The Human Pet: A Sci-Fi Romance

Part 37

"No, but if something goes wrong while you are playing with those other pets and neglecting her."

On Rigel's desk is a small camera, which he aims at me. An entire wall fills with an image of me on the pillow. Now I feel uncomfortable. The camera does solve one problem, though. Tarak leaves Rigel's office and goes to work.

***

Rigel puts two bowls near me, one filled with mashed berries and the other with water.

He types away on his keyboard and reviews case files on the wall. It feels like forever, but eventually, he pats me on the head, tells me that he has an appointment with a client, and leaves, the door closing behind him.

Finally! I go grab the keyboard on the desk and I'm ready to start my work. I glance at the wall, where I plan to project the intricacies of the computer system, but instead, I see myself, my fingers perched on the keyboard.

This might be a problem. What might the scourges do if they found out we use computers? Tarak might be okay with this, although preferably he would not find out about my computer projects until much later... My greater concern is how other scourges might view this, which is probably not well. Using the computer to make purchases is one thing, but using the computer to track the movement of products throughout the ship or even find information about the scourges? I don't think Hydra would approve of their pet humans doing these activities, which means that even by being on the computer I might jeopardize other humans.

If I want to do my real work, then, I must do something about that pesky camera to keep it from beaming my face to Tarak and any other potential onlookers.

So, since Tarak thinks I am pet-like, I do what any cat worth its salt would do. I bat the camera off the table and kick it across the room. When the camera lands on the floor, even though the camera arm whirs, it's broken and focuses on the door.

Good enough. Time to start working.

Similar to Tarak's computer, Rigel's is interconnected to a bigger system, so I access my program, the one monitoring the movement of medical products. I also create a new program but modify it to monitor the movement of my translator chip. Alerts will only be sent if I am outside my home range (as in anywhere other than my master's room or work office, Rigel's office, the vet, or the pet park) for a duration of longer than one Earth hour.

Entering these commands seems simple, but after I finish, I feel worse. There are so many ways that this could go wrong. What if I discover something that I shouldn't and get seriously hurt—What would this tracking program really do? Track my corpse? I shudder. Maybe someone would notice a warning before that, although none of the previous recipients did.

So, I make another few modifications and add Lugh's owner, Andromeda, thankful that her contact information has stuck in my head. There's another name I could add, and I pull out the small copper-colored card from my pocket. I've been holding onto this card for a while, never quite deciding what I should do with it.

Should I add this name? I glance at the card again: Sirius Major, director of the Pet Welfare Intelligence Agency. There are so many unknowns. If this scourge is part of a criminal ring, it would be like sending a signal to finish me off.

What if those scourges are investigating crimes? I don't think this signal will be sent out unless I am in real trouble, and... Sadly, even after dozens of alerts have been sent to Rigel and Tarak, they have never shown any indication that they understood the messages, so... I need all the help I can get, and I add the contact information for Sirius and then tuck it back into my pocket. When I finish all my work, I hit run.

"Program activated," announces the computer.

***

Done with my most important work, I no longer want to hang out in this prison, as Tarak had called it.