Pirate Log 43762 Section 2

Science Team was panicked. Eighty-three top scientists were racing to put
a suit together that would work for the Chief of Security.
There were a thousand things to consider- would it affect him differently
because he was cold blooded? Could it damage his mouth if he expelled it that
way? Could any Phazon leaks damage the plates all over his body? Would it be
light enough not to impair his flight?
Most of Science Team did not have time to eat or sleep as they worked at
the mechanism that would later be fitted to the Security Chief.

But he did not show up.

Members of Science Team swore loudly and yelled some at the scientist who
had brought them the news. They were about to lose it when Ridley nosed open the
door and gave them all haughty looks. Silence fell over the room, until someone
had the courage to speak up and say, "We're ready, sir!"

Ridley nodded curtly and unfurled his wings carefully so that the Science
Team could get measurements.
He was used to this. He'd had more than his fair share of injuries,
including a very recent encounter where he and The Hunter had fallen down a
chute in tandem. His mouth and chest had been badly damaged, but he'd managed to
correct his flight and get out through some tunnels- albeit with a broken jaw and
only one of his hearts still pumping at full capacity.
He did not find everything that Science Team did to be incompetent as his
own troopers were- at least Science Team got things done fast and often with not
errors.
Scientists swarmed over him. They knew the rules: as long as they didn't
touch the membrane on his wings, he didn't mind. If they did, he'd tear them
apart as literally as possible.
He did not so much as twitch when the plate on his chest was torn off.
There was no easy way to remove a piece of artificial plating, so it may as well
be done quickly.
The Phazon system was fixed to his chest where it nicely covered the area
over his hearts. Nothing wrong with a little added protection, he mused.
Soon they added some wires that snaked underneath his plates and
converged with a special chip on his neck. This particular chip was eight years
old and it functioned in exactly the way he knew the Hunter's scan visor did.
This way the Phazon pack would be able to interface with his brain.
Ridley listened half-heartedly to a lecture about the safety of the
device and how he shouldn't use it for more than thirty seconds et cetera. He
ignored them until he heard one of the Science Team say something related to the
hunter, and Ridley's recent defeat.
He shook slightly at first, like a dog trying to rid itself of water, and
the experienced scientists backed way away. Ridley shook harder and the rookies
went flying. He pinpointed the one who'd spoken.
"You," he pointed with a claw. "Stand there."
The scientist, who the Security Chief had never met, trembled vaguely as
he moved to the location the Norfairian was pointing to.
Ridley might have described the kick from the Phazon device as being
similar to the one he felt when his ship accelerated and he was exposed to
several g's of pressure, mixed with the feeling he got when he leaped off of a
ledge and freefell- waiting for the last moment to unfurl his wings. It was
startling and he swayed a bit but corrected himself in time to make the motion
look like an intentional swagger of arrogance.
He fired a beam from his mouth a wiped the scientist from the face of the
earth.

Over at the High Command Temple, the Chancellor looked about with vague
confusion. She turned to the elder and said, did you feel that?
The elder looked at her sideways and shrugged dismissively. "Ridley," he
said simply.
The Chancellor said nothing except to make a small noise of
acknowledgment.
"Have you met the security chief?" The elder asked.
The chancellor spread her four mouth segments as if she were about to
speak, then she refrained for a moment.
The Elder waited.
Then the Chancellor spoke. "I was one of his personal guards before I was
chancellor."
"You know him well then?"
She shook her head. "He is too different to understand."
"How so?"
With a vague gesture, she said, "He is cold blooded, unafraid of death at
the hands of anyone but The Hunter. He walks on all fours but sits on his hind
legs. There are only two parts to his mouth. He cannot chew, he swallows
whole..." She trailed on with a sigh.
"And so you could not relate to him?" The Elder asked. His comments were
no longer polite conversation, but genuine interest.
She folded her arms. "When I said he was too different to understand, I
was not only saying that we could not understand him, also that he could not
understand us. Empathy is not easy for him, but he is capable of it."
The Elder made a sneering noise at her. The Chancellor was not offended. She might have sneered at herself as well if she had been the Elder.
However, she made him stop his sneering when she explained, "Ridley helped me get this job."