Chapter 15

            Will woke up to something soft beneath him.  Without opening his eyes, he assumed it was his bed.  What a strange dream he'd had.  His old stuffed raccoon had started talking and a psychotic stuffed cat had terrorized Jessie.  To cap it off, he, Jessie, and the stuffed animals broke into Stratford to spring Tom. 

            The stuffed toys had wanted them all to go to the Bloc of Planetary States.  Will chuckled to himself about this.  What a silly idea.  The Bloc of Planetary States was imaginary, a game they'd made up as kids.  It wasn't real.

            A hand touched his shoulder.  "It's not time yet, Mom," he said with a groan.

            The hand punched the same shoulder.  "Get up, idiot," Tom said.

            Will opened his eyes to realize he wasn't in his bedroom.  The room around him was made of plain gray walls with a pair of beds—cots really.  Was this a prison cell?  Had the police intercepted him and Tom?  Maybe they were in Stratford.  "Where are we?" he asked.

            "I don't know."

            "Is this Stratford?"

            "No, thank God."

            Will sat up on the cot.  He counted again to make sure there were only two beds.  One for him and one for Tom.  "Where's Jessie?"

            "I don't know that either."  He motioned to a solid metal door.  "The door's locked."

            "Do you think it was a setup?  That they wanted to imprison us?"

            Tom thought about this for a moment.  "I doubt it.  Of course we don't know where we ended up.  This could be one of the Black Ships for all we know."

            "Except the interior isn't black."

            "Maybe they were saving on paint."

            Will rolled out of the cot and went over to the door.  He knocked on it to make sure it was solid.  "Anyone there?  Let us out of here."

            "It's no use.  I've already tried that."  Tom sank down on his cot.  "You might as well get used to it."

            Will sat back down on his cot.  "Is this what Stratford was like?"

            "Pretty much.  Though at least we had magazines or books."

            "How long do you think they'll keep us here?"

            "I have no idea.  Maybe until we starve."

            Will tried to think of the last time he'd eaten, not having touched anything at the diner on the way back from Stratford.  Did Ricky and Heather and the rest eat?  On Earth they were just stuffed animals, but if this really was the Bloc of Planetary States, did that mean they had real stomachs and hearts and other organs?  He wondered if he would ever get the chance to find out.

            The answer came less than a minute later when the metal door whooshed open.  In the doorway stood what appeared to be a six-foot-tall raccoon wearing a blue uniform coat and black pants.  Only from the raccoon's brown fur and white cheeks did Will recognize his former stuffed toy.  "Ricky?"

            "That's right.  I'm glad to see you're awake," he said.  His voice sounded much deeper.  "We thought you might have suffered a brain trauma."

            "Not that he has much to trauma," Tom said.

            Someone joined Ricky in the doorway.  "Are you guys planning to sleep all day?" Jessie asked.  She looked exactly as Will remembered.  "You guys have got to see this place.  It's absolutely amazing."

            "You've already seen it?" Tom asked.

            "I can't help you two were taking a nap."

            "I wasn't."

            "Fine, whatever.  You aren't going to believe it.  Come on, let's go."

            "Just a moment," Ricky said.  He reached into a pocket of his uniform to pull out a silver device shaped like a handgun.  Will backed against the wall, steeling himself for the fatal shot.  But no bullets came from the gun, only a yellow light.  The light washed over Will for a moment before a red light flashed on the device.  Ricky grunted and then turned it on Tom with a similar result.  "All right, you're both clean."

            "What was that?" Will asked.

            "Biological sensor.  Had to make sure you weren't carrying any diseases."

            "They already did me.  Can we go now, Commander Raccoon?"

            "Of course.  Follow me."

            Will followed Jessie and Tom out the door, into a corridor with the same metal walls.  "I don't think we're in Montana anymore," he mumbled.

#

            The corridors all looked the same, so that within a minute, Will felt as if they had gone in a circle.  Ricky seemed confident though, striding purposefully along the corridor on two bare feet.  Will learned quickly to walk far behind the raccoon to avoid getting batted in the face by Ricky's bushy ringed tail.

            As they continued along the maze of corridors, Will couldn't help gawking at the raccoon.  From all outward appearances Ricky was a raccoon and yet he walked on two legs just like a human and he had four fingers and a thumb instead of the pudgy mitts of the stuffed animal.  Hard as it was to believe, Will had to accept that the toy had become real.

            Tom walked beside Will, looking warily over his shoulder every now and then as if expecting a trap.  If it was a trap, they couldn't do much about it, not having any weapons.  At least their clothes had made the transfer with them so they didn't have to walk around naked.

            Jessie seemed to have already made the transition.  She walked next to Ricky, chatting with him about where they were.  From what Ricky said, they were on a science vessel, the Beagle, commanded by Dr. Ruff.  It was obvious that the atmosphere for the Bloc creatures was the same as Earth's and that Dr. Ruff had invented artificial gravity, also set for Earth tolerances.

            "Why is Dr. Ruff working on a ship?" Jessie asked.

            "I'll let him explain that himself," Ricky said.

            "Where is he?"

            "In the observation lounge."  They came to this lounge a few minutes later, though the door looked the same as the rest they had passed.  With one furry, clawed finger, Ricky tapped an access code into a number pad.  The door hissed open to reveal a flood of colors.

            The observation lounge was as big as Will's entire house back home, but there was no furniture.  It was simply an open space with a window looking out into space.  At the moment, space consisted of a nebula dancing with purple, blue, and red hues.  Will had never seen anything like it up close; if he could reach out, he imagined he would be able to touch the swirling colors.

            Dazzled by this, Will didn't see the occupant of the observation lounge until he heard an oddly flat voice say, "It is beautiful, isn't it?  Seeing how alive it looks makes me feel so insignificant."

            The speaker was a chocolate lab with white ears, a chocolate lab that stood almost seven feet tall.  From the lab coat the lab wore, Will knew this was Dr. Randy Ruff.  "It's unbelievable," Will said.

            "I know, isn't it crazy?  We're in space—on a spaceship!" Jessie said.  "Did we really create all of this?"

            "That's what we're here to find out," Dr. Ruff said. 

            "I don't remember any of us thinking up a nebula," Tom said. 

            "It may be that you didn't think of it consciously.  Perhaps one of you in your unconscious thoughts conceived it."

            "I'm not sure I want to see what else we might have created then."

            Jessie elbowed Tom in the stomach.  "I think it's great.  And to think, we're the first humans to ever see it."

            "We'll probably be the last humans to see it too."

            "Ah yes, you refer to the Black Ships," Dr. Ruff said.

            "Isn't that why we're here?  So what do we do?  Click our heels three times?  Wiggle our noses and wish them gone?"

            "No, I don't think that will have any effect on them.  Not if my theory holds."

            Before Tom could make another snide comment, Will raised his hand, Dr. Ruff's presence making him feel as if he were in science class.  "What I don't understand is why we're here.  Shouldn't we be on Bulldogovia or Muttlandia or Cattatonia?"

            "That is easy enough to explain," Dr. Ruff said.  "The radiation from the Dog's Ear Nebula made it a natural focal point for transdimensional communication.  As well, if anything went wrong with the operation, it would be safer for all concerned for it to happen in an unpopulated area of space as opposed to a metropolitan area."

            "Safer for you at least," Tom said.  "Could this transdimensional communication have ripped a hole in the space-time continuum or something?"

            "I very much doubt it, though there was a small possibility of such an event."

            "Well, I feel a lot better."  Jessie elbowed Tom in the ribs again. 

            "You needn't worry.  For the moment we've terminated our communications with your dimension.  All instruments indicate no instabilities in the space-time continuum."

            As Dr. Ruff spoke, Will pressed himself up to the glass until his nose touched it.  The glass—or whatever transparent material it was—felt cold to the touch; the shiver that ran through Will validated he really was standing on a platform looking out into the stars.  Turning his head slightly, he could make out one of the engine blisters along the side of the ship.  At the moment, the blister was dark, the Beagle floating dead in space.

            Jessie pressed herself next to him against the glass.  "This is probably what a fly feels like," she said.  She sighed, her warm breath condensing on the window.  "It's weird though to think Earth isn't out there.  We're the only humans here."

            "Endangered species," Will said.

            "Let's hope not too endangered."  In that moment, she reached over to take his hand and give it a squeeze.  Will had never felt so alive before.

            Then the moment was over as Dr. Ruff said, "Come, I'll show you the lab."

#

            Will had to almost break into a run to keep up with Dr. Ruff's long steps.  The chocolate lab's toenails clicked on the metal deck as he walked, though unlike Ricky he had clipped his tail down to only a stump.  When asked about it, Dr. Ruff explained that most of the dog population opted to have their tails clipped shortly after birth.  Like a circumcision, Will thought.  The raccoons and cats maintained their tails as well as the claws on their hands.  "Some say that we canines are more evolved, but I believe it's nothing more than sheer vanity," Dr. Ruff said.

            As the track team captain, Jessie had little trouble keeping up with the doctor.  She didn't even sound fatigued as she asked, "What about makeup?"

            Dr. Ruff considered this for a moment.  "Ah yes, you mean cosmetics.  There's nothing like what you humans use of course."

            "Great and I forgot my purse," Jessie said.

            The doctor went on to explain that customs varied between the species.  Many felines styled their whiskers in varying curlicue patterns while tomcats would clip theirs.  A few more adventurous cats even dyed their whiskers.  Bitches on Bulldogovia or Muttlandia often pinned their ears back, much as human women did with their hair.  Male dogs routinely had their teeth sharpened to project a more masculine appearance.  As for the raccoons, they did little for cosmetic enhancement, at least outside of their home villages.  "In their native forests, they often use a variety of leaves, pine needles, or other brush for camouflage," Dr. Ruff said.

            He stopped at a door larger than any they had encountered yet on the ship.  Instead of typing in a code, he presented one eye to a scanner.  The scanner hummed for an instant before the door opened.  "Welcome Dr. Ruff," a computerized voice said.

            "Retinal scanner?" Will asked.

            "Something like that."

            Dr. Ruff's laboratory was twice as large as the observation lounge, though much of this space was taken up by equipment.  The computer consoles along the walls looked light years more advanced than anything on Earth.  On tables around the room, Will saw bits and pieces of various experiments, including what appeared to be some kind of robotic parakeet.  Tom reached out towards the bird, which suddenly came to life.  The parakeet's eyes glowed red.  It opened its mouth to let out a shriek that sent all three humans to their knees, hands over their ears.

            "RAM, deactivate," Dr. Ruff said.  The parakeet's eyes faded to black, its horrible screech terminating.  "Terribly sorry.  I haven't finished programming his safety protocols quite yet.  This Black Ship threat hasn't given me much time for other projects."

            "Maybe that's a good thing," Tom said.

            Dr. Ruff ushered the three humans to what looked like dentist's chairs, except these chairs had various wires and computer monitors attached to them.  "If you'll have a seat, there are some tests I need to run."

            "Hold on a minute," Tom said.  "What kind of experiments?  You going to take our blood?  Dissect us?"

            "Nothing so serious.  I only want to get some readings.  I promise it won't be a painful experience."

            Jessie, the most enthusiastic about everything in the Bloc so far, was the first to sit in one of the chairs.  "If they wanted to hurt us they would have done it already," she said.

            Will shrugged, seeing the logic of this.  It would have been easy enough for Ricky or Dr. Ruff to have simply dragged them into the lab while they were unconscious.  "So what do we do?" he asked, picking up a handful of wires.

            "Just lie back in the chair and be still."  Dr. Ruff said.

            "Are we going to have to get naked for this?" Tom asked as he sat down.

            "That won't be necessary."

            "I'm game if you are," Tom said, looking over at Jessie.

            She harrumphed at this.  "You wish," she said.

            Dr. Ruff began attaching the wires to Will's arms, chest, and face.  The ends of the wires somehow managed to stay in place without any sort of hooks, needles, or suction cups that Will could see.  He wanted to ask how it was possible, but Dr. Ruff had him open his mouth to bite down on a wire.  A coppery taste filled Will's mouth.

            The doctor repeated this procedure with Jessie and then Tom, the latter requiring a bit of persuasion in the form of Jessie making chicken noises before he bit down on the wire.  The computer monitors around them came to life, displaying a variety of numbers and acronyms Will couldn't pretend to understand.

            "This should only take a few minutes," Dr. Ruff said.  He studied the computer monitors for a moment before walking over to his desk.  Will's eyes widened as he watched a metal tentacle snake out of the doctor's right arm to plug itself into the computer.

            Long ago, two centuries in Bloc reckoning, Dr. Randy Ruff had been a simple flesh, blood, and fur scientist.  In terms of Bloc history, he was the da Vinci and Edison combined, producing everything from the first crude flying machines to "electric thinking machines" or computers.  The one thing Randy Ruff couldn't invent was immortality for his beloved wife and three sons, all of whom were killed by the outbreak of a terrible plague.

            Devastated by this loss, Dr. Ruff began working day and night on a cure to the plague until he too fell ill.  Refusing to give in to the disease, Dr. Ruff discovered a way to transfer his thoughts and experiences to one of his electric thinking machines.  The original Dr. Randy Ruff perished days later, but those thoughts and experiences lived on.

            In time, the computer housing Dr. Ruff's mind found not only a cure for the plague that had destroyed his family but a way to achieve a sort of mortality.  The computer designed a cybernetic body, a robotic skeleton that could operate like an actual dog.  And so Dr. Randy Ruff was reborn in this skeleton, called the Mark 1.  Over time, he perfected artificial muscles, skin, and fur to create the Mark 7, a body so like a normal dog's that no one could tell the difference.

            At least not until he interfaced with a computer as he did now.  The terminal came to life, splashing colors across Dr. Ruff's face.  The taste in Will's mouth went from copper to a bitterness like ashes.  He resisted the urge to spit the wire out.

            The wire fell out of his mouth a moment later as the entire ship shook violently.  Klaxons as loud and obnoxious as RAM the robotic parakeet sounded through the lab.  Heather's voice came through the terminal.  "Dr. Ruff, we're under attack!"