FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

This was last week's Thursday Prompt hosted by the wonderful Poetigress. Late because I was stricken with a sinus cold-thing and I was afraid to post under the influence of antihistamines.

Enjoy.

Hunks of mangled metal lay strewn across the vast sky. From the west horizon to the east, it hung as a dismembered reminder of why Marius' people remained trapped on this desolate hunk of rock, forced to cling to whatever oases of water left amid the crags of its marred surface. Marius gripped Tarolc's harness while his companion's six limbs took their turn in scaling the side of the cliff face. Above all else, Marius refused to look down; the years of growing up on this planet had taught him one thing - it never helps to look down. Instead, he stared skyward where the setting sun picked up the various hues from the scattered metallic remnants, sending a rainbow of color before his eyes.

When he couldn't bare to gaze upward at the broken dreams of the past, he buried his face in the thick fur of his Fesyern friend who carried him upward. Tarolc's striped coat served as a buffer from the winds that whipped between the crevices of the planet. The repetitive sound of Tarolc's thick claws piercing the craggy rocks and the movement of his strong muscles beneath the saddle couldn't begin to relax Marius. Soon, he'd be close. Just a little farther and all his questions would be answered. He'd finally know where he came from, and what connected him to that mess in the sky. Years of staring upward and wondering who he was, would all be long past - if only the end of this blasted cliff ever came.

Thankful for the safety straps that held him to the saddle, Marius had little to do other than hang on. Worst case, there was always Tarolc's snake-like tail to catch him should he fall - but he probably shouldn't think about that either. His flat triangular, hammer-headed, feline face pointed toward their destination, which still looked like miles of cliff. When Tarolc saw something, he'd let Marius know; the telepathic abilities of the Fesyern were quite remarkable.

To echo his thoughts, Tarolc's mind voice filled his head with a silken, feline sound. :We're almost there, Marius. I can see the ledge.: Tarolc's mind link carried with it a bubble of excitement. :How many more cliffs does the letter say we need to cross?:

Marius reached into his jacket and pulled out the worn bundle and unfolded it. His eyes scanned the words, but by now he knew them by heart - it just gave him comfort to see them. He leaned toward the knobby ends of Tarolc's hammer-shaped head - where his ears were - to say, "This is the last one." Marius had never been good at the whole mind-speak thing. He didn't really get how it all worked.

:It's all that science getting in the way.: Tarolc's mental words were laced with a subtle laugh. :It's not your fault that you're too smart for your own good. You just overcomplicate things.:

"I guess." Marius shrugged. He wasn't going to have this argument again, not now. Instead, he scratched through the fur on Tarolc's neck and added, "Thanks for taking me all this way."

Tarolc's eyes flicked back at him while he continued to pull them upward. :Are you kidding? I'm just as curious as you are. Who wouldn't want to know how they were connected to that destruction up there?:

Marius looked upward again and the outline of the cliff's ledge faded into vision. How he wished he could fly, and be there in an instant.

Tarolc's limbs pulled faster until it matched Marius' racing heartbeat. They stopped just below the ledge, and Tarolc slid his flat head over for a quick look. :Oh, wow. Marius, you should see this.:

The awe that heightened his friend's voice only frustrated him. "I can't until you climb over."

He laughed as he slid his long body over the cliff, pulling the remnants of a shattered escape pod into view.

The large cracked dome that once served as an entry shield looked nothing like the crashed pods filled with travelers in suspended animation - like the one he'd been found in. Marius pulled the letter from his jacket and read the last words again: You may not like what you find, but if you have to know, the answer is out there. He wanted to know more than anything.

When he looked back at Tarolc, his large friend had coiled himself in a serpentine manner while he cleaned his paws, his voice nonchalant :Don't worry about me. I couldn't fit in that thing anyway. I'm better off as lookout.:

"I thought you were curious?"

Without a look from his task Tarolc added, :I am, but blessed with telepathy. I'll know.:

"Suit yourself." Marius turned back to the escape pod. The landing had fractured the side in multiple places, and the pressure-sealed door had been busted at the seams for quite some time. He inspected the push-pad release, but the lack of lights and response suggested that the powercell had long since died. After attempting to pry his fingers between the cracks, he cast a glance back at Tarolc, who had silently moved behind him.

:Need some assistance?: He wriggled twenty sharp claws; a couple of sharp teeth bared over his lip.

Marius jumped. "Crap! I hate when you sneak up like that. You're a demon monster without that telepathy."

He swept Marius to the side with one of his paws. :A Fesyern's got to eat.: He gripped the edges of the door with four hands, using his feet as bracers. :We don't petition our prey to be devoured.: With one great heave, and a groan of warped metal, Tarolc pulled the door from its hinges. The force threw him backwards, and he tumbled toward the edge of the cliff. :I got it! You go on ahead.: Marius lingered long enough to see the door sail over the cliff while Tarolc clawed his way to a stop in a cloud of grey dirt.

Once inside the ship, he took a quick look around through the dinge of age old dust. He'd been wrong about the powercell. A few monitors flickered in a desperate attempt to stay activated, and dim overhead lights pulsed a pathetic door-ajar warning. He retrieved the letter, rereading the description of the item he was supposed to find, then set about looking for it. While he searched, he noticed a few choice items amid the debris that could still be of use - but he'd have to save those for later - there was still an old video card to find.

After overturning a few areas with no results, he found it tucked inside a dingy bag. Anxious, he brought it to the main computer. Chances were good that the systems back home could run the video card, but it couldn't hurt to try it now. Worst case he crashed the system, and he'd take what he wanted and deal with waiting. Still, he couldn't resist. With a snap, the card locked into place and the screen in front of him flashed with a fuzzy image before zapping out of focus.

His groan echoed around him, and he got to his knees to see if he could reroute power to the video displays. A few minutes of tinkering yielded dead lights, but produced the soft sound of a woman's voice. Marius scrambled from a heap of wires to see the woman's face onscreen. The pixel-color was a bit greyed, but her hair was dark like his, and she had a similarly shaped face.

"I'm sorry Marius." She was crying, as the entire image blipped off, then on, and she continued. "I don't know what's happened. Your father . . . something went wrong during cryo-sleep." Tears streamed down her face while her arms dashed in all directions. She must have made this while steering the escape craft. "He aborted some of the stasis levels. The emergency systems kicked me out of suspension just in time to save the last of them, and make sure you'd land someplace safe. I set their landing sequences for this planet - but I had to kill him." The image crackled, and blurted closed with a pathetic cry.

Marius swore, and smacked the console with his closed fist. It buzzed fuzzy zigzags, then back to nothing. He struck it again and it whirred back to life.

Her crying had worsened. "I'm so sorry. He'd lost his mind. I don't know what went wrong. I just couldn't save the ship. Let's hope it doesn't explode in the planet's atmo. If I make it, I'll come look for you. If not, Dr. Kelroie says he'll do what he can. There're calculations to our original destination on this card - I'm sure you'll be able to access them. You were a smart baby. I love you, sweetie. Your daddy did too. Take care of yourself." The sound cut out first, then the screen faded to black. The outline of his mothers image imprinted on his mind.

When Marius sat on the floor, he didn't become aware of it for a good few minutes then quickly pocketed the video card. Now he knew, so what did he do with that information? He began to root around the escape pod and collected whatever was light and useful for back home. He was already head of the team trying to get back into space, but knowing that his father had caused them all to be stranded here, made him want to succeed all the more. A part of him wanted to do it to make up for what his father had done. It was almost his duty to undo the failures of his father, and get his people to their destination.

:How long are you going to be in there?: Tarolc's prodding mental voice took Marius from his scavenge to glance at the opening to see half of Tarolc's face sticking inside the escape craft.

"I just want to see if there's anything to use back home." Marius stood and walked toward the door. "There isn't much here that we don't already have better back home. Maybe some spare metals and wires, but that's about it." He shrugged while Tarolc moved from the opening. Back outside, the multicolored arch of debris caught his eye, and Marius paused, while his mind churned with thought. "My dad killed a lot of people."

Tarolc looked back at him with a look that Marius could only assume by the quirked expression on his flat face that his statement perplexed him. The sensations that flooded him confirmed it. :That's what you got out of this? Your father was a killer?:

"No." He paused to thumb the video card next to the note in his pocket. "I just have a lot to live up to now."

:How do you figure?: Tarolc turned around. :You and Dr. Kelroie are the only ones who know your lineage. If he wanted it public knowledge, then he could have done so. He left that card for you to retrieve.:

Marius let that sink in. Everything had been left so he could collect the disk and view it alone. This was his secret to do with whatever he wanted. "You and all the Fesyern will know."

:Yes, but the failures of your parents don't matter to us.: In his way of suggesting they leave, Tarolc squatted low. :We don't judge each other based on the actions of others. A person can only be themselves.:

With a nod, Marius climbed onto Tarolc's saddle and strapped himself in. As Tarolc made his way toward the ledge, Marius' stomach lurched - he hated the trip down cliffs, there was too much bottomlessness to the planet.

At that moment, while they leered over the edge, Tarolc tipped his head back to punctuate his mental words. :You know, there's a flock of Ponnichrops that fly through these canyons sometime around dusk. We could wait, and catch a ride on one - that way we'd have something to eat when we get back.:

Marius laughed. "Just like you to think with your stomach, but I'm with you on it. We haven't had Ponnichrop for some months now and their wing webs make the best gear."

:Yeah, you can have those chewy things.: With his head cocked sideways, Tarolc stretched his neck out to hear the Ponnichrops' calls better. His twin black tongues slipped from his lip while he continued. :Who would have thought something so stupid could be so delicious.:

-End