And we know that human flesh and blood can be given superhuman abilities. Admiral Quinn never registered as an alien despite his frail old body having not just youthful but superhuman strength. A bit of purple haze sufficed for turning two humans into plenipotent gods, even though one of them spent plenty of time on a biobed under close scrutiny and was never diagnosed with more than a rapid development of his "abilities". Then there are a number of chemicals that give added speed or telekinesis or whatnot.
Would these things be destructive to the flesh and the blood in the long term? Scalosian water was. The Purple Powers would ultimately result in inhuman creatures. Quinn was expendable, his body under control of a hostile force. But flesh and blood synthetics might have been built to be expendable, too (even though we have zero evidence that Bruce Maddox ever intended to create expendables - that was a straw man created by the defense for the purposes of the trial). Or they may have been given the means of defending themselves by brief superhuman bursts of power, even if this takes away a few hours of their lifespan every time.
Were the assassins given superhuman powers? The combined suicide pill and slimethrower is a nifty weapon, but splicing some Augment genes into the guys would do wonders, too. I wonder why the Romulans wouldn't go for that. Or are arm-implanted sidearms a sign of them doing superhumans the other way, by learning from the Borg?
Timo Saloniemi
