A/N: This is the second chapter posted today. There is more written, but this just seemed like the most logical place to stop this chapter. Blessed holiday-of-choice!
CHAPTER 1: SIMMONS STRIKES!
Everything was going along perfectly, Dr. Ralene Clark thought to herself with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She just knew there was going to be something that was going to go wrong. Simmons wouldn't let anything be easy for her. As she rounded the last bend before the embarkation chamber, the distinct lack of vehicles standing ready confirmed her dread.
"What did he do now?" she asked in exasperation of James "Jimmy" Hudson.
"He had all of the special NBT transport trucks sent to the motor pool to be rebuilt, washed and, or detailed.
"Detailed?! There hasn't been a single dime spent on detailing any vehicle in the fleet in the last five years I've been here."
"I know. I was able to get about half of them ready, the others are still in pieces."
Ray shot an angry glance up at the monitoring window that she knew Simmons would be watching from. His self-satisfied smirk told her all she needed to know.
Turning back around to discuss the situation with Jimmy, she called over the convoy commander and the logistics coordinator. "So, how many can we bring with us given the current transports?"
"Even when I get creative," the logistics coordinator started as she glanced at her clipboard, "you'd still have to leave fourteen behind. Unless you want to leave NBT – twelve-tango behind."
"Oh Hell no! Especially not considering the one animated at the same time is now on her way to who-knows-where to have who-knows-what done to her.
"Besides, it wouldn't surprise me if it was his plan the entire time.
"What if we transport them with the personnel?"
"What?!" the convoy commander demanded in a shocked tone. "Doesn't' that violate Sector Seven protocol?"
"Eric," the scientist addressed him with narrowed eyes, "When Simmons stuck his big nose in here and sabotaged my project, he went against ess seven protocols.
"We will leave them in their crates and lash them down in the center of the aisles. You will have at least four armed men surrounding each crate at all times if anything happens."
"You promise that nothing will happen?" Captain Eric McCutchen asked resignedly.
"Nope. I promise the likelihood of anything happening is very low," she reassured him.
Sighing, he turned back to his troops and informed them of the change in plan. Despite the few moments of shock, they all quickly shook it off and moved to begin loading the crates that would fit into the back of their transports.
"Alright, that will take care of another eight. We're still six short," the logistics coordinator advised.
"I can grab the minibus. Should be able to take care of the three remaining largest that way," Jimmy volunteered. He turned around and walked off toward the vehicle once the scientist nodded.
"Alright then, I'll have the last three sent back to storage," the other woman offered.
"No."
"What?
"How do you plan to move them?"
"I'll take them with me."
"There are no other vehicles available that will hold the remaining three crates."
A look up to the window witnessed the steady falling of Simmons' smile. Her triumphant smile quickly changed it to a look of utter dread.
"It's time to put my money where my mouth is," she said as she addressed the other woman. "They won't be in crates." With that, she walked over to the first of the remaining crates and quickly unlocked the armored door. It swung opened noisily.
Ray ignored the sound of weapons being cocked and pointed at the crate as she knelt in front of the door. Gently, she began to coo at the small figure within. Instinctively, she held both hands out to it, palms up, and made a gentle "hushing" sound. Soon, twin points of red cautiously crept forward and a metallic hand hesitantly reached out for the offered hands. As soon as it made contact, it quickly jumped back and made a strange chitterring-whir sound. Again, the soothing sounds she was making lured it out of its' dark space and it reached out again, this time shyly taking the offered hands.
"That's right, little one," she said in soothing tones. "It's alright. I won't hurt you. I won't let anyone else hurt you either."
Emboldened by the gentle voice, the little robotic being cautiously walked out of its' crate completely and into the waiting arms. The murmurs of the other voices surrounding them made the small being make a distressed beep, whistle, chirr sound and bury its' face in the chest of the person holding it.
"I know, baby. It's scary out here. I know. But it'll be alright. No one will hurt you. I promise, I won't let them."
Instinctively, the compassionate scientist held the small being tightly to her and soothingly stroked the back of his head. Suddenly, the little creature began to purr and push his head into the gentle hand.
"You like that?" Ray asked with a gentle laugh. Her question was rewarded with a quizzical tilt of his head and a sudden, pained chirp as he ducked back into her chest. A quiet hiss-click sound with a minor tug to the material of her t-shirt had her quickly pulling back in surprise and concern.
Hesitantly, he looked back up at her with a new mirrored device over his eyes. Curiously, he looked around him at the other beings standing around. He noted the hollow looking things being pointed at him and nervously edged closer to the scientist.
"What happened to its face?" Eric asked in alarm.
"They almost look like sun glasses," Ray mentioned thoughtfully. "I wonder if he's photosensitive and they are an in-built protection mechanism," she speculated.
"In-built?" Jimmy asked as he came up near the armed circle.
She nodded. "Yeah. When he looked up at me, he gave a pained little sound and hid his face back into my shirt. I felt a tug against the material and heard a 'click' before he looked back up with his eyes covered."
"I'll write that down for you," Jimmy volunteered as he pulled a small memo notebook out of his pocket. "Which one is it?"
"NBT – one-one-ess-one-nine-eight-five-one-one-zero-five-delta-six-zero-eight-three-three."
"Got it," he said as he quickly turned to another page in his notebook.
"Hey, let's go get the others out," Ray told the little creature clasping tightly to her hand.
He cocked his head in curiosity as he hesitantly followed along behind her. Efficiently, she opened the next crate in line. The next small being, one with wings was a little bolder about coming out when she saw the other being standing beside her. Finally, with minimal prompting, the last crate was opened and the final member of the strange quartet was lured out and promptly latched tightly onto the human female.
"There! See? I haven't been attacked or even threatened in any way, shape or form," the young scientist needlessly informed the armed guards surrounding them with a triumphant smile.
"Just what the HELL are you doing?" Simmons demanded as he stormed into the room. "Ess seven protocol clearly states that all NBE or NBT subjects are to remain secured at all times!
"Get those things back into their cages NOW!"
"Actually," Ray informed coolly as she tried to calm the terrified beings behind her, "that particular protocol states the subjects are to remain secured at all times while under sector control.
"Ess seven protocol three-eighty-seven point six-seven - transfer of control of sector property - clearly states that all property, including subjects, are considered under sector control only until the new agent of the receiving entity or department takes physical custody. Further, the embarkation room is considered to be neutral territory for those exchanges to take place in a controlled environment.
"Now, that means that as soon as I, and my agents, laid a finger on these crates, we took physical custody; meaning they're notunderyourcontrol ANYMORE!
"And if you have a problem with that, I'm sure that Tom would be more than happy to settle our dispute. Especially seeing as you were the one who signed all of those orders to 'incapacitate' my transports, forcing me to get creative."
The only sound in the room louder than Simmons' snorts of outrage was the nervous clicking-whirr-whistling sounds the small beings hiding behind her were making.
"If – no, when those . . . things go nuclear on your ass and slit your throat, don't come crying to me," the head of security warned threateningly as he invaded the petite woman's personal space.
"Move back or I will move you back," she warned in return.
The two seemed to engage in a staring match for the longest time. . . until Simmons tried to cover his growing unease with the order for his men to fall back to the hangars.
Ray took a deep breath and gained control over her emotions.
"Okay guys," she directed back to the small beings as she turned to them, "let's get situated so we can blow this Popsicle stand!"
After moving the beings toward her car and some deliberation, Ralene was able to get the three metallic passengers strapped into her personal vehicle with the seat-belts. The little flier proved to be a bit of a challenge, until she got the idea to strap her in with the seat-belt from the door and the middle of the back seat. It seemed the best solution to keep from squishing the poor thing's wings.
Having the flier placed first, realizing she would be the most difficult to situate, she was able to quickly place the remaining two NBTs in the remaining seats; the first one went in the back seat next to the flier and the frightened, third one was placed in the seat beside her. Not wanting to leave them alone, she called the commander, Jimmy, the other drivers and the logistics officer over to briefly go over the travel plans.
"Okay, I have you scheduled to head out on Nevada one seventy-two until you get to US ninety-three. You want to head south through Arizona. From ninety-three, you want to head toward US sixty, east. From sixty, you want to head for eye ten. That should get you all the way to Alamogordo, from there, you have the directions to the facility north of there.
"I also have you scheduled for one, half hour stop half way. It should take you about eleven hours to get there."
"Thank you Amy," Jimmy told her as she handed over the directions to him and left.
"Alright, once we've stopped, we'll have to arrange shifts so there won't be any time any vehicle is left unattended," Eric informed as he handed out the direction cards to his drivers. "Murphy, O'Hare and Aharon have all been to the new facility before, as well as the doc, Hudson and myself. If anyone has any questions about where we're going, just follow one of us.
"Any questions now?"
When no one said anything, Ray spoke up. "We'll be leaving in ten minutes. If anyone needs to visit the bathroom, this is the time to do it."
"I'll watch the little ones while you go," Jimmy volunteered, recognizing the unasked request.
"You're a doll," she smiled at the slightly older male as she rushed off toward the ladies' room.
Using the handicapped stall, she finished and washed her hands in the in-stall sink before she checked herself in the mirror. Taking a few minutes, she took off her shirt and examined the new scar on her left chest. Satisfied that it was healing nicely, she turned around to examine the matching one on her back. It also was healing nicely. Briefly, she allowed her mind to wander back to when she had first gotten them:
~~~~~START FLASHBACK~~~~~
She was engrossed in her work, as was typical, taking charcoal rubbings of the giant cube. Despite all of the advances in technology, she still found the amount of detail discovered just by carefully made charcoal rubbing on paper to be the best by far. She was stretching over the railing, just trying to get the rest of one of the more intriguing symbols into her rubbing when she fell.
~~~~~END FLASHBACK~~~~~
Ralene quickly shook herself out of her memories and put her shirt back on. An unusual concern rippling through her mind - she needed to get back to her kids.
Quickly returning to her car, she noticed that Jimmy seemed to be getting upset.
"What's wrong?" she asked in genuine concern.
"The little one in the front is wailing and rocking back and forth and the one with the eye coverings has demolished your car door."
"What?!" Quickly, she walked over to the car and opened the door that was apparently destroyed. Looking at it critically, she sighed in relief and shook her head.
"No, it isn't destroyed, just dismantled. It doesn't look like a single thing has been broken either.
"Hey, little one," she turned her attention back to the one in the front seat. "It's okay. I'm back."
Instantly, the one in the front seat calmed and watched her back over his shoulder. When she reached down over the back of his seat and rubbed at his head, he purred in contentment.
"You're going to be a handful, aren't you," she said conversationally to the one in the back seat.
He chirped in disappointment and began to look around him, most likely for something else to do, Ray decided.
"Well, I can't very well let you destroy my car. But I think I might have something you can do," she thought aloud as she fished the keys out of her pocket and moved back toward the trunk.
After scrounging around for less than a minute, she came back carrying a car tray holding an old boom box and a small tool case. Deftly, she set the tray in front of the curious little NBT and then lifted his arms over it so he wouldn't get trapped before she slid the legs between the seats. Pushing the "eject" button, she fished out the cassette that was in the player and started to untangle the mess the tape had made.
"See, it's broken. It eats the tapes. These are what they are supposed to look like," she told him as she pulled the extra one off the back.
Fascinated, the little being carefully examined the intact tape, then looked at the ruined one. Gently, he began to re-spool the tape into the cassette, being careful not to flip the magnetic strip over.
Satisfied that the project would keep him occupied for a while, Ray firmly popped the door panel back in place and shut the door. Walking around to the rear of her car, she shut the trunk and continued around until she was at the driver's door.
"We ready?" she called to Eric.
"Yeah! You follow twelve-tango. I know how you drive, you have a lead foot," he decreed, half-jokingly.
"I don't have a lead foot," she joked back. "I just drive quickly."
He laughed as he climbed into the lead car. "Let's move!"