FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

As everyone enters, Herald steps from the safety of the guard room.

Everyone stops and watches him cautiously.

"Look," Herald says, "I know you're all likely pissed at all of us, and I don't blame you. I'm just going to show you where you want to go. After that, I hope you will let me go."

Zuhumi approaches Herald and stares up at him. "If I had known what your bosses were up to," he says, "I would not have done business with any of you. Not even you because you supported this lifestyle."

The alien who brought the other escapees stands beside Itico and pulls something out of a pocket. It reaches down and presses a small spiked object into the fur on the back of one of Itico's ears. In a dry, raspy voice, it says, "Speak, they will hear you now."

Itico looks up curiously at the dangerous looking alien, looks back at Herald. "I think," he thinks, "he's not worth eating."

Several people cringe and reach for their ears as Itico's mental voice booms into their heads.

The alien rubs it's arms together making a washboard clicking noise. "Gently," it says.

Herald takes a step back as he looks at the tiger-like creature who's almost half his height even while standing on his four paws.

Itico steps up closer to Herald, "Your people steals and destroys." Itico speaks more quietly now. "Every entity here has a reason to hate and kill you even if you were not involved directly with any of it. You benefitted from this system."

Herald visibly pales, "I," he stammers, "had no idea you could speak."

"That didn't matter to your boss," Itico says. "He never gave our kind any choice but to die or to serve for their own amusement."

Herald touches the card he has in the pocket of his uniform, "Follow me," he says and nervously turns away.

Everyone follows the guard as he moves deeper into the compound. Herald uses his access card to open doors and gates. He takes the group down into the basement using a ramp so that no one needs to use the elevator. Each guard they meet has removed their weapons and sits, watching the mixed race crowd pass by. They eventually reach a large security door that looks like it was built to withstand a small war. Herald approaches, and waves over another guard. The two guards move to either side of the door and insert their security cards at the same time.

A locking mechanism clicks and the door slowly sinks into the floor. As the assembled creatures wait to see what is revealed, both guards slip quickly into doors nearby and retreat. Those with good enough hearing or other special senses knew that each guard was moving fast away from the area. Itico could sense the building clearing of sentients, except for the dense crowd which was on either side this door.

This made him a little nervous but he wasn't sensing anything other than retreat.

As the door opens, a technician walks around a bank of storage cabinets and starts to say, "What..." He stops as he sees the escapees from the ship. He too looks scared and yells over his shoulder, "Everyone! We've got company! Stop everything!"

Randa walks up to him and hands him a shell of one of the slave collars. She looks up at him and states, "I'm sure you know what this is."

"Uh, yes," he says, shying away from the collar. "I know who you are. Everyone knows who you are. You are, were, his favorite."

"Yes," Randa says, "I was his favorite thing, his favorite toy, his favorite conquest, his favorite showpiece." She throws the collar at the wall where it shatters into several pieces. She turns back to the technician. "Do you know how I repaid him for all that? I tied him to a chair, set his ship on self-destruct and put a big red button in front of him. I said to him, 'If you can press this button your ship will not explode.'" She folds her arms in front of her, staring at the technician. "He thought he was in control, as he always was, but right before the timer dropped to zero, he had a moment where he faltered." She leans in to whisper in the man's ear. "I tied his wrists with razor wire, the same wire he used on the bad slaves, and just before the ship blew up, he cut off his own hand to hit the button. He had enough time to realize that I had lied and he was not in control anymore. Now, we are here and we want our natural bodies back."

The technician backs away, looking to either side nervously. As he keeps backing away the crowd follows.

"Guys," he says to the still unseen laboratory staff. "Start shutting down. They're coming out."

Soon they are standing amongst a collection of tanks, some lighted in shades of blue, green, red while others rested dark and empty. There were many different species inside the lighted tanks, from the dozen or so tiger-folk like Itico and Randa, to a wider selection of bipedal creatures. There were even a few six-legged and even an octopodal creature in one tank.

The technician was explaining to Itico, Randa, Zuhumi and the alien who identified herself using a series of rasps and clicks made with the arms of her exoskeleton. "The colors," he explains, "helped us monitor everyone. Red means they are asleep, disconnected. Greens are connected, somewhere on the planet, blue are here in this room with us and there's other colors for connected in space or on another planet. Each state requires different monitoring and communication relays."

"How long," asks Randa, "to extract everyone?"

"It takes a few minutes to extract the life support equipment and drain the tank. Before we do that, we prefer to have the subject," he looks sheepish, "you, asleep. It seems to make the transition easier."

"We want you to start now," Randa says.

"We have," the technician replies, "all the tanks are draining. Once they are, we can start pulling you out. Again, it would be better if you were asleep."

Randa nods.

Itico looks up at the technician, "All of a sudden you care?"

The technician shifts nervously, "I heard what you said and I don't disagree. I got into this because I think that this technology is useful to help people with disabilities and the injured. I did not want to get into this but I was transferred here and if I did not work here, I would not be working at all." He looks at Randa and adds, "Despite of how you all were treated, all we wanted to do was to keep your natural bodies safe and healthy. It was self preservation for us."

"You are out of a job now," says .

"Yes," he says, "but at least everyone will be out of these tanks."

Itico turns to Randa, "Let's see how this works with the ones who area already asleep."

The technician says, "Yes, of course."

As the sleeper filled tanks empty, technicians open the tanks and pull the sleeping creatures out. The life support equipment snakes from every orefice and retracts back inside the tanks as though they are waiting for their next victim like hungry ocean worms.

One especially large container rocks and cracks as the technicians work to open it. The large obsidian black creature inside kicks again as one side of the clear casing swings open. The kick rips the panel clear out of its moorings and sends it shattering against the near wall. It struggles to extract itself and finally pulls itself free. Standing up on four amazingly delicately shaped legs for its size. *t stomps a forefoot on the metal floor leaving a sizable dent in the panel. It holds still for a moment as it watchs the much smaller technicians fleeing around behind the tank. It shivers out its skin but since the hair is still wet, it looks quite sad and bedraggled. It then walks calmly, even carefully with its large hooves, and approaches Randa to noses her shoulder.

Randa hugs gently around the large equine's neck. "I'm so glad to see you," she says.

The large equine ducks its head and bumps against Randa's arm gently before backing up a step and looking at the others.

Itico looks up, "Friend of yours?" he asks.

Randa nods, "Last known survivor an old home world species called Friesian, I believe. Only one is cloned every couple hundred years. So I was told. Over the centuries, the clone has been modified. He's not exactly natural anymore. Sentient so he'll understand but unable to speak."

The technician nods, "The last known clean copy of the genome is here, in this lab." He turns to Randa, "I know you want your own body back, but I'm compelled to say, as we pull everyone out, the bodies you all inhabit right now will become shells. Without support, they will die."

Randa turns to the technician again, staring up at him. "This," she says coldly, "is not my body. This is not my problem."

The technician nods, looking as though he would rather be walking on the surface of an airless moon right now. "Will you," he asks, "allow me to sedate you? Or do you want to be yanked out while awake?"

The alien walks over, having been watching others being revived. She places a long fingered hand on the technician's shoulder and says to Randa, "If he makes any wrong move, I will personally inspect his spine."

The technician, gulps and starts, "I," he can't seem to find his speech center for a moment, "wouldn't think of it."

Randa grins up at the taller alien, "Thank you. I might be very interested in that inspection myself." She turns to the technician and softens her face to a smile. "Please, go ahead and sedate me and anyone else who desires."

Randa and all the others who are not in their natural bodies are convinced to sit or lay down on tables, chairs, benches or even on the cold floor itself while their remote selves are given a light sedative. It takes only a few minutes for each individual to fall asleep under the watchful eyes of Itico, Zuhumi, the angular alien and the large horse who stalks carefully around the bodies.

The light inside each tank eventually fades from green or blue to the dark red of sleep. The technicians start to extract more creatures by opening the tanks and pulling out the beds they are all laying on. Each creature is carefully examined for damage from the life support or neural interface before they are left to wake from the sedative naturally. Some creatures wake quickly, like the largest or most energetic creatures. Some smaller and creatures who have slower metabolisms take longer to wake.

As creatures awaken they are escorted out of the lab and out into the daylight for a breath of refreshing air and to be away from their sleeping former cages made of flesh.

A dozen tiger-like creatures sit or lay near Itico, watching Randa as her natural body is extracted. Most of the tigers were even younger than Randa. Itico being the oldest only by about a season. Itico talks to them in his mental voice, not requiring the augment given to him by the spiked alien. Itico explains to them what happened, how Randa had escaped and helped others to escape. Some of them knew, but several of the younger tigers had been the playthings of several children who could be just as cruel as their parents so had not heard anything of what was going on.

"What will we do now?" one asks.

"I do not know yet," Itico replies. "We do not know where our home is or even if we have a home to go back to."

The spiked alien rubs her arms against her legs in a gesture that got the tiger's attention. "I was taken," she says, "before your planet was attacked. My ship followed. I know where you are from but do not know what has happened since we left that system. These creatures, they tear up planets faster than any other that we have seen."

Itico looks up at the alien and states, "They did not capture you. You let them find you."

The alien makes the gesture again that appears to be amusement, "Correct. It is my task, my job to find and assess threats to my species."

Itico huffs. He states, "I doubt there are many who are threatening to your kind."

She laughs again. "Oh," she says, "we are not invincible but we do put up a pretty good fight if we must."

Randa stirs, groaning a little as her natural muscles are not used to moving as much as before.

Itico turns and pads over and press his head alongside hers, making the same gesture he made the first time they had met.

Randa gets on her four feet and stands, shakily at first. She is almost half Itico's size. She turns to face Itico and says, "It's good to see you again with my own eyes."

The alien carefully steps among the other tigers and then stops by Randa and sets the same little spiked translator into the fur of her right ear, just like she did with Itico and the others. She then wanders over to catch up to the large horse who was finally following the scent of fresh grass towards the exit.

Randa turns to the technician and his colleagues, "We are leaving and anyone who had possessions when they were taken must get them back. If they are still here." The spiked, burr shaped translator relaying her thoughts directly to the mind of the non-mental voice using creatures around her.

Another technician moves to the cabinets and starts unlocking and opening doors. A wide array of clothing, accessories, tools and toys are neatly stored inside.

Recently awaked creatures, who are all unclothed from being suspended in the telepresence tanks all moved to gather what of their belongings are still there. Anyone who was outside was called in as well.

It became very noisy inside the lab while people sorted through stacks of stuff to find what they owned. They talked amongst themselves as they searched, discovered and gathered what they could find of theirs. The tigers, who all had nothing but the fur covering their bodies, wandered outside to dry in the light of the foreign star.

A different technician walks up to Zuhumi and hands him a secure storage container and a data access tablet. "This is all the genetic data we have on the Friesian, original and modified, and everyone else we were holding," they say and walk off without waiting for a moment.

Outside the compound, more and more creatures gather in the native grass. Some stretched, strolled, sat or lay on the warm grass adjusting to being relatively free for the first time in a wide range of time spans.

As the tigers sprawl about in a loose cluster, the large black horse wanders over to stand next to Randa. His long tail and mane sticking out in every direction as he dries in the unpredictable light breeze. The spiked alien follows and arranges her finger claws in a way to make a comb, apparently fascinated by the horse's fly-away hair.

"The grass here," says the horse through his own translator, "is terrible. Like eating sticks of clay."

Randa looks up at the horse. "I hope," she says, "that we are able to find a place with something more to your liking soon."

Zuhumi walks out of the compound and approaches. Overhearing the equine, he pulls a bar from a side pocket, unwraps it and offers it to the horse. "Try this," he says.

The black horse snuffles Zuhumi's proffered hand and then carefully lips the bar off his hand. He chews up the offering, managing not to make too much of a mess. "That's better," he says, "helps get the taste out of my mouth at least."

Zuhumi chuckles, "We have much more in the ship."

"I hate ships," the horse opines, "but I hate this planet more."

Zuhumi nods, "We'll get everyone off as soon as we decide where we're all going and how we're doing it."

People took to calling the strange alien creature by the name of Spike, a name she didn't seem to mind, and adopted it herself. "My ship," Spike says, "is larger. I can help more people find their homes."

Zuhumi nods to Spike, "We all greatly appreciate all your help. You appear to need no help from any of us."

Spike laughed again, "I could have put a stop to this but did not. I felt that it was not my place to interfere but the more I watched and learned about your various species here, I saw more how you were all being exploited. I will not watch any more."

Itico stands to face Spike, "I thank you for the help and the translator," he says. "You said that you knew where our home world was."

Spike made a gesture as though she were setting her hands on a table. "I have already sent the path my ship took from your world to this one. Ask the translator and it will tell when you are ready."

Itico bows his head in thanks. "Your kindness is as warming as your armor is hard."

Spike laughs again, "We have a saying, 'We are all hard on the outside but squishy on the inside.' Perhaps that is not quite the same for your kind. Maybe it is the opposite. Maybe someday I will have the opportunity to take a fleshy creature apart. One never knows."

Itico chuckles, "I will," he says, "endeavor not give you a reason to investigate my spine."

Spike reaches out and brushes the top of Itico's head, turns and does the same to the horse. She then turns and looks towards her ship which remains parked over near Zuhumi's freighter. She turns to Zuhumi.

"I will buy your entire cargo," she says to the bipedal equine.

Zuhumi bows his head deeply, "That is very kind. What do you have to trade with?"

Spike gestures as a little sled glides up, floating just a few millimeters above the grass. "I took a look at your ship," she says, "and think these materials might offer you a choice of options for a fair trade."

Zuhumi walks over to the sled and picks up a few ingots of some more precious metals and turns back to Spike, holding them up.

"These alone will be plenty of payment," he states.

Spikes makes the hands on table gesture again, "Keep everything, and the floater too."

Zuhumi bows again, "You are quite generous."

"This has been," Spike says, "the most fun I have had in quite some time."

Zuhumi shakes his head and places the ingots back on the floater. He turns back to Spike and says, "It will take me some time to transfer all the cargo."

Spike make another gesture, spreading her arms a little, arm spikes flexing out. "Already been taken care of," she says.

"Oh," Zuhumi says. "Okay, then."

"Have anyone," Spike says as she turns away, "who wants to take me up on my offer meet me at my ship and I will make room for them."

The large horse steps over to stop Spike before she leaves. He says, "It was very good to meet you, thank you for the combing. I will follow the two-legged pony here though, for now at least."

Zuhumi laughs, "Thanks, I think."

Spike makes the agreement gesture and says, "Perhaps we will meet again." She brushes over the horse's now dry mane and then resumes her walk towards her craft. Her rear facing knees making her gate unnerving to many of the creatures on the lawn.

As Spike leaves, Zuhumi stands next to the much larger horse and says, "My mother is going to love you. You be careful of her or she'll make you fat with trying all her favorite dishes."

The horse snorts, "As long as I can be outside again, I'd happily be too fat to walk."

Itico and Randa have figured out how to have a private conversation even while wearing the alien translator. After a bit, Itico stands and approaches the horse. He bows, "Pardon me," he says, "could I borrow your height, as the largest and maybe the strongest creature here?"

"What do you need?" the horse asks.

They move to one edge of the gathering and Itico easily leaps up onto the horse's back. Itico manages to land without using his claws and turns to face the group. "Hello," he says, "I'm Itico. Many of you know Randa or at least know about her and what she has done. She did this to escape her captivity and we are happy to set you all free as well. We all have the chance to return home now, wherever that home might be. Randa, myself and the rest of our little group will be returning to what is left of our home world and helping others to fight back against the threat of those who take other species as slaves. You all should return home to what worlds you have as well." He pauses and looks around at the strange collection of creatures and continues, "We all have been through a lot but do not let it stop you from living the rest of your lives. Our new friend Spike has offered to help you find your homes. Anyone who wishes to take her up on the offer will meet her at her ship. My kind and I are going with Zuhumi, to my home to see what is left and what can be salvaged."

A few creatures stand and start walking towards Spike's ship. Several stop to exchange a few words with Randa who also receives more than a few hugs around her thick neck.

"There is likely," Itico continues for the remaining, "nothing here for us but bad memories. We will help anyone off planet who needs it but we will not force anyone to leave." He hops off of the horse's back.

Zuhumi figures out how to get the floating sled to move in the direction of his ship when he gestures in frustration and it starts slowly floating off in a random direction. He chases after it and gets it turned around and heading in the right direction. He laughs and calls, "Hey, Itico. You just may be out of a job as long as I have this thing."

Itico huffs. "I'm good with that," Itico replies.

The tigers follow Zuhumi and his new sled into his ship. They are followed by a few other creatures, including a few more equines including the big black horse. He is the last one in so he has some fun trying to close the cargo hatch with his large and soft nose. He dances back and snorts when he manages to press the correct button hard enough to start the ramp rising.

"We're off!" he exclaims in a happy tone

Everyone jumps as a quiet, repetitive thumping noise starts on the cargo hatch.

The horse turns and, this time more expertly, pushes the open button to start dropping the ramp once again. As the ramp nears the ground, a small crowd of new creatures stand.

Itico, Randa and a few of the others come down to meet them, a little dazed. The horse stands at the top of the ramp, just as perplexed as the rest.

A few of the lab technicians stand to one side. The lead tech steps up to Randa and says, his voice awed and a little scared, "Nearly all of them, all of the long-term ones, woke up." He turns to look at Randa's former body standing at the bottom of the ramp. The technician turns back, "We have a lot to learn about this technology. I can't do this any more. I'm shutting this down, for good."

Randa's former body turns to watch the technician go before turning back to face Randa and Itico. She says, quietly. "I know I'm not you Randa but I think I'm everything you experienced while you were me." She shrugs her slender shoulders and continues, "They called us shells but while that may have been true when we were first cloned, that's not true any more."

Randa looks up at her former self, "I am astonished to meet you and a little confused. I never claimed to understand the technology that was used on us."

The other Randa gestured to the small group behind her. "We talked," she says, "as we walked over and decided that it made a kind of sense. Everything you were, everything you experienced in this body had to be stored someplace. While you might remember most things, since your body is different, we speculate that over time you will forget what was different between our two bodies. I, however, will not. I know nothing of your natural form, nor do I have your mind-voice. We are two very different people, now. My identity, though, is still as you."

Randa nods, "I am glad to meet you. How about these others? I think I recognize a few."

The other Randa nods, "These are most of the people who helped you and while their natural bodies finally get the chance to return home, we have decided to ask to join you. We feel that getting off of that prison ship was only the first step."

Randa nods, looks back at Zuhumi. "This is your ship," she says, "what do you say?"

Zuhumi looks a little uncomfortable but bows slightly. "It will be cramped at first but maybe we can find another ship to accommodate all of us," he says.

Everyone climbs into the ship to find that the large black horse is no longer near the buttons. He has wandered to a far corner to lay down, complaining that the metal decking hurts his hooves. Zuhumi pushes the close button and helps people find places to rest.

He explains, "While take off is no longer as stressful as before the days of artificial gravity, the ride up can still be unpredictable and bumpy. Best to find a comfortable place to sit with something to hold onto."

Instead of large crates of cargo, the cargo hold is now quite full of warm bodies. Some people are sitting tucked into shelves, using the cargo straps like seatbelts. Other, larger people have wedged themselves into other spaces and there is at least one person sitting in every chair or bench around the cargo ship. There are even four smaller creatures curled up on Zuhumi's bed. Zuhumi isn't daring enough to see if there is anyone hiding in the lavatory but he does have to shoo a curious canine creature from his pilot's chair.

As Zuhumi's ship gently lifts, the other ship follows more gracefully than the ponderous freighter. As the ships leave the planet, they watch Spike's ship jump though a gate that Zuhumi's navigation computer had no record of. He marks it as unknown destination and then turns to Itico.

"Do you have the path that Spike gave you?" Zuhumi asks.

It takes Itico a moment to figure out how to ask the translator but when he does, Zuhumi's ship receives the data directly. The computer also receives a request to update the navigational database with new gate information.

"Huh!" Zuhumi exclaims, "it looks like Spike gave us more than just the path to your home."

The point in space that Zuhumi had just marked as unknown now showed a destination and distance in light years. The display additionally displayed another dozen or so jump gate locations and their destinations.

"Wow," Zuhumi marvels, "Spike has been doing this a long time to know where all these go."

"Or," Randa says, "her people."

Zuhumi rotates his ponderous craft and activates the field projectors which open their own gate.

After a short time more spacecraft start launching from the planet's surface and vanishing through many different jump gates. No other ships leave through the gates that Spike or Zuhumi used.