FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A week after the Kraw Rijar, and Ryan was being paraded around as the sensible one, which he deserved, we got the message we were heading to another new planet, no scans, no nothing. Silverine burst out laughing when I accused him of deliberately making us face the unknown, so I had to ping.

"I tell a lie, there has been one thing we picked up about it. Like your own race, messages have been broadcast from it, in case there is intelligent life. One of our long range space craft picked up one such communication. They seem to be quite technologically advanced."

"Of course they are, if they're beaming messages into deep space." Abigail rolled her eyes, and I teleported before I had to listen to anymore.

There was a colossal bang, and I landed hard on concrete. There was a gasp next to me, and I opened my eyes.

O.K., once again I had stuffed big time. Straight into a concrete trailer area, in the middle of, a second glance confirmed it, a race track. I must have been around the trailers for the race vehicles. Behind me was a large building, where the commentators and VIP's would sit. It was rather long, so I guessed it was a pit lane too. I was among the trailers, and there was two hundred metres between where I was and a huge grandstand, looking at a continuation of the track.

Oh, I had caused a stir. Those in the corporate box had spotted my arrival, and also about ten of the same creatures around me. These creatures were humanoid, but as I paid closer attention, they were different. They were three fingered, with short blunt claws, and three toed. Their skin was a very dark green, and they wore flowing clothes. On their backs were four or so tentacles, which hung limply down. Down the centre of their bald heads was a slight ridge of hardened bone, and this continued into a Lekku headtail, which was also about a metre long. Their eyes were green, although I saw one with a dark blood red.

"Hmmmm." I said out loud, in Centralite, as there was a high pitched whine of a race car going past,"I think I'm at home in this environment."

I turned to the nearest of these creatures. "Greetings." I said, in Centralite.

"I can't understand you." the green skinned humanoid replied, and it was enough for my translator.

"Well I can understand you now." I replied with a disarming smile," And I'm here to send a message."

"Er, what kind of message?" the alien asked.

"We got your message. One of our probes caught your communication, we came to find out who sent it."

The alien managed a weak smile."Our scientists will be delighted. My name is Alecksis Tarian, one of this race. We are the N'thiare. I believe we sent those messages with this very goal in mind."

"Well, are you happy it worked?"

"You look a lot different to us. What is your name?"

"I'm Alduin." I gave a short bow, and spoke into my headset." Prepare my Hulme, they have roads,I will be using them, probably with this fellow."I turned back to Alecksis,"So where am I?"

"This is our motorsport track. While we live in the forests, we have racing tracks out in the plains to admire the brain childs of our designers. It's a race to who makes the best car, but it's also a show."

I smiled widely." Are alien entries legal, we could show you one or two of my species' cars?"

Alecksis looked with a smile, and courteously bowed."Follow me, Alduin." he led me towards the main building, more of the N'thiare all pointing at me.

"If you're thinking of joining in, you aren't doing it alone." Abigail said.

"Good, get Silverine, yourself, Brendan and Valmeero ready. Also Lewis might like his bike."

"Way ahead of you there, although I haven't talked to Brendan or Val, they are being informed as we speak."

I was led up a crystal stair case, and as I did, I noticed the artworks and panels were all very botanical. Trees and plants featured heavily, and the walls seemed to be the interior of a tree, all the little lines. There were no windows. I was led up to a small room, which featured a short table, around which were at least one hundred of these N'thiare. Alecksis asked me to stay by the steps, while everyone was still looking towards the track, which I couldn't see, and he walked towards the three sitting at the table, commentating on what was happening.

He leaned down next to one of them, and then gestured at me. The commentator turned, and gasped. Very quickly everyone in the room was looking at me. I smiled, and gave a short bow, walking forwards with purposeful strides. They were curious, but also a little scared. I came up to the table, and I spoke.

"Alecksis has explained who I am, and what I am doing here?"

"Not why, but you are certainly welcome. When the first broadcast was sent, we were waiting for weeks for a reply, space is a lot bigger than we thought."

"Right, my friends are quite prepared to show you some of our stuff, if we can find out a little about you. Knowledge shared and all that."

"Certainly. Where are they?"

I held up a scanner. "Technically? You wouldn't believe me." I was led overlooking the pit lane, with easily ten thousand N'Thiare looking at me. Nothing was on the race track, so I had no comparison to our stuff, and I dropped the scanner onto the concrete below. There was a bang in my headset. I took command of a microphone, and, broadcasting to at least fifteen thousand (I later found out we were live, and that number was close to three quarters of a million), spoke with a smile.

"Greetings from outer space. If we can pay attention to the pit lane box, you will notice the man making this announcement. I am an explorer from another planet, and picked up your communication on one of our probes. I'm here to say, Yes, we got the message, nice to come across you." They were all looking at me now, and there was quite a stir on the grandstand at the sight of me.

"I gather you're all here to look at some serious motor vehicles. I am keen to see one of yours as soon as one appears, but meantime, we'll show you some of ours," Abigail arrived with her Lamborghini LP-560/4. She was already revving, and she drove down the pit lane the wrong way, and as she got to the end, I spoke.

"The car coming onto the track is a Lamborghini LP-560.It is a high performance super car driven by Abigail, our mechanic. She upgraded all our engines, lightened the cars, improved everything, and chose this as her personal favourite. She also has an addiction to the colour black, so hence the stealth look." Alecksis chuckled, as Abigail floored it down the main straight. It was about four kilometres in length, and it the distance, there was a left handed hairpin. The Lambo flashed down the race track to applause. Valmeero arrived, and drove likewise the wrong way. He was not in disguise, and wearing his open face helmet.

"Ah, this is one of our special vehicles. It is a born racing car, called a Ferrari Formula 1.Not road legal, but immensely fast, immensely quick around corners, and immensely good looking. It's also being driven by the only one who can drive it, Valmeero Daggeroth." Valmeero got to the end, did a half donut, and then floored it. The Ferrari shot forwards, clicking methodically up through the gears, and all those in the box gasped at the sheer acceleration of the Ferrari. Draco arrived.

"And speaking of Ferrari, this is a road legal car of theirs, being driven by Draco Kazuli. It's called a Ferrari 430 Scuderia." The car blasted off down the pit lane, the right way.

Alecksis spoke into my ear."These cars, you build them?"

"Not us personally." I whispered back, as Brendan appeared with his Audi R10," but we upgrade everything.Would you like us to race some of your cars?"

The commentators behind me nodded."That would be interesting, these cars of yours do look the part. What's the car down there now?"

"O.K., ladies and gentlemen, the car you see is an Audi R10. Like the Ferrari F1, it is not road legal, although that hasn't stopped driver Brendan Dowski from driving it on the road. This car has won enduros over the last four years, it's diesel engine and raw pace unbeatable in it's class." Brendan shot off down the road, as Ryan Lewis arrived on his bike. He drove down, and as he pulled onto the track, saluted at me.

"Ah, this isn't a car. This is a motor bike, a two wheeled device which is much more movable than a car. Faster to accelerate, slower to turn, and can go lots of places a car can't. The master mind driving it is Ryan Lewis."

Ryan floored it, rising into a huge wheelie, urging the bike with all of his being. There were gasps as the human expertly rode the wheelie, broke it back down onto two wheels, and then flashed down the track. The entire grandstand broke into spontaneous applause, as did several around the box.

As he left, I saw what they made.

"Holy, well, I'm impressed. You guys really know how to make a car. Can someone who has been on this planet for more than ten minutes," there was a collective laugh," tell me what I'm looking at?"

I was looking at a pure bred racing car. It was long and sleek, the front was in three separate parts, the nose, and the two sleek wheel covers. It was single seat, and while it's low rear wing was testament to it's speed, I noticed a jet engine sticking out the back. It looked smooth, and was in fact called an Elite(our translation).

Behind it was a collection of cars that were thoroughly radical, or just plain different. One had tracks, speed wasn't in mind. Another had diagonal groups of wheels around a wheel, not unlike Mitsubishi's recent concept car. I recognised several concepts, and could put human names, but the rest were just pornography. There was a flashing one that used electricity for wheels, there was a rocket vehicle based on the Batmobile, not with the huge bat wings, but with the long shape and the twin rockets out the back.

Meanwhile my Hulme and Silverine's hover vehicle arrived, and I said a quick bye to Alecksis.

"Just stay here, I want to talk to you later."

"Er, sure thing, Alduin." I climbed over the railing and leapt down, landing next to the red and black Hulme. Silverine was already trundling off down the pit lane. All the cars were stopping, the race seemed to be starting soon, and the Centralites would be catching up, although in saying that it was an eight mile course. I got into the Hulme, and fired it up after Silverine.

My radio crackled into life.

"The N'thiare drivers have been alerted to your presence, there is going to be a five lap race of the track, and then we can sort out your other needs afterwards. This is a crowd pleaser, we've never ever had anything like it."

I overtook Silverine, came around the back of the pack, and began weaving through the alien cars, trying to get level with the Elite on the front row. The driver looked at me as I pulled along side, and I raised a door to look at him.

"That thing just looks astonishing." I smiled, nodding at him. He lifted his helmet, and smiled back.

"So where did you guys spring from?"

"We received your communications to outer space, and thought we'd pay a visit. I didn't know about the race, but we're all keen motor enthusiasts."

"So is that thing road legal?" he asked of my Hulme.

"One hundred percent. There are two of ours that aren't, but they're still coming around the back of the pack. Where are you guys?"I raised my voice, and listened to Val's reply.

"All of us are coming around the last corner." Abigail replied," Valmeero's booked the front of the grid next to the Elite."

"He can have it." I replied, and closed the link." They're coming soon. One of the illegal ones is going to park next to you for the start. Do you have radio?"

I was told the racer's frequency, and after telling all the Centralites, clicked onto it.

"Alduin testing, one two, one two, can everyone hear me?"

I got several confirmations. The Elite driver gave me a thumbs up, and I closed the door.

Val pulled up a minute later opposite the Elite.

"Christ, what is that thing?" the driver of the car with tracks asked.

"It is a hard core racer of Alduin's planet." Valmeero replied with a growl.

"So it's like our Elite?"

"We shall see." Val smiled, and the Elite driver overlooked the F1.

"It's been sculpted. That's not been built, it's been sculpted."

"Been built for streamlining, mate." Abigail replied."It's, frankly, nuts. Everyone ready?"

Chorus of yesses.

A light went on in front, and the audience cheering went up a notch.

"The light goes out, and we are go." the Elite said, and we watched the light like hawks.

As it went out, the entire grid floored it. Valmeero rocketed up the road in a flurry of acceleration, the Elite on it's tail, and me on the Elite. Ryan Lewis was wheeling next to me. Behind me, and coming up fast was Brendan in the Audi, and behind him the electric powered racer. Then the concept multi wheel car, and then Abigail in the Lambo and Draco in the Ferrari.

"Jesus." Ryan shouted,"I'm on a motorbike in the middle of a pack of cars, and that Formula 1 is really flying!"

I was slip streaming behind the Elite,and as I pulled out at a half attempt at the first corner, Val was already halfway through.

"No N'thiare has ever built something that quick." Alecksis said in my headset.

I overtook the Elite into the hairpin, the Audi R10 on my tail. The Audi overtook me over the next two corners as we weaved into the middle of the plain, but because of the track's layout, the Elite was keeping pace with me, riding my rear bumper. The second stage was idle, there was no long straight apart from the main one.

Brendan proceeded to race away from me and the Elitist, trying to catch the red blur that was the F1 car. The Hulme, Draco and his Ferrari, the Elite and the electro vehicle were fighting over the third place, and Abigail wasn't far behind. Val went across the start line, having gained half the pit straight on us in one lap. Brendan was twenty seconds behind, and then came us. The Hulme, the Scuderia and the Elite shot from the corner, almost side by side.

"New Zealand machinery, vs. the finest of Italy." Draco smirked, and my only reply was to hit second stage. He was two seconds behind me, and the Elite, while gamely hanging on, went backwards in my mirrors.

"This is part racing car, Draco, they race it in the Can Am series." I said, watching the dragon lose a couple of yards.

"Damn it!" I heard the dragon swear. This was the original design that made the Caparo T1, just the British built it faster because they had a team doing it, the NZ Hulme being produced by only a couple of mechanics.

I did an indicated four hundred and fifty on the straight before braking, and soon we were weaving again through the corners. We all went past the car with tracks, it was not very quick at all, and Ryan spoke.

"I'm racing that wheels on a wheel car, it's not bad around the corners."

There was an icy reply."That's because I designed it to work around corners." the voice got warmer,"that thing's not bad in acceleration."

"That's because there's less weight to push around." Ryan replied, as both came down the front straight, side by side. The grandstand was cheering vociferously at the sight of the motorbike and concept car going hammer and tongs.

No one crashed, no one fell of the side of the road, and the result was Centralite biased. Val finished a good minute before Brendan, and he was out of his car on the pit lane before Brendan could pull up next to him. Draco tried to keep me honest, but I had the power on the final straight, so third and fourth. Fifth went to the Elite, sixth to Abigail. Ryan had not broken the deadlock with his new friend, they had swept across the line side by side.

After I had crossed the line, I braked, parked at the side of the track, waited until those of the followers had crossed, and then floored it, jerking the wheel to the right. The Hulme was a bit heavier, which meant doing this was slightly easier than in the Atom. I spun into a huge donut, and the revs mounted as I went around, and around. I came to a halt in the centre of a circle of rubber, facing down track, and then I built up the revs again and then drove a set of elevenses down the track. White smoke plumed from the rear of the car, and then I went back into the pit lane. I could see cheering N'thiare and waving at my antics, and Abigail spoke.

"Alright, you've impressed me."

"That's a victory in itself." Brendan commented,"But it looked good."

"How does one do that?" the Elitist asked.

"Alduin would gladly teach you, if you asked politely." Draco replied.

"You are ruining your tyres badly." Ryan Lewis commented drily," But by god what a way to go."

Notice something yet? Silverine didn't take part. He was parked at the start of the pit straight. As I parked he fired up, and there were several shouts of astonishment at the hovering vehicle as it took off down the road towards the first corner. I was led back up to the box, where Alecksis and all the other N'Thiare were waiting. Val was down below, posing for pictures on his F1, and Brendan was likewise sitting on the bodywork of his R10, looking dignified. None of the cameras had flash, so it was just a constant click, click, click.

Alecksis was looking stunned, the others immensely impressed, and one of the commentators spoke to me.

"Could we ask you a couple of questions?Your race are frankly incredible."

"All of us, except Ryan, are different races, but I'm quite happy to discuss things with a few of you. Not too many, I get shy in front of large audiences."

There was a general laugh. All of them wanted to know how I had managed to speak publicly in front of the entire race track if that was the case.

The sun was setting, and I spoke to Alecksis privately as the box were looking at Val and Brendan with their racers.

"What say we ditch this place and go somewhere more private?"

Alecksis looked shyly."Um, what do you want to do?"

"I want to have a look at your town, and then do what I came here to do somewhere quiet."

Alecksis nodded, and we went back down, sauntered past Val and Brendan, and both of us got into the Hulme. Alecksis was not used to the seats, and took a few goes to get comfortable. I started up, drove through the throng slowly, and under some guidance from a marshal, got onto a road that went under the race track and headed to the N'thiare town. The tunnel was quite long, and actually resurfaced at the town itself.

"By god." I said, in amazement. It was an apt thing to say. In this forest, it was very dark, the sun did not penetrate here, but there were thousands of white lights that bathed the place in an ethereal and unearthly glow. The cars glowed in the reflections, and N'thiare stared as my Hulme rumbled past. The trees were tightly clustered, and the entire city seemed to be built in the tree tops. Hundreds of walkways and buildings criss crossed above us, even the lowest were a good twenty feet up. The trees were also very wide and thick while being very tall, and Alecksis spoke quietly.

"This is our home." he said, while I looked at the beautiful scene open mouthed. I pulled to the side of the road and got out of the Hulme, looking at the glittering walkways, all of which sparkled with their own lights. The glass made some truly spectacular effects, and the metal was sheening. I stood on the grassy footpath, the road wasn't tarmac, it was gravel, and the gravel and grass were separated by metal lines. I turned 360 on the grass, surrounded by curious N'thiare.

"Wow." I said, entranced. Alecksis smiled from his seat.

"It is beautiful. My own quarters are five minutes from here, do you wish to talk there?"

I shook myself, and got back into the car. I drove steadily down the road. There were a couple of cars, sleek and shining, which could seat about five to eight of these creatures. We stopped outside a pair of trees, and Alecksis walked up to one of them, tapping on the trunk of one.

The tree opened, and Alecksis walked into what appeared to be an elevator. It could stand two or three.

"The tree lives, and yet we've got these running inside it. The trick is to do it patiently." he smiled, and motioned me in. I followed, and the wooden walls closed. The platform we were on rose slowly, and after half a minute, arrived at the walkway level. Alecksis got out, and walked into a crowd of two hundred N'thiare. All of them were walking towards their own destinations, but they stopped when they saw me step forwards. I had left all my weaponry in the Hulme, and I felt slightly shy in this crowd. Alecksis spoke to the surrounding people.

"He turned up at the track, he got our deep space communication.There are others around as well."

I walked through the group, Alecksis holding my hand and leading me, and we walked across a walkway of glass over the road. As we did, I saw the Scuderia waiting at an intersection. I stopped, and spoke into my headset, looking down at the Ferrari.

"Hey, Draco, how's it going?"

"Not at all bad, Alduin. It is very nice for a town."

"It's beautiful for a town." I saw several N'thiare look downwards in slight embarrassment in the reflections on the glass.

"So where have you got to? I can see your Hulme parked, but I presume you aren't in it."

"I'm on a walkway almost thirty feet above the Hulme, looking right at you. Alecksis is going to take me to his place."

"Very well, can you arrange someone to show me around? I'm a little peckish after that racing, and I'm quite prepared to be taught something."

I smiled."Give me a second." I turned, and spoke to the crowd," My companion in the car down there would like to be shown around, could someone oblige?"

There was about ten people volunteering.

"O.K., two things. Firstly, he is hungry, so if you can lead him somewhere that sells food, cause after the racing he has an appetite." A couple of nods.

"And secondly, he is in fact quite a lot bigger and different to me, but don't let that scare you. All good?"

The nods were rather less enthusiastic, but a group of three headed to the lift, and descended. There were two lifts, and I watched as Draco pulled up next to the Hulme, and those who were to show him around got out of the lift. I saw Brendan drive slowly down the street, and several people pointed out the stripped racing car.

Abigail was driving directly behind the racer, but she turned left at an intersection, and headed in a different direction. Ryan Lewis parked behind Draco, his bike leaning on it's kickstand, and then Draco got out of the car.

The unfolding dragon caused the N'thiare to back away, but he saw them, and gave a polite nod. As they tentatively approached, I nudged Alecksis to continue.

The N'thiare lived in the trees, and they worked around them. Alecksis' three room house (bathroom, bedroom, living area and kitchen), had a large branch as part of the roof, and small plants grew around the room in varying states of size. I noticed that the door led into a slight antechamber, and then there was a curtain of vines hanging down. Alecksis swept them aside, and sat down on a low two seater couch. I wouldn't have been surprised if it was stuffed with moss.

I sat down beside him. A projector behind the seats started up, casting a three metre screen onto one wall. Alecksis spoke.

"We have a daily report on current and international events in ten minutes, I'm guessing you'll be on it. Would you like something to eat?"

"Depends whether I'll be able to eat it. But that would be most appreciated." I replied politely, and Alecksis got up and began making a short meal. I watched the screen, it seemed to be a drama of some kind. Honestly, change the actors to be human, give them Northern accents, and it could be Coronation Street.

Alecksis seemed to be conjuring fruits and berries from a fridge that had been painted to look like wood, and was doling out two portions onto wooden dishes. These guys were almost like the elves with their reverence for nature, and yet I'm certain the Elite had not been made from naught but wood shavings. The design suggested a wind tunnel had been used, and it looked remarkably like carbon fibre.

Alecksis handed me a plate of fruit and berries. I tapped my glasses.

"Scan for compatibility." I enunciated, and a little blue light on the side of my glasses ran across the food. After about six seconds, the light vanished, and I heard Abigail's voice.

"Scan completed. The food is easily compatible with the human digestive system, despite the nature of the subject, viz the fact he can't eat anything unusual without becoming berserk or feeling sick."

Ow. I casually opened a voice channel to Abigail.

"I don't think much about your snide computer personality, Abby." there was a giggle from the lioness.

"Damn, I was hoping I'd get more of a reaction then that."

"I've just been abused by your machine, the only reason I haven't smashed it to bits for it's impudence is that I could sell it to the U.S Government, and retire on it's sell price alone."

"O.K. I'm removing the version. I had added it so someone could bite at me."

"And has anyone risen to the bait?"

"You were the first to even call, actually." Abigail replied,"O.K, done."

"Computer,"I began," you were saying?"

"Yes," Abigail's computer replied,"It's compatible."

"And?"

"Sorry."

"I should think so too." I closed down the wayward scanner and explained why I had needed it in the first place to my curious host.

Alecksis smiled and nodded."I should have asked before."

"Oh, Abby designed the system a couple of years ago, it is programmable to the person wearing it, quite ingenious, although I'd rather you didn't tell her that on account of the fact she'd use it as power in her arguments for extra funding." Alecksis snorted with laughter, and I grinned roguishly.

Further merriment was halted as the program came to an end, and with a very serious musical jingle, we were faced by a single N'thiare sitting behind a desk, yes, it was made of a dark wood, and holding a hand held scrolling computer. He wasn't looking at it very often, which either meant he had incredible recall, or that the camera had another copy of the scrolling notes next to it, like they did on the human news.

"Good evening, and welcome to the evening news," all translated," First item on the agenda, less than an hour ago, our scientists received confirmation that there is intelligent life out in space."

"Well, there goes any chance of stealth." I smiled, interlinking with all my friends. Alecksis chuckled.

"I told you so."