Feather Fallacy II

ATTENTION: Chancellor Aurok of Saraven Colony 876JL

I am sending this message to inform you that I am capable of assisting with your current situation. I do apologize for the delay between my reading of your distress signal and the subsequent response. At that time I was busy on another planet investigating an outbreak with possible viral implications. What instantly held my attention while reading about your dilemma was its striking similarity to the problem my organization and I were recently attempting to diagnose and counteract.

We have been made aware of an affliction on another species suffering a similar infection to your own people on a planet close to your system. Members of this avian species were losing all of their feathers at an accelerated rate. However, this impairment occurred much later into their adult lives; not from birth. In addition to this malady, many of their race began to die with great expedience, something which we regard as a highly unfortunate side effect. We have begun initial processes required to properly study this illness, and we should be a position to render assistance in the near future.

On planet Dalexra, our efforts were without satisfactory result, as the infection spread and nearly wiped out the entirety of the avian subjects we were examining. We did however gain much insight into this problem and believe it will be of utmost utility in your current situation. My colleagues and I believe that the illness affecting members of your colony currently is a mutated strain of this same disease. We would need a sample group of approximately 50-100 test subjects. If at all possible, they should be of varying degrees of affliction. Additionally if you have suffered any casualties, we should like their corpses to be released to our research, so that we may undergo anatomic investigations of the progression of the disease. Furthermore, if we are successful at establishing the causality of the malady, then they could prove essential in incubating possible curatives.

I believe your aforementioned offer of resources and scientific insight into the different biological aspects of your race would be a most fortuitous reward. As mentioned in your previous message, the Charian people do pride themselves on the gaining of knowledge. Although my other family members are concerned mostly with political theory and affairs (which largely disgust and bore me to an exceptional level) I rather employ my thirst for understanding to be more readily able to render assistance to those who require it.

This is not to say that government officials such as yourself do not help people; but more often take much more time than those of other professions. Once I was in possession of your message I was wracked by curiosity about the links between your own situation and that of planet Dalexra. I am unused to being unable to unravel the mysteries underlying anatomical deficiencies, and I will be unable to rest until I have properly examined the subjects in this case, and have come to a proper understanding of the maladies involved in this circumstance.

It is my innermost desire that the abilities of my team are properly harnessed in this instance, and that we utilize the data we have recently gathered to help eradicate this unfortunate disease and so prevent the same outcome occurring as devastated Dalexra.You may expect myself and other Charian representatives at your colony in short order, so that we may bring our personal expertise to bear.

Dr Corvan Anelius, Chairman of the Charian Science and Preservation Committee

by Zachary Mathiot