FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Greetings dearies,

This story breaks my norms by a wide berth. It has anthros and mice and sex and kissing and...oh my! Why did you do that, you silly kitty? Because I had no choice! They came out of the walls, tied me up and dragged me into a torture chamber. "Write," they told me. "Porn or your life. Time to choose!" So I made my choice :P

Oh shush. That version sounds more exciting than the real one. But if you insist on knowing, this story has been crafted at the request of darkkoon, who was awesome enough to commission me. Yep, he's my first, and it has been a pleasure to work with him so far. He provided the main ideas; I merely expanded upon them, so if you wonder who the brain behind this little gem is...well, I'm the wrong guy to look at :D.

Now, this story particular chapter features incest between two brothers who go through quite an adventure together, and it will not happen in a single chapter because...IT'S TOO DARN BIG! There's also kissing and hugging and love and all the jazz that goes with gay couples. I hope you'll tag along as they venture in unknown territories and explore all manner new and exciting things ( sexually or not :P ). *That's all I can tell for the time being without getting you fat on spoilers. *

If you like the story, fav it. To authors, they're better than cookies. Trust me. Comments, suggestions, corrections? Please unleash them in the comments section and I'll answer them immediately.

Darkie, I hope...no, I KNOW you had a blast with this chapter. I trust you're prepared for the following ones, because things are about to get 110% more awesome.

Written by Cheetahs

Commissioned by darkkoon

****

A gorilla charged at Matty. He swerved to the side to avoid the incoming hologram, stumbled and almost fell.

At least it worked. The burly ape passed by him in a flash of light, recovered the ball, and kicked it towards an iguana on the far side of the football field.

Matty sucked in a deep breath and brought a hand to his sweat drenched brow. That was close.

"Heads up!" A shout came from Eric

Matty looked up. The ball filled his vision before it slammed hard against his chest. Matty staggered from the impact, gasping for air while the same gorilla from before turned around and dashed towards him. Matty raised his arms to brace for impact, forgetting that the hologram aimed for the ball, always. The gorilla swept Matty's legs from beneath him with a translucent kick. The sensors in the suit tightened in its wake, and a shock pierced his skin.

Matty fell on his bottom, slid on the fake grass, and ended on his side. Pain flared in his ribs, and all he managed was a cough over the "GOAL!" shout of the damned simulator.

"Time-out!" Eric shouted.

The bots stopped their victory cheers and hugs and gathered around Matty instead. Whoever programmed them made their sympathetic expression have the opposite effect. Those raised eyebrows and thin, straight lips scorned at him, implying, "What a whiny, pathetic bastard you are."

Eric shoved them aside. Unlike Matty, the bots recovered their footing with an artificial grace. Apart from one. Eric singled out the gorilla, clutched its shirt, and punched in straight in the chest, sending it several feet across the field.

"Fault!" The machine bellowed. "Eric Rayne is one fault away from being eliminated."

"Oh, shut the fuck up," Eric said before turning towards Matty. "It's the last time-out brother, and they just rammed the carrot tighter up our arses." He stretched his hand forward. "You gonna stand for that?"

Matty looked at the bots--holograms that moved faster than him, kicked harder than him, and never lost their footing, then back at Eric. His sweat drenched short cropped hair gave him an intimidating look. Matty shuddered, and a jolt ran through his butt cheeks, sore from one too many falls.

He nodded, grit his teeth against the pain, and accepted Eric's arm. His squeeze was firm, and his pull strong. Matty was hurled into Brother's embrace, a warm yet hard thing. He coughed from its tightness.

"Let's do this," Eric said. His breath tickled Matty's ear, and he shivered.

He pushed Matty away from that ripped body, with arms the size of tree trunks, taut pecks and a six pack that rippled through the slick ebony fabric of the suit. Easy for him to say when he juggernaut his way through the bots.

"Fine," Matty said with half a mouth. "Let's show 'em." How good at falling on my butt I am, he thought.

"You'll have the ball. Pass it to me when Gorilla and Husky come for you, then run as fast as you can to their gate. I pass to you, you pass to me, and I score. Always works."

It never did--or well, never as smooth as brother said it. Matty opened his mouth to dispute his questionable strategy, but Eric didn't wait. He pat him on the shoulder, smiled, and turned towards the bots.

"Resume," he shouted.

The bots assumed their customary positions. Two forward, four in the middle, two behind, one in front of their gate, and a goalkeeper. They stood still as statues, waiting for Matty to put the ball in motion--no, for the field sensors to detect the ball, and forward the information to the algorithm that made up the bots. Eric treated it as a normal sport, but Matty couldn't shake off the science behind it.

He took a deep breath, then kicked the ball as hard as he could. It didn't leave the ground. A Corgi trapped it under foot, and sent it flying to a jaguar that dashed towards Matty and Eric's gate. Far on the other side, Eric began a mad dash, shoving the bots aside in his wake. Matty ran towards the jaguar, too slow to make a difference. He kicked straight for the gate.

Only, there was no "GOAL!" shout. Their goalkeeper, the only bot in their team, caught the ball and hurled it towards Matty. As it loomed closer, Matty closed his eyes and pushed his chest forward to catch it.

The impact burned, and he staggered before securing the ball under his heel. The jaguar charged, and Eric was too far to receive it.

Matty reached under his right sleeve, pressed his makeshift cheat button, and kicked the ball forward. The jaguar reached his side and tried for a feint, but his arm passed through Matty. He smiled at that. With the sensors in his suit deactivated, the bots were nothing more than ethereal holograms. They still nudged at the ball--it had sensors of its own, but Matty only had to kick it forward and dash through them.

The gorilla from before blocked his way. Matty kicked the ball through its oversized legs and hurled himself forward. An iguana and a red panda flanked him. He moved the ball from one foot to the other while their kicks passed through his ankles. Baboon, panther, Corgi, Fox ahead. They converged upon him, and Matty kicked the ball towards Eric. Without a single bot bothering him, he caught the ball midair, strode forward, and kicked it towards the empty side of the gate.

"You're a cheater and you should feel bad about it," the feminine system voice came. Lights burst across the field, harsh and painful to Matty's eyes. The bots cheered, saluted, and vanished into nothingness.

"Whatever you say, miss Circuits," Matty whispered under his breath on the way to the exit. Fourteen falls, a forfeited game, and a frowning Eric. Matty didn't feel that good about the latter. He wiped the sweat off his brow and dipped his head when he appeared at his side.

"You could have told me about it," he said. Matty shuddered when an arm coiled around his neck and pulled him into Brother's oversized shoulder. "Why wait so late into the game?"

"I don't--I don't really..." he trailed off. His mouth was parched, his breath heavy, and his temples throbbed from all that running. Whatever reply he prepared for this moment vanished.

"Because I could've use that scissor move to score instead of a simple kick! Totally worth it, little brother."

Eric always manifested his mirth with a well placed fist in Matty's chest. He did so now, and Matty groaned under the blow. "We'll do it next game. And you gotta fix my suit too, to pass through those bots like you did."

"You already do that," Matty mentioned.

"Nah, that's not it. This is like, being a ghost and all."

Matty smiled and shook his shoulders free of Eric's weight. "It's cheating, and you're already a pro football player."

Eric grabbed a water bottle from a rack and emptied it in several gulps. "Was. But you're missing the point. This is not football. This is chasing lights on a training course. Gets repetitive bro. He grabbed a second bottle and tilted it towards Matty.

He shook his head. "Yea, I trip and fall every time. I get what you mean."

"That's not what I meant," Eric said.

"Yes you did."

"No I didn't."

"Yes you--" Matty scrunched his eyes shut when Eric's hand delved into his hair. He squirmed to no avail under that too strong grip.

"It's only you who sees it that way."

Matty smiled wryly at his unfounded optimism. "Whatever you say, Eric."

Eric shook his head and exited the Football stadium. Matty fell in behind him. He felt more comfortable being led. Besides, walking at Brother's side made him look like a stick figure by comparison. He didn't want to be reminded yet again of the stark difference between them. The football star and the cheater.

Good thing the Sports and Recreation deck had narrow and squat corridors. Eric did not like to speak unless face to face, so they shared no words on the way to the showers. That avoided a ton of awkward glances and the weird post-football topics.

A door slid open to the right. Eric motioned Matty forward, as if it was the first time they walked through their ship's decks.

"Which one did we use, again?" Eric asked when the door shut behind them.

"Jungle cascade."

Eric scoffed. "Whatever happened to normal showers." He began working out of his suit.

"Hmm?" Matty shook his head to awareness. "What's that?"

"The shower," Eric said. He freed his arms, bulged muscles rippling through his caramel fur. "It's some weird shit bro. All we miss is some feral baboons to scrub our backs while some jungle voodoo shit plays in the background."

Matty nodded, unable to draw his gaze from Eric's now exposed abs. So perfectly sculpted, with tight pecks hovering above the furrows separating each tiny square of iron hard muscle. He had punched them once, only to have a sore fist afterwards. "Baboons live in the savannah, not the jungle, but yea," he said. "Practicality before redundancy." He shifted his weight from one foot to the other as a shudder ran through him. His cock stirred within its confines, and Eric unclasping his leggings only made his erection more painful.

His gaze shifted to him suddenly, and Matty froze. "You speak weird again. Shut up and remove your suit."

"Right," Matty said, then turned around to undo the clasps and zippers of his suit. By the time he reached his groin, his painful erection died down and his breath returned. His cheeks still burned with equal parts lust and embarrassment, but that couldn't be helped. Unless... unless he talked and stalled!

"The probability to encounter another planet with anything more than prokaryotic microorganisms is less than 2%. There are too many factors to take into account. The atmosphere's composition, proximity to a star, the star's gravitational pull--there's a whole amalgamation of criterion that makes up the prerequisites for finding other intelligent life forms."

"I don't speak geek," Eric grumbled from behind. "And hurry up, darn it. Do I have to undress you myself?

The blush returned with a vengeance_._ He bent over and worked on the laces of his shoes. "This quest's a fluke. With this ship--which is more of a capsule, really--we just float in an ocean, hoping to come across an island--no, make that a buoy. We needed something with a Venus anti matter propulsion system, a Telari navigation system--they have the most advanced xenoanthropological tracking systems--"

"Yea yea, this and that," Eric intervened. "Come on already. I'll get a boner from your striptease."

Matty gulped hard. "Unless we bring proof of this mission's success, the funding will be minimal."

"Then we'll win the intergalactic football championship, you and me. Plenty of funding from that." Eric laughed.

Matty didn't. Once out of the suit, he felt frail, weak and exposed. At least Eric didn't glance his way.

His butt throbbed when he took a step forward, and he had to wobble to the shower cabin. It took all his willpower to keep his gaze forward and not chance a glance at Eric's mousehood. He already lost a game. He didn't want to lose this battle of will as well.

Eric entered first. Even his ass was firm and stone hard. Matty bit his lip as blood welled once again within his cheeks and his heart fluttered.

"I can't get over this weirdness."

"Us in the same shower?" Matty blurted out.

"Nah, that's mutual benefits. I mean this." He sprawled his arms for emphasis.

True, the Jungle Cascade looked far too exotic. Once inside, the alternate reality sensors kicked into motion, and what seemed like a normal shower cabin from the outside became the luxuriant basin of a waterfall. Rocky layers covered in moss made up the too tall shore and hot water rushed from above in a gentle torrent. There were even reeds up above.

Matty waded through the knee deep water up to the center of the waterfall, where Eric basked in the spray. "I thought you did not like the water pelting your..." he trailed off and bit his lip. Curses, he almost looked!

"I'm good at pretending. Why couldn't we use the Volcanic lake or Glacial river?"

"They take more energy and use more water than this one. The water purification process discards one third--"

"We're running out of water, I get it. Which is why I can't get over this fancy waterfall shower bullshit."

Matty licked his lips and approached his brother. Eric tensed when Matty put a hand on his shoulder, but didn't open his eyes. He kept his head aloft, allowing the water to drizzle down his body. Matty sighed, brought his other hand to his brother's back, and ran his fingers through his soggy coat, massaging rather than rubbing. Every muscle in Matty's body tightened. His balls hardened, and his cock flared to life.

"Don't tell me you're still thinking about the game," Matty said. "I cheated, yea, but--"

"First world problems, that." Eric mumbled. His stiff posture relaxed somewhat, though his arms remained rigid. "It's what you said about xeno whatever. If we find a planet and go down there, we'll have to suit up. Like, space suits that weigh more than our fat mother."

Matty chuckled, but Eric kept going.

"It's not glorious exploration like those fools at the Space Patrol make it sound. It's survival. We have laser and shit, but that doesn't mean much, especially when you don't use guns."

"Says who, a voice in the intercom?" Matty objected.

Eric fixated a stark eye on him. "Your knee or foot before you shoot it by mistake." He paused to sigh. "It's easy to panic. Easy to make mistakes, even when you have a brain the size of a planet. And if we're split, you need to take the hard way out. No bullshit cheating, no pouting over how pathetic your body is." Matty yelped when Eric ruffled his hair. "You handle it by using your strengths."

Matty's jaw stiffened. What has gotten into Brother? Why now, of all moments? Matty rolled his eyes, then lowered his gaze to a thick, pulsating shaft.

"You looked," came Eric's smooth, deep voice.

Matty's eyes shot upright. "That's not correct!" he blurted out. "I saw it without looking."

Eric smiled; a wide, elegant smile under those piercing brown eyes. "Excuses. You lost, and what I want from you is..."

Matty gasped when foreign fingers wrapped around his cock. He tensed in their tight embrace and sucked in a sharp breath.

"To stop whining," Eric added.

Matty grit his teeth, following Eric with the corner of his eyes. He moved around Matty's sides and disappeared behind. A second muscular arm curled around his torso while the gripping hand slid forward, then back. The warmth and tightness of Eric's grip made Matty squirm in his brother's embrace.

"It's only you that sees ugliness within yourself. I see a perfectly shaped head." His free hand ruffled his hair, "Lean, athletic arms," it slid down his neck and across his left arm, fingers kneading at bone rather than muscle. "You may have to work here," he clutched one male boob, "and here." Matty wriggled when Eric reached his gut, yelped and giggled. It freakin tickled! "But we're on it. I won't give up on you, no matter what, so don't give up on yourself. It's fucking rude bro."

Matty tilted his head to glance to the side and met Eric's lips instead in a curt kiss. Matty drew back. "My bad."

"Your good," Eric said. "Preludes are useless. I want it, you want it," he emphasized it with a stroke that made Matty moan. "Let's get on with it."

Eric assumed his rear position. Matty felt his abs tight against his back, the comforting weight of his chin propped against his shoulder. Only one thing missed. Matty swished his tail from side to side, tightening and loosening his butt cheeks in anticipation. He leaned his head to the side to plant a kiss on Eric's petite nose. "Well? Where is it?"

Eric replied with a long, passionate kiss. Matty melted in his strong yet gentle embrace, nipping at Eric's lower lip before their tongues twined. A warm shiver crept through Matty, and his cock tensed and throbbed in its confines. His hips bucked, and he thrust into Eric's hand with a moan. Eric did the same, and pulled Matty closer to him with his free hand.

Both gasped once the kiss ended. Matty staggered due to the pent up pressure within his loins and leaned upon a frowning Eric.

"I can't get it up," he said before Matty had the chance to ask. His grip around Matty's trembling sheath vanished, letting his member bob up and down in wide, painful arcs. "Fuck. That's what thinking does to me, Matty. Makes me..."

Matty bit his lip at that and turned to face his brother. Rather than listening to his words, Matty went to his knees and swallowed the shriveled cock. Eric staggered on his feet, cursing for a short moment before a gasp drowned his words.

A few tongue teasing, a short suckle, and Eric began expanding more than Matty's mouth allowed. He choked when Eric's throbbing length poked at the back of his throat, but made it up by wrapping his tongue around the flared tip. Then he licked and licked over his brother's moans, brushing the area right behind the tip with his tongue. His treatment rewarded Matty with a shot of tasteless pre that he quickly swallowed.

"That's--that's too much Matty," he slurred.

Matty already knew it from the intensity of his throbs. Eric jerked within his mouth, pushing and pulling while spasms wracked his length. He squirmed for a fair bit until Matty nibbled softly at the edges of Eric's bulge.

That was more than he could take. Eric cried his release as his cock swelled and stretched Matty's cheeks to their limit.

He then burst with the might of the waterfall above them. Matty caught the thin, stinging jets against his tongue, tasting the sweet, savory seed before swallowing it with hungry gulps. He slurped the last weak spurts from Eric's shrinking length before it left his mouth with a wet squelch.

He got onto his trembling feet to face Eric. His breath was hard and his eyes glazed from the afterglow. "I do not--do not know how you can do that with your teeth," he said through panting breaths. "It's...it's..."

Matty sealed his mouth with his own, wrapping his arms around that perfect torso into a passionate hug. He shivered in Eric's strong grip, and his cock shot up. Eric's hand found it with practiced accuracy and clutched it so hard, making Matty whine like a helpless pup.

"Bet you can't last more than ten strokes," Eric said once he ended the kiss.

Matty gasped in reply when the first stroke came. It stopped at the tip, where Eric kneaded the bulge with short nudges. It made Matty squirm and Eric chuckle.

"There's only one muscle that matters, Matty. The one you won me with."

Matty nodded. He didn't fully understand what he said, for he didn't fully listen. It took all his willpower to contain the pressure building within his groin and to breathe. If he forgot breathing, Eric won.

He put his resilience to the test. One thrust. Two. Three. It seemed to work at the start, yet Matty's willpower enlarged disproportionally to his cock when Eric's strokes picked up. His clutch tightened around his tip, loosened when Matty drew back, then tightened again. Eric practically milked him, chuckling whenever Matty gasped and moaned and yelped. He bit into his lower lip to suppress his moans, but he didn't feel pain. Only pleasure. Burning, overwhelming pleasure.

His hands wrapped around Eric's when he couldn't hold back anymore, and he thrust forward in unison with his brother's strokes. Nine, ten, eleven....

He erupted at twelve, moaning and whining as his cock writhed within Eric's hand. Ivory, creamy strings burst through his fingers to dribble into the water below.

"You lost...the bet," Matty said before crashing into his brother. Eric gathered him up and pulled him into a hug. "Yes, and the favor is this." He leaned to whisper into Matty's ear. "I won't be upset because of the football game anymore."

"You said you weren't!"

Eric shrugged his massive shoulders. "Maybe I lied."

Although spent, Matty punched Eric's abs with all his might. His weak fingers twisted upon one another, and he cried in pain instead.

Eric laughed. "Nah I didn't. You can stop hitting yourself now."

"I'm not hitting myself!" He tried a second punch with his left hand, but Eric only grunted.

"I'll teach you how to punch after we eat if you stop."

"Fine," Matty agreed. "But I still have a favor to ask."

"Like you need favors. There's nothing I won't do for you." Eric leaned in to kiss him, but Matty bit his lip instead. He drew back with a yelp, frowning. "The fuck was that for?"

"For lying about a lie."

A smirk appeared on Eric's face, and he tackled Matty before he had the change to blink. They crashed in a heap of limbs and cries and tails, emptying half of the basin. Matty sat onto his bum, shaking his dizzy head while Eric splashed water upon himself. Matty brought his arms up in defense, but Eric chortled.

"We'll keep the splashing for next time."

"Promise?" Matty asked, just to make sure.

"Only if we kiss on it."

He did, and got to call in the favor for the best back and tail scrub ever.

Once dried up and dressed into fresh uniforms, they made their way to the cantina. Matty wobbled as the soreness of his ass returned with a vengeance, while Eric took the lead with a proud gait. Blow jobs always did that to him.

"You work that food printer while I go through today's schedule and maintenance over there, on the table."

"Read it out loud," Matty said. He turned around, but not before catching that wry smile of Eric that said 'you gotta be fucking kidding.'

"Look at the stars, read some numbers, go remove a panel to check on some wires, sleep."

"That was yesterday," Matty said.

"Maintenance note says it got merged with today and the rest of the days." He placed the tablet--no, slammed it on the table. Matty whirled on his heels at the thud, scowling. "Careful with that. We don't have a spare one."

"Like we need it. Every day here is the same. Do this, do that, times one hundred thousand." He cupped his face in his palms and tapped his foot.

What had gotten into him? Matty thought on the way to the food printer. The thing was a panel--everything on the ship was a panel. Matty fumbled through the rack above it and took out a sheet of proteins, one of carbohydrates, one of lipids and inserted them into the printer's slot.

"Which fake food do you want?"

"Something without the paper taste," Eric said.

"Pizzas then. They have the cardboard flavor." He selected them on the printer's touch screen and the machine hummed to life. In a matter of seconds, two pizzas materialized on the inner trays. Matty pulled them out, put them on two wide plates, and shuffled towards the table.

"First request, first served." He slid the plate to a grumbling Eric across the table, took a seat opposite to him, and took a shallow bite of the frigid thing. It truly tasted better when cold, mainly because it didn't have a taste.

"So, how comes we don't ever warm our food? Not that I'll do it but," Eric took a mouthful of his pizza, swallowed hard, and brought his arms up, "we didn't even try."

"The heater never worked. The technicians didn't check the scintillating hessonite core. It's more a useless mineral, to put it short, because they went cheap on the ships--capsules," Matty corrected himself. He took a second bite, chewing hard and fast. The bloody thing acquired a gooey consistency in the presence of heat and moisture. It was like swallowing phlegm with cardboard taste.

Eric too struggled with his food, his expression varying from wry to scrunched nose to raised eyebrows and wide eyes when he swallowed with a groan. "How come nobody discovered it before you did?"

"Nobody took this ship out there. All they do is check the engines, the arc reactor core, and the rest of the important machinery," Matty said. He dropped his head on a fist and sighed. When they returned home, he'd apply for a maintenance overlord position and figuratively kick some sense into those more-robots-than-monkeys.

"You remembered how we dreamed of this?"

Matty nodded and forced himself to take another bite. He could count the number of sheets left. Once out of food, cardboard pizza would taste better than anything.

"Huge ships. Alien technology. A mission bigger and more important than ourselves." He paused, opened his mouth to continue, but took a bite instead. "We'll do it the second time, Matty. I'll see to it."

Matty shook his head. "Wish it worked like this, brother. They only reward the ones who make a discovery. Be it a floating turd of a foreign species, an asteroid, a moon, a planet. It's all luck based."

Eric slammed a fist upon the table so hard the plates rattled. "So lemme get this straight. If our luck sucks, like it did so far, for the next whatever weeks we have left, we go home empty handed."

"Experience counts for something. And the galaxy patterns. Some indicate--"

"That monkeys and primates and whatever resembles them should've remained feral and swing poo at each other," Eric intervened. He took a deep breath, but said no more.

Matty's temples too throbbed as blood rushed through him. "We're space mice to them. You know, the feral sort of rodents they used to send into space in capsules. Read that in a history book before the Awakening. That's before the Telari--"

The tablet buzzed to life with an obnoxious "Proximity alert." Matty spat his pizza before he choked on it and Eric jumped in his seat. "Display," Matty said.

A hologram burst from the tablet, sprawling across the table to show a type C planet. Matty ignored the machine's ramblings and focused on its atmosphere composition. Nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, argon. Variable water levels and everything within normal boundaries. His heart leapt in his chest.

"It's--it's Terraformed already," Matty said.

"It's split into two sides. How weird is that?"

"Soil composition has enough minerals and water, although the latter is less dense, probably due to the increased atmospheric pressure. Life forms unknown, with high possibility of sapient ones."

"Are those craters?"

"Charts," Matty commanded. "Bring up the periodic table of elements, filter out the ones that do not match." Only a few obscure ones remained highlighted, with 8 new ones marked with red slots. Matty's jaw dropped. This planet, however weird it looked, seemed quite similar to Terra at first glance. Unusually so.

"Full scan. Preliminary results--"

Then, everything folded within itself and disappeared into the device. A voice crackled to life, harsh and raspy. "Capsule XY32, do you copy?"

Eric lunged towards the device before Matty. "Who's speaking?"

"Capsule XY32, you received a proximity alert detailing a high priority object. Mission Control has taken the liberty to assign its vectors to your pilot."

"Repeat that. I can't hear you over the sound of you sounding like a deranged--"

"Capsule XY32 reporting its resource parameters, equipment, Space Patrol profiles of Eric and Matthew Rayne," Matty shouted.

"As well as their elevated opinions on the lousy Mission Control technicians," Eric shouted harder.

"Unable to comply," the tablet system voice said.

"Capsule XY32, repeat your last request," the voice rasped.

Matty placed a hand on Eric's shoulder and gave him a pleading look. Eric sighed, but swung the tablet sideways when Matty reached for it.

"A warm dish of mashed potatoes and a fat juicy steak."

The tablet brought up a hologram of the meal, its nutritional value, possible salads and assortments. Matty turned beet red from embarrassment and cupped his face in his palms while Eric fought to keep his squeaks from bursting into full blown laughter.

"Capsule XY32, you've been given a course. Report from topside once you make contact. Mission Control over." The voice died and the planet burst from the tablet. Eric drew back with a panicked cry and tossed the thing across the room. The hologram fizzled and dispersed into nothingness.

Matty grit his teeth, so hard his jaws seethed with pain. He turned away from his baboon of a brother and rushed to the mini control panel in the cantina. The information was still there, displayed on a screen so small Matty had to squint and still not see the values.

"It will take ME time to repair that, calibrate it, then hack into the records, erase your lines and modify them where necessary before they hit the archives and fuck you over worse than a gorilla in an intergalactic jail," he said under his breath when Eric appeared at his side. "You aggravated me, not them."

"I'm...I'm sorry brother," he said, still with the hint of laughter as he wrapped an arm around Matty's shoulder. He wanted to swat it aside, bite it, and punch it. What a simpleton his brother was, thinking a forced apology fixed it all.

It did. Matty sighed, grabbed his oversized hand, and smiled. "Totally worth it, big brother," he said. "It'll give me something to do other than masturbating."

"And me more time to masturbate," Eric added.

They both shared a laugh on the way to the main deck, where Matty pulled out a second tablet from the replacements vault. Eric's eyes widened, and his fist connected with Matty's frail arm. "You said you only have one!"

"Joke's on you for never having bothered to look," he said, barely suppressing the urge to rub away the soreness of his arm.

"How many days until we feel its grav--gravy--whatever pull!"

Matty chuckled. "Gravitational pull. One day with our current speed."

"Make it two," Eric said, his voice unusually stern.

"Mission Control will be notified."

"Have them not be notified."

Same hard gaze, same stiff posture, same voice. A shudder crept through Matty at Eric's intensity.

"What for?" he inquired.

"Science is not always accurate, however much you want me to believe it. What if something goes wrong?"

Another one of those... Matty's sigh became a yelp when Eric pulled him tight to his chest. "Listen, dear brother, just this once, even if you already know how this will play out due to the science behind it. What if it doesn't? I'll have you throw a proper punch, use an arc conduit or some defensive weapons if needed. Maybe even a pistol. Rifles require genetic codes to work and yours isn't in the database, but maybe we can sort something out," he said with a wink.

"I understand," Matty said, resting his head against Eric's shoulder. "I'll work with you, brother, not against you. Promise." He said what Eric needed to hear, as always. Science was never wrong.