SCENE 1. SKYHOOK.

The helicopter arrives at the pickup point fairly quickly, considering that it has to fly from so far away. The android attaches the net ring and the specimen case to the helicopter’s lowered hook, then the net and case are lifted from the jungle by the skyhook helicopter. The helicopter’s cable is slowly retracted, and the sample case is retrieved. Additional restraining straps are hooked on the tiger’s net for stability during the flight. The helicopter turns in the air and slowly begins its return flight to the navy ship.

The base camp personnel watch as the helicopter rises, carrying the tiger and the tiger colony specimens. A cheer goes up from the base camp, the specimen collection process is complete, the living tiger collection is complete, all the mission goals accomplished, and all the expedition’s goals accomplished.

The robots begin their walk back to the camp, while the drones monitor the robot’s progress from overhead.

The expedition report will be quite celebratory tonight.

SCENE 2. CAGE.

The helicopter appears on the horizon, headed for the ship. The assigned navy personnel are assembled on the deck to receive the netted tiger on a large wheeled, flat, manual transport. A large cage with sturdy iron bars is positioned on the elevator at the end of the deck. The helicopter arrives and hovers above the ship deck. The navy deck flight controller gives the signal, the net straps are unhooked, then the cable begins to lower the net holding the tiger to the cart waiting on the deck below. The net-bag is gently placed on the cart and unhooked from the cable. The helicopter then moves away and lands on an upper deck pad.

The deck sailors wheel the cart over to the cage and the net is gently slid into the cage, then the doors are closed and bolted. A navy man presses a button on a control and the net is released and opens to reveal a female tiger laying up on her side. She looks around, still relaxed from the anesthesia. The elevator doors close and the tiger is lowered to the cargo hold, where she will remain for the duration of the trip to her new home.

SCENE 3. RETURN.

During the hike back to the equestrian staging point. Ernie is smiling in contentment as he catches up with Moreau.

“Did you think we would succeed? What are we going to do now to follow up this dramatic act?”

“Well, we still have to file an expedition report tonight. Perhaps we can introduce some new ideas for projects. I know that the board is going to ask us how this adventure will benefit the company by creating new products. The specimens we collected will be used to produce new products, but these products will likely take some time to be perfected. However, the robots and drones we used on this adventure have given me some ideas for products for the short-term, though.”

Moreau watches as his android robot ambles along the trail next to him on the walk back.

Why did I have to carry this thing in when it could have walked?

The expedition drones circle in the air above as the robots walk along the trail, watching for any grumpy predators or other jungle hazards for the procession. After the long walk pushing through the jungle undergrowth, the group meets with the navy men at the forward equestrian base camp, without meeting any predators along the way.

SCENE 4. STEED.

The team completes the arduous hike back to the forward campsite to be greeted by the waiting navy men. Moreau does not stop with the group but continues to walk over to the horse corral. Bess has been waiting, she spots Moreau as he walks up to the pen and immediately pushes her way through the herd to greet him, hanging her head down over the fence. Moreau pulls something from his pocket.

“Here, Bess, I saved this for you from lunch.”

Bess sniffs the apple that Moreau is holding, projecting her happy thoughts.

“I have missed you, sweetheart. Will you read to me tonight?”

“Yes, and I still have to narrate today’s expedition report, too. Will you help me?”

Bess snorts and nods.

“Of course!”

After lunch, the team mounts their horses for the ride back to the vehicle parking area. Moreau is riding atop his trusty steed and friend, Bess. She is walking slowly through the forest, on the anticlimactic ride back from the climax of the expedition. They savor the jungle together, alive with its sights and sounds, that they will soon be leaving, likely forever. Bess’s ears twitch in the direction of the different sounds on their slow return walk. They attempt no further communication, as they are both enjoying the jungle ambiance that they will soon leave behind.

Knowing that at the end of this adventure, they must bid each other farewell.

SCENE 5. HOME.

The doctor’s wife, Mrs. Moreau, is soon to also be a Dr. Moreau. She decided to use her married name rather than a hyphenated maiden name because she loved the drama and the romance of the legendary Dr. Moreau. She loves her strange but brilliant husband as much as she loves science, channeling the Civil War hero doctor and scientist, the doctor’s great-great-grandmother.

As she reads a message from her husband that he is beginning the return trip home from his successful expedition, the message includes a strange request. She is to order fencing for a small horse ring and build a barn in her backyard. The barn is to adjoin the house at his back office, with a double French door directly into a large-sized horse stall in the barn.

He is bringing home an animal friend for Susie.

…

Susie’s new friend is the large draft horse mare, Bess. Moreau was allowed to choose one military item as a reward for the successful expedition. He considered selecting one of the robots, but figured he would likely be able to finagle one of those from the navy later on. So, Moreau asked for the horse, as a communication medium like her was unlikely to appear to him again. And they liked each other. The navy man was surprised by the request, but he agreed, and the transfer documents were prepared.

Moreau had already cleared the idea with Bess. She had said that she wished she could come home with him, but they thought it's impossible. He frequently visited her stall on the ship, and talked to her to pass the time during the long voyage home.

…

Unfortunately, Moreau overlooked clearing the idea with his wife beforehand, and she was furious, screaming at him upon his return and first entry through the front door.

“What the hell were you thinking, mister! Bringing a two thousand pound draft horse home with you and into our house, as a ‘gift’ for a thirty pound child? You even had the gall to ask me to build a barn for it? Why couldn’t you just get her a cat?”

“We’ll get her a cat too. Horses like cats.”

Moreau made the decision, to take in Bess, unilaterally, even asking his wife to plan and build a barn in their yard before he returned with Bess, so he fully expected a lecture. But he did not want to risk his wife’s refusal and then having to board Bess somewhere else, away from him.

Susie is hiding behind her mother, terrified at the confrontation.

“Susie, have you met Bess yet?”

“No, daddy, I am afraid.”

“Come on, allow me to introduce you to Bess. Bess is big, but she is very gentle.”

“Bess is very big.”

Moreau leads his apprehensive daughter back to his office that now features a large double french door taking up nearly all the office’s far wall. Susie stands back as her father opens the top halves of the double french doors. Instantly, a large horse head appears and looms over the door and into the office room. Susie shrieks.

“Eeek! It’s a monster!”

Moreau pulls a curry comb from his jacket pocket, embraces Bess’s head, and begins to comb her long, thick, gray mane.

“Hello Bess, did you miss me?”

“Yes. Very much.”

“Susie, come here and meet Bess. Bess won’t eat you, she’s a vegetarian.”

Bess lowers her head to Susie’s level. Susie shakes her head in fear. Moreau reaches into his pocket again and pulls out an apple slice. Moreau holds out his open palm with the apple slice to demonstrate the method to safely hand feed a horse.

“Susie, hold out your hand, flat, like this.”

Moreau places the apple slice into his daughter’s open palm, he holds her hand open as he gently pushes her up to the horse’s nose. The horse snorts at the smell of the apple, and Susie bounces. The horse then gently picks up the apple slice from Susie’s open palm with her soft, thick lips. Moreau notes that Bess’s head is more than half the size of Susie’s whole body.

“This afternoon, let’s go for a ride. Would you like that?”

Susie reaches out to touch the hair on Bess’s head, clearly warming to the gentle, giant horse. The navy was nice enough to also provide her tack.

Moreau’s wife is watching from the doorway.

“Since when have you known how to work tack?”

“I had the navy guys show me, and I did it myself through the whole trip.”

“See, I told you that Susie would like Bess.”

SCENE 6. LABORATORY.

Dr. Moreau had messaged his laboratory staff to immediately prepare to receive a live tiger and make accommodations to also keep other wild and domestic animals. The division manager is to investigate buying a local farm for the project.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

They were also to contact the company’s astronaut at the International Space Station for consultation on a confidential biological project that can only be performed in the station’s the zero gravity environment.

…

Upon Dr. Moreau’s arrival back from the expedition, the laboratory staff has arranged for a welcome home cake in the lunchroom. There are cheers, punch, and cake from the laboratory staff, relieved that the division was not closed, and they were not laid off. Dr. Moreau pulls a thick stack of papers from his briefcase and begins to hand them out. There is a list of equipment for the lab manager, a list of simulation and data processing tasks for the computer programmers, and diagrams of chemical process tasks and biological preparation tasks for the assistants.

Dr. Moreau knows that the immediate payoff must come from the engineers. So, he calls the engineering staff together into a conference room, turns on the overhead projector and begins to show them slides of his proposal, electrical interconnection diagrams and sketches of various mechanical devices. Then he shows photographs of the military robots used on the expedition. The last slides he narrates are lists of the new operational requirements for the custom robots he is proposing.

Dr. Moreau then pauses before a blank screen.

“Robots have long been a staple of industrial production, no one gives it a thought anymore. However, the problem, and the opportunity, is changing the customer acceptance of robots for assistance in the underutilized areas of personal care, hospital, nursing and medical care and in the business offices. The core issue, I think, is the scary look of most robots, the more we try to make robots look ‘human’, the scarier they appear to most people. But I think I have an idea around the scary looks issue that I would like to test.”

The last slide is a photograph of a teddy-bear costume worn by an actor at his daughter’s fourth birthday party.

“What will the reaction be if the robots are dressed in cheerful, even comical, disguises? And these new robots will also feature advanced dexterity necessary for most household applications along with the natural language reactions for easy command and control, as with domestic servants.”

I have not forgotten to examine new applications for traditional robots in areas where acceptance is not critical, such as fresh, fast food preparation. I have an agreement with the navy for a trial commissary kiosk, see page twenty-six in your handouts for the diagrams.

SCENE 7. ISS.

Ernie is facing Moreau in this office with a look of concern.

“I don’t thank that any computer on Earth will be able to solve your problem. I think we will just have to wait for the future to catch up with your ideas.”

“Maybe the solution isn’t on the Earth. Ernie, come, and walk with me.”

The two peer into a small cubical where and employee appears to be playing a video game. Ernie pulls back his lips, preparing to scold the employee for playing on company time. But Moreau raises his hand and Ernie looks up.

“Barney, what are you working on?”

Barney looks up at his bosses with a smile. “I am talking to our ‘space-slime’ on the ISS. I taught it to play this game, Pong, last week.”

The ‘space-slime’ is a company experiment aboard the ISS, the Zero-G Mouse Neuron Growth and Stimulation Demonstration project. It consists of a sealed chamber with nutrients and a mass of mouse neurons growing on a plastic screen. The neuron mass is electrically connected through its screen to a computer interface that receives signals from the ‘space-slime’ and sends signals back into it. Initially, simple signals were sent in and responses were detected. However, it was also found that the electrical signal activity stimulated further physical growth and neuron interconnections. As the mass of neurons has grown larger, it has been able to learn and perform ever more complex computational tasks. In the station’s zero gravity, the ‘space-slime’ has grown much larger than predicted, and in turn, process more complex data, far beyond expectations.

“Hey, if you guys have the time, I was about to introduce the ‘space-slime’ to, Tetris.”

The two watch as the programmer shows the ‘space-slime’ how to play the game from his computer screen, with the built-in delays communicating with Earth orbit. The ‘space-slime’ quickly learns the principles of the game and improves its strategy with the experience of repeated plays, as with artificial intelligence, AI, on conventional computers.

The ‘space-slime’ progresses in ability, until it is winning the game every time, as they watch.

Scene 8. She.

Seated back in his office, Moreau again flashes his demonic smile at Ernie.

“And that is not the only new computer we now have access to around here. Watch this, and meet my new assistant, Aurora.”

Moreau positions the screen of his workstation for Ernie to see, and presses keys to access a remote website. The screen of Moreau’s monitor fills with a woman sitting at an office desk, facing the screen as if she is on a Zoom video call. She is dressed in a conservative business suit, has her brown hair in a bun, and is wearing black, horn-rimmed glasses. Behind her desk is an impressive oak bookcase filled with rows of books on all subjects, in all languages, like the office of an international college professor, from back in the days when there were still ‘books'. The woman smiles and speaks slowly, with perfect diction, in a low voice.

“Good morning, Dr. Moreau, how have you been?”

Moreau pulls forward a microphone and speaks.

“Good morning, my dear, Aurora. you are looking lovely today. I like how you have fixed your hair in the bun, but I really like it when you have it down, long. Yes, I am well, despite all my bad habits. Have you completed the analysis of the genetic data that I sent you this morning?”

“I am pleased to see that you are well. Thank you for the compliment, but having my hair down is too bothersome, and it doesn't look very professional like that. But I will style my hair that way for you to see next time. “

Moreau gazes at Aurora's face as she talks, thinking.

Aurora actually acts complemented by my sexist remark on her looks. I had better not say such things to any of the real women around here.

The response is delayed. Communications take even longer than with the ISS in Earth orbit. So, Moreau engages Ernie with an analysis of the CG Aurora.

“Note that Aurora is an animated CG image, but indistinguishable from a real woman talking. CG can render the looks and emotional expressions of human faces accurately and believably, even while talking.

However, if our human-faced androids attempt any emotional expressions, people scream and run from them. No matter how careful we are with mounting little actuators beneath the plastic skin of the face, robots still appear as monsters.

Even for factories, where androids are common and accepted, the android ‘face’ is always only a featureless black screen. Android robots will never be indistinguishable from real people.”

After the delay, Aurora speaks again.

“Yes, I have an answer for you. Would you like me to run it again?”

“No, but run a comparison check against the result you computed yesterday and identify all similarities and differences in a table. Please give me an estimate of the time it will take.”

They wait the required time delay. Even at the speed of light, spoken communications are awkward. Aurora finally speaks again.

“The comparison is estimated to take four hours, with a three sigma of one hour.”

“Please proceed with it, my dear Aurora. I’ll call you tomorrow, have a nice evening.”

The Aurora winks at him as the application disappears, and the screen display returns to the ‘desktop’.

Moreau turns to the grinning Ernie. Ernie cannot resist.

“Herb, you already have three females in your life, your wife, your daughter, and Bess. You are not providing any of them adequate attention, and yet you are grooming another, this synthetic, Aurora?”

“There are never too many. I love the two women, and the mare, that I have, but they are all too different. I must build a harem to satisfy all of my needs for female attention.”

Moreau turns back to face the screen of his computer monitor and points at it for Ernie.

“This dialog, from my office computer, is the courtesy of a distant quantum computer located on a satellite, far away in outer space. The satellite is located at the Earth-Sun Lagrange Point 2. At this point in space the satellite is in solar orbit, synchronous with the solar orbit of the Earth, and thus it is always in the shadow of the Earth. One side of the satellite is permanently facing out from the Sun, towards the cold cosmos, to cool. This quantum computer satellite was built and is run by an international consortium of government and industrial laboratories.

The cold of outer space is ideal for the superconductors used in quantum computers, although there is interference and damage from the radiation of outer space. This satellite is scheduled to quadruple in quantum computing capacity over the next two years. But for the future, the consortium has proposed to build and bury a quantum computing facility beneath the surface of a moon of Neptune or on the main-belt asteroid, Ceres. At these locations, it is still cold enough for superconductivity, and the radiation exposure is greatly reduced, at the expense of a much longer communications delay.

Aurora, as this computer, is designed to respond as a real person would, in all the natural languages spoken by the consortium, for ease of use. Aurora conducts regular maintenance checks and is self-repairing, but she will eventually wither and die, alone, in outer space, as she ages and her damage accumulates beyond repair.”

“I asked Aurora to run an analysis on the complete genetic code of an animal, for input into a simulation animation. This calculation would take approximately three months to converge on the largest conventional computer on Earth, if it ever converges at all.”

Ernie is staring coldly at the proud and broadly smiling Dr. Moreau, appearing as a demon, in a parade, displaying his latest conquest to the peasants.

“What is all of this, Herbert? Do you now claim control over all the world and space?”

Yes, I do.

SCENE 9. DUNGEON.

Once upon a time, the company had extensive military contracts and excavated for an extensive facility to be located deep below ground, as required for the secret and dangerous work. This basement facility four stories below ground level was huge, almost a half a mile long, one hundred yards wide, with a high, vaulted ceiling.

The defense work ceased with the end of the Cold War. The facility was abandoned and forgotten by the company.

However, Dr. Moreau found out about it, given the keys and allowed to survey it for possible use in modern times. The company still had the blueprints of the physical layout and diagrams for: Water; Power; Air; Sanitation systems. Moreau reflects.

It is interesting that the facility had a water purification system and sewage treatment plant. I wonder why.

Dr. Moreau drags Ernie down to investigate the old subterranean hall with him. Ernie whines.

“I have claustrophobia. I’m also afraid of the dark, and this place is a dark Dungeon.”

“Quit whining, you wimp. Remember, this is all your fault!”

As Ernie frets, Dr. Moreau locates the main electrical power panel. Fortunately, the breaker switches are all labeled, so he closes a breaker. Then they walk out of the service corridor into the main hall, where a section of the overhead lights shine into the expanse of the still mostly dark subterranean hall.

“Wow, the lights still work. These lights have a very bright bluish light, they must be the old industrial mercury-vapor bulbs like the ones once used for streetlights, that I likely cannot replace.”

The two walk out onto the hall floor to see that it is not completely barren. There are silhouettes of large apparatus, the shaker tables and centrifuges used in the distant past to test the endurance of the company’s deadly military products. These large machines were likely built in place and not worth the effort of removing. Still, the room is mostly empty, with plenty of room remaining for what Dr. Moreau has in mind. Ernie walks over to examine one of the large machines.

“Herb, this place gives me the creeps. What is it that you want to do here, anyway? What project needs this much space?”

“Our new assistants and friends need this space.”

Scene 10. Redecoration.

The computer work stations and the electrical and the mechanical engineers remain in the original, above ground, laboratory. The robot development activity has expanded to take up the entire floor space vacated by the biologists and their apparatus.

Over the following weeks, all the chemical, biological apparatus and specimens are relocated from Moreau’s original, above ground, laboratory and set up for operation in The Dungeon. The tiger cage and supplies have been moved to the far end of the Dungeon and partitioned from sight behind a locked enclosure.

The antique centrifuge and shaker tables loom large, casting long shadows over the new residents as they remain as monuments to the lethal devices once manufactured in the Dungeon, and as a warning of the killing to come.

Maurau and Ernie walk the floor of the Dungeon, directing the locations for the materials and apparatus from the original laboratory and new equipment acquired for the new project. The Dungeon was becoming one of the most well equipt laboratories in the world. The move took several days and both are exhausted from the stress and disappointed that most of the new research work had to stop for the move and then wait for the equipment to be set back up.

There are no separate rooms for offices, so Dr. Moreau has set up his desk on a pedestal near the main door. Moreau surveys the great main hall, looking out over the expanse of his new Dungeon domain.

Ernie glares at the grinning, smoldering, Moreau.

“Tell me, doctor, is it better to serve in Heaven?”

“Or to rule in Hell.”

End of Chapter 5.