Dr. Bailey hooked up the stolen hard drive to the laptop. Several minutes later, he had broken the encryption and was accessing the files.
The first one was a shipping manifest that was from Rara Terra Smelting.
"Hey! I've worked there!" Gustave blurted out.
All heads turned to him.
"So what do they manufacture?" Spc. Crota asked.
Gustave nodded. "They're a lanthanide refinery," he said. "It's been like a year or so since I worked there last but I did clerical work and I remember Weyland-Yutani and Pelvanida being some of their biggest customers," he replied.
"But there's more," Dr. Bailey said. He then opened up a picture that showed a small silver box. It looked somewhat like an outsized pacemaker.
"A giant pacemaker?" Cobalt Leader asked.
Dr. Bailey shook his head and bought up another word document with the thumbnail of the device and a lot of text. "According to this document, it appears to be some sort of biocompatible pump," he said.
Dr. Zanasiu got up and looked over the text. His jaw dropped. "Guys, this is a pump. It's designed to pump an isotonic solution of calcium lactate into the blood to hasten recovery time after intense physical exertion," he said.
"So how does it work?"
Spc. Crota sniggered at Dr. Bailey's question. Unfortunately for him, Dr. Bailey heard him. "I have a doctorate in computer science, not biology," Dr. Bailey replied, his tail switching back and forth irritably.
Zachary sighed. "James, don't launch into a lecture about Le Chatelier's principle and how the additional lactate ions will push the equilibrium to the right, consuming the protons released by the dissociation of lactic acid and thus lowering the pH of the muscle," he said.
"With all due respect, Zachary, I have no idea what the hell you just said but a biochemistry lesson is not needed right now," Sgt. Masters replied.
Dr. Bailey cleared his throat. "In any case, Dr. Zanasiu is correct. It is a pump and if my data is correct, they they may have been testing that pump in Lab 101," he said.
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Aedelwulf glanced around the ruins of Lab 101. "So Cale, any ideas how to contact James and the rest of the team?" he asked.