An Android Dog's Tale

An Android Dog’s Tale

Defying Fate (Combined eBook Edition)

The Warden Threat (Defying Fate Part 1)

The Warden War (Defying Fate Part 2)

Amy’s Pendant

Disturbing Clockwork

SMASHWORDS EDITION

* * * * *

PUBLISHED BY:

Fuzzy Android Press

(http://fuzzyandroid.wordpress.com/)

in cooperation with Smashwords

ISBN: 9781311283337

Copyright © 2013 by D.L. Morrese

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal
enjoyment only. It may not be resold or given away to other people.
If you would like to share this book, please purchase an additional
copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book
and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only,
then you should purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting
the author's work.

All characters and events in this book are
fictitious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly
coincidental.

Author’s Notes on this Edition

I wish to thank Alex for his help with cover
ideas, Rowan for editing, and all the beta-readers, proofreaders,
editors, and others who volunteered their time and attention to the
publication of this novel. The finished work is far better than it
could have been without you. Any flaws that may remain are entirely
the fault of the author.

Units of Measure

Time, distance, and other units of measure
reflected in the story that follows have been converted, along with
the languages, to something understandable by readers living on
Earth at the dawn the 21
^st
Century. It was either this
or put a conversion table and glossary at the end of the book, and
no one likes those.

Regarding Androids

Androids, by definition, are automatons that
resemble humans. In this book and those that follow, the term is
used to refer to constructed beings with human-like cognitive
abilities rather than an exclusively humanoid physical appearance.
To do otherwise would simply be species-ist. Many of the androids
you will meet in these books don’t look like people, but they do
sometimes think and act like them.

Maps

Some readers like maps, so one showing the
relative locations of hub terminals is included in the paper
edition of this book. It is not in the digital edition because it
does not show up well on most compact reading devices. If you are
reading a digital version of this book and wish to see some maps,
you can find them on the author’s website,
http://dlmorrese.wordpress.com/
,
along with other information.

Prologue
-
A Species with
Potential

One -
People Like Clay
(
In which Mobile Observer Android
126 first encounters humans.
)

Two -
Sheep Lost and Demons Found
(
In which MO-126 learns
that humans can be imaginative, creative, and disturbingly
wrong.
)

Three -
Dare Not Stray
(
In which curiosity is
discouraged.
)

Four -
Split Plea
(
In which MO-126 realizes that sometimes
people just can’t get along with each other.
)

Five -
Wheels of Discontent
(
In which discoveries are made
and a person is lost.
)

Six -
Unacceptable Marks
(
In which things must not be
written.
)

Seven -
Making Choices
(
In which choices are made and
something is overlooked.
)

Eight -
Shutting Down
(
In which some things end and others
begin.
)

Nine -
A Dog and His Boy
(
In which MO-126 adopts a boy and
herds some sheep.
)

Ten -
A Final Note
(
In which MO-126 says
goodbye.
)

Just under 20,000 years ago

(Galactic Standard Year 223447)

T
he sleek, silvery
ship approached a pale-blue planet orbiting a yellow star in the
Milky Way’s Orion–Cygnus spiral arm. It analyzed its preliminary
readings and assessed the potential of what it observed from orbit.
Initial results were promising, so it released atmospheric drones
to obtain more data.

Animal life flourished in and around the
forest below. Trees waved their leaf-filled branches in a mild
summer breeze. Songbirds vocally proclaimed their existence or
greeted one another hopefully in their quests for mates, while
predators eyed them as possible meals. Plants and wildflowers
beyond the trees painted the landscape in a multitude of colors.
Butterflies fluttered through the air spreading pollen and life to
fulfill their part in the complex dance of the biosphere. Small
fish splashed in a clear stream babbling nearby while the water
flowed on to join one of nature’s arteries.

A short, hairy biped was pissing in it.

The ship shifted its focus to a spot nearby
where several of the creatures gathered. Twenty or so males,
females, and offspring mingled around a fire. They grunted short
words in a limited vocabulary and made exaggerated gestures,
clearly communicating, sharing information, and possibly even
telling stories. Some sat quietly, deep in thought, or at least
something resembling it. A couple carnivorous quadrupeds roamed
among them, sharing food and parasites like part of the family.

The bipeds were definitely tool-makers, and
the ship noted their skills at creating useful and artistic things
out of stones, sticks, and select body parts from various dead
animals. Perhaps some day the descendants of this group of
odoriferous vermin collectors might build something like the ship
watching them from orbit. It wasted no time estimating the odds of
this happening. The question of what they might achieve on their
own in the future did not matter, other than as a mild, speculative
diversion. Only their current achievements held any relevance to
the decision it must make, and now their technology appeared
limited to stone tools and fire. The ship decided they warranted a
closer look.

It recalled its tiny drones and prepared
devices with additional capabilities to complete an extended
survey. The small dark spheres dropped like seeds from the silent
craft and went about their business collecting the required
data.

For a year, the probes gathered samples and
information. The ship needed to understand all it could about the
sentient primitives. It must know how they behaved, how they bred,
what they ate, and how they interacted with their environment. It
must learn how they learned. Only then could it make its final
determination.

Complex algorithms evaluated sensor readings
of the atmosphere, soil, water, flora, and fauna. Specialized
equipment conducted tests on a wide array of biological samples.
Once satisfied with the quality of the data and the results of its
analysis, the ship made a decision and released additional probes.
These were even more complex than those that preceded them. One
might consider them intelligent if not sentient. They all possessed
the ability to forecast likely outcomes and to cope with new and
changing situations. Some might call this imagination or
creativity. Neither the probes nor the ship that spawned them
dwelled on the issue. They did not care how others might regard
them. They existed for a purpose, and their only goal in
life
was to fulfill that purpose. Unquestioning devotion to
duty such as theirs would be the envy of any military officer and
most political, religious, and business leaders.

One of the most sophisticated probes glided
silently in the darkness. Its flat black surface reflected nothing
under the single large moon and crisp starlight. A few nocturnal
animals noted the whisper of its landing but did not betray its
arrival to the sleeping bipeds now huddled in a cave behind a
small, smoldering fire for warmth and protection.

The device, about the size and general shape
of a small modern refrigerator lying on its back, settled on the
ground. From inside came a faint whirring sound and then a series
of clicks. A moment of silence followed and then a soft scraping
sound as several small sliding doors opened on its surface. They
clicked into place simultaneously, and an assortment of devices and
gadgets emerged and froze in place from two dozen compartments. Now
the device resembled, to some extent, a very large and possibly
pregnant Swiss Army knife showing off all of its attachments.

It began to move, slowly rising until it
hovered no more than fifteen centimeters from the ground with a
distinct impression of readiness. A faint hush of air accompanied
its purposeful progress toward the cave where the slumbering bipeds
kept wildlife at bay with the glowing embers of their fire and
their fearsome snoring. The probe paid neither any mind and went
inside.

After a snakelike hiss of escaping gas from
one of the probe’s attachments, the snoring abruptly stopped.
Little more than a darker image among the shadows, it hovered over
one of the females. She lay on her back, seemingly sound asleep,
her chest gently rising and falling with her breath. The probe
extended some of its more delicate attachments to examine her quite
intimately.

It went from sleeping form to sleeping form,
touching, probing, examining, and gathering tissues and data until
it subjected each individual to its scrutiny. The sleeping canines
received the same close examination.

Once it collected all it came here to get,
it exited the cave entrance and drew its assorted devices and tools
back into its shell. With a startling snap, the compartment doors
on the device shut in unison and the probe accelerated skyward. The
subjects of its scrutiny would wake the next morning unaware that
anything out of the ordinary occurred.

The spaceship in orbit circled silent and
majestic while black probe after black probe queued beside it like
supplicants to their sovereign, awaiting their turn to add the
fruits of their individual efforts to the grand project. Several
days passed before it retrieved the last of the devices. The
additional data added to its already massive stores, and it
processed, categorized, analyzed, and made decisions to further its
assigned objective. It found the work challenging and
enjoyable.

Within the ship, cryogenic storage units
clicked into operation. Mindless automated devices filled them with
organic material obtained from the planet below. Manufacturing
centers began disassembling the willing probes while computers
worked on designs for the next incarnation of their components.
Other devices began synthesizing chemicals and compounds that would
be accumulated and stored for later use.

Satisfied with all it achieved so far, the
ship left Earth orbit. It looked forward to the next step of this
new project and felt confident of its ultimate success.

~*~

105 Years Later

(Galactic Standard Year 223553)

A
century later and
twenty-four lightyears away, another planet, white, blue, and green
like the first, provided the final destination of the ship’s
current mission. The magnificent craft rested proudly on landing
struts like delicate columns from a classic Greek temple made of
silver. Time and distance took no obvious toll on the space-faring
vessel. Another ship, boxy, rectangular, and strictly business,
squatted nearby. It could have been the first ship’s ugly
stepsister, or perhaps its ancient grandmother, if such familial
relationships applied to constructed entities. They rested side by
side in a field of long, fibrous grass. A herd of large, dull-eyed
animals, like an ill-conceived and extremely unlikely cross between
a hippopotamus, water buffalo, and wooly mammoth, grazed placidly
nearby, efficiently turning the native grasses into piles of
steaming brown fertilizer.