The Real Romulan

The Real Romulan Part 1

The woman sat at her desk, her head in her hands.

She couldn't believe it. Of all the things to affect her. The irony of it...

Dr. Alina Perry, the sign on her desk said. Geneticist. Fat lot of good that was going to do her, now...

She had been to see her Doctor, after she kept feeling tired and losing dexterity in her hands.

The Doctor had almost cried as she told her the news. She was a friend of hers...

"I'm sorry, Alina. The results came back positive. It's a rare Genetic disorder, which sometimes surfaces in middle age."

"Is there anything you can do?", Alina asked.

"No, sorry", the Doctor replied. "It's not treatable, I'm afraid. The symptoms can be alleviated, up until the terminal stages, but there's no cure for it."

"How... long...?", Alina asked, haltingly.

"Three months, no more", the Doctor said. "I'm so sorry, Alina..."

Alina got up, shaking, and muttering a few excuses bundled her belongings into a handbag and quickly left the office, ignoring the Doctors' requests to help.

Now, she sat in her lab, devastated.

Suddenly, she sat bolt upright.

Damnit, she was a Geneticist, as well as a Bio-Chemist! She was successful, at the top of her profession. Surely there was something she could do...?

She stood up, and quickly moved into the main lab.

Inserting a small blood sample into her equipment, she started running tests.

It was at this point that she made a discovery that would change her life, forever...

The tests that she ran were encouraging; one of her experimental procedures could stop the genetic degradation. However, she had made a terrible mistake...

One of Alina's pet loves was Star Trek, especially the original series. She and a group of her friends were working on the Science behind Star Trek. As Alina's specialities were Genetics and Bio-Chemistry, she had been working out the possibilities of the Genetic characteristics of the various alien races. Her favourite was the Romulans.

Trying to find a cure for herself, she had forgotten that she had set up her experimental sequencer not for Human Genetics, but her 'best guess' extrapolation of the Romulan Genome.

Forgetting this completely, she processed the blood sample, wrote an experimental 'carrier' virus to alter her DNA based on the results, and injected herself...

As soon as the pain hit her, she knew she had made a terrible mistake. It was as she passed out on the floor, curled up into a fetal ball, that she knew what she had done...

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Later, she gradually returned to consciousness.

Everything hurt. She was cold, shivering; she knew, however, that it was mid-summer. Why was she cold?

Why, also, was everything so noisy? The light was incredibly bright, to start with, as well, but that soon settled.

Alina pulled herself to her feet. Then she saw her hands. They were steady, not shaking. They were also a tan/buff colour...

Her hands flew to her head. She felt the pointed ears for the first time...

Quickly finding a mirror in the restroom, she saw at once what had happened.

She looked just like she was in full 'Trekkie' makeup. She was as close to a real Romulan as you could get...