Aftermath: on board the Starfleet ships

 On the Polaris, Boothby's message was being relayed from the Horizon as audio only. Lieutenant Solius had remained behind to monitor the ship. He breathed a sigh of relief as the ship stood down from Red Alert, although because of the environment, their shields were required to remain online. Sitting in the Captains Chair, he looked around the bridge to see sighs of relief, nodding of heads and even some of the female members shedding tears. Strange things these Federation people were. All different, and yet, so similar to one another. As much as they'd refuse to admit it, being the 'diverse individuals' that they were, the ultimate resolution of this mission was plain to see for the Romulan as soon as the Captain vanished. They all knew that they had to recover the Captain...or is corpse, and return home. No matter what officer was in charge, the orders would have remained the same.

Except for his orders. He would have ignored the dreadnaught and destroyed the Tree of Life, ending the Undine threat once and for all. He would have used the Undine's confusion to his advantage. He steepled his fingers and nodded. After a moment, he tapped the console at his chair and deleted the combat overrides he put in place for a worst-case scenario. He smiled, as he felt...relieved that he did not have to betray his crewmates. It was at this point when S'Tan decided that in order for this assimilation to work, and he survive, he too needed to join this crew fully. To be a part of these 'diverse individuals.' It was time for him to put away his honor sword, still hanging at his waist. It was time to eat chocolate and drink brown human ale. It was time...to move on.

He clapped his hands once to gather everyone's attention.

"OK people. Mission mostly accomplished. Open a channel to the Horizon. It's time to go home."

Standing up, he continued. "Horizon, this is the Polaris. Are you ready to receive us into our dock?"

When the voice of S'Tan Solius came out hrough the bridge speakers, it calmed down the elation that had gripped the entire crew of the flagship. Docotr Lumquist who was the only one still frowning aacknowledged the call and brought Sisko's attention to it. 

"Polaris, this is Horizon; prepare for reconnection. We will retrieve the away team... and the Captain. Well done Polaris."

As people swiftly and efficiently brought their attention and enthusiasm to their tasks, the Half-Bajoran noticed that Lumquist was in deep conversation with the chief medical officers in sickbay. By the tone of their voices and the rythm of their words, it was clear that they were not as releived as everyone else was.

"Something wrong, Doctor?"

"That is the worst part; we don't know yet," the elderly man said with a sour expression on his lightly bearded face. "You saw that Captain kheren is still in Undine form. Assuming this... Boothby clone gives us their genetic altering drug, we might find ourselves with a major problem fully retreiving the captain."

Now Sisko too was showing concern on his face, the same concern that had stretched his features taunt when he had learned of Redding's death.

"I tought the Undine serum was designed to alter the subject down to the genetic level. It can even turn an Undine fully into human form, even down to feelings and emotions."

"Yes... and that is where our worry start. For starters, the genetic make-up of Andorians is much more complex and consequently much more fragile than that of Humans. They are a, as yet unexplained, natural combination of mammalian and insectoid genomes. That's why you never see Andorian half-breeds except the only two ever recorded in History; Lieutenant Twebald and Commander Barile N'Arti, both the results of almost impossible, illegal and extreme genetic manipulations. That's also one of the reasons why they are becoming extinct. There are less than ninety millions of them in all of known space today."

"What about Lieutenant-Commander Ke'Leysha's lecture about her people's biology?" asked Sisko.

"With all due respect to my esteemed science colleague, this is highly doubtful.. even to the point of being considered pure fantasy in my personal opinion. The genetic structure of the Illythirii is even less compatible to the Andorian genome than the Human one; which is not at all compatible. The Illythirii are not even shapechangers, the only kind of species with enough plasticity to make such a possibility viable; and if shapechangers can certainly mimic Andorian physiology, they can no more mate with them and produce offspring than any other... especially if you add to this problem their unique four-genders reproduction mechanism."

Sisko thought for a moment. Then he shook his head.

"And what has this to do with Captain Kheren and his current condition?"

The old doctor sighed.

"Everything. I can't go into confidential medical data, but let me say this; restoring Captain Kheren is as complicated and risky compared to any Andorian than it would be with an Andorian relative to a Human.And there are very few doctors even knowledgeable about Andorian physiology, let alone his... And to make things worse, Captain Kheren has been ostracized by his own people; no Andorian doctor will consider doing it for him. "

The silent and coldness that gripped the bridge was as if the entire ship had turned into a tomb drifting forever in space.

"Your prognosis?" bluntly asked Sisko. Lumquist answered just as bluntly.

He blinked straight at Sisko.

"He might never be restored; he could be stuck as an Undine, and a mute one at that, without even telepathic communication, for the rest of his life. He might be physiologically altered; he would then be crippled for life. He might be mentally affected; anything up to and including ending up in a vegetative state. And he might simply die. There is no way to know... until we try."