FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Aidan Richards was poised to vomit the remnants of his ill-tasting meal ration all over the shuttle's floor as the vast expanse of three-dimensional space-time was furled and unfurled before his eyes at relativistic speeds. Sweat beaded down his brow, only to inexplicably fall upwards to the ceiling after crossing an indeterminate threshold upon his skin. Color had seeped away from his face and knuckles, holding onto the seat's restraints for dear life, after Einstein's sickness had set in at the beginning of his journey. The craft jerked slightly, yet he felt his entire body tossed several feet in the air despite never leaving his seat.

"You probably have the worst case of Einstein's sickness I've seen in a first-timer," a voice called out to him from the cockpit. "Are you sure you'll make it?"

Drowning in his suffering, Aidan had nearly forgotten his only companion on this extradimensional ferry ride through hell—the pilot. The pilot's head was planted firmly forward, his gaze centered on the navigational instruments vital in ensuring that they didn't find themselves racing headlong into the center of a star or, worse, ramming into another vessel in hyperspace and being reduced to a quark-gluon plasma, as his helmet filtered the spatial terrain before him into something an intelligent, three-dimensional being could process.

"I...I'll be fine," his lunch caught in his throat before he could say more, his hands reflexively moving to cover his mouth.

"Crap, shouldn't have asked; it's better if you don't speak, given your condition. I just got concerned since your vitals were all over the place."

The lump of half-digested food in Aidan's throat subsided gradually as the minutes passed, but he knew better than to speak another word until after landing. At this point, he was thankful to have a conversation to take his mind off the ordeal, even if it would be one-sided. The pilot had remained steadfastly taciturn for the overwhelming majority of the voyage, much to Aidan's detriment; even when they first met at the shuttle station, he introduced himself with a growl, a grumble, and nothing more. The only thing Aidan knew for sure was that the pilot was a rather tall and handsome Lupan male, a race of xenos resembling anthropomorphic canines.

Before disembarking, Aidan had made efforts to stealthily steal glances at the pilot, admiring the luster and fluffiness of his onyx and crimson coat. Despite the baggy cut of the standard flight suit, anyone could determine that the pilot undertook great efforts to maintain his physique—his muscles filling in the flight suit in all the right areas, enough to titillate and inspire awe. Aidan had never seen a xenos before entering the shuttle station, and he had never dreamed one could be this attractive. His trousers tightened as his mind drifted to what the pilot was hiding, not just underneath his flight suit, but between his legs. Warmth flooded Aidan's face and washed over his lower half as blood flowed to his crotch; he only hoped that the ship's sensors had not read his arousal.

"Wait, what kind of cocks do Lupans have? Do they look human or...? I've never seen a xenos cock before and now...No, no, get it together. I don't need the ship reading that I have a raging boner right now...I'll just look it up on my Slipnet terminal later and..." Aidan's thoughts trailed off.

"I know it hasn't been an easy ride for you," the pilot's voice snapped him from his lust-fueled ponderings. "But don't worry, we're almost to the Epsilon sector of the Perseus Arm. You're kind of lucky for a short jaunt of 2.3 kiloparsecs to be your first hyperspace jump. Other first-timers usually have it rougher."

Aidan's stomach lurched at the revelation, and he began to curse whatever deity was responsible for the abomination named hyperspace travel.

"If this is what easy looks like, I hate to see it when it's rough. If the position hadn't been lucrative, I never would have left the Core Worlds. Just think of the money, think of the money..."

His stomach settled somewhat at the prospect of his first paycheck from his new job, a welcome development quickly undone by another jolt of the shuttle. All the dracs in the universe were meaningless if he failed to survive this hyperspace jump—a sobering thought, to be certain. For the remainder of the voyage, Aidan focused on the unremarkable metal floor paneling, biding his time before the nightmare was over.

Countless moments stretched onwards into hours lost trying not to feel as though every molecule in his body was disassociating from one another. The pilot had become somewhat more talkative as they neared their penultimate destination, offering idle chit-chat here and there to ease some of Aidan's discomfort, even going so far as to give his name: Connor.

"Connor? Really?" Aidan managed to force a wry smile upon his pained face. "I was expecting something a bit more...exotic."

Aidan quickly realized how his statement could be misconstrued. Connor's tail swished slightly in the opening of his chair.

"Sorry, I hope I didn't offend. It's my first time leaving the Core Worlds, and I don't know much about xenos, so..." Aidan's voice trailed off.

"Oh, right, you're a Core Worlder. You're good, dude," Connor chuckled, before continuing. "Lupans have three names: a pup name, which we lose when we get older, a true name, and a government name for Imperial citizenship and paperwork. Connor just happens to be my government name, that's all. Lots of xenos cultures under Imperial rule do something similar."

"Huh, I guess that makes sense. In school, all the instructors always preached how the empire had made great strides in being accepting of the different xenos cultures under its banner, but I didn't know it went that far...I wonder what Lupan culture is like...how they mate...."

"Nice, we're here! Brace for dimensional shift back to regular space," Connor interjected, his hands moving to make last-minute adjustments on the hard light control panel.

The vast expanse of three-dimensional space-time no longer raced past the windows of the craft at relativistic speeds, contracting and expanding as they went, instead now moving at a comparable snail's pace. The relief was immediate: the ache and nausea lifted the moment the shuttle had shifted back to nominal space-time. Aidan's hands were finally granted the respite they deserved, releasing their iron grip upon the seat's restraints.

Splat. Cursing. All the sweat that had fallen upward and pooled on the ceiling had unfortunately made its way back down onto Aidan's head, washing away any lust he felt in that moment. Aidan was certain he heard Connor begin to chuckle, but quickly stopped after he had shot the Lupan a fierce glare.

Aidan undid his restraints and leapt from his seat in a bid to strangle the Lupan for not warning him about the strange fluid physics of hyperspace, but was stunned by the view from the shuttle windows. The exotic, unnerving view of hyperspace was instead replaced with a beautiful, bluish-green planet visible from the windows across from his seat, their ultimate destination—Eidos I, a Terran-like exoplanet home to an Imperial research base and his future home for the next few months. Their penultimate destination rested in a stable geosynchronous orbit above Eidos I, flanked by an entire fleet of Imperial warships.

"Now that you've finally got your hyperspace wings, welcome to the Imperial flagship, Damocles," Connor mock-announced, stifling a chuckle.

Aidan glued himself to the window, eyes wide and glimmering with sheer awe. The Damocles—a supercarrier-class starship boasting a crew count of over thirty thousand, including military and civilian personnel— was_ the _crown jewel of the Persean Sector Imperial Armada, and arguably the most accomplished vessel in the entire Imperial star fleet. Numerous, smaller destroyer and frigate-class starships surrounded it, each of them proudly bearing the Imperial coat of arms: the head of a lion engulfing a star. He had spent countless hours poring over technical manuals, maintenance journals, schematics, and more in almost religious fervor for years, all of it leading up to this very moment, all of it finally paying off.

While Aidan gawked away in a state of religious ecstasy available only to the mechanically inclined, Connor answered a hail from the Damocles and received permission to land in the designated hangar bay. Aidan had barely noticed that they were now inside the massive ship he had been marveling at, awoken from his trance by a soft paw on his shoulder.

"Earth to Aidan, this is your stop," Connor's voice pulling his attention further away from the window.

He was close. Far too close. The light coating of sweat that permeated his fur wafted to Aidan's nose. He felt the weight of Connor's presence beside him; it was hard to hide: Connor was a handsome slab of prime meat and fur after all. And those damnedly beautiful scarlet eyes. Aidan knew he was finished if he turned his head to the side. He was bound to faint! His hair stood on end, his heart pounded out of sync, and heat exploded asymmetrically across his body. Words seemed foreign to him now.

"You alright? You seemed better after we left hyperspace, but maybe," Connor raised his paw and placed it on Aidan's forehead.

Aidan's body jerked back, but the massive paw still found purchase. It lingered there for a moment before dropping.

"Maybe you should go to the med-bay before you hit the personnel office. Looks like it took a lot out of you."

"Y..yeah, you're right. I'll do that, thanks," he managed to croak out, desperately fighting to hide his attraction to the oblivious Lupan.

"Good," Connor brought his paw to his muzzle and lapped at the sweat on his fingers. "And while you do that, I'll be taking a smoke break. I'll be here waiting for you when you get back."

Connor didn't think twice about this lewd action, instead pushing past Aidan towards the exit, already fumbling with his flight suit to grab his pack of smokes as he stepped off. Aidan was left there alone, horny and confused, but ultimately thankful for the privacy. He used the time alone to let the swelling in his crotch subside somewhat before he finally stepped off the shuttle and into the beginning of his new life.

The hangar bay was a veritable activity hub: soldiers boarding corvette-class fighters for routine sector patrol missions, civilian contractors chatting with their military counterparts, merchants arguing with quartermaster personnel over clerical discrepancies, soldiers making great pains to hide out from their superior officers, and much more. The noise of all this commotion felt more like a palpable force acting upon his ears than it did mere ambience to the scenes before him.

He stood there as others brushed past him, apologizing or not, while he short-circuited. A new problem had presented itself.

That damn Lupan never told me where either of those places were and I really don't want to bother these military guys...I'll just pick a direction and start walking. If or when someone tells me I can't go that way, I can just explain and ask for directions.

His plan of action was set, and he moved to execute it. He took his true first steps into the unknown.