Coell Universe - Space Rescue
Coell Universe - Short Story
Space Rescue
S_et in a far off future where humans are just one of a hundred species with mixed earth animal DNA, the anthro-furry faces have populated a small section of our galaxy, filling it with life of all kinds, AI's and androids and cybernetic beings as numerous as the organics that created them. But space is harsh, and empires rise and fall. But for every long lost fallen empire are the scavengers and salvagers eager to find and sell some gem from a forgotten civilization. Robotic dragons, AnDragons are one such gem, their Creators may be long gone, but their constructions still survive, now trying to find a place to belong in a cold universe.__ _
The series folder is here... https://www.sofurry.com/browse/folder/stories?by=67748&folder=68665
Gellan woke with a start, crashing into the side of his shipping container. Alarms were going off inside his head and inside the ship itself. his mind was sharp and alert, having only been in power-saving standby mode, it only took 8.4 milliseconds for his neural systems to boot back into full awareness. A quick check of his internal chronometer told his he was still in space, as did the network feed from the ship. he grunted as he was flattened to the side of his container, gyroscopes telling his he was in a rapid spin before the shuttle feed cut out and his world turned into a chaotic mess of noise and bangs. With a tremendous wrench he felt his container slam into something, the top sheering off in a jagged shriek of torn metal, then quiet as the air rushed out in a heavy whoosh.
WARNING! ATMOSPHERE AT 0 SOLAR RADATION DETECTED EXTERNAL DATA CONNECTIONS LOST
Warning signals scrolled though his mind, activating emergency programming as his body adjusted to the lack of pressure. He peered cautiously out of his container, eyes flickering a mirrored silver as the bright starlight flashed across his eyes, steadily spinning at 27.287 revolutions a minute. The shuttle flew past his vision, giving his plenty of time to see the damage, the sleek vessel torn nearly in half, a large mass of twisted and unrecognizable metal shapes spinning away, the remains of whatever it had collided with. Communication protocols scanned and tried to stream out distress signals, but all he could hear was a buzzing, angry static. They must have been hit by an un-forecast communication storm. The remnants of whatever those long lost aliens did to this world sometimes flared up, disrupting communications and in extreme cases, causing damage. It would pass, and he was in no immediate danger. With a guilty start he remembered his owner. He had been bought at auction, and his owner was only another salesman, he wasn't even imprinted on her, but he still felt a sense of duty to her. Centuries of deactivation 'sleep' hadn't dulled that instinct, and he had only been awake for a short time, still adjusting to and learning about this new, destroyed world, everything he knew lost... what little he still remembered of it anyway. He reached out to scan the networking signals, unsurprised at not finding anything now, and instead using his eyes to scan the shuttle as it spun around again, locating records, seat assignments, diagrams. Red lines and symbols flashed across his inner vision. His owner would have been sitting in the section that was now completely missing. Very surely dead. He was sad for their death, but equally sad for the countless others.
A long 13 seconds after the disaster he shook his head and began scanning the immediate area for survivors. The baggage area of the shuttle was mostly intact, and the majority of the AnDragons were emerging from damaged containers, or ripping their way out of them. A few like him were floating in space, and he saw several that were lucky enough to be equipped with anti-grav or negative energy wings already rescuing survivors, encasing them in HardLight force-fields and swatting away debris.
Vacuum was painful for an organic, but not immediately fatal. Many would survive, although there was little they could do for any caught in the immediate collision and explosion. He looked around, head scanning and saw a female cat tumbling away, eyes and mouth wide in a panic, screaming without sound and arms flailing. He was an older model, not in terrible repair, but without any of the fancy features of the exotic or luxury editions, and that was before he had been put into storage. He wasn't space capable, but could still operate perfectly fine in zero gravity. He calculated angles, spin and trajectory without any conscious thought, and shoved off the container with powerful hindlegs. He sailed silently through space, and neatly grabbed the spinning feline, his launch having spin him exactly enough so when he caught the cat their spins canceled out, his large body shielding the fur-covered organic from the burning radiation of the naked sun.
Hard, reinforced sapphire eyes stared into the tearing organic orbs as the dragon held the panicking anthro, feeling a hand grabbing onto his chin in a panic. Gellan cursed at his lack of a full array of HardLight emitters, they were still new and expensive when he had been build so very long ago, and he had never managed to make enough to buy out his own contract, let alone purchase salvaged upgrades. He had one, set between his horns on the top of his head and it began to glow as he charged it, formulating what he wanted. He didn't have a lot to work with, so he designed a minimal life support for the dying anthro. HardLight particles flowed like water from his single emitter, flowing along the specially designed surface of his synthetic dragonhide and sparking into life and form at the underside of his neck, an access port already open. The HardLight formed around a maintenance connector in his main breathing tube, the glowing light extending and extruding, aiming right for the fur's face.
The light flowed around the feline's nose and face, just below her eyes, covering the cat's face like a glowing muzzle or mask, sealing tight and wrapping one last line around the back of her head to seal tight. Gellan released the oxygen nozzle slowly, allowing the air pressure to gradually ramp up over a period of several seconds before reaching a standard atmosphere of pressure. The sound of the fur screaming grew louder with the air pressure, the AnDragon able to sense it now as the vibration along his internal frame reached his auditory sensors. The pressure stable, he then used his lungs to breathe for her, internal systems recycling the air with ease, hardly needing to use much of his emergency oxygen supply. Thankfully he at least had THAT built into his frame, although his fragmented memory didn't tell him what he had used it for. The fur was still thrashing and he tried to calm her with just his eyes, not being able to speak in the vacuum. It had to be very painful for the poor organic, he was being supplied with oxygen but his exposed flesh was slowly freezing, the suit only offering small thermal protections and compression.
The AnDragon pulled the fur closer, his simple HardLight processors working on the problem. He could extend the field around the felines face, just barely. He couldn't make a full helmet, the air pressure would pop his weak HardLight field if he made it too thin, and he only had a decorative model, able to make horn accessories, hats, funny collars and other items of jewelry. It was never meant for this. He finally decided he could extend it a bit further, and he pushed his systems and his own mind to the limit as he calculated and sent orders streaming into the HardLight emitter. The mask slowly shifted, creeping up and over the fur's eyes, the red and bulging orbs closing in relief as the air flowed over them and pressure pushed them back into shape. The screaming slowed, but he could still hear her sobs and cries of pain, unable to make out words as his powerful lungs carefully helped the anthro breathe.
Out of immediate danger he scanned the planet and calculated their trajectory. They had been on a re-entry burn, but luckily the accident happened early in the flight. It would be perhaps 6 hours before they hit the atmosphere, and he could see other ships already maneuvering closer. They should all be picked up well before they were in danger of burning up. He felt the frail life struggling in his grip, scanning her and seeing distress but unsure of the cause, worried that burning up was not the most urgent issue. Vacuum did many bad things to an organic, pressure changes damaging the skin, the cold doing worse. This one wasn't going to survive for the hour it might take to be rescued if they were unlucky enough to be one of the last. Worse, he wasn't sure his HardLight system was up to the task, it was already struggling to perform in ways it was never intended and heat and stress indicators were slowly rising. Brows furrowed in worry he looked about, seeing a nearby AnDragon with a full body HardLight shield extended around the anthro-bat she had rescued. More jerks and spasms as he watched her with growing worry. He didn't have extensive medical knowledge, but knew he needed to get this one into a full body atmosphere soon, even if his HardLight systems held. Unfortunately that other nearby dragon didn't seem to have a propulsion system either, there was easy no way to reach her, or her him that didn't involve using up their limited air supply. Worse, they were moving apart, every second made reaching her less and less likely.
He considered throwing the fur at her, he was sure she could catch her, but would a second decompression hurt or kill his rescue? And what if he missed, or she moved? No, he had to reach her without letting go of his charge. But his options were limited. There wasn't much he could use to maneuver, and the options he had were, unpleasant. His options were limited, but he HAD options. He looked back into the eyes of the fur, half closed in pain and fear. He winced as he sent commands down his spine, feeling clicks and a jerk as his right hindleg detached the ball and socket joint keeping it in place, oil and power connectors popping off as his tail wrapped around the heavy, but now dead limb.
This time he had to work at the calculations, making sure they were 100% accurate, only having once chance. Pulling his tail back as far as he could, he coiled it like a spring before flinging his leg as hard as he could, sending him moving in the opposite direction, on an intercept with the dragoness. It wasn't an exact trajectory, throwing a limb with a squirming fur keeping him off balance was never going to be perfect, but he aimed the stump of his leg and opening a connector at a time squirted out the contents of his hydraulic systems. A feeble thrust, but enough to fine tune his course, each squirt making his muscles harder to control, feeling creeping damage along his stump as systems that were not meant to be exposed to hard vacuum were forced to endure it.
It took time, precious time but he slowly made his way closer and closer, the dragoness having spotted him and was reaching out a welcoming hand. Time seemed to slow down, and it was, as the dragons systems went into overdrive as they neared, increasing his reaction time at the expense of power and heat buildup. It was a symptom of his urgency, but finally he bumped into her field, pushing the fur into her HardLight shell and watching it envelop him, the poor feline seeming to relax and find some relief, gasping out wracking sobs as her body adjusted to the change, trying to speak but only able to croak out unintelligible noises. Gellan felt relief as well, watching the far more advanced dragoness tend to the injured feline. She hadn't encased him in her field, but he didn't need it. He extended his own HardLight construct to merge with hers and began to add his reserve air to the small pocket, giving her more to work with.
Static-filled whispers swirled around him for a few moments before he felt a paw pulling him closer, the dragonessed HardLight field grabbing the rest of him and pulling him close against her body. Even under the circumstances he blushed at the close contact, wondering again why his creators made their artificial life so true to form.
"Easy now, best to keep THAT access port closed, wouldn't want to damage anything not vacuum rated" said a slightly distorted voice in his head, the direct contact along their near field communication nodes to engage.
Gellan's simulated voice coughed and gave a snort, feeling a bit embarrassed at her needling, looking at her face and feeling a twinge of anger at her cruel smirk. Then he blinked and refocused his ocular lenses, seeing her true expression. Fear, and trying to put a brave face over it, a smile over a grimace. Not being mean, just scared and trying to hide it. "Hey... it will be ok. Rescue ships are coming, and I think the cat will be ok now, thanks to you."
"I know... I'm just not built for this. I'm a domestic unit, not a tough industrial like you. I mean... doing that didn't even phase you" she said as she pointed over his shoulder.
He turned his head to look, sensors spotting the now small, tumbling leg. He nodded with a sigh, that was going to be a problem. He didn't even know what was going to happen to him now. Would he be put up for auction again? With a missing leg would he get a lower price? Would they scrap him? He shivered, remembering being told by others that would be illegal as long as his mind was still functional, but he wasn't entirely convinced. He pushed those thoughts aside, and focused on the emergency at hand. He had enough to think about now, the future could wait.
...
Gellan watched the large cargo bay doors glide past him as the improvised rescue ship nosed closer, taking in the two dragons and the pair of rescues. Medics in ag-suits quickly floated in took the pair of unconscious anthros from the dragoness, hooking up monitoring equipment and leading them away, within moments Gellan lost sight of the pair as they sailed through a hatch, but knew they were in good hands now. Without warning the gravity fields in the cargo bay kicked in and he felt himself hit the deck and topple as he tried to land with four legs, and only had three. He cursed and began modifying his inverse kinematic routines to compensate for the lost limb.
"Ok you two, thanks for the help, you can stay in cargo bay 7 since you don't have any maneuvering systems" said a haggard looking anthro rat, a finger impatiently pointing at a large hatchway opening up.
Gellan watched the dragoness begin heading into the hatch, and awkwardly hopped a few steps before pausing and turning his head back, "Sir... my leg... it's on a re-entry trajectory. Do you think someone could..."
The rat shook his head and waved the dragon at the large door, "Keep moving, no time. If it's going to burn up nobody will bother with it, too much else going on right now to pick up junk." The rat paused and took another look, "AnDragon parts ARE valuable... maybe a salvager will spot it and grab it. Make sure to file a claim with the serial number, but don't hold your breath."
The large, three legged drake nodded and hobbled off, freeing the cargo bay for the next rescue, already seeing others drifting into view as the cargo ship maneuvered. It was going to be a long, long day and he sighed in mental exhaustion. His sigh turned into an eeerfh as he ran right into the back end of the dragoness as she waited for an bulkhead door to begin cycling. "Oh! I'm so sorry."
"It's ok, dear" said the dragoness as she shifted and maneuvered to stand beside him, looking at the stump of his leg. "Here, let me help with that."
"Uh, it's ok I... ohhh..." he began and then watched with wide eyes as her HardLight emitters flared into life, and an skeletal outline of a leg began to take shape underneath him. "Hnnnnng, that tickles!" he said as the HardLight grid grew over the socket of his leg stump, forming connections and locked itself into place where his missing leg used to be. Additional HardLight cables extruded from the hip and plugged into sockets along his spine. Sensation flowed into his sensor net, and a ghostly feeling of a limb made it's presence known. He experimentally wriggled his 'toes' and took a few steps. "Wow.. that's amazing, I didn't know you could even DO that."
"Mmmhm, they made a lot of advances over the years since you were built. Come on, lets go find the others and get a nice corner to rest in."
With his new 'leg' he found it easier to move and nodded happily, making sure to keep very close to the dragoness as he didn't want to get out of her emitter range and suddenly be minus a leg. Maybe the day wasn't going to be quite as bad as he expected. He squirmed as a few additional connections were made, the HardLight extending around his upper thigh for added support. His leg working smoother, the dragoness walking alongside him, her advanced high-quality synthetic hide brushing against his older, tougher version. He relaxed more, and then yelped as one last HardLight adapter formed from the glowing gridwork of his temporary leg and began probing a new socket. "Ahh... that's... ahh..."
"Tickles? Want me to disengage?" she said with a sly look.
He was having trouble walking again, but it wasn't a missing leg that was causing his unsteadiness this time. He just shook his head and kept walking. Maybe when all this was over and they were back on the surface they could both, relax.
"Huff!"