Chapters 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.
Tom wakes up a little earlier than he needed to: 5:30 PM. He has a headache and for some reason, his arms feel a little sore. After closing his eyes and thinking about outer space, he gets dressed and walks to his kitchen for a bowl of cereal.
Tom finishes the bowl of cereal, gets in his car, and starts driving. There are no cars on the street except for his, and he gets to the SFIL Station in two minutes. He walks up to the door, and talks to the night shift guard through the intercom.
"Hey, it's Tom," says Tom.
"You're here a little early," says the guard.
"Yeah, I know, I couldn't sleep."
"Alright, come inside," the door opens with the guard's command.
Tom runs down the hall and finds the door marked, "Spaceship B2L," and enters the room. Daniel is in there already.
"Hey Tom, I wasn't expecting you here for another 20 minutes," Daniel checks his watch, "why are you here so soon?" says Daniel.
"Why are you here so soon?" they both give a laugh, "oh, Daniel, Gordon said we aren't using the Bevara stage or something."
"I know, he gave me this," Daniel shows Tom the new warping fluid, about the size of a fire extinguisher.
"Sweet. So, we are taking off at about 7:30. Ten minutes."
"Alright, I'll study the "two stages" for that time," Daniel flips his textbook to about the middle of the book and starts reading.
"No, you have to get your warpsuit on," Tom points to a large closet, "in here."
They both take warp suits out of the closet, which are basically spacesuits that are designed for warping, and get them on. This takes about 8 minutes.
"Let's get in the spaceship," says Tom, "Gordon will launch us when he's ready."
Tom opens a door in the room which leads to a huge garage with no ceiling. A few yards away stands the spaceship, which they walk over to and enter.
"Hey, Daniel, help me get this regular warping fluid detached," Tom and Daniel both pull on a red lever next to the normal warping fluid until it pops off, "alright, you get in your seat while I get this new warping fluid running."
In a few minutes, Tom and Daniel are both ready for launch, and Tom hears Gordon on his walkie talkie, "you ready?"
"Yeah, everything is ready," says Daniel.
"Okay, I'm launching you in 30 seconds," Tom and Daniel prepare.
"Ten, nine, eight, seven," Tom is nervous.
"Six, five, four, three, two, one!"
The spaceship launches off with incredible force, much greater power than that of normal warping fluids. Tom checks a digital space map in the ship, "we're on the right track," says Tom.
"Good," says Daniel.
The spaceship flies past rocks, stars, and planets and even when it hits a rock, the rock cracks into a million pieces.
"We are approaching a planet with a high chance of having alien life. We should be there in a few minutes," says Tom, "begin the last stage."
Daniel presses a few buttons in the controls, "it isn't working! These buttons don't do anything to that warping fluid!"
"Gordon, your new invention isn't working!" Tom gets no reply from Gordon, "Gordon! Answer me!"
"Tom, we have no connection to Earth," says Daniel.
"What, how is that possible?"
"I don't know, we should have perfect connection."
The spaceship starts to make a weird fizzing sound. "Tom, what's that sound?" says Daniel.
"A sound? Oh... oh no. That's the warping fluid! There's a hole in the fluid tank!" Tom gets out of his chair and runs over to the fluid tank, "Daniel you take over, I'm gonna try to fix it!"
Tom stares at the fluid tank when he realize the sound has stopped. "Daniel, all of the warping fluid has leaked out of the tank!"
"I know! There's also some gas leaking out of the cieli-" the ship explodes, with green and blue colors. Tom is unconscious, drifting through space with his parachute open, and with pieces of the ship flying through space with him. His mind lost in a peaceful place, and his body going to a strange one.
When Tom becomes conscious, he finds himself on land with his back against some tall things that look like grass and his legs in a clear substance that feels like water. His legs are scarred and bruised and he is extremely thin, even though he feels full, for some reason. His warpsuit has vanished but he is still able to breathe the air of this strange planet.
Tom gets up, and looks around him. He sees huge things that look like trees, he sees giant flowers, he sees a blue sky.
"Is this Earth?" says Tom. With no reply he speaks again, "Daniel? Daniel, where are you!" Daniel is nowhere to be seen.
Tom examines his body. It looks very bruised all over the place. He also feels very light, in a way that Daniel knows is not natural, even with stronger or weaker gravity. He feels, "shrunk."
"Oh, no. The new warping fluid combined with that gas must have made some sort of shrinking explosion," he thinks.
After realizing this truth, he decides that he has nothing to do but see what there is on this planet, and he finds himself walking in a random direction. He is just starting to examine a flower when he hears a voice behind him.
"Oh, hello there little bug," says the voice. Tom quickly turns around to the voice and sees a giant yellow horse-like creature behind him. The creature has a sort of pink mane and tail. It has blue eyes and looks a bit too undetailed, like a cartoon. Tom stares at the huge creature and talks.
"I- I'm not a bug but, um, hello."
The creature makes a surprised face. "You can talk? I've never heard of you. Hi, my name is Fluttershy."
"Mine is uh... Tom," Tom is extremely confused as to how this "Fluttershy" is speaking English, as the chances of an alien speaking a language slightly close to English are very, very small. However, his worries are more towards his life than Fluttershy's language, and he wonders if he will live today. "And, uh, Fluttershy... that's a... really good name... definitely."
"Oh, thank you," Tom notices the Fluttershy's "cheeks" turn red, as if to blush. Something that only a human would be known to do. "And where did you get such a nice suit? I think Rarity would tell me about a... something as cute as you, after making such a fabulous suit."
"Oh, yeah... it's, well I... bought it. Or... was given it. I'm not... from around here."
"Not from Equestria? Oh boy... hey, are you hungry? I have a lot of things to eat."
"Sure... that would be... great," Fluttershy holds out her hand, or hoof-like thing as if suggesting for Tom to walk on it.
"Do you want me to carry you?"
"Yeah... that'd be fine," Tom walks on the hoof-like thing and Fluttershy lifts him up, now walking with three legs towards a home-looking tree of some sort, with plenty of animals surrounding it. Getting closer, Tom notices how similar it is to a human home, with a door and some windows. Tom's day was beginning to get filled with coincidences.
The inside of the house is almost exactly like a human home would be, with a staircase, a rug, and a fireplace. The inside also contains a lot of animal cages. Fluttershy walks into a room similar to kitchen and puts Tom onto the countertop. She walks away for a second and then returns with an apple.
"Do you like apples?" says Fluttershy.
"Yes that would be... great," Fluttershy sets the apple next to Tom.
"Oh, would you mind, um..."
"Yes?" says Fluttershy.
"Like, cutting, oh... nevermind," Tom sinks his teeth into to the juicy apple and fills his mouth with apple skin and apple. The apple tastes better than any other apple that Tom has eaten in his entire lifetime. Tom finds himself taking bite after bite until he finds himself completely full.
"Are you done with that apple, Tom?" says Fluttershy.
Tom feels a little weird about how this alien is calling Tom by his name, but he replies, "Yes, it was good... thank you for that... Fluttershy."
"You're welcome! Are you thirsty?"
"No, the juice in the apple... that was refreshing enough."
"Alright, are you ready to leave?" Tom stares out one of the windows. He has no idea what else could be out there. What kind of predators could be waiting to make Tom their prey. Fluttershy seems to be very nice but still, he can't base this planet off of her. Tom decides to go with the safe route.
"Fluttershy... can you let, or... I... maybe... stay here? I... don't think, me, at this size... could, really survive, well, yeah," Tom stares into the eyes of Fluttershy, awaiting an answer.
"Aww... of course you can stay here... if you really want to," Tom isn't sure if he "really wants" to stay, but he thinks it is definitely a smart move to, so he's made up his mind.
"Thank you... Fluttershy," Tom notices how dark it is getting outside, probably nighttime. Although Tom doesn't feel as tired as he should, probably due to this planet's "timezone," he says, "Hey... Fluttershy, do you have a place for... sleeping. Like... a bed?"
"Oh, well, here," Fluttershy picks up Tom and bring him to a round beanbag-like thing. She tears off a chunk with her teeth and sets it somewhere on the floor. "This should do. Is it okay?"
To Tom's size, it was about as big as four master beds combined. Definitely good enough for sleeping. "Yes, it will be great. Thank you," Tom lays down on the bed and closes his eyes. He then finds himself in a very good sleep.