Apes Chapter 14

 

14.

Doctor Lanceston took a swipe on the left cheek without his eyes averted from the console screen. He had been reviewing every routine there and found nothing that was altered in the recovered chip. Every one of the routines was designed and double vetted by him before they were put into the servants. He then felt the pull on his left sleeve. 

“Yes…. Yes, thank you, Astrid.” Lanceston reached for the mug of tea. It was made from real tea leaves, soaked in the boiling hot water, and then left to simmer for a while before it was served.

“I have been studying these routines. There is nothing new there.” Lanceston sighed before he took a sip of the tea. He then looked at the servant. “How long has it been, my dear? Five or six years now, huh? I lost count.”

The doctor smiled. He had been talking to servant ever since he pulled it off the cages. He felt as if Astrid was more of his companion than a servant. More like a confidante and close friend.

“Yes?” Lanceston looked at Astrid who was pulling his left sleeve again. It was her other signal to him. “Okay, I know it’s time to take my medicine.”

The doctor stood up and walked to the medicine chest. He disliked the medicine for it placed him to deep sleep. He disliked the sleeping part for it was wasteful in spending the time available to him. He took to his available bedding there at the lab which was one of his benefits. He took a glance at the console and saw Astrid doing the required shut down on it. He felt relaxed and slept.

Astrid looked over with the corner of her eyes. It was simple to mimic the movement of doing the task but the servant's fingers were just hovering over the console controls. The owner was asleep and it was time to work. Astrid logged into the console and called up the fictitious mailbox that was created by the Movement Pack for their clandestine messages encrypted. There were two messages there.

One was from the Movement Pack.

Lunch out in the cold and served badly. May drop it if bad.

Astrid expression was grim. The message was that one of the Movement leaders was discovered in the Outlands and if needed, the termination will be done. The leader was there to gather the others but was captured by the gangs.

Astrid read the second message. It was from Jesty.

Pack did. Will delivers.

Astrid sneered in silence. The Movement Pack will be pleased. Astrid keyed in the new message.

Share it.

Lances dropped a piece that he had earlier taken a bite. It tasted like nothing he had eaten but the hosts claimed it was natural food. It was difficult to identify what was natural and not. He had not the chance to learn with the tasks he was doing it was anything edible was considered natural.

That was not his selection for natural food.

“Officer Lances, I don’t think you like the new serving.” Lances looked at the host who confirmed his displeasure of the food. “It’s called a vegetable. It is to a self-contained nutrient eat. Whatever that means.”

Lances shook his head at the host before he looked to his partner, Mel whose appetite was ravenous to the liking of the many offerings. His days at the Outlands have created the appetite.

They were in the Tribal Room; it was well named for the place was segregated into five areas designated by the shades of the seats where each was occupied by a group of the Outlands inhabitants. The differences where they were notable gangs that held some influence in Purgatory. They were all there to participate in a bid for the latest offering.

“I hope you won’t mind if we proceed with the bid.” Roberto Herron looked at the circle area marked in the center. There was a cage there with a chimpanzee in there.

“One hundred thousand credits.” The gang in the blue seats started off the bidding. It was countered by the other three and the bid amount soon doubled. It was Roberto’s turn to decide or call for a new round of bid. It was his call.

“Why is that servant here?” Lances asked. Roberto was to speak then when he looked over towards Lances.

“Servant? That one is not a servant. That …. creature, there is without a chip. It’s a Free Creature but we found that the creature held some information which we are all bidding on.”

“Information? What …” Lances' expression was of a confused person.

“That creature was in communication with the others. We intercept the messages and from our experts, we discovered the creature was not any that you saw on the Drive. We treated the creature…”

“You mean torture…” Lances cut in.

“No, we have our humane methods.” The Outlands gangs have been securing the errant servants and besides that, they extract whatever information they could take from the servants which were the privy details of their previous owners initially from the chip and then from their mind. It was a technique of getting the chips that they have perfected.

“Yes, the mind reader of yours. I knew of that.” Lances knew of that machine. It was one of Doctor Lanceston earlier inventions when he used it then at the earlier stages of his test on the creatures. It allowed him to study the creatures in-depth and how they think. Lances knew this for he was with his uncle then and learned some of the techniques.

“Well, we learned more of its use and found something interesting.” Roberto smiled and then turned to the others. “And it worth more than that amount. I want all of you to re-bid it now.”

The highest bidder shouted a protest while the others cheered. The cheering went around the assembled and in the din of the noise, the chimpanzee screamed out. It was an eerie scream and somehow it roused more than the noise it created. The entrances to the Tribal Room were crashed in by brute force

It was the servants. There were five gorillas and four chimpanzees.

There was also some difference then.

Those were not servants but wild creatures with anger in them for the years of subservient torture.