FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Wha-but-how-"

"Put on the captain suit. Snow, stay here and help build the negotiation plan."

"There's nothing interpersonal in that," the cat jumped from the couch, stretched and bared her fangs in a drawn-out yawn.

"It will get to that too. But only if we do this right," the captain said.

Pando left the deck as a ragged human and returned a captain. Once the crew aws done critiquing the redundancy of his vestments, the captain explained the mission.

Scales knew its main points. Pando would act as the captain of a poacher crew that sought to sell the most recent exotic catch. The humans, blinded by their conservation fervor and tricked by the flamboyant suit would offer them a quarter of the regular price for a raptor, some supplies and fuel, just to see them off. Only the promise of future catch allowed the crew to slip away, and that relied strongly on Pando's skill in persuasion.

It was the details that unnerved Scales. Her stomach lurched when Brother hacked into their security to reveal hopelessness, or when he explained the bio tests the captain would go through. Humans wanted genuine creatures, not engineered ones.

And she knew not what the captain was now.

By the time the meeting ended, everyone was spent.

"I'll be in my bunk," Brother said.

"Same," Snow purred from behind. The squelch of her pads lessened with each step she took as she left towards the main corridor.

Scales turned to the captain, "Why risk it? Why not find an outlaw planet with supplies or hideouts we can hit?"

"There's none in sight, and our fuel runs low," he replied. "Besides, we've done this before. 12-B is a small Earth Sliver. It was no real command."

"They'll have you," Scales cut in. "And Pando is an engineer, not a captain. He can't be the captain you were. You saw how awkward your suit fits him."

She looked him in the eyes, "Clothes do not make a captain."

"Humanity does." He dipped his head, eyes closed to shut the slivers of emotion within. Scales wrapped her arms around his snout. Scales rubbed against scales as she pulled him to her chest. Fool, she thought. Thrice damned fool.

"You are a raptor," she said while her fingers nipped at the soft scales under his chin. "A beast Pando, our captain, captured on a savage outer planet." When his reptilian eyes opened, no trace of emotion lingered within the thin black slits. "That's better."

"Took a cage in a dark room and a lot of practice," he said.

Scales pushed him away. "There will be more than that. Various tests, DNA samples, or perhaps they will just seize us all. Why put yourself through this? Why risk it so much?" She sighed and increased her tone. "Why let the beast be the dominant side?"

"That is what I am, and what my crew needs me to be."

It was true. Not one of Brother's japes. He really gave in. But when?

Scales began to pace around, her tail rocking from side one side to the other. The captain's gaze followed her, yet he did not even flinch. He stood still as lake water.

Realization struck scales. She turned towards him like a raging storm. "You planned this! Our last mission kept us floating, but you know how brother is. Never pleased, always looking for that one mission." She heaved to regain her breath. "He wouldn't have taken us to the middle of nowhere without the prospect of coin to push him."

A simple yes was the captain's answer.

"And you didn't come to me for solace and support. You wanted the crew to know that we're up to something, to know that I am involved too. They wouldn't have followed the mad plan of a beast."

"Your words carry more power," he said. "And you are the strategist."

Blood roiled within Scales. Her muscles flared with the desire to lunge at the creature in front of her and...

Do what?

She sighed; a long, drawn-out exhale filled with dark thoughts. A sea of question churned within her mind, but only one stood out.

"Do you still love me?"

His eyes held the answer no longer, for they sparkled with the cold, glossy eyes of a raptor.

"Are beasts capable of love?"

He strode towards the main corridor just as Scales' words left her lips.

"I don't know," she whispered to herself. "I do not know."

The question never ceased haunting Scales. It haunted her while she prepared the captain for the upcoming tests. It haunted her during the crew meetings. Even when the moment she feared was at hand, when their ship would be permitted access by the Earth Sliver to enter the merchant's bay, she still thought about that question.

They assembled on the cargo bay, as planned. Pando the fake captain wore the suit and had a stoic pose. She stood on theright as the Second, while brother took the rear. Snow stood to the far left. She still groomed herself. Petty words were exchanged in the wake of the boarding, but Scales paid no attention to them. The answer to the question. That mattered. Nothing else.

The groan of the trapdoor snapped her from her musings. Light poured through the enlarging space...along with a small army of men. The crew played its part. They stood idle while the rows of humans invaded the cargo bay to form a circle around the crew. One beckoned to another, and soon enough a spear of a man moved forward.

"You ze captin?" He took a customary step forward and removed his hat.

"We're here to trade. The details of our cargo have been sent the day before," Pando said.

"Yes, ze junk." He pointed at each crew member with a gloved hand. "And ze cretures?"

"My crew. We come from--"

"Nobody cares where you outlaws come from," he interrupted.

"This is no smuggler's ship. We have papers and can attest--"

"Ze leopard. Why so...diformzd?"

"The space does not treat everyone the same," Pando pressed on. "We want to live, no matter the cost."

"So you claim, yet you have no fur nor scales." He steadied his admiral's hat on that tiny head of his when it dropped past his eyebrows. "I'mv not intereszed in freaks and papers. The...velorcipor...velociptora... " He struggled to say that particular word. "Ze raptor," the admiral finally managed.

"Is in the preservation bay, with a taming collar around its neck."

"Gud." The admiral whispered something to himself--an order to his minions, most likely.

"My assistand vil sil ze dil." He clasped his hands above his bottom, took two steps forward, then turned around. "May I trouble ze leopard to come with me?"

Snow and Pando shared a glance. Pando nodded, and Snow walked to the admiral.

"I admire felinez," he pet her, then scratched her under the chin until Snow's purr brought a smile on the admiral's bony face. "Great survival instinct, fluffy fur, and soft, soft feet." He tested one of her paws between his fingers. "I like zis one," he said, then took his leave between a group of minions.

However, a significant part of his human entourage remained. Scales tapped her foot, eager to pace and shed some worries along the way. They followed the protocol, but nothing good came from playing the human's game.

The assistant and her team strode forward before Scales lost her temper. She was a well shaped blonde, her body somewhere between spindly and plump. A brown raptor strolled behind, its red taming collar suggesting its forced submission to a higher will.

"Apologies for this," the human said to Pando. She moved the test kit from one hand to the other. The suitcase was almost as big as her back and it swung heavily. "Technology is a boon, but traditional methods still work the best for seed testing."

Pando and Scales shared a glance_. Don't go for it_, Scales wanted to say. They prepared for the standard tests, the ones where a needle solved it all. A wild raptor, trapped in a room with the captain...

"We'll work with what we have," he said, smiling stupidly.

"Wonderful. Lead the way then."

Pando tipped his hat and did as he was bid. Scales walked behind them, trapped between the raptor and several armored troopers. Metal sang under the touch of her tail, earning her less flattering whispers from the meatbags that trapped her. She couldn't help it. It was that, or rip open the fool Pando who doomed them all.

When the Preservation bay presented itself before them, Scales felt dizzy with apprehension. The assistant propped over her testing suitcase against the wall. "Is the male caged?"

"We didn't deem it necessary at first..."

She tilted her head and smiled. "A weary captain makes for a good captain. Very well. We let the female in, deactivate these collars, and let nature continue what we start."

"When do we know it's over?" Blood rushed to Pando's cheeks when the blond giggled.

"Oh, you will know. Raptors never mate quietly, and males are often eager to release their seed. Open the door."

He hit the green button. The door parted to reveal Scales' lost and confused love. The taming collar was foreign to him, so he paced around and whined. His unfocused eyes did not even seem to notice her.

"In with you," the assistant said. The female strolled forward, head raised and teeth bared. "Close the door, quickly."

The last glimpse of the captain, hissing and backing away while he stared at her, revealed the answer to Scales.

"The male is still too young. Not apt for breeding. They will"--she rushed to the door switch, her heart a drum in her chest. Just when she reached for it, a jolt raced from her back and numbed her whole body. They surrounded her before she fell. Pain wracked her twitching limbs, and things started to move around her.

"Wait...just worried, leave her..." Pando. It was Pando. "Who shot her?"

"Freak," a deep, fearsome voice.

"Beast. Vile. Down," another one joined.

"Abomination." They kept joining in.

When words stopped, screeches and roars followed. They came from Scales' left, from the room with the captain. The captain. Her lost love. She fought against pain, against her nature, against everything, but her contracted throat allowed too little air inside. Scales heaved, and heaved, and heaved, until she regained a measure of control over her body.

The roars stopped.

"They're finished. Activate the collar."

Scales lay on her side, paralyzed, helpless, and surrounded by a dozen humans with a dozen guns. Those things would fry her brain if she twitched a single finger. There is a time for heroes, and a time for cowards, the captains had once said, when he still wore his suit. For his sake, and for that of the crew, Scales had to act the later.

The door opened. Only one raptor stepped out. Brown in scales and color. The female.

The assistant probed the area between its legs, where her tail began.

"Is this--" Pando made a wry face. "Is this necessary?"

"Reproduction is one of nature's most precious gifts." She smiled, and flicked her wrist. Juices splat against her arm, the floor, and the device she readied.

"Take her away," the assistant said to one man. She knelt before her kid, removed her gloves, and began working her series of tests.

Scales's stomach lurched. The test would fail. Brother was nowhere to be seen. Pando wasn't ready for the backup plan. She had to let him know. Lure them into the cargo bay, close it, then starve them to death while they flew to safety.

When her lips parted to give voice, only a whimper came. The blond's voice muffled it." Apt for reproduction."

She rose and smiled. "We'll pay what we agreed on. Will you sell the leopard too?"

"I--no," Pando shook his head and smiled humbly. "Crew member. We do need fuel and supplies though."

"A pity. Her genes are resilient enough to withstand a full transformation. Maybe even mate. But that concludes our affairs."

"Men!"

Every gun fell on Scales. Pando began to stutter uncontrollably and move around like a headless chicken until a man knocked him down with a terse blow to his head.

The blond chuckled," we'll take him and the leopard. Engineers are always welcome when they don't wear captain suits, and the admiral has a soft spot for cats. Let this crocodile-human-whatever live. She has a thing or two to settle with her turncloak brother.

"Understood," they all replied.

The blond picked her suitcase and turned to face scales, "Oh, and kill the victor too. I loathe happy endings."

************ And that's how this mission concludes. If you enjoyed the story, please consider leaving a comment. If not, do the same. I'm open to any type of feedback and comments, so feel free to write aaaanything you wish.