Protocol Cy-Fox: Castaway

[Admiral Prower]

8 March 2116 (Delta)
Space Station ARK
Earth Orbit, Sol

It's your ship now, Captain Prower.

Those words were spoken the previous day by Rear Admiral Carlos Concha after the official change of command ceremony. Concha was going upstairs to command the 1st Battle Squadron but was shifting his flag to the conventional space battleship HMKSS Malaya. That would allow for proper testing of HMKTS Warspite's first-generation temporal drive without any operational risk to the squadron. One ship under her new captain, fresh from the Royal College of Defence Studies with a Master of Arts in International Security & Strategy under his belt. But before he could begin his first day in command, there was one obstacle still in his way. Well more accurately, two obstacles. Two twin obstacles in the form of the children that were holding onto his pant legs.

   "We're not leaving quite dreckly. Calm down!" Captain Sir Miles "Tails" Prower of His Majesty's Royal Keplerian Space Navy sighed as he reached down to carefully pry his fraternal twins, Arthur and Artemis Robotnik-Prower off of his legs. "'m just making breakfast." He knelt down and lifted the vulpinmimis up and looked to each one. They were both humanoids with their mother's light Scandinavian skin and their shared blue eyes but their father's orange-gold fur colour was the colour of their hair and their ears were vulpine as well. Neither had a tail though. He gently lowered them into their respective high chairs and buckled them in. Arthur just watched him move about the kitchenette while Artemis picked up her rattle and shook it a few times before smacking it against the plate holder.

   "I wanta 'affle!" The young girl proclaimed, squirming.

"That's what we all want, m'dear." Captain Prower chuckled softly. He ambled over to the refrigerator and opened it up, taking out the milk and a carton of eggs. Then he opened a cupboard and set a bag of flour down next to the eggs along with  a bag of sugar, a bottle of vegetable oil, a canister of baking powder, a bottle of vanilla extract and finally a canister of salt. Next he grabbed a bowl and the egg beater. The vulpinroid plugged in and preheated the waffle iron, pulling two eggs out from the carton, cracking them with a little bit of pressure and emptying them into the bowl. He took the egg beater and used it to get the eggs to a fluffy state. Then he poured one and three-quarters cups of milk in, followed by two cups of flour, a half cup of vegetable oil, a tablespoon of sugar, four teaspoons of baking powder, one quarter's teaspoon of salt and a half teaspoon of vanilla extract. Putting the ingredients away, he grabbed the beater and started to beat the combined contents together until he had proper batter ready.

   "I wanta 'affle!" Artemis repeated, banging her rattle almost as if it were a sceptre.

   "It's coming." Tails' ears rose up. Even though he was a post-captain, it seemed in this household he was outranked by his wife but both were outranked in the organisational chart by the children. He opened the waffle iron and poured batter into it, closing the iron and setting an internal timer. It would take about fifteen minutes but in the meantime he'd get them something to tide them over. Opening the refrigerator, he took out the bottle of orange juice and used it to fill their sippy cups. After putting the orange juice away, he grabbed two bags that contained apple slices and dumped them out onto their trays, setting their cups next to the pile. Artemis bit down on one but then fastball pitched it at her father's face. Smushed apple slid down his cheek while he made a face.

He picked up his cup of tea and raised it up to his mouth but before he was able to start lapping it up, another apple slice made terminal descent after going ballistic into his cup, splashing his mouth and nose with hot liquid, making him snort and cough reflexively. Then he calmly reminded himself that he wasn't capable of aspiration and swept his tongue out to reclaim what spilled tea was on his face before swallowing up the apple slice, chewing on it. Something for the reserve reactor at least. The vulpinroid settled down in a chair between his children while Arthur looked towards him, his own ears rising up.

"Are you reading the paper, Dad?" The young boy asked.

"I'm about to." Tails answered, his left ear flickering.

"Can I read it with you?" The boy requested.

"Why not? You're behaving better than your sister." Normally he would be reading the news and handling dispatches directly within his HUD. But with one command, a holographic projection of the fox's HUD, sans direct visual field appeared before him. Making his right hand into a fist, the fox opened his fingers outwards to make the display larger. The boy almost immediately noticed a photo of his father.

"Are you trying out the time machine today?" Arthur asked.

"Well technically I wouldn't be trying it out for the first time, the scientists and engineers tested it first to make sure it worked. We're trying it out for the second time post-commission." Tails explained.
   
   "It doesn't look like a TARDIS though." Arthur observed.

   "TARDIS is just make-believe. This is real science." The fox gently patted his knee. "The Time Stones that we recovered from that exoplanet last year are like the Chaos Emeralds that run the Warp Gate. They provide practically infinite energy for my ship, because you need a lot of power to get to light speed as it is. But a man named Einstein said under his special theory of relativity that if you exceed the speed of light, the object that achieves that breakaway travels backwards in time. Uncontrolled of course without the computers and linkage equipment. My ship has all of that though, we'll be able to move about in time as easily as we move in space."

   "You're taking Mummy too?" Arthur asked.

   "Well the Navy says I have to, son. She's the ship's doctor." Tails answered. "The head one at least."

   "What if something bad happens?" Arthur asked, the question making even Artemis stop what she was doing, the two looking at him.

   "I don't think anything bad is going to happen. The engineers have put this thing through its paces. They assure me that it's safe but even before we let the crew do a full jump, they're going to have me jump alone." Tails explained.

   "Why just you?" Arthur blinked.

   "Dad's replaceable." Artemis put in, getting a slightly sour look from the captain.

   "Well, yes. If something happens to me alone then they'll just make another 'me' and copy me into it. One of those scary robot things." Tails explained. He then stood up and held his hands out pantomiming Frankenstein's monster. "Like eating little girls who throw apples at their papa. Rrragh!"

   "Monsters who eat my children don't get to eat what I'm bringing for lunch." Surgeon Commander Dame Maria Robotnik-Prower chided. She stretched and crossed her arms, wearing one of her husband's October Stars T-shirts, at least the ones that he wore before his conversion. A shirt worn when he was 5'8" would look uncomfortably small on him at 6'4" but there were no worries with her, they were the same height before his 'death'. Her blonde hair was done up in a bun, prepared for shipboard life. From how she smelled, Tails recognised that she was recently in the shower, smelling trace remnants of shampoo. She walked around the table and pressed her right hand on the top of the fox's head, gently scratching at it. "Behave yourself, Sir Miles."

   "She started it!" Captain Prower countered in mock protest.

   "He's not wrong." Arthur added in. "I saw her do it-" That got him a fresh sliced apple thrown towards him.

   "Artemis Elisabeth Robotnik-Prower, behave yourself!" Maria said sternly. "Remember your manners. Or I will let Daddy eat you."

   "Good morning, darling. Your coffee's been made." Tails whispered quietly. Maria lowered her cheek down between his ears and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Such a dashing knight of the British Empire, interposing himself between a poor damsel and the coffee pot."

   "You sound more English than I do, but I know there's still a Swedish woman in there. It comes out when you're tired but it also makes you quite terrifying when you're angry." Tails rumbled.

   "As long as I have my coffee you may not have either." Maria whispered into his ear. "Remember that, Captain."

   "Noted for the log." Tails murmured, taking another sip of tea. There was a small beep indicating that someone was requesting entry. The fox got up to his feet as Maria started towards the door but he waved her off. "Drink your coffee, I've got it." He stepped out of the kitchenette into the living room and up to the door, pressing on the peephole button on the keypad. "Ah, excellent. Your parents, right on time." He pressed the door release button, letting them part. A blond haired giant of a man who almost reached up to Tails' height stood with his shorter, dark haired wife.

   "Well if it isn't Captain Prower." Poul Robotnik's voice was baritone and he always reminded the fox of the stereotypical portrayal of Odin. Poul wore a dark blue flannel shirt, aviator framed glasses and a blue stocking cap upon his head. He reached out and clasped the vulpinroid's shoulders. Then he spotted Maria who came up beside Tails, blowing on her coffee. Poul took his left arm and wrapped it around his daughter's side.

   "Thank you for agreeing to look after the children, Papa." Maria said softly.

   "We adore our grandchildren." Poul declared. "Besides, this lets us see my papa as well. Man never slows down."

   "How long will you be away for?" Noomi Robotnik inquired. Even though the Robotnik family was long known for producing prodigies between Geralt, Ovi and Maria, Tails considered that Maria's razor sharp diagnostic capabilities likely came not from the Robotnik side of the family but the Carlsen branch. Noomi was the granddaughter of one of the highest rated chess grandmasters, Magnus Carlsen. Her grandfather still played even in advanced age at 125 and exposure to chess as well as games themselves drew her to Paradox Development Studios where she worked as studio manager for the last decade. The family overall was a melting pot between the English-American Watsons, the Swede Robotniks, the Norwegian Carlsens and the Keplerian Prowers.

   "That would depend on your belief system regarding time." Tails explained. "From our physical perspective we would be away for as much actual time measured from exit to re-entry. From your physical perspective, seconds or minutes depending on the accuracy of our return coordinates."

   "It does not matter so long as my daughter comes home with her husband in a timely manner." Noomi said with a small smirk. Tails was about to groan but he received an elbow in the side from Maria. He was saved by a small beep coming from the waffle iron, returning to the kitchenette. Opening up the iron, the fox took a set of tongs and removed the waffles from the iron. He put them on plates and cut them up with a fork and knife into pieces, then squirted pancake syrup onto each plate, putting them on the trays for each child's high chair. He set a hand on their heads and sighed. "All right you two, behave yourself for grandmum and grandfather." The fox looked over at Maria, straightening up his posture while taking his mug. "As much as it pains me to say it, I must. When you're done with that coffee, please change into uniform."

   "Aye aye, Captain." Maria made a mock salute by raising her cup.

0800 UTC
HMKTS-X Warspite
Royal Keplerian Space Navy Auxiliary Naval Yard
Earth Orbit, Sol

   Tails had timed things to where he arrived with Maria to the auxiliary naval yard on time with the testing schedule. Once they were in sight of the crew, he was all business. Maria fell in line with the group of officers that were standing in front of the ratings in their respective departments. She stood before her medical officers, assistants, technicians, operating department practitioners and nurses. Compared to the Campbeltown, the Warspite essentially had a small hospital that she was in charge of as chief medical officer. A silver furred fox walked up before Tails and rendered him a salute which he returned.

   "First lieutenant, report!" Tails ordered.

   "Commander Arrow Rinehart, first lieutenant of His Majesty's Keplerian Timeship Warspite, reporting as ordered, sir. Total complement is 1,262 and we have 1,247 present with fifteen not. Three on sick call, twelve on approved leave. No call for captain's table or Defaulters." The other fox advised.

   "Very good. Chief engineer, report!" Tails gestured for Commander Rinehart to step back in line. A pink furred hedgehog stepped up in his place and exchanged salutes with him.

   "Commander Amelia Rose, chief engineer of His Majesty's Keplerian Timeship Warspite, reporting as ordered, sir. No problems noted with the fusion reactors or with the FTL drive in standby. I have no radiation concerns. Damage control drones are in place. I am formally certifying the ship as being in my sound judgement to be safe for testing." The hedgehog declared.

   "Very good, Commander. Operations officer, report!" Tails moved onwards. A blue furred hedgehog stepped up to exchange salutes.

   "Lieutenant Commander MJ Thompson, operations officer of His Majesty's Keplerian Timeship Warspite, reporting as ordered, sir. No problems to report. Communications and sensors are operating properly and Information Warfare has no concerns." The hedgehog reported.

   "Very well. Gunnery officer, report!" Tails watched as a large red echidna shuffled forward and exchanged salutes.

   "Sub-Lieutenant Knuckles, gunnery officer of His Majesty's Keplerian Timeship Warspite, reporting as ordered, sir." The fox gave him a small smile. "My my, it seems one has finally become a gentleman. You'd been a master-at-arms for a great deal of time. Now a gunnery officer."

   "Well Captain, I don't care what the size of the gun is or how close the target is, you want it gone then I'm your man." The echidna said. "Main battery is operational as is secondary battery and launchers. The rail, torpedo and missile magazines are secured, autoloaders are verified as operational. Power connections for the laser batteries are good. Automatic fire control and manual fire control systems are operational. Security teams report no problems."

   "As you were. Supply officer, report!" Tails called out.

   "Sub-Lieutenant Christopher Thorndyke, supply officer of His Majesty's Keplerian Timeship Warspite, reporting as ordered, sir!" A youthful human with curly, short brown hair spoke up. "Food stores are fully stocked, no problems of note with the cooks. We are fully supplied in ammunition, verified with the Gunner, spare parts, medical supplies and the general complement."

   "Very well. And then there was one. Chief medical officer, report!" Tails looked over at Maria who stepped up to him and exchanged salutes.

   "Surgeon Commander Maria Robotnik-Prower, chief medical officer of His Majesty's Keplerian Timeship Warspite, reporting as ordered, sir! Three patients on sick call, minor symptoms that only require light duty and a few days of rest. They are currently in the station hospital due to the test." Maria reported.

   "Very good. I will be conducting Phase One testing of the FTL drive." Tails crossed his arms. "I know this is rather unorthodox, having only one person on board. But this is a new system. If something were to happen, a new ship can be built. You however are all not replaceable, at least not in my eyes. I am. Sounds rather funny, doesn't it? It just means you can't get rid of me so easily. I think this test is going to go fine though. If not, well you'll all let me hear about it about an hour later, won't you?" That got him a collective chuckle. "Right, I will be boarding and linking in for direct control from the bridge. I see they've got the telemetry gear set up. Stand by." He stepped up to Rinehart. "I have the ship."

   "You have the ship." Rinehart acknowledged. "Good luck, Captain."

0810
HMKTS-X Warspite
Earth Orbit, Sol

   "All right Commander, are you receiving me?" Captain Prower asked. He had done a pre-launch communications check but wanted to ensure that no unexpected breakdowns would occur.

   "Loud and clear." Rinehart was close to the camera that was broadcasting the image of him and the crew into the vulpinroid's HUD.

   "Right. Going to maximum sub-light speed." Tails was sitting at the helm, using the touch-screen controls to set the wanted engine speed. A yellow line bordered maximum sub-light, then there was a red line bordering the faster-than-light speed determined to bring about time travel: 2.398339664 gigameters per second, 8 times the speed of light at 299.792 megameters per second or just 0.299792 gigameters per second. He glanced at the systems status MFD in his HUD and maintained full sub-light for five minutes. "The ship appears to be stable at full sub-light. Going to light speed at 0817, we may lose contact. It is my intention if the system works to direct the Warspite to reappear at its starting point at 0830."

   "I hope she holds together, Captain." Commander Rose said, coming into frame. "I know these Time Stones are supposed to pump out enough energy for the new energy shielding but I'd hate for you to have to come back to a damage bill."

   "Energy shields are holding." Tails said. "Risk is our business, Commander." He watched the timer in his HUD and reached out for the speed controls, tapping his fingers on them. With a reflexive but unnecessary deep 'breath', the vulpinroid pushed the speed control up to the yellow line. External visual sensors were now useless but the navigation computer was compensating. He started to input a request to the navigation computer to conduct the calculations for the proper coordinates that would get him back to his marked starting position, ten minutes uptime. Once the calculations were complete, he pushed the helm control up to the marked temporal breakaway speed. It was time to go pedal to the medal, the ship seemed to be holding together at light speed. The remarkable thing was though that outside of the ship's status reporting system, he felt no different and had no impression things were different relative to the interior of the ship than how he did going at full-or-below sublight. Or perhaps that wasn't so much remarkable, but just a partial validation of special relativity.

0830
Royal Keplerian Space Navy Auxiliary Naval Yard
Earth Orbit, Sol

   "Here we go!" Arrow called out, pointing at the big screen. "She's coming back!" The cameras on the ARK that were regularly trained on the intended starting point recorded the Warspite appearing out of nowhere, its image stretched out but then normalising. Maria held her breath as Rinehart waited for a sign of connectivity. Nothing happened, the battleship just seemed to sit there but the running lights are on. He attempted to make connection back to the ship but got an odd security validation error. The fox grabbed the mic for the radio transmitter. "Captain Prower?" There was static and now the mood in the yard was beginning to tense. "Captain Prower? This is Commander Rinehart, are you there?" Maria lowered her head, bridging her fingers together.

   "This is Warspite. Sorry about the delay, the damned computer wasn't liking your connection attempt because the system clocks didn't compensate. The one casualty throughout this entire ordeal. Systems status is okay across the board. I'm bringing her in to dock. The scientists are going to want to crawl all over her for a bit I'd assume. Once we're greenlit for deployment then the crew will board." Tails answered.

1640
HMKTS-X Warspite
Earth Orbit, Sol

   Once the survey team had completed their checkout of the Warspite for any signs of structural stress from the jump, Captain Prower had gotten a clean fitness report regarding the structure. As far as the temporal drive's developers were concerned, its use had no negative effects on the battleship's integrity. It was capable of forward time travel but there were also other tests to perform before the X prototype designation could be dropped. One of them was a test of the Anomaly Detection Centre which Commander Rinehart was considered in charge of. Thanks to a breakdown study of Dr. Ovi Robotnik's assets after the Battle of the ARK, the Royal Keplerian Space Navy was able to coordinate with Zenith Defence Industries to develop the necessary detection systems needed to find an aberration in space-time.

   "Anything spiking Mr. Rinehart?" Tails asked, standing next to the other fox within the ADC's heavily armoured chamber. It was almost a callback to the old combat information centres on seafaring ships of war. He stirred his tea with a small black straw and took a sip.

   "Nothing natively, sir." Rinehart looked up at the big screen display that took up one wall. "But we got a hit in what's been mapped as Timeline Epsilon. One space-time frame away outwards" The timelines seemed to be represented ironically not as lines but circles. Alpha was in the centre, which appeared to be where Dr. Ovi Robotnik ended up after his shuttle accident. Beta was not visited before but it seemed to stem from Alpha. Gamma was not visited yet but it stemmed from Beta. Delta, their own line was connected at two points, a date in 2112 and a date in 2115, both that Tails recognised as Robotnik's exit and re-entry dates. "Something doesn't belong there. This would be an excellent opportunity to use one of the TR drones that ZDI sent after they installed those communications system upgrades today."

   "Now how does that work?" Tails inquired, flickering his ears. Moddex was giving them quite a lot of new toys oddly.

   "Well the ADC gives us the information that we need for proper direction where-when to send the drone. We're flying by the seat of our pants here but I would recommend that we send a TR drone perhaps a year before. I was thinking we would put it in orbit and assess the general state of the planet, its civilisations and technology. If there's something akin to the Internet that we can penetrate, we'll have the TRD relay historical data back so that we can figure out what changed and go from there." Rinehart suggested.

   "A year before any historical contamination. Well we can't necessarily be certain that we are looking at the origin of the anomaly. Your idea has merit but let's put it farther back. This appears to be Earth so let's set up shop about two thousand years prior." Tails said. "It should have enough juice on its own from what I see of these specifications but as long as nothing disrupts its orbit, then it can collect solar power on demand. No wonder they designed these with such large storage drives. I'm like a bloody floppy disk in comparison!"

   "14 February 0020 CE it is then." Rinehart looked over to one of the ratings. "Launch TRD-01 with a temporal offset to where it arrives in orbit of the planet for this contact at a safe position on 14 February 0020 CE. It's going to push a lot of data back, at least if everything works properly."

   "Launch TRD-01 for 14 February 0020 CE in safe orbit around Earth Epsilon and maintain telemetry. Aye, aye, Commander." The operator said. Automatically the Warspite stayed in place as the temporal drive started to cycle. This time instead of propelling the ship, protected field generators on the hull began to create a small wormhole, one large enough for the drone to pass through after it was released from the battleship. Once the drone passed through, the aperture shrank to where data could pass through. After a few moments, Rinehart and Prower noticed a massive download occurring.

   "It's only been seconds for us but it's been operating for over two-thousand years. I'll be damned." Tails murmured.

   "Operating and creating a historical index!" Rinehart looked over at the other fox. Tails sat down at an empty station, connecting to the Warspite's temporal operations computer. Once he successfully exchanged authentication tokens with the TOC, the vulpinroid immersed himself into the data. From his perspective he was no longer sitting in the chair, he was up in orbit passing over the planet, watching it develop. Sure enough it was Earth and one very close to the one that he knew and called home. Familiar features and landmarks began to pop up. Familiar conflicts were also present. He was able to watch World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam and Gulf Wars I and II unfold. Suddenly the drone seemed to focus in on the western United States. An anomaly appeared briefly on 14 November 2006 consistent with behaviour similar to the Warp Gate. The drone appeared to hold and track the anomaly, but whatever it was had been too quick for it to immediately identify. It was just a blue blur.

   "Whatever our anomaly is, it doesn't appear to be an object. I would guess robot or an exotic lifeform." Tails said after dropping out from the TOC. "It seems to remain focused around the town of Green Hills, Montana." He tilted his head performing a database search. "Well this is interesting, it doesn't exist in our timeline. But what's the problem here?" He blinked and returned to the drone data, going to the date that the original detection hit occurred. 14 February 2020, a massive EMP had knocked out power to the United States and Canada briefly but the epicentre appeared to be in Green Hills. "Oh, well that would do it, wouldn't it?" Tails stood up and stretched, raising his ears while opening a channel up to the bridge. "Lieutenant Commander Thompson, please contact Rear Admiral Concha and put him through to me directly, would you?" He looked over at Rinehart. "I'll be enroute to the bridge."

[Captain Shadow]

Great!  Very original.  I'd like to read more!