Post
by brian » Fri Apr 13, 2007 12:42 pm
Actually, I mapped out a chronology last night.
Here's what I had so far. I've made the "facts" from the Star Trek universe bold. (These are the things that happened on-screen at some time.) My story would fill in the other pieces.
CHARACTERS:
Dr. Julian Bashir
Scientist/Patient 1
Scientist/Patient 2
Section 31 Agent (Watcher)
Section 31 Agent: Luther Sloan
Section 31 Boss
Augment(s): (Probably Jack, but maybe Lauren, Patrick, or Sarina -- whoever's best at finding patterns in complex systems)
TIMELINE:
(mid-2370)
Section 31 clandestinely conducts morphogenics research using shape-shifter samples stolen from the Klingons (samples collected from the prisoner at Rura Penthe played by Iman, seen in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, 80 years earlier).
(late-2371)
The research team engineers a virus which inadvertently infects the two scientists working on it. The virus interferes with cellular mitosis. The scientists are hospitalized at Starfleet Medical for weeks.
(mid-2372)
Odo makes a trip to Earth to aid in Starfleet's Changeling research. He is secretly infected by Section 31 with a morphogenic virus, which Section 31 hopes to spread to the Great Link. (Trip shown in 4x11 "Homefront" and 4x12 "Paradise Lost", between stardates 49263.5 and 49556.2, clandestine infection revealed much later in 7x23 "Extreme Measures" stardate 52645.7.)
(late-2372)
Second Federation-Klingon War begins. (4x26 "Broken Link")
(mid-2373)
Second Federation-Klingon War ends. (5x15 "By Inferno’s Light")
(mid-2373)
Julian Bashir is revealed to be genetically enhanced (an "augment"). (5x16 "Doctor Bashir, I Presume", after stardate 50564.2)
(late-2373)
Dominion War begins.
(early-2374)
Julian meets four other augments. (6x09 "Statistical Probabilities", between stardates 51247.5 and 51413.6)
(mid-2374)
Crewmembers are shrunken by a space anomaly and eventually restored to full size. (6x14 "One Little Ship", stardate 51474.2)
- Julian performs research about morphogenics, after the shrinking incident, to better understand some interesting but harmless anomalies in the participants’ cellular processes.
- Julian discovers that two Federation scientists had acquired an unusual morphogenic virus three years earlier.
- Studying the literature, Julian discovers that beyond some date (?), references to the two patients cease.
- Julian enlists aid of augments to figure out why. (Or simply does it himself?)
- Records have been tampered with. Names attempted to be stricken from passenger manifests. Unexplained damage at Memory Alpha destroyed crucial data files. There is a cover-up!
- Julian discovers that the two patients both died on the day of a heinous attack on the Federation (a la 9/11), an attack that pushed public sentiment toward (Second Federation-Klingon OR Dominion?) War.
- How could that be? Two people, the only known carriers of a mysterious virus, killed separately by a coordinated terrorist attack? How and why would terrorists/the enemy do this? Or did someone else do it?
- Someone else had to do it. It doesn’t compute though, because the reasons are completely independent. Reason one: Destroy the virus. Reason two: Sway public opinion toward war. WHO? Not Federation Security. Not Starfleet. Some other agency, a SECRET agency.
- Julian wakes in a sweat, "They’re going to kill me!"
- The augments tell Julian that they’ve traced a "watcher" on the FedNet who has been monitoring his research. The watcher is heading for DS9.
- Julian sets a trap, using his enhanced visual and auditory acuity, to capture the watcher.
- The Watcher admits to Julian that he orchestrated the attack and explains why: The Federation is too liberal and weak-willed to do what needs to be done. Starfleet is a chained tiger that needs an impetus to solve the Alpha Quadrant’s problems once and for all. He claims that he is an augment who saw the big picture and acted alone, to do what must be done. Eradicating a potentially disastrous virus was just icing on the cake. He had been tracking the patients' movements and looking for the right time to exterminate them, because the Federation didn’t have the fortitude to "do the right thing". A timely convergence of his two goals led to his orchestrating the attack.
- The watcher bits a suicide capsule. Julian thinks the ordeal is over.
Epilogue. Two figures talk, a boss and a subordinate. BOSS: The loss of an operative was tragic, but a necessary move in the delicate game that is afoot. "War is tricky business." The death serves a greater good. SUBORDINATE: The watcher is a Patriot. BOSS: This Julian Bashir, the augment who nearly discovered us. He could be a valuable asset if he could be turned to our agenda. SUBORDINATE: Yes, he could. BOSS: Let’s keep an eye on the good doctor, Mr. Sloan. SUBORDINATE(SLOAN): Yes, Sir.
(late-2374)
Sloan kidnaps Julian, tries to recruit him. Julian first learns of Section 31. (6x18 "Inquisition", before stardate 51721.3)
(late-2375)
Dominion War ends.
I was thinking the first line of the story would be the sweaty midnight awakening with "they're going to kill me" in his mind, then the rest would be told in non-chronological order, flashing back to how he got to the troubling thought, then carrying forward to the resolution and epilogue.
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."-- Eleanor Roosevelt