Entry Thirty-Three – Days after Geonosis, One Hundred Ninety-One
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge, though I confess that the path to understanding is mysterious and strange. Truly the ways of the Force are beyond our limited understanding. How else can I explain an agreement with the Hutts leading me to a true breakthrough? Such a circuitous and bizarre path, I need to record it or lose the thread.
Among the Hutt mercenaries there is a small cadre of Rybet females, a peculiarity in its own right as their species hates the Hutts. I suspect they were enslaved to pay a debt of some kind. The entire group came down with a fungal affliction of the extremities and their leaders, thinking it was Miscaf, sent them to me for examination. Their diagnosis was wrong, the actual pathogen was mundane and easily treated with common pills, but there was a considerable amount of visual similarity. The far more important discovery is that Rybets are totally immune to Miscaf.
Not one of the mercenaries, despite extreme exposure levels and high spore counts on their membranes, displays the slightest degree of infection. I was able to isolate the cause through a test exposure of Miscaf spores to Rybet mucosal secretions. A series of specialized nucleic acids generated as part of the exceedingly complicated Rybet mating and developmental cycle serves as a natural transcription blocker for one of the fungus' essential growth operons. Exposure to Rybet mucus causes the fungus to go completely dormant. It must be a natural adaptation keyed off some similar organism from the Rybet homeworld.
Tesso's search of the medical literature suggests that this is the first documented encounter between the two species. Though Rybets are cosmopolitan, they dislike underground environments and are almost totally absent from the underworld. Further, if they had not arrived alongside the vulnerable desert-bred mercenaries there would have been no reason to suspect Miscaf. The chances of this specific connection are too low to consider chance. It must be the Force at work.
This is the essential piece I needed. I am certain of it. This mysterious nucleotide holds the key to a vaccine. An immense amount of work remains, but I truly believe there is a solution now. It is a good day.
Strange how something so small can open the door to such a grand possibility. It has been one setback after another during this war, a terrible struggle just to maintain already miserable circumstances. Finally I have a chance to make real progress, to make things better here. To reclaim some hope from all the horrors.
I almost do not recall how to feel optimistic anymore. That was a failure of my own, I see. I let the darkness seep inside, but I will keep going and I will succeed. No matter how strange the allies needed or the steps along the path.