00075

Security Leader Clyden sailed under the ever-growing emerald-grey clouds. The nearer the aircar got to the Research and Development Laboratory, the colder the outside air emperature got, and the thicker the snow blew, obstructing his view through the windshield.

He mumbled to himself. "This is worse than the last time I came up here- ergh!" A sudden cross-wind whipped across the aircar, trying to spin it out of control, but Sec. Ldr. Clyden fought back, struggling to keep his flying vehicle steady, trying to keep it from crashing- The turbulence challenged his very life!

And during his struggle, his cell-comm buzzed, but, being quite busy, he did not answer.”

When at last he again dominated the situation, he huffed from the exertion. Clyden had won the fight against the weather, but not without much strain and fatigue, both from himself and from his craft. He told himself, Good thing I took a small aircar, something with decent maneuverability and easy to handle. Maybe too lightweight in this wind, but much more speed to cut across the currents of air. A bigger, bulkier one'd be sure to crash!

While he continued on course through the blizzard, flying even lower to avoid detection, he finally dared checking to see who had called. Only Samm. What could he want? He called back, but Samm's line was now busy. Whatever it was that he wanted, he must be calling somebody else to take care of the matter. Good. He should be able to handle a simple rotation of the guards at the mines, anyway.

Clyden hunted for a safe landing spot in the rendezvous area. Jade-tinted snow covered ground as far as the eye could see. And very deep now, too. Fierce winds drifted it back and forth. In the dip of the hollow where Dr. Kitchen would previously meet him, protected ever so slightly from the”mbebreezes, the snow didn't drift quite as high. He set the aircar down there. Not a good spot, but the best around, short of landing right at the science research building- but this was another secret trip, so of course he could not do that. At least he made it almost on time for the meeting, despite the bad weather. He preferred to not stay here too long in this miserable blizzard.

Poor Dr. Kitchen! She had to travel up the hillside, over the top, and back down the other side to get here to him from the R and D facility. Ah, well, she enjoyed keeping in shape.

This freezing weather had been going on since before his previous visits. It showed no signs of stopping. If anything, it grew worse even as he sat here waiting for the doctor. Sometimes the snow stopped falling for a brief moment, but the howling wind continued to toss the snow about the landscape, and then the storm picked up again, seemingly with more ferocity.

The skycar clock read quarter past one. Where is she? he silently wondered.

The Security Leader phoned Dr. Kitchen on their private line. She certainly knew he was to come and she should’ve met him a quarter hour ago! She should have allowed herself extra time to sneak away and bring him his special request. It wasn’t like her to be late- No answer. He tried calling her again. Still no answer! He almost disconnected the second time, when Dr. Kitchen finally answered. Her faint, pained voice gasped out, "...help..." and then silence.

Clyden scratched his head, puzzled and concerned about what this might mean, and especially in regards to her special project for him. He gripped his blaster and left the aircar, heading for the R and D Lab building. If something happened to her... But what could he tell the guards at the entrance to explain his unannounced visit? He wanted to do a surprise checkup on their security?

Brrrr! Bone-chilling! After toiling up the side of the hill, a gust of air hit him like an express train, almost pushing him back down the side he had just climbed. After trudging to the far side of the foot of the bluff, he grunted in some consolation that from here the land flattened out before him.. He struggled through the snow, across the plain towards the research site, noting how the wind blew shut his tracks in the snow behind him.

What the-

He saw something was amiss in the lab from his distant vantage point. One need not have excellent vision such as his to see there was trouble. The large picture window of the research center was smashed, and snow whistled into the main lab department. Whoa, but what had shattered the picture window? An experiment gone awry? From here, it also appeared the usual indoor lights were not lit. He tried to pick up his speed and jog the rest of the way, but that proved difficult and then impossible in this frigid, knee-deep green mess.

He didn't waste time at the heavy, metal hatch at the entranceway with its peep window and its wheel mechanism in the center of the door to open the hatch. No, it might be locked, and why fumble spinning that wheel, and why put up with a hassle from any security guards, if they still manned the entrance, when the large open window provided an easy way inside. He hopped through it, taking care not to get his thick, heavy clothes cut on any of the glass.

The temperature inside no longer felt comfortable. The cold  from the oustide invaded through the broken window. At least the wind no longer cut through his jacket. He saw  by the dim emergency lighting in the huge lab bodies of technicians lay scattered across the floor, each a bloody mess! Some were missing parts.

He made sure his blaster had full power.

He searched the main lab, where most of the Research and Development work was done in this place, and where most of the bodies were.

He glanced over the corpses. None were Dr. Kitchen. Where was she?

He exited the main lab and went into a dark corridor beyond. This hall was where one came upon entering through the hatch. No security at the entranceway. Why? What happened to that sentry? Or to the rest of the guards? And to the technicians in the lab...

He roamed through the top-secret site, trying to find the doctor, or what had happened to the doctor, and to her project for him. She might have already died since answering her comm-cell.

Why was there no power in the building, except emergency power? He saw more bodies, and one group of bodies of security guards with blasters and a giant net lying beside them. What had gone on here? And- he had a pretty good idea how many folks had been stationed here- why, then, did it seem half of them- their bodies- were gone, missing?

He came across a large room full of small animal cages, smashed open and empty. Some cages were spotted with blood. What became of the animals? Did they escape, or did they get taken? Or, maybe... eaten. If eaten, did that mean then- that the mangled technicians also got attacked by an animal? And was that why half of the staff seemed to be missing? Were the missing ones already eaten? Hard to believe one animal could do so much damage.

Somehow the power must have failed or been shut off, and so the staff couldn't even send a distress call. Because most of the long-distance communications ability at the lab was restricted to authorized methods and authorized personnel only, to protect the R and D secrets, casual communication devices were not allowed. Nor would most devices work in this spot. But with the power knocked off, the lab people had no way to call for help from their communications department.

Sec. Ldr. Clyden tried calling Dr. Kitchen's comm-cell again, to see if he could locate her by following its ring. Nope. No ring to hear. Maybe she had it on vibrate or something. After all, she would not want the contraband phone ringing during the middle of a big experiment in the main lab. He decided to check out the building's power room, see if he could get the lights back up. Being able to see would aid immensely in understanding this mystery.

Now where was the electrical supply utility room?

He found many strange prototypes and experiments in this big building as he trudged towards the back. Most of the doors were open, probably due to whatever it was, that cut the electricity, activating the emergency power. This activation also unlocked all the doors so nobody would be trapped in a room. Maybe even the front entrance to the building was not locked- if its lock was electronic.

But where was the electrical room? And Dr. Kitchen? And, most important, his specially requested items?

The electrical supply room was at the back of the building, of course, as Clyden figured, but he had to find which corner at the back of the building. When he finally located it, he continued to keep his blaster at the ready. As he entered, he heard some sparking and saw some flashes brightening the poor lighting. And some kind of a large box housing some electrical equipment- a transformer? No, Clyden guessed it to be a distribution box. It had been knocked off its base and lay on its side. Whatever it was, it was all dented. Some cables still ran from it to other boxes or down into the floor. Atop the box rested a burned body smelling of ozone. Why was that body there? Whatever the reason, that's what had happened to the R and D Lab’s electrical power. No doubt the fuel-ore powered generator shut down from this massive short circuit, and the emergency power took over.

A moan from somewhere closeby drew his attention. He found somebody else here besides the body on the smashed box. This person was lying in a pool of blood, groaning, sounding barely alive. At least there was one survivor who could maybe live long enough to tell him what had happened. He came to give first aid and saw it was none other than Kitchen!

"Dr. Kitchen! What happened here? You're the only one left alive!"

He set his blaster aside and felt her pulse. Scratches and bites covered her. Large bites ripped open places that should not be open, exposing important organs. A goner, for sure. Maybe he could at least make her comfortable, and find out how this came about, and also where were his specially requested items.

Delirious, she muttered, "No, stop- Don't do that, you'll make him mad!"

"Who, Dr. Kitchen, who?" asked Clyden.

"Agh! Now you did it! See how wild he is-”

“Who, tell me who did this? Dr. Kitchen, it's me, Security Leader Clyden. Do you hear me? It's Clyden!"

She stifled a cry of pain, and struggled to think about what she heard. "Clyden? It's you? It- it is you! Hard to see in this dark, but I recognize your voice... Then that really was you who had called me... I seem to remember you calling me..."

Clyden noted she still held the scrambled comm-cell he had given her and which she had weakly answered before, asking for help.

“Yes, it's me. Everybody else is dead or missing. What happened to them? And what happened to my stuff you were making for me?"

"Feh!" she wheezed out. "Your stuff- that's what was a catalyst for this awful thing that happened. I could hear them yelling and screaming, and trying to stop him, but I was half-dead, and so could do nothing for them. But don't worry, your precious things are still safe, over there in that case."

He easily found the valise case lying on the floor, not too far from where lay Dr. Kitchen. It was closed, but he opened it and peeked inside. "Good. It's here, and I presume the small bottle inside contains the pills,” he called to her.

"Yes, you are correct." She hacked out some blood.

"Okay. I hope I won't need the pills." Clyden closed the case. "Dr. Kitchen, can you tell me what happened?" He tried to clean off blood which had squirted onto the case by rubbing it off with his jacket sleeve.

"It was Fuzzy. Fuzzy! Can you believe it? I treated him so well, and he was usually so loving! My poor Fuzzy- What have you done?”

“What exactly did he do?"

"I waited in this room here for your call. I knew you would be coming in maybe an hour. I knew you would be crazy enough to fly in this worsening blizzard. The director must have been curious about me, guessing I was working on some secret project. I thought I kept it hidden, but he must have spied on me. Hee hee, so I am not the only one who spies! I should have expected something like that at a high-security research facility. He followed me to see what it was that I could possibly want in here. He saw the valise. I told him it was a top secret security item, ordered by the Governor through you, but on a hush-hush basis. He wasn't buying it, that you wouldn't go contact him to get the work done. He insisted I give it to him, to see what it was. He wouldn't even know what it was, had I shown him. But I declined, and he threatened to call the Governor over the matter. We got into a scuffle over your case. I warned him not to fight over the case with me, what with Fuzzy right here keeping me company. He didn't listen, and next thing you know, he's fighting Fuzzy, because my pet wanted to protect me. I had tried to stop Fuzzy, so that no one could blame Fuzzy and say he is a menace. Yes, I tried to hold back my dear pet. Confused that I would seemingly attack him, he also got me pretty good.- Yes, I know I'm all torn and dying.- So now the Director tried to pull my pet off me, and Fuzzy knocked him into that electrical box. That caused a major short that knocked off our fuel-ore generator. The shock killed the director, as you can see, and jolted Fuzzy into a frenzy of fright and self-preservation. Like I said, I could hear the screams...”

“Fuzzy did all this?! But I didn't see him anywhere. And what did he do with half the staff?"

She sighed. "My guess is, some instinct prompts him to take his kill to some place to hide it from competition, for storage for later. He has a terrible appetite these days."

"You don't say-"

She suddenly gasped, making a huge effort to pull out her own small personal screen device. She weakly held it out to Clyden, while he meanwhile peered inside the valise at his desired things. She asked, "Could... could you please help me... decrypt this? It- it shouldn't be lost. My life. My life is in this thing here, my personal screen device. My life story. My legacy. So... so that I am remembered, and so that people know that my life mattered."

Clyden shrugged. He leaned over and took it. "Okay. You never struck me the kind to care about what anyone else thinks about you, Dr. Kitchen."

"I- I don't. I want them all to see and remember why I... was so much smarter, better than the rest... And h-how the cosmos... lost a great genius... Ha ha, wheeze, look- My screen’s still going!... Musta instinctively left it on for a record, after Fuzzy did all this..."

She weakly gave the directions to Clyden, and he keyed in the long, complicated alpha-numerical sequence of to put the screen into an unencrypted mode. Then, she stopped and gasped.

"Uh oh-" She stared at the room entrance in fright. "He's back!"

Clyden looked to see what was the matter. There, in the doorway, stood Fuzzy, bigger than he had been during their last meeting, now about the size of a St. Bernard, and very ugly-looking, as always. Splotches of blood soiled his muzzle. Panting, drooling, the hybrid exhibited a set of very sharp teeth. Fuzzy stared at the two of them.

"So, you came to finish your job, and to get another victim as well, eh," snarled Sec. Ldr. Clyden. He quickly scanned the floor in the dark room, trying to find where he had set his blaster- How stupid! He had set it over by Kitchen, and he was here holding the case and her personal screen device. He was weaponless! The blaster was way too far out of his reach. And there was no other way out this room; Fuzzy blocked the only escape.

(c) drk 2012