The “noble wolf” is a predator, people!
Dr. Ferrell was always a little startled when one of the wolves from the island’s experimental pack appeared at the back door of the lab, but he recognized this one, and greeted him with a smile as he opened the door to let the creature in.
“Good morning, Watcher! Come in! What brings you here this morning?”
Watcher strode into the lab with the confidence of one who has been allowed in many times, and who has grown accustomed to the strange scents and sounds of the place. He walked straight to the corner where he had grown accustomed to seating himself on his visits to Dr. Ferrell’s lab, and sat, waiting for Ferrell to sit in his chair and give his undivided attention.
“Dr. Ferrell,” Watcher said, “you told me the reason you did this to me and to my pack—make us into wolves who can think—is because you wanted us to be your equals.”
“Yes,” agreed Ferrell with a chuckle. “I always dreamed of being able to sit down and have intellectual conversations with a wild creature, especially one whom other men fear and have sought to wipe out. It almost destroys me that I don’t dare tell the rest of the world about you.”
“So you believe you’ve succeeded?” asked Watcher.
“Eh? Well, of course I have! Here we are, talking about the concept of equality, for God’s sake!”
“Equality,” mused Watcher. “As you put it to me before, a wolf who thinks can have no master. So simply by virtue of being able to think, I am your equal.”
“In every way that matters,” agreed the scientist.
Watcher lifted a paw and raised it to Ferrell. “I must disagree, Dr. Ferrell. While it’s true we can think equally well—and if I were as educated as you are I could even help you think of solutions to problems in your work...”
“I have been thinking about that,” said Ferrell as Watcher put down his paw. “My colleagues and I are working up a curriculum that will enable the most promising intellects in your pack to reach a level of education where just what you say, may become possible.”
Watcher wagged his tail, thumping the floor three times. “That is good news, Dr. Ferrell. But there is more. You see, even though our minds have been expanded, and our horizons can be extended to match our intellectual potential, there remains one way in which we remain limited. You and your colleagues are not limited only to thinking thoughts—you can make your thoughts reality.” Again Watcher raised his paw. “We cannot. Our thoughts remain only thoughts. We cannot build, cannot make. We remain your lessers so long as that is true.”
Ferrell sat back, his expression inscrutable to the wolf. Watcher could sense ambivalence, excitement, and genuine misgivings—but could not determine the cause of any of these responses. He was more familiar with Ferrell than was any other wolf on the island, but the scientist’s long experience with wolves had enabled him to learn how to conceal his thoughts from them better than they could from one another. Still, Watcher had a feeling…
“What would you make, if you had the ability?”
Watcher chose truth. “Much of what the pack needs to survive on this island, must be supplied by you and your colleagues, simply because we don’t have the ability to do these things for themselves. That is the direct issue for us, Dr. Ferrell, a dependent wolf is not a free wolf. We think, yet we have masters—albeit benevolent ones, for whom we hold nothing but gratitude beyond measure.”
“Among humans, there has often been a very thin line between gratitude and resentment...”
“We are not humans.”
Ferrell received this with no obvious reaction.
“We want to help you with your work, Dr. Ferrell. We believe that what you have done can be shown to the rest of the world one day, hopefully while our unchanged brethren still live—and help to strengthen your race’s efforts to preserve mine.”
Ferrell took this well, Watcher could see. Misgivings evaporated, excitement became more pungent.
“We would have to start surgically,” said Ferrell at last. “It could be painful, and may take many attempts until we find the changes—to your paws, shoulders, hips and feet—that will best empower you. But once those forms have been found, we should have little difficulty making the DNA changes that will cause these new forms to develop in utero during natural reproduction.”
Watcher expressed his excitement and gratitude in such profusion that Ferrell could only laugh with joy as he let Watcher out of the lab. “One day, my friend, you will be able to let yourself in and out at will,” enthused Ferrell.
The wolf turned, wagged his tail at the scientist, and trotted into the woods.
“He’ll do it?” Stalker sounded astonished as he fell in beside Watcher. “He sees no threat from this?”
“His objections were pro forma, and he made no serious effort to defend them. He wants to believe.”
“But we still won’t know how to do the work they do, to change all the other wolves.”
“Actually, they had already decided to teach us that. It made convincing him that much easier.”
Stalker huffed in disbelief. “How did they ever reach the top of the food chain?”
Watcher stopped and looked at his brother. “If they hadn’t, someone else would have, but it wouldn’t have been us. Remember that. Whatever we make of ourselves once we have the ability, we will owe to humans.”
“Of course,” agreed Stalker quickly.
“We’ll have to remember their species with gratitude, after they’re gone,” added Watcher as he continued on his way.
Stalker followed after. “Of course,” he agreed with a wag of his tail.
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