When Zoners get nasty...

[Sombs]

Once more the room was only illuminated by two light sources. One was brighter than the other. The blue-cyan lava lamp. The wax was in constant movement, all day long, wobbling up and down, illuminating Kyu's private quarter even when he was sleeping. Right in this moment, however, he didn't sleep anymore. His PDA beeped, notifying him about an incoming transmission. It was a transmission from Fleet Marshal Meallan Dagon, the R&D leader of the Hellfire Legion. Two days ago, OSI was contracted by him to move a certain cargo from Cambridge to Ames. Everything went well, but this was the opportunity Kyu was looking for. Lead R&D. Exactly the person he was looking for. Destiny played into his hands this time. So he dared it. Kyu asked the Fleet Marshal to validate the data.

The second light source was the PDA Kyu held in his hand, as he sat at the edge of the bed, looking down at it, reading the message. Adrenalin was rushing through his torso. His hand was twitching with the realization of him having the plans, and the means, to construct a weapon of mass destruction. With a slow movement he raised his other hand to his mouth, covering it in a mix of overwhelmed revelation and deep thought. And to prevent the twitching.

In an attempt to calm down, Kyu took a deep breath through the nose. His eyes still felt tired from sleeping, but this would not allow him to sleep again for a while. Instead, he put the PDA to the side for a moment to stand up, moving towards the bathroom. The point of no return wasn't reached yet. Everything was alright so far. The Nichols Upgrade Project was making progress, with Planetform already having arrived at Nichols and IRG being about to do the same. Paul Mendes was still negotiating with Ageira, while Kishiro and Synth Foods didn't reply so far. All he could be blamed for was using an OSI neural net access console to search for that stuff, although he knew how and when they would get checked and how to avoid getting traced. At least from the OSI-side. And then there was Meallan Dagon, who knew OSI, or at least Kyu, was now in the possession of the data. Hopefully he wouldn't keep an eye on him.

Some water to his face would help him, he thought, so he went to the sink to wetten his face. One or two splashes. Looking in the mirror after it, he saw the water dropping from his skin, just barely visible as the only light source now was the cyan light of the lava lamp.

"Time to talk to a few people."