FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The fact is I can't sit here on my ass all day so I pull myself back up onto my feet. Silzon had mentioned there was enough food and water here to last me till she got back. Not that she said what she was doing in the first place. Now where would this food be? Because I could go for a bit of a snack about now. So I head back down the hallway with tail and ears up and instead of going into the study I open one of the other doors that I see. What greets me is an expansive dining and sitting room, filled with just as much ornate luxuries as the rest of the building so far. It gives me the feeling of being in one of those museums of mid 1800's mansions of robber barons and other rich folk. I take a few minutes to walk around the room and run my hands over the furniture while admiring them. A girl could get spoiled living like this. With all this luxury around me I suddenly don't mind being stuck in this building for the moment. It makes me feel like a Queen.

My stomach growls and reality reminds me that all the luxury in the world means nothing if I can't get something to eat. Spotting a door near an entrance to a small hallway on the other side of the room I head on over curious as to what I might find. Peeking inside only reveals a small anti-chamber and nothing else. On the other end of the room is yet another door, how curious. Pushing the door open I walk on over to the other one, I don't notice that the door I opened starts to close on its own. Only the door won't open no matter how much I pull on it, that is until the other door closes behind me with a click. My hands slip off the handle from the force I was pulling on it with and I fall backwards onto my ass. Cursing up a storm I get back up and rub my tail while looking through the now open doorway. Gone is the luxurious deco, being replaced with a recognizably modern looking kitchen. The door closes on its own as I step foot onto the plain linoleum like floor. A stove, what looks like fridge, a sink with a faucet, and many cabinets filled with what I assume are plates and other kitchen utensils fill the kitchen. Walking over to the fridge I crack it open to grab a peek inside. Various white meats with blue blood tinging the bottom of them and the plates they are set on. Next to them are piles of the same kinds of fruit that I ate after I woke up under that tree. I grab a plate of the meat and one of the fruits then close the door with my rear as I turn around and place the food on a counter.

Is it even cooked? Moving to sniff the mystery meat before shaking my head, I recognize the smell from earlier of the uncooked meat from those spider-cows I gorged on. Okay so that means I am going to have to cook it somehow. Looking over at the stove I eye the controls on it, what comes to my mind next is the image of this building being engulfed in flames. Then Silzon and her guards having me in chains. Yea, I better not risk trying to use it when I can't even read the language on it so I put the plate of meat back into the fridge. I guess I am going vegetarian today and because of that I am still glad morphs like me were made more omnivorous than our feral ancestors.

Sticking one of the many fruits into my mouth I head back to the dining room with the plate in hand so I can sit down and eat comfortably. The fruit tastes about as good as last time I ate it. Which doesn't surprise me one bit as the old saying 'hunger is the best spice' is true from my experience. I only get two of them into my belly when I hear the front being opened and then slammed shut. My ears swivel as I hear two sets of footsteps, or more accurately one set of walking feet and the other being dragged over the carpet. I wonder what is going on as it has only been a short amount of time since Silzon left. Did she forget something?

The door from the hallway opens revealing the cause of the noise as Soltar who isn't in the armor I saw her in before. Instead it looks like a casual shirt and what looks like leggings, not pants. They are too baggy to be called that but they do have somewhat defined legs so they aren't a dress. Leaning on her shoulder and being held there by three of her four arms is Shian, she on the other hand is bare chested but otherwise still in her armor from the waist down. Two of her four arms are clinging to Soltar while the other two are defensively covering where I got her with my claws the other day. She doesn't look too well as that spot looks puffed up and in various nasty shades of blue and green and other sickly colors.

Soltar spots me and her expression changes, but not too a good one I am afraid. She half guides and half drags Shian to a chair and gently places her onto its cushioned seat. Shian on the other hand is reluctant to let go of her living cane but does so after what I assume are some comforting words from Soltar. Getting a better grasp at their vocabulary is rapidly becoming one of my main priorities right now. She then turns on me with her look and mannerisms showing anger after its brief lapse a second ago with Shian. Yes I know I am to blame for how sick Shian is now but honestly I have no ide... Again I am an idiot! How could I forget that! I'm a house cat morph, and close enough related to them that like normal house cat's my claws can harbor bacteria. Benign to myself but can be harmful to others. Shian is suffering from a massive infection of bacteria her body has no idea how to deal with.

I am only working on the limited knowledge of their language because Silzon took the translator with her. I could really use it right now. But I can still grasp the concept that Soltar wants me to undo what ever I did to Shian, or I won't live to see another day. Why else would she pull out a dagger that was concealed and point it at me mere inches from my throat while speaking angrily at me. Okay mother I now regret not taking your advice and try to become a ships doctor. Still there is something I can do for her.

"I help." I try to say too her in their language. When that doesn't get the dagger removed I point to it and say 'no' forcefully. She gets the idea and backs off a little while I stand and think things over. I don't suppose Silzon has any antibiotics laying about this house by chance? She has all the other modern conveniences, why not some antibiotics? If not there is one thing I can use. But it is most likely back in the kitchen and Soltar might not like me leaving the room with her attitude. So while thinking of a way to get there without any extra holes in my body I try to get a better look at the wound I caused on Shian. She is obviously very defensive when I approach her, covering her wound and staring at me with eyes that could freeze water. Soltar puts the dagger away and gently takes Shian's hands away from her wound so I can have a better look.

Just as I thought the wound is very much infected as I watch it leak blueish green puss and some veins next to it pulse with her heartbeat. The smell though is worse than the sight of the wound. I am going to have to clean the wound out and what I need to do that is in the kitchen. Pointing to it I say "need" in their language a few times. She is hesitant and reaches for the dagger but then stops and steps aside allowing me passage to the kitchen. Once through the anti-chamber I tear apart the kitchen with deliberate purpose for what I need. Opening up the cabinets I search for anything vaguely smelling of alcohol, it will be the only thing here that I know will help Shian. The place looks like the mafia ransacked it by the time I come up with three bottles of what I think contain alcohol. Two smell like something for drinking while the third might be for cooking due to the weaker alcohol smell.

With all three bottles in hand along with some towels I grabbed on the way out I exit the kitchen and place them on the dinning room table. Now comes the hard part, actually cleaning the wound without getting some of my own from them. Pointing at Shian and then at the table. "Need her there." It only takes me telling Soltar once to get the hint of what I am going to do, she gently helps Shian to lay on her back on the table. Shian hisses in pain as she is moved. With that done Soltar eyes the bottles I brought out curiously but with only a simple grasp on their language I can't explain it to her. With no Antibiotics I am going to have to clean the injury the old fashioned way, something that I have seen done but never did it myself. Slicing it open to drain the puss and then cleaning the open wound with alcohol. It is going to hurt like a bitch but it's better than dieing to a massive infection.

I will need Soltar's dagger next so I point to it on her person. One of her hands hovers over it defensively as she eyes me suspiciously, like I am really going to use it to attack them. Where would I go? Back to the wilds? Hell no. I point to it and tell her that I need several times before she finally gets the idea that I need it to help Shian. She reluctantly hands it to me still in its sheath. Ornate and heavier than it looks I don't pause to admire it, I only remove the blade and hold it and the sheath in separate hands. With the sheath I point to Shian and try to convey with my hands that I need her to be held down. Thankfully Soltar understands me and uses each of her hands to restrain Shian's arms leaving me with the her legs. Poor Shian though, she seems to be terrified judging by her expression. It doesn't help when I stick the sheath of the dagger into her mouth for something to bite on other than her tongue.

Taking a deep breath I am going to try to do this fast as possible. Climbing onto the table I use my body weight to pin Shian's legs before bringing the dagger up to her wound and slicing open the infected tissue. Dear Makers! I gag at the smell of the puss oozing out of the wound while Shian arches her back and hissing loudly. I will be surprised if I get out of this without adding vomit to the mix. Using the towel I wipe the dagger clean and place it next to me on the table. Next I use my hands to gently push the rest of the puss and junk out of the wound until it bleeds a solid blue color. Her Blood staining my fur in the process. Tossing the soiled towel away I inspect the wound to make sure I did not miss any puss. Grabbing one of the stronger bottles of alcohol I pull the wood cork like top off with my teeth and spit it onto the floor. Glancing at Soltar and Shian is all the communication they need to understand what is coming. The former tightens her grip while the latter shakes her head violently side to side as she bites down onto the sheath.

I close my eyes and hope to anyone who can listen to my thoughts that this will work. Because if Shian dies it will be my fault and I have no idea how Silzon will react. When I open them I pour the contents of the bottle into the open wound from top to bottom, careful to get every nook and cranny. My ears fold flat reflexively as Shian screams loudly the second the alcohol touches the wound. Soltar strains to hold her down as I feel her almost lifting me off the table with her legs. The alcohol dislodges some dried puss and some dead tissue so I use a second clean towel to clean that off of the wound. With the first bottle empty I toss it aside before reaching for and opening the second in the same manner as the first. When poured Shian struggles again but not as violently as the first time. It is obvious she is at her pain and stress threshold right now.

Good timing I guess because I am done cleaning the wound. Grabbing the last clean towel I place it over the wound before using my hands to indicate that Soltar should hold it there with some pressure. Soltar removes her hands from Shian's arms before pressing gently but firmly onto the towel while I slide off of her legs. With that done I look at the alcohol left in the second bottle and the full third one. No words or gestures need to be made on to what to do with them as I hand the partially filled bottle to Shian. She gulps it while I open the third one for her to drink as well after the second is empty. The only thing we can do now is wait and hope she feels better. Which she should if it was all just a surface infection. Now if she has blood poisoning from this as well, then all I might've done was prolonged her life a few days.

Grabbing a nearby chair I glance at the cushion before pushing it back and opting to sit on the floor instead. Somewhere on my priority list I am going to have to add 'get or make some proper chairs' considering I lack the one piece of anatomy they are designed for here. While I sit on the floor Soltar helps Shian back to the chair she was in earlier to rest. If Shian does live through this she will have some nasty surface scaring on her chest and arm. I don't think she will mind it as long as she is alive to have the scars.

Looking around I survey the damage to the room. In front of me the table stands ruined with scratch marks and alcohol stains over its surface. My aborted meal lays scattered about the room. Glass litters the floor next to me as I discover where the first bottle landed after I threw it. Not to mention the carpet under the table is soaking up all the alcohol, blood, and puss from what I just did. How am I going to explain all of this to Silzon once she gets back? I hope these two will help diffuse any wrath from her considering what I did to help them. Otherwise I may have just overstayed my welcome as a guest in her house.

Soltar approaches and kneels in front of me before speaking. I don't understand everything she says, but I do catch 'Sorry' and 'Thank You' so I assume she is apologizing for earlier. All I can give her is a nod to indicate I at least get a little of what she is saying which seems to satisfy her. Soltar looks at the surrounding mess before standing and grabbing a couple pieces of my dinner. Sticking one in her mouth she tosses me the other I catch it easily. You know, I think I can get to like her if she keeps acting like this rather than when we first met. With caution I eat the parts that my hands have not touched while making a mental note to find a something to clean them with later. Glancing at Shian reveals that she is lightly sleeping with her head slumped to the side.

Upon hearing Soltar's foot steps I look over just in time to see her enter the small connected hallway and then hear her footfalls ascend some stairs that lay just out of sight. By the time I manage to summon the energy to stand and follow she is already on her way back down the stairs by the sound of it. In her hands, all four of them too, are unmarked glass bottles with twist tops and metal cups. Both of which look very out-of-place in the room, similar to catching a modern communicator watch on a nineteenth century character in a film. Considering the way the light was reflecting from the cups I would wager that they are made of aluminum. Calmly she places it all on the table and twists the cap off of one of the unmarked bottles eliciting a hiss of escaping gas from it. They are carbonated too?.

Soltar with ease born of practice pours out of the bottle a semi opaque deep purple liquid into two of the cups. Picking one of them up she walks over to me and presents it to me and invites me to take it from her grasp. She returns to the table and picks up her own glass before drinking from it without any hesitation. Holding the cup in my hands confirms my suspicions on what it's made of. It feels exactly like what an aluminum cup should feel like when it's made out of a single block of the stuff. The liquid inside smells fruity and alcoholic with some scents I can't quite place so I glance up at Soltar who is enjoying it without ill effects. Well it's not killing her, so I decide to lap up a little with my tongue to get a taste of it. Yes all feline morphs can both drink like a human or lap it up like our feral counterparts. To be fair though lapping is only seen done by finicky cubs and adults or when trying something new. I would not call myself finicky, just cautious.

It's an alcoholic drink alright with distinct berry flavor to it that I can't place right now. Overall I think it's good and I start drinking from the cup normally resulting Soltar smiling at me. She picks up the opened bottle from the table before collapsing onto a nearby chair to continue to drink from her glass, refilling it from the bottle when she empties it. The silence in the room only broken by the sounds of Shian sleeping. It doesn't take me long to empty my own glass down my throat so I scoot myself closer to her and hand her my glass. Soltar gets the hint and refills my glass with more of the alcoholic beverage with a smile. And with that we pass the rest of the day and the following night drinking and having fun.

The next thing I know I wake up on the floor with the morning light shining into the room surrounded by a complete mess. All the bottles that fruity alcohol Soltar brought down are empty, the cups lay next to them haphazardly, next to that on the floor are items I vaguely remember being brought out. The term 'party games' come to mind when I look them over but as I stand up to get a better look that is replaced with the term 'hangover'. It is then the full force and consequences of the amount I drank last night hit me reminding me of what a lightweight I am. What I wouldn't kill for a modern medical bay right about now, with the fast acting drugs and the like wiping out hangovers and such. It's then I notice that I am the last one to rise and shine this morning from last nights activities.

No empath is needed to tell me that Soltar is nursing a hangover just like mine judging from her body language of holding her head in her hands. But what does make me relieved about my current situation is seeing that Shian is awake and talking with Soltar actively. She seems to be doing better than last night even though movement causes her face to distort in pain as she shifts in her seat. Their conversation stops when Shian notices me, that causes Soltar to turn around and look me over before giving me a smile that looks like she understands what I am feeling. I guess hangovers are universal just like Shian's look of fear on her face. It unnerves me but considering what I not only did to make her sick but to 'help' her I can sympathize.

Navigating the mess on the floor to get over to them with my pounding head proves to be harder than I thought. "Glad to see you are okay." Commenting to Shian in common as concentrating on their vocabulary makes my head hurt worse. Soltar just looks between us and then points at both of us before saying something. I know just enough to grasp that she wants both of us to stay here and not kill each other while she is gone. Heh, with my headache and Shian's injuries we aren't going to be doing anything at all but nurse our wounds. She looks satisfied with our reactions before leaving the room through the same small hallway and stairs that she did to get the alcohol. Only I hear her go up and then silence and not her footsteps coming back down like before, or any other noises either. I wonder what is up there?

Shian and I look at each other for a short while before she breaks the ice asking about what I did to her. At least that is all I could understand considering my current grasp of their language. I owe her the effort of at least trying to work through the headache and answer her in their native tongue. "Save life" And with those two words Shian's entire posture and demure changes to something other than fear. Her attention turns to the towel as she gently lifts up some of it to take a look at her wound. I notice that it seems to be scabbing up nicely with no hint of any inflammation or infection from my point of view. My ears twitch when I barely pick up Shian saying 'thank you' before she goes silent.

We spend the rest of the time waiting in silence before I finally hear Soltar's foot steps coming down the stairs. One of her hands seems closed but not into a fist and another has yet some other aluminum cup. How many do they have? I can smell the water in the cup before I am able to see it by the time she is standing next to us but what surprises me is the set of pills in the other hand. Soltar hands both to me and then mimes taking them herself to show me what to do, I do know how to take pills but she doesn't know that. I think I can put enough trust into Soltar to take them without being suspicious so I plop both into my mouth and with a gulp of water I swallow them. They're pain relievers! And fast acting too, because my splitting headache fades mere minutes after swallowing them. Now if only we had an instant fix for the surrounding room.

While I am taking the medication and waiting for them to take effect Soltar leaves the room again, only this time she goes into the kitchen and comes out with more towels. Time to clean up all this mess and it is only fair that I help since I helped create it. So walking around the room I pick up the empty aluminum glasses and glass bottles before placing them on the table due to a lack of a better place to put them before putting everything on the floor into a neat pile. I glance over at Soltar when done and she smiles before tossing me a damp towel while nodding to the table. As we clean I can't help noticing that other than being on an alien colony ship while being the only earth morph here. This is pretty much like the aftermath of any academy party, only I did not wake up in the bed of some guy I don't know before remembering the drunken sex we had the previous night. I am sure none of us had sex with each other last night, well mostly sure and that is because I have no idea how to do it with them. Not to mention other women don't turn me on. Considering the amount of empty bottles here I think I am lucky to even remember bits and pieces of last night really to feel confident on that.

With both of our efforts we at least clean most of the stains off the table making it look a lot better. The claw marks will still have to be explained, but I guess those would be easier to forgive considering what we had to do. Soltar points at me and then the bottles along with the cups before proceeding to the small hallway and stairs that lead to the upper floor. Taking the not to subtle hint that she wants me to pick them up and follow her I quickly do so. Grabbing the empty bottles under one arm and the cups in the other I follow her out of the dinning room. The small hallway seems to be more of a small landing from here in front of a stairway as finely decorated as the rest of the place. They end at what looks like an ornate solid wood door with an intricate carving of scenes of some past event maybe. To top it off it has a highly polished brass handle with a large lever release for the mechanism.

I nearly drop everything onto the stairs upon seeing what happens next. When Soltar reaches the top she grabs the door handle for a second while making sure to place all her fingers onto its surface. When she lets go the door handle retracts into the door silently followed by the entire door sliding down vertically into the area under the stairs without even making a sound. First the padd like device, then the cups, and now this? More interestingly she doesn't even pay any attention to it as it happens before walking through the open doorway. Following her inside reveals a more utilitarian and modern looking hexagon shaped hallway instead of all the luxury elsewhere. Okay something odd is definitely going on here and I want to know what it is! The feint noise of the door closing behind me makes my tail bristle, I guess they could not make it silent on both sides. Speaking of which on this side the door is nothing but a slab of metal painted a plain white.

Other than the color it is painted the corridor wouldn't look out-of-place from the Fitzgerald's minimal deck decorations. The walls are painted the same metallic white as the door and the floor has a more utilitarian cut of carpeting in a light gray shade compared to the rest of the house. It is just enough to make it more tolerable to walk on with bare paws than metal, but not by much. Yet it seems to have some touches of people living here which softens its near sterile look and feel. A painting here, a table there with a picture and a few objects on it, spots on the walls where the paint looks thinner from cleaning. Overall I think I prefer this to the Fitzgerald's gunship gray walls and off gray thin carpet.

During the examination of my surroundings I nearly miss Soltar ducking into room four feet in front of the entrance of the corridor I now stand in. Curiously and a desire not to get lost I follow her down the hall and into the room. Inside is a similar but smaller version of the kitchen downstairs, it has no range or fridge to speak of but it does have storage for everything else you would need. And something that is just the cherry on top of the 'what the fuck is going on here' pie. Inlaid into the wall is what looks like a replicator, a bit more primitive than the ones I am used to but it is unmistakably a replicator none the less. Soltar smiles at me as I enter the room and gently takes the bottles out of my possession before placing them into the alcove of said device. With a press of a button and a quiet hiss a panel slides closed before she points me to a cupboard next to it. Opening it with my now free hand reveals more aluminum cups so I place the ones I have inside in a neat stack next to the rest.

"How the hell do you have a replicator?!" Blurting out and pointing to the device as soon as the cups are stored. I am pointing to it like a mad woman expecting an answer in a language Soltar doesn't even know, it's no surprise she looks at me confused and curious but doesn't answer. Seriously though if I walk out of this house right now, and then down to the ground the most advanced piece of technology I will find is an animal drawn cart! Yet in here is something that 'WE' only have on star-ships! Even then it's only in the cafeteria's and high ranking officer quarters only due to the power draw. Something weird is going on or am I in a new vid-screen show after being rescued?

To her credit Soltar does understand that I am agitated so she puts her hands up defensively while speaking calmly to me. I assume it is an attempt by her to try to calm me down and I don't blame her. What ever she is saying getting angry about it is not going to help, so I force my ears back up and the fur on my tail to go back down. Not to mention their language is hard enough to understand when I am calm so trying to understand it when I am distraught is impossible for me. What makes matters worse is when I do calm down enough to try to translate the words I don't understand them. Am I 'ever' going to get any answers as to what is going on here?

Letting out a sigh I just give up for the moment followed by a yawn that seems to come out of nowhere. Soltar upon realizing that I am not going harm her now, puts her arms down and exits the room. She doesn't say anything and just heads for the door leading to the downstairs at a casual pace. I follow her closely fearing that the door may not open for me and I may be trapped up here until she decides to return. When we renter the dinning room Soltar goes straight to Shian and starts tending to her wound, I on the other hand make all deliberate speed to the kitchen. I intend to use the running water inside to clean the fur of my hands and my face feeling they are long overdue.

While I scrub my hands and forearms clean under the kitchen sink I can't help noticing how none of this makes any sense when put together. High technology siting around inside a low tech civilization with people like Shian nearly dieing from simple infections that can be cured with the use of the same machine that made that liquor. Any person with half a brain would think that everyone here would benefit from the technology used to make it? Silzon has got a lot of explaining to do when she gets back from what ever she is doing that's for sure. Because I am not going to take any half baked explanation about any of this. Satisfied with the look and smell of the fur on my hands and arms I dry them off and go back out to the dinning room.

Upon re-entering the dinning room I see that Soltar is helping Shian up from her chair so I hastily walk on over and gently grab the side of Shian opposite of Soltar. After all I am just as responsible for her care as Soltar is. My first instinct is to ask Soltar where are we going to take her but I after giving it a second of thought the only place we can take her is upstairs. So while each of us has one of Shian's arms slung over our shoulders we help her walk out of dinning room and up those stairs to the second floor. It becomes obvious when the door opens that there are two groups of people who live on this ship. Those who know of the modern technology, and those who don't. Shian by the look of surprise on her slack jawed face seems to be from the latter group. Also the simple act of helping Shian up the stairs leaves me tired and sore, either I am so out of shape or it's still the hangover. I put all my credits on the hangover.

Once upstairs we take her three doors farther down hallway than the smaller kitchen we were in earlier. The door slides open silently revealing a bedroom warmly decorated and inviting despite the utilitarian floor and walls. The bed looks soft and inviting with large blanket thrown over it in a faded shade of purple. We lead Shian too the bed and lay her down gently on top of the blanket whereupon she quickly falls asleep.

A yawn forces its way out of me as I turn to look at Soltar and the room followed by a light wave of exhaustion. You know come to think of it, it would be a good idea to take a nap and sleep away the rest of this hangover. Pointing too Shian followed by putting my hands together and mimicking the action of laying on a pillow I try to get her to understand what I want. I am glad Soltar gets the idea because as she gestures for me to follow her I yawn again and blink my eyes sleepily. She leads me out of the room and across the hallway to another bedroom that is smaller but no less inviting than the last one. I would have to say its decorations would possibly appeal more to a younger person than an adult from all the stuffed animals in it and brighter shades of pinks and blues.

She steps aside and lets me enter, I pay no attention to any of the decorations as I walk up to and then climb onto the bed. By the makers I am never sleeping on the ground again! I don't know what this bed is made of but it's very comfortable and much softer than anything I have laid on since before the academy. The question of who does this bed belong to doesn't even enter my mind as I start to doze off. That is until I spot Soltar walk over to one of the stuffed animals, she picks it up and hugs it possessively. This must be her bed, I was about to fall asleep in her bed, possibly her childhood bed. No I am not going to sleep in another Women's bed, I do not swing that way even 'if' I did have drunk sex. I attempt to push myself up but a wave of dizziness followed by a light headed sensation sends me crashing back down onto the bed in a mess of limbs. In my last moments of consciousness I barely feel the blanket Soltar places on top of me.

The sound of the door sliding open wakes me from my dreamless sleep followed by moving to stick my head out from under a blanket. And the sight that greets me is Silzon standing there in casual loose fitting clothing consisting of a sash like shirt and similar baggy pants to Soltars. 'How long was I asleep?' I wonder as she watches me with a neutral expression. Yawning with a stretch I sit up before wrapping myself in the blanket after it falls off of me and onto the bed. Silzon calmly walks over to a dresser and clears off some stuffed animals to make space for that padd device.

"I must thank you for saving my sister's best friend, even though it was your own claws that made her ill in the first place. Not to mention the mess you and my sister made in my dinning room is going to be a pain to fix." She smiles as the device translates this faster than the last time we talked meaning it must be learning somehow.

"As for what happened after helping her and your night in." She pauses.

"The pain killers you took seemed to have knocked you unconscious when they took full effect. Because of this you have been asleep for over a day. When I returned Soltar was thinking she accidentally poisoned you." I guess taking them was not the smartest move I made in my life.

This is place has an alien chemistry very different to the one I am from, I am lucky that I am still alive after taking them. After all in my first aid class they stressed the importance of NOT giving asperan to Voxxans. Rather than thinning the patient's blood it acts as a thickener and can cause blood clots leading to heart attacks and seizers. Caffeine had a more interesting reaction though come to think of it.

"That was a very bad mistake on my part Silzon. I Should have ridden out the hangover without any help, I am completely alien to your kind and it could have very well killed me." I apologize and point out that fact to her for future reference which may help me out later.

As I talk with her I get off the bed and wrap myself in the blanket to stay warm in the cool air. I notice that the utilitarian carpet does nothing to hide the cool to cold temp of the floor under it which in turn causes me to shiver once and twitch my tail in annoyance. Silzon nods rather than saying anything in reply to my statement.

"I seem to recall that I owe you an explanation Athena. Especially since you have now seen the upper floor and both kitchens in this building. All of which begs the question I know you want to ask." As she speaks Silzon examines me with a critical eye before turning around and looking through drawer after drawer of the nearby dresser.

Using all four of her arms she both opens, and rummages through each drawer. Occasionally she takes out an article of clothing and holds it in front of me as if judging its size and shape to my figure. I never liked being modeled for clothes I did not buy, yet I have no reason to complain here. Needless to say most of the articles of clothing won't fit at all but I am surprised when she pulls out what looks like a long skirt and a shirt that kind of looks like the earthen 'wife beater' style. The skirt has extra fabric in the back to account for the abdomen of their species which I lack but I guess it will fit well enough. The shirt though will just look plain odd on me, it has two long holes in the sides to account for four arm's yet no extra fabric in the front for even my average bust. Silzon then lays them out on the bed in front of me after I guess she realized they will fit me as well.

"Athena, put these on please. We can't have you walking around in just the shirt I picked you up with." Silzon nods to the clothes but she doesn't turn around to let me get dressed in privacy.

Shrugging I unwrap myself and toss the blanket back onto the bed, then I slip off my uniform shirt and toss it on top of the blanket. Eying the clothing I know at least one piece will cause me some discomfort. So I decide to put on the skirt first as it is the better of the two. It kind of fits me, a little tight in the waist and the extra cloth in the rear along with no tail hole makes it feel like my tail is inside a tent. But now it's time for the shirt which doesn't look to inviting. The fabric is plain in color and coarse, not what I would want in a shirt but I can't say no to it and cause offense to Silzon. Slipping it on I almost end up putting my head through one of the arm holes but correct myself. I can't suppress a shiver as the coarse fabric digs into my bust and over their sensitive tips as I pull it all the way down to my waist allowing it to overlap a little with the skirt. Of all the days I had to go bra-less it had to have been that fateful day. Wait! I have an idea, I can use my uniform shirt as a makeshift one.

Silzon has a puzzled look on her face while she watches me carefully pull the shirt off to avoid a repeat of what just happened as I put it on before, I place it on the bed once I have it off. Picking up my old uniform shirt I put it on and then roll it up in the back and part of the front before making a knot to keep it in place. Moving about to test it I am confident it should work and stay in place so I pick the other shirt back up and slip it on. While the impromptu bra adds to the tightness in the chest area, the fabric no longer rubs me the wrong way even if it feels like I am binding my breasts. Now that I am fully clothed it is time to get answers from Silzon.

"Okay I want answers and please start from the beginning. What IS going on here?" Asking Silzon with a bit of annoyance in my voice while I tend to my fur for a moment to fix its 'bed fur' appearance.

"It's best I take you somewhere first so you can better understand what I am about to tell you." With that said she lightly tugs my arm to follow her out of the room.

She lets go of my arm as I start to follow her and with one quick motion she picks up the padd without faltering in her steps on our way out of the bedroom. Silzon leads me to the end of the corridor and around the corner revealing a set of double doors marking the extent of this modern construction. Once we turn the corner the little touches that soften the sterile feel of the place end, not that there is much room for any more since it is only a few feet from the corner to the doors. They automatically open with a light hiss as soon as we step in front of them.

The inside looks like a turbo-lift, or at least that is what the small room reminds me of. Not stopping to explain what it is Silzon leads me inside with her and the doors close behind me. Recessed into the wall next to the door sits a black panel and disc just above it seemingly foreign compared to all the stark white walls. With the ease of familiarity and routine Silzon places one of her hands palm flat on the black panel and moves one of her four eyes in front of the disc above it. With a loud beep I feel the sudden and momentary loss of gravity upon the start of the sharp down wards movement of the turbo-lift. This is followed quickly by a short burst of sideways movement that nearly makes me lurch in the opposite direction followed another longer drop as it heads down again. When the sharp movements end the turbo-lift settles into a steady sideways movement, though if the hum is any indication it is at a much higher speed than before. None of this seems to phase Silzon but I am not used to riding one without inertia dampeners. In fact she seems to be waiting for something and I am about to ask her what she is doing but Silzon beats me too it by touching a couple of spots on the black panel. All the walls in the turbo-lift minus the on the door is on emit a similar hiss too the opening of a door as they lift up revealing windows.

The view on the other side of them causes me to stare slack jawed at the sight. I had hints this place was huge but I am getting a better idea on just how much that word doesn't fit. Gigantic, Colossal, Enormous! Six equally large spheroid shaped asteroids connected in a ring to an equally large one in the center. Superstructure consisting of scaffolding, tubes, panels, and boxes knit them all together into a giant wheel. A wheel that seems to be rotating slowly around the center asteroid, or at least it looks like that from the way the shadows cast by the external lighting move. That would explain how this place has gravity, I idly note to myself. It doesn't take a genius to realize that the turbo-lift we are in is heading to the center asteroid. I wonder what is in there.

"A fantastic feat of engineering and construction made by my ancestors in a time of desperation." Silzon breaks the gentle hum of the turbo-lift with her voice.

As hard as it is to do so I look away from the memorizing sight and look at Silzon. The large size and her words confirm what I was suspecting, the only means of interstellar travel available to species with no faster than light ships. This is a generational ship or colony ship, designed to provide a long term stable environment for a fraction of a world's population as it slowly moves through interstellar space to another solar system. It's called a generational ship because the generation that made and launched it is not the one that is alive when it reaches its destination.

"A generational ship. But why? If your kind had the technology to make and power this you are only a few steps away from FTL drives allowing you to go between systems in a matter of days." I ask her as the sight of the whole structure lures me back to staring out at it, it's just that impressive.

"That is a long story Athena." Silzon sighs and leans against one of the walls making herself comfortable.

"I am unfamiliar with what you called this place, but if it is similar to what I think it means then yes this is a generational ship. Me and my kind, along with all the other creatures on this ship are the last remnants of our home planet." I make myself more comfortable by sitting down on the floor and bringing my knees up to my chest.

"Why is that?" Asking curiously, my ears are up and pointed at her.

"About three thousand years, give or take a few hundred since some of the records are corrupt, our ancestor's discovered something disturbing. A rouge planet larger than our home planet was approaching our solar system from underneath the elliptical plain of ours. When its speed and trajectory calculated the horrible truth about the situation was discovered. It would be captured by our star's gravity and as a result it would over the course of a few thousand years push our home planet's orbit too far away from the star to support life." Talk about drawing the short stick in the cosmic lottery game.

Still, rouge planets while rare are still being found all the time and range in size anywhere from Earth to Jupiter sized gas giants. But the most surprising fact to me is that they are an older species than Humans or many of the other's in the federation. They were not that far away from faster than light travel at the same time Humans were still in late bronze age city states.

"So your ancestors built this to live in while traveling to a new home?" Silzon nods.

"It was one of a few plans they made to survive. But as far as we can tell we are the only survivors from all the idea's that our ancestor's came up with. The asteroids that make this place up were pulled from orbits in the asteroid belt between our former home planet and its star. Each of them was hollowed out and the minerals inside used to build all the superstructure. Inside each we created an artificial version of an important environment on our home planet. New technology was developed to do this, resources poured from all over the world while other plans lost their importance with said discovery." I can't fathom the amount of chaos that would happen if at a similar point in earth's development we had the same fate as Silzon's people.

"Most of my species backed this plan but there were other plans nearly as popular. Subterranean colonies, migrations to the rouge planet since it would end up in the habitable zone, along with other less thought out ideas. When the effects of this disaster started to show the real panic started. Governmental decrees on who would be given a chance to survive resulted in revolutions and civil wars. Lotteries were better but resulted in riots and massive protests. For this ship seven groups of roughly equal size totaling one quarter million were randomly drawn. Each group from a different sub culture so it would preserve the most diversity." Sounds like they were extremely lucky to get this plan off the ground so to speak.

I know for a fact back home such tensions would cause any plan to fail horribly as the religious and ethnic groups fought each other with renewed vigor from the fact they had nothing to lose and everything to gain. My tail curls around my legs while my ears droop from the mood this whole discussion puts me in even though it all happened in the past. Glancing at the windows to focus on something else for a moment shows that while closer to the center sphere, we are still a decent ways away. I am still awestruck at the size of this place.

"The ship was completed and launched ahead of schedule. While each group had almost complete control of their own sphere, the central one which we are going too right now had priority control due too it having the generator. And for the first two generations as we gained speed and headed to our new home things went pretty well. Then on the third we lost contact with the subterranean colony's back home. We think they were over run and killed by those who were left to die on the surface. A few years later the colony on the invading planet was lost as well, we guess it was due to a massive quake caused by the thawing planet. They should have known better than to settle on the surface before it thawed." Silzon joins me on the floor of the turbo-lift. You know they should have put some chairs in here if it was going to take this long.

So far this does explain what this place is but why is there such a discrepancy in the technology that Silzon has access to compared to the rest of her people? Did something happen to everyone here as well?

"So why do you have mostly modern technology in your house but as far as I saw everyone else doesn't?" This being the most bugging question I might as well try to get an answer to it.

"That is what I was going to explain to you next Athena. This place wasn't a paradise as we had our own minor tensions and conflicts too. But by the fifth generation they hit critical mass so to speak. One group, the one that once resided in the environment you were put in held in their beliefs that any form of population control was immoral and against their goddess. Because of that they ignored the well thought out population control plans our ancestors made and started to draw more and more recourses from the other spheres as time went on. This did not go over well with everyone else and firefights broke out between each sphere's populations. Gladly all of them went out of their way to not damage the ship as that would be counter productive to their goals." It's obvious where this is heading as there is a couple of religions on earth that I know of that would react the same way.

"In the end my direct ancestors, which were the ones who lived in the center sphere, the one we are heading to. They took it upon themselves to end the conflict in the only way they saw that did not involve killing off an entire group. The plan they came up with was disabling the sphere controls in the other spheres. Then to get the population back under control they locked out travel between all the spheres including their own for three generations. With that done they shut off the power grids for the cities in each of the spheres except their own. Finally to prevent anyone on their own sphere from sabotaging the plan before it finished a thinking program was put in control of the ship. Essentially making themselves prisoners for the duration as well." I frown at that because there had to have been a more peaceful and less extreme way to deal with them.

Not to mention that cutting power in my opinion just added insult to injury because forcing them to live in a pre-electric lifestyle when that was all they knew would kill even more. What does she mean by a thinking program? Does she mean an A.I.? Starfleet has only started dabbling in the most basic ones from what I have read on the news sites.

"I can guess what you are thinking right now Athena, cutting the power was not proportional to what happened but it was needed for my ancestors plan. Considering that a well thought out rational and fair plan fell flat on its face. Belief in the irrational created the problem in the first place and they thought they could harness that same belief to help keep things stable. But first they had to get rid of the old beliefs and cutting power while locking the spheres down would accomplish that with enough time. After the three generations our former technology passed into myth and legend, which was the point. All of our race's history and knowledge is stored in the ships computer and without it the following generations could not be taught it. Anyway, when the lock down was lifted a representative, my many greats grandmother, was chosen to reestablish contact and travel between the spheres. She and the guards who came with her were equipped with the fanciest armor, and the most elaborate looking technology before going to each sphere unlocking the tunnels as they went." And of course they were thought of as gods just like how the Aztec thought the Conquistadors were gods.

"And they were viewed as gods by the now uneducated populace?" I interrupt her with a question which she only answers with a sigh and a nod.

"I didn't like it when I learned of it then any more than you do now Athena. BUT! I realized though my later education that it was a necessary evil as no other option would've worked." Silzon is quiet for a moment before she continues.

"Their existence swept away the old beliefs that were still present due to the tangible proof they provided in comparison. In their wake they placed a carefully fashioned doctrine and dogma that the original planners crafted. One designed to keep our population level steady, our resources more or less fairly distributed, and everything working for the many generations between then and when the ship would arrive at our new home. Not everyone followed the plan or dropped the old beliefs, some even tried to oppose them but they were in the minority. The question of that generation was what should be done with these people so the plan could not be threatened. This was answered when my direct ancestor arrived in the polar habitat, the ethnic group that lived there died off after the lock down and the thinking program was shaping it into a pristine wilderness. Which also made it a perfect prison for the 'heretics' of the new dogma as most of the wildlife there is dangerous." By the makers I've ended up in some kind of religious theocracy!

My ears flatten against my head in anger and my tail starts to thrash about as one simple thought comes to mind. I am going to be dumped into this polar habitat sphere because my simple presence can throw a monkey wrench into their whole plan for survival. After all that is what Silzon just said they did to heretics.

"So does that mean..." Trailing off with anger and some worry in my voice. Silzon laughs, or what kind of sounds like one which completely disarms my mood.

"Heh. I would do no such thing to someone who has saved the life of a friend of mine. My mother might have done so but she is no longer in charge here and I am." She looks out the window before pulling herself back up onto her feet. I quickly join her as I feel the turbo-lift slow to a stop.

"That's a load off my tail Silzon. Still what 'are' you going to with me considering my presence is harmful to your plans?" I glance at the door wondering what is taking it so long to open.

"I have not decided yet considering where we are." The door slides open showing a similar looking corridor to the one in her house but it also lacks the personal touches. But what surprises me is the fact that a male of their species whom I recognize is standing there on the other side of the door looking at us.

"Welcome back sis!" It's Catsh.