Ben Bova - Exiled from Earth

“George!”

Lou ran to the gorilla’s compound He got there in time to see two of the biochemists carrying a third through the gate. Big George was nowhere in sight. A half-dozen guards were clustered around the gate and more were arriving on the run, guns drawn.

“What happened?” Lou shouted.

They ignored him. A pair of guards took the unconscious biochemist from his co-workers. His face was bloody and one arm was hanging at a weird angle.

Lou grabbed one of the sweating biochemists.

“What happened? What did you do?”

The little Oriental looked up at Lou with fear and anger in his eyes. In a nasal, heavily-accented English he said, “Ape got frightened by injections. Anesthetic wore off Restraints not strong enough. Ape broke loose, knocked down Dr Kusawa, ran back into trees.”

“Injections?” Lou demanded “The suppressors?”

The biochemist nodded, pulled his arm out of Lou’s grasp and tottered away, following the guards who were carrying his boss.

Lou went to the gate.

One of the guards started shaking his head and motioning Lou away. “No. Danger. Keep away.”

“Let me in there. He won’t hurt me. He’s scared and hurt.”

The guards were clustered around the gate, which was now firmly locked. Most of them were peering into the trees and brush. Big George was not in sight The other guards were watching Lou.

“Danger,” said the one guard to Lou “Go away.”

Slowly, reluctantly, Lou walked away.

At dinner that night, Kori shook his head “That makes everything different. Bonnie can’t stay in there with him now.”

“Sure I can,” Bonnie said “George will be all right by now, and the guards will never dream of searching his compound. It’s a better hiding place than ever, now.”

“No,” said Lou “There’s no way of telling what those injections did to him. It’s too risky.”

They sat at their table in the cafeteria, leaning forward in a tight little huddle, ignoring their cooling dinner trays, oblivious of the fact that many eyes were watching them in the busy, noisy cafeteria.

Bonnie insisted that George was all right. “Let’s go down to his compound and talk to him. Then we’ll see for sure,” she suggested.

Lou nodded agreement. Kori simply looked worried.

They walked down to the gorilla’s compound, but stayed away from the gate where the guards stood watch. They moved up onto the slope of the hill to a spot close to the trees inside the compound.

“Georgy,” Lou called out softly “Georgy, it’s me. Uncle Lou.”

A snuffling grunt, and from the shadows in among the trees a pair of baleful eyes suddenly gleamed out at them. Despite himself, Lou shuddered. Those eyes were glaring like a jungle beast’s.

He forced his voice to stay calm “Georgy, it’s all right. It’s me, Uncle Lou. And Bonnie is here, too. And another friend.”

A growl.

Lou turned to Kori “Maybe it’s a good idea for you to go away, Anton. George must be scared out of his wits of strangers right now.”

“He doesn’t sound scared.”

“He is.”

Stubbornly, Kori said, “But I want to see the gorilla’s reactions for myself. I don’t want you two make any mistakes about this.”

“Shove it!” Lou snapped, keeping his voice down to avoid frightening Big George. “You think you’re the only one with brains? I’m not going to let Bonnie take any chances.”

“Stop arguing,” Bonnie said. To Kori she added, “He won’t come out as long as you’re here.”

Kori left, muttering to himself. After another ten minutes of coaxing and soothing, Big George lumbered out of the trees and up to the fence.

“George,” Lou said, gripping the fine wire mesh of the fence. “Are you okay?”

“Head … head hurts.”

“It’s all right, Georgy,” Bonnie said. “The hurt will go away soon.”

“Hurts… bad men … hurt…”

Is it just me or does his voice sound strange? Like it’s hard for him to put words together. Lou felt his eyes stinging and realized there were tears in them. “Georgy, don’t be afraid. It’s going to be all right. The bad men have gone away. They won’t come back.”

The gorilla merely blinked.

Bonnie said softly. “Georgy, in a little while I’m going to come and stay with you. I’ll bring you lots of food, and some medicine to stop the hurt.

“Hurt… scared… bad men…”

“I’ll stay with you,” Bonnie repeated. “And the medicine will stop the hurting. Don’t be afraid.”

“And I’ll make sure that the bad men don’t ever come back,” Lou said, feeling anger welling up within him. “Not ever.”

“Uncle Lou…” Big George started, but his voice trailed off and he never finished the thought.

Lou said as gently as he could. “It’s all right, Georgy. No one’s ever going to hurt you again.”

As they walked away from the compound, Bonnie put a hand on Lou’s arm.

“You’re shaking,” she said.

Nodding, Lou answered, “You know… last night I couldn’t sleep. I was scared. Still am, I guess. We could all get killed tonight. But I think what was really scaring me the most was the thought that I might have to kill somebody myself. Oral least try to. But now… seeing what, they’ve done to Georgy… to a harmless animal like that… I’m not shaking from fear anymore. That’s anger.”

“It’s all right,” Bonnie said. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

“Do you really think you’ll be okay in there with George?”

“Yes, of course. I’ll bring him some candy and sedatives. He’ll sleep like a baby.”

Lou nodded.

“You’ll see,” Bonnie said. “It’s all going to go like clockwork.”

“Yeah.” Lou glanced at his wristwatch. X minus four hours and counting.

Exactly at eleven o’clock the three of them met at the doorway to the dormitory building. They had spent the intervening hours checking final details and then pretending to go to their separate rooms for the night. Now they met in the darkness and started wordlessly for the lab complex. They had found identical black stretch pullovers and slacks among the disposable clothing supply in the dorm. Identical, but Bonnie’s sure looks better than ours, Lou thought.

There were two cars on the island, turbowagons, both of them. One was usually parked for the night at the lab complex. The other stayed at Marcus’ house.

“Do you think anybody’s watching us?” Bonnie asked in a whisper as they walked along the side of the road toward the lab area, sticking to the shadows of the trees and shrubs.

Kori whispered back, “They’ve got guards posted at the lab complex, the gorilla’s compound, the bomb storage caves, and Marcus’ house. Why should they watch us? We can’t do any harm unless we get to one or more of those spots.”

“Well, if they are watching us we’ll find out about it soon enough,” Lou said, pointing to the glow up the road that marked the lights of the lab complex.

They skirted the lighted area by detouring through the trees, making a wide circle, and doubling back to the far side of Big George’s compound. While Kori stayed well away, Lou and Bonnie walked up to the fence and softly called the gorilla.

Big George lumbered up to the fence. “Hello, Georgy,” said Lou. “How do you feel?”

“Head… hurts…”

“I’ve brought some medicine to make it feel all better,” Bonnie said. “And some candy for you.”

They talked for a few moments more with the gorilla, then Lou boosted Bonnie up to the top of the wire fence. George reached up and grasped her around the waist, his huge hands circling her completely. He put her down inside the fence as gently as a ballet dancer handles his ballerina.