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A very ambitious, cocky, and overly proud chimpanzee, Julius hadn't become the top news-ape for the Simian Broadcasting Company by ignoring stories when they came his way. But that's just what he'd done when he first ran across the rumors of a blue-eyed humanoid that could talk. Ignored the rumors---because he was asked to ignore them by several very high officials in the government, including one member of the Supreme Council. And now he was cussing himself over and over again for being such a damn fool.
Not that he had helped to cover up the story of Blue-Eyes out of any sense of patriotism. he had really, been skeptical of the story from the start; but now, he heard again and again as he hurried down the crowded street toward the Ape Senate Building. "Extra! Extra! Read all about it!"
A newschimp was standing on the corner with a bundle of papers under his arm, yelling in a squeaky voice, "Unidentified Flying Object lands in Forbidden Zone!" The boy went on. "Extra! Extra! Flying saucers invade Land of the Apes!"
Julius slowed his steps for a moment, just long enough to scan the headline across the top of a second pile of papers laying at the newschimp's feet. INTELLIGENT MEN INVADE THE LAND OF THE APES?? the headline screamed in 3-inch-high letters.
Shaking his head, and with his shiny black lips clamped tight together in anger, Julius hurried on. But at every corner was another reminder of the story---another news vendor. Even a radio blared at Julius from a storefront as he hurried down the crowded sidewalk, pushing his ways through knots of excited apes.
"....Latest reports from our ape in the Senate Building," the voice of Julius's chief newscaster rival, Walter Apekite, said, "indicate that intelligent humanoids were on board the UFO spotted in the Forbidden Zone. Such speculations seem right out of an episode of TV's Star Chimps. But it has been learned that the Supreme Council has called the Senate into an emergency session, giving a certain degree of credibility to the fantastic stories that have been circulating around all morning. Stay tuned to this network for further bulletins."
"You silly humanoid-brain!" Julius mumbled to himself. "I doubt there's an ape in town who doesn't already know the Senate is in emergency session."
An elderly gorilla looked sharply at Julius, as if asking who he was talking to, and the egotistical news-ape's feet, which had slowed as he listened to the radio report, speeded up again just as a commercial for Dr. Adrian's Flea-B-Gone began squawking over the speaker.
Minutes later, Julius was fighting his way through the crowd in front of the Ape Senate Building. It was a crowd to be made up primarily of chimpanzees and gorillas of the higher types in evidence, although Julius spotted two orangutans who had probably wandered over from Embassy Row to see what was going on.
Up in front of the crowd, on the lower steps of the Senates, a short orangutan with long and shaggy hair and wearing beads, was waving his arms, leading the crowd in a chant.
"Truth, NOW! Truth, NOW! Truth, NOW!" they repeated over and over, more and more apes joining in until it became much more than just a chant---it was a thunder of sound breaking against the front of the columned marble building.
Julius pushed through the packed crowd, trying to suppress his disgust at having to come in physical contact with other chimpanzees and---especially---gorillas! Then, he ducked around the side of the wide marble steps to the small door that'd been set aside for the coming and going of the newsapes assigned to the political beat.
Just inside the door a glowering gorilla in army livery, with the black harness of General Urko's elite guard, checked his credentials, then passed him through with a scowl. This told Julius quite a bit about how seriously the government was taking the rumors of intelligent humanoids. Standing back against the wall, looking confused and almost pathetic, was the grizzled old chimpanzee, a retired Senate page, who normally guarded the door and checked the news-apes in and out.
After having his identification papers checked twice more by army gorillas, Julius slipped into his seat in the press gallery, high above the Senate floor. Noting the sharp tang of fear in the hall, Juluis quickly slipped on the earphones that picked up the speeches from the floor.
A young orangutan Senator was on his feet, his lo ng golden finger covered with coarse tan fur pointed at the platform where the Supreme Council sat. Dr. Zaius was seated in the center, listening with impatience as the politician ranted at the council, his words actually intended for the rabble outside, who were listening, too, over the loudspeakers that had been set up hours before. It had long since become apparent that the spectator galleries would not hold all the crowd demanding to be present for this extraordinary Senate session.
".....And furthermore," the young Senator was shouting, "if these terrible rumors prove to be true, if intelligent humanoids have invaded our fair land, what is to stop them from actually educating our native humanoids? What is to stop them from teaching the humanoids to think? What is to stop them from giving the humanoids weapons---weapons to destroy us? What is to stop them from...."
"There is no such thing as an intelligent humanoid---or a flying saucer, for that matter!" Dr. Zaius shouted from the platform, pounding his gavel. "The very term 'intelligent humanoid' is a contradiction. Because it is unthinkable. To even entertain such a thought is....is....blasphemy!"
"It is not blasphemy!' the orangutan Senator yelled back. "It is not unthinkable. It is a very possible threat to every ape in the land. If these intelligent humanoids have arrived, and they teach the normal humanoids to think, do you realize what will happen? They'll revolt! They'll fight! It will mean an all-out war between us and the humanoids---and you know what the Books of Laws says about fighting the beast: we must protect our families, our loved ones, our nation, from the deadly and ever-possible Humanoid Threat, the Book says. The humanoids must therefore die!"
The Senate chamber exploded into arguing voices as ape after ape---orangutan, chimpanzee, and gorilla Senators---got to his feet, arguing with the ape next to him or trying to get the attention of the council. All the Senators were trying to gain the floor to speak for or against the humanoids. On the platform, Zaius pounded his gavel until the woo of the handle began to split and splinter. But without effect.
Long minutes passed as ape shouted at ape. Then, slowly, order returned to the senate chamber. When it was again quiet, Dr. Zaius passed over the frantic signaling of some 50 Senators urgently, demanding attention, and pointed his damaged gavel at his chief rival for political power, commanding general of the ape armies Urko.
"Members of the Supreme Council," said General Urko in a gravelly voice, nodding to the Elders on the platform above him, "honored Senators...I am not a scientist, I am a military ape. I have devoted my life to the protection of our beloved nation. I cannot say whether intelligent humanoids might, or might not, exist. That's for the scientists to determine. What I can say, though, is that we cannot afford to take the chance that they might exist! We cannot allow the situation to develop while we look for proof. We must go and look for ourselves, and this time we must enter the Forbidden Zone in full force. We must find these invaders of our land----and then destroy them!!"
Dr. Zaius leaned forward to look down at the burly gorilla general beneath him. "But what if this expedition simply cannot find them? What then? What if we cannot prove, one way or the other, the existence of intelligent humanoids who have arrived in our land?"
"Then we must leave nothing to chance," Urko said in a deadly voice. "We must totally annihilate all humanoids in the Land of the Apes! Destroy them before they can destroy us! We must make sure they never have a chance to become intelligent---they must never have time to become a danger to apekind. We must cleanse our fatherland once and for all!"
Outside, the crowd, which had been listening to the long debate over the loudspeakers, took up a new chant, again led by the shaggy-haired orangutan. "Destroy them! Destroy them! Destroy them!"
The chant, screamed by thousands of simian throats, became so loud and forceful that it could easily be heard on the floor of the Senate Chamber. Several Senators looked around toward the massive doors, fear of the mob outside plain on their faces. Fear, also, of the chance that intelligent humanoids might indeed exist.
"Do you hear that, Senators?" Urko yelled. "That is the voice of the people! Heed it! Give me official authority to destroy the humanoids utterly---or face the people. The people will not tolerate this threat to their very lives while politicians and scientists dither and squabble. Give me the power, or....."
"You overstep yourself, general," Dr. Zaius thundered, his amplified voice rolling over the chamber and drowning out even the sound of the mob outside. "I declare this debate suspended. The Supreme Council will meet immediately, and the decision on what is to be done about the humanoids will be made. Until we reach a decision, no action of any kind is to be taken without our blessing!"
The general looked up at Dr. Zaius, and something very close to open hatred flashed in his eyes. He knew, however, that he did not have the backing he needed to openly defy Zaius. At least not yet. He nodded his head reluctantly that he understood, then turned and strode out of the hall, members of his personal guard falling in around him in a deliberate show of power to the civilian apes in the chamber.
Upstairs, in the press box, grinning and self-assured Julius was speaking in the slow, "cultured" tone that had made him so famous into the microphone on the table before him. His words were going out to radio sets throughout the Simian Nation, shaping opinion and molding loyalties. No Elder or Senator would have admitted that the newsape Julius had enough influence to affect their policies. But Julius knew better.
"....The Senate," he was saying, "seems quite unable to act together in this crisis. This leads us once more to the question of whether giving policy-making power to elected representatives is a wise thing. For generations, apekind got along well with the government of the Supreme Council, who are guided by the Books of Law. This 'Humanoid Problem' appears to have proven, once and for all, that our forefathers knew what they were doing when they created the Supreme Council, and that we are ill-advised to continue with this new form of government called 'democracy.' After all, as the great Elder Maximus said, 'There is absolutely no evidence that one hundred stupid apes are smarter than six intelligent ones.'
"Whatever our form of government will ultimately be, however," Julius continued, "it's apparent that it's in for some serious trouble. Outside I can hear now, the crowd demonstrators besieging the Senate demanding to know if there's any truth to the rumor that intelligent humanoids from Outer Space have invaded our fair land. More and more members of our people are calling on Dr. Zaius, and the other members of the Supreme Council, in the name of the Holy Lawgiver, to either confirm or deny this rumor. We must know the truth, so that Ape City, if need be, can prepare for the inevitable---war with the humanoids!
"In this newsape's opinion, dark days lie ahead....This is Julius, for the Simian Broadcasting Company, bidding you a goodnight. And, I hope, a safe one!"
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The Council Chamber, across the square from the Senate, was where the true power of the Simian Nation was wielded, and where troublemakers such as Julius were never invited, despite their insistence. Dr. Zaius now sat there, behind a gargantuan desk of polished stone, facing a decidedly hostile General Urko.
"Do you really know what's going on out in the square, general?" he asked. "Do you know what kind of evil you're unleashing, with your demands for total warfare against the humanoids? What's more, we have enough to do with our constant warfare against the Underfolk!"
"I'm merely stating the case for the common people of our nation---the people you have become too remote from, Zaius."
"And glad I am to be remote now," Zaius stated with a sigh. "We've got near-panic in the streets, and riots are sure to follow. And all because one of your soldiers saw something in the sky over the Forbidden Zone, then went mad and lost himself in the brush country at the border of the Zone and only got back to Ape City---hallucinating, I believe---yesterday!"
"My soldiers do not have hallucinations," Urko said angrily. "If he said he saw some sort of flying machine, then that is what he saw!"
"What he saw was something put into his mind by whatever powers of darkness rule the Forbidden Zone!"
"How can you be so sure?" Urko demanded, rising and resting his massive fists on the edge of Dr. Zaius's desk.
"That's what's troubling me," Dr. Zaius said with exasperation. "All Apedom knows that a certain blond-haired, blue-eyed humanoid who speaks escaped from the Behavioral Studies Laboratory of Cornelius and Zira. But every fiber of my being, every bit of my training and knowledge, says that your soldier's story must be nonsense. Where the blonde humanoid learned to speak, I don't know. But he---and he appears to have companions, among them, you said, a dark-skinned one---can't have come from Outer Space. Such an idea is an old wives' tale; it just can't happen! Come with me, general," Zaius said, rising from behind his desk.
He opened a door in the back wall of the Council Chamber and led the massive gorilla down a short corridor. Inset in the wall at the end of the corridor was a glass window, and when Urko looked through the window he saw one of his soldiers strapped to a hospital bed, guarded by two chimpanzees in white coats.
"Tell me, General Urko, does this man look like a rational ape?"
Zaius twisted a knob just below the window, and through a speaker grille came the giggling and laughter Urko had heard once before, when the soldier had first returned from the edge of the Forbidden Zone.
"....They came flyin' outta the sky—WOOOSH—like fire-demons in a red nut with a cherry on top! Crashed right by the riverbank, BOOM, mud flyin’ everywhere! And then they came out... dressin' like us... walkin' on two legs... talkin’ like they knew things—'cept their mouths didn’t snarl right, their words were all twisty... but I heard ‘em... I heard ‘em!" He jerked against the restraints, eyes wild. "They weren’t apes, but they talked like apes! Dressed like apes! OOK-OOK-OOK!" He began laughing manically, the eerie bark of a gorilla losing himself completely. "OOK-OOK-OOK! The sky humanoids are here! The sky humanoids are HERE!" Then, in a sudden transformation, the idiot-like expression on the soldier's face changed to one of fear and panic. "Please, don't make me go back to the Forbidden Zone. Please, general, don't make me go back!"
Zaius looked sharply at the gorilla commander. Then he gazed back at the demented soldier, who once again was laughing and giggling. Zaius turned the speaker volume back to zero, then turned and walked back down the hallway to the Council Chamber. After a moment's hesitation, and a last look at the soldier, the general followed.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSVOqwrZJk0
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Two hours afterward, Julius and ten other newsapes assigned to the Senate were called away from the pleasant bar where they had been enjoying fermented mango cocktails. They filed back up into the press gallery of the Senate Building, picked up earphones and notepads, and sat down to watch as the members of the Supreme Council filed back into the hall, taking their places on the raised platform surrounded by the flag and insignia of the Simian Nation.
A buzz of surprise rose from the floor as the last two figures came in---Zaius in his apricot-colored robe and Urko in his dark green tunic and leggings and black-leather "bib." Both moved up to the platform. Never before in history had a military man been allowed to share the platform with the members of the Supreme Council. While the others whispered, Julius was thinking anxiously about his next broadcast, and how he would get across to his audience the fats of the shift of power without offending the Elders of the Supreme Council.
Dr. Zaius waited for a few moments for quiet, standing next to the dark, hulking form of the general; then he picked up the microphone.
"Members of the Senate," he said in a soft, almost apologetic voice, "we have reached a decision." He looked around, surveying the faces staring up at him. A deathly silence filled the room. "It is the decision of the Supreme Council that an expedition be sent into the Forbidden Zone to determine the truth---or falsity---of the flying machine rumors which have been circulating through this city for the past two days. The expedition will be led by General Urko and myself---in joint command."
An instant buzz of voices was heard at this announcement, and one grizzle chimpanzee, a member of the Senate for over two decades, motioned for permission to speak.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1iNbNOLTdn
Dr. Zaius nodded his head, and the Senator climbed slowly to his feet.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjWZMXiVmJQ
"Dr. Zaius...." he said in a slow voice, "exactly what do you mean when you say there will be a 'joint command'? Who will actually be in charge of the expedition? You, or General Urko?"25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrJgnAS2fKW
"In all matters pertaining to the investigation," answered Zaius, "I will be in complete command. This is to be a civilian mission, under civilian control. In such an emergency as this, we must overlook the Books of Law, which state that only military expeditions may enter the Zone. However, should a direct threat to our expedition, or its aims, arise, General Urko will assume command."25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVGsecz0SY2
"And who will decide what might, or might not, be a 'direct threat'?"25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZX7Geysvz7
"I shall," the chief Elder said flatly.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCEQHCyLdAb
"Have you General Urko's assurance of that?" the Senator asked, bringing a scowl to the general's face.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxpEHSDHx8V
"We will be taking with us several Senators---whoever wishes to go---as well as members of the news media."25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE3rep8n61j
"Do you wish to come along, Senator?" General Urko asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxQcAevF9f3
"I'm afraid my age might make such a trip my last one, general, or I would be most interest in joining you and Dr. Zaius."25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvVuSVffdIc
A junior Senator rose and broke in. "Won't an expedition into the Forbidden Zone be dangerous to all who accompany you?"25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMGN8QWLMer
"I'll let the general answer that," Zaius said with a smile. "Danger is his business."25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm012Y82PqY
Urko shot a quick glance at Dr. Zaius, then turned to face the questioner. "The expedition will be protected by my troops. If we find any trace of a flying machine, or any more talking humanoids, I promise that by the time I am finished with them they will no longer be any possible threat to the Land of the Apes!"25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhVwszwLotd
