Planet of the Apes (11 page)

I remained in my cage with Nova as my only companion. We had finished eating. The gorillas had left, after putting out the lights, except the one over the entrance which gave a feeble gleam. I looked at Nova and thought about what I had learned during the day. It was obvious that she did not care for Zira
and was vexed by these conversations. At first she had even protested in her usual manner and tried to come between Zira and me, leaping about the cage, tearing up handfuls of straw, and flinging them in the intruder’s face. I had had to resort to force to keep her quiet. After receiving a few thundering slaps across her beautiful face, she had eventually calmed down. I had allowed myself to indulge in this brutal behavior almost without thinking; afterward I felt sorry, but she appeared not to hold it against me.

The intellectual effort I had made to assimilate the simian theories of evolution left me worn out. I was happy when I saw Nova creep over to me in the dark and in her usual fashion beg for the half-human, half-animal caresses for which we had gradually worked out the code: a singular code, the details of which are of little importance, composed of compromise and reciprocal concessions to the manners of the civilized world and to the customs of this outlandish human race that populated the planet Soror.

It was a red-letter day for me. Yielding to my entreaties, Zira had agreed to take me out of the Institute for Advanced Biological Study—that was the name of the establishment—and show me around the town.

She had consented to this only after much hesitation. It had taken me some time to convince her finally of my origin. Until then, though admitting the evidence while in my company, she would later begin doubting again. I tried to put myself in her place. She could only be profoundly shocked by my description of the men and above all of the apes on our Earth. She subsequently told me that for a long time she had preferred to regard me as a sorcerer or a charlatan rather than accept my statements. Yet,
confronted with the facts and the evidence I accumulated, she eventually had complete confidence in me and even began to work out a plan to enable me to recover my liberty, which was not easy, as she explained to me that day. Meanwhile she came to fetch me at the beginning of the afternoon to go on our outing.

I felt my heart thumping at the thought of being in the open air again. My enthusiasm was slightly curbed when I saw she was going to keep me on a lead. The gorillas took me out of the cage, banged the door shut in Nova’s face, and put around my neck a leather collar to which a strong chain was fixed. Zira took the other end and led me off, while a heart-rending whine from Nova stirred my compassion. But when I showed her a little pity and gave her a friendly wave, Zira looked angry and tugged me forward by the neck. Since she was now convinced I had an ape’s mind, my intimacy with the young girl vexed and shocked her.

Her bad temper evaporated when we were alone together in the dark, deserted corridor.

“I don’t suppose,” she laughed, “that men on Earth are used to being held on a lead like this by apes?”

I assured her they were not at all used to it. She apologized, explaining that even though there were a few tame men who could be taken out like this without causing a scene, it was more normal if I
was tied up. Subsequently, if I proved harmless, she might possibly be able to relieve me of my fetters.

And partly forgetting my true condition, as she still often did, she began advising me about my behavior, which humiliated me deeply.

“Above all, do be careful not to turn on passersby or bare your teeth or scratch a trustful child who might come up and pet you. I didn’t want to muzzle you, but …”

She stopped short and burst out laughing.

“Forgive me, forgive me,” she cried. “I keep forgetting you have a mind like an ape.”

She gave me a friendly tap on the shoulder by way of apology. Her high spirits dissolved any mounting resentment. I liked to hear her laugh. Nova’s inability to manifest her joy in this way sometimes made me sigh. I shared the she-ape’s gaiety. In the half-light of the corridor I could no longer see her face except for the tip of her white muzzle. She had put on a smart coat and skirt to go out and a scarf that concealed her ears. For a moment I forgot her simian condition and took her arm. She found my gesture quite natural and did not object. We walked along for a bit like this, side by side. At the end of the corridor, lit by a window in the side wall, she quickly withdrew her arm and pushed me away. Reverting to a more serious mood, she tugged on my chain.

“You mustn’t behave like this,” she said, looking
slightly distressed. “In the first place, I’m engaged and—”

“You’re engaged!”

The incongruity of her remark about my gesture of familiarity struck her at the same time as it did me. She corrected herself, blushing at the muzzle. “I mean, no one must suspect your nature for the moment. It’s in your own interests, I assure you.”

I took her advice and allowed myself to be led along quietly. We left the building. The porter of the institute, a big gorilla clad in a uniform, let us out, observing me with curiosity after having saluted Zira. On the sidewalk I staggered slightly, giddy from the exercise and dazzled by the glare of Betelgeuse after more than three months’ captivity. I inhaled the warm air deeply; at the same time I felt embarrassed to be walking around naked. I had grown used to this in my cage, but here I felt grotesque and indecent under the eyes of the apes passing by, who kept staring at me. Zira had categorically refused to let me wear clothes, maintaining that I would have looked even more ridiculous dressed up, like one of those tame men who are exhibited at fairs. She was no doubt right. In fact, if the passers-by turned around to stare at me, it was not because I was naked but simply because I was a man, a species that in the streets roused the same sort of curiosity as would a chimpanzee in a French city. The adults merely grinned and continued on their way, but some young apes began to gather
around me in great glee. Zira quickly led me off toward her car, motioned me into the back seat, sat down herself behind the steering wheel, and drove me slowly along the streets.

The town—the capital of an important simian region—I had barely glimpsed on my arrival, and I now had to resign myself to seeing it peopled by ape pedestrians, ape motorists, ape shopkeepers, ape businessmen, and apes in uniform whose job was to maintain law and order. Apart from this, it did not make a great impression on me. The houses were similar to ours; the roads, which were fairly dirty, looked like our roads. The traffic was less heavy than at home. What struck me most of all was the way the pedestrians crossed the street. There were no marked crossings, only overhead passages consisting of a metal frame to which they clung with all four hands. They all wore fine leather gloves that did not interfere with their prehension.

When she had driven around sufficiently to give me a general picture of the town, Zira stopped her car in front of a tall gate through which I could see banks of flowers.

“The park,” she said. “We can go for a little stroll. I should have liked to show you some other things—our museums, for instance, which are outstanding—but that’s not possible yet.”

I assured her that I should be delighted to stretch my legs.

“And besides,” she went on, “we’ll be left in peace here. There are not many people about and it’s time for us to have a serious conversation.”

“I don’t think you realize, do you, the danger you are in here on Soror?”

“I’ve already had some experience of it; but I feel that if I showed myself in my true colors—and I can do so now by providing proof—the apes ought to admit me as their spiritual brother.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. Now listen …”

We were strolling through the park. The paths were almost deserted and we had passed no more than one or two courting couples who were roused to a momentary curiosity by my presence. I, on the other hand, stared at them shamelessly, being firmly resolved not to miss a single opportunity to learn about simian customs.

They walked along together holding each other
around the waist, the length of their arms making this embrace a tight and complex encirclement. They would often stop at a corner of a path to exchange a kiss or two. From time to time also, after daring a furtive glance all around, they would take hold of the low branches of a tree and swing themselves off the ground. This they accomplished without separating, each of them using one hand and one foot with an ease that I envied, and they would then disappear into the foliage.

“Now listen,” said Zira. “Your launch”—I had told her in detail how we had arrived on the planet—“your launch has been discovered; at least what’s left of it after being pillaged. It has aroused the curiosity of our researchers. They realize it was not manufactured here.”

“Do you build similar machines?”

“Yes, but not so perfected. From what you’ve told me, we’re a long way behind you. We have, however, already launched artificial satellites around our planet, the last one even being occupied by a living being: a man. We had to destroy it in flight because we were unable to recover it.”

“I see,” I said, lost in thought. “So men also serve you for this sort of experiment.”

“It can’t be helped.… Anyway, your rocket has been discovered.”

“What about our spaceship, which has been in orbit around Soror for the last few months?”

“I haven’t heard anything about it. It must have
escaped the notice of our astronomers … but do stop interrupting me. Some of our scientists have put forward the theory that the machine comes from another planet and that it was inhabited. They are unable to go a step further and imagine intelligent beings in human form.”

“But you must tell them, Zira!” I cried. “I’ve had enough of living like a prisoner, even in the most comfortable of cages, even looked after by you. Why are you hiding me away? Why not reveal the truth to everyone?”

Zira stopped short, glanced all about her, and put her hand on my arm.

“Why? It’s purely in your own interests that I’m doing this. You know Zaius?”

“Of course. I wanted to talk to you about him.

Well?”

“Did you notice the effect your first attempts at rationality produced on him? Do you know I’ve tried a hundred times to tell him about you and to suggest—ever so carefully!—that perhaps you were not a beast in spite of appearances?”

“I’ve seen you having long conversations together and noticed you didn’t agree.”

“He’s as stubborn as a mule and as stupid as a man!” Zira burst out. “Alas! it’s the same with almost all the orangutans. He has decreed once and for all that your talents are due to a highly developed animal instinct, and nothing will make him change his opinion. The unfortunate thing is, he has
already prepared a long thesis on you in which he asserts that you are a
tame man
, in other words, a man who has been trained to perform certain tricks without understanding them, probably during a former period of captivity.”

“The stupid beast!”

“Certainly. The only snag is, he represents official science and he’s powerful. He is one of the highest authorities in the institute, and all my reports have to go through him. I’m almost certain he would accuse me of scientific heresy if I tried to reveal the truth in your case, as you suggest. I should be dismissed. That’s unimportant, but do you realize what might then happen to you?”

“What fate could be worse than living in a cage?”

“Be thankful for small mercies! Do you know how I’ve had to scheme and plot to prevent him from having you transferred to the encephalic section? Nothing could restrain him if you insisted on claiming to be a rational creature.”

“What’s the encephalic section?” I asked in alarm.

“That’s where we perform certain extremely tricky operations on the brain: grafting; observation and alteration of the nervous centers; partial and even total ablation.”

“And you carry out these experiments on men!”

“Of course. Man’s brain, like the rest of his anatomy, is the one that bears the closest resemblance to ours. It’s a lucky chance that nature has put at our disposal an animal on whom we can study our own
bodies. Man serves us in many other fields of research, as you’ll come to realize.… At this very moment we are undertaking an extremely important series of experiments.”

“For which you need a considerable amount of human material.”

“A very considerable amount—which explains those drives we carry out in the jungle to renew our supplies. Unfortunately, it’s the gorillas who organize them, and we can’t stop them indulging in their favorite pastime, which is shooting. A large number of subjects have thus been lost to science.”

“What a terrible shame,” I muttered, biting my lip. “But to get back to me …”

“Do you know why I’ve insisted on keeping our secret?”

“Am I then condemned to spend the rest of my life in a cage?”

“Not if the plan I have in mind succeeds. But you must not drop your mask until the time is ripe and you hold all the cards. This is what I suggest: in a month from now we’re holding our animal biological conference. It’s an important event. A large public is admitted to it and the representatives of all the leading papers attend. Now, for us public opinion is a more powerful element than Zaius, more powerful than all the orangutans combined, more powerful even than the gorillas. This will be your chance. It’s when this congress is in full session that you must lift the veil; for you’re going to be
introduced by Zaius, who, as I’ve told you, is preparing a long report on you and your famous instinct. The best thing then would be for you to speak up yourself to explain your case. This would cause such a sensation that Zaius wouldn’t be able to stop you. It will be up to you to explain yourself clearly to the assembly and convince the crowd and the journalists, as you have already convinced me.”

“And if Zaius and the orangutans put their foot down?”

“Once the gorillas are forced to bow before public opinion, they’ll soon make those idiot orangutans see reason. Many of them, after all, are not so stupid as Zaius; and there are also, among the scientists, a few chimpanzees whom the Academy has been obliged to admit because of their sensational discoveries. One of these is Cornelius, my fiancé. He’s the only one to whom I have spoken about you. He has promised to do all he can for you. Naturally, he wants to see you beforehand so as to check the incredible account I have given him. That’s partly why I’ve brought you here today. I’ve arranged to meet him and he shouldn’t be long.”