FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Rick landed the ship in their usual spot, Spark running off even before the engines had stopped cycling down from landing. She slowed her pace as she passed through the space port, grabbing the largest of their grav sleds and taking it back to the ship to begin loading. She had managed to load up the damaged grav plates and was about to move the others, having to do them one at a time by paw, when two of the technicians from the space port arrived at the entrance to the cargo bay. They politely asked to come aboard and when Spark gave permission, they entered and began to assist with the loading of the sled. Spark began to protest but they waved her away, saying they were glad to help and besides, they were between shifts. A few minutes later another group showed up, then another. By the time everything was loaded and secured, almost half the space port was there helping. Spark recognized those who would stop her in the hallway for pets, and those she waved to whenever she passed through the administration building. Rick was watching by the door into the ship itself, having already passed over the container for the farm and since the clerk who would sign it off was here as well it had saved him a trip.

Most of the helpers parted ways when Spark began to take the sled back to the transport, but a handful rode along to help with the unloading as well, sharing their stories with her of the days when they were young and the old ship had been used as the admin building and their own explorations. Spark was surprised at how many had wanted to help them with the loading and even more surprised when two of the techs wanted to assist her with the work once they had arrived. The techs began by installing the kitchen unit and the best of the furniture in the captain’s quarters though only one bed was installed for Rick to use, the other sent down to the room beside medical along with a set of chairs and one of the larger tables. The couches on the bridge were all removed and stored away then the techs assisted Spark in the installation of one of the acceleration chairs in the captain’s position and the other into the alcove where all her secondary main systems were housed. The techs commented on the efficiency of the room as well noting that yes, from the single chair the entire ship could be operated as though it were fully crewed.

More helpers were requested and again Spark recognized those she had either waved to or had stopped her in the hallway as she began the usually tedious work of installing and replacing grav plates though this time she didn’t have to do much more than direct as workers seemed to always be at paw to install, remove, or store anything she even gestured towards. With all the help the process was finished in under 3 hours, Spark having allotted 3 full days to have done the work herself. Once the work was done, Spark endured the rounds of petting from the helpers and answered all the questions posed to her about the condition of the ship, what sort of things she would need to finish the refit and what help she may need during the process. She had never realized just how popular she had become at the space port, her presence had become something of an event and there were those who had even gone out of their way to catch a glimpse of her when she visited, the lucky ones even getting to pet her briefly. She promised to stop by even after they had moved the transport, saying that just because they were moving the ship didn’t mean that they wouldn’t be required to visit every time they landed with deliveries.

Rick kept an eye on the proceedings, himself a bit surprised at all the attention Spark was receiving until her heard about the betting. Once sale of the transport had become common knowledge, a pool had gone up as to when the ship would make its first flight. When it was discovered that the small fox creature that had been seen at the space port was the one repairing the ship, the betting had gone crazy. Now Rick surmised, nearly half a year’s pay was riding on when they would lift off, and Rick was starting to worry that something might happen to ensure one of the later liftoff bets, the work nearly complete now and most of the bets were still a week or more away on their projected estimates. He returned to the bridge, taking a seat in the new chair and testing it out as he ran through the diagnostics. They did have enough fuel to make their destination as long as they didn’t have too bad a headwind and the weather for the next few days was scheduled to be fair and perfect for flying a low atmosphere run.

Watching on the monitor Rick witnessed Spark’s final installation of the replacement recycling system. The unit wasn’t an exact match to the one that had been removed, and Spark ended up spending the next two days along with two of the technicians getting the new system to talk with the older Twill system and get them working together. Finally, 3 days after they had arrived back on Drakon a crowd gathered to watch their first flight. One of the administrators presented Rick with a rather nice bottle of brandy and Spark with a bouquet of flowers nearly as big as she was before the two ducked through the airlock to begin preparations. As the engines roared to life, Rick watched on the monitor as one of the technicians ran up and broke a bottle on the hull, an old Earth custom but one he was happy to see still in use as it was a sign of good luck.

The long flight went smoothly enough, Spark spending the first few minutes staring at her panels looking for any warning signs before heading up to the bridge. She started by standing beside Rick’s chair but after the first 20 minutes Rick saw she was stepping from one foot to the other and realized that standing upright was something that she was just not designed to do. He scooped her up and sat her in his lap then, and she snuggled against him as they cruised towards their destination. Rick noticed that Spark had kitchen sponges under the wrappings around her paws and asked her about them. “The deck plates are really cold and not made for bare paws to walk on all the time so I needed to add some padding to prevent injury. Took me a few tries to find something that would work well, towels were too bulky and adding extra layers to the wrapping only worked for a few minutes at best. This was the best thing I could come up with since they don’t make shoes that fit my feet.” She paused a moment then grinned. “Except for my pressure suit, those shoes fit my feet perfectly but I hadn’t thought about them since I had figured out the sponge trick already. Perhaps Klixxt can make me some shoes to use on board?”

Rick nodded and ruffled her ears, looking down at the forest they were flying over and wondering if there was a vehicle path through that they could use to save on fuel. I’m sure that Klixxt would be happy to make you whatever you like, they have been a great help and seem to be particularly fond of you, what with all the special modifications they made to both your outfits and your pressure suit and now that I think of it there were never any modification charges added to the material cost. I’ll have to thank them for that.” Spark wondered absently if the Twill really liked her, or just wondered what she would taste like but didn’t comment as she pointed ahead to a small building in a clearing ahead, a winding river passing right beside it. “Is that where we are going to land?” Rick nodded and Spark bounced out of his lap, the sudden movement and the force of her excitement leaving Rick both surprised and also in pain from an ill placed launching foot but before he recovered Spark was already gone to the cargo bay and he decided to let the matter drop.

Spark climbed into her chair, pulling over the screen that one of the technicians had attached to a swivel arm and lifted the control pad from its resting place beside the chair to click it securely between the arm rests, the keys at just the right height for her to easily manipulate. Rick had given her permission and had run her through the simulator four times and now she was going to get to fly their ship all on her own. She keyed in the control request and Rick transferred the controls to her console. She set a beacon on the now visible large landing pad as she had been taught, the ship locking onto the beacon and correcting their heading slightly to move them towards the location. Spark slowly dropped the forward momentum, letting the ship glide in on the retro rockets as she backed off the power as well, their altitude dropping slowly.

Rick watched from the cockpit as Spark took them down, his fingers ready to enter the command to reclaim control should an emergency arise. He watched as their velocity slowed and their altitude began to drop and smiled, she was actually pretty good at this for only running the simulator a handful of times. He would have to have her train up as a copilot and get her certified so that she could run shuttles between the ship and any planets they delivered to, as taking this large a ship into the atmosphere chewed through fuel badly. He glanced at the fuel indicators, noting that they had a fair bit more than he had initially anticipated remaining, a slight tail wind having helped out immensely on the long sub orbital flight. A warning light caught his attention as Spark deployed the landing gear, the engines roaring briefly as Spark touched them down with only the slightest bump. Spark went through the process of shutting down the engines, running the full system through a diagnostic check and heading back to engineering to check on the life support and shield generators, now that she finally had the time to focus her attention on them.

Leaning against the doorframe to engineering, Rick watched Spark work, shaking his head in amazement. “You do know you don’t have to fix everything today, right? Take a break, or didn’t you realize how much of a celebrity you have become at the space port?” Spark twitched, her ears perking up at the sound of Rick’s voice only to dip them in embarrassment at his comments. “I did get that impression; a lot of the people wanted to pet me or ruffle my ears or rub my back. I don’t really understand it but I let them and they seemed happier for it, even if it was a bit uncomfortable at times. I’m not really used to being touched all that much, not that I mind it when you do it but well, others are a different matter. Only the older boy really touched me all that much when I was living with the master and I didn’t like the way he looked at me when he rubbed my belly. He called it praise and only did it when I did something right or they won at a game but it didn’t feel right. The younger master used to scratch behind my ears when I would get something right in our lessons but that felt different, same with today it felt good, not bad.”

Rick nodded, always glad to hear more about Spark’s past but not liking the pain and discomfort some of those memories invoked in her. “If anyone touches you in a way that feels bad, please tell me and also feel free to come find me immediately when that happens. It isn’t right and you shouldn’t be put in that situation for any reason.” Spark nodded, continuing to examine the life support system. “I’ll do that for sure, though I didn’t feel that way today, just too many all at once I got overwhelmed. I’ll feel better once I figure out why this thing won’t turn on.” She tapped again at the console, the screen reading all green but the device wouldn’t start. Rick smiled and knelt beside Spark, tapping the panel off. “There is nothing wrong with it, while we are parked on the surface with a breathable atmosphere outside the system automatically draws in fresh air from outside, runs it through the filters then pumps it through the ship. Once we take off the system should automatically change back to running on the recycler. Until then, I’d suggest checking all the filters and charcoal packs to make sure the scrubbers for the co2 are in working order. Those are the parts that will fail, if nothing else though if you really want to test the system run a negative pressure test to make sure the ship is air tight. That will force the system to activate at least until the test completes.”

Spark nuzzled her cheek against Rick’s arm and gave him a big smile before scampering off to do as she was told, Rick heading back to the bridge to again run through simulations to prepare for their first interstellar flight, assuming they could afford the fuel. Their advance from the bank was nearly dried up and he would have to come up with something to bring them well into the green before the bills started to eat away at what was left in his account. A message flashed on the screen when he arrived, it was from the space port, announcing the winner of the liftoff contest as well as an attached note wishing him and Spark safe travels. He saved the message and began to reach for the simulator headset then paused. Keying up the request board he found what he had been looking for, a smile creeping over his face. Yes, that would do though the work to pull it off would be exhausting but it would not only pay for fuel but also a good chunk of the loan and with the transport they could just barely carry the required amount too. He accepted the mission, then left the ship to check out the reclamation plant.

It took Spark the better part of a week to finally agree that she had done everything she could and the transport was ready once they had the all-important fuel. She had watched Rick loading barrel after barrel of water from the plant into the cargo hold for the last 4 days, now most of the bays here packed with water barrels, their own tanks topped off as well. She had asked Rick once what all the water was for, but all he would say was that it was a job request. Now, the only path to her room in cargo bay 3 was a narrow corridor between the carefully piled barrels. She had estimated that there was some 100,000 tons of water packed into the cargo bays, and even with that the entire shuttle bay was also filled to bursting. Much more and they would never be able to lift off, much less go anywhere. She located Rick, mewling to get his attention before she spoke. “Even with a full tank, we won’t get very far with all that extra weight. Is it really worth the risk to move so much all at once?”

Rick turned the screen before him so she could see it, then pulled up the contract. The buyer wanted 120,000 tons of water delivered to a desert planet that was facing a drought that threatened to wipe out the one colony that resided on the surface. The quantity was non-negotiable but the contract did have a 30% up-front payment to cover transport costs as well as including armed escort by a federation gunship from launch point to destination then optional escort back to Earth space after completion. The buyer was paying “10 units a ton?!” Spark exploded, incredulously pointing at the screen. “With that much, and an armed escort fully paid we could fill the fuel tanks before leaving as well as refill them mid-flight and again once we reached Earth, even with the added cost and STILL come out on top.” She glanced at Rick and frowned. “What’s wrong here? This is almost too good to be true.”

He waited for her to finish, smiling at her understandable outburst. “It did seem too good to be true, and it was. The stipulation is that they need the shipment to arrive in 4 days from now or the price per ton falls to 1 unit with a maximum of 50,000 tons. The destination is 9 days away at hard burn so we can’t possibly make it there in time by conventional means.” He shrugged then leaned back, watching her curiously. Spark for her part scrunched her nose and thought back to her exploration of the engineering section, her tail twitching from side to side until it shot straight out, bristling as the realization dawned on her. “You are going to use the gunship to light a beacon so we can jump there directly, and then take a slower route home to save fuel. Jump fuel is really expensive, that’s why most ships use conventional drives, and the jump drive on this ship is ancient. I haven’t even started going over it and you want to use the one jump we have to move water?!”

Rick nodded, pointing to the gauges that now filled the screen. “One jump will get us there if that ship can give us a beacon, and they left 5 days ago to do so. That gives us about 13 hours to sight the beacon once it is lit, lift off to cruising altitude, then hit the drive to get us there in time to make the delivery. We don’t have time to wait for a fuel ship to arrive to fill the tanks, but I have called to the space port and they have sent us a few sleds loaded with fuel on credit to get us to a safe enough altitude for a low orbit jump. I have been assured that there will be a fuel ship available within a day once we arrive and the delivery is considered completed once we reach orbit, there is no requirement to set down on the planet as most ships that would have been able to meet their request wouldn’t have that capability anyway. The buyer is providing transport to the planet and we will be offloading to an orbital supply depot that sits in geosynchronous orbit over the colony. Our main task is to get the ship there and docked, then we have to come back here and pick up our other ship before heading to visit the doc for your one-month checkup.”

Spark shivered, having forgotten about her promise to return after a month then again after 6 months for the doctor to check her over to make sure the treatment had no side effects. She was still embarrassed about what had happened during the procedure and how badly she must have howled but she had been assured that it was all part of the treatment and none of that would be held against her. Tapping at the screen Spark pulled up a diagnostic of the jump drive, the fuel reading showing only 2 units out of the possible 20, barely enough to make one jump but still enough, if they could reach sufficient altitude to pull it off. She checked the fuel reserve and was surprised by how much remained after their last trip. “How much fuel are they bringing us?” Rick tapped another message on the side of the screen where a purchase order for 50,000 gallons of fuel was shown, the cost listing it at 1 unit for 10 gallons, a reasonable price though below the galactic average of 1 unit for 8 gallons. In Earth space they would be lucky to manage 1 unit for 5 gallons but that was known and nobody who could get away with it fueled there more than was necessary to get to one of the colonies where fuel was more readily available.

Nodding at the screen Spark did some mental math and figured that if they used conventional drive to return to Earth with a 9-day trip and the burn to clear atmosphere combined with maneuvering to dock with the orbital depot they would still need to pick up another 70,000 gallons from the resupply ship before heading to Earth to be able to return to Drakon without paying the higher price for Earth fuel. “How much fuel do you anticipate we will need to have when we return here? I estimate that we will need 70,000 gallons at our delivery point to be able to return first to Earth then on to Drakon. When we get back, I estimate that we will be down to only 40,000 gallons. Is that enough to land and still reach orbit again? I’d hate to do all this only to be out the jump fuel and still back where we started. Rick shrugged then tapped the screen, bringing up another display. “This is the planet we are delivering to, and they also want us to return with cargo headed for Earth. The ship that is meeting us to refuel will have a full tank available and then some since the gunship will also need refueling. This planet is also one of only three planets where jump drive fuel is produced and they have offered to fill up our tanks at wholesale if we make it on time. That means we will have a full jump drive for only 20,000 units and we will end the trip some 1.4 million units more in the green than when we started, even with fuel costs. I couldn’t turn that down, especially since once we get the bank paid off, we can go anywhere we want to though we will still have to return for your 6-month and 1-year checkups.”

Spark stared at the screen a minute, tail twitching as she ran through the possibilities in her mind. Then her ears perked up and she reached for the simulator visor. “If we are going to do a low atmosphere jump, I’ll need to run the simulations until it is time to leave. It will be better for me to take the controls for the jump while you focus on getting us to the relevant altitude without running us out of fuel.” She grinned at the shocked expression on Rick’s face. “You did want me to learn more about piloting and I do know what to do should any problems arise during the jump. Just get us up to the safety point and let me deal with the rest.” Rick nodded, setting the simulator to take into account that the pilot would be flying the ship up to the jump point and the copilot, the one in the simulator, would be running the controls for the jump drive. He activated the simulation, then watched the progress on the monitor. He would run his end while she slept, then take a nap himself. They would have just under 4 days to prepare before their biggest adventure of all.