Long Time
"Whatever happen to Mary?" ~ Chumbawamba
Jumba set a course for the Zeta quadrant. It would take them days to even get near the place. Then there were the patrolling starships, massive cruisers with all the luxuries of home, and a millitary base. Soldiers, externally mounted cannons and laser guns. IF anf if they got past all that, then maybe they would have a fighting chance of finding a remote planet to settle down on. That is, if things happen accordingly.
Jumba looked over at 626. The blue experiment was concentrating on flying the ship following close behind. Sweat rolled down his face and onto his drenched suit. He was under an impressive ammout of pressure. He was constantly scanning the instruments through the small display screen. If anything would go wrong the ship would just die and float in space. Or even worse, explode. But that wouldn't happen, he'd taken measures to prevent that.
Jumba got up and went to go get some coffee. He accidently bumped a clipboard off the dashboard. He cringed as it hit the floor. He immediately looked to 626. He was relieved to see him still contentrating. Then from the back of the ship came a clinking noise. 626 twitched his ear in annoyance, but said nothing. Jumba turned to see what 327 was doing back there.
327 was on a chair, putting coffee mugs into the cabnet by the dishcleanser. The cups clinked again. Jumba noticed even 327's ear subconciously ticked at the sound. 'Must be too high pitched.' he thought, remebering the experiment's sensitive ears. He continued to watch her put the mugs away. When she was finished he made a motion to let her know he was there. 327 looked over at him. "How long will it take?" she asked. Jumba thought for a second. "A week, at least." Jumba told her. 327 sighed. "At least HE isn't here." a slight grin crept across her face. "Who?" Jumba asked, hoping that she didn't mean 626. "Him, you know, bread for brains." she sounded as if she was talking to an idiot. Jumba still didn't get the drift. A puzzled look remained on his face. 327 rolled her eyes. "As smart as you are I can't believe you haven't figured it out yet." she paused, to give him some more time. Jumba still remained dumbfolded. "625! Hello! Would Dr. Jookiba get with the program!" 327 yelled. "Qiuet! 626 is trying to concentrate." Jumba shushed her. "Oh." 327 said in a low tone. She took a remorseful pose, letting her ears drop. Jumba finally caught up with the comment. He gave a low chuckle. Then he stopped. "Speaking of which, I didn't see 625 since we started packing three days ago." Jumba thought aloud. "I hope we didn't leave him." 327 said sarcastically. "327." Jumba said acusingly. "What?" she couldn't help but let a grin slip out. Jumba let out a low sigh. 327 snickered.
Jumba knew 626 and 327 would always have a place for a permanant disliking for 625. That was life for them, and would always be. He looked up at the ceiling, and saw that the over head storage was locked, and not just shut. "327, why are these locked?" he pointed to the over heads. "Oh- I put some of the food that wouldn't fit in the cabnets up there. All the stuff in the jars and the extra bread." the pink experiment said, while re-arranging the boxes and cans that were in the cabnets. She finished arranging the suff and found out that there was more room that way. "Jumba, could you hand me the extra loaves of bread, I made some space for them." "Why not." was Jumba's reply.
He reached up to open the door to the over head. He turned the handle and pulled it out. The door slowly slid down. There was a grinding noise and the door stopped. It was so far up Jumba couldn't see inside. He reached up to grab the handle again. The door snapped off and a mountain of food came tumbling down. Jumba moved out of the way and let the jars and boxes crash to the floor. He waited for the dust to settle then started picking up the stuff.
Out of nowhere he heard something. "What ya do that for?" The voice seemed to come from nowhere. "626, did you say anything?" Jumba called up to the front. "No." came the reply. Jumba turned to 327. She shook her head. "Ha ha. You all have forgotten about me!" It said again. Jumba now looked at the moving pile of food on the floor. The pyrimid of food was shaken to the floor. In the midsts sat an aquamarine figure nearly two foot tall. 327 recognised it, and put a paw on her head and wispered. "Oh gods, help me." Jumba laughed. 625 raised his arms like in victory. "I am invincible!" he announced, followed by a long laugh.
327 turned to Jumba. "Give me the tranquilizer." she held out a paw. "Why?" Jumba asked suspiciously. "It's either him or me." She said in a determined manner. "Oh, he not that bad." Jumba tried to pursuade her. "Yeah, your right, he's not that bad, when he's been tranqued." She sighed. Jumba gave her a stale look. "I'm beginning to think some of 626 is rubbing off on you." Jumba sighed. 327 didn't know how to take that comment, she just grunted and returned to re-packing the supplies.
With 625 present on board and not in the gunship folowing behind, Jumba had to quicken the pace to the Zeta quadrant.
Three days into the voyage and 626 hadn't taken any time to rest. He just sat in the copilots seat and flew the gunship. Jumba knew he was pushing himself to his limits, and ever time he begged for 626 to get something to eat and rest the blue experiment ignored him. 626 continued to pilot the vessel, day in and day out. Jumba didn't like the situation. He was a good doctor of medicine and genetics, and what he saw with 626 went against all laws of science. 626 pereverence continued for the rest of the journey, he never stopped to take a break, he kept comming.
* * * One week later * * *
Jumba had passed the boundry marking the Zeta quadrant, the long haul was almost over. So far they had not run into any ship of any kind. Although he suspected something was up. They were near to the space station, but not out of trouble. By now the word had been spread to all police and bounty hunters, Jookiba was a wanted man. Cruisers, Starfleets, and Pirate vessels were deployed. They performed scans and ran tests looking for the red cruiser. All resulst turned out negative, but still they pursued. The hunt was on.
Jumba steered the massive crimson red cruiser onto an asteroid out near the edge of the solar system, so he wouldn't be detected by and passing ship. 626 landed the gunship near the red cruiser, but with all the guns pointing at it, to make any passing ship thing otherwise on landing there. As soon as both ships were settled and turned off Jumba needed to talk to 626.
The huge, burly scientist entered the cockpit and looked at 626 who was laying in the co-pilots chair, staring up at the ceiling. Jumba noted he looked dazed and confused. "626, how do you feel?" Jumba inquired, just for his medical records. "Take a guess." the experiment said weakly. "Besides the obvious." he added. "But this-" Jumba started to speak when 626 cut him off. "I've been awake for nearly two weeks, with nothing to eat of drink. I have a headache the size of a Maru`rachadin {a huge lizzard native to Tenenex} I just want some sleep. And maybe something to eat." 626 said anrgily. The small blue alien fell out of the seat and slowly made his was to the aft of the ship. Jumba contributed his testiness to his lack of sleep. He didn't want to push any further, fearing 626 would loose controll.
626 took several pills for his aches and downed several sanwiches, courtesy of 625 who was throw aside by the zombified 626. Then he retreated to the lounge area and sat on one of the couches. He groaned at the growing numbness of his limbs, his eye lids felt like lead and his combat suit which was wet with perspiration was making him shiver. He laid his head on one of the pillows and fell asleep.
* * *
On the observation deck of the TridentIII stood a tall alien, nearly fifteen feet. Yes, Captain Gantu looked out at the stars, the thousand bodies of energy and life, amazed at the countless aurora and their shining luster. A small alien in a grey uniform appraoched him. "Aren't they beautiful?" Gantu said, aparrently to the air. "Sir?" the confused officer asked. "The stars," Gantu continued. "Millions of them, just there. And the diversity of the cultures on each one." he marveled. "Yes, that's nice. The council demands an update in the search for Dr. Jookiba." The officer reported. Gantu took some time to reply. The giant shark like alien turned to face the small officer. "Tell them the same thing you have been since we left port." The greyclad alien nodded and turned to the controll deck. "Oh- " Gantu stopped him. "After you relay the message, set a course for the Zenon star system." "Yes, sir." the officer replied and then continued on his way. "I have some friends who owe me." He said hushly.
Gantu, now back to enjoying his solitude turned to the stars again. His expression change, his smile no longer present. Deep inside himself he felt the anger well up. He scowled at the stars. "Where are you?" he said acusingly.
* * *
A shiver ran up his spine as something moved in the shadows. He couldn't see it, but knew it was there. Tormenting him, using the pshchological torment to induce fear. And it was working. The civillians along the route in which he was taking stared at him, as if he was an outcast, a diseased scocial leper. The tall figure trailed behind him, he seemed to go through the civillians staring at him. He saw nothing under the cloak, blackness prevailed, it seemed locked onto him, like a demon whos only mission was to drag him down to the pits of the nine hells.
He couldn't shake him, no corner he turned, no building he entered, nothing would shake his pursuer. The dark shadow pursued, seeming to walk through the walls and stalk him. He felt a cool draft down his kneck every once and awhile, letting him know that the shadow was still there, unrelenting. His heart was beating rapidly, the walls of the tall building seemed to close in on him, making him a bigger target.
He began to fell dizzy the walls shook and the ground looked as if it was bubbling up. From behind him he saw a flash, than he felt a thunderous roar in his sensitive ears. He felt a tingling in his chest. He stumbled foreward from an impact of something. Somewhere near his feet there was a pool of something was growing. He peered down to see what it was. He put his paw in his chest and felt a warm sticky substance. When he lifted it to see what it is he stopped, and just stared. Blood. Then it hit him. He'd been shot, and his life blood was slowly leaking out onto the ground.
He was dumbfounded, he just continued to stare at the crimson redness on his paw. He heard another loud explosion. He looked down in time to see a thin bright white bolt from a laser emmerge from his chest. His light blue fur, blood and flesh flew out, as if fired from a cannon. It wetted the ground for eight feet before stopping, covering the ground in a dark red. It was wierd, there was no feeling, no pain. He coughed. Blood started drooling from the corner of his mouth. He carried a stupified look on his face, the once ever scanning black eyes that were so filled with life were now fading, a dull hue seemed to be inserted.
The blue alien fell to his knees and slowly looked arround. His paw was trying to hold in his last reserve of life, but it slowly leaked out. He slowly sank to the ground, still trying to cling to life, a life that was fading. His muscles gave out and he fell face first to the ground, into a pool of his own blood. He heard the feet of the assassin come closer. The black boots stopped right infront of his face. His eyes were still looking, for a way out, even though his body was dying. He saw the civillians standing arround him, watching him die. The mothers held back their young ones, who were so interested in watching the blue alien slowly bleed to death.
The cold stare continued, the wheezing as the lungs slowly filled up with blood. Every heart beat was like a huge drum, slow and getting slower. The only thought that passed through the bleeding alien's head was, 'No, not like this.' He made one final move to save himself. He tried to get his paw to the button on his belt so that he could activate a relay to tell Jumba where he was. He weakly moved his arm, slowly. He took in his last breath. He put his last ammount of energy in it. He could feel his paw slowly inching to the button. Then everything stopped. His body went slack.
The tall assassin dressed in black clothes and accesories to match the dark theme, loomed over the dead experiment 626. The pile of blood arround the dead alien was huge, more that you'd expect anywhere. He bent down and turned over the dead body, the last of the blood sloshed out onto his black gloves. He looked at the shots he'd made. "Not bad" he murmered. "First shot right above the heart." he turned 626's lifeless body back over onto his stomach, igoring the dead acusing eyes. He couldn't tell where the second shot was because it blew out his upper chest region, exposing the inner workings of the genetic monster. He looked at his last shot. The bolt took out two ribs and some of the middle spine. His face cracked into a grin. He started laughing, a low long evil laugh, stressing all the syllables.
626 shot up from the seat he was on and fell over onto the floor of the cruiser. He was momentarily stunned, the dream was too real. He breathed in irregular heaves, as if in pain. He continued to lay on the floor, to straighten things out in his mind. He was confused by the dream, not knowing whether to take it seriously or not. After seeing the other dreams materialize he started to think that Jumba inadvertantly gave him some sort of pre-cog ability. Whether it was a dream or a view into the future he would remember it.
He sat up in the dark. The suit that was wet with sweat before he went to sleep was dry, and hard. He looked both ways before starting out to the rear cargo bay to get a new suit. As soon as 626 started moving, he felt every muscle in his body groan and his bones crack. He paused to stretch. When he did he realized that he was the only one in the cruiser. He sniffed, to make sure. He was the only one in there. 'This might be a good thing.' he thought. He moved to the rear of the ship, to the private bathroom in the bedroom.
Once inside he pulled off the stiff orange uniform and threw it into a corner. He scratched his chest and headed to the shower. Although he hated water, for recreational purposes. But he knew when it was time to take a shower, just a short one. 626 flicked on the water and waited. After several seconds of nothing he looked up. He twisted the knob again, still nothing. He growled in frustration. He gave the knob a good whack. As soon as he administered the justice the knob fell off. He looked outside the shower, to see if anyone was there. When he knew it was safe he threw the handle in disgust and reached up for the cold water.
After a few minutes of cold water he dicided that it was enough. He turned the handle to the 'off' postion. He shook off, water went flying everywhere, even on the ceiling. He stepped out of the low entrance shower. There was a clang, he turned to see the other handle fall to the floor. He grunted at it, then reached for a towel.
* * *
Now was the time, if it was any better, to get 626. All the bounty hunters, the Federation, and the Free Traders were after Jumba. With the little ammount of credits he had, he was able to get several of the best bounty hunters to find them. His rules were simple find the doctor and his experiments, do whatever is necesarry to bring the one named 626. If it was any simpler than that it would be childs play.
But Darfinis ahd seen him work. The little demon was like the plauge, all over tha place. Climbing walls, shooting up squads of elite soldiers and destroying all his assets. After reviewing some data that was recorded on 626 at the station, he realized one thing. 626 was caught up in whater he would call it. The facts were in, the numbers counted. 626 had nothing to do with any of this, it was Jumba. Darfinis now had something tanglible to go after. If he had the master, the creation will follow, unless 626 was smarted than they had predicted. But that would change.
The tall thin alien stood on a catwalk over the huge complex. Maurader admired his lates accomplishment. The mammoth lab was devived into two parts, pre and post. Tons of equipment was dotted on the floor, Dna sequencers and hundreds of other machines that were escential for the cloning process. Since they had collected a small ammount of blood and hair from the base under the Grevold, things were busy. They used that dna, along with some of thier better ideas to create a clone of experiemnt 626. But to garauntee success they needed the real thing.
The premature growth was fine, untill the glitch. The Dna must have been contaminated, during a regualr test the alarms went off, meaning the coded dna was breaking down. All seven crews were called in to get it under controll. They worked arround the clock to stablize the sequence. After a week of gueling work it paid off. Although at that time no present damage was visible. They checked the new sequence with the origional. What they saw shocked them, it was nearly gone, the origional code had been erased and was replaced with a new one. Now they had a real genetic creation that would be unpredictable.
They watched as it mutated day by day. Different genetics revealed themselves at an alarming rate. Darfinis thought about calling the whole thing off, but it was the closest thing they had to experiment 626. And if it couldn't trace him down, nothing could. He was sure of this. And if he was wrong, and it was an uncontrollable monster, there would be no stopping it.
A voice came over the speakers, "All scientists report to your stations." The scientists in white lab coats scurried down on the floor, it was almost time. They gathered arround a tall glass tube that was filled with a protien filled liquid, it was the closest thing they got to replicating Dr. Jumba's machine. There was three security personel with heavy blaster-laser riffles, just incase. Darfinis walked across the catwalks, to get a better view.
Down on the ground floor, the scientists were finishing up the last minute checks. They made sure the things vials were working properly. The gaurds seem agitated, like they had a bad feeling about this thing. But then they had their weapons. The scientists had no fear, they made this thing, and now it was thiers. It would obey them.
A tall scientist at a console punched a few buttons, and the protien solution started draining. The milky white liquid drained away, revealing a better view of the monster they had created. It looked disgusting, the huge eyes bulged out from the head the was supposed to look like 626's. It was a totally different creature then they origionally planned. Instead of three fett, it was a towering seven and a half standard feet, it took up most of the glass chamber. Two thick arms bulging with muscles went into a muscular upper chest, the chest slowly receded into hips then massively powerful legs. Instead of a short one colored fur theme it was a medium length and looked more like a wolf's coat.
The scientists continued to watch as one of the technicians flipped switches and started the process of turning the bodily organ functions from the computer over to the beast's brain. The gaurds looked tense, sizing up thier oposition. They knew that if it got loose, there would be no stopping it from destryoing whatever it sees.
Zri watched from the safety of the catwalks. As soon as there was no reply, no applause from the scientists who had worked for months to get there creation to this point, he knew it wasn't supposed to be like that. It was flawed. But as soon as they got the real deal, it would change. Down on the floor an alarm rang off.
Something was wrong. Sims clicked the keys on the board to go through the errors. He pulled up a chart, the brainwave activity was off the scale. He enlarged it to show up to 900 jouels of activity. As a nervous act he looked at the beast in the glass tube. To his relief, it was still there, looking as dead as it was before. He manually shut off the alarms and sat back and sighed. The heart rate dropped, to the point where it stopped. The brain showed to be dead, no activity.
The tall thin Sims ran to the tube, a medical cart clattered loudly as he dragged it over. He keyed in the code and the sealed capsule hissed open. He grabbed a pair of paddles, he set the machine at 30 joules to start. He pressed them onto the beast. The electrical pulse mad it jump. Nothing, the monitor was still dead. He picked it up a notch, to 60 joules and tried again. The body jumped again, in responce to the shock. Sism cursed and set it higher. This time 200 joules, he didn't want to lose it.
He tried for the next ten minutes, but nothing helped. The beast wouldn't come back, it was dead. He sighed and threw the paddles on the cart. He cursed loudly, so that his boss, Darfinis, up on the catwalk would get the idea. He sat on a stool near by and pulled out a pack of cigaretts. The other scientists had melded away, gone back to pack. They would leave, the project was done. He lit the thin tube of tobacco and inhaled deeply. He exhaled a smoke cloud, then stopped. He heard something. A wheezing, something gasping for air.
He first looked up at the catwalk, Darfinis was still there, watching, no sign whatsoever of any expression. He watched for any signs of axphixia, he breathed normally. He paused to listen. It was gone, dead silence. Whoever it was left the lab, he concluded.
There was a noise behind him, a metallic noise, like a metal pan, and lots of equipment. He turned to see what happened. He saw the medical cart on the floor, the tools were scattered on the floor in a chaotic way. He walked over to the mess and began picing it up, he passed it off on a crooked wheel. Then he froze, and slowly turned to the beast. Had it..? He was relieved to find it dead as ever. He breathed a sigh of relief.
"Damn." he muttered under his breath. He uprighted the cart and carelessly dumped the tools on to it. He reached for a comlink on the wall. He lifted the reciever and spoke into it. "Operator, get the hazardous waste disposal up in lab number 4A. Thank you." he slammed it back onto the cradel. He paced over to the dead beast. He leaned over the side and flicked an ash onto it. "Ya' know." Sims said to the dead thing. "None of us never like you." he said casually, as if he had always talked to it. "And when it came time to rise and shine, you slept in." He flicked another ash onto it. "Now we're gunna stick you worthless corspe into a meat grinder and turn you into someone's dinner." he said angrily. He stubbed out the cigarette on the fur of the beast, and walked off.
He heard a cough, a ragged one at that. Sims twisted his upper half to look behind him. He saw a small cloud of smoke comming from his cigarette, smoldering on the beasts fur. He picked up a pitcher from the controll panel and headed for the small fire. "Told you smoking was bad for you." he snarled. He poured the water on the fire, it died out. He was ready to pull his hand back when something happened.
The beasts eyelids slid opened, revealing a pair of disgusting eyes. One looked to be rotting and the other was covered with a milky white film. Sims gasped in horror. The beasts head slowly turned to look at Sims, the kneck cracked as the seemingly anchient beast moved it. Sims was petrified, he wanted to run, but he stood frozen. The beast stared with it's dead eyes. Then one of the arms reached up and grabbed his neck. He coughed. The strong and closed off his windpipe and stopped anything from reachins his brain. Things started to get blurry, but saw the beast stand up and lift him off the ground. The thing got close to his head and stared, as if contemplating killing him.
By now the soldiers had been notified and filed into the room, creating a circle arround the huge beast. They aimed the powerful riffles in it's dirrection. The hairy beast had realized he'd been surrounded by men with guns and heavy armor.
The thing turned to face the crowd he'd drawn, the chocking Sims still in his grip. "Put the scientist down." came a demand from one of the soldiers. He grinned, showing the soldiers his many sharp teeth. He tossed Sims like a ragdoll, he flew across the concrete floor and into a cubical with an audible crunch. He sized up the force infront of him. Ten soldiers with heavy assault riffles, the kind they had used to wound 626, only slightly though.
All the soldiers were tense, they had never seen anything like this before. It was huge, nearly seven feet tall, with extra muscle to boot. They jad no idea what this thing was capable of, or what to do with it. All hoped that it would surrender. Fat chance.
Before they could react the beast lunged across the thirty foot gap and landed right on the commanding officer. His claws dug into the body armor and ripped it to shreds, exposing the flesh underneath. One quick jab was all it took, blood flowed from the open wound, it killed the officer instantly. By now the other slodiers ahd turned arround to shoot. He bolted straight for them. Crouching low he knocked over several soldiers that had assembled almost in single file. He lingered at the last one, only to crush his skull under the helmet.
He was ready for round two when he froze. So did the soldiers. A stupified glare on his face. He shook his head to rid himself of whatever it was. Another 'wave' hit him. Paraylizing him and sending pain shooting down his spine. He fell to his knees and gasped. It felt like his chest was on fire, getting harder to breath. The soldiers that were left filed out of the room in a trance-like state.
He rolled over on his back, hoping that would ease the pain. He saw something up on a catwalk above him, a pair of eyes that seemed to pierce right into him, that caused his pain. Then the tall figure passed through the railing that was protecting him from falling off. He floated down to the ground and hovered inches above it. He growled at the man who seeemed to have the authority of a god. Another streak of pain shot through his head. He reached up to kill the alien in front of him. A series of pain racked through his body. He fell back to the floor writhing in pain.
Darfinis smiled. "I hope you learn fast. Because if you don't, it will be painful." He reached a hand down to help the big genetic creation up. The beast huffed and stood up on his own legs, which swayed under his weight. Darfinis read him mind, it was filled with hate, for no aparent reason. The thing wanted to kill him, anyone who he saw. He read an attack. The powerful arm came down hard. But it was met with an equally strong psychic blow, effectively stopping it. The arm recoiled in pain. "You cannot strike me down." Darfinis said confidently. He felt a change in the things attitude. Instead of anger, it was replaced with fear. A very deep fear. He smiled. Step one was accomplished.
* * *
626 had found Jumba outside on the asteroid, with a portable atmospheric creator, running at full capacity. The genetic doctor was laying on a lounge chair he'd packed, drinking a pinkish liquid in a wine glass. 626 noted that he seemed to be relaxing, perfect, he'd never see it comming.
He slowly made his way to the rear of the chair. He planned to knock off one of the legs of his chair, and send him to the ground. While he was almost there, three feet, he accidently moved a rock, which echoed in the atmosphere dome. The huge scientist turned to see where it came from. "Busted." 626 whispered. "Who-?" Jumba asked. He put his full weight on one side of the chair, and craned his kneck to see behind him. 626 saw it. Jumba's full weight cracked the legs, they broke. He toppled over, the pink liquid spilled out of the glass onto his white shirt. Jumba flailed his arms in an act as not to fall. 626 thought the whole asteroid shook he landed that hard.
626 was rolling on the ground with laughter. Jumba was embarassed, he knew better than to keep his back turned and his mind occupied. He stood up, and brushed himself off. He couldn't help but join in. 626 recovered from the laughing and wiped the tears from his eyes. "You know the really funny part was." he said. "Was that I wanted to do that. But you turned and broke it yourself." he half luaghed and coughed. ''So, where's 327?" 626 inquired. Jumba shielded his eyes from the nearby sun and looked out over the horizon. "She's out with 625, picking up rocks." he pointed, "Over there."
Jumba began to pick up the broken chair and put the pieces back into the cargo bay. 626 ran off to join them. "626!" Jumba yelled. He saw him turn and look back. "Five minutes, then start heading back." 626 nodded and continued on the rocky route to where 327 was.
327 had been picking arround the huge boulders for the past hour, looking for amber colored rocks which she knew to be diamonds in the rough. She had quite a find, two of them were three inches in diameter, other were assorted sizes, no larger than a quarter. "Here's one." she said with glee, picking it out from the pile of darkened stones. "Catch." she threw it back to 625, who was carrying the basket filled with the rocks. 625 gave a sigh of complaint. She continued to pick her way up a slope, toward the cruiser. The sun was blotted out by something at the summit. She looked up to see an outline on an experiment. "Your finally up." she said emotionlessly. "That's no way to treat a gantleman." 626 told her, while sliding down the slope to meet her. "What are you doing?" 626 asked curiously, while she moved stones. "Diamonds, ever hear of them." she informed him. "Why can't he carry the basket?" 625 whined from the rear. "A quiet servant is well rewarded." 327 quoted. "What's that supposed to mean? I still don't see why I have to carry this HEAVY basket."
327 just rolled her eyes. "Just ignore him." 626 whispered to her. "Besides, Jumba wants us to come back anyway." The group of experiments walked toward the red cruiser, conversing as they went, except for 625, all he did was whine the whole way.
After 327 had put the 'useless rocks', as 625 said, in a safe place she went to sit in the lounge. 625 went straight to the galley, for only one reason - he'd missed his hourly bread indulgence. Jumba called for 626, who was finishing off a bottle of organic tea. "626, I need you for a second, up in the cockpit." 626 tossed the bottle in a corner and scurried down the walkway running down the center of the ship.
He appeared in the cockpit to find Jumba hunched over a display screen. "What does this mean?" he asked the experiment. 626 climbed up on the controll panel to look. He peered at what Jumba was interested in. On it was a dot in the center. "That's out ship." he pointed to the center. "And that is...." he paused as the screen updated. When th object appeared he stopped. "That is the biggest attackship I have ever seen!" There was definately no tone of joy in his voice. "Uh-" Jumba said. "Start the engines, bring us up to speed with it." 626 commanded as he left the room. He grabbed the remote for the gunship that was 'parked' behind them, and ran back up to the cockpit.
"Whatever happen to Mary?" ~ Chumbawamba
Jumba set a course for the Zeta quadrant. It would take them days to even get near the place. Then there were the patrolling starships, massive cruisers with all the luxuries of home, and a millitary base. Soldiers, externally mounted cannons and laser guns. IF anf if they got past all that, then maybe they would have a fighting chance of finding a remote planet to settle down on. That is, if things happen accordingly.
Jumba looked over at 626. The blue experiment was concentrating on flying the ship following close behind. Sweat rolled down his face and onto his drenched suit. He was under an impressive ammout of pressure. He was constantly scanning the instruments through the small display screen. If anything would go wrong the ship would just die and float in space. Or even worse, explode. But that wouldn't happen, he'd taken measures to prevent that.
Jumba got up and went to go get some coffee. He accidently bumped a clipboard off the dashboard. He cringed as it hit the floor. He immediately looked to 626. He was relieved to see him still contentrating. Then from the back of the ship came a clinking noise. 626 twitched his ear in annoyance, but said nothing. Jumba turned to see what 327 was doing back there.
327 was on a chair, putting coffee mugs into the cabnet by the dishcleanser. The cups clinked again. Jumba noticed even 327's ear subconciously ticked at the sound. 'Must be too high pitched.' he thought, remebering the experiment's sensitive ears. He continued to watch her put the mugs away. When she was finished he made a motion to let her know he was there. 327 looked over at him. "How long will it take?" she asked. Jumba thought for a second. "A week, at least." Jumba told her. 327 sighed. "At least HE isn't here." a slight grin crept across her face. "Who?" Jumba asked, hoping that she didn't mean 626. "Him, you know, bread for brains." she sounded as if she was talking to an idiot. Jumba still didn't get the drift. A puzzled look remained on his face. 327 rolled her eyes. "As smart as you are I can't believe you haven't figured it out yet." she paused, to give him some more time. Jumba still remained dumbfolded. "625! Hello! Would Dr. Jookiba get with the program!" 327 yelled. "Qiuet! 626 is trying to concentrate." Jumba shushed her. "Oh." 327 said in a low tone. She took a remorseful pose, letting her ears drop. Jumba finally caught up with the comment. He gave a low chuckle. Then he stopped. "Speaking of which, I didn't see 625 since we started packing three days ago." Jumba thought aloud. "I hope we didn't leave him." 327 said sarcastically. "327." Jumba said acusingly. "What?" she couldn't help but let a grin slip out. Jumba let out a low sigh. 327 snickered.
Jumba knew 626 and 327 would always have a place for a permanant disliking for 625. That was life for them, and would always be. He looked up at the ceiling, and saw that the over head storage was locked, and not just shut. "327, why are these locked?" he pointed to the over heads. "Oh- I put some of the food that wouldn't fit in the cabnets up there. All the stuff in the jars and the extra bread." the pink experiment said, while re-arranging the boxes and cans that were in the cabnets. She finished arranging the suff and found out that there was more room that way. "Jumba, could you hand me the extra loaves of bread, I made some space for them." "Why not." was Jumba's reply.
He reached up to open the door to the over head. He turned the handle and pulled it out. The door slowly slid down. There was a grinding noise and the door stopped. It was so far up Jumba couldn't see inside. He reached up to grab the handle again. The door snapped off and a mountain of food came tumbling down. Jumba moved out of the way and let the jars and boxes crash to the floor. He waited for the dust to settle then started picking up the stuff.
Out of nowhere he heard something. "What ya do that for?" The voice seemed to come from nowhere. "626, did you say anything?" Jumba called up to the front. "No." came the reply. Jumba turned to 327. She shook her head. "Ha ha. You all have forgotten about me!" It said again. Jumba now looked at the moving pile of food on the floor. The pyrimid of food was shaken to the floor. In the midsts sat an aquamarine figure nearly two foot tall. 327 recognised it, and put a paw on her head and wispered. "Oh gods, help me." Jumba laughed. 625 raised his arms like in victory. "I am invincible!" he announced, followed by a long laugh.
327 turned to Jumba. "Give me the tranquilizer." she held out a paw. "Why?" Jumba asked suspiciously. "It's either him or me." She said in a determined manner. "Oh, he not that bad." Jumba tried to pursuade her. "Yeah, your right, he's not that bad, when he's been tranqued." She sighed. Jumba gave her a stale look. "I'm beginning to think some of 626 is rubbing off on you." Jumba sighed. 327 didn't know how to take that comment, she just grunted and returned to re-packing the supplies.
With 625 present on board and not in the gunship folowing behind, Jumba had to quicken the pace to the Zeta quadrant.
Three days into the voyage and 626 hadn't taken any time to rest. He just sat in the copilots seat and flew the gunship. Jumba knew he was pushing himself to his limits, and ever time he begged for 626 to get something to eat and rest the blue experiment ignored him. 626 continued to pilot the vessel, day in and day out. Jumba didn't like the situation. He was a good doctor of medicine and genetics, and what he saw with 626 went against all laws of science. 626 pereverence continued for the rest of the journey, he never stopped to take a break, he kept comming.
* * * One week later * * *
Jumba had passed the boundry marking the Zeta quadrant, the long haul was almost over. So far they had not run into any ship of any kind. Although he suspected something was up. They were near to the space station, but not out of trouble. By now the word had been spread to all police and bounty hunters, Jookiba was a wanted man. Cruisers, Starfleets, and Pirate vessels were deployed. They performed scans and ran tests looking for the red cruiser. All resulst turned out negative, but still they pursued. The hunt was on.
Jumba steered the massive crimson red cruiser onto an asteroid out near the edge of the solar system, so he wouldn't be detected by and passing ship. 626 landed the gunship near the red cruiser, but with all the guns pointing at it, to make any passing ship thing otherwise on landing there. As soon as both ships were settled and turned off Jumba needed to talk to 626.
The huge, burly scientist entered the cockpit and looked at 626 who was laying in the co-pilots chair, staring up at the ceiling. Jumba noted he looked dazed and confused. "626, how do you feel?" Jumba inquired, just for his medical records. "Take a guess." the experiment said weakly. "Besides the obvious." he added. "But this-" Jumba started to speak when 626 cut him off. "I've been awake for nearly two weeks, with nothing to eat of drink. I have a headache the size of a Maru`rachadin {a huge lizzard native to Tenenex} I just want some sleep. And maybe something to eat." 626 said anrgily. The small blue alien fell out of the seat and slowly made his was to the aft of the ship. Jumba contributed his testiness to his lack of sleep. He didn't want to push any further, fearing 626 would loose controll.
626 took several pills for his aches and downed several sanwiches, courtesy of 625 who was throw aside by the zombified 626. Then he retreated to the lounge area and sat on one of the couches. He groaned at the growing numbness of his limbs, his eye lids felt like lead and his combat suit which was wet with perspiration was making him shiver. He laid his head on one of the pillows and fell asleep.
* * *
On the observation deck of the TridentIII stood a tall alien, nearly fifteen feet. Yes, Captain Gantu looked out at the stars, the thousand bodies of energy and life, amazed at the countless aurora and their shining luster. A small alien in a grey uniform appraoched him. "Aren't they beautiful?" Gantu said, aparrently to the air. "Sir?" the confused officer asked. "The stars," Gantu continued. "Millions of them, just there. And the diversity of the cultures on each one." he marveled. "Yes, that's nice. The council demands an update in the search for Dr. Jookiba." The officer reported. Gantu took some time to reply. The giant shark like alien turned to face the small officer. "Tell them the same thing you have been since we left port." The greyclad alien nodded and turned to the controll deck. "Oh- " Gantu stopped him. "After you relay the message, set a course for the Zenon star system." "Yes, sir." the officer replied and then continued on his way. "I have some friends who owe me." He said hushly.
Gantu, now back to enjoying his solitude turned to the stars again. His expression change, his smile no longer present. Deep inside himself he felt the anger well up. He scowled at the stars. "Where are you?" he said acusingly.
* * *
A shiver ran up his spine as something moved in the shadows. He couldn't see it, but knew it was there. Tormenting him, using the pshchological torment to induce fear. And it was working. The civillians along the route in which he was taking stared at him, as if he was an outcast, a diseased scocial leper. The tall figure trailed behind him, he seemed to go through the civillians staring at him. He saw nothing under the cloak, blackness prevailed, it seemed locked onto him, like a demon whos only mission was to drag him down to the pits of the nine hells.
He couldn't shake him, no corner he turned, no building he entered, nothing would shake his pursuer. The dark shadow pursued, seeming to walk through the walls and stalk him. He felt a cool draft down his kneck every once and awhile, letting him know that the shadow was still there, unrelenting. His heart was beating rapidly, the walls of the tall building seemed to close in on him, making him a bigger target.
He began to fell dizzy the walls shook and the ground looked as if it was bubbling up. From behind him he saw a flash, than he felt a thunderous roar in his sensitive ears. He felt a tingling in his chest. He stumbled foreward from an impact of something. Somewhere near his feet there was a pool of something was growing. He peered down to see what it was. He put his paw in his chest and felt a warm sticky substance. When he lifted it to see what it is he stopped, and just stared. Blood. Then it hit him. He'd been shot, and his life blood was slowly leaking out onto the ground.
He was dumbfounded, he just continued to stare at the crimson redness on his paw. He heard another loud explosion. He looked down in time to see a thin bright white bolt from a laser emmerge from his chest. His light blue fur, blood and flesh flew out, as if fired from a cannon. It wetted the ground for eight feet before stopping, covering the ground in a dark red. It was wierd, there was no feeling, no pain. He coughed. Blood started drooling from the corner of his mouth. He carried a stupified look on his face, the once ever scanning black eyes that were so filled with life were now fading, a dull hue seemed to be inserted.
The blue alien fell to his knees and slowly looked arround. His paw was trying to hold in his last reserve of life, but it slowly leaked out. He slowly sank to the ground, still trying to cling to life, a life that was fading. His muscles gave out and he fell face first to the ground, into a pool of his own blood. He heard the feet of the assassin come closer. The black boots stopped right infront of his face. His eyes were still looking, for a way out, even though his body was dying. He saw the civillians standing arround him, watching him die. The mothers held back their young ones, who were so interested in watching the blue alien slowly bleed to death.
The cold stare continued, the wheezing as the lungs slowly filled up with blood. Every heart beat was like a huge drum, slow and getting slower. The only thought that passed through the bleeding alien's head was, 'No, not like this.' He made one final move to save himself. He tried to get his paw to the button on his belt so that he could activate a relay to tell Jumba where he was. He weakly moved his arm, slowly. He took in his last breath. He put his last ammount of energy in it. He could feel his paw slowly inching to the button. Then everything stopped. His body went slack.
The tall assassin dressed in black clothes and accesories to match the dark theme, loomed over the dead experiment 626. The pile of blood arround the dead alien was huge, more that you'd expect anywhere. He bent down and turned over the dead body, the last of the blood sloshed out onto his black gloves. He looked at the shots he'd made. "Not bad" he murmered. "First shot right above the heart." he turned 626's lifeless body back over onto his stomach, igoring the dead acusing eyes. He couldn't tell where the second shot was because it blew out his upper chest region, exposing the inner workings of the genetic monster. He looked at his last shot. The bolt took out two ribs and some of the middle spine. His face cracked into a grin. He started laughing, a low long evil laugh, stressing all the syllables.
626 shot up from the seat he was on and fell over onto the floor of the cruiser. He was momentarily stunned, the dream was too real. He breathed in irregular heaves, as if in pain. He continued to lay on the floor, to straighten things out in his mind. He was confused by the dream, not knowing whether to take it seriously or not. After seeing the other dreams materialize he started to think that Jumba inadvertantly gave him some sort of pre-cog ability. Whether it was a dream or a view into the future he would remember it.
He sat up in the dark. The suit that was wet with sweat before he went to sleep was dry, and hard. He looked both ways before starting out to the rear cargo bay to get a new suit. As soon as 626 started moving, he felt every muscle in his body groan and his bones crack. He paused to stretch. When he did he realized that he was the only one in the cruiser. He sniffed, to make sure. He was the only one in there. 'This might be a good thing.' he thought. He moved to the rear of the ship, to the private bathroom in the bedroom.
Once inside he pulled off the stiff orange uniform and threw it into a corner. He scratched his chest and headed to the shower. Although he hated water, for recreational purposes. But he knew when it was time to take a shower, just a short one. 626 flicked on the water and waited. After several seconds of nothing he looked up. He twisted the knob again, still nothing. He growled in frustration. He gave the knob a good whack. As soon as he administered the justice the knob fell off. He looked outside the shower, to see if anyone was there. When he knew it was safe he threw the handle in disgust and reached up for the cold water.
After a few minutes of cold water he dicided that it was enough. He turned the handle to the 'off' postion. He shook off, water went flying everywhere, even on the ceiling. He stepped out of the low entrance shower. There was a clang, he turned to see the other handle fall to the floor. He grunted at it, then reached for a towel.
* * *
Now was the time, if it was any better, to get 626. All the bounty hunters, the Federation, and the Free Traders were after Jumba. With the little ammount of credits he had, he was able to get several of the best bounty hunters to find them. His rules were simple find the doctor and his experiments, do whatever is necesarry to bring the one named 626. If it was any simpler than that it would be childs play.
But Darfinis ahd seen him work. The little demon was like the plauge, all over tha place. Climbing walls, shooting up squads of elite soldiers and destroying all his assets. After reviewing some data that was recorded on 626 at the station, he realized one thing. 626 was caught up in whater he would call it. The facts were in, the numbers counted. 626 had nothing to do with any of this, it was Jumba. Darfinis now had something tanglible to go after. If he had the master, the creation will follow, unless 626 was smarted than they had predicted. But that would change.
The tall thin alien stood on a catwalk over the huge complex. Maurader admired his lates accomplishment. The mammoth lab was devived into two parts, pre and post. Tons of equipment was dotted on the floor, Dna sequencers and hundreds of other machines that were escential for the cloning process. Since they had collected a small ammount of blood and hair from the base under the Grevold, things were busy. They used that dna, along with some of thier better ideas to create a clone of experiemnt 626. But to garauntee success they needed the real thing.
The premature growth was fine, untill the glitch. The Dna must have been contaminated, during a regualr test the alarms went off, meaning the coded dna was breaking down. All seven crews were called in to get it under controll. They worked arround the clock to stablize the sequence. After a week of gueling work it paid off. Although at that time no present damage was visible. They checked the new sequence with the origional. What they saw shocked them, it was nearly gone, the origional code had been erased and was replaced with a new one. Now they had a real genetic creation that would be unpredictable.
They watched as it mutated day by day. Different genetics revealed themselves at an alarming rate. Darfinis thought about calling the whole thing off, but it was the closest thing they had to experiment 626. And if it couldn't trace him down, nothing could. He was sure of this. And if he was wrong, and it was an uncontrollable monster, there would be no stopping it.
A voice came over the speakers, "All scientists report to your stations." The scientists in white lab coats scurried down on the floor, it was almost time. They gathered arround a tall glass tube that was filled with a protien filled liquid, it was the closest thing they got to replicating Dr. Jumba's machine. There was three security personel with heavy blaster-laser riffles, just incase. Darfinis walked across the catwalks, to get a better view.
Down on the ground floor, the scientists were finishing up the last minute checks. They made sure the things vials were working properly. The gaurds seem agitated, like they had a bad feeling about this thing. But then they had their weapons. The scientists had no fear, they made this thing, and now it was thiers. It would obey them.
A tall scientist at a console punched a few buttons, and the protien solution started draining. The milky white liquid drained away, revealing a better view of the monster they had created. It looked disgusting, the huge eyes bulged out from the head the was supposed to look like 626's. It was a totally different creature then they origionally planned. Instead of three fett, it was a towering seven and a half standard feet, it took up most of the glass chamber. Two thick arms bulging with muscles went into a muscular upper chest, the chest slowly receded into hips then massively powerful legs. Instead of a short one colored fur theme it was a medium length and looked more like a wolf's coat.
The scientists continued to watch as one of the technicians flipped switches and started the process of turning the bodily organ functions from the computer over to the beast's brain. The gaurds looked tense, sizing up thier oposition. They knew that if it got loose, there would be no stopping it from destryoing whatever it sees.
Zri watched from the safety of the catwalks. As soon as there was no reply, no applause from the scientists who had worked for months to get there creation to this point, he knew it wasn't supposed to be like that. It was flawed. But as soon as they got the real deal, it would change. Down on the floor an alarm rang off.
Something was wrong. Sims clicked the keys on the board to go through the errors. He pulled up a chart, the brainwave activity was off the scale. He enlarged it to show up to 900 jouels of activity. As a nervous act he looked at the beast in the glass tube. To his relief, it was still there, looking as dead as it was before. He manually shut off the alarms and sat back and sighed. The heart rate dropped, to the point where it stopped. The brain showed to be dead, no activity.
The tall thin Sims ran to the tube, a medical cart clattered loudly as he dragged it over. He keyed in the code and the sealed capsule hissed open. He grabbed a pair of paddles, he set the machine at 30 joules to start. He pressed them onto the beast. The electrical pulse mad it jump. Nothing, the monitor was still dead. He picked it up a notch, to 60 joules and tried again. The body jumped again, in responce to the shock. Sism cursed and set it higher. This time 200 joules, he didn't want to lose it.
He tried for the next ten minutes, but nothing helped. The beast wouldn't come back, it was dead. He sighed and threw the paddles on the cart. He cursed loudly, so that his boss, Darfinis, up on the catwalk would get the idea. He sat on a stool near by and pulled out a pack of cigaretts. The other scientists had melded away, gone back to pack. They would leave, the project was done. He lit the thin tube of tobacco and inhaled deeply. He exhaled a smoke cloud, then stopped. He heard something. A wheezing, something gasping for air.
He first looked up at the catwalk, Darfinis was still there, watching, no sign whatsoever of any expression. He watched for any signs of axphixia, he breathed normally. He paused to listen. It was gone, dead silence. Whoever it was left the lab, he concluded.
There was a noise behind him, a metallic noise, like a metal pan, and lots of equipment. He turned to see what happened. He saw the medical cart on the floor, the tools were scattered on the floor in a chaotic way. He walked over to the mess and began picing it up, he passed it off on a crooked wheel. Then he froze, and slowly turned to the beast. Had it..? He was relieved to find it dead as ever. He breathed a sigh of relief.
"Damn." he muttered under his breath. He uprighted the cart and carelessly dumped the tools on to it. He reached for a comlink on the wall. He lifted the reciever and spoke into it. "Operator, get the hazardous waste disposal up in lab number 4A. Thank you." he slammed it back onto the cradel. He paced over to the dead beast. He leaned over the side and flicked an ash onto it. "Ya' know." Sims said to the dead thing. "None of us never like you." he said casually, as if he had always talked to it. "And when it came time to rise and shine, you slept in." He flicked another ash onto it. "Now we're gunna stick you worthless corspe into a meat grinder and turn you into someone's dinner." he said angrily. He stubbed out the cigarette on the fur of the beast, and walked off.
He heard a cough, a ragged one at that. Sims twisted his upper half to look behind him. He saw a small cloud of smoke comming from his cigarette, smoldering on the beasts fur. He picked up a pitcher from the controll panel and headed for the small fire. "Told you smoking was bad for you." he snarled. He poured the water on the fire, it died out. He was ready to pull his hand back when something happened.
The beasts eyelids slid opened, revealing a pair of disgusting eyes. One looked to be rotting and the other was covered with a milky white film. Sims gasped in horror. The beasts head slowly turned to look at Sims, the kneck cracked as the seemingly anchient beast moved it. Sims was petrified, he wanted to run, but he stood frozen. The beast stared with it's dead eyes. Then one of the arms reached up and grabbed his neck. He coughed. The strong and closed off his windpipe and stopped anything from reachins his brain. Things started to get blurry, but saw the beast stand up and lift him off the ground. The thing got close to his head and stared, as if contemplating killing him.
By now the soldiers had been notified and filed into the room, creating a circle arround the huge beast. They aimed the powerful riffles in it's dirrection. The hairy beast had realized he'd been surrounded by men with guns and heavy armor.
The thing turned to face the crowd he'd drawn, the chocking Sims still in his grip. "Put the scientist down." came a demand from one of the soldiers. He grinned, showing the soldiers his many sharp teeth. He tossed Sims like a ragdoll, he flew across the concrete floor and into a cubical with an audible crunch. He sized up the force infront of him. Ten soldiers with heavy assault riffles, the kind they had used to wound 626, only slightly though.
All the soldiers were tense, they had never seen anything like this before. It was huge, nearly seven feet tall, with extra muscle to boot. They jad no idea what this thing was capable of, or what to do with it. All hoped that it would surrender. Fat chance.
Before they could react the beast lunged across the thirty foot gap and landed right on the commanding officer. His claws dug into the body armor and ripped it to shreds, exposing the flesh underneath. One quick jab was all it took, blood flowed from the open wound, it killed the officer instantly. By now the other slodiers ahd turned arround to shoot. He bolted straight for them. Crouching low he knocked over several soldiers that had assembled almost in single file. He lingered at the last one, only to crush his skull under the helmet.
He was ready for round two when he froze. So did the soldiers. A stupified glare on his face. He shook his head to rid himself of whatever it was. Another 'wave' hit him. Paraylizing him and sending pain shooting down his spine. He fell to his knees and gasped. It felt like his chest was on fire, getting harder to breath. The soldiers that were left filed out of the room in a trance-like state.
He rolled over on his back, hoping that would ease the pain. He saw something up on a catwalk above him, a pair of eyes that seemed to pierce right into him, that caused his pain. Then the tall figure passed through the railing that was protecting him from falling off. He floated down to the ground and hovered inches above it. He growled at the man who seeemed to have the authority of a god. Another streak of pain shot through his head. He reached up to kill the alien in front of him. A series of pain racked through his body. He fell back to the floor writhing in pain.
Darfinis smiled. "I hope you learn fast. Because if you don't, it will be painful." He reached a hand down to help the big genetic creation up. The beast huffed and stood up on his own legs, which swayed under his weight. Darfinis read him mind, it was filled with hate, for no aparent reason. The thing wanted to kill him, anyone who he saw. He read an attack. The powerful arm came down hard. But it was met with an equally strong psychic blow, effectively stopping it. The arm recoiled in pain. "You cannot strike me down." Darfinis said confidently. He felt a change in the things attitude. Instead of anger, it was replaced with fear. A very deep fear. He smiled. Step one was accomplished.
* * *
626 had found Jumba outside on the asteroid, with a portable atmospheric creator, running at full capacity. The genetic doctor was laying on a lounge chair he'd packed, drinking a pinkish liquid in a wine glass. 626 noted that he seemed to be relaxing, perfect, he'd never see it comming.
He slowly made his way to the rear of the chair. He planned to knock off one of the legs of his chair, and send him to the ground. While he was almost there, three feet, he accidently moved a rock, which echoed in the atmosphere dome. The huge scientist turned to see where it came from. "Busted." 626 whispered. "Who-?" Jumba asked. He put his full weight on one side of the chair, and craned his kneck to see behind him. 626 saw it. Jumba's full weight cracked the legs, they broke. He toppled over, the pink liquid spilled out of the glass onto his white shirt. Jumba flailed his arms in an act as not to fall. 626 thought the whole asteroid shook he landed that hard.
626 was rolling on the ground with laughter. Jumba was embarassed, he knew better than to keep his back turned and his mind occupied. He stood up, and brushed himself off. He couldn't help but join in. 626 recovered from the laughing and wiped the tears from his eyes. "You know the really funny part was." he said. "Was that I wanted to do that. But you turned and broke it yourself." he half luaghed and coughed. ''So, where's 327?" 626 inquired. Jumba shielded his eyes from the nearby sun and looked out over the horizon. "She's out with 625, picking up rocks." he pointed, "Over there."
Jumba began to pick up the broken chair and put the pieces back into the cargo bay. 626 ran off to join them. "626!" Jumba yelled. He saw him turn and look back. "Five minutes, then start heading back." 626 nodded and continued on the rocky route to where 327 was.
327 had been picking arround the huge boulders for the past hour, looking for amber colored rocks which she knew to be diamonds in the rough. She had quite a find, two of them were three inches in diameter, other were assorted sizes, no larger than a quarter. "Here's one." she said with glee, picking it out from the pile of darkened stones. "Catch." she threw it back to 625, who was carrying the basket filled with the rocks. 625 gave a sigh of complaint. She continued to pick her way up a slope, toward the cruiser. The sun was blotted out by something at the summit. She looked up to see an outline on an experiment. "Your finally up." she said emotionlessly. "That's no way to treat a gantleman." 626 told her, while sliding down the slope to meet her. "What are you doing?" 626 asked curiously, while she moved stones. "Diamonds, ever hear of them." she informed him. "Why can't he carry the basket?" 625 whined from the rear. "A quiet servant is well rewarded." 327 quoted. "What's that supposed to mean? I still don't see why I have to carry this HEAVY basket."
327 just rolled her eyes. "Just ignore him." 626 whispered to her. "Besides, Jumba wants us to come back anyway." The group of experiments walked toward the red cruiser, conversing as they went, except for 625, all he did was whine the whole way.
After 327 had put the 'useless rocks', as 625 said, in a safe place she went to sit in the lounge. 625 went straight to the galley, for only one reason - he'd missed his hourly bread indulgence. Jumba called for 626, who was finishing off a bottle of organic tea. "626, I need you for a second, up in the cockpit." 626 tossed the bottle in a corner and scurried down the walkway running down the center of the ship.
He appeared in the cockpit to find Jumba hunched over a display screen. "What does this mean?" he asked the experiment. 626 climbed up on the controll panel to look. He peered at what Jumba was interested in. On it was a dot in the center. "That's out ship." he pointed to the center. "And that is...." he paused as the screen updated. When th object appeared he stopped. "That is the biggest attackship I have ever seen!" There was definately no tone of joy in his voice. "Uh-" Jumba said. "Start the engines, bring us up to speed with it." 626 commanded as he left the room. He grabbed the remote for the gunship that was 'parked' behind them, and ran back up to the cockpit.