First Contact: A Gemini Story

First Contact
Author's Note: This story takes place during the spring break, after summer and Christmas vacation.

Chapter 1:

The Family Tracker

Ferb Fletcher’s eyes snapped open, pulling him abruptly out of the first nightmare he’d had all year. He lay there for about a minute, letting his breathing return to normal, then sat up, shoving the green hair out of his eyes. He’d always had green hair, for some reason, but nobody he knew really cared. He observed his surroundings. His stepbrother, Phineas Flynn, was still snoring in his bed on the other side of the room. Their pet platypus, Perry, was still curled up next to him. The walls were still blue, the floors still wood. Nothing had changed. According to the clock on his nightstand, it was 11:42 pm. He’d been asleep only a few hours. Any ordinary guy would just shrug that fact off, but Ferb wasn’t exactly what you’d call an “ordinary guy”. He knew that people rarely experience long dreams until late into sleep. Maybe I’m not a person he thought jokingly. He closed his eyes, but he couldn’t seem to go to back to sleep again. His dream had been extremely vivid. He sat up again and groped around the nightstand, selecting a random gadget that sat there. He clicked it on, and his hand-held GPS blinked to life. It was the same GPS Phineas had Jerry-Rigged into a Cute-Tracker to find their friend Meap. The device had been fried in the process of that adventure, but Ferb was very skilled at fixing things. The little machine was currently getting a signal from the Garcia-Shapiros’ house across the street. He smiled at Phineas for a second, then set to work.

Tinkering could get Ferb’s mind off of anything. If you needed to get his attention before he was finished, you’d probably have to do something mildly painful. Within fifteen minutes, he’d re-calibrated the GPS from a Cute-Seeker to a Corn Dog Locator to a Platypus-Finder (Who knew there were so many in Danville?) then finally to a Family Member Tracker. His mind clear of the dream, Ferb was about to go back to sleep, but sheer curiosity won him over. He licked his thumb and pressed it against the DNA registering pad. Within seconds, several dozen glowing purple stripes zipped across the screen. Some of the signals stopped only two yards

Name: Jessica Grace Fletcher Gender: Female Age: 11 ½ Relation: Unknown Time to Location: 1. 47 Hours

Ferb stared at the words. A million questions tangled in his brain. Who was this girl? Where did she come from? Why hadn’t Mum and Dad told me about her? Why was she living in the outskirts of the city? How is she related to me? Somehow, in the deepest, most distant part of his mind, he felt like he should know her very well, but didn’t. She had something to do with his identity. There were two ways to find an answer to all these questions. One, he could simply wait until morning to ask his parents about her. Naturally, though, he went with the second option.

To be continued...