlos Mendez. He was my Executive Officer and an experienced ship's commander in his own right. He shrugged. "I want to stay out of the middle of this one. There are good arguments on both sides."

I looked to Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo, my Ship's Councilor. He was also the chief social scientist and a well regarded diplomat. He darkened and his scent grew musky. He resembled an over built octopus colored in pinks and lavenders. "It is a fascination question...." His vocorder temporized.

"This is clearly a Prime Directive matter." I said. "I swore to surrender my life and the lives of everyone on this ship rather than break it."

"Why is this a Prime Directive issue?" Burlington cried. "You leapt in to save the Kurr people quickly enough!"

"That planet is obviously a primitive world..." I began.

"Oh! I see. The Kurr people had warp drives bolted to their space craft and that makes all the difference!"

"That's a good bench marker, yes!" I yelled.

"Maybe we should tell them about the Harmon. If they hung on your words like the Kurr people do maybe you'd save them, too!" Burlington sneered.

"That's enough Doctor!" I bellowed. "Be quiet and be civil or find some where else to be."

Burlington flopped back into her seat harshly. She felt that to abandon the astronauts orbiting the wrecked planet below us would be murder. I found it hard to blame her.

"What was that you said when we spotted the Kurr ship, Captain?" Kamaline said.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

"Next time it might be us." Mendez said.

"All right. We'll beam those people off the space station. Dr. Burlington prepare your sickbay. We'll beam them straight in and straight back down to their planet when you declare them healthy." I said.

Dr. Burlington leapt up and ran from the briefing room to ready her sick bay.

She didn't have any more time to waste on useless command decisions...

-*-

The planet below us was a class M world in the throes of a civilization collapse. Large cities were burned out shells. The infrastructure that an industrial society needs had failed. Starvation and disease had taken a fearsome toll on the population. I hoped that whatever they were fighting about had been worth it. Most people clung together in refugee encampments, but many roved in small groups, still fighting.

We couldn't identify the factions in the fighting or what they were fighting about. Occasionally we'd pick up organized signals but they seemed to be pathetic remains of their civilizations. They were commercials.

In orbit a space station hung. It was a rude thing barely a tenth the size of the starship Discovery, a pinned together collection of tin cans and modules. It reminded me of Space Station Alpha at the Starflight Museum. This one had held on for a couple of years past the end of its home civilization, but now the people inside were dying. Their escape capsule was dead of some malfunction, and now their life support had quit. As I got to the bridge, the sensors were telling us that the station was no longer class M inside. The air was too polluted with carbon dioxide and the temperature was 150 degrees.

"Transporter room two. Are you ready?"

"Yes, Sir." Ensign Heppa answered.

"Sickbay, are you ready?"

"I have six beds standing by. We're ready." Dr. Burlington said happily.

"Beam them out." I said.

A few moments later the space station was abandoned and the astronauts were safely in our sick bay.

-*-

I waited a couple of hours before I went down. I didn't want to joggle Dr. Burlington's elbow while lives were at stake.

The aliens were typical humanoids. Their hair varied from pink to lemon yellow, and their noses ran halfway up their foreheads, but otherwise they seemed like pretty normal people.

"Dr. Burlington, what's your report?"

Burlington looked up from her readings. "They are well within what I'd call the normal range for humanoid people. They are suffering from a fairly extreme form of low gravity adaptation syndrome. Their bones and muscles have wasted away to a dangerous degree. I am treating with regenerators and some physical therapy. They should be safe to beam down within the week."

"Okay. May I speak with them?"

"Sure. I don't think they're too coherent just yet, so don't expect too much."

"Thank you Doctor." I walked over to one of the six patients. He was taller man, very thin with orange hair.

"Greetings." I said.

He opened his eyes and looked at me. He seemed exhausted. Changing from near zero G to a full gravity did that to people.

"Agricorp or Colacorp?" He asked me.

I looked at him for a few moments. "I'm sorry I don't understand."

He looked at me strangely. "Are you Agricorp or Colacorp?"

"I'm not sure how to answer that. Are those nationalities on your world?" I asked.

"On my..." He seemed stunned.

No getting around it now. "We're travelers. We have only just discovered your planet."

"So you are neutrals. Not part of the Great War." He said.

"No. We take no part in local struggles." I said "Unless the Doctor throws a real tizzy." I thought. I didn't say it out loud.

The man relaxed visibly. "I am Lavort. Commander of Space Station Progress. Thank you for rescuing us."

"Well, you're welcome. As soon as you're well enough we'll return you to your home." I said.

"Thank you. You are very kind." He said. "Perhaps I can convince you of the righteousness of our cause."

I shot the doctor a harsh look, but she didn't notice. "We are very dedicated to staying neutral in such matters, I'm sorry."

"That's all right. You aren't the enemy and that's a victory of sorts." Lavort seemed pleased to think of it this way. I failed to correct his misapprehension. No point in buying more trouble than we already had.

"Well, I'll just leave you and your crew to you recoveries. Good luck Mr. Lavort."

"Colacorp forever." Lavort said quietly as he drifted off to sleep. it sounded like a salute of some sort.

I left the sickbay.

-*-

We stayed in orbit for another three days while the astronauts were treated. We scanned the surface extensively and recorded detailed information about the status of the civilization. It was sort of depressing. Earth barely survived its nuclear war. I hoped that the people on this planet would survive their brush with extinction, too.

The scanning and analyzing of the data was boring to me. After a couple of hours I turned the bridge over to the watch officer and went down to my cabin to visit my cat. She wasn't used to me being there and it seemed as though I was invading her privacy. We played "string" for a short while until the Discovery went to red alert.

I ran out of my cabin and to the turbo lift. There was no turbo lift car there. That was unusual. There was usually a turbo-lift car waiting for me, especially during an alert. I pressed the call button.

"Please enter authorization code." The computer asked primly.

"Hailey: Code 14492 Alpha Gamma." I said irritatedly. Someone had messed up badly to put the turbo lifts on access code lock outs.

"That is not a valid code." The computer sniffed.

I could feel my eyes bug out. Now I was going to be embarrassed. It was one of my private nightmares. We changed access codes every so often for security reasons. I lived in fear of forgetting one and having to ask for help. I always made a point of memorizing my security code thoroughly.

"Computer, Identify." I ordered the computer to scan me thoroughly and make certain for itself that I was who I said I was.

The computer thought about it for a minute. "You are not in my files." It sounds downright snippy now.

"I am so!" I yelled, outraged. "Check personnel files. Jay P. Hailey, serial number SSC556142749!" That was one I wasn't going to be forgetting any time soon.

"There is no such record." The computer informed me coldly.

I boggled for a few moments. Then I became aware that there were people standing behind me. I turned to see a couple a junior officers looking at me with wide eyes.

"Ensign Bates. Open the turbo lift." I said.

"Umm, Aye Sir!" She stepped forward and the door didn't open. She pressed the call button. The computer asked for her access code. She gave it and the computer sternly told her that she didn't exist either.

I was really getting tense. We had been on red alert for over five minutes and I couldn't get to the bridge. Another junior officer came around the corridor.

"Hey! Can any of you get into the turbolift?" He asked.

"Oh, hell!" I yelled. If everyone's access was cut, then no one would be able to get to their battle stations! I pictured Lucas McCoy telling the Kliges'chee one of his long, hilarious and raunchy stories trying to buy time while we fought with the main computer. "Get to the jefferies tubes. We'll have to go spelunking!" Spelunking was engineering jargon for extended crawling through the bowels of the ship in her jefferies tubes.

I had to run three sections away and then code in the manual override. Fortunately the main computer hadn't changed the manual override codes. As I hit the keys and the access door slid open it dawned on me just how incredibly stupid it was to have the doors to the jefferies tubes locked and opened electronically.

I slid in and began to crawl along with various officers behind me. It wasn't too bad at first. We did everything electronically in Starfleet. I could tell you to the gram how much one of the jefferies tube access doors weighed. Okay, so a starship never lands. That doesn't mean that weight and mass aren't important. I was taught and had taken for granted for a long time that electronics and linear electrical motors were the most cost effective for weight possible. The electronics in the doors were military hardened and we could isolate them from the main computer system. And if something was powerful enough to dampen every electronic device on the ship, then it wouldn't matter if we could or could not get an access hatch open because the containment field for the anti-matter would also be shut down and the ship would explode before we knew there was a problem.

Just as a thought experiment I started to mentally design a mechanical locking system for the Discovery's access hatches. I didn't know if I'd ever get around to building it or testing it but it kept me from worrying myself to death while I crawled.

Two sections later I was hurting and I could tell exactly where my artificial right knee joint began and ended.

My quarters were on deck eight. I had to climb eight decks and cover 52 linear meters.

I wasn't even halfway there when my communicator went off.

"Hailey here." I wheezed painfully.

"Mendez, Captain. We have restored control over the computer."

"Thank Ghod. Beam me to the bridge."

Mendez hesitated for a few moments and then said "Aye, Aye Sir." I could almost hear the chuckle in his voice.

The transporter grabbed me and I sparkled into the Bridge on my hands and knees.

I grunted sincerely getting up. It hurt.

"Captain!" Kamaline said shocked. "Are you all right? What happened?"

"I was trying to get here through the jefferies tubes." I gasped. I was out of breath and sweaty all over. I felt a little faint. Maybe I was letting myself get too out of shape? "Report!"

Stephanie straightened and said "Someone sabotaged the computer and beamed down

to the planet."

"Who in the hell would do that?" I wondered. Who would want to mutiny and jump ship into a post holocaust survival scenario? I noticed that the knees on my uniform were torn and my knees were bloody. I didn't have time for that now!

"We're getting a full list now. We know that Dr. Burlington went and so did Security Specialists Gonzalas and Morgan." Stephanie said.

"Why?" I wondered. I just couldn't figure it out.

The turbo lift door swept open and out came Mendez and Lt. jg Gerald Bruce, the chief computer specialist on the Discovery.

"This was found attached to the main computer communications bus number two, Captain." Mendez said. He handed me an old tricorder. It had been heavily modified. I looked carefully at it.

"It made an interesting feedback loop in the main computer, Captain. It sort of paralyzed the personnel recognition programs. As soon as I got it off of there, all the damage was undone." Bruce reported.

"Hmmm..." I said. I opened the case and looked inside. Squinting carefully I could see weird chips added into the old tricorder's normal set. Squinting a little closer told me that there were El-Aurian characters on the chips. I growled "Get Snoopy to finger print this damned thing."

"Security scans record Doctor Burlington and several others beaming down from transporter room two." Stephanie reported.

"Show me." I said.

The scans were filled with static and indistinct. The device that had disabled the computer had sharply limited the scans.

A phaser beam appeared and stunned Ensign Heppa. Then security specialist Gonzalas appeared and went over to the transporter console.

Dena Foote went with him and used another device on the transporter console. The transporter activated and then warnings lit up. There was no power available because of the computer failure.

Morgan came in. He was helping one of the medical people with one of the native astronauts. He spoke soundlessly to Gonzalas and the first security man went to the weapons locker. They pulled out every phaser and phaser rifle. Morgan handed Gonzalas two rifles. Gonzalas popped the access ports and wired them into the transporter console. Using the energy of the phaser rifles, they had enough energy to use the transporter once or twice.

The astronauts and Doctor Burlington went first. Then the rest of the medical staff and then with one more phaser wired in, Dena and the security men beamed down with their arms full of looted equipment from the Discovery.

"Did we get a trace on where they beamed to?" I asked.

"Yes, Sir." Stephanie replied. "They beamed into the middle of this native

city.

"All right. Keep scanning. In five minutes we'll have a briefing and we'll decide if we're going after them."

-*-

"We can't trace them by scanning from orbit. There are thousands of humanoid life forms nearby. It confuses the scanners somewhat." Kamaline said.

"What would we need to get a clean scan?" I asked. I had hoped to just beam the deserters back up from orbit.

"They would have to stand out in the open by themselves and hold still for about ten minutes." Kamaline said. "The good news is that a tricorder at close range should be able to pick them up easily."

"No one is going to be standing around in the open for long in that city." Stephanie informed us. "They're still shooting each other in some places. Small armed groups are wandering all over."

"I'll have to take some Marines with me." I said. It would be nice to have them behind me.

With a carefully restrained look of horror on his face, Mendez said "You, Captain?"

I looked at him. "Yes, me." I wasn't looking forward to it but those people had to be gotten out of there.

Mendez looked stubborn. "You beamed down last time, Sir."

I opened my mouth to reply and then shut it. Mendez was right. It was against Starfleet policy for me to beam down like that. It was the First Officer's specific duty to command landing parties and away teams and keep the Captain out of harm's way if possible. I had completely forgotten this during my last away mission. I nodded "Okay, Commander. It's your turn."

Mendez looked visibly relieved. So did the rest of the command crew. "Thank you, Sir."

"Assemble your team, Commander and get our people back." I said.

-*-

Mendez had an open channel back to the bridge. I was sorry I had let him go. They were walking out in the open of the city in a skirmish line. Kamaline's tricorder was telling them where the nearest life forms were. They were very, nearby almost within earshot.

I heard multiple popping sounds. I had heard projectile weapons before even automatic ones, but it was still a shock.

"Hold your fire!" Mendez yelled.

"Agricorp or Colacorp?" A voice called.

"What?" Mendez asked. "I don't understand."

"Agricorp or Colacorp!?"

"What are they?" Mendez asked. "We come in peace. We searching for lost members of our party."

I heard more of the strange popping noise. Then I heard phasers being fired. I heard a couple of automatic weapons firing. More phasers.

"Discovery, medical emergency. Beam us all to Sickbay. We have two down." Kamaline said.

"T'Sing are you ready to receive casualties?" I yelled.

T'Sing of Vulcan, our second doctor replied "Affirmative. Begin transport."

The transporter quickly whisked our people out of the fire fight.

-*-

"What happened?" I asked Kamaline.

"We were confronted by a patrol of natives. During the discussions, one of the natives opened fire, injuring Commander Mendez. The Marines returned fire with phasers set on stun. Another native, when stunned, shot his companion accidentally. I called for beam out."

I looked over at the sickbay and sure enough there was Commander Mendez and a scruffy native.

"Why did you feel it necessary to beam another native onto my ship?" I asked Kamaline.

"Because without us being there he wouldn't have been shot by his own side. We owed it to him to try to save him, unless I'm interpreting the Prime Directive wrongly." Kamaline said. The Vicharrians had a saying. "It is easier to get forgiveness than permission."

"Let's just call your interpretation liberal for now." I grumped.

Mendez was in bad shape. He had holes up the front of his body and was bleeding a lot. T'Sing was working on him assiduously.

The native was laying flat on another table. He had holes up his leg. A nurse was working on him. Professionally iffy, but T'Sing could review the work later. I walked up to the native. He had the odd flattened look of a man in restraints. A force field held him down on the bunk. He looked up at me with hatred.

"Agricorp forever!" he said.

"Okay." I said.

The native got confused. "Huh? Are you Agricorp or Colacorp?"

"Neither. We're travelers."

"Huh? Neutrals? The why didn't your man say so?" The native looked unhappy. "I know how the others act, but Agricorp doesn't abuse neutrals."

"Really? And how does Colacorp act?"

The Native got visibly more agitated. "Everyone knows! Colacorp raids and pillages the innocent! They rape civilians and then strip them of everything valuable before herding them off to camps and exterminating them. Sometimes they perform hideous experiments on them first!"

"Agricorp doesn't do this?" I asked.

"No! We're just trying to defend ourselves and our righteous share of the market. We're not aggressive. We strive to be a positive force on the face of the world." He said proudly.

I scratched my chin thoughtfully. He sounded like one of the commercials we had picked up in the sporadic broadcasts. "Agricorp doesn't shoot at neutrals, huh?"

"No! Neutrals are necessary for rebuilding the world following our final victory. Neutrals will form our customer base! Soon they will begin to understand the natural superiority of the Agricorp way. You should join with us. The more neutrals who join the cause the sooner ultimate victory can be ours. Then we can restore order and civilization." The young man said happily.

"Ummm... Well how about this, We'll patch you up and put you back where we found you. Have you seen anyone wearing a uniform like mine?" I fingered my black Starfleet jumpsuit to show him what I meant.

He looked at me carefully. "No, Sir. I haven't, But when we take the city call Agricorp Customer Service. I'm sure we'll be able to help you out."

"Thank you." I said. I turned to Kamaline. "Get the Marines back together. We're going back down."

Kamaline grinned sardonically. "Yes, Captain."

I told McCoy that he had the bridge and we beamed down into the city.

-*-

The City had that wonderful smell of open sewer that primitive cities have. I could see that this had once been a modern city but that was years in the past.

We walked towards the center of town. A native patrol stopped us.

"Agricorp or Colacorp?" They yelled.

"Neutral!" I yelled back.

"Prove it!" The patrol man said "Say something bad about Agricorp."

"Agricorp is a bunch of two bit hoodlums with guns." I replied. I didn't tell him that it is what I thought of Colacorp, too.

He stepped forward warily. Several more natives appeared out of the rubble.

"You look just like a patrol, Neutral. I wouldn't want to have to teach you a lesson about good consumerism." He sneered.

"We're not here to fight. We're looking for lost people. They had uniforms like mine." I fingered my uniform for emphasis.

He thought about it, "I haven't seen anyone with uniforms like yours. You better get to cover before an Agricorp patrol finds you. You know how they treat civilians."

"Let me guess- they haul them away to extermination camps?" I ventured.

"Don't get smart with me, Neutral. Your kind doesn't know what loyalty is. We'll remember that when we take the city." He sneered.

"Sorry, sorry." I said we backed off and continued searching.

-*-

"Captain, I am reading krellide power cells in that building." Kamaline said. She pointed to a run down warehouse with many armed guards around it. Krellide power cells were the batteries that powered our equipment in those days.

"Excellent. We're making progress, Lieutenant!" I said. Just then my comm-badge beeped. I pressed it. "Hailey here."

"Captain, this is T'Sing. I require the services of Kamaline Darvon Ahk in sickbay."

"All right. Hailey to Bridge. Beam Kamaline on up and then send Snoopy down."

Soon Kamaline sparkled out and my Chief Investigative security officer Arthur Hendricks beamed down.

We proceeded to the building. One of the Marines was whistling the theme to the musical "New York, New York" tunelessly.

-*-

Rapidly firing slug-throwers were aimed very conspicuously at us. "Agricorp or Colacorp?" The Guard captain called.

"Neutral!" I yelled back.

"What's your business, Neutral?"

"We're looking for some friends of ours. Can you help us?"

"Colacorp is founded on Customer Service, Sir. Please step inside." The guard captain seemed unnaturally perky as he beckoned us.

We entered to find a hell hole of a field hospital. From wall to wall in the old warehouse there were stretchers and cots bearing sick or injured people. In and among them were refugees, homeless people and children. The children were playing quietly in out of the way corners of the building.

Dr. Burlington was tending to someone about in the middle of the warehouse. Her medical equipment was the signature that we were picking up.

We started sauntering towards her. She looked up and saw us. Quickly she turned and ran for the exit. We began to pursue.

As she reached the far side of the building, armed men began to swarm at us. The Marines swept them aside with stunner bolts. The guards couldn't fire inside the warehouse without hitting their own people.

Outside, though was a different matter. We got to the doorway as Dr. Burlington dove into some rubble. A Marine charged out after her and was cut down immediately by bullets from the guards.

"Bridge! Lock onto Kerenski's signal and beam him out! Beam him straight to sickbay. He's been shot." I called through my communicator. I knew I was going to have a hard time with this later. The bangs from the guns were further away in the rubble. The bullets made a slapping noise as they struck the Marine. Right now I didn't have the time to feel bad about it.

As the Marine sparkled away a voice yelled at me from behind.

"What the hell are you doing!?"

I turned around to find a scruffy native man bearing down on me. "We have children in here! Wounded and ill, too! Why the hell are you starting a firefight right next to us?!"

"We didn't mean to start a shoot-out, Sir. We're just trying to retrieve a friend." I explained.

"You're Neutrals too?"

"Yes!"

"Idiot!!" The man leaned towards the doorway, but not too close "HOLD FIRE! NEUTRAL INSIDE!!"

The firing died down and the man bawled again.

"Prove it!" A voice called out of the rubble. "Say something bad about

Agricorp!"

"They're almost as stupid as you are!" The man yelled back.

There was silence for a few moments and then the guard stood up. "Now Jalon, you should know better than that. We're not your enemy. Colacorp is founded on a good relationship with our customer base!"

"Ahh, stuff your customer base!" Jalon waved them off.

"Captain." Snoopy murmured. "I can target Dr. Burlington for beam out with my tricorder."

"Do it!" I hissed.

Jalon rounded on me. "Moron! What did you think you were going to do, burst in here guns blazing and rescue your friend from the clutches of Colacorp!?!"

"Well, yeah." I hated to admit it.

"Dumb shit, when they go you can't bring them back! Once the madness sets in there is no cure. Now put down your fancy blasters and let her go." Jalon snarled.

I could see Dr. Burlington stand up with an outraged squeak. She sparkled away.

Jalon blinked. "Say, you're not from around here, are you?"

"Ah, no." I gathered Snoopy and the Marines and quietly left the field

hospital. Once the madness sets in there is no cure... We beamed back to the

ship.

-*-

"I want to resign and return to the planet!" Burlington hissed. "Colacorp needs me! Didn't you see those people!?"

"You can come right back here after you're court-martialed and serve your time in a prison colony!" I yelled.

Dr. Burlington launched herself at me. She wasn't successful because of the two security specialists on her arms, but she gave it a sincere try.

"Take her to the brig!" I snarled.

As the two security people dragged her away Burlington screamed "COLACORP FOREVER!!"

-*-

"How is Kerenski?" I asked as I stepped into the sickbay.

"He will recover adequately." T'Sing replied. She was operating on the Marine. Red blood was smeared up and down her arms. "Please speak with Lt. Darvon Ahk. She has information that you will find useful."

"Thank you." I said. I turned towards the sickbay lab where I could see Kamaline working.

"One does not thank logic." T'Sing replied absently. With a flick of her wrist another blood spattered bullet thumped onto the sickbay deck.

-*-

"What do you have for me Kamaline?" I asked.

"Do you remember that green stuff that you found on the Harrier?" She asked.

I shuddered. We found a substance that looked like a green powder in an abandoned Romulan Warbird. We couldn't figure out what had happened to the crew until the away team began to go insane. The green dust was a section of artificial DNA. It infected most humanoid species and caused massive claustrophobia. Accidentally set loose on the Romulan ship it had caused the whole crew to jump out of the airlocks without their space suits on. "I remember."

"Well this stuff is similar."

"Oh, Ghod! Where is it? How soon until we're infected?" I resisted the urge to look wildly around for the evil molecules.

"We're already infected. It's not as well constructed as the Kliges'chee weapon. It's much more complex in execution, too. The result is that it's effective in about one in ten cases of exposure." Kamaline reported.

"Can you fabricate an antidote?" I asked.

"Yes, but it will take time. This one was not designed for a neutralizer enzyme. It's a more clunky design and bio-genetic engineering was not my major subject." Kamaline said grimly.

"How long?"

"About ten hours." She said without missing a scientific beat.

"I have already programmed the transporter and the life support system to begin screening out the artificial virus."

"Carry on Lieutenant." I said.

-*-

I went and found McCoy, my third in command. "Lucas we have a security problem." I described the effect of the virus. "We'll have to separate the Colacorp faction from the Agricorp faction."

"I'll get right on it, Sir." McCoy said. He and Stephanie had crew assembled and on the job in minutes.

It took an hour for the first cases to break out but they were fairly easy to control. We expected and got about thirty crew members effected. We expected seventy or more colonists but got barely twenty five. Oddly, all the Colonists went Colacorp. The Discovery crew members went about fifty-fifty for each side.

The virus did not effect the non-humanoids like Mr. Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo at all.

Right in the middle of the round up, Stephanie came out for Agricorp, but her quad, knowing what to expect stunned her immediately. Little damage was done to the ship, but we didn't get much work done.

Snoopy and a quad of Marines roamed the surface of the planet tracking down other deserters. Most of them were easy once Snoopy got within range to scan the energy storage devices of their equipment. The last one found was Dena Foote. She was smart enough to dump all of her high tech gear, but still returned to the field hospital when she thought the heat was off.

-*-

Kamaline synthesized the antidote and treated Dr. Burlington right away. While Dr. Burlington recovered, Kamaline and Dr. T'Sing began to treat the rest of the affected crew.

One of the people treated was the native man who had been shot and then beamed to the Discovery.

Between him and Dr. Burlington we got the whole story. Agricorp was a large industrial agricultural corporation while Colacorp made recreational beverages. They stole and/or developed technology to write brand loyalty into the genetic code of their people. Although only one in ten people were affected it became a worldwide disaster over night. Hordes of people programmed in their genes for loyalty to Colacorp or Agricorp turned against all competitors violently. They burned, looted, pillaged and massacred employees of other non-augmented companies. Then, when civilization had collapsed badly enough so that there were no functioning corporations left, Agricorp and Colacorp survivors turned on each other to establish genetic dominance over the world.

The man was in tears with joy. "I'm cured! Thank you! It's a miracle!"

"Good, good. I'm very happy for you." I said. I was. Carlos was going to be back duty within the week and so no permanent harm done.

I turned to leave the sickbay when Dr. Burlington caught me near the door. "If you let me have the Marines and the Security department as well as the science crew members, I can have that city cured and on the way to synthesizing its own cure within the month."

"Hmmm." I said. I kept walking.

-*-

"We're not going to distribute the cure to the planet." I said. I hated it. I was walking away from millions of people who needed help.

"You can't be serious." Dr. Burlington said, horrified.

"The Prime Directive is clear on the subject. The natives of that planet brought the disaster down on their own heads. We are not allowed to play God and fix it for them." I said.

"That's pure moral cowardice." Burlington yelled, "We can't remain aloof and pretend that we have some ivory tower isolation to hide in."

"This is an old argument, Doctor."

"We're part of this galaxy! We're part of this universe whether you like it or not. We influence the world around us just by existing! When we interact with more primitive cultures we risk harming them, but to walk away and ignore them when they are in need is still interaction! We walk away from any good we might do if we allowed ourselves to do it!" Burlington said.

I explained "Out here in unknown space all that keeps us who we are is what we bring with us. We may agree or disagree with the Prime Directive, but being Starfleet means upholding the Prime Directive. That's who we are. If we let that go, then what are we?"

Marcella Burlington looked thoughtfully at me for a few moments and then said "I understand." She stood up and took off her comm-badge and rank pips. "I resign."

I couldn't believe it. "Doctor, please. We're years away from returning to the Federation as it is. Don't turn yourself into a passenger this early."

Burlington shook her head. "I'm not resigning as your Chief Medical Officer unless you demand it. I am resigning my commission in Starfleet."

"This is an esoteric distinction." Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo pointed out.

"Not at all. This is a ship under way and I agreed to act as CMO. I'll do it. But I no longer want to be part of an organization that demands acts like turning away from a planet in need." Burlington said firmly.

"You're still on my ship Doctor." I said. "You're still obligated to follow my orders."

"I will." Burlington said. "This is not an act of mutiny. I am simply acting as my conscience demands."

"If that's the way you want it, Doctor." I said.

She smiled grimly. "What I want is to aid a planet with a terrible medical emergency."

"Computer: Open log, append date and time. Lieutenant Marcella Burlington has resigned her commission and is no longer a Starfleet Officer. Effective this date, civilian Medical Doctor Marcella Burlington is named acting Chief Medical Officer by the authority of the Captain." I said.

"Log appended." The computer replied.

"Okay. If that's all, let's get out of here."

We walked out of the briefing room and onto the Bridge. We left Marcella Burlington staring at the sad planet below us.

The Discovery continued on her mission.

-end-

Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Trek. I claim original characters and situations in this story for me.