Wor the Problem

Holly knew that Dr. Grace Penn looked troubled. The blonde monkey-human had just done another complete physical on her, which of course covered every inch of Holly's furry gray body. Grace had, as always, been nothing but professional. She had told Holly exactly what she was going to do and had gotten verbal permission before doing it. The troubled look had begun when Grace had examined Holly's nethers yesterday. She thought that the doctor was on the verge of saying something then, but today there was even more of a set to her lips.

"Do you need to ask me something?" she said, hoping to finally find out what was bugging the doctor.

Grace put her folded hands up to her mouth as if praying. Then she shrugged. "I was debating whether or not to ask you. You are different from us, and I thought I might be making the wrong diagnosis. Please understand, whatever we talk here about will be covered under doctor-patient confidentiality. I can't tell anyone else, unless a crime has been committed."

"Crime?" Now Holly really didn't like where this was heading.

"I'm just speaking hypothetically. But it appears that...you have had sexual intercourse in the last few days. Am I correct?'

Holly was really confused at this point. These monkeys really seemed to have hang-ups about sex. "Yeah, and?"

Grace blinked in surprise. "Oh. Ah, well I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I'm assuming Ned was your partner?"

"He

is

my partner," Holly replied.

"I see. So the intercourse was...I mean

is

consensual?"

The humanoid rabbit laughed, which also seemed to take Grace by surprise. "Oh hell yes. The first time we did it I actually jumped him."

Grace was clearly relieved. "I had hoped that was the case. You and Ned seem to be very affectionate with each other, but I had to make sure. For your sake, you understand. And like I said, I won't tell anyone."

Holly shrugged and relaxed back onto the examination table. The 'proper isolation facility' that Colonel Gossett had mentioned was actually a bunch of large interlocked prefabricated huts. The 'medical wing' took up one entire hut by itself.

"By the way," she said to Grace, "I never did apologize for you having to be stuck in here with us." Holly was trying to draw out Grace. She was still not sure that the doctor had her best interests at heart.

"Well, it came down to a coin toss between me and Karen."

"And you lost?"

"I won, actually," replied Grace. Holly raised both her head and her long ears and gave the doctor a raised eyebrow.

In response to the unaired question, Grace blushed. "It's not just due to scientific interest," she stammered. "Everybody likes you, Holly. You don't understand how desirable you are."

Holly snorted. "Because I'd make a good snack? I know about what your people eat sometimes."

Grace looked stricken. "No! I mean it like...everyone wants to hug you. Even Colonel Gossett." The doctor blushed as if revealing some very personal secret.

"Really?" The colonel had been sequestered along with the rest of them, but he'd always seemed aloof and self-contained around all of them. Especially around her.

"Yes, even him. Don't tell him I told you, though." Grace winked at her. "He would never live it down. He's got an image to maintain as a hard-ass."

Holly smiled back. "I see. So how long are we going to be stuck in here, anyway?"

Grace turned away to grab a printout. "Karen just finished the latest round of cultures. We haven't found any bacteria that we can't identify. And they're all standard beasties that we would expect to find on anybody. Plus you're in good health, so nothing in our world seems to be having a bad effect on you yet. A day or so more and I think we can be sure." She paused. "If you and Ned are sexually active, however, I will make sure to keep an extra eye on, er, things. I don't think there could be such a thing as a cross-species sexually transmitted disease, but we don't want to find out about one the hard way."

Holly felt a little pang of fear. "Do you think Ned is in danger?"

Grace shook her head. "No, but I'll keep an eye on him as well. Under the same strict doctor-patient confidentiality as between us."

"Okay." Holly thought this was as good a time as any to find out more. "I guess I'm still trying to figure out your people's attitudes about sex. Do you think that is there something wrong with Ned and I fucking?"

The doctor coughed a bit, apparently taken aback by Holly's blunt language. "For myself, no. I mean, there are probably some religious types out there that would consider it an abomination." She laughed. "I'm a lesbian myself, so those people would call me the same thing. As far as I'm concerned, you're a sapient being and certainly past what we call the age of consent."

Holly's ears went up curiously. "Lez-bee-ann? What is that?"

Grace blushed again. "I prefer the, um, company of ladies instead of men. You must have those people in your world, right?"

The lagomorph pondered the question. "I guess so. We don't really place that much distinction as far as who likes what. It's all sex, as far as we're concerned." She decided to get in a little teasing on Grace. "So, if you like females, does that mean you like me?" She smiled and waggled her eyebrows.

Grace blushed even deeper. "Damn it, Holly, I'm your doctor. Even if I...shit. Yes. I'm attracted to you in

that

way. Ned is very lucky, if you don't mind my saying so." She composed herself and her face became more relaxed. "But that's not at all appropriate for me to act on. You're my patient."

Holly relaxed. In a way, the admission helped her feel better about the doctor's true motivations. If she wanted to fuck Holly, then she probably wasn't planning to cut her open. "I guess I'm confused. You're saying that there are other people in your world who don't like the type of person that

you

prefer to have sex with? Why should they care?"

Grace smiled sadly. "I ask the same thing. It's been getting much better recently, but even ten or twenty years ago I couldn't be as open about myself. Some religions still consider it unholy."

"I've done a little reading on all of your religions," said Holly as she stood up off of the table. "Honestly, it seems like you monkeys enjoy having lots of different stories to argue about."

Grace laughed. "That we do. Do your people have any religions?"

Holly began to get dressed. They'd found some sweatpants and a shirt that fit her properly, but deep down she kind of missed just walking around in one of Ned's oversized shirts.

"Not as such," she said to Grace, "We have a popular tale about how our people came to be. But it's treated like your Greek mythology. Nobody really takes it seriously."

"Can you tell me the story?" asked Grace. Her blue eyes looked fascinated. "If you don't mind my asking, of course."

Holly shrugged. "The outline is simple. Once upon a time the world was wonderful and lush, and there was plenty of fodder for all of the animals. All ate from the bounty of the earth, and no one fed on their brethren. Then the world became less bountiful, and some animals began to starve. Their hunger made them mindlessly cry out for deliverance, and thus appeared Karaelanga. That name translates from the old tongue as 'He-Who-Eats-Meat'. He's kind of our version of Satan, if you like. Karaelanga's solution was to turn some of the animals on the others, cursing them to eat flesh. This worked after a fashion, but now those who ate plants lived in fear. In particular, the smallest and weakest of the plant-eaters had to run and hide, living in the shadows. They dwindled in number. One was wiser than the others, and cried out again for deliverance. But they asked not for salvation imposed from above, but instead begged for the ability to save themselves from their troubles. And so appeared Kasdejalfa, or 'She-Who-Is-Clever'. She granted the request, and the descendants of that animal became smart and also agile with their paws. They drove back the forces of Karaelanga with spears and guile and clever traps. And, of course, those who had been blessed by Kasdejalfa were us." Holly finished by gesturing to herself.

Grace laughed. "And that's the short version?"

Holly smiled and rolled her eyes. "Trust me, there's a lot more I left out. I had to read all about it in school." Then her smile faded. "I'm a little worried, though. About what your religions might think about me."

Grace patted Holly's shoulder. "That's a problem for well down the road. Right now, we need to make sure you stay healthy. And see about getting you home, if we can."

­__________________________________________________________

Ned clinked his glass against everyone's. "To the end of quarantine!" he said, and took a sip. Colonel Gossett had supplied a bottle of some pretty good scotch whiskey for the occasion, and all of those who had been sequestered were taking a 'wee dram' of the liquor. All except Daisy, of course, but she looked happy nonetheless. The pittie had pretty much decided that Holly was her new best friend, and so the dog was sprawled at the lagomorph's feet with one of her rear legs sticking up in the air. Holly rubbed the dog's tummy with one big digitigrade foot as she sniffed her glass. Then she took a cautious sip and coughed. "Wow."

Colonel Gossett gave one of his rare smiles. "It is an acquired taste, isn't it?" Then he became more serious and turned to the two doctors who were sitting next to each other. "She is okay to have this, right?"

Dr. Selby nodded, her short brown bangs bobbing in the overhead incandescent lighting. "Yes, Holly should be able to handle alcohol. Her liver functions are similar to ours. The big issue is any animal products; dairy, eggs, all that. She doesn't have the enzymes to break them down."

The colonel leaned back and looked around the interior of the cafeteria that they had appropriated as the site of their celebration. "Good. I'd hate to poison our guest right after she finally gets her freedom."

Ned felt Holly lean against him. "I don't want to complain, of course," she said, "but I guess it's only a relative freedom. I can't just walk out the door, right?"

Gossett shrugged with one shoulder. "Given your experience when you first arrived, would you want to take a chance just walking around outside? If it makes you feel better, I can tell you that it'll be temporary. My bosses are still trying to figure out how to make this whole mess public, but it will be made public sooner or later."

Holly fidgeted with her glass, then took another sip. "I guess it is good to be cautious. Still, I hope that I can either go home or at least be able to be outside. It's been too long since I had a good run."

Karen smiled. "That I can help with. We're getting a gym set up, which will have a few treadmills included. It's not as good as running outdoors, but you should be able to run to your heart's content. And I want to get plenty of data on you when you do so."

Holly perked up at that, and her ears brushed against Ned as they rose up. "Really? That's great!" She hugged Ned and rubbed her forehead into his side. "I can't thank you all enough!"

The colonel leaned forward and filled all their glasses again. "Wait until we know how to get back to your home timeline.

Then

you can thank us." His pocket chimed, and he sighed and pulled out his phone. "I'll be right back."

Gossett got up and went out the door, then returned in a little bit leading a tall and wiry man with olive complexion and a short black goatee. The newcomer was clad in plain army fatigues, and had his head shaved completely bald. He had a tan beret tucked under one arm.

The colonel indicated the bald man. "This is Lieutenant Keith Jenkins, of the 75th Ranger Regiment. Lt. Jenkins and his team will be in charge of security from here on." Ned had heard that the private security staff was being quietly replaced with enlisted military people. He couldn't figure out if it made him feel more secure or less; he was still trying to get a handle on the government's actual motivations regarding Holly. So far they'd been making all of the right noises, but he still reserved judgment.

Ned watched Keith closely to see the lieutenant's reaction upon seeing Holly. Everyone so far had either gotten very wide eyes or at least said words to the effect of 'holy shit.'

Keith, in contrast, didn't react at all. He nodded to Holly as if she was just another perfectly normal person he'd run into during a perfectly normal day. "Ma'am," he said. His face didn't twitch one iota.

Colonel Gossett nodded towards Holly, who sat pressed into Ned with her eyes staring at Keith. "Lieutenant, this is Ms. Holly Arnbock. As you may have guessed, she is not from these parts. Ms. Arnbock is a guest of our government, and as such we need to look after her. Starting right now, she is the most important person in your life. You are going to watch over this facility twenty-four seven. I don't expect trouble, but if anyone does come in here looking to do her harm I want them running into an entire world's worth of pain. Am I clear?"

"Yes, sir," said the lieutenant. His face still hadn't given one single flicker of expression.

­__________________________________________________________

"So this is what a portal to other dimensions looks like?" Arnold Hunter sounded less than impressed. He was walking around the big piece of equipment and poking curious fingers into various parts. He'd already been yelled at once before to stop messing with the machinery, but of course he hadn't listened.

John Dengar visibly gritted his teeth. Ned could sympathize with him; sometimes Arnold was a real pain in the ass. "It's not a portal," said the CEO of Dengar Research Labs. "It's a probe. It was intended to simply detect the existence of parallel worlds. And until last week we had no idea it was even close to working. We were still building up to a full-power shot." The CEO was a shorter, bulkier man with long black hair tied back in a ponytail. He shot a guilty glance at Holly, who was leaning against Ned's leg. "I guess in retrospect it's a good thing we didn't go for the full power test right away. Who knows what would have happened?"

Ned turned his attention back to the apparatus they were all regarding. It looked kind of like a hospital MRI unit blown up to larger proportions. But the central tunnel where a person would go was much smaller; in this unit, Ned wasn't sure if he could even get a finger through.

"During an actual test, of course, we have radiation shields around the center node," continued Dengar. "Arnold, please stop touching it!"

Arnold gave Dengar a big grin. "I've got to. We have to figure out why this is working so much better than you expected. It's not just about revising the theories and scribbling equations."

"I know," replied the CEO. "But this machine is still set up from the test we did when Ms. Arnbock was, um, brought here. We don't know what parts of its configuration are important to her transport. If we want to reverse the effect, then we need to keep it all just as it was and proceed very slowly."

Ned felt Holly stiffen a little at that, while Arnold sheepishly stepped back from the machine.

"You mean, if that thing is changed too much...then you might not be able to find my timeline again?" asked Holly.

Dengar held up a hand. "That's not the issue. Regarding the, well, let's call them the 'coordinates' of your timeline, we have records of the probe's settings. We can replicate that without a problem. But we can't just swap some wires and fire it up again to try to send you back. It might just pull somebody else through. And even if it does send you back, you might not appear at ground level this time. You might be sent into solid rock, or a few thousand feet in the air."

Holly shuddered. "Okay. Yes, I can see why you want to take some time to figure things out."

Arnold ambled back toward them. "So why is the US Army funding this? It seems like more fundamental research."

Dengar shrugged. "Some of my results indicated that it might be theoretically possible to physically travel between timelines. The Department of Defense was interested in getting a head start on figuring out if that was true or not. It could be a big problem for them if an enemy could 'pop into' another timeline and then 'pop back' into ours somewhere else. The initial tests I proposed were really inexpensive, especially compared to something like the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. So they went ahead and funded this pilot program. It was considered a little oddball. Honestly, I think they kept it secret out of fear of being embarrassed if it didn't work."

He looked over at the looming bulk of the probe and shook his head. "I was hoping to publish the initial results. Once we had the data, it would vindicate twenty years of my life. But for now we still have to keep this whole thing under wraps."

­__________________________________________________________

Keith headed for the cafeteria, intent on getting a meal after getting his team all squared away. They'd all been introduced to Holly, and they had all followed his lead and kept their cool. But in private they'd been a lot more demonstrative. Corporal Nowak, in particular, had kept cooing about how she wanted to give the 'big bunny' a hug. He smiled to himself as he wondered if that was all the lanky redhead wanted to do. Nowak was known to play for both teams, as it were.

Sergeant Forrester, on the other hand, had become even more taciturn. That meant that the big man was feeling very protective about Holly and taking the mission to protect her very seriously. Keith was well attuned to the attitudes of his NCO; half of being a good officer was knowing when to just get the hell out of his peoples' way and let them do their job.

Keith rounded the corner into the cafeteria, and was brought up a little short when he realized the room was occupied. Holly sat off at a corner table with Ned. The engineer had spread out some engineering schematics on his half of the table and was going through them with a look of concentration. He nodded at Keith and kept reading. Holly had a couple of bowls in front of her. One was filled with lettuce and the other was filled with...hay? Or at least it was some sort of long green grass. The rabbit-human was tucking into both bowls with gusto.

He nodded a greeting to them both and opened the freezer to look through his meal options. Fortunately they were in civilization, so he didn't have to resort to sorting through MREs and trying to avoid the dreaded Veggie Omelet, also known as the 'Vomelet'. It looked like all of the selection was vegetarian, though. He suspected that was out of deference to their 'guest', who was certainly not a meat-eater. Keith selected a pasta bowl and set it in the microwave to cook.

Keith heard Holly's voice behind him. "So you're a soldier?"

He turned to face her and nodded. "Yep. 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment."

She looked a little confused. "I guess those words mean something."

He laughed, and Ned looked up and also smiled. "It just has to do with how big groups of soldiers are structured," said Keith. "Sorry, I forgot some terms may not translate."

Now Holly looked more interested. "How many people are in your regiment?"

"Around fifteen hundred or so."

"Wow." Her eyes got big. "You have a big group."

He laughed again and sat down at the table with them. "That's not everyone. There's around half a million enlisted in the Army, plus about a million people in our other branches."

It looked like Holly was going to dive under the table. Her eyes were huge. "Other branches?"

Now Keith almost felt a little embarrassed. "Um, yeah. The Army is land-based, we have other groups that specialize in the sea and air."