A Tempting Offer
"Now that I know what I'm without, you can't just leave me here." ~ Evanescence
Inside him something was growing. He felt he was part of a bigger plan, he was only a pawn in the game. But what game were they playing? If he could find out what exactly they were playing he might get the upperhand.
He felt the same predicament that he was in the last time he'd been tranquilized. His arms felt like a million pounds each, too heavy to lift. Pinned down, was his first thought. Strapped to a table. Strange voices floated through his head, or maybe they were outside, in the room. They seemed to come from every angle. There was a firery knife in his stomach, he felt as if his entestines were hanging out on a table. A cold examination table, he shivered. Cold, too cold. He tried to curl up so as to retain what little heat he had. He still lay unmoving, he couldn't force himself to move. The thought of being ripped apart while he was still alive was a chilling though. After every growing pain he wanted to scream, there was no holding back. But he couldn't even manage that, the only thing he could do was think, he felt paralized. He felt defeated. He chose no to acknkowledge anything anymore, he was giving up. He fell into a deep sleep.
* * *
Three days had passed since the meeting with Mr. Darfinis. Jumba hadn't called him , nor had Darfinis called Jumba. After searching the city three times over, each time he'd legnthened the time, but still found nothing. 626 was a fantom, lost in the concrete jungle of the city. He'd given detailed reports to the police, not revealing that 626 was a genetic experiment. He was beginning to doubt 626 was even on the planet, much less in the galaxy. He'd given up on 626. If he was alive, maybe someday he would return.
Things got alot worse when Jumba announced he wouldn't make any more runs on the city. 327 couldn't think of anything worse. She'd cried herself to sleep the last three nights. She missed out on all the meals, rarely getting anthing to eat. She'd also threatened to leave Jumba, walk right out and look for 626 herself. Now that he'd given up on him it was now the only answer to seeing him again, it was now a constant thought, leave. When Jumba talked about the next experiment, number 627 she felt sick, a deep gash was ripped in her spirit. But even Jumba was effected by the abscence of 626.
* * *
He was happy there in his own world. Everything was perfect. Then there was a prick and everything dissappeared. He was drawn back into reality when the fire in his stomach grew. He felt as if there was a truck load of magma on his chest. He tried to move away, tried to crawl away. Then it stopped. The fire subsided, it was replaced by a cool feeling. He began to relax, 'Yea right'. Atleast the fire was gone. He wondered how long he'd been under, how long he'd been asleep in himself. Then the realism hit, he was still on what ever he was when he went. The voices were now less slurred and more clear. He expected to open his eyes and see his innards strewn arround, and the doctors who were taking him apart. He didn't dare to open his eyes. He didn't want to face the realism.
Then there was a soft voice, a touch on his face, not a harsh one, but a soft good natured one. The feeling was comming back now. He expected to feel cold. But instead there was a warmness all over, something soft. '327?' No. He tried to move again. His arms slowly responded, there were no restraints, no cold tables, no doctors. He opened his eyes.
The world had changed. He was no longer in the steel cell where he'd been shot. He was somewhere else. A bedroom. He was laying in a bed, a soft one at that. The walls were white thought, no one appeared to be in the room. Now was his chance to get out. He didn't even know where he was, let alone get back to Jumba's lab. A door clicked. Two aliens in blueish garments walked in, one carried a syrenge filled with black liquid. When they spotted 626 awake and sitting up they tried to hide the sryenge. 626 gave them a cold glare, "Were you going to pump me with that shit again?" he asked, fire on his tounge. He felt the urge to kill something, mangle the life and twist the body. But the doctors had done nothing to him, yet anyway. He sighed.
The two doctors noticed the almost instant change in 626 attitude. And thought better not to get off on the wrong side. They looked at eachother and decided to play this one way. "What the 'shit' you are referring to is a tranquilizer inverser, it counter-acts the effect and wakes the patient up." They tried to look pleased, but were more tense than ever. They knew what this thing could do, they'd seen it twice.
626 immediately noticed something. They wanted something from his and were trying to sucker it out of him. He wanted all this tranquilizing crap to end, so he decided to play along untill he got the snake right where he wanted, then strike at the head. No doubt they were after his genetics and a good sample of his DNA. He'd play along. He watched as the doctors gave a 'trying to hide something' grin and hastily walked out the door. He layed back in the bed, thinking of all the good stuff he'd miss in Jumba's lab. His smile degraded into a wry frown. 327. If only she was here. Then he'd be in paradise. He first wanted to know where he was, then he'd worry about escape. His stomach growled. It had been near four days since he'd last eaten. He sat up and looked arround.
There couldn't have been a more sappy set-up. White sheets covered the walls in an examination room of some sort. The bed was real, it was a white too. The bright halyogen lights made the room bright, too bright for his sensitive eyes. There was a small table in the corner, can you guess what color it is? No, not black, white. And there was a white vase that sat on top with white flowers in it. He felt like he needed to wretch on the place and make it less white.
He was interupted with his survey when a tall alien walked in. He was a stunning ammount like Zri, except without the geeky glasses. He wore a dark red robe and there were many rings adorned on his three fingers. 626 felt comical for the moment. "I said I wanted something to eat, not a circus clown." The green eyes on the tall alien didn't even flinch, they stared coldly into 626. The blue alien made a weak smile. Then a s a relief to 626 the green eyed alien broke out into a wide grin. "Happy to have you here, 626." he said. 626 had no intention of this warm welcome. 'A set up, a real big set up.' he thought. Inside him there was something saying 'kill him' for no real reason. He had a feeling thay would meet sometime in the future, and all hell would brake loose.
"626, I'm prepared to offer you anything you want, you name it you got it." He said. 626 knew this ploy. "There's a catch to it though." said as if he knew. "You will see when the time comes." The green eyed alien said. 626 rasoned he would either die or would be put in prison, or worse, a maximum security asteroid. He'd head about those places. They made you sleep, twenty to a room the size of a closet, and wear a collar that the gaurds regularly sent electrical pulses through for no aparent reason. And mine in the asteroid, hauling up all the stuff and when it went dry they moved you. It was hell, and he wanted to stay away from there. "I don't want anything untill you tell me what you want." 626 said icily 'Hm...... the little blue alien has a point' Darfinis thought. "I can't tell you yet, but untill then you will remain here, if you try to escape you will be shot." 626 grunted, and started to growl. "Um... look, maybe we could work this out, uh..." Darfinis said, a tone of fear in his voice. 626 grinned he was getting him nervous. He stood up and hissed. "I... uh..." More nervous. He sighed. "All we want is some blood, is that ok?" he spat out. 'good, now we're getting somewhere.' 626 thought. "Give me a week." 626 said. The tall alien didn't reply, he was lost in thought by the look on his face.
The room was silent, which seemed to irritate the tall alien. He couldn't help but snicker. The tall alien broke the silence. "Fine, I'll give you one week." he smiled down at 626 "No doubt you want to know who I am. My name is Darfinis Maurader." he stuck out his hand in friendship. It happened again, he just seemed to melt, he wasn't shown any anger or hostility, so he stuck his paw out. They both shook. 626 still had an uneasy feeling, he would have to keep his eyes and ears open.
Darfinis walked out of the room. Good, one week would give him time to think of an escape route. He would have to act inconspicuous for a while. He would play innocent every day, then sneak out at night.
* * *
6 days now, oh how it was hell. She sometimes had violent fits of anger followed by a day of depression. She felt incomplete without knowing where 626 was. She convinced herself that she'd lived without him for many years. But now she had given him a piece of her, now they were in love. He was more than experiment 626, he was her perfect. They both shared the same feeling toward eachother. And each time thay were together they felt more and more about eachother.
He was missing now, gone. 327 felt like she was on the brink of insanity. She couldn't keep it inside anymore. She had to do something. At first she'd kept tabs on all the security systems and jail houses, knowing 626 he would get either arrested or fight to the death. Nothing that interesting had been on the Stellar reciever, meaning nothing had blown up because of him. There was nothing out there. She would have to go search for him.
She was in the controll room looking for any thing that would help her on her journey. Then the comms rang. She peered at the messager, no one she knew. She picked it up anyway. "Hello?" she said. "Yeah, I saw this paper, says your looking for a little blue alien." he paused. Her hopes soared. "I saw him arround five days ago, over at my bakery, he whooped the hell outa some burglars. I followed him for a while to see where he'd go. But he was picked up by some of his friends in a red cruiser." the baker said. "Could you make out any model?" she asked quickly. "Yea, it appeared to be a Type IV cruiser. It was really dinged up too." "Thank you for your call, sir." 327 said. "No problem, he seemed like a very nice alien." He hung up.
Yes! Now she had some leads. She spun arround to the computer and rapidly typed in the type. What she saw stunned her. The ship 626 had been picked up in was exactly like Jumba's cruiser. Next she added red to the search, 300 ships registered. Too many. She added, 'Dinged up' to the search. 10 registered. Ah, now that's more like it. She went throught them all. The first eight were scrapped, a long time ago. The next two were still in service. One was owned by an alien on the planet Pitstov, too far away. The next one shocked her. A red type IV cruiser, dammaged from wear, on Turo, under the name of Darfinin Maurader. The same alien that had introduced himself to Jumba.
Pieces of the puzzle fell into place. The last piece was so obvious. She placed it down in the corner. Ah, the 1,000,000 piece puzzle was now fully together. She was now finished. Break was over. 327 closed the puzzle game on the computer and went to search for all the dwellings Mr. Darfinis has under his name. There were, much to her demise, nearly thirty. All spread arround the galaxy. It seemed to be in every major city on every big planet. She wanted to know what they were. Duh! He was an apprentice for Council, that explained that. She looked for a private house. Right here on Turo. It was in the Council's Main Hall. No room there to hide anything like 626. There was one odd one. He didn't own it, it was owned by the Galactic Reasearch Foundation, and he was Vice President. A rather large space station in space. In orbit practally nowhere, it was hanging near Turo's orbit. Prime suspect.
Now all 327 had to do was a little hacking and she could view every thing that had a camera in the staion. A few minutes later and she was in. She locked all the systems and routine tasks for the computer. So that when they detected her she could lock out the computers. Now came the long part, searching through every camera in the joint, and that could take hours.
Three hours later she was getting tired, but still kept at it. She'd gone through the cameras in the halls and was now scanning each room. The screen went white. She blinked. The camera moved, a small blue object was visible in the white room. She hit the freeze button. She studied the picture. A small screen popped up. "Oh shit." she mumbled. They'd detected her. She rapidly attacked the key board. Then she was kicked off the secruity systems and locked out. She tried fruitlessly to get back in. Then the whole screen closed. "Gah!" she screamed, they'd locked her out for good. She now only had the small immage of the blue speck in the white room.
* * *
Three days later and a complete tour of the whole place 626 felt relaxed. He had memorized all the turns and curves. He hadn't passed by any windows so he couldn't tell where exactly he was. He did notice somthing. The rooms appeared to be in a circular shape, indicating a space station of some sort. When ever he asked where thay were Darfinis shrugged him off. He had planned his escape route already. There was a supply ship sent from Turo to the place weekly. He would saboage the main engines and then destroy all the ships in the bay, then get on the supply ship and ride to safety. But firts he had to know where the engines were.
Later that night he snuck out from the bed and cautiously approached the door. He creaked it open and peered outside. He spotted a camera at the end of the hall, glowing in his infrared vision. He waited for it to turn, then he scrambled up wall and clung to the ceiling. For a moment he was disoriented, then he got his bearings and header for where he heard what he thought was an engine used to run the space station.
Thirty minutes later, and two wrong turns, he reached the room. He scanned for cameras and when he found none he dropped to the floor. He read the sign on the door. It said 'Thruster #1' Number 1? Ah crap, that meant there were more. He looked at the keypad, three colors, blue, red, and green. Using his excellerated mind he came up with some combinations. On his third one the door beeped open. He was faced with a ladder going down.
The room down below was quiet. No one was present. And that was a good thing, because the ladder was covered with grease and 626 slipped on the first rung. He fell twenty feet and hit the metal ground with a 'thunk'. Normally some one would have been injured by the fall, but he was 626. He rubbed his back and went to look at the expensive machinery. He found an infusion engine, model VIII. The best type, has nearly a million plus parts (1,523,834 to be exact) and could be sabotaged with ease. It would take them a month to find out what happened. He thought a second, if he disabled the thruster the ship would either list horribly or go into gimble lock, and that would prove impossible to get anywhere. Gimble lock was when the thrusters went out and the ship (the weight placement played a cruscial role) chose a random center of gravity and spun on that one piont, when that happened the gravity changed constantly going from the floor to the wall and increasing and decreasing. It was enough to make anyone heave. He'd have to knock out all of them at once.
He climbed the ladder and was careful not to slip. He started to seek out all the other thrusters. He was formulating a back-up plan too, if the thrusters plan was scrapped he'd gain access to the gravity controlls and mess with them. He decided to turn the gravity up to three atmospheres, so that everyone who wasn't as strong as him would barely be able to move. Or maybe turn it off and let them float in no paticular dirrection. He snickered as he pictured the doctors floating arround trying to dodge acid pools floating through the air.
He found out that the thrusters were aligned in a circular pattern. There were six in all. Too many to get to before the ship went into gimble lock. He'd have to go to the atmosphere and gravity controll room. As he stuck to the ceiling and traveled to the AVC room he felt something wierd. He couldn't tell what from the roof. He came across a pipe that blocked his way, he couldn't climb over the greasy surface. He aimed for the opposite wall and jumped. He planned on the arc of gravity to get him there, but was interrupted by the sudden change on garvity. He hit the floor and bounced to the wall where he clung. The gravity had been turned off. Then it returned. He fell to the floor.
He scrambled up the wall again. "Sorry, the power core had a flux." said a disembodied voice, almost robotic. "Should have warned us before that happened." 626 muttered. He continued the route to the center. Bofore he entered the door, that message hit him. "Core flux." he said quietly. Now being 626 and knowing all about quantum mechanics and neutratic cellular arrangement he had another plan. Now he had to find the primary core.
* * *
"He eats more than every doctor and scientist whole damn space station!" Skeff shouted. "And we still don't have the samples we need to continue the research." He yelled to Darfinis. Both were sitting in a room on the space station that was ornately furnished. "We have to wait for the right time." Darfinis said calmly. "Wait? For how long? Any more time we'll have to give an excuse for the rapid consumption of food!" Skeff sighed. "Give me two days." Darfinis said. "Two days it is then, any more and I take over." Skeff reasoned. "Fine, two days." both men shook hands. Darfinis left the room. Skeff waited untill he was sure he was gone, than pulled out a mini cell-com. He dialed a number. "Yes......... this is him..........In two days I'll need every soldier we can squeeze on the space station............. Yes that one in space." he smiled and clicked the cell off.
* * *
There was no rush, she now knew what she had to do. 327 slowly accumulated all the needs for the trip. She had planned this for a day now. While waiting for the ship to be ready she got a map on the space station and plotted a course there. She'd take Jumba's small space cruiser, it was fitted with every thing needed for docking with a station. She had six federation blasters stuffed in a small basket, two for her and the rest for 626, if he was able to carry them. Now she waited for night.
*
Midnight came and went. 327 snuck out the door to her room and headed for 626's room, to get some last second supplies. She approached the door. 'What am I doing?' she asked herself. 'Going to get 626.' she remimded herself. "I bet the door squeaks." she whispered softly. She pushed, the door squeaked. 625 stirred in his bed. She froze, when he didn't make any more movements she approached the locker in the rear of the room. Slowly she pulled the latch, it swung open quickly, she stopped it before it hit the wall. Inside were four uniforms, and two guns, very big guns. She grabbed the biggest gun and two uniforms. She turned quietly to the door.
She lugged the gun and the basket into the small ship. She set the basket and gun on a set and strapped them in. She stuffed one of the uniforms into the basket. She slipped into the other one. It was a little baggy and hung all over the place, but oh jeeze was it comfortable, no wonder why he didn't take it off. She shoved two blasters into the pockets and ran to the cockpit. 327 jumped into the pilot's seat and ran throught the check list. Engines, fuel, guns, back up power cell, landing gear, all ok. The pink alien started the engine and raised the ramp that lead to the starry night sky, clear as any other night. She gunned the engines and shoved it past drive and into 'whoop ass' as she called it. The ship shot off into the night sky with a great ammount of velocity. She set the course for the space station in the middle of nowhere. It would take nearly three hours to get there.
* * *
He leapt into his bed just before the alarm clock on his small night stand rang. He had been awake for more than 36 hours before, it was easly , but got difficult when he started to approach near 60 hours. He'd grab some sleep then act normal. He flopped down on his bed and fell asleep before he had time to turn off the lights.
*
He awoke two hours later and felt partially regenerated. He looked over to find a tray of food. He knew what this meant, it was getting close to when they wanted some blood and other samples. He reminded himself to watch his back and act normal. He ate the food and went to the library where he was learning all the planets and solar systems.
* *
Darfinis knew something was up when General Skeff was happy and seemed high. He started to have his doubts about him. Darfinis was heading to 626 room to talk about when he needed the samples. His wrist com rang. It was his aunt, as he expected. "I'm half way through the inspection Alkaldia." he said. "Good, except one thing, we need you to delay the inspection and get ot the meeting." she said. 'What? There was no meeting in my scedule.' "Judging by your expression I need to explain this. There was an emergecy meeting called about the trade embargo between Zenon I and Givistor. I expect you'll be here." the com turned off. This put a major delay in his plan. He sighed, that would have to wait.
Skeff watched as Darfinis boarded his cruiser and shot of to Turo. An evil grin spread across his face. He picked up the cell com and dialed.
* * *
It was approaching dark. 626 headed for his room, it had been a long day and now he was really tired. He walked down the hall. No doctor he passed gave him a dirty look of one of hatred, thay were wall peaceful and happy, now that spooked him. Tomorow night he'd make his escape, and with the explosives he'd placed he had to. They were set to go off in one day and three hours, he had nearly fourty three hours to escape. There was no way he could get to the bomb and defuse it if he had to. He would escape or he would die. It was that simple.
The door opened to the white room. He saw a cup of steaming something, after a long day he needed a drink. He slugged the whole thing and set the cup back down. Now he would wait untill midnight then get to the controll room. After thiry minutes of waiting his stomach growled. He walked to the toilet set up in a corner. He felt as if he would throw up. He stumbled to it, barely waking it. He realized it wasn't his stomach, that drink was drugged, and in past tests Jumba did on him his stomach heaved from the stuff. He slunk to the floor and blacked out.
* * *
"Keep those trigger fingers itchy." the squad commander said. "If he drank that stuff he should be blacked out by now." The members of the squad were nervous, they knew what happened to the last assault team. "Go." The commander kicked the door in and swept the area. He rapidly searched the area and found no alien. A more in depth search was needed, he hoped it was knocked out. He found him laying besides the toilet. "Come in controll." "Go ahead team 1" Skeff said. "We have the alien, and he's knocked out too."
Skeff supervised the moving of Experiment 626 into one of the medical bays. With Darfinis out of the way he'd gotten the soldiers up earlier than expected. He watced as the soldiers lay him on the table. A nearby doctor administered some tranquilizer and left. Skeff personally ran the fuser over the metal cuffs, twice, to make sure they were secure. Then they left the room. In thirty hours the doctors would begin the operation to retrive some samples and hopefully break Jumba's coded DNA.
* * *
The meeting was short, really short. He had plenty of time to mosey arround before he could get back up to the space station. He got in his personal transporter and rode off into the jungle outside the city. After a thirty minute ride and seven security checkpoints he drove up on the mansion's drive. He parked the red transporter in the huge garage beside all the expensive ships, and walked inside through the door.
Inside he was greeted by a long time friend, Zri. Any one would be astonished by what they saw, especially if they knew Zri was dead. And he was dead, this was a replicand, a mirror immage. While replicating, or cloning, had been banned except for on endangered species only, Darfinis Maurader went against that rule. The two aliens walked down the hall and turned into an elevator hidden in the wall.
"Is the facility on Pitstov ready to accomodate the experiment?" Darfinis asked. "Yes, all the preperations have been made. We'll have all of our staff working overtime to meet the two day goal. By the way, will the sample be tissue, or a living model?" Zri said. "Depends, If experiment 626 doesn't co-operate we'll have a living model, if he does we might get some blood samples." Darfinis explained. Zri gave him a grave look, "It would be better if we have the living sample, incase of some accident." Darfinis knew exactly what he meant. "Has he asked for anything out of this galaxy?" Zri questioned. "He has requested nothing yet, I think he wants to wait untill the last minute." Darfinis replied. Zri reached onto his desk and took up a folder and handed it to Darfinis. He looked at the report. Thirty three chambers. Not good. He wanted atleast one hundred by the time the month was out. It takes a week to fully clone and organize the cell structures. He set the folder down. That was all he wanted to know.
He climbed back into his cruiser and sped off. He had a few hours untill he had to get back. He hoped his replicand was doing a good job of impersonating him. He had concidered a replicand for sometime, and finally agreed. Now he hung back and the replicand took over, just for a while. When he had the army of experiments he could finally get where he wanted, the seat of power.
"Now that I know what I'm without, you can't just leave me here." ~ Evanescence
Inside him something was growing. He felt he was part of a bigger plan, he was only a pawn in the game. But what game were they playing? If he could find out what exactly they were playing he might get the upperhand.
He felt the same predicament that he was in the last time he'd been tranquilized. His arms felt like a million pounds each, too heavy to lift. Pinned down, was his first thought. Strapped to a table. Strange voices floated through his head, or maybe they were outside, in the room. They seemed to come from every angle. There was a firery knife in his stomach, he felt as if his entestines were hanging out on a table. A cold examination table, he shivered. Cold, too cold. He tried to curl up so as to retain what little heat he had. He still lay unmoving, he couldn't force himself to move. The thought of being ripped apart while he was still alive was a chilling though. After every growing pain he wanted to scream, there was no holding back. But he couldn't even manage that, the only thing he could do was think, he felt paralized. He felt defeated. He chose no to acknkowledge anything anymore, he was giving up. He fell into a deep sleep.
* * *
Three days had passed since the meeting with Mr. Darfinis. Jumba hadn't called him , nor had Darfinis called Jumba. After searching the city three times over, each time he'd legnthened the time, but still found nothing. 626 was a fantom, lost in the concrete jungle of the city. He'd given detailed reports to the police, not revealing that 626 was a genetic experiment. He was beginning to doubt 626 was even on the planet, much less in the galaxy. He'd given up on 626. If he was alive, maybe someday he would return.
Things got alot worse when Jumba announced he wouldn't make any more runs on the city. 327 couldn't think of anything worse. She'd cried herself to sleep the last three nights. She missed out on all the meals, rarely getting anthing to eat. She'd also threatened to leave Jumba, walk right out and look for 626 herself. Now that he'd given up on him it was now the only answer to seeing him again, it was now a constant thought, leave. When Jumba talked about the next experiment, number 627 she felt sick, a deep gash was ripped in her spirit. But even Jumba was effected by the abscence of 626.
* * *
He was happy there in his own world. Everything was perfect. Then there was a prick and everything dissappeared. He was drawn back into reality when the fire in his stomach grew. He felt as if there was a truck load of magma on his chest. He tried to move away, tried to crawl away. Then it stopped. The fire subsided, it was replaced by a cool feeling. He began to relax, 'Yea right'. Atleast the fire was gone. He wondered how long he'd been under, how long he'd been asleep in himself. Then the realism hit, he was still on what ever he was when he went. The voices were now less slurred and more clear. He expected to open his eyes and see his innards strewn arround, and the doctors who were taking him apart. He didn't dare to open his eyes. He didn't want to face the realism.
Then there was a soft voice, a touch on his face, not a harsh one, but a soft good natured one. The feeling was comming back now. He expected to feel cold. But instead there was a warmness all over, something soft. '327?' No. He tried to move again. His arms slowly responded, there were no restraints, no cold tables, no doctors. He opened his eyes.
The world had changed. He was no longer in the steel cell where he'd been shot. He was somewhere else. A bedroom. He was laying in a bed, a soft one at that. The walls were white thought, no one appeared to be in the room. Now was his chance to get out. He didn't even know where he was, let alone get back to Jumba's lab. A door clicked. Two aliens in blueish garments walked in, one carried a syrenge filled with black liquid. When they spotted 626 awake and sitting up they tried to hide the sryenge. 626 gave them a cold glare, "Were you going to pump me with that shit again?" he asked, fire on his tounge. He felt the urge to kill something, mangle the life and twist the body. But the doctors had done nothing to him, yet anyway. He sighed.
The two doctors noticed the almost instant change in 626 attitude. And thought better not to get off on the wrong side. They looked at eachother and decided to play this one way. "What the 'shit' you are referring to is a tranquilizer inverser, it counter-acts the effect and wakes the patient up." They tried to look pleased, but were more tense than ever. They knew what this thing could do, they'd seen it twice.
626 immediately noticed something. They wanted something from his and were trying to sucker it out of him. He wanted all this tranquilizing crap to end, so he decided to play along untill he got the snake right where he wanted, then strike at the head. No doubt they were after his genetics and a good sample of his DNA. He'd play along. He watched as the doctors gave a 'trying to hide something' grin and hastily walked out the door. He layed back in the bed, thinking of all the good stuff he'd miss in Jumba's lab. His smile degraded into a wry frown. 327. If only she was here. Then he'd be in paradise. He first wanted to know where he was, then he'd worry about escape. His stomach growled. It had been near four days since he'd last eaten. He sat up and looked arround.
There couldn't have been a more sappy set-up. White sheets covered the walls in an examination room of some sort. The bed was real, it was a white too. The bright halyogen lights made the room bright, too bright for his sensitive eyes. There was a small table in the corner, can you guess what color it is? No, not black, white. And there was a white vase that sat on top with white flowers in it. He felt like he needed to wretch on the place and make it less white.
He was interupted with his survey when a tall alien walked in. He was a stunning ammount like Zri, except without the geeky glasses. He wore a dark red robe and there were many rings adorned on his three fingers. 626 felt comical for the moment. "I said I wanted something to eat, not a circus clown." The green eyes on the tall alien didn't even flinch, they stared coldly into 626. The blue alien made a weak smile. Then a s a relief to 626 the green eyed alien broke out into a wide grin. "Happy to have you here, 626." he said. 626 had no intention of this warm welcome. 'A set up, a real big set up.' he thought. Inside him there was something saying 'kill him' for no real reason. He had a feeling thay would meet sometime in the future, and all hell would brake loose.
"626, I'm prepared to offer you anything you want, you name it you got it." He said. 626 knew this ploy. "There's a catch to it though." said as if he knew. "You will see when the time comes." The green eyed alien said. 626 rasoned he would either die or would be put in prison, or worse, a maximum security asteroid. He'd head about those places. They made you sleep, twenty to a room the size of a closet, and wear a collar that the gaurds regularly sent electrical pulses through for no aparent reason. And mine in the asteroid, hauling up all the stuff and when it went dry they moved you. It was hell, and he wanted to stay away from there. "I don't want anything untill you tell me what you want." 626 said icily 'Hm...... the little blue alien has a point' Darfinis thought. "I can't tell you yet, but untill then you will remain here, if you try to escape you will be shot." 626 grunted, and started to growl. "Um... look, maybe we could work this out, uh..." Darfinis said, a tone of fear in his voice. 626 grinned he was getting him nervous. He stood up and hissed. "I... uh..." More nervous. He sighed. "All we want is some blood, is that ok?" he spat out. 'good, now we're getting somewhere.' 626 thought. "Give me a week." 626 said. The tall alien didn't reply, he was lost in thought by the look on his face.
The room was silent, which seemed to irritate the tall alien. He couldn't help but snicker. The tall alien broke the silence. "Fine, I'll give you one week." he smiled down at 626 "No doubt you want to know who I am. My name is Darfinis Maurader." he stuck out his hand in friendship. It happened again, he just seemed to melt, he wasn't shown any anger or hostility, so he stuck his paw out. They both shook. 626 still had an uneasy feeling, he would have to keep his eyes and ears open.
Darfinis walked out of the room. Good, one week would give him time to think of an escape route. He would have to act inconspicuous for a while. He would play innocent every day, then sneak out at night.
* * *
6 days now, oh how it was hell. She sometimes had violent fits of anger followed by a day of depression. She felt incomplete without knowing where 626 was. She convinced herself that she'd lived without him for many years. But now she had given him a piece of her, now they were in love. He was more than experiment 626, he was her perfect. They both shared the same feeling toward eachother. And each time thay were together they felt more and more about eachother.
He was missing now, gone. 327 felt like she was on the brink of insanity. She couldn't keep it inside anymore. She had to do something. At first she'd kept tabs on all the security systems and jail houses, knowing 626 he would get either arrested or fight to the death. Nothing that interesting had been on the Stellar reciever, meaning nothing had blown up because of him. There was nothing out there. She would have to go search for him.
She was in the controll room looking for any thing that would help her on her journey. Then the comms rang. She peered at the messager, no one she knew. She picked it up anyway. "Hello?" she said. "Yeah, I saw this paper, says your looking for a little blue alien." he paused. Her hopes soared. "I saw him arround five days ago, over at my bakery, he whooped the hell outa some burglars. I followed him for a while to see where he'd go. But he was picked up by some of his friends in a red cruiser." the baker said. "Could you make out any model?" she asked quickly. "Yea, it appeared to be a Type IV cruiser. It was really dinged up too." "Thank you for your call, sir." 327 said. "No problem, he seemed like a very nice alien." He hung up.
Yes! Now she had some leads. She spun arround to the computer and rapidly typed in the type. What she saw stunned her. The ship 626 had been picked up in was exactly like Jumba's cruiser. Next she added red to the search, 300 ships registered. Too many. She added, 'Dinged up' to the search. 10 registered. Ah, now that's more like it. She went throught them all. The first eight were scrapped, a long time ago. The next two were still in service. One was owned by an alien on the planet Pitstov, too far away. The next one shocked her. A red type IV cruiser, dammaged from wear, on Turo, under the name of Darfinin Maurader. The same alien that had introduced himself to Jumba.
Pieces of the puzzle fell into place. The last piece was so obvious. She placed it down in the corner. Ah, the 1,000,000 piece puzzle was now fully together. She was now finished. Break was over. 327 closed the puzzle game on the computer and went to search for all the dwellings Mr. Darfinis has under his name. There were, much to her demise, nearly thirty. All spread arround the galaxy. It seemed to be in every major city on every big planet. She wanted to know what they were. Duh! He was an apprentice for Council, that explained that. She looked for a private house. Right here on Turo. It was in the Council's Main Hall. No room there to hide anything like 626. There was one odd one. He didn't own it, it was owned by the Galactic Reasearch Foundation, and he was Vice President. A rather large space station in space. In orbit practally nowhere, it was hanging near Turo's orbit. Prime suspect.
Now all 327 had to do was a little hacking and she could view every thing that had a camera in the staion. A few minutes later and she was in. She locked all the systems and routine tasks for the computer. So that when they detected her she could lock out the computers. Now came the long part, searching through every camera in the joint, and that could take hours.
Three hours later she was getting tired, but still kept at it. She'd gone through the cameras in the halls and was now scanning each room. The screen went white. She blinked. The camera moved, a small blue object was visible in the white room. She hit the freeze button. She studied the picture. A small screen popped up. "Oh shit." she mumbled. They'd detected her. She rapidly attacked the key board. Then she was kicked off the secruity systems and locked out. She tried fruitlessly to get back in. Then the whole screen closed. "Gah!" she screamed, they'd locked her out for good. She now only had the small immage of the blue speck in the white room.
* * *
Three days later and a complete tour of the whole place 626 felt relaxed. He had memorized all the turns and curves. He hadn't passed by any windows so he couldn't tell where exactly he was. He did notice somthing. The rooms appeared to be in a circular shape, indicating a space station of some sort. When ever he asked where thay were Darfinis shrugged him off. He had planned his escape route already. There was a supply ship sent from Turo to the place weekly. He would saboage the main engines and then destroy all the ships in the bay, then get on the supply ship and ride to safety. But firts he had to know where the engines were.
Later that night he snuck out from the bed and cautiously approached the door. He creaked it open and peered outside. He spotted a camera at the end of the hall, glowing in his infrared vision. He waited for it to turn, then he scrambled up wall and clung to the ceiling. For a moment he was disoriented, then he got his bearings and header for where he heard what he thought was an engine used to run the space station.
Thirty minutes later, and two wrong turns, he reached the room. He scanned for cameras and when he found none he dropped to the floor. He read the sign on the door. It said 'Thruster #1' Number 1? Ah crap, that meant there were more. He looked at the keypad, three colors, blue, red, and green. Using his excellerated mind he came up with some combinations. On his third one the door beeped open. He was faced with a ladder going down.
The room down below was quiet. No one was present. And that was a good thing, because the ladder was covered with grease and 626 slipped on the first rung. He fell twenty feet and hit the metal ground with a 'thunk'. Normally some one would have been injured by the fall, but he was 626. He rubbed his back and went to look at the expensive machinery. He found an infusion engine, model VIII. The best type, has nearly a million plus parts (1,523,834 to be exact) and could be sabotaged with ease. It would take them a month to find out what happened. He thought a second, if he disabled the thruster the ship would either list horribly or go into gimble lock, and that would prove impossible to get anywhere. Gimble lock was when the thrusters went out and the ship (the weight placement played a cruscial role) chose a random center of gravity and spun on that one piont, when that happened the gravity changed constantly going from the floor to the wall and increasing and decreasing. It was enough to make anyone heave. He'd have to knock out all of them at once.
He climbed the ladder and was careful not to slip. He started to seek out all the other thrusters. He was formulating a back-up plan too, if the thrusters plan was scrapped he'd gain access to the gravity controlls and mess with them. He decided to turn the gravity up to three atmospheres, so that everyone who wasn't as strong as him would barely be able to move. Or maybe turn it off and let them float in no paticular dirrection. He snickered as he pictured the doctors floating arround trying to dodge acid pools floating through the air.
He found out that the thrusters were aligned in a circular pattern. There were six in all. Too many to get to before the ship went into gimble lock. He'd have to go to the atmosphere and gravity controll room. As he stuck to the ceiling and traveled to the AVC room he felt something wierd. He couldn't tell what from the roof. He came across a pipe that blocked his way, he couldn't climb over the greasy surface. He aimed for the opposite wall and jumped. He planned on the arc of gravity to get him there, but was interrupted by the sudden change on garvity. He hit the floor and bounced to the wall where he clung. The gravity had been turned off. Then it returned. He fell to the floor.
He scrambled up the wall again. "Sorry, the power core had a flux." said a disembodied voice, almost robotic. "Should have warned us before that happened." 626 muttered. He continued the route to the center. Bofore he entered the door, that message hit him. "Core flux." he said quietly. Now being 626 and knowing all about quantum mechanics and neutratic cellular arrangement he had another plan. Now he had to find the primary core.
* * *
"He eats more than every doctor and scientist whole damn space station!" Skeff shouted. "And we still don't have the samples we need to continue the research." He yelled to Darfinis. Both were sitting in a room on the space station that was ornately furnished. "We have to wait for the right time." Darfinis said calmly. "Wait? For how long? Any more time we'll have to give an excuse for the rapid consumption of food!" Skeff sighed. "Give me two days." Darfinis said. "Two days it is then, any more and I take over." Skeff reasoned. "Fine, two days." both men shook hands. Darfinis left the room. Skeff waited untill he was sure he was gone, than pulled out a mini cell-com. He dialed a number. "Yes......... this is him..........In two days I'll need every soldier we can squeeze on the space station............. Yes that one in space." he smiled and clicked the cell off.
* * *
There was no rush, she now knew what she had to do. 327 slowly accumulated all the needs for the trip. She had planned this for a day now. While waiting for the ship to be ready she got a map on the space station and plotted a course there. She'd take Jumba's small space cruiser, it was fitted with every thing needed for docking with a station. She had six federation blasters stuffed in a small basket, two for her and the rest for 626, if he was able to carry them. Now she waited for night.
*
Midnight came and went. 327 snuck out the door to her room and headed for 626's room, to get some last second supplies. She approached the door. 'What am I doing?' she asked herself. 'Going to get 626.' she remimded herself. "I bet the door squeaks." she whispered softly. She pushed, the door squeaked. 625 stirred in his bed. She froze, when he didn't make any more movements she approached the locker in the rear of the room. Slowly she pulled the latch, it swung open quickly, she stopped it before it hit the wall. Inside were four uniforms, and two guns, very big guns. She grabbed the biggest gun and two uniforms. She turned quietly to the door.
She lugged the gun and the basket into the small ship. She set the basket and gun on a set and strapped them in. She stuffed one of the uniforms into the basket. She slipped into the other one. It was a little baggy and hung all over the place, but oh jeeze was it comfortable, no wonder why he didn't take it off. She shoved two blasters into the pockets and ran to the cockpit. 327 jumped into the pilot's seat and ran throught the check list. Engines, fuel, guns, back up power cell, landing gear, all ok. The pink alien started the engine and raised the ramp that lead to the starry night sky, clear as any other night. She gunned the engines and shoved it past drive and into 'whoop ass' as she called it. The ship shot off into the night sky with a great ammount of velocity. She set the course for the space station in the middle of nowhere. It would take nearly three hours to get there.
* * *
He leapt into his bed just before the alarm clock on his small night stand rang. He had been awake for more than 36 hours before, it was easly , but got difficult when he started to approach near 60 hours. He'd grab some sleep then act normal. He flopped down on his bed and fell asleep before he had time to turn off the lights.
*
He awoke two hours later and felt partially regenerated. He looked over to find a tray of food. He knew what this meant, it was getting close to when they wanted some blood and other samples. He reminded himself to watch his back and act normal. He ate the food and went to the library where he was learning all the planets and solar systems.
* *
Darfinis knew something was up when General Skeff was happy and seemed high. He started to have his doubts about him. Darfinis was heading to 626 room to talk about when he needed the samples. His wrist com rang. It was his aunt, as he expected. "I'm half way through the inspection Alkaldia." he said. "Good, except one thing, we need you to delay the inspection and get ot the meeting." she said. 'What? There was no meeting in my scedule.' "Judging by your expression I need to explain this. There was an emergecy meeting called about the trade embargo between Zenon I and Givistor. I expect you'll be here." the com turned off. This put a major delay in his plan. He sighed, that would have to wait.
Skeff watched as Darfinis boarded his cruiser and shot of to Turo. An evil grin spread across his face. He picked up the cell com and dialed.
* * *
It was approaching dark. 626 headed for his room, it had been a long day and now he was really tired. He walked down the hall. No doctor he passed gave him a dirty look of one of hatred, thay were wall peaceful and happy, now that spooked him. Tomorow night he'd make his escape, and with the explosives he'd placed he had to. They were set to go off in one day and three hours, he had nearly fourty three hours to escape. There was no way he could get to the bomb and defuse it if he had to. He would escape or he would die. It was that simple.
The door opened to the white room. He saw a cup of steaming something, after a long day he needed a drink. He slugged the whole thing and set the cup back down. Now he would wait untill midnight then get to the controll room. After thiry minutes of waiting his stomach growled. He walked to the toilet set up in a corner. He felt as if he would throw up. He stumbled to it, barely waking it. He realized it wasn't his stomach, that drink was drugged, and in past tests Jumba did on him his stomach heaved from the stuff. He slunk to the floor and blacked out.
* * *
"Keep those trigger fingers itchy." the squad commander said. "If he drank that stuff he should be blacked out by now." The members of the squad were nervous, they knew what happened to the last assault team. "Go." The commander kicked the door in and swept the area. He rapidly searched the area and found no alien. A more in depth search was needed, he hoped it was knocked out. He found him laying besides the toilet. "Come in controll." "Go ahead team 1" Skeff said. "We have the alien, and he's knocked out too."
Skeff supervised the moving of Experiment 626 into one of the medical bays. With Darfinis out of the way he'd gotten the soldiers up earlier than expected. He watced as the soldiers lay him on the table. A nearby doctor administered some tranquilizer and left. Skeff personally ran the fuser over the metal cuffs, twice, to make sure they were secure. Then they left the room. In thirty hours the doctors would begin the operation to retrive some samples and hopefully break Jumba's coded DNA.
* * *
The meeting was short, really short. He had plenty of time to mosey arround before he could get back up to the space station. He got in his personal transporter and rode off into the jungle outside the city. After a thirty minute ride and seven security checkpoints he drove up on the mansion's drive. He parked the red transporter in the huge garage beside all the expensive ships, and walked inside through the door.
Inside he was greeted by a long time friend, Zri. Any one would be astonished by what they saw, especially if they knew Zri was dead. And he was dead, this was a replicand, a mirror immage. While replicating, or cloning, had been banned except for on endangered species only, Darfinis Maurader went against that rule. The two aliens walked down the hall and turned into an elevator hidden in the wall.
"Is the facility on Pitstov ready to accomodate the experiment?" Darfinis asked. "Yes, all the preperations have been made. We'll have all of our staff working overtime to meet the two day goal. By the way, will the sample be tissue, or a living model?" Zri said. "Depends, If experiment 626 doesn't co-operate we'll have a living model, if he does we might get some blood samples." Darfinis explained. Zri gave him a grave look, "It would be better if we have the living sample, incase of some accident." Darfinis knew exactly what he meant. "Has he asked for anything out of this galaxy?" Zri questioned. "He has requested nothing yet, I think he wants to wait untill the last minute." Darfinis replied. Zri reached onto his desk and took up a folder and handed it to Darfinis. He looked at the report. Thirty three chambers. Not good. He wanted atleast one hundred by the time the month was out. It takes a week to fully clone and organize the cell structures. He set the folder down. That was all he wanted to know.
He climbed back into his cruiser and sped off. He had a few hours untill he had to get back. He hoped his replicand was doing a good job of impersonating him. He had concidered a replicand for sometime, and finally agreed. Now he hung back and the replicand took over, just for a while. When he had the army of experiments he could finally get where he wanted, the seat of power.