FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Hello SF. This is my very first story ever written, so if you are inclined to leave feedback I would greatly appreciate it. Here it goes!

Planet: Earth

City: Boston

Date: 2782.11.27AD20:37:32

It was a cold night in the old city, one of the few cities still retaining some of the buildings that were erected centuries ago. And in one of those old streets, a 6 feet tall man wearing a blue navy suit was walking at a fast but steady pace. From time to time the face of the man could be seen as he passed by below the street lamps illuminating the neighborhood.

After a few minutes walking in the otherwise deserted street the man finally reached his destination: a dusty, narrow alley towered by several buildings with a nonexistent illumination, vehicles driving several meters above him where the only source of light; in that alley, in front of the big window of an abandoned building the man ceased his movements, moving his right foot out shoulder width, while reaching both hands behind his back, thumbs of both hands interlocked, with his left hand in front and holding them right above his waistline, he stood and waited. His eyes locked in a fixed forward posture, as if looking at his reflection in the window, except he wasn't.

A single "beep" coming from his watch in his left wrist signaled the time for the meeting had arrived. Without breaking his standing, or turning his head, the man waited for his date to arrived, he waited in silence... and then waited some more.

Nearly seven minutes later a 5' 8" man dressed in a long green coat, black pants and a dark gray flat cap spoke behind the suited man "evening, Sergeant Samuel."

The suddenness of the voice, but more so the fact that he had not seen or heard the other man coming made Samuel turned his head to engage in the conversation, but he caught himself in time and returned his gaze to the front. Samuel replied with a hint of anxiety "you are late."

The coated man, now standing right next to Samuel with both hands tucked in his coat chuckled before answering "we are never late, we are where we need to be, WHEN we need to be."

"No, you were supposed to be here at..." started the Sergeant just to be cut off abruptly by the other man.

"Our time is precious, let's get to business."

The Sergeant's face turned to surprise then anger 'how dare this piece of ...' clenching his fist he readied to show this man some respect, but he stopped his train of thoughts, he remembered what was at stake, how important was his mission and that he needed the skills of this particular man, so he released his fist and took a deep breath, allowing a moment to be calm, "so, did you find it?"

"We did" nodded the man standing at Samuel's left side.

"Excellent, give it to me" said Samuel, excitement starting to show in his voice.

"We do not have it."

"What? You failed to retrieve it? Why are we meeting if you do not have it yet?"

"We did not fail..." started to answer the man on the coat, only to be interrupted by a very annoyed Samuel.

"Then what would you call it? We are meeting and you do not have it."

The covered man straighten himself to gain a more imposing stance "we NEVER fail, it may take us longer than expected, but we never fail. Our success rate is 100%."

"How is it not a failure? You were tasked to find it."

"And we have done so" stated the man in a matter of fact tone.

"What?" After this elusive small conversation, irritation beyond words is what Samuel was feeling. He knew every minute that he spent talking with this man increased the chances of his mission being discovered. "Stop playing games! Talk straight! Where is it?!"

"We did not retrieve it. Our objective was to find it, not retrieve it. Also, under the conditions of our arrangement, it cannot be provided to you, the shape is not the adequate one, a player is involved" spoke the guy as if the reasons for this outcome should be evident.

Samuel paused to consider the information he was given, this is not what he was expecting when he had come here. He wanted to tell this guy to fuck off, but despise his elusive way of speaking this group had done in two months what other groups have failed to do in 18 months. Samuel could not waist anymore time, lives were at risk. After a few moments of consideration, he decided on a course of action.

"Ok, then I will extend the scope of your contract, I want extraction. I will send you the coordinates for the delivery."

"No."

"No?" was the surprised response of the Sergeant.

"No. Given the current conditions, our objective has been accomplished as it is. If you wish to hire our services again, you need to go thru the appropriated channels." said the man before opening his left side of the coat to retrieve a data crystal. He stretched his hand and gave it to Samuel.

Before the coat was closed, in the reflection of the window, Samuel caught sight of a pin on the collar of the shirt of the man to his left, it was a Triquetra with an eye on the center, he knew because his daughters used to see a Scy-Fi television program which showed said symbol.

"You will find all relevant information there" said the coated man in the monotonous tone that had used during the entire conversation. "This concludes our business. Night Sergeant Samuel". Before Samuel had a chance to answer, the man was walking out of the alley, vanishing in the darkness of the night. "Fuck", was all that Samuel could say in this moment.

City: Boston

Date: 2782.11.27AD23:40:12

Samuel entered his two story house, while not the most luxurious house in the neighborhood it was a nice enough house for him and Clara, his wife, to make a decent living. With silent steps over the hardwood floors Samuel walked his living room passing a short aisle to find himself in front of his studio's door. Punching his password on the panel in the left side, the door's mechanism released a series of bolts before allowing the door to be opened. Samuel opened the door as slowly as possible and then closed it back, if Clara found he had sneaked from his bed, and no less than to be working, he would be in for a long discussion... yet again.

The room was simple and almost empty: a couple of rugs on the floor, at the back-center was a big desk that was made of an alloy which look like glass and a single comfy chair behind the desk, at both the left and right walls there were some pictures. The left wall had some images displaying Samuel and Clara at their weeding day, one portraying him holding both of his new born daughters and two at each of his daughters weeding days. On the right side there weren't any pictures but rather some phrases showing "in pace, ut sapiens, aptarit idonea bello", "Semper Paratus", "Non sibi sed patriae" and others.

As soon as Samuel stepped foot inside the room, the light turned on. Samuel walked the short distance and slumped in his chair behind his desk where rested for a moment, he brought his hands to his temples and massaged them with gentle, circular moves, his tired mind trying to catch up with the evens that had transpired in his meeting. When he first received the coordinates for his meeting he was very excited, he thought he would be getting what he had asked for regardless of the state, form or shape it was, he thought he would finally get it and that would be a great advantage for them in their current war. Granted it might be sometime before he could use it but it would still represent a tactical advantage over their enemies.

The Sergeant straightened himself on the chair, 'no point in dwelling on unaccomplished objectives' thought while reaching for his right side pocket in his pants, from there he took the data crystal that he had received a few hours ago and placed it on the reader, his desk came to life as little light rays started filling the data crystal and decrypting the information in a holograph in front of Samuel. A few seconds later files upon files started to appear in the screen before Samuel, whom started reading every single one of them, analyzing every piece of information.

Now Samuel understood in what sense "a player was involved". In a way, the involvement of this particular player did not complicated things as much as he had thought, but his idea of direct extraction was no longer an option, if his contact had found him due to the information he possessed other groups might be monitoring the guy. 'What other options do I have?' contemplated the middle age man, 'it is not like I can approach him and say "son, the army of the Coalition needs you", unless...', he went back to read some files again until he found the one he was looking for, browsing thru the pages he finally got the information he wanted, "there! Yes I can, I can tell him that..." he paused starting to work out in his mind just what he would need to made for the guy to work with him on this project.

After almost two hours of considering different options and solving different scenarios in his head, Samuel came up with an acceptable plan. It was far from being the best he could think off, but he could not waist any more time, if others found this guy before he could make his move that would set back his project many, many months if not outright kill it. He already had invested a lot of time and energy pushing for this project, to make it a viable option for the army and he would not let it sink before it could start.

With this in mind, Samuel pulled out his personal communicator, tapped an additional code on the device before dialing the number of his commanding officer and brought the phone to his left ear. Some tones later, a gruff voice answered.

"Do you have any idea what time it is, Sergeant?"

"Yes Sir. I am sorry to bother you."

"This better be important."

"It is Sir. Remember project Animalia? I have found out a resource that can help us make it a reality, but it could be compromised in the near future, so we need to move fast. For this reason I ask that you grant me your access code so I can procure us the resource."

The man on the other line sighted before answering "Sergeant... Samuel, this thing about project Animalia has gone too far, I know you have good intentions but you are wasting your time, thinking that the project can be completed before this war comes to an end is wishful thinking."

"Sir" Samuel pleaded, "I know this has taken more time than anticipated, but my sources confirm that this person is really close to making it a reality. If we can achieve Animalia we could change the war to our favor."

"Are your sources trustworthy?" Asked the man on the other line, trying to get a better idea of how solid this information was.

"They are... reliable." said the Sergeant, choosing his words very carefully.

"Reliable..."

"Yes Sir, reliable."

The man on the other line considered the information for a moment and then answer in a resolute manner "very well Sergeant, I will send you my code. But this is your job your putting on the line, so you better make sure that this works, you will NOT get a another chance."

"Yes Sir. Thank you."

With that the line went silent, a flashing light on his communicator signaled that he had received the requested code. It was time for Samuel to set things in motion, now he was going all in.

City: Chicago

Date: 2782.11.28AD04:55:00

"Beep, beep, beep..." Jack woke up at the sound of his alarm; he rolled over his back and yawn, stretching his arms and legs to fight the heaviness that his body had this early in the morning. He laid there a bit more enjoying the warmness of his bed sheets, but the alarm kept pushing him to get up, it was time to start his day. "Alarm off", commanded the rising man, removing the covers and revealing his slightly toned body that was covered by a pair of trunks and socks and nothing else.

As almost any other day Jack stood up and headed to the adjoining room, he did not bother to cover himself as all the windows had shutters. Climbing onto his tread mill and setting it up to his morning routine he started walking slowly, nothing too demanding until he had woken up enough. Some minutes later, Jack keyed a few commands and fastened his pace to and almost running, it was his "cardio" day after all.

Having completed his morning exercise, he hopped off his treadmill and returned to his room to enter the bathroom and start his second morning routine: shower and shaving, followed by dressing up in his green scrubs, having a "randomly" selected breakfast and then he was out of the house and climbing into his car. He tapped into the car's GPS and choose the hospital from a list of already saved locations. Starting his autopilot, he let the vehicle move out of his parking spot and drove him to work, while Jack sometimes liked to drive he prefer not to so he could used his time for other activities.

Jack initialized his account in the car screen and started browsing thru his e-mails on the tactile screen. There were some advertisements that he quickly deleted, a couple of bills which he took the time to go thru the entire process of authorizing the payment directly from his bank account, and then he saw an interesting looking e-mail, the logo seemed to be that of the government. He opened it up and started reading, "oh, this is... I cannot believe it, and after all this time!" Jack quickly open the attachment on the e-mail and read all the information, he make sure he understood the implications before confirming his appointment. Normally he would have taken a lot of time to make a decision this big, but he had done said decision two years ago, it merely happened that he had not the opportunity to make it until now.

Having replied to the government e-mail, the first thought that came to mind was share the news with Amy... Amelia. He chuckled at the memory of Amy getting all angry about being called like that; the only one that could do so and get away with just a mild annoyed look was him that was what 10 years of friendship had earned him. He composed a quick e-mail asking the blond woman to meet him for lunch after his shift had finished, which was around the time she took time to eat anyway.

Still wondering how Amy would react to the news he failed to notice that the car had gotten into the parking lot inside the hospital. The car parked at an empty space and turned the light on, successfully shaking up Jack from his thoughts. Grabbing his briefcase Jack descended the vehicle and started to walk towards the entrance of the hospital.

"Good morning Lu" waved Jack to the guard at the entry door, while fishing his identification from his wallet.

"Morning Dr. Hallinger. Is it a good day to save lives?" Asked the guard with a musing in his voice, he knew very well that that was Dr. Hallinger's favorite phrase before starting his day.

"It sure is Lu. By the way, have you seen Dr. Amelia Andersen, do you know if she has gotten inside already?"

The guard took Jack's key card and inserted into the scanner "she has doctor; she has been working since 6:00 AM."

As the scanner confirmed the validity of the card Lu returned it to his owner. "Ok, thanks Lu. I'll see you in my way out" called out the Doctor passing next to the guard. He went into the locker room and used the same ID car to open his, there he put his wallet and stashed his briefcase. Since he was in his working cloths already, he went directly to the ER.

He stepped into the elevator and press #1, which was the floor the ER was in. it did not take much for the doors to open and Jack was greeted by the sight of medical personnel busy tending to their patients. Jack spotted Sharon, the fellow attending who had worked on the night shift and approached her to start getting the most current information. She told him about the young man that had been admitted after a car collision, he had a forearm fracture and other injuries.

Jack turned to his assigned resident for the day that was standing by Dr. Sharon "James, order a chest CT scan."

"Why would we need a chest CT if the patient has already been taken X-ray?" ask the confused resident.

"Well, because often X-rays miss injuries, patients with a high-risk mechanism of injury such as in this case, a car accident needs a CT scan. The benefits outweigh the disadvantages" explained calmly the attending.

"Alright, the next patient is..."

~

After checking on seven patients, having three emergencies and two unscheduled surgeries, Jack's shift finally ended. He headed to the cafeteria that was across the street from the hospital. He liked the place not only because it was really close to the hospital but also because it had a family feeling to it, some of his coworkers had described it as "visiting the aunt that used to babysit you", not that Jack would know anything about that, but he did feel welcome every time he visited the small restaurant.

Jack entered the restaurant and started to search for an unoccupied booth, what he found was Amy already waiting for him in the furthest back both; she was wearing black dressing pants and a button up purple blouse. A smile spread across his lips and he walked briskly to meet her.

"Jacky!" Amy cried out loud, standing up and wrapping her arms around him in a tight embrace.

Jack returned the affectionate hug with one of his own. When the hug had died out he stepped back and looked at her.

"I told you not to call me Jacky... Amy" a little smile showed in Jack's lips.

"And there he goes: the need to assert his position as the alpha male in a contest of who has it bigger."

Jack smirked "well, I hate to break it up to you, but with me being a man and you a woman, there is no question that I have it bigger".

She looked at him with a mild discussed face "you can be such a child sometimes."

"Oh, I have been told... by you" Jack's smile not faltering despite the scowl that was forming in Amy's face.

"So, what is this very important thing that you had to tell me and could not wait until the weekend?"

Jack waved his left hand motioning to the both by their side "why don't we order first."

"I already did, for the both of us" commented Amy while sitting and pushing the menu to the side of the table.

Even if it was Jack who had called Amy for lunch, he was not eager to broach the reason to be here. "So you did, and how did you know what I would like to eat?"

"What is there to know? You are a meat lover, so I order you a steak with a baked potato and vegetables on the side. Now quit stalling and start talking" demanded the woman in a playful tone.

"Well, you see" started Jack, trying to muster enough courage to endure the assault that, he no doubt would get from his friend once he told her about the contents of e-mail he had received this morning.

"Remember that about a year ago I submitted an application to join the army?"

"Yeah..." voiced Amy in a way that asked the man to continue she was worried where this seemed to be going, but she did not want to jump to any conclusion.

Jack was fidgeting with his hands, having a hard time keeping his eyes at Amy's "today I received an e-mail confirming that I have been accepted in a new deploy... and off-world one."

To say that Amy was surprise would have been an understatement "w-what? But you say no, right."

Now Jack was even more nervous than before, he passed his left hand fingers thru his hair and rotated his head to the right side in an attempt to avert Amy's look, only to hear his friend repeat herself "right?"

"No... I already sent my reply and I will be joining them in two weeks."

Amy leaned forward, agitation could be heard in her voice "but you can't! You don't even have military training, much less any kind of space training."

"Well, I really would not be training or working in space, I would only be in space until we reach our destination" tried Jack to dispel Amy's worries.

Amy rolled her eyes and threw her hands at the air "forgive me, now everything is ok!" stated the female with as much sarcasm as she could put in the comment. "Ok, forget about the fact that you are unprepared for something like this, or the many risks you would be exposed to, what about your research, hmm? That was something you were really excited about."

"Yes, that... hmm, I could continue my research in my free time, and if it came to the point of trials in humans I could sent the information to the lab so somebody else could work on that phase" offered Jack, now meeting Amy's eyes.

Amy placed her hands on the table and look Jack with intensity "What about your family?"

"Amy, you know my parents and I have not spoken in years, I don't think that is happening in the future" sneered Jack while crossing his arms.

Now Amy's intense look diminished and she spoke the next words with almost a timid voice "And what about... me?"

Jack's hands were on top of Amy's across the table in a second, a tender look with a hint of sadness plaster on Jack's face "oh Amy, you know I love you, I do, but this is something I want to do, something I NEED to do. I feel like this is the only way for me to get closure."

Amy just looked at Jack without saying a word, she knew what he was feeling and why this was so important for him, they have spoken at length when Jack first received the news about Jerry and they have spoken again before Jack decided to submit an application to join the army, there was nothing new to this, except that Amy was not expecting for Jack to get admitted.

The silence stretched for a few minutes, "it is only going to be for a few years you know; you won't have time to miss me..." Jack could see that the worry on Amy's face was being replaced with sadness, so he decided to steer the conversation in a different direction "and besides, you are going to be marrying Mark in a 4 months... and probably be getting pregnant immediately, I mean you are not teenager anymore."

"Jackass" snorted Amy.

Jack held Amy's hands tighter trying to comfort her "I am, but I am YOUR jackass."

That earned Jack a little smile from Amy successfully lightening the mood. It also helped that at that moment the waiter came and present them with their dishes. Exactly like Amy had said, Jack received a dish with a steamy, juice stake, a baked potato with butter and bacon sided with cooked vegetables covered in cheese. As for Amy, she received a salad with chicken strips topped with a light dressing.

With food in front of them the atmosphere improved. Jack went ahead and explained how this unit would be deployed to Neptune, apparently there had been riots in the planet due to the government resources management policy and had escalated to a point that a civil war was in sight, so the Earth government had decided to sent some troops to help the local government to bring order. This convoy Jack was being sent on was the last one that Earth was sending and it had mostly inexperience military personal that would be further trained during the trip and would be stationed in low risk locations.

The conversation moved from Jack's new adventure to all the ways Jack would be making up to Amy for the fact that he was "abandoning" her: Jack promised that they would have lunch together every single day until he had to leave. For Amy that was not enough, she told him that just because he suddenly was not going to be able to attend the wedding it did not meant that he no longer had any obligations and that he would buy her a wedding present. She also added that she wanted him to write her as often as possible, so they remain aware of each other's life developments.

Having finished with the main course and moved onto desert Amy suggested they should have a go away party. Even if Jack did not have many friends he certainly had colleagues that he liked and that would miss him, maybe not as much as her, but still. Thou Jack didn't want anything too elaborated, he mentioned that he would not want to make a big deal out of it and that a dinner in a restaurant would suffice.

They both finish their desserts and stood up to leave. Amy pointed out that Jack should pay for lunch as the first thing in the long list to get him back to her grace, which was fine with Jack.

Both of them stood outside the cafeteria "I will see you tomorrow Amy, I got to head to the lab and tell them the news. It is going to be a busy week."

Amy hugged him one more time just before parting "I'll see you tomorrow Jack."

~

The two weeks passed in a blur, between regular work and preparations for his trip Jack did not have time for anything else other than keep his promise to Amy and have lunch with her.

Quitting his job at the hospital involved the less work, there was paper work to be filled but nothing else his duties would be distributed among the other attending until the hospital could hire another trauma surgeon. His job at the lab was an entire different story, he had to explain all of his work to one of his colleagues, even if they were smart and illustrated people they were unfamiliar with his research, Jack had some really interesting theories but decided not to passed those, since he still lacked the in-depth research needed to formulate a formal hypothesis he decided he would only bias the approach of the next researcher.

Once he had sorted out both his job at the hospital and at the lab, there was nothing left for him to do than packing.

Jack stood in his room, list in hand and started the process; there was not a lot that he would pack, mostly clothing, his personal computer which contained a lot of information related to his investigation but also some books he was currently reading. He paused in front of his dresser, where he took a small metallic box and opened it. The sparkle of a titanium band attached to a silver chain greeted him. He stood there a moment, just looking at it and relishing in the fond memories it brought, they had happened years ago but he could remember them like they happen yesterday.

He was snapped back to really by his alarm signaling he had 5 minutes to go out so he closed the box and put it in his jacket. Then he took the luggage and headed for the door, opening he took a last glance back to his house, this was it he was leaving his life behind.