With that the comm was closed, and Brennan went about making his calls. First to the CMO on site, and then to Dr. Ryan.
(no response yet from the L'tharan or the Venasians of course)
Lucas was starting to get used to these calls from the top brass, though a year ago he wouldn't have thought he would be in this position. He was just a resident, after all, a research assistant who just happened to have the double-edged glory of working with Dr. D'amondra.
"Good morning, Dr. Brennan," he said, "I assume you're calling about the data that was sent over on those two Venasian patients from CMO O'Meara."
(response)
"The information only arrived last night, so I haven't had much time to look at it yet, but I can tell you one thing for certain - they're both from the Venasian colony on Leskan VII." He pulled up a starchart for Brennan, showing the location of the colony, in fairly remote space outside the borders of all the major empires. There was nothing too interesting out there; one infrequently-travelled trade route, no inhabited systems. In fact, except for Leskan VII, it was pretty much a dead area of space for several parsecs in every direction.
(response if any)
Lucas came back. "The reason I know they're from Leskan is because of this." He pulled up the video on the operating procedure, which showed the doctors and nurses working frantically to save the patient on the table. "This is the patient who died, but look at this." He zoomed in on the patient's neck. On a loose cord hung a small, green stone pendant with a gold insignia which had miraculously escaped the damage its owner had gone through. "Emblem of the M'sperans," Lucas told him, "This particular colony was solely inhabited by members of one family, the M'speran family. They're known for being artists and scholars. Many of the prominent artisans, musicians, authors, and poets in Venasian history have come from this family, and historically, they're credited for speareheading their equivalent of the Renaissance. That pendant has their coat of arms stamped on it."
Lucas returned, his face mystified. "What I can't figure out is how or why these two patients got like this. They're a fairly peaceful family, and Venasians aren't violent by nature. Free-thinkers, yes, but violent? No."
-S
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