And Now We Are - by T.A.Fynes

 

The crash at Presido destroyed our craft. Some sort of pulsating radar beam that the apes had developed. It was never meant to be used as a weapon. But it played havoc with our systems and brought us down. We were thrown out of our craft, and now lay broken in a heap, awaiting the arrival of the US Army.

The beast came over, sniffing. Its nose touched our bare synthetic skin.

Its handler was all excited.

‘We got one!!! We got one!! Over here. I think it's alive.

We reached up and grabbed the beast’s throat. Then transferred to its mind. Panic and confusion resulted, as we strove to control it. We’d been trained to do this. It was called the lifeboat exchange. The last desperate escape move, to save the hive, and transfer from a broken synthetic.

The beast went wild as we tried to supress and manage its simple mind.

‘Down boy, down boy.’  The handler said, struggling to regain mastery.

Then a cold calm ensued, as we looked out through dumb eyes, and saw the small pale silver synthetic body lying broken on the desert floor. Its big lifeless eyes, staring at the stars.

We had no feeling for this disposable synthetic. It was manufactured to carry a hive mind. Now this beast would do the same. Until we found another. Any of our colleagues who survived, would be doing the same.

The handler hauled us away.

We would need to move on to a higher lifeform, soon.

This beast would not do. Not do at all.

Muzzled, we were loaded into some sort of transport box.

‘Rex has gone plum crazy.’ The handler kept saying to his partner.

‘Kingo too, must be those damn UFO bodies that done it.’ Was the reply.

They loaded another beast into the box. We had to get out of this mangy body. Or go insane.

‘Get them back to base, these dogs are useless, the way they’re behaving.’ Was the order from one of their officers.

The beast beside me was also muzzled. We looked into its stupid eyes and could not tell if it was another lifeboat, or not.

The vehicle crashed off the rough desert track, as the driver lost control. The cage broke open, and freed, we started to run.

Gómez found us near the border, hours later, when we ran out of energy.

‘Hey, what’ve we here, a guard dog!  With a muzzle. You a dangerous dog, amigo?’

We wagged our tail, made ourselves as friendly as possible. The muzzle needed to come off.

‘Now, now, little critter, Gómez will fix you up.’

We could see he was a transient farm hand. One of the illegals that crossed the border to work. We’d studied them for years. Spoke their language, knew their mind-set. Up on the dirt track, we could hear his pickup engine, still turning over.

He leaned down and removed the muzzle. Gave us some water. Which we drank. Then he gave us some food. We then proceeded to bite the hand that was feeding us.

He screamed as they always do. When we entered his mind. We would stay in here until something better came along. We had been a beast, and now, we are Juan.