Flare Sci-Fi Forums: The Changeling Disease ($$$$)

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Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :

Assuming whatever spoilers come true, we have these facts: that Section 31 created the Changeling's Disease, and secondly, Odo has it too. Which means that there has to be a point in time when Odo and the Changelings were together so that the disease would be transmitted throughout the Great Link.

Here is what I think has happened.........

Soon after discovery of the new Threat, and reports from Commander Sisko (at the time, season 3 or so), Section 31 mobilizes into action. Around the same time, Section 31 has obtained a baby Changeling (probably more), one of the many scouts sent out by the Great Link. Whatever the case, these baby Changelings were used as guinea pigs to test the disease.

Once the project was finished, the only obstacle was how to infect the entire Great Link. At that same time, reports come in that the Tal Shiar and the Obsidian Order were ambushed at the Changeling's home near the Omarion Nebula. This creates the second problem, S31 no longer knew the new location of the Great Link. So they decide to try Odo. S31 speculates that Odo might defect from the Feds and join up with the Great Link. One of its operatives secretly infects Odo (could have happened at any time between the Rom/Card attack and the Trial).

Odo becomes sick, but it is not the result of the virus. In fact it has been activated by the Great Link. This forces Odo to return home and stand trial. Odo merges with the Great Link, and the disease is transmitted.

One possible flaw: why did Odo not come up with the disease before the others did? There are many possible answers: a time-delayed virus (hey, genetic engineering might achieve this); the differences of environment between the Great Link and DS9, etc. etc. Whatever it was, it was a perfectly crafted virus.

Comments appreciated. And perhaps some other possible scenarios too.

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I can resist anything.......
Except Temptation

Posted by The First One (Member # 35) on :

More likely, s31 might have had an agent on DS9 waiting for jusr such an opportunity to infect Odo - and since they seem to have taken a special interest in Dr. Bashir, they'd be watching him too and even if Odo's illness was kept secret, they'd know about it from their observations of Bashir.

So, seeing him to be ill and maybe finding out about the plans to return him to the Link, the agent infected him hoping that if the virus did activate prematurely, it'd be concealed by his other symptoms.

Why didn't it show before? Well, who knows what being made human and then getting his true nature restored by the infant changeling might have done? Maybe, in fact, that's why the infant died - too weak to resist the illness which it still got from Odo even though he couldn't shapeshift!

Posted by Curry Monster (Member # 12) on :

I'm under the impression that it's the founders on this end of the wormhole that are infected....

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I drink therefore I am.

-Descartes

Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :

Didn't the Female shapeshifter say that the entire Great Link has it?

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I can resist anything.......
Except Temptation

Posted by Tachy on :

There's always a disease hidden somewhere to end the plot-inducing plasma anoomaly...

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Make your own DS9 Spoilers !!

[This message was edited by Tachy on April 10, 1999.]

Posted by The_Tom (Member # 38) on :

What if the s31 agent on DS9 was Garak? Let's see, easy access to Bashir,a known liar with a shady past... he might have been with s31 as a double agent right back to his days with the Obsidian Order. And how about his little incident in "Broken Link"? Huh? Huh?

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"......"
��-The Breen at Internment Camp 371

Posted by Elim Garak (Member # 14) on :

Melikes, Tom.

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"Audaces fortuna juvat."
"Fortune favours the bold."

Posted by bryce (Member # 42) on :

Aye, Tom has a crafty mind!

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Wheeelersburg Correctional Facility
Inmate #05301999

Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :

Other possibility: Between the time when the Dominion head to Cardassia and the Wormhole was mined by Sisko, the Dominion may have had free reign going to and from the Alpha Quadrant. Perhaps a changeling was infected at that time, infected the AQ changelings, then went back to the Gamma Quadrant to (mistakenly) infect the rest of the Great Link.

Odo could have received the disease from the Female Changeling by linking with her.

Problems: The window of opportunity to find a changeling and infect him/her is very small. And considering the effectiveness and efficiency of Dominion security (cue Garak's friends getting killed within a day of talking to him), getting a spy down there could be very difficult.

Re: Garak as spy- Hmmm..... never thought of that. The possibilities are endless..... and the plot thickens too.

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I can resist anything.......
Except Temptation

[This message was edited by Tahna Los on April 11, 1999.]

Posted by Montgomery (Member # 23) on :

Ha-ha! Garak? A spy?
Surely not!

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"Is there anyone there with a gun?"
- On the Hour

Posted by Elim Garak (Member # 14) on :

*L*

*Garak speak* Surely not... Of course...

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"Audaces fortuna juvat."
"Fortune favours the bold."

Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :

Recent spoilers have O'Brien and Bashir working on a cure. I bet that S31 will do anything to stop them, but fail. Bashir will probably come up with a cure, either through his genetically engineered knowledge, or from the secret S31 files on the disease.

Bottom line: the Changelings may survive, but it may not spell the end of the war.

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I can resist anything.......
Except Temptation

Posted by Montgomery (Member # 23) on :

Could the antidote be used as a bargaining chip for the dismantling of the dominion?

Or could Odo agree to rejoin the link, thus curing them, in exchange for the dominon surrender?
She did say that there was nothing more important than Odo returning to them....

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An unborn scream burst in my stomach,
and spread like cold mercury through my chest.
I covered my face with my hands, but kept looking through my fingers.
"Write that down!", he told the stick.
"Is visibly destroyed, yet unable to turn away".

- Blue Jam

Posted by Curry Monster (Member # 12) on :

The key to all this is Quark...secret head of Ferengi intelligence, and Grand Nagus Anon *L*

*Gets pulled back into reality*
However, if Garak is the cause of the disease would this not also mean that he's rather higher up in the Cardassian Govt than suspected?

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I drink therefore I am.

-Descartes

Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :

Grand Nagus Anon?

Now, we all know who the real threat to the Alpha Quadrant is...

Morn. Think about it. He's filthy stinking rich. He could go out, hire an armada, and beat the snot out of everyone.

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Garak: Interesting. You saved the day by destroying the world.
Bashir: I bet they didn't teach you that in the Obsidian Order.

-Deep Space Nine, "Our Man Bashir."

Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :

If all of the Great Link is infected, how would the female Changeling know it? They can't communicate with the Gamma quadrant. The Founders must have had this disease for some time if they all have it and Odo does, too, but wouldn't that mean that Odo gave it to Laas? Or, it's possible that this condition is part of the nature of being a Changeling. Maybe assuming a liquid form for too long makes you unstable. Of course, the chances of them all deteriorating just as we get to see them is rediculously slim. Or maybe only the ones who have come through the wormhole are falling apart. I think that the Changelings are evolved (Ha!) versions of the first humanoid race, which we saw in TNG season 7 (I forget the episode). The holographic humanoid and female Changeling are played by the same actress. Do the Founders that are infiltrating various races have to regenerate the way Odo does?