Kelly peaked through the door into Mordin's lab. She wasn't necessarily scared of Mordin, it was just that he could be a little intense at times—and the message he'd sent her had been particularly incoherent—so she preferred to catch sight of him first rather than let him spring out at her. And anyway, it was always wise to enter the disorganized lab environment with caution.

Mordin peeked over the table in the center of the room. "Ah, Yeoman Chambers," he greeted. "Pleased to see you. Come in." He disappeared behind the table again.

"Hi, Mordin," Kelly said, leaning around to find him searching the cracks between the table and the floor. "What'cha up to?"

"Investigating possible applications of Earth animal species artificially augmented with biotic abilities. Probably should have started with larger test subjects. Insects have short life span, simple metabolism; good for experiments, but hard to find when misplaced." He paused, then stood up and looked back at Kelly. "No matter, will turn up eventually. Wished to speak with you. Important manner, potentially unpleasant implications. Need to be discreet."

"I'm honored that you'd trust me." Kelly liked to think she had a rapport with everyone on the crew, but hadn't felt that she was particularly close with Mordin. The doctor was generally pragmatic, though, so perhaps he honestly felt that she was the best person to keep a secret.

"Yes, yes, need your input. You interact with crew, watch for mental instability. Might see patterns not obvious to others. In particular, new crew member: Commander Traver."

"Amanda? She's a valuable addition to the team. She gets along with everyone, and I haven't seen or heard anything about her mental state that would cause me concern."

"Of course, have achieved much with her help. But this is issue: Have achieved too much. Pace of successful missions extreme, yet despite prominent role in planning and execution, Commander Traver also spends much time in other pursuits. Bonds with crew, advises prominent figures on planets we visit, participates in galactic politics via extranet. Demonstrates vast knowledge on obscure subjects, suggests large periods devoted to personal research and retrieval of classified data. Too much to do in short time. Even discounting need for sleep, personal recreation, medical needs, physically impossible. Can't fit all of Commander Traver's actions into period of time."

Kelly had a hard enough time understanding Mordin typically, and now he was talking at near to light speed. "So you're concerned because Amanda's achieving too much?"

"Hmm, need example. Consider, what activities did Commanders Shepard and Traver perform together yesterday?"

"Well, there was sparring before breakfast, then I think they finished up their workout after that. They had to fit a new ammunition mod to the guns, so that was the rest of the morning. Then, after lunch, they had a planning session for the assault on the Shadow Broker's base tomorrow—apparently Amanda managed to trace it to Hagalaz. Not long after that, Jack and Grunt had their, um, disagreement and they worked together to calm them down. I didn't see her after dinner, but they said this morning that they'd made an upgrade for their biotic implants, so I guess that must have taken a while."

"See? Shepard and Traver spent almost entire day together."

"Oh, hold on, I see now. Listen, Mordin, I know mating is straightforward for salarians, but with humans it's a little different."

"Yes, yes, mission parameters make for stressful environment, different species react to stress different, am well aware of human courtship behavior. Also, 'mating is straightforward for salarians'? Have clearly never tried to negotiate mating contract. Moving on: What activities did Commander Traver and you perform together yesterday?"

"She, uh, stopped by my post at some point after breakfast—just checking in. Then we had lunch together, which actually took a while because we got into talking about Liara and her relationship with the Commander. A little while later she asked if I knew any good restaurants on Ilium—she's planning something for when we get back—and that led to this whole thing where we were wondering how we'd ever arrange the seating if we had a ship-wide meal, which is funny because not long after that Jack and Grunt had their thing. Like I said, I didn't see her much in the evening, but she told me she'd go see them to help them cool off. I guess, now that I think about it, I never appreciated how much time she made for me."

"And Traver and Joker?"

"She went up to the cockpit at some point in the morning to show him a new thrust-vectoring program she'd been working on the night before. And she was also there when he went down to the med bay to see about that bone augmentation serum they'd been working on together."

"Traver and Miranda?"

"I don't see Miranda much, except I think I saw the two of them getting something in the kitchen at some point while they were talking about crew discipline—Amanda does seem to eat a lot—and later Miranda said she couldn't talk to me about Jack because Amanda was helping her research something about her family. Her sister? Her brother? I forget."

She looked expectantly at Mordin. He was beginning to have a point, and she could see by his expression that she didn't need to tell him that.

"No need to tell you specifics of my activities with Commander Traver, have timed them. Four separate occasions, amounting to sixty-four minutes."

"Okay, so she does spend a lot of time with people. But that's what people in command do: They spend time with their crews, get to know them. Commander Shepard spends a lot of time with the crew."

"Different situation. Shepard checks up on crew, has short, direct conversations. Asks questions when curious, asks for help when needs it. Great commander, but can't do everything. Needs his crew. Not so for Traver. Spends long periods of time with every crewmember. Doesn't ask questions, already knows. Doesn't need help, can do everything."

"Well…" As Kelly thought it over, she realized that Amanda did indeed seem to know everything. She'd never heard her ask about something she didn't know about or request help. She was, for all intents and purposes, omniscient and omnipotent. "Okay, so something is weird about her. What do we do about it, then?"

Mordin smiled and began pacing around the lab as he explained, "Have theory. Commander Traver's activities not possible in limited period of time. Therefore, cannot be human individual. Believe she is a colonial microorganism posing as human. Reproduces by budding, hence ability to be in multiple places at same time. Also able to reabsorb offspring to consolidate knowledge."

"That's an…interesting idea."

"Unprecedented, true, but most likely hypothesis given parameters. Have calculated probability. Well within acceptable bounds. Now, assuming theory true, why? Human disguise and efforts to bond with crew imply nefarious purpose, deceiving us into trusting it. Perhaps trying to get close to Commander Shepard to dispose of him, take control of ship."

"Well, we can't let that happen, I guess." Kelly still had doubts about this theory, but she had to admit Mordin had thought it through very logically. "What do we do?"

"Hmm. Situation problematic. Commander Traver has already gained great amount of trust from much of crew, will not be easily turned against her. As have said, must act discreetly, seek out crewmembers prone to suspicion of friendly behavior, likely to believe conspiracy exists to subvert them."

"You don't mean…"

"Yes. Come quickly, must go to engineering deck."