Hey everyone! This is another collaborative fic with my bestie, Artemis_HNR over on archiveofourown. We both LOVED Zootopia and couldn't help but want to write a fic about the adorable furry pair ^_^
Hope y'all enjoy this.
Chapter 1
Wilbur sighed for the umpteenth time that night. The ocean was calm, nothing coming or going at this time of night. Well, there was that octopus a while back. What that thing was doing out here near the open ocean was anyone's guess. The blue whale moaned and glanced at the watch on his flipper. He had been here for nearly an hour, he was hungry, and would need air soon. Philmore was supposed to relieve him but that whale was always late.
"Possibly off eyeing the cows," he said with a sigh.
Never trust a sperm whale to not think about mating. He sighed again and stared at the indigo vastness before him. Sometimes he wondered why he took this job. Sure the pay was nice and let him support his family but it was beyond menial. All he had to do was watch the monitors for any sound. He spent more time watching sea-dramas than he did watching those silent machines. The equipment had been quiet for days, nothing interesting had been brought up by the currents. On occasion the EAC and the AAC would spit out some Land Treasures or a lost turtle or two. One time he witnessed a prime find when the Above World movie company's ship sunk. The whole cleanup crew was able to take home some pre-release disks of Wrangled and Floatzen. His calf was ecstatic for weeks.
He tapped the monitors that sat right at the edge of the drop-off. There was a low beep. He eyed the monitors.
'Oh, no you don't,' he thought, 'not right when I'm about to get off.'
Whatever was flowing on the current didn't care what the old blue whale wanted. The beeping grew louder and louder. Soon, Wilbur heard a groaning as something heavy dragged across the ocean floor. He peered over the drop-off and his humongous mouth fell open, that wasn't your regular batch of cold water and trash. It was huge. He fumbled with his communicator and held it with his shaking flippers.
"Boss, you might want to come see this."
Wilbur was right, his boss did want to see the colossal ship, well Wilbur didn't know how else to describe it. It was circular in nature, like a discus. It was longer than he was and took all ten of the whales on duty that night to reel it in. They pulled it back to their city, Aquapolis, one of the seven major cities in the ocean. The city sat on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, it was mostly long and wide towers of black and white stone. Giant tubes ran into each building, bringing down fresh air into the briny depths. Wilbur wondered if he could pop into a cafe or something for a quick breather. His watch, as well as his massive lungs, told him he needed a quick puff. No such luck, they were told to bring it immediately to Dr. Krebert's lab, leading Oceanologist. The whales let the craft sink to the ground, it kicked up a cloud of sand and shell fragments. Wilbur dashed for the air pocket as the old dolphin zoomed over every inch of the craft. Wilbur had never saw the mammal that excited about anything.
"You say you pulled this from the ACC?"
Wilbur shrugged, "I mean that's where I think it came from."
The doctor jotted some notes down, "Not mammalial in origin. No, it can't be." He finally settled down and sank down beside the craft. Parts of it still had chunks of ice glued to it. Dr. Krebert shooed them away, "forget you saw anything! You were never here." He slammed shut the door to the gated dome that surrounded his lab. Wilbur and the other whales grumbled, they were skirting into overtime hours now. Wilbur glanced back at the lab, slightly concerned by the old dolphin. Again he shrugged, it was not his problem anymore. He looked up towards the surface and did a quick calculation on how quickly he could reach it before shaking his head. He would rather hit the cafe. After this shift he needed a Krillpachino with Seaweed drizzle.
Dr. Krebert navigated around the pod taking only small moments to let his blow hole stick out in his lab's air pocket. In the corner of his lab ventilation pipes blew fresh air in from the surface.
"Curious, very curious." he murmured as he ran his flipper across the surface of the pod. The pod was crusted over with barnacles and coral."You broke off from somewhere…" He muttered as he picked up a chisel and started to chip away at the crust of ocean wear. "Ice and coral, not your typical mix," his voice bubbled with anticipation.
It took him hours to break away enough of the crust to find a clear film similar to glass or plastic. Looking past it, he was astounded by his findings. Lining the pod in twenty-six incubators were jelly-like creatures.
"Great Spirits, do my eyes deceive me?" Pressing his face to the film he looked closer. He clapped his flippers together in extreme excitement and let out a series of chirps. Dr. Krebert rushed to his desk and clicked a series of buttons. From the ceiling, a microphone descended. He cleared his throat and took a breath to calm himself.
"Scientific Entry 1. A pod was delivered to my lab today. Said to have been circumnavigating the ACC. It could have drifted for centuries. The aquatic crust was thick and took hours to crack. I have made an astounding discovery. Within the pod are twenty-six incubated lifeforms. At first glance, they appear of the genus Hominoidea. The lifeforms seem to be suspended in their growth. Further study must be conducted but if my findings prove fruitful, the Genus of Homo may still live."
Dr. Krebert looked at the the twenty-six incubators he lined across his wall. He had been correct in his findings. The growth of the occupants had been halted. When he had removed them from the pod he found that the chambers they were in were far outdated. If he wanted to study them properly they would need to be placed into new growing environments.
With the precision and care of only a scientist of his caliber, he reincubated the twenty-six embryos and kept careful track of their state of growth. At nine weeks of growth he could safely state that he was growing neither Ponginae or Gorillini. The incubated lifeforms had an equally distributed probability of belonging to Hominini, Homo or Pan.
"Scientific log 63. The growth of life I have incubated from the Pod have reached nine weeks. I can safely discard the factors that the lifeforms are Ponginae or Gorillini. I can not wait any longer before contacting my colleagues on the surface. Soon my feti will be ready to birth. I am almost wistful that I will not see their care to fruition but they will never survive on the Ocean floor. I have gotten into contact with Dr. Baahseft and she is more than happy to release me of my burden. I will be giving her the records of my findings with the promise she will keep me posted on the Feti. May the Genus Homo rise again."
With final clicks on his desk, he removed his taped records to be placed in the crate next to his desk. Tomorrow he will pack up his 'children' as he so fondly he referred to them off tape. He had color coded his incubators when he found out the genders inside. Thirteen females and males, all evenly split. He had even taken to naming each of the twenty-six feti based off above world plantlife. He tapped the glass of the incubators checking the vitals of each. The names of the males were Ash, Birch, Cypress, Dogwood, Elm, Fir, Indigo, Kale, Linden, Nettle, Quince, Sycamore and Yarrow. He named the females, Gardenia, Hazel, Juniper, Maple, Olive, Periwinkle, Rowan, Tulip, Uncinia, Viscarra, Willow, Xeronema and Zinnia.
"Go to sleep little ones. Tomorrow begins a new adventure." He smiled as he swam out of the the room.
Dr. Krebert looked over the four crates he had hired the Whale service to help him transfer to the surface.
"Careful, Kelp for brains! These are highly fragile specimen!" He shouted as a beluga whale jostled a crate while transferring it on to the back of a Blue Whale. "You!"
"Yes sir?"
"Name."
"Wilbur, Sir."
"You will keep your assent to the surface steady at all times."
Wilbur nodded slowly as the crates were fastened to him. He wondered if these specimen were that same as the large object he discovered. His wife was none too pleased with how late he came back to his home pod and his little one refused to go to bed unless he sang to him.
The cranky old dolphin swam beside him."Mr. Wilbur, I will be traveling with you. If we may expedite this trip we may be back in time for lunch."
"Yessir."
When they breached the surface, there was a crew waiting on the docks. The docks extended far out to sea, as most were prone to now to facilitate trade between marine and land mammals. An ebony sheep with her hair in a tightly groomed coif and a lab coat walked to the edge of the dock.
"Dr. Krebert." She nodded in acknowledgement.
"Dr. Baahseft, I didn't think you would come personally to oversee the transfer."
"And miss seeing an old friend? Never." Dr. Baahseft said. She stood by the dock as she watched her collegues remove the crates off the transfer whale. "Is the information as you said?"
"I believe it is even better than we both could even dream of."
"A extinct species. Extinct for millennia; this is an amazing discovery." Dr. Baahseft said in awe as the last of the crates were transferred onto the docks. Dr. Krebert passed Dr. Baahseft a ziplock bag with his notes and tapes inside.
"Is that all the information you have?" she asked.
"Yes, you have all my work with you. I hope that the children, I mean specimens, receive the utmost care. It wouldn't do to lose them now.
"You have my word," she tucked the research into her bag. "It's the least I can do for a dearly departed colleague."
"Come now, Wilbur off to Aquatopia."
Suddenly, two loud shots rang out on the docks. Dr. Baahseft held a gun in her hooves as she watched Dr. Krebert's lifeless eyes stare at her as he bled out and began to sink below the surface. Wilbur stared at the sheep in shock, then fear, before he screeched in pain as a long harpoon blinded him in the face and he too sank below the water.