BAJOR — After a local doctor, Zumagi Ivan, approaches Starfleet about a local endangered species, Officers from Ops discover there’s more to the poaching than meets the eye.
Zumagi, a local physician, had been working on a treatment and cure for a mutated version of Craat’s disease which has proven far more dangerous than previous incarnations. The development of this treatment involves samples from the horns of a native species known as the pachitrod. Using flora and fauna for medicinal has been used for centuries on countless planets, and Bajor was no different.
“Bajorans have always had a close affinity with nature,” Doctor Caayi, a colleague of Zumagi’s explained, “so it is really no surprise that she provided the means for the cure.”
Although the government had already put the endangered animals under protection, recently, the creatures have been hunted and killed, their horns taken in inhumane ways.
“It’s humanoid-induced mortality, not natural.” Ryness Chavra, a local expert on pachitrods and their mammalian relatives, noted. “Even if the pachitrod were not medically significant, its already low numbers would be significantly devastated if poaching does not cease.”
But the issues of poaching weren’t a problem until recently. Numbers indicate that the picking off the creatures started only once it was determined they were indeed medically significant. Concerned for the creatures, and for the source of the disease’s cure, Doctor Zumagi reached out to Starfleet officers who had recently escorted a passenger ship that had recently been attacked.
“Even if Bajor wasn’t a Federation World, we would want to help preserve this precious natural resource.” LtCmdr. Alora DeVeau, First Officer of Starbase 118 Ops, commented.
Starfleet wasn’t about to simply go about it in one way either. Officers went undercover to seek more information about supposed medicine made from the horns being sold on the black market.
“Our goal is to get in, and out, as quietly as possible,” Lt. Prudence Blackwell explained regarding the operation, “And well…if things go sideways, be ready for that as well”
Sources say some officers went undercover as poachers to infiltrate those who might really seek to cull the pachitrod numbers. Where they are now and what has occurred has yet to be determined, but we’ll have more on this story as it develops.
Written by Alora DeVeau
