We gratefully acknowledge the original 'Disapproving Rabbits' website, that inspired this site, and its creators, Sharon, Bill, Cinnamon, and Dougal. Without you, we would not be here. We Approve Of You!



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Sunday, April 30, 2017

Espresso and Latte Update



Greetings, Everybunny!

We..., we did away with two snakes this week. Yeah, we did. Hoomin knows this one is completely on him. You, he needed a refresher and now feels completely refreshed.

We keep hearing something about Charlie or somebun coming home tonight. Hoomins put up one of our old pens and fitted it with the usual amenities.

We'll keep you posted, Espresso.

Saturday, April 29, 2017

X-Plus Bun - Retrofire, Pt. 19

I had to admit I was surprised that gaining administrative access to the entire station came so easy. For a second I wondered if this was a trap, an old-fashioned honeypot to lure and catch a juvenile script-bunny. I thought about it for a moment and started to giggle. They already had me in a pot, or a pod, or a can. You can pick.
Mr. Toes and the tech Hopper
After looking through the communication logs of the station, I discovered that they had stopped transmitting anything related to our stay here. I perused the lab reports as well. Physiologically speaking, all of the test results for Hopper, Mel, and I were nominal.
Then an interesting line showed up on my monitor. "Toes, is that you? Hopper here." After a short deliberation, I responded, "No, this is Santa. Have you been a good bunstronaut?"
"No, Santa, I must have done something awful. They have locked me up in a can in a hospital. How are you, Santa?" came the reply.
"About the same," I replied.
I heard the swish of the doors opening in my pod, and I killed the screen.
The technician came through the doors, pushing a cart with food. This time it was a sassy little lionhead—kind, and friendly, and a firestorm when she sensed anything funny going on. We chatted, and I asked her about Hopper and Mel. She told me nothing. She took my vitals; always the vitals. Sometimes I wonder if the vitals are just an excuse for physical contact with us. She asked me what was on my mind. I handed her what was in my litter bin; bagged, of course. That was the end of our interaction for the day. Somebun would stop by later with dinner, just before bedtime.
Mel
I nomed the twigs and pondered. Was it Hopper? Or was it some autonomous part of the security system, a feature, playing a simulation game with me, toying with me and stringing me along? I tried to recall anything about Hopper, or Mel, that would pre-date our encounter with the Behemoth. I searched for something that would have had no chance to turn up during the debriefings we had all undergone. I came up with nothing that would be unique and known only to a couple of good, old friends. Everything that crossed my mind, one could discover with the help of a bit of old-fashioned sleuthing. All the details I recalled from the few days when we had looked for a way to return to our present time-space location were probably on the record by now.
Suddenly I felt like I didn't know Mel and Hopper. A sense of shame, isolation, and loneliness grew over me. I moped over that for a while and then got an idea. I wanted to test what could be done using the pod's entertainment system as an access point to the station at large.
I waited till the evening and, after dinner, set out on a little adventure. I decided to access the emergency power plant by tripping a digital circuit breaker on the electrical substation of the outer ring of the hospital where our holding pods were located. The interruption lasted a second, and the system recovered, but in the meantime, the pods went into an emergency mode. The access tunnels turned dark and were illuminated by dim, red lights. Alarms buzzed, and evacuation signs flashed. And the doors of the pods unlocked.
Hopper
I made quick work of prying the doors open. I turned to my right and darted into the tunnel. If it were Hopper that I chatted with this morning, he would be in the pod next to mine. I almost overshot the door and, without thinking, grabbed one of the parted doors to stop myself.
In the gap between the doors was the smiling mug of Hopper.
"Was it really you this morning?" I asked out of breath.
"Yes, Major!" replied Hopper.
I grinned and grabbed him by the chubby cheek on his startled face. I darted away toward the next pod. Again, the pod next to Hopper's was empty, as I had expected, and the next one over should have Mel in it. Sure enough, Mel was halfway out already. I stopped and gave him a bear-bun hug.
"Major, did you know you can—" "Use the pod's entertainment system as a control terminal?" I finished Mel's question, and answered, "Yes, I expect to see you on it tomorrow!"
Mr. Toes
I turned around and headed back to my pod before the orderlies arrived. As soon as I got in, I could hear the heavy, thumpy hops of the medics in the tunnel. I put on a panicked face and greeted them at the doors. The guys looked frazzled, and I almost felt sorry for them. Soon, the lights returned to normal. The two techs sniffed and hopped about my pod for a while and finally left, looking as confused as when they had arrived.
I had such a great feeling of relief knowing that Hopper and Mel were still okay. Then I had to pause. All three of us had discovered the same thing about the pods at about the same time!
It was time to start a real commotion here. Was there any sense in waiting any longer? And what was I waiting for? During my snooping about the station system, I realized this place was maintaining a strict radio silence as if it were pretending not to exist. The station was mostly deserted as well. There were no other "patients" here that I could find. This place was a little "space-gulag." No, there was no point putting off my plan for a little "space-riot." The sooner I got on with that the better. I was certain the hospital would start undergoing a safety audit after this morning's incident with the generator. They were bound to discover what Hopper, Mel and I could do from the pods.

Friday, April 28, 2017

Duke


Keep still, hoomin. You can haz an extra carrotini after the vet works you over.


- Thank you, Lewis!

PS: Lewis says, "The 25th marked the first anniversary of Duke's passing. He was at the vet in this picture, perhaps its why he looks so downright disapproving."

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Acorn


Well, do they learn? Do they? So, tell them again!

- Thank you, Rick!

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Charlie - Update




We got to meet Charlie this weekend. Her disposition is truly sweet. We sat and snorgled for quite some time and she tolerated the strange hoomin extremely well. She even licked my paw!

She's scheduled for a visit with the V. E. T.  to get spayed.

Then, she's coming over to stay with us until we find her a forever home.

We'll keep you posted.

- Ijon

Monday, April 24, 2017

Fiasco


Sure, it's Tuesday somewhere. Well, whoop de doo, good for them!

- Thank you, Kayla!

Sunday, April 23, 2017

Espresso and Latte Update



Greetings, Everybunny!

Here we are, all worn out from doing binkies all morning. Our hoomin said he just doesn't have the kind of sensitive equipment required to capture us in the state of being the binky particles. When we binky we are at the same time "here" and "there." Are we then a binky or a bun? Well, it gives our hoomin something to wonder about.

Behind us you see the blue painted wall with the floorboard removed. Hoomins are working on a home project. They have learned the hard way that water seeps into the house when it rains. We hear there's a whole big dig going on outside around the house.

When it's all done, we'll have proper carpet in our room. We'll make it the "Big Binky Collider!"

- Espresso

Saturday, April 22, 2017

X-Plus Bun - Retrofire, Pt. 18

Penny floated toward the mess hall and found it empty except for an old lop, reading something and sipping a beverage. After a moment, Penny noticed that this guy had been around the meadow a few times. He wore thick rimmed spectacles, and his patchy coat had seen shinier stars. She finally recognized the stranger as Dr. Hopnom, the legendary quantum biologist. Penny's paws began to tremble. She was glad she couldn't binky right now. Otherwise, she would hit it so hard she would splatter against the wall. But she held it together. Penny took her time retrieving a sippy bag of something from the dispenser. She just wanted to cool off before approaching the professor. Penny gave up finally and floated toward the distinguished elder bun.
Dr. Hopnom
"Dr. Hopnom? My name is Penny; it's such an honor to meet you!" Penny barely managed to articulate her introduction as she extended her left paw. The professor flinched, for a split second, as if something terrible had just happened; his nose twitched in horror, almost imperceptibly. He regained his composure so fast though that Penny almost didn't notice the shift back and forth. She was too excited to dwell on it; all her senses told her that she was in the presence of a living legend.
The elder bun slowly extended his paw and said in a frail voice, "Glad to meet you Penny, but I'm afraid you have mistaken me for somebun else. I'm just one of the electricians here, my friends here call me ... Volty. If you would excuse me, I really should be on the flight deck."
He pushed off a little too hard and missed the paw rail trying to get into the tunnel leading to the flight deck. Panicking, he inadvertently tried to scramble before grabbing another handle; then he was finally gone.
Molly
Penny was stunned. She kept going over his words repeatedly; she understood them, but the situation made no sense. That bun had to be Dr. Hopnom. She would bet Freddie's whiskers on it! She remembered his voice and the scrappy patches of fur on the top of his head. She was surprised to see him here because he never had much interest in space travel and he sure didn't move about like a proper crew member of a space-faring craft. "Electrician my foot!" thought Penny. She furrowed her brows and narrowed her eyes. She stayed that way a bit too long, and now her mouf hurt. Penny took a long, slow sip of her beverage and licked her lips.
She glanced at the countdown clock. She had plenty of time to do whatever she pleased. After a short discussion with herself, visiting the payload bay sounded like a decent idea. She went to look for it, and after getting lost a few times in the main tunnel, Penny found the bay.
The bay was quiet and appeared to be empty. There was only one bun, probably a loadmaster, securing one of half a dozen small containers to the walls. Penny floated through the eerily cavernous room without getting noticed. Once she got past the rectangular containers, she noticed something odd. Three large, orange bio-hazard cryo-capsules sat fastened to a cargo pallet. She got sick to her gizzard. Now she floated along the wall toward the large capsules for a closer look. She tried to conceal her breathing, afraid of being found out. She pulled herself around the pills, trying to see their make and model. And she got a little sicker. These were the old kind, known for malfunctioning in a rather grim way. She thought they had been pulled from the market ages ago because sometimes the capsules would disintegrate whatever they were supposed to preserve and protect.
Pancake
Countdown alarm jarred Penny back to the immediate reality. She felt hot under her blue flight combinaison; her ears felt like they were on fire. For a second she thought that she'd get locked here, but then she heard the noises made by somebun still working to secure cargo. As quickly and as quietly as she could, Penny worked her way back to her cabin.
Freddie was up from his nap and not looking any more hopeful.
"Freddie, on that manifest, do you remember seeing Dr. Hopnom? I could swear I ran into him in the mess hall, but he insisted he's just an electrician here. He couldn't even get around that well. He looked more like somebun on his first space flight than a proper bunstronaut!"
Freddie's face lit up. He gazed at the ceiling for a moment, trying to recall whom he had seen on the manifest, and finally said, "No, I don't think so, I would have remembered somebun like him."
"Right," said Penny, "and guess what? They have three cryo-pods in the cargo bay, the old kind. Remember how from time to time they would melt whatever they had in them?"
Now Freddie was fully awake. Another countdown alarm blared, and Freddie and Penny scrambled to buckle down for the imminent undocking from the hub.
Mr. Toes
***
I was getting really bored in my isolation pod. The debriefings subsided, and the tests ended. It was a good break. I still had no idea how Hopper and Mel were doing; the staff refused to answer any of my questions.
Mr. Toes Mr. Toes
I'm not sure how I got the idea to mess with the pod's control system; I just didn't have anything else to do. I got curious. The entertainment system in the pods can act as an access terminal for different maintenance functions to troubleshoot a lot of the system's anomalies. So I sat there and played with it to see if I could get outside the pod system to glean something about the broader, station system. After a couple of days of snooping around, to my amazement, I discovered that I could gain access to the pod as an administrator! Part of me wanted to say, "Hey, guys, you should really change those default security settings on these pods!" But I didn't. Instead, I did the proper security audit and made myself an admin, with biometric authentication and all! Now I could do whatever I wanted with the pod. As a matter of fact, I had the means to access all the systems in the rest of the station!
I found the locations of Hopper and Mel. As far as I could tell, they were doing okay, or at least as good as could be expected under these circumstances.

Friday, April 21, 2017

Arya


Deal with it, John! You have a sister and I have a list and my needle. For anyone on it, there's only one way to get off.

- Thank you, Elizabeth!

Thursday, April 20, 2017

John Snow


Sister? What sister? I don't need a stinkin' sister. Winter came and I'm holding my own on the wall. Pffft, I shall overbun!

- Thank you, Elizabeth!

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Charlie - Looking for a forever home



I'm looking for a forever home and a permanent assignment as disapprover.

I'm a female, under a year old. I still need to be spayed. I have a very sweet temperament, respond to my name and I'm good with cats and dogs. I'm still learning to use the litter bin. I live in the Tampa Bay area, Florida.


- Disapproving Bun

PS: Please contact us via disapprovingbun@gmail.com or via the messenger on FB for further details.



Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Tibbles


OK, give me a minute, I'm thinking. There's got to be something missing; not enough of this or too much of the other. Do you know what I mean?


- Thank you, Dorothy!

PS: Dorothy says, "Tibbles is our newest family member. He raised his little hooman well.  Then he took early retirement and came to live with us."

We're so glad he now has a great forever home! :-)

Monday, April 17, 2017

Espresso and Latte Update




Greetings, Everybun!

M*nd*y shm*nd*y it is then. We have to re-train our hoomins. They have rearranged one of OUR corners and thought they could get away with it. Well, they'll have to get used to an extra clean up duty until they learn not to mess with OUR corners. There's just no other way. Latte wanted to take it easy on them, but I sayz, "No! You can't let them get away that; it wouldn't be right! Look, I love 'em as much as you do and it's gonna hurt me more than it's gonna hurt them, but we have to do it!" So we did what had to be done.

And thank you, Everybun, for all the disapproval that you sent us lately. We most appreciate it. The site could not go on with you!

- Espresso

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Hoppy Easter from Doolin



Distribute Easter Eggs?   I’ll get back to ya.

- Thank you, Ken and Kaci!

PS: Espresso and Latte would like to wish Everybun a Hoppy Easter and said they'll come back tomorrow with an update. They're busy training their hoomins. Because they're special, the hoomins are, they need a lot of remedial training, all the time ;-)

Saturday, April 15, 2017

X-Plus Bun - Retrofire, Pt. 17

After dinner, when Penny and Freddie had left for St. Cinnamon's, Abby invited everybun for carrotinis on the greenhouse deck. The Buzzard would have to stay docked at the maintenance hub for quiet a bit longer. The technicians found nothing wrong with the airlocks: the airlocks didn't leak. But they did find all sorts of other issues that the head of maintenance would not defer anymore, and he refused to sign off the maintenance logs. As of six o'clock in the evening, local time, the Buzzard was declared not space-worthy. Thus, its crew had the perfect excuse for an impromptu vacation.
Abby, suspicious Penny Ava
Abby truly couldn't care less about the maintenance and turned the ship over to Pancake and Molly. They, of course, went on to negotiate the minimum number of items that had to be inspected, replaced, tested and poked with a screwdriver before the grumpy lop of a maintenance chief would relent and release the Buzzard back to service. But even then, the repairs would take a while.
This could not have happened at a better time. Abby needed a break. The problem was not with what she was doing, but with what she was not doing. She was as absent as the captain of the ship. So far, everybun around her stepped up, and life went on, but that's only because her crew worked so well together. Under normal circumstances, they should have declared Abby incapacitated and unable to carry out her duties, but that would involve paperwork, and no bun likes paperwork, nor paper, unless it can be nommed, of course.
They were all going out on a limb for her, hoping that she would come back any minute now with a good grip on things. . . any minute now. The alternatives were simply beyond contemplation for everybun.
While Molly and Pancake tried to haggle with, and smooth-talk, the maintenance chief, Joey, Penny, and Abby arrived at the greenhouse deck, which also served as the observation deck of the hub. They got their sippy bags with carrotinis and went to look for a secluded spot where they could be by themselves and away from news and the prying eyes of onlookers. Word started to get around that "they knew Mr. Toes." The crew found a spot around a clump of overgrown birds of paradise. Some of them were blooming. There were also a lot of giant ferns and other faux-prehistoric flora specimens recreated in the labs. The air was warm and a little bit humid in this part of the greenhouse. Joey brought snacks of fruit and alfalfa. They settled into stillness and watched the traffic coming and going from the hub against the bright, starry night. The streaking ships looked like summer light bugs flying off into oblivion and disappearing from sight once their engines cut out.
Ava Penny
Finally, still gazing at the stars and mellowing out a bit, Abby broke the silence. "Ava, how did Penny and Freddie end up getting on the flight to St. Cinnamon's?"
Ava tried to clear her throat and started, impishly, "Well, somebun left a communications terminal unattended, and Freddie couldn't help himself. No bun thought much about a senior engineer working on the terminal because they were busy getting that resupply ship ready for the rest of its trip to St. Cinnamon. Freddie saw that he could authorize himself as a commander into that ship's system, and so he did. Next thing you knew, the bio-hazard guys had an amendment to their manifest, and they needed someone like Freddie. He, of course, thought it would be perfect for Penny to go along and get some creative life experience." Ava grinned, but Abby only nodded and said nothing.
On the resupply ship, Freddie and Penny kept a low profile once they boarded the resupply ship. Its skipper was rather suspicious of the sudden change in the manifest. Such changes happened on occasion, but in this case, the very thing that made him suspicious prevented him from pursuing this matter any further. Anything and anybun connected with the activities regarding the St. Cinnamon's base were under the control of the Directorate of Emergency Operations. That made lives tedious and arduous for ship captains and anybun supporting them, such as crew members, maintenance personnel, loadmasters and such. All hazmat buns had their paws full with "paperwork" and preparations. No bun had had to handle any real paper in eons, but in times like these, their paws remained full none the less.
So the captain twitched his nose as if he smelled something but ultimately had to turn his attention to getting his craft ready for departure.
Pancake Ava
Freddie knew that he had dodged a bullet and was grateful for the first chance he got to get out of every bun's sight. He and Penny took their bags and retreated to their cabins. As they settled in and the minutes and seconds counted down toward the ship's undocking, Freddie began to fathom the depths of the trouble he and Penny were in.
He knew it was only a matter of time before the captain and the personnel at St. Cinnamon's realized that Freddie had cracked the manifest and that there was no emergency at the hospital involving the air purification system. The only question that remained was how Freddie would pay for bending reality to his will. The thought of it wore him out, so Freddie unstowed a blanket, wrapped himself in it, and resolved to take a good, long nap. One thing Freddie was not going to do was go back on his plan. He is going to St. Cinnamon's, and he may as well sleep on it and see what pops out on the other side of that nap.
Mr. Toes
Unfortunately, the tentacles of the dark cloud that strangled Freddie's jolly disposition started to reach out for Penny. Before they had a chance to tickle her, Penny decided to take off for the mess hall. Out of politeness, she asked Freddie if she could bring him anything, but he was already snoring. Relieved, Penny made a B-line from their quarters. Maybe she could learn something useful about the latest developments at St. Cinnamon, or even about the mystery ship that had started this entire chain of events.

Friday, April 14, 2017

Rubi


Believe me, it's no game. Not on a Friday, anyway!

- Thank you, Isandra!

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Mikey


Pfffft..., It's not Friday, is it?

- Thank you, Gabrielle! 

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Oliver


Oh, you know I'm bustin' out! You know I'll be out! Where's my lawyer? ... and a carrotini, where's my carrotini?


- Thank you, Molly!


PS: According to Molly, Oliver went behind bars for sneaking under the bed again. He was not thrilled.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Adare


Oh, come on, I don't feel like disapproving today!

- Thank you, Ken and Kaci!

Monday, April 10, 2017

Boswell



Nope, no sir, I'm not moving. Do you know what's on the other side of this door? It starts with the letter "M"!
 
 - Thank you, Dorothy!

 
PS: Dorothy says, "Boswell was a master of feng shui.  Notice the "ruffled" woodwork and the well placed bundrop."

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Espresso and Latte Update


The morning treats were good, and headrubs were plentiful. Hoomins got up and were happy it's Bunday. They started to  on about how Every Day Is Like Bunday. Well, one of them thought about it for a minuted and discovered that Bunday and Sunday have nothing in common and a Bunday comes out on top when compared to "Every Day Is Like Sunday."

We binkied, we climbed up on the hoomins for more treats and eventually retreated to our favorite corners.

Later on, we shall be levitating from the floor onto the couch for salaaaads and more treat.

We'll keep you posted.

- Espresso and Latte

Saturday, April 8, 2017

X-Plus Bun - Retrofire, Pt. 16

As the gravity continued to intensify toward the 1.0 mark, I enjoyed the weight of the blanket that covered me all the way up to my nose. I had to turn on the curtain in the huge, panoramic window in my pod. I was getting sick. The section of the hospital base that has artificial gravity imitates it the old-fashioned way, by spinning like a weaver's wheel. Because the pods are located on the outer rim of that wheel, the centrifugal force acting on the pods and their contents tries to throw everything out into space. Thus, whatever is in the pod gets pinned to the wall furthest away from the center of the wheel and perpendicular to the centrifugal force.
Pancake
I had a look at the planet below, whizzing by, and that was it. I elected not to project any static images on the vast, empty white plane of the window. I thought that maybe I'd work on it the next day.
All I wanted to do was forget about that day, the next day, and the day after that. Again, I fell asleep while contemplating the possible consequences of any errors in our calculations for the automated broadcast of the SOS message from our old training craft. We had hoped it would broadcast two weeks after our return. What if it already tried to broadcast, a hundred years ago? Or, what if it still had fifty years to go before it would start?
I had no idea how Hopper and Mel were doing. I could only imagine that they were going through a torment similar to mine. Tests and debriefings followed by more of the same tests and more of the same debriefings. I was still raw from the welcome-back we had gotten. During the interrogations, I refused to distract myself with any alternative reality that was made available me. Every technician and Intelligence Apparatus Officer insisted on conducting the interviews at some fancy meadow by the woods or in some tropical carrot garden, but I insisted on the here and now. I think they hated this place just as much as any sane bun would. I wondered if they wanted to change the scenery for their amusement rather than to make it easier to get something out of me that the bun before them couldn't.
Thinking about Mel and Hopper, I would gently tap and knock on the wall of my pod, hoping to hear a response, but the walls remained silent; no bun tapped back.
Abby Molly
* * *
The Buzzard docked with the repair hub, and the crew disembarked. Repair technicians swarmed the aging craft and looked for non-existent airlock leaks. They probably wondered why such an old tub was still in service.
Pancake headed for the cafeteria, and every bunny followed her, even Freddie. The grub wasn't home food by any means, but it wasn't the worst, either. They found a nom dispenser that could accommodate eight, and they steadied themselves around it using paw rails and foot restraints. The dispenser was a clean and simple-looking contraption. A short, wide cylinder had paw rails and foot restraints attached to it, and the whole unit was mounted to the "floor." It hid the complex mechanics of fetching and serving food orders well.
The crew put in their order and waited while enjoying sippy bags of nutriberry shakes. Except for Freddie; Freddie didn't like nutriberries. He was partial to fermented nanner and berry elixir, and it served him well. Every bun, except for Freddie, opted for the Wild Patch of Greens. It was a big, round patch of hydroponically raised astro-sod, overgrown with thick, fresh, juicy grass. There were tiny wild strawberries, clover, and arugula.Wildflowers grew toward the center, and a few sprigs of alfalfa and dandelions rounded off the platter. In the very middle grew the centerpiece made up of several tall stacks of purple cabbageberry. The stocks had purple cabbage-like leaves, and at the tops of the stocks resided fat, juicy cabbageberries. A creature of this sort could only grow on orbit because the thin stocks would topple over and collapse under the weight of the berries.
When the fair arrived, the cylinder opened up, and the platters of food came out. They were supported on long, spindly arms and rested right in front of each bun.
Ava and Penny Pancake
Freddie, ah, poor Freddie, ordered rubber chicken kebabs with grilled carrots and apricots. The chicken looked like a chicken and smelled and tasted like a chicken but was never a part of any real chicken. This "chicken" grew around a skewer in a nearby food lab.
They dug in, and all you could hear was the sound of smacking lips. A very gentle, vertical breeze moved the air around everybun and carried away any crumbs, uneaten morsels, and drops of liquid into a big, funnel-like air filter above them.
A small crew in all white and orange fatigues settled down around the next nom dispenser and started on their own heap of greens while avoiding eye contact with anybun. Freddie perked up immediately. You don't see that many bio-hazard crews around, especially the kind that try not to draw any attention to themselves.
Penny and Ava noticed them as well, and they both looked at Freddie. All three paused for a moment. Then Ava got up, wiped her mouf and asked, "Which way are the litter bins?" "Down the tunnel and to your left," pointed Freddie. Penny got up and followed Ava. They floated away and went right past the sign pointing to the litter bins. Instead, they drifted toward the tunnel leading to the Command and Communications module of the hub. Abby paid no attention to them.
Joey Penny
Freddie got up, checked his watch and decided he had to get ready to catch his ride. He winked at Pancake, but she kept her poker mouf. The bio-hazard crew was deep in reading something and paid no attention to anybun. Freddie pushed off and slowly floated away. Penny and Ava were still gone. A few silent moments went by.
A commotion broke out among the bio-hazard crew. They started to argue and gesticulate wildly before they realized everybun in the cafeteria was staring at them. They received unexpected instructions to pick up additional crew members. They had to pick up a senior engineer who was familiar with air purification systems in bio-containment facilities. Eventually, they calmed down and pretended to carry on as usual, but it was too late. Everybun noticed the uproar. Finally, they got up and floated off toward the docking modules. Lo and behold, right before the bio-hazard bunch disappeared into the tunnel, Freddie, Penny, and Ava approached them. After some short introductions and a brief chat, too distant to be heard by Pancake and the others, Penny, Ava, and Freddie came back to the nom dispenser in a hurry.
"Sorry guys, we have a slight change in plans. We're going to St. Cinnamon's with that bio-hazard lot!" Freddie grinned. He was the one who the bio-hazard crew was looking for. As Freddie's "assistant," Penny had to travel, too.
"We've got to get our stuff; we're undocking in a couple of hours!" chippered Penny.
Abby was stunned. Her heart was attempting a world speed record. Her biometric sensors lit up so red, they almost melted.
Mr. Toes
"Of course, I see; it's amazing how fast the flight manifests can change these days," acknowledged Abby, trying to sound nonchalant. Ava gave her a frightened look. What she really wanted to say to Abby was, "If you only knew HOW they can change!" Instead, she kept washing her mouf compulsively.
Freddie's original idea to bring into the open everything related to the possible existence of survivors from the missing TR Regis 3 craft involved a ride to the surface and an unannounced visit to the Director of Emergency Operations. Freddie wasn't sure how he would present his case regarding the fate of the three alleged survivors. He contemplated pleading, blackmail, and threats of an unspecified violent nature toward the Director. But now, Freddie had a chance to see for himself what was happening in that hospital on high orbit. He knew he would still have to visit the Director, sooner rather than later.
Freddie, Penny, and Ava hugged everybun and promised to be back soon.
"Good luck troubleshooting that air purifier!" grinned Pancake as she waved at them.
"You know, Pancake, I think we need a vacation. This is as good a place as any for doing nothing," said Abby. After a long, quiet moment she wondered, "Pancake, do you really think they'll find something?"
"As long as there's something to be found, they will dig it up, I'm sure." responded Pancake with strained certainty.