Chapter 2 – Stable

For the first time he could remember, Tails was struck dumb. The rational side of his mind, which usually had an answer for everything, was coming up blank. Everything he knew told him there was no possible way for the same object to be in two places at once; it went against the most basic laws of physics. And yet, here was the evidence, right before his eyes: a living, breathing replica of himself, more accurate than even his own reflection.

But something was wrong. Beneath his fur, the one in the capsule looked paler, less alive.

Amy was the first to recover from her shock. Seeing that Tails was still transfixed, she took it upon herself to open an instrument panel and check the unconscious fox's vital signs. There was a sharp intake of breath. "We need to get him to medical, now!"

Her voice jolted the other two out of their stunned silence. "Why, what's wrong with him?" Sonic asked, his eyes still fixed on the pod.

"His blood pressure is sixty over thirty-five and falling," she answered. "That's enough to keep a steady oxygen supply outside, but he's in serious danger now that we've brought him in here." When Sonic only looked at her blankly, she continued with an unusual amount of impatience in her voice. "It's the gravity! His body hasn't adjusted yet, and he's going into..." She stopped herself and rephrased. "His brain is suffocating!"

"Why didn't you say so before?" Sonic replied, instantly realizing the seriousness of the situation. He hoisted the unconscious fox out of the pod and sped off toward the Typhoon's medical facility, Amy and Tails following at a run.

By the time they arrived, Sonic had laid their patient on one of the beds. Amy sent the other two to wait outside and immediately set to work, aided by the frigate's advanced computer system. Sonic and Tails alternately stood and paced outside the doorway, making halfhearted attempts at conversation, wondering all the while how anything they had seen in the last half-hour could be possible.


Nearly ten minutes later, Amy emerged from the room, looking slightly out of breath but hopeful. "He's stable," she said in response to their unspoken question.

"You mean he's okay?" Sonic asked, brightening.

"I mean he's not getting worse," she responded. "He's still unconscious and his vitals are way lower than I'd like, but I didn't see any signs of permanent damage."

"That still leaves one question," Tails pointed out. "Why was I – he – in such bad shape in the first place? The capsule didn't have a scratch on it, and from what you're telling us, neither did he."

"You're right, it seemed like his only problem was the hypotension itself; I couldn't find anything that might have caused it. I do have one theory, but I can't be sure. You know how if you turn a jet too sharply, or accelerate too hard for too long, you get dizzy?"

"Of course," Tails answered; he had done both countless times, and he knew the feeling well. "It happens because your body tries to resist the change in motion. Your blood isn't strapped into the seat like the rest of you, so it gets concentrated in one area and can't reach the brain very well."

"Remember how the pod and all those ships were moving close to our top speed? Maybe whatever got them going that fast had the same effect on a much higher scale and caused permanent damage. We don't exactly know what that sort of injury would look like."

"How could he survive that at all?" Tails asked, suddenly gripped by an illogically strong sense of urgency. "Every arterial wall in his body would have to be distended from the pressure to create the sort of problems you're talking about. That much force would cause serious brain damage, no question."

"Well..." The hedgehog broke eye contact, shifting her weight from side to side uncomfortably. "To be perfectly honest, I don't know if we can rule that out. The injury doesn't make sense for any other situation I can think of."

Sonic broke in at this point. "It doesn't matter how he got this way or why. What matters is the bigger picture. How did we end up with an extra copy of Tails and his escape pod?"

Tails shook his head, glad for the distraction. "I don't know any more than you do about that one, Sonic. It shouldn't be possible for me to literally exist in two places at once, but obviously something is possible that looks very similar. I say we call everybody down here, then see if we can wake our patient. He might be able to explain. Agreed?"

Amy nodded, and Sonic responded with a rather forcibly cheerful, "Aye, captain!"

Tails turned to a computer panel on the wall and spoke into it, sending his magnified voice over the Typhoon's intercom. "Everyone, please report to the medical bay. We found a survivor."