Escape from the Planet of the Apes - Pournelle Jerry (книги онлайн бесплатно .TXT) 📗

“The equipment is lovely,” she muttered. “Really beautiful equipment. We never had such good equipment.”

“I see. And you had assistants?”

“Three. Three assistants, all chimpanzees. And one orangutan worked with us, sometimes . . .”

“And what did you do in your laboratory?”

“Comparative studies.”

“Comparative studies of what?” Amalfi asked.

“Comparative ana—ana . . .”

“Comparative anatomy?”

“Yes,” the sleepy voice answered.

Hasslein looked at Lewis with both triumph and sadness in his eyes. “You knew?” he asked softly.

Lewis didn’t answer.

“Traitor,” Hasslein said coldly. “Continue, Amalfi.”

“What anatomies did you compare?”

The chimpanzee rocked gently on the table. There was no answer. Finally Amalfi said, “Human and ape anatomy? Is that it?”

“Mmm.”

“Do you mean yes? Say yes if you mean yes. Did you compare human and ape anatomies?”

“Yes.”

“So you dissected other apes? All species of apes?”

“Yes.”

“Where did you get them?”

“Dead apes. From hospitals, and morgues.”

“But to do comparative studies, you had to dissect humans as well, didn’t you?”

“Yes. As they were—as they were made available.”

“I see. How were they made available, Zira?”

“The gorillas hunted them. For sport. They used nets, and guns, and traps. Sometimes they caught them alive, and kept them in cages . . .”

“And what did they do with the humans they kept in cages, Zira?” Amalfi asked. His voice was carefully controlled, calm and friendly, but he looked away with hatred and disgust.

“The army used them for target practice, some of them. We had our pick of the others, for scientific experiments. Some were very good specimens.”

“I see.” Amalfi’s voice came alive, matching Zira’s enthusiasm. “And you could make so many scientific discoveries that way. You dissected and removed and compared—”

“Bones, muscles, tendons, veins, arteries, kidneys, livers, hearts, stomachs, reproductive organs. Everything. We did very careful work. We mapped the nervous systems, and reflexes—”

“Reflexes,” Hasslein hissed. He looked at Dixon, then at Amalfi. “What does she mean, reflexes?”

“Reflexes?” Amalfi said. “But dead humans don’t have reflexes.”

“Of course not,” Zira protested. “I told you we did good work. We used living specimens. You can’t make a dead man’s knee jump, or test a corpse’s reactions to a prefrontal lobotomy.”

“Then you were very advanced,” Amalfi said. “So much so that you were able to do experimental brain surgery on living humans?”

“Yes.”

“How many survived?”

“Quite a few. Of course we lost a lot of them, too, but that was only to be expected,” Zira said. “But my main project is to stimulate the atrophied speech centers of the humans.”

“Have you had any success?”

“Not yet,” Zira said. “I mean, not now—not anymore? Where am I?”

“She’s coming around,” Hasslein said. “Another injection, Dr. Dixon.”

“I think not,” Lewis said. When Hasslein started to protest, Lewis said, “If you kill this intelligent, speaking chimpanzee, you’ll answer for it to the president. I won’t take the responsibility, and I doubt you’ll find another doctor who will.”

“What about Colonel Taylor?” Amalfi asked. “Did you stimulate his speech centers?”

“Of course not,” Zira snapped. “He could talk already.”

There was a sharp sound from Hasslein as he drew in a deep breath. He nodded to Amalfi, then looked at Lewis again, the same look of sadness and triumph mingled.

“There were three men in Colonel Taylor’s ship,” Amalfi said.

“Yes,” Zira answered. “There was one who—somehow—died.”

“Died?”

“Yes. Before we found that he could talk. The gorillas killed him. He had a unique skin, something we’d never seen before, until we came here. We had him stuffed and put in the museum—like the gorilla I saw in your museum.”

“What do you mean, this human had a unique skin?”

“It was black,” Zira said. “Coal black. He dominated the room in the Museum of Natural History.”

“Lieutenant Dodge,” Hasslein whispered. “What happened to Taylor?”

“Did you dissect Colonel Taylor?” Amalfi asked.

“No! We loved Colonel Taylor.”

“All of you? All apes?”

“Many of us,” she said. “We did everything we could to help him. Cornelius and I—”

She struggled against the restraining straps on the table. Dixon quickly stepped over and looked at her. “That’s all,” he said. “And no, Dr. Hasslein, I won’t give her another injection.”

“Cornelius!” Zira called. She opened her eyes and looked wildly around, but she could see only Lewis Dixon.

“It’s all right,” Lewis said. “Go to sleep now.” He turned to Hasslein. “She’ll need a nap.”

“Very well.” Hasslein opened the door to admit a white-coated young Marine. “Orderly, take this chimpanzee to its quarters, and see that Dr. Dixon gets anything he needs for treating it.”

“Yes, sir.” Tommy Billings, age nineteen, went over to the operating table. “Hey, she’s really out, isn’t she? Come on, girl, it’s all right now. Let’s get you back to your room.” He looked up at Hasslein and Dixon. “You didn’t hurt her, did you? You got no cause to hurt her. She never did anything—”

“Just return that chimpanzee to its room, Orderly,” said Hasslein.

“Yes, sir.” As he wheeled the rolling table out, he spoke gently to the sleeping form. “Come on, nobody’s going to hurt you now. Tommy’ll take care of you. I like monkeys. We had three pet monkeys and a chimp in the little zoo next to my high school. I took care of ’em sometimes. You just come on . . .” They left the room.

“I think we have heard enough,” Hasslein said.

“Heard enough for what?” Lewis Dixon demanded.

“Come now, Dr. Dixon. Even you see the danger from these apes. But if you don’t, yet, I’m sure you will when I’ve finished my presentation to the Commission. You’ll understand then.”

SEVENTEEN

Victor Hasslein’s voice was low and urgent as he spoke to the commissioners. “I think,” he said, “that I have adequately demonstrated my points; allow me to sum up.” He looked across at the dozen men and women seated at the big mahogany table in the Federal Building. He had them all, he was sure; all, that is, except Dixon. And possibly Cardinal MacPherson. The rest would agree.

“First,” Hasslein said, “I have demonstrated that these apes can interbreed with primitive apes, and produce a talking species; and without that admixture, it is unlikely that apes will learn to talk within the next thousand years at least.”

There were murmurs of agreement from the commissioners. “Second,” Hasslein continued, “I have demonstrated that the development of talking apes would be an unprecedented and unparalleled catastrophe. In the future to which these apes belong, not only did the apes revolt against man, but after that revolt, it seems clear to me, the apes hunted down all the men who could speak or act rationally; they systematically destroyed every last trace of human culture. This was the reward they meted out to us for having given them the power of speech!”

“Surely, Dr. Hasslein, that has not been established beyond doubt,” Cardinal MacPherson said.

“Perhaps not, Your Eminence,” Hasslein replied. “But we do know that the apes revolted against men; and within a few centuries, men could no longer speak. It is a reasonable supposition.”

“I see,” the Cardinal said. He nodded slowly.

“Thirdly, I submit to you that this female chimpanzee has been guilty of the most unspeakable tortures of humans; and that although she personally did not kill Colonel Taylor, her people did, along with Lieutenant Dodge—whom they exhibited, stuffed, in a museum.” Hasslein looked straight into Congressman Boyd’s eyes as he said this; and was rewarded with a look of pure hatred. Boyd was ready to vote for anything.