Fen was slightly perturbed at ending up at the facility he'd be running after having gone to meet with the 'representative' who'd offered him the position. Apparently that representative was already at the facility trying to sort out some debacle or another. As he entered the building he immediately saw a number of things wrong. The one being behind the reception desk was busy playing some sort of game on the terminal in front of them. What patients were waiting all looked to have been waiting for more than an acceptable amount of time. There were doctors, or at least what he assumed were doctors standing around chatting, yawning, and hitting on other faculty. He'd left both Qi'zek and Beln at the apartments, but was now wishing they were here so he could have them walk the building and note everything else that might (and pry was) be unacceptable.

He took a breath to collect himself before approaching the reception desk. The Quarren sitting there didn't look up as he approached or when he cleared his throat. "Excuse me-"

"Take a seat and someone will be right with you," the Quarren said, interrupting him.

"I am-"

"Take a seat and someone will be right with you,"

Fen blinked a single time at the Quarren before replying, "You're fired. Get out. Don't come back."

"Like I haven't heard that one," the Quarren said in monotone, "Take it up with the new boss when he gets here, otherwise j-"

"I am here," Fen said, copying the monotone speech of the apathetic receptionist.

Fen watched passively as the Quarren paused and turned his head fully to look at the man who he'd blown off, eyes widening slightly.

The situation was disappointing to the point it had moved beyond laughable. In the hour or so that Fen had been in the building, he had yet to find the person he sought and had opted to test the discipline and general awareness of the current staff. So far there appeared to be none. He'd been able to walk through the building without a single being questioning him, even when he walked into Staff Only areas. He now found himself on an upper level in an office of someone who apparently was supposed to have been in charge of a great number of things. Where the person was, he didn't know, but at the moment was grateful for that fact. If he had known, he would likely have hunted the person down and killed them. There were absolutely no security measures in the facilities computer systems. Everything was open for anyone to look at.

From what he'd gone through so far he was able to tell that the last system entry was dated yesterday... and was the only entry for that day. It seemed the entire staff was apathetic.... save for maybe one or two individuals that it seemed over 90% of the entries over the past month, were from. Fen had been aware that Dac was going through a... transition, but this... This was unacceptable. He grabbed his comlink and turned it on.

::This is Qi'zek::

"Qi'zek, grab Beln and get over to the hospital at once. We have a lot to do here before we can even consider setting up the project here."

------------------------------------------

An hour later and the three were all in the room. Beln sighed and pushed herself away from the terminal, shaking her head. "It's too big of a mess. I can sort through some of it, but we need someone else to fix the current infrastructure or set up a completely new one. The only things I really have access to are personnel files, and logged data entries. Patient records, operating costs, employee hours, all the rest... It's too much of a mess."

"So we either need a computer savant, or a new system. Wonderful," Qi'zek said sarcastically.

"Copy all personnel files and data entries to a datapad," Fen said to Beln before turning to the Quarren, "Qi'zek, walk the building, find anyone who looks like they're actually working and gather them....somewhere, anywhere. I'll head to the Council and find someone who can explain why this facility is in its current state. Beln, after you have the datapad ready contact the rest of the project team. Tell them to arrange for the transport of the lab materials and then get themselves here immediately. After that, join Qi'zek. I'll join you later."

With a nod the two set to their tasks while Fen headed for the building entrance, irritation evident in his eyes. This had seemed a golden opportunity, but now it seemed that would not be so. Instead it was going to be a struggle to fix what shouldn't have been broken in the first place. The state of the hospital was a large warning. The planets infrastructure was seriously flawed, and without major changes, would not hold.

Beln was pacing back and forth as she listened to the response coming from her comlink. The data was nearly finished downloading, and she was contacting the rest of the team back on Nar Shaddaa. They kept asking question after question and it was annoying her. "...Look it doesn't matter right now. We can't continue the project until we have a suitable cover for it. Just make the arrangements and get everyone here. It seems we're all going to be playing doctor while we're here, and considering the state the planets' government seems to be in, we're going to have to be careful to make every appearance of just being medical staff. Admittedly, not too hard since we all are anyway, but Estra will flay anyone who slips up."

She shut off the comlink and turned back to the terminal and datapad. The transfer was finished, and she smiled to have one less thing to do now. She started closing out windows, but paused at one, eyes widening as she recognized the being shown in the record. She bit her lip and glanced at the time. Fen hadn't been gone too long yet, so surely she'd have enough time... She took a deep breath and then sat down, bringing the record up on the screen.



The file continued on, but Beln had stopped reading and immediately closed the record and everything else on the terminal before standing up and grabbing the datapad. She was thinking back to the 'patient' records she'd seen on Fen's ship. She was certain she'd seen the name 'Gasen, Neri' on one of them and was beginning to wonder if those files had really shown patients...or test subjects.

Fen was sitting in a chair going over all the records in the datapad that Beln had gathered. It was... disappointing. Nothing seemed to have been updated in months. The individual who was supposed to be in charge had apparently vanished one day and hadn't been heard from since. Meanwhile about a third of the staff had been fired within the first day of his arrival, with several more following in the days after. Fen had spoken with all the others afterward, berating them for allowing the facility to fall into its current state and telling them there would be no vacations or days off until things were back in working order. His threa-ahem- words had the desired effect. While they waited for more help from off-world, all patient records were being put on datapads.

Fen looked up as the door to his office opened and Beln peeked inside, "Uh, sir, the others have arrived."

"Is that all?" Fen asked calmly while looking intently at Beln.

The Twi'lek shifted nervously, "Well, the Verpine wanted to talk with you... about the database."

Fen set the datapad down and nodded to Beln, "Send it in." Beln disappeared and several moments later a tall, stick-like Verpine entered, closing the door behind it. Fen stood and moved the datapad off to the side. "You are J'lakr?"

"I am," the Verpine said, "I wished to have a look at the database before deciding on a course of action, but your... assistant, said there was nothing to look at."

"My assistant," Fen said with a slight smile, "Is not as adept at solving software issues, as she is at using the software itself. Come have a seat, you can take a look for yourself at the state of the database."

J'lakr nodded and moved swiftly to the seat, sitting down and quickly going to work. Fen looked on impassively while J'lakr worked for close to ten minutes, and when the Verpine finally stopped and turned to him he stood up a bit straighter. "System is a mess. Definitely not a programming error or hardware malfunction. This is definitely sabotage, and thorough sabotage at that. I can fix it, but I'll need unrestricted access."

Fen smiled slowly, "Well then, I guess you and I are going to head down to the MonCalDef offices to obtain that unrestricted access..."

Fen stood in an observation room as a surgery was going on in the adjacent one. His team from Nar Shaddaa had arrived several days prior and those who weren't assisting with discreetly getting their equipment brought in, were spread throughout the complex overseeeing the different deptartments and insuring that the employees were busy with getting all their data uploaded to the renewed database so that they wouldn't have the time to spend looking into things that they didn't need to know about.

Fen closed the connection and sat back in his chair, frowning at the monitor. That Nemoidian was a perfect example of the reason his kind had a reputation for being greedy and inept. The frown disappeared as he sighed and stood, leaving his office and making his way through the medical facility. His attention was caught by the Bith, Cresh and he made his way over to the being.

"You need something, Cresh?"

Cresh handed him a datapad before speaking. "The results from our last test."

Fen raised an eyebrow at Cresh. The Bith was excedingly good at what he did, so the fact that he was approaching Fen with this was unusual. That meant either good news, or bad news. Fen's eyes widened slightly as he analyzed the results, barely hearing Cresh as he whispered, "This is huge, Estra!"

Fen's eyes snapped up to meet Cresh's, noticing the excitement on the Bith's face. "These results are confirmed?"

"Yes! We ran the tests five times just to be sure!"

Fen handed the datapad back to Cresh, "I'll be expecting reports on all subsequent subjects. Have Beln start coding the DNA to look for anomalies. And find another Ithorian to test as well. This is useless if it only affects a single species."

"Right away!" Cresh said, turning and hurridly moving off to do what Fen had said. Fen watched him go, a slight smile on his face. Cresh's enthusiasm was refreshing. After years of work, they had now had their first succesful results.

Fen stood outside a secured, transparisteel room, his gaze focused on the Ithorian within as several researchers ran over diagnostics and injected the sentient with a cocktail of the serum Cresh had designed, as well as some more basic enhancement drugs. The specially made collar sitting around what passed for the Ithorians neck has been removed only a couple of hours ago, and its effects should have run through the body by now. It would be wearing of any-

Fen stood up a bit straighter as the Ithorian flinched and suddenly started having convulsions. The researchers panicked as the Ithorian fell to the ground while Fen simply watched. His face was impassive as he saw a pinkish foam start to seep out of the side of the Ithorians head and its eyes bulged out, expanding to what was almost a ridiculous size before suddenly popping. In all the whole process lasted a little over a minute, but Fen imagined it was an eternity of agony for the Ithorian. He approached a console and tapped its controls, opening the rooms door. As the researchers quickly made their way out he stopped the Quarren, Qi'zek. "Dissect it. I want full records of all internal changes as well as estimates of how common this could be.

With that, Fen turned and quickly made his way out of the room. It was nearlly seven hours later when he received Qi'zek's report. He hated to admit it, but it seemed they had not gotten as far as they'd hoped. All subjects would have to keep the collars on in order to stay alive. To remove them would be a death sentence unless they had a continuous supply of the serum. He sighed and sent the report on the the other PL's. They now had a serum that worked, so the new focus would be on finding a way to safely remove the collars that these sentients had been wearing for the past five years.

He looked up upon hearing a knock on the open door to find Beln standing in the doorway. The yellow-hued Twi'lek looked despondant, something he was not used to seeing from her. "Estra..." she whispered, "C-can-... I need...to talk to you." Fen motioned for her to enter the room as he stood and moved around his desk, curious at her behavior.

"I'm listening..."

Fen sat silently in his office, thinking, planning, plotting. On top of the project, he had to run the Medical Facility without anyone finding out about the project. Easier said than done. Already there had been a few close calls with nurses and technicians enter rooms his project personnel were working in. He'd had to move people around a lot to get the facilities in a proper operational state. The project was at a standstill though, and while he had thought of a solution, he couldn't see to it himself since he had to stay planetside until the facilities were finally under proper management. He leaned forward to his console and began sending a message to Cresh.



Fen sent the message and then leaned back in his chair. He was finding it difficult to focus. Having to wait before moving on with the project was a part of it, but it was also in part due to the project itself. Five years of non-stop work. Beln had been right, he needed to relax, find something else to do in the meantime.

"Qi'zek," Fen said as he approached the Quarren. Qi'zek turned to face him, his eyes widening slightly in curiousity as Fen continued, "I'm leaving you in charge of things here. Cresh is heading to Dathomir to collect some samples for the project. He's been given the details and can share them with you upon his return. Beln and I are heading to the Core to deal with... a pressing matter."

Qi'zek just nodded, knowing that asking for details would get him nothing but a scowl in return. "Of course, Estra."

"I am unsure of how long we will be gone," Fen said as he handed a datapad to Qi'zek, "You have full authorization to make whatever decisions you must for the facility and all... other ongoing projects." With one last nod Fen turned and strode away, walking with assured purpose as always.