FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Feo led Sam back through the winding tunnels of the complex, before eventually finding their way back to the tram station. They quickly boarded one, which at first made its way towards the docks, but veered off shortly after, taking them deeper into the rock at the base of the ocean. Sam glanced at Feo nervously, “So… That didn’t seem to go well…” he said quietly.

She chuckled softly and shrugged, “Eh, they’re all pomp and ‘hard lines’. They may talk tough, but they know that I’m invaluable to them. Hah, this isn’t even the worst thing I’ve done; one time, my stealth field failed in the middle of an infiltration, revealing me to, like, thirty civilians. Gosh, that was a screw up and a half, but everything was sorted by the end…”

Sam raised an eyebrow at her, “What’s stopping them from just getting rid of you though, if you’re too much trouble than you’re worth?”

Feo smirked in response, “Well, you’d be right, of course. Except, even among my transferred brethren, I’m particularly special. I’m one of the few androids with the skill and instinct to be able to hack past military defence barriers, something that most Aeteri soldiers can only dream of. Our cyberwarfare corps are able to breach low security and civilian barriers without too much trouble, heh, but there hasn’t been a firewall or barrier able to keep me out, which is why I’m so valuable to Command.”

As they pulled up to a new tram station, Feo stood and stretched, “Anyway, I figure we’ll grab you something to eat before heading back to my quarters.”

Sam frowned a little at her, “Didn’t they say for you to go straight there?”

She snickered, “Well, they said I was restricted to quarters. Not that I wasn’t able to stop somewhere on the way there. Come on, I can hear your stomach growling at me from here, and I’m sure you’re fed up with military rations and what can be thrown together in a ship’s mess,” she added with a chuckle.

Sam sighed softly, “Fine, but let the record show I didn’t suggest this!”

They stepped out onto the platform and made for one of the many exits hewn from the rock. And as they walked through, the sight left Sam awestruck; they were now in an absolutely immense cavern. So big, in fact, that Sam couldn’t quite see the wall at the back. Every couple of hundred metres were massive support columns braced with heavy metal plates, surrounded by a cluster of smaller, yet equally as impressive buildings. These smaller structures stretched as far as Sam could see, and definitely seemed to emphasise function over form. As Sam looked around, the throng of people hanging around what looked like restaurants seemed larger than even those at the docks. There even seemed to be roads and cars spread out under the bright artificial lights overhead!

As they walked among the sprawling underground city, they eventually found their way to what Sam assumed to be the restaurant district. The variety of smells was absolutely incredible! But much to his surprise, a lot of the food that he caught glimpses of didn’t look too dissimilar to what he was used to. I mean, sure, blue noodles, grey fruits and yellow berries, but they still looked familiar!

Sam turned to Feo as they walked, “Hey, I can’t help but notice the food-”

Feo chuckled softly, “How it looks familiar to what you’re used to?” she commented, finishing his sentence for him, “Is it really that surprising when you think about it? I mean, pasta, for example, is a relatively simple food type that is quite cheap to produce, especially if you’re able to remove the livestock from the equation!”

Sam shrugged a little as they continued walking, “I guess,” he replied, before a smell from a nearby restaurant caught his attention.

Half an hour later, Sam was feeling incredibly full. The bowl of noodles he had ordered came mixed with what looked like berries and other fruits, and it was a surprisingly refreshing meal! But as he scanned down the menu, he was a little surprised to see no mention of meat at all. When he brought it up with Feo, she just shrugged, “Well, the Pariea are pretty strictly herbivores only. And, well, this is a Pariean noodle bar we’re at. Most others are omnivores, but gosh, seeing an Ilfemyoo with her muzzle covered in blood or meat juices… That’s one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen, ‘cause you really don’t expect that from such an adorable species, do you?”

Sam couldn’t help but laugh at that, “No, I suppose you don’t,” he relented, smiling a little.

She sighed a little as she stood up, “Though I admit, we don’t have the ability to raise livestock here, so we’re limited to whatever we can grow hydroponically. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had proper steak?”.

Sam shook his head in bemusement as he did the same, “No, I can’t say I do,”

She poked Sam in the side gently, “Well, tens of times longer than you’ve been alive!”

They both chuckled heartily as Feo flagged down a passing waiter, quickly paying the bill, before making their way back into the street.

Before long, they had arrived at the base of one of those pillars that Sam had noticed earlier. But far from being simple support columns, they appeared to be massive, cylindrical residential towers. They walked inside and took an elevator up from the centre of the building. Feo said her full name, moments before the elevator took off; presumably, the elevator would take them to her floor. Sam wasn’t quite sure of the exact number or height, but judging from how long they were climbing, they were likely quite high up. The doors opened to reveal a carpeted hallway with doors on either side, and a bright, almost harsh light above.

They stepped out, with Feo leading them down the long hallways as she explained the building’s layout. Like a tree-trunk, the floor plan was a series of concentric circles, emanating from the main elevator in the centre, and with corridors connecting them all across the cardinal directions. They walked until they reached a door on the outer ring; Feo started fishing though her pockets, looking for a key card, before one of the doors opposite hers opened.

“Oh, hey there Feo!” someone behind them called out, and they both spun around to see a grey and yellow Eoburus slouching in her doorway, “It’s been a while, hasn’t it? How’d the mission go?”

Feo shrugged a little, “You know the rules, Sara, classified, remember?” she replied, fishing her key card from her pocket and opening her door.

Sara glanced up and down at Sam, her eyebrow raised, “I admit, I’ve never seen someone like you before,” she commented, “You a hybrid?”

Sam blinked in surprise, but before he could do more than open his mouth, he was yanked inside by the scruff of his collar, with the door closing quickly after.

Feo whacked what Sam assumed to be the lock button and strode further into the apartment. As Sam adjusted to the change in lighting, he slowly was able to make out the details of her place; directly opposite the door was a floor-to-ceiling window taking up most of the far wall, and a small table and chair set nearby. In the middle of the room there was a circular depressed section, with cushions taking up most of the ledge space, while there was some kind of terminal in the centre.

As Feo stripped off her jacket and tossed it onto the table, Sam slowly walked around the room. The walls were a deep brown colour and had a rough texture to them, but as he knocked on it softly, he realised that it was metal, rather than stone like he had originally assumed. He made his way to one of the two doors on opposite sides of the room and peeked inside; there was a bench in the middle of the room, which was smaller than the one he was currently in. After a moment, he finally realised that he was looking at the kitchen, something he really should have realised sooner, but he wasn’t expecting it to look so… Well, so much like what he was used to. There was a stove set into the bench along the back wall, as well as a sink next to it. To the right of all of this, there was what he assumed, rightly so, to be the fridge.

Sam turned back to face the main room and was a little surprised to not see Feo anywhere. He sighed and shook his head a little, before making his way to the window and looking out. The view from this height was phenomenal! There were dozens of other buildings in the distance, all of them similar in appearance to the one he was currently occupying.

“Jeez… How high do they go?” he wondered aloud, more to himself than anything, which caused him to be startled when he heard a response.

“Hundreds of metres up and down into the roof and floor, and covering almost the entirety of both in the cavern,” Feo said from behind him. He spun around to look at her and was surprised by her change of attire. Gone were the loose combat pants and fur-tight shirt covering the majority of her upper body; they had been replaced with a top that barely came down to her midriff, with flared cuffs from about half way down her forearms, a jacket made of some kind of leather over the top of that, which covered the rest of her torso but left her lower belly bare and stopped just short of the flare of her sleeves, and a pair of well-worn pants that seemed to look quite a bit like denim.

Sam raised an eyebrow at her, to which she replied with a shrug, “What? They’re comfortable,” she commented, before walking over on bare, furred feet to the centre of the room and climbing down onto the couch. Feo slouched back, grabbing a data cable stashed behind the cushion and plugging it in, which seemed to activate the massive holographic display in front of her. Well, it was less a screen and more like a globe of glowing, swirling information.

As Sam stared at it, she tilted her head back to look at him upside-down, “You gunna just stand there all day? Or are you gunna sit down and join me?”

Sam had barely taken a step forwards before Feo spoke up again, “Oh, and shoes off, please. I’d like to keep this couch relatively clean, okay?”

Sam sighed audibly and began removing his boots, while Feo turned her attention back to the display in front of her. She looked like she was accessing the comm system, and this was further confirmed by her starting to talk to the projection before her, “Gladius, are you there?”

The face of Ensign Vara popped up in front of her, “Hello, Captain! What’s up?”

Feo smiled warmly at her, “Would you be able to transfer me a copy of all the data we collected during our last mission?”

Vara tilted her head to one side in confusion, before nodding, “Of course, Captain, transferring now.”

As Sam stepped carefully down onto the couch, a multitude of windows started popping open above them.

“Transfer complete, Captain,” Vara said, “Is there anything else you need?”

Sam poked his head around so Vara could see him, accidentally shoving Feo in the process, “Hey, err, would you be able to send me the documents Raalic had me looking over?”

She blinked in surprise, before offering him a hasty chuckle, “Oh, sure thing, Sam. I’ll get him to do that, he’d have a better idea than I would.”

Sam nodded, “Thanks, I’d appreciate that!” he exclaimed, before glancing at Feo, whom he was now partially on top of.

With a hasty apology, he clambered back to an empty cushion, not really willing to make eye contact with her now. She chuckled softly, “Alright, Vara, that’s everything. Hopefully I’ll be seeing you soon.”

The window containing her face vanished as Feo turned towards Sam, “Looks like we’re in for a long night…” she commented.

The hours of the night had grown long and cold. The bustle of activity far below them had died down to a dull murmur, with only the night-owls and evening workers still making their way through the underground city’s streets. Sam was snoring away on the couch while Feo worked; she was reading through some of the detailed scans she had taken of the Sarek’pa unit’s quantum brain when the soft bleeping of an incoming call caught her attention.

She answered it, to the visage of Elder Ahri smiling at her, “Hello, Captain, how are you doing?”

Feo shrugged, “Same old same old, really,” she replied, “Just getting some work done. What’s up with the call, Elder?”

Ahri chuckled, “Straight to the point as always, I see. Very well. The council has completed its deliberations on your case.”

Feo raised an eyebrow, “And?”

“The council has agreed to your proposal in relation to the Terran,” he explained, “But on one condition. You are to be held responsible for his actions as long as he lives. His success shall be yours, as will his failings. Have him report to the Genetics Lab when he is ready.”

He paused for a moment, “The council has also been considering the information you provided. Is there any way you would be able to trace where the corruption came from?”

Feo bit her lower lip and glanced aside as she thought, before looking back up at him, “I can try to dive one of the corrupted AIs and see if there is still a remnant of the virus that did this. With any luck, that will give us more information.”

Ahri nodded, “Okay… Finish what you’re doing and get it done. Report your findings to me the minute you have them,” he said, before dropping his voice a little, “I would prefer it if you didn’t speak to anyone else of this. We don’t want to cause a commotion before we are 100% sure.”

Feo tilted her head to one side slightly, “Err, very well, sir. Once Sam wakes up and I’ve taken him to the lab, I’ll get started on it.”

He once again nodded at her, “Good. That’s all for now,” he said, before ending the call.

She groaned softly and leaned back against her couch, staring up at the ceiling in mild annoyance, before glancing down at Sam who was now laying on his side, watching her.

Feo smirked a little, “How much of that did you hear?” she asked with a smile.

“Eh, most of it, to be honest,” he replied, sitting up and stretching quite audibly, with a few of his joints popping, “I’m a fairly light sleeper.”

They both fell silent for a minute, while Feo’s AIs dived and rushed around the data globe before them, looking, for all intents and purposes, like they were playing with each other.

This brought a chuckle to Sam’s lips, but also raised a question that he realised he hadn’t really considered before, “So, what’s the deal with your AI?” he asked softly.

She glanced over at him, “What do you mean?” she replied questioningly.

Sam shrugged slightly, “Well, where did they come from? And would they be vulnerable to the same virus that screwed up the Sarek’pa?”

Feo breathed a tired sigh, “Well, that’s a long story… Short answer, no, they’re not vulnerable. To be honest, we still don’t really know how they work, because they’re not something that we consciously created…”

Sam raised an eyebrow in confusion, to which Feo just offered a soft smirk, “Since I’m the only Aeteri android you’ve interacted with on a constant basis, I’m not surprised that you haven’t noticed. But every android will eventually develop at least one AI. It’s been theorised that they arose as an offshoot from our subconscious minds, as a way for our mind to handle the transition from organic to synthetic. A lot of our internal systems need constant monitoring, so it seemed natural that we would develop a process to handle it subconsciously.”

She broke off for a moment as she watched her AIs playing around, before continuing, “Anyway, for the most part, those AI are all but invisible. They help manage our systems, remind us of basic things, keep us running with few problems… But then sometimes, if an Aeteri is particularly intelligent, or has been around for a long time, or is particularly compatible with their new form, they’ve got a chance of one of two things happening. They will either develop a second AI, or that first one will increase in complexity. It’s an enigma as to why they develop like that, and why only a few Aeteri have that happen. I think last estimates put it at around 10% of the android population had this happen?”

Sam bobbed his head in agreement, but otherwise remained silent.

“In that 10%, one in a hundred will develop three AIs of a moderately complex nature. It’s often the prodigies among us that have this happen. Maybe it’s the way their brain was wired? We’re not sure, but whatever the case may be, the things that those people could achieve were startling. Processing data that would take a normal Aeteri weeks, in a matter of seconds. Running complex simulations in their minds, unaided by external hardware. And, of most interest to the Aeteri military, the ability to hack into targets, which had long since been elusive to most militaries as a result of advancements in cryptotechnology…”

Feo hesitated for a second, before bowing her head and continuing, “In my case, well, I’m even more unique than that… Sen, Ela and Mar, here, they’re not like the AIs created by the others. They are far more complex, to the point of making other ones seem like simple voice response programs in comparison. For a good couple of decades, I was the topic of intense debate, study and examination. Our scientists had no clue how they came about, though the current running theory is that my mind was such a perfect match for my new state that it was inevitable. Our military was particularly desperate for knowledge on how to replicate it, and for good reason… I seemed like a prodigy when it came to hacking. It became second nature to me, to do something that took a squad of ten others combined, in a matter of moments by myself. Back on Earth, hacking into that mech would have taken tens of minutes for others, but I did it in seconds. Understandably, the higher ups were intrigued. But ultimately, there was no real explanation for it, so I’ve become a strange kind of oddity. For the most part, I keep to myself, because the looks I get in public are a little disconcerting, like a mixture of fear and intrigue. But it’s fine, really... It’s something I’ve had plenty of time to get used to…”

She sighed quietly, “And then… Well, I told you how there are Aeteri who take to life as an android as easily as breathing? There are others who are the exact opposite… There are those who lose their minds as a result of what they’ve become. And even if they survive the initial shock, you’re looking at an eternity of potential suffering and pain. I’ve lost too many friends; soldiers, scientists,” she paused for a moment, before smirking darkly, “Even engineers… The millennia of eternity take a toll on you. And I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who isn’t affected in some way.”

She fell silent, at which Sam took the opportunity to move over towards her, patting her lightly on the arm, “I know I haven’t known you anywhere near as long as some of your other friends,” he began, “But I hope you know that you can always talk to me if you need to. I mean, hell, you saved my life too, it’s the least I could do.”

Feo didn’t reply for a moment, before seeming to shake herself back from her thoughts to glance at Sam beside her, then flashing him a sly smile, “Enough moping about though, it’s time to get you ready for your big day!”

Sam looked a little taken aback, “So that’s that then? That’s how you’re going to end that?” he asked, a little surprised.

Feo shrugged as her AIs vanished, before disconnected the data cable from her neck and standing up, “Well, I’m quite good at compartmentalising, just stuffing it into a box and forgetting about it,” she replied.

He frowned a little at her, “That can’t be healthy, Feo,” he cautioned.

Feo chuckled softly, “Well, it’s worked for me so far, may as well. Let me grab something from my room, then we can get going.”

She stepped over the couch and made her way to the room on the left side of the room, what Sam assumed to be the bedroom. Sam shook his head a little and jumped up from the couch, hurrying to put his boots on. Now that it was getting nearer, Sam’s stomach was in knots in anticipation over what was going to happen. The tiny thoughts that were hiding in the back of his brain were starting to get louder. As he strapped up his boots, he felt his heart thudding in his chest, and he came to a realisation. These were his last hours of being human.