An Android Dog's Tale (18 page)

“Oh. I see. I might have. Maybe. I don’t
know.”

“But he said they were Thinker’s round
things. That’s what he called them. And he said you made other
things.”

“Oh, I do. I make many things. New and
different things. But I don’t make all of them. Just the first
ones, usually. Other people make the rest.”

“But the round things were your idea,
right?”

“Yes. At least, I think so. It kind of just
came to me, so it could have been the gods or something, not that
they said. I did make the first one. It’s an amazing shape, round.
Kind of symbolic. No start and no end, you know. Useful, too.”

“What else have you made?” the trader
said.

“Other round things, like the one here for
the water bucket,” he said pointing to the pulley over the well.
“It makes it easier to pull up the bucket. Other things, too. Clay,
wood, special rocks—pretty much anything can be shaped into
something more useful. It really is amazing.”

Grannit led the way toward the village’s
common house, and the rest followed. “Thinker can show you some of
his things later,” he said.

“I’d be happy to,” Thinker agreed.

~*~

The long, stone common house was one of the
few with a slate roof. It appeared to have weathered the storm
without harm, and it provided the center of the activity for the
villagers’ efforts to repair the things damaged by the storm. The
sound of pounding hammers and chopping wood echoed in the
background, sometimes punctuated by an occasional scream or swear
word, which inevitably accompanies the use of badly balanced stone
tools after a while. People pushed crude wheelbarrows, carried
bundles, and bustled from one place to another, obviously on
missions, or less obviously, attempting to avoid one. Others stood
talking in small groups around the building or otherwise taking a
break from their labors. Two old, bearded men sat outside at a
small table playing a board game while a small group of children
watched and whispered to one another about their moves. Thinker
called to the youngsters to help him unload the trader’s gond.

“
MO-126,
” Tam signaled. “
Stay with
Thinker. See what you can find about what he’s been doing.
”

“
Can do,
” the android dog
replied.

Tam and Grannit entered the common house.
The solid wooden door stood open on leather hinges to allow fresh
spring air to enter. The greasy, smoky smell of meat cooked on an
open fire exited from it along with the sounds of people talking.
MO-126 remained outside with Thinker and followed him to a lean-to
at the far side of the common house. With the help of his drafted
assistants, he unpacked the gond and sorted the contents on tables
under the roof of the open structure.

“It was very nice of the Master Traders to
bring us all this great stuff,” one boy said, thumbing through a
pile of woven wool blankets.

“Yes,” Thinker replied distractedly as he
examined one of the clay pots he just unpacked.

“Where do you suppose they get it all?”
another boy asked.

“No one really knows,” Thinker said. “They
won’t say. I suspect they make it. There must be Trader villages
somewhere.”

“Some people say they live high up in the
mountains, maybe even in caves or something,” the only girl in the
group said. “That’s why they need to trade for food, because they
can’t grow enough for themselves.” She turned to MO-126. “Is that
where you come from, doggy?”

The android dog could not tell her, not that
she would have expected him to. Like his biological cousins,
speaking was not one his talents. Even if he could talk, the answer
to that particular question would be forbidden. The existence of
the corporation must remain a secret. The discovery of a hub
terminal by a primitive could have unfortunate consequences for
everyone.

She patted his head, and he wagged his tail,
and that was about as far as he could communicate with her.

“High in the mountains,” Thinker said
softly. “I wonder…”

Whatever he may have been wondering, MO-126
would have to wait to find out because just then, Tam and Grannit
appeared.

The headman examined the unloaded items and
thanked Tam again for his generosity. “These are most welcome,
Master Trader. We are in your debt.”

Thinker whispered something to Grannit.
MO-126 increased the sensitivity of his audio receptors but only
caught the last few words—“We should ask him.”

Grannit nodded and turned to Tam. “Master
Trader Tam,” he said. “Thinker has suggested that you may be able
to help us with a…, well, not a problem, exactly, but something of
mystery.”

“Oh?” Tam said.

“Yes. After the storm, we rescued a young
woman from a log caught in the river.”

“I’d be happy to see what I can do for her,
but I’m not a healer,” Tam said.

“That’s not the problem. She seemed fine
after we gave her some food and let her sleep—except for a lot of
bruises, that is, but those should heal with time.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“We don’t know who she is.”

“Someone must know her,” Tam said. In a
village of less than a thousand people, there were no
strangers.

The village leader shook his head. “No one
does.”

“Have you talked to her? What did she
say?”

“That’s just it. We have, but she speaks,
well, oddly. We don’t understand her, and we’re not sure she
understands us. Thinker says you might be able to talk to her. She
might be, well, one of your people.”

“She’s very scared,” Thinker said. “I don’t
think she knows where she is.”

“
Oh-oh,
” MO-126 said to his
partner.

“
She can’t be one of us,
” Tam
replied.

“
I know that,
” MO-126 said. “
But
if she’s from the next village upstream, this could get
complicated.
”

“
More complicated. This village is
already a problem,
” the trader said.

“
Maybe it has something to do with the
water.
”

“
You’re not funny.
”

“
Yes I am. You just have no sense of
humor.
”

“I don’t think she’s one of
our
people,” Tam said to Grannit. He did not say why, but the way he
said ‘our’ could be taken to imply that Trader folk never required
rescuing.

“Still, you may be able to understand her.
The Master Traders visit other villages, don’t they? She might be
from one of them.”

The primitives knew other villages existed.
Most, by this time, originated as offshoots from the original
production cells seeded on the planet for the project, but the
trade androids were supposed to avoid discussing such things as
much as possible. It only encouraged people to be curious about
their imagined neighbors.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Tam said. “Where
is she?”

“Old Emrie took her in. Her hut is near the
river. I’ll take you there as soon as I get someone to see to
distributing the things you brought.”

“I can do that,” Thinker said.

“No. I’d like you to come with us, Thinker.
She seems to be most comfortable around you and Emrie. I saw
Walderf and Staddler playing jump disc outside the common house.
Ask them to come here. They can handle it.”

After Grannit gave the two old men their
instructions about the distribution of the trader’s gift, Grannit,
Tam, and Thinker left to see the woman pulled from the river.
MO-126 unobtrusively tagged along.

“You said she was clinging to a log?” Tam
said to Grannit as they walked.

“Yes. But she was more in it than on it. It
has a kind of scoop carved out on the top. Anyway, the river was
still fast and high, but the log she was in got hung up on a snag
of broken trees and brush. We could tell it wasn’t going to hold
her long, but it was too dangerous to swim in to get her. Thinker
tied one of his smaller round things to a rope, and threw it out to
her. It took a few tries, but she eventually grabbed it and wrapped
it around a board in her log. Then we pulled her into shore.”

“I see.”

Tam sent silent instructions to his partner.
“
Go to the river and see if that log is still there. It sounds
like we may have another problem.
”

“
It sounds like a boat, to me,
”
MO-126 said.

“
Yeah. That’s the problem.
”

The android dog ambled off toward the river,
trying to appear not to have any particular destination in mind.
When he got there, their suspicions were confirmed. A dugout canoe,
about a meter wide and two meters long, rested on the shore well
above the high water mark. The issue proved worse than Tam
suspected. Another log lay beside it, and three young men chipped
and chiseled in an attempt to duplicate the design.

“
Found it,
” he sent to his
partner.

“
Is it a boat?
”

“
Yes. Not a bad one either. The villagers
here are already trying to copy it.
”

“
The situation here just keeps
deteriorating, doesn’t it?
”

“
Oh, I don’t know. Things could be
worse.
”

“
I don’t see how.
”

“
Well, it doesn’t have a fusion
engine.
”

“
You’re not funny.
”

“
I think I am, and as long as one of us
is amused, it’s not a complete loss. Have you spoken with the
visitor yet?
”

“
We just arrived at the hut. Come on
back.
”

MO-126 homed in on his partner’s signal and
found the hut. The door stood open, so he walked inside. No one
seemed to have noticed his arrival, or maybe they assumed he came
in just behind them. The only light inside the stone structure
entered through the open doorway but it sufficed. The place was not
large. Tam sat on a stool facing a young woman with dark hair, and
Thinker sat next to her on a sleeping pallet. Scrapes and bruises
showed on her arms, legs, and forehead. Wherever she came from, she
did not have a comfortable ride getting here.

“
She says her name is Tallie,
” Tam
said to his partner. “
She’s from one of the mountain villages
upstream. I recognize the dialect. That’s about as far as we’ve
gotten so far.
”

MO-126 sat near the wall and listened.

“How did you come to be in the river during
a storm,” Tam said to her. He spoke in the language of her village,
which differed sufficiently from the one here to be unintelligible
to the locals.

“The river was rising, so I was trying to
pull our boat further up the bank so it wouldn’t be lost,” she
said. “I lost my footing and was swept in. I managed to get in the
boat, but I didn’t have a paddle and couldn’t do anything but go
where the river brought me. Where am I? What is this place?”

“The people here call it Stone Home. They
will take care of you. You are safe with them.”

“It’s strange here. I want to go home. I
want to be with my family. I…I…I have to milk the goats.”

Tears welled in her eyes, and MO-126 found
himself walking over to her. He licked her hand in response to some
deep instinct rather than because of a rational decision, but it
seemed appropriate. She responded with a weak smile and a scratch
behind his ear.

“She stifled a sob and continued. “The
people here don’t understand me and I don’t know what they’re
saying when they talk to me. When the soreness goes, I should
leave. I can walk along the river. It can’t be that far. I can do
it. The river can lead me home.”

“You know that’s not safe,” Tam told her.
“But it’s not something you need to think about just now. Emrie
tells me you can’t take more than a few steps without pain. You are
in no condition to go anywhere.”

She nodded. “I will be fine soon, and
then—”

“And then we’ll see,” Tam said.

“What did she say?” Grannit asked him after
they left. “I couldn’t understand a word of it.”

“Her name is Tallie, and she said she’s
lost,” the trade android told him. “That’s really all there is to
it. She’ll be fine.”

“Why can’t she talk properly?”

“That’s just how they talk where she’s from.
Don’t worry about it.”

“Where is she from?” Thinker asked.

“Just some other village. You don’t need to
worry about that either.”

“Can we help her get home?”

“Why would you—? No. There’s no need anyway.
Like I said, she’s fine. She just needs time to recover.”

“
What do you plan to do?
” MO-126
asked his partner as they exited the hut.

“
About the woman from Semiautonomous
Production Cell 46-C? Nothing, right now. She can’t go
anywhere.
”

“
We could bring her home once she’s
feeling better,
” the android dog suggested.

“
Move a primitive between villages? You
know we can’t do that without approval.
”

“
But we’d just be taking her back to her
own village. That’s where she’s supposed to be.
”

“
Yeah, but she’s already seen this one,
and she knows she can get here by following the river. That
complicates things.
”

“
What if she tries to go by herself? She
might, you know.
”

Tam paused to consider this. “
You’re
right. Maybe I should come back tomorrow and remind her about the
dangers—the demons, wild animals, and river monsters.
”

“
River monsters? There aren’t any river
monsters,
” MO-126 said. Actually, there weren’t any demons
either, and the most danger she was likely to experience from wild
animals would be if she tripped on one.

“
What about bardusaurs?
” Tam
said.

“
Bardusaurs? They’re swamp creatures, for
the most part. There aren’t any this far north, and besides, they
don’t eat humans, or anything else from their home planet.
Different biochemistry.
”