by D.L. Morrese
~*~
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.