Bip

Bip

Bip still didn’t understand humans. Despite now having been here for two full orbits of this planet around the rather minor star they liked to call “the Sun” so much of the behavior of this world’s allegedly apex species left him nothing if not mystified.

“C’mon, Clancy, time to eat!”

‘That’s the young female, Nellie. She will prepare a meal for me now’ Bip thought.

“While she is a human, she caters to the want’s and needs of a subservient species, a canine, like it is I that is the master. She and the rest of this group provide me with food, access and egress to and from the domicile as I wish, see to all my needs, requiring only that I provide some small degree of companionship. It will be a shame when we have to subjugate them.”

Bip was one of Arthon’s most well known scouts. Capable of separating consciousness from the corporal Bip could come to a planet proposed for absorption by Arthon and take on the body of an indigenous creature. What made him unique among his fellow scouts, however, was his preference for using not a powerful leader, but rather a minor member of society, those, for the most part, unseen and ignored. On Parus-6, an aquatic world, he had become one with a bit self-aware kelp, while Portol saw the use of a flying rodent called an Arstell. Here on Earth, however, they had provided him with the perfect entree to day-to-day human life: the beloved family dog.

“There you go, Clancy” Nellie said. “Breakfast time. There you go. Who’s a good dog? Who’s a good boy?”

Placing his food bowl, emblazoned with “Clancy’s Dish” on the linoleum floor of the family kitchen Nellie reached over to scratch Bip behind his floppy ears. He noticed she seemed to get a great deal of pleasure from doing this as he could detect a decrease in blood pressure and an increase dopamine levels. He also noted she pulled the muscles of her mouth up and back allowing her teeth to show. The first time he had seen this behavior Bip was concerned as in many of the cultures he had been exposed to, including his own, such a display of oral dentation was preparatory to combat! He soon learned, however, that humans called it a “smile” and it was highly desirable during their interactions.

“This is the food they call Alpo.” Bip thought as he gobbled the contents of a can marked ‘Hearty Beef’. “I’m curious why they don’t eat it? This dogs taste receptors find it to be highly pleasing. I wonder what an Alpo looks like?Something else to study before subjugation.”

While still licking the final few orts of beef byproducts from the side of the bowl Bip was interrupted by his sharp canine hearing detecting the sound of the bed springs creaking in the chamber used by the two older humans for sleeping. He knew this to mean the alpha male, the one called Ben by the other human residents, had arisen and was on his way.

“Ugh” said Ben, shambling into the kitchen. “I’m calling out of work today. I’m sick… as…a…dog.” Looking down on the floor he reached out to scratch Bip on the nose, before adding, “Nothing personal, Clancy.”

Bip had noticed this behavior as well, ascribing attributes of a dog to many human events or activities. “Dogged determination” as an example, for one that never gave up on a goal, certainly a good thing. When an important location needed to be marked for easy return in the information sharing devices they called ‘books’ it was referred to as the page being “dog eared”. “Sick as a dog” however, was new.

‘I’m not really sure what sick is’ Bip mused. ‘Perhaps it was that less than optimal sensation I experienced following the large meal last year on the day the humans called Thanksgiving? I was able to easily remedy it, however, by simply going to the portion of land behind the domicile and ingesting a quantity of the native vegetation referred to as ‘grass’. Shortly thereafter I regurgitated the excess food and was back to normal status. Is he going to eat grass as well? I will monitor.’

Ben’s wife, Kate, stepped across the kitchen, arm extended.

“Let’s see what we’ve got here” she said, placing a well practiced hand on her husband’s forehead. “Doesn’t feel like a fever. More like the ‘man flu’ probably secondary to a Patriots-playing-the-Seahawks-on-Monday-nightitis infection. I predict a rapid recovery following intensive caffeine therapy.” Hugging Ben with one arm she put a steaming cup of Folgers on the counter for him, while still managing to evade his now roaming hands reaching behind her at a location south of the belt on her flannel bathrobe.

“You’ve gotta be quicker than that” she said, grinning and heading off to start on Nellie’s lunch.

‘That is fascinating’ Bip thought as he stood next to Kate, a small amount of drool involuntarily escaping his lower lip, while she laid ham, cheese, lettuce and tomato on Nellie’s sandwich. ‘I am able to detect the slightest change in the physical condition whenever they touch me, but it appears among Earth humans only the females have that talent. And what is the ‘Man Flu’? Do the different sexes have unique versions of common illnesses? So much to learn.’

Morning routine continued in the McKenzie household. Bip existed in tandem with the earth creature Clancy. Once human subjugation and planetary absorption into the Arthon system was complete he would return to his own body, with total control of the dog’s physical form reverting to Clancy. But until then he could tap into the dog’s memories, as well as his naturally amplified senses of smell and hearing.

While Bip had been too over a dozen star systems in his time as a scout, he had never experienced a creature such as the earth dog, nor the relationship between humans and the creatures they called pets. While some, such as the few birds, lizards and rodents he had seen seemed as though they would have been happier had then been on their own, every dog he met seemed to want nothing if not to be part of the world of a human. Perhaps he will have to keep Clancy for his own?

“Three minutes, Nellie! Three minutes and I mean it.” shouted Ben from the bottom of the stairs. Multiple cups of coffee had, indeed, cured his ‘Man Flu” and he was now in charge of car pooling his ‘tween-age daughter and her BFF to school. “Three minutes or you and Monica do like I did when I was your age and walk 10 miles to school, in the snow, uphill, both ways!”

Bouncing down the stairs Nellie did her best to look put upon before kissing her mother good-bye, grabbing her lunch, giving Clancy one more scratch behind the ears and standing in the kitchen doorway, favoring her father with a 1,000 watt smile and saying, “Daaaadddd, hurry up! We’ll be late picking up Monica!”

Her husband and child off to their day, Kate was left with a brief period of quiet in her morning routine.

“Well, Clance, just you and me now, eh, boy/“ she said as Bip stood, attentively watching the Alpha female’s every move.

‘Strange that humans do that’ Bip thought. ‘They will speak to their dog as if expecting an answer, knowing full well that in all of recorded human history no dog has ever spoken, at least not in a language humans are equipped to understand’.

“I’ve got to change” Kate continued “Time for you to go out in the back yard.”

This was what Bip had been waiting for, but feared wouldn’t happen today. In the time he had been on earth with this human group he learned that most days, except for those known as “weekends”, “holidays” and a longer period called “summer vacation” the humans left their domicile for relatively predictable amounts of time each day. The two adults went to a place they called “work” while Nellie to something she referred to as “school” which, apparently, was to prepare her for the “work” activity. The primary exception to this rule was what was called a ‘sick day” which referred to the human being sick, not the day itself, and one, or more of the them would remain home. This would not be acceptable for what Bip had to do today. Fortunately, the alpha male’s ‘man flu’ had resolved!

“OK, fella” Kate said, sliding open the glass door to the fenced-in back yard. “You’ve had your breakfast, there’s plenty of water and I put a couple of treats in your house. Be a good boy, and Nellie will come and get you after school.”

‘Another example of human deference.’ Bip thought, ‘Not only did she assure I had been given my morning meal, but also provided me with extra food and hydration. Additionally, the humans have constructed an auxiliary domicile exclusively for my use going so far as to name it a “Dog House”’.

Walking through the door Bip immediately saw the two dog biscuits on the elevated sleeping platform. Turning in a couple of circles he made an indentation in the bedding, flopped down, grabbed one of the biscuits and began grinding it in his back teeth as he considered what today would bring. It was invasion day minus one, and time for final instructions from his superiors on Arthon.

Communication with his home world was accomplished telepathically and no human would realize it were occurring if not for one notable exception: during these periods Bip emitted a light, gold aura. Not a beacon, but definitely noticeable. This was what made the humans all leaving for the day so critical to mission success. Augmentation by the privacy from other humans in the area afforded in the “dog house” was an added bonus.

Only enough time passed for Bip to finish the first treat and start on the second before the familiar sensation of contact with Arthon began.

‘Bip. Do you detect and comprehend this transmission?’

The fur on Bip’s back stood up, his tail going rigid behind him. He found that these autonomic responses were happening more often now.

‘Yes, Marshall Clek. This is Bip. I detect and comprehend.’

Clek was the Grand Marshall of the Arthon fleet. If he was contacting Bip directly important things were happening, and happening soon.

‘Confirmed, Bip. I need you to listen very carefully. The timeline for fleet launch has been adjusted…’

-0-

“Alright, Clancy, you’ve gotta get down boy. Time for bed.”

It had been nearly one full rotation of earth around the sun, a period of time he had learned the human’s called a “year” since his last communication with Arthon, the day when Marshall Clek had told him that the home fleet was launching early, not to come to earth for conquest but, rather, to meet the Lohr, invaders from a neighboring star system. Clek told him that if he received no further communication from Arthon in what on earth would be seven days, that the battle with the Lohr had been lost and he should expect no further communication or assistance.

Lying at the foot of Nellie’s sleeping surface Bip gave his tail a couple of gentle thumps before getting down onto the bedroom floor. Turning back to the girl’s bed he rested his furry muzzle on the edge of the mattress, his nose just inches from hers.

Reaching out, Nellie stroked his wiry fur.

“Good night, Clancy” Nellie said as she rolled over to shut off the light on her night stand, “I’ll see you in the morning”.

Reaching his own bed near the door of Nellie’s room Bip laid down, head on his paws, eyes waffling between open and closed. In the past year he had come to grips with the fact that Arthon, at least as he knew it, no longer existed. There might be other scouts from his world now marooned here on earth, but without the Arthonian centralized communication system the only way to know would have been to meet them by pure chance.

A deep sigh escaping his drooping lips he reflected on the many changes he had undergone since the failure of Arthon to invade. He had found he was acting more and more like an earth dog, and less and less an Arthonian scout. His dedication to what he now felt to be ‘his’ human group, particularly Nellie surpassed any loyalty ever to Arthon. Memories of other food’s had all been eclipsed by that of Alpo and Milk Bones. While they seemed to barely move compared to a star cruiser, the sensation of being in an earth vehicle known as a car with his head out one of the openings brought him incredible joy. And, squirrels! What could be said about squirrels! There was just one thing. One thing that remained, and he would fix it tomorrow.

Tomorrow he would call himself Clancy.