Consequence

Della was so wired that the very second she heard her alarm clock ring, she slammed her hand down on the off button and then unplugged it from the wall for good measure. It was April 15th at 4 in the morning well before sunrise and she was wide awake. She silently got dressed in the dark and pulled out a folded piece of paper from her coat pocket. She unfolded it and read the words she'd written: Scrooge, I've taken the Spear of Selene. I'm sorry. – Della

She took a deep breath and then released it. She was just going to take the rocket on a quick orbital test run for a few hours. She'd probably be back within half a day and definitely shouldn't be gone much longer than that. There was nothing to worry about and besides, the rocket had been built for her, so it wasn't really stealing if it was already hers. She was just leaving the note behind so that Scrooge and Donald didn't freak out and file a missing person report on her, never mind that neither of them would let her do this if they knew what she was up to.

As for why she was sneaking out to take the ship on an early test run, well… Della glanced guiltily back at her eggs currently resting in the incubator. In a way, she was doing this for them as much as she was doing it for herself. The way she saw it, she needed to go on one more adventure as a last hurrah to get it all out of her system before she could fully devote herself to her kids and be the mom they deserved. She was not abandoning them. She was insistent on that point.

As if to reassure herself, Della walked over to the incubator and took them out, holding all three in her arms. She hugged them gently and whispered, "I'll be back soon, babies. Don't hatch before I get back and be good for your Uncle Donald and Great Uncle Scrooge while I'm gone, okay? Mama loves you, even though I'm doing a bad job of proving it right now. Everything will be better after I get back though, I promise."

She kissed the eggs and placed them all back in the incubator, then made her way to the other side of her room where the window stood. Della inched it open just enough for her to slip out and grabbed onto the rope dangling outside that she'd anchored earlier in preparation. Securing the rope around her waist, she wrapped the rest of it around her so that she could brace against it to close the window behind her. After that, she skillfully belayed herself all the way down to the ground and untied herself. She wouldn't be able to retrieve the rope easily, but by the time anyone noticed, she'd already be long out of the planet's atmosphere. Della ran down the steep hillside to the perimeter fence, debated whether to scale it or go through the front gate, decided on the former, and climbed the black metal bars, performing a back flip over the top and landing in a full crouch on the other side.

Now that she was beyond the property line, she had greater freedom of movement. She started making her way down south into the more active part of the city and kept her eyes peeled for a taxi. She'd been walking for nearly ten minutes when she finally spotted one and managed to wave it down.

"You sure are beginning the morning early, missy," the cab driver said by way of a conversation starter as Della got into the taxi.

"Indeed I am," she agreed brightly. "and I need you to take me all the way out to Duckburg's eastern city limits where the McDuck Warehouse is located. Don't worry, I can afford it," she reassured him, effectively silencing the driver's protest before he could even give it voice.

The ride was quiet, but Della preferred it that way for once. She had too much on her mind to consider engaging in dialogue with the taxi driver this time, but she gave him a good tip as compensation once he reached the Warehouse and dropped her off. Once the taxi was out of sight, Della ran around to the back and pulled out a rented moped she'd parked hidden between two of the smaller sheds. The taxi wouldn't take her out to where she needed to go, and it was too far away to walk if she wanted to beat Scrooge. Della started up the motor and wheeled the moped out onto the side of the road, still heading east. The landscape was drier and more mountainous like a desert in this part of Calisota, so there wasn't much land development going into expanding Duckburg's eastern border. Its barrenness made it the perfect place to set up anything from a missile testing field to a rocket launchpad, and that was exactly what Della was counting on.

Half an hour later down the empty stretch of road (it would have been quicker in a car, but a moped couldn't go that fast), she saw a tall, cylindrical tower with antennae on top that identified it as the control tower, and her beautiful drawing come to life sitting pointed upright on the launchpad. It was gorgeous, even better than she'd imagined, and it was painted bright red with Scrooge's mark, the letter 'S' written in gold as a dollar sign, on one of the wings. Della stared in awe momentarily at her creation, then glanced around for any sign that Scrooge had somehow arrived ahead of her despite no vehicles passing her on the road.

There was no sign of his limo present, so she pulled right up to the base of the control tower. The front door was locked naturally, and a quick glance told her Scrooge didn't put any of his fancy locks on it. She unclipped one of the hairpins in her hair hiding under her aviator's hat and bent it into a makeshift lockpick. Several frustrated grumblings later, the lock finally clicked and she was able to open the door. Della gave herself a congratulatory pat on the back and dragged the moped inside with her before closing and locking the door again. If Scrooge arrived at the control tower before she was done, she didn't want to tip him off to her presence early. Luckily, she managed to find a supply closet large enough to hold the moped and hide the evidence by sweeping away the dusty wheel tread and her own webbed prints. Now she was free to investigate the facility. She had to find the spacesuits and any other relevant supplies she may need, as well as leave her apology note somewhere Scrooge was likely to visit today when he came to check on the Spear of Selene.

Touring the tower, she ended up finding the spacesuits and supplies first and donned one with increasing giddiness. If Della was being completely honest with herself, she'd been feeling equally exhilarated and guilty all morning, but this was the first time all day that her excitement finally outpaced the sense that she was betraying her family, despite the fact that she was stealing this rocket for her family. Hoping that her uncle wouldn't immediately notice one of the spacesuits was missing, Della put it on and continued her ascent up the tower to the control room at the top. The door wasn't locked, so she let herself in and then stopped. Even at a glance, she could tell the control room had been outfitted with high-tech, state-of-the-art equipment and a low whistle escaped her bill. Getting Uncle Scrooge to spend on something that didn't increase his income fell somewhere between Donald having an accident-free day and cousin Gladstone having an unlucky moment: ridiculously rare, but not impossible. When he did spend though, he sure went all out! Good thing too; skimping out on experimental space tech would be a bad move indeed.

She approached what looked like the main console and set her note for Scrooge upon it where he was bound to notice. Her task complete, Della turned on her heel and made for the exit, pausing momentarily for a backward glance at her apology note. Yes, it was visible from the doorway. It had to be enough. However, just as Della was about to leave, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye through the window and doubled back to get a better look. It was Scrooge's black limo approaching and leaving a dust cloud in its wake. Swearing under her breath, she dashed out of the control room and took the stairs back down to the ground floor where she bolted into the supply closet she'd hidden the moped. Here, she'd be able to hear him come in and wouldn't be at risk for running into him if he decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator.

Wait. Did she lock the front door after she came in? Crap! She couldn't remember! It wouldn't matter if Scrooge never saw her if he thought someone had broken in! Wary of making too much noise, Della fast-walked like her life depended on it (a rather difficult feat in a spacesuit) and she hastily checked the door. She had already locked it and now she heard approaching footsteps from just beyond the door. A quiet eep escaped her beak and Della all but ran back to her hiding place. Keys clinked, and the lock turned just as she closed the supply closet door behind her.

The control tower door opened, and she faintly heard her Scottish uncle humming happily, completely oblivious to his niece hiding only some thirty feet away in a broom closet. Della pressed her ear against the door and listened to his webbed feet and humming wander off to the right. There was a ding and the sound of elevator doors opening then closing, and then all was quiet once more. Della slumped against the door with a heavy sigh of relief. Scrooge was still unaware that anything was amiss. Not about to miss an opportunity to duck out, she abandoned her hiding place and slipped out the front. She made sure the door was unlocked this time because Scrooge had left it so.

Safely outside, she rounded the tower to the launchpad and made a beeline for her rocket. The predawn sunlight was just starting to crest over the horizon line and lighten the landscape. Surprisingly, there was already a ladder propped up against the rocket leading up to the entrance port, but Della was not one to question good fortune too strongly. She put the helmet on her head to free up her hands and began climbing the ladder. She was halfway up when the bang of a metal door being flung open caused her to flail and nearly overbalance. She managed to grab hold of the ladder with a relieved sigh, but then stiffened again when she remembered why she nearly fell in the first place. Della whipped her head around and saw, coming around the edge of the tower, her uncle wearing his own spacesuit and carrying what looked like a long beam under his arm. She froze utterly still and nervous sweat beaded on her forehead as she watched him come ever closer. She was dead. She was dead. She was so dead! Scrooge was an adventurer, not a pilot. She hadn't counted on him wanting to take the Spear of Selene out for a test flight! Della watched him like a hawk as he drew steadily nearer, waiting for the moment when he saw her perched on the ladder of an experimental rocket that she wasn't supposed to know about and wearing a spacesuit.

Except that moment didn't come.

Scrooge stopped walking still quite a distance away and he removed the beam out from under his arm. He bent a small strip away from it, then a second, and then bent the remaining part outward. It was only as he was turning it over that Della finally realized that the 'beam' was actually a tripod for a camera. He set it up on its legs and made some adjustments to the camera, then walked around to the other side. His arm stretched out once more to the camera and he stepped back, standing still with the helmet under his arm. After a few seconds of posing, the flash went off and Scrooge returned to the other side of the tripod. Apparently satisfied with how the picture turned out (and not seeing any nieces sneaking aboard), he collapsed the legs and carried the camera tripod back into the control tower. Della breathed easier once he'd disappeared from view and she quickly ascended the ladder before she had any more close calls with her favorite uncle.

As soon as she was safely inside the ship's belly, she pulled up the ladder and collapsed it to fit inside, then closed the hatch. Once that was accomplished, Della set about exploring the interior of the rocket, just as she did with any new aircraft she flew. She made mental notes of all the equipment, including the safety gear and emergency supplies, and then took herself to the command console at the front. She quickly familiarized herself with the layout and set herself in the pilot's seat to begin the pre-flight checks. The lights that were supposed to be on were, and the others that weren't, weren't. Everything was ship-shape and ready to fly! Without further ado, Della started up the ignition sequence. First, she felt her seat thrum and then heard the engines hum, the vibrations and the sound becoming more pronounced with every passing second. It wasn't long before her entire body shook in her seat and just as the engines roared their loudest, she felt herself moving up. The rocket was taking off and she was soaring up, up, up into the sky, straight into the dawn-tinted clouds high above. Her beak split into a wide grin and she let out a whoop of laughter! She was doing it! She was going into space at last and her rocket was handling beautiful! Oh, she would definitely have to thank Uncle Scrooge for this wonderful gift when she made it back down to Earth!

Speak of the devil, the radio suddenly blared to life and Scrooge's voice echoed out of it sounding panic-stricken, "Della! Della, are you there?! Can you hear me?! This is your Uncle Scrooge, please answer-!"

"Hey, hey, easy Uncle, I can hear you just fine. There's no need to panic," Della said quickly into the radio, trying to reassure him before he got too worked up.

Unfortunately, her timely response had no effect whatsoever on his temper. "No need to panic, my tail feathers! What in blazes are you doing with that rocket, and how'd you even find out about it?!"

"Um… I was bored and I have a bad habit of being nosey?" she offered with a sheepish grin.

"Don't you get cute with me, lassie. You better turn that ship around right this minute and get back on the ground, or so help me, I'll-!" Scrooge growled.

"-You'll what? Ground me?" Della sassed back, feeling suddenly irritated. "I'm too old for the figurative kind of grounding and I was already being literally grounded, or why do you think I'm taking my spaceship out for a joyride while I still have some vestiges of freedom left?! Besides, I've just left the atmosphere, so it'll be a little difficult to turn back 'right this minute'."

"Is that what this is about?!" Scrooge said hysterically. "You felt too constrained so you decided to do the most dangerous and reckless thing you could possibly think of to be rebellious?!"

"No! That's not it at all!" Della shrieked in frustration. In a fit of controlled ire, she jabbed one of the buttons on the console that activated the video feed from the rocket to ground control. She'd been sitting on these feelings for months, but now they were all bubbling out of her control and if Uncle Scrooge was going to end up being the victim she lashed out at, she was darned well going to make sure she said it to his face. "I told you and Donald I needed to get out and do something exciting! I was going stir-crazy just trying to egg-sit, but you wouldn't listen to me!"

"Are we seriously having this conversation right now?!"

"When else are we gonna have it?!" Della retorted. "I'm not cut out to be the typical mom that's happy to sit on the eggs at home! I may not even be cut out to be a mom at all! I certainly didn't ask for this. I'm too young and irresponsible to be a parent trying to raise the next generation, but it's not my eggs' fault their dad's a deadbeat or that I decided to keep them anyway. But I can't just quit adventuring cold-turkey! Could you do that, Uncle Scrooge? Or can you imagine Goldie doing that? Adventuring's in my blood and I wasn't ready to settle down yet, but here I am: out in space where I've always wanted to go, trying to soak up two decades worth of adventuring in a few hours before I have to give up the rest of my life to the three eggs waiting for me back home!"

By the time she had finished venting, she wished she could take off the helmet long enough to wipe away the tears were running unchecked down her bill. Scrooge was staring at her through the video feed with a stunned expression on his face. He closed his bill and readjusted his grip on the radio mic.

"You're right, lass. I didn't listen and I'm sorry. I didn't know how strongly you viewed your impending parenthood as a form of imprisonment and I brushed you off instead of giving you the outlet you needed. You and Donald are the closest I've ever been to having kids of my own and my memories of being a child with my own parents are hardly adequate comparisons. I've been doing my best but well…" Uncle Scrooge fidgeted with the radio in his hands and then gave her a weak smile. "… maybe this not-cut-out-for-parenting thing runs in the family after all."

Della gave a half-hearted laugh. "Mom seemed pretty good at it from what I remember."

Uncle Scrooge snorted, "Hortense must have stolen my share of the parenting traits then. Hey, maybe Donald has all of yours!"

Della gaped at him half-amused, half-horrified, "Are you kidding me?! Between Donald's temper and his rotten luck, he can't even keep a stable job! Raising kids would be a recipe for disaster for him! Or them. Or both!"

They both chuckled briefly and Scrooge smiled warmly at her through the feed. "For being my sister's daughter, you're a lot more like me than I ever would have expected you to be, Della. There is no reason why you have to abandon of all your own hopes and dreams in order to be a mother to your ducklings. This is the 21st century; you don't have to be a stay-at-home mom and I'm certainly not expecting you to be. I love my fiery-spirited niece and trying to change yourself to match such a humdrum lifestyle would just suck the life out of you. You would be miserable, and two decades is too long to put your life on hold. I'll take you out adventuring soon, Della, once your eggs hatch and you've got your feet back under you again."

"You promise, Uncle Scrooge?" she asked eagerly.

He grinned and nodded confidently. "Aye, I do. I guarantee it in less than five years as soon as you're emotionally stable once more. You have the word of Scrooge McDuck! And now that we've cleared the air between us, I believe it's time for you to turn that rocket around and come back down to the ground, lassie."

"Yes, Uncle Scrooge," Della said with an affectionate eyeroll. "But could I stay up here maybe a little bit longer, like long enough to complete one orbit around the planet? It'd be a shame to have spent all that gas money to get up here only to drop right back down into the atmosphere without putting the Spear of Selene through her paces."

Scrooge mimicked her eyeroll. "Fine, one orbit, lass, and then it's back to Earth with you."

"Thanks, Uncle Scrooge!" Della chirped happily, and Scrooge shook his head in amusement.

While she was testing out the Spear of Selene's systems, Scrooge stayed on the line with her to talk for which she was grateful. "So how did you find out I was building the Spear of Selene? I was very careful to never leaving anything concrete where you could find it."

"Oh, you were, Uncle. I've been investigating ever since one of my drawings went missing several weeks ago, but I had no proof until last Friday when Donald was in the hospital. I stumbled upon a photocopy of the drawing in my folder in your filing cabinet with today's date circled," she said.

Scrooge swore, "Curse me kilts; in the wake of Donald's issues, I completely forgot about that one. Well, way too late to do anything about it now. How's she handling by the way?"

"She's perfect!" Della exclaimed. "Handles like a dream; the Spear of Selene is everything I could ever want in a rocket! I'm sorry I'll have to cut her maiden voyage so short."

"Well, I was going to give it to you on your kids' hatchday, but somebody jumped the gun on me," Scrooge grumbled. "You know Donald's going to be furious with you when he finds out about this."

Della squawked in outrage, "Furious with me? He's gonna be furious with you when he finds out you built this thing for me! You were there, you heard what he said when he found out about my drawing. He called me a reckless, selfish thrill addict-"

"-And you called him a lazy, paranoid, overreactive chicken."

"-and that I didn't care about what happened to my kids at all. Well, if he thinks it's so easy to suddenly turn your life around 180 degrees in the complete opposite direction, then he's free to go ahead and try to raise my kids for me!"

Scrooge silently watched her for a moment and then said, "You don't really mean that, Della."

She exhaled heavily. "No, I don't, but he's mad enough at me that we're still not talking. I don't think he can get any madder than that and he'll only see this little escapade as justification that he's right about me."

"Lass, you and Donald really need to talk – and I mean actually talk, not fight each other – about what's been going on and how you've both been feeling. Motherhood is a huge life change that affects everyone in the family, not just the expecting parents apparently-" Della snorted in amusement. "-and neither of you are handling it well. I didn't grow up with my younger sisters (1) the way you and Donald have, and my bond with them was not as close either. You two are more than just siblings and twins; you're each other's best friend and it's not natural for you two to be so closed off from one another. Can that be another thing you'll work on for me?"

"Do you just want me to start a checklist of character traits I need to work on?" Della teased with a smirk.

"Perish the thought!" Scrooge gasped dramatically and they both laughed. It felt good to laugh. Della had felt very little reason to do so lately.

It was in this manner that Della completed her single orbit around the Earth and she was just about to begin her descent preparations when an insistent beeping sound and red flashing lights from the console made her stop in alarm.

"Della, what's going on?" Scrooge demanded.

"I don't know. There's something being picked up on the scanners, but I can't tell what. Something's interfering with the equipment," she said, trying not to panic.

"Calm down, I'll see if I can find anything on my end."

Scrooge's gaze averted from the screen to the instruments available to him in the control tower. She fiddled with her own while she waited, unable to remain idle in the face of the unknown.

Her uncle suddenly gasped and just as she opened her mouth to ask, he grabbed the radio mic and shouted, "It's a cosmic storm coming your way fast! You've only got about two minutes before it's upon you!"

"That's why my equipment's bugging out!" she exclaimed. "The electricity's causing the interference! Uncle Scrooge, what do I do?! There's no way I can clear the storm's path in two minutes and with my scanners on the fritz, I'm nearly blind up here!"

"We have no choice; you're going to have to navigate the storm. The scanning equipment is working perfectly fine down here, so I can talk you through the hazards I'm alerted to. We can do this together, Della, just like we always have. I personally won't rest until you're back home, you hear? You mean the world to me and I won't let anything bad happen to you."

Della could now see the front line of the cosmic storm bearing down on her. It didn't have a visible form so much as it had visible force. It was a moving mass of purplish-black galaxy clouds with stardust and the fragmented remains of space rocks interspersed with streaks of white lightning, or the cosmic equivalent. Her heart was pounding in terror, but she had never felt calmer. This was just like her other adventures with Uncle Scrooge, and this was just the sticky, life-threatening part that she had to overcome first. She'd always come out on top, hardly the worse for wear, and she would do it again; Uncle Scrooge would make sure of it.

She took a deep breath and exhaled, keeping her hands tight on the wheels. Then she looked into Scrooge's eyes through the video feed and said faintly, "I trust you."

It was the last peaceful moment between them because the cosmic storm arrived shortly after.

"You've got something coming in above you at 50 degrees. Veer left to avoid it."

"But I've got an incoming meteor on my left!"

"There's a space large enough for you to slip between them if you also accelerate forward at a slight downward tilt."

"Phwoo! That was a close call!"

"Some electricity's charging up below you, but I think you're far enough away that you won't be affected."

"Uncle Scrooge, I've got a pellet storm of meteorites coming my way. I can navigate my way through them just fine but keep an eye out for if any of those cosmic lightning bolts are coming my way."

"Now hold on a minute-!"

"Too late! I'm doing it!"

"Would you just lis- Energy signatures charging up at two and eleven o'clock!"

"Thanks for the heads-up!"

"Bless me bagpipes, don't ever do that again!"

"Why? I merely maneuvered myself into a position where I avoided the lightning bolts by letting them collide with the incoming space rocks. I only did what was necessary."

"The loop-the-loop was hardly necessary!"

"I just wanted to see if the Spear of Selene could even do it. You can't complain she's not getting a real workout."

"My heart's getting a real workout watching you! Can't you take it- another energy charge right on your six, but I think it's aiming downstream – a bit easier up there? I'm doing literally everything I can to keep you safe, so be more careful-!"

"Whoops, sorry Uncle, got a bunch more space rocks to avoid. Hold that thought for me!"

"There's a big, spinning meteor coming in from below you at -80 degrees. The spin is throwing off its trajectory, so as long as you don't dip too low, you should be able to avoid it."

It was in this manner that Della and Scrooge navigated the cosmic storm. Della mostly kept her attention focused on the physical threats with some extra assistance from Scrooge on her blind spots while Scrooge alerted her to the patches of increasing electrical charge that seemed to be the invisible precursors to the cosmic lightning bolts. The two of them didn't stop talking the entire time, their conversation being a hodgepodge of warnings, safety confirmations, semi-reckless endangerment, scoldings, and half-hearted apologies. That was how the two of them got Della out of the storm together. Granted, in order to make her escape, she'd had to fly a lot farther out into space than she had initially intended, but she was in the tail end of the cosmic storm now and there were no more space rocks to avoid, so the trip back home would be uneventful. She was home free now.

Were it not for that very last bolt…

It snuck up on them and appeared out of nowhere. Della saw the bright flash of light seconds before impact and the cosmic bolt struck the Spear of Selene head on.

"Della! Della, are you okay?! Answer me!"

She spun end-over-end with no way of knowing which way was up and her circuit board sparked with rampant electricity. She had no way to fix this, no way to get out, and no secret trick switch to take advantage of. Della recognized in an instant that this was far beyond any other situation she'd ever faced before and the panic set in.

"Everything's down! I can't do anything; I'm stuck! Uncle Scrooge, help me!" she cried with terrified tears streaming down her face.

"Easy, lass, easy! I'm coming for you, just hold on! What's your estimated trajectory so I know where to look?" Scrooge asked desperately.

Della looked out the front view window, but all she saw was thin vertical streaks of white that were the spinning stars. "I-I don't know! Maybe the Asteroid Belt towards Jupiter?! I can't-"

She cut herself off mid-sentence when the video screen suddenly blacked out along with the rest of the lights in the ship. Light came back on the screen a few seconds later in the form of the flashing red words 'TRANSMISSION LOST'.

"-stabilize it…" Della finished in a breathless whisper. She was lost in the empty abyss of space.

Back on Earth, the richest duck in the world stared in stupefied horror at the same flashing red words on the screen and he screamed her name repeatedly into the radio, begging her to answer, begging her to break the silence.

There ya go. Not that anyone asked, but I hope this was decently painful for anyone who read this.

(1) Scrooge's birth year is still 1867 despite the fact that the story takes place in modern day which means he's 150 years old, but Donald, son of Scrooge's youngest sister, is probably somewhere in his 30s, and that means that if Hortense has any chance of being born to Downey and Fergus and being young enough to have kids of her own, then there has to be a much bigger age difference than the 12 years established in the comics canon.