As the away team assembled for the very important mission Gen sat in her fort in the counselling center. She gave off the kind of nervous energy that often accompanied someone going on an adventure they were sure they wanted or visiting somewhere new that scared them…or of brides and grooms on wedding days. He hugged her knees and tried to ignore the pressure building in her head, a sort of dull throb that got worse as the moments went on till she could only put her hands to her temples, squeeze her eyes shut and grind her teeth. Outside the fort the sound of the glass vase sitting nearby as it cracked and shattered punctured the air. The pressure lessened and she curled up into the foetal position and lay still for a while.

This is how Fenrir, sent by his controller, found her some time later. When she became aware of the ’Dog’ the girl had sat up to watch it warily, and so they had both had a kind of stalemate for a time. Once she discovered that he wasn’t going to hurt her she reached out to pet the dog. That’s what you did with dogs she remembered.

Carefully she moved out of the fort and sat watching him for a few more minutes. By the time the away team was headed to the transport room and had anyone checked. They would find her kneeling in front of Fenrir holding what appeared to be her socks balled up. She showed it to the ’dog’ and explained the process again, then tossed it a short distance across the room.

”See…” she asked it. ”Now…” she got up and picked up the socks and returned. ”Now you try…” she said and tossed them again. ”Fetch…”

Gen