FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

2593-08

"Captain," Marc's voice came over the com, "you need to come to the bridge."

Eric wondered for a moment why it was the monkey calling him. It wasn't his turn to monitor the bridge, it was Robert's. Things were quiet on transit, so much so that no one was needed on the bridge, the computer system had their course and could deal with any corrections needed.

He didn't need to have someone there, but he liked being prepared, in case something the computer couldn't deal with needed to be handled quickly, so he made sure there was always someone in the pilot's seat, although the controls were locked to Jeff.

He gritted his teeth as he climbed the ladder and the gravity shifted. This wasn't as bad as being on Earth, in the open, but the ninety degree shift in gravity always made him slightly nervous.

The hyena was seated at his station, while Jeff was in the pilot's seat and Mark at coms.

"Sorry, sir," Robert said. "I called Marc to take a listen when we picked up the signal, then he called Jeff."

"Is this an emergency?" Eric asked.

"Someone's in trouble," Marc said. "we're pickup up a distress signal." A moment later a soothing female voice came over the com system.

"This is an automated distress signal sent out by the Aurora, a private shuttle registered to the Amibio family. Something has gone wrong with the propulsion system. Please render assistance as soon as possible." The message repeated and Marc shut it off.

Eric closed his eyes. Fuck, he didn't need or want this. He didn't want to have to deal with passengers on his ship. "How many people on the shuttle?"

"I don't know. We're too far to pick up any life signs. I've tried to contact them, but no responses at this point."

"How far are we?"

"About a million kilometer," Jeff answered.

So, they were about five hours away. "Are they in out path?"

"No, the closest we'll get in our current course is about a hundred thousand kilometers."

That was still far too close for Eric's liking. They were a few light minutes past the asteroid belts, so the distress signal had to have reached them by now. He could leave them to deal with this. It would take them a few weeks to reach it, but if there was no one still alive, it wouldn't matter, would it?

"Any indication on what kind of damage they've taken?"

"No. we're also too far for that."

Eric nodded. They were a fright puller, they didn't need long range sensors. All they had was what was needed to let them maneuver close to a station and the required close-range life sensors.

"Jeff, how much adjustment to our speed do you need to do to keep us half a million kilometers from them and still get us to Titan on time?"

"Not much, point one percent at the most."

That was still a lot of extra fuel burned.

"Sir," Robert said, "You can't be thinking of ignoring their distress signal."

Eric didn't reply.

"Sir," the hyena insisted. "Sol Gov law requires us to provide assistance."

"And that's just what pirates count on," Eric grumbled.

"There aren't any pirates out here," Robert said, which earned him a snort from Jeff and Marc. "I mean it. Patrols make sure everything is orderly."

"Speaking like a capital boy," Marc said.

"No, like someone who's never gone pass Mars," Jeff corrected. "Space gets exponentially bigger as you get away from Earth. There's no way for Sol Gov patrols to keep a lid on pirates out here." he was silent for a moment. "But he's right, captain, we're required to lend assistance. The asteroid monitoring station has our course. If they've received the distress they're paying more attention to this area. The fines for not doing so are kind of high from what I hear."

They weren't so high it would do much to the corporation's quarterly report, but Elliot would notice it and he'd be pissed. He had to hope there weren't anyone on there. He'd be able to justify passing it by if it was lifeless.

"Any responses?" he asked Marc.

"Still noting."

"Jeff, what are the odds of a ship being in our travel lane?"

The jackal looked over his shoulder. "Not very high, but not insignificantly low either. From their trajectory, they're heading either to the asteroids or inward. Depending on when they left Titan, this course makes sense. You think the ship was planted here?"

Eric shrugged. he knew he was being paranoid. "We have a hundred billion dollars in cargo. That's plenty of incentive."

"Sure, but they'd have to know our course, and because of the planetary alignment, it's never the same one twice. they'd have to know our preferred speed, how long we want to take to get to Titan. that isn't information we make public. It would take a lot of work for them to get it."

"I know," Eric sighed. "I just don't like it."

"Sir, we have to provide assistance," Robert insisted.

"If there's someone on it, we will."

"Marc, can you get any readings at a hundred thousand kilometers?"

"No. Our sensors are rated for a quarter of that, which means that at fifty thousand I might get enough to make a guess at what the reading is."

Damn it. He didn't want to get any closer. Could he justify using the lack of communication as the basis for his decision the ship is dead? Their transmitter could be damaged.

He had time, he didn't have to make a decision right now. Things could work themselves out. Maybe they were making repairs and they'd start moving under their own power soon.

"How long until we're at our closest point?"

"Three and a half hours, give or take." The jackal said.

Eric nodded. "Marc, keep trying to raise them."

"Yes sir."

Eric stood there for two hours, accessing the screens to see their progress. Even now the shuttle wasn't visible. The only indication of its presence was the continuing distress call. An hour and a half to go, and he'd have to make a decision.

Marc winced.

Eric access his boards, but didn't hear anything new. "What is it?"

"Something shone in my eye."

It took a moment for Eric to understand what he meant, then he accessed the cameras. Nothing, then a bright point in one of the lenses. It came again, then it started blinking in something of a pattern.

"What is that?" Eric asked.

Marc didn't answer immediately. He was clearly studying them. "It's blink code," he finally said.

"Is that supposed to mean anything to the rest of us?" Jeff asked.

"It's an emergency communication system. A manually operated laser with its own power source to be used in case the ship's transmitter dies."

"Do you understand it?" Eric asked.

"Yeah. anyone going for their comm license has to learn it." He took a moment. "Coms dead. Engines dead. Life support minimal. Please help."

"How do they know we're here?"

"We're pretty big, and it isn't because their comm's down their sensors are too. our engines put out a lot of static. If their comm operator is any good, he'd have known to look for that."

"So, this all seems normal to you?"

The spider monkey looked at him. "I don't know what someone getting stranded in the middle of space is supposed to look like, but if you're asking me if we should go help, then my answer is yes, we should."

Eric nodded. It wasn't like it was a difficult choice to make, now that he knew there was someone there. "Jeff, adjust course to intercept them. Marc can you communicate with them? Are we equipped for that code?"

"Yeah, we are."

"Tell them we're on our way and get as much information as they can give you in regards to their situation."

Over the next hour Marc relayed there were four people on the shuttle, two males and two females. They were returning to Mars from a vacation on Uranus, via a stop at Titan, when something exploded in the engine compartment, taking out their comms and most of the power. None of them were engineers so they didn't know how to fix the problem. They'd been afraid they were going to die there.

At thirty-thousand-kilometer Marc whistled. "They have one hell of radiation leak from their engines."

"Anything we need to be worried about?"

"Won't affect us. The hull is shielded, but I hope they've been staying away from that part of the shuttle."

Eric could now see it. It was a long and sleek model, the Ramirez, he thought, if he remembered their advertising. it had been a luxury shuttle with space for a large family, and fuel for a trip from Earth to Uranus and back on the longest course. it had been quite popular with the wealthy when he was a kid.

But the last one at been made ten years ago, and this looked to be much older, by the number of repairs he could see. Probably bought on the second-hand market, and in constant need of patching.

At ten thousand kilometers, he had Marc do a complete scan of the shuttle and studied the image generated. The four life forms were huddled in the bridge, close to the emergency hatch, so he instructed Jeff to align with that. The temperature was quite low, and the large living space behind that the closed door was even colder. They hadn't been kidding when they said life support was minimal. They'd been lucky to manage to concentrate it to the bridge. the galley and three of the bedrooms were pass that. After that the image was blurry.

"It's the radiation from the engine," Marc said. "It's throwing off the sensor."

"So, someone could hide from us there?"

"Sure, but he'd have to be suicidal. Even with our suits, I wouldn't want to spend more than twenty minutes in there. After that there's no telling the kind of damage It would do."

Pirates would know that and could protect themselves accordingly. he sighed. He was getting paranoid.

"Will, Xavier," He called over the comm. "Get your tools, as soon as we have them off the shuttle I want you to see what you can do about the engines. Bring O2 and your helmets. There's radiations. I'm trusting your judgment as to how long you can stay there. Will, while you're there, check their life support. Brick, Brack, you'll help us carry anyone who needs help." He looked to the hyena. "Come on, we'll dock with them shortly."

Ten minutes after they were assembled, the ship clanged as it attached itself to the shuttle. The doors opened and the smell of burnt wires and ozone spilled in, along with a male giraffe supporting a female gazelle with a leg at what had to be an excruciatingly painful angle. Behind them a small dog was coughing, his muzzle covered with a shirt, and a skinny wolf carrying a bag followed him in.

"Thank God you were passing by." The giraffe said. "I'm Greg. I have no idea how long we would have lasted."

Xavier and William hurried in the shuttle as soon as the entrance was clear.

"I'm Eric, the captain. I'm happy we were her to help," Eric said. "Is anyone seriously hurt?"

"Only Samene." He indicated the gazelle. "When the engine went, the whole ship shuddered and one of the crate on top of a cabinet dropped on her."

Eric knelt and carefully lifted her pant leg to hiss of pain. "The skin isn't broken, that's good. the discoloration is minimal so I'd say the damage is too. I should be able to fix it easily." he took her arm from the Giraffe. "My crew will take you to the lounge so you can rest, but you need to know a few things. we're heading to Titan, if my engineer can't fix your ship, that's where I'll have to drop you off. I'm sorry, but we can't turn around, we have a schedule to maintain."

"We understand, believe me. Titan is going to be fine. I'm just happy we're not going to suffocate or freeze to death."

"This is an Orr ship. You said you were heading for Mars, so I don't know how familiar you are with Orr Corp, but we are very open about sex. I know some of the Mars companies aren't as accepting of sexual behaviors, but This is my ship, I'm not going to ask my crew to reign in their behaviors to keep you comfortable."

"Captain," the giraffe said. "You just saved our lives. We can keep our opinions to ourselves for the duration of this trip."

Eric nodded. "Hopefully your ship can be repaired and you won't have to be subjected to it. I'll see to your friend, you go relax."

He helped the gazelle to the med bay, and onto the auto-med. It immediately turned on and quickly ran through its checks.

"How are you feeling?" he asked. "Other than your leg, are you hurt?"

"I'm a bit banged up and bruised, but everything else it fine."

"Good." Her DNA readings came up and he dismissed that. He had the system scan her and immediately he could see something was odd. There was a lot of metal in her body, far more than occurred naturally.

"Did you have any operations?" he asked, pulling away the layers to look at her bones. The image moved as she did. "Please keep still, the auto-med doesn't work as well if you move." He lifted his head and looked at a gun pointed at his face.

"It's alright, Captain. I'm feeling much better." She dropped her legs over the edge of the medical bed, and the broken one straightened itself with creaks and clacks. "Please don't try anything stupid," she said, dropping to her feet.

Eric didn't hesitate, he connected to the comm system and sent a message to Uncle.

'under attack by pirates, help.' Eric.

"We're going to join the rest of your crew in the lounge, where you'll be able to relax while we go about our business." She motioned for him to move.

He obeyed, trying to figure out how long until help came. How far were they from Earth? forty light minutes? He couldn't recall where it was in relation to them at the moment, and he didn't want to risk querying the system, one of them was going to be monitoring that soon. So, eighty minutes for the transmission, both ways. How long would it take for Uncle to decide on a course of action? two minutes, at most? He wouldn't waste time checking in with Eliot, he'd act and deal with the consequences afterward.

An hour and a half. He had to keep everyone alive for an hour and a half. That meant keeping the pirates busy, because the moment they were done, they were all dead.

'it's a trap!' Xavier, appeared in his field of vision. This meant something had happened on the shuttle. He hoped the two of them were okay.

Brick and Brack were glaring at the gray wolf holding them at gun point when Eric entered the lounge.

"Tell the mules to sit down, or I'm making holes in them."

"Brick, Brack, sit down. We don't want to antagonize them." He sat next to Robert. "You okay?" The hyena's eyes were wide and the pupil large, he was scared.

The mules did as told, taking over the love seat next to them. A moment later Jeff and Marc were marched in by the giraffe and the dog. They sat on either side of Eric and Robert.

"I guess we should have listened to you," the monkey said.

Xavier was cradling his arm when he was pushed in the lunge by a weasel in a heavy suit. William followed with a lion behind them, also wearing a radiation proof suit.

"They were hiding in the engine compartment," The zebra said, "They jumped us as we were looking over the damages."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I tried to take on the weasel, but he's stronger than he looks."

The weasel grinned.

"The damage was fake," William said. "A bunch of radiation emitters laid around the compartment to simulate a large leak."

"Is everyone here?" the giraffe asked. "I'd hate to find out someone's hiding. We've been quite accommodating for now, that can change at any time."

"Everyone's here," Eric said. "What do you want?"

"That should be obvious. We want your cargo. Do you have any idea how much food stuff goes for on the black market? Now, be quiet and cooperate and once we're done here, we'll let you go on your way, minus the array. Try to cause trouble, and you're not going to like me very much."

"I already don't like you," Robert spat.

"That's understandable, but you're still unharmed. That can change quickly. Brent, go check the array connection. If everything looks good, start the disconnection procedures."

The wolf left.

"Jubilee, go to the bridge and make sure none of them try to contact anyone. When Brent gives you the okay, pull away from the array."

The weasel left.

"That's going to take what, an hour? so I guess we should keep ourselves entertained in the meantime. You're Orr, so feel free to have sex."

"Yeah," the gazelle said, "I could use a good show."

"Fuck you," Eric said.

"You wish," she replied.

"I can understand your reticence, this isn't an ideal situation, but it isn't going to be long. I'm sure that once we're gone you'll be able to get back to your normal routine."

The wolf reappeared. "We have a problem, Greg. The hatch to the array won't open."

"Yeah," Brack sighed, "That thing's been giving us problems for years. It keeps jamming."

Brick nodded.

Robert glanced at Eric, who didn't react, he was trying to figure out what those two were doing.

"jamming? don't you guys fix things?" the wolf asked.

Brack shrugged. "Sure, when we have the time, but that doesn't happen as often as we'd like."

"So how do you open it?"

Brack flexed his arm. "me and my bro. That's what we're here for. that and the sex. We'll be happy to go open it for you, we don't want you to have troubles and become unpleasant." The two mules started to stand, but four guns being aimed at them made them stop.

"I'm not letting either of you out of here."

Brack sat with a shrug. "We're just trying to be helpful."

"You shouldn't be helping them," they jackal said.

"Jeff, be quiet," Eric ordered.

"You'd do well to listen to your captain." The giraffe said. "one of you will go with Harold. You cause him trouble and he shoots you."

"It usually takes the two of us to open it."

"Samene will help you."

Brack cast a dubious glance at the gazelle.

"she's stronger than she looks."

"okay." The mule stood."

'she has mechanical enhancements.' Eric. Brack didn't give any indication he'd received the message. Eric hoped he got it, but it had to go through the ship's system. If the weasel had already gotten through the security he would have intercepted it.

The three of them left.

Eric brought up the time. Seventy-five minutes to go. He hoped whatever Brack was planning wasn't going to get any of them hurt.

"Err," Brick said. "You guy mind if I get a drink? You said we should relax, I do that better with a drink."

The giraffe looked around. "Where is it?"

"Cabinet over there." The mule pointed.

The giraffe went to it, opened it and whistled in amazement. "You guys have drink fabricator?"

"It's not a fabricator," William said. "It's a flavor mixer."

"What's the diff?" the lion asked.

William sighed. "The system contains all types of flavor chemicals needed to make things tastes like what you recognize. that's designed to give you all the flavors of alcohols, either straight or as a mixed drink."

"So, it's a drink fabricator." The giraffe repeated.

"No, it's..." William looked at them and threw his arms up, "Fine, it's a fabricator."

"How does it work?"

"Just enter the flavor profile you want," Brick said, before William could answer. The pirates were all looking at the giraffe and the dispenser. Eric was happy about that, because the questioning look William threw at the mule was obvious.

"Why can't you just program actual drinks?" the giraffe asked.

"We all know what we like," Brick shrugged. "Never had to give them names."

"Fine," he moved away, and leveled his gun on Brick, "but don't try anything funny?"

"I'm no good at jokes." The mule replied as he headed for the cabinet. "Anyone want something?"

No one replied. "Come on guys, don't be like that. We all need to relax. Rob, how about a scotch?"

"No, thanks."

"Come on. you're too stressed, a drink is what you need."

"I'm not interested in drinking."

"I'll have a gin," Eric said, watching the mule. What was he up to? why so insistent on them drinking?

"I'll have a glass of wine," William said. "Red, an eighty-six from the halibury vineyard."

"That's the spirit."

"I'll have a beer," Jeff said.

"Anything specific?" Brick asked, filling another glass and setting it aside.

"Surprise me."

"What about you guys?" The mule asked the pirates.

"I'll have," the lion started.

"Nothing," the giraffe finished for him. "We're not here so you can get plastered."

"I've taken my pill," the lion replied, his tone hurt, "I can drink without any side effect."

"I don't care. we're on a job. You can drink afterward."

A loud clang came from the corridor, then a scream of pain. Eric looked at the doorway along everyone else. the pirates exchanged looks, then the giraffe turned to Eric.

He didn't get to say anything. Brick shot him, then the lion. The mule jumped behind the couch, putting a hand on it and tipping it backward, sending Eric, Robert, Jeff and Marc spilling on the floor next to him.

Brick didn't give any explanations. He popped up, shot twice and crouched down, before rushing to the love seat. Eric looked around the upturned couch. two of the pirates were on the floor, the other one in the corridor, poking her head in the room only long enough to fire at them.

The laser beams left burn marks on the walls. How they weren't going through the couch was beyond Eric. Xavier and William were huddled behind Eric's preferred blowjob chair. the leather cover was burned and ripped, but the two of them were fine.

a clang came from the doorway, and the pirate crumbled down. Brack pushed her in the lounge, looked around, and grinned. "Gonna go get the last one." he vanished again.

Eric stood, looking at the unconscious pirates, then at Brick, he went to them and restrained them. He wasn't the only one stunned in silence. Everyone else was looking at him.

The mule stood, the last pirate's arms locked behind their backs. He looked at the crew. "Everyone okay?"

William was the first one to find his voice. "I guess the two of you aren't as dumb as you look."

Brick looked down bashfully, his ears blushing. "nah, we are."

* * * * *

Eric was leaning against the door looking at the giraffe seated on the bed. The leader of the pirates had gotten his own room because the tiger wanted to talk with him. The closest Sol Gov office in the Asteroid belt had been advised of the attack, and his crew was making sure the pirate's ship was disabled, but that the life support was functioning. the pirates were going to wait in there for however long it took Sol Gov to come get them.

"Who told you we were coming, was it Vanguard?"

The giraffe chuckled. "You think I get names. I just heard a rumor a ship with a valuable food cargo was coming this way."

"If that's the case, you can't be the only one who heard it, where's everyone else."

"What? You think there's a lot of us? an army of pirate just waiting for ships to take apart? I'm the only one in these parts. I was just lucky that you were coming this way."

"What were you told."

"I told you. I just heard there was an array passing through here with food stuff. That's worth a lot so I figured I'd take the risk."

How had the information gotten here? Jeff was right, they didn't advertise their speed and time frame, so their course couldn't have been calculated. This had to be Vanguard, they had to have found a way into their system and gotten the information that way.

"What did your contact look like?"

The giraffe opened his mouth, then his eyes rolled in the back of his head and he slumped down. Eric was to him and checked his pulse. It was quick, but steady. his breathing was regular, if a little shallow.

The door opened. "Captain, all the pirates are unconscious. Looks like they had a seizure." Eric checked them all. Then he checked the time, a hundred minutes.

"Marc, do a scan of one of their implants. Don't connect directly to it."

The spider monkey went to his room and came back with a thumb size cube, which his applied to the gazelle's forehead. Then he was looking into the distance.

"What? Her implant is completely out of sort. I've never seen anything like this. The code in there is being rewritten as I'm watching. What happened to her?"

"I sent a distress call as soon as I had a gun in my face. This is the help Orr Corp sent."

"You have a way to rewrite implants? That's illegal. Implants are supposed to be completely temper proof."

"Uncle is resourceful. And it isn't Orr corp who can do that, only him."

"But he's your family, if he can do that, he can tell the rest of you how. What's to keep the rest of us safe?"

"Uncle wouldn't tell us how he did it." He wouldn't trust anyone else with that knowledge. Hell, Eric wasn't entirely certain he trusted him with it. He was going to have a talk with him next time he was near Earth.

"Fine, but how come it only affected them?"

"Uncle couldn't know who was on the ship. Since this had to come through the comm system, it probably grabbed your implant ID from there, you're all registered as crew, so it bypassed you."

"Eric, do you have any idea how terrifying it is to know you have that kind of power over me?"

"I can't do any of that."

"You, you're family. You can rewrite my implant. my memories go through that, it affects my personality. It's supposed to require really powerful computers to rewrite one of them. If it doesn't, how do I know you haven't already done something like that to me so I'll prefer working for you over someone else?"

Eric studied the monkey. "Marc, if you don't believe that I'm not that kind of person, at least believe that if my family were to do something like that, the others would retaliate. It took a century to recover from the last war. My family doesn't want to go through that again. none of the corporations do. Even Sol Gov, for all the bitching they've done about being kicked off earth don't want another war.

"This was an emergency. the only way Uncle had to help us while being stuck on Earth. A way to let us defeat the pirates. I expect that before long they'll be back to normal and there won't be any trace of the glitch in their implants." He certainly hoped so.

Marc eyed him. "You're telling me you wouldn't do something like this to me, because the potential danger to your family is too great?"

"I wouldn't do it because I'm not that kind of monster, but yes, even if I could do something like that. I wouldn't because the consequences would devastate my family."

"I'm not supposed to know that kind of power exists, I'm just a little guy doing his little job. that's Corporate board level knowledge."

"I can't make you forget it."

"I kind of wish you could."

"I wish I could too, Marc." he patted the monkey's shoulder.

"I'll make sure they're all back to normal before we put them on their shuttle."

"Thanks." Eric sent a message to Uncle.

'thanks for the help. However you did this, please erase it from your memory. it's too dangerous.' Eric.

He didn't know if Uncle would do it. He wouldn't ask. He wouldn't bring this up next time he was in range. He was just a freight puller captain. He shouldn't know board level information. he really wished he could forget about it too.

* * * * *

Eric was seated in his office, the two mules sitting on the other side of his desk. He felt a mixture of anger and gratitude toward them, while they looked worried. By now the pirates were back on their shuttle, not going anywhere.

"Alright. What happened? What was that thing about the hatch jamming? how did it jam? Where did you get the gun from?"

The mules exchanged a look.

"We got a program written to cause that to happen," Brack said.

"You what? You tampered with my ships programing?"

"You said," Brick started.

"What! that you should play with the delicate working of my ship? without my permission?"

"You said we could."

Eric stared at Brack. "When did I say something like that?" he growled.

They exchanged another look.

"You hired us to do security for you," Brack said. "We looked the ship over, and decided what needed to be done. When we tried to show you the plans you kicked us out of here and screamed at us you didn't want to hear about it and that we should just do our job."

"I screamed?"

"Well, growled," Brick corrected.

He vaguely remembered them showing up to his office eight years ago wanting some of his time. he'd been dealing with more Vanguard problems. Something about his license being invalidated, he thought.

He sighed. "Alright. So, you reprogrammed my ship?"

"We're not that smart. We got Phillip to do it."

That had been his computer engineer back then. he'd left the crew two years later for a job down side.

"And why didn't he tell me what he was doing?"

"We sort of explained how you'd reacted when we approached you about it, and said he was free to risk it too."

"And he didn't. The gun?"

"When the ship underwent repairs seven years ago, we paid one of the workers to make modifications, hiding places. we smuggled the guns in and hid them."

"There are more? Do you have any idea the kind of trouble this could cause if Sol Gov found out?"

"They don't care. Every ship we worked on had weapons for the crew. They say they don't want it because they think it's going to keep pirates from getting them, but they know they can't patrol everywhere, so they don't look too hard at honest ships."

"Fine. How did the chairs and couch stop lasers?" he sighed. "No, let me guess. I refurbished the lounge as well as most of the rooms during those repairs."

"We had what you ordered modified."

"Is there anything else I need to know about?"

"No, but we need better sensors."

"I'll send a request for it. considering what just happened, I don't see my brother putting up too many objections. About those weapons, where are they?"

"Are you sure you want to know, captain? you don't know how to shoot."

He had a point. "Do you think I should learn?"

"It can't hurt, if everyone can use them, you won't have to be reliant on us."

"Aren't you worried if you teach us how to do your job I won't have to keep you on?"

"nah. You still need us to lift heavy things."

Eric chuckled. "Alright, find out who is interested in learning and teach them, and me. I don't want to be that helpless ever again."