Steve In Space

CHAPTER FIVE

A thin wisp of steam escaped from the body of Darwin, and it cleared as Melvin M. Melvin walked inside. Bright yellowish-white light poured out of the now open doorway, and Steve shielded his eyes from it. As his eyes adjusted to the bright light, he could see someone moving beyond Melvin's silhouette. He stared, kind of squinting, to make out the figure as Melvin began talking.

"Gilly, what are you doing?" The small figure he saw turned around very quickly and started jabbering at Melvin with a series of clicks and whistles, which Mel interrupted.

"...That's fine, but before you..." More whistles, beeps and lip smacking sounds emanated from the small figure. Then, the head of the figure turned to the door and a dark, non-visible face with yellow-green eyes was looking right at Steve.

"Kkk...kkkckk...whrr...tck,tck,HHrrrr,COMPANY!" The small figure jumped off a box Steve hadn't noticed he was standing on and ran right up to him. He was smiling broadly, showing a gleaming set of brilliantly white teeth.

"Who be you?", the small man, or so Steve thought it was a man, said quickly. He was shorter than Steve but seemed to move very fast.

"I'm Steve" he said. The small man stood smiling, saying nothing. Steve thought he might introduce himself back, but when he didn't, Steve wasn't sure what to do. Thank goodness middle name Melvin was there, and did know what to do.

"Steve, this is your co-pilot, Gilly. Gilly, meet Darwin's new driver Steve." Mel stepped closer to the pair as he spoke. Gilly's smile got even wider, he dropped a wrench from his hand that Steve hadn't seen he was carrying and threw his short arms up over his head.

"GASH-GALANDA-GRRUPPITTUS!!", he shouted, and jumped up and down laughing. He gave Steve a huge, tight hug around his stomach, then stood back and put his hands on his hips. He began to speak, but all Steve heard was clicks and whistles again. Melvin, now standing behind the small alien man, tapped him on the shoulder.
"English, Gilly." Gilly stopped in mid sentence and with a small index finger tapped himself behind the ear once. Steve heard a strange beep as he did this, then Gilly cleared his throat.

"Gushna maya, vakalna hostick barsh hoogla Gilfoltranna..." Melvin cleared his throat loudly to interrupt Gilly once again.

"Earth, English." Melvin said. Gilly turned his head to look up at him, and in a mocking tone said "Eareve Angliss...", and once again took his short index finger and this time tapped behind his ear three times, looking down at the floor as he did so. Each time he tapped, Steve heard a different toned beep. Gilly looked up again at Melvin.

"Ugh?" he said. Mel nodded once, then dropping his hand and his gaze again, Gilly said "ugh". He turned his gaze to Steve again and took a deep breathe as he began to speak.

"Welcome to the guild. I am Gilfoil Garanagar Wanapanii G'shneepi, your co-pilot and vigilante assistant." Once again, Gilly, or Gilfoil, was standing in front of Steve with his hands on his hips. Steve took the time now to look closely at him.

He stood about three and half feet high, with long silvery-brown hair that flowed out from beneath an old cowboy hat on his head. He looked very stalky and strong, and his outfit was all dark blue leather, with huge Kelly green boots that came all the way up to his knees. Then he really looked hard at his face, and noticed it was all patchy, like the way different materials are sewn together on a quilt. Gilly's eyes and mouth were much larger than his own, but the patchy skin stood out the most.

"Good to meet you.", Steve said, then realized he didn't know for sure if it was good to meet him; he just said that out of habit.

"What were you doing in there that hurt Darwin?" he asked. Gilly made a weird lip noise as he picked up his wrench.

"Darwin can't be hurt, he's just sensitive."

'Yes, I can be hurt' Steve heard Darwin's voice in his head, sounding just a little bit sad. Gilly rolled his two big eyes after Darwin spoke, apparently he had heard him as well.

"I was re-polarizing Darwin's magneto graphite stabilizers and re-calibrating his guidance matrix, which I wouldn't have to if he didn't put so much torsional stress on his hull when turning."

'You've got torsional stress in your head' Steve heard Darwin sort of gigle as he said that. Gilly stood, looking a little frustrated, but he smiled at Steve and patted him on the shoulder.

"So, you be the new pilot... glad they got someone young like me finally. " He couldn't tell from looking at Gilly how old he was, but he thought him to be at least a teenager, maybe even in his twenties, much older than Steve.

"How old are you?" He asked Gilly. The short alien looked down and kicked at the air slightly.
"Two hundred and thirteen and three quarters" he replied like it was nothing. Steve was very surprised at his answer. He didn't know people could get that old. Mister Melvin made a small noise that got Gilly's attention, both he and Steve looked at the tallish alien manager as he spoke.

"Is Darwin fit for flight or do you have to continue repairs?" Gilly took the wrench in his hand, folded it up and put it in his pocket. Steve didn't know you could fold a wrench.

"All repairs complete, ready to go." Suddenly he turned and looked at Steve with a very toothy, wide eyed smile.

"Doyouwannagoferaride?" he asked, his voice sounded rather mischievous, like he might be asking him to do something bad. Steve hesitated to answer, his head still swimming with questions like why did Gilly say welcome to the guild, and how was he able to fold a wrench and put it in his pocket. Thankfully Melvin M Melvin was able to relieve him of answering on his own.

"That's an excellent idea, Gilfoil." He turned to look at Steve. "It will give you a chance to get used to space travel before you start work tomorrow."

Steve felt about as nervous as he ever had as he thought about going into space, but as he looked at the confident face of Melvin and the excited face of Gilly, he could feel a vibrant hum in his head he knew was coming from Darwin. He looked at the ship as he stood there and heard Darwin say 'Let's GO!' Steve smiled and nodded his head at Melvin. He smiled back, pulled a smart phone looking device from his pocket and started tapping on the screen. After tapping for about half a minute, he put the device back in his pocket and clapped his hands together in front of him.

"Launch clearance has been granted and preliminary approval given pending filing a flight plan." Just as Melvin finished talking, Darwin began to hum, very loudly for about ten seconds then went quiet.

'Flight plan filed' Darwin said. Then suddenly the light went up in the room and Steve heard a loud click above his head. He looked up to see two large doors slide open, revealing a rectangular hole in the ceiling. At first the hole seemed to be pitch black, but Steve started to see it glow an ominous dark blue.

Now Steve could feel Darwin hum even louder, and when he looked over the ship seemed to be vibrating. Gilly was standing just inside Darwin's door.

"What are you waiting for?" Let's go!", and with that he disappeared inside. Melvin looked at Steve with kind of a half smile and extended a long arm towards Darwin. Steve, not sure if he was scared or crazy, took the Trans Global Express cap that was in his hand, placed it firmly on his head and stode as deliberately as he could into the waiting ship.