Chapter 4: Houston, We Have a Problem
The next day, Parvo stood at his command console, watching his staff on the lower level doing their specific tasks at the moment.
"I wonder how the new canomutator is progressing," Parvo said outloud to himself. He pushed a button on the console. "Takato, how is the prototype progressing?"
A moment later, Takato's face appeared on the large screen. Takato still wore his ninja garments, but he wasn't wearing his cowl. He wore a black headband in its place. He was in the Canomutation Lab at the base. The room was large with tall walls. Along each side of the walls were computer terminals. Along the back wall was the prototype of the new canomutator. In the center of the room were numerous tables. Sitting at the tables were the kidnapped scientists and engineers from Kennedy Space Center. Takato was at a console, looking at small screen with Parvo's face on it.
"The prototype is completed sir," Takato said. "All that is left is to install the software into the computer, and we'll be all set.
"Excellent," Parvo said. "Let me talk to Khalil for a moment."
"Yes sir," Takato said as he turned away from the screen to look at a teenaged African American male with cornrows, wearing a black t-shirt, baggy jeans, and skateboard shoes. "Khalil, Parvo wants to have a word with you."
The teen walked over to the console.
"Yes Parvo?" Khalil asked.
"Have you determined which canomutant will go through the prototype?"
"At first I was goin' to use the prototype on Grudge, but I decided against it."
"Why?" questioned Parvo.
"Because he's a maverick that follows his own beliefs," Khalil explained. "Anyway, afte' careful evaluation, I found a suitable candidate to test the prototype on. Tha' Dalmatian you mutated back in 1996."
"Okay," Parvo said, nodding his head.
"The software to the canomutator has been installed into the computer, sir," one of Parvo's scientists announced.
"It seems like we're ready for a test drive," Khalil said, smiling and rubbing his hands together in eagerness. "Where's our test…I mean lucky volunteer?"
The Dalmatian canomutant walked into the lab, growling and snarling. Khalil walked over to the beast and led it over to the canomutator prototype. At a console near the canomutator was a male vulposapien scientist. He had red fur throughout his body, a patch of white fur around the muzzle, black fur at the tip of his ears, and brown fur around the hands. He had lime green eyes. He wore a light blue buttoned up dress shirt that is covered up by a white lab coat, dark grey slacks, and a pair of acid proof lab boots. Khalil looked at the vulposapien.
"Riley, open the doors to the prototype," he ordered the vulposapien scientist.
"Right away," Riley said sadly as he pushed a button on the console.
The doors to the canomutator slid open. Khalil looked at the Dalmatian and ordered it to step into the chamber. Dalmatian complied and stepped into the chamber. Riley closed the doors of the canomutator. He looked at Khalil, who gave a nod with his head to start the process. Riley typed a command on the screen.
Once the command was inputted, the prototype came to life. A low hum and hissing noises were heard from the device. As the machine was going through the transformation process, an alarm blared throughout the lab, which brought attention to Khalil and Takato. Suddenly, the computer system backfired and burst into flames. This started a chain reaction with the other computer terminals too. The inferno reached the chamber, causing it to short out.
The chamber began to malfunction, sending electrical current into the chamber, where the Dalmatian was in. The currents struck the Dalmatian from different angles, causing the Dalmatian to howl in pain from each shock that he received. He started to pound on the door, wanting to escape the pain. The exterior of the door started to receive dents from the pounding, and it eventually gave way. The Dalmatian stumbled out of the canomutator, panting real hard from the physical stress. He eventually passed out on top of the damaged door.
Takato quickly placed his right hand over Khalil's mouth as Khalil started going through a colorful language fit, while Takato kept an emotionless look on his face. Throughout his fit, Khalil moved his arms up and down and saying every single insult known to man. Once he was through with his little fit, Takato removed his hand from Khalil's mouth.
"Does anyone wanna tell me, wha' went wrong?" Khalil asked in venomously calm voice, eyeing the scientists and engineers. He reached over picked up a pipe. "If y'all don't, you'll understand why dogs don't like thermometers."
"Please don't remind me," Takato said, as he rubbed his butt.
One of the scientists stood up and cautiously made his way over to Khalil.
"Uhh…one of the reasons that this thing didn't work properly is because of the design of the computer," the scientist began. "It was poorly designed, resulting in a massive heat production from the chips on the motherboard. Another thing is that we never programmed a computer as advanced as that one before, so the program was faulty. The engineers have noticed that the materials used for this thing were the improper ones, so it couldn't deal with the process properly."
Khalil punched the scientist in the face. "I appreciate your insight." He turned his attention over to Takato. "What are we goin' to do now, since we now have a screwed up canomutator?"
"Simple," Takato replied, still in his emotionless state. "We go back to Unown-Aero, find the updated plans for the computer, get the correct materials, and get a staff member from the Computer Research and Development Facility."
"Why the last one?"
"That way, we have someone that knows how to program the computer, and this person could teach our staff on how to program it."
"I see," Khalil said.
Khalil and Takato walked back over to the console, and informed Parvo that the test was a failure. They also told him of what they were planning to do to ensure that the next one doesn't end up as a failure.
4
