FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

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I'll post the entire story here, chapter by chapter twice weekly, absolutely free!

If you prefer you can read all four books right now. The series is complete!:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/byseries/146449

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Chapter 20: Meeting the Other Family

A gaggle of generals and government ministers turned to stare at the dishevelled trio as Leon, Rob and Chase jogged through the warehouse entrance. Leon muttered an apology around a half-eaten bagel as he took a seat with the other scientists. Rob joined the military staff while Chase sauntered toward his kinfolk. The six metre long orca figure of Silas dominated the space, laying behind the other creatures. He waved and clicked happily at Chase’s arrival. Willow, the deer hybrid sat next to the gold and black-striped tiger form of Fate. The deer absently stroked the tiger’s thigh affectionately. Chase sat between Braid and Zaru looking comparatively small when measured against the powerful horse and bear hybrids.

“Great, we’re all finally here,” said Doctor Chand looking pointedly at the tardy trio. She turned back toward the military delegation. “General Tolley, thank you for your forbearance – I can see you’re itching to…”

“Janice, who the hell are these clowns?” The general dismissively gestured at the seven hybrid animals. “I’m here to retrieve the gem suits not play fancy dress.”

The deer creature stood and bowed to the general. “Keith, my name is Willow and I’m the seventh emissary of the Minds. Until a week ago you knew of me as an aquamarine crystal orb. We’re here to offer our services to you in payment for the great favour you did for me and my brothers.”

The general looked shocked, a chatter of hushed conversation between the ministers rustled through the seated crowd. “What do you mean? You… people are the Diamond Suits?”

Willow nodded his antlered head. “That’s right, Keith. And you helped my brethren be born. So we came to your world to repay our debt to you. We’re offering to undertake missions where you would have deployed gem suit wearers.”

Flustered, the general looked to the scientists hoping they would deny such obvious nonsense. But the doctors nodded along. Doctor Ash spoke, “Officer Laidlaw, would you mind demonstrating?”

“Gladly,” replied the surly officer. “Willow, can you step back to join your brothers for a moment?” Officer Laidlaw retrieved a small flame thrower from near the door. He showed it to the generals. “You can buy these online, you know?” He turned a valve on the rear propane tank of the device then flicked the pilot light to life. With a loud whooshing sound a gout of flame spewed from the nozzle end toward the seven alien creatures. Roiling, hot fire enveloped the naked forms. Moments later and the conflagration ended as the officer turned off and lowered the device.

“Oh shit,” said the unharmed deer hybrid. “My chair is on fire.” He smothered the small flames with his hands. “So,” wiping soot on his thighs he turned back toward the awestruck assembly, “we can go unharmed anywhere you’ve sent gem-suit wearers. And we don’t need down-time between missions – we are available wherever and whenever you need us. Silas, for example,” he pointed to the giant orca, “is ideally suited to deep-sea missions. He’s indestructible and considerably more versatile than any underwater vehicle or person could ever be. Braid can carry anything and outrun your fastest sprinters. You will find uses for us I can’t imagine.”

“This… shape. Are these… are you aliens?” asked one of the ministers with concern.

“Heh. Well, yeah I guess so,” said Willow. “But I’d prefer you to think of us as immigrants. It’s impossible for us to return to our home so we have to stay here.”

“Are there more of you? Is this an invasion?” asked the general.

Chase spoke up. “The seven of us are all that can ever come through. There are no more crystal orbs and our existence here was entirely facilitated by your efforts. We can’t go home; there will never be more of us. My family of seven is the proverbial ‘it’” He looked at the mixtures of disbelief and concern around the assembled faces. “Before you ask… no, we can’t harm you. You’re likely aware of how efforts to use the gem suits in aggressive situations have failed. It is quite literally impossible for us to be violent against other minds.”

Willow spoke again, “If you choose not to use our services that is entirely up to you. We will live quiet lives…”

“Quiet? Didn’t we just see social media blowing up with all of you?” asked one of the ministers.

Fate, the tiger answered, “Yeah, because when we walk down the street we’d rather be treated like celebrities than freaks. I don’t want to spend my time hiding or pretending to be something I’m not.”

“One more thing…” said Chase to the assembly. “Please, feel free to deploy my brethren anywhere in the world. I’m going to spend my time working with the scientists here. As a gesture of goodwill I’ll help Doctor Karl improve his generator design to give you perfectly clean energy. If, you know, you’re amenable to that too, Leon?”

“Oh! Ah, sure! Definitely!” agreed the scientist nodding enthusiastically.

“What’s the catch?” asked the general suspiciously. “Free technology… there’s always a catch. Do we become dependent on you? Will it blow up?”

The Great Dane chuckled, “It’s not free – it’s part of our payment to you for giving us life. We owe you so much more than just a power supply! Your concerns about dependency are why the scientists here will be working on it – they’re perfectly qualified to verify the design will do what we say it will, and only do what we say it will. And they will be building it, fully understanding how it works. The design can be open-sourced to be verified by other scientists around the world.”

“Why don’t you just give us designs for all your technology?” asked one of the ministers.

Doctor Ash interjected before the alien creature spoke, “Because that would be a terrible thing!” he exclaimed. “If they handed us completed designs there are a thousand other technologies we would never discover by making mistakes. Instead, by leading us toward the designs ourselves, by giving pointers and tips but making us do the work we discover so much more than they’re giving us.”

Willow and Chase nodded along, encouraging the scientist.

“It’s an overused example,” continued Doctor Ash, “but if they gave us a universal cure for cancer we’d miss out on discovering cures for Alzheimer’s disease or motor neuron degeneration or how to reverse aging. Giving us less but helping us find out for ourselves gives us so much more.”

“Exactly!” said Chase. “If you like what you discover with our help, eventually you’ll be able to do this.” A shiny red apple appeared in the Great Dane’s upturned hand. He brought his hand to his muzzle and took a ragged bite. As he chewed, bits of apple and drool pattered to the floor.

Willow shook his head derisively at the mess of saliva and fragments of apple and said, “Chase, maybe the carnivore shouldn’t have demonstrated that one.”

“Hey, why do you look like animals, anyway?” asked one of the ministers.

The bear, Zaru spoke in a gruff voice, “Because we’re not human. And we’re not here only for humans. He stood, towering above the deer and canine forms. Some of the ministers drew back, intimidated by the shaggy, talking behemoth. “Your world, the world we’re now part of, is more than just humans. We share this planet with a million other species. We are seven emissaries to all species, all creatures. We are not here to uplift only humans and ensure their survival. We’re here to help keep your world in balance, to help you preserve the very environment you depend on for survival.” The imposing bear returned to his seat and folded his shaggy arms.

“I think I understand,” said the minister. “Your shapes are part of your message. Do you mind me asking where you’re actually from? Who are these ‘Minds’ you represent?”

Willow picked up a piece of paper from the desk. “This paper is part of your universe. In the same way your universe is part of - a thin slice of - our universe. We’re from outside the paper.” He sighed sadly, “And now we’re in the paper it’s impossible for us to climb back out. We can never go home to our community – the Minds. It’s difficult to describe how we look in our space because we can be anything, but generally choose to be an amorphous cloud of consciousness. We often work in concert where several minds join to become a single processing machine.” He looked around the uncomprehending faces. “I can see I’m losing you.” He grinned.

General Tolley spoke up, “If I understand you, you’re saying we’ve been using your bodies for decades anyway. In the process we unwittingly created more of you. Now you’re here offering your services and technology gratis as payment for us helping you breed. And aside from being deployed on missions you’re asking for autonomy, with a commitment to not harm anyone. Is that a reasonable summary?”

The deer nodded. “Yes. That’s a succinct summary.”

“What if we decide you’re an unacceptable threat and imprison you or encase you in concrete and drop you into the ocean?” the general bluntly addressed the alien.

Willow shrugged. Then he vanished – instantly he was no longer standing in front of the assembly. Shocked gasps whispered around the onlookers. Chase spoke up, “Willow has gone elsewhere. Another technology we will help you discover is instantaneous transportation. If you choose not to use our services that is absolutely your decision and we will respect it. But there’s no threat you can hold over us. We, like you, are autonomous persons who value our freedom. We can work with you or we can go away and live how we choose.”

In a blink Willow appeared again. He was munching on a bagel.

Doctor Ash addressed the assembly, “So you see, Generally Tolley, ministers, we needed you all to meet the emissaries for yourselves and allow them to explain their situation to you. I doubt any of you would have believed us if we’d put all this in a memo. I’m sure you have many other questions for our guests and we’ve given them an email account where you can contact them directly for questions or deployments. For now let’s close this meeting so you can consider the ramifications of what you’ve seen and heard here.”

Still shaking their heads in disbelief and wonderment the officials filed from the warehouse. Certainly thoughts of opportunities and consequences circled through the minds of every person.

When the last official had left, Officer Laidlaw stood up. “I see no-one mentioned that whole ‘world ending in three weeks’ thing,” he growled.

The bull creature answered with a deep rumble. “Would it have done any good? You think they would have reacted in a useful way? We would have immediately been seen as a major threat, we’d be blamed, you’d all be locked up for treason or somethin’. There’d be panicking military hounding us.” He paused. “And that’s if they actually believed you. Most likely they would think we’re trying to destabilize your society and the reactions would be much the same. So, yeah, I wasn’t gonna mention it.”

“Ikon’s right,” agreed Willow. “And you didn’t mention it either.” He addressed Officer Laidlaw, “Why didn’t you speak up?”

The surly officer scowled at the deer saying, “Because you’re right about how they’d have reacted. And if you’re telling the truth you’re the ones most in a position to prevent it, as well as all that other airy-fairy climate stuff you mentioned. When you told us we were basically fucked that wasn’t news to the military. Much of our long-future planning is around climate refugees, resource scarcity, ring-fencing Australia so the rich fuckers get a few more years in comfort harvesting poor people. So…” he folded his arms. “What’re you foreign bastards doing to save the world?”

“This morning we set in motion the means by which alien creatures are hailed as heroes,” said Chase. “Government ministers and corporate CEOs are going to hog camera time praising Silas when he rescues a sunken submarine or stops a grounded oil tanker from polluting a coastline. Generals will be on screen declaring they’re personal friends with the tiger creature when Fate pulls children out of a collapsed building. The leader of the opposition party will beam hugely at the news crews as he shakes the paw of the shaggy grizzly bear who carried the trapped miners to safety.”

“How does that stop the planet blowing up?” asked the officer.

“As a collective, humans can’t be told to do anything,” explained Willow. “You’re a capricious bunch who will work against your own well-being to spite authority. The exception is when a celebrity ore religious leader makes some pronouncement. Your tribal nature makes you easily manipulated by someone famous. You’re in an age of fame lending infallible godhood to pretty people.”

“So when you’re famous you’re going to tell the Geneva people not to blow us all up?” asked the officer sceptically.

“Nope. The scientists wouldn’t pay attention to celebrities anyway – or I hope they wouldn’t. Instead we’re going to endorse an amazing new product.” Willow gestured at the scientists. “An Australian institute will produce a clean, cheap, power supply. The project lead, Doctor Karl gains immediate credibility with scientists, and he explains on camera how the Geneva project is now redundant. Public outcry at wasted taxpayer money is fuelled by those cute animal people. The scientists here announce how a dangerous experiment is obsolete in the face of a cheaper, better alternative. So Doctor Karl is going to save the world with a shiny new toy.”

“Shit,” muttered the officer, sitting down heavily. “It’s quite a sad commentary on human society. Sadder that it’s all true.”