Baltimore, Maryland
September 27, 2022

"You did all that anyone could do," the senior zookeeper at the Maryland Zoo said as she approached her associate, who had been standing outside the penguin habitat for quite some time. "You can't blame yourself, Roland."

"In my sixteen years of practicing veterinary medicine, the only penguins I've ever lost died of old age," Roland said. "I never thought I'd lose one because of sudden cardiac arrest, Connie. If only I'd gotten here a minute sooner I might have been able to save her."

"You know better than any of us that a minute or two wouldn't have mattered. She was gone well before she was found. Even God Himself with a defibrillator couldn't have restarted her heart."

The vet sighed. "You're probably right. But that still doesn't make it easy to accept. She will be sorely missed."

Suddenly, the penguins inside the habitat all waddled over to the gate opposite to where Roland and Connie were standing. Intern Katelyn had just entered with two buckets of delicious breakfast fish. "Good morning, guys," she said.

"Morning," Roland and Connie replied together.

"I was talking to the penguins, actually, but good morning to you two as well," Katelyn called over to them.

"You'll have a few fish left over this morning, Katelyn," Roland said. "One of the females died. The one with the green and yellow band around her flipper."

"Aw, that's so sad," Katelyn said as she continued to feed the flock.

Ten minutes later, as Katelyn turned around to exit after completing her feeding duty, something caught her attention. "No way!" She dropped the mostly empty buckets. "Connie, Roland, come take a look at this!"

The zookeeper and the veterinarian went around to the outside of the gate. Katelyn then carefully placed an object in Roland's right hand.

"Oh my, it's an egg," he said as he placed his left hand over it gently.

"I found it in the nest here to my left," Katelyn said as she pointed to it. "Isn't this where the female with the green and yellow band slept?"

"It sure is," Connie replied. "My, isn't this like the rainbow after the storm? She died but left a little surprise in the wake of her passing."

"What do we do with it?" Katelyn asked.

"Well, assuming the egg is fertile, I think the best chance the potential chick has would be with its father," Roland replied. "Of course, given the circumstances, that's easier said than done."

"Why's that?" Katelyn asked.

"The penguin that laid the egg was part of a special study," Connie said. "She didn't have a mate per se, at least not one she ever knew of. The intimate requirements for a chick were carried out artificially—in other words, daddy wasn't around at the time. The potential chick's father lives in the Central Park Zoo in New York."

"And I'm the one who went up to New York a few months ago to put everything in motion," Roland said. "A young lady working on her residency assisted me at the time of the male penguin's regular checkup. The whole procedure was executed with relative ease." Roland looked the egg over for a moment and then handed it back to Katelyn. "Here, put this back in the nest where you found it; it's probably the safest place for it at the moment. At least until I know whether the Central Park Zoo will allow the father to look after it."

"You think they'll let him?" Connie asked.

"I'm hopeful," Roland replied. "And if you ladies would excuse me, I think I'm going to go make that all-important phone call right now. Wish me luck." And with that, he turned around and left Connie and Katelyn for his office.

Once Katelyn had returned the egg to its nest, she and Connie left the habitat as well. Though the egg was the source of sudden excitement, there was still the rest of the zoo that had to be prepared for the day.

— § —

It was about thirty-five minutes later when Katelyn received a call on her radio from Roland requesting that she join him in his office. Happy to go there rather than to the elephant habitat to shovel waste, Katelyn leaned the shovel she was carrying against a nearby fence post and proceeded to the veterinary center.

"Well, Katelyn, I have some good news and some bad news," Roland said as she walked in. "The good news is that the Central Park Zoo agreed to take our egg provided they are allowed to keep the chick if it hatches. The bad news is that I'm going to have to ask you to go a bit beyond the call of your usual duties."

"How far beyond?"

"Roughly 190 miles. I need you to go to New York and drop off the egg. I'd do it myself, but I have a number of scheduled tasks that I really can't put off. Do you think you can handle it?"

"Sure—what's an unpaid internship for?"

Roland chuckled. "I'll see to it that you're reimbursed for gas and any other expenses. And if the board of directors has any problem with it, I'll pay for everything from my own pocket." He then pointed to his left, where a small animal transport crate sat on top of a metal examination table. "To be honest, since you're our best intern, I already knew that you'd agree to take the egg to New York. And as you can see, everything here is ready to go."

Katelyn peeked through the door of the carrier. Inside, she saw that the egg was resting peacefully in a nest of blue hand towels and was being incubated by a few chemical hand warmers. She smiled. "Very cute, Roland." She then took out her cell phone and snapped a quick photo of the egg all bundled up. "My friends are just going to love this on Facebook."

Moments later, Roland handed her a document authorizing the egg's transfer and a Post-it note with directions to the Central Park Zoo. Katelyn skimmed the directions for a moment and then picked the carrier up. "I guess I'm off, then," she said.

"Thanks for doing this, Katelyn," Roland said. "Have a good trip. Call if you need anything."

"Will do. See you tomorrow." She then left the office and set off to deliver the precious cargo to the Big Apple.

— § —

After a journey of around four hours, the egg was safe at the Central Park Zoo and was now under Alice's care. Having completed her duty, Katelyn then began her return trip to Maryland. Soon after, Alice called Roland to let him know that she had received the egg and to be given further instructions.

"Sorry again for not being able to come to New York myself," Roland said about a minute into the conversation. "I'd hate to think I'm inconveniencing you any."

"I'm stuck here until closing anyway, so it's no big deal," Alice replied. "Anyway, you still haven't told me which one of our penguins the lucky daddy is."

Roland was silent for a moment as he tried to recall what the penguin looked like. "Well, he's short."

"Penguins usually are. That eliminates only one here, so you'll have to give me a better description."

"Well, let's just say he'll never have to call a tow truck for a flat since he's got a pretty good spare tire."

Alice half laughed, half sighed. "Now I know the one. The ring-leading troublemaker of the bunch."

"Really? He seemed great when I saw him."

"Trust me, you don't know him like I do. I think he's just as suspicious of me as I am of him. Hopefully a chick will calm him down a little so he doesn't think I want to send him to the moon every time I enter the habitat."

"Well, good luck with that," Roland said, not really knowing what else to say. "Anyway, give me a call if you have any questions, and please let me know once the egg hatches."

"Will do. Goodbye for now."

"Bye."

After hanging up the phone, Alice looked at the egg inside the carrier, which she had set on her desk. "Please do me a favor and don't take after your father. Putting up with four strange penguins is hard enough on me. If you agree, say nothing at all."

Hearing no objection, Alice carefully removed the egg from the carrier and proceeded with it to the penguin habitat.

As she entered the exhibit, she found the group performing the same routine that she often saw when she came by. "Weirdos," she remarked to herself before bending down to pull Skipper away from the others. "Come here, little guy, I've got something very special for you."

"If you think you're going to trick me by hiding pills inside a fish again, you've got another think coming!" Skipper protested as he tried in vain to resist the zookeeper. "You'll have to pry open my cold, dead beak before I ever take those drugs, and even then you'll still face the resistance of rigor mortis!"

But to his surprise, nothing sinister came about. Alice just moved him a short distance before letting go of him. She then placed the egg between his feet.

"What the—" he said.

Alice patted Skipper on the head. "Take good care of it, little fella." She then turned around to leave while checking her watch. "Ah, break time. Finally!"

As Alice exited, the other penguins waddled over to see what she had given their leader. The three stared in silence as they took in the sight of Skipper incubating what appeared to be an egg.

"Well, Skipper," Kowalski said after a few moments, "either you're a female after all or we've just been tasked with another round of eggy-sitting. Unless Alice just wants you to warm her up a snack."

"Aww, you look so cute, Skipper!" Private said happily.

"Yup," Rico agreed.

Skipper picked the egg up from between his feet. "What's going on around here? It was one thing to be pressured by Marlene to look after little Eggy before he hatched thirteen years ago, but it's another to have our chief overlord thrust responsibility upon us. We don't even know what kind of creature we're dealing with here. We need answers." He pointed at Kowalski. "Kowalski, you know the drill."

The first lieutenant then defied the laws of physics by somehow producing his options clipboard from thin air, as was the norm. "To know for sure why Alice placed the egg with us, I suggest scanning her brain for information. Though there is a significant chance of a few adverse side effects."

"How bad are we talking?"

"In the worst-case scenario, Alice would become the first human microwave. She'd be able to pop popcorn in two minutes flat just by looking at it but couldn't be around individuals with older-style pacemakers."

Skipper shook his head. "Rejected. Give me something else."

"Well, I suppose we could just go old school and raid her workspace for clues."

"Works for me. To the zoo office, boys."

Following Skipper's lead, the team exited the habitat and proceeded to the office. After checking carefully to be sure that it was unoccupied, the four—five, counting the mystery unhatchling—entered the room.

"Spread out, gentlemen," Skipper said. "Look for any files or documents or anything else that might help us figure out what's going on."

Skipper, holding the egg in one flipper, then began to dig through the slew of papers hastily scattered on Alice's desk. Kowalski checked inside a filing cabinet by the window, Private went through one across the room, and Rico searched the contents of the trash can and recycling bin.

After a few minutes, Kowalski thought he had found what they were after. "I found something here filed under 'Penguins,'" he said. Their curiosity piqued, the other three quickly waddled over. Kowalski skimmed the document silently until—"Oh dear."

"What?" Private asked.

"I knew it!" Skipper yelled. "The humans are trying to bring back the dinosaurs and are using us to hatch their mad science!"

"Just the opposite," Kowalski said. "It's a penguin egg."

The other three stood there with puzzled expressions on their faces.

"But that's not even the most startling thing," Kowalski continued.

"Then what is?" Skipper asked.

"Apparently, Skipper ... it's your child."

The shock of the words Kowalski said nearly caused Skipper to lose his grip on the egg in his flipper. Fortunately, Private acted quickly and was able to prevent the egg from falling, deciding then that it might be best if he held on to it himself for the moment.

Skipper was confused. "What was that, Kowalski? Trust me, that's impossible. I've never been a participant in any egg-resulting activities."

"The document I'm looking at says otherwise," Kowalski said. "Apparently the mother of the unhatched chick was found dead this morning and had been part of a program at the Maryland Zoo aimed at studying chick-rearing exclusively by the mother. The necessary chick was fathered by artificial means."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning its father was subjected to an extra poke and/or prod at the vet's office and probably knew nothing about what was happening. The document goes on to say that with the mother gone, it was decided the egg should be placed with its father to give the chick the best chance of survival. And since Alice gave the egg to you—"

"I, uh ... I understand," Skipper said.

Private handed the egg back to Skipper. "So, what happens now?"

Skipper didn't respond as he was quickly lost in a world in which only he and his newfound egg were present. The sensation of holding an egg was not completely foreign to him, but the life inside the shell being his own child was something he had never expected. But in an instant, it was all that mattered. A mission now and forever.

"What happens now?" Skipper said after a moment as he came out of his daydream, cradling his egg lovingly. "I think I've just been handed my most important mission ever. And I accept."