#scifi reader insert

“Other animals at the top of the pyramid, such as lions and sharks, evolved into that position very gradually, over millions of years. This enabled the ecosystem to develop checks and balances that prevent lions and sharks from wreaking too much havoc. As lions became deadlier, so gazelles evolved to run faster, hyenas to cooperate better, and rhinoceroses to be more bad-tempered. In contrast, humankind ascended to the top so quickly that the ecosystem was not given time to adjust. Moreover, humans themselves failed to adjust. Most top predators of the planet are majestic creatures. Millions of years of dominion have filled them with self-confidence. Sapiens by contrast is more like a banana republic dictator. Having so recently been one of the underdogs of the savannah, we are full of fears and anxieties over our position, which makes us doubly cruel and dangerous. Many historical calamities, from deadly wars to ecological catastrophes, have resulted from this over-hasty jump.” ― Yuval Noah Harari, ‘Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind’

When you accepted the offer to join an incredibly ambitious expedition sponsored by the European Union into the uncharted reaches of space, specifically to the Betelgeuse star system, you moved out of jaded fear and hopelessness. The world nowadays seemed to be ending, cataclysm after cataclysm, extreme weather due to climate change, uprisings, scandals, corruption, crime, war… Each day your heart seemed more empty, your work no longer was your solace, your hope escaping from your pores each time you looked at social media feeling the cold thick feeling of foreboding death hugging you like a pool of molasses. The deep set depression had shadowed you since you were young, uprooted from everything you knew by a french expedition to San Francisco’s Muir woods. They claimed that they were saving you, bringing you back to your own species, as the hope of recovering the USA from the ape uprising from 2011 had been failure after failure, but to your young mind you had been kidnapped from your family, taken from everything you had ever known, from your home and taken to an unknown land with unknown people, a foreign language and most of all, where everyone spoke for you.

In the quietness of the night in Paris where the sky appeared marred by light pollution and no star shone bright enough, you could still hear Maurice’s pained hoots as you were dragged away, you could still feel Cornelius’ hands pull yours trying unsuccessfully to rip you away from the human soldiers, your tear muddled eyes painfully looking around the commotion of apes fighting humans for the ape that had been all you had known, throat raw from calling for him, for the king of the Muir woods who was no more.

“DAD–!”

Finally you had been taken to a ship where you spend a month, refusing to eat or speak to your “saviours”, clutching close to your chest the last gift Caesar had given you before his passing, a beautifully hand woven headband, with shells you two would collect sometimes on the expeditions he approved you could come along as well as small beads, but most importantly, in the center there was an animal bone hand carved into the all familiar symbol that meant home. It was your last memory of your family and it meant the world to you.

Once you landed on the foreign land you were taken to an orphanage in Paris, where you tried your best to assimilate back with other humans, barely speaking and acting - as they usually said- “animal-like”. You managed to make a few friends in that dreadful place, a girl your age named Neus being your closest confidante. She was the opposite of you, where you were introverted she was a social butterfly, where you were guarded she wore her heart in her sleeve, which meant that you two made quite the unstoppable duo. With patience and love Neus was able to coax you out of your guarded shell as you two went on adventures around the city. In one of those many adventures is where you met him.

The fires of chaos had been fuelled by the radical extremist terrorist group that called themselves the Exercitus Viri – The army of man – and Paris had not been spared, these extremist believed they had the holy mission of being the saviours of the human race and so they raided zoos, ransacked circuses waging a misguided war against apes. Unbeknownst to them, in doing so they had created an enemy unlike any other in written history:  Pug, ‘le gorille le plus intelligent du monde’- a travelling circus gorilla known for his high intelligence, he had rebeled and raised an army of apes and in his attacks against the Exercitus Viri across the old continent, he showed an amazing tactical prowess. Though papers and news alike chalked all of this to an urban legend, you knew better.

Neus and you both shared your dislike for the hate and discrimination apes suffered around the world – she was the only one who truly believed your stories of your family of apes back in San Francisco, of their kindness and their want for a peaceful cohabitation –. So when she heard of an attack the Exercitus Viri had planned against a research center at the outskirts of Paris, you had snuck into the back of a truck going in the same direction with the mission of freeing those poor apes before the men arrived. It had been hard sneaking inside but even harder was the psychological blow that was seeing these poor apes jailed in cages much too small and bare to be comfortable. Soon your plan began, while you tried to communicate with the apes, Neus snuck into the head researcher’s office, stealing the keys of the cages. After the three years the two of you had known each other she was amazed at how well you communicated with apes, how they seemed to calm in your presence, their gaze a little less guarded.

“You should become a primatologist!” She kept insisting. A young chimp nodded in agreement and you couldn’t help the snort of laughter at your friend's bright eyed gaze.

Once all the primates had been freed, you two lead them silently in the labyrinthic corridors of the facility when, as you doubled a corner the cold barrel of a riffle rested on your forehead.

“Look what we have here… Lead them back to us? Aww, thanks for making this easier kiddos.” One of the men jeered, you felt your friend shift closer to you, her hand holding yours as you felt sweat form on your forehead. Testing your luck you shifted your gaze back towards the apes, meeting their untrusting – almost betrayed expression and you felt your stomach drop. Thinking on your feet your hands slowly reached into your pocket, hand grazing the small switchblade you carried for protection. Feeling a tug on your hand, your eyes meet Neus’ and she smiled, slowly pulling something out of her pocket.

“RUN!!” She screamed as she threw the homemade smoke bomb. As the visibility clouded, you pulled her away, running back to the corner you had turned with the apes behind you, hooting in agitation and nerves. Quickly you heard the yells of the men as the smoke cleared and their boots thundering against the floorboards following behind you. With your heart beating painfully against your trachea  you kept running, searching for another exit. You could make out the emergency exit when a painful explosion shot through your thigh, making you fall to the floor. Between Neus’ screeches of your name and the apes concerned hoots you tried to sit up on the floor, looking at your pants slowly darken with blood.

“ The emergency exit is just at the end of the corridor– please! just leave!” You panted, as a female chimp approached you, helping you cover your wound with her bigger hands. “Please leave!! They’ll kill you! please!” You begged the apes, some had uncertainty in their eyes, gazing back between the exit and you, others like the chimp helping you were more concerned with you.

“They… will kill you too if you stay behind” A deep rough voice muttered from the dark, and as you looked up at the shadows you could make out big green eyes, the familiarity in them made your chest tighten in deep-rooted grief.

“D-Dad? ” You mumbled under your breath as the ape with green eyes looked at you curiously, you could make out other pairs of eyes as chimps, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans came out the shadows. The green eyed gorilla in front of you snorted as he signaled for the orangutan next to him, who wore a white cloth around his shoulders. That same ape dutifully ripped a long string of his cape and handed it back to the gorilla in front of you.

“I… don’t think I look… much like your father” The gorilla hummed with slight amusement as his big hands wrapped the cloth around your wound, applying gentle force.

“You’d be surprised” You smiled back at him, wincing slightly at the pressure. Soon you could feel Neus’ arms from behind you, wrapping around you as her wet cheeks burrowed on your shirt. The gorilla snorted as he checked the bleeding had been stopped, then stood to his full height and started signaling his soldiers.

“You… were foolishly brave, little one” He murmured. “But it is time you both leave. Things…will get very ugly.” He  looked down at you with gentle green eyes.

“What is your name?” You asked, breathlessly as Neus and the female chimp who had helped you before helped you up.

“...” The gorilla looked at your eyes for a few seconds that felt like he was analyzing your whole soul. “ My name… is Pug.” He responded, lips quivering in a small smile as you practically  beamed at him. “Now it’s time you all get out of here.” He ordered as the yells of the Exercitus Viri became louder.

You don’t remember much after that, perhaps you passed out of blood loss or simply the adrenaline was too much for your body. All you could make out were big warm hands helping you out, soft hair tickling your cheek as you were carried, shouts, grunts and gunshots but you awoke the next morning on a bed in a hospital with Neus holding your hand and sleeping face-first of the bed you laid on, a few nurses, two policemen and an old man standing in your room.

The police informed you that you were carried by Pug the gorilla to the hospital doors with a gunshot on your thigh, that it almost got your femoral artery and that you were very lucky to be alive. They also informed you that the old man in the room was the head researcher of the lab you had broken into and that he would not press charges if you answered some questions. 

In the end, when you were discharged from the hospital, you met with the resercher– who introduced himself as Dr. Antelle, an excellency in his field, after talking with him he expressed his willingness to cover the costs of your education if you worked for his research team. With such an offer you decided to accept and studied zoology specializing in primatology. In many of your expeditions across the world you had seen how some communities had been able to coexist peacefully with the ape’s civilization, such was the case of Borneo, where children and apes exchanged goods and played together. For a few years you mainly worked with the apes in the International Simian research center in Ghana until you were called back to Paris by Dr. Antelle, to report your findings and he shared his new crazy idea. He was adamant on having you aboard his ambitious expedition to another star system, highlighting how he only wanted to take the most brilliant minds with him, in hopes of finding a new Earth to inhabit. You felt kind of flattered as Professor Antelle in all his brilliantness was but a prideful misanthropist, he had carefully selected the crew for their expertise: Ulysse Mérou, a journalist chosen to document his discoveries, and Arthur Levain, a talented physician, would accompany you two.

You accepted his offer, with the one condition that he let you say bye to Neus and that he funded one last trip for you to San Francisco’s Muir woods.

A few months later, here you were now, deep into space, ready to travel until you reached Betelgeuse orbit with a deep sense of longing for the family you had left behind. During the journey, you found solace in the company of Hector, the team's chimpanzee companion that unlike all the other apes you had met until now, was not affected by the ALZ-11 virus. Your mission companions regarded Hector as an amusing, almost trivial presence but you saw him as a curious and thoughtful creature, who offered you a familiarity and peace of mind. You often read to him from Professor Antelle’s extensive library – the man had taken his whole book collection with him for this mission!–, your favorite volumes to read ranged from poetry to philosophical texts, to sociology and even a few children’s classics. Hector would always watch you with perceptive amber eyes, seeming to absorb the rhythm of your voice and preferring your company to the others. Between reading all the books in Antelle's collection – The trip seemed to drag on more than you thought it would, and you’d rather nurture your mind than listen to Mérou trying to flirt with you again. – To occupy yourself during the long months of travel, you decided to train diligently, preparing for the unknown as you recalled the old movies you’d watch in the orphanage about aliens and predators, you could even hear Neus’ screeches each time the xenomorph appeared on camera. You dedicated your time to learn, you studied survival skills, navigation and learned techniques for identifying potential threats. Though Antelle and the others occasionally mocked your efforts, dismissing them as unnecessary, you remained steadfast, driven by a fear you could not fully articulate. 

But as you caressed the carved bone in shape of a star in the woven headband sitting snugly against your forehead you remembered who you were, where you came from, and what your father, Caesar had taught you...

APES TOGETHER STRONG!