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I, Dog 2000 short story by Louis Turfrey Eleven years after Episode IV – A New Hope There is something
wrong. I can still hear friend but he is very faint. My ears twitch in anticipation, I can smell fear in the air. Then I hear his
footsteps, approaching from outside the door. Involuntarily my tail starts to
move from side to side and I curse my canine heritage. Once such things would
not have been a problem. Now I’m sure I must be the laughing stock of the
universe. Imagine me, once a creature nearly three metres high, reduced to
the frame of a common dog. Disgusting. He enters the room,
and I smell the acrid scent of Bacta on him. He is wounded. I sense that this
is internal as well as external. I move towards him to offer comfort. He
smiles at me, reassuring me in standard. Why does he not touch me? Then I
realise he is not wearing his hand coverings so I move over to intercept one
of them as they flop down. He jumps visibly, a startled look on his face, as
my mind meets his. In an instant he unwillingly transmits the full horror of
what has befallen him. I yelp and jump backwards. Instantly reminded of the
horrors that I was once subjected to. He rubs his temples
and I feel the fear in him for the first time. “What have I done, Spacer? What have I
allowed to escape?” He stands up and starts to pack. I know he feels
responsible for the death of one of his colleagues. Everything that went on
that day is imprinted in my mind as well. Why does he insist on facing it
alone? I fear for his sanity. Another day, another
trip. This time we’re heading for Wildspace. Inhospitable, the event horizon
of the known Galaxy. There was a lot going on in Wildspace. Today he has spent
eight hours modifying equipment and changing panels. He prepares and I sleep.
He has warned me that we will be in hyperspace for at least a week. I sense
his ship is faster than most, so it surprises me to hear this. I’ve never
been in hyperspace on a ship this small before. It’s not as if I can run
around and get fit. I don’t know why, or how, but I seem to understand what
he is doing. I decide that the least I can do now is help him while he
fumbles through the process. Then I get an urge, and I see some movement out
the corner of my eye. It takes me nearly ten
minutes of running around in circles to realise that it is my tail I’m
chasing. By the time I’ve stopped, my friend is laughing so hard, he is
having trouble breathing. I give him one of my withering looks and head off
towards the toilet area he has created for me. I defecate on the pad, press
the large button to the side, and the waste is
sucked out into storage. Amazing technology, I wonder why humans don’t do it.
It must be incredibly inconvenient to have to sit down all the time. I am
hungry again. I decide to explore. We are approaching a
small pile of debris that used to be a space station. I’m interested in what
has happened. So is my friend. He looks at the screen readouts at his
console. I sense something is wrong and try to tell him so. He understands.
My mind picks up other thoughts nearby, but his scanners show nothing. He
decides to do one more scan and then leaves. We are about to
transit into hyperspace when the ship is rocked by a heavy explosion. I
successfully manage to dig my claws into the wire mesh of the floor. My
friend is not so lucky, he is halfway out of his
seat, which causes him to be thrown across the cabin. He hits the navigation
computer with a crunch. His eyes close as he falls to the ground. There is
the sound of something metallic attaching to the hip. I bound to the window
and look around. Damn these paws. I feel anger. Looking above me I can see
the tip of a Tie-Ugly attached to the hull. How do I know what it’s called?
Somewhere within my mind, frustration starts to build. I can’t remember
feeling this angry since I killed my creators, and that is still a blur. The
hatch cycles from the outside, and I hear it hiss open. I look at my master,
he is still asleep. I can hear one set of footsteps approaching the cockpit.
A growl rises, and I bare my teeth. I feel more anger now, and something
urges me forward. An obligation is filling my mind, and my eyes narrow.
Whoever is beyond the doorway halts. They can hear
me. I quieten down and wait. There is the sound of metal pinging and a small
round object is rolled into the cockpit. I jump for one of the nearby seats
and there is a blast of sound and light behind me. I am temporarily blinded.
A flash grenade. I hear our assailant enter the cockpit, and then I’m falling
into unconsciousness as a stun blast hits me. I wake up only a short
time later. Our assailant is now searching through the ship. I can hear him
in the locker section. He hasn’t gotten very far. I try to move but I can’t
feel my back legs. My friend is tied and gagged. He is desperately fighting
against his bonds, and seems eager to help me. The anger starts to rise
again, my senses are heightening. I growl and it becomes louder and deeper. I
hear a voice again. “Damn hound. I’m gonna put you out of your
misery once and for all!” The footsteps approach
and I start to panic. I look back towards my hindquarters and realise why I
can’t feel my legs. There is a neatly cauterised wound where he has inserted
a vibroshiv and severed my spine. I howl in rage,
still looking at the wound, and then things start to happen, and the scar
starts to fade. There is the sound of the door to the hatchway opening and
the man enters the cockpit. He strides towards me, raising his blaster to
finish me off, but as he steps over my friend, he is tripped and his gun
flies out of his hand. “Stupid Republican scum!” He punches my
friend over and over again. I snarl and snap, my anger intensifying, as I
drag myself forward. Feeling is returning to my hindquarters and something
strange is happening to my body. I notice my senses are starting to diminish
slightly, and I look down towards my paws, which seem to be elongating. My
hunger grows. The blood starts to
flow from my friends broken nose as the pain in my
back reaches a crescendo. I see only the blood and feel only the anger as
memories of atrocities I have witnessed surface in my brain. I see a man in
my minds eye, laughing at me, his face full of scorn as I am handed over to
two men dressed in white coats, the Stormtroopers behind me applying pain
intensifiers to keep me immobile and for the briefest of moments I remember a
name. Treece. Then something happens
to me and I can hear my own voice, no longer a snarl but a roar. A roar that
must be stopped. I wake up in the
medical bay, confused and alarmed. Was it a dream? I don’t know. There is
uncertainty in my mind. I feel stronger now. Inwardly as well as externally.
Critchek, I remember his name, is looking down upon me in concern. “Easy friend. You got him. I don’t
know how, but you got him.” He reaches down and I notice the scars on his
hands. He took a beating for me. I owe him my life. Again. The compulsion is
too strong to explain. I whine, but the sound seems unfamiliar. I twist my
head around and notice my reflection in the smooth, clean sides of the bay.
Then my brain is flooded with images as the horror of it all comes back to
me. A Wookie brain trapped
in a canine body. Not just any canine body though, oh no. This one had to be
genetically enhanced. Swifter, stronger and more viscous that any hound, I am
telepathically able to communicate with some humans and most animals. I also
have the longevity of a Wookie. The same mind that snapped and caused me to
attack my creators invoked a savage fury. That’s how I was able to defend
Critchek and that’s why my creators placed me on that transport. I was to be
a living meal for the Trygenic Vampires and if that
failed, I was to be jettisoned into space. Too bad one of them escaped,
freeing me at the same time. Too bad for them anyway. I look up at my friend
again and I am somehow sure that one day, I will be his undoing as well. Then
sleep starts to take me and all I can think about is how I don’t feel hungry
any more. I, Dog 2000 short story by Louis Turfrey Eleven years after Episode IV – A New Hope Histories
– Chronicling the life and history of investigator Critchek Skumuls dog Spacer
this short tale shows the workings of his active mind – a mind genetically
enhanced and tinkered with by people unknown. Cast of
Characters Spacer Critchek Skumul |