Unnatural Selection story
The Enterprise receives a distress call from the USS Lantree, discovering their crew has apparently died of old age. The race is on to solve the mystery before scientists on a research colony suffer the same fate.
25 total · 3 choice · 10 major · 12 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| duty vs. compassion | choice | Pulaski :: Pulaski defies the rules in her efforts to cure the disease |
| medical risk taking | choice | Pulaski in her efforts to cure the disease |
| playing God with nature | choice | genetically engineering the kids |
| clash of wills | major | Picard/Pulaski :: Picard/Pulaski |
| compassion vs. self-preservation | major | Picard :: Picard curtails Pulaski's research to cure disease to prevent it from spreading any further |
| contagious disease in society | major | Sara Kingsley led an effort to genetically engineer children with immune systems capable of producing antibodies that actively sought out and destroyed pathogens before they could enter the body. The project backfired catastrophically when the airborne antibodies combined with a flu virus and began attacking human DNA, causing those infected to age rapidly and die. It was feared that this new super pathogen would spread uncontrollably across the Federation. |
| genetic engineering in society | major | Sara Kingsley dared to genetically engineer humans with external immune systems. |
| genetically engineered person | major | Sara Kingsley dared to genetically engineer humans with external immune systems. |
| human vs. contagious disease | major | In a selfless act, Dr. Pulaski knowingly put herself at risk of contracting the rapid aging disease that had infected the researchers in order to find a cure for it. |
| medical occupation | major | Dr. Pulaski wanted to study some very special children. A number of medical scientists were afflicted with rapid aging. |