wherein Liz gets back to stuff she was writing before December distracted her

In the spirit of finishing stuff this year, I am back to working on the Star Trek: AOS fic about a Red Cross ship dealing with a plague on a colony world. Wordcount is now 8,150 words, and I am researching lung structures. I have never done more story-specific research in my life than what I have been doing for this fic -- please note that I consider rereading or rewatching canon a different thing from research -- but I think the end result will be worth the trouble. Plot is good, yes? And the least I can do is provide minimal medical verisimilitude.

(I say minimal because while I am making an effort, I am also doing a fair bit of waving my hands and saying, "Lalala, twenty-third century and alien species, modern practices and Earth biology need not apply!" and leaning heavily on the rule of dramatic necessity because really, I do not think a real-life medical crisis would bear much resemblance to the one I am depicting.)

Currently Nico is explaining parasite life cycles to the crew. Also, Kath has decided to name the parasites 'lung dragons,' mostly because of their appearance and the way they kill humans, but also because it is a terrible bilingual pun and I cannot help myself.

I have decided, incidentally, that since I already wrote a short ficlet that more accurately answers valles_uf's prompt, this one will not end in a standoff, and I will bring the Enterprise crew on as actual characters. So it will turn into proper fanfiction in the end, instead of being 95% original science fiction with a handful of Star Trek terminology thrown in for color.