CHAPTER FOUR (PART TWO) - BREEDEN AZALAR Azalazar stared at Kevin before slowly nodding. “Yes, that is what it is called.” He said unhappily. “What is it, and why did you create it?” “What it originally was supposed to be was a splicing project. Remember about fifty years ago, organisms were brought back with those tests from that asteroid on the AR-16 Voyager?” Kevin nodded, “Yeah, was supposed to be, frozen plants or something?” “It was not plants, we weren’t sure what it was.” Brian stared at the doctor in disbelief, “Sure, you didn’t know what it was, but lets splice it into something and see what it turns out to be! God that thing is right, you may be brilliant, but you’re also stupid beyond words!” He said. Kevin nodded in agreement as Azalazar glared at them. “It wasn’t that! What we were doing was trying to grow more organisms to see if it was DNA or if it was as Kevin so bluntly, frozen plants. When we had done that we still couldn’t tell what it was, it was The Corporation that decided to out it through the splicer, and at that point I agreed. In science you have to take risks so that is what we did. But when we were putting it through the splicing machine something went wrong. When we do splicing, you need radiation to fuse the cells together and bond them, to much radiation was used, way to much leaked into the machine and something happened.” “That thing came out.” Kevin said. “No, at lest not like the way it is now. It was like a deformed animal, we took it to study it. As time went on, it grew, but not as large as you see it now.” Azalazar paused for a moment, mine as well tell them everything. “After some time, it began to die, slowly.” “Why?” Howie asked puzzled, it looked perfectly; well, not perfectly normal now. “That’s what we could find out, you see in the splicing experiment, we used human DNA as well to bond with the organisms, but instead of taking on human looks like it would normally have done, it was mutated, it need to have humans as food, in order for it to live it needed to eat them.” Kevin’s eyes widened. “And you gave it that!?” He asked truly shocked though not sure why after talking with this guy. “You screwed around with something that you had know idea what it was, made that thing, and then let it live after you discovered that fact!?” He shouted. “Stupid is, as stupid dose.” A.J. said. No kidding. “This was an important discovery-“ Azalazar started. “Well wasn’t everything here just an important discovery.” Brian said sarcastically. Azalazar didn’t say anything about that, he continued on. “I didn’t give it first humans to eat, I discovered what it ate when a technician fell into the cage it was in.” Kevin groaned imagining what had happened to that poor man. Everyone else looked about the same, disgusted and uneasy. “After that, I did give it humans to eat.” “Were they dead when you fed it them?” Kevin asked narrowing his eyes. “Some.” Azalazar admitted. “What I didn’t know when I was feeding it humans was that it had a hidden talent, when it ingested humans it……….absorbed their minds. It learned from the peoples minds how to think for itself, how to become smarter, and most of all, how to feel.” “And now it wants to eat you.” Kevin said smugly. “Because it hates you.” Azalazar looked at Kevin disgusted but had to agree. Kevin glared down at the doctor. “Unbelievable, how far are you willing to go, just to know? How far were you willing to go?” Azalazar looked up arrogantly, “As far as I needed to.” He simply. “Gee, big surprise.” Howie muttered. “Put him over there,” Kevin said thoroughly tired of talking to the horrible doctor. “Get your sorry ass up!” A.J. said grabbing Azalazar’s shoulders and hauling him up to his feet, he shoved him towards the bar where he stumbled but managed to stay on his feet. “That man needs some serious help.” Howie said watching A.J. escort Azalazar to the bar, Kevin and Brian quickly hurried over to Howie and Nick. “He’s beyond help.” Kevin said dryly. “What are we going to do? Do you think he’s right? What if the A.I. can’t get past the automated signaling?” Brian asked worriedly. “That’s not the only problem!” Nick jumped in, “If he’s right, then a report has to be sent out or were screwed either way!” Kevin thought for a moment and looked behind him, as A.J. came back after making sure the doctor would stay where he was. “Got any ideas?” He asked as A.J. climbed up the steps to take the place of Howie who moved aside. “Listen, as far as I know, we can still try the A.I.. Weather or not he’s telling the truth about that I don’t know. It’s a fifty fifty chance.” He said knowing that Azalazar had screwed around with the computers and could have done something to the A.I. “We have one more problem, well two.” Kevin said after a moments thought. “This is getting better and better.” Howie said rubbing his forehead. “What is it?” “Remember what Nick said, even if you contact someone it will take them two to three days to get here. I don’t think we can last that long with…………..whatever Azalazar called it running around.” “The Eater.” A.J. supplied. “Whatever, if it is as smart as he says it is and is hungry, were in serious trouble. The second problem is, who are we going to contact?” Silence, everyone looked at each other unsure what to say. Howie suddenly spoke up, “That’s the biggest problem I should think. I mean, who’s willing to come to a space station run by The Corporation? One of the most powerful companies’s that Earth had ever seen in a while. We ask anyone for help, their gunna call The Corporation to come to help.” “Shit!” Kevin said covering his face with his hand frustrated. “We may not have a choice but to let them come and help us.” Brian said. Kevin instantly looked up horrified. “What!?” He demanded not sure he had heard right. “Kev, he’s right, we may not have a choice.” A.J. said. “Hell yes we have a choice!” Kevin hissed, “Do you know what is going to happen if they come here? Their not gonna help us! Their gonna take us away to another laboratory! They probably want each of us for different reasons! Brian!” He said looking at his cousin. “Their gonna want you cause you’re the only one who can open that damn library, if not you, then just that little diamond inside your heart, and their probably going to cut you opened again to get it and leave you for dead!” Brian’s jaw fell open in horror, he turned a little white, and Kevin’s ignored his look and turned to Nick. “Their gonna want you cause you’re the only living proof that whatever drug they used worked, their going to take you to another lab and mess with your mind so more until you probably can’t even identify what the hell a dog is! You’re just going to be a vegetable who babbles out stuff going through peoples minds!” Nick jerked back just as horrified as Brian was, his eyes widened in fright as Kevin turned to A.J. Uh oh, he thought as Kevin pointed at him. “Their gonna want you to help build another station and keep you their and going to keep you in the computer and after a while, if you don’t do what they say, your brain really will be liquid!” A.J. shrank back a little as Kevin turned to Howie. “They will take you away to, and use you some more in those sense test and they will get worse and worse until it will be full blown torture just to see if you can with stand it for god knows how long until you do lose your mind! I don’t really have any use to them and they’ll probably just kill me because I’m just a liability, but I’d rather be dead then stuck here for the rest of my life!” Kevin said furiously, everyone was thoroughly frightened now. Good! Kevin thought, they should be afraid, better to be afraid for a little while then dead or tortured! Kevin let out a deep breath and rubbed his forehead, as he did, his fingers brushed against the red ridge running down his forehead. He stopped and his eyes widened as he rubbed it. “Wait a minute!” He said looking up excited once more. “I think we got your point the first time! No calling The Corporation!” A.J. said holding up his hands in a sign of surrender. “No! We can contact Neosha!” Kevin exclaimed. There was a moment of silence. “What?” Howie finally asked. “Neosha! We can tell them to come and help us, they won’t call The Corporation and they won’t try to capture that creature!” He said, his excitement caught on, but only for a minute. “Wait a minute!” Nick said, “How will we contact them if the transmission go to The Corporation?” Kevin thought for a moment, his eyes lit up as he tried to calmly talk. “Back we I was training at the academy, I had a room mate named Maverick, all are transmission were recorded as to prevent cheating and dealing into illegal things. What he did though when he wanted to make a private call was send a fish hook.” “Fish hook?” Howie picked up on the word. Kevin nodded, “What he did was overlap a signal, he would send out a phantom signal that the recordings would get, while the real signal was free to go where ever he was calling.” “How come the recordings didn’t catch the other signal?” A.J. asked. “Because he designed the signal to hide……….well behind other signals, it would jump from signal to signal until it was out of the recordings range.” Everyone brightened up after that, Kevin grinned at A.J. “Do you think you can do that?” He asked hopefully. “Kev, you are talking to a man who can make a ship turn around and somba! A fish hook is easy!” He said grinning. “Though I will still need the A.I. to help, but that will just be for technical stuff.” “Get it on line!” Kevin instructed. New hope went through the five men, though the were careful not to get to hopeful, chances were still slim, but there was a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, that was all that mattered. “What about our,” Howie jerked his head to Azalazar, “Happy little doctor friend? What do we do with him?” Kevin thought for a moment, he shrugged. “He freely admitted to experimenting on Neoshians, after they see what he has been doing here, I think the government will be more then wiling to try some of his little experiments on him.” Everyone grinned at that prospect as Kevin turned and walked back to the glass table. Howie slapped A.J’s shoulder and gestured for him to get to work, A.J. held his hand over a consol and the tube shot out. Nick turned to Brian and raised his eyebrows before turning to walk away to the shadows; Brian decided to get a drink. He needed a very big one after hearing the news about himself. Azalazar continued to rub his head as he watched the men split up, his eyes carefully surveyed the room, he needed to get out of here, but with five men guarding him, his chances were defiantly slim. He had to contact The Corporation now, he couldn’t afford for the Neoshian Government to come and destroy everything! Quickly his eye fell to a shard of glass on the floor, it gleamed as the light fell on it, he looked up as Brian came over looking tired and defeated. Pretending to rub his back Azalazar’s hand wrapped around a shock staff. It was about the size of a flashlight, but was thin, easily concealable under his shirt. He watched as Brian approached closer, but basically stayed as far away from Azalazar could. If he could do this, then the crystal in his chest wouldn’t be fully damaged, and would still be intact enough to open The Library and he would still be alive. This would be easy, and with the robot, he could get away. Waiting until Brian was as close as he was gonna get, Azalazar tensed and then lunged forward. Nick caught the movement at the last second. “Watch out!” He shouted startling everybody. Brian looked up and stopped shocked, he threw his hands up but it was to late, Azalazar’s arm swung at him, the shock staff in his hand. He shoved it into Brian’s the lower side of his chest, the sharp metal prongs pierced his flesh. A electoral charge shot through Brian and straight into his heart. “Ugh!” Brian cried out as pain shot through him, making his body jerk, Azalazar shoved him and Brian went crashing down. Everything happened at once. Instantly Azalazar’s hand shot down to the floor and he swiped up the shard of glass and he took off. Brian rolled around on the floor, furiously beating his chest. A sharp pain like a knife had went straight through his heart, when he felt warm began to heat. “Oh shit! Oh god!” He cried as a searing boiling pain began building at a fast rate, he gulped in one last breath and that was all he could manage before he couldn’t breath. Gasping Brian screamed as the heat built up. Kevin lunged forward to his cousin as Azalazar ran; the limp in his leg was delaying him slightly. But he had another plan for that. “TWU4! Hold the others down!” He shouted at the robot, it instantly spun around as Howie and A.J. tried to run down from the computer station to stop him. )))Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!((( It screamed suddenly falling on top of the two. “Wow!” A.J. screamed in surprise as it fell on him and Howie, Howie yelped as they fell to the floor, the robot’s weight pinning them down. Nick was running towards Azalazar, but he swung the piece of glass, Nick instantly recoiled, he felt the tip of the glass barely miss his face. Azalazar may have been wounded, but he sure was fast. He sprinted towards the door, before Nick had a chance to recover, he instantly lunged for him, but Azalazar had already hit the button to the door and it slide open as soon as he slipped out the door slammed shut and Nick almost ran into it. Kevin had reached Brian by that time and was shaking him wildly. “What’s wrong!? What’s wrong!?” He shouted terrified, his eyes widened as Brian suddenly gurgled and his back arched, the sparkling red glowed through his shirt. Kevin’s jaw fell open and suddenly Brian lashed out, Kevin, unlike A.J., didn’t have a robotic suite, the energy would probably kill him. He hit Kevin straight in his chest knocking him over. Yelping Kevin went tumbling down the small steps as Brian other had hit the bar just as the energy discharged. The circuits in the bar that lit the neon lights suddenly sparked and some exploded, the lights in the entire room flashed brightly like a camera before turning off completely, Brian groaned and curled into a ball as the lights turned back on, more brightly then before, Nick winced and blinked, he covered his eyes for a second. Everything had happened so fast, in a mater of seconds in fact. A.J. and Howie were struggling as the robot still laid on them. “Get offa me!” A.J. howled as the robot instantly scrambled to its feet. Howie rolled of to the side and stood up stunned as A.J. grabbed the computer consol and hoisted himself up, he whirled around to the robot that jumped back slightly clicking its fingers. “WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR!? HE GOT AWAY!” A.J. shrieked furiously as the robot shrank back. Howie jumped in between the two as A.J. started advancing on the robot. )))I didn’t want to! But I’m programmed to do whatever he says!((( The robot wailed turning and quickly running down the stairs, fleeing for its life. “Yeah! You run you useless computer!” A.J. snarled as the robot turned to look at him and fell over one of the chairs. )))Eeep!((( It squeaked tumbling over the seat and crashing to the floor. )))Opf!((( “Calm down!” Howie yelled restraining A.J. Kevin rolled over and sat up completely stunned. Okay, what the hell just happened? He wondered looking around wide eyed. Brian let out a chocked gasp and opened his eyes, breathing hard he shivered as a chill went through him, a sharp pain went through his chest every time his heart beat. Oh I’m going to kill him myself. He vowed as he laid there, waiting for it to pass, this time though, he was sure he wasn’t going to pass out, throwing up again though, was a different thing. Kevin spotted his cousin and quickly jumped to his feet and hurried over. Nick quickly ran over as well. “Brian! Are you alright!?” Kevin demanded slightly panicked as Nick ran up behind him, Kevin shook Brian’s shoulder when he didn’t answer right away. He noticed blood beginning to seep a little through his shirt near his side, Brian rolled away a little before he could really see. He looked up at Kevin and Nick, his teeth chattering. “I-I-I-I’m alright. I j-j-just need a m-m-minute. I t-think.” He added under his breath. Kevin nodded looking shook up by what had happened. “You sure?” Nick asked in disbelief, not believing that that had happened and he seemed………..almost fine. Brian nodded and hugged himself harder. “I’ll get the blanket!” Nick said quickly hurrying away, Kevin looked over his shoulder at A.J. and Howie, A.J. had calmed down a little and was now franticly typing on the computer, Howie was walking down the steps. “Where is he!?” Kevin demanded as A.J. looked at the monitors. “Just a second! Bastard couldn’t have gotten far!” A.J. said, his eyes scanning the consol, Howie walked over to the robot as Nick quickly swiped up the blanket and hurried back to Brian. BACK NEXT |
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