"I think we're stuck." Hiro groaned frustrated.
"We are missing something important here." Tadashi thought aloud, "Running samples through spectrographs isn't telling us enough on its own. Then comes the question of how do we trace that back?"
"There's your problem." Fred pounced with another useless suggestion, "The ship didn't come forward," He drew a new line perpendicular to the timeline Hiro and Tadashi had been calculating, "They came sideways." Fred moved the dots representing their stranded friends to his new line.
Hiro groaned, "Thanks Fred but that-"
"He could be right!" Tadashi shouted, "We're still looking at this in linear time, but the problem could be multiverse theory not just time travel."
"Great, do you know how to calculate multiverse theory." Hiro grumbled.
"No one does." Fred admitted, "Dr. Ellison has spent the last five years trying to prove if its even real."
"How do you even know that?" Tadashi asked.
"I like the science of the future." Fred answered proudly.
"Well Fred, apparently you are the expert here; so how do we solve this?"
Fred scratched his head paced from the computer to Jack-jack and back again. "We need to get more science. We need test tubes, lightning machines, and any other science stuff that can make those crazy lights that keep pulling things in and out of reality."
Hiro and Tadashi exchanged raised eyebrows, "He's got a point, in a Fred sort of way, studying the wormholes that keep forming around Penny is our best chance at getting more information. Abigail might know how the teleportation experiment worked if we compare the information…"
"Its definitely more promising than what we have here." Hiro agreed, "Where is she anyway?"
"I think she's with Abigail and Violet." Tadashi answered comparing his and Hiro's biometrics for anything strange.
"I'll go find them, I bet their training their super science powers." Fred whispered before sprinting off.
"What the-" Carl pulled his hand back. The eyes, arms, and treads retracted back into itself with a squeak. The pair of binoculars lifted back from the top twitching nervously.
"What are you?" Carl grumbled.
The box raised up on treads arms slid out from each side and the binoculars extended higher on a small lever. The box was now a tiny robot that came up just past his waist. The binocular shaped eyes tilted to the sides and one of its clawed hands waved at him.
"WHal-EE." The little robot squeaked again gesturing to itself.
"Wall-e?" Carl scoffed.
Wall-e whistled and nodded its head enthusiastically. It gestured to Carl with open palms.
"Huh? Oh I'm Carl Frederiksen." Carl answered.
"CAW-rel? Wall-e repeated carefully.
A white egg flew up to them on blue rings. A black screen displayed two suspicious cartoon eyes. "Directive?"
"I don't know what that means." Carl told the new robot, "Look we're a little lost can you tell us where we are?"
"Earth." The white robot hummed curtly.
"That doesn't really help. Is there a person around here that we can talk with?"
The two robots looked to each other humming and whistling. The white robot waved for someone or something to approach. One of its fingers was plated gold instead of white. Wall-e scooted aside on the gangplank to make room. A heavyset man in a red jumpsuit hiked up the ramp wheezing heavily. He stumbled at the top nearly falling on his face. Wall-e caught him by the shoulder. One of his fingers was also plated gold.
"Thanks Wall-e, haa. Hi there I'm Captain McCrea. I'm in charge here." The captain eagerly shook Carl's hand, "We are so excited to meet you."
"Carl Frederiksen, I apologize for our intrusion we became lost in a storm."
"A Storm?" Captain McCrea asked, "We haven't had any storms in a couple of days. Is this a custom Starliner? I've never seen one this size."
"That doesn't surprise me." Carl waved his hand proudly over the airship, "This beauty was crafted back in 1935 and is the only one of her kind."
Captain McCrea sputtered, "But that's over… 870 years ago!"
Carl bristled, "Hey now, The Spirit may be a little old but there's no need to make fun of her."
"But how have you maintained it for so long?" Captain McCrea asked fascinated.
"Well, the dogs take care of most maintenance amazingly enough I barely have to do anything to keep her afloat. She may have been built 80 years ago but she still has another hundred years left in her."
Captain McCrea stared at Carl confused, "Mr. Frederiksen I think you are confused, its 2805 no one has lived on earth for 700 years."
"That's not very funny just because I'm old doesn't mean I've forgotten what year it is." Carl bristled.
Russel's mother squeezed past him, "If we can please cut out the theatrics, my name is Mrs. Sohn and could you please just tell us where we are?"
Captain McCrea gestured out to the ramshackle buildings and streets that scattered out from a massive structure, "This is Home. The first city to be rebuilt on earth after humanities 700 year cruise."
Mrs. Sohn and Carl exchanged a confused glance, "That do-"
"Master! Are these new friends?" Doug asked worming his way between legs.
"Oh my goodness is that a dog?" Captain McCrea shouted with childlike wonder.
"Of course it is haven't you ever seen a dog before?" Carl grumbled, now very frustrated at this confusing conversation.
"No one has seen a dog in almost 600 years." The Captain answered reverently bending down to get a closer look.
"Wait, what!?"