FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The first thing Leina did after shutting the door to the truck was step back and study it for a moment. Years had passed since the serval had seen her vehicle parked behind a building instead of between rows of cargo containers back on the Teshar. Still, it turned out she and Gahn were indeed allowed to drive it here in Jinem City, and most of the surrounding tunnels, so they had decided to bring it along on their leave. Of course, the fact most Rukot that lived here did not own any sort of transportation beyond their own feet meant the journey from the landing caverns had taken awhile and the toes on her left foot ached from the workout.

Behind the truck, rising from the sidewalkless smooth stone road stood the building that housed her apartment. She could see the rear balcony on the third of the floors of the mostly stone structure in the imitation twilight of the colony's evening hours. The windows into the bedroom beyond were dark, not that she had expected Gahn to be here. Her mate had remained back at the ship to finish filling in some last-minute details for the crewmen who would be responsible for their jobs for the next six months. She would not see the wolf until morning once he was done and made his way here.

After a moment she went to the bed of the truck, opened the tailgate and pulled out two bags. There were other things still there, but they would have to wait until her mate arrived and she closed tailgate again.

While technically it was her offship home, Leina had in reality only come here a handful of times. It took her a moment of study to find the rear entrance to the apartment building, not yet completely familiar with the place. Once the small cat found her goal she picked up the two bags and quickly made her way to the doorway set in the middle of the wall.

On the outside the centuries-old building had a simple, almost primitive look, but the interior spoke of the technologies the Rukot had mastered. She ignored most of it though, passing by numerous display screens that ranged from information terminals to advertisments. One ad did manage to catch her attention though, mostly due to it being right beside the lift control panel.

It was clearly an advertisment for bananas. At least they looked like bananas, or perhaps plantains given their apparently large size, but the ad called them moon fruit. "Banana," she said, failing to force the equivalent word out in Rukot. She gave the brilliant yellow crescents a defeated look and said, <<Sorry, I tried, you're moon fruit now.>>

With that she looked at the lift panel and from the displayed building schematic she selected a space that occupied half of the third floor. There were fourteen other such spaces and by the look of things that meant they had a lot of neighbours to finally meet. After a moment the door to the lift creaked a bit as it slid open and she stepped inside.

Almost as soon as she had stepped inside the door closed again and if not for the humming and light rocking she would not have known the small space was moving. About fifteen seconds later the humming and rocking stopped.

<<Entry Code,>> an automated male voice stated calmly. It sounded like it was spoken by a horse, which was something she had only started being able to pick out. Each species of Rukot necessarily formed some of the sounds differently, given their variety of mouth shapes, though the language had refined to a point such differences were subtle.

"Open Sesame," she replied in English, stiffling a giggle.

The door slid open again and she exited the lift into the apartment.

====================================

Leeland Carver, or Landy as his few and far between friends knew him, stretched his arms and yawned heavily in the tiny cockpit of his transport as he waited for the docking mechanisms to lock the small ovoid vessel in its bay. The black-haired and tall man stood up as the ship opened up in half like a clamshell and took a look around. Nothing appeared out of place and he smiled, another day of flying around derelict ships and dodging asteroids complete.

He stepped out of the vehicle and onto the floor of the hanger that was just barely large enough to fit both him and the ship. Much like the ship, and the hanger, Scrapyard Station 17, while a full and proper space station in its own right, was built to support only a few people, though he had no staff or slaves and ran his business alone. Alone, just how he liked it, only having to see other people when they came to buy, or demand in the Navy's case, parts from one of the four thousand mothballed ships that were the flock he shepherded. Most were civilian, but there were a few old war boats tucked away in places.

An Imperial Charter had granted him this station, won in the lottery held when the previous occupant had passed away. Out of hundreds of thousands of hopefuls, Landy had won the draw, and even now five years later, the cramped quarters, long hours, and asshole Navy officers that occaisionally harassed him did little to dimish the 164 year old man's pride in what had become his life. He lived simply, often tinkering with various bits of equipment found on any of the ships under his care, working on automating more of the station's functions so he could spend more time exploring his ships.

The old door that lead out of the hanger and into the station rattled and creaked as it dropped down into the floor. Landy was the sixth scrapper to run this station, and the door was just one of the many things that had likely never been maintained by his predecessors. The hallway beyond had three similar doors along the same wall, each leading to another hanger, though he incorrectly knew them all to be empty. The man expected no visitors, and did not know about three-seater shuttle that occupied it.

As he walked down the hall, he remained unaware of anything being amiss other than the tarnish and rust on the steel plating that the interior of the station was made from. He liked the look though, as it gave the millenium-old station character, acquired over centuries of exposure to atomospheric humidity.

His ignorance did not last long though as the station went dark and completely silent for several seconds before the emergency lighting and life support systems awoke from their ancient slumber. By the time the lights had come on, the man's look had changed from content and tired to alert and surprised. He thought he'd heard something right before the power cut, but he wasn't sure.

Garbled static emitted from the nearest alarm speaker, but he knew what the device was trying to tell him. That the primary reactor was offline and emergency systems could only maintain the station for two weeks. Likely two hours he suspected, given how after several years he was still catching up on repairs.

"Fucking Yeng, couldn't spend one goddamn credit on this place could he?" Landy cursed into the dimly-lit corridor. The fusion reactor was at least two centuries past its service life, and he still didn't have the credits to replace it, and likely not for a long time with the Navy coming by more and more frequently to take his ships without paying. All part of some buildup he suspected, probably to pluck more unlucky animals from their homes.

Here in the system of Gliese, they were so far from the edge of the empire that the only Rukot around were the slaves who worked on the shipyards. Mindless creatures they were and he had no interest in owning one. Another thing to maintain they'd be, and he'd have to teach it everything just for it to likely do something stupid and end up dead and him without credits he needed elsewhere. Still, that sound he'd heard, had it been a cry of pain?

"Should go grab the pistol, Lee," he said to no one but himself. Better safe than sorry, as the ancient proverb went, and he walked down the corridor until he came to a door that was entirely blue at one point but a large amount of the paint had long since chipped off. His bedroom lay beyond and he entered without waiting for the door to fully sink down. By the time the locking mechanisms that held it in the floor engaged with a series of clicks he was out again, plasma pistol in hand.

Due to its size and simplicity the station only had two levels, and no lift, the fusion reactor was located on the lower of the two. On the opposite side of the station from the single large shallow ramp that connected the floors and ate up about a tenth of the station's interior space. The man walked calmly down the hallway to the ramp, he was tired enough already without running and he needed to get the reactor back online before he could sleep knowing he wouldn't die.

A minute later he stood outside the red door with the yellow inverted U and cross that was the symbol for radiation on both human and rukot ships. It opened with as much protest as the hanger's door had, and the second surprise Landy had in under five minutes occurred. The spherical machine that occupied the room was quite clearly operating, with a status display that indicated a fault with power transmission in the conduit under the control room.

A sigh of disgust exited the man's mouth, and he left the room to go almost all the way back to the other side of the station.

The third surprise the man received that evening, was a rukot tiger laying disturbingly still under the console and accompanied by the acrid smell of burnt fur.

The fourth surprise came a day later, when the rukot, woke up.

Landy wasn't sure why he'd done it, not just ejected this clearly-not-a-slave animal out of an airlock for inconveniencing him. At first he'd thought she was dead, and it wasn't until he was halfway to the airlock with her body that he'd felt the wild tigress stir momentarily. She was helpless and somehow pity compelled him to not kill her. He didn't have many medical supplies, or even a medical room, so he'd placed the unconscious creature in his bed and applied about half of his stock of stablization gel to the severe burns covering her left arm from shorting out the main supply conduit trying to do something to his console.

Siive's head pounded between her large ears. So much so she took several moments to realize that there was a human man standing over her with a stunned look on his face and in his dark green eyes. That didn't stop her from recoiling from him towards the headboard of the bed she found herself on and growling. A constant burning pain came from the entirety of her left arm, and she pulled it close to her body protectively while feeling for any wound with her right paw. She found fur matted with gel and tender bare skin.

Just like a hurt animal, Landy thought, and he slowly raised both of his hands in front of him, regretting having thought through what was going to happen when the feral rukot woke up. His pistol lay forgotten on the console in the control room, and he had serious doubts he would survive if she attacked him despite her fried left arm.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said, wondering if she would understand him at all.

Trying to understand why the man was acting this way didn't mix well with her headache. Why was he here even? What had happened to the drunk old man she would occaisionally see passed out while she snuck into the control room?

"Do you understand me?" Landy asked.

Siive finally stopped growling, because it wasn't mixing well with her headache either. She continued to stare at him though, and did not speak. This human either had weapons she couldn't see or was very stupid for not binding her and as soon as her head stopped pounding she'd find out which. There was no way she was going to let him make her a slave.

"No hurt?" the man ask questioningly, he was trying to get her to understand he wasn't going to hurt her. He'd never really known any rukot, slave or otherwise, and had no idea how intelligent they actually were. He repeated it, though not as a question this time, "No hurt," while indicating himself firt and then her.

Stupid then, the cat thought. She gave in and said one word, "Headache."

"What?" Landy blinked and shook his head, having not expected that.

Slowly, she said, "I have a headache."

"What?"

====================================

"HUMAN! WHERE ARE YOU?" Siive yelled through the door of the scrap station's quarters. It had been over two days since he left her alone in this room. The tigress' stomach growled almost as loudly as she did. Damn him, she should have known better than to trust him. Either he was starving her intentionally or had gone to fetch more humans to help enslave her.

In frustration, and somehow for the first time since the man had abandoned her here, the feline rukot attempted to pound her right fist against the door. Except it dropped open, and she fell to the floor with a pained yowl as she landed on her left side. She rolled onto her right side and winced as she fought down the burning pain that was the only indicator she had of her left arm's existence. Siive looked at the open doorway she lay sprawled across. It had been unlocked this whole time?

<<You're a fucking idiot, Siive,>> she said to herself as she carefully pulled herself back into a standing position. Her stomach rumbled again, reminding her of its emptiness.

Her large green feline eyes scanned the hallway while she inhaled deeply through her nose. Once again she found herself regretting an action as the distant smell of sewage was the only thing that stood out amongst the station's usual odors. At least it shut her stomach up.

"HUMAN!" Siive called out again, "WHERE ARE YOU?" And like the fourty or so times before, she was met with no answer.

The station's small mess was down the hallway to the right, near the four small hanger bays. With food and freedom lying along the same path it seemed as if the choice was clear. The tigress would eat, leave, get to a doctor back in Conglomeration space, get the nerve damage in her arm fixed, and then be more careful the next time she came to steal a ship from this place. A good plan she thought. If she came across the human again, she'd just kill him and avoid meeting the next caretaker of the station.

<<Why is the universe toying with me?>> she complained to the ever ripening air. As she neared the mess the smells of rancid urine and feces grew stronger. Hopefully the mess would smell better, with the door closed. She quickly turned into the room.

If the smell had not completely put off her stomach, the sight of the human did.

Leeland stood there, rocking gently from side to side. His black hair hung limply across his downturned head, obscuring the blank look on his face and emptiness in his eyes. He made no sound save a steady calm breath. The man had clearly soiled himself numerous times without moving, the source of the foul smell pooled around his feet.

Though the feline rukot had never seen a working one in person, she recognized the white metal collar around his neck and the look of repulsion on her muzzle from the smell was replaced by one of shock and horror. It was an obedience collar, the tool humans used to enslave her kind, and this one was around the man's neck!

<<Emperor's balls!>> she exclaimed, <<Why are you wearing a collar?>> Forgetting to use English as a result of how dumbstruck she was by seeing a human like this.

At once his head snapped up and he looked at her, a bright beaming smile of infinite happiness on his face. His mouth opened and moved as if he were trying to speak, but no words came out. Once he stopped he waited, still smiling.

"Human?" she asked timidly.

His mouth moved again wordlessly, though after a moment his smile disappeared and the blank expression returned. It would have almost seemed like he was bored with her. Leeland's head dropped back down.

Had the man not shown her kindness, the feline rukot would have just left him here like this. It was no more than any human deserved. She pushed aside the thought that maybe the collar had been meant for her and approached him. The man looked back up at her and smiled just as brightly as before. Siive studied the collar around his neck until she located the catch. The tigress looked into the near-lifeless eyes of the human for a moment, and then reached up and released the collar.

Landy woke up with a start, gasping for air and almost immediately falling into the tigress. "Wh-what?" he asked, still trying to collect his returning wits. His head pounded and though it ached like it was empty, his stomach roiled he felt like he was going to vomit.

It was not easy for Siive to hold onto the shaking man with only one working arm. "You were wearing a collar," she answered before following up with a question of her own, "Why?"

Collar? Right, he had found one in storage while looking for any forgotten medical supplies. He pulled away from the rukot and stood unsteadily, rubbing his closed eyes with his left hand while he tried to think. All it did was allow him to focus on the smell of his own filth and that pushed his stomach over the edge but all he did was dry heave care of said stomach being empty.

"Human, why were you wearing a collar?" the tigress asked him again.

Enough of the fog surrounding his mind had cleared for Leeland to register her words. He opened his mouth to answer and then his eyes saw the collar lying on the floor and with it came the memory of the last two days. All he could recall is standing there, for no reason, just standing. He tore his eyes away from the thing and looked up at Siive, remorse and anguish painted themselves across his face.

His words were as unsteady as he looked, "Is... is that what we do to you?"