Far across the land, there I'll find my home…
If you'll take my hand, guide me as I roam…
I have walked a thousand miles, to find where I belong…
Searched the world and all its isles, but still I wander on…
Chapter 27 = Through a Window in Time
(Jeremy's PoV)
"Are you sure about this?" He asked as he and Gazelle looked at the hologram Aelita was making for them. "There's a Data Sphere nearby?"
The AI nodded in her holosphere as she displayed the 'Data Sphere' for them on the table. It was roughly the size of a large ball, with two seams running along its side and an access port in the center of it. It also had an early holo-emitter embedded into the side of the frame, and the phrase 'Data Sphere 124' on it.
"What is it Jeremy, what's this 'data sphere' that Aelita is talking about?" Gazelle asked while wearing her bathrobe.
Both him and Gazelle were in robes because of Aelita's message screaming for them to get downstairs 'NOW', that she had something important to show.
"A Data Sphere, it's what you might call a 'time capsule'." He explained as Aelita confirmed what he said. "Before the Final War, during the Golden Age of Peace, nations around the world selected various cities to receive one of these spheres. I don't exactly know what for, but each data sphere at the time had a vast storage space, equivalent to a fifth of Aelita's database."
Aelita nodded as she changed her image to that of a computer core, and compared it to the data sphere, showing them to be equal.
"When each was filled, they were scattered and buried throughout the planet at hidden locations, so that when humans found them in the future, they could look up information from the past. They were also by some nations to hide secret data, using the time capsule act as a 'cover story', so that information could be recovered in the future while it was erased from all records and hidden from their enemies."
"To be honest I thought they were all lost or destroyed during the final war, finding one still intact is a miracle on its own… but to find one so close to Zootopia? Aelita is right, this is too important to just leave."
"Where is it located?" Gazelle asked excitedly, fascinated by the human technology and what it could mean for them.
"According to Aelita's findings, it's located right below the Hopps family farm." He said as Aelita showed him the location. "OK-101, the drone we left behind to guard that seed, seems to have picked up the signal thanks to its close proximity, setting off an automated signal programmed into the Data Sphere to be sent out so it could be collected."
"How can it do that if it's been underground for even longer than your base?" Gazelle asked.
"The Data Spheres had special power cells that had extremely long energy life spans, and it doesn't require as much power to send out an automated signal on the frequency it's sending right now. While small, the power cell could have kept a charge long enough to power the sphere back up even after this long of a time span." He said. "We need to recover it fast though, because the signal is detectable by not only Aelita, but any mammal capable of detecting the frequency."
"Why's that?"
"The data sphere could have 'anything' on it, any kind of data stored and kept within it's frame. It could contain anything from historical documents, cultural artifacts… even schematics of technology from the past that have been lost due to the final war, or… my biggest fears being weapon schematics."
At that Gazelle realized 'why' they had to get it fast.
Aelita got his attention and showed the datasphere had been broadcasting it's signal for '4 days', and she looked worried as the signal had indeed been detected by not 'just' the RAPTOR drone, but by the government of the nation that Zootopia resided in. She even showed on a satellite image of a government vehicle within close proximity to the Hopps family farm.
"And we need to do it fast…" Jeremy muttered quietly.
Gazelle looked at the image and looked shocked. "You don't suppose they are looking for the sphere as well?"
"What else is out there besides the drone and the seed that would warrant their attention?" He replied. "Aelita, call the mayor, we need her help. We can't let them dig up the farm while the seed is there, if they dig it up while it's still a seed before it can grow into a sapling, let alone a full fledged tree, they might destroy it by accident! Let alone whatever knowledge the Data Sphere contains within it."
She nodded and put her hand to her ears in the universal sign of 'being on the phone', while he and Gazelle went to get dressed.
An hour later Jeremy and Aelita were in front of the Mayor in her office with Gazelle, explaining the situation with Lioness and why it was so important that 'he' be the one to find the sphere first.
"So, this, data sphere, how much data are we talking about?" Lioness asked as she looked at the holographic sphere Aelita created to show her.
"Enough that anything could be inside of it, and I mean 'anything'." He said.
"Mayor Lioness, you need to do something, who knows what the government will do with that data sphere if they get their paws on it first." Gazelle said. "Of all the mammals in the world, Jeremy is the only one whom we can truly trust with the contents of that sphere, he won't let 'any' of his technology fall into our hands without making sure its 'safe' for us and that we are ready for it. But the government won't be so careful, and heavens above forbid if what they find are designs for weapons. You know what the drones alone are capable of, and they aren't even all built the same!"
Lioness looked between him and Gazelle before looking at the holosphere, then she leaned back and sighed while holding her face. "I'm afraid there's not much I can do, the location is in Bunny Burrows, not Zootopia. If it were closer maybe, but at this point the feds have freer reign than I do with what goes on out there." She sighed. "I can contact the governor and explain the situation to them, and see what I can do but this is out of my jurisdiction."
As Aelita returned to her original form as a young girl he looked thoughtful at what the mayor told him. He had no choice then if he was to avoid any mammal getting access to the data sphere, but to go to the site and dig it up 'before' they could get to it.
"Then I have no choice but to go there myself." He stated as he got up and picked Aelita's sphere up.
"Then I'm going with you." Gazelle said warmly. "Mayor, since we're going to the Hopps family farm, can we ask for Judy and Nick to join us as well? I think Judy's presence might help us if we run into trouble."
"That I can do, just one quick call to Chief of Police Bogo, and I'll have them reassigned temporarily." Lioness said with a smile. "Good luck Jeremy, I'll do what I can but… please be careful when dealing with the feds. If something happens at that level, there's not much I can do to help."
He nodded and left with Gazelle and Aelita out of the building and into the Solar Carriage, then headed off to pick up her backup dancers who 'had' been getting ready to work that day with her as she was scheduled to be working on her next music video. But she told them, after telling her Agent she was taking the day off for 'personal' reasons, that they were instead going to the Hopps Family Farm in Bunny Burrows, both as a mini vacation and because they wanted to see this 'data sphere' as well.
Meanwhile he was talking with Aelita as to how they were going to 'dig' for the sphere without risking potential damage to the seed, the Hopps crops, and especially risking the sphere being noticed by the feds. To that end he ordered Aelita requisition two FOX drones, and six hundred ANT drones with twenty Command ANT drones, and charging containers for them. He also ordered back up power cells be brought up for the journey, as he did not know how long it would take the ANTs to dig up the sphere. He also was bringing along four RAPTOR drones to act as his escort. However due to how 'slow' the carriage moved when pulled by the two HORSE drones, they would be left behind to reach the Hopps farm in time.
At the base entrance he watched the drones walking to his carriage with the items he requested, as a ZPD squad car rolled up to them.
"Jeremy, how's it going?" Judy said as she jumped out with Nick as the car moved off, both of them wearing civilian clothing.
"Chief Bogo said you needed us, so what's up?" Nick said as he shook Jeremy's hand.
"Thank you, we're heading to your family farm again Judy."
"Oh, were you invited to dinn-er…" She said when multiple drones approached the Solar Carriage with various pieces of equipment.
In total there were four power cells each the size of a large bottle of water, six charging canisters each containing one hundred ANT drones, two FOX drones each with specialized Holo-emitters to handle the rural environment, and four Raptor Drones to complete the entourage. All of them were loading the equipment into the back of the carriage, where Aelita had created a compartment when she upgraded the carriage for just such an occasion.
"Jeremy what's with all the drones and equipment?" Judy asked in a hesitant tone.
"I'll explain in the carriage, not here." He whispered to the two cops. "Donny, do you or your brothers want to drive the carriage this time or let the autopilot handle it?"
"Oh, we are taking this cub for a spin!" Franky called as they were in the middle of a game using their hands to decide the winner.
"Yes! I get to drive it!" Moe yelled enthusiastically.
He nodded as Moe got into the driver's seat and chuckled eagerly as he saw the holographic tools at his disposal, while he turned to the drones as they finished loading the carriage up, all the while as RAPTOR drones watched the streets for any passersby and keeping watch.
"Drones, are we set to go?"
A FOX drone turned to him and nodded. [Yes, Unit Jeremy, all preparations are complete, we may leave on your command!] It stated.
"Then let's get going." He said quickly, and while Gazelle, Franky, Donny Joe, Judy and Nick all climbed into the spacious seating area, he ordered the FOX drones to also climb into the carriage since they couldn't move as fast. To the RAPTORs he ordered them to maintain a perimeter around the carriage until ordered to otherwise, then he too joined the others and sat next to Gazelle. At long last they got underway with Aelita staying in the front seat to act as a GPS guide.
As the Carriage made its way onto the main road and from there started the long journey to Bunny Burrows, he finally started explaining to Judy and Nick what they were doing. He explained the finding of the Data Sphere, explained how important it was, the Mayor's insistence that all s he could do was contact the governor to try and get him to help, and warn him to be careful as the feds were already on the scene, no doubt looking for the sphere. And he told Judy that the sphere was located directly under the Hopps family farm, within proximity to the seed her father planted.
Judy just looked surprised as she absorbed all of this information, Nick alongside her could see why all of their preparations were so important now.
"Sweet cheese and crackers… just… sweet cheese and crackers Jeremy…" She whispered. "Do you have any idea what could be inside of that sphere?"
"No, and that is why its so important that 'I' get to it first." He said nervously. "With all of the data that it could contain, and above all the data that one could gain from it… the risk is too great to let your government get to it first. I wouldn't take this risk if I was sure that it was safe to share it, but until Aelita or I can access it…"
"Better in your hands then the government, yea I know how it is… seen it in a tv series." Nick muttered. "Well… at least we'll get to visit your family farm again and maybe have that big dinner."
"Yea I better call ahead and let them know we're coming." Judy said.
"Hold on… Aelita!" He called out, and instantly Aelita appeared as a hologram on the table before them all. "Can you tap into Judy's phone and set it up in a way so that her call can't be monitored or tapped into? Just as a safety precaution."
Aelita nodded and instantly started typing in midair, before nodding to Judy and giving her a thumbs up.
Judy made her call afterwards.
=Meanwhile at the Hopps Family Farm=
(Stu and Bonnie Hopps PoV)
"Now I'm telling you for the last time to get off of my property!" Stu yelled angrily to the suits as they had their fancy little pads and metal detectors walking around the house and more importantly his blueberry and carrot crops, he'd just planted two weeks ago. "I don't care what it is your looking for, whatever it is, it aint here, now get!"
"Again, we apologize for the inconvenience but for your safety we need to finish conducting our survey of the area and the surrounding landscape." The she-wolf said in a monotone voice, not at all meaning what she said. "We detected some… minor tremors and we…"
"Tremors, what tremors, there hasn't been a quake in these parts for two hundred years!" Stu yelled angrily as he followed after them as they continued to search the fields. "I'm reporting you to the local sheriff if I have to, if you don't get your suits off of my land!"
"We know our rights whoever you are, under article seven we have the right to invite or dismiss any mammal we see fit off of our property that we 'tax paying', 'law abiding citizens', of Bunnyburrow see fit to do!" Bonnie stated just as angrily.
The suits ignored them as they continued to follow their metal trackers, and they both started getting worried as they approached the small plot of land they'd saved for the tree Jeremy requested of them.
"Mr. Hopps is there a reason why this area of land is completely clear?" The suit asked curiously as she stared at the large square space.
"This is a planting field; do you not know a planting field when you see one?" He yelled.
"And what are you growing on this plot of land, that requires it to have so much space 'away' from all the other crops, ruining the otherwise symmetrical spacing of all the other crops you have planted?" She said as she started walking with her team over the row of Midnicampum holicithias he planted around the tree to keep insects away from the seed.
"H-Hey watch it those things are…"
"We already know they are referred to as 'Night Howlers, we already have been given the vaccine to counter their effects, but you still haven't answered my-" She said before one of her colleagues stopped her.
"I'm picking up something metallic."
"Where?"
"It's close by… and… moving?" He said in confusion.
Stu realized what was happening when he remembered one important thing… OK-101 wasn't near the seed, otherwise they would have seen him before. Which means they'd gone to the seed during his 'recharge cycle' when he goes to the barn to change batteries. "Uh, you might wanna back away and get out of that plot of land!" He said cautiously.
"It's getting closer…"
"I mean it, get out of that square of land now!" Stu tried to warn them.
Unfortunately his warning came too late as seconds after he spoke, they all turned toward the sound of metallic feet stomping heavily on dirt, and saw the metallic silvery body of the raptor drone running toward them, teeth glinting in the evening sunlight as it roared and screamed at them.
[GET AWAY FROM THAT LOCATION!] It yelled.
"Get down!" She screamed as she and the others dived out of the way as OK-101 snapped at them while running past.
It landed heavily and crouched over the spot where he'd buried the seed, using its body to act as a shield and keep the seed safe while glaring at them with yellow glowing eyes. [Keeyariaaaaah!] It screeched, roaring and snapping at them with its teeth.
"All units we have a human machine on the field, all units have guns at the ready! Fire at will!" She yelled as she pulled out her pistol and took aim.
"No don't shoot!" Stu tried to yell but it was too late.
-Bang bang banbanbangbangbang-
-Pewtsing tng-
From all around the field gunfire erupted as the drone snarled and roared at them while refusing to budge, protecting the seed buried underground with its body and not getting up even to protect itself so that the seed would not be harmed.
[Keeeyarahaaaaaah!] It screeched again as it snapped its teeth.
Then it's back opened up and a long barrel extended, took aim and fired what looked like a small metal dart. It lodged into and broke the pistol of the suit who started firing at it. Then one by one it started dismantling their weapons with precise aim.
"What is this human machine doing here?" She screamed as it disarmed them, while still glaring and snapping at them with its teeth.
[Hyeeeeeeeeees…] It snarled dangerously, tightening its grip on the area of dirt it was protecting.
"That's what I tried to warn you before you started shooting!" Stu yelled angrily when the shooting stopped.
"Call for backup we need something heavier to destroy this thing!" She yelled.
"Will you 'stop' and LISTEN to my husband for carrot's sake?" Bonnie yelled. "That drone is a 'guest' of our farm, and it's protecting a seed!"
The suit finally listened and looked in confusion at them, as if they were insane. "A 'seed'? Are you joking me?"
"No, that drone is protecting a seed, entrusted to us by Jeremy!" He said with a growl. "He told us that its important to his people, that it's the 'last' seed his kind left them, and that he wanted 'us' to grow it here because its location to grow is very important. This entire area we quartered off so that it would have all the space, soil, nutrients, and 'EVERYTHING' needed to grow healthily. We spent 'days' making sure there aren't any weed seeds to be found and no little critters under the soil to threaten its growth! And that drone was left here to make sure it 'stays' safe from any mammal wanting to steal it!"
She just looked even more confused as she heard his explanation, but she coughed and tried to sound professional again. "Be that as it may, that thing is interrupting our investigation, so we are going to remove it by 'force'." She said. "We'll try to avoid collateral damage but if that thing continues to resist, we'll be forced to use more lethal force. For your safety we ask that you please evacuate the premises."
"That's it you done gone too far now!" Bonnie snapped as she started rummaging around her pocket. "I am calling the sheriff; I am going to have you arrested for violating our property and our rights!"
Only she didn't have her phone on her.
"Honey I left my phone inside I'm going to call the sheriff."
"You do that, and as for you, get off MY LAND!" Stu screamed. "That thing has more right to be here than 'any' of you!"
While his wife went into the house to fetch her phone and call the authorities, he was busy trying to shoo the suits and get them to leave. Meanwhile the drone continued to stand its ground refusing to budge, protecting the seed with its body. His kids were watching the scene unfold from the house as he yelled and demanded they leave.
Inside the house Bonnie was just about to dial the sheriff when her daughter suddenly called.
"Judy darling now is not the time I'm trying to call the sheriff!" She said quickly.
"Mom, are there federal agents there?" Her daughter asked.
"Uh… yes why?" She said.
"Listen mom, we're on our way with Jeremy, whatever you do 'keep them busy'. And when we arrive pretend like I did not call you, and act like you'd forgotten that you invited us all over for dinner! We'll explain 'everything' when we get there and aren't being overheard."
"Uh… okay honey… how long are you out?"
"About ten minutes, I've been trying to call you for over an hour, sorry."
"Oh, honey I'm sorry, I forgot my phone inside when they started poking their noses. Oh, and honey, tell Jeremy to please hurry, they started shooting at his drone and I'm worried about the seed!"
"We'll be there soon!" With that she hung up.
Bonnie nodded and dialed the sheriff's office and made her report, demanding that the police arrive and get these suits off her family's farm. Then she ran out to join her husband and keep them busy like her daughter asked.
"Ma'am for the last time please evacuate your family off the premises, and let us do our jobs." The suit growled in frustration while the drone still stared at them.
"And I'm saying get off of my land, you are NOT welcomed, you are NOT wanted, and you are trespassing on MY PROPERTY!" Stu yelled back.
"I already called the sheriff; they are sending a car out here to get you suits off our land!" Bonnie said also.
That was when two of their little ones Roxy and Todd ran out the backdoor of their home and toward them.
"Roxy, Todd get back in the house now!" Stu demanded of them. "And what did I tell you about crossing that line of Midnicampum holicithias!"
Their children slid to a stop just before they crossed the line of flowers and yelled, "Mom, Dad, Jeremy's here!"
"Jeremy?" The suit asked incredulously.
"Oh, dearie me I completely forgot to make dinner and start baking the cake!" Bonnie muttered, pretending to sound shocked.
"Wait, you did?" Stu said in confusion.
"Honey how can you remember every single one of our kid's names and birthdays, but you can't remember when we invited Jeremy and his friends over to celebrate twelve of our little one's birthdays over family dinner?" She said in her 'shame on you' voice hoping he got the message and to play along. "We invited them earlier, how could you forget?"
"Oh, sweet cracked corn… I completely forgot…" Stu muttered as he pretended to nod in agreement, before turning to stare angrily at the suits. "Well now your going to get your proof, and I want you off my land afterwards!"
(Jeremy's PoV)
As the carriage stopped, he and Gazelle were the first to step out, followed by Judy and Nick and then finally Donny, Franky, Moe and Joe. All of them stretching after being in the carriage for nearly two hours. The RAPTOR drones, not having muscles and no cramps, simply proceeded to scan for potential threats with their blue optics shining.
"Well let's go say hi to my folks, uh hope you don't mind eating with over three hundred rabbits." Judy said. "Last time I lived in Bunny Burrows I only had two hundred and thirty-seven brothers and sisters."
"How…" Jeremy asked, but then remembered an important fact about rabbits, and so chose not to ask. "Anyway, since we're here we can check on the seed's progress. I know it's only been a few weeks since we left it but I'm curious as to how fast it will grow."
"You are one impatient human; don't you know growing stuff takes time?" Nick chuckled.
"Yea but that's normal plants, what about a super seed?" Jeremy countered back as they started making their way to the family home.
"Jeeeeremy!" They heard someone call and turned to see Judy's parents walking over to them, accompanied by a female timber wolf in suit who looked like an official of some kind.
"Ooooh how are you Jeremy I am so sorry we completely forgot you were coming; we had some uninvited company and they just completely sidetracked us and made us completely forget you were coming here!" Bonnie said as she walked over and shook his and Gazelle's hands. "Welcome to our family farm miss Gazelle, and you too Nick, and my little Judy welcome home! Oh, and I did not forget you four as well, you are Gazelle's friends who work for her right?""
"Yea that's us ma'am." Moe chuckled as they all shook Bonnie and Stu's hands.
"It's nice to be here ma'am." Gazelle said warmly as she greeted bonnie as well.
"Nice to be here Mr. and Mrs. Hopp." Nick said with a smile.
After they all greeted each other he then turned to the Timber Wolf who was now being joined by other mammals also wearing suits and some carrying what looked like 'tracking' equipment, no doubt to try and locate the Data Sphere.
"And you are?" He asked politely, already knowing who they were and why they were there, but playing along anyway.
The wolf he addressed adjusted her spectacles and straightened her outfit before addressing him. "I'm Agent Kuala, and my team and I work for the government." She said politely. "My team is here investigating a geographical disturbance-"
"That there is a downright lie, you and your 'suits' are trespassing on my land and attacked Jeremy's drone without any reason!"
"You attacked my drone?" He said suddenly. "Is that true?"
"Well, with all due respect the 'machine' you refer to as a drone threatened and attacked us." She tried countering.
He sighed as he held his face before turning to Stu, "Did you tell them about the seed and why the drone is here in the first place?"
"We tried but these folks wouldn't listen and shot your drone while it was just doing its job!" Bonnie said. "I even called the Sheriff and they'll be here in a short while to have you all arrested and off our property!"
"With all due respect ma'am, we still are conducting our investigation." She said.
"Alright then while you do that, I am going to talk to OK-101 and hear it's side of the story." He said politely. "Mr. and Mrs. Hopps, do you require any help with preparing dinner? I know we arrived a bit earlier than expected but if you want my RAPTOR drones can help you with 'some' tasks if you wish."
"Oh no need dear, I can handle it just fine, why don't you all go inside and meet the family while Jeremy and 'Kuala' go and talk to his drone!" Bonnie said.
"And I'll wait out here for the sheriff!" Stu said.
"Alright, thank you very much for having us!" Jeremy said warmly as he walked and was joined by one of his escort RAPTORs and Kuala with her team, while everyone else went into the house.
He approached the plot of land allotted to the seed by Judy's parents squared off by several flowers. In the middle of it was a crouched RAPTOR drone, it's optics yellow and snarling at Kuala and her team as he approached.
"Drone, stand down." He ordered.
The drone's optics changed blue and instantly it ceased growling and stood at attention.
"Alright, what happened?"
[This unit had just finished its recharging cycle, Unit Jeremy, and was returning to its standard post.] It stated. [Upon gaining sight of the post, this unit spotted intruders within the area you ordered this unit to protect, and proceeded to warn them to leave the area. Its warning went unheeded and they open fired on this unit with small-arms fire, attempting to destroy this unit. In retaliation this unit used the required force to disarm and dissuade them from further attempts.]
"Is the seed safe, is all I want to know now." He asked coldly.
[Affirmative, no harm was done to the seed's location, all damage was done to this unit's armor, which sustained no damage.] It stated.
"Phew…" He sighed in relief, before turning to the agent. "I expect an apology for what you did to my drone 'and' for threatening a precious seed I left the Hopps to take care of."
"A-an apology?" She stammered. "Mr. Jeremy Wilheart, while you may be an endangered species you are 'not' above the law. This drone is trespassing on this property and you are not permitted to do whatever it is you want in this country."
"The only mammals trespassing on this property is you lot!" Stu yelled as he arrived and was now under the company of a pair of grizzly bears in rural officer uniforms, one of them wearing a badge with the word 'Sheriff' on it. "That drone has 'all' the permission to be here, but you lot showed up and refused to leave when you gave us that pathetic excuse for a story!"
"As I said we are conducting an investigation for…" Kuala said as she tried to pull out her badge, but was silenced as the Sheriff stood up to her.
"Save the government speech for a mammal who doesn't know what you're talking about." He said with a snarl. "I know the government rules about who is permitted on this land, this farmland all belongs to the Hopps family, and under Article Fifteen, subsection twelve, paragraph fifteen… 'no mammal' and that means 'no mammal', may perform ANY activity which may disrupt or interfere in the daily livelihood of the owners of this land. And as for your 'reason'… I have a seismometer at the county police station, and it's been quiet here for thirty years. Now… unless you have a 'permit' which lets you do whatever it is your 'really' here for…" He leaned forward and growled, "Get off their property, or I'm going to exercise my legal right at the state level… to detain you until someone at the government pays your bail!"
"Grh…" She muttered before pointing at the drone. "Where's the proof that this human has done what these mammals are saying, and planted a 'tree seed' here, that warrants one of his 'drones' to be here twenty-four seven?"
"Drone?" Jeremy said with a smile, "Show them…"
OK-101 nodded and stepped aside at long last, to show, in the exact middle of the section of land outlined in Night Howler flowers…
A single… tiny… sprout… poking out from the dirt.
"It still amazes me that thing is growing as fast as you said it would Jeremy." Stu said with a proud smile. "We been feeding it every day, tending to it and making sure nothing is wrong, and we just noticed the little sprout poking outa the ground there. I know you said it was a tree combined with a weed to make it grow fast, but I still can't believe it's growing 'that' fast!"
Agent Kuala however was not looking as impressed with the plant growing right where the drone had been standing guard, and the Sheriff in contrast was grinning as he leaned down and said into her ear, "You have 'five' minutes to vacate the area, before I'm hauling you all in."
After a few seconds she gritted her teeth and signaled her fellow agents to follow her, and they all began leaving the area. Once out of sight the Sheriff stepped over and shook his hand in greeting. "Nice to meet you Jeremy, Name's Smokey, Sheriff Smokey." He said. "Happy to make your acquaintance, everymammal out here knows all about you and what you did for us all with the vaccines and cures was really nice of you."
"It's a pleasure, and I am sorry for any trouble we caused, but that seed the Hopps have planted here is very important to my species. It's the last from my kind and carries all their hopes with it, I need to keep it safe at all costs until its mature enough. While its still growing it is at risk of being stolen or destroyed by accident, and that is why my drone is out here."
"No problem at all sir, just pleased to make your acquaintance and glad to be of service here." He said with a smile. "Well Mr. Hopps, we're heading back to town, if you have any more problems give us a call!"
"Thank you, Smokey, and come on by anytime you and your wife want to visit, we'll whip up something for you to chow down on!" Stu said as the Grizzly walked off.
Once he was out of earshot though he whispered to Jeremy, "Between you an me he still scares me, only still getting over my fear of predators recently, since ya know I got a son in law who is one now."
"No problem, now then, OK-101, resume what I ordered you to do, and as for you KP-503, return to the carriage and stand watch until further notice." He ordered.
[As you command.] Both drones stated while bowing their heads to him, before KP-503 turned and marched off, and OK-101 resumed standing guard over the tiny plant.
(Kuala's PoV)
She watched from her van through a pair of binoculars, watching as one of the drones walked away while the other resumed standing guard over the plant. As they left Mr. Hopp went with Jeremy to his home and walked inside.
"Tch, this complicates things…" She muttered as she turned to her team who were watching various computer screens inside the vehicle. "Is that signal still being broadcast?"
"Yes, we're still picking it up, its coming from where the drone is standing." One of her agents said. "Can't tell how deep it is… but it's still there."
"Is there any chance he knows what we're here for?" She asked.
"Doesn't seem like it, based on how he reacted."
She frowned as she watched the farmhouse for activity, but so far, the only activity was coming from inside the house, the drones watching the human's Carriage were simply standing and looking around. None of them looked at them in their vehicle, and other than that one drone that accompanied the human, none of them showed any further movement.
"Contact HQ, tell them we need a permit to dig on the Hopps property for the signal we're detecting, and we need it 'tomorrow'." She said.
"Why tomorrow, why not just wait until the human is gone and then come back with the permit at a later date?"
"Because we 'know' that signal is not mammal, and if its Human, then it won't take that human long to find it and try to claim it for himself!" She said. "You know how advanced and powerful that species is, if this thing is human then whatever it is, we can take it back and study it, maybe even reverse engineer it and gain a huge advantage for our nation."
She remembered the briefings, the video feeds, every single document they had on the 'hostage incident' in which a group of heavily armed mammals tried to do something to Jeremy, causing potentially lethal harm to him. The response from the human's facility was brutal, but also deadly efficient. The briefing stated that with the human's level of technology, even their most advanced Tank would be no match for one of those drones.
She resumed watching the drones again, staring at their prehistoric yet futuristic nature, each one the equivalent of a battalion of soldiers, and each more heavily armed and armored than their best tanks are.
"Obtaining 'one' of those would make us a superpower on the world stage… but as long as the human has control over them… we're at 'his' mercy."
(Jeremy's and Gazelle's PoV, hours later Night-Time)
"Haaaaaapy birthday to yoooooou!" Everyone shouted in a massive chorus as Bonnie and Stu Hopp planted the 'enormous' cake on the table with the words Happy Birthday Boliqua, Bovania, Nemira, Papaya, Terrance, Terrace, Julie, Madonna, Matilda, Paul, Robberto and Robbert written on it in frosting.
"Blow out the candles!" Gazelle called out.
As one all twelve of Judy's little brothers and sisters blew out the candles to cheers and applause.
"Mamma you have outdone yourself once again, that is one fabulous looking cake you made!" Judy said as every mammal started digging into it.
"Love the blueberry frosting mmmmhmmm!" Nick said as he licked his fingertips.
"Mhmm this is delicious!" Moe called out.
"Love birthday parties." Franky said in agreement.
"Can't beat homemade cake, nothing is better than a mother's cooking!" Donny also said in agreement.
Joe quickly hushed his brothers though while everyone was digging into the cake and whispered, "Ex nay on the 'cooking mother'…", while glancing at Jeremy who was eating his piece of the carrot cake.
Jeremy however had heard him, but pretended not to have heard him. He hardly knew his mother; she left his life too early in his life for him to remember much about her. He also did not know what 'mother's cooking' was, so there was nothing to miss. He kept his emotions in check, not wanting to spoil the festivities or the atmosphere.
He was drinking some tea Bonnie Hopp made for him since he couldn't drink the cold beverages the others were drinking on account of his disease. As he took a sip he stared at 'all' of the Hopps family in the huge living room, amazed that the family could fit so many into one location. He was more amazed that Judy's parents knew the name of 'every' one of their children and could call them out with just a glance of their faces. He barely could keep track of any of them, including those who had birthday cones on their heads.
"Say Jeremy, did humans have any birthday party games?" Gazelle asked as she ate a slice of cake.
He turned to Gazelle and nodded. "Before my time we did yea, though I don't know many of them."
"Wow, you played games on your birthdays?" One of Judy's brothers asked him eagerly, running up to him. "Can we play any of them?"
"Hmmm, well the one that I know of was 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey', thooough we don't have a picture of a donkey to use here… hmmm…" He thought to himself before having an idea. "Mr. and Mrs. Hopp, do you mind if one of my drones come in here?"
"Uh, what for?" Bonnie asked curiously.
"You'll see, and we'll need some blindfolds!"
"I can grab a few!" One of Judy's sisters called out, and within minutes several pieces of cloth were handed to him.
"Great, now all I need is a drone…" He said as he walked to the front door and yelled, "CAN ONE OF YOU RAPTORS COME HERE PLEASE?"
Within a few seconds Jeremy walked back into the living room accompanied by one of his RAPTOR drones. As he and it walked through, every one of Judy's brothers and sisters got out of their way. But instead of looking in fear they looked at it with awe and wonder, as if they were more amazed to see something like it.
"Alright now, give me two seconds…" He muttered as he made the drone face the wall and bent near its tail. "Push this button… press a few hinges in… aaaaaand…"
-Plunk-
"Instant 'Pin the Tail on the Raptor'!" He yelled as the last three inches of tail fell off, leaving a small stub with holes exposed. "The game is played like this, some of you are blindfolded, and you have to carry the drone's tail while every mammal here yells out instructions to guide you into sticking the tail back on the drone. As a reward…" He pointed at the drone and the drone looked at him in response. "Those who correctly reattach the tail, will get to ride UN-071's back here around the house"!"
"OH, US FIRST, US FIRST!" Several of the little family members eagerly screamed.
Within moments six of them were blindfolded and lifting up the drone's tail, all of them having to work together to carry it because it was rather 'heavy' for them. Then every other mammal was shouting out instructions and telling them which way to walk, telling them how close or how far away they were, to turn left or right, up or down, all to guide them and help them put the tail back on the drone.
"Yaaaaaaay!" Everyone shouted as they correctly replaced the tail and then Donny, Franky, Moe and Joe pulled the tail off and held it for the next group to try.
While he watched them, all playing with the drone, happy that they weren't afraid of it, he decided to quietly leave the room and head outside into the night air.
Thinking privately, he decided to walk toward the seed's location, wanting to look at it again.
"Jeremy?" Gazelle asked as she followed him, knowing he wanted to be alone.
"Yes Gazelle?" He asked, turning to face her as she walked up to him and held him.
She just responded with a gentle kiss before smiling sadly at him. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm alright… it's just, seeing them all happy… eating cake… all enjoying their time together while celebrating their birthdays… reminded me that I've… never had a birthday like what they had growing up."
She smiled sadly, knowing that while she celebrated his birthday, heck giving him every male's 'dream birthday present', having a birthday party as a kid was something he never experienced. He played no games as a kid, enjoyed no cake, had no parties with friends and family… did not have that 'special feeling' one has on their special day of the year. Such simple things like 'eating mother's cooking' like one of her friends commented, was something he never had… eating food made by drones all his life.
"Don't worry, I'm fine really… I can't miss anything I never had really." He said with a sigh, but Gazelle knew that was a downright lie.
She could tell when he was lying, her heart could feel the tiny pang of sorrow, and her heart told her exactly what to do.
She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him sweetly on the lips. It wasn't a passionate kiss, it wasn't one out of lust, and it wasn't just to say, 'I love you'. It was a kiss to tell him what he did have, what he had 'now', and that he would always have it now because she wasn't going to let him go.
He responded in kind as he gently cupped her cheek and leaned into her lips, and stayed that way for several minutes before she pulled away with a loving smile.
"Say Gazelle, do you want to see the seed?" He asked her.
She nodded and together they walked over to the plot of land where OK-101 was still standing guard. She smiled as the drone nodded to them, and at his request, stepped aside to show them the tiny little sprout, poking its head out of the ground.
"Wow…" She muttered. "It's like your father said…"
"All the magic of creation… in a single tiny seed." He said. "It's not much now… but soon it will grow to become a tree, and depending on it's rate of growth it may bear fruit before it's fully matured."
"Your species is amazing Jeremy… that even if it was a drone who helped, they could create something like 'that'." She muttered to him.
"I'm just happy to know the seed will grow, and that everything my father did to get it to me, will not be in vain." He whispered to her.
"Nothing is ever done in vain Jeremy… nothing." She told him warmly as she leaned on him.
He then turned to her and she smiled as he did so, before he leaned forward and kissed her gently on her lips. After a few seconds she turned to face him, and he pushed her down to lie flat on the earth.
"Jeremy… mhmm we really shouldn't do it outside…" She whispered to him quietly. "What if the Hopps or somemammal catches or sees us?"
He grinned before turning to the drone, which was still standing guard, completely ignoring them as they made out in front of it. "Drone, link up to the other RAPTORs and alert us if any mammal leaves the Hopps home, or is nearby."
[As you command…] It stated with a nod, and after a few seconds its optics changed colors before returning to blue. [Link established… all units are still within the living room playing 'Pin the Tail on the Raptor', no other mammals detected within range…]
"It's nice to have a few drones watching out for us isn't it?" He whispered to her.
"You are so bold now Jeremy…" She giggled as she smirked, happy to have worn a skirt today instead of pants. "I like it…"
"When you have a beautiful girlfriend, who wouldn't be bold with them every chance he can?"
"I'm not complaining… now come here!" She giggled as she pulled him in for a more 'passionate' kiss. "Mhmm… mhmmmhmmm~."
While she kissed him ferociously her legs wrapped around and locked him in place from behind, pulling him closer into her embrace even as she wrapped her hands around his back, drawing him as close as possible to her. She didn't understand why but she was just 'extremely' eager to do it with him, the thought of being with him, being so close, making love to him just felt like a good idea. It almost felt instinctual at this point to her.
"Jeremy…" She panted as he started kissing lower and lower, slowly making his way down her neck and closer to her breasts, which he carefully exposed and cupped in his hands, massaging her 'twins' one at a time. "Ooooh… yes… ah~."
He kissed her small but still wonderfully soft breasts, cupping both of them in his hands and feeling their softness through her thin layer of fur. He licked his tongue across her breasts and played with her protruding nipple, causing her to gasp and moan in pleasure.
"Ahhhh… Jeremy… oh… your tongue… oh please keep doing that!" She gasped in pleasure, while her legs began shifting and trying to pull him into her, simulating the motions of Jeremy thrusting into her and trying to entice his dick to harden, and get him inside of her faster.
He did as she asked and continued to play with her breasts, squeezing one gently while he licked and sucked on the other. Then after he felt her nipple becoming hard, he switched roles and began sucking and licking her other breast.
Gazelle was in paradise as he played with her body, having gained a lot of knowledge about her in the past week with her constantly enticing him to make love to her. Curiously she only ever acted this way when they were alone. In public or around others, she showed affection but never to this extent. But as he played with her nipples, and she felt his 'manhood' pitching quite the tent in his pants through her panties, which were becoming soaked in excitement, she just wished he would start thrusting into her already and truly bring her to climax.
As he released her breasts, he returned to kissing her lips while he reached lower and started to undo his pants to release his now hardened dick which was painfully telling him his clothes were too tight. While he kissed and released his belt, and started to remove his boxers, he once again smelled that strange yet oddly sweet scent. He only ever smelled it around Gazelle when they were having sex, and he started smelling it after his birthday.
"I've been… meaning to ask." He said as he kissed her, while he felt one of her hands let him go so it could reach toward her panties and help shift them out of the way. "What's that perfume you've been using… it smells wonderful…"
Instantly Gazelle let go and said in slight panic, "What perfume, I haven't been wearing any perfume recently?"
He looked at her in surprise, "Then what's that wonderful scent I've been smelling from you recently?"
Her eyes went wide as she heard those words, as suddenly her mind seemed to have formed some semblance of clarity through the haze of desire and lust she'd been feeling so far. She quickly started running through her memory, and thought about every day she's been making love to Jeremy and began connecting the dots about how she was so 'eager' to make love to him. "Jeremy, when did you first smell this scent I've been giving up?"
"Uh… after my birthday, like the next morning was when I first…" He started saying before she looked nervous and worried.
"Jeremy… how much has Ema told you about… well… mammal biology?" She said quietly.
"Nothing outside of the internal organs… and helping me to correct the artificial organs I was working on. Why?"
She began breathing heavily in fear, as she looked into his blue eyes, and took a calming breath to explain. "Jeremy… Antelopes like me, and other mammal species have what we call… an 'Estrus Cycle'… I don't know what it was like for my human times but… as an Antelope I have two Estrus Cycles per year. With all that happened over these past months, I forgot to take my medication to help me deal with it and kill it before it begins." She told him. "It lasts for about a week, six days total, maybe seven… but during that time I am… at my most 'fertile' and more susceptible to becoming pregnant."
At that his eyes went wide, if that's the case then…
"If what Ema said yesterday was true… I managed to avoid it so far… but… Jeremy… I could be pregnant now… or I might become pregnant after tonight."
"Gazelle… I told you that I might not even be capable of getting you pregnant." He told her truthfully.
"That was before… maybe you 'can' now… maybe its possible… and if it is, whether or not I am doesn't matter… I want you to know that…" She said as she placed a hand on his cheek and smiled warmly. "I want it… I want to bear your children Jeremy, I'm truly ready to start a family with you if you truly want one with me."
"Gazelle…" He whispered in surprise as he held her cheek as well.
"Do you… not want a family with me?" She asked hopefully, not knowing if he truly wanted to start a family with her.
She'd skimmed over that detail in her feelings of love for him, her desire to just 'be' with him, to hold him, to tell the world that not only had the last of humanity won her heart but that she'd won his in return, that she did not consider the possibility that Jeremy might not want to have children with her or want to raise a family. Jeremy was quiet for several seconds, during which she waited for his answer, but every second he delayed caused her to worry even more.
Then Jeremy took a deep breath and looked into her eyes, her gentle, hopeful, beautiful eyes that helped save him on the cold, deadly rainy day so many months ago.
"Gazelle… I want you to have my children if its possible." He stated at last. "I want you to have my children, and I want to raise them with you, no matter what happens… till the day I day…"
She smiled and cried tearfully as she kissed him lovingly, her fears abated, and her heart pounding in happiness even as his responded in turn. Both of their hearts seemed to collide against one another, and Gazelle's smothered his in its warmth and love, so happy that it had made the right choice to love him and his feeling the exact same way.
"Then tonight… right here… it's probably my last night of Estrus Jeremy… which means I'm at my most fertile." She said happily. "Tonight, right here… don't worry if we can or can't, just do it… make love to me and try your absolute hardest to impregnate me, and I'll do my absolute hardest to 'become' pregnant!"
He nodded in understanding and once more resumed making out with her, though with more passion than before.
"Mhmmm!" She moaned as she responded, shifting her position to give him easier access to her soaking entrance.
After a few seconds they separated and she nodded with a warm smile, signaling him to begin.
He nodded and lowered his boxers enough to expose his stiff member, which met the entrance to her pussy which her hand exposed by shifting her panties just enough. He pressed the tip to her entrance, which pulsed in excitement while dripping her essence in preparation. Her Estrus Cycle was on full display to their nose as she knew instinctively that this was her best and last chance for several more months to become pregnant.
Without further ado, he pressed into her and she moaned in pleasure as he slowly hilted in her.
She breathed deeply before smiling at him. "Perfect fit… now give me your baby seed Jeremy… do your best for me, and I'll do my best for you."
He nodded and kissed her, before thrusting into her at a slow and steady pace.
"Ah… ah… ahhh… oooh… yes… yes… oh yes… Jeremy…" She gasped as she felt his manhood pushing into her passage.
She could feel every vein, every inch of it, even the rim of the tip of his dick she could feel along her body. Every time he thrust into her she felt his dick pushing the entrance to her womb, almost like it 'knew' what they were trying to do and was trying its hardest to force its way into her womb, to ensure maximum potential to impregnate her.
"Jeremy… harder… I feel your dick… my womb… push harder… harder!"
"Alright!" He moaned as he adjusted his position so that his hands were using the ground as leverage, and began thrusting harder as she requested.
"Ah… oh… yes… ah… yes… yes… right there… there… there… AHHH~!" She gasped as her womb's entrance was penetrated, her cervix opening and closing, just at the right time so that his dick was now firmly lodged into her womb, and wouldn't be let go until the thing they were trying to do was done.
Her womb would get the 'full' payload, and wouldn't let him out until that was done.
"YES… YES… YES!" She screamed in pleasure as he shoved harder and harder into her pussy, her body absolutely burning compared to how 'wet' she was.
"Gazelle… your… so… tight… it feels so good!" He yelled as he leaned forward and pecked her lips every chance he could.
"And you… you feel… so big… I can't take… it anymore!" She moaned passionately, before she pulled him into a tight hug and kissed him, unable to take the pecks anymore. "Mhmm mmhmmm hmmmm~!"
"Mmhmm hmm mpaaah…" He said before he began thrusting harder, feeling his release approaching at long last. "Gazelle… I'm about to…"
"Do it… inside of me… give me your baby… give me 'everything'!" She yelled as she felt her own release approaching.
After a few seconds of thrusting, he hilted at long last and released everything he had been holding back until this moment. His dick exploded into her womb filling it heavily while her own body exploded, releasing her own juices onto his dick and mixing the tiny traces of his seed escaping her body, to form an airtight seal so that as little escaped.
Both of them gasped in pleasure as she held him close to her, and shared a slow but loving embrace.
'Alright little ones… do your best… and body, do 'your' best…' She thought to herself as she felt extremely 'full'.
After a while of recovering they both got up with Gazelle replacing her panties to try and keep her entrance from leaking any of his cum, and Jeremy making himself more presentable. Before they returned, he ordered OK-101 to communicate with the other drones to tell a different story if any mammal asked. Then they made their way back to the party inside the house which had been going on for so long thanks to all of Judy's brothers and sisters wanting to try and pin the tail on the raptor drone. None of them ever noticed they had been gone, and when Stu asked where they'd been, the drone instantly responded for him saying, [Unit Jeremy and Unit Gazelle were observing the seed, and accidentally fell asleep for a brief period of time.]
Everyone bought the story, and none of them knew what happened, while Gazelle held her belly and hoping for life to find a way for them.
She wasn't sure if it was possible, but she would try her best, try her hardest…
Then she had a thought as she imagined becoming pregnant, before looking at Jeremy while he laughed as some of the little bunnies accidentally plugged the tail in off to the side with all the other mammals in the room.
'If I become pregnant… what will our children look like… human or…?'
(Kuala's PoV)
"Yaaaaaaawn…"
She rubbed her eyes and returned to monitoring the drones again, but even after three hours they had not budged in the slightest.
"Why did I take first watch…" She grumbled as she drank some coffee.
Then as she put her cup down, she spotted one of the drones guarding the carriage turn and start marching toward the farmhouse. Instantly she watched it moving, watching it's every step and trying to figure out what it was doing. But the only thing the damned human machine did was walk into the farmhouse. She expected maybe to hear screaming but instead she was hearing laughter and cheers and mixed yelling of words from where her crew's van was positioned.
She grumbled to herself until, again, she spotted movement and saw the human walking out and looking up at the sky. Moments later he was joined by Gazelle, who held him close and seemed to say sweet words to him, before they kissed and embraced one another.
"Acting all sweet huh?" She muttered as they simply talked and then moved off.
She watched their progress until they reached the edge of her binocular's vision and saw them taking a seat near the 'seed' the drone was guarding, and saw it get up and out of their way.
"Showing your girlfriend your precious seed huh?" She muttered to herself. "What are you 'really' up to? Do you know what's out here or are you just as blind as my colleague said you are?"
As she watched a strnage shimmer flashed before her eyes, and she looked in confusion before rubbing the lens of her binoculars, and watched the human with his girlfriend, just sitting there.
"I coulda sworn I saw something…"
(KL-23's PoV)
It sat concealed with its holographic emitters casting the illusion of itself appearing to be a large rock lying on the road, while its more 'specialized' emitters were casting an illusion upon the lens of the mammal's binoculars to conceal from her view Unit Jeremy and Unit Gazelle engaging in what they labeled 'Private affairs between Jeremy and Gazelle that they weren't meant to concern themselves with', so that Jeremy and Gazelle could have privacy, as per AI-Aelita's wishes to keep the government mammals out of their business.
It kept it up until OK-101 reported Jeremy and Gazelle were getting up, and created the image using the link it had established with OK-101 to fool them and create them getting up in real time with their real life counterparts, and then ended its illusion, so that all the spying government agent saw was Jeremy and Gazelle walking close together. Then it resumed 'it's' watch of them…
(Gazelle's PoV)
The next morning Gazelle woke up alongside Jeremy on a soft bed that Stu and Bonnie had kindly given them in the guest room, while in the other guest room and even Judy's room, her friends and Nick also woke up. She knew instantly that her Estrus had passed, and only wondered if Jeremy had succeeded in impregnating her.
However, they had other things to do as they began to leave, thanking Bonnie for her family's hospitality for letting them stay the night.
"Oh, don't worry about it dear, you and Jeremy and all your friends are always welcomed to stop by for family dinner!" She said. "Let us know a day in advance though, and I can invite Stu's and 'my' sides of the family, and we can have a big old family reunion! We'll have a barbeque and make lots of goodies for you all!"
"Thank you very much Mrs. Hopp, we'll consider it in the future, but for now we have to return to Zootopia." He said before they heard a commotion from outside.
"You all again?!" Stu yelled from outside.
They all left the house to find Stu yelling angrily as the same group of 'government agents' were standing on his farmland with equipment again and walking toward the farmland that had been quartered off for Jeremy's tree seed. The drone was watching the group carefully, teeth at the ready as it prepared to defend the location if necessary, to keep the seed protected.
"What in tarnation are you all doing on my land again, honey call the sheriff tell him we need him down here!"
"No need to call, I'm already here." Sheriff Smokey hollered as he was also walking toward them, not happy to see the suits either. "I got a call, was told to come down here, something about a 'warrant' to dig up the area."
"Yes, as you so kindly asked of us yesterday, we obtained a warrant to search for what we came for." Agent Kuala said coldly as she pulled out a folded piece of paper and showed it to Mr. Hopp. "You see, we were indeed lying yesterday about the tremors, we were actually here because we detected a signal on your property transmitting and were ordered to investigate it. We know it's around this location, and now we have the permit to investigate and discover what it is that's broadcasting the signal."
"Signal?" He asked in confusion as Sheriff Smokey looked at the warrant and said it was all in order.
"Alright so what is this 'signal' your detecting?" He asked. "And be specific, because your warrant only lets you dig for 'that' signal if you can detect it on this property."
She smirked as she showed them a device which was pinging the location of something sending out a signal radiating out from the drone's location in front of them.
"As you can see, we're detecting something around here, probably underground, and its right around that location. We can't be sure of the exact depth, but we know its on this land and we need to figure it out, and recover it if necessary. Depending on what it is we may have to temporarily confiscate the surrounding landscape and…"
"Signal…" Jeremy yelled as if he suddenly remembered something while hitting his fists together. "That's what I forgot I also came out here to do! Thanks for reminding me!"
"Wha-?" Kuala muttered as Jeremy walked over to OK-101.
"Drone, hold still…" He muttered as he went around to the side and pressed a button on the left side of the unit.
The drone nodded and simply waited while Jeremy exposed a section of its head, removing the armored panels and showing its internal mechanisms and cybernetics.
"Where is it… where is it…" He complained as he grunted and struggled to grab at something blind, until he cheered in success. "There… found the little bugger!"
He cheered and smacked something inside the drone, which caused the equipment the agents were holding to stop beeping.
"There we go… finally shut that thing off." He exclaimed as he tapped the button and closed up the drone's head.
"Agent Kuala, the signal's stopped transmitting." One of the other agents said quietly.
"What?" She snapped and looked for herself, pushing several switches and buttons and trying to find the signal again, but nothing happened. "It's… gone…"
"Yea, I'm sorry but my drone suffered a malfunction while it was out here, it probably bumped its head on something and was sending out a distress signal on a wide band. Sentinel my facility's base AI has been constantly telling me that a drone was in distress out here and was asking for assistance for days. Wouldn't shut up about it, Stu and Bonnie's dinner invitation gave me an excuse to finally come out here and shut it up. I completely forgot about it though when everything happened yesterday, my apologies." He said with an apologetic chuckle. "Human tech, what can I say… sometimes its reliable and sometimes it just acts stupid!"
He then turned to the drone and said in a serious tone, "Now drone, no more sending out distress signals unless you are truly in distress and require assistance. Am I clear?"
[Yes, unit Jeremy, this unit will obey your order.] It stated.
"Great, alright everyone let's get going, have to get Judy and Nick back in time for work! And if I remember your agent has you down for some kind of modelling session right Gazelle?"
"Yep, let's get going, can't keep my agent waiting." She replied with a chuckle as they all started leaving to return to the carriage and head back to Zootopia.
(Kuala's PoV)
She stared and watched Jeremy leaving with all of his party and his drones, minus the one still standing guard over the seed planted in the ground. She and her team had watched them all night, none of them did anything suspicious, and now apparently his 'drone' was the one broadcasting the signal this entire time?
Did they really come out here because one of his 'drones' suffered a simple malfunction?
"Well, seeing as your signal has been discovered and now answered… I guess your warrant to dig up this place is now 'null and void'." Smokey said with a grin. "You have five minutes to vacate the premises, or I'm calling you in."
She growled in anger as she smashed her equipment on the ground and left in a rage, followed by her team.
(Stu's PoV)
Not taking kindly to the agents who left with the Sheriff, he and Bonnie picked up and threw out the equipment before heading into the barn.
"I still can't believe how they got whatever they were looking for past those agent's noses." Bonnie said.
"Honey, when it comes to humans and their fancy tech… we're better off not knowing." Stu said with a smile as he stared at the large hole in the middle of the barn.
It was a rather large tunnel that dug under the barn and for who knows how far, all the dirt was surrounding the entrance, and something was dragged up and out of it.
Now all he had to do was throw all the dirt back into the hole.
(Jeremy's PoV)
They all looked with Aelita in her holosphere at the beautiful stainless-steel sphere with golden rims along its center, and various access ports and lights blinking. The Data Sphere had been buried underneath the Hopps barn far beneath the surface of the earth, so deep that the ANTs which had been digging almost since they arrived had 'only' just recovered it fifteen minutes before they all woke up. And narrowly got it inside the carriage before the agents arrived under the cover of Holograms cast by the FOX drones.
But their effort had been worth it, as when Aelita made contact with the sphere, she deactivated the homing beacon so that the drone could cover for the sphere's recovery and get the government away from Judy's family farm.
Aelita stared in awe and wonder at the sphere, her eyes gazing at something from humanity's golden age of peace. Just like the Solar Core, this sphere contained data, information, knowledge from humanity's golden age when they were still at the height of their power, before the Final War.
"So that's what you came out here for?" Judy muttered. "Have to say… I didn't expect it to be that big."
"Bigger than a Hoop Ball Judy, what are you saying?" Nick said in a chuckle.
"Well don't keep us in suspense, what's inside of it?" Gazelle asked eagerly.
"Let's see… if I remember, from the schematics the access port would be… here…" He muttered as he found the port and hit a button.
Instantly it lit up and above it cast a holographic cube. The cube was segmented, with each side featuring a different color, in total six colors with each side having nine segments.
"Huh… must be some kind of access code, I can't figure it out it's nothing I'm familiar with." He muttered as he stared in confusion as to the cube's purpose. "I'm not familiar with this kind of encryption algorithm, it's nothing I've ever seen before."
None of the sides were similar, some had three or four differently colored squares, and some had two or more, all in strange patterns and organized differently.
"Aelita try and run a bypass and see if we can't…"
Instantly the cube started changing and shifting around, rotating constantly as each row or side changed and swapped around until after over a hundred rotations and shifts, the cube featured each side a solid color. Then the cube vanished and opened an access port.
"What'd you do?" He asked Aelita.
She grinned as she played something for them all, an old 'commercial' from humankind's past, featuring a product similar to what the hologram portrayed, something called a 'Rubik's Cube'.
"Why would they use a 'toy' to encrypt something containing who knows 'what' kind of data may be inside of it?"
Then he realized why, it didn't contain any military information if that was the encryption used to protect the data. "Because it wasn't meant to be hard to crack… they 'wanted' us to access it, but they also wanted to make sure that if anyone accessed it, they would be friendly enough to understand… 'why' it was buried." He said warmly. "Aelita… access the data for us please?"
She nodded and her holosphere lit up, in response the Data Sphere also responded, and glowed to indicate that she had connected to it and was now accessing the data, downloading into her memory core. She then gasped as her eyes went wide in shock.
"Aelita?" He asked, not knowing why she was acting that way. "What's wrong?"
She turned to him with her eyes still wide, crying tears as she stared at him.
"Aelita?" Gazelle muttered in fear.
"What'd you find?"
Her look of shock and tears changed, as her frown turned to a massive smile… and extended her hand to cast a holographic image for them all to view.
The image was hazy, grey and rather silent, but after a while they saw on an old styled recording of a human rocket, blasting off...
"What is…" Judy muttered in confusion as she tried to focus and see what they were all seeing.
"Shh…" Donny whispered as they started hearing some noises.
"Okay there we can see you coming down the ladder now…" A voice said over the silence, while they saw what looked like some human in a weird, oversized suit on a dark grey surface with a giant spotlight showing on them in the background.
"I'm uh, at the foot of the ladder… The LM Footpads are only uh, depressed in the surface about 1 or 2 inches."
He stared in awe… as subconsciously, he understood without ever once seeing this footage his entire life… what was happening.
"I'm going to step off the LM now." The man said.
Then…
"That's one small step for a man, one… giant leap for mankind."
They all watched in amazement, as they all realized… what they had found was worth more, than 'any' amount of money, the world could offer them. The government 'didn't' deserve the treasure trove they'd just found, only Jeremy and Aelita deserved to decide what fate befell the data inside this sphere.
"Yahoo! Tony, this is so great you can't believe it!" Another voice said as they watched the hazy footage showing the surface of the moon, and them rolling around in what looked like a small rugby vehicle.
"Oh, I believe it Charlie."
"It's running John!"
"Look at you go would you Charlie!"
"You've got all your steering its great!"
"Ah, this is going to be some kind of different ride!"
He just cried as he watched the footage, just crying in happiness as he saw his people, saw they had gone to the moon. He knew they had… but to see the 'actual' footage, of going to the moon, them landing on it… and seeing the surface from the lens of time…
Then it changed to show the human hopping around on the moon because of the low gravity environment.
"Hippity-hoppity, hippity-hoppity, hippity-hopping over the hill and dale."
Judy giggled a little even as she cried alongside Jeremy and the others.
"Da da da da da da da da da, Hippity hopping all along."
The footage changed to what looked like the landing craft on the moon sitting on the surface of the moon.
"One Ignition."
Something happened that caused the upper portion to burst and float away from the lower portion, and the camera moved to follow it.
"We're on our way Houston."
"Things are good. Looks good. Gotcha!"
It changed once more and showed three 'enormous' parachutes slowly lowering the pod over the ocean water.
"Stand by for flag down…"
The craft landed and the parachutes all floated and flopped into the water.
"Recovery. A Landing. Staaaaandby!"
The footage ended and it showed a more modern setting with a single human wearing a suit and tie, who sat in a chair and waved at the camera. "Hello there, who I am doesn't matter… what matters is… that you found this Data Sphere." He said with a smile. "Hopefully whoever you are, the world is better off than the way 'we' left it, that is all that any human can hope for in their life. To leave the world in a better state for those who will come after them, and who in turn… will do the same, so that our world, this lonely blue marble in all the galaxy, the only one we humans know of as home… will be better for future generations. Everything on this sphere, has been recorded and downloaded from everyday ordinary citizens from around the nation, as other nations are doing… to leave a message for our future generations to see."
"Each message is different… each message is special… all we ask is that you listen and remember what your parents or grandparents, or even great great great grandparents were like, so that you can know what life was like in 'my' time'. I have a message as well… but I'm not going to waste it with some boring speech about how you carry the hopes of our generation…"
He grinned as music suddenly started playing.
"My message is… 'do you still 'dance' like they did in 'my' grandparents' days." He said as he jumped off the chair and kicked it away, while mouthing. "Oh don't you dare look back, just keep your eyes on me. I said, your holding back, she said, SHUT UP AND DANCE WITH ME!"
He was then joined by other people who were also singing and dancing to the music.
And with that, they spent the rest of the trip watching 'messages' from the past, all the way to Zootopia, simply enjoying the treasure trove they had found.