Successor to the Planet of the Apes
Chapter2-The human without a voice
General Kirov tied his horse up outside Alexander's house. He could see a candle burning through the window, which ment that Alexander was home. The gorilla began the climb to the entrance, knowing full well that Alexander would probably not be very happy about someone just barging in on him like this. There was always the possibility Alexander would have him arrested for trespassing, but since the army doubled as the cities police force the soldiers sent to do the job would be to afraid to take their own general into custody.
Kirov now stood on the small balcony of Alexander's house. He tried to open the door but found it to be locked. He knocked as loudly as he could but still no answer. "Damn it where the hell is he? Alexander?" Still there was no answer. "What the hell is going on here?" Kirov said quietly to himself. "Alexander should have answered the door by now. Maybe he isn't home after all."
A voice from below asked, "What is going on up there, General? Isn't Alexander home?"
Kirov looked down to see Virgil standing near his horse. "Apparently not. If he is he isn't answering the door. What are you doing here, anyway?"
"I was just about to ask you the same question, Kirov. To answer your question I'm here to speak to Alexander about something."
"What a coincidence." The general smirked. "So am I." Kirov climbed down and mounted his horse. "I'm going to check Alexander's mother's house." He announced simply.
"I'm coming with you." There was no way in hell Virgil was going to let Kirov shoot Alexander.
"You don't have a horse. Besides, I want to talk to Alexander alone. Well, actually I want to set up an appointment to talk with him." Kirov pointed his horse in the direction of Lisa's house.
"Well. In that case you shouldn't mind my coming along. I want to speak with him alone as well. Then I want to go home and finish up some writing I'm working on. So if you would stop stalling General, we could get going." Virgil now stood alongside Kirov's horse, making sure that he could see the pocket with the gun in it.
The two headed off without speaking to each other. Lisa's house wasn't more than a half-mile away so the trip wasn't a long one. As Kirov had thought Alexander was at his mother's house; the two were sitting in Lisa's living room talking about the counsel meeting coming up the next week. Lisa was the first to hear Kirov and Virgil climbing up to the entrance to her house. "We've got visitors." She told Alexander. "It's Virgil and Kirov. I wonder what they want."
Alexander stood up and joined his mother at the window. "I don't know." Alexander found it odd that Virgil and the general had come all this way together since the two didn't get along at all. He forced himself to put his growing suspicions aside as Lisa let the two visitors into her home.
"Alexander, Lisa, good to see you both." Said Virgil as he walked in. Kirov followed silently. Finally said, "We have to talk, Alexander. I don't have the time tonight but I was thinking that we could set up a time in the near future. There are some issues I want to discuss with you."
Alexander nodded. "Fine. But why just discuss these issues of yours with me? Why not bring these issues up before the counsel next week?"
Kirov smirked. Why had he not thought of that? He would get every ape on the counsel on his side and the counsel would force Alexander to change the law. And if for some reason that didn't work he could always go back to his original plan. "I'll do that. Am I assured time to speak at the next counsel meeting then?"
"If you want time you can have it. McDonald has something he wants to bring to the counsel's attention but when he is finished you can have all the time you need."
Kirov nodded. "Excellent. Well then, I'll be off. Good night sir."
Good night, General.
Kirov mounted his horse and rode back towards the armory. He had to tell Cornel Kalinin about this change of plans. Meanwhile Virgil had not yet left Lisa's house. "Keep an eye on him." He advised Alexander. "I don't know what he wants to say to the counsel but I do know that it probably isn't anything good. And besides, I saw a gun in his pocket as he was riding by my house earlier tonight. He is dangerous, Sir. Watch your step."
"A gun?" Alexander and Lisa said in almost perfect unison. "Are you sure?" Alexander asked.
"Fairly sure, yes."
Lisa stared out the window, looking down at where the general's horse had been tied up. "Maybe he is planning on trying to kill you, just like Aldo killed your brother Cornelius." She said in a tone of voice that was both angry and sad at the same time. The room was quiet for some time after that until Virgil spoke. "I don't know what he is planning but we can't take any chances. My son Jacob is good friends with a major named Sergei. Maybe the major can go digging around and get us some information about exactly what Kirov is planning."
Alexander took a few seconds to respond. "Excellent. Normally I wouldn't allow that kind of thin but this is a special case. See if your son can set that up with the major. I doubt Kirov will try anything before next weeks counsel meeting but with him you can never be sure."
"Yes, Sir. It shouldn't be too difficult to do. I'll go talk to Jacob now." Virgil walked to the door and before he left he said, "Alexander, I suggest that you spend the night here, for your own safety."
"Now, I'm going home. Like I said, Kirov won't do anything before the next counsel meeting. I'm safe for now, I hope."
"Yes, Sir. Just be careful." Virgil left. Alexander said goodnight to his mother and left fifteen minuets later.
The next counsel meeting was scheduled for the Monday of the following week. Kirov made sure he was on time as he was not about to give up his speaking time. He knew exactly what he was going to say. He had his entire speech written down on a piece of parchment, which he now had folded up in his pocket.
Once the entire counsel had gathered Alexander called the meeting to order. "Thank you all for coming. We have a full schedule for this weeks meeting so lets get started. First, I believe Mr. McDonald has something he wants to bring to the counsel's attention. Go ahead, Mr. McDonald."
McDonald stood up, cleared his throat, and began to speak. "Thank you, Alexander. I do indeed have something I want to bring to the counsel's attention." In a louder voice he called, "Bring him in."
The doors opened and two humans entered leading a human child by the hand. The child was a male that looked to be about three to five years old. He had light brown hair and seemed nervous in the face of all these strangers. The two adults brought the child to stand by McDonald and went to wait outside.
"This is Peter." McDonald announced. "Say hello to the counsel, Peter."
The human child tentatively raised his hand and waved to the counsel.
"Tell the counsel how old you are, Peter."
Peter lifted his hand, showing the counsel four fingers.
"That's right. Your four years old. Very good, Peter." McDonald again addressed the counsel. "Most if not all of you are probably wondering what the point of all this is. Well, let me begin by saying that little Peter here is no ordinary child. Now all of you know that most normal human children are capable of some speech by age two and that by age four are fully capable of speech. Well, Peter here is completely mute. He is not capable of speech."
A low murmur ran through the counsel. "What is wrong with him? What do the doctors say?" Another human asked.
"The doctors have no idea what the problem is. Some say that the problem lies somewhere in his brain but we simply don't have the technology to confirm that. Besides, Peter has just been enrolled in school and is reported to be doing quite well. He is able to everything a normal four year old should be able to do. The only problem is that he can't speak. I have recently found that Peter is not unique. There is another four year old and two three year olds, all of them human, with the same problem as Peter. As in Peter's case, the doctors can't figure out what is wrong with any of them."
Kirov laughed quietly to himself. This was just to perfect. The humans were gradually becoming animals. First the ability to speak would go, then the ability to think and reason. Soon the humans would be no more intelligent then his horse. They would be animals, and what self respecting ape would want to call an animal his equal?
Virgil stood up at this point and addressed counsel. "Mr. McDonald, if the boy's parents have no objections I would like to study this child myself. I know the doctors couldn't offer anything in the way of a diagnosis but just for my own scientific purposes I would very much like the chance to examine the boy myself. I'm not saying that I could come any closer to solving this mystery then the doctors did but I would appreciate the chance to conduct my own investigation into this matter."
McDonald nodded approvingly. "As it so happens Mr. Virgil, that is exactly why I have brought this matter to the counsel's attention. I was hoping that a committee could be formed to look into the cases of these mute human children and hopefully offer up some answers. I know that Peter's parents do not object and I'm sure that the parents of the other children would be more than willing to let their children participate."
Virgil nodded, thanked McDonald and took his seat. Another human asked, "Have these children been through any kind of speech therapy? What exactly has been done to help them to speak?"
They have been through every kind of therapy and treatment imaginable. One doctor has even suggested performing surgery on their thoughts to see if the problem lies in their vocal chords but none of their parents would allow it. This isn't the Forbidden City after all, and we simply don't have the tools and equipment to perform that kind of surgery safely. We don't even have any kind of anesthetic so the surgery would be horribly painful for them to say the least. As for speech therapy, Peter here has been doing a special regiment of speech therapies designed especially for him by the doctors every day for nearly a year. These include things like making basic letter sounds and repeating simple words and phrases that his parents say back to them. So far nothing has worked. Peter has shown nothing in the way of progress. The doctors simply don't know what to do with him any longer."
"And whatever is causing this has not affected any ape children?" Kirov asked, not bothering to stand up.
"That is correct, general. So far no ape children have been affected. Whatever this is seems to be isolated entirely to the human population."
Kirov nodded. That was exactly what he wanted to hear. Soon the humans would be nothing more than mindless, speechless animals. There would be no call for human equality; apes should fill no human children in the schools, no humans filling jobs that should be filled by apes. Kirov snickered and leaned back in his chair. This was just too perfect.
Alexander, meanwhile, had a very different perspective on the situation. He remembered Caesar telling him that his parents, Alexander's grandparents, were two chimpanzees from earth's future named Cornelius and Zira. They had come from the year 3950, a time when humans were primitive animals dominated by the apes. But the apes had destroyed the earth during a military campaign. Caesar had not known exactly how earth would be destroyed; all he knew was that his parents along with another chimpanzee named Milo were the only survivors. That is why Alexander wanted apes and humans to be equal. If the apes ruled the earth alone the earth would be destroyed. Caesar had done his best to make absolutely sure that didn't happen and Alexander planned to do the same but the humans were already showing signs or regressing to an animal state. If the humans could loose their voice they could very well loose their minds as well. And if that happened the apes of the future would destroy the planet. Still, there was still a chance to keep that from happening. "You may have your investigative committee, Mr. McDonald. As is standard practice with all committees, I will expect a weekly progress report detailing what has been accomplished so far. You and Virgil will lead this committee. You may each choose three others, counsel members or not, to make up the committee and you will bring them before the counsel at next weeks meeting so they can begin their work. How much time do you think you will need?"
"To be honest with you Sir, I don't know. The doctors have been working on Peter's case for the last two years with no progress. I know it will take time but I'm afraid I can't tell you exactly how much time. It could be a week a month, a decade. At this point there really is no way of knowing how long this will take."
"Very well. Assemble your committee. Do you have anything else you would like to add?"
"Just one thing. Like I said nobody as of yet knows what is causing this but whatever it is it is affecting only humans. I want to make sure before I yield the floor that the humans affected by this still have equal protection under the law. Not to offend anyone here but there are still some apes out there that wais to see my fellow humans and I remanded to second-class citizens and the infected human children are a perfect target for those apes. So to make sure the infected human children I am hear and now putting foreword a measure for an immediate vote. This is the measure, a two month jail term and one year probation for anyone, human or ape, who discriminated against those children."
The vote was taken and passed with flying colors. The only counsel members who didn't vote for it were the gorillas. Now the measure would be put into writing, the details hammered out at the next counsel meeting, and then Alexander would sigh it into law.
That done McDonald yielded the floor and took his seat as the two humans re entered the room and led little Peter out. The child gave the counsel one last wave as the doors shut behind him.
"Now I believe that General Kirov has something he would like to say. General. Is that correct?" Alexander asked looking expectantly at the general.
"That is correct." Kirov rose from his seat, took his speech from his pocket, unfolded it, and began to speak.
CHAPTER 3 ON THE WAY!