Targon was getting desperate. Quintet had the most complicated code protection he had ever seen. He turned to his colleague. "Do you want to give up?"
Dyxie slumped into her chair. "Kind of.. What are you snickering about?" She turned to the Rockman who was snorting with mirth over something.
"Duh-huh," He grinned and held out his hand, revealing a small card. "Soong gimme a copy d'is WHOLE time!" He raised his arms to show the extent. "Data's right 'ere!"
Targon and Dyxie stared at the Rockman for a few seconds, too surprised to think. Then they both sprang. The screams echoed throughout the entire ship.
Five minutes later, a perfectly thin and jumbled Rockman was shoved into the wall by Targon, leaving a dent in the metal. Dyxie spat out a piece of boulder-like skin from her mouth and regarded their work.
"You think he's good?" She asked. Targon nodded, picked up the card laying on the floor and inserted it into the computer. Data's mainframe appeared on the screen and he messaged them a hello.
"Where did you get this?" Targon asked the Rockman, who was covering his privates. In the process of gnawing off his skin they had torn his clothes into oblivion.
"Soong, she waz a' a shtashun nearby. She notish me an' gimmie a copy for ush." He moaned and walked over to his room, calling behind his cracked shoulder, "I thou't I'd play a joke, bu' apparen'ly no'! Mantishes are jerky, jerky!"
The computer was already copying Data over to the ship's hard drive. Dyxie walked over to a door in the wall and pressed a few buttons. The door slid open and Targon's jaw dropped. In front of him was a Lanius/Engi hybrid.
"I'm going to put my copy of Data's mainframe into this thing I've created," Dyxie informed the drooling Mantis beside her, "Elva gave you that USB, right? Good. We can both research Engi and Lanius code and contact each other using your Targon Industries line. And," Dyxie popped out the card and was about to hand it to Targon when it disintegrated in her hand. The Rockman poked out his head rather cautiously.
"J'ah, 'bout the card. I'sh programmed to self-deshtruct when popp'd ou' a computer. No ubber," He winced and rubbed his head, "card fits Data's coding. Just tha' shertan one. Sh'arry." He quickly ducked back into his room before Targon chucked a piece of clumpy skin at him. The one-eyed Mantis sighed and started pounding his own head into the wall.
"I thought I had it," he moaned, "I thought," *thump* "I thought," *thump* "I thought!" *thump*
Dyxie patted him on the shoulder sympathetically. "My apologies, Targon."
He stopped banging his head and looked at Elva, who had observed the entire scene unfazed. "Get me out of here, please." He begged, "Next thing I know this USB is going to blow up." Elva grinned and activated the transporter.
"See you later, hon." She waved as Targon vanished from view. He re-appeared in his room and sighed, flopping onto his bed.
I'm done with today for awhile. He drifted off, snoring loudly.