“The problem is simple, Sadowans. We know the Dominion are here, but they are such a mixed group of species we can’t distinguish them from our own citizens. If this parasite persists for much longer, we could be facing the collapse of our entire system. We have to flush them out, whatever way possible,” Locke’s voice came through clearly over the hologram channel. There was no mistaking the severity of the situation.
“What do you propose we do? We can’t very well arrest at random, and if we make it known there is an issue we could face mass panic,” Bentre responded.
“To be honest, this threat is too great to remain conservative. I’m open to whatever suggestions you have. I expect your best ideas by the end of the rotation. Locke, out,” the Sadowan Consul concluded as the hologram blinked out of existence.
Aul sat back in his chair, in front of him a desk littered with notes and articles barely visible in the darkened barracks quarters. His datapad was a continuous scroll of information, projecting a starscape of characters onto the human’s eyes. Most of Naga Sadow’s Knights were out scouring the streets of Seng Karash looking for anything suspicious, but Aul, newly field-elevated due to his performance on the initial attack on the Dominion, had locked himself in his room to think. This was a puzzle, and like most puzzles Aul had encountered in the past this would couldn’t be forced into a solution.
The Dominion was here - in their midst. Their numbers weren’t so great that they could be easily identified as an amassing force, and the diversity of their appearances helped them meld in seamlessly with the already varied populace of Aeotheran.
“These Dominion scum… how can we possibly root them out?” the scientist mumbled to himself. He placed both elbows on his desk and sleepily laid his head in his hands with his eyes closed. “We can’t sacrifice the health and safety of civilians… despite what the Dark Jedi say.”
A few moments later Aul fell asleep, his head slipping through the palms of his hands and landing heavily on the desk with a thud. Celsus snapped awake and shook the tiredness from himself. Trying to focus his vision again, his eyes rested upon an article laying on the edge of his desk about the detection and ablation of cancer in Twi’lek patients.
“Cancer! Of course!” Aul exclaimed as he quickly opened a holo-connection to Locke.
“Aul, good, what’ve you got for me?” the Consul asked expectantly.
“The Dominion is a cancer, sir,” the Knight began.
“Uh, yes. Sure, it’s a cancer, a parasite, whatever you want to call it. We know this already,” Locke responded, sounding unimpressed.
“No, what I mean to say is we can approach the Dominion presence on Aeotheran as if we were approaching the detection of a cancer. You see, under certain circumstances you can identify the origin of a cancer by looking for signatures of accumulated substances in those cells that are not found in the surrounding tissue. Simply put, the Dominion will have a signature in their bodies from their extended time on Cha’kota that the Aeotheran civilian populace won’t have. We can ‘tag’ the signature, just like we do with cancer so we can surgically remove it,” Aul explained.
“Ok, I think I’m following. But how do we tag it?” the Sadowan leader asked.
“Uh… just one moment,” Aul responded and typed a string of queries furiously onto his datapad. He tapped his fingers anxiously on his desk as the results of his search compiled. As a satisfying beep came from the datapad, Aul let out a small chuckle. “Sir, blood test results from some of our captured Dominion subjects indicate a high elevation of a number of isotopes, but most importantly there is a surprising amount of solubilized, conjugated silver in their blood. Most importantly, every species of prisoner we have shows the same level. Precipitated silver colors skin a distinct blue shade. We can precipitate the silver in their blood with simple salt solutions, and it’s extremely quick. Salt the water, sir. The color change is almost always permanent, so they’ll stick out like a sore thumb.”
“Salt? That’s it? What if they don’t drink the water?” Consul Locke asked skeptically.
“Showers, misters, random ‘hose breaks’ whatever the case. Find a way to get them drenched in salt water or to consume some of the salt water. Salty food even. Just get their salt levels up and the balance will shift, precipitating out the silver into their dermis and turning them blue,” explained the scientist.
“I’ll send the word,” finished the Consul, “let’s hope this works.”