Chapter 7
Catching the fish turned out to be not nearly as difficult as cooking it. It seemed like every predator in the area took a run at them while they worked at it. They could have given up and tried later but they were all getting hungry and wanted it done now.
Once it was cooked they plopped down amid the carnage and had a solid meal. They all managed to eat their fill and then staggered off a good distance to hole up in a clean area and sleep.
They all felt much better the next morning so they packed their remaining food and headed out at a steady pace. The food must have given them more energy than they thought because by that evening they were looking at the wooded area that held the lab.
After a brief discussion they held up at the edge of the woods and ate another large meal. They then rested for the night so they could hit the lab fresh in the morning.
At first light they started creeping through the woods towards the lab. Nothing moved in the eerie silence. The morning fog was still swirling around through the trees as they closed in. They held up just outside the compound for a long assessment.
Gavin and Tinker looked to Kazumi for her to clear them for the final approach but she signaled them to hold, something did not look right. It took her a few
seconds to realize that the gate, which she had left hanging open in her need to flee, had been closed.
She indicated the change to the others and they all thought it through. Really the only option was that the clone had done it.
She did not believe the clone had been capable, however, because it was too young when it broke out of the tube and, more importantly, she knew that Charlie had not bothered to have any learning scheduled for it at all in the tube.
Normally clones would receive their base of knowledge during the growth process, things like language and basic socialization, as well as a sort of simulated boot camp for military clones. Charlie had skipped all of that.
Finally she made up her mind. They couldn't learn anything more from out here, whether they liked it or not they would have to go inside.
Indicating to the boys to hang back she slid through the trees and then slowly approached the gate. Once there she entered the code and waited. As expected the gate beeped and slid open and her and the boys slipped inside.
The sight that met them in the courtyard she would probably never be able to forget. The giant clone lay dead in the center of the yard, but pieces were missing from it.
Looking more closely she could see that bites had actually been taken out of the hideous thing. Apparently the monsters had made it inside at least once.
They checked out everything they could, the mandos moving tactically from cover to cover, weapons sweeping ahead. Once the courtyard area was clear they looked to her for direction on where to move. Lacking any other ideas she led them towards the lab.
As they headed down the passageway towards the lab they could already hear muttering and cursing. They looked at each other but none of them had an answer. They reached the door and Tinker, who had been leading the procession, allowed her to slip past and peek inside.
Inside she saw an orc working feverishly at one of the stations, muttering and cursing the whole time. She was amazed. Since she was here and the new clone was dead outside there was only one option for who this could be.
Obviously he didn't come through the change, and the vicious beating unhinged, but this creature had to be Charlie.
She boldly approached him as he crouched over the work station, listening to him talk to himself about proteins and enzymes. She seriously doubted he
knew enough to accomplish anything useful and was honestly afraid of what he might create next.
"What are you doing?" She demanded. She would be damned if she would cower in front of him any longer.
He jerked away so hard he stumbled and cried out in terror. He caught sight of her though and, after a second he seemed to recognize her.
"Little bird." he mumbled.
She felt her face darken as that hated nickname came from his lips. She drew back a fist to smack him but managed to restrain herself, barely.
"I can fix it." He mumbled. "I just need to make a few changes to the formula."
"Fix it?"
"My clone created this virus." He held up his green hand to illustrate. "I just need to go back and fix it."
"You idiot! It was you not knowing what the hell you were doing that got us into this mess, why are you tampering even more?"
"I will fix it." He mumbled, still working at his station.
"No, you won't." Tinker said as he approached.
"I am afraid I cannot let you interfere. I can't live on as a monster." Charlie said as he hit a key on the console.
They heard growls and moans as the door at the far end of the lab opened and some of the deformed creatures came forward.
"Meet my new experimental subjects." Charlie said, showing some enthusiasm for the first time.
Gavin acted first, his blaster rifle taking down the first few creatures. His brother was right behind him, working his own weapon back and forth across the mass of charging beasts.
Tinker looked her way and shouted.
"Get him! Quick!"
She turned and spotted Charlie dodging out the door towards the experiment cages, holding the vial he'd been working on. Now terrified she took off after him.
By the time she entered the code to get the door open and follow him down the hall he had already entered one of the closed experimental chambers. These were set up as isolated containment units so that cross contamination didn't occur.
She reached the glass door as he held the vial above his head.
"I told you I would fix it but you wouldn't wait! Now I will get the cure and you and your friends can suffer!" Then he smashed the vial onto the floor.
A noxious gas spewed everywhere as the contents
met the air, quickly filling the room with a greasy smoke. When the smoke began to clear Charlie stood unharmed in the center of the room. He held up his hand and she could see the changes beginning. He began to shrink, his skin began to revert to his normal coloration. In short, it was working.
She was about to open the door when he coughed, now looking almost back to normal, and blood shot out.
"What! I know I did it right!" He coughed and hacked again as blood began to stream out of his mouth and nose. She turned away horrified as he started screaming.
By the time she could force herself to turn back it was over. He lay still on the floor in a puddle of blood. She manipulated the robotic arm to get a sample, secured it, and then triggered the safety measures and fire engulfed the room.
She huddled there for a few minutes, absently watching the flames, and then strong arms came around her from behind.
"I'm sorry." It was Tinker's voice.
"I think he was on the right track," she said dully, "but he obviously missed something."
Gavin came down the hall, reading from a data pad. "I'm no scientist, but it looks like he was somehow
changing the virus' DNA again. Maybe whatever that was didn't agree with him."
"We're going to need an actual geneticist to get involved, or a virologist or something." Tinker opined.
Gavin rubbed at the back of his neck, "that might be a bit of a problem."
"And why's that?"
"Because the backstop during our fight with the mutated lizard critter things was the comm station. It seems to have taken a few hits."
"How many is a few?" Tinker growled.
"More than one but less than all of them, obviously, the point is that the comm station is fragged."
"This is all your fault vod, you're a terrible pilot and not that good a shot either!"
"You take that back! I am a fantastic pilot! I landed us here without a scratch!"
As the two brothers bickered heading back toward the lab Kazumi smiled for a second. At least their exile wouldn't be boring.
As she prepared to follow the brothers she got a look into another of the experiment chambers where inside were a small herd of the local deer. To her utter shock they appeared perfectly normal.
She looked around but didn't find any documentation at all for why that would be. She remembered the security system and hoped that it was still working. If she could figure out how Charlie had been successful with those maybe they could actually fix things.
She did discover that the security system was still in operation, unfortunately it didn't show clearly enough what he was mixing and his notes were less than ideal. She took some samples from the restored animals but didn't see anything revealing there either.
They went back through Malorus's notes as well, but he had not proceeded anywhere near as far down the path as Charlie had gone. He was making tiny changes one at a time and documenting the results. It basically served as an introduction to the process but, without alot more information and assistance, it wasn't going to be enough to figure it out.
The comm system also was proving difficult to repair. They had some spares on hand as part of their standard load out but it was not expected that sensitive equipment would take blaster fire.
Tinker went as far as grabbing the other speeder and some spare fuel and made a run back to their crashed shuttle to get some more parts. He grabbed anything he might be able to use both from the shuttle, and even some from the ancient derelict that
he thought he might adapt.
He also grabbed everything else he thought they could use from the site, including the rest of their weapons and supplies. It made for a pretty full speeder on the way back but it did allow them to settle in a bit more comfortably.
She had noticed that Tinker was particularly attentive to her. He was obviously attracted to her and she thought she felt the same about him. Her experiences with Charlie, though, made her very leery of anything physical. Tinker seemed to sense this and kept his attentions very innocent. They seemed to spend a lot of time together, however, and she was slowly becoming more comfortable.
Gavin went over all the security measures, making repairs and adjustments. He actually set up some sensors around the area and set the security system to alarm when certain thresholds were met.
So it was an increasingly comfortable trio that was settling into a long wait at the facility. They had just finished their evening meal one night when suddenly alarms were ringing as the security system sensed a ship exiting hyperspace near planetary orbit.
Gavin looked at the other two sadly.
"Get ready you guys." He told them.
"Ready for what?" Kazumi asked.
"Kaz, if whoever that is lands on this planet we can't, under any circumstances, allow them to leave." Tinker told her carefully.
"Can't we warn them?"
"That's one of the reasons we are trying so hard to fix the comms." Gavin told her.
'We have our armor comms that work locally, he held up his vambrace to demonstrate, "But we can't count on them monitoring those frequencies."
"We have to hope they come here at all. If they land anywhere else on the planet we may not be able to reach them before they wake up and panic."
They knew they had time so they finished their meal and cleaned up. Then the men put on their armor and they went outside to try and spot the new arrivals.