Raiyev Part 3
#3 of Raiyev
Raiyev was sipping his fifth cup of coffee, going over in his head everything he had just been told, when a bespectacled old badger opened the door.
"So THERE you two are!" he said, trying to make his feeble voice sound firm while he looked at the two over the gilded rims of his circular glasses.
"Ah, Dr. Hatchett. Sorry to cause you to look for us," Frost addressed the elderly badger. "I was just telling Raiyev here everything that we've found out so far."
"Ah, yes. I would have been here sooner myself, but I was in an...impromptu conference with Doctors McGrey, Rutherford, Paxton, AND Patterson. You should have been there. Did you not hear the telephone ringing 20 minutes ago?"
"No, sorry. Like I said, I was in here, having coffee and telling Kosekovic about the new data. We haven't even opened any of the lab doors yet."
"Well, the labs are open, and everyone from our department is here now and continuing their normal work, until you can tell us all what ought to be done. You really ought to get yourself a cell phone, you know, Dr. Frost. If need be, I'll get one for you." Raiyev thought that Hatchett's tone was a bit too haughty, considering that Frost was his boss as well. Sure, Dr. Edgar Hatchett may be one of the oldest non-executive employees at EarthTech Labs--a fur well into his 60s--but superiors are superiors, and Raiyev thought it was unbecoming for Hatchett to speak to Frost as if he were the authority figure.
"Yes, I'll look into it." Frost passed off the old fur's advice, regaining her air of authority. "So what news transpired in this 'impromptu conference'? Something big, I'd assume, considering that you were in the company of the heads of four other departments."
"Yes, well, Dr. Rutherford confirmed that the sizes of all animal life has remained unchanged in proportion to the change in size to the earth as a whole."
"So Dr. Patterson has confirmed that the earth truly is...shrinking?" Frost asked.
"With the help of Dr. Paxton, yes. And with no thanks to you, Raiyev." The badger looked down almost scathingly at the raccoon, who realized it must be related to the run-in he had with the new assistant earlier that morning.
"What does he mean, Raiyev?" Frost asked.
"Oh, nothing...it was just a small accident I had on the way over here earlier," Raiyev replied with a little laugh and a wave of his paw.
"Yes, a rather unfortunate accident that delayed the processing of certain information in the Astronomy department," Hatchett said moodily. "Anyway, Dr. McGrey has also confirmed that, like the animal life, all plant life has remained their correct sizes proportionate to the fluxuation of the size of the planet."
"So what did they all want with the Chemistry department?" Frost asked.
"Well, we're all supposed to be trying anything and everything we can think of that will stop this continuous shrinkage. If we can get everything to stop shrinking, perhaps we can find a way to put everything back to the right size. If not...well, I think you already know the ramifications of what would happen if we let this continue. Dr. Paxton said that the Moon is not changing its size, so we'll have a hell of a time battling extremely tide fluxuations, and we'll be sent out of orbit. In fact," the old badger sighed, looking down, "a shift in orbit has already begun. The government has been alerted, and if we cannot find a way to stop this, whatever is causing all this, it would mean the end of life on this planet. We could get drawn too close to the Sun, thrown too far, or even collide with another planet or satellite."
"Speaking of which, have our satellites circling the earth--I mean fur-made satellites--have they changed in size as well?" Frost asked.
"Yes, for whatever reason, they have changed as well and are, like everything else, properly proportioned."
"Okay, then. Raiyev, you already know what to do. Just get to work and tell those in your lab room what needs to be done. I'll inform the everyone else."
Raiyev looked rather panic-stricken. He still was having difficulty believing everything he was being told about the earth shrinking. "How much time do we have?" he asked Dr. Hatchett.
"At this rate," Hatchett answered, "we have approximately seven and a half years before our change in orbit becomes too critical to continue life on this planet."
"And there's absolutely nothing that anyone has seen yet to determine the cause of all this?" Raiyev asked.
"Nothing at all," the badger said. "Your guess is as good as mine this time. It could be anything from global warming to something caused by extraterrestrial beings." Raiyev raised an eyebrow at Hatchett, who added hastily, "But don't go spreading rumors or anything!"
Raiyev took his cue to leave and headed out down the hallway to his usual lab. He entered a room marked Lab 8 on his left, which inside looked typical of a modern chemist's laboratory. There were many blacktopped worktables stationed around the room, each with an assortment of glass and earthenware, microscopes, computers, and various other tools. Many furs were already at work, grouped at tables and concentrating hard. A small and rather squat red-breasted bird came up to Raiyev.
"Hey, Thomas," the raccoon greeted the bird.
"'Lo, Raiyev. What news?" the bird answered.
"We have...um...a situation..." Raiyev's voice seemed to falter as he tried to fathom how to explain to everyone that the entire planet and everything on it was shrinking. He took a deep breath and cleared his mind before continuing. "Everyone, I need your attention. Dr. Frost has asked me to inform you of a special assignment that calls for immediate focus."
"You mean why it seems that everyone who has ever been on a payroll here has been called here today?" a voluptuous bunny called from the back.
"Yes, Dr. Harper--for once, the entire facility seems to be focused on the same problem, and it's because, quite frankly, no one knows the cause of it quite yet."
"The cause of what?" Thomas asked loudly so that all could hear, even though most had already left their workstations, had made their way up to Raiyev, and were huddled around him
"Well...I don't know how many of you are going to believe this, but..." Raiyev hesitated for a moment before he continued; he even considered for a split second about giving up right then and there and running away. "...But the planet earth is shrinking." Everyone in the room (except Raiyev, of course) gasped loudly and immediately started chattering away at each other. Obviously, none of the other biochemists working at EarthTech had gotten any word of what the hubbub throughout the facility was all about. Some even began to laugh.
"How the hell can the earth be shrinking?" scoffed a sun bear from within the group.
"It's just not possible!" remarked a fox standing next to the sun bear.
"Please, please! Settle down everyone!" Raiyev cried out in attempts to get everyone to listen to the explanation. The small mob calmed itself quickly and allowed Raiyev to continue. He did his best to explain everything he had heard to the group, from the first signs of a dramatic reduction in the overall mass of the earth, up to the estimated seven and a half years left in the life of the earth if it continued to shrink at its current rate. When Raiyev told them how Frost had ordered everyone to begin at once to try and find anything that could counter the shrinking, everyone quietly complied. Raiyev took his place at one of the tables by Thomas and began to brainstorm with him.
The lunch hour seemed to come quickly, as Raiyev had already spent half the morning in the break room with his boss. Not unreasonably, no one had yet to come any closer to solving this new mystery than they had since they begun. Raiyev took his hour in the local cafeteria like everyone else, which was much fuller than usual that day. He met up with Brad and took a table by a window. The two had just begun to exchange stories of their morning's events when the room went entirely quiet and Brad seemed to stare right past Raiyev. Raiyev turned around, a puzzled look on his face, only to see the President of the United States step into view on the screen of the large plasma television in the cafeteria. The CNN headline at the bottom read "Emergency Broadcast from the White House," and the entire world seemed to stop to hear what the President had to say.