Madrigal

[Kuzo]

M A E N A

A mug of caf in one hand, a data pad in the other, Doctor Irajah Ven should prooooobably have been paying more attention to where she was going. But the hallways of the labyrinth of laboratories had long since become familiar to her. People moved out of her way, some out of respect, but most out of bemusement for the petite woman who seemed so very comfortable and yet so very out of place in the lair of [member="Matsu Xiangu"].

She scanned the datapad, hazel eyes flickering swiftly across the screen as she walked.

Tak tak tak.

That was the last of them. She had restaged all of the original experiments (the ones she could without living specimens, limiting herself to donated samples for the moment) that the creators of the Gideon Virus had done. There had been a chance, however slim, that they had made a mistake somewhere, that something in their data would not be reproducible.

But with this last set of results, it became clear that no, the original researchers.... her father.... had been appropriately thorough and rigorous. Not unexpected. But she had been hoping for something new to work with from the original data.

She frowned as she rounded a corner toward the lab she kept her samples in- the ones that did not need to be kept under full bio containment yet-

And slammed in to someone going the opposite direction. The warm caf sloshed over both of them and the datapad. Irajah looked up, blinking in evident confusion, as if she had forgotten for a moment that other people even existed.

"I'm sorry-" she stuttered. "Are you alright?"

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

Used to feeling out of her depth, Aria was quickly starting to get comfortable with how her day-to-day life went on Maena. The upscale corner of the undercity that she'd been located to for the time being was the total opposite of the pleasantly rural grounds of the Voss Temple, or even the idyllic green of Eshan. But she liked the change of scenery, really. She didn't feel all that out of place. It was simply...a little overwhelming. Maena reeked of the Dark Side; the very Dark Side that she herself was finally aiming for. Aria was fully aware that it would take a lot of effort to fit in amongst the Sith ruling the planet even a little - but that was fine. One thing at a time.

The laboratories she'd taken the liberty of looking around in, however, she rather liked. The girl was no scientist, no great doctor - she'd never so much as gotten the hang of Force-healing - but she was curious. Aria, at heart, was a rather inquisitive being. It had this tendency of getting her into trouble, albeit largely during her days of being advised to suppress her curiosity and keep quiet. This, on the other hand, was a helpful sort of curiosity. There were more important things than the Force, after all; the Force was extremely useful, but it wasn't the only tool available to her. If she wanted to operate as a wholly independent entity, perhaps gain a bit of influence here and there, she needed to make use of what was at hand.

Of course, today she was just poking about. Aria had no intention of attempting to gain mastery in medical science - it wouldn't hurt to acquire at least a basic understanding, but that would come with time - but simply to get to know the place a little. So far, all she knew was that Matsu Xiangu had control of the labs - of the Sith Lord herself, all that she knew was that her zombies were grotesque and her son was a looker. As far as she was aware, the woman better known as Darth Yaomo was off wrapped up in an experiment with the less-familiar Darth Prazutis, so in all likelihood she wouldn't run into-

Oof. Aria blinked as a piping hot liquid splashed her front, quickly eyeing the short brunette she'd run into. Not Yaomo, unsurprisingly. Not a Sith Lord, at least not unless Aria's ability to sense Force-ability was confused. Hmm.

"Oh, I'm fine, don't worry." She was quick to reassure the woman, hurriedly summoning what was probably a friendly smile. Pause. Was she meant to say something else now?

"So, um, d'you work here?"

[member="Irajah Ven"]

 

[Kuzo]

"Um yes. I guess you could say that. I mean-"

Juggling the datapad under one arm, she switched the mostly empty mug over so she had a free hand. Irajah went to hold her hand out to the other woman to shake- realizing it was covered in sticky caf and withdrawing it with a guilty look. Glancing around, she ended up wiping it on her labcoat (also splashed with caf) before holding it out again.

On the plus side, this was one of the things lab coats were for anyway.

"I'm Doctor Ven. I contract use of the labs for independent research."

As usual, the other woman was taller and Irajah had to look up to smile, a little self consciously, at her. But, she was used to that, so it wasn't particularly noteworthy.

[member="Aria Vale"]

 

[NightSister]

Oh, independent research. That was pretty cool. So she said exactly that.

"Oh. Huh. That's pretty cool."

I really hope that didn't sound sarcastic.

A little more relaxed now, Aria looked on cheerfully at Doctor Ven, shaking her outstretched hand. The small woman seemed very un-Sith-like, but maybe she was missing some context. Aria could hardly claim to be any good at figuring people out. For all she knew, Doctor Ven was a Sith Lord in disguise. Or just a very short researcher with the right contacts. Either was fine by her.

But that she was conducting her own research was quite interesting. The quality of the labs suggested that anything going on in them would have to be rather important, after all.

"Nice to meet you, Doctor Ven. I'm Aria. Uh - what're you researching?"

[member="Irajah Ven"]

 

[Kuzo]

"Oh!"

Other than [member="Matsu Xiangu"] and [member="Darth Prazutis"], Irajah wasn't used to being asked about her research. Most people were bored to tears by the idea of medical research.

"I mean. Um. Viruses," she said a little lamely. Then shook her head, chuckling at herself.

"One virus in particular," she amended. "An altered version of the Hive Virus. Very nasty. I was just going to set up a few new samples, if you are interested?"

Irajah didn't expect that [member="Aria Vale"] would be. It had probably been a polite question, rather than real interest. That made far more sense. It was obvious from the way she talked about it that it was deeply important to her- Doctor Ven wasn't particularly good at hiding things like that, and she wasn't trying to right now regardless.

 

[NightSister]

Pause. Normally, this was the moment for 'oh no, that's fine, I don't want to bother you' - Aria had gotten good at those. On the other hand, she had popped into the labs for exactly this; getting to know how things worked, establishing her presence, so on and so forth. She might as well do that, given the opportunity. Besides, this Doctor Ven seemed alright.

"Uh - yeah, sure, I'd love to." She managed to effectively convey her cheerfulness, she hoped.

Assuming Doctor Ven led the way, Aria would follow along, looking this way and that in an abridged observation of her surroundings. This definitely seemed the place for investigating viruses, at least by Aria's outsider perspective. All nice and shiny and high-tech. Fancy.

"How does this Hive Virus work, then?" she asked brightly. Might as well try to keep up with the sciencey bits. "That is, if you don't mind explaining it, of course?" Okay, so that last bit might've been unnecessary. Oops.

[member="Irajah Ven"]

 

[Kuzo]

Irajah managed, just barely to repeat her surprised 'Oh!'. Just barely.

"Great!"

The petite doctor preferred company the majority of the time. Given a choice between walking alone or walking with someone, she would invariably pick the later. The fact that [member="Aria Vale"] was interested in her research? That was a pleasant bonus.

There were many people she could talk to about the work she was doing. And on the list, only one person who knew just how very, very personal that research was to her- [member="Darth Prazutis"]. It made talking about it difficult, though some things she had a certain amount of practice explaining by this point. Especially when it was as simple 'research.'

As the pair walked, threading through the corridors toward Raj's primary work space, she slipped into her 'professional' voice without specifically noticing. Punctuated, matter of fact, clinical. Clean.

"The short version is that it induces lysis in infected cells," she started, as though that explained far more than it did. She glanced at Aria, remembered belatedly that she wasn't talking to [member="Matsu Xiangu"] or one of the other researchers. That was where she fumbled a bit.

"Lysis.... the break down of the cell membrane," she explained awkwardly, before she backed up entirely.

"This version of the Hive Virus is a conglomerate- the genetic material from multiple strains, organized into one nasty little packet. It makes it extremely virulent, and extremely deadly. The speed that it spreads would keep a virus like this from being possible in nature- it would kill it's hosts too quickly to end up evolving in this fashion. It is only possible through genetic engineering."

As they walked, Irajah would occasionally offer a nod or a wave to people as they passed. The Doctor seemed well liked, though no one intruded on their conversation.

Well. Lecture.

"It infects the blood first. In compromised patients, that's as far as it gets- death is caused by hemolysis- massive internal bleeding, but not from any single source. The cell membranes of the red blood cells fail, flooding the circulatory system with cell plasma- The virus itself bonds to the iron that's been freed- increased pressure and the iron bound inclusion bodies cause minute bleeds throughout the system. Death can occur in as little as 18 hours."

She made no mention of symptoms. The fever, the pain. This was easier to explain for her.

"In a healthy patient however, the viral inclusion bodies are forced from the blood vessels and into the internal organs. By this time of course, they are significantly heavier- and the process of bonding to the iron has made them slightly hydrophobic- they repel water. It's part of what causes the death by hemolysis, of course. But once they are pushed into the organs by the increased pressure, they are almost immediately forced *out* again, but rarely back through the circulatory system once it reaches that point. The bound viral bodies punch through the organs- most patients do not last far into this stage. Death occurs within three days."

"An estimated ten percent of a population can survive this far. But the last stage is fatal in nearly 100% of cases. At that point, the virus starts to attack the tissues of the organs themselves. Eventually, the cell membranes of those fail....."

She trailed off then, eyes a little distant. Now her voice was a little softer, a trace of something heavier than before tinging the words.

"Death occurs within four to five days."

​She paused then glanced at Aria before looking away again.

​"Those who fail in the first stage are the lucky ones."

 

[NightSister]

Keeping up with the doctor's lively pace was an easy enough feat.

Keeping up with her speech took more effort.

Obviously, she wasn't entirely lost. Aria had things she worried far more about than her intellect, but that wasn't to say she was entirely without it. On the other hand, the Echani had more or less zero understanding of medical science, and Doctor Ven was throwing quite a lot of very medical-sciencey words at her. Still, she had enough of an interest in what Irajah was communicating that she managed to process the explanation well enough, albeit with more effort than she would care to admit.

The gist of the brunette's speech was straightforward enough. A lot of people got infected, a lot of people died, and some cell-related things happened in between. It sounded rather grim, in truth, to Aria at least. She couldn't imagine ever wanting to study so closely the painstaking details of a - what had she called it? a cell breakdown, of its numerous and unpleasant effects, but it earned Irajah another note of her respect that she seemed so invested in the research. The why was lost on her, of course, but she respected the doctor for it nonetheless.

She followed alongside Doctor Ven with her best listening-face on, giving the odd nod or 'mmhm' to show that she more or less understood what she was saying. It really was very interesting, the parts she processed at least, but Aria had come to realise that such didn't always translate on her face.

"Right," she said as the explanation concluded and they had almost reached their destination, "...huh." What exactly did one say after hearing about the various stages of death a virus could cause? "So, you're trying to work out a cure, I'm guessing?"

[member="Irajah Ven"]