Lost & Found (A Human X Anthro Shark story) - Chapter 1: Chapter 1

I was sitting in the locker room, looking at myself in the mirror, preparing for something I wasn't signing up for.
I was a substitute teacher for a science class and, initially, a pilot, testing planes for flights. But after he retired and quit, he almost died when he lost his stability from the craft I was in. Thankfully, he survived from the ejector seat of his aircraft.
So he got a job as a teacher, teaching kids as an assignment for a science physics class. I enjoyed physics as a kid, and when I was sorting through some stuff from my old apartment and found another one to live in, I found an old physics textbook that I used to read when I was younger.
It was in my old file box, and after taking a minute to think, I decided to get back to it. And after learning some of my old textbooks, I found a hire for a school that was hiring a substitute.
Even if I specialized in physics, they could squeeze me into a class in physics at Cougar Middle School. I have been working on happiness and finding purpose in teaching kids how physics can be fun and found in everything in life.
I taught them the basics, such as centripetal force, also known as artificial gravity, and that a yo-yo shares the same principles.
Which is centrifugal force, gravitational pull, and potential energy.
Still, it was the only way to escape my current predicament and achieve the life I've always dreamed of. The thought of the mission filled me with excitement and apprehension, but I was determined to complete it.
If this test fails and the contract that I signed was to make me a homeless man to the end, I am, I was willing to do that.
Even if it kills me, those were the probabilities of this experience I was planning to participate in.
Because the fuel was still volatile and could explode even during testing.
I was willing to risk my life to do it because there was nothing else in this world for me; I was willing to risk my life for it.
I had no family or friends, only me.
Just me.
They left me just as I left them, which was better for us. I wasn't the best at making friends, but I wasn't that good even if I did. I was socially inept and awkward, as usual.
That also makes me perfect for the job: I have no friends or relatives, just me alone.
Anyway, not to bring this up in a dramatic way, but no matter how many times drama comes to me. It seemed to find its way toward me, and I hated that.
So yeah, I was accepted and willing to take the test.
If this experimental test flight were a success, I would be able to live the life I wanted instead of struggling to be a low-down homeless for the rest of my life; a month ago, I was approached by a group of U.S. government officials at the Pentagon specifically that told me I was assigned to a highly classified project that was called the Celestial project it was a project to which the u.s. government the Pentagon specially funded and was under secrecy that they were trying to build the next generation of aerial vehicle that could have the potential to go faster than any aerial vehicle like the known SR-71 which was capable of reaching Mach 10.8.
The project was to help increase the speed of military-grade vehicle hardware to make aerial vehicles faster.
Using an experimental fuel source to create enough propulsion for the craft to go fast, they even theorized it would go faster than light and the speed of sound.
They hoped to get above that with an experimental fuel designed to be equivalent to an electrochemical fuel cell.
It was a device that ran on hydrogen and oxygen chemical bases, similar to the liquid and solid principles used for rockets and even the space shuttle.
It could generate electricity, heat, and water by causing the atoms to strip their electrons from the anode.
It is a type of atom that creates the anode reactional material in an electrochemical cell.
The rest was too complex for me to understand, yet they could only tell me that it was a fuel source they were planning to use for the craft I would use to fly.
I nodded, trying to appear as if I understood, but the truth was, it was all a bit over my head.
They hoped it would be stable enough to jump to the highest speed and reach either in seconds—the highest speed known in the history of humanity.
It reminded me of a movie I watched a while back, Top Gun, starring Tom Cruise. The sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, is also included.
And I was ready for that, prepared to be the first to achieve the impossible. My determination was unwavering, and I was prepared to face the risk head-on, inspiring others with my steadfast courage.
For centuries, we have cracked something so incredible that it is now part of our daily lives: fire, electricity, splitting the fractional point of an atom.
They plan to unlock another that could change how we produce flight performance. We cannot stop that; technology is the key to our progressive branch of evolution.
They promised me a handsome reward if the fuel cell and mission were successful. But if it weren't, I wouldn't walk away empty-handed.
I was fully aware of the risks, yet I was willing to risk everything to be the first to achieve something significant, bringing hope for a better future. The potential rewards were enticing, but the risks were real, and I was prepared to face them head-on.
But the stakes were high. If I failed, I would lose the opportunity to change my life, disappoint the U.S. government, and risk my safety, creating tension and suspense.
I turned to the suit hanging in my locker and stared at it. I stared at the suit I planned to wear for this experimental test.
The name tag is titled in black caps: M. Lightman.
I was glad to put on the suit I was assigned to be wearing. Once I was cleared and set, the two-set team checked my vitals and pressure to see if my mood swings and heart rate were stable for launch and if I was ready for the mission.
I walked out of the locker room with my gear, which I was only assigned to bring to the ship.
As I left the room, the door slid open, revealing the man, who looked like Bruce Willis and wore a director flight uniform. I had been assigned to meet him. He was the captain of a control deck who would be monitoring me while I was in the air.
"Sire," I said, saluting to him directly and straightly with my left hand.
"Pilot," he said, saluting me as well.
He simultaneously lowered our hands, and then, after a break, after a moment of silence and staring, he spoke to me.
"Ready?" he asked.
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be," I replied, my voice steady despite the nerves. I was ready to face the unknown, my determination and preparedness shining through.
He nodded to me, knowing, and gestured for the two suit dressers to suit me with my gloves, helmet, and oxygen supply.
After a moment of their test, I was sitting on a rough armchair, and they tested my blood flow and my heart as well; they asked me a series of questions, which I asked in the best way I could but to not stress about it.
They gave me a breathing treatment,
After I was cleared, they supplied me with the helmet, including the oxygen pack connected to the front side of my suit. Once I was removed, the flight director's assistant came over with a radio headset and spoke, adjusting the mic in front of his mouth.
"Testing, testing, 1 2 3, can you hear me?" The flight director asked, looking at me with a look of confirmation.
"Loud and clear," I said through the radio, the helmet's internal mic. I gave a thumbs-up with a neutral expression.
"All, all right, he's clear. Let's go," he said, directing me to where I needed to be.
I followed pursuit, withholding the oxy-pack supply.
I walked down a hall-wide and yet long hallway.
'remember we are looking between Mach 11 or 12, the highest that was hoping the craft you plan to fly in is stable enough to take that much air current and temp as well; the craft is built like a tank, so whatever you do won't damage the exterior parts of it the whole aircraft is plated with the thermal reentry plates were initially used for the NASA space shuttle, so you should be fine, but if this goes south, you are on your own." he said, I was able to hear that and my slow yet heavy breathing as well.
After reaching the end of the tunnel we were in, I was able to enter another room that was the sorge room, where the craft was being checked up and was ready for the test; many men and women were in the lab coast and holding tablets to take notes on anything that might need including, and noticed that there was a lender long like a tank that looked about the size of a fish tank and took three people to haul to the cargo port of the side of the ship.
Something was floating inside of it; it was a 20-sided dice-shaped geometric device inside the floating liquid of the device, and I assumed that was the fuel source they were planning to use for the ship I was planning to fly.
But from the outside, the craft looked like a futuristic marvel—sleek, metallic, and bristling with advanced technology.
It was a sight to behold, reminiscent of the spacecraft from the 1980s film The Last Starfighter. As I approached, the team noticed my presence and turned to acknowledge me.
They left, and a ladder was set up for me. Another set of hands came over to help me as I walked up the ladder to where the cockpit was. Once I was able to snug enough inside the craft slightly I was planning to be in, the controls that were in front of me were the same way when I flew in the simulator, so I remembered I recited and trained for this; once I was hooked up to the crafts oxy supply I gave them a thumbs up and the flight director gave me a thumbs up before the cockpit door slowly started to close above me slowly. I was ready, and once everything was up, online, and running, the gate doors from the storage warehouse doors were slowly opening, pulling me to the aircraft runway.
I took a minute to check everything's integrity. The fuel, including the engine, thermal, electric, and control surfaces, was clear for ignition and flight.
I started the engine, activated engine one, and then engine two. After seeing that the temp controls and the engines were running fluently, I could begin to accelerate with the potion of velocity I was in. I ascended from the ground ever so slightly, so I boosted the engines slightly to create a lift for the craft to take flight. At that very moment, I could feel the sudden change in the gravity inside of my body as I started to look further into the sky, focusing on the core to see that data could be good.
So, the plan was to travel between the stratosphere and the manosphere, as well as between the two atmospheres of the earth. I could use these to take the fuel test, and I hoped in God's will that I would make it back alive without any damage and travel faster than anything known to me.
I quickly diagnosed the power engines, fuel, and electric control board in the ship's cockpit. Once everything was working well, I heard others from flight control talking to me on the radio about the helmet I was wearing.
"Pilot, this is the flight director. You are clear for take off."
"Copy that, flight director, preparing to take off," I said as I started to activate and start the two flight engines of the craft I was in.
Back at flight control, they checked whether fuel, engine, electric, and surface control were available for the test we planned to perform.
I had the throttle on the left side of me and the joystick, the stick that controlled the ship, right between my legs, so I carefully guided the craft to the straight point of the runway.
"Ready when you are pilot."
After realizing what I was about to do, I breathed in and breathed out and said, "I'm ready."
After hearing them do the preflight check on all the craft's instruments, I listened to the flight director say the words once everything was good.
"All right then, pilot, you are clear for take off."
After hearing I was clear, I switched the throttle to the forward position, and at that moment, I felt the gravity in my body push me into the back of my seat. The two engines roared at full speed, and I slowly started to create acceleration.
Once I saw that the runway was nearly empty, I raised the craft slightly enough to take off from the surface. Thankfully, I could lift the craft into the air and felt the sudden change in gravity.
I skyrocketed towards the cloudless sky and turned my head slightly to see the horizon line of the sun rising in the western region of the part of the earth. Man, it was beautiful; we lived in such an incredible world.
I had an excellent time enjoying the view. Looking at my electrical instruments, I saw that I was nearly entering the stratosphere.
If my memory serves and my training is correct, they needed me to turn on the fuel source to see if it was stable enough for the speed at which I would take the craft.
Once I had the two monitors, one showing the integrity of the craft and the other a grid structure showing which layer in the atmosphere I was heading towards, I could guide the craft to the stratosphere.
Once the craft was flat enough for me to bring the fuel test, I heard a slight crackle of static through the radio headset of my helmet until someone peeked through, which I knew was the flight director.
"Okay, it looks like you are all clear for activation, " the flight director said over the radio.
"Copy control, initialize fuel source," I said, remembering the protocols and initializing the activation of the first phase of the fuel.
As I pressed and opened the plastic casing that covered the activation button, a red triangle button indicated the fuel's activation. I took a deep, shallow, yet strong breath and pressed it.
The inside of the craft, the fuel, started to vibrate, and a slight glow of an aura orange from the inside of the canister began to glow and slightly whirr to life.
The inside was a 20-sided dice-like object that started to spin aggressively. All directions are like a gyro.
The ship started to run, and they showed me on the screen before me a guidance system of where I was to start and where to end.
At that moment, the ship's thruster was at full throttle and blasted through the sky, causing me to launch my head hard at the back of my caramel-colored cushioned seat.
The guidance system that showed me where I needed to go showed perfectly on the screen before me of the controls.
"We're receiving the temp data, and everything looks good."
"Fuel?" I asked from my helmet radio. I leaned slightly to look at the fuel meter beside me and the controls.
It showed it was still on green levels, as it should be.
"Fuel looks stable from down here, pilot. You are all good."
"You are now at 20 percent of fuel capacity."
"Increasing fuel capacity to 30 percent," I said, shifting the throttle to an extra 10 percent.
The ship pushed itself further, and the craft's temperature was climbing in the flight data, but I could see that I was good on speed and that the fuel was still stable.
"You are now at 40 percent of fuel capacity and have just reached Mach 10.8."
After hearing that everything looked stable and the craft's surface temperature was slightly rising, I realized that thanks to the heat shielding, it was stable, and I was being precocious.
I checked the monitors on my controls and the screen to see that the integrity of the craft was starting to increase in temperature because, based on the holographic map that showed in front of me from my helmet's interface, it was showing me to take to the horizon line of to which where the sun was rising, and the thermal radiation waves promote meta share and stature were stating to ignite with the craft I was in, but what was more strange is that it only occurred in theses sort of event was in the troposphere and checking where I was in the planet's atmosphere I wasn't even close to being that layer I was only between the stratosphere, and the mesosphere.
But that's when it started to get stronger. The thermal reaction of the ship was starting to crackle, and checking the fuel, the fuel began to increase and was in the yellow zone, showing the process bar of the craft.
"Warning! Fuel cell, at increasing critical level." an automated voice in my headset said.
That's when certain parts of plasmatic energy began to occur and crackle on the outside of the aircraft.
You might wonder how I knew this when I was a teen; I loved physics, nothing more. It's stuff. It just dawned on me, and I could remember what I was taught in physics class.
Suddenly, my console alarm went off, and I checked to see if I had just reached Mach 11.0. it somehow did, but that wasn't the problem.
The integrity of the craft was starting to vibrate, and the electrical instruments were beginning to go off.
And this was concerning, "Flight control, are you getting a read on this?" I asked, but only to receive static from the side of the end.
"Flight control, do you read me?" I asked, feeling uneasy about what I could receive from flight control.
I checked the channels before I could check them or see if there could be some interference or static if I were out of range. I noticed that my speed was now at Mach 11.8, and the ship started to shake even more aggressively.
Suddenly, the guidance interface started to glitch and buffer so much that I could not see where I was supposed to be going.
"Flight control, if you can hear me, I'm decreasing my speed in hopes of causing the integrity of the ship not to fall apart," I said, but only to review static from the other side again and look from the months that they were stating glitches as well, as I took hold of the throttle to decrease the speed. Still, somehow, the craft wasn't slowing down anymore, but the current of where the ship was flowing on kept going faster. It was flowing through a current wave of water in the ocean, and the boat continued.
"Flight control, we may have a problem," I said, reciting a quote from the Ron Howard movie Apollo 13 with Tom Hanks.
"I'm on some air current, causing the ship to follow it. I'm unsure what is happening, but I'm turning off all electronic controls," I said as I started to shut off all of the controls. Nothing was happening, and I was worrying about what would happen. Yet, the energy surrounding the craft began to shake even more, and at that moment, I froze to see I was in some wormhole.
But it was like a combination of a storm of lighting and the northern lights, and they flowed across and between the ship's wings and the nose.
I stared at my surroundings. The outside of the craft was an atmospheric phenomenon, and I stared outside to see the northern lights' beauty and colors. The blue bolts of lighting could be just plasma energy.
Still, it was strange to see something like this occur in such a moment, like suddenly, and that was when the fuel levels, even though they were off the fuel, had some reaction to the atmospheric phenomenon that was happening before me.
Before I could take on the environment, that was when, in the fuel source continent unit, the alarm to the fuel meter was at a critical level.
I assumed that whatever was happening here right now was affecting the fuel as well, and that was concerning; with all the electricals turned off, I could have a better way to detect the speeds I was going. To some strange yet crazy miracle, I reached Mach 12.1.
The ship's structural integrity continued vibrating, which concerned me. Suddenly, a flash of light from a bolt of energy struck the craft. With a bright flash of white light, I was greeted outside, and I suddenly started to feel the surge in my body as if I were gliding, as in the ship.
Looking out the window, I couldn't see where everything was because I was in the middle of a group of clouds.
Taking a minute to see how fast I was going, I was at Mach.
7.5, and it was slowly decreasing, so if I were to find out where I was, I needed to turn the electronic console surfaces back on and figure out where I was and if there was anywhere that I could land or if there was any land out there at all. Once the central systems were back online and doing a quick check, I could see I was slightly gliding through the cloud from the stratosphere to the Trposhere, the area to which planes and other commercial aerial aircraft were and to which were the clouds like to huddle.
"Flight control, this is pilot. Do you copy over?" I said, but I have yet to receive static from the other end.
After checking the radio and the frequency, I found a specific frequency to help me get where I am and where I need to go.
"Flight control, this is pilot Michael Lighmtman. I am now open to all radio frequencies. Can any of you hear me?" I asked, hoping that my plan would work.
Hearing static yet again, I grunted in frustration and then slightly turned on the throttle part of the craft and slowly pushed it forward to activate the thrusters, but when I consoled alarm went off, I assumed it was the fuel, and for some miraculous even, it was stable. But that wasn't the situation.
I was already out of fuel.
"shit," I muttered in caution and irritation.
The craft used a liquid fuel source, and I speculate that a strange event before me caused it to lose so much fun.
It must've burned out the fuel, and now I briefly had enough. The fuel parts of the craft had two stages. The first stage was used for taking off or launching circumstances.
The secondary fuel stage was used for the experimental test, and the first fuel stage had already burned out.
Unsure what to do, I looked forward and out the window, yet to see nothing but a beautiful blue sky and the depths of clouds.
"Sigh, I'm blind as a bat over here," I said
After a moment of turning on my second digital console screen, I could see that I was still descending from the sky and that the more I descended, the more I could see where I was going or where I could carefully navigate with the aircraft without exploding me or the fuel that could detonate at any moment.
Checking my monitor, the screen that showed where I was in the atmosphere, I was greeted that I was already around in the depths of 280,000 feet from the surface and that I needed to slow down slightly from losing altitude because I was coming down pretty fast.
I needed to figure out how to slow down without using too much fuel, which I was already running low on.
Turing the throttle control down backward, the propulsion from the two engines slowly calmed down.
I felt the craft's slow movement coming down, yet I could still not see anything. It reminded me of the scene in Empire Strikes Back when Luke entered the planet where an old Jedi master lived, which caused Luke to struggle to fly through the mist with his ex-wing and crash into a murky lake.
And that made me think I was in this kind of situation.
After briefly observing the clouds and being cautious and aware of my situation, I found the clouds barely clear. When I looked out one of the two windows on both my right and left sides to where I was, I looked to see water.
"How am I this close to the ocean?" I said, unsure of how far I was, but looking at the water, I assumed I was in the Caribbean Island region because I saw from the ocean waters that there were specific points of reefs in there.
I assumed I was close to land or an island if my assumption of all theories was correct.
Suddenly, I was closer to the water than I realized, so I pulled up the stick upward to where my legs connected and used both of my gloved hands to pull up, hopefully enough that I would cause the ship to crash. And yet, after hearing the sudden alarm from the interior parts of the cockpit.
Taking a minute, I could slam my hand hard on a small button, the emergency retro booster that helped when an emergency landed. They would either be activated automatically or manually.
Yet, I had to do it manually because I turned off the automatic countermeasures.
Thankfully, when I was about to land hard on the water, I felt the sudden propulsion from the craft I was in.
Then, a sudden hard landing splash of water caused me to unsee the water splashing on the only two visible windows from my cockpit door hatch.
The sudden motion of the water from the craft caused sudden motion in the ship.
I was unsure if the inflatable airbag helped the craft stay on the water's surface in hopes it wouldn't sink into the ocean's depths.
Looking utterly out one of the two windows in the cockpit, I saw they could deploy.
Still, I noticed that they were trying, so I assumed that the test's thermal temperatures caused the airbags to malfunction and that I meant I needed to get out.
Checking both sides to where they were supposed to deploy on the nose and the wings as well, but I wasn't able to see if they were deployed, so I started to be unable to the straps that were buckled around my torso and my shoulders as well, once I was able yet struggling to get them off the system were going off and to see that water was flooding the engines and that I needed to figure out how to get out from here.
I remembered an Emergency that activated the cockpit to open; looking around in the space I was in, I found a red handle, grabbed it, and pulled it down with a little struggle to open it.
Once entirely pulled down, the cockpit door gushed open the air from the hatch flung open in mid-air, only to be greeted by the beams of bright light covering my helmet with the sun.
Vidor, I could see more appropriately to see there was ocean behind me, but when I turned, in front of me was an island only about a few miles from where I was.
I was about to leave the craft when I pulled back in and noticed that the oxygen pack was still connected to my suit.
I struggled to disconnect it, but the water slightly submerged me, and the ship slowly yet quickly drowned in the depths.
Finally, I was able to disconnect the oxygen supply cable port, I was able to close the oxygen hatch that was part of my suit to seal it so no water goes inside of it, and when I was able to jump out from the cockpit and splash into the water,
I assumed that the gear I was wearing would help keep the water out from the inside of my body, and I thought that the suit I was wearing would leak in.
Thankfully, I wasn't, but when I raised to the surface of the water, the captured air from when I closed the port caused me to float slightly, but the more I struggled from the waves, they were aggressive, and they were causing me to sink into the depths of the ocean salt populated water.
Despite struggling with the ocean's depths and trying to swim to the island, I noticed this when I was in the cockpit.
But the weight of the suit was dragging me down, so I used my arms to lift me slightly and swim to the beach. However, it wasn't working very well. When I turned around slightly, swimming to turn myself around, I froze to see the ship was sinking, and that's when something popped into my head.
"The fuel source." I thought.
I swam as fast as I could, swinging to the side and using all my strength. I came to the ship's side and tried to press the hatch with the fuel inside. However, it was jammed, so after a few turns, it opened. When I opened it, I grabbed the fuel handle, turned it counterclockwise, and pulled it out. Thank God, it was still intact from the impact.
I used a belt buckle strap from my suit and clipped it to the handle of the fuel container.
And slowly moved away from the conditioned submerged craft.
Assuming that was the only worst part that was taken care of, but I needed to get to the beach, so I, in high hopes, regained my strength and got this suit off and got some help if there was some private beach house of some kind and they could help me anyway and contact flight control.
I maneuvered slightly and carefully through the waves, and thankfully, they pushed me toward where I needed to go.
But I was caught off guard when I noticed something approaching me. I was initially confused about what it was until I stopped to assume, based on the sudden wave patterns, that something big and possibly dangerous was heading straight toward me.
I stopped instantly, hoping that whatever it was would be attracted to motion. So, I stopped and used the fuel source as a float to prop up and use and help support myself.
I watched as something suddenly appeared in the water, cautiously approaching me, and I was worried about what it was and what it might do.
But before my thoughts could be any more truncated, the creature rose from the rose in a flash, splashing water on my still-sunglass-like visor. Once I had wiped the residue water off, I froze to see something alien I wasn't expecting to see.
The creature before me was a shark, unlike any other shark I've seen. This was what people would call an anthropomorphic shark, and yet this one was female.
This is what I drew for the shark character of my story:)
I could tell from her physical and distinctive features because she had a bosom that was probably about the size of my head.
Her skin looked slick; she had dark gray skin on the top and a lighter gray underbelly. She had hair like I do, but hers was a similar gray color to her skin.
She even had ears with slightly dark or golden earrings hooked on them, but I couldn't tell from the sun behind me reflecting off the metal of her earrings. She wore a dress and swimsuit that happened to be both in one.
She was slightly towering over me, and it was a relief that her eyes showed no signs of harm or predatory instinct. Although she looked and dressed like a human woman, she seemed to have spent quite a lot of time in the gym, and the muscles of her arms showed slight bulges.
Of yet pure muscles.
I sensed that she could see what I was looking at, and thankfully, I did not want to be rude because she seemed intelligent enough to understand.
However, when she looked at me, she displayed signs of curiosity and maybe caution, but honestly, I wouldn't blame her; we were foreign to one another.
I assumed she had never seen anyone like me before, but despite my wearing a suit, she could see my proper form and self.
Suddenly, she noticed that I was using the furled source as a lifeline to help me float.
Unsure of what she was doing, she brought her hand to me, slightly rinsing it from the water, and extended it towards me as if it were a handshake.
I could see that her fingers had light grey coloring, similar to her belly, indicating that she had fish webs between the ridges of her fingers.
"...Hi," she said in an accent I couldn't comprehend until I guessed it might be Australian.
Her tone was awkward as if she didn't know what to say, so she said the only possible yet logical response.
I couldn't speak to her because of my helmet, but I took her hand. She slightly jolted at my approach, yet she didn't seem afraid of me; she appeared a bit taller and more significant than I was.
While trying to balance myself with the fuel container, I could handshake.
I couldn't fully feel the texture of her five-fingered hand, but I could sense the pressure on the inside of my suit's fabric.
It was inconvenient because both of us were in the middle of the ocean. After a brief handshake, she looked at me curiously and then raised her hand, leaving me confused.
She grabbed me with both hands, cradled me under my arm, and brought me closer to her. She slightly brought her nose and lip close to my visor, and I could see her breathing fogging up my visor.
She seemed to notice this and said, "Oh! Sorry, um, do you need help getting to shore?" she asked. It was kind and also genuine as well.
I nodded fluently enough for him to know that it was a yes.
With her help, she put me down slightly back to the water and helped me with her free hand, guiding me to shore.