Episode 113. Part 2
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Monday, 14 Nov 2518
Kuiper II Class, Summer’s Gift
En route to Lassek, Verbena
09:25 hrs, ship’s time
Rina tells the crew of Cesar’s cryptic warning and declares she’s not going into that container if at all possible. The others look askance at her vehemence and shrug. Rina throws in the towel—hey, she tried. Arden and Nika go and see the animals two days into transit.
The animals seem relatively complacent in their small-ish cages. One of the orangutans gives Nika an orangutan’s natural expression…which of course looks a little sad. Nika grew up on a ranch and fully versed in the harsh realities of ranching life. She’s not given much to sentimentality, but something about the orangutan touches her nonetheless.
Nika: Aww. This is almost as sad as cows.
Arden: We eat cows.
Nika: I know, but they’re sad. Have you ever looked?
Arden: That’s because we eat cows. That’s why they’re sad.
Nika: Don’t tell the monkeys that.
Arden: But we’re not going to eat the monkeys.
Taylor: They’re not monkeys, they’re apes.
Nika: (to Arden) Don’t tell the apes that.
Arden: We’re not going to eat the apes, either.
Apparently Arden isn’t much given to sentimentality, either.
Taylor: I should hope not. These apes are probably worth more than half of this ship.
Nika’s charmed by Zira, one of the orangutans, when the primate reaches out to hold her hand. Taylor reassures that Zira is very gentle and sucker-punched, Nika lets the orangutan take her hand in hers. Zira gives Nika’s hand a two-fingered squeeze.
Nika: Awww….. (to Arden) Monkeys.
Arden asks Taylor if there’s anything unusual about the apes.
Taylor: It took us some time to get the release for the apes. They were being used for experimentation for alertness drugs. Seeing if they couldn’t improve piloting skills and things like that. Drugs similar to Ritalin and such derivitives, actually.
Arden: How did they respond to the standard intelligence checks that they use for great apes?
Taylor pulls out something that looks remarkably like a handheld playstation tablet and gives it to Zira. Zira picks it up and turns it on, and one of the large mounted monitors comes to life. Everyone looks up. The monitor shows a CGI virtual world setting and in it, little CGI figure walks across the screen and starts consuming fruits and vegetables. The figure finishes eating and a happy expression appears on its face. Taylor looks at Zira.
Taylor: Are you hungry?
Zira looks at Taylor with her solemn orangutan eyes and nods. The effect is eerily human.
Nika: Are all of them as….well, I was going to use a different word, though I suppose intelligence certainly applies.
Taylor: (sighs) Yes, intelligence is rather multi-faceted, but yes, they are all individual personalities. And they’ve taken advantage of different assets. Zira, you look upset. What’s bothering you?
Zira plays a little bit more with the tablet and the figure on the monitor sits and frumps and looks grumpy.
Taylor: Are you bored?
Zira looks back at Taylor with a yeah- it’s-not-rocket-science expression. Taylor hands one of the gorillas, by name of Maximus, another control tablet and together he and Zira start playing a game on the monitor. From the looks of it, it’s similar to Reversi or Othello. Fairly complex. Clearly not Pong.
Taylor: (sighing) I was worried about what the effects of these alertness-enhancing drugs were doing to them while they were being kept in laboratory conditions. A couple of words to the local animal advocacy groups was enough to get them released back into the wild. I’m interested to see how they do there.
Arden: They’re of increased awareness?
Taylor: (nodding) Yes.
Arden: Are they dangerous?
Taylor: If you were to anger one, it could rip you to pieces. Any of them could, yes.
Arden: Could one—and I’m not saying we do this—could one wander around the ship?
Taylor: They would probably be very curious about your ship, so they might inadvertently do some damage to it. I don’t think they’d be any danger to you or to the girls, your passengers. They seem to like women more than men. I don’t know why. I suppose it’s because we’re the superior gender.
Arden: I suppose. That and you’re much better looking than men.
Taylor: (laughs) Oh, flattery will get you anywhere. (Sobering) If you could actually take a look at Ursus over here? Do you feel safe with me opening the cage?
Taylor puts her hand on the cage door and gestures at the male gorilla inside. That gets Nika’s attention.
Nika: (unsure) Ooh-kaay……
Taylor swipes her cardkey through the lock and the door clicks! open. Ursus looks up and you could swear the gorilla said “Hmmmm.” Taylor swings the door open and Ursus rises and gingerly inches forward, favoring one of his legs. Taylor signs a few gestures to the gorilla and Ursus sits down on the threshold of his cage and holds his foot out to Arden.
Examining the foot carefully, mindful of the gorilla’s strength and Taylor’s comment about being ripped to pieces, Arden sees that there is a pressure sore on Ursus’ footpad, most likely from lying tranquilized for long periods of time against a hard surface or a hard edge like a table. The sore is infected. He’ll have to lance it to treat it.
Remember that bit about getting ripped to pieces?
Arden: I’ll need my medical bag but I think I can make it feel better.
Nika: I’ll go get it.
She leaves. As Nika steps out of the container, she spies Cesar watching nervously off to the side.
Nika: (off his expression) Are you…all right?
Cesar: (watching her closely) Did you notice anything?
Nika: One of the apes apparently has a sore on his foot but other than that, no.
Cesar: (looking a bit paranoid now) Mm-hm.
Nika: Perhaps you should take a little bit of a break. You’ve probably been working very hard.
Cesar: (quietly) You didn’t let one touch you, did you?
Nika: No, of course not.
Cesar: Because that’s when it starts happening.
Nika: Okay. (A beat) Can you tell me what precisely starts happening?
Cesar: That’s how they start to get inside you.
Nika: Okay…What symptoms should I watch for?
Cesar: I’ll watch you. You wouldn’t know necessarily at first…if, you know….
Cesar’s clearly been working too hard and the stress from his job must be terrible.
Nika: Why don’t you go ahead and relax, enjoy the lounge, and I’ll get back and make sure nothing’s going on in there, all right?
Nika gestures toward the lounge and lets Cesar choose his course. For herself, she fetches Arden’s bag PDQ and gets back to the container. Arden takes his bag and tells Taylor that if she can, she should warn Ursus that the treatment might hurt a bit. Taylor takes Ursus’ hand and her fingers are immediately enveloped in Gorilla, albeit a gentle one. Arden applies a topical anesthetic and lances the infected sore. Ursus tenses and trembles but remains quiescent and Arden quickly dresses the sore with antibiotics and a bandage.
Nika watches closely the entire while and asks Doctor Taylor a question.
Nika: Doctor, have you noticed that your assistant could really use a vacation?
Taylor: Yes. Don’t listen to him, he’s—
Quick as a flash, Ursus strikes lightning fast and grabs Arden’s wrist as he’s cutting the extra gauze from the bandage, and pulls the doctor into the cage. Ursus hauls Arden up face to face, exhales a great blast of gorilla breath, and Arden freezes.
Nika: Arden, avert your eyes.
Arden: (quietly) From what?
Nika: From his. Down and left.
Arden does. He can’t see far. The gorilla’s chest fills his vision and Arden reckons it’s the last thing he’ll see before the animal twists his head clean off his neck. Which doesn’t happen. Ursus turns Arden around in his grip and points Arden’s hand at Taylor. Taylor looks surprised. Ursus looks at Arden, and the gorilla points at his own temple, then at Taylor’s…and lets Arden go.
Arden eases out of the cage, shaken but unharmed. He’s still holding his scissors. He blinks at Taylor.
Arden: Do you have any idea what that was about?
Taylor is amused and bemused, and addresses Ursus in a puzzled but proud parent’s voice.
Taylor: What are you thinking? You do the strangest things.
Arden: Do you have any idea what that means?
Taylor: You know, I don’t. I think he thinks he knows something about me, but I’m not sure. He did catch me once kissing another person near his cage. I didn’t think he was awake. Perhaps he’s letting you know that I’m not available.
Taylor goes up to Ursus’s cage and the gorilla postures in dominant mode a touch: puffing up his chest, sitting up straight. Taylor doesn’t quail, exactly, because she’s a professional but she does move as if she’s not as easy around him as with the others. Ursus leans against the cage door just enough to keep her from closing it, and she chides him gently.
Taylor: Ursus. It’s going to be a long trip if you act this way.
Ursus gives a snort and an annoyed look, and moves back—he’s made his point. Taylor closes his cage and locks the door. She turns around and regards Arden and Nika.
Taylor: We mustn’t forget these are powerful beasts.
Arden: I haven’t even begun to forget.
Taylor: He didn’t hurt you, did he?
Arden: No. He startled the heck out of me.
Taylor: I’ve been tossed around like a piece of cheap luggage, but they’ve never intentionally hurt me and I’ve never seen any of them commit acts of violence. So, I don’t think they’re dangerous. But they just sometimes forget their own strength and sometimes treat us as if we are apes.
Taylor checks her watch.
Taylor: (to Zira and Zaius) Well…it’s not really feeding time, yet. You two want to keep playing?
We all look up at the screen to see the Zira’s response and there’s already something typed in: a long string of “No.” terminated by a single “Yes.”
Ooo-kay! Time to go.
Arden thanks Taylor for the tour and tells her that he’ll be happy to help make her trip more smooth and uneventful. Taylor takes him up on it.
Taylor: Well, as we get closer we’re going to have to inoculate them against some of the local Lassek viri and such, so perhaps you can help me with that.
Arden: Certainly.
Nika checks the screen overhead on the way out, curious about Zira’s reaction to their words. Nothing on the screen has changed.
Nika: Doctor, what do the apes generally do with their time when they’re not being transported?
Arden: Or playing or eating?
Arden hasn’t missed the shaved patches on the animals’ arms with evidence they had once had stents put in, now gone.
Taylor: Well, back at the lab they were testing them for the most part. Intelligence, tests of that nature after they got their drugs. The results were quite impressive. We had to revise the tests to keep them challenging.
Nika and Arden and Taylor drift out into the corridor and when we’re away from the door, Nika asks Taylor what provisions she’s made to keep the apes entertained for the duration. We’re on a trip that’s nearly three weeks long. Will we be able to keep these apes from being bored? Taylor admits they may become restless. However, the apes are already used to some measure of confinement, even though their accommodations in the container are more confining than usual.
Taylor: I … do not know exactly what to expect. However, we do have tranquilizers if necessary. Which we may end up having to use, though I’d prefer not to. It is a sacrifice and a risk, but I think that—
Nika suggests using what art supplies we have on board. Arden suggests videos. Taylor approves the use of both. Arden also asks if there are any mated pairs aboard. Yes, there are: Zira and Cornelius, the orangutans.
Taylor: As I’ve said, they are fairly used to captivity so that they are not all that much surprised by the situation. And to the degree I’ve been able to communicate with them, which as you can see is fairly substantial, they have some comprehension of what’s going on here and what we’re working toward.
Nika: If it becomes a problem, please let one of us know immediately and we will at least attempt to take some steps to alleviate the issue before it gets too bad.
Taylor: What do you mean? Do you mean to let them wander about the ship?
Nika: No, I meant we’ve got films, we’ve got art supplies. Just something that breaks up the monotony of their day.
So now we’re talking about entertaining monkeys. Isn’t it usually supposed to be the other way around?
Taylor: Actually, meeting people is entertaining for them at times, so they might be interested in that.
Nika: That might be something we can do. Like I said, you’ve demonstrated that they are extremely intelligent creatures and therefore…I wouldn’t put my dog in a kennel for almost three weeks without something to divert it.
Taylor: That’s one reason why Cesar and I are here to help.
Nika: Like I said, if you start noticing a lot of restlessness maybe we can do something to help alleviate that.
We’ve gained the passenger lounge by this point and Cesar speaks up from the couch.
Cesar: If they didn’t want this trip, we wouldn’t be on it.
‘They’ meaning the apes. Taylor looks at her assistant and laughs a little bit.
Taylor: Yes. We all believe this is in the best interest, ultimately, of these beautiful friends of ours.
And on that note our visit ends. Arden and Nika take their leave, intrigued and spooked by turns.
As we’ve cross-trained in piloting sufficiently well enough to actually have someone watching the bridge 24/7 in shifts, Rina’s on duty later that night when she hears a loud clang aft of the crew lounge. Already on edge from the cargo, she wakes Nika to act as her back up and goes to investigate the sound. It’s Cesar in the aft portside container where we’ve stowed Taylor’s gear and we’ve caught him shifting cargo around. We remind him that it’s dangerous to do this unassisted.
Nika: Did you find what you needed?
Cesar: No, it’s probably buried under something. I’ll check it out tomorrow. I’ve got a little insomnia, there’s some kinda sound…I can hear and it’s…(shrugs)
Nika: What kind of sound?
Cesar: Uh, like a buzzing or …it might be a ship’s system or something…
Nika: In your quarters?
Cesar: Yeah. You can’t hear it?
He looks at Nika and Rina with genuine puzzlement. Rina puts her hand to the bulkhead and checks for any odd vibration, feels nothing beyond the normal. She shakes her head.
Nika: (to Cesar) Where are you hearing it?
Cesar: Everywhere. A buzzing….
Nika: Maybe it’s a vibration you’re not used to.
Rina: That could be it.
Nika: Tell you what, we’ll just lock everything down for the night and Rina can take a look in the morning and see if there’s something shakin’ loose.
Rina: Sure. I can run a diagnostic in advance.
Cesar kicks something shut in the cargo, pats himself down and sighs. Nika smiles at him.
Nika: Come on, I’ll walk you back.
Nika gestures at Rina to stay as she takes Cesar’s arm and Rina ducks back in, heading for the corner where they’d found Cesar. The man was up to something back there and Rina wants to find out just what it was. She helped stow this cargo and reckons she’d catch anything out of place.
In a packing box holding what looks to be a high-tech Bunsen burner, she finds three small plastic bags. One is filled with a fine yellow powder. The other two are filled with a grainy white powder, of which one has blue crystals dispersed throughout. Either Rina’s looking at cornmeal and dishwasher detergent with scrubbing crystals….or she’s got something far more nasty.
Meanwhile, Nika escorts Cesar to his quarters. He gives her no trouble and the second his door is shut and locked, Nika goes back to the container. She checks the corridor behind her and seeing it clear, she shuts the door to the container and calls out to Rina.
Nika: Whaddya got?
Rina: (pissed) You’re not gonna believe this. The yellow stuff worries me most, because that’s sulfur and sulfur will burn.
Nika: What are you talking about?
Rina lifts one of the bags free on the tip of her pen—no way she’s touching the damn thing.
Nika: What the frack is that?
Rina: That’s what I wanna know.
Nika stops just over the threshold, she’s gone far enough inside, thank you.
Nika: So what is he doing back there with it?
Rina: I don’t know. But I’ll have you know that the equipment in this box is something that burns. It’s like a Bunsen burner.
Nika: Oh, so not cool!
Rina: Absolutely.
Nika takes a deep breath.
Nika: All right. Let’s not let our rampant paranoia run away with us. Go ahead and put it back and you can talk to the doctor in the morning. We’ll just let her know that it’s not necessarily a good idea to go rummaging around in the compartments in the middle of the night. And we’ll talk to Arden and Christian in the morning before we do that.
Rina puts the baggie down in the box with the others and closes everything up. She frowns at the lid.
Rina: I wish I had a camera.
Nika: (Enough already!) Okay. Really. Rampant paranoia. I’ll tell you what. I’ll take the rest of your watch. Go meet up with your boyfriend and do something with all that paranoia.
Duly chastised, Rina leaves to do as ordered. Nika locks the cargo container down and throws a shirt on over her shorts and tank top, and completes Rina’s watch. She resolves to include the cargo containers more frequently in the rounds during watches, at least for the next few days. It’s not unusual for someone to go through their own cargo to fetch something or other, and it’s not lost on Nika that while it’s possible Cesar had less than innocent motives in mind, she’s been slipping ever more into a more negative frame of mind. She takes Mike’s advice about not mistaking opportunity for bad news and decides that paranoia may not be warranted. Not tonight.
The rest of the watch is uneventful.
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