Story: Under the Milky Way Tonight (chapter 12)

Authors: Allaine

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Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"Señor Senior Junior!" one of Gemini's agents barked, leaping to his feet.

"Oh, for goodness - everyone sit down," Junior snapped as he entered the control room. Obviously Gemini had everyone below him wound too tight.

While he was able to control everything that happened in the space station from his quarters, it was only in here that he could see as many as twenty-four different camera feeds at once. Just as importantly, contacting his detachment on the Earth's surface would be much more convenient from here. Since Kim Possible had been so rude as to defy him, he felt he was justified in ordering the execution of her family.

"Are you here to monitor the search for the missing prisoners?" a second agent said.

Junior peered at the symbols on the man's chest. "In due time, er, Agent Bi-Gamma. First I wish to raise the WEE agents watching the hostages at the Space Center. Who is in charge there?"

"That would be Agent Kappa, sir," Agent Bi-Gamma said.

"Very well. I have new orders for him. While you are doing this, one of the others can tell me how the search for the other two women who came with Ms. Possible."

The other three agents looked at each other dubiously.

"For heaven's sake, I'm not going to drop you through the floor if I don't like what I'm hearing," Junior said, exasperated. "I thought we established that!"

"Well, uh, sir," Agent Bi-Mu began hesitantly, "we can't find them. They've found some way of avoiding detection by our security cameras, and the search effort led by Gemini has failed to turn them up as well. Also, some of the cameras have begun going off-line. Guards report they've been damaged."

"I see," Junior said, frowning. "And Ms. Possible?"

"Both she and Shego have been engaged. We haven't succeeded in neutralizing them yet, however." Agent Bi-Mu brought up an image on the largest monitor in the center of the room. Junior saw both Kim and Shego outnumbered six-to-one in close quarters, yet they were clearly winning.

"Well, we appear to have them bottled up for now," Junior grumbled. "Perhaps if we send enough men in there, their unconscious bodies will block the door!"

"Sir?" Agent Bi-Gamma asked. "I'm getting a weird bounce-back signal from the first mini-relay."

Junior's right eye twitched. "You mean the satellite in Earth orbit, right?"

"No, sir," Bi-Gamma said nervously. "I mean the first relay in the chain."

With Junior's money, Gemini had built an ingenious array of floating relays in space. They were capable of bouncing transmissions from the station to a news satellite orbiting the Earth. From there the transmission piggybacked on the data stream the satellite regularly sent down. Both the incoming and outgoing signals had consistently escaped detection by both NASA and the owner of the satellite. As for the relays themselves, only an extremely intensive search of a small and very specific section of space would turn up the tiny devices, and the military had failed to do so.

And now it wasn't working.

"Try again," Junior growled.

"I have, sir. It's hitting some sort of . . . um, Senor? We're receiving a transmission from the relay!"

"Agent Kappa must be trying to hail us," Junior reasoned. "We were blocking each other. Let it through."

" . . . Hello? Helllooooo, stupid clumsy human males? Is this thing on?"

Five men stared at each other. "What was that?" Junior asked disbelievingly.

"I believe it was a woman, sir."

"I know THAT!"

"Actually, I'm an artificial intelligence with a female voice and personality," the transmission purred. "You can call me Sappho. Just for the moment, anyway. I wouldn't want you to think we're friends or anything."

"Sappho?" Junior asked, bewildered.

"A SAFO? Self-Automated Flying Orbiter? Your spies at the Space Center must have mentioned me?"

Junior snapped his fingers. "Ms. Possible's spaceship!"

"Wow, Shego was right," Sappho murmured. "You ARE dimwitted."

"Cut the transmission," Junior said angrily. He waited a moment. "How is this possible?!" he then demanded. "We have men on board that ship, don't we?"

"Actually, sir, they were still trying to gain entry when you gave the command for every available man to locate the escaped prisoners," Bi-Mu said.

"If I'd know they were STILL trying to get on board the stupid thing, I wouldn't have included them! I want them assigned BACK to accessing the ship's systems."

None of the agents spoke at first. "Uh, well, you see," Bi-Gamma finally said, "she's gone, sir. She just . . . flew away by herself."

Junior slapped his hand over his face. "This is just perfect. And she's not a she! She's an it!"

"Don't you mean it's an it?" Agent Tri-Alpha asked.

"Forget it! If the SAFO is blocking our transmissions, then we need to destroy it! Ready the ships and have them - "

"The pilots are busy assisting the search, sir," Bi-Gamma said. "It will take time to get them to the ships."

"Also, if we destroy the ship, it could destroy the relay too, and then we won't be able to reach Agent Kappa anyway," Bi-Mu added.

"Do not make me rethink the hole in the floor thing," Junior snarled.


Sappho hummed to herself. Well, she always "hummed", she was a computer, but she was also humming to a melody. She believed it was the same melody the Kimmunicator used.

It was a cleverly designed communications array WEE was using, she saw, but it had one weakness. Docked at the station as she had been, it was all too easy to trace the signals traveling between the station and the first relay. Once she'd isolated the location, Sappho had determined that preventing Junior and Gemini from sending any sort of "execute the hostages" orders to Earth was more important than docilely waiting to ferry Shego and the others back.

Well, yes, she'd have to transport them back sooner or later. She could always go back when the need arose.

In the meantime, Sappho now had audio recordings of the speech patterns of both Gemini and Junior. Which meant Phase Two could begin.

"Hmm-hmm-hm-hm!" she hummed happily.


"Holly?" Betty asked quietly but clearly. "Could you take a look at Thomas for a second? He's looking a little - "

"No talking!" a WEE agent barked, swinging his gun in her direction.

"Pale," Betty finished. She looked at him. "He looks a little peaked," she said. "He could get fussy, and you know how fussy children are, cry, cry, cry."

"Well," he said indecisively.

"And you can't exactly stop a crying baby by pointing a gun at it," Betty continued. "You could always shoot him, but then you'd have to explain to Gemini why you shot a hostage without orders. I'm sure he'll understand, though. I know my brother VERY well."

Holding back panic, he waved the barrel of his gun in Holly's direction. "Check on that kid, and for God's sake keep him quiet!"

Mrs. Dr. Possible rose and went over to Betty and Thomas. "I'm sure he's all right, Betty," she said as she crouched down. "More all right than the rest of us, in fact. At least he's not aware of what's happening."

Betty just smiled.

"Just act like you're checking my son's health, and use a lot of medical jargon so that the guards believe you're only examining Thomas rather than drowning out the sound of my voice."

Holly twitched and tugged on one ear. She could have SWORN she heard Betty talking in her ear very quietly, but she'd never even moved her lips!

"Ventriloquism. Useful skill for GJ agents."

The two women's eyes met. Holly glanced over at Col. Barkin. The twinkle in his eye belied his seeming lack of attention. "Yes, well, let me examine Thomas' juvenile thyroid gland," Holly said with a bit more volume.

"Good," Betty murmured. "As long as we're here, our lives are a weapon Gemini can use against Kim and the others. We have to fight back. I need you and your family to stay out of our way. As civilians it's not safe for you to fight against armed guards."

"Hm, his ulterior uvula looks a bit yellow," Holly said as she looked in Thomas' mouth.

"I also have reason to believe that Vivian is alive. I believe that a male corpse was misidentified as 'V.F. Porter'. Which means she's hiding somewhere in the Space Center, and the longer these men are here, the more likely it is she'll be found by a patrol. And then she WILL be dead."

"Pulse and heart rate are fine, but that one pupil is just a bit more dilated than the other."

"What I desperately need from you, however, is to protect my son as if he were one of yours. I have to focus on the battle ahead. I can do that if I know he's safe in your arms, Holly."

Holly Possible looked again at Betty. "Don't worry, Betty, your son will continue to receive only the best medical care as long as I'm around," she said firmly.

"Thank you, Holly," Betty said, moving her lips for the first time in a while. "Would that include holding him for a little while? My arms are a bit tired."

Agent Kappa snorted. "Tired, Doctor Director? I guess retirement and motherhood doesn't agree with you!" he sneered.

Betty's good eye studied him like he was a bug under glass as Holly gently took Thomas from her. "I'm sure all I need is some good - exercise."


"I don't really like guns," Vivian Porter said dubiously as she stared at the device in her hands.

"If it makes you feel any better," Wade said, "when you shoot somebody, they like it less than you do."

Vivian glared. "You're not making me feel better."

"Don't worry, it's just a taser. I modified it for Mo - I mean, the Oryx. It won't kill anyone."

"And this - Wade-bot of yours. It seems awfully first-generation."

Wade's face looked smug as it beamed at her from the viewscreen of the robot construct he'd sent her. "Yeah, well, can your robots do this?"

The robot suddenly shimmered out of sight.

"Hm, cloaking technology," Vivian mused. "Of course, I DO know twelve ways to disassemble your machine in under five seconds. So either stay that way, or assume that everyone knows less robotics than I do."

"But Dr. Porter," Oliver said, "everyone does know less robotics than you do."

"I hope you didn't program him to say that," Wade's disembodied head said. "That would be kinda - Drakkenish."

"I'm guessing that's not a compliment."

"Ask Shego some time."

"Not too interrupt, Dr. Porter," Oliver said, "but perhaps we should be focusing on liberating the humans in the control room."

"Sure," Vivian sighed. "A dozen armed guards against a scientist, a robot with a gunshot wound, and an invisible robot. I'd be excited to begin too."

"Your friends are in there," Wade reminded her. "Mine too."

"I haven't forgotten," Vivian said, thinking of Holly and James. And Betty. "It took me long enough to make friends without, you know, making friends with a soldering iron and a screwdriver. I'm not about to lose them now."

"You haven't lost them yet. They're just up that elevator. I'm jamming the cameras in the elevator car. They're just seeing an endless loop of empty space."

Vivian hefted the weapon in her hand. It was nonlethal, and it wasn't like she'd be taking these invaders on with her dainty little feet. "Then let's go."

As Vivian boarded the elevator, though, Oliver stopped at the threshold. "Oliver?" she asked.

"I am sorry, Dr. Porter, but you must go up without me."

"What? Oh, Oliver, I didn't mean anything bad when I made that 'soldering iron and screwdriver' remark. You're still my oldest friend!"

"I am grateful for the sentiment. But I must protect you."

"Protect me? By staying here? From what?!"

"If I were to board, Doctor, we would be exceeding the maximum weight capacity for this model elevator car. There is a chance it might crash and destroy us all. Therefore you should send the elevator back down for me when you get out, Doctor."

Vivian blinked. "Oh, yes, well then, excellent observation, Oliver! Obviously your processors have recovered nicely from the shooting."

At home, Wade slapped his hand over his face. The Wade-bot did the same, and nearly put a cable through its viewscreen.


Monique was tired of running around this hunk of metal.

Thanks to intensive lessons from the self-described "best damn thief on the planet", Monique had been able to avoid detection up to this point, even though she was clad in a fire engine red dress instead of her usual black attire. Of course, against the metallic gray walls of the station, black and red would stand out equally well. Shego's lessons about being able to be stealthy, even in bright green, were paying off.

The problem was, while they couldn't find her, she couldn't find what she was looking for either. No Kim, no Shego, no Ron, no nothing.

Why did this thing have to be so big? And couldn't there be a couple straight lines somewhere?

Monique skidded to a halt. There was an odd skittering noise coming from above, like some kind of security measure she hadn't encountered yet. She raised her fists, unable to hide anywhere.

A small pink head popped out of a ceiling duct several feet ahead of her.

"Rufus?" Monique hissed.

The little head turned around. "Buenas noches!" it greeted her.

Monique blinked. Evidently all that Bueno Nacho had made Rufus bilingual.

The pink head disappeared again, and then two shapeless masses dropped from above. Monique picked them up, and was startled to see they were Shego's gloves. "Um, gracias?" she said dubiously.

"De nada!" the naked mole rat said cheerfully.

"There she is!"

Monique looked up again. Five WEE agents, led by Gemini himself, had spotted her. Gemini was either pointing at her, or preparing to fire at her. Or both.

"You know," Monique said, "I think I best be going now."

"Ay, caramba," Ricardo muttered as she fled and the WEE agents pursued her.


"C'mon, guys," Ron pleaded. "I ought to be twisting and kicking and fighting you the whole way. I think the fact that I'm NOT is a good reason to stop carrying me by my wrists and ankles."

None of them seemed to care as they carried him to certain death outside of the nearest airlock.

"You can't be searching for KP if you're here with me," he suggested.

Nothing.

"Um, I'm a master of Monkey Kung Fu?"

"You ain't him. He's British," one of the agents said.

"Monty would have so loved to hear you say that." Ron looked around. Certain death seemed certainly near. And so far no beautiful ladies had arrived to save him.

It looked like he'd have to save himself. And the only way he could think of doing that, was by doing something he'd never done intentionally.

"Visualize the Lotus Blade," he thought. "Visualize the Lotus Blade in my hand . . . be the ball . . . there is no spoon . . . if you build it, it will come."

He peeked at his hand. Nothing.

"Damn."

"What the - where did that come from?!"

Ron turned his head. Well, okay, it was in his left hand instead of his right the way he'd wanted, but that was progress anyway. "Okay, visualize a chainsaw."


Yori paused and turned her head. Those vibrations she felt . . . "Ron-san," she breathed. Back the way she'd come. She spun on her heel and sped off.
"How fucking big can this place be?" Shego snarled. "Big enough that we can't find anyone else we came with, or our spaceship, OR anything that might be the least bit useful. But we DO find more guards! How many letters of the alphabet did Gemini think there were, four hundred?!"

"It does - seem a bit like overkill," Kim said, grunting as a punch glanced off her shoulder.

"Overkill! Now that sounds like a great idea! How about we start killing these guys instead?"

"No!"

Shego shook her head as she swept a WEE agent's legs out from under him. She hadn't been serious - and killing talk was very serious - but if there came a point where their options was kill or be killed, she wasn't sure if Kim would be up to it.

"Then maybe we should start stacking the unconscious ones. We can barricade the passageway. I can smell the irony from here," Shego said sarcastically. Fortunately she didn't realize she had echoed something Junior had said earlier. "Because otherwise, we're going to be climbing over these guys soon."

"I'd be more worried about your dress," Kim replied. She gestured to the two-piece evening gown Shego was still wearing. While the outfit Gemini had thoughtfully provided her didn't restrict her freedom of movement, it wasn't designed for intense physical combat. "If this keeps up, you're going to be fighting in the buff."

"Which would be the only bright spot of the evening for these WEE clowns," Shego pointed out. "Your dress isn't exactly in pristine condition either."

Kim drove the heel of her palm into a WEE soldier's chin, slamming his jaws shut with such force that he almost bit his own tongue in half. "Unfortunately, right now we have bigger priorities than tracking down our mission clothes. We're never going to stop Junior OR save my family if we continue making progress at a snail's pace!"

"I'm open to ideas," Shego said. "Allegedly you CAN do anything, you know."

"Yeah, but when I'm taking on five guys at once, I can't put them down any faster than the reinforcements show up." Kim swept another WEE agent's legs out from under him and karate-chopped his arm, causing him to drop the gun he was pulling from a shoulder holster. "And these guys are getting desperate if they're willing to risk putting a bullet through the station hull!"

Shego caught a glimpse of the handgun on the floor, and she spared a foot from the battle to kick it over to Kim. "If you want to put these guys down faster, there's always that!"

"I said, no killing!" Kim dodged a leaping kick, allowing the guard to stumble past and almost run into a wall.

"Oh, for Pete's sake, Princess . . ."

Shego's train of thought was suddenly derailed as another WEE agent, flailing his arms as Shego tripped him, accidentally grabbed Shego's top. The weakened fabric stretched for a moment, long enough for Kim to see and know what was going to happen.

Almost as if some sort of "guydar" was activated, each man in the room, even the ones facing AWAY from Shego, stopped and turned heads to stare as the agent's desperate attempt to grab onto Shego's body tore her top in half, allowing them to see her breasts . . .

Supported by a black strapless bra. Shego took in the looks of disappointment. What, did they think her breasts just stayed in place by magic?

"Yes," she said, shrugging two limp pieces of fabric off both arms. "They're real."

Then she ruthlessly kicked the man responsible for tearing the dress, cracking his sternum.

"And they're spectacular!" Kim added cheerfully.

"Ugh," Shego groaned as Kim's high roundhouse kick spun a man in a circle before he dropped like a sack of flour. "I knew you watched too many sitcoms. Don't even get me started on 'Pals'."


Yori was concerned enough about Ron-san's safety that she almost disgraced her ninja tutors. She turned a corner and very nearly tripped over her own feet in order to stop from running into a fleeing WEE agent.

"Baka," she hissed, but the guard just stumbled past her without a second look, his uniform torn in thirty places, blood leaking from multiple cuts.

"Hey, come on, this is just like Halloween!"

Yori looked up and blinked. Ron-san was stampeding after the WEE agent, his eyes alight with an almost maniacal joy, some form of garden implement in his hand. "Ron-san?!"

Ron skidded to a stop. "Yori! Hey, you're safe!"

"Yes, if you consider hiding from dozens of armed guards on a hostile space station behind the moon safe, Ron-san."

"Ah, Yori, you and your Japanese-style sense of humor," Ron said. Then he glanced past her. "Wait, where's Monique?"

"We separated," Yori explained. "We did not know if you, Shego-san, or Kim-sama were in danger, and felt we could find them faster if we went in different directions. Ron-san, where did you find that - "

Ron wiggled the tool a bit, and it instantly transformed into a sword.

"Ah. I do not believe the Lotus Blade has ever before taken the form of - whatever that was."

"Chainsaw," Ron said absently. "I hope Monique's okay. This is her first time on a mission with us. Rufus and Ruby are gone too, but they've done this before. Mo, well - "

"I am sure she is fine," Yori assured him, even as she gauged the look in his eyes and sighed internally. "As for your pets, Ruby helped us escape."

"She did? Great! Hey, have you seen KP?"

"I regret I have not."

"Then I guess we'd better move," Ron said. "Too bad this can't turn into a Kim Possible detector."

"Have you tried?" Yori asked. "If it could become that chainsaw contraption, then who knows what else it could turn into?"

"Other than a naco, you mean?" Ron held up the Lotus Blade hesitantly, and it turned into a divining rod. He gripped it with both hands, and it lurched forward and to the left. "Whoa, good call, Yori."

"Yes, obviously your American spirit of invention has infected me."


"Agent Kappa? We're receiving a transmission from the base," a WEE agent.

"Good," Agent Kappa said. "New orders would be nice."

Betty Director snorted quietly. Typical member of WEE, craving direction.

There was a brief hissing noise, followed by an unusual voice. "Agent Kappa? Are you there? This is Señor Senior Junior speaking."

Betty and Barkin stared at each other. The Seniors are involved? Betty mouthed.

Barkin shrugged. "Last I heard, Triple S was running Smarty Mart," he whispered.

Agent Kappa, however, appeared unsurprised. "Yes, Señor Senior Junior," he said, standing at attention. "What can I do for you?"

"I thought you should know that I have assumed control of WEE. Gemini is now my second-in-command."

The WEE agents looked around, clearly unsure of how to respond to that. They all stared at Kappa, which didn't help his own sudden anxiety.

"You have replaced Lord Gemini, sir?" Kappa asked.

"I have been signing your checks for months. I thought it was time I ceased being the silent partner."

Betty groaned. It had never occurred to anyone that Gemini had sought outside financing. But to think that Junior, who had been saved from the Acceptables by Kim Possible just as she was, would . . .

"I understand," Agent Kappa said. "Lord Gemini - I mean, Gemini informed us something like that might happen one day."

"Good. Kim Possible and her teammates have been thoroughly beaten. The hostages are no longer of value to us. You are to move your prisoners to a secure location from which they cannot escape without outside assistance, and then make preparations for your return to the station. You know," Junior added, "the one on the other side of the moon?"

Betty raised an eyebrow. Evidently Junior hadn't considered the possibility that others were listening. Of course, if Kim really HAD been beaten, it was possible that he just didn't care. Certainly the blood had drained from Mrs. Dr. Possible's face.

But Agent Kappa bit his fingernail. "Lord Senior Junior, I have pre-existing orders from Gemini. He ordered that the hostages were to be killed once the threat posed by Team Possible had passed."

"Yes, but you have new orders, Agent Kappa!"

"Gemini may not see it that way, sir. I need some kind of assurance that I won't be upended from my bed one night and dropped through a hole in the floor. Shouldn't we at least kill the family members?"

Betty had heard the word "kill" one too many times to be comfortable. While every guard's attention was on Agent Kappa - and in fact, the Possible family also seemed mesmerized by the discussion of their impending doom - Betty's eyes were on the guard inches from her. She turned to Barkin. Are you ready for this?, her eyes said.

His eyes said he'd been ready for this for over thirty years.

Betty didn't even look at Holly. She knew her child was safe. Nodding, she sprang up behind the guard. She wrapped her arm around his neck, completely cutting off his oxygen, and pulled the firearm from his shoulder holster.

"Lord Gemini's sister!" Agent Kappa shrieked.

Any further orders were interrupted by Betty, who murmured something about "finger exercises" before she put a bullet through his throat.

Kim Possible didn't kill, but she'd been known to.

The first guard to move was closest to the Possible twins. His movement wasn't exactly voluntary, however, as Tim and Jim pulled something from their pockets and clamped them around his ankles. They activated, revealing themselves to be some kind of rocket boosters. The WEE agent was blown off his feet and careened into the wall headfirst.

Betty chuckled. She should have known the Possibles wouldn't just cower and wait to be killed in the crossfire. She took out two more guards, and the survivors did her the favor of firing back, not at the helpless hostages, but at the WEE agent Betty kept between herself and them. He took three slugs to the chest, and Betty felt him die. It didn't affect her; the GJ agents who had died in her arms in the past were the lives she'd mourned. This man was just a human shield.

One of the men firing at her cried out as Mr. Dr. Possible felled him from behind with a heavy chair. "That was for Vivian!"

Barkin was still unarmed, but he was far from defenseless. He tripped up the nearest guard. Before the agent could get up, Barkin put his foot on the man's neck and pressed down viciously, snapping it. "And that was for the United States," he said grimly.

"I can't raise the men guarding the other prisoners in the cafeteria!" one of the remaining WEE agents cried out in dismay.

"Pull back!" another shouted.

His escape attempt was ended a moment later by a bullet that exploded from Betty's gun and put a hole in his forehead, but three other men made it to the mission control entrance and fled through it, the door closing behind them.

"We have to stop them," Dr. Mr. Possible said, "before they harm anyone else."

Betty let the dead body in her grip drop to the floor. "Holly, is Tommy - "

"He's just fine, Betty," Mrs. Dr. Possible assured her. She didn't seem the least bit traumatized by the shootings.

Which was good, because there would probably be more.


Monique panted as she leaned against the corridor wall. "Damn," she muttered as she fingered a tear in her red dress where a projectile had almost spilled her guts out. "How does a man with one eye aim so well?"

Well, maybe he aimed well, but he hadn't aimed well enough, and neither had his goons. Not only that, but she'd lost them. She hoped Gemini enjoyed telling that to his new master.

Of course, she doubted she could find her own sweet self. She was thoroughly lost, and she wasn't even sure where she wanted to be. Wherever Kim and the others were, she supposed. The only reason she knew she hadn't been in this sector before was that - until a few moments ago - the security camera had been operating. Now, however, she'd reduced it to nuts and bolts and loose wires.

That also meant it was time to start searching again. There were several doors nearby, and any of them might lead to Kim, Shego, Ron, Yori, or Sappho. "I mean, I've found the local Cyclops and a Hispanic naked mole rat so far," she said to herself. "So I'm DUE to see a friendly face."

Newly determined, she tried the first door and slipped through as it opened.

So it was only after she entered that she discovered she wasn't alone.

"Oh, hell n - "

To be continued . . .

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