Our Little Friend Vinny
Posted on October 28th, 2020 by Emilaina Acacia

After the party on Refuge, the Doctor boarded Atlantis with a strange, occasionally squirming animal wrapped up in a blanket. She made a beeline for the medical lab, set to engage in what the lab techs referred to as her ‘after-hours madness’. 

The great big medical analyzer in the middle of the room dwarfed the little creature the Doctor tried to convince to sit still on it, but the being now called ‘Vinny’ kept managing to hop off the pad before the Doctor could complete a scan. Eventually she gave up and re-wrapped him in his comfort blanket, trapping him on the scanner pad, though nothing could keep his rat-like head still as he examined his surroundings frantically. 

“You’re alright, Vinny,” the Doctor cooed to the chicken-like thing as the scanner whirred to life. He squawked in protest, but couldn’t put up much of a fight against a coiled blanket. The scanner’s display screen spit out a rapid feed of text that the Doctor stared deeply into, thinking.

—-

“So he’s a…” Averianna leaned in close to the viewscreen, peering at her younger sister’s new pet. Emily had wrapped Vinny in his blanket to keep him in her lap, his head twisting every which way to peer at his surroundings. Three days had passed since his arrival, and he was visibly healthier despite his relative baldness.

“Half Tresselian field rat, half Tresselian bog chicken,” Emily replied with pride. The creature had begun to grow a fine white fur, and a few scattered small brown feathers were sprouting over his head and forelegs. 

“Bog chicken?” Averi snorted, and Vinny honked. Emily pulled up the picture of Vinny when she’d first brought him aboard and flicked it onto Averi’s screen. The older sister peered at the picture sideways, then gazed into the eyes of the unholy creature for a long moment. Vinny honked again.

“So it turned out his diet was too low in sulfur,” Emily laughed, and Averi was mildly horrified. Emily was coaxing the creature to eat a bowl of orange pellets, which he eagerly pecked up out of the dish. A long moment passed, and Averi began laughing.

“You’re somethin’ else, you know that?” the older sister mused. A thought occurred to her as she was catching her breath, “Which was.. mom? Did he hatch?”

“Bog chickens give live birth. And yes, it was the chicken,” Emily chuckled.

“You can tell?”

“Of course I can tell,” Emily shrugged, and Avery laughed again.

“Well, he really hit the jackpot running into you, huh?”

“Oh, I bet he’ll be delicious,” Emily joked in reply, carefully unwrapping Vinny’s blanket and turning him loose to run around the room. She returned his empty food dish to the replicator, then sat back down to finish her chat with her sister.