The room was old, used by generations of leaders. The stone rectangles of the floor were worn, as were the tiers of stone seats.  A statue of the 1st Lawgiver stood in a niche and dominated the chamber.  Below, on a dais, was the long table of the Council of Elders, and today the whole council was gathered there.  

Dr. Zaius stroked the fur of his beard, blending it in unconscious vanity unconscious vanity into a smoothly flowing whole with the long yellow-orange hair from his head.  The venerable leader of the council turned his pouched old eyes from contemplation of the statue of the 1st Lawgiver and looked at his fellow Elders.  

Like himself they were golden-furred, the orangutan leaders of the entire simian society: the philosophers, lawgivers, and moral leaders of Apekind.  Clad in their apricot-colored, leather-paneled robes, they were an imposing sight as they looked down upon the dark-furred figures before them.

Dr. Zaius's eyes traveled across the chamber to the apes who sat on the stone tiers listening, then finally down to the massive figure of General Urko, bulky in his black-leather-trimmed dark-green tunic and trousers, and to Urko's opponent in the furious debate that had been going on for some time:  Cornelius, the slim chimpanzee scientist.  

Dr. Zaius sighted.  The argument was an old one, a battle that had been fought in these very chambers countless times.  Zaius remembered attending just such a debate as a child, watching his father seated on the platform and old General Ulmo, hero of the Siege of Thunder Mountain, arguing endlessly with the bent, wizened figure of Thales, one of the early greats in the field of humanoidolgy.  The words, the speeches, the arguments were much the same now as they had been then, Zaius thought.

"Esteemed council members," the black-furred gorilla commander growled, his voice dripping with contempt, "I demand that we unleash our mighty Ape Army to hunt down and exterminate every last humanoid infesting our land. Let their blood soak the earth, and their screams echo as a testament to our supremacy." He paused, his deep-set eyes blazing with fervor as they swept across the council. "This is the only solution to eradicate the vermin threatening our existence."

The gorillas in the audience rose to cheer noisily, causing Dr. Zaius to frown and glare in their direction.

The chimpanzees seated in the tiers of seats looked nervous and defiant but kept quiet.  Zaius stopped several orangutans seated high in the tiers and noted with approval their neutral expressions.  Two of these gold-furred onlookers were but children, but equally as solemn-faced and stolid as adults.  He made a mental note to commend their elders for properly training their young to respect the ancient conventions.  It did no good to have unauthorized opinions coming from orangutans who were not on the Supreme Council.  It confused the population, enraged the gorillas, and caused the chimpanzees to chatter even more than usual.

Dr. Zaius looked down to the first row, where Cornelius's wife sat impatiently, watching her husband with alert eyes.  As directors of the Humanoid Behavioral Studies Laboratory, it was right and proper for them to be at the debate and for Cornelius to participate, but Zaius held little hope for Cornelius to sway the council.

Zaius picked up the gavel and pounded hard upon the table, timing it so that the cessation of cheers seemed in response to his show of power.  The wily Zaius knew you never gave a command that you knew would not be obeyed, and he was well aware of the conditioned reflexes of Urko's admirers and followers.  They will cheer if he says night is day, thought Zaius thought.  But he was too shrewd, after a lifetime of politics and threading a thin line between gorilla ambitions and chimpanzee interests, to try and buck certain kinds of demonstrations.  Let them wear themselves thin, he told himself.

"What say you, Dr. Cornelius?" Zaius said in his gravelly voice.

The chimpanzee took an immediate step forward, then ruined his bold move by giving his wife a quick look.  She twitched her nose at him and gave him a slight gesture of "Get on with it."

Dr. Zaius covered his smile with a hand and fixed his eyes on the young but respected chimpanzee scientist.

Cornelius cleared his throat.  "Honored council....Dr. Zaius...General Urko....distinguished guests...."  

Zaius groaned inwardly. Cornelius meant well and he wasn't stupid, but he had a boring sense of the obvious.

"With all due respect to the revered and distinguished General Urko, I must plead for an alternate course...."

The sudden roar of boos and rude noises brought Zaius's nodding head up sharply.  He glared at the spectators and saw that it was the gorilla faction that was booing so strongly.  His face darkened with anger as he snapped up the gavel and pounded heavily upon the table.

"Order! Order!"

His glare and authority subdued most of the big gorillas almost at once, and the diehards soon quieted down when the saw they had no backing.  Zaius glowered at them.  Everyone he knew he did not like, nor would he tolerate, excessive noise and demonstrations in the Council Chamber.

"Dr. Cornelius...."

"Thank you, Dr. Zaius."

Throughout the short but noisy demonstration Cornelius had ignored the shouting, jeering gorillas with a certain dignity.  He gave Zira a quick glance, tugged at the green tunic he wore, and continued in a normal voice.

"If humanoids indeed now possess the ability to speak, as General Urko maintains, they mustn't be destroyed---they must be studied!"

A murmur sounded in the audience, but again Zaius's threatening look silenced it.

"This gives us the greatest chance we have ever had to do research on our simian origins.  If we...."

"Bull turds!"

The general's rough voice cut through Cornelius's measured words like a drill sergeant.  He stepped toward the smaller ape, who gave him a sharp look but did not retreat.

"Humanoids are nothing but a scourge to all of us!" Urko said harshly.  "They should be eradicated, not studied!"

The gorilla commander gave Cornelius a triumphant and challenging smile as the cheering broke out again from the spectator's gallery.  Several of the bigger gorillas rose and stepped down onto the floor, their clenched fists menacingly close to the chimpanzee scientist.

One of them bent over Zira from behind and murmured something in her ear that made her jerk to one side and give the leering brute a sharp and reproachful glare.  She glanced quickly at her husband, grateful that he seemed not to have noticed.  Cornelius took offense whenever he felt the soldiers were humiliating Zira, and every time he suffered from the brutality of their anger.  But he never stopped trying, and Zira was scared for him. Someday, she thought, they will murder him.  They'll be sorry, or say they are sorry, but my dear fighting heart will be gone.

Dr. Zaius was pounding his gavel, standing now, glaring down at the apes who were filtering out onto the floor.  More and more of them surrounded Cornelius, looming over him, trying to intimidate him with their size.

"Order!  We must have order!"

Moodily, the gorillas lumbered back to their seats under the glare of the full council of orangutan Elders.  Zaius glanced at the venerable Thadeus and saw that he was as shocked at the ungoverned conduct of the gorillas as he was.

When the room returned to something like normal, Zaius spoke.  "This debate is over," he announced firmly.  "We have heard the arguments from both sides and we now confer."

The Elders bent their heads together and the buzz of conversation in the chamber rose sharply.  Zaius went from Elder to Elder, conferring and conversing, the return to his seat at the head of the table.

"We, the Council of Elders of the Simian World, issue the following decree," Zaius said in his most stentorian tone.  "Since it has not been ascertained with certainty that humanoids do, indeed, possess language...."

In her seat Zira raised her eyes to look again at the frieze that covered the wall high up near the ceiling.  In a band of painting that ran around the entire Council Chamber were depictions of ape-humanoid history.  The frieze showed humanoids being hunted by apes, led on leashes, used as targets by the gorillas, working in the fields, and in other such activities.  As she heard the words of Zaius, the chimpanzee scientist wondered about this pictorial reminder of her land's history.

".....we are not prepared at this moment," Zaius went on, "to condemn their species to extermination.  They may be hunted in the usual and traditional manner for legitimate sport...they may be captured alive and used for menial labor and as domestic pets...." Zaius paused to look at the section of seats that was occupied by the gorilla partisans of General Urko...."and they may be used for target practice by our gorilla soldiers, and...." There was a cheer, short-live under the glare of the council; then Zaius looked at Cornelius and Zira.  "And for study by our chimpanzee behavioral scientists."

Cornelius and Zira broke into wide, happy smiles, but the gorillas muttered noisily under their breath.

Zaius raised his hand to caution them.  "However...." He looked around the chamber alertly, his manner bringing everyone's attention to him. "However, if indeed it is proven that the humanoid animals have developed language, then, according to Article 18 of the Book of Simian Prophecy....we will destroy them no matter what the cost be."592Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXkGI2Ui7mh

Zira was startled at the intense savagery in the Elder's voice, and for the thousandth time she wondered why humanoidology was such a controversial and dangerous area.

Dr. Zaius banged his gavel sharply.  "This emergency session of the Supreme Council is now adjourned.592Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWqZqSQ7cbl