FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Herbert could remember his earlier days, at least partly. He was standing in the garden of a beautiful villa in a neat suburb, complete with white fences. Many other villas were to the right, the left and across the street except for a playground that occupied one space. In the far distance, downtown skyscrapers stretched upwards. In another direction, a forest covered mountain could be seen. Herbert himself was wearing a tracksuit, perfect for a cloudless sunny day like this. Slowly, he walked toward the fence of what was supposedly his villa. Cars occasionally hummed past his house. He leaned his elbow on the fence, and held up in front of him a book he carried in the other hand. It was a Discworld book. He smiled, thinking of the hammock in the back garden and planned methodically to sit in the hammock and read the book. Then I'll take the bicycle, go downtown, meet friends, he thought. Lifting his head, he brought a final glance to his surroundings.

What he saw was different, and struck him as horrifying. Suddenly, it was Armageddon. One villa was rubble, nothing more. The others were burning or smoking. The city was producing huge clouds of smoke out of the skyscrapers, like the World Trade Center just before it collapsed. The sun still smiled, as if it was laughing. The forest was burning too, and was down to ashes. Distant bullet smattered. The worst part of the scene was the playground. Corpses, the children were corpses. Herbert felt like he was about to puke.

"What the hell happened?" he asked himself.

Suddenly, he felt someone breathing behind him. He was unsure of who it was and turned slowly. The creature became visible in the corner of his eye and Herbert let his head and body turn to face it. It looked vaguely like an angel, it had wings but also huge claws instead of hands and feet. The torso, which was at his eye level, looked like a tree trunk the way it grabbed the limbs. Herbert noticed that the angel was positively three meters tall. He looked up with fear at its "face". It was a network of horns with a black hole in the center. Herbert slowly took a step back. Suddenly, the angel lifted it's claw and pierced right through Herbert's body. Herbert tried to scream, but couldn't. He saw his blood run out on the claw while he was lifted up. The angel looked at Herbert and brought him closer. The horns in the face of the angel rumbled and moved while he began to speak in a screaming voice, like fingers scratching a blackboard:

"You. You all along".

It was too much for Herbert, the angel speaking with strangely with an earshattering voice, the human simply died.

The next thing Herbert knew, he was on the sofa in Laya's familiar office, breathing heavily and a blanket was enveloping him. He was relieved it was all a dream, even if it was a cliched dream that was cruel enough to let him be impaled before waking him up. He couldn't remember how he got there though, things seemed just as fuzzy as morning the same day and only the bulky spacesuit gave any clue. Scratching his itching chin, he noticed the foundation of a beard started to grow. Two figures appeared within his view, one was a short man made of iron and the other was a huge canine figure on two legs. At the time, Herbert couldn't recall exactly what she was. A dog wasn't quite the right description, he would later re-learn what a hyena is.

"You don't remember half of anything, do you?" She said with an enormously insecure voice. Herbert was intimidated but after a few seconds, he made an answer come out of his mouth:

"No, I... I'ts empty"

"Have you tried?" "Not really. I think it gives me a headache to try. What did I do yesterday? I did something!". The hyena turned her head and looked over the sofa, speaking to Laya.

"I don't think he's faking it; amnesia. I know one keep forgetting" she said shaking her head. Laya disagreed: "It's called acting, he's trying to gain our trust".

"You were sorry for him just an hour ago 'Hellvens, I'd be crazy too'" Hayjun said shocked.

-"It's called changing your mind. He's overstayed his welcome".

Hayjun, who for some reason just believed in Herbert, had a final weapon; her job. "I'm sorry but I'm simply not working for anyone who treat sapients like this".

Laya was shocked, so shocked she started searching for place to sit before getting down in her chair behind the desk. She couldn't believe anyone would travel to another planet, then face defeating the whole purpose of the journey. She looked up at Hayjun, whose brown eyes stared into Laya's face. Hayjun was awaiting a reply to her ultimatum.

"You're badass, gotta give you that" Hayjun blushed, a gift of her kind's evolution into sentience. "You both stay, but you will help me strip him and search him"

-"Agreed, of cour..."

Interrupting, the TV lighted up. The footage showed a DVD in a bowl of salad while a voice spoke in an alien language. Laya and Hayjun met Herbert in the eye, who was looking at them. "Sorry!" he said sheepishly.

Hayjun began walking over to Herbert, not caring about the television.

"You wouldn't happen to wonder about your parrot friend, Seethis? Or the lemur, Shiri?" she asked.

Herbert scratched his head and said: "No, I'm sorry. I don't know any birds. Was there one?"

She took the opportunity to explain that Seethis had walked home and Shiri had left the room, and then added that he shouldn't use the term "bird" because it's considered offensive. Herbert felt defensive but couldn't think of anything to say except that he was sorry and thus apologized.

Hayjun waved her paw and asked: "Could you come upstairs for a minute?" Herbert felt ready to do anything, but asked:

"Why?"

-"To take a shower"

It re-struck Herbert what how important hygiene is. "'Kay, alright. It can't hurt can it?"

He looked at the stairs, then at the short iron "man". He recognized that robot! They started staring into each other's eyes.

"I want to apologize for my earlier behaviour. It was necessary, you see" the android's face blinked while behind his transparent face, machinery was moving. Herbert still took the opposite way round the sofa without saying anything and positioned himself behind Hayjun, who was unimpressed with his reaction to the robot. He then took careful steps on the stairs.

The upper level was different. While the lower level was essentially a boxy room to put furniture in, here there was a kitchen with table in one corner and two doors, one huge gate and a small wooden one to the left. A sign with a symbol covered it, and that symbol was picture of a toilet.

"Go on, inside the lavotron"

Hayjun's voice said behind Herbert. They walked inside. Hayjun had seen this kind of room hundreds of times before, but Herbert couldn't help feeling like a child. There were white tiles covering the room entirely, an half egg-shaped bathtub, a shower nozzle above the tub, a toilet, a cloth rack, a towel rack, a handwasher complete with hygiene cupboard and even a hole for dumping laundry in.

"Beautiful" Herbert's mouth slipped out.

"Me, or this room?" Hayjun jokingly replied.

"The room! Not that you're not pretty"

She laughed a hyena's laugh, and he joined in.

"Now, take off that... spacesuit of yours" she said.

Herbert felt around in it with his arms, then grabbed a glove with another and pulled an arm free of the suit. That arm popped up right next to Herbert's head, then he used it to free his other arm. Then, he tried to pull his neckhole down.

"Help me a little, please?" he said.

"Right!" Hayjun replied, helping him pull his spacesuit off. Slowly it became clear that underneath the spacesuit, Herbert wore a green jumpsuit, and were unsually gifted in the chest area for a male. When his socked feet were out of the suit, Laya's voice came from outside the room:

"Make sure you've checked his clothes"

"Yeah, yeah" answered Hayjun. "Don't you have a radio or something in this?" She checked the spacesuit thoroughly, going to the back.

"There's a small device here... it must be life support, but this thing should have had a radio. Imperial scum!" Herbert, who was sitting on the bathtub's edge, concentrating on his jumpsuit, let out a "huh!", then:

"Please! What did you say? Imperial?"

"No, I..." Hayjun was embarrassed.

"What's imperial? Imperial means empire, right?"

"Listen, if you really are the Herbert Människa and an amnesiac, it might shock you if I told you everything. You had a debacle earlier today"

-"If I'm so famous, won't I appear on TV sooner or later?" His answer made her think for a few seconds: "I'll talk with Laya and the others, we'll assemble answers for you tomorrow"

-"Please don't lie then"

-"No, I'll give you the truth... but I don't know what will happen if we tell everything at once"

Hayjun turned, carrying the spacesuit with her and walked out of the room. "You'll handle yourself now?"

-"You mean the water? I'll see if I can..."

While leaning over the tub Herbert reached for a waterproof button pad. Immediately a warm ray of water fell on him from above.

"Ick!" he leaned back, then undressed himself naked and jumped back into the tub. Hayjun closed the door. His mood changed when she disappeared, prompting him to wonder how he felt for her. It dawned on him that he might be in love with Hayjun. He thought she was wonderful, that he wanted her and how he wanted to do everything romantic with her. Soon he stopped, and sunk his head in shame. She was not the same species as him. Would it not be bestiality, bestiality that his erection told him he wanted to commit?

Laya and Hayjun carried on their conversation, hoping to respect each other more. Night was coming closer and closer, and their conversation covered topics such as dinner, going to sleep, habitation for Hayjun, habitation for Herbert and his gynecomasty that really proved it was him. Eventually, they said goodbye to each other for the day, but Hayjun did not see how heavy and shocked Laya felt while going home. She was going to crash into her bed and curse Herbert. Meanwhile, after half an hour bathing, the human took the liberty of getting up from bathing, then with childlike fascination, he threw his jumpsuit and undergarments in the laundry hole. He wondered to himself where exactly the laundry place was. Not until now did he realized that it was a stupid idea to throw away the only clothes he had. He grabbed a towel and swept it around himself. Freezing, he walked out of the bathroom and out on the upper floor, it was dark and he couldn't see a thing.

Herbert felt his worst, thinking Hayjun had stopped caring. He walked to the kitchen table, rested and himself on the floor, back to a chair.

"That bitch" he muttered to himself, crying inside. There was no way he could sleep, not by just relaxing and not by forcing his eyes shut. The nightmare he had earlier didn't help either, would he dream about that monster angel again? Suddenly, low clanks could be heard. They grew louder, and soon Rossy was there. The robot was glowing like a christmas tree and held a blanket.

"You need this" Rossy said. He presented the blanket and Herbert took it around himself.

"Thanks. That's kind of you" said Herbert. Rossy said nothing but lined up besides Herbert.

"What's your name?" Herbert asked.

-"Laya Godwinson calls me Rossy. I was made by Kalla TR-3 Factories, model Irondwarf"

-"But you're not monotone, right? You don't say 'I AM A ROBOT'?" Herbert said, trying to sound eletronic with the last words.

-"No, although you amuse me, sir Herbert"

-"But why didn't you laugh?"

-"I am incapable of doing so, but I was amused"

-"Oh" Herbert's thoughts drifted back to something earlier. "Where did... you know, the dog and the one with with the big teeth... I mean Laya go?"

-"Laya went home. Last occupation by a wolf was over a year ago. Who do mean?"

-"She had black fur and hair and, oh! She was with me in the... lavatory"

-"That is Hayjun, she is not canine, but a hyena; Crocuta Sapiens. Hyenas are related to mustelines, such as weasels"

-"Hyena? Alright, where is she?"

-"Here, sleeping"

While Hayjun was sleeping on the sofa, Herbert and Rossy came down to her sneaking. She still "felt" them entering and woke up, flicking on a light. This surprised Herbert, who stopped with a "Woah!". Hayjun touched her eyelids and said:

"Herbert, did you read the post-it on the bathroom door?"

-"No" he said confused. He didn't even know there was one.

-"I'm staying here, as I said on it. Sorry, I was going to take a stayup pill, but I guess I was too tired for that" she snickered.

-"I thought you went home" Herbert said.

-"Home? I don't live anywhere yet. Laya offered me her place but I wanted to sit for you"

-"Oh, I thought... nevermind. Can I sleep here?"

-"Yes, of course"

Herbert took the vacant part of the sofa, wrapped himself in a blanket and drifted off. There were no brutal impalings, no despair, no such imagery like last time. Well, the angel flashed with short screams in the dreams but it was nothing like before.

Morning dawned to Cape Zoratta. The TV was programmed to wake anyone it detected sleeping and started beeping and showing a menu of channels. Hayjun was first out of the sofa, stretching her limbs and going to the window. She could see a couple of buildings that were similar in design to the one she was in. Further away was the water and beyond that was the pressure gate opening to a ship, flying or seaborne, every 10 minutes. The Homo Sapiens referred to as Herbert crawled out of the blanket holding him prisoner and sized up from the sofa. The magnificent shape of a Crocuta Sapiens, dressed in nothing more than panties and nightshirt, stood between him and the windows. Herbert was happy he recognized her. He took a glance at the television, noticed a clock in the upper right corner... and shocked him to see that it said: 7:51 28/04/3985. He knew he wasn't really home, but he remembered the 21st century if anything. Had he really been away for nearly two thousand years? The hyena turned around and saw the shock in the human's face.

"What's the matter?" She asked. Herbert gripped his head.

-"I've missed so much Look at the year!"

-"Oh... no, no, no, you've misunderstood" she assured. "That year is the furcadian year. We began counting earlier. The terran year is... 2066"

-"I see. What year did I come from?"

-"The 2010's. Not sure on the exact one."

Just then, Herbert's memories about the previous day were jolted.

"I'm the last of my kind anyway. I haven't seen any other human. They hunted us extinction, didn't they?"

-"No! You're not the last one! Heck, I met one this week. It's just that no single human lives in Cape Zoratta"

-"How many are we?"

-"Billions!" Hayjun streched her arms and sat down right next to him. "There are almost as many humans as there are hyenas! You can't compete with the felines, the foxes and the sheep though"

-"I think I have more questions"

-"*Sigh*. Hit Me"

-"Uh, alright... but why?"

He charged his palm to slap Hayjun. She grabbed his arm and said: "No! I meant ask the questions!" "Retard" She muttered under her breath.

-"Why are we in a dome?" -"Because... this is Mars. It's not as green as Earth yet"

-"Oooh" His mind was blown, what a twist. Earth wasn't poisoned, he wasn't there at all. After many seconds he gathered himself enough to ask something else: "What was my name now again?"

-"Herbert Människa, though Herbert isn't your real name. Everyone just came to know you by it. Like Marilyn Monroe, Pat Robertson and Sheqt Inlee. Your last name is real though"

Then the obvious question came: "Yeah, but that did my parents name me?"

-"Only a history geek knows, and I'm not geeky enough!" belying that she was quite geeky, it's that Herbert's real name is as obscure as Hitler's family having had the name Schiklgruber.

-"You,re not a human... right?"

-"Mmm, no!"

-"You're an... animal"

-"Hell and Heaven no, I'm more than just an animal. I'm a sapient, just like you."

-"But what is a sapient and where did you come from? How long have you been here?"

-"We are the descendants of well, aliens. We're not really aliens(scratching her head) genetically but we're from another solar system. Many years ago, the civilization I come from made contact with yours. Soon a war broke out, and thank the gods mine didn't win. When I heard you were here, I was hoping to learn more about the war from you. I wanted tell my father"

-"I'm sorry" He sighed.

-"No, it's alright. You'll remember one day"

-"Will I be... evil again?"

-"I don't know, but the war is long over and you have people who care about you. I'm not gonna lie, it's going to hurt. Let's download a documentary"

A parcel bumped down through the door. As they leaned over it, they saw it contained clothes suitable for wearing by a human. There was a note too: "There were human clothes after all in the corner of NPC Store. Send Herbert my regards if he isn't reading this. -Seethis"

-"It's the parrot!" Hayjun said.

-"He gave me clothes! Awesome!" Herbert went through shirts that referenced video games made while Herbert was frozen, training pants, socks, boxers and a jacket.

Hayjun had anticipated Herbert's interests shifting from the clothes back to the war, and so she had clicked through the TV to download an hour-long documentary. She browsed past specializing episodes such as "Air aces of the war" "Planet of tanks" "Superweapons" "Unconventional war" "Prelude to invasion" before finding the title "The ultimate summarized Furcadian-terran contact war".

Herbert getting dressed and Hayjun flicking through documentaries took minutes, it was now well into the 8:20's. "Herb, you'll want to see this" Hayjun called. He took his new fashion with him, the war being absolutly off his mind for the moment. With enthusiasm he benched himself in front of the omnious black screen with white text announcing the documentary's title, accompanied by pompous music used in World War 2 programmes decades earlier. Hayjun slipped away upstairs to fetch tea; "He'll need it" she thought. Herbert's newfound childish glee was about to die.

A female voice started narrating while flashy graphics illustrated everything she said; it brought up the year 2012 as the year of contact. Footage from CNN appeared with headlines such as: "NEWS FROM SPACE - Definite proof of aliens?", "CULTS COMMIT MASS SUICIDE", "FURRY ALIENS? - Convergent evolution?". Then the year 2013 flashed and CNN had more to tell: "UN/CIA/NG REPORT ON FURCADIAN SOCIETY". "FURCADIAN DIPLOMATS DISMISS CRITICISM - "Not a human affair". "CHINESE PM PROTESTS AGAINST FURCADIAN SPACECRAFT" The music that played in the beginning came back, and the narrator voice dutifully told what came in the years to follow: "The leader of the furcadian empire, Emperor Aitasse Marton II, had begun planning for a war against the all the human nations. After years of planinng, the forces of the empire attacked in 2014, formally declaring war minutes later. One by one, the free nations of Earth fell to the unmatchable furcadian technology and numbers. Large groups of human ´quislings`, even whole countries, joined the furcadian war efforts in the hope of being spared" Did Herbert just see his own face? He promised himself he would check later. Right now he wanted to see how the war went, as he didn't remember beig told. He was slipped a cup of tea by Hayjun's hands, she stood tall behind the sofa with her own cup to watch with him. As the television carried on telling, more disturbing images showed up. Mutiliated human corpses, a kangaroo laughing as he fired his rifle in the backhead of a kneeled-over human, half-destroyed buildings such churches, mosques, hospitals, even landmarks such as the Tokyo Tower, the Eiffel Tower that inspired it, the Petronas Towers(though the plural was no longer an apt name) and the Golden Gate. The hour-long documentary was almost over, and the much-anticipated conclusion rolled in: "Although the furcadian empire declared victory at one point, multiple factors, most importantly furcadian army battalions switching sides, allowed the indigenous people of Earth to push the invasion off the planet with a staggering 900 million lives lost, 95% of these being humans. The war still lives on today in the form of a cold war between our two solar systems, the Furcadian Empire and the Armstrong Treaty"

Herbert held on to his tea, Hayjun sitting right next to him, providing a crocutan shoulder to cry on, even though he didn't cry much at all. She was right; that documentary told him all he wanted to know, and now it worried her whether she had done the right thing. He told her how ashamed he was about having been on the bad guys' side and that he didn't want to be known as that "Herbert". He didn't have that person's memory after all. Then he wondered aloud to Hayjun "We must have... I mean we collaborators must have been pretty bad people, or desperate. I hope I was desperate" -"Don't worry," Herbert lifted his head from her shoulder. "I'm glad not all of you space furries are bad. What is the empire like, what with their military state?" -"Never been there. I wasn't born there, I was born on Callisto. They'd shoot my deserter parents and the millions of democracy-hungry refugees. You know... It's not easy when someone wants you dead, we have that in common" -"The Armstrong... thing wants me dead?" -"Guess why!" -"Oooh, I see" He might have been ignorant, but he could add up 1+1.

-"It's a miracle you weren't carried away and executed, I just don't know what we'll do now. I wonder what Laya's up to. She should be here." Hayjun's eyes opened up "She didn't... I gotta call her!"