Mission: Planet Biter (Veslor Mates #4)(22)
He ended his communications with Clark after sharing what Vera had revealed to him. He called Drak next.
His male answered immediately. “They refused to give us access to you in Med Bay. Situation?”
“The female’s health is improving.”
“That is a blessing. Are you returning home now?”
“Not yet. Vera still needs me. I just spoke with Clark. He’ll be sending a new update to our grouping and the tactical teams tasked with the investigation on the planet’s surface.” Then he shared what Vera had told him. “Once she made the pods warmer, she removed her clothing layers.”
“Which exposed her to higher dosages of the drug,” Maith chimed in.
Roth felt relief at hearing the other male’s voice. He was their medic. “That was my thought as well. Are you all present and listening to this call?”
“Yes,” Gnaw let him know.
“What is the female’s exact condition? The humans refuse to share that, citing her privacy rights.” Maith sounded angry. “Jessa couldn’t gain access to her records either. I asked her to try.”
That amused Roth. Maith and Jessa did not get along. The female doctor was the alien research specialist assigned to Defcon Red. Jessa Brick had harassed them for months, attempting to get their males into her lab to study and interrogate them to learn more about Veslors. They’d refused.
Later, Jessa had become close friends with Gnaw’s human mate. Maith and the female doctor had argued when Darla was pregnant with Gnaw’s twin cubs, battling over who would assist in the births. Afterward, they just avoided speaking.
“Did it hurt to break your silence treaty to ask that favor of Jessa?”
Maith snarled a curse at Roth.
Roth decided he’d teased the male enough. “Vera’s eyes are normal now, she’s more grounded to reality, but her emotions are erratic. She sheds tears and laughs too easily.” Roth hoped his medic would assure him those were all good signs that the female would be fine.
“I kept a copy of all the notes the human doctors on the surface made and have carefully gone over them. Watch Vera for depression and rage. She could experience those symptoms until the drug is completely gone from her body. Both can be dangerous. She could attempt to harm herself, or you,” Maith warned.
Roth resisted snorting. Vera was a small female. “She can’t harm me. I will make certain she doesn’t attack other humans. She’s weak but has a strong will. A few of the doctors have made her angry. She displayed a sharp tongue with insults.”
One of his males chuckled.
“Is she being insulting to you?” That was Drak.
“No. She feels safe with me.” Roth felt a little proud of that but he wouldn’t admit it to his grouping. Nor would he admit that he found the little human beautiful. They would tease him mercilessly. Perhaps worse, they might lose respect for him if he shared that he felt attracted to Vera. She needed his strength, not his lust.
“Did Clark give you the latest update over what we’ve discovered about the drug containers? An engineering team studied them.”
That news had Roth tensing. “No. Tell me, Drak.”
“They all had timers on them, and each were programmed to begin releasing the drug on a certain date. It was fifty-six days after the facility went fully operational. There was enough of the drug inside each canister to expose the humans for approximately twenty days. Each time the canisters were activated, they released a measured dosage into a mist form to make them last the appropriate length of time.”
Roth leaned against the doorframe. “Why? If someone wanted them dead, wouldn’t they have released this drug in lethal dosages?”
Maith answered. “There are a lot of drugs that kill faster and more effectively if whoever did this only wanted everyone in that facility dead. It seems more like something done to test a drug to see how humans react to it over time. I have been consulting with Jessa.” Maith hesitated. “No, we are not on good terms, but we are both professionals. She explained how drug trials work. The drug is made, tested on animals and humans, and if it is deemed safe, the maker will sell it and make a large profit. If it isn’t safe, if it causes harm, it fails and isn’t allowed to be sold. It does, however, get added to their medical database for identification purposes if that failed drug is ever used. Some drug-producing companies aren’t aware of that, according to her.”
Roth felt frustration building. “What does all that mean?”
“There is a strong possibility Brilon, the company that created the drug, wasn’t aware that their drug could be identified and traced back to them. We suspect that Brilon wished to illegally sell it as a weapon. It makes sense that they might have used those humans inside the facility to show the results to potential buyers. Jessa claimed they were an ideal test study for something like that, since they were confined inside a small space with no way to leave the planet.”
Roth closed his eyes, infuriated by the things Maith had said. “They exposed Vera and the others to prove that their drug would do harm to humans?”
“I’ve learned from Jessa that there is a large black market with certain bad humans seeking to buy drugs that could cause instability in the minds of their victims, and will eventually kill them if they aren’t given a cure or relief from the exposure. Bad humans could take hostages, expose them to the drug, and live-stream the results to ransom their victims to gain profit. Jessa feels this drug would be something criminals would buy for that purpose. The drug made the humans unstable, commit murder in some cases, and take their own lives.” Maith growled. “It is sickening that anyone would wish to do that.”