SCENE 1. FIND.

The drones are dispatched at dawn, and the monitors display the spectacular vistas of the jungle from the sky. All is serene, the whisper of the drone’s rotors adds to the hypnotic visuals. More drama is visible on the ground as the biped and quadruped robots push their way through the dense jungle undergrowth. The antelope had established trails through their colony, but there is no trail to follow this time. The robot dog stops and turns its head, as if to sniff something, much as a real dog would. The biped robot also stops to monitor ground vibrations. Yes, there is something large moving nearby.

The robot dog senses a light flash from above and looks up with its cameras to see a tiger pouncing down on it. The display monitors for the robot dog instantly go dark and the numbers at the side of the screen indicate that the robot dog is tumbling, the speakers capture the tiger’s roar as the robot wrestles with the tiger. Then a gunshot is heard over the roaring from the speakers, and it is instantly quiet.

The biped robot shot the tiger hunched over its prey, the collapsed robot dog. The tiger is instantly immobilized and tumbles over to one side of the robot dog and is lying on the ground next to it. The robot dog rolls over, away from under the tiger’s great paws, and stands with armor scratched but still operational.

As the biped robot walks up to the tiger, the tiger’s full size becomes apparent. Even from some distance away, the tiger’s body more than fills the screens of the monitors in camp, leading to murmurs from the crowd. The robot carefully lifts the head of the tiger, so the tiger does not suffocate while immobilized by the rifle dart’s anesthetic. Then the biped robot examines the quadruped robot for damage and sends the camp a message of its assessment that all is well enough to continue with the mission.

“I thought we were going to locate tigers, not to wrestle with them.”

“Well, the robots found one tiger. It’ll make a great shot for the expedition report.”

Scene 2. Observe.

The aerial drones were having better luck, having no difficulty finding the stinky beasts by smell, and even capturing images from above of the huge orange beasts with dramatic black stripes threading their way through the thick jungle.

The drones fly back and forth over the target area of the jungle several times until they are sure that they have a positive location on each individual tiger, identified by stripe pattern and smell. The drones also estimate each individual’s age, size, and weight.

The drones also calculate predictions for the possible movement individuals might make after location so that none escape, much like the calculated movement predictions for the antelope mission.

This loosely spread tiger colony consists of about fifteen individuals.

Scene 3. Hunt.

Once all the members of the tiger colony were located, the automatons themselves decided on a strategy for their collection, transmitting a proposal, with an approval request, along with a visual simulation movie to the camp.

The group is fascinated by the detailed simulation movie created by the automatons, showing where the tigers were located. The simulation then displays an animation of the automatons working together to immobilize all the tigers in the colony, one by one, without scaring any of them away or otherwise losing track of any. The robots are shown checking to see that all the tigers are positioned to breathe and survive the anesthesia, then carefully collecting blood and saliva specimens from each tiger. The tigers are then monitored from the air to see that they all regain consciousnesses and resume their jungle existence, except for one.

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The last section is the biped robot securing a large female tiger in a net with a metal lifting ring on the top. A helicopter then lowers a hook and the robot secures the net-bag and specimen collection case for lifting. The helicopter then rises up above the jungle, lifting the net and flying toward the sunset with the bag hanging down beneath. The final scene is of the two robots on the ground and the two drones circling in the sky, watching as the helicopter disappears on the horizon into the setting sun.

The team claps for the automatons’ dramatic presentation of their proposal. Moreau laughs.

“Damn! I should have hired them to simulate my expedition proposal. Go ahead and let the automatons decide on how to do it. After all, it is them putting their ‘lives’ on the line.”

The automatons’ hunt proposal is approved and the message to proceed is transmitted to them. It is almost noon, so the automatons immediately proceed with their mission, as they must finish before sunset for the helicopter net pickup.

The drones fly and the robots walk to their starting positions. The team is glued to the monitor screens to witness the action and drama of the tiger hunt. The first round of four immobilization darts are fired simultaneously, from the air and ground, one by each robot and drone. Each automaton immediately moves to position near the next target tiger, air and ground. They all fire together again, taking another four tigers to ground. The tigers make no effort to escape, and seem to be unaware of what is happening to them. Moreau shakes his head.

“This is what a space-alien invasion will be like for us! We’ll all be looking up, asking: What, what? As the automatons sweep us into the collection bag.”

The final tiger falls at last. The drones carefully survey the area again to make sure there are not any stragglers. The robots walk to each of the prone tigers and collect specimens.

One large female tiger, the very first tiger dispatched, is identified as the one that will not be returning to her home tonight.

Scene 4. Net.

Through the entire mission, a drone is always positioned to record on video all the capture processes for monitoring by the base camp and for the expedition report.

The two robots carefully drag the body of the large female tiger over and into the net. They carefully and respectfully fold the net over her immobile body and secure the locking ring. The biped robot stands to attention and the robot dog faithfully heels at its side. The biped robot then salutes the netted tiger, then sends a radio summons to the navy helicopter for the net pickup. It gives the tiger another shot of the anesthetic through the net to keep her unconscious during the lift to the navy ship.

Meanwhile, the flying drones are watching the other tigers of the colony regain consciousness, recover and move around. However, one large male tiger shakes his head and stands, looking around and sniffing the air. After walking around, surveying the area, he then roars at the drones flying in the sky above him.

A member of his family is gone forever.

End of Chapter 4.