It's Never Too Late

By: Moojuice Nne of the Mayonnaise!

Congratulations to the second and third reviewers, ASHSEMA and SHEEPCHI!! YOU GET THE DIRT CAKES OF THANKS! Keep reviewing! I hope you like it, and I really appreciate your support. Thank you! THANK YOU SO MUCH!! starts crying

I know that I should have put this in my first chapter, but if you haven't read Purple Mountains Majesty, also by me, I highly suggest you do. It's not put together that well…and it has a LOT of spontaneous typing paragraphs (you know, when you hear some sappy, sad music on while you're typing, and type whatever sad thing comes to your mind…try to look for some! It's fun!), but I think you'll like it!

I am proud to say that I have eaten nothing but chocolate products for the past 24 hours. I am a little excited for no apparent reason, and I fed my fish pieces of my taquitos—PITA people, STAY AWAY!!!—and they seem very happy! He he he he he he he…YOO HOOS, I'M COMING FOR YOU!

Toboe (pronounced Toh-boe, rhymes with oboe): Well, I'll just have to post Chapter Four, then…please, loyal reader, view it and enjoy.

Chapter Four: Manipulated Again!

Red stirred his cup of latte with a small black straw, his forehead resting against the table. Soft, jazzy music played on the speakers above his head. He was in the lounge, one of the less contemporary rooms in the Massive. He was the only higher-ranking Irken who used it: the other officers preferred to discuss matters in the "Space Room," the room above the lounge. It didn't have a view, but it did have a bar. That was enough for them. The lounge, however, was graced with a large-paneled window that provided a great view of the surroundings. To Red, however, space was space. He'd seen it more than once.

Dropping his hand, Red lifted his head and looked at the Styrofoam cup and at the little wisps of steam coming out of it. "I love you, latte." He announced to it, grasping it in his claws and holding it above his head. "I'm gonna drink you all up! An' then, I'm gonna sleep."

Red tilted his head back; unfortunately for him, he became disoriented and fell back onto the table. The hand holding the cup went limp, and both the cup and the latte fell onto the back of the Tallest's head. The scalding liquid ran down Red's cheeks and into his mouth. Red licked his lips. "Mmmmm…latte."

The door to the lounge opened. A medium-high, lavender-eyed female Irken stepped cautiously into the room. She spotted the Tallest, facedown on the table, with the Styrofoam cup hanging off of one of his antenna and latte pooling around his head. "Holy sh!t!" she exclaimed, running over to him. "My Tallest, are you all right?" She pulled him up by the shoulders, and, seeing his eyes closed, immediately shrieked, "MY TALLEST IS DEAD!!"

Red's eyes snapped open. He saw two dark purple eyes staring intently back into his, and his mind reeled. "I'M DEAD?"

The Irken female sobbed back, "YES!" Then, realizing that her Tallest had spoken, she looked at him. "Wait…what did you just say?"

"I'm dead? Who are you? You're not…you're not Purple, are you?"

"No! You're not dead! Oh, thank goodness you're not gone!"

"You're not him."

"Ah…no. My name is Potluck!"

Red gave the beaming female the 'you're insane, aren't you' look. "Your name is Potluck?"

Potluck nodded, then smiled, then shook her head. "No! But you can call me that."

Red wiped the cooling latte out of his eyes with his hand. "Look, I'm not giving you a hard question here. Just state your name so that if we meet again I can poke fun at your height properly."

"Well, in that case, my name is Potluck!" She smiled mischievously. "Would you like to help me with something?"

"No."

"Good! Okay, you see, I'm a nurse, right?"

"I don't care." Red got up and walked over to the refrigerator, grabbing a towel off of the handle and wiping off his face.

"Right! And I'm looking at this sample, right? I see the strangest thing!"

Red threw the towel into the trash chute. "I'm not listening, Paper Towel."

"It's Potluck."

"Whatever." Red sat down in the booth again and put his feet on the table. "You can leave now."

Potluck put both of her hands on the table and stared into Red's eyes. "Listen, please! I'm studying a history of these diseases that have affected Irkens in the past. My colleagues and I had just gotten some new samples in, and I went and checked some under the microscope. One of them--nobody could give it a name—matched the description that GP Peprik left behind when she was working with Almighty Tallest Purple."

Red's eye twitched. "You found WHAT?"

Potluck took a step back. "Erm…something that I think I would like you to look at. If you would."

Red took his feet off of the table, stood up, and hovered very close to the now very terrified Potluck. He bend his upper body down and stared dauntingly into her eyes. A thought flitted across his mind: They are just like Pur's—before he snarled. "I want it off my ship."

Potluck backed away from the Tallest. She could see rage and hatred burning in his eyes. "What…what is wrong?"

"Who gave it to you?"

Potluck squinted and looked up at the ceiling. "Hmmm….let's see. Oh, the guy pushing the cart full of slides, that's who! But there was somebody behind him handing out the samples. He was in a big black robe."

"Black robe…? An advisor?" Red whispered, disbelieving what he had just heard. "An advisor gave the sample to you?"

Potluck smiled and nodded vigorously. "Yes! He did!" Then seeing Red's face fall, she asked, "Is this bad?"

Red cruised over to the door. "Take me to where you were testing the samples."

"Oh, goody! The robed guy is still there, too! He wanted to see you!"

Potluck ran out into the hall and down the corridor, shouting, "HEY! NIM! I GOT THE TALLEST FOR YOU!"

Potluck stopped at the end of the hallway and waited for Red to catch up. Then, she led him through the residential quarters of the Massive until they reached a large, white metal door. In bright red letters above the door, the letters ICU stuck out like a sore thumb. Red waited as Potluck punched in her code and the doors opened. "Come over here," she urged, taking him by the hand and leading him past the room where his partner had had his operation. Red shied away from it as he passed, then looked down at the floor. All around him were memories; he couldn't stand to look at them. Potluck hummed happily as she pressed her palm to the pad next to a large door. The door swung open, and Red entered the room. It was dark, but a large computer system sat in the middle of the floor, connected to the ceiling with thick wires. Scientists walked to and fro around the computer, their goggles flashing as they turned their heads. Standing in front of the computer was a dark figure with dark blue eyes. He stepped forwards as Red came in. "My Tallest, I have news for you."

"I'm sure that its news I've already heard."

The figure drooped his hood. His antennae were pierced with flashing silver rings that ran all the way down to their bases and back up to the ends. "My name is Nim. I am second in command of the Defense Team of the Massive. I have been here, watching the doctors perform the tests on their different samples. Nurse Peony here—"

Potluck stepped forwards indignantly. "My name is Potluck!"

Nim blushed deeply, visible even in the dim light of the room. "Many apologies, Potluck. Nurse Potluck found a sample that matched the description of the disease that Purple had almost exactly."

Red crossed his arms, disinterested. "And why did you have to call me down here? Why didn't you just get rid of it?"

Nim crossed over to the computer, picked up a slide, and walked back over to Red, holding the slide up at eye level. "This is it. Does it not look suspicious to you? No labels, no markings, not even a similar type of sample?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing." Red answered, taking the slide from the advisor and holding it up to the computer's light. A horizontal smear of material betrayed the disease's presence. Red's lip curled in a silent snarl. I could crush this thing in my hand right now, he thought bitterly, just like it crushed Purple.

"My Tallest?"

Red handed the sample back to Nim. "And what did you find so interesting about this slide?" he asked the advisor.

Potluck grabbed the slide and marched over to the computer. "Watch this," she said confidently, sticking the slide under a microscope. "Put this on the big screen, you guys," she called to her coworkers. In a moment, the picture, although fuzzy, was being projected onto a large screen hanging from wires on the ceiling. Potluck turned several knobs on the microscope, and gradually the picture slipped into focus.

Red's eyes widened, and his body leaned forwards. Potluck got out of her chair and pointed straight up to the screen. "It's not supposed to be doing that," she said.

The screen showed, clear as day, a small amount of clear white material, moving in a slow circle on the slide. Once in a while, it trembled warningly, then continued its circular patrol.

"It's not a dead sample," Nim said in a low voice. "That virus, most likely, is still on this ship."

Back on Irk…

Peprik sat at her desk, a pen in her hand, her eyes darting across a wide sheet of paper. Once in a while, she crossed something out and wrote a side note; otherwise, she did nothing but read. The sun was setting behind her, and orange light streamed happily into the room. The only sounds in the room were the methodic sound of Peprik's breathing and the occasional scratching of her pen.

The sound of a light bell coming from the speakers above her head caused Peprik to put the paper down and stand up. She groaned as she stretched backwards, with her hands on her lower back. "I need to get up more often," she said quietly, as she put both the pen and paper away. Her red oak desk shone brightly in the late afternoon light. She brushed a few crumbs off of the desk and into her hand, then threw them in the garbage. Putting on a light blue coat and taking off her formal shoes, she stepped into the hallway with her large black boots in one hand. She looked up and down the deserted hallway, then slipped the boots onto her feet and ran down the corridor.

The activity in the capital was winding down slowly, but in the Meeting Room, the Board of Advisors sat facing each other, slight grins upon their faces. Near the front of the room, Mim stood next to Ren, holding a small test tube filled with clear liquid. She was speaking confidently, her dark eyes flashing.

"This holds the key to our success!" she cried, waving the tube around. "You see, when this is introduced to an Irken's system, it literally tears him apart from the inside out! You can only live four months, if you're completely healthy, as Purple so graciously showed us. And when we knock out Red, the Advisory Board will be able to go in and create a totally new Irken empire, one where absolute dedication is required. The Board will make the strongest empire in the universe!"

"We must all be in this together, if we want this to work." Ren stated, stepping forwards. "Our comrades will take care of Red while he's out in space, then, we shoot down the Massive, with a little help from our good friend, Yoma."

One of the Advisors stood up. "What about the Irken people? Surely they will suspect something is wrong when Tallest Red does not return. And the disappearance of the Massive will be crushing to the Armada! We cannot have a strong empire without a good military force and an experienced leader!"

Mim and Ren exchanged glances. "It will be easy," Mim said quickly. "All we have to do is make a law, stating that it is illegal to ask questions about changes in the government."

"Nobody will believe that," the other Advisor murmured to her comrades as she sat down. Ren raised his hands above his head. "Surely, it will work. With the Tallests dead, and the PreTallest selection not happening for another fifty years, we have plenty of time to change the way things work around here."

"A few assassinations…" Mim said with glee.

"…And a few accidental deaths…" Ren continued.

"And the Tallests' empire will be ours!"

Mim held up the test tube. "Long live the Osodo-Jacker Virus!"

Hmmm…so now we know what bumped off Purple! Is this the end of Red, the Massive, and the entire Irken race as we know it? Not if our favorite Tallest, yellow-eyed Irken, and ditzy doctor can help it? And, who knows? Maybe there will be a little help from the other side, as well. Don't count Purple out just yet!

Chapter Five will come very soon…keep reading and reviewing!