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happens again. Step one is already done. Step two and three go together. We need an enzyme complex—
G: Pardon?
L: Think natural nanotech.
G: Got it.
L: The enzyme complex needs to be able to read the DNA of the chromosomes and recognize the viral sequences. Luckily, the virus doesn’t change its own DNA sequences—if it did, the problem would be almost unsolvable. Once it finds a viral sequence, it needs to excise it and degrade it, then it needs to rejoin the organism’s own DNA, which was interrupted by the virus. Fortunately, we don’t have to design this enzyme complex from scratch, we’re going to use off-the-shelf parts.
G: What parts?
L: The basic structure is a ribosome, which is a normal part of a cell that turns RNA into proteins. We’re recoding it to recognize this particular viral sequence.
G: Go on.
L: Then we’re going to attach a DNA endonuclease, which is part of the normal DNA repair machinery that prevents mutations by removing pieces of DNA. And then we add a ligase, which will glue the two ends back together.
G: Step four?
L: Step four … the virus is designed—
G: Designed? This was deliberate?
L: Sorry. Bad choice of terms. The virus protects itself by turning off the ability of the immune system to recognize and destroy it, like most viruses. Adenovirus does it all the time.
G: Never heard of it.
L: The common cold.
G: We cured that, didn’t we?
L: Stop interrupting, please. We need to duplicate an immune system, with modifications so that the virus is unable to shut it off.
G: A nontrivial problem.
L: Yes. But again, we’re working with off-the-shelf parts and building on them.
G: Step five, we already know how to do.
L: Once the virus is removed so no further damage is caused, yes. Simple, if we can do it in time. Our factors are time and the sheer number of patients that have to be treated. We’re going to tap every available resource to pull that off.
G: And step six?
L: Wiping it out in the ecosystem. Getting the population immune will help effect that, as the virus then will have no place to live. My guess is that it will burn out on its own in about two months. We can improve on those numbers by releasing disassemblers into the air to break down the airborne pathogen. Search and destroy. We may also have to consider a controlled destruction of livestock, once we have an idea of what other species this infects, if any.
G: Good. So when can we take the next steps?
L: Very soon. I’m working on the precise identifiers now. So to do all this, we’re going to have to add a forty-seventh chromosome.
G: What?
L: No way around it. It’s a gigantic amount of data and this is the only way to do it. What we’ll have to set up is a sort of triage. First, we’re going to have to run the most critical cases through the main transporter and add the chromosome directly to their DNA when we rematerialize them. At the same time, we’re going to be using the cargo transporters as long-distance replicators, seeding the atmosphere of the planet with an artificial virus as widely as possible, which implants the chromosome. We hook it to helper cells, which will allow the virus to quickly reproduce, with limits so that it can’t reproduce without the helper cells. Once they get into the air, they should multiply and spread, infecting the rest of the population with the cure, which should propagate through the body in the next forty-eight hours or so. We’re going to have to get all of our people into environmental suits, as they’re still early enough in the stages that a full genetic rewrite probably won’t be necessary for them for another few days, so that should give us enough time. At least I hope not, I’m not positive yet if I’ll be able to pull this off on the non-humans. We’ll have to beam them up to the ship so they can eat and the like, but we can do that—somebody’s going to have to spell