You Only Live Twice
"I you want to kiss the sky, better learn how to kneel. On your knees boy." - U2
Five hours, Damn! 327 had been delayed five hours because of thruster problems. She emmerged from the engine compartment, grease all over 626's borrowed suit. She looked down at it. "He won't be happy." she said in disgust. The pink alien went to the cockpit and re-started the engine. It roared to life. "Yes!" She punched the accelerator to make up for lost time. The station was another two hours away.
10 hours untill detonation.
* * *
The replicand Zri was to lead the operation, or autopsy if you will, on Experiment 626. He was to extract tissue samples on every organ in his body. Then they would dispose of the dead body, leaving it in the vaccuum of space to freeze and melt due to the sun and shadow. They would then ship the samples to Pitstov's secret lab and the process of decoding and cloning would begin.
After his meeting with Darfinis he had a quick dinner and boarded a space cruiser bound for the space station. He carried a small suticase filled with instruments the station didn't have. He hoped, for the life of him, that the autopsy would go fast, then he might get the required ammount of cloned experiments on time. He didn't say anything to the gaurd and walked aboard. He sat down in a deserted seat, across from the other scientists in the passenger area. The ship's doors closed and it took off into the late night.
*
After the one and a half hour trip, the large cruiser cicrled the station, waiting for clearence to land. 327 watched as the ship waited. She hadn't found a way inside yet. She was hoping the ship in front of her was the answer. Now she was in the rear, so that she wouldn't be detected on radar. The jets fired, she did the same. She just followed for a minute, untill she saw the doors close behind her. Then she peeled off from the rear and went for the nearest object she could find. She piloted the ship behind a cruiser and waited.
After nearly an hour of waiting she was sure the ship was done unloading and resupplying. She engadged the magnetic strips on the bottom of her small ship. The magenets hit the metal on the inner hull and made a horrible sound. She cringed, hoping no one would hear it. She stole a glance at the pannel, there was little oxygyn outside. She hoped there would be a maintnence door somewhere.
The door hissed open and the pressure equilized. She breathed slowly, trying to conserve her air. 327 had the huge gun slung across her back and the blasters in her pockets. The extra suit was in a small backpack. She crawled along the bottom of the ship and onto the inner hull of the docking bay. Realizing she only had a few minuted bofore she ran out of air and had to breath the air in the bay she scanned the area, looking for a door. She found what she wanted, a door marked maintenence on the bottom of the floor. Quickly she scurried down the incline and toward the door.
She opened the door and dropped inside. 327 hit the pressurize controll, and the outside air started to dissapate. She breathed fresh air, it wasn't that fresh. It had a scent of metal, like the tinny taste, like from milk in a can. Hoping she wouldn't have to shoot anyone as she crawled up onto the ceiling when the door slid open. She noticed several gaurds with riffles watching as the doors went open. She wanted to avoid killing for anything, and if she needed to it would be with 626 by her side. The gaurds thought the door opened from the power flux, the station was having alot of them.
She slipped into one of the vents in the room and noisily slipped off into the metal tubes. 327 didn't even know where to start, so she was looking for two things. One was a controll room of some sort, the other was someone talking about 626 and whatever they were going to do with him.
5 hours untill detonation.
The pink alien was not so pink anymore, or maybe I should say the orange uniform wasn't so orange. 327 had been crawling arround in the dusty vent for hours. She hadn't heard or seen any evidence that 626 was here. She was checking the last room on that level, she had run out of levels to search. The pipe she was going through ran above a corridor. She could barely hear the voices through the insulation on the outside. She shuffled to the nearest vent to listen. " -e should start soon." she heard. She reached the vent. "Mr. Darfinis will not be hapy about your siezure of the station." That name again! She peered out the slats, she saw five gaurds and two aliens, different in race, one was tall and wore a white gown, a doctor perhaps. The other was small and wore what appeared to be a suit from some millitary, medals and all. "I've moved the scedule up fifteen hours, you will start in a few minutes." the one with medals said. The one in white was suprized, "What? Now? I can't, Mr. Darfinis isn't here to-" White was cut off. "I don't care about procedures, You WILL start NOW, or I will personally shoot you." The medals reached itchily for his side blaster. "You wouldn't." White said. The medals pulled the blaster out and shoved it into the White's gut. "Watch me." Medals said flatly. The White gave in, he continued, Medals and friends in rear.
She was interested in what they were talikng about, and thought they might lead her to 626, it was worth a shot. After all, she was out of options. Silently she pried the grate off and put it down inside the small vent. She put the blasters away and started climbing on the roof, watching and waiting. They group walked down a white hallway and went into a room with no windows, she didn't hesitate to scurry in before the doors slammed shut. Inside there was a window that looked into another room, she couldn't see all the way in. There was a hiss and stuff sprinkled down from the roof, a misty haze like substance. 'Decontamination.' she thought. When all the stuff was settled the group opened another door. She slid in behind them.
The killer suits took up a circular formation arround a table in the middle of the room. Medals watched from outside the circle. She couldn't exactly see what was on the table, it was obscured by some kind of shield. White pushed a button and the shield lowered. 327 was thouroughly shocked, 626 lay on the table, cuffs bound him. He seemed to be knocked out, some drug or something. "For the first part of the procedure we need him awake." White said, holding a syrenge full of a redddish liquid. "I any thing should go wrong, the tapes will catch it." He pushed the liquid into the 'dead' experiment. "Three minutes." White whispered.
327 was formulating a plan in her head. When 626 awoke she would strike, shooting the bonds from the table and then raining hell on the killer suits. She was sure 626 wanted white to himself. The remaining seconds were tense, she was ready to blast anything into oblivion. She watched as 626 slowly came through.
His head was afire, he couldn't think strait. Last thing he remembered was being in the room with all white. He felt like this time was the end, and he was going to die. He opened his eyes, the firts thing that came to mind was 327, he hoped she would someday learn the truth about him. His vision was foggy, being semi black and white wasn't a help either. "Welcome to hell." he heard some one say. No, that was impossible. He swore he heard Zri's voice, can't be, he's dead. "The last remaining hours of your life will be pain filled and then you will die slowly. I will pull out your organs, while you are still alive. No pain killers, no anesthetic, no nothing. You will endure what you have made every on else feel." There was a menacing laugh. No, He watched as Zri died in a shower of flames, he saw the ship break apart. There was no way he was alive now. Color filtered through. He saw a pink spot on the ceiling and passed it off. He heard the tinkle of tools and new it was the end. The fuzz faded, he saw the pink spot was orange in some areas, a dust color orange. "Ready the laser." The voice said. The fuzz was all gone, he now saw 327 on the ceiling. His mind was going slow. What was she doing here? Had she been following him and was caputred and put under mind controll. Things got faster when he felt the counter effect for the tranq go through his heart, then pump through the rest of his body.
He hoped that 372 was not a illusion or hoax. The swivel mounted laser got closer. He looked over, it was Zri, How? He watched as the alien punched a code to operate the laser. The tip glowed red. He was starting to sweat, '327 do something.' his eyes said as he looked at her. She had a cold look in her eyes, almost a dead zombie look. Nothing he could do now would save himself, he closed his eyes and waited. He was finished.
4.5 hours untill detonation.
The laser never came, he opened his eyes to find out what happened. He felt the pressure forcing his hands down, the cuffs were rock solid. There was an explosion from the plasma of a blaster, the restraints released their stong hold on him. He smacked the laser as it was charged, it spun carzily on the mounts, and fired.
Things slowed down. The laser fired as it spun at head level for the gaurds. The laser cut cleanly through the necks as it did a 360 degree spin. The riffles fell to the floor, the soldier's following, also fell dead to the floor. Zri dodged it and slunk off into a corner. The General was short and it didn't reach his hight, he ducked down too. He saw 327 up on the ceiling, her gun right after fire, the smoke barely emmerging from the barrel. Now there was a friendly smile on her face. She threw two blasters at him, he caught both in mid air. He leaned up, things still slow, and shot the remaining straps.
Everything came back to normal, regular time. He stood shakily, and buck naked. on the table, both guns at the General who was drawing his blaster. The General gave him an evil eye. "You wouldn't." he snarled. 626 didn't bother to reply, he answered with his blaster. Two neat holes emmerged in the General's head, his eyes rolled up and he fell over. 626 now turned to Zri, who was cowering in the corner. He jumped off the table and onto the icy floor. "How did you survive?, I saw the flaming mass of your ship, you died." Zri smiled, "That was my replicand, a clone." 626 saw the reason, and grinnied devilishly at him, Zri's smile melted away into a face of uncertainty. "You only live twice." 626 quoted. He pulled the trigger. The shot entered the skull between the green eyes, and blew the rear of his head out, blood and brains following.
327 cried as she embraced 626. Tears rolled down both of thier faces as they hugged. They remained like this for a while, untill 327 broke the silence. "I thought I'd never see you again." she sniffled. "Me too." 626 mumbled. He looked at the blood stained ground. "We'd better get going." he stated. "Oh," 372 was reminded. "I brought you this." she reached into the back pack and grabbed the uniform. 626 grinned. "Thanks, I also see you borrowed one of mine." he observed. She looked down, "It does need some washing though." she said dis-tastefully. "Maybe they'll let us borrow their washer." he teased, know 327 had a need for cleanliness. She gave him a coquettish smile. He smiled back. "Oh, and this too." she pulled the riffle off her back and threw the backpack in a corner. She handed him the C-6. "Oh man, now we have some bargaining power." 327 looked distressed. "What is so important about that riffle?" she aked innocently. "This is no rifle, more like a cannon," he looked at it again. "With one hell of a blast."
"We need to leave." 327 said. "In a minute, there is something I saw while I was poking arround the other night. Some computer files I saw looked interesting." 626 told her. 327 said nothing and followed 626. The two experiments hoped the rest of the space station hadn't heard the uprising in the med bay. 626 peerer out first, there was no one in sight. He crossed the spae between the door and the wall and looked again. He motioned 327 out, she followed what 626 had done. He was getting overconfident, they both recklessly ran down the halls.
When they took the stairs to the next level 626 heard quite a bit of chattering. He scaled the door and slowly looked out the window. "Hey, 626." 327 said. "What." he whispered. "While I was in the docking bay I saw what looked like several troop transporters." she said in a confession tone. "Great." he muttered. "Which levels are the docking bays on?" he asked while staring at the aliens on the other side. "I wandered arround in the vents for nearly three hours, I lost my sence of dirrection." regret was in her voice. "Then we'd better get to the controll room." he said flatly. 626 hopped off the door and started up the steps. "This way." he called.
Both of them advanced more cautiously than the last time, knowing that patrolls were scanning the hallways. 626 rounded a corner and skidded to a halt, almost hitting the partoll ahead of him. 327, unknowingly ran arround the corner and plowed righ into 626. They laned right on top of eachother, 327 made a very audile "Ooooff." the gaurds noticed it and turned. He pulled a blaster from his pocket, from under 327 and aimed it into the general dirrection of the soldiers. She saw the soldiers after she'd hit 626, both of them had no choice. She pulled a blaster. The soldiers didn't expect any resistance, they were caught off-gaurd. The two experiments only got off six rounds when the remaining soldiers fired back. 626 put one of his free arms arround 327 and rolled out of the way, back behind the corner. He leapt up, balancing 327 on her feet and he back flipped, just one of the aerobic tricks he'd learned from Zri. The soldiers had turned thew corner and 626 sailed over them. He unleashed a reign of shots on them. The soldiers dropped dead. 626 did the same thing he had done in the lab, he was foucusing on shooting and forgot he was in the air. He hit the ground and rolled, trying to recover and see what was left of the soldiers.
327 didn't have time to think, she had shot the soldiers. 'It was them or me.' she convinced herself. 626 walked over, she was curious to see the face he had on. "Are you allright?" he asked. "I'm fine. But I think we've alerted all the other soldiers in the place." She looked at the dead soldiers, she didn't, it was morbid curiosity that forced her. "We're not out of this yet. Come on." he tugged at her. They both started down the hall again, this time even faster and reckless.
The outside of the controll room seemed quiet. "Should we knock?" 626 kidded. "On the count of three." "What do I do?" 327 asked, surprized. "Shoot anyone who tries to wreck the computers." he said without emotion. "Three." The two rushed inside, 327 just ran arround the place, making sure no one touched anything. 626 on the other hand, shot the technicians at thier seats. He also shot all the ones 327 passed up. After the bloody massacre was over he ran to the big computer he was poking at the other night. He grabbed the thick disks he'd hidden under the tower and inserted them into the designated slots. He ran to the main key board and pushed the dead tech out of the seat. 327 found her way over to him. "That wasn't nice." she said critically. He didn't listen, he was busy putting the hacking skills to work and downloading all the files he could find.
An alarm rang off. 626 tapped faster. "327, gaurd the door." he commanded. He ran into a fire wall and began hack arround. "What am I supposed to do? Shoot anyone that comes in?" she said sarcastically. "Now you're getting it." he said, tapping faster. She followed orders and watched. She heard the alarm and the constant click of the keyboard. Three soldiers shuffled inside, aparently unaware of the intruders. They didn't even notice her, why would she fire at them, maybe she could. Too late, they spotted 626. She had no choice now. The soldiers shouted for 626 to get off. "Danmit!, 327!" he shouted, the soldiers heard, there was something else in there with them. 327 cut them down, killing one and wounding two. She turned arround and gaured the door.
The alarm went silent. "What was that?" 327 asked worriedly. "Me." 626 answered. "I'm almost done. Keep them off my back for a few more seconds." 327 turned to look at 626, she saw the screens that the video data was comming across. There were a good number of soldiers comming. "Done!" 626 jumped from the chair to the wall where he inserted the disks. He pulled them out and put them into his pockets. "626." 327 called in what seemed like desperation. "There are ten more comming. 626 laughed. "Ten? is that it?" he snickered. 327 knew he was hopeless.
3 Hours untill detonation
They weren't there yet, 626 and 327 thought it best to flle before they came. 626 lead the way to the fighter hanger he'd seen on one of the maps. He'd smashed the controlls and shot up the towers, so they wouldn't see him on the cameras. They entered the bay, hundreds of ships were lined wall to wall. There were four different types. One was a police cruiser, an orange lightly armored freighters, red hot rodded speed sloops, and then the master piece. In the center sat a highly ormored, highly armed ship. Built costom for General Skeff himself. He chose that one and climbed up the ramp.
327 was busy starting the engines when a squad of soldiers showed up. 626 closed up the back and manned (or aliened) the turret bubble under the ship. He charged up the lasers, the soldier's hadn't been alerted to thier presence. It beeped in full charge, he activated the gyroscope which allowed the turret to turn easily. He grabbed the handles of the massive gun and swung it over at the soldiers dirrection. It was really a anti ship weapon, firing huge bolts of plasma to pierce the shields. He opened up on single fire. The soldiers were down from the second round. 626 didn't stop there, he continued to fire at the surrounding fighters, just to stop pusuit.
Huge explosions rocked the fighter bay. Fuel tanks exploded, the extra bombs set on the floor, waiting to be loaded added to the inferno. 626 shot a container that held a newly designed magnesium. The silvery powder started on fire. The stuff was meant to burn untill it was all gone, or reached the core of a planet. It ate into the floor at an alarming rate.
327 got the engine to turn on and was lifting the landing gear. She piloted the ship to the blast doors, which were closed. 626 sealed the turret bubble and entered the cockpit. He saw the closed doors. "Planning to beep and let them open it?" he asked. 327 stuck, she foze. She hadn't an excuse for them being closed. "Open the side door, I want out." 626 yelled from the living quarters. She pushed the open button.
626 was out on the small side wing, he unslung the C-6. "Time for work." he kissed it and aimed for the weakest part. He fired four shots, one for each corner. Four thunks was all 327 heard. 626 dashed inside, closing the door manually. The four shots hit at the exact same time, the air shook from the explosion. The small blue balls of electrically charged plasma turned from small to huge the second they hit the door. Lightning bolted from the impact zones, the door rattled. 327 closed her eyes, the flash was intolerable. A deep thunder rocked the ship, it vibrated.
626 entered the cockpit to view the dammage. The inner door was gone, the outer door had several small cracks in the frame and started to leak the air into space. "Uh..." 327 said. "Increase the forward shield, were going through." 626 grabbed the controlls and backed up in the small space. 327 twisted the knobs to tranfer the power. "Complete." 626 shoved the gear into drive and punched the accelerator. "Hold on, were going to hit something." he joked. The impact wasn't the bad, it was the sudden change from atmosphere to the crushing space that rocked the ship.
"Hit it." 626 said to himself, jamming the thrusters into the red zone. "What's the rush?" 327 asked. "I planted a bomb on this hunka junk, the worst thought is is forgot how long I set it for." 327 raised an eyebrow. "We'd better high tail it outta here then." 626 commanded the ship untill they were a safe distance away. He cut the power to the engines, letting the ship stall.
327 was in the private bathroom and 626 was taking a peek at the data he'd down loaded. He heard her humming tunelessly. He paged trough the files. All appeared to be scientific data collected on various plant species. "Crap, all I got was crap." he muttered. "This sucks." He paged down even farther. A red bold letter word caught his eye. He selected it. His jaw dropped, this wasn't a file itself, it was a whole program. Dna manipulations data, and artificial organs manipulations. There was in incomprehendible ammount of cellelar bi-processing and cloning. He immediately put two and two together, it all added up to one thing. The duplication of living life forms. He opened a channel with Jumba's private fax machine and sent everything he could over it, he didn't bother to tell who sent it. Jumba would probably go into a fit and demand they get back to the lab.
A name whizzed by, he caught it. Darfinis Maurader, that name. 626 was beginning to connect evil to that name. So far it seemed like all his problems came from this evil man. He was convinced there was more to it than there was present, and he wanted it all. He paged through the restricted information, looking for to see if there was a plant already built to house the huge machinery described in the data. He came across a report, and opened it. It was actually a journal entry. He skimmed through untill he got to a part. "The atmosphere on Pitstov is more than suitable for the machinery, low humidity, and an all out dry atmosphere." There, now he had a name, Pitstov.
He looked up everything he could on Pitstov. It was a fairly peaceful planet, with no major wars, no 'renesance' of industrial advancements, it relied on the technology of the out side galaxy. The planet was also a harbor for all the worst and evilest bounty hunters and pirates. Pirates were so outdated though, they were now referred to as smugglers. It was a planet that needed some cleaning up. 626 found some evidence on a bunker complex in the heart of the city, but he got no real leads. He began searching the records on the disk again. Hoping to find something on the facility.
327 came out of the bathroom, dripping wet from the shower. She gave a weak smile as 626 looked over at her dirrection. She walked over the his seat and sat down right next to him. He put an arm arround her. "What are you looking at?" she asked. "Some files." he told her. She glanced at the screen, wait. She noticed something wierd. 'Cellular by processing?' isn't that one of the factors in cloning? "Um... look." she pointed. "Yes, yes. I know." he brushed her off. "Isn't that one of the factors in the cloning process?" Jeeze, nothing escapes her. "Yes." 626 said, aggrivation ever present in his voice.
327 pulled him to the floor, and landed right ontop of him. She gripped his uniform, in a bully like posture. "I don't like your methods." It was a friendly gesture, but still trying to get a point across. "You kill everyone you meet?" She growled. 626 saw what she was stabbing at. He rolled ontop of her. "Not everyone." he said, the same way she did. "You think I'm a monster?" the question stabber her like a knife. 327 rolled back ontop. "Yes, an incredibly irrisitable monster." she whispered right in his ear. "And a hansom one at that." 626 let out a low growl. 327 giggled. 626 rolled over on his back and retraced his barbs. 327 started rubbing his back, while 626 traced imaginary objects in the carpet.
"Do me a favor will you, 626?" 372 asked softly. "Hmmmm..." 626 mumbled. "Stop killing everyone you see will you." she said politely, remembering his destructive programming. "I'll try." he groaned. "There's a boy." 327 continued to scratch.
626's mind was racing, he didn't know if he should go to the lab on Pitstov, or just let Jumba inform the council. The council always managed to get into everything, even solve long gone cases. If there was one thing they'd do to the lab, they'd level it. But then there was something inside 626 that said leveling the lab was his job, as an experiment programmed for destruction. He sighed, 327 would only approve of one. He picked the easiest.
"I you want to kiss the sky, better learn how to kneel. On your knees boy." - U2
Five hours, Damn! 327 had been delayed five hours because of thruster problems. She emmerged from the engine compartment, grease all over 626's borrowed suit. She looked down at it. "He won't be happy." she said in disgust. The pink alien went to the cockpit and re-started the engine. It roared to life. "Yes!" She punched the accelerator to make up for lost time. The station was another two hours away.
10 hours untill detonation.
* * *
The replicand Zri was to lead the operation, or autopsy if you will, on Experiment 626. He was to extract tissue samples on every organ in his body. Then they would dispose of the dead body, leaving it in the vaccuum of space to freeze and melt due to the sun and shadow. They would then ship the samples to Pitstov's secret lab and the process of decoding and cloning would begin.
After his meeting with Darfinis he had a quick dinner and boarded a space cruiser bound for the space station. He carried a small suticase filled with instruments the station didn't have. He hoped, for the life of him, that the autopsy would go fast, then he might get the required ammount of cloned experiments on time. He didn't say anything to the gaurd and walked aboard. He sat down in a deserted seat, across from the other scientists in the passenger area. The ship's doors closed and it took off into the late night.
*
After the one and a half hour trip, the large cruiser cicrled the station, waiting for clearence to land. 327 watched as the ship waited. She hadn't found a way inside yet. She was hoping the ship in front of her was the answer. Now she was in the rear, so that she wouldn't be detected on radar. The jets fired, she did the same. She just followed for a minute, untill she saw the doors close behind her. Then she peeled off from the rear and went for the nearest object she could find. She piloted the ship behind a cruiser and waited.
After nearly an hour of waiting she was sure the ship was done unloading and resupplying. She engadged the magnetic strips on the bottom of her small ship. The magenets hit the metal on the inner hull and made a horrible sound. She cringed, hoping no one would hear it. She stole a glance at the pannel, there was little oxygyn outside. She hoped there would be a maintnence door somewhere.
The door hissed open and the pressure equilized. She breathed slowly, trying to conserve her air. 327 had the huge gun slung across her back and the blasters in her pockets. The extra suit was in a small backpack. She crawled along the bottom of the ship and onto the inner hull of the docking bay. Realizing she only had a few minuted bofore she ran out of air and had to breath the air in the bay she scanned the area, looking for a door. She found what she wanted, a door marked maintenence on the bottom of the floor. Quickly she scurried down the incline and toward the door.
She opened the door and dropped inside. 327 hit the pressurize controll, and the outside air started to dissapate. She breathed fresh air, it wasn't that fresh. It had a scent of metal, like the tinny taste, like from milk in a can. Hoping she wouldn't have to shoot anyone as she crawled up onto the ceiling when the door slid open. She noticed several gaurds with riffles watching as the doors went open. She wanted to avoid killing for anything, and if she needed to it would be with 626 by her side. The gaurds thought the door opened from the power flux, the station was having alot of them.
She slipped into one of the vents in the room and noisily slipped off into the metal tubes. 327 didn't even know where to start, so she was looking for two things. One was a controll room of some sort, the other was someone talking about 626 and whatever they were going to do with him.
5 hours untill detonation.
The pink alien was not so pink anymore, or maybe I should say the orange uniform wasn't so orange. 327 had been crawling arround in the dusty vent for hours. She hadn't heard or seen any evidence that 626 was here. She was checking the last room on that level, she had run out of levels to search. The pipe she was going through ran above a corridor. She could barely hear the voices through the insulation on the outside. She shuffled to the nearest vent to listen. " -e should start soon." she heard. She reached the vent. "Mr. Darfinis will not be hapy about your siezure of the station." That name again! She peered out the slats, she saw five gaurds and two aliens, different in race, one was tall and wore a white gown, a doctor perhaps. The other was small and wore what appeared to be a suit from some millitary, medals and all. "I've moved the scedule up fifteen hours, you will start in a few minutes." the one with medals said. The one in white was suprized, "What? Now? I can't, Mr. Darfinis isn't here to-" White was cut off. "I don't care about procedures, You WILL start NOW, or I will personally shoot you." The medals reached itchily for his side blaster. "You wouldn't." White said. The medals pulled the blaster out and shoved it into the White's gut. "Watch me." Medals said flatly. The White gave in, he continued, Medals and friends in rear.
She was interested in what they were talikng about, and thought they might lead her to 626, it was worth a shot. After all, she was out of options. Silently she pried the grate off and put it down inside the small vent. She put the blasters away and started climbing on the roof, watching and waiting. They group walked down a white hallway and went into a room with no windows, she didn't hesitate to scurry in before the doors slammed shut. Inside there was a window that looked into another room, she couldn't see all the way in. There was a hiss and stuff sprinkled down from the roof, a misty haze like substance. 'Decontamination.' she thought. When all the stuff was settled the group opened another door. She slid in behind them.
The killer suits took up a circular formation arround a table in the middle of the room. Medals watched from outside the circle. She couldn't exactly see what was on the table, it was obscured by some kind of shield. White pushed a button and the shield lowered. 327 was thouroughly shocked, 626 lay on the table, cuffs bound him. He seemed to be knocked out, some drug or something. "For the first part of the procedure we need him awake." White said, holding a syrenge full of a redddish liquid. "I any thing should go wrong, the tapes will catch it." He pushed the liquid into the 'dead' experiment. "Three minutes." White whispered.
327 was formulating a plan in her head. When 626 awoke she would strike, shooting the bonds from the table and then raining hell on the killer suits. She was sure 626 wanted white to himself. The remaining seconds were tense, she was ready to blast anything into oblivion. She watched as 626 slowly came through.
His head was afire, he couldn't think strait. Last thing he remembered was being in the room with all white. He felt like this time was the end, and he was going to die. He opened his eyes, the firts thing that came to mind was 327, he hoped she would someday learn the truth about him. His vision was foggy, being semi black and white wasn't a help either. "Welcome to hell." he heard some one say. No, that was impossible. He swore he heard Zri's voice, can't be, he's dead. "The last remaining hours of your life will be pain filled and then you will die slowly. I will pull out your organs, while you are still alive. No pain killers, no anesthetic, no nothing. You will endure what you have made every on else feel." There was a menacing laugh. No, He watched as Zri died in a shower of flames, he saw the ship break apart. There was no way he was alive now. Color filtered through. He saw a pink spot on the ceiling and passed it off. He heard the tinkle of tools and new it was the end. The fuzz faded, he saw the pink spot was orange in some areas, a dust color orange. "Ready the laser." The voice said. The fuzz was all gone, he now saw 327 on the ceiling. His mind was going slow. What was she doing here? Had she been following him and was caputred and put under mind controll. Things got faster when he felt the counter effect for the tranq go through his heart, then pump through the rest of his body.
He hoped that 372 was not a illusion or hoax. The swivel mounted laser got closer. He looked over, it was Zri, How? He watched as the alien punched a code to operate the laser. The tip glowed red. He was starting to sweat, '327 do something.' his eyes said as he looked at her. She had a cold look in her eyes, almost a dead zombie look. Nothing he could do now would save himself, he closed his eyes and waited. He was finished.
4.5 hours untill detonation.
The laser never came, he opened his eyes to find out what happened. He felt the pressure forcing his hands down, the cuffs were rock solid. There was an explosion from the plasma of a blaster, the restraints released their stong hold on him. He smacked the laser as it was charged, it spun carzily on the mounts, and fired.
Things slowed down. The laser fired as it spun at head level for the gaurds. The laser cut cleanly through the necks as it did a 360 degree spin. The riffles fell to the floor, the soldier's following, also fell dead to the floor. Zri dodged it and slunk off into a corner. The General was short and it didn't reach his hight, he ducked down too. He saw 327 up on the ceiling, her gun right after fire, the smoke barely emmerging from the barrel. Now there was a friendly smile on her face. She threw two blasters at him, he caught both in mid air. He leaned up, things still slow, and shot the remaining straps.
Everything came back to normal, regular time. He stood shakily, and buck naked. on the table, both guns at the General who was drawing his blaster. The General gave him an evil eye. "You wouldn't." he snarled. 626 didn't bother to reply, he answered with his blaster. Two neat holes emmerged in the General's head, his eyes rolled up and he fell over. 626 now turned to Zri, who was cowering in the corner. He jumped off the table and onto the icy floor. "How did you survive?, I saw the flaming mass of your ship, you died." Zri smiled, "That was my replicand, a clone." 626 saw the reason, and grinnied devilishly at him, Zri's smile melted away into a face of uncertainty. "You only live twice." 626 quoted. He pulled the trigger. The shot entered the skull between the green eyes, and blew the rear of his head out, blood and brains following.
327 cried as she embraced 626. Tears rolled down both of thier faces as they hugged. They remained like this for a while, untill 327 broke the silence. "I thought I'd never see you again." she sniffled. "Me too." 626 mumbled. He looked at the blood stained ground. "We'd better get going." he stated. "Oh," 372 was reminded. "I brought you this." she reached into the back pack and grabbed the uniform. 626 grinned. "Thanks, I also see you borrowed one of mine." he observed. She looked down, "It does need some washing though." she said dis-tastefully. "Maybe they'll let us borrow their washer." he teased, know 327 had a need for cleanliness. She gave him a coquettish smile. He smiled back. "Oh, and this too." she pulled the riffle off her back and threw the backpack in a corner. She handed him the C-6. "Oh man, now we have some bargaining power." 327 looked distressed. "What is so important about that riffle?" she aked innocently. "This is no rifle, more like a cannon," he looked at it again. "With one hell of a blast."
"We need to leave." 327 said. "In a minute, there is something I saw while I was poking arround the other night. Some computer files I saw looked interesting." 626 told her. 327 said nothing and followed 626. The two experiments hoped the rest of the space station hadn't heard the uprising in the med bay. 626 peerer out first, there was no one in sight. He crossed the spae between the door and the wall and looked again. He motioned 327 out, she followed what 626 had done. He was getting overconfident, they both recklessly ran down the halls.
When they took the stairs to the next level 626 heard quite a bit of chattering. He scaled the door and slowly looked out the window. "Hey, 626." 327 said. "What." he whispered. "While I was in the docking bay I saw what looked like several troop transporters." she said in a confession tone. "Great." he muttered. "Which levels are the docking bays on?" he asked while staring at the aliens on the other side. "I wandered arround in the vents for nearly three hours, I lost my sence of dirrection." regret was in her voice. "Then we'd better get to the controll room." he said flatly. 626 hopped off the door and started up the steps. "This way." he called.
Both of them advanced more cautiously than the last time, knowing that patrolls were scanning the hallways. 626 rounded a corner and skidded to a halt, almost hitting the partoll ahead of him. 327, unknowingly ran arround the corner and plowed righ into 626. They laned right on top of eachother, 327 made a very audile "Ooooff." the gaurds noticed it and turned. He pulled a blaster from his pocket, from under 327 and aimed it into the general dirrection of the soldiers. She saw the soldiers after she'd hit 626, both of them had no choice. She pulled a blaster. The soldiers didn't expect any resistance, they were caught off-gaurd. The two experiments only got off six rounds when the remaining soldiers fired back. 626 put one of his free arms arround 327 and rolled out of the way, back behind the corner. He leapt up, balancing 327 on her feet and he back flipped, just one of the aerobic tricks he'd learned from Zri. The soldiers had turned thew corner and 626 sailed over them. He unleashed a reign of shots on them. The soldiers dropped dead. 626 did the same thing he had done in the lab, he was foucusing on shooting and forgot he was in the air. He hit the ground and rolled, trying to recover and see what was left of the soldiers.
327 didn't have time to think, she had shot the soldiers. 'It was them or me.' she convinced herself. 626 walked over, she was curious to see the face he had on. "Are you allright?" he asked. "I'm fine. But I think we've alerted all the other soldiers in the place." She looked at the dead soldiers, she didn't, it was morbid curiosity that forced her. "We're not out of this yet. Come on." he tugged at her. They both started down the hall again, this time even faster and reckless.
The outside of the controll room seemed quiet. "Should we knock?" 626 kidded. "On the count of three." "What do I do?" 327 asked, surprized. "Shoot anyone who tries to wreck the computers." he said without emotion. "Three." The two rushed inside, 327 just ran arround the place, making sure no one touched anything. 626 on the other hand, shot the technicians at thier seats. He also shot all the ones 327 passed up. After the bloody massacre was over he ran to the big computer he was poking at the other night. He grabbed the thick disks he'd hidden under the tower and inserted them into the designated slots. He ran to the main key board and pushed the dead tech out of the seat. 327 found her way over to him. "That wasn't nice." she said critically. He didn't listen, he was busy putting the hacking skills to work and downloading all the files he could find.
An alarm rang off. 626 tapped faster. "327, gaurd the door." he commanded. He ran into a fire wall and began hack arround. "What am I supposed to do? Shoot anyone that comes in?" she said sarcastically. "Now you're getting it." he said, tapping faster. She followed orders and watched. She heard the alarm and the constant click of the keyboard. Three soldiers shuffled inside, aparently unaware of the intruders. They didn't even notice her, why would she fire at them, maybe she could. Too late, they spotted 626. She had no choice now. The soldiers shouted for 626 to get off. "Danmit!, 327!" he shouted, the soldiers heard, there was something else in there with them. 327 cut them down, killing one and wounding two. She turned arround and gaured the door.
The alarm went silent. "What was that?" 327 asked worriedly. "Me." 626 answered. "I'm almost done. Keep them off my back for a few more seconds." 327 turned to look at 626, she saw the screens that the video data was comming across. There were a good number of soldiers comming. "Done!" 626 jumped from the chair to the wall where he inserted the disks. He pulled them out and put them into his pockets. "626." 327 called in what seemed like desperation. "There are ten more comming. 626 laughed. "Ten? is that it?" he snickered. 327 knew he was hopeless.
3 Hours untill detonation
They weren't there yet, 626 and 327 thought it best to flle before they came. 626 lead the way to the fighter hanger he'd seen on one of the maps. He'd smashed the controlls and shot up the towers, so they wouldn't see him on the cameras. They entered the bay, hundreds of ships were lined wall to wall. There were four different types. One was a police cruiser, an orange lightly armored freighters, red hot rodded speed sloops, and then the master piece. In the center sat a highly ormored, highly armed ship. Built costom for General Skeff himself. He chose that one and climbed up the ramp.
327 was busy starting the engines when a squad of soldiers showed up. 626 closed up the back and manned (or aliened) the turret bubble under the ship. He charged up the lasers, the soldier's hadn't been alerted to thier presence. It beeped in full charge, he activated the gyroscope which allowed the turret to turn easily. He grabbed the handles of the massive gun and swung it over at the soldiers dirrection. It was really a anti ship weapon, firing huge bolts of plasma to pierce the shields. He opened up on single fire. The soldiers were down from the second round. 626 didn't stop there, he continued to fire at the surrounding fighters, just to stop pusuit.
Huge explosions rocked the fighter bay. Fuel tanks exploded, the extra bombs set on the floor, waiting to be loaded added to the inferno. 626 shot a container that held a newly designed magnesium. The silvery powder started on fire. The stuff was meant to burn untill it was all gone, or reached the core of a planet. It ate into the floor at an alarming rate.
327 got the engine to turn on and was lifting the landing gear. She piloted the ship to the blast doors, which were closed. 626 sealed the turret bubble and entered the cockpit. He saw the closed doors. "Planning to beep and let them open it?" he asked. 327 stuck, she foze. She hadn't an excuse for them being closed. "Open the side door, I want out." 626 yelled from the living quarters. She pushed the open button.
626 was out on the small side wing, he unslung the C-6. "Time for work." he kissed it and aimed for the weakest part. He fired four shots, one for each corner. Four thunks was all 327 heard. 626 dashed inside, closing the door manually. The four shots hit at the exact same time, the air shook from the explosion. The small blue balls of electrically charged plasma turned from small to huge the second they hit the door. Lightning bolted from the impact zones, the door rattled. 327 closed her eyes, the flash was intolerable. A deep thunder rocked the ship, it vibrated.
626 entered the cockpit to view the dammage. The inner door was gone, the outer door had several small cracks in the frame and started to leak the air into space. "Uh..." 327 said. "Increase the forward shield, were going through." 626 grabbed the controlls and backed up in the small space. 327 twisted the knobs to tranfer the power. "Complete." 626 shoved the gear into drive and punched the accelerator. "Hold on, were going to hit something." he joked. The impact wasn't the bad, it was the sudden change from atmosphere to the crushing space that rocked the ship.
"Hit it." 626 said to himself, jamming the thrusters into the red zone. "What's the rush?" 327 asked. "I planted a bomb on this hunka junk, the worst thought is is forgot how long I set it for." 327 raised an eyebrow. "We'd better high tail it outta here then." 626 commanded the ship untill they were a safe distance away. He cut the power to the engines, letting the ship stall.
327 was in the private bathroom and 626 was taking a peek at the data he'd down loaded. He heard her humming tunelessly. He paged trough the files. All appeared to be scientific data collected on various plant species. "Crap, all I got was crap." he muttered. "This sucks." He paged down even farther. A red bold letter word caught his eye. He selected it. His jaw dropped, this wasn't a file itself, it was a whole program. Dna manipulations data, and artificial organs manipulations. There was in incomprehendible ammount of cellelar bi-processing and cloning. He immediately put two and two together, it all added up to one thing. The duplication of living life forms. He opened a channel with Jumba's private fax machine and sent everything he could over it, he didn't bother to tell who sent it. Jumba would probably go into a fit and demand they get back to the lab.
A name whizzed by, he caught it. Darfinis Maurader, that name. 626 was beginning to connect evil to that name. So far it seemed like all his problems came from this evil man. He was convinced there was more to it than there was present, and he wanted it all. He paged through the restricted information, looking for to see if there was a plant already built to house the huge machinery described in the data. He came across a report, and opened it. It was actually a journal entry. He skimmed through untill he got to a part. "The atmosphere on Pitstov is more than suitable for the machinery, low humidity, and an all out dry atmosphere." There, now he had a name, Pitstov.
He looked up everything he could on Pitstov. It was a fairly peaceful planet, with no major wars, no 'renesance' of industrial advancements, it relied on the technology of the out side galaxy. The planet was also a harbor for all the worst and evilest bounty hunters and pirates. Pirates were so outdated though, they were now referred to as smugglers. It was a planet that needed some cleaning up. 626 found some evidence on a bunker complex in the heart of the city, but he got no real leads. He began searching the records on the disk again. Hoping to find something on the facility.
327 came out of the bathroom, dripping wet from the shower. She gave a weak smile as 626 looked over at her dirrection. She walked over the his seat and sat down right next to him. He put an arm arround her. "What are you looking at?" she asked. "Some files." he told her. She glanced at the screen, wait. She noticed something wierd. 'Cellular by processing?' isn't that one of the factors in cloning? "Um... look." she pointed. "Yes, yes. I know." he brushed her off. "Isn't that one of the factors in the cloning process?" Jeeze, nothing escapes her. "Yes." 626 said, aggrivation ever present in his voice.
327 pulled him to the floor, and landed right ontop of him. She gripped his uniform, in a bully like posture. "I don't like your methods." It was a friendly gesture, but still trying to get a point across. "You kill everyone you meet?" She growled. 626 saw what she was stabbing at. He rolled ontop of her. "Not everyone." he said, the same way she did. "You think I'm a monster?" the question stabber her like a knife. 327 rolled back ontop. "Yes, an incredibly irrisitable monster." she whispered right in his ear. "And a hansom one at that." 626 let out a low growl. 327 giggled. 626 rolled over on his back and retraced his barbs. 327 started rubbing his back, while 626 traced imaginary objects in the carpet.
"Do me a favor will you, 626?" 372 asked softly. "Hmmmm..." 626 mumbled. "Stop killing everyone you see will you." she said politely, remembering his destructive programming. "I'll try." he groaned. "There's a boy." 327 continued to scratch.
626's mind was racing, he didn't know if he should go to the lab on Pitstov, or just let Jumba inform the council. The council always managed to get into everything, even solve long gone cases. If there was one thing they'd do to the lab, they'd level it. But then there was something inside 626 that said leveling the lab was his job, as an experiment programmed for destruction. He sighed, 327 would only approve of one. He picked the easiest.