FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Sindrae science vessel

"Soiessa! Wake up! We've made another breakthrough with the transmissions from that planet." Thokin banged loudly against her quarter's bulkhead. "Come on, you'll want to see what we picked up!"

"Go away you scale-scratcher!" Soiessa snapped lazily at Thokin for waking her up, covering up her ears up with her sheets to try to drown out his banging. It didn't work, however, and she soon opened the bulkhead door slightly to stick out her head.

"Great, come with me!" Thokin grabbed her and pulled her through the door in a hurry, eliciting a sharp squeal and a string of protests. He dragged her to the same control room as before. Again, Neeris was at work on the consoles with a deep concentration, not even glancing at either of them. "Look at this!"

After a few quick commands into his terminal, Thokin brought up a short clip onto the main screen. The screen showed several aliens conversing and holding up a weird box. They proceeded to speak to each other in the same weird language they had heard before. One had long blonde hair and the other had long brown hair. Both were obviously female based on their similarity to Sindrae anatomy. One took a weird piece of fabric from the box and placed it into a weird-looking machine filled with what looked like rags.

"Wow... they look so... normal. Not sci-fi at all! Huh, what the heck are they doing?" Soiessa was now intrigued by the images on the screen. "I wonder if..." Suddenly the screen faded out and a logo accompanied by several lines of text appeared.

"... oh! It's an advertisement!" Soiessa exclaimed with a bit of excitement.

"Yup! That's the conclusion we came to as well." Thokin agreed and took the images off the screen. "We are trying to learn the language - at least enough to talk roughly, but we found out that much like us, there are many different dialects that they speak."

"Fascinating! Though you know that's my job!" Soiessa leaned against a nearby chair with her tail gently wiggling. Thokin turned to face her and realized that she had been wearing only a shirt and panties, revealing the gray and blue scales that covered her figure, and the yellow scales that lined her inner thighs up to her tail. He couldn't help but pause to notice it just a bit more, though he stared a little too long.

"Hey!" She yelled at him and whipped around, slapping him with her tail and quickly exiting the bridge. "Idiot!"

"Ha ha, sorry." He rubbed his face with his paw.

"You know, this is why I stay quiet. You two are always bickering back and forth at each other!" Neeris laughed at Thokin and his new swollen lump on the side of his face.

"Oh come on that time wasn't even fair! As if you wouldn't take a peek!"

"Nope! Nice try, but I don't think that excuse flies in romance."

Soiessa smirked as she heard the dialogue fade into the background noise of the ship. Upon reaching her bulkhead, she could see two soldiers jesting at each other. She tried to open her door quick enough to go unnoticed, but failed.

"Hey where you goin' fancy feathers? Why don't you join us for a bit" one soldier called to her. The other began gesturing lewdly immediately after, while the first soldier laughed.

"Hey" She began calmly, facing both of them. "Why don't you go fuck each other instead!" She rushed into her quarters and slammed the door.

She huffed and shrugged off the incident, floating toward her clothing storage. She stopped herself in front of her cot and stared at it.

"Screw this! I'll just deal with everything later." she thought_._ Taking off her shirt, she stretched her arms and back, and then crawled into the sheets. She zipped them up against the cot to keep them from flying away and hugged her pillow.

"Set an alarm for half a decad from now." She lazily spoke out loud. A metallic ping indicated that the command was received by the voice-activated organizer on the wall. Turning to her side the sheets were tightened against her curves and now fit snugly to her scales, much to her comfort. The dull hum of the ship's propulsion lulled her back into sleep quickly.

Meanwhile, Neeris was still working on tuning the antennas to the signals they were receiving. He watched every new video he received and tried to compile a list of the different sets of languages he saw and heard. The language that occurred most frequently would be the one they would try to communicate through, so it was extremely vital that he find the most common language in the planet's media. Soiessa was the language and cultural expert on the expedition, but Neeris was the person gathering all the right information for her.

"I found a frequency channel that contains some animated show. It seems to be a learning program, so I think Soiessa will be interested in this." Neeris passed on the info to Thokin by transferring the feed to his terminal.

"Thanks, I'll start cleaning it up." Thokin began recording the program while Neeris continued his scan.

"I think I've figured out their setup. They actually have a nice way of distinguishing channels; easy to sift through." Neeris switched to another channel that depicted several off-putting images. They were those of men and women clad in camouflage with weapons, and several different machines and devices. Neeris' curiosity piqued and he continued to watch the scenes for several minutes.

"They still aren't without fault it would seem." Thokin said, glancing over Neeris' shoulder and watched the same glum images. He rested his chin on his paw, tapping his cheek with one of his claws. "You know, I hate saying this, but I think this is a good reason to have the grunts on board. We can't know how first relations will be."

"True, but still... it's great to see what they are capable of." The image now flashed to a man addressing a large crowd. " Soi won't enjoy the fighting, but she might need this to figure out their mannerisms." His pupils contracted upon seeing the launch of a small short-range missile and its damage upon impact.

"How many days until we orbit their planet?" he asked.

"It depends," Thokin began to explain. "We've been slowed to prevent us from getting too close without transmitting first. " He motioned over to the maps on the screen. "If I speed us up we could make it in 4 days while slipping. Otherwise it will take a tenth of a cycle at current speed."

"Good to know. Guess I had better get started on which frequency is best to transmit on." Neeris turned back toward his console and began his analyses once more.

"Keep sending me what you've got. I'll get everything packaged together for Soiessa so she can get updated quicker." Thokin also immersed himself back into his console, running his paw through his feathers as he leaned over the desk. His green eyes reflected the same footage he had just seen. After a few moments, both the sound and image cleared itself of most of the random noise. This process was performed on everything he received from Neeris, and the work kept him busy enough to keep him from realizing what time it was.

Soiessa moved back into the bridge, this time fully clothed, albeit in loose-fitting attire. She walked in with two oddly shaped bowls which were completely covered. They each had a straw jutting from the middle with a butterfly valve near the end. She nudged each of the other science officers in the bridge and situated herself between them.

"I made you two some soup. Fresh from the kitchen in the centrifuge" She smiled and nudged the bowls, which floated toward Neeris and Thokin. Both had turned to face her with contentment plastered on their faces. They thanked her for the meal and updated her briefly on the situation.

"I see..." She trailed off upon hearing the summary of what they had intercepted in the past decad. "I should probably get to work on it."

She floated over to her console on the other side of the bridge, isolated from most of the other stations. Inserting an earpiece, she began reviewing all of the material that had already been sent to her. The hardest part was trying to say the words she was hearing. It used a lot of heavy tones and stops. Her long, slender tongue was not accompanied to these, but she managed after quite a bit of practice. Before long, her screen was flooded with notes of possible meanings of words, and phrases that would be useful to know.

A sharp, ascending sound consisting of 3 short beeps began repeating in her earpiece and throughout the bridge. She sighed, moving away from her work to man the communications station. Pressing the receive key, she acknowledged the transmission.

"Soiessa Ny'rae, science officer, reporting in on the SRV Horizon." she spoke with a clear authoritative tone.

"SRV Horizon, this is Admiral Ran'kea of the flagship SFV Paladin requesting an update on your mission status." The voice on the other side of the transmission was entirely apathetic.

"Sir, we are currently gathering intelligence on the planet's inhabitants in preparation for contact via radio transmission."

"Acknowledged. Do you have a time to completion?"

"Estimated time to completion is 40 decads, sir."

"Sorry, Horizon, you need to advance procedure to 30 decads. Advise prior to contact and maintain proper separation distance until you have fleet approval to engage the planet in orbit."

She paused as the new order came through, thinking about whether the new time limit was possible.

"Horizon, verify."

"A-affirmative. Will advise in 30 decads and maintain course and speed."

"Thank you, Horizon. Paladin out."

"Only 3 days to learn an alien language." She thought to herself, scoffing at the idea. She sat back down at her station and immediately resumed her studying.

Thokin and Neeris looked at her, but didn't say a word. They continued to drink their soup and listened to her practice different phrases and sounds. Conversing with another species was just a little farther down the road, yet it all depended on one person.