Chapter IIa: Absolute Disaster

Cass sighs heavily. To Moira, she says, "You're still confined to quarters until further notice. You can expect disciplinary action, and you have some serious repair work to do with Darcy at an intensely personal level. But until this situation has resolved itself, stay alert and available by comm, and no sampling of your collection. That's an order."
"Negative! Keep that in your back pocket, but we have reason to believe our missing crew members are aboard that ship. I want them back."

Cass sprints toward the turbolift and steps out onto the bridge. Literally everyone turns to stare at her anti-infection suit.

"You oughta see the other guy," Cass quips. "Patch me into Capt. Tulak."

While Cass waits for someone to patch her in to Capt. Tulak, she says, "Report. What's the current situation? Are everyone's shields up, ready to start blasting each other?"

Mezron explains: "All shields are up, all weapon systems are ready."
After a short moment, the screen lights up to show Captain Tulak. "Commander Cassano. It is good to see you are back on duty. Interesting choice of outfit", she says as she's looking on you helmet, which everyone's has been staring at so far but nobody has mentioned. "Apologies if that was impolite. How can I help you, commander?"

Cass smiles slightly at the comment on the helmet. "It was this or an isolation tube. I found this less confining. Captain, I'd like to know the status of your talks with the pirate ship, and to join them as an active participant. I've had a pretty extensive and illuminating conversation with an emissary, and I believe I have substantial insight into their goals and methods."

"Negotiations are almost at a standstill. They request the right to take people out of our crews to replace their dead. I have allowed them to recover their remaining crewmates from the first pirate ship they sent as a show of good faith but it seems they do not care for our good faith. I'll patch you into the communication."

Cass, the screen splits in two, one half still showing Captain Tulak, the other a very pale, sick looking, white haired woman in light body armor. "Another negotiator?", she comments dryly. "At this rate, I will have talked with every negotiator in spacefleet soon."

Tulak gives you an approving nod as you lay out the information you have.
The pale woman stares at you, apparently trying to figure you out. After a short moment, she says: "What kind of solution are you talking about?"

"No", she replies. "I said that I am willing to listen to your proposal"

Robb, in the isolation of the airlock you open up the containment field and begin surgery. You cut open the dead body of the pirate and extract the parasite. It is a disgusting creature, the size of a human forearm, dark green, in appearance similar to an oversized slugs but with meaty wrinkles all over its body. Some thin tendrils hang off its heavy body and it is covered completely in human blood.
It appears weak and lifeless, drained from the long time it had been forced to spend outside of a host body.
Without much difficulty, you insert it into the crude robot body and attach it to the system. You close the container it is in and look over your work. The feeding material in the container starts to wilt away almost immediately, turning light grey in color and shrinking into a small, slimy pile.

You don't notice anything wrong until, in a moment of carelessness, one of the robot's primitive pincer claws grips your arm painfully tight. By your calculations, the creature should have taken some time to learn how to control the robot, at least an hour.
You can see the parasite's mandibles move as they produce a series of clicking noises. The universal translator interprets its clicking to you as: "Take me to Captain Tulak right now!"
Its claw keeps digging into your skin painfully.

Cass, the pirate seems uncomfortable with your request but also clearly wants to hear what you have to say.
After a long silence, she replies: "We are willing to consider your proposal, assuming it is beneficial to our people, as you are saying. I do not make any guarantees that we are going to implement it, however. Even if I wanted to, I do not have the authority for such a decision."

Kendall, you can move freely through the ship. When you arrive at sickbay, Dr. Belka tells you that Cass has left and is on the bridge. He also tells you about Marbo's experiment.