Chapter 4-Allies Well, 5th quarter finally came around. Unfortunately, I have begun to hate the classes they assigned to me. It was the third week of the quarter and I sat in the student commons, thinking about the events that had befallen the ship, my crew, and of course, myself. Pat came up on the com, saying something about some strange error. I, of course took a look into the error, finidng out that it was actually caused by an unauthorized remote linkup to the ships main systems. Upon activating the firewall security of AVAH 2004, and running TraceRoute on the remote computer, I found that it was some sort of CIA server computer. "Those corrupted bastards," I thought aloud. "Why are they tring to screw over the ship again." "What corrupted bastards?" I heard a female voice pitch in. Upon looking at the source, I had noted it was another student at the school. She was also part of the Student Ambassadors Program of the school. "Ummm....Noone," I stammered out, trying to hide the truth. "Don't lie, I heard you say something about corrupted bastards," she countered. "And who are you to try to pry into my affairs?" "I'm Liza, and I was just being curious. Jeez." "Well, Liza, it's just that NFS is dealing with the corrupted US Government." "How so?" "Just tracking stuff, and trying to pry into federation affairs." "Get used to it, they track us all." Could I trust this female. My true attitude towards humans was becoming more evident. This human seemed to know about the levels of corruption of the people who did this to me. "How would you know?" I asked her. "Because my father worked for them. He made me promise to never become part of them." I was shocked. Almost speechless...could there actually be humans out there that cared? I felt that I could be able to trust her, but first I must consult my spirit guides regarding entrusing any human. During the next class period, I spent a few minutes in meditation, trying to get the guidance. They told me it would be wise to entrust that human, Liza. She may be a more helpful resource at a later time. I decided to abide by their guidance. During the next break, of which I was looking foward to, I met up with Liza one more time. I explained the problem the federation was having with the CIA. I then explained to her that I wanted to break into the Seattle underground labs, to rescue someone. That was when I explained where I believe the labs were located. "That makes sense," she replied. "There are many places the Seattle Underground Tours don't want us to go. They don't want us to find these top secret locations." "You've taken the tours?" "Several times. I know all the places to go, that they don't want us to go." "Then sometime we must go down there and find the lab." "I'll have to find the time, but I'll do it." "You will??" "Sure. Nothing like a little adventure." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "So you plot to come find us.." Jake said to the screens. "Well, then we will just have to be ready for your arrival." He then smashed a glass in his hand. The lab was pretty well setup already. Maybe just a few finishing touches and it would be ready for Drako's arrival. I hated this. They moved me to a small cage. They mentioned needing all of the tanks for those whose transformations have not completed. What really sucked was the psyblocks applied to my cage. I wouldn't dream of trying to get even with Jake, the madman, he would probably kill me for trying. Then of course they might kill him, or not. It's that unsureness that made me keep my distance. All we had to do now was wait. Wait for the command to bring him here. But what if he comes on his own, like what he is planning to do? "Jake," I heard Christopher speak. "He will not get the chance to come on his own. We most likely will be sent to retrieve him by then." "But we must still be prepared, just in case he does decide to come before we get him." "But, Jake, sir..." "Shut up!!" Jake interrupted, shoving Christopher to the other side of the room. "If he does get the chance, what will he do when he gets here? You think he's going to kindly walk up to us and expect us to take him? I DO NOT THINK SO!!!" I always hate it when that man yells, mostly because he later takes his anger out on me. The last time they upset him like that, he almost killed me. That, I will never forget. I know his power, and that is why I still fear him. I cowered in the cage, praying he would just calm down. Just so I don't hear about it later. I watched quietly as they attempted to calm Jake down. I almost even let out a small giggle when they not only offered, but they gave him a six pack of beer. Now why did they do that? I understood that somehow that stuff helped to calm that mans nerves, on the short run, but it didn't always help in the long run. A temporary fix for the permanent problem, the problem being Jake himself. Of course I would never tell him that. Jake sat in front the screens and opened a bottle. For the next five minutes, he did nothing but sit and drink. Silence that was soon cut short. He belched out a really loud "beer-belly burp," said a few terrible things to the screen, words of which I did not understand, then threw the bottle at the screens. He repeated this with the other five bottles, leaving the mess of shattered empty beer bottles. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------- I finally made it through the day and got back to the ship. With only about an hour before I had to goto my other job at Radio Shack, Stephen and myself sifted through some information, trying to figure out why they hacked in. The link up connected to the main systems, then the lab systems. This baffled me, and it made us all curious about the reasons behind their connecting. We had no luck, no clues or anything. "Why in the world...?" I questioned. "Sir, this is confusing." Stephen added. "~Captain, maybe this might help," Dat3 interjected. "I have found a great deal of information uploaded to my server. I also have a log of files that were downloaded to the remote system." We then looked at the logs. They took all of the lab information regarding Stephen, Stephanie, myself, and a few special "poitions" that I had created to be of assistance to us. I was begining to see what they were looking for, but why did they upload information to our computers? Dat3 then notioned that we at least look at the uploaded files. We had to agree. Upon reading the new information, Stephen and myself were in amazement. I may not have to wait too much longer for them to arrive. The files verified that I was extremly close to the point of which my own transformation would attempt to occur automatically. I knew they would want absolute control of the situation, so I would be in stasis during that time. It also stated that they aknowledged that I had knowledge of the experiment, and that they will have to apprehend me to ensure that I will keep quiet in regards to the experiment. A little late for that, I assume. Especially since I have been posting hints of that information, at least, in an online log. A BLOG that is viewable to the world. Not to mention that all of their lab information is already posted on the FIA (NFS Freedom of Information Act) Database. So anyone on a federation vessel or planet can eaisly access that information. So how in the world would they truly keep the information secret?