LAST BEST FRIEND
by Jean M. Goldstrom
by Jean M. Goldstrom
Published by Whortleberry Press, Box 771, Melrose FL 32666, © 2005, all rights reserved.
Cover art by Lee Kuruganti
Dedication: To Paul, with thanks.
It is the 31st century and after a war over resources, the poor were replaced as workers by robots and genetially altered animals -- called "manimals" -- to serve the rich. Dr. Woot, a manimal of German Shepherd extraction, has created a time tractor beam resulting in bringing Max, a young human, from the 21st century.
Max sees his new manimal friends as more "human" than the humans of the 31st century, and returns to his own time briefly to get help for them. But he returns quickly to the future when the government plans to eliminate the manimals and replace them with robots. Max teaches the manimals a new word -- "freedom." His new friends quickly devote themselves to the cause of becoming free citizens.
Goldstrom has written an interesting tale of an unusual future where manimals have become humanity's Last Best Friend.
--Barry Hunter
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
EPILOG
POSTLOG
| Max, a 21st century college student | Aguilar Aguinaldo, a rich 31st human who owns several slave manimals (creatures bred to semi-human form so they could work, for free, for the wealthy. | Represenator Egil Lemoriore, a government official with a sneaky plan to get rich at the cost of the slave animals. |
| Vice President Cardone Chardonet, the US vice president. He's in on the plan. | Represenator Kerm Branak, an elected representative of the people, who also hopes to get rich at the manimals expense. | US President Colman Kennan, a good guy who doesn't know about the dirty work planned against the manimals. |
| Dr. Woot, a brilliant scientist of German Shepherd Ancestry, who invented the time travel device with... | Tonio, a red-haired man of cat ancestry, also a scientific genius. With funds from his invention he bought his freedom so he could marry... | Myr, a beautiful, small cat womanimal who adores Tonio, and is somewhat psychic. | Tesi, Dr. Woot's chief lab assistant is of black-and-white striped tabby ancestry, and a special friend to Max. |
| BattleCat, a 21st century cat who lost a leg and is eternally grateful to Dr. Woot for growing a new one for him; | Maga, a womanimal of Springer Spaniel ancestry, she's a devoted lab assistant to Dr. Woot. | Bella, a 21st century cat woman who lives only to return to her former home for revenge on her owner for what he did to her kittens. | Beauty, a 21st Cairn Terrier woman rescued from death at the Pound. |
CHAPTER 1
Chapter 1. A Thousand Years Across the Street
The metal closet-like structure rumbled, shook, and wobbled wildly. "It's here!" shouted Dr. Woot. "Tesi, Maga, Silva, help me. Hurry!" The three lab-coated women ran from their work stations and grabbed the jumping structure. After one final Bang! the closet fell still and silent.
"You did it!" gasped Tesi, a short, slender woman whose only visible link with her cat ancestors was her brown-gray striped hair.
"We did it," Woot said. He smiled and hugged Tesi and the other two women, genetically altered dogs who looked like medium-height, sturdy-boned women. "Tell Master," Woot said to Tesi.
Tesi ran from the laboratory, down a hall, up a stairway, and knocked at a closed, heavy wooden door.
"Master, it's Tesi. Can I come in?"
A reedy voice answered, "You may come in, Tesi."
Tesi burst into the room where a small man in a purple velvet robe tapped a keyboard, watching a bank of video wall screens. "Wait," he said. "I'm getting a feed from Peking for today's issue... there. It's done. Now, what?"
Aguinaldo looked up at the cat woman who had served him most of her life, as had the other genetically altered animals -- or "manimals," as many called them.
"Master, Woot's got something from the 20th century. I think it's a human. Do you want to see?"
Aguinaldo, a small man, even smaller than Tesi, with a youthful face that didn't match his tired, old voice, smiled faintly. "I don't have time. Have to send the East Coast edition out within minutes and then call my broker." His smile broadened a trifle. "Just keep me informed."
"Yes, Master," said Tesi. Closing the human's door quietly behind herself, she ran at top speed back to the lab. There, Woot had opened the closet and with strength drawn from his German Shepherd ancestors, easily lifted a slender youth onto a robo-server cot. He tapped instructions onto the device's system. The cot hummed gently, stimulating the youth's nerves and muscles, and injected mild stimulants into his arms.
Opening alert dark eyes, the stranger said, "Why are you people all staring at me? What's going on?"
Woot, Maga and Silva hardly understood his words. They stared at his eyes... brown, like theirs. But Tesi had trained for just this moment. She stepped to the foot of the cot and said, reassuringly, in accents the stranger could understand, "You are safe. May I ask your name?"
"Well, my name is Max, and what's yours? I have to get out of here. My class is starting... hey, what happened to me? I was crossing the street to the humanities building and..."
"We picked you up in Dr. Woot's tractor beam," Tesi said, gently. "You have traveled almost no distance in space, but a great distance in time."
Max struggled to rise from the robo-cot. "You're not some kind of space aliens, are you? You're not going to dissect me, are you?"
The four laughed. By now, Woot, Maga and Silva could catch a few words of Max's speech.
Woot spoke slowly and clearly to him. "No harm will come to you. You are our honored guest from the past, I assure you. But I want you to meet a friend who did as much as I to bring you here."
Tesi said, "Going to Tonio's?"
Maga's face froze.
"Yes," Woot said. "My dear friend contributed as much to this project as I. He will want to meet this man from the 21st century."
Max's eyes popped open even wider."The 21st century? What century is it here?"
Dr. Woot said, gently, "This is the 31st century, friend Max. And you have just made the longest time journey a human has ever made."
Max leaped from the cot and ran toward the laboratory door. Silva and Maga quickly caught him. Gently, each dog-woman took one of his arms and brought him back to sit again on the cot.
"Don't move until Dr. Woot tells you," Maga said, flatly.
"But -- but I'm a thousand years late for class already," Max sputtered. Then he laughed at the ridiculousness of his own statement. "I've been late before, but this tops everything." Suddenly, he looked worried. "Am I a prisoner?" Max asked, trying not to let his voice quaver.
Tesi said, gently, "No. You're part of a breakthrough experiment in time travel. You were picked up by a tractor beam invented by our resident genius, Dr. Woot, and his genius friend, Tonio. Our Master wanted to see ancient beings." She laughed again. "So did we."
"My friend," Woot said to Max, warmly, "you are a treasure to us. We will try to learn a bit about you, but we will care for you gently and return you safely to your own time."
"You will? For sure?" Max asked, hesitantly. He had been afraid he would end up as a series of slides under a futuristic microscope.
"Of course," said Woot. "We will take a few measurements and so on. Don't worry, our robo-tools are painless and nothing we do will be invasive. This is simply to gain knowledge of the past. So much has been lost. For example, we believe humans were once much larger and physically stronger than they are now. Just looking at you, I believe that may be true. You are larger than most humans already, and I suspect you may not yet be fully grown. Humans today live a much less active life that humans did in your era. But first, I must show you to my friend Tonio. One of his discoveries played a big part in your being here, so he will want to meet you."
Maga frowned. "Woot, don't go. You know it's dangerous to associate with that free cat."
"Tonio's my oldest and dearest friend," laughed Woot. "And he hasn't had a brush with the Wardens for a long time. I think he's paid them off rather handsomely, and they don't bother him any more."
Woot and Tesi led Max to a door that closed behind them on their trip to Tonio's home. Silva and Maga stayed behind, busy with lab chores. But after the laboratory door closed behind Dr. Woot, Max and Tesi, and while Silva was busy in a far corner of the lab, Maga paced nervously. Then, her mouth set in a grim line, she picked up a small, black communicator.
"Warden Station," said a voice at the other end.
"I want to report an unlicensed animal," Maga said, tonelessly, "at the home of Tonio 040882-37333." She touched the "off" button and gently placed the communicator back on its stand. Her shoulders shook, but there were no tears in her eyes. In the days when manimals were being created, their human bioengineers never saw a reason to give them tears.
On the roof of Aguinaldo's estate several air cars were parked. Woot opened the door of a three-seater. He, Tesi and Max got in. Woot closed the door, punched the robotic controls, and the car was airborne.
Max stared silently out the window, down at green parkland, an occasional estate and few roads. In the sky, he saw whizzing, silvery objects.
"What are those?" he said, pointing to one swooping especially close.
"Spy eyes," said Tesi. "The government likes to know where everyone is and watch where they go."
"That must keep them busy," Max muttered, as he stared at the green, parklinke countryside slipping past him at the ground level. But to Tesi he said, "I don't see any towns, or communities. Where do you live? Where do people live?" he asked.
"We live where we work," Tesi answered. "Woot, Maga, Silva and I live at our Master's estate. Other manimals live at their masters' estates, or factories or wherever they work," Tesi answered.
"You don't have homes? Even little ones?" Max sounded incredulous.
"It takes money to buy homes," Tesi said. "We are only mananimals -- not humans. We are not given money. What we get food and a place to live, at our master's convenience."
"This sounds even worse than the burger place where I used to work," Max said, only half-joking. "You mean you're slaves?"
"We're manimals," Tesi snapped, "and that's enough about that. Our masters give us food, clothing and work. That is all we need."
Max couldn't stop. "But where do the regular people live? I mean the ones that aren't rich. Ordinary people, like me."
"There aren't any," Woot said, flatly. "After the fossil fuels ran out, there was a very bad time. Some people called it the War Between the Haves and Have-Nots. After the Have-Nots were wiped out, there was no one to do the humans' work, so robotics advanced, and our ancestors were biologically engineered to be as we are today. As we are somewhere between 'man' and 'animal,' we are usually called 'manimals.' And if robots weren't so expensive, we probably wouldn't exist. Ah, here is Tonio's estate," Woot said, as the aircar dropped toward a rooftop landing pad on a large estate building."
Max said, slowly, "You're saying all the regular humans died... somehow?"
Tesi snapped, "It was a war over resources. The poor lost. Before they were wiped out, they ate -- they had to eat -- almost all the other animals. The rich won. They replaced the poor with robotics and us. Don't talk about it further."
Max was silent. He looked shocked and thoughtful.
The sun was setting as the aircar landed itself gently on an estate nestled in a mountain range. Only a couple of distant spy-eyes could be see, far away. Woot got out, holding the door for Tesi and a subdued Max. Max followed Tesi and Woot as they knocked at a rooftop door. It flew open, revealing a large-boned, red-haired manimal with a wide smile showing teeth as sharp as Tesi's.
"Woot, my dear friend, " Tonio said, embracing the aging doctor. "Welcome, welcome. And Tesi," Tonio said, extending one arm to include the slender cat-woman in his embrace, "you are always welcome, too."
Tonio turned to Max. "You must be the human I have hoped to meet," he said, extending a hand. "Welcome, friend."
Max shook the cat-man's slender, muscular hand. "Hello," he said, absorbing Tonio's friendliness. "My name is Max."
"Welcome, Max. Consider my home yours. Do come in," said Tonio, leading the group down a hall to a laboratory resembling Woot's.
"Now, I want to hear all about Woot's wonderful and successful experiment," Tonio said.
Woot added to Max, "Tonio is too modest to say so, but he had a great part in its success. He invented the laser beams that provide so much of our power, and which powered the tractor beam that brought you here, Max."
"I didn't create anything alone, Woot. You know you did just as much as I did."
"It was..." Woot began, then stopped as the entire building vibrated to a thundering knocking coming from the roof.
Conversation stopped. The three could hear a bull-horn voice shouting, "Open up, in the name of the Wardens."
Tesi hissed to Tonio and Woot, "I know what to do." She grabbed Max's hand and almost dragged him out of the laboratory at a run, down a hall, down some stairs, into a basement, through a metal door and into a garage with several aircars.
They stumbled into one of the aircars, and Tesi slammed the metal door behind them. "We should be safe here," she said. "Tonio will buzz us when the Wardens leave and we can go back."
"But we didn't do anything!" Max exclaimed.
"The Wardens will kill you as an unlicensed animal before they stop to find that out," Tesi said, opening a wall cupboard. She removed two slender tubes, each about as long as her forearm. She stuck them into the large pockets on either side of her lab coat.
"What's with these Wardens?" Max asked.
"Tonio gets a lot of harassment," Tesi said, "for being a free, rich cat."
"Free and rich?" Max wondered.
"He used to belong to our Master," Tesi explained. "He and Woot developed a laser invention. It was worth a lot. Our Master was really decent, for a human. He made sure Tonio got a fair share from his invention, and Tonio bought his freedom and this place. As far as Woot, well, I don't think he ever thinks about anything but his beloved work -- like money, or freedom, or anything else."
Then the room where they sat in the air car seemed to shake from the hammer-like pounding assaulted the metal door. It burst open. Two huge, uniformed men with the blocky heads of pit bulls rushed in. "Wardens!" they yelled. "There's an unlicensed animal here! Get out of that air car!"
As Tesi and Max slowly obeyed the order, one of the men pointed at Max with a tube like those Tesi took from the cupboard. The other pointed at Tesi.
"We're gonna check your licenses," the other one growled.
"Check away," said Tesi. "You're wasting your time," she bluffed gallantly, "but you probably don't have anything better to do."
"No talk," said the warden. "Hold still." He pulled out something like a flashlight and held it against Tesi's head, peering at a small screen in the device's handle.
"Tesi 082412, property of Lord Aguilar Aguinaldo 187-24-2412," he muttered, reading aloud. "Mm. Looks okay." Turning from Tesi, who backed slowly away from him, he called to Max. "You're next."
Max backed away from the two men, while putting as much distance between him and Tesi as possible. "Don't shine that silly light on me," he yelled. "I don't need a license. I'm a human. Can't you see that?"
The two men closed in on him from either side. "Yeah, we're all humans here," one growled. "You're coming down to the Pound with us..."
He stopped speaking abruptly. He and his comrade crumpled to the floor. As they dropped, Max could see Tesi behind them, a smoking tube in each hand.
"I was hoping you could think of something," Max gasped. Looking down at the crumpled Wardens, he asked, "Are they dead?"
"Yes," Tesi nodded, looking frightened. "We better get out, fast."
Getting back into the aircar, Tesi punched buttons and they taxied down a long, wide hallway to an exit some distance from Tonio's house, where the Warden vehicle was still flashing its lights on the roof.
As the aircar swooped quickly into the sky, Max asked, "Are the Wardens always like that?"
"Usually worse," Tesi said, shortly. "Killing a couple of them was not painful -- to me," she said, flashing him a smile filled with sharp cat teeth. "But it can cause problems, especially if I get caught."
"Where are we going?" Max asked.
"I don't really know. We can't go back to Tonio's house," Tesi said. "It would only bring trouble on him."
"Let's go back to the Master's house," Max suggested, brightly, "and bring trouble on him. I don't have any pity for slave owners."
"The Wardens could put you to sleep," Tesi snorted, "like they do with manimals who cause problems, or don't have a license. Woot would be very upset if something happened to you after what he went through to get you here."
"Put to sleep? You mean, killed?"
Tesi smiled at him. "Wasn't that the word for death in your era?"
Max sighed. "For animals, yeah." He turned to Tesi. "Here, I'd rather be counted with you and Woot and Tonio than with the so-called humans."
Tesi smiled at him. "We'll go back to Woot's laboratory. You can escape from there."
Max frowned, then brightened. "Why don't you come with me? We have fun in my ancient world. And the Wardens would never find you there."
Tesi looked thoughtful.
Seeing no Warden air cars on Aguinaldo's roof, Tesi landed. "Your era sounds better to me than this one, right now," she said as they ran for the roof door. "I'll probably go to the Pound myself for killing those Wardens," she muttered.
Silva met them at the door, her face twisted with fear. "The Master is furious," she said. "He's out looking for you. Dr. Woot just came in. He said if we saw you to tell you to come straight to the laboratory."
They ran down the hall to the lab, burst in, and Tesi locked the door behind them. They found Woot and Maga shouting at each other.
"I'm sorry," Maga screamed. "I know I shouldn't have done it, but I was afraid for you..."
"You fool," roared Woot, "how could you have been so stupid?"
Maga buried her face in her hands. "I didn't want you to get in trouble..." She never saw Tesi advance on her and deliver a slap to her face that knocked her sprawling and left bleeding scratches on her cheek.
"If I had time, I'd kill you, dog bitch," hissed Tesi.
Woot stared.
Tesi turned on him. "She's been in heat for you forever, Doctor, and you're too scientific to notice. She worries about you all the time. But we don't have time for that now. How about sending Max and me back to Max's past? It's the only safe place we can think of."
Woot paused a moment, then nodded. "Yes," he said. "That might be best."
Someone began pounding on the lab door. Aguinaldo's voice screeched, "Woot, open up, now!"
Tesi grabbed Max by the hand and they ran toward the metal closet-like structure in which Max had arrived. She threw the door open, revealing a bank of devices on one wall. "Get in," she hissed to Max, pushing him into the small space, and squeezing in behind him.
The pounding on the door got louder. "Open up in the name of the Wardens," a new, loud voice yelled.
Max put his arms around the slim cat woman, held her close so they could both fit into the tiny space, and tried to smile encouragingly. "You'll like my time," he said.
Woot shut the door of the closet-like device on Max and Tesi. Outside, he pressed several switches on the control panel, and a loud buzzing filled the air.
Max heard Woot's voice call, "Coming, Master." Then he felt an impact, somewhat like he was being turned inside out. He had just left the future.
The world whirled around a bit, and something hard smacked Max on the side of his head. It was College Avenue, a thousand years younger than when he left Woot's laboratory.
Max ran for the curb. But Tesi?
A gray-brown striped cat dashed for the bushes bordering the main college building. She stopped, turned, stared at Max, hissed, then disappeared into the bushes.
"Tesi? Come back, please," Max yelled. He ran after her, dived into the brambly bushes while enduring their scratches, grabbed Tesi by her tail, braving her scratches and even terrorized bites, and finally emerged from the bushes, holding a panic-stricken cat in his arms.
"Please, Tesi, it's me, Max. Don't be afraid. I didn't know time would turn you back. Please, come home with me. I'll take good care of you, I promise."
The brown-gray tabby let Max hold her. Her trembling stopped, and a soft purr began.
"You're welcome," Max said, as he headed toward home.