FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Prologue

Alain didn't know the exact reason he was asked to come into the division head's office, but whatever it was, he knew it couldn't be good, He'd had enough heated discussions with his manager lately to be sure about that. The only reason they hadn't sacked him yet was because he was a damned fine engineer who could handle jobs others got stuck at. It didn't really surprise him when it seemed he was the only one with old school knowledge of the systems on interstellar ships.

He stared at the models of famous or specialised ships in a glass case when the secretary looked up from behind her screens. 'Mister Reyns can see you now.' she said and gestured at the door.

"Here we go." he thought as he stood up. "Have a seat, it's come to our attention that blah-di-blah, we had a talk with blah and blah, and to our regret we had to decide to let you go since it seems our working environment is too restricting for you. We hope you will find a more satisfying position elsewhere." He grabbed the door handle and pushed it down. "Yeah, that'll be it. Good bye and good luck."

The older chap in grey suit behind a neat desk gestured at the chair in front. 'Glad you could come. Have a seat.' he said with a warm smile that raised Alain's suspicions.

Alain sat down while casually glancing at bits and pieces of various disassembled systems decorating the office. Alain knew Reyns had less knowledge of hydraulic valves and electric switches than his own late grandmother but it probably served the purpose of impressing guests, the higher ups, and the new guys who had no clue about him yet.

Reyns leaned forward on his elbows. 'It has come to our attention that you're the most resourceful engineer we have here.'

Alain kept a straight face while mentally rolling his eyes. "Knew it. At least he starts with the compliment."

'We had a talk with your manager and he thinks you're not getting the job satisfaction that suits someone with your capabilities.'

"Just say honestly and directly that you're kicking me out so we can get on with whatever we have to do next." Alain thought.

Reyns leaned a little back. 'Which is why we'd like you to carry out a special assignment that has been requested by the government.'

Alain's train of thought hit the brakes and sparks rained from the wheels. 'A what?'

Reyns stared directly at the man with his unfaltering smile. 'How does being in charge of disassembling a warship in space sound?'

The train derailed. "You're transferring me!?"

01 - Touchdown

Alain manoeuvred the crew pod that would be his home for the foreseeable future close to one of the service hatches on the top of the warship Walkurea. He double checked the surface below the pod through the video feed, and fired harpoons at the bottom of the pod into the hull. The pod jerked as it reeled itself in on the lines attached to the harpoons and settled with a hollow clunk resonating through the structure. On the piloting console he checked the tension on each cable and activated the artificial gravity floor of the pod.

He unbuckled and took a few steps to stretch his legs after the long weightless journey to the crash site of the Walkurea with the Silth warship Amaroth. He peeked through one of the windows towards the front of the ship where the two ships had collided. The force of the impact had fused the two ships together through melted parts of the structure and they were virtually inseparable since.

Movement on the hull of the Amaroth told him the Silth were settling in on their warship. Two suits moved around their crew pod in what he expected their first inspection of their connection to the ship. After the Silth and Earth agreed on a tentative ceasefire the negotiations began on what to do with the combined wreckage. Both parties showed their distrust by accusing each other of spying if one or the other began recovery unless they were present. Neither wanted to have the other side use a large crew where one member could slip away unnoticed and sneak aboard the other's vessel, or attempt an attack on the other crew and take over the whole wreckage. Keeping an eye on everything by placing other warships close to it was undesired by the politicians as it could cause more tension and create a chance of escalating things at the slightest accident. In the end it was agreed to send a two man crew each with strict orders forbidding boarding the other warship while recovering requested parts from the ships. Sensors would set off an alert to both parties if that happened.

"And now I'm here on my own to do the job." Alain thought as he retrieved his suit to inspect his landing site.

Outside, he attached the two life lines from his suit to the safety rungs of the hull. These long rungs ran in every direction to prevent personnel drifting away from the ship while they were doing maintenance or any other task requiring them to be outside. Although the military officially forbade it, crews engaged in competitions now and then to see who could traverse a course laid out on the hull the fastest. The ones with the biggest death wish and need for attention did it without using the safety lines. The ones who were recovered after drifting away from the hull were transferred permanently to a planet based and extremely boring environment.

Alain gazed along the shaded long hull of the Walkurea from the aft section and the bulky structures used to house the various fighters and transport shuttles to the wrecked bow, and along the angled long hull of the Amaroth with similar structures housing their fighters and the launch and landing bays. The smaller structures were rows of missile launchers, gauss guns, and laser turrets. "So much destructive force." he thought and looked out at the stars and the one visible orange-red planet in a wider orbit in the solar system. "So much empty space, yet still two stubborn mules of captains had to cross paths here and compete in the size of their balls in a game of chicken behind the wheel of fucktons of metal." He sighed. "Different species, same stupidities."

He went around his pod and pulled on each anchor cable to feel the tension and examined the penetration of each harpoon. The hull didn't show signs of imminent rupture at each impact point and he continued on to the service hatch a little further away. The numeric access panel was lit, which told him there was at least partial power in this section. When the surviving crew left the warship almost everything was powered down to prevent fires or worse because the infrastructure received a system wide surge at the impact and blew up various components.

He typed in the access code he had to learn by heart and which provided access to all parts of the ship. That root code provided even access to systems and sections that even the captain's code wouldn't and Alain imagined working on the ship and smirking internally every time the officers came by and pretended they had more control than the lowly engineer keeping the ship running. "Who's really in control?" he thought when the panel lit up green and he pulled open the hatch. Emergency light strips lit up the ladder going down. 'Welcome aboard.' he said to himself and descended into the airlock.

More emergency lights switched on in the corridor below and gave him a dim view of his surroundings. It reminded him of scenes of sunken submarines, only without creatures of the sea swimming around and crawling in and out of various drowned sailor's orifices. He found a terminal console nearby, opened it, activated the local power circuit, and activated the gravity floor with the override button when the circuit lit up green.

He held on to the console while his body was drawn slowly to the floor and let go when his weight rested securely on his feet. A test run of all systems returned a positive result and he activated the environmental control, then took off his helmet when that lit up green. He took a deep breath of the cold filtered air and was glad ships like these carried a greenery to filter the smell of humans from the air, and planned to see if he could hook up the pod's filtration system to the ship and get rid of his own smell building up in the pod.

A cursory exploration of the section revealed it was a standard mixed section containing crew quarters, local mess hall, storage of goods and weapons, and independent support infrastructure. Medium and larger ships had been sectioned into independent parts for redundancy and survival in case of incidents, and in cases of military vessels, battles. The fighting between humans and Silth had proved the efficiency of the design.

The weapon storage had been cleared of weapons and ammunition during the disembarking of the crew and Alain was a little disappointed when he looked at the empty racks. He'd been assigned a pistol as an emergency weapon if the Silth did decide to compromise the Walkurea, or worse, targeted him, but if it did end up like that he liked to have something a bit more intimidating to wave around, even if he had no intention to actually use it. The little disappointment at that left quickly when he took a peek inside the mess hall stores and the amount of food left there. The status report he'd been given on the ship stated the cargo sections had been mostly emptied and thus of the main food supply as well, but it looked like they hadn't bothered to empty the well stocked section storages. He took out an oblong container from one of the compartments labelled ravioli and smiled a little. He wouldn't have to worry about food in the first place because his pod was stocked up for two people and the probes sent to retrieve the recovered parts would deliver supplies as well, but if a probe failed or arrived empty it wouldn't matter. Especially when he noticed the drinks cabinets and the amount of alcohol in it. Top brass had found out quickly that morale went down into the dumps if the military crew was forbidden to drink during their stay in space while civilian crews could, and had allowed a limited amount of alcohol to be used on journeys. Now he wouldn't have to worry about food or getting wasted if he desired to.

He returned to the pod with a real book he spotted in the corner of one of the crew quarters. Items like that were rare in space and it happened to be one he hadn't read from one horror writer he knew. He could end the day after writing the initial report with a good meal and a good book, and accompanied by a stiff drink.

***

Alain woke up and stretched as far as he was able to in the cramped space he slept in. He contemplated moving to one of the crew quarters but with the state the ship was in he didn't want to risk something going wrong while he slept and at worst locking him inside without access to food or water, or at best killing him quickly through asphyxiation.

He freshened up in the tight shower and picked something to eat at random while he went over the list of requested parts for recovery and sending back with the first probe that would arrive in fifty days. The initial list was made for two people to work on and he decided to take his time locating and disassembling the parts. He was confident he could do more than half on his own if there were no unforeseen circumstances but he wouldn't reveal that to his supervisors. He'd take full advantage of the fact he was sent alone and make clear things would then take more than double the effort compared to two men handling them. He would enjoy his time away from home and work at a leisurely pace.

He pulled up a schematic of the ship with the location of the parts, beginning at the front of the ship which could be the easiest target for the Silth to try and retrieve. The crews that went over the wreckage to retrieve the dead had reported they could see and enter the Silth ship through breaches in both hulls.

After finishing his meal he dressed up in his environmental suit, went over the check list to ensure it was in perfect working condition, and took the toolbox from its locker and headed out for his first day of work on the Walkurea.

***

He used his security lines to follow one set of long rungs leading to the front of the ship. At a safe distance from the impact he used another service hatch to enter the ship, and the section's systems check showed most were damaged and unusable. He drifted his way through the damaged and slightly warped corridors by the light of the suit's torches until he ended up at the very front and the sight of space through cracks in twisted walls. Through them he looked into the similar twisted and torn structure of the Silth ship. He couldn't imagine what had gone through the people who were there at the time of the collision. His light shone on a fuzzy piece of thick cable but when he looked closer he recognised it as the severed thin tail of a Silth.

He averted his eyes quickly and looked at the identification numbers painted on the walls. One of the weapon controller circuits he was supposed to retrieve should be somewhere close by and he focused on the search.

***

After the retrieval of the broken second item on his list, Alain went into another section and found himself at a slightly warped door behind which would be the next item. A quick examination of the door made him think he might still get it open and he hooked up the portable power source from his toolbox to the door motor. IT hummed as it tried to turn and Alain pried a crowbar into the gap between the wall and the door. With a few firm jerks by placing his feet against the edge of the wall and the force of the motor, the door slid open until it stuck again. The opening was large enough for Alain to get through though and he unhooked the power from the door motor. As he stepped inside he faced a tangled mess of half melted steel beams and ragged edges of plating with enough holes to see directly into the interior of the Silth ship and the Silth disassembling circuits behind a panel there under the light of its suit.

The Silth suit turned his way partially. Alain dimmed the torches of his suit and put up his hand in greeting while his heart beat faster in nervousness. 'No hostile intentions here.' he said even though the Silth could not hear him. 'We're all just colleagues doing the same job.' The Silth didn't move and Alain turned to the side where he expected to find the panel and circuits he was looking for. He started working as casual as he could on removing the panel and noticed the Silth had continued with his work. He figured the Silth must have had the same thoughts and wasn't surprised to see a human working on the most vulnerable pieces of equipment to be a target of espionage.

'One of the humans just entered the interior on the other side.' said Asitha as she turned to see the source of the sudden light.

'Hostile!?' asked Tiness, clutching the screwdriver she held.

Asitha watched the human put up his hand, pause for a moment, and then move on. 'Doesn't look like it. I think he just gave me a human greeting, and now it looks like he's going to work on the same thing we're here for.'

Tiness felt a slight nervousness. 'It's a male?'

'I don't know. I can't see the face in the first place and even then, when they're shaved it's sometimes hard to tell if they're male or female.'

'Ah, true.'

'I'm almost done here anyway so it doesn't matter.'

Alain noticed the Silth storing several boards into a sack and leave the compartment at the other side. 'All right, see you tomorrow.' he said. 'Say hello to the wife and kids for me.' He pried open the floor panel. 'Good to know there's someone to talk to way out here.'

***

Several days had passed and Alain checked the list of parts he had recovered with the order list. He hummed in satisfaction when he was ahead of his personal schedule. 'Time for some exploration.' he said to himself and pulled up the ship's schematics. He studied them for a while, then put on his suit and exited the pod with his tools.

He found the cables he needed in a section next to the one underneath his pod and went to work on removing access panels from the hull close to the pod.

'What's he doing?' asked Asitha while she brushed her red fur before going to sleep.

Tiness zoomed in on the human poking around and connecting cables to the Walkurea. 'I'm not sure. Maybe he's repairing a circuit.'

Asitha put her brush away and dumped her empty meal wrapper in the trash can. 'There's still no second human?'

'Do you suppose he's here all alone?'

'He can't be. They were supposed to send two people just like agreed in the terms of the recovery agreement. The other one must be working on the ship or still be inside the pod.'

Tiness turned back to her friend. 'But shouldn't we have seen at least a glimpse of both of them together by now?

Asitha frowned at Tiness. 'We still have to assume there's two of them. Maybe they work in shifts, or what could be possible a breach of trust, one of them is trying to gain access to the Amaroth in secret.'

Tiness's eyes went wide and her thick white fur tingled as her skin crawled at the thought. 'You think so!?'

Asitha leaned back. 'I doubt it somehow but we'd better do a perimeter check at our next shift to see if all the proximity sensors work as intended.'

Tiness nodded and continued observing the human on the Walkurea. She didn't really like the idea of a human male going around their territory.

Alain pulled gently on each cable to make sure they were connected securely to the ship's circuits and the adapters, and the connections of the pod's external access. Satisfied with his work, he entered the pod again, pulled up the pod's systems on his command tablet, and poured himself a drink. 'Gain physical access, hack everything.' he said and began typing commands into separate terminal windows.

Asitha and Tiness jumped up from their sleep at the light shock going through their crew pod. 'What's that!?' asked Tiness as she scrambled to the pod's controls to see if there was an emergency warning.

Asitha went from window to window to look for signs of an explosion or impact. She froze when she saw lights burning across most of the Walkurea. 'They've activated the ship!'

Tiness rushed towards another window and stared with increasing nervousness at the activity of the human warship. 'What's going on!?'

Alain chuckled at the output scrolling at one of the terminal windows. 'If anyone thought I'd be manually checking each and every section on the ship, they're fucking nuts.' he said and took a gulp from his drink, then typed in the next command.

Asitha and Tiness watched in horror when weapon bay doors opened and laser turrets went through their full range of motion. Tiness jerked away from the window 'They're going to attack us!'

Asitha gripped the edge of the window with her claws. 'That makes no sense! The ships should have no ammunition! It should've all been taken away during the rescue of the crews!'

'We have to call for help!'

'Wait!' said Asitha when all turrets returned to their parking positions and the weapon bay doors closed again. The lights from inside the ship turned off one by one and the whole thing went dead again. She looked back at Tiness. 'I think they were running a test.'

'Test?' she said and looked out the window again.

'If they really planned on attacking us they would've done it earlier.' Asitha said and turned away from the window. 'There would be no benefit to it anyway since it would just trigger another conflict. It also explains why they were connecting their pod to the ship.'

Tiness nodded and relaxed a little. 'They were just testing everything.'

Asitha went to her seat and sat down to get her weight off of her trembling legs. 'Those pludging shimacks scared the shaz out of us with their stunt.'

Tiness sat down in her seat. 'Yeah.' she said and sighed. 'Couldn't we do the same?'

Asitha shook her head. 'Unless you know a way, all I could do is connect cables to what might be the right ports, but that's all. I don't have the knowledge on the network core.'

Tiness looked over her shoulder towards the Walkurea. 'They're a big step ahead of us now.'

Alain looked over the filtered list of faulty equipment and wrote up lists of where to prioritise retrieval of components, physically check power sources, and the contents of mess hall storages. He also made a list of the greenery locations to see if it was possible to revive them and enjoy probably the most fresh air any human could breath without the need to set foot on foreign territory.

He looked out of the window next to him towards the Silth pod, wondering if Silth enjoyed being outside in nature more than humans.

***

Tiness pulled a warped panel from a wall at another impacted compartment. She couldn't stop thinking how creepy the scene around her was and feared something might give way and trap her for the few hours she could survive in her suit. Flashes of light startled her and she would have jumped up at the ceiling if her magnetized boots hadn't gripped the floor. "The human!" she thought while her fur pricked up at once.

Alain put up his hand in greeting again. 'Hey, how's it going?' he said. 'The coffee any good here?' With no reaction as expected, he went on with his own work.

Tiness watched him move over to the side and busy himself with removing debris in one corner. 'The human's here.' she said.

'Did he do anything?' asked Asitha over the radio.

'No. Just greeted me like he did you, I think.'

'Then we probably don't have to worry about them coming after us. They kept quiet these last days.'

Tiness took a deep breath. 'It must've been a test then.'

'I won't exclude other options but it seems most likely. Just keep an eye on him while he's there.'

Tiness looked at the human digging into the debris and scattering bits and pieces of broken and twisted metal, and brace himself to pull on something. 'I will.'

'Shit!' Alain said as he jerked on his crowbar to rip a panel from its hinges. 'Come off already!' He took a better stance against the wall and pulled with all the strength he could muster. He could have written off the item behind the panel from the list but for some reason he felt like taking on the challenge of retrieving it. He exhaled, took a deep breath, and gave the crowbar another fierce jerk.

The hinges broke apart and he shot back realising he hadn't activated his boots to clamp to the wall. His back hit his open toolbox and the contents burst out all over the place.

'Fuck!' he said and scrambled to catch the tools floating away towards the impact breaches.

Tiness flinched at the sudden violent changes in light from where the human was. For a moment she though he had a seizure or his suit had ripped, but then she saw him swimming frantically like a kitten for the first time in water after tools drifting from his toolbox. She watched as he tried to grab a screwdriver and only hit it into turning on it's axis, or grab spanners and pliers and try to sent them back towards the spinning and spilling toolbox. The way he desperately flung his arms around to steer his way around and try to collect his tools made her laugh.

'What's going on!?' asked Asitha, who stopped mid-work at hearing the sudden outburst of laughter over the radio.

Tiness giggled. 'The human somehow spilled all his tools all over the place and is trashing like a fighting kitten to collect them.'

Alain watched in frustration when several tools drifted through the breaches into the Silth side. He reached out for them but he only tapped one of them away. 'Shit.' he sighed.

Tiness saw the human hang on to the wreckage and felt sorry for him. Even though thinking logically, they'd had to have enough spare tools and they weren't a big loss, but she understood what it was like to have to lose even little things. She sighed, put down her own tools, and went over to the other side of the compartment to collect the human's belongings.

Alain feared the Silth was confiscating his tools but watched in surprise when he moved up to him next and held them out to him at the breach. He hesitated for a moment, then took them in his hands. 'Thank you.'

They stared at each other through their dark faceplates, and Tiness pushed back to get back to work, when the human quickly held up his hand again. He touched controls below his helmet and a light turned on inside his helmet, lighting up his face. The human gave her a smile and bowed his head, then mouthed two words. Her heart beat faster at the first time seeing a human's face for real up close. She hadn't expected to see any of them so close even though she knew she'd be working a job where they were near. She was pretty certain he was a male because she could see light hair growth around his chin, and his light coloured eyes and expression projected a friendly nature.

He turned his helmet light off again and it looked like he'd return back to his work, and Tiness put up her hand to stop him before she realised she did so herself. She swallowed and took a deep breath. She'd been taught humans were horrible creatures and they shouldn't be given any advantage, but something deep inside her told her this human wasn't the bad kind.

Alain watched the Silth turned on its interior helmet light and he held his breath at the white feline face looking at him with clear blue eyes. "They really resemble felines." he thought as he noticed the Silth's round pupils contracting to vertical slits from the light. The Silth returned a shy smile and looked away before turning the light off. He wasn't surprised at the urge to pet the Silth since he'd always felt that way at the sight of animals and chuckled. "Would that constitute an interplanetary incident if I did that if we'd ever really met face to face?" he thought. He held up his hand again, and pushed back to begin gathering the rest of his tools.

Tiness returned to her work giggling at the nervous sensation of making contact with a human lingering in her body.

'What's the human doing now?' asked Asitha.

Tiness looked at the other side. 'He's collecting his tools after I returned the ones that drifted over to our side.'

'Wait, you did what?'

Tiness giggled at the sight of the human trying to catch the rest of his tools. 'He looked kind of helpless when he couldn't get to them.'

'You should have left him be. Who cares about them losing a few tools.'

Tiness sighed. 'I know, but I couldn't help it after how he tried to chase them. I've seen kittens more successful at their first hunting game.'

Asitha chortled. 'Right.' she said. 'Finish your job, it's time to exchange air.'

Tiness returned her focus to the control box she had to recover. 'Yeah.'

Alain was glad to see he could easily disassemble the sensor array control circuit after spending all that time on returning the tools back to their correct place in his toolbox. He figured he'd had enough excitement and called it a day, and returned to the pod.

As he exited the service hatch near the front of the ship, he saw the two Silth standing on the hull of the Amaroth. He put up his arm and waved when it looked like they could see him, and was happy to see one of them wave back a little. "Who knows, maybe I just made a friend of an enemy." he thought and pulled himself along the rungs towards his pod.

'And here I thought you didn't dare to make contact with males, and now you're waving back at a human one.' said Asitha.

Tiness giggled. 'I know, it's weird. But maybe it's because there's a safe barrier between us.'

Asitha hummed. 'Maybe. I still don't trust them though, even at a distance.'

'It's not like he can do anything on his own.'

'If he's truly alone, and did you forget he activated the whole ship without a minimal crew available?'

Tiness nodded, there was still that fearsome ability he had shown.

***

Asitha and Tiness found the human working outside the hull at an antenna array near the impact zone while they were on their way to their work as usual. He greeted them with a wave and Tiness waved back. 'What's he up to this time?' said Asitha.

Alain noticed the Silth gazing at him and suspected they were wondering what he was doing. He pulled himself along the hull towards them and hung on to a protruding beam. He gestured at the length of the two ships, drew a large circle and pointed outwards, then made a fist and hit his open hand. 'Impact radar.' he said.

'A shield or something?' asked Tiness.

'No, I think he means to activate the detection of incoming objects.' said Asitha. 'We only have a short range detection system on the pod and can't detect anything from the other side of the ships.' She chuckled. 'Seems the human has an actual useful idea.'

'So, what are we going to do?'

'I don't have the skill to connect and set up the sensors of the Amaroth, so we'll have to rely on the human's goodwill and need to be thankful.'

The Silth bowed a little and Alain was glad to see they understood. He wasn't sure but it might be that they were glad to see him working on it. It wouldn't surprise him if their pod was as limited in its functionality and safety as his. He held up his hand once and returned to the array.

When the Silth passed by again much later he noticed both of them returned his greeting.

02 - Vostch!

The repair and activation of the sensors was successful and Alain looked proudly at the output and directional chart of the last couple of days. Only a few minor objects and they weren't coming anywhere near the ships. He folded the printout and slid it into his suit's external pocket and prepared for another easy day of work.

He guessed the Silth used a similar pattern for removing sensitive equipment, headed to the last location he'd seen them, and went around the area to see if he could pick up any sign of them on his pocket detector.

It displayed a target soon and a detour through a corridor that wasn't squeezed tight later, he saw lights from behind a couple of narrow breaches in another compartment. He waved his light and noticed the Silth turning towards him, then pulled out the printout and held it out through one gash in the twisted wall.

'What's this?' said Asitha when the human stuck his hand through the gap.

'What's what?' asked Tiness over the radio.

'The human wants to give me something.'

'Really?'

Asitha pushed herself gently towards the gap and looked at the folded paper in the human's glove. Carefully, because she still didn't trust him, she took the paper and he pulled back his hand. With a little effort she separated two sides and unfolded the paper. 'It's a map.'

Tiness's curiosity rose. 'A map of what?'

Asitha examined the ellipses on one side and the lines with circles and arrows on the other side. 'This solar system. Our position is marked by a tilted rectangle and,' She examined the objects marked with crosses, an obvious symbol shaped like a feline head, and one shaped like a human head, all with directional arrows and human numbers. 'I think the objects crossing this system and the cargo probes sent by both our sides.' She estimated the distance and time and nodded. 'Yes, I'm pretty sure these are the probes arriving soon.'

Tiness smiled at the extra sense of security. 'Then he succeeded in activating an early warning system for our protection.'

'He did, yes.' Asitha said. 'From now on we're not to underestimate his abilities.'

'You think we can trust him now? Even just a little bit?'

Asitha considered it for a moment. 'I still can't let go of my suspicions, but maybe we can trust him to protect himself and us being lucky if we happen to reap any benefit from it.'

The Silth folded the printout again and held it out to Alain. He took it and this time it was the Silth that lit its helmet light and bowed it's rusty red-brown head. He thought its eyes were green and they were a good match to its fur colour. The Silth turned off its helmet light and Alain lit his to return a friendly smile.

He put up his hand and left the compartment to get on with work, satisfied he'd achieved a friendly exchange with both Silth. On his way he decided to call them Snowhite and Red Riding Hood until he could learn their names. He just hoped he wasn't wrong in guessing they were both female, judging from the generic differences in Silth appearances between the males and females as stated in the information the humans had collected on them. If they were male they'd most likely have a thicker muzzle inherited from their animal ancestors, and longer fur around their chin, like a beard with human males. It did make him wonder why the Silth had sent two females for this project, and speculated they might handle being out here better than the more aggressive males. He'd just have to wait until he got a chance to find that out along with the other things he was curious about.

***

Alain watched the squarish supply probe land on its spindly legs and clamp to the hull with its magnetic feet from inside the crew pod, and headed out to unload the supplies it brought and load it with the containers full of the components he had recovered during the first period. He was glad to be in space for once so he wouldn't have to haul the heavy containers bogged down by gravity.

While he was busy the Silth probe arrived as expected from the early warning status and according to the schedule the Silth and Earth had agreed on for the probe visits. He watched the similar bulky design with retractable feet touch down near their pod and Snowhite and Red getting to work. They even greeted him first when they noticed him and he greeted back while an idea popped up in the back of his head.

They were nearly done loading the probe when Tiness tapped Asitha on her shoulder. 'Asitha! The human!'

She turned to face her friend and saw her pointing towards the front of the Amaroth. 'What the..' she said when she saw the human crossing the wrecked fronts of the ship towards them. 'Does he want to cause an incident!?'

He came down and planted his feet on the Amaroth, and stood there with something in his hand. 'Is he armed?' asked Tiness and tried to remember where the weapons were stored in the pod.

Asitha squinted at the shiny object while he unfolded a piece of paper. 'I don't think so. Seems he has something else to show us.'

'Should we have a look?'

'I have a screwdriver in my belt, so if he does try something I can pierce his suit and maybe wound him.' she said. 'We'll have a closer look first.'

Alain hoped the risk of entering their territory was worth it while he watched the two Silth moving closer along the hull. They could launch a complaint or even kill him without much consequence, with him breaking the agreement, although he hadn't technically. He'd read the agreement and it stated boarding the vessel, and he hadn't boarded it. He didn't worry about the systems detecting him because they didn't register anything outside the ship, and he was quite sure they hadn't replaced the sensors to detect trespassers in the the wrecked sections of the ship. He hadn't anyway on the Walkurea.

Asitha and Tiness stopped at a little distance from the human and took a stance on the hull. The human waited for a moment before holding up the paper and showing the shiny object more clearly. 'Is that a bottle he's holding?' asked Tiness.

'I think so. But why?'

'Isn't it a tradition to give them away in human culture? Just like we do sometimes?'

'Let's find out.' Asitha said and stepped closer.

The human held out the paper and Asitha took it. Tiness giggled when she read the crude Silth handwriting. 'Good festival for first time probe arrive.'

Asitha chuckled. 'I really don't understand this human. What is he thinking?'

Tiness looked at the bottle. 'I get it now. They use any excuse to drink.'

'If I were human I'd be drinking as much as I could too.' said Asitha. 'To be honest, I would fancy a good drink. If only we could get a supply out here.'

Tiness sighed. 'I know what you mean.' She looked at the human. 'Shall we accept?'

Asitha looked at the patiently waiting human in front of them. There was something about him that made her understand why Tiness helped him with his tools that time. 'We will.' she said and stepped closer to a human than she'd ever imagined she'd do. He held out the bottle, she took it with both hands, and bowed in gratitude. 'We don't have anything in return though.' she said and pondered how to convey it to him.

Alain watched the Silth gesture at the bottle, then the length of the ship, and put her hands together, leaving a little space between them. He knew what she meant because he had looked up any information on drinking in Silth culture he could find. Their military forbade alcohol and the Silth drank only on occasion in their society.

He turned on his helmet light and nodded, then turned it off and gestured at his head, pointed at the bottle, at the Silth in front of him, then repeated the gesture of putting his hands together. He put his hand against his chest, pointed at the bottle again, back at the Amaroth, and spread his hands.

'Does he mean what I think he means?' asked Tiness. 'He knows we don't have any and says he has a lot?'

'I think so.' said Asitha. 'He must know about as much about us as we do about humans. Perhaps even more.' She turned on her helmet light, bowed her head and smiled a little because she began to find this human interesting.

Alain smiled when Red looked thankful and Tennis showed him a smile as well. He gave them a slight bow and put up his hand as he stepped backwards. 'I hope you'll enjoy it.' he said and turned to climb over the tangle of the warship hulls.

He turned around when he reached the Walkurea and saw Snowhite and Red still standing on the other side. They waved once at him and he returned it before they went back towards their crew pod. He returned to his pod, cleared the probe for launch, and poured himself a drink while watching the probe take off. He lifted his glass towards the Silth side. 'Here's to our first accomplishment.'

Tiness unscrewed the cap from the bottle and sniffed it. 'Yipe!' she said as she scrunched her nose. 'This smells really strong.'

'All the better.' said Asitha as she put down two small cups. 'If it's a ploy to take us out I'd like to get knocked out good beforehand.'

Tiness looked at Asitha with big eyes. 'You think it's poisoned!?'

Asitha chuckled. 'No, I'm beginning to think the human's harmless enough and is just being friendly.' She pushed her cup towards Tiness. 'Fill them up. We've deserved a decent break from all the work they're pushing onto us.'

***

Days continued and whenever they saw each other, Alain and the girls would exchange a greeting. Tiness removed her helmet in their crew pod after she and Asitha ended their shift. 'We're done for today, right?'

'Mhmm.' hummed Asitha while she stepped out of her suit.

'Then I think I'm going to explore for a bit.'

Asitha gazed at her. 'What for?'

'I've been thinking, the captain and highest officers would have to entertain high members of the party once in a while, right?'

Asitha nodded. 'So?'

Tiness chuckled. 'I don't believe they wouldn't have a small amount of mushka on board.'

Asitha let out a laugh. 'You want to go look for that?'

Tiness replaced the air supply of her suit. 'Yes.'

Asitha sat down. 'And I thought I needed a drink.'

Tiness giggled. 'It's not that. For the most part. I just thought if there was enough we could give the human a bottle to return the favour.'

'Ahh..' Asitha said. 'Not a bad idea actually. It's better to be on friendly terms in the end anyway. No need to continue with the same hostility between our species.'

Tiness smiled a little at Asitha. 'You certainly have relaxed your view.'

Asitha sighed and leaned back. 'Being out here on our own gets me thinking. I doubt they'll call us back any time soon and if we want to stay sane and safe we'd better work together as much as we can.'

Tiness picked up her helmet. 'Coming then?'

Asitha looked at her suit's small status screen. 'Why not?'

The captain's quarters were quickly located and the girls shone their lights through the dark room, illuminating a variety of items that had began floating around over time. Only the furniture attached to the floor had stayed put while a couple of chairs floated just above the floor at a tilt. 'I'll take this side.' said Asitha and pushed herself towards a long and low cabinet.

'Found it.' said Tiness after forcing the lock on a built-in cabinet in the corner behind the desk. She shone her light on the floating mess of bottles and glasses. 'We can definitely spare one or two bottles for the human. This captain must have liked his shot of the good stuff.'

Asitha hissed in a high tone through her teeth at the sight. 'Our luck.'

Tiness shone her light around the room again. 'See if you can find some bags or something. Now that we found this I don't want to leave a single bottle behind.'

***

Alain hauled himself along the rungs and rails towards the front of the warship even though his next target for retrieval wasn't that far forward, but he hoped to see the Silth and suggest opening a communication channel between them. He was glad they appeared from behind their pod before he reached the hatch he'd had to use. He stuck up his hand and received a reaction from them.

While they were on their way towards him, he kept going over the arguments to convince them of the advantages of his idea and what he'd try as an alternative if they rejected it. If they did, he supposed he'd have to think of ways to gain enough of their trust.

One of them put up its hand again when they drew near and he responded with a quick wave of his own. He moved towards the crushed hull but stopped when the Silth climbed across it from their side, and waited patiently for them to set foot on the Walkurea.

'Hey there.' he said and stepped closer to them. One of them presented a bottle and he chuckled. 'I guess we made a promising first contact.'

Tiness held out the bottle of mushka and the human bowed when he took it. He lit his helmet light for a moment to show his gratefulness. She giggled when he examined the bottle and gave them a thumbs up and bowed back. 'I think he likes it.'

'Seeing what his present tastes like, I doubt he wouldn't like one of our favourite bad habits.' Asitha said.

The Silth stepped back but Alain quickly put up his hand. It came to him in the spur of the moment but he couldn't pass up the chance. He gestured with a sweep of his hand towards his pod behind and pointed at the bottle, then at the Silth and himself. His heart beat faster while he watched and waited for a reaction.

'Did he just invite us to drink with him?' said Asitha.

'Looks like it to me.' said Tiness. 'You think we can?'

'Not while there are sensors to keep either of us from each other's warship.' Asitha said and pointed at the ship, and at herself and Tiness.

Alain did a mental facepalm. 'Of course.' he said and typed a few commands on the small touchscreen attached to his forearm. When the sensor's status returned as offline he gave the Silth another thumbs up and gestured at his crew pod again.

'He turned off their detection system!?' said Tiness. 'Does he trust us not to take advantage of the situation?'

'I have no idea what he's thinking apart from maybe hoping we'll follow him to drink with him.'

Tiness bit her lower lip. 'Can we trust him not to lure us into a trap?'

Asitha pondered for a moment. 'Although we can't be certain just yet that he's really alone, he'd have to have some confidence to invite the two of us into his pod while he's alone.' She chuckled at the thought of seeing a human face to face for real. 'I think it's a good opportunity to find out more about the humans. Drinking while observing them doesn't hurt either.'

Tiness giggled. 'All right, so we go?'

Alain smiled when the Silth stepped forward and he felt his curiosity growing while he led them along the Walkurea's hull to his pod.

All three were affected by nervousness while Alain opened the airlock and entered it. A sweat drop crawled down his forehead and he cursed silently, hoping he wouldn't leave a disgusting impression of himself. Then he realised the whole pod would still smell of him and he regretted he hadn't yet hooked up the Walkurea's filtration system to the pod. He sighed and resigned himself to the situation. Nothing he could do about it any longer.

Tiness hesitated when she took hold of the handrail next to the open airlock. 'Is this really going to be all right?' she asked while thinking the human might think them weird or inferior because Silth resemble one of their favourite animals they keep as pets.

Asitha took a deep breath. 'We're here now, might as well go all the way.' she said. 'We can't worsen relations between our species any more than they already are.'

Tiness put one foot on the airlock. 'Yeah.' she said and pulled herself inside before she lost her nerve.

The lock was a little cramped with the three of them inside but cycling the environment was quick and Alain was glad to step into the pod's roomier entrance and take off his helmet. He hung it in the suit's locker and turned towards the Silth. 'You can hang your suits there if you want to.' he said as he gestured at two empty lockers on the side.

He clenched his jaw slightly while waiting for their next move, and relaxed a little when they unlocked the seal of their helmets.

The three of them gazed at each other after Asitha and Tiness had removed their helmets. Alain swallowed quickly at the sight of the two felines so close to him. The urge to pet them fought with the realisation that they were just as dangerous as the large predators on Earth.

Asitha tried to read his expression but there was no movement of his ears to indicate his mood.

Tiness gazed at the misty grey eyes going from her to Asitha and back. They gave her a sense of curiosity and honesty even if she had never seen another human's eyes before.

Beeping from the airlock nearly startled Alain. 'Crap.' he said while his heart pounded and he closed the inner airlock door. He was glad for the distraction though and gestured at the open door towards the common quarters where crew members could sit, eat, and work. 'Nyar.'

'Oh?' Asitha said when she recognised the Silth word for invitation despite his pronunciation. 'He knows our primary language?'

'This human is interesting.' said Tiness.

Asitha flicked one ear. 'That only means we have to be more careful around him.' she said. 'I don't like it when others know more about me than I about them.'

'Do you want to go back?'

Asitha watched Alain taking off his suit. 'No. Not yet anyway. There doesn't seem to be any danger to us so far.' she said and began to detach the upper half of her suit, and Tiness unsealed hers.

Asitha chuckled silently when Alain quickly picked a dirty plate and cup from the table at the side of the compartment and put them in the dishwasher. "At least that's a common thing." she thought and looked around the small space. 'It's a little bigger than ours.'

Tiness looked at Alain placing the mushka on the table with three small cups and two bottles of which she could guess what they contained. 'Maybe they need more space because they're so busy all the time?'

Asitha pricked up her ears. 'I heard they were as lazy as they could get away with.'

Tiness chuckled when Alain wiped the table in a hurry. 'I doubt this one's one of them.'

He gestured at the couch at one side of the table. 'Have a seat.'

The girls slipped onto it and he noticed how they tucked their tails along the side of one leg. He suspected they kept it in one of their suit's legs because they were thicker than the ones from human suits.

He slipped onto the opposite couch, unscrewed the cap of the mushka, filled the three cups to the brim, and took his.

The girls noticed his lips moving before he spoke up. 'Voshth!'

Asitha let out a laugh, and picked up her cup. 'Vostch!' she said with clear pronunciation.

'Voshtch!' said Alain again and Tiness giggled, and picked up her cup. 'Vostch!' she said and they downed their drinks.

'Whoa!' said Alain when the heat spread from his mouth and nose down through his chest and abdomen. 'I would visit your planet just to drink more of this.'

Asitha grinned at the hot face of the human. 'He likes it.'

Tiness laughed while he filled their cups again. 'He sure does.'

Alain relaxed more at the notion that the two Silth were no direct threat, and likely very friendly hanging around with. He tried not to, but he couldn't stop gazing at the creatures sitting across from him. The fur on the arms of one was like a red tabby from one of his old neighbours, mostly dark orange with lighter stripes,and she had alert green-yellow eyes, He made a conscious effort to ignore the obvious bumps underneath the white tank top she wore. He couldn't make out any bumps underneath the other Silth's tank top because of her very fluffy and bright white fur filling her top, while her clear blue eyes reminded him of the clear summer skies when he visited his grandparents as a kid out in the country and were just as distracting.

He wondered what their names were and smacked himself mentally for the first thing one's supposed to do when meeting new people. He put his hand on his chest. 'Alain.'

The red Silth put her hand on her chest. 'Asitha.' she said and the other followed with 'Tiness.'.

He lifted his cup. 'Crash Course ruwarra, Asitha, Tiness.' he said in the best Silth he could speak after some practice in the days before. He hoped he really said welcome to his pod, which he named Crash Course just for fun.

Tiness giggled and lifted her cup. 'Shi-shi.'

Alain chuckled and gestured at his mouth and her. 'You know a word or two of our common language?'

She held her flat hand just above the table to indicate she knew only a little.

He nodded, pointed at himself and repeated her gesture. 'Same here.' he said, then picked up the bottle of mushka. 'But there's one thing everyone understands without knowing the language, drink, lash!'

The two Silth lifted their cups. 'Lash!'

Alain picked up a tablet from a shelf behind him and started the language module to help with the conversation. 'I'm glad you took my invitation.' he said in the mix of words and gestures. 'I worried that we'd start things on a hostile foot, like our home worlds.'

Asitha nodded. 'We don't want to spend our time here as enemies either. But, there are some things I want to know before I can begin to trust you.'

Alain nodded and refilled the cups. 'I'll tell you what I can,' he said. 'As long as you don't ask about confidential subjects.'

Asitha looked deep into Alain's soft grey eyes, noticing the hint of caution in them, which she expected. He didn't look like the images she'd seen of human males before. They were either as bulky as Silth males and often barely dressed, or they wore black clothing and wallowed in luxuries. This one looked a bit worn with his black head fur a mess, and the upper half of his face bare and the lower half shaved. She wondered for a moment how a Silth male would look like with the fur on his face gone but quickly dismissed it. There were more important questions. 'Are you alone here?'

'Ah.' Alain said and leaned back. 'I expected you'd have noticed by now that I am indeed alone here on this warship.'

One of Asitha's large feline ears turned forwards, just like Tiness's ears did while she looked at him over her cup as she sipped from it.

'We were supposed to come here with two men but the other one got into an accident at the last moment and we had no direct replacement.' Alain said and took a drink. 'They said they'd find someone else to join me here but I doubt anyone will come soon. Very few who are qualified and willing to stay for an unknown duration out here.'

'So he's really alone.' said Tiness softly.

Asitha frowned a little at Alain. 'Then how were you able to activate this warship almost completely on your own? Something the size of this needs a crew to run.'

Alain chuckled and suppressed a proud grin. 'I can't give you the details but for someone who has the right experience, it can be done. Let's just say I know my way around systems most people have never bothered learning about nowadays.'

Asitha twitched her ear. 'That's, difficult to believe.'

Alain took another drink and picked up the tablet. 'Keep an eye on the forward section.' he said with a gesture of his head at the window, and typed several commands.

Asitha and Tiness looked at the hull of the Walkurea and held their breath when all the missile hatches opened at the same time the laser turrets spun around. Tiness looked at Alain. 'How did you do that!?'

Alain smiled knowingly. 'As I said, the right experience.' he said and closed the hatches and returned the turrets to their parking positions. 'It saved me the trouble of needing to check everything by hand. I know the status of most equipment and only need to look at those that failed to react or returned error codes.' He put the tablet on the table again and leaned back with his cup.

Asitha stared at the tablet. 'We weren't sure whether you were making a statement of force when you lit up the ship before.'

Alain froze midway in taking another drink. 'Ah! No, that wasn't my intention! I just ran my script to trigger everything and get a list of what did and didn't respond.'

Asitha nodded. 'Yes, I see now.' She looked straight at him. 'If you did feel hostile towards us you wouldn't have invited us, or gave us, what was it called again?'

Alain smiled a little. 'Jenever.'

Asitha pricked up her ear. 'Jenever.' She fingered her cup. 'I think we don't have to worry about any enmity between us.'

'Exactly what I hoped for.' he said. 'We're all alone out here and I'd like to leave political matters back at the home world.'

'I think that's a good excuse to drink to.' said Tiness and topped off the cups. 'For as long as the supply lasts, at least.'

'I suppose when your side left the Amaroth, they took everything with them.'

Tiness nodded. 'Didn't they with your ship?'

Alain grinned. 'They didn't take everything and there's several local storages that include a good stock of food and drinks. And unlike your rules, I can order a decent amount for myself so we're not running out any time soon.'

Tiness's eyes grew wide and her ears pricked up. 'You're willing to share it with us?'

Alain stood up and opened the pod's mini fridge. 'I have no problem with that. Drinking on my own isn't as much fun anyway.' he said and placed a large plate with a variety of small sausages on the table. 'And best of all, most of what was left aren't rations.'

Asitha picked up a sausage, stared at it for a moment, sniffed it, and carefully tasted it. She hummed. 'Good.'

Tiness took one and tried it. She hummed in satisfaction. 'Much better than the standard food they're sending us.'

Alain picked one and started chewing. 'I don't know if you like spices, but I could give you some to try and improve the taste of your food.'

'I heard you humans like food that burns your mouth. I don't think we'll like that.'

Alain laughed once. 'Some of us certainly do! I like to eat something a little hot once in a while too but there's a lot more than just the hot stuff to give taste to ingredients.'

Tiness looked at Asitha. 'Then we'll try some of your spices, shi-shi.'

'Anything to make our stay here a more pleasant one.' Alain said and dropped another sausage in his mouth. 'Any trouble doing your side of the recovery?' Asitha shot him a suspicious look. 'Oh, I don't mean to find out anything about your technology, just the general curiousness of learning if the job's giving you the same trouble as mine. I can tell you some places I need to go are troublesome to get to because of the crushed corridors.'

Asitha nodded. 'There's much damage and it does prevent us from finding out if the equipment there still has value.'

Alain leaned forward. 'Isn't there a way to reach it remotely? If you can get a response from the systems you'll know whether they're working or not and if they're not worth the trouble to get to in the first place.'

Asitha shook her head. 'Even if there is, we don't know how.'

Alain leaned back and looked at his tablet. 'I have no knowledge of your systems, but the challenge tickles me.'

'You're not allowed to enter the Amaroth so don't even try. We'll have to report you.'

'I know.' Alain said and chuckled. 'It's just that I have a thing for technology and I'm curious about almost anything. I won't try anything unless I get permission.'

'Do you even have time for anything other than the work you're supposed to do?'

Alain grinned again. 'I already know what I can write off for certain and don't have to bother looking at, and since they sent me here on my own because of the deadline, I use that as an excuse to do less than half the work we're expected to do with two people.' He gestured back at Earth behind him. 'Let's see them complain when they forced the situation themselves. I'm not going to try my best on this.'

Tiness sighed. 'If we try that we'd get in trouble.'

'Really? Who's going to come here and inspect what you're doing? They had some people estimate how much work could be done and created the orders from that. If you keep falling short they'll have to accept that their estimate's too high and they'll set it according to what you deliver.'

'But we already sent a full shipment back.' said Asitha.

Alain shrugged. 'Just tell them you were lucky or began on the easy stuff first to retrieve as much as possible before it could fall into our dangerous human hands.'

Tiness giggled. 'Those humans might plot to spy on our systems so the faster we pull out the circuits that are easily reached, the harder it'll be for them to steal them.'

Alain smiled at her. 'Yes.'

Asitha chuckled. 'I don't know.'

Alain leaned towards her. 'What could they do? They're not here.'

Asitha looked at Alain's face, then emptied her cup. 'All right, we'll try it. But if we get any trouble we'll blame it on you.'

Alain smirked and filled her cup again. 'Be my guest.'

Tiness giggled and Asitha looked at her. 'What's so funny?'

She grinned at Asitha and Alain. 'Us.'

'Us?'

'Two Silth and a human drinking together on the crashed warships of our feuding worlds.'

Alain snorted his drink through his nose and the girls laughed while he scrambled for a towel to wipe his face and blow his nose. 'Oh fuck! That stings!' he said while his voice was muffled by the towel.

The girls were still giggling when he returned to the table with red eyes and a very red nose. 'I now wonder why they ever thought humans were a threat to us.' Asitha said with a big smirk.

Alain wiped the last tears from his eyes. 'Don't underestimate me, I can wave the missile bay doors at you again.'

'Oohh..' said Asitha and flattened her ears. 'What will us poor Silth do? Maybe we can wave a weapons manual in retaliation?'

Alain took a careful sip from his drink again. 'I'll surrender if you'll start throwing them.' he said and the girls giggled.

Tiness sighed. 'I'm too sleepy to pretend war now. You're safe.'

Alain chuckled. 'Saved by the booze.'

Asitha finished her drink. 'Indeed. We have just enough time to sleep before our next shift starts.'

Alain stood up. 'Before you go, there's something I want to suggest.' She watched him pull the communicator from his suit and activate it. 'Do you mind opening a private channel with me? It's easier than waiting at the bow each time for one of us to show up, and in case there's an emergency like an object heading our way being picked up by the Walkurea's detection systems.'

Asitha looked at Tiness, who nodded. She stood up and headed for her own suit. 'All right. I see no harm in that and as you said, it'll be useful.' she said and returned with her own communicator. They scanned the range of frequencies until they settled on a common one.

Alain smiled at Asitha. 'Now I can brag about being able to call every girl in the solar system.'

She giggled. 'There's only the two of us.'

He waved the argument away. 'Technicalities.'

The girls checked each other's suits after donning them and Alain cycled the airlock for them from inside.

Tiness giggled again when she and Asitha looked back at the pod and Alain giving them a quick wave through a window. 'I would've never imagined I'd be getting near a human, or even drinking with one.' she said and returned the wave.

Asitha did the same and chuckled. 'True. I expected this job they pushed onto us to be tiring, but maybe it'll turn out to be interesting instead.'