Chapter Four: Second Contact

Nick swore he had never seen Clawhauser run that fast before, but based on the minimal science he remembered from his school days, he hadn't been too surprised.

Sure, a steady diet of junk food had probably wreaked havoc on his physique, but even after their evolution, cheetahs remained one of the statistically fastest animals, with most others not even coming close. Thus, even one on the low end of the spectrum could build up quite a head of steam if they had a sufficient reason for it. And Nick was determined to find that reason out.

"Hey, Clawhauser," he said as Clawhauser made it to his desk, panting hard. "Did something happen during your little chat with that thing? And if so, I apologize for putting you through that…"

Clawhauser looked Nick in the eyes with an alarming level of intensity. "Get Bogo, now."

"Okay, will do," Nick said, every word trickling out at the speed of molasses. "I'll be back in a minute."

Nick hurried off, rushing toward Chief Bogo's office, which thankfully he'd memorized the path to and from by now due to the many, many times he'd been summoned there. Not bothering with subtlety or even a modicum of politeness, he burst into the door, which revealed Chief Bogo seated at a comically high desk, staring into a monitor as he tapped at its connecting keyboard for whatever it was he had to do.

"Clawhauser wants you," Nick said. "Says it's important."

Chief Bogo sighed. "I'll be there, just let me finish this email and then we can talk."

The seconds ticked by as Nick waited, the silence punctuated only by the clicking of Bogo's keyboard as he typed. Really, really slow. Sure, Nick rationalized some of that on the notion that using a standard keyboard when you didn't have fingers had to be a nightmare, but based on his rate of tapping, he had a typing speed comparable to that of an elementary schooler. 'Well, that explains why all his emails are so short.'

The tapping stopped, a single click followed, then Chief Bogo stood, announcing over the intercom, "Higgins, I apologize for the inconvenience, but I'll need you to cover my position for a few minutes." Then, he turned back to face Nick. "Okay, let's handle this."

It felt like no time at all until they were back at Clawhauser's desk, catching him just as he transitioned from one donut to the next. As soon as he saw them, a guilty look formed, even though he hadn't done anything worth catching. "Sorry, I eat more when I get stressed."

"So, Clawhauser," Chief Bogo said, "why'd you call me down here? Is the new arrival still not talking?"

"Uhh, I wouldn't call it talking, Chief, but it's communicating all right," Clawhauser said. "Just come with me, I'll show you what I mean. Hopefully, it's willing to show that trick again."

'Okay, now I'm confused, and that's never good,' Nick thought, tailing Clawhauser and Bogo into the holding cell.

Upon swinging the door open, they found their newest arrival perched on the back of the chair, maintaining a precarious balance even as it looked their way. After a few seconds, it jumped to the table, still maintaining eye contact as it did. Then, a few extra seconds passed before the silence broke once more.

"Thanks for waiting," Clawhauser said. "I'm sorry to spring this on you with no warning, but these guys are my friends. They're not going to hurt you, you can trust me on this one. Would you mind saying hello to them for me?"

A pause, then Clawhauser flinched in apparent surprise. "What do you mean, you don't- never mind. Being their friend means I care about both of them. And I know more than anything else that they care about me. That means a lot to me, and hopefully it's the same way for them. You know what? Maybe you'll feel more comfortable if they introduce themselves first. Is that okay with you?"

How Clawhauser got from Point A to Point B escaped Nick, but that didn't stop him from following his advice. "Hi there. I'm Nick Wilde, and I'm pretty sure you remember me. I apologize for what happened yesterday, and I hope it doesn't change your opinion on me, not that you had one to begin with…"

"Your observation is a wise one, Mister Wilde."

Nick froze in place, staring blankly for a few seconds before he regained some of the charisma he was known for. "Wait, was that you or am I just hearing things?"

"The first one," the creature said. "This is how we communicate with other beings. I apologize for it being so unusual to you, but this isn't something we control. While we can make noise, our capability for audible speech has faded over the years. We communicate like this now."

"Okay then," Nick said. "I apologize for being creeped out about it."

Chief Bogo gave Nick a look reminiscent of the time he'd come into work on April Fool's day with Judy perched on his head like a bizarre hat. "What… how…"

"No need to apologize, Mister Wilde, for it appears to be something your kind do not control," the creature replied, diverting Nick's attention once more. "You are far from the first to react that way, and you won't be the last. Now, could you help me get to know the other creature who arrived alongside you a moment ago?"

Nick turned to face Chief Bogo. "He'd like you to introduce yourself to him, if you don't mind."

The chief paused for a few seconds, took a deep breath, then began talking. "Why, hello there. My name is Lawrence Bogo, and I'm the boss around here. Now, I'm not sure what these other two have been hearing all this time, but-"

Then, without a warning, Chief Bogo's speech cut off, and he jolted his head in such a way that he shattered one of the ceiling lights with a horn, the glass raining down around him in a flurry of sharp little bits. Chief Bogo, however, didn't seem to notice that, instead staring hard at the minuscule creature that had managed to capture his full attention. "How… how are you doing that?"

Another pause, then Chief Bogo just nodded his head, his face the definition of confusion. Without a noise, the creature slipped off the table, using its tail to sweep the glass from the shattered light into a big pile before moving said pile into the corner. If nothing else, that would make it easier to clean up the mess that Chief Bogo had made.

"Well, we can clean that up later," Chief Bogo said, his voice far timider than Nick had heard it in a long time. "Now, do either of you remember where the lie detector is stored?"

Nick managed to beat Clawhauser to the punch there. "Second floor, filing cabinet in the closet, hidden behind the folder labeled 12-09-05, sir."

"Good. You remember. Now, would you mind fetching that, and if possible, could you also get a broom and dustpan so no one steps in that?"

Nick smiled, giving Chief Bogo his signature smirk. "Sure thing, but I might make a coffee pitstop first. Either of you two want any?"

Clawhauser requested a cup, while Bogo declined. His tasks now set, Nick stepped back into the hallway, his head spinning from what he'd just witnessed.

Almost everyone involved in the recent Night Howler case. Three other domestic terrorists, including one who'd almost succeeded in using homemade bombs to detonate an entire block's worth of properties. Six finance-oriented criminals who'd laid waste to the lives of everyone around them and who knew how many others. Eight serial killers. Dozens of murderers. Countless others arrested for offenses both serious and trivial. All of those, Chief Bogo had either overseen or conducted the interrogations of during his thirty-and-change years on the force.

Many of the criminals listed beforehand broke right away, not needing any persuasion to confess their many sins. Others snarled and snapped, bitter and angry that they hadn't gotten away with their schemes. Still others clamped their mouths shut as though they'd been muzzled, refusing to speak a word.

The new arrival defied all of them, instead forging its own path into one Bogo had never seen before and likely never would again. While the creature's tone felt as flat and sterile as a text-to-speech program, sounding as if someone was feeding them words as opposed to them speaking organically, nothing about it even seemed hostile or even evasive. Instead, it appeared more… curious, like it was the one running the interrogation and not the other way around.

His focus broke for a second as the door to the cell swung open, revealing Officer Wilde as he carried a broom, dustpan, and two mugs of coffee inside, the lie detector somehow attached to his head because his paws were full. "Hey, Bogo, hate to be a downer here, but Judy texted me asking when I'd be ready. You mind if I go?"

"Speaking of having to go, I should probably get back to my desk if no one's watching it anymore," Officer Clawhauser added. "Is that okay?"

"Sure thing, go. I'd like to have a private chat with our new arrival anyway." With his confirmation, the other two slipped out the door, still holding the mugs of coffee Officer Wilde had brought. As soon as the door swung shut for the last time, Chief Bogo turned his focus back on the other being in the room, attaching all the sensors to the creature, which thankfully didn't resist as he did so. Then, the questions started again.

As was standard procedure, Bogo started off with a few simple questions to get the lie detector warmed up, but even with the most basic questions imaginable, this creature managed to stupefy him. It claimed to have no gender (although it added that most others viewed it as male, so male pronouns were fine), that his name was Red-160, and that he came from a race of beings that had the formal name of Incubators, although most others referred to them as 'Kyubey' for undisclosed reasons that Bogo didn't feel the need to push for. After asking how to spell the last answer he gave and taking notes, the next question turned out to be the breaking point. "Red-160, where are you from?"

"Very far away from here."

"Define 'very far away.'"

"We arrived in a spaceship, Mister Bogo. Around a thousand others are currently waiting on board for the result of my expedition."

Bogo waited for the lie detector to sound off after that one, but there was nothing. Either Red-160 the Incubator from who knew where was among the best liars he'd ever met (and that included Officer Wilde) or somehow this bizarre nonsense happened to be the truth. How that had happened and not caused a mass panic was beyond him for the moment, but he kept that question down, at least for a little bit longer. "Where is this supposed spaceship now?"

"I don't know how to explain it, I'm not familiar with this world's locations. Not too far from here, though, I am certain of that."

The lie detector remained silent. "And how has no one here seen or been made aware of this spaceship?"

"It should be invisible from the outside, Mister Bogo. We cloaked it using technology from our homeworld. I should have been the same way, but my device did not appear to take kindly to getting wet."

Still nothing on the polygraph front. "Wait, so you're an alien? And where is this technology at the moment?"

"On a technical level, yes, although we've been here before. And Mister Wilde had it last, you might want to ask him."

"Wait," Bogo said. "You've been here before? When?"

"Long enough ago that you wouldn't be aware of it, Mister Bogo," Red-160 said.

With that out of the way, he began focusing on solving the second half of that statement. While the typical radio that signified a message came from him was being used by Officer Higgins at the moment, Chief Bogo still had the standard walkie-talkie that all officers carried. Thus, he switched the channel to that of the car Judy and Nick used, sending the message, "Wilde, where'd you put that technology you confiscated off our new arrival?"

"Should be in a bin on my desk labeled 'Evidence,'" Officer Wilde said.

Bogo wasted no time, hurrying to the cubicle Officer Wilde used whenever he had to fill out paperwork. When he arrived, it had been in an expected state of disarray. Old paperwork stacked six inches high into what could potentially be classified as piles if you squinted really hard. The computer all cubicles came with at an odd skew, its lock screen a picture of him and Officer Hopps following the last graduation day. A few framed pictures of him alongside Officer Hopps, as well as others alongside a fox who appeared to be his mother and a few more with a petite figure that he didn't recognize. But while a bin marked 'Evidence' was on the counter with the rest of that disaster zone, it appeared to be empty. No device, not even an empty bag.

Bogo groaned. "Wilde, it's not there. Stop trying to be funny, where is it?"

"I'm not joking," Officer Wilde responded. "Unless someone took it, which I doubt, it should be right in the middle of the bin. Just look a little harder, okay?"

Bogo began fishing around in the empty bin, oozing frustration from every pore. "Seriously, this is no time for-"

Then his hoof brushed against something in what looked like empty air. Tentatively as possible, he withdrew his hoof and repeated the action. The sensation occurred in the same place once more.

"Hey," Officer Wilde said over the radio. "You found it?"

"Yes," he answered. "Thank you." Then, he turned off the walkie-talkie, heart going a million miles an hour.

Feeling around with his other hoof, he eventually found a place where he could clasp the nothing he was carrying as best as possible, then hurried back to the holding cell, his arms stretched out as if he were holding a bomb. He got a few odd looks on the way down for his awkward gait, but he was also in no position to care.

Once he got back inside, he placed the empty air between his hooves on the table, making a soft noise upon impact, before saying, "I think this might be it."

Red-160 vaulted onto the table, pawing around for a few seconds until he presumably brushed against whatever he'd felt earlier. Then, with alarming speed, he found the top of the bag, sliding his paw into it with a rustling noise before withdrawing what looked like nothing. Then, something even stranger happened: as the bag full of rice popped into existence as though it had been summoned from an alternate dimension, both Red-160 and the table he was standing on vanished.

"Don't worry, I'm still here," Red-160 said. "I just need to turn off the cloaking device."

A few taps and a bit of scuffling later, Red-160, the table, and the device that appeared to be the one he described all exploded into view, causing Chief Bogo to lurch backward and almost smash another one of the ceiling lights. 'I need to figure out how to temper my reactions when it does nonsense like that… we already have enough problems to deal with here.'

"I apologize most sincerely for startling you, Mister Bogo," Red-160 said. "Back home, this is normal. I guess your kind don't have technology that does this?"

"No, of course not," Bogo said. "Before we discuss anything else, what other pieces of technology do have that we should know about?"

"Not that much," Red-160 replied. "We have the spaceship, but you know about that already. There's one machine that generates material that we convert into energy using another machine, and that's about it. We didn't have time to collect much of our resources before we left, the plan to migrate here was made in haste."

Chief Bogo took a deep breath, having gotten right to the position they needed to be in. "This segues perfectly into the most important question I have: you have all this incredible technology, you come from so far away, we don't even have knowledge that you exist- why are you and your kind here to begin with?"

Red-160 paused for several seconds before the conversation started up once more, as if bringing this up caused him physical pain. But the answer, while coming across in the same flat monotone that every other answer had been given, changed everything.

"Our homeworld is on the brink of becoming uninhabitable. This planet may be our only hope of saving it."