FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Yukiomaru walked silently, being escorted by the taller aliens. Their armor shape suggested that their body anatomy was familiar. However, being escorted by fully armored soldiers down dark and empty corridors was more than enough to make the arctic fox anxious. His heart was still beating rapidly, keeping him alert even though it caused his sore body to ache more.

Venturing deeper into the unknown ship, Yukiomaru was starting to wonder if he had made the right decision. Should he have ignored their communications? He could have set off the beacon by now, and be working on trying to salvage his ship. It may never fly again but there might have been some way to get Yuki transported, at least to a nearby planet with atmosphere. Now, he really was at the mercy of these oddly familiar aliens.

Taken into a room with nozzles on the walls, Yukiomaru anxiety grew worse. He turned back to watch the door shut behind them, cutting off his only escape. The soldier that first contacted him, noticed his anxiety and held out a paw for Yukiomaru to take again.

The arctic fox was anxious about the situation, but there was something about this soldier that made him feel less nervous about the whole situation. Yukiomaru accept the friendly paw and tried not to show so much anxiety.

A liquid sprayed from the nozzles of the armored soldiers, including Yukiomaru. It steamed off their armors but it was quickly over before another door was opened up and left the room behind that Yukiomaru determined was a decontamination shower.

After another similar room, they approached a well-lit room that had a glass box in the middle of it. This is where the soldier spoke again.

"Okay," it said hesitantly. "If you can understand me, please step into that room. Understand that we still need to know about your origins and we need to keep you in quarantine for a while until we figure out what to do."

They want to cage me? Yukiomaru glanced at the glass box and surveyed it. It certainly looked sterile with only hard surfaces but he was still uncertain about it. He glanced back at the soldiers, deciding what he should do. The soldiers haven't given him a reason to distrust them but he disliked the idea of being locked in a cage.

Yukiomaru didn't have any distrustful feelings toward the soldiers however, and he decided to comply. With a slight nod, he stepped backward into the room but he didn't take his gaze from the soldiers. Once he was inside, a glass door sealed him inside.

"Good," said the soldier. "I know you can hear me. If you can, please nod at me."

I'm trusting you, don't take advantage of that. Yukiomaru curtly nodded at the soldier. This caused a reaction with some of the others but the arctic fox ignored it.

"Okay..." Yukiomaru heard the soldier inhale slowly before continuing. "We need you to show yourself now."

Yukiomaru felt strangely at ease, but he knew he should be more cautious, and asking for him to remove his helmet was asking a lot. His body could adapt to nearly any atmosphere, but he still did not know if he should remove his helmet in an environment that could potentially be dangerous. Not to mention, they were asking to see Yukiomaru. If they were intimidated by his armor, then they wanted that intimidation gone. Would that open the arctic fox for an attack?

"You must have an atmosphere analyzer built in your armor," said the soldier, noticing Yukiomaru's hesitation. "Please use it, and if our air is not safe for you then let us know by any means. That room you're in can be adjusted to your needs."

Yukiomaru looked around the room to see that there were also a few vents in there. They must be isolated from the rest of this massive ship. This truly was a quarantine room. How many have been in here before? And what happened to them?

The arctic fox resisted his paranoid thoughts, and checked his armor. It analyzed the air, and registered a toxic level of an unknown chemical. Checking the sensor, he saw that it was still a little wet from the decontamination process. The armor was damaged and failed to keep foreign substances from affecting the sensor. Or the sensor was malfunctioning. Either way it wasn't an accurate scan of the atmosphere in the room.

"Our atmosphere is at eighteen percent oxygen, eighty-one-point-five percent nitrogen and the rest of its components are just argon and very small traces of carbon dioxide," the soldier informed the fox. He must have noticed that the armor was malfunctioning.

That wasn't the arctic fox's only concern though.

"Listen. Look at me," said the soldier. The soldier lowered his gaze to the ground, before activating something near the neck of his collar. A small bit of perspiration was ejected from the helmet as several plates separated from each other. They started to fold over one another and retreat within the armor itself. Black fur was revealed, with large triangular ears.

The soldier must have been protecting his eyes from the folding plates, as they were closed but when he slowly looked up and opened his blue eyes, Yukiomaru was stunned.

He_is _a Canideran! But I never seen a wolf with that fur pattern before, and the bone structure is different. It's not possible for a separate species to evolve so close to how we have.

When those blue eyes looked straight at Yukiomaru, he stared back into them. The soft gaze washed away all anxiety he had felt before about these soldiers. Everything that this very familiar looking alien had told him was just to protect themselves. They really were not trying to take advantage of Yukiomaru; they meant no harm to him.

"This is us," spoke the creature. The soldier's muzzle moved slowly as he spoke softly. "I hope that this helps you understand if our environment is ideal for you."

Yukiomaru wasn't even concerned about the environment anymore. This alien looked more similar to Yukiomaru than most different races on Canidera. Regardless, he was fixed on those blue eyes. He read no malice in them, no threat; only softness and concern. The gaze reminded Yukiomaru of Jun. It was not of matter of choosing to trust this creature or not, Yukiomaru now knew that he can trust these soldiers.

The eyes of the creature moved slightly in a confused or concerned expression that reminded Yukiomaru that they were waiting for him to take off his helmet. With no more anxiety, or paranoia, the arctic fox unsealed his suit. He reached up and slowly started to remove his helmet. His vision was distorted and he lost sight of the soldier who had removed his helmet. That moment he hesitated as he realized that he was still showing himself to an alien species. It was worse if he remained blind so Yukiomaru removed his helmet completely and stared back at the soldiers.

Eyes were wide on the soldier that had removed his helmet. Their gazes were fixed on each other, and the confused expression on the soldier only deepened. He closed his eyes and shook his head as if to clear his vision.

Did he suffer a concussion earlier? The soldier looked back at him again and his confused expression softened.

There was commotion with the other soldiers, and Yukiomaru was deaf to it as they spoke among themselves. They all seemed as shocked as he was at how similar they looked.

The helmetless soldier spoke but the speakers weren't activated so the fox didn't hear what was said. Instead, the other soldiers all activated the same sequence that caused their helmets to collapse into the rest of their armors.

They were all astonishingly familiar. One looked just like the first with a slightly different fur pattern and thinner bone structure. Another had the fur pattern on a standard red fox but was built like the other two.

There was the leader, his fur golden. Yukiomaru also gained a familiar sense from the leader, as if they had shared a cup of milk before but he knew it was impossible. He also felt the sense that there should be a white furred alien with them.

The others all varied slightly in their bone structures, and more so in their fur patterns.

"I would really want to know if you can understand us. So far you have given us the hint that you do." Yukiomaru could understand them but what would he say? "Okay, the next thing that we need you to do is take off that armor and put it in the compartment that you see next to that metallic table behind you. A medic team will soon arrive and treat your wounds if necessary."

Yukiomaru tensed at that, he did not want a medic team coming to perform test on him. What would these aliens do if they found the infection in his blood?

"Please. Do not be afraid," said the soldier. Yukiomaru returned his gaze on those blue eyes that reminded him so much of Jun. He really wish the marten was here to help him through this; Jun would have more insight on the behavior of these aliens and why they look so similar to him. "We won't hurt you. We just need to make sure that you don't have anything on you that could hurt us. I'm not talking about weapons. We also have to make sure we don't have anything that might hurt you as well."

No disease will hurt me, but you might be afraid of what you find. Please don't take my blood. Don't analyze it.

"The last thing we want for you is to keep you in that small room forever. Again, please take your armor off. It needs to be sterilized. After that, we will perform some simple tests on you and sterilize you as well."

That confirmed to Yukiomaru that they were going to test his blood. He debated of whether or not he should wait there in the room. If he refused to comply, maybe they would just leave him alone but if they found what is hidden in his blood, they'd be far more upset over that.

Yukiomaru still stared at the gaze of the first blue-eyed alien. They almost looked sad, as if pleading for him to comply. He knew he could trust them, but how would they be able to trust him once they find such a unique organism infecting him? Still, those eyes pleaded.

Finally, Yukiomaru complied.

Yukiomaru twisted the armor at his wrists and removed his gauntlets. He pressed the claws of his paws into small slots on his armor and twisted them slightly. The torso armor plates were unsealed as well, and quickly came apart at Yukiomaru's touch. He folded the plates over themselves and set them in a small drawer next to a metallic wall. The plating cover his tail was split down the middle and fell to the side folding into a stack of very thin armor plates. The leggings he wore also unsealed and were removed along with the greaves he wore.

Setting all pieces of his armor into the requested compartment, Yukiomaru returned his gaze to the aliens who still were surprised by the similarity in their appearance.

"Thank you," said the first soldier. "You can sit on that metallic table. We will run some tests and if everything goes okay, we will make contact with you."

Yukiomaru was cautious about that, and still feared if they drew blood. He tried not to think on it and stepped back to sit on the metallic table.

"You are a very beautiful creature by the way," said the alien. Yukiomaru felt his ears splay back at the compliment. "If everything goes okay, then you are welcome into this ship."

The soldiers finally looked away from Yukiomaru and continued to chat among themselves. The blue-eyed alien did not look away for another few seconds before joining his fellow soldiers.

Yukiomaru was still having difficult breathing form his injuries and he was tired. He hunched over and rested his elbows on his knees. He put his head in his paws, trying to fight off the soreness and ignore the fact that he was now a captive in an unknown alien vessel.

Minute after minute went by, and Yukiomaru had to adjust several times sitting on the unforgiving hard surface of the metallic table. It offered no room for his tail to rest behind him so he had to sit on his tail.

The first and only soldier to have spoken to him returned, now wearing a light cloth uniform and watched Yukiomaru, not with distrust but with curiosity. Yukiomaru however, was starting to grow impatient with only the thought of how he can return home on his mind.

"I know you're probably tired," said the blue-eyed alien who had been watching him for all this time. "We are moving as fast as we can."

I want to go home. I want to see Jun again. I don't want to be here! Yukiomaru covered his face in his paws again, trying his best to keep control of his emotions.

After several more minutes, Yukiomaru sensed movement near the blue-eyed alien. The golden furred leader was back and they spoke briefly before the speakers were activated.

"Okay," said the alien, hesitantly. "So far we haven't detected anything that might suggest a threat to us or you. This is what will happen now:"

Yukiomaru stared at the alien while he listened. He was very nervous about having them enter the room but he also wished he wasn't on display anymore.

"I will open the room and go inside," continued the alien. "After I'm sure that everything is fine, a medic will come in too and check if you're okay. Just in case you didn't notice, you just crashed into a solid iron wall not an hour ago so we want to make sure you're okay."

Yukiomaru's ears splayed back again as he watched the alien approached the entrance of the room. In his paws was carried a soft looking piece of cloth.

The alien went through another decontamination chamber before he was just outside the entrance of the quarantined glass room. Yukiomaru's anxiety returned as he watched the creature carefully. Slowly, the door opened allowing both Yukiomaru and the strangely familiar alien to breathe the same air. The creature took a few steps forward, causing Yukiomaru to sit up straighter as the tall alien approached him slowly.

It took only a moment for Yukiomaru to smell the scent of the alien. It was faint due to his fur being washed and decontaminated but it was not different from a Canideran wolf.

"Hi," said the alien. "My name is Husky. You are in our home, Canis Major." Husky, the alien, stopped about a meter from the arctic fox. "I'm the one who reached for you outside. I'm very glad to see you face to face."

The alien, Husky, was breathing normally but it was obvious that he was nervous as well. Yukiomaru debated whether he should say something but no words came to his mind.

"We are very surprised by your appearance," said Husky, still speaking softly. "As you might already notice, we are alike. If you are able to speak, and if you understand me, I would like that you do so..."

Yukiomaru knew he should be say something but he was speaking to his captors. No matter how similar they were, he didn't want to be lured into a false sense of security. Jun would be devastated if something were to happen to him, and Yukiomaru could never forgive himself for that. He can't show any sign of weakness, even to these friendly aliens.

"It's okay," assured the friendly alien. "So you speak ninety-fifty-one? I know you at least understand it. What is your name?"

That's a start, thought Yukiomaru and he was about to reply before he thought on it. What if these were Caniderans? He might have gone back in time or forward in time. They live on a ship, and his ancestors did travel across large spans of space an unfathomable amount of time ago.

"Yes? Go ahead. I heard you. Even if you can't speak my language, we will find a way to understand each other." Husky moved closer and held out the white blanket to Yukiomaru. "Here, sitting on that metallic table might be a bit uncomfortable."

Yukiomaru was hesitant to accept but he could smell only that the blanket was clean and disinfected. This was no trick. Gratefully, Yukiomaru accepted the gesture of friendliness. He wrapped the blanket around his shoulders and adjusted so that he could sit on the blanket for a bit of extra comfort.

The alien named Husky genuinely smiled at Yukiomaru's acceptance of the gift. It was strange for Yukiomaru to see that even their smiles were similar. He dismissed his hyper imagination and decided to break his silence.

"I do..." Yukiomaru slowly started, speaking very softly. "...understand you."

"What was that?" asked Husky in an excited but anxious tone of voice.

Yukiomaru realized he spoke too softly but he didn't want to repeat himself, especially since he was answering a question this alien already knew. "My name is Yukiomaru Alexander," he said speaking clearly. "Admiral Yukiomaru Alexander of the United Defense of All Species."

"You do speak our language," exclaimed Husky, very excited that the arctic fox finally showed that he trusted them. "Do not worry, Yukium... er... Yuk...?"

"Yukiomaru," the arctic fox repeated gently.

"Yukiomaru," Husky copied, pleased that he got it right this time. "Don't worry. We will help you with what you need. You're safe in Canis Major."

"Thank you for your help..." Yukiomaru hesitated to say. He was grateful that these aliens were willing to help him, but he didn't want just comforts and safety, he wanted to go home. He wanted Jun. How can they help with that?

"We have a lot to talk about, Yukiomaru," Husky said. "But first we must make sure you're okay. Andy by the way, you are very welcome, my little furred friend."

I am so sorry Jun. Please don't worry.