FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Master, had been looking for something. Only a couple of days after we left the Hoth system, we had reached some of the outer rim systems of the empire. As soon as we arrived, we began our search. Once we finished scanning one, we would make a small jump to a new one.

We barely left the bridge except when he was required to perform his normal royal duties, or sleep. He kept me busy with a game that had been made for me, designed to help me learn the Lioine language. I had my suspicions that there was more to it than just for my education, new tasks just happened to appear in the game each time we stopped and scanned a system.

He was also contacting someone in secret, not that he wasn't allowed to, it just stung a little that he didn't involve me. He would randomly walk into the bedroom or the captains lounge and lock the door. When he came out, he would have a new location to jump to. Whatever he was looking for, I had the feeling it was either going to be a very long, fruitless search, or be over quickly.

I was surprised when it proved to be the latter. We exited jump speed on the outskirts of a large nebula, close to the edge of Eldin territory. For some reason we were running in stealth mode, or at least as close to it as possible while we ran a scan of the nebula.

“Ship approaching Sire." The Otter at the tower station informed Master and the captain.

“Understood, permit them entry to dock, Send them to docking port 1A," Master replied nonchalantly “Full Imperial security is granted. Access to royal levels is also granted."

“But… Sire that's…." the Lioness at the tactical station tried to start.

“You have your orders, Commander," Captain Markeus growled out “Do not question your Emperor's commands."

“Y…Yes sir… s…sorry Sir."

“Punish her later, Captain," Master instructed with a grumble “we have…"

“Anomaly detected within the Nebula Sire." the Human at the Science station reported, cutting him off.

“It's about time…" Master replied with a huff “Report!"

“Yes sir… scans are not entirely conclusive, the Nebula itself is causing a huge amount of interference," the human replied as he worked at his station, probably trying to get better readings or clear up what he had “It appears to be either a research outpost or a spy station. It is definitely Imperial in origin."

“Given the proximity to the border, I wouldn't be surprised if it is a spy station…" Master mused “A leftover from the war."

“Can't rule out it being for research either," Captain Markeus added as the scan of the station was put on the main screen. The station was reasonable in size, large solar arrays on two of its sides to try to provide basic power. It was mostly cylindrical in shape, with a defined top and bottom, built like points. The Sovereign still dwarfed it in size, yet it appeared to have multiple levels and be constructed to house dozens.

“It appears to be heavily modified." The Human reported, the display changing to show what i assumed to be the original structure, a station that was much smaller, barely half the size of the construction that it had become.

“Life signs?" Master asked.

“Sorry sir, we can't get accurate enough readings… we can see that it is set up for perpetual silent running, short range scanners and short range communications only. The power signature it is giving off denotes that the reactor is set to bare minimum."

“So they won't see us coming till it's too late." Master mused with a smile “Has our guest docked yet?"

“Yes Sire, they are heading to the Royal levels now." the Tower station replied. Master nodded and stood up.

“Excellent, we will meet them there. Captain, maintain our distance for now, keep us on low power just in case those that modified our station show up. If they do, report to me immediately." he instructed as he assisted me from my seat.

“Yes sire." The captain replied with a salute “I shall also reprimand Commander Dedmer."

Master just waved the last bit off as we headed to the lift.

“Do as you will, but remember to stay within the predefined regulations for punishments, Captain."

“Yes Sire."

The trip to the royal levels was quiet, and quick. As we stepped off of the lift he hesitated, looking at me for a moment before shaking his head and started to walk again.

“David, You are about to meet someone who…" he waved his hand in front of him, likely trying to think of the correct terms to use “Is classified."

“Someone who is classified?" I asked confused and he nodded.

“Yeah, their existence could destabilise the Empire. While they are permitted to come and go as they please throughout the empire, their identity is not to be known outside of the Royal Family… Do you understand?"

“I guess?" I replied, admittedly still confused. He just chuckled softly and pat my shoulder a few times, as if to say I would understand soon. We made our way to the family dining room, the door opening as we approached. Inside, sat at the table, was a male Leopard, he looked young, I assumed early twenties. His fur looked healthy, although it was easy to tell he had been on hard times not too long ago. His eyes were bright, looking up at us in some concern and alarm while he sat and seemed to be waiting patiently.

Master didn't seem surprised by him at all, simply walking in with a comfortable smile and proceeded to sit at the head of the table while I sat beside him. Master handed me the menu, permitting me to decide what I would have.

“I assume he is talking to the chef?" Master asked the feline who jumped a little with a chirp, then nodded “Ok, hopefully he won't be too long. The others will be joining us soon, and I would prefer not to expose you to them without him here."

“Master?" I asked, looking up at him “Who is joining us?"

“Reon and his ilk. Hopefully the table is large enough to house us all." he blinked when a message came up and he read it over quickly then chuckled.

“Well, we are down Takash it appears" he said with a smile “What a time… seems his labour has started. He is still well off from actually popping, but he won't be able to join us today."

“Doesn't that mean that your brother won't be joining us either?" I asked.

“No, he and the others will be here, they won't be with Takash till he is ready to start pushing." he answered as the door opened.

“That's good, I would hate to miss seeing him." the newcomer said as they walked in drawing my attention immediately. They were interesting in appearance, looking feline yet he also reminded me of a Kiquvari. Roughly the height as Master was, maybe slightly taller, and more heavy set. They were covered Head to toe in white fur, with some brown markings breaking up the snowy white. Framing their head was a neatly trimmed mane, up and away from their near glowing blue eyes. The end of their tail has a fluffy tuft of fur on it like Master and I did.

Two very feline ears stuck out from the top of their head, and it was impossible to miss the deep sapphire blue biodraulic veins on their hips and feet. They were naked, like most Kiquvaru preferred to be, his belly showing the early stages of pregnancy much like my own. However the very feline attributes were making it hard for me to identify what he was.

“Ah there you are!" Master said and got up quickly, making his way around the table to give them a hug “It has been too long, almost a year, how have you been?"

“Aside from the obvious?" he replied with a smirk and gestured down at himself “Progressing… you know it hasn't been easy following up on the vague clues and encrypted files, finding out about this place was a miracle."

“Would have been nice to work with some more… exacting coordinates… we've been searching for a week now." Master complained with a sigh then looked to the leopard at the table “Anyway, who is this?"

“You know who this is, i have told you about him," he replied, rolling his eyes “This is Arvin, Arvin, This is Emperor Leniad Leo, My brother."

“Brother!?" I exclaimed loudly, drawing the attention of the others.

“Yes David, Brother," Master replied with a smile “David, This is Melchior, Malchior, this is my Slave David. Melchior is my half brother, the previous emperor was his father, like mine and Reons… however his other parent was a Kiquvari. He is a Kiquvari Hybrid, They aren't common, but aren't exactly rare."

“But… i… How…"

“It is probably best we don't get too into it," Master interrupted me with a smile and made his way back to his chair and gave my leg a soft grope under the table then gestured to the menu “Go on, make your choice."

“So where is Randy?" Melchior asked as he sat next to Arvin, handing a menu to the Leopard for him to look over.

“If you mean Reon, he should be on his way," Master answered with an eye roll “One of his boys has just gone into labour."

“Oh? That tiger finally popped, has he?" the hybrid asked with a smirk “He's been plump since the first time I saw him." Master went to answer as the door opened and in came the chaos that was Prince Reon and all of his boys.

They were all talking loudly to each other, seemingly oblivious to everyone else in the room. I didn't miss how Arvin shied away towards Melchior, trying to hide in the hybrid's shadow.

“UNCLE MEL!" Merin suddenly called out, making the others all go silent and turn their heads in his direction. Merin rushed in the hybrid's direction but stopped when he held his hand out.

“Stop, Merin," Melchior commanded him firmly “You're scaring him."

“Just sit for now Merin," Master instructed “Milky will come to you when he is ready."

“Still using that nickname for me, are you Leni?"

“Just as you use that one for me… and Randy for him." Master gestured to Reon and the three just started laughing. Introductions were quick, followed by ordering our meals.

“So what are we doing here Milky?" Reon asked as the last empty plate was cleared away.

“Inside the nebula we are currently sitting next to is a space station where a group has been performing some… truly horrible experiments." he answered with a slight shudder.

“A group? Is that all?" Reon asked, surprised. Master just sat quietly, like he knew the answer already.

“Yeah… Computer, Load classified file 915 from Tarba memory in bay 1A." Melchior called out, a holo display appearing in the middle of the table. It was a large readout of various locations, most with 'inactive' next to the name.

“I got this from a secret lab on the planet where I found Arvin. It also had a satellite in orbit keeping track of everything on the planet's surface."

“Their security was that tight?" Master asked and the hybrid nodded.

“What they were doing in the facility on the planet's surface was truly disturbing, even to me." he said with a sigh “And some of it, if the information leaked, would close any diplomatic negotiations with the Kiquvari, permanently. What is going on here would also end up a diplomatic incident if not handled properly too.

“I managed to download most of the archives from the facility and satellite in orbit. That was how I found out about this location. However there were several failsafes built into their databases, if I hadn't uploaded it into Tarba, it would have either deleted itself, or sent off a signal to announce it had been hacked. Thankfully Tarba was able to catch the viruses and trap programs before they were triggered.

“This of course was only one of a dozen locations I found in the database. However due to what was… is… going on here, this location needed to be investigated first." he waved his hand over the images, it changing to the image of the station that we had seen on the bridge “From what i know from the information i downloaded, security is minimal, it's almost fully automated with bots doing everything. I request that you leave the Database to me, and tread lightly, this is the first facility I have encountered that is still active."

“You're saying that, up till now everything else you have come upon was abandoned?" Prince Reon asked.

“Yeah… a few of them by only a week, some for years." Melchior replied with a shrug.

“So… Tomorrow we have our work cut out for us," Master spoke up drawing their attention “Milky… what should we be ready for in there?"

“I'm not entirely sure… it was referred to as the mill," he replied, the image changing back to the readout “The files mentioned kidnapping and breeding, but other than that i have no clue. My suggestion is to prepare every doctor you have, get every med bay set up and maybe alter a cargo bay to be a triage centre. At the same time, arm yourself for anti-bot combat. I highly doubt they would have been left completely unarmed."

“I'll notify Zox'i when we see him and he has finished helping to deliver Takash's litter." Reon said.

“Zox'i is working for you? Huh, maybe have him on standby in case there are any serious complications."

“That was my thoughts too," Master said, “I'll make sure to inform the security teams that no live subjects are to be harmed. I would request your assistance too, Another Kiqu would make it go a bit smoother but…"

“We both know you can't," the hybrid said with a soft chuckle “I need to remain one of the empire's secrets."

“One that will possibly never come to light," Reon adds sadly “Wish you could be in the light more, we don't get to see you much anymore."

“Unlike the rest of Dad's secrets… there are some we must keep from the public." Master said sadly “At all costs…"

“Hey I turned down the throne, remember?" Melchior said firmly “I may be older than you two, and longer lived, but I am an illegitimate child, and have no aspirations for the throne. I left it for you, the first legitimate child of our asshole father."

“Was he really that bad?" I asked, drawing their attention and they all chuckled.

“Our father did some terrible things in his days. So much of it is classified, and probably will remain so for centuries to come." Reon said with a sigh.

“We are still trying to discover all of the things he has done, but some of it there isn't even documentation for," Master added and gestured to Melchior “He is a good example, no one knew he was of royal descent other than his 'mother'. We had to do blood tests to confirm who he was."

“How was that kept a secret for so long?" I asked looking up at my Feline owner.

“That… is another example of our father's terrible deeds… and I don't really want to talk about what that was… needless to say… my mother was never the same," the hybrid replied forlornly “Hell the planet I found Arvin on we only discovered from a note, hidden in his desk on the imperial home planet."

“Cleaning out his apartments in the palace was a nightmare… so many hidden alcoves, hatches and stashes…" Master added with a grumble “Even today, the imperial suits are sealed… more and more secret stashes keep being found."

“Anyway, i need to go check in on my boy," Reon cut in and stood slowly, the rest of his boys doing the same.

“And we need to go get everything ready for tomorrow," Master said and helped me to stand “Milky, we will see you at dinner… at least we better."

“Count on it bro."