Sfdebris.net

Hello guys,

On the previous iteration of these forums (RIP) I had gotten a tremendous amount of help for a fanfic I am writing which is the Dominion War from the POV of one of the Vorta doctors the Female Changeling has Weyoun execute and replace. At that point I was still just working on how Changeling physiology worked and how the virus might work - normally I would just say "It's just a show, whatever" to something as silly as shapeshifter biology but since I was writing it I wanted to take a crack at it. Thanks to this forum I was pretty happy with what I had come up with for a majority of the story ...

And then it occurred to me to have them get close to finding a cure but also be far too far away from the final version to save the Changelings without Odo's intervention. Which led me down the road of: Why on Earth does, in Julian's own words, "A simple amino acid sequence" do squat to the virus? I mean folks I have a master's in biology and that escapes me completely. If anyone has any thoughts on this, I'd love the input.

Quick and dirty answer:
Section 31 didn't design a virus as it were, they designed a complex of microorganisms that latched on to the key component (Organ, organelle, chemical that is put into the goop, etc). As a safety net, in case the complex began to infect another species or the Dominion surrendered or something, a particular amino acid chain would be applied as treatment. The complex would be shut down, and instead begin producing the amino acid chain. When the Changlings link, the amino acid would travel from one Changeling to the next, allowing for quick deployment of the cure. Because the chain of amino acids is so long and complicated, it's nearly impossible for another scientist to discover it by chance.

TGLS wrote:Quick and dirty answer:
Section 31 didn't design a virus as it were, they designed a complex of microorganisms that latched on to the key component (Organ, organelle, chemical that is put into the goop, etc). As a safety net, in case the complex began to infect another species or the Dominion surrendered or something, a particular amino acid chain would be applied as treatment. The complex would be shut down, and instead begin producing the amino acid chain. When the Changlings link, the amino acid would travel from one Changeling to the next, allowing for quick deployment of the cure. Because the chain of amino acids is so long and complicated, it's nearly impossible for another scientist to discover it by chance.

Thanks! This is a good starting point ... all though Julian did say the sequence was simple but maybe it's only simple to him.