"The boy does not seem to know anything about Nurse Kess' murder. Even standard lie-detection tests seem to confirm..."


"Lie detection tests are about as useless as.."


"I know, Chief. But we have to start somewhere," growled Doc Sammry interrupting Vallorum before he could go into a tirad about lie detection tests.


"Standard tests show no chemical imbalance, no underlying cause that might explain why he beat Nurse Kess within an inch of her life."


"We are sure that it was Ensign Winger?" Captain Vespian asked. "I mean, it is conclusive?"


Security Chief Boras cleared his throat before speaking, "Ahh. .yes sir. Finger prints, blood, and that little bit on the security camera. We only could see his arm above the desk raised and brought down several times but it is Ensign Winger."


The Captain shook his head. "This is damned peculiar. No history of mental illness?"


Doc Sammry shook his head. "I have very little of his medical background but what I do have qualifies the boy for duty. I have alot of the usual reports but no info on a recent physical. I had him perform one when he came aboard but there were some anomalies on one test that made me think my scanner was on the blink. I had maintenance calibrate the scanner and he was supposed to retake the test with Nurse Kess." The Doctor was at a loss for words.

"I don't know what to tell you. Unless we have some etheral Sith spirit taking possession of people, I cannot explain this."


"What about this anomaly? What if there was one and the scanner was not damaged?" XO Garrick asked.


Doc Sammry shrugged. "The anomaly was simply the scanner mislabeling cellular parts we all have. It wasn't anything that would explain someone going nuts and.. and.."


The Captain raised his eyebrow at the old man's trailing off. "But?" he prodded sensing the "but" in there but left unspoken.


Doc Sammry sighed, "But Garrick is right. The scanner was not damaged because I performed that test again on Ensign Winger in his cell without his knowledge. Those anomalies still show up and they are mislabeled. The computer assigns them a value and identity but upon closer examination, the actual structure does not match the text books."


Everyone shifted uncomfortably.


"Why did you not say this before?" Vallorum demanded.


Doc Sammry shrugged and waited until the datapad in front of him blinked. He slowly picked it up and read the results much to everyone's growing agitation.

"Because, Mr. Vallorum," he started slowly, "I wanted to make sure that I saw the completed scan of all of you before I continued further."


"WHAT?" came the cry from everyone.


Doc Sammry swiveled in his chair tapping his fingers across a terminal that activated a monitor overhead. "Look what happened with Mr. Winger when I informed him that I would be retesting him for that anomoly.."


In the picture was Major Ceires, whose presence seemed to confuse Captain Vespian until the Doctor finished his informing of Ensign Winger of the tests. It was at that point that Ensign Winger leapt at the old doctor going for the old man's throat. At least, that was how the Captain saw it. If not for Major Ceires intercepting the Ensign the doctor would have been seriously injured or killed.


The Major got the doctor out and Ensign Winger went about thrashing against the brig walls until subsiding. After a while, the Ensign looked about confused and slid to the floor. The monitor went dark and an astonished crowd turned their attention to Doc Sammry.


"Apparently, there is something with the anomaly is triggering this reaction or knowledge about it's detection. If I were to simply blurt this out and set about informing you that we should test everyone for these anomalies, if any of you had them I probably would be dead by now."


"You may still die," growled Chief Boras.


"But not from these anomalies as I have your test results right here." The old man grinned, "I had the conference room rigged to scan each one of you for them."


"And if one of us was positive?" Trajan asked.


"In that case," Doc Sammry tapped a sequence into his datapad and the Conference Room doors opened revealing the Kashan Shock Troopers in full body armor and weapons at the ready.


"What makes you think you can trust them?" Boras cried out not a little anxious as seeing the serious end of an assault blaster pointed his way.


"The fact that they are recent additions to the crew, did not come aboard when Ensign Winger did and that I performed a physical on each of them when they arrived. They have no anomalous readings."


"You're a crazy old codger, Doc, but that was some damned fine work." Garrick commented.


The Doc waved the praise away. "I am damned scared is what I am. We have to test everyone on this ship without their knowledge. Then we have to isolate any who may show up positive and subtly or we will have a fight on our hands. Especially if they go berserk like Ensign Winger."


"Surely scanning someone without their knowledge can't be that hard."


"Scanning? No. Just time consuming. But what about corralling them? I was prepared to deal to you excessive force with the Shock Troopers if I had too because I was just not sure what the reactions would be. Is Ensign Winger the exception or the rule? Was his reaction mild or not?"


Chief Boras nodded his head, "At least we know they are docile enough when we catch them and hold them."


Doc Sammry turned his head to the Security Chief. "Do we? Are they? I tried to make damned sure that I showed concern for Ensign Winger. I tried to ensure that I showed compassion about his situation and how we might think it could be someone else... that he would never do something like this. I tried to just slip in the need to retest for my records when he flipped. Whatever is going on inside him, his subconcious is working overtime in perceiving threats or meaning. If there are others, and they are hypersensitive they make pick up on lies.."


"Whoa.. Doc. We are painting a picture of supermen and for all we know, Ensign Winger ate a bad Bantha burger and has something eating away at his brain." Major Lars had been quiet up until now but the intrustion of Major Ceires in full battle armour compelled him to take a more active part in the proceedings.


"Then we need to make sure that no one else at the same burger or ate at the same establishment don't we?" Doc Sammry said with a wintery gaze.


"All the while trying to make sure no one bashes our brains in."


Major Lars leaned back, "Then all we have to do--.."



The ship shuddered slightly and the emergency alarms began to sound.


"Captain to the bridge!"


"Trajan, here! What happened?" the Captain demanded through the Conference Room Communications Terminal.


"Sir... Sir... The brig! It blew up!"


"So much for subtlety," growled Doc Sammry.


"Bridge, Secure from Battlestations. Do not, I repeat, do not bring the ship to battlestations!"


"Uhh.. Sir, yes, Sir!"


When the comm clicked off Trajan stared at the confused looks around the table. "If the cat is out of the bag and there are more people with these anomalies, then there is a good chance they know we will now look for them. Being at 'combat readiness' opens up places on the ship that I would rather they not be able to get too...at least easily."


"Let me know what to do, Doc. How can I make sure there are no more Ensign Wingers?"

"We need teams of security coupled with medical personnel with the appropriate scanning devices. Any positive reading, any positive reading, we stun them and put them in confinement," the Doctor responded quickly.


"The brig is blown to bits, Doc" Lars commented.


"The Rec Deck!" the Captain shouted. "Chief, has it been cleared enough?"


Vallorum nodded though clearly not liking the idea of using the area as a jail cell.


"Major," the Captain turned to the Kashan Shock Trooper leader, "I will need your people to keep the affected crew members under guard on the Rec Deck. It was not designed to be used like this so if this gets out of hand, I will need something stronger than ship's security to ensure the rest of the ship is not endangered."


"Boras," turning to the Ship's Chief of Security, "I need you to assign the teams starting with the ship's most critical areas first and I need this vessel sweeped as quickly as possible. I do not know what happened to the brig but if something happens in engineering or on the bridge, we will all be in a world of hurt."


Vallorum held up his hand before they all split up, "We should bring the ship into orbit around the closest suitable world in case there is damage to the ship. We also need to make sure if there is an explosion in the engine room, it does not happen while we are in hyperspace."


"Damn!" Major Lars whispered as the implications set in. "We could lose the entire ship!"


"Move with a purpose people!" the Captain barked out. "I will get to the bridge. There should be some system close by."




The command crew and the security detail of the Iron Mantis broke up with a mission known only to them.


As luck would have it, the ship dropped out of hyperspace but was unable to locate a world close enough. Twenty people ended up testing positive, the security detail stunning them and carrying them to the Rec Deck and under the watchful care of Major Ceires and her troopers.


One, however, slipped away and the ship's security gave chase trying to herd the fleeing crewman away from the more critical areas of the warship. As that manhunt was being conducted, medical personnel were dispatched to the make-shift holding area that was the Rec Deck to study the anomalies in the stunned and unconscious crew-members.


As Chief Boras' men cornered the fleeing twentieth crewman, the Captain and his people were surprised to see a flash on their security monitors where there had once been person. The resulting explosion injured the security team that had cornered him and was just shy of compromising the hull.


The knowledge of what happened to that crew-member and realizing the danger they were all in, however, caused the doctor to order Major Ceires and her team to prevent the medics from entering the Rec Deck. Even as the troopers blocked the entrances onto the Rec Deck, all captured nineteen bodies exploded.


It was determined that each crewman in the Rec Deck held some sort of position or responsibility around critical areas of the ship. It was supposed that crewman Winger had been discovered accidentally and, but for that fortuitous circumstance (if it could be called that), the entire ship could have been lost.


The anomaly and where these crew-members had contracted it was never discovered.


The official report to the Coalition High Command was an odd one to write for the Captain and the ship's logs for each of the officers would only highlight their confusion over the experience leaving them with only speculation as to what could have happened.


The lack of evidence regarding the nature of this anomaly caused the Galactic Coalition Military Command to list the incident as a Mutiny (albeit attempted). The Captain argument that the families of those "infected" retain the full benefits of his crew's service was accepted and granted for the evidence did show that even the attempt of murder was done without the crewman's conscious thought.




Eventually, the entire incident was put out of mind as the crew of the Iron Mantis, including her Kashan Shock Trooper compliment, would go on to experience other adventures, both triumphant and tragic, as their missions continued.