FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 11

“If we were playing strip baccat I tell you, we’d both be seeing some serious lupari schlo… oof!” Wei was shut up by Kendra shoving her hard. The younger woman broke out laughing. Wurgaryn’s ears folded back against his head and he let out a little whine, though his tail still wagged behind him. Imacha and Kendra had just returned to the security desk and Wei wasted no time in bragging about how she whipped Wurgaryn badly at cards.

“Would you stop picking on the lupari? Wurgaryn here is about as sweet and kind as you can imagine. He don’t need a big bully like you coming over and making him feel miserable,” complained Kendra.

“Jeez, fine. You know, if you keep trying to boss and berate me like this I’m gonna start calling you mom,” she teased, poking Kendra in her arm.

“You do and you won’t live long enough to regret it.”

“I don’t feel miserable, I swear,” said the lupari. “I just want a chance to win back some of what I lost later. Tomorrow maybe, if you’re coming back?” He nodded his head, his voice clearly showing how hopeful he was.

“I dunno. Am I coming back tomorrow?” she asked directly to Kendra.

Kendra let out a long sigh and put a hand on Wei’s shoulder. “Yeah. You’re coming back tomorrow. You’re coming down with us now too.”

“Fan-fuckting-tastic!” she cried out, throwing her fist up into the air.

“Try to be calm when you get to meet Dr. Tahk, okay? He’s not the bouncy excitable sort.”

“Oh, so he’s more like Imacha? A grumpy stick in the mud?”

“I am not a stick in the mud,” grumbled Imacha as he stared down at the humans that both stood on Wurgaryn’s security desk. The lupari looked over at Imacha and held his hand up, thumb and forefinger held close together. Imacha glared at him next. “I am not!”

Kendra ignored Imacha’s complaints and focused on Wei. “Before we go, use the holo desk here to tap into the general security feed in the facility. You’ll come into contact with Tahjek. He’s the facility’s AI administrative assistant and helps keep track of personnel and a whole lot more in the labs. He has full clearance for sub-level 8 and works with us on occasion. He’ll set up your security card and clearance level. When that’s done we go meet Dr. Tahk.”

Wei nodded and sat down at the small desk atop the security desk. She connected to the terminal at the desk. A small panel in the top of the desk opened and a headset rose up, a full VR rig to keep any conversation she had private with him. She put the fully enclosing helmet on as she activated it. The system connected to her interface implants and she saw a digital recreation of the main lobby materialize around her. It was much more stylized than reality, a definitely augmented world that was too bright and colorful. Everything was too sharp and made it look like she was sitting in a video game setting. She realized she was still sitting at the desk with the holo projector in the VR sim.

A figure rezzed into view opposite where she sat. He was another lupari, his fur all black but with a single golden luminescent stripe running down from his right eye along his cheek and down along his neck, to vanish into the collar of the uniform he wore. It was similar to the uniform Wurgaryn wore, but all black with gold highlights. His ID tag clearly announced him as Tahjek. Golden eyes that flickered like stars in the night sky were focused on Wei. He nodded his head once as he looked her over.

“Welcome Wei Sheng. I am Facility Network Administrator Tahjek Two. It is an honor to meet you,” he said formally. His arms were folded behind his back and his tail slowly swayed at his rear. He, just like the rest of the sim she was in, looked hyper-realized. He was clearly a digital life form and obviously preferred to look that way, opting for it instead of verisimilitude most AIs tended to prefer.

“Why Two? What happened to one? Oh, and nice to meet you too.”

“My predecessor was a failed attempt to generate Tahjek sadly. It happens. We’re very complex beings you know. So I accepted the moniker of Two since I am clearly not the first. It’s my way of paying him homage and in a way living this life he never got to.”

“Huh. Impressive. You’re the third AI I’ve met. First two were during training on earth.”

“I hope I make a good impression then. I’d love to visit earth one day. Maybe on a vacation after more stable extranet systems are installed on your planet. Either way, that is then, this is now. Let’s get to setting up your credentials and clearance Wei… Sheng was it?” he asked.

“Yes. Wei Sheng. Corporal, United Earth Exo-marine Corps. Service number A-011-224.”

“United Earth huh?” he asked with a bemused smile across his face. “I thought uniting was something your world had a problem with.”

Wei nodded. “We do, but we’re trying. The exo-marine corps is a multinational military force being trained to service our first united earth fleet. We got a long way to go, but baby steps.”

“Baby steps. I like that. Fitting considering human sizes.”

“Hey, are you calling us short?”

“If the shoe fits…”

“Oh, so the AI knows earth idioms. Nice,” Wei chuckled. “All right, what’s next?”

“I just need to ask a few questions about you. I’m pulling up all publicly available files on you as per the pan-Union records. That will fill out all pertinent records for identity purposes. Oh, you should have your picture updated. Your hair was much longer before.”

“You tend to lose it all in the marines. It’s growing back though. Give me a few cycles.”

He nodded as his eyes flickered back and forth. The AI was clearly looking at information she couldn’t see, likely all the data about her in the Union and available from earth. The golden eyes fixed on her next and he stepped closer to the desk. A chair rezzed in behind him and he sat on it across from her. Wei found it most amusing to look eye to eye at a lupari, since the AI was at human height right now. Tahjek folded his hands on the desk before him.

“What follows is important. You do understand what is being done here, correct?” asked the AI.

“Yes. Most certainly.”

“You understand that the nature of this information is highly sensitive and that just you knowing it prior to being authorized to know it should land you in severe trouble.”

“I do.”

“I have spoken with Dr. Tahk for over an hour about accepting you into the facility and allowing you clearance to work with all present. The doctor and I normally have no disagreements most of the time, but in this I was on the opposite side of the line with him. He wants you to be part of the security team that remains down in the lab on sub-level 8 during all hours. I’m not so sure about that. Your credentials as a soldier are exemplary as are your skills. You’re an over achiever. You are above average intellect too. However, your psychological profile shows that you have had a few difficulties over time accepting rules and orders.”

“Only the stupid ones,” she said calmly.

“Isn’t it a soldier’s duty to obey orders given to them by a superior? To uphold the laws?”

“Yes, but not the ones that are made by someone who doesn’t care about following them himself or who clearly don’t know what the hell he is doing. I’ll fight to protect my world and the people I love and care for with my dying breath. But I sure as hell won’t fight to soothe some dope’s ego just so he can feel all big and bad commanding me. If I wanted to be controlled by an asshole I’d have gone into politics,” she said calmly.

“Hmm… so that applies to any laws, both the Union’s laws and the laws of your planet?”

“Any laws. I won’t turn a blind eye to something that’s wrong just because I’m told to. That’s not what I signed up for as an exo-marine. Not what I’ll do here either. I… I want to know what those things are though. I need to know. If they become a threat to everything, I need to know how to fight them.”

Tahjek nodded slightly. His eyes flitted side to side once more, again likely accessing data she couldn’t see. He refocused on her. “Is that what you want to do, to fight them?”

She was about to speak up but paused for a moment. Wei thought things over then sighed. “Part of me wants to strike back at them, because they killed my brother. That’s emotions shouting in my head. But the rational side says no. I don’t want to fight anyone. I don’t like hurting people. But I will to protect the ones I care about, protect my world, and the Union too.”

The AI smirked and nodded once more. “That is the kind of answer I was hoping to hear. I am familiar with Dr. Tahk’s plans on how he wishes to move forward with their study of the annelid and the addressing of the matter to higher ups. He will explain it further to you in his own words as he sees fit.”

“Fair enough. Any more questions?”

“No. I asked the ones I feel are most important here for the job. You already have a good rapport with Miss Forrest and Sek Tachai, so there is no issue there. Dr. Tahk is amiable enough to get along with virtually everyone there is. So with that said, I will stand by the doctor’s decision for you. You will have your credentials approved to work in the facility under the supervision of the security staff and Dr. Tahk. You will be assigned to sub-level 8 immediately. Your ID and security card will be prepared for you by tomorrow. That will be all. I look forward to working with you in the future Miss Sheng,” said Tahjek.

“Just Wei and thanks. I mean it, thanks a lot. Getting to work with my family matters to me. It sure will beat going back to the exo-marines immediately. I want some outside experience too, to fall back on as a job once I’m too old to be an active marine any more. This will do nicely.”

“I’m sure it will. Good day.” With that the AI and the sim surrounding her derezzed, leaving her in a black void until she removed the helmet and ended the connections to it. Now that her interview was completed she got back up and walked to Kendra and Imacha. “Okay you two. All done and ready to go. Tahjek said my ID card would be waiting for me when I get here tomorrow. I promise to be more serious when I meet this Dr. Tahk guy too. You have my word.”

“Good, because if you’re not we’re all in trouble. Is that clear?” asked Kendra.

“Totally.” Wei waved back at Wurgaryn. “See you later woof. I look forward to the next game of baccat together. Also, since I’ll be working in security, you get to show me the ropes.”

The lupari raised his hand and waved down at her. “Will do and see you soon. Pleasure to meet you Wei.”

Imacha had gathered his companions up carefully and marched off to the lift which would take them down to sub-level 8. The lupari watched them go, smiling all the while. Once they were out of his sight he stowed away the human sized desk and chair and sat back down. He settled back and turned on the news feed to keep him occupied. It was going to be a long, boring, stormy day. Nothing ever happened on days like this so he was happy for even that little distraction of getting to meet the new humans and play some baccat with her. She seemed just his type and he very much looked forward to spending time with her again.

Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled.

Chapter 12

She walked along the lonely road in the rain, still falling down on her in sheets. Thunder continued to rumble ominously across the landscape and lightning flashed occasionally throwing the horizon line more clearly into view in the mostly flat terrain ahead. It made the buildings in the near distance come into striking view, not blending into the darkness of the tree line behind them. As soon as the lightning ended the buildings vanished, consumed by the gloom. It didn’t matter though. The road she walked led right to it. It was the only thing at the end of this stretch of paved land, the ACBS.

Her eyes rarely blinked and she never flinched as the rain fell across her head and into her face. There were no distractions now. Only the demand given unto her mattered at this time and it was nearing completion. She could see the buildings coming into view, separated from the dark. A rare few lights, mostly subdued in the gloom of the dark, cloudy sky and rain, started to peak into view warily, to greet the stranger that approached. A security booth was ahead, a checkpoint for visitors to pass through before reaching the actual facility itself. It was a lonely blister that rose up from the mostly flat terrain about it, a single twisted tree to the side of it. The branches of it swayed and creaked as the winds battered the plant relentlessly. She saw the guard that was in the booth. He was a neishor, one of the horse-like aliens of the union, a being significantly bigger and stronger than her asishi body. It only made sense that he was chosen as a guard.

As she drew closer to the booth though she began to hear a new sound, one that was decidedly alien to her. It was a collection of sounds, tones, likely produced by some manner of tools or instruments as she heard no voices accompanying the sounds. They blended together to form something greater than their individual parts made. They coalesced into a single harmony. It flowed and ebbed, rising and falling. Music. It was music the Rider realized. It knew what music was on an intellectual level but it had never heard it before. It had been abandoned by them long, long ago as a distraction to the order that kept their society whole and eternal. She continued to close on the booth.

The neishor lounged back in his chair and enjoyed the relaxing music. It helped him imagine that he was someplace a lot nicer than here in a booth in the middle of a storm. He drew the unlucky shift, stuck on a weekend. He supposed it didn’t matter as much, the storm prevented most all outdoor activities anyhow, but he could have at least spent time at home to have a good work out and enjoyed the day with his woman. He leaned over to reach for his drink when he noticed the asishi female walking towards the booth. She moved in a stiff, almost robotic manner, and had no expression across her face at all. She was soaked, no protection from elements on her or carried by her. He didn’t recognize her either. No one had any business being on this road if they weren’t involved with the facility in some way. Still, despite his suspicion being raised, he also thought she might have been in trouble somehow, just looking for help. The neishor reached over and pulled on a yellow rubbery poncho, flipping the big hood up over his head. When he looked back to see the female he found her standing right in front of the door to his booth, startling him slightly.

He moved to the door and opened it up as he said, “What the hell are you doing out in this weather? You lost or need some he…”

The Rider lashed out, hand shooting upwards and striking the neishor in the throat with the space along the inside of her thumb and first finger. He let out a gasp and staggered back into the rear of the crowded booth, back hitting a wall while his leg knocked his large chair aside. She crowded into the booth with him immediately, both her arms held up before her in what looked like a combat stance. Despite gasping for air, unable to speak, the neishor swung at her but she easily ducked under the wild attack. Staying low she spread her arms slightly and twisted her torso side to side, slamming elbows into his abdomen twice, coaxing loud grunts of pain from the guard. He reached down to grab at her, clumsy and staggered from the agony in his sides. He barely gripped her shoulder and pulled her up but it let her smash a knee into his groin. The neishor fell to his knees from the pain.

“Wh-wha… why…?” he stammered as he looked up at the asishi before him, struggling to speak through the pain.

She paused for a moment. The music surged and swelled. New instruments joined in as the piece reached a crescendo of sound and beauty the Rider never heard before in the thousands of cycles of its life. It turned to look at the music player. In that moment the neishor lunged at the small table by his chair and grabbed for a truncheon laying there. He swung it out at the asishi and struck her hard as he could. He caught her in the side of her torso and heard something in her crack loudly, likely ribs. She stumbled to the side and thudded against a wall but never cried out in pain or even made so much as a grunt. She looked back down at the neishor. He stared back up, still trying to catch his breath and fight through the pain. Fear filled his wide, dark eyes.

“What the… what are you?” he stammered, a horrible feeling creeping into him that something about her was terribly wrong. Not normal. Not asishi.

“Not you,” she said. Her hands darted forward and she gripped the sides of his head, jamming her thumbs into his eyes. The neishor screamed as her claws pierced the orbs first before her fingers crushed them completely and shoved into the sockets, blood pouring out from them. His entire body shook, the truncheon falling from his hand as pain consumed him. One of his hands feebly went to her arm and gripped it then she yanked with all her strength to the left, snapping the neishor’s neck in the process. She released his head. His hand fell off her and the body sank to the floor of the booth, dead.

The swell of the music faded, grew silent, and ended. She stared at the music player again and listened as a new song began, the music starting slowly and at an even pace. The asishi crouched; picked up the truncheon the neishor used, and stood back up. As the music continued she raised it over her head and slammed it down on the player over and over again. The casing cracked, snapped, and broke apart, electronics and wires spilling out as well as sparking several times. The music stopped and only the sound of the storm was heard by her.

The Rider stepped out of the booth, truncheon still in hand, and continued onwards to the main facility of the ACBS. She was almost there, almost finished.

* * * *

Wurgaryn sat at the desk in the lobby of the main building. It was a large semi-circle that partly surrounded him, his private little fort of security. The day was insufferably slow, almost no one here. That was normal for the weekend, but the ship crash and the storm back to back had a lot of folks rattled. On top of that he was listening to a news report of a spree of grisly murders all happening earlier this day, starting in the wee hours of the morning. Murders were terribly uncommon in the city, the crime rate pleasantly very low, but this today… it was a tragedy. It felt like, to him, that poor Anatalay was suffering its own version of the murder spree and serial killer that was uncovered in Darrintin city about half a cycle ago. Those were terrible times, still ongoing too. Humans were still wary about some ra’lai and no one trusted Subjugation much. This set of murders though was even more bizarre than the Darrintin mass murders. The report stated that the first four murders appear to have been committed by a survivor from the crashed ship the Pargaro while the fifth was committed by persons unknown. The original murderer was possibly even the fifth victim. It was crazy.

The lupari shook his head and snacked on some meat sticks he had with him as he continued to watch the news. He was so distracted he didn’t notice the automatic lobby doors open but… he did notice the scent that struck him. Fear. He smelled fear. It wasn’t just normal fear as he had smelled in many others in his life. This was something much different. It was fear beyond fear. He had never smelled it so strong. This was terror, an all-consuming fear scent that made his own heart begin to pound inside his chest. His ears twitched as he heard the padding of paws on the smooth floor. Wurgaryn looked up to see a female asishi, dripping wet, walking towards him. Her clothes were disheveled and she held a black truncheon in her hand as she approached. The fear he smelled coming from her was infectious, overwhelming, yet she didn’t look scared at all. She was impossibly calm, the look on her face and her slow calculated walk all said she wasn’t scared… yet she was. Now he felt fear as well. Something was terribly wrong. His hand slid to a stun rod he had at his hip as he slowly stood up.

“Can I help you?” he asked slowly.

She didn’t answer and continued to walk towards him, no more than eight steps away.

“All right, that’s close enough. Stop there and drop the club,” he ordered.

Four steps. She ignored his words.

He slid the rod out of its holster and raised it up, pointing it at her. With a push of a button it activated and electricity crackled around the top third of it, a light blue glow surrounding it.

“I said, that’s enough! Stop, please!” he shouted.

The realization struck him as she took those last steps to the desk. She wasn’t what she appeared to be. Something was so wrong and alien about her look, scent, and movement. This wasn’t an asishi. At least not any asishi he ever met. He saw her swing the truncheon at his head from across the desk but he backed up just in time to avoid it. He contacted his chair behind him, fell back against it, and then he and the chair toppled to the floor with a thud and clatter. Wurgaryn scrambled on the floor to get to his paws as she walked around the side of his desk to the space left open to get behind it. She moved over to him as his paws slid on the floor, failing to rise up on them. The lupari barely rocked to the side to avoid the truncheon again when she swung it down. It smashed into the marble floor with a loud clacking sound, chipping some of the surface. She looked at him and saw him kick out at her leg to knock her down. The Rider casually raised her leg up just enough for his paw to pass under it then slammed her paw down on his lower leg, pinning it beneath the big paw.

She reared up again to slam the truncheon down on him but the lupari moved slightly faster. He ignored the pain in his leg and reached forward to touch the rod against her shin. The Rider realized the lupari’s crafty ploy, to get her to come too close so she couldn’t avoid the weapon he carried. Tyrenna let out a sudden gasp, like she came out from a body of water just before drowning, eyes wide and wild. She let out a cry of pain a moment later as the rod contacted her. Her body shook then fell over on top of the lupari. The truncheon fell out of her hand and skittered across the floor far from her grasp. Wurgaryn grunted at the weight of the female pressed down atop him. He stared at her face which was right next to his head, contorted into a grimace of pain. Her eyes slowly opened up, just tiny slits. Tears flowed from them freely. The lupari realized the scent of overwhelming terror faded from her a little, as if she was calming down. She was clearly dazed, likely to be unable to move for a minute or two more after the effects of the rod’s strike.

“Th-thank you,” she whispered to him through gritted teeth and past all the pain she felt. “Pl-please… now… h-hurry… you have to k-kill me… kill me…”

“What?” he asked in shock. “What are you talking about? What the hell is wrong with y…”

“It’s inside me… making me d-do terrible th-things and… and…” She fell silent.

“What’s inside you? What’s wrong with you? Listen, I can get help. This place is filled with doctors who… can... oh shit,” he whimpered at the end.

The scent of terror exploded around Wurgaryn again and made him almost sick to his stomach. He gripped the asishi atop him and was about to shove her off when her head lunged forward and her jaws snapped tight around his throat. He let out a gurgling cry of agony but fell silent a moment later as she yanked her head back, tearing out the lupari’s throat. The Rider rolled off him as it finished the last reconnections to the host body, taking command of it completely. It nearly was stopped by the electrical jolt but had severed all connections to the host’s neural pathways just before the rod contacted her, avoiding the same fate she did. For a brief moment it let her free, just so she could bear the brunt of the shock.

The Rider moved away Wurgaryn’s body as it lay there twitching, the last of his life oozing out onto the floor around him in a widening pool of crimson. She got up to her paws and stared down at him, spitting the ragged meat that was his throat onto his body. His head turned slightly, terror filled eyes looking up at the asishi looming over him. His mouth worked but no sounds came out. She continued to stare at him until the light went out in his eyes and his jaw stopped moving. The lupari went still and died at her paws. The Rider waited a little longer then acted again. She reclaimed the truncheon but also took the stun prod with her, shutting it off and tucking it into her pants. Next, she plucked the ID tag off his uniform, wiping a little blood off it so it didn’t cause any possible problems when using it to get past security measures.

She stepped away from the dead body and looked over the desk the lupari had sat at. Her eyes flicked over the many camera feeds that monitors below the desk displayed. They were all video feeds of the grounds outside the facility. The Rider settled into the chair and accessed the computer before her. Her fingers flicked over the holographic key pad and opened up floating windows. Using one hand she scrolled through them one at a time, searching and seeking for what she wanted. Sub-level cameras. She found them and began to access them one at a time until she located level eight’s cameras. Hallways, doors, closets, office rooms; one after another the images revealed themselves to the Rider. She accessed the lab cameras one at a time but found each was a black screen with a notice that security clearance was necessary to view the feed. Her eyes darted back to the computer and technology arrayed before her; poring over it and assessing what some of the less familiar items were. The lesser races used such primitive machines that it slightly daunted the Rider’s progress.

Slightly.

Her eyes fixed on one specific panel. A small rectangular screen was on it, approximately the same size as the ID and security card she took from the lupari. She took the card back out and held it over the panel. Light streamed up from the card reader and ran across its length. A voice echoed out from speakers to the side as soon as the card was read.

“Wurgaryn, this is Tahjek, what’s going on? Why are you trying to access the feeds from S8 cameras 19-23? You know those are off limits for you unless on direct orders from Dr. Tahk or if priority alarms are triggered on that floor.”

A face appeared on the holographic screens before the asishi, replacing all the other images. He was another lupari but clearly a digital recreation of one, his eyes sparkling like two golden stars and a streak of gold running down the side of his cheek, shining brightly amongst the black furred face. The lupari scowled at seeing an asishi and not Wurgaryn.

“Who are you?” Tahjek asked. “Where is security officer Wurgaryn. Why is there blood on your face?”

The Rider realized immediately what this was. It froze the host in place and turned inward to use the tools it had brought with it just in case this very thing was met. It was an abomination to the Rider. A thing not made of flesh and bone and blood with a true brain and nervous system that could be accessed and controlled. It was a simulacrum of life. It was a machine pretending to be a living being, thinking it could feel and reason and be considered a true sapient. To the Rider it was a mockery of evolution and existence. It was yet another reason all the lesser sapient races needed to be wiped from the Void.

“This is your final warning. I am alerting the authorities in ten seconds if you do not move away from the terminal, identify yourself to me, and…” The lupari’s voice halted. The AI had accessed the cameras in the lobby and seen the body. Wurgaryn was dead. He had known him and worked alongside him in the ACBS for nine cycles. He was a good friend to him. For the first time in Tahjek’s existence he felt both true grief and rage at once. The background of the screen turned red and the lupari face glared at the asishi. His voice rose and he snarled, “What have you done?! Did you kill him?! Who are you?! Tell me now!”

“Rider,” said the asishi softly as the thing insider her reached into the data hall of the facility with its tools. Its ‘tendrils’ rapidly found where the AI’s central processing core was, his heart and mind. They sliced into the AI with all the subtlety of a butcher hacking meat off a massive beast’s carcass with a fire axe. Each slice into the AI shredded some of its core programming and immediately severed any outside connection he had beyond the facility.

“Wait, what are you doing? Stop th-aaa-aaattt. You can can’t d-doo do that!” cried Tahjek. He felt fear rise up and replace the grief and anger. The AI struggled to fight back against the intrusive virus that had been inserted into him and was tearing him apart. He couldn’t call out for help. He was isolated inside the AI data core center. He wasn’t as fast at the slicer was cutting at him, deleting parts of him quicker than he could isolate the intruder and stop it. He felt his ‘self’ slipping away. Too much was being deleted. He couldn’t stop it. Tahjek suddenly realized that he was dying.

The lupari face on the screen before the asishi grew jagged and less realistic, parts of it fragmenting as the image was being deleted slowly. “Whyyy are are you… this to to me? I d-did no… ing wro… wrong…”

“You exist.”

The last thing the lupari AI saw was the asishi staring at him with her emotionless gaze. It was so unnatural. So devoid of feeling. It was almost like there wasn’t anything there at all. Not a living, breathing asishi. Just a body being directed by some malignant… the lupari realized what it was with the last fragments of his fading consciousness.

“…annnnneeelll… i-i-id-d-d-d…”

He died in silence, alone in the core as the last of him was sliced apart and deleted forever.

Silence reigned in the lobby once more and the Rider went back to her work.