"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Eliza glared at him.
"Check the security cameras." He shrugged.
The other researchers were pissed at how unconcerned Dr. Elyon's response was, it was as if he wasn't bothered by anything.
Yet Eliza chuckled at the thought.
"I see you are not troubled." Eliza smiled. "Indeed, the camera feed shows that you were inside testing chamber 13… 6 hours ago."
"What?"
"Who opened it then?"
"It was his login data, how was it not him?"
"Someone took his Personnel I.D?"
"But I.D's could not be taken off unless in specified circumstanc-"
"Dr. Elyon was in testing chamber 13, that , meant electromagnetic and psychic biomaterial testing…"
"He was researching the new alien?"
"Then, he was authorized to take off his I.D…."
The other members murmured between themselves before turning to Eliza.
"Excuse me, Dr. Stewart." Rose spoke. "If you already knew that, why would you try to point it at Dr. Elyon..."
"Use your head, Rose." Dr. Elyon shot back. "There is no way my I.D wouldn't fly from Test Chamber 13 by itself and magically slide to the access panel for Deep Bio-Storage by itself."
The other researchers immediately jerked up to the realization.
'This was a test for us…' They collectively thought. 'Because someone did it.'
'Anyone in this room is the suspect…'
'Falsification of Identity, Unauthorized Access, Reckless Misconduct…'
'It was definitely not an accident…'
Such were the collective thoughts of the researchers of the room.
"This was attempted murder." Rose breathed out solemnly, feeling the gravity of the situation. "Someone wants to kill. And that someone has been with us for at least five centuries…"
"No shit Sherlock." Dr. Elyon rolled his eyes. "Dr. Stewart, how were the analytics?"
Eliza smiled. Elyon was indeed quite capable of reading the situation.
"All positive." Eliza shook her head side to side. "No one in this room is faking reactions."
Everyone seemed shocked.
"So there's an IRIS mod that can do that…"
"Holy shit that is terrifying…"
"I need one. For... um, research purposes. Yes, research…"
"Dr. Stewart in now Lvl 100 Mafia Boss and we're still Lvl 1."
The other researcher could not help exclaim. This was a new mod after all and was exclusive only for the members of the board. Even if regular personnel were to have it they wouldn't be able to use it's full potential anyways.
"I never expected that someone would want to hurt Elaine…" Dr. Schulzbert sighed. "She was ultimate space waifu…"
"It was good thing that there was a paramedic nearby…" Dr. Anthony let out tired breath. "Due to the lockdown, we can't even use emergency beacons. We couldn't call for medical assistance…"
"Yeah…" Dr. Rose relaxed.
But then everyone tensed up.
"Shit." Eliza could not help but curse.
At that time, all the researchers had one unified thought process.
'Someone tried to kill Elaine'
'That someone was not one of us'
'But only we were the ones in here'
'No, that's not right.'
'Someone else was here…'
Their faces paled.
'The paramedic.'
Silence filled the room as all the personnel inside realized that they had just handed over Elaine to the prime suspect of her attempted murder.
"I'm contacting the MAD (Medical Assistance Department)." Dr. Elyon broke the silence. "I'll try to confirm if it was a legitimate paramedic in their division."
"I'll go do a manual sweep on the tapes!"
"I'll try to get the dactylography equipment."
"Someone check Elaine's room!"
"On it."
"W-what do I do?!"
"Go run a manual sweep on the bioscanner!"
"I NEED CLEARANCE ON TERMINAL 3!"
"Authenticating on Terminal 1!"
Staff were frantically working out the data and standard security procedures when the Eliza's interface finally displayed that her call had gone through the jamming filters.
She may have been a class 7 personnel, but she was not exempt from the jamming and her connection needed to be authenticated manually by Central Control and patch her into where she wanted to call.
"Sir Nile Gibson." Eliza greeted as the middle aged man's face popped in the holographic interface of her iris. "We have a situation here."
"Same goes for 3 other departments." Nile Gibson sighed as he rubbed his neck. "Let me guess, someone dressed as a paramedic kidnapped a pretty girl?"
Eliza was taken aback.
"I have just spoken to Dr. Demetris." Nile continued. "He reported that they have 4 paramedics that went missing after responding to a distress beacon coming off from sector A2. No contact has been made since then due to the Directive 568 and there were no suspicious movement inside the borders of MAD (Medical Assistance Department)."
"Sir Nile. What could have been the cause of this? As far as I know, the members of HAW department were the ones against the use of direct neural link interface (DNLI)." Eliza looked around to ensure nobody would hear her next few words. "I don't think it is likely that these 4 people are of the 9 personnel that were affected by system corruption."
"Indeed, Dr. Stewart." Nile Gibson nodded. "The said personnel are not even in the watchlist. However, we will still treat them as such as such a bizarre thing like this would have happened sooner. We are suspecting that this incident is directly tied to the incident 9 hours ago."
"Are you on the case already?" Eliza asked impatiently.
Eliza could not stand to do nothing. Especially when there was a possibility that she just handed one of her subordinates to someone who had malicious intentions.
To her. She might as well be the one who harmed Elaine.
"I'm sorry Dr. Stewart." Gibson sighed. "We are conducting a capture operation on 2 of the 9 corrupted personnel. Not to mention dealing with pacifying the other departments and making sure they don't go on a riot, we barely have personnel to spare. I could only send 5 security personnel. I'm sorry, Dr. Stewart."
Eliza grit her teeth.
'There must be a way!' She thought.
"Sir Nile. Do you happen to have spare gear lying around the armory?" Eliza muttered. "Like a few rifles…?"
Nile Gibson stared straight into Eliza. He might have no video feed on her but he stared intently towards the camera, his gaze piercing through and meeting Eliza.
A few brief seconds later and the old man sighed.
"I will tell the department to allow you to partake in the operation." Gibson rubbed the back of his neck. "You are a certified Class 6 Field Operative and the former ace of Geocorp's death squad… before you know… Ethan Bloom. If you weren't qualified to shoot guns, only 3 people on this ship would be qualified."
Eliza's smile stiffened. It seems like Nile Gibson saw through her intention instantly.
'It seems like my mask is falling off.' Eliza grinned to the side. 'Old habits die hard huh…'
"Thank you for your consideration, Sir Gibson." Eliza thanked. "I understand that this is a breach of protocol, but for the sake of reforming the twisted system. Old ways have to be forgotten."
Gibson smiled. He was also a fellow of great humanitarian values.
"That is right. " Nile nodded. "We already decided to abandon the ways of capitalistic tyranny. Personnel are not tools. We are people. Show them what human bonds look like, Dr. Stewart."
"Yes, Sir Gibson." Eliza cheerily spoke. "I will be there shortly."
The call ended and Eliza started to make her way to the DSS (Department of Starship Security) when Dr. Elyon spotted her and asked.
"Dr. Stewart. Might I ask where do you plan on going?" Dr. Elyon spoke politely but his tone was stern and somewhat scolding.
"I am off to the DSS." Eliza shrugged. "I'm off to pick a few items."
Elyon gave her a good look for a moment before sighing.
"I must remind YOU, Dr. Stuart. YOU are the head of the DER (Department of Extraterrestrial Research)." Elyon sternly spoke to Eliza, emphasizing the pronouns. "Your safety is the DSS' outmost priority. I assume you are trying to convince Sir Nile to allow you to partake in the investigation of Dr. Heussaff?"
Eliza fought the urge to flinch at how accurate Elyon's intuition was.
'Sorry Elyon.' Eliza thought. 'I already convinced Sir Nile.'
"Don't worry." Eliza pat Elyon. "If I'm gone, I can rest easy with a second-in-command like you."
"Nonsense Dr. Stuart." Elyon rolled his eyes. "Everyone knows how horrible my overbearing character is."
"Everyone can understand. You were raised by the megaconglomerates after all." Eliza smiled. "We can understand that the morals and values you lived with your entire life are different from ours, who came from the bottom."
"I don't need anyone to understand." Elyon inhaled deeply. "I just need everyone to follow."
"Yes. I believe everyone who understands will undoubtedly follow you, Dr. Elyon." Eliza nodded. "I'll be off now."
"Guh. Why are these people so complicated. It's their job to do what I tell them to..." Elyon sighed.
"Please take care director." Elyon bid farewell. "I cannot pacify this crew if they suddenly turn into headless chickens when you're gone."
Eliza waved goodbye to the crew as she hopped off from panel to panel, swiftly making her way towards the DSS armory.
She swung across a corridor by grabbing a railing and using the tangential force to maintain momentum in her flight across the intersection.
Normally, this was an action worth being penalized, however, Eliza could run wild with the security being loose, mostly due to the lockdown.
MAO, formally known as Multipersonnel Administration and Oversight, was the eye that kept track on personnel movements, especially violations to the protocols.
Each intersection and corner of the connector joints in the starship was monitored by MAO. Overspeeding personnel, like what Eliza was currently classified as, were immediately stopped by MAO.
But MAO was down right now.
Eliza let her heart run freely as she zipped through connectors in zero gravity, enjoying the rush of excitement of flying at 8 meters per second.
When Eliza was juts about to turn around the corner, she was met by the sight of a closing hatch, blocking her way.
"Shit!" Eliza cursed as she slammed her hand into the panel above her, giving her the force she needed to spin her body mid-air and land on the closed hatch on her two feet instead of crashing into the hard an unforgiving polysynthetic plastiluminum hatch.
As her foot touched the hatch, she felt the brunt of the sudden deceleration and the momentum putting stress into her ankles.
'Shit.'
Eliza quickly bent her knees and hips forward before rolling on the surface to spread the force evenly among multiple parts of her body instead of breaking her foot.
After rolling into the adjacent panel, Eliza's battle instincts kicked in and smashed open a panel before grabbing an electric drill and assuming a battle stance.
No one was allowed to close open doors in this area. Especially now when it was the only open connection point of sector B3 to C3.
'Only connector to C3…'
Eliza gasped.
'Shit!'
Eliza kicked against the hatch with all the leg power she could muster and flew back the way she came.
Turning the corner, Eliza was greeted by a startled personnel that quickly smashed the hatch control and shut it off, causing the hatch to shut immediately as the said personnel flew away.
Eliza was trapped.