Chapter Five

He sat up slowly and swung his legs off the bed,                                                                                        ‘Fancy a walk? Need to blow away a few cobwebs’                                                                                            I trotted by his side as we walked along the coastal road down onto the beach, it was a pleasant enough evening, only a slight breeze blowing in off the sea. As the sun set slowly ahead of us, we walked to the harbor and sat for half an hour watching the fishermen cleaning their boats ready for the morning tide. It was peaceful and relaxing and when the Commander rose to return to the house I was reluctant to follow him.                                                                                                                                                              ‘Come on Sirius, I’m ready for my dinner’                                                                                                        He grumbled and I noticed he was limping too,                                                                          ‘Commander?’                                                                                                                                                  ‘It’s nothing, Sirius, I’m just a bit stiff from all that sitting around’                                                                      I followed him home without another word, he would talk to me when he needed to I knew that.                  We continued with my tests for the next few days and the general consensus was that all my faculties had returned, and all of them had enhanced and improved. I worked with the Scientists on the projects they set designed to challenge me so that I could use my powers to help my country but more importantly, keep me hidden from our enemies. It wasn’t difficult for me, I completed each assignment using only a tiny amount of my abilities I kept my true potential hidden. It was an instinctive behavior, somehow I knew when I revealed how powerful I truly was even my own Government would be afraid. I also knew that if they became afraid of me they would seek to destroy me or at the very least keep me contained so they could do some of the terrible experiments I had witnessed them do on other creatures. I knew the extent of the cruelty the human race could inflict on animals because I had seen them inflict it on other humans. Their capacity to torture and find enjoyment in such pain on their own species left me in doubt of my fate should they ever discover my true worth.

A week later I was sat by the Commander as he sat on his favourite bench looking out at the sea, no matter what the weather he loved to watch the ever-changing vista before him, it calmed him and helped him think. The wind was picking up and the waves were crashing against the shore sending their spray high into the air he could feel it icy cold against his skin. Leaning back he closed his eyes and began the breathing exercises the Consultant had recommended, in hold, out hold, in hold, out hold, concentrating hard he relaxed his tense muscles. Then he opened his mind and called me to him, he wanted me to know the whole truth. I had fallen asleep curled on the floor beside him when I heard his voice,                                    ‘It is time Sirius’                                                                                                                                           Lifting my head I sniffed the air assimilating the different scents quickly I stood and stretched, I knew what he wanted and sat up resting my silver head on his knee as he reached down and placed his hand on my head,                                                                                                                                                           ‘Thank you my friend’                                                                                                                                      He ruffled my ears and smiled at me,                                                                                                                ‘We’ve had some good times haven’t we?’                                                                                                         I looked up at him and opened my mind to his,                                                                                            ‘We have had some wonderful times Commander, I owe my very existence to you’                                          I told him confidently but already I could sense what was to come,                                                            ‘Ahh Sirius, I’m so sorry I did not find you sooner. I did try old man, honestly, I did but they made it so difficult, they knew I was ill, tried to delay you, didn’t want me to get you back.’   

He was rambling and I could see what a huge effort this was for him, I did the only thing I could and entered his mind fully and met with no resistance. This had never happened before the Commander always made me ask for permission but this time he opened his mind fully and it did not take me long to discover why. The cancer was everywhere I had to fight it at every turn but I knew it was making no difference to his outcome,                                                                                                                                                     ‘There’s no point Sirius, leave it, there is nothing you can do to stop it, I need to explain and time is short’    I rested my head back on his knee, anyone passing by would see an elderly man with his faithful dog, the perfect cover,                                                                                                                                                  ‘I’m listening Commander’                                                                                                                                  He sighed softly and in his mind, he opened the door that had always been locked to me.                              ‘You need to know this’                                                                                                                                       He told me quietly and ushered me before him.

‘It was more than sixty years ago’                                                                                                                     He began,                                                                                                                                                            ‘British Intelligence received reports that the Russians were working on a scientific breakthrough involving animals, more specifically dogs. They already used animals in a lot of experiments, they had been sending them into space for years but what nobody was aware of was the Americans with the help of their closest Allies, [Us]. had also been sending animals into space. It was so secret only the American President the British Prime Minister and a few NASA scientists were aware of the program. They sent dogs on all those first missions but one dog, Jace, which is a name that some Americans have given to the Moon, was sent over and over again. They did many experiments on Jace and with Jace from all the written accounts of that time he was a very clever dog and it seems completely unaffected by his many trips into space.

They sent him up ten times, and it was on his last trip that something happened, it was pretty uneventful for the most part but it was the first time they had sent him around the Moon. In those days as the Capsule passed between the Sun and the Moon, it would hit a Black Spot where communication was lost briefly until it came back into view and headed back to Earth. Everything was progressing normally as the Capsule headed around the Moon and they gave Jace the command to sleep. He had been trained to do this to avoid getting stressed during lift-off and landing. NASA command thought nothing more of it as the Capsule entered the Black Spot and they lost contact with it. For the next two and half hours they waited patiently taking observations, completing tasks and paperwork following its trajectory back around towards Earth. Just before the Capsule came back online they noted a brief intensive flash of light that they attributed to a Solar Flare and thought nothing more of it as it appeared to pass harmlessly by. When the Capsule came back on-line the rest of the journey passed without any further incident and it landed at Edward’s Air Force Base exactly on time. It was only then they noticed it had actually been struck by the Solar Flare as a large dark streak covered one side of the Capsule. They ran multiple tests and found nothing the Capsule had not been damaged but when they opened it Jace was silent and still. They decided he had died when the Solar Flare struck the Capsule and it then re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere. He was taken to the Hospital Morgue Facility and a Vet was called to do a post-mortem on him. Unfortunately, he could not get there until the next day so Jace was placed in the Morgue’s refrigerated coffin holder and left until the Vet arrived. You can imagine their surprise when they arrived for work the next morning and found Jace curled up on one of their sofa looking none the worst from his adventures. Approaching him cautiously not knowing what to expect they were delighted when he lifted his head and wagged his tail nothing seemed to have changed with him. They did what you would expect Scientists to do back then, they took blood, did x-rays and scans and hundreds of other tests and all of them came back normal. Nothing had actually happened out there in Space when the Solar Flare hit the Space Capsule carrying Jace. The beautiful dog had been born with his special abilities and knew his fate when he was chosen for the Space Programme, all the Solar Flare had done was seal his fate. It was Dog’s Will, and like all animals he accepted his fate with no protest, he was the Pathfinder, the first one who opened the doors for the rest. He was not an Alpha, not a Pack Leader, that came with the second puppy born, his Mother carried the Pure-blood and when mixed with Jace’s blood the true Lycan Alpha was born, Sirius, named for the Dog Star as was written by the Prophets. This was his time and he was not afraid to face his destiny, he would remain in his animal form until the bond was broken forever, it was the price the mighty Lycan must pay to complete his duty and he paid it willingly.                                                                                                          The command from the President came through a week later, Jace was to be euthanised, the reason given was something had happened to Jace when the strange light had hit his spaceship