FSE

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They had one rule: no disturbing the ecosystems of the planets or moons they visited. They were completely nonintrusive, disturbing as little as possible. Xeno-zoologists Doctor Kenny Lincoln and his assistant and very best friend Mink were very passionate about their work studying alien life in all its forms. The last thing they wanted to do was upset nature's delicate balance by landing on a delicate patch of grass that was the primary source of food for a naturally endangered species!

But taking live specimens from thriving populaces was not even the least bit detrimental to the ecosystem at large. Kenny had argued with Terence Howey, a doctor of temporal mechanics who had come to one of the Federation's largest conferences about the matter.

"Taking one member of a large pack consisting of dozens of individuals is not going to hurt the planet," Kenny said, running a hand over the spotted golden fur between his rounded ears. "Especially if it's a member of the middling class, neither alpha nor omega in the clan."

"But you don't know," Doctor Howey pled, adjusting his goggle-like glasses atop his nose, "if that member will one day challenge the alpha for control of the pack. Or through generations of breeding give rise to one who drastically alters the history of the planet! The raptor hen you had on stage, for example." The mole rested his elbow in the crook of his opposite arm and curled his fingers up under the grey fur of his chin.

"What about her?" Kenny asked, quirking a brow. He had hoped his assistant would rescue him sooner. He cast his golden eyes over the crowd, searching for the collie. Mink was nowhere in sight, though.

"Previous argument aside, let's say that, hypothetically, she dies in a swamp. Her body begins to decompose and that decomposition feeds small microbes in the water that had been about to die. Instead, the colony thrives and multiplies and over the course of evolution, mutates and matures into a sentient species that spreads over the surface of the world!" The mole's lids narrowed behind his thick glasses and he held up a finger. "But you took her off of the planet, didn't you? Now she will not die, her body will not nourish a dying colony of microbes, and that species will never exist!"

"Hypothetically," Kenny said.

"Hypothetically, you have committed a pre-emptive genocide of a species before they have ever come into existence!"

"Perhaps," Kenny said, spotting Mink's bouncing ears on the other side of a half-wall divider separating the main lobby from the food court. "I suppose we'll never know. Will you excuse me?" Without waiting for an answer or rebuttal, Kenny slipped away, eager to reunite with Mink and the drink the young collie had been sent to fetch.

But that had been months ago. Now, their ship hurtled through space at superluminal speed. Other than that conversation, the conference had been fun but it was time to get back to work and their new destination was a desert world just outside of Federation territory that had been marked with a hazard buoy due to the starship-sized worms that lived beneath the surface of the hot sand. He and Mink were going to take one of their shuttles and survey the sands from a safe distance up. But they were still several days out. Right now, Kenny was relaxing on the bridge after going over a report about the sand worms for the umpteenth time. Mink? Mink was tending to the animals, feeding them and making sure the self-cleaning cages weren't malfunctioning.

Humming to himself, Kenny reached up and flipped the security monitor onto his station. Ah, there was Mink. Tending to the raptor hen at that moment. Feeding her a bucket of meat.

* * * * *

"How's my beautiful girl today?" The collie called as he leaned against the bars of her large cage. His brown eyes twinkled as he swung the bucket in his right hand idly at his side. The raptor, Clarice as he had been calling her, stared at him patiently, her head swaying this way and that in time with the bucket's gentle swaying.

The raptor was surprisingly docile. She had been a little aggravated at first, but who wouldn't after being torn away from your home and pack makes like she had? But after he had given her food, she had calmed. He stayed with her for hours after that. Or maybe it was days? She never looked away from him. Having fed her, Mink knew he had earned her trust. And staying so nearby and not harming her, she had grown more used to him.

In her eyes, he was her alpha and Doctor Lincoln her beta. She challenged Kenny often, but never questioned Mink's orders. He knew he had her fully loyalty. So it was without any trepidations whatsoever that he reached up and keyed open the cage door.

She rushed forward and nosed at the bucket, but he held it behind him and called out to her "Ah-ah-ah! No! Not yet!" He held up a hand and pushed her nose away. "Back! Over there!" He pointed to the far corner and her eyes turned to look.

She turned her head to look and gave a questioning cackle before her slitted eyes turned back on him.

"No!" He said, waggling his finger at her. "Over there! You gotta work for your supper!"

She huffed and gave a loud -CAW!- before she strode heavily to the corner. She turned to face him and huffed again, her large curved claws tapping impatiently on the duranium deckplate.

"Don't you tap your foot at me!"