FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A week after the rather impolite efforts of my companions to teach me how to submit to my betters, I came to Central on a Saturday with breathless news. I landed a mile from the food store, but that was no matter, I merely ran all the way. I was still merged with the glower, he had no wish to leave, and neither did I, but I thought I'd run anyway. All my weapons were at home, I had nothing except my teleporter and clothes. I came to a wild skidding halt in front of the door of the food store, and wrenched it open.

Everyone was having breakfast, and Draco looked up in interest.

"You look somewhat puffed, Alduin, what's happening?"

"Today's the first day of the Bonneville Speed week!" I smiled, drawing in air. I had already registered everyone's cars, the glower having thoughtfully giving my ability to hack into the computer system a much needed boost.

Everyone grinned, and Silverine spoke.

"Well, with the exception of me, everyone wants to test their cars in a straight line, correct?"

"My F1 has never got to full power yet, I want to." Valmeero said, rubbing his hands in contentment.

Everyone was enthralled at the prospect, and I drew a slip of paper from my pocket. This piece of paper had the details of every single Centralite who had a Earth car or bike, and could thus compete without raising suspicion. This list had grown a bit since the Olympics. Ryan Lewis wanted to race his ion bike, and Hinori, Runo and Sunrise all had borrowed cars and done them up. Runo's car was a dark red Saleen Raptor S5, while his ice dragon brother had gone with a silver Maserati MC12. Sunrise had in fact built his from scratch off a concept car, the Sunred SR08. It was a silky blue, and an astonishing car.

So the first thing everyone needed to do was to get their numbers on their cars, so they looked registered. I gave them all their numbers, and while they headed off to the tech planet to do their cars their best, I told Draco to fix up my Atom while I teleported to the US.

Silverine would be driving a BMW 5 series towing one of our large trailers. This trailer would have Val's F1 (It still wasn't road legal), some replacement things like engine parts, and a small kitchen unit. Iris would be towing a second trailer in the Mercedes S- Class. They say Mercedes put all their most technical things on the S-Class, ten years before everyone else has them, and this was true.

It had infra vision driving, it could drive by itself just by following the car in front, and the techs hadn't fiddled with those.Instead the S-class and the BMW had both gone through the usual fiddling with the ion technology, so both of them were more resilient, reliable, faster and all that as they had with our hyper cars.But she would be heaving all the rest our mechanical stuff, food, etc. We also had a large couple of tents so everyone could sleep not far from Wendover, where I would teleport near to.

I in fact arrived 10 miles from the town, and in a hedge next to the road.This road was actually a B road joining onto Highway 40, and I placed a scanner. Draco arrived after half an hour with his Ferrari and my Atom. He had placed his number on the sides and front, and the red Ferrari had the number 150 on it, the time for his Hunt. My Atom had no number, because Draco believed I was going to deal with that later.

I wasn't but oh well. Pretty soon everyone was arriving, giving everyone one minute to get clear. Sunrise's concept looked incredible for the first time under the open sunny blue sky.

Soon all thirty or so of us were there. I opened my link as everyone got into their cars.

"O.K. ladies and gentlemen, I've got the place mapped out, so follow my lead. They have a speed limit here, so no drag racing on the highway, that's what the salt flats are for. Wendover is ten miles away, but we will only stop for ten minutes to get our bearings.Then onto Bonneville. This morning is the first day of the week, everything will still be getting set up, so there is no hurry."

"Wind force 3, North Westerly, sky's clear." Draco chuckled for good measure.

"O.K., just we're trying to remain incognito here, remember that."

Silverine was turning his BMW around, his disguised head looking out the window at his caravan in mild disgust as the trailer refused to behave itself. The gravel road wound it's way towards the black tarmac in the distance, and I smiled.

"Right, Atom to the fore, everyone form up behind me."

I started the engine. There was the answering roar of two dozen engines firing up with their own individual sound. The harsh roar of the modded Charger, the purr from the Mercedes, it made for a noise that would have set every car enthusiast's heart racing.

Valmeero was in Silverine's car, his figure relaxed in the passenger's seat, and after everyone was ready, I flicked the car around, kicking up clouds of dust and travelled down the gravel road. Before long we hit the tarmac and onto the motorway towards Wendover, the convoy stringing out behind me. It was two lane traffic, and I could see Kodey's Honda NSX pulling level with me. The disguised reindeer nodded at me, and I smiled. Time and Ryan drew level either side of me on their bikes, and Time shouted to me over the roar of the engines.

"How far to Bonneville from Wendover?" she asked.

"Not very far, just a couple of miles." I said, as we came up behind a car pulling a car trailer. I gently surged forwards and pulled level with the Subaru station wagon. It was being driven by a reasonably middle aged, say mid forties, man with a handsome face and broad shoulders.

He looked out the window at me, and I raised a black gloved hand in greetings. He smiled at me, and then waved back. Then he looked in the rear view mirror, and I could see his face as it rearranged in surprise as he saw our convoy.Hmm, we were going to cause a bit of a stir when we turned up.

The bikes decided enough was enough, and they surged ahead, doing about 80 miles an hour.We were sticking to around sixty, and I could hear Draco singing ten bottles of beer on the wall, to general comment. A string of cars were behind us.

"Go on, Alduin, slam on the brakes, see what happens." Valmeero called roguishly through my headset, and I grinned, instead nudging the throttle gently and overtaking the Subaru and pulling into it's lane as my comrades overtook the station wagon.

Tahir's Aston purred gently past, and as I looked in, I spoke.

"Tahir, you haven't got your disguise up."

"Really, how did you guess?"

"You've got your pointed ears showing, mate, it ain't hard." Draco said from behind my car.

This remedied, I stuck ahead as the two sedans and their trailers kept behind the man. Landon's Bugatti stayed with them to give them company, along with Takori's Z4, and after a couple of minutes we arrived in Wendover. Time and Ryan Lewis parked outside a refreshment shop, and Ryan dismounted, removing his helmet. Me and Draco headed to the tourist store, so we could get to Bonneville without getting lost.This was pointless as we soon realised. Signs were being posted up, giving directions. Silverine, Valmeero and Iris didn't stop, they wanted to set up everything in advance for when we got there.

The group mingled, discussing our various cars to one another. I noticed the man we had over took didn't stop either, and after quarter of an hour, we mounted back up and followed the signs. This took another quarter of an hour, but before long we came to the branch off road. The landscape around was completely flat and a very light colour, and I could see in the distance the temporary tents blowing in the gentle breeze. There were already a lot of people there, say five hundred all told, and trucks were setting off along the course with the mile posts. One had a device on the back that was painting a straight black line on the salt.

The road disappeared, we were now on the salt, and we rode smoothly towards the tents. An arrow pointed towards the registry, and I spoke.

"O.K., everyone, go to where Silverine's parked the trailer with Iris, I'll go through the paperwork with the locals."

I peeled off towards a hastily constructed wooden building, and came to a halt neatly in front of it. A man was standing at the window sill, looking at the row of super cars passing towards the trailers. He had just dealt with a man who was discussing his hot rod, and I came up.

"Morning."

"Morning sir, and you are?" he replied, shaking my hand.

"I'm the representative of the C.R team (work it out for yourself). Have you got all our cars down and listed?"

"Ah, Alduin, correct?"

"That is so."

He consulted his list, and we checked through each and every car. Only one car was not on the list, and that was my own. This was because I had no intention of racing the Atom.

Once all that was sorted, I drove slowly over to the group, as they were setting up tables and deck chairs. We were about one hundred metres from the start area, and the two caravans/ trailers were parallel with one another.All the cars were behind them, parked in an orderly fashion, and the bikes were along one side of Silverine's trailer. Of Val's F1 car, it was still in the trailer. I parked the car beside them, and took a walk towards the start of the strip. I walked next to the temporary grandstand.

The gentleman with the trailer I had waved to recognised my overalls, and he came over.

"Morning, my friend. You own the race car?"

"Ah, yes, the Atom is mine. It's a beautiful car, isn't it?"

"Quite so.What's your name?"

"Alduin, what's yours?"

"Bobby, or just Bob, I don't mind which."

"So what car have you got, Bob?"

"I'm testing out one of my rocket cars. It should be capable of about 700 kilometres an hour."

"Wow, that is fast."I said in appreciation. Bob nodded, as his two mechanics gently unloaded a beautifully shaped car. It's long black nose faded to a dark blue, and two small rockets hung out either side. It's name was emblazoned on the side,Phantom, in sharp silver letters that sparkled in the morning sun.

Bob went to sort out his car to his own satisfaction, and I looked around. I gasped.Checking I wasn't wrong with what I saw, I turned and ran back to my companions.

"This is incredible." I said to Draco, who was playing cards with Val, Silverine and Blake.

"What is?" he asked.

"O.K., that car over by the truck, with the dual rocket engines and the bullet shape?"

Draco looked up.

"Oh yeah, looks quick."

"It is quick, Draco.That's Thrust SSC, the only car that's ever gone supersonic."

Everyone looked at the car in question. Resplendid in it's dark colours, it lay like a panther at bay. There was an appreciative whistle from Ryan Viper and Ryan Lewis, being American citizens they knew about it's reputation more than most.

The morning wore on as everyone became busy. More cars arrived, more spectators and racers alike, and soon upwards of one and a half thousand were milling around. People were finding our pack of hypers worth attention, and they were shuffling past each car, taking photos or simply admiring them.

I spoke with Silverine.

"If you don't have any objection, Silverine, I'll fly over head as my Raptor form, recording each car."

"Sounds reasonable, except what about your Atom?"

"The Atom isn't racing, I already know exactly what it's capable of."

There was a sound of annoyance from Draco.

"Damn, I can't place a bet on you."

"I wouldn't take it up anyway."

I disappeared into the trailer that held the Formula 1 car. Valmeero's bright red Ferrari lay crouched like a tiger, silent amongst all the gadgetry. The techs on Central had managed to find a way of starting it without inserting the starter in the back, now there were just three switches for Val to click, first to get the water and oil up, wait ten seconds, second to prime the engine, wait another ten seconds, and at the flick of the third switch, the V10 would surge into life, rev automatically up to 17,000 revolutions per minute as a way of waking up, and then settle back down to a purr.

I changed into my Raptor form, and lay there beside the marvel. I was stealth black, there was naught that could see me behind the F1 car, until they either tripped over me or removed the car.

After ten minutes, Valmeero came in.

"Right, could I have a hand here?"

Time Dancer, Ryan Lewis and Silverine came in, and with Valmeero steering, and my interlink function showing what he was seeing, they pushed the F1 gently down the ramp. Immediately car enthusiasts, spectators, all sorts crowded around, looking at the racing car.

Draco and Ryan Viper came in, and picked me up. I was manhandled down the ramp and set down next to the Formula One. Draco started attaching tracking cameras to the bottom of my underbelly. Simba and Abigail were working together on programming these cameras, which could be set to track a single car, or to simply rove. They whirred and clicked, and as they were given their orders, locked on the nearest car, the F1.

I got a fair bit of attention. As Draco was setting up the cameras, four young boys, all about twelve or thirteen, crouched down next to the disguised dragon.

"Wow, that looks cool, what is it?" one of them asked Draco.

"It's an aircraft, we use it to record our runs." Draco replied, whereupon more people around us turned.

"Can it keep up with the faster cars?" the same boy asked.

"Just give me ten seconds to place this camera, and then I'll show you what it can do." the dragon replied, and switched to Centralite,"You are a voice controlled aircraft, is that O.K.?"

"I don't think we have those, but sounds good to me." I whispered into my headset.

"Right, you're all primed." he switched back to English,"Abigail, how are the cameras?"

"Camera one, tracking, camera two, roving, camera three, on-line now, programmed to follow nearest car."

"We are ready." Simba concluded. Draco stood back, and motioned everyone back. He lowered a very obvious microphone, and spoke into it.

"F-22 Raptormaster, commence ignition." he spoke clearly.

My jet engines erupted into life.Everyone oohed and aahed, there were several expletives at this high tech aircraft.

"Stand back everyone." Draco gestured everyone in front of me to get out of the way, which they did, and spoke.

"Raptormaster, take off, and orbit at five hundred feet, radius half a kilometre." the dragon ordered, and the revs mounted as I surged forwards.I left everyone behind in a blitz of speed, and took of majestically.

"Textbook take off, Raptormaster." Simba commented quietly," We're just calculating our cameras to work with your speed and what you'll be following."

"Right." I banked and maintained a circling manoeuvre around the camp. I could hear the whirr and click of my cameras as they focussed on new targets.

"What was that?" Draco asked, and I realised he was speaking to the boys,"How fast does it go?"

"Yes." one of the children said.

"Raptormaster, fly five kilometres north, bank round, and fly directly overhead at full speed. Then resume circle."

I grinned inwardly, and blasted Northwards.I counted five kilometres, banked, and then ignited afterburners and ion rockets.

"Hope someone's recording this." I said as I floored it. I dropped down to four hundred feet, and broke the sound barrier. Two kilometres to go I went past Mach 2, and flashed overhead with a deafening roar of sound. My exhaust flamed blue and white, and as I rocketed over Draco I immediately dropped speed and began circling again.

"Does that answer your question?" Draco said pleasantly to the child.

"It's awesome." the child enthused, as they watched me circling.

"Raptormaster, return to base, vertical landing please, and commence shut down of engines." Draco requested, and I immediately flew away a bit, banked, and slowed dramatically down. My hover engines kicked in, and as I sank to a hundred feet I came to a direct halt over Draco. He stepped smartly aside as I reduced the thrust for a steady descent, and with not so much as a judder, landed on all three wheels next to him. The engine whine died, and there was silence.

It was impressed silence, and Draco bent down.

"Very good, Raptormaster.Await further commands. Thomas, can I have some fuel for this?"

I had been encouraged not to drink rocket fuel while not in my F-22 form, but due to the conversions, I could happily fill my tank with the stuff.In fact, I ran cleaner and faster with rocket fuel. As I changed back, I would feel a little queasy, fuel did not agree with my stomach, but it soon went.It was just the moment of the fuel running through my veins, as it were.

Thomas came over with a 10 gallon tank, and with a small fuel line, began draining the tank into my craft. I received two litres before he announced my tank was full, and my dials said the same. I settled down to idle away the moment. Things were hotting up, people were preparing to begin the racing. A marshal came over and asked about my purpose here, and Draco explained I was the camera craft for the C.R team, and that I would record each cars run. The marshal nodded, and Bob came over.

"Draco,wasn't it? That device looks pretty neat, could I ask something of you?"

"Certainly, what is it?"

"As I told Alduin, I'm testing my new rocket car, could you set your craft to fly around me, so I can see how my rocket car performs from the outside?"

"Easily done, Bob." the disguised dragon replied magnanimously," What is the speed for your car?"

"Early tests suggest 700, maybe 750 kilometres an hour."

"Right, Simba, will that pose a problem?"

"Raptormaster can fly at Mach 4 if he really gunned it, even the Bloodhound would be left in it's wake. Just give me a minute to set up a file for it. Raptormaster, ignite engines, and hover survey Phantom."

I took off, and drifted over to the Phantom at walking speed, next to Draco and Bob. Bob was watching me in amazement.

"I've never seen any air-plane perform like that."

"You wouldn't believe how much it cost to develop."

"F-22's cost about 135 million dollars, they say, and while yours is a miniature, it has vertical take off and supersonic speed."

"Exactly, you wouldn't believe the price." Draco repeated, as we got to the Phantom. All three cameras redirected themselves to look at the Phantom, as I hovered up to three metres, and gently went in a rectangle around it, scanning it so the cameras would recognise it.

I landed, and gently taxied back to the F1. Valmeero was just firing up the engines. He flicked the first switch in complete silence. I shut down my engine, and waited. After fifteen seconds, Valmeero flicked the second switch, and everyone hushed. After another fifteen, he flicked the third, and the entire car quivered as the car roared into life. Everyone backed away as the car spiked it's usual 17,000 revolutions per minute, and idled.

The speakers burst into life.

"Welcome all to Bonneville Speed week! I know it is a great pleasure to be here, and may you all enjoy yourself, and break your records you are aiming for. So without any further ado, could the first runners line up?"

Draco consulted a list he had been given.

"I'm third on the list, Simba's fifth, Valmeero eighth, Tahir tenth, and well, everyone files around that. I'll place the list on the table.There's also the proceedings there, once you've finished, turn left and come back." He did so, and while the Centralites clustered to find their name, Draco got into his Ferrari 430 and started up. Simba followed suit, and Valmeero purred slowly after them with his limiter. Bob was not in the first ten of this heat, and Ryan Viper knelt down next to me.

"O.K., Alduin, I'll be your voice man, so let's get things started.F-22, start up."

My engines crackled into life. I taxied after the F1 and the Aston Martin, while Ryan followed at walking pace. A small cluster was being formed a hundred yards behind the start line, an attempt at organization was taking place. As the first car came forwards, I forget exactly what, I rolled to a halt next to Draco's vehicle. The disguised dragon caught Ryan Viper's eye.

"When is your CCXR going?" he asked.

"Last but one.I thought I should give him his orders."

"Right." there was a snarl of engine as the first car set off down the stretch. Ryan Viper walked over to the starting line, as the second car rumbled up to the start. These were only hot rods, the real rocket cars and the jet cars that needed push starts wouldn't come until later.

The track hadn't changed much since Bert Munro had come 40 years ago and gone 200 miles an hour on an Indian bike.It was easily a ten mile stretch, which should give Valmeero and the higher range cars of our crop a chance to really give it guts.

After a minute or two, the second car set off, the first had finished his run and was coming back down the left corridor, which banked away say thirty degrees, and then turned back to make sure there were no collisions between a car coming back and a car that flies off the track at a funny angle. Stranger things have happened.

As the second car dwindled into the distance, Ryan spoke.

"F-22, hover above Ferrari 430 at 100 hundred feet, prepare to follow."

I lifted off, the noise was surprisingly loud, but then I might have been getting feedback from Ryan and Draco's sets. I got to a hundred feet, and all three cameras locked onto the red 430 Scuderia. Ryan was watching the starter, as was Draco, and I hovered slightly in reverse so I wasn't directly on top of the Ferrari.

After another minute, The light went green.Ryan spoke just as Draco floored it.

"F-22, pursue and follow."

My afterburners kicked a flame just so I could get started. I burst forwards, and immediately had to moderate my speed. This was salt, not tarmac, and while he was going fast, he wasn't going as fast as he could on tarmac. This was the downside, on the plus, there were ten miles of straight salt to stretch one's legs. Draco went into third gear, and I followed at one hundred feet, all three cameras capturing footage and relaying it back to Abigail's computers.When Abby did her run, Simba would run the computers.

I also heard through my set, via Ryan's set, what the commentator was saying.

"Car 150, driven by Draco Kazuli, is a red 430 Scuderia Ferrari, so we're all expecting it to be fast.He's just coming up to the first marker post."

Draco flashed past the post, changed into fourth, and ion flame kicked out the exhaust as the second stage roared into life. The speed device in the commentators area went nuts, 200 miles came and went to a gasp of astonishment.

I followed him leisurely. Draco's car was throwing a plume of dust behind him, and I couldn't hear anything on his mike, he was too busy concentrating. He was really flooring it, as I heard fifth and then finally sixth gear as the car went past 300 miles an hour.The commentator was frankly astonished, no road legal car had ever gone over 253 miles an hour, everyone knew the Veyron was the fastest thing on the road, 407 kilometres per hour.And yet here was a perfectly normal looking Scuderia, and it was doing 520 kph.

Draco got to the final marker post, and was clocked at 531 kph.The dragon gently applied the anchors, and the Scud slowed dramatically out of second stage, before turning onto the return leg. I banked right, following an inverse route to Draco, and side slipped around into direct hover over Simba.I was going to spend a lot of the day doing this.

The Scuderia broke the record for the fastest production car. This was broken by Blake in the Viper, then it was broken by Grant in the Mazda Furai, Runo in the Saleen, Sunrise in his concept car, Winslo in the Zonda, Hinori subsequently broke that, Ryan Viper showed everyone that his car was the fastest by breaking that record, and it finally ended in the hands of Landon, the Veyron hitting 630 kph.

But that was just the production car runs. There were other fish to fry. Landon and Ryan Lewis brought over the tank of rocket fuel, and whenever I wasn't instantly needed, I was refuelling. Such was the time between Simba's Charger and Valmeero's F1 car. Valmeero was the eighth car to set off, and he drove straight into the history books.

With me hovering overhead, he floored it on signal. The F1 engine over revved for a second, before he put it into second. It was still over revving on the salt, kicking up dust and dirt, until he put it into third. I flew serenely after him, all three cameras following his passage. Fourth gear came and went at about 270, and then the second stage kicked in. Even I was briefly stunned at the acceleration, and the car itself red-lined fifth gear in an instant, and Valmeero had to quickly change into sixth. He had gone up two gears in ten seconds, and was now striking 460.

The commentators were lost for words, and yet the F1 went faster still. 500 was dealt with, and as Val clicked into seventh gear, he went past 600. I hung on gamely. We were still a couple of miles from the finishing marker post, and I heard the down shift as Val clicked into the final gear. 650, 670, 690, 700, 710, now he was in my sort of usual power band. Valmeero's hands were locked in position, following the dead straight black line. He was red-lining eight gear, doing 730kph or so, and the marker post flashed by, he had completed his run.

There was a sudden billowing of flame out the back of the F1 car, and smoke rose from the twin exhausts.

"Val, stop! Stop, dammit, you're on fire!"

The F1 car stopped like it had encountered a wall, and Valmeero grabbed the car's regulation fire extinguisher, leaping out of the car, while I hovered over the car. I had nothing that could help him, I just kept filming the drama. Val rushed around the back of the car, and fired the Centralite extinguisher at the flames. They billowed, wavered, and as Val played the foam over the exhausts, went out, leaving a huge quantity of steam.

Val fired the carbon dioxide extinguisher for another ten seconds, making sure it was completely out, and then breathed out, while I landed beside him. He sat down, panting for breath.

"You O.K., Val?" I asked gently.

"I'm fine."he replied, and while he was disguised, I could see his wings were fluttering, he had been immensely scared of what could have happened.

"O.K.," I replied over the band," Abigail, what the devil happened there?"

"I'm watching the replay right now, Alduin. I know something melted at the high speed Val was subjecting it to, that much is easy, but as to what it was, no clue yet."

The F1 hissed, as a bubble of steam escaped. A fire engine was near at hand, along with a tow truck, but the F1 had over shot the pair of them, they were only just approaching.

I remained silent as the men jumped from their vehicle, and tried to approach Valmeero. He would not let them near him, the disguise wouldn't stop them touching his fur, but they attached a line to the truck, and Valmeero jumped back in the seat with the fire engine right behind.

I flew back, and fired off a spray of smoke. This was to make myself look a bit wounded myself, and Draco took the hint. They fired some extinguishing foam at me, and then carried me into the trailer, into the cabin. I changed into my human form, and ran back out. I knelt by Abigail, who was getting a lot of attention by the surrounding crowd. Her fingers danced over the keys.

"Right, see this billow of flame?" she pointed at the video as the first flame erupted from the left bank," I'm not sure, but I think it was gear box related. The immense speed basically made it leap off the peg, in effect, and the resultant heat set fire to the casing. How far's the tow truck?"

"Another mile or two, give it a minute." Salbar looked at the distant speck convoy which was the tow truck.

There was a ten minute pause to proceedings as Val's burnt car was hauled back, and Abigail, Simba, Draco and myself removed the engine casing.

"Owch."I said, and Valmeero got out of the car and looked.

The gearbox had practically exploded, and consequently everything nearby had a distinctly burnt look. The rear suspension was still there, but looked charred, the rear wing, which sits atop the gearbox, was half collapsed, the rear of the engine itself looked blackened. Valmeero took one look and moaned.

"Hmmm." Abigail did not sound enthusiastic, that was a bad start," That's at least ten hours work for the gearbox, another two for suspension and rear wing, and maybe three for the engine. If you want this up and running for tomorrow, I'm going to need several helping hands." she looked deep into the heart of the hole where the gearbox is, and then jemmied a computer lead into a special hole, downloading the telemetry of the minutes before the accident. Graphs and charts exploded across the screen, and Abigail began running probabilities through her laptop.

People were fawning over the wrecked car, but we were saved from further inquiring noses by the resumption of racing, which meant I had to fly following Tahir in about five minutes. I excused myself, got into the trailer, and changed into my F-22 while no one was looking. Draco pulled me out again, and I taxied off towards Ryan Viper and the Aston. Tahir was waiting for the car ahead, so I didn't have to rush.