Jenara followed Borluna to the Hall of Science. She was already uneasy by the fact that they were blocking her telepathic abilities. She wasn't just unable to read them, they were literally blocking her. As far as she was concerned, the only reason they would have for doing that is if they had something to hide. But she would reserve her conclusions for later. For the time being she had a job to do, but her instinct told her something more was going on.
As they reached the Hall of Sciences Borluna guided her in. "This is the Nipron Hall of Science, home to our proudest achievements," Borluna said. "The government-run laboratories operate in concert with academic and private efforts throughout our civilization. Come take a look at some of our projects in progress."
Borluna led Jenara to a lab where a number of bedridden Niprons lay. A machine administered injections at regular intervals. "This is where we're testing a curative for the Green Plague, a major disease scourge of our society. As you can see, the laboratory is self-contained and the injections are administered by machine. Were the seals on this laboratory breached, we'd be dead within hours. These people volunteered for infection and so far they've survived for three months under this new treatment."
"How often are the injections administered?" Jenara asked.
"Every fifteen minutes. We're trying to increase the timing."
"Why not just use an intravenous drip system?" she asked, thinking this a rather strange way to go about business. The same machines could just as easily change the bags... or transport new solution into the existing bags.
Borluna didn't answer immediately, and Jenara could sense he was holding something back. "Religious reasons," he stated flatly. "Let's see another laboratory."
As Jenara was shown an astrophysics lab she could pick up bits and pieces of thoughts from the surrounding facilities. Nothing coherent, but all adding to a single, unmistakable conclusion: the Hall of Science was not the benign place it had been made out to be. Many of the thoughts she was picking up centered around the Mullurans; others centered around various projects that may or may not have been weapons. I'll have to report this to Commodore Wallace, she thought.
"And here is our mathematics research facility. Unlike your base-ten mathematics, the Nipron civilization uses a base-64 mathematical system. It's much more flexible. Here, Researcher First Class Daklo is resolving a problem known in our mathematics as Praxa's Dilemma: do higher powers of the two legs of a right triangle resolve to the equal of the same power of the hypotenuse?" Borluna said.
Better known in Federation space as Fermat's Last Theorem, which was solved on Earth in the 20th century and by the Vulcans much earlier. Even the Klingons had a solution centuries ago. These people seem enormously practical, but their pure theoretical work is somewhat behind the Federation's.
~They're lying!~ a sharp voice cut across Jenara's thoughts.
~Who's lying? And who are you?~ Jenara thought back.
~Borluna and the government. This is Daklo. This whole display is meant to win the Federation's confidence. There is much you don't know, and they won't let you know!~
"I think this concludes our tour, Lieutenant," Borluna said suddenly. "Let me return you to your party."
"But there's still a dozen labs we haven't visited!" Jenara said, suddenly suspicious as to why the ordinarily garrulous Borluna would cut short his opportunity to show off.
"They've been closed due to budget cuts. Really nothing to see except some dusty lab benches and empty cabinets," Borluna said. Jenara tried to read him but couldn't seem to get a fix on his thoughts. As she was escorted (actually, all but frog-marched) out of the Hall of Science, Jenara became more and more convinced that something wasn't right on Nipron II.
Back in the mathematics lab, two Mulluran Order Police agents convinced Researcher First Class Daklo to leave his computers. He looked tired, they said, and should get some rest. They even took him to his apartment, where he got some much needed rest from which he never awoke.