Dr. Lewis Dixon walked along with the white-coated attendants carrying away the body of the chimpanzee the others called “Milo.” Lewis grimaced involuntarily as he looked at the strangled body, and glanced up at Stevie. She was ashen, and still shaking.
“We’ll need a full dissection,” Lewis said. He kept his voice deliberately low so that the other chimps wouldn’t hear.
“Yes,” Stephanie said. “With a great deal of attention to the temporal lobes and speech centers.”
“But don’t start just yet,” Lewis continued. “Don’t disturb anything until we can get the gross anatomy. Keep him in cold storage until I can get there.”
“Yes, sir.” The attendants went out of the hospital wing of the zoo, and Lewis took Stephanie’s hand. He led her back to the chimpanzee cage. The door stood open, and they went inside.
Zira sat huddled against Cornelius. She sobbed against his shoulder, as Cornelius gently stroked her back.
“We mean you no harm,” Lewis said. There was no response from the apes. “Do you understand? We mean you no harm.”
Zira looked up in rage. She pointed to the dead gorilla in the next cage.
“But he isn’t us,” Lewis protested. “He’s your own kind.”
“He’s a gorilla,” Zira snapped. She leaped to her feet. “They’re all alike, killers. We are not gorillas!”
“I’m sorry,” Lewis said. “I meant he’s of your own genus. He’s an ape. Anyway, you needn’t be afraid of him any longer. The army men shot him.”
“Poetic justice,” Cornelius said.
“I beg your pardon?” Lewis said automatically. He winced slightly at the thought of begging an ape’s pardon. “I don’t think I understood.”
“In—uh, our world,” Cornelius said, “gorillas are the army.”
“And humans are their usual enemies,” Zira finished.
“Zira!” Cornelius warned.
Lewis and Stephanie looked at the apes in astonishment “Perhaps you had better explain that,” Lewis said.
“They called you both ‘Doctor’,” Zira said. “Are you medical people?”
“We specialize in animal behavior,” Stevie said. “I’m a psychologist. Lewis is a psychiatrist.”
“So am I,” Zira said.
The two humans stepped back as if struck. Finally Lewis said, “All right. If you say so.”
“The question is,” Zira asked, “do you have the same professional customs as we? Are doctor-patient conversations always confidential?”
“Yes,” Lewis said. Stevie nodded.
“And are we your patients?” Zira continued.
Lewis looked thoughtful. “I’ve never thought of professional ethics as involving animal patients,” he said carefully. “But yes. Of course. Stevie?”
She nodded, the skin around her blue eyes creased with tiny lines. She looked puzzled, but said nothing.
“Certainly,” Lewis repeated. “And we still mean you no harm.”
“We realize that,” Cornelius said.
“But—” Zira protested.
“Nonsense, my dear. What have we to lose? We must trust someone. Why not our physicians?”
“That’s better,” Lewis said. Jim Haskins came back into the hospital wing, but Lewis waved him out. He waited until they were alone again. “Do you have a name?” he asked.
“My name is Cornelius. This is Zira, my wife.” The chimpanzee extended his hand. Automatically Lewis took it, as Stephanie shook hands with Zira.
“I’m Lewis. Lewis Dixon. And this is Stephanie Branton. Tell me, uh, Cornelius, where do you come from?”
Cornelius looked helplessly at Zira. She shrugged. He looked back to Lewis and shrugged also. “Dr. Milo knew—”
“Doctor?”
“Yes. And you killed him,” Zira said bitterly.
“Nonsense, dear. The gorilla killed him. Irrational accusations aren’t going to help.” Cornelius’s voice was stern.
Lewis felt sweat break out across his brow. Despite his guaranteed Stay-DriEST deodorant, he did not feel secure at all. He loosened his collar and fanned himself with the lapels of the white lab coat. He was too warm in the coat, but it was his symbol of authority here, and he didn’t want to take it off. Even as he fanned himself he knew he was using the coat as a security blanket and wanted to laugh at himself. “Didn’t Dr. Milo tell you where he thought you came from?” Lewis asked.
The apes looked at each other and said nothing.
“You can trust us,” Stevie said. “Please.”
Cornelius smiled, but it wasn’t a smile of amusement. “From our present—backwards into yours.”
Lewis growled deep in his throat, startling the chimps. His brow wrinkled. “You mean time travel?”
“Yes.”
“Nobody’s going to believe it. I don’t even want to report it.”
“I’d prefer you didn’t anyway,” Cornelius said.
“Nobody’s going to believe any of this,” Stephanie reminded them.
“Any of what?” Zira demanded.
“That primitive apes can talk,” Stephanie said.
“Primitive?” Zira stalked across the cage, stamping her feet. “Primitive!”
“But…” Stevie protested.
“What Dr. Branton means,” Lewis said, “is that in our ‘primitive’ civilization, apes just don’t talk. None of them. And I think perhaps it will be best if we arrange it so that when you do talk for public benefit, you do it for the, uh, ‘right people’.”
“I see.” Cornelius laughed softly. “We had something of the same problem in our, uh, time.”
Zira leaned against her husband and looked searchingly at the humans. Finally she smiled. “Can I say something else in confidence?”
Lewis returned the smile. “Certainly. Please do.”
“I like you.”
“Why, thank you.”
“I did from the beginning,” Cornelius said. “Both of you. I hope all humans are as pleasant as you are.”
Stevie looked worriedly from one chimpanzee to the other. “Don’t count on it,” she said. Her pretty mouth was drawn tightly, and her face was a mask. “Don’t count on it at all.”
“What do you mean?” Cornelius asked.
She grimaced. “Wait until you meet the ‘right people’.”
“Stevie,” Lewis protested. “That’s hardly fair. I would prefer you didn’t let your political beliefs intrude in this.”
“Aren’t you letting yours get in the way of your professional judgment?” Stevie asked. “Let’s not fight, Lewis. But I’m scared. I really am.”