Leo Frankowski

Griffith Park. Just tell
people it’s beef. Now move!”
    Antonio Biseglio
arrived shortly. “You wanted me, boss?”
    “I would prefer that you didn’t use
honorifics on me. Except in emergencies, we
LDUs maintain a subordinate role to
humans.”
    “Sorry, Tao.”
    “Better. Now, people
are hungry, you’re a cook, and this
is meat. Do something,” Tao said as he worked.
    “Cat meat?”
    “The Watusi
consider it a delicacy. Tell people it’s beef.”
    “I don’t have any
utensils.”
    “I saw a
four-foot Pyrex bell jar in one of the labs. It should serve as a cauldron. And there
must be something salvageable in the kitchens. Get some men to help you. I’ll have the meat
on stretchers in the hallway waiting for you. Move.”
    All told, eight hundred pounds of meat
went into the cauldron. And if some of it tasted
like pork, no one men tioned it.
     
    At the rim of a wide Colorado valley near
the Conti nental Divide, Saber stopped to
survey the terrain. Extending his
tentacled eyes out until they were eight feet apart, he adjusted his
vision to 20X magnification and slowly
scanned the area in search of anyone who might need his help. Well above
the tree line, all was lichen- covered
boulders. A food tree was growing several thousand feet below, to his right.
Saber noted the position for future use; in eight weeks it would start
producing.
    All seemed quiet,
deserted, with no sign of human life at all.
    No! On the opposite
end of the valley, six miles away, he saw two humans, a man and a woman. They
seemed to be struggling, although it was difficult to tell at this distance.
    The woman broke away from the man, running
away from him. The man pursued, tackling
her, knocking her to the ground.
Saber ran as fast as he could over the huge
boulders.
    He kept the pair in
view as he charged into the valley. The woman broke away again; her blouse was
torn off, her bra hanging at her elbow. It was still hard to tell, but it
seemed that she was bleeding in several places. She made it to the top of
a large boulder and from there threw a rock at the man, who was still pursuing her. The
rock struck the man, injuring but not stopping him.
    Saber was then
halfway across the valley, considering his course of action. If the man killed
the woman before he got there, it would be an obvious case of murder, and, in accordance with
Lord Copernick’s instructions, he would kill the man. If the woman killed the
man? She was
retreating. Self-defense. No punishment. If neither was killed, he would
incapacitate the man and assist the woman to safety.
    The man had the woman
down on the boulder and ripped off the balance of her clothing.
    The motive, then,
seemed to be rape, one of the humans’ sexual reproduction customs. As the LDUs
understood it, rape was generally frowned on, but Lord Copernick had not placed it on the list of
capital of fenses. Saber would administer
no punishment for the offense.
    As the LDU
approached, the woman was struggling and screaming loudly. The man was hitting her
on the face
and upper torso while trying to hold her down and remove his own
clothes.
    Saber struck the man
with a body check, and all three tumbled from the boulder. The man was on his
feet almost as quickly as the LDU and, wild eyed, he threw a rock at Saber.
    The LDU tapped the
man on the chin with his knuckles, rendering him unconscious. Turning to the woman, he saw she was sitting naked on the
ground, dirty and sobbing uncontrollably.
Her lips and one eye were swelling,
and blood trickled down her chin. Her back
was scratched and her ribs and breasts were badly bruised.
    “Don’t be
afraid,” Saber said, handing the woman the remnants of her clothing. “I am a
friend. It’s all over now. I’ll take you somewhere where you will be safe and tend your
wounds.”
    The woman continued
to cry.
    “I know that I
look strange to you. I am a labor and defense unit. I am here to protect you, to
keep you from harm.”
    “Well, who the
hell asked you for help?” she screamed.
    “You were being
injured. Naturally I came to your assistance.” The woman’s reaction wasn’t
what the LDU had expected.
    “God damn
you!” she shouted. “It was just getting good!”
    Suddenly a ten-pound
rock bounced off Saber’s back. “Yeah, you damned animal,” the man
yelled. “Get out!”
    Saber retreated,
unsure as to what the correct course of action was. He stopped to engage in a
meaningful conversation and was struck by a rock thrown by the