Axeline sat in his office going over the autopsy report on the clone he had taken from Morristown colony. Even though he'd discovered that the body was a clone, there were still things 'bugging' him. Like, why take the time to create a set of clones for anyone to find, and exactly who did it? Just then Lieutenant Chee arrived in sickbay.
"Good afternoon, Lieutenant," Axeline remarked. "I though you were still on the planet."
"I was, but the Nipron have been driving me mad. I know that they aren't telling the truth, but they are blocking their thoughts," Jenara replied. "So I thought I'd come back to the ship for a while."
"It could be something else," Axeline remarked, reaching for his medical tricorder.
"Doctor, I'm fine," Jenara protested, but the Doctor was persistent.
"Just as I thought. Your psytocyline levels are going through the roof. Obviously being blocked doesn't agree with you," the doctor explained. "There's probably nothing I can do but recommend that you stop trying to read the Nipron. And you're not the first to show symptoms like this; Counselor Liaji was in earlier with similar high levels. But hers were even higher, yet she's been aboard the Hornet all the time. Maybe it's just being Betazoid, but there's definitely something about this planet. Maybe I'll have some of the crew come and see me."
"That's interesting, Doc," Jenara replied. "There was another reason for coming back. We've now discovered some of the truth about the Nipron. Apparently, they were until recently, a warrior race much like the Klingons. However, they were far more ruthless, devastating at least three races that we know of. Then about two hundred years ago that all changed. With their military efforts causing hardship to their race, they forced themselves to changed. By the time the Mullurans arrived, they were the science-led race we see today. They kept a small military force, but it was no match for the Mullurans."
"Sounds like they got a taste of their own medicine to me," Axeline replied.
"That's not all. Some actually fought alongside the Mullurans during the Briar Patch war," Jenara continued. "And Ensign Okul has found out that they are probably the ones who took the colonists. What I can't understand is why, with the Mullurans gone, they are still conducting their research. They have a group of test subjects, volunteers who after been infected and are now suffering the pain of injections every fifteen minutes. They've been in an isolation lab for three months according to the Nipron."
This last fact caught the Doctor's attention.
"Exactly what were the injections for?" he asked.
"They claimed it was a possible cure for the 'green plague' that was infecting the population," Jenara replied.
"Is the away team in danger? Could they get infected?" Axeline asked.
"Not according to the Nipron. It seemed to only infect the Nipron. They claimed that when the Mullurans arrived, not one of them caught the plague, even when there was a massive epidemic close to a Mulluran barracks," Jenara explained. "Personally, I don't think I was told the whole truth. You don't have to be telepathic to know when someone's telling a whopper of a lie."
"I've checked the Nipron medical database when we arrived, but I didn't see any reference to a 'green plague'," Axeline replied, returning to his desk. He worked his console, accessing every database the Nipron had let the Hornet have access to. Finally, he came across a single reference to a 'green plague'.
"Well, according to the medical database, the last case of 'green plague' was two hundred and fourteen years ago. And it wasn't a plague, it was a genetically developed virus. Apparently, the military was looking to create an army of super-soldiers by genetically manipulating their DNA. What they got was a bunch of genetic failures, freaks of nature. In order to cover up the military's mistake, they concocted a 'plague'. It looks like they might be trying to resurrect that research.
"It's interesting that the Nipron are allowing us to find out all these facts. Would you let a potential ally know that you took a group of their people, or that you had in the past conducted experiments that within the Federation have been banned for centuries? It's like someone's deliberately left the door open."
"That's pretty close to the time when the military was overthrown and the Nipron turned to science. There could be a connection," Jenara replied. "But why keep up the pretense of the green plague?"
"I don't know," Axeline replied. "But I wonder exactly what they are doing with those tests and what's in those injections. Fancy a little bit of espionage?" Axeline asked. "I doubt the Nipron will allow us to examine their guinea pigs, even if we are offering them help in curing their green plague."
"Exactly what did you have in mind?" Jenara asked.
"Could you locate the Hall of Science, and more precisely, exactly where in the building you saw the green plague test subjects." Axeline asked.
"I think so," Jenara replied. "Some of the voyage was underground, but I know the general direction, and once inside I should be able to point out the exact location."