00076

Dr. Kitchen's hand trembled as she reached out for the blaster lying near her body. Security Leader Clyden stared at the creature that was the size of a mean St. Bernard.

“Fuzzy must have been eating quite a bit since that last time I saw him,” Sec. Ldr. Clyden said the the mortally wounded old woman.

She rasped out, “Those accelerants that make our crops grow faster on the World of Hope... I used them when I made Fuzzy... to keep him from dying ahead of time... before his diverse DNA rejected itself... They contaminate the whole planet... since tge crash of the Peace Lab... The accelerants are organic... they themselves grow, spread... one day will be a problem to those living here... they will be a crisis...”

“Is that so,” said Clyden. “Right now, I’m more worried about your dear pet, not so much about some crisis far down the road.” He watched Fuzzy, waiting to see if the beast lunged at him.

Fuzzy stared back at the Security Leader, peering into the electrical power maintenance station room from the doorway.

The dying elderly scientist weakly strained to stretch just a bit more, until finally her fingers touched the blaster and she took it up, aiming it half-heartedly at her deadly pet. Her hand shook so much and she lost so much blood, she could hardly hold the blaster. She had a hard time breathing, but she hissed out, "Bad Fuzzy! Bad! Go! Scat! Bad Fuzzy! Shoo!"

Sec. Ldr. Clyden shook his head in disgust, about to tell her to toss him the blaster if she couldn't force herself to shoot her evil pet. To his amazement, Fuzzy first tilted his big head, watching her curiously, and when she scolded him some more, he hung his head, looking a bit ashamed, and, as though his feelings were hurt, Fuzzy backed up from the doorway, turned, and slipped away back down the hall, leaving them.

Instinctively, Clyden threw the doctor's personal screen device, which he had still been holding, at the retreating cat-thing, as if hitting the lion/dog creature with it would have made a difference. Yeah, maybe it would make it angry again, and then it would jump on Sec. Ldr. Clyden and tear him to pieces like it did to the rest of the people here, if he were not able to get his blaster in time from Dr. Kitchen. Good thing the hybrid moved so fast- Clyden missed, and the screen hit the doorway and fell safely to the floor, and thereby not upsetting Fuzzy from striking him.

Clyden lunged across the floor and grabbed his weapon from the fading doctor's grasp. As he leaped out the room after the creature, Dr. Kitchen called to him in a faltering voice, "...careful..."

Sec. Ldr. Clyden raced after Fuzzy, struggling to keep up with the quick strange animal, and he saw Fuzzy was already far down the corridor. Fuzzy kept ahead of him without even trying, always just out of decent blaster range. Still, Clyden figured he knew where the ugly thing headed- toward the main lab, where most of the bodies lay, and where the big broken window provided easy escape.

The Security Leader reached the main lab and barged in, expecting to find Fuzzy eating or playing with a dead tech, making the hybrid an easy target. However, Fuzzy was already gone- and so was another body. Clyden caught a glimpse of some tech's legs going out the broken picture window as his killer dragged him off outside.

Clyden hurried to the window in order to blast at Fuzzy, who was sure to be bogged down from carrying the tech, but Fuzz was not there, having already vanished- with his prize- into the swirling flakes.

Keeping alert and with his blaster at the ready, Sec. Ldr. Clyden returned to where he had left Kitchen and the valise case. She didn't ask if he had gotten Fuzzy. "He's very fast." She gasped some, and then added, "The cold from outside calms him down. His thick fur makes him take to the cold like a polar bear. The heat must bring out his bad side."

Sec. Ldr. Clyden thought on the state of the research center, in shambles, and of all the dead workers. "Huh, I guess it must have been mighty warm in here then for Fuzzy."

"Yes, but when he got that terrible shock which killed the Director, that was what made him go crazy for a short time... brought out his wild side, unfortunately... Poor Fuzzy, out in the wilderness by himself. The others thought my pet got too antsy lately, even aggressive. Certainly his appetite was endless... A few even wanted theDirector to lock him up or put him down... I didn't let them do that to my Fuzzy..."

Sec. Ldr. Clyden picked up the case containing what she had made for him. "I hope Fuzzy didn't damage my stuff, at least."

"I think it should be fine... Remember, don't touch the active side of the pad... as you wear it on your palm... Just a touch... it to the skin... should do the trick..."

Clyden nodded his approval. "Good. Is there anything I can get for you, before you.. you know."

"Before I go off into eternity? No, I doubt that there is anything you can get me now... I can feel myself slipping from this world... Be sure to preserve my screen device, so others will know just how much better I was than most of them...” She sighed. She seemed to be having a harder time to breathe, and her breaths seemed more shallow. "I wish I had a blanket... Very cold... Strange... Now I’m starting to warm up... much more than I want... Look how Fuzzy left me alive. He always loved me... He didn't mean to kill me."

"Yeah? And you find that a comforting thought, in your predicament?"

"Actually, I do..." Her voice trailed off and her eyes glazed over.

Clyden raised his eyebrows in bewilderment. "How can anyone so smart be so dumb? Too bad for you and your R and D team, Dr. Kitchen. I better get going, before my aircar is buried under the falling snow. Besides, I have things to do. I guess I'll leave your body here for your precious Fuzzy, then, to take care of. So long, and good luck."

As he left the room, he paused and looked down at her screen device. A crack ran along the screen, and it was now blank. "Oops. Sorry about that, Kitchen. I think I broke your legacy when I tossed it at Fuzzy."

Sec. Ldr. Clyden kicked it aside and continued out to the hallway.

In the main lab again, Clyden cautiously scrutinized for any possible hiding spots concealing Fuzzy, in case he had come back and wanted to kill Clyden as well. He retained his blaster in his hand and shivered from the bitter wind whooshing through the busted window. Snow layered over the bodies that were left. Clyden surveyed the damages. Unbelievable.

Then he took out his Security Agency cell-comm unit and began to take videos of the carnage. "What a mess. I am recording a new legacy for you, Dr. Kitchen. I hope, if you can see me from wherever you are, you are happy about it. But I doubt it..."

Then Clyden decided he better return Agent Samm's call before he got back in the air, in case it was important (which was doubtful). The Security Agency comm units, unlike the civilian brands, worked surprisingly well on this world. Satellites above helped with that.

"Yeah, these dumb robots on outpost duty drive me nuts, Agent Samm- Oh, don't worry about the noise. The wind just picked up a bit out here at the border of Sparkle City. You know how sometimes a wind storm comes out of nowhere here in the wilds. So, what did you want that you called me?"

Agent Samm briefed him on the problem of No. 317, and how the Punk had thought the miner looked like George McCleer, and so the Punk had insisted they not toss him to the Eaters until Gov. Bright found out the truth. So the Governor said not to toss No. 317 to the Eaters, because the Punk's suspicions surely could not be correct, but just in case... and the Governor also said he would have the matter looked into, Agent Samm relayed.

"Oh, really? Agent Martin thought it was McCleer? It's good Gov. Xavier is looking into it, then. eh?" When Sec. Ldr. Clyden terminated the call, he chuckled. "Well, that's certainly interesting. And so is this lab. I wonder what kinds of new weapon prototypes are here? I bet half of it I don't even hear about, and I'm the Head of Security. The ones I do hear about are neat enough! I'll be back to look at the toys, you can count on that. In the meantime, I don't want the new weapons to fall into the wrong hands..." In other words, he did not want the Governor to have access to them, no matter how Sec. Ldr. Clyden's plan went, good or bad.

Clyden kept his eyes open as he went back out into the snow, trekking across the blizzard. When he reached his aircar, he had to brush the deepening snow from the hatch, just so he could open it. He carefully placed his valise case under the seat and lifted the craft into the air, hating to fly in this extreme weather. But instead of gladly flying back to Sparkle City, he took a detour, even more northerly, and into even worse weather. The blinding blizzard made it so hard to see outside the windshield past the snow, one could fly almost directly over Clyden's new destination and not even know it... Ah, there it was. Good ol' GPS to help find it, despite the snow trying to block the signal- those satellites worked great!

Clyden landed down by the local environment generator. The structure resembled a miniature nuclear power plant, what with its huge exhausts atop it- just like those other Enviro-Gens in various places around the perimeter of Sparkle City.

Grunting at the anticipation of the awful cold he would again have to endure, he forced himself out of the skycar and back into the sub-zero temps. His frozen fist hurt rapping on the door of the Enviro-Gen, but at least the lone technician operating this place opened to him in only moments, so he didn’t have to wait too long.

"Ah, finally, somebody's come to help fix this infernal Enviro-Gen! Oh, excuse me, it's you, Security Leader Clyden.”

The Security Leader pushed his way inside. “Okay, enough small talk. Shut the door behind me so we don't die of pneumonia in here."

The technician eagerly obliged. He had no desire to annoy the big cheeses any more than he had already. He had been here for a long time, since the time that Earth representative had stopped by the plant outside of Sparkle City where he had worked, and the technician had spoken too freely to Mr McCleer without proper authorization, and almost showed the representative the books- without first getting permission. The Governor at first scolded him, but then later he had the tech transferred here, to run this place all by himself.

"I called for some help,” said the technician. “It's too big a job to be run by one man. The robots are not very good, and wearing out fast. And one Enviro-Gen wont keep this climate from being inhospitable, anyway And the generator needs some fixing. I am doing my best to keep this place from looking like the South Pole on Earth, but this equipment is dying. I wonder how long it'll take for us to permanently alter this world's climate, so that we don't need these generators...”

“I saw the reports. Very well done. I suspected as well that the Enviro-Gen is too small for such a big job as this area. However, I'm about to make life a little easier for you."

The technician brightened. "Oh? I'm getting help? Or, better, I am being relieved?"

"Heheh, no, it's not that. But from now on, until further notice, you need not try to stop the weather from reverting back to its natural tundra conditions. In fact, I encourage you to help it along."

"What? Why?”

Clyden frowned. "Are you seriously questioning why the Governor wants it like he wants it? Isn't it already enough for you that you have been sent here?"

The technician paled. "No, no, I am not questioning the Governor. No problem, I can do it. But... but how will anyone ever be able to fetch me, then, when it is time for me to be brought back to the city, if the blizzard gets any worse?"

"How are you set for provisions?"

"I'm good for at least two months.”

“Good, good. And I am going to have to disable your communications and your remote access, for security reasons. Of course, don't worry. I will leave myself a back door into the program, in case I have to contact you."

"No communications-?? But, but what if I have an emergency here, if I have an accident or something?"

Sec. Ldr. Clyden replied, not very reassuringly, "Don't worry about that. If you do your job the way you're supposed to, then, like you said, nobody'll be able to get here to help you anyhow."

"Oh... But...”

Sec. Ldr. Clyden flashed him a big, friendly smile. "Okay, take care. I gotta go. Carry on.”

(c) drk 2012