FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

As with most children, he enjoyed playing many typical childhood games when he was a boy. However, there was a certain game that interested him more than any other. Everyday before going out onto the playground, he would steal a spoon from the cafeteria, having of course already lost the spoon from the day before. Once outside, the young dragon would scale the playset, making it to the top of one of the two plastic and metal towers. He would then use the spoon to cover up the sun, making only the Suncrown visible. Most people didn't even pay attention to the shifting and brilliant colors of where the sun struck the Volitch. But he did, and aside from occasional classmates pulling on his tail, he was allowed to sit and watch.

"Look Mister... uh..." the fox hesitated, clearly afraid of stumbling over his last name. "Alharezi," the dragon said, demonstrating the pronunciation. "Alhazeri," the fox repeated back with a nod, "Mr. Alhazeri, I promise you that our lab is very well sealed. And our security is extremely high. There is no danger of any of these chemicals getting out. There is no possible environmental side-effect." Joabin Alhazeri shook his head, "I'm not talking about leaks or side-effects Ms. Smith, I'm talking about what you're going to do with this research afterwards. You're a company, and I'm worried about what these chemicals could be doing to give you a profit." She thought for a second. Joabin examined the marble table. Eventually, she resumed speaking, "Mr. Alharezi, I am going to speak frankly to you. There are dozens of researchers that could do this job. And we are contacting you because you are the best. I know that finding a job is difficult for you due to the, well the situation. But that is something out of your control, and we understand that, and so we are giving you this opportunity. We really want you to take this. I want you to take this."

His brother was proud and his mother was not. "You shouldn't have said yes, you can't trust those greedy bastards," despite her age, the older woman still had force and grit that was undeniable. His brother laughed, "So that way he could work where exactly?"

"So that way he could work here. In the neighborhood. Helping out the community like everyone else."

"I'm not everyone else, and neither is Joabin. Especially Joabin. He's got a future out there, it's good that he's going and taking it."

"One day when he can work at a university contributing to knowledge he can get the future. Or he could go to the nearest temple and help the scholars there further their knowledge of God's world. No companies, working for one of them is not a future."

"Mom, no matter how much you argue about it, working for a company is a future here. It's the way this country works, just because you don't like it doesn't mean that's not the way it is. Besides, he's still contributing to knowledge, he's just getting paid a lot to do it." At this last remark, he gave Joabin a playful shove. His brother grabbed a glass of wine from the old oak table, and left the room. Joabin sighed, this was not a conversation he wanted to have. He started to open his mouth, but then closed it again. He wasn't exactly sure how to word his thoughts. Just saying, "the money is worth it," would sound cheap, but he also couldn't lie to her and to himself by saying he was purely motivated by the pursuit of knowledge. While he stood there and mulled over the best way to phrase his arguments, his mother left the room as well. The scholar turned employee was left alone.

He didn't expect Ms. Smith to be there when he showed up for his first week on the job. But there she was when he walked in, sitting in the lobby with a few new faces. One of them was a coyote, she couldn't have been out of college for more than a year, who visibly shied back when she saw him. Another was a wolf, who was so engrossed in his crossword puzzle that he didn't even bother looking up to see who the new arrival was. The third and final person was a raven, who was currently engaged in an animated conversation with Ms. Smith. He was using wild hand and wing gestures to demonstrate some point about a new discovery related to either fish or pharmaceuticals. Ms. Smith attempted to announce Joabin's arrival, but the raven merely talked right over her. Finally, when the raven paused for a brief second, he introduced himself. "Hello everyone, I'm Joabin Alhazeri." The raven turned around to see what strange disembodied voice had spoken. Upon seeing Joabin, the raven happily got out of his seat, grabbed his hand, and started shaking it. Joabin backed up a little, the raven had gotten awkwardly close to him, but the raven moved to keep the same distance between them, apparently totally oblivious to the social discomfort that Joabin was feeling.

"I'm Michael, we're so happy you're here, in fact, I was just talking to Jasmine about that, isn't that right Jasmine?" Ms. Smith nodded, and then quickly talked before the raven could, "Everyone, this is Mr. Alhazeri. While I am the supervisor, he is the one who will actually be guiding you through everything." The coyote and the wolf introduced themselves, Sarah and Jacob were their names. Once all the introductions were finished, they went into the lab itself.

The pieces of Volitch always looked sad to him. He wasn't sure why. This material is what causes Suncrowns, Starcrowns, and Mooncrowns. The material that protects the world from asteroids. And yet, this incredible material becomes the most boring item in the world when it's sitting on a table. Sitting dead on a table. "These samples are all we have for the next month, the next mission to get more Volitch will be December 20th, so we need to preserve what we have until then." Jasmine explained to the group, "Now, the company has given us twelve compounds to test. We need to find as much as we can about the interaction between the chemicals and Volitch."

Even after working in the lab for seven hours Michael still acted as if he were on adderall. Surprisingly however, Joabin was fine with that. The team had gone to a local bar to celebrate their first day. Joabin wasn't sure he liked that idea seeing as none of their experiments had done anything interesting, or anything at all, but now that he was actually there the food changed his mind. He was currently situated between Sarah and Michael, which made for the very annoying event of Michael attempting to talk to her with him in the way. "Hey Joabin," a voice called from behind Michael. It was Jacob, the wolf, "are you okay with all of us getting burgers?" The dragon smiled, usually people just went ahead and chose something for him, "I like the look of this fish sandwich they have here," he said back. The wolf nodded understanding.

Everything was fine for the first two minutes after the food had arrived. "You should really try some of this," the raven said to him. "Thanks, but I really shouldn't," Joabin said. Michael was apparently not used to people disagreeing with him, "you really really should." He cut a piece of his burger off and put it on the dragon's plate. Not wanting to cause a scene, he simply ignored the intrusion onto his plate and continued eating his fish sandwich. Michael stared at him, expectantly. "Cut it out!" Sarah interjected. Joabin was surprised, the woman who had flinched away from his presence was not who he had expected to be his savior. "Michael, he's a Polalist you know he can't have those things." The raven nodded, "That's exactly why he needs to 'have those things,' he needs to experience what he's missing." Joabin surprised himself by getting angry, "I don't want to try it, that's my choice not to." Michael seemed to buy that argument, and returned to his own meal.

He wasn't sure why, but when he got home he told his brother. He should've predicted the answer he got, "Marcus, or Michael, or whatever his name is was right. Polal gives us some good general ideas on how to live our lives, but a lot of it is outdated. We need to follow the parts that are relevant and make sense." Joabin nodded, but then added, "I was surprised I got angry, why was I surprised? Of course I got angry, he was trying to force me to change something that is a big part of me. So why was I surprised?" His brother merely shrugged, "maybe it's not as big a part of you as you thought."

After a few weeks of trying different chemicals on the Volitch, Jasmine had an announcement to make. "We are going to be attempting to create our own chemical," the fox explained, "the goal is to create something that can dissolve Volitch." There was dead silence in the room. "Why?" Michael said the word with such ferocity that Joabin jumped. In response, she left the room. She came back holding a snow globe in her paw. She set it on the table. "We are this snowglobe," she explained, "the Volitch is a full sphere which surrounds our entire planet. This means that we cannot leave it. Ever. Unless of course, we find a way to get through it. If we can create something that dissolves Volitch, we can make a hole in it. A hole big enough to get out through. Throughout history we have always looked up at the stars, and it's time we went out and got them." This explanation was apparently not good enough for Michael, who immediately stormed out. The rest of the employees stood there in silence.

Michael did not come in the next day. Everyone else did. Joabin, Jacob, and Sarah set about their task, and Jasmine set about supplying them with all of the resources they needed to make a hole in the Volitch.

His mother was absolutely not happy when he told her what he was doing at the lab. "I don't believe this Joabin, I simply do not. Working at a company instead of a temple was bad enough. But working to destroy God's creation rather than understand it? I do not know what to say." Joabin didn't know what to say either, but finally he spoke, "this just feels like what I have to do here. I still love where we came from and I still want to respect everything that comes with that, but I also have to embrace life here as well. I have to... uh..." he struggled to find the right way to phrase it, "I have to find a balance, that's it. Balance." She clearly didn't agree, as she flicked her tail in annoyance.

It was the idea of balance that solved the problem. The team had currently been experimenting with acids, hoping that these would break down the Volitch. However, with the idea of balance in his head, he realized that maybe bases would be corrosive to Volitch, instead of acids. They began their tests. Most bases did nothing, however, some had some minimal corrosive effect on the Volitch. They were finally on the right track.

"Sarah!" He called to her in the parking lot after work. "Yes?" The coyote stopped and turned to face him. "I just want to say thank you, about the bar with Michael a few weeks back." She stood there, obviously trying to remember. "When he tried to make me eat a burger?" Her face lit up with understanding, "Oh! That! That was no problem at all, you're welcome Joabin." She smiled, and then walked the rest of the way to her car.

"What's the big deal?" his brother asked, "so what if she's not a dragon, you can still ask her out!" Joabin put his head in his hands, "I just feel like this is another rule I'm breaking. You may be fine throwing tradition to the wind, but I'm not." His brother smiled, "well with joining the company you're well on your way to becoming a rule-breaker like me." He gave Joabin a playful shove. Joabin didn't like that idea. Rule-breaker.

Sarah and Joabin started working together more closely. It was at this point a few weeks since the discovery of what bases did to Volitch. The two of them had both designed chemicals which they thought would have a good corrosive effect, and both had not. Seeing this, they then had started to try and combine their two chemicals into one. They were currently creating their third attempted combo of the chemicals. "I think I should be more like Michael," Joabin thought aloud. "More like Michael? Why?"

"Well, you know, he says what he thinks and acts on what he thinks. He thought I should have some burger so he gave me some. He thought trying to make a hole in the Volitch was wrong so he stormed out. He didn't just think about stuff like I do, he actually acted on what he believes. Plus, he actually knows what he believes, which again, isn't like what I do."

She stood there silently, contemplating this. Finally, she spoke, "I don't think there is anything wrong with being cautious and thinking things through. Like when he tried to make you go against your beliefs, he acted without thinking and it ended up being bad. Thinking through things is a strength, since once you decide what you believe, you'll know you considered everything." He nodded, "if I ever do decide what I believe."

"Why do you still believe in everything so strongly?" It was another family meal, his brother was currently on his way back with food, leaving Joabin and his mom to talk. She responded to his question right away, "Because it helps me with my life. I have my own opinions on things of course, but following these traditions makes me feel closer to my community, and I know I can depend on my community. I know that they will support me when I have to make tough decisions."

"Sarah? Is this what we really should be doing?" She laughed, "What do you mean is this what we should be doing?"

"Well, you've seen Suncrowns before right? Well of course you have, everyone has, but have you really looked at them? Have you looked at the way all of the colors move as the sunlight gets filtered through the Volitch? If we make a hole in the Volitch, what will it look like when the sun passes over that hole? It will just be a bright yellow, like a lightbulb. Like an artificial lightbulb instead of a natural star."

"Well, it may not look as pretty as before but it's not that bad. It's just one hole, one whole in the Volitch to get us to the stars. So we can keep developing."

He nodded, "Developing. If we are going to focus on development then it won't end and just one hole in the Volitch. Other countries will make their own."

She grabbed his hand, "Just imagine it Joabin, one day there might not even be any Volitch at all, we'd be totally free to leave the planet whenever we want. And free to visit all the other planets in the solar system. We could develop the entire solar system with that kind of freedom."

"Yeah, we could develop it all. But what would we be giving up for development? We'd be giving up this beautiful thing that's always protected our planet."

They solved it. They created a substance that could dissolve Volitch. They had changed history in that lab.

Chapter 9: Atmosphere Changes

In our ninth chapter covering the advent of the Space Age, we will be covering the impact on the atmosphere that the dissolving of the Volitch layer of the atmosphere had. The destruction of the Volitch led to unintended consequences in the chemical makeup of the atmosphere, for two reasons. The first, is the chemical SaJo, invented in 1989, which was sprayed into the air in mass quantities. Despite originally being determined that the chemical did not pose any adverse effects to life, this of course was disproved, as eventually it was discovered to be a carcinogen. The second impact was of course the high levels of carbon monoxide released when the Volitch layer dissolved, which devastated flora and fauna across the globe. This chapter will focus on how international bodies as well as different states across the world attempted to deal with the SaJo and Carbon Monoxide crisis of the 21st century.