By
-*-
"Can't you tell?" Margli boggled out of the screen at Melinda Garner.
Melinda Garner did her best to keep a straight face, and to keep her demeanor calm and reassuring. "First Minister, there is very little contact between your planet and the Federation. I know little of your world."
Margli grimaced. "You really can't tell." He ducked out of the area framed by the screen and rummaged for something. Then the screen split into two pictures. One image was a still picture of Ktar Margli and the other was the First Minister of Sterry speaking from his office. The difference was quite plain. The still image of Margli showed him to be solidly black on his right side, and white on the left side. The live image of Margli was zebra striped, with huge strips of black and white alternating horizontally across his body.
"This is my identification card. The picture shows my natural state." Margli said.
Melinda nodded and said "Your color has changed."
Margli looked about ready to have a conniption. "Captain Garner-"
"Lieutenant." Melinda corrected him.
"-Do you imagine for even the briefest of possible moments that this is a voluntary change?" Margli snarled.
"It doesn't look bad." Melinda smiled. Actually she though it a much nicer color scheme than the old one. A thought skittered across Melinda's mind. "At least they're not vertical stripes." She ruthlessly suppressed it.
Melinda's observation made Margli even more unhappy. Through gritted teeth, he continued, "One's color is a vital part of our culture, Lieutenant Garner. Now we are beset by a fierce fever, which, when it has passed, leaves us like this! And not all one arrangement either! Some of us are POLKA-DOTTED!"
Melinda's ability to keep a straight face strained. "I'm sorry." She managed. "How do Starship Captains do this?" She wondered.
"Perhaps you are insensitive to the destruction wrought to our culture, Lieutenant, but we're also seeing deaths on quite a large scale." Margli growled.
Any humor in Melinda's attitude vanished. "Really? How many?"
"About 10,000 people at this point. My experts tell me that this will only grow worse." Margli said.
Melinda muted the microphone and looked inquiringly at Gar Molon, the new Doctor on his way to Deep Space Thirteen.
Molon's face was grim. "We have to go, Lieutenant. We are doctors. It's our job. I suggest you call for back up, though."
Melinda sighed. As the Senior Officer on the Runabout USS Salayam, She was in command. The decision was hers. "This was supposed to be a simple ferry run!" Melinda thought to herself. "Why couldn't this be Commander Creveling or Lt. Commander Gusriton? They're trained for this!"
"T'Nara, take us to Sterry best speed. Lila, Please send a message to DS13 telling them where we're going and what's going on."
"Aye, Sir." T'Nara, the Vulcan Pilot said, turning the Salayam towards the planet Sterry.
"Lieutenant, the message will take about 20 minutes to reach DS13." Lila Gould, the Security Ensign said.
"I understand." Melinda said, "We'll be sending a follow up as soon as we learn more."
Gar Molon unmuted the microphone. "First Minister, I'm Doctor Gar Molon of Starfleet. Can you perhaps describe what's happening?"
Margli blinked "Excuse me, but how big is the Federation Starship Salayam? How many doctors and medical people do you have?"
Molon smiled his best reassuring smile. "We're a runabout, Sir, a small passenger ship. Fortunately you caught the one ferrying two doctors to their new assignment."
"A Runabout? How many crew are on a runabout?" Margli looked unhappy.
Melinda broke in. "There are Six of us, Sir. However, I've already put in a call to our base. If we're not enough, then Starfleet will be sending more."
"Our hospitals are over flowing! We're on the verge of a major panic. Please call for all the help you can, lieutenant." Margli said
"We will." Molon said "Now, please tell me all that you can of this disease?"
"It broke out here in Crossriver City about two weeks ago. At first, it was just a few isolated incidents. Soon, though, it began to spread like wild fire. The symptoms are a severe fever. That's when it's deadly. The victims are mainly people who were ill, the very old and the very young." Margli explained.
"How long until we arrive?" Melinda asked T'Nara.
"Approximately 6 hours, 27 minutes, and 30 seconds until we exit warp near Sterry, Lieutenant. I can not estimate how long their traffic control will delay us." T'Nara answered.
"Lila, can you send a request to DS13 for Data on Sterry? I'd like to know what Starfleet already knows about these people." Melinda asked Lila Gould.
"Already sent, Lieutenant." Gould said crisply.
Melinda raised her eyebrows at Lila.
"I'm nosy. What else do you think I'm doing in Starfleet?" Lila grinned.
Melinda made a slight smile back. "T'Nara, you have the flight deck, I'm going to take a small break until the messages start coming down."
-*-
Thirty minutes later the first sets of messages started to return to the Salayam.
"To- Lieutenant Melinda Garner, USS Salayam
From - Commander Katelynn Creveling Deep Space 13
Melinda, Respond to the Distress call will all due dispatch. Please bear the safety of your crew in mind as you go.
I'll expect more complete reports as you get information and updates once every four hours, conditions permitting.
I have contacted the nearest Federation starship, the USS Alvin. Her ETA at Sterry is Ten days. You're on your own until then.
I know that you will handle this emergency in the best Starfleet tradition.
Keep in touch
Creveling out."
Melinda looked at the message carefully.
A smell of strawberries mixed with Lilas wafted up behind her. "It is a most disturbing situation." The mild voice of a Federation Voder commented.
Melinda turned to see Dr. Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam. A Rhondan, he resembled nothing so much as an over built octopus with too many arms. His skin felt like warm, living linoleum.
"Hello, Doctor." Melinda smiled. She didn't know if Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam could even recognize the gesture.
"Do we now respond to a call for a medical emergency?" The Voder asked. It was tied to one of Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam's major leg/arms by a large strap of Velcro. The Velcro strap was black, with a medical/sciences blue piping, a Starfleet Commbadge and the Pips of a Lieutenant Junior Grade on it.
"That is indeed what's happening." Melinda said. Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam was the most alien person she'd seen in a long time.
"I did not anticipate so heavy an emergency before even reaching the comfort of Deep Space Thirteen." Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam commented, "However, I expect that with your help, Doctor Molon and I will suit the need admirably."
Melinda smirked. "Is unshakable self confidence a requirement for being a doctor?"
Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam, hesitated, waving in some unseen current. Strawberries in cream almost over rode the Lila petals. "Yes, it is." The Voder said.
Melinda smiled genuinely at the strange alien doctor as Gar Molon came back aft from the flight deck.
"Doctor Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam, I have some information for us. Then I plan to get some rest and some food before we hit ground. Medical emergencies can be quite demanding on the humanoid physiology." Molon said.
"A large scale medical emergency taxes all physiology." Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam said. He turned to follow Molon to a table. His walked looked like it was half dance, half slither and half twirl.
-*-
"What in the world is that?" Ktar Margli Demanded, pointing at The Rhondan healer.
After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Melinda answered, "That is Doctor Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam. He's come to rescue you." Melinda tried to ease the tension out of her voice. After all, it was a diplomatic contact, as well as well as a rescue mission.
"Ummm, are you sure it's competent to do medicine on humanoid life forms?" Margli eyed the octopoid suspiciously.
A strong waft of oranges came from Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam and his Voder spoke with some volume. "I assure you, Sir, that I am competent in many forms of xeno-medicine and xeno-biology."
A military man standing next to Margli with lots of decorations and rank markings said "First Minister, they're all aliens. I don't know exactly how they can help us anyway."
"Ah, pleased to meet you. You're Lieutenant Garner?" First Minister Margli said.
"Yes, First Minister. I bring you greetings from the United Federation of Planets and Starfleet. This is my crew. Doctor Gar Molon, Doctor Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam, Ensign T'Nara of Vulcan, Ensign Lila Gould, and Ensign Parker Ashby."
"Thank you. This is my Minister of Security, Margan Zillo, and my Minister of Public Health, Doctor Heba Kamal. As you can see, we've all suffered the effects of this terrible plague."
They had, too. Both Zillo and Kamal were randomly splotched black and white, with an equal amount of each color on both sides, at least as far as their clothing revealed.
"The disease first appeared two weeks ago in Crossriver City. It starts out with a fierce fever. This is when most casualties occur. The very old or people with impacted immune systems burn themselves out with the massive fever. Heroic measures can save them if the fever is caught in time." Doctor Kamal explained.
Melinda noted the security troopers, too. The Sterrian Ministry of Security uniform ran to black fatigues with lots of pockets, black body armor, and a complex set of straps and attachments from which all sorts of tools, pouches and gizmos hung. They had very serious and lethal looking projectile weapons held at high port across their bodies.
"However, for most people, the fever while unpleasant is survivable and breaks within a half hour of hitting its peak. After that, usually while the victim is sleeping off the effects of the fever, his colors will migrate at random over his body, and then stop." Kamal continued.
General Zillo wore a variation of that uniform without as much encumbrance, and more signage on it.
Margli and Kamal were dressed in suits that seemed somewhat conservative in cut, but loudly colorful. Melinda speculated that because of the nature of the native's faces, that high contrast looked happier to them.
"Gentlemen, In order to be of any help to you I am going to need information, lots of it." Gar Molon said.
Molon stood about as tall as general Zillo, Melinda guessed, maybe six feet, but not as broad. His color scheme was not as loud, either, with his brown hair and startlingly blue eyes.
"And what will you do with this information once you get it, Alien?" Zillo demanded
"We will determine what has caused the plague your world faces, and see if we can treat it." Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam said, smelling of Oranges with a hint of cherries.
"Won't you please come in and we'll tell you everything we know." Margli said.
General Zillo looked displeased but said nothing.
-*-
"And we really need you to find a way to restore our colors back to their original state." Margli finished.
Melinda struggled towards being fully awake. The conference had consisted of Molon, Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam and several Doctors from the Ministry of Public Health throwing around medical terminology in a haze so thick that she couldn't penetrate it.
A quick look at the rest of the Salayam's crew told her that they were having a similar set of experiences. T'Nara sat very still and stone faced. She almost seemed to be meditating. Parker Ashby lolled in his chair and looked positively drugged. Lila Gould eyed General Zillo warily and he returned the suspicion.
"What does your color matter?" Melinda asked.
Conversation stopped dead. All the Sterrians in the room stared at her.
"Pfaugh! An Egalitarian." Zillo snarled. It sounded like an insult coming from him.
Margli looked pained. "Lieutenant, the color one's skin is a marker for one's social status, here. We black/white people are the more civilized and advanced people. We have brought our culture to the white/black people, but they have yet to fully grasp it, or show readiness to participate fully."
"Really?" Melinda didn't know exactly what to make of that statement.
Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam wafted strongly of Lila petals "I suppose that you have scientific proof of this assertion?" His voder said. Melinda almost though she heard sadness in the bland computer generate voice.
"Oh, yes. Several tests under scientific conditions have shown that the white/blacks are simply not quite as intelligent as we are." Doctor Kamal replied.
"But without the handy visual clue of which side is white and black." Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam continued.
"We can't tell the difference!" Margli all but howled. "The damage to our civilization could be enormous."
"It could be fatal." General Zillo said grimly. "That's what the White/Blacks and you Egalitarians want, isn't it?"
Melinda didn't like the General's tone. "First Minister, the Federation is not in the business of destroying anyone's civilization. We respect all cultures. That is what we do."
"That implies that any culture is as good as any other." General Zillo snarled. "That's a patently false and useless position. If there's no right or wrong, how do you decide what to do?"
"We have our own yardsticks of right and wrong, General. We never said they were the same as yours." Lila Gould said in a soft, angry tone of voice.
"Enough!" Molon said sharply. "We have an emergency, here, people. Let's focus on first things first."
"And what's your first thing?" General Zillo challenged.
"Saving lives is my first priority, Always." Molon said sternly.
A complex smell came off Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam "I concur." His voder said.
After a beat and half, Margli nodded "That'll have to do us."
-*-
"Once upon a time, on Earth, people of Ensign Ashby's skin color felt very much the same way about people who happened to have Ensign Gould's skin color, or yours, Lieutenant." Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam said, with a waft of Lila petals.
Melinda Garner held her hand up to study the color differences between her skin, and those of Ashby and Gould. They made a nice spectrum of pale to darker. Lila Gould was mildly dark skinned about the color of coffee with double cream.
Melinda shook her head. "I'd heard something like that in school when I was small, but I didn't believe it. It doesn't make sense."
"True. It does not." Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam said. "But in my reading of Earth's history, I encountered many of the same attitudes and rationalizations that our new acquaintances in the Sterrian Planetary Government."
Melinda sat down and considered the idea carefully. "Are you saying that you don't believe that the white/black Sterrians are less capable or intelligent than the black/white ones?"
Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam waved for a moment in silence. The smell of Oranges and Lila petals gave way to Strawberries. Colors flowed across his skin, stripes of blue, gray, white, black and all shades in between occurred. It was almost hypnotic. Then he said "History and medical science have proven that ancient Earth people who held those beliefs were mistaken. Humans are all the same race. I suspect that a similar condition may hold here."
"How do we prove or disprove it?" Lila Gould asked. "I mean, this isn't Earth. No one says that things have to be the same here."
"That should be simple enough to prove or disprove," Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam said, "if you'd like to help. We'll need more information about the Sterrian people anyway."
Gar Molon called Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam from the Runabouts very small lab module. "Doctor, I think I may be on to something here."
"What should we do?" Melinda asked.
"Take tricorders. Beam to different locations in Crossriver City. Interact with people while scanning them with the tricorders." Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam explained.
"I bet that would make General Zillo angry." Lila Gould said with a smile. For her that seemed to be argument enough.
"Hmmmmmm." Melinda thought about it.
-*-
The place was called Zilli's Place. It turned out to be a restaurant of some kind. It was mainly a large open space with tables and chairs. Food and drink were served. A stage dominated one end of the room, and on it, a trio of musicians played a happy sounding song:
- "It's the end of the world as we know it, it's the end of the world as we know it, it's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine." -
Everyone at the club has the parti-colored after-effects of the fever.
A server waiting for customers looked at Melinda and gasped. "Oh, goodness! It's getting worse!"
Melinda quickly reassured her "No, no, sorry, we're aliens. We're supposed to be these colors."
The waitress blinked at her. "Really? But I thought aliens were yellow and occasionally green."
Lila looked grim. She was describing the Orions. "Not all of us." She explained. "There's more different types of people in space than we can imagine."
The waitress looked dubious. "Are you sure you're safe? Are you supposed to be here? When Aliens get around to stopping by they usually stay with the First Minister and his cronies at the government complex."
Melinda smiled what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "We're explorers. Meeting new people is what we do. We've already met the First Minister."
The Waitress grabbed a couple of menus. "Okay, well, we have the best food in this part of the city. C'Mon in. I'm Bejel, your hostess."
The waitress showed the Starfleet women to a table near the center of the room.
"Excuse me," Melinda said. "Do mind if we scan you?"
"What's that mean?" Bejel asked.
"It's like taking a picture."
"Oh, well I haven't really done my hair-"
"It's not like that, it's for scientific purposes."
"Why?" Bejel asked.
Lila looked embarrassed. "The government people told us some things about black/white people and white/black people that we're trying to prove or disprove."
Bejel looked sour. "They tell you that we're not as intelligent and not as civilized?"
Melinda replied "We're not sure if we should believe them."
Bejel sniffed "You shouldn't."
Lila held up the tricorders "Mind if we get some concrete evidence of that?"
Bejel thought for a few minutes and then nodded. She held her arms away from her sides. "Go ahead."
Lila scanned the Sterrian woman for a few moments. The tricorders whirred and beeped. Completing the scan Lila said "Thank you."
"Hey," One of the patrons called "What happened to you?"
Another patron, one eating alone at a table in the corner got up and walked briskly out of the restaurant.
The band stopped playing and restaurant patrons started paying attention to Melinda's explanation with helpful additions from Bejel.
Another man asked "So what was up with that little box with all the flashy lights and stuff?"
Another round of explanations.
A woman raised her hand tentatively. "We're all had the fever. We're all swirled and splotched."
"- And polka dotted," The percussionist of the band added. He seemed to have acquired that color scheme.
"And polka dotted." The woman amended. "How can you tell if we were white/blacks or black/whites to begin with?"
Melinda shrugged. "It doesn't matter. If you people are really two different types of people, that will appear when we run a statistical anaylsis of the scans. If we don't find two distinct groups of people in the scans, then it means that you're all the same underneath."
Most of the people in the restaurant volunteered to be scanned.
Bejel thought about it. "What if the changes from the fever are more than skin deep?"
Melinda nodded, "Good point. We'll have to find some folks who haven't gotten the fever yet and scan them, too."
Finishing the scans, Lila uploaded the results to the runabout computer. "That's it for these folks. Thank you all."
General "you're welcome" noises came back.
Melinda asked, "This fever is a terrible plague. Ten thousand people have died already. But you don't seem especially worried or unhappy about all this."
Bejel looked up sharply "Ten thousand? Really? That many?"
"Has anyone here lost anyone, or know anyone who's lost someone?" Lila asked.
One patron with large splotches of black and white skin raised his hand. "My friend Keja lost his old Auntie when it hit his house, but she was real old. It's a tragedy, sure, but it's not like she wasn't dyin' anyways."
"This isn't anything to be celebrating," Bejel said "but for years and years a lot of us have been hearing how we're not as intelligent, or that we're not allowed to go certain places or have certain jobs because we were White/black. Now, no one can tell what you were before the fever hit. The black/whites are scared to death that somewhere, somehow a white/black person might forget and actually do something he's capable of."
This statement got a lot of jovial agreement.
Bejel continued. "It's like the world's biggest practical joke on the black/whites. And, well, yeah, a lot of us are enjoying that part of it."
Screeching tires and the growl of engines announced the arrival of several ground vehicles.
The patrons of the restaurant looked tensely at the front or the back entrance.
"I guess the Government didn't want you here after all." Bejel told the Starfleet women.
Thinking quickly, Melinda and Lila moved towards the restrooms. "We'll leave. We're sorry for the inconvenience." Melinda said as they ran.
"There's no way out back there!" Bejel said
Melinda and Lila ran into the nearest bathroom. They surprised a swirled black and white Sterrian man using the urinal. "Hey!" he snapped.
"It's a raid," Lila said, deliberately not looking.
The man was zipping himself up. "Get in the stall, and I'll try to cover you. But they always check the bathrooms thoroughly."
"No need." Melinda said. She tapped her commbadge "Garner to Salayam. Two to beam up."
As they sparked into the transport effect Melinda said "Sorry for the intrusion."
The man realized what was happening and started laughing.
-*-
The Hospital was over crowded and quite chaotic. Ground cars were scattered as if by a giant child. People moved around the place, in and out and to-and-fro. Some moved quite energetically, some less so.
Ashby watched the chaos with a grimace. "That doesn't look like any fun at all."
T'Nara looked at him quizzically. Fun seemed like a very small side issue at this point.
"Umm, it's a figure of speech." Parker explained.
The diminutive Vulcan woman nodded. "Precision in language is preferable during a crisis."
Parker blinked and said as clearly what he meant as possible. "The situation in that hospital looks extremely unpleasant and I'd like to avoid it."
T'Nara's eyes twinkled ever so slightly "I concur. However the more examples of a scan of a Sterrian we can give to Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam, the more accurate his statistical analysis will be."
Parker sighed. "Let's do it."
The approached the hospital.
On the street in front of the Hospital across a wide, flat paved lot filled with ground cars, there was a bench mounted on the sidewalk.
"This looks like pictures I've seen of 20th century Earth." Parker said.
"Including the mass chaos and uncertainty?" T'Nara asked.
"Unfortunately, yes." Parker replied.
On the bench, two Starfleet officers could see two Sterrians sitting, a male and female. The male was a larger man. The female was slim and only slightly larger than T'Nara was.
Both people looked very unhappy. The female leaned into the male and cried aloud. They were both victims of the fever, the male with randomized blotches of black and white, and the female with an elegant set of tiger stripes in black and white.
As the two Starfleet Officers approached, Parker made up his mind not to bother them. However, the male looked up and gasped in horror at Parker and T'Nara.
Warned by Melinda and Lila, Parker spoke up quickly. "Alien! I'm an alien. I'm supposed to look like this."
The man stared for a moment and then asked, "Have you come to help us?"
"We are taking all possible steps." T'Nara said. A Federation starship is on its way with more resources."
The female looked up. She was a young girl. "Will you be able to help me get back to normal?"
Parker took a deep breath. "We'll do the best we can. We have two Starfleet Doctors working on finding a solution right now."
T'Nara took out the tricorder she was carrying and began to scan the pair.
"Please, do what you can. I don't know how long we can continue like this." The man said.
T'Nara's eyebrow Lila. "You are currently experiencing distress? My scan shows that the disease has already run its course for you. You should experience no further symptoms if what we have been told is accurate."
"Don't you see? Our lives are ruined!" The man looked visibly angry. "We come from a good family, with a good history. Now look at us."
"Your pigmentation has been rearranged." T'Nara said flatly.
"Now we look just like any other survivor of the fever," the man explained. The girl leaned into him and started crying again. "My Daughter Jeen was the Harvest Festival Queen this year. She had good prospects for marrying the right boy."
Jeen turned into her father's chest and heaved sobs.
"Now we wouldn't know a boy of the right class if he was standing in front of us. And he couldn't recognize us!" The man became more agitated "My daughter's purity is no longer self evident. She might almost as well be white/black this way."
Jeen wailed miserably at the thought. "Daddy!"
He held on to her. "My poor, poor baby girl."
T'Nara looked at Parker with a raised eyebrow.
"Thank you very much for speaking with us." Parker said "You've been very helpful."
"Help us, Aliens, please. You're our last hope." The man said, tears streaming down his face.
Jeen wailed.
T'Nara and Parker continued on their scanning mission.
-*-
Melinda said, "Okay, the briefing will come to order." She was nervous. It was her first command briefing as the commander of the mission.
The crew of the Salayam sat up straight or nodded at Melinda to let her know they were ready.
Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam started. "My analysis shows that of several hundred people you scanned, most of whom were affected by the fever, it was impossible to tell which had been black/white and which had been white/black. Overall, Sterrians before and after the onset of the fever are identical physiologically. With a blind analysis the computer could not tell who has or has not been affected by the fever, or who was one color or the other. Their studies with regard to skin color and intelligence are fiction. There is further information but for now I will defer to Doctor Molon."
"Doctor Molon, what have you discovered?" Melinda asked.
"The disease is a virus, but one with some unusual modifications. It's infectious. Once a Sterrian has it, he can pass it on to others by breathing or by touch. The virus spores can survive for maybe a few days outside of the host and can infect new people."
"Are we contaminated? Are we in danger?" Melinda asked.
"We're in no danger." Molon answered. "The virus is very carefully tuned to the Sterrian DNA. We're essentially invisible to it, Humans, Betazoids, Vulcans and Rhondans, although we are carriers. I have reprogrammed the Salayam's bio-filter to remove all traces of the virus from us. By tomorrow all traces of the Virus should be gone from the Salayam."
"Please continue." Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam asked Molon
"The fever is the beginning of the infection. The virus infects the host and the host's body, detecting the invasion, makes a last ditch effort with the fever, trying to kill the invader. Once fully infected the virus goes through a reproduction phase and then a pigmentation change phase. I don't understand what value this has for the virus. It amounts to suicide. In changing the hosts' pigmentation, the virus changes shape becoming vulnerable to the host's immune system. Once someone's skin has changed they usually fight off the disease utterly in 24 to 48 hours." Dr. Molon explained.
The smell of oranges with a hit of cherries wafted from the Rhondan. "Interesting."
"What have you discovered, Doctor?" Melinda asked.
"There are records of a disease with similar symptoms in the Sterrian medical literature. It is called Kalfar's Syndrome. The patient suffers, if that is the proper term, from randomly swirled black and white pigmentation. There are 35 known cases of Kalfar's Syndrome in Sterrian medical history. All the different patterns of coloration we have seen are represented in the 35 original cases." Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam reported.
"When did these original cases occur?" Melinda asked.
"They happened over a period of 250 years in Sterrian history." Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam said.
"35 cases in 250 years doesn't sound like a virus," Molon commented.
The smell of strawberries wafted from the alien doctor "Kalfar's Syndrome is not caused by a virus. It is a genetic disease."
Molon's eyebrows drew together. "Really? So why is there a virus out there creating symptoms of an obscure genetic disorder?"
Oranges mixed with the Strawberries. "That is an excellent question. I believe my studies have revealed someone well worth asking. Doctor Zil Marga is a Sterrian genius. I believe he may be a galactic class intellect."
Molon's eyebrows raised "Really? You don't meet one of those people every day."
"Indeed not. For that reason alone I would like to meet him." Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam's voder held the smallest hint of eagerness, but the smell of cherries wafted strongly from him.
"What makes you think this guy, Marga, is such a genius?" Lila Gould asked.
"In the last 35 years, genetic science on Sterry has advanced to the same degree that took Earth between the years 1980 and 2050, old calendar, to accomplish." Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam's voder said. The Rhondan's skin flushed brightly, showing a lot of color and contrast, pale blues alternating with black, red and yellow strips. "Most of this progress is based heavily on the work of Zil Marga. Zil Marga is also responsible for several studies, done with excellent methodology, that show that the White/Black and Black/White Sterrians are, in fact the same race and species. He wrote several very definite articles about this earlier in his career."
"Wait." Melinda said. "A noted genius, genetic science, a plague that mimics the effects of an obscure genetic disorder and attacks the foundation of Sterrian Society. Does anyone smell a rat here besides me?"
Molon nodded. "I'd like to talk to him, certainly."
-*-
"We don't know where he is." Ktar Margli said. "Or else we'd certainly have him available here."
General Zillo looked sour. "Ahem."
"Oh, yes, well." Margli looked uncomfortable. "We have reports of aliens in clothes like your moving around our Capital city."
"It was necessary for us to investigate somewhat on our own to gather data necessary for us to help you with this plague." Melinda said reasonably.
Zillo looked fierce.
Margli looked even more uncomfortable. "Well please don't. You movements have caused some panic and civil disorder."
Melinda's face showed surprise. "Really? None of that was apparent."
"Obviously your understanding of our culture is lacking." Margli said definitely.
Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam slithered into the screen over Melinda's shoulders. "Our medical science has confirmed the accuracies of many of Dr. Marga's earlier studies on the issue of race among the Sterrians. I refer particularly to your Sterrian Journal of Medical Science issue -"
"Marga had backed away from that nonsense!" General Zillo barked. "No respected Sterrian scientist or scholar agrees with Radical Egalitarianism anymore."
"Or is it that they're afraid to?" Lila Gould said very softly from the tactical station.
Melinda worked to keep her face neutral.
Strawberries and cherries wafted from Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam "You speak as though this Radical Egalitarianism was once an active social force, General."
"Those days are long gone. Radical college students and leftists thought that they could change the world. They lost faith in the core values of our society. I was a street trooper then, fresh out of the academy. We put down the protests, and restored order! Let me tell you, I saw things in those days that would make you white all over." General Zillo said loudly. "Thank the Great Maker we had the full support of the government and society away from those centers of radical thinking. We discredited and all but eliminated The Leftist Egalitarian movement. So let's hear no more of that sort of nonsense!"
"Hmmmmm." Oranges wafted from Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam "no more such nonsense." He agreed reluctantly.
-*-
"We still need to get more information" Molon said.
"Can you cure this plague?" Melinda asked.
"Should we cure it?" Lila Gould asked.
"There are tens of thousands of lives at stake." Molon said. "I can cure it. But if we can find Marga and discover if he's involved with it, somehow, I believe that would make it easier and more quickly done."
Melinda sighed. "General Zillo has lots of security troops and it's his home territory. If he can't find Marga what chance do we have?"
Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam swayed gently as if in some unseen current. "The fact that we are not Internal Security Troopers may, in fact, be an advantage. And the Sterrian Journal of Medical Science does list the university where Marga did his work."
Melinda shrugged "Is it in transporter range?"
-*-
Soft smelling creeper vine filled the Campus in almost every available niche. Blue bricks made up the large portion of the buildings there. A thorough grid governed the layout of the campus. The Sterrian sun Lila over the scene casting a happy morning light.
People milled about. Melinda noted that they were dressed more gaudily and colorfully than the average Sterrian from the day before.
Melinda and Molon walked along the main walkway of the campus, watching the inhabitants of the University. Students noticed them but avoided making eye contact and simply avoided them.
Most of the students present showed the swirled color effects of the disease. Several were dressed lightly, with bare arms and legs, showing that the swirled colors went all over.
Melinda saw a large, hand written sign showed a scale, like the kind on Earth used to denote justice in a certain corner of the quad, where picnic tables and miscellaneous items were gathered. People gathered there, showing off their new colors, talking happily, and dancing to some music that blared from a portable radio.
Melinda made her way towards the group with Molon close behind. As she got close to them, Melinda realized that she was a few years older than they were. It was an odd feeling. Melinda was used to being one of the younger generation of Starfleet cadets and officers. It felt a little odd to be older than a group of people she approached.
Melinda noted that the normalcy of the scene created a sort of surreal effect for her. No one was yelling, no one was crying or bemoaning his fate. Everyone visible seemed either happy or at least unconcerned, a serious change from the rest of Crossriver City.
"Excuse me." Melinda said at the edge of the group, with a tone sharp enough to carry over the music.
"Hey," One young man with frizzy long hair, wearing shorts and sandals said "It's the Aliens."
Melinda nodded. "That's right. I'm Lieutenant Melinda Garner and this is Doctor Gar Molon."
Molon raised his right hand. "Greetings. Take me to your leader."
The frizzy man pointed at one of the blue brick buildings. "The dean's office is over there."
Melinda ignored the dead joke on the ground in front of her. "Actually, we're looking for Egalitarians and Zil Marga."
Another man, more fully dressed, all in black said "What do you want with Egalitarians?"
"We want to know more about your planet's Egalitarian movement." Melinda answered. "We're curious."
"Do any of you know Dr. Marga?" Molon asked. "I'm really looking forward to a chance to speak with him."
"He's not here." A young woman in a light sundress said.
"Hey, I'm Kern." The frizzy haired man said. "Tell me about life in the stars."
Melinda smiled "I work at a place called Deep Space Thirteen. It's a station dug into an airless moon. We have large chambers there filled with a habitable environment. People from all over the sector come to meet at Deep Space 13 and have conferences, sporting events, or for other reasons. We're also a trading post and defense outpost for the United Federation of Planets."
"United Federation of Planets?" The dour one in the black asked. "What does that mean, exactly?"
"Um," Melinda explained, "We're several planets banded together in common government frame work to ensure our mutual defense, exploration, science and trade."
"How many?"
"Oh, over 150, last time I checked." Melinda said. "There may be more today."
The Students looked at her. "And all the people look like you?" The one in black asked.
"Not at all," Melinda shook her head "A lot of them look very different from us."
"And does this Federation believe in equal right for all people no matter what they look like?" Kern asked. "By the way, that's Daral, " he pointed at the dour young man in the black clothing "and Mnima" Pointing at the young woman in the light dress. Others in the group introduced themselves.
"Pleased to meet you," Melinda said.
"As a matter of fact that is exactly what our Federation is about." Molon said. "Equal rights for all people."
Daral sneered a little "That explains why you're working with the government."
"What do you mean?" Melinda asked.
"Do you really expect me to buy you as aliens?" Daral asked. "You're undercover Internal Security. Admit it."
Mnima smiled "What do we have to loose, Daral? We're already on their lists as subversives."
"They could make us disappear." Daral said dubiously.
"They haven't made anyone disappear since your grandfather came to this school!" Kern laughed. "They don't need to. Until the fever hit, they had things sewn up."
"And that's why you're looking for Dr. Marga, right?" Mnima asked.
"Well, it's true we did want to speak to him about the fever." Molon said.
"If your Federation values equal rights, then why would you want to cure the fever?" Daral demanded.
"Well, we respect the rights of the old, the young and the ill to live as well." Molon said.
Kern shook his head "Man that's a real downer. No one agrees with that. On the other hand, can you see how it's making the government and all the uptight Black/Whites run? They fear loosing their privileged positions. They fear having to share equally with everyone."
Mnima said, "It would be wonderful if you could find a way to fight the fever without undoing the color exchanges."
The Egalitarians nodded happy agreement.
Molon grinned back. "Before we can do much of anything, we need to learn everything we can both about Sterrian genetics and the disease itself. And Zil Marga is said to be the acknowledged expert in these fields."
Daral looked suspicious, still. "Hypothetically, if we knew something, and told you, then that would get back to the Internal Security and cause Dr. Marga trouble. Marga's already on their lists because of when he did those studies and spoke out against the Apartheid System."
Melinda sighed, "What could I do to convince you-"
Another scruffy looking, oddly dressed Sterrian pelted up to the group as fast as he could go. "Goons! Heading this way!"
Daral turned towards Melinda and Molon "There's your friends."
However Melinda was quickly looking around. She slapped Molon's arm. "There -" She pointed at a retaining wall that had a goodly amount of clinging vines.
Melinda and the Doctor quickly slid over the wall, and nestled under the vines, seeking cover.
They heard boots clomp up to the group.
"Kids," A gruff voice said, not unkindly. "having an illegal meeting?"
Mnima's voice was higher pitched and sounded much less bright. "No, Officer, we're discussing our class schedules."
"Show us some ID's please." Another gruff voice said, less kindly.
Rustling noises while the students produced the required documentation.
There was a strained silence.
The first voice came back with a wry tone. "Did you all get new ones?"
There were noises of agreements.
The second voice came back. "I don't know who you punks think you're fooling. We have records. We know who the right color is and who the wrong one is."
Daral said, "I'm striped, Sir. I always have been."
More noises of agreement.
"When this is done, and we find the cure -" grated the second Security Officer "Then you subversive punks will get your comeuppance."
"Kids," The first voice said. "You haven't seen any aliens around here, have you?"
General confusion, "Aliens? No, Sir. Are there Aliens again?"
The first voice "They're monotoned, odd colors, a sort of peach into darker brown. They're wearing mostly black uniforms with a triangle symbol on the left breast and colored piping."
The second voice "They're dangerous. They have powerful weapons and advanced technology. They can't be trusted."
The first voice, the calmer one said "They seem to be able to move around the city by mysterious means. Kids, we don't know what these people are really up to. We've called them to help us with the fever, but they're acting funny. We don't know for sure if they're behind it or not, or what's going on."
The second voice spoke again, in a grim, harsh tone "We don't know these people. They may look like us but that barely means anything. They may have a fondness for eating our brains. They may reproduce by exploding out of people's chests. We just don't know."
Melinda grimaced under the vines and felt very lucky that the Sterrian Security Officers were not as dangerous as a Kynah patrol.
The older officer finished "Witnesses said the Aliens were just around here somewhere. If you seen them, report them to us, will you?"
Daral said, in a sincere voice "Sure thing, officer."
The younger security voice said. "We have to get over to the admin office and keep them from handing out any new ID cards. All these are the Black/White cards, and the photos are swirled."
Kern said "We can't have that. A White/Black might get into the wrong restaurant or country club!"
"Horrors!" Mnima squealed "I might be sleeping with one, even now, and never know it!"
The sound of laughter was drowned out by the second voice becoming very sharp "You think this is some sort of game!?"
"C'mon Vill," The first voice said. "You won't get away where with these smart guys." The sounds of footsteps retreated.
After about minutes Daral said from the wall right over Melinda. "I like you two better already."
Melinda picked her head up. "There's nothing like having the right people vouch for you, I guess."
Molon picked himself up and eyed Mnima "Aren't you afraid I'll eat your brains?"
The young woman laughed and said in her best high-pitched squeaky bimbo voice "Too late!"
-*-
Kern led the two Starfleet Officers towards the Administration building. "Kam Naba is professor of biology here at the university. She and Dr. Marga have been friends for years and years."
"Is she here?" Melinda asked.
"I haven't seen her lately, but I'm a history and literature student. I don't mess with the hard sciences too much." Kern turned a corner and walked briskly.
Melinda had to hurry to keep up with Kerns long legs.
Kern approached a smaller building and opened an obscure looking side door. "Wait here. They probably have the administration building staked out by now."
"What's this place?" Melinda asked as she Molon slipped inside.
"Bookstore. I work here sometimes. We keep the door unlocked so we can get to the books and study from them without having to pay for them sometimes."
Melinda and Gar Molon slid into the building and shut the door mostly behind them, keeping it open enough to peek at Kern walking into the administration building.
After a short while, Kern returned walking with an older male Sterrian. The older one was dressed much more conservatively. They spoke earnestly as the walked.
Melinda shut the door to the book store softly and stood back from it. She resisted the urge to draw her hidden phaser one. The paranoia of playing cloak and dagger threatened to become overwhelming.
After a while Kern slipped into the book store by himself.
Kern explained. "That was Professor Dal. Kam Naba has taken a vacation due to the fever, and they don't know when to expect her back."
Molon shook his head "How will we find Dr. Marga now?"
"Worse, I've never met Professor Dal. I haven't heard of him before, either. I think he's a security plant." Kern said.
"This just keeps getting better and better." Melinda said.
"I may know some folks." Kern said. "But we have a more immediate problem. The campus is crawling with security. They know you're here. Eventually they'll catch us."
Melinda shrugged "We have a method of dealing with that. Will you be arrested if we just disappear?"
Kern's eyes glittered. "What, you'll disappear from right here?"
Melinda nodded.
Kern grinned widely. "You can move around at will then."
"We can do that." Melinda said, "Although I wouldn't like to discuss it at any great length."
Kern chuckled. "That's cool. I'd like a ride someday, though."
"No promises." Melinda said. "Where would you like to meet when you know more about the location of Dr. Marga?"
Kern went and rummaged through a drawer at the sales desk of the bookstore. He pulled out a map of cross river city. Printed on a large sheet of paper, it was heavily defaced by notes of various kinds.
Kern laid it flat on the counter and pointed "We're about here." Melinda nodded and scanned the map with Kern's finger pointing to it. Kern then traced to a location about three blocks away. "That's the train station. Meet me there this evening, and I'll see what I can do."
Melinda nodded. "Thank you, Kern."
Kern shrugged. "I don't see what harm talking can do unless you're internal security that is."
-*-
"Hey, Uncle." Kern said. "I got some friends here who'd like to talk with your heavy egalitarian friends. You might say they're from out of town. Way out of town."
He was speaking into a communications device right out of the museum. A Telephone, Melinda recalled. Holding a listening tube up to his ear, he talked into microphone mounted on a thick metal box. They were in a station where passenger caught a train going cross country to a nearby coastal city.
Kern listened for a moment. "They say they're on the up-and-up. I believe `em. Internal security is warning everyone not to talk to `em. Says they may be enemies of the state."
"It always helps to be vouched for by the right people." Molon said quietly to Melinda.
Melinda nodded "High friends in low places."
Kern turned away from the microphone. "He says he'll meet you at a neutral location. A place I know. Is that alright?"
Melinda sighed. Molon said "We'll be there."
-*-
It was late at night in Crossriver City. Lights from the city made a soft, twinkling, multicolored glow through the night.
Melinda and Molon beamed into a parking structure. Melinda mentally interpreted it as a "vehicle bay", although it offered no refueling or repair capacity. It was just a very large place to store ground cars while their owners were conducting their business around the city.
They finished the beam-in inside a stair well near the top of the building. It smelled bad and there was some graffiti in the stair well.
Melinda scanned with her tricorder. "I scan three life forms on the bottom floor, and one on the deck beneath us in the main parking area."
"Must be the fellow we're here to meet," Molon said.
Melinda started down the stairs "One way to find out I guess."
The parking deck had a few ground cars in it. One was a long black one parked by itself about halfway across the deck.
The two Starfleet officers walked across the deck to the long black car. As they approached, a window slid down.
"Are you Kern's friends?"
"That's us. Are you Kern's Uncle?" Melinda asked.
"I know him." The figure shadowed in the car said. "How'd you get here?"
"We have our ways." Melinda breezed. "Do you know Kam Naba?"
"I might. What's this about, Aliens?"
"We're looking for information on the disease that's affecting your world." Gar Molon said. "Zil Marga knows a lot that could help us. Dr. Naba is his friend. She might be able to put us in touch with him."
"Some people might not want the disease cured, aliens." The man said. "Some might consider it a step forward for our world."
Melinda felt a grimace cross her face. "A lot of people have died. I wouldn't consider a mass murder to be a step forward."
Molon added "I don't care if you want to change your society. I'm a Doctor. I'm just here to try and preserve lives."
The man in the long black ground car considered it. "You're too big a risk."
"How many more lives will you sacrifice until we can find a cure?" Molon said urgently.
"Will you find a cure without Marga?" The man asked. He seemed to think this unlikely.
"I guarantee it. If not now, then certainly in a week when the USS Alvin arrives. It's only a matter of time." Molon said.
"So why do you want to talk to Naba?" The man in the car asked.
"That may shave a few days off discovering the cure. How many lives might that save?"
The man shrugged "A few, maybe."
Molon nodded "One would do me."
The man looked at Molon and Melinda carefully. "Okay. Use your mysterious means of transport to go to this location tomorrow morning. I don't guarantee anything but talk." He slid a piece of paper out of the car. Melinda took it. It was a map, highlighting a certain set of coordinates.
"We'll be there." Melinda said.
-*-
The house was a large, rambling affair. It looked low, but that was because it sprawled along the ground. The morning sun played off the immaculately kept grounds, and conspired to try and make the stone and brick of the house look warm.
Melinda and Lila beamed in first, followed a few moments later by the Two doctors. Two transporter loads was a risk, but neither doctor wanted to be left out of the meeting.
The away team walked across the grounds to an entryway that held an ornate and aesthetically pleasing door.
-*-
A man with swirled colors in a black formal suit led the away team in a large room. The room was paneled in wood and was tastefully stocked with books on shelves made of the same material. There were over stuffed chairs and small tables scattered throughout the room and the smell of a faint herbal smoke.
Three people sat in the over stuffed chairs, a woman and two men. They were dressed in casual looking clothes constructed of expensive looking materials.
The Sterrian in the formal clothing said "May I introduce the Starfleet Party, Lieutenant Melinda Garner, the Lieutenants Doctor Gar Molon and Doctor Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam, and Ensign Lila Gould."
Melinda and Gar Molon exchanged a brief look. The gentleman's Gentleman hadn't even batted an eye at the obvious difference of Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam from anyone else.
The Butler continued, gesturing towards the woman "This is Doctor Kam Naba, and Mister Zarkon Kem, the master of the house."
He stepped back "I am Tanol. If you require anything, please summon me, immediately." With that, Tanol stepped out of the room and quietly shut the door.
Molon and Melinda exchanged another look. Who was the Third Sterrian?
Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam Slithered into the room with his strange rolling, flopping gate. The smell of strawberries accompanied him. "Greetings." His Voder said.
Kam Naba was splotched in the randomized shades of black and white. Her eyes grew wide and a she grinned a very large grin. "There are so many questions I'd like to ask you."
Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam was suffused with a rainbow of colors running from pink through lavender to red. "As it happens, I can answer many of them." His Voder said blandly. "We have questions for you as well."
"Do you know where Doctor Zil Marga is?" Gar Molon asked.
She thought about it for a few moments. "I know, but I am not at liberty to say."
"We'd really like to speak with him." Molon said Looking at the man who had not been introduced.
"I bet you would. And so would Internal Security." Naba said. "That is why I am not at liberty to say."
"Is he responsible for the fever?" Melinda asked.
Naba looked at the Starfleet Lieutenant. "What makes you think that?"
Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam explained "We have a tool that we call a Proteus virus. It is a virus designed to carry a payload of selected DNA and insert it into targeted cells of the body. We use them for genetic therapy."
"Your genetic science must be very advanced." Naba said.
"We have reason to believe that the fever that's sweeping your world is such an artificial virus, designed to scramble the colors of its victims." Molon said.
"I see why you'd look for Dr. Marga. If anyone on Sterry could design and build such a thing, it would be him." Naba said. "Tell me, what do technologically and no doubt socially advanced aliens care what happens on a rude little backwater such as Sterry?"
"We were asked for help, Dr. Naba." Melinda said seriously "This epidemic is out of control."
"It threatens the existing power structure." Naba said. "I can see why they'd ask for help. However I cannot see why you'd give it."
"Lives are at stake." Gar Molon said.
Naba shook her head. "That is government propaganda to try and isolate the people who are already suffering from the disease."
"No, it's true. People actually are dying." Lila Gould said carefully.
"Who's dying?" Zarkon Kem said. His voice was stentorian and commanded the library.
"People with compromised immune systems." Molon replied, "The ill, the very old, the very young."
Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam's colors dimmed, but his patterns became more complex. "Perhaps you have noticed the fever that accompanies the onset of the disease."
"Can't you cure the disease yourselves?" Kem said. "What do you need with Zil Marga?"
"Speaking with him or viewing his notes would certainly make things easier." Gar Molon said. "Shorter time to the cure, fewer lives lost."
"Well now, that's the issue, isn't it?" Kem "Lives are at stake. Maybe more of them than you're currently aware of."
"Do you know how many people have died in wars and rebellions on this planet?" Naba asked, "All seeking or opposing justice between our races."
"I understand you have social problems, but I hardly think wiping out thousands of people is the answer." Gould said.
Kem strode over to a counter where a crystal decanter held something purple. He took a matching glass and filled it about halfway with the purple liquid. "Thirty years ago, many of us thought a new age was at hand, a time where civil institutions could begin to address the long term inequity of our civilization."
"Subjecting your people to a plague-" Molon started
"Would you rather it was a war!?" Kem bellowed.
"Certainly not." Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam's voder seemed bland "However, that still does not justify the release of a bio-weapon against your people."
"Change has to come somehow." Naba said. "It has to start somewhere. We've spent all our lives lobbying and working for change, only to have the forces of the government and society retrench and reinforce of prejudices. We've spent decades proving that White/Blacks are indistinguishable from Balack/Whites in a biological sense, only to be labeled as extremists and ignored."
"In some areas, White/Blacks have been the victims of violence, murders and massacres." The unknown man said. "People were already dying, just not as rapidly."
"So you created this plague and released on an unsuspecting population." Molon said, angrily. "You complain that the White/blacks aren't as free to enjoy the fruits of your civilization, so you take the choice out of everyone's hands. Be swirled or be dead, like it or not."
"If you cure this virus, what will the effect be on our colors?" The unknown man asked.
Molon took a deep breath and looked grim.
"It appears that once the swirled color effect has been accomplished there is no easy way to put it back. We can stop new infections but people who are swirled will stay that way." Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam replied.
Melinda had a thought "What about the children of the swirled colored people?"
Molon shrugged "I haven't been able to study the Sterrian genetic code enough to be able to tell that. Our analyzers are still working out the code for it back on the ship."
"My information indicates that the new genetic code should breed true. There will be swirled colored people on Sterry for another few hundred years at least." Naba said.
"Then you've accomplished your mission." Melinda said "You've made your point. Help us find Dr. Marga and end this thing before more innocent people have to die."
Kem shook his head "We believe that we may have been heading for another civil war eventually, Lieutenant. Ending the progress of the plague now just makes the Swirled people into either a new minority for the Black/White government to oppress. Or it makes them the swing votes in the next civil war. I want this thing to go all the way. Once all colors are swirled together, then maybe we can make some lasting changes."
"You actually don't mind being reposible for all those people's deaths?" Gould said horrified.
"I mind it a lot, Ensign. I mind it a great deal. I do not mind it as badly as I would if another civil war erupted and I hadn't done my utmost to stop it, or change things for the better."
"One must break a few eggs to make an omlette." Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam's colors were very subdued and cherries wafted from him.
"Enh? What's that mean?" Kem sounded like he was used to getting answers.
"It is merely something I read once." Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam said.
"Would it be possible for you to help us design a less harmful version of this virus?" The unknown man asked.
"No!" Molon snarled. "Not in your wildest dreams!"
Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam answered more literally. "It would be technically possible, but a severe violation of our code of ethics to do so."
"So you can step in to prop up a rotting social order based on pain and suffering, but you can't help relieve that pain. You can't help us find a better way." Kem growled.
"I can help you right now." Molon said "Inflicting a plague on your own people is bad! Don't do it!"
Melinda could feel the meeting getting away from her. "Doctor! Please!" She said.
Gar Molon looked at Melinda. Awareness flashed in his eyes. She was the senior officer here and responsible. He grimly stepped back a couple of steps.
Melinda looked Zarkon Kem in the eye. "Mister Kem, we mean to provide a cure for this thing. I ask you to save some lives. Have Doctor Marga get in touch with us if he can."
Kem sighed.
Molon added “We guarantee him safe conduct. I'm not internal security. I just want to prevent the dying.”
Garner gritted her teeth. It was much more a commitment than she wanted to make, but she couldn't take it back now.
Naba shook her head. "What we're doing is too important."
The unknown man said "We'll discuss what you have told us."
Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam turned to him. "I have noticed that Mister Tanol did not specify your name, sir. Is it possible that you are Dr. Marga?"
The Unknown man smiled faintly. "No. You aren't meant to know who I am, but I can tell you that I am one of Dr. Marga's close advisors, along with Doctor Naba and Mister Kem."
"Ah." Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam's colors became more complex and the faint smell of strawberries increased. "Thank you."
"I think we've done all we can here." Melinda said. "Let's get back to the runabout and see if we can finish this thing up."
Molon nodded, "It's been a pleasure." He lied.
-*-
Three days later, Melinda sighed and put down the PADD she was watching. Life in Starfleet Entailed a lot of waiting. But waiting in a landed runabout while Security troopers surrounded seemed worse, some how.
Turning, she looked at Lila Gould, who was deeply into entering data on a PADD of her own. "What are you up to?" Melinda asked Lila
"I'm designing an adventure." Lila said.
"For the Holodeck?" Melinda asked. "What sort?"
Lila grinned "Dungeons and Dragons. My little brother loves it."
"How old is your Little Brother?" Melinda asked
Lila had to think about it "20 years old. He's at M.I.T. He's a mathematics savant."
"An you're designing adventures for him?" Melinda asked.
"He sends some back, too." Lila said. "I haven't run the last one. I'm trying to get together a party. Would you be interested? Dan's very creative, and he doesn't have my evil streak."
Melinda smiled. "Sounds like fun, if it won't take too much time."
Lila shifted in her seat to focus on Melinda "What are you up to?"
Melinda smiled "These are scans of my best friend's wedding. I was just there a little while ago. I'm editing the scans into a video presentation for some of the people who couldn't make it."
Lila nodded "That was Kristen Becker wasn't it? I heard a lot of people talking about that."
Melinda sighed at the memory the taste of an English spring afternoon still almost fresh in her mind. "It was nice. I'll introduce you to Kristen next time we meet."
Out the front window motion caught Melinda's eye. Two security troopers escorted a man in a business suit.
"Uh oh." Melinda said "Company."
The two women stood and went towards the hatch.
Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam and Parker Ashby slept in bunks along the mid deck of the Runabout. In the back Gar Molon looked disheveled and scattered. A small science station was half covered in PADDS and tricorders.
In the other corner, T'Nara carefully went through a Ponn-Ifla kata, looking much like Earthly Tai chi or Klingon Mohk'bara it served roughly the same purpose, exercise and self defense.
Lila rousted Parker, while Melinda gently shook Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam. "Please wake up Doctor. Visitors." She noticed a faint, almost fishy smell around the Rhondan Doctor. Then it was covered over gently with the smell of Strawberries and cream.
"I greet you." Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam's Vodoer sound blandly sleepy.
"Wake up please, doctor, visitors." Melinda straightened up in time to hear knocking on the hatch of the runabout.
She went to the entry hatch an opened it. As it opened Melinda was shocked to recognize Tanol and Zarkon Kem dressed as ministry of internal security troopers, weapons and all. A third man, unknown to her was between them with an overstuffed briefcase.
"Delivery. Some scientific information you requested." Kem's voice made a respectable and very believable security trooper bark.
"Please come in." Melinda said stepping back. The three men stepped into the Runabout.
"Welcome aboard the Federation runabout Salayam." Melinda said, formally.
"Can you make this thing secure from listening devices?" kem asked her softly.
Melinda nodded to Lila "Ensign, secure the runabout from eavesdropping."
"Aye, Sir." Lila said. She went forward onto the flight deck, and called up the tactical station. The windows, including the huge forward and aft view ports of the runabout dimmed noticeably, seeming to be tinted.
"All secure, Lieutenant." Lila called, "No radio devices noted, sensors show nothing foreign in contact with the hull, and I've polarized the hull so listening lasers won't get anything but static."
"Very good." Melinda replied, leading the guest aft to the Main compartment.
As they turned Melinda saw Lila palm her phaser. Nice someone was on the ball.
Kem stepped forward, "Doctors Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam and Gar Molon, Allow me to introduce Doctor Zil Marga."
Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam slid/writhed/rolled forward "It is certainly a pleasure to meet you." He held out a tentacle
"I wish it could have been under different circumstances." Marga took the offered tentacle and shook it gently.
"Doctor, are those the notes for your proteus virus?" Molon asked.
Marga nodded "Yes. I." he held out the briefcase "I didn't know."
"May I offer you something to enhance your comfort?" Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam asked.
Gar Molon took the brief case and started quickly pawing through documents, note-books, papers and samples. "This is exactly what we need. Thank you."
Margli sighed. "I didn't know it would end up being deadly, you see."
Gar Molon held up the first page and with a quick swipe of the tricorder entered the data into the Salayam's Computer. "You might have tested it better first. Or avoided doing it in the first place."
Kem asked "Do you have some water? These good suits are hot." As Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam went to the replicator, Kem turned to Molon "If we'd tested it, the results of the testing would have been obvious. It would have given the Government too much warning. Marga is a super genius, but the Government is not composed totally of fools. Enough people, time and money and they can get ahead of anything we can do."
"Please have a seat." Melinda said, she went and got herself a cup of coffee
Marga and Kem sat down on the large overstuff couch that dominated one wall of the Main deck.
Gar Molon said. "I don't really think that justifies the damage you've caused."
Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam handed two glasses of water to kem and Marga. "My study of your virus suggests that it might have been easier to design a virus that would require injection, then you could offer color swirling only to those who volunteered for it."
Hup-Nast-Zam-Zam approached Tanol.
"Thank you, Doctor," Talon's accent was impeccable. "I require nothing at this time. He continued to stand casually off to the side of Kem and Margli, content to let them carry the conversation.
Marga shook his head. "You don't understand. You don't understand what it was like. My grandmother was a white/black. My family was prosperous, a well-respected name. We had to treat my grandmother as if she was hired help around our house so that our neighbors wouldn't know that our blood wasn't pure. Every day, my own grandmother..."
Kem leaned forward as though to lend his words more force. "They got off lucky. Mixed race marriages have been the grounds for terrible crimes, including the brutal murder of entire families. You really don't understand. It's better now than it has been in all history and still people are saddled with ancient prejudices and injustices every day."
"Surely there's a better way to achieve social change than by turning a bio-weapon on your own people." Melinda said.
"Bio-weapon?" Marga tasted the word slowly. It was obviously the first time he'd heard the concepts put together that way.
"We tried peaceful demonstrations. We've tried political processes. The government acts to foil such movement whenever it appears they might be successful." Kem said. "Thirty years ago it seemed that the young people were going to organize and sweep the old order away. Twenty years ago it had devolved into a few die-hard believers and a lot of people who didn't want to be associated with radicals anymore."
Marga sighed. "I did my best to discover the truth and put it out there for everyone to see. My research, studies and proofs were buried and publicly discredited."
Kem said "Some of the more radicalized groups were talking about war before the end."
"The end?" Melinda asked.
"The Gray Underground was pinned in an apartment building in Lakeside City. They were all shot and killed, and the building was burned down to hide the evidence. Several other important resistance organizations mysteriously turned to crime as well and met swift ends. Now radical egalitarians are widely viewed as criminals and violent terrorists." Kem said. "Only those of us who went underground survived."
"Now you are criminals and terrorists." Molon said grimly, scanning a notebook into the Runabouts memory.
"No one was supposed to die." Marga said sadly. "It was as harmless as I could make it."
Kem said "We're doing what we can to fix the damage, Doctor Molon. We're here helping you find the cure."
"You did everything except failing to release the disease in the first place." Molon said grimly. He pulled himself out of his angry attitude. "Thank you. With these notes we should have a vaccine ready in a few days."
Kem shook his head. "You'll be putting things right back where they were. Things have got to change around here."
"Then it's up to you to change them." Melinda said. "Hopefully not by killing piles of people when you do it."
"You don't understand." Kem said sadly "You just don't understand."
"Maybe I don't. But I bet I know who does." Melinda though to herself.
They watched Molon complete his scanning in silence.
-*-
Melinda and Doctor Molon walked out of the restroom at Zilli's place. The band stopped playing immediately.
"Ummm, do they have boys and girls on your planet?" Bejel the Waitress asked.
"I'm sorry." Melinda blushed, "That's the only place we had coordinates for."
"We'd like to ask you all a few questions if you don't mind." Gar Molon announced. "This is for everyone, so don't be shy."
Bejel held out seats at a table near the center of the room. Melinda and Molon sat down.
"We may be near to discovering a vaccine for the color swirling fever." Molon said.
"Will that put our colors back?" One patron asked immediately.
"No." Molon said. "That would take me building a Put-Colors-Back virus, and I can't do that. There's nothing physically wrong with your swirled colors, so it would be unethical for me to treat them as though they were a problem."
Bejel asked: "What are the questions? I imagine the police will be here soon."
Melinda took a deep breath. "The color change fever was actually made by Doctor Zil Marga to try and eliminate prejudice from you society, by effectively making everyone the same color."
Molon Nodded "But Marga didn't get it entirely right. The fever you suffer when the disease occurs wasn't intended and it's killing some people."
Melinda nodded "So our question is to you. Would you like us to walk away and not give the government the cure, or cure it and ruin Marga's plan."
"Yes. Take that cure and destroy it. I love the looks on the black/whites faces when they wake up no longer pure." An older woman said.
"This city smells like it did 25 years ago during the Egalitarian riots." An old man said. "We don't need that anymore."
"It's killing little babies." Bejel said. "Pass out the cure."
"I was beaten up by the police for being in the wrong side of town. I'm sure it's happened to everyone in here. I really like being able to say I used to be black/white and getting away from a traffic stop without a beating, or without my car being damaged."
"You like that enough to kill Keja's ol' auntie, or someone's newborn baby?" Bejel Challenged.
"We've been dying for a long time." The musician said. "Lynchings, shootings, unfair trials. Every time some black/white lady gets her self raped, usually by her boyfriend, they come grab one of us, and hang us for it. Now they can barely tell who to get."
"Borlok, I can not believe I am hearing you say this. Does your mother know you speak this way?" Bejel demanded
"Hey, hey, I'm just sayin'." Borlok held up his hands in surrender.
"Maybe things aren't fair." The Old Man said "But that's no call to turn the unfairness around and inflict it on someone else. Little babies shouldn't suffer because the cops beat us."
"All I'm sayin' is I don't want to go back to the way things were." The old woman said.
The Polka dotted Percussionist said "You know what would be nice? If we could, like, get the fever from a shot or something. Then babies and old folks wouldn’t need to get it."
Molon Looked grim "You'll have to bring that up with Dr. Marga. I can't help you with that."
Polka dots sighed "That's too bad."
"Give us the cure, Alien folks. This ol' planet, we'll have to fix our problems for ourselves."
"That right. Don't punish people who don't have a choice." Bejel said.
"With only part of the people swirled, all we've done is create a new color for the Government to declare inferior." Borlok said. "Same old ways, different colors."
"Maybe things will change when Mister First Minister Margli gets a taste of being white/black for a while." The Old woman said.
The sound of sirens and speeding ground cars approached.
"Thank you" Molon said said, standing up
"You've been very helpful!" Melinda said as the two Starfleet Officer dashed into the men's restroom just ahead of the security troopers.
-*-
Melinda Garner sat up a touch straighter as Captain Bryan Erdmann put down the PADD with her report on it.
"You didn't turn in this Doctor Marga. According to their own laws and by his own admission, he's guilty of the death of thousands." Erdmann said. He pinned Melinda on a gaze from his extraordinarily blue eyes.
Melinda felt her throat go dry. "He said he didn't mean to. I believe him. I also think that without this sort of shake up, the only way things would change is with an Armed rebellion."
"But you turned over the cure." Erdmann said.
"I couldn't stand by and watch people die, Sir." Melinda replied.
"A difficult situation." Erdmann said. "You split the difference a touch closely there."
Melinda felt a very unhappy expression crawl onto her face, despite her resistance.
"That's what it means to be in command sometimes. Picking the least bad of a number of awful alternatives." Erdmann looked a bit haunted. He brought himself back. "You did well. Keep at it and you may make the center seat someday."
Melinda felt shocked.
"We have people all over Crossriver city dispensing the vaccine. Doctor Marga's disease will be history in a short while." Erdmann said "Therefore, You are cleared to resume your mission whenever you're ready."
Erdmann favored Melinda with a rare smile. "Dismissed."
-*-
"Set course for Deep Space Thirteen." Melinda said, with considerable relief. The USS Alvin shrank in the aft viewscreen.
"Course set." T'Nara replied.
"Engage."
"Aye, Aye. I believe the colloquial term is 'Skipper'." T'Nara Said.
"Not after we get back to Deep Space Thirteen." Melinda delared. But having had a taste of having her fate in her own hands, she wasn't so sure it was her last command.
The Runabout Salayam entered warp for Deep Space Thirteen.
- End -
Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Trek. I claim original characters and situations in this story for me.