Valanx was in the lab looking at the Ulnar venom again.  The newest anti-venom should have worked.  All the data suggested that it would neutralize the poison, so why hadn't it worked?  He injected the anti-venom into another vial and placed the sample under a microscope.  He watched the reaction again.  After watching the anti-venom do it's job, he separated the remaining solutions.  The reaction had proceeded as normal, but there was something weird about what was left over.  There was either an unexpected product, or a reactant that didn't react.  He placed the unknown substance under a microscope and began an analysis.  He rushed over to the body of their deceased loadmaster and extracted a vial of brain fluid.  He put this new sample under another microscope and began an analysis.  Somehow, there was a powerful neurotoxin in Anderson's system, identical to the substance he had isolated from the neutralized Ulnar venom.  But if the Ulnar venom contained both a hemotoxin and an neurotoxin, why were they unable to isolate the neurotoxin from the venom until they had neutralized the hemotoxin?  With a few swipes of a gloved hand across the displays, he logged the data for further analysis.  Maybe Rae would be able to make more sense of this.  This poison stuff was more her territory anyway.  He just worked on this sort of stuff on the side when he had nothing else to do or the matter was of greatest urgency as it was here, or at least it had been, and probably would be again.  Those rats were still out there in certain places.  The Marauders had just wiped out a large portion of them, but they hadn't annihilated the entire race.

He had just saved the new information on the venom when a call came in for him over the comms.  "Valanx, we have a cryo-pod in the cargo bay that needs to be examined. Please see if you can find any information and report back to the Captain once found," Rae instructed.

"Affirmative," Valanx responded.  "Also, I found some new information about the Ulnar venom.  You'll want to take a look at it ASAP.  It's... confusing."  With that, Valanx left the lab and made his way to the cargo bay to examine the cryo-pod.  Why did they have a cryo-pod?  Was this something to do with the mysterious "precious cargo" they had picked up?  Was that why the Ulnar had chased them until they wiped out their entire fleet?  Hopefully this cryo-pod would provide answers.  If it was a commercial transport cryo-pod it likely had an internal memory card that would describe the contents, the route, the ultimate destination, and any special notes regarding hazardous materials or other dangers the contents presented when released.  He should be able to read any information with a quick scan as long as the internal circuitry was intact.  With the amount of jostling the ship took, though, it may require some repairs before he could read it.

As Valanx neared the door to the cargo bay, the captain stormed by with a girl that Valanx had not seen before.  Valanx would have asked about this, but the captain's mood was not one he wanted to test at the moment based on his facial expression and the way he was walking.  Besides, he was needed elsewhere, and hopefully where he was needed was also the place where the answers to the myriad questions swarming through his brain lay.