Echo's results were finally in. Hopefully, it was good news. Or, at least a starting point. Something they could use to save him. Kix ran to keep up with Fives as they made their way back to the scanning room.

"Move!" Fives scattered hapless technicians unfortunate enough to get in his way. His full-speed passage through the corridors intimidated the omni-present mouse droids running errands. They reversed on their servos and sped off in fear of their electronic lives.

Kix rolled his eyes, amazed how Fives managed to intimidate. His brother was a total softie, especially when it came to Echo.

If anything happened to Echo, it would crush Fives.

Kix leapt over a hovering techo-service droid and barely cleared it. "Move it, tinny!"

The droid bleaped loudly in alarm and flipped Kix what he was sure was an inappropriate gesture with one of its' articulated arms.

They reached the lift and he leaned forward to catch his breath as they waited for the doors to open. Fives gave him a look. "You need to go through ARC training."

Kix gave his brother a dismissive hand wave. The suggestion was ridiculous and he didn't have enough spare oxygen to give more of a reply. He was a medic, not an ARC trooper.

Fives crossed his arms across his chest, no doubt scowling behind his bucket. The doors opened and Fives bodily hauled him into the lift. "I could put in a recommendation."

"You have lousy people skills," Kix objected, tugging his brother's hand off of his shoulder, "and, no. I don't want or need all of that extra training."

Fives gave him an assessing look. "You'd be good at it. You think things through." His foot tapped nervously as the lift traveled through the many levels of the enormous hospital. He turned his attention back to Kix, perhaps to distract himself more than anything. "I heard what you did on the jungle planet."

"What did I do?"

"Took charge. Defended the ship. Repelled an attack. Saved the lives of the troopers onboard."

How did he hear about that? Most of the troopers onboard at the time were Rex's renegades. Kix shook his head. "I didn't save all of them."

"That's not what it's about. We'll never be able to save all of our brothers."

"I refuse to accept that thinking. I'll never stop trying to save all of our brothers."

"Then think of how many more brothers you could save if you had a promotion. And, more training."

A higher rank to call more shots out in the field? There were times when Kix had been ordered to leave brothers behind. He hated it. He understood the strategic necessity, at times, but he hated it. Would it give him more leverage to save his brothers? He didn't get a chance to respond. The lift doors opened and he was once again chasing Fives through the corridors of the enormous facility.

Fives' words replayed in his mind.

It was ridiculous, right? Medics did not receive ARC training. Jesse wanted to be an ARC. He'd always wanted it, and he was perfect for the role. No one, except for Fives, would ever consider Kix for advanced training. No. It didn't even bear further consideration.

Fives skidded to a halt so quickly Kix had to dodge to the side to avoid crashing into him. His brother swiveled his head around to give him a look but made no comment. Fives palmed the scanning room door. It pinged as locked. Without waiting for someone inside to answer, Fives slid a keycard from his belt, synced it to his wrist comm and hacked it open without effort.

Kix shook his head, thinking Fives did these things to burn off excess energy and not because of necessity.

"I was about to ping you in," Sly swiveled around in his chair, "but, I like your style."

A second trooper in the room was more put off about their unauthorized entry. "Who are you?"

Fives stared the trooper down. "Who are you?"

"I'm specialist Kirklin. You are not authorized to be in here." He gave Fives' ARC armor a wary look.

Fives leaned over the trooper. "Specialist Kirklin, you are going to take a caf break. We were never here."

Kirklin studied Kix and Fives warily, and then as he took a second look, his expression changed. "You're 501st."

"Yes, obviously-" Fives started to retort.

"Yes," Kix interrupted, shooting his brother a look, "we're one of the Legions that recently returned from-"

"I know who you are. Every trooper in the GAR does at this point, after that broadcast-"

Sly made a conciliatory hand gesture. "Kirklin, I'll handle this one. Take your break."

"I'm taking a double-length break and you are covering for me," Kirklin bargained, already halfway out the door. He paused at the door, giving Kix and Fives another look. "That Commander Cody has a big cod piece to do what he did."

"Kirklin," Sly shot him an annoyed look, "you were leaving?"

"I'm going, but you you cover for me next time I'm late."

Sly rolled his eyes. "I already do."

Fives shoved the specialist the rest of the way out the door. "Thank you, Kirklin. Enjoy your break. Be sure to try the Alderaani cream puff." He returned to Kix and Sly and sat down in the chair vacated by the technician. "So, what did you find?"

Sly inhaled deeply and Kix didn't like the long hesitation before his reply. "It's... inconclusive."

Kix leaned in to peer at the scans, frowning as he tried to interpret the results. He briefly wondered if he chase down the break-loving Kirklin. But, he'd spent most of his free time, outside of the medbay, learning all he could about specialty cases and the uniqueness of clone anatomy. Jesse liked to read up on extra information he thought might help on ARC exams one day, and Kix studied medical texts. It was a pleasant enough way to spend their free time together. He sucked in a deep breath and stared at the screen, studying the results.

Strange.

He'd studied the brain scans of hundreds of injured troopers. Most scans followed a consistent pattern, but only once before had he seen something which reminded him of this pattern. It had taken him down a thread of material which had been continually marked 'Classified.'

Kix leaned in and stared at an amoeba-shaped objected in puzzlement. "Can I move back and forth between the scans on my screen?"

Sly leaned over and showed him how to operate the controls. "This is an ultra high-res scan up to 100 micron. Zoom in using this controller."

Kix zoomed in and out, familiarizing himself with the controls. Fives leaned in over his shoulder, so close their buckets were bumping. He ignored the distraction and tried to make sense of the images. This was a different sort of scan than the basic imagery they had access to out in the field. Wait- what was causing all of that encephalitis? The symptoms were consistent with Echo's fever, but he'd been shot in the chest and stabbed in the shoulder. He hadn't suffered any sort of head trauma. So, why did he have signs of an overactive immune system? He traced his finger along the screen. "Do you see what is happening with the meninges?"

"We'll need further scans to know if the spinal cord is involved."

"Encephalomyelitis?"

Sly nodded. "What were you exposed to out there?"

"Nothing. He was battle injured fighting the Seppies out in the Rim..." Kix's voice trailed off, as he continued to stare at the scans. "You're right, though. There is clear evidence his brain is being attacked, but it's nothing like anything I've seen before." He traced his fingers along another scan. "Look here."

"I noticed that, too." Sly pulled up the same image for a different angle, pointed back and forth from his screen to Kix's screen. "Kirklin disagreed with my findings. He said we are seeing evidence of a virus at different stages of reproduction. I think we are looking at two different objects. One attacking the other."

"I agree." He stared back and forth between the two screens. "I don't know what type of virus this is, or what that object is. I've never seen anything like it."

Fives tapped his helmet cam and leaned in even closer.

Sly glanced up at Fives. "For the record, there isn't supposed to be any sort of recording. You aren't even supposed to be in here."

Fives shrugged. "Not here. Not recording."

Sly nodded. "So we're clear."

Fives gave him an overly enthusiastic pounding on the shoulder, but now there seemed to be some affection in the gesture. "Clear, shine."

Kix zoomed in even further on his screen, but the image blurred. "I'm maxed out."

"You're already at 100 micron."

"We need an even better scan to know what it is we're dealing with here."

Sly sucked in a deep breath. "There is only one machine here with that kind of resolution. Tough to get authorization for it. Usually, after a single scan, they determine if a trooper can be sent back to combat, otherwise... eh..."

Fives growled deep under his breath. "Do not finish that sentence."

Sly scowled, and then shrugged. He leaned in and stared at the unusually shaped blob on the screen. "Any ideas?"

Kix took of his helmet so he could look at the screen with his bare eyes. "I usually start by eliminating possibilities. We know Echo fought and was injured in the battle. Several times. So, we can't rule out of the possibility of brain trauma." Kix zoomed out and in on the screen several times, hissing out a breath of frustration that he couldn't get better detail on the anomalous blob he wanted to examine further. "I don't know what it is we are looking at here. It doesn't look like any sort of brain trauma I've seen before. His symptoms are less consistent with inflammation from a brain injury and more consistent with viral inflammation."

"Could it be something we haven't seen before?" Fives said. "Something Echo found in the control room? The Kazzies were scientists, experimenting on the Jedi and such. Maybe Echo found something. Touched something-"

"Wait," Sly said, his eyes widening, "these Kaz'harians you fought. They experimented on the Jedi?"

"Yes, and, that doesn't leave this room," Fives' voice brokered no argument. He was using his I-will-break-all-of-your-fingers-no-argument voice.

Sly was completely unintimidated by Fives. He was more offended. "Geez, you big bad ARC. Get over yourself. I was just curious. You don't hear that sort of thing every day."

Kix turned his snort of amusement into an attempt to cover it up. The young medic had no issues handling Fives. He was right, though, the Kaz'harians had been into some unusual scientific experimentation. So, maybe that was the key to what they were seeing now. "Alright, it's a starting point, then. We think this has something to do with what happening on Kaz'haria. But, we need more information, another scan."

Sly nodded. "Agreed. But, it will be hard to get. They reserve those for those with the highest clearance or the cases with the most pressing medical need."

Kix's ears perked up. "Define pressing medical need."

Sly shrugged. "It could mean any number of things. There's a lot of latitude in the definition. I think in this case we could say Echo's got something we think which has placed the whole fleet at risk. He needs a much better scan. Even if the higher-ups don't care about Echo, which of course they don't," he risked a careful glance at Fives, "they do care about the fleet as a whole. They'll likely authorize the scan."

Fives nodded with approval, giving Sly another appreciative slap on the shoulder. "Good thinking, shinie. Make it happen."

"I have a name," Sly grumbled, but he cleared the scans off his console and leaned forward to type in the authorizations for the new scan. Fives leaned in over his shoulder and scrutinized his work. Sly reached a hand back and shoved him off. "Back off, you big brute."

Fives straightened up and Kix put a hand on his shoulder to quell his retort.

"Let him work."

"Done," Sly announced a few minutes later. "I put it in as highest priority, implying this thing could be some sort of unknown contagion we are dealing with so we need to rule it out immediately. With any luck, we'll have the authorization within the hour."

Fives gave a grudging nod of approval. "That's good thinking."

Sly quirked his lips up at the unexpected praise. "Alright, then, so... eh... Jedi experimentation?"

"You didn't hear that," Fives growled.

"Hmmmph..." Sly tapped at the pending authorization still waiting on his screen. "From one vode to another..."

Kix ignored the banter back and stared at the scans again. He'd seen an image like this before when he'd been trying to increase his knowledge as a medic. He'd run across some classified files in the medical database, but Jesse had gotten him in. It turned out to be benign stuff, Kaminoan records of the cloning process and different modifications they'd made to the original Fett genome. It was no secret the Kaminoans had tampered with the Fett DNA to make the current class of clones more compliant. Prime had some outstanding bounty hunter skills, but he would not have made the ideal solder. The ideal soldier follows orders without question. Kix assumed the Kaminoans tampered with their DNA to find the perfect blend of clone autonomy (to allow for original problem solving) and compliance (the essential quality in a made-to-order army.) All of it had made sense to him at the time. But, now he was wondering if he'd overlooked some piece of data that might help Echo with his current medical situation. Could something in their unique genome be making Echo sick? It was a starting point, at least. Kix pulled his secondary datapad out of his pouch, the one that Jesse modified so he could do secure, anonymous searches on the GAR network, and he began cross-referencing Echo's scans against his earlier collection of research.

# # # #

6/2017. The overwhelmingly huge medical center which represents the growing bloat of the Republic's bureaucracy. Anyone who has ever been treated for a serious medical condition and tried to navigate within an overly complex system can relate to the suffocating frustrating feeling our heroes go through as they work to save Echo within such a bloated system.