ITSF Project -Science Fiction Contest Terms and Conditions

The Clarke-Bradbury International Science Fiction Competition

The Canine Intent

Gareth Barlow

“Gee,” said Melissa apprehensively, squinting at the dark grey walls of rock surrounding her and her two companions. “I didn’t imagine it would be so dark, Major.” Her flashlight spot flicked back and forth like an excited moth.

“That’s Colonel, Miss Gellarson,” muttered Clifford through clenched teeth behind his oxymask. Colonel Clifford Keyes of the United Systems Air and Space Military Alliance, that was – and a title well earned, especially after the immature ridiculing hell he had had to endure as Major Keyes. “We can not afford to electrify the lighting in these caves since they were abandoned. Besides that, we have no real idea how such electrical interference may hinder the many experiments in progress, especially –”

A short series of high-pitch barks rendered the rest of his words meaningless. An oxymasked Jack Russel bounded around their feet and came to rest on Clifford’s right boot.

“Was it absolutely necessary to bring this animal with us?” The Colonel pointed an accusing finger at the floor. Mining

“Oh, there’s nowhere else for him to go, major. Really, Settler is no trouble. Right, Settler?” Melissa giggled as the dog scratched at Clifford’s leg with razor sharp claws. “See, all he wants is a little fun. I think he likes you, Major.”

Clifford resisted the temptation to remove the dog with his other steel-capped boot, and pointed his flashlight at it instead in the hope that the bright light would prove sufficiently annoying. It didn’t. “So,” he spat, “how fully are you briefed on this equipment?”

Against one roughly mined wall sat a rock lasercutter, a cube on four wheels sitting about thirty centimetres high. Next to this was piled two handheld remote controllers and a headset.

Melissa shrugged. “I believe I have to test some new machine, something to cut through rocks.” She shrank a little behind her oxymask. “I don’t know why I have to do this. There must be hundreds of other people who know more about mining than I do.”

Clifford wished half-heartedly that his superiors would rush in at the last second with one of those other hundreds to replace this person. “Uh-huh, not fully briefed, then,” he said acidly, and heaved a sigh. “We chose you for the very reason that you have not operated anything like this before. Think of it as a usability experiment, if you like. Are you ready to begin? The sooner we start, the sooner we can go.” He glared at his watch.

This was no normal rock lasercutter. The extra technology crammed inside the tin can was so secret, in fact, USASMA had implied in no uncertain terms that they would happily remove all of Colonel Keyes’ limbs if he breathed a word about it to anyone else. This also gave rise to the second reason they had picked out the technologically-deficient Melissa Gellarson from the rest of the settlement: there wasn’t an ice-cube’s chance on Sol that she would be able to relay any important details to the Unknown Enemy that USASMA was always murmuring about. Clifford was developing a strong opinion that Melissa would struggle to use a handheld calculator if pressed to do so.

There was still a usability factor involved, this was no lie. The lasercutter had to be tested by a person who had no preconceived ideas of how it should be operated. The fact that the chosen test subject appeared to have little idea of how to operate just about anything was an irony not lost on Clifford’s diminishing patience. And as for her diabolically annoying canine friend, now, that was just the last straw. Clifford pictured Settler roasting on a spit. The insistence of Melissa pampering the thing so much, even having an oxymask fitted to its snout – Clifford’s military-trained cool was microns away from snapping like a very dry twig.

He reminded himself that his services here would probably help push his leave application a few thousand places forward in the red-tape queue. A holiday on Earth! What a pleasure! It was worth putting up with one infernal animal and its diminutive owner for one dark day.

“First, I will demonstrate how a standard, unmodified rock lasercutter is operated. Please watch carefully, Miss Gellarson.”

Clifford stood a little distance away from the lasercutter, holding one of the remote controllers in both hands. A flicked controller switch, and a barely audible whine came from the lasercutter as it switched itself on. He began playing his right thumb over a rollerball on the front panel, and the lasercutter rolled into action, wheeling around the floor in accordance with his directions. Settler began chasing it, barking every now and then.

“How funny!” exclaimed Melissa. “Like a little metal dog. Settler, sit down!”

“A dog with some added weaponry – I mean, cutting tools and so on.” Clifford cursed himself silently for that unforgivable slip-up. “Are you with me so far? Take the other controller and try it for yourself.”

Melissa picked up the other remote. “So I just push this, like so –” The lasercutter demonstrated a few full circles on the spot, then careened at full speed towards the rock face. “Um. This thing is quite sensitive, isn’t it?” A tenth of a second before Clifford could think to enable the emergency brake, Melissa cornered the lasercutter on two wheels and aimed it straight towards him.

“Could you please slow it down a little, Miss Gellarson?” yelped the Colonel as the lasercutter stopped millimetres from his legs. He hastily bounded to one side, away from the front panel. “Whatever you do, Miss Gellarson – please do not aim the lasercutter at another human being.”

“Sorry.” Melissa pouted like a child admonished for smashing a window. “I didn’t know, did I? Anyway, why is this all so important? Surely we’re not down here for driving lessons.”

“We are not nearly finished yet. And please hold your dog – this could be dangerous.” Clifford steered the lasercutter towards the nearest wall. “A lasercutter,” he explained, “has a variable-spread high-powered laser which can be used to cut through solid rock, and is controlled using this set of dials like so.” He enabled the lasercutter beam, and played it back and forth along the wall, leaving a two inch-thick gouge in its trail. Then he widened the beam, quickly vaporising a square meter of solid rock. “What I want you to do is spend a few seconds familiarising yourself with these controls.”

Melissa gave a horrified gasp. “I can’t do that! What if I do something wrong? I’ll chop through something I’m not supposed to, and then what? What if I accidentally aim it at –”

“Miss Gellarson, the lasercutter’s beam will be harmless during your control. Watch.” Clifford reached down and punched a button on the side of the lasercutter, then played the beam over the wall again. “See? It’s just plain white light now. Harmless.”

“I see.” Melissa looked at her controller dubiously, then began spinning a few dials. The beam traced a couple of circles on the wall, a triangle, a square. “Well, this isn’t so difficult. Oh, Settler, behave yourself!”

The dog was leaping back and forth, trying to catch the beam spot on the wall. Melissa laughed, and maintained the spot a few inches from the dog’s nose. “As interesting as this is, I still don’t understand why you need me. This is standard equipment, isn’t it?”
Clifford cleared his throat and tried to sound official. “I must warn you that what I am about to show you is military secret material, and –”

“Uh-huh. Settler wouldn’t tell a soul.” She giggled again and knelt down to stroke the dog’s head.

Clifford counted to eleven silently. “Wear this, please,” he said, offering her the headset.
“ What is it?”

“It’s a new controller we have developed. You see, we need to address certain problems involved with manual controls such as the one you have been using. Specifically, we need a faster, more accurate response time. Using handheld controls can only ever be accurate to a certain extent: one must account for the difficulties involved in learning how to use them, the relay time from brain to hand, the possibility of serious coordination errors when under extreme stress, and so on.” Anyone with more brains, thought Clifford wryly, would realise where this technology was headed in the long run. “What we ultimately need to do is bypass the use of our physical limbs completely.”

Melissa nodded, and regarded the headset with some trepidation. “So in other words, this thing is going to read my mind? I’m not sure I like that.”

Clifford chuckled. “Well spotted, Miss Gellarson, but I can assure you that you need not worry about others listening to your thoughts. All the headset does is attempt to interpret visual mental imagery. To put it simply: you control the lasercutter by picturing what you want it to do.”

Melissa placed the headset around her head and concentrated. “Nothing’s happening,” she said sadly.

Clifford showed her how to switch it on.

For the next twenty minutes Melissa didn’t say a word, just peered silently at nothing, concentrating as hard as she could on picturing what she wanted. The lasercutter responded sluggishly at first, then began picking up speed as Melissa got the hang of picturing her intentions in just the right way. Occasionally she would giggle softly as Settler continued to chase the lasercutter and its laser spot around the floor. After some time, Clifford allowed her to switch the lasercutter’s beam back to cutting power, and now she was experimentally burning well-controlled artistic lines into the rock face.

Clifford didn’t speak either. He was appreciating the proceedings more than Melissa could know. He had expected some teething troubles, but it was turning out to be a perfect success. If someone as inexperienced as Melissa could train herself to use the headset with such apparent ease in under twenty minutes, there was no telling how useful the system would turn out for USASMA. The implications for military weaponry were staggering. It was almost sad that Melissa would never know what kind of system she had helped pioneer.

A low rumbling from above them interrupted Clifford’s reverie. He stood up sharply and looked around, trying to trace to source of the noise. Now it was coming from all around the mine passage, a thunder growing louder with every second, like an approaching storm. Settler began to yap at the roof.

Melissa suddenly seemed to realise something was wrong. “What is it, major?” She removed the headset, dropped it next to the lasercutter and looked at him questioningly.

“A storm outside?”

There was no possibility that they would hear a storm this far underground. “No. Hold on.” He walked a few steps away from her, trying to source the noise. “You know, it sounds like… it’s water.” A few steps more. “Yes. Maybe there’s an old natural water channel running through the rock somewhere nearby. I wonder what started it flowing?” He turned around, found Melissa standing nervously behind him. He tried to smile. “Nothing to worry about, I’m sure, Miss Gellarson.”

A solid thump shook the passage. Melissa let off a short scream. Settler continued to bark incessantly, standing by the lasercutter.

“Now, now, let’s keep calm, shall we?” Clifford wiped a layer of sweat from his forehead. “Probably the rock just settling a little. Do you think there’s any way we could get that dog to shut up for –”

A heavy vibration through the floor sent them sprawling. They watched incredulous as, without warning, a section of the roof behind them began to cave in.

“Settler!” screamed Melissa. The dog, unsure of what to do, ran behind the lasercutter, away from the falling rock.

The roof collapsed. They both clapped hands over their ears, watching as the rock completely blocked the only passage through which they could exit the abandoned mine.

“It is extremely unlucky, really,” said the Colonel softly. “How were we to know we would hit an unstable water channel? No-one could have known.”

Melissa sat on the floor, crying freely. “All they said was, it would take a few minutes, nobody told me about any danger. Now I’m stuck down here, and we’re never going to be found. And S-S-Settler…” She let off a fresh wave of tears.

“Someone will come looking for us, I’m sure of that.” Clifford nodded at her, knowing very well that security protocols insisted no-one knew exactly where they had travelled through that mine. No-one was going to find them anytime soon.

By sheer fluke, everything they could have used to save themselves was on the other side of the caved roof.

“Why, wh-why,” sobbed Melissa, “why did this happen now? And, an’ surely with all this amazing technology the, the, the military shows off, surely they could have picked a, a… a better spot!”

Another rumble filled the air. “Oh no,” said Clifford slowly, “not again.” He glanced up at the cracked roof, not wanting to imagine what was about to happen to them next. “Brace yourself, Miss Gellarson.”

Melissa squinted, looked around. “But, major, that’s not water…”

He concentrated. “No, I think you’re right. As a matter of fact –” He stood up, spun around. “Miss Gellarson, that’s coming from the other side of this collapsed rock. I believe someone is trying to dig us out!” He scrabbled over a few of the smaller rocks. “Hello! Hey!”

A few high-pitch vibrations cut the air around him. He quickly jumped down and pulled Melissa to one side. “They are using a lasercutter themselves. We’d better stay back.”
Long seconds passed, during which the noises from the other side of the fallen rock came closer and closer. “Any second now,” breathed the Colonel. Melissa nodded, held her head.

Then, with one movement, the visible rock fell. A wide-angle lasercutter beam shone through the gap, missing Clifford’s head by a dangerously small number of inches. He pulled Melissa to the ground. “Switch it off!” he bawled. “You’re through! Switch it off, damn it!”

Nothing happened for a while. Then the beam disappeared.

“Oh baby oh brother that was close,” Clifford said from the floor, panting. “What crazy genius knew where we were all this time? Who –”

“Settler!” exclaimed Melissa, and leapt up.

Carefully plotting his way through the fallen rock, the Jack Russel trotted towards them, the lasercutter headset in its teeth.

“That’s impossible.” Clifford sat up, all expression gone from his face. “Impossible.”
Melissa held the dog in her arms, let it lick her face. “Man’s best friend, huh, major? You’re my hero, Settler! You’re amazing!”

“It picked up the headset, must have discovered what it could do… unbelievable…” The Colonel took the dog from her. “You’ve just performed a most fantastic experiment, you know that?”

Settler whined at him and drooled on his shirt-sleeve.

~~~~