"You do understand that the Uruk village has been eradicated by a mysterious illness, do you?" Eulias asked Chroso. The Salarian archaeologist seemed to be just a little bit shocked by the news. It became clear that he had not known about that, his hesitation displayed that much.
"No, I was not aware of that. How long ago was the village...cleared?" Chroso asked, his tone becoming almost apologetic.
"Alliance surveyors came by exactly a week ago. The Council has since stepped in." Siera explained.
"If you're getting ideas about starting to do your research there with them gone, you will be unable to. A quarantine begins three miles from here in the direction of Uruk." Eulias added.
"I gathered that much as well. All right, do you have any further questions, seeing that I was not even aware that the village met its demise?" Chroso asked.
"When was the last time you had any contact with anyone from the village?" Eulias inquired.
"It has been several months, too long for me to pinpoint the time. No, I saw no signs of them acting funny." Chroso stated, starting to observe the sketches on a nearby desk.
"Astute of you to guess my next question. Have there been any visitors here or anything else unusual or out of place?"
"No. It is unusual for the villagers to pass by this direction. They grow and supply their own food. There are no roads which is why they have to use the rovers or arrange for an aircraft pickup. I mostly keep to myself here so I had very little contact with them, even when I was trying to research in the area."
"What were you trying to research?" Siera asked curiously.
"I have reason to believe that there may be buried artifacts of an ancient indigenous population under the village. Of course, I can't go about ordering a large hole to be dug where their village and crops are sitting on so I decided to go back to the drawing board." Chroso explained.
"I see..." Siera murmured, taking the information in thoughtfully. Chroso decided that if he hadn't known better that the Asari was trying to be thorough in her analysis, he would have thought her as slow of wit.
"Very well, I think that's all we have for now. We will drop by again if we have any further questions." Eulias informed, turning towards the door.
"As you wish." Chroso muttered.
--
The the pale light reflected off the sterile and lifeless surfaces of the makeshift morgue. The empty illumination proved to be the only candlelight vigil for the deceased Human girl, her torso rudely split open in the hopes that they would at least point to an answer. Harrvok waited in grim silence as Pelona ran tests on the various organs.
"So far everything appears normal. Nothing out of place for a body that has been dead for several days." the Asari noted as she continued to collect samples.
It was sadly true, at least in that they had not found a single clue to point them to what might have been the cause of death. No obvious signs of degeneration or internal bleeding, no obvious signs of irritation in any of the internal organs, not even excessive signs of trauma.
"Digestive track seems mostly clear, suggesting that she did not eat for awhile just before death." Pelona continued to observe. Harrvok was still doing exploratory surgery.
"Not quite...she had one quick meal just before death..." the Turian stated, fishing out a foreign substance from her esophagus.
"What is that?" the Asari whispered. Harrvok examined it with prying eyes.
"If I were to guess...I'd say meat of some kind."
"Here, just let me take that for analysis. The less we speculate now, the better. That way we'll more readily accept what the tests tell us." the Asari doctor stated.
"Very well..."
No signs of poisoning, no out of place discoloration other than the pigmentation made by the settling of blood where the body came to rest. Not a single foreign object that would have done any internal trauma. The Turian was clearly becoming disheartened already. Pelona knew that that was just because he wasn't happy with what he was seeing. He wanted an answer to at least bring some kind of closure. When he said he wished people lived forever, he wasn't exaggerating. However, she also knew she could trust him to hold his own.
"If I didn't know better, I'd say it appeared she just dropped dead." Harrvok grumbled.
"Well, there is one place left that we did not examine." Pelona said softly. Harrvok knew the answer though he did not want to acknowledge it. The Turian looked sadly at the decease's face. Even the Turian could say that she had been pretty in life as more than a faint whisper of it remained on her in death. Any young human male would have fought for this girl's attention. Unfortunately, beauty is only skin deep and the work of an autopsy was extremely unforgiving and blunt. Her long dark hair that she had probably prized in life would have to be shaved off, the scalp sliced open, the skull penetrated only so that they could glance at the brain. The Turian set down his scalpel and picked up a shaver.
"Forgive me..." the former battlefield medic whispered.
--
The road back to the camp that had been set up by the Citadel Extreme Medical Situations Response team was relatively quiet if a bit rough. Siera would have openly admitted that she was not devoting too much thought to what Chroso had said. After a couple years, she learned she could trust Eulias to already be formulating an opinion as well as a professional answer if he didn't have one already. The Salarian was as astute as he was hard headed and Siera wondered if that often went hand in hand with some being. Regardless, the Asari knew that it would take her some time to reflect and ponder everything that had transpired, not just the base value of the dialog itself. Reflection could not be rushed. Watching the beautiful fading light of the sun was a good way to keep things slow. She wondered if her for a moment if her caution in making most decisions quickly these days was a sign that she was entering her Matron stage.
"So what do you think?" the Asari asked curiously, still watching the sunset.
"About Chroso's story? Hmph, I'd still keep an eye on him, but I don't think he's harboring anything suspicious. I highly doubt he'd have the capabilities to manufacture a pathogen that we are not only unable to identify, but wipe out a whole human village." Eulias reported.
"I get the same impression." Siera concurred blankly.
"Plus, he has the wrong training." Eulias added.
"What?"
"I noticed the sketches and other research he had lying around. All of them are focused on his studies of history and archeology so the whole story checks out. That's not to say he could be hiding more stuff, but I see no reason to start harassing him yet."
"Hmm...good." Siera stated. Eulias looked back up at her.
"Yeah, you were never one for confrontation." the Salarian smirked.
"Oh, be quiet." Siera shushed with a smile.
Eulias knew that he did come across as a bit of a prick sometimes. It wasn't that he didn't care but there was just little room to make mistakes in a big bad galaxy out there. He recalled old tutors and mentors in life repeating this mantra; "bad ideas can kill." The Salarian didn't take it lightly. Bad ideas and bad planning could indeed take lives and it was often for very avoidable reasons. Once again going back to humans, if perhaps they had been just a little more cautious and had done some more careful planning and had not perhaps had the bad idea to blow crap up, the First Contact War could probably have been avoided with the Turians. He also knew that humans weren't the only ones who could be accused of having a monopoly of bad ideas. Every race in both Council space and the Terminus systems had their fair share of stupidity. That was all the more reason for them to they should all try to cut down on them. It didn't take that much effort.
The cool evening air was already starting to make them drowsy. Even Eulias realized that his own hyperactive metabolism was going to need that hour sleep in awhile. His Asari counterpart on the other hand was going to need several more hours than that.
In fact, Siera was already throwing off her boots as soon as they entered the bunks of the camp's various housing quarters. They had set up camp about a mile away outside from the quarantine area. The facilities were a bit shoddy, as can be expected from hastily erected habitations but at least they were cozy. Wearily, Eulias glanced at his cot and noticed a small datapad lying there that he had not left there. The amphibian picked it up and read the message quickly, his eyes rapidly darting.
"What's that about?" Siera asked, collapsing heavily on her bunk.
"Seems like they want us to do some exploration in the contamination zone tomorrow. Get some rest, you'll need it." Eulias answered.