Winota lingered on the last bit of the report. She loved the Grubars; they were incredibly intelligent. Even without that insight, Winota would have hypothesized the same thing. At that moment, the secure channel displayed a few messages in quick succession, scanning her in the process.

Incoming request for live COM...

Source: FL-220

Console user ID confirmed [via retina]: DCI YAVIS

Secure channel ready. Touch to deny COM. COM will initiate automatically in 5 seconds.

Winota quickly took a sip of water and cleared her throat before the channel went live. She fussed with the white headband she wore that separated her glorious dark brown afro from her forehead, in an attempt to combat the anxiety trying to set in.

"Miss Yavis, Ma'am, it's Lance," his voice was steady and low, just above a whisper.

"Yes, greetings. I just read Tula's report on the biology of the Oflians, their lack of cordite, and their hiding of the naturally occurring plasma," her voice was equally professional, but she spoke in normal volume in contrast to him.

There was a short pause. "Tula is in the field, near a military base. Currently situated on the cavern ceiling, as we speak, she is watching grotesque experiments on a local wildlife. I have eyes on it as well."

"Compromising for them to speak at times," the DCI finished for him.

"Yes. I'm on the ship to process this, but I don't think this can wait until the next report."

She furrowed her brows and tightened her lips. "What is it?"

"It appears they have successfully fused a plasma-based weapon with a large quadruped. Mounted under the muzzle, the weapon reacts with vibrations in the vocal cords. Every time it roars, the weapon goes off," Lance's voice faltered slightly as he explained. "They've also fused plasma cells with small, wall-crawling creatures and use them in their trials as walking bombs."

Winota swallowed the hard lump in her throat and took a second to compose her response. "This is amazing information. Awful, but amazing. This is why you and your spouse are my favourite agents."

She couldn't see it, but she knew Lance had at least smirked at the flattery. The transcription of their conversation was appearing in text as they spoke, and she began formulating her own report out of it.

Lance cleared his throat. "Ma'am, Tula has established a link with their database. We tried to do it from the ship, but I guess they anticipated that someone might try to penetrate the caverns with a strong, wireless signal. Tula is whispering to me that they got in using a less obvious signal, one coming from a small device and disguised as an internal military signal. Thousands of these connections are made daily, but Tula couldn't do it from far away."

Winota was rapidly making notes and preparing the main console for the database stream. "Yes. Excellent. Connect me to their COM, Agent."

"Will do," Lance said with an audible click afterward.

She waited for the system to secure the connection again before speaking. "Tula. What are you finding?"

Their voice was a raspy, crackly whisper. "Their entire military research is just bioweapons and how to use plasma. You should be getting a live feed of it..."

Her dark eyes darted to the second screen of the main console, which was rapidly processing and translating their research. "Yes, I have it."

"Alright, I'm going into the administrative files and handing you back to Lance," Tula said with some finality.

Click.

"Um, holy fuck," Lance uttered, not realizing the channel was live with the DCI again.

"No shit," Winota agreed as the administrative section of the database began feeding the second screen. It was the beginnings of an elaborate plan to use the bioweapon program and the weaponized plasma for their own gain, and they both became more mortified as they read on. They were going to destroy anyone with cordite or nitroglycerin in its raw form. The nearest planet was GF-controlled and naturally, full of cordite.

A million thought trees came to her at once. "Lance, I have to go. You've both been incredible. Get Tula to retreat before they're found out and killed. Start getting ready to evacuate," she paused, remembering their young daughter. "Double-time, Grubar."