Gravity Falls was empty. That very sight, seen through a massive screen, caused a roar of cheer. There was congratulations and sighs of relief; all manner of happy outcries on the bridge. This particular bridge, of the vessel in Earths lower orbit, was not the sort that crossed a river, or stream. This was a ship's command hub, filled with beings wearing thick-astronaut like suits and bubble-like headgear. In the same uniform as the officer on the planet-bound vessel, they clapped and cheered as the bay doors closed and latched shut.
In the massive bridge was a huge screen, easily some fifty feet wide and tall, displaying the earth and its local space. Many smaller displays lined on its edge, displaying the various sides of the ship form certain recording angles. A statistic bar showed that the ship had once again engaged in its cloaking shield.
"Finally," one of the seven white-clad persons said in his alien language, "They have been collected."
"Poor Animus must be terribly exhausted," One next to him said.
The two whom just spoke were stationed by a row of panels, where various controls and buttons were laid out before them. They were navigator and pilot to the vessel, and were proud of the accomplishment. Behind them and on a platform were five others, clapping their hands on their shoulders.
"This is a grand test all on its own," One of those on the platform said, overlooking the earth, "Just imagine- Animus able to sustain themselves entirely on basic supplements- that was an amazing adjustment we made!"
"Considering the average operating time was supposed to be seven sequons, I'd definitely say so," Another piped in.
"The prime council on Xabvus will have a great answer to why we hadn't returned yet," a third added declared, "Field testing the Animus like that was a fantastic idea. Where is Uki-dohth?" The person suddenly asked, looking around.
From above all the seven officers, a commanding, deep voice told them, "He is still in the research facility."
All of the figures in their body-clad uniforms turned. Sitting on a chair above them surveying everything with easy was the captain, clad just the same in the astronaut gear, but with a single bright orange stripe going past his chest at a diagonal angle.
"Don't lose track of what is ahead. We are not done yet," the captain told them, resting easily in his chair, but his voice firm and determined. He continued, "We have a single earth hour to download the information from the Animus and examine it. If Uki-Dohth can extrapolate a solution for the town down below, we will hold from announcing our return."
"But sir," one of those below urged him, "If we don't reply to the expedition force inbound, they will board the ship, and assume we are breaking from the concordant. We could be put on trial!"
"It won't come to that," the captain told him, "When they arrive, they will discover us. When that happens, we will inform them of our situation, and willingness to comply with any, and all demands. Then, we go home- with or without the solution."
The crew nodded. A few seemed reserved, but said nothing against the decisions of their superior. The pilot mumbled, "Uki-dohth won't like that very much. Poor guy's been working extra hard recently. Since those human children arrived."
"He had to," the captain stood, leaning over the ledge to peer sternly at his subordinates, "Those children were extremely close to permanently harming one of the Animus. They were extremely curious and tenacious. I would not remind you the lengths we underwent to avoid their detection."
"Don't have to remind me," the navigator told them, "Ship-to-surface teleportation within primitive presence was about the scariest thing I've ever had to do. That one grave robber almost saw me!"
The pilot nodded. "I know. His canines almost picked up on your trail. If only you hadn't dropped the drained charge."
The navigator hissed. "I would very much like to see you do that sort of mission next time, mister 'primitives don't scare me'," he scolded the person next to him.
Above it all, the Captain called out firmly, "If he can find a solution to the time-rift we created, then we will wait. Otherwise, when we are hailed by the expeditionary force, we leave Earth," the captain informed them, and then turned his attention to the navigator, "Get me communication to the Loitis."
"Yes, captain," the navigator hit three buttons, and turned to his captain.
"Ken-Olun, report," The captain demanded loudly. "Condition aboard the Loitis?"
Some unseen speaker spoke in the voice of another such space-explorer. "The animus are preparing for de-assimilation. We can wipe their appearances and get them back into resting state within a few minutes," an excited voice told them, "Then we can get going right?"
The captain reminded the voice, "Ken-Olun, remember; we're still working on the time-rift."
"Oh, yeah. The smart-o kid and his science experiment," the voice replied sarcastically, "Fine. He gets his chance- and then we can head out?"
"Yes. Report to me once all the Animus are de-assimilated and their information downloaded," The captain told him once more.
"I will captain. Loitis out," Ken-Olun replied to the speaker in his visor before the line cut out. He was stepping out of the Steamer, the ship to planet-side shuttle, and activated a switch. The ship had landed in the bright white hanger of the science vessel, where the smooth surface easily outlined each of the metal crates and large barrel drums piled inside.
Still floating next to the ship was the thousand or so cylinders, rotating around intricately and humming gently of energy. The pilot of the smaller craft looked to his sleeve and clicked a button on a small console attached. A large, ornate diamond of similar look to the cylinders emerged from the wall, and slid itself into the invisible magnetic field of the cylinders. Zaps of bright blue light began to zap through the field and hit the diamond, which slowly was glowing.
"And that takes care of the uniform band-width," The pilot said in his language, "Thank goodness for counter-charge operators."
With another push of the consol again, the cylinders began to pile and form the shape of a diamond around the larger object. Within a few moments, the entire collection of charges floated back into the ceiling with the diamond-object.
"Now, for you guys," the pilot turned, and activated something on the console again. The stairs he took turned into downwards escalators, and there was the sound of marching. The entire inhabitants of Gravity Falls started stepping their way to the stairs, in a hypnotically aligned way.
"Oh, you poor Animus," the pilot told them as they began to file past him towards a pair of doors across the massive hanger. The first members of the 'Animus' walked through the door, which like the cockpit in the shuttle, slid open in four directions. Past the doors, many pods made of some organic, transparent matter awaited them, thousands in number.
"That's almost all of you," the pilot said to himself. The counter on the console beeped and counted each one off. Then the line ended, and he looked confused. Two were missing.
"Must be stuck on the geo-stabilizers," he groaned to himself as he stepped up the stairs, "Poor guys. Call them state-of-the-art and impressive all you want, they can be pretty stupid sometimes," he mumbled to himself, and scanned around briefly. He didn't see any in the initial corridor. So he turned to his left, and checked the next section. Still nothing. He turned around.
Something grabbed him half way through turning around, and forced him to slam against the wall next to him. His face hit the visor and his vision blurred as pain shot through his head.
"Ow! What is going-" the pilot demanded, but he lost all ability to speak. Something hard struck his midsection, and his vision left him, along with his thoughts. He passed out onto the floor with a loud slump.
Standing up fully from her charge and kick, Mabel cheered, "Got him!"
Dipper, who had grabbed the figure, let go of the alien man. "For now," he told her, "We don't know how long he could remain out of commission though. Let's go."
The twins crept their way from the ship, spotting the last trail of the residents of Gravity Falls marching away into a large door across the hanger bay. Dipper pointed to them, and Mabel nodded, aware of the plan. The two of them crept down the stairs, looking around for signs of security or camera devices. Surely, if they were on an alien spaceship with the capacity for artificial gravity, they had cameras.
Yet no blaring sirens or klaxons shot off as they stepped down. There was nothing in here it seemed. A few piles of crates far off, and an entirely different craft; much smaller and more agile in design than the larger craft Dipper and Mabel were exiting.
"That way," Mabel said as they ran for the same doors the people had.
Dipper nodded and the two of them made a rush for the door. Within a few moments, the four quadrants of the door slid away. The twins gasped.
They had just walked into what looked like a garden of wires, bio-mechanical plants, and gel lined pods. Dark green light cascaded down on them. The white floors were stained and had signs of decaying plant life. Within a pod closest to them, they could see a humanoid shape. It was devoid of all distinguishing properties, curled into a fetal position, suspending in some sort of liquid. Wires and a few pipes had been inserted into its back from the top of the pod. That same blue light poured in and out of the wires and pipe, looking almost like a repertory system.
Mabel looked at it closely. Her eyes widened. She had seen that before, when she passed out inside the Society of the Blind Eye. "Dipper," she quietly started to say.
Her brother urgently took her focus away. "Look!" Dipper pointed. Far ahead, the remaining line of the residents were filing into individual pods. The two walked over to the last one, one of the cooks at Greasy's Diner. As they watched, the open pod grew a filament wire cover, slowly stitching itself shut. As it closed, a thick gel began to fill the bottom, rising up into the top of the pod.
"His skin," Mabel moaned as they watched.
The body began to re-form as the gel connected with the skin. Extra fat, muscle, scars, skin, hair, everything just dissolved and fell away, eventually exposing a bland white form, exactly the same as the hundred before it.
"It's... its like they're been deleted of their appearances," Dipper groaned as he looked around, "What the heck is going on here?"
"Man," Mabel laughed bitterly, "And we thought the government was doing something here. They got nothing on this level of tech."
"Tell me about it," Dipper nodded in agreement, feeling the side of the pod. "Mabel, I think these things are alive."
"Really?" she asked, turning away from one.
"They feel organic," Dipper told her, "You know, sort of like they're made of plants?"
"A plant spaceship?" Mabel asked him, and he shrugged. "Well, we'll have to write that up in the journal later, huh?" she told him. He smirked and nodded. She pointed ahead, "Hey, let's keep going." Mabel looked around, and spotted a sign on the ground, telling her something in a language she didn't know. "That way says 'laboratory'."
"What? That just looks like a few lines on the ground," Dipper told her as she started walking forward.
"So does English if you look at it the right way," Mabel called over her shoulder.
Dipper raised a finger to protest. Upon examining her suggestion in his head, he found she wasn't wrong. He hummed in agreement and followed her lead.
Some hundred feet further ahead, the two stood before another opening square door. Bright white light met them, and an equally large room showed itself to them. This one was much more organized and clean than the previous, with sectioned off stations of transparent glass that formed into glass boxes.
Above them, just on the ceiling, were rows and rows of glistening white tubes, easily large enough for the standard human being, or slightly larger, to be station inside. An ever-shifting mist that emitted light seemed contained in the tubes, and the twins found themselves staring for a few moments. The sound of sloshing water caught their attention.
Far ahead of them there was a massive aquarium, where something large circled the perimeter. Possibly a whale or other large marine animal. Around them, Dipper and Mabel saw many animals. Earth animals. There was a standard milk cow in a grass pen surrounded by glass a few feet away from the door.
"Ohh, Hi there," Mabel cooed as she walked over to the cow, which lazily eyed her as it chewed on its grass. "How are you doing, missus cowington?"
"Mabel, c'mon," Dipper told her.
"But she's just sitting there-"
"She'll be fine. She's a cow," Dipper told her, "But we need to find our people first."
Mabel blew her lips out in a raspberry but said nothing past that. They continued to look around. Dogs, cats, a chameleon; all sorts of animals Dipper and Mabel were certain belonged to Gravity Falls were all here. There was one large contained area, roughly the size of a small dog-park, where many dogs ran around excitedly, barking at Dipper and Mabel.
The cats too got their own compartment; several stumps and logs acting as a means for movement and vantage height. Mabel turned from looking at all the animals, and faced the lizard- on a large terrarium like casing, with a whole tree for it to linger. Several butterflies darted around the terrarium as well.
"It's not just people they were taking," Dipper realized as he spoke aloud, "They were taking animals."
"Yeah! This was Grenda's," Mabel pointed to the chameleon, which looked excitedly to Mabel, its eyes flicking around every-which way. "Yeah! Grenda! You know Grenda, don't you?"
"But why the animals too?" Dipper asked to Mabel, who stood up from looking at the lizard and faced her brother.
"Yeah, that's sort of weird," she nodded, "Wouldn't someone looking to take over the town with super... whatever those were, just take the people? This seems like extra work to take care of all the animals as well."
"Maybe something makes them special," Dipper told her as he looked over to the pen of dogs, a particularly spoiled looking poodle glaring at Dipper.
"They... Dipper, these aren't wild," Mabel realized, "These are animals that belonged to people!"
"Oh!" Dipper stood up and looked around. Some of the cats he immediately recognized as belonging to Lazy Suzan. "You're right! They took all the pets too!" he then frowned and stared at the displays. After a moment, he asked his sister, "But why?"
"Why do we one pets?" Mabel asked him, "That's a hard question to answer dude."
"No, Mabel," Dipper rolled his eyes, "Why do they care?" Dipper turned to her, facing away from the very large aquarium, "If aliens are trying to invade, or take over a town for some nefarious purpose, why bother caring for their animals?"
"Maybe they're animal loving invaders," Mabel shrugged.
"I tend to think they'd see us as animals," Dipper told her.
Ka-thunk.
Dipper jumped and spun around as Mabel looked past him. The creature swimming in the large water tank hit the side with its tail- a thin and snake-like ending to a large body. Dipper and Mabel stepped closer to the side, their eyes wide. The shadow passed them by again, not at all like the shape of a whale, but easily the size of one.
"What... it can't be," Dipper gasped. Mabel turned away and spotted a panel on the side of the aquarium.
"Dipper, come here," she said, as she touched the panel, and continued to activate buttons of various color and shape.
Dipper watched Mabel eye the various buttons. "Let me guess," he asked, "You can read all of that too?"
She shrugged quickly, and punched a button. From a tiny projector in the console, a holographic image of the creature was shown. It was a massive, elongated being. It had a larger, almost streamlined body that was thicker than its tail and long neck. It bore four flippers, and at the front of its head, a pair of sharp tusks had grown out past its top jaw. Fins jutted along its side, and the two of them stared into the tank at the shadowy creature.
"That's the Gobblewonker," Dipper whispered.
"But wasn't that just a machine that McGucket made to get attention?" Mabel asked she pulled up a holographic tablet next to the spiraling imagine of the beast.
"Maybe not," Dipper suggested, "The Gobblewonker story goes back a really, really long time – since before pilgrims came from the east coast forever ago. McGucket's robot could have just been inspired off the real thing," Dipper told her as he put his face against the tank, "So they got the Gobblewonker in here too."
"They listed it as 'Newest strain of earth bound species, native population calls plesiosaur'," Mabel told him, "life expectancy is very high for Earth being. Also, they say they 'recommend constant survey and study of biology for furthering adaptive programming' and stuff like that. They want to study it?"
"Why would they?" Dipper scratched the side of his face, leaning on the tank, "Why would they just–" Dipper, now facing away from the tank, saw above them. Something strange was happening to the glass jars above them, lining along a series of catwalks. There were no animals present in them, thankfully.
Bursts of light, like explosions of gently rays of sun, appeared and vanished within the casing. It was, maybe, twenty feet by twenty feet, and stretched the entire height of the room to the ceiling. Dipper stepped past his sister, gazing at the magnificence that was the golden bursts of elegant, soft visions. Mabel turned and followed, and then gasped when she saw the same thing he was.
"Oh wow," Mabel said once the two made it to be just before the glass, looking up its huge height, "What do you think this is?"
"Well, its bursting light, and its tall and important looking," Dipper pointed to the corners of the tall structure, where reinforced plating edged the meeting of the walls, "See? They're shoring it up. Maybe its a central generator."
"A generator? In the science lab?" Mabel shook her head. "Dipper, if there's one thing I've learned from space movies, its that everyone departmentalizes."
"...They departmentalize," Dipper repeated, shocked with her vocabulary. "And you said you struggled through English?"
"I hated Shakespeare," she told him easily. "Reminded me too much of our encounter with evil-wax one. I got to liking him later, but it held me back."
"Oh. Well, anyway, I think you're right," Dipper told her with a nod, "If this was a power generator for the ship, we would see more... uh, gizmos," Dipper turned around looking for any signs of importance to what they were looking at. He did spot a terminal on a platform behind the terrarium and cow pasture.
"Bro?" Mabel spotted Dipper walking away.
"Over here, I think I spotted something," Dipper said, and found a set of stairs behind the two glass casings. As he climbed, Mabel jogged over, and kept up with him. Dipper gasped as he reached the top. They were just a few feet from under the ceiling now, and the catwalk they stood on weaved between the endless rows of tubes.
"What are they?" Dipper asked to his sister.
"I can't see any of that writing stuff anywhere," Mabel said quietly.
Dipper stopped by one of the tubes, staring into the light. It seemed so peaceful, and familiar. Yet it made an eerie ringing tune, like when their ears popped. They only heard it when they were too close to the Tube, so Dipper made sure to keep his distance.
Then he saw something inside the tube. A person.
"Mabel!" Dipper pointed," Mabel! Did you see it!?" He turned to Mabel who just whipped around to him. "Look! Look- oh what!?" Dipper stared back into the light, seeing nothing.
"What did you see?" she asked him anyway.
"I could have sworn I saw someone in there," Dipper told her as he looked away for a moment, "Like, frozen solid sort of."
"That doesn't look like ice to me," Mabel reminded him as she stared around the many displayed tubes by the catwalk. "If people are inside these, I don't see them myself."
"You sure-" Dipper caught it again, the outline of a person suspended in the golden and silver rays of light, stuck in a perpetual motion. "Mabel! Again!" he pointed excitedly. "What if the people are in these!?"
"Dipper, I don't see- Oh!"
The two looked again, and sure as the catwalk they stood on, there, inside the rays, a person flashed before them. It was clear, based on the shoulders and hat, who it was: the outline of Grunkle Stan. Just an outline of a person, but a person none the less. The two yelled and laughed as they hugged one another.
They found their friends.
They found the residents of Gravity Falls.
"So, how do we get them out of these do you think?" Dipper excitedly asked after the two quickly hugged.
Mabel looked around first. "I bet we can find a consol that will tell us," Mabel decided, and pushed past her brother. The two walked down the catwalks, passing many more glowing cases, and the occasional silhouette of a person. Finally, after several turns to find their way, Dipper and Mabel found an operating platform in the middle of the room, directly above the water filled tank. Mabel walked over, almost missing a step as the platform was a few inches lower than the catwalks.
"Okay," she cracked her knuckles in a stretch, "Let's see if the Mabes can do. What can the Mabes do. Do-do-doo."
She touched the screen, and began to activate things. Buttons, screens, various inquiries all seemed to zoom by her, and she just passed one after another. Dipper was amazed at how fast her fingers were flying around the screen, and he smiled, excited to watch this girl work her magic in a way he had not yet seen. With a firm click, she clicked a button.
"Aww what," Mabel groaned, as a deep red flash warned her.
"What? What did you do?" Dipper quickly panicked.
"Nothing! It just warned me that the password was incorrect," she said.
"Password?"
"Yeah. These things are on lockdown. They're called 'Chrono-Locks', apparently," Mabel added as she looked through more information.
There was a loud hiss somewhere far behind them. Dipper and Mabel spun around, forgetting about the panel. A door on level with them opened some thirty feet away, obscured by the rows of tubes.
"Hide, dude!" Mabel told Dipper. As Dipper spun around, looking for a place to hide, Mabel almost instantly vanished.
"Oh, are you kidding me!?" Dipper hissed as he looked around. There weren't really any great hiding spots. Heavy footsteps were coming though, and he made a split-second decision.
Out from one corner, another alien figure approached, wearing an astronaut suit. He was humming to himself happily, looking at a consol imbedded in one of the arms of the over-suit. The man made it to the main platform and sighed. He was about the same height as Dipper was underneath the outfit. They couldn't make out too many details of the person, as the glare of the electronics reflected off the visor.
"Finally. About time we got them back," he said in his alien language, "Now, let's see if the download is complete. Come on, human biology, work your wonderfully stubborn ways."
The man then realized that the screen was left on, and that it was on a password was left partially entered.
"What... what is an 'alpaca'?" The alien mumbled, the word 'Alpaca' in complete English. Dipper gasped accidentally, shocked that the alien could speak anything that he understood.
The alien heard him. Slowly, looking up from the terminal, the alien stared to Dipper, who was clinging behind one of the tubes to the side of the newest member of the catwalk. Facing away from the brightest screens, Dipper could actually see into the visor now. The newcomer was considerably younger than the other alien pilot looked, with smoother features and less coarse skin that the pilot had. He too seemed to have leaves growing in his hair. He had bright pink eyes, and stared at Dipper, a mouth slightly open.
The astronaut person slowly said, "Eh, are you real?" he asked in his alien tongue, to which Dipper just continued to stare. Dipper wouldn't move an inch. The astronaut seemed weirdly okay with Dipper being there. "Okay," the alien said in his tongue as he turned away, staring at the console, "It must be a hallucination from stress. I'm seeing humans on the chronostasis." It chuckled. Then it shot up, and looked at Dipper. "Wait a second–" the alien pointed at Dipper, "You!?"
"Aha!" Mabel shouted, leaping down from one of the tubes. She kicked out at his stomach, and he flew back: slamming into the command console.
"Ack!" The alien gasped as he fell to his knees.
"Mabel!" Dipper began to squirm out from the tube. Mabel spun the Alien around, her fist raised.
"Death before dishonor!" Mabel roared, but Dipper held back her injuring next attack.
"Wait!" Dipper shouted.
"Hold!" the alien shouted in English.
"Exactly," Dipper nodded to the alien as Mabel gasped, "See? Please don't beat... the... alien..." Dipper slowed down to a stop. Mabel and Dipper both slowly realized what they had heard. Turning to face the alien, staring up at them with an arm raised in defense, Dipper realized that he had spoken in English. "You can speak our language?" Dipper demanded.
"Quite so," the alien nodded, still staying on his knee, hands held up in surrender, "My studies of human culture spanned many a time. Yea, I have studied the language you speak – English."
"What?" Dipper laughed at the word 'yea', "Where did you study, exactly?"
The alien stared at them. "Is my dialect incorrect?" the alien asked worriedly.
"No," Mabel said, eying the person, "But you sound like you're from the renaissance fair. You trying to start something, Alien-y?" she rounded close to him, "Huh? Say we're old or stuff!?"
The person flinched. "P-pardon me?"
"Mabel, hold on," Dipper held a hand back to his sister, and turned to her, "What's with the super-aggression?"
Cheerfully, Mabel explained, "I dunno. I felt like maybe if we played hard-ball, we'd get more done that way? You know, in case that find out we're on board."
"Hard-ball?" the alien repeated.
"Shush," the twins told him, and the alien nodded and stayed put. Dipper turned back to his sister.
"This guy could be the answer to the solution for figuring out what is going on," Dipper told her, "He just popped out of no where and made for that panel. If we can have him tell us the password," Dipper left the rest to Mabel for interpretation. She sighed angrily, but nodded.
"I totally would have won though," she lowered his stance. Dipper rolled his eyes and stared down at the still trembling Alien.
"Okay, invader, this is how this is going to work," Dipper pointed a declarative finger towards the being.
"Excuse me, I must clarify: invader?" the alien inquired, only confusion living in his voice. "That means to take away; to claim land for your own name that is still owned, yes?"
"Uh, yeah?" Mabel nodded, "And it's what you jerks are totally doing."
"Alas," the alien declared, "We are not invaders," the alien swore to them, "We are scientists!"
"Everyone's a scientist," Mabel rolled her eyes, "I'm a scientist if I say I am. Well, just because you're invading in the name of science," Mabel stepped closer to the alien, who cowered more at her advanced, "Doesn't make it a peaceful study!" she snapped at him.
"W-w-w-what?" the Alien blustered.
"She's right. If you're not invaders, why did you take everyone in town away and replace them with robots?" Dipper demanded of him, "And don't lie. I'm holding my sister back, but I think she's willing to prove to herself that she can handle a few aliens in a fight."
Mabel let out a loud, mean, "Woof!" and snarled.
"No! Please," the alien pushed himself all the way against a platform, "I wish not for quarreling! I am no guard. I am a scientist. Please, allow me to explain?" the alien asked as he held his hands before the twins, trying to keep them back.
Those sirens on the ship that had been inactive for so long blared to life. Dipper swore and Mabel looked around. The alien gasped as the two scanned around them, clearly worried they would turn on him at any moment.
"INTRUDER ALERT. HOSTILE PRIMATIVE LIFEFORMS ONBOARD. USE CAUTION IN THE PRESENCE OF ALIENS ON BOARD."
"That sounds horrible!" Dipper growled as he held his ears, only detecting whistles and clicks as a language. "How do they communicate like that?"
"Well, I'd say not that," the Alien leant on his knees, "With our own tongue we get along passing fair."
"What's it saying?!" Dipper demanded of the alien captive, who shirked away a little from Dipper's hostility.
"It's saying," he and Mabel answered at the same time. Mabel eyed the alien. The scientist, likewise, gasped.
"It's saying," Mabel repeated herself, "That there are 'hostile primitive lifeforms' on board."
The scientist, his eyes shining through his visor with great excitement, leapt up. "Astounding!" the alien before them cheered. He stared at Mabel with wide, shining pink eyes, "You... you speaketh Urlin," the Alien faced them, his smile entirely earnest, and spoke to Mabel is his native tongue, "This is incredible! How did you study our language? I wasn't aware of interaction with your species on an information sharing level!"
"INTRUDER ALERT. HOSTILE PRIMATIVE LIFEFORMS ONBOARD. USE CAUTION IN THE PRESENCE OF ALIENS ON BOARD."
"We don't share," Mabel told him in English, "I got zapped by one of those thingies of yours and now I hear and read your goofy language."
"Amazing!" the alien cried out. Dipper cleared his throat, and the alien-scientist shrunk slightly. In English again, he spoke, "Ah. Yes. I seek your forgiveness."
Dipper eyed the scientist. Something told him, weird as it was, that this person wasn't… dangerous. At least, not to him or his sister. With how excited he was at Mabels apparent understanding of 'Urlin', Dipper took a risk. "How about you help us hide from whatever guards are about to come rolling in, and we won't finish this fight here," Dipper told him as the sirens continued to blare noisily. "These things are giving me a headache!"
"I..." The alien turned away, looking to where he had come from, but nodded, "Very well. With me, post-haste!"
The Alien motioned for them to move on, and Dipper took the lead. Mabel followed after the Alien, who eyed her cautiously. Their footsteps clattered against the metal grate of the catwalk, until Dipper found himself by a white door.
"Allow me," the alien told them, and stepped up to the door. The four sections slid away, and he stepped inside hurriedly. It was a darker, unlit room, save for a huge display of many monitors in front of him. A single seat was turned away to them, presumably where the Alien had just stood up.
"That's Gravity Falls," Mabel pointed to the screens, where an empty town rested, "You've been watching us this entire time!" she declared as the alien took his seat.
"Truth, indeed," the scientist-alien declared. "My task is that of observation; to monitor the selected region for investigation," the alien told them, clicking away rapidly on a series of panels before him, changing the screens to previous recordings.
"Why?" Dipper demanded as the doors behind him closed. "To what purpose?"
"Study," the alien assured them.
"A like story!" Mabel poked the back of his helmet.
"If my own tales you believe not, read that of my orders," he clicked a few more times and one of the monitors changed from a security scan to a form of some sort, alien in design and language. "If my own words be of untrusting natures, seek truth by your own virtue."
After the twins stared at his colorful use of English, Mabel leaned closer; staring into the strange assignment form. A brief moment passed where she cleared her throat, and then began to read aloud. "It is the mission of the Science Vessel Extrapolate to conduct a research survey on the primitive sector, terra, of the third planet from the star, into a matter regarding Chrono-signatures. Three Ultris ago, a large chrono-signature was detected from this planet, even though there are no reports of technology of that caliber available on the local population."
"Wait... he's serious," Dipper turned to the Alien, who was nodding.
Mabel continued reading aloud. "Your mission is to uncover the source of the chrono-signature, and if possible, rectify the problem it may have caused. Use extreme desecration; Human beings are aggressive and nervous as a species, and will fight if tempted. Their atmosphere and gravity have allowed them to adapt many fighting techniques. Do not engage them directly."
Mabel finished reading the note, and felt a twinge of regret on the back of her neck. She had acted exactly as they predicted, and it wasn't in a positive light. The Alien was still staring at the twins expectantly, even as the sirens blared off in the rest of the ship.
"Hey," Mabel extended a hand to him, "Sorry for kicking your butt like that. I was kind of mean there, you know."
The alien stared at her hand and he slowly reached out and took her hand in a shake. A fear imbedded into his eyes slowly dissipated as he looked to Dipper, and extended the handshake to him. Dipper chuckled and took it as well. Before the twins could react, the Alien leapt into the air, cheering.
"Stupendous! I knew it could be done!" he told them, almost prompting Mabel to get back into fight-mode, "Xabvri to Human contact can be accomplished and peace be shared! Oh, happy day!" he exclaimed, spinning in his chair as he laughed.
"He really is a scientist, isn't he?" Mabel asked Dipper, who shrugged.
"Hey, scientist," Dipper told him, "Look. We'll leave you alone and get off your ship or whatever, but we need the people from the town back. That's all we're here for."
The smile on the alien faded quickly. He gulped and looked between the two of them. He already looked apologetic, possibly even fearful.
"Alas, such notions are not so simple to complete," the alien said.
"Why not?" Mabel demanded, "Just beam them down. You know-" she had her hands meet in a vertical line with her fingers burst out like an explosion, "Kashploo!"
"Our teleportation beams have been off line for just under half a Ultris," the Alien announced, "Ah, that would be, uh, three of your years? Wait, an English year is over three-hundred rotations around the local star, and an Ultris is–"
"For three years?" Dipper asked aloud, looking to Mabel. That had to mean something. They didn't deal with the likes of coincidences. Three years was about the same time when the week of missing data happened. Around the same time when the population of Gravity Falls could have been spirited away and replaced with robots. Dipper nodded, and said, "I get it now."
"You... do?" the alien asked.
"Oh yeah. I do," Dipper looked to the screens, putting together his puzzle, "You wanted to abduct humans for study. Maybe something happened with the teleporter you all own, and instead of one-"
"You took the whole town," Mabel declared, also coming to the conclusion, "Meaning that your mission was jeopardized. If people knew that an entire town went up in smoke-"
"You would have directly had an influence on the 'native population'," Dipper furthered, "So, to avoid your own governments punishment, you stayed behind, replacing the town with robots-"
"Which we discovered, forcing you to recall them all," Mabel summarized. The twins grinned and quickly high-fived, fist bumped, locked their arms and butted shoulders. Instantaneous twin-handshake. The Alien watched them with wide eyes. "That's all right, isn't it?" Mabel asked.
The scientist shook his head. "I wish it were so," the alien announced sadly, "the teleporters are not to blame... I am."
"You are?" the twins echoed.
He nodded. "To explain, I must explain why we used Animus in the town at all," the alien turned away from them activating the panel again, and turned on a screen. It showed an upright version of the blank robots form.
"Hey! It's those guys!" Mabel pointed.
"Yes, indeed," the alien nodded, "these are Animus."
"Animus... so, robots?" Dipper asked.
"By your tongue, the words closest by likeness is 'artificial person'," the Alien told them.
Mabel chuckled. "Soos was close," she told Dipper.
The scientist continued. "They are infiltration organisms by design. In any land and space that life may flourish, so can they live. A quick survey of the organism species we wish to study is all that is required. For shortly afterwards, we then we install the biological components into the Animus, and send them to study the people, as one of the people."
"They are people then," Mabel gasped, "They're not robots at all."
"Well... perhaps it is too far to insist they are like us," the alien continued, "They are programmed. As it turns out, the memory grafting we use to install missions into Animus are almost identical to that of human nerve receptions. We were able to install entire humans beings onto the Animus, once we sufficiently analyzed their brain patterns. Normally we must manually monitor and control them."
"That's why they thought they were the people," Mabel told Dipper, who nodded in reply.
"So then where are the people of Gravity Falls?" Dipper demanded, worried about the lack of direct response to the Aliens response. The alien eyed them nervously, staring between one another. "Please, tell us where they are."
The Alien sighed and told them, "They no longer exist."
Dipper stumbled for a moment. Falling almost backwards at the news. Mabel cupped a hand over her mouth, stifling a gasping cry.
"You- you mean they're-" Dipper started asking, his eyes wide as he scanned for the right phrase to say. He couldn't get the words out. All the Alien did was sit there sadly, his head bowing slightly.
The scientist quietly told them, "My heart weeps for you. Please accept my gravest apologies."
The door behind them opened. Before Dipper and Mabel could recover, tears about to stream down their faces, eight tall aliens stormed inside. They were unarmed, but considerably larger than their comrade sitting before the twins. One of the newcomers lifted their arm up, and spoke it a surprisingly soft and feminine tone. "We found the intruders," they said in their native tongue.
"Guards, please," the scientist by the chair stood quickly as the seven others moved quickly, slapping onto the numbed twins magnetic handcuffs. The scientist begged them in his strange language, "They do not mean-"
"They incapacitated Ken-Olun," the soft-spoken leader replied, "They are hostile. Are you injured, Uki-Dohth?" they asked. The scientist shook his head. The security alien nodded, saying in Urlin, "Good. Escort the intruders to confinement."
Dipper and Mabel were pushed ahead, nearly tripping but moving silently.
Their footsteps echoed along with the eight others as they left the scientist behind. None of it seemed to register though. What that scientist had said was the only thing that resonated in their heads:
They no longer exist.
They were passing the golden and silver lights stored in tubes, and occasionally a shadowy figure appeared again before them, out of focus. They were ghosts now, reminders of how far the twins had gotten, and found only nothing. Less then nothing, really. They had only uncovered a huge secret that they, for the rest of their lives, would probably be unable to tell anyone else about.
They passed by the ladder that led up to the catwalk, and instead found another doorway. That door opened and they continued through. Various large rooms, sprawling with different purposes passed by the hypnotized twins. They saw a factory for the suits the aliens wore, filling the flattened suits with a specialized air that was pumped in from an attachment on the backs of the aliens' gear.
Through two more rooms, one a large meeting room, and finally into what appeared to be a brig. It was entirely empty, and easily the smallest of the rooms, only the size of a standard basket ball court. It was section off by beams of energy, force fields that shimmered with traces of orange and freckles of yellow. One of the beams dissipated as the twins approached, and they were pushed inside. There was a single, fabric-less small bed and a white stump of a chair inside, all matching the white walls and floor.
"You will remain here," the head guard told them in her language, and they all turned away as the beam re-assembled. As the last of them moved out of the room, the twins stared to one another
They were alone now.
"No longer exist," Mabel re-stated, and fell against the bed, which was not as comfortable as she had hoped, "ugh!" She looked to her brother as she massaged her rear. He was staring at the same spot on the ground, his eyes swimming with thoughts. "Dipper?"
"We never had a chance," Dipper told her as he slowly sat down, still blankly staring ahead, "We never really had a chance, did we?"
"What? That's – that's just stupid," Mabel told him angrily from the bed, "We're not done here! We can totally bust out of this prison! They get a glass jaw, remember?" She tried grinning triumphant. He still did not face her. Mabel continued, "We just have to have them lower their guard. I've been trained by my master how to fight in handcuffs before," she told him, wiggling her hands above her head, "We got this in the bag, and then we can-"
"We can what, exactly!?" Dipper shouted.
Mabel's mouth closed and her energy deflated. He looked so hurt and pained it ate away at her courage entirely. "We need to go home," she said quietly, resting her constricted hands on her lap. "Mom and dad are waiting for us."
"Right," Dipper nodded sleepily as he stared at her, "Because we're totally going to see them ever again. Like, this isn't our end, is it?" he said with as much sarcasm as his grief let him have.
"Dipper," Mabel mumbled, fighting the terrible sense of foreboding.
"Mabel... I think we lost this one," Dipper told her with a shuddering gasp.
"Nope."
"Mabel."
"I won't stop trying," she told him angrily.
"What can we do? Huh?" he demanded. He turned to the force-field, and punched out to it. It magnetically pushed him back. "See? I'm trying, Mabel!" he shouted as he punched again and again, "It's not doing much, is it!?"
"Dipper! Stop it!" she shouted as he slammed his fists against the barrier once more before pacing back and forth again.
"We should have just gone home when we got Grunkle Stan back," Dipper mumbled, "We should have just gone back, and continued with our summer like... like normal people. Then none of this would have happened!"
"They still would have been not real!" Mabel told Dipper, who groaned loudly. She reinformed her argument, "And we would have noticed eventually!"
"Would we!?" he shouted, "Really? How? Luck? Chance?"
"All the above, you goob," Mabel replied calmly.
Dipper leaned against the opposite walls, his arms crossed as he huffed angrily. "Well, I wouldn't have had my arm sliced open," he mentioned his right arm, "You wouldn't have almost been killed by robbers, then actually killed in that Strongholds and Serpents game–"
"Still wasn't that big a deal."
"–and we wouldn't be here!" Dipper roared to the ceiling, and began to claw at his hair. "It's all my fault! This, us being here! I decided we should go back and spend two weeks, when we should have just gone home! It's all my-"
"Dipper!" Mabel roared, louder than he had ever heard her before. His angered wailing came to a halt. Tears were falling down her face, but she had the look of someone ready for a fight. "I made that choice too, remember?" she told him, "I wanted to stay back and chill with you!"
"Yeah, but you-"
"Shut it!" she told him, "You want to act like this is all your fault? Well, it isn't!" she told him, pushing herself off the bed and marching over to him. "We decided to do this! Together! Didn't we?!"
"... yes," Dipper nodded with a saddened sigh. Mabel's breaths came slower and the red in her face started to recede. "Sorry," Dipper added as she stepped away, pushing hair away from her face.
"And if we hadn't come," she told him a trembling grin growing, "Look at what we would have missed. Dipper, we stopped some jerk warlock from hurting people, we made friends with a goblin city, we played easily the coolest, most dangerous game ever–"
"Where you died."
"–Shush! And we met some awesome bird-people. Dipper, you got to spend more time with Wendy," Mabel added, yet Dipper merely scoffed.
"I spent time with a robot Wendy," he then sighed and quickly corrected himself, "sorry: Animus Wendy."
"But she was real," Mabel told him as she sat back down, "if that scientist guy didn't lie to us, and I don't know that much about aliens, but he seemed like he wasn't lying to us," she smiled to him stronger than before, "That Animus was acting and thinking just like Wendy was."
He nodded, half smiling as Mabel giggled. He appreciated her realness with him, how much differently she was treating his crush this time. Maybe it was just the situation calling for a more mature, heartfelt approach, but Dipper felt immensely better.
"I had so many questions for her," Dipper told Mabel, shaking his head in regret.
"I know, bro," she replied sadly.
"I should have asked her out," Dipper said decisively.
The door by the corner of the room opened, and in walked the troop of guards with a new figure, taller and wider shoulders than the rest. Once he approached, his visor showed a tough, grizzled looking man with strong jaw line and course skin. Before he even spoke, he applied a finger to the consol on his arm, and a beep replied.
"I am aware," the captain said, English coming out from his consol in a robotic voice, "That on earth custom, you have the term known as 'trespassing'. We too have this word."
"They had a translator this entire time," Dipper growled as he stood up with Mabel and approached the barrier, "So you can understand us?"
The leader nodded. "If you could speak slowly, yes," the leader told him, "The computer can only catch so much so quickly."
"Fine," Dipper nodded, and slowed his words, "Who are you?"
"I am Captain Hyul-Pruq, of the Science Vessel Fershul, expeditionary group of the Prime Council on Xabvus, of the Toldori Concordant," the captain announced firmly, letting each official title sink into Dipper and Mabel.
Mabel nudged Dipper. "That's how you pronounce 'Extrapolate' in Urlin, "she told him quietly. Now focusing on the captain, she eyed him sharply. "That was a whole lot of words and names," Mabel nodded and looked to her brother, "You caught all of that, right?"
"Yeah."
"Good. I'll need a proper translation later," she said and looked back to the captain. "Well, captain, my captain, we demand you tell us what happened to the residents of the town of Gravity Falls. Under authority of the Mystery Twin Secret Society, we ask for your answers!" Mabel barked with similar authority of the captain.
He eyed them, and then looked to the guards. Clearly he hadn't expected such a vibrant reply, but he turned back shaking off his confusion quickly.
"They no longer exist in the linear flow of time," the captain told them, that horrible robot voice coldly answering the question.
"What?" Dipper blurted out, "What does that even mean?"
"Thirty or so of your earth years ago," the captain told them, "We detected a surge of chrono-energy: a type of radiation that is responsible for faster than light travel, teleportation and is hypothesized to be used in dimensional gateway creation."
The twins gasped. Thirty years ago just happened to synch perfectly with another crazy event that they knew about. It was around the same time when Grunkle Ford first vanished into his portal.
"It was considered an interest, but three years ago, we detected a surge in activity of the same kind of energy," the captain continued, pushing buttons on his consol to illustrate his story, where planet Earth popped into existence. "We knew this amount of activity was not a fluke. The Fershul was the fastest Science vessel, we Xabvri, have ever created. And so we investigated. What we found, however, confused us."
"We discovered, at the coordinates of the epicenter of energy, a backwards town with little to no technological significance. Albeit, many strange energy signatures permeated in the area, we couldn't find the source. Our lead scientist, Uki-Dohth," the captain looked to Dipper and Mabel, "The poor Xab you accosted by the labs, suggested we try using a Chrono-stasis to freeze the town while we investigated."
"A Chrono-stasis?" Dipper asked, "Like those tubes we saw by the animals?"
"Yes," the captain nodded, "However, Uki-Dohth and I made a grave error."
"Something happened when you tried doing whatever to the town, didn't it?" Mabel asked the captain.
He nodded. "There was residual energy of the actions that had happened some time before our arrival. It reacted badly with the attempted chrono-stasis. Those who had been effected by the energy were... well, they ceased to exist."
"How is that possible!?" Dipper stepped closer quickly, putting the guards nearby on edge, "How can someone just 'cease to exist'?"
"The chrono-stasis puts a target in a temporary time-free section of the universe we create. To a target, they don't experience a single change in time- they are perfectly frozen. However-" A door opened behind the captain and the guards. The scientist from before entered the room, holding a small measuring device that looked like an oversized calculator. Nodding to the scientist, the captain continued, "–However, when the rouge energy interacted with the chrono-stasis, it broke away the containment field that held the person in time consistently."
"But then they'd just wake up or whatever," Mabel told him, not following the problem.
"No," The captain coldly remarked, "With the field broken, they no longer remained in the linear time stream that our universe follows. They no longer could remain existing past the point we froze them into. All residents, all the people living in the town were whisked away from time at that moment, and therefore existence."
"They... they just vanished?" Mabel said, shaken at the terrible fate that could have befallen her friends in the town of Gravity Falls.
"But, you can get them back, right?" Dipper asked of the captain, as the scientist scanned him with his device.
The captain looked crestfallen. "We have spent the past third of an Ultris, or three of your years," the captain told him, "Searching for a solution."
Dipper gasped and stepped back. It had been one huge miscommunication. If these aliens, like their scientist hadn't been lying, there had never been an invasion force. They weren't trying to take people away and replace them. Dipper clunked his head with his palm and laughed. "That's why you used your Animus- to replace the people of the town so that no one else would notice a difference!"
In English, the scientist said, "You speak truth, Dipper Pines," to Dipper with a faint grin. There was a beep on the device, and he gasped. "Captain," the alien scientist stood, and spoke in his native tongue, "They read with being also effected by the rouge energy."
"You're certain?" the captain turned to him, his translator still active.
"What did he say?" Dipper asked Mabel.
"Rouge energy is on us, dude," Mabel told him worriedly.
The scientist quickly nodded. "Positive. They may have been present for the events a third of an Ultris ago," the scientist told his captain. "I think this could be good. No, this could be great! If I can re-organize their rouge energy into the stored databanks of the saved energy from the town's residence-"
"You saved the town!?" Mabel gasped, pushing her hands onto the barrier.
"Wait," the captain looked to Mabel, who had reacted to the scientist. "Uki-Dohth," the captain looked to his younger subordinate, "Can this girl understand you?" The scientist slowly nodded. "How?" the captain demanded.
"I believe she was at the center of the uniform band energy collision that the memory charges produced. Our language was more than likely imprinted into her brain. As a result, she probably can understand and read all of our language," the scientist explained. "Either that, or she has telepathic powers we cannot detect on her."
"I could be both!" Mabel told them, and chuckled darkly.
"Both... what?" Dipper asked her.
The scientist was undeterred. "Captain, please, allow me to escort them to the lab," the scientist begged as he spoke in whistles and clicks, "The rouge energy on their bodies could be the answer to helping the humans we erased return to reality. Hyul-Pruq, please?" the scientist begged.
The man in charged looked between the twins and the man begging him to release them. He opened his mouth to speak, but his console beeped loudly. He turned to it quickly, and pressed a button. "Yes?"
"Sir, the Toldori Frigate Bim'Lo is approaching. They'll be in hailing distance in a matter of minutes," the alien voice told his captain. The man in charged closed his eyes with an exhausted sigh.
The scientist sighed angrily. "Toldori. Great. Please, captain-"
"Quiet, Uki-Dohth," the captain warned him, and turned to the console, still being translated to English, "Once they are in hailing distance, please gain communication. Tell them we will be leaving as soon as we can. We're leaving earth."
"What!?" the twins yelled.
"What about us?" Mabel begged as the captain lowered the communications channel.
"As it stands," he started to say slowly, "You will be accompanying us to Xabvus: our home world. Once you are there, you will likely be tried of trespassing and assault of an officer. After that is dealt with, and you are subsequently dealt justice, you will be returned to your planet. Until then... you remain here."
The captain turned away, having the guards follow him.
The scientist begged, louder than before, "Sir, please!"
The captain spun, his size imposing on the meek scientist before him. "Doctor, to your post," the captain said with finality as he deactivated his translator. He and his eight guards departed in a rush, leaving only the echoes of his steps behind.
The scientist fumbled with his energy detection device, staring at the results hopefully. He flicked to the twins a few glances, and they stared back. With a shake of his head, he turned fully away and started for the door.
"That's it?" Dipper called after him, "you're just going to give in!?"
Back to English, the alien called back. "Tell me, is there yet a solution I have found not?" He demanded in a panicky voice. "Show me then. What do I miss?"
"Us!" Mabel pointed to herself and Dipper. "We can help this! Can't we? That crazy energy thing!"
"It's only a hypothesis," the scientist urged them, stepping backwards towards the door. "And I'm out of time. I'm so sorry."
"Wait-" Dipper called, but the alien turned and walked away, leaving the closing door. "Wait!"
"Damn," Mabel leaned her head against the force-field.
"Wait!" Dipper yelled, "What about all those lives! All those people!? They haven't even been killed! There's no resolution for them!" his voice echoed around the clean white room, fighting for attention from no one. "You left them all in a single point in time! They don't even know that they're stuck! They could be like that forever! Frozen, as their world moves around them! Do you want to be left with that on your consciousness!?"
His shouts bounced around the walls of the room, and Dipper roared angrily, storming from the barrier.
"Come back!" he screamed to the wall.
"He's gone, Dipper," Mabel told him with an empty voice. "I hope alien law isn't anything like Fairy law," she chuckled sadly at her own joke.
The door re-opened, and the two shot around to stare. It was the scientist again. His eye glinted with something akin to mischief.
"I hear you, and your words ring true," he told them, and approached a terminal next to the barrier gateway. He typed a few quick symbols into the console, and the barrier fell. "Twas I who made this mistake. Twas I who convinced the crew for the urgency of this mission. And... it will be I who will save those poor humans."
Mabel stiffed a strong lip. "You," Mabel patted his shoulder as she stepped closer, "I like you now."
"Ah... thank you?" the alien asked, "Query: to what form of 'like' do you refer to?"
"Friends," Mabel told him with another quick set of pats.
"Ah! Your compliments are accepted!" the alien returned her pat on the shoulder, "We can be friends as well!" Mabel laughed and hugged him. "Ah! Ow! My body is not adjusted to your pressuring grip!"
"What?" Mabel gasped and then let go, and the alien gasped, "Sorry!"
"That's just Mabel for you," Dipper told the scientist as he gasped for air in his suit. "I'm Dipper, by the way," Dipper extended a hand.
"And I'm Mabel," she added, also extending a hand to him.
The scientist looked like space-Christmas had come early. He quickly grasped each of their hands, using the wrong hand for each handshake. "I am called Uki-Dohth," he told them as he lowered their hands, "It is a pleasure to make acquaintances with humans like yourselves!"
"Uki-Dohth, huh?" Mabel asked, pondering the name with a finger on her chin. "That needs a nickname. I like... Yuki."
The alien eyed her. "Nay, that is not my-"
"Yuki it is!" Mabel declared cheerily.
"Just get used to it," Dipper told the confused Uki-Dohth, "She's already got it in her head. So, how do we fix our town?" Dipper asked their new friend and ally.
Yuki grinned and nodded. "Upon me, with haste," he told them, and turned away, leading them from the brig and back out towards the labs.
Insert dramatic music. As they run out of the brig, I mean. Although lets all be fair- dramatic music for all these scenes would have made it awesome. AHHH this needs to to animated! D:
So, there you have it. Second to last one. Tomorrow, around the same time as now. Ish. Season one ends. Hold on tight, my friends. We'll get through this together.
I hope you enjoyed! And always remember to review!
-EZB