FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"What do you think?" Tank muttered to no one in particular, staring out the main viewport as the shuttle approached the ship Marissa had detected a few minutes ago.

Marissa brushed her fingertips across the flat console, sweeping several windows aside, touched the corners of one window and slid her hands apart, stretching it to fill most of the panel. "Well, here's a shot of it from one of our external cameras."

Seth held on to the back of her chair and looked over her shoulder. On the screen was another dark shape hovering against the red-orange backdrop of the dying star's mass falling into the distant black hole. The ship appeared to be a long, flattened cylinder that tapered to a blunt nose on one end, with the body widening out into four broad, backswept wings, two on each side.

Marissa stared at a set of small windows that appeared beside the view of the ship, reading the text in them. "I'm not picking up any hull breaches. No life signs, either."

"Well, at least that means there won't be any cosmic horrors attacking us," Seth said.

"Unless there's something onboard that our sensors can't detect," Tank said, and Seth groaned.

"Just what we needed to hear."

"Sorry."

"The computer doesn't recognize the silhouette," Marissa continued. "It's six hundred thirty meters long, so it'll take us a while to explore."

"I'll get us closer," the pilot, Chuck, said.

Lopez's voice came from the speakers. "If you want, I could scope it out before you arrive."

"Thanks, we'd appreciate that."

"I'm sending video now." A new window appeared over the view from the shuttle's camera. Along the bottom of the frame was the roof of the shuttle Lopez had clamped onto. In the background was the silhouette of the newly-detected ship inching closer as his shuttle approached it.

It grew larger suddenly as Lopez zoomed in on it.

"I've been wondering," Chuck muttered after staring at the image for a moment, "why does he always talk like the Frito Bandito?"

"Just the way he was programmed, I guess." Marissa shrugged. "Someone probably thought it'd be funny."

"I dunno, once I got used to it, I started to find it kind of endearing." Tank shrugged.

"Yeah, I think it's kinda cute."

"It's kind of annoying," Chuck said. "And it's an offensive stereotype."

"You realize I can hear you, right?" Lopez said over the comm, and Chuck grimaced.

"Crap."

"It's the way I was built. Nothing I can do about it at the moment, and even if there was a way to change it, we've got more important things to worry about. Now, if you wouldn't mind, just stick to flying the shuttle, okay?"

"Uh, yeah. Okay. Sorry." He blushed and kept his eyes pointed straight ahead.

Tank laughed and reached over to clap him on the shoulder.

"Anyway," Lopez continued, "I'm seeing a few sections of the ship where its superstructure is exposed. It's not damage; looks like the ship is simply incomplete."

"Huh. You sure?" Seth pulled himself closer to the console.

"I worked on the jumpgate construction crew before we ended up here; I know a work in progress when I see one."

"Well, I guess that'd explain why there's no one on board. If the ship wasn't finished yet, the crew wouldn't have boarded."

"You'd think there'd be a construction crew, or a few engineers, at least." Marissa shrugged. "Oh, well, I guess we'll find out when we board it."

#

A scream came from behind Kamala as she slithered into the nearest bedroom. Hearts pounding, she whirled around, terrified that Roger had been hit by one of the hovering ovoids' directed-energy weapons.

He threw himself into the room, grabbed her and pulled her over to the wall, out of the robots' line of fire.

Luana and Morrison were right behind them, Morrison stumbling and pitching forward, Luana grabbing his arm and trying to drag him out of the doorway.

He braced his left hoof on the wall and pushed while the other three pulled, and he scooted over to the far wall, dragging his limp right leg on the floor.

Twin beams lanced through the doorway and into the rear wall, missing Morrison by mere inches.

Luana gripped her gun with shaking hands, holding it in front of her chest, and took several deep breaths. She looked at the gun and pushed a slide control on its left side, shoving it to the end of its track, setting it for maximum discharge. Snarling, she leaned into the doorway, lined up a shot, and squeezed the trigger.

A deafening blast erupted outside. Kamala caught a glimpse of one of the ovoid robots bursting into shrapnel before she spun away, covering her head with her upper arms and clamping onto Roger with her lower arms.

"Ow!" Luana jerked back from the doorway, clamping her free hand to her forehead. She lowered it and blood trickled from a gash above her right eye. She stared at the blood on her palm, shuddered, and raised it back to the cut.

Kamala jabbed her ultratool at the wall, scanning the room beyond it, and the data appeared in her head through her implanted cybernetic interface. "There's still a dozen of 'em left."

"Not for long." Glaring and curling her lips, Luana lunged into the open again, pulling the trigger--and this time she swept the gun from right to left, hitting the robots with a continuous blast. Five of them ripped apart before the rest could evade. Luana ducked back under cover a split-second before any shrapnel could shoot through the doorway and hit her again.

Blood dripped into her right eye and she wiped it away with the back of her hand.

"Hold on, I'm gonna try something." Kamala aimed her 'tool at the wall and tried to perform a thorough scan of one of the floating robots. If she could get an idea of how they were put together, maybe she could figure out a way to take them out. Overload their systems, confuse their sensors, maybe even hack into them and turn them against each other. If only there was enough time to complete the scan before the things managed to kill them all.

Roger waved his own ultratool around, doing a quick scan, and a hard-light display appeared in front of him. He counted the blips in the holofield and groaned. "They've got reinforcements on the way."

"How many?" Morrison grunted, leaning against the wall and grimacing.

Kamala glanced at the mass of blips flowing in through both ends of the huge chamber outside. "Like, a mega fuck-ton." She looked at Roger and he shook his head slowly. His expression matched the thought running through her head.

We're not gonna make it.

She shook her head abruptly and snarled. Bullshit. We can't let it end like this. "Roger, scan the wall behind us while I keep working on the killbots. See if you can get an idea of what's on the other side."

"On it." He pointed his 'tool at the inner wall and stared at his holo-display.

Luana popped into the doorway, fired, and ducked back inside as another ovoid exploded.

Kamala continued probing them. Come on, give me something I can use! Anything!

"The ship seems to be in flux," Roger muttered. "There was a large compartment on the other side of that wall, but now it's a mass of metal shifting around."

"How the hell does it do that?" Morrison said through clenched teeth. His bovine face twisted and he struggled to stop himself from groaning in pain.

"I'm guessing it's programmable matter." Roger kept staring at his display. "Okay, it solidified. There's a steep slope leading down past the edge of my ultratool's range. Can't tell how far it goes or where it leads."

Luana blasted two more of the robots. "Anywhere's better than here. There are dozens of those things coming; I can't take 'em all out before they shoot us dead." She fired off another shot before turning to aim at the inner wall. "Get down!"

Kamala grabbed Roger and pulled him over to Morrison, and all three faced away from the wall.

Luana blew a huge hole through the wall, poked her head through and looked down. "Can't see where it ends, but--"

"Better than here, yeah. Assuming we're not about to plunge into a reactor or some goddamned thing." Kamala sighed and helped Roger drag Morrison over to the hole. She looked at Luana.

"Go ahead. I've got the only gun, so I'll cover you." Luana aimed at the doorway. "Hurry!"

"Luana," Morrison grunted, but she cut him off.

"I love you. Now, go!" She glanced over her shoulder at him and backed up suddenly, bumping into him and knocking him out of the others' grip. He toppled over, disappeared through the hole, and slid away with a fading cry. "Get going, you two. I'll be right behind you, I promise."

Kamala grabbed Roger's hand and both of them dived through, sliding down into darkness. She looked over her shoulder just as Luana jumped through backward and slid after them, firing her gun through the hole as she fell.

Keeping both left arms around Roger, Kamala pointed her upper-right hand forward and scanned the area ahead with her ultratool. The ship's current layout appeared in her head and she gasped.

The floor was coming up fast.

She coiled her body around Roger's, closed her eyes, and waited for the impact.

Morrison hit first, slamming into the solid metal surface and tumbling several yards. He let out a strangled scream, and when he came to a stop, he rammed his right fist into the floor and lay there, trembling.

The back of Kamala's head struck the floor, almost knocking her out, but she kept her grip on Roger, and they rolled past Morrison. He managed to reach out and grab Roger's foot, and yanked them to a stop.

Kamala uncoiled and lay with her hands clutching her head, Tears ran down her face and she sobbed.

Luana landed a few seconds later, rolled, and stopped. She pushed herself up and shook her head.

"Hey." Roger put his arms around Kamala. "You okay?"

"Ow." She wiped the backs of her upper hands across her eyes, sniffled, and embraced him. "I got clocked pretty good, but I'll survive. How about you?"

"Fine, thanks to you turning yourself into a bumper." He chuckled and stroked her cheek.

"Anytime." She kissed him and looked over at the other two.

Luana pointed her ultratool upward, scanned, and frowned at her holo-display. "The room up there has been sealed off. Maybe the ship's trying to repair the damage." She crawled over to Morrison and kissed him. "How bad is your leg?"

"I can't feel anything below my thigh. It's beyond numb. When an arm or leg goes numb, you can still kinda feel it, y'know? You can tell it's still there. This...there's no sensation at all. It feels like it's gone."

Luana's face turned pale.

"You were hit by one of those robots?" Kamala scanned his leg.

"Yeah. Goddamn, it hurt. It was like every nerve--every cell--in my leg was on fire. Then there was nothing at all." He pointed at a spot on his thigh. "That's where all sensation cuts off--and above that, it hurts like a motherfucker."

The scan results appeared in Kamala's mind and a cold surge rushed through her chest. "Oh, Jesus Christ!"

"What?" He stared at her. "It's bad, isn't it?"

"Your leg is...dead. I mean, like it's part of a corpse." Kamala took several long breaths. "If one of their shots had hit your chest, it probably would've killed you instantly."

He stared at her, eyes widening gradually, and his breathing quickened. He closed his eyes and tried to pull himself together.

"I'm sorry," Kamala whispered.

"Yeah, me too." He flopped onto his back and rubbed his hands over his face. "Shit. Shit! Fuck!"

Luana sobbed, scooted over to him, and caressed his muzzle. He managed to smile, sat up, and nuzzled her.

"We'll have to amputate it before it poisons the rest of my body. If we can ever find anyone who knows how to do it."

Luana put her arms around him and wept.

He held her for a moment, kissed her cheek, and sighed. "Well, we should get moving before this goddamn ship rearranges itself again."

Roger walked over to him. "Here, let us help you get up."

A sudden rumbling sound echoed through the ship. At the same time, the floor lurched upward, knocking everyone over.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, now what?" Morrison growled.

"I think something hit us." Roger looked around, eyes wide, as if expecting the chamber to cave in on them. "Small asteroid, maybe, or debris."

"No," Morrison mumbled. "That sound was an explosion. Either some equipment malfunctioned, or..."

"The way our luck's going," Roger said, "it's probably someone shooting at this ship."

Morrison stared at him, hung his head and sighed. "Well, that's just fuckin' great."