Kell Racing on Harapan

by theidiotmachine

Joseph let the dusty soil fall through his fingers. It blew away in the warm breeze.

'You're right, Agus,' he said. 'It's getting better. We'll soon be able to plant scruff grass here.'

Agus nodded. The sun was setting, and the deep red rays drew long shadows over the lumpy ground, and shaded everything orange. Agus leaned on a fence, resting his arms; Joseph stood upright, his shiny body saffron in the evening light.

'But that's not what you wanted to talk to me about, is it?' asked Joseph.

'Dammit, Joe, you're more human than I am,' replied the old farmer. He took his battered hat off and scratched his head.

Joseph couldn't smile, because his face wasn't designed to show expression; instead, he simply inclined his head.

'Do you mean that as a compliment, Agus?' he asked, gently teasing the old farmer.

Agus returned his hat to his head, and looked the robot straight in the photoreceptors. 'Joe, I can't stop you doing this. But, listen to an old man; this could be dangerous. And I'd hate to see you hurt.'

Joseph put his hand on the man's shoulder.

'Thank you, Agus. But your retirement was this, owning this farm. My job was helping you. Now it's my turn to retire. And this is what I chose.'

The two stood for some time, the old man and the robot, watching the sun set; and the night blooming flowers opened, and their gentle perfume filled the warm evening.

'Then that's that,' said Agus, finally. 'Good luck, Joe. I'll see you when you get back.'

And he turned and walked into the low farmhouse.

#

Joseph was a robot, true, but not any robot. He wasn't a dog-like skoge herder, robots that played silly games of chase when they weren't doing their jobs; he wasn't a harvester, one of the great wheeled, multi-limbed machines that told each other epic poems of their own invention as they sowed and ploughed and weeded; he wasn't a shepherd or a hauler or a maintenance bot. No, his job was to raise and train the racing kell on Agus' farm. And now he wanted to race on them himself.

The kell were funny animals. Someone had spliced a lot of genes, mostly from horses and a smaller native animal called a march, and they had produced an intelligent, friendly riding animal. They had four legs and were covered in short bristly hair, and had a snout like an anteater. They made little whiffly grunty noises and lived on beetles and seeds, and were loving and loyal. Whoever had designed them knew what they were doing, because kell could breed and thrived on this planet; and the human settlers had decided that as well as being companions, they would be huge fun to race.

But training them was hard and time-consuming. For some people on the planet Harapan it was a hobby; for others it was a job. But Agus had been lucky.

He'd found the android Joseph in storage on a supply ship, inactive and forgotten. Androids were unusual things; robots did not see the point in being human-shaped, and were comfortable in their specialised bodies for their work. So, very few truly human-like robots had ever been made, and the ones that existed were used for unusual jobs, and tended to be taciturn and withdrawn, not fitting in with either the human or robots.

Which suited Agus just fine, who liked his own company more than most.

Agus had pulled Joseph from the storage compartment, put him on a hauler and taken him back to his farm; and there he had repaired him, and reactivated him. When the android had woken, he had asked where he was, and what he needed to do. Agus had helped him to his feet, and taken him to the kell stables and told him that he wanted him to look after them. Joseph had nodded in agreement, and he'd been doing that ever since.

Joseph loved the creatures, who returned that love with snuffles and loyalty. He had been there for every difficult birth, every feed, every illness, every death. Because he looked sufficiently human-like, and had an endless supply of patience, the kell from Agus' farm were always calm, happy creatures, who loved racing and being with people. Joseph enjoyed their company far more than the farm robots, and even, perhaps, more than Agus, although he had grown to quietly love the taciturn old man.

But, he had stood on the side and watched countless jockeys win races on kell that he had raised; and now he wanted his turn.

#

The hauler was chatty, and asked him endless questions as they drove on the long dusty roads to Ibu city. And the fields of corn and hemp and spiralwheat and snap flowers sped past, and the minutes turned to hours.

Joseph felt a nervous elation that he hadn't felt in years. He had a filly, called Skittle, that he had selected some time ago. She was fast, very fast; but she also had an incredible stamina and was calm, even for a kell. They were both in a container in the back of the hauler, and he was sitting with her, towelling her down, keeping her amused; while the hauler prattled away over the radio to him.

'Do you think you'll win?' it asked. 'I'll put some money on you if you do...'

'I don't know,' he replied, calmly. 'I think I have a good chance.'

The truth was, he had no idea. He'd ridden kell for nearly as long as he'd been looking after them; he taught them how to jump, and he enjoyed the glee they got from the first time they really galloped. Although they looked ungainly, they could produce incredible speeds, and he loved the sensation of pounding over fields of scruff grass on their backs. But, he didn't have anything to measure himself against. He was about the same mass as a human, about the same height, so there was no advantage there. His technique was, he thought, good; but he'd had no formal training and had simply learnt it as he went.

'Well, I like the sound of that,' prattled the hauler, cheerfully. 'I'll put a few rupes on that...'

And there, over the ochre horizon, was their destination.

Ibu wasn't really a city; it was more just a big town, cheerful and ramshackle and sprawling and dusty like everything else on Harapan. And the racetrack was out on the outskirts, which meant that they were there soon enough; and it was strange and exciting seeing its great stands and floodlights dominating the area, knowing he would be racing there tomorrow.

Skittle harrumphed and fidgeted. He wondered if she could feel his excitement. Although he didn't sweat or secrete phenomenons like a human, he knew that the kell were extraordinarily empathetic. So, maybe. But then again, maybe not.

'Hush, girl,' he murmured, and offered her a handful of bij nuts, which she snuffled with her trunk, before huffing contentedly.

The hauler pulled up into the stables area. He led Skittle out down a ramp; then the hauler unloaded their container.

'Good luck!' it called, cheerfully, and drove off.

Under the curious gaze of other riders, he lead her to her stable.

#

She was excited as he rode her to the starting line. He could feel her shift under him, caught in the atmosphere and the occasion. The other kell around her pawed the ground in anticipation, snorted and shook their heads. Joseph adjusted his photoreceptors and looked across the stadium.

It was huge. The racetrack itself was an oval a kilometre long and half a kilometre wide. Around it were stands, stables, administrative buildings, bars, and other things that Joseph had no knowledge of. The bookies were set up near the starting line; they projected their odds above their stalls in glowing numbers, which flickered and changed as money was placed. The buildings were all cheap, quickly printed concrete, stained brown by the ubiquitous dust; but it didn't feel dingy, because there was brilliant colour everywhere he looked: on flags, signs, clothes.

It was still fairly early in the morning, but there was already a lot of racegoers watching, laughing, betting and drinking. He knew that he was an oddity here, an android in a human's world, and he was expecting to be a spectacle; but it still made him uncomfortable to see so many eyes on him. They mostly didn't feel unfriendly, just curious.

The stall gates closed behind them. Now, he and Skittle were in their stall, waiting for the front gates to open and the race to begin. A huge countdown timer glowed above the track, visible to everyone in the stadium.

He was in an amateur's race, only the fourth of the day. It meant that his opponents were as young as Skittle and as green as him: farm hands with excited, skittish mounts. Kell loved to race, and the excitement amongst these youngsters, both steeds and riders, was palpable. Joseph suddenly, and surprisingly, felt very old.

'Calm, girl,' he said to Skittle. 'We'll be off in a moment.' She was happy, but not uncontrollably so. The other kells shifted and snorted.

The countdown flickered down to zero; the gates in front of him cracked open; and Skittle leapt out.

Kell were a little bigger than horses, with incredible muscle density. And so although Joseph was prepared for the burst of speed as Skittle launched herself out, it was still a shock, and he clung on as she hurtled forward. Around him, the other riders shot forward too, and the whole pack thundered down the straight towards the first turn.

Skittle was fast, and she was enjoying herself. Her start had been good and she was towards the front of the group, and she was chasing the leader down hard. Joseph didn't want her to exhaust herself too early, so he held her back slightly, letting her keep pace but not gain. The others around and behind stayed close, hard feet drumming on the dry ground, a great dusty cloud behind them as the pack clustered on the right of the track.

Her muscles stretched and tightened under him, her back and legs flexing as she ran, her head bobbing. Kell were far more graceful in motion than they had any right to be, and he marvelled at the beauty of the animals running around him.

The leader reached the first turn, and then Joseph and Skittle did too. He guided her on a line that was as close as he could get to the inside rail without colliding with anyone, and he was gratified to feel her turn as he wanted, her understanding in tune with his. The pack was starting to spread out now, some of the trailing kell falling back, the pace too much for these young animals. Skittle was holding on though, and he could feel that, although she was tiring, she still had a lot of energy left.

As they reached the end of the turn, onto the short straight before the second turn, Joseph made his move.

He slapped Skittle on the flank, and urged her forward, all restraint abandoned. He had always known that she had another gear, but it was still an incredible feeling when she surged forwards, muscling around the inside of the leader as they ran towards the second corner. The world narrowed for him to the two animals, the track, and the other rider, and all he could hear was the drumming of kell feet.

They were neck and neck when they came into the turn; but he'd correctly judged the distance, and Skittle was on the inside, giving her a tiny advantage. The other kell looked bigger and older, however, and was running hard; and he wasn't sure how long Skittle could keep this pace up. But the two of them both galloped onwards, nothing to separate them, he and the other rider both shouting encouragement and slapping their mounts.

Then they were on the final straight.

Skittle was flagging; but so was the other kell. He thought that if they just held on... And then suddenly the other kell was gone. Not just dropped behind, but disappeared. He looked back and saw that it had fallen, the rider sprawled onto the ground. A second was behind it, also down, and another: a good portion of the pack had piled into each other. An inexperienced rider must have ridden too close to the one in front, and the kell had tripped.

He sighed. He wanted to race and win... but what he wanted, more than anything else, was for the animals to be OK. And he had no idea what state they were in.

He reigned Skittle in. She must have known something had happened too, because the speed had drained from her. They slowed to a trot, and then he turned her, and the two of them went back to see if they could help.

He dropped from the saddle, and ran to the nearest kell. There were medical robots all over the track, the race abandoned, people shouting and swearing. He opened his veterinary knowledge base and got to work.

#

They moved the injured kell from the track as quickly as possible; but Joseph worked through the morning on the animals, alongside the human vets and the medical bees. He ignored the humans, partly because he didn't understand their physiology but mostly because there was enough attention there. They would be fine.

The kell were mostly ok; they had tumbled and sprained or bruised themselves. But the one next to him, the filly who had been neck and neck with Skittle, had fractured her front left tibia; the broken bone was nasty and they were worried about internal bleeding. Joseph bound her wound, and sedated her, and sang to her in the slow muttering way that he'd learnt from working with kell, as his skilled hands moved around her swollen leg, cutting and straightening and patching.

Eventually, hours later, he stood up, satisfied. She would not just live, she would race again, too. The veterinary robot who was working with him faced him and beeped a respectful thanks to him. From here, it was just procedure, and he wasn't needed. So, he headed back to Skittle's stable, as more races thundered past on the track.

She was bored and happy to see him. He was glad that she wasn't injured, and enjoyed sitting with her as she fed.

#

'So they want me to work there,' said Joseph.

Agus looked at him, the dust and grass and golden sunset their surroundings, the click bugs their soundtrack. He nodded, and stared out at the heavy red sun as it sank towards the ochre horizon.

'And you're going to go?' he asked.

Joseph inclined his head.

'I think so. They need vets who can look after the kell.'

Agus nodded.

'And will that make you happy?' he asked.

Joseph had thought about this a lot on the long journey home. Happiness was hard for someone like him, neither robot nor human; but he knew that caring for kell was a good place to start.

'I think so,' he said.

Agus lifted a seed pod up, and popped it open. The seeds were good and the scruff grass would take.

'I think that's all we can ask for,' he said.

The human and the android walked back to the farmhouse in comfortable silence.