FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"No, no! Absolutely not, I refuse to go."

Silence fell across the deck of the starship Frontier as the crew suddenly found themselves engrossed in monitoring and triple checking the ship's vitals as they zipped through hyperspace. Such a task as running diagnostics on the hydroponic lab's water lines in the middle of a light-speed jump was as useful as a dessert fork during a soup entre. And yet five reports were logged in the system within minutes of each other. No one dared to look away from their consoles.

Tirrik, the starship helmsman shot a wide-eyed glance to his co-pilot at the outburst from behind them. His tuft-tipped, bat-sized ears flicked and swivelled to better hear the juicy commotion unfolding on the bridge behind him.

A dual ring of segmented stations made up the bridge controls, each rising from the deck with sleek metallic curves giving way to broad semi-transparent monitors. The far wall consisted of a thick, continuous sheet of space-rated, transparent aluminium-alloy which allowed the captivating view of the vastness of darkness rushing passed.

And in the centre of it all, a single empty chair belonging to the most powerful and authoritative individual on board; Captain Heskar. Currently, the chair sat vacant but for the claws dug deep into the headrest by the captain himself. The tiger stood behind his chair, looming over his subordinate with a fixed, steely gaze as he uttered two whispered words that somehow managed to bounce around the bridge and cause multiple pairs of ears to twitch at once.

"Stateroom. Now."

Tirrik risked a glanced behind him, quick and sneakily as he pretended to check their fuel reserves on a display to his right. From the corner of his eye, he saw the agitated flick of the captain's striped tail whipping behind him, with the hunched figure of a far smaller cheetah obediently trailing.

The slick mechanism of the sliding door to the stateroom hissed as the captain approached it, allowing entry to the only person on board who had the required access, and slid shut equally seamlessly behind the feline pair. The silence hung on the bridge for a moment longer until the medical officer on shift clicked his tongue with the shake of his head. "No one can save the poor kid now."

Unbeknownst to the rest of the crew, Heskar's features softened with a drawn-out sigh. He had his eyes closed with a heavy paw on the back of his neck. Heskar turned slowly and leaned heavily against the holographic map projector as it swirled around their current galaxy in a lazy, automated cycle.

He sighed again and folded his arms. "Sa'yin, after the first warning I really hoped we wouldn't be doing this again. You must understand that my word is law on this ship, and you're to abide by it without hesitation."

Sa'Yin, or Yin as he preferred to be called, flinched at the captain's use of his full name. Such a thing in his culture was only used in circumstances akin to a regal reception between clans, or in this case, a formal reprimand. In a private, closed setting between two people, the use of his full name was about the equivalent of that time his father had dragged him to his room by his tail after he'd bitten his brother as a kitten. He'd been left without supper that night, and somehow, he didn't think Heskar's punishment would be in quite the same vein.

In his short time aboard the Frontier, Yin had immediately learnt that the captain's actions were precise and calculated. The captain knew of the history Yin bore and the upbringing that caused many others to think low of him at best or shun him at worst.

His people were of a tribal society deep in the desert wastes of Sic'caar; a baren planet on the edge of Federation space. They were integrated into the alliance long ago, and yet remained the only one to have resisted the influence of the mystical gadgets offered to their world as part of joining. Such was the reason of distrust and disrespect him and his own were treated with.

Yin was one of the few Sic'caarians who had the spark of an intellect which drove the need for learning all he could about the vast galaxies accessible to them. He had enrolled in the Federation Academy as soon as he was of age and travelled to the centre of all the Federation's knowledge. He had marvelled all the while as he launched through space faster than light itself and stared longingly out the window at the academy which sprawled across the surface of the planet's single continent.

Even with all the disciplines he could ever have dreamed of, and thousands more besides, he had been pulled towards the joys of Alien Environmental Studies like an asteroid sucked down a gravity well. He took to the study with the grace and ease of a scholar from the high rankings of Tilmath, a feat which astounded his tutors and lecturers alike. They'd never believed one of the 'tribals' to be capable of keeping up and soon surpassing his fellow cohort.

But while the studies came easy, the hardest lesson of all was the cultural shift. Even for a Sic'caarian he had always been 'spiritful', as his mother would say, a trait that would plague his social life and run the risk of being thrown out of multiple classes. In the end, he'd managed to skim by on the fluff of his tail after the threat of expulsion from one more outburst.

Unfortunately, his temperament hindered his career options significantly after his graduation. His grades had gathered a huge amount of recognition from all over the Federation, from habitation ships to cruise vessels and intergalactic explorers. Word gets around fast though, and the offers for interviews were just as quickly scrubbed from his personal hand terminal until he was refreshing his inbox desperately each day, hoping for just one message to appear.

His dreams were fleeting, drifting away one by one as the days turned to weeks and passed by. He had woken with some semblance of acceptance on the last day of his lodging - three months after his graduation date had passed. That was as long as his academic tenure had paid for his living quarters, and without any work to be found he hadn't a single credit to his name to stay any longer.

He'd woken before his alarm, aware of the day and what it meant as he glanced towards his packed luggage sitting by the door to the single room pod he'd called home for the past four years. He was already leaving, so he'd decided to drag his feet every step of the way to the docks, his tail dragging along the floor like a duster brush.

Yin had arrived at the docks just in time for his flight home. His heart lifted a bit at the thought of once more seeing his family and recounting all the wonderous experiences he'd witnessed and learned during his stay.

His mind strayed as he walked, so much so he didn't notice the tiger towering in his path until his nose bounced off the uniformed chest. His eyes swept up, glancing over the gilded tag reading Heskar, before landing on the commanding presence before him. A sheet of paper was thrust against his chest as he reflexively clutched the document in confusion.

"What's this?" he'd asked with a tilt of his head.

"Yin, as I understand you prefer to be called, this is your contract to serve aboard my exploration vessel Frontier, if you choose to accept it," the deep rumble from the tiger before him made him gulp as the gears in his head processed what he'd heard. Slowly he frowned and then his eyes widened, and he stuck his nose to the contract in his grasp.

And for the first time since he'd begun this life-changing journey, he cried. Yin didn't know when he ended up on his knees on the floor, or how long his tears had been flowing freely until a kind paw had rested gently on his shoulder. He hadn't cried like this since he'd left his mother and father and brother behind on his home world, with the question on all their lips of 'when will you return?'.

Through hiccups and snorts, he'd thanked Heskar - Captain Heskar - with all his mind and heart, and a barrage of promises and oaths to make a Tilmathen scholar gasp.

And yet.

"He's a fucking idiot!" Yin spat venomously.

Heskar groaned in defeat and hung his head in both his paws. "Yin, Security Chief Danith is your superior while in the service of my crew, and you cannot speak to or about your superiors in that manner!"

"I don't care, I can't work with someone that fucking stupid," Yin scowled and folded his arms, his tail whipping around behind him in clear agitation.

Heskar stared at his crewmember for a long, drawn-out breath and then slipped out his hand terminal, tapped the screen a few times and spoke clearly while maintaining eye contact with the cheetah. "Danith, please attend the stateroom immediately."

The captain cut off the message and pocketed his terminal, quickly speaking up to cut over the top of Yin as he opened his mouth. "I won't have you undermining Danith." He stated. "You must understand, Yin, that he is part of my crew and so he is part of your crew too. I do not simply enlist any able body I can bring aboard my ship. Each crewmember has been selected by my own hand, and I trust each and every one of them with my life. To disrespect my Security Chief is to disrespect me and the rest of my crew."

Yin gulped while his tail calmed down behind him.

"Have I made an erroneous decision in hiring Danith?"

Yin blinked and shook his head.

"Then maybe the error is bringing you aboard? No one else has a problem with my selections in crew."

Again, Yin shook his head, quicker this time.

"Good, I think so as well. But I can't have this continue," Heskar cut himself off as the door slid open once more to reveal a dusty grey wolf standing at attention in the doorway. His flat-pressed black uniform had red highlights around the trim of his cuff, neck, and down the inner arm seams - as opposed to the Yin's green and Heskar's gold highlights. Like Heskar, the buttons down his chest were the gold of a top officer. Around his waist hung a slim plasma pistol and a wicked knife sheathed on his right thigh.

"Captain," the wolf stated, staring straight ahead.

"Danith, good. Come in and be at ease." Heskar waved him forward so the door slid shut once more.

The captain watched Yin carefully from the corner of his eye, seeing the glare in his eye and his fur bristle at the sight of the wolf. Danith glanced at Yin as well and decided to stand on the opposite side, placing the tiger in the middle.

Heskar sighed and shook his head. "Now this situation would be far easier to resolve if it was a one-sided affair, unfortunately I'm aware of your own distaste towards your fellow crewmember, Danith."

"With respect, it is not distaste Captain, it is distrust. I do not believe Sa'Yin to be a reliable part of this crew, and I believe him to be a liability on any mission he is entrusted with." The difference in the respectful tone Danith addressed Heskar with was clear-cut compared to the casual remarks the currently growling cheetah portrayed.

"I'm just surprised you haven't gotten anyone killed yet," Yin snarled in response.

"Sa'Yin, enough!" Heskar's rumble was deep, reverberating through the other two to their core. "You both need to learn how to work together, and Danith is correct only in the matter of your inexperience. Which is why I'm sending just the two of you on a mission." Heskar quickly raised a paw to cut off the incoming complaints. "This isn't a discussion; this is an order from your Captain."

Both crewmembers remained silent for a couple of heartbeats. "What will be our mission, Captain?" Danith asked.

"There is a planet, Eldon, on the outer rim of our protected space which has been reported as a planet of interest. Your mission will be this; we will drop out of hyperspace and the two of you will disembark on a shuttle. The journey will take a week, followed by three weeks on the planet surface, during which you will be expected to learn all you can about Eldon, its vegetation and its wildlife. After the fourth week, the Frontier will return to pick you up from the planet surface." Heskar explained.

"Wait, I'm going to stuck with him for four weeks?" Yin exclaimed.

Danith ignored his outburst. "Captain, a team of two is insufficient for such a task. To properly secure a base camp and complete adequate research would take at least eight people - nine if you include him."

Heskar waved off his concerns. "Eldon is not hostile, and by initial reports is meant to be a rather luscious environment. This will be more akin to a getaway should the two of you figure out how to work as a team."

"You said it was on the edge of protect space though, right? Isn't that dangerous?" Yin chimed in with a touch more restraint.

"There hasn't been a hostile sighting in the last twenty years around this sector, and it will be all but impossible to detect a single shuttle and two lifeforms until they were close enough for the Federation's long-range sensors to ping them long beforehand."

Heskar eyed glanced between the two. "Any more questions? No? Good, you leave in two hours."

***

Yin sulked the entire walk from his quarters to the shuttle bay. A cart hovered behind him carrying his various pieces of research equipment and personal comforts for the four-week mission. He arrived in the shuttle bay as Danith hopped out of the airlock in the side of the shuttle. Heskar had assured them the shuttle had been stocked with enough supplies for the four weeks and had been checked over by the maintenance team in preparation for their flight.

"I don't know why they don't just drop us off and pick us back up from Eldon," Yin grumbled.

"Short stints in the shuttle is to be expected on some missions. You need to become familiar with how to work in an enclosed space without tempting anyone to strangle and throw you out the airlock," Danith replied.

Yin bared his fangs. "Touch me and I'll claw your eyes out, dog."

Danith growled and narrowed his eyes before he could get himself under control and turn away. "Get your equipment on board and stowed, Sa'Yin. Captain ordered us to disembark when we drop out of hyperspace in ten minutes, and I'm not about to keep him waiting." The wolf disappeared back inside the shuttle.

Yin dragged his equipment into the shuttle piece by piece and stored it in the ample compartment space in the middle of the shuttle. The Frontier had four such shuttles, each capable of carrying up to six occupants. With only a third of the occupancy, this allowed more room than they should expect in the future.

Yin took a moment to get familiar with the layout of the shuttle, quickly noting it consisted of three compartments. The middle compartment where he'd entered through the airlock was the largest of the three, meant for storage, spare parts, a meal area, shower, and the head. The rear compartment was the sleeping quarters with a triple layer of bunk beds on either wall to the side of the door, and an access hatch to the thrusters at the back.

The forward compartment was the cockpit where he found Danith sitting strapped into the pilot's chair. The wolf barely glanced at him as he entered and strapped himself down in the co-pilot's station. Yin took a moment to study the controls at his fingers while Danith tapped away on his screen to initiate the unlocking procedure.

Right on time, the Frontier seemed to lurch around them without exerting any force on the occupants or equipment inside. Dropping out of hyperspace was a strange feeling of disconnection Yin had long become accustomed to. The sudden deceleration should have crushed them all in a fraction of a second, and yet it felt like a car braking at a red light.

"Docking clamps have been released, Frontier. Requesting shuttle bay doors open," Danith said.

Heskar's voice returned over the comms. "Bay doors opening. Have a peaceful trip Puddle Jumper."

In front of them the doors split through the middle and separated to reveal the immense darkness lit only by the distant stars. A shudder ran through the shuttle as the thrusters pushed them forward and the anti-grav kicked in to resist the sudden acceleration. The ship lurched around them as the shuttle quickly gained speed.

They passed through the shuttle bay doors and left the ship's embrace causing the second part of the gravity controller to switch on and generate an artificial force to keep Yin feeling his co-pilot's chair firmly beneath him. With the artificial and anti-grav working seamlessly, they manoeuvred down and under the Frontier until the autopilot took over and locked them on the path to their destination planet.

"Frontier, this is Puddle Jumper. We are clear from the bay and on course for Eldon," Danith said to his console.

"Safe journey Puddle Jumper. See you in four weeks," came the captain's reply.

Just off the port side, Yin saw the brilliant chromatic hue of the hyperdrive wash over the Frontier for a split second, he blinked and then there was nothing but the vastness of space left in its wake.

The two sat silent for a time. The hum of electronic resonance filled the cockpit while Danith shifted between checking the shuttle's course and diagnostics, and Yin glanced around out the front window.

The Frontier had left them in a solar system consisting of a handful of planets revolving around a yellow dwarf star. They couldn't yet see Eldon visibly - it wouldn't be until the last few hours of their journey. But Yin noticed their path would circle them quite close to what looked like a frozen planet further out, using some of the gravity pull to accelerate them in a slingshot faster than their own thrusters could manage.

***

"We should discuss our schedule." It had been hours since they'd left the Frontier and Danith's sudden comment made Yin jump.

'What?" he replied.

"Our schedule. Normally a mission like this has more flexibility in how we work, but with just the two of us it'll be more rigid." Danith's tone had a distinct finality to it, developed from years in a security role. "One of us is required to be in the cockpit at all times while flying, no exceptions. Monitoring our course and shuttle is vital to getting there in one piece. So, twelve hours of the day will be scheduled for that."

"Ten."

"What?"

"Ten hours. Eldon has a day cycle of twenty hours, not twenty-four," Yin explained. "If scheduling is important then we should start living a twenty-hour day."

Danith's brow furrowed a moment. "Fine, ten hours then. Ten hours will be scheduled for flight, eight hours for sleep, and the last two will be mission prep and leisure."

"What about meals?"

"Meals will be eaten in the cockpit."

Yin wanted to argue, but it was simple enough and made sense. Most importantly, he was exhausted from all the discomfort so far today. He'd woken up this morning with plans of researching previous missions the Frontier had embarked on, and now he was stuck with his least favourite person on the ship for four dreary weeks.

"Fine," he responded simply.

"Good, now do you know how to fly a shuttle?"

Yin rolled his eyes. "It flies itself, what's there to know?"

"Piloting is more than setting the course and letting it find its own way there. You must be monitoring the drive temperatures and watching for developing faults. We're one mistake away from venting to open space," Danith's growl dripped disapproval. "And you must be ready to take manual control should anything go wrong."

Yin shrugged. "I took a flight elective at the Academy and aced it."

"It's certainly not a replacement for real experience, but it is something I suppose," Danith mused. "Right then, I'll show you the basic controls and how to navigate the diagnostic windows."

Yin spent the next hour listening and trying to focus on all Danith was showing him. For the most part he found it pretty intuitive to follow and figured he could sort through it on his own during his shift. He always learned better when he was hands on with the controls anyway.

Eventually Danith let him go to the back sleeping compartment for a rest, but not before requesting a dinner ration pack to be fetched for each of them, insisting Yin ate before he slept. Yin reluctantly complied and when he dragged his paws to the bed he'd claimed and collapsed on it, he was out within seconds of his head hitting the pillow.

***

Over the next three days, Yin found himself rarely sharing the same compartment as Danith - a truly remarkable feat, he thought. In such a cramped space as the shuttle, keeping to Danith's schedule meant they only saw each other when changing shifts in the cockpit or delivering meals.

The peace and quiet let Yin take the time to understand the controls of the shuttle to a more intimate degree, even switching to manual control at times and getting used to flying something other than a simulator for once. Of course, after the first time he made sure to let Danith know when he was going to do such a thing again. The wolf was anything but amused when he was woken by the unexpected and constant unsettling shift in the anti-grav direction.

They were on track to reach Eldon with a few hours to spare if the navigation plan was accurate. Yin was excited for the chance to glimpse the planet he would be studying, but for the moment he was caught up staring out the window in wonder as the shuttle curled gently towards the gravity well of a harsh ice giant lingering on the fringe of the solar system.

He had been routinely tracking the shuttle's diagnostics as instructed by Danith and so took this moment to marvel at the swirling blue-black of the closing plant's frozen surface as it swept closer to within view. Yin had stolen glances periodically from when it was no more than just a distant glint, to where the ocean-deep blue of the atmosphere was now visible.

It marked his first uninhabited planet sighting and made him feel giddy with a concoction of excitement and wonder. The reality was this would be a blip in his exploration career, and the planet in question was an icy tomb and hardly the most thrilling of sights.

Yin sighed, deep in thought when his mind wandered. This chance was at the gracious behest of his captain, and while Yin had been sure to reel himself in with the crew, he still found himself lashing out around Danith. But the captain was right, and Yin knew he needed to come to an understanding with the security chief.

A beep tore his eyes back to the console where he frowned at a blinking alert on the diagnostic screen. Before he could parse the message, a violent shudder rolled through the ship. Yin felt himself feel lighter in the chair before he was brought down under twice his weight while the artificial gravity tried to normalise to a sudden change. The anti-grav had similar problems, but fortunately Yin was sitting in the chair when he was thrown back against the headrest.

A few seconds later and Yin felt his weight and acceleration settle back to normal. He hastily tapped at the historic alerts and scanned the list through quickly. Behind him, the cockpit door burst open as Danith scrambled to the back of Yin's chair.

"Sa'Yin, what happened? What did you do?" Danith huffed breathlessly.

"I didn't do anything!" Yin snarled back defensively. His ears pinned back, and tail lashed against the side of the chair.

"Then what the fuck was that?"

"I'm reading the logs to figure it now, alright?" Yin tapped the screen. "Look there was this alert which came through seconds before the right thruster's lining breached."

"Shit, shut down the other thrusters," Danith said, but then leaned over Yin and tapped the controls in himself. The white-noise hum of the thrusters faded as they powered down. "We can't risk anything happening to the others until we can inspect them properly."

Yin was flicking through lines of text to determine what had caused it. "There's nothing here, nothing to suggest there was any fault with the thruster."

"That's even more worrying then," Danith's voice was heavy with concern in Yin's ear, "if nothing showed a fault with this thruster, we can't be sure the others won't succumb to the same problem."

"On top of that, the breach threw us into a spin," Yin pointed out the front window to where the icy planet they were about to enter into the gravity well of, was spinning dizzily past their window every couple of seconds.

Danith jumped into the co-pilot chair and pulled up a flight map. "A bit of good news at least, we're not in a collision course with the planet. About a half an hour later and we would be sucked into the gravity well."

"Well at least that's something." Yin grimaced as he glanced over at the power distribution. "Check this out; there was a power surge at the same time - it must have forced the thruster over its operating threshold and torn through the protection. It's also depleted a significant portion of our power."

Yin glanced to Danith and he gasped at the sight of blood seeping from a gash above the wolf's eye. Danith had the eye closed and by now it was covered with a steady red stream. "You're hurt!"

"Hit my head when the shuttle jolted," Danith shrugged, "nothing to worry about though, I don't have a concussion and bleeding head wounds usually look worse than they are."

"Yeah, well you're still bleeding." Yin jumped from his chair and dashed into the middle compartment to grab the soft-pack first aid kit hanging on the wall. He pulled open the bag's zipper as he walked and picked out an antiseptic wipe and a clotting gel. "Hold still a minute."

Yin steadied the wolf's head with a paw and used the wipe to clear the blood around the gash until he could see the thin tear under the fur causing all the problems. It kept seeping fresh bright red blood until he smeared a sweet smelling, green gel across it and immediately the cut darkened and started to scab over.

"Thank you," Danith muttered and then frowned as a readout flashed up on the screen. "You're right about the power drain, the ship has us running out of power within a couple of days. To add to that, we're in the shadow of this ice planet so our solar panels are useless too. After that we won't have anything left, even for the life support."

Yin deflated back into the pilot's chair. "We're dead then."

"Not necessarily," Danith said, shaking his head. "We can shut down non-essential systems to buy us some time. If we can last until we clear the shadow of this planet, then maybe the solar panels can sustain us long enough for the Frontier to return."

Yin perked up and pulled the navigation screen. "In that case we only need to squeeze out an extra five days on top of what we have."

Danith nodded and set about disabling systems. "There, that puts us up to eight days of power. I would be comfortable with more in reserve to plan for anything else going wrong, but I'll take what we can get."

"Why don't we power up the thrusters just long enough to get out from under this planet? Then we can let the solar panels do their job."

"With our reserves this depleted, I wouldn't dare power up the thrusters. It would nearly drain us dry getting them warmed back up."

"Too bad you rushed to shut them down then," Yin said with a sigh.

Danith shot him a sideways look. "If I hadn't shut them down there's no way to know if we would still be alive. That power surge could have happened again and sapped us of every last minute."

"Or maybe if you had waited to let us correct course and build up speed again, we would be sitting comfortably in the sun waiting for the Frontier to return with ample energy reserves!" Yin shot back.

Danith whipped his chair around to face his subordinate. "This is why you're not a reliable crew member. You're criticising my actions which saved our lives and instead suggesting we risk further damage at a shot that it doesn't all go pear shaped. You're driven by emotion instead of logic, and it'll end up getting yourself, or worse, someone else killed."

Yin leapt from his chair baring his fangs with a hiss. "Fuck you!" He turned and stormed towards the door.

"Sa'Yin get back here! Your shift isn't over."

"Fuck your schedule, do it yourself," Yin shouted as the door closed behind him.

He stormed to the back of the shuttle and threw himself on his bunk, seething in anger. He had half a mind to rush back in and claw Danith a few times to work out his frustrations. With a snarl, he punched the shuttle wall next to him.

Under the surface emotions, he knew part of the outburst was the embarrassment caused by the disaster occurring on his watch. Maybe he would have caught it if he was paying more attention to the console and not fantasising about a cold rock in space.

Yin dragged a pillow over his face and screamed into it until he felt exhausted and let his arms fall limp to his side. He blinked away the warm, humid air as he exhaled into the pillow. The darkness helped him calm his racing heart, which had been elevated since the initial shudder rolled through the shuttle.

A shiver went down his spine. It wasn't fair that he'd lashed out at Danith. The wolf had done the right thing in powering down the thrusters, and he was right when saying a delay could have killed them both. Yin now wished he'd acted in the moment instead of needing someone else to call the shots when the situation got problematic.

Yin shuddered again and frowned, throwing the pillow to the end of the bed and feeling the cool air brush his muzzle. But the air was far colder than it should have been, and when he exhaled again, his breath formed a mist.

Yin leapt from his bed and rushed back through the shuttle to the cockpit. "What happened to the heating?"

Danith didn't look up from his console. "I turned it off to save power. We can survive without artificial heating; the heat dispersers are enough."

"No, we can't! Not while we're in the shadow of this planet," Yin said wildly.

Danith frowned. "What do you mean?"

"The dispersers only work with residual waste heat from the outer hull of the shuttle, which is warmed up in star light. Since we've been stuck, the outer hull has been leeching heat until there's nothing left. Soon it'll be as cold in here as it is out there, so turn the fucking heat back on!"

Danith spun around and tapped several commands to restart the artificial heat. "It's back on."

"Good because in fifteen minutes our blood would have frozen solid in our veins, and you'd have killed us both."

"Well, I had to do something didn't I?" Danith growled. "You were acting like a petulant kitten with your hissing and crying. I was left to try find the power we needed to survive."

"That was a mistake on my behalf then, I should never have left you to make smart decisions," Yin said sarcastically.

"Yes! Yes, it was your mistake, Sa'Yin." Danith exclaimed and continued calmer, "now sit down and help me work it out, okay?" Danith said.

Yin recoiled and blinked in surprise, unsure what to do from the tonal whiplash until after a few moments, he went back to his chair.

"Okay, good. Let's start from scratch with the critical systems we need." Danith created a list and typed away as he jotted down the systems they needed to keep powered.

"Well, we need the air and water recyclers, navigation, and the heating of course." As Yin mentioned the systems, Danith wrote them down.

"Alright good, so what can we get rid of?"

Yin considered for a moment and suddnely perked his ears up. "Oh! The gravity! We can turn off the anti-grav and artificial gravity," he said excitedly. "Both those systems work best under acceleration. Right now, we're in a fixed spin, so the artificial gravity has to work entirely on its own to create the force we're feeling instead of being aided by our acceleration. Meanwhile, anti-grav is only useful to allow us to resist that acceleration. Both systems work seamlessly together and use a surprisingly little amount of power under the right conditions, but right now they're nothing more than a black hole syphoning us dry."

Danith nodded along as he listened to Yin's explanation. "Great thinking, maybe that's why the computer is giving us such a short deadline for our power to run out. The spike might not have drained as much as we thought." He went about disabling the systems responsible.

Yin felt an unease wash over him as the force keeping him firmly in place lessened until it disappeared altogether. He turned in his seat, but even that small amount of movement was enough to cause him to rise slowly in the air. He meowed in surprise and gripped the arm rests with both paws to keep himself stationary.

"Don't worry, that's what the seat restraints are for. Remember to buckle down or you might find yourself drifting away from the console," Danith said, "oh and that applies for when you're sleeping too. Nothing worse than waking up floating several meters from your bed because you turned in your sleep too vigorously."

Yin nodded as he took Danith's advice and latched the belt around his chest. It still felt unnerving as it didn't prevent him from floating, but it did stop him from needing to repeatedly pull himself back down.

"On the plus side, that's pushed us out to two weeks of power. We've got plenty of juice now to last us until we clear this shadow and we're back in the sun again. The solar power should be enough then until Frontier comes back."

"Shouldn't we send out a distress signal at least? Maybe the Frontier will pick it up and came back for us," Yin asked.

Danith shook his head. "It's too risky. We're too close to the end of Federation controlled space so sending out a signal from here could attract the wrong sort of attention. As unlikely as it is with the sector being so quiet, I won't risk a Terrenalk slave ship reaching us first."

Yin gulped and nodded. "What about a low powered, Federation encoded message? With low enough power and the encryption scrambling it, no one will be able to trace it back to us."

Danith hummed to himself. "Yeah, that might work. It won't be useful unless there's a ship passing by but at least there'll be something to alert them if they do." He set about creating the distress message and set it to loop. "Now that we've sorted out this mess, we need to sort our rations."

"What do you mean? I thought we had enough to last four weeks?"

Danith nodded, "we do but we need to consider what happens if we're out here for longer than that. If something happens to hold the Frontier up, we could be stuck another week or two. If we were on the planet, then we would be supplementing out rations with what we could find. On the shuttle, that's a finite reserve."

Danith unbuckled his restraints and glided over the top of the chair. He pushed off towards the door, catching himself on handrails beside it to seamlessly glide through. "Come, we'll discuss it at the dining table."

Yin unbuckled his own restraints and made to go after Danith. He bumped off several objects as he navigated across the room, pushing off way too quickly and colliding hard with the wall.

"Ouch, fuck," Yin whined, rubbing his shoulder. "Didn't you say one of us should always be in the cockpit?"

"That hardly matters now that we're drifting aimlessly with most of our systems shut down," Danith replied.

In the main compartment, Danith had pulled out their stockpile of rations and dumped them in a floating ball beside him. Each pack of ration was suitable for an entire day, having been split into three meals. When Yin entered, Danith was in the middle of tearing them open and piling the individual meals into separate groups.

"Now the best way of doing this is to cut down from three of these per day to two. We won't be as active on the shuttle as if we were on a planet, so we don't require as many calories."

Yin groaned at the thought of missing a meal. "Are you sure? That doesn't seem like enough."

Danith snorted. "Two meals is plenty for me to survive on, so trust me when I say it's ample for you." He scanned the slim cheetah from the corner of his eye and shook his head. "You'll be fine, now let's discuss a workout regime."

*****

The week trickled by languishingly slow after the day of the incident. Once they had dealt with the initial fallout, there was agonizingly little for either of them to do. For the sake of their sanity, Danith had suggested they spend most of their time separated, which Yin had quickly agreed to.

Even though there was little point to it, the two continued taking turns in the cockpit to monitor the operations of the shuttle and to keep an eye out in case their distress message was answered. Mostly though, it was an excuse for them to remain apart and not grate each other's nerves to the point of breaking.

Yet despite it all, Yin found his opinion of the wolf changing. Danith was a definite leader, and he made decisive actions in the moment. His technical shortcomings were offset by his other, stronger qualities. Yin was coming to appreciate his leadership and even like his company. They quipped with each other more each day; bartering deserts for their preferred brownies and talking about their life before the Frontier.

Their schedule didn't change much once they finally cleared the planet, and their solar panels got some much-needed light. At Danith's decree, he turned the artificial gravity back on for an hour each day and led a labouring workout.

"I'm sweating more on this damn shuttle than I ever have on the Frontier. Do we really need to do this much exercise?" Yin complained between panting breaths.

Danith grinned, not even breaking a sweat. "I told you already, this is to keep your muscle density up. Prolonged time spent in zero-g will deteriorate your body."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm not used to working out," Yin grumbled.

Danith chuckled good naturedly. "It's for your own good. Now I'll keep the gravity on for a bit longer so you can have a shower. You should get some sleep after and take over for me when you wake up."

Yin nodded and dragged himself across to the shower stall embedded in a corner of the compartment. He longed to stay under the warm spray and soak, but it took energy to heat the water and even more to recycle it after, so they were limited to a couple of minutes.

Once he was cleaned, Yin dried and slipped into his underwear. He peeked out the door to confirm Danith was back in the cockpit and dashed to the sleeping compartment, jumping into his bed. The workout had drained him, and he was soon fast asleep.

*****

Yin awoke and blinked at the disorientation he felt upon opening his eyes. His mind was reeling to make sense as the floor drifted by several meters beneath him. Realisation struck as he spun around upside down and saw his unmade bed and the unbuckled restraints hanging in the air.

He sighed and slapped himself on the head. Because the artificial gravity was still on when he went to bed, he hadn't thought about his restraints. If he'd even turned slightly in his sleep, he would have knocked himself free from the bed into his current position of hanging suspended in the middle of the room.

Yin flailed his arms to try to reorientate himself, but it took several moments, and he was glad no one was around to witness how embarrassing it must have looked. He couldn't be sure how long he'd slept or when Danith would come wake him for his shift. He grimaced at the thought of being found like this.

For once, Yin wished he'd kept his uniform on when he went to sleep. Then he'd have something with a bit more substance to throw and help propel him back to the wall. Instead, all he had was his thin pair of underwear.

He glanced at the doorway and shook his head. No better time than the present. Yin slid his thumbs under the waistband of his only form of modesty and slipped them down his legs. He blushed at the sensation of drifting nude through the air, exposed from all angles. Bunching the fabric in his fist, he pulled his arm back and slung the mass as hard as he could away from him.

As soon as he let go, Yin realised his mistake. He should have thrown it away from his centre of mass, not overarm. The goal of pushing himself closer amounted to sending him into wild spin instead.

Yin growled and tried to swing his limbs and tail to oppose the spin. As he was turning, he saw the upside-down door slide open and a surprised Danith staring at the scene unfolding before his eyes.

"Don't say anything!" Yin said accusingly as he spun head over tail in front of the wolf.

To his credit, Danith didn't need to say anything. The laughter was enough of a vocalisation on its own. Yin tried vainly to cover his sheath with his tail to regain some semblance of modesty, even though Danith had seen everything already.

It took some time to slow himself down to the point where he was hanging upside down with his arms crossed and tail wrapped around his midsection. "Are you going to help me or stay standing there like a simpleton?" Yin demanded.

Danith shrugged. "I thought you were doing just fine on your own." He plucked the pair of underwear from where it was floating beside the door. "It looks like your first plan didn't quite work out as you'd hoped though."

"Wow, good observation, you're so smart. No wonder you're chief of security with skills of observation like that," Yin said with a roll of his eyes. "So, are you going to help or what?"

Danith shrugged. "I might go have my breakfast and come back after."

Yin narrowed his eyes. "Fine, what do you want?"

Danith considered for a moment. "You still have a brownie left, don't you?"

"It's my last one! I'll give you two cookies instead."

"No deal, brownie or you'll have to wait until you drift across the room. Should only take a few more hours."

"Alright! You can have the damn brownie, now come and get me."

Danith braced himself on the wall and gently pushed off, so he didn't collide too hard with Yin. He grabbed the cheetah by his waist and lead him in front towards Yin's bed. The close proximity to Yin whose modesty was preserved by his tail made Danith nervous, but he pushed the feelings aside.

Yin had a plan of his own though, and as he got closer, he twisted himself around and used his feet to push against Danith's chest, breaking off the contact and sending the wolf drifting at a snail's pace back to open air. Danith tried grabbing at the cheetah again but was left clutching at nothing Yin turned around and stuck out his tongue.

"Looks who's stuck now. I'll have my brownie back thank you very much," Yin demanded with a smug look.

Danith scoffed and started pulling off his uniform without hesitation, starting with the shirt followed by his pants. When Yin thought he would stop, instead the wolf stripped off his underwear as well to add to the pile in his arms.

Yin blushed and glanced away from Danith's thick sheath and furry balls, only to get smacked in the face with a ball of clothes. When he looked up, Danith was already across from him safely bracing on his own bed.

Yin bared his teeth, smacking the clothes to the side and launching himself at the wolf. Danith recoiled in surprise and gasped when the cheetah missile swept him up and bounced his back off the shuttle. The entangled pair went tumbling from the bed, Danith reaching back to claw at the bed pole and only succeeding in bleeding off their momentum.

"Well, that was clever," Danith said as they spun together in a slow circle

Yin just shrugged and held onto Danith's arm. "I want my brownie back."

"Oh, so you'll hold onto me and keep both of us here, will you?" Danith tilted his head.

Yin nodded triumphantly.

Danith smirked and grabbed the cheetah by the waist again. "If you want to be close to me, why don't we get a bit closer?" The wolf pulled them together and Yin's eyes widened when he felt his sheath press deep into Danith's toned belly. The wolf's own sheath was nestled under his balls.

Yin blushed and looked away. "Oh uh, I mean..." flustered, he stumbled over his words.

Danith smirked, the two were practically nose to nose and he had the upper hand. The cheetah would crack soon, he was sure. Except, he felt Yin's sheath twitch against his stomach, and a few moments later, there was a rigid warmth digging into his fur. Against his best inhibitions, he felt his own sheath respond in turn.

"Sorry, it's been a while..." Yin muttered under his breath. His heart was pounding fast in his chest, and he wondered if Danith could feel that too, or if his embarrassment down below was too distracting.

"Yeah, me too," Danith said with a deep rumble.

Danith was the first to move as he used his hold on Yin to lower the cheetah a few inches down so their sheathes pressed together. Yin gasped in response and glanced down between them to see the wolf was in a similar predicament.

Their cocks pressed together as they thickened and pushed free from their holsters. Yin bit his lip and humped against the wolf, grinding his flesh into Danith's thicker shaft. Danith tensed his paws and groaned softly.

"Use your paws," Danith mumbled.

Yin glanced up to him and nodded, looking back down and using both his paws to wrap around their arousals. Their heat pulsed together and as his own erection reached full mast at a modest size, Danith kept growing longer and thicker until Yin wondered if he'd be able to fit it in one paw.

As Yin was reeling feeling the wolf's hard cock in his paw and forced against his own, he blinked as Danith's cock throbbed and a glittery blob of pre spat free from his tip. The cheetah stuck out a finger and caught the sticky liquid as it floated past, bringing it back down to spread across the joined flesh.

Danith huffed and bucked his hips, sliding his cock through Yin's grip. He growled as he started a slow, steady grinding motion, humping with increasing eagerness. Yin shuddered in response and tightened his paws as the wolf's slick cock pushed up and down. Soon, he was humping in an off-rhythm with the wolf.

The two were leaking pre like a busted tap, so Yin made sure to keep catching the drops to use as lubrication. Their cocks were soon shiny with slick pre, slipping effortlessly between Yin's fingers. The pair of balls pressed close together, Danith's pair hinting at a plentiful reserve.

Danith used a paw to tilt Yin's chin up and when the cheetah met his eyes, pressed their muzzles together in a deep kiss. Yin purred into Danith's mouth as the wolf pushed his tongue past his lips. The gap between their bodies closed so that their cocks dug into their fur and trapped Yin's paws. The cheetah could feel a sticky wetness growing where the wolf's larger shaft was matting his fur.

Yin was first to pull back from the kiss to gulp and draw deep breathes. Meanwhile, Danith busied himself with nibbled the cheetah's ears and rocking his hips at an eager pace until Yin buried his muzzle into the wolf's chest.

"Are you alright, Yin?" Danith asked. Yin nodded in reply, which meant he ended up rubbing his muzzle into the wolf's fur. "Good, I want to fuck you."

Yin meowed and pulled back enough to see Danith's hungry gaze staring back at him. He gulped and nodded again. The size of the wolf's endowment caused an echo of worries to fill his mind, but in the moment the need to feel it buried deep inside of him silenced everything else.

Danith guided him back up to his muzzle height which left his cock jutting out under the cheetah's balls. Yin shuddered in understanding and wrapped his legs around Danith's waist to give the wolf access to his behind. He shifted and felt Danith's pre-soaked tip grinding behind him between his ass cheeks.

Danith rubbed up and down the cheetah's spine soothingly as he positioned himself. Yin gasped when the wolf found his mark and felt his tip catch Yin's tight ring. The matted streaks across Yin's belly and chest were an indicator the wolf was more than slick enough for entry.

"Just... go slow. I haven't done this much, and not since I left my home planet," Yin said with a hint of worry in his voice.

"Of course, I'll go at your pace," Danith replied. The wolf remained still for a time while he felt Yin's ass still tensed in anticipation. "Just breath deep and try to relax your core."

Yin nodded and managed to bring his breathing under control to relax himself. He gasped and struggled not to tense up again when Danith's tip immediately slipped up inside him. The wolf's canine cock started tapered but thickened quickly into a substantial width and that heat was digging inside of him and keeping his ass edged apart.

Danith listened to Yin's breathing again, and when it had slowed down once more, used his hands on the cheetah's hips to keep him in place while he pressed his hips up. Slowly, he spread Yin's ass open and once the head of his cock managed to wedge inside, his thick shaft quickly followed.

Yin moaned loudly when he felt Danith's cock dig deep inside of him. He gritted his teeth and tensed briefly before he got himself back under control. Danith waited a moment and continued, managing to sheath himself to his knot inside Yin's tight depths.

"You're so big," Yin gasped out.

Danith rumbled and ground his knot under Yin's tail. "I haven't gotten my knot inside yet."

Yin whined quietly at the impossible thickness pressing against him. "I don't know if I can take it."

"We'll see, for now I want to make you purr," and as Danith said that he started to bring his hips away, lifting the cheetah effortlessly in the zero-g and sliding his cock back out. As he reached halfway out, he pulled down and thrust his cock back deep. The wolf repeated his action again, building a rhythm as he fucked the cheetah at a leisurely pace.

Yin buried his muzzle into Danith's neck to stifle his moans, his tail was quivering wildly behind him with each thrust. The initial entry had hurt more than he'd let on, but more than anything he felt a satisfying fullness each time Danith humped into him. The pain had faded to a whisper, replaced by shockwaves that sent a shiver up his spine each time Danith hit that special spot inside him.

Danith had said he wanted to make him purr, and he was well on his way to. Yin wrapped his arms around Danith's neck with an increasing feeling of comfort and safety in the wolf's arms. He was panting labouredly, but that didn't stop him from using his legs to assist the wolf. When Danith pulled back, he lifted his ass until just the tip was inside, and then brought himself back down with a gasp.

Danith growled, using the full length of his cock to plunge deeper and harder into the cheetah. Their pace quickened exponentially until Danith was grunting with effort as he fucked Yin with a pent-up ferocity. The wolf's actions had invertedly sent the two drifting around in a vertical circle, but neither of them noticed they were now suspended upside down. It didn't impede their mating, so it wasn't of consequences.

More importantly, Yin could feel his ass bouncing off Danith's knot. With each passing minute, the pre filling Yin caused the knot to get slicker and start gaining purchase. The cheetah gasped and moaned, feeling himself stretching to accommodate the entirety of the wolf. Droplets of pre hung suspended in the space around them as testament to Danith's efforts and the pleasure Yin was experiencing.

"I'm getting close," Danith huffed desperately, "Yin, I need to tie you."

"Fuck, do it Danith!" Yin yelped.

Danith let out a snarl and bared his teeth, putting more force behind his thrusts. He pulled the cheetah off and slammed him back down with each push. Yin was gritting his teeth and trying to force himself to accept all of the wolf. Against all odds, Danith's knot was spreading Yin wider until with a last bracing thrust, he felt cheetah's ass spread slowly and slipped inside.

Yin yowled at the sudden pain, a few stray tears drifting from his eyes. Fortunately, it was quick and fleeting to leave him with the incredible feeling of Danith tied deep inside. Danith tipped his head back and opened his mouth in soundless howl, closing his eyes and revelling in the tight constriction around the base of his knot.

It didn't take much more grinding for Danith to reach his peak. Yin felt the wolf's cock pulse and his knot swell thicker, followed by a flooding warmth pumping into him. Each throb of the cock under his tail announced another stream of pent-up wolf cum that was emptied inside him.

Yin hugged himself close to the wolf and yowled into his neck scruff. Between them, the cheetah's cock jumped several times until Yin shuddered and came hard from the breeding. Thick, sticky strands and globs of white cum erupted from his twitching length, some of it getting caught up in both of their fur. Plenty more of it escaped from between them in all directions, fanning out across the room to create an array of twinkling spots that distantly reminded Yin of a star chart.

Danith calmed down from his orgasm enough to look around them and pant. He cradled the purring cheetah close to him as Yin's vibrations travelled through his own body. Every few seconds he felt a shockwave shoot through his cock, causing him to tense and spurt another burst of cum to add to the mess inside Yin.

"This is going to hell to clean," Danith groaned. "I think we got cum on the ceiling."

*****

"Yep, they're right where you said they could be, Captain," Tirrik, the helmsman of the Frontier said with a chuckle. "They have a Federation encoded distress signal pinging too, would you like me to hail them?"

Sitting in his command chair, Heskar nodded. "Do it please, Tirrik."

A section of the window looking out to space turned opaque and displayed their hail to the Puddle Jumper. It blinked for seconds, then a minute, and just when Heskar was getting worried, the window sprung to life and displayed a curious sight to the crew on deck.

Heskar frowned in confusion. "Yin, is there perhaps a reason why you're sitting in Danith's lap?"

Danith piped up from beneath the cheetah. "Oh, sorry sir, we weren't sure if both of us would be in the video frame, so I suggested Yin sit in my lap." His explanation was rushed, and it looked like he wanted to say more but stopped himself.

Herkar's ears perked in surprise when the wolf used Yin's preferred name. "Right, well it's a bit weird to talk to the two of you like that and there's plenty of room in the frame, so you can stand up now, Yin." The tiger blinked as the two on the screen made no attempt at movement. "Any day now, please."

"Well, you see captain, I might be a little... stuck," Yin was the one to pipe up this time.

"Stuck?"

"Yeah, see wolves have a certain canine characteristic which might make it hard for me to get out of Danith's lap right now," Yin explained and bit his lip.

A snicker travelled across the bridge of the Frontier. Heskar's initial response was to cover his face with his paw as realisation dawned. "You're saying instead of concocting this elaborate plan, I could have locked the two of you in the brig for a couple of weeks and waited until you fucked?"

"Plan, what plan?!" Danith said in surprised outrage.

"Doesn't matter, we'll come get you in an hour. Try to be presentable by then," Heskar said as he closed the transmission and mumbled to himself, "why's the answer always sex?"