FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"I see you took the tunnel from the plain's environmental sphere Catsh. How functional was the turbo lift?" As we disembark from the turbo-lift into the hallway I politely stay quiet as the conversation does not pertain to me.

I do notice that as we enter the sphere proper their translated words go from being played out the padd's speakers to all around us. Looking closer at where the walls of the bulkhead meet the ceiling I find what appear to be speakers and microphones placed at regular intervals. Gonna have to ask about that, I thought it was the padd alone doing the translating.

"Functional. Even though it is showing its age and the centuries of lack of use. The drones did their best to keep it working but it needs to be rebuilt from scratch to function properly during repeated trips." He casually climbs up the wall so he can look Silzon directly in the eyes and the simple act surprises me causing my tail to bristle simply because I did not know they could do that.

"Brother, please get off the wall. You're disturbing Athena if I am correct in understanding how that long appendage attached to Athena's rear end is acting." Huh? Oh right my tail, if I am not thinking about it my tail does tend to display my emotions rather accurately. And I am a little disturbed at how Catsh walked up the wall so casually.

He jumps off the wall landing gracefully onto a spot next to his sister before the both of them lead me further down the corridor as I smooth down my tail fur. The corridor its self still displays the sterile and clean industrial white look like the one in Silzon's house. With no signs of personalization it is only broken up by markings on each door and a control panel inlaid into the wall next to each door.

"So was the padd doing all the translation or something else?" I decide to ask to break up the silence.

"The device doesn't have the processing power to do that, it was only sending the audio to the ship's main computer and accepting the resulting translation." Catsh replies to my question instead of Silzon. I have to chide myself for thinking that somehow that the padd can do a task that none of them back home are able to do especially since everything else here seems not quite as advanced as well. This also makes me realize that Catsh might be the more technical oriented of the siblings.

The empty wall space between the doors grows longer along with the length of corridor in-between corners in the hallway before she stops in front of one particular door that too my eyes doesn't look any different from the others. Silzon repeats the same routine on the panel next to the door as she did with the one in the turbo-lift making it open for her revealing a large computer and console filled room. Unlike the padd device she carries, I can't make out whats on the screens as I follow them into the room towards the back wall. She stops in front of one particular console at the far end of the room placing the padd device in a waiting slot that exactly matches its size and shape. As soon as she lets go the padd is sucked into the console with a soft hiss.

"I'm guessing the annual data collection went well sis?" Catsh casually asks as he quickly takes a seat on the chair in front of that same console.

"Data collection?" Asking curiously as I look at the monitor on the console. But the display seems to look like it's on the fritz to me displaying the same image twice but in different locations and colors like someone was using a half broken monitor. Stranger still both Catsh and Silzon either don't mind or don't care about it.

"Yes every year I have to go to each environment and check up on their individual control systems and do any maintenance that can't be done remotely." She casually glances at the monitor too as Catsh becomes more focused on what he is doing than the two of us talking. His speed at typing with four hands would put anyone back home to shame come to think of it.

"And what about everything else? The crowds of people, all the guards and stuff?" I turn my attention to examining the rest of the room. Glancing at all the other rows of similar consoles I notice they differ only in what set of controls lay in front of them. If I had to guess this was some kind of control center similar to a bridge on a star fleet or star corps vessel with each console dedicated to a different task.

"On the same day I start that trek a religious celebration of the first appearance of the 'prophet of god' by the general population also begins with me as the main event when I arrive in each city. Purposefully designed of course so I don't have to hide my activities in secret and risk getting caught. You would be surprised at what you can get away with if you hand wave it away as a religious ritual. As for you, it just so happened the thinking program picked you up out of that pod a few days before the start of it so I knew general area to search so I could find you before you did something stupid like show up at a settlement." So that celebration is their version of Hanukkah and Christmas tied into one? And the next part surprises me even more, she knew I was here? Why did there A.I. put me in that open plain instead of keeping me here in this sphere safely away from the general populace of this ship? I am about to ask her these things when she holds up a finger to silence me.

"Before you ask, the program is not perfect. It wasn't made to deal with or even recognize aliens so when it found you it defaulted to treating you like one of us. It detected that you were not immunized and gave you the needed shots. This also triggered an alert to my padd because it is rare for an adult to grow up without them. The thinking program then put you in the sphere with the lowest population as it would not disrupt the balance." Well it does make sense that the system is not perfect and I am glad it treated me like one of their kind because the alternative would be me still floating in space. But that doesn't answer another question I have.

"And this room is?" I gesture around me but it is Catsh that responds instead of Silzon while he still working on the console in front of him.

"One of the several control rooms that are placed throughout the central sphere and were used for manual control before the thinking program was put in place. Now it's just a dumb terminal interface to the central computer. We are here in this particular one because it's closest to the where you arrived and where your pod is rather than going all the way to the central core." He speaks without even looking away from the monitor or stopping his typing on the console. I wish I could do that.

"I'm guessing that it's still used often enough to justify the room being powered up like this all the time?" Silzon nods but doesn't say anything to the conversation before I decide to idly wander about the room while Catsh does his work. I don't know how long I occupy myself in this way before Catsh jumps off the seat in front of the console and back onto the floor signaling that he is finished.

"Done! The data has been uploaded and integrated to the program, things should stay calibrated for the next year." He looks back at me and then his sister.

"Sis, I am going to go examine the escape pod our friend here arrived in to see what makes it tick if thats okay?" Wait they still have the pod? That means I can get at the survival kit! I beat Catsh to the door surprising him in how fast I ran.

"You still have my escape pod!? Take me too it please!" I almost get on my knees and beg them to take me too it.

I need to know if the beacon is still up and running on it. If it isn't then I need to turn on the transponder from the kit inside since they are my only tickets back home. Don't get me wrong I am grateful far what Silzon has done but I do want to see my home again and I am sure they would understand that. Catsh looks to Silzon who just shrugs in response before I let them pass by me so I can follow them.

"So what did pick me up out of the void of space? You said the thinking program did it so I assume it wasn't a shuttle craft." Following them farther down the corridor I notice the spacing between the doors shorten again indicating smaller rooms on the other side.

"It was one of the..." She replies as I follow them down the corridor until a door opens and a female enters the hallway from the room beyond interrupting her.

She seems to notice is Silzon first and gives her a traditional greeting followed by some idle small talk. You know the kind of stuff two coworkers do when they see each other at work. Then as she finally notices me she freezes on the spot starring wide eyed at me, I can't tell if it is out of curiosity or fright. I just look back at her and try to smile without showing any teeth and my ears up trying not to look aggressive. Her reaction before Silzon can say anything is to just back up and close the door followed by the sound of it locking tightly. Okay so I guess it was fright.

"I guess this would be considered a mild reaction to my presence if I was spotted out in the another sphere among the general population right?" I look over at Silzon.

"Yes to put it mildly. This would be the desired reaction in my people, the most likely is them trying to kill you thinking you're a daemon or something evil. Which is strange because we did not have anything approaching such things in the dogma when it was crafted." Silzon shrugs as she speaks before leading me and Catsh further down the corridor until the normal doors are replaced with larger and bulkier ones.

We stop at a particular door that reminds me of a cargo bay door on a normal Star-fleet or Star-corps vessel. A two part heavy duty door with thick overlapping teeth on each part allowing them to close securely as well as large over sized gearing between the sides of the door and the wall to move the two halves. It screams that there is an area that could be exposed to the void of space on the other side.

"This is one of many cargo bays we have." Silzon explains as Catsh crawls up to the control panel and uses it to open the door. I have to cover my ears as the gears clunk and grind while the door slowly and painfully slides open.

And then the lights inside switch on with a loud click and the solid hum of florescent transformers. They reveal row upon row of neatly stacked generic cargo containers with some open spaces here and there. Catsh hops off the wall as Silzon walks inside and I follow her so as not to get lost. Which seems entirely possible here due to the sheer scale of the room. The looks of the room shows they stopped caring about how it looked and went with a pure utilitarian decor. Plain and unpainted metal paneling on the floors and ceilings while the walls are bare bulkheads with the only paint on them seem to be markings for location identification. Placed in neat rows are multi layer metal shelving units reaching all the way to the ceiling with interlocking square containers. Each one a simple container with the only thing distinguishing one from another being a simple painted marking on it.

"What are all these containers for?" Pointing at a random one in particular while Silzon leads us down an entire isle of them.

"Spare parts. Raw materials for manufacturing. In general stuff that can stay stable after spending a long time in storage." Catsh answers me instead of Silzon.

Silzon on the other paw looks about as we come to a stop at an end of an isle looking for all intents and purposes lost. Her confidence seems to return as fast at it left before leading us down one of the open pathways between the various isles of containers.

"Manufacturing what?" My ears stand up and my tail bobs back and forth as his answer makes me even more curious.

"Replacement parts, drones, various weapons and tools. Basically everything we would need to survive the journey and set up permanent settlements on our new home." Catsh states casually as an answer to my question.

Weapons and drones? Is this a cargo bay or an armory?

"Why do you need weapons? From the outside this place looks mostly like an abandoned set of mined asteroids. No one except archeologist's would take a second look." I ask as we approach a railing and I realize that we are on the second level of a two floor cargo bay.

In front of us is a large open area with the far side wall being taken up by a gigantic version of door we opened earlier to get into this room. Which means that it must be an exterior door and outside is the vacuum of space. She slowly leads us along the railing over to a set of zig zagging stairs placed next to a large empty cargo elevator. As we walk Silzon speaks up to answer my question instead of Catsh.

"Our ancestors were not so naive! They realized that alien life existed elsewhere in the universe, and some of it may not be too friendly to us so they gave us the means to defend ourselves. How well though has not really been tested fully. So to tell you the truth I do not know how well we would survive a deliberate and determined attack." Okay so she got me there, in everything that has happened I forgot what the risks are just going from one planet to another. Space is a dangerous place and the ship I was stationed on, the Fitzgerald, was on pirate patrol which is one of the main hazards.

It is only then I notice while we descend the stair case that floor in front of us is not empty, I can see the Fitzgerald's escape pod I was in no more than a few days ago but along with it various other ships. An alien looking craft that I don't recognize sits to the right of it and on the other side of the craft I am surprised to see a very early model Voxxan craft. Such an early model that it may predate Human first contact with the Voxxan race. But what surprises me the most is a Rakshani craft that I recognize as an early version of a pirate raider sitting on the opposite side of my escape pod with its house markings clearly visible. The one universal feature of all the ships here other than the pod is the damaged state they are all in up to and including large gaping holes that I can gaze into and see the interior.

"That." Silzon points to the raider. "I remember. It attacked us when I was only about two years old. They threatened to destroy our reactors if we did not surrender all our cargo to them. Or at least thats what the computer teased out of the short conversation Our defenses melted a hole through the ship before they could open fire or call for help thankfully. Afterwards mom spent weeks examining the ship once we dragged it aboard. As for the surviving crew, I think a few of them are still alive somewhere in the arctic sphere. I saw one of them walking about when I checked the monitors a few days ago." She states in a simple matter of fact manner while we descend the last bit of the stairway and onto the floor proper.

"Thats An early model Rakshani pirate raider! It's fast and particularly well armed and can hold a crew of nearly twenty Rakshani." I ignore my escape pod just for a moment in favor of getting a closer look at such a ship.

The large hole is not so much a jagged edged like from some sort of kinetic projectile but a smooth edged one like it was melted. I wonder what sort of weapon could've done this as I run a hand along the edge. The hole though goes straight through the ship and from the wreckage inside it has completely destroyed the computer core of the ship. It's no wonder their were few survivors, with the computer destroyed only those fast enough to manually engage an airlock on a bulkhead would've survived before all the atmosphere was lost.

"What's a Rakshani Athena?" Silzon asks as she walks up to me before idly gazing at what I am examining.

I have met several during my career as a star-fleet officer and I have always found them a bit intimidating due to their large stature and the fierce reputation their species has. I idly scratch behind one of my ears as I turn to look at her to reply to her question.

"They are a large feline looking alien race" I point to myself as a very poor example to illustrate my point. "One that Earth encountered about two hundred years ago. They are almost twice as tall as I am and have long tails with a bony knob under the fur on the tip. Their striped fur pattern similar to Earth tigers but in many more colors." I stand on the tips of my toes holding a hand as high as I can reach to try to pantomime their height. Following this I do the same to give her an impression of the length of their tails. Certainly they make me look like a small kitten in comparison.

Silzon's face lights up recognition as I describe them to her making me realize that the survivors from the raider ship must've been Rakshani's.

"Yes that matches the remaining survivors. Curious though, they were really violent when we pulled them from the wreaked ship. They ended up killing more than a few of our kind but they have been nothing but the most peaceful people to the other prisoners in the arctic environment. My sister was lucky not to me noticed by them during the incident and she has been silent as to why she was even out here in this cargo hold at that time." Does she mean Soltar?

"Do you mean Soltar?" I ask curiously while turning my attention back to my escape pod.

I let my tail and ears reflect my curious mood as I visually examine my escape pod from a distance. In comparison to the raider it looks rather pristine. The only marks on it are from the quick and violent launch from the Fitzgerald and even those are just minor scratches and scorch marks from the explosive bolts. It is a single person pod, one of possibly dozens if not hundreds on board to make sure the ship has more pods than personal. Thus giving everyone a chance to escape unlike a certain water vessel from earth's past. Not that it mattered much in chaos when my captain gave the order to evacuate. With a small twitch of my tail I wonder if I might have fared better up to this point if I had ended up in one of the multi person pods along with someone else. Silzon though interrupts my 'what if' train of thought with her answer.

"Yes that's her. I do apologize for her earlier actions though, what she saw that day most likely influenced her behavior towards you. Even I thought you might have been a juvenile Rakshani until I was able to talk with you properly. But it seems that you saving her best friend's life must've changed her view of you in that regard as well." Well that does explain a thing or two about her earlier behavior and I don't really blame her now because watching people die is a horrible thing.

Hell I start to feel bad from thinking negative thoughts about her earlier due to this revelation about her past and as a result my tail and ears droop low. A motion that is completely reversed upon noticing that the survival kit panel on the inside of the escape pod has not been opened and that my missing communication badge along with the standard issue beam gun are siting on top of it. I sprint the short distance between me and the pod and once their I check over both of the items only to find that they are undamaged. Placing them to the side and ignoring the stares of both Silzon and Catsh I grab a hold of the handle on top of the panel with both hands before placing a foot on the side of the pod for some extra leverage. They make these hard to open on purpose so stuff does not get lost when the pod makes landfall because even with parachutes it can be rather rough.

"What are you doing Athena?" Silzon asks but I ignore her as I twist the handle and then tug with all my might.

As I do a brief flash of an old memory of mine surfaces in front of me. In the academy we had to learn everything about these pods as they might one day save our lives and I found myself in the exact same act as I am doing right now. Much to the bemusement to many of the class a house-cat morph is not blessed with increased strength by our creators. No our original purpose did not require it so it was not given to us. We land just bellow human average which means my semi trained body is about as strong as a lazy ass human female who doesn't exercise at all. If I knew who wrote our genome I would give them a swipe of my claws over this because unlike the Chakats and their nearly deified creator's, ours were anonymous scientists whose names have been lost to the fog of history. And this weakness has been a constant source of teasing from my peers.

With a growling grunt of effort I achieve with both hands and one foot what would've taken a human male a single hand with a lot of effort, or just casually with one hand for a Chakat. The panel comes free from its housing and I stumble back a few paces due to Newtonian law before I walk up to it again. Tossing the panel aside I reach my hands into the now open compartment and pull out my prize, the survival kit in all of it's caution orange glory and place it on the floor next to the pod.

"Just getting the survival kit out of my pod, it may have some things I need." I finally answer while they move closer to see what I had just pulled out.

I make quick work of the single zipper that keeps the protective case closed digging in to pull out one of the main prizes of the pack for me. Two pairs of unisex and mostly unispecies but still comfortable sets of shirts and pants, one thin set for warmer climates and one thick one for colder ones. I smile as I examine them for any damage, sure they look hideous style wise and I would not be caught dead wearing them on a night out at a bar. But they will be more comfortable than the ill fitting clothes I was given by Silzon as I idly tug at my chest. Especially in that area as I am currently the only one on this entire ship with breasts.

I strip right there and put the warmer weather garments on in their place modesty be damned simply so I can wear something more comfortable. With them on I politely hand the borrowed garments I was wearing over to Silzon who takes them with a confused look on her face. And I can't help hiding a smirk when Catsh asks Silzon what those mounds are on my chest a moment later. But I turn my attention to the rest of the kit to look for the other object I seek.

The food, if you could call it that, can be ignored as I am in no risk of staving here. Same with the flares and the fire kit, but the latter could've kept my paws from getting sore a few days ago as I worked to get a fire started. Underneath them lays the rest of the kit; a first aid box, a utility belt with spots for my beam weapon, an attached multi-tool, a spot for the rescue transponder. And of course in its own separate padded neon yellow container sits the rescue transponder.

I put on the belt and place everything in their intended spots before tearing open the transponder's container like a kid on Christmas day opening presents. Intact and fully charged I activate it and place it in its intended holster on the belt before turning to look at Silzon with a happy smile.

"While those clothes were nice, they did not fit me too well. These are a much better fit." I simply state as Silzon folds up the other clothes then holds them under one of her arms.

"What was that device you activated put on your belt?" She asks cautiously and points to the transponder.

"A rescue transponder. If any star-fleet ships pass by and miss the signal from the escape pod they won't miss the one from this. Don't worry though the Federation is made up much nicer people then the pirates that you have dealt with here." Nodding in the direction of the Rakshani raider but our conversation is interrupted by the loud coughing and spitting sounds being made by Catsh.

Both of us turn and look to him to see why he is making such a noise only to find that he has opened one of the 'survival rations' I tossed from the kit and has started to eat some. I can't help but laugh at this while Silzon looks confused about why I am laughing.

"And thats why those packs are barely considered food! About the only cadets that did not react like you Catsh when they were forced to eat them during training were the Chakats. And even they hated every bite and complained about it as much as everyone else." We both watch as he spits out every bit he ate followed by giving the evil eye to the package before tossing it away. If there is something similar to a rat for vermin here I bet even they wouldn't touch the stuff.

"Why put that in there if you can't eat it?!" He exclaims in an annoyed voice.

"I guess it's their for a last ditch bit of food in case you can't find anything to forage. A couple bites should keep you alive for a day making that bar a few month's supply which is the average time for rescue a person who is trapped on a planet can expect." I give a shrug while thanking my luck I did not have to resort to that crap after all. The few days I had to eat it during training was bad enough, though on the bright side I did loose about a pound or two during that time.

"That makes sense. Still they could have made it taste better." Catsh scratches his head lightly before turning his attention to Silzon. "Sis I am going to stay here and try to see what makes the pod tick, you can go ahead and take Athena wherever you want to. I'll meet back up with you two later." Silzon nods and glances at me before looking back at Catsh.

"Okay. But try not to damage the beacon on the pod, I do not want to deny Athena a chance to see her people or her family again." She pauses for a second as if considering something.

"Come Athena, I think I know what to show you next." I was about to protest about Catsh doing anything to my pod but with Silzon telling him not to damage the beacon I hold my tongue because other than the beacon I no longer need it. But the rest of her statement perks my interest, where is she taking me now?

Silzon and I leave Catsh to his exploration of the pod leading me back the way we came in and into the corridor. My mind races through the various possibilities giving my tail tip a nervous twitch as I walk behind her. It is only when we are back in the main part of the corridor with the more standard looking doors do I gather enough courage to ask her if she has decided yet on what to do with me.

"So, have you decided on how to handle my presence here?" I ask her unable to hide the nervousnesses in the tone of my voice in any way shape or form.

"We are going to the main control and surveillance room because I know now what I can do with you while you're here." She glances back at me and must have seen the apprehension in my eyes about following her now.

"Do not worry Athena it is nothing bad and I do hope you think of it as an honor because it will be an important role." We pass our turbo-lift entrance to this sphere before taking a left followed by a couple of rights only to reach a fork in the pathway.

"An honor?" I ask and wonder out loud at the same time. Silzon stops and glances back at me with a smile before replying.

"Yes an honor. I am going to introduce you to the masses as an angel here to guide us to the promised land, which is what we have them calling the planet our ancestors chose for the colony. The guidance probes that were sent ahead of us have activated now that we are thirty years away. They are giving us the needed telemetry but we still need to tutor and prepare the people for that day too." Frankly this revelation throws me for a loop as the best I was hoping for was just being confined and kept from the publics eyes on this sphere.

What could I teach them though? I'm not trained as a teacher and I wasn't the perfect student while I was going through school either so I can't fall back on that. About the only thing I could teach them beyond basic math; Earth history, and Earth literature is how to maintain a safe and comfortable environment on a star-fleet spacecraft. Yea thats really going to be useful in brining these people up to a point to run a colony. While pondering this I follow Silzon through the right side of the fork and down another corridor till she stops at a particular door which to me looks like all the rest.

She opens the door like all the others before and I follow her inside. The room is similar in size to the one where she docked her padd only instead of rows of consoles there are rows of stacked uniform boxes. The front side of each of them is dominated by blinking leds and from the back a mass of bundled wiring is directed to other boxes and into the floor. Silzon takes me past row after neatly stacked row of these until she stops at the back wall. And said back wall is dominated by a gigantic screen inlaid into it along with several sets of keyboards and various other controls under it.

I watch as Silzon strolls right up to one of the keyboards and begins typing on it with all four of her hands in a determined and equally skilled fashion as her brother. My attention is drawn to the screen when it activates and row after row of live feed camera footage from the entire Colonyship floods in. It doesn't take me long to spot feeds that are from the environments I have been in. A few from the plains area including some inside the town that I really never saw much of on my trip through sit silently watching townspeople go about their daily tasks. Same with the cameras showing scenes in the forest area which also reveals to me that the entire city on that sphere is constructed in the same manner as Silzon's house.

But what draws my attention the most is one of the live feeds from the arctic sphere. Truly a winter paradise like a few untouched places on Earth. Drifts of snow on the ground mixed in with smaller versions of the same tree like plants I saw in the plains and forest environments but with smaller pine needle like leafs. The rest of the vegetation is also similarly stunted to an almost non existent extent which is typical of a high arctic environment yet what surprises me most sits at the edge of the frame. A black fur covered tail of clear Rakshani origin slowly waves back and forth as the rest of the person it is attached to is off frame.

"Ah what a surprise. Hold on a second Athena I think I may be able to find another camera that has more of this one in frame." Her hands go back to flying over the keyboard as all the other scenes blink away and the screen is taken up by various views of the arctic environment until she spots one with what is clearly an adult male Rakshani in plain view.

A few more keystrokes and that one live feed takes up the entire screen showing in perfect detail what is going on. He stands hunched over something still off frame and occasionally puts strips of what appears to be flesh into a pouch. The tattered remains of what one could barely call a pirate uniform, since they generally don't have a standard one, clings to his frame under a layer or two of furs or at least hair covered animal hide. The camera pans a little to the right and reveals that we must have caught him in the middle of cutting up a kill or scavenging some meat from an old kill, I can't really tell which.

"Is that one of the pirates from the raider?" Asking Silzon and she nods.

"A surprise to catch any of them out in the open like this. Those in the arctic environment know perfectly well what the camera drones look like and where the stationary ones are placed. They try to avoid them as much as possible and unless the thinking program suspects an attempt to escape we generally don't follow them into caves or the huts they live in."I nod silently at her reply while trying to remind myself that these are prisoners and the extreme level of surveillance is no different from any other prison back home. Or maybe it's the fact that other than the pirates the people in there are only their because they don't believe the set dogma that disturbs me. Still I continue watching the screen.

The Rakshani stops what he is doing and looks up having obviously spotted the camera before laying his ears back and barring his teeth in a snarl. Either the hard life here or his age have taken a toll on them as they are not the large set of predatory teeth I am used to seeing, still the intent is clear enough. If he was in here right now he would more than happily kill Silzon anyone else in the room. I then notice that his mouth is moving but Silzon beats me to asking about the audio as she presses a single key and the sound is turned on. Fluent Rakshani fills the room and at the same time the system tries but fails to translate it fully before Silzon turns off the audio. A second latter we loose the video feed after he throws his knife into and through the lens of the camera shorting it out.

"I have been trying for a while now to translate what it is saying but the system mostly produces gibberish." Silzon comments with frustration in her voice as she brings up the multi view screen of the arctic environment again.

"Well to be fair their language is a lot harder to learn than common. And that was a male Rakshani by the way, not an it." I politely correct her and she just looks at me with a stunned expression on her face.

"What do you feed your males for them to get so big!?" I can't help but start laughing out loud at her comment causing her to just stare at me.

"Sorry about that" I snicker some more. "Its just what you said was hilarious." It takes me a few more moments to calm down without giggling or snickering. "None of the species in the federation have such a drastic difference in size and shape between the genders that yours does. The largest are the Rakshani with the males being bigger than the males of the other species." 'In more ways than one' Thinking to myself as I suppress some more giggling which only causes Silzon to stare at me some more.

"Anyway Athena. I think you should stay here and use the camera's and study how we live here to get a better grasp on our culture. As you do this I get with a few others to make a disguise and cover story for you so you can go out into the public eye properly." She then shows me how to operate the camera's, what to press to go to each environment, and how to select feeds from individual drones or fixed points. To be fare it sounded like a much better way to spend time than just waiting stuck in a few select rooms out of sight from everyone.