A Deal You Can't Refuse
"She could change everything about her, using color bold and bright. But all the colors mix together, to grey." - DaveMatthewsBand.
A cold breeze floated through the alleyways, cooling off the heat from the sun. The sun had been down for nearly an hour. The alley strewn with furniture had been long since cast in the shadows of the buildings surrounding it. To anyone, the alley looked like a place to discard unwanted furinture where it would rot into a huge pile of dirt.
Under a table where a mattress lay was a small blue alien. He curled tighter as the wind sucked all the warmth from the objects arround him. He felt like he had a hangover, whatever that was. 626 was rudely awakened from his sleep when his stomach rolled. He felt the hunger pains and the emptyness inside. He felt to weak to move, he needed to eat something, it had been well over fifty six hours without any food. The alien lay there, eyes still shut, waiting for the pain to go away. A few minutes passed, it didn't leave him.
626 heard a grunt from above. There was a few seconds before he knew what happened. Ther was a crash, the table above him exploded in a shower of splinters. A monitor from a computer came through the hole and right onto him. By the size of it he guessed it to be at least fifty years old. He put his arms up to stop the impact. It was huge, nearly three feet across. The mammoth thing landed ontop of him, pressing him against the mattress. He heard the screen break as soon as it hit him. He went into the screen, the springy mattress bounced it off, he exited again. There was a sharp pain in his arm, he couldn't tell which one he was so hungry and weak. After a few seconds he laid flat again, the glass crunched under him.
He had to get up, had something to eat. He stood up and shakily exited the alleyway and went into the cold streets. The smell of oil and fresh paint stung his nose. He continued down the street. He was thinking of woh he would get back to Jumba's lab. He then remembered the homing device in his belt, he looked down. Much to his demise it wasn't there. He thought it might have gotten torn off when he was in that under-ground bunker. He sighed and continued his slow pace to where ever he was going, he didn't care anymore. He didn't notice, because of his wearyness, that he left the yellow blasters laying on the mattress.
* * *
"Nearly two days." 327 repeated. "Two days, and nothing." she sighed. Jumba had told her to watch for any news or report on a small creature with excess destruction. So far nothing. Jumba was gone, out looking for 626, he had been since early that morning. He told her to take all his calls. There were two of interest, both from someone named Darfinis and they both stated that he and Jumba should meet. She wrote down the number and promised him Jumba would call back.
She heard the com beeb, indication that there was an incoming ship demanding entrance to the docking bay. 327 knew it was Jumba comming into range, obviously he found 626. She opened the docking bay doors to let him inside and ran to greet him. She reached the doors to the docking bay and saw the sad expression on Jumba's face, 625 sported one of joy. She didn't know why he took 625 anyway, the onlything he would look for was the nearest 'Subway'. She now put her share into the cloud that loomed over everyone's head in the lab. "Guess you didn't find him." she said. Jumba grunted in reply. All three walked off, away from the red ship.
While the three were walking down the hall 327 was thinking of some way to find 626 easier than a manual search of each city block. "Jumba?" sh asked. "Hmm.." he grumbled. "Isn't there one of those tracking devices in 626's belt?" "327, I have no time to be concerned with 626's track-" He stopped. "That's it!" He exclaimed. He raced off to the controll room, 327 and 625 were following.
Jumba didn't bother to grab a chair, he just whacked the keyboard while standing. His thick fingers went over the keys. "626 had a tracking device implanted into the belt of his combat suits. He had six, one was destroyed now there are five." He punched a few more keys. "And.." He pressed the final key. The screen took a few seconds to load. A map of the city relevant to where the lab and all the positions of the trackers was shown. Up in the corner there were sixnumbers, one was crossed out. There were tow dots on the screen, one was a cluster, in 626's locker. Jumba focused on the single dot. "He's not moving." 327 said in alarm after a few seconds. All three watched for a few more minutes. It still didn't move.
"He's dead." 327 said flatly, tears welled up in her eyes. She turned from the screen. "And I haven't even told him I love him." She sank into the chair on which she stood and started weeping.
Jumba started a log and traced the movements of the belt for the last two days. It took a good minute for it to finish loading the data. Then another screen popped up on the monitor. It showed all the movements since the preceding two days. He started the run. He watched as the computer re- enacted what happened.
The red dot was stationary in 626's room. A nearly 0200 it started to move. Down several hallways, the controll room. The elevation increased, 626 had gone up somewhere, outside the lab. It traveled across the grass then paused. It shot off fast very fast, the computer fought to keep up with the map display. It stopped arround eight mile from the lab, right above an old Gothic Building, the altimeter was showing it at several hundred feet. It paused, then shot off again. Across the forest outside the city, pause. Jumba watched the altimeter drop, below sea level. The dot flew off again. It stopped right under the same building that it had hovered over minuted before. It moved under the buliding for nearly an hour. Then it stopped, one hundred feet below the city streets. "Come on.." He mumbled Three hours passed in the re-enactment, four eight. The red dot was stationary. Thirteen hours. "Danmit!" Jumba yelled, 625 fell off the chair from the sudden explosion of Jumba's temper. "So he's dead." 625 said, a bit of remorse ans joy in his voice. 327 wailed louder. "I don't believe so. He could be unconscious, or imprisoned."
Jumba moved over 327's chair. "Tomorrow, we go see what's with that building." He stared down at her. "And I would like you to accompany me 327." She sniffed and tried to pull herself together. "Ok." she managed to choke out. "I'm going to my room to-" she stopped and ran off.
* * *
The night was dark. He stumbled on the side walk. 626 was sure this was the right way to Jumba's lab. They turned off all the holo dirrectories at night, so he couldn't be sure. The only thing he cartian about at this point was hunger and exaustion. He passed a corner and walked across the street. He saw something wierd, a light flash inside a shop across the street. He froze.
A bakery, filled with cakes and rolls and sweets of all kinds. He drooled uncontrollably. But there was something amiss, the front door was wide open. He would sneak in and take a roll, or doghnut, or cake. He approached the door and heard a shuffle. He saw three aliens bent over behind the counter in the corner. They appeared to be kicking something. He heard a muffled cry for help. He knew what the men were now doing, this was a robbery. Plus they were beating on an innocent, defenceless alien, and that was HIS job.
The three lifted up the baker and started to head toward the door. 626 saw the baker, his white apron was now red with blood and several bruises were starting to form. The baker opened a bloody eye and spotted 626, he knew that the little blue alien didn't come with the robbers, a kid out on a late night cruise perhaps. He whispered, almost silently. "Get help."
626 wasn't in the mood for doing any good deeds, but how would he feel when he needed someone, and no one came. The appeared unarmed, but if they were it didn't matter. He waited outside the door, crouched in a defensive stance. The three brought the baker over to the blue cruiser. "Now or never." he mumbled. He sprinted to the vehicle, pausing only to pick up a piece of glass.
He came right throught the legs of the one with a leather coat, he came crashing to the ground and was knocked unconscious. "What the?" the red shirt yelled. 626 ran the glass across his shins. The red shirt screamed, and fell over in pain.
The last one, the green hat, pulled out a silenced pistol and pulled the baker in front of him. "Come any closer and he gets it." His hand shook. A sweat broke out on his fore head. 626 used this as an advantage, he slowly walked foreward, as fast as he could manage. "D-don't come any closer." 626 still pressed on. "I'm warning you." the green hat said. Still comming. He pointed the blaster toward him. "Stop!" There was a definate tone of fear.
The squeak of the gun echoed off the walls of the small intersection. The shot hit the little blue alien right in the chest. And he still kept comming. "What the?" he said. Three more shots follwed, none had any effect. He looked at the gun and stared. He dropped it and ran off into the night, as fast as he clould.
The baker stood up on his own will, he didn't need any coaxing. He was amazed at both the small alien and the gun that apparently had no effect. He sat down on the curb and watched as the little alien came closer. "Are you alright?" he asked. "Yes, I'm fine." The baker said. There was a good fear and awe in what he'd seen. He wanted to know more about the corious little blue thing. "Is there any way I can repay you?" The alien smiled, "Yes there is." he left it there. "And what would it be?" The baker asked. 626 pointed to the shop. "Let's start with a loaf of bread."
* * *
The warmth felt good. Under the blankets 327 stirred. She really didn't want to go with Jumba to retrieve what was left of 626, or some other thing like that. She'd cried herself to sleep last night. There was hope that 626 was alive. Untill she'd seen the body there was a glimmer of hope inside her. She tossed the blankets off of her and got up. There was still some regret and pain inside. She looked arround her small room, before closing the door.
Outside the lab was eerily quiet, there was not a sound. This was normal, she was always the first one up.She yawned as she walked to the controll room. This was the first thing she did every day, check the controlls and make sure that all systems are operational. Then she could go get breakfast and such.
After three hours of looking at the controlls, the controll room seemed normal and now 327 headed for the kitchen. She'd seen some pastries from Osgov that she had to try. Before she got there Jumba blocked her way and dirrected her toward the docking bay. "What's the rush?" she said in alarm, as Jumba pushed her on. He almost seemed to be kicking her. " We have to hurry." He said hastily. "Why?" she asked. "An informant of mine says the building in which 626 is in will be searched thoroughly by a secret hired team of forensic scientists. And I they find any trace of him, well you know." 327 senced the urgency and began to run.
* * *
"Is everything ready?" Darfinis looked over to an alien in a green uniform. "Yes, your speach papers are here and there is a podium set up outside the front doors." Skeff said. "If everything goes right, three minutes after my speach the bombs hidden inside the Grevold will blow." He messed with his sleeves. "Have you gotten a hold of Dr. Jumba yet?" The General thought for a minute. "No, but we keep getting his secretary." "Jumba doesn't have a secretary." Darfinis shot back. "That's wierd." Skeff mumbled. "How do I look?" Darfinis asked, changing the subject. "Better than me." "I'll take that as a compliment." Darfinis said with a cut throat tone. "If Jumba decides to take my offer or not, we will get experiment 626. I already have the greatest scientists working on a replicator. When it is finished we will be able to replicate 626 and create an indestructable army." An evil grin followed. Maureder and General Skeff headed out to the podium in the shadow of the Grevold.
* * *
Jumba punched the accelertor in the small green land cruiser. 327 sat in the back, a small laptop on the back seat, the red dot that was 626 was getting stronger. "Were close." she yelled over the wind and engine. Jumba didn't say a word, he focused on driving the hovering vehicle. A few minutes later they were getting closer to the Grevold. "327, I'll need you inside that infernal place, but you can't be seen. I'll need you to climb inside this bookbag." He lifted it up. It was big, for her, she would easily fit inside with ample elbow room. "We'll need the laptop too."
327 climbed inside without any hesitaion. She sat down in the bottom, she flipped up the screen. 'Oh, yea. Lots of room.' she thought. There was a thin stream of light comming in throught the cracks in the top. "Quiet." Jumba said. The cruiser had stopped. The bag was lifted up.
Jumba parked in an alley way right across from the gathering crowd. He was worried when he saw the hover vans with news names on the side. C-Star, CNNX, and the TuroSR Channel were all there. The building didn't look dammaged from the outside, but then there was an underground bunker. He walked toward the mass of people. Three security gaurds appraoched him. "What do you have in that pack sir?" one asked. "My laptop." Jumba said outloud, so that 327 could here. "Could we see it?" Jumba reached back and pulled it out and handed it to the secrity gaurd. They handed it back. "Any identification?" Jumba pulled out his Liscence, MD certification, and permit to buy chemicals. "Dr. Jumba?" Jumba nodded. "Come with us." the gaurd said.
He didn't think much of the command he always had poeple giving him orders. He nodded and followed the three gaurds arround the masses of aliens to the side of the podium. "Wait here, untill after the speach. Mr. Maurader will want to talk to you." The three left Jumba standing alone. 'Mr Maurader?' he asked himself. 327 senced the gaurds gone, but she still remained silent. "327." Jumba mumbled. "Yea?" she said back. "Use that laptop and find out what you can on this 'Maurader' person." "I'm on it."
A few minutes passed while 327 dug into the files of the Federation. She leared over the years of hacking they were the best place to get information on subjects. She browsed over the material. Then compacted it fror Jumba to get in while the speach was going on. "Says, Darfinis Maurader, age, 21. Nephew to Councilor Alkadia Onedia. Learning the roots to be a Councilor himself. Um..... Outstanding record at Skedil (Like Oxford) grade piont avg, is 3.8. Other that than nothing." She whispered to him. "Hmmmm...., Thanks anyway 327." Now why would some junior councilor want to see him. His attention was diverted to the speach.
There was a very lengthy speach on the vulgar attack in the 'basement' of the Grevold. And the subject of how evil the enviromentallists are things got boring. The crowd slowly disentegrated after several minutes of the speach. In half an hour only the news crews and some chairmen from variuos boards were left. The tall alien finished up the speach. Jumba didn't remember the news cars leaving faster, they usually hung arround to ask questions. He laughed, he hoped the alien that was at the podium didn't give him a long boring speach, he might fall down dead.
Darfinis knew why Jumba was here. He used his comms link and called off the bombs with his wrist computer and told them to wait. He knew Jumba would want to look inside. Maurader walked to Jumba, he nodded to the gaurds and the suited men began to push back the crowds people that wanted to get his signature and such.
"Dr. Jumba, I presume." Jumba whipped arround and was surprized to see the same alien that was at the podium. "Are you going to bore me to?" he said with cynicism. "No no, that speach was pre made, by some sappy men in tuxedoes." Both laughed. "Darfinis Maurader." he said, sticking out his hand in a friendly gesture. "So what have you to say about my proposal?" Darfinis asked. Jumba gave a look of confusion. "What proposal?" "Didn't your secretary give you the message?" "Secretary?, three t-." Jumba's face redened. He pushed the back pack in an attemt to move 327 voilently. She whacked him from inside the bag. "Let's step inside, out of this heat." Darfinis motioned.
Darfinis led them into a first story meeting room and asked the gaurds for some quiet outside. Jumba carefully removed the backpack, set it on the floor and sat down on one of the many couches. Darfinis took a seat infront of Jumba. "Drink?" he offered. "No, thanks." "Now Dr. Jumba. I have an interesting proposal for you. A deal you can't refuse. I'm going to be flat out, I tust you will keep this conversation private, for the good of both of us. I'm part of the 'Agency' as most know it. And you have something we want. A little creature known as 'Experiment 626' What do you say if I offer you a grant, 30 billion credits. A new lab and unlimited rescources and access to where ever." Jumba turned pale. "But the other side is that you must either contribute you acquired knowledge on you genetic modification, or give me one of your finished works." Darfinis' offer was tempting. Very tempting. "Now what-" Jumba was cut off. "Name your price, your fancy, anything." "Before I concider your offer there is something I must check." "Go ahead." "I need acess to your, uh, very large complex below this building." Jumba stated. Maurader's face flushed. "How would you know there's one down there." he tried not to hide it. "I need to get down there." "For what reason?" "If you do not take me there I will refuse your offer." Got him there. Darfinis sighed.
The elevator ride down was long. The yellow lights flashed off and on inside the small space. The smell of grease and metal was ever present. "I want to warn you. Something had destroyed most of the controlls and may still be rampant down there." Darfinis informed Jumba. Jumba didn't say a word, his face was expressionless,at least they hadn't found him. Darfinis was alarmed by his silence. The elevator beeped. The cold steel doors swung open, revealing white hallways. He looked arround, this was not the right elevator. "I need to get to the other elevator." Jumba said after a full look at the small room. He reached into the back pack and got the small computer from 327. He popped it open and looked inside. The map screen was already up. "Take me here." He pointed to the computer.
They reached a door that was the only thing blocking them to see if the red dot was 626 dead body. Jumba didn't bother for the handle he kicked it open with his huge foot. The door creaked and fell off. Inside were six black body bags, all were filled. There was pieces of ceiling laying on the floor, a turned over bench and other things scattered about the floor. Jumba used the computer to get right over the dot. Under where the signal was comming from, it was blocked by a piece of elevator door that had been blown there. He heaved the huge thing out of the way and expected to see a lifeless blue alien in an orange uniform. He closed his eyes.
327 started to sniffle, tears came from under her eyes. She was second from beaking out in tears. She held them back. She heard the silence in the room outside the pack. She slowly started to shake. She sniffed again.
Jumba looked down. There was some white dust and a few pieces of plaster. No body. No 626. There was however in the dust a small legnth of fabric. In the center was a brown buckle, where the homing chip was inset. He bent over to pick it up. He looked at the ends, broken. There was a small ammount of blue fur by the frayed edges. Torn off. He crushed the chip in the belt. The red dot dissappeared and the computer flashed, 'Target Lost'. Lost. He put the belt in the computer and closed it. He put it inside the backpack.
327 was nocked over the head with something. She rubbed her head and picked up the laptop. She flicked it open. Inside there was 626 orange belt, the back and brown belt. She knew what that meant. 626 was alive. Her spirit soared and she wanted to explode in joy. She could rock the joint. But she was stuck in that stuffy old bag, and he was out there.
Jumba turned arround and tried to look dishearted. Darfinis found a trace of joy in his face. "What was this about?" he damanded. "A hunch paid off." Jumba walked toward the elevator. "And my proposal?" Darfinis asked worriedly. "Give me one day." Jumba said. When Jumba was running for the green ship he said something. "If you don't, you'll regret it. I'll put you in so much shit you'll have to eat it to get out."
Darfinis waved goodbye as Jumba put the bookabag down in the pasenger side of the green cruiser. He jumped over the door and into the seat. While starting the engine, 327 poked her head out from the bag. "You can come out now." Jumba said, she heard something in his voice, something she thought was dead in him. "Where's 626?" she asked. Jumba told her to watch for him on the ground as they drove to the lab. Jumba needed his big cruiser with life form scanning capabilities.
* * *
"What was that all about?" Skeff asked Darfinis, who was holding a bottle of ale. "He wanted to look for something down there." He answered. "Hmmm..." The General mumbled. 'Why? What was he looking for? There was something down there that was more important than my offer. He built those things to be indestructable. He didn't even want to consider what I'd said about them.' He stopped. Back up. 'Indestructable, he was looking for one of them. That is why he wanted to delay my offer. He also sped off in a hurry. One of the experiments must be missing, and he followed it there. That means he doens't know here it is.' "What if I told you, Skeff, that we could have 626 without Jumba's cooperation." Skeff raised an eyebrow. "And what would that be? We've already lost a valuable contact and a whole strike team. How would we go about doing that?" he said skepticaly.
"Jumba came here, not to make a deal, to find his experiment. He left so suddenly. There must be only one explanation for that." Darfinis explained. "Your saying he was looking for it. And now he's totally lost track of it. If any of this is true we need to act fast." Skeff said, a sense of shock was in his voice. Darfinis got on the small communicator and canceled all meetings and client hearings untill tomorrow. He called what was left of his fleet of ships and ordered a pick up at his dirrect loaction.
* * *
Jumba and 327 whizzed into the port. Jumba cut the engine and leapt out. While runnung for the red cruiser he shouted at 327. "327, go grab 625, literally." Jumba instructed her. She smiled and ran off. 327 found him in the kitchen doing what he always did, eating. "Jumba wants us." she said to him. 625 threw what was left of the sandwich into his mouth. "Gimme a minute." He started to make another sandwich. 'Go grab 625, literally.' 327 grinned.
Jumba was peacefully organizing several extra couplings in the cargo bay under the cockpit. He heard a faint screaming that was comming from the outside of the ship. It grew louder, he went to investigate. He was near the door when 327 walked in, she carried 625 over her head and he was screaming. "Put me down, you cottonball!" he yelled. "Cottonball?" Jumba asked. "Try something more dramatic next time." 625 gave a sour expression. 327 snickered.
"Ok," Jumba said as he pushed the button on the side of the wall in the kitchen. The hatch to the cargo hold closed up. "Now that everyone is here we can go." He headed for the cockpit. 327 took the co-pilot's seat and 625 sat in one of the passenger seats in the rear. "Fuel?" Jumba asked. "Nine- tenths." 327 replied. "Batteries." "Check." "Then hold on." Jumba turned the engine over, the huge beast rumbled to life. He hit the accelerator and the gargantuan ship lurched off.
* * *
Close, he was getting close. He could feel it. The loaf of bread had restored most of his energy, he now moved at a steady pace. None the less his stomach told him it was near dinner. The holo dirrectories had been on for a while. He checked in with one of them. He was nearly three miles east of the Lab complex. He began wondering. What would Jumba do with him when he was finished being tested, after all he was sure the tests were almost over. Would he just roam the lab, just another obsolete experiment. He passed a factory. Surely Jumba would find another flaw and make another experiment, experiment 627. It was hard to tell, Jumba hid most of his affection toward him. Rarely ever prasing him for just being experiment 626.
He heard the low rumble of a cruiser. Over the low long factory appeared a red cruiser. Jumba. He'd found him. 626 looked up. The paint was a dull red and the fusalage scratched and marred. He didn't care, Jumba was up there. He waved up at the ship. It stopped and two lights flashed. Jumba had spotted him. He stood still and waited to be beamed up. The tickling sensation passed and he was aboard.
When the light faded he looked arround. Steel walls, he thought Jumba had a blue teleportal room. He spun arround, no door. Now he was getting spooked. He franticly searched for the blasters in his pockets, he found only a small piece or re-bar. He cursed for not checking after he'd woken that morning. He heard a whirr, from behind. There was a prick in his back. He turned to see what it was. There was a dart sticking out from his orange suit. His head started to spin, he pulled it out, but he was already too late. He collapsed on the cold steel floor. Balckness insued.
"She could change everything about her, using color bold and bright. But all the colors mix together, to grey." - DaveMatthewsBand.
A cold breeze floated through the alleyways, cooling off the heat from the sun. The sun had been down for nearly an hour. The alley strewn with furniture had been long since cast in the shadows of the buildings surrounding it. To anyone, the alley looked like a place to discard unwanted furinture where it would rot into a huge pile of dirt.
Under a table where a mattress lay was a small blue alien. He curled tighter as the wind sucked all the warmth from the objects arround him. He felt like he had a hangover, whatever that was. 626 was rudely awakened from his sleep when his stomach rolled. He felt the hunger pains and the emptyness inside. He felt to weak to move, he needed to eat something, it had been well over fifty six hours without any food. The alien lay there, eyes still shut, waiting for the pain to go away. A few minutes passed, it didn't leave him.
626 heard a grunt from above. There was a few seconds before he knew what happened. Ther was a crash, the table above him exploded in a shower of splinters. A monitor from a computer came through the hole and right onto him. By the size of it he guessed it to be at least fifty years old. He put his arms up to stop the impact. It was huge, nearly three feet across. The mammoth thing landed ontop of him, pressing him against the mattress. He heard the screen break as soon as it hit him. He went into the screen, the springy mattress bounced it off, he exited again. There was a sharp pain in his arm, he couldn't tell which one he was so hungry and weak. After a few seconds he laid flat again, the glass crunched under him.
He had to get up, had something to eat. He stood up and shakily exited the alleyway and went into the cold streets. The smell of oil and fresh paint stung his nose. He continued down the street. He was thinking of woh he would get back to Jumba's lab. He then remembered the homing device in his belt, he looked down. Much to his demise it wasn't there. He thought it might have gotten torn off when he was in that under-ground bunker. He sighed and continued his slow pace to where ever he was going, he didn't care anymore. He didn't notice, because of his wearyness, that he left the yellow blasters laying on the mattress.
* * *
"Nearly two days." 327 repeated. "Two days, and nothing." she sighed. Jumba had told her to watch for any news or report on a small creature with excess destruction. So far nothing. Jumba was gone, out looking for 626, he had been since early that morning. He told her to take all his calls. There were two of interest, both from someone named Darfinis and they both stated that he and Jumba should meet. She wrote down the number and promised him Jumba would call back.
She heard the com beeb, indication that there was an incoming ship demanding entrance to the docking bay. 327 knew it was Jumba comming into range, obviously he found 626. She opened the docking bay doors to let him inside and ran to greet him. She reached the doors to the docking bay and saw the sad expression on Jumba's face, 625 sported one of joy. She didn't know why he took 625 anyway, the onlything he would look for was the nearest 'Subway'. She now put her share into the cloud that loomed over everyone's head in the lab. "Guess you didn't find him." she said. Jumba grunted in reply. All three walked off, away from the red ship.
While the three were walking down the hall 327 was thinking of some way to find 626 easier than a manual search of each city block. "Jumba?" sh asked. "Hmm.." he grumbled. "Isn't there one of those tracking devices in 626's belt?" "327, I have no time to be concerned with 626's track-" He stopped. "That's it!" He exclaimed. He raced off to the controll room, 327 and 625 were following.
Jumba didn't bother to grab a chair, he just whacked the keyboard while standing. His thick fingers went over the keys. "626 had a tracking device implanted into the belt of his combat suits. He had six, one was destroyed now there are five." He punched a few more keys. "And.." He pressed the final key. The screen took a few seconds to load. A map of the city relevant to where the lab and all the positions of the trackers was shown. Up in the corner there were sixnumbers, one was crossed out. There were tow dots on the screen, one was a cluster, in 626's locker. Jumba focused on the single dot. "He's not moving." 327 said in alarm after a few seconds. All three watched for a few more minutes. It still didn't move.
"He's dead." 327 said flatly, tears welled up in her eyes. She turned from the screen. "And I haven't even told him I love him." She sank into the chair on which she stood and started weeping.
Jumba started a log and traced the movements of the belt for the last two days. It took a good minute for it to finish loading the data. Then another screen popped up on the monitor. It showed all the movements since the preceding two days. He started the run. He watched as the computer re- enacted what happened.
The red dot was stationary in 626's room. A nearly 0200 it started to move. Down several hallways, the controll room. The elevation increased, 626 had gone up somewhere, outside the lab. It traveled across the grass then paused. It shot off fast very fast, the computer fought to keep up with the map display. It stopped arround eight mile from the lab, right above an old Gothic Building, the altimeter was showing it at several hundred feet. It paused, then shot off again. Across the forest outside the city, pause. Jumba watched the altimeter drop, below sea level. The dot flew off again. It stopped right under the same building that it had hovered over minuted before. It moved under the buliding for nearly an hour. Then it stopped, one hundred feet below the city streets. "Come on.." He mumbled Three hours passed in the re-enactment, four eight. The red dot was stationary. Thirteen hours. "Danmit!" Jumba yelled, 625 fell off the chair from the sudden explosion of Jumba's temper. "So he's dead." 625 said, a bit of remorse ans joy in his voice. 327 wailed louder. "I don't believe so. He could be unconscious, or imprisoned."
Jumba moved over 327's chair. "Tomorrow, we go see what's with that building." He stared down at her. "And I would like you to accompany me 327." She sniffed and tried to pull herself together. "Ok." she managed to choke out. "I'm going to my room to-" she stopped and ran off.
* * *
The night was dark. He stumbled on the side walk. 626 was sure this was the right way to Jumba's lab. They turned off all the holo dirrectories at night, so he couldn't be sure. The only thing he cartian about at this point was hunger and exaustion. He passed a corner and walked across the street. He saw something wierd, a light flash inside a shop across the street. He froze.
A bakery, filled with cakes and rolls and sweets of all kinds. He drooled uncontrollably. But there was something amiss, the front door was wide open. He would sneak in and take a roll, or doghnut, or cake. He approached the door and heard a shuffle. He saw three aliens bent over behind the counter in the corner. They appeared to be kicking something. He heard a muffled cry for help. He knew what the men were now doing, this was a robbery. Plus they were beating on an innocent, defenceless alien, and that was HIS job.
The three lifted up the baker and started to head toward the door. 626 saw the baker, his white apron was now red with blood and several bruises were starting to form. The baker opened a bloody eye and spotted 626, he knew that the little blue alien didn't come with the robbers, a kid out on a late night cruise perhaps. He whispered, almost silently. "Get help."
626 wasn't in the mood for doing any good deeds, but how would he feel when he needed someone, and no one came. The appeared unarmed, but if they were it didn't matter. He waited outside the door, crouched in a defensive stance. The three brought the baker over to the blue cruiser. "Now or never." he mumbled. He sprinted to the vehicle, pausing only to pick up a piece of glass.
He came right throught the legs of the one with a leather coat, he came crashing to the ground and was knocked unconscious. "What the?" the red shirt yelled. 626 ran the glass across his shins. The red shirt screamed, and fell over in pain.
The last one, the green hat, pulled out a silenced pistol and pulled the baker in front of him. "Come any closer and he gets it." His hand shook. A sweat broke out on his fore head. 626 used this as an advantage, he slowly walked foreward, as fast as he could manage. "D-don't come any closer." 626 still pressed on. "I'm warning you." the green hat said. Still comming. He pointed the blaster toward him. "Stop!" There was a definate tone of fear.
The squeak of the gun echoed off the walls of the small intersection. The shot hit the little blue alien right in the chest. And he still kept comming. "What the?" he said. Three more shots follwed, none had any effect. He looked at the gun and stared. He dropped it and ran off into the night, as fast as he clould.
The baker stood up on his own will, he didn't need any coaxing. He was amazed at both the small alien and the gun that apparently had no effect. He sat down on the curb and watched as the little alien came closer. "Are you alright?" he asked. "Yes, I'm fine." The baker said. There was a good fear and awe in what he'd seen. He wanted to know more about the corious little blue thing. "Is there any way I can repay you?" The alien smiled, "Yes there is." he left it there. "And what would it be?" The baker asked. 626 pointed to the shop. "Let's start with a loaf of bread."
* * *
The warmth felt good. Under the blankets 327 stirred. She really didn't want to go with Jumba to retrieve what was left of 626, or some other thing like that. She'd cried herself to sleep last night. There was hope that 626 was alive. Untill she'd seen the body there was a glimmer of hope inside her. She tossed the blankets off of her and got up. There was still some regret and pain inside. She looked arround her small room, before closing the door.
Outside the lab was eerily quiet, there was not a sound. This was normal, she was always the first one up.She yawned as she walked to the controll room. This was the first thing she did every day, check the controlls and make sure that all systems are operational. Then she could go get breakfast and such.
After three hours of looking at the controlls, the controll room seemed normal and now 327 headed for the kitchen. She'd seen some pastries from Osgov that she had to try. Before she got there Jumba blocked her way and dirrected her toward the docking bay. "What's the rush?" she said in alarm, as Jumba pushed her on. He almost seemed to be kicking her. " We have to hurry." He said hastily. "Why?" she asked. "An informant of mine says the building in which 626 is in will be searched thoroughly by a secret hired team of forensic scientists. And I they find any trace of him, well you know." 327 senced the urgency and began to run.
* * *
"Is everything ready?" Darfinis looked over to an alien in a green uniform. "Yes, your speach papers are here and there is a podium set up outside the front doors." Skeff said. "If everything goes right, three minutes after my speach the bombs hidden inside the Grevold will blow." He messed with his sleeves. "Have you gotten a hold of Dr. Jumba yet?" The General thought for a minute. "No, but we keep getting his secretary." "Jumba doesn't have a secretary." Darfinis shot back. "That's wierd." Skeff mumbled. "How do I look?" Darfinis asked, changing the subject. "Better than me." "I'll take that as a compliment." Darfinis said with a cut throat tone. "If Jumba decides to take my offer or not, we will get experiment 626. I already have the greatest scientists working on a replicator. When it is finished we will be able to replicate 626 and create an indestructable army." An evil grin followed. Maureder and General Skeff headed out to the podium in the shadow of the Grevold.
* * *
Jumba punched the accelertor in the small green land cruiser. 327 sat in the back, a small laptop on the back seat, the red dot that was 626 was getting stronger. "Were close." she yelled over the wind and engine. Jumba didn't say a word, he focused on driving the hovering vehicle. A few minutes later they were getting closer to the Grevold. "327, I'll need you inside that infernal place, but you can't be seen. I'll need you to climb inside this bookbag." He lifted it up. It was big, for her, she would easily fit inside with ample elbow room. "We'll need the laptop too."
327 climbed inside without any hesitaion. She sat down in the bottom, she flipped up the screen. 'Oh, yea. Lots of room.' she thought. There was a thin stream of light comming in throught the cracks in the top. "Quiet." Jumba said. The cruiser had stopped. The bag was lifted up.
Jumba parked in an alley way right across from the gathering crowd. He was worried when he saw the hover vans with news names on the side. C-Star, CNNX, and the TuroSR Channel were all there. The building didn't look dammaged from the outside, but then there was an underground bunker. He walked toward the mass of people. Three security gaurds appraoched him. "What do you have in that pack sir?" one asked. "My laptop." Jumba said outloud, so that 327 could here. "Could we see it?" Jumba reached back and pulled it out and handed it to the secrity gaurd. They handed it back. "Any identification?" Jumba pulled out his Liscence, MD certification, and permit to buy chemicals. "Dr. Jumba?" Jumba nodded. "Come with us." the gaurd said.
He didn't think much of the command he always had poeple giving him orders. He nodded and followed the three gaurds arround the masses of aliens to the side of the podium. "Wait here, untill after the speach. Mr. Maurader will want to talk to you." The three left Jumba standing alone. 'Mr Maurader?' he asked himself. 327 senced the gaurds gone, but she still remained silent. "327." Jumba mumbled. "Yea?" she said back. "Use that laptop and find out what you can on this 'Maurader' person." "I'm on it."
A few minutes passed while 327 dug into the files of the Federation. She leared over the years of hacking they were the best place to get information on subjects. She browsed over the material. Then compacted it fror Jumba to get in while the speach was going on. "Says, Darfinis Maurader, age, 21. Nephew to Councilor Alkadia Onedia. Learning the roots to be a Councilor himself. Um..... Outstanding record at Skedil (Like Oxford) grade piont avg, is 3.8. Other that than nothing." She whispered to him. "Hmmmm...., Thanks anyway 327." Now why would some junior councilor want to see him. His attention was diverted to the speach.
There was a very lengthy speach on the vulgar attack in the 'basement' of the Grevold. And the subject of how evil the enviromentallists are things got boring. The crowd slowly disentegrated after several minutes of the speach. In half an hour only the news crews and some chairmen from variuos boards were left. The tall alien finished up the speach. Jumba didn't remember the news cars leaving faster, they usually hung arround to ask questions. He laughed, he hoped the alien that was at the podium didn't give him a long boring speach, he might fall down dead.
Darfinis knew why Jumba was here. He used his comms link and called off the bombs with his wrist computer and told them to wait. He knew Jumba would want to look inside. Maurader walked to Jumba, he nodded to the gaurds and the suited men began to push back the crowds people that wanted to get his signature and such.
"Dr. Jumba, I presume." Jumba whipped arround and was surprized to see the same alien that was at the podium. "Are you going to bore me to?" he said with cynicism. "No no, that speach was pre made, by some sappy men in tuxedoes." Both laughed. "Darfinis Maurader." he said, sticking out his hand in a friendly gesture. "So what have you to say about my proposal?" Darfinis asked. Jumba gave a look of confusion. "What proposal?" "Didn't your secretary give you the message?" "Secretary?, three t-." Jumba's face redened. He pushed the back pack in an attemt to move 327 voilently. She whacked him from inside the bag. "Let's step inside, out of this heat." Darfinis motioned.
Darfinis led them into a first story meeting room and asked the gaurds for some quiet outside. Jumba carefully removed the backpack, set it on the floor and sat down on one of the many couches. Darfinis took a seat infront of Jumba. "Drink?" he offered. "No, thanks." "Now Dr. Jumba. I have an interesting proposal for you. A deal you can't refuse. I'm going to be flat out, I tust you will keep this conversation private, for the good of both of us. I'm part of the 'Agency' as most know it. And you have something we want. A little creature known as 'Experiment 626' What do you say if I offer you a grant, 30 billion credits. A new lab and unlimited rescources and access to where ever." Jumba turned pale. "But the other side is that you must either contribute you acquired knowledge on you genetic modification, or give me one of your finished works." Darfinis' offer was tempting. Very tempting. "Now what-" Jumba was cut off. "Name your price, your fancy, anything." "Before I concider your offer there is something I must check." "Go ahead." "I need acess to your, uh, very large complex below this building." Jumba stated. Maurader's face flushed. "How would you know there's one down there." he tried not to hide it. "I need to get down there." "For what reason?" "If you do not take me there I will refuse your offer." Got him there. Darfinis sighed.
The elevator ride down was long. The yellow lights flashed off and on inside the small space. The smell of grease and metal was ever present. "I want to warn you. Something had destroyed most of the controlls and may still be rampant down there." Darfinis informed Jumba. Jumba didn't say a word, his face was expressionless,at least they hadn't found him. Darfinis was alarmed by his silence. The elevator beeped. The cold steel doors swung open, revealing white hallways. He looked arround, this was not the right elevator. "I need to get to the other elevator." Jumba said after a full look at the small room. He reached into the back pack and got the small computer from 327. He popped it open and looked inside. The map screen was already up. "Take me here." He pointed to the computer.
They reached a door that was the only thing blocking them to see if the red dot was 626 dead body. Jumba didn't bother for the handle he kicked it open with his huge foot. The door creaked and fell off. Inside were six black body bags, all were filled. There was pieces of ceiling laying on the floor, a turned over bench and other things scattered about the floor. Jumba used the computer to get right over the dot. Under where the signal was comming from, it was blocked by a piece of elevator door that had been blown there. He heaved the huge thing out of the way and expected to see a lifeless blue alien in an orange uniform. He closed his eyes.
327 started to sniffle, tears came from under her eyes. She was second from beaking out in tears. She held them back. She heard the silence in the room outside the pack. She slowly started to shake. She sniffed again.
Jumba looked down. There was some white dust and a few pieces of plaster. No body. No 626. There was however in the dust a small legnth of fabric. In the center was a brown buckle, where the homing chip was inset. He bent over to pick it up. He looked at the ends, broken. There was a small ammount of blue fur by the frayed edges. Torn off. He crushed the chip in the belt. The red dot dissappeared and the computer flashed, 'Target Lost'. Lost. He put the belt in the computer and closed it. He put it inside the backpack.
327 was nocked over the head with something. She rubbed her head and picked up the laptop. She flicked it open. Inside there was 626 orange belt, the back and brown belt. She knew what that meant. 626 was alive. Her spirit soared and she wanted to explode in joy. She could rock the joint. But she was stuck in that stuffy old bag, and he was out there.
Jumba turned arround and tried to look dishearted. Darfinis found a trace of joy in his face. "What was this about?" he damanded. "A hunch paid off." Jumba walked toward the elevator. "And my proposal?" Darfinis asked worriedly. "Give me one day." Jumba said. When Jumba was running for the green ship he said something. "If you don't, you'll regret it. I'll put you in so much shit you'll have to eat it to get out."
Darfinis waved goodbye as Jumba put the bookabag down in the pasenger side of the green cruiser. He jumped over the door and into the seat. While starting the engine, 327 poked her head out from the bag. "You can come out now." Jumba said, she heard something in his voice, something she thought was dead in him. "Where's 626?" she asked. Jumba told her to watch for him on the ground as they drove to the lab. Jumba needed his big cruiser with life form scanning capabilities.
* * *
"What was that all about?" Skeff asked Darfinis, who was holding a bottle of ale. "He wanted to look for something down there." He answered. "Hmmm..." The General mumbled. 'Why? What was he looking for? There was something down there that was more important than my offer. He built those things to be indestructable. He didn't even want to consider what I'd said about them.' He stopped. Back up. 'Indestructable, he was looking for one of them. That is why he wanted to delay my offer. He also sped off in a hurry. One of the experiments must be missing, and he followed it there. That means he doens't know here it is.' "What if I told you, Skeff, that we could have 626 without Jumba's cooperation." Skeff raised an eyebrow. "And what would that be? We've already lost a valuable contact and a whole strike team. How would we go about doing that?" he said skepticaly.
"Jumba came here, not to make a deal, to find his experiment. He left so suddenly. There must be only one explanation for that." Darfinis explained. "Your saying he was looking for it. And now he's totally lost track of it. If any of this is true we need to act fast." Skeff said, a sense of shock was in his voice. Darfinis got on the small communicator and canceled all meetings and client hearings untill tomorrow. He called what was left of his fleet of ships and ordered a pick up at his dirrect loaction.
* * *
Jumba and 327 whizzed into the port. Jumba cut the engine and leapt out. While runnung for the red cruiser he shouted at 327. "327, go grab 625, literally." Jumba instructed her. She smiled and ran off. 327 found him in the kitchen doing what he always did, eating. "Jumba wants us." she said to him. 625 threw what was left of the sandwich into his mouth. "Gimme a minute." He started to make another sandwich. 'Go grab 625, literally.' 327 grinned.
Jumba was peacefully organizing several extra couplings in the cargo bay under the cockpit. He heard a faint screaming that was comming from the outside of the ship. It grew louder, he went to investigate. He was near the door when 327 walked in, she carried 625 over her head and he was screaming. "Put me down, you cottonball!" he yelled. "Cottonball?" Jumba asked. "Try something more dramatic next time." 625 gave a sour expression. 327 snickered.
"Ok," Jumba said as he pushed the button on the side of the wall in the kitchen. The hatch to the cargo hold closed up. "Now that everyone is here we can go." He headed for the cockpit. 327 took the co-pilot's seat and 625 sat in one of the passenger seats in the rear. "Fuel?" Jumba asked. "Nine- tenths." 327 replied. "Batteries." "Check." "Then hold on." Jumba turned the engine over, the huge beast rumbled to life. He hit the accelerator and the gargantuan ship lurched off.
* * *
Close, he was getting close. He could feel it. The loaf of bread had restored most of his energy, he now moved at a steady pace. None the less his stomach told him it was near dinner. The holo dirrectories had been on for a while. He checked in with one of them. He was nearly three miles east of the Lab complex. He began wondering. What would Jumba do with him when he was finished being tested, after all he was sure the tests were almost over. Would he just roam the lab, just another obsolete experiment. He passed a factory. Surely Jumba would find another flaw and make another experiment, experiment 627. It was hard to tell, Jumba hid most of his affection toward him. Rarely ever prasing him for just being experiment 626.
He heard the low rumble of a cruiser. Over the low long factory appeared a red cruiser. Jumba. He'd found him. 626 looked up. The paint was a dull red and the fusalage scratched and marred. He didn't care, Jumba was up there. He waved up at the ship. It stopped and two lights flashed. Jumba had spotted him. He stood still and waited to be beamed up. The tickling sensation passed and he was aboard.
When the light faded he looked arround. Steel walls, he thought Jumba had a blue teleportal room. He spun arround, no door. Now he was getting spooked. He franticly searched for the blasters in his pockets, he found only a small piece or re-bar. He cursed for not checking after he'd woken that morning. He heard a whirr, from behind. There was a prick in his back. He turned to see what it was. There was a dart sticking out from his orange suit. His head started to spin, he pulled it out, but he was already too late. He collapsed on the cold steel floor. Balckness insued.