Renegade: 86-0501 (Part 5)
Blugh. Come on muse, get cracking!
Total wordcount: 9060
Kae walked into the Founders’ common area, a lounge-like place with a few armchairs, a kitchen, and four computers grouped in a square block formation, with the computer screens facing outward and nearly touching each other, so the four visionaries could sit as a group and brainstorm. It was a place where they could go to relax for a few minutes when needed, and was often where they spent most of their time together. Their schedules didn’t allow them to be able to go out as a group and have fun. Any time they had to socialize was spent in this room, in which they were safe from most distractions and interruptions. The staff had strict instructions to not bother the Founders when they were in this room except in the case of an emergency.
Jennifer was seated on one of the armchairs, facing an artificial fireplace in one of the walls. Her back was turned to Kae, but she had obviously heard the small beep of the door chime announcing another’s entry. The strawberry blonde woman glanced over her shoulder to see who had come in, and when she saw it was Kae a light smile crossed her lips before she turned back forward. In the brief moment in which Kae could see Jen’s face, it was clear that the Third Founder was very worried about something.
“What’s wrong?” Kae asked, stepping forward to place a hand on Jen’s shoulder. As she came closer she could see that the woman was holding an old wrinkled photograph in her hands. The small piece of paper was worn and cracked, and Kae could barely make out the image imprinted on it. But she didn’t have to ask what the photo was of- she already knew the answer.
“I think we should move them,” Jen said, her voice unsteady. “The database intrusion rumors are too specific for me to be able to sleep knowing that they may be in danger.”
“The reports aren’t confirmed that anyone got into our database. Some say it was just a glitch.”
“But what if it wasn’t, Kae?” Jennifer shook her head and rose to her feet, spinning to face her brown-haired friend. “What if some hacker knows about them… and wants to take them as blackmail… or worse? I can’t live with that worry hanging over my head. I want them moved.”
Kae watched her friend for a moment before moving forward and putting an arm around Jen, hugging her supportively and nodding. “Wouldn’t hurt. They’re due for a relocation anyway.” She gave Jen a warm smile and another quick squeeze before releasing her. “I’ll let the guys know, and we’ll get on it asap. Okay?”
Jen nodded. “Alright.” She managed a weak smile. “Thanks Kae.”
“Hey, what are friends for? And besides, they deserve protecting. If anything happens to them, we could be in deep trouble- but you know that very well, I’m sure.”
“Where do you think you’ll move them?”
“Not sure. Nekoo is the safest place for them in the galaxy, but if necessary we can send them to Ni’ija. The labyrinths would be ideal hiding places in case of emergencies.”
Jennifer nodded. “Good idea. I wouldn’t be comfortable with sending them anywhere else.” She smiled again at Kae. “You’re a good friend.”
Kae just smiled and went over to the kitchen area. “I was just coming in here to heat up some tea. Would you like some?”
“No, but thank you.”
“No problem, hon.”
“What do we know about Matt so far? Anything new?” Jennifer settled back down in the armchair and spun in her seat so she could watch Kae move about the kitchen. The other woman shrugged a bit.
“Not a lot. We assigned a few techs to unwrapping the extremely secure iron tank that is Matt’s personal files, but so far all they’ve extracted was a couple of journal entries from several years ago, before he had put all the safeguards in place. Looks like he overlooked them when transferring all his files into the vault.”
“What were the entries about?”
“Well it seemed at that point in time he was upset at us for some reason or another, but you know Matt. That wasn’t real unusual. He always has some sort of burr up his butt about something.” She smiled wryly. “No surprise that it was us he was mad at. We always seem to get on his nerves at least once every day.” Jennifer chuckled and agreed. “But what interested most about the journal was that it seemed Matt had discovered a way to be able to shift to more than one or two specific bodies.”
“He figured out how to shapeshift?”
“Well, not fully. But it seemed he had figured out how to change coat colors, at least.”
“Wow. So he does possess some creative genius after all.” Jenn commented dryly. Kae looked back at her in surprise. That was perhaps the most scathing remark she’d ever heard from the normally kind-spirited woman.
“That was mean, coming from you.”
“It was, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said it.” Jennifer covered her mouth with the palm of her hand while Kae grinned.
“It doesn’t bother me. You know I’ve heard and said worse. But I won’t mention it to the guys if you don’t want them to know that you can say mean things after all.”
Jennifer suddenly looked horrified, and her eyes widened as she removed her palm from her mouth and spoke. “I’m a horrible person! I’ve talked bad about Matthew behind his back! And now you’re offering to lie for me? How much lower can I get?”
Kae laughed. “Calm down, Angel. If what you said makes you horrible, then that makes Jesus himself a demon.”
“What?” Jennifer gasped, not sure she’d heard Kae correctly.
“He called the Pharisees a bunch of whitewashed tombs*. Look it up.” The brown-haired woman grinned. “And he also called them a bunch of snakes.** So babe, you ain’t got nothing to worry about. Those awesome Bible guys said what they thought too.” Jennifer didn’t look entirely convinced, but she was perhaps on the road to getting there. Kae decided to let her form her own opinion of the matter and continued on with making her tea. “In any event, I think we can attribute a good portion of Anyana’s assets- maybe the smaller ones, but assets nonetheless- to Matt’s mind. He may not have been the scholar among us, but he did have some good ideas to implement.” Jennifer was nodding.
“Yes… he brainstormed most of our designs for Force weapons. And even gave us most of the ideas for some of the more unsavory species we created.” She smiled darkly. “He had a strange mind, Matthew did. But, he had a good heart.” Jennifer could remember when, back on earth, he had brought a cardboard box to her back door in the middle of a stormy night. She’d answered his knock, dressed in her pajamas and a terrycloth robe, with her sleep-mask pushed up on her forehead and her hair left hanging down in unkempt strands. She was expecting an emergency. But instead she found a drenched man with a box of squeaking and wriggling infants. Jennifer had let him in, exasperated, and expecting to find a litter of kittens in that box. But what did she find instead when she lifted the lid?
They couldn’t have been older than 14 or 15. It had been a bad storm- power was out in several places in town, and even a tornado had touched down in the next county to the north. Matthew had been… well, where he had been Jennifer didn’t know. What she did know was that she was up late studying for finals, and someone came knocking on her door. Before her mom could be woken- her parents were divorced- she rushed to the door, ready to deal with either a neighbor’s emergency or kids playing a prank. But what she found was her friend Matt, drenched to the skin and shivering. The wind was howling and kicking up the many fallen leaves caused by the storm, and somewhere in the neighborhood a dog began to howl.
“Hi Jen.”
“Matthew Yesdnil, what are you DOING here, it’s the middle of the night!”
“Just thought I’d stop by.”
“Holy smokes! You’re drenched! And muddy! And…” her eyes fell to the soggy cube of cardboard he held tightly to. She hadn’t noticed it before. “What’s in the box?”
“I found them in the alley. I think their mother was killed.” Now Jennifer could hear faint squeaks coming from the parcel. The box shifted slightly as if something inside had suddenly moved. She gasped and flung the door open wider to allow him room to enter.
“Kittens?” she asked as he sloshed his way inside. His shoes left little puddles behind him with every step “Take them to the back porch, they’ll be able to stay there until I can get someone to place them in new homes.”
“Ah… no…. not quite kittens.” He grimaced as he made his way to her back porch, tramping over her mother’s white living room carpet with his wet and muddied shoes. It wasn’t the mess he was grimacing at, it was the ever-present smell of flowers in Jennifer’s house which he didn’t like. It was much too flowery for him. It made him feel less and less manly with every moment he spent inside.
“Puppies?”
“Not exactly.” He shouldered open the door to the back porch and set the box on a clear patch of ground while Jennifer relocated a few non-kitten-friendly items laying around to more secure locations. Didn’t need those fragile balls of fluff getting into harmful chemicals or mousetraps after all.
Matt opened the box when her back was turned to him, and lifted one of the fragile balls of fluff in the air. He waited until she had turned to face him before thrusting the fluffball into her face to scare her. And scare her it did- she let out a shriek that woke up every dog on the block. Matthew had just shoved a squeaking, wriggling baby opossum into her face, and it had chosen that particular time to look right at her and give its best snarl.
Immediately following her outburst Jennifer clapped both hands over her mouth and glared at the boy, who was grinning fiendishly. “Their mama was hit on the road, and she was carryin’ these little ones in her pouch. There’s nine of them. I couldn’t just leave them there.”
To this day Jennifer acutely remembered the look of incredulity she had given Matthew that night. But she had agreed to contact a wildlife rehabilitation center the next day for advice. She had ended up turning the baby opossums over to the professionals to raise, but the memory of that night had always lodged itself in her mind. Whenever Matt was being a jerk, she could always call up that night in her mind for proof that deep down he had a good heart and a soft spot for normally undesirable critters. Perhaps that was why in their years on Anyana nearly all of his submitted designs for new species looked remarkably like opossums.
* Matthew 23:27
** Matthew 23:33
Total wordcount: 9060
Kae walked into the Founders’ common area, a lounge-like place with a few armchairs, a kitchen, and four computers grouped in a square block formation, with the computer screens facing outward and nearly touching each other, so the four visionaries could sit as a group and brainstorm. It was a place where they could go to relax for a few minutes when needed, and was often where they spent most of their time together. Their schedules didn’t allow them to be able to go out as a group and have fun. Any time they had to socialize was spent in this room, in which they were safe from most distractions and interruptions. The staff had strict instructions to not bother the Founders when they were in this room except in the case of an emergency.
Jennifer was seated on one of the armchairs, facing an artificial fireplace in one of the walls. Her back was turned to Kae, but she had obviously heard the small beep of the door chime announcing another’s entry. The strawberry blonde woman glanced over her shoulder to see who had come in, and when she saw it was Kae a light smile crossed her lips before she turned back forward. In the brief moment in which Kae could see Jen’s face, it was clear that the Third Founder was very worried about something.
“What’s wrong?” Kae asked, stepping forward to place a hand on Jen’s shoulder. As she came closer she could see that the woman was holding an old wrinkled photograph in her hands. The small piece of paper was worn and cracked, and Kae could barely make out the image imprinted on it. But she didn’t have to ask what the photo was of- she already knew the answer.
“I think we should move them,” Jen said, her voice unsteady. “The database intrusion rumors are too specific for me to be able to sleep knowing that they may be in danger.”
“The reports aren’t confirmed that anyone got into our database. Some say it was just a glitch.”
“But what if it wasn’t, Kae?” Jennifer shook her head and rose to her feet, spinning to face her brown-haired friend. “What if some hacker knows about them… and wants to take them as blackmail… or worse? I can’t live with that worry hanging over my head. I want them moved.”
Kae watched her friend for a moment before moving forward and putting an arm around Jen, hugging her supportively and nodding. “Wouldn’t hurt. They’re due for a relocation anyway.” She gave Jen a warm smile and another quick squeeze before releasing her. “I’ll let the guys know, and we’ll get on it asap. Okay?”
Jen nodded. “Alright.” She managed a weak smile. “Thanks Kae.”
“Hey, what are friends for? And besides, they deserve protecting. If anything happens to them, we could be in deep trouble- but you know that very well, I’m sure.”
“Where do you think you’ll move them?”
“Not sure. Nekoo is the safest place for them in the galaxy, but if necessary we can send them to Ni’ija. The labyrinths would be ideal hiding places in case of emergencies.”
Jennifer nodded. “Good idea. I wouldn’t be comfortable with sending them anywhere else.” She smiled again at Kae. “You’re a good friend.”
Kae just smiled and went over to the kitchen area. “I was just coming in here to heat up some tea. Would you like some?”
“No, but thank you.”
“No problem, hon.”
“What do we know about Matt so far? Anything new?” Jennifer settled back down in the armchair and spun in her seat so she could watch Kae move about the kitchen. The other woman shrugged a bit.
“Not a lot. We assigned a few techs to unwrapping the extremely secure iron tank that is Matt’s personal files, but so far all they’ve extracted was a couple of journal entries from several years ago, before he had put all the safeguards in place. Looks like he overlooked them when transferring all his files into the vault.”
“What were the entries about?”
“Well it seemed at that point in time he was upset at us for some reason or another, but you know Matt. That wasn’t real unusual. He always has some sort of burr up his butt about something.” She smiled wryly. “No surprise that it was us he was mad at. We always seem to get on his nerves at least once every day.” Jennifer chuckled and agreed. “But what interested most about the journal was that it seemed Matt had discovered a way to be able to shift to more than one or two specific bodies.”
“He figured out how to shapeshift?”
“Well, not fully. But it seemed he had figured out how to change coat colors, at least.”
“Wow. So he does possess some creative genius after all.” Jenn commented dryly. Kae looked back at her in surprise. That was perhaps the most scathing remark she’d ever heard from the normally kind-spirited woman.
“That was mean, coming from you.”
“It was, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said it.” Jennifer covered her mouth with the palm of her hand while Kae grinned.
“It doesn’t bother me. You know I’ve heard and said worse. But I won’t mention it to the guys if you don’t want them to know that you can say mean things after all.”
Jennifer suddenly looked horrified, and her eyes widened as she removed her palm from her mouth and spoke. “I’m a horrible person! I’ve talked bad about Matthew behind his back! And now you’re offering to lie for me? How much lower can I get?”
Kae laughed. “Calm down, Angel. If what you said makes you horrible, then that makes Jesus himself a demon.”
“What?” Jennifer gasped, not sure she’d heard Kae correctly.
“He called the Pharisees a bunch of whitewashed tombs*. Look it up.” The brown-haired woman grinned. “And he also called them a bunch of snakes.** So babe, you ain’t got nothing to worry about. Those awesome Bible guys said what they thought too.” Jennifer didn’t look entirely convinced, but she was perhaps on the road to getting there. Kae decided to let her form her own opinion of the matter and continued on with making her tea. “In any event, I think we can attribute a good portion of Anyana’s assets- maybe the smaller ones, but assets nonetheless- to Matt’s mind. He may not have been the scholar among us, but he did have some good ideas to implement.” Jennifer was nodding.
“Yes… he brainstormed most of our designs for Force weapons. And even gave us most of the ideas for some of the more unsavory species we created.” She smiled darkly. “He had a strange mind, Matthew did. But, he had a good heart.” Jennifer could remember when, back on earth, he had brought a cardboard box to her back door in the middle of a stormy night. She’d answered his knock, dressed in her pajamas and a terrycloth robe, with her sleep-mask pushed up on her forehead and her hair left hanging down in unkempt strands. She was expecting an emergency. But instead she found a drenched man with a box of squeaking and wriggling infants. Jennifer had let him in, exasperated, and expecting to find a litter of kittens in that box. But what did she find instead when she lifted the lid?
They couldn’t have been older than 14 or 15. It had been a bad storm- power was out in several places in town, and even a tornado had touched down in the next county to the north. Matthew had been… well, where he had been Jennifer didn’t know. What she did know was that she was up late studying for finals, and someone came knocking on her door. Before her mom could be woken- her parents were divorced- she rushed to the door, ready to deal with either a neighbor’s emergency or kids playing a prank. But what she found was her friend Matt, drenched to the skin and shivering. The wind was howling and kicking up the many fallen leaves caused by the storm, and somewhere in the neighborhood a dog began to howl.
“Hi Jen.”
“Matthew Yesdnil, what are you DOING here, it’s the middle of the night!”
“Just thought I’d stop by.”
“Holy smokes! You’re drenched! And muddy! And…” her eyes fell to the soggy cube of cardboard he held tightly to. She hadn’t noticed it before. “What’s in the box?”
“I found them in the alley. I think their mother was killed.” Now Jennifer could hear faint squeaks coming from the parcel. The box shifted slightly as if something inside had suddenly moved. She gasped and flung the door open wider to allow him room to enter.
“Kittens?” she asked as he sloshed his way inside. His shoes left little puddles behind him with every step “Take them to the back porch, they’ll be able to stay there until I can get someone to place them in new homes.”
“Ah… no…. not quite kittens.” He grimaced as he made his way to her back porch, tramping over her mother’s white living room carpet with his wet and muddied shoes. It wasn’t the mess he was grimacing at, it was the ever-present smell of flowers in Jennifer’s house which he didn’t like. It was much too flowery for him. It made him feel less and less manly with every moment he spent inside.
“Puppies?”
“Not exactly.” He shouldered open the door to the back porch and set the box on a clear patch of ground while Jennifer relocated a few non-kitten-friendly items laying around to more secure locations. Didn’t need those fragile balls of fluff getting into harmful chemicals or mousetraps after all.
Matt opened the box when her back was turned to him, and lifted one of the fragile balls of fluff in the air. He waited until she had turned to face him before thrusting the fluffball into her face to scare her. And scare her it did- she let out a shriek that woke up every dog on the block. Matthew had just shoved a squeaking, wriggling baby opossum into her face, and it had chosen that particular time to look right at her and give its best snarl.
Immediately following her outburst Jennifer clapped both hands over her mouth and glared at the boy, who was grinning fiendishly. “Their mama was hit on the road, and she was carryin’ these little ones in her pouch. There’s nine of them. I couldn’t just leave them there.”
To this day Jennifer acutely remembered the look of incredulity she had given Matthew that night. But she had agreed to contact a wildlife rehabilitation center the next day for advice. She had ended up turning the baby opossums over to the professionals to raise, but the memory of that night had always lodged itself in her mind. Whenever Matt was being a jerk, she could always call up that night in her mind for proof that deep down he had a good heart and a soft spot for normally undesirable critters. Perhaps that was why in their years on Anyana nearly all of his submitted designs for new species looked remarkably like opossums.
* Matthew 23:27
** Matthew 23:33