From Past to Present

It has been pure chaos aboard the Enterprise-D these past few days. People, objects, and things, from our memories, fantasies and imaginations have become real. These physical manifestations roam the decks, interacting with our crew, and causing challenges for Security, our Marines, and anyone assigned to managing these visitors. Thankfully, the dangerous creatures have been contained, and are no longer an active threat, however, individuals like George Washington, Samuel Clemens, Marilyn Monroe, Plato, T’Vol, a romantic copy of Tessa Kensington, and many others, remain free (with observation, and, in some cases, a security escort). Unfortunately, we still have no idea why these manifestations appeared aboard-ship, or how to make them disappear. As a result, the Enterprise-D remains under full quarantine.

Our troubles do not, however, compare to the deadly aphasia epidemic sweeping through Deep Space 9. On Saturday, it was determined that the first infected were catching the virus from contaminated beverages served in Quark’s Bar. Apparently the Ferengi bar owner was secretly obtaining his drinks from broken drink replicators elsewhere on the station. People consumed the beverages in his bar, and became sick with the virus. As more people became sick, the virus mutated into an airborne contagion, thereby making it even harder to contain.

By Sunday, nearly 60% of the population aboard DS9 had become infected. Temporary isolation wards were established all over the station, and lockdowns were issued for the entire crew.

Later in the evening, a sabotage device was found within the replication circuitry, and quickly determined to be the source of the artificial contaminants making everyone sick. It was a Bajoran-made device, created to sabotage the Cardassians during the occupation. Testing indicated that the device was over 18-years old, suggesting that it was placed by the Bajoran underground while the station was under construction, and then, for whatever reason, never activated. Quark, accidentally activated the device last week, while obtaining his beverages on the sly.

Yesterday (Monday), the earliest infected, began to die, starting with Lieutenant Commander Norwood Jeffries, DS9’s chief operations officer. He suffered a complete shutdown of his autonomic nervous system. To date, the station has lost 47 crew and civilians to the same, with dozens more in critical condition.

There is some hope on the horizon, though. Major Kira Nerys was able to “illicitly capture” (i.e., kidnap from Bajor) a Bajoran doctor named Surmac Ren, and bring him back to DS9 to work on a cure. Doctor Surmac helped to create the aphasia device, years ago, and is the best hope of saving the lives of everyone aboard DS9. He is currently working, in isolation, to reverse the contagion he helped engineer.

With Commander Sisko infected, and severe damage to part of a docking ring (after a frightened cargo captain ripped his ship free from its mooring clamps, and was killed when his ship exploded), things are looking bleak aboard DS9. Let us hope (and pray) that good news is just around the corner.

-Lieutenant Sam Archer

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July 19, 2369 – (Devron Timeline 3.0)