One World
One World
Silence, the only thing that can't be heard by human ears through the Niece Space Ship, but to a furry like me, a descendant of the canine race, the noise is never ending. Even at night when all the others are asleep, that's when the ship comes to life.
My paws padded silently along the seemingly endless hallway. The air flowed through the vents simulating a slightly cool, breezy evening. It caressed the red and black fur that covered my body. It reminded me of my nights on Earth where I would walk through the moonlit fields in nothing but my pelt.
How I missed those days, replaced by this...... endless days travelling through space.
I came to the end of the hallway and walked out onto the bridge. A large room filled with stations of glowing lights and buttons that all contributed to controlling the ship and keeping it alive. The most spectacular sight however was the thick genetically engineered glass that spanned the front of the ship from deck to ceiling. The viewing plate allowed one to view, uninterrupted, the vast emptiness of space.
I went to one of the stations that I knew so well and hit a discoloured, worn button that turned the viewing plate into projections of my life on Earth. Images of my family flashed across the view, bringing an unexpected welling of a tear to my eye. The saying is true, you don't know what you've got until it's gone.
"You're up late," said a voice behind me. I quickly cleaned the window and turned around to greet the deep voice.
"I guess you caught me having a moment," I said looking at the reasonably tall coyote that had just walked in. He was slender but well muscled and was wearing a pair of black pants that fit his physique well. His tight grey undershirt was covered by a dark blue jacket that had the sleeves rolled up to his mid forearm, showing off the tan fur that covered his body. He sported a pair of whitish gloves that complemented his pelt, but also protected his paws from ambient radioactivity, part of the precautions used by a ships engineer and all part of the job. His hind paws were covered with a pair of worn dark brown combat boots.
"Well I don't think that's all that I caught you doing," Colin said motioning towards me.
"Wha.." I said realizing in half sentence that I was in full pelt, something we furries didn't do in public anymore since we had learned to talk and walk upright almost two thousand years ago, after the zygote wars. I blushed, my red fur not hiding it very well; I tried unsuccessfully to veil my discomfort, but failed, getting a chuckle out of the coyote.
"It's alright Kay, I've been part of this team for five years now, not the first time I've seen a guy dressed in fur. You know how Taine is," he said winking at me, "hey wait a second what's that?"
I turned to look at the monitor that the Colin was scrutinizing.
"We're in the Courtenay system, there's nothing more than rocks and meteors, I'm sure its nothing," I replied, still unsure of what he meant.
"No this is different. Come check this out," he said motioning to me with his paw.
"Just let me put something on," I said pushing a button on the console in front of me making a pair of dark green pants, a white undershirt similar to the coyote's and a light grey jacket. They materialized in front of me and I put them on as I walked over to the coyote and followed his line of sight to where he was pointing with his gloved claw.
"Hey, that is more than just a piece of rock."
"I told you," he said dashing to one of the consoles and bringing up a holographic image of the Courtney asteroid system.
"But Colin isn't that..," my voice was trailing off as I looked back at him.
"That's a planet," he said finishing my sentence for me.
"In the middle of the Courtenay system?"
"I guess so,"
"Tyson will want to see this," I said bounding out of the bridge and down the winding hallway.
Commander Tyson
I woke up to feel Kay shaking me hard through the thin blanket that covered my thick grey and white furred body.
"What are you doing?" I groaned.
"Come on you have to see this," he said dragging me out of bed and pulling me through the doorway.
Thank god I decided to wear pyjamas I thought to myself as I was dragged through the hallway and onto the bridge.
"What's this about?" I asked rubbing my eyes, looking around and groggily seeing why Kay had dragged me so unceremoniously onto the bridge.
"Is that a planet?" I asked incredulously.
"It looks that way," said the coyote looking up at the hologram of the Courtenay asteroid belt.
"But in the middle of the Courtenay system?"
"That's what he said," said Kay fidgeting from one foot to another.
"But that's not all. I ran a diagnostic on the planet while Kay was dragging your sorry butt onto the bridge and I found this," said Colin bringing up the diagnostic result on another screen.
"There's life signs," Kay and I said at the same time both in shock.
"Furry?" I asked.
"Not sure, the species aren't listed on the database."
"Ok, I'm gonna call the rest of the team," I said pressing on the console. "All crew report to the bridge, all crew report to the bridge, situation blue, situation blue," my voice boomed over the intercom, dragging furry bodies from their beds all over the ship and onto the bridge.
The Garment Ioniser hissed its approval as it produced three new crisp uniforms for myself and the two new arrivals.
I had just changed into my new uniform as Johanna, a raccoon girl walked onto the bridge, with all the elegance of a catwalk model. No matter how tough things got or how many hours we'd gone without sleep she always looked fantastic. Her slender body was fit and toned and gave nothing away to the fact that she was a martial arts expert and had instructed most of us in advanced small arms weaponry.
She wore a simple outfit that looked as if it had been planned, a red form fitting top with a white stripe that came down the arm length. Her tight pants had the same design as the rest of the team, but she had a white stripe and black border around the insignia on her belt.
"So what's this all..." her words trailed off as she saw the diagnostics on the screen, "Umm... is that what I think it is?"
"Yeah, that's a planet... complete with furries, we think!" Colin said struggling to contain his excitement.
"What the hell is that?" said Taine, who had silently slipped into the room behind Johanna unnoticed, "There's furries in the Courtenay system?"
"It would seem so," I said, "but there's only one way to find out, we're gonna have to go down to the surface."
I looked at Taine, the big muscled black tiger refused to wear a shirt, which annoyed me constantly and was a source of our constant bickering. The faded scars across his chest still wouldn't grow hair after all this time and were clearly visible. He wore a loose fitting pair of dark grey pants that had been secured round his middle with a large white wrap around waistband, that looked like it had seen better days. Tufts of hair on either side of his face reminded me of a character from an old ancient enjoyment scan I'd seen called X-Men.
We'd been through a lot together. He was my best friend and I couldn't think of anyone I would rather have beside me in a fight.
I'd commanded this group for nearly seven years and already knew who my surface team would be.
"I'm in," said Kay.
"That'll do," I said.
"So am I," said Taine flicking his long thin tail.
"I wouldn't have it any other way." I replied as I scanned the monitors for any inconsistencies.
"Jo, you stay here and look after the ship."
"No I'm coming, we can put the ship on autopilot and all cruise down to the planet in the Jumpers."
"No, we need you and Colin to be on board. Someone's got to stay here and look after us. Sorry Jo but today ain't the day. Alright people, sounds like a plan. Suit up, and I'll meet you all at the hanger bay in half and hour."
As everyone moved from the bridge pondering the new unexpected events, I walked to the viewing platform. I brought a paw up to the cool polystyriated surface of the viewing plate and looked out at the strange new planet nestled among chunks of rock.
"How will I ever tell them?"
So there it is hope that you liked it. Feel free to comment on it as you like, and if there are any errors or things that you think could have been done better please tell me, I like hearing back from my readers.