FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Being short had rarely been of any use to Marty Asinsky. Most of the time it meant people overlooked him, figuratively and literally. It had meant he'd been the target of bullies, he'd been pushed around and sometimes beaten for no other fact that he was too short and slight to muster any real defenses.

At this moment, though, it was something of an advantage. He'd been stashed for the last twelve hours in a small cargo compartment that was only an inch or two taller than he was. It meant that unlike the others, who'd occasionally come down to put weapons or body armor away, he didn't have to stoop.

It didn't mean he was comfortable. There was nothing to sit on or lie on except for the floor. He could sit on one of the crates, but his host, Katherine had been clear that if he got close to them, she'd hurt him.

When she'd agreed to take him away from Deep Below, he'd been ecstatic. He was finally free. The moment they reached an inhabited world, he would lose himself in a crowd, then start rebuilding his information network. Unfortunately, as soon as they'd set foot on her ship someone grabbed him.

He'd fought, but it hadn't done any good. He'd been shoved face first on the floor. He'd felt pain in the back of his neck and when that was done, she put a collar on him.

It was something an inch wide and a quarter of an inch thick. With the proper clothes, it might be stylish, except for the red light on top he could see when he'd looked at it in a mirror, letting him know that the explosive it was connected to was active. She'd smiled and patted his cheek.

"Something to make sure you don't forget the addition in your neck," she'd said.

He'd gone out of his way to explain to her that it wasn't needed, that he would stay at her side until she'd gotten Tristan. He had contacts that he could convince to help her in her search. She'd looked at him like he was a slug. He'd told her about the network of people he could get to do what he wanted, but it hadn't helped.

She'd explained to him that the moment Tristan was hers, she was dropping Marty off at the first prison she came across.

He couldn't believe that she was treating him like a common criminal. Sure, he'd had to do questionable things in his life, but it wasn't like he'd done anything wrong. How was it his fault that people were so careless with their secrets? And it wasn't like he'd gone and told them to the universe. He'd protected them. Shouldn't he have gotten remuneration for that work?

He eyed the crates again. There were guns in them, big guns. He could get one, it wasn't like the lock on them would give him that much problem. He could sneak up, shoot her before she had the time to detonate his collar, and then--what? There were still a lot of dangerous people on the ship, even if they couldn't get to the detonator, they could tear him apart.

The ship shook and the engines died down. They'd landed.

She'd told him to stay down here, but that had been because she hadn't wanted the sensors to detect him. She hadn't told him that, he'd worked it out, while else stow all the weapons here as they approached the planet. A place like Bramolian Six was very careful about weapons reaching the ground.

He opened the hatch on the ceiling and heard people talking, moving about. The hatch was against the wall, in the center of the main area of the ship, where all the cryo chairs were located, although they had folded up against the wall once they weren't needed anymore.

He climbed out, and while some of the people there in the process of changing into non-mercenary like clothing looked in his direction, they didn't react to him climbing up. One of the few advantages to being overlooked was being able to move about with a minimum of problem.

He dusted his clothes off and headed toward the cockpit. The door was open and he could see backs. No one stopped him and he entered, standing just on the other side of the doorway.

Katherine and some of her flunkies were looking at a screen, an image from outside Marty guessed by the ships the camera was slowly panning over.

"Can you work out which ship is his?" She asked one of the men next to her. The creepy one with the pale skin. He could be human, but his features weren't quite right. Too sharp.

He shook his head. "He changes ships almost anytime he does a job and there are no patterns to them. As best as I can figure, he takes them from the people he kills. All the defining characteristics are in the changes he makes to them."

"Can you scan the ships here?" Katherine asked a woman seated at controls.

"Not all of them. Each time I do I run the risk of the port noticing. They don't really like it when someone goes around scanning other people's ships. Something about privacy laws."

"That's his ship," Marty said pointing at the one that was becoming centered on the screen.

Katherine looked over her shoulder and Marty couldn't keep from shuddering again at her mangled face. "What are you doing out of the hold?"

"I thought you could use my help. I told you, that's what I want to do, help you capture Tristan. You don't need this," he indicated the collar without touching it, "I want to work with you."

"Right. You're looking for a chance to run off and commit more crimes."

From everything he'd read on her, Marty had expected someone obsessed with capturing her husband's murderer. What none of the files he'd read had mentioned was that she was one of those people who actually believe the Law should be followed. Well, that others should follow it. He'd read about some of the things she'd done in her hunt.

"How do you know that's his ship?" she asked. Whoever was in charge of the camera had paused on it.

Marty had spent months staring at the fifteen seconds of recording he'd been able to rebuild, watching Tristan and his partner board their ship and take off. That had been his ticket off that prison and they'd taken it from him. If not for that, he wouldn't have had to deal with this woman.

"I didn't have much to do while I waited for you. I passed the time repairing stuff, there was a record of them boarding it. It's pretty distinctive."

Katherine nodded to the woman who did the scanning, and after a minute of silence she looked up from her screens.

"Unless there's another guy out there with this level of paranoia, Shorty's right. That ship is completely shut down. No active computers, barely any power, and with the lack of power in the relays I'm guessing he disconnected a hard line."

"What is powered?"

"The lock and the ramp. If we can bypass that, we can get in, but after that we're going to have to figure out how to reconnect the power. On a ship like that, even without the modification he's bound to have done, the possibilities are large."

"Wouldn't a disconnected line be obvious?"

"If he isn't careful, sure, but this is Tristan. He's the definition of careful."

Katherine nodded and everyone was silent. "It isn't like he'd be nice enough to leave where he's staying or why he's here in his ship. I doubt there's anything there even proving it's his ship."

"It is his ship," Marty said, "and I told you why he's here."

"Why are you still here?"

"You need my help. I can take you to him."

She snorted. "You can take me to where he's going."

The man in the pilot's seat pointed to a screen Marty couldn't see.

"No, to where he's been. So, where would he go after attacking that Telrize complex?"

"Back here?"

She looked at the screen again. "Nope. That was two days ago. If that was his plan he'd have left already. See, you're not useful at all."

"I can find him for you." Marty spoke quickly. There was a glint in her remaining eye she didn't like. He'd seen it in Brain's eyes often enough, as he was plotting someone's death. "Just let me go out there, I'll get in touch with my contacts, they'll know where he is."

She snorted again. "No they won't. You have no idea who Tristan is, how he operates. No one knows where he is unless he wants them to know. And if he does, it's because he has something nasty planned." She fell silent. "But don't worry, you'll be useful anyway."

She patted the pilot's shoulder. "Brad, shut it down, usual security measures. Carlita, what do we have to leave the ship?"

"On a system like this, the program you bought is going to give us a twenty second window at best, after that sensors are going to stop looping."

"Get it ready and go change, you too Brad. Armiln, you and Jurran should be okay. Bramolian Six has a decent alien population; you won't attract too much attention." She strode to the door and Marty moved out of her way, but she grabbed him by the shoulder with her mechanical hand and pulled him along.

She stopped a few feet past the door and the people in the room came to attention. The others from the cockpit ran past Marty and Katherine and pulled clothing from lockers.

"Alright, we're going with the usual. You each have your IDs and as far as anyone knows, you're here individually on vacation. Once Carlita, Brad and Armiln are ready, you're going to have ten seconds to spread out among the closest ships. Unfortunately, security on the port means you won't be able to take your weapons off the ship, so it'll be your responsibility to acquire armament and defenses while we wait. This isn't your first hunt, so I don't have to tell you to be careful. Tristan is not to be underestimated. You are not going after him on your own."

A chorus of 'yes Ma'am' sounded.

"Heidie, you're in charge of this guy." Katherine handed Marty to a woman only a little taller than he was, but much more muscular. "Don't kill him, but if he gets uppity, feel free to beat him within an inch of that." She gave the woman a small box. "If he runs off, wait until he's far enough it won't point to you and blow his neck. The range on this thing is a few kilometers so you don't have to rush things.

Marty yanked his shoulder out from under this woman's hand. He wasn't going to be manhandled. He forced his face into a mask of calm. "Katherine, this isn't necessary. I'm an ally, not an enemy."

"You're a criminal."

"I'm not--" the glare she gave him cut him off. He glared back. He'd told her where Tristan was, without him she wouldn't even be here. How could she treat him this way. "Just lock me in the ship then. You won't have to worry about me running off that way, not that I would be doing that anyway."

"Then what do you have to worry about? Just think of this as a vacation between prison terms."

He ground his teeth. He was going to have to find a way to give the slip to this woman and come back here. Not to this ship, but to Tristan's ship. Like he'd told Katherine, he had had months to wait and little to do other than repair stuff, and do research. The computer hadn't had the kind of power and security that let him see if any of his caches were left, but he had been able to look into Tristan's ship. It was a Ormitag Traveler an those came equipped with an automated medical bed, a good one that could do precision surgery. And Tristan would have tools on his ship, the two combined meant he would be able to get this damned collar and bomb out of his neck.

The woman Katherine had called Carlita finished dressing. Marty had been so preoccupied he hadn't thought to enjoy the sight of a clean naked woman. She pulled a pack out of the locker and gave Katherine a nod. A moment later Brad and Armiln also nodded. The pale man standing next to a bulky alien.

"Be careful out there," Katherine said. "Go."

Marty was yanked and forced to run with the woman holding him. They stopped under a ship, then she put an arm over his shoulders an forced him to walk with her toward the exit.