FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Beeping of the alarm woke Andrew up from his not so deep and way too short sleep. The long journey without any natural source of light that could keep his biological clock work correctly was already getting to him, making him tired all the time. He sweared quietly before patting on the touch-screen embedded in his nightstand that was responsible for control over his room and turned the alarm off. He sat up in his bed and stretched, yawning widely. He glanced around his room illuminated by dim blue lights that were turned on automatically when the alarm rang.

The room was quite typical for the spaceship he was travelling by. It was quite small, but spacious enough for one person to live comfortably. It wasn't much, honestly. Starting from the door, on the left side of it is first Room Control panel, embedded into a wall. On the right are coat hangers and a big mirror. The first thing one can see after entering the room is a bed, big enough to fit one and a half of a person, situated in the right corner, pointed towards the door. Next to it is a small nightstand with the second Room Control panel. Adjacent to the nightstand is some kind of a table or a counter with a single chair, anyway, there is a space to put stuff on, to eat at etc. It takes the rest of the space at the "front wall". On the left, next to the counter is some "fancy" kitchen-machine-thingie. Some sort of hybrid between a small fridge and coffee machine. Nothing special to be honest but it stores some food, can make coffee, tea, gives both hot and cold water and stuff. Further to the left is a wardrobe, big enough to fit belongings of one, maybe two people. It's situated in between that kitchen-thingie and a wall of a small bathroom. The bathroom also wasn't much. Sink with a mirror on the left, toilet in front of the door and shower cabin in the corner.

Andrew was lucky to be working at the bridge as it granted him a bit of luxury of having an entire room for himself. Other members of the crew weren't so lucky. For example his friend, James, was working on the ship as a security personnel. He was living in a similar room but was sharing it with another guy. There were also bigger rooms but the bigger the more people it had living in it.

Andrew got up from the bed and stretched once again, bit more careful this time not to get dizzy from sudden change of position. He turned on the kitchen-thingie and pressed the button for coffee. The machine started humming pleasantly, indicating that it's working correctly. Andrew smiled lightly. He liked that sound. It was so calming, making him forget for a while about his problems, political disputes and other outside bullshit problems. He stepped into the bathroom and stood in front of the toilet for a quick relief. After that he washed his paws at the sink and looked at his reflection in the mirror.

A brown otter with a short blonde hair and green eyes stared back at him with a tired gaze. He smiled at the mirror before splashing his face with cold water to shake off his somnolence. That made him shiver a bit. He brushed his teeth, combed his hair and left the bathroom. In his room a cup of hot coffee was already waiting for him in a cup slot in the machine. He yawned once again before slipping into his uniform and sat at the table, with a cup of coffee in his paw.

Nothing like a morning coffee... "morning" coffee. God knows what time it'd be if he was back on Earth... "Ugh...". He winced and shook those thoughts out of his head before taking a sip from the cup. Thinking about that was only making him feel worse, he was trying his best not to but... it was hard. He opened the "fridge" and grabbed a sandwich he prepared for himself before sleep and took a bite of it.

When he was done with his small breakfast he set the cup at the counter and left for the doors. He took his uniform jacket from the hanger, put it on, zipped up and glanced at himself in the mirror to make sure he looks presentable.

His uniform was a dark green military style with a small name-tag of his sewed into a small white space on his chest. He wasn't a soldier at all. He was taken for the job as a communication specialist because of his good knowledge of few extraterrestrial languages. He was even granted a temporary Lieutenant rank and a small group of people under his command, within a communication station only, of course.

He opened the door and the first thing he saw was two soldiers dragging someone through the corridor that just walked past his room. They were dressed in black uniforms indicating they belonged to security personnel. Only people working at the bridge were wearing dark green, beside the Captain, Commanders and guards. His ears twitched as he stared at them in surprise and curiosity. Both soldiers were dragging... someone by the shoulders. He couldn't really tell the species of this creature, it looked a bit familiar as if he's seen it before, yet he couldn't quite put a finger on it. It had a long thick fluffy tail, black and dark grey fur with some stripes, quite unique triangular head, a bit shark-like if he'd have to compare it with something he's familiar with. It was probably male deducing from "his" flat chest and bit masculine-looking muzzle. It seemed unconscious. Did some cadet get too drunk and started a fight or something? No, the creature didn't have any part of uniform, actually it was wearing only black shorts and dirty grey shirt with holes and rips in it. It was stretched and ripped at the collar, as if it was damaged in a fight. It wasn't even wearing shoes, though seeing it's lower paws Andrew couldn't even imagine how boots made for such creature would look like. They looked a bit like hands and he could tell that they were prehensile.

Andrew closed the door and locked it with his key card. The lift to the bridge was just across the corridor so he couldn't just follow the soldiers to find out what's going on. He perked his ears in their direction, trying to understand what they were talking about.

"What we gonna do with this fucking piece of scumbag shit?" the first soldier asked with an anger in his voice. That creature really must have pissed him off.

"No idea, throw him into the cell?" proposed the second one.

"Nah, how about we throw this fuck out through the fucking airlocks? We don't need fucking stowaways... and I always fucking wondered what would happen to someone outside without a suit anyway!" the first one said before chuckling. "Maybe he'd swell like a balloon and pop?"

"Shit, dude, you are a psycho. And no, I don't think he'd pop. I've read somewhere that he could indeed swell a bit but he'd just freeze in there and... get roasted by some star at the same time...? Dunno, it was long time ago"

"Why the fuck won't we find out?" The first soldier asked stopping for a moment to look at his friend there.

"You really wanna do that?" The second one asked, stopping as well.

"Fuck yeah, why not? Look what this fucking piece of shit did to me." He said turning one side of his face towards his friend, probably showing off some scratch or a black eye. Then he spotted Andrew who quickly looked away pretending that he's waiting for the lift.

"You should have dodged him, I knew he'd attack and..."

The soldier hushed his friend and whispered something to him, making his friend also look in Andrew's direction. Rest of the conversation was continued in a hushed whisper as they continued making their way down the corridor. Andrew just shook his head, he had no idea what to think about the situation. A stowaway. And they wanted to throw him out? That's... sick. Maybe he should report it at the bridge to.. someone? He was lost in his thoughts before looking towards the soldiers for the last time and noticed that creature was staring back at him. It had beautiful blue eyes with a long and tired gaze. Andrew gulped and kept watching the creature... until the group disappeared behind corner.

"Holy shit..." Andrew said to himself under his breath. Those eyes were almost... hypnotizing. Sudden sound of opening doors made him flinch, actually almost jump in surprise as it broke his rushing train of thoughts. Inside of the lift was wolf in dark green uniform. They both nodded to each other in silent greeting before Andrew got into the lift without saying a word. He touched the "bridge" option on the touch-screen and was on his way.

When he arrived at the bridge he got greeted by one of his Subs, a communication specialist as well. Peter was his name. They never really worked together since both of them were on the same position, commanding group at the communication station. Peter had a duty during first 8 hours of the "day" while Andrew always had the second 8 hour shift. Kind of "afternoon shift". They exchanged pleasantries before heading in their own directions.

His shift was quite uneventful. Space is a massive thing, and despite that there existed many civilisations that were advanced enough for interstellar travel, and they often resided on many planets and stellar systems all over the galaxy (and probably other galaxies as well) it was still too big to have many random meetings of other spaceships on the way. Most often those were meetings of ships that had fixed courses, same destinations over and over again.

His job was usually quite busy, despite having 5 other people to follow his orders, there was often a lot of things to do, like making sure the Internal Communication Network System (ICNS for short) worked correctly. And despite that he couldn't get that creature out of his mind. When he had some breather he glanced around the bridge to check if there is any other creature of that species he's seen but to no avail. Probably most, if not all the crew on this spaceship were from Earth, and he could tell that the creature he met was extraterrestrial.

8 long hours of his job later his Sub finally arrived, releasing him of his duty. Andrew saluted to his superiors and made his way back to his room. In the lift he pulled out his pocket computer that every person of his rank (and higher) received for making reports. He opened the program for browsing Spacehip's Internal Database (SID) which was a huge base of informations about... well, everything. It was updated during every visit at the star-base or at the port. Maybe SID would have some informations about that creature... but where should he start?

He arrived at his floor and walked up to his room, his gaze fixed on the computer. He opened the door using his key card and stepped inside. He was so occupied with his computer he didn't notice someone walking inside with him. When the door closed he suddenly fell a hand grabbing at his mouth and squeezing it shut, a strong fluffy tail that wrapped around his waist, squeezing him against the attacker and a cold piece of metal pressed against his skull. The sudden attack made him drop his computer on the ground.

His heart was pounding in his chest. His entire body was shivering strongly in the stranger's grasp. He dared not to move a muscle or try to struggle, knowing well that the cold thing pressed against the side of his head is a weapon, most likely a phaser or a blaster that could kill him on the spot if he made a wrong move. Before he managed to make a single sound a cold voice spoken right next to his ear, saying something in a language he never heard before. He couldn't even compare it to any of languages he's heard back on Earth. It sounded very exotic, even tribal.

Andrew was breathing loudly between fingers that were squeezing tightly on his muzzle. He let out a quiet whimper which caused the attacker to press the gun harder against him. The stranger said something again in his own language before repeating it in English with very exotic accent. "Do not scream. You scream, I shoot." the stranger said stressing out the word 'shoot' by rubbing the gun against his head. "Understand now?" He said to which Andrew nodded as much as he could.

He felt a push, making him walk forward, a few steps deeper into the room. Suddenly he got jerked towards the wall tightly pressed against it as if the attacker suddenly changed his mind about what he wanted to do. The side of his head got pressed against the cold wall, coaxing a small tears from his eyes. From this position he could finally see his attacker. It was that weird creature he's seen earlier. The hand keeping him quiet slowly and a bit hesitantly left his muzzle, ready to grab him again in case he tried scream. He didn't. He just opened is mouth slightly, letting out a trembling breath. Only now he could feel the unwashed smell of the creature's body. Not surprising since the stranger was a stowaway after all and the ship was on it's way over a month now. Andrew felt the stranger's hand roaming through his body, checking on his pockets and possible places someone could hide a weapon. It clearly wasn't the first time the stranger was searching someone, or even attacking someone like this. He was way too calm for that, he clearly knew what he was doing.

"No weapons?" He asked before swapping hands on the gun to keep it aimed against Andrew's head while the other paw searched his other side.

"N-no w-weapons..." confirmed Andrew with shaking voice. He kept his own hands on the wall besides of his head, keeping them in view.

"No weapons in the room?" the stranger asked again, and yet again receiving confirming answer. He then took a hold of Andrew's collar and tugged, peeling the otter off the wall before leading him deeper into the room. He suddenly pushed Andrew on the bed, making him land flat on his belly, narrowly avoiding hitting his head against the wall. "Turn around. Hands where I can see them." the stranger said.

Andrew whimpered quietly into the mattress before doing his best to turn around with his paws raised. He managed to sit on the bed with his back pressed against the wall. He gulped quietly seeing that his captor was still pointing his gun at him. The stranger was glancing around the room, clearly scanning it for any sort of danger. He stepped to the bathroom's door and opened them to check if no-one is inside, then he checked the wardrobe. The entire time his gun was pointed either at Andrew or at least in his general direction. Andrew didn't even move a finger, he was visibly shaking but apart from that he did not dare to move in any way not to provoke the stranger. He was always afraid of weapons ever since he was a kid. Ever since he witnessed that tiny part of horrors of the Great War. Even though he was evacuated with his mother and siblings he managed to see enough to scar him for life.

Andrew finally found courage to speak up. "W-who are you...?" He asked in half-whisper with shaking voice. His eyes focused on the barrel of the gun.

"Why does it matter?" the stranger answered shortly. He grabbed the chair and pulled it closer to himself before sitting on it and letting out a tired sigh. His gaze was still sharp though and fixed on his victim's eyes. "I am Blake." He said after a short while before lowering his gun.

Andrew started slowly calming down seeing no aggressive behaviour from him. He didn't lower his hands though, just in case. "You come from Earth?" He asked after a while. "'Blake' is an earthly name..."

Blake observed Andrew behaviour silently for few minutes before answering. "No, I am from planet Tal. Earthly names are popular among my people." He said. He rubbed his temples with his fingers and shook his head lightly, to shake his tiredness off.

A sergal! Of course! Andrew knew he's seen one of his kind before, he just couldn't remember. "Blake..." he began slowly, carefully choosing words. "What are you even doing here? Your planet isn't even close to our destination."

"Let's say I wanted a fast and discreet transport. It's a long story." Blake said playing with the gun in his hand, rotating it, rubbing at the dirty spots as if it was one of his treasures. "I thought this spaceship is a simple transporter, I should have noticed that something was off. Why would 'a simple transporter' be so heavily militarised. Yet I did not have much time to think about that, I was in a hurry. And your destination is close enough, trip from SagHod will take few days."

Andrew was taken aback. "Wait. We're not going to SagHod. We are transporting supplies to Earth's Moon, to help my people in building shelters for survivors and..." Blake's sudden laugh stopped him before he could finish.

"You work here and you do not know where your ship is going? We are going to SagHod and this ship is not transporting supplies." Blake said grinning. Andrew's confused reaction was quite amusing for him.

"W-wait, what? That's not possible. What are you talking about?"

"We are in Sector Delta right now. This ship must be transporting some important stuff considering how much effort they put into making this look like a simple supply run. You think why there are so many soldiers in here? Have you seen any civilians here? Did that really not make you think?" Blake said staring right into Andrew's eyes which were only widening in surprise with every sentence. "You are a Lieutenant. You were not informed about your mission?"

"I... I'm not a soldier, I was given a job to take care of the ICNS here.. it's only a temporary rank I was given to make my job easier... I..." Andrew said lowering his hands to the bed. "What did I get myself into... ? I just needed some cash to support my family.. or rather what's left of it..."

Blake listened in silence, his smile quickly faded off his face. That day's events surely took a weird turn. He has been discovered in the magazine, beaten, dragged through half of the spaceship, he barely got away, then he kidnapped the otter with plans of using him and his room to hide and suddenly he felt sorry about him. "Your family was on Earth the moment war began?" He asked putting the gun on the table and leaning against the chair he was sitting on.

Andrew looked away. "My city was one of the first that got hit by those... rockets. Without any warning. One moment you spend on the backyard with your family, the other moment you run for your life to the shelters..." he said coiling his tail around his waist for comfort. "Not everyone made it... I lived on the outskirts of the city so at least we had a chance to run. I'll never forget those screams... bodies... shooting of laser-guns, shouts of soldiers... blood... Even though it was long time ago it's still... difficult." The war indeed started over ten years ago when Andrew was still a young boy. He sighed and looked at Blake again. "What are we transporting then?" He asked changing the subject.

Blake took a mental note not to talk about that with the otter ever again... assuming they'd ever meet after this... adventure. "The crates I found in the magazine were well secured. They looked more like safes. Made out of really thick and hard metal. All of them were locked with a password, probably unique one for every crate. Whatever it is they do not want anyone not authorised to look inside."

"I see... I don't like it." Andrew said. During that whole conversation he managed to calm himself down. He was not sensing any danger from the sergal, despite the attack several minutes ago. Blake's calm behaviour was weirdly soothing. "What are you planning now?" the otter asked after a few moments of silence.

"To hide here, at least for now. Get to SagHog. Get to my spaceship. Receive payment for the job. Get another job. Leave." He said shortly.

Andrew tilted his head a bit. "What job?"

"I am a mercenary. I do whatever they pay me for." Blake answered before standing up and pushing the chair towards the table with his leg. He stretched himself a bit.

"Where are you going?" Andrew asked, moving closer to the edge of the bed.

"To take a shower. I did not shower for entire month. I stink like a Westerner." Blake said and smirked at his own joke, which made it clear he must be coming from Northern clans.

"Aren't you afraid that I'll call the guards or something?"

"No, I am not. If you wanted to you would have done that already. It is one tap of a finger on the control panel and you were able to reach it all entire the time we were talking here." Blake answered. That made Andrew look at the touch-screen in his nightstand which indeed was within a reach of a hand. "Besides..." The sergal continued and loomed over Andrew, making him move back hesitantly. Their faces levelled. "I have seen how you were looking into my eyes, little otter. I know you would not do anything. This is the reason why I have come here in the first place." He said smiling widely, staring into Andrews eyes which only made the otter blush deeply. Actually the blush was strong enough to show through his short fur. Andrew could not mumble a single word out of mix of surprise and embarrassment. At the same moment Blake turned around and entered the bathroom.

After a minute or so could be heard sound of running water in the shower. Andrew was sitting on the bed motionless, except for his head that first looked towards the gun Blake left at the table, and then towards the Room Control panel right next to him.

"Fuck.." He whispered to himself after a while.

To be continued...