FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The remainder of the cinnamon coloured template melted into the surmelle's body. The final plates enclosing his legs and waist taking on a smooth, rubberised sheen as they finished locking into place. Looking at himself in the mirror Cinnamon was struck at how different he looked, he was a lot more robotic in appearance then he had expected to appear.

His face was one smooth piece of flexible orange rubberised metal, his eyes were a bright glowing shade to match the CPU-Assistance crystals that now adorned not only his chest but both of his large, pointed ears. There was another crystal embedded into the base of his spine on the back of his neck as well as three others along the entire length of his back. Wired directly into his nervous system they would allow for multiple connections to the computer systems of Vulcan Automata.

The text scrolling across his eyes confirmed that all CPU access crystal's were operating normally then rolled away leaving him with a clear view of his body. He was still short but much taller than he had ever been as an organic science experiment. He was nearly five feet tall if you included the extra height his ears gave him. Smooth flexible plates covered his arms, his legs and waist and moved across his chest and stomach. None of his synthetic muscle was visible, it had all been folded away beneath the rubberised plates. Only by opening the elasticated pouch that fit across his stomach could the smooth, vinyl based muscles be seen.

SSU-02: "Is that everything?"

TE-001: "Nearly, we just need to do a full systems check of all your gear. We can take care of that whilst my templates continue to construct your proxy body."

SSU-02: "Ok though... ah I've been meaning to ask, what do our designations mean in this chat room? I've... did I missed something?"

TE-001: "No, I guess I forgot you wouldn't be able to parse that knowledge out of the data stream just yet. Yours stands for Security Sensor Unit number 2. I am Template Engineer One. Basic communication protocol for internal chat rooms are necessary. Our full designations can get a bit long otherwise."

SSU-02: "Oh, I guess I need to learn all of this stuff, if I am meant to be managing sensor data and teams in the field and all of that."

TE-001: "That will come in time, now then I am going to put you into full systems diagnostic mode. You won't be able to move or control your body, but you should still be able to see everything."

Cinnamon didn't even have time to reply before his vision flickered as words scrolled across his sight. Most of it was a mixture of strange letters and numbers in odd combinations. Then it cleared again and displayed a single message:

"Motor Cortex Power Restored - Limb Actuator Test Engaged"

It was such a strange sensation, he could see his body moving, fingers, toes, wrists, ankles, knees, elbows, neck... he bent and flexed and rotated his arms back and forth. He couldn't even feel them moving which was really weird, there was no sense of movement, it was like he was riding along behind his own eyes and his body was alien.

"Fibre Optic Connection Suite deploying."

Cinnamon wasn't even sure what that meant but he soon found out. His fingers split open, the flexible orange vulcanised plates covering his hands slid into hidden recesses in the frame. His claws then started to spool out fibre-optic cables. They quested back and forth in the air as the nanotic fibres in their outer rubberised sheaths permitted them to move. The same was happening to his foot-claws, spools of cable emerging from each toe and his whiskers were also sliding outwards, extending and coiling through the air. The cables spread out in all directions, plugging into a variety of ports around the room to test connections. It was incredibly disturbing, Cinnamon looked less like a surmelle and more like a robot with every passing second.

"Fibre Optic Suite Deployed, test signals received, testing external port connections."

Cinnamon was then subjected to a series of disturbing tests as a series of previously covered ports irised open. The connections where in his palms, on either side of his chest, along his back and down the underside of his thighs. He couldn't see most of them but the images overlaid across his vision were showing him each port opening. The computer then deployed a rotating boom arm to test each connection point with a variety of different connectors.

"All connections tested, resuming standby mode. Field Satellite Uplink Test Initiated."

Cinnamon's short, stubby surmelle tail telescoped upwards without warning, irised upwards and spread wide like a reverse umbrella. It curved up and around and a central spindle of silver spars rose upwards, each one tipped with a blinking light. Communications data scrolled through Cinnamon's vision and the dish swing around from side to side to line up on various receiving ports. It was ridiculously big, he looked incredibly stupid with this dish poking out of his tail but according to the specs scrolling through it was ridiculously powerful.

"Test complete, returning control to unit."

Cinnamon took an involuntary step forward as suddenly tactile senses and motor control returned without much in the way of warning. His satellite dish was busy transforming back into a tail and as he twisted around to watch he jumped as Rufellen was standing right there watching with curious blue eyes.

"Well that went well," he said with a smile lighting up his rubbery blue face, "I'd say all systems are go. You are adapting well, your subconscious is picking up subliminal adaptation protocols. Soon you'll be walking around in that body as if you've worn it all your life."

"I... I looked ridiculous," Cinnamon stuttered, running his hands along his smooth rubbery frame, "With all those wires and holes opening up everywhere... and that dish is stupid. It's so big!"

"I am afraid this body is designed for maximum connectivity, whilst you're on the job and plugged into the security system you'll need as many connections as possible to run everything," Rufellen offered a hand to Cinnamon as the surmelle pawed at his whiskers which had returned to normal length on either side of his muzzle.

"I... see," Cinnamon said lamely, shuffling his feet and turning around to look at the mirror again, he really did look quite different from Rufellen or the other automata he'd seen so far. His body was entirely clad in those rubberised plates but this gave him a very blocky appearance. It was as if the animalistic features were merely an afterthought. They were all there but crowded out by the extra crystals, the outline of ports and connection points were quite obvious. Even his nose was odd, it looked more like like another connection port, his hand and leg assembly was also very blocky, the faint traces of hinges everywhere. Of course his claws were plastic, they did a good job of mimicking the shape of real claws but he knew that with just a thought they would morph into cables. The only real comfort he had was his pouch, it was just where it should be and he slipped a hand inside, feeling the way the elastic reinforcement stretched and twitched against the pressure from his hand. He was just so... very robotic and shiny and slippery, he was more robot surmelle then anything, "Is this what Nutmeg looks like?"

"Not at the moment, though we are intending to upgrade Nutmeg soon, you have the latest advances in our communications tech," Rufellen slipped an arm around the new robot's shoulders and guided him toward a door, it was a very friendly, familiar, organic gesture and Cinnamon allowed himself to be guided, "I realise your body is very different to what you are used to, but your proxy body is ready, why don't we give that a look? You'll feel a bit better about being a walking, talking sensor unit once you see what I've created for you to wear during your time off."

"Oh, yes please," Cinnamon asked, "I... I wasn't expecting to look so... so alien. I thought I'd look like you or Rolls."

"Sorry about that," Rufe said with a smile then placed his hands on Rufellen's shoulders, "I can't change that part of your template, I have very specific instructions from the Administrator. But I have done my best to make your proxy look like you did when you arrived this morning, shall we give it a go?"

The surmelle nodded and Rufellen talked him through the process. It was all done with thoughts, no external inputs were needed but Rufellen had to relinquish control of the proxy and teach Cinnamon how to set new security protocols. Once that had been established he made a connection, it appeared as an icon inside his vision, in the same way the power icon did when he wanted to check his power levels.

"Ok... I can see it, it says CP01 and has an online icon next to it," he looked up at Rufellen and peered toward the cylinder it was inside, "It's in there, I can... tell where it is, how does that work?"

"You are sharing data already, it's a subconscious process most of the time, but it is a slave unit to your primary self," Rufellen explained, watching something on the inside of his visor as he stepped back from the surmelle, "So all you need to do is think about that overlay. When it appears it'll tell you if it is online, if so you need only think about transferring and your security protocol. It'll check you are who you say you are and then it'll do the rest."

Cinnamon nodded and did as requested then squeaked as his vision turned off, the outside world was just gone. There was a moment of static, a buzzing sensation and then he opened his eyes. Except he had to blink them clear as they were full of tears. He rubbed at them and froze as he brushed tears away with soft furry paws and pink furless fingers. Running his paws down his muzzle he quickly patted along the length of his body, he was fuzzy, he was warm, he even seemed to need to take a breath and a quick check of his wrist found a faint pulse.

The featureless grey cylinder he was in swished open and he stepped forwards, pulling his feet free of a series of contacts on the floor. The illusion of organic life was spoilt by a flickering heads up display showing that Cinnamon was now on internal power. His connection was strong and Cinnamon-Proxy 01 was now online and operational. It only gave him a short pause, he lifted up one foot and looked at it, seeing that the indentation for the charging ports had closed up. Chittering happily around his buck teeth he took a few hesitant steps then stopped as he found Rufellen watching him. He was quite naked and in this body once again had parts that were best not shown off in public.

"Ah... it's working... oh..." he stared up at the silent orange vulcanised shape that was his real body, "Is that really me?"

"Indeed it is," Rufellen said, "Quite different isn't it?"

"Yes..." Cinnamon rubbed a paw against his robotic self then looked down at his fuzzy body and ran his claws through his fur. It felt real but as he inspected it he could see it wasn't quite 100% natural. Each individual hair had a faint artificial sheen to it, collectively it gave him a glossy, healthy fur-coat that would pass for real. Bouncing from foot to foot the surmelle grinned up at Rufellen, paws tucked into his pouch comfortably.

"This feels brilliant," he squeaked happily, "You'd never know I was really all plastics and metals beneath the fur. Eheee it feels natural too... how do you guys do that?"

"Lots of practice," Rufellen replied petting the eager little rodent/weasel on the head, "Now then there is someone who wants to see you," he lifted off his visor and pointed to the door as it hinged open.

The automata that walked in was tall, nearly the same height as Rufellen, their body however was almost identical to the orange plastic and rubbery shape standing in the middle of the room. They just had more exposed rubber muscles and no tail assembly, their outer casing was a soft nutty brown however and Cinnamon squeaked and flew into their arms excitedly. Their arms felt oddly strange against his body, smooth rubberised metal sliding over their fuzzy body.

"It's good to see you Cinnamon," Nutmeg squeaked glancing over at the impressive body standing inert in the middle of the room, "You look good, both of you do, I'm tempted to get a fuzzy body too now."

Leaning back and wiping at his eyes Cinnamon bounced up and down, "You have to, how else can we go hang out together!"

"Heh well I've submitted an application for a body-loan already, we'll see if the administrator will approve it," Nutmeg brushed the surmelle's fuzzy head and smiled, his buck teeth on show as he grinned, "I've missed you so much bro... so shall I show you where we're going to be working? I managed to wrangle your transfer to me so I can show you the ropes and teach you how to plug in."

"Sure, I want to learn everything..." Cinnamon started for the door but stopped as Nutmeg touched his shoulder and nodded toward the body in the middle of the room.

"You will need to bring yourself bro," Nutmeg squeaked and shook his head, "I can't plug that fuzzy bod of yours into the mainframe.

"Oh, ok, ah let me put this away ah Mr Rufellen where do I store this proxy?" Cinnamon walked back over to the template engineer, smiling softly and happily, bouncing along. His brother was here, he had a well paying job and he had two bodies! Working for VA was going to be quite good, now all he had to do was make sure he applied himself to the job and did well!

End Part 6: