The Return of Dr. Sloth: Behind the Scenes - Part Two by silent_snow
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Sarlyi swiveled around in her chair, bored. With the window-computer broken, she couldn’t access the usual information that would be fed in, couldn’t analyze or run any tests. She would have left early, but Houston was a stickler for correct times. She had nothing to do but play games on her computer and occasionally annoy her boss.
Then, to her great surprise, a neomail popped up in the corner of her screen. She exited the game of Neverending Boss Battle she had been playing and opened the neomail. It was short, to the point, and from a username she didn’t recognize- the username ‘Eva Maztraminh’. Strange, to be sure.
Weather Station,
Send me a... more updated version of the weather report. It’s important for my scientific research.
Weird, she thought. No name attached.
“Houston!” she shouted. “What?” he grumbled back, not looking up from his paperwork. “If someone wants an updated version of the weather, do we give it to them?” “What kind of idiotic question is that?” he growled, glaring at her from behind stacks of paper. “It’s a hypothetical one!” Well, she reasoned with herself, it could be. She might just be curious about it for no reason at all. There was no reason to bring that strange neomail into it. “Whatever,” he grumbled, which she translated as ‘yes’. Well, if she- she’d call this ‘Eva’ a she, just because- wanted a different weather report, she could give her one! Licking her lips, she started up a new neomail. Sporadic ion storms in the morning, with heavy ionization aftereffects in the early afternoon. Watch for meteors. Once it was sent, she opened up a game of Sakhmet Solitaire that had recently been made for the Station’s computers. She had more time to waste, after all. ~~
Jania looked at her son’s closed door tiredly and ran a paw through her long, light blue mane. Jimmy was slacking off again, Carv, her husband, was working late at the shop, and some fool down at security had sent a strangely worded neomail to everyone who worked for the space station, probably as a joke. Yet she was supposed to pretend that everything was perfectly fine, and go back to her usual work right away? She turned back to her computer and started typing rapidly. She was composing a neomail to the Security head to ask about the strange message from earlier, and had to keep on the right borderline between being polite and urgently requesting information. She had finally gotten it just right, and was about to click ‘send’, when the emergency lights started flashing, and the dulled sounds of the alarm echoed in from the hallway. For a moment, Jania sat still, stunned. As a head programmer, she always received information about alert drills before they happened, and she had not had any news about a drill. Moreover, when she looked out of her window, which was over the docking bay, she saw ships which clearly had Dr. Sloth’s insignia on them. She ran to her son’s room and jerked open the door. Jimmy was on his bed, doing homework for once and listening to music, and looked up at her in a mixture of annoyance and hope. “Does this mean I’m not grounded anymore?” She turned off his music, saw him sit up in surprise at the sound of the alarm. “We’re under attack, Jimmy. I’m going to send a message to your father, and then we’re going to hide.” His mouth opened in shock, and he was clearly going to ask questions, but she had no time. She ran back to her computer and opened up a new neomail, addressing it to her husband. Out in the hallway, she could hear the harsh voices of soldiers issuing orders. Her fingers flew over the keyboard. Carv—don’t leave the shop, just hide in back if you can. Sloth’s minions have invaded the station, and they’ve taken over the main concourse. I have to go, they’re comi—
Someone was trying to open the door to their apartment. Jania hit ‘send’, then yanked the power cord out of the wall. The computer’s screen blinked off, and she turned around. Jimmy was holding his schoolbag, clearly confused and scared. “Jimmy, we’re going to use the emergency escape, now-”
There was a blast outside the door, and it burst open. A tall soldier walked in through the smoke, pointing his plasma gun at her. The place where the doorknob had been before was now a charred hole. “Jania Kyrii,” he growled clearly, “you’re coming with me. Our Commander has a special task for you.” There was clearly no option of compromising. Jania knew that Sloth would try to recruit the Space Station’s scientists and programmers to work for him, and that would be why he wanted to see her. She also knew that she’d never work for him, and he would not be happy with that decision. But still, as she walked submissively behind the guard, Jania smiled. Yes, she had been captured, but her son had managed to jump through the laundry chute before the soldier had seen him. Jimmy, at least, had a chance at freedom. ~~
Almost everything was going according to plan. Commander Garoo looked around the large bay with a sharp glare, which, for him, was equivalent to a smile. The civilians were almost all in his control, except for a foolish few who were still resisting. The Grundo Chef and his lackeys were still putting up an excellent fight against a squad of his soldiers, using their cafe as a base. Who could have guessed that they’d store the supplies for the Space Weaponry shop there? But, on the whole, the plan was progressing beautifully, and it was time to inform his master of that fact. He swept past his soldiers and sat down at one of the public terminals- demeaning, yes, but necessary. Dr. Sloth had demanded a permanent way of displaying their process, which radios would not accomplish. And he had to report what they had already accomplished. He opened up the neomail option and started to type.
My Lord,
We’ve begun moving the civilians to the transport shuttles as planned. The public decks are all secure although we’ve had some trouble finding our way around the maintenance levels; there could still be traitors hiding in the maze. Nonetheless, the shuttles should be ready to launch shortly, and then we won’t have to worry about the civilians any more.
-Commander Garoo
He sent the neomail, then gazed at the screen absently. Soon, he would have his own private office in this Space Station, his own computer, so there would be no need of debasing himself to the level of these public objects. This whole scheme would be worth it, once Dr. Sloth was in power again. And if there had been some small snags so far, what of it? Gargarox would be subdued eventually. The spy would be found out eventually. The entire Space Station would be secured eventually. It would all follow the plan’s general trend in time. He sharply glared at the civilians who dared look at him. They looked away in fear, not realizing that he was actually blessing them with a smile. ~~
“Gargarox!” Engel hissed. “Is this really the time to be checking your neomail?” Gargarox fired a bolt at one of the soldiers that had been particularly annoying him, and then grinned down at his orange Grundo assistant. “Absolutely.” He knew that the situation they were in was not good. The cafe was surrounded by soldiers; all of the soldiers were armed. He only had himself, his assistant, and three customers who had dived behind the counter when the soldiers came tramping in to fight back with. Of course, he also had a large stock of top-quality Space weapons. Their battle had been going on for at least fifteen minutes now, and the civilians that had already been captured stared at him with grateful eyes. That was why he was doing this- to give an example. He needed to show the others that, if they would just fight back, they’d have a chance at survival. Standing around like Babaas would get them nowhere. However, he was also a neomail addict. And he hadn’t checked his messages for a half hour now. So, in between firing bolts at soldiers and deflecting plasma rays with his various top-quality pots and pans, he was ducking down to his computer and replying to messages. With perfect grammar, of course. Someone had to get rid of that ridiculous notion that Grundos couldn’t think. And if he put off checking his neomail in order to fight the soldiers, well then, wouldn’t that be like telling the soldiers that he felt weak? But the latest neomail had him angry. “Spam,” he told Engel in between blocking attacks, “should be eaten, not sent to many Neopets on computers.” “Just delete it, sir,” Engel told him, firing a gun the size of his body at the soldiers. “No,” Gargarox said firmly, “someone has to teach these people a lesson. I will do the job.” With that, he ducked under the counter and started a new message. Dear unsolicited decorations supplier, Jumping back up, he blocked a ray aimed at Engel with his best Tyrannian-metal-made waffle iron. Then he went back down to his computer. We have no desire to wallpaper our café in Juppie silk. He grabbed a rainbow gun, shot off a rainbow ray that hit three soldiers at once. That pleased him- it was just like bowling.
Please do not approach us again with goods or services or we will vaporize you.
Sincerely,
He grinned wildly as a soldier daringly ran straight towards the café- wondered briefly how the pet had managed to get a sword- and deflected the blow with his spatula. While blocking the sword with the spatula in one hand, he concluded the neomail with the other.
Gargarox Isafuhlarg
Head Chef, Grundo’s Café
When he clicked ‘send’, it was with great relish- but not the edible type. His relish had already been squirted at the soldiers.
~~
Ell, one of the soldiers in the docking bay, looked at the terminal’s screen in surprise. A message was flashing in the bottom corner. AUTOMATED MAINTENANCE ALERT: Number of ships in docking bay exceeds long-term water and electrical external supply capacity. At least three (3) ships must depart within one hour or shortages may occur. THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE, DO NOT REPLY “Aw, great,” she muttered to herself. “I guess those hot showers the Commander promised just won’t be happening.”
To be continued...
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