FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Location: Wastelands, Ocean.

Closest City: New Vega.

Time: 09:50am.

Year: 2180, March 9th.

I woke up to the feeling of The Cradle, rocking from left to right slowly. From what I had experienced for my short time aboard the ship, it had never rocked before. I almost immediately got up, but I had to be careful not to fall over from the rocking; but before I went off to find Elise, I had a quick shower. My fur felt too twisted and matted for me to continue as I was. Luckily, I was still wearing a loose shirt and a pair of briefs so both me and Elise wouldn't end up having one of those awkward moments.

I listened out, and couldn't hear anything, so I felt sure that Elise wasn't in the shower; and I was right. I forced open the large pressure door to the shower and stepped in, removing all of my clothes and dumping them to the side of the door, closing it behind me. I immediately turned on the shower and felt the warm water patter onto my chest, causing me to moan quietly in pleasure; the water felt so good on my fur, I almost didn't want it to stop; but I still had things to do.

After having a quick shower and drying off my fur, I stepped into my Seeker clothes and put on my belt, holding my small pistol in the right holster. I pulled the gun out and sat down on my bed, simply admiring how it was made; it wasn't any good in an actual firefight, but it was good for taking out people who didn't know you were carrying the gun. Unfortunately, it would be no good against our next target; Rosie was literally a killing machine. It wasn't even alive as far as I could tell.

After five minutes, I heard my bedroom door start to slide open, and looked up to see Elise walk in slowly, wearing a different set of clothes; she wore a long, brown woolen coat that reached her feet, and under that, her usual black and red cloak. I holstered my pistol and got up from my bed.

"Good to see you're up." Elise sighed, dropping onto my bed. "You'll be sailing for the next few hours."

"Thanks for the wake up call." I said rhetorically. "So where are we now?"

"We're on the ocean." Elise said bluntly, but still making me blink rapidly in surprise; "And you're still going to sail, whether you like it or not."

"Is this the only way to Old Arpeggio?" I asked, looking at her as she stretched and lied on the bed. "Surely we would have sunk by now; the wind turbine doesn't look very secure."

"It doubles back as a water turbine." Elise moaned, rubbing her head against the small pillow. "It's perfectly secure, and we have enough supplies to make this trip several times."

"Hopefully we won't have to." I muttered. Elise must have heard that since I heard her giggle quietly. "So would you like to show me how to sail, then?"

"That sounds nice." Elise said, getting up slowly and rising to her feet; "I just need to get something from my room."

I followed Elise out, but instead of following her to her room, I walked the other way, and up to the stern of the ship, where I would be sailing. I was never really into sailing, but it felt odd to be sailing from the stern of the ship, and not the very front. Luckily, the interior of the ship was low enough for me to look over, and barely see the actual surface below us.

I slid the door open and stepped out into the cold but refreshing air; I had a look around from the balcony, and just stared out into the deep ocean. The Wastelands looked much different to New Vega one terms of weather and the sky. The clouds had gone from puffy white to a thin and snaking grey, and the only pieces of land that I could see were cracked and dried. It was as if everything and everyone had ignored this part of Earth, and it was slowly dying away.

I quickly turned around and saw Elise step up to the stern, holding another woolen coat in her right hand, and holding a small metal box in her left. She handed me the spare coat, smiling with tired eyes. I took the coat slowly and put it on, feeling the soft wool embrace me and rub against the bare parts of my fur. After putting it on, I glared at the small box Elise was holding and decided to question her.

"So what's in the box?" I asked, turning around and looking at the two poles that were melded together to form a ninety degree angle; "And how do I control the ship?"

"You just turn the pole to the left to turn the ship right, and vice versa." Elise explained, stepping up behind me and guiding my hands slowly. "I can't really explain what's in this box; do you remember that time back in the Rover factory, when I pulled something out of that pillar?"

"Yeah, I remember!" I said, surprised; "You pulled some kind of black cube out of the pillar, and told me to run like hell before Rosie got up again."

"Exactly." Elise said, backing up and leaning against the railings. "This box contains that cube; and that cube contains the artificial intelligence, Epitaph. It also shares another name of The Director."

"That's...not all that surprising." I said slowly, realizing how obvious it seemed. A lot of computer programs were now stored in data cubes or cylinders. "So we have that advantage; how do we use it?"

"Well, I've been tinkering with it ever since I found it." Elise began, pulling the small cube from the container; "It should be all fixed up, so all I need to do is find out how to activate it."

Elise walked up to me and guided me down into the interior of the ship, and into the small living room. We quickly sat down and drew our chairs up to the small dining table; Elise laid the cube down in the centre and pulled out a set of screwdrivers and pins, picking out one of the sharp pins and prodding the cube.

"I'm guessing there's some kind of switch or button on this thing." Elise muttered, picking the cube up to get a better look. "I can't see anything like that, though..."

I sneaked one of my hands around and picked up a thin screwdriver, keeping an eye on the cube as Elise continually rotated it around, looking uncertainly for a button or switch. It took at least five minutes for me to get tired of watching Elise, and hold out my hand to inspect the cube myself. Elise submitted and handed it over reluctantly; I picked up the thin screwdriver and got to work.

"Be careful." Elise warned in a tired voice; "It's very fragile. I don't want to end up gluing the pieces back together."

"Trust me." I retorted; "If this cube has survived this long, I highly doubt it'll break no-."

I immediately stopped mid-sentence. I had found a small rectangular indentation in the cube, and I decided that it was a good idea to prod it and see if something happened. Unfortunately, I had accidentally rotated the screwdriver, and caused the cube to crack open. The crack actually looked like a straight line, which was very odd. We both exchanged a couple of shocked glances, but looked back down at the cube and watched it crack further open by itself. It wasn't breaking, it was opening!

The cube slowly opened up, revealing a tiny red marble in the centre, which shone so much that it almost blinded me momentarily when I looked directly at it. A small pillar of red light rose up from the marble, and turned into a tiny grey screen, revealing an odd figure. It looked like a Dragon, but its left half was white, whilst its right half was black. It looked like the two Dragons that I saw in the Rover Factory, but were combined together.

"Failsafe system activated." The Dragon said in a monotone and static voice; "Identifications confirmed; Elise Elorara Mayer, Kobalt Monday, currently one key."

"That's changed." Elise said back to the small Dragon, and reaching for a small metal box that contained all the keys we had; "We now have five keys in total. Rosie has three more, and the last two are still missing. The entire Blood Clan is now dead."

"Updating data." The Dragon said, making a light humming noise. "Data updated. Blood Clan; deceased. Rosie is currently located in the ruins of Old Arpeggio."

"Wait a minute." I said, looking down at the small screen; "Why are you helping us? Aren't you supposed to be...I dunno, neutral or something?"

"I don't have any allies or enemies." The Dragon explained; "I am able to decide for myself; I choose to help you."

"That's complete rubbish." I retorted; "This is so...stupid! Now we have some kind of good guy bad guy thing going on, and we're the good guys; and we're being helped by a program that can 'think for itself'. Something tells me that this is going to be more of an adventure than a goddamn hunt for money!"

"This is the only thing that gives us an advantage in this hunt!" Elise retorted, looking at me sternly. "I say we take it. The least it can do is inform us about the location of the two other keys as we go."

"I still think it's a bad idea." I sighed, getting up from my seat and heading out of the room; "I'm going to get some air. If we're going to keep it, you'll have to hold onto it."

With that, I walked out of the room and out onto the stern. I felt too tense and frustrated; I was so used to being calm and collected when I worked as an average Seeker; but ever since I took up this opportunity for the club, I had been a little short tempered, untrusting, and I almost forgot that this had been the first time that I had killed somebody; that Red Fox back at the airport. I hadn't even realized how much of an impact it would actually have on me.

Once I was out on the stern, I simply leant forwards on the railings and looked out to the dark water. I felt like I was on the verge of breaking down mentally, and I couldn't do anything to stop it. I couldn't just ask Elise to turn the boat around and take me home; that would be even more stupid than what we were already planning. We were still on our way to kill Rosie; but just before I could start to think about how we'd be able to kill it, I saw Elise come out of the door and up to the stern to join me.

"Are you ok?" She asked, putting on a worried face; "You sound really tense..."

"I'm far from ok." I said, turning around and leaning my back on the railings. "I'm too used to going through the same days over and over. I guess you could say I'm homesick."

"I never really asked what kind of work you do." Elise queried, walking up next to me. "Should I really ask, or is it a secret?"

"Let's just say it's not very legal." I hinted, putting on a kind of sad smile, but deciding that it was best to own up to her; "I just try to make a living. It's not all that harmful, really; just drugs and things like that."

"I see." Elise said, but not in a disappointed way. "So...you've never actually...tried any of your..."

"No, no." I said quickly, starting to get a little embarrassed. "I just deliver them; from what I've heard, businesses like that have been going on ever since New Vega was built..."

"I won't ask any further." Elise said quietly. "As you said, it's just part of life. I'm going to get some rest, but feel free to start the ship up whenever you feel ready. Just push the steering pole down until you feel a dull clicking noise. We'll keep traveling north; there's a compass implanted on the pole."

Elise got up from the railings and left me alone at the stern, and with my thoughts. I took a deep breath in and out, and advanced over to the steering pole. I just wanted to get this mission over and done with. I missed my old life; jumping over buildings, risking my life only a little bit, sleeping and waking up next to a different person everyday.

The trouble was that I had grown rather fond of Elise; she was kind, sympathetic. Sure, she was a little odd, but she felt like the only person who actually cared about me.

She was like an older sister that I had never known up until now...