MICROFICTION | SCI-FI | DOGS | DYSTOPIA

Hector and the Garden Robots

Biting the hand that feeds is sometimes tolerated.

Image created by David Pahor and AI tool https://nightcafe.studio/. The author has the provenance and copyright (©).

The Master of the House grabbed the English Bull Terrier by the scruff of the neck and gave it a firm shake. The white canine with its distinctive oval head and small triangular eyes seemed heartily unperturbed as befitted its stubborn lineage.

The musky odour of an unwashed dog that had been attacking the flower beds for the best part of the pre-dusk hour infused the sitting room as was proper for a Victorian country house, or so the Master deduced from period literature.

What was not cricket was Hector’s developing fondness for attacking the gardening robots and housekeeping mechanoids and shaking them to their constituent bits and pieces after having first playfully chased their fleeing fun-sized shapes.

The Master sighed; it was probably the direct consequence of encouraging the dog to hunt the nanotech-based vermin encroaching at the estate’s borders, penetrating the bio-friendly force field with increasing success.

He waved his biologically resurrected butler away and let go of Hector’s nape. Issuing one of its characteristic grumbles, communicating indignation at being reprimanded for what it considered to be no valid reason whatsoever, the terrier nevertheless leisurely, oh so gracefully and unhurriedly, lay down at his ruler’s feet.

The Master petted the head of his de-extinctioned dog and arranged himself in the oversized reading chair into a lounging position he believed was favoured by the Victorian country gentry in the mid-nineteenth century.

Glancing perfunctorily at the two swiftly healing bite punctures in his golem hand, one of Earth’s ruling artificial minds retrieved from the divan’s raised end a collector’s hardbound copy of Jack Vance’s novel The Dying Earth, and began to read.

The story above was first published on X (Twitter) and is © 2023 by David Pahor. No part of my stories should be used to train AI technology to generate text, imitating my writing style.

Please subscribe to me with your e-mail, so we can stay connected when I start serialising my novel, amidst the fall of the platforms. You can always unsubscribe. If you like my stories, consider recommending them to others. Medium’s algorithm does not give a frak about speculative flash fiction.

In my Twitter list, you will always be able to find all of my new flash fiction — more than on Medium — recounting Kekuros’ tales of Iaanda, Garnaaq and Sorkaii, and of assorted wizards, umbras and lethal females — https://t.co/Y3YrWpfkm7 .