Steele Recovery

By steele

Experimental part 1 of my SciFi parody project.

16:34 NCT

I stood stoutly with my arms crossed across my chest as I watched starships land and take off. Navarro’s tropical rain tapped across the glass on the orbital traffic control tower while the sounds of radio chatter and people working surrounded me. “Zetrai, sir-” I turn around to the voice of a young intern, his tie loose and a clipboard on his hands. “What could possibly be so important right now?” I ask with a furrowed brow. “Your shipment finally arrived, the physics field emitter, right?” I pause for a moment “Well then, that is important. Move along now, I can take it from here.” “Right, Zetrai, sir.” He says before walking down the tower stairs. That physics field emitter is the final step towards true multiversal travel through bulk cosmology. I look back out the window and watch as a group of workers in ponchos wheels a large crate out from one of the starships and into the warehouse. Now all that’s left is to make a few calls to the other departments in the lab, then I’ll make history.

19:57 NCT

I finish pulling the aircraft inlet plugs from the new starship and toss them into the cargo ramp haphazardly. The X207 Procyon. It’s a neat name, named after the brightest star in the Canis Minor constellation. I close the bay ramp and climb up the cargo bay ladder after checking the final preflight check in my list. Sitting in the pilots chair I adjust the position of the controls to my liking, the fresh smell of new equipment fills the cockpit, but not for long as I lower my IEVA helmet onto my suit ring. Normally I’d leave the helmet off and use the emergency inflatable helmet, but this is a brand new prototype ship, so it’s unpredictable until I get the hang of it.

Finally with a few clicks and beeps, I start the vertical takeoff antimatter aerospikes, upping the throttle and guiding her into the air gracefully as I always do. As I pilot the the craft higher and higher into the atmosphere at speeds around fifty times faster than sound, I tape a photo of my wife Fiona to the console for good luck. Apogee kick successful, orbit achieved. I radio into orbital traffic control “ZOK73 to N-OTC, this is X207, orbital velocity achieved, permission to engage experimental flight instruments? Over.” The radio beeps a quindar tone “N-OTC to ZOK73, you are clear to proceed with the maneuver, over.” With confirmation I switch the twin graviton loop arrays to max reactor power, and input the target universe’s identifier into a keypad. It should be a 1920s version of earth, but I don’t know what to expect. I turn the safety switch on a button cover and press it firmly, the ship screams to life as the bridge fills with a blinding white light.

07:26 AKST

The ship burns with a fireball of plasma around it as I guide it through the mesosphere. I’m on my own now, no radio connection to my home universe in 2365, I can manage though. The ship’s engines fire up and I land the ship in a clearing of pine trees, just a reach away from a small town, I presume it’s Nome. I unbuckle my seat harness and stand up, tossing my helmet on the ground with a loud metallic clatter. I strip away my spacesuit down to my LCVG and boots and I hang it on a cabinet handle. I pull a pair of pants out of a locker and pull them over the LCVG, along with a brown jacket with a large white fur ruff on the hood. I walk into the small bath on the ship and look into the mirror, caressing the fur on my face while leaning over the sink. I close my eyes as my body morphs into a more human look through the projection mapping optical camouflage layer under my integumentary armor. I push away from the sink,

making my way to the back of the ship. I slide down the ladder, grab a small bag of gold coins from atop a cargo container, and hold a button on the wall. The cargo alarm sounds and the bay door opens to a rush of bitter cold air flowing in. I walk out and reach into my jacket pocket to pull out a pair of aviators, to which I promptly pull them over my face to hide my purple optical implants. With a final glance around at the pine trees, I set off into the cold morning towards the town, slipping the coins into my pocket.

08:11 AKST

People look at me strange, like I don’t belong. I suppose that’s reasonable though, small town, stranger in weird clothes? I’d be weirded out too. I see a gun store on the corner of the street, and I feel as if it would be in my best interest to reward myself for this great achievement. I step in and wave to the clerk “Good mornin’, what can I do you for?” He says while cleaning a shotgun barrel. A Colt 1911 catches my eyes, that’s one of the few historical firearms that went nearly extinct in my home universe. A damn shame it is for that, because it’s beautiful in person. “How much for this one?” I say pointing to the 1911. “$49” He picks it up and hands it to me, I turn it in my hands to look at the engraving on the wood handle, a dog sorts, or maybe a wolf. “Who’s dog is this?” I ask. “He’s not really anyone’s dog, that’s the town hero Balto right there.” He says pointing at the handle. I let out a small chortle “Alright I’ll take it.” I say leaving 3 ounces of gold coins on the counter “I presume you take gold still?” The merchant looks at me and chuckles “Of course we do!” He moves to take out the change of $13.01 but I interrupt him “You can keep the change. Take it as a symbol of my appreciation.” The merchant nods and waves goodbye as I slip the 1911 into the built in holster on the inside of my jacket and walk out. I completely forgot that there’s no background checks or wait periods in the 1920s for purchasing a gun.

09:17 AKST

I sit there on a bench, watching as people walked about doing their day to day business as usual. However in the bustling streets, I would not have expected to hear what I heard next. A loud pained yip and the sound of yelling from an angry man in a nearby alleyway. I won’t deny that my curiosity peaked. I stood up and walked over towards the direction of the sound, holding my hands in my jacket pockets. To my horror and dismay, a man, about 5 foot 10, loomed over an Alaskan malamute, yelling insults and cocking a rifle. The malamute seemed to be pretending to be brave, but I could see the fear in those eyes. “Hey! The fuck are you doing?!” I say jogging up to the man and tapping his shoulder. “Move along, this matter doesn’t involve you stranger.” He mutters. “I believe it does involve me when you’re about to Old Yeller this dog.” He looks at me confused for a second “Who the hell is old yeller?” I pause, Old yeller was made in 1956, he has no clue what that means. “Uh, just forget about it. I want to know why are you trying to hurt this dog?” He looks at the malamute and grumbles “He was my lead dog, but he’s a pretty shitty lead dog considering he abandoned me and almost got me killed. He doesn’t deserve to continue on.” I cringe “How much?” I take out my pouch “Huh? You seriously want this useless mutt?” I scoff “If it means he doesn’t get shot then yes. So I’ll ask you again, how much?” I can see him thinking for a moment before speaking. “60 dollars.” I take out another 3 ounces of gold and set it in the palm of his hand. “There, how’s that?” He puts his rifle on safe and hands me a leash and harness. “His name is Steele. I don’t know what you plan to do with

him but I could care less now.” He says before slinging the rifle and trotting off. I look at Steele, “Steele” I say as if tasting the name. The dog looks back at me with what can only be described as a look of skepticism and a hint of relief. “So do I need this, or are you going to come with me?” I say holding up the leash. He seems to slowly nod before reluctantly moving beside me. I will say something seems, off about the dogs in this universe. Either Steele is trained really well or he’s sapient to some extent. I think I’ll experiment with various neural connective resonant frequencies on the way back to the ship.

09:48 AKST

The two of us walk along the path back to my starship, I meanwhile run secondary processes in my head trying to determine how Steele speaks to other dogs, as we walk out of town’s sight, I lock onto Steele’s subaudible vocal signature… So not brainwaves as I had previously assumed. I stop in the middle of a frozen tundra. “Can you say something for me, Steele?” Instead of speaking, Steele lets out a low grumbly wooo. “No- like talk as if you’re speaking to another dog” I say, to which Steele does in fact reply, “What, like this?” He says in a dismissive tone and a snort. “Yes, exactly like that.” I replied. I watched as Steele froze and his face went from a look of annoyance to shock “Wait, what? You can understand me?” “Yes, yes I can.” I said. “Walk with me here, I need to tell you a a few things.” I started walking again and Steele grumbled alongside. “My name is Zetrai Kepler, and for one, I am not a human. It sounds ridiculous but it’s the truth. Let me show you something…” I look back at the town in the distance to check for anyone following before I switched off my human disguise, the pattern rippled across my skin once more revealing my humanoid cyborg batlike figure. I heard Steele make an audible noise that resembled his jaw dropping. “What? What the hell are you? Are you going to eat me?” I roll my eyes “No I’m not going to eat you, I’m what’s known as a Pomelo in my universe. We’re advanced species similar to humans.” Steele gasps, “Wait, wait, you’re not even from this universe?” He asked. “Nope, I’m not. Soon though you’ll find yourself at home in my universe though too.” Steele looked at me with concern “I never agreed to this!” “I didn’t ask if you agreed or not, the fact of the matter is that you’re coming with me whether you like it or not, trust me, you’ll like it anyways.” I could see it in Steele’s eyes that something was just telling him to bolt, but a thread of curiosity kept him from doing so. “…Fine, I’ll go. I’m sure I’ll regret this, but I’ve got nowhere else to go and nothing left here.” I smiled “That’s the spirit.” Soon enough we encroached upon my starship, which laid there on its struts billowing out water vapor from the cryogenic cooling systems.

10:01 AKST

“Holy crap- Is that yours?” Steele says sniffing the air around the starship. “Who else have you seen with a spaceship in Nome?” “Nobody, really.” He replied, looking up at the massive VTOL thrusters. “Exactly.” I take out my personal link cable from my wrist and insert it into a small circular port near the bay door, to which the bay promptly opens with a low hydraulic hum. The ladder is the next challenge, because Steele being a dog, can’t really climb ladders. Without thinking I simply swoop him into my arms, he’s pretty hefty at around 55.157 kilograms, but he’s also quite fluffy surprisingly. “Hey! Put me down you metalhead!” I ignore him and carry him into the bay, lifting him to the second level and setting him down. “Yeah? Well, get used to it rain cloud.” I say dismissively climbing up behind him, using my net connection to the ship I close

the bay door as I pull myself up to the main level. Steele is sniffing basically everything in the ship hull when I walk past. I grab my IEVA suit and pull it on after taking off my jacket and pants, throwing them back into the locker. I pick up my helmet and slot it on, sitting down and buckling myself up in the seat. “Should I be wearing a helmet too?” Steele asks whilst sitting beside me. “You’ll be fine.” I say as I engage the startup procedure and begin lifting the ship back into orbit. Once we finally reach orbit, I lean back in my seat. “Well Steele? What do you think of the northern lights from above?” Steele looked out the window and whispered “Their beautiful… Almost like a curtain over Alaska.” I sigh “Take a good look at it, you’re old life and all. I’m not sure when we’ll be back.” The bridge is quiet for a few moments with nothing but the sound of the occasional retrothruster pulse and the ventilation fans whirring. “I’m ready.” Steele says quietly. And with that I punch in the identifier for my universe and push the switch to launch the ship into the bulk.

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