The little elf's Teal'c impression was so incongrous that the N1-L3 burst out laughing. It was a strangely metallic laugh, accompanied by the sloshing of fuel in pipes somewhere.

[b]"I think there's stores in the compartment above you,"[/b] it transmitted. [b]"But-"[/b]

[i]"Атмосферное сигнализации"[/i]

Without much warning, the cat-person had recalibrated the N1-L3's atmospheric pressure system. With the new "zero" of one atm, the internal cabin pressure read as zero atm. This was frustrating, and it took the N1-L3's full attention for a few moments to shut off the alarms and manually calibrate the system to a more reasonable level. Meanwhile, Oxygen poured noisily out of the tanks as it subconsciously tried to correct the situation. It nearly missed the ensuing conversation about dreams.

[b]"Things do seem... strangely detailed for a dream."[/b] the N1-L3 transmitted while popping open the consumables locker. [b]"Let's see, reality-checks: Well, I'm a rocket floating in code, and all of that is impossible. I must be dreaming. Unless this is a weird alternate-dimension thing that I slipped into."[/b] It pondered this for a moment. As Sutternalt, the N1-L3 had had contingency plans in place should an alternate-dimension version of himself attempt to make contact, but he hadn't ever considered how to distinguish an alternate dimension from a dream. 

Circuits clattered noisily and various indicator lights blinked on and off as the N1-L3 thought the problem over.

Theoretically if you fell asleep, dreamed, and woke up, then you could still be in a dream. Standard reality checks went out the window if you took a different form in the alternate dimension. How many fingers does a rocket have? None! Checking to see if you're still breathing or near-sighted? Rockets don't breathe! That left consistency - if things stayed the same after looking at them and forgetting about them, then you probably weren't dreaming. You could also make the argument - as the cat-person said - that you can't dream other consciousnesses (not [i]really[/i], anyway). But how do you empirically test for that?

On the other hand, dreams always made sense. Or force back-justified themselves to make sense. Or just prevented you from questioning them in the first place. So if there were phenomenae that blatantly didn't fit - that he had no explanation for how or why they were happening - and he could think about how or why they were happening, then that could count as evidence, too.

Some guy rode up to the N1-L3 on a turtle, and perched on top of the launch escape system. That didn't make sense. And there was no explanation forthcoming. And he could still think about it. External cameras still showed the same... people... as before. And the tiny elf and cat-person weren't talking like he would - their phrasing was off.

[b]"I suppose,"[/b] he transmitted, [b]"that we'd have to treat this as real unless-slash-until we're convinced otherwise. Which- wait, as a rocket, do I need fuel? Or power? Damnit, I've never been a rocket before! Do I eat? Is that even a relevant question?"[/b]