Lliui: Stram
The PPF Stram Major pushed his way through the large tent flaps while the young Dohaydo officer that had led him there respectfully stayed behind outside. It hadn't taken them long to reach the Area Investigation district.
The large tent was filled with a handful of beings, all of them pensively surrounding a fence that encircled a large, dark object propped on a table. Officer Lliui recognized some of the beings there, most of them were professionals in their fields.
"Officer Lliui!"
Officer Lliui turned to look for the voice that had called him.
The calling being was hard to miss. From the midst of the crowd, a bloated looking Gonos raised his hand to him. The being's dark red flesh was rough and polygonal in texture, normal for the Gonos species. Officer Lliui always thought that Gonos skin looked unnatural and plagued, like it was covered in strangely sharp boils.
The plump Gonos vigorously waved the Stram over to him. Officer Lliui sighed and walked towards the enthusiastic being.
"Ah Officer," the red Gonos stated, striding the rest of the way towards him, "I'm glad that you are here. It is important that you see what the department has discovered!"
Officer Lliui looked past the gleeful Gonos and leaned in over the fence towards the object on the table. "What is it?" He asked, examining the thing.
It was a large, thick, cylinder shaped metallic shell of some sort. The side of the thing was open and Officer Lliui could barely see the barren insides if he squinted. There seemed to be nothing inside of it. On the outside, there were worn down mechanisms surrounded by dirt caked symbols. The entire hull looked severely dented and burned.
Two Ferionus were inside the fenced area working carefully to remove the dried mud without damaging the object, all the while examining the different segments as they were uncovered.
"What is it?" Grinned the Gonos, repeating the officer's words. "That's what we're all here to figure out!".
Officer Lliui glanced over at the Gonos with a grimace. This guy was way too happy, and standing WAY too close. He took a slow step back from the beaming character.
"Oh, forgive me officer," said the Gonos, his broad smile diminishing slightly but not significantly, "My name is Mohammed. It's Human in origin." The Gonos stuck his plumpy hand out at the repelled Stram and took a step closer.
Officer Lliui once again stepped back and sniffed at the rough, polygonal lump of a hand. He would rather clean the muddy object with his tongue than touch that hand. "The... pleasure is all yours."
The Gonos' smile dropped from his face in confusion as he tried to determine exactly what that meant. Realizing that the Stram wasn't going to touch his hand, he dropped it and turned back towards the object of interest.
"Ahem." The Gonos cleared his throat awkwardly. "Professor Sirtus?" He called at one of the working Ferionus within the fence.
The larger of the two Ferionus looked up from cleaning the object and made his way over to the two of them.
"Officer, Mohammed." The Ferionus nodded at each of them respectfully as he approached. His body was composed of cloudy-clear colorless crystal and he wore a dark jumpsuit with pockets laced all around it.
"Professor Sirtus, I want you to meet Officer Lliui. Don't ask me his full name," he glanced over at the Officer with a wink, "you Strams like to make tongue twisters out of your names!"
Officer Lliui sniffed loudly, blatantly irritated.
"It's nice to finally meet the brains behind this operation, Officer." Said the Professor reservedly, extending a crystal stubbed hand out to him.
Officer Lliui smiled, the plethora of razor teeth in his mouth gleaming. He like this Ferionus. He likewise reached out to shake the Professor's hand.
"Oh," grimaced the plump Gonos, reaching out and gently pushing the Professor's crystal arm down. "He doesn't do handshakes."
Officer Lliui frowned at him. Who did this Gonos think he was?
"Officer, I would like to tell you about the object we are currently examining." Said the Ferionus, unfazed.
"Yes." Officer Lliui sniffed. "What is it that you have found, Professor?"
"We aren't sure about that, Sir. But we have some good guesses." The crystal turned to look at the metal object.
"Our team discovered the object in the center of a crater with large impact splash rings surrounding it, and as you can see from the burn damage on the outer hull, the object endured serious temperatures. We assume from this that it came in through the planet's atmosphere and hit the ground hard. According to the mechanics and it's hollowed structure, we suspect that it is a transportation shuttle of sorts. Though it was empty upon discovery, sir."
Officer Lliui frowned. "An unidentified interplanetary shuttle huh. And this relates to the Aiter epidemic how?"
"Forgive me, Officer." Bowed the crystal Professor respectfully. "I did not realize you were so... uninformed."
Officer Lliui frowned again. His face was getting a great workout today.
"The object is significant," continued the Frionus, "because within a three thousand span radius of it was the highest percentage of infected Aiters on the entire planet."
"Now were talking!" Grinned the Officer, rubbing his thick rough hands together.
The Gonos next to him giggled excitedly and Officer Lliui's smile quickly turned back to a grimace as he took a disgruntled glanced at the being.
The Gonos' giddy laughter quickly subsided.
"Right," said Officer Lliui, turning towards the Professor once again, "so where did it come from?"
"We don't know that yet. But all these beings you see around you," The Frionus said, gently sweeping his crystal hand towards the several beings studying the object and consulting with screens around them in the tent, "they are all species specialists working hard to answer that very question."
"Huh. Well, excellent find boys. Keep up the good work." Smiled the uniformed Stram.
"Thank you, Officer Lliui. Are there any other questions I can answer for you?"
"No. That's all, thank you."
The Professor bowed and turned to continue his work on the object.
Officer Lliui nodded and turned distastefully to the Gonos. "You are dismissed as well."
The jolly Mohamed gleamed. "Thanks for your permission, but I was planning on sticking with you!"
Lliui suddenly choked on his saliva, coughing wildly. The Gonos smiled reassuringly and began to gently pat the Stram's back.
"Enough!" Wheezed the officer, jumping away from the Gonos' touch.
Some of the other beings in the tent turned to stare at the Officer curiously.
Officer Lliui cleared his throat and straightened his uniform. "Mohamed, I need you to do something for me."
The red Gonos smiled helpfully. "What can I do for you, Officer?"
Officer Lliui grimaced. "Er... I need you to bring an Allonp species expert to the software examination district. It's in area A37. Make sure that the expert meets with Professor Nazir, he's a Kaptoy."
The Gonos beamed excitedly. "An Allonp expert? I know just the gal!" The Gonos looked like he was going to start bouncing off the walls with excitement.
Officer Lliui smiled. "Excellent. Oh and Mohammed, make sure you sit down and have a... a nice chat... with Professor Nazir. He likes that kind of stuff. Talk to him all about your life."
The Gonos was practically shaking with excitement. "Yes sir!!" He exclaimed.
"Off you go now." Smiled Lliui slyly.
The Gonos grinned and saluted sheepishly, then bounded off towards the tent's exit.
The Major watched him go with a smile.
Good. He thought, turning back to examine the object curiously.
Things were finally coming together.