An Android Dog's Tale (20 page)

“
Why can’t they just be content?
” Tam
continued. “
The corporation provides them with a good life here.
What more could a primitive want?
”

“
They probably don’t see themselves as
primitives,
” MO-126 hazarded. “
They have nothing to compare
themselves to.
”

“
Exactly! They don’t see much of
anything. That’s what makes them primitives. They’ve got no idea
how backward they are, so what can they possibly be trying to
achieve? They shouldn’t even think anything else is possible.
They’re all insane.
”

“
I’ve been thinking about that,
” the
android dog said. “
They might be naturally
dissatisfied—genetically, I mean. They may not be able to be happy
for long, at least not collectively. Think about it. You’ve been
working with them for centuries. When is the last time you’ve seen
a village where everyone seemed content with the way things
were?
”

“
Some usually seem to be,
” Tam said
hesitantly.

“
Yes, some, but not all. It may not make
much sense, but there are always some who simply can’t leave things
alone, no matter how good they are, and it’s not because they’re
stupid or crazy. Sometimes these chronically dissatisfied types
appear to be the sanest and smartest people in the
village.
”

“
Not being able to be content hardly
seems sane to me, but I know what you mean. I’ve seen that type. If
they eat the same thing every day, they’ll complain about the lack
of variety. If they have something new every day, they’ll complain
about not getting their favorite. If everything is peaceful,
they’ll complain about the lack of excitement, and if things are
exciting, they’ll want them to be peaceful. They really are a
miserable bunch.
”

“
Oh, I don’t know. I think most of them
just kind of feel restless unless they have challenges.
”

“
Most sentient creatures would feel
extremely pleased not to have challenges. I’m telling you, humans
are crazy. I wonder if other projects are having as much trouble
with them as we are.
”

This, of course, they could not know. They
knew other Corporation projects with humans serving as workers
existed, but details about their inner workings were not publicly
divulged, especially if there were problems. This type of
information could adversely affect stock prices. Neither Tam nor
his partner held management positions high enough to have access to
such proprietary data.

“
Probably,
” MO-126 said. “
It seems
inherent in the species. They need challenges. If they don’t have
any, they create them.
”

“
What they need is to be protected from
themselves,
” Tam said.

~*~

The reply from Field Ops came with
instructions and sooner than they expected. Mitigation actions
would begin immediately, and MO-126 and Tam would play a major
part. The report received from the team sent to Tallie’s village
confirmed that the primitives there did have boats, and it also
revealed that they were building a larger one to go down the river
to search for her. This, combined with the activities in the
village that MO-126 and Tam were at, presented a situation
considered potentially detrimental to the project. The Mark Seven
Project Manager devised a multistep plan to minimize the harm.

By this time, sunset fast approached, and
the sounds of people repairing storm damage dwindled. Humans
instinctively fear the dark and gather together in the comforting
light of a fire or retreat to their huts when the day is done. On
their home planet, this instinct held survival value because they
were often the prey of nighttime predators that possessed far
better senses than they did. Here, those predators did not exist,
and the native ones large enough to consider a fully grown human as
a likely meal did not find them tasty enough to bother. Their
biochemistry proved different enough to make them virtually
indigestible. Nonetheless, the instinct remained, and the villagers
returned to their homes.

Tam and his four-legged partner needed to
accomplish one more mission before they settled in for the
night.

Emrie’s hut was typical of those in this
village, a rectangular stone building with a dirt floor and a
thatched roof. The door of rough-hewn planks, hinged on one side by
strips of tough gond leather, was closed. Tam knocked.

“Master Trader Tam,” Emrie greeted him. “Are
you here to talk with Tallie again, the poor thing? I still can’t
understand much of what she says, but she seems very sad.”

“I have some news that may help with that,”
Tam said.

Tallie looked up expectantly from a jump
disc board resting on a table between two stools. Judging by the
number and position of the pieces, she was winning.

“Hello, Tallie,” Tam said in her language.
“How are you feeling?”

She returned a frail smile. “Like I’ve been
dragged down a river, but I’m getting better. Emrie and her people
have been very kind to me.”

“Do you think you’ll be able to travel
tomorrow?”

Field Ops determined that returning Tallie
to her people represented the best of the bad options open to them.
There was a risk that she might have noticed the new wheel
technology being developed here and spread the idea to her village,
but if she did not return soon, her people would attempt to look
for her. That effort would lead them to learn more about boats,
river navigation, and the land around them. They might anyway, but
the PM wanted to delay such things as long as possible. Returning
their lost villager to them might do that.

“Travel? You mean, home? Back to my
village?” she said, her voice rising with excitement.

Tam nodded. “Yes. Except for my travel gear,
everything I had on my pack animal will be staying here. You can
ride on it, and I can bring you back to your people.”

That was not exactly the plan, but it was
close enough. She did not need to know the logistical details. It
would be impossible for her to understand them.

“Do you know where it is? My village? Can we
just follow the river?”

“No,” Tam said. “That way may not be safe.
Many wild animals come to drink at the river.” He possessed a
talent for making true and completely misleading statements. All of
the trade androids did. “But I do know a safer way. If you’re
feeling up to it, we can leave in the morning.”

~*~

Tallie was ready and eager to leave when
they arrived at Emrie’s hut the next day. She seemed undaunted by
the rain, the first since the storm. It was only a light sprinkle,
but a deluge would probably not have deterred her. When MO-126
contacted Field Ops to tell them they were about to leave, they
said it would clear soon.

The young woman hugged Emrie and told her
how much she appreciated what she did for her. The older one
smiled, understanding the emotion if not the words. Words must be
learned, and they varied between places and times. The instincts
they described went deeper than that, and all people shared
those.

Thinker approached and received a hug, too,
which seemed to both delight and disturb him in the way of men who
spend much of their time alone and absorbed in intellectual
pursuits. He stammered a few words and handed her a small box made
of woven reeds. Inside was a small, copper disc with a hole in the
center through which was threaded a strip of leather. Anyone who
knew of such things might call it a washer. To the people here, it
represented something new and beautiful. It could be a portent of
things to come.

Emrie helped her tie it around her neck as a
pendant.

“Is it magical?” she said. In her mind, most
things were in some fashion. The corporation encouraged this
attitude.

None of the villagers understood her
question.

Tam answered. “Not especially. It’s just and
oddly shaped bit of rock, I think, but it is kind of pretty. Are
you ready to leave?”

She nodded, and he helped her onto the broad
back of his pack animal. It did not seem to mind and may not have
even noticed. The beasts seldom appeared to notice much of anything
except edible vegetation, or, during their mating season, other
gonds.

They were out of sight of the village before
Tallie asked how long it would take to get home.

“It’s difficult to say, exactly,” Tam said.
From here on, he would use her native language as if it were his
own. The project’s databanks contained comprehensive files on all
of them.

He knew how long it would take to get where
they were going, of course. He also knew their planned route would
not take them directly to her village. The team sent to
Semiautonomous Production Cell 46-C would have told her people that
they would find her, hoping this would deter them from making a
better boat to search downriver. MO-126 suspected it would not, at
least not for long, but the team would find Tallie as promised,
which would at least remove their immediate motivation. The two
teams would join with four additional androids—two NASH units and
two mobile observers assigned to the prolonged mitigation effort.
One NASH and one MO unit would take up residence in each
village.

They made camp that night on a grassy hill
with a view of mountains in the near distance.

“Are we safe here?” Tallie asked as Tam
helped her down from the gond.

The hairy beast shambled a short distance
and began grazing on the wild vegetation.

“Perfectly,” Tam said. “No wild animals or
demons will trouble us here.” He unrolled a small tent for Tallie
and went to gather wood for a fire at his partner’s suggestion. The
androids did not need it, but their guest did.

“
Doesn’t it ever make you feel
guilty,
” MO-126 asked him.

“
What?
” Tam said.

“
Lying to people.
”

“I’
m not lying. Everything I told her is
true.
”

The android dog must admit this could be
considered true from a purely technical standpoint, and certainly
from the frame of reference of the speaker, but what ended up in
the mind of the listener was something else entirely. This made
what he said to Tallie an untrue truth—or maybe a dishonest truth.
Something like that.

“
You know what I mean,
” MO-126
said.

“
What do you want me to say? That there
are no demons? That wild animals seldom bother people on this
planet? How long do you think we could continue operations here if
they knew that? We’d have primitives wandering all over the place,
setting up little farms and villages at random and probably,
knowing humans, fighting among themselves for the best spots. We’re
doing them a favor by
not
telling them. I don’t feel any
guilt about it. In fact, if there’s anything like job satisfaction
that comes from working in a place like this, it comes from
protecting the primitives from one another.
”

“
I don’t know. I think they have
potential. Look at how the people in that village took in Tallie.
They didn’t know her. They couldn’t even understand her, but they
accepted her into their homes and helped her.
”

“
Just instinct. Pure instinct. They’re
ruled by it. They’re social animals, so they do sometimes care for
one another, but they have other instincts, territorial instincts
that are not as benign. They are not rational creatures.
”

“
That fellow they call Thinker seemed
pretty rational to me. And remarkably clever.
”

“
Disturbingly clever, you mean. Don’t you
see the problem?
”

“
Well, from the corporation’s point of
view, sure. But my point was that there are some humans that are
kind of impressive. Admirable, even.
”

“
You think that because all he was making
were wheels and a few trinkets, but it won’t stop there. The next
clever, uncivilized dirt-grubber will tinker some more and
eventually they’ll be poking bronze swords into one another. This
is a dangerous and potentially self-destructive species.
”

A howl in the distance was quickly followed
by a scream that came from much closer. Tallie ran to Tam, grabbing
him by the arm.

“What was that?” she said, trembling.

It was a wild dog telling the rest of his
pack to avoid this spot because there are some of those strange
two-legged animals here. MO-126 understood various dog dialects.
The project’s databanks contained comprehensive files on all of
them.

“It’s nothing to be afraid of. You’re
safe—as long as I’m here.”

“
The qualification wasn’t necessary,
”
MO-126 commented.

“
It can’t hurt.
”

That, of course, was a matter of perspective
as well.

Tam leaned over the kindling he collected
earlier and used a fire bow and tinder bundle to start a fire.
Quicker and easier ways were available to him, but the primitives
already knew this method.

Tam worked on the fire while MO-126 sent a
report to Field Ops to advise them of their progress. An
administrative android acknowledged receipt of their status report
and provided coordinates for a rendezvous with the other groups.
The team from Cell 46-C already met with the special mitigation
teams, and they now traveled together. MO-126 and Tam would join
them late the next day.

After a meal of boiled vegetables, which Tam
shared for the sake of appearances, Tallie crawled into the small
tent to settle in for the night. Judging from her breathing, MO-126
determined that she was finding it difficult to relax and fall
asleep.

“
I assume the PM will upgrade the trade
goods we provide to her village,
” the android dog said to his
partner.