312

November 4 - Zenobia

The door recognized my bio-signature and, with a hiss, opened to let me pass. The sound of my boots marked my passage across the tile floor.

Alliance Laboratory 312 was a good sized research center. Two floors of laboratories. An adjoining hospital. External testing facilities.

Building One was the hospital proper. The clinics were there. Emergency treatment. A small ward on the upper floor.

Building Two housed the laboratories and surgery. Most of the top floor of this building had been emptied to make room for the incoming Dr. Serendipity.

Area Three, external to the building itself, consisted of secure storage and access to the ground testing facilities.

Each floor of Buildings One and Two were laid out in the clover leaf configuration characteristic of medical facilities on Zenobia in general - a cluster of round rooms or pods, usually four, off a central square common area. Each building had its own elevator shaft and separate entrances. A round elevated tunnel joined both structures.

I made my way to one of the corner rooms in Building Two. It contained a simple desk and chair and the object I had come to see: an Arudra series drone captured by Dr. Qui Serendipity and Captain Manda Westminster in the deserts of Al Raqis.

----

"Hello Major."

Captain Westminster entered the room and saluted.

"Hello Captain," I replied, returning the salute.

We stood examining the figure standing before us. It was unadorned and decapitated.

"We shined her up and took off her head," remarked the Captain pleasantly.

"Did it give you much trouble?"

"It was a good chase mostly," she replied, "Across Al Raqis, Splintered Rock, Desert Basin and Deep Desert."

I nodded.

She continued. "We think the drone was deactivating some things. We were only able to find one at the totem. A comms device."

"The information it has so far provided has indicated that LilyBell Snoodle had met the two girls now missing from Paquin," I said, "Any information from this comms device yet?"

"It is laborious, but we will be able to figure out the frequency jumping chip. If Ardra is assuming the transmitters were all destroyed, then it will probably not change the frequencies. We will be able to eavesdrop."

"Good," I replied, "then maybe we caught a break."

"We should be able to get a lot more intel," said Captain Westminster optimistically.

"Keep me informed," I said.

"I am staying here for one more day," she continued, "until the professor gets this thing completely in containment. He also hopes we can use this to refine his proton packs to better immobilize the droids."

I nodded again.

"The current packs are..." she rolled her eyes to the side, "not good. Bulky, prone to overheat, break spontaneously and sometimes just don't function at all. It took two of us to take down the drone. One to immobilize, the second to shut it down."

"Was it wearing clothing?" I asked. The pictures we had gathered so far showed a drone dressed like Audrey Aurotharius.

"We removed the clothing," she replied, "Held for analysis. Maybe we can find out where it was from the dirt...."

"Good."

"...I expect to find sand," she added.

"I want to know how old the clothing is and where it was manufactured."

"I have ordered a fiber analysis," reported the Captain.

"Very good," I replied, "I'll be in my office, if there is anything else."

-----

Captain Westminster's report arrived later that evening.

--- Begin Encrypted Report ---

Reference: Audrey Aurotharius and Audrey Aurotharius Wylder
Subject: Preliminary forensics of cell and fiber samples

I met with Captain Otsuka, he was very cooperative and helpful.

Their fingerprint team are still ruling our the hundreds of fingerprints from the crime scene. If there are any that don't correspond to students and staff, they will forward.

The school had already washed the bed linens and the children's laundry before they knew there was an incident. Their forensics team was able to collect DNA samples from hairbrush and toiletries.

Given the name of the girls, I ran with a hunch and prioritized the testing to look for some particular markers. Both of these girls have the markers for juvenile familial amyloidosis.

Amyloidosis is an uncontrolled growth of the amyloid protein, even without DNA testing, the amyloid protein grown is evident in the cell cultures.

I am conducting cell membrane tests to see if I can find the evidence of any drug treatment. The hair will also be useful for indications of medically related stress and treatments.

Preliminary analysis of hair strands show unmistakable signs of long term Mu Draconis Desert Spice ingestion.

There are cellular markers that indicate how many times a cell line has divided since the clone was made. The length of telomeres for example, but there are several others. Thus, you can estimate how old the primary was when the cell sample was taken.

The simplest test for a clone is the length of the telomeres, a protein complex which protects the ends of linear chromosomes. If the length of the telomeres is shorter that would be indicated given the approximate age of the person, then it is likely a clone. We then run other tests to corroborate.

Both of these girls are very expensive clones, top of the line. Germline cells extracted while the primary was still in the womb, stored, cloned then placed into the womb of another woman and raised to term. No artificial womb, no growth stimulants or the other signs of traditional cloning methods.

It will take a bit longer to get enough markers to run it for an ident.

Captain Westminster, UAP SIU

--- End Encrypted Report ---

-----

With a heavy sigh, I set the report aside and considered the next move.

I had not heard from Ardra since I had taken a team to search her ship and seize the bones of St. Zenobius. This was not a surprise of course. It hadn't exactly been a social call.

Nevertheless, I felt compelled to contact her now. Using the old protocols we had used to contact her during the war, I sent Ardra a small package of raw spice with a brief message:

"Don't hurt the children."