OOC:
I'll again just combine the LF into your success since you are asking the same question basically that you're trying to figure out with your roll anyway.
Marbo, you set up the experiment and start the cloning process. In the beginning, the cells duplicate rather quickly, producing a rubbery green fleshy mass with a diameter of approximately three centimeters in your equipment, but the larger the clone grows, the slower the process continues. You run more tests on it and discover some interesting bits of information already: Although the creature is parasitic in nature, in its infant stages, which the creature will be in once the cloning process has finished, it can survive outside of a host body. After four days, it begins to starve and die unless it can inhabit a host. Your results show that the adult creature feeds off of a number of things in the host's body - most interestingly, they appear to suck out pigmentation from their hosts. Depending on the type of creature in habitated by the parasite, they could survive between a few hours and a few months before the host dies and the parasite will have to move on into a new body.
To figure out more about how the bonding process works, you will have to wait for the cloning process to be completed, which, according to your calculations will take almost two days.
However, you are already pretty sure that these parasites are what is killing the pirates.
OOC:
If you have any more questions about the nature of the parasite, ask them and I'll let you know if Marbo could answer them at this point or not.
