Having been rescued from the ship, our fox is taken to a room while the rescue party deals with more pressing matters. At least it gives him more time to familiarize himself, with himself.

As of right now, this is the most current chapter to be finished. This is something I've been working on and off for the better part of a year. I do have some of chapter 4 written, but I have a lot to tweek before I feel ready to post it.

Icon has been gratefully borrowed by the fabulous  Corvuspointer

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- 22 Hours -

The cool water felt kind of good against his skin as it soaked through the fur from his rag, just cold enough to soothe some of his stress without causing him to shiver. He had long since cleaned all the blood he could find, the only red remaining belonged to the fur. Since he wasn't feeling rushed or threatened, he was using this time of semi-privacy to think. He glanced back at the door of the restroom and could easily see the back of his chaperone leaning on the door frame. He sighed as he looked back at the large bowl sitting in front of him on the floor of the shower. He shifted a little on the stool as he pressed the damp rag to his forehead, letting the water slowly soak to his scalp, taking slow deep breaths as he closed his eyes.

The walk here to this ship from the other had been more tiring than he thought, and the adrenaline jolt from being shot at was starting to wear down. Then again, watching your body being wheeled away like common cargo was a little stressful. Pile that on top of wondering how long it would take to get back, not to mention the possibility that... the body, could potentially die before that chance ever presented itself. That realization alone made him stagger halfway down the hall from the damaged transport ship. Thinking about it even now... he was glad he was sitting down this time.

So, the first order of business would be to establish a form of communication seeing how his voice wasn't actively assisting him at this point. Attempting to speak was a test in concentration. The mouth and lips did not want to move correctly to make any other sound other than 'ah' and even that required effort to make it sound more like a letter than a squeak. If this body had ever had a form of communication, it definatly wasn't English. He could always use the computers, but they were not likely going to allow him to get near enough to one.

He huffed a little, letting his rag droop on his leg as he recalled having left all his luggage back on the transport. His own computer, his files, even his clothes, everything was still sitting in the room they had found him in. Or at least he hoped it was. He could kiss his career goodbye if someone else got a hold of his laptop. Not only did it have all the data from his initial scans of the stasis pod and of his new body, but schematics and information regarding his work back home. Everything just seemed to become more and more difficult the more he thought about his situation. It made his head swim trying to wrap his already over taxed mind around it all. A soft growl rose in his throat as he rubbed his eyes.

The crew member looked over his shoulder at the fox as it stared back down into the bowl of water. He watched it for a minute or two, watching as it scratched it's cheek and twitched his tail and ears, obviously deep in thought over something, god only knew what. He walked in a little closer, phaser in hand with a towel in the other. If the fox noticed him, it made no effort to show it. He gently tapped the furred shoulder with the phaser, its ears perking instantly and looking up at him.

"If you're done?" He held out the towel at arms length and the animal sighed as it scooted the bowl to the side before flipping it and letting the water drain. He reached for the towel and pulled it to himself, glaring up at him before waving him off back-handedly. He at least seemed to have some form of modesty.

The guard backed off with a few more gestures before the fox started working the fabric over his fur. His eyes were starting to get heavy. Not having a good time sleeping since he woke from the pod and all the incidents were really taking their toll. He got his fur as dry as the towel would allow, still leaving him a little damp as he reached for the shirt heaped in the floor. It wasn't clean, but at this point he didn't really care. He just didn't like walking around only in the shorts the fox had blessedly been shipped in. Running his paw through the fur he decided to hold off on putting it back on until his fur had a chance to air dry a bit more.

He stretched his legs as he stepped from the shower and looked around the bathing room. Everything seemed much bigger and almost foreign from the point of view of a five year old. He glanced up at the sink and the mirror beyond. He sighed to himself before tossing the shirt over his shoulder. Using the porcelain, he managed to climb up onto the counter top, the hard plastic surface cool to his bare foot pads. Tossing his shirt into the basin, he stepped closer to the mirror to get his first real good look at himself.

At a glance, he simply saw the animal that had been in the pod only a few days prior. A slightly off white patch of fur from his chin along the lower half of his upper... jowl? It lead off into his cheeks and down his throat to a thick ruff on his chest, thinning some as it went onto his stomach. He tilted his head a little as his ears swiveled and turned, almost frighteningly involuntary.

He wasn't really sure how he felt about them; the way they moved, the way they looked, even though the almost black fur looked nearly like velvet. They twitched nervously as he reached up and gently rubbed one between his fingers. The sensation sent a shiver down his spine and he grumbled. Not only were they more sensitive to sound, but to touch as well it seemed, and damned if they weren't even softer than they looked. This could be a problem... He shivered once more as he let the ear go, the pair drooping as he realized they would likely draw way more attention than he wanted them to. Pushing those thoughts away, he went back to looking the rest of his face over.

The rusty orange-ish red fur was actually a mixture of thick brown base fur with longer, slightly courser orange guard hairs with a few black hairs mixed in he hadn't noticed until he had gotten this close. Nose was black and slightly moist like every other canine he had seen, and almost like his ears, it didn't seem to want to stop moving. Granted the twitching was leagues less obvious than the ears so it was more tolerable. He took a few testing sniffs, but most of the scents he managed to pick up were muddled under the smell of wet dog.... which became more unpleasant when he realized it was himself he was smelling. A proper bath would be in order in the near future with half a bottle of shampoo.

He was having issues trying to get a good look at the mechanical eye in his right socket due to its own limitations. That and the muzzle only allowed his natural eye to look at it from certain distances at certain angles, some of which obscured his left eye from the mirror completely. Analyzing the way his cybernetics and facial configuration were situated, his hand eye coordination should be suffering a lot more than they seemed to be. It made him wonder if the body itself had muscle memories that had developed to compensate long before going into stasis. His mind was simply buzzing with more questions the more he examined himself.

The teeth seemed to be in good condition he thought, even if they were just slightly yellow near the gums. He wasn't missing any at least. He breathed on the mirror a little as his nose twitched. Breath could have been worse at least. He tilted his head to the side a little as he stared back into the natural eye this time. He leaned in a little closer, putting his paw on the mirror to steady himself. From a distance, the eye looked almost brown, but looking closer, it had greenish undertones closer to the pupil, which wasn't completely circular either. It had just the slightest suggestion of a vertical almond shape, similar but not nearly as pronounced as a cats.

He huffed a little to himself as he eased back into a sitting position on the edge of the sink, his feet in the sink itself, looking over his reflection for a good minute. At least he wasn't a turtle or a cow. Foxes at least we're known to be intelligent even if they were considered mischievous. He looked past his reflection and saw the guard peeking into the bathroom around the corner, partly keeping an eye on him, partly of curiosity if his expression meant anything. He casually stepped away from the door frame once their eyes had met.

He looked himself over one last time before running his paw through the fur, straightening it as best he could before putting the over sized shirt back on. He turned around on the edge of the sink, his legs dangling off the front and looked at the floor. Landing with a soft grunt and a slight stumble, he made his way back into the room proper. As far as accommodations go, it could've been a worse. They could have put him in a holding cell. It was a sparsely decorated room, equipped only with a bed across from the bathroom and a desk to the side. The guard was over in front of the door sitting in the desk's chair, having pulled it over to bar his exit. Seems he wasn't going anywhere else for a while.

He yawned a bit as his exhaustion redoubled. Having cleaned up a little and given himself a once over, trying to sleep actually sounded like a good idea. His eye lids started to feel heavy and his feet started to drag a little as he made his way over to the bed. He grunted as he tried to hop up onto it, managing to dig his claws into the covers and pull himself up onto the top. He stood and looked across the covers as he walked up the length to the pillow. He'd never had a queen mattress before, but he guessed it would have been something like this. Where it not for the fact that he felt like a child on his parents bed, it would have been more pleasant.

He fluffed up the pillow a little bit before pulling back the covers, making a big show of getting settled. After he laid down and closed his eyes for a moment, he huffed and sat back up staring at the guard, hopefully looking annoyed. The crew member was pretending not to have noticed despite never letting him out of his site this entire time. It wasn't until he made a short hiss did he look up at him. "What?" His ear twitched as he stared at him for a moment before pointing to the lights and gesturing to himself under the blankets.

The guard looked at him and glanced up to the lights for a moment before calling out. "Computer? Bring lights to 50%." The lights dimmed, but the whole room was still completely visible. The fox simply folded his arms and continued to stare, ears back and a look of annoyance. The guard sighed as he cleared his throat before addressing the computer again. "Bring lights to 25%." The lights settled on their new setting, most of the details of everything in the room starting to become obscure that was not within five feet. He huffed under his breath and groaned a little. "I'm not taking my eyes off you. This is as low as the lights are going. You're just going to have to make do."

He sighed as he shifted down into the covers a little more, laying back and staring up at the ceiling. He tried to relax as he felt the tip of the tail sway slowly back and forth. His ear twitched every time his escort shifted a little in the chair or when someone walked by the room outside. He slowly tried to focus on how tired he felt instead of worrying about his situation, right up until he managed to worry himself to sleep.