FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Staring out the window at the alien asteroid, Tibalt took in a deep breath and let out a deeper sigh while the rest of the landing squad geared up. The lizard had been waiting for this moment since they'd left the Earth port, and now as he gazed out upon the ancient, celestial body, he couldn't bring himself to put on the helmet that would protect his body from the atmosphere. "Tibalt, you might want to put your helmet on, I heard the vacuum of space can be a bit hard on the lungs," a cheerful voice from behind laughed, which caused Tibalt to sigh before he turned and smiled at the exploration ship's leader.

It was none other than Lucian Tart, a huge space hero of his. The tiger was renowned across Earth's colonies as an explorer of the galaxy and surveyor of all of its mysteries. At only thirty years old he'd explored more than some explorers had in twenty years, and whenever anybody questioned him about his later years and retirement, he'd shut them down and claimed that exploration had no age limit. "Sir, I guess... I'm feeling a bit jittery..." the lizard explained, glancing out the window where he once more caught a reflection of his own green muzzle and turned back to face the other man. "How do you go down with such... bravado?" he asked, the word being the most apt expression he could give for the jubilation on the tiger's face.

As he stepped up to the window Lucian took a look out at the asteroid himself. "Simple, I pretend that I'm going to Disneyland for the first time. It gets me every time!" the tiger laughed, Tibalt's mouth gaped in shock as the tiger roared with laughter and walked away to fill out some of the final data pads before prepping the dropship.

"He's teasing, don't worry so much!" Tibalt's friend Weber explained as he helped pop the lizard's helmet on, bumping him with a wink. "You're gonna do fine. Luckily you're friends with the scientist who's already trained for the basic workings of this damn suit." the husky chuckled, his tail wagging in amusement as Tibalt continued to quietly worry even as he nodded.

Staring after their landing captain, Tibalt managed to smirk to himself. "I still have no idea how he can jump in without even worrying a bit..."

"Truth be told, I don't think he does either. Doesn't matter though, mister explorer, let's get down there and get some samples. Who knows, maybe we'll find alien life." Weber said, wiggling his fingers as if he were telling a ghost story before he strapped on his helmet and tested the mic. "Now grow a pair and let's get going!"

"Grow a pair..." Tibalt mocked, wincing as Weber keyed in to give him some feedback.

"Alright ladies, enough playing around with the microphones." Lucian spoke, wincing as some of the sound echoed in his own helmet before he continued on. "Now there are just five of us going out there today. With this being our first drop we'll be having the two scientists in our group stay near the back, as we don't want them being injured due to any unexpected dangers. Tibalt, as soon as we land it'll be your duty along with Sandy to secure the perimeter of any potential dangers. Understood?" Tibalt nodded along with Sandy who, being even newer than Tibalt, looked about ready to shake out of his suit as his tail shuddered with anticipation and fear. "Doctors Granites and Maner, you two are to stay at the back, and if you need to break off for whatever reason, you are to inform the explorers. We have weapons in case of any emergency dealing with lifeforms. Do you understand?"

The scientists nodded before Lucian keyed in his mic to the captain's quarters. "Captain, we're going to be heading out in just a moment. Anything you have to say before we head down?"

The captain's words came into their helmets as if he were standing right there with them all. "Boys, keep on your toes. We're to explore this asteroid and see what might potentially reside on it, particularly the possible artifact that pinged on our radar that drew us here in the first place. We don't know if it's home to any harmful flora or fauna, so I want you to do your best to keep yourselves safe. While this is indeed a research mission, your number one priority is to all get back to this ship in one piece. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir!" the five members keyed, their captain's words were as always a relief to them all, allowing them to feel a tad bit more confident than before.

"Good! Now head out and enjoy yourselves, it's not everyday you get to visit an alien asteroid." the captain laughed, and with that the connection cut out before the five clambered into the dropship before the door sealed behind them.

Strapping themselves in, each of the five keyed in to one another to make sure their helmets worked. "You ready?" Tibalt keyed to Weber, the husky, though sounding confident earlier, now looked just as nervous as Sandy.

"Is being about ready to throw up usual?" Weber asked, a touch of amusement in his voice, though the possibility of that statement coming true looked very likely.

"Rule number one of exploration, throwing up on the first drop is a must," Tibalt laughed, everyone else was keyed in on that phrase and everyone but the pair of scientists laughed along with him.

"Space Station Gamma, drop ship one is ready to leave docking," Lucian said, waiting for a confirmation from the crew.

"Space Station Gamma has received confirmation. Have a nice fall, dropship one," the voice on the other end said, there was a lurch in all of their guts as they were dropped from the space station before the thrusters on the ship activated and there were two simultaneous burps from the scientists.

The flight itself was only supposed to take ten minutes, but when the intense initial thrust pushed them forward so hard, it felt like time slowed down for the five explorers. The straps dug into Tibalt's body as they were the only thing that prevented him from flying to the other end of the ship, his arms and legs flailed outwards in slow motion as he struggled to maintain his composure. When he looked over at the others they appeared to fare no better, all save for Lucian who not only had remained in his seat, but appeared to be working on a tablet that they were all specifically told to stow away before launch. After what seemed like an hour, the time dilation ended and the lizard let out a wince of pain as he fell square against his tailbase.

"Alright, I want everyone to answer me what twelve times fourteen is, then add twenty seven, multiply by four, then divide it all by two," Lucian said over the radios as the dropship sailed over the asteroid's surface while pitons shot into the rock. Slowly everyone responded with the answer, though the fast but intense trip made it hard for them to think as the craft quickly slowed and curved around while the glasteel wires reeled the ship down to the surface. "Good, not only does that show you probably don't have any brain damage, but when you switch inertias so quickly in a dropship vessel, I find it easier to distract yourself with mind problems so you don't throw up in your suit!"

"Is this guy serious?" Tibalt asked the husky next to him, though as he thought about it he did find that the flip-flops his stomach had been doing had gone unnoticed until they seemed calm enough for him to handle. The others seemed to come to the same realization as the tiger unclipped himself from his seat and popped the hatch open for them to leave.

Outside the capsule ship was the barren world of the alien asteroid, though all five of them knew that it wasn't for its unremarkable surface world, but the potential artifact hidden within. They immediately began to set up the scanning station while Lucian radioed back to the space station that they had successfully made contact with the surface of the asteroid and that they were about to begin a full survey of the area. Though they had managed to find the object's location from deep space, it was up to Weber to pinpoint the exact area that they needed to search before they brought down any heavy equipment needed. "I really hope it's not too deep with all this dense alloy beneath the surface," the husky commented while he locked the support bolts into place.

Tibalt shrugged and started to walk towards one of the ridges of the asteroids, the tiger's voice in his head warning him not to go too far on his own before their sensors were completely operational. The lizardman replied he wouldn't, but his curiosity had gotten the better of him and he found himself nearly on top of the ridge itself before he looked up into the endless wonder of stars that illuminated the otherwise black backdrop of space. When he had his fill of the view he looked down to see where he would go next, only to see something in the deep crevice below that caused him to gasp.

"Guys, I think I may have found what we're looking for." Tibalt said as his eyes surveyed the deep gash in the stone surface of the asteroid that appeared to lead deeper down into a black cavern that was not naturally made. "Unless an asteroid that could pierce through several hundred meters of rock and metal just happened to strike here without destroying this chunk of rock, I think this might be a crash site."

"A crash site?" Lucian asked. Tibalt nodded to himself before he realized with a blush that they couldn't see him, so he confirmed the query with a quick yes. "Alright, mark the crash site on your suit's map so we can all sync to it. Then finish giving a quick look around so we don't have any unexpected surprises while we're exploring it."

Keying in a few coordinates on his visor's map system, Tibalt gave one more look inside of the crevice. There didn't seem to be much that he could see from this high up other than the inky blackness inside. "Yes, sir," he said. With that he had a quick go around of the surrounding area of the asteroid, but there didn't appear to be much there besides rocks, rocks, and dear god... more rocks. Tibalt bit his tongue to keep his cheeky thoughts to himself as he finished giving the area a wide berth of safety before keying in on his helmet's mic. "Everything seems safe here, sir."

"Righteo, Tibalt. We'll be down and out there in a moment, meet us by the crevice in ten minutes," Lucian responded. Tibalt decided that he'd go in and check on the crevice again to see if he might be able to check it out with a quick flash of his light into the hole. Bounding over to the crash site, the lizard gazed up into the sky to see the space station far off in the distance overlooking them. "Wow..." he gasped. The station never failed to give him chills with its sheer size, and now as it blocked out stars with its mass, he couldn't help but shiver at the fact that he worked there.

He'd been so enamored with the space station that he neglected to notice that he'd reached the crash site... and flew right into it face first. "OOHHH SHIT!" he screamed. He'd keyed his mic right at that moment so everyone was treated to the lovely sound of a lizard smashing his head into rocks and letting out a plethora of swear words that would make a sailor blush. Tibalt lay still for a few moments, his head ringing, his face aching. "Fuuuuuck..." he groaned, a little blood smeared on the inside of his helmet.

Rubbing his head, he let out a small moan as he realized with a gasp that a hairline crack had formed in his helmet. "Tibalt, are you alright?!" Weber shouted through the intercom. Tibalt grasped at his chest as he could hear the smallest amount of air escaping from his helmet.

"Y... yeah... well... not really, I guess. My helmet's compromised," Tibalt admitted. Already the lines were growing larger from the crack as an alert flashed onto his visor explaining the obvious fact that he was losing air, and fast. "Shit..." he muttered, forgetting that he was still keyed in.

"Can you get back here in time, Tibalt?" Lucian asked, sounding remarkably calm for the terrifying situation that the lizard was in.

Taking a look at his air reserve timer it was obvious that Tibalt barely had enough time to get out of the crater as he took a look up to see the edge was far from grasp. "No, sir," he sighed, the cracks had thankfully stopped forming, but precious oxygen still pumped out as the suit attempted to make up for air loss to attempt to keep him conscious.

"Okay, here's what you're going to do. You said that it looks to be a crash site, right?" Lucian asked. Tibalt keyed back with a yes as the tiger went quiet for a moment to think. "See if there's an escape pod or something in there. If there is, climb in, and close the door behind you. Pump that little sucker with all your remaining oxygen. That should keep you safe until we get there. Do you understand?"

The idea was absolutely crazy... but Tibalt didn't have time to argue with crazy. "Yes, sir!" he managed. Taking a look around the small crater he saw it, it wasn't like any escape pod or anything he'd ever seen, but it seemed to have a door at the very least. He bounded over as he tried to ignore his pounding headache and his lungs started to ache as Tibalt reached the entry hatch. The lizard bit his lip as he looked around the surface but saw no example of a handle or anything he could interface with. "Lucian, there's no handle! I can't get in this thing!"

"Tibalt, calm down!" Lucian yelled. The lizard snapped still as the tiger took a calming breath. "Now try pushing the hatch or feeling around for a seam. There's always a way in."

Gulping deeply Tibalt nodded as he pressed his hand up against the pod's door and suddenly felt a tingle through his hand. "W... what is this?" he murmured, the sensation traveled up his body twice, once flowing away from his hand and the second time back towards. A voice echoed inside of Tibalt's head.

"Life form's bodily structure adheres to pod's parameters. Welcome creator," the voice said. With that there was a hiss and the pod door slid open suddenly, making Tibalt fall in before the door closed behind him. Tibalt remembered Lucian's words as he held his breath and ripped off his tank, spraying all the oxygen out of it into the room. After a few minutes Tibalt allowed himself to breathe; the air tasted a bit stale, but for the most part he couldn't find anything wrong with it.

"Thank god..." the lizard sighed. He emptied the rest of the tank out and leaned against the wall of the room. Looking around he could see that it was small, but most of the room was taken up by a small table that had some form of object set on it... Keying in to the others Tibalt sighed in relief. "I'm alright guys, I got in..."

"Tibalt, stay right there, we're coming to get you!" Tibalt heard Weber reply. "Just keep the chamber sealed as best as possible, we're going to erect a force field and drag the whole thing back to the station with you in it."

"Everything seems fairly structurally intact, actually." Tibalt replied as he pulled out a pocket light and turned it on to see around him. "With the force field I should have enough air to make it back to the station, just make it quick please."

"That's the ticket!" The lizard heard the tiger shout with a laugh. "Try not to find all the important alien artifacts before we can get you out!"

Tibalt just shook his head and continued to scan the area, wondering what he could possibly find in the small room-sized capsule he was trapped in. His gaze seemed to immediately turn to the area in the center with the table. With his light he could see that on top of it was a coffin-like structure made of latticed metal and frosted glass, something that didn't give him much confidence as he walked over to it. Despite the apparent age of the device it seemed to be completely functional and hermetically sealed, but there was nothing that indicated what it was or if there was anything inside of it.

As he pressed his hands against the smooth metal he suddenly felt a current of electricity rush through his body, not enough to be painful, but enough to cause him to jump backwards in surprise. The lizardman could hear the hiss of air escaping as the frosted glass began to clear, the fog that was inside slowly leaking outwards. "Oh crap, no no no..." he said as he tried to push on it again to stop the process, only to find the glass and metal beginning to separate. "Stop doing things!"

Unfortunately for Tibalt the container snapped open and released a torrent of cold air against his scales. When the fog finally cleared he was left with the contents of the box, which caused him to nearly fall backwards in absolute shock. Inside the coffin was what looked like some sort of draconic creature, a lot like himself save for a set of horns, more angular snout, and a bigger overall physique. Its scales shined in the beam of his pocket flashlight, and as he got closer, he realized that they glistened unnaturally bright. A cursory examination revealed that the creature's skin was some sort of rubbery material not unlike his suit as he tried to get a better look at the creature. Unfortunately the box obscured most of the details of the alien's body, and he was at a bad angle to get a better view.

"Well, in for a penny..." the lizardman muttered to himself as he carefully hoisted himself up on the edge of the container, careful not to touch the body itself while he grasped the flashlight as best he could in his mouth. Up close it appeared that the creature was in fact dead, and since the scanners didn't pick up any life-signs, he had to believe that it was true. It was a real shame, he thought to himself as he tried to find any other unusual surface features, if it was alive who knows what they could have learned from it as he leaned in closer towards the draconic muzzle.

A sharp, sudden jolt caused him to grip the side of the table tightly and his flashlight to fall out of his mouth, rendering him once more in completely darkness as he could feel himself begin to move. He realized that midway through his examination the others must have gotten the force field around him and had begun to drag him up, and though a little warning would have been appreciated, he was glad he was about to be rescued. Part of him wanted to start moving towards the door, but he didn't want to accidently touch the corpse and contaminate it while in the darkness.

As he waited Tibalt began to hear things in the darkness that caused him to snap his head around. At first it was just the creaks and groans of the derelict ship, but he began to hone in on something much closer to him. His breathing began to quicken despite himself as his anxiety rose, which he knew would only increase his oxygen depletion. As he took a deep breath to calm himself he felt something push against his scales, his body falling in the pitch darkness before he hit the floor hard. As his thoughts grew fuzzy and distorted from the lack of oxygen and the impact he swore he felt his tongue grow thicker, his maw open far wider than he had intended as he laid there on the metal floor. He let out a muffled gasp as his throat became blocked up, his hands came up to it and he could feel the flesh swell out as though something pushed against it, feeling his eyes roll into the back of his head...

As the lizardman started to black out he swore he felt something press down on him, something that reminded him of the creature in the case... then everything went black.

***

Floating... Tibalt felt himself floating as though in water. He felt something touching him, holding him close to its body. "Thank you..." the voice said softly. Tibalt couldn't respond as he felt something invading his throat, plunging deep into him and leaving... something. "For your energy... mine." Tibalt wanted to ask what this all meant, but before long he felt a stinging sensation on his cheek and the presence was gone.

***

After a while Tibalt suddenly heard a slapping sound and the sensation of pain through his cheek as he realized somebody was smacking him awake. "Tibalt, Tibalt are you alright?!"

Roused awake, Tibalt groaned as he smacked away the hand and blinked at the sudden blinding light. "I'm awake... I'm awake! God, lay off with the hand..."

"Thank god..." Weber said. With that the husky smacked him again for good measure. "We thought we lost you for a bit. We tried communicating with you to open the door up but you wouldn't respond. The door didn't seem to open for any of us either so we had to cut it open." As Tibalt sat up he saw that the door had been pried open with some implement, likely one of the tools scattered about.

Rubbing his head, Tibalt coughed a few times as he finally got some good lungfuls of air. He couldn't quite remember what had happened after falling into the pod, he recalled opening the oxygen tank but then... everything kinda blanked out after that. "How long was I out?"

"Well we picked up our pod about ten minutes ago before pulling you and the alien pod out. We brought you to the ship but this damn thing wouldn't respond to any of our touches." Lucian said as he walked up to join them. The other scientist was prodding at the box on the table, Tibalt thought he vaguely remembered it being open at one point... "You were completely out and we thought we'd lost you," the tiger said, concern in his eyes.

Letting out a soft sigh, Tibalt rubbed the back of his head. "Well I'm alive now. Anything in here besides that box?" he asked.

"Nope, looks like that's the only thing. Won't open up for anybody else, either. We're gonna bring it to the station with us to check what's inside of it, and might want to give you a checkup, too. Oxygen deprivation can do a number on a guy," Lucian said. Tibalt nodded as Weber helped him to his feet and they started towards the exit. The lizardman took a look back at the box and felt the oddest sensation of sadness before he was helped out into the oxygen filled forcefield, where he was soon strapped into his seat to take a nap until they got back onto the ship.

As Tibalt dozed on and off his dreams seemed to take strange turns; first he was inside the pod humming to himself as he seemed to check on some still working instruments, then suddenly he was back on the deserted planet suffocating to death. The scenes switched back and forth so many times he had trouble keeping track of any of the dream's apparent storylines, at least until it finally seemed to settle on one that involved a strange being on the other side of the room. While it was a creature he had never recognized before, though the draconic shape felt strangely familiar to him even though everything was hazy and distorted as if inebriated. He tried to move towards the creature but he found he couldn't move and suddenly a sharp, blaring alarm cut through his entire being and it caused him to cringe...

Tibalt gasped as he woke up, the docking bay klaxon lit up and the alarm going off as they transported the box off the ship by a team of men in full containment bodysuits. Part of him wanted to go with it, even just follow behind, but Lucian seemed to have other ideas for both him and Weber. They hardly had time to change out of their suits and get decontaminated before they were quickly dragged by the overenthusiastic feline to the nearest bar and proceeded to celebrate with them on their semi-successful search. Even though Tibalt put on a happy face his mind was back at the box, wondering what the scientists were doing to it as he had drinks nearly poured down his throat.

The lizard opted to just drink water as everyone else got drunk, though Weber also abstained from drinking as well. "You alright?" Weber asked his friend. Meanwhile Lucian was already busy retelling a far more epic tale of Tibalt's rather foolish fall into the pit. The gathered crowd, mostly drunken crew members, were enamored with his excruciatingly hyperbolized retelling of Tibalt's escapade.

"I'm fine... though I think everyone's gonna have an inflated idea of what really happened down there..." the lizard murmured. Weber chuckled and nodded as the people clapped and started slapping Tibalt on the back for the grandiose story they'd been told.

Leaning on his hand, Tibalt looked around to see everyone engrossed in Lucian's story, though honestly by now he just wanted to head off to his room. He was exhausted from the entire encounter, and personally he hoped he could possibly get that box out of his head as it felt like it had drilled itself there. Weber could see his friends' exhaustion, and with a small smile he tilted his head towards the exit, and while everyone was in the middle of a cheer for Lucian's roar for their rescue of the lizard, they slipped out into the halls and started towards the dorms. "Did anything happen while you were in there?" Weber asked.

Tibalt tilted his head to look at his friend. The husky's question seemed purely concern-based, he could tell that something had happened while he was in there, but Tibalt still didn't really know what was real and what was oxygen deficiency. "Honestly, I don't know, it's all a blur. I just want to sleep," Tibalt answered.

Weber nodded and left the question alone before they arrived at Tibalt's sleeping quarters, where they shared a small hug. "I'm glad that you're alive," Weber said. Tibalt smiled as he nodded and then they went their separate ways.