"Is that it, is that your entire contact list?"

"Yes, Doctor, of course, but I don't see how this is going to help." Dr. Krill barely acknowledged Rita as he transferred the file and began cross referencing it with all the names on the list, and their contact information.

Sensing Rita still staring at him, he turned his head to look at her, "It isn't that hard to understand, Rita. Now that we know what these people have in common, we have to find who they were contacting, and why, and since you are a medical professional, I find it likely that you were already contacted."

"Why not check your own contact list." She wondered, leaning back in her seat, and watching him with narrowed eyes.

"Because I am not human, and humans seem to be what they are most interested in. He sat for a moment, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited. It was only from the look on Rita's face that he realized he was doing anything at all. The tapping stopped, and he looked down at his own leg with some surprise, "Hmm, interesting." Though he did not have more time to think about the phenomena as he was suddenly alerted to the quiet ping of his readied information.

Transferring the data to a holo-pad, he dropped to the floor and scuttled from the room taking a turn down the hallway and up towards the bridge.

He ran into one of the bridge crew at the end of the hall, who saluted –on pure force of habit–, "Sir, the captain's shuttle is returning. You requested that we let you k-"

"Ah, good, he will want to see my findings."

Two of his cortical hemispheres were busy reading down the list of names and cross-referenced contacts. Each name had a percentage number next to it which marked the percentage of people out of those 41 subjects who had had contact with them. Granted he had been hoping for a solid 100%, but the best he got was up at a 75%.

All together there were at least ten names that fit that description, and none of them with names he recognized.

Going by what he could see of the names and descriptions, many of them were human, implying that it was probably superior officers or supervisors within the organization, though he couldn't have said for sure

There was a sharp hiss as the cargo door opened onto the docking bay, and he stepped into the large echoing room just in time to watch airlock 1 as it depressurized. The man from the bridge crew, who had alerted Krill to the captain's arrival, was still with him, waiting patiently with his hands behind his back.

The red light above the airlock stopped blinking, and Krill hurried rapidly forward, coming to the doors of the shuttle just as they were opening.

"Captain, I think I found something: a link between your missing 41 humans. You see I did a preliminary examination and upon finding the link I-" He paused for a moment, speechless as Captain Vir and Sunny came stumbling out of the shuttle, the two of them looking a little worse for wear.

The captain's right pant leg had been rolled up to reveal his mechanical leg absolutely mangled, missing large chunks of its plexiglass exterior, while the interior pneumatics were firing with great difficulty and irregularity. For this reason, he was half supported by one of Sunny's lower arms, while one of his arms was thrown over her shoulder for support.

The difference in their height was enough to force Sunny into an awkward crouch to allow him to learn on her, and like that, they hobbled from the shuttle.

"Captain! What happened?"

To Krill's ever increasing annoyance, captain Vir ignored his question and turned to look at the lieutenant, "Get the GA and the UNSC on the line immediately. They have to be alerted."

He tried to take another step, but his mechanical knee locked up forcing him to take a seat with Sunny's help.

After alerting the bridge crew, the lieutenant stopped to kneel down next to the captain, "What happened, sir, are you alright?"

Adam waved a hand dismissing his concern, "Fine, fine, but as for what happened," he shook his head, "They are manufacturing human weapons using slave power to do it, and then they are shipping those weapons back to Anum."

Confusion crossed the man's face and Sunny quickly stepped in, "He means Anin, the Drev home planet."

Again the Lieutenant's face twisted into confusion, "Anu-Anin, what would they be doing with human weapons? They don't- I mean." He glanced at Sunny with an apologetic expression, "Your species doesn't believe in the use of long-range weapons, right?"

She nodded her head, "It's considered heretical, Unless you are throwing your spear, in which case they make an exception."

Captain Vir waved his hand again, "Either way, the GA needs to be alerted immediately. I hate to admit it, but we were spotted, and attacked while we were there, so there is a high likelihood that they will have cleaned out and gone by the time the GA show up, but we have to try. Did any of the marines find anything?"

The lieutenant shook his head, "No sir, all the other locations had either been abandoned or repurposed. Most of them returned not long after they left."

"Damn."

"But there was evidence in at least two of the other factories that someone had been working there recently, you know like disturbed dust and what not. However, they weren't able to get any more information. Marines aren't exactly versed in the art of forensic science."

Adam sighed and nodded, "That is true, they generally tend to leave genetic evidence, not find it."

Krill, finally fed up with being left out of the conversation, cut into the middle of the two humans and cleared his throat. It was a very strange feeling, and he was, once again, pulled out of himself for a moment as he realized he hadn't intended to make the noise.

It did, however, have the desired effect, and the two humans went quiet.

Captain Vir tilted his head down to look at him, "Yes Krill?"

"I found something that you might find interesting?"

"Go on."

Krill's eyes fell to the non-functioning prosthetic leg, and the multitude of bruises slowly darkened into existence on the human's skin, "Perhaps we should speak of this in the medical bay. Let me call down a gurn-"

He was interrupted again as the Drev shook her head and ducked under the captain's arm, "I can carry him."

Krill frowned at the two of them, more than a little surprised to see the captain allowing the Drev so close. Owing to their history, he would have assumed that the two of them, or at least the captain, would hate Sunny for time and all eternity. However, even then he was openly allowing the Drev to pick him up and half carry him down the hall.

"Did something happen while you two were gone?" Krill wondered unable to stamp out his curiosity.

Captain Vir shrugged, "We came to an understanding."

"He saved my life.... Twice." Sunny added.

The captain grumbled grudgingly, "And she saved my life a few times. Ah, ouch, try not to pull on that arm too much, I definitely think I pulled something."

Krill turned to lead them down the hall, stepping into the infirmary and allowing Sunny to sit the captain down on one of the bay beds. He sighed in relief and leaned back against the pillows sighing deeply as if a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Sunny backed away.

Krill leaned down to take a look at the mechanical leg. He wasn't an engineer, but he knew enough to know that the piece of hardware was almost completely shot. There was no coming back from something like that. The metal bearings and sockets had twisted in ways that metal certainly was not supposed to twist, and when taking human anatomy into consideration, there was no way he was going to be able to operate normally.

It seemed that someone, likely the Drev, had tried to fix the leg enough to give it function for walking, but the fix was only really a crutch and not a true fix.

He looked up at the captain, "I hope you had the foresight to commission a spare?"

From the look on the man's face, he could tell that he did not, in fact, have the foresight to commission a spare.

"You realize that you have now lost your ability to walk."

He looked down at his feet with an almost shameful look on his face.

"What even happened?"

"We got into a bit of a scuffle, and the leg didn't hold up."

Krill glanced down at his more human leg, "And yet your other one did?" Captain Vir shrugged and was about to open his mouth to say more when Krill silenced him with a sudden wave of the hand, "No matter, there is something of importance that I wanted to tell you. I found a link between all the missing persons. I think I know how they were singled out."

Finally, the man sat up giving him the attention he should have had many minutes earlier.

"Go on, I'm listening."

The Drev, Sunny hovered behind his back listening as well. He waited for a few seconds, expecting the Captain to tell her to leave, but he hardly seemed to acknowledge she was there, less in the way of ignoring her and more in the way of not caring that she heard, so, finally, Krill plowed on.

"Everyone on that list had some sort of link to the medical profession."

Captain Vir raised an eyebrow, and Krill continued.

"We did not notice at first because not all the victims were doctors, but at least one third of their number was, which is a very high concentration for doctors on earth, and even in the UNSC, so I took a look at the other professions, and I found doctors, dentists, medical technicians, nurses, phlebotomist, and the odd pharmacist."

The captain nodded, "And?"

"And what, that is what I found."

He frowned, "Krill, while that is great news, finding something that links the victims, I am not really sure where to go with that."

"Well." Krill announced excitedly, "Isn't it obvious. I think the disappearances are connected, and I also think that they were likely contacted by someone who knew the profession. My assumption that they were all contacting the same person led me to compile a list of names cross referenced between all of their contact information." He held out the holo-pad quite proudly, "I believe that one of these names could lead us to their kidnapper."

Captain Vir reached out, taking the holo pad and running his single human eye over the compilation of names.

"Krill, there are at least thirty names on this list."

Krill's antennae hummed in annoyance as the corners of his mouth pulled down in a frown. He had worked very hard on this list, and he had honestly expected a little bit more enthusiasm from the human.

He thought he would be pleased to hear they finally had a lead, no matter how meager it might be, "So, that is thirty more names than we had before, and one of them has to be the person we are looking for. I know it."

Captain Vir took a deep breath and blew out a sharp gust of air through his cheeks, "This is good work, Krill, don't get me wrong, and if things don't pan out, we will definitely look into it, but right now we have more pressing matters, and a more direct lead."

Krill shouldn't have been as annoyed as he was, but the captain all but tossed out his discovery stung more than he would like to admit.

He was almost surprised when the man's expression changed in response to something he saw in Krill, and he reached out a hand to rest on Krill's shoulder. The man's large hand was almost big enough to engulf his entire shoulder and a good third of his chest, "Look, Doctor, this really is good work, for sure, but we found evidence that human weapons are being shipped back to Anin, likely to equip some sort of.... I don't know.... Militia, so the missing humans are going to have to wait for the time being as eminent war is a little bit more important, though it pains me to say it.

Krill took a deep breath and sighed, "Very well." He stepped forward, pushing the man back as he tried to stand up, "No, you will let me do my job, and then you may leave, not before and not after."

The man sunk back against the bed.

Krill turned to look at the Drev who was still standing, and waiting, "You will stay as well since it seems you have been accepted onto the crew."

To his surprise she took a seat without complaining.

Captain Vir frowned, looking over at the Drev as Krill continued to dab at a cut on his cheek. The wound was shallow, but it was full of dirt and would need to be properly cleaned before he was allowed to go. During his reading the other day, Krill had learned of a flesh eating bacteria that could literally well.... Eat flesh, which he was not particularly pleased about.

"I didn't think you had doctors either."

"We don't." Sunny said.

"Then isn't that heretical as well?"

Sunny shook her shiny carapaced head, "No, medicine is so uncommon on my planet that it is not worth it to consider it heretical."

Krill froze in his place, "What?"

She turned her golden eyes upon him, "There are no doctors on my planet. Everyone knows how to cover a shallow wound, to pack it with sweet moss to avoid infection, but if your injury does not heal on its own then you are obligated to die in battle, or toss yourself to a sacrifice in the fires."

Krill stared at her. If he was a human he might have indulged the moment with a slow blink, but being unable to blink simply left him staring.

Captain Vir shook his head, "Not to sound.... Rude or anything, but that is not a practice of you people that I can really get behind.... It's just so, wrong." He glanced down at his leg, "Besides, I would like to think that cripples can be a great benefit to society."

Sunny glanced down at his leg as well, "Perhaps that is a theory my people should spend some time looking into."

The answer surprised them both though her demeanor had no change to indicate any sort of change in her.

So Krill did his job, looking the two of them over while shaking his head. They had done a number on themselves. Bruises cuts on contusions. The captain had certainly pulled something in the large muscle atop the chest, and his hands were blistering something horrible, but the two of them were alive, and he supposed that was the important thing.

No thanks to you he thought to himself rather bitterly.

He didn't know why it bothered him so much, but the fact that he was unable to keep the humans from doing dumb things was a great detriment to his personal mental health. He was a doctor, he was supposed to make sure that they were healthy, but how was he supposed to do that, when the humans all seemed hell bent on getting themselves into the most dangerous insane situations they possibly could.

Once he was done cleaning them up, he let them go relaxing in the knowledge that once all of this was over, he would no longer need to worry about his humans getting into dangerous situations.

And it was up to him to make sure that it took as short a time as possible.

That gave him an idea.

If he had help, maybe this would all go a little more quickly, so he backed into the little office behind the medical bay and put in a call to a not-so-old friend.

As the screen lightened, Dr. Krill's antennae buzzed with pleasure.

On the Screen Dr. Kedd's multitude of blue/white eyes stared back, "Dr. Krill, it is a pleasure to hear from you so soon. To what do I owe this call?"

"I need your help." He announced.

"Anything for another scientific mind, what can I do for you?"

"Have you heard of the missing humans?" He said, leaning in close to the screen and occasionally glancing over his shoulder to make sure no one had walked in on his conversation. No one had expressly forbidden that he talk about their current mission, but he had a feeling that the captain, or whoever else, would not be pleased to learn of his sharing.

The little Gibb doctor frowned, "No, I cannot say that I have."

"Well in that case I will fill you in. I am on a ship, where the primary directive is to find 41 missing humans, or well, 40 missing humans and one confirmed dead."

"Where would forty one missing humans run off to? Do the humans have any leads?"

"Not as of yet. In fact, they are working their way over to Anin on a hunch."

"Anin! What is on Anin?"

"They don't know. They think it has something to do with some sort of intergalactic slave and weapon trafficking ring, and that there is some sort of mulita forming there."

Dr. Kedd snorted, "What would anyone have to fear from a militia of aliens 2000 years away from intergalactic travel if not more considering their thoughts on technology."

Krill sighed, "It seemed obvious to me, but the humans seem convinced. Anyway, that is not what I have come to talk with you about. I have come to speak with you about a lead that I found on my own time regarding these 41 missing humans."

"Oh, you have?"

"Yes, you see, all the missing humans were in the medical field to some degree or another, and using my lists to cross reference their contacts, I have compiled a list of at least twenty to thirty names of those who they have been in contact with along with a percentage marker of how many were in contact with each person."

"Send me the list, and I will take a look."

Krill did as directed, and he saw on the other end as Dr. kedd leaned a little closer to the screen, "I know many of these names, was in contact with them myself at one point. He crossed his arms thoughtfully over his chest.

Krill nodded, "Being in the medical field, I assume you have probably had contact with our suspect as well, but no matter. Help me go through these names, and determine if there is anyone that we might like to look into a little bit more.

"I can certainly do that, but first, doctor, I think it would only be fair if you shared with me some facts about humans you have learned since being there, after all, we are colleagues in science, and sharing information is what we do best."

Krill nodded, "Of course. Let me think." It was not for lack of interesting scientific tidbits that he could have given, but the fact that he had to sort through a multitude of options. Eventually he settled on one and returned, "I will have to look into this more, but today, I was regaled with a story that contained this information: apparently when humans are in great peril, their body allows them access to the use of their entire muscular system effectively letting them lift 500x their own body weight in certain cases."

The Gibb leaned in, "Fascinating, just fantastic, that does leave a lot of implications."

"Yes, I was thinking the same thing. These implications would potentially give them the ability to fight predators twice their size, or larger humans."

"So, in order to insure that a human could not win in a fight, you would have to pit them against a material or a creature at 500% their average strength capacity."

"That seems about right." Krill said, nodding his head.

"If I were human, that is something that I would likely keep to myself for fear of letting someone else know of such a useful power."

Krill shrugged, "I do not think that humans understand how special such a talent is. I doubt any of them would realize it is something best kept under the table."

"It is certainly something that the penal systems should know about."

"I imagine it is." Krill mused

Dr. Kedd sat up straighter, clapping his hands together, "Very well, we return to your work. You have given me something interesting to study and to ponder, and I will now give you your help."

After that, things went much faster with the help of the Gibb. Granted, he was not nearly as fast as Krill himself, having only two independent cortical hemispheres to work with, but still they made good time, and when the list was returned to Krill, he was surprised to find that at least fifteen of the names had been removed.

"What is this about?" He wondered

"I know some of these people personally." Dr. Kedd explained, "And they neither have the reason or the time to be involved in any of these. Those five names, however, are ones that I do not recognize and remain as something that you will personally need to look into."

Krill nodded pleased. Five names was better than twenty, and he thanked Dr. Kedd before signing off.

A warm glow built up on his insides. He knew he was a doctor of course, By trade and by name and by ability, but he couldn't help but praise himself on his superior investigative work. In another life he might have been a detective of some sort or another, and the little foray into hypotheticals made him smile.

He would have made a very good investigator.