Chương 39: Chapter 1: Stowaway

Being in zero gravity was an interesting experience. On the one hand it was incredibly disorienting, but on the other it felt like nothing I'd ever experienced before. Pushing off a wall with the gentlest of touches would send me floating across the cabin in the other direction. I found myself gravitating toward the windows, looking down at earth and marveling over all the details of the surface I could see. I passed over lakes, rivers, mountains, green hills and grassy fields as far as the eye could see.

Unfortunately it became a lot less interesting once it had changed to a seemingly endless ocean. As the ocean took over everything in my vision I turned to the cabin, taking in all its details. Along the walls were seats with over the shoulder seat belts. Interestingly, it looked like each seat had two flaps that could fold down to sit on. One was small with a hole in the back, the other fit around it and seemed to cover more area.

One of the smaller ones was folded down, presumably for the person who had come out of the ship after it landed. The seatbelts seemed to have a similar design with two sets of them, one lower and one higher up. It looked like the lower one would fit me perfectly.

"Hello?" I called out, not expecting an answer. It looked as though the ship was empty but I hadn't actually seen the cockpit area. I began thinking about the people I'd meet, the music I'd hear, the experiences I could share. I couldn't wait to share my experiences with them, show them the music I listened to. I was curious to hear the difference between the stuff I was used to and whatever music they played for each other. Thankfully I remembered to bring a few of my MP3 players with me so I could show them.

I pushed off the wall, moving over to the small doorway that led to the cockpit. With a pull to the side it slid open revealing two seats and a wide set of windows with a control panel underneath. Nobody was there, confirming that I was on the ship alone. It had some messages on the screens but I couldn't tell what they meant. Interestingly, they appeared to be similar displays as we'd seen on the box, displaying a full set of colors rather than a small select few.

I pulled myself over to the seats but found that unlike the ones in the larger holding area, the ones in the cockpit didn't have the design for someone like myself. Instead they appeared to only have the larger design to go along with them. A red light came on in the cabin as a voice came through the small speaker. I couldn't tell what it was saying, but it sounded like an automated message of some sort. A moment later I grabbed onto a bar next to me as the engines came to life again.

It wasn't a strong propulsion but it took me by surprise when it suddenly started. Less than a minute later it stopped once more, leaving me weightless in the cockpit once more. I decided to go back to the cabin area to take a closer look around. It was largely empty, looking like a very utility based ship, but next to the entrance to the cockpit there was a doorway with a small latch holding it closed.

It took me a moment to figure out how the latch opened, but once I got it open and slid the door to the side I was greeted with a small closet full of clothing. My eyes went wide as I took a closer look. The left side was taller but was completely empty, but on the right, a shorter rack of clothing that looked like it held space suits of some sort.

There weren't any helmets, but the suits looked like a full body smock with a seam down the front middle of it, all the way down to a shape that would accommodate a thick tail. They were mostly white with a few purple trimmings that looked like decoration.

"Oh wow…" I said to myself as I pulled one off the rack. It looked like it was made of a wrinkly leathery plastic kind of material. I thought for a moment about how I'd be arriving at the big ship. If anything, I'd want to fit in as best I could, so I decided to strip my clothing off and put the suit on instead. I slipped my legs in first, then brought my arms back and pushed them through. The suit seemed a bit too large for me but it didn't look like any of the others were all that different.

On the plus side, it was really easy to slip into. Instead of a zipper it had a strange material that seemed to adhere to itself when it was pressed together. I reached down, starting at the tip of my tail, pressing the two halves together and moving upward, over my hips, up my torso and finally up to my neck. As soon as the top was bound up I heard a beep come from the collar of the suit as the wrinkled material changed.

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"Oh gosh" I said as the material across the entire suit shrank against me, becoming skin tight, leaving only the ends of my feet, my hands and my head exposed, the rest of my body felt the gentle squeeze of the suit, another beep told me it was done. I looked down at it, looking over every aspect of the suit, noticing the small changes in the texture of the material in certain places, particularly around my joints, where it seemed to change to a stretchy cloth-like material.

The strange part was that there didn't seem to be any dividing lines between the sections aside from a few thicker black lines that traced out areas around my legs and arms where it looked like the suit would bend the most. I was interrupted by the sound of the automated voice going off again. Before I could grab anything the entire ship spun around. I tried grabbing onto the side of the door but was thrown to the side of the cabin, spinning and making me lose my orientation.

As I was about to grab onto one of the seats the engines went off again, throwing me to the back of the ship and smacking against the back door with a loud thud. I felt like a bug that had just splat against the window of a car. I shook my head, trying to get an idea of what was happening. Strangely enough, it felt like I was on the floor, but I knew I was on the back door of the ship. I stood up, the ship looking like it was balancing on its back as I stood on the inner side of the hatch.

Looking down through the windows, I could see I was approaching the large cylindrical ship. It looked as though we were going toward the back of it. Or at least, the side I'd assumed was the back. The one facing away from the sun that didn't have any windows at it. At the center of it I could see a small opening. The engines shut off again, sending me back to zero gravity.

Having learned my lesson from before, I quickly went to one of the seats and pulled down the smaller part with the tail slot coming from the side. I pulled myself into the seat and put the seatbelt on just in time for the engines to light up again, this time they were much more gentle as we approached the hole in the back of the giant ship. I wanted to get up to look through the window but I'd learned my lesson from last time, I was staying in the seat.

From my limited view, I could see darkness surrounding the ship, presumably we'd gone through the small hole in the back of the big ship. I gripped the seatbelt as the sound of rushing air quickly surrounded the ship, a moment later I felt a small bump as if the feet of the transporter landed on some surface. With a small vibration, I felt as though we were moving downward. I turned around, trying to get a view out of the tiny window next to me but couldn't see much of anything aside from pitch blackness.

The lights from my ship lit up the walls just enough to see that we were moving downward. I felt weight come back to my arms, my body pressing lightly into the seat underneath me. As we moved down, I started to feel weight again. It felt like there was a gentle sideways push as well that came at the same time as the downward pressure. I didn't know how long I'd be traveling down, but it felt like it was taking several minutes.

Eventually I felt like I was back to my normal weight, but the ship continued moving down and I started feeling like I was getting even heavier. I let my arms rest at my sides as I took a deep breath, wondering when it would stop. I started to feel nervous about it when I felt like my weight had doubled, then tripled compared to what it usually was. The more I felt like I couldn't take much more, the more the ship continued moving down through the vessel.

"Oh no, oh no please stop, please stop" I started saying under my breath. Thankfully it came to a stop but I felt like I'd already gone past my limit of what I could handle. Every movement felt forced, it didn't feel natural, as if there were giant weights attached to every extremity of my body. With the ship at a full stop I reached my hand up, pulling the seatbelt off and trying to stand up. I felt light headed, holding onto the seat next to me for stability. For the first time in my life I felt weak.

A bright light came through the windows as it looked like a large doorway opened from the elevator the ship and I were on. I slowly moved over to the back window to take a look. It looked like a construction yard of some sort with a giant fleet of similar looking ships, all lined up next to each other with one spot missing in the bunch. I figured that was where the ship I was on belonged. As I was taking it all in, the floor underneath the ship began to move, like a giant platform.

There were tracks cut into the floor of the construction yard and the platform I was on seemed to be following one of the tracks over toward the empty space. I tried moving, my tail dragging across the ground as I felt the incredible weight of the gravity. Feeling light headed again, I got down onto all fours to try to not pass out. Out of the corner of my eye I saw my backpack sitting in the corner. It had to have gotten thrown around the cabin during the various maneuvers.

I crawled over to and slung it up onto my back, trying to be delicate with it, not wanting it to break under the extra weight. I was nearly knocked off my feet as the ship came to an abrupt stop, the floor underneath us lowering down and settling into place. I pulled myself up a bit, looking through the back window once more to see several pairs of glowing white eyes looking at the ship. I couldn't tell if they could see me inside or not. I stood up again, staying on my feet, using my tail for balance.

I didn't want to make a bad first impression. After a few seconds, I heard the sound of escaping air as the back door started to open.