<USS Avalon> "In Retrospect, Part One"

In  Retrospect
Part One
 
 
        A small meteor shower had pelted two planets  in the Verdana system, 
and a group of officers from the nearby Federation  Starship Ireland requested 
permission from their captain to investigate  the fallout. All four of them 
were sent, among them Lt. Francis  "Frank" Scott and his fiancee, a civilian 
microbiologist named Marsha Delaney.  Frank and Marsha teamed up to take 
Verdana 
Two, and the other pair went to  Verdana Three.
        Verdana was a system settled by Humans, but  over the years had 
accrued a number of residents from various Federation worlds.  The residents 
welcomed Starfleet's input, not having the equipment to study the  effects of 
the 
meteorites that had made it through the atmosphere. So Frank and  Marsha took 
off outside the city of Freeland, where several large deposits had  been seen. 
        They were about twenty feet from each other  when Marsha made a 
rather startling discovery. Nearly buried in the earth next  to a sizable piece 
of 
meteor rock was a small, metallic vessel. It was not a  spaceship of any kind, 
being capsule-shaped and having no visible engine parts.  She called Frank 
over to see it, ready to burst with excitement---
        ---because she had detected something  organic inside. 
        When the capsule was  opened, out poured a gelatinous...something. 
Their scans showed only minor  molecular activity---making them wonder if it 
was 
a life-form. Unfortunately,  they didn't have the resources of the Ireland's 
lab at their disposal,  so there wasn't much they could do but scan it 
regularly and wonder what it was. 
        Back on the ship three days later, everyone  was excited, hoping to 
see the thing Marsha had found, but they were all to  be disappointed. The 
organism, whatever it was, ceased all molecular  activity within hours of it's 
being brought on board. Detailed scans using  the lab's equipment relieved 
Marsha 
Delaney's worry that doing so had been the  cause. It was determined that the 
capsule it had been found in was some kind of  stasis unit, which had been 
damaged in the meteor shower. The days of  exposure had done little to stop 
cellular degradation.
        Still, Marsha kept it in her stores, looking  at it every once in a 
while, curious as to what it had been. She wondered what  she ought to do with 
it, and decided to run some experiments. One of the tests  was introducing a 
miniscule tissue sample of the organism to a human  cell nucleus. As there had 
been no cellular activity for days, she had not  expected anything to happen 
other than a minor reaction from the  nucleus. 
        In the end, she got more  than she bargained for. Only a fraction of 
a second after the sample had been  inserted into the cell nucleus, the 
nucleus began to divide. Thunderstruck,  Marsha could only watch through the 
scope 
as it continued to divide in  pairs---the same way human reproductive cells did 
after conception. Although she  knew it was protocol to inform the captain of 
this turn of events, the only  person she could think to call to the lab was 
Frank. He, too, got the same  disbelieving expression in his eyes when he saw 
what was happening. 
        His shock turned to mild  horror when she confessed that she had used 
one of her own cells in the  experiment. The two stood staring at one another 
for several agonizing minutes  before Frank ventured to ask what she planned 
to do next. Marsha told him she  would let it continue to grow for a few days, 
to see what happened. She begged  him not to tell the captain until she had 
more data, and reluctantly he  agreed. After analyzing the growth of the cell 
cluster two days  later, Marsha impulsively decided to impregnate herself with 
it. It  was, she reasoned, growing and dividing just like a Human pre-embryo, 
and if she  hadn't chosen to do so it would probably have died. 
        Frank was horrified, both that she had done  something so unethical 
and that she had put herself at risk. She was so young  and had barely begun 
her career, and now he feared her impetuousness would cost  her more than she 
could pay. They quarreled incessantly for days, though no one  ever knew why. 
Eventually the two split, and Marsha left  the Ireland for a job on Axia Prime. 
The embryonic cells  continued to grow, firmly implanting in her uterus, 
becoming a zygote and  then a fetus. She had a surprisingly normal pregnancy, 
although to someone who  had never before been pregnant, she thought the 
morning 
sickness (which lasted  nearly all forty weeks) had been rather rough. Despite 
the normalcy of growth,  however, she monitored herself and the child almost 
obsessively.
        On Stardate 7806.21, Marsha gave birth to a  baby girl, whom she 
named Jane after her mother. Although they had not spoken to  one another since 
before she left the Ireland, she called her former  fiance to tell him the 
news, 
emphasizing the child's apparent normalcy. He came  to see them both six 
weeks later while on leave. Seeing Marsha again reminded  Frank that he still 
loved her, and the two reunited. He'd never told anyone what  had happened, 
because despite his disapproval of what she'd done, he hadn't  wanted to ruin 
Marsha's career. They agreed to keep the truth to themselves, and  to raise the 
child together. The girl's name was changed to Delaney Jane  Maria Scott on the 
day Frank and Marsha married. The family then returned  to living on the 
Starship Ireland.
        The first eighteen months went by with none  of the couple's private 
fears realized. The only thing remotely unusual was that  she started talking 
at only five months, and was enunciating and conversating  almost perfectly by 
one year. She also never got sick, and when injured healed  almost instantly. 
Then one day, when little Laney (as her parents liked to call  her) dropped 
her bottle, she reached over the side of her swing,  hoping to retrieve it. 
Marsha was astounded to see her daughter's arm  lengthen long enough for her to 
grasp the bottle in her hand. Once she had  it, the arm retracted to it's usual 
length. 
        Laney repeated the maneuver several times,  laughing and giggling 
until Marsha, in a panic, put a stop to it. This sent the  toddler into a 
howling 
fit, and nothing her mother did could console her. After  much internal 
debate, Marsha finally allowed her to continue the stretching and  retracting 
of 
her limbs, which quickly included her legs as well as her arms.  When Frank 
returned from his duty shift to find Laney stretching here and there  and 
Marsha 
in tears, he was a stunned as his wife. Knowing they risked both of  their 
careers, and possibly loss of Laney, if they came forward with the truth,  the 
couple resigned themselves to "baby-proofing" their quarters as best they  
could.
        Already aware of Laney's exceptional  intelligence, Frank and Marsha 
impressed upon her the importance of keeping her  gifts a secret. She was at 
the age where she wanted to spend more time with the  other children on the 
Ambassador-class starship, but was told she would  not be allowed if she could 
not remain silent. Laney made them a solemn promise  never to tell without 
their 
permission, and was soon playing with other children  her age. When it came 
to her education, on the other hand, her parents soon  realized she was 
learning at a pace far more accelerated than the others in her  age group, so 
Marsha 
began instructing her at home in their quarters. Privacy  was made all the 
more so when Frank Scott was promoted to captain and named as  commanding 
officer 
of the Ireland.
        Laney's education continued. She wanted to  attend Starfleet Academy, 
but her parents told her she was far too young.  Mistakenly thinking this was 
in reference to her academic prowess, the young  woman determined to prove 
just how smart she was, earning two degrees in the  field of engineering by the 
time she was thirteen. She then managed to obtain  the academic course 
material for Starfleet Academy cadets, and had that  completed two weeks shy of 
her 
fifteenth birthday. Unable to suppress his pride  in her, Frank submitted the 
results of her work to an acquaintance who was now  an instructor at the 
Academy, who in turn passed in on to his  superiors. Duly impressed, top 
officials 
conducted several sub-space interviews  with the family. After an evaluation by 
a Starfleet counselor, Delaney was  granted permission to enter the 
Accelerated Training Program. She had already  completed the classroom 
portion---now 
she needed the hands-on instruction and  physical training.
        Having graduated with the top five percent of  her class, and 
considering her previous academic achievements, Laney Scott could  have had 
just 
about any engineering job she wanted---the fleet was her to pick  and choose 
from. 
But no other ship could feel as much like home as the USS  Ireland, where she 
had grown up. So she accepted a posting to her father's  command not as chief 
engineer, as many had expected of her, but as Shuttle  Bay Deck Officer and 
Senior Shuttle Mechanic. When asked why she had educated  herself so thoroughly 
only to settle for a junior officer's position, she said  simply, "Because I 
could."

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