FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The trip up the hill to Nathan's house was relatively uneventful. Luke had flinched when a small yapper belonging to one of Nathan's neighbors came rushing out to challenge them, but it hadn't dared come out of its owner's yard.

"You can just ignore him," Nathan reassured the young man. "He likes to act as if he owned the street, but he never comes out of the yard, even when the gate's open. I'd probably give him a quick boot if he did." Nathan hated dogs like that.

"Here we are. Go on in." He held the door open while Luke carried Ben's box inside. "Take your shoes off, then you can take the box into the living room, straight ahead. Oh, give me your coat. It'll be here in the hall closet."

When he followed Luke into the living room, he found him still holding the box, looking around in admiration.

"Nice, huh? I got the place really cheap. It was built special for the previous owners, but they couldn't make the balloon payments. Then the bank had to unload it when the housing market went bust."

The living room was spacious, with a deep, soft carpet, large, comfortable couch and chairs, and a flagstone fireplace. Oak bookshelves and cabinets were on the other two walls, and a high-end audio system filled the corners of the room. Tall windows between bookshelves overlooked the back yard.

"Sit down. Relax. She won't bite. I'll get some sodas." Luke had been staring at the large Siberian husky occupying one of the chairs. You had to look closely to discover that the dog wasn't breathing, that the eyes were glass and that the fur was plush. "His name's Sasha, by the way."

Nathan handed an icy ginger beer to his guest and sipped at his own. "I've never been able to make up my mind whether the dog's a he or a she. There's no way to tell just by looking, of course. It's too cute to be male but too big to be female, so I've just gotten into the habit of mixing genders."

"That's why the name?" Luke wondered.

"Yeah. It's usually a girl's name here in the States, but it's the Russian diminutive for Alexander. It fits, I think.

"Why don't you put Ben on the coffee table. I'll get my other rfid wand."

As he opened one of the cabinets, Nathan said loudly, "CC. On." Thick curtains closed over the windows, room lights came up to compensate and a six foot wide screen rolled down from the ceiling. As it reached its bottom, it opened a 3D window into the latest version of an obscure graphical operating system. A gong resonated through the room.

"Neat, huh?" he grinned at Luke. "I don't know why people put up with the standard commercial stuff. This doesn't cost any more." Luke just nodded, wide eyed.

"OK, here we go."

Beep! "PCInc. Imperial Siberian Tiger," and a long string of numbers.

"CC. Search. P.C. Incorporated. Endit."

Gonggg. The now familiar logo scrolled into view. "PCInc. Manufacturers of the Finest Artificial Animals in the Solar System!"

"CC. Open. R.F.I.D. database. Endit."

Gonggg. "Open" blinked below the logo.

Another wave of the wand.

Beep! "PCInc. Imperial Siberian Tiger," and the numbers again.

"That's strange. There should be more than that," Nathan muttered.

"CC. Open. P.C. Incorporated. R.F.I.D. database. Maximum depth. Endit."

Gonggg. Another "Open" blinked into view.

Beep! "PCInc. Imperial Siberian Tiger," and the numbers again.

"Now I'm getting annoyed. CC. Display. P.C. Incorporated. R.F.I.D. database. Maximum depth. Endit."

A pleasant feminine voice spoke from the screen. "We're sorry. All connections to offworld colonies are currently unavailable. Please try again later."

"Well, shit!" Nathan used his favorite expletive. "At least they're consistent, even if it is all a hoax. Offworld colonies indeed."

"What's wrong? Didn't we decide the Chinese might have someone on Mars?" Luke wondered.

"I did a little investigating. The total offworld population currently is six individuals, and they're all in the ISS. There is no record of any Chinese launches since their taikonauts had that accident on the Moon. I even scanned through all the earthsat recordings since then. That took a while. But there were no undocumented launches by anybody. There were plenty of documented ones, of course, but no people went anywhere but the ISS."

"Well, couldn't we just wait and try again later?"

"Sure, no reason not to. In the meantime, why don't we try to find out about that unrecognized rfid in your clothes?"

"OK." Luke struggled up out of the comfy chair and came over to stand in front of Nathan.

"It seemed to be in your hip pocket, remember?" Nathan grinned. "Turn around, please." Luke turned around, presenting his rear for Nathan to scan. He filled his pants nicely, Nathan thought, but "Well, your wallet's in there now. Let's see what's in it."

Bebebbebebebebebebebebebebeep. The screen filed with many pages of information. Credit cards, discount cards, debit card, student ID, even the wallet itself. But buried in the middle was "unknown."

"Wow. All that? I thought some of that was supposed to be confidential."

"A lot more stuff is public knowledge that most people like to think," Nathan explained sadly. "We live in a goldfish bowl these days. It doesn't look like the other wand was the problem. Take your wallet out and I'll try again."

Beep! "Unknown," and the long number.

"Shit," Nathan muttered quietly. Then a little louder, "Luke, I think I'd better ask you to do the next scan. It's maybe just a little too personal. I think we need to find out for sure if it's really in your clothes. The bathroom's over there. Would you mind taking all your clothes off and scanning them for me?"

"You really think I need to do that?" Luke turned and stared down quizzically.

"Well, I've got a suspicion what might be going on. And that'll be the proof. Please?"

"OK." He shrugged, took the offered wand and went into the small downstairs bathroom.

"I'm scanning my pants. Anything?" he called out a few minutes later.

One beep. Nothing unknown. Nathan quietly got the keyboard out of the cabinet and typed a few commands. It was as he had feared.

"Nathan?"

"Just a minute. Uh, Luke, is your middle name Peter by any chance?"

"Nope, Petronious. Kinda fancy. I don't like it much. Why?"

Even closer. More confirmation, as if it had been needed.

"Why don't you get dressed and come back out here. There's something you need to see."