FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Sitting in the empty, dimly lit mess hall, Keylan plays at his food. He's not really hungry, he never is, his AI keeps him fed at all times. That's not so much by necessity, but by choice, Keylan's job usually keeps him overly occupied.

Being the leader in his field, he's been allowed privileges that no one else would get. Like right now, he's not in cryo with the rest of his team. Instead, he's alone in the forward mess, waiting for the scheduled course correction.

These would normally not be needed, but due to the fact they're traversing the gap between the Sagittarius and Scutum-Centaurus arms, one of the biggest intra arm gaps in the Milky Way, they're using an FTL burst-drift method of travel to conserve fuel.

The Galathea is built for this, she's a deep space exploration cruiser. Over half the ship is fuel, and much of the rest is research equipment and passengers sleeping in cryo.

The lights change to yellow, indicating that the course change about to happen. Within minutes the deck plates rattle, the engines have been restarted. A few moments later, he feels the internal dampening fields start to thicken, trying to keep him from moving

He smiles to himself, and scoops a spoonful of peas.

When the lights turn red, he tosses the peas into the air. They quickly slow to a stop, and hover above this plate, held in place by the fields. He smirks, the fields are at their strongest now, the engines are ready to fire.

They do, and he feels the subtle lurch of the ship. Within seconds, the lighting returns to normal and the peas fall to his plate. Most land in the mashed potatoes, some bounce scattering to the table and floor.

With a sigh, he pushes his plate away as he turns his attention back to the forward view. Looking out into the blackness, he thinks about what kinds of life could be on this next planet.

Merrin 272-095, discovered over two years ago by an unmanned probe. Scans indicated that it is inhabitable, Earth-like, and has carbon based life. Another major thing of note was the planets gravity, only 50% that of Earth's, so the life there could be much larger than most other places.

The mess brightens noticeably, drawing his attention to the door.

"Gen--I...Keylan, sir?" the young ensign stutters, obviously intimidated by the middle aged man.

Keylan sighs. It's been seven months since this trip started and the boy still wants to call him General, despite him being retired. "What do you want, Nick?"

"We've received another data packet from the probe."

"Good."

His AI having transmitted the data, the ensign nods, then steps out, and Keylan turns back to the window. "Drudge, let's see what we have."

His AI uses part of the window as a display, showing visual references as he explains. "The secondary probe has started its decent into the atmosphere. Aside from confirming previous scans, it also indicated high concentrations of chitin, indicating arthropod life."

"Atmosphere?"

"Nitrogen: 74.67%, oxygen: 22.45%, argon: 1%, carbon dioxide: 0.15%, and other trace gases. I would also like to note that the probe has found an unusually high amount of carbon particulates in the air."

"Carbon..." he thinks aloud. "Volcano nearby?"

The display changes, showing the entry vector of the probe. "Unsure. At the time of transmission, the probe indicated an atmospheric pressure of 100 kilopascals, and indicated a possible altitude of five thousand meters."

"Possible?"

"There is interference from the lower atmosphere preventing an accurate reading."

"Theorize air pressure at that level."

"178 kilopascals."

Keylan leans back against the table and sighs. "Reconfigure my armor; chitin shell, rate it for deep sea pressures, possible volcanic acids...and add an anti-friction coating."

"Certainly."

He waves his hand, clearing the display and looks into the near blackness ahead. "Can we see it yet?"

"No. we will not be able to see the star's light until we enter the Scutum-Centaurus arm."

"Still three weeks away."

* * *

Stepping onto the bridge, Keylan receives several nods from the small crew. The captain turns to him and says, "Sorry to report, but we've lost contact with the probe."

Keylan frowns. "What was in its last transmission?"

The captain shakes her head. "There wasn't much of one." She then nods to the sensors station and he takes over.

"We abruptly lost the probes carrier signal as it passed into the lower atmosphere."

Keylan steps over to him. "Any idea why?"

"Telemetry reported nearly two and a half atmospheres pressure, a temperature of 80c, 100% humidity, and no clear indication of ground."

"What was it's speed?"

"100 kph."

"Should have survived an impact then. Why couldn't it see the ground?"

"Could be any number of reasons," the officer says. "Reflective dust in the air, natural radio emissions, even metallic bugs. Any one of those could also explain why we lost the signal."

"Great," he mutters. "I better make some adjustments to the shuttles com gear." He then turns to the captain and gives a salute. "Captain."

* * *

Waking early, Keylan . Since the ship has no available rooms for passengers, he's made his bunk in one of the forward facing escape pods.

Sure it's cramped, but he doesn't mind. He actually prefers the small space. It allows him peace and quiet, and a beautiful view of what lies ahead.

As he flops into the pod's command chair, he scratches at his head. "Drudge, what's on the agenda for today?"

"It is time for our weekly maintenance check on the team. We will also need to update their AIs with the data we have."

"Yeah, that." He lets out a slow breath as he looks longingly out the window. "Can we see it yet?"

"No, we are not yet in the arm."

"Where should it be?"

A small circle appears on the window, over a hazy band of stars. "It will appear in this area."

He sigh heavily, right now it could be any part of the Milky Way. "Dead ahead. Can't wait." After a moment, he gets up and heads to the cryo bay.

As he enters, the med-tech waves a data pad at him. "Morning Key. I was just about to do the rounds."

He smiles at her. "Thanks Alice, I'll take today's rounds."

She nods and hands him the data pad.

Taking it, he walks up to the first cryo pod. "Commander Tsein, good morning. How are you today." Not expecting, or waiting for an answer, he checks the readouts and nods. "Good...good. We're on course and on schedule." With a polite smile and a salute, and knowing Drudge has uploaded the needed data, he moves on to the next pod.

"Dr. Thennil. You're looking good today," he states while checking her pod's readouts. This continues as he personally checks each of the 200 pods. He does this because he knows them. They're his friends, and he's been working with this team for over nine years, not counting time in cryo.

When he finishes, he hands Alice the data pad. "Thank you, they're all doing wonderfully."

She smiles and nods. "How about you and I have dinner later?"

Keylan smiles. "Alice, I'd love that."

She smiles. "Good. I'll make sure to remind you."

He gives her a short kiss. "You do that."

She smiles after him as he sets out for the equipment bay.

Alice is the closest thing he has to family. Like him, she's in her late fifties and, because of time spent in cryo, has also outlived a spouse. Neither wants a serious relationship, it's just not in them anymore.

As Keylan enters the equipment bay, he yawns. Time to update the equipment.

"Drudge, activate the main uplink. Request equipment software updates."

"Acknowledged."

He sits on a crate and watches the mobile com tower light up and starts to make a faint hum. When the emitter's hum levels out, Drudge states, "Transmitting."

"How long till we receive reply?"

"Estimating, two hours."

He lays back on the crate and gets comfortable. "Wake me just before then."