FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

This is a trade of sorts with https://twitter.com/Atimist (follow me, too! https://twitter.com/TayuBW)

This series involves AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION! I encourage you all to participate and help guide the story along!

There can be different ways for this story to go, and we're both interested to see the places you send him, and the things you... do to him!

Comments and tips are always appreciated! https://ko-fi.com/tayubw

Join my writing group if you want to chat about stories, brainstorm ideas, look for advice on writing, or just hang out! https://t.me/joinchat/CPoeZhclggenrOEh0yYwvg

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"I can't help but notice that you didn't come back after the few hours you said you'd be out for," Cres said as Atimist flopped down in the pilot's seat.

The fennec's ears flicked back, his surly demeanor returning as the AI poked fun at him. "Shut up, Cres."

"Not lovers at all, definitely not."

Atimist didn't even respond to the tease. He rummaged through the bag and pulled out the data chip that Espin had provided him. "I've got more information on where we might find this Quentin asshole. So, load it up on the screen and help me make sense of it."

"Oh fine, fine. I'll leave you be. Let's see what we have here, anyway..." the AI threw up a good ten or so documents and pictures across the screen, browsing through it all in seconds. "Interesting. So much information, and none of it particularly helpful."

Atimist reached out towards the holographic display and poked at one of the reports. "What do you mean? Nothing useful? There are two possible locations for him, though, right? So, that narrows it down?"

Cres displayed a map of the entire local cluster, highlighting two regions in space that were quite the distance from each other. "He's probably in one of these two spots. They're on opposite sides of the entire region. If you pick the wrong one, it will take a long time to get to the other, and someone else is going to get there first. And, mind you, he's only probably there. It's not even a guarantee."

Atimist groaned and buried his face in his paws, shaking his head. "Okay, okay. So, let's look at it logically then. I don't believe that he's anywhere else. He's got to be at one of these two places. So, which do you think he's at?"

Cres sighed and pulled up information on both those locations. "This is one of those gut-feeling kind of decisions, I believe. I don't have a gut, and I can only tell you that there's a about a fifty percent chance he's at either location."

"Okay, well, the entertainment district would be a good place to try and offload tech that is supposed to be used in that kind of manner, right? You could fulfill a lot of fantasies with tech like that. Portable tech. Tech that's cheaper than the shit they have there that's expensive, dangerous, and immobile." Atimist grabbed his holoscreen to start making notes.

"That sounds like a perfectly reasonable assumption," Cres suppled. "But then why would the mining operation even be a choice?"

Atimist leaned back and kicked his legs up on the console. "Hm. That's definitely a good question." He sat there for a bit, going through his older notes on the holoscreen. "Okay, the tech isn't finished, right?"

"Correct. This was still in the prototype phase, from what the reports say. There shouldn't necessarily be a working model," Cres said.

Atimist frowned and thought about it for a bit. "Okay, so, let's say he's trying to finish the prototype before trying to offload it... What kind of resources are common in the mining district?"

A few chemical compounds appeared on screen, followed by pictures of solid ores. "Aside from the usual stuff, there's large quantities of Uranium and Thorium, and Trace amounts of Korvanalium which is where a lot of the money comes from."

The fennec blinked a few times. "Uh, help me out here. I'm familiar with Uranium. It used to be used in explosives and stuff a long long time ago. Thorium is... it's radioactive, I know that. But I don't know what they're really used for. And that last one, I'm definitely lost on. I didn't do well in chemistry."

"You never took chemistry," Cres amended. Atimist scowled. "Thorium's uses, nowadays, are used primarily for extremely high-end lenses you would find in cameras, holographic displays, and focusing arrays."

"For beams and lasers?"

"Just so. Back in the twentieth century it fell out of favor for lanthanum, on account of it being radioactive and people not wanting radioactive camera lenses. However, modern technology has found a way to refine thorium and glass to make some of the best lenses on the market."

Atimist pondered that and jotted down a couple notes. "Okay, that sounds like it could be useful if you're trying to make some sort of beam weapon, right? Like laser weapons."

"Yes, however, most weapon-based lasers use Rhodochomium, which is a topic for another time. Thorium is better for focusing beams for accuracy, effect, and quality. If you want your infinite megapixel cameras, you'll use thorium."

"Right, right. So, Korva-whatnow?" The fox said, his head hurting from all the science talk. He fished around in the bag and brought out the container Espin had sent with. The first container he opened was a large cinnamon roll that was still warm, as if it had just come out of the oven. His stomach practically leapt into his mouth as he grabbed the fork from inside the bag and dug in.

"Korvanalium, atomic elements numbers one-eighty-three, discovered about a hundred years ago in that very sector of space, actually."

Atimist tried to push his food to one side of his mouth. "So, big numbers like that are all radioactive, right?"

"Yes. Well, no, not necessarily, but this one is. It's complicated. A lot of theories about the Island of Stability, Super-Stable theory, and-"

"The... what? Slow down. Can you dumb it down, please."

Cres let out an exasperated sigh. "It isn't important. But yes, it is radioactive. Korvanalium has been especially useful in using matter-reintegration technology. Teleportation and the like."

"Yeah, but we don't have teleportation. We can't do that yet," Atimist frowned.

"Not true! We are able to teleport small quantities of simple compounds. I believe that we can now teleport seventeen molecules of water, with a success rate of almost fifty percent! Korvanalium has been instrumental in that process."

Atimist rolled his eyes. "Okay, that sounds... vaguely useful, I suppose. Maybe. Anything else?"

"There's a lot of theorhetical stuff. It gives off a unique type of radiation that, with enough energy, is essentially capable of creating and destroying matter, after a fashion."

"Oh, oh, I know this one. Matter can neither be created nor destroyed!" the fox said, beaming brightly at the screen.

"Exactly. Mostly. It's kind of true, unless you cheat the system, so to speak. You aren't so much creating and destroying matter as you are moving it from an alternate universe into this one. It's complicated. Complicated in a way that I don't begin to understand."

Atimist leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "Interesting. So, if I wanted to become taller..."

"Ah, I see where you're going," Cres said, a note of pride in the AI's voice. "You'd need to be able to do one of two things. Get your cells to replicate in record time, using more energy and material than what they should really be capable of in such a short time...'

"Or bring in matter from somewhere else to be used for that process!" the fox said, bouncing in his seat.

"But why couldn't you use matter from this reality for that?" Cres ventured.

Atimist frowned, and then snapped his fingers. "That limits its portability. If you wanted to double in size, you'd need to bring other matter with you to make up for the difference. If you're grabbing it from another universe, then you don't have to carry it with you."

"That certainly sounds reasonable," Cres said. "I'm convinced. Mining district it is then, right?"

Atimist took another large bite of the cinnamon roll, cheeks bulged at one side. "Yes. Let's do it. I have a good feeling about this." He put aside his food and guided the ship up through the atmosphere and into space, Cres taking over and launching them into hyperspace.

"On it, captain. It's a fifteen-hour trip there. That gives you time to prepare for the other thing you're forgetting."

The fox was focused entirely on his cinnamon roll now, only a third of it gone. "Yeah? What's that."

"Titus Korhal. What are you going to do about him? If he's there, and he catches wind that a pipsqueak little bounty hunter such as yourself is trying to nab his bounty, or the tech, then he's going to turn you inside out. And not in the way that I'm sure you like."

Atimist's face flushed in embarrassment as he thought to the previous night that had led to him and Espin in bed together. "H-hey now, that's not fair. It wasn't like that, really."

"Mhm, I'm sure. Either way, you're about to piss off a major player, from the sounds of it. I hope you have a plan in mind in case you two bump into one another."

Atimist's muzzle broke into a slow grin. "You know me. I always have a plan."

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Titus Korhal is a notorius bounty hunter, but not much is known about him other than he's got a mean streak a mile wide. What species is he?

Vote in the comments, or on twitter! https://twitter.com/TayuBW/status/1144019676592254976

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