Chapter 24
An hour had passed since the conversation with Warden Seali (Max now guessed it was former warden). Since then it had been all activity. The Councilwoman had asked Max, frankly, what he needed to help track down this Kinswell. And Max had answered.
He knew that the monster Doctor Jumba had made from the DNA of this Kinswell and something else. The Geek's unknown genetic code. But part of that unknown code was apparently some of the stuff stolen from the factory. It wasn't a stretch to see why. If this Lagomorph had kidnapped and brainwashed Doctor Jumba to create more of these experiments, then he would need the raw ingredients to get them. And if the Earth just happened to supply the ingredients, why bother going to some populated space station or advanced world where either he or Jumba would be recognised? Why not just do their shopping here.
So Max needed to know what else they had stolen and what they still needed. He needed to know the formula to make a Jumba experiment.
The Councilwomen had looked hesitant. "That formula, Max, is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the galaxy. It is the whole reason why we need to find Jumba and now this Kinswell person, as soon as physically possible…"
Then something flashed over the Councilwomen's expression. Something Max could have sworn looked like fear.
She continued "But with the involvement of the Invincible… I see no other choice. I will call Professor Langstrum, the only other person in the galaxy to know the details of the formula. You will need someone who will be able to work with the Professor to work out what might still be needed… unless they have already got all they need and have left your world"
The comment seemed to hold more foreboding then Max could properly appreciate. He wanted to ask the Councilwoman why she seemed so worried about this ship, but instead decided to put that thought aside. He then made a call.
And so The Geek had appeared, not seeming to be bothered about the collection of hologram and real aliens in the room and just got to speaking to Professor Langstrum, as if they were old colleagues, comparing notes. She didn't seemed fazed in the least to be talking to a floating transparent blue bulb, who's voice seemed to trigger a collection flashes of red and purple to appear inside of him.
So the two chatted. Darla and he trying to take each part of Jumba's formula and translate the alien details into elements and compounds that Darla could understand. Max, who had decided to sit back and enjoy a coffee, watched the two.
Darla actually seemed engaged, which was rare for her. She was learning things no one else on Earth or even the universe knew. Even the Geek couldn't resist taking some glee in knowing something so dangerous and exclusive.
"So THAT'S why we didn't get any readings on the DNA!" Darla shouted, looking relived to finally know what had been bothering her for the last two days.
"Oh yes" Professor Langstrum said, seeming to chuckle, or whatever the equivalent of a chuckle was to the living light bulb. It seemed, from what Max could see, a deep pulsing purple light, if he was guessing right. "That was a little secret that dear Jumba invented just for his biological experiments. It drove all of us just as mad. No one knew how he did it, but all the samples he left in his lab after his arrest just came back with flark"
"Flark?" Darla asked conversational
"…. Hmm, I think the closest word you have for flark is gibberish." The Professor said.
"Flark… I like it" Darla replied, giving a cheeky smile.
Max grinned, enjoying the exchange, before he just noticed the hologram of the Councilwomen walk up next to him. She, after calling the professor, had disappeared, saying she needed to update her troops on the situation. She had obviously just come back. Thankfully not arriving with the light show from before.
To Max's surprise, she too also seemed to have a cup of something in her hands. Something steaming that she held like a life line.
Noting his gaze the Councilwoman answered the unasked question "We call it Co-fee. A beverage made from a bean we cultivate. It produces a drug we call caffeine. It proves quite-" She stopped as Max, with his usual grin held up his cup.
Looking down and then at a small list of read outs that popped up in front of the Councilwomen she leaned back with a matching grin.
"Well. It appears your planet isn't quite as under-developed as I was told"
Max took the comment as a friendly one. Infact, to his surprise, the Councilwoman sat down. Not on the couch he was on or the adjacent chair, but in mid-air, obviously sitting in some chair that was also not displayed in the hologram. It did give off a cool look.
"So, Max. How did you come up with your deduction? I still do not know the details of your investigation"
Max grinned with self-satisfaction. He really couldn't resist. Not when asked for the reason on his 'deduction'
"It was… elementary"
There was a pause as the Councilwoman looked down at Max. Waiting patiently, but obviously not getting the reference.
"I really shouldn't make jokes referencing Earth made characters." Max said evenly. And with that, he explained. He went into short details on his first case with the warehouse and then what he found out afterwards. He did leave out all the… more embarrassing and personal points involved with the case, but for the most part, mentioned everything else.
The Councilwoman, as Max finished, nodded. "I believe I can see how you got to your reasoning on Jumba's kidnapper. Though I must say it still seemed to be a bit of a leap"
Max had to nod. He had been so gun-ho at the time. He had been so angry at the idea of Cocky being back in town that suddenly taking him out of the equation… well it didn't clear things up but it did make the pieces fit together better.
"Yes. It was. But 50% of police work is lucky guessing" Max said. That had been one of Sam's. Luck had played a big part in most of Sam and Max's cases. Finding that random object that just so irrelevant but happened to be the exact item they needed to get past some locked door or guard, even if the reason was a stupid one. That had happened far too often.
"Well I am glad you made the leap and brought it before me so quickly. The faster we act now…"
Max, though enjoying this casual talk with, what was probably, the most powerful person in the galaxy, decided to bring up the question he had been holding back.
"What is the problem with this ship being involved?" Max envisioned a giant fortress of a ship. One armed with every imagined science fiction weapon put to film.
The truth though turned out to be the opposite
"It was an un-armed peace keeping ship commissioned by the Federation's top research team." The Councilwoman said simply, sitting straight and staring down at Max, with an intensity he found disconcerting. "A ship with shielding capable of taking any punishment imaginable. It was made to enter war zones and safety evacuate civilians. The goal was a good one"
"So it's a ship no one can hurt?" Max asked, not seeing why this was so scary.
"Yes. The shield designed was state of the art. The engine powering it was so large the ship was made to the size of… well… this island"
Max's mouth hung open. "The size of New York?"
The Councilwoman nodded before taking a sip of her Co-fee. "Yes. And it worked. Though it has no weapons of any kind, it does have some of the most advanced stealth systems imaginable for a ship its size… but there was a complication"
Max asked the question he was effectively told to ask. "Which was?"
"One of our scientists ran some simulations. The ship was designed to be a moving fortress only. Impervious to damage whilst the shield was active but unable to fight in any way. However, one of the simulations that a particularly forward thinking scientist created" The Councilwoman said, nodding over to Professor Langstrum to indicate who she was talking about.
"… well the professor came to the realisation that a ship with such a large mass which could take no damage would automatically be able to go on the offensive, even without any weapons. It only had to ram its targets. Some of the others on the team said such concerns were pointless as such brute force combat was not really possible in open space…."
"…but?" Max asked, again filling his role of being the attentive audience.
"But the professor decided to simulate what would happen to a planet based military structure if this ship were to collide with it. If at minimum speed, it would destroy any structure you could imagine, no matter the design or materials. The shear mass would crush it…. At maximum speed. Near full accreditation into the atmosphere of an inhabited planet…. The resultant collision would almost certainly kill every living person."
The Councilwoman actually leaned back in her invisible chair, looking tired and dishevelled. "We aimed to create the ultimate peace keeping vehicle. We accidentally created the perfect planet killer"
Max suddenly realised, unconcously looking up and out the window as if expecting the sky to be full of descending space ship.
"I think that's as good a definition of the word 'Ironic' as I've heard before"
The Councilwoman nodded. "Planet destroying engines are not, in all honesty, that hard to create. Nearly every race able to travel the great distances of the galaxy have a number of weapons capable of destroying a planet. It's actually that not hard. But nearly all of them leave some kind of trace. Even ones that just fling meteorites at planets, and most civilisations have defensive systems to handle these known weapons."
She then straightened and looked back at Max, no levity in her eyes. "But not the Invincible. No defence system known can stop it. And it doesn't leave a trace. Anyone could just decide to take out some race's home planet and chances are, no one would know who did it. That Max is infinitely more dangerous. Mass destruction without consequence. That is why this has gotten much more serious"
Max gulped. He usually didn't have much room in his busy career for fear. Any life threatening situation that came up was usually something Max could see as some kind of fun new experience. But something about some massive structure taking out the Earth… just cause some guy up there felt like it. And no one would know or be able to stop him…
Max shivered and turned to Darla. "Geek. Any news?"
The Geek looked up at Max's call and excused herself from the Professor. She nodded politely to the Galactic Councilwoman and said "Yes actually. We know what he still needs"
"How?" Max and the Councilwoman asked.
It was the living light bulb, Professor Langstrum who answered, floating up next to Darla. "It appears all major components required to make a rather frightening number of experiments have already been taken from my friend here" A light shining up Darla.
"We never noticed it. All the things that the Professor mentioned are all made by our company. And when I looked through our records I can see thefts of nearly of them from one warehouse or another. I didn't notice it as this was happening worldwide and none of the thefts were deemed important enough to reach my level, except the one Max was hired for"
The Councilwoman nodded thoughtfully. "So this Lagomorph has all he needs to make his minions"
"No actually" The professor said in a cheer voice. "There is one part I know he does not have. At least not completely. A special kind of plasma made from metal, called Ludedome. It is not something they could make with the materials here on Earth. I would say it would be around…. 500 years before this species is capable of producing such a chemical"
Darla nodded. "Yep. I've gone through it with the Professor and there is no way they have the stuff. But we know they are still here."
"And how is that" The Councilwoman asked
"Because Jumba should still be able to produce a batch. But the process of making Ludedome from scratch will take vast amounts of energy and time. He could need a reactor able to reach 10000 degrees, the right elements, which have also been stolen from my company and many many weeks of time. It is almost certain they are somewhere in the solar system, hiding and biding their time. This Kinswell has all the time he needs, or so he thinks"
"So there is a chance" The Councilwoman said. "Though we also won't be able to enter you system as quickly as I thought"
"Why's that?" Max asked, wondering why the cavalry suddenly had to be held back, is if they didn't want to be early.
"If I sent them to Earth in hyper drive, they would get here in a few hours. However the Invincible would detect them in almost an instant and leave. Possible not before destroying the Earth. If the Lagomorph was cold hearted enough, he might decide to do so the remove any evidence of his plans."
"Ok. So we need to wait for this guy and… hold on" Max said slowly, a sudden idea coming to him. "Geek, how did he know to take what he needed from your warehouses? Scanners?"
It was the Professor who answered "Not quite. The ship is most likely listening in on all communication being sent around the world. All texts, emails and phone calls, and such"
Noting the wide eyed expression on Max he added "That really is not that impressive. We are thousands of years more advanced then you, technologically speaking that is… no offense"
"No taken" Max said distractedly. "So… is it possible to say Geek, in one of your emails you send to your board of directors or something that you have some of this Ludedome suddenly?
The professor seemed dubious "Though you could reference the material's chemical structure, which would almost certainly be detected by the Invincible if it is still listening in… I see no good reason why you would suddenly have a vast quantity of this material available to you. It is, as I said, far ahead of your technological abilities to create"
Max mused. "We did have aliens here recently… and one other these guys had their ship crash in the Hudson. We could easily lie, say you found a load of this stuff on board after it was dragged up. That's possible, right?"
The professor actually seemed to consider this. "Yes, possible, possible, if the right language was used... Would you be able to get this ship out of your… Hudson?
Max shook his head "Cocky's ship… kind of dissolved. But as an excuse goes, how about it? The guy above our heads doesn't know we are on to him"
Darla, the Councilwoman, Pleakley and Agent Bubbles all looked at each other and, as one nodded in agreement. The professor just glowed blue to show his support.
Max grinned, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "Great… let's set a good old fashioned sting"