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Lagomorphs

Copyright © June, 2015, FurryWurry All rights reserved

Chapter 2 -- Hybrids __________________________________

"Jeff, hi! Glad you could make it." Luke, an otter hybrid, pushed back the Siberian Husky that was anxious to meet their visitor. Nathan, his human housemate, seemed to be doing something in the kitchen. Whatever it was, it smelled very appetizing.

"So'm I. Here's some beer to go with the food. I seem to recall they're your favorites."

Luke, not yet 21, gave him the evil eye. "Your sense of humor is still as bad as Nathan's. Other stans don't seem to be nearly as bad as you two." It was a couple of six-packs of root and ginger beers from a local brewery. "I'll put'em in the fridge."

Jeff kneeled to meet the large dog. "Hello, there, what's your name?" The dog sniffed his outstretched hand, then deigned to let him scratch under her ear.

"That's Sasha. Cody's patrolling somewhere," Nathan called from the kitchen.

"Hi, Sasha." Her response was a groan as she leaned against his probing fingers. Some dogs seemed to really like having their ear canals rubbed. A slightly larger male wandered in, apparently wondering what was going on.

"They're really beautiful huskies. Did you just get them? I didn't see them last time I was here."

"Well, you haven't been here for a few months, after all. I got them just after Luke moved in last fall. But they really aren't, you know."

"Aren't? Aren't what? Beautiful?" Cody pushed Sasha aside, insisting on getting his share of attention: a typical friendly Siberian.

"Oh, they're beautiful enough. But they aren't dogs." Nathan came out into the hallway, still wiping his hands on a towel.

"Not dogs? I've never seen cats that look like them!"

Nathan grinned. "Not cats, silly. They're 'bots. Sybernetic Security's letting us beta-test their newest mobile security monitors. They've done some amazing stimulus-response programming in the new designs, haven't they?"

Jeff could only gape. He had already managed to find the tickle spot and Cody's left rear leg was kicking in the air. Surely Sasha wasn't grinning at his amazement. Surely.

***

"Thanks for inviting me to dinner. It's too bad the others couldn't make it. It was quite good. For leftovers."

"That's right. Make fun. But two day old catered food is still better than what you were going to have for dinner at home, right?"

"Yeah, well, you got me there." A cold nose poked at Jeff's hand where it dangled over the arm of the sofa. He scratched furry ears absentmindedly. Then, with a double-take, stared down at Cody and his wagging tail.

"What's with the simulated affection? I really don't mind, the fur is nice and soft, but it does seem a little strange. Even if they are supposed to be Siberians. Or is that what it is? Keeping up appearances?"

Nathan shrugged. "Maybe it's because you're still a stranger to them and they want to keep track of where you are. After all, we wouldn't want you stealing the family heirlooms, would we?

"How come you've never had a pet? You obviously like dogs a lot."

"Yeah, well, it wouldn't fair to the animal, would it, leaving it alone at home while I'm working long hours? It'd probably take it out on the furniture. I doubt the apartment management would appreciate that. And caging a pet all the time is just wrong. One of these, though, I suppose that'd be different. Are they expensive?"

"Well...." Nathan looked rather guilty. "I'm afraid getting one might be a bit hard to arrange. They're still in beta test and nobody's supposed to know about them. It'll probably be at least a year before they're made public. And if the company found out I'd been showing them to people prematurely, um, well, I'm afraid they might just take them back. It's a delicate situation."

"Then how'd you get them? Do you know somebody there?"

"No, not really. After Luke moved in I ordered one of their standard monitors, which barely looks like a real dog, and certainly doesn't act like one. They shipped these two by accident. I notified them right away about the mistake so I wouldn't get charged for them, but even then it was too late: their programming had finalized when we unpacked them. They're designed to permanently bond with the initial owner and reprogramming would require complete replacement of the processing unit, which would be unacceptably expensive. So they decided to let me keep them to test."

Ummm. Riiight. Something smelled just a little fishy with that explanation. A couple of times Luke had looked like he was about to interrupt but managed to keep quiet. His obvious relief at Nathan's version persuaded Jeff not to pursue it. He considered them both his friends. He could try a Web search later. Still, he did have some other questions.

"Luke, do you mind me asking something about DARPA's hybridization program? I'm sure you're sick of reporters and others asking about it."

"That's OK. What do you want to know? Of course, I wasn't much more than a pup when they shut down the Farm, so I don't know a lot."

"Well, I saw a movie about hamster spies when I was a kid, and I was wondering if they included any smaller animals in the program. Like rabbits, maybe?"

"Small animals? Hmmm." Luke thought about it a while. "Sorry, not that I recall. Of course I was pretty young when the program was shut down and none of us were very large by then, but I'm sure I'd remember something like rabbits or hamsters. They do seem rather unlikely, though. I don't see how the genetics of a prey animal would be very useful on the battlefield. Even if they do reproduce, umm, like rabbits." He grinned.

"Thanks, it was just a thought. It did seem unlikely. Maybe it'd happen in some alternate reality."

"Yeah, where we all make millions of dollars," Luke smirked. "Hey, that reminds me, did you see the posting about next week's physics colloquium? Someone from Los Alamos is supposed to talk about practical string theory. Rumor has it that they might actually have detected some inter-brane reactions." Since he was still a student, Luke sometimes heard rumors from his instructors that staff didn't.

"Inter-brane interactions? You mean someone's actually got proof of the multiverse hypothesis? Actual parallel universes?"

"Well, I don't think it's quite that cut and dried. Supposedly one of the professors got really worked up when he heard who'd been invited to speak, though. Apparently the speaker's one of his old grad students who he'd forced to rewrite his thesis right before he was scheduled to defend it. It could be exciting even if the physics is way over our heads." He grinned.

"Yeah, that could be interesting, all right. Why don't you stop by the Lab before the talk and we can all go watch the fireworks!"

After he got home, Jeff looked up the security company Nathan had mentioned. Their range of security monitors was rather amazing. They came in many shapes and sizes, from canaries to tigers, but none were humanoid. Their prices were even more amazing, especially if you got one designed to order. Ouch. That squelched that idea.

Visiting his favorite art site was much more productive: a popular artist had posted a new 3D interactive video. He eventually managed to persuade its long-eared protagonists to engage in some extremely inappropriate antics.