Preliminary Data
Published first in Analog Science Fiction and Fact
in the April 1992 issue, this S.F. short
story is about nanotechnology research on increasing a bear's intelligence and
strength to make cheap slave labor for a heavy-gravity world -- an experiment
that succeeds a bit too well (story from the bear's point of view). No awards
for this, but Analog is very demanding of quality and always paid well
for stories they bought (see my bibliography at http://www.netreach.net/~abrejcha/biblio.htm ), so I was happy it sold.
-----------------------
Preliminary Data
by
F. Alexander Brejcha
Scent strong... female in heat. Nose down, follow trail. Stop! Strange,
dangerous smells in background. No! Female scent too strong. Must mate.
Pressure mounting, pain. Sight
blurs. Her scent trail clear, follow.
Trees gone, open meadow. Scan the grassy field. Sun overhead bakes down, hot air still, no
movement. Scent trail weaker under
sun. Wind shifts, scent strong
from hill on other side.
Carefully move closer, dark
opening. Cave in hill. Enter... sweet season powerful... Stop!
Ground different: hard,
cold. Strange smells, dangerous smells
again, strong. Turn quickly but...
Loud slamming sound behind. Darkness, trapped. Air thick...
Blackness...
#
Wake up in light cave. Small suns above shine, but with cold
light. Look around. Smooth walls on three sides, below and above. On fourth side, wall of branches blocks
entrance and divides daylight from outside into hard stripes across
ground. Hard, straight branches that do
not move. Push, harder, slippery like
wet rocks in stream. Fight. Claws, teeth hurt and do not mark
branches. Pain. Turn to walls on sides. Different.
Marks, but not much. Roar
challenge, but no answer, only echo from all around. Trapped in cave. Not dark, no sun. Light on other side of branches
stronger. Female gone. Pressure less. Head hurts.
Water.
Scent water. Over by wall in back
of cave, narrow stream. Cold,
fresh. Drink.
Bright flashes of light from
sides. Strange sounds.
Food appears from hole in wall. Hunger explodes, triggered by fresh fish on
floor. Fruit, berries. Eat.
Full, sleep.
Wake, same cave, same light. No escape.
Explore. Urinate in corner, mark
territory. Push branches. Want out.
Sleep again. Lightly.
Wake. Sleep. Light comes and goes, food comes out of wall. Smell of feces and urine grows in corner.
Sounds in wall. Female scent returns, strong, near. New hole in wall. Small, nose just fits--
Banging sound from behind, sharp pain
on rear flank... turn to see wall of branches close, glimpse of tall figure
vanishing. Wall of branches solid
again. Push against them, but branches
strong. Scent from behind pulls, turn...
legs weak, vision blurring... darkness, falling...
#
Wake up. Stiffness and raging hunger fight for
attention, but hunger wins as the smell of food pulls. Fruit, fish are devoured. Fresh water still flows, drink. Cave clean, but, trace of scent mark
remains. Same cave.
Light beyond wall of branches
beckons. Move closer, chew, taste,
smell. Not branches. Dead things like walls. Straight, smooth, hard. Push but they do not move. Shake branches...
Paws different!
Sit on ground and look at paws. Claws gone!
Toes longer. Try moving toes and
each toe can move on its own. Paws
hurt. And so does head. But can pick up pieces of food and hold them
for better control. Food comes from hole
in wall. Watch it now. Pushed out by a branch like those blocking
the cave entrance, but smaller. Then
hole closes.
Little suns above go dark and bright
with light outside. Day and night.
Watch hole in wall. Where does food come from? Every day food is pushed out and branch is
almost outside hole before pulling back as wall closes...
Grab branch, pull. Paws hold much better and branch breaks
off. Hole tries to close, stick branch
in to block it -- wall can not close. Strange
sound, sharp smell in air and wall stops moving.
Sound from wall of branches. Turn to see tall figure on other side,
outlined by strong light from behind. It
is holding a
#
Wake up again. Body sore, in pain. Head hurts.
Still in cave. Sit up to groom. Body slimmer, easier to reach to groom, but
raging hunger invades as hole in ceiling slides open and food drops down onto
floor.
Light comes and goes.
Explore branches. Opened before. Reach through, but branches don't move. Hole in ceiling? Stand, wait for food to drop. Too high to reach. But easier to stand.
Sit, wait. Feel strange.
Body tickles. Like bugs crawling
over it, but inside. Eyes blur and then clear
and ears buzz.
Sound from outside. The creature with the pain-branch is back and
sticks it through the bars to spit. Again,
the red flower hits a flank and pain floods up.
The branch threw the flower. It
means sleep...
#
New cave, inside larger cave. Clear and light. Branches all around from ground up. Outside, in larger cave, strange rocks that
are not rocks flash with tiny lights like fireflies. Food hangs from above. Reach up and grab it. Easy to stand and reach. Down on ground on all four paws feels
wrong. Stand again. Feels good, natural. See water in the hollow of a shiny rock, up
high on wall. Just right to reach when
standing. Drink, cool fresh. Vision sharp, clear. Colors brighter. Many new colors and strange smells.
The wall in the larger cave opens and
two strange figures enter, walking on their hind legs in challenge. One tall, one short. They have flat, ugly and naked faces with
only fur on top of the heads. The large
one has short, dark fur and is covered with something soft that is not
fur. It is the color of a storm
sky. The small creature has light fur
that hangs down along its back, and its covering is the color of snow. It is very frail looking, but has a strong
chest. Naked legs stick out from the
bottom half of the covering.
They approach the branches and make
strange noises back and forth as they point in.
They smell bad.
Shaking the branches proves they are as
strong as those in the small cave. The
tall figure moves back. Smell of
fear. But the smaller one moves closer
and stares in.
Maybe not a challenge?
Head hurts from the strange thoughts.
The small one reaches for a piece of
fruit on a rock outside and holds it out, stretching in past the branches.
Food, offered...?
It stares in, unafraid, fruit just
inside the branches, close enough to reach out and attack. But why?
There is no threat.
...I... reach slowly for the
fruit. Take it carefully, and eat
it. The small one does not move, even
though a scent of fear rises momentarily.
Food offered to ...me... I am?
What am I? Who am I?
Noises outside the cage distract me
from this new idea. A third creature --
looking like the tall one, but with dark skin and even darker fur on its head
and face -- has entered the room and the two tall ones draw the small one away
from the cage and chatter at it.
My head is hurting as I look at the
three waving their paws around at each other, sometimes at me. They are communicating. About me.
Why am ...I... here? I am me.
Captive. "Me". I, study my paws and flex the toes. I held the fruit easily. The longer toes give more control. When I shook the surrounding branches, my
toes allowed a better grip. They let me
hold the fruit and break the branch in the first small cave... what else?
And what am I now? Not what I was. I am different. I do not remember wondering like this, I do
not remember... much at all.
Vague flashes of streams, dark
forests... fade with pain.
I see a shiny surface against one wall
outside in the larger cave and move closer to the wall of branches furthest
from my noisy captors. I can see
myself! Like a still lake, the hanging
surface reflects my image and I study it.
My face is the same. Long, finely
furred muzzle, healthy moist nose and clear eyes. But my body is different, somehow -- more
slender. Straighter legs and longer toes
on my front paws make me look... more like the creatures surrounding my
imprisoning cave, just larger.
I turn to look at them in surprise,
only to find that they are studying me and pointing at me, eyes open.
I point back. Then to myself. I drop to all fours briefly, and then stand
up. Will they understand that I am
asking them what happened to me? Why I
look so different?
They stare at each other and one runs
to fetch a
But outside, the small one who had
offered me the fruit grabs the branch and throws it away, chattering even louder
than the others as it pushes them back away from me. It walks over to the one wall and opens a
large white rock with a light inside and takes out something shiny and brings
it towards me.
I stay in the corner.
It is... speaking. It is trying to communicate with me. I can not understand, but the sounds are
soft, soothing. It moves closer and then
reaches in to hold the object in its hand over my water. More water pours out! The thing is hollow. Then the small... being, moves back and
points to the water. It is offering the
water to me like it did the fruit.
I move towards it slowly, watching the
two taller beings outside. But they are
silent and still; waiting?
I bend over the water and lap,
carefully looking out over the watchers.
Nothing. The water has a
different taste to it -- deliciously sweet -- and I drink deeply, forgetting
the others until the bowl is nearly empty.
Then I straighten and back away, eyeing the suddenly alert strangers who
are watching me. I have a mental image
of the scavengers who circle a leftover kill.
I stare back.
They blur. My legs get weak and I fall. They tricked me! The world fades into blackness again.
#
I can not see or move. Something is covering my eyes and my legs are
all held in place. The sounds of my
captors' strange speech surround me. Two
of them. As I listen, I realize that I
understand some of what they are saying.
Most is only collections of noises, but some of makes sense. I realize they are talking about me, even if
I can't grasp just what they are saying...
"Is it safe?" A deep voice.
"I mean, it can't get loose, can--"
"He, damn it!" A higher pitched voice, accompanied by a
scent of... not fear, but anger? It
overlays a pleasant flowery scent like the sprawling tiny yellow blossoms in a
spring-time meadow. It is the small one
who had fed me, protecting me somehow again as... she... did when the taller
ones were going to use the spitting branch on me... the tranquilizer gun. A mental image flashes in my head. I don't understand it fully, but the female
did not like it.
It is strange, but somehow I know
them. As if in a dream. The deep voice belongs to the first tall
creature, a male, and the higher voice to the light furred one who is a female. An image -- a memory? -- flashes through my
mind. Of the two standing over me,
talking and showing me images of objects that seemed real, but when touched,
were cold and flat.
The scrap of memory fades and I hear
the female speak.
"Stop talking about him as if he
was an object. He is still a male...
even if you talked me into neutering him the last time under."
"That was for his own good,"
the male defends itself. "The
instinctive arousal reactions could get in the way."
"Maybe, Greg, but I feel bad about
that." I sense a soft touch on my
foreleg -- 'arm', a part of my mind supplies.
I suddenly realize what they are talking about and lie there in numb
shock, unable to move as they keep talking.
"It can always be undone,"
'Greg' is arguing. "Nothing is
permanent, here. It's incredible! Microscopic machines that can go inside the
body to heal -- or to change -- it's like something out of a science fiction
book. But it works, and you've done
wonders here. Even I have to admit
it. The conversion is nearly complete
and it took less than a three weeks.
Even... his... programming is partially comple--"
"After a week under on drugs while
semi-conscious! I wish we would have had
time to teach him normally."
"You made the only decision you
were able to. The presentation is less
than two weeks away, now. But, we're
ahead of schedule and you'll have some time to teach him 'normally'. At this point it will be easy since he should
have a basic vocabulary after our programming."
Shock, and counter-shock. I have been mutilated, but I can be
healed. But anger grows in me and I try
moving again, fighting the bonds with my whole body, but they are too
tight. I try to roar a challenge, but no
sound emerges.
"Look out! He's awake!" Greg smells afraid. He should be!
I sense Cynthia leaning close. "Damn, the anesthesia wore off
quick!"
Light floods my eyes as they are freed
and I look up at her. She is studying me with narrowed eyes, but for some
reason I am unable to keep my fangs bared as she speaks, softly.
"I think the housekeeping nanites
in his system are differentiating and treating the anesthesia as a toxin. We're going to have to reprogram them before
we put him under again to finish his voice-box.
Are you all right?" She
bends over me and stares into my eyes, shining a small light into one after the
other. Her strong flower scent is
overwhelming.
Greg touches her arm. "He can't answer you and I'm not even
sure he can even understand you yet. He
needs time to assimilate everything."
"I'll bet he can understand. Look at his face. He's angry, and scared, too, I'm sure of
it!" Cynthia pulls free from Greg
and touches my arm again.
"It's all right. We won't hurt you. We're going to take care of you." Her voice is the same soft, soothing one she used
when she offered the water and I am suspicious.
She turns to Greg. "He understands me fine. I know what I'm doing. The cerebellar differentiation and expansion
went well and interconnectivity was increased substantially. Theoretically, he should be able to reach an
I.Q. in the eighty to one hundred range."
"He's still only a bloody
bear."
Greg is fortunate I am tied down as he steps closer. "A Kodiak bear, not a man. Nanotechnology can only do so much. We should have stuck to the apes like Jamison
and the others are doing. At least
they're more predictable."
"And bo-o--ring." Cynthia shakes her head. "We need to be different, daring, and
catch the review committee's attention.
Besides, I wanted a bear because they're stronger. Tristan's gravity is double Earth's and we
need a stronger baseline. The apes are
too small to bulk up enough to be useful.
The bears are easier to modify--"
"Even with your brain work,
they're not as smart--"
"So you say."
My eyes follow the exchange, only vaguely
understanding that Cynthia is continuing to defend me, in her way. She leans back over me and stares me right in
the eye.
"We'll show them! Jamison's team is the only one anywhere as
advanced as we are, and with the bears, we'll blow their super chimps out of
the water. We'll prove who's best suited
for their bloody mining camp!" She
grips my arm tightly and then relaxes, running her hand down my arm lightly,
one finger tracing the muscles. The tip
of her tongue traces her lips lightly.
"You'll show them. You will be the best. And not just with radioactives mining, but
you'll make the best damn construction and operating crew that money can buy. After we show you off, they'll have to
give me the funding to go on." She
spins and heads off to the side, out of my sight. I hear her call out, "I'm going to make
sure the training room is finished.
We'll just have to put him under once more to finish the voice box."
Another figure moves into view. The other man from the larger lab where my
last cage was housed. He stands over me,
shaking his head as he holds a small clear tube with a shiny... needle in the
end. He reaches down and slips the
needle into my side. There is hardly any
pain. Then he stands up and turns to
Greg. "I don't know. I hope she's not too optimistic. I just found out that Jamison has a lot of
friends on the review board. I think
she's right about bears being the best choice -- that's why I've gone along
with you -- but what if the government feels more comfortable with Jamison's
approach and awards them the contract?
What do you do with this thing then?" He nods in my direction.
Greg shrugs. "Oh... I don't know. He'll be of no use then. We'll think of something, I guess. Let the university ethics committee worry about
it."
- end -