"Are you done fussing over me, Mom?" Burke leaned back to avoid Zana tugging again at his collar. Her constant grooming betrayed her nervousness, but it was driving him crazy, too. The whole day had started off wrong, though he suspected the sudden announcement that they were to be brought before her superiors had been designed to throw them off like that.

"I told Zaius you're harmless, which is why he allowed me to bring you to the session - so you have the chance to make a good impression on them." Zana pointed at him. "That means you, especially, Peet - no jokes or disrespect!"

He mock saluted her. "I'll be on my best behaviour, ma'am!"

She stared at him. "Do you even know what 'best behaviour' means?"

Burke decided to spare her a witty reply. He didn't feel like joking today.

They had fallen into a routine that was as frustrating as it was comforting in its monotony - sleep, eat, stare at the walls until they were either let out into their open air enclosure, or questioned by Zana... always the same questions, round and round, ad nauseam... go back inside, eat, sleep.

That, at least, was the official routine. In reality, their nights were spent with sneaking around the institute, looking for that damn data disc and scouting out ways to get over the outer walls without setting off an alarm. It had been exciting for the first few nights, but by now, Burke was convinced that the disc was nowhere in the institute; it had to be somewhere in the city, and they didn't have the faintest idea where to even start looking. He was ready to leave without it - the longer they stayed here, the more probable it became that the apes would lose their patience and put the thumbscrews on them. The only wall standing between him and freedom was Al's stubborn refusal to leave without the damn thing - and Al was the proverbial immovable object in that regard.

He should've felt vindicated by today's foreseeable escalation, but Burke just felt worried.

Zana took a step back and gave both of them a critical once over, and Burke fought the urge to stand at attention. His and Al's faces had been shaved clean - of course they hadn't been allowed to use the knives themselves - and scrubbed so hard that they'd probably never be able to grow a beard again. Their hair, which she had allowed them to grow out to its original length, was still wet and plastered to their heads. They had even been given new clothes.

They still didn't seem to pass muster; with a sigh, Zana began to climb the stairs to the council building with them, their Chimp security following a few steps behind.

"'Best behaviour' means no staring, no eye contact at all. It means you don't speak unless you're asked a question or have been given permission to speak up yourself. It means you'll address every ape with 'Sir,' and General Urko with his rank. No, forget that - don't address Urko at all, if you can avoid it!" She nervously tugged at the sleeves of her cardigan. "Zaius is addressed as 'Council Eldest.' His word has considerable weight, so please, do try not to antagonize him."

Burke raised his brow. "Well, as long as I don't have to address anyone as 'Master' or 'Missus'..."

Zana flicked him a glance, but just repeated, "I told them you're harmless. Be harmless!"

Burke wondered what she had actually meant to tell him.

Virdon frowned. "What is Urko doing there? I thought you said it's an academy meeting."

They were entering the building and Zana lowered her voice, probably because the marble walls and the high ceiling carried one's words farther than intended if you weren't careful. "He is part of the committee -"

"Oh, joy!" Burke muttered. Zana ignored him.

"...as the head of the military and police forces, he's there because your appearance is a question of national security."

"Who are the others?" Al's voice was calm, but Burke could hear the tension underneath. National security? Yeah, he wasn't eager to be judged by Urko in that regard. The guy was a wee bit biased when it came to humans.

Zana shook her head - so they hadn't told her, either. It was a bad sign if your handler was being deliberately left in the dark, too. "Zaius, most probably, because he is the minister of science... the president of the academy will perhaps be present, too... I have no idea who else. Your existence hasn't been made widely known, not even among the council members, you know?"

A secret tribunal. The day could only get better.

The chamber they were led to was surprisingly small - another sign that whatever would be decided here would stay out of sight for most apes. No publicity, no pressure... no way to force an appeal. Burke felt his heartbeat pick up and took a deep breath to calm himself down. Nothing had happened yet, their judges hadn't even arrived. Whatever would be going down in here, they'd deal with it somehow. Hell, they had survived until now, right?

Zana spun around to him when the door opened. "Be smart... be silent! Let me do the talking." She quickly arranged them into a more... submissive?... position, lining them up side by side and shoving them closer to the wall, while several apes filed into the chamber through a second door.

Burke recognized Urko immediately - as the only gorilla in the room, the soldier stood out even without his swagger and his uniform. His cold gaze lingered a second too long on him and Al. Burke relaxed his features, making his expression unreadable. He wouldn't let that monkey know how much the sight of it got to him.

The other two were a fat chimp wearing more bling than a crack dealer, and an elderly orangutan whose shrewd eyes set off a deeper alarm in Burke than even Urko had managed. He wondered briefly if this was Zana's boss at the academy, but when the ape took the central seat on the dais across the room, he corrected that assumption.

That one must be Zaius. Man, we're in a world of trouble.

Zana sunk down into her seat after the senior apes had settled down, but he and Al had to keep standing at the wall; well, at least they weren't trussed up like Burke had been at his first (and only) walk outside the institute.

"Why aren't the humans properly restrained?" Fat Chimp leaned back in his seat to give his bulge more room, and frowned at Zana. "We have regulations here, doctor! I don't care what you do with them in their cage back in the institute - that should be professor Zorvan's business..."

Another orangutan rose from his seat at the wall; Burke hadn't even noticed him until now - his attention had been focused on the heavyweights before him. "I assure you, the humans have been treated strictly according to regulations..."

"Except for that day when the good doctor decided to let one of them roam the streets without even so much as a leash on," Urko's gravelly voice casually cut him off.

Shit. How did he get wind of that?

If apes could blanch, Burke was sure that Zana would have been white as a sheet now. Her hands were trembling as she fiddled with her notes. She didn't even look at Urko.

The sharp crack of a gavel cut off any further remarks from Urko or Bling-Bling. "This ad hoc committee of the general council is now in session." The orangutan's voice was dry and slightly bored. "Council Eldest and minister of science presiding. On my right, General Urko, head of police; on my left, Senator Toba, head of the chamber of commerce and representative of the Union of Farmers and Yeomen."

"Union of what?" Burke whispered into Zana's ear.

"Plantation owners," she whispered back without turning her head. "Now shush!"

How can he represent the yeomen and the plantation owners at the same time... and holy shit, plantation owners? Where the hell are we, antebellum South?

We should've legged it ages ago, Al, but would you listen to me? 'course not!

"Appearing as current custodian, Professor Zorvan, president of the Academy," the Council Eldest was concluding his introduction. "Let it be clear at the outset that all matters pertaining to this inquiry are confidential, and anyone discussing them outside this chamber will be held in contempt of the Council." He put down the gavel and studied the scroll before him for a moment. "Our purpose is to settle custodial and jurisdictional questions concerning these humans, and determine what's to be done with them. Dr. Dhyendhye has been questioning them and will present us her results. If you please, doctor."

"You go, girl," Burke whispered encouragingly as she stood and smoothed down her skirt. "You show them!" He secretly wiped his sweaty palms on his pants.

Zana bowed to her superiors, something Burke had never seen her doing before. "Council Eldest Zaius, Senator, General - it is a great honor for me to be allowed to speak before you today. It is also my hope that my findings will not only be helpful for your decision, but interesting and illuminating in their own right." Her voice became steadier while she was speaking, although her hands were still crumpling her notes. She took a deep breath and continued.

"The humans have proven to be docile, responsive, and cooperative. They immediately understood the gravity of their situation and were anxious to stay on our good side."

"Ha! They better were!" Urko growled. Burke saw Zana clench her teeth for a moment, but her voice was steady.

"After intensive interviews - that were taken separately," she stressed with a glance towards Urko, "and equally rigorous observation, I have come to the conclusion that these humans haven't sought out our world on purpose, but are here as a result of a technical malfunction of their machine. They repeatedly expressed the wish to return to their homeworld and vowed to leave our territory immediately, if they were to be released from our custody."

There was a moment of silence, as the apes contemplated her words.

Then Urko began to laugh.

Zana stood perfectly still, while Urko roared with laughter, going on and on long after the point where a natural laugh would have died away, while he kept laughing to demonstrate the depth of his contempt for her person, her qualification, her profession and most importantly, her fondness for the human vermin. Burke suddenly felt Virdon's hand around his upper arm, restraining him although he hadn't moved a muscle; he just had tensed up so much that he was shaking.

I'd love to smash that grin right out of your face, monkey.

When Urko was finally finished with his laughing bout, Zana continued as if she hadn't been interrupted: "My advice is thus to release the humans from custody and escort them to the borderlands to the West; or alternatively, leave them to the Institute for Behavioral Studies indefinitely for research purposes."

Burke didn't believe for a second that they'd be released, but the prospect of spending the rest of their lives in that cage wasn't very appealing, either. Still, it did offer some opportunities for escape...

"What a load of crock! " Urko stood and began to pace the room. He pointed a finger at Zana, but spoke directly to Zaius. "I don't even know where to begin with that mess! A technical malfunction? As if she was even qualified to verify that! Has she been there? Has she seen their machine? Does she have the technical expertise to come to a conclusion about that claim? Ha!" He threw his hands up in the air and turned around to stalk back the five steps or so until he was directly in her face.

"And as for the rest - of course they'd claim that they are here by accident! I wouldn't tell you if my troops were following me, if I were caught on a scouting mission behind enemy lines! Nobody would! But only a dumb little girl would believe that shit!"

Zana's fingers were drumming on the underside of the folder she was holding as she scowled at Urko. The problem was that Urko's line of reasoning was - well, reasonable. Much as Burke hated to admit it, he'd probably have argued the same if their positions had been reversed.

"There are ways to determine if somebody tells the truth," Zana finally said, fixing Urko with her glare. "It's easy to lie with your words, but almost impossible to lie with your whole body. Bodily reactions are beyond conscious control; a flaring of nostrils, dilating pupils, little tics and gestures can tell you a complete story of their own. Of course," she added dryly with a meaningful glance to Zaius, "you need the professional expertise to know what to look for. Most of these signs are subtle and fleeting, and easily missed by a layperson."

"Bullshit," Urko growled. "What, do you think you're the first to claim that she can 'read the human,' or has that 'special bond' that 'transcends the barriers between species'?" He shook his head, chuckling. Zana raised her brows.

"I wouldn't have thought you'd browse the book sections on human husbandry, General," she remarked.

"Just for professional purposes," he bared his teeth at her. It wasn't a smile. "I need to know about the latest stupid 'love your human' fads to know where the next trouble will brew. They always get out of hand." It wasn't clear if he meant the fads or the humans. The latter, Burke assumed.

Zana leaned forward and directed her next words exclusively at Zaius. "You wouldn't have given me this assignment if you hadn't been convinced of my qualification, Council Eldest. I agree that my expertise doesn't lie with technical examinations of alien machines - but that wasn't what I was supposed to do anyway, right? You hired me because I'm the expert for human behaviour, and from my professional experience with that, I assure you that the humans weren't lying. There is no alien fleet on its way to us."

Another expectant silence followed her words, but when nobody spoke up this time, Zaius nodded at her and waved her to return to her seat. With another bow, she returned to him and Al and slumped down as if her legs were giving out under her.

"As much as I enjoy your company, doc, I hadn't planned on retiring in your little zoo!" Burke whispered to her. "Permanent guardianship sounds awfully permanent to me!"

"Well, it's still preferable to vivisection, don't you think?" Zana whispered back. "We need to let this whole subject drop from people's awareness for a while before we can even think of other options."

"What other options?" Burke asked warily. He was sure he'd imagined her saying 'vivisection.'

"Releasing you into the wild, for example. That'd need a lot of paperwork to bury your cases in."

Zana wore a distracted expression, probably listening to the various suggestions and objections that were being thrown about now. They ranged from 'they are dangerous, kill them' to 'they are an incalculable risk, kill them' and even to 'they're humans, there is no way they could have build such a machine themselves. So the question is who really sent them? Are there other apes on other worlds, bent on conquering ours?' She didn't react to his next question, until Burke poked her in the ribs.

"So, how long are we talking about? Three months? Six?"

"Hm? No, no, it will be several years before..."

"Years? Are you out of your mind?"

"Shh!"

"I'd like to have a look at those humans myself before I make a decision," Senator Toba's rumbling voice commanded their attention. "Zorvan here has made a valid point: they are humans, how in the world would they've been able to build such a thing in the first place?"

Zaius waved to her to put the humans on display, and Zana had no choice but to oblige him.

"Best behavior!" she whispered urgently to Burke as she positioned them in front of the triumvirate.

Toba waddled up and rounded them as if he was ogling the display on farmer's market, and Burke felt his body tense in anticipation. But it was Al who got the treatment first. When Toba let his hand glide over Alan's shoulders and back to assess his frame and muscles, Burke saw him go rigid in response from the corner of his eye. His face stayed absolutely blank, but he thought he saw him blanch a little.

"Hm." Toba shrugged. "Seems to be an ordinary human, except for the color - he'd make me a fortune..." He ambled over to Burke, who glared at Zana. You could've given us a little heads up here, girl - I didn't expect to be sold at the market today! Zana's eyes widened in silent admonition, and Burke locked his jaw and stared straight ahead when Toba repeated his probing and testing.

"I'd like to see that one run," he finally announced, and Burke felt his face go hot at that offhand remark. That monkey was talking about him as if he was a racing horse. Sure enough, "I bet I could make a nice sum on the tracks with it." He sniffed and patted him on the cheek before he could avoid the touch. "I don't see anything out of the ordinary here. Can they talk?" he asked in Zana's direction.

"They speak our language, senator," she confirmed. Her face added a silent, idiot. How did that monkey think they had spent the last weeks with her? Grooming each other? Stapling boxes to reach the banana at the ceiling?

Toba turned back to him. "So, did you build that machine that can fly?"

Trick question. But he had been advised to only talk when asked a direct question, and he assumed that it meant he was only allowed a direct answer, too. "No."

"Peet!" Zana hissed.

"No. Sir."

Toba turned and spread his arms in triumph. "See? Of course they didn't!"

"It was built by human engineers, after designs developed by human scientists," Burke's voice cut through the murmurs and chuckles. In her seat, Zana facepalmed.

Sorry, Zana. Idiots just push all my buttons.

But Toba wasn't ruffled. "Of course! Next thing you'll tell me, it was human generals who ordered it built!"

"The army has nothing to do with..."

"Shut up, Pete," Virdon murmured through his teeth.

Toba turned his back to him. "With all due respect to our esteemed general, but I don't see anything here that justifies his worry, as long as they are kept separated from the general public." His gaze travelled appraisingly over Virdon. "I'm willing to take care of the necessary arrangements, for appropriate compensation, of course."

"The council will hardly agree to allocate tax money for your private zoo," Urko scoffed.

"Oh, they'd earn that money themselves," Toba said lightly, but Burke's fleeting vision of picking cotton in Toba's fields vanished with a flash of nausea, when the Chimp added, "people will pay a fortune for those light-colored cubs."

This time, it was Burke who grabbed Virdon's arm.

Zana sent an imploring look to Zaius, silently begging for help, and practically jumped from her bench when he gave her an indulgent nod.

"What did I just tell you about not speaking until asked?" she hissed as she shoved him against the wall.

"That asshole just ticked me off!"

"Well, you just..."

"Senators. Thank you for lending me your ear."

Zana's fur bristled visibly, and she let go of him with a last push before she turned around to face their nemesis. Of course Urko wouldn't let that opportunity slip.

Damn my big mouth...

"That was very entertaining, Toba." Urko smiled a wolfish smile, and Toba chuckled. "Very entertaining. Unfortunately the Council Eldest broke it off before the dark one could rip your throat out."

Toba gave a derisive snort, but his gaze flitted towards their bench, where Zana vigorously shook her head at him. Burke snorted - he hadn't even been close to doing that, but from their earlier encounters with the gorilla, Burke wasn't at all surprised that Urko reveled in inciting fear and hatred of humans in his fellow apes. Judging by Toba's reaction, he had scored again.

"But I must concede this point to you, Toba: humans are humans, no matter which world they infest, and therefore it's wrong to say that they are an unknown danger; everyone knows exactly what dangerous, destructive beasts they are," Urko was slowly walking up to their bench, "intelligent but," he patted Burke's head, "without self-control, driven by aggression and always, always striving for dominance."

I'm very much controlling myself right now, asshole.

Urko turned away to address the assembly again, "Not to mention their out of control reproduction and their habit to litter their surroundings wherever they are." That earned him a mixed response of laughter and cries of disgust.

"They are a health and safety hazard, and only simian sentimentality has allowed them a place within ape society, " Urko roared. "That sentimentality has to be tempered with brutal control, otherwise those noble apes would have been overrun by their pets in the meantime!"

He gestured towards them. "And now these humans have come here with the help of an advanced machine. Does that make them any different from the humans we know? No."

Urko now seemed to address Zaius directly. "We never denied that humans are intelligent. That's not the issue. But they are aggressively expansive. So how can we believe that they were not on a scouting mission? And even if they discovered us by accident, that they would not tell their fellow humans where to find us, if we allowed them to go home?"

He turned to the Zana again, who was chewing on her lower lip. Burke cast a quick glance around the room: The tide was turning, and it was turning against him and Al.

"I say: don't release them! But I also say: don't run the risk of letting them escape! Kill them now, before they can wreak havoc on our society, corrupt the minds of young apes," Urko fixed Zana with a meaningful look, designed to be noticed by everyone in the chamber, then turned to Toba, "or stir unrest among our own humans - we all remember the rebellion fifteen years ago: it only needs another spark for that conflagration to erupt again."

Zana shot up from her seat. "Yes, we do remember that rebellion, General! Some of us also remember how it began, and your role in fanning the flames, before you so gleefully stomped them out! Your pathological hatred of humans has blinded you to..."

"Silence!" Urko yelled.

A hush fell over the assembly as he rounded in on her. Burke stepped forward, ready to punch the gorilla in his ugly face, but Virdon pulled him back again.

"You wouldn't have a chance, Pete," he whispered, "and you'd get Zana into an even worse position - as if she wasn't able to control her humans..." His wry smile told Burke that his commander didn't like their status here any more than he did.

Perhaps he'd be more open to his plan of instant escape now, data disc be damned.

"How dare you interrupt a council member!" Urko growled. His face was only inches away from Zana's, who had locked her knees and raised her chin. Burke had to admire her courage - being shouted at by a four hundred pound gorilla had to be damn scary, even if you were an ape yourself. "Zaius should kick you out onto the steps to wait for the committee's decision for your infamy!"

"Please don't presume how I should lead this session, General," Zaius' dry voice saved Zana from Urko's close proximity. With a last look of contempt, he stomped back to his seat. Zaius glanced at Burke, probably wondering if he should call the guards. Burke consciously relaxed his hands and settled against the wall.

"Consider yourself to be officially cautioned, Zana. I don't want to hear another peep from you."

Zaius' attention was already on Toba and Zorvan, who were muttering among themselves now. Toba directed dark glances at Urko - perhaps that human rebellion had impacted the profits from his plantation. Burke hoped the humans back then had torched the place. Zana slunk back into her seat, visibly glad to no longer be the center of attention. Burke patted her shoulder, and she gratefully squeezed his hand.

"Why do I have the feeling that I've stumbled into a movie after the break?" Burke muttered under his breath.

Virdon didn't take his eyes off the debating apes. "Because this isn't really about us anymore."

Burke laughed; it sounded hollow even to his own ears. "Except for the part where they kill us, you mean?"

Virdon didn't answer. Instead, he pushed away from the wall. "Do I have permission to speak, Council Eldest?"

Urko whirled around, pointing at him. "Guards, subdue that beast at once!"

Virdon startled as two Chimpanzees converged on him and Burke bolted to his defense, feeling awfully eager for a fight. Zana pulled at his arm, but he didn't budge.

"I will have order in this chamber!" The gavel thundered on the block again and again. For the first time since the meeting had begun, Zaius looked livid. "Guards, stand down! Urko, I will not have you commandeering this chamber as if it was one of your garrisons! Everyone, sit! Remember the dignity of your position, gentle apes!"

After some long moments, Toba and Zorvan sat down again, although the silence thrummed with tension.

Zaius leaned back in his seat and regarded Virdon with half-lidded eyes. "You need to give me a good reason for granting you that permission. We usually don't let humans talk here any more than we would let a dog or a horse do."

Virdon looked a bit taken aback at that comparison, but he bowed slightly in an imitation of what he had seen Zana do before. "I hope to offer another perspective on the... the incident, as you call it, and its potential benefits for you."

Zaius raised his brows. "Benefits for us? Very well. You have me sufficiently intrigued to make an exemption from our usual proceedings." He pointed at the spot where Zana had given her presentation. "Step forth and make your plea."

There were muttered objections from Zorvan, and a loud "Intolerable!" from Urko, but Toba was leaning forward in his seat with anticipation. Burke had to give it to Virdon: if there was one surefire way to snare an ape, it was by exploiting their curiosity.

Or, in the case of Toba, their greed. Hey, they aren't that different from every cutthroat car dealer I've ever met! I feel so close to them all of a sudden!

"Sirs, I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to speak to you," Virdon began. "I have listened to everyone's concerns and I can understand each and every one of them - even the general's."

That earned him surprised murmurs. Burke grinned inwardly. Catch them with honey, Al.

"However, I ask you to consider that all these concerns are just that - worries about what might be, and what might happen. You are called to make a decision of life and death for me and my comrade and that is no trivial thing... even if it's only a human life. I respectfully ask you that you base that decision on facts, not fears."

Toba nodded and smiled encouragingly, and Zaius looked at least as if he was actually considering Al's words, but Burke didn't get his hopes up yet. When he looked to where Urko was sitting, his jaw clenched at the hatred in the ape's glare.

Virdon didn't seem to notice. "If we just stick to the facts, to what we can verify with our own senses, then only two things are certain: our starship will never fly again; and we are completely at your mercy. Both facts don't yield a realistic probability that we will ever pose a danger to you, or to your society."

He took a step towards the dais. "On the contrary, I offer you a bargain: if you release us..."

"Release you! A moment ago you were begging for your life, and now you also want to roam the streets!" Urko barked. "That's how it always is with your ilk: give them an inch and they'll take a mile!"

"You don't want us here!" Virdon retorted. "Our mere presence is an insult to you. Well, we would be happy to oblige you... we would leave your territory and never return. What reason would we have to linger?"

"What was that bargain you wanted to offer?" Toba asked.

Virdon nodded to him. "We can offer skills and knowledge you may find useful, once we know what you lack or need; for example... I haven't come across the word, so I don't know if you already invented a compass " - he used the English word instead, and went on to explain the principle of the thing. Toba's gaze sharpened on him while he described its uses, and Burke thought he could see the numbers rolling in the fat Chimp's head. Even Zaius looked intrigued.

Urko rose from his seat.

"The human asked you not to base your decision on fears. Instead it asked you to base it on promises!" He sauntered up to Virdon, who regarded him warily. "I, on the other hand, will stick to the facts, as it had so humbly asked me to do."

Urko smiled, and Zana sat straighter in her seat. Burke tensed and took a step away from the wall.

"Let us all stick to the things we can verify with our own senses. This is a human invention. Let's see what it can do." He leaned forward and made a bowling motion with his arm. Frowning, Zana rose from her seat to see what Urko had set rolling on the floor.

Where the hell did he find that-

Burke rammed into her, pushing her to the floor as the chamber erupted in a sudden explosion; he covered her with his body, trying to shield her from the wooden splinters and chunks of plaster that were raining down on them.

"You ass-headed son of a shit eating baboon! Fucking idiot!" Burke heard his voice as if from far away, but that didn't stop him from cursing. One took his stress relief where one could get it.

Zana made a shoving motion under him and he crawled down from her and helped her to sit up. She looked stunned. 'What happened?' Her voice was louder than normal - her ears were ringing just as his had.

'That stupid motherfucker threw a handgrenade!' A stun grenade, actually, which was the reason they were able to have that conversation. Otherwise bits of them would be sprawled all over a fucking crater now.

'Alan!'

Burke felt his heart drop as he saw the sudden panic in Zana's eyes. Virdon had stood right beside the thing! Zana pulled herself up on the bench post and peered over to the orator's spot; Burke stumbled to his feet behind her, half expecting to see blood and gore.

Instead he saw four guards converging on Al, their batons raining down on them.

They'll club him to death!

Burke stumbled when Zana managed to snatch his arm at the last moment. He yanked it away with a growl. "Let go!"

"Look!" She pointed at the dais.

Zaius was emerging behind his seat, as powdered with plaster as she was, but not half as dazed. He shooed the guards away like pesky insects, gazed down at Virdon for a moment, and turned to right his toppled chair. Burke saw Virdon swallow heavily and roll over. His face and chest were smeared with blood.

In a moment, he was at his side. "That's what you get for saving the old geezer's life," he muttered and helped Virdon to sit up. "No good deed goes unpunished."

Al's face looked even worse from up close, one eye already swelling shut. He sat on the floor, propped up against the bench post, and leaned his head back to still the blood streaming from his nose, while Zana tried to wipe away the worst of it from his throat and chest with her handkerchief. Neither of them paid much attention to the clang of the gavel or Zaius' commands to order.

Burke did look up once when Zaius dismissed Urko from the chamber, though. If I'll never see that ugly mug again, I'll be a happy man.

All eyes were on Zaius now. The old ape sat silent for a moment, staring down at his hands. When he looked up, his gaze fell on Zana, as if his next words were meant solely for her.

"That was quite an impressive demonstration of human ingenuity, don't you think? But on the other hand," his gaze wandered to Virdon, "it was also a demonstration of human instinct that I have seen before. Urko may be right in more ways than he'd be happy to acknowledge." He sniffed and turned to the other two apes.

"As the general's little... demonstration... has shown, we don't know nearly enough about these humans, neither about their potential danger nor their usefulness for us. Therefore I'm convinced that it is absolutely necessary to study them further. They'll be kept by the department for human studies, under the custody of Dr. Dhyendhye, until we can come to a final conclusion."

"This hearing is adjourned. Take them away, Zana. We need to get this room presentable again."