Housepets! In SP-TIME?!

[Amazee Dayzee]

I figured it wouldn't be that easy for them to get back to the proper time period they were in because stuff like this never is. I hope we get some scenes of Allen finally feeling better and being his usual self before they get back to their own time.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 16: Quarters

Allen sighed heavily and entered his quarters, flopping down on the couch with a heavy sigh and leaning back. He’d told Katie he was going to his quarters to rest, and it wasn’t exactly a lie- he did need to rest up after a night spent in a lander followed by a visit to the planet below- but he doubted there would be any sleep for him. He COULDN’T rest- not while he knew that it was going on two days now that he’d kept people from their homes with his lack of control.
After a few minutes of wallowing, the door chime went off. He considered ignoring it and pretending that he wasn’t in, but decided that whoever it was would probably just come in anyway. “Come on in.”
The door slid open, and Roger walked in, looking over at him quietly before walking over and sitting on the couch next to him. “How was your trip to the surface?”
Allen shrugged halfheartedly. “It was fine. I learned a little bit about Slye. We got materials for the synthesizers to use. They should be ready to go in a little while.”
“They’re… actually ready now.” He pulled his hand from behind his back and offered Allen a slice of cheesecake. “I… thought you might need a pick-me-up.”
Allen gave a weak smile and took the plate from him, setting it on the coffee table in front of himself. “Thanks. But we shouldn’t be wasting the synthesizer materials for sweets. This improvised stuff is limited on sugars and proteins, so we should really only use it for real food.”
Roger nudged him with his shoulder. “Relax. We fed the cake from the reception into the recycler, so it’s got lots of sugars. Not like anybody was going to eat it after it dropped on the floor during the gravity cut.”
Allen stared at Roger for a few moments, then put his ears back and looked down. “... You heard that the latest attempt didn’t go well. I don’t remember seeing you on the bridge…”
“I heard. I can’t actually go to the bridge, since I’m technically still on probation, but Howard said he’d keep me apprised.” He gave a weak smile. “We’re at least CLOSER, right? We’re closer to when we’re supposed to be than we are to when we arrived after that weird surge. That’s something.”
“No thanks to me.” Allen grumbled. “Worse, it’s BECAUSE of me.” He grabbed the cheesecake off the table and scooped a big bite into his mouth, closing his eyes and chewing on it. He savored the flavor and the sweetness for a second.
Roger patted him on the back. “There you go, I know you. You’re a stress eater. You get stressed, and you need sweets. If you don’t get them… well… I can’t say for sure, but I’m willing to assume you start hating yourself. Beating yourself up for your mistakes. Am I right?”
Allen put his ears down and stared down at the plate. “Am I that obvious?”
“A little bit. I got really familiar with your behavior when I was trying to contact you a few years ago.” He nudged him. “Remember, we were in a sweet shop the first time I caught up to you. That wasn’t a coincidence.”
He looked over at him, then back down at the cheesecake. He scooped another bite with the fork and chewed it slowly before asking. “Why did you come to see me? You were just worried about me?”
“Yeah, pretty much. I remember how hard it can be to keep positive when you’re responsible for a problem. I wallowed in self-pity for years. I don’t want that for you.” Richard put his ears back and looked over Allen. “I’ve really come to look up to you. You were handed a horrible situation and you defied orders to do what was right. You risked your life for a bunch of people you didn’t even know. And then you risked your life to help ME, even though you had reason to suspect I meant you harm.”
Allen looked over at Roger for a few moments, then looked back down at his cheesecake and chuckled dryly. “That’s funny… you look up to me. I caused most of the problems I’ve solved. I don’t even deserve to be an admiral, honestly. I’m a fraud, just a dog with an overactive imagination and delusions of grandeur.” He put his ears back and poked at his cheesecake with the fork quietly.
Roger watched him, then leaned in and laid his head on Allen’s shoulder. Allen frowned and turned his gaze to look at him. “What… are you doing, exactly?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know how to make you feel better, so I thought maybe this would help.” He shrugged. “I don’t… really know how dogs make each other feel better. Maybe I should have learned by now, since I’ve been one for over six years, but…”
Allen turned and put his arm around Roger, quietly resting his head on top of Roger’s. “It’s okay. Close enough. It’s the thought that really counts, anyway.” He let Roger lean on him for a few moments before pulling away. “Maybe I just need to get my mind off of everything for a while.” He leaned forward and knocked twice on the coffee table. A projected hologram appeared above it, and Allen waved a hand through it to navigate the interface. Within seconds, he had a flat screen projected above the coffee table, playing the intro to an old science-fiction show.
Richard frowned, staring at it for a moment. “This show is two hundred years old. Why are you watching it?”
Allen shrugged. “Old science fiction had such high hopes for us. They had instantaneous matter transmission, the ability to travel between stars in just hours, energy shields- It just feels like a better version of what we could have had.”
“What’s this one about, then?” He leaned back to watch with Allen.
Allen took another bite of his cheesecake. “Well… this show is about a starship that was pulled far away from its home by a power far beyond their understanding, and it’s going to take them a lifetime to get back home. The captain is doing her best, because it’s one of her decisions that made it impossible for them to go back home by the same power, and some of the crew kind of blames her, but…” He trailed off, his ears sagging. “... This is just… the same thing I did. I took everybody far away from their home, and now we can’t… get back…” He waved the screen off and looked away, leaning forward to place the mostly-empty plate on the coffee table.
Richard sighed. “Allen…”
Allen shook his head. “I’m… I’m just tired. I need to get some rest. Maybe you should go. Thanks for trying…” He stood up and turned to the recycler chute, setting his plate inside and sending it down into the system.
Richard hesitated, then sighed and turned to leave. “Okay… I’ll let you rest. But then you and I are going to go find something fun to do that’ll ACTUALLY get your mind off this mess. It’s not your fault, and I’m going to prove it to you.”
Allen watched him go until the door closed behind him, then crawled into the bed and curled up, hugging his knees and letting his tail curl up and over his hip. “... How can you prove something that isn’t true, though?” He set his armband on the charger and turned the lights off, ready to sleep.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Do you know how many more chapters we have of Allen being depressed and wallowing in self-pity? While I do like to read stories involving Allen I can only take characters being depressed for so long even if they are to blame for a problem and am patiently waiting for Allen to pull himself together because the problem won't be solved until he starts to try to help solve it.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 17: On the Bridge

Allison frowned and ran through the auxiliary controls again, shaking her head as she made notes of how they seemed to be working- it was a sluggish and slow process of burning the engines for a moment, then waiting for the computer to calculate the date based on the earth’s position in its orbit and the sun’s position relative to six specific stars in deep space, then jotting it down in her spreadsheet, then doing another burn to confirm the speed they were passing through time. Then, she would do it all over again with a different strength of engines or a different period of run time.
“I don’t get it. It’s almost like as soon as we figure out how the engines work, the controls reshuffle themselves again.” Allison finally blurted, turning to look at Katie and Sox as they monitored their stations.
Katie nodded. “I noticed that, myself.” She pulled up Allison’s spreadsheet from her console and stared at it. “There’s three distinct control schemes here, each taking effect as soon as we have a calculation as to where a specific engine burn will land us. It’s almost like the ship doesn’t WANT us to get home.”
Sox frowned. “Do you think it could be that bas- I mean, the Admiral’s doing? He said he had been wishing for more time aboard the ship when he lost control of his power, maybe the ship’s trying to avoid us getting there to fulfill that wish.”
Katie nodded. “I thought about that, and it’s a possibility. It is, however, letting us get closer, so we’ll just have to hope it doesn’t just suddenly surge and send us all the way back again.”
Allison frowned. “What do you mean? Engines don’t just randomly surge on their own.”
Katie turned to look at her. “Well… not NORMALLY… but they DID surge randomly to get us way in the past to begin with. Maybe Allen’s magic messed with them in some other way. Or maybe part of what he did is that they don’t want to be in our normal time zone.”
Allison seemed skeptical. “Maybe… either way, I’m kind of glad that we got this extra time before we have to resume our normal duties. I love my kits, but I was EXHAUSTED. It’s nice to be able to get away without worrying about what’s happening to them.”
Katie nodded. “This is the closest I’ve had to a vacation in five years. It’s kind of nice to get away without worrying I’ll get a call asking me to come back for an emergency.”
Sox gave a frustrated growl. “You’re doing it again! You’re letting him get away with it because it was convenient for YOU, personally!”
“Sox, calm down.” Katie looked over at him. “Nobody’s letting him get away with anything. We’re just acknowledging that maybe this wasn’t all bad after all.”
He grumbled and pulled his display back up, going back to work.
Allison frowned. “But.. what if Admiral Whist DIDN’T cause the surge?”
Katie looked up from her display. “I beg your pardon? Of COURSE he did.”
“I’m not so sure.” Allison looked down at her display, input the new time, and set in a new course for the engines before speaking again. “I served with him for a year after he started to lose control of his powers, and they’re usually pretty literal. We were discussing the color purple, and the ship turned purple. We were discussing why horses walk on all fours, and everybody on the ship turned into quadrupeds. I don’t think accidental magic can do anything as complex as fire up the engines.”
Katie frowned. “Then what caused us to be thrown backward into time? Was it just the magic setting into the engines?”
Allison frowned and shook her head. “I’m not sure. I can look into that between rounds on the engines if you like.”
“You do that.” Katie sighed and rubbed her temples. “How’s that new control scheme coming along?”
“It’s… coming. It takes a long time to find the patterns. We could just get there using the regular impulse engines from here, but it would take…” She paused to do some quick calculations in her head. “About five years. Not nearly as bad as it was, but still a bit longer than I’d like to spend on this ship.”
“Ugh…” Katie stood up, waving off her display. “I’m going to head down to the mess hall and see if the synthesizers are up and running yet. Let me know if you have a predictable time shift calculation before I get back.”
“Yes, Fleet Admiral.” Allison watched Katie board the lift, then turned and input the latest date calculation into the spreadsheet before plotting a new course. The bridge was quiet for a long time before Allison turned to Sox and spoke. “So… how are you?”
“You’ll address me as Captain.” Sox spoke abruptly, giving Allison a curt sidelong look. “I don’t care how familiar you are with the Fleet Admiral, you will follow protocol with me. Understood?”
Allison stammered for a moment. “Yes, sir.” She turned back to her console and put her head down, staring at her calculations. After a few moments, she started pulling up the computer’s automatic logs from during the promotion ceremony and going over them for anything weird. Every so often, she would set a new course on the engines, let the engines run, and then set the computer to calculate their new position in time.
She felt very awkward sitting there alone with Sox, who seemed thoroughly uninterested in actually interacting with her. After a long time, she suddenly stood up at attention and faced Sox. “Sir. Permission to take a break and report to the mess hall for lunch?”
Sox looked up from his display and sighed, giving a dismissive wave. “Finish your current calculations and log out of your workstation first. I’ll expect you back in one hour.”
“Aye, Sir.” Allison turned back to her workstation and noted down their current time, logged out of the workstation, and rushed off to the lift. She pressed the button and asked it to take her to the mess, then took a deep breath and closed her eyes as the lift started taking her down.
She entered the mess directly from the lift and looked around, walking over to where Katie was sitting with what appeared to be mac and cheese and flopping face-down at the table. “Ugh… I’m so glad I won’t be on his crew. I swear, he has no personality of his own.”
Katie chuckled. “He’s pretty strict and by the book, for sure, but I wouldn’t say he has no personality. It just seems that way in comparison to certain other people who have captained this ship.”
Allison lifted her head and stared at Katie for a few moments, then nodded. “I’m still glad I won’t be working under him. I look forward to reporting to Admiral Whist again, even indirectly. Does he know that he’ll be in charge of my department?”
Katie shook her head. “No, he hasn’t seen his new duty roster yet. Honestly, I’m pretty sure he spent the entire time between returning to spacedock and the actual ceremony trying to think up ways to get out of the promotion altogether.”
Allison snickered. “Yeah… I’m gonna grab some food. Captain Jameson expects me back in fifty minutes, and I think he’ll try to court-martial me if I’m late.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

I can already see that Sox is being a little bit of the word that he was about to call Allen. He really is a piece of work and I think he shouldn't have any business being a captain of any space ship.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 18: Premodernism

The awkward energy on the bridge was palpable. Allen sat in the first mate’s chair, Sox in the captain’s chair, Howard on the sensors, Allison at the helm, and Katie at the navigation console. Nobody was speaking. Allen’s head was down, and he could almost feel everybody staring at him, despite the fact that they weren’t.
“Cutting engine burn now.” Allison announced. The planet below slowed its rotation and came back into focus.
A few seconds later, Howard’s console beeped, and he pressed a few buttons to bring up the alert. “There are signs of artificial structures on the planet’s surface in… South America, North Africa, Europe, and a few isolated islands.”
Allen sat forward. “Are we almost home?”
Allison shook her head. “We still have a few hundred thousand years before we get to our own time. Those must be some of the earliest civilizations”
Katie stood up and walked over to check Howard’s console, then turned to Allison. “How long would it take us to get home under maximum impulse power from here?”
Allison did a few calculations, then shook her head. “Around six months under the current control scheme. Impulse travel has been getting slower as we approach our own time.”
There were a few moments of quiet contemplation, and Katie looked toward Sox. “What do you think, Captain? Should we attempt another hyper burn, or take the safe route and travel back to our own time the long way?”
Sox frowned, staring at the planet through the view port as he considered. “Start calculations for another jump. I want a prediction accurate to the month of where we’ll land.” He turned and stared at Allen for a moment. “If the idiot doesn’t cause another reshuffle.”
Allen threw his hands up in protest. “I haven’t had an accident since the initial one, I swear! It’s not me reshuffling the controls!”
Sox scowled. “Then it’s directly linked to you still. Every time we end up in the wrong time from what we predicted, you’re on the bridge.” He pointed at Allen accusingly.
“Captain Jameson, you are out of line.” Katie spoke up, crossing her arms over her chest.
He turned to her. “No. I’m certain about this. Every time we think we’ve figured it out, we invite HIM onto the bridge, and then SUDDENLY the engines aren’t working the same anymore.” He turned back to Allen, walked up to him, and brandished a knife at him. Allen was certain that he saw the knife appear out of thin air. “Admit it, you’ve been nervous to get home this whole time. Every time we think we’ve figured out a route, you get upset and wish you had more time. You’re KEEPING us out here!”
Allen opened his mouth, stammering. It was true, wasn’t it? He thought about the butterflies he’d gotten in his stomach every time they’d been about to plot a course home. Could it be that his magic was still responding to him, even now? Reacting to his nerves about what would happen once they got home?
“Captain, where did you get that knife?” Katie shouted, stomping over and trying to take it from him. He let her take it, and Allen got a look at it before it disappeared from Katie’s hand.
“... It’s his sword. The one he had during the incident.” Allen mumbled quietly. “It’s smaller now, but that’s definitely it.”
Sox huffed, poking Allen in the chest angrily as he talked. “I lost a lot of power when the kitsune withdrew his support. I was supposed to be in charge, effective immediately. I would have WON, if we’d fought like we were supposed to. But instead, YOU forced a withdrawal, and now I have to climb the ranks the old fashioned way, while you just get promotions handed to you because you’re dangerously out of control. You should have been demoted right out of the corp, in my opinion. If it was up to me-”
“It’s not up to you, Captain Jameson, and I’m starting to think it shouldn’t ever be.” Katie interrupted. “I’d forgotten about your attitude. I want you to apologize to the Admiral right now.”
Allen grunted. “Don’t. I think… I think he might be right.” He stepped back and looked up at the planet. “I think… I’ve been keeping you all away from your homes. I think I TOOK you from your homes.” He put his ears back. He could feel his stomach turning at the thought. “Fleet Admiral, I request permission to relieve myself of bridge duty, effective immediately. I can’t be up here if we’re going to get home.”
Katie shook her head. “Wait a few moments. Let’s see what happens with Allison’s calculations.” She turned to look at the squirrel. “Allison?”
Allison looked up from her console. “Okay. According to my calculations, the next engine burn should land us in October, fifty thousand years into the future from here.”
Katie nodded. “Proceed.”
There was a moment’s silence as Allison pressed a few buttons on her console, and the planet through the observation window blurred. The sun stretched into a curling line, circling the planet wildly, then slowly restored as Allison stopped the engines again and immediately pulled up the logs to wait for the computer’s date estimate.
Howard looked up from his sensors. “There are more structures on the planet. Nothing big yet, but we definitely moved forward in time.”
Allen put his ears back again and stared at the viewscreen. He could feel the tension in the air. After a few moments, Allison’s console beeped, and she looked down. He could tell from her face that the date wasn’t what they’d hoped.
“We only traveled ten thousand years. An eighty percent reduction in calculated engine power.” She looked up. “I think the Captain might be right. The Admiral is having an effect on our ability to navigate the time stream.”
Katie sighed, putting up a hand to stop Sox as he started to get out of his seat, glaring at Allen. She slowly turned to face Allen.
Allen nodded. “I know… you want me off the bridge, and I’m not to access any data about the ship’s whereabouts in spacetime until we’ve arrived home.” He turned for the lift and started slinking away. “For what it’s worth… I’m sorry. I didn’t… MEAN to do any of this. I’ll just… go to my quarters and stay there until we’re home.”
When he was halfway to the lift, Katie’s voice sounded. “Allen.”
He turned to face her nervously. She was watching after him. After a long moment, she spoke. “Don’t forget to eat something before you lock yourself in your room. I don’t think you’ve even been to the mess hall, and it’s been nearly three days.”
Allen hesitated, then nodded. “Aye, Fleet Admiral.” He boarded the lift and pressed the button. “Mess hall.”
As soon as the lift’s doors closed and he started to descend, he pressed the button again. “Belay that. Deck twelve.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

Sox definitely should not be a captain with how he is acting and just turning into a massive thug at this point. I don't think he will be happy until Allen ends up opening the airlock on himself and sucks himself into space without any protection.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 19: Isolation Together

Roger joined Allen in the hallway of deck twelve, exiting his quarters just as Allen went past. “Allen?” He started following him, putting his ears back. “You… you look upset. Did something happen?”
Allen spun around and vented out his frustrations. “I’m the reason none of our attempts to get home have been working. The reason they keep having to recalculate the control scheme for the time engines. I get nervous, and the controls scramble. I’ve been keeping everybody lost in time. I just- RRGH!” He spun around and shouted to the ceiling. “I’m so STUPID!” He gave a frustrated grunt and buried his face in his hands, pausing to lean against the wall.
His voice lowered to a quiet mutter. “Maybe I should abandon ship and let everybody leave me here where there’s nobody to hurt.”
Roger stepped forward and put his hand on Allen’s shoulder. “You don’t mean that.”
Allen shook Roger’s hand off and took a few steps away. “I do. Why should they even LET me come back? I’m a disgrace.” He started off down the hall.
Roger shook his head with a sigh and followed him. After a moment, Allen stopped and turned to look at him. “Why are you following me?”
“Because I need you to not be alone right now.” Roger put his hands on his hips and stared at Allen. “You’re clearly upset and depressed, and I’d never forgive myself if I let my brother hurt himself just because he made a mistake.”
“OH, grow UP, Roger! We’re not brothers! You’re just some human that got turned into a dog that happens to look like me! The only reason we resemble each other is because some demigod thought it was funny.” Allen snapped at him. “Stop following me.” He started to stomp off.
Roger kept after him. “Make me. What are you going to do, pull rank? I’m a civilian now, remember? Dishonorable discharge.”
Allen grumbled and opened his quarters. “Ugh. Fine. Hope you like twentieth century science fiction, because I’m restricted to quarters until we get home.”
“That’s fine.” He hesitated. “Have you… eaten? I brought you that cheesecake yesterday, but have you eaten anything else?”
“Not hungry.” Allen snorted and flopped down on the couch.
“I brought you some food anyway.” A voice sounded at the door.
Allen groaned and turned to look at Slye, glowering. “Oh good, you’re here. Why don’t we just invite the whole ship?”
Slye stepped forward and set a tray on the table. “The Fleet Admiral asked me to make sure you got food. She had a feeling you wouldn’t go to mess like she told you to.” He pointed at the tray. “I… know your favorites from your files. The Fleet Admiral made sure I had that information when she assigned me to you.”
Allen grumbled and put his ears back, staring at the array of snack foods. “... Thanks. I guess.”
Roger nudged Allen with his elbow, then smiled up at Slye. “Thank you. He’s just in a bad mood. I’m sure he DOES appreciate it.”
Slye nodded. “I know. He’s been in a bad mood for the past week.” He sat down on Allen’s other side. “But he’ll feel better once all this is over and done with.”
“Bet.” Allen snorted. “I’m gonna be cranky forever.”
Roger rolled his eyes and knocked on the table to turn on the hologram. “Here, watch your shows and relax. You just need to get your mind off of stuff.”
Allen grumbled. “I need to be alone.”
“So you can stew in self-pity? Not happening.” Roger grinned and put his arm around Allen. “Let’s just watch your shows, and you can have your snacks.”
Allen grumbled and put his ears back. “You’re kind of treating me like a pup. I’m not a child.”
“Aww.” Roger leaned back next to Allen. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel like we were treating you like a kid. We just wanted you to feel better because of all of this stuff that’s going on. We can tell you’re feeling pretty down on yourself and want you to know that you’re not as bad as you’re telling yourself you are. Or… at least, I am.”
Slye suddenly leaned into him and lay his head on Allen’s shoulder. “For what it’s worth, Admiral, I think you’re pretty great.”
Allen put his ears back, then sighed and reached for one of the offerings Slye had brought from the mess hall. “Ugh… fine… if I eat something, will you all back up and let me have some space?”
Roger grinned. “Well… it’d be a start.”
Allen grumbled and sat back with the bowl, munching quietly on some pretzels as he watched the show that Roger had cued up for him. After a while, he started to feel calmer. He sat up and looked at the tray with all its empty dishes, then looked around at Roger and Slye. “Thanks, guys… I guess I needed that. Can you leave and come back in… say… two hours? I want to get a shower in, and send my uniform through the wash.”
Roger eyed him suspiciously. “Just a shower? Nothing else?”
Allen raised his hands in the air. “I promise. A shower and a fresh uniform to shake off the gross feelings.”
Roger looked over at Slye, then nodded. “Okay. We’ll leave you. But we’ll be back in two hours, whether you’re ready or not. Even if that means hanging out with you while you’re in your fur.”
Slye stood up and gathered up the empty bowls and the tray. “I’ll just recycle these from my room.” He rushed out and left Allen with Roger.
Roger paused at the door, then smiled back at Allen. “I’m glad you’re feeling a little better. We’ll work on the rest after you’ve had a shower. I didn’t want to say anything, but you’ve… er… kinda needed it since you got back from the planet.”
As the door slid closed behind Roger, Allen turned off the hologram on the coffee table. He gave a quick check to be sure he was alone, then locked the door and stripped off his uniform, carrying it with him into the bathroom. He looked it over; mud was caked around the cuffs of the sleeves and the bottom of the pants, as well as the knees. There were green chlorophil stains here and there from gathering plants.
He turned the shirt, searching for the collar, then sighed as he stared at it. A single gold admiral’s bar stared back up at him, and he put his ears back, running his thumb over it. After a few moments, he unclipped it from the backing and set it on the counter, tossing the rest of the uniform into the cleaning machine. He stared at himself in the mirror for a second; he looked dirty, exhausted, and depressed. He supposed he FELT that way, too.
After a few moments, he put his ears back and turned on the shower, stepping in and letting the water start running over him. He didn’t have any soap, so he just used the water to scrub the dirt out of his fur the best he could.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Looks like some of Allen's playfulness and positivity from when he originally was like that before things happened that made him upset have rubbed off on Roger and he is using it against Allen now. It is kind of jarring to see Roger act like that but somebody needs to snap Allen out of his downcast state.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 20: Technical Malfunction

Allison skimmed the computer logs quietly as she ran her usual array of engine tests, pausing periodically to input the new date calculation into her chart and set the next engine burn. Sox stared at her from the captain’s chair, out of things to look at to pretend to be busy and instead just waiting for her to have a calculation for how long it would take them to get home.
Allison ignored the stare, feeling a little unnerved as she flipped through the sensor logs. After a moment, she blinked and flipped back and forth between two pages a few times, then paused to enter her log and fire the engines again. She got up and walked over to Katie. “Fleet Admiral, I need to have a word with you over at my station, please.”
Katie nodded and put up a hand to let Allison know she had heard her and would be with her momentarily, not faltering from her typing on the keypad at her station. Once she’d finished what she was doing, she turned off her screen and looked at Allison. “What is it, Lieutenant?” She started walking with Allison over to the helm and looked at the hologram that Allison had left running. “What am I looking at here?”
Allison gestured to the hologram. “This is the engine logs from the big time jump, the one that took us so far into the past. I’ve been going over the logs- everything the computer has, and I haven’t found anything. Until I checked the command logs from this console at that time.”
Katie frowned and looked at the engine logs. “We already knew this. There was a full-power burn of the engines right as Admiral Whist was about to do the ceremony to turn over the ship to Captain Jameson.”
Allison nodded, her ears and tail flicking excitedly. “That’s true, there WAS a full-power engine burn. But there WASN’T a command to do so.”
Katie frowned. “So… Allen DID cause the engines to fire at random? And sent us billions of years into the past?”
“That’s the thing, Fleet Admiral. There was no command to FIRE the engines, but there WAS a command sent to the engines from this console.” Allison flipped the hologram back to the command logs. “At the exact second that we experienced that power fluctuation.”
Katie tilted her muzzle a little to squint at the command logs. “Just a second, my eyes are going. I’m getting a little old.” There was a pause. “This is a shutdown command. So someone was at this console and shut down the engines?”
Allison shook her head. “That’s an automatic shutdown command. When the engines are left idling, the computer waits two hours, then begins shutdown procedures, to prevent the engines from burning out and to conserve fuel. It doesn’t happen when the ship is in orbit, because the engines are needed to keep the ship stable, but it DOES happen when the ship is docked, or in deep space.”
Katie frowned. “Why were the engines left idling?”
“Standard procedure, sir.” Sox suddenly spoke up. “Procedure is to let the computer shut down the engines unless a manual shutdown is necessary, because the shutdown procedure is complicated and, if done incorrectly, can damage the engines.” He still looked completely bored as he sat there, but after a moment, he sat up. “Are you suggesting that the computer flubbed the shutdown procedure?” He stared at Allison intently.
Allison shook her head. “No, not at all. They didn’t touch the computer during the overhaul, so the procedure would be exactly the same as the old engines. What I’m suggesting is that there’s a short somewhere. I’m willing to bet that if we pulled up all the deck plating between this console and the engines, we’d find two cables connected that shouldn’t be connected.” She gestured with her hands, touching her two pointer fingers together. “A nick in the casing, or maybe a screw perforating the conduit. The helm console is hard-wired to the engine so it can’t possibly have a wireless connection issue, but that means that a careless construction worker can accidentally create a short.”
Katie frowned. “But the engines were working fine during the test run. Why would it only misfire at shutdown?”
Sox sat forward. “Because the console sends duplicate orders down two separate conduits. When the ship is being piloted, there’s a chance that a conduit will get damaged, either by unexpected space debris, inept pilots, or a number of other reasons, so the console sends the same orders twice, once through a conduit that runs down the port side of the ship, and once through a separate conduit that runs through the starboard. Then the engine computer verifies the orders before acting. If there’s a short in one of the conduits, though, the orders from that conduit would arrive at the engine computer garbled. It would disregard those orders and only obey orders from the other conduit, the ones that make sense to the computer.” He rubbed his head. “But that protection doesn’t exist for when the ship’s in spacedock. Nobody thought the ship would be left idling in spacedock if it was damaged, so when the computer sends shutdown orders to the engine, it only sends them down one conduit- in this case, the damaged one.”
Katie frowned. “So the shutdown order would arrive garbled and, in this case, the engine would think we wanted it to fire at full power.”
Allison nodded, twitching her tail again excitedly. “The power outage we experienced was from the umbilical cable from spacedock disconnecting unexpectedly! When in dock, the ship’s internal systems run off power from the umbilical cable, because the ship’s reactor is shut down. Normally, we tell the computer we’re going to unplug the umbilical, so it has time to switch to the reactor. But this time, it was unexpected, so it took the computer a moment to catch up. That’s why we lost life support, gravity, and lights for a few seconds.”
Katie looked like she was going to be sick. “So… what you’re saying is… If Allen hadn’t accidentally modified the engines to move the ship in time instead of space, we would have suddenly fired the tachyon engines at full power INSIDE spacedock.”
Allison froze, putting her ears back as the implication dawned on her. “The launch bay walls would have collapsed the front half of the ship before we managed to break through. It would have depressurized both the bay AND the ship. It might not have killed everybody onboard the station, but everybody on the ship would have definitely been dead.” She felt ill.
Katie stumbled backward and found herself sitting in the first mate’s chair. “Opener alive… Allen actually SAVED all of us. He didn’t even KNOW he did, but he did.”
Sox grunted and sat back in his seat. “I wish I was HALF as lucky as that guy.”
Everything was quiet on the bridge for a few moments as everybody let it sink in how close they had all come to dying. After a few moments, Katie spoke quietly. “Is there any way to shut down the engines without risking the engines firing again?”
Allison paused in inputting the new coordinates into her chart, then turned to face her. “Er… Yes. We can put the shutdown order directly into the engine computer from engineering. We can also override the automatic shutdown so it doesn’t send the order, just in case.”
Katie nodded. “And… How close are we to figuring out the latest control scheme?”
Allison punched a few more items into her screen. “We’ve just collected the last data we needed. The computer’s calculating right now.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

Haha. Looks like Allen did save all of them after all not that the miserable pricks deserved it for turning on him. I hope they all feel MAJORLY guilty for it and Roger gives them all a tongue-lashing. Then slaps Sox upside the head. He's a civilian so not like they can do anything to him. That is what you get for jumping to conclusions.

NEVER thought I would see the day that I was rooting for Roger to put ANYBODY in their place.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 21: Home again

Katie sat back in her seat and stared up at the earth in the observation dome. It looked almost like the Earth she knew, but just slightly off- twenty thousand years of continental drift could do that. After a few moments, she spoke. “We should discuss how we’re going to re-enter our own time zone. We can’t exactly just drop ourselves in.”
Sox grunted. “Obviously, we need to have someone in Engineering ready to start the shutdown procedure on the engines.”
Allison nodded her agreement and spun in her chair to face Katie. “I say we use the fast engines to get us to within a thousand years of our own time zone, then use the impulse engines to pilot us in manually. We’ll be in temporal flux while moving, so we should be able to just let the station form around us and wait for the correct date to come. If we’re going slow enough on the impulse engines, I should be able to materialize us within a few seconds of when we left, maybe even at the exact same second, though it would be dangerous.”
“Dangerous- elaborate.” Sox demanded of her, pointing.
“Well… if I miss, we’ll materialize inside the ship that’s already there, which would cause… well… I’m not sure, actually. This is physics we’ve never seen before or considered. It would be very bad, for sure. It would be two objects in the same spot at the same time, which isn’t physically possible. It might just shunt us to outside the station, or stack us one on top of the other. It also might phase us together into a horrifying amalgam.” She shook her head. “I’d rather not find out, honestly.”
He nodded. “Okay. That makes sense, then. What do you suggest?”
Allison turned to her console. “I recommend going in nice and slow with the impulse engines- we can slow down as we start getting closer to our target time, and materialize as close as possible to when we left.”
“What’s the slowest you can go?” Katie put in.
“With the docking thrusters, I can go as slow as thirty minutes per minute.” She consulted her chart while she spoke. “That would mean I could materialize us within five minutes of when we left, easily. Maybe less, depending on my reflexes. If I wait for the Beagle to disappear, I can immediately stop the engines to bring us in. That would bring us as close as possible.”
“And how long would your thousand-year impulse ride take?” Katie asked patiently.
Allison paused and did some calculations. “Twenty minutes, give or take, depending on exact speed and how soon we start slowing down for landing.”
Katie hesitated. “Okay. Begin your calculations.”
Allison gave a quick salute before turning back to her console and starting to type.
Sox frowned. “Fleet Commander, what are we going to do with the Admiral when we get back? We can’t just let him go free to make all this happen again.”
Katie turned to Sox with a frown. “Admiral Whist will be planetside by the end of the day, don’t you worry about him. You’ll have your ship, and you’ll be leaving spacedock within the week with your new crew and your new orders. It’s not your problem.”
“But-”
“That’s enough, Captain. It isn’t your problem. Let it drop.” Katie’s voice was stern as she spoke.
Sox hesitated, then put his ears back and sat back in his chair, staring at the floor. Silence filled the bridge for a while. Allison turned. “My calculations are complete, ma’am.”
“Double-checked?” Katie asked. She watched Allison nod, then nodded back. “Proceed.”
Allison turned to her console and pressed buttons. The planet blurred, the sun stretched out to a swirling streak, circling the planet and the ship hundreds of times, and the stars moved slowly across the sky, getting into their more familiar positions.
After just a few moments, the planet returned to normal, and Katie smiled at it. That looked right. That looked like the Earth she knew, aside from the total lack of artificial satellites. Allison pressed a few more buttons. “Tachyon drive engine segment is done. Switching to impulse engines, fifty percent burn. We can turn off the tachyon engines now, if you like, Fleet Admiral.”
Katie watched the planet below slowly accelerate again, then turned and nodded to Sox. “Captain, if you would. I’d like to stay here and supervise.”
Sox sighed. “Yes, Fleet Admiral.” He slid down out of his seat and entered the lift. As soon as he was gone, Allison visibly relaxed.
For a long while, nothing seemed to happen. Then, a single object shot past the dome and into space, starting to orbit. Allison slowed the ship, and they watched as the planet’s orbit became littered with satellites in what seemed like seconds. “We’ve entered the old Earth space race and satellite era. Three hundred years to home.”
Katie nodded, watching the satellites get thicker and thicker until, suddenly, they started to collide with one another. After a few moments of explosions, the satellites all went dead. Small ships appeared, flying from wrecked satellite to wrecked satellite, dismantling each one as the dozens of ships took down every single one and melted them to slag. A station appeared, then disappeared; Allison slowed the ship more as a newer, more familiar station started to appear around the ship. “One hundred fifty years to home,” Allison announced.
Katie stood up to watch the space station age around them as everything slowed more. Ships appeared and disappeared, the models getting newer and sleeker. The station was remodeled time and again to account for the newer models. Finally, the Beagle appeared, being assembled before their eyes and launching.
Someone walked at high speed right through Katie, and she blinked, looking around and realizing that another ship’s bridge was superimposed over the Beagle’s. It shot off, and another took its place, over and over. Then construction workers appeared and disappeared. The ship slowed even more as the Beagle slid into position. Workers ripped up the carpet, leaving it right where it had been.
Katie’s head spun as she watched the ship get remodeled, the changes invisible behind the existing plating. Then, Katie herself walked onto the bridge, moving fifty times faster than regular. Allison spoke up and announced, “About three hours to home.”
The ship shot off, then returned moments later. Katie watched Allen give a last, lonely look to the bridge, rubbing the wall and jerking his hand back like he’d been shocked. He looked around, then walked off. “Two hours.”
Katie held her breath, counting backward. Twenty seconds. Ten. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.
Allison cut the engines, and everything resumed moving at regular speed. A few seconds later, the comm station came to life.
“Beagle, this is Control, do you read?”
Katie sat down at comms and pressed the talk button. “Control, this is the Beagle. We read you.”
“You disappeared off our sensors for a moment, Beagle. What happened?”
“We had an incident. We’ll debrief once we’ve shut everything down and checked on our passengers.” She shut off the comm and turned to Allison with a grin. “Congratulations, Allison. You’ve done it.”

[Amazee Dayzee]

Looks like that is almost about it for this story though I do want another Allen story where he isn't depressed and feeling guilty about things that turn out not to be his fault. The last story you wrote about Allen where he wasn't in a negative mood was the first one.

Also, check your private messages because I sent you one and I need a reply.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 22: Chat

Katie entered Allen’s suite and stood there for a moment, watching him stare at the hologram over the coffee table, Roger on one side and Slye on the other. After a few moments, she cleared her throat. “Boys, I need to speak to the Admiral alone, please.”
Slye glanced up, then immediately stood up and scurried out of the room past her, but Roger frowned at her. “You’re not going to chew him out, are you? We JUST got him to stop wallowing.”
She shook her head. “No, I’ll be nice, I promise.”
Roger narrowed his eyes at her for a few moments, as if deciding whether or not he believed her, then slowly stood up and left the room, leaving her and Allen alone. “Allen, you just call if you need me to come step in.” The door closed on him.
Katie turned and sat next to Allen, waving her hand to shut off the hologram. Allen turned his head a little to look away and down with a frown. “... So, what’s it going to be? Berating me? Yelling at me?”
She sighed and put a hand on his arm. “Allen, we tracked down the cause of the engine surge that sent us back in time. There’s a short in the system that controls the engines. When the computer tried to shut down the engines, it instead fired them at full blast. If you hadn’t accidentally modified the engines, it would have caved in the entire front of the ship and blown a massive hole in the side of Spacedock. Everybody aboard would have died, and a good number of the people onboard the station as well.”
He gave a huffing sound. “Oh good, so my complete and total lack of control ended well, this time. I’m so glad we got lucky.” His voice was dripping with sarcasm as he spoke.
“Are you?” Katie tilted her head at him.
“... yeah.” He admitted quietly. “I just felt like being snarky. I’m sorry.” He pulled his ears back.
Katie nudged him. “Hey. You’re a little too quiet. Normally, you’d be happy to realize that you’re not going to get into trouble.” She looked him over. “You’re not wearing your uniform.”
He looked down at himself. He was wearing his tunic and trousers, just like he had been earlier. After a moment, he realized what she meant and reached up to touch his shirt collar, where his Admiral bar belonged. “Oh… yeah, I felt like… I took it off. I don’t deserve it.” He gestured vaguely in the direction of the bathroom. “It’s in there. You can take it back if you like.”
Katie stood up with a sigh and walked into the bathroom, coming back into the room a moment later with the gold pin in her hands. She leaned down over him and pinned it back to his lapel, straightening it out and then smiling. “There. Now you’re in uniform.”
Allen sighed. “Katie… I’m saying that I’m resigning. I need to be away from people, where I can’t hurt anybody anymore.”
“And I’m saying, resignation denied.” She sat down next to him again and nudged him. “Besides, what happened to the OLD Allen? The one I knew would NEVER just give up and run away from a problem like this. The old Allen would face it head-on and conquer it using good old-fashioned stubbornness!”
“The old Allen didn’t get twenty-five people stuck at the end of time just because he wasn’t ready to give up flying a starship yet.” He stared at her quietly.
“Okay, that’s true, but we’re home now, so that doesn’t matter anymore. It was just three days. Might as well have been a vacation.” She gave a little grin.
Allen’s ears perked, and he turned to look at her for the first time since she’d walked in. “Oh? We’re home?”
“Skillfully piloted in by Lieutenant Cooper about ten minutes ago. I waited for our passengers to disembark before telling you, in case we were wrong about it being a computer error that sent us back. That way, if telling you DID cause the engines to fire again and for us to end up in the past again, it’d just be the two of us stuck. Well… us and Howard, He refused to disembark without you.” She lowered her voice. “Between you and me, I think he’s bored in retirement and looking for some excitement.”
Allen glanced around. “... How can we tell if it worked?”
She pulled up her wristband hologram and showed him the view of the inside of the spacedock. “I forwarded the sensors to my wristband. If anything changed, it would have alerted me.”
He seemed to relax a little. “So I just need to dispel the engines, and then we can get on with our lives. Everybody can.” He leaned over the side of the couch to get his bag.
“Well… not quite.” Katie chuckled.
Allen turned to look at her with a frown, his book half removed from the bag. “What does that mean?”
“Oh, nothing. We just had a party planned for you after the ceremony. Just a few of us. Roger and Allison and Howard… you know. If they even still want to do it after three days lost in time.” Katie chuckled and stroked the book as Allen laid it out. “Hi, Bookie.”
The book flipped open and scrawled in a swirly font across the page. “Is it time?”
Allen chuckled. “He always switches to calligraphy when I wake him up.” He rubbed the page. “It’s time, bud. I need that dispel spell.”
The book flipped a few pages in what resembled a yawn, then displayed the spell. Allen skimmed it. “I can cast this from here.” He walked over to the nearest wall and pressed his hand to it. Katie grinned and sat forward to watch as the wall started to glow faintly. After a few moments, Allen mumbled the phrase in the book, and the glow shot outward in a wave, fading after a moment. “That should do it. The ship is a normal ship again.”
Katie grinned at Allen and stood up. “Good. Let’s go. If we hurry, we can still make the shuttle home. We skipped the passing of the ship ceremony, but you’ll still have to file a report on what happened later.”
After a moment, Allen sighed and scooped up his bag and his book. “Okay. Let’s go.” He closed the book and tucked it into his bag, following Katie out of the door, down the corridor, and into the lift.
Katie pressed the button. “Sixth deck, embarkation bay.” The lift started to move.
As they waited, Allen stared at the floor. “Do you ever miss it?”
“Hmm?” Katie perked her ears and turned to look at Allen.
“Space flight. Do you ever miss it?” Allen reached out and touched the wall quietly.
“Sometimes. But I’m getting too old for that now. I’m in my late thirties, Allen. I don’t have a lot of life left to live. Leave the exploring to the young ones.” The lift door opened, and she exited.
Allen sighed and followed her, chuckling when he felt the familiar feeling of Howard scrambling up his pants leg to sit on his shoulder. “Hi, Howard. How about you? Do you ever miss flying?”
Howard paused to look at Allen for a moment, then shrugged. “I never really DID fly. I was stationed on the station most of my career. But… I suppose I do miss the view sometimes.”
Allen chuckled and paused at the aperture of the embarkation bay, pausing to pat the wall of the Beagle. “Well… I guess this is goodbye, old friend.” He paused, then took a deep breath and stepped forward, off of the Beagle and into his future.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Really hope we get to see more of Allen in the future after this chapter and he is able to do stuff to satisfy his wanderlust he has! He may be in an administration role now but there should be no reason why he can't explore the galaxy on his off-time by himself.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Chapter 23: Party

Allen watched out the side of the shuttle as the station drifted away, watching the blackness of space fade into blue as they entered the atmosphere. He glanced around at the group- Howard, Roger, Katie, Allison, Slye, and Sox, plus a few other crew members he didn’t know very well. Katie was talking on her wristband, making a report to her superiors. They kept making her repeat herself.
“No, I said the ship traveled in time. TIME. There was a short in the- yes, in TIME.” She tried to keep herself professional, but Allen could see her slowly losing her temper. “You know what? I’ll just make my report in text form so you can read it as many times as you need to.” She hung up on them, then glanced over at Allen’s aghast face with a grin. “What?”
“You just hung up on the space fleet commander. The guy in charge of all the fleets of fifteen solar systems.” He hesitantly closed his mouth, realizing his jaw was hanging open.
“Yeah.” She nodded. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to get fired over it. The guy probably already forgot about it.”
“I’m kinda impressed. The Katie I served with would have never dared.” He gave a little smile and nudged her.
She chuckled and nudged him back. “Well, she’s had far too many conversations with this man to care too much anymore. Fleet Admiral’s privilege."
The two were quiet for a moment, and then Allen spoke up. “So… a party for me, huh?”
Katie’s eyes lit up. “Oh, yeah!” She turned to the group. “Did we still want to do that? Or are you all just eager to get home after all that happened?”
Allison shrugged. “Well, I already paid the babysitter for the next four hours, so I might as well still go.”
Howard grinned. “I have literally nothing better to do for the next week.”
Roger gave a little forlorn smile. “Celebrate with my brother? Of course I’m in.”
Sox snorted. “Not that I was invited, but I’ll pass.”
Katie clapped her hands and clasped them in front of her. “Excellent. I’ll have a car meet us at the spaceport.” She pulled up her wristband hologram again.
Allen chuckled, then put his ears back and looked at the ground approaching fast. He wondered when he’d get to go to space again. He already missed it.
Roger glanced around, then unbuckled and moved to the empty seat next to Allen. “Hey… still feeling guilty?”
Allen nodded quietly. “Yeah… I know Katie said that I actually ended up saving everybody, but…” He shrugged. “It feels like I still caused a lot of problems.”
He hesitantly leaned on him. Allen chuckled. “Still a little awkward when it comes to dog behaviors. We’ll work on it.”
“Er… thanks.” He gave a little smile. “I think.”
Allen chuckled, then looked up when the shuttle came in for a landing. While the pilot made his announcements, he undid his seatbelt and scooped up his bag from under his seat.
They filed off the shuttle and into the spaceport with Katie in the lead, and gathered in the terminal. Katie looked up from her hologram. “The car will be here in a minute. We’re heading to a venue we booked before the… incident. Last I heard, the catering was en route, but that was… well, I guess just a couple hours ago.”
“Ooh, catering. What’d ya get?” Allen wagged his tail teasingly.
She chuckled. “All your favorites of course. Pizza, chips, soda… A junk food smorgasbord.”
“Oh, good. I was afraid you’d get some of that health food junk like you usually do.” He laughed and started following her as she motioned toward a door.
“For a party? No, if there was ever a time to eat unhealthy, it’s at a party.” She laughed. “We’ll go back to eating healthy on Monday when you start your new job. BOTH of us.” She added sternly. A car pulled up to the curb next to them.
“Bleh.” Allen stuck his tongue out, leaning his head to nuzzle into Howard on his shoulder. “Do I HAVE to?”
Howard snickered. “Gonna be hard to keep your figure at a desk job eating like you do. Besides, you eat too much junk food.”
“Ugh… FIIINNNEE.” He climbed into the car after Katie, turning to help Allison up. “You guys are so mean to me.”
“Of course we are.” Katie snickered, closing the door and taking a moment to give the driver some instructions before taking her seat. “If we weren’t, you’d eat nothing but junk food and sweets all the time.”
“Darn right I would, and I’d enjoy every minute of it.” Allen smirked playfully.
“Allen, you’re thirty-one. When are you going to stop acting like a child?” Katie laughed, reaching over to push him in the shoulder gently.
“Ask me again when I’m sixty.” He grinned.
Allison laughed. “I love hanging out with you guys. Never a dull moment.”
Roger looked around at them, then gave a tentative little grin. “I wish I felt like part of this group. You all look like you’re having so much fun.”
Allen grinned and pulled Roger in to his side. “Aww. You’ll figure it out, little brother. We’re happy to have you here, even if you don’t feel like you’re one of us just yet.”
“I’m older than you.” Roger looked him over for a moment, then frowned. “Do I really look younger?”
Katie wiggled her hand in a so-so motion. “You look younger than your ACTUAL age, but that’s probably just because you were younger relative to your life expectancy before you were changed.”
The car stopped, and Allen glanced out the window, gasping. “You told me this place closed down!” He followed Katie out of the car eagerly, looking up at the logo to one of his favorite restaurants from when he and Katie had been in the academy together.
Katie laughed. “And it HAD, but it’s back. New owners, but the same chef. Apparently, they gave the chef the creative freedom he wanted, and bought the rights to the name from the old owners. I’ve been excited to show it to you since they reopened. It was nearly IMPOSSIBLE to keep it a secret. They agreed to cater the whole party!”
Allison snickered. “Howard kept trying to squeal. She had to screen all his outgoing communications to you and scrub out any mention of the place.”
Howard bounced excitedly on Allen’s shoulder. “Okay, so maybe I was a LITTLE excited! He said this place was great, and Katie wouldn’t let any of us go until you were with us.”
Allen grinned and pulled all his friends close. “Then let’s get the party started!”

[Amazee Dayzee]

You know what would really make the party become really exciting and one to remember? If there was a food fight that happened since I am sure they have a ton of desserts there that aren't all gonna be eaten and it would be a shame if they all go to waste once everybody is stuffed with what they can eat.

[GingaDensetsuAleu]

Well, that about wraps up this story. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next one! <3

-------

Chapter 24: A New Life

Allen fumbled his thumb into the fingerprint scanner and stumbled into his apartment, looking around before flopping onto the couch happily. It was almost two in the morning; the party had been long and boisterous, and Allen had had lots of fun with all of his friends.
He pulled up his hologram and smiled at the holoimages: Howard dancing on a table; Allison showing back up after going to get her kits, adorable squirrel twins; Katie pulling a string of cheese as long as her arm off her pizza while trying to take a bite; Slye giving a shy grin as he beat Katie in an arm-wrestling contest; even Roger smiling and having a good time at a bar they’d moved to after they’d been forced to leave the restaurant after hours.
After a few moments, Allen waved away the hologram and stood back up, heading to his bedroom. He slipped off his wristband, setting it on its charger, then turned and pulled a pair of pajamas out of his dresser.
He gave a huge yawn as he changed, then climbed into bed, his eyes drooping as he snuggled into a warm body that was waiting there for him.
After a few moments, his eyes snapped open, and he jumped out of bed, fumbling for the light. A blue gryphon grinned up at him from the bed, where he reclined in a pair of pajamas that matched Allen’s. “I thought I was going to get some snuggles in before you noticed I was here.”
Allen squinted at the gryphon, then frowned. “... P? I haven’t seen you in… six, almost seven years. What are you doing here?”
“Oh… I just thought I’d check in on you. How was time traveling around your planet’s existence? You have fun doing that?” The gryphon sat up, stretching his wings out and pulling his knees up to his chest like they were having a normal sleepover, gossiping about who they liked like a couple of high schoolers.
“Oh… You saw that?” Allen put his ears back. “I just had a little accident. Don’t quite have full control over this celestial magic thing. It kind of… does what it wants.”
“You’ll get the hang of it.” P grinned at him and held up his bag. “You left something at that restaurant, by the way. I took the liberty of grabbing it for you. Maybe cut back a bit on the orange soda?”
Allen gasped and clutched his bag, opening it up to peek inside. He pulled out the book and set it on a lectern he’d set up by his closet. It opened up and flashed big red letters at him. “You forgot about me!”
“Sorry.” Allen told Bookie sheepishly, then turned back to the gryphon in his bed. “What’s the real reason you’re here?”
The gryphon put a hand to his chest like he was hurt. “Can’t an old friend visit just because he misses you?”
Allen put his hands on his hips and scowled. “No.”
“Fine, you got me. Your ancestor’s been talking my ear off nonstop to come check in on you, since he can’t come do it himself. Something about me having a responsibility to finish what I started or something like that.” He waved his clawed hand around dismissively, then grinned at Allen. “I’ve just come to warn you that you’re about to be in a position where decisions you make can alter the way your planet develops from now on. You have the ability to peek into the future to see how your decisions can change things.” He pointed toward Bookie. “Your little friend here can show you how.”
Allen frowned and turned to Bookie. “But… isn’t he just a beginner’s guide? You never gave me anything more comprehensive.”
“Oh, it was when I gave it to you.” P shrugged. “But among the changes you’ve made to it is a far more in-depth understanding of magic. Plus, you’ve given it a nice personality, too. It’s almost a shame that it’s not really alive.”
Allen frowned. “But I haven’t made any changes to the book. It’s just the way it was when you gave it to me.”
“Is it? Or have you tweaked it a little bit here and there?” He grinned and turned to face away before leaning back to look at him upside-down. “Maybe a stray thought here or there while holding it? You do realize it’s powered by your own magic, right? It recharges any time you hold it, that’s why it wants you to keep it with you.”
Allen turned to Bookie and frowned. “So you’re saying that I’ve been modifying him this whole time?”
“Of course! That’s what a magic guide is for! It wouldn’t be much of a guide if it couldn’t react to the way YOUR magic works!” P grinned and clapped his talons together. “You’ve got a whole new life coming up ahead of you! New adventures, a new job! Forge your way forward, bring forth the future YOU want! The world is in the palm of your hand!”
He leaned forward and whispered into Allen’s ear. “You only need to WAKE UP.”

THE END

[Amazee Dayzee]

I bet if Katie knew that the promotion that Allen got has him be able to change how the world develops moving forward she would have thought twice about having him be promoted to where he is now. I would get a chuckle if one of his decisions resulted in the world going forward turning indigo. XD