With a loud “clank” the cell door slammed shut behind Justice. “Y’know, I always wondered; what’s with the bars? Here we are, surrounded by future science magic bullshit; why not some kinda hard light thing like what holds the air in the bays or … what protects us when somethin’ tries to hit the ship?” Justice turned to face the man who ordered him detained.

Captain Paul Renaud shook his head, entering a code into a touch interface on the cage door. “Energy efficiency, Justice. But don’t worry. I just activated your cell’s surface ionizer. Touch any part of the cage; get shocked and burned. How’s that for future science magic bullshit?”

“Pretty good.” Justice shook his head, looking over Renaud’s shoulder at the one he considered a son; Ensign Glen Gentle, or Gentle Glen, the bear who had gained sentience by violating timespace alongside Justice. “So what’s the deal, Renaud? Just … gettin’ back at me for your boy Docker?”

Renaud shook his head, barely holding back a smile. “No, Justice, I’m afraid that this is exactly what it looks like. You have been a wildcard, a loose cannon, from day one on my ship.”

“That’s because I wasn’t properly fucking trained!” Justice slapped a grip on two bars and was promptly shocked, yelping and dancing backwards. “You know I didn’t kill that boy! The guy what did it was right there next to me because we were fighting. No way Michaels didn’t get us both at the same time.”

“That’s just it, Justice. That was another you.” Renaud shrugged. “I let you go free, maybe you still go nuts and start killing crewmembers. We have a precedent now.”

“You son of a whore bitch. This is a damned setup.”

“Quite the contrary. Maybe you think you’re being set up but, the fact is, I think there is a chance you could go off and kill your own team. It’s just that I don’t feel bad about locking your crazy ass up.” Renaud looked back at Ensign Gentle, grim-faced and clearly sad, then to the other security officer, the one Justice threw against the wall. “I mean, you thought nothing of hurling Jeffries here across the room.”

In response Jeffries put a thumb on his destabilizer.

“Yeah, I wasn’t ready to go from soldier who gets probed to perpetual probing victim so maybe I wanted to escape. I know you know deep down I had no choice, Paul.”

“Don’t call me that, dammit. I’m your superior officer.” Renaud was instantly angered by that.

“You’re nothin’ to me now but my jailer! You do this and I’m a guinea pig for the rest of my days! How can you do that to a man who always followed orders!? The mistakes I made, you know it’s because I was rushed through the Academy! How could I have done different? I wasn’t given the tools, dammit!” Justice gripped the bars again, shaking with the effort, but not dissuaded from contact at all.

Renaud, surprisingly, showed real empathy in response. “I gotta think of my crew, Haymaker. I can’t have some … temperamental superman beating up every man with a … domestic situation.”

“Domestic… You mean Docker!? Unbelievable. Of course he wasn’t just talk.”

“That’s not your concern. Not any more. There will be no purity tests on this vessel. Enjoy your stay, Justice. And don’t make me turn up the voltage on your cage, man.”

Justice released the bars then, a powerful total recall from before. “Wait! Captain, uh, I have to ask you. Have you ever heard of any ‘outsiders’? The cyborg me, he said they’re comin’. Comin’ for every universe. I was so busy survivin’ I plum forgot!”

Without turning around Renaud called back. “No, no outsiders, Justice. Get some rest. We’ll be docking back with Earth in about thirty-five hours. For your trial…” With that, Renaud left the room, followed by Jeffries. Shaking his head Justice sat down on his cot.

Crestfallen, Glen came out of the background. “Juthtith. Are you okay?” He wiped at his right eye using one of his thumb gloves. Thumb gloves; gloves that give thumbs to bears that need thumbs. Also to aliens with complex nervous systems lacking sufficient manual dexterity.

Justice scoffed ruefully. “No, Glen, I reckon I’m not okay. How’re you holdin’ up?”

“Not great. You know … I thaid, did, what I did … it was jutht so you didn’t go on a rampage. How many people would you go thhrough to get away, right? And … you would. Because you can…”

“Don’t blame you boy. If you’d sided with me you’d be in here with me. Yeah, we both could’ve fought but there’s upwards of a thousand people on this tub. That and we had no plan. Shit… If I had more than half an idea how to run the chrono car that’s a way out.”

Eyes wet Glen frowned grimly. “Renaud was tho exthited when he found out you had thomething that did teleports. He’th gonna get promoted for ssure. You’re why. Thurprithed he’d … well, thell you out like thith.”

Glen’s lisp was adorable to Justice and he couldn’t help smile. “Son … shit, I should’ve started calling you that the second you started talkin’. I raised you up, you’re becomin’ a good man … bear. Manbear? Whatever. Just in case … I dunno, this is the end of the trail for me.” Justice sighed deeply. “I’m sorry. You couldn’t understand me when you were a simple bear but, now; I’m just so sorry I had to kill your mama and that I took you away from that simple life. This … all this, it’s so fucked up. You could’ve been happy, eatin’ berries … maybe a few hunters.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Glen chuckled. “No, I, I’m glad. That’th every bear. I get to be a thpethial bear. Becauthe of you. Thhank you … dad.” Glen put his paw on the bars, every bit of fur on him puffing out to make him into a huge brown cloud of stinky bear fluff.

Justice put a hand on Glen’s thumb glove, feeling the paw inside. “Listen, no matter what, you gotta look into this outsider nonsense. Okay? Get McKinley involved.”

“Why McKinley, dad?” asked Glen.

“She’s special, man. I got memories. Another place, another time, after the war … it would’ve been me and her, makin’ babies. Probably a big, ugly one like you. Maybe the same soul.” For a moment they stood there, hand-in-glove-in-hand, before Justice broke the silence again. “Okay, the shocky shit’s really startin’ to hurt now.” Justice withdrew his hand.

Glen pulled back too. “Yeah, thhat kinda thucked.”

“Right? I just felt so down. At first it was wakin’ me up.”

“Fur’th definitely thinged. Thmellth … bad…” Glen sniffed his shocked paw.

—

Glen had walked out at that moment, not wanting to wallow in sadness with his adoptive father any longer. At least he knew that they were okay. Now if only he’d clarified who McKinley was. Because he hadn’t he’d spent far too much time swiping through personnel records on a tablet. There were a dozen McKinleys on board, more than one percent of the crew, most were men (Spacefleet was a sausage fest in general, he mused) two were far too old and there was one who was almost assuredly the right person. Now if only Glen hadn’t gone on foot to confirm identity, to all the wrong ones first before finally finding Ms Renna McKinley in Sickbay.”

Even still he wasn’t that confident. He’d been a smart, sentient bear for less than two years after all. “Renna, right? You went with Thecurity Chieff Haymaker on the away misshion?”

McKinley started just a little. She’d been examining samples under an electron microscope or some such instrument with a screen and video game-like controls (Glen thought it looked like a terrible game though). “Uh, Haymaker? Justice? Yes. Sorry, I’m sure you know, but you have a bit of a lisp.”

“Yyyeah, bear muzzthle wathn’t made for talking.”

“You’re the bear man, huh? Gentle? In security? I … heard they arrested Justice. I couldn't get clearance to go to the brig, get his side of the story but … I can’t believe that Justice could be a murderer like that.”

Glen averted his eyes for a moment, holding back what he wanted to say. It was obvious though; he had the look of a scolded dog.

“What … what is it? You know something?” Clearly McKinley had a way of reading people or, rather, bears.

“Yeth. But … Juthtith is, well, my adoptive fathher, y’know? But I’m thupothed to be imparthial…”

“Father? Did you say father?” She stood up to face Glen. “You have to say yes or no, sir; the lisp.”

“Yeth. That’th right.”

‘What is it? Please … tell me.”

“It’th … jutht eathier to shhow you…” Producing the tablet he’d been using he opened up the casefile for Justice. This included Spaceman Michaels’ insignia footage. All it took was about two minutes of footage, showing the confrontation with Metal Justice, to make clear that the Justice in the brig was innocent.

“Oh … no, that poor man. I knew him a little; he was only nineteen. But wait, he blasted that cyborg Justice in the stomach. The wound was carbonized; epidermis, dermis, subdermal tissues and fat, all burned to a crisp. Our Justice had no wound like that.”

“He wath a ffuture Juthtithe, McKinley. One who lived thhrough thhe end of man on Eartthh. Ourth won’t ever go thhrough that. But Captain Renaud…”

“Right. The captain doesn’t like Justice. That’s not a secret. I didn’t think he’d railroad him through though.”

“Juthtithe told me to ffind you, McKinley. He needth you to look into the ‘outthiderth’, whatever thhosse are.”

“Wait, like … on your original earth, where that religious leader, Young, I think, was possessed? Was that an outsider?” Glen just shrugged. “It’s hard to know where to start. If they’re coming, future-tense, there may be nothing to look into. Unless…” McKinley fell into deep thought.

“Yeah? Yeth!?” Glen implored.

“I’m sure the Chrono Car is secured by this point, Glen, but if anyone has information on outsiders it’d be the late Doctor Phineas Black. He had books of notes in that car. If you can bring those to me, well, then there’d be a chance!”

—

It was tense going for Glen as he slipped into shuttle bay six. As expected there was more of a security detail than normal, four of his crew standing around, commisserating. “Hey Bob, John, Lenny, Guhgiggledezoink.”

The three humans and tentacle monster all waved at Glen, crying out a collective greeting. It was Bob, or at least one of the humans (they mostly looked alike to Glen) who thought to say anything else. “What brings you down this way?”

“Hm? Me? Eh, y’know, invethtigating thtuff. Need the fformer owner of thith thhing’th noteth. I gueth he had a bunch. Thtuff thhat exthplainth the tech. Gotta take ‘em to thhe offithe.”

“Oh yeah!” said one of the other humans, this one as brown as Glen (though still no fur. Weird) but still basically the same person as the other two. Of the bunch only the tentacle monster was at all distinct. At any rate the human slipped over to a nearby desk where papers were bound with clips, organized in manilla folders and placed into a box. “Here you go.”

“Oh wow! Thhat wath eathy!” blurted Glen, instantly nervous now that he stuck his foot in his mouth.

“Of course it was!” said the third human.

Finally Guhgiggledezoink said something. “You see, Glen, as you are the next highest rank now that Commander Haymaker is imprisoned it’s assumed that you would take up the investigation. Moreover these papers were set aside for you. We were starting to wonder where you were. I almost called you myself!” Yup, he was definitely distinct … and really gross as he sprayed fluid when speaking.

“Ah … thhankth!” Glen gave a crisp salute, grabbed the papers and got the hell out of dodge.

—

Glen walked quickly into the medical lab where McKinley was still working on the same task. “Oh! That was fast.”

Dropping the papers on the table next to her Glen blurted out “Here. Don’t athk what I had to do to get thethe.” Glen looked around shiftily, not wanting to let on that he, in fact, had dropped the ball not getting the papers earlier.

“Oh, of course not! Wow. So I guess it must’ve been pretty harrowing, huh?” she asked, earnestly, while pulling files out of the box.

“Yeth. Let’th go withh thhat…