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The World of Fur – World Out of Place

*

Heheh.

I guess I have to freely admit Gulliver's Travels as the inspiration for this title, what else? It is such an obvious idea to draw fun from, and I do hope that you'll find this fascinating, fun read! This little series was commissioned by :iconheru:.

Hope you'll have an interesting time, and I look forward to your comments and other feedback!

*

Captain Alessandro Valentino stretched his gloved fingers and felt a certain measure of comfort in the firm pressure of the material of the pressure suit closing around on him. Sitting inside the cockpit of the IKAROS, with its small windscreen-like view port in front of him, he could see very little that wasn't displayed through the monitors projecting imagery from the cameras on the outside, and it gave the Captain a feeling of tunnel vision. The capsule was not exactly claustrophobic, yet the spacesuit and the heavy harness he wore to keep himself tied down onto the seat.

“...auxiliary pump check...positive.”

“Aye,” the officer spoke into his communications pickup circuit within the helmet. “Onboard reading is 61.5.”

“We concur, IKAROS.”

“Roger that,” Valentino said.

“Countdown is proceeding as planned. All systems nominal. T minus 120 seconds to release.”

“Aye, Control.”

“Automatic control sequence is running.”

Valentino knew that he was practically but a passenger onboard his spacecraft, guided by its internal systems and computers, rather than the manual controls that were available for him to use in the very slim possibility that something would go wrong. Should that not be the case – and by heavens they all hoped it would not! - his main purpose on the flight of IKAROS would be to act as the human observer to the proceedings, of what they were attempting to do here on the outskirts of the solar system, beyond the orbit of Neptune.

“Top-up sequence terminating, umbilical connector...closed,” Valentino read out from the monitor to his left, mostly to have something to say and to do at this moment while the tensions grew high, both inside his own body and the control ship nearby.

“Fueling sequence terminated. Transferring to internal pressure control.”

A low, whining noise arose from somewhere behind the strapped-on Captain, while his ship continued to perform its duties with mechanical efficiency.

“Boiler and exhaust control, online.”

“Auxiliary pressure system activated. Heat sink overflow pump, online.”

“Reactor output, 74% and steady.”

The ship thrummed, coming alive with every passing second that ticked down on the mission timer on the dash of the cockpit, solely dedicated for giving the time.

“T minus 50.”

Valentino flexed his fingers again. He set them onto the handles built onto the acceleration couch. He wouldn't need to press any of the controls about him, should everything go exactly as planned. Otherwise...he would have to take action.

“Main program loaded. Primary and auxiliary power loads at normal levels.”

“Release gear check, complete. Sequence is a GO. This is a final GO.”

Roger a GO, and IKARUS agrees,”Valentino spoke as he saw the flashing indicator on one of the display screens.

“This is it, Captain,”the voice of the mission controller finally received an actual texture of character for that simple remark, instead of the near-robotic tone he had been using before.

“It sure is,”Valentino flashed a small smile he knew would not be entirely private. A fisheye lense was pointed at him and the communications system would currently transmit his image to the control ship, and the computer would record it throughout his mission.

“Begin thruster startup sequence.”

The noise increased.

“Plasma pressure rising.”

“T minus 30. Stabilization control system main mode to AUTO.”

Captain Valentino knew that now the ship was officially at the electronic hands of the computer, and not him.

“Guidance to internal, and AUTO.”

“RCS, final check complete.”

“T minus ten. Nine. Separation start. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One, separate!”

Hydraulic arms were released, and the spacecraft's guidance thrusters fired briefly to put an increasing distance between them. Captain Valentino looked now at the radar readout, calculating the numbers constantly, and with precision.

“Separation complete. Umbilical clear. Leaving the envelope.”

“Roger,” Valentino spoke, his voice tinged with excitement. “Everything looks good across the board. Readouts are clean and looking good. Your voice is coming in clear.”

“Acknowledged. Telemetry coming in good on all channels.”

The vehicle adjusted its position a little, completely automatic, of course, and the Von Braun came into the field of vision from the small window in front of him. She was not exactly a beauty, rather stout, in fact, with numerous thermal control panels that protruded from the thick hull to expend the additional heat generated by the propulsion reactors.

Whatever her appearance, Captain Valentino felt fondness for the larger ship, after all it had served as the mobile headquarters of the project for many years, and he had spent a great deal of time onboard throughout their mission. Now he had left, inside the incredibly expensive prototype vehicle that was the ultimate goal of their project, of course. One day, the technology carried by the little ship would render the behemoth in front of him obsolete, if everything went well.

“Fuel pressure coming up. Main turbopump start. Reactor nozzles opening.”

“Stand by for distance acceleration, IKAROS.”

Captain Valentino knew that it was as much a warning for him as for everyone else. The readouts on the monitors told him that the engines were almost ready to engage and to take the experimental vehicle away from the Von Braun.

“Escape vector calculations complete. Stand by.”

“I'm doing nothing but just that,”Valentino almost chuckled. His mouth felt too dry to do it.

“Infrared and ultraviolet band tracking, active.”

“Fuel turbines spinning up to full power. Pressure is stable.”

“Confirmed. Engine start in 30.”

Valentino almost wished it would be a shorter countdown. Something about the numbers running on the counter made it feel even more tense.

“T minus 20.”

“Inertial guidance is locked. Canopus sensor...online.”

“T minus 10...9...”

The Captain still damned the countdown. He'd been more than happy with a single, quick warning before it was just the assuring pressure of the acceleration clinching him onto his well-padded seat.

“...4,3,2,1, engage.”

The computer started the engines exactly on the mark and true enough, the IKAROS blasted forward trailed by the burning gas that was expelled from its thrusters. She truly would've had the appearance of an arrow riding upon a blanket of fire, for a few precious seconds before it become nothing but a speck on the visual scanners that were soon augmented by sensors more attuned to other wavelengths beyond what could be seen.

“Range finding...active.”

“Radio is still good,”Captain Valentino spoke calmly into his communications pickup. “Acceleration is as predicted and...tolerable. Plasma torus interference...within predicted limits.”

He listened to the crackle of the disturbances caused by the burning plasma that propelled the vehicle, and could hear the ship responded, somewhat faintly, but still there.

“Roger, IKAROS...”

The clock ran itself down and showed T+00:65 on the end of the burn, after which the IKAROS continued on its way on ballistic momentum only.

“Okay, Control, we've got an engine shutdown and...and it's looking good across the board,”Captain Valentino spoke.

“Roger, IKAROS. We're calculating your trajectory and velocity as we speak.”

“Inertial guidance looks good,” the Captain spoke. “All sensors are recording. And I think I'm able to see a thruster firing on your end, heheh.”

“Roger that, IKAROS. You get full points for visual acuity, or at least cheekiness.”

Captain Valentino chuckled.

“You owe me a beer if we can see it on the scanner data.”

“That's a GO, Captain.”

“Excellent news, Control,”smiled the officer.

The next half an hour were spent in countless systems check, mostly done automated by the computer, but with the Captain having to play a certain role as well while he confirmed some readouts from the displays inside the cabin so that they could be crosschecked with the data received onboard the von Braun. It was tedious yet vital work that truly dictated whether their mission could become a success or not.

“It look to us and your computer agrees that all systems are GO for the gravity drive initiation,”_the final verdict came. “D_o you concur, Captain?”

“I've nothing else to say but...let's do this!” said Captain Valentino.

“Roger. You are GO for gravity drive enable.”

It was one of the few manual controls in the cabin, where touch-sensitive screens were the main real estate on the panels that surrounded the Captain. Yet there was a row of actual push button control switches, for manually performing some of the most crucial functions. Hitting the switch that enabled the spacecraft's experimental propulsion system to start was one of them, and now the Captain's gloved finger snapped the cover open and touched the button. It lit up green, and a loud buzzer went off.

“_GRAVITY DRIVE ENABLED.”_a synthesized voice spoke in his ears, over the radio pickup.

“Got enable now,”Valentino said.

“We read you,”the reply came from the Von Braun a few seconds later, due to the increasing distance between them.

“AUTOMATIC SEQUENCE ACTIVATED.”

“And the computer seems to agree, too.”

The aft end of the spacecraft opened like the petals of a flower. They shone a faint blue light, from the components that became energized with the power provided by the vehicle's own reactor. Only a few meters away, Captain Valentino monitored this with growing excitement. After so many simulations and near-misses and probes, the time for a true manned test flight was finally at hand and he could see the clock ticking again, counting down to the moment...the very moment when he might put himself into history books among the likes of Chuck Yeager, Charles Lindbergh and Neil Armstrong.

“GRAVITY DRIVE POWER LEVEL 10 PERCENT.”

“Primary power is being routed into the field generator,”Valentino spoke into his radio. “Main power levels are steady. All propulsion systems are secured. All turbines are running. All sensors are recording.”

“We read you. We expect to lose communication once power level reaches 40 percent.”

“Copy that, Control”Valentino said.

“Godspeed.”

“I'll need all the help I can get,”the Captain replied. “Even though you have built me a good ship, you.”

“We've done the best we can, and nothing less.”

Valentino tried to relax, which was difficult with the countdown running on all the screens in front of him. A little version was even projected holographically onto the visor of his helmet, so that he couldn't even escape it by turning his eyes away from the displays.

“GRAVITY DRIVE POWER LEVEL, 30 PERCENT.”

“I'm not sure if the radio still works, but I am recording my own personal observations as well,”Valentino spoke. “Everything onboard is as nominal and in the simulations, and nothing seems to indicate that the engine is starting, but for the system readings.”

“GRAVITY DRIVE POWER LEVEL, 40 PERCENT.”

“All systems are still nominal, and the sequence is proceeding.”

“GRAVITY DRIVE POWER LEVEL, 60 PERCENT.”

The power was being drawn with increasing speed and in ever rising quantities. Valentino was almost sure he could feel a kind of a vague...charge...in the air around him, yet he wasn't sure whether it was just his own heart beating so fast that it made him feel light-headed.

“Everything if proceeding as expected. The systems are performing normally. Carrier wave readings are garbled, but that is expected as well. Radio telemetry transmission is likely lost by now...hope you'll pick me up on the visual, though...it'd be a shame for this to not be seen by everyone out there...”

“GRAVITY DRIVE POWER LEVEL, 80 PERCENT. STAND BY FOR INITIATION.”

“...and in case anyone is wondering what I'm thinking at this moment...”Valentino mused, “I'm just really hoping that this is a GO...it'd be a shame to come this far and...blow it, to put it mildly...”

We're not gonna fuck this one up, he thought, privately.

“GRAVITY DRIVE POWER 90 PERCENT. 92 PERCENT. 94 PERCENT. 96 PERCENT.”

Now he was certain that the ship was vibrating. He could feel it in every nerve.

What else could you expected when your molecules are going to be twisted and turned?

His stomach lurched. What if this was a really bad idea?

“GRAVITY DRIVE SEQUENCE INITIATION. NOW.”

*

“MASTER ALARM. MASTER ALARM. MASTER ALARM.”

The voice of the computer droned on, endlessly, in the small cockpit where the singular passenger laid slumped onto his acceleration couch.

“MASTER ALARM. MASTER ALARM. MASTER ALARM. AUTOMATIC SEQUENCE HAS BEEN TERMINATED. INITIATE MANUAL CONTROL. MASTER ALARM. MASTER ALARM. MASTER ALARM.”

Captain Valentino did not stir despite the voice that repeated its calls again and again, both via a loudspeaker and directly into his ears through his communications headset.

“POWER LEVEL IS CRITICAL. INITIATING EMERGENCY MEASURES.”

The numerous displays on the control console flickered and became dark, with only a few odd lights remaining on in the panel. Their feeble glow illuminated the blonde man whose face rested against the plate of his helmet. A little smear of blood remained there as well, to mark an injury received from his forehead slamming onto the helmet.

“OXYGEN QUANTITY IS 15 PERCENT.”

Another alarm went off, beeping repeatedly.

Captain Valentino's eyelids began to flutter.

“MASTER ALARM. MASTER ALARM. MASTER ALARM.”

He shifted his head, and experienced a twinge of pain, from behind his eyes and flashing into his neck and forehead. The Captain grimaced.

“Uhhh...”

“MASTER ALARM. MASTER ALARM. MASTER ALARM.”

“Shit,” Valentino muttered.

“MASTER ALARM. MASTER ALARM. MASTER ALARM.”

His gloved hand moved more via instinct and automatic behavior created by his extensive training for the mission, to seek the switch that turned off the audible alarm. His eyes seemed somewhat blurry still, and the empty screens in front of him did not help either. The stars seen through the small window were obviously spinning as well. Valentino's head hurt, but he felt glad that he hadn't vomited into his suit. That might've been fatal in the zero G he was experiencing even now, no matter the acceleration created by the rotating motion.

“Okay...” he spoke again, “transmitting...hello?”

The communications pickup did not respond, not even with the beep that signaled that his speech had been transmitted, automatically.

“Right...”

Valentino touched a few controls to his side and brought up the screens again. Several of them had a “SIGNAL LOST” flashing over them, but the remaining monitors displayed data from the vehicle's systems.

“Okay...” Valentino spoke to himself, hoping that it would reassure him and to help him gather his thoughts, “main power...offline. Sure. Guidance, control...offline. Well no wonder we're spinning...okay. Life support...under red line. Of course...”

He tapped on the display showing the details on the power systems, and found the data quite depressing. There was no information on the reactor that usually supplied the operating power, and neither of the auxiliary turbines were operating either. It seemed that the IKAROS was functioning entirely on the emergency batteries that could only provide a very limited amount of electric power before it would all be expended and the ship would be dead.

“Crap...where's the power...” the pilot mumbled, “and where am I...”

He could only remember the faster than light drive engaging, automatically, and it was meant to operate for one hour to take him into the solar system, towards the orbit of Jupiter. Anything else...the Captain could not recall what happened between these moments.

“Hope you remember...” the Captain addressed the ship. He knew that the sensors must've recorded everything that happened, and if the computer still worked, he could use the data to find out just what the hell was going on.

There were more immediate concerns, however. He would need to restore power, somehow, and control of his vehicle as well. Spinning out of control was never good, not for him, nor the vessel. There was not knowing just how badly he might've been damaged, and which systems still worked.

“Gotta get the gas pressure back up in the turbine...” the Captain mused to himself as his brain began to function again, after its initial sluggishness. All those emergency drills he'd had to do in the simulator made sense now, on this moment when it seemed that every system onboard the ship had gone bust and he probably didn't even have much air to breathe before he'd run out.

“Gyro platform...RCS control...manual controller power...okay...”

The spin had to go, too. Some of the navigation displays still worked, and he could determine the rate of the spin simply by looking at the needles moving on the somewhat rudimentary yet effective instrument on the dash. Since by the laws of physics, an object set in motion would continue that motion in perpetuity should there be nothing to interrupt it, he only had to figure out which way to push in the opposite direction, so to speak, to stop the spacecraft's dangerous motion. Valentino found that the small rocket jets used for just such purpose were still functioning, and even though the computer control was down, he could use the manual controller to bypass it.

“Okay...time to dampen some rates...”

He tapped the button on the joystick, for firing the thrusters, and tilted it carefully to see what would happen when he did so. Valentino was relieved to hear the subtle noise the vents did when the jets fired, transmitted structurally, and the needles on the display shifted as well.

“Right...not gonna be tearing me apart, I hope...” Valentino muttered. “I don't even know if this is recording, either way...or where I am...or whether anyone can come to find me in time, if indeed I am somewhere where I can be reached...”

He knew that he shouldn't have been thinking of the automatic probes that had never come to their expected destinations, after being sent out to their carefully calculated paths. The solar system was too large to conduct any proper searches, even with the most sensitive of radio equipment seeking for their beacon signals.

He gave the RCS joystick another nudge before checking the panel showing the status of the communications equipment. Indeed, while the power amplifier was down and the radio link was also offline, the IKAROS' small radio beacon was still functioning and sending out a pulse at a preset frequency people could pick out.

If they'd knew where to listen of course. The signal would spread out to all directions and become nothing more but white noise, buzzing away in the background radiation of the very universe itself.

“Hope someone's out there...” Valentino muttered.

Slowly, with the pilot's careful hand doing the work that the computer no longer could, the spinning came to a halt and the stars in front of the Captain seemed steady. The needles on his instrument told him as much, and for the first time Valentino felt a measure of relief. He'd managed to troubleshoot one problem, out of the many that were going on.

It was a start.

“Right...we're out of a spin...rotation terminated at...well, I don't have a mission timer anymore, so...let's say, now is a good time to stop.”

He coughed up, to clear his throat.

“Now it'd be good to have some power, though...any ideas, IKAROS?”

The spacecraft remained quiet. Valentino suspected that even if the communications pickups were working, the computer's speech recognition unit would have been shut down to preserve the dwindling supply of electric power the ship still held in its batteries.

“I thought as much,” the Captain muttered. “Right...how about some power then? Just a little bit? Some oxygen too, maybe? Looks like I'm running on the emergency suit loop...so there has to be something left somewhere...”

He checked the environmental data again. The cabin outside was relatively cool, but definitely still held pressure, which meant that the cabin had not been breached by whatever that had happened to the IKAROS. At some point the life support system had shut itself down and the air in his suit was diverted into the backup system instead.

“If I could get back to the primary loop, I could see how much juice there is left...”

He still had air to breathe. He just needed to get some power so that he would keep from freezing himself to death instead.

“Okay...reactant valves...pressurization module...nitrogen purge...damn...”

Another alarm went off, a light followed by a buzzer.

“Oh what the hell is it now?” Valentino muttered to himself. He muted the alarm and checked the code that had popped up on one of the screens that were stubbornly still displaying data despite the power shortage.

“Five five seven eight...anomalous gravity reading detected...” he read out aloud. “What gravity reading?”

He could think of a few reasons for such a thing – though his immediate feeling was that of surprise, that some of the sensors were still working. He'd expected everything to be shut down, if only to conserve the power. Yet now the computer was warning him of something going on out there...but what? The Captain wondered whether the engine was somehow still functioning and could create a distortion that would tear him into atoms. Or perhaps it was picking up something that was out there...

“With this luck, I've been slung to Saturn or something...” Valentino mused.

He had to resort to the oldest possible way of sensing what was going on about him, and that was looking with his very own eyes. The cameras were not working, and hence he had no chance but to peer through the small viewport and hope that he could glimpse something. Yet the view of stars right in front of him was perfectly uniform and did not tell him anything special.

“Alright...showtime...” mused the Captain as he took the joystick into his hand again and hit the button.

He fired the jets to create motion, this time so that the nose of the spacecraft slowly began to turn to the left. The needles moved, but so did the space around him, at least from Valentino's very limited personal point of view.

The alarm indicator kept flashing, but he only looked out of the window...until suddenly a crescent of light began to creep into the view, from the corner.

“What is that...” he turned his head as much as he could to see better, too anxious to wait for the ship's own very slow movement to give him the new angle he needed.

The crescent grew larger and more visible, and now he could also see a dark round shape that blocked the stars and created a blotch in space.

Valentino gave the ship a quick boost to the opposite direction to stop the movement, and continued to look at the sight in front of him.

“Well hello there...are you a horizon?” the Captain questioned.

The dark shadow was definitely growing larger too, and blocked ever increasing portion of his field of view. He could barely see any stars anymore.

“That's not good...”

Another light went off, this one labeled “G-SENSE”. The Captain knew very well what its purpose was.

That one was only activated whenever the vehicle experienced any kind of acceleration. He knew that the thrusters were not firing, since the activity lights were not on, and he would have not only felt it but seen it as well. He was likely not leaking anything, since the indicator would have flashed in that case. He wasn't moving, either, for on such a small craft even the movements of the pilot could influence the spacecraft's motion. The G-SENSE light wouldn't even come off unless there was a constant force affecting the spacecraft.

One such as a planet, and the fact that he was not accelerating, but decelerating due to the spacecraft hitting the thin upper layers of the atmosphere below.

“Oh, shhhooot...”

*

“BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!”

Glasses and crockery rattled on their shelves in the Sheffey home kitchen, resulting in Mrs. Sheffey's prized salad bowl to fall and shatter all over the floor. The strange noise that shook up the entire farmhouse was enough for Van Sheffey to lift his eyes from his newspaper and to glance up to the ceiling, his tall ears flicking back while the middle-aged rabbit wondered whether the house was planning to collapse on him.

“Ma!” he yelled.

“What's goin' on?” a shrill noise hollered from the direction of the bathroom where Mrs. Sheffey had been enjoying her soak in herbal-scented hot water. “Groundquake?”

“I ain't know!” the rabbit yelled in reply.

“Where's Callan?” Mrs. Sheffey questioned through the door.

“I ain't know either, Ma!” called our Van Sheffey.

“BRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!”

Another immense blow hit the house, a loud noise that sounded like it was enough to shatter windows. Van Sheffey's paws flexed with surprise and shock and caused the pad to drop from the armrest of his favorite chair. The rabbit's large footpaws propelled him into the air and he ducked to the floor in a kind of a primal protective instinct, paws going over his head protectively.

The bathroom door clattered open and Mrs. Sheffey emerged. She dripped water to the floor while she clutched a pink towel against her bosom.

“VAN!”

“Ain't know what's happening!” the rabbit shouted from the floor. “Gerrown!”

“I'm going out!” Mrs. Sheffey yelled. “Ain't staying in if the house comes down on me!”

She bounced over to the front door, bare rear swinging while he disappeared out into the setting sun out of the house and to the front yard of the farmhouse that was flanked by the equipment shelter and the garage from two sides. Mrs. Sheffey ducked down the steps and ran away from the house to the clear, empty yard in the hopes that she would be protected from any collapsing buildings, even if Mr. Van Sheffey was still within and at the risk of being buried in rubble.

The lady rabbit's eyes moved rapidly while she scanned for the surroundings in the hopes of catching something that had made the earlier deafening noises.

“VAN!” she yelled. “Gerout of there!”

The farmer rabbit emerged after a few moments from the house and joined his naked wife on the center of the yard, eyes crunched with concern.

“Ain't know what's happening...” he muttered.

“Oh there!” called our Mrs. Sheffey and pointed with her paw, almost causing her towel to fall.

A lick of smoke was rising from amid the swaying fields that surrounded the farmhouse from all directions.

“Mah crops!” moaned Mr. Van Sheffey.

“What is it Pa?”

“I ain't knowing but look at mah crops!” moaned the rabbit.

“I'll gonna call the fire unit!” Mrs. Sheffey bounced towards the farmhouse again.

“Mah darned crops...” the farmer rabbit rubbed his neck while he stared at the ever-rising, growing plume of smoke rising from his field. “No, no, no...”

A faint buzz was picked up by his ears, causing them the swivel into its direction. The noise was familiar to the farmer, whose eyes immediately picked up the source, an electric scooter that was approaching. Straddled upon it was Callan, their 15-year-old son who was coming quickly towards his father.

“SON!” called out Van Sheffey while he gestured at the boy.

Callan Sheffey parked his scooter with practiced ease and turned off the quietly buzzing engine. His ears were still somewhat tilted backwards from the previous air current ruffling upon them.

“Pa, Pa, you ain't knowing what I just saw!” the rabbit sounded excited.

“What is it?” the father questioned.

“Me thinks a satellite just fell to our eastern field!” the boy exclaimed. “Fell from the sky on fire!”

“I'll snap ye ears if ye making that up!” Van Sheffey chortled.

“I ain't making up, Pa,” said Callan, “just like in the movies!”

“Ye seen too many movies me thinks,” the father shook his head broadly.

They continued bickering until their mother appeared from the front door, now equipped with a phone and a nightshirt she had pulled on while inside the house.

“They coming!” Mrs. Sheffey announced. “And there's you Callan!”

“Heya Ma!” the young rabbit called for her. “I think it's a satellite that come down!”

“What?” she sounded as disbelieving as his father.

“Ain't making up, promise!” the boy said.

“Mah darn crops...” the farmer grumbled once again.

*

Oh my, what shall happen next? Tune in on the next chapter – and of course, looking forward to your comments, as always! Remember that all votes, faves and watches will help others to find these stories to enjoy as well!

Cheerio!