Fugitives
"Are you building or are you breaking these diamonds in the making." ~Lifehouse
After watching the space station explode in a torrental mass of molten parts and various space objects, 626 powered up the cruiser and headed toward Turo. It was a long trip back, Turo was amidst the long cycle of it's yearly course, landing would be difficult. 327 hadn't ever flown a space vehicle, so 626 taught her how. She learned fast, picking up the handling and feeling the smoothness. A few hour later she was like an expert.
As they closed in on Turo 626 took controll of the gunship. He carefully put the ship into orbit. He now wondered how to get back in Jumba's lab. "What is it 626?" 327 asked, noticing the look of despair on his face. "I'm thinkin' how to get back into the lab." he rubbed his chin. "We can open a door and jump." 327 giggled. 626 didn't catch the cynicism. "No, wouldn't work." He thought harder. He looked outside the ship, at Turo. "It's night there now. Hey, 327 doesn't he keep the doors to the loading bay under extra security?" "Yes, but it can be over ridden." "Can you do it?" "Yep, gimme three minutes." "Good girl." 626 patted her on the back. 327 hopped up to one of the computers along the wall and started tapping on the keys.
* * *
Dr. Jumba Jookiba had known success and failire, good and bad, joy and sorrow. But now he felt something else, something different. It was an empty draining feeling, part sorrow and failure. 327 had dissappeared a week after 626 was missing. Now both were gone, he doubted he'd ever see them again. Maybe what happened to 626 327 found, and met the same fate. He wanted to delay #627 for another month, just incase 626 turned up. He was sure 626 was able to handle everything that was thrown at him, he had so far. Maybe they ran off, left, as simple as that. But then why would they leave? So many thoughts entered his head that night as he tried to get some sleep, but sleep didn't come.
Jumba reached over for the light switch beside his bed. He was startled when 625 appeared when the light was on. "625, What are you doing here?" "Looking." he replied. "For what, may I ask?" "I don't know, Haven't found it yet." 625 started out of the room. The light on the cieling came on, not the usual, the emergency lights. The room was cast in a red glow, an alarm rang off. "Gahhh.." Jumba groaned, he got up and headed for the controll room.
Inside the main computer, where 327 usually sat, was bliking red, 'Warning, Penetration' flashed. "Oh, 327 what I wouldn't give to have you here." he mumbled. He sat down and began to click keys. The penetration was in the docking bay. He switched to the video feed. The huge bay door was open, but nothing was inside. He continued to watch as a light grew near the roof. The camera adjusted, he saw a huge gunship slide into the dock and land, the exterior lights turned off. Fear struck him, 'Had the Federation found out?' "626 where are you?!" he screamed.
He watched from the otherside of the door, sweat rolling down his face. He breathed heavily. Nothing moved inside the huge battle armnament, no lights, no opening door. Nothing. It looked to be worn from a recent battle. "What's up Doc?" Jumba jumped. He turned to see 625 munching on a sandwich. "Can't sleep either." the experiment said. "Quiet." Jumba shhhed him. 625 looked confused. "There's a huge battle cruiser out there." Jumba motioned to the docking bay. "Uh... what should I do?" 625 said in alarm. "Get a gun or run." Jumba advised. "I can't shoot!" 625 whined. "Nor can you run." Jumba put in. Jumba decided to approach the vessel and see what they wanted. He opened the door and walked toward it.
A ramp on the side slid out from under and made a walkway to the floor. A door hissed open, light streamed through. Jumba was waiting for the officials to step out, none came. He saw a small obscurity in the light, two actually. He swithced on the lights in the bay. He was surpized at what he saw.
626, gun across his shoulder and 327 walked down the ramp, hand in hand. He couldn't believe what he saw. "626 is that you?" he asked. 626 looked down at his uniform, "Yes, I haven't changed, have I?" Now that 626 was safe he started his 'fatherly' routine. Jumba expression changed, he now looked crossly at him, "Come inside you two have alot to explain."
Jumba led the two experiments into his private office. He asked them to sit, both complied. He took a bottle of wine from the cabnet to the rear of his desk, popped the cork, and poured a glass. He swirled it before tasting. 626 got uneasy, sitting quietly was never his forte`. 327 however had learned patience, and sat unmoving and watching Jumba. Jumba set the glass on his desk. "Start from the beginning." he said.
As amazing as the story was, Jumba couldn't believe that Darfinis' hand reached as far as it did throught the galaxy. If Darfinis really did get he hands on 626 that would mean the certain fate of the entire Council and whatever galaxies it extended into. 626 related the events with incredible detail, Jumba drooled at the immence ammount of data that was on the station. 626 handed Jumba the disk he'd made. Jumba asked for 626 and 327 to go do something while he had some private time. When the door slammed shut Jumba slid the disk into the computer. He had a grin like a schoolboy on his face. The screen flashed, his expresion changed. His jaw dropped.
* * *
"It seems like every time we try to get that 626 one of our assets gets blown to pieces. First the ware houses on Chenadiss, then Base under Grevold, then the the Space station. If he doesn stop we could be out of business forever. He also learned that some one downloaded a majority of the data, but that would help him find the ones who took it. There must be a weakness, everyone has one, if he doesn't, he perfect." Darfinis sighed. He pulled a small cellink he always carried. He dialed a number. "Hello. Charlz...... Yes it's me......uh-huh....... Yeah, Listen. I need you to do a job. Get your best hackers, I'll call you later and tell you what for. You have three hours." He hung up and went to pour a drink from the cabnet behind his desk. "Plan 'B' is in effect."
The glass clinked as he poured the liquid. He took a long sip and sighed. He set the glass down and slumped into one of the chairs facing his desk. Darfinis shook his head to clear it. He began thinking. "Ok." he said to himself. "When they run, I'll tighten the net. If they get caught, I'll still get 626. Either way he's mine." Darfinis picked up the cell again. He made another important call.
* * *
Jumba was amazed at the enormous wealth of data on the disk 626 had copied. There was enough stuff to keep him busy for the next eight years. He'd first use some of the money he got via 327 to expand the lab and fix up Zri's old part of the complex. Then he would spend months on the cloning process, then put his knowledge in cloning non-organic objects. He pulled up a dirrectory in the computer and looked up who Zri left his lab to. He found what he wanted. When he saw the name he felt a stunning sensation. The same name 626 repeated over and over in his story of what happened. He saw the picture come together. Darfinis Maurader, he owned and built the entire complex. He was also the investor in hundreds of other scientific researcher parties, many Jumba didn't recognise. He pushed back in the chair and sat there for a second.
Jumba grabbed the disk and ran to one of his labs. He flicked on the lights and pulled up a rolling chair and sat at an x-ray machine. He slid the disk under the scanner and turned it on. He flipped the disk over and over, looking for a tracking device of some kind. He breathed a sigh of relief when he found none. "Jookiba, you gotta cool it." he said to himself. "You'd think the whole Federation was after you." He picked up the green disk from the scanner and returned to the controll room.
* * *
There was a knock at the door. Darfinis opened it. He was greeted by the face of his friend. "Is this all?" he asked. The alien outside replied, "All my others are off on vacation." Darfinis opened the door all the way. A warm smile crossed the tall alien's face. "Nice to see you again, Charlz." he embraced his friend. "Nice to sse you too." Charlz mumbled. Darfinis let go of him. "What ya got for me tonight?" Charlz asked. "Come inside and I'll explain." Darfinis motioned. The alien in a synthetic leather coat carring a briefcase walked inside the small room. He noticed several distasteful couches in different stages of destruction, messily strewn arround a Stellar-reciever. (t.v.) He followed the tall alien into a back room. The ornately dressed Darfinis didn't seem to fit in to this shabby hell-hole.
"Take a seat." Maurader waved. Charlz looked at the decrepit couch. "I've seen sewers cleaner than that couch." he whined. "Unfortunately my base has been confiscated by the council for 'just a quick look for forensics'." Darfinis huffed. "Just show me where to plug in and I'll begin." Charlz started to unzip the suitcase he carried. "It's longer than that, I'll start at the beginning."
Darfinis started his story of gatting his hands on the illusive Experiment 626. He included the destruction of the little creatre in great detail. He also related what he planned to do after he got the data Charlz down loaded. Charlz was amazed, surprized and dumb founded.
"Let me get this straight. You want me to get into this Doc's computer and download all the evidence that this thing exists. Then you plan to use the data to blackmail him for this infernal experiment. And what if he doesn't give in? I heard Dr. Jumba is a hard nut to crack." Charlz reasoned to Darfinis. Maurader smiled. "Every nut cracks under a different ammount of pressure." He said philosophically. "Whatever floats your boat." Charlz mumbled. He plugged the cable into the wall and turned on his computer. " Hyper Mk6 processor, insomniadic Hd drive at nine million rpm a second, max." Charlz grinned. Darfinis was impressed by the computer jargon, but his expression didn't show it. "Get in, get cracking, get out." Darfinis snarled at him. "Ok." Charlz tapped at the keys.
* * * Two Days Later * * *
Jumba gave 626 and 327 some time to recooperate before returning them to usual duties. 327 was glad to return to the computer, where there was no bullets she had to watch out for. Jumba asked her to send messages to all of his asociets that he had a gunship for sale. She knew that kind of thing would go fast. Her hunch paid off, nearly three hours after she'd put the ship on the mainstream she had three potential buyers. She paged through the messages, two of Jumba's closest friends, the other was an anonmous. She sceduled the unkown one first, and sent a message to meet Jumba in the docking port in three hours.
626 on the other hand had no sceduled tasks. He was always on the go, moving this, fixing that and in between, visiting 327 whenever she wasn't working. The Gunship he'd stole was now his present project, get it back into factory specs. He bagan by replacing the old parts in the engine room.
The core presented a problem, it was three years over due. The core in each ship and a life of usage, any where past that and it would be useless. The blue experiment peered into the window gauge, used to tell whenever the core needed a change. The yellow substance glowed and illuminated the whole engine area with an eerie glow. He crawled over to the small door that it would eventually come out of. Removing the core required alot of training and careful precision while removing it. He knew all the steps of caution. The core generated antimater, which was harnessed to run the drive pulses. He saw the small cabnet mounted by the door, inside was two protective suits. He ignored them. The door hissed open after he'd punched in the engine code. He flipped down a pair of goggles to protect his eyes while going in.
The spherical chamber glowed brighter than outside. He moved to the center, where a clylindar sat. Wires and hundreds of different colored tubes ran out of a lid and into various parts of the ship. He took one of the keys from a keyrack on the wall. 626 slid the key into the hole. The lid hissed when the key was turned. He squinted at the light and proceded forward. Inside the small chamber was a ball shaped orange nucleous, the heart of every ship. 626 threw all caution into the wind and grabbed the fist sized ball with his unprotected paw. The orange ball turned white hot, from the change in location.
626 walked out of the ship and put the ball into a nutrelizer Jumba put in the wall. He flipped the switch, the machine hummed, the ball lost all it's color and shine. An alarm sounded, a short one. 626 flipped up the goggles and rested them on his head. He opened the door and retrieved the dead core. It was now a lifeless rock ball, what it once was before the planet infused it with the life it once had. He decided to save the ball, just because.
626 was walking back to the ship to install the new core when Jumba walked through the door he'd been watching from the other night. He stopped and looked at 626. "626, took out the old core, I supose?" he said. A grin crossed the little blue alien's face. "Yep, it was easy." Jumba couldn't help but chuckle. 626 didn't see what was so funny. "What?" he asked. Jumba managed to stop laughing. "Next time, 626, at least wear your combat suit." Jumba giggled. He still didn't get the joke. "Go look into a mirror." Jumba wheezed out, he craked up again. "I will." 626 said, trotting off to find a mirror.
He remembered seeing one in the bathroom. He opened the door and went to the mirror. He scaled the sink and looked into the mirror. At first nothing obvious was present, he looked over himself from bottom to top. He then looked at his eyes. Something was amiss. The usual light blue ring was only present arround his eyes, less than what was usually there. There was a perfect circle arround them. Before it teneded to look like a rounded triangle, very rounded. He then looked up at the goggles. He smiled. The core had flash burned him, turning every inch that wasn't covered by the goggles a very dark blue, almost black. He then turned arround, yep just like he suspected. Except for the front, where the core radiated it's light, was fine. 'Jeez.' he thought. 'Now I look like an over done fillet. Well done in the front, but raw in the back.'
He took a pause to grab a suit from his room and then went to install the new core. The new core was easy to install. He repeated the removal process back wards. He finished up and looked down at his suit. It was black. He whipped his head arround as he heard voices comming from inside the landing bay. He'd never heard these voices before, he walked to the door carefully.
He saw Jumba outside the ship talking to a huge charactor. The tall greyish alien looked somewhat like a shark from Earth. He was indimidating to look at, nealy three meters high, and his arms bulged from the extensive workouts, not some one to mess with. His eyes seemed to be empty and cold, blinking occasionally. Both were laughing, so he dicided that they were friends, and went to join them. Jumba noticed 626 had approached and changed his attitiude toward the conversation. "And would the Captain like to view the ship?" Jumba asked the tall alien. "Indeed. I am short on time, make it quick." he said. "Who might this be?" the tall figure added, pointing to 626. Jumba turned red, and thought fast. "Uh, this is my hired hand. Master mechanic, six-, uh, Sixven." he explained, hoping that was enough to convince the sharklike alien. 626 snorted. "The tour?" the tall one asked. "Oh, yes. Right this way."
Jumba led the way up the gangplank, the Capt. ducked under the small bulkhead, 626 followed both of them. Inside Jumba gave a thourough tour of the entire ship, he even explained the armnaments and the shielding. The huge alien, Jumba and 626 walked into the lounge area. 626 sat on a chair, Jumba remained standing. "This ship passed my expectations. Where did you find one in this condition?" the Capt. said from leaning against the wall. "My friend was getting rid of some of the ships in his convoy. He said they had more hours on them than he'd been alive." Jumba explained. The tall alien grinned. "Give me a week to decide." He said. Jumba led the way out of the ship.
The tall alien climbed inside his personal transporter. "Wait!" Jumba shouted. The sharklike alien looked back. "I didn't get your name." The aline grinned, closed the hatch and moved to the cockpit. He rolled down the window and started the engine. "The name is Gantu, Captain Gantu." He stomped the accelerator and the ship shot out of the bay, leaving a trail of smoke. Jumba stopped hacking when the smoke was gone. "He was nice." 626 said critically. Jumba grunted.
* * *
The small briefing room sounded like the thunder of the German 88's. All of the occupants were waiting for the Grand Councilwoman to arrive, meanwhile they debated every kind of semantics. The minute the door opened the uproar stopped, every one dropped thier conversations. All the aliens in the room were the representitives of the major planetary systems, all had no idea why they were here. The Councilwoman strode forward, moving with the grace of a Queen and the elegance of a swan. In her three fingered hands was a dossier, thick with information collected in the past three days. A look of dead silence was upon her face as she walked out of the shadows. The approached the wooden conference table.
"Dr. Jumba Jookiba." She said threateningly, letting the brown dossier drop onto the table. Every one inside the room cringed at the sudden snap it made when it hit the table. "A doctor who's scientific input and medical research has been invaluable to us in these last years. He graduated from the Scientific School of Medicine, and now leads the modern worlds in Genetics and the reproduction of dead cells. Gradtuated first in all his classes. He's not to be under estimated, ever." She paused, letting the occupants of the room digest that data. She fingered open the dossier, and flipped through the first few pages. The Council woman picked up a paper. "Three days ago we recieved a transmission of data from an unknown source. In it was personal journal entries, huge ammounts of compiled data, old medical bills, pictures. The list goes on." she looked dwn and flipped the page. "But the most disturbing of all was this." She held up a stack of paper, about six inches in thickness. "Inside are the lists of 626 'experiments'." she coined. "626 genetically created creatures. Each with a different set of distructive capabilities." The Council woman read off the list. "Right here. 'Experiment # 529. 529 was created to read minds and move objects telekenetikly. He was used to extract numbers out of random minds for bank accounts. He has been a good asset.' There is much more than what I've read. But you all get the point." She set the papers down, and looked for any reaction in the faces of her audience.
"Genetic creation. Geneticly altered. Geneticaly enhanced. GENETICS, people. Tampering with the building blocks of life, manipulating them to your wish. Making something out of nothing. What were all made of, what the galaxy is made of. In some ways Dr. Jookiba is a great man. But the law draws the line at re-creating, or creating thnigs that are not meant to be. Making something merely because you can. Making a life purely for the fun of it. If you wish to read in depth, you will find Dr. Jumba has been searching for the ultimate destruction device. A thing you'd read about in doomsday novels. And he has succeded." The tall thin council woman paused to get a drink from a cup. The audience was silent, it seemed like they were enjoying this. But then all the Council heads were not chosen to make quick, jump-the-gun decisions. They thought it out and thought long and hard.
"Remember nearly three weeks ago? The string of incidents that were blamed on some rouge group of anti-everything people? All these incidents had something in common. There were all pieces of the Federations chess game. The warehouses held all the old information that was taking up room in the old Senate building. The Grevold, a high class meeting building, with a secret Counter-Intelligence base that was attacked. And finally the Space Station in sector 2 of the planet. All are part of the Federation. In Dr. Jumba's journal there are records of the destrution of the three. All were recorded under experiment 626, his latest creation, as testing grounds. Except the Grevold, 626 acted alone and that was his choice of the matter. Not only does he test these things in public, they think for themselves, willingly destruct and destroy. And unfortunalty there were no pictures sent, so your guess is as good as mine in what these 'experiments' look like." She felt like she was going at light speed. Sending out all this data, when she could barely comprehen it herself. "Any questions?" she asked. Everyone looked at eachother, then her. "Continue, please." was the Senator from Mraren's reply.
"I do not like the looks of this. A creature of desrtuction, running rampant and uncontrolled around the planets. At his creators will, to make it worse. Senators and Councilors, copies have been made for all of you, review the data and return here, with it in one week." She paused to looke over at Dr. Bromn, the psycologist reviewing Jumba's personal writings. He noticed he was being watched. "This Doctor is a genious. I only touched medical science, he' mastered it. He knows more that any alien ever would hope to grasp." he exclaimed. "And what is your professional evaluation on the Doctor?" the Council woman asked. Dr. Bromn put his hand on his forehead and rubbed it. "I cannot say, but he does sound like something reminiscent of Dr. Frankenstien. Other than examining him myself I cannot pass judgement." he sighed. The council woman sighed. "I fear that Dr. Jumba will test experiment 626 on a planet itself, possibly decimating all the inhabitants. We cannot allow this. That is all I have to say. I will see you all in one week. You are dismissed."
*
His plan was working perfect. Now all he had to do is sit back and watch the fireworks. Then when the time is right, strike.
* * * Three days later * * *
This day started out as usual. Wake up. Put on combat suit. And see what Jumba wants. Then when he is finished, go see what 327 is up to. Yep. Routine. And he was getting sick of it. 626 actually enjoyed the feeling of waking up and wanting to see what would blow up in his face that day. But things had quieted down since the space station ordeal. 626 knew that he would once again be thrown into the world of perpetual chaos as he so loves. Either the chaos would come to him, or he would make the chaos. But he remembered the promise he made to 327. He loved her so much he would prove that he could keep a promise, even if that means not doing what he was meant to do. It drove him crazy, not scratching up everything, not tormenting the living daylights out of 625, and the list goes on and on.
But it was worth it. 327 was happy, and when he knew she was happy he was too. He had heard rumors of the Captain Gantu's return later that day, but hadn't found the time to ask any one. It was lunch time, according to 626's internal clock anyway. So he headed for the kitchen, hoping 327 would be in. He passed the door to the auditorium. After Jumba called to see about getting Zri's old lab he was refused. Instead Mr. Darfinis put in an auditorium for presentations and meetings.
The blue experiment picked up a remote sound, he stopped in front of the auditorium doors. The sound was comming from inside. He pushed the gigantic door open, only to see Captain Gantu and Jumba in what seemed to be in a heated argument. He also noticed several lizzard soldiers behind Gantu, 626 thought immediately turned sour. He approached Jumba.
"Can't you see!" the big scientist shouted. "What an advantage to the millitary this could be?" Gantu responded quickly. "Advantage or not, you are still tampering with genetics." 626 cringed at this word, he could only guess what Gantu was talking about. "Besides the fact that they are that way, do you think the millitary could be interested in my experiments?" Jumba pointed out. Gantu sighed. "No, Dr. Jumba. I couldn't." Jumba stuttered. "B- but can't you even consider it?!" "No. Dr. Jumba, this is your only warning. Cease all experimental creations. Or you will be arrested under Galactic law #2326547.2." "Yes, yes. I understand." Jumba groaned. "I'll be back in one week." Gantu gave a toothy grin and left the auditorium.
626 looked to Jumba for answers. Jumba saw him. "Don't even ask." he moaned. "And why not?" 626 asked. "You wouldn't understand." Jumba explained. "I understand more that you think I do." was 626's whitty come back. "Would you really like to know?" Jumba asked. 626 nodded.
"Some how they got into everything I had and found out what I was doing. The experiments and such. Gantu didn't come to look at the ship, he came to confirm the creation of genetic life forms. Apparently he found enough evidince to sway the council. They have given me a week to distroy all my work, down to every last experiment. Or they would do it for me." Jumba told him. 626 let his ears fall, not believing what he'd heard. "You wouldn't dare." he said weakly. "That's what I told them." Jumba said, trying to comfort 626. "I have no intention of destroying my work. Or anything for that matter." "Then what are we going to do about them comming back?" 626 sounded concerned. "I plan to be long gone...." Jumba paused. "Long...gone." "Where do you intend to go?" 626 inquired. "We can seek shelter in Pitstov for a little while. Then if need be, we can move to ZenonV." Jumba answered. "I give them a week to get things on order. After one week, if I don't hear from them, we're going."
"What about the others?" 626 asked. Jumba didn't answer. He scowled. 626 caught his expression. "I guess you're going to take a choice few, and leave the rest to fend for themselves?" 626 was concerned usually for himself, and no one else. But the other experiments were his 'brothers' and 'sisters'. Jumba didn't answer, he began pulling a thick cigar from his pocket and lit it. He thought about what 626 said, while blowing smoke rings into the air. "626. I nedd you to put an autopilot on the Gunship. Like a remote controll." Jumba's grim expression lightened up. 626 set out immediately.
Utilizing a laser guidence system and sensors in the cockpit he could use a complicated controller to maneuver the ship arround. The controller had buttons on it for eveything. The lights, engine, stick. and so much more. It looked like a tangled mess of wires and buttons. Only 626, with the help of a supercomputer brain, could under stand it. He made minor adjustments to the ship after seeing it fly on the controller. It listed to starbord, not good. Nearly the whole day had gone and 626 was finished with the wire- less controller. Now he could pilot the ship from Jumba's cruiser.
Jumba went in through the ship, taking out everything that would be of use in a dog fight, except the bubble turret on the underside of the ship. He re-routed the power through an amplifier and started installing units used to cryogeniclly freeze his experiments. He estimated the new core would keep them alive for years to come. He installed a fail-safe device, when the power core reached the point where it couldn't properly freeze the experiments it would start the unfreeze procedure, and let them out. Hopefully if that happened they would have enough fuel to get to some planet and settle there.
With the modifications on the gunship done 626 walked off to find out what 327 was doing. He found her in the library, reading something on a datapad. "Whatcha got there?" he asked. "The news." she huffed. "Some one's in a bad mood." he told her. "You would be too." 626 senced there was somehting she wasn't telling him. "What's wrong?" he asked, scooting closer the where she sat. "Can I ask you a question 626?" she sniffed. "Anything." he answered. "What would happen if the Council found out what goes on here? What would happen to us?" 626 felt like he'd been hit with a rock, a big one at that. "Nothing, I'm sure." he lied. "You lie!" 327 shouted, right in his ear. 626 cringed, his ears stared ringing. "You want the truth?" "Yes." "Really?" "YES!" 327 was getting agitated. "The truth is this. Jumba would likely go to jail, or a halfway house, possibly for life. Some of the less dangerous experiemnts, X, 625, you, would be sent to a penal colony on some damned asteroid. You'd be worked on 24 hour shifts, little or no food, and likely arround five hours of sleep." He put an arm under his head, and scratched his stomach. "What about you?" 327 asked. He rolled over to her side and whispered in her ear. "After they threw me in some hell hole for months. After the daily beatings. After near starvation. After they reviewed Jumba's files on me. After they sedate me and strap me onto an examination table..." He put one of his claws right above 327 heart. "...They'd send a laser beam right here." The way 626 explained it sounded horrible. He tapped her chest. "Instant death." 327 felt tingles all over her, she shook of that thought. "You wouldn't go down without a fight." she said confidently. "They won't catch me." 626 reassured her.
* * * Four days later * * *
The same representatives were sitting arround the table, exactly like they did a week ago. Again they were waiting for the Grand Councilwoman to make her appearence. No sound of talking was heard, there would be alot to say later. Each member had a stack of paper in front of them. Reports, varies sizes and in different languages.
The Grand Councilwoman walked out from the same door, just as she did a week ago. She stepped up to the table. "I assume you all have had some time to think." she said. Heads nodded. "Dr. Jumba's activities have been confirmed. Captain Gantu visited him a few days ago. He has confirmed the creation of genetically created creatures. A some what short investigation of the premises has been made. A full investigation will commence when the Doctor is in custody." "Wait a minute.!" a senator stood up. "Arrest him? The council has always given any one just one chance." "Senator Areni, I assure you, we have given him that chance. And he has not distroyed the experiments." the Councilwoman said. The queen from Angoir protested. "Destroy them? Even though they are experiments built for destruction, they are a life. They have a choice." "Queen Arisv. These things only live to kill. Letting them go free, and not under imprisonment or confinement will result in serious consequences." The spark exploded the fuel.
Whether to bring Jumba in or not. To let live the experiments or not. To destroy all the Dr. Jumba has achieved or not. All this was a war. The room was thrown into chaos, shouts were thrown from side to side. Half were for the arrest of Jumba and slaying of the experiments. The other were for penalizing Jumba and letting the experiments live. For nealry eight hours the debate was raging on. Untill the Grand Councilwoman recieved a call.
"QUIET!" she yelled. Everyone froze. Paper fluttered to the ground, dead silence. "I have a call to answer." The Councilwoman reached into her long robes and retrieved a cellink. "Hello." she answered politely. "Yes............yes...........I get you......bye." She hung up and turned to the group. "I have some bad news. The Council Elders have made a descision of ther own. It is no longer our responcibility." Groans were sent up from the crowd. "But they did give me another issue." a smile crept across her face.
* * *
"Captain!" the first officer shouted. "Capatin! We have some news from the Council's Elders." he reported. Captain Gantu turned arround from the battle enactment screen. "And that news would be?" Gantu snapped. "Sorry, sir. Your mission comes from the council's elders. Here are the documents." the officer handed them up to Gantu's enormous hight. "You may go." Gantu waved. The officer in the blue uniform left the room, the door slammed behind him. "What is it now?" Gantu groaned. He ripped open the folder with his small knife he always carried. "Bla bla bla......." he read past the 'Legal shit' , and 'Terms of agreement'. "Bla bla bla...............Ooo." he stopped. 'Dr. Jumba' was one of the first words on the next page. He grinned.
* * *
"There." Jumba said, puting the last piece of paper through the shredder. He didn't need them anyway, he backed them up on disks. He was ready to begin destroying the bodies of the dead experiments that hadn't been swiped by Zri, when the comms rang. "Who could it be now." he huffed. He picked the piece off the cradel. "Hello?" he spoke. "Dr. Jumba." the voice was as cold as ice, the person on the end of the line was also. "Captain Gantu..." Jumba drifted off. "I'm glad you know my name, you will be hearing it alot in the next few years." Gantu's voice was followed by a cruel laugh. "Is everything as the Council requested?" Gantu asked, with a sharp tone. Jumba sighed. "Captain, my experiments are living beings. They have as much right to live as you do. I cannot, no, Will not, destroy them." he told Gantu. "Well, the Council has taken that descision out of your hands. Tomorrow we are comming to do that." Gantu abruptly hung up. Jumba put the reciever down, to stunned to talk.
His mind was racing, all he had worked to achieve was comming to a halt. Crashing into the ground and incenerating into nothing, and he was going down with it. But, he wouldn't let them. He would run fast and hard. With 327, who knew how to do everything on the computers, and 626, who could theororetically destroy an entire army, he would not be caught. His other experiments were the problem though. How could he keep his six hundred plus experiments alive and together? The answer hit him like a stone, preserve them. Put them into a cryogenic sleep, only to be awakened when activated. There was a nice station in the Zeta quadrant that manufactures things like that. He sighed, knowing that the days to come would be long and he would have to watch his back every minute.
* * * Near mid-night. (Turo time)
He thought 626 had enough sleep. He shook the sleeping experiment. 626 groaned and rolled over. "Get up." Jumba whispered. "We're leaving." 626's only responce was to grunt and cover himself with his blankets. Jumba pulled the blankets off 626 and hurled them against the wall. "Get up." He started nudge the bed. After three minutes of trying to get 626 out of bed using every profane word he knew, he just kicked the bed over. He kept his hand on the tranquilizer in his pocket, he remembered what happened the last time he did that. 626 pushed the bed off of himself and looked at Jumba. "Why'd ya do that?" he asked. Jumba could barely say a word. He had expected 626 to lunge at him. 'Destructive programming.' he remembered. But then he also remembered, 'Programs can learn.' He huffed. "We're leaving now. Well in an hour anyway. Get your stuff." Jumba told him. "Easier said than done." he grumbled. 626 had four blasters his C-III and the CH-6, also his five uniforms. Actualy it wasn't that much compared to what Jumba had packed in the cargo bay of his cruiser.
"What about the others?" 626 asked, while gatherin all his stuff into a box. "All the rest of the experiments are on the battle cruiser, cryogenically sleeping." Jumba waved his tranquilizer in the air. "327?" he asked. "Destroying all the evidence on the computer." Jumba answered. 626 nodded in approval. "Haven't found 625, actually." Jumba said, rubbing his chin. "Well, he's probably hiding in my cruiser. He doesn't exactly like tranqs." Jumba left the room to mark of another item on his checklist. 626 loaded his stuff onto Jumba's red cruiser, then went to go help finish up.
327 sat in the seemingly bare computer room, the mess of all the papers and the test tubes was cleaned up and gone. Only the banks of computers remained. She activated the program Jumba had told her to design years ago. It ran through the computer and deleted all the files, folders, sub- programs, and all that mish mosh. "Three more hours to go." she told herself. She had insisted that Jumba and them leave while the computer erased all the stuff. But she knew how stubborn Jumba was, 'never leave a job half done, or to the computers' was his work ethic. She hunched down while the computer erased all the files, the humming of the laser was the only sound in the room. She sighed. 10% more to go.
* * *
"Are you sure you want to do this?" the technician in the white coat said. "Shut off all power to the Federation's lab #4246?" he said. "Yes, I'm sure." Gantu smiled. He handed the tech the paper work from the Council. "Put him in the dark, just to panick him." The sharkish alien grinned. "Ok." the tech said. He flipped up the swtich to the controll for that sector. A passcode keypad popped up. He pressed in the long code, the pad dissappeared. He then flipped the switch, a confirmation on the monitor popped up. He clicked 'Ok'. The generators for the sector paused. There was a grinding noise. "That's allright." he told Gantu. "That's the arm switching the power to more needed areas of the city." The grinding haulted, the steady hum was back. "Reading no CFEP* to sector 4246." the tech said. Gantu smiled. "Good."
* CFEP = Crystallic Fusion Energy Pulses. Similar to electricity.
* * *
"What the hell happened?!" Jumba shouted to 626, who was walking down the hall. "Cut the power." 626 said in a low tone. "WHAT?!" Jumba yelled in disbelief. "What about the generator? Shouldn't it be on now?" "Give it a second." 626 told him. He listened for the click of the overide. *click* "There." 626 tried to calm Jumba, who had fallen, and didn't know where he was. The lights flickered, a steady low power was running through them. Then the lit up to full strentgh. There was a crack. The light were dead. "What was that?!" Jumba grumbled. "Forgot to tell you," 626 said sheepishly. "The generator only works with a constant flow of at least 12 photons a second. If not if runs fine for a while, then blows." Jumba didn't under stand. "Blows?" he questioned. "Yep. Without a source of controlled energy, like those 12 photons, it wastes all of the energy on eight seconds." 626 said, trying to sound smart. "Giahh!" Jumba screamed. *Click* "What was that?" he said in alarm. "327." 626 answered. "How-" he stopped, 626 could see in the dark.
The area was bathed in a light green glow. 327 held the portable lantern in the air. "Heard the noise." she said. "So I came back to see what was up. Oh- Jumba, the power shut off, there is still some stuff on the computer." Jumba grumbled. "Well we can't get it back on now. We'll have to destroy it." He said, looking down at 626. "Right." 626 gave him a salute and went to see what he had to get the computer with. "327, round up whatever you can find that we need. As soon as 626 comes back we're leaving." Jumba told her. The pink alien gave him the lantern and ran off into the dark hallway to do a last minute check.
626 found the controll room and went to the computer. He pulled out one of the blasters he carried and removed a power cell from it. He placed the small pellet on the desk and backed away. He aimed for it and fired. It wasn't a big explosion, but enough to do the job. He smiled, then exited the room. He met up with Jumba and 327 in the docking bay. "Done." he yelled to Jumba from across the room. Jumba waved 626 to the ship.
626 grabbed the remote he made for the gunship and sat in the co-pilot's seat in the cockpit of Jumba's cruiser. He flipped the power switch as Jumba started the impulse in his ship. He brough the engines online and activated the anti gravity boosters. The two ships floated in the dock. "Ready?" Jumba asked. "Just a sec." 626 said. He pulled out a small helmet, inside was a flip down camera. He seated it on his head and turned on the camera. He now saw what the pilot would if he was in the ship. "Ready." Jumba smiled. "Here we go." He hit the accelerator and the ship shout out of the bay. The gunship in close pursuit.
* * *
"Captain, I think you might want to see this." An officer said. "Not now." Gantu moaned. His enourmous form was laid back in a chair in his quarters, holding a glass of whiskey. "No, captain. NOW." The officer said over the intercom. "Giaghh." Gantu moaned. "Always something to ruin my night." He got up from the chair and walked to the bridge. He ducked into the low doorway that lead to the bridge. "Captain. Look." the officer pointed to the screen. Gantu saw a red cruiser being chased by a gunship. "Is that one ours?" he asked. "No. Captain, do you even know who that is?" He asked. "No. Why? am I supposed to?" Gantu said, feeling annoyed. They knew something he didn't. "He's reached the edge of the atmoshpere." said the tracker. "Who is that?" Gantu asked. "Sir, that's Doctor Jumba Jookiba." The first officer said. "Get a tracking marker on him." Gantu yelled. He watched as the two ships dissappeared. "What was that?!" he shouted. "They've gone into hyperspace." The officer replied. "Giiahh!" he shouted as he stormed out of the room.
"Are you building or are you breaking these diamonds in the making." ~Lifehouse
After watching the space station explode in a torrental mass of molten parts and various space objects, 626 powered up the cruiser and headed toward Turo. It was a long trip back, Turo was amidst the long cycle of it's yearly course, landing would be difficult. 327 hadn't ever flown a space vehicle, so 626 taught her how. She learned fast, picking up the handling and feeling the smoothness. A few hour later she was like an expert.
As they closed in on Turo 626 took controll of the gunship. He carefully put the ship into orbit. He now wondered how to get back in Jumba's lab. "What is it 626?" 327 asked, noticing the look of despair on his face. "I'm thinkin' how to get back into the lab." he rubbed his chin. "We can open a door and jump." 327 giggled. 626 didn't catch the cynicism. "No, wouldn't work." He thought harder. He looked outside the ship, at Turo. "It's night there now. Hey, 327 doesn't he keep the doors to the loading bay under extra security?" "Yes, but it can be over ridden." "Can you do it?" "Yep, gimme three minutes." "Good girl." 626 patted her on the back. 327 hopped up to one of the computers along the wall and started tapping on the keys.
* * *
Dr. Jumba Jookiba had known success and failire, good and bad, joy and sorrow. But now he felt something else, something different. It was an empty draining feeling, part sorrow and failure. 327 had dissappeared a week after 626 was missing. Now both were gone, he doubted he'd ever see them again. Maybe what happened to 626 327 found, and met the same fate. He wanted to delay #627 for another month, just incase 626 turned up. He was sure 626 was able to handle everything that was thrown at him, he had so far. Maybe they ran off, left, as simple as that. But then why would they leave? So many thoughts entered his head that night as he tried to get some sleep, but sleep didn't come.
Jumba reached over for the light switch beside his bed. He was startled when 625 appeared when the light was on. "625, What are you doing here?" "Looking." he replied. "For what, may I ask?" "I don't know, Haven't found it yet." 625 started out of the room. The light on the cieling came on, not the usual, the emergency lights. The room was cast in a red glow, an alarm rang off. "Gahhh.." Jumba groaned, he got up and headed for the controll room.
Inside the main computer, where 327 usually sat, was bliking red, 'Warning, Penetration' flashed. "Oh, 327 what I wouldn't give to have you here." he mumbled. He sat down and began to click keys. The penetration was in the docking bay. He switched to the video feed. The huge bay door was open, but nothing was inside. He continued to watch as a light grew near the roof. The camera adjusted, he saw a huge gunship slide into the dock and land, the exterior lights turned off. Fear struck him, 'Had the Federation found out?' "626 where are you?!" he screamed.
He watched from the otherside of the door, sweat rolling down his face. He breathed heavily. Nothing moved inside the huge battle armnament, no lights, no opening door. Nothing. It looked to be worn from a recent battle. "What's up Doc?" Jumba jumped. He turned to see 625 munching on a sandwich. "Can't sleep either." the experiment said. "Quiet." Jumba shhhed him. 625 looked confused. "There's a huge battle cruiser out there." Jumba motioned to the docking bay. "Uh... what should I do?" 625 said in alarm. "Get a gun or run." Jumba advised. "I can't shoot!" 625 whined. "Nor can you run." Jumba put in. Jumba decided to approach the vessel and see what they wanted. He opened the door and walked toward it.
A ramp on the side slid out from under and made a walkway to the floor. A door hissed open, light streamed through. Jumba was waiting for the officials to step out, none came. He saw a small obscurity in the light, two actually. He swithced on the lights in the bay. He was surpized at what he saw.
626, gun across his shoulder and 327 walked down the ramp, hand in hand. He couldn't believe what he saw. "626 is that you?" he asked. 626 looked down at his uniform, "Yes, I haven't changed, have I?" Now that 626 was safe he started his 'fatherly' routine. Jumba expression changed, he now looked crossly at him, "Come inside you two have alot to explain."
Jumba led the two experiments into his private office. He asked them to sit, both complied. He took a bottle of wine from the cabnet to the rear of his desk, popped the cork, and poured a glass. He swirled it before tasting. 626 got uneasy, sitting quietly was never his forte`. 327 however had learned patience, and sat unmoving and watching Jumba. Jumba set the glass on his desk. "Start from the beginning." he said.
As amazing as the story was, Jumba couldn't believe that Darfinis' hand reached as far as it did throught the galaxy. If Darfinis really did get he hands on 626 that would mean the certain fate of the entire Council and whatever galaxies it extended into. 626 related the events with incredible detail, Jumba drooled at the immence ammount of data that was on the station. 626 handed Jumba the disk he'd made. Jumba asked for 626 and 327 to go do something while he had some private time. When the door slammed shut Jumba slid the disk into the computer. He had a grin like a schoolboy on his face. The screen flashed, his expresion changed. His jaw dropped.
* * *
"It seems like every time we try to get that 626 one of our assets gets blown to pieces. First the ware houses on Chenadiss, then Base under Grevold, then the the Space station. If he doesn stop we could be out of business forever. He also learned that some one downloaded a majority of the data, but that would help him find the ones who took it. There must be a weakness, everyone has one, if he doesn't, he perfect." Darfinis sighed. He pulled a small cellink he always carried. He dialed a number. "Hello. Charlz...... Yes it's me......uh-huh....... Yeah, Listen. I need you to do a job. Get your best hackers, I'll call you later and tell you what for. You have three hours." He hung up and went to pour a drink from the cabnet behind his desk. "Plan 'B' is in effect."
The glass clinked as he poured the liquid. He took a long sip and sighed. He set the glass down and slumped into one of the chairs facing his desk. Darfinis shook his head to clear it. He began thinking. "Ok." he said to himself. "When they run, I'll tighten the net. If they get caught, I'll still get 626. Either way he's mine." Darfinis picked up the cell again. He made another important call.
* * *
Jumba was amazed at the enormous wealth of data on the disk 626 had copied. There was enough stuff to keep him busy for the next eight years. He'd first use some of the money he got via 327 to expand the lab and fix up Zri's old part of the complex. Then he would spend months on the cloning process, then put his knowledge in cloning non-organic objects. He pulled up a dirrectory in the computer and looked up who Zri left his lab to. He found what he wanted. When he saw the name he felt a stunning sensation. The same name 626 repeated over and over in his story of what happened. He saw the picture come together. Darfinis Maurader, he owned and built the entire complex. He was also the investor in hundreds of other scientific researcher parties, many Jumba didn't recognise. He pushed back in the chair and sat there for a second.
Jumba grabbed the disk and ran to one of his labs. He flicked on the lights and pulled up a rolling chair and sat at an x-ray machine. He slid the disk under the scanner and turned it on. He flipped the disk over and over, looking for a tracking device of some kind. He breathed a sigh of relief when he found none. "Jookiba, you gotta cool it." he said to himself. "You'd think the whole Federation was after you." He picked up the green disk from the scanner and returned to the controll room.
* * *
There was a knock at the door. Darfinis opened it. He was greeted by the face of his friend. "Is this all?" he asked. The alien outside replied, "All my others are off on vacation." Darfinis opened the door all the way. A warm smile crossed the tall alien's face. "Nice to see you again, Charlz." he embraced his friend. "Nice to sse you too." Charlz mumbled. Darfinis let go of him. "What ya got for me tonight?" Charlz asked. "Come inside and I'll explain." Darfinis motioned. The alien in a synthetic leather coat carring a briefcase walked inside the small room. He noticed several distasteful couches in different stages of destruction, messily strewn arround a Stellar-reciever. (t.v.) He followed the tall alien into a back room. The ornately dressed Darfinis didn't seem to fit in to this shabby hell-hole.
"Take a seat." Maurader waved. Charlz looked at the decrepit couch. "I've seen sewers cleaner than that couch." he whined. "Unfortunately my base has been confiscated by the council for 'just a quick look for forensics'." Darfinis huffed. "Just show me where to plug in and I'll begin." Charlz started to unzip the suitcase he carried. "It's longer than that, I'll start at the beginning."
Darfinis started his story of gatting his hands on the illusive Experiment 626. He included the destruction of the little creatre in great detail. He also related what he planned to do after he got the data Charlz down loaded. Charlz was amazed, surprized and dumb founded.
"Let me get this straight. You want me to get into this Doc's computer and download all the evidence that this thing exists. Then you plan to use the data to blackmail him for this infernal experiment. And what if he doesn't give in? I heard Dr. Jumba is a hard nut to crack." Charlz reasoned to Darfinis. Maurader smiled. "Every nut cracks under a different ammount of pressure." He said philosophically. "Whatever floats your boat." Charlz mumbled. He plugged the cable into the wall and turned on his computer. " Hyper Mk6 processor, insomniadic Hd drive at nine million rpm a second, max." Charlz grinned. Darfinis was impressed by the computer jargon, but his expression didn't show it. "Get in, get cracking, get out." Darfinis snarled at him. "Ok." Charlz tapped at the keys.
* * * Two Days Later * * *
Jumba gave 626 and 327 some time to recooperate before returning them to usual duties. 327 was glad to return to the computer, where there was no bullets she had to watch out for. Jumba asked her to send messages to all of his asociets that he had a gunship for sale. She knew that kind of thing would go fast. Her hunch paid off, nearly three hours after she'd put the ship on the mainstream she had three potential buyers. She paged through the messages, two of Jumba's closest friends, the other was an anonmous. She sceduled the unkown one first, and sent a message to meet Jumba in the docking port in three hours.
626 on the other hand had no sceduled tasks. He was always on the go, moving this, fixing that and in between, visiting 327 whenever she wasn't working. The Gunship he'd stole was now his present project, get it back into factory specs. He bagan by replacing the old parts in the engine room.
The core presented a problem, it was three years over due. The core in each ship and a life of usage, any where past that and it would be useless. The blue experiment peered into the window gauge, used to tell whenever the core needed a change. The yellow substance glowed and illuminated the whole engine area with an eerie glow. He crawled over to the small door that it would eventually come out of. Removing the core required alot of training and careful precision while removing it. He knew all the steps of caution. The core generated antimater, which was harnessed to run the drive pulses. He saw the small cabnet mounted by the door, inside was two protective suits. He ignored them. The door hissed open after he'd punched in the engine code. He flipped down a pair of goggles to protect his eyes while going in.
The spherical chamber glowed brighter than outside. He moved to the center, where a clylindar sat. Wires and hundreds of different colored tubes ran out of a lid and into various parts of the ship. He took one of the keys from a keyrack on the wall. 626 slid the key into the hole. The lid hissed when the key was turned. He squinted at the light and proceded forward. Inside the small chamber was a ball shaped orange nucleous, the heart of every ship. 626 threw all caution into the wind and grabbed the fist sized ball with his unprotected paw. The orange ball turned white hot, from the change in location.
626 walked out of the ship and put the ball into a nutrelizer Jumba put in the wall. He flipped the switch, the machine hummed, the ball lost all it's color and shine. An alarm sounded, a short one. 626 flipped up the goggles and rested them on his head. He opened the door and retrieved the dead core. It was now a lifeless rock ball, what it once was before the planet infused it with the life it once had. He decided to save the ball, just because.
626 was walking back to the ship to install the new core when Jumba walked through the door he'd been watching from the other night. He stopped and looked at 626. "626, took out the old core, I supose?" he said. A grin crossed the little blue alien's face. "Yep, it was easy." Jumba couldn't help but chuckle. 626 didn't see what was so funny. "What?" he asked. Jumba managed to stop laughing. "Next time, 626, at least wear your combat suit." Jumba giggled. He still didn't get the joke. "Go look into a mirror." Jumba wheezed out, he craked up again. "I will." 626 said, trotting off to find a mirror.
He remembered seeing one in the bathroom. He opened the door and went to the mirror. He scaled the sink and looked into the mirror. At first nothing obvious was present, he looked over himself from bottom to top. He then looked at his eyes. Something was amiss. The usual light blue ring was only present arround his eyes, less than what was usually there. There was a perfect circle arround them. Before it teneded to look like a rounded triangle, very rounded. He then looked up at the goggles. He smiled. The core had flash burned him, turning every inch that wasn't covered by the goggles a very dark blue, almost black. He then turned arround, yep just like he suspected. Except for the front, where the core radiated it's light, was fine. 'Jeez.' he thought. 'Now I look like an over done fillet. Well done in the front, but raw in the back.'
He took a pause to grab a suit from his room and then went to install the new core. The new core was easy to install. He repeated the removal process back wards. He finished up and looked down at his suit. It was black. He whipped his head arround as he heard voices comming from inside the landing bay. He'd never heard these voices before, he walked to the door carefully.
He saw Jumba outside the ship talking to a huge charactor. The tall greyish alien looked somewhat like a shark from Earth. He was indimidating to look at, nealy three meters high, and his arms bulged from the extensive workouts, not some one to mess with. His eyes seemed to be empty and cold, blinking occasionally. Both were laughing, so he dicided that they were friends, and went to join them. Jumba noticed 626 had approached and changed his attitiude toward the conversation. "And would the Captain like to view the ship?" Jumba asked the tall alien. "Indeed. I am short on time, make it quick." he said. "Who might this be?" the tall figure added, pointing to 626. Jumba turned red, and thought fast. "Uh, this is my hired hand. Master mechanic, six-, uh, Sixven." he explained, hoping that was enough to convince the sharklike alien. 626 snorted. "The tour?" the tall one asked. "Oh, yes. Right this way."
Jumba led the way up the gangplank, the Capt. ducked under the small bulkhead, 626 followed both of them. Inside Jumba gave a thourough tour of the entire ship, he even explained the armnaments and the shielding. The huge alien, Jumba and 626 walked into the lounge area. 626 sat on a chair, Jumba remained standing. "This ship passed my expectations. Where did you find one in this condition?" the Capt. said from leaning against the wall. "My friend was getting rid of some of the ships in his convoy. He said they had more hours on them than he'd been alive." Jumba explained. The tall alien grinned. "Give me a week to decide." He said. Jumba led the way out of the ship.
The tall alien climbed inside his personal transporter. "Wait!" Jumba shouted. The sharklike alien looked back. "I didn't get your name." The aline grinned, closed the hatch and moved to the cockpit. He rolled down the window and started the engine. "The name is Gantu, Captain Gantu." He stomped the accelerator and the ship shot out of the bay, leaving a trail of smoke. Jumba stopped hacking when the smoke was gone. "He was nice." 626 said critically. Jumba grunted.
* * *
The small briefing room sounded like the thunder of the German 88's. All of the occupants were waiting for the Grand Councilwoman to arrive, meanwhile they debated every kind of semantics. The minute the door opened the uproar stopped, every one dropped thier conversations. All the aliens in the room were the representitives of the major planetary systems, all had no idea why they were here. The Councilwoman strode forward, moving with the grace of a Queen and the elegance of a swan. In her three fingered hands was a dossier, thick with information collected in the past three days. A look of dead silence was upon her face as she walked out of the shadows. The approached the wooden conference table.
"Dr. Jumba Jookiba." She said threateningly, letting the brown dossier drop onto the table. Every one inside the room cringed at the sudden snap it made when it hit the table. "A doctor who's scientific input and medical research has been invaluable to us in these last years. He graduated from the Scientific School of Medicine, and now leads the modern worlds in Genetics and the reproduction of dead cells. Gradtuated first in all his classes. He's not to be under estimated, ever." She paused, letting the occupants of the room digest that data. She fingered open the dossier, and flipped through the first few pages. The Council woman picked up a paper. "Three days ago we recieved a transmission of data from an unknown source. In it was personal journal entries, huge ammounts of compiled data, old medical bills, pictures. The list goes on." she looked dwn and flipped the page. "But the most disturbing of all was this." She held up a stack of paper, about six inches in thickness. "Inside are the lists of 626 'experiments'." she coined. "626 genetically created creatures. Each with a different set of distructive capabilities." The Council woman read off the list. "Right here. 'Experiment # 529. 529 was created to read minds and move objects telekenetikly. He was used to extract numbers out of random minds for bank accounts. He has been a good asset.' There is much more than what I've read. But you all get the point." She set the papers down, and looked for any reaction in the faces of her audience.
"Genetic creation. Geneticly altered. Geneticaly enhanced. GENETICS, people. Tampering with the building blocks of life, manipulating them to your wish. Making something out of nothing. What were all made of, what the galaxy is made of. In some ways Dr. Jookiba is a great man. But the law draws the line at re-creating, or creating thnigs that are not meant to be. Making something merely because you can. Making a life purely for the fun of it. If you wish to read in depth, you will find Dr. Jumba has been searching for the ultimate destruction device. A thing you'd read about in doomsday novels. And he has succeded." The tall thin council woman paused to get a drink from a cup. The audience was silent, it seemed like they were enjoying this. But then all the Council heads were not chosen to make quick, jump-the-gun decisions. They thought it out and thought long and hard.
"Remember nearly three weeks ago? The string of incidents that were blamed on some rouge group of anti-everything people? All these incidents had something in common. There were all pieces of the Federations chess game. The warehouses held all the old information that was taking up room in the old Senate building. The Grevold, a high class meeting building, with a secret Counter-Intelligence base that was attacked. And finally the Space Station in sector 2 of the planet. All are part of the Federation. In Dr. Jumba's journal there are records of the destrution of the three. All were recorded under experiment 626, his latest creation, as testing grounds. Except the Grevold, 626 acted alone and that was his choice of the matter. Not only does he test these things in public, they think for themselves, willingly destruct and destroy. And unfortunalty there were no pictures sent, so your guess is as good as mine in what these 'experiments' look like." She felt like she was going at light speed. Sending out all this data, when she could barely comprehen it herself. "Any questions?" she asked. Everyone looked at eachother, then her. "Continue, please." was the Senator from Mraren's reply.
"I do not like the looks of this. A creature of desrtuction, running rampant and uncontrolled around the planets. At his creators will, to make it worse. Senators and Councilors, copies have been made for all of you, review the data and return here, with it in one week." She paused to looke over at Dr. Bromn, the psycologist reviewing Jumba's personal writings. He noticed he was being watched. "This Doctor is a genious. I only touched medical science, he' mastered it. He knows more that any alien ever would hope to grasp." he exclaimed. "And what is your professional evaluation on the Doctor?" the Council woman asked. Dr. Bromn put his hand on his forehead and rubbed it. "I cannot say, but he does sound like something reminiscent of Dr. Frankenstien. Other than examining him myself I cannot pass judgement." he sighed. The council woman sighed. "I fear that Dr. Jumba will test experiment 626 on a planet itself, possibly decimating all the inhabitants. We cannot allow this. That is all I have to say. I will see you all in one week. You are dismissed."
*
His plan was working perfect. Now all he had to do is sit back and watch the fireworks. Then when the time is right, strike.
* * * Three days later * * *
This day started out as usual. Wake up. Put on combat suit. And see what Jumba wants. Then when he is finished, go see what 327 is up to. Yep. Routine. And he was getting sick of it. 626 actually enjoyed the feeling of waking up and wanting to see what would blow up in his face that day. But things had quieted down since the space station ordeal. 626 knew that he would once again be thrown into the world of perpetual chaos as he so loves. Either the chaos would come to him, or he would make the chaos. But he remembered the promise he made to 327. He loved her so much he would prove that he could keep a promise, even if that means not doing what he was meant to do. It drove him crazy, not scratching up everything, not tormenting the living daylights out of 625, and the list goes on and on.
But it was worth it. 327 was happy, and when he knew she was happy he was too. He had heard rumors of the Captain Gantu's return later that day, but hadn't found the time to ask any one. It was lunch time, according to 626's internal clock anyway. So he headed for the kitchen, hoping 327 would be in. He passed the door to the auditorium. After Jumba called to see about getting Zri's old lab he was refused. Instead Mr. Darfinis put in an auditorium for presentations and meetings.
The blue experiment picked up a remote sound, he stopped in front of the auditorium doors. The sound was comming from inside. He pushed the gigantic door open, only to see Captain Gantu and Jumba in what seemed to be in a heated argument. He also noticed several lizzard soldiers behind Gantu, 626 thought immediately turned sour. He approached Jumba.
"Can't you see!" the big scientist shouted. "What an advantage to the millitary this could be?" Gantu responded quickly. "Advantage or not, you are still tampering with genetics." 626 cringed at this word, he could only guess what Gantu was talking about. "Besides the fact that they are that way, do you think the millitary could be interested in my experiments?" Jumba pointed out. Gantu sighed. "No, Dr. Jumba. I couldn't." Jumba stuttered. "B- but can't you even consider it?!" "No. Dr. Jumba, this is your only warning. Cease all experimental creations. Or you will be arrested under Galactic law #2326547.2." "Yes, yes. I understand." Jumba groaned. "I'll be back in one week." Gantu gave a toothy grin and left the auditorium.
626 looked to Jumba for answers. Jumba saw him. "Don't even ask." he moaned. "And why not?" 626 asked. "You wouldn't understand." Jumba explained. "I understand more that you think I do." was 626's whitty come back. "Would you really like to know?" Jumba asked. 626 nodded.
"Some how they got into everything I had and found out what I was doing. The experiments and such. Gantu didn't come to look at the ship, he came to confirm the creation of genetic life forms. Apparently he found enough evidince to sway the council. They have given me a week to distroy all my work, down to every last experiment. Or they would do it for me." Jumba told him. 626 let his ears fall, not believing what he'd heard. "You wouldn't dare." he said weakly. "That's what I told them." Jumba said, trying to comfort 626. "I have no intention of destroying my work. Or anything for that matter." "Then what are we going to do about them comming back?" 626 sounded concerned. "I plan to be long gone...." Jumba paused. "Long...gone." "Where do you intend to go?" 626 inquired. "We can seek shelter in Pitstov for a little while. Then if need be, we can move to ZenonV." Jumba answered. "I give them a week to get things on order. After one week, if I don't hear from them, we're going."
"What about the others?" 626 asked. Jumba didn't answer. He scowled. 626 caught his expression. "I guess you're going to take a choice few, and leave the rest to fend for themselves?" 626 was concerned usually for himself, and no one else. But the other experiments were his 'brothers' and 'sisters'. Jumba didn't answer, he began pulling a thick cigar from his pocket and lit it. He thought about what 626 said, while blowing smoke rings into the air. "626. I nedd you to put an autopilot on the Gunship. Like a remote controll." Jumba's grim expression lightened up. 626 set out immediately.
Utilizing a laser guidence system and sensors in the cockpit he could use a complicated controller to maneuver the ship arround. The controller had buttons on it for eveything. The lights, engine, stick. and so much more. It looked like a tangled mess of wires and buttons. Only 626, with the help of a supercomputer brain, could under stand it. He made minor adjustments to the ship after seeing it fly on the controller. It listed to starbord, not good. Nearly the whole day had gone and 626 was finished with the wire- less controller. Now he could pilot the ship from Jumba's cruiser.
Jumba went in through the ship, taking out everything that would be of use in a dog fight, except the bubble turret on the underside of the ship. He re-routed the power through an amplifier and started installing units used to cryogeniclly freeze his experiments. He estimated the new core would keep them alive for years to come. He installed a fail-safe device, when the power core reached the point where it couldn't properly freeze the experiments it would start the unfreeze procedure, and let them out. Hopefully if that happened they would have enough fuel to get to some planet and settle there.
With the modifications on the gunship done 626 walked off to find out what 327 was doing. He found her in the library, reading something on a datapad. "Whatcha got there?" he asked. "The news." she huffed. "Some one's in a bad mood." he told her. "You would be too." 626 senced there was somehting she wasn't telling him. "What's wrong?" he asked, scooting closer the where she sat. "Can I ask you a question 626?" she sniffed. "Anything." he answered. "What would happen if the Council found out what goes on here? What would happen to us?" 626 felt like he'd been hit with a rock, a big one at that. "Nothing, I'm sure." he lied. "You lie!" 327 shouted, right in his ear. 626 cringed, his ears stared ringing. "You want the truth?" "Yes." "Really?" "YES!" 327 was getting agitated. "The truth is this. Jumba would likely go to jail, or a halfway house, possibly for life. Some of the less dangerous experiemnts, X, 625, you, would be sent to a penal colony on some damned asteroid. You'd be worked on 24 hour shifts, little or no food, and likely arround five hours of sleep." He put an arm under his head, and scratched his stomach. "What about you?" 327 asked. He rolled over to her side and whispered in her ear. "After they threw me in some hell hole for months. After the daily beatings. After near starvation. After they reviewed Jumba's files on me. After they sedate me and strap me onto an examination table..." He put one of his claws right above 327 heart. "...They'd send a laser beam right here." The way 626 explained it sounded horrible. He tapped her chest. "Instant death." 327 felt tingles all over her, she shook of that thought. "You wouldn't go down without a fight." she said confidently. "They won't catch me." 626 reassured her.
* * * Four days later * * *
The same representatives were sitting arround the table, exactly like they did a week ago. Again they were waiting for the Grand Councilwoman to make her appearence. No sound of talking was heard, there would be alot to say later. Each member had a stack of paper in front of them. Reports, varies sizes and in different languages.
The Grand Councilwoman walked out from the same door, just as she did a week ago. She stepped up to the table. "I assume you all have had some time to think." she said. Heads nodded. "Dr. Jumba's activities have been confirmed. Captain Gantu visited him a few days ago. He has confirmed the creation of genetically created creatures. A some what short investigation of the premises has been made. A full investigation will commence when the Doctor is in custody." "Wait a minute.!" a senator stood up. "Arrest him? The council has always given any one just one chance." "Senator Areni, I assure you, we have given him that chance. And he has not distroyed the experiments." the Councilwoman said. The queen from Angoir protested. "Destroy them? Even though they are experiments built for destruction, they are a life. They have a choice." "Queen Arisv. These things only live to kill. Letting them go free, and not under imprisonment or confinement will result in serious consequences." The spark exploded the fuel.
Whether to bring Jumba in or not. To let live the experiments or not. To destroy all the Dr. Jumba has achieved or not. All this was a war. The room was thrown into chaos, shouts were thrown from side to side. Half were for the arrest of Jumba and slaying of the experiments. The other were for penalizing Jumba and letting the experiments live. For nealry eight hours the debate was raging on. Untill the Grand Councilwoman recieved a call.
"QUIET!" she yelled. Everyone froze. Paper fluttered to the ground, dead silence. "I have a call to answer." The Councilwoman reached into her long robes and retrieved a cellink. "Hello." she answered politely. "Yes............yes...........I get you......bye." She hung up and turned to the group. "I have some bad news. The Council Elders have made a descision of ther own. It is no longer our responcibility." Groans were sent up from the crowd. "But they did give me another issue." a smile crept across her face.
* * *
"Captain!" the first officer shouted. "Capatin! We have some news from the Council's Elders." he reported. Captain Gantu turned arround from the battle enactment screen. "And that news would be?" Gantu snapped. "Sorry, sir. Your mission comes from the council's elders. Here are the documents." the officer handed them up to Gantu's enormous hight. "You may go." Gantu waved. The officer in the blue uniform left the room, the door slammed behind him. "What is it now?" Gantu groaned. He ripped open the folder with his small knife he always carried. "Bla bla bla......." he read past the 'Legal shit' , and 'Terms of agreement'. "Bla bla bla...............Ooo." he stopped. 'Dr. Jumba' was one of the first words on the next page. He grinned.
* * *
"There." Jumba said, puting the last piece of paper through the shredder. He didn't need them anyway, he backed them up on disks. He was ready to begin destroying the bodies of the dead experiments that hadn't been swiped by Zri, when the comms rang. "Who could it be now." he huffed. He picked the piece off the cradel. "Hello?" he spoke. "Dr. Jumba." the voice was as cold as ice, the person on the end of the line was also. "Captain Gantu..." Jumba drifted off. "I'm glad you know my name, you will be hearing it alot in the next few years." Gantu's voice was followed by a cruel laugh. "Is everything as the Council requested?" Gantu asked, with a sharp tone. Jumba sighed. "Captain, my experiments are living beings. They have as much right to live as you do. I cannot, no, Will not, destroy them." he told Gantu. "Well, the Council has taken that descision out of your hands. Tomorrow we are comming to do that." Gantu abruptly hung up. Jumba put the reciever down, to stunned to talk.
His mind was racing, all he had worked to achieve was comming to a halt. Crashing into the ground and incenerating into nothing, and he was going down with it. But, he wouldn't let them. He would run fast and hard. With 327, who knew how to do everything on the computers, and 626, who could theororetically destroy an entire army, he would not be caught. His other experiments were the problem though. How could he keep his six hundred plus experiments alive and together? The answer hit him like a stone, preserve them. Put them into a cryogenic sleep, only to be awakened when activated. There was a nice station in the Zeta quadrant that manufactures things like that. He sighed, knowing that the days to come would be long and he would have to watch his back every minute.
* * * Near mid-night. (Turo time)
He thought 626 had enough sleep. He shook the sleeping experiment. 626 groaned and rolled over. "Get up." Jumba whispered. "We're leaving." 626's only responce was to grunt and cover himself with his blankets. Jumba pulled the blankets off 626 and hurled them against the wall. "Get up." He started nudge the bed. After three minutes of trying to get 626 out of bed using every profane word he knew, he just kicked the bed over. He kept his hand on the tranquilizer in his pocket, he remembered what happened the last time he did that. 626 pushed the bed off of himself and looked at Jumba. "Why'd ya do that?" he asked. Jumba could barely say a word. He had expected 626 to lunge at him. 'Destructive programming.' he remembered. But then he also remembered, 'Programs can learn.' He huffed. "We're leaving now. Well in an hour anyway. Get your stuff." Jumba told him. "Easier said than done." he grumbled. 626 had four blasters his C-III and the CH-6, also his five uniforms. Actualy it wasn't that much compared to what Jumba had packed in the cargo bay of his cruiser.
"What about the others?" 626 asked, while gatherin all his stuff into a box. "All the rest of the experiments are on the battle cruiser, cryogenically sleeping." Jumba waved his tranquilizer in the air. "327?" he asked. "Destroying all the evidence on the computer." Jumba answered. 626 nodded in approval. "Haven't found 625, actually." Jumba said, rubbing his chin. "Well, he's probably hiding in my cruiser. He doesn't exactly like tranqs." Jumba left the room to mark of another item on his checklist. 626 loaded his stuff onto Jumba's red cruiser, then went to go help finish up.
327 sat in the seemingly bare computer room, the mess of all the papers and the test tubes was cleaned up and gone. Only the banks of computers remained. She activated the program Jumba had told her to design years ago. It ran through the computer and deleted all the files, folders, sub- programs, and all that mish mosh. "Three more hours to go." she told herself. She had insisted that Jumba and them leave while the computer erased all the stuff. But she knew how stubborn Jumba was, 'never leave a job half done, or to the computers' was his work ethic. She hunched down while the computer erased all the files, the humming of the laser was the only sound in the room. She sighed. 10% more to go.
* * *
"Are you sure you want to do this?" the technician in the white coat said. "Shut off all power to the Federation's lab #4246?" he said. "Yes, I'm sure." Gantu smiled. He handed the tech the paper work from the Council. "Put him in the dark, just to panick him." The sharkish alien grinned. "Ok." the tech said. He flipped up the swtich to the controll for that sector. A passcode keypad popped up. He pressed in the long code, the pad dissappeared. He then flipped the switch, a confirmation on the monitor popped up. He clicked 'Ok'. The generators for the sector paused. There was a grinding noise. "That's allright." he told Gantu. "That's the arm switching the power to more needed areas of the city." The grinding haulted, the steady hum was back. "Reading no CFEP* to sector 4246." the tech said. Gantu smiled. "Good."
* CFEP = Crystallic Fusion Energy Pulses. Similar to electricity.
* * *
"What the hell happened?!" Jumba shouted to 626, who was walking down the hall. "Cut the power." 626 said in a low tone. "WHAT?!" Jumba yelled in disbelief. "What about the generator? Shouldn't it be on now?" "Give it a second." 626 told him. He listened for the click of the overide. *click* "There." 626 tried to calm Jumba, who had fallen, and didn't know where he was. The lights flickered, a steady low power was running through them. Then the lit up to full strentgh. There was a crack. The light were dead. "What was that?!" Jumba grumbled. "Forgot to tell you," 626 said sheepishly. "The generator only works with a constant flow of at least 12 photons a second. If not if runs fine for a while, then blows." Jumba didn't under stand. "Blows?" he questioned. "Yep. Without a source of controlled energy, like those 12 photons, it wastes all of the energy on eight seconds." 626 said, trying to sound smart. "Giahh!" Jumba screamed. *Click* "What was that?" he said in alarm. "327." 626 answered. "How-" he stopped, 626 could see in the dark.
The area was bathed in a light green glow. 327 held the portable lantern in the air. "Heard the noise." she said. "So I came back to see what was up. Oh- Jumba, the power shut off, there is still some stuff on the computer." Jumba grumbled. "Well we can't get it back on now. We'll have to destroy it." He said, looking down at 626. "Right." 626 gave him a salute and went to see what he had to get the computer with. "327, round up whatever you can find that we need. As soon as 626 comes back we're leaving." Jumba told her. The pink alien gave him the lantern and ran off into the dark hallway to do a last minute check.
626 found the controll room and went to the computer. He pulled out one of the blasters he carried and removed a power cell from it. He placed the small pellet on the desk and backed away. He aimed for it and fired. It wasn't a big explosion, but enough to do the job. He smiled, then exited the room. He met up with Jumba and 327 in the docking bay. "Done." he yelled to Jumba from across the room. Jumba waved 626 to the ship.
626 grabbed the remote he made for the gunship and sat in the co-pilot's seat in the cockpit of Jumba's cruiser. He flipped the power switch as Jumba started the impulse in his ship. He brough the engines online and activated the anti gravity boosters. The two ships floated in the dock. "Ready?" Jumba asked. "Just a sec." 626 said. He pulled out a small helmet, inside was a flip down camera. He seated it on his head and turned on the camera. He now saw what the pilot would if he was in the ship. "Ready." Jumba smiled. "Here we go." He hit the accelerator and the ship shout out of the bay. The gunship in close pursuit.
* * *
"Captain, I think you might want to see this." An officer said. "Not now." Gantu moaned. His enourmous form was laid back in a chair in his quarters, holding a glass of whiskey. "No, captain. NOW." The officer said over the intercom. "Giaghh." Gantu moaned. "Always something to ruin my night." He got up from the chair and walked to the bridge. He ducked into the low doorway that lead to the bridge. "Captain. Look." the officer pointed to the screen. Gantu saw a red cruiser being chased by a gunship. "Is that one ours?" he asked. "No. Captain, do you even know who that is?" He asked. "No. Why? am I supposed to?" Gantu said, feeling annoyed. They knew something he didn't. "He's reached the edge of the atmoshpere." said the tracker. "Who is that?" Gantu asked. "Sir, that's Doctor Jumba Jookiba." The first officer said. "Get a tracking marker on him." Gantu yelled. He watched as the two ships dissappeared. "What was that?!" he shouted. "They've gone into hyperspace." The officer replied. "Giiahh!" he shouted as he stormed out of the room.