Episode 113. Part 3
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Tuesday, 15 Nov 2518
07:25 hrs, ship’s time
The next morning, Nika tells Christian what went on in the middle of the night as the Companion gets coffee and breakfast started. Maybe we should have official rules against passengers accessing the cargo compartments after hours or something. It’s possible that nothing was going on, but at the same time maybe the middle of the night with a crazy guy running around loose may not be the best of scenarios. Christian readily agrees. Taylor and Cesar will have access to their apes but nowhere else other than their quarters, head and lounge without escort.
Meanwhile, Mike is already awake and sitting with Miss Tolson and Emma, keeping the girls entertained at one end of the table with amusing stories. One has to wonder how much of what he’s telling them is true and how much is a lie. Given his condition vis-à-vis the Chempliance, either way it’s vital practice. The girls look like they’re willing to be convinced. Rina’s nowhere to be seen, not being someone who does mornings willingly if she isn’t on duty. Arden crawls out of bed once the aroma of the coffee penetrates his quarters. Taylor isn’t too far behind him. She grabs some coffee and settles with it and her databook at the table. Christian bids her a good morning. She mumbles, clearly not quite ready to face the day yet. Christian gestures toward her databook.
Christian: Scientific research?
Taylor: Well, yes. Trying to keep up on all these things. got a programming problem with their latest learning algorithm and I want to be sure I’ve got the right data before we…loose our friends.
Meaning before they’re released back to the wild.
Christian checks the lounge for Cesar and seeing he’s not yet awake, takes this opportunity to tell Taylor what Nika had found him doing the night before. Nika joins them at the table and together they fill Taylor in. Arden stumbles in during this conversation and Christian hands him his coffee, made up as he likes it. Nika admits to Taylor that while we have no idea what exactly is needed from the cargo containers in the course of a normal day taking care of the apes, we are concerned for our internal security and safety. If they need anything from the containers at any time, even if it’s in the middle of the night, please alert us so we can escort them. Nika also expresses concern for Cesar’s overall condition, given his insomnia.
Taylor: I apologize for any trouble my assistant has caused you. This is just another piece of evidence in an unfortunate … I am not a medical doctor, but I’ve seen a lot of people in laboratory environments that have access to drugs…I am worried that he may be falling victim to….
Arden: (more awake now) Do you know what he was trying to get into?
Nika: Yes. I can show you what was happening at the time—if that’s all right with you, Doctor?
Taylor: I noticed that he’s becoming might be called as paranoid recently and I know that is one of the symptoms of certain addictions.
Nika: Would you mind if I had the doctor look at the substances we found last night?
Taylor: I don’t believe there’s anything that could be used that way although there are tranquilizers probably back there that he might be getting into…
Christian: Who packed the equipment?
Taylor: He probably did most of the packing.
Christian: Mm-hmm. Which means you don’t know everything that’s in there.
Taylor: (thoughtfully) That’s…true. Yes, perhaps it’s a good idea to show me what was he was planning.
Nika: Arden, please come with me.
The four get up and go aft. Nika unlocks the container and leads everyone back to the corner where Cesar had been fiddling with the cargo. Nika shows Taylor the bags of unknown substances. Taylor looks and says she doesn’t know what to make of it. You don’t suppose we’d let her break out some of her lab equipment and have the stuff analyzed? Arden says he can do it with what he has already.
Just looking at the stuff Arden has a few hunches, but analyzes the powders to be sure. He discovers they are not high-tech expensive narcotics but fairly common laboratory chemicals. One is a carbonous powder that reacts readily to produce hydrogen, the other is sulfur. Combining the two under proper conditions would produce a poisonous gas. Enough to flood a cargo container, even flood the entire ship via our atmo system.
Lovely!
Arden secures the powders in separate containers and stashes them in his med-bay, hiding them in plain sight. Nika leaves Arden and Taylor together to confer over Arden’s findings and she returns to the lounge to keep an eye on things. Cesar appears a little while later, a pole across his shoulders and other gear that make it clear that he’s going to feed the apes. Christian turns over the breakfast service to Mike, and goes with Cesar to help him…and not so coincidentally pump the man for information. Cesar is careful not to look at the apes directly. Instead he pushes their rations, housed in what look like disposable bento boxes, within their cages using the pole.
Christian remarks that he’s noticed how Cesar is uneasy around the creatures and that being the case, why did Cesar agree to make the journey with them? Cesar looks askance at Christian—is this really the best place to have this conversation? Christian shuts the door to the container to gain them privacy and Cesar gets even more jumpy, and insists he’d like to go, please.
Christian: I’m worried about you.
Cesar: About me?
Christian: Yes. Why don’t you and I have a friendly chat somewhere else on the ship, because I have a feeling you know more than what you’re saying.
Cesar looks over at the orangutan, Zaius, who gives the man an inscrutable look in return.
Cesar: I…don’t think it’s a good idea. There isn’t that much to do. We’ve got a mission, we have to do the mission. We have to set them free. They’ll have the whole world to themselves.
Christian opens the door to the container and takes Cesar chummily by the arm as the man edges past him to leave. It’s obvious by now that if he’s going to get anything out of Cesar, the assistant needs to talk somewhere the apes cannot overhear him. Christian leads the man belowdecks to the container are.
Christian: What do you think is going to happen?
Cesar: This is their idea. (He points upward) This is not my idea. It’s not Dr. Taylor’s idea. They are making us do this. They got the papers made, they got the locks opened, …This is their idea.
Christian: Wait a minute. Are you saying they’re stolen?
Cesar: They stole themselves.
Christian: I understand. They are not here legally, is what you’re saying.
Cesar: Well…they’re….(sighs) They got the paperwork to be done.
Christian: So the paperwork isn’t a forgery?
Cesar: It’s not a forgery. It’s just not authorized.
Christian: They processed it by arranging for the right people to—
Cesar: They got her to do it.
Christian: So they’re controlling her.
Cesar: Yes. And me. All of us. Soon you will, too.
Christian: I see. What are they controlling you to do?
Cesar: Feed them, for one thing.
Christian: True, but that’s also your job.
Cesar: (breathes a laugh) My job?
Cesar takes a couple of deep breaths, as if throwing off a compulsion.
Cesar: My job? I’m a speech therapist.
Christian: Really.
Cesar: I’m not a…not a cage-mucker for apes.
Christian: That’s interesting. A speech therapist. Stuttering, that sort of thing?
Cesar: Audio pathology, mostly.
Christian: People who have trouble connecting sound to speech.
Cesar: Yes. Well, I was interested to see how the apes could do it, initially, since they can clearly understand human audibles. We were doing some brain physiology to see if their auditory neural system was similar to that of humans, which it is very similar.
Christian: So your job on the project was as a …?
Cesar: Scientist.
Christian: Scientist. Interesting.
Cesar: Was.
Christian: Was. You were fired? Demoted?
Cesar: Reassigned.
Christian: Reassigned…? And you couldn’t leave because…? I mean, for a better job, because I can’t imagine you couldn’t find better work.
Cesar: I’m on the ship. They got me on the ship.
Christian: I see….
Cesar: They get into your head. I don’t know how, but the drugs they gave them must be more powerful or something.
Christian: I see. Okay, let me ask you something. Your trip to the cargo container last night. Was that your idea or their idea?
Cesar breathes and sighs, as if wondering how much to say.
Cesar: Just some back-up.
Christian: “Back-up”?
Cesar: I’m not as deep in it as Taylor is.
Christian: So you still have free will.
Cesar: It’s not easy. I have to keep myself awake.
Christian: So they get to you when you sleep.
Cesar: (sighs) That’s part of it, but…I’m not sure exactly. If I knew how they did it, I could try to stop it, but…if anyone should know, it’s Taylor but she’s… She doesn’t seem to see it, I don’t… She’s been with them longer than I have.
Christian: What’s the back-up?
Cesar: My thought was…if I could figure out a way when they’re distracted, maybe when they’re in transit or something like that, not on the ship but when we transfer I might be able to…(breathes deeply) … end it here.
Christian: I see. Wouldn’t it be ended if they were just released into the wild?
Cesar: (very quietly, now) But that’s what they want.
Christian: True. Maybe they just want to be free.
Cesar: (very very quietly) I don’t think that’s it.
Christian: Do you think they have…do you know of the purposes they have for the humans on that moon?
Cesar: I don’t know exactly, but see if we can get a hold of Dr. Taylor’s logs, some of her entries are suspicious. They talk about…words like ‘emancipation’ and ‘retribution’… ‘abberation’…
Christian: I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I’d like to point out that animal rights activists are often very zealous in their pursuits.
Cesar: So how does a laboratory primatologist turn into an animal rights zealot?
Christian: Some people have a change of conscience. Well…would you like to be sick and unable to do your job for the next few days?
Cesar: No, I….I need to keep my clarity.
Christian: All right. If anything else happens, please feel free to come tell me.
Cesar: Don’t trust her.
Christian: I have had absolutely no contact with them. Actually, this is the first time I’ve even seen any of them. I think that if there’s anyone on the ship that uninfluenced, it would be me.
Cesar: Well, they’re very subtle.
Christian: I also have training in various mental exercises.
Cesar: Then perhaps you can help.
Christian: Certainly, the safety of this crew is first and foremost on my mind. If they’re a threat to them, of course I want to help.
Cesar: Okay.
Christian: Now, I’m going back upstairs. Why don’t you go back upstairs with me and you can go about doing what you need to do?
Christian is putting all his training to work on Cesar—trying to ascertain the man’s condition. Is he sane? Misguided? Paranoid? Dangerous? Based on what Christian has observed of the apes, and what drugs can do the human mind (and the apes’ minds) he cannot bring himself to discount Cesar’s assertions entirely. It may be possible that something isn’t kosher with the apes or Taylor. Whatever is going on, however, may simply be something other than what Cesar believes.
Try as he might, Christian cannot learn anything further. Cesar is very paranoid, enough to color everything he does and hide the truth of the matter. He does notice that Cesar’s arms have track marks.
Christian: Are you using drugs to keep yourself awake artificially?
Cesar: Yeah. I get some sleep. I nap. I learned it in the War. It’s not that hard.
Christian: You were in the War?
Cesar: Just for a year. When I was just a kid.
Christian: Which side?
Cesar: Oh?
Christian: There were two.
Cesar: For the Alliance.
Christian: Of course. Very well. Out of curiosity, who is backing the Doctor’s research?
Cesar: Officially?
Christian: Her funders.
Cesar: A chemical pharmaceutical company affiliated with Blue Sun.
Christian: I see. Thank you.
Christian goes back upstairs to the lounge to find Nika. Rina’s finally made a showing and is wrapping herself around a hefty breakfast before starting her shift. Nika is sitting with the girls and Christian asks her to go up to the bridge with him, please, he’d like to sketch her at the console for his next painting. Once he has Nika on the bridge and out of earshot of the others, he tells her what he’s found out.
Christian: He is completely and utterly insane.
Nika: As if that’s news.
Christian: He’s keeping himself awake through drugs.
Nika: How long?
Christian: He says he naps. But you know how soldiers get sleep when they can?
Nika: Combat naps.
Christian: That’s what he’s doing. When he’s not hyped up on drugs.
Nika: That only works for…
She pauses as she figures out the details.
Christian: I realize that it works only for so long.
Nika: Three, maybe four days.
Christian tells her that Cesar believes that they—meaning the apes—have arranged this trip, that they want to be free and are manipulating people to do it. That essentially the apes are controlling the Doctor and that if we manage to read her databook, we will find corroborating evidence to that fact. Christian’s not willing to discount Cesar’s story entirely, however.
Christian: I am not going to say that he’s right. On the other hand, at this point in time, we’ve seen what drugs can do to people and he says that funding for the project comes from a Blue Sun pharmaceutical company.
Nika: You know that Blue Sun has 150 drug companies. At least.
Christian: I realize that. I’m just saying that sometimes coincidences aren’t coincidences. the other thing is—
Nika: Okay, I don’t know whose karma this is, but I’m getting sick and tired of it. All right, look—how long has he been awake.
Christian: Oh, I’m going to say he’s been awake since before he boarded the ship.
Four days.
Jesus.
Nika: Oh. my. God. Sleep deprivation….Do you know what that’ll—?
Christian: I know. Especially when it’s chemically-induced sleep deprivation. And whatever it was that you’d found, that was his contingency plan for destroying them. He’s a danger, either way. I have the feeling he would gladly take us all out if he thinks he’s saving the human race from them.
Nika: Buh-rilliant.
Christian: At the same time, while it’s very unlikely, I get the feeling that there’s a small one-percent chance that he may be right. And that’s scary, too.
Nika: So do you think that the apes have taken over Dr. Taylor and are dictating her every movement? That seems just a hair far-fetched.
Christian: Sort of like an entire planet of people to just lay down and die?
Nika: Okay, hang on. Simian telepathy is getting way too far ahead of what I think is beyond the realm of rationality.
Christian: Probably. But I wouldn’t mind taking a look at the Doctor’s databook, though.
Nika: All right. I’ll leave you to go do that and when you tell Arden what’s going on, please make sure that Dr. Taylor is nowhere in the room.
Christian: Yes, and I’m willing to say we should confine Cesar to his quarters.
Nika: And for God’s sake, I don’t think we should tell Rina at all. It’ll just feed her…concerns. You know how worried she gets.
Christian: That’s why I’m talking to you and not to her.
Nika: Well, I can’t say she’s entirely wrong. He is a threat.
Christian: Yes. Which is the reason I want to confine him to his quarters.
Nika: Talk to Arden about confining him in sick bay and doping him up and making him sleep.
Course of action decided, we approach Arden and Dr. Taylor about Cesar. Taylor brings up a good point: what should we do if it turns out that Cesar has developed a narcotic habit? Arden replies we’d have to find his stash, put him in a safe place where he can be controlled, and then find the proper medical rehab for him once we arrive on Lassek. Taylor then wonders if her rush to get everything aboard the ship had separated Cesar from his stash, leading to his paranoia, causing him to create the poison-gas plan as he suffers from withdrawal symptoms.
Arden thinks it’s doubtful, since Cesar had to gather the correct chemicals and portion them out in the correct proportion to each other to make the gas work. Not exactly the sort of thing a man reeling from withdrawal would be capable of doing. That sort of thing would have to be something Cesar gathered together before he left Persephone. Taylor counters that the types of chemicals found are commonly used and she wouldn’t be surprised if she’d packed them aboard with her equipment as a matter of course.
Taylor: This is a frightening development and I think that he should be watched. He’s probably dangerous. I don’t know if you have a brig on this ship?
No. But we can confine him to his quarters.
Christian asks how long Cesar has been Taylor’s research assistant. He was attached to the lab for about nine months, and decided to join Taylor’s mission a few weeks ago. since then he’d been familiarizing himself with her apes. So Cesar wasn’t her research assistant, per se, being from a different department—a language lab, if she recalled correctly. However, Taylor was instructed to bring him along by her superiors and so she complied. Since the apes have demonstrated an amazing facility with languages, it seemed reasonable to have Cesar along, in case anything cropped up in the way of a computer language/translation emergency.
A brief conversation follows as to the extent the apes actually understand language as we know it. Certainly they have learned to use symbols for speech and understand the concept of substitution of abstract for real objects and actions. But while there is still room for debate as to how much the apes understand human speech and abstract concepts, it is irrefutable that the drugs they’ve been given have raised their intelligence and increased their learning capacity. As for the effect that some other drugs have imparted on her assistant…
Taylor: When I first saw the chemicals you found I thought they might be drugs because I’d been suspecting him of a drug problem for a while. He exhibits the symptoms of someone on drugs: paranoia, he comes in baggy-eyed, he says he hasn’t slept for…for…and other behaviors that are suggestive.
Arden: Do you want me to talk to him?
Taylor: I think an intervention may not be necessary. Maybe we could just lock him in his quarters.
Problematic, since the doors to quarters don’t lock from the outside. Arden offers to check Cesar over, to see if he can at least ascertain the man’s general health and run a drug test on him. That is something everyone agrees on and Arden asks Taylor to bring Cesar over. After all, she is his superior and is known to him—unlike ourselves, strangers all. Christian also suggests that she take along Rina or Nika, so as to have someone experienced in combat along just in case Cesar puts up a fight. Actually, if Taylor goes now, she can find one of them on the bridge. When Taylor takes him up on his suggestion and leaves Arden tells Christian of the incident in the container with Ursus and the monitor’s message. Perhaps Cesar wasn’t completely off his rocker with his assertion that the apes are capable of doing more than we think. Christian replies that Cesar is convinced that the apes are controlling Taylor through telepathic manipulation. Arden counters it could be the sleep deprivation talking. Christian agrees that there is something off about the entire situation.
Taylor finds Nika on the bridge and tells her that Arden and she have decided that Cesar has become unstable, has been gathering materials to make poison gas, and apologizes for the trouble he’s caused. Nika waves the apology off, stating that no one controls another’s behavior. Taylor tells Nika of the plan to confine Cesar but is not sure where we can put him since the quarters do not lock from the outside. Nika takes Taylor with her and goes looking for Arden. When she finds him, she asks where he wants to put Cesar. Arden comes up with a plan: get Cesar in the med bay for a physical, dope him up and have him spend the rest of the trip to Lassek unconscious. The matter of where to confine him is no longer important—if he’s asleep, he can’t make trouble.
So that’s what we do.
We send Taylor to the container to be with the apes, getting her out of the way of anything dangerous while we subdue Cesar. Christian decides to follow Taylor, just in case. Mike and the girls are still lingering over the remains of breakfast and Nika finds them at the table. She tells the girls to return to their stateroom for their own safety, explaining that there might be a little bit of unpleasantness, and Emma overrides Hilde’s curiosity, getting them both back to their quarters. Nika looks around for Cesar and doesn’t have to look far. The man is only a few steps away in the forward lounge with the others, halfway through his breakfast, eating off to the side. Nika motions Rina and Mike to follow her into the galley and once inside, she checks to see if they’re being overheard before telling them she could use the extra set of hands to get Cesar to Arden to be examined. And she’s not sure if Cesar will go willingly. Mike picks up a frying pan and a knife, hefting the two as he debates which one to use, and Rina checks her pockets. Obviously, they’re full aboard with this plan.
Christian catches up with Taylor in the ape’s container and encounters a somewhat strange tableau as he crosses the threshold. Taylor has her forehead against Zira’s and the woman is babbling, speaking in tongues.
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