Hello again readers. I had some more free time over the holidays than I expected, so here's the next chapter of "Flight 1917". Enjoy it.
Clear Skies and Smooth Landings,
Peter
When Peter opened his eyes, he could immediately tell that something was off. For a start, the ceiling looked like it was made out of some kind of metal, not the plaster that made up the ceiling of both the room he fell asleep in and his apartment in Cork.
Bolting upright, Peter quickly glanced around the room to try to figure out where he was. However, this only served to confuse him further, as all the other walls and the floor were also made out of metal. The room was sparsely furnished, as the only pieces of furniture were two bunk beds, and a small bedside table between them. The only room Peter knew that was even remotely similar to the one he was now in were the ones in the barracks in Murmansk, and even those were larger and more spacious than this one.
Frustrated at yet another confusing turn of events, Peter raised his hands to his face and tried to rub the sleep from his eyes, before pausing for a few moments, and slowly removing his hands from his face and just staring at them for a minute.
"Hands… I have hands. Not paws. Hands." Peter muttered to himself. After being in a state of shock for a few more minutes, Peter's rational mind finally returned.
"Mirror. I need to find a mirror." he thought to himself. He got off the bed and looked around, before spotting the door to the opposite of the bedside table. Stepping out of the door, Peter found himself in a long corridor. Mentally flipping a coin, Peter decided to turn right and started walking along the corridor. Opening a few of the doors that lined the corridor, Peter noted that they all looked pretty much identical to the one he woke up in.
After a few minutes of searching, Peter noticed a door that was spaced further apart from the other doors. Opening it, Peter recognised it as a communal shower from his military service. Stepping inside, he spotted a mirror on one of the walls. Approaching the mirror, he didn't see the tan and brown anthro wolf that he expected to see, but rather the tall, pale, brown haired, mustachioed human that he had gotten used to over the past 50 plus years of his existence.
"Right. Well, I am even more confused than I was before. So, to recap, I went from being a human, to an anthro, to a human again in the course of two or three days day. I am, in all likelihood, in some type of military facility. I should probably try to figure out where I am, in more detail than "some type of military facility", shouldn't I?" he said, still looking at his reflection in the mirror. Giving himself a nod, Peter turned and walked out of the door he had walked in through a few minutes earlier.
Continuing along the corridor, Peter came across a staircase. After debating whether to go down or up for a few seconds, he decided to go up, with the intention of using the height of whatever building he was in to get an overview of the area around it to help identify where he was.
After continuing to climb up a few more flights of stairs, Peter spotted a door that looked different to the others. As opposed to the rectangular doors of the rooms, this door looked to be thicker, and had rounded off corners.
"Huh. That door doesn't look like any door I've seen in… well, any military installation I've ever been." he thought, before shrugging "Oh well, might as well see where it leads."
When Peter opened the door, he was greeted by an odd sight, for what was directly in front of him was what, from where he was standing looked to be a large metal cylinder with multiple smaller pipes running up the side. At first, he thought that he was looking at the smokestack of some type of powerstation. However, this thought was quickly dispelled, as when he looked left, then right, he saw a wooden deck, followed by what appeared to be many anti-aircraft guns, then a sheer drop and a large, open body of water.
"Alright. So, it would seem that the military facility I thought I was in appears to be a battleship. And" turning around, he continued "judging by the bloody great pagoda mast, a Japanese one."
After deciding that his previous plan of "Getting to high ground" was still the best option. After walking around on the deck he was on for a few minutes, he found a ladder ascending the back of the pagoda. Looking up at the (at least) 2 story high ladder in disbelief, Peter exasperatedly said "You've got to be kidding me." Letting out a sigh and walking to the base of the ladder, he dejectedly continued "Well, I guess the only way to go is up. Let's hope I haven't grown too unfit." And with that, he started to climb the ladder.
Approximately half a minute later, Peter stepped of the ladder on to an open platform attached to the back of the pagoda very slightly out of breath. "Well, that wasn't too bad." he thought to himself. However, his look of slight relief immediately disappeared as he looked up, and was replaced with one of shock and disbelief as he saw 5 more ladders leading up to the top of the pagoda. "Well, bollocks." he said, extremely frustrated.
Ten minutes later, Peter stumbled off of the topmost ladder, into what appeared to be the bridge of the ship. After five minutes of laying on his side, breathing heavily and trying not to die, he finally managed to get back on his feet, before standing straight up. "Shit." he managed to say before devolving into a coughing fit, as he doubled over, trying to regain his breath. After another five minutes, he finally regained his breath to a sufficient extent that he could stand up straight without collapsing due to breathlessness.
"I hope I don't ever have to do THAT again" Peter said, walking towards the windows that looked over the bow of the battleship. Upon seeing the gun layout, Peter immediately recognised which vessel he seemed to be onboard.
"Well, based on my previous assumption that this is a Japanese battleship, and the fact that this vessel is equipped with two three gun turrets in front of the superstructure…" Looking down further, he continued "and also another three gun turret with smaller guns, I would have to guess that this is a ship of the Yamato class." He paused for a moment, looked up, before saying "Wow, my brain went really high-brow there for some reason."
Peter started walking around the bridge, trying to figure out what to do next. After doing that for a few minutes, he had all but given up hope. He walked over to one of the windows, and just looked out of it with a look of despair on his face, waiting for inspiration to strike. Luckily for him, it did, as he suddenly spotted a figure standing at the bow.
"What the hell…" he muttered, reaching back behind himself and grabbing an extremely conveniently placed pair of binoculars off of a table. Looking through them, he did his best to figure out who, or what, the figure was. Although he was unable to clearly identify the figure, he did manage to establish that the figure was an anthropomorphic animal. He decided that the best course of action is to get closer to him. He turned around and headed towards the door off the bridge, before stopping, having realized what going down to the deck would entail.
"Oh, bollocks. Fingers crossed I don't have to come back up here for a while." he frustratedly said, as he began to descend the many ladders on the side of the pagoda mast of this Yamato class battleship.
After fifteen minutes of descending ladders, re-entering the superstructures and repeatedly getting lost in the maze like corridors, Peter finally stepped onto the deck. Looking right, he saw anti-aircraft guns. Many anti-aircraft guns, as well as most of the superstructure. Looking left, he saw the two turrets armed with three 46 cm guns each, as well as a single turret armed with three 15.5 cm guns.
"Well, one thing is certain. This is, without a doubt, a Yamato class battleship, and I'm standing on the starboard side of the deck." Peter said to himself, before walking up to the Number Two turret, sauntering around it and gazing up at it in awe of its sheer size, before a sudden realisation hit him.
"Oh yeah, I came down here for a reason, didn't I?" he muttered, remembering that the reason he left the bridge was to investigate the figure on the forecastle.
"And "The Figure on the Forecastle" is a rip off of "The Man in the High Castle"" he thought to himself, before pausing, and trying to figure out why his brain chose times like this to come up with terrible jokes. Abandoning this train of thought and shaking his head, Peter once again started making his way towards the bow.
It was at the point where the deck changed from wood to metal where Peter got close enough to the figure to identify it, and was extremely surprised by who it was.
"Woah, isn't that… well, me? Or Peter Wilde, I guess?" he thought, after recognising the tan wolf.
Despite how surprised he was at this unexpected turn of events, Peter did his best to stop it from showing on his face. He was doing a good job of it, although it was completely unnecessary, as the wolf had his back turned to him and was leaning against the railing at the bow. Not knowing whether to break the silence or not, he chose to simply walk up next to the wolf, and also leaned on the railing.
The two spent the next fifteen minutes in silence, not saying a word, nor making eye contact. In the end, it was the wolf who broke the silence.
"So,are we just going to stand here in awkward silence or are we actually going to get to talking about why you're here?"
Peter, still not making eye contact with the wolf, responded with a shrug "If you know why I'm here, I would be glad to hear it, but to be honest, I'm still not entirely sure that what happened today, the ship we're on or you aren't just figments of my imagination after being extremely traumatised in a plane crash."
The wolf nodded, before turning towards Peter, and saying "Well, I can't truthfully claim that I'm not a figment of your imagination. But, just out of curiosity, do you know who I am, or do I have to tell you?"
Peter turned and, for the first time, made eye contact with the wolf. "At a guess, Peter Wilde?"
This earned a nod from the wolf.
"Alright, good. This is a good sign. At least I don't have to explain everything. That should save us some time. So, next question, do you know where you are?"
"Currently a Yamato class battleship, or are you referring to Zootopia?"
The wolf thought for a moment with a look of surprise on his face, as if not having thought about the answer, before saying "Well, I guess I'm talking about the ship. This is a representation of your mind… I guess."
Peter nodded, thought for a moment, before responding with "Okay, then let me ask you a question. Why are you here?"
Once again, the wolf seemed to have been caught off guard by Peter's question.
"Well, I guess… I guess I'm here to help you adjust to your new situation. As in, if you have any questions about, say, the operation of Pan Zootopian that you can't ask anyone without causing concern, then you can ask me." The wolf then looked down at his watch, before saying "Well we're almost out of time. You can only be here if you're asleep, and you're about to wake up."
Peter simply shook his head at the almost cliché nature of this whole thing as the world around him began to fade, before a sudden question suddenly popped into his head.
"Hold on! What is your and Nick's mother's first name?"
The wolf jumped slightly, clearly not expecting Peter to yell at him. He did however manage to quickly say "Vivian!"
Peter could only nod in response as the world around him faded to black.
