Bio-Pet Story
Matthew Ryan Fischer
Asher had read once that mankind had
basically invented dogs by meddling in the affairs of wolves. He supposed that
was a good thing. The world was probably a better place with fewer killer
wolves running around and more domesticated and loyal canines in their place.
He supposed it was a testament to the might of mankind, that they could force
the evolution of a particular species towards their likes and needs. Still, it
was unclear to him if that was ultimately a good or bad thing. Just because
humans didn’t like this feature or that, didn’t mean there wasn’t a purpose or
profound need for it in nature. Of course the world had kept on spinning for tens
of thousands of years after man began forming his four-legged companion, so
obviously nature was surviving well enough.
Still, Asher understood it was a normal
human trait to push the world as they saw fit. Man did that everywhere in
nature, so why not with their pets also? But then along came the Bio-Pets.
The Bio-Pets were a bit of a grey area
for him. Asher could have questioned whether or not it was man’s place in the
world to play god and scientifically engineer their pets, but that wasn’t really
what bothered him. What bothered him was their appearance. They were just
really creepy and unnatural. Most of them were hard to look at. Or so he
thought anyway.
Asher didn’t understand the excitement
that pet bio-engineering had created. It seemed like nearly everyone loved the
idea. There were a few minorities that challenged the treatment of the animals
and certain religious groups were offended and considered them abominations.
But for the most part the public seemed to go along with the idea fairly
easily. Asher didn’t get it. It wasn’t that Asher didn’t like pets, but he was terrified
by the idea of genetically engineering them. Sure people could claim it was safe.
Sure studies showed that the pets were healthier than normal pets, cleaner than
normal pets, friendlier than normal pets, and so on and so on. The studies
showed that Bio-Pets were the greatest pets in the history of the world. The
studies failed to sway Asher. He was still afraid it was all going to turn out
like some horror movie where there was a world full of human-killing man-made
mutant monsters, like a nightmarish ‘The Island of Dr.
Moreau.’ Asher wanted nothing to do with that. He wasn’t prepared to do battle
with mutant pets with the fate of humanity hanging in the balance. He wasn’t much
of a fighter anyway and he seriously doubted he could take on a normal dog, let
alone some super genetically enhanced monstrosity.
Christine had a turtle that had been
enhanced so that if it was flipped over on its back, its body was able to reset
itself within the shell and its legs could flip back over. It looked like an extremely
painful process that was practically impossible, but it saved the lives of many
errant turtles. She also had a pair of dwarf hamsters that didn’t shed. They
still bit though. Asher didn’t like that.
As it so happened, Asher had never
dated a woman that owned a pet, let alone a Bio-Pet prior to Christine. The
first time he spent the night at Christine’s house, he wasn’t able to sleep at
all. He could feel the Bio-Pets staring at him. He was sure they were plotting
his death and their eventual overthrow of humanity. It might seem farfetched
now, but he had seen enough movies to know that simple bio-engineering got out
of hand quickly and somehow man was always creating its own downfall.
Asher survived the first night and over
the course of time was even able to fall asleep and stay asleep for an entire
evening. He began to relax and feel more comfortable. He let his guard down and
began to play with the Bio-Pets. That, of course, was just what they were
waiting for – their revolution was sure to start at any moment. Asher was sure
of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment