A Companion's Journey

Preface

In the third decade of the twenty-first century, society and the globe in general had not advanced as far as science fiction would have lead to believe. There were no flying cars or teleporters, and humans did not have mutant powers. There had not been another world war involving nuclear destruction, though conflicts still arose between nations. No one had yet discovered a way to abolish world hunger, but there had been quite a number of advancements in medical research.

One such advancement came from a corporation established in 2033. The Intelligent Horizons Corporation located in upstate New York, which centered mainly on genetic engineering and research, inadvertently discovered a way to enhance the mental capacity of ordinary house pets. These "super" pets opened the door to a new avenue of study, and in 2035 the IHC produced the first commercially available smart cats and dogs.

The mental capacity of the smart animals was a profound leap in genetic study. The enhanced animals not only understood and followed extremely complicated instructions, they learned at an increased rate. Training a seeing-eye dog, which would normally last several months, could be completed in just a couple of weeks. Soon the IHC expanded the extent of testing and embarked on a secretive project to develop a "sentient" animal capable of reasoning.

Concurrently, the corporation also developed ways to alter the genome of the animals to give them specific attributes. For example, a dog or cat that could walk upright. The corporation did much of their testing from cloning technology and with certain breakthroughs began to actually grow their own specimens.

Using the smart animals as the basic template, progress came at a leisurely pace when late in 2037 one specimen out of a batch of new test subjects displayed the ability to mimic words of the scientists. Not only did the subject mimic simple speech, it was able to link the meaning of words to concepts.

Progress moved at an exponential rate following the success of several more such test subjects. The progress of the body modifications moved slower, but still showed signs of success as each new batch displayed more prominent alterations, such as opposable thumbs. As the progress of the physical enhancements caught up, the mental enhancements slowed down letting the corporation refine the extent to which their specimens changed. Soon IHC produced a number of test subjects that could not only walk on two legs, but also possess speech and the capacity for reasoning.

These test subjects remained secret since the corporation wanted to avoid any scandals involving animal rights movements or religious opposition. The IHC was in secret negotiations with the government to try and develop the sentient animals for the armed forces, but a scientist named Dr. Kristopher Lindberg created the next step of smart animals, deemed "Companions", and took the project public.

The scientific community was ablaze with outrage at the secret research, but soon welcomed the doctor with open arms when he offered to share all his findings. The IHC quickly took advantage of the situation and publicly supported the doctor as well as instituted a patent for the new Companions and all research associated with them.

In 2040, IHC produced the first generation of Companions, or the First Gens as they were commonly called. These Companion's closely resembled the canines and felines they were modeled after. The corporation set up a program to raise and teach the Companions through the first few years of life. These beings matured rapidly, essentially becoming full grown in 2-3 years. They learned basic life skills quickly, including reading, writing, basic math, and simple ethics of what was considered "right" and "wrong" social behavior.

The IHC did not expand their training beyond the basics, and after 5 years deemed the First Gens ready for public adoption. The corporation marketed their new creations as a way for families and individuals to adopt the Companions for a wide variety of purposes such as an assistant, or nanny, or caretaker to help with rehabilitation. This left the door open for all manner of interpretation of Companion rights, which led to the US Congress creating an Amendment to cover the general boundaries of the law in regards to these new beings.

Shortly before IHC publicly announced the opportunity to adopt First Gens, Congress passed the Companion Amendment. This set basic living rights; such as Companions would be protected against slave labor, and being treated as property. By the time the First Gens started showing up in adoption agencies, the corporation was already making plans for improvements to the Companions. Thus the cycle of Companion Generations began. Roughly every 10 years the IHC proudly announced the next generation of Companions, touting their advancements and breakthroughs. With every new generation, more and more production and adoption facilities were built.

The corporation projected Companion life expectancy at around 40 years. The Companions would eventually grow old, but since they were still a "new" creation, no one was certain of how long they would actually live. IHC pledged to offer medical information to the general healthcare field for assistance in treating and caring for their creations.

Although IHC did not profit from Companion adoption, they were nonetheless flooded with venture capital from all manner of investors. The corporation quickly became top of the list of the most valuable businesses in the country.

Society halfheartedly embraced the introduction of Companions. Some people welcomed them with open arms, others were downright disgusted with "talking animals", while the middle ground shrugged the occurrence and went on with their lives. As is human nature, prejudices boiled to the surface now and then, but did not gain any more attention than any of the others commonly known to happen (such as racism, gender-discrimination, domestic violence, etc).

At the current time, Fifth Gens just came available. Approximately 100,000 Companions are created with every generation. From a public relation standpoint, IHC plans to continue development of the Companion program. However, there are rumors that the company is making breakthroughs in their work that have not been made public. So far, there is only speculation as to how these unknown advancements will influence Companions and society at large.