Foxverse - chapter four

The Admiral stroked at the edge of his muzzle, brow furrowed as he glowered through the viewscreen. Outside, the expanse of deep space stretched before him, the countless stars of the universe presented to the longtime naval officer.

Another universe. A different universe.

"Dimensional drives winding down, sir..." the orange-furred ears of a tall, slim Lieutenant twitched as the man's fingers danced over his console, "a successful transition to the Parasite Dimension. Awaiting orders."

"Hold station for now..." the admiral commanded, twin tails writhing around his feet as he shifted in his command chair, "scan local space. See what we can find."

A throat cleared beside him, and the admiral turned with perked ears to find a brown coated fox, shorter than he yet possessing the same twin tails and orange fur as Admiral Prower himself, wandered idly to stand beside him. The fox tapped at an unlit pipe, chewing on the thing thoughtfully as he inspected the viewscreen.

"I must say, old boy..." the detective said with a wry smile, "impressive stuff! I always wanted to be a spaceman!" the fox glanced to the admiral, raising one eyebrow, "I suppose you wish to get our bearings? Before we head off on our critical mission?"

The admiral grunted. "Affirmative. As of now, we don't know anything about this universe. I want us to be ship-shaped and Bristol fashion before we go on our merry way."

The tall vulpinroid stood from his command chair and turned to address his motley crew of alternate selves. The ship's entire company was present, save for their smallest fellow who had holed himself up in one of the hangar bays.

"Gentlemen..." he said loudly and clearly, clasping his hands at the small of his back where his twin tails met his spine, "our mission begins. You have your orders. At our earliest convenience, we will be heading out for any system of interest in the range of our scanners." The corner of his mouth twitched. "Okay then, fall out. We have a job to do, let's get cracking!"

"It looks like you're destroying the ship. Would you like some help?"

NICOLE's body flowed out of a nearby computer panel, peering down impassively at Miles' handiwork.

Miles waved dismissively from the pile of metal and circuitry that had once been the bulkhead of the cargo bay he'd adopted for himself. Music, or at least a reasonably close approximation to music, improvised from semi-random beeping tones, sounded from the speakers of the Meka Teirusu where it stood close by.

"I've stuck to redundant systems only."

"Life support is not a redundant system, Mister Whatever."

"It is when it's got that many extra parts." Miles shrugged. "I put the necessary bits back when I was done."

"And why are you… 'optimizing' this vessel's cargo bay?"

"I need materials."

"There are ample-"

"Not going to engineering."

Not going near engineering.

"Besides, I'm already pretty much done." He lifted a small metal sphere from the pile, holding it aloft in his slender fingers. "Wanna see?"

The AI slipped around him, gazing at the ball from all angles.

"It seems… very round," NICOLE reported dutifully.

"It was hard, at first." Miles nodded to himself. "Figuring out what to do. What can you do when the universe is wrong? When physics won't shut up?"

"Should I fetch a crewmember to assist you, Mister Whatever?" NICOLE peered up at his grinning face, a frown on her simulated lips.

"They never did find me those mints." Miles shrugged. "You know, the old me would have just started making rings. You can do that, you know, but it's hard. Easy to find what's there, hard to find what isn't. I'd have to scrap half the ship to get it going."

"Please do not destroy half the ship, Mister Whatever."

"I told you already." Miles waved off the AI's rebuke, staring unblinkingly at the surface of the sphere. A metallic ping from within its metal surface provoked a small smile to spread across his face. "I'm done."

The sphere burst apart in his hands as the construction within concluded, metallic limbs coiled around his palm as jagged jaws that dominated its body gently probed at his gloved fingers.

"Well, I guess that makes you the mama, NICOLE." Miles raised the bot towards the AI's avatar with a grin. "Did you want to choose the name?"

"What is it?" NICOLE drifted closer to the tiny machine, a dozen red eyes across its body blinked up at her. It opened its jaws to elicit a shriek of binary. "Critterbot?"

"That's right, Critterbot Mark II." Miles continued to smile, heedless of the blood soaking into his glove where tiny metal claws dug deep. "I built the first generation to fight a war across two hundred years, Robotnik's self-replicating army against mine. But there were… sacrifices that needed to be made. Restraints on what I could let them do."

Miles gently laid his hand to the floor, allowing the creature to clamber down. Metal tentacles probed the area around it, alternating between flexible and firm as it tested its movements, looking like an unsettling fusion of spider and squid before slipping into the pile of clutter at his feet.

"So I took the brakes off." He rubbed the back of his head, leaving streaks of blood across his fur. "Based the appearance on a few old friends." His tails twitched at that, though his smile remained unchanging. "I think I'll call it... What's Tiny Friend."

"A… fitting designation, Mister Whatever. When is the last time you slept?"

Miles shrugged. "You'd need to ask your time probe that question."

Not that the device had anything left of it to ask.

"Might I suggest that I lead you to your quarters?"

"Huh? Why?" The fox tilted an ear at her. There was a binary shriek from the trash heap below him, and a metal sphere rolled from the wreckage.

Miles reached down, holding the tiny orb aloft with a broad grin as a second sphere popped out after the first. The critterbot let out another buzzing shriek from the rapidly diminishing scrap pile as a tentacle limb, much larger now, broke through the surface to drag a large bulkhead panel down into the mess.

"Hm. You know what? I guess I do have time now." He grinned, holding the sphere up to his ear to listen to the sound of minute mechanical construction within before laying it back down beside him. "Be sure to get big and strong, little friends, and be sure to mind your mama. Only eat who she tells you to, alright?"

He stood, stretching out timeless limbs with a yawn never far from his lips for the past thousand lifetimes, and pulled himself free of the mess, gingerly stepping past the clutter before slipping around NICOLE and into the Meka Teirusu. The mech sealed shut behind him.

"Oh, and NICOLE?" His calm voice crackled over the speakers.

"Yes, Mister Whatever?" The AI gazed up at the bloodstained cockpit.

"Goodnight!"

The mecha hunkered down, several cannons sprouting from its chassis automatically turning to target the AI. The critterbot, now standing almost half the mobian's height, emerged from the pile of metal, trying to nuzzle up against her with an inquisitive trill of binary as the first of its mechanical "eggs" burst open to reveal a tiny new critterbot within, already exploring its environment with hungry binary tweets.

"No, you cannot eat my foot."

There was a mechanical buzz of disappointment.

Cane was not having a good time. He and the admiral had a conversation about his role in the ship, and it was mostly focused on his own Vulpis. The idea was that they would use the technology Cane had on the Vulpis and implement it into the ship's main computer so he could neurally connect to the ship. NICOLE was a powerful AI, but she couldn't handle everything that was going on at the same time. And if they could have Cane connect to the ship's operating systems with his mind, it would be a huge relief for NICOLE.

Unfortunately, things weren't exactly looking good for the young fox. Artemis and Skye were currently next to him, trying to help him connect the damn thing into the ship.

"Geez, when do you think you guys can finish this? It's not like we have all day, you know." Cane quipped, leaning back in his seat to stretch. He has been sitting on this 'commander's seat' for what felt like an eternity now, waiting for these two to finish setting up the ship to work properly with Vulpis

"Hey, it's not easy trying to work with a completely alien device. Even your coding systems are completely different from ours." Skye shot back, angrily typing away line after line of code.

"Same here. I've never seen anything like this." Artemis scratched his head and groaned in defeat. Everyone needed a break from this mess.

But a break was not given to the gang, as a massive thud and an alarm went off alerting everyone in the room.

"Emergency. Emergency. The enemy has spotted the Warspite." NICOLE's voice echoed through the halls.

"Damnit! Hold up, Cane. This is more urgent." Skye dropped everything he was doing and left the room. Artemis left the room after Skye, and Cane was left all alone.

"...hello?"

"All decks! Red Alert! RED ALERT!"

The Warspite shook as hostile projectiles wracked her hull, Nuts Blazkowicz swearing as he fell sideways into the armored fox he knew as 'Jumper'.

"Jesus bastard cunt-fucking CHRIST!" the shorter fox rattled off as he slammed his helmet over his head, "what a fucking perfect time to ATTACK US!"

"I thought you LIKED fighting?" Jumper replied stoically, checking the systems of his weapon.

Nuts snorted. "Yeah, sure!" he scowled beneath his visor, glaring daggers at the taller soldier, "it's super fun being interrupted in the middle of a SHIT!"

Jumper smirked, the expression going unnoticed beneath his gold-visored helmet, "what's the matter, angry boi?" he chuckled, golden mask turning to face its shorter counterpart as the pair of armored warriors stomped along the deck, "worried you won't get a kill count like mine?"

Nuts paused in his stride, glaring at the much taller fox behind his blue visor… before a rotary-barrelled shotgun materialized in his hand from his armor's storage space.

"Whoever gets the most kills…." the short fox chuckled, smirking behind his visor, "buys the drinks!"

Jumper racked the bolt to his rifle and offered his companion a condescending smile. "Let's go, angry boi!"

"What the HELL is going on?!"

Admiral Prower clutched the arms of his command chair, glaring at his bridge crew as the Warspite rocked with the force of another impact.

"WHERE did those bloody things come from?!" the Admiral demanded, raising from his seat and leaning over his pilot, "we were supposed to be coasting silently!"

"Unknown, sir!" Skye responded, hands dancing across his console, "it's as though they knew we were coming!"

"Evasive maneuvers!" the Admiral cried, angrily slamming back into his seat before smacking his communications console, "Engineering! Status!"

"We're holding steady, old boy!" the refined voice of Detective Prower replied, the hat-and-coated fox materializing onscreen, "the Professor here is giving the old girl a good shove up the jacksie!"

"I would APPRECIATE…" Artemis snarled from somewhere offscreen, "a little HELP HERE?!"

"Whoops, got to go, old chap!" the detective tipped his hat and grinned mischievously, "speak to you soon!"

Admiral Prower palmed his face, cursing himself for the defective versions of… himself, that had joined him on this mission to save everything.

"Hold steady…" the Admiral gripped the edge of his seat, leaning forward and stroking his muzzle with one hand, "prepare for contact…"