by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Arctic Fox Android, July 2025
Stealing a shuttlecraft from a Tri-Galactic Union starship isn’t easy under normal circumstances. It’s a lot harder during wartime in a highly militarized timeline. However, Fact and Consul Tor had some unusual advantages on their side. Between the arctic fox android’s ability to think faster than anything else aboard the Initiative — including the ship’s computer itself — and the photosynthetic green otteroid’s ability to sense and even mildly affect the emotions of everyone around her, the two-man team made surprisingly quick work of freeing a small shuttlecraft from the shuttle bay and zipping away from the Initiative as fast as they could, concealed by a burst of cogiton particles to scramble the ship’s sensor readings.
The captain was going to be furious when he discovered what had happened, and an angry cat is not a good thing. But Fact and Consul Tor would be halfway to the Xophidian home star system by then. And there would be no trace of which direction they’d gone in or where they’d been heading, unless the captain also noticed the traces of foreign microbes on Fact’s extra head and somehow managed to trace them back to the Xophidian moon. Given that Lt. LeGuin was researching the head in secrecy and the Xophidian’s hadn’t shared any information about the microbes in their home star system in this timeline, Fact considered that possibility extremely unlikely.
Of course, compared to navigating Xophidian space without being shot down or taken prisoner, stealing a shuttlecraft from the Initiative was relatively easy. It depended on working with systems that Fact was already deeply familiar with from zir original timeline.
Fortunately, Fact managed to scramble their stolen shuttlecraft’s external readings so that from a distance it appeared to be a small Xophidian courier ship, and Consul Tor made a quick study of the reptilian tongue — thusly, aided by her emotional manipulations, every time their shuttle was hailed, she was able pull off a passable imitation of one of the hissing snake-like aliens over an audio-only channel. Every ship they passed let them continue deeper into Xophidian space, convinced that the small vessel was struggling with a broken visual feed in its communications systems but too pressed for time to stop and fix it, since they were carrying important orders from the front lines and needed to reach the home world stat.
It was a tidy little trick, and by the time their shuttlecraft reached its destination, Fact and Consul Tor felt like they could have pulled it off in their sleep. Although, they wouldn’t have wanted to test that theory.
Deep in enemy territory, Fact slid the shuttlecraft into orbit of the moon that was the proverbial goose in their wild goose chase. The android just hoped it didn’t also turn out to be a red herring. There was no call for geese and herrings to be getting mixed up with each other.
According to scans, the moon had a thin but breathable atmosphere, minimal moss-like vegetation and fungal infestations, and seemingly no inhabitants from the animal kingdom larger than the microbes that had brought them here, except for a small mining station that showed signs of more complex life.
To the naked eye, the moon was a pale gray-green sphere, unimpressive and dull, just a simple rock orbiting a gorgeous gas giant with rippling layers of cloud in melting shades of gold and orange. The Xophidian homeworld itself was another moon of the gas giant, albeit one with deep blue oceans, lacy white clouds, and verdantly green land masses.
Given the configuration of the star system, Fact suspected that this moon would have been one of the first places that a young race of Xophidians, just beginning to experiment with space travel, would have visited. But also, given the lack of meaningfully valuable resources showing up on any scans, Fact wasn’t terribly surprised to see that they hadn’t developed this moon at all beyond a single outpost. It wouldn’t be a terribly hospitable environment — survivable perhaps, but bleak.
“Should we… go down and explore?” Consul Tor asked. Her grassy fur was beginning to feel itchy from the lack of natural sunlight after the long flight inside a small vessel. She longed to try tasting the reflected sunlight from that golden-orange gas giant, directly against her fur, undiluted by the shuttlecraft’s thick windows.
“It does not seem to be well-defended,” Fact stated. “However, I do not expect we will be welcome here.”
“We could stay away from the mining outpost,” Consul Tor suggested hopefully.
“True,” Fact conceded. “Although, Lt. LeGuin’s analysis of my head showed elevated levels of sigma radiation, and the highest density of sigma radiation on this moon — in fact, the only location with high enough levels to account for such a reading — seems to be coming from a complex of caves underneath the mining outpost.”
“Of course it is,” Consol Tor said with a sigh. “I was hoping to avoid getting closer to the Xophidians. Simply sensing their emotions from the distance of the ships we passed by on the way here was more than enough.” Their minds had felt gritty and seething to her, sandpapery against her own mind, like they wanted to wear her down the way a river wears down stones, removing every sharp edge and peculiarity until every rock is the same — smooth and featureless. Still, there had been some spots of warmth and gentleness on those ships, so perhaps the snakes weren’t all that way. And perhaps officers on warships were more likely to have aggressively abrasive minds than those working far from enemy lines at a simple mining station.
“We should arm ourselves,” Fact said. “And I should change my Tri-Galactic Navy uniform for something less… identifiable. Something simple and nondescript so that we can claim to be unaffiliated merchants or traders of some sort if we’re caught.”
“Good idea, Fact,” Consul Tor agreed. She was already wearing non-regulation clothing since her photosynthetic fur needed to be able to soak up the light. Even so, her outfit in this timeline was more demure and in more muted colors than it had been before everything went sideways.
With a little mental manipulation, the otteroid hoped she might be able to help the two of them sell a story about being visiting merchants if needed, especially since neither of them looked like the stereotypical Tri-Galactic Union officer which would be either a dog or a cat. Fact came closer than her with zir delicately vulpine features that could almost pass for a doggish cat or a vaguely feline dog, but zir snowy white fur and golden eyes gave zir an uncanny look that never quite fit anywhere. And Consul Tor with her bright green fur and otter-like build was clearly cetazoid — a race without any actual officers in the union, except for her. And the Xophidians had no reason to know about her.
The arctic fox android and green otter used the shuttlecraft’s synthesizer to generate a simple gray shirt and pair of pants for Fact and tan robes for each of them to wear over their clothing, covering the comm-pins at their breasts, the handheld blazors holstered at their waists, and the blazor rifles each of them strapped to a leg. Then after changing, Fact brought the shuttlecraft down to the moon’s surface, landing within walking distance of the mining outpost. Given that the moon hadn’t been protected with any defense satellites or ships in orbit, the two officers hoped they’d be able to walk right into the mining outpost and, ideally, find their way down to the caves below without being noticed.
The sky above them glowed with melting, swirling, molten clouds of gold and orange, and Consul Tor reveled in how it tasted rich and wholesome on her shoulders and back as she carried her robe folded up in her arms. She could sense the emotions of workers in the outpost ahead — mostly tired and restless. Overworked. Some of them felt sandpapery and vicious like on the warships, but more of them felt like the spots of warmth and gentleness.
Fact’s triangular ears shifted constantly as they walked together, listening for every little sound in the distance, every whisper of wind in the thin air.
It was a quiet world, this moon. Even their footsteps were muffled by the gray-green mosses growing over the ground, and when Fact tried to speak to Consul Tor, zhe found zir words died away quickly in the thin air.
The entrance to the mining station was neither guarded nor locked. The white fox and green otter exchanged a look of surprise when the first door they’d encountered simply opened for them without even a number pad requiring a key code to keep intruders from getting in.
“I suppose they don’t expect anyone to be breaking in,” Consul Tor whispered.
Fact nodded solemnly in acknowledgment of the otteroid’s point. “Given the barren, isolated nature of this small moon,” zhe suggested, “perhaps they don’t expect anyone else to be here at all.”
Between Fact’s exceptional hearing and Consul Tor’s empathic abilities, the two intruders from another timeline managed to sneak through the halls and passageways of the outpost undiscovered, ducking out of the way of anyone who might encounter them, working their way downward toward where the readings of sigma radiation had been highest.
The corridors at the entrance to the outpost had smooth walls and squared off corners, but the further down they got, the more the passageways looked like they’d been carved right out of solid rock — mottled, lumpy walls and curved edges everywhere. According to the readings on Fact’s uni-meter, only a few more floors down would bring them to what seemed to be a natural cavern surrounded by caves, based on the irregular nature of the caves’ dimensions. Unfortunately, it was getting harder and harder to avoid discovery. Fact could hear the sounds of movement in every direction, and whenever zhe looked hopefully to Consul Tor, having heard a quiet corridor in some direction, the green otter would shake her head and frown. She sensed emotions all around them now.
Fact and Consul Tor followed the empty paths available to them until they were able to hunker down in a small closet-like room filled with various supplies — most likely a janitor’s closet of some sort.
“Perhaps if we wait long enough,” Fact whispered, “there will be a night shift with fewer people around.”
Consul Tor’s round green face grew long, as her expression sank into one of despair. Though, she didn’t object to the android’s plan. Fact considered their situation — zhe had relatively few material needs and could hide in a closet for weeks on end without growing hungry, tired, or uncomfortable. Zhe would simply power down unnecessary aspects of zirself, allowing zir mind to fall into a quasi-meditative state where the passage of time wouldn’t bother zir. The Consul on the other paw… A living being like her would struggle and fade without better light than the dim, flickering, artificial light inside this outpost, and she would need water, movement, stimulation for her mind, and true rest.
Frowning, Fact said, “On second thought, perhaps we should consider picking the pathway of least resistance and fighting our way through.”
In spite of herself, Consul Tor perked up at Fact’s suggestion. The green otteroid didn’t care for violence. Her plant-based people were more akin to lily pads — calmly floating along, going with the flow — than Venus flytraps that snap up prey or even invasive vines like kudzu or ivy that cling and fight for their way. Even so, the idea of hiding in a dim closet underground wilted her heart, until even the idea of facing enemy snake aliens sounded better. Besides, she could sense the feelings of the lifeforms around them, and most of the minds she could feel out there seemed strangely warm and placatable. Perhaps, miners wouldn’t put up the kind of fight that soldiers on the front line would have?
“Is there a direction you would recommend?” Fact asked.
Consul Tor closed her eyes and let the feelings inside the outpost wash over her, as if she’d lain down on the shore of an ocean, allowing the waves to entirely cover her instead of trying to dance through them, only wetting her paws. There were still sharp, abrasive points among the tumult of feelings, but there was one direction where those points were fewer. She opened her eyes, nodded, and pointed in the direction she’d sensed.
Fact studied the readings on zir uni-meter, puzzled by the Consul’s choice, and eventually said, “There are more lifeforms in that direction than in any other, and the room they’re in is larger, meaning fewer places to hide.”
The green otter shrugged helplessly. “All I know is… whoever is in that direction feels… softer to me. Less angry. More… just tired and sad. I don’t know why they’re different, but the difference is so intense. I’d rather face a hundred of them than ten of the ones who feel angry.”
Fact frowned at the uni-meter, trying to imagine fighting off one hundred Xophidians. From what zhe remembered of the alien snakes that the Tri-Galactic Union had been fighting for years in this timeline, the arctic fox android was relatively sure zhe could take down ten of them. They didn’t have arms or legs and had to wield weapons and work computer consoles with their long, dexterous tails. It was inefficient and gave Fact a considerable advantage, even more so than the fox’s mechanical strength gave zir over most organic lifeforms. Even so, Fact did not think zhe could fight off one hundred of the Xophidians… Even if they were, as the Consul said, tired and sad.
Fact didn’t like the Consul’s suggestion, but also, zhe knew zhe shouldn’t have asked for advice if zhe’d simply planned on ignoring her opinion and insisting on doing what the uni-meter suggested. With a sudden stroke of inspiration, Fact reconfigured the settings on zir uni-meter, adjusting it to take a more complete reading of the lifeforms in the large room Consul Tor thought they should enter.
“Aha!” Fact said, triumphantly as new readings appeared on zir uni-meter screen. “The reason that some of the minds around here feel ‘warmer’ and ‘softer’ to you is most likely because they are mammalian. There are both reptilian and mammalian life signs all around us.”
“Mammals?” Consul Tor asked incredulously. “Here?”
Somberly, Fact said, “My guess is that they’re enslaved workers, imprisoned by the Xophidians. Possibly prisoners of war. Perhaps even Tri-Galactic Union citizens. Unfortunately, we’re not in a position to offer them any direct aid right now, but the good news is that your intuition seems to have been right. Imprisoned mammalian workers are far more likely to allow us safe passage through their work environs than their reptilian overlords.”
“I wonder…” Consul Tor murmured, her gaze drifting into a distance that couldn’t be seen in such a small, cramped closet. But then, she shook her head instead of elaborating, seemingly dismissing whatever idea had struck her.
“What?” Fact prompted gently. The Consul’s intuition had already proven more valuable for navigating this extreme and unusual circumstance than Fact’s own more logic and evidence-driven thinking, so zhe didn’t want to miss out on another thought that might prove useful.
“Well…” The green otteroid chewed on her wispy whiskers, thinking. “It’s just that… I don’t know much about Tri-Galactic Union history in either this timeline or our original one, but… What happened to Galen?”
Fact’s triangular ears skewed to the sides faced with such a sudden non sequitur. “Galen from the Constellation Club in our timeline? She disappeared when time changed. We both saw the Constellation Club disappear and become replaced with a much more utilitarian, less hospitable space with no need for a bartender like Galen.”
“Right,” Consul Tor agreed, patiently. “I know she disappeared from the Initiative when it changed, but… like… is she a bartender somewhere else, further from enemy lines? Does she have a different job? What happened to her?”
As gently as zhe could, Fact said, “Galen doesn’t exist in this timeline. At all.”
“How can you know that?” Consul Tor pressed. “There are other ships she could be on, whole planets, and I know you have an encyclopedic memory but surely you don’t have a complete roster of every civilian in Tri-Galactic Union space stored inside your mind.”
“No, of course not,” Fact agreed. “But there are no uplifted Earth rabbits in this timeline. So, she could never have been born.”
Fact stated this fact simply, as if the disappearance of an entire people could ever be a dry statistic of population demographics as opposed to a horrific tragedy. To be fair, the dual nature of Fact’s current memories — containing two wildly disparate timelines’ worth of knowledge superimposed over one mind — meant that the dearth of uplifted rabbits in the Tri-Galactic Union truly was a simple fact of demographics that zhe’d known as long as zhe’d been alive… in this timeline.
“Don’t you think that’s strange?” Consul Tor asked. “That an entire species disappeared from Tri-Galactic Union history at the same time as a relatively minor, vaguely peaceful race of snake aliens suddenly rose to ascendency as cruel, conquering warriors?”
Fact frowned thoughtfully, a pensive expression on zir delicate muzzle. “I suppose it is another significant difference between the two timelines. Are you suggesting they might be connected?”
“I’m suggesting we might find out if they’re connected very shortly…” Consul Tor looked meaningfully at the door of the closet they were hiding inside.
“I don’t see how they could be connected…” Fact mused, before adding, “but I also don’t see how my head ended up abandoned in a cave on Earth in the distant past, and as the great ursine philosopher Grr’Brak was known to say, ‘Honey and buzzing are both symptoms of the same infestation in a tree, even though one is sweet and the other loud.'”
“I think the war with the Xophidians has been plenty loud enough,” Consul Tor quipped. “I’m ready for something sweet instead.”
With a shrug, Fact accepted the otter’s assessment of the situation and reached for the closet door. As Fact stepped back out into the cave-like corridors of the outpost, though, zhe made a point of holstering zir uni-meter and replacing it in zir paws with the solid strength and protection of zir handheld blazor. Zhe hoped not to use it, but if they were heading into a populated part of the outpost, it was better to be prepared. Even so, Fact made a point of holding the blazor close to zir chest, hidden by the folds of the robe zhe was wearing.
“We should try to behave confidently and casually, as if there is no question that we belong here,” Fact said in a low voice.
“I will do my best to project those emotions to anyone we encounter,” Consul Tor agreed, following the fox’s lead and unholstering her blazor, only to tuck it neatly under the folds of her robe. Her verdant emerald fur looked washed out and pallid in the dim, artificial lights.
The fox and otter walked close to each other, but when they came to the door into the large, densely populated room they needed to pass through, Fact took the lead. Zhe was stronger and would be more resistant to damage if they were immediately attacked. Fact knew that if zhe were an organic lifeform, zir heart rate would be spiking from adrenaline. As it was, the android arctic fox stepped through the door as coolly as if it were any doorway on the Initiative in zir normal timeline.
To Fact’s intense surprise, the first thing zhe saw on the other side of the door made zir wonder if zhe truly had stepped back onto the Initiative in zir own timeline, because zhe was greeted by the round, pleasant face of Galen.
The brown rabbit’s ears hung low, all the way past her shoulders, and her clothing was ragged, patched, and made from rough, plain cloth instead of the usual sumptuous, silken gowns with flowing flourishes that she generally wore. But it was definitely Galen — the subtle patterning of the brown fur on her face was the same, albeit greasy and unkempt, but even more telling, her eyes were identical. Fact could tell. Zir own golden eyes had such acute vision that zhe could check the pattern of the rabbit’s retina at a glance, and it was a perfect match.
This was not only a rabbit-like mammal — she was an uplifted Earth rabbit, specifically one who had served drinks to Fact’s friends many times in another timeline. The very rabbit who Fact had insisted didn’t exist at all in this timeline to Consul Tor not so very long ago.
“Galen?” Fact asked in surprise.
“Yes?” Galen asked back, sounding similarly surprised.
“Do you know us?” Fact asked.
“No,” the rabbit said, glancing about her uncomfortably. Apparently, she had only been surprised by the sight of an unfamiliar white fox accompanied by a green otter, not by recognizing them. “Should I?” The rabbit’s voice turned cagey, as if she were trying to measure how much deference she was supposed to show these sudden, unusual visitors.
Fact glanced behind zirself at Consul Tor, hoping the green otter could help zir decide how much they should tell to this alternate timeline version of their friend. It was tempting to tell her the truth, because Fact was used to telling the truth to her. She was a trusted individual on the Initiative who most officers had confided in or sought advice from at some point or another, even including Fact. However, tales of alternate timelines rarely sound believable coming from total strangers, and this version of Galen did not know them. It was likely Galen would be more helpful to them if she didn’t think they were raving lunatics.
While Fact reasoned out and weighed the different aspects of this complex social situation in zir rationally, logically brilliant but perhaps socially challenged mind, Consul Tor stepped forward and said simply, “We’re efficiency experts and have been asked to do a consultation. The head of this outpost sent us down to do an analysis of the work being done here and told us to ask you to give us a tour.”
“The head of the outpost knows a random miner’s name?” Galen asked with a twist in her voice that made it plainly clear she didn’t believe a word this strange green otter had said. “Try another one.”
Beyond Galen, other rabbit miners dressed in similarly ragged clothing continued to work, wielding high tech extractors that pulsed powerful beams of energy into the rock walls of the giant cavern, slowly pulverizing the stone into residual components which then had to be sorted and sifted by other workers into piles of worthless stone and heavy crates of valuable minerals. It looked like dusty, dirty, backbreaking work. In the distance, several Xophidian overseers wielded taser-like weapons gripped in their curling tails, keeping all the rabbits focused on their work.
“It is either remarkable luck,” Fact said suddenly in a rush, now that zhe’d had time to analyze the situation more fully, “that you are the first rabbit we encountered, Galen, or else, there is a force of the universe at play here. As I do not believe in luck, I have decided to gamble on the latter and tell you the truth: we are a from another timeline, one in which your people are free members of the Tri-Galactic Union and you personally serve aboard a starship with the two of us during a time of great peace, prosperity, and scientific exploration. We wish to return the universe to this proper, original, and clearly much better timeline for all of us. Will you help us?”
“Fact!” Consul Tor exclaimed in a troubled, admonishing whisper, clearly wishing the two of them had agreed on their tactics together more fully before leaving the closet where they’d been hiding. And yet, something about the way the android arctic fox’s name rang out in the Consul’s voice seemed to conjure a flicker of recognition in Galen’s eyes.
“Fact?” the rabbit asked, her long ears lifting a little. Her eyes grew glassy, like she was remembering a dream from long ago when she’d been nothing but a kit. “I used to dream about…” Galen’s words broke off as her eyes refocused on the white fox in front of her. She shook her head, and her voice grew low and husky as she said, “I thought it was dreams.”
Fact re-holstered zir blazor, trading it for zir uni-meter. Zhe pulled up the scan of the local surroundings on the uni-meter’s screen that showed where the sigma radiation was highest and showed it to Galen. “We need to reach this location.” The android arctic fox didn’t bother pleading their case any further; zhe could tell Galen had already been won over by whatever remnants of memory from the original timeline lived on in her mind as dreams. It was strange to Fact that of everyone in the universe, only zirself, Consul Tor, and Galen seemed to be aware of the changes in the timeline, but at the moment, zhe was more interested in the benefit that could be derived from that mystery than in taking the time to unravel it. Perhaps all would become clear when they reached their current destination.
“I can take you in that direction,” Galen said grimly. “But you’d best pick up some mining equipment, hunch your shoulders, and bend your backs like you’ve never had a reason to stand so tall.”
“You think we can pass as fellow miners?” Consul Tor asked with a touch of both surprise and confusion. “I’m bright green and barely have ears compared to all of you.” The green otter gestured at all the rabbits with their tall ears and various Earth tones of fur laboring in the cavernous room ahead.
Galen shrugged. “Mammals are mammals to the Xophidians. Act like you’re workers, and they won’t give you a second glance.”
“Neither of us are mammals,” Fact pointed out pedantically. “I’m an android — that’s a type of very sophisticated machine,” zhe explained when Galen looked confused, “and Consul Tor here is actually a plant.”
Galen frowned, turning her round bunny face very serious. “Does that make a difference?” she asked.
“It depends,” Fact equivocated. “If the Xophidians are looking at heat patterns to recognize mammals, then it might.”
Galen chewed her lowed lip with her buck teeth for a moment, seemingly lost in thought, before announcing, “We can handle that — I’ll be right back; you two work on slouching.”
The rabbit scurried off, and the green otter immediately allowed the exhaustion and overwhelm she’d been feeling since entering this timeline to flow through her body, causing her shoulders to drop into a slouch and her long spine to curve to the side as if she desperately wanted to lean on something for support. Consul Tor had no trouble looking beaten down and tired.
Fact, on the other paw, watched the transformation of the Consul’s demeanor and did zir best to mimic it — trying multiple angles to hold zir sholders at and various ways of slouching. All of them felt unnatural. Fact had been designed to stand with perfect posture, and every alteration just felt like extra work to zir. “I don’t understand how easily you can slouch like that,” Fact said in a voice that was less complaint and more raw wonder. “Walking with your back and shoulders hunched and twisted like that for very long would lead to long term damage to joints and short term damage to several muscle groups.”
Consul Tor half-laughed, sadly. But rather than defend her organic weaknesses, the green otter simply reached out with her paws and helped arrange Fact into a passable simulation of a tired, downtrodden mammal instead of a tireless, endlessly optimistic android. “I think you’ll need to keep your ears skewed to sell it,” Consul Tor said, examining the results of their work.
“Very well,” Fact agreed, skewing zir ears as much to the sides as zhe could. “I will do as you say.”
When Galen returned, she was carrying three of the extractor tools — it was clearly all the rabbit could do to keep from toppling over under their awkward, cumbersome weight. Fact rushed forward to relieve Galen of her burden and found that all three of the tools were quite warm to the touch — most likely a temperature that most mammals would find uncomfortable to hold.
“These extractors have all overheated and need to wait until they’ve cooled down to be used again,” Galen explained. “But since we won’t be using them — only carrying them — it shouldn’t matter.”
“Disguising our unusual heat signatures by obscuring them behind overheated tools,” Fact said, repeating the basic idea in more complicated terms. “Very clever, Galen.”
“Thank you,” Galen said, looking discomfited by the praise. In this version of her life, the rabbit wasn’t used to kindness, let alone respect.
Once all three of them — white fox, green otter, and their rabbit guide — were armed with their overheated extractors, Galen began leading them straight into the busy cavern. Rabbit workers glanced at the trio with confused, questioning looks, but none of them wanted to risk drawing the Xophidian overseers’ attention to themselves by actually confronting these faux-workers who clearly didn’t belong.
As they drew closer to the Xophidian overseers, Fact felt zir sense growing hyper aware, as if paying attention to every detail around zir might help them to pass by the fearsome reptiles with their taser-like weapons unnoticed. Unfortunately, there was nothing else zhe could do to increase their chances of success, except for hoping. Consul Tor, however, used all of her empathic abilities to shove an emotional aura at the snakes waving weapons gripped in their tails — she projected exhaustion, anonymity, and compliance. She tried to make the three of them seem as unremarkable to the reptiles as possible, doing everything she could to shove her real emotions so far down that they didn’t enter into the mix of what she was projecting at all.
Whether Consul Tor’s empathic projections or simply the heat of the heavy extractors they carried were responsible, Fact and Consul Tor walked right past the Xophidian overseers, infiltrating their outpost right in front of their eyes without seeming to be noticed at all.
Galen led Fact and Consul Tor to the far side of the cavern, into another hallway, down an elevator, and then down several flights of stairs before risking putting her extractor down and saying anything to them. “We should be safe now,” Galen whispered, sending a mixed message with the secretive tone of her voice. “But we should still be careful. My people sneak down her sometimes… for breaks… or lovers’ rendezvous… or just to get away from our lives. But we’re always careful. If the scale tails find out about it…”
Galen didn’t have to finish her sentence; both Fact and Consul Tor understood the stakes for rabbit workers here were high.
“We appreciate so much what you’ve done for us,” Consul Tor said softly but warmly. “You probably need to get back…”
“Like hell I’m going to miss out on whatever you’re doing down here,” Galen said, her voice taking on the strength of unbendable steel. “I’m staying until you’re done.”
Fact and Consul Tor looked at each other. The arctic fox wanted to argue with the rabbit; her presence was a complication. But zhe saw something in the green otter’s expression — a certain resignation — that suggested to zir that arguing with Galen would be unlikely to be effective.
“You may accompany us on our mission,” Fact allowed, choosing to short circuit zir way past any arguments. It was better to move forward. So, Fact drew out zir uni-meter and began scanning these tunnels they’d fought so hard to get down to…
Fact followed the strengthening readings of sigma radiation from one tunnel to the next with Consul Tor and Galen trailing along quietly behind. As they walked, ever downward through the twisting, natural tunnels, the rabbit and otteroid began whispering quietly to each other — discussing the strangeness of living with two timelines in their minds, the differences between this universe and the one that had evaporated like morning dew, and why the three of them in this tunnel seemed to be the only people in the universe who knew anything strange had happened at all.
“I used to tell stories about the… other timeline,” Galen said. “When I was little, my parents praised me for my creativity, and their friends said I made the days of work go by more lightly with my fanciful tales. But as I got older…”
“The differences between this world and the other one just made you sad,” Consul Tor said, partly sensing Galen’s emotions but partly just filling in her own feelings.
The green otter had her own memories of feeling outraged when the Xophidians first attacked Cetazed, and how it hadn’t been the same outrage as everyone around her felt. Consul Tor had tried to explain to the other cetazoids that there was something wrong — that it wasn’t just morally wrong for the Xophidians to conquer Cetazed but somehow intrinsically wrong. Like it wasn’t supposed to be happening. But eventually, that sense of dissonance had turned into background noise, as she’d simply accepted with sadness that this was the world she lived in, even if she could see how it could all be so much better. How it was supposed to be so much better.
“The dividing line for me,” Consul Tor said, “was when my mother died, fighting back against a Xophidian invader. She’s still alive in the other timeline. I know that. I spoke with her over a vidcall just a few days ago and yet…”
“It feels like something you imagined,” Galen said.
“Yes, it does,” Consul Tor agreed. “But I think what frustrated me most is that my people have telepathic and empathic abilities, so every cetazoid who I told about these differences knew I wasn’t making it up. They knew I believed everything I was saying, and yet, even so, none of them took me anymore seriously than your parents and your friends who don’t have telepathy.”
“It sounds to me like you’re lucky you weren’t locked away for insanity,” Galen said.
Consul Tor laughed, a cheerful sound that echoed through the dark caves they were walking through. “I suppose you’re right,” the green otter conceded. “I never looked at it that way.”
Fact interrupted Consul Tor and Galen’s tête-à-tête to say blankly, “We’ve arrived at the source of the sigma radiation.”
All three animals looked around the empty cave they were in, trying to figure out anything special about it at all. There was nothing, except for the heightened sigma radiation that only the uni-meter could read. Watching the readings on the uni-meter, Fact noticed that the sigma radiation was fluctuating in complex patterns that zhe couldn’t quite make sense of, but seemed like they must be meaningful.
With a few adjustments to the uni-meter’s settings, Fact reconfigured it to cast lumo-projections that matched the radiation patterns in the cavern, so they could all see the fluctuating distributions with their own eyes.
Suddenly, the cavern filled with that ghostly, insubstantial, lumo-projected shapes of rabbits — two adults and seemingly six children. All eight of them cowered and quaked as similarly ghostly lumo-projected figures of two snakes menaced them with weapons wielded in their tails.
“I know what this is…” Galen said, unable to look away from the harrowing sight. “These are my people’s ancestors — the first rabbits, stolen away from paradise and brought here to work for the Xophidians forevermore.”
“Sally Cottontail and her family?” Fact asked, the pieces of the puzzle beginning to fall together for zir.
“That’s right,” Galen agreed. “Sally and Bernie Cottontail, along with their six kits.”
“That hardly seems like enough ancestors for an entire, healthy society,” Consul Tor said.
“I’m not sure I would call our society healthy,” Galen pointed out. “All we’ve ever done for countless generations is work for coldblooded, scaly worms, making up for the fact that they don’t have their own arms and legs to do good work.” The bitterness in the rabbit’s tone was unmistakable and more than earned.
“Even so,” the green otter said, “Two parents and six siblings isn’t enough genetic variation for…” Consul Tor trailed off, sensing the rabbit’s confusion at her words.
The confused expression on Galen’s face and filling her mind spoke of how words like “genetic variation” felt like they should mean something to her, because in another life, in a lost timeline, she’d been properly educated to understand ideas like that. In this life, in this current abomination of a timeline, none of the enslaved rabbits were provided the kind of education that would let them understand what Consul Tor was talking about at all. Instead of proper education, they had indoctrination from their Xophidian slavers and oral legends passed down among themselves.
“I’m sorry,” Consul Tor said. “That’s really not what matters here, is it?”
“It might be,” Fact said distractedly. The arctic fox was moving lithely through the cave, circling around the ghostly lumo-projections to see them from every angle, as if there was more to be learned from this vision of snakes menacing rabbits. Suddenly zhe stopped, zir attention snapping back to the living rabbit and otter in the room with zir. “We know that Sally and Bernie Cottontail were supposed to raise their kits on Earth and become part of an entire race of uplifted rabbits who were members of the Tri-Galactic Union. Instead, the sigma radiation echoes here suggest that they somehow ended up here instead, in this cave, along with a pair of Xophidians in the distant past, and flushed with enough sigma radiation to leave an echo that’s lasted across the centuries.”
“You’re suggesting the Xophidians must have kidnapped the Cottontail family from Earth and that they might have stolen more than just these eight rabbits,” Consul Tor said. “Perhaps some kind of bank of genetic material that was meant to be used for growing more uplifted rabbits?”
Fact tilted zir head, skewing zir triangular ears. “I have said nothing of the sort, and yet, it does seem to be the logical conclusion.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Galen interrupted, holding her brown paws up. “If the Cottontail family was supposed to be on Earth…” As the rabbit said these words, reaching a conclusion drawn from these strange intruders’ conversation, she realized that she knew it to be true for herself: the Cottontail family was supposed to have lived on Earth. “…then a couple of Xophidians, what? Flew a shuttle to Earth hundreds of years ago when they were only first discovering space travel and kidnapped my ancestors from a planet in a completely different star system, only to drag them back to this weird cave, deep underground on one of their nearby moons?”
“That scenario does indeed seem unlikely,” Fact said, agreeing with the outrageousness inherent to Galen’s tone. “And yet, we know that certain aspects of that story are most definitely true: the Cottontail family lived on Earth originally, but somehow, they came to be in this very cave, enslaved by Xophidians.”
“A wormhole,” Consol Tor announced, putting the pieces together. “There must have been a wormhole. From here–” The green otter turned in a circle, gesturing at the cave all around them. “–to the cave on Earth where your head was found.”
“Your head was found?” Galen repeated in utter bewilderment.
Fact’s delicate muzzle twisted into a ponderous frown. “The cave where my head was found was in Europe, near to where Breanna Schweitzer, the scientist who invented uplift, famously lived and raised the first uplifted animals. Your supposition… seems plausible.”
“But what good will that do us?” The green otter turned her circle again, this time seeming to look for the wormhole she’d hypothesized, frustrated at every step by its failure to appear. Instead, there were only blank, gray, stone cave walls. When she was facing Fact again, Consul Tor said, “Even if there was a wormhole here, it was long, long ago. We don’t have a time machine. We can’t return to Earth to check out the cave there without facing the Tri-Galactic Union fleet which will see our actions of the last few days as high treason and a sign of certain insanity. All we’ve done is uncover the source of our problems. I don’t see how it will make any difference towards solving them.”
“In solving a problem,” Fact said pedantically but also hopefully, “it always helps to know its source.”
Still feeling hung-up on the unanswered question of what these Tri-Galactic Union officers had been talking about regarding Fact’s head but becoming increasingly aware that she wasn’t going to get any direct answers, Galen said wryly, “Oh, really? And how does it help us here?”
“Time travel may be extremely difficult to achieve under normal circumstances,” Fact said, reconfiguring zir uni-meter once again as zhe spoke, “but if there is a wormhole anchored to this physical location at a different point in time, it might be possible to… shall we say, soften the matrix of the space-time continuum in this location in order to draw the wormhole forward into our own time.” It was clear from the android’s careful elocution that zhe was simplifying concepts for zir audience, neither of whom were truly scientists, let alone mathematical super-computer geniuses. As zhe finished altering the uni-meter, Fact concluded, “Think of it like melting the ice over a frozen field of flowers to uncover a single bloom. Melting the ice won’t create a flower, but if there’s already one there, it will let you find it.”
Consul Tor felt a shiver of frosted warmth almost like a taste of sunlight from a blue dwarf as she pictured Fact’s metaphorical field of flowers covered in ice. Galen’s bewilderment with the situation simply increased; she’d lived her whole life working for the Xophidians, so sparkling fields of frost-glazed flowers were merely a dream from another world for her, let alone complex hypothetical physics concepts like wormholes.
Fact didn’t worry about their reactions though. Zhe was too busy scanning the cavern with zir newly reconfigured uni-meter; everywhere zhe turned the device, the air wavered like heat rising from desert sand, but nothing else happened until zhe got to the far side of where the ghostly lumo-projections of the rabbit family had been. Then the wavering air began to bubble and froth, roiling like water at a rapid boil.
“What is that?” Galen asked, backing away.
“Our wormhole,” Fact said, adjusting a few controls on the uni-meter, causing the frothing air to begin swirling like a whirlpool until it seemed to settle into a steady state. When it did, what was left was a silvery sheen, swirling smoothly around and around, like the space-time continuum in that part of the cave was somehow draining away into another time and place. Which, in fact, was exactly what was happening.
“What do we do now?” Consul Tor asked, her voicing sounding scared and hollow. “Do we go through it?”
“Do we have a better alternative?” the arctic fox asked, turning toward zir green otter compatriot.
“Is it safe, though?” Consul Tor asked.
Fact shrugged zir narrow, vulpine shoulders. “Is anything in this timeline safe?” Zir golden eyes flashed as zhe spoke. “Besides, if my hypothesis is correct, it is practically preordained that all three of us will, at the very least, touch this wormhole, because that action is what has protected us from losing our memories of the other timeline.”
“An action we haven’t taken yet?” Galen asked skeptically. One of her long ears stood tall, but the other one drooped low, and she’d begun fiddling with its tip with her paws as a sort of nervous gesture.
“Time travel can be strange that way,” Fact announced. “Now, the Consul and I need to go through this portal and figure out a way to stop the Xophidians from kidnapping the Cottontail family and whatever else they stole from Earth’s past. Do you still wish to accompany us?”
“In for a whisker, in for a tail tip, I suppose,” Galen said. “So, sure, I’m with you.”
“Very good,” Fact said. “I will go through first, as I’m the strongest. I do not know if I’ll be able to return through the wormhole to this place and time, so you will have to follow after me, without my being able to warn you of what to expect.”
“Go ahead, Fact,” Consul Tor said. The green otter looked at the brown rabbit, and the two of them exchanged a nod, agreeing to follow the android’s plan.
Without another word, the arctic fox android stepped directly into the swirling wormhole, sans any sign of hesitation.
Continue on to Part 3…
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