"What are you looking for, Doctor?"

"What connects them."

Rita placed her hand on the back of his chair, where he was more floating than he was sitting, "Don't you think you should wait until the captain comes back?"

"What is he going to see that I'm not?"

She crossed her arms over her chest, a stray strand of her long, dark fur slipping from its restraint to fall into her field of view. She huffed out a gust of air to brush it to the side, "Well, he is a human after all, so I would wager to say that is something he knows more about than you, besides. Hundreds of people have looked over those files and seen nothing."

"But I am not hundreds of people now am I?"

The human shook her head, "Yeah, just one really stubborn alien."

"You are missing the part about my superior intelligence."

"That can be debated." She leaned up against the wall beside him, looking down at the panel before her, "Besides this isn't even your job, you're a doctor, not a detective."

Dr. Krill waited impatiently for the files to be uploaded to the proper format meanwhile turning to his skeptical human companion, "I know what I am, better than most of you humans do, but as far as I can see, there is no one here to attend to, and this mission is the reason some of my humans are getting injured. I must take preventative measures."

The human laughed in disbelief as he turned back to his work, "Wait, hold on, your humans."

"Yes,"

"Preventative measures!"

"You heard me correctly."

She shook her head again, and he wondered, not for the first time, if she was going to give herself permanent brain damage from all of her disapproval of him, "You may leave me." He announced as the little icon popped up before him, letting him know that the files were ready.

She huffed and walked off, and he could still hear her muttering as she walked away.

He could not understand what she was saying, but by now he had enough intimate knowledge of humans to know it was nothing flattering. That fact didn't bother him so much, and he turned his attention back to the information before him.

On screen the individual files of 41 missing humans appeared before him. That was 41 missing humans and one deceased.

It was time for Dr. Krill to do a little digging.

Maybe he would find something that the humans had not, maybe he would find nothing, but either way, what he had said to Rita was right. He did see this as a preventative measure. The crew of the Harbinger was assigned to the mission of finding the missing 41, and because of that mission, they had been put in danger more times than he would have liked to acknowledge, some of those, which included putting his own life at risk.

He intended to prevent any more danger or injuries, and he intended to do it with the power of his intellect, not through field work.

First, it was important to determine if any of the 41 missing humans had anything in common. If they did that he might use that line of inquiry to determine who might have been interested in exploiting them.

He ran the most obvious variables using the computers to compare keywords in each document.

The most obvious factors were quickly ruled out as possibilities. 18 women and 23 men, an almost even spread across the two variables making him assume that was probably chosen at random.

When it came to their age, the only thing they had in common was that none of them were juvenile, though after that the spread range was anywhere from 19-68.

Ancestry was not a factor either as the humans came in all shapes, colors and sizes, a fact which led into the fact that none of them were the same height 4,9 to 6,4.

Even in the less obvious variables, he was not able to find a common denominator. For instance, he might have assumed that they were all military or somehow subject to the government. He would have assumed that was the case considering that, as far as he knew, non government or military personnel were not permitted off their home planet as of that moment, but when he took a look, he found that at least 1/3 of the missing persons were also civilian contractors, and when he ran that information against the ratio of contractors to military personnel in the database, he found that the spread was almost exactly the same as might have been predicted.

It was then, the next logical conclusion to assume they might have been taken from the same location, or that they went missing during the same time period.

And with that in mind, he moved his attention to those variables, and was immediately disappointed by what he found.

Again, there was no connection with either the time or the location.

Some of these humans had been missing since the Drev war, and –he thought— likely to have gone missing on the battlefield. That left the time window between four years and less than six months. The last person to have gone missing, vanished shortly before he was accepted aboard the Harbinger as crew physician.

As for location, well, that spread was almost as diverse, from Anin to Irus to Noctopolis and so on until a few of them had even gone missing from human military installations, specifically the Europa station.

In great and abiding frustration, Dr. Krill floated back from the screen, as if standing back from his work would give him a better view.

He was not going to give up so easily, those had only been a few of the possible variables he could search through, and there were clearly many more he probably hadn't even thought of yet.

Perhaps medical history would give him a clearer view of who he was dealing with.

Of course, he was soon reminded that human medical history often complicated things rather than clearing them up. Most of the medical documentation he found detailed the missing humans as relatively healthy overall, but that in itself didn't explain a similarity, it simply explained that the USNC had standards regarding who they were allowing in space. Of course, there were a few mild medical conditions that could be controlled, like allergies, minor asthma, some visual discrepancies, and the occasional orthopedic issue, but overall, none of it was particularly telling.

There were a few other options of course.

He was not foiled yet.

So, he took a look through their work history, hoping to find a past similarity, perhaps a project they had worked on together, or a location where they all might have trained.

He should have known that the latter wasn't likely to work considering that two thirds of them were military and one third of them were civilian contractors, a fact which culminated with the fact that none of them had trained at the same location, and those that had, had not trained at the same time.

Discarding that idea, he moved onto projects.

However, that was soon to be debunked as well. Most of these individuals had never worked on a project or for a project together, or on a ship or in any comparable timeframe.

There was literally nothing that this group of people had in common.

In fact, the only thing he could safely say they had in common, was the fact that they had nothing in common.

He floated back again, turning away from the screen as he sunk glumly into his thoughts,

Here he had been assuming that the humans were simply unobservant or unintelligent, but here he was just as stumped as they were.

It was a.... humbling experience.

Dr. Krill did not like to be humbled.

He had to acknowledge that the humans had thought of everything he had, or, if they hadn't, it didn't matter because it simply made no difference. You didn't get extra points for thinking up other wrong solutions.

Still frustrated, and seething from his failure, he turned back to the holoscreen and clicked backwards to the list of names and pictures.

Absently he followed his eyes down the page, brain picking up the names as easily as a damp rag picks up dust.

He was barely paying attention as his rear upper hemisphere acknowledged the data and compiled it in the back of his mind with the rest of the information.

Derrick Bell

Dr. Katie Quinn

Isha Brett

Keaton Holland

Dr. Grant Boyd

Ted mcneill

Elise Sider Ph.D

Yasser Owens

Dr. Zidane Welch

Wait, hold on a second. Dr Krill turned his head back to face the list of names struck by something rather strange. At first he couldn't figure out what it was that his subconscious mind had seen that he had yet been able to detect, but, slowly, the realization dawned on him, and he scolded himself for not seeing it before.

Doctor.

Three out of the first nine names were doctors. That was at least 33.33% which, according to a quick calculation based on the ratio of currently practicing human medical doctors to the overall population was a whopping increase of about 33.1%. This, of course was a rough estimation, but by his calculations – which were never inaccurate – current practicing medical doctors made up less than 1% of the current global population, so to see it here, expressed in such numbers was astounding.

He couldn't base current conclusions off of such meager data, and quickly scrambled to examine the rest of the list determining that at least 13 out of 41 missing persons had a medical license, which equated to about 33.33% just like he had seen from the first nine names.

Of course, this didn't necessarily mean anything if they had a higher concentration of medical officers in the UNSC than they did on earth. Space was dangerous after all, and it made sense that they might require extra medical staff to keep things running.

It didn't take Dr. Krill more than a minute to find the information and to the calculation, finding to his shock that the ratio of medical officers to non medical staff was around 1%, a little higher than the average population, sure, but definitely not accounting for the nearly 2000% increase he was finding here.

It was then that Dr. Krill took a breath to calm himself and returned to examining the names with new purpose.

Job description was actually one of the first things that Dr. Krill had looked at. However, it had been a variable he had allowed the computer to search for, rather than looking for himself, so it made sense that the program wouldn't have discovered the nuance or patterns that an organic mind was easily programmed to find.

And to his surprise and delight, the more he looked, the more he was to discover.

It became clear almost instantly why the computer had not picked up on the similarity.

Take the first nine names for instance.

Derrick Bell – X ray technician

Dr. Katie Quinn – Trauma Surgeon/ ER attending

Isha Brett – Physicians assistant

Keaton Holland – Phlebotomist

Dr. Grant Boyd – Pharmacologist

Ted mcneill – Nurse

Elise Sider Ph.D – Psychologist

Yasser Owens – Dentist

Dr. Zidane Welch – General practice

And that was not to mention Dr. Liam Sterling – the doctor who Krill had replaced after the stress of working on the Harbinger had driven him off. Dr. Krill continued his hunt through the names on the list, his suspicions only confirmed as the information was offered to him on screen.

Therapists, dentists, technicians, nurses, pharmacy workers, each and every last one of them had roots in the medical field. Granted some of the strings were rather tenuous, at least two of the names having worked as dockworkers unloading and packaging medicine to be sent out on interstellar vessels, but a connection was still a connection, and there was no denying that a saturation of so many people directly linked to the medical field was no coincidence.

He had found their link.

Antenna buzzing with excitement, Dr. Krill turned to float from the room, though to his annoyance, the floating was not nearly fast enough, so he dropped to the floor and scuttled through the doors into the waiting medical bay.

His sudden appearance caused the PA Rita to leap almost vertically upright as she turned to look at him.

"What is going on!" She turned to look at him, eyes wide, head tilted as she watched him scuttle across the floor.

"I found it!"

She turned in her seat to follow him, eyes narrowed, "Found what?"

"I found the connection."

Quickly, she stood from her chair, eyes wide, "What is it?"

"Every one, each and every last one of them has ties to the medical field. That is how they were found! And that is probably how they were lured away."

Rita crossed her arms following him with her eyes as he scuttled across the room, "What are you talking about? Who would want a bunch of doctors?"

"Who WOULDN'T want a bunch of doctors, besides not all of them were doctors per say but all of them had some involvement in the medical field. I bet that is how they were contacted, through their contacts."

"We didn't find any evidence that they were conversing with anyone?"

"That is where you are wrong!" Krill exclaimed, barely able to contain his excitement, "The issue is not that they weren't talking to the same people, it is the fact they are talking to many of the same people."

He had almost reached the door, forcing her to jump from her seat in order to follow him, her long dark hair falling in wispy ringlets down in front of her face, "I don't understand."

"They were a group of professionals who used the same databases, the same information They shared their findings back and forth with each other. Even the technicians who worked in the laboratories took much of their information from a galactic stew of shared knowledge. When humanity joined the GA, they were given access to all of our medical knowledge, and that included all of our testing, chemistry knowledge, and bacterial cataloguing. Since they were off planet and often working with people who had come in contact with different lifeforms, it would only make sense that they were going to have to share information across species boundaries."

Rita's shoe heels clattered on the metal floor behind him.

"Get to the point, Doctor."

He sighed in annoyance, but slowed himself down in order to make more sense, forcing the babbling in his head to relax into a dull mutter compressing a waterfall into a jet of concentrated thought.

"I mean that at any time, they had access to each other. They were reading journals and articles. They were communicating with each other. What I am saying is there is no possible way to find out who they were communicating with because everyone was communicating with everyone."

Rita did not seem impressed by his findings and simply stared at him with a dull expression, eyebrows slanted downwards with the curve of her lips, "So, what you are saying is that you found a connection, but that connection is completely useless?"

Krill turned his head, stifling the buzzing of his antenna, and instead turning the corners of his mouth down slightly.

He did it without conscious effort, but the sudden change seemed to shock Rita, "I did not say that the connection is useless. If I thought that the connection was useless, I would tell you that. What I actually said was there is no possible way to find out who they were communicating with because they were communicating with everyone." When her blank stare did nothing to encourage his assumption of her intelligence, he sighed, "If we can assume that all of these people in the medical field were communicating with each other, and with the source that caused them to disappear, and you and I are also medical professionals...."

He waited for a while.

They turned a corner.

"Are you suggesting that we are probably already communicating with the source?"

"That is.... How do you humans say... bingo."

His joke didn't go over so well as she continued to stare at him dull-eyed. He looked up at the ceiling, unable to roll his eyes so forced to perform the action with his entire head. Spending so much time with Adam had definitely accustomed him to someone who was more pleasing to speak with.

The captain may have been a little bit slow, but at least he was enthusiastic, and definitely acknowledged Krill's intelligence.

"Where are we going?" Rita asked, following him as he scuttled into the nearest elevator,

"We have to tell the captain."

The doors shut behind her with a his, and she shook her head, "No, he's on a mission right now, there's no way to tell when he is going to be back. Besides we don't know if he even has service, or if it would be safe to contact him at all."

"I have information that could break this all wide open, and you want me to wait until he comes back with or without information that I already have."

"No, I am saying that it might be best not to bother him, when he could be in a dangerous situation."

Krill mostly ignored her and stepped out into the hallway leading towards the bridge. Rita followed reluctantly behind as he stepped up the last flight of stairs and onto the bridge. The Captain's chair was not empty, seating the Captain's second lieutenant and acting ship commander until he returned.

She turned in the seat to look at them, "Dr. Krill?"

He scuttled up the last few steps, "I need to speak with Captain Vir.

"I am afraid he is indisposed right now, as you well know."

Dr. Krill waved a hand, "This is urgent information about the missing 41."

The lieutenant paused, a trail of silvery white light rolling over her dark cheek, "I see, and what information is this?"

When Krill hesitated to speak, she leaned forward.

"As acting captain, it might be best to tell me."

What followed was another long pause before he finally gave in and told her what he knew.

"So, you are saying that this is someone you or Rita probably correspond with already?"

Krill nodded, "Precisely, and the sooner the Captain returns, the sooner we can look into my lead."

The Lieutenant leaned back in her chair, "I will let him know as soon as possible, but I am afraid communication has been spotty as of the last few hours. It is likely the distance, and atmospheric conditions stunting the communication."

Krill huffed in annoyance but gave in.

"Don't worry, we are due to hear from them in an hour or so."

Krill didn't say anything else, instead turning on his heels and ordering Rita to follow.

He hoped the Captain would return soon as he had no doubt this breakthrough would be the difference between continual wondering and finally discovering what was really going on.

They passed by the viewing deck on their way down from the bridge, and Krill paused for a moment, looking down at the planet swathed in perpetual night.

Noctopolis was a dangerous place.

He could only hope the Captain would return safe to hear of his findings.