FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Almost done, Ma'am." The man said as he laser torch inched around the door.

Ma'am? She wasn't that old. But then, the people she'd gotten to replace the dead had been very young. Mostly young men and women looking to escape the Law.

She looked to another such recruit, a clean-cut woman with an earpiece looking at her datapad and typing one handed. "How is it looking?"

"The electrical pulse we sent on making contact with the ship took down their jamming. Their computer got an upgrade recently, but underneath all that it's still a cruise ship. It's not putting much of a fight."

"Where are the cells?"

"There aren't any, but I'm seeing a few places that have been hard-locked. Could be they converted those into cells."

"Where are they?"

"Spread over the ship." She paused and typed. "Eight rooms. One on this level, two below us more to the back of the ship. Engineering is clearly in hard-lock mode, as is the bridge. The other rooms are--"

"We'll start with this level, if he's not there we'll go to the next closest one and so on."

"We could split up, there's almost thirty of us here. Removing the bridge and Engineering from the list, that's four or five to a room."

"Miss?"

"Coppernic, Ma'am."

"It's Boss, when we're on a job. And Coppernic, splitting up this team is the best way to ensure we all end up dead."

The young woman looked over her shoulder at the men and women behind her. The younger ones did their best to look as hardened as the others, and failed, but they did make for an impressive group.

"We could force our way into a corporation with this group, Ma--Boss. What's going to be on a refurbished cruise ship that can give them a problem?"

"The person who made his way through one of the better protected corporations, from the ground floor to the president's office, alone and then walked out to vanish from the universe. Think on what it takes to do that, and then reconsider your suggestion to split us up."

Katherine looked at the rest of her people. "Alright, for those of you who are new. We know nothing about who is on this ship so you don't take chances, you shoot to kill."

"Except the Samalian," Jurran warned. "He's mine. If anyone touches him, I'm going to kill them too." The Frenian had never had a bubbly personality, but since his boyfriend's death even those who worked with him before kept away from him. She'd had to keep him from hurting one of her people already.

"Stay focused Jurran, we're not your enemy." She understood his pain, but he had to get himself under control. She couldn't have him become a worse problem for her than Tristan was going to be.

He snarled, but that was the best she was going to get. Once this was over and Tristan had paid for the pain he'd inflicted on them, they'd both be able to grieve.

The clang of a heavy metal door falling down announced the start of the job. The inner door opened as she turned. She stepped through them and onto the ship. She didn't pause to take in the fresh air, or admire the color scheme. She looked at Coppernic who pointed and walked in that direction.

She couldn't believe how easy it had been to find this ship. They hadn't even tried to hide their propulsion trail. Within a few hours of getting back to space it had been on their sensor. She could have blown it up at a distance, it would have been easier, but she wanted to be certain Tristan died. He could easily find a way to survive a ship blowing up.

They encountered a handful of men, who were dead before they even realized it. Each time they were hit by four of five blasts. Katherine hadn't bothered taking out her gun yet, she was leaving the fun to the new recruits.

They reach the corridor where the first locked room was. She could tell by the four mercs trying to break into it. She smiled as they were shot dead. This had to be where he was hiding. No other reasons for those people to be so determined to get in.

"Get the door opened."

Coppernic stepped up to the control and typed away. "Huh."

"What?"

"This was done by a coercionist, to keep anyone from getting in."

Katherine looked at the bodies on the floor and didn't comment on the obviousness of what Coppernic said. "Can you get through?"

"Yes, it's a decent job, but hurried. Alex, you said his name was, right? He's good." The door opened. "But I'm better."

The recruits fired in the room, then stopped, a perplexed expression on their face. Katherine looked in. Four men inside had rifles pointed in her direction, but they didn't fire.

"Force Field," Loren said.

"Sorry," Coppernic typed furiously. "That's in a different section, I didn't notice it was up." She pursed her lips. "It'll take a bit longer."

Katherine studied the men. Mercenaries, they had blood on them, a lot of it, holes in their clothes in places, but no obvious wounds to indicate where the blood had come from. Also no bodies on the floor. With that amount of blood, someone should have died.

The room was a medical bay, which had been converted into storage by the number of cases there. No signs Tristan was there, and considering the men were still alive, he probably hadn't been here.

"The force field is about to come down."

Katherine stepped back. "Kill them."

"Now," Coppernic said.

The guns flashed, and one of the recruits staggered back as one of the men in the room managed to fire before dying. The shooting stopped and she entered. Jurran stalked by her and shoved crates out of her way as if they were empty. They broke on crashing down and spilled their contents.

She moved slower, looking for any indication of why Alex had locked this room. She walked around the machine in the center of the room, something that looked more like an art piece Tom would have enjoyed than anything with a function, and saw the woman just as one of the recruits raised his gun at her.

"Stop."

To his credit the man stopped in mid-motion. He looked at her. "You said to shoot everyone."

"I know, but give me a moment with this one." She didn't want to berate him for obeying her orders, but clearly she had meant anyone who could cause a problem, not a woman tied up to a bed leg.

Katherine crouched before her.

"I'm not with them," the young woman said, trying to get away from her. She looked familiar. She might have been part of the crew that ran the drug lab. Flint had shown her pictures, but Katherine hadn't paid attention.

"What are you doing here?"

"I don't know. They just grabbed me and took me here."

Katherine sighed. "Try again. No one grabs someone for no reason."

The woman calmed down. "I swear, I don't know wh--"

"Fine shoot h--"

"Wait! I copied the memory from the fabricator we stole. I don't know what it is, but the guy who owns the ship wants it pretty bad."

"That's better. What does he want with Tristan?"

The woman looked at her in confusion.

"Samalian?"

No recognition.

"Furry, black fur, muzzle, ears on top of his head?"

"Oh. I don't know why he's here. The two of them were prisoners, I think. They escaped, but were recaptured. They tortured the human one, I don't know his name."

"Alex."

"Alex, they tortured him. I think they escaped again because they came here, tied me up and patched each other up."

Katherine raised the eyebrow she had left. "Tied you up?"

The woman nodded. "I think the alien, Tristan? He wanted to kill me, but Alex convinced him they had more important things to take care of." She lowered her voice. "He saved my life."

"Why would he do that?"

"I--I tried to help him when they tortured him, but he was in bad shape, I'm not a doctor."

It might be true. Alex did have something that resembled morals. He would feel he owed this woman and protecting her from Tristan would count. Why Tristan had listened she didn't know. But then again, there was almost nothing on his file where he worked with someone else. The partnership with Alex was brand new, completely different from the Tristan in those files.

"Where are they now?"

"I don't know, they didn't say, but they were pretty pissed at the guy who owns the ship, they might be going after him."

"That's who brought Tristan here?"

"Some of his men, yes."

"And you don't know why?"

The woman shook her head.

"Who is he? The guy who owns this ship?"

"His name is Baran, that's about all I know. Oh and he seems to hate mercs."

"What do you mean? He has some working for him."

"Yes, but he doesn't like them. They're just what he could get from what I understand. I overheard him grumbling that the universe will be a better place when they're all gone."

So this was another loony who thought Mercs didn't have a place. Seemed she heard about someone like that a few times a year. The closest she'd come to getting her hand on Tristan before this was because of such a man.

"That thing you have that he wants. Did you give it to him?"

The woman looked away and forced herself to meet her gaze. She shook her head.

She'd given it to him. Had probably handed it over the moment he asked to avoid suffering. Katherine understood the impulse, after all this woman wasn't a hardened merc or security officer.

She'd downloaded the information, but this Baran hadn't been able to just take it from her, no need to bring her if the information was in a chip. So she had some sort of upgrade. She was probably the drug maker, the engineer, or whatever they were called. A life of crime in an easy city hadn't prepared her for this.

She stood and turned.

"Wait, you can't leave me here, like this."

"You're safer here, trust me on that."

"Can you at least untie me?"

"No." She looked around. The majority of her people had stayed outside. Jurran had gone back there, she could hear him growl and pace. "Coppernic, you stay here. This is as secure a location as you could wish for. Bring the forcefield back up once we're gone." She pointed to the recruit who'd almost shot the prisoner. "You, Frederik, right?"

"Friday, boss. Mark Friday."

"Friday. You stay with Coppernic. You're her security detail."

The man nodded. "And her?"

Katherine turned to the woman again. She was trying hard to look innocent. Too hard, in Katherine's opinion. "I leave it to your discretion if you release her or not." She faced the man, "But, she is not to be touched. You are not going to do anything to her, is that understood? I don't give a damn what you think you can get away with. You so much as look at her funny and I'm going to cut your balls off, am I clear?"

The man nodded eagerly, and Katherine left them. The bridge was where their next destination, to either catch Tristan or this Baran and use him to get that alien to come to her. Her hunt was finally coming to an end.