Section 4: A Few Good Men

Metal everywhere… He hated the metal but he didn't have much choice since he was more or less stuck there for life. As the head custodian it was his job to make sure the facility stayed clean. So he rode, most all day, washing the floors and reading his books. Books and comics were how he kept himself entertained. There wasn't much else to do while cleaning. He'd done it so long he could perform most tasks without thinking. It wasn't a particularly hard occupation. He had machines and such do most of the work. I guess you could say he was more a mechanic than a janitor, since most of his time spent working was maintaining the cleaning robots. Yes, he mostly rode the mopper around out of boredom.

The facility was the most top secret in the nation; where the most important of projects was… maintained. The man didn't really agree with the project from what he had learned of it. But morality wasn't what they paid him for.

"…." He stared at what took up the majority of the moon sized unit; a giant dome shaped container. Though he had never seen it open, he always felt there was something unearthly creepy about it. He often felt as though he were not alone, even when all of the scientists had left for the day… or the week… One time he was left there for almost a year without any human interaction. You see it wasn't the only place that the current project was worked on, but from what he gathered it was the most important. Yes it was in that time of loneliness that he had first noticed the feeling. It was then that he had first thought to read his books aloud. And when he read aloud, he knew he was not the only one listening.

He climbed down from the mopper and walked about ten feet.

"I know you're in there." he said softly, "we're not alone." After smiling at the silliness of his passing fancies he laughed a bit, "Well, after lunch I think I'll read you a story!" He hadn't seen his home planet in several years, and now his only friend was the faith that he was indeed not alone.

"GUH!" Tonigawa shouted as he sprung awake; such a bizarre dream, but not as bizarre as the one with the giant Frisbee that said, 'I dare you'. It may have been due to the severe stress of having to deliver a top secret package to a planet privately owned by a Juraian nobleman. As he was working for a spy it was imperative that his mission be kept secret from other GP members, and he avoided passing ships as much as possible; though in the vastness of space that was a lot easier than his paranoia led him to believe.

Only fellow spies were aware of his little endeavor; his team consisted of three men: a half wau named Jimmi, a dark haired guy named Steve, and a hippy in an eye patch named Goddamis.

"You look like some kind of hippy." noted the captain Tonigawa.

"I'm not a hippy." he replied as he stroked his large goatee thoughtfully. The three were all that was needed to pilot the ship, and Tonigawa found most of them to be quite friendly.

"Captain!" hollered Steve after walking on to the bridge of the ship. "We're all out of beer sir!"

"And we're running low on our popcorn supplies." added Jimmi; his voice full of concern.

"Damn!" cursed the captain, "We may have to make an emergency stop."

"There's a space corner store about two parsecs ahead." said Goddamis, the only one who was working.

"Groovey." smiled the captain. Suddenly the two slackers approached him.

"Captain." said Jimmi as he adjusted his glasses.

"What exactly is it we're delivering?" asked Steve.

"That's top secret, pilot." Tonigawa replied before beginning to turn. He felt he'd done enough for the day so he was going to go back to sleep… again.

"Captain we must know!" declared Steve as he grabbed the captain's shoulder and turned him dramatically.

"Yeah tell us!" insisted Jimmi.

"I don't even know what it is!" the captain tried to explain. The two seemed very persistent.

"Well don't you wanna know?" shouted Steve, ever the more dramatic with gravity defying gestures.

"We should look! Come on!" added Jimmi, his tail waving with excitement.

"Fools!" Tonigawa shouted angrily as he tossed his arm sending them both back a few steps, "Don't you watch television? That's exactly whatever is in the box wants us to do! This is the part of the movie where someone does something really stupid and everybody dies for it while the audience is going, 'oh man why did that stupid idiot do that, don't open the box stupid, stupid I hate you' and everyone boos that character, do you want to die?" he explained in one breath.

"………" Steve was taken aback.

"I don't want to die." replied Jimmi.

"Me either. So no one looks in the package." Tonigawa crossed his arms and stuck his nose up. Then he turned, "Especially Steve!"

"What? Why me?"

"The goofy one always gets killed ya scrawny otaku."

"That's just mean!"