Drabble Wednesday: The Fate of Dr. Stein

And so ends the Time Sheep Saga….

The Beginning

The soft blue glow of the time stream broke through the dim fluorescent lighting and the quiet hum of machines as they arrived. Dr. Stein stumbled away from Debbie, falling to his knees, in shock and the pain of time integration.
“Where are we?”
He raised his head, searching his surroundings. A small space with three cylindrical chambers and a generator, with wires crawling across the walls. Lights blinked and beeps mixed with the persistent hum of the machines.
“I know this place. This is where…” Dr Stein shivered. “This was my prison. Where they left me to rot. Until…”

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Revelation

The air shimmered as they watched, the doctor and the sheep, and a rift opened. Out stepped…Dr. Cornelius Beckett, head of the Flying Monkey Time Institute and Dr. Spaulding, scientist with the Flying Monkey Genetic Laboratories.
“See,” Dr. Spaulding smiled. “I told you my device can perfect time travel.”
“Yes, well about that.” Dr. Beckett sighed. “I know the device is stolen. I’ve contacted security.”
“It doesn’t matter. I just needed you to play along so I could come here. I’m not interested in you, only Dr. Stein.”
Spaulding pressed a button, opening a new rift, and Dr. Beckett vanished.

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The End

Spaulding fiddled with Dr. Stein’s cryostasis chamber and Stein’s other self watched it open from the shadows. For one last time, the versions of the doctor merged, past and future searing into one entity. For a moment, Dr. Stein convulsed, his eyes wide open with shock, before a surge of energy snapped through the chamber and it snapped closed, sealing him back in cryostasis.
“What in the world?”
Dr. Spaulding jumped back as Debbie vanished in a flash of light, abruptly reappearing with both Dr. Beckett and Security Officer Pratt.
“You’re under arrest!”
Debbie smiled, vanishing into the time stream…

Now, in a reasonably stable future, a confused Jimmy woke up from a very disturbing dream…and swore he heard the distant squawk of a chicken.