Royce's Random Thoughts

“Dispatch, Van Three is 10-76 to Zootopia Penitentiary,” Judy said crisply into the mike in the seat beside Nick, as he guided the van out of the police lot and into Zootopia's early morning traffic. “ETA ten minutes.”

10-4, Van Three, Clauhauser replied back at Precinct One. Have fun!

“Oh, oodles,” Nick said, once Judy had clicked off. “Can't wait to see Smellwether's face when she finds out the chief chose us to transfer her over to the feds.” The fox grinned over to his bunny partner.

( This fun won't last )

Because I'm a horrible person, and I only just realized how much the For Your Safety universe owes to the idea of the universe of A Miracle of Science going Horribly Right.

* * *

"Dr. Haas?" Virgil looked up at Benjamin and Caprice approached across the lawn of the hospital, the former Vorstellen Police officer looking grim as always, and even the Martian woman looking unusually grave.

"Benjamin, Caprice," he greeting, pushing his glasses back up on his face. "Whatever is the matter?"

"We have a serious problem," Benjamin said without preamble. "Ninety minutes ago your old island on Venus went dark."

"We lost all contact with it, shortly after Chaucer sent out an emergency signal," Caprice added. "And I do mean everything. Even the Martian units we stationed there to look after the place aren't talking."

"Mars is cut off?" Virgil said in alarm. The idea of the massive Martian group intelligence being thwarted at anything was a frightening idea, even if it wasn't a completely impossible one.

"Is there anything there you didn't' tell us about after you surrendered? Anything like what you used to cut Caprice off from Mars?" Benjamin demanded.

"No, nothing. I swear to you." Virgil thought for a moment, trying to bring his thoughts up to speed. It was so hard sometimes with the drugs. "Wait, you said Chaucer sent an emergency signal? He isn't hurt is he?"

"We don't know," Caprice answered. "We did see this though, before Mars was cut off." She opened her palm, using her Martian vector shield technology to bring up a holographic image. In the central courtyard of Virgil's old mansion a flare of light appeared, resolving itself into a gleaming metallic sphere that hovered a moment before dropping heavily to the ground. A few seconds later a seam along the globe's equator cracked open, and being began to climb out. They were odd looking. Not human definitely, but not precisely alien. Instead they looked a bit like cartoon characters, anthropomophic humanoids covered with fur, looking like cats and foxes and bears. Then the image suddenly went dark.

"No machines can approach within five kilometers without losing power," Benjamin said. "We need you help, Dr. Haas. We need to find out what they're doing there."

Weird story idea that came to me in a dream but I likely won't write. I've got this persistent idea in my head of an animated Second Doctor serial, lIkely inspired by watching the animated re-creations of the missing episodes of the Invasion of the Cybermen serial.

The Plot (or at least what I've worked out): The TARDIS materializes in space and is immediately intercepted by a squadron of Vulpine fighters, who take it in tow to the command ship of a Varn Dominion fleet. They meet the leader of the squadron, who's a sort of a crossover between my Hazel Swiftfoot and wolfstormdancer's Rue Nightwind, in that she's had most of her body replaced by cybernetics after a flight accident. The Varn considered her skills too valuable to allow her an honorable death, so they repaired her. She's not real happy about it and has a snarky personality as a result.

Then they're brought to meet the Varn Gene Mage and Dream Stalker, who greet them warmly and with amusement respectively. The Doctor's suspicions about the GM's intentions are immediately aroused, especially when he see those cute little grey critters serving drinks, but he puts them aside for the moment. The GM is happy to see them, especially when he realizes that Jamie is a "primitive". You see, one of his servants, a ferin named Terinu, seems to have been lost on the planet they're orbiting, and their high tech Galapagos soldiers are having a hard time hunting him down...

TBC