FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Reconnecting

Anthony stepped out of his log cabin and felt the soggy grass's wetness pierce through his worn out sneakers. Three days of rain had locked him in the old vacation home his great-grandfather had built by hand, but the sun at last revealed her glowing face this cool morning and let him out of his confinement.

He had started running low on food, but he was grateful that the relentless rain had topped off his freshwater supply. With the weather finally calm, the twenty-eight year old man went off foraging for whatever fruits and berries he could find in the forest his cabin was hidden in.

He was hungry, but he couldn't eat what he found in the wild immediately. He'd only been out here a month and hadn't adjusted to his new life yet, and he still needed one of the old books his father had stocked into the log cabin to tell if whatever he'd plucked from nature was poisonous or not.

Most of Anthony's day went by as he searched for edible food. Out here in the middle of somewhere in the tree-dense mountain ranges of Wyoming, there was nothing else to do than to find sustenance.

By nightfall, the man had gathered three full baskets of colorful items from the better half of the least liked level of the food pyramid. With the help of a flashlight, he spent another hour comparing photos in his guide to eating in the wilderness and managed to toss out only half a basketful of fruits--one of his best hauls since he'd moved into the old cabin.

After filling himself up with a moderate meal, he went back outside, sat on a partially rotted bench, and looked into the starry night sky.

His thoughts meandered. The first, however, was always the same. Having lived in a city most of his life, he could never look up into space here and be struck by the sheer immensity of it all. The stars were innumerable, uncountable by any eye possessed or made by man.

He'd always sigh after the wonderment faded.

"Is this all the universe has for me?" he'd ask to himself.

Today was no different. He asked the same question, and he received the same response. Silence.

His memories played before him. How he was fired from his job. He'd been a computer technician for a large company and was a rather competent worker until he'd completely screwed up just once.

That once was such a large failure that he had no hope for finding another tech job again. All the computers in the company had been rendered vulnerable because of his mistake, and he was never able to escape that black mark on his record.

Bills piled up. Unemployment benefits dried up. He tried his best to maintain his old lifestyle but he couldn't do it even with the two minimum wage jobs he'd gotten.

Bills and more bills. Foreclosure notices. Collection calls. He couldn't keep doing what he was doing.

He had no family anymore, not after his parents died. His father had gone peacefully in his sleep five years ago, and his mother's deteriorating health had been the final blow to his bank account. Her health insurance had carried her as far as it would, but the breast cancer had won out in the end.

Some days he'd wished he would experience the same fate his father did. It had been unexpected, but so peaceful--his heart had simply stopped. Nobody would mourn for him when his heart decided to stop, so why wait?

Self-preservation, of course, always got in the way. He tried to find silver linings in the dark clouds whenever he could, but the clouds broke at last when he had decided to abandon his life of work and bills.

He hadn't bothered notifying anyone. The post office, debt collectors, and well-wishing friends would have to assume he had died. He emptied whatever paltry amount of money he had from his bank account and tucked the cash into his car. He took whatever he could pack into the small sedan; mostly old photos, toiletries, a portable DVD player along with discs he could not bear to part with, a couple of solar chargers, a water filter, a pile of books, and whatever else he could foresee he would need living alone in an old log cabin unequipped with plumbing or electricity.

His new life was simple but solitary. His great-grandfather's cabin had never been sold or assimilated into the national park system--the blessed thing had a deed of land ownership, but the place was so remote that nobody had ever bothered trying to remove it. And its remoteness continued after Anthony moved himself into it, the man never having seen another soul since he'd first parked his sedan next to it.

His memories were interrupted by a glint in his eye. A bright star seemed to wink at him in understanding.

It was an odd star, though. It was red, more like a planet, and it was extraordinarily large. He had never seen one like it before, and it soon became clear why.

The star was a ball of fire.

Something was crashing down from the sky.

He watched as the flaming debris--probably space junk--become larger and larger as it fell closer to the ground. The longer he stared at it, however, the more obvious its trajectory became.

It would fall close to where he was. Very close. Walkable close.

Anthony could even hear the impact from outside his cabin. Naturally, like any man without any obligations would do, he grabbed his flashlight and set out to find what had crashed onto the earth (and perhaps find some valuable scrap).

Judging from what its flight path had been, the space debris had crashed near a stream he'd often used when the rain refused to gift him with fresh water. It was about a mile away, but he didn't mind how dangerously close it was to flattening his home.

Rather, curiosity drove him to find the fallen star. Instead of coming upon a wrecked satellite, however, he found a remarkably odd block of silver instead.

It was remarkable because of how it was about the size of a bus. It was odd because of the steam wrapped around it, but the vapor quickly faded to reveal that the solid block of silver was not entirely uniform in color. The metal seemed to illuminate the area, rendering his flashlight unnecessary, and he could make out some finer details on the block. There were several scorch marks, black and searing, and some parts of the silver were glowing white in small blotches.

Anthony didn't know what to make of it. If it were actually silver, or at least some sort of salvageable metal, then he could make some money out of it. But then he wasn't sure how he'd be able to get it off the mountains, or if he'd even be able to chip off smaller pieces to sell.

But he couldn't figure out why the whole thing was glowing. Atmospheric re-entry energy, maybe? Come to think of it, why was the thing still in one piece?

He wanted to go up and touch it, but there was a loud boom when he approached. The boom was followed by a metallic creak, and then it seemed as if someone had sliced a rectangle into one side of the silver block with a precision laser.

He backed away as the rectangular piece fell off, falling down but still attached at the bottom like a ramp. Smoke billowed out, and Anthony could smell an odor he was rather familiar with: burnt electronics.

Something else struck a chord of worry in his heart. A sound. Coughing.

Logic was ignored as primal fear took over. Basic physics stopped processing through Anthony's head. Someone was inside the silver box, and he was still alive.

Despite gravity, inertia, and all the other forces that should've splattered anything inside, someone was alive.

It didn't make sense at all, and his brain experienced a freeze-out. He was frozen by awe, but then his eyes hammered in new information until his mind was forced to process it.

The person had stepped out of the box and passed through the smoke.

But something was terribly off. He was no man. Rather, he was a dragon man...thing.

The creature stood a little taller than an average man, and he walked on two legs. He bore arms, but also wings from his back which, at the moment, were flapping away whatever smoke remained in front of him.

It was grayish in color, contrasting against the mostly white light. His face was full of contrast too: blue eyes, a pair of silver horns similar in shade to the block, and what appeared to be white hair adorned his head.

It saw him. Its eyes locked with his. It started walking towards him.

Anthony couldn't move. At some point a few seconds earlier, his brain had decided that he was standing face-to-face with an alien. A charcoal grey scaled dragon alien thing from outer space.

It moved closer. He noticed its jaws opening and closing, and his ears added new information. It was making sounds from its mouth, but the sounds didn't appear to be raw or feral.

For a long moment, it felt like his brain cells were senators debating over what to do. Some wanted to run, others argued to fight, and many more desired the status quo--stand and do nothing. Their reasoning was most logical: the dragon alien must've had a space gun or something, and fighting would result in sublimation. There was no way he could escape the dragon, whose digitgrade legs looked like they could easily outrun him, and even if he were to somehow escape, its wings would have him fleeing from an aerial predator.

Another group of senator cells proposed talking to it. The sounds it was making were distinct and repetitive, like that of a language, and there was no doubt the creature was intelligent based on the fact that it had arrived in a fricken space ship.

By the time the dragon was almost right up against him, however, Anthony still hadn't made up his mind, so he chose simply to shut his eyes and accept whatever fate would befall upon him.

He felt something touch the right side of his head, right above his ear.

Oh god, it's going to tear my head apart.

Instead, the feeling went away, but a tinier bit of pressure remained. Something felt like it was tickling the inside of his head, and then there was a sudden reconnection with his ears.

"Can you understand me now?"

Anthony opened his eyes and shriveled his face at the realization that the dragon-man thing was talking to him in perfectly understandable English.

"Uhh," the man stammered, "what?"

The dragon repeated his question, this time enunciating slowly and clearly.

"Can. You. Understand. Me?"

Anthony shifted his eyes left and right, wondering if someone was playing a prank on him. "Yes?" he said doubtfully.

The dragon clapped his hands together. "Fantastic! You critters have evolved to the point where a translation chip can interface with your brains!"

"What?"

One of the dragon's long ears twitched. "Oh dear, that's not the only thing you're able to say, is it?"

Anthony tilted his head slightly, and his mind started working now that it appeared he was in no danger. Rather, he glanced sideways again and frowned, half-expecting a crew of cameramen to jump out and tell him he was part of one of those stupid television shows where they screw with people for fun.

He analyzed the dragon, looking for any obvious indication that he was a man in a costume. "This isn't some sort of joke, is it?"

The dragon seemed relieved. "Oh good, you are capable of intelligent speech. Hello, I'm Zackary, Zack if you'd like!"

The man kept rolling his eyeballs around, looking for hidden cameras. "Umm, hi. Anthony. Am I on a show or something?"

"Show? What do you mean? I was supposed to be going to the Andromeda galaxy, but I'd decided to take a scenic fly-through of a particularly cool looking nebula. Did you know your Helix nebula has Ferutizers inside it?"

"Ferutizers?"

"Yeah, space leeches. My ship is made of bio-organic self-regenerating metals, so those guys had latched on and nearly sucked her dry. Luckily your planet was close by, so I used the atmosphere to burn them off her hull. But she needs a lot of rest to fix herself up from the energy drain and the crash. It's okay though, she's got all the nutrients she needs from the soil around here, I made sure to check the landing site for it, but it'll be about a week before I can take off again."

Anthony was giving the dragon a blank stare until he realized he should've said something. "Umm, okay then."

"Great!" The dragon started hovering his clawed hands in front of the man's face. "You know, Anthony, your species looks a lot like the Alorkin. Actually, you guys look pretty much identical, except for the long pointy ears like mine, which actually I inherited from my dad." He set his hands down to his side. "Hmm. Your face is less fair, but I like the rougher look."

Anthony was a bit intrigued, but he still was convinced this was all some act. Without anything else interesting to do, he decided to play along. "So these Alorkin are space elves or something?"

"Elves?" The dragon tapped his chin with a claw and pondered for a moment. "Hmm...yes, I suppose that's accurate."

"And your dad was one?"

"Yes."

"So...why do you look like a dragon?"

"Did I say my mom was also an Alorkin? Nay, I don't believe I did. My mom's a dragon, duh. Actually, she was the reason I was cool with crashing here."

"Huh?"

Zack's eyes looked up. "Well, you see, my mom told me stories about this planet sometimes. Our race of dragons, well her particular group of them at least, had settled on this planet a couple thousand years ago, but then these primitive primates started evolving. You, I'd guess, but anyway, they'd decided to leave some hundred years ago after half the world wanted to kill them and the other half wanted to worship them."

Anthony mused over the explanation and concluded that the ruse was rather elaborate if he'd been prepared with such a story, but he continued to play along. "So," he said, "your mom was a dragon, and she was alive those hundreds of years ago?"

"Oh yes," Zack replied. "I don't know what the average lifespan is here, but galactic medicine can extend most organic lifespans to about one or two thousand years, depending on the original longevity of the lifeform and the lifestyle of the particular individual."

"Uh huh," the man mumbled. "And how old are you then?"

"Ah, just around fifty five."

"Oh, okay, fifty five. Your father was some sort of space elf, and your mother was a dragon. I don't even know how that's supposed to work, but okay. That's great."

"Good, this is going good! And yes, Alorkin DNA is incredibly extraordinary in the universe because of its adaptability. From what I understand, which isn't really much since I don't really touch biology, their genetic code has an excessive amount of chromosomes, about five hundred, I think, and they're filled with junk code which gets jettisoned depending on how many chromosomes the other person's gametes possess. Naturally, that means they can successfully reproduce with more than half the species in the galaxy."

Anthony looked on with increasing skepticism. "Like dragons?"

The dragon raised a finger and pointed a claw up, which Anthony now noticed wasn't particularly sharp. It was white, but it was rounded like a fingernail. "Precisely!" Zack went on. "There's just a handful of requirements. Genetic code of the partner has to be DNA, not XNA or RNA or whatever. Helical structure is not necessary, but the number of chromosomes has to be less than or equal."

"Of course, that makes perfect sense," the man said.

"Oh, fantastic! I thought you'd flip out or something, but you're really taking this quite well! I've read about some first contact experiences which really went awry."

"Right," Anthony said, his voice growing ever more sarcastic, but the tone lost on the dragon's reception.

"I knew everything would be alright, though. I was detecting satellites and computer networks while on my approach here, so I knew the humans my mom had talked about had evolved to attain at least class three intelligence. Still had my cloaking device on, but it only blocks detection from radar and stuff, not actual visual sight. Couldn't afford that, you know, what with just graduating from my university two years ago, but I'd crashed down somewhere remote to try and avoid that first contact stuff. Didn't expect to meet anyone, actually, but this is great too."

"Understandable," Anthony said. He really was bored and had nothing else to do today, so he figured he might as well keep going along with the joke. "So, a week for repairs, you said?"

"Yes, give or take a few days. The life support systems are also regenerating, so the atmosphere inside my ship is pretty deadly right now."

Anthony shrugged. "Well, if you'd like, you can lodge in my cabin for a few days."

Zack gave him a big wide dragon grin. "That would be wonderful!"

With that, the two started walking back. Anthony pointed his flashlight downwards, and the moon helped guide their way through the dark. Anthony watched the dragon's movements along the way, and he did not like what he saw at all.

The smoky grey scales on him were too real. They didn't look painted on or plastered on like scale armor. The dragon walked fluidly and naturally, his arms flowing with his legs without any of the awkwardness a man in such a costume should've possessed. His tail swayed lightly, keeping himself balanced as if it were second nature, and his wings showed not a trace of wiring or illusion.

When they'd traveled within eyesight of the dimly visible cabin, Anthony could tolerate no more of the whole nonsensical situation. He asked the dragon to stop and lower his head for him.

"Why so?" Zack asked.

Anthony pointed at the top of his head with both his finger and his flashlight. "Your hair is supposed to be white, no? There's some black spots on it, I think you've got some bugs up there."

"Oh, okay." The dragon lowered his head. "Do check them out for me, please."

At the first opportunity, Anthony dropped his light and grabbed one of the dragon's horns with one hand and started tugging hard. His other hand clutched a batch of his silky white hair and started pulling on it.

"Oww," the dragon said, shaking his head to try and get the man off him. "What are you doing?"

"This joke has gone on far enough," Anthony said. "What kind of dumb show am I being played on? I am not going to sign any release forms for this. Damn it, did your makeup artist superglue this horn onto your skull or something?"

Zack experienced a flash of insight, and he realized first contact would not be so simple after all. Anthony wasn't doing anything permanently hurtful to his horn or his hair, but the hair pulling was particularly painful, and he was forced to do something to get him off of him without hurting him terribly.

With his head still held low, the dragon saw an opportunity for such a disarming strike. He balled up a fist and restrainedly struck a vulnerable spot Alorkin possessed, hoping that the human would share the same vulnerability.

The blow was successful, and Zack felt his knuckles collide with two soft organs which signaled that the human's reproductive anatomy was designed the same as his father's and his own.

Almost immediately, the pain on top of his head disappeared. His attack had been extremely effective, but then he heard the human cry out and grab his wounded testicles through his soft shorts.

Evidently, the human's gonads were much more sensitive to pain than either an Alorkin's or his own. Zack almost immediately felt a rush of guilt and issued a round of apologies.

"I'm sorry, sorry, I'm sorry," he said, "I should've hit you softer, but you were really hurting me."

Anthony huffed and rolled around on the ground for nearly a minute before his breathing seemed to return to normal. "Oww," he said at last.

"I should've known, I'm sorry," the dragon said. "I knew you were acting odd. Believing this was some prank was a coping mechanism, gah, it's so obvious now, sorry!"

Zack didn't know what to do, so he picked up the fallen light, pointed it downwards, stood still, and apologized profusely until the man recovered from the pain in his abdominal area.

"Alright, alright," Anthony said. "You can stop apologizing, I'm okay now."

Zack offered one of his hands. "Let me help you up, at least."

The man grunted and took it. The sensation of smooth scales rubbing against his palm did not go unnoticed, but the time for panicking had long since passed.

Instead, Anthony leered at the alleged alien and bore neither a smile, a frown, nor a frightened gape. "So you really are a space dragon man then, huh?"

Zack presented the flashlight to him and nodded. "That would be perfectly accurate from your point of view, yes."

The man took his light back. "Okay," he said. "Alright. There's only three possibilities I can think of. Either your getup was made by someplace like Weta, or I'm dreaming. The first possibility is a bit of a stretch, I don't think anyone would spend that much on a dumb joke, and I think the second one isn't true either because a nutshot isn't supposed to hurt that much in a dream."

He sighed. "So I'm left with one conclusion. You're telling the truth."

The dragon smiled amicably. "Acceptance after denial and anger, okay, I think you're reasonably convinced now. No more hair pulling, alright?"

"Alright."

Anthony led his guest into his cabin, his flashlight leading the way. In the entrance space, which would've been the living room in a normal home, was an old couch his father had lugged up into the mountains many years ago when he'd still been a kid.

The time had passed so quickly, and he tried to prevent his mind from wandering into the past. He was just a little kid back then, his father taking him on a camping trip. He had been infallible to his young naïve eyes, his strong father who had moved the couch off his truck and into the cabin all by himself.

And then he grew up. With every year, his dad became older and older. He'd turned from his towering immortal guardian to an old man who needed a walking stick to make it across a shopping mall, and he had to be one to take care of him before he'd suddenly passed away.

Those memories always threatened to emerge when he stared at the couch too long. Sometimes, in the witness of nobody, he'd cry for his father. It would inevitably lead to more grief and more pain from the loss of his mother.

So when he gestured towards the old couch, which was imprinted with curves from use over many years, he kept his mouth moving to prevent his brain from gathering enough processing power to access those painful memories.

"You can sleep on the couch," Anthony said. "It's not the most comfortable thing in the world, but you're not lodging at a five star hotel."

Zack flopped himself onto the couch, his body covering the entire length, and draped his wings around it. "It's quite alright," he said. "I was expecting to sleep outside on some dirt anyway, so this is a huge improvement."

"Glad to be an improvement," the man replied. "I don't suppose it's night time where you're from?"

The dragon let out a yawn which may or may not have been fake--Anthony could not tell. "Close enough," he said. "The fumes from my ship are making me sleepy anyway."

"Okay," Anthony said. "Do you sleep for long?"

"Well, that depends on what you think is long. Dragons love sleeping, but Alorkin can go days without it. I get moderation from their genes mixing, five or six hours. You?"

"Ah, eight or nine."

"Okay, I'll see you in eight or nine hours. And thanks again for harboring me!"

"Yeah," Anthony said, "no problem."

While his father had moved in some more modern furniture like the couch to improve the interior of his grandfather's make, he had never gotten around to hauling up beds. Instead, he'd just used an airbed which was laid bare upon the wooden floor. It wasn't uncomfortable, not by a long stretch, but it was nowhere near the luxury of a true mattress.

As he forced himself to slumber, Anthony expected that when he woke up again, the sunlight would reveal the dragon to be nothing but a hoax or an illusion generated by a tired mind.

His dreams were tantalizing. He dreamed of traveling to distant worlds, and of living more than a thousand years. His visions were colorful, like an artist painting with an infinite palette, and the worlds he imagined held beauties which his home could not compare against. Someone else was always with him too: the grey dragon alien who was his guide to the galaxy and the universe.

And when he woke up in the morning, that talking charcoal grey dragon was still in his cabin.

Zack was sitting on the couch, his wings tucked neatly with their claw-like upper tips locked around each other. There was what appeared to be a black shoulder bag lying on the floor--it was clearly not his, so evidently he hadn't noticed the dragon wearing it at night. Otherwise, the grey alien was awake, and apparently he was reading a book from the pile he'd brought with him when he moved in.

Anthony's eyes looked at the dragon's gaze and then followed it to the book to make sure he was seeing things correctly. "A-are you reading that?"

"Aye," the dragon replied. "Oh! I'm sorry, do humans have a code of conduct for sharing? I just assumed since I was an invited guest and all that it was okay to look through some of these."

"Uhh, yeah it's fine. But how are you reading those, shouldn't they look like scrawls to you?"

"Oh yeah, you only know about the translator chip. I've got ocular implants too, quite marvelous things. They translate text for me using protocols similar to the translation chip. Have you guys invented video games yet?"

"Yeah, why?"

"The implants give me something similar to a heads-up display when I want it. Night vision too, I actually didn't need the portable light you had."

"That's pretty cool," Anthony said. "I don't suppose I could get those implants too?"

"The translation implant would be okay," the dragon replied, "but the other features might be too much for your brain to adapt to. You'd have to ask a professional about that."

"Alright," the man said. "So how exactly does this translation chip work? I mean a wolf on my planet couldn't possibly be called a wolf on, uhh, wherever you're from."

"Olisis Four, that's my home planet. But good question! The translation chip is actually wired into your brain and can detect what you imagine and think so it can communicate with my chip to relay the appropriate translation. So what you call a wolf, I actually hear the correct word in my language, and I'd actually have to manual override my chip to tell you what it would be in my tongue. But just to be sure, you're talking about a furred animal, quadrapedal, canine, paws, fluffy tail, muzzle, etcetera etcetera. In my tongue, that would be called a bolktnik, but I had to override the chip to say that. From your point of view, you'll automatically always hear that translated as wolf."

"Okay," Anthony said. "I guess that makes sense."

"Good! Ah, now you've got me thinking about wolves. There's actually a bipedal bunch of them on the planet Arino Sal. Really sexy race, I think. Actually had sex with one in my university."

Anthony's eyes twitched. "Uhh, what?"

The dragon scanned the man up and down. "Oh, oh, oh! I'm sorry! I didn't notice you were wearing clothes. You see, there's so many races that don't wear clothes ever, wear them for fashion, or only wear them for utility! I've simply forgotten to notice, but that's my fault entirely! I've forgotten a rule of sociology--make the normal strange."

"Sociology?"

"Yes, yes, sociology. Surely your species has evolved far along enough to create a science out of social interaction?"

"Yeah, we have sociologists, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Everything! I'm a purveyor of sociology, studying the similarities and uniqueness of as many civilizations as I can!"

Zack reached into the black bag on the floor, pulled out a cylindrical object, and pointed it at Anthony, eliciting a flight response which involved him ducking.

"What are you doing?" the man shouted. "Don't shoot!"

The dragon opened his eyes wide and pointed the device upward. "Oh! Relax, I'm just performing a quick scan. This isn't a weapon or anything, but it is interesting that you'd assume so. Just a Universal Information Detector. Most of its functions are useless really, but I just want some temperature comparisons right now. It also works as a universal screwdriver."

"A screwdriver?"

"Yeah, you know, for screws. And nuts, bolts, rivets, that kind of stuff. Can I scan you?"

Anthony stood up slowly, but his hesitation was lost as he thought about the situation some more. Surely the dragon alien would've killed him already if that was his intent, so he let the dragon do what he wanted. "Okay," he said.

A green light swept over his body as the UID gathered whatever the dragon was looking for..

"Aha! I thought so. Body temperature is ninety-eight point six degrees--yes, before you ask, the translator chip also converts measurement units automatically to your own favorite ones--odd you didn't ask about time measurements last night, then again it was night and you were probably tired. But anyway, the ambient air is eighty degrees flat. You're warm-blooded like I am, so you're wearing clothes for modesty, then, aren't you?"

Anthony, upon hearing this statement, was suddenly aware of the fact that the dragon was entirely nude. In fact, the man had only noticed that the alien was a dragon so far, but his eyes snapped towards the creature's genital region and saw that he was in fact a male possessing two well-proportioned testicles like he himself sported between his legs. He blushed, and his own old clothes felt heavy as their existence asserted themselves to occupy a part of his awareness.

The dragon noticed the man's bashfulness and took effort to repair the damage he had done by stepping over what was clearly a societal boundary in this human's life. "Oh, pray do not worry," he said. "It is actually quite a common norm in class three species. Much like nonsense religious superstitions, but some of those even pervade into class one species. But I'll not talk about that, religion is not my particular field of interest."

Anthony let the logic flow of his technician brain take over, and he supposed that it was true that clothing shouldn't make sense to wear if it was not for protection against heat, cold, or abrasive objects. Actually, the alien's point of view made much more sense than the one he had been raised to see.

But was so nonchalantly talking about sex also not a big deal in wherever the dragon had come from? That was a little more difficult for him to digest, but here the creature was with his balls out on display as an invitation for any prospective deviant to molest.

He felt a lot hotter after thinking about it, and he thought that perhaps there was much merit to at least the criticism of clothing, but he still didn't know what to think about the openness of sexuality the dragon was suggesting was the cultural norm out in the rest of the galaxy.

Really though, he was sure he would just shake his eyes and wake up. Perhaps one of the berries he'd eaten had been poisoned and he simply didn't match their description correctly, but he hadn't eaten enough to kill him.

Or maybe he had. There was a humanoid dragon who had crashed in a spaceship standing right in front of him, after all, and perhaps heaven was playing a little game with him.

Regardless, the dragon did not disappear when he thought his existence to be suspect, so he decided he might as well go along with it. Besides, the dragon had been a talkative fellow, and company was something he hadn't experienced for quite a while.

His subconscious mind urged him to ponder upon another thing he hadn't experienced for even longer, and it forced his eyes to snatch another quick glance at the dragon's genitalia.

There was a pair of balls there, like one would expect from an anthropomorphic animal, but there was no obvious penis. The scales on his hide, however, seemed to have a discontinuity right above his hefty gonads.

Peculiar, but he supposed it would be like reptilian anatomy and the penis was hidden within the slit between his scales.

"So," the dragon said, "are you alright then?"

Anthony shook his head and looked back into the dragon's eyes. "Huh, oh, yeah?"

"Okay. It was actually rather fascinating watching your eyes. You were thinking about things, obviously, but then you started glancing at my crotch. Any reason why?"

The man was flustered again by the directness of the dragon's question, but his technical mind realized that it was actually precisely what a sociologist would do, and some faint echo of his voice reminded him that he was one. Just from outer space and all that.

"Sorry," Anthony said. "I've been living alone up in these mountains for several weeks. You're a sociologist, you can do the, uhh, social math."

"Ah, I see. Don't worry about it then, it's a perfectly natural physical reaction to desire sex after some time of abstinence."

The dragon was incredibly blunt, and though Anthony knew he'd figure it out he still winced when he told him such direct words. "Yeah," he said bashfully.

Zack could see the discomfort rising in his new friend, so he tried to divert the topic to something else. "Say," he said, tucking his scanning device back into his bag, "why are you up here by yourself anyway? Some sort of forestry job, cataloging maybe?"

"No," Anthony replied. "It's not by my choice, but it was the best solution to my problems."

"I don't suppose you'd be comfortable elaborating on those problems, would you?"

"Umm..."

For several seconds, a battle raged in Anthony's mind. On one side, he didn't want to open himself to anyone, especially not an alien who might not have been who he said he was. The other side begged him to let out his feelings, speak, rant, and let loose everything he would not share with anyone before he'd moved out of civilized life.

His heart felt heavy, but the logical side of his brain told him it would be healthy to unload, so that's what he did. "Okay," he said. "I'll tell you why I'm up here."

Zack listened as the man told him his story. He said not a word until he was done, not a single word even when it looked like he was on the verge of tears when he told him about his parents.

When Anthony finished telling him his story, Zack resolved to do two things. One, he'd offer him a ride off his world, and maybe they'd travel together for a while if the human wanted to stick around with him. Two, he'd give him a hug.

He acted upon the second resolution first, leaving the offer for later, and let the poor man feel companionship for the first time in over a month.

Anthony was more than eager to accept the hug, the dragon's presence assuring him that there were still positive things in life.

Still, the last time he'd felt arms around him was nearly a year ago, before his mother had become bedridden. Gods, he thought he had moved on since her death was not a surprise like his father's had been, but he couldn't stop his eyes from leaking. They watched the old couch as they cried, their tears falling upon unfamiliar but most welcomed shoulders.

Anthony did not feel scales or bashfulness from touching the dragon's bare body. He only felt the presence of another person who cared about him. This one simple act implicitly told him who he was.

It didn't matter what he looked like. It didn't matter where he was from. He had more sympathy for him than any of the doctors who had treated his mother and tried their best to pretend like they cared about him. He cared more about him than any of the government workers who had tried to help him with his bills and apply for federal aid simply because he gave enough of a shit to ask him about his life and comfort him.

That's why he held onto the dragon's body and kept crying for a good long time. A stranger he'd known for barely a few hours from fucking outer space cared more about his life's story than anyone other than his parents had.

The bloody dragon from a god damned galaxy far far away was already better than all the fake boyfriends he ever had. They'd never hugged him like this. They'd only snuggled with him after they'd gotten the sex they wanted. They'd pretended to listen to him, but they had never really given two shits about him.

"Gods," Anthony whimpered, "I'm sorry. I can't stop. Sometimes I feel like nobody would notice if I died. Please don't judge--"

"Hush," the dragon said. "It's alright. I can't even pretend to understand what you're feeling. I've never known loss like yours, but you can cry on me for as long as you need to."

And so he did.

---

"Wow, these elves really do look like Alorkin!"

Anthony let the little portable DVD player keep on rolling the movie they were watching. "So your dad really was a space elf, then?"

Zack grinned. "It is so, to your eyes truly, there's no better way to define them."

The sun outside started setting and dimmed the lighting in the entrance room. Anthony disconnected the solar charger from the DVD player and let it continue playing the movie trilogy they'd be watching until either they finished or the battery died out. Considering the fact that they were only in the middle of the first movie in the extended edition trilogy set of the Lord of the Rings, it was obvious the batteries would go out first.

Six days had passed since the dragon had crash landed right into his life, and he'd done what he could to show him a little slice of what he possessed of humanity's creativity. There were few things he had not sold to fend off his bills, but some had been too precious to part with like the special DVD sets he'd brought with him to the mountain. Other things he had kept because of practicality. His collection of books, for instance, had been far too difficult to find buyers for, considering their well-used condition, so he'd decided to bring them with him for when he needed to pass the time. It had been a wise decision on his part--the loneliness forced by his lifestyle gave him plenty of free time to read, and the books only needed sunlight to access.

As they read, watched movies, and maintained the daily upkeep of the cabin and food stocks together (which was easy since the dragon's stomach was immune to the poisonous pickings from the forest), Anthony and Zack dropped their boundaries, letting each other scoot ever closer with each passing day. By the second day, Anthony had nearly completely forgotten the fact that the person he was opening himself to was a dragon and an alien.

By the fourth day, he had found himself trying to steal glances at the dragon's crotch far too many times.

When night engulfed them and the portable DVD player's screen died out, he found himself snuggled deeply against the dragon's scaly belly. He hadn't even realized he had sunk into such a position, and he found himself unwilling to leave.

Zack let the man rest upon his body in silence for some time. The heat between them grew as seconds passed into minutes.

The dragon truly felt for his new companion, despite the sympathy in place of empathy, and he chose to at last convey his offer.

"So," Zack said. "I wanted to ask you something."

Anthony jerked his head, hopeful that the dragon would ask him about the incredibly pleasing warmth passing between their bodies. "Yes?"

"Well, I was thinking." His throat made a gentle humming sound. "If you have no family here, and nobody else...once my ship is done healing herself, would you like to come with me?"

"Oh!" the man replied, even more enthused than he would've been if he'd asked about the other thing. He stood up and started jumping with joy. "Yes, a thousand times yes!"

Zack got off the couch with him and smiled. "Great! Fantastic! Would you mind, though, if I wrote a journal about you?"

"A journal?"

"Yeah. I've been mulling it over in my head for a day, and I think it would be a great sociological experiment to have a transplanted single man from a class three species experience the wonders of the universe. Of course, I don't mean to say you'd be like a lab rat, but rather an actor and I'd be the cameraman. Don't take it the wrong way either, I would like you to come because I rather like you."

"I--yes, of course you can." The man let the last thing he'd said sink in, and then he had a short debate in his head.

The dragon rather liked him? Good god, Anthony had stronger feelings than that for him. Should he say it aloud? Perhaps the dragon felt the same way, but was like him and afraid to say it.

Nothing would be gained from being timid, so he grabbed the opportunity by the horns.

"And I want to go with you," the man said, "because I think I'm falling in love with you."

A few dreadful seconds fell. Anthony's heart felt heavier and heavier as he waited for an answer.

Zack came up to him after the terrible silence and gave him a big dragon hug complete with wings. "I--look, I like you, but I don't want to rush into things, alright? It's not you, I mean it. I've never been in a serious relationship before, and I don't know if I'm ready. Give me some more time."

Anthony's emotions stirred as he heard those words, but negativity never surfaced. Instead, he felt a sort of strange contentment and acceptance. It was actually rather refreshing to not hear faked words--an honest "I don't know yet" in place of a lying "I love you too" assured him that this relationship would not end up like the others he had.

Zack's emotions were also tumbling about. He had noticed the human grow intimately closer to him with each passing day, but he was unsure about how he felt about it. He wasn't lying when he had said he liked him, but he was definitely not on the romance level yet.

And it wasn't because of any particular fault on Anthony's side either. Zack believed he was still far too young to tether himself to another, to choose a mate--such thoughts had never dwelled in his head at all, and all the sexual relationships he had been in so far were simply for fun and relief.

Yet here this human was standing before him and bashfully professing his love. He was strong for living out here alone, but his heart was so terribly vulnerable, and he felt a compulsion to shelter him under his wings.

Zack blinked. He had screwed around for so long, enjoying the bachelor life. He went where he pleased, his parents' affluence fueling his whims, and pretended to travel around to planets for sociological studies as an excuse to continue screwing around. He thought a mate would end the status quo, the aimless meandering, and he was afraid of it.

He still was. "I can't promise anything," he said. "You know, that, uhh, love stuff. It's really not on my to-do list, and I can't say whether or not I'll grow into it."

Zack nearly choked as he spoke. He realized a bit too late that he was giving the man false hope, and it could be disastrous for his state of mind if he stacked further rejections in the future.

"Okay," Anthony replied. "I understand."

Perhaps a small concession was in order, Zack thought. The idea was definitely agreeable to him, especially since he believed the human was rather physically attractive--his rough face and toughened physique was something he preferred over the fairer appearance of the species his father belonged to.

Besides, he had not been oblivious to all the signs that the human wanted it too. He didn't really need all the other signs; what he'd said about his living alone had been enough for him to deduce Anthony's desires.

That said, the lewd glances and ever elevating smell coming off the man made it clearer than a Narwok at a reputable restaurant. He wanted sex, and he was fighting his body for modesty.

It had nearly been a week, and Zack had not relieved himself either out of respect for his friend's social qualities. Their developing closeness should've made it less awkward by now, but he wasn't sure what was proper on this alien world. Still, that biological need, combined with his analysis of the situation, drove the dragon to throw out another offer now.

"However," Zack said, "if you'd like, we can have some fun. No commitments, just some simple stress release."

Anthony took a few seconds to understand his meaning and decide. "I think I'd like that," he said. "What do you propose?"

"Ah, just some simple clean oral, yeah?"

"Umm, okay."

The dragon smiled. "I'll start you off first, but you've got to at least take off the shorts."

Anthony started blushing, but he stripped off more than was required. He set his flashlight down on the table and let it stand upwards, illuminating the room dimly but adequate enough for what they were going to do.

Zack felt his heart begin to pulse hard when the man presented his bare naked body to him. Blood felt like it was rushing through his body, warmth flowing quickly towards one particular area between his moderately toned legs. The human's appearance was definitely one of the hottest bodies he ever had the pleasure of admiring. In fact, he swore only the wolf from Arino Sal he had fooled around with in his university made him feel as aroused as he was now.

For nearly half a minute, the two nude beings stared at each other, basking in their alien and unique bodies. Zack was treated to quite a show and watched the man's external penis stiffen and grow until it was fully erect while his sensitive dragon nose smelled the very noticeable increase in male musk permeating throughout the room.

Anthony, on the other hand, barely saw the black tip of his partner's cock emerge from that nearly seamless slit between his scales before the friendly alien kneeled before him, his wings draped as if their owner was pleased to serve.

And a pleasure it was! Zack genuinely wanted to make the human feel happy. He had been a friend and a great help since his crash landing, and it had really hurt to hear the pain and sadness he had gone through. He had offered to guide him to the universe the same way he had guided him through the culture of his people, and now he was offering himself as a friend who would help him with his troubles, but still he could not think of offering himself as a mate.

Yet he would still strive to be the best friend he could be. He inhaled deeply, soaking his nostrils with the scent of the human's sex, and then he took a moment to just look at it--a task rendered possible by the fact that his eyes were already naturally apt at seeing through the dark, but the ability bolstered even further by his implants.

It was simple and not at all unusual for a species which had not evolved in the direction of pleasure. The shaft was smooth but sufficiently long, and the tip was crowned with a fat glans--the shape of it all was rather utilitarian, but that didn't matter to the dragon.

After all, the real pleasure came from who he was sharing his sexual experience with, not from something so superficial like the size or shape of a penis.

He slid his tongue out of his mouth and began giving it short and soft licks, testing the flavor and texture of the smooth skin. He was encouraged to glide his tongue along in longer stretches as the sounds of pleasure entering his elvish-shaped ears egged him on to do more.

Zack flicked out the rest of his lengthy and flexible tongue. He snaked it around in loops around the length of the human's shaft until it was coiled protectively around it, the warmth, wetness, and unusualness giving the man a surge of exotic pleasure.

"Wow," Anthony huffed, "that's amazing."

"Mm," Zack grumbled from his throat through his open mouth.

The dragon squeezed his entire tongue, drawing a deep moan from the human. Encouraged, he tugged and rubbed, pulling the skin along the shaft back and forth as if his tongue were a hand. One of his scaly hands found itself lovingly caressing the human's balls while his other hand gave his own hardening shaft a few strokes.

The rhythm went on for a minute before the dragon was done teasing his partner. He uncoiled his dexterous tongue and slipped it back into his maw, garnering himself a disappointed whine from above.

"Oh gods," Anthony whimpered, "why'd you stop?"

"Because of this."

Anthony's legs shuddered as he felt the dragon's warm maw engulf his cock, his tongue dancing around it like it was a delectable treat. He was grateful that the dragon was experienced, and not a single bit of teeth was felt on his sensitive member.

Zack wriggled and sucked, the entire length of his friend's shaft fitting inside his muzzle, and he sniffed and took in more of the musky scent around his nose. His hands both moved to feel up the man's body, one constantly fondling his soft balls while the other gliding along his legs and thighs.

Their movements continued, the tempo ever increasing. Faster they went until finally Anthony's need to release took over his body, and he grabbed a hold of Zack's horns to make sure he wouldn't pull off.

The dragon didn't mind at all, and he was pleased to feel the man's balls finally retract away from his scaled hand. The cock in his mouth throbbed once, giving him a small drop of fluid, and then came the rest.

Zack gulped down the human's salty cum, the taste rather appealing to him. There was, sadly, nowhere near as much as he'd produce, but he loved it all the same. He kept his muzzle shut around the throbbing cock until it was spent, and then he tried to pull off it.

"You can let go now," the dragon said as clearly as he could with a cock in his mouth.

Anthony released his grip on the dragon's silver horns. "Sorry, sorry! I got a little bit carried away. That was amazing."

The dragon pulled his snout back and looked up with a cheery grin. "I'm glad you thought so."

"So," the man stammered, "uhh, can I, you know, reciprocate?"

Zack stood up and kept his smile on. "I'd welcome it. Just, ah, you should know that I'm a lot more, uhh, productive than you are."

"Oh," Anthony said, blushing once more. "I'll try my best."

The dragon took a step sideways and flopped down onto the old couch, his wings lazily hanging over the back of it. "I'll sit down so I won't stain the floor. Just remember if you can't take it all, then point it at my chest so it doesn't get all over the couch either."

Anthony kneeled down and approached the dragon's crotch, titillated by the prospect of touching an alien's sexual organs. His knees pressed around his tail, which was dangling right in front of the couch, and his eyes followed it up like it was a directional guide to his sex. "Yeah..."

Zack was rock hard by the time his friend's head was hovering close to his thighs. The man could see that the dragon's cock was several shades darker than his scales--it was almost pure black--but he could barely make out the details of its shape with the dim flashlight set on the table behind him.

Gods, a small part of him was screaming at him that this was all insane. He'd just been sucked off by an anthropomorphic dragon, and now he was about to return the favor. The rest of his mind, however, told him it was alright. Zack was a good friend, better than any of his own kind had been to him, and it didn't matter what he looked like.

He loved the dragon, and he wished one day he'd feel the same for him.

Nonetheless, a task was now set before him, one which he would perform with gusto. Once he gave up trying to see the details of the dragon's cock, he realized how large it was compared to a human's. It wasn't horrifyingly huge, but it was a few inches longer than his own.

"Umm," he stuttered, "it's really big. I can't even take a human dick without gagging."

"That's okay," Zack replied. "Just do your best."

"Alright, here goes."

Anthony began by licking along it the same way the dragon had started with him, but he soon found himself immensely curious by what his tongue was telling him about the shape of the delicious spire of meat it was tasting.

He brought his hands up and pumped it slowly, feeling every strange piece of detail and texture. There was clearly some sort of scale-like pattern on the underside, almost like an extension of his frontal scales, and the top of it was lined with what felt like four ridges.

The man felt his ass shiver as he thought about what those fleshy textures would do to his anus, but he knocked the idea out of his head. Focus on the task at hand.

Right, the big black dragon cock in his hands needed all his attention. He took the tip, which felt like it had a thinner tapered version of a human's glans on it, into his mouth and suckled it.

His hands were also not idle. They swapped places between the lower part of the dragon's shaft and his balls, the large sperm factories protected by a scaly sac which was actually much softer than he'd expected it to be.

After a few minutes, he tried sliding Zack's mating tool along his mouth sideways to make up for the fact that he couldn't deepthroat it or pull out any tongue tricks, but it ended up being rather awkward and tiring.

"Gah," he grumbled. "I'm sorry I'm not good at this."

"Hush, nonsense." Zack patted the man's hair in encouragement. "You're doing great."

Anthony redoubled his efforts and sank his mouth over the dragon's cock again, vigorously swirling his tongue around the top parts as best as he could. His hands pumped the rest of it with just as much enthusiasm, and pretty soon they felt another exotic feature grow at the base of his cock.

A knot. Gods, Anthony couldn't stop himself from imagining the dragon lying on top of him, slamming his large shaft's knot against his tight little hole. The man felt himself harden again as the fantasy played out in his mind of Zack slamming back and forth until his knot finally broke into his well-used ass.

Lost in his fantasy, he was glad to receive a warning to snap him back to reality.

"Get ready," the dragon huffed. "I'm about to cum."

Anthony lifted his head up until only the head of the dragon's cock was inside his mouth, giving him plenty of room to take in his seed. His hands went down around the bulging knot and gave it a forceful squeeze, eliciting an especially loud moan from Zack.

All the signs passed. The dragon's balls retreated to launch their contents, and the rest of his body stiffened. His wings involuntarily opened, and his tail raised up enough to touch Anthony's inner thighs.

Hot fluid splashed into the human's mouth, more than he would've ever expected even with the dragon's warning. He swallowed the first batch, enjoying the foreign taste, but could barely manage the second pulse. He choked on the fourth and had to pull off, letting the rest of Zack's hefty load blast onto his dense belly scales.

Anthony finished coughing at about the same time the dragon's cock stopped spewing out anymore cum. "That was a lot," he said.

The dragon sighed as his afterglow washed over him. "Heh, yeah, sorry. I was a bit pent up. I guess I'll have to head down to the river to wash up."

"No, that's alright. I'll clean you up."

"You'll clean all of th--"

Before the dragon could finish his question, Anthony was all over him, licking up all the cum he had spilled.

"Wow," Zack exclaimed.

"You taste really good," Anthony replied with a grin.

Once the dragon's scales were clean, the man sat next to his friend on the old couch and stayed close to him, their bodies' warmth touching each other again.

"Can I sleep next to you tonight?" Anthony asked.

Zack hesitated for a moment, afraid of the ramifications of his answer. One would give further false hope, but the other would hurt him now. He, like most people in his situation, decided to deal with it later. "Yeah," he said gently, "that would be fine."

And so Anthony went to sleep lying on the dragon's lap, hopeful for a bright and wonderful future. Zack let himself drift off to sleep as well before he could critically think about his situation: the man resting on his lap was pulling new emotions out of his heart that he was afraid of.

Maybe he was ready for a commitment. Maybe not. Some more time would tell.

---

Another few days passed by like they had before, some with more sexual gratification than the others, and then the day came when Zack returned from his ship with a dopey grin.

"She's fixed," he said.

Anthony was sorting another batch of fruits, but he dropped the last orange-colored oval he was holding. "So it's time, then?"

The dragon nodded. "Whenever you'd like."

He went over to a drawer and pulled out a key. "Well, if it's my last day on Earth, I might as well use up all my cash and whatever fuel is left in my car. Would it be alright if I went down this mountain one last time?"

"Absolutely! If you could buy more books, I'd love that."

"Heh, I don't think there's a good bookstore within my car's range, but I'll get whatever's at the supermarket. Just, you know, it probably won't be as great as what I've already got up here."

"There's a lot of insight that can be gained from looking at not only at the best of what a particular society has to offer, but also the more mundane and common. I'd welcome everything!"

"Alright, I'll get everything my stash of money can buy." Anthony nearly laughed when he thought about buying him some of the tabloids they usually have at the check-out aisle in a supermarket. That would've been most embarrassing, but he was curious what he'd have to say about them.

Heck, when he'd come back from the supermarket, he almost didn't want to give them to him. He'd gotten out of his car and stumbled into his cabin, wading through another twilight, and was surprised to see that the dragon had already moved everything important out.

There was just his flashlight left on the table, so he grabbed it and went back into the car. He thought about the path, and he decided that he could drive it to the crash site, but the car would likely never be able to be driven out again.

Not that it mattered in the slightest. Sentiment made him not want to lose his car, but there would be no need for it where he was going.

He drove it to the silver box, his high beams making the drive much easier, and he found the bus-sized space ship right where it was supposed to be.

The side ramp was open like it had been when the dragon had stepped out of it. He parked the car, grabbed all the bags of stuff he had bought from town, grumbled about the travesty of going from reading Charles Dickens to news about Justin Bieber, and trotted over to the ramp.

Zack popped his grey head out when he was about halfway to the ship. He saw Anthony and went out to help him with the bags.

"Did you already move everything from the cabin into your ship?" Anthony asked when the dragon had taken half the bags.

"Yep! Everything that looked important, anyway."

Anthony chuckled. Nobody but an alien would've thought his old books were important. "Cool! Let's get to space then, shall we?"

"Aye. We just have to make a stop at my doctor's office first to get you disinfected, immunized, registered with the Intergalactic Directory, and maybe get you some implants."

"I hope that's more pleasant than it sounds."

Zack laughed. "Doctors are unpleasant on your planet too?"

"Long wait times, mostly. A lot are impersonal too. And rough."

"Mine's good, but that's why the wait time is super long. Still, we gotta go, and you definitely need to have your lifespan extended too."

"That's, uhh, great. Around a thousand years, you said before?"

Zack nodded. "I hope you'll make it to two, but one will probably be the most for a relatively primitive species. No offense meant, of course."

"Still a long time," Anthony said. "This is going to be fun."

Without even realizing it, Anthony had set his bags down on a sofa inside Zack's ship throughout the course of his conservation. He looked around and realized he had walked inside already.

Evidently, nothing had been damaged in the crash. The interior of the ship was well-lit and looked practically the same as the interior of an RV, complete with a sofa, a kitchen, what appeared to be a bathroom behind a half-open door, and another room in the back where a bed must've been located. The front of the ship obviously had a screen showing the outside, which the man noticed was hidden from the outside, and there were two seats set in front of two yokes for controlling the ship. There were plenty of panels and blinking buttons, and he was uncomfortable with even approaching the cockpit.

"Yeah," Zack said. "I know, it's rather spartan. Mom and dad will pay for fuel and food, but they try to discourage me from continuing my sociology work by refusing to pay for anything else. So I've got an old ship instead of something fancier. Still, she's got it where it counts!"

"Hey!"

Anthony twitched his head over to the cabin where a female voice had shouted out. "What? Does someone else fly with you?"

"I can hear you, you know!" the young female voice yelled.

"Sorry," Zack said. "That's the ship's AI. Her name's Mary. She doesn't like the fact that she's stuffed in a junker like this, but mom had bought her for safety reasons."

"I can hear every single word you're saying!" she shouted.

The dragon pointed his muzzle at the driver's seat. "Yes, I know dear! This is Anthony, by the way!"

"He looks nice enough," the ship replied. "Can we get off this rock now?"

"Yeah yeah, we'll go soon." Zack turned back to face the human. "Sorry about her, she's a just antsy about being programmed into a ship without a hologram projector for herself to physically manifest. And it has buttons instead of fancy float-screens and stuff."

"Why don't you write a thesis or something, whatever you sociologists do, and get a better ship?" Mary shouted.

"Be thankful mom paid extra for the regenerative biometals," Zack called back. "Otherwise we'd be stuck on this rock for a very long time."

"Bah," she replied, "just hurry it up!"

"Alright then," Zack said. "You ready, Anthony?"

"Nothing else to do here," the human said. "Go for it!"

"Great! It'll take me a minute to get her started up, so get settled in."

Anthony smiled at him. "Thank you. Thank you so much for all of this."

The dragon waved a claw at him. "Mahh, you're welcome! Don't worry about falling or anything, she's got pretty good inertial dampeners. Closing the ramp in ten seconds!"

Anthony took those last seconds to peek outside and look up one more time at his night sky. "I'll see what you really have to offer now," he whispered.

The ramp closed in, sealing the human behind the confines of the spaceship, but opening the door to his nearly infinite future.