Trekipedia

Double Helix, Book Four: Quarantine

Tom Riker joins forces with the Maquis to save a world in peril!

• Stardate Unknown
• Released July 1999

Like intertwining filaments of human and alien DNA, a ruthless campaign of revenge has threaded its way through the galaxy, touching billions of sentient beings—and changing forever the life of Lieutenant Thomas Riker.

Tom Riker, an identical duplicate of the Starship Enterprise‘s first officer, is serving as a Starfleet medical courier when he encounters a group of Maquis renegades, led by a former Starfleet officer named Chakotay. A planet in the Demilitarized Zone, now controlled by the Cardassians, has been stricken with the same deadly disease that has plagued the Alpha Quadrant for years, and only Riker can get the medical supplies the Maquis so desperately need. But the Cardassians would rather destroy all life on the planet than risk letting the epidemic spread!

Written by John Vornholt

Cast:

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard
• Commander William T. Riker
• Dr. Beverly Crusher
• Counselor Deanna Troi
• Lieutenant Commander Data
• Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge
• Lieutenant Worf
• Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher

Guest Cast:

• Chakotay
• B’Elanna Torres

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Excerpt

They were all dying . . .

He turned to see the Vulcan intently working his medical tricorder. This caused Chakotay to look more closely at the nearest patient, who was swaddled in a soiled blanket, lying on top of a grass mat, surrounded by filth.

The man wasn’t wounded—he had oozing pustules and black bruises on his face and limbs, and his yellow hair was plastered to his sweaty forehead. Although his species was unfamiliar to Chakotay, his skin had a deathly pallor, just like the Cardassian’s had. Chakotay took a step away from him.

Another patient finally noticed the visitors. She propped herself up with some difficulty and began to crawl toward them. Others saw the away team as well, and a chorus of desperate voices rent the air. Some of their words were incoherent, but Chakotay could make out a few phrases as the people crawled forward: “Help us!” “Save me!” “Kill me!”

“What’s the matter with them?” he whispered to Tuvok.

“A serious illness,” answered the Vulcan with tight-lipped understatement.

Chakotay tapped his combadge. “Away team to transporter room. Beam us up, but on a ten-second delay. Get out of the transporter room before we materialize.”

“Yes, sir,” said the Bolian, not hiding the worry in his voice. “Is everything all right?”

“No,” answered Chakotay as he stepped away from the advancing tide of disease and death. “It’s not.”