FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The distress call came in late that night. The beacon name for the craft was the Sink Hole. It was a Sleddog-class cargo/mapping ship, one of the older models; a three crew medium range ship, no weapons, light shielding, multiple sensor arrays for three-dimensional mapping and long-range transmitting. The ship held enough supplies for one month in space, as well as living quarters for the crew and a small recreation room, to keep the crew occupied while mapping planets.

The signal indicted that the ship had been mapping a nearby system of binary planets, designated XJP697431-A and XJP697431-B when the engines had failed, and the ship was pulled into the gravity well of XJP697431-B, the smaller of the twin worlds. The ships long range antennae had been damaged in the crash, so there was no way of noting if any of the crew had survived, or what the conditions were down there. All that was known was the last transmission sent by the Sink Hole, information about the planet's climate, terrain, livability, and possible resources.

"Class-III planet, slightly less than normal gravity, air is clean and breathable, no detectable contaminants, one supercontinent occupying aproximently 60% of the planet, mostly mountainous terrain as well as large flats." K9 said, standing on the bridge of the D.E1 battle cruiser as it hung in high orbit over the binary system. "Ensign, who was aboard that survey ship?"

"Fallon, Adria, and Tarpaw sir, two science officers and a medical unit member." The Ensign replied, pulling up data sheets on the crew members on his console.

K9 scanned over the files, then said, "Very we'll then, prepare two DE500Wolf fighters, and inform Husky and Fx that they are being put on a search and rescue mission."

"Aye sir!"

As the young bridge officer ran off to carry out the orders, K9 tuned back to the main viewport, starring out at the smooth hull of the DE5000Wolf class battle cruiser, D.E1 and the small brown and blue world that hung below.

Husky the husky had just gotten off a shift of patrol duty, yawning and stretching as he got out of the shower and shaking dry, pulling on his casual clothes, a two piece set of blue pants and a blue long sleeved shirt, with a red color that designated him as a member of D.E1. He crawled into the small bed that sat close to the floor, rolled over, and closed his eyes...only to be rudely woken up by the combat sirens blaring through the ship, bright yellow lights flashing in every room and corridor, indicating a noncombat emergency.

Jumping out of bed, Husky quickly put on his full combat suit, the PX500LD Spec-E, a black and red full body suit and dark brown paw guards and chest guard, which, when his helmet was on, was completely air tight, and could sustain him for short periods underwater or in the vacuum of space. Strapping on his plasma pistol, Husky ran out of his room and down the narrow corridor of the hallway and into the elevator, hitting the button to the hanger level at the bottom of the ship.

Stepping out of the elevator, Husky met up with his partner and brother, Fx, also in his full PX500LD Spec-E suit. The two got to their ships, then stood at the ready in front of them, seeing the prep teams fueling their fighters.

"Sorry for the wake up call Husky, I know you were in bed, but I need you on this one. As you may know, we send out scouting and mapping ships to search for other signs of life, new deposits of much needed resources, and inhabitable worlds for future Evocanian expansion. Four hours ago, one of our scout ships, the Sink Hole, had to shut down their engines for unknown reasons, shortly before losing all communications and crash landing on the surface of the planet we are now orbiting. There were three crew members aboard the Sink Hole, Fallon, Adria, and Tarpaw. I'm sending the two of you to investigate, and search for any survivors. Evocanians never leave behind their brothers and sisters...can I count on you two to see this mission through?"

Both Husky and Fx snapped to attention, the full weight of the mission heavy on their shoulders, but they knew what had to be done. "You can count on us sir!"

"Good, you'll depart as soon as Maitainence finishes fueling and prepping your fighters." K9 saluted, then walked back to the viewing area of the hanger and shut the door, as to open the hanger doors, the hanger had to be depressurized.

The chief mechanic gave the all go signal as the rest of the crew cleared out of the hanger. Husky and Fx climbed into their fighters and started them up, the ion engines whining in the metal hanger. Putting on their flight helmets and activating the heads-up display, each spoke the go code into their mouthpieces, then the hanger control spoke into their headsets.

"All personnel cleared. Depressurizing hanger, stand by...hanger depressurized, opening doors. Husky and Fx, you are cleared for takeoff."

The two fighters lifted with antigravity repulsers, the landing legs folding in, then they eased out of the hanger, clearing the safe zone of the ship, then opening up the engines, roaring towards the small planet in loose formation.

Still a little hungry, Husky reached behind his seat and pulled out one of the ration packs and opened it. All the packs were the same, dried brown chunks of bland vitamins, minerals, and other needed essentials. The rations weren't very tasty, and left your mouth dry, but they were enough to keep you going. Husky never liked the taste of them, so he swallowed more than chewed, then taking out the small water pack and drinking it all.

Just as they hit the outer edge of the planet's mass shadow, their fighters started to buck and jerk, like they were caught in an ionic storm, then every warning light on their consoles started flashing and screeching, indicating mass engine failures, life support, long ranged communications...everything...was dead.

Activating his emergency suit system, Fx screamed over the short range radio, his voice heavy with static. "Hang on Husky, we're going down!"

The Wolf fighters dropped out of orbit as they were grabbed by the planet's gravitational pull, slowing falling in an arc towards the supercontinent. As they entered the upper atmosphere, the wings and nose of the ships immediately began glowing bright red, fire coming off from the intense friction. Husky fought with the controls, trying as hard as he could to keep from spiraling and burning up, though if he couldn't get the engines back online and slow his descent, the ship would still burn and break apart.

He continued to work at the emergency start system, cursing under his breath as it continued to give him warning signals. After several failed attempts, and the rocky terrain of the looming world below, Husky finally was able to get the engines started. They creaked and whined as they tried to start, sputtering black smoke, then firing up. Husky punched the throttle, pulling up on the yoke as hard as he could, slowly leveling out, his whole body forced back into the seat from the extreme g-forces, for a moment his vision going black around the edges, then clearing up as he leveled out and slowed down the throttle, his stomach up in his throat as he tried not to throw up chunks of ration.

He quickly scanned the skies for his brother Fx, the ships navigation and radar systems still down. "Fx, you there?! Come in!" He shouted into the shortwave, getting only static as a response. He continued to circle the blue skies, trying to find any sign of his brother.

"Husky! Husky! I'm okay...about 100 clicks from you, but I managed to get my engines back online. I see you now, on your 8 o'clock. Passing you now, then follow me to the projected crash site, bearing 2-8-6."

"Got it, following now at your 4 o'clock."

As they approached the projected crash site, it was worse then they had hoped. The Sink Hole was a twisted wreck of smoking metal, it's stabilizer wings completely missing, and a massive hole where the left engine used to be housed. Wreckage was shattered all over the ground, the toxic smell of spilled fuel cells thick in the air.

Landing just outside the crash zone, Husky and Fx got out of the cockpit of their fighters, doing a quick survey of their own damaged ships, then slowly made their way to the sight, keeping their vac helmets on as they walked through the rubble. As they approached the main wreckage, their greatest fears were realized. The charred black remains of an Evocanian was hanging halfway out of the main viewport, cut in half and missing an arm. Fx had to look away briefly to compose himself. As they made their way around the ship, they found another burned body under a sheet of metal.

After finishing up their observation, and determining the air was breathable, they removed their helmets, though the smell of burnt metal and fuel was still strong. Husky and Fx took the two bodies, dug a shallow grave, and buried them under a pile of rock and dirt. They set up a small lean-to with some of the metal plating against the wrecked ship as a makeshift shelter, then moved the fighters right next to the ship in a tight V shape.

"I've been going over the data files, and I think those two Evos were Adria and Fallon." Fx said as he opened a ration pack.

"So," replied Husky, eating the rest of the ration pack he opened earlier, "where is Tarpaw? There were no other bodies anywhere around here. Are the comms still down?"

"Yeah, but what really worries me is...what shut down the engines and flight systems? That was the same think K9 described happened to the Sink Hole. We need to get a message out to him somehow...stay away from this planet." Fx thought out loud to himself, finishing off the rest of his ration pack.

They had been on the planet for only a few hours, and there was still plenty of daylight out, so the two decided they would do a search run. They started off searching the immediate area, then made a spiral out into the surrounding rock formations. The rocky areas wound through the whole area like a stone maze, many paths leading back to the crash site.

Eventually though, Husky and Fx came across a set of muddy boots prints, distinctly Spec-E environment boots. They followed the prints through the mud for a ways, winding though a narrow passage, until the came across a black and white husky wearing a uniform similar to their own PX500LD Spec-E suits, but it was blue and white with a hip length matching coat and a red scarf, the outfit of a field medic. The passage he was in was dark, but they could see he was down on his paws and knees. As they approached, Tarpaw looked up, then shouted at them.

"No, stop, don't come any closer!" Immediately they came to a stop, Husky taking an extra step...and regretting it. His boot stepped off of solid ground, and sand ankle deep into something black and sticky. He quickly pulled back out, the blackness holding him for a brief second, then releasing, his paw pulling out, but the once brown combat boot now stained with thick black slime.

"It's a tar pit. After the crash, I was hurt, and I could barely comprehend anything...I must have stumbled off and passed out. When I woke, I was in this maze of crevices, and this." Tarpaw raised his arm a little from the tar, a large piece of metal shrapnel imbedded in his side, his suit and jacket stained in dark blood. "Then I saw your fighters fly overhead, and I must have been looking up when I stepped right into this tar pit. I tried climbing out, but all my efforts have only got me more stuck."

Husky and Fx looked around to see if the could get closer to Tarpaw, but the walls were too close, and he was too far away to reach, and his paws were stuck too, so they couldn't throw a rope to him. One of them would have to step in the tar.

"Um...okay, how about a flip toss?" Fx said, pulling out a small metal disk, an X scratched on one side, and an O on the other side. "I get X, you get O." He flipped it in the air, then caught it and opened his hand...and revealed an X.

Husky dropped his ears and sighed. Pulling out a rope from his survival pack, he tied it around his waist and chest in a harness, then handed the slack end to Fx, who tied it to his waist and then took a grip on it. Husky took a step back, then stepped forward and jumped into the tar.

Husky landed right beside Tarpaw, but as soon as he hit, he was instantly sucked down to his knees, just as deep as the other husky. The sudden sink threw him off balance, and he fell forward, sticking a paw in the tar, then quickly pulled it out. Luckily for him he was suited from the neck down in a watertight suit. Unfortunately, he could still mell the acrid oily smell of the black pit. He grabbed hold of Tarpaw's arms and pulled them out of the tar, then helped pull his boots out, gently stepping back in the tar ahead of him. The two huskies repeated this process, helping free each other's boots, only to step back in the tar and sink back to their knees...a slow process taking what seemed like an hour, Fx helping to pull Husky back, you in turn was pulling on Tarpaw, until both of then were only in ankle deep tar, making the trudging walk easier.

Finally they made it out of the tar pit, both huskies collapsing on the ground, panting, their Spec-E suit covered in thick globs of tar. Fx untied the road from himself, then went over to Husky and Tarpaw, trying not to get any tar on himself. Both huskies stood up and looked themselves over. Until they got back onboard the cruiser, there was no way they would be able to clean all the tar off of them. After they cleaned off as much tar as they could, they made their way back to the wreck sight, Tarpaw stopping to see the graves where his crew was now buried, not saying a word to Husky or Fx, then sat down under the lean-to.

Pulling a ration out of his pack, Fx gave it to Tarpaw to eat, who quickly scarfed it down, then immediately grabbed his side as the sharp pain of the shrapnel pierced through his body.

"Hey, let's take a look at that doc." Fx said, quickly laying Tarpaw down and taking his overcoat off. Husky brought over the emergency medkit from his fighter. Tarpaw quickly told them how to sterilize the wound, then remove the shard of metal, then patch it back up, then he took a large branch from a nearby tree and bit down on it as Fx performed the surgery. It was an agonizing fifty minutes, but they finally got Tarpaw sewn back up, letting him rest for a little bit.

"How do you feel Tarpaw?" Fx asked.

"Like I got stabbed with a piece of metal." He said with a weak smile. "I'll be fine. The real question is how do we get off this world?"

"I've been thinking about that too. As long as we keep a relatively low flight, we should be able to get an aerial view of this continent, and see what's keeping us here."

"You think it's something artificial?"

"Yeah, I've been giving it some thought, and how we got taken down, but could restart our engines, and we can still use some electronics. If it was an ion storm or EMP it would have fried everything. And the other thing that gets me is...we were close enough to the planet to fall into it's gravitational pull, but at the distance, it pulled us in way to fast for a less-than-average gravity and mass."

"Looks like it's finally getting dark." Husky added. "I say we call it a day, and get a fresh start in the morning. I've been timing it, and it looks like this planet is on an 18 hour cycle, so we should have about nine hours to rest, then we can take off in the morning."

"Okay, but you and Tarpaw have to fly together, since you both are so messy and sticky. I can't have my fighter mucked up." Fx said with a smirk.

After a little more talking, the three Evos curled up and went to sleep under the lean-to, Fx and Husky taking alternating shifts of guard duty.

When morning arrived, they were up and eating the last of the ration packs, then loaded up what they could and got into the fighters, Tarpaw squeezing in the back of Husky's fighter, getting tar everywhere. Husky wasn't fairing much better, and he had to take his gloves off so he wouldn't mess up the controls. Within a few minutes both ships were up in the air.

Once they were up in the air, they played with the instrument panels until Husky got his sensors up, and immediately got a ping on a strange resonating energy source 300 clicks from their location. He relayed the information to Fx, who confirmed it on his own scanners. They flew their fighters towards the signal, watching it grow stronger and stronger until it was off the charts...and then, they saw it.

It was massive. At least 400 meters in diameter, nestled in a valley between two cliffs, it was some sort of transceiver, a large dish tilted at a slight angle from vertical, with eight smaller dishes lining the rim of the large dish, all eight aimed at the massive central antennae, an elongated cylinder suspended over the dish with three metal arms. Wrapped around the antennae was a strange glowing blue cable, a similar blue cable running from the antennae to the center of the dish. The entire structure was an odd grayish-blue color.

Flying past the structure, Fx and Husky circled around to take another, slower, pass at the site. They saw that several of those glowing blue cables ran out from the bottom of the dish's superstructure and ran in a straight line on the ground to a building of identical design and color, about 100 meters tall and similar octagonal shape. About a third of the way up the building were three cylindrical tubes branching off to 3 other building, these three only about 50 meters tall.

As they passed back over the dish, they saw two more such structures branching out from the dish. Three equal distance hubs, each with three building half as tall connected by circular tunnels. Unlike Evo or Retcan design, which was rounded, smooth, and flowing, the design of the dish and surrounding building was very sharp angles and harsh. Whoever had built this place had had no desire to blend in with the nature of this world. Instead it was build to almost mock the beauty of nature.

"What in the stars is that?!" Tarpaw asked in a gasping voice, his muzzle pressed against the viewport of the fighter.

There was a moment of silence before Husky replied. "I...I don't know. Fx, what do you think?"

"I've tried locating that signal, and other than the entire dish, it looks like that hub on the right is giving off a signal in unison with the dish. It might be the control complex." Fx replied, banking to the right and breaking. "Look, there's a landing pad on that building, I'm gonna land, follow me in, but keep your guard up."

Both fighters landed on the complex's roof lading pad, powering down, then the canopies open, and the three Evos cautiously climbed out of the fighters. Immediately, Fx and Husky drew their pistols, then gave Tarpaw one of their backup pistols.

"Know how to use that doc?" Fx asked.

"Hey, I may be a doctor, but I had to undergo D.E basic training to for field work. I'm not a sharpshooter or anything, but I know how to use a plasma pistol or rifle." Tarpaw quickly unloaded, reloaded, and primed the plasma pistol, then deactivated the safety as proof that he knew how to use a weapon.

They slowly walked toward the only door on the roof, a decent sized door big enough for all three of them. Taking point, Fx raised his pistol in one hand, his other slowly grabbing the door's handle and pulling. The door slowly opened, creaking a little with lack of maintenance. Nothing happened. No alarms went off, nothing blew up, no one rushed the door firing. Only an eerie silence came from within. Fx motioned forward, and Husky and Tarpaw went in behind him, keeping their eyes open.

The corridor was empty as well. Many of the lights were on, and everything seemed to be running as if the complex was occupied, but they could tell by the layer of dust on everything that no one had been in this place for a long time. Tarpaw noted that all the hallways were labeled, but it was a language they had never seen before. It was a series of vertical and horizontal lines of three different lengths, and patterns of dots of two different sizes.

They made their way down the hallway, several other doors on either side. The doors were locked, but they had large viewing ports. Through many of the doors they could see what looked like laboratories, one room full of computer terminals, another with strange machines, and another room full of giant liquid-filled glass tanks. Most of the tanks were empty, but one of them had something in it. Tarpaw stared at it, then gasped. It was an Evocanian! But not one of them, it looked smaller, more dog-like. Most like an early evolution, somewhere between a pure feral dog and Evo.

"What is this place?" Fx said with a snarl, stepping back from the door.

"Some kind of science outpost. It's strange though...if that was an early Evo, is this our origin? But Canis Major is of such different design and technology than this place, and I've never seen this language before in any records." Tarpaw said, his voice betraying his uncomfortableness with this place.

Wanting to stay no longer than necessary, the three quickly headed farther down the corridor until there was only one door in front of then, solid glass and automatically opening at their proximity.

"I'd say we've found the command room." Husky said as they entered.

It was a large octagonal room with a vaulted domed ceiling, the floor stepping down to a pit of computer terminals and glass monitors. In the middle of the room the floor raised back up to a central terminal in a semi-circular monitor banks and control panels. As they entered the room, many of the screens lit up with technical read outs and other information, all in the strange language. The dome of the room as a glass viewing port, from which they could see the massive relay antennae.

As they carefully walked through the terminals, Tarpaw saw one that had a display of the entire planet, a blue ring hovering over the entire planet with a blue cone coming down to a point on the planet's surface.

"Hey, look at this." Tarpaw said, pointing the the monitor. Husky and Fx rushed over, looking up at the large display. Around the blue ring, several symbols appeared, changing text as if indicating the status of the ring and the origin point.

"It's an energy shield, covering the entire planet...all generated right here." Fx said, looking back out the viewing dome at the antennae. As he turned to look back at the monitor, Tarpaw reached up and touched the screen. The monitor made a beeping sound, then went blank. "What did you just do?" Fx said, dropping his ears.

Just then the center of the room lit up as a massive three dimensional hologram of the same planetary map appeared, rotating at the same spin and tilt as the real planet, the cryptic symbols hovering in space over the energy shield.

"Sorry, I wanted to see if it would do anything." Tarpaw replied, stepping closer to the hologram.

The map spun around to the cone, then zoomed in on the planet, arriving at the compound they were at, then the compound lifted off the map as the ground disappearing, leaving a floating three dimensional layout of the complex, a small piece of the energy cone still displayed out of the antenna. On the map they could see the blue power cables, all leading down and out from the antennae and hubs to an fourth, underground facility, almost twice as large as any of the hubs. It was the reactor for for the entire complex, arrows flashing away from the spherical reactor down the blue power lines, indicating power flowing outward to the compound the relay dish.

Suddenly, the arrows indicating direction of power flow stopped, and the energy shield being generated by the dish shut down.

"...sky, Fx, please respond if you can hear this. Are you there? Please respond." Came a loud crackle, then the voice of K9 broke in on their communicators. With the shield down, they could send and receive messages again.

"Sir? Sir! This is Fx. We're alright. Tarpaw is here with us. The others, they...they didn't make it." He said, his ears and tail drooping, trying to fight back tears.

"I'm so sorry. But you did everything you could to save them, it's not your fault Fx."

"Captain, this is Husky. Can you get a lock on our location? The three of us are at a massive research facility. It was generating some sort of energy field that cause us and the Sink Hole to crash, but it's shut down now." Husky paused, composing himself for what he had to say next. "And Captain...this place...we found something...Evo bodies, all floating in glass tubes."

Tarpaw felt this was a good place to interject. "This is Tarpaw, medical officer. I believe what we saw, are early Evocanian evolutions, preserved specimens for further study by the past inhabitants. They appear to be in early stage, more feral canine than Evo. This whole facility is some kind of genetic experimentation lab."

Just then a loud alarm began to sound throughout the command room. Fx, Husky, and Tarpaw spun around to look back at the central hologram display, and immediately understood. The blue arrows lines that indicated energy flow, the ones that had sent energy to the antennae, then stopped, were now pulling energy in; the indicator arrows all converging on the massive reactor core. Warning lights flashed on every screen, the color display of the core changing from dark to light blue, green, yellow, then orange.

"We need to go, now!" Fx shouted, his fur standing on end as IHOP were in a static storm.

No one asked questions, they simply ran. Back down the same corridors they had come in. As they ran down the hall with the laboratories, the entire building shuddered, knocking all three of them into the wall. Husky and Fx stood back up, but Tarpaw was still on the ground, clutching his side.

"I can't go any further, I tore my stitches, I'll slow you down. Go on without me."

In that moment, everything stopped for Husky. All that he could think about was his mother Hasky, and what she had told him about the second attack, about Fx's mother, how she had begged with Hasky to take Fx and run, to leave her to die.

In that moment, Husky reached down and jerked Tarpaw up, carrying him over one shoulder. "No, never again, I won't leave my brothers and sisters to die!" He screamed, tears streaming down his face.

Fx grabbed Tarpaw's other arm, letting him hobble between them, then they were off again. A new fire burning inside them, they picked up the pace until the building shook again, this one lasting a few seconds longer and much more violent, sending all three tumbling to the floor. As soon as it ended, they got back up, picked up Tarpaw, who was now panting heavily from his wound, and made their way down the final corridor, the roof access door just in front of them. No one had time to say anything as they neared the door, but he swore he saw a small laser across the base of the door; the booby trap they must have tripped upon entering the compound.

They burst through the door, nearly falling over as they sprinted across the roof, Tarpaw dragging between them as they reached their fighters. Husky and Fx helped Tarpaw into Husky's fighter, then they got into their own and started up the emergency cold start system.

Within two minutes both fighter ships were in the air, rocketing into the atmosphere away from the complex. The compound started breaking apart from the resonating artificial earthquakes, causing the super antennae to shake and break apart. Everything stopped and went silent...then a blinding whitish-blue flash, and the entire compound was vaporized as the reactor went super critical.

"Husky to D.E1, we're in the air, coming towards you at maximum speed, have hanger doors open, and a medical team standing by!" He clicked off the comm before the cruiser could even respond, focusing all his attention on escaping the blast zone.

The blast wave was closing on them quickly, filling the sky with a bright blue torrent of raw destructive energy. The edge of the wave came up and just barely hit them as the rocketed though the upper atmosphere and into space. No real damage was do e, but it was enough to jar their ships. Now that they were safe, they let back on the throttle just enough to turn and look at the destruction. The wave was just dissipating, a massive cloud of dust and debris circling in the atmosphere, spreading across the whole planet in a choking cloud.

It was all they needed to see. Tarpaw was barely conscious behind Husky, and they needed to get him to a real doctor or he would die. The D.E1 loomed ahead, a gleaming mass of gray metal, the flowing symmetry of Retcan engineering reflected in its design. The hanger doors were already open, the running lights and door light on to guide them in. Husky flew in first, lowering his landing legs, then setting it down near the back of the hanger where the main doors were. Fx flew in next, landing in the designated landing spot. As soon as they were down, the hanger doors closed and the room was pressurized. A large red light in front of the maid entrance turned green, and the doors automatically opened, a team of white-clad emergency medical staff rushed out into the hanger towards Husky's ship.

They arrived just as Husky was climbing out of the cockpit, Tarpaw slumped over his shoulder. The medics quickly took the wounded husky, carefully stripping the tar stained uniform off of him, then strapping him to a hoversled and racing off to the medbay.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Husky asked, grabbing the shoulder of one of the doctors.

"Don't worry, he's in good care now." The doctor replied before turning back and catching up with the rest of the group.

Fx got out of his fighter and walked over to Husky. As they stood there, K9 came walking down from the hanger control room towards them."

"You two okay?" He asked, then stopped in front of Husky, looking at his feet. "And what is that black stuff all over you?"

Husky had almost forgotten he was still covered with tar, his boots had a thick coating on them and were oozing onto the hanger deck. He lifted a foot up, leaving a black boot print. "Oh, it tar...long story."

"Which I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to tell later, but right now I want you to to change out of your gear and get some much needed food and rest. Don't worry about Tarpaw, when we got your message I had them prep the room for surgery. They'll have him on the table as soon as he's in the medbay. We have some of the finest doctors from Canis Major."

Husky tried to argue with the Captain, but he would not have any of it. So the two Evos changed out of their PX500 armor, headed up to their rooms for a hot shower, changed into their causal uniforms, then went down to the mess hall. The mess hall was empty, other than one of the cooks. It was between shifts, and the staff had just finished cleaning after the second shift, but the kitchen had remained open on the Captain's orders. They each grabbed a metal tray and handed them to the cook. The cook, a tall Great Dane, served them both a meat patty with gravy, a roll of bread, and a gelatin cube. After they got their trays back the cook handed each of then a small metal cup of water.

They took their trays and sat down at the table closest to the tray line, a simple round metal table, bolted to the floor, with four metal chairs bolted to it. Although they looked cold and hard, the chairs wear ergonomic lay designed to fit the contour of Evocanis anatomy, making them quite comfortable.

They finished their meat patties and bread, Fx ate everything, but Husky sat there for a little longer, just staring at his gelatin cube and poking it with a sigh. Finally he ate his gelatin, then they made their way back to the living quarters, giving each other a friendly hug before going their separate ways.

Husky unlocked his door, walked in, locked it back, took off his paw pads, and headed straight for his soft bed. The round bed was soft and fuzzy. He crawled under the blanket, curling up in the warmth of it, and closed his eyes.

Husky wasn't sure how long he had slept. It felt like only a few minutes, and yet it also felt like several days. He sat on all fours in bed, arching his sore back up until it popped. Stretching, he got out of bed, rubbing his paws on the carpet, then walking into the bathroom to wash his face and relieve himself.

He slipped on his paw pads, then headed out and got in the elevator, hitting the second floor button. Getting out of the elevator, Husky walked down the hall, turned right at the end, and went into the medbay. Fx was already there, sitting in a chair beside Tarpaw, wearing a white gown and laying in the hospital bed.

"There you are fuzz head, thought you'd never wake up." Tarpaw said with a small chuckle.

"The doctor said he's gonna make a full recovery. Few more days in here, then he'll be sent back to Canis Major for a couple weeks of rehab." Fx added, standing up to let Husky sit in the chair.

"Hey Husky." Tarpaw said.

"Hey Tarpaw." Replied Husky.

"Thank you for saving me back there, you didn't have to...you could have died."

"Yeah, I did. I made a promise, a long time ago, that I'd never leave one of my brother or sister Evos behind, no matter what."

"We'll, thank you. And I think I understand what you mean. I don't how old you were, or if you were even born yet, but I was just a pup during the second attack, maybe two or three...and I remember the last thing my father said to me before he left my mother and I to fight the machines. He said, 'Never forget me.'" Tarpaw paused, and Husky saw him holding back tears. "He was right you know. We should never forget, but not just him, or those who died that day...but everyone, the ones we search for, the ones still here, and the ones yet to be born."

Husky understood what Tarpaw meant, and it was just like Hasky had told him. And after what they had seen on that planet, in that lab, only reinforced that mentality.

Just then the medical assistant walked in. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I need to flush his IV and check his vitals, and I need to ask you to leave." She said in a polite voice.

"Alright, go on you two, I'm gonna be just fine."

"Okay, you take care Tarpaw," Fx said as he walked out, but then stopped and turned around, "and one of these days, you need to tell us how you got that name."

Tarpaw couldn't help but laugh at that, nodding and waving as Fx and Husky left and headed back up to the living quarters into the recreation room. They would eventually have to meet and debrief with K9, but until then, the two had been ordered to rest, so that was just what they were going to do. Once in the recreation room, they found the closest couch, and collapsed on it.

"You said you had something I needed to see Ensign?" K9 asked, walking across the command bridge.

"Yes sir, I'm afraid we have a problem." he turned to one of the large central monitors. "Right before the facility self destructed, we intercepted a transmission that was sent from the super antennae, launched into deep space. It's in a language we've never seen before sir."

Captain K9 stared at the map, and the projected trajectory of the signal. He wasn't sure what to think, but he knew the Retcans needed to know. And he knew, dark times were ahead...