Beyond the Next Sunrise

Story by Ahmar_Wolf on SoFurry

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This is a tale about humans from a future time visiting a world not unlike ours today with the same problems. Expect this world has an even bigger one, nearly the entire population had vanished. When 1 of them discovers why and pays for it in the end. Read the end it has a twist of an ending


Deep within the heart of a great star ship, that now orbits a planet not unlike our own with the same problems we are experiencing today. It's Captain, one Commander Cassandra Richards has gathered 9 members of her crew there in the star ship's shuttle bay for one very special mission. "As you know we are now orbiting Estes-3. For it seems in less than 20 years it's over 6 billion inhabitants has dwindled down to just a handful of primitive settlements. If out sensor scans are to believed their has been no pandemic, no war, nothing to explain this.

We don't know if this is a local phenomenon or something that will effect other inhabited worlds. Command wants an explanation, and you are here today to hopefully find the answer.

But since we have no idea of what caused this you will using the craft designed to investigate biological or environmental disasters. As per SOP, none of you will have any direct contact with anything on the surface of the planet. Expect when wearing a full containment suit, and using full decontamination processors. I want nothing brought back to this ship, understand. Then I wish you good luck". Commander Richards then saluted the members of the team, who then returned the salute.

As the 9 member crew prepare the ship for take off. It seemed one of it's members a Sgt. Dean Jeffery, 31 who sits there in his seat dressed in his lt blue uniform. Next to him are 4 other members of the crew whose job is just to sit there until the ship lands.

"What do you call 9 people heading down to a planet that could kill them all". "I don't know". "Us". As Lt. JG Basil replies, "Keep your remarks to yourself, some of us need to concentration". "Yes, Sir", Jeffery replies. All of know they are certain they are leaving for what could be coincided a suicide mission, except Sgt. Jeffery wasn't afraid to admit it.

Soon there tiny ship landed in the heart of a major city, literally surrounded by glass and steel towers While he one Dean Jeffery stands there dressed like the rest of the crew in a full containment suit. Which was bright yellow with a white helmet, sticking out like a sore thumb on this bright and sunny day. All the while holding a small handheld scanner.

But after 7 days of finding nothing something had to break. "That is it!!!", Robert Mitchell shouted. "This is impossible!", another member of the crew shouted. "We should just pack up and go back the the ship", Dean Jeffery stated what the rest of them were only thinking. "We should go back, we are finding nothing!!". Finally Lt. Sutter came up, "Look you fucking assholes, I am in charge of this mission". "Fucking assholes is right", Jeffery adds. "Jeffery, I could tell you where to stick it. But you know where all ready", Lt. JG. Basil shouted back. "Oooo".

Then Sarah Marshall, the biologist on this mission finally spoke, "With all respect Lt. Sutter, we have found nothing, save for what should be there. If this was any normal mission I recommend to the mission commander this would be the perfect planet for a bit of shore leave. But I know where under orders, and we can't. But really look at what we found, will you at least think about it".

Lt Sutter stood there thinking for a bit until finally saying, "(sigh) You know I am under orders. Besides the mother ship is gone, it won't be back for another 3 weeks". "3 Weeks?!!!", everyone shouted. "Yes, 3 weeks, they are off on an assignment. How about, forget SOP and the scanners. I'll break out the tablet computers and a handy device to open primitive locks. Just look any where you can think of, especially government offices, media outlets. There must be a record of something...some where".

As soon as Lt. Sutter gave permission they made their first breakthrough. It was at city hall on a desk of an official in a document titled, 'Planned Shut down of all city services'. It seemed to them that these people knew what was happening, although it didn't give much detail what.

Then on to the next nearest city, this time is was Sgt. Jeffery who made the biggest discovery yet. It began when he was walking down this empty street when he happened to walk past what looked to him to be one of those premium coffee places. But what really caught his interest was the laptop that was sitting on this table there by the window. Jeffery knew it was a long shot, but figured it was worth the gamble. So using that device supplied to him he managed to get the door open. Once he sat down in front of that laptop, he quickly discovered it had no power. Neither did the shop, but he knew that tablet could transmit power to some degree.

First he tried the laptop and despite it was getting power from an alien device it booted up. Next he tried firing up the internet, where ever that router was. To his amazement he was online. Certainly it wasn't like the internet back aboard ship or at home. It was far slower, and you had to use search engines...at least that what his own computer told him.

Just for fun he tried the word 'furry'. He had discovered the furry world back at the academy, and had a great deal of fun. He just wondered if they had such a community on this world. So he typed the word 'furry' in, using what his computer said were the correct letters and he got just under 61 million sites. "Wow!!!", oh sure nothing had been updated in a long time...at least 6 years if the date on the laptop was correct. Checking out what he could, he went in to a couple of furry forums and to his surprise the answer to this mission was there.

Later that day back aboard the ship, Jeffery was saying "After I managed to get online I checked out what I could, as most of what I found needed passwords and not to forget a user name. After all they are a little backward". "Get on with it", Lt. Sutter insisted. "Any way in this furry forum, I found the answer", he continued despite some snickers. "About 20 years ago on this planet they expected this meteor to devastate the planet. According to what was posted a lot of them prepared for the end". "Then what happened!", someone shouted. "The day it finally came, some how it broke up over the entire planet as it fell through the atmosphere". "That is strange", Lt Sutter arks. "I know but when they went investigate the impacts, it seems it made minor impact". Holding up his tablet, "I made copies of what they found. The remains appear to be crystalline, having a golden hue, also being some what translucent. But when someone touched it, they spoke a language everyone could understand. My guess they were also transmitting the message via mental telepathy. The message was 'whom so ever touch what fell from the sky shall be given. There inner most wish, and shall live out there lives free from want'. The same voice asked, "Were they". Jeffery replies, "No one knows, it seems everyone who touches the crystal disappeared". "Then I guess I shouldn't be asking, did any one ever return", Lt. Sutter remarked. But Jeffery had an answer, "It was about 7 years ago, when this woman named Mary Anderson suddenly appeared by one of the crystals. She claimed to only returned for some supplies she needed for her farm. I found an interview with her, which said before she vanished, Mary Anderson was a homeless addict. But yet when she returned, she looked perfectly normal, wearing apparently a handmade dress. She described the world she was transported to a being more forest than people. I guess she must it was rural, after all she went on to say scattered among the forest was these series of small farms. while the climate as nearly perfect. Warm but not hot summers and mild winters.

It was in a farm house on one these farms that she awoke. One belonging to Edward and Sally. Like her they came from the same world, changed...but for the better. Edward as it turned out once had been a quadriplegic. A result of a motorcycle accident. While Sally was dying of terminal cancer. And of how they came to this world like Mary. It was their neighbors helped them get start their own farm. After she had been there about a year, her and several others newcomers went to open a new farm. I say open because the farm house was already there. Seemly abandoned long ago, all they needed to do was clear the land and bring in the pigs, and chickens whose pens were already there. "Did it say how they got along", Lt Sutter wonders. "Sure did, no crime, no violence towards others. She even went as far as to say it was it was like heaven on Earth. With everyone getting along so well, everyone offering you a hand with what ever you needed, without a word about ever about being repaid. "I think I need to read that article", more than one member of the crew repeated.

"Did it say anything about towns?", Lt. Sutter wonders. "In Mary Anderson's case only one", then Robert Mitchell says, "It must have been like those I read about in the old west, guns, saloons and the like". Dean Jeffery kinda laughed, "It's unlike any town I ever heard of, It seems to be the center for all the farms. It's where cloth is woven and clothes are made. Also where leather is worked, but not produced. Goods are traded including it seems books which to them are more precious than gold....Before you ask it's all on the barter system. It's also a place where stories are told and plays are given"

Then something unexpected happened, that was when Lt. Sutter took Sgt. Jeffery by the hand and started to shake it, "Keep up this good work Mr. Jeffery and I would not be surprised that a promotion will be in your future...Now where can that crystal you were talking about can be found". Dean Jeffery found himself smiling from ear to ear with the thought of his promotion.

And all thought the time it took to get to where that crystal could be found. The only thing he was thinking about was his promotion. Especially what it might take to assure it.

Dean Jeffery made sure he was the very 1st one out of the ship after it landed. For he knew it lay in a nearby park, sitting there sticking out of the ground, the top of it standing about waist high.

Sure enough there it was, sticking out like a sore thumb in the middle of all that over grown lawn. It was golden in color, more metallic then clear. The very 1st thing was scan that crystal. It registered nothing. Even though he tried scanning it 3 times, "Why won't you scan?!!". In pure frustration he threw a handful of grasses on it, since that did not work he looked around a finally threw a rock at it. Which ricocheted off, "So you are real". Figuring he had no other choice especially since he wanted to secure his promotion he touched it with the gloved hands of his containment suit.

As the other members of his crew came running, they were just in time to see Sgt. Dean Jeffery vanish without a trace. "No one touch it!!!". Lt. Sutter screamed. As she and the rest of the crew slowly came up to the crystal, "Someone hand me a scanner". As she got the same results of her vanished crew mate, "It seems we got our answer, a crystal that caused nearly everyone on this planet. I would not of imagined that". "What about Dean", a member of the crew wonders. "To his own fate as those who gone before. We need to get more equipment out here and fuck these suits. We need to know exactly what happened".

Meanwhile for Dean Jeffery he found himself in the midst of a extremely thick fog, one in which he could not even see his hand in front of his face. "Is this what happened to Mary, and she was so strung out she imagined that world". Then a voice says, "No what Mary Anderson experienced as real as the worlds you visited". "Who are you". "Just someone who cares about life, and those who live it". "Are you responsible for this?". "Yes, why should I deny was is clearly the truth". "Then who are you". "I don't think I am going to answer any more of your questions". "Whaaaatt?!! I gotta know what happened here!!". "You are like many who came to me seeking more than they truly want to know. But instead I'll tell you what I told them. I am only here to make you most secret hopes and dreams a reality, my only motive is to allow this world time to heal. I am very well aware you are not from this world. But please let me finish". 'How did he know that' Dean wonders to himself. "Once you arrive where I send you, which is to a place far from this tiny world. If for whatever reason you wish to return back to your old life. You shall be returned. But I doubt you will ever make such a request", the voice said. Leaving Dean shouting, "My promotion, I need to ask you...". But before he could finish that sentence Dean was hit by a severe dizzy spell. One that forced him to bring his hand to his head.

But as quickly as that spell had hit him, it was over. Except his vision was now blurry, but thankfully it was ending just as quickly and soon his hand was coming in to sharp focus. But something was quite different for not only his containment suit was gone, but he was quite, quite naked. Dean Jeffery could not believe what he now was seeing. He had to check out his face and ears. For he had become an anthro wolf, he even had a tail. Meanwhile he was standing in the middle of this thick forest while wondering, "This has to be an illusion", but when he grabbed a handful of fur from his chest, and hurt. He then tried and failed to pull his tail off. He almost felt like crying, "What good is an anthro wolf". Oh sure in the furry realm in the internet he knew all so well. He always took the fursonia as they called it, of a wolf. He often said he like to be one, but that was just for fun. But this was quite real, and he didn't know quite what to do.

But when suddenly he heard the voices of 2 people heading his way, all he could do was hide. He waited, and was delighted to see a pair of female anthro wolves, who like him were only in there fur. But what made him actually smile he liked what he was now seeing. Building up his courage, he walked right up to them and says, "Hello lovely ladies". Who stopped turned around and one of them replied, "Ohh what a handsome man you are". Then the second added, "You are so right, Bev what is your name...handsome". "Dean". "I am Janet and that is my sister Bev". "I am surrounded my loveliness", Dean says with a grin. "We were just heading down to the lake to hunt for some fish". "Your going to have to show me where, as I am new here". "Ohh, so you like to join us". "Sure do, I am new to what I become and I have a lots of questions". "And later we might do a bit of mating". "Sounds like a plan". As Janet asks, "Where are you from...originally".

As Dean walks with the pair down to the lake, he knew wherever life takes him in this pack he was going to have lots of fun.