It's Never Too Late
By: Moojuice Nne of the Mayonnaise
Thank you all for your reviews!
Have you heard the Advantix commercial on Animal Planet? You know, the one with the puppy that goes to camp, and he sings the song about his flea medication? Well, I made a slight change in the lyrics…GOES LIKE THIS!
"Swimming, hiking, and tent pitching,
They're not biting, I'm not bitching!"
sweat drop I'm sorry, that's a bad joke. heavy sigh It's been way too hot lately.
In other news…THIS IS A DOUBLE-DIGIT CHAPTER! Whooooo-hooooooooo! tips back a whole gallon of moojuice Thanks for putting up with my writing for this long, everybody. Nne is GRATEFUL! gives cake to the reader
Hmmm…I have the hiccups. This isn't hic good. I hic hate having to hold hic my breath to get rid of hic these things.
I have nothing else to talk about, so I guess its time to find out what happens in Chapter 10! (It'll be more organized than nine, I promise!)
Oh, hmmm….the rating of this fanfiction is upped in this chapter because of some choicy language that Red uses…but it's nothing that the average high skool student doesn't hear fifty times a day.
Chapter Ten: Grief Comes
But I'm not broken, in my dream I win.
And I'll take over 'cause I'm no loser
And I'm in and you're not, bad dreams don't stop
'Cause I'm all screwed up.
A cosmic castaway…
A cosmic castaway.
Peprik was suffering.
She was sitting in the medical labs inside of the capital, in front of a large white screen, with her chin drawn up to her knees, her antennae quivering uncertainly, her eyes milky and pale yellow; this position was much like the one she was in after Purple's operation. She felt so helpless and so…filled with hurt.
Oh, God, how she hurt! Her body was on fire from the inside out. Every breath felt like she was swallowing shards of burning metal. Every step taken by a nearby Irken rang in her ears like cannon fire. "Now I know what Purple went through," she said slowly. "But…he's alive now…and I don't know what to think."
Then, the little Irken secretary burst into tears. "Oh, Red!Why won't you come back!" she wailed piteously, her voice small within the vast medical lab. "I need you to come back…."
Another scalding jolt of pain cut off her voice, and Peprik huddled on the chair silently, swallowing a scream. She thought back to when she first met the Tallests…first talked to them…oh, it seemed so long ago!
She had been sent by her overseer to ask Irkens to participate in routine checkups. Meanwhile, someone in the Sensor Wing had pinpointed a foreign material that was alive on the ship, and Peprik's boss had been searching for it within the bodies of all the patients that Peprik brought in. When she was done with her task, her overseer had ordered her to go ask the Tallests to come down and be tested for the material. On her way up to the Command Bay, Peprik had bumped into Red and Purple having a conversation.
"…Eat you alive if you say anything about this transmission." Red was saying as he disappeared from view, into another hallway. Purple had leaned against the wall and nodded, his back to Peprik. She had been overwhelmed by his stature at first, and could only stutter out, "E…excuse me, my Tallest."
Apparently he had not heard; he seemed to be deep in thought, so she had cleared her throat and had called out louder, "Excuse me, my Tallest?"
Purple had turned around and glanced down, his dark, flashing purple eyes looking Peprik over skeptically. "What do you want? I'm running a tight schedule here."
His eyes had deepened with ire. Peprik had clutched the clipboard she held in her hands with all her might. She had felt faint. "Sorry, my Tallest. My name is general practitioner Peprik. I'm helping to execute a series of tests and health evaluations down in the Medical Wing, and I was wondering if you could come down…if you and Red could come down…to be checked…"
Her voice had trailed off. She was royally screwing things up. But Purple had not seemed to mind. Instead, he had knelt down, smiling at her, and agreed to be tested. "But make it quick," he had said gently.
"Yeah," Peprik whispered, her face buried in her knees. "If you call four months quick, then I guess I did make it fast."
And I want but have not, bad dreams, lost thoughts.
In here with no pain, you hurt me again.
And I want but have none, I should beat the alien.
But here I'm no one.
A cosmic castaway…
A cosmic castaway…
Peprik, lost in her own memories, gave herself up to the monster inside of her, and slipped into a fretful sleep. In one of her small hands, she held a burnt, crimson colored flare.
In the Operian Mine Field…
"I HATE MINES!"
The Massive slammed into another mine, causing the entire crew to be thrown backwards, landing on walls or tables or consoles. Red cursed the mine field for a full ten minutes after that.
"Damn operian bastards don't know what the hell they're doing with those mines in the first place because the bitches don't know how the hell to use them and who in Conventia's name gave them the right to use this crumby mine field in the first place because they're a damnable bunch of BASTARDS!"
"But, sir," one pilot said hopefully, "the Irken Empire allowed the Operians to use this area to plant mines in during the first Gal War."
Red whirled around. "ONE MORE WORD AND YOUR HEAD GOES OUT THE AIRLOCK!"
No one else spoke much after that. Potluck, leaning against Nim's body, looked at her leader with sorrow. She wanted to know how much he was going through, but she didn't dare ask him. She only sighed and whispered to Nim, "We need to think of a way to get out of here."
The Massive was struck with another mine. "I HATE THESE DAMN MINES!"
Red was fed up. "Hold on, everyone," he shouted, beginning to rev the engines again. "I'm going to take a shortcut!"
The whole mothership began to vibrate strangely. "My Tallest!" a radar specialist called from across the room, "the Elite Forces have caught up with us! We need to get out of here—they have more bombers!"
"SH!T!!"
Red worked quickly, typing in on a control panel's computer, 'Wormhole'. The Massive's spare engine, used for extra maneuverability in battle, unfolded from the Massive's underbelly and turned around so that the thrusters were in front of the Massive. In front of it, a small blue spot appeared in the vacuum of space. Red directed the rest of the engines to face forwards and flipped open a plastic cover that concealed a yellow lever. He yanked it down, hard. The extra engine began to rapidly spin in reverse. Instantly, the blue spot in front of them exploded into a rotating, horizontal facing pillar, beginning to suck the Massive towards it. Red turned around. "Directional crew! Set a plot for Irk now!"
"We need more time, sir!"
Red slammed his fist down on the console. It burst in a puff of smoke. "NOW IS ALL YOU'VE GOT! MAKE IT COUNT!" he roared.
The directional crew worked madly, plotting the course of the wormhole to direct the Massive to the exit closest to Irk. Meanwhile, the mothership was being steadily pulled into the vortex. "Come on, come on," Red urged under his breath. "We don't have all day…"
A missile shot from an Elite Force bomber connected with one of the snack pods on the sides of the Massive, heavily damaging the metal protecting the Tallest's precious store of snacks. "If one bag of chips falls out of that thing," Red snarled at the attackers, "I'm going to rip your spines out of your collective ASS!"
The Massive lurched forwards. "We've got a course set!" the directional crew called finally.
"Good! Now, get us back home before the Armada falls into the wrong hands!"
The Massive roared into the vortex. The wormhole closed behind it. Red cheered out loud when he saw that they had lost the Elite Force. "It'll take them forever to get back to Irk!"
Inside his mind, however, Red was far from rejoicing. Peprik, where are you? Are you alright?
Why has all this happened so quickly?
In the Capital…
Mim paced the hallway in her glittering jade dress, wringing her hands nervously. "I am in deep shit," she said to no in particular. Her emerald eyes darted from left to right. "If Ren finds out that Red already knows about the plan …oh, he'll kill me for sure!"
She took off down the hall at a quick walk. "I'll just tell him that the Tallest had a lucky guess," she reasoned. "Oh, damn, but no one could have figured this plan out that fast! Why did I tell the Elite Forces to bring them back to Irk? Oh, I'm so stupid! They're supposed to be dead by now!"
Mim kept striding angrily down the hall, her hands clenched into tight fists. "I need to get myself out of this predicament," she growled, "or else Ren gets my head. But how am I going to convince him that the Massive needs to come back? Surely it will take a huge amount of time for the Elite Forces to bring them all back."
Suddenly, Mim's back pod began to rumble. A transmission arm folded out of one of the lavender circles and hung in front of her face. "Yes, what is it now?" she snarled.
Commander Era appeared on the screen, looking hassled and distressed. "They…g…way!"
"Speak up! Your transmission is breaking."
Era pointed behind his ship, where Mim could see the disappearing remains of a rotating blue wormhole. "The Massive got away! They're coming back to Irk right now!"
"WHAT?"
As if on cue, the skies of Irk rumbled with the powerful sonic boom of the Massive entering Irk's atmosphere. Mim's eyes grew wide with terror as she raced down the hallway to the lounge, where she could see out in the direction of the Massive's port. "This better be a lie," she hissed to Era. "That better be just a trading ship…"
But it wasn't. All around the city of Irk, the residents looked up, baffled, to see a battered and nearly totaled Massive careen wildly through the skies towards the port, which was situated above the remains of the hangar. The four visible engines of the Massive had exploded in flames and were belching thick black smoke across the sky. One of the snack pods perched on the side of it was almost completely burnt through, and the hull of the great ship was dented and breached in so many places it was a wonder why the thing was still aerodynamic.
Red, inside the control room, was struggling to get it under control. If he overshot the port, the ship would smash into the city and cause countless deaths, not to mention his own life—not that he cared about his life, he added quickly. If he didn't make it to the port, there would be more destruction and death. What choice was there?
Mim watched the Massive's speed decrease dramatically, so it almost hung suspended in the air. Then, with painstaking patience on Red's part, the mothership eased into the dock, spouting flames from the engines. The huge glass window on the front of the ship shattered instantly upon impact; the city of Irk rang with the screech of metal on metal.
"Genne taton areo!" Mim screeched in the old Irken language. "Commander Era, you better not come back to Irk if you want to keep your life!"
Era was confused. "But…but I thought that you said bring the Massive back to Irk!"
"Screw what I said! I want you back here and I want you to eliminate the Massive! Make it into a fireworks show, I don't care! Just kill Tallest Red!"
Mim yanked the transmission arm out of her back pod and threw it on the ground, cursing. She only stopped when she heard voices coming rapidly towards her from down the hall. She smoothed out her evening gown and calmed herself down just as a large group from the Advisory Board, surrounding Ren, came into view. Just as they passed Mim, a hand reached out of the hooded congregation and roughly grabbed her wrist. She was pulled into the group and suddenly was next to Ren. His eyes, shadowed by his hood, pierced into her. "What just happened?" he asked threateningly.
Mim attempted to yank her hand away, but Ren's grip was fierce. "I…don't know…sir," she said with exercised patience. "The Massive must have gotten away from the Elite Forces."
"I sent the ENTIRE Elite Force group to destroy the Massive!" Ren roared, wrenching Mim's wrist. "No one could have escaped from them! What other orders did you give them?"
Mim didn't answer right away. If she told the truth, Ren would surely strip her of her position and possibly have her executed. If she lied, Ren wouldn't believe her, and find out the truth from Commander Era anyway. "…I told them to bring the Massive back to Irk, sir. I thought that the rest of the population would find it strange that the Massive was gone, along with their Tallest. It would be too obvious."
Ren's eye twitched. "From now on, I make the rules. Got it?"
The Advisory group had reached the shuttle that led from the Capital to the Massive's dock, where they would give the impromptu welcoming ceremony. Ren shoved Mim on first, then motioned for the rest of the Advisors to get on board.
"Aren't you coming on board, sir?" on of them asked.
Ren shook his head. "I have some business to attend to. Advisor Mim will head the welcoming ceremony."
Ren glared daggers at his underling. "And if she says anything that sounds suspicious, report to me."
The shuttle doors shut, and they were on their way to greet the Tallest.
To the Massive!
Tallest Red coughed and waved the smoke away from his eyes. All around the Control Room was shattered glass and smoke and small fires and busted consoles. Beside him, Potluck was pulling a chunk of metal out of Nim's cheek. "Hold still, Nim! I'm gonna yank out more than this shrapnel if you move too much!"
"But it hurts!" Nim yelped.
Red turned around and looked at the battered piloting staff. "Good job, everybody. Good job. We got back in a flying trash can. I'm proud of you."
"My Tallest, there is a welcoming shuttle approaching. You'd better go down there and prove to the rest of the Advisors that you're alright."
"Yeah, I'll prove something, all right. Damn horny bastards…" Red exited the Control Room and made his way down to the Docking Bay. All around him were serious signs of damage. There were places in the Massive's once spotless hull that had shafts of sunlight showing inside. Crew members from all ranks were peeling themselves off of the floors or walls, wondering where they were.
When Red passed the hallway that led down to the Vaults, he paused. Some strange feeling was growing inside of him, pressing on his chest. He stared into the velvety darkness for a while, then shook his head and continued towards the Docking Bay.
"Not now, Purple," he whispered to himself, his voice hoarse.
When he got to the Docking Bay, the doors were opened. There, on a metal platform that stretched from the dock to the Massive's bay, the Advisory staff awaited him. Mim stood in front of the robed group in a flashing jade-colored dress. Red's fury ignited when he saw her, but he kept his cool as he approached them.
"Guess what?" he said in an icy voice. "I'm back."
In the Vaults…
Tallest Purple opened his eyes, and for the first time, he saw.
His mind was almost completely unclouded. The jolting of the Massive had awakened his senses, but he didn't remember why he was in the tube, or even his name, and now he was glancing around the Vaults of the Leaders with dark lavender eyes. He flexed his right arm, looking at it like it was an alien life form. However, when he tried to flex his left arm, it didn't respond.
"Aw, come on," he said slowly, his words slurred. "This must be a really bad hang…over."
He looked up again. Something didn't feel right. His chest felt like someone was sitting on it. He took a tentative breath, and suddenly he was swallowing the foul-tasting liquid that he was in.
Oh, sh!t. He thought. Now I'm drowning. What did I do in my past to deserve this?
Tallest Red is infuriated, and now he's going to get to the bottom of the mystery of Purple's death, now that he has access to Mim! And what about Purple and Peprik? WHAT ABOUT IRK? What is Ren doing? Will any of the good guys succeed? Find out all the answers and more, in Chapter 11!