Two Months Ago…


Judith Laverne Hopps had entered hypersleep five times in her life, but her fifth felt like her first.

Her vision doubled the second she opened her eyes, and she had to blink a few times before she could make out her own reflection in the curved glass shell that covered the oversized padded pod she lay in; a warm grey bunny with limp ears that could have been dipped in black ink stared faintly back at her. Purple eyes, an uncommon color inherited from her mother's side, perfectly communicated the nausea, exhaustion and general discomfort she was feeling.

Goodness onion gravy, it's cold!

With a sound resembling an electric motor, the glass tilted upward, allowing Judy to slowly push herself up. She rubbed her eyes, holding back the urge to vomit, her limp ears pricking as she heard her fellow passengers stir.

To her right, Captain Jean Rochewool coughed into his hoof as he pushed himself upright, his white cotton-ball tuft bouncing with each expulsion of breath. To her left, Navigator Rafe Cudson knocked the tip of his horn on the edge of the glass as he clambered out of his own pod. A big brown bull with a darker patch over one eye, Rafe looked like he'd had just as bad an awakening as she did. Jean, not so much.

Judy reached under her shirt, removed the heart rate sensors from her chest, and dropped down from her cryotube. In a case of instant regret, the sudden drop raised her nausea level beyond the point of no return; she let go, all over the floor, less than a meter from Rafe's feet.

"What the fuck, Hopps?!" He lifted his legs just in time to avoid the splatter, letting himself fall back into his cryotube and climbing back out the other side.

Judy wiped her mouth, unable to focus on Rafe; her vision was going weird again. "S-sorry."

During the commotion, Jean had made his way over to the computer screen built into the wall beside the door. Big words were flashing above the list of passengers over and over. "That can't be good." He said. Despite what his name implied his accent was weak at best, and Judy had heard perhaps only one French word in the four days she'd known him. He typed a few keys, and grunted at the result. "It says here that our life support system was momentarily disrupted."

"What?" Rafe initially moved to join Jean at the screen, but then he suddenly retched and lost balance, gripping the edge of his cryotube for support.

"Sick bowl's over there." Jean pointed to a spot beside the mega-cryotube reserved for the biggest of mammals. The helpful tip came too late for Rafe, and Judy had to look away as the bull bent double, letting loose the contents of his stomach all over the floor.

With her paw sliding along the frigid wall of the cryotube she had used, Judy staggered over to Jean. Her legs felt like jelly, but her nausea wasn't as bad as it was before. Her brain was starting to kick back into gear.

"Are we on auxiliary power?" She asked feebly.

"Doesn't look like it." Jean said tersely, keeping his attention on the screen.

"How're you feeling?"

"Feel like death. More or less." Jean had pulled up a 2D yellow diagram of the seven cryotubes that formed a star in the middle of the room. "Looks like freezers one to four were affected. That includes yours and Rafe's."

"What happened?" Judy grimaced when she heard Rafe retch again.

"This computer can't access that information. Maybe Flash can tell us more once I find him. If he can't, I'll ask Mother what's going on."

Judy turned around, moving slowly to avoid aggravating her symptoms. Only now did she notice that Medical Officer slash Engineer Flash's cryotube was empty. "I'll go look for him." She said.

"I'll go look for him." Jean stepped out into the white octagonal hallway and grabbed a flimsy dressing gown from the waiting line of hooks. "In the meantime, you and Rafe need to get yourselves to the infirmary so Flash can check you over."

Judy put her paws on her hips. "Rafe's a bit busy right now."

Jean hardened his gaze and pointed over Judy's head. "The sick bowl is still in that corner, Hopps. I'll see you both in the infirmary."

He pressed a button, shutting the door in Judy's scowling face. The rabbit rapidly thumped her foot before turning to Rafe. He was sitting on the edge of his cryotube, his face scrunched and ashen, but his stomach appeared to have settled down.

"Jerk." Judy muttered.

"Don't take it personal. Passengers give him trust issues." Rafe swallowed and got up unsteadily, testing the waters of his tortured guts. "Right... I think I'm okay, for now."

Once they got to the infirmary and helped themselves to a glass of water apiece, they felt a little better. Fortunately, they didn't have to wait long for Jean to return with a sloth in tow. Judy had nothing against Flash personally, but at the same time she wondered who in their right mind thought a sloth was a practical model. That wasn't to say he was incompetent. In situations that required a fast response, he was as fast as any other mammal, but when he wasn't, communicating with him effectively was a chore.

"Physically… you're both… fine." Flash's speech was winding down, just like his body was as he put away the stethoscope he had just used on Judy while she sat on the examination table. "Aside… from the… severe… nausea… and diso… rien… tation… there is… no… permanent… damage."

"Flash, all due respect, could you speed it up?" Rafe said just before swallowing some anti-sickness pills at the bench.

"I'm sorry… but my… battery… is… still… defective…" Flash said.

Judy's ears perked. "When do you think-"

"… at this… time."

Judy pursed her lips, her eyes flicking from Rafe to Jean. Jean was leaning beside the door, looking amused while sipping his coffee.

Just when I think I've gotten the hang of dealing with him…

"Small wonder they only made one hundred and twenty of you." Rafe grumbled.

Flash sluggishly closed the drawer containing the stethoscope and turned back to the others. "I can… explain… the… situ… ation…"

Judy pushed herself further up on the table. "First off-"

"… better…"

Judy sighed and buttoned her lips once more.

"… by… typing… if you… wish."

"Wish? I'm praying to Father Time over here." Rafe said.

Jean gave an amused snort and joined the small group. "Don't worry, Flash explained the situation to me. You don't mind if I take it from here, non?"

"… Non." Flash said.

Jean propped himself on the end of the table, rested his cup on his thigh, and got to the point.

"Okay, a little over an hour ago, we collided with an unidentified object."

Judy felt her breath hitch in her throat.

"Say what?" Rafe asked sharply.

Jean briefly unclasped his hooves and shrugged. "Something struck the left side of the Vidar as we were approaching our destination. Only grazed us, unbelievably, but it punctured our air support system and Mother had to wake up Flash to fix it."

Judy felt her chest tighten and she drained the last of her water. 'Only grazed us', he'd said. Sweet cheese and crackers, 'only grazed us' was a cotton-picking miracle. If the Vidar had only been a few meters to the left…

"The crime lab wasn't hit, was it?" She blurted out the second that horrible thought struck her.

Jean shook his head.

"But if the support system was damaged, that means our air supply was depleted, right? How long do we have?"

"Seven hours."

Rafe cursed. "What's the bad news?"

Jean gave a small smile. "There is no bad news. As soon as it happened, Mother sent a distress signal to ZV-73. The marines have already sent the Avellanos to pick us up. They'll be here in about three hours, so relax. We're fine."

Judy rubbed her chest, wishing the tight feeling would go away. Jean gave her a look that may have been empathetic and stood up. "Look, I know you're both pretty shaken up, and this could have been a hell of a lot worse. But we are going to be okay. When the Avellanos gets here, I'll need to explain exactly what has happened, and give them the go ahead to board."

"How are they gonna do that?" Rafe asked.

"They'll attach an umbilical to the airlock so they can bring us onboard. Shouldn't take ten minutes."

Judy nodded. She'd travelled through an umbilical before, when she'd been called in to analyze the scene of a murder on a ship much like this one. So far as she knew, the court case was still ongoing.

"They can't take the Vidar or its cargo, so Flash will have to stay behind and finish the repairs so it'll be fit to complete the rest of the journey on its own." Jean looked expectantly at his engineer.

"… Will… take…. at least… thirty… six… hours." Flash said.

"Good. And Rafe, Mother recorded the whole thing, so the company will know that it wasn't our fault. Don't worry about this coming out of your paycheck."

"Fabulous." Rafe grumbled.


Once everyone had showered and changed into their uniforms, the side effects of a disrupted hypersleep had subsided enough for them to fill their stomachs. Jean didn't join them right away, instead disappearing into the MU-TH-UR chamber. "Captain's eyes, only." He'd said, as if expecting Judy to want to go with him. This habit of assuming that Judy was always looking to stick her nose where it wasn't wanted was grating, but she would ignore it. Surely he had his reasons.

Breakfast in the mess hall started out as a quiet, dismal affair, but before long the shock of their near-death experience subsided and the air came alive with the clattering of cutlery and plastic dishes. Jean returned with a lit cigarette in hoof, took his place at the table and the jokes started.

"Look, for the record, I am not going out to redo the paint job." Rafe gave the clear box of cereal one last shake before setting it down and reaching for the milk. "Every time something like this happens, I'm the one who does it. If we're getting paid equally, we should at least make the workloads match."

"You always do the painting because you do a good job of it." Jean took another bite of his cereal grass bar. "And if I get Flash to do it, I risk him getting damaged."

Rafe stirred his mountain of milk and cereal and scoffed. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that. You know the paint would dry before he even got it on the hull."

Judy smiled to herself while the others laughed. The funniest part of the joke was probably the fact that the three of them were talking out of their butts, and they knew it. The Vidar wasn't actually painted, but covered in a thermal coating designed to help regulate the temperatures of entering a planet's atmosphere. It wasn't even applied by the crew.

"Ha… ha… ha…" Flash lightly rapped his claws on the tabletop. "… screw you…"

More laughter. Judy maintained her focus on the open file in front of her. Rafe was as coarse as the hair on his back and he didn't go out of his way to socialize with her, though he did make an effort to make her feel comfortable. Jean just flat-out didn't trust her for some reason. Only Flash treated her like an equal, even if he was a little irritating whenever his battery slowed him down. As much as Judy felt like an outsider, there wasn't much point in trying to change that. She was just cargo to them, nothing more.

"So, what did Mother say, Jean?" Rafe asked. "It was a rock that hit us, wasn't it?"

"Could have been a rock, or it could have been another ship. Whatever it was, it was as big as the Vidar."

"Jesus."

"Probably the cause of our good luck." Jean stuck his cigarette into the ash tray and stood up. "Alright, wrap it up. I want both of us on the bridge when the Avellanos gets here. Flash, I want you to resume repairs as soon as possible."
"Got… it… What… about… Hopps?"

Jean glanced at her briefly. "Leave her be. It looks like she's got a lot of homework to do."

With that the ram walked out, followed by Rafe.

With more space on the table to work with, Judy inched her empty cup away from the file and opened another one next to it.

ZV-73, also known as Rhamnusia, was a biologically diverse planet in the 32-Draconi star system, home to a colony called Zootopian Prospect. Much like Mother Earth, the planet was host to deserts, jungles, mountain ranges, and wildlife. Zootopian Prospect was located precisely on the border between a desert and a jungle to enable direct access to both habitats. There was an image of it right there on the first page; a multi-zoned complex encased in a biosecurity dome, meticulously designed to keep earth diseases in, and indigenous diseases out. Judy took another look at a section of the first file. So far, there had been no instances of damage directly related to the dome.

For three months, not counting the time Judy had spent in hypersleep, there had been eleven cases of damage, breakdowns, power overloads, all situated in the R&D specified zones. At first, they had been chalked up to typical electrical problems, but after an attempted break-in at the Rainforest Zone, the marines had gotten suspicious. The Base Commander for the USCM base situated within the colony had requested a Crime Technician be sent to confirm or disprove the presence of a saboteur. So here Judy was, along with a portable crime lab currently being towed behind the Vidar, hoping this incident wouldn't make her look bad in the eyes of the mammals who asked for her help.

Judy sipped the very last dreg of coffee from her cup, gathered her files and got up. It was a bittersweet feeling to be working with the colonial marines, the self-proclaimed ultimate badasses of the galaxy, considering that once a upon a time she wanted to be one of them.

The electronically distorted voice of the captain burst out from the intercom behind her. "Hopps, come to the bridge right away."

Holding the files in one arm, Judy strode down the narrow white hallway and into the stainless steel-themed bridge. Jean and Rafe were at their posts, their headsets on.

"This is commercial transport vehicle Vidar out of St. Rosemarie, registration MSV-eight-one-thirteen, calling the USS Avellanos. We've sustained major damage to the left side of our vessel and are running low on air. We request immediate permission to transfer over to your vessel. Over." Rafe flipped a switch, and a Texan voice responded.

"This is Captain Samuel Mane, United States Colonial Marines, USS Avellanos. We're aware of your situation and are 'waiting the go-ahead to attach the umbilical. Over."

"This is Captain Jean Rochewool, USCSS Vidar. Go right ahead, Captain. I want my crew off this ship before the air gets stale. Over."

"Roger that. Get the Vidar in position, an' we'll take it from 'ere. Over and out."

Judy heard the door slide open behind her, and turned to see Flash entering at a pace that was rather off-putting for his species. He stopped and gave Judy a brief smile of greeting.

"You may want to strap in for this." He stretched out one long arm, offering her a seat on the right side of the bridge, the one right in front of the entrance to Mother's core. When Judy sat down, she had to crane her neck to see the set of small screens before her. Fortunately, she had travelled on ships like this before, so she didn't have to ask which switch to press to raise the chair so she could see over the top of the control panel. No need to make herself look even more helpless in the eyes of her larger peers.

Flash took his seat in the central row behind the front row where Jean and Rafe were sitting.

"Flash?" Judy asked.

"Yes, Miss Hopps?"

"If you want, when I'm planet-side, I can find you a replacement battery."

"Thank you, but that won't be necessary, Miss Hopps."

"Are you sure? What if it goes bust while you're doing repairs?"

"My auxiliary battery will keep me functional for seventy-two hours, Miss Hopps. I'm quite sure."

Judy switched on the central screen, producing a pixelated map of the space surrounding the ship. A dot was rapidly approaching the Vidar's marker. She knew Flash was artificial, but it didn't feel right to leave him here. If her parents ever found out that she would be spending a couple of days alone in a damaged ship low on air, they would have a mutual stroke.

Get over it, Judy. He's a robot. If he shuts down, we can just fix him and turn him back on. It's not like we're leaving him for dead. So why am I feeling so nervous?

According to the screen, the Avellanos would pass by the window in a moment, and with a rush of anticipation she looked up from the screen to the wide window before her. Beyond the eleven-inch thick glass was an empty sea of stars that glowed orange in the light of the distant twin suns.

Then she saw it. A behemoth of a vessel shouldered its way through the hyperspace in front of the Vidar, a colossus of battered metal and hulking engines spearheaded by a forest of antennae that protruded straight ahead like bayonets. Railguns and missile launchers lay dormant and darkened by shadow along its furrowed, uneven hull. It was a manifestation of brutal strength and ingenious efficiency, and Judy couldn't look away as it passed by the window, eclipsing the light of the suns.

"Heh. Looks like a giant pulse rifle." Rafe said out of nowhere. Jean chuckled and took a long drag of his second cigarette.

Judy took an overdue breath. She had only ever seen a Conesantler-class ship in photographs, or as a model in her hometown's local museum, but in less than an hour she would be setting foot in the real thing. And this was the Avellanos, the ship that blew the J'Har organization into oblivion. Just seeing the inside of that vessel would be a privilege, one that her family, her friends and this crew could never understand.

The attachment of the umbilical went off without a hitch, and the only indication that the process had been completed was when Jean abruptly ordered everyone to head to the inner hatch of the airlock. At the airlock, Jean maintained communication with the other ship using his headset.

"Captain, we're at the inner hatch. Your guys ready on your end?" When Captain Mane gave the affirmation, Jean pressed the button on the control panel beside the hatch. "Inner hatch open." He signaled for the other three to stay put while he approached the outer hatch. Judy felt an irrational pang of fear as he reached for the big button that opened the final barrier between them and the vacuum of space. She swallowed down that fear, squared her shoulders and stretched her ears to look as big as possible. They needed her help to catch a saboteur. Their commander had asked for her help personally. If she couldn't join them, she would make herself worthy of their respect.

"Outer hatch open." Jean said in the brief moment before the thick doors slid open.

In the sterile red and white interior of the umbilical stood three marines in full uniform. The lion at the head of the small group carried an M41A pulse rifle, as did the bear to his right. To his left, carrying what looked to be an M240 flamethrower, was a slender red fox.

Judy blinked. A fox?