FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

As a foreword to this upcoming tale I would like to quickly give a rundown of what readers should expect. Currently this story does not have any highly NSFW aspects to it, although it does involve a variety of mature themes and language. As the story progresses, NSFW aspects may come into play at some point in the future and if it does I will note it as such. From what I can tell, there are quite a few well written steamy hot sex stories currently available on this site. If that is what you are looking for in this tale, I'm sorry but at the moment you will have to look elsewhere.

This is one of my first stories I have ever posted or shared publicly and as a result I'm sure it will be riddled with errors and incongruities. I ask that you please let me know if I have made any such glaring or obvious errors (preferably in a respectable manner) and I will do my best to remedy them in the future.

As with many stories on this website this tale is meant for people over 18/21 and may contain elements that some readers find offensive, including but not limited to the following:

-Furries

-Homosexual Relationships

-Heterosexual Relationships

-Gore (Both blood and Presidential Candidates)

-Sex (Of any kind)

-Abuse (Verbal, Physical and Emotional)

-The Color Blue (Whether it is Indigo, Teal or even Navy)

If you find any or all of the above list to your disliking I would ask that you not scroll down or read any further. To the remainder of the folks, please enjoy and I would love to know what you think.

All characters are fictional and any names or they may share with persons, both fictional and non-fictional are purely coincidental.

All characters and fictional locations are the intellectual property of banditfromtheeast © 2017

All Rights Reserved

As a final note to how the first part is supposed to sound/be interpreted, I would ask that you check out the first 30 seconds of this video of a Go/No Go polling for a launch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgHYGw9OL7c

Beyond the Stars

Chapter One

Lox: "GO"

Prop 1: "GO"

Prop 2: "GO"

Pad: "GO"

Booster: "GO"

Retro: "RETRO IS GO"

Guidance: "GO"

Procedures: "GO"

Network: "GO"

Control: "CONTROL IS GO"

Medical: "GO"

Telmu: "GO"

F.A.O.: "GO"

Range: "GO"

Recovery: "GO"

Capsule: "GO"

"This is the Mission Director, all stations confirm ready. Wind and weather have been reported within tolerances. We are cleared to launch. Timer, please proceed with the countdown at T-minus 90 seconds on my mark."

"Mark"

The three figures were pressed close together in their small, but not quite cramped capsule. Each of them were strapped into their seats and equipped with a fully enclosed and rather bulky flight suit.

"Stage One LOX pressure nominal, Turbo-pump pre-chill beginning in five seconds." The centre figure's right hand pointed at one amongst the hundreds of analog gauges present on the large panel in front of them.

"Confirmed" the two other figures responded together.

A shudder went through the vehicle as it's inner plumbing started to move the dense cold liquids around it. The low moaning and groaning soon became more prevalent as the enormous machine beneath their seats slowly awoke from its slumber.

"T- Minus 60 Seconds" announced a voice through their intercom.

"Switching to internal power" the central figure flicked a switch on the main panel. Another shudder went through the capsule as the electrical umbilical disconnected itself from the vehicle, retracting back into the launch tower. A small green light illuminated up on the main panel after a few seconds.

"Vehicle is on internal power, T-Minus 45 seconds, vehicle is in now in start up"

"Confirmed" The three astronauts said in unison, throwing a glance to each other. Each of their wide grins unmistakable in the dim capsule lighting.

"Stage 3 Cryo's have been cycled, disconnecting"

Another small shudder passed through their seats as another round of upper piping retracted from the vehicle.

"T-30 Seconds"

The three figures shuffled restlessly in their seats, giving their arms and shoulders a final stretch before their upcoming journey

"Vehicle is configured for flight, T-Minus 15"

"Well boys, How about we go have some fun?" the centre figure said with a huge smirk on his face.

The figures flanking him chuckled and settled back into their seats.

"T-Minus 10

9

8

7

6

5

Main Engine Start

2

1

Liftoff"

The three adventurers were gently pushed back into their chairs as the massive rocket began lumbering skyward.

"Vehicle has cleared the tower"

While accelerating quite slowly at first, the rocket quickly began to pick up speed as tons of propellant were ignited and thrown out the back of the engines. The exhaust plume was well over kilometer in length as the vehicle sped towards the upper atmosphere and beyond.

Caillyn watched as the rocket continued to make for the heavens from his tiny screen extending out from the bulkhead of the vessel. He sighed as the first set of side boosters separated from the main launch vehicle after completely exhausting their fuel. The Trinity missions always held a special place in his heart and he still felt shivers down his spine every time he watched a launch. The first time people from his planet touched the surface of another, before safely returning home.

He continued watching the old historical video, readjusting his position in his bunk. He was a little tired and it was late, but it's not like it really mattered. He wasn't going anywhere, nor was he doing anything else.

After several more minutes of the video he turned the screen off, removed his restraint and floated up and into the central cabin. He gripped a pair of handles on the ceiling and pressed himself down into the floor, putting his legs to a bit of use. After twenty three days of weightlessness he could already feel his muscles becoming weaker. He looked around the tiny pod; his home; his world and his prison. It was only fifteen feet long and six feet wide, although much of that was taken up by a column of small bunks. He was to be held in here for another thirty seven days, or so he was told. He had had no contact with the rest of the crew and no contact with home since the start of his affair. Just himself and his captor, who evidently had become quite quiet of late.

Caillyn continued exercising his body the best that he could, given his circumstance. Having his fore and aft paws pressing on the outer bulkheads was about the best he could do in this tiny craft. It was better than nothing but not by much. The well designed exercise room on the pod's mother-ship, was no more than few hundred feet away along with the delightful luxury of rotationally induced gravity. Unfortunately it may as well have been on the other side of the universe, as it was entirely unreachable.

Half an hour of a feeble workout later and Caillyn called it quits. He pushed off from his holds and towards the front of the vessel, maneuvering himself into the pilot's seat before strapping himself in. All controls were locked out, with the exception of the entertainment and video log systems, the first of which he used to fill as much of his free time as possible.

He looked out the large windscreen at the hulking cylindrical vessel off in the distance, it remained completely static save for the habitation rings rotating around the central core. The two vessels were connected by along umbilical cord, serving as both a power conduit and tow rope to his small pod.

Caillyn stared out at his former residence for a few minutes before looking down at his paws. Oily, and matted grey fur spread up his arms and across his body, he hadn't had a shower in weeks and it was at the point where even his own odor was getting to him. He knew he looked disgusting and felt even worse.

He rubbed his eyes a bit, they had grown red with the lack of sleep he had faced for the last twenty three days. Nothing physically kept him from sleeping, but his mental condition due to his incarceration meant that he was struggling to find rest. Boredom had long since set in and every moment he faced confined alone in this pod further tortured his mind.

He looked around the pod trying to find something to keep himself sane. Years of video records of every conceivable genre were at his disposal, but you can only watch so many movies and shows before everything starts to lose its appeal.

It wasn't long before he finally broke down and did the one thing he told himself that he would never do. He started up the video log program. A small camera on the main console lit up, indicating that it was recording. The image it picked up was projected onto the screen in front of him. He looked at it closely, it was the first time he could see his own physical condition in full since he had boarded the pod. There were no mirrors on this small vessel and the bathroom was little more than a hole with negative air pressure to draw in bodily waste. The fur on Caillyn's long grey muzzle was tufted up at several points, his whiskers were uneven and disheveled, and his eyes were exceptionally red. The once proud and handsome grey wolf now looked no better than a beggar on the streets of his home town.

He carefully examined his appearance for a few moments before clenching his paw shut and slamming it into the outer bulkhead. The loud bang rapidly faded away and the deafening silence returned.

The wolf cradled his face in his paws as his eyes began welling up. He found himself unsure if he was going to cry or going to laugh. A considerable period of time passed before he sat up, looked straight at the camera and began to speak.

"I suppose you're wondering how I ended up here, as I have been asking myself that for the past twenty three days. I never planned to be on this mission, I was never fully trained to be on this mission and to be frank I never wanted to be on this mission. I honestly don't know if I'm ever going to get out of here or whether I'll die in this tin can. I don't know if anyone will ever see this, but if they do I want you to know what happened, my story."

Caillyn paused as if deep in thought before continuing.

"I ... I guess the whole story, is sort of a long story, but as you may see from current situation," he gestured around at his sparse environment "I don't really have much else to do. Soooo ... yeah, I guess lets begin."

"My name is Caillyn Kaldo, and I'm the communications technician on this mission, although I wasn't supposed to be. I wasn't the primary person, and I wasn't the backup person. But due to a series of events, I'm here now; which I suppose is what counts.

I'm one of a total crew compliment of thirty five, and you could say that I'm the lowest of the low hanging fruit on tree that is this ... expedition. No fancy astronaut training, no highly recognized education and because of that, no real authority. Most of the time I do a lot of the dirty work like cleaning, along with a few odds and ends around the ship. But my primary purpose is to deal with the communications array, which I guess I'll get to in a bit.

Now Caillyn you might be saying, you're so lucky to be in space with a bunch of other people doing space stuff on a fantastic adventure. Oh yeah, I guess if you haven't figured it out by now, I'm in space. Sorry I'm not really good with stories and I promised myself that I would never do one of these stupid video logs. It's been a long twenty three days of being alone, stuck in this pod and I'm tired, cranky and sick of these FUCKING SURVIVAL RATIONS."

Caillyn grabbed up a small silver pouch floating near the front console and hurled it back down the length of pod. Upon impacting the rear bulkhead it promptly split open and the numerous bland brown nuggets it contained began meandering around the interior in all directions.

"Shit ..."

With his paws tightly clenched and muzzle in a snarl, he angrily stared at the small nuggets now slowly making their way back up to the front of the ship. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply for a few moments, trying to regain his composure. He eventually turned back towards the camera and continued.

"Anyway, where was I with this fucking story ... Lucky! ... Yeah lucky to be in space. Lucky to be part of the crew off on an adventure. Well do you why every crew member for a space mission has a backup person planned out for them? It's in case something happens to the primary person and they can't do the mission. Well, in my case, the "something happens" was that they died. My old boss Dr. Kelta, not that he was actually old, in fact he wasn't much old than I am, probably only 75 or 80. I mean I'm only 60 so in the grand scheme of things he was pretty young. But long story short he died in a sick and sadistic accident that took his life as he tried to save another person. Just some complete stranger he had never met before. He came across them drowning in a drainage canal so he jumped in, dragged them out, resuscitated them and essentially brought them back from the dead. Real first class hero stuff that deserves recognition, a medal, a parade, etc.

Then he was killed when the brakes on the Fucking AMBULANCE failed, ran him over and pinned him underwater in the same canal that he dragged that stranger out of a few minutes prior. He drowned and died a disgusting manner for that great a man."

Caillyn was quite visibly upset and his eyes began to well. He stopped for a moment in a futile attempt to compose himself.

"Well then, upon death, his responsibilities and training for the mission are now transferred to the backup crew member. Well guess what, one week after Dr. Kelta dies that backup person Dr. Karnun, a much older but still very capable man, who was also my boss, gets mugged and killed on the way to Dr. Kelta's funeral.

Seriously, it's really fucked up.

I ended up having the privilege and heartbreak of attending both funerals for these brilliant men, and I would give up anything to have either one or both of them back. So if any of you are thinking that I'm lucky right now just turn around and leave. Don't watch anymore of this log; pretend that you never found or saw it. If I was really a lucky guy I'd be sitting at home right now, talking with two good friends instead of being trapped in this fucking pod."

Caillyn once again paused, tears formed around his eyes and once large enough, broke away and floated off into the cabin. It took a while but he finally calmed down, swatted away the lingering tears and proceeded to tell his tale.

"So yeah, that meant I was now the only one who could work the Kelta Array ... which ... I guess you don't know what that is. Fuck I hate stories.

Well ... let's see. The Kelta Array, through some fancy physics that I won't try to explain, since I actually have no idea how they work, can transfer information instantly between the two linked connection points. One Array is on the TOOF and the ... shit ... you don't know what that is either ... bear with me for a second. One is on the TOOF and the other is on a large satellite orbiting Kalael back home. When the TOOF is in real-space then the Arrays can communicate with each other instantly, which helps because we are currently ..." Caillyn paused and looked up to run some numbers in his head. "394 light years from Kalael, which is little long to wait for a return transmission.

Anyway I know how to work and fix the Kelta Array because I used to work with Dr. Kelta, who designed the array, and Dr. Karnun, who was his close companion, co-researcher and partner. And I mean partner in a business sense not conjugal sense, get your mind out of the gutter and stop thinking about that. Although to be fair they were actually quite close friends.

Sorry, side-tracked again.

I worked with them because Dr. Kelta is my mother's ... second cousin's ... nephew's ... brother-in-law? I think? I can't remember, but I got the job because of family. Anyway, he designed and built it, I did odd jobs for him and over the course of several years I slowly learned how to troubleshoot and fix it with him, and then for him. His time was much better spent improving it and doing other sciencey things. I'm first to admit that I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I'm pretty good with my hands and half decent with electronics and soon enough I could fix the shit out of it. But I still haven't the slightest clue on why or how it actually works.

So yeah, I was now the most qualified person left alive, so I was "Given the Gracious Opportunity to Embark on a Historical Mission of Epic Proportions". That's what they literally said to me, plus I think it was on the pamphlet they gave me. It really looked like a travel brochure for some weird cult though ... they should have fired their designer. Anyway both my bosses just died when a bunch of tough looking ex-army guys black bagged me while I'm walking down the street and took me to some rundown house where they "volun-told" me that I would be going on this mission to ... Fuck I hate stories. Stay with me buddy, it'll make sense eventually ... I think ... just gimme a bit, I have to start somewhere. So yeah, join the mission willingly and get what amounts to a blank check when you come back, or be black bagged, drugged, fitted with a restraint device and wake up on the mission anyway.

So ... yeah, not too difficult of a decision to make. Two month of rushed training later and I was being launched into Low Kalael Orbit to rendezvous with the TOOF. Now, just so you know, I love the thought of space exploration, I love the rockets and vehicles that are used to get into space and I love the many, many Campy Sci-Fi series where everyone explores the Galaxy, shooting lasers at bad guys and where everyone learns a valuable lesson each episode under softened studio lighting and cardboard sets.

I however, do not love the idea of going to space. Space is scary, space is deadly and space is unforgiving. I am more than happy living my life on solid ground surrounded by an atmosphere and everyday luxuries. I gave very, very little thought about going far from home let alone going into space, anyway I digress.

I was on the last launch along with a few other members of the ships' crew and we rendezvoused with the TOOF in orbit. Ahh the TOOF, the star of the show so to speak. Now all of those old campy shows had a wide variety of locations, plots and laws of physics specific to each one. What they all did share was some sort of method to travel from location to location as they went about the galaxy. That method was always some massive ship, and every show pulled out all the stops to make theirs unique and exotic. In they end they were obviously fake, usually CGI or some plastic model with clever camera angles obscuring that fact. The TOOF on the other hand, was a very real, very capable ship designed for sole purpose of interstellar travel. A massive global project, with massive being an understatement here. It was probably the first real thing we did together as a planet, and its mission is to send people to another star system. Powered by a hybrid Fission/Fusion reactor, it could stay online and powered for a hundred years.

Now when it comes space and traveling through it, a hundred years is not that long of a time. If we looked at regular sub-light speeds, hell it'd barely make it to our closest neighboring system in that time. But thanks to some geniuses a few decades ago, they added in the latest and greatest version of the Stellar Drive. No idea how it works, but long story short, it allows it to go faster than light, a fair bit faster. How fast? Well it took 3 years to get here, so about 130 Light Years per year ain't bad.

They've used Stellar Drives for probes to other close systems before, but never anything manned, this is the first expedition of people outside of our star system. The crew and mission planners are from all around the world, everyone put in their chips to make it work, and everyone gets a say in how it runs.

Now to the name, the greatest machine of our time and possibly our entire history with a mission that is absolutely unequaled in the history of our species, and it's called the TOOF? Well TOOF actually stands for "Tears of our Forefathers". I know, I know, stupid name. Some middle school kid wrote an essay as part of an international naming contest and that was ... apparently ... the best they got, really setting the bar high there. So ... yeah, it unfortunately stuck.

Anyway the TOOF took something like ten years to build, all of it assembled in orbit. It could sustain a crew of fifty indefinitely through on board protein synthesis and was equipped with the most advanced electronics that our planet could produce. When it was finished, the launching ceremony and subsequent festivities lasted over a month. Some really wicked party! I however, was not on Kalael, so during the greatest celebration of our age, I was speeding away from the planet in a metal box cleaning rooms and doing maintenance and repairs on septic lines. Definitely not a little bitter about that.

So, one of the little quirks of the Stellar Drive is it doesn't work close to a planet or star, so I got to hear all about the amazing party for two weeks as we slowly left orbit, before we lost communication altogether. Activating the Stellar Drive means no communication, even with the Kelta Array, so we had to wait until we slowed to sub-light speeds to talk to Kalael and give updates on our mission.

Yeah the mission, I suppose you may want to know what that is. So the Kalael system only has three planets, two are rocky barren atmosphere-less wastelands, the other is obviously Kalael, which has water, life and most importantly an oxygen rich atmosphere. All in all not too much potential if you want to start a colony somewhere else. So we sent out probes to neighboring systems, to see what we could find. Long story short, nothing but garbage. Rocky garbage, a few Gas Giants with garbage moons and a handful of systems with no planets at all. Kind of a piss-off when you think about how much money they spent on those missions, and as you might expect, a lot of people were not happy about throwing away that much money on a series of gambles. So a group of crazy smart people built a huge telescope, thingy, to look for oxygen atmospheres on planets and sent it into space to look before we sent out probes.

Turns out it's a lot cheaper to look for something beforehand instead of just going there. I'm sure that one was on the politicians. Looks better when you send out dozens of star probes, with fancy names and cool logo's, rather than one big fuck-ugly satellite. Anyway, some times passes and surprise, surprise they find a planet with oxygen, amongst other things, that matches pretty well with what we have on Kalael. Meetings are called, science is done and now we're heading there to take a look. Eventually something like the TOOF would have been made one way or another so they decided to build and send it now instead of another probe.

So the just of it is we're heading to this planet to look to see if it's habitable, maybe do a few visits to the surface in the shuttles and then going home. Then the politicians can decide what they're doing next, although I'm sure whatever they decide it'll definitely be in the best interest of the planet and its citizens, and not just furthering their own careers. Honestly, in the end, whatever they decide, I don't care as long as they leave me out of it, so I can live my life out in peace and on solid ground. With enough money to take care of all my worries, I can just relax."

Caillyn started to smile and drifted away into his own thoughts for while, imagining himself on a deserted beach, somewhere exotic, bathing in the warmth of the day. The cool breeze coming off the ocean and the gently wash of the surf erasing any stress from his mind.

A brown nugget from the survival ration bag bumped the back of his head and brought him back to his much less appealing reality.

The wolf looked around, taking in his pitiful surroundings and became extremely agitated. He growled, snarled and clenched his paws slamming them into the console in front of him as bits of saliva spewed out of his teeth and floated off into the pod.

"Fuck I am done with this! Sampson you piece of Shit, let me out of here!"

Sampson calmly observed Caillyn as he broke down into a furry mess of tears and sobs through the video camera on the centre console; all the while collecting valuable information on his captive.

Sampson was always watching

End of Chapter One

Thank you for taking the time to read this, or scroll to the bottom of the page. Either way I would like to personally thank you for it. I would greatly appreciate any constructive criticism on the work and if you have have any ideas for plot that you would like to see in the upcoming segments, please let me know.