Recrudescence, Chapter 2
Title: Recrudescence (Chapter 2)
Show: Star Trek: Deep Space 9
Genre: Angst/Hurt/Comfort/Alternate Universe
Rating: FRT-V
Summary: Those on the station deal with the emotional and physical fallout of Julian's enhancements.
3 Days Earlier
Nurse Bandee frowned as she lowered her hand from her combadge. Dr. Bashir was now fifteen minutes late for duty, something she knew to be an absolute rarity since his arrival on Deep Space Nine nearly six years ago. Even on those few occasions though, he had always called ahead to warn his staff of his tardiness or answered his com, sounding rushed and annoyed, when his absence became conspicuous. But today, there was no response over the comline, no incoming call or messages foretelling the doctor's late arrival. Bandee was worried. Her decision made, Bandee raised her hand to her combadge again.
"Infirmary to security."
"Odo here." came the constable's gruff voice.
"Constable, Doctor Bashir hasn't reported for duty yet and isn't answering his comline." Bandee explained. "We're starting to worry here."
Odo scowled. That was highly unusual, the doctor was a man who took his duties a Chief Medical Officer with utmost seriousness. He always sent some sort of message when he was running behind, whether for a staff meeting or duty in the infirmary. Little wonder the nursing staff was so concerned barely a quarter hour after shift start.
"We'll send someone to check his quarters." he finally replied, mulling the issue over. He severed the link with the infirmary and opened a new one in its place.
"Odo to Bashir."
There was complete silence over the comline.
"Doctor Bashir, please respond."
The human's voice remained absent. The doctor had never before ignored a call from him. Odo rose to his feet and walked from the security office, deciding against sending a deputy to find the doctor. Stepping into the nearest turbolift, he ordered it to the habitat ring, and upon its arrival there, he set off in the direction of Doctor Bashir's quarters. It was when he saw the writing that he began to fear the worst.
Emblazoned in bright red letters across the doctor's door was the word "Unnatural." The control panel next to the door was open, and Odo could guess that the lock had been broken. His suspicion was confirmed when Bashir's door slid open without any dispute of his identity upon his approach.
The quarters were dark, and Odo manipulated his eye structure with practiced ease to see into the infrared area of the electromagnetic spectrum. Gazing around the main room for a moment and seeing no signs of heat outside the norm for the station, he convinced himself the room was devoid of other life before giving voice to his concern.
"Doctor Bashir?"
He began moving towards the bedroom as he asked the man's name. The door was open, and he stepped through. The sight that greeted him sent him into action. The doctor laid on the floor next to his bed, left hand reaching towards his bedside table. A knife handle protruded from his back, blood slowly running down his body to pool on the floor beneath him. Odo could barely hear the man breathe, despite his ability to alter the sensitivity of his hearing. Crouching beside the wounded officer, he reached for Bashir's neck with one hand and his own combadge with the other. Tapping it, he made the call.
"Medical Emergency, Doctor Bashir's quarters. Knife wound, blood loss, pulse is weak."
"We're on our way." Nurse Bandee responded and he heard an abundance of noise in the background, the medical staff mobilizing, no doubt. Odo severed that comline and next summoned a security team to Doctor Bashir's corridor. A moment later, the call from ops came through, Major Kira's concerned.
"Ops to Odo. We've got both your emergency calls, what's going on?"
"Doctor Bashir has been attacked, major."
Captain Sisko had exited his office just in time to hear Odo's statement. "Attacked how, constable?"
"He's been stabbed. There is some graffiti in the corridor which suggest he was targeted because of his genetic enhancements."
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Jadzia and Miles stood staring at the door to Julian's quarters, both having been in ops when the emergency calls came through, and each in a state of mild shock after watching the medical team leave with Julian strapped to an anti-grav stretcher. Stabilized just enough to make the trip to the infirmary, their friend was pale and bloody. It was startling to see just how fragile even a genetically enhanced human could be. The pair was grateful that Dr. Girani happened to be on-station today.
Odo and his security team were busy finishing their sweep of Julian's quarters, having already completed their survey of the corridor and door panel while the medical team did their best to keep the doctor alive. Captain Sisko joined Jadzia and Miles in the hallway to wait for them to finish.
"Any word, sir?" Miles asked, face hopeful. Jadzia looked afraid of the answer next to him.
"Right now he's comatose." Sisko informed his officers. "But Dr. Girani thinks the constable found him in time and that he'll make a full recovery."
Jadzia smiled at this and Miles gave a terse nod. The three fell into an akward silence, shifting around and staring at the floor until Odo's team emerged into the corridor. Odo motioned for them to follow him, leading them to his office. The group was silent until they were safely shut inside, confident they would not be overheard.
"Do you have any idea who did this, Constable?" the captain asked.
"No. There was nothing in his quarters or the corridor that would point to any specific person." Odo replied, his voice gruff with frustration and anger at the attack. "But as I said earlier, the graffiti on Doctor Bashir's door would seem to suggest that his genetic enhancements are the cause of this attack."
"Well it could be half the station then!" Miles exclaimed, his accent growing thicker with his annoyance.
"Chief, what do you know about it?" Sisko asked, turning his two officers.
"Julian's enhancements have been the biggest gossip topic on the station for the last three days." Jadzia explained.
"Almost the entire station is talking about him," Miles agreed, "and most of what they have to say is bad."
"Customers in Quark's last night kept referring to him as a freak and a monster." Jadzia continued. "Most of them felt that he didn't belong in Starfleet."
"Could you name or recognize anyone who made any such remarks?" Odo asked, looking back and forth between the two.
Each considered the question for a moment, but both ended up shaking their heads in reply.
"We could recognize or name a few at best." Miles stated.
"There was close to a hundred people in there last night, and all of them were saying the same thing," Jadzia sighed.
"Well, it's no wonder Julian refused to play darts." Miles stated. "He could hear them better than us, everywhere he went."
Sisko raised his eyebrow at this, and looked to Odo.
"I will speak with Quark." the constable declared.
"Thank you, Constable," Sisko nodded. "I need to know who did this."
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Julian was being kept in a private room, where only Dr. Girani and the nursing staff had access to him. Even the stations senior staff needed clearance from Girani and was required to be accompanied by a nurse when they visited. His records were being kept on paper, and the results of any scans were saved to pads with the wireless connections to the main computer shut off. Officially, the doctor's condition was listed as severe, but stable, and no one outside of the infirmary and the senior staff knew that once he woke up, he would be able to make a full recovery. At Odo's request, other station residents were being led to believe that the doctor might never wake up.
As a result of the infirmary's careful control of information, three distinct groups were emerging on the station. The first of these was comprised mostly of Bajorans and other non-human species, who didn't care about Doctor Bashir's genetic status and were genuinely concerned for the young man. The second group contained a significantly larger portion of humans who disapproved of the doctor's enhancements and continued career in Starfleet, but also felt that they weren't his fault and didn't deserve to be prosecuted for what had been done to him as a child.
It was the third group that was swiftly becoming the focus of Odo's investigation. Comprising roughly one quarter of Deep Space Nine's population, this almost entirely human group openly declared that Bashir "got what he deserved." They could often be heard preaching about Earth's Eugenics Wars to each other in the loud bustle of Quark's. The constable had almost immediately enlisted the bartender to listen in on members of this group for clues while they sat in the bar, promising him leniency the next time he was caught making questionable transactions. Progress was slow however, and Odo and his network of spies had difficulty pinpointing those who were followers and those who were leaders.
The one thing station security had determined though, was that the attack was meant as a warning. The morning after Julian Bashir was rushed to sickbay for emergency surgery, a letter had arrived on Captain Sisko's desk, declaring that the doctor would need to resign his commission or face the consequences. The consequences themselves were not described in the letter's text, but after reading the entire missive, the senior staff had the vague feeling that a punctured lung would be the least of their friends concerns if the writer’s demands were not met.
Starfleet also had yet to respond to the letter, only stating that once Bashir’s attacker was caught, he or she would be punished as federation law dictated for hate crimes. Sisko thought this was an act of cowardice to simply state the attacker would be punished and do nothing to further discourage other similar crimes. He couldn’t understand why command was allowing the doctor to keep his commission when they had no intention of standing up for the man. Unfortunately, it was becoming apparent that DS9 served as a fairly accurate population sample for the entire federation as various news services argued the matter over subspace, and Starfleet didn’t want any more trouble than it already had.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
“Any word?” Major Kira asked as she joined the rest of the senior staff in Captain Sisko’s quarters after her shift.
Jadzia shook her head. “Julian’s still comatose. The nurses aren’t really sure how long it could take him to wake up because of his enhancements. But he is healing faster than a normal human would.”
“You know, the worst bit is going to be him waking up and wondering why we’re all so shocked by this.” Miles predicted, taking a sip from his whiskey glass.
“Is it really so hard for him to believe that we don’t care about his enhancements?” Sisko asked from the couch.
“From what I gather, when Zimmerman showed up he was still having trouble believing anyone here even liked him and cared about him.” Miles explained.
“Why do you say that?” Dax asked, frowning. “I thought he considered us friends.”
“Great friends we were.” Miles muttered. “He was gone for a month, and none of us noticed. Even when the changling did things that were completely out of character for Julian.”
“Like what?” Dax asked.
“When was the last time Julian brought you a sandwich or took interest in our work if it didn’t involve an amazing scientific discovery or saving a life? He’s always too absorbed with his own patients and experiments.”
“Fair point.” Jadzia had to admit.
“And besides, for most of us, our idea of being friends with him was calling him arrogant and naïve less often.” Miles continued.
Kira Nerys winced at this accusation. She had grown to like the doctor more over the years, come to see that despite his naivety and what she perceived as arrogance, he was a passionate man that was willing to fight for what he believed. In the last week though, she had come to feel guilty for calling him arrogant. In hindsight she could see that what she often saw as Bashir’s arrogant claims of ability were solid fact in his mind, hidden from all others. The only occasion she could now think of in which the man displayed true arrogance was in his fight to find a cure for the Quickening, and even then he had partially justified his claims.
Sisko and Odo too looked guilty, often sharing Kira’s opinion. Certainly the captain’s annoyance had been tempered by amusement by the younger officer, and he and Odo had given voice to their opinions of Julian less often, but the feelings still remained long after they needed too. No wonder he had been so certain he would need to resign his commission.
“I still don’t see why he wouldn’t be shocked by all this.” Kira stated. Finally taking a seat next to Dax. Captain Sisko sighed.
“Humanity has always had issues with genetic superiority and hate.” He explained. “Before the twentieth century, most Caucasians believed people with African heritage were inferior, and enslaved them. Before and during Earth’s Second World War, Nazi Germans believed that they were the most superior race and attempted to murder every member of the Jewish religion that they could find.”
“And in the 1990’s the Eugenics Wars started.” Kira looked for confirmation.
Sisko and O’Brien nodded, Sisko continuing with his explanation. “The thing about the Eugenics Wars, was that for the first time in the history of the world, the group claiming to be genetically superior really was. It wasn’t their fault, it was done to them before they were born, before geneticists realized that altering just one gene could completely alter dozens of distinct traits. That’s likely what led to the mental problems that made Khan and other augments attempt to conquer the world.”
“Historians estimate at least 30 million people died during the wars and no one is even sure how they started.” Miles continued where the captain left off. “The fear off that ever happening again led to Earth’s ban on genetic engineering. Combine that with the Cold Station 12 incident, and you get the Federation ban on genetic engineering.”
“What was the Cold Station 12 incident?” Odo wondered, speaking for the first time.
“Augment embryos left from the wars were stored at Cold Station 12. A scientist stole some and raised them, hoping that negate the negative personality flaws that the first augments had. That theory failed, and those augments tried to steal the rest of the Embryos. In their attempt, most of the station and the Embryos were destroyed.” Jadzia recalled from her history classes at the academy.
“I see. It’s not surprising that humans remain afraid of eugenics today.”
“And as a result, you get Julian, who hates himself because we’ve all been taught that genetic enhancements are evil since we were kids.” O’Brien stated, Irish brogue thick with anger. The rest of the staff reflected on his comment in silence.
Show: Star Trek: Deep Space 9
Genre: Angst/Hurt/Comfort/Alternate Universe
Rating: FRT-V
Summary: Those on the station deal with the emotional and physical fallout of Julian's enhancements.
3 Days Earlier
Nurse Bandee frowned as she lowered her hand from her combadge. Dr. Bashir was now fifteen minutes late for duty, something she knew to be an absolute rarity since his arrival on Deep Space Nine nearly six years ago. Even on those few occasions though, he had always called ahead to warn his staff of his tardiness or answered his com, sounding rushed and annoyed, when his absence became conspicuous. But today, there was no response over the comline, no incoming call or messages foretelling the doctor's late arrival. Bandee was worried. Her decision made, Bandee raised her hand to her combadge again.
"Infirmary to security."
"Odo here." came the constable's gruff voice.
"Constable, Doctor Bashir hasn't reported for duty yet and isn't answering his comline." Bandee explained. "We're starting to worry here."
Odo scowled. That was highly unusual, the doctor was a man who took his duties a Chief Medical Officer with utmost seriousness. He always sent some sort of message when he was running behind, whether for a staff meeting or duty in the infirmary. Little wonder the nursing staff was so concerned barely a quarter hour after shift start.
"We'll send someone to check his quarters." he finally replied, mulling the issue over. He severed the link with the infirmary and opened a new one in its place.
"Odo to Bashir."
There was complete silence over the comline.
"Doctor Bashir, please respond."
The human's voice remained absent. The doctor had never before ignored a call from him. Odo rose to his feet and walked from the security office, deciding against sending a deputy to find the doctor. Stepping into the nearest turbolift, he ordered it to the habitat ring, and upon its arrival there, he set off in the direction of Doctor Bashir's quarters. It was when he saw the writing that he began to fear the worst.
Emblazoned in bright red letters across the doctor's door was the word "Unnatural." The control panel next to the door was open, and Odo could guess that the lock had been broken. His suspicion was confirmed when Bashir's door slid open without any dispute of his identity upon his approach.
The quarters were dark, and Odo manipulated his eye structure with practiced ease to see into the infrared area of the electromagnetic spectrum. Gazing around the main room for a moment and seeing no signs of heat outside the norm for the station, he convinced himself the room was devoid of other life before giving voice to his concern.
"Doctor Bashir?"
He began moving towards the bedroom as he asked the man's name. The door was open, and he stepped through. The sight that greeted him sent him into action. The doctor laid on the floor next to his bed, left hand reaching towards his bedside table. A knife handle protruded from his back, blood slowly running down his body to pool on the floor beneath him. Odo could barely hear the man breathe, despite his ability to alter the sensitivity of his hearing. Crouching beside the wounded officer, he reached for Bashir's neck with one hand and his own combadge with the other. Tapping it, he made the call.
"Medical Emergency, Doctor Bashir's quarters. Knife wound, blood loss, pulse is weak."
"We're on our way." Nurse Bandee responded and he heard an abundance of noise in the background, the medical staff mobilizing, no doubt. Odo severed that comline and next summoned a security team to Doctor Bashir's corridor. A moment later, the call from ops came through, Major Kira's concerned.
"Ops to Odo. We've got both your emergency calls, what's going on?"
"Doctor Bashir has been attacked, major."
Captain Sisko had exited his office just in time to hear Odo's statement. "Attacked how, constable?"
"He's been stabbed. There is some graffiti in the corridor which suggest he was targeted because of his genetic enhancements."
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Jadzia and Miles stood staring at the door to Julian's quarters, both having been in ops when the emergency calls came through, and each in a state of mild shock after watching the medical team leave with Julian strapped to an anti-grav stretcher. Stabilized just enough to make the trip to the infirmary, their friend was pale and bloody. It was startling to see just how fragile even a genetically enhanced human could be. The pair was grateful that Dr. Girani happened to be on-station today.
Odo and his security team were busy finishing their sweep of Julian's quarters, having already completed their survey of the corridor and door panel while the medical team did their best to keep the doctor alive. Captain Sisko joined Jadzia and Miles in the hallway to wait for them to finish.
"Any word, sir?" Miles asked, face hopeful. Jadzia looked afraid of the answer next to him.
"Right now he's comatose." Sisko informed his officers. "But Dr. Girani thinks the constable found him in time and that he'll make a full recovery."
Jadzia smiled at this and Miles gave a terse nod. The three fell into an akward silence, shifting around and staring at the floor until Odo's team emerged into the corridor. Odo motioned for them to follow him, leading them to his office. The group was silent until they were safely shut inside, confident they would not be overheard.
"Do you have any idea who did this, Constable?" the captain asked.
"No. There was nothing in his quarters or the corridor that would point to any specific person." Odo replied, his voice gruff with frustration and anger at the attack. "But as I said earlier, the graffiti on Doctor Bashir's door would seem to suggest that his genetic enhancements are the cause of this attack."
"Well it could be half the station then!" Miles exclaimed, his accent growing thicker with his annoyance.
"Chief, what do you know about it?" Sisko asked, turning his two officers.
"Julian's enhancements have been the biggest gossip topic on the station for the last three days." Jadzia explained.
"Almost the entire station is talking about him," Miles agreed, "and most of what they have to say is bad."
"Customers in Quark's last night kept referring to him as a freak and a monster." Jadzia continued. "Most of them felt that he didn't belong in Starfleet."
"Could you name or recognize anyone who made any such remarks?" Odo asked, looking back and forth between the two.
Each considered the question for a moment, but both ended up shaking their heads in reply.
"We could recognize or name a few at best." Miles stated.
"There was close to a hundred people in there last night, and all of them were saying the same thing," Jadzia sighed.
"Well, it's no wonder Julian refused to play darts." Miles stated. "He could hear them better than us, everywhere he went."
Sisko raised his eyebrow at this, and looked to Odo.
"I will speak with Quark." the constable declared.
"Thank you, Constable," Sisko nodded. "I need to know who did this."
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Julian was being kept in a private room, where only Dr. Girani and the nursing staff had access to him. Even the stations senior staff needed clearance from Girani and was required to be accompanied by a nurse when they visited. His records were being kept on paper, and the results of any scans were saved to pads with the wireless connections to the main computer shut off. Officially, the doctor's condition was listed as severe, but stable, and no one outside of the infirmary and the senior staff knew that once he woke up, he would be able to make a full recovery. At Odo's request, other station residents were being led to believe that the doctor might never wake up.
As a result of the infirmary's careful control of information, three distinct groups were emerging on the station. The first of these was comprised mostly of Bajorans and other non-human species, who didn't care about Doctor Bashir's genetic status and were genuinely concerned for the young man. The second group contained a significantly larger portion of humans who disapproved of the doctor's enhancements and continued career in Starfleet, but also felt that they weren't his fault and didn't deserve to be prosecuted for what had been done to him as a child.
It was the third group that was swiftly becoming the focus of Odo's investigation. Comprising roughly one quarter of Deep Space Nine's population, this almost entirely human group openly declared that Bashir "got what he deserved." They could often be heard preaching about Earth's Eugenics Wars to each other in the loud bustle of Quark's. The constable had almost immediately enlisted the bartender to listen in on members of this group for clues while they sat in the bar, promising him leniency the next time he was caught making questionable transactions. Progress was slow however, and Odo and his network of spies had difficulty pinpointing those who were followers and those who were leaders.
The one thing station security had determined though, was that the attack was meant as a warning. The morning after Julian Bashir was rushed to sickbay for emergency surgery, a letter had arrived on Captain Sisko's desk, declaring that the doctor would need to resign his commission or face the consequences. The consequences themselves were not described in the letter's text, but after reading the entire missive, the senior staff had the vague feeling that a punctured lung would be the least of their friends concerns if the writer’s demands were not met.
Starfleet also had yet to respond to the letter, only stating that once Bashir’s attacker was caught, he or she would be punished as federation law dictated for hate crimes. Sisko thought this was an act of cowardice to simply state the attacker would be punished and do nothing to further discourage other similar crimes. He couldn’t understand why command was allowing the doctor to keep his commission when they had no intention of standing up for the man. Unfortunately, it was becoming apparent that DS9 served as a fairly accurate population sample for the entire federation as various news services argued the matter over subspace, and Starfleet didn’t want any more trouble than it already had.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
“Any word?” Major Kira asked as she joined the rest of the senior staff in Captain Sisko’s quarters after her shift.
Jadzia shook her head. “Julian’s still comatose. The nurses aren’t really sure how long it could take him to wake up because of his enhancements. But he is healing faster than a normal human would.”
“You know, the worst bit is going to be him waking up and wondering why we’re all so shocked by this.” Miles predicted, taking a sip from his whiskey glass.
“Is it really so hard for him to believe that we don’t care about his enhancements?” Sisko asked from the couch.
“From what I gather, when Zimmerman showed up he was still having trouble believing anyone here even liked him and cared about him.” Miles explained.
“Why do you say that?” Dax asked, frowning. “I thought he considered us friends.”
“Great friends we were.” Miles muttered. “He was gone for a month, and none of us noticed. Even when the changling did things that were completely out of character for Julian.”
“Like what?” Dax asked.
“When was the last time Julian brought you a sandwich or took interest in our work if it didn’t involve an amazing scientific discovery or saving a life? He’s always too absorbed with his own patients and experiments.”
“Fair point.” Jadzia had to admit.
“And besides, for most of us, our idea of being friends with him was calling him arrogant and naïve less often.” Miles continued.
Kira Nerys winced at this accusation. She had grown to like the doctor more over the years, come to see that despite his naivety and what she perceived as arrogance, he was a passionate man that was willing to fight for what he believed. In the last week though, she had come to feel guilty for calling him arrogant. In hindsight she could see that what she often saw as Bashir’s arrogant claims of ability were solid fact in his mind, hidden from all others. The only occasion she could now think of in which the man displayed true arrogance was in his fight to find a cure for the Quickening, and even then he had partially justified his claims.
Sisko and Odo too looked guilty, often sharing Kira’s opinion. Certainly the captain’s annoyance had been tempered by amusement by the younger officer, and he and Odo had given voice to their opinions of Julian less often, but the feelings still remained long after they needed too. No wonder he had been so certain he would need to resign his commission.
“I still don’t see why he wouldn’t be shocked by all this.” Kira stated. Finally taking a seat next to Dax. Captain Sisko sighed.
“Humanity has always had issues with genetic superiority and hate.” He explained. “Before the twentieth century, most Caucasians believed people with African heritage were inferior, and enslaved them. Before and during Earth’s Second World War, Nazi Germans believed that they were the most superior race and attempted to murder every member of the Jewish religion that they could find.”
“And in the 1990’s the Eugenics Wars started.” Kira looked for confirmation.
Sisko and O’Brien nodded, Sisko continuing with his explanation. “The thing about the Eugenics Wars, was that for the first time in the history of the world, the group claiming to be genetically superior really was. It wasn’t their fault, it was done to them before they were born, before geneticists realized that altering just one gene could completely alter dozens of distinct traits. That’s likely what led to the mental problems that made Khan and other augments attempt to conquer the world.”
“Historians estimate at least 30 million people died during the wars and no one is even sure how they started.” Miles continued where the captain left off. “The fear off that ever happening again led to Earth’s ban on genetic engineering. Combine that with the Cold Station 12 incident, and you get the Federation ban on genetic engineering.”
“What was the Cold Station 12 incident?” Odo wondered, speaking for the first time.
“Augment embryos left from the wars were stored at Cold Station 12. A scientist stole some and raised them, hoping that negate the negative personality flaws that the first augments had. That theory failed, and those augments tried to steal the rest of the Embryos. In their attempt, most of the station and the Embryos were destroyed.” Jadzia recalled from her history classes at the academy.
“I see. It’s not surprising that humans remain afraid of eugenics today.”
“And as a result, you get Julian, who hates himself because we’ve all been taught that genetic enhancements are evil since we were kids.” O’Brien stated, Irish brogue thick with anger. The rest of the staff reflected on his comment in silence.