Why teach a dog to speak if no one will listen to him?
XK9 Rex is forensic equipment. That's what the XK9 Project calls him. That's what his police department calls him. That's what the law calls him.
He is a bio-engineered police dog with a vocalizer that lets him speak, a nose that can read the past, and a mind sharp enough to question everything. But none of that matters if no one is required to listen to him.
When a ship explodes in the spaceport's dock, Rex detects a crucial clue at the scene. But his human partner is critically injured and can't help him. The official investigation is stalled. And the one person who most needs to listen to him doesn't even know Rex exists.
So Rex does something forensic equipment is not supposed to do. He acts on his own.
What this action reveals forces the Police Chief to confront a shattering truth: that his department has been tricked into trafficking in sapient beings. That the XK9 Project has been hiding the dogs' true nature. And that Rex and his packmates are not equipment at all.
They are people.
Now Rex must convince the government of Orangeboro to recognize what he already knows to be true. Because if they do not, the XK9 Project will make sure no one ever has to listen to a dog again.