The OMEGA Game

© 2010 Mr. David R. Dorrycott

Nancy & Alpha Rote © Mr. Simon L. Barber.

Used with permission.

Young Nancy Rote stood just outside of Songmarks Gate shocked. The very attractive American squirrel was staring at her shrew-mink wife in disbelief. “Cranium Island? Why? I had so planned that we would have these holidays to ourselves, why I gave my word that I would be doing no sleuthing at all.”

“Stillnotsluth” the shorter shrew announced. “Beta makecertain. She... Promise.”

Stamping her foot in the dusty soil in anger, much to the amusement of those girls still on guard at the gate behind them Nancy balled her paws into fists. “I will not have it. I will NOT!” she almost screamed. “I have been much looking forward to this weekend.”

Alpha Rote, Cranium Island Mad Scientist, looked up into her true loves face with sorrow. “Is Omega” she almost whispered. “Imustattend. Imuststop. Ifnot. Then no Earth.”

This information did catch the larger, slightly older squirrels attention. Many times Alpha had explained the ways of Cranium Island to her but only once had she ever spoken the word Omega. Omega was the last letter in the Greek alphabet and most often used in this day and age as an ending to something. Usually the world. “Doomsday Device” she gasped.

“Istrue. Professor Yangsay hefind way killeverything. Willprove tomorrow. I - must - stop.” The shrew actually shivered as though frozen. “Must showproffofconceptfirst. Own Omega. Endcontect. Save you.”

“But... Alpha” Nancy gasped. Abruptly she calmed herself. “I will go with you” she decided.

“Cannot. Is OMEGA!” Alpha stressed. “Scientist. Top Assistant only. NotsecondyearSongmarkstudent.”

“Then take Beta” Nancy suggested, before quickly retracting her words. “No, she knows almost nothing of a laboratory who then?”

“No one. I goalone. Seeyouverysoon” the shrew answered, accepting a last kiss from Nancy. It would be, she knew, the very last time she saw her love unless she won the Omega. With nothing in her personal arsenal but a single, many years old proof of concept device she would have to defeat a full fledged Mad Scientist. One who had been working hard the nine years since Alpha turned away from he own machine.

“Welcome home” Jade Zarahoff, Alpha’s mother called as she approached, meeting her daughter as the shrew made her way from semi-autonomous jetcraft’s hanger to her parents home. The older female mink was obviously the prettier of the two, as well as being much taller. “You made it in time for the Omega. Have you heard that Yangs device has developed a hitch?”

“No” the shrew admitted, though she had hoped that it would, had prayed to Nancy that it would. His device was horribly complex, though the process itself was simple enough. Create a massive enough gravity field in one place, insure that it was stable and it would suck everything into itself. Just enough time would remain for tests to prove the creation was both stable and unstoppable for him to be declared the winner and enjoy his prizes. Then Cranium Island and everyone on it would be sucked into the nothingness. Not many months later there would be nothing left of Earth. Just an invisible spot of massive gravity, with Luna orbiting well outside the danger zone.

“Hismath. Verygood” she admitted. “Whatwrong?”

“His top assistant was swallowed by the gravity field during a test. Since he was holding onto a critical piece of apparatus at the time” Her mother gave Alpha a wonderful smile. “It will be months before he can replace it and since there are no other entries this cycle I fear that you wasted a trip. Though I do have an experiment...”

“I have entry” Alpha almost whispered. “Proofofconcept. Notneeddestroyplanet, prove it work.”

Mrs. Zarahoff’s eyes went wide at those words. “A proof of concept? Where dear?”

“My laboratory. Come.” She then lead her mother to the sealed door that was her laboratory, carefully opening locks that, without the correct code would implode, taking the offending persons paws with it. Opening the door she withdrew a Colt 1911 that now sat at her hip when not attending school. Slowly she armed it, then gently released the safety. As always, some entity had entered the room when it was left idle too long. It quickly attacked the little shrew, only to vanish in a light show as the .45 caliber automatic spoke.

“That was neither lead, nor silver” her mother noted, her own black-ray gun at the ready. She noted the reddish smudge on the .45's muzzle. “Sirium?” she asked.

“With Didymium” Alpha answered. “No knownmonster cansurvive midtohighvelocityimpact.” Turning on the lights she looked around, searching with more than just her eyes for any further creatures. Thankfully there were none. As she searched, she noted that her mother too was searching and not simply with her eyes but with that darkness that had almost cost her daughters life. “Mother” Alpha asked, staring at the shadow that now stood beside the painfully attractive mink.

“It is too late for me my daughter” her mother explained. “But now knowing, I can control. As long as I live.” She clapped her paws twice and the darkness vanished. “When I die? That will be another matter. We shall then see who is truly the stronger and what my destiny is. Now, you wished to show me something?”

Walking to one of the cases that lined her laboratory wall Alpha opened it, taking out a small but very heavy device. She carried it to her work table, then carefully hooked up the power leads to a awaiting accumulator. She did all this without saying a word. Only when she was finished did the half-shrew turn a complicated switch. Instantly there was a hissing sound and soon a small breeze began flowing toward two rings mounted on top.

“An air compressor?” her mother asked. “Oh dear Alpha, that is not an Omega device.”

“Otherendis... Mars” Alpha Rote explained. “AirgoestoMars.”

“Air goes... To Mars? By Telsa’s beard” her mother whispered. “Given a thousand years Earth would not have enough air to support life larger than.. Than a primitive mouse.”

“Not that” Alpha admitted. “Sunlightunimpeded. PlanetwashedStarlight. Water boilthenfreeze. Earth... Dead.”

Her mother walked around the device, inspecting it carefully. There was a very short pipe between the two rings but slipping a feather under the lower one only resulted in the feather being sucked in while not simply blowing out the top. “Its based upon the accumulator” she abruptly realized. “How long have you had this Alpha.”

“Nineyears” her daughter answered, reaching out to carefully turn the little device off before her mother absently lost a finger, or worse. The rings were quite strong after all, she was unsure if her mother would lose a finger, paw, arm or simply vanish. None of the options were acceptable, for all her mistakes Alpha still very much loved her mother.

“Nine... Years.” Her mother looked at her daughter, abruptly seeing her in a completely new light. “You could have won the Omega a whole nine years ago. But, why?”

Unplugging her power leads Alpha shrugged. “Wasnotimportant” she admitted. “Ifindway. Oncefindway, nolongerintersted. Ischallangematters. Notprize.”

Her mother put a paw on her daughters shoulder, stopping her movements. “Why now then? Because you didn’t want Yang to win? He isn’t much of a social fur, but he isn’t that mean of one.”

Looking up into her mothers eyes the younger shrew-mink answered all the older womans questions with one word. “Nancy.”

“Nancy” her mother repeated. “I see, very well then prepare your machine. I will notify the committee, but remember this, the winner of each Omega has to announce the next Omega, and you cannot ever repeat a previous Omega. Even in spirit.”

Alpha nodded in agreement. “Prizeis. Votecoins. Mate. AnnouncenextOmega. Alreadyhavemate.”

Her mother almost cracked a smile. “Then we will think of something else. Tonight at twenty-one hundred, until then your father is in the library reading. I am certain that he would like to see his soon to be famous daughter.” She then did something that she had never done in the shrews memory. She leaned down and kissed her daughter. “You have made me the proudest mother ever” she whispered. “Until twenty-one hundred.”

Alpha spent the time talking with her father, then finally visiting her brothers room for the first time since his death. He had been her second best friend, handsome, he had gotten all his mothers looks and was almost as smart as Alpha herself. But he was known for pranks and ruining others works on occasion. Then he had opened the shielded windows to his room to leave behind nothing but a neat pile of potassium. She missed him greatly so now, like her wife Nancy, she walked around the scene of the crime. This time seeing it from Nancy’s eyes, not a shattered sisters eyes. In doing so she noticed things that had not been noticed before. When it came time she was ready.

“Very inventive” Yang observed. “So simple. But why Mars.”

“Colonize” Alpha answered. “Need air.”

Professor Kritin spoke up next. “Of course you are aware that once the pressure is equalized your machine will cease functioning. This remaining partial pressure will be more than enough to maintain life on Earth. This is not a doomsday device. It will make life on earth difficult, but not impossible.”

Alpha bowed slightly to the older warthog. “Have thought of such.” She reached into her machine and turned something. A sharp heavy click was heard, followed by the sound and smell of an electrical arc. . “IsnowlockedonLuna. Nextsettingisdeepspace.” She gave the elderly warthog a smile. “Of coursesomeonemust staybehind. Is my job.”

“Very good, well thought out and you accept that you must die with the planet. I withdraw my objection” the greying warthog announced. “Doctor Killdeer?”

“Noh questions” announced the impressive red deer stag, one who could have just stepped from Scotland itself. “Ah’m simply lookin at tha death of mai planet.” His eyes were, in fact, fixed upon that little machine.

And so it went, question after question. Each answered with that curious run-on sentence structure the shrew-mink had until finally all twenty-three attending Cranium Island mad scientists had had their say. Finally, it was Alpha’s fathers turn to speak.  

“Alpha. You say that this machine since your changing of its settings, has been expelling Earths gass, and thus its moisture onto Luna. Correct?”

“Yesfather” the shrew agreed.

“Upon which point on the surface of Luna has this been occurring my dear.”

“Sinas crater father” Alpha answered, carefully slowing her words to that crawling speed that all others used.

Her father looked at his watch, an old pocket watch that he had been given by his wifes father upon their marriage. “Luna is currently sufficiently within our viewing, using Professor Lichens fifty-inch reflector, that we may observe Sinas crater. I propose that, before we vote that the good professor make observations then report back to us. If there is an accumulation of gass and water vapor within that crater then we will have the most important answer. For Luna cannot hold sufficient atmosphere to stabilize Earths environment at a livable level, it has too small of a gravity well for such. Professor Lichen?”

“Vold I be delighted. Sandra?” As the black bear stood, his favorite, and most beautiful blond assistant followed. Quietly Alpha sat down as around her people started drifting away, talking among themselves, preforming calculations or simply thinking. There was nothing more that she could do right now, as on the table before her the little machine continued to run. Air was constantly vanishing into the twin openings still it would take an hour or two for reliable observations to be made after all. Another hour added for safe travel to and from the bears observatory. Say 0200 hours.

“Alpha” Baron Seleucus diCotton asked, catching her attention as he sat down across from her. “Why have you not. Before. Brought this tool to out attention? It would, as I understand this thing. Have saved us nine years of fear. Fear that some fool would destroy this very world. Reason for only to win then useless prize.”

Alpha turned her attention to the venerable polar bear, granting him a rare smile. “Assistants not eligible Omega” she answered slowly.

“That is correct sir” diCotton’s own assistant reminded him. She was a very shapely housecat, with hints of the orient in her eyes and long, blue-grey fur. It was said that she had been one of diCotton’s assistants since she was nine years old. “With permission sir, we may suggest but we may never apply our own imaginations to any task not assigned to us.”

DiCotton nodded in agreement. “But you have been a Card Carrying Mad Scientist for well over a year now Alpha. Why so long the wait, then apply so very quickly.”

“Nancy” the shrew admitted. “Can not let Nancy die.”

DiCotton smiled, one of his paws absently stroking the housecats arm. “Yes, that beautiful squirrel you married so recently. So. She still has that heart of yours dear Alpha? Here then I had hoped to add her to my own collection. Upon your tiring of her certainly, a mind she has, though untrained and such looks. A tail to murder for think I.”

Alpha shook herself, staring at her little machine for a while. “Am allowedthreethingsifwin” Alpha finally said. “Coins voted. Choosenextchallange. Mate.” She looked up at the polar bear. “Have mate. Want no other. Need assistant” she looked knowingly at Seleucus. “Maybe take Gretchen?” she finished playfully.

“Humm..” The polar bear looked to his assistant. A beautiful woman no doubt, more importantly to him she was intelligent and exceptionally well trained in the way of logical thought. After all, he had been training her himself for a very long time. “A serious loss. Her sister is a bit upon the flighty side. May I offer you Helga instead?”

Alpha actually laughed. “Helga? Thank no” she answered. “SeenheraccidentsIhave.”

“Yes, the orange fur dye. I assure you, grown out her fur is now” diCotton agreed with a chuckle. “There are only tints remaining though still you can see her miles from away. Reflective the color turned out to be.” He too looked at that little machine, quietly running along, currently attached to its own little accumulator. “Deal I will make” he decided. “You win, and I vote honestly. Win, you take my dear Gretchen. Lose, I have your Nancy. My vote, yes or no, not count.”

Alpha sat back, staring first at the polar bear, then his assistant. “She your heart?” she asked softly.

“Yes. But I am an old bear” he admitted. “Losing her to a young Mad Scientist, I think that would be better for her.” He leaned forward, bringing his words closer. Not that there was much chance of others overhearing, they were scattered around the meeting hall by now. Each deep in their own thoughts, their own conversations. “A very old bear my dear. I am dying, in fact, but months to live. Should I win your Nancy she would return within very short time. Perhaps more world wise, maybe with bear cub inside. Randy I am still as Gretchen can attest, but still your Nancy. And I would send Gretchen as well, this is not wager you can lose.”

“Lose sir?” Alpha repeated. “Inotlose.” She too leaned forward. “I make bet” she continued, ignoring the warning throb of pain in her head. “I lose. You take Nancy. And I. We carry bear cubs for you. I win. I take Gretchen to Spontoon. Tonight.”

“My. Saucy one you are. Deal.” He held out his massive paw, easily engulfing Alpha’s own.

“Sir. I have no say?” the housecat asked calmly.

Turning his attention to his assistant diCotton gave her an amused smile. “Think of as last great experiment for me Assistant. Discover how Alpha steal squirrels heart. Report then you write. Full of detail. Yes?”

Gretchen looked past the bear to Alpha, as though gaging her. “And sir. Should I lose my heart to her as well?“ she asked “She has done this before thus it is possible. Perhaps her great experiment is not traveling from world to world but collecting the hearts of women.”

“Then you make her good assistant. Keep excellent record. How is done. Report send Cranium Island. In five years. Full report. Many are those we desire. Hearts we desire. To bend mind easy. To turn heart. That secret we want.”

Gretchen laughed softly. “Mae West you have always wanted.” She reached up to lift her own breasts. “It is why we four are so large Alpha. When still a young teenager he discovered the trigger to enlarge naturally. You should have seen that poor native woman before her heart attack, she could barely stand up anymore.” Reaching over, for the bear was a very tall man, thus even sitting his face was at equally height to the housecat own face she took his chin in her paw, tugging lightly so that he would look at her. “If she wins you will be certain to allow my sister to carry your child?”

“My word. Alpha Rote wins, Earth lives. I will leave three, four children behind. Dear sweet Gretchen. The Omega contest is only reason I never had children. To raise them. Only to see turn to ash before my eyes? No Gretchen and you will have kittens. Only Alpha will decide who fathers them.” He leaned forward, kissing his favorite. Alpha heard him whisper to her, before turning to continue his talk. As he did the housecat vanished.

“Premise. You Omega win. What Omega you will choose” he asked. “Everyone have wish.”

Alpha sat back in her chair, taking from a pocket her special notebook. Turning to a page about a third of the way in she read a moment. “Make Venus habitable” she answered, still holding the book open.

“But Venus is habitable” diCotton countered. “It is the same size as Earth, or near enough to make no difference. Within accepted life belt, as is Mars. You will waste your choice on a given?”

“Nothabitable” Alpha countered. “Have ProfessorLichens observations.”

DiCotton too leaned back. “Care to fill me in?” he asked.

Alpha sat her book on her lap, then cupped her own breasts. “Youtellmehowmakelarger” she countered.

The polar bear actually giggled. “So the larger ladies she likes? Sorry I am dear Alpha you are too old. You see, there is only a pawfull of years when a woman’s breasts grow. Her bodies internal information determines how large or small she becomes. I simply stumbled upon a therapy that blocks this controller from stopping breast growth. At least until it is flushed from the body by natural means which takes one week. And no, is not hereditary. At least in test animals it isn’t.”

“SoIstucklikethis” the shrew sighed, returning her paws to her lap. “Gretchen. Mentiontestsubject.”

“Ah, that was to destruction a test. To determine maximum mass that sustained could be. I fear her heart failed when the structures involved were nearing thirty eight percent of body weight. I fear that by then, movement was extremely difficult for her. Now, your reasons?”

“In truth much you say fact” Alpha admitted. Thesethings. Is forty-one million kilometer closer to star than Earth. Ismuchhotter. Atmosphere is 96% Carbondixoide, restsulfuricacid. What theydotoheat?”

“Reflect it. TELSA! We have been letting our dreams guide our imagination. Gretchen... GRE...No, I sent her back to my laboratory for something. Lemons! Doctor Lemons. Here, quickly.”

A distinguished looking mink wearing a stained laboratory coat made her way over to the two. “And Yez?” she asked softly.

“Taking into consideration Venus all we know. Yes?” the polar bear asked. There was excitement in his voice as he spoke. “Add extra heat from being forty-one million kilometers closer to our star, then the reflective properties of a CO2 and H2SO4 atmosphere. Add four of billions of years. What happens?”

For a long, very long time the mink remained motionless. Fully ten minutes and more passed before she seemed to breath. Then, just as abruptly as she had frozen the Cranium Island Mad Scientist moved again. “How sad tiz” she remarked. “Venus is super-hot surfacz. All life gonez.” Then she gave both of them a smile and returned to her previous conversation.

“How could we have missed such” the polar bear asked himself. “We all assumed that the extra heat radiated into space.” He looked up into Alphas face. “But to make such habitable. How?” Abruptly a sad smile came to his face. “You how already know.”

“Yesbutnottell” the shrew admitted. “Whatyourgreatproject?”

“Hum? Mine? Oh, immortality. A simple delusion, how to keep the body from destroying itself. That is after all, what aging is. The body itself not correctly repairing damage. I have had some limited success. Gretchen is an example. How old is she?”

“Twenty-one, two” Alpha answered.

“Ninety-seven. She is physically not quite twenty but she was born in 1840. Still downfall there is. She is aging one year for every five. She has been my assistant for not the eleven years everyone thinks but for ninety years. One hundred and seventy I am. But, when she reaches my age she will die painfully of liver cancer. As I am.” He shrugged in defeat. “This Omega, I gave up my research because of it. Now. Now you will continue. She gathers copies. My notes. All of them.”

Alpha sat motionless, stunned. “But.. Whyme?” she asked.

diCotton laughed softly. “You are the first to ever leave Cranium Island and decide to stay away. I found this place over a years hundred ago. I brought together these people. Destroyed this land they have. Change it is time for. My best you will take. Win I know you will. Save her. Research mine save. But to promise me this. When cancer comes, not to let her die as I will. End for her the pain. Most quickly.”

“My... My word sir.” Alpha stood, looking now not up at the polar bears eyes, but in level. “My word. To excuse, please?” She would have more, and stranger conversations before the night was over.

It was more four in the morning than three when the black bear Professor Lichen and his well endowed blond Mojave desert cat assistant returned. He was a sober bear, unlike the delighted astronomer who had rushed out. When everyone had returned from their wanderings he took the podium. His assistant quickly took over the very mundane overhead projector. “Two. Two negatives to show. Two spectrographs” he announced. “Sandra?”

Lights in the room automatically dimmed to a dull violet as am image appeared on the wall behind Professor Lichen. “Sinas Crater. Eleven months ago. Spectrograph on left side. No detectable gass or liquid. Sandra?”

Quickly the first negative vanished, but instead of a glaring blast of white light the wall remained dark. Then another image, this one taken at a bit different angle, with a bit different illumination appeared. “Again. This night. See the blurriness? Very good. Note spectroscopy of this image.”

Again a change of image. “Not Nitrogen, oxygen and the such. Exactly as Earth. Along with water vapor. Your proof Mrs. Rote. Your proof. Lights Sandra. Now my fellow scientists. Shall we converse before voting?”

Alpha’s mother turned to her daughter. “It will be sunrise before they vote. Please come with me as I wish to check your brain speed again. I worry, the maximum processing speed of an organic brain is only five kilocycles and two years ago you were at two point three seven kilocycles.”

“YouwishtoseewhatSongmarkdoes?” Alpha asked as she stood.

“It is the prime reason I allowed you to attend that school Alpha” her mother answered as they walked out of the room. “You are my prime experiment. Your brothers brain only reached one point two kilocycles. Barely above the world average of one kilocycle. He was I fear a failure, those changes to the formula I used while you were in my womb seemed much more stable. But after what you discovered in Spontoon I must question all my previous experimental data.”

They walked back to the Zarahoff bunkers in silence, both keeping watch for any stray madness or monsters, their personal weapons at the ready. Though this area was deemed safe, only a fool walked on Cranium Island and believed themself completely safe. For the men, it would almost always be instant death. For though there were female monsters about, they were rare. For women, death was the most common outcome of stumbling across something unaware. But as Doctor Denson could well attest, there were other things. Though the duck did so much love her twenty legged son. Yet their wariness was unneeded this time.

Upon entering the massive blast door Jade Zarahoff checked the tale-tails. No breach of the bunkers various safety measures had occurred since she had left the previous afternoon. But one never took a chance on Cranium Island. Closing the main blast door the two proceeded to Jade’s laboratory, where special equipment waited. Equipment that could determine the speed a fur’s brain worked at. Alpha well knew this equipment, having helped maintain it along with helping test willing, and many unwilling furs. Oddly for a Cranium Island machine, it was totally harmless.

It was a matter of half an hour to warm up, then test and calibrate the equipment. Alpha soon settled herself in the rather comfortable seat while her mother carefully adjusted the complex hood over her face. At any other time the shrew would have feared for her mind, her sanity and maybe even her life. But this machine was an old companion. She had sat in this chair once a month since she was a year old thus she was unworried when her mother carefully strapped her in place.

Soon her brain tickled. It was just the magnetic fluxes reading known parts of her brain, then sending information to the great vacuum tube computer, saving the data on one of its hundreds of paw built magnetic drums. An hour later exactly Jade walked in front of her daughter. “Alpha dear, there is one additional test I would like to make. Do you mind?”

Alpha opened her eyes, looking to her mother. “What test” she asked in a tired voice, for this test had one side effect, in that it always left her tired at the end. In answer her mother swung her right paw around from behind her and pointed a weapon at her daughter. Without a word of warning she pulled the trigger. Brilliant blood red light enveloped the trapped shrew.

For Alpha time seemed to almost stop as her mothers weapon came into view. She examined the paw weapon as it moved so very slowly into view. It was a simple ruby beam emitter. It would bore a hole through anything, given time. Alpha’s body would prove no resistance to that beam. She knew through experience that the beam would flash steam the water in her body. Death was absolutely certain, though how long it would take depended upon where her mother shot her. It could be instant, or take painful hours.

Without bothering to wonder how, Alpha Rote’s mind flashed through dozens of possibilities, dozens of ways to escape. But these straps had held a mad rhino successfully, the much smaller shrew-minks own strength was nothing to them. She felt her muscles reach the breaking point as she tried, and failed to escape. Physically unable to escape, she thought of those things that she knew. Even as the weapons lens slowly raised to point directly at her head Alpha opened further doors in her mind. All but the one most likely to save her, that black door that the Spontoon priestess had helped her seal she turned away from. As a glow began behind that lens Alphas only thought was of the squirrel Nancy Rote, and how much she loved her.

Alpha could see her mother depress the firing stud. See the building energy that became blood red light that bathed her body, then slowly faded away. Even then it seemed to her that nothing about her was moving anymore. Her body had exploded with fight or flight energy, and failed. Strapped in as she was all she could do was stare, and think. Her own mother, she should have realized that one day this would happen. Then ever so slowly her mother simply turned and walked away. Her weapon tossed aside like so much garbage. Fascinated Alpha watched as the weapon drifted away, eventually striking the floor and shattering. Shattering? Impossible, unless... Time returned to normal, and the little shrew felt as though she had just run ten miles with a full pack. Her heart was beating so hard that it felt like it was going to explode.

“WHY!” she screamed.

“I wished to check your reaction to a life or death situation” the older mink answered. “I think that you will be surprised” she finished as she returned and started releasing her daughter from the machine. “I could not warn you before. It would have invalidated the test and it was nothing but a camera flash bulb behind a dark red lens. You are now much too precious to me to endanger dear Alpha. Much too precious. Now, shall we inspect the results?”

As she left the chair Alpha stooped down, capturing the discarded weapon in her paw. It was, she realized after a quick inspection, nothing more than a Bakelite mockup painted black with a simple button switch connected to a battery and a single, now used camera flashbulb. Returning the object to her mother she took a deep breath. “YourealizethatIpeedmyself” she announced.

“Yes. That acrid scent is rather noticeable” Jade admitted. “You will have to wash and change before returning to the Omega conference. Still, it isn’t like that chair hasn’t experienced worse. I will have Robert clean it today.”

Robert, another mink, was her mothers least worthy apprentice. He had once been a promising student, now he was nothing but a clean up drudge. He also happened to be missing certain equipment. This had occurred after trying to forcefully seduce the Jade when they were alone. Rape actually. What followed had changed his entire outlook on life, as well as making him deathly afraid of Jade. Especially since she had used only her claws and no pain reliever to do the job. Jade Zarahoff was a full blooded aristocratic mink, she was not promiscuous. Only her husbands teeth had ever tasted the back of her neck. Following her mother Alpha waited until the computer had swallowed all the data, digested it, then regurgitated its answers.

“Ah good” Jade announced as she read the information displayed upon a polished block of mica. “Your brain is stable at two point four zero kilocycles, well within the margin of error from our last testing. I see here that you have been using your mind differently Alpha. I am quite pleased. Now, see here? When you thought I had shot you? I have discovered that the average furs brain jumps its processing ability by nearly half when faced with such a situation. One point six one one kilocycles in the average. But it eats a lot of energy and they do not process the actual data as well. You. Your brain jumped to a full three point nine seven one kilocycles. Did you notice a slowing of time?”

“Yes. I thought it imagined” the shrew admitted. “Time cannot be slowed after all.” She was having no trouble at the moment speaking slowly. At the moment she felt like she wanted to sleep for a month. It would pass, but right now it was all the shrew could do to function.

“Not yet, but your father has some ideas” her mother admitted. “Your brain simply processed everything much more quickly, allowing you time to investigate different paths of action more quickly that normal. This only happens when you, or someone you love faces danger. But remember my darling daughter, staying at such a level too long will cause your brain to cascade fail. It would take some time for you to recover.”

“How long mother” Alpha asked.

“A few minutes, hours. Perhaps weeks if you remained a full power too long. This you will have to discover yourself. Alpha. This is the last time that I will test you. Your brain appears stable and this appears to be hereditary. Your children will have your brain my dear, congratulations. You have lived up to the name I selected for you. You are the first of a new race. A race capable of thinking more than twice as fast as the average fur. My great experiment is a complete success.”

Alpha shrugged. “Thank you. I think” she said. Her body was beginning to recover the shrew noted. “Now must return to Omega?”

“Yes, after you clean and change dear. It is about that time, and I truly thank you for not destroying this world. I now have plans for your father tonight, and many, many nights in the future. As you do your dear Nancy.” Turning off the machine Jade followed her daughter out, back to the meeting hall. A prouder mother did not live on Cranium Island that night.

When they finally returned, Alpha in clean clothing and smelling of soap, it had come time for the voting. Alpha, as the contestant, was allowed to vote first. Then she had to step outside of the room until the last vote was cast. From having witnessed several Omega votes before she was aware that it could take ten minutes to an hour as those within worried over their decision. But all votes had to be cast within that hour or the entire attempt was a failure. Meanwhile her little machine continued hissing along, sending air uselessly to the moon.

As she stood outside the sealed door the blond Mojave desert cat apprentice approached her. “Take me with you” she asked softly.

“Why? Andwhere” Alpha asked, surprised.

“Spontoon Mrs. Rote. I will find passage elsewhere from there but I must leave Cranium Island, and you have the only safe passage.”

It was not unusual for an apprentice to leave Cranium Island. Mainly in order to found their own laboratory. But what almost everyone knew, not all of those who tried to leave did so successfully. Fully a third vanished on their way to the native village and of those who made it, it was rumored that the natives were less than helpful. They would not even sell water to a dying fur if they came from the mountain.

“What Professor Lichen say” the shrew asked.

“I gave him my resignation after the presentation” Sandra answered. “I am now unemployed but not without funds. He was most gracious. I will pay you five hundred English pounds for transport. That will leave me just enough to go elsewhere and build my own observatory.” She knelt down, bringing their faces to a level. “Look at my eyes Alpha. Professor Lichen adjusted them. I see in the infrared now. Dark blue and above is black to me. Please Alpha, I wish to have my own observatory. I never will here.”

Alpha studied the felines eyes. They were green. Dark green. Abruptly the truth leapt out and she gasped. They were emerald dark green and the iris appeared to be made of pure crystal not organic flesh. “Other changes” she demanded.

“Nothing yet. He wants me to see in the deep infrared, but blue would then be forever denied me. I love blue Mrs. Rote. The soft light blue of the day sky, I would see the sky as black forever. I had a choice Mrs. Rote. Resign or accept the next level of change. Your arrival made my decision. Please, take me to Spontoon.”

“Gatherthings. I leave. Onehourfromvote. Myfamiliesbunkers. Youknowpublicentrance?”

“Yes, thank you. I have weapons to defend myself from the darkness” Sandra answered. “I will be there or I will be dead.” She stood, nodded to the shrew and walked away.

It was not unusual for a departing Scientist to be asked to take others with them. It was, after all the safest way off Cranium Island. Yet Alpha knew that Sandra had been in love with Professor Lichen. What could have caused her to decide to leave? The loss of blue? A small cost to see other things. Certainly not simply to start her own observatory after all. She would have to investigate one day.

Voting took all of forty minutes. When the doors again opened Alpha stepped in, walking to where the case of one of Telsa’s original capacitors waited. Looking around at those watching, she picked up the tin casing and poured out its contents.

There was not a lead coin within it. She had won, Nancy was safe thus absolutely nothing else mattered. As she started to smile a shower of lead coins landed on the table, each of the Scientists laughing as they divested themselves of that grievous vote. “It is over” Professor Lichen announced. “Earth will die only by Alpha Rotes paw, if at all. Now Alpha, please tell us the next Omega that we may begin our devious work.”

Carefully the shrew named her contest, explained why Venus was not currently habitable, gave her proof then sat down. She had won, she had started the next Omega. It was all over.

“So my daughter” Jade Zarahoff asked as she settled down beside the stunned Songmark girl. “Will you be building a laboratory on Cranium Island or elsewhere.”

“Elsewhere mother” Alpha answered. “StillhaveSongmarktofinish. ThenfollowNancy.”

“I see. Well then” the mink replied, leaning back while about them furs of many kinds argued the best way to make a near molten planet habitable. “You have the coins, you have the Omega. Since you already have Nancy we came to this decision. Now this is yours.” She offered the shrew a small green booklet with a gold Omega symbol on its front. Opening it Alpha discovered that her mother had given her a new official Cranium Island passport. The kind that only a true Mad Scientist could carry.

“Butamonlyhonorary” she complained.

Her mother laughed, enfolding the smaller shrew-minks paws within her own. “You have won the Omega my daughter. Only a true full blooded Mad scientist could have done that. We each have also decided to give our best apprentice their own laboratory, under guidance of course. We have decided, that since you already have a wife, that full standing in the Cranium Island Scientific Community is due you. With a thousand Comets in gold.” She nuzzled her daughter. “Of course a lot of Scientist are sad that you are already married. You are now famous my dear. Quite quite famous. But would you do your mother one small favor?”

Alpha thought over that request. “Depends” she decided.

“Destroy that little machine, and all the notes?”

“Donemother. Notesall in head. Nowmust leave. If hurry, stillhavetimewithNancy before Songmark calls.” With regrets she pulled away from her mother, gathered up her little machine and turned to walk back to the bunker with its hanger where the Zarahoff jetplane waited to take her back to Spontoon Island. Spontoon, and her waiting Nancy.

“Leaving without me” a gentle voice asked as Alpha reached the first doorway. She found the long haired silver-grey housecat Gretchen waiting for her, a pack on her back and a suitcase on the ground beside her. “You won me thus I have no place here anymore. How would it look for the newest Mad Scientist to leave her brand new Assistant behind. I would become an experimental animal instantly, that is the law.”

Alpha stopped, completely unable to speak. She had, in the rush of things, completely forgotten about Gretchen. “But...” She struggled to think. What would her Nancy think, her bringing another woman back. ‘Starting a Harem are we?’ came to mind. She did need an assistant. Her new laboratory on Casino Island lay unused, collecting dust during the weeks she was unavailable. But how to explain Gretchen to the Spontoon authorities. Swallowing hard, she forced a smile to her lips. “Then follow” she answered.

At her parents bunker Sandra waited. She too had a case, though smaller. When Alpha looked at it the desert cat giggled. “We almost never wear clothing at the laboratory except in the darkroom” she explained. “He is such a naughty old bear. Though he only looks, he looks a great deal.”

Alpha sighed in defeat. She was learning things about the great Scientists that she had worshiped all her life and much of it simply made them mortal men and women. Leading the two felines to her hanger she allowed both to board before she released the gangplank, then sealed the hatch. As she turned around Sandra offered her a thick envelope. “Five hundred English pounds. As promised” the blond explained.

“Keep” the shrew decided. “Youmayneed. Islonglifeaheadofyou.”

“At least take some payment from me” the desert cat begged. “Please?”

Alpha leaned against the bulkhead, not yet setting the ship into automatic flight. “IslongflighttoSpontoon” she said in a low, sultry voice Nancy had taught her.

Sandra blinked in surprise, as behind her Gretchen laughed. “Ah” she gasped as the shrews meaning and stance made sense. “Yes. Well, it would be an experiment” the blond admitted. “I have never. Not with a woman I mean. All right, when we are in the air I shall make payment. In full.”

It was an interesting flight back to Spontoon, with Gretchen offering suggestions now and then. Though Alpha obviously didn’t mind, the fair furred desert cat showed that her blush could be easily seen to her toes. The occasional rest stop as Alpha released parts of her little machine into the miles deep waters turned out to be needed. Thus it was just after sunrise on Eastern Island when the control tower radio crackled. “Cranium Island Flight Z-zero-one request clearance to land.” The voice was familiar as Alpha Rote had flown around Spontoon many times. But at the words Cranium Island the old badger manning the tower dropped his mug of tea. With trembling paws he picked up his microphone, all the images of monsters that his mother had frightened him with as a child filling his head. “Uh.. Eastern Island to Cranium Zee Zero One. Wet or dry” he asked, the standard question calming him. A thought though flittered through his head ‘Or squishy.’

“Eastern Island AirControl. CeeZeeZeroOneisdry.

Those familiar rush of words further calmed badger. Only Alpha Rote spoke that way, and she continued to gain demerits for doing so though she could squash such in an hour with her mad imagination. “Roger Cee Zee Zero One. Winds from the South at five. Broken clouds at twenty. Visibility ten. How many aboard please.”

“CeeZeeZeroOne. Winds Southatfive. Clouds broken. Twenty. Visibility ten. Three aboard. One in transit. ETA ten minutesfromNorth.” Alpha decided that he didn’t need to know that the one in transit was completely exhausted. It seemed that once Alpha was satisfied, Gretchen had moved in for the kill and had decided to leave no survivors. She would make for an interesting assistant the shrew-mink decided.

Ten minutes later the strange looking plane hovered over the Eastern Island runway, lowering itself to the tarmac in a scream of tortured gasses. When the hatch opened more than a few Spontoon Natives held their breath. This was Alpha Rote after all they told themselves. She had been deemed safe by the Honored Mothers, after a rather rigorous two weeks that was. But could something have happened? Could she have been taken over?

To all their relief three very normal looking women came down those stairs, walking towards a waiting transport that would take them to Customs. Then as they were boarding their vehicle the stairs drew back in, the hatch closed and with a rising scream of souls gone mad the craft lifted, turned North and headed back to Cranium Island. All on its own.

That story would buy beers tonight. Many, many beers.

At customs Alpha was cleared quickly. Sandra, looking a bit more than worse for wear, had all her things carefully searched. As did Gretchen. “You are carrying so much money. Why” the fox at Customs asked Sandra.

“Building an observatory is expensive” the desert cat answered, her voice filled with exhaustion. “I will be taking the first aircraft out to Hawaii, if that is acceptable to you.”

It was an honest, and understandable answer so the fox allowed her to continue. Only tasking the time to inform her that the next aircraft to Hawaii was in two days. When he got to Gretchen it was another matter.

“I belong to Alpha” the silver-grey housecat explained as she presented her own Cranium Island passport. “I am her laboratory assistant. As I understand it, I will be living on Casino Island with her other two employees. What regulations and papers must I deal with please.”

Swallowing, for though Sandra’s voice had been pleasant enough, this felines sweet voice would draw a married man out of his honeymoon bed, the fox stammered. Shook himself, then answered her questions. When the three had finally left he turned to his partner. “If that is a Cranium Island Monster” he told her. “Transfer me there right now.”

Alpha then took Sandra to the local Bank of England. There she created an account, deposited all but a hundred pounds of her money then had the entire account transferred to the Hawaii branch of the Bank of England offices. It was a fair amount of money and Alpha made a point not to ask how it had been made. Their next trip was to the local PanAm offices where Sandra purchased a one way plane ticket, first class.

“And where shall I stay until the flight” Sandra asked.

Alpha smiled, ”Haveroominbed” she answered.

This elicited a laugh from the desert cat. “I will admit that it was an interesting experiment Mrs. Rote. Still I think that I shall stay with males from this day on. They are much less demanding and honestly a great deal more fun in the one way that counts.”

Alpha shook her head sadly. “Lossrtoallwomeneverywhree” she replied. “ThenMcGeeResort. Ifhaveroomopen. Cheap, good food. Safe place.”

Sandra rubbed the shrews head softly. “Yes. A loss to you but such a gain to men. Then to the McGee resort I shall go.”

Finally with Sandra safely settled at the McGee resort and at almost noon Alpha and Gretchen found their way to the building leased by Beta. There Nancy sat, reading Alphas latest edition of Criminal World. When she saw the shrew-mink Nancy jumped out of her chair, tossing the magazine aside as she ran with open arms to her wife. Alpha laughed as she was picked up and spun about. For long minutes she enjoyed the feel of the squirrels arms crushing her ribs. Finally Nancy calmed down. “Tell me everything” Nancy ordered. “But first, who is this?”

What followed proved to be an interesting afternoon.