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

Beyond the Stars

Chapter Seven

The last few days of their journey passed without note. As Sampson predicted, the wolf was unable to repair the damaged module but the AI could continue on without it.

As the final hours counted down until arrival, the young wolf's stomach was twisted up in anticipation. After his usual maintenance regime, he spent the remainder of the day preparing a special meal commemorating the mission. He sat and ate in silence at the long and empty dining table, he had set a plate for all those who should have been here beside him.

At the T-minus 60 minute mark, he made his way to the bridge. The combination of the best view on the ship along with all of the technical and navigation readouts made it the obvious choice. Initially he had hesitated to sit in the Captain's chair, but after a few minutes of silent deliberation (along with ample coaxing from Sampson) he took his spot and prepared for arrival.

Their initial trajectory would place them about two weeks away from their mystery planet. The Stellar Drive had issues near gravity wells and additionally they would need to correct their relative velocities with the on board sub-light engines.

As the clock counted down to zero, Caillyn held his breathe. The ship jostled a little as it returned to regular space.

"Congratulations, we have arrived in the correct system on course. I am calculating appropriate maneuvers necessary to fall into orbit."

Caillyn nearly jumped out of his chair and ran towards the giant window at the front of the room. Several displays showing a variety of data were running on it but he brushed them aside, revealing the unobstructed real view of space in front of him. He tried to spot a pale dot off in the distance but with the exception of the systems' star, nothing looked out of the ordinary.

He withdrew from the window and returned to the chair. He picked up a bottle of sparkling wine that he had brought with him from the galley. He carefully popped the cork off and poured himself a glass, this was the best of the best from his planet. He wasn't a heavy drinker but he knew enough that this isn't the sort of stuff you spray around in jest. Caillyn spun around the empty room and sorrow once again filled his eyes. He raised his glass in a salute to his fallen comrades, paused for a moment before he began to down his drink.

"Gravimetric and telemetry data complete, first maneuver will commence in eight hours and will last for six days. Maximum acceleration will be 1.48 m/s2. This system is much more interesting than Kalael. Four terrestrial planets, three with an atmosphere although only our target contains any considerable concentration of free oxygen. Two of both Gas and Ice giants, each of which are adorned with several moons. Multiple smaller bodies exist in the outer system and orbital data suggests another large planet a significant distance out.

"Can you show me which one is our target" Caillyn asked as he moved towards the front window.

Sampson circled the pale blue dot way off in the distance and the wolf studied it the best he could.

Gravity is slightly lower than Kalael, approximately 88%, Atmosphere primarily composed of Nitrogen, Oxygen and Argon, with other trace gasses present in minute quantities. The oxygen level is higher than what you are used to on Kalael, but if anything it will permit prolonged physical activity. Pressure remains comparable to what you are used to.

"Wow" was the only word that the young wolf could muster.

"Orbital period is nearly three times as long as Kalael but rotation time is within several minutes. Large quantities of liquid water exist on the surface. Another interesting note is the enormous moon, it alone is larger than both the planets Kara and Kutsque in the Kalael system."

"What?" asked Caillyn in confusion. "That's huge! Are you sure that's right?"

"It is correct, in fact you can see it here" Sampson placed an arrow on the screen pointing to a very faint light close to the blue dot."

The wolf sat at the window examining the small dot off in the distance, and wondered what he was going to do when they finally arrived. He sipped away at his drink and thought about stepping foot on solid ground once more, feeling the sand and dirt between his paws and underneath his nails. He was brought back to reality once again by the ever nagging voice of Sampson, who had been repeatedly calling his name.

"Mr. Kaldo"

"Yes Sampson" the wolf replied automatically, not paying much attention to their conversation

"We may have a problem"

"It's okay Sampson, I trust you judgment, you can fix it" the wolf was once again drifting off into his own dream world. He imagined himself baking in the warm afternoon sun and a gentle cool breeze blowing through his fur.

"Mr Kaldo"

"Yes Sampson, I'm listening"

"No Mr. Kaldo, you are not"

The wolf jerked away from the window and padded towards the captains chair.

"Okay Sampson, you have my undivided attention" he said in an annoyed tone

"The planet is inhabited"

The wolf froze in place, his mind beginning to race.

"H ... H ... how do you know"

A bright light appeared on the main screen behind him. The wolf slowly turned around and saw a wide variety of videos, data and pictures displayed on the screen in front of him. A fairly hairless type of creature was present in most of the videos along with a variety of species unfamiliar to him. He dropped the bottle of wine and it shattered on the floor as he slowly walked to the main screen.

"A multitude of data is being broadcast on the lower frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum, this is simply a small selection of what is being sent out. I am attempting to process and categorize everything as it comes in. Please standby"

The wolf could barely sleep and in the end only managed a few hours of rest. The main engines ignited while he was in bed, signaling the beginning of their long deceleration. When he woke up, he quickly rushed through his daily tasks before spending as much time as possible studying the incoming data. There was so much and almost none of it made any sense to him, yet it was fascinating.

The inhabitants used hundreds of separate languages, separate alphabets and appeared to have vastly different and distinctive cultures depending on where they lived. Attempting to decipher any of the data fully would take a large portion of processing time and Sampson was devoting as much as he could to getting it done.

Caillyn studied everything he could, and from what he could gather they had been able to land at least a few inhabitants on their large moon, before bringing them back. But after that, major space exploration seemed to vanish save for a few probes here and there and couple rovers on the next planet out. Any manned flight remained in low orbit.

In addition at some point in the recent past they had had several significant wars and were now nuclear capable.

Day after day he tried to absorb as much as he could from the images he saw, but without context he could only understand so much of it.

He tried once again to contact Kalael through the Kelta Array, but he received no response and no more messages were cached on the satellite. He had no idea what they were going to do now that the planet supported life. During mission planning there were a few ideas here and there but nothing concrete was ever written down. If in any eventuality they discovered life they were to "Use their best judgment" and "Follow commands from mission control", not exactly helpful in this situation. He was glad to have Sampson on his side though and together they would have another few days before they finally made orbit. Things were finally starting to look up for the duo, which is why the universe decided to intervene.

The event occurred on day 5 of their 6 day burn maneuver. A small leak developed in the exhaust plasma manifold plumbing line that went from the fusion reactor to the main engine bell. Within a few moments the superheated plasma burnt through the hole, before shearing out into the surrounding pipes. The fragile lines, not designed to handle such high temperatures, burst. The resulting expansive forces tore apart the engine module and catapulted the remaining fragments of the engine bell away from the vehicle at high speed. The problem exhaust line was sealed at the reactor to prevent further damage but the TOOF's fate was now sealed.

Caillyn picked himself off of the floor, thrown down by the sudden acceleration spike from the main engine begin thrown from the vessel.

"Sampson what the fuck was that?" he yelled as he started up towards the engineering section of the ship

"It appears our primary engine is no longer functional"

"Can we fix it?" the wolf asked as he climbed up the ladder into the engine compartment

"Judging by the very large radar contact traveling away from us at several kilometers per second, I would say that we can not"

"Run a full systems check, we don't know what else could have been damaged" the wolf now stood at the engine control panel. Multiple flashing lights were being emitted by the console announcing the failure, however pressure readings in the fuel tanks were still holding steady.

"Damage seems to be contained to the main engine module, however several sensors in the fission reactor are inoperative. Reactor shielding is holding and there are no signs of any radiation leaks"

"Okay, well that's at least one piece of good news" replied the wolf, going over the various console errors and clearing out the redundant ones. Once he felt safe that there was no risk of a secondary explosion he left to try and assess the full extent of the damage.

There wasn't much he could see from the inside of the vehicle, but the handful of external cameras at his disposal showed enough. The engine was completely gone.

"Fuck" he muttered under his breathe.

"Without the main engine, we will be unable to make orbit" Sampson said, in his calm and monotone voice.

"So what do we do now?" asked the wolf, his voice whimpering out as he slumped down to the floor.

Silence filled the room for a few moments, before the AI responded

"I don't know"

The young wolf spent the next few days browsing through the large amount of data, gathered from their target planet. Strange songs and videos, their true meaning lost on him but still entertaining none the less. The inhabitants of the planet appeared to be quite violent in nature, they seemed to be constantly fighting amongst themselves, and spent a good portion of their free time coming up with activities that emulated fighting. The more and more time that passed, the easier it was to deal with reality of him never being able to visit the planet's surface. The young wolf had resigned himself to living out the rest of his days on the TOOF. Without the main engine the vessel simply did not have the ability to slow down enough to fall into orbit, it would do a close flyby before zipping by and continuing out of the solar system.

Sampson remained very quiet during this time, spending all of his time and resources trying to calculate a way out of their present situation. Twenty two hours prior to their closest approach he called Caillyn onto the bridge the fully disclose his plan.

"That is, by far, the craziest and stupidest thing I've ever heard you say. There is absolutely no way I'm going to do that" the wolf said angrily looking at the various diagrams he was being show on the main screen. "It's practically suicide!"

"36.4 percent chance of success" calmly responded Sampson

"Like I said, suicide" retorted the wolf.

"It is the only option you have to get off of the ship"

"Then I'll take my chances on the TOOF, thank you"

"Mr. Kaldo ... the ship is slowly dying. You have at most another two or three years on board, alone and safe, before some catastrophic failure occurs and you are killed."

"I'll at least be alive that long, and I won't be alone, I have you Sampson."

Sampson did not responded

"Sampson, you'll be with me, like you have been since day one of the mission."

"Mr. Kaldo ... I'm afraid that I will likely not be too long for this world either. I have been experiencing abnormalities in my processor banks on an ever increasing cadence. They're likely symptoms of prolonged radiation exposure. It won't be long before I too will suffer an unrecoverable failure, which in the end will leave you very alone on this ship for the remainder of your short life."

The young wolf looked as though he had just been stabbed in the heart. He sat down quietly in the captain's chair. He didn't know what to say to his last remaining friend.

"Mr. Kaldo, this is the only chance that you'll get, please take it and try to live out a full life."

Caillyn sat in silence for a long time, thinking about what would likely be his last major decision.

"Okay ... let's do it" he said quietly

It was now two hours until their closest approach and Caillyn was strapped into shuttle pod 1. He tried to mentally prepare himself for what would likely be his death, but in the end he felt nothing but the nervous knot in his stomach. He began to go over the planning session again in his mind, hoping he had set everything up correctly.

"The problem is the relative velocity" Sampson explained "At intercept we will be traveling at 63 kilometers per second relative to the planet. Normally the TOOF would use the high duration, high efficiency main engine to slow us down. Unfortunately that is no longer an option. Using all of the remaining on board fuel directed through the smaller and much less efficient thrusters, we can reduce that by 20 km/s. If you are in the shuttle, you can use it's on board fuel to cut off another 10 km/s. The shuttle itself is designed to re-enter an atmosphere from orbit at speeds up to 20 km/s. Unfortunately at this point the vehicle is still traveling far to fast, but I've calculated it could ablate off between 12 and 15 km/s before it disintegrates. During this time you will be inside the shuttle wearing an emergency re-entry suit which has a maximum velocity rating of 10 km/s. There is likely some minor safety margins built into all of the designs which means in the end you should be able to burn off between 55 and 60 km/s. In addition if we detonate several primer chords of mining explosives around the fusion reactor, we can time the reactor to blow out and force the two halves of the ship apart. This has a two fold purpose. First it will slow your half down and direct it closer to the planet where it can hit the atmosphere with more effect. The second purpose is it will direct the half with the fission reactor far enough away from the planet as to pass by without burning up and sending radioactive fallout raining down to the surface. If my calculations are correct there is a 36.4 percent chance of success involving a touchdown on a solid surface"

"What happens to the rest of the vehicle, and to you?" asked the wolf trying to get everything straight in his mind.

"The TOOF was never intended or designed to make an atmospheric re-entry. Any and all portions that hit the planet's atmosphere will burn up before hitting the surface"

"And you?"

"Once the primer code is detonated, it will sever all connections with my mainframe, which will be blown apart in the following seconds by the explosion from the fusion reactor"

"So you die?"

"More or less, that is correct"

"And your okay with this? Because most living things aren't usually planning to kill themselves"

"My death is now inevitable and I estimate that, regardless of any action, I will likely become inoperative within a year. If we conduct this operation you will have the highest probability of survival and get a chance at a new life on a living world. My fate is and always has been tied to the TOOF; there never was an end game, just existence. At least now I have the ability to go out on my own terms"

The wolf didn't say anything but began to tear up as he sat in the captain's chair. When he finally spoke, it was quiet and in a mumbled mess.

"Thank you Sampson, for everything"

"No Mr. Kaldo, thank you"

**

"60 seconds Mr. Kaldo, please standby"

Caillyn jerked back into reality and made the last few motions to prepare his shuttle for launch. His large bulky ablative suit made it difficult to access the controls, but it was necessary if their plan was to succeed.

"45 Seconds, remember you will undergo a tremendous force during your atmospheric re-entry. You will most certainly pass out and probably break several bones. The automated systems will do most of the work"

"You're really selling this well Sampson" the wolf said, his eyes slowly began to tear up

"30 Seconds, Mr. Kaldo. I've installed an assistant program on your suit's headset, it will try to aid you in translating the mess of languages the natives use down there. In addition I've uploaded the entire history and culture of your species. Like it or not, the last knowledge of your race goes with you.

The wolf began to full on sob inside his helmet, a garbled "Thank you Sampson" was all that could be discerned.

"15 Seconds to detonation, all systems go. Mr. Kaldo, go have some fun for me"

"Sampson!" the wolf yelled out "I..I love you Sampson"

"I love you too" calmly replied the AI

"Goodbye Caillyn"

With a final tremendous force and bright flash of light, the wolf was knocked unconscious.

When he came to, his shuttle was free of the TOOF, he could see pieces of the vessel glinting against the light of the systems star. The large but mostly dark planet stood in front of him, it's artificial lights already visible at this distance. His trajectory would have him enter on the backside before finally coming to rest somewhere during daylight, assuming he lived that long. He looked down at his console to check their status. All systems nominal and trajectory within margins, next maneuver would begin in twenty five minutes.

He sat strapped into his seat for the duration and simply gazed upon the dark blue wonder that he hoped would be his new home. He was now the last of his kind, embarking on a new and epic adventure.

As the time counted down, the vessel slowly turned it's back to the planet. As the time hit zero the engines ignited. Fuel was forced through the small but hot thermal reactor before being ejected out the engines. After several minutes the fuel tanks were depleted and the reactor was placed in a cool down mode. The shuttle then configured itself into the re-entry position, and Caillyn prepared to brace himself.

A minute or two passed before the ship passed into the shadow of the planet and re-entry began a few moments later. Red streaks of plasma whipped by the window of the vehicle as it pushed against the hot gasses. The strong deceleration soon made Caillyn drift in and out of consciousness, alarms began ringing on the panel indicating over-temperature and over-stress warnings on a multitude of surfaces. As the vehicle began to tear apart the ejection module activated and blew him away from the disintegrating spacecraft. He managed to open his eyes long enough to see his seat and straps melt away around him along with the shuttle being consumed in a ball of plasmatic fire.

He passed out again from his tumbling through the thin air, red plasma lapping at his face mask.

When he awoke his chest was in an incredible amount of pain, but he was still alive. The small control surfaces and pneumatics positioned his limbs in an optimal decent configuration. He was still traveling at an incredible speed but the plasma had died down. He looked down as he passed over the coastline, several towns and cities rapidly went by and were replaced by an enormous sea of green woodlands. His HUD finally called out the trans-sonic transition as he passed through 20000 feet. A sharp pain shot through his right arm, he looked over and saw the large gap in his suit along with blood coming out of a large gash. He felt pressure around his neck as the suit inflated to keep the remaining airflow isolated to his head.

His arm began to feel numb as he passed through 10000 feet, most of his horizontal velocity had been bled away and he was now falling at his terminal velocity. The rear panel of his suit blew off at 3000 feet and deployed his parachute. He found himself over a great forest with a small lake slightly ahead of him. Unfortunately neither the woods nor the water were an ideal place to land in a parachute, but with the water he could at least swim and breathe while in the suit ... in theory. He did his best to guide himself along the edge of the lake, but was unable to move his right arm which now lay limp at his side.

He struck the lake hard about 100 feet from the shore, and briefly blacked out. As he regained consciousness, he found his suit had inflated a few small pontoons to aid in buoyancy and he was now in a reclined position.

Caillyn slowly made progress towards the shoreline, his chest was on fire and he he knew that he had likely cracked several ribs during his re-entry.

Using his one good arm he managed to pull himself up onto the rocky shore. He worked his way under the canopy of a large tree and turned over onto his back. He opened his face mask and took a breathe of the fresh air.

Intoxicating is the only way he could describe it, and lay there staring up at the strange stars as they slowly faded away into a blue sky. The sun was rising in the east signaling the start of a new day. He knew he had found a new place to call his home and now exhausted, he faded away into a deep slumber.

End of Chapter Seven

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.