The lab, within the lab

"You're only showing me what I want to see!" Amber said, rolling her eyes as she looked around the lab. "You haven't even put away the mops and buckets!"

The young meerkat pointed at the janitor rat desperately pulling the mop and bucket away.

The bear general addressed the tiny female with disdain while her boss elbowed her in the ribs.

"Do you even know what strings we had to pull for this?"

Amber ignored her mole boss, but she sat tight while the vixen ‘tour guide’ continued. Amber knew she was a colonel of some kind at this laboratory, but with the poise of a high-class waitress and the words of a seasoned press secretary. 

The vixen - lieutenant colonel Snipetail - cleared her throat at Amber’s ‘outburst’ followed by a slightly annoyed glare. She was smartly dressed in a blue officer’s uniform with creases so sharp Amber could slice bread on them. Snipetail had little round glasses sitting on her muzzle as her tail slowly moved behind her in a hypnotic weaving pattern.

“I am only showing you what you and your organization requested to see,” the vixen said in a calm tone while the bear general stepped back to observe, his huge arms crossed - secure that the vixen could outwit the meerkat. “May I continue the tour I was requested to give?”

Amber looked around at the sparklingly clean laboratory, lit by the glaring white lights overhead.

“Well, first,” Amber began, whipping out her notepad. “There’s the matter of the mass sightings of among other things, alien creatures. Every sighting is less than a mile from this facility.” 

That’s when Amber stopped: lt. colonel ‘Snipetail’... where did she recall that name from?

Snipetail... Amber wracked her brain while she was on this pre-planned ‘tour.’ Wasn’t the name of the same officer responsible for the Morningsong Incident?

Yes, Amber had been working as a war correspondent: Snipetail’s country wasn’t ‘officially’ involved, but Amber knew otherwise unofficially. Through snooping, Amber had uncovered that Snipetail was something of an adviser, but it was after the Battle at Morningsong Ridge that she had caught Amber’s attention. 

The battle, or ‘incident,’ was a bizarre occurrence where soldiers suddenly turned on each other without immediate explanation. Officially, Morningsong was labeled a ‘friendly fire incident,’ but when Amber dug deeper it seemed that Snipetail had a hand in things, especially as the vixen’s background in psyops came to light.

As Amber was being led around the too-clean laboratory, she began to study the vixen’s movements and words. Amber had done some digging, but her editor had checked with legal and had told her to stop looking into it, lest they be sued for libel. ...But Amber knew there was something there. 

Now there they were: in a secret lab together, mere feet apart. 

“Really, Ms. Zazuetta,” Snipetail began, responding to Amber’s original question. “You are a journalist of sorts, aren’t you? You don’t put stock into rumors of bizarre creatures,do you?” 

Amber twitched her tail. “I don’t trust rumors but I do believe in mass hallucinations caused by external sources. You know - like something you’d use in psychological warfare, perhaps?”

Snipetail’s hypnotic tail stopped twitching for a bit as the bear general that was following behind them all growled. 

“Amber!” her mole editor hissed. 

“What?” Amber hissed back. “They’re only showing us what we want to see. Do you think sightings like that within a few miles of this place is coincidence?” 

“Let me assure y-” Snipetail began. 

The bear grunted. “Colonel, perhaps we should just show her?”

Amber’s ears pricked up while Snipetail tilted her head slowly. “Are you sure that’s wise, sir?” 

“I don’t need journalists and wackjobs constantly pestering us. Transparency, I think, is key here.”

“Show us what exactly?” Amber interjected.

Snipetail nodded, completely ignoring Amber. “Of course, sir. I always value transparency when speaking to the people we protect.”

Amber’s tail twitched, that felt rehearsed, like a pair of community theatre actors rehearsing their lines.

Amber folded her arms. “Show us what?” 

The two officers led the way to a heavy duty door, both inserting keycards into slots on either side. The door hissed open revealing a lab within the lab. Armed guards, and white coated scientists all looked up from their work before returning to their jobs. 

“What the-?” Amber exclaimed as she saw what was within the lab within the lab. 

Amber and her mole editor were treated to bizarre creatures behind glass cases staring ahead blankly. Amber drew closer to one of the cases, but stopped short of actually touching the large glass container. Furless creatures lacking any claws or muzzles with only a bit of short hair covering their heads.   

“What exactly am I looking at?” The meerkat asked, her maw agape.

A male opossum in a lab coat was standing next to her. “Well, they aren’t exactly aliens. They’re more close to home.” 

“And you are?” She asked. 

“Doctor Gabriel Franz,” the oppossum said without looking up from his microscope.

Amber folded her ears: The name rang a bell... A very loud one. 

“I seem to recall you being dead,” Amber said carefully. 

“The reports of my death were greatly exaggerated,” he said, laughing at his own cliche as he looked up at Amber. “Always wanted to say that. Well, really, my death was staged so I could work on this project full time.” 

Amber shook her head. “I knew there was something fishy about your death.” 

The scientist chuckled. “Well, in any case, these beings are not from space. I know that much. They seem to come from our world but not exactly our world.” 

Amber’s tail twitched. “Like a parallel universe or something?” 

“Precisely,” the opossum replied. 

“This is big!” The mole editor exclaimed. “This is world breaking!”

Snipetail sniffed and adjusted her glasses higher up her snoot. “You’re not going to release this information. You’re going to spin it. Imagine the world panic. Just look at all the terror in the escape we had.” 

Amber’s tail twitched, “So there was something that happened.” 

Snipetail sighed, “There was an incident, yes. Despite our security a few managed to slip out.” 

Amber was back on the attack, “You want us to spin your cover story. You want me to pin this on something more rational. Well you’ve got the wrong meerkat!”

Her editor interrupted, “Amber. We really should play ball here. They’re right, the world isn’t ready for this.”

Amber rounded on her editor. “Our duty is to the truth.” 

The bear general bared his teeth and waggled a huge, furry, clawed finger in Amber’s unimpressed face. “Listen here!” 

Doctor Franz interjected. “Now, if I may these beings don’t pose much of a threat, they only end up here on odd occasions, falling through rifts as it were.” 

Snipetail growled. “Don’t start with that ‘integration’ nonsense again, dear doctor,” she said under her breath and clearly agitated. 

As the beasts argued Amber looked around.

“Psst, Amber! Amber!” The meerkat turned and found one of the creatures with his hands cupped against the glass. 

“You can speak?” Amber asked.

The creature nodded, “Yes. Well, I figured out how to talk through the glass, and the language difference between your world and mine. Sort of like Spanish and Portuguese. Nevermind. It is you!”

Amber’s tail twitched as she observed the creature: smooth and nearly hairless like the others. 

“I don’t know you-you,” the creature sighed, “I know other-you. Or, well, I know you in my own universe. I ended up here by accident thanks to those dangerous experiments at Varunkirk.”

Amber folded her paws. “Who are you?” 

“Name’s Danny, and well where I come from. We’re friends.”

“Stop bothering the subjects!” Snipetail yelled, marching over. “You looked like you were... talking with it?!” That got the attention of the others, who jogged over as well.

Amber tapped a claw against her muzzle. “Nonsense, I can’t understand a thing.” 

Danny blinked and seemed to catch on that Amber was playing dumb. If she was anything like the Amber he knew she had something cooking in her mind. 

Snipetail squeezed her snoot between her thumb and foreclaw. “Listen, if you don’t publish this I promise the Gazette will get the first word on anything that happens here. This is a showing of good faith.”

“Just your word to go off of?” Amber shot back, moving away from the creature. “Like Morningsong?” 

Snipetail merely glowered at the meerkat over her glasses. Amber sighed before her editor stepped in and grabbed the vixen’s paws and began to shake.

“First word?” He asked, ignoring Amber’s parting shot.

“First word,” The vixen agreed.

Amber folded her arms, it seemed she’d have to play ball. For now. The mysterious creature was indeed fascinating though. Did he really know a different version of her? 

As she was escorted out, Amber shot a curious look to the ‘Danny’ creature as he stood in his tank and mouthed the word:

“Varunkirk.”