An Android Dog's Tale (7 page)

“
If she survives.
”

“
Well, there is that. I don’t suppose she
will, but the life of one primitive is a small price for what the
corporation has given them.
”

MO-126 glanced back to the woman tied to the
pole. She sat with her back against it, eyes closed and lips
trembling as some of the villagers taunted her from a safe
distance. This simply was not right. Three stray sheep should not
be difficult to find, and once they were returned, everything would
be fine.

“
I’m going to go look for those
sheep,
” the mobile observer android said.

“
Don’t!
” Tork said.

His furry partner disobeyed his instruction.
“
If I’m not back by tonight, find a way to give Galinda some
water and maybe some food.
”

“
I am not going to get involved. I don’t
need a black mark on my record when I’m looking for a job after I
leave here.
”

“
Who’s to know?
” the android dog
said. “
Besides, I’ll bite you if you don’t.
”

“
Not funny,
” the trader signaled. He
continued to urge the other android to return, but MO-126 did not
acknowledge him. Their integrated short-range communication systems
would allow them to stay in contact reliably at a distance of a few
kilometers. Even if MO-126 ventured farther than that, the signal
would be relayed by the project’s satellite system. He could not
pretend he did not hear him, but this did not mean he needed to
listen.

~*~

He did not know the time and location of the
sheep’s disappearance, but it seemed logical to begin a search near
where he saw other sheep earlier that day. The sheep, the shepherd,
and the dog he noticed there before were gone now. MO-126 welcomed
their absence because he would not need to be concerned as much
about behaving like a normal dog.

He reached the peak of the hill and stopped,
stood stiffly, and tuned his olfactory, auditory, and visual
sensors to their maximum sensitivities. At these settings, the soft
rustle of the high grass in the mild, springtime breeze sounded
like the waves of an angry ocean pounding the shore. His simulated
breathing wheezed like an asthmatic gond. This, at least, he could
do something about, and he made a conscious effort to stop it.
Voices from the village a kilometer away reached him. If he
concentrated, he could make out individual conversations, but these
did not concern him now. A slow visual scan of the surrounding area
showed numerous signs of sheep, from closely cropped grass to dung.
A long sniff revealed their strong, musky smell equally in all
directions. None of these observations provided clear evidence of
the three wayward animals.

Assuming they simply wandered off unnoticed,
he set off at a slow trot directly away from the village, staying
to the grassy slopes where the sheep normally grazed. Their smell
remained strong as far as two kilometers from the village, but then
it began to thin.

He paused to sniff the air once again.
Unfortunately the breeze came from the direction of the primitives’
settlement, and its smells of irregularly washed humans and even
more irregularly washed animals overpowered the weaker odors ahead.
A spot of grass downslope appeared to have been grazed, so he
paused to examine it and detected the scent of sheep laid down no
more that two days ago from the glands on their feet. MO-126
suspected the villagers seldom herded their sheep this far. Most
people stayed within sight of their homes, and the shepherds from
the village would be no different. Few people ever traveled farther
than ten kilometers from the village in which they were born. This
behavior suited the needs of the corporation, and its agents took
some effort to ensure that new human settlements were not
established any closer than five times that distance to existing
ones.

He proceeded down the gently sloping hill,
his nose to the ground as he followed the scent line. It continued
away from the village, going another kilometer. The olfactory trail
turned almost ninety degrees for no apparent reason. He lifted his
head to see what might have caused the wayward sheep to change
direction. In the distance, the soft pink blossoms of a wild copse
of redfruit trees stood out against dark green leaves in the
setting sun. A brook gurgled from somewhere beyond them.

He scanned the area in infrared, ignoring
the signs of numerous small animals. An abundance of birds,
squirrels, rabbits, and other creatures inhabited the shady,
well-watered grove, but he searched for something bigger.

The heat signature of a relatively large
quadruped appeared on the other side of the wild grove, and then
another. He focused on them and increased the magnification. From
this distance, their infrared images were little more that bright
orange blobs on the far side of the trees, but there was no doubt
in his electronic mind. They were sheep, including three lambs. He
watched them a few moments.

Suddenly, something passed between him and
the sheep. He refocused his visual sensors and saw a dog just
beginning to enter the trees. Where did that come from? He should
have noticed it before now, especially since four others
accompanied it. They must have been behind the small hill to his
right approaching quietly from downwind.

Few large predators were native to this
planet and most of those were aquatic. The corporation included
only smaller predators in the bio-matrix transfer from humanity’s
home planet, and those were primarily to keep down the population
of other imported animals necessary for a human-adapted ecosystem.
The transplanted fauna did include dogs. The primitives and their
dogs shared a symbiotic relationship on their home planet, so they
were deemed essential for practical purposes as well as to comply
with galactic legal requirements. None were intentionally released
into the wild, but as the centuries passed, feral packs did emerge.
The dogs currently stalking the sheep were all larger than MO-126,
with longer fur and bigger teeth. The one nearest the trees clearly
outweighed him by a considerable margin. They were definitely
hunters, and the lambs were undoubtedly their intended prey.

He stood stiffly, raised his tail and the
hair along his spine, turned his ears forward, and barked
threateningly. ‘Piss off, poop-head. I was here first.’

The pack leader responded by lifting a leg
and watering a tree. Then it stared at his challenger. This was Dog
for, ‘Yeah; you and what pack, shorty?’

MO-126 did not expect to be able to scare
them off this easily, but it cost him nothing to try. He needed to
get those sheep back safely to the village. It could save the old
woman’s life, and adding three new lambs to the flock would make
that even more likely.

The wild dogs appeared to be a family pack
consisting of a breeding pair and three of their offspring,
probably from the previous year. The largest male continued to
stare at the strange new dog in its territory, obviously expecting
him to back down. Despite the wild dog’s larger size, MO-126 could
probably best him in a one-on-one fight. The android might even
prevail against all five, but not without taking damage. Because
they were a family, challenging the leader for dominance of the
pack would be unlikely to work. Somehow, he must convince them that
tonight’s menu offered better or at least cheaper options than
lamb.

He again scanned his surroundings in
infrared and soon located something that might provide a solution.
He ignored them when he saw them before because they were not what
he sought. Now, much to their misfortune, they were, and one hid
motionless just where he needed one to be.

He sprang forward, quickly achieving a speed
his biological counterparts could not hope to attain. He ran
straight toward the large pack leader. It bared its teeth and stood
its ground. The others in the pack growled and barked but remained
where they were, taking their cues from their leader. A moment
before they would have collided, MO-126 spun, kicking dirt and
grass into the face of his opponent and continued at a right angle
to the left of his former track. The wild dog barked and growled
but did not attempt to follow.

The large rabbit, immobile and ostensibly
hidden in the tall grass about ten meters away, did not have a
chance. MO-126 grabbed it in his jaws before it could have even
realized its peril, and he shook it to break its neck mercifully.
With his prey clamped in his teeth, he rounded back the way he came
and tossed the carcass to the pack leader, barely slowing.

He scanned the area again and found another
likely offering. He retrieved this one in much the same way and
added it to the bribe. Then, he retreated a respectful distance,
turned toward the largest dog and waited. This was not normal
canine behavior, so he could not predict how the pack leader would
respond. Still, a free meal was a free meal. The dog should have no
reason to turn it down and no need to hunt with a nice brace of
rabbits already at its feet. MO-126 hoped it would see things this
way.

The biological dog sniffed the offerings
suspiciously and then nudged them with his paw.

They’re dead rabbits, you stupid mutt,
MO-126 thought. I didn’t enjoy getting them for you, but I did.
Take them and go away.

The pack leader growled. MO-126 lowered his
ears and tried to appear submissive without acknowledging defeat.
This was also not normal dog behavior, but the real dog seemed to
accept the gesture. It collected both rabbits in its mouth and
trotted away with all the dignity of a king accepting his due
tribute. The rest of the pack fell in behind it, and they
disappeared behind the hill from which they recently emerged.

~*~

MO-126 slowly made his way through the
trees. The ewes must have given birth yesterday, one to a single
lamb and the other to twins. The little lambs nursed as he watched,
wagging their tales rapidly. An old, neutered male, a wether, stood
protectively nearby.

They should be accustomed to dogs, but
MO-126 would be a stranger to them, and he did not want them to
run. With night falling, this seemed as good a place for them as
any. A stream provided water and protection on one side and there
were trees to browse on the other, which is probably why the tiny
flock came here. Sheep normally grazed ground vegetation, but they
did like tender twigs and bark as a change of pace now and
then.

The android dog decided he would watch over
them that night from a comfortable distance in case the wild dogs
returned. In the morning, he would bring the sheep and their lambs
back to the village. With two legs and a couple of functional
hands, he could toss ropes around their necks and lead them home,
but as this option did not exist, he would have to herd them. He
felt confident he could manage. If real dogs could do it, he should
be able to as well.

He sat on his haunches a few meters into the
trees and made himself comfortable. He needed to make a call.

“
I found the sheep,
” he sent to Tork.
“
I’ll bring them to the village tomorrow. How’s the old
woman?
”

“
About the same as when you left,
”
the trade android replied. “
I still think this is a bad
idea
.”

“
Why? The village gets their sheep back
and an old woman gets to live a few more years.
”

“
Those are both transitory and relatively
unimportant matters. The return of the sheep could undermine the
prestige of their holy woman.
”

“
Ryenne? Why is that a bad thing? That
woman is crazy.
” He refrained from telling Tork that Galinda’s
life probably mattered to her; and to say it was transitory, well,
from a far enough perspective, everything was. This did not mean
nothing was important.

“
Yes, but that crazy woman helps these
people make sense of their lives,
” the trade android said.

“
She helps them make nonsense, you
mean.
”

“
Perhaps to us but not to them, and who
is to say it’s wrong? No one, not even those of us who consider
ourselves intelligent and well informed, has a complete
understanding of the universe. The most we can achieve is some
partial understanding of it that works for us. A universe with
demons in it works for the primitives.
”

“
I’ve known you a long time, Tork, and
you’re not clever enough to have come up with that on your own. You
got it from Corporation indoctrination files, didn’t you?
”

“
Well, yes. It’s part of the Trade
Interface package, but that doesn’t mean it’s not right.
”

MO-126 shook his head and realized he needed
to be more careful about acquiring human mannerisms. His companion
was not there to see the gesture, so he could not reprimand him for
it.
“I’ll tell you what’s not right. It’s not right to let
someone die if you can help prevent it.
”

“
For a dog, that’s a terribly human
sentiment.
”

“
I’m not a dog
.”

“
You’re not a human, either.
”

“
No, I’m a mechanical simulacrum of a
dog. That doesn’t mean I’m heartless.
”

“
Technically, it does.
”

“
You’re being intentionally obtuse. You
know what I mean.
”

“
Yes, I do. You’ve grown fond of the
primitives here, and you’re letting that affect your better
judgment. You have to remember that these are primitives. When the
corporation found their ancestors, they were foraging a meager
existence from wild plants and picking the leftover carcasses
abandoned by better predators. They probably still are, if they’re
not extinct by now. The people here are sentient, but they’re not
much different from their sheep. Don’t make them out to be more
than they are.
”