Dimensions of Change
By Zipper
Chapter Two
Jonathan Wintersmouse and Alicia Hamsterball had been staring at the console
in the darken room in the heart of the observatory for over an hour. Jonathan
rubbed his red tired eyes. “I’m not cut out for this.” He complained
tiredly.
Alicia rolled her gray red eyes. “Stop you’re belly-aching. At least
you’re a mouse! If any species is not cut out to do this kind of work,
it’s a hamster.
Jonathan stared blankly at Alicia. She was a hamster of normal height and build
for the enlisted. Her dulled black and white coat still retained some of its
gloss, showing her youth in the new order. In comparison, Jonathan had been
serving for a year now. His coat had lost all of its shine, leaving a dull of
white hue to his once bright white fur. Her eyes were also a give away. They
were losing pigment, but still retained some of their original color. The enlisted
lost all eye pigment after six months, followed shortly by most of the coloration
in their fur. He could tell that she would be a ghostly white with shadows were
the black spot used to be.
The mouse opened his mouth to make some snide comment about back talking senor
officers, but she interrupted him.
“Look it’s happening again.” She squeaked in excitement. “The
computer’s insisting upon an outside source for the interference, but it
couldn’t be. This complex is the only thing in a hundred mile radius that
could generate that kind of dimensional spike.”
“What ever it is,” Jonathan remarked grumpily, “we’ll have
to tell Madame Director about it. She’s not going to be happy.”
Alicia nodded in agreement.
“I’m going to need a drink after this. Maybe some bovine Oh-negative.”
The mouse mumbled as he reached for a flask from under his uniforms jacket.
Gadget moaned as she rubbed her head. Her eyes opened, yet refused to focus
on anything. She lay there for what seemed like minuets, or was it hours. Slowly
her blue crystal eyes grudgingly started to center on the ceiling. The air was
cool over her white fur. The moon cast a hard blue light on the room, reflecting
off her golden hair like a halo. The pounding she felt in her cranium though
was anything but angelic, yet she was still able to comprehend that she was
still in her workshop. She sat up, silhouetted in the moonlight as she gazed
out the window at the millions of stars out. Something did not seem right in
this picture. The city never had this many stars before. Must be a power outage.
That would explain the lack of lighting in her workshop.
Her thoughts wandered until they landed no what had happened. She remembered
activating her Trans-phasic Modulation Induce, yet every thing after that was
a blank except… no, who would ever believe a tunnel of swirling light.
It must have been a hallucination from the impact she endured to the head.
A muffled moan beside her reminded Gadget that she was not alone. Foxglove stirred
then clutched her head as she uttered another moan. “Well,” she whispered,
“At least I’m alive.” The frail bat squinted. For some reason
her eyes were having a hard time focusing. “Gadget? Is that you?”
She inquired in a low voice.
Gadget sat staring at the stars. Only a slight nod of the head suggested she
was aware of Foxglove’s presence.
“What are you looking at?” Foxglove asked as her eyes slowly began
to work.
“The stars…” Gadget breathed. “Theirs something not quite
right.” She sat there, not moving. Finally she registered the inconsistency.
“The moons supposed to be at its half way through its cycle, yet its full.”
“Maybe we’ve been out for awhile.” Foxglove offered. Being a
nocturnal animal she knew all about the moons cycles.
“No, only an hour. The positions of the stars tell me it’s only nine
o’clock.”
“Days could of passed. If we were unconscious then…” Foxgloves
voice fell short as Gadget shook her head.
“If we were out for that long, I don’t think we would be laying on
the floor. The boys would have moved us to some beds or at least gave us blankets.”
“Where is Dale anyways?” Foxglove asked innocently. Gadget slowly
turned her head. She hadn’t thought of that. It was not like the boy’s
to leave them unattended. They could be on a case, yet some one would of stayed
behind. Something definitely wasn’t right here.
Silence fell on the two of them as they stared out at the stars. “Did you
hear something?” Foxglove asked.
Widget lay in bed, but sleep was the last thing on her mind. She ran every
calculation she had done for her invention over end over again, yet the answer
was being elusive, always at the edge of conscious though never anything more
than a shadow. It should have worked. She had broken the space barrier, if only
momentarily. She had bent physics to her will, if only for a fleeting moment.
The impossible had only been a challenge to her; all to save her son from growing
up in a world were the enlisted ruled, away from the Republic of Freed Rodents.
She glowered at the thought of all the ‘freed’ rodents that now served
the Emprise, the high and mighty Wolfsbane. She had personally ‘freed’
many rodents including Gadget, warping them to her perverse will. Now her sister
was nothing more than an empty shell of the rodent she used to be. Life has
replaced death for her. Now she was the enemy, the one threatening her son,
the one who murdered Chip in cold blood and had sunk the Albacore leaving her
widowed and fighting a war for the future of creatures everywhere. She fell
back, her gray hair following shortly there after, covering her face.
She stroked her left arm, feeling its warmth. She had worked hard to strengthen
her arm. It was not uncommon for albinos to be crippled in at least one appendage.
The doctors had said that she was luck to have a limb at all but would be all
but useless. She never did take no for an answer.
There was something she was over looking. It would eat away at her until she
found out what it was. Slowly she got up and wrapped a robe around her pigment
less fur. She stumbled down the hall towards Gadgets… her workshop. She
was still having problems believing Gadget was gone, even after a year and a
half. She continued her trek down the hall.
“The stars…” she heard a voice whispered.
She stopped in her place, her ears pivoting to locate the source of the sound,
yet only the sound of her own breathing filled her ears. ‘This is silly
she thought to her self.’ She thought to her self and forced her feet to
carry her forward and around the corner only to stop again. There, in her workshop,
was a figure silhouetted in the moonlight. The figure held her in awe. Could
it be her mother? No she died in a combine accident at the age of five, but
could her spirit live on?
“The moons supposed to be at its half way through its cycle, yet its full.”
She overheard the voice say, as if the wind it’s self could talk. She knew
that voice. It was the voice of her sister. Widget quickly hid herself beside
the doorway so she could overhear.
“Maybe we’ve been out for awhile.” A second voice countered.
“No, only an hour. The positions of the stars tell me it’s only nine
o’clock.” Gadget stated. Widget was becoming confused. If Gadget had
found were she was hiding, why had she come her self? She could of just as easily
of sent a regiment of enlisted solders.
“Days could of passed. If we were unconscious then…” The second
voice was also familiar to Widget, but from were she did not know.
“If we were out for that long, I don’t think we would be laying on
the floor. The boys would have moved us to some beds or at least gave us blankets.”
Boys? She knew Gadget kept a couple toys around, but here in the tree house.
No they would have tripped the alarms, yet here Gadget was. Could her traps
of been disabled? Gadget was the only one who knew her ways. It was possible,
yet… Gadget sounded different.
“Where is Dale anyways?” Widget gasped at the sound of Dales name.
Dale was recovering from a deep abrasion he received while trying to dig out
a family of foxes from their collapsed cave. Three of the five pups survived,
but the father died and the mother has gone missing, assumed to be part of the
enlisted.
“Did you hear something?” The second voice asked. “Ah, probably
nothing, though I hope it Dale.”
“Come on Foxglove, lets go find were there off to.” Foxglove, as in
the now Emprise of the RFR Wolfsbane Foxglove? She had to intervene.
Widget poked her head around the corner; the two silhouettes were facing the
window. She stood in the doorway and watched as they helped each other up off
the floor.
Foxglove accepted Gadgets outstretched paw thankfully. Her head was still spinning
slightly and she was unsure of her balance. She stood on shaking knees but stayed
up.
“That’s far enough..” Gadget said.
“What’s far enough?” Foxglove inquired as her feet became stable.
“I didn’t say anything, I thought you said that.” Gadget responded
with a perplexed look on her face.
“No I said it.” A mysterious voice said behind them.
Gadget and Foxglove spun their heels to face the new rodent.
Foxglove saw her first; she was a bat after all. The figure stopped at the edge
between shadow and light. The perplexed bat never had liked surprises so she
took a quick echolocation of the rodent before her. The return confused her
more. She looked just like Gadget, yet Gadget was beside her…right?
“Widget?” Foxglove heard Gadget utter. “I thought you were at
sea. Were is Järgen and Grimcrack?”
Widget advanced forward, glowering with pure evil that left no doubt in anyone’s
mind of how painful you’re death would be if you crossed her.
Foxglove had met Widget once before while the Albacore was in dry dock for routine
repairs. At the time Widget wore an pure black wet suit adapted with a pouch
for Grimcrack to sit in. Now she only wore a robe. Her pure white fur and gray
hair shown in the advancing moon light like polished silver. Her pink eyes was
the only coloring she had. They held the attention of many rodent before they
passed out from a swift blow administered by this rodent dynamo. Foxglove studied
the outline before her.
“Widget,” Gadget exclaimed excitedly, “That’s a life like
housing for you’re arm. I can’t even tell it’s fake. Golly, can
I touch it?” She questioned as she stepped forward.
“Stop where you are!” Widget demanded forcefully, yet Foxglove detected
a hint of… fear? Widget, afraid? “I don’t know what you’re
talking about,” Widget continued, “but don’t step any closer!”
Foxglove’s ears pivoted slightly. Some one was in the hall. “Widget?
Is that you? Keep it down you awaken Grimc…” Tammy stopped short.
“Tammy, get the torch.” Widget ordered. Foxglove heard the squirrels
feet scamper down the hall, only to return shortly.
Widget accepted the device from Tammy and held it towards Gadget and Foxglove.
It was a small cylindrical tube with what looked like a pistols handle and a
long stiff hose running off the back.
“Widget, you’re not at the revenge thing again?” Gadget asked
in a monotone voice as she raised her paws into the air.
“Again? I never knew I stopped.” Widget pull the trigger.
Foxglove crindged away from the emense heat she suddenly felt.
Is Widget back in the revenge business, or is she joking around. Is Tammy in
league with Widget to remove Gadget from the picture so she could have Chip?
By the way, were is Chip, Dale and the rest of the gang? Maybe some case beckoned,
or did they find out it was Gadgets turn to cook? Toon in for the next exciting
installment of ‘Dimensions of Change’
‘Dimensions of Change’ was produced, written, edited, and well, brought
into this world by Zipper the Magnificent! He denies any rumor of alleged plagiarism
from Douglas Adam’s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (even though the closing
statement sounds like its from the BBC radio broadcast.)
All Characters except for Widget and Grimcrack are the trademarks of Disney
Animation or some other Disney company (who knows, or cares). John W. Nowak
is credited for the creation of Widget and Grimcrack. If theres a problem with
that, Email him at WIDGET@X-TREME PAIN.OUCH
Gadget would like to take this time to announce that PETA has banded her cooking,
claming its ‘…cruelty to animals’.