FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 12 ENJOY!

(Man, these messeges are just getting shorter huh?"

12

Ian ducked through the market, swiftly dodging others as he made his way to the next stand. It'd been a week and a half sense the trial, and nobody seemed to be on their tail. The fur who helped them had been letting them stay upstairs as long as they bought their own food. It wasn't hard for Ian to obtain money, after all, he had been the most feared pirate in the galaxy. A little pick-pocketing was nothing. He paused in front of a stand that offered different fruits from obscure planets, each having a price that actually was quite reasonable, "so that's why there was lots of buzz around here!" He joked with the proprietor a fox standing with a green apron on, "yup, yup" He said. "I get pretty good business." Ian picked up a green fruit spotted with white dots. "What's this?"

He looked upon it searching through his brain for the right name, "Oh, that's a Brod, comes from..." he made a face "I think Frensir, I don't know. But it has a sweet taste, almost like candy."

While Ian mowed it over a crowed started to form behind him talking excitedly. He heard snippets.

"When was this."

"A week and a half ago."

"Wait what?"

"The king....in the bathroom."

Ian looked behind himself with peripheral vision, why would they be talking about that?

"During the trial. Yeah I heard that too!"

He couldn't take it anymore, "Excuse me, what are you talking about?"

They all looked his way, "You haven't heard?

He shook his head.

"The king is dead."

It took Ian a second to register, "What! How?"

"The story goes that he had a heart attack in the bathroom during the trial of that pirate. Uhh, what's his name?" He looked at the sky, "ah well that doesn't matter. Yeah, the queen apparently took over. Not that it really matters."

The Brod fell out if Ian's paw and he raced back, leaving the small crowed behind.

"Say, wasn't he that pirate? You know, um Black son! A small fox type build with a mixed fur pattern."

One shrugged, "Could have been, but hey, what would you do."

Ian ran through the streets knocking others down as he went. They looked upon him as if he'd just ruined their lives. He quickly dove into the shack and ran upstairs to find Colleen sitting at a desk carefully studying a piece of paper. She'd woken up three days after they'd landed, she was still pretty weak and it's going to be like that for a while. At least that's what Canta said, the one who helped them. She could barely walk and hadn't even been outside but she could speak and hold a conversation, sit up and eat on her own. Her face held a "what are you doing" look.

"Are you ok? You look flustered."

Ian looked upon her, trying to find the courage to tell the news. The red had returned, along with the grime that comes with being on Alleendro for over twenty minutes.

"Uh, Colleen we may be in bigger trouble then I thought."

She smiled at the comment, "Ok, we escaped custody, killed a dozen guards and stole a ship. How much more trouble can we get in possibly. Really now."

"The king is dead."

The air in Colleens lungs left her as the words entered her brain. "Dad's dead?" Her words stumbled, "but...but how?" Tears formed at the base of her eyes. Ian kneeled on one knee and put his paws out to comfort her, she leaned forward in the chair as if she had a stomach ache.

"He uhhh, he had a heart attack."

She didn't say anything, the only sound that came from her were small, quick breaths of air.

"Look, I heard it from some furs down at the market, there's a good chance that it's not even true. After all, how can you trust the people here?" Colleen continued her silence, Ian used one of his paws to lift her chin and he stared deeply into her red eyes. "Come here."

He helped her up and they moved to the bed where they sat on an equal level. "Look Colleen, if it's true, If this has happened I'll carry you through it, just like I did when you were shot. I'm here, and I always will be."

Her eyes still held the face of sorrow and, along with her injury, it will take some time to heal. But Ian knew that being there would be the best thing for her.

Without warning she flung herself into his arms and cried for her father, tears rolled down her fur and the sounds drifted as far as the street. But Ian hugged her back shushing her with quite words of "it's ok you can cry." And "shhhh, we'll get through this."

The queen sat in her new chair, the throne, which felt high to her. A sigh escaped from her muzzle as she glanced around the large room. Why was it empty? Why would such a large room need to be empty? It was a little oxymoronic. She looked down at her pads, resting on the lifted platform that held the throne and where her paws rested on the sides of the elaborate chair. A door opened across the room with an echoing bang. The sound of claws clicking on the marble floor filled the silent room as the person who entered walked up to the queen. It was one of her scientists, "My lady, we think you should see something."

"What, what is it?" She answered back in a snippy tone.

He winced at it, "uh, it's about Colleen; and why she survived."

Suddenly the Queen became interested, "well what is it, where is it?"

"You're going to have to follow me to our labs." He said turning around.

She hopped off her perch and followed him out of the large throne room. They took a fast transit to the laboratory's. "Why did you come all the way up here instead off just calling me? It would have worked just fine."

He chuckled, "Actually, I was on my way to the labs when they called me to get you and bring you with me today, they made the discovery last night."

"So, you haven't actually seen it yet, you don't know what it is."

She shook his head, "nope, I was told just to tell you that you should see this."

The rest of the trip was spent in silence. When they got to the labs, the queen found it had a blue aurora resonating around it. Most of the scientists had suits on them to protect from hazardous materials. She followed the scientist to a table that held three different microscopes on it, along with various other science materials and testing equipment. Standing next to it was a fox with a long blue coat and that stretched down to his ankles. He stood in a position that looked rehearsed.

"I hear you figured something out about Colleen? As he told me." She pointed back at the lowly scientist. The one standing next to the table moved in front of it and nodded, "correct, we found something last night that we think could have caused her 'miraculous escape' as you called it."

The queen nodded waiting for the ramble to be over, "well what is it, show me!"

He jumped at her sudden outburst, "well, yes of course. Right over here."

She followed his motions, "Take a look through his microscope if you will." She did, she saw hundreds of small circles moving around quickly at every bump of the table. "What am I looking at?" She said after a couple seconds of looking.

"Well, those are red blood cells. It's what makes up your blood, my blood and everybody else's."

The queen sneered, "Yeah, so what's so special."

"Well, nothing with that specimen." He moved to the next one, "take a look in this one."

She did, this one was different. Instead of hundreds, there were dozens and when the scientist bumped the table they moved slower. "Well, what is it?"

The scientist breathed deeply, "well that's what Colleen's blood is made of."

She backed away, took a look at the scientist and took another look at the specimen. "What would it do? Why is it like that?"

The scientist held up a finger, and then pulled it back into a fist, "well, we only can go off of what we've seen right now." He moved away from the table, "the shot. When Colleen was shot it made a huge blood splatter right?"

"That's what I was told."

He started pacing, "that was basically a show. It was a lot but due to her thickened blood it didn't bleed, lending to less blood loss. So she didn't bleed out. Now, what we think!" He held up both paws, "This can carry more oxygen to the cells then regular blood."

The queen shook her head, "I don't follow."

"Well, more oxygen is like more fuel. If stuff more fuel into a warp engine, what does it do?"

She thought for a second, "Uh, work faster?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "more or less, it would work faster for a short period of time. But what would happen if kept putting that amount in. What would happen?"

"It would explode, right?"

The scientist nodded, "exactly, now if you look in the third microscope, what do you see?"

The Queen moved down and gazed into the eye piece, inside she found the large circles like before but, each one had a large rupture along the outside. There was absolutely no movement. "Wait, these cells are dead. They blew up?"

He nodded, "Yes, they are getting too much oxygen. More than they can store in their reserves. The red blood cells even have extra space but when that is filled it all goes to the cells."

"So they blow up, they die."

"Yes."

The queen thought for a second, "So what does that mean for Colleen?"

He leaned once again on the counter, "She dying."

The queen wasn't even fazed, "how long?"

The scientist weighed his options, "well, I can't know unless I can actually examine her but I would give her not long, I really can't say. Although, it won't happen instantly. She'll probably start deteriorating, literally falling apart as the cells break down. Starting with the extremities, pads and paws and moving to the center, the head and heart."

"So, she'll fall apart?"

The scientist nodded his head, "Not exactly. My guess is that the fur would start turning grey and falling out because it wouldn't be getting nutrients. Then the skin under will turn black, then white and finally it will crumble off. Of course, this won't happen very much until close to the end. Luckily, the nerves will die too so it shouldn't be too painful."

The queen glared at him with evil eyes, he took a step back. "Uh, it's just speculation. It could turn out to be painful."

A slight half smile formed on the corners of her muzzle, "Now, what to do with that bastard pirate."

Trent sat in his new position, high in the captain's chair of the Apex. He smiled, his dream had come true. Captain of his own ship, his own crew, his own decisions. His ship was making head way through space, headed to the Brink. He knew his old captain, knew how he thought. He thought about Kilda, her smile, her eyes, her wonderful laugh. His eyes closed as he saw Kilda, smiling as they ate in their home on Elusus, a place long since forgotten. She asked him if the meal was ok, he answered perfect, as it always was. Then the phone rang, wait that didn't happen, what's happening? He jerked out of his daydream to find that he was being called by his superior.

"Go ahead, answer it."

His radio guy pressed certain buttons and the call came through on the main screen.

"Captain."

"Yes."

"You are to return to your birth. We are suspending the search for now."

Trent gave a face of disrespect, "What? Why, what's going on! This is a priority one manhunt."

"I don't know why, the queen called it off. You are to return to birth within the next week, if you don't a search will be set out for you." He pointed at him, "and you will be court marshaled."

The screen turned black before he could make a comeback, "shit."

More images of Kilda flooded his mind, he saw her laying on the ground, coughing. There was a gaping wound in her body, blood filled her mouth and as she choked to death he saw Ian running from the scene. She tried to speak the words help me but she couldn't.

Trent slowly made a fist, "Damn it!" He slammed the arm rest, "Why would they do this to me?"

The entire crew of the bridge looked upon him, wondering what was going on and a little scared.

"Orders sir?" His helmsman asked.

"What?"

"Orders, what do you want us to do?"

Trent had an epiphany, orders, he could still do what he wanted. They couldn't hold him back, he would find Black son, kill him and Colleen then bring back their heads. The queen would be so happy that she would grant him immunity, he might even get promoted once again. He could just see his name in the history books, the captain who went from officer all the way up to Commander in little more than two weeks.

"Continue course to Alleendro, we're still looking."

"Yes sir." He said in a questioning voice and went back to his post.

"I'm going to be the hero." Trent said to himself.

Commander Daysus closed the comm, "Go back, but why?" He didn't know, but he knew better then to question the authority of the Queen.

"Helmsman, set a course for the Supremacy. We're going back."

"Yes, sir!"

He typed coordinates into the computer and soon the gigantic ship started turning. It could be felt from the deepest bowls of the ship. As soon as the ship was lined up it hip warp rocketing off back to it's home port.

Ian pored the water over Colleen. She sighed, it had been her first wash since before the trial, and it felt so good. Something caught Ian's eye, "Colleen lift up your paw." She did and Ian examined it, he saw grey specks of fur starting to appear. "What's up with this?" Colleen examined her own paw, she flipped it and looked at the other side. Then she studied her other one, they were present there too.

"I don't know. But grey fur already? This can't be happening!"

Ian laughed, "Relax, I'm sure it's just a little dirt that needs some more washing. That's all!" He smiled kindly at her. "I sure hope so." She crossed her arms, "If it isn't ohh, bad things are going to happen!"

Ian chuckled, "Well it's probably nothing." He shifted his gaze to Colleen's stomach, it had been three months since gestation. It was almost amazing on how Colleen was taking it, it was as though it didn't affect her at all. He placed a paw on her, "Almost there."

She smiled, "Has it already been that long?" Ian nodded. "A lot has happened."

Colleen fiddled with her paws, "Come on Colleen. Let's get out of the water." Ian offered a paw as she stepped out of the tub. He grabbed a towel and started drying, "hold out your arm." Colleen lifted her arm and Ian started rubbing it with the towel. He looked closer, the grey fur came loose with every pass. "See Colleen! It's already starting to come off!"

She smiled, "Hopefully."

The landscape lay barren, Large dust tornadoes ripped the country side as Ian watched from his perch outside their shelter. "What a wasteland." He said to himself, "I need to get off the rock, Colleen needs to be in a clean place."

Canta came out and sat next to him, a cup lay in his paw.

"How is she?" Ian said, still staring at the winds.

"Well, better. That's for sure, but she still has quite a ways to go before she can do any big things." He sipped the cup, a thick yellow liquid lay in it. "I still can't believe it though."

"Believe what?"

"How she was able to survive that shot!" Ian turned from the landscape.

"What do you mean?"

He seemed put off by the comment, "Well you saw it didn't you! By the about of damage, I'll bet you that you could have stuck a paw right through her body after the shot. Nobody should survive that, on top of that, she was and is carrying a kit. And it's still alive! It just smells funky to me."

He set the cup down, "Look, I served as a medic during the Odarian wars and believe me I've seen my fair share of injuries and deaths."

Ian shifted his eyes and twitched his head toward Canta. "The Odarian wars? That had to have been," he took a moment to count, "sixty, seventy years ago!"

Canta nodded, his entire body following in suit, "Yup, you're looking at one old geezer." A deep breath left his grey muzzle. "I was seventeen when the promise of glory in war came my way. So I lied about my age, as many of my friends did, to go fight for some cause and planet we knew nothing about. Boy was that stupid."

Ian was drawn in by his story, "Stupid? What are you talking about? Those wars drew the boarder lines of the galaxy as we know them today. They put the monarchy in place and solidified one single government, other than just a bunch of warring nobles that surely would have destroyed almost the entire populace!"

Canta laughed, it was a dark hardy laugh that left Ian off balance. He poked Ian in the chest.

"So you are protecting this government that is trying to kill you and that almost killed your loved one over there."

Ian backed down, knowing now not to interrupt.

"Besides, you don't know what war is like." His eyes centered on one point. "Imagine, no take that back. You can't imagine it. It's impossible!" Canta held up his paws, they trembled as memories took him back. "I saw entire fleets destroyed like that! The largest ships you've ever seen gone, thousands of lives destroyed. My closest friends died within the first weeks."

He went silent, still staring at that one spot in the distance. "You see, it's just a miracle your friend survived. I guess all I'm trying to say is, I've seen people die with a lot less."

Canta picked up his cup again and took a sip, "what's your question?"

"What?" Ian pulled back, "I didn't have one." He lied.

He laughed, "Don't worry, I know what you were going to ask. How did I get out?"

Ian was startled, that's actually the one he wanted to ask.

"Well, when you're a private they don't exactly look into you. But when you get past a lieutenant they do checks on you; and they found something that they didn't like."

"What?"

Another laugh, "well let's just say that the military doesn't take to kindly to their officers being half-breeds."

A glint appeared in his eye, "You're a half-breed?"

"Yup, just like you." He moved his head back and forth. "Still, going from a military medical officer to a beggar who borrows off of thieves. I don't know how that happened." He emphasized the that.

He took another sip of his cup, peered inside it. "Oh, empty. I'll just get some more."

Canta slowly got up and disappeared into the shelter, leaving Ian feeling like a child who'd just been beat at his own game.

Skye and Bot found themselves sitting in Ian star hopper as it lay on a landing pad on Ridlyyn. Skye sat in the pilots chair arguing with herself. What was she going to do? Her heart told her to do things that her mind immediately rejected. Her slow calm breaths were quite the opposite of what was actually happening in her mind.

"Well Bot, you ready?"

She opened the canopy and jumped out, Bot followed. "So, how exactly are we going to do this?"

Skye shook her head, "I have no idea. We'll just play it by ear."

Before they left Skye's workshop, she'd upgraded Bot. Now, he had a small shield booster and several weapons at his disposal so he could survive a couple of dead on shots. Both made their way to the courts silently mowing over every possible thing that could go wrong, when they eventually made it, Skye stopped at the bottom of the steps.

"What am I doing?"

Bot climbed some of the steps, "come on, let's get it over with. I don't want to go in harm's way either, but think about Ian and what he'd been through."

Skye nodded, "Yeah, let's go."

She ran up the stairs, ready to take on anything it had to offer. Through the doors she saw an information pavilion. She slid over towards it and typed in "Ian" under the search file. Dozens of names came up, but nothing about the Ian she knew. She moved on to "Black son." It brought up one file, and a date that was three weeks ago.

"what!"

Her reaction made everybody in the room jump and look her way. "Bot, what happened? I thought you said it was today!"

The small robot pounced up on the console, "What do you mean? What are you talking about?" He read the line and made the same reaction. "Three weeks ago! Wait does that mean..." He trailed off.

Skye shook her head, "No, it's fine. He's fine, he has to be. After all I'm sure this is just a typo!"

"Commander Daysus, apparently a wolf is causing trouble in the courts."

Daysus sat at his desk, "so what does that mean for me?"

His secretary shrugged, "Well, the queen wants you to take it. She thinks it has something to do with Black son because they were trying to find his old court date."

He rolled his eyes, "I just got back from my ship and she's already asking me to do publicity stuff." An exasperated sigh escaped from his muzzle, "Tell her I'm on it."

She jumped back to her desk and sent a message back to the queen saying that the Commander was on it.

Skye drilled the secretary, "Why wasn't anyone told! IT doesn't make any sense!"

He cowered under his glass protection, "there was an announcement about it. Others made it. Frankly, I'm surprised you haven't heard the news!"

She pulled back, "What news?"

The secretary came out of his shell a little, "about the escape."

"Escape?"

"Yeah!" He said, "He escaped, along with Colleen. They ran out during the middle of the trial after Colleen killed a servant."

Bot cocked his head, "Colleen, the princess Colleen. She killed someone? And why did she go with him."

"Woah, you guys must be way out of the loop. It's not Princess anymore, she's been disowned and now charged with murder."

"Not a princess anymore? How?"

The secretary smirked, he was now the one in charge. "Apparently, she is carrying that pirates Kit."

Skye jumped back, "Woah woah woah, back up." She slammed her paws on the little counter that was there. "Are you saying that he had..." She trailed off as the secretary nodded his head, "Like I said, I'm really surprised you didn't hear about it."

Others were now staring at the loud couple, "Where did they go?"

He gave her a sarcastic look, "If the queen doesn't know, what makes you think I know."

Skye looked down for a second, a thought raced through her mind, Aleendro. The best possible place, but this guy might know some other things about the trial. She reached through the little glass opining and grabbed him by the neck, "Don't use that voice on me and you must know something."

He pushed his paws against the glass trying to get away from her grasp, "No, I don't. I've told you what I know."

A low rumble left her throat as Skye bared her glistening teeth.

"Now look, I've told you. If you don't let go of me you'll be in trouble."

Just as Skye was about to utter something, she felt a heavy paw on her shoulder, "I suggest you put him down gently."

A cold shiver shot up through her sine and into her fur making it stand on end. The paw turned her around to face the new Commander of the fleets. Daysus took a good look at her, "Wait, I know you!" He picked her up by the back of her neck, "You're the bitch that was with Black son when we caught him."

"Ian."

Daysus didn't understand, "What?"

"Ian!"

"Who are you talking about?"

Skye erupted into a rage, "That's his name you fucker!" She flailed her arms and kicked her feet scratching Daysus up, but his paws kept a strong grasp.

"Woah!" He held her out a bit more, the secretary sunk away from his post.

"How would you know his name?"

His inquisitive voice made her immediately shut up, "What's going on here? Do we have a little bird that has secrets?"

Bot leapt from the counter and tried to scurry away but a paw reached down and nabbed him off the ground. "Along with a little rat!"

A police sergeant walked up to Daysus with bot in his paw. "I heard stories of Black son using a small robot in his recent raids. Could this be it?"

Daysus threw Skye against the wall, her face slammed against the glass and as Daysus put cuffs on her the secretary smirked smugly at her. "Oh, what's this?" He reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a plasma pistol, "thinking of doing something were we?" Skye stayed quiet.

"Say something when I ask you damn it!" He hit her on the side of the head with the butt of the pistol and Skye fell to the ground. A small blood splatter dripped down from the glass.

Daysus used his feet and pushed her to the sergeant's feet, "get her to Nuimi. But keep her alive, we'll need what she has to offer."

He began to walk away, "But what about his robot?" Daysus turned around, "I don't know, I don't care just take care of it."

With that, he quickly left leaving the Sergeant, who called in some help to move the bodies.