FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The simulation ended and Spark took off the visor, yawning as she checked the readout. She had managed to run the simulation 47 times, each time a different error arose and each time she had managed to somehow finish the jump successfully or in the case of two simulations, shut down the drive with enough time remaining to make a second attempt once conditions turned favorable. She looked over at Rick who was still monitoring her progress, each time she completed the scenario he had praised her for her success and they had discussed the issues that had come up. This time she was just too tired. She mewled softly and handed the visor to Rick, pointing to the door. “I'm going to take a nap, you wanted to run the simulation for your tasks as well, right? I'll check the monitor when I wake up and see how you did, then we can switch roles and try again. I want to know how to complete both tasks and it never hurts to get in extra practice. I may also run a few tests to see what options we have should we lose the shield or life support as those are the systems that have had the least testing done to them and can cause the most catastrophic outcomes if they fail."

Rick nodded in understanding, deciding that he would program those tests for her before taking his own simulations so they would be ready for her when she woke up. “Ok sweetie, sleep well. I'll have the system ready when you get up and I'll trade off with you then." Spark moved over and licked Rick's cheek, blushing slightly before running off to their room and her nest, which she had moved to the captain's quarters once the furniture has been placed, locating it under the large table to closer resemble the small den she had grown up in, small spaces being more comfortable and safe feeling than wide open ones. Rick watched her go, startled by the sudden and to him unusual show of affection then turned to start programming the scenarios that Spark would need before diving into his own training.

Stretching as she woke, Spark checked the time on her pad noticing that she had slept for almost 10 hours, her exertions of the previous days having caught up with her. She sniffed at her fur and wrinkled her nose, deciding to take a shower and change into clean clothes before trading off with Rick. The shower had been installed into an alcove in their room, the door acting to keep any water or steam inside the shower as well as providing privacy. She laid out her clean clothes on the small table just outside the shower, then removing her dirty clothes placed them into the wash bin before entering the stall and turning on the water, pressing the button that would load up her preferred settings. The warm water cascaded over her, easing her aches of the past few days as she luxuriated in warmth. When she had first seen the unit aboard the derelict, she had almost passed it up but her memories of the sonic unit she had been forced to use when she was living with her old master as well as the memory that Rick had also preferred the convenience had changed her mind and she was glad she had.

Rick finished his simulation, having run the liftoff until he had 30 consecutive successful runs then switched to the scenario that Spark had been running earlier. A blinking light on the monitor let him know that the shower in their quarters had been activated, so Spark would be down shortly to take over the simulator. He reset the simulation and pressed start, one last run before he could also get some rest. Stepping out of the shower unit, Spark shivered at the temperature change, quickly grabbing a fluffy towel from the open cabinet beside the shower stall and drying her fur. She would have to look for a drying unit when she visited the scrap yard next time, the luxury of towels was nice but in freefall any loose moisture would cause problems so having the option to change the shower into a sauna with blow dryers would solve that issue as well as give her the privacy of stepping out with dry fur that didn't cling to her or clump in embarrassing ways. Changing quickly, she scampered down to start her next round in the simulator, Rick already had the unit reset for her next lesson and had the visor waiting for her on the chair when she arrived.

“I'll check on you in a bit." He yawned, kneeling down to give her a hug and scratch behind her ears before heading towards their room. Spark took up her position on the chair and began the simulation, managing two successful runs before a surprise downdraft smashed the simulated ship into the ground, ending the simulation in failure. She sighed and set down the visor, stepping out into the hallway and running laps until she was sweating from the exertion. She then returned to the simulator, ready to continue. She continued this pattern of simulations, each failure she ran laps to relieve the tension and think about what she could have done differently the next time. Spark had only managed to complete 17 simulations consecutively by the time Rick woke up and returned to the cockpit though she had run over 200 tries, and as many or more laps around the hallway.

Rick looked over her progress, noting that the main cause of failure was sudden weather changes and showed Spark where on the display that information was displayed and how to check for the sudden changes that were causing her so much trouble. He then programmed the simulator to run those situations and after only 30 minutes Spark was able to complete 5 successful consecutive runs of the 1-minute test launch, having reached 4 consecutive wins twice and 3 consecutive wins 6 times though not in that order. Now Rick switched the simulation to one of the docking tests that all pilots had to pass to get their license, giving Spark an encouraging smile. “This will be good practice for you, and I may have you take care of the docking when we arrive if you feel up to it. The more practice you have, especially with these larger ships that don't maneuver well will help when you are piloting the small shuttle for your exam should you decide to become a certified pilot."

The next few days passed quickly, Spark running the simulator most of the time and Rick monitoring, giving suggestions and setting up scenarios until he was sure she could handle just about any emergency that could arise. He kept track of the time too, checking the frequent messages from the gunship and marking their progress off on a chart. It was going to be close, but they would make it as long as they were ready to begin as soon as the gunship was in position. Finally it was time, a message from the gunship was received that stated they were within an hour of launching the beacon. Rick estimated from the simulations that the liftoff process would take them 25 minutes with their current load and use up 90% of the available fuel. They would then have approximately 2 hours in low orbit before necessity forced them to burn more precious fuel to achieve a higher orbit or fall to the surface. They did not have enough fuel to land safely, and a higher orbit would allow them to use the main engines to maintain orbit instead of relying on the thrusters for lift. That high an orbit however would cost them too much fuel and there would be nothing left for maneuvering when they reached their destination causing the mission to fail so a low orbit jump was the only option available despite the risks.

Rick sent Spark to her alcove to start her preflight checks, going over his own controls one last time. Once the beacon was lit, they would only have 30 minutes to make the jump before a message would need to be sent to have the beacon lit again. The beacon itself also used fuel on the other end, so lighting it more than once would undoubtably incur a fee that would be taken out of their eventual payment and Rick didn't want to risk missing that all important jump so they would launch as soon as Spark was ready and use the 2-hour window in low orbit to lock on to the beacon once it was lit. It was yet another gamble, the gunship could light the beacon late, or their ascent to low orbit could take longer or burn too much fuel, either way their window would shrink considerably reducing their overall chances of success.

Spark arrived at her console, fastening the safety belt and directing one of the structural fields to focus on the forward hull while the other took up the rest of the ship. Her simulated attempts had shown this to be the safest route with least chance of failure if they pulled too much drag from the atmosphere. With only one generator running the ship had taken catastrophic damage on a number of simulations until Spark had taken advantage of the dual system to improve the effectiveness of the reinforcement. Her next task was to reinforce the shield, setting the main generator to a slightly larger size and the sub generator to a slightly smaller one that gave them two full strength shields in case they came out into a hazardous area and needed the extra layer of protection. Running all three generators they could sustain this for at most 10 minutes but that should be enough to get to safety or weigh their options.

Preparations complete, Spark scanned for the beacon as she felt the vibration and heard the roar as the engines powered up. The liftoff was sluggish and slow, but that was to be expected with the weight of the ship. She added a fuel gauge to her display along with a small window showing the forward camera along with her usual diagnostics and the ship schematic showing the stress on the structural field. Rick watched the altitude gauge and again checked his sensors. He had guessed an easy ascent to take 25 minutes but now was beginning to think that was a bit too optimistic. Judging by the displays it would take an extra 10 minutes to reach a safe low orbit altitude and use much more fuel leaving them with only 45 minutes maybe an hour at which they could safely remain at that altitude before having to abort to space, the fuel cost to do so would also destroy any chance of docking or even moving after their jump, breaching the contract if they couldn't deliver on time.

Rick was sweating as the timer passed 30 minutes since the start of their liftoff, they were still too low to gain a low orbit cruise and the beacon was going to appear any time now. He keyed open the intercom to the cargo bay. “Spark, don't jump until you see us reach the proper altitude, add the meter to your screen if you haven't already. I've marked a green box to show the safest altitude for us to attempt this jump but we are rising slow and it is burning up too much fuel. We may only get one shot so don't rush it." Spark responded by mewling into her microphone, then added the altitude reading to her screen next to the fuel gauge. Suddenly the beacon appeared on her screen and she hurried to lock onto it, a new window opening up showing the status of the jump drive. It seemed to take forever but nearly 8 minutes later their altitude moved into the green box Rick had indicated. Spark checked her displays one last time then pressed the button, the fuel gauge for the jump drive draining almost instantly as a new vibration began to shake the ship.

The ship passed the minimum safe altitude and Rick looked up to the main view screen just as the ship shook with a new vibration, a distortion beginning to manifest in front of the ship, growing larger and warping in on itself like looking down into a drain as the water flowed out. The distortion coalesced and took shape as the artificial wormhole stabilized, the ship beginning to get drawn in by the gravity of the distortion. As soon as the ship touched the distortion it was instantly engulfed, the space around them twisting and warping as they sped through to their destination, Spark's instruments reporting alarms everywhere but she stayed cool, waiting for the truth of emergence to see what if any issues had arisen. The sky above Drakon burst into flame as the transport jumped away leaving a trail of fire a mile wide and as long as the horizon over the space port, startled onlookers following the blaze back to where they knew the transport had flown off just over a week ago.

Spark watched as her display flashed red and yellow warnings, the small forward view showing an explosion of stars rushing past. Suddenly the stars stopped, a large ship seemed to explode into space before them, her screen changing to a calm green as the warnings subsided. Rick was also watching the forward screen as the gunship seemed to jump out at them, his display screaming an alarm as the gunship locked onto them with its weapons then subsided as his transponder identified them and the gunship stood down. The fuel reading showed they had just under 1,000 gallons remaining, enough for basic maneuvering and possibly one short acceleration and subsequent deceleration though the sub light engines should do the trick for that with the short distance they needed to go. The depot was barely 12,000 kilometers away, their host having dropped them right onto the doorstep as it were, a rather impressive job with the beacon.

Spark took a moment to exhale, calming herself before she switched to the pilot configuration, locating the depot 'wow, they were close!' She took the controls and gave a short burst from the sub light engines to gain momentum while at the same time transmitting a message of thanks to the gunship for their optimal positioning and timely work on the beacon. It took her 10 minutes but soon they were docked with the depot, Rick starting to unload from their ship into the large storage space. Rick, driving the loader had only a moment's warning as the water barrels he was moving began to fall, then float. He slammed on the brakes in time to stop the loader, slamming off the engine and jumping to rescue the now flying barrels before they smashed into the walls, ceiling, or floor and caused damage or worse, burst open. Rick just barely managed to juggle the barrels until they were floating slowly towards the back of the room. He quickly returned to the cargo bay and grabbed his hook out of the storage locker by the door. He activated the magnetic grapple, also known commonly as a hook, and quickly captured the slowly floating barrels one at a time and stacked them against the far wall, anchoring them into place with magnetic locks.

Confirming the lock with the depot and that the engines had been shut down Spark changed her display to show the cargo bay just in time to see the loader skid to a stop, barrels flying off as Rick scrambled to wrangle them and prevent them from crashing into anything. She tried to hop out of her chair but was surprised when she was restrained. She fumbled with the safety harness then dropped to the floor, pulling a hook from the storage locker and scampered to cargo bay one to assist. When she arrived, she saw Rick anchoring the third of the 6 barrels into place, his own hook propelling him towards the next barrel. She moved to the console and brought up the menu, selecting the grav plating in the room and disabling it while enabling the magnetic locks on both the loaders and the grav sleds at the same time to keep them in place.

Rick turned after anchoring the last of the barrels only to see Spark floating next to the top most row in the cargo bay. She waved to him then started slowly passing barrels in his direction, leaving enough room between each for him to capture and anchor them before the next approached his position, the barrels floating in a pattern aimed to allow him to easily capture them and move them into place. 'She has been practicing a lot to get this good.' Rick thought to himself as yet another barrel seemed to land right in the next open spot with barely any maneuvering required on his part. Before long, though it still took 2 long hours, the water was safely moved to the depot and anchored awaiting inspection. It took another half an hour for the shuttle from the surface to arrive, the pilot surprised that the unloading was already completed. He scanned the contract, counted the barrels then approved the shipment, passing over a small package to Rick to return to Earth.

“The fuel ship was delayed and will arrive some time tomorrow around 2200 hours, our apologies. We would invite you down to tour the colony but we are currently busy with handling two shipments and the drought issue so we are currently ill prepared to deal with visitors at this time, again apologies." The shuttle pilot gave a short bow, glancing over at Spark with obvious curiosity as well as surprise but he managed to return to his usual blank expression before he straightened up, loading his shuttle with three of the barrels before heading back to the planet, Rick shaking his head in amazement.

“Well, that's gratitude for you I guess, must be pretty hectic down there if they can't even spare a spot or two on the shuttle." Spark nodded, herself tired and ready to take a nap now that all the excitement was over. She let out a big yawn and giggled, hooking her way back to the ship and reactivating the grav plating before replacing her hook in the third cargo bay. She did the same with the plating in all the bays then headed upstairs, collapsing into her nest and falling almost immediately asleep.

Rick contacted the gunship, relaying the information about the fuel ship and the events planet side before heading upstairs himself, carefully passing by Spark's nest before crawling into his own bed, listening to the sounds of the ship until he too fell asleep.