Author's Notes: Thanks to all who left a review for me in the last chapter. Here's chapter 9, sorry if it's kinda rushed but it's enrollment week here in the Philippines and, needless to say, I've been kinda busy. Well, anyway, on with the chapter. There's gonna be another cameo here, this time from another Nicktoon.
Disclaimer: Refer to the prologue
Story Title: Corrupted Programming
Chapter Title: I Give You Queen Jennifer The First
Grand Marshal Yomex's Command Ship, somewhere in deep space
The short, orange-gold robot that was Grand Marshal Yomex marched down the corridors of his command ship. Following him stride for stride was a tall, purple, robotic High Commander who towered over the diminutive Grand Marshal. Together they made their way past respectfully saluting drones until they finally stopped in front of a door. The Grand Admiral pushed an intercom button that was right beside the door.
"Chief Engineer Fixit," Yomex said into the intercom. "I believe you wanted to see me?"
"Ah, Grand Marshal," a voice greeted over the intercom. "Do come in."
The door opened and the two robot commanders stepped in. Inside, a blue mantis-like robot greeted them with a wide smile. The blue robot led the two over to a pod which he proudly patted affectionately.
"Grand Marshal, High Commander," Fixit said with a flamboyantly introductory tone. "I give you Queen Jennifer the First."
The blue mantis drone that was the Chief Engineer pressed a button on the side of the pod. At first nothing seemed to happen, but then the pod hissed as it started to open. As the halves of the pod fell away, Yomex and Viruz saw the robot that the pod had concealed within itself. It was XJ-9, but very different from the XJ-9 that Viruz had captured.
"Well what do have here…" Viruz muttered.
The first thing Yomex and Viruz observed was different about XJ-9 was that her "ponytails" were attached to a triangular golden headpiece atop her head. From the headpiece grew antennae that mimicked those of Queen Vexus herself. Also, the shaped of XJ-9's eyes had been slightly altered. Whereas before they were large and puppy-dog-like, now they were slightly almond-shaped with the "eyelids" painted a dark blue hue.
Yomex and Virus exchanged a look of amusement before looking back to take in the other cosmetic changes on XJ-9. They noticed that the shapes of her "top", "skirt", and "boots" had been altered to make them appear sharper and more stylized. To top that off, the parts that represented XJ-9's "clothes" were slightly trimmed with bright orange and golden paint jobs. The two high-ranking Cluster robots exchanged another look before regarding Fixit with approving nods.
"You certainly made her regal-looking enough," Viruz said. "But what about her new reprogrammed self?"
"See for yourself, Sirs." Fixit said with a self-appreciating smile. He reached over to Jenny's head with a mantis-like foreleg and gave it a slight tap. Immediately XJ-9's eyes flew open.
"What the… how…" she said in a confused tone. She then looked down at her body and the confusion disappeared from her voice. "Gah, I can't believe I let you guys convince me to look like this. I look like a Vexus wannabe! Heck, I could almost hear Britt and Tiff's insults right now."
The Grand Marshal and High Commander's non-existent eyebrows arched up at that. They were both surprised and taken aback by what XJ-9 had just said and how she had acted. It was as if she had agreed to aid them in their rebellion in the first place. Viruz sent an encrypted signal directly to Yomex stating these sentiments.
[It appears the reprogramming was a success, Sir. XJ-9 seems to really believe that she agreed to play the part of a queen voluntarily. What's more, she seems to be herself.]
[Yes, a truly brilliant job on Fixit's part in preserving her personality.] Yomex agreed in the same silent, encrypted language that Jenny couldn't hear. [Well then, let's play along, shall we?]
"Um, yes, Queen Jennifer, the stylization do seem to be overly flamboyant." Yomex said, inreply to the comments voiced out by the newly-minted Queen Jennifer. "But to be considered a queen by others one must look like a queen to them."
"I feel like a dork." Queen Jennifer said. "And how many times must I tell you, it's Jenny. Just call me Jenny, okay? None of this 'Queen' stuff. Yeesh, and I thought being called XJ-9 was bad!"
"I'm sorry, Your Highness, but it just wouldn't be proper for us to refer to you in such as a manner now that you are queen." Viruz said, outwardly impassive but inwardly bursting with amusement. It was lucky for him that his mental link to XJ-9 had been broken when she had been reprogrammed. If it hadn't then "Queen Jennifer" might have noticed his mental laughter.
Jenny sighed. "Yeah, whatever. Let's just get this over with. The sooner we get this done the sooner I can teach the Cluster robots how to really be free."
Yomex and Viruz smiled to themselves and exchanged a chuckle through their private encrypted channel. Fixit's reprogramming appeared to be excellent. XJ-9 was fully convinced that she had willingly agreed to be their queen. Also, her personality was intact, and that was important if they were to win over the population of the Cluster. Yomex sent a silent encrypted message of approval to the Chief Engineer.
[All in a day's work, Sir.] Fixit transmitted back.
"Hey…" Queen Jennifer suddenly said. "I just remembered, where is Brad anyway? He came with us, right?"
Yomex and Viruz's minds suddenly seemed to freeze up. The human! They had forgotten about him. Sure, XJ-9 was now playing along with their scheme thanks to Fixit's reprogramming, but the human was not. And it would be potentially disastrous to leave the human that way.
"Oh, uh, well," Viruz said, looking for a plausible excuse for Brad's absence. "He's sleeping in his quarters. He was, um, jet-lagged from the long trip."
Jenny raised an eyebrow. Oh well, let him sleep, he deserves it. I'm really thankful that he came along to help, even after his parents practically went nuts about it."
"Er… right." Viruz said uneasily. It was then that the High Commander spoke to Yomex via the encrypted channel. [I'd forgotten about the boy, what do we do about him, Sir?]
[We must find a way to make the human play along, it is too much of a liability if we do not.] the Grand Marshal replied. To Fixit he transmitted: [Chief Engineer, could you come up with a way to… reprogram a human mind?]
[Reprogram a human mind?] Fixit said incredulously. At first he thought that Yomex was joking, but then he remembered that the Grand Marshal was not one to joke. He answered slowly. [I might be able to find a way, although, to tell you the truth, I've never attempted such a thing before.]
[You must try,] Yomex said. [We will stall XJ-9, once we get her out of here you must have the boy brought here and must reprogram him. It is absolutely essential that you succeed in doing so.]
[Yes, Sir.] Fixit responded unsurely.
"Well, come along then, Queen Jennifer." Yomex said. "We must prepare for your address to the Cluster."
"Alright," Jenny said. "Just don't let the speech sound too presidential, okay? I already look like a dork, I don't wanna sound like one."
Yomex gave a small laugh. "Of course."
With that Yomex and Viruz led Jenny out of the Chief Engineer's lab. As the three exited the lab, Fixit started to ponder on the Grand Marshal's latest order. 'Reprogramming a human mind,' he mentally said to himself. 'An intriguing project, I only wish that I would have more time to figure out how to do so.' He unconsciously looked around his lab, deep in thought. It was then that his eyes caught sight of the two halves of the reprogramming pod he had used on XJ-9. An idea started to ferment in his head.
If he could just adapt the reprogramming protocols he had used on XJ-9 to work on a biological brain instead of a robotic one he just might be able to do it. But first, he needed to study the operational processes of a human brain. And since there was only one human brain aboard…
He reached for the intercom. "This is Chief Engineer Fixit to the brig."
"Yes, Chief Engineer," a voice answered. "What can I do for you?"
"I believe that you are in possession of a human prisoner." Fixit said. "Would you please bring him here?"
"It shall be done, Chief Engineer." The voice said.
Fixit clicked off the intercom. He proceeded to a terminal and started to work on it.
Cluster Stealth Wasp, traversing a wormhole
"ADAX," Dr. Wakeman said in a slightly annoyed tone. "Kindly remove your legs from the instrument panels."
ADAX, who was in a relaxed posture with his hands behind his head and his legs on the Stealth Wasp's instrument panels, didn't even look at her. "I told you before, Wakeman, my handle's Dax. And why the heck should I move my feet, you're not using these panels yet."
Nora Wakeman sighed exasperatedly. "No, but I might need to use those panels later."
"So, I'll put 'em down when you use the panels." The green robot replied, inwardly enjoying the fact that he was annoying the scientist.
"ADAX," Mrs. Wakeman said, emphasizing each letter. "Put your feet down this instant!"
"Uh…" ADAX said petulantly. "No."
The doctor threw her arms up in frustration, questioning for the umpteenth time her decision to reactivate ADAX. Not only were his aggressive disposition and recklessness liabilities, he also proved to be irreverent and very hard to work with. In short, ADAX was behaving like a jerk.
Suddenly, an alarm sounded on one of the cockpit's instrument panels. Immediately forgetting about her thoughts on ADAX, Dr. Wakeman quickly looked over the panel. On it were the words: WARNING, NAVIGATIONAL SYSTEMS MALFUNCTIONING. STAND BY FOR REENTRY INTO NORMAL SPACE.
"Malfunction?" Mrs. Wakeman whispered.
ADAX, upon hearing the word "malfunction" immediately got off his relaxed position and spun on his creator. "Malfunction?! Aw cripes, what did you do now, Wakeman?"
"I didn't do anything!" the diminutive scientist protested.
"Well you fixed this baby up," ADAX said. "So whatever's goin' wrong with it is your darn fault!"
The doctor gave ADAX a dirty look, but before she could say anything the craft exited the wormhole. Feeling that it was more urgent to tend to the craft than to argue with ADAX, she turned her attention back to the instrument panels. It was then that the another of the Stealth Wasp's panels started to beep.
Dr. Wakeman was starting to turn toward that panel when ADAX suddenly said: "Uh, Wakeman, you might wanna take a look at what's outside."
At first she was just gonna ignore that as one of ADAX's none-too-helpful statements, but something in the tone of his voice made her look anyway. What she saw made her blood turn cold. Outside their craft was a literal swarm of ships, all of them had curved, stylized surfaces and had red, pink, violet, an maroon color schemes. In the middle of that swarm of battleships was a massive red vessel that dominated their line of sight.
"Attention unidentified craft," a curt, deep voice came over the communication system. "You have encroached upon a fleet exercise of the proud Irken Armada. Please stay where you are and prepare to vaporized."
"Vaporized?!" ADAX asked in an alarmed tone. "Did that guy just say vaporized?!"
As if answering ADAX's question, a goofy-sounding singsong voices was heard in the background of the incoming communications signal. "Yeah, blow that thing to lots tiny pieces!"
"FIRE!" another such voice was heard. "Firefirefirefirefire!!!"
"At once, my Tallests." With that they heard no more from the Stealth Wasp's comm..
"I have a bad feeling about this…" ADAX said.
At that instant the Stealth Wasp started to shake violently as several powerful beams passed very close to it, grazing its shields.
"Holy mother of 352 dead Chihuahuas!" ADAX yelled. "GET US OUTTA HERE!!!"
Mrs. Wakeman didn't need to be told twice. She quickly grabbed the controls and started to put the refurbished Cluster ship into evasive maneuvers. The Irken vessels sped after them, guns blazing.
"By the way, Wakeman," ADAX said through gritted teeth.
"Yes?" Dr. Wakeman answered in a tight tone as she struggled with the ship's controls.
"This is still your fault."
Author's Note: Well, that's all for now. I'll try to get the next chapter out as soon as I can. Thanks for reading and please review.