Kironide

(This information is classified as "Top Secret")

Kironide was first discovered by the crew of the USS Enterprise on the planet now known as Platonia, located about 640 light years 'upwards' of Earth, in 2268?. It is found in nature only upon this one world, where it seems to be a byproduct of odd tectonics and energetics in the crust of the planet. It is found in many mineral soils and in much of the plant life and animal life of the planet.

Kironide is related to an nearly impossible to synthesize transuranic element that is now called Kironide. The only stable chemical form of this element, kironide triglyceride, is the form found in plant and animal matter on Platonia. Normally, elemental kironide will not combine with other substances, and will degrade into more stable transuranic elements, with a half-life of only 78 hours. However, once bonded in the triglyceride compound, it can bond to genetic materials in a complex chemical bonding structure in metabolisms of vulcanoid and humanoid stocks (cupraglobin and hemoglobin blood chemistries), and there is no effective half-life to the resulting complex compounds. Uptake is for life.

Nuclear irradiation methods can be used to generate elemental kironide, but no way is known to induce bonding in the triglyceride. Since elemental kironide is only useful for a small number of processes in industry, there is no market for this expensive elemental substance.

Chemical Kironide, when taken into metabolisms in which it can fuse to genetic material, has the characteristic of a non-random mutagen, causing expression of a limited number of genetic material changes which can be actively transferred across cellular structures. In effect, the genetic changes can chain-react, inventing a new organism from the original one.

The major effects of small doses of kironide are random expression of psionic abilities at low levels, expression of suboperant psi traits as operant ones, and various forms of mental and emotional instability. Light to mid-level uptake had few permanent effects on the organism.

Longer or larger doses will affect central nervous tissue first, causing expression of telekinesis and telepathic abilities, and mild to gross alterations in physical structure of the organism. Long-term aberrations such as paranoia, lowered empathetic response, mania, catatonia, and psychosis, are almost endemic to such dosages. The genetic expression of all of these traits is under study but is not completely understood.

A side effect of continued high degree exposure to Kironide is Methuselah Syndrome VI, in which the subject's cells begin to exhibit the properties of self-regeneration found previously in only a few species on all of known space. A person with MS-VI will be virtually immortal, immune to almost all disease, and able to heal rapidly and completely from any form of injury that does not kill the organism outright. A survey of biota and animal life on Platonia reveals that in some individual cases, plants as old as 2.2 million years and animals as old as 130,000 years exist.

Kironide Drug Traffic

Kironide drug traffic was first discovered on the Interdiction Station in 2299, when Lt. Sergei Alexiev was discovered to be a paranoid telekinetic. Calling himself Prometheus, he attempted to 'bring fire' to three worlds of the UFP, and his attacks on the unhappy populace of those worlds resulted in the carpet bombing of the fifth continent of Obleah Colony, in 2301, to ensure his death. His terror attacks by a form of pyrokinesis killed over 230,000 colonists.

Since then, Interdiction of Platonia has been treated quite seriously. Even though the Foundation for Human Endeavors has established a colony there, careful medical and social interventions have prevented the colonists from becoming dangerous, and none are ever permitted to leave their adopted homeworld.

However, kironide traffic was detected in areas of UFP space in 2338, 2358 and 2373. The first two of these incursions were detected and traced to flaws in the the Platonian Interdiction forces work, which were corrected. The third incursion was traced to then Lt(jg) Howell Bridger, of Starfleet Intelligence. Ongoing investigations have uncovered a large traffic in this substance on Terra, and indications that there may be other places, including Starfleet and UFP government installations, involved in this traffic.

Intelligence and criminal investigations indicate that the Big Gang, the Orion Syndicate, and the Tranvar Republic may all be involved heavily in kironide trade. All UFP and Starfleet stations are alerted through their Intelligence officers, and actions are being taken to track down further trade and reduce or eliminate it.

An Intelligence Directive has been issued, requiring that no kironide investigators reveal the existence of this substance to any foreign powers or UFP protectorates.

Use and Distribution of Kironide

Kironide is used in approximately 0.5 gram doses, in inert materials, by injection, or as a food additive, 3 grams. The effect, in either case, is an immediate inducement of a mild state of euphoria which does not impair immediate judgment, and may increase general sensation and perception. The user feels powerful and excited, for periods of up to 30 hours per dose. Heavier doses will increase all of these characteristics, though no known sentient organism, of any type, will survive a dose of more than 1 gram (injected) or 15 grams (ingested) in a 24 hour period.

Smaller doses have been used, without apparent short term effect on the subject, as in the case of the affected food duplicators on the USS Knight. One instance of a massive dose of specially doctored Kironide (100g) was used on a single subject, Starfleet Ensign Krystal Band'h, whose life was saved through intervention by Lt. Howell Bridger, a telepath and psionic healer.

A minimum cumulative dose of 100g of kironide, taken orally (15g injected) will typically begin to cause the subject to express psionic abilities, beginning with basic telepathic operancy, and telekinesis. Some subjects have been known to express no such psi abilities, and others have been known to express rare ones, such as cryokinesis and cyberpsionics. Continued use of kironide by a subject results in greater uptake and eventually in rapid genetic transformation in some races into powerful telekinetically endowed beings.

Generally, long term use of kironide is correlated with progressive insanity. A few rare cases, in which the active kironide is purged from the subject, or in which very profound treatment occurs to minimize side effects, have resulted in stable personalities with progressive telekinetics or other abilities. The reasons for these stabilities are unknown, due to the lack of numerous subjects for study.

Expressions of Psionics Due to Kironide

Typically, telekinesis develops over time. Next most likely, will be telepathy. Other psi expressions related to kironide are rare. In no cases will it generate or enhance empathic abilities, in fact usually suppressing these or altering them in unpredictable ways.

Known expressions of telekinesis, include, on the New M'Benga Psi Scale, typical expressions of telepathy and normal psychokinesis at levels, when fully operant, of TP 6 and TK 14. Ranges are TP 0-10, TK 4-18. A normal telekinetic of TK 14 will be able to crush a human skull with small effort, at any distance at which he or she can see that human. Some TKs have operated over a distance viewer, with the same results.

Expressions include:

Removing Kironide From a Subject

Several enhanced forms of kironide have been discovered. One was the K-bolus', invented by Dr. Henrey McCoy, last century, and used to imbue several Enterprise officers with temporary strong telekinetic powers. The details of this procedure have never been described, though Dr. McCoy made scrupulous notes about how to remove the substance from the body, only when it is recently taken in.

A second form of kironide bolus, taken by Ens. Band'h, was removed by several applications of the McCoy technique.

The heavy uptake of kironide by LCmdr. Bridger, USS Knight, was in part removed by the McCoy-KBolus removal method, and in part by gene suffusion techniques. However, a large amounf of the substance remained in his system until its removal, in one night, by as yet undetermined means.

Kironide Pricing and Economics

We really have never established the 'money' used in Star Trek DS9 universe. For practical purposes, I will establish the FCU, or Federation Credit Unit. Let's call this about $1 US equals 1FCU, in 1998 dollars versus 2374 FCUs. In these terms, kironide is expensive.

In other words, the 50kg package found on the USS Knight, was equivalent to 150 million FCUs ($150M) in kironide, and would support 2000 1500 FCU valued injected doses, or would actually take 66 people to operancy in one month. In real terms, there is probably a washout effect for a lot of kironide that is not taken up by the subject, so it may take up to a year (540,000 FCUs) for the typical person to become telekinetic (and nuts).

With 200 races on 200 worlds and maybe 600 colony worlds, westill have, at a guess a marketplace with, say 500 billion people. If only 1% are 'millionaires', then there are still 5 billion people in the marketplace who might be able to afford the stuff. Let's make it only 1 in 10,000 of these that have heard of it, and 2 in 100 who would dare to take it.

That makes 10,000 users of (injected), for a total of perhaps 160 or so of those 50kg packages each year. Marketplace value is then 160x150M FCU, or 24 billion FCU per year. I bet this is a conservative level of traffic. Let's double it.

My best guess is that it takes about 8-10 billion to build a Sovereign class starship, and maybe another 1 billion a year to operate it. It we presume that the original providers of this stuff (at the original figures, before doubling, 8000kg or 8 British tons, per year) get to keep even about 1/3 of it, then the people who are the principal movers of the stuff are making about 16 billion FCUs per annum. Equivalent to building a Sovereign class starship or a large starbase, every year, and running about 8 such facilities.

Probably a lucrative trade, even if only a drop in the bucket for a UFP that probably has total commerce on the neighborhood of 2,000 Trillion FCUs (200,000 Sovereign class starships).

Implications of Kironide Trade

If the trade is stable, there are AT LEAST 20,000 kironide affected Telekinetics in the UFP. And many of these are insane.

Where are they? Well, they were rich to begin with. Presumably they hide behind their riches. But what if they are more active? And what happens when they decide to 'talk'?

My guess is that there is an adjunct to the kironide trade, that basically goes around eliminating the TKs who are considered to be dangerous to the trade. Perhaps an entire set of dangerous TP/TKs themselves, involved with the 'pushers', the 'Silencers' of the people who try to speak out.

Why, if this is true, were they not used in the recent assault on the USS Knight, or discovered on Starbase One? Probably, they were too high profile places for the 'Silencers' to operate. But of course, we don't really have all the details about what happened to the bad guys running the trade on Starbase One, do we?