I assembled a team consisting of our science officer Lt. Praxi, engineer Lt M, our Bajoran liasion officer and security personnel chief Lt. Eketha th' and Ensign Chris as well as Nurse Shiloh, in full hazmat gear and we beamed down to the planet.
We beamed into a small colony on a gas giant.The colony had a large golden pillar in the center that seemed to project a shield made of lightning over the colony. We were met by a trio of natives, Decoon and his parents. The natives looked very much like the alien that told us not to respond, but perhaps less evolved, their facial ridges were more pronounced.
The natives who described an illness that had no analogy to anything I had seen before. The pathogen infects the young, progressing from disorientation to extreme violence where the children killed their parents, then listlessness and death. The violent portion of the population had been fenced off toward the center of the colony, and the listless had been moved to the hospital. Most of the team went to the hospital, while Lt. Eketha th' and Lt. Praxi went to explore the colony.
We set up in the medical office and went through the records of their doctor, who was one of the first casualities. We found wedding records that suggested a marriage custom in which the parents were the witnesses until three months ago, then the witnesses drop down to two and no longer have the same family name.
After scanning Decoon and his family and the infected natives at the hospital, I found a fungus blocking a gland at the base of their brain. The gland apparently distributes a chemical through the body, and the fungus was growing all along those pathways.
I found two different cures for the fungus, one that would kill the fungus and one that would negate the need for the gland and the chemical it secretes.
However, I didn't feel I understood enough about the function of the gland to give the people a cure that would change them to that extent. And I didn't understand where the people were being infected with the spores, so I was reluctant to give them what I felt would be a temporary cure without finding the source of the spores.
While my team was gathering information, Lt. Eketha th' and Lt. Praxi reached the fenced off part of the colony, where they contacted the young people behind the barricade. Their version of the illness was very different; they described the fungus as "freeing them from parental oppression".
We found a moderately infected young female, named Muldress, who was helping relieve the suffering of the patients in the hospital. Our Bajoran liasion officer tried to speak to her, but given the difficulty of the questions being asked(most cultures are not open about maritial or sexual matters) she was unsuccessful. But I was impressed with her effort.
After some study, I discovered that the gland was related to the part of the Betazoid brain that controls telepathy, and scanning Decoon and his parents, discovered that the gland was activated when the parents communicated with Decoon, leading me to believe there is a telepathic connection between the parents and children.At dusk, the hospital was overrun by the young people that were behind the barricade; they came to free their "captured" comrades.
I stepped between the two groups, followed by Ensign Chris, who showed great bravery in the face of two angry mobs, and tried to explain the cures and how they could help. Lt. Eketha then told me the view of the young people toward their parents.
Through questioning, we discovered that the young people were being infected by "The Founder", their god, whose temple(or self, my understanding was unclear) we travelled to so to settle the question of whether or not the Founder infected the young people.
As we stood in front of the Founder, lightning shot out from the golden pillar, and infected everyone in the crowd except for our landing party. We then got a call from the Aperture saying they needed to pick us up now. I then left both cures and the explanation for their use and we beamed out.
I was impressed with the conduct of my team. Nurse Shiloh, our Bajoran liasion officer, Ensign Chris and Lt. M were especially helpful during this mission.
However, I feel as if I failed this mission. It was a complicated situation that I was not flexible enough in thought and theory to solve before we had to leave. I should have found a way to cure the fungal infection without interfering with the culture.
