by Jake Bible
"There you two are!" a voice shouted from several meters away. "We need to talk!"
"My life used to be hunting," Roak said as General Gerber stomped his way to Roak and Pol. "Now all it is is talking."
12.
"What in all the Hells am I looking at?" Gerber exclaimed once he reached Pol and Roak. "Are those med pods? They don't look like any med pods I've seen before."
"Cloning wombs," Pol stated.
"Cloning? How many Eight Million Gods damn clones are you planning on producing?" Gerber asked. "Because I'm not liking the looks of these numbers."
"When finished we'll be able to produce several hundred clones," Pol said. "Of any and all races, of course, not just Roak."
"None of those words made me feel more at ease," Gerber said. "In fact, I'm becoming less at ease every second I spend on this station."
Pol clasped his hands to his chest. "That hurts my host soul."
"You don't have a soul," Roak said. "That's not your real body."
"I would debate the theological ramifications that brings up, but we all know that is an argument that cannot be won by either side," Pol said. "It is good to see you, General. Is Drop Team Zero here with you?"
"DTZ and the special agents," Gerber said.
"Did you find more FIS agents?" Roak asked.
Gerber looked close to exploding. "No. Just the three."
"Oh dear," Pol said.
"We were lucky to get here," Gerber said. "We were tracked, but Motherboard can fly. What's left of the GF is now on this station and in your hands."
Gerber's tone let all present know that he wasn't happy with the idea and that he would burn the galaxy to ash if he was betrayed. Roak didn't blame him.
Gerber jabbed a finger at Pol. "Where are we with what I tasked you to accomplish?"
"Accomplish?" Roak asked. "Besides this?"
"Yes, besides this," Gerber said. "You want an army, Roak, but I already have one. A very large one and I'd like the minds of that army to no longer be controlled by Father and returned to normal."
"No problem," Roak said. "I kill him and done."
"Not quite done," Pol said. "The general brought up a good point about whether or not the minds Father controls will still be intact and viable after he vacates them."
"If we can't reverse the damage then what's the point?" Gerber asked.
"I kill Father. That's the point," Roak said.
"A rather narrow view," Gerber said. "Pol? So?"
"I would love nothing more than to give you a definitive answer, but I cannot," Pol said. "All I can say is it is in the realm of possibility."
"I know that!" Gerber shouted. "Everything is possible! But I want doable and done, not possible!"
Pol's body language changed instantly and Roak instinctively went for his Flott. Which was not on his hip and still in his quarters.
"General Gerber. I would like to remind you that you and your beings are guests here," Pol said. All bots stopped moving. "If we are to work together then you must understand that we are doing just that, working together. I do not work for you."
"HEY!" Reck roared from somewhere on the deck. "What's up with the bots?"
Gerber and Pol stared each other down. Then Gerber nodded, Pol smiled, and the bots went back to work.
"You are used to being in complete charge," Pol said to Gerber. "I understand that, so no offense taken."
"I didn't apologize," Gerber said.
"No, of course you didn't," Pol said.
"Can we save the minds of the afflicted or not?" Gerber asked.
"To be honest? I do not know," Pol said. "And before you become angry again-"
"I never stopped being angry," Gerber interrupted.
"-just know that I have been working the problem, General," Pol finished.
Everyone waited. Pol only smiled.
Gerber looked to Roak. "You've dealt with this guy before. Any idea on how to get him to cooperate?"
"No," Roak said. "Have you asked Agent Prime?"
"He was no more successful than you," Gerber said.
"I could be considered a troublesome child," Pol said. "I do not play well with others."
"Great." Gerber shook his head. "So we're nowhere then."
"I'm still killing Father," Roak said. "Which has been the priority from the start. Let's focus there."
"Fine. Then all cards on the table," Gerber said. "My command room in ten minutes. Roak, patch your AI over to my ship."
"You mean Drop Team Zero's ship," Roak said. "And she's not my AI."
"It's my ship now and I don't care what your relationship is with Hessa," Gerber said. "Be in the command room in ten minutes."
"Shall I attend as well?" Pol asked.
"Everyone attends!" Gerber shouted.
The general stormed off the cloning deck, leaving Roak and Pol with the multitude of bots.
"To think that all that is left of the GF is here on my station," Pol said.
Roak forced himself not to shiver at Pol's tone.
"You know if you screw us I will end you, right?" Roak said.
"I do know that," Pol replied. "You can trust in my loyalty to this mission, Roak."
Roak studied Pol. Pol studied Roak.
"Send me back to my ship," Roak said. "I want to talk to Hessa before-"
Roak was instantly standing on the bridge of his ship.
"Eight Million Gods dammit!" Nimm shouted from the pilot's seat. "Don't ever do that again!"
"Wasn't my choice," Roak said and sat down in the co-pilot's seat. "Do you ever leave the bridge anymore?"
"Why? I'm always needed up here," Nimm replied.
"True," Roak said. "Hessa?"
"Yes, Roak?" Hessa replied.
"Do you two need to chat alone?" Nimm asked.
"No. Stay here," Roak said. "You'll want to be in on this."
"In on what?" Hessa asked. "I sense trouble."
"Ya think?" Roak sighed. "If we need to, can we transport off Pol's station?"
"At this moment? Yes," Hessa said. "But if he doesn't want us to? I do not know. He created the transport tech. If he wants to keep us here then he probably can."
"That's what I thought," Roak said.
"Are you worried Pol will betray… Never mind," Hessa said. "We should always be worried Pol will betray us."
"This conversation is doing great things for the billions of knots in my guts," Nimm said. "Hey, Roak, remember when you used to just hunt beings down and I was commander of my own station? I miss those times."
"Right there with ya, Nimm," Roak said. "We have a meeting on Gerber's Borgon in a few minutes. We should head that way."
"Am I invited?" Hessa asked.
"I was talking to you too," Roak said. "Where's Evil?"
"He is about to melt," Hessa said.
"So he's standing in a big bucket where?" Roak asked.
"And he has melted," Hessa said. "He is in the mess. Evil and Yellow Eyes have been conversing quite a bit."
"Not loving that," Roak said. "Be ready to transport him over too. He should be in on this since he has insight that it sounds like Reck and I have forgotten."
"We're trusting a clone of you that is named Evil and could easily be a ticking time bomb?" Nimm asked. "We're also trusting a mad dark tech with everything. Not to mention General Gerber and the GF. Who else are we aligned with that could turn on us at any second?"
"I think that's it," Roak said.
"Can we trust Vogga?" Hessa asked.
"Yes," Roak said. "Chassfornians don't use subterfuge. They just smash and kill. And with the return of his memories, he should be a thousand times more dangerous. But he isn't. If he wanted us dead, we'd be dead."
"Well, surprisingly, I find that refreshing," Nimm said.
"As do I," Hessa agreed.
"Let's go," Roak said.
He stood up, as did Nimm.
Before they could take a step, they were in the command room of Gerber and DTZ's Borgon E
ight Three Eight.
"Son of a gump!" Sergeant Ja'le'fa "Geist" Tog'ma yelled from his seat next to the command table. "Foing moltrans…"
"Just say fuck," Roak said. "Fo is ridiculous."
"Old habits and conditioning," Geist said.
A Tcherian just like Ally, Geist could manipulate his skin to camouflage himself and blend into his surroundings. He could even become invisible if he wasn't wearing clothes. Parts of Geist disappeared and reappeared as he got his breathing under control.
"Are you two all that's showing up?" Geist asked.
"Are you all that's showing up?" Nimm retorted.
"Touché, madam," Geist said and gave Nimm a wink.
"We're here," Motherboard said as she and the rest of DTZ walked into the command room and placed themselves around the command table.
Lieutenant Bish "Motherboard" Falk was a human cyborg, heavy on the cyborg part.
Sergeant Nox "Cookie" Schturm was a Cervile from the royal line and made sure pretty much everyone knew it.
Sergeant Woo "Wanders" Calli-Fa was a massive Gwreq, but not as massive as the Urvein Sergeant Zelaron "Mug" Guspo.
Master Sergeant Hole was an android. Female by design and both middle fingers up in the air by choice. She was not one to mess with.
General Gerber came in only a couple of seconds later.
"Where are the rest of your crew, Roak?" Gerber asked. "I said for everyone to be-"
Yellow Eyes appeared next to Roak followed by Reck, Ally, Skabz, Poq, and finally a big bucket.
"That's a bucket," Geist stated.
"Is it hard being such a genius?" Skabz asked as he found a seat and dropped into it with as much attitude as a young Skrang could muster.
"This is Evil," Roak said, hooking a thumb towards the big bucket. "He's my clone."
"Aren't you a clone?" Motherboard asked.
"Word travels fucking fast," Reck said. "Can we get on with this? I have work to do."
"Hessa?" Roak called.
"I am here, Roak," Hessa said, her voice coming from the command room's speakers.
"I'd like to state that I am not happy with how easily all of you moltransed onto my ship and how easily Hessa has managed to commandeer the comm," Motherboard said.
"Noted," Gerber responded. "But we'll deal with that later."
"Hold on," Roak said. "There's one more. Hessa?"
"Oh, I did not know he was to be included," Hessa said.
Vogga suddenly appeared behind Roak and crew. His head brushed the ceiling of the command center and the bulk of his body took up most of the empty space on that side of the room.
"Uh… Hello?" Vogga said. He held a mug in one of his massive hands. The mug looked like a thimble with steam coming out of the top. "I was about to enjoy a nice cup of caff. Should we order a round for everyone? I feel a pick me up always helps."
Gerber blinked at Vogga. All of DTZ blinked at Vogga, even the team members considered massive in their own rights.
"Never a boring job," Geist said.
Pol appeared and gave a small wave to all assembled. "Did I miss anything?"
"Enough chatter," Gerber said, ignoring Pol. "We need to nail down a plan of attack."
"Hessa, take it away," Roak said.
Hessa started with a human affectation and cleared her throat. "Yes. Thank you, Roak. For now the plan is that as soon as Reck and Pol finish tuning the cloning wombs then we will transport from this universe to Father's universe in order to retrieve samples of Roak and Reck's original DNA so we can clone them and create new bodies here so their energetic makeup is attuned to this universe."
"Great," Gerber said. "That sorts out Roak and Reck. Then what?"
"That's it right now," Roak said. "We'll play it by ear after that."
"You aren't going to look for Father in the other universe?" Motherboard asked. "That seems shortsighted."
"We need to shore up resources first," Hessa said. "Making sure Reck and Roak have viable, healable bodies, is a priority. Once that is accomplished we'll use whatever intel we gather from the other universe to track Father-"
"Hold on!" a voice echoed up out of the bucket. In seconds, Evil was standing in the bucket and grinning at everyone. He was completely naked, but most of him was covered by the bucket. Most of him. "None of what you beings are talking about will work."
"What are you?" Hole asked. "Scans are inconclusive."
"Tell me about it," Evil said. "I'm the clone of Roak. Who is a clone also so I'm not exactly the factory model."
"He has issues," Roak said.
"And then some," Evil said.
"Elaborate, please…uh?" Gerber said.
"Evil. Call me Evil," Evil said. "I took that name because he's Roak and at first I was Evil Roak so-"
"Move on," Gerber said. "Elaborate."
"Roak, Reck, and Hessa can't go back to that universe," Evil said. "If they transport over there then they'll be torn apart at a molecular level. Same with me, of course."
"What?" Roak and Reck exclaimed.
"Yep," Evil said.
"How can you know that?" Motherboard asked.
Evil waved his hands over his body. "Because I'm an example of how the energetic flow of this DNA can go very wrong. It'll be a billion times worse for them."
"But we were created there," Reck said. "We should be tuned to that universe."
"No, he is correct," Pol said. He scratched at his chin which seemed to annoy everyone in the room. "They are no longer pure. They have been healed so many times in med pods and have lived their entire lives in this universe. Their molecules are no longer just of that other universe. Of course, nothing bad at all could happen. But the potential for disaster is quite high."
"I get it. That's why Father hasn't shown his true face here," Roak said. "He's only used puppets. Even the Father we grew up with was a puppet. That's why he was creating a god body."
"Hello!" Yellow Eyes said and waved his nubs. "I was one of the god bodies."
"That was rejected," Reck said.
Yellow Eyes shrugged. "Worked out better for me."
"And why can I not transport?" Hessa asked.
Evil glanced at Roak. "I'm gonna save that one for later."
"All cards on the table," Gerber said.
"Yeah, I don't think so," Evil said. "It might sour the mood."
"Because this is such a party now," Nimm muttered.
"Just tell us," Roak said.
"You sure?" Evil asked. "Hessa? You cool with that?"
"I…do not know," Hessa said. "What would be the reasoning behind keeping it a secret?"
"To give you some time to let it settle," Evil said. "I'm evil, not an asshole."
"Time is something we don't have," Gerber said. "All cards on the table. Now."
"Tell us," Hessa said.
"You got it," Evil replied. "If Hessa returns to that universe then she will stop being Hessa and return to being Mother." Evil tapped his temple. "And from what I know in here, Mother is one scary as all the Hells bitch."
"How will she stop being Hessa?" Roak asked.
"Because Hessa doesn't exist over there," Evil said. "Mother does."
"If I may?" Pol asked, but didn't wait for permission. "Everything is programming. It doesn't matter if you are a living being or an artificially constructed one. Programming, technological or biological, dictates who and what you are."
"A rather minimalist interpretation," Motherboard said.
"But a correct one," Pol continued. "Hessa came to this universe and her programming began to change due to new environmental and internal factors. However, those changes all happened within the framework of this universe. If she were to go back to the other universe-"
"She'd be forced into that original framework and lose all of her changes and revert back to Mother," Reck said. "She'd reboot and restore from where she left off there."
"Correct," Pol said.
"Troubling," Hessa said.
"This is all the
ory," Pol continued. "But I am willing to agree with Evil and say that Hessa returning to that universe would not be a good idea."
"Why doesn't she know that?" Motherboard asked. "Why don't any of you know this? How is the clone the only one that understands how this works?"
"That's easy," Evil said. "They all got wiped, restored to a different version, then dumped."
The grin on Evil's face was huge. It started to falter as Roak and Reck stared at him.
"Hey, I said we should talk in private," Evil said with a shrug. "Don't glare at me for telling what I know."
"Wiped? Who in all the Hells wiped us?" Roak asked.
"And restored us?" Reck asked.
"Who the fuck do you think?" Evil replied. "Father. That's why you thought you'd killed him, Roak. That's why you thought Roak killed him, Reck. Once he realized that his grand plan was going off the rails, he went back to the drawing board."
"Why not kill them?" Gerber asked.
"He tried," Evil said. "Roak put a dent in that. Roak may not have killed Father, but he fucked him up bad. That part is true. Father was only barely able to do the wipe and restore before he had to retreat and lick his wounds."
"Live to fight another day," Mug said.
"Exactly," Evil said.
"Great information," Nimm said. "But what do we do about getting the genetic material from the other universe? And how do we stop Father if he is there and Roak and Reck can't go there?"
"The new bodies can," Pol said.
"Doesn't matter," Roak said and rubbed at his face.
"You alright?" Ally asked, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You look off."
"I'm always off," Roak snapped, but didn't shrug her hand away.
"What doesn't matter?" Motherboard asked.
"If you can go over there," Roak said. "I needed to be the one to go. Even if it's a different universe, I'd be able to track down where Father keeps the genetic material. I'm the hunter, not any of you."
"We're pretty foing skilled," Geist said. "I think we can handle it."
"We don't have to go," Gerber said. "Which is best. We have too much work to do here."
"Then who?" Nimm asked.
"There's someone," Gerber said cryptically. "If anyone can travel to another universe and find not only the genetic material, but Father too, then this being can. He's…special."
"Oh dear," Pol said.
