As soon as Bogo and his men were through Lionheart's Gate, he ordered a lockdown on both this gate and the other. No-one would be allowed to leave without express permission from either himself or Ben. He didn't say why. He couldn't. And he had until tomorrow morning to come up with a viable explanation that didn't make him look like a war hawking whack job.

At the moment he had more pressing matters, most of them concerning Administrator Hornbull. Bogo knew he should be feeling more sympathetic, and he did feel a little concern for the rhino. But more than anything he was pissed.

I leave Zootopia Prospect for less than twenty four hours and everything goes to shit! He fumed all the way to Medical, heading straight there from debriefing Private Wilde and his CST ward. It was a mess, he wasn't going to sugarcoat it. This all started when R&D showed its face. That damn Ewetani's a jinx. Whatever she finds out there had better be worth it or so help me…

In Medical, he saw Ben lingering in the sterile white hallway connecting the various departments, including ER and cryogenics. He was standing by the reception desk, looking at everything and nothing as he wrung his head gear in his paws. Bogo felt his anger at Hornbull flow freely away and made his way to him, ignoring the looks of the mammals who hadn't expected to see the esteemed Commander of Meadowlands show his face here. "Ben."

Ben blinked and looked up at him with reddened, worried eyes. Either he hadn't slept in a while, or he'd seen what kind of shape his boss was in. "Hey."

His tone was guarded, and he seemed unwilling to look Bogo in the eye. That was not like him, even before they got together. "How is Hornbull doing?"

Ben glanced at the door to ER. It slid open, and a gazelle carrying a clipboard stepped through. "I don't know. He was all… cut up when they found him. The medics said he… he's really dehydrated, so they put him on fluids…"

"What's the bad news?" Bogo usually had to put in a lot of effort to be gentle, but with Ben the soft tone came easily.

"He hurt his head. Bad. They tried asking him about what happened, but he's… incoherent. And he had all this weird stuff all over him..."

Ben pressed his cap to his chest and lowered his face. Bogo gripped Ben's paw and rubbed his thumb over the soft fur. "They'll do everything they can."

Ben smiled softly at the gesture. "I know." The smile disappeared quickly thereafter. Bogo sensed that there was something else he wanted to say, but there was an invisible wall in front of his face keeping his mouth shut.

Bogo glanced again at the door to ER. "He's probably going to be here a while. You want me to take you home?"

Lips pressed together, Ben nodded.

In Bogo's personal transport, they took the shortcut over the bridge connecting Medical to Residence. Ben rested against the window, not saying a word for the whole trip, and Bogo let him sit in silence. He had a lot to process before taking up Hornbull's former post, and all the baggage that came with it. And then there was the obvious discomfort of whatever Ben wasn't telling him. It couldn't be another incident of sabotage. Ben knew better than to withhold something like that.

It wasn't until they got back to the apartment and he drained an entire glass of Bogo's private stash of whiskey that he finally spoke.

"Tell… me… what is happening out there." Curled into a ball on the couch, he spoke with the slight slur of someone tipsy with liquid courage. He hadn't yet changed out of his outdoor gear.

Leaning against the doorway with a glass in hoof, Bogo frowned. "What?"

Ben didn't take his gaze away from him. "The other night, you said you had a feeling that something bad was going to happen. Well, something bad has happened. Again." He threw his paws in the air and slapped them back on his thighs. "Two mammals are dead, and things are going to get worse, I know it. You know something. I know you do."

Bogo had no idea what to say. He never imagined finding himself on thin ice with Benjamin Clawhauser. Yet here he was, glaring up at his fiancé and all but daring him to lie to his face.

Bogo slowly sat down on the cushion beside him and set down his glass beside the half empty whiskey bottle. Had Ben questioned Wilde and Hopps before Bogo did? "What have you heard?"

Even slightly intoxicated, Ben had the grace to answer the question. "When they pulled Hornbull out, he was mumbling something about monsters."

"… Monsters?"

"Yes. Not mammals. Not reptiles. Monsters. I need to know what you know about this, right now."

Bogo cautiously reached for the paw resting on Ben's knee. Ben did not pull away. Knowing that he still trusted him brought more courage than the drink.

"When I went looking for the object that almost wiped out the Vidar, I didn't find what I was expecting. I found clear evidence of a large vessel crash landing, but the vessel itself was gone."

"It was vaporized?"

"No. I'm positive that the ship was intact when it impacted. But it's completely gone. No debris. No bodies. Nothing but a massive trench of burnt dirt. Someone or something has wiped out all evidence of the ship."

"Our sensors didn't detect the explosion?" Ben asked.

"There was no explosion, Ben, and we were the first ones there. The ship was erased. I don't know how else to explain it."

Ben looked like he couldn't believe what Bogo was insinuating. "How the heck do you erase a ship?"

"With technology we don't have."

Ben shrank back, his paw slipping out of Bogo's grip. "Mansa, do you realize what you're saying?"

"I didn't want to say anything because you'd just think I've cracked."

"I know you haven't cracked!" Ben briefly bared his teeth as he snapped. Bogo scooter across the couch and grabbed his shaking paws again.

"Ben, listen to me. It's all conjecture right now. But I spoke with Hopps and she was able to collect traces of the creature that abducted Hornbull. This time tomorrow she'll be back in her lab having those samples analyzed, and we'll have some answers by the end of the week."

"And if her analysis says you're right?" Ben asked.

"Then we find the bastards and make them pay." Bogo growled.

Ben shook his head. "Mansa, you're in over your head. You promised me-"

"I know. But trouble's already found us." Bogo pulled him into a tight embrace. Feeling the cheetah heaving and struggling to hold off a panic attack made him regret ever voicing his outrageous theory. "But I'm going to do everything I can to get us out of it."

Ben pressed his cheek into Bogo's chest. "Are you gonna issue a no-fly order, too?"

Bogo had already considered it. "Not just yet."

Ben's trembling has eased by then. "I'll need to report this, but comms won't be fixed til tomorrow."

Bogo snorted. "Knowing the Company, they probably already know."


Ram's bar beer wasn't the best, but it was cold, and that was all that mattered.

Judy nursed her rabbit-sized pint, watching the foam fizzle and pop on the surface of the amber fluid. The moment he'd returned from his trip and heard about what had happened to Hornbull, Bogo had summoned her and Nick to his office and debriefed them both thoroughly. Nick had done most of the talking, and it was nothing Judy had already known. Except for the part where they'd been at the comms array, and Nick had sensed an alien presence. That was spooky, considering she'd never suspected a thing. Truth be told, she had smelled something too, at the cenote, but had assumed it to be rotting foliage. Nick had been practically living here since his conscription, so of course he would have known better. And that meant she needed him, whether she liked it or not.

After a quarter-hour of questioning Bogo let them go with a warning that until further notice, all excursions outside the colony was forbidden. Judy had protested this for several reasons, but Bogo had refused to budge.

The buffalo was furious when she last saw him. Judy couldn't really blame him. He had brought her here merely to catch whichever disgruntled blue collar worker was messing with the wiring, but since he'd sent the request things had gotten way out of hand. But Judy and MINERVA had a job to do, and they were going to see it through.

Nick showed up when her glass was half empty and wordlessly took the seat next to her. Without being given a order, the bartender planted a glass of beer slightly bigger than Judy's in front of the fox. Judy kept her eyes on her own glass, waiting for Nick to speak first.

"How did it go with the doc?" His tone was unusually subdued.

"It was fruitful, I guess."

"You guess?"

"He wouldn't say what he was working on. Got pretty defensive when I kept asking. Whatever it is, he seems protective of it."

"Go on."

"Sooooo I asked around the research department, and some of the other lab workers said that he and the Company execs ate having a… disagreement."

"Let me guess, over his secret project?"

"They want to transfer his research project to the primary R&D department back on Earth."

"They're promoting him?"

"Nope. They told him he's staying here to continue researching the local flora."

"And he didn't like that?"

"Not at all. He refused to let his research leave planetside without him, they refused to budge on the issue, and his work has been locked up in his personal lab ever since."

Nick took the first gulp of his pint. "Frigging idiots. They should know better than to turn their best scientists against them."

"Legally, the research does belong to them." Judy said, getting a "humph." in response. There was nothing more she could say on the matter. "So, what took you so long?"

Nick wiped some condensation that had dripped onto the stained and dented counter. "I probably shouldn't tell you this, but you'll probably get involved eventually. Some colonists have been reported missing. From what we could gather, they went outside without logging it, and never came back."

"Oh for crying out loud." Judy slumped against the counter and pinched her nose. She was beginning to emphasize with Bogo's frustrations.

"The guards for both gates are being questioned right now. If the missing mammals came either way, they never mentioned it. If they find whoever's lying, they're in big trouble."

An amalgam of fragments of incomplete theories began to form in Judy's mind, but she brought none of them up. She needed more data. "I'll need a record of the interrogations for MINERVA's archives."

"You'll have to take that up with the commander."

"Could you run it by him?"

"Sure. And if Hornbull wakes up-"

"When he wakes up."

"If and when he wakes up, we'll question him, too. If we can."


Hornbull dreamed of many things. Wet, warm, dark things. He dreamed of his office, drenched in lukewarm water and decorated with antiques carved from ebony bone. He dreamt of the jungle at night, the needle-like leaves dripping with blood and other viscous fluids. Things screamed in the dark, infecting him with their sorrow and unbearable agony. He dreamt of cats, some grey, some sandy, peering at him through bloody, empty sockets, blaming him for their deaths. Most all he dreamed of darkness, wet, warm darkness wrapped around his face and curled around his neck. The darkness pushed itself into his mouth, down his throat, choking… smothering…

The dream always ended after that. After a period of peaceful nothing, the next dream would begin. The same dream, but different at the same time. But always warm, wet and dark.

Hornbull slept, oblivious to the needles piercing his thick skin, or the staples holding closed his many lacerations. The next time he dreamed, he dreamed of metal teeth.