FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"What the hell is that?"

Asuka glanced to the left to find whoever had just spoken. Her gaze landed on several guys who looked like extras in a western vid--but after everything she'd seen, it was probably safe to assume they really _had_come from the past. She held her hand up and spoke softly.

"Take it easy. These are just spacesuits. For protecting us from vacuum," she added after seeing blank stares coming back from the cowboys and several other people. The blank looks continued, so she elaborated further. "Space. The area outside the ship, where there's no air."

"Ah," said a topless woman in an animal-skin loincloth. She pointed at the door behind her. "Like what we found in the next room?"

"Asuka!" Kamala launched out of the doorway at the end of the corridor and clamped all four arms around her. "We're so glad to see you guys!"

"Same here." Asuka hugged her back.

Kamala nodded at the doorway. "We found what we think is the control room. Three crew members, dead from exposure to vacuum. Everyone else we've seen onboard is in some kind of stasis pods. I thought they were cryonically frozen at first, but once we took a closer look, we saw that it was something else. They appear to be at normal body temperature, so I have no idea how they're being kept in suspension."

"We saw 'em, too," Tank said, nudging the wall enough to float over to Kamala. They hugged and Tank pointed a thumb over her shoulder. "I bet you're itchin' to get the hell outta here, huh?"

"Oh, you have no idea how much!" Kamala wiped the backs of her hands across her eyes. "But the people in all those pods...we shouldn't just leave them here."

"Dunno what we can do with 'em, though." Morrison drifted over to them with his arm around Luana's shoulders. "We saw dozens of 'em in just one small section of the ship, so there's probably several thousand, total."

"We found a pretty spiffy ship," Asuka said, "but it's not big enough for that many."

"Hmm. I hate to just leave them here, especially after the engines were damaged."

"Sorry about that. It was the only way to prevent this ship from jumping away. We were damned lucky to catch up with you at all. If the ship had made it into the jump point, who knows whether we would've ever found you."

"You disabled the engines?"

"Yep. Well, our ship's AI did all the work. Her name's Astra." Asuka turned and pointed down the corridor through which they'd come. "We can handle introductions, catch each other up on recent events, and figure out what to do with this ship back on ours."

"Over lunch, I hope." Morrison chuckled. "I'm starving."

Oh, boy. Hope our ship didn't zap through one of those rifts before its food stores were fully stocked. Asuka kept it to herself and merely smiled. "We'll see about whipping up a good meal when we're back onboard. Nice, casual way to get to know our new friends here, and exchange what are probably very long stories."

"Oh, yeah. I don't know about you, but we've been through a hell of a lot." Kamala sighed, put her left arms around Roger, and nuzzled him. "And after we're done catching up, maybe we can finally get some sleep."

Several others murmured their agreement. Asuka smiled and waved a hand at the other doorway.

"Well, let's get moving, then." She led everyone through the corridors.

"Watch out for goddamn tentacles," Morrison grumbled.

Asuka twisted to look down toward him. "Uh, tentacles?"

Kamala laughed nervously. "That's part of our long story. But if you weren't attacked by big metal tentacles coming out of the walls, then they must've been disabled when you took out the engines. There was probably some secondary damage to other systems."

"Not life support for the stasis pods, I hope," Luana said as the group entered one of the pod chambers.

Roger scanned a bank of stasis pods as he floated past them. "Well, this bunch is still active."

"Good." Kamala sighed and gave a nearby handhold a hard tug to increase her speed. "Let's get the hell off this ship, eh?"

"I'm with ya." Asuka reached out to touch Kamala's shoulder and smiled. "Hey. Welcome back."

#

"Huh. What's this?" Kamala stared at the bar she'd just unwrapped, holding it in her upper-right hand and propping herself up with both lower arms. It looked a bit like an oversized candy bar, but was much heavier than she'd guessed before she picked it up.

"That is an MRE," Astra said. "Many more of those can be stored on the ship than traditional food items."

"Ah. And you're sure it's safe to eat after sitting in storage for a few centuries?"

"They were designed to last a very long time, though not nearly this long. However, they are kept in cryonic storage, and I directed some of the onboard mech units to thaw a sufficient amount out while we were searching for you and the others. Also, I had the mechs scan them thoroughly to be sure they are still edible."

"Ah. Okay, then." Kamala the label on the wrapper. Chicken chow mein, eh? Well, we'll see. She shrugged and took a cautious bite. "Hmm. It's pretty dense, but not unpleasant at all. And it actually tastes like what the label says it is."

"Glad to hear it." Roger picked up one of the MREs stacked on the mess-hall table in front of him, glanced at the wrapper, and peeled it open. "I was just a little bit afraid it'd be like one of those old sci-fi vids where food of the future is either really bland or tastes like it's been marinated in a gas-station toilet."

Kamala barked out a laugh and had to cover her mouth to keep a half-chewed chunk of her MRE from popping out.

"Actually," an older man at the table behind Roger and Kamala said, "MREs had already come a long way since I was in the Army. I tried some just a few months ago, and they were pretty damned good." He winced slightly. "Well, 'a few months ago' meaning October of 2011. Anyway, I figure food rations had to have improved a lot since then."

"Seems that way." Roger took a bite of his bar and smiled. "Mmm. Not bad at all."

"What flavor you got there?" Kamala leaned over to look at the wrapper.

"Chicken and dumplings." He bit off another chunk, chewed, and slumped over a little more. "Ugh. Got used to being in zero gravity. Now I feel like I weigh a ton."

"Me, too. Oh, well, as long as it's not turning off and back on repeatedly, I think we can deal with it." She laughed softly, scooted over until their shoulders touched, and put both right arms around him. He smiled and leaned his head on her upper shoulder for a moment.

"I can deal as long as you're okay."

She smiled, brushed a crumb from the corner of her mouth, and turned toward him. He did the same, and she kissed him.

"Maybe when we're done here," Roger said softly, "we can head for one of the empty crew quarters. And I'm not talking about sleeping."

Her pulse jumped and she grinned. "I like the way your mind works." She kissed him again and bit off another large chunk of her MRE. As she chewed it, she took a slow look around the mess hall.

"Funny how normal this seems, all of a sudden. Just getting together and having lunch, like we did every day back on the Io station. Even with the aliens and people from the past and future, this right here is so normal it's bizarre."

"Yeah. And there's also the hibernating people on that other ship. I wonder what we're going to do with them."

"It'll take a while to figure out how to wake them up. For all we know, doing it wrong could kill them. And I'm not sure we should." Kamala sighed. "It could be a prison transport, like Omega said. If we let them out of those pods, who knows what we might be unleashing."

"Maybe we can tow it back to one of the planets in this star system and place it in orbit." Roger tapped a finger on the side of his MRE as he pondered the situation. "Maybe log its location in the navigational system, or put a locator beacon on it. Leave it parked here until we can find someone who can help us with it."

"Yeah. I wish we didn't have to handle it like that, but I don't see any other way." She shrugged. "Maybe we'll think of something else once we're not tired and hungry anymore."

Roger nodded and continued eating silently. Kamala finished her bar and picked another one from the stack. Hmm. Western omelet. Excellent.

She unwrapped it and looked around again. Henry and Luana sat together at the adjacent table, talking softly as they ate. At another nearby table, the pilots from the Challenger munched on their MREs and stared at the table through half-closed eyes, as if they were about to nod off. At the far end, near one of the doors, Asuka leaned against the wall and conversed with someone on the comm panel. And scattered around the mess hall were the rest of Kamala's friends and the new people with whom they'd been thrown together on the sleeper ship.

Her gaze landed on the kid who looked like he'd stepped out of medieval times. His hands trembled as he tried to peel the wrapper off an MRE. Several others sat near him, talking softly and occasionally touching his shoulders or arms, as if trying to comfort him. The topless girl with the animal-skin loincloth sat directly across from him, smiling and reaching out to pat the back of his hand. He offered her a fleeting smile, but couldn't take his eyes off the woman with the cybernetic arms and legs for more than a few seconds.

I'll have to get to know them tomorrow. I don't even know their names. Though...maybe I should give them some time to adjust. That poor kid thought I was a demon--probably still does, despite what I told him.

Kamala sighed. "As hard as this has been on us, at least we can cope. We can understand advanced technology. But imagine being someone living in the tenth century, and that's the only kind of life you've ever known. Then one day you fall through a hole in the world, and find yourself surrounded by things you can't understand except in terms of magic and demons and stuff like that."

"Yeah. I can't even imagine what that must be like. Poor kid keeps looking at that cyborg like he's terrified of her. Who knows what he thinks of you and Henry and the other anthros."

"Exactly.And Lopez."

"Oh, yeah. We should probably wait a while before we introduce those two." Roger watched the table in question for a few more seconds. "Hmm. That girl looks like she's having an easier time adjusting to all this."

"Yeah, she does seem to be handling it pretty well." Kamala smiled. "Well, maybe she'll be able to make this easier for him, then. Or at least help keep him calm." She took a slow breath and glanced down at her MRE. "These are surprisingly filling. I'm only halfway through my second one, and I'm not sure I can stuff the rest in."

He nodded and finished the last bite of his bar. "This one was enough for me. If I try to eat another, I'll be too bloated for...heh...dessert." He grinned and kissed her neck.

She grinned right back, gave him a peck on the lips, and whispered, "Shall we go find a bunk? Or whatever this ship has?"

"I think we're on the same wavelength." Still smiling, he stood, crumpled his wrapper, and headed for a disposal chute on the wall.

Kamala wrapped up her half-bar and slipped it into her belt pouch. With a chuckle, she muttered, "Check, please!"

#

"They're hot to trot." Morrison laughed as Kamala and Roger rushed past them and out the door. Both paused long enough to grin at him, and he gave them a double thumbs-up.

"Can't blame 'em," Luana mumbled around a mouthful of MRE. "I figure it's just what they need after what we've all been through."

"Me, too." He grinned and put his arm around her shoulders and she smiled. "How about you?"

"Oh, hell yeah." She pointed at the device attached to his left arm. "If you're not feeling any weird effects from that thing? Or your new leg?"

"Not yet." He glanced at the device. "It does make me nervous, though. I can speculate about what it's doing to me, but I'd like to know for certain before I try to take it off or mess around with it. I'm thinking about running by Medical to get it checked out thoroughly."

"Good idea. In fact, we should've gone there as soon as we got back onboard."

"Nah. We were starving." He chuckled and finished the last bite of his tuna sandwich bar. "First things first, right?"

"I guess so. But we shouldn't put it off any longer." Luana finished her MRE and her bottle of water.

"Yeah, you're right." He chugged the last of his water, stood and stretched. He and Luana dropped their bottles and wrappers into the disposal chute in the corner, and walked into the corridor. "So, uh...how do we find the infirmary?"

Luana glanced around, shrugged, and said, "Astra?"

"How can I help you?"

Morrison found a comm panel mounted on the wall a few feet ahead and walked toward it. "We're looking for the infirmary."

A glowing blue line appeared on the floor.

"If you follow the path, you'll reach Medical in under three minutes."

"Thanks." He smiled and began walking. "Whatever was in control of that ship, it examined all of us and replaced my dead leg with this prosthetic one." He shook his head slowly. "And then it tried to stick all of us into empty stasis pods. Talk about mixed signals."

"Ever heard of anything like this happening before?" Luana asked Astra.

"I'm not aware of any encounters similar to this one, though at least one could have happened during the time I was dormant."

"Huh. I wonder if we'll ever know what's going on with that ship. Speaking of which, what're we gonna do with all those people? I don't want to just leave them here, but...."

"I don't like it either, but it's probably the safest thing we can do for now." Morrison sighed. "At least, until we can find out who they are. Omega's right, it could be a prison transport, for all we know."

"Which might explain why it tried to capture us. If it is packed with dangerous criminals, its systems would be programmed to return escapees to their pods."

"And if they are programmed to keep the prisoners alive," Astra added, "that would explain why they treated your wound first. However, we don't have enough information to do more than speculate."

"Hmm." Luana stuck her hands into her pockets as they continued following the glowing line. "Since we're all back together now, and we don't have anything to run from at the moment, maybe we can hang around for a while? Check the ship out and see if we can figure out who all those people are?"

"I have no objection," Astra said. "I'm naturally curious. Well, perhaps 'naturally' is not the correct word to apply to a synthetic intelligence, but curiosity is one of the main qualities with which I was imbued. As long as we don't place any of you in danger, I would be happy to help you examine the ship."

Morrison nodded slowly. "If those people aren't dangerous, then it'd be wrong not to help them. And it might be nice to stay in one spot for a while, knowing we're not about to run out of air or fall into a black hole."

"I couldn't agree more." Luana smiled and slipped her arm around his waist.

The glowing line curved to the right. They followed it through a doorway to the end of another corridor, and a door on the right slid open. The lights inside the room increased their brightness to a comfortable level, and Morrison took a quick look around as they stepped inside. Beds along the walls, three examination or operating tables in the center, control panels all over, and numerous gadgets whose function he could only guess. Everything was in pastel colors except for what appeared to be chrome-edged wood lining the edges of the beds and other equipment.

"Welcome to Medical," Astra said as the consoles on the side of a bed on the left began to light up. The bed was attached to a huge gadget that reminded him of an old MRI scanner. "If you'll lay down there, we can begin."

"Sure." He clopped over to the bed.

"Aren't you gonna ask him to take his clothes off?" Luana grinned and wiggled her eyebrows.

"That is not necessary, but he can if he wants to."

"Mmm, I think it's necessary." Luana laughed. "It's nothing I haven't seen before, but I'm always glad to see it again."

Morrison laughed and aimed a lopsided grin at her as he pulled his shirt off. He dropped his shorts, stretched out on the bed, and started a bit when it retracted into the scanner.

"Beginning scan," Astra said.

He nodded and glanced at the boxlike device attached to his arm. He tried to keep his breathing even as the scanner emitted a soft hum, hoping he wasn't about to find out that the thing on his arm was pumping anything other than anti-infection medication into him.

Well...guess I'll know in a few minutes.

#

"This is too weird," Marissa muttered.

"As opposed to what, lately?" Seth chuckled and folded his empty MRE wrapper. He placed it on the table, flattened it out, and folded it again.

"I mean, it feels weird to sit still." She shrugged and finished the last of her bottled water. "Feels weird to not have something to run from."

"Yeah. I think we can adjust, though." He grinned and nudged her shoulder. "And from what Asuka said about Astra's weapons, I don't think we'll have to worry about anyone ambushing us again."

"Until we run into another bunch of aliens who have us outclassed, technologically."

"Well, if that happens, we should at least have a decent chance of running away." He put his arm around her shoulders and she sighed and leaned on him. "We've managed to catch a break, so let's just take advantage of it while we can."

"You're right. It'll be wonderful to finally get some rest. On an actual bed. I was starting to worry about having to sleep on a floor or a bench in a shuttle." She ran her hand over her scalp. "Hmm. Probably gonna wake up with lint from the pillowcase stuck to my stubble."

Seth laughed. "There's probably some sort of haircutting gadget onboard, if you want to keep the smooth look. If nothing else, maybe the medical facilities have something that'll work."

"Hmm. I kind of like being bald, now that I've had time to get used to it. Long hair is such a pain in the ass to take care of, and it's always getting in the way." She took a slow look around the mess hall. Something caught her eye and she pointed her bottle off to the left. "As if we haven't seen enough weirdness, check that out."

Seth turned in the indicated direction and found Otto and Shakira sitting on the opposite side of the room, each with an arm around the other while they finished their meal. Seth nodded.

"Last time we saw them, she was using a robotic body. When we found them on that other ship, I thought she'd somehow found time to transfer her brain back into another one that looked like her original body. But from what they've said, they hadn't even met us before today." He frowned and shook his head.

"Yeah. We've known them for a long time, but they don't know us at all. And we've only been in this situation for a couple days, but they were stranded on a deserted planet for months." Marissa rubbed the bridge of her nose. "After falling through a rift a quarter-century before we did. I can't wrap my mind around it. It's too fucked-up." She yawned suddenly.

Seth laughed softly. "Sounds like it's time to hit the sack, eh?"

"I guess so." Marissa stood and stretched. "I hope I can sleep. I'm tired enough, but I don't know. The bed just won't feel right without Boiler in it."

"I know. But we'll find our way back to her." He held her hand and they walked across the mess hall.

"Do you really think she's okay? I mean, a huge chunk of the Io station was cut off by that rift, and that would throw the entire station off-balance. It would tear itself apart." She held her breath abruptly, as if trying to suppress a sob.

Seth put his arms around her as they stepped into the corridor. "We have to believe she's okay. Come on, the station has emergency systems--thrusters to prevent it from deorbiting, protocols that shut the centrifuges down if anything catastrophic happens, that sort of thing. The people who designed it were smart enough to think of every contingency."

Marissa sighed and nodded. "Yeah. I hope so."

"We'll find our way back to her," he said again, turning to resume their course toward the crew quarters, keeping his arm around her shoulders. "Somehow. No matter what it takes, the three of us will be together again."

She nodded again, but said nothing.

They held one another silently as they continued on through the corridor.

#

"Well, here we are." Otto touched the flashing button on the control panel beside the door. It slid aside and the lights in the room beyond rose over the next few seconds. He and Shakira entered their new quarters and took in their surroundings. Hmm. Sofa, two chairs, coffee table, and doors that probably lead to a bedroom and bathroom. Soft carpet, tan walls, black furniture and consoles. Easy on the eyes.

"Not bad." Shakira walked to the sofa on the left and sank into its cushions with a long sigh. "Oh, this is wonderful! I can't even remember the last time I sat on something as comfortable as this."

Otto smiled and sat beside her. His smile broadened. "Nice. I could probably fall asleep right here."

"Me, too."

He grinned and scooted closer to her. She draped her arm around his shoulders and he reached over her lap with his left hand to lace his fingers through hers. He stared at their joined hands and marveled for the thousandth time at the direction their relationship had finally taken. He'd wanted it to happen since the day they'd met, but had never thought it actually would. It still seemed like a dream, even more than the upheaval in their lives since they fell through that rift. How long ago had that been? A year, give or take a few months? They'd been stuck on that uninhabited planet for so long, the days had blurred together after a while.

"So," she said after another moment passed, "what do you make of all this? I mean, meeting a bunch of people we've never seen before, who have known us for several months?"

"That was definitely a surprise. I mean, the odds of running into anyone who knew us, after we ended up at a random point in space and time...." He pondered it for a few seconds. "Hmm. From what everyone here has been saying, quite a few rifts have opened up and dropped people from throughout history into one area. Maybe there are points in spacetime that are...I dunno, focal points? Maybe something about certain areas attracts those rifts?"

"Maybe. Like some sort of universal Grand Central? Or something." She shrugged. "I'm more concerned that Roger and Kamala recognized you, but not me, when they found us on that other ship. She said I 'looked different' when they met us." Shakira chuckled. "Maybe she just meant I looked older. Starting to get wrinkles and saggy tits, or something. Or maybe a few more of these." She brushed her hand over the scars on the left side of her face.

"I think it's good news. Means we're still together decades from now."

Shakira grinned. "Yeah, that's a good point. If those two had never seen me at all before, that would've worried me."

"Yeah." Something troubling occurred to him and his smile faded. "About...well, about us. Now that we're surrounded by people again...."

"You're not about to dump me, are you?" She laughed and poked his chest with her index finger.

"Oh,hell no!" He snorted. "Come on, you know I fell completely in love with you the instant we met, and when you finally stopped saying no, it was one of the best days of my entire life. It's just that, well, when it happened, we were stranded alone on an alien planet and we both thought we were going to die there. Now that we've been rescued...."

"We're nowhere near a civilization. In fact, none of us know where we are." Shakira smiled and traced a fingertip over his lips. "I think everyone here has more important things on their minds than arresting me for sleeping with a teenager." She raised an eyebrow. "If you are a teenager. I still haven't figured out exactly what you are, honestly."

"Neither have I. I know I should try harder to piece it all together--the memories, the nightmares, and all that--but I don't like to think about it." He tried to push those memories away before they could slither out of the dark corner where he kept them. "I'm just worried about some of these people giving you any shit about us. If you think it would be a good idea to tone it down when we're around them--"

She leaned forward abruptly and kissed him. He recovered from the surprise and responded passionately, slipping both arms around her and holding the kiss for a long moment. When they finally parted, she grinned.

"I hope that answered your question."

"It did." He smiled and stroked her cheek. "I also brings some other questions to mind."

"Such as?"

"Such as..." He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. "Is the shower stall big enough for both of us at once?"

She burst out laughing. "Which reminds me of another sign you might not be completely human--you still smell good. I, on the other hand..." She lifted her right arm, sniffed, and grimaced. "Oh,damn. It's been so long since I've had a shower, I smell like a jock strap that hasn't been washed in about eighteen months."

Otto snickered. "I don't think it's nearly that bad, but if you wanna check out the shower...?"

She grinned and heaved herself off the sofa. He followed her to the pair of doors in the far corner and opened the one on the right. He glanced inside and took note of the twin-size bed that took up most of the space in the alcove.

"Ah. Wrong door." He opened the other one and found a small bathroom with a toilet, wash basin, and a shower stall. "Here we go."

"A real shower!" Shakira sighed and slid the transparent door open. "I was starting to think I'd never see one again."

"And it looks big enough for two." Grinning, Otto put his hands on her ample backside and gave it a gentle squeeze.

She laughed and pulled her shirt off. Otto reached around to unbutton her shorts.

A small, glowing control panel appeared on the stall's transparent surface.

"Ah, I was wondering how to turn this on." Shakira chuckled. She and Otto took the rest of their clothes off. As she stepped into the shower, she shook her head and muttered, "What a long, strange trip it's been."

"Yeah." Otto joined her and held her hands. "And something tells me it's barely gotten started."

#

"I can't believe how comfy this bed is." Kamala drew in a deep breath, let it out slowly, and snuggled against Roger's chest. "I don't want to get up."

"Me, neither." Roger smiled and closed his arms tighter around her. "It should be easier to face today, though, since we're not being chased by alien critters or running out of air."

"True. Figuring out what's going on with all those people in stasis will feel like a vacation after what we've gone through." Kamala sighed again, gave him a kiss, and slid off the bed. She stretched, rubbed her eyes, and slithered toward the bathroom door, wincing at the ache throbbing along most of her frontside. As tired as we were last night, it looks like getting it on one more time was the right call. I'll probably be too sore to do it for the next few days.

"Something wrong, honey?" Roger sat up and reached out to her as she slid past. She clasped his hand and smiled.

"Remember when I slammed into the side of that pillar? Well, I'm really starting to feel it." She shrugged. "I'll be fine in a few days. Hey, you wanna shower first? I doubt we'd both fit in there at the same time."

"And even if we could, we might not get much showering done." He grinned. "You go ahead. I need a few more minutes to finish waking up."

"'Kay." She slid into the bathroom, turned on the shower, and adjusted the temperature. She slithered into the stall, coiled up, closed the door, and leaned against the inner wall, grinning as the warm spray poured over her chest. After giving herself a few minutes to enjoy the simple sensation, she washed off the dust, dirt, and grime she'd picked up since this whole mess started.

When she turned the water off, jets of hot air came from openings in the walls, ceiling, and floor, drying her off in moments. The air turned off and she returned the bedroom. "Okay, it's all yours."

He nodded, yawned, pushed himself to his feet, and stumbled past her. She grinned and gave his ass a light slap. He laughed.

"Oh!Now I'm awake!" He made a kissy face at her before disappearing through the doorway.

She giggled and glanced around for their clothes, which they'd flung any which way last night in their rush to put the bed to good use. She piled Roger's clothes on the bed, stuck her tail through her skirt, and pulled it along her body until it covered what needed covering.

How long before it starts to slide down?_She pulled the belt tight, shrugged, and put on her double sports bra. _Hmm. I wonder if this ship has a laundry facility? Better yet, how about a way to make new clothing? A ship this advanced should have something like a 3D printer to produce new parts, clothes, or whatever else.

A few minutes later, Roger stepped out of the bathroom, looked her over, and chuckled. "Seems like a real shame to cover that up."

"Ha. Well, you know me and my self-esteem issues."

"Oh, really?" He slipped his arms around her. "I figured I'd taken care of those by now."

"Well, I certainly won't complain if you continue working on 'em." She put her upper arms around his neck and her lower ones around his waist, pulled him closer, and kissed him.

"I'll do everything I can think of." He grinned and gave her another quick kiss before turning to pick up his clothes. "And I can think of quite a lot."

"Me, too." She crossed her upper arms over her chest, leaned against the wall, and stared at him as he dressed, enjoying the sight while the moment lasted. Once he'd finished, they joined hands and headed for the mess hall. As it turned out, neither of them was hungry yet, but a cup of coffee seemed the perfect way to start the day.

In the mess hall, Kamala found a drink dispenser that, Astra explained, had been stocked by her mech units overnight. Kamala skimmed the selection of coffee flavors until one in particular caught her eye. She braced all four hands against the front of the dispenser, leaned in quickly, and uttered a sort of half laugh, half squee.

"Chocolate glazed donut! Oh, gimme!" She opened the panel, grabbed the self-heating can, read the instructions on the side, and pressed the button on the bottom. In a few seconds, the can began warming up.

Roger laughed softly, picked out a can, and activated its heater. "So, Astra, any thoughts on what to do with the other ship?"

The synthetic intelligence's voice came from a nearby speaker. "None yet. A team has already boarded the ship to investigate the flight recorder and other systems."

"Ah. Guess we overslept." Roger nodded at the door. "Shall we head over there before everyone else figures it all out?"

"Sounds like fun." Kamala and Roger headed for the airlock joining the two ships, sipping their coffee on the way. After they passed through the airlock--and reentered zero-G--she scanned their surroundings and pinpointed those who'd come over earlier. She led Roger to a long, narrow room with slanted walls. Consoles and monitors ran the length of the room. Asuka and Omega hung in the air on the far side of the group, and the rest were clustered in front of a bank of consoles--Shakira, Otto, several members of the Io station's tech crew, and two of the abductees, the woman with cybernetic arms and legs, and a tall, slim, hairless woman with blue skin and overly large, solid black eyes. Kamala wondered for a second if the female was an alien or a designer lifeform like herself.

"Hey, guys," Roger said, and the others looked up and said hello as he and Kamala approached. "What have we missed?"

Kamala noticed a globule of coffee drifting up from her can and leaned forward to suck it out of the air.

Indicator lights on one of the panels began flashing in unison and one of the tech team backed away abruptly.

"Whoa!"

One of the others grabbed a handhold and caught his arm to prevent him from bumping into the opposite wall.

"Bobby, what's wrong?" Kamala zipped over to him and stared at the alien text and graphics scrolling past on the monitor above his console.

"I have no idea. Maybe nothing. Just, I dunno, sudden activity."

"Maybe it means we've found something." Shakira glanced at Kamala and Roger. "We've been trying to find the flight recorder or ship's logs. But since none of us recognize the language on the screens, we haven't really made any progress. Until now, at least."

"So," Kamala said, "still no clue about where the ship came from or where it was taking the...occupants?"

"Not really." The cyborg shrugged. "When I was growing up, there were stories about whole colonies that were...I dunno, captured or abducted or whatever. All the people simply disappeared. I'm kind of hoping we found out what happened to one of them."

"Astra tried to communicate with various shipboard systems," Otto said, "but hasn't had any luck. We're flying blind, here--just hoping we don't accidentally delete the logs or--"

A harsh, grating voice came from multiple consoles. "Konduk navari. Konduk losene. Konduk tu. Konduk varanta."

"Uh, what?" Kamala flicked her eyes from one screen to another. "Anyone understand that?" She turned to the alien-looking woman. "You?"

"No." Her whispery voice quivered. Her huge eyes opened even wider as she looked around. "Apologies."

"Konduk nochak. Konduk nuveed. Konduk--"

"I have no idea what it's saying," Otto muttered as he grasped Shakira's hand and turned toward the door. "But listen to the pattern. Is it just me, or does that sound a lot like a countdown?"

Before the last few words left his mouth, Astra's voice came through everyone's comlinks. "Alert--multiple power surges detected. Mission abort. Evacuate immediately."

"Everyone out!" Asuka snapped.

"Oh, fuck," Shakira groaned as they turned and launched at the door. "We must've triggered something!"