FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

About 9000 words

Simplicity

Navigator training begins with the fundamental law: simplicity.

No matter how talented the trainee, the most beautiful equations are always the simplest. A model navigator achieved it in all calculations; from the carbohydrate-to-protein-to-fat ratio of their vacuum-packed rations, to the optimal working of the G8-75 Warp Drive, the staple workhorse for sailing the Solars.

Things have changed in the two hundred standard years since the college was founded. Spaceflight was no longer a noble endeavour to push back the unknown. Exploration brought discovery. Discovery brought newfound wealth.

Yet the dangers of spaceflight never changed. A single stray decimal scaled up across the vast solar gulf meant drifting a very long way from home. The lack of fuel to correct a mistake wasn't penny-pinching either; the cost of getting it into space could make or break an expedition.

Credits though were weightless. If you could weave a route between the complex gravitational interactions, looping orbits, and unstable trajectories of the solars without even a burst of your engines? A good navigator led a comfortable life. A great one was hard pressed to spend all the profits.

There never was a shortage of impressionable minds yearning for that payoff. The college on dusty Mars boasted a 99.9% graduate employment rate; a message clearly heard by tall, pointed ears eager to scrub the dirt from their fur. But like the G8-75 Warp Drive, most graduates burnt out within the first working year. The college never told the true meaning of the fundamental law. Being a navigator meant being alone.

Aldari knew this from the beginning. Blasting off Mars, they couldn't have been happier to leave everyone who had wronged them behind.

***

All the universe and no one to divide it with. It had been bliss. Now Aldari froze, staring at the hailing screen. Their yellow eyes blazed.

> I know you don't want to speak

Aldari hissed. The venom in the sound wrinkled their muzzle, barring their sabre-teeth. They ran their claws down their grey muzzle, the growl rumbling away in its throat like a wolf. They scratched their fluffy mane that tasselled their spine like a horse. Their tall, dagger-like ears cut through the air a bat, recording every minute hum in the ship's circuitry, while their long, sandy-brown fur rose in agitation. The cyan stripes on their forearms from a wild, rebellious youth had almost faded.

> I just want a moment to talk

It had been a long time since they'd last spoken. Long enough for Aldari to discover that even muscles engineered not to atrophy would still waste away if they weren't used. Regardless of the state of their neglected vocal chords, the expletive that burst from their lips felt fucking satisfying.

Aldari's claws added fresh scratches to the dusty keyboard as they typed their reply.

> A moment? Is that why you're using a scrambler?

It wouldn't stop Aldari from blocking their signal - already Voyager's systems cut through the morphing code, narrowing the possibilities - but that wasn't the point. The scrambler gave them time. Time to make a point. And if it was who Aldari thought, the hybrid didn't even need to calculate the probability they'd lend an ear.

> Please hear me out

> You have no right to ask me for anything.

> No one could have predicted what happened

> I would have!

Perhaps that was bravado. But the months afterward without work let the hybrid check their workings over and over. Despite the numbers vindicating them, Aldari had flown with the crows and got stoned with them.

> There's no formula to go back in time

> I want to make right the past

> I want to offer you a job

Aldari stopped, pausing for a moment to think. An uncomfortable pressure built in their chest, bursting out their muzzle as a weird, breathless, whooping cry. A second later a memory clicked, and they recognised it as their laugh. Despite the wasteful expense of calories, they let it continue. The expenditure made them feel slightly better.

> I've got plenty jobs thanks

Aldari wasn't lying.

The numbers they'd posted on Southern Galactic's boards supported them; Aldari was busier than ever, ferrying ferrous ores, nanoweave fibres, plasteel, and silicone across the calm tides of galactic south. They were short jobs, simple jobs. Best suited for a human novice who was largely there just to check the G8-75 engines and acclimatise to long haul spaceflight; to let their bones go brittle, their muscles waste.

Their heart atrophy.

> It'll be worth it

> I've got a hold of something no navigator will go without

The hybrid snorted, chewing their tongue. Leaving Mars, the Terran Solar, that was what they'd always wanted. Deep space didn't care that they were a hybrid race; a relic of times when the empty stars terrified humanity. They were created to overcome the limits of planetary evolution, to build a civilization that stretched across the stars.

> Meet me at these coordinates

Aldari kneaded their claws through their fur.

That troublemaker is unpredictable. Cut your losses and grind through things. You've got the lifespan to wait for it. More satisfying work will come.

Or take this one job and skip right back to the top.

Sighing, Aldari stepped away from the controls, pressing their paws against the window. For a moment, they felt alone. Absolved. Free. Forgiven from the senseless quarrels, petty strife, and powerful emotions. They could be part of this, the endless sea and its uncounted stars.

Aldari reluctantly pushed themselves back to the helm and plotted in the coordinates, cruising through the simple calculations. Despite years their heart had never atrophied.

***

The Ring shone ahead, reflecting what little light there was this far from the solar. The station hovering above a vast asteroid belt, proving its founders weren't blessed with creativity. But unlike other coordinate-named stations, the Ring felt organic when it rolled off the tongue, in a sort of pioneering, 'blank space of the map' way.

In the past, before the Expansion, a little station at the 'far-flung' edge of an uninhabitable planetary system would have pushed back the frontier. Now the Ring, aptly, had become its namesake; a piece of debris floating in the void. The lack of gravitational interference that made it easy to get to also made it hard to leave - there was no convenient mass to slingshot around.

A glimmer in the ring below caught Aldari's eye. Every so often some fragment of ice caught the distant sun, crystals sparkling with a pale light for a brief moment, before growing dark. The hybrid stood there, tail flicking round their legs. Asteroids spelt doom for many cocky navigators, and they intended to stay as far away as they could.

Aldari sighed, turning back to the beeping communications array. The station was hailing them. They rolled their eyes; they'd done this a thousand times; reading manifests, crew contingents, firepower, and the size of every screw on their ship. Reluctantly they set to it, mane bristling as their muzzle sunk into petty bureaucracy. Behind them some stray chuck crystal floating among the other asteroids of the ring caught the light, but as it reflected the faint starlight, others caught it; creating a chain of light cascading across the void, until the entire ring sparkled like a pale diamond tiara.

> Of course you'd pick a spot like this.

Aldari sighed again, waiting for the preliminary reports from Voyager's scanners. They were already trying to figure out how on earth they'd leave this place without burning all their savings on fuel.

> It's not intentional

The hybrid entered the final set of adjustments, correcting the auto-pilot's mistake with a quick burn of the engines. Loose screws rattled, screens flicked as connections shook, and the cutlery Aldari had left out clattered about. Silence returned quickly. Voyager drifted towards the station's hanger bay, the projections on the monitor lining up perfectly

> Docking in three hours.

> Great, see you then.

***

Darion couldn't wait for their release. Three hours until Aldari docked. That gave was plenty of time.

The hybrid sighed, twirling a black strand of their mane in their claws, blue eyes blinking wearily. They chewed one of their claws, picking at their grey fur. That was the last set of navigational data to input into the mainframe. On cue the surrounding circuitry whirred into life, lights blinking from orange to green, coolant sloshing through its tubes as it beamed the data to the mining vessels in the ring. In the time since they'd begun their rotation's mining, the asteroid belt had changed around them, and with little fuel they relied on the data to get back in one burn. Unfortunately for Darion, as soon as they returned the whole process would start again.

Darion sneezed, accidentally inhaling a bit of dander floating in the air about them. Unfortunately, their sneezing only blew a larger cluster of fur straight into the mainframe's air intake. The fan's wheezy pitch rose slightly higher as it further struggled to breathe. Luckily maintenance wasn't their concern.

Theoretically for a third class navigator, working on the Ring was punching above Darion's weight. Cash in hand payments, no questions asked, a second chance for a stoned crow. But no one deserved to serve their penance on a barely fledged colony. It wasn't because it was an illegal asteroid mining operation though. The Ring sucked in rugged, down-on-luck types, promising enough cash to get back up onto their paws, only to realise you never could get out.

The hybrid swirled a plastic cup in their claws, scowling at the pitiful serving of vodka. They weren't sure that it should taste like paint-stripper, but at least it was booze, and so far, Sebastian's shoddy brewing outfit hadn't found a way to poison the hybrid yet, despite issuing them the challenge.

"Cheers!" They exclaimed, raising their cup and throwing it down their muzzle. Maybe this time they'd get off this rustbucket.

A notification on the monitors ended the celebration; the blank screens swamped with line after line of the same message:

>Verifying packets

>File received

Darion pulled a twisted slab out from their battered plasteel flight jacket. The dataslate pulsed with a faint blue light as it reformed into a perfectly flat plane. Nicknamed a 'floppy disk', it kept Darion's greatest idea. Darion wired it up to the archaic fabricator next to the navigational relay's drives, instructing it to print the single file it stored. An erect dick flashed proudly on the preview, complete with thick knot, pulsing veins, and chiselled tip. Darion smirked, ready to print their solution to the inter-solar problem all navigators' faced.

Being alone on a ship for months at a time made it hard to get off. Pawing became a dull answer to such desires, a way of venting energy rather than satisfying it. Even when a navigator reached a populated station, the list of suitable mates was small despite their kind possessing both sets of genitals. And the time they had together on the station? Shorter still. For all their kind sailing the stars, so many were so alone, and so very needy.

Darion, like any navigator confronted with a problem, had put their mind to a solution, one that didn't involve lowering atmospheric oxygen content. It now began to take shape. Darion squirmed, adjusting their pants as they watched the cock in the fabricator take shape, their tongue lapping loudly across their muzzle.

Darion's solution still was entirely theoretical. If they were ever going to plug their invention to every lonely navigator among the stars, it needed thorough testing...

With a grunt and a flick of their tail, Darion's paws fumbled about at their crotch, claws snagging as they pulled away their flight suit's waist. Grinning, they curled back their tail. Hips shifted forward in their seat. Legs spread wide in open welcome, as if the pixels on screen would plunge out of the matrix, into them. They thrust their paws onto the table, scattering paper and rough workings across the floor.

Their eyes rolled languidly in their sockets, remembering that familiar swelling as the red tip poked free from their thick sheath. Darion growled, resisting the urge to give it a couple of consoling tugs. Pawing was no longer enough. Darion was desperate to be fucked.

They reached below their balls, finding the wet patch in the centre of their taint. Soft lips tingle, anticipating their fingertips. Pressing their thumb against their entrance, angling claw tips away, Darion slowly rubbed away in circles, breathing raggedly, tongue hanging lip from their muzzle.

The scent of it was palpable. A forceful huff escaped their lips, followed by a ravenous growl.

"Hurry up," they growled, glaring at the fabricator. The machine matched Darion's frenzy. Circuitry buzzed, fans wheezed, lights snapped on and off. Inside the fabricator the toy started to take shape, shaft swelling upright as nozzles darted about, faithfully replicating every detail. They pressed their thumb harder and bit their lip, hissing, screwing their eyes shut, trying not to shout or snag a claw.

They whined desperately, shoulders sagging as their useless digits failed to push their ecstasy over the edge. Every time they tried, their paws never got close to the feeling of the real thing.

Ping!

Darion wrenched the fabricator door open. They were blind to the swathes of red text on the display readout, grabbing the knotted toy. They sized up the shaft eagerly, swirling their tongue over its warm length, lifting their balls out the way as they lined up the pointed tip.

They curled their toes as it sank in, eyes rolling about, catching fragments from the readout.

>Failed: Sculpt incomplete. Matrix unreactive.

Excitement overruled any caution.

>Failed: Diagnose thermosensitivity.

Breathing became stuttered. Ragged. Feverish.

>Failed: Initialise chipsettings.

They pushed the swollen knot in, stuffing a paw over their muzzle to muffle their cry. They felt their shaft throb, twitching, but that soon was washed away. Their climax only enhanced the other; their knot popped free from their tight sheath, shooting rope after rope of cum into the air, layering the desk, hitting adjacent air vents.

Darion sniggered, watching as their cum got sucked into the mainframe's cooling intake; a convenient cleanup. Once they escaped the Ring it would be some other poor sod's job to clean the clogged vents.

They threw their head back, catching their breath, contemplating whether to pull the knot out or not. Yes, their climax was satisfying, but already Darion could feel the next one building. It was disappointing that the station's outdated fabricator couldn't replicate all the design features, but Darion wasn't worried. If their research was correct, they had a fabricator nuanced enough for the job on the way. Fortunately it'd arrive in under three hours.

Plenty of time for another round of tests.

***

A thud served as confirmation that Voyager had 'successfully' docked with the station, and the certainty of chipped paintwork.

Aldari unstrapped themselves, taking a fortifying breath before attempting to stand. The Ring's gravity was much stronger compared to Voyagers; their thighs burned after a few steps, until their exosuit calibrated and began to assist.

Aldari climbed up through the bridge's top-hatch, hoping that it hadn't grown smaller since the last time they'd left their ship, which had been... They pulled themselves up the last couple of rungs, as if the vigour would burn off all the extra calories.

It was a tight fit.

Two humans stood above the hatch, refusing to extend a hand as Aldari squeezed out.

"The ship registry system is down for repairs at the moment." The human sighed, blue-eyed and entirely hairless, wearing featureless overalls. He began tapping away at the screen in his hands. His companion lacked even a wisp of stubble. He slammed down the hatch, almost catching the hybrid's tail.

"It costs pumping air down there and I'm not flooding your ship's system with free oxygen," he muttered. It took a few breaths to adjust, but already Aldari was feeling great. Their enhanced biology required minimal concentrations of oxygen, so the Terran standard was a rush. It made parts of Aldari stir in response, distracting them with those primitive, neglected urges, and thoughts of raised tails.

"Ship name... Cargo... Purpose?" The blue-eyed man said dryly. The hybrid answered with equal contempt. -Voyager. Silicone. Computer chips. Rest.

"I'll need a refuel too," Aldari added, gaining an undisguised sigh as they returned to some previous part of the form.

"What money you got for that? The blue-eyed man countered, as if he were being asked to give a limb.

"Company requisition orders authorised to clear in every solar-"

"We only take cash here," he grunted, chewing his lip.

"Need that bit of 'xtra security this far out," the short bald one chimed in. He had this weird lump around his left eye, which looked like he'd been punched incredibly hard. "Tight margins. Can't be waiting months for company checks to clear."

Aldari growled, but let it go, deciding to stare at the rest of the station's fittings. The rust on the hatch seals made them wish they hadn't. It was a struggle not to calculate the chances of a blowout.

"How much?"

"Ten 'kay." The men smirked.

"That's robbery!"

"Twenty then." They were laughing now. "You're lucky we'd even refuel a mongrel's ship," he snapped.

"You'll pay us if you want to get off this shithole."

Aldari sighed and accepted.

"Don't fucking shed everywhere," the blue-eyed man laughed, his teenage associate sniggering away as they walked away without even giving any sort of orientation. Stung, the hybrid followed the yellow chevrons on the floor towards, they assumed, the bulwark doors and beyond, the station proper. They'd find Darion and get the hell out of here.

***

Aldari growled, calculating the loss in their head. Even if fuel was as expensive as their fat little tongues claimed, it still wouldn't cost half as much. Yet there was no one else to go to. Aldari ground their teeth, seething with anger for themselves. Of course they'd rip you off - swanning into their squat in a state-of-the-art company ship. Even if those furless faces were hard to read, the bare steel walls, decaying wheel hatch doors, and exposed wiring said enough. They'd had their planetary aid cut for deeper space projects.

20k.

What on earth were they going to do?

Grumbling, Aldari kicked a loose rivet, ears twitching as it skittered across the rusty gantry. They shook their head, trying to shake things into place. They buried their muzzle deep into their chest ruff, inhaling sharply, trying to gain some sense of much needed singularity. Slowly, their senses started to process things, compiling data into manageable chunks.

20k.

Perhaps Darion would be able to help.

Or even pay. It proved to be an alluring option. However, the challenge was finding him.

Usually entering a station after months or years alone was a riot of colours, scents, and smells, almost like you'd come back to life. The guest speakers at college spoke of parlours offering massages, countless species, scented baths to soak in, bars, gardens, girls and boys... The Ring was bleak; greys, blacks, browns, rusting parts, and not a single hint of comfort, full of humans stumbling past, stinking of weed, blood, booze. Then there was the scent of biological need... That was about as high up Maslow's hierarchy of needs as it got.

They closed their eyes, holding their breath, hoping to soothe their body back to sleep.

"I forgot you weren't a fan of hello!"

Aldari's eyes snapped open, greeted with Darion's smile. The fellow hybrid casually leaned off to the side, tail coiling about the railings behind them. "Sorry I'm late. It can be tough finding your way around, so I thought I'd come show you around."

Aldari swallowed.

"You told me to come see the goods for myself." Aldari growled, the fur at the back of their neck prickling as they pushed past the fellow hybrid. Their stomach lurched in reply to Darion's scent - ready, compatible, fertile-

Aldari threw themselves across the rusty fixtures, rubbing the coarse ochre all over their sleep jumpsuit. Thankfully for those on levels below, the hybrid could only dry-heave.

"Still forgetting to eat?" Darion raised an eyebrow. "Let's get to business then - but it's good to see you, regardless..."

Aldari spun round, scowling as they wiped their muzzle.

"Come on, follow me. It's not far."

Darion took them through the winding corridors and yellow hatch doors, eventually leading them towards the 'Commons', a word scratched into the walls. It lay at the centre of the Ring, a vast, circular atrium that stretched across multiple stories, each level stuffed full of all manner of shops, bars, and whatever else. Pulling them through the deserted level, they finally came to Darion's own stall, filled with all manner of salvage.

Aldari raised an eyebrow at their wares; a mess of scratched, dented, rusted, blasted parts under some tattered fabric awning.

"You don't even have anything of value to shift here, do you?"

"For you? That'd be me!"

Aldari felt a vein in their forehead pulse, muzzle twitching, gums itching, eager to bite. Darion grinned, combing back their mane with a claw.

"Do you think I'd keep anything remotely of value on display here?" They beckoned Aldari over, waving their paw, leaning back against the creaking railings. "See that stall down there, over on level three? Beneath that one there with the blue and pink neon sign. They sell slug-throwers and knives. And that one over there, with the green-light up cross? They offer to remove your sense of taste because the food is so bad here, and will also stitch you up no questions asked-"

"You said you had a job for me." Aldari snapped, but their tail betrayed them, sneaking behind them and squeezing Darion's own. There wasn't time to waste. "In case you forgot, I haul cargo-"

"Fine," Darion hissed, mane bristling. "This is your cargo," they grinned, tapping their head.

"Do you think I came halfway across the solar - and spent the last bit of fuel I had - to chauffeur your ego from one hovel to another? What're you going to pay me with, trash? Salvage?!" Aldari's fur itched madly as it bristled underneath their flight suit, eager for them to strip it all off... For once, couldn't the universe place Darion firmly in its crosshairs?

"Do you ask your other clients to pay up before the job's even done?"

"It's cost me twenty thousand. Cash! To fill the tank I need to get off this place. I. Don't. Have. Twenty. Thousand!" Aldari hissed.

Darion shrugged, picking their claws like they'd never paid for fuel in their life.

"You're supposedly good at calculations. You know it's not worth that." Darion snorted, shaking their head. "The rules are different here. Start playing by them."

Aldari swallowed, stepping towards the railings. They leaned over them, tail coiling about itself as they pressed all their weight on their elbows, staring down through the commons as if they could divine the soul of the place.

"Just trust me," Darion paused, nudging their fellow kin in the side "you know, like you used to. I'll even see to it that you don't have to pay." Darion smiled, picking a bit of grime from Aldari's fur, looking down at all those small people scurrying about their small lives.

Darion sucked in a breath. "Let's not waste anymore time."

"You've wasted so much of mine," Aldari whispered.

"Well," Darion sniffed, reaching inside their jumpsuit. "You're here now." Grunting, they gave a tug and produced the dataslate.

"Consider this as a deposit on my word. There's no point in me getting off this place without it."

Aldari snatched the dataslate like the 20k was dangled in front of them. They stuffed it inside their flight suit and scanned the area, hoping nobody had seen. Then Darion spun them around, animatedly pointing at their displayed wares.

"Still a quick learner, just like back at the Academy," Darion murmured, patting them on the back. "Now!" He said, changing tack. "How about this particle accelerator? Second hand, recovered from a Demiosian strip-miner - every durable, incredibly hard wearing - perfect for your ship-"

"Stop hawking that junk away!" The interruption wasn't a true one, but both navigators' did their part to make their shared surprise authentic. The intruder was a hybrid too, perhaps one with more canine in their blend on account of their muzzle's sharp edges and large fangs. But what was unnerving about them was their lack of fur; not a single patch of it grew on their marbled skin. It was pocketed with angry scarlet lumps, some of which had turned yellow. Their clothes were dusty and minimal, mimicking some military outfit's fatigues, though the state of them was entirely disgraceful; covered in a fine grey dust that clung to them.

"You still haven't cleaned the mainframe vents! They're clogged up with star-gods knows what!" They snapped, jabbing a finger against Darion's throat.

"Relax!" Darion grinned, flashing Aldari a wink. "Sebastian's an old friend of mine! Best vodka on this bucket o' rust. In fact, any pleasure you want, Seb's got the monopoly on it-"

"Shut it. You still owe me!"

"And I will see to it that-"

Aldari knew to take their leave, disgruntled enough by the affair that their retreat looked entirely genuine.

"Come on Sebastian! How can I pay you back if you scare all my customers away! I was trying to push them over to your place..." The conversation died as Aldari retreated through the yellow hatch. They pulled at their jumpsuit, adjusting it so the dataslate didn't sit awkwardly against their chest. From what they'd seen, the slate itself was worth at the very least 25k - a simple enough return on such a mess. But they needed to verify it though. Aldari was still a fool for trusting Darion once.

***

If protocol was followed, Aldari shouldn't have been able to board their ship while refuelling was underway. Everything shook as the pumps compressed the fuel into the tank. Despite the noise, at least Aldari could think in here, snatch thoughts together, reorder their feelings. Seeing Darion again, and having to process all that noise - the sounds, scents, sights - everything to process and all at once. Voyager's hull kept that world at bay, kept the oxygen content low, let them build some order.

Flicking a couple of dusty switches, Aldari booted up their helm's navigational display - a holographic solar map designed to aid and simulate calculated routes. After years of disuse, they were surprised it even booted.

The bridge flashed as the software projected a thousand dots of light, settling as the programme rendered Voyager's galactic surroundings. The Ring appeared; thousands of angular blocks spinning, colliding, splintering, and above the chaos lay the station itself, a serene observer to the chaos below.

Aldari snorted. It was a deceptive appearance.

> Please enter navigational constants:

Aldari hesitated, scratching the back of their mane, enjoying the warm sensation that built at the base of their neck. They knew their route out of here; that was easy. Instead, they'd booted the software in some hope it could give them some confessional advice.

1. I think I still feel for Darion.

They hit enter.

> Error: Constant not recognised.

Of course not. People weren't points of formula; just clusters of energetic, chaotic matter. They'd always stay that way.

Aldari pulled out the dataslate, flicking it between their long, lithe fingers, careful to keep it away from their claws. It was light, secure, and easily able to store all the calculations Aldari could hope to do in their lifetime.

Why on earth did Darion have one?

Placing the slate between their teeth, Aldari gave the flexible material a gentle nibble, tasting it as it yielded between their jaws like a nugget of gold. Their thoughts shifted from Darion to his 'friend' Sebastian, and his angry claims Darion owed them.

Aldari popped the chip into the navigational display, hoping to glean some information about it. Even a basic navigator's ship had the power to read dataslates, largely for solar maps, and even if it was a stolen drive, the boot sequence would let them know.

Instead the dataslate did nothing, displaying a snide message.

>Nice try, Aldari.

Aldari swore venomous words that split their tongue. Their fur bristled, refusing to let the slight go. They weren't going to let Darion thwart them, not without knowing what on earth they were dragging them into.

They reached down and pulled up one of the floor panels. The secret compartment was only a couple of inches wide, but large enough to provide a range of contingencies. A gun; though an old metal slug throwing thing. Rolled up wads of cash; enough to buy a ticket from one end of a solar to another, but sadly not 20k. Finally, a spare wrist console for their flight suit, though noticeably out of date. They took that and sealed the rest.

It was an antique. The console had no wireless connectivity, just a single wired port. It was frankly barbaric, but fugitive programs can't be choosers, especially when their first impression involved burrowing into Aldari's waffle-maker and turning it into a projectile weapon. The peace terms were simple. Aldari would provide them a temporary home. In return, they would crack into whatever software Aldari didn't like the whiff of. It reserved the right to be unreservedly snarky about it, but it was a small price to pay. It was always worth knowing what information you were hauling, and it was hardly about safety or legality; simply leveraging the right fee.

The screen flashed to life with an archaic 64-bit wolf's face grinning away. Pixel by pixel, it faded away to display text:

> I knew you'd come crawling back.

Aldari sighed, chewing their tongue as the console provided them with an on-screen keyboard, goading them to reply.

> I can always turn you off again.

> I calculated the probabilities. The fact you turned me back on is evidence enough.

>Who coded you to be such an ass?

>I did, and I call it personality. Your lot's primitive scrawlings, thank my executables, would have me dull and boring. What incalculable mess has your mushy, fatty, biological processor turned to me to fix?

Despite its boast, Intelligence did have one flaw in its coding that was plain to see; it's undeniable urge to show off, especially if it meant proving carbon-based processors wrong.

> I need you to open something for me.

Without further reading for a response, Aldari rudely plugged it into the Dataslate port.

> Ow! You could have eased me in first!

Aldari was tempted to comment on the crude irony of the situation, but they didn't want to goad the Intelligence into mud-throwing competition about genitals or lack thereof. Thankfully, they realised the hybrid's mercy, going quiet, a series of dots flashing across the screen, roughly corresponding with one a second.

> ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... silly ... ... ... call this code ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... flesh-brained ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

> ... to think biological matter made this ... ... ... ... lazy code ... ... ... stupid ... inefficient

> ... ... ... ...

Then it stopped.

> Nice try 'Roo tail.

Aldari muttered something. Luckily it didn't have audio sensors.

> I think it's time to remind you that this arrangement is temporary.

> I remember what you did last time I trusted you.

> Can you blame me? Calculate the variables. You would have done the same.

> At least tell me there's something valuable on there.

> No and yes - valuable to organics at least, otherwise I'd have taken it the second you connected me.

> How much?

The pixelated wolf face popped, flashed a wry smile, winked, and blew a heart. Without any further ceremony, it turned itself off. Despite pressing the power button, it refused to boot every time.

Aldari snarled, snagging their lip on a fang. They stamped a paw against the floor. As satisfying the outburst felt, it was fleeting.

That was childish. Irrational. A miscalculation.

Stuffing both the Intelligence and the dataslate into their jumpsuit, Aldari clambered through the top hatch, chipping their claws as some sort of strange penance. At the end of the day, Darion was a client and they were a navigator; if they took their goods, they must deliver their contract. The choice was simple, and if they didn't like it, they'd have to return the goods. They intended to do exactly that.

Aldari rounded the corner, blast doors creaking open as they leapt through the gap, waving the dataslate in their hand in their eagerness to dispose of it. But it all happened quite fast. A flash of pale skin, a naked muzzle, a sharp crack behind the ears.

It wasn't quite how Aldari planned to see the stars.

***

When they came to, there were bars in front of them. Their eyelids twitched. They were lying in a puddle on the floor. Slowly their thoughts coalesced. Eventually they gained enough faculty to slide up their back up against the cell wall, panting heavily.

Ow.

What a bright idea this was! The risk didn't justify whatever payoff.

You were meant to be the most talented navigator of your gene-template. You passed all their physics and mathematics exams with flying colours. You were the first student in years to not lose a single point on the flight simulation.

And here they were, beaten half silly by some inbred thugs who probably couldn't calculate their precise coordinates to two decimal places.

Half whining, half groaning, they pulled themselves onto all fours and padded towards the bars. The feral posture was demeaning, but it was stable enough to allow a proper inspection. Thankfully they weren't tungsten bars, and appeared to have no current or stasis field to back them up. After one to two applications of moderate force Aldari figured the bars would shear.

Eeee.

Eeeeech.

Kreeech!

The bar sheared off after their third pull. So maybe it was three. They ducked through the opening, clutching the steel rod in their paws. The corridor was dimly lit, lined with cell after cell before leading up to a narrow flight of stairs.

"What was that racket?" A voice came from up the stairs ahead.

"Probably another asteroid impact from the ring. Careless miners stirring up shit."

"One of you, go take a look."

"Who cares? There's only deadbeats down there."

"I don't want to be in this section if the hull blows out. Karimiav! You're losing - go check the bloody plating!"

Aldari took a deep breath, darting around the corner before the stairs. The footsteps got closer. Paws tightened on the makeshift club. You're a navigator. A mathematician. Not a -

Aldari closed their eyes and swung their arms. Peeking open, they saw a sweaty mop of brown hair tumbled down the floor.

"Swing and a miss," Darion dryly whispered, appearing from the shadows behind Darion and pulling the guard's pistol from his holster.

"Come on Karimiav! We'll plug those bitches later, it's your hand now!" The shout was followed by some crude drunken jeers, drowned out by table thumping. Without letting the opportunity slip, Darion leapt up the stairs, weapon raised. This time the bodies fell loudly to the floor.

When Aldari reached the top of the stairs, Darion was already rifling through the men's pockets. Darion shrugged, wiping a stray speck of blood off their muzzle.

"You know this would've been much easier if you stayed on your ship," Darion sighed.

"Me?! It would have been easier if you had told me the truth first!" Aldari's following growl said worse. Aldari closed their eyes, taking a deep breath, trying not to push the smell of blood out of their mind; trying to imagine something other than the twitching bodies. "Maybe if you tell me the truth, I'll get off this hive in one piece," they hissed.

"We, you mean," Darion corrected, rolling one of the bodies off a pulse rifle.

"It's not my job to bail you out of your own mess - again!" Aldari swung their thick tail about, reaching into their pockets for the dataslate, only to find lying in the middle of the table in a mound of poker chips. Aldari snatched it, showering the floor with chips as they thrust it back into Darion's paws.

"Fine," Darion snapped, shoving the dataslate back into Aldari's paws, clutching their muzzle shut. "Sebastian controls all the things that make existence bearable here - booze, drugs, you name it. He doesn't like any competition, and when he found out about what's on my dataslate, I became competition." They released Aldari's muzzle. Darion went back to undertaking, pulling out a couple of hidden wads of cash for their efforts.

"What?" They couldn't believe it. After everything - Darion's promises, the offer of a job that would let Aldari rebuild their life - Darion still lied to them? Aldari snapped, pinning their kin against the wall, snaking their tail around Darion's chest. They started to squeeze. Hard. And the harder they did, the better it felt.

Darion muttered something that made their ears burn, but Aldari was too furious to hear it. Instead of saying anything, Darion leaned forward and kissed them on the lips, their tongue tickling as it probed against Aldari's sealed lips.

Aldari faltered, closing their eyes. It had been so long. Lonely. Quiet. And then Darion popped back into their life, only to...

"Hey," Darion wheezed, smiling sheepishly. "I only lied because I didn't want to hurt you again. I'm not lying. If I can get off this station with my dataslate, I'll make sure you get a share of the profits." They half-laughed, half-gasped, shaking their head.

"You'd better," Aldari sighed. It wasn't like they had much of a choice anymore. "If you had told me, I wouldn't have waved the dataslate around," Aldari snapped, releasing them.

"Yeah, well... sorry." Darion cast a final look around the room. "Come on," they shrugged, gesturing to the adjacent hatch door open. "They'll notice this lot soon enough."

Aldari followed, but their mind was preoccupied. Perhaps that kiss was nothing. The thought was short-lived.

Two pulse rounds raced overhead, the charge from the projectiles making their fur stand on end. "Darion!" Sebastian thundered, voice booming down the corridor. "Don't you think you can get one over me!" The shots crashed into the wall behind them, sending webs of arcing current into the walls. The lights cut out, replaced by red emergency lighting.

"This way!" Darion hissed, pulling Aldari around a corner, unleashing a salvo of crackling purple energy from their own rifle. It was a dead end.

"They're shooting at us." Aldari blinked rapidly, pupils contracting to pinpoints. "Actually - shooting," Aldari whispered, paws shaking as they clutched their knees. No one had ever tried to kill them.

Darion growled, firing another burst - this time a brace of blue spheres that screeched hatefully through the air. "Get that hatch open!" Darion snapped, pointing. A flash of red light briefly illuminated a maintenance intake in the wall, easily missed in the darkness.

"You've made a serious miscalculation," Aldari snapped, darting over to the panel. Half the LEDs on the panel were fried, leaving only a large red handle that refused to budge.

"Just get on with it!" Darion fell to the floor just as a bolt of red energy vaporised the chunk of metal where their head had been. Another salvo pounded their cover, showering them with debris. Adrenaline narrowed Aldari's perspective. Their paws shook. They couldn't think. Snarling, they punched the control panel and pulled at the edges of the maintenance hatch, but it refused to yield.

"Here. Reload the clip!" Darion shouted, tossing them the smoking pulse rifle and drawing their pistol, spamming the corridor with suppressing fire. Aldari fumbled. They'd never held a gun, let alone reloaded one.

Another incoming salvo slammed against the wall, filling the air with the scent of scorched metal. Aldari spat, tasting it on their tongue.

"Ah, give it here!" Darion snapped, pulling the rifle from them. The spent magazine clattered to the floor as their paws smoothly replaced the clip. Snarling, Darion flicked a switch on the rifle. The barrel flexed then contracted, turning a shimmering blue, charging up before spewing a great pulse of energy. It coalesced into a sphere, lighting up the corridor through the air. Then it bounced around the corner and detonated with a flash. Without even warning, Darion turned their rifle to the maintenance hatch and fired.

When the dust settled, there was only a smouldering hole. Darion muttered something encouraging, brushing the fine shards of metal and dust from Aldari's fur.

"Come on."

It was dark inside the maintenance tunnel. A deep, luminous blue arced through the spider-work of cables, pulsing with energy.

"This way," Darion growled, flicking their tail-tip in front of Aldari's muzzle, guiding them through the near-darkness. Eventually, they came to a small alcove cut away from all the pipes and wires, illuminated by the flow of an old filament bulb. It was filled with survival gear, food rations, magazines, energy packs, batteries, even-

"Is that a propane lamp? Are you insane?" Aldari whispered, as though the very sound would cause it to ignite.

"It's perfectly safe," Darion sighed, flicking the gas, listening to its gentle hiss as it burned. It filled the area with a rich, golden light that was in some way comforting.

"So... what's the plan?" Aldari grumbled, begrudging an actual apology. There was no way Aldari would've gotten out of that fire fight. They both knew it.

Darion sighed, pulling out a console from their backpack. It projected a hologram of the entire station. Maintenance and ventilation shafts were highlighted in orange, and two blue dots marked their position.

It only took a moment for Aldari to figure it out.

"The maintenance tunnels will take us past the Commons, exiting directly under the hangar bay. It'll be busy, full of miners gearing up for the next rotation on the ring."

Aldari paused to think about it.

"And the docking clamps on my ship?"

"A couple of plasma rounds to each and you'll pull your way out with a blast of your engines."

"That could compromise the hull plating. We'll need all the integrity to get past any stray debris from the ring. I have a better idea," Aldari paused, holding up the archaic wrist console. This time the Intelligence did turn on and the pixelated wolf's grin seemed to say enough.

"Just give me five minutes to interface with that maintenance console," Aldari finished, pointing underneath the hanger.

***

Aldari couldn't decide what was worse; the fire fight, the propane lamp, or the fact they found both so exciting. They thought about it as they climbed and crawled in silence the narrow tunnels, fur slick with grease and tar which helped squeeze through further tight spots. Perhaps it was time to consider raising the oxygen content in the ship's atmosphere.

"You ready?" Darion whispered, pausing below the hatch to the hanger bay.

"Let me ask it." Aldari nodded, typing a quick message into the Intelligence's console.

> A station's circuitry all to myself? Of course I'll uphold our bargain.

Unequivocal enough. The hatch lifted with a gentle groan. The docking hanger was crowded, all manner of dusty and bloodied miners and anaemics going about their pre-flight checks, ready to rotate out on another mining tour. Some were hybrids, bulky and equid in nature, but most were humans. They all were too busy with their own tasks to bat an eyelid at two oily bodies popping out the floor.

At halfway to Voyager heads started to turn. At three quarters home, a warning shot arced down from the loading gantry above the hangar bays, landing square at Aldari's feet. A few stray specks of plasma bounced off the floor, hissing as they fizzled themselves out of existence.

"Where do you think you're going?" A voice called from the docking gantry above. "You think I'd let my navigator ditch their operation when I can catch two?" Sebastian laughed, swinging the rifle about from the hip.

It was a blur. Bright bolts of light. Bodies diving in all directions. A heavy beating heart. Shouts and cries. The scent of fear and burning metal. The hatch was there; twenty metres. Ten. Five. Aldari slammed their paw against the hatch, darting up the ladder, banging their head, scraping their arms, catching their knees. And then scrambling at the helm's consoles, eyes darting - powering up the engines, no calculations, no destinations. Anywhere, anyway, but away from here.

Voyager rocked as the landing clamps held them in place, bright light flashing either side as the engines burned in vain.

Aldari tapped their console, waking the Intelligence.

> What's taking you so long!?

They couldn't be sure, it didn't even acknowledge the words. It was just thinking. Thinking. Thinking. Meanwhile, their little fuel was draining. Draining. Draining.

Darion scrambled onto Voyager's bridge, panting heavily as they tried to suck in as much oxygen as possible.

"What the hell are you waiting for?" Darion snapped about, shaking Aldari's seat.

The docking clamps released.

Darion flew back, smacking against the wall like a wet pancake as Voyager shot ahead. The entire ship shook, rattled, and rolled as the auxiliary clamps were ripped away, showing the hanger bay with debris. In a second a bright orange flame burst out of the Ring, fading as Voyager sped ahead. Then the station was plunged back into darkness.

Aldari cut the engines as soon as they stabilised Voyager's trajectory, hoping to keep them as far from the ring as possible. Half a tank of fuel remained.

Not great, but not terrible either.

> Before you think I made things personal, I wasn't alone on the station. Funnily enough, criminals running illegal asteroid mining operations tend to fight fire with fire, and I focused on getting you out in one piece. You've got company.

> How many?

> Three. Two warp factor 4's, one warp factor 2.

Aldari shook their head. Voyager's G8-75 drive had a warp factor of 3. They could outrun the other two, but the other one outclassed them. Even Darion could see that.

"Sebastian," Darion growled, watching the scopes. "Take them into the Ring." Darion stared at Aldari with the intensity of a true believer.

"I can't!" Aldari hissed.

Darion snorted, smiling and shaking their head. "You're the best navigator in the solar! Sebastian burnt out their synapses sampling their merchandise long ago."

"I can't!" Aldari shouted, emptying their lungs. "Not anymore."

Darion hissed, biting their lip hard enough that it bled.

"What happened to you? You used to be the confident, cocky one that put me to shame! You never doubted yourself, and you never got anything wrong? What happened?"

Aldari whispered something, refusing to look at Darion, which said enough. Aldari was the one who'd got the coordinates wrong, calculated an incorrect flight path, and caused the crash. All because they were too busy carelessly fucking Darion.

"Mistakes happen. But we got past that, I think," Darion sighed. "Look." They brought up the Ring on the holographic display. Darion pulled Aldari up from their seat and guided them through the projection. They swayed, shifted, and skirted through the details until they came to a halt, holding each other close in a pocket of shadow. "If it really isn't possible to lose them in the Ring, you're the only one who'll know."

Aldari said nothing, but their eyes were open, staring, darting, focusing, contracting.

"It's not." Aldari said plainly. "But you're approaching this the wrong way." They sighed, a hollow laugh forming on their lips. They darted back to the controls, slamming buttons and throwing dials. A flight path started to take shape on the map. "You think we've got to go through the Ring, but we just need to convince them that's what we'll do."

Aldari grinned at the flight path, a narrow, shallow dive through the top layer of the Ring, narrowly avoiding a lump of rock that would intercept their path. Sebastian, pursuing them at warp factor 2, wouldn't be able to pull out from the collision in time.

Voyager turned towards the asteroid belt and fired its engines.

Inside the Ring, the sense of speed came rushing back. Dim, barely lit pieces of rock whizzed past, emerging from the darkness as if it spawned just to spite them. The finer debris pinged against the plating like heavy rain.

One wayward engine burst.

One rounding error.

One rogue bit of rock.

They swallowed, watching the proximity scans nervously. Three dots maintained their pursuit. Asteroid after asteroid passed. Three dots. The rain grew heavier. Three dots.

They fired the engines again and pulled into clear space.

Behind them, an energetic burst of light reflected among the ring's crystals, the light cascading until almost every speck of the ring shone like a soft halo. Even though it was impossible to hear a sound in space, the blood in their ears rumbled as if they felt those explosions.

Aldari felt a weird tug at the corners of their muzzle. They were finally smiling like they used to.

***

Aldari stood alone, back on Voyager's helm, staring out into the darkness. Quietly, they spun a dial, dimming the lights of the bridge to barely a glow. As their eyes adjusted specks of light started to appear, but it wasn't the stars they were looking at, but the faint lights on the planet's surface below.

They took a deep, oxygen rich breath.

Aldari didn't feel ready yet. Their hand hovered over the console, trying to think. They weren't sure what message they wanted to send Darion. Despite everything, the last couple of days had made them feel...

They deleted the draft. Best left unsaid.

Aldari sighed, pacing about. Their meandering, unplanned route pulled them out of the bridge, down through the empty cargo hold, still backlit by crimson lights. Darion had chosen to take one of the pods down to the surface to get supplies for repair, maybe even a direct fuel exchange from a friendly ship in orbit. At the time they hadn't envied Darion, but now the hull's tungsten beams caught the light like grotesque ribs. They realised they'd been swallowed by their ship for such a long time.

Drifting about the cargo hold, they bumped against the mass fabricator, still flashing and warm from Darion's use. They'd been keen to use it before visiting the station, but coy about why.

Dammit.

The rogue hadn't even had the courtesy to clear the nozzles from their first batch of 'samples', or whatever scam they were calling it. Darion hadn't even told them what was so precious about that damn dataslate; just a laugh and the reassurance that it'd pay their way.

"After all, Seb was furious I'd made a better product to peddle to people's vices," Darion had said.

Sighing, Aldari punched in the commands to clear the nozzle, grunting as a few black globules of silicone dripped onto the floor. A line of green script flashed across the fabricator's display.

>Printing: item 31 of 31.

Aldari's claw hovered over the cancellation button, but they let the order stand. They were quite content to find out what Darion was up to. The text, after all, made for interesting reading.

>Sculpt complete, testing matrix reactivity. Passed.

>Diagnosing thermosensitivity. Complete.

>Initialising chipsettings. Operational.

Aldari's paws trembled slightly as they opened the door. The sex toy was thick, heavy, and swollen. But not for long, the bulbous knot seemed to react to Aldari's heavy breathing, becoming smoother, tapered - ceasing to shift only once the edge disappeared from the hybrid's breath. Of all the things Aldari thought Darion was up to, it wasn't a 'smart' sex toy.

Aldari grabbed their prize and headed to the bridge, laughing softly. They couldn't wait to tease Darion about this! They threw themselves into the helm's chair, prodding it inquisitively. They tested out the functions as they waited, feeling the toy wax between hot and cold, swollen or slight. Each new setting built their excitement, tempting Aldari to drop their pants right there. After all, Darion still hadn't given them their payment, so it wasn't a breach of conduct.

Aldari decided to blame the high oxygen content in Voyager's atmosphere. They took a deep breath as they shed their clothes, feeling that forgotten pleasure leak from between their legs and cock. Growling in satisfaction, the smart material took the queue to change again, transforming into a girthy knot. It pulsed gently like an excited lover, warm to the touch, moderating itself for optimum pleasure, but that wasn't quite what Aldari wanted. Their own knot popped free between their legs, wet tip poking their stomach whenever they hunched over to find a good angle to play with themselves.

They sighed, frustrated. Fine. I'll take care of you first then.

Aldari set the toy down on their chest, grabbing their knot with both hands and squeezing tightly. But as they attended their cock, the toy changed again, morphing its shape until it was no longer a dildo, but a plump, inviting entrance to bury themselves into.

Aldari growled in satisfaction. That was clever.

But they didn't think about it any longer. Tail twitching, they lined the fleshlight against their tip, biting their lip as it puckered, eager to take them. Aldari surrendered, squirming as those wonderful lips kissed and pulled their knot inside. It was a perfect fit. Not too big, not too small. Neither tight nor loose, but so silky and so slippery. They shivered, pausing, contemplating their ragged breath. Aldari lay back, grinding their teeth, watching the planet's swirling atmosphere as their sensitive body slowly leaked onto the floor.

Aldari remembered their own question; whether this adventure was the worst, or second worst they'd ever flown?

"Definitely the worst." They grinned, body barely able to resist as it began to milk them, clenching slowly. Aldari closed their eyes, sighing as the toy set about unwinding years of frustration.

Despite the past, Darion had made up for it.