Solnoid Medical Crews were abuzz with activity, the most they had been in many years. Six Solnoid crew-women had died under mysterious circumstances, all of them by what seemed to be a heart attack. It was a puzzle for many in the autopsy room, but what bothered them more was the discovery of a Paranoid surveillance bug located in one woman's ID Badge. However, it wasn't the bug that had brought a young Lavender Haired Lieutenant, of the Central Intelligence Science Team to the autopsy station. It was a foreign organism discovered in the vestigial organ in the abdomens of each Solnoid. Catty was under orders from her department head to find the makeup and source of the organism and try to understand its connection to the Paranoids. With her she brought two armed guards, "I am Lieutenant Catty Nova Nebulart of Central Guard Intelligence, this facility is now under the complete control of the Central Guard, all non-Central Guard personnel are required to leave immediately." The room cleared out in an orderly if not rushed manner. After the last of the non-essential personnel had left, a steady procession of Central Guard Science and Intelligence technicians entered the room, bringing with them many various instruments and equipment unique to the Central Guard. And finally, Catty's department head entered the room. Captian Dianea Galliean was a tall imposing Solnoid but also appeared to be uncharacteristically compassionate for a member of the Solnoid Central Guard. Catty too ended her "tough act" and hurried towards her commander. "The room is clear of any unauthorized personnel, we are now free to act under our own discretion, Admiral." "Great work Catty, now what is it they discovered here that High Command doesn't want to leak out?" "The cause of death ma'am, it looks like some kind of new biological weapon the Paranoids are using." "Is it a virus?" Captain Dianea asked. "No, it looks like some kind of parasite, but it doesn't show any signs of having a means to survival, almost like it was just barely into larval form." "So your saying that it wasn't actually a fully developed organism?" "Yes, however we need to examine it further. I've ordered some transmat crews here to have the organism removed for us to study it further." Catty motioned to the transmat technicians to begin their work. The Captain left the room and motioned for Catty to follow. In the hallway outside, Captain Dianea pulled out the captured Paranoid bug. "I need you to scan it's memory and try to find any traces to where it was transmitting and what. Whatever the Paranoid are doing, there has been no precedent, I want to know as much as possible." Catty took the bug from Dianea's hand, "I'll get that information within the hour." Dianea smiled, "I know you will, don't let us down." Catty nodded and put the bug into a carrying case that was lying on top of a nearby cart. She saluted Dianea and proceeded to the nearest computer room. The long hallways of the Solnoid Intelligence Compound on Marsus were sterile and angular in design, much like the interior of many Solnoid Starships. Catty approached a transit terminal and keyed in a string of commands. The door to a small transport pod opened and Catty took a seat. Two lower ranked Solnoids sat in a seat across from her. They both eyed the case she was carrying. It was clearly marked "Top Secret" in bold red Solnoid lettering along its side. They glanced at it for only a moment and pretended not to notice. The pod whizzed through several corridors and after a moment or two of uncomfortable silence, the door swung open. It was Catty's stop, she grabbed the case by it's handle and proceeded out the door. The transit station for the compounds Computer and Networking center was always crowded and Catty had difficulty navigating her way through the traffic of bodies and robots. The crowd grew thinner in density as she made her way closer to the main computational center. She approached another keypad locked entrance and entered her personal command codes. The glass door swished open and she walked inside. The main center was a large cavernous nervous center filled with sound of Solnoids tapping away at the keypads of the twenty or so terminals surrounding a great column-like structure in the center. Catty grabbed a key-card from a small locked cubby with her name and rank over the top. She left the main central area and approached one of the side offices. She slid the key-card across a reader next to the door and it opened. It was sound proof and while glass, the glass would turn opaque when in use. Inside the office was a computer terminal much larger than one of the many outside. It buzzed to life upon sensing Lt. Nebulart's presence. Before taking her seat, she reached over to a smaller keypad to her right and entered some commands. A small hatch opened underneath and Catty unlatched the lock on her carrying case. She took out the bug and placed it inside the hatch. The computer, sensing the new device sitting in the small hatch, dispatched several wires which appear to move on their own. They probed the Paranoid device for access ports and found them. Immediately the Paranoid user interface from the bug sprang to life on Catty's terminal screen. She took her seat and began tapping away at her keyboard. Eventually, the computer was able to translate the Paranoid text to that of a much more readable Solnoid. The bug's interface was not too different from the other's Catty had cracked into, but what was different was how well the bug's transmission logs were hidden. After an hour of difficult and tedious code breaking and hacking, she was finally able to find the logs. But upon reading many of them, she was shocked with how narrow and specific the bug's intelligence gathering orders were. Little attention had been given to anything outside of general Anatomical data and Solnoid Medical Knowledge and Procedure. Much of it pointed to what they had speculated was a Paranoid plot for some sort of Biological weapon, however, there was also little attention given to actual Solnoid vital signs by the Paranoid robot. It was truly the most interested in actual Solnoid Medical Procedure. Odd. Catty thought to herself. After printing and saving as much of the logs as she could, she then went on to trace the transmissions themselves. Catty knew that no matter how much the Paranoids could try to keep their transmissions from being traced, there would always be some residual data left over that would clue them in. This data as it turned out, was actually easier to find than the logs themselves. After piecing all of the lost bits of data together, Catty was able to trace it back to the Paranoid Home System, but not to their Homeworld itself, rather, it was traced to a Paranoid Destroyer, the "Damoth." Catty smiled to herself. Captain Dianea will be very happy. She saved the last pieces of data to her memory tag and pulled it from the main terminal. From there she pulled the bug from the main interface hatch and placed it, and the memory tag, into the Top Secret Case. She latched it closed and proceeded to leave the computer station. Seven hours had passed and little else was found or known as the actual cause of death in the Six Solnoid soldiers. It was as though they simply dropped dead. It was also determined that the "things" discovered in their bodies would not have actually caused any damage had they been allowed to continue their cellar division. Captain Dianea waited impatiently for the DNA analysis to return. However, she was pleased to discover that her trusted Lieutenant Nebulart had not only been able to get the bug's logs but was also able to trace the link back to a specific Paranoid ship. Normally, the standard procedure after obtaining such information would have lead to a dispatch of the Second Central Guard fleet, and the Caucasus would have disposed of the Paranoid forces there. However, two things prevented such action; first, the ship was still in orbit around the Paranoid Homeworld, and nothing would be able to penetrate the defenses around that planet. The risk was especially not worth one Paranoid Ship, a destroyer no less. But the second reason, and to Dianea, the more important reason, was her simple curiosity. Why would the Paranoid so blatantly break from their standard procedures over a scientific operation that seemingly had no military gains to be had from? What do the Paranoids know that the Solnoids didn't? The Captian didn't know what to make of the situation and all she could do was want to learn more from it. Fortunately, she knew exactly who to send to find out...
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