Coalescent organism

From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.

A coalescent organism is any organism (usually microscopic in size) capable of mimicking another organism down to a cellular level upon physical contact, usually resulting in the death of the host as a result of being absorbed by the organism. Not only do such creatures absorb and mimic the host's DNA, they can also absorb memory engrams from the host.

Few such organisms are known to exist due to their need to frequently absorb a subject (and therefore change form) in order to survive (with smaller coalescent organisms, this is only a matter of seconds). A substantially larger coalescent organism had killed and absorbed Starfleet officer Keith Rocha in 2369, while he was on a deep space mission shortly before he was to transfer to Relay Station 47.

In Rocha's form, the creature transferred to Relay Station 47 and was able to assume his form for several weeks until it needed to absorb another organism. The only other two compatible organisms aboard Relay Station 47 were Aquiel Uhnari and her pet dog, Maura; the creature, still in the form of Rocha, attacked Uhnari, beginning the process of coalescence causing Uhnari to lose her short term memory.

Uhnari was able to escape the creature and injure it before fleeing the station via a shuttlecraft, leaving the creature to coalesce with Maura, which would later attack and attempt to absorb Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge. Geordi was forced to destroy the creature in self-defense. (TNG: "Aquiel")

[edit] See also

• Biomimetic lifeform