FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Luke's phone rang shortly after one on Saturday afternoon.

"Hi, Nathan, what's up?" It wasn't two yet, was he not going to come?

"I was wondering, would you be willing to bring Ben and his box to my place? I've been thinking about things we could try, and they'd probably be easier to do if we use my system."

"I suppose. It's not all that heavy. A little awkward, maybe. Where do you live, anyhow? All I know is that it's near the lab."

"I've got a house up near the top of the hill. There's a trolley stop about a block away. If you'd rather, though, I can just bring some equipment with me when I come down. I'm not sure it's compatible with your setup, but we could try."

"So you'll be coming down, anyhow?" Please? Luke didn't want to ask him to, straight out, but he really didn't like walking through unfamiliar neighborhoods. Quite a few dogs had barked at him the last time he'd walked downtown.

"Sure. I just wanted to know whether to bring stuff with me or leave it set up here."

Luke decided he liked the idea of visiting Nathan. He was sick of the apartment. "OK, lets do that. I'll put Ben in his box and we can leave right after you get here. How's that sound?"

"That should be fine. I think the trolley stops near your place at about five or ten after. I'll get there a little before two, so be ready!"

"Sure enough. See you!"

He had just finished the math homework, which only needed to be uploaded. It had gone quite well for a change. He'd had some really vivid dreams about it the past couple of nights, and they actually seemed to be helping. Last night he had been chasing Ben around in a multi-dimensional manifold. That had been confusing!

Turning off the computer, Luke decided he'd better take a quick shower. It wouldn't do to be smelly when Nathan got here. He still felt a little bad about the incident on Tuesday.

He started to toss his underwear in the corner, but realized that might not be quite such a good idea. He grabbed the pile of dirty clothes and threw them into one of the closets, straightened the blanket and sheets on the waterbed and went into the bathroom.

He'd almost finished drying, when there was a knock on the door. Nathan? Already? Someone must have blocked the lobby door open again.

"Just a minute!" He quickly pulled on some pants and looked through the security lens. Yup. Nathan. No biggie. He'd seen him wearing less.

"Sorry, I'm not quite ready," he explained as he let the man in.

"So I see." Nathan smiled. "I can come back, if you'd rather."

"Don't be silly. Come in, sit down. I'll just be a minute." He pulled on one of his long sleeved shirts. He didn't want to shed all over Nathan's place uninvited. "I haven't put Ben in his box yet. You want to do that?" Luke was struggling with his shoes. His feet were still a little damp.

"Hey, take your time. We've got plenty. There's something I want to try before we leave, though. Can I turn on your computer?"

"Sure. What?"

Nathan pulled a short wand out of his jacket pocket. "I realized that your tiger must have an rfid chip in him. Most companies have their rfid databases online and publicly available. Maybe we can find out something that way."

"Hey, yeah! Is that a reader?"

"Yup. It'll make an autoconnection to your computer that you'll have to approve. I promise it's clean."

"I trust you." Luke tapped the "allow connection" icon. "Now what?"

"Well, we just wave it around your tiger like this and maybe...."

Beep! A window popped open showing a long hyphenated number. Not much information came with it, though.

"PCInc. Imperial Siberian Tiger. Manufacturer's database not publicly available."

"Well, that's a start. Maybe we can find out more when we get it to my place. I can access some paid services from there."

"That's neat. Is everything tagged that way?"

"It depends. It makes inventory easy, but it's not as cheap as paper barcodes."

"How about my shirt?"

"Probably all your clothes," Nathan smiled and gave Luke a full scan.

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep: shoes, pants, unknown, belt, shirt. Four of them were full of details, showing what it was and who had made it where, out of what, and when. The unknown was just a long string of numbers.

"What do you suppose the unknown is?" Luke wondered.

"Hard to say. Underpants seem unlikely. They're usually too cheap." Luke hadn't had time to pull any on, anyhow.

Nathan made an adjustment to the wand and waved it around some more. "It seems to be coming from your hip pocket. What's in there?"

Luke felt inside it. "Nothing."

"Are you sure? Nothing at all? Not even a pebble? It'd be really tiny."

He dug around some more, scraping the seams with his fingernails. "Nope, nothing. Just some lint."

Nathan looked really upset. "Shit."

"What's wrong?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe the wand is broken. I've got another one back at my place. Let's try again when we get there, OK?"

"Sure."

"Well, let's get your cat in his traveling cage and we can be on our way!"

Luke filled his pockets with the usual junk, plus one special item from the bathroom. Larger than keys, phone or wallet, the brush went in a jacket pocket. Busy fastening Ben's box closed, Nathan didn't seem to notice.

They went downstairs to meet the trolley.