~*~
A crowd gathered outside Ranex’s hut the morning after his election. MO-126 hovered a short distance away to observe this example of orderly transition of political power. Later, he felt he should have expected what happened next, but he did not. Neither did Granny Greenflower, and she understood humans far better than the canine mobile observer did.
Their error may have been because they subconsciously tended to think of humans as children, the unsophisticated, happy, and largely docile creatures they were portrayed as in corporate advertising. They were not. MO-126 liked them, as a whole, but there were deviants who unwittingly tried to change his opinion from time to time. Some among them seemed to lack the basic cooperative instincts shared by most creatures that evolved to live in groups. He suspected that if two normal hungry humans were locked together in a room for a day with a single apple, they’d share it and make the best of things. He felt fairly sure that if two of the deviant types were in the same situation, only one very well fed one would come out, and the apple would have been used as a garnish. Oddly enough, this deviant type of human seemed especially adept at swaying others.
It soon became clear that not everyone waiting in the cool morning breeze came to seek an opinion or a judgment from the new headman. The android dog understood that Movey supporters would not be pleased, but the family elders had met and chosen Ranex. Most of the village witnessed it. No one could argue about it not being fair. But they did. One man kept shouting about injustice. Another used very short words to voice his discontent with the wisdom of the elders who cast their lots for Ranex. Shouts turned to arguments. Arguments turned to shoves. Shoves turned to fights, and soon became a brawl full of name-calling, unreasoned slogans, and dubious truths emphasized with fists and sticks.
His first thought as a loyal Corporation operative was to record the conflict for the PM. He felt sure it would want to analyze the event. The fight also might lend support to Granny Greenflower’s request to bud the village. Surely, it would be better to separate the two groups than to have them clash like this.
He went about clandestinely recording from a reasonably safe spot at the rippling edge of the scuffle when he noticed Steffin hobbling into the mob on his walking sticks, shouting for everyone to be reasonable. What was the young man thinking? MO-126 knew humans could be reasonable, but they were best at it when alone and otherwise unperturbed. The ability declined sharply when they were agitated and especially when they were in groups being agitated by other groups.
The club-footed young man raised one of his canes, probably for emphasis or attention. MO-126 could not tell if Steffin was struck or pushed or if he simply lost his balance. With a head a meter lower than the shortest man in the mob, the android dog did not have a good perspective on the scene. The mob surged over the crippled man heedlessly.
The android dog tried barking to warn everyone, but several village dogs barked and nipped around the ankles of the men fighting, and his warnings were lost in the general clamor. The dogs appeared to be trying to divide the clashers into separate groups to break up the fight. Their inherent reasoning abilities were more limited, but they currently seemed unimpaired, unlike those of their masters. The men were not being cooperative. Humans can be extraordinarily difficult to herd at times and disturbingly easy to at others, with no obvious relationship to the wisdom of the herder’s intent.
There was no option. He must try to get Steffin out of there.
He rushed in, weaving in and out between shifting legs in an effort to find him. The artificial dog soon did, but Steffin was not the only one being trodden on by those still up trying to knock down others. Several men crawled on the ground attempting to rise to rejoin the fray. Others either could not or simply decided it would be best not to try. None of them appeared to be as badly injured as Steffin. He lay unconscious, one arm clearly broken, and his breath came in shallow, rapid gasps through blue-tinted lips. MO-126 hesitated to move him, but, again, what choice did he have?
Another man fell almost on top of them. Blood gushed from his nose and splattered both the dog and the man he was trying to rescue. MO-126 grabbed Steffin by the collar and dragged him while calling silently to Granny Greenflower for help. He did not know what she might be able to do, but with thumbs and an ability to speak, she certainly had more options than he did.
“I’m coming,” he heard her say. “Just get Steffin out of there.”
MO-126 pulled on the tough linen fabric, dragging his unconscious charge as he tried to back out of the crowd. Men shouted and punched with powerful effect and little meaning around them. A temporary break in the tangle of legs showed a clear path out of the fight, and he rushed through, revealing, perhaps, a bit more strength, agility, and speed than prudent. He doubted anyone around would notice.
He failed to appreciate how strong the reek of sweat and body odor in the lower regions of the forest of fighting men was until they emerged from it. A faint breeze brushed away much of the smell and some of the dust kicked up by the scuffle. It also carried a new sound to the android dog’s sensitive ears.
Granny Greenflower, leading a group of village women armed with switches, brooms, and bristly attitudes, approached. The ladies laid into the outer edges of the fight with blunt weapons and sharp tongues for which the men could offer little resistance. Soon those men who could still walk away did so, humbly. Others crawled or lay where they fell to be found and tended by whatever women chose to claim them.
“How is Steffin?” the nursery android asked. MO-126 looked up and saw her hastening toward them.
He was no healer, but Steffin did not look well to him, and he told her so. She made her own examination a minute later and confirmed his inexpert diagnosis. The crippled young man most likely would not survive the night.
~*~
Steffin never regained consciousness. He died late that night in the healer’s hut and he was cremated the next day in accordance with this village’s customs. MO-126 sent a full report with video recordings to Field Operations, but they said this did not alter the PM’s decision. The primitives were resolving their dispute in their decidedly primitive way and things would return to normal soon. Intervention was not required.
The android dog wanted to believe this, but he suspected this eventual return to normal would take a few detours before it arrived. Some villagers claimed Steffin’s death was no accident and called for justice. Others wanted revenge. Some could not distinguish between the two or just wanted something to happen soon so they could go back to their quiet lives of growing vegetables and raising children and were upset because this seemed unlikely.
Ranex’s supporters blamed Movey’s people. They said they should accept the decision of the family elders and stop causing trouble. Movey’s group claimed that the incident resulted from Ranex not being able to maintain order or protect his people. This conflict was not over.
It erupted in violence again the next day. MO-126 did not witness the altercation, but it apparently concerned a goat, a soiled tunic, and who should have been watching what. When one of the disputants suggested they visit the new headman to resolve the issue, the other refused, claiming he could not expect a fair judgment from Ranex. They attempted to settle the matter themselves with hoes, using them for purposes for which they were unintended but nonetheless adequate. Both men required visits to the healer’s hut.
“This has got to stop,” Granny Greenflower mumbled to herself after bandaging the two men and sending them on their way.
“Can’t they just work together and be, well, co-headmen?” MO-126 asked naively from his spot in the corner where he had been attempting to observe unobtrusively.
She looked up in confusion and then around the room. “Oh, MO-126. I forgot you were here,” she transmitted.
He took no offense. As a dog, he was accustomed to being ignored. In fact, he often depended on it.
“I know that seems reasonable,” she continued, “but it requires more objective ration
ality than most humans posses, I’m afraid. If they disagree on an issue, and they will, who will make the final decision then? No, it has to be one or the other.”
“Well, I suppose they eventually will resolve it themselves, like the PM said. It just seems a shame that they can’t do it without hurting one another.”
“Eventually, yes. That might be tomorrow or it may not be for a few years, not that it matters as far as the project manager is concerned. Whenever it happens, the resolution will leave either Movey or Ranex dead at the end. Of that, I’m sure.” She placed a stack of clean unused bandages back in the trunk they came from and slammed closed the lid.
“They’ll be dead soon, anyway,” the android dog reminded her. “Humans don’t live long.” He no longer fully agreed with this paraphrased bit of corporate policy, but he did appreciate the importance of maintaining emotional distance. The field androids should not become too attached to individual primitives.
“Don’t spout corporate guidance to me,” she said. “I know more about humans than anything you’ll find in Corporation policy documents. The length of their lives matters far less than the quality of the living, and these people live pretty fully, if you ask me. Their lives are important, and I won’t stand by and see them wasted just because they don’t affect corporate production goals.”
“So what are you going to do?” he asked her.
“Something. I don’t know. And unless you really believe that Corporation nonsense about these people being little more than livestock, you’ll help me.”
MO-126 said nothing. There was no point. They existed solely because of the corporation’s project, and the PM represented the final authority on this planet. They could not challenge it, and they could not change things.
“I see,” she said finally. “Well, at least don’t get in my way.”