FSE

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Revealed: Chapter 3

"Is that how you say hello nowadays?" A light sweet voice filtered through the blanket and into the crate that I was now slowly baking in. If I remembered right, Natalie was the Josten's version of Francis. She was gorgeous and smart at the same time, using her image to help sell publicity. I had seen her on numerous advertisements and had heard her on a few broadcasts. Other than that, I knew nothing about her, but from how Francis sounded, she wasn't a friend.

"It's how I greet anyone who gets near my ship without my knowledge. For you, I have a special greeting. Fuck off." Francis yelled. I heard hum storm off into the distance leaving me. Great, now what?

"Oh what a pity." Natalie spoke up in a sarcastically depressed way. The sound of clacking high heels approaching made me shudder. What if she knows that I'm here? The thought of being caught and once again being locked away was too much. I looked around my carrier, it was plastic, I could easily break through it, bit that would just blow my cover if she didn't know I was in here. The workers, Troy and the older man weren't going to do anything, if they were, they would have done something by now.

"Uh, miss." Troy spoke up nervously. "I don't think Mr. Hawthorne wants anyone looking in there. I was running out of time and the panic was building.

"Pish posh, what's a little peek going to do?" I saw the blankets crumple as she grabbed the edge of the blankets. I had to do something to deter her, if she didn't know it was me, then a look could do it. If Francis had the ability to get secret bank files for evidence then it wouldn't be hard for a Josten such as Natalie to get an image of me. The blanket began to lift and I did something that my still very human mind did not think of. I growled and barked. Even though she couldn't see, I got up as high as I could on all fours with my fur raised and teeth bared. It had come so naturally to me, that I didn't even have to think about it.

'You can thank me later.' The voice that had been absent for a good while now came back amidst my barking. It was no longer filled with hate, but annoyance. Annoyance in me for not acting. Since it was a part of me, I could feel everything it did.

The crumples on the blanket went away with a startled gasp. "Ferocious beast." She scoffed. I heard a few clicks of here heals. "What kind of dog is it?" I should have been angry, furious even that this other side of me got control for a bit, but I wasn't. It didn't feel so dangerous anymore. Not as angry or unpredictable, I could feel it... lounging in my head, patiently watching the world go by and waiting for its opportunity.

'I know that you're scrutinizing me.' It came back and surprised me. 'Don't act so surprised, I am a part of you so stop thinking of me as 'it.' What would I call it? I wouldn't call it 'me,' that would get confusing. 'Just call me Dog, since I am that part of you.' That made sense.

"Mr. Hawthorne said it was a German Shepherd miss." Troy's voice interrupted the internal conversation I was having with Dog. "Damn big one at that." A slap echoed into the carrier. "Ow hell you doing?"

The older worker spoke this time. "Watch your language around the lady Troy." That got a slight giggle from Natalie who was still a few feet away. I noticed that I was still up on all four. What an odd position it was. Everyone had crawled around before in their lives, but it was too awkward for a human to actually move around since they had to stay on their hands and knees or risk losing balance if they did get onto their back feet as well. I could easily get onto my hind legs without feeling off balance, it felt weird, but not alien. I lowered myself back into the laying position I was in earlier, panting. All of the tension in the air turned into heat which was building up to unbearable levels now. Natalie would have to leave soon so I could get out of this oven.

"How gentleman like." Natalie chimed.

"Need to show proper respect and etiquette, something that seems to be fading out." I wonder if he was talking about how Francis reacted to her presence.

"Yes." Natalie mulled. "Perhaps I should leave before Francis returns with security or a gun. Goodbye."

"Goodbye." The other two said out of sync.

The clicks and clacks of her high heels began to fade into the distance. "We should get Mr. Hawthorne's dog onto his ship before we get yelled at for slacking off." Troy spoke up after several seconds of what I would assume was staring at Natalie's ass.

"Yeah."

Once again the cart that the carrier was on began to move. It was only a few minutes before the cart stopped moving and with heavy grunts and a few curses from both of them, the carrier was set down. I waited a good five minutes after I could no longer hear them before I decided to get out, which turned out to be a much more difficult endeavor than I thought. The grating on the door was barely large enough for me to get my fingers through and I had a hard time fidgeting with the simple spring lock. It kept slipping out of my grasp and the *clang* that came after each failure when the spring slammed back taunted me. To add insult to injury, I couldn't get the blanket off either, some of it had gotten pinched under the carrier, leaving me to pant it out.

"Come on you stupid piece of shit." I glared intently at the lock as I tried to get it open again. I was almost there, only a few more inches and I would be free of the carrier that was beginning to smell a lot like me than I thought possible. Damn dog nose and its sensitivity.

*Clang*

"Fuck you." I yelled at the lock. It had been nearly half an hour and Francis was nowhere to be seen. For a man who acted so confident back down on Earth, he had a lot of personal problems. I wouldn't care so much if he didn't just up and leave ten seconds after he saw Natalie and had his miniature meltdown. "Damn you Francis." I muttered in defeat. I rubbed my through my head fur, it was damp and sticky from the humidity. Somehow my own fur was beginning to chafe me, tangling in on its self and getting pulled whenever I moved. The carrier might have been large by dog standards, but a man needed to sprawl out, I was forced to curl up and wait.

'Just bust it open.' Dog spoke up, prodding my mind like a child would poke a dead animal with a stick. 'It's just plastic and he's rich. He won't mind.'

"No need to get violent and just break things." I spoke aloud.

'You're no fun, always so uptight and proper.' He spoke the last bit in a British tone. How was he doing this if he was just supposed to be another part of me? Was I going crazy? 'Crazy?' I forgot that Dog could hear anything I thought. 'You aren't going crazy, think of me as the little angel that sits on your shoulder guiding you.'

"More like the devil." I sneered. "It's always destruction and murder with you. Kill him, kill her, break this, break that." I mocked him and enjoyed it. Though I felt that it didn't aggravate him as much as I would have liked.

'In the end, most of them did end up dying.' Dog's voice lazily remarked. He had a point, whenever he wanted me to kill someone, they just ended up dying later on either at my own hands or someone else's. 'Why stop the inevitable. You're going to need to get out of the carrier, just break it.'

"You're right." I admitted, but not to what he wanted. "Why stop the inevitable, Francis will be along soon and he will help us... me get out. I can wait." I felt Dog's presence fade back now that I had beaten him at his little mind game and I was contempt with waiting. Not really but I didn't need him to come back and tell me 'I told you so.' I rested my head on my paws just like how I saw lazy dogs do it and waited. It soon became apparent that the cage was only hot and musky because I had been so active lately and it soon cooled down to a more comfortable temperature. I listened to the hum of ship and the distant noise of activity that was coming from the station, it was soothing and I was soon asleep.

"God damn Natalie." Francis' grumbles woke me up from a rather pleasant slumber. I shifted to stretch my arms as legs as much as the carrier would allow, opening my maw in a yawn. My nose stung a bit when I got a whiff of the smell that had slowly built up with nowhere to go. "Her and her bloody ways." Francis was marching all around the cage muttering more insults about Natalie. "Why her, out of everyone in her family, they sent her. Why not her brother?" He seemed unaware that I was actually in the carrier still; that bugged me.

"Ahem." I coughed and smiled when I heard him stumble and knock a few things over.

"Christ you scared me." He walked back over to the carrier and I was blinded when it removed. I put a paw up to my eyes and only barely saw him peek in only to quickly glance away when he remembered I was till naked. "What are you still doing in there?" He asked with his back to me. "I would thought that you would have been out, its been 2 hours."

"Well." I rolled my eyes. "My fat dog fingers can't seems to get the lock undone so I was forced to wait."

"Why didn't you force it open, you're military and it's cheap plastic?" He knocked on the side of the carrier to make his point. "I wouldn't have minded, I'm loaded if you didn't remember."

'Told you.' Dog laughed at me, coming back from the darker corners of my mind.

"It doesn't matter now." I spoke to both of them. "Just get me out, it stinks in here." With that Francis began to undo the side locks that held the top down. Each *clang* reminding me of my own failure. What kind of ex-Spec Enforcer can't quietly get out of an animal carrier, it was a permanent mark on my dignity. Crane was definitely never going to stop bugging me about this day.

The top came off and all of the smells that had been held down by it came out with me. "Ah, what is that smell." Francis pinched his nose and fanned at the air with his other hand, causing him to drop the top. "You know what, forget it. Go get cleaned up, the shower is down the door on your right." He fled the area, going out a door behind him. Once again I was left alone.

I looked around, the room was just a two story cargo hold with some boxes stacked randomly about. It wasn't clean, there was garbage scattered about, old food wrappers, pieces of plastic and scrap, hardly what I expected from some trillionaire's son. The airlock that connected to the star port was closed up and the light above it indicated that the docking tube had retracted. I turned to the door that Francis had pointed out and headed through it. The ship wasn't fancy or expensive looking at all, it was rather old looking, there was signs of wear and tear all around, open panels that exposed wiring, bits of rust; the whole nine yards.

I found the shower room rather easily. It was just a small room with a curtain in the middle to keep the spray from soaking your clothes which had to be set on a small metal outcropping, though I didn't have any clothes to put on, I'd get to that later. There was also a metal toilet and guess what? A metal sink, all metal just like the military. More questions for me to ask him later, I would have plenty of time, Mars was a few days away.

I stepped behind the curtain and got the shower going. The feeling of water running through my tangled fur was soothing, all of the tension in my muscles were washed away with the grime. His shampoo was sadly, scented. I would be walking around smelling like... I sniffed at the bottle. I believed it was lemongrass. Not as bad as it could have been. I dumped a bunch onto my head and worked it into my fur.

After the shower I was relived to notice a hair dryer built into the wall which I had failed to notice.

A good twenty minutes later, I was clean and dry. I was still naked and really didn't care, though Francis would. I would need to find some clothes. My search gave me time to take a good look at the ship. It wasn't very large at all, it was more circular than rectangular and unlike most ship designs, the cockpit was on the front and exposed. This was no warship, one good shot and that would be it. Francis was there sitting in the pilot's seat working the controls. He didn't notice me when I moved closer.

"Where are some clothes?" I spoke up, causing him to jump in his seat.

"Gah, why are you still naked?" He didn't swivel around, instead he busied himself with some of the computers that sat off to the side. A map of the solar system was on the screen.

I crossed my arms and tapped my foot. "I had to leave my clothes behind."

"Nonsense." He waved a hand dismissively. "I had your belongings shipped up hours before we arrived. "They're in the starboard dormitories." Hours before we arrived? That sneaky bastard, he had assumed I was going to help before he even recruited me.

*beep*

"What's that?" I pointed at a blinking light that had just come on above Francis. He pressed a button, ignoring me and the image of the solar system was replaced with text.

Hello Mr. Hawthorne. I am sorry to inform you that the individual you are looking for, one Sergeant Crane, has gone missing from the base premises. His whereabouts are however known, but we are unable to get to his location. He has returned to the abandoned Mars facility after commandeering a shuttle for unknown reasons. The radiation levels are still too high for British forces to do anything. Upon your arrival, if you wish, you may attempt to retrieve him yourself.

Colonel York, 13thRoyal Martian Infantry Battalion