The Captain was speaking again, something about meeting all the sapients in the common area. This roused Cú from his slumber, pulling him from a memory dream of [i][color=aba000]THESOUNDOFTHEPACKSHOWLCHILLINGTHEHOUNDTOTHECORETHEHUNTBEGANLONGAGOLASERSBULLETBLOODNOPLEASESTOPTHEACRIDSCENTOFBURNINGFLESHFILLSMYNOSTRILS[/color][/i]
and from his position of curling in a ball on his stomach, with his limbs tucked in. Snapping to alertness, the clone uncurled himself from his position on the ground. He had fallen asleep reading a data pad, a work titled "Living in the ruins of the Self: A study of the effect of the increased Galaxilization of the economy on the psyche of various sapient races and their sense of self" by some professor that Cú had followed after his release from the clutches of the Teufelshunde's War Court. He had found the professor's ideas in a trash can, where he had been scrounging for food. He remembered himself back then. Young, broken, lost, searching for a new cause to follow. While Cú still considered himself neither mature nor unlost, the work had set the seed of the idea that the Teufelhunde did not need to follow another to have a purpose.

Yawning wildly, Cú sniffed the air, tasting the air around him. Old, stale and recycled, the Teufelshunde nearly growled at the unnatural taste and scent, before reigning himself in. He had lost enough of his freedom following his instincts, and if their was anything that Cú hated more than bowing to another was cats. [color=aba000]"No, wait, that's not right,"[/color] Cú thought as he left his room, scratching himself with his clawed digits, [color=aba000]"Well, whatever, it's still something I hate."[/color]

The thick, calloused digits on Cú's right hand rose to stretch over the Teufelshunde's limber frame, resting on his left shoulder. The arm brushed past the metal torc that Cú cursed everyday as a symbol of his reliance and deference to others. Scratching his left shoulder, the Teufelshunde walked down the hallway to the common area, padded feet letting Cú slide silently to his destination.

The passage's metal walls chilled the Teufelshunde, making him shiver slightly at the cold metal kissed the pads of his feet. For two years Cú had worked on similar ships, but still the cold lifeless corridors scared the hound. The feeling of lonesomeness, the aloofness of non-biological materials disagreed with the social needs the hound had felt his instincts pushing himself to in the past. Ignoring the sense of crushing loneliness that threatened to overcome him, Cú pushed on, closer to the entrance of the common area. As he came closer to the door, he began to feel a wrongness permeate his being, different from the feeling he had just pushed away.

[color=aba000]"Have I forgotten something?"[/color] the hound asked himself as he walked into the common area, where the rest of the crew had already arrived. As he stood there in the doorway, in front of his captain and fellow pickers, it dawned on Cú what the wrongness he had felt was.

[color=aba000]"Shit, I sleep naked"[/color]