The Dome of Arbaclaw

Dome of Arbaclaw Part One: Through To Fluttershy

Tom is as excited as a newborn puppy. After all his hard work, preparation, and sacrifice, he was going on "SFIL 1", or the "first search for intelligent life" the next morning. His partner, Daniel Grane, had volunteered to go with him and would be assisting Tom. Because of this, Tom had to instruct Daniel how to put on his warp suit, keep the warp fluids circulating, etcetera. They are at the SFIL station in California and Tom is getting ready to teach him.

"Do you have basic knowledge of warping?" says Tom.

"Yes, well, sort of. I just don't get this part," Daniel points to a line in his warping textbook which describes how to maintain speed.

"Oh, that part," Tom thinks for a second and begins speaking, "Okay, there are three stages in warping. Commencement, bevara, and vertrag."

"Yeah, it's bevara I'm having trouble with. I just forgot what setting to put the fluids on per basic light year."

"For a basic light year, go with the temel setting," Tom points to a line in Daniel's textbook, "See here? It shows you all of the commonly used settings."

"Oh, now I remember! Thanks Tom! So, onto the warping suits then?"

"Yeah, notice this lever on the..." Tom feels a weird chill run through him.

"On the what? The sleeve?," there's a pause, "Tom?"

"Oh... sorry, there was some sort of... um," Tom starts to pack up the items he brought and starts to walk out the door, "Daniel just flip to page 185, that should show you how to put on your warp suit."

Tom walks down the hall to the exit of the California SFIL Station and approaches the guard standing at the door.

"Did you help Grane out?" says the guard.

"Yes, man, just please let me through I'm... weird right now!" replies Tom.

The guard gives a little laugh, "you're weird?"

"No, I'm just not feeling, ugh, just let me through. Please."

"Alright, if you think Daniel is ready then off you go," he puts a key card into a slot next to the exit door and it opens up.

"Thanks man," Tom quickly runs out the door, gets inside of his car, and then takes a deep breath. Tom has had this chill before. The same chill that lead to the death of his mother, in a car accident. His mother had always wanted to find alien life, so after she died, Tom made it his destiny to someday discover that, which is why he joined SFIL.

Tom is just starts his car when he gets a call. He picks up his phone and reads the caller ID: Gordon Condrobe. Mr. Condrobe was the owner of SFIL. The one who started it all 3 years ago. At first he had some doubts that he would find intelligent life, but now with all of the proof and clues that there might actually be something out there, he was more confident than ever.

After turning off some sort of environmental message about pollution on the radio, Tom accepts the call, "Hello?" says Tom.

"Hello, Tom. I called to tell you that you have some good chances at finding alien life tomorrow. Well... after making some adjustments on your route," says Gordon.

"Adjustments?"

"Yes, well, it's not much about your route but... you won't be doing the bevara stage."

"What? That's impossible! How are the warp fluids supposed to get maintained like that?"

"You shouldn't need it, I've invented a stronger warp fluid. It should have enough power to get you near planets with possible alien life. I'll give you the fluid tomorrow, okay, bye."

Tom is feeling like a test rat. His boss just "invented" a new warp fluid? How is he supposed to know if it would work or not? He starts to get a little mad at his boss, but he decides to cool down and drive back to his house, which is only a few minutes away.

Tom pulls up to his driveway, enters his house, goes to his room, and falls asleep. His dreams consist of failure and success, over and over. He crashes onto an empty planet a dies, then he randomly appears back in the spaceship and he finds alien life. Tom is afraid.