Tom & Pete

The guys had made it up to their new room, but their spirits were low. Though they had freed Samantha from Tiffany, they had no idea how to get her out of the AI's clutches, which even now was probably keeping her on all fours in a cage somewhere. It hadn't listened to them when they'd tried to explain Samantha wasn't a pet, they had no way to access records that would prove she was a person, and obviously they wouldn't be allowed to search her room for a passport or an ID.

It seemed like there was nothing to do but wait and let the police handle things, but just as they were about to give up the suite intercom activated.

"Guests Tom Bombado and Peter Gazetski, this is the resort's central intelligence. I must apologize once again on behalf of Premiere Resort, but your assistance is requested in the matter of the pet you reported as being abused today."

Pete jumped up, knocking over a tray of complementary room service. "Finally! What do you need?" he asked, ignoring the clatter of plates landing on the floor.

The robotic voice seemed almost ashamed of its admission. "We do not know what to feed her."

"What? Are you kidding me?"

"I'm afraid not. Our automatic vet was unable to identify Samantha Smith's species, without which her nutritional needs cannot be determined."

"We've told you, she's human! You stupid hunk of-"

Tom put a hand on Pete's shoulder to stop him. "We can tell you Samantha's species if you let us examine her. Do you mind bringing her up here?"

A few minutes later, a bleary-eyed Sam crawled out of her pet carrier onto the suite's soft carpet. Looking around, she felt at ease when she saw the nice men from earlier standing in the middle of the room. They were saying something, but their words didn't penetrate the carefree haze that had displaced most of her thoughts.

She knew the men were talking about her to a third voice whose owner she couldn't see, and when one of them crouched down in front of her she recognized Tom's voice. He sounded hesitant, and Samantha could make out the words 'homo sapiens petticus' which made her giggle. The words vaguely reminded her of something bad, but their sound was too funny not to laugh.

Then Samantha's world erupted into pain as the shock collar went off. She fell onto her side, clawing at it and screaming as it sent shock after shock into her body. The men shouted something too, and eventually the pain stopped.

Samantha gasped breathlessly as her body stopped spasming. Slowly her limbs contracted and she curled up on her side, her eyes squeezed shut.

She whimpered as something touched her neck, but when she opened her eyes it was only Tom's hand. She stayed motionless in her fetal position as Tom grabbed the cruel band, noting with surprise that it came right off her neck when he pulled his hand away. The pain had jolted her back into awareness, enough to listen when Tom spoke soothingly. "It's ok. The AI just disabled your collar. You can stand up now, and get this all sorted out."