FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Reunion: Chapter 1

1st Lieutenant Allen Reynolds walked up the stairs to his home. It had been far too long since he had been here, three months away. He hoped the fish were still alive, he had paid a local child to watch them, but he coming home to an empty tank wouldn't surprise him, the child was only six. He only hired the child to give the kid something to do to earn money. If the fish were dead, he just wouldn't pay him the amount he previously planned to.

He got to his door, it was made of a white polysubsance that was designed to look and feel like wood. It didn't. You could look at it from down the street and tell it was fake, it simply didn't look right. Everyone had doors of this material, so he didn't feel ashamed. Everything was made of the polysubstance that was mass produced to make man well near everything the common person needed. To think that wood used to be the universal building material, which would be nice, to have a real wooden door, not some cheap rip off. The forests of Earth were only starting to regrow now that the atmosphere wasn't mostly acid. Sadly trees took a long damn time to grow, he wouldn't be seeing anything made of wood in his house for a very long time.

He stepped into his small home. He lived in military issued apartment that was located in the heart of small community called Little Wales and was located outside of New London. The furnishing was modest, being an officer did mean he did get better accommodations than the enlisted man. There were only three rooms, the bedroom, the bathroom and the living room which was separated from the kitchen by the counter. He thought of it as one room since there was no door between the kitchen and the living room.

He noticed a film of dust settling on the ground as he took a few steps. The landing of his feet caused small plumes of dust to scurry away. There were small footstep leading to the counter that held the fish tank. To his surprise, the fish were still alive, all two of them. A plecostomus that did nothing but attach itself to the side of the glass right behind the filter a small goldfish that, if he wasn't careful would eat itself to death. That had happened to the other one that used to share the tank, the greedy little thing would swoop in gobble up anything that was put into the tank and ended up with a busted gut. Shame, fish were a commodity.

Allen kept his shoes on due to the dust and made a quick tour of the place to refamiliarize himself. After living in a small four by four meter room for three months, the place felt like a castle. As per military doctrine, he had two weeks off after a deployment. He served as a security officer on The Deimos, an attack destroyer that General Corrin had taken a liking to.

That man was the reason why he barely saw home. Constantly dragging thousands of sailors and marines around space searching for aliens believing himself to be the defender of humanity. Crazy is what he was. Why did he even have control of a fleet is he was an Army general? Fleets were supposed to be ran by Admirals and yet there he was, ordering the entire Eight Internal Fleet to go out and chase aliens that weren't even there.

There was a rumor that General Corrin only had this command because of the Prime Minister. It made sense to Allen, the Prime Minister was also the Commander in Chief and would have the authority to put such a man in charge. Only if he had such friends in high places, he would get himself stationed to Earth. He knew that being stationed on Earth was only reserved for those who kissed a lot of ass since the planet saw no action and a person could easily do his twenty years while getting himself a load of promotions before retiring. Plus, those who retire on Earth automatically got some land to build a house on. Lucky bastards.

For now, he was stuck on a ship as a security officer who spent most of his days staring at monitors. Occasionally there would be a fight between the sailors and marines, but rarely, the General ruled over them with an iron fist. Insubordination was punished with demotion and latrine duties for the entire deployment.

Allen sat himself on his couch that was made from more of the polysubstance that was softened to resemble leather, but like the door, failed miserably. He pulled out his datapad from his pocket to check for any messages. There were a few. Some of the other security personnel were heading to the local pub to celebrate the end of the deployment, everyone was invited to come. He considered it, his apartment was a mess from being abandoned for so long. He would need to hire someone to get it cleaned up. He could probably get someone to do it while he went to get a drink.

With his mind made up, Allen got up from the couch and stored the datapad away in his pocket where it spent most of its time. He was still in uniform, but that only meant he wouldn't have to waste time getting his identification out for the military discount. People didn't dare wear a military uniform if they weren't actually in the service, it was a crime that could see a person sent to jail for several years. The only people who got away with it were children since it was obvious that they weren't serving. The minimum age was fifteen, low in Allen's opinion. It wasn't unheard of for teenagers to finish their last two years of school in the military. Allen didn't join until he was twenty five after attending the New London University for a couple of years and decided that he didn't want a degree. Now he was thirty one, fourteen more years before he got the coveted retirement package.

Military veterans were held higher than a normal citizen in every respect. They got access to better services, got free housing and in general were taken care. This led to a perpetual state of readiness in the military, there was always enough people coming in to keep every available position filled. If a person manages to stay in and retire after twenty years, they not only got to keep the benefits after leaving, but were often offered jobs in the government itself as a reward for loyal service. Plus, the higher the rank, the better the job offer.

Allen decided to stop by one location on his way to the pub. It was a small, run down house near the edge of Little Wales, essentially the slums of the place. He knocked on the door that had seen better days, it probably scavenged from a local dump since every building here had been built by the occupants. The government rarely built anything for the people here, so they were left to care for themselves.

The door opened slightly at first, just enough to see and eye gazing back at him. It then closed and the sound of multiple locks and chains could be heard. It then opened up entirely. In the doorways stood a tired looking Canis.

"Mr. Reynolds!" She exclaimed in surprise. "I did not know you were back." Reynolds didn't know what breed she was, most Canis were like that. Years and years of 'breeding' as the government called it, led to a large population of mixed breeds that had the characteristics of dozens of breeds. She had a sharp pointed nose, floppy ears and shaggy brown fur that had grey spots.

"I actually just got back a few hours ago." Allen explained. "I'm here to talk to your son."

"Oh did the fish die?" He ears drooped slightly, afraid that Allen had come to scold her son.

"No no no." Allen waved his hands in front of him, catching on to her body language. "The fish are fine, I'm here to pay him."

She perked up instantly, relieved. "I'll go get him right now." She turned around and hustled back into the sad looking building. It was leaning slightly to the right and concrete beams had been erected to keep the building up.

Allen looked around as he waited for the Canis to return. Most buildings were actually in a worse state and he felt several pairs of eyes watching him from them. It was always made him uncomfortable to come here. He had been told by his superiors that it wasn't uncommon for people to come here and disappear. He had read several stories as well, but he had never been bothered. It was in fact due to his friendly relation with the family whose house he was at now.

He had first met them through the father. Jeremy Thatcher, who worked as a janitor at the nearby military base. The only jobs that Canis' could get was cleaning and in labor. He had come across Mr. Thatcher on several occasions and eventually found himself talking to him. He always knew about the poor conditions the Canis lived in, but it was something that was simply known but not thought about. When he heard it form the mouth of an actual Canis who lived in the slums, he felt a need to at least help one family. So, whenever he needed something done, whether it was cleaning his home or watching fish when he was gone, he would come to the Thatcher's house and hire them.

It wasn't uncommon practice to do this, so no questions were asked. Though, his superiors did warn him to be careful when they did notice that he had been doing this. They didn't trust the Canis, the entire government didn't. They had told him that he was responsible if any of his property was stolen and he would have to pay if government property was stolen or damaged. That never happened though.

"Here he is." Mrs. Thatcher walked back up to the door with a small black Canis in front of her who tried to avoid his eyes. Justin was always shy when around him, he had grown up fearing people. Canis couldn't even touch humans without permission and were often persecuted for no reason.

"Hello Justin." Allen kneeled down so he was at eye level. Justin's eyes flickered to him for an instant and then back to the floor.

"Hello." He said in a hushed tone and rubbed his paws together nervously.

"You did a great job taking care of my fish. Now it's time for your reward." Allen pulled his datapad out and set it to a payment screen. He set the amount, one hundred and fifty credits, fifty for each month, and then held it out to Justin. All transactions between humans and Canis required a physical mark.

Justin timidly stuck out his thumb on put it on the screen which flickered as it scanned his print.

"Transaction with sub-class citizen." A female synthesized voice came out of the datapad. "Authorization required."

"Authorize." Allen spoke loud and clearly to make sure the datapad got his voice.

"Voice recognition authorization accepted. Transfer of funds complete." The datapad's flickering halted and Justin pulled his thumb back. He hadn't even looked up from the ground the entire time. Allen was used to it, the first time, the child didn't even come out of his room.

Allen stood up to face Mrs. Thatcher who watched patiently as the entire process took place. "If you don't mind, my place is sort of dusty."

"It won't be a problem Mr. Reynolds." She answered him before he could finish everything he was going to say. "I'll have it cleaned up in a jiffy."

"That's great. I'll stop by tomorrow to pay you." He began to take a few steps back to leave.

"Ok and see you then." She waved and he waved back. Justin just kept looking down, now he was twisting his tail back and forth. They then walked back into their home and closed the door.

Allen began to walk towards the nearest transit station to take him to the pub. He checked his messaged again, it was a bit of a habit for him. There was one new one from the Department of Defense. It was marked urgent.

Allen cursed under his breath and opened it up.

From: Department of Defense

To: Security Officer 1st Lieutenant Allen Reynold, Security Officer 2nd Lieutenant Harry Morgan, Captain Ellen Temple...

Subject: Redeployment Status

-This message was sent by an automatic program. Please do not reply-

This is a notice of a redeployment as per the orders of General Corrin. Report to the proper authorities in 14 days at 7:05 A.M.

This message has been sent out to all officers. Please relay orders to all of your subordinates.

Have a pleasant day.

"You got to be kidding." Allen's knuckles whitened as he read the message again. "I just got back home." He rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. It wasn't too much of a surprise. Technically he would get his two weeks off before redeploying.

Poor lads at the bar were in for an unwelcome surprise.