The Quickening

Originally Appeared Here

If you think you can take me, well homey I Got news
If you ever bet against me, you'll owe me some quatloos(1)
Like Bashir believing nothing's beyond his abilities
Even without the use of the station's facilities
But he didn't imagine it would be so depressing
That people would say the blight is a blessing
And the way they meet death without delay is distressing
Get treatment from Trevean, but he's not giving medicine
Just ritualized suicide like my man Doctor Timicin(2)
He thinks he can help, but it makes a more Horrid scene
When one of his patients stops responding to cordrazine(3)
The mutation is triggered by medical devices
Emitting radiation, and it seems like the price is
A lot of people have to die just for him to get educated
Maybe should've hesitated, he charged ahead instead of waited
Reduced to search for a cure with stone knives and bearskins(4)
Ask Trevean why it takes so many lives but it spares him
It's left him viewing death with strange sense of worship
Like Klingons with honor or Ferengi entrepreneurship
But even the most defeated finds cause for euphoria,
A beacon of hope in the baby boy from Ekoria
While everyone celebrates, Julian's leaving that scene
'Cause he wants a true cure and not just a vaccine

1. Currency from TOS's "The Gamesters of Triskelion", used in wagers on drill-thrall fights.
2. In TNG's "Half a Life", Kaelon scientist Timicin is forced to comply with his planet's custom of "Resolution", ritual suicide at age sixty instituted to combat overpopulation.
3. Cordrazine is a chemical stimulant used by Starfleet doctors in emergency medical procedures, including Dr. Bashir in "The Quickening" and Dr. McCoy in "The City on the Edge of Forever"
4. In "The City On the Edge of Forever", Spock referred to the 20th century equipment he was using to interface with his tricorder as "Stone knives and bearskins".