Interlude 3: A Horse of a Different Feather

A horse is a horse of course of course....

A Horse of a different Feather

(An interlude in the space opera serial ‘Androids do indeed Dream of Heaven, Hell, Dragons and other things’)

Son of a b***h, thought the former governor of Paladin, he just realized that he stopped thinking of himself as Pinkerton Linkhorn, a onetime human Politian and now just thought of himself as Pinky, Lady Nova’s cyborg stallion¹.When he was human he remembered he wasn’t such a good governor; Pinkerton was corrupt, non-attentive to the people’s needs and a drunk. He was a likable con- artist who put his needs above everyone else’s. So in some warped and macabre way, he supposed it was some sort of poetic justice, that his brain was ripped out of his body and placed inside a robotic horse. He heard that the android brain that inhabited his old body was everything he was not, a dedicated, sober and highly efficient bureaucrat, as well as a highly valued member of the Angerdean Nation. Pinky whinnied in frustration (he was whinnying now, for godsakes) at the cosmic joke that was played on him. If only he listened to his mother and became a gravedigger rather than a politician, he would at least still be human. On second thought Pinky was glad he didn’t listen to his mother, being human wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. It was highly overrated.

Well enough of this woolgathering, time to put down these thoughts in a recordable form. Try as I might, I realized there is no way that I could write with my hooves or teeth. I decided to use my pink quantum thought recorder, laced in diamonds and jewels (a gift from Juliana Nova, aka, the Lady Nova, for my birthday), and specifically made for the Equine gifted. I thought about what I wanted to say and proceeded to spill the beans about a story of a horse that lost and found his way. I now present to you, the grand old tragicomedy, of ‘Pinky the Wonder Horse’.

When I opened my eyes and saw a horse starring back at me in the mirror rather than my drunken old self, I had one of the biggest panic attacks of my life. Just imagine how you would feel if you woke up and found yourself turned into a freaking robot horse. I was not taking it well. They had me constrained. I was strapped in this harness incapable of doing anything that could harm me or anyone else. Everyone in the room was clapping and laughing which didn’t make me feel any better, it just made me angrier. These android b******s made me into a freaking freak. I was in a tizzy, full of rage and loathing. But someone started to pet me and whispered soothing assurances in my ear. She called me Pinky and believe it or not, it calmed me down.

She was one of the most beautiful women, (android, human or sex bot) that I ever laid eyes on. She smelled like rose petals and jasmine, and her voice, was like that of an angel. I realized that they must have somehow conditioned or put some type of coding command inside my brain to make me react that way. But I didn’t care; I only knew that I would do anything for her. I was bonded and bound to her. She told me her name was Juliana, also known as the Lady Nova. I was to be her war and work stallion when she rode out to the badlands.

She taught me to act like a horse and ride like a thoroughbred. I have to admit that in the beginning months it was a little rough and embarrassing. You must remember that I had a human brain and in those early times reacted in very human ways. Now how would you react if a beautiful woman was riding on your back, giving you massauges, brushing your hair, sponge bathing you, and all those other things an owner would do with their favorite pet. Well I kind of got a little excited a few times, and being one full sized horse with all the appropriate anatomical features, it was quite noticeable, if you know what I mean. She only laughed, said it was a natural human reaction and that feeling will soon pass after I fully acclimated as a horse. And you know what, she was right. I still feel great when she rides on me and all that other stuff, but I no longer find it exhilarating, in that kind of way. I enjoy riding like the wind with her on my back. She is my Mistress and I am her confident; I love her, even though she and her kind ripped out my brain and put me in this horse’s body. I know I keep repeating that phrase. It can get annoying. It’s like a broken record that keeps replaying over and over, but my brain was ripped out of my head, you don’t forget that, no matter how well you’re treated or how happy they try to make you. It always festers and stays with you in the back of your mind.

As you might guess I have kind of a love-hate relationship with this Angerdean Nation and the androids, enhanced humans and the few cyborgs that run it. I have a beef mostly with those god-damn androids. It’s a contradiction to be sure, being that I’m a loyal and loving pet to my mistress (who would have thought I’d admit to being a pet). I know that they tinkered with my neurons, that they somehow recoded my brain to love and bond with Juliana, as well as assuring through behavioral modification that I’d be content and even happy in the skin of a horse. So although what they did to me was heinous, (the ripping out of the brain thing) they did make it easy for me to adjust to living the life as a bio-synthetic mechanical horse. They didn’t wipe away any of my memories and enjoy and even encourage hearing me rant against their scientific policies and experiments. They are a peculiar lot; they are mad scientists but compassionate and very open-minded, a conundrum to be sure.

The trouble with these thought recorders, is that your mind latches on to one memory, and then shifts to another. I really want to focus in on my reemergence as a governor, not of Paladin, but of Zooation, my betrayal of my human heritage, and the new love of my life. I’ll try to make this as brief as possible, no need to bore my audience with long winded details, I promise you I’ll get into my adventures with Lady Nova at a later time and my meeting with Myself, that was surreal, to say the least, and a blast and eye-opener for both of us. But in the meantime, it’s time to get into the meat of my story.

I was a minor celebrity in the palace stables. Aside from being Lady Nova’s personal

war and work stallion, I was also the first droid animal to possess a human brain. Normally animal droids were fitted with low-level robotic brains with rudimentary language skills. The more popular bots, such as horses, donkeys and dogs, were fitted with mid-level capabilities. With the success of the Hydroid Project spearheaded by that robot b***h (excuse me, I mean, android b***h) Dr. Delemor Bellaforte, whereas she successfully implanted an android brain into a human body, they finally had a means where they could place their agents in key positions throughout the galaxy. With that success they started to implement the Doppelganger Initiative. This nefarious undertaking has changed the entire chessboard concerning the Outworlds as well the Jewels. They have been kidnapping and replacing key leaders in government, business and industry by doing exactly what they did to me. Ingenious, brilliant and daring if one thinks about it logically, hideous and monstrous, if your brain is the one that’s being ripped out of the body.

Now where do you suppose the androids did with the leftover human brains? You got it; they put them in animal constructs. They even supplied us with vocal cords so that we could have the power of speech. You have to admit they have one hell of a sense of humor. Rather than squashing our brains into pulp and getting rid of the evidence, (like any normal group of mad scientists would) they housed us in new bodies and let us continue to live our lives under their bizarre set of conditions.

All of us are housed or imprisoned, (it’s all a matter of perspective) in a compound the androids call the Zooation Palace. There are now well over a thousand of us and our numbers grow each day. We all have specific jobs outside the compound. I am Juliana’s horse of course, while the others are used in similar capacities either as pets, working animals or for entertainment purposes.

The androids allow us to govern ourselves while in the compound. Believe me, we are heavily guarded and monitored at all times, any chance of escape or letting the worlds know of the imposters who walk around in our bodies is nil. They are just too powerful and their A.I. system that monitor’s the compound is impregnable and her bots that guard the compound are tamper proof.

I, of course, was elected Governor of the compound and this time intended to govern with as much honor and trustworthiness as I could muster. There is a book written on earth prime well over three thousand years ago about a situation such as his. I believe it’s called “Animal Farm” or “Animal House”, can’t’ remember the exact name, about a bunch of animals that rule or govern over other animals. I believe there was a revolution because they ran a corrupt government. Who would have thought that would now become a reality.

But in this case there is no incentive to run a corrupt government. All our needs are provided for by our captors, jailors or benevolent overlords, you choose which, and they are notoriously honest and incorruptible, they do not mistreat us, and they can’t be bribed. They provide us with everything that one can want or need, except for our original bodies. The government they let us run is just for our own sanity and amusement. But it’s our government and we take it seriously at least I did and still do.

We had weekly council meetings where we set up and implemented the rules, guidelines and laws of our domain. We have our own police force, sanitation department, judicial system, and many other organizations that make up a government. We were a country unto ourselves, with minimal oversight from the department of Human Enhancement and Cloning, also called The H.E.C. It is headed by none other than that tight assed android b***h who made me a horse, Dr Delemor Bellaforte. I am required to have monthly meetings with her to discuss any problems that may have cropped up or any improvements that needed to be made. This meeting always takes place in the outlying meadows of Zooation’s border. She rides on my back while we discuss Zooation business. I call her a b***h all the time, and many other nasty and unflattering things when we’re together. She just laughs and pats me on the head. She’s very fond of saying,

“Pinky, Pinky, Pinky, I made you a better person, you were a fat old corrupt drunk on the verge of a heart attack and eventual death. Your life was full of misery and stress. You had no true allegiances’, to Paladin or the Jeweled worlds. Yes, yes, of course putting your brain in a glass box and taunting you was a bit cruel on my part but it was necessary to prepare you for what you were about to become. Look at you; you’re now a vibrant member of Zooation society. You’re twenty times stronger and healthier, you’re body will not suffer entropy and your brain has been enhanced and revitalized where it will function for at least another three hundred years. A Horses’ life is carefree, when that of a human can be full of drudgery. So curse me all you want, I know it’s just your way of saying thank you.”

Every time she said that I let out one hell of a big whinny and then we both laughed, because she was right, I loved being a horse, I loved my life. But not everyone felt that way.

I told Delemor that there was a small group of dissidents making plans about getting out there message about their abductions. They were working on an encryption device that would bypass certain security features in the AI system. Their motto was nothing is impregnable. They confided in me mainly because I was the first of the brain abductees, and that I was always cursing the androids about ripping my brains out of my body. They mistook my ranting for hatred of the androids and the Angerdean Nation. As I said I have a kind of love-hate relationship with the androids but mostly I kind of liked them. I hardly remembered being human anymore so betraying my humanity meant nothing to me. Making sure Zooation was free of dissenters and weeding out those who were still loyal to Angerdean’s adversaries were my priorities.

The leader of this group was Samara Kingsport, the former Governor of Ajax, one of the thirteen core worlds that constituted the Outworlds. Unlike me, she was a loyalist to the core. She was an attractive woman when she was human, but was an intoxicatingly beautiful filly as a horse. It was love at first site, at least for me it was. Kingsley, that’s what she was called now, was so obsessed about getting out the message about the abduction that she paid little attention to anything else. I was assured that would soon change.

Kingsley arranged for a secret meeting in the stable area. All the conspirators gathered at the time indicated. There were six pigs, three monkeys, two gorillas, one cat, two dogs, two bulls, one cow, two tigers, three lions, four snakes, two dragons(yes, we have dragons) and eight horses (myself and Kingsley included), one hell of a menagerie. I was surprised at some of the high profile names in attendance, I thought many of them adjusted to Zooation ways, but I was relieved that there were only thirty-five malcontents, which made it only 2.5% of the population. It was Kingsley who called the meeting to order. She said,

“Ladies and Gentleman, for that’s what we still are, no matter what bodies that the enemy has inflicted upon us. We may not look like humans but our humanity will forever stay intact. I may appear to be a horse and those accursed androids took away my birth name and named me Kingsley, but my name is, and I still am, Samara Kingsport. I’m the Governor of Ajax and an imposter now wears my body. It’s our duty to let the Outworlds and Jeweled Nations know and become aware that the Angerdean nation has committed a crime against humanity. Android imposters wearing our bodies have infiltrated key positions in the fabric of our societies. They must be deposed, our brains returned to our bodies and theirs ripped out of their skulls and smashed to bits. The final piece of the encryption coder that we programmed and built is now in place, thanks to our Zooation and Paladin Governor, Pinkerton Linkhorn. Without further ado, the Governor will now speak.”

Now that was one hell of a rousing speech. It gave me Goosebumps. I really did understand the anger and hatred that they felt towards the Angerdean nation and especially the android brains that now inhabited their old bodies. I felt that way when I found myself in that Glass Box. But I soon came to realize that joining them and embracing their vision, (H.E.C.s) was far easier than fighting them. They were offering us an animal utopia, a place where we can roam free and prosper. The Zooation Palace was over three thousand square miles of rolling hills, flat plains, lakes, springs, groves and some brush and forest. Now why in the hell would I want to give that up and jump back in the mud where humanity plays? I pressed the button of the encryption device with my nose. I looked out into the crowd, nodded, and gave a quick glance to Kingsley and said,

“My fellow animals, I have just librated you. Soon you will know what it means to be truly free. Your anger and hatred will no longer haunt you. They will be washed away by H.E.C., our enlightened benefactors’.”

The look of shock and hatred that Kingsley gave me could’ve killed a horse. Within seconds of my betrayal speech, over two hundred security bots encircled us and proceeded to apprehend the little menagerie whose revolution failed before it even began. They were taken to the rehabilitation center where they would be reconditioned to accept and embrace there new way of life. Many of their memories would be altered in order for them to have an easier transition.

As for Kingsley, well she was going to be a special case. Dr Bellaforte assured me that she would deprogram her with the utmost care. They altered many of her memories as well as encoding, bonding and attraction commands in her neural amplifiers that would match with mine. They enhanced her brain as well, and bonded her also with an enhanced Human, Dr Barabbas Bennington, creator and husband to Juliana Nova.

Well, it’s time to call it a day, I’m getting hungry and Kingsley has a special brand of hay for me to try out. She says it tastes like chicken. Oh, by the way, she adores me, ain’t life just grand...