FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"The time," chimed the computer, in a cool, feminine tone, "Is 0600 hours." It made a chirp-chirp sound, just in case the verbal notification hadn't been enough.

Zari, a squirrel, leaned up in bed. On her stomach, head craning toward the computer console in her darkened room. It was blinking. Showing the time. Zari sighed and fell back against the sheets, turning over onto her back and sighing again. Paws clutching at a pillow. She breathed in and out through her nose, her whiskers twitch-twitching.

"The time," repeated the computer.

"Yeah," she barked.

"Is 0600 hours and one minute."

"Computer, turn off alarm," Zari said, frowning. She sat completely up, slipping out of bed.

"Alarm off."

"Good," she muttered. And, foot-paws on the floor, she sighed and tilted her head upward, closing her eyes. And she stretched. Stretched her auburn-colored bushy tail. Stretched her limbs. She was nimble, as all squirrels were. She did a few lazy acrobatics, a few tumbles. "I'm awake," she told herself, slipping into the shower stall. "I'm awake." She turned on the water, and it pelted her, soaking and running through her fur. She tilted her head into the stream, allowing the water to run down her nose and whiskers, down her face.

A chirp-chirp.

Zari sighed. "Yeah?"

It was Lal. On the comm-line. She was calling from Ops. "Sorry, captain. I, uh, we have a ... situation."

Zari paused, staring at the walls of the shower. "Is this a situation that's ... is this a worthwhile situation, lieutenant, or is this one of those ... "

"One of those things," Lal finished.

In other words: an inconvenience.

Zari walked into Ops, her fur still wet, matted a bit. Her tail drooping. She hadn't had time to groom it. She glared at Lal.

She shrugged. "I'm sorry," she mouthed.

Zari shook her head. "No, that's ... that's fine," she said, sighing. "What have you got?" She took in a breath, stood straight. Looked at the other squirrel. This space station, out here, out in the middle of nowhere, basically, was entirely populated by squirrels. One hundred twelve, to be exact.

"It's the N'Kiri."

Zari rolled her brown eyes. "Again?"

"They're mad."

"When aren't they," Zari muttered, blowing out a breath. She nodded. And then nodded again. "Put them on the viewer." She stepped forward a bit, looking up at the oval-shaped screen on the wall.

The image of a giant wasp blinked into view. The N'Kiri were a race of wasps. They were pirates, mercenaries. They had stingers. And they used them.

"Good morning, sir," said Zari, to the captain of the N'Kiri vessel, which was within range of the station. But too small a vessel to cause any damage in a fire-fight. This ship had been here before. Normally once a week. They floated by and launched a torpedo or two, dished out some threats, some promises. It was almost like a game.

"You are wet. I interrupted your bathing? Or have your environmental controls," said the wasp, tilting his angular, antenna-laden head. "Gone on the fritz?" He buzzed a raspy, harsh laugh. Obviously amused with himself.

"Well, either way, it's none of your business. What do you want?"

"You are authoritative, Captain. I like that," said the wasp. His name was Seel.

"Seel," Zari began, impatient. She rubbed a paw against her forehead, sighing through the nose.

"We have two photon torpedoes trained on your habitat ring. And we shall use them ... if our demands are not met."

"I'm sure you will."

"We require replicator parts and bio-neural fluids. Our ship was recently caught in an ion storm."

"How unfortunate. You know that scanners ... they scan for things? Like ion storms. You should invest in one."

"You pride yourselves on being kind and helpful creatures. Therefore, you will help us."

"Even if I had the items you wanted ... "

"You do."

"I don't have enough spares for you. We only get transports from home every other month. There's no one on the planet below." She shrugged. "I can't give you supplies."

"You're not using all your spare parts, surely."

"They're called spare for a reason. We can't spare them," Zari replied tersely. "Now, how about we cut it short today, huh? Fire your torpedoes. We'll fire back, give you a few containment breaches. And we'll ... "

"You are impertinent," said the wasp, leaning toward the viewer. He was an ugly thing. Most insects were. "And," he added, "You are truculent."

"Hmm," she went, in mock tone. "Well, I think you thoroughly shredded my confidence with that one."

The wasp tilted his head and glared at her. "So be it." The screen went black, reverting to a shot of the N'Kiri vessel.

"He's cut the channel," said Lal. Her paws flew over the tactical console, which she sat behind. "He's sending a transmission ... " She squinted her eyes, reading the text. "He's going to fire his torpedoes in half a minute."

"Tell him where he can put his torpedoes, Lal," said Zari, rubbing her forehead. She wondered if she was getting a headache.

"Where?" Lal asked innocently, looking up from her console.

Zari opened her mouth to say something, and then closed it. "Never mind." She turned and went to the center of Ops, to the sensor table, which was at the lowest level of the room. "Shields," she barked, twitching her bushy tail as she gave the order.

"Shields raised."

Ten minutes later, the morning shift came on. Filtering in slowly.

"I fell out of bed this morning," said Ketchy. "My room sort of ... went at a tilt. And then the alarm went off." She cradled a mug of hot chocolate in her paws. "The N'Kiri?"

Zari sighed.

"I guess that's a yes," Ketchy said, quietly slipping away to her station.

"Get me one of those, will you, Ketchy?"

"Hmm?" The young squirrel looked up.

"One of those hot chocolates."

She smiled and nodded, moving to the replicator at the side of the room, which was nestled into the wall. She returned with a steaming mug of the stuff. No marshmallows. Marshmallows were too cute. And they got in the way. Zari thought so, anyway. Though she saw that Ketchy's chocolate was overflowing with melted marshmallows. Maybe I'm stingy, Zari thought. Maybe I'm too uptight.

Malcolm slipped in, through the side door. Going to the main engineering console. A moment later, Birch entered. Through the same door. Both males looking a big ragged, as if they hadn't gotten much sleep. Zari smiled, clutching her mug, and sidled over to Birch, the younger of the two. And the easiest to read.

"Relax," Zari whispered into his ear, stopping behind him.

"Hmm?" Birch turned, met her gaze. His whiskers twitching.

Zari's eyes watched his.

His eyes were the first to break contact, darting away. "Is it that obvious?" He blushed beneath his fur.

"Well, you do have a," Zari started, taking a step back, analyzing Birch like a painting. "A bit of a glow about you. A bit of a twitch, too."

The young squirrel bit his lip, smiling bashfully. Trying to busy himself at his station.

"Anyway, you know you can't keep a secret in a place like this." Pause. "I wouldn't be so self-conscious about it. It gets lonely out here. Everyone's," she said, sighing, "Paired off with someone." She looked around. "I think some of them are paired off with more than one, actually," Zari said, nodding, sipping her drink. Raising her eyes at the thought. She shook her head clear. "Anyway ... relax, huh?"

He nodded. "Thanks," he said, smiling shyly. And as she walked away, he looked back, asking, "Well ... well, what about you?"

"What?"

"Everyone's paired off. What about you?"

She shrugged weakly, the question catching her off-guard. "I'm the captain," she finally said. It wasn't an answer.

"I know," he said, smiling shyly at her. Again. "But ... "

"The captain, in exchange for being the captain, gives up certain recreational privileges." She shrugged. "Don't worry about me."

He nodded, biting his lip. "Well, I don't think you can reduce love to ... a recreational privilege," Birch told her.

She said nothing, turned to go, stopped, and smiled, saying, "Next time you two spend the night together before a shift, you might wanna make sure you wash his scent out of your fur. Oh, and when you come to Ops after being together and don't want anyone to know, don't take the same lift. It's less obvious."

Birch blushed beneath his fur at her teasing, biting his lip.

She sighed, scolding herself, and gave him a warm smile, regretting that she was jabbing him like this. She knew how sensitive Birch was. More sensitive than most. "I'm sorry," she whispered, taking a breath, taking a step closer to him. "Hey, if you want a hot chocolate, or any breakfast, replicator's open. We're having breakfast on the job today," she said, looking around. Lal was nibbling on some hash browns. "Apparently."

Birch laughed, harboring no ill feelings. He nodded. "Thanks."

Zari smiled and sighed again and walked back to the center of the room, looking around a bit, before walking the small flight of stairs which led to her office. The doors slid open. She went inside and went behind her desk, sitting gingerly in her chair. And putting her chocolate down, she slid her small, desktop mirror forward. And began to groom her tail. Obsessively cleaning, licking, grooming the fur, straightening it all out. The thought hammering in the back of her mind ... am I lonely? Do they ... did her crew, did they look at her as some lonely, cold thing? She wondered if she used her job as an excuse to wriggle away from any and all relationships, or even the prospect of a relationship. She wondered if she'd been teasing Birch because she'd been jealous. He had someone. She didn't. She wondered ...

She focused on grooming her tail. Shutting her mind down. For the moment, anyway.

Later, Zari was on her rounds. Every day, she visited each deck. Took an hour's time to travel from top to bottom of this station. To meet everyone. She had a responsibility to her crew. They needed to know that she was there, that ... that she cared about them all. She didn't want to be a faceless dictator giving orders from her office. She liked to wander about this place. And she never tired of it. The architecture, the angles, the soft blue lights. The oval windows that looked out to the stars, and to the planet below.

The planet was purple and blue and grey. Had lots of oceans, lots of water. A few islands here and there, but no native, sentient species. But it was a valuable place for natural resources and scientific research, and it happened to be in a sector bordering N'Kiri space, so ... Earth needed a presence here. Needed a paw-hold, as it were. The N'Kiri had, ten years earlier, instigated a war that had spanned the quadrant. They'd been beaten back. They were in no condition to hurt anyone now. But one never knew ... this station, therefore, also served as an early alarm. Were another invasion launched, they would be the first to find out. They would send the warning. Unfortunately, after they sent such an alarm, were such a situation to arise ... they would probably be destroyed by an armada shortly after. Or, worse: taken prisoner by the N'Kiri. The N'Kiri had twisted minds. They always found "entertaining" things to do with their slaves.

The station was called Orca Sol. The planet was called Orcada, so ... and it sounded pretty. It didn't mean anything, as far as Zari knew. But ... she liked the name.

Anyway, the station had been built. It was here. And she was captain. And she was on her walkabout, seeing the crew. She opened an access conduit. It was already slightly ajar, and she opened it the rest of the way. She peered in.

"Kodiak," she said simply.

He peered over his shoulder. Nodded at her. He was a big squirrel. Well-muscled. Had a glorious tail. Zari confessed (but only to herself) to having somewhat of a crush on him. He was quiet. She wondered what he thought about all day, talking to no one.

"What are you doing?" she asked him, breaking the silence.

"Re-rerouting extra power to the shuttle and cargo bays. They de-compressed again last night. Turned both bays into a vacuum."

"No one was hurt, I trust?"

"No."

She nodded. "That's good."

"The shuttle got banged up, though, when the gravity came back on. And it left a scuff on the floor."

She laughed lightly. "You're chief engineer. Don't you have lackeys who can give it a new coat of paint?"

He smiled, looking at circuits and wires. Running some kind of light over them. But he said nothing. And then he moved to a sit. Even at a sit, there was only a foot of clearance above his head. These conduits were for crawling and sitting. You couldn't stand in them. They were built for access to key systems, as well as an alternate form of transport ... in case the lifts every went out.

"You need help?"

"I can manage."

She slipped gingerly into the access conduit, crawling forward on all fours, paws and knees making a scuffing sound as she moved. Her tail brushing against the ceiling of the conduit.

"I said I could manage."

"I used to like engineering," she told him, stopping, moving to a sit. She picked up one of the tools from his kit. Turned it over in her paws. "I never had the grades to do well at it, though. And then I decided," she said, sighing and shrugging, "That I didn't want to know," she told him, suddenly meeting his eyes, "How things worked. I didn't want to have life explained away." She took a breath, looking around the conduit, back the way she'd come. Into the dim hallway. They near the lower core, where central power was furnished from. "I prefer that all of this be a mystery," she whispered. "If I knew how it worked ... " She looked back to him. "What would be the point?"

"You would have more knowledge," he said simply.

"Why's that important, though?"

"Because it is."

"That's not a reason. That's just not good enough." She shook her head, swallowing, clearing her throat. "No, I think we too readily sell our souls to technology and advancement. To knowledge. Not that it's all bad. But ... too much, you know? Too much of anything can be a bad thing, and I think ... knowing too much," she said, trailing. "It'll keep you awake at night."

Kodiak bit his lip, swallowing. He nodded, not quite knowing what to say. His eyes darted to Zari's groomed tail, and then back to the exposed wires and circuits in the wall.

She looked to him. Feeling more open, more willing ... than she'd been in a long time. Just so she wouldn't have to be alone. Just so she could talk to someone, at the very least. Just ... she swallowed, and said, "I better finish my walkabout."

"Okay," Kodiak said slowly, eyes still on her.

She lingered, hoping that he would make a move. Because she was too scared, or too hard on herself ... to allow herself to do so. She lingered some more, scolded herself, and began to crawl away. But found her tail stuck ... in his paws. He clung to it.

She looked back to him.

He smiled bashfully.

Her heart instantly beat faster. She wondered if she was making a mistake. If she let the wall down, if she got involved with someone under her command ... she didn't know how that would complicate things, in the future. Or if ...

Kodiak had her on her bare, furry back in less than a minute, after wriggling out of his clothes. And after she'd allowed him to wriggle her out of her own. A sweaty, clumsy affair, and it happened so quickly, so fast. They were against each other. Zari half expected to open her eyes and find her world at a blur. To be so caught up in such a moment ... she didn't let herself think about it. She just fell into it. Allowed it to happen.

He peered down at her. Nose inches from hers, twitching. As did hers. The access conduit being so small, it was getting hot rather fast. Their body heat filling the small corridor. Their breaths echoed and bounced.

She looked back up at him.

He blushed. "We don't have to ... to do this," he told her, "If you don't ... "

"We do," she whispered, nodding weakly. She caressed his cheek with a paw, before wrapping her arms and paws around his neck. "I want to."

"You never indicated," he said, "Before ... "

"I don't want to analyze this," she told him. "We're both alone. We're the only ones on this ... this station," she said, "That are still alone. I'm not willing to wait ten years and forty light years, or however long," she told him, "To be held by someone." Her voice was at a whisper now. As if she were afraid her words would break. Or that, if they were spoken louder, they would sound stupid. "You know," she whispered into his ear, nose nuzzling his cheek. Her back against the metal floor of the conduit. "You know I've ... that I like you."

"I like you, too," he whispered back.

She nodded. "I know."

"Do you?"

She smiled weakly. "Well, I do now," she said, hugging him tighter. "Else we wouldn't be in such a compromising position." Her heart was racing at his scent, his touch. At the scent of arousal. At the sudden thought of making love in this tight space, this tin can.

He grinned. Laughed quietly, taking a breath. And letting it out. He took another breath. "Maybe we should go somewhere more comfortable. I mean ... "

"No. No, we've got ... we're both in motion," she told him. "Objects at motion stay in motion ... or something. Right?"

He shrugged. Licking her nipple.

She squeaked and smiled. "You're an engineer," she said, rubbing her paws down his back, scritching through his fur. Up and down. Squeezing his furry rump. Her tail twitched and fluttered. As did his. She fumbled for it. "You should know," she finished.

He shrugged again, nose twitching against hers. Ears swivelling. He planted a kiss on her nose.

"We can't break ... the momentum," she breathed, breathing harder. "By moving. No," she said, swallowing. Her throat was dry. "We do it here." She kissed his neck.

He nodded, wordless, as he kissed her back. Softly. Her head tilted as his lips slid off hers, to her cheeks. Kissing her still.

Her breasts heaved under his chest. She spread her legs and wrapped them around his back, still on the floor. He sat up a bit, bushy tail twitching, curling. He kissed her again, and she squeaked lightly as he held it. As he stole her breath. And when their lips parted, she panted out. Weak. Her paws fumbled down his body, to his waist. For his sheath. She grasped it.

He closed his eyes and let out a breath, arching a bit.

She tugged and squeezed. Loving how that thing felt in her paws. Loving that warmth.

He squeaked, leaning back down against her. Swallowing. And then nosing through her fur. Sniffing.

She continued to work him to arousal, getting him erect. Meanwhile, a paw of his ... strayed down between her legs, rubbing and trailing along her furry folds. Fingering her. She closed her eyes and twitched. Soon, both of them feeling each other all over with paws and lips. Parting each other's fur, holding each other's bushy tails. She held his tail like a blanket as, erect, he worked his way into her. And she closed her eyes and went still, legs wrapped behind him, as he sat in the small space and held her thighs and hips, peeking and poking into her, deep into her. They were a tangle of fur and limbs. He thrust into her. She moaned. She bucked back against him. He squeaked.

She clutched at his tail as, chittering, he worked himself into a frenzy. Which, in turn, caused her to descend into a frenzy. Until they were both chittering and squeaking and panting. Her eyes were watered to a shut as he plowed into her, such a sturdy, strong animal, stimulating every part of her. She panted, flushed. His sweaty paws rubbed and clutched at her fur, and his whiskers twitched, and they seemed to melt together with their movements, winding up nose to nose as he humped into her. Weakly, they kissed. Wet, blind kisses.

And when she felt herself spasm, almost too soon for her own liking (though she wasn't about to complain), Zari whimpered. She whimpered and clutched to his fur, hugging him tight. Afraid to let go, afraid to part. And he licked and nipped at her ears, squeaking out, as his seed filtered into her. As he shivered, his member jerking inside of her, her muscles clamping down on it.

It took a few minutes for them to recover, to regain any sense of themselves, to regain their bearings.

"Oh, thank you," she breathed into his ear. "Oh, you don't know," she confessed, feeling weak, feeling so vulnerable. "Oh, how I've wanted to be ... to be loved."

He shyly stroked her cheek, saying, "Well ... you're welcome." He blushed. "I'm glad to love you."

Her arms still wrapped around him, she said. "Would you ... would you care for dinner tonight?"

He nodded. A smile flooding his face. "Yes."

She giggled, unable to stop herself. "I think we did this the wrong way round. I mean ... I think, normally, a couple meets and has dinner or something before ... " She blushed. Whispering, "Before anything like this happens." Pause. "You don't regret this?"

"No," he whispered sincerely.

She blushed again. Smiling warmly. She took a deep breath. "Neither do I."

He blushed with her. He felt her fur. Clutched at her own tail.

She sat up and kissed him on the cheek, gently. Wriggling back into her clothes. "I'll see you later?"

He nodded, smiled. "Of course."

She felt as if she were glowing as she backed out of the conduit, into the dimly lit hall. She smoothed her fur and her attire, and realized she was going to have to shower. Else everyone would know ... and, being the captain, she wasn't about to have her private doings bobbled about like a beach ball. And, despite being suddenly, physically drained, the nimble squirrel did a few tumbling acrobatics on the way back to her quarters, literally dancing and twirling into the shower.