In Thade We Trust
Title: In Thade We Trust 18/?
Author: veiledndarkness
Warning: The usual disclaimer, not my property, just playing with the characters. Takes place shortly after the end of Planet of the Apes (2001).
Summary: In the darkest parts of the human mind lies the ability to be needlessly cruel and inhuman, a baser nature that separates us from the animals.
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Naira hurried Leo into the waiting vehicle, looking back over his shoulders every few seconds. "Quickly now, buckle yourself in," he gestured, stepping in behind him. The door slid shut and Leo shivered, wincing as the movements across the seats jarred his stiff and sore joints.
"I guess it's too much to ask for a pair of socks or something," he muttered, tugging the long belt over his shoulder, clicking it into place. To his amusement, the seatbelt style hadn't changed since he'd last been on Earth.
Ari twisted around in the front passenger seat. "Yes, Koza was kind enough to bring you something a little less, well, obvious. Your lab clothes will give you away in a large crowd."
"As if the fact that he's human will be less noticeable should he wear clothes made of hemp?" Naira snapped, "Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous..."
"There's no disguising what he is, but if we can help him look like less of a science slave, then maybe we'll get closer to the Thade Memorial, hm?" Koza chuckled and shook his head. "Those clothes you force on them are no better than serial bars or tattoos marking your property, that is, when it occurs to your kind to put some clothes on them!"
Naira rolled his eyes. "Oh for Thade's sake, it's not a stigma to wear fleece!"
Ari took a bag from the front seat and handed it to Leo, ignoring the bickering chimps. "Here Leo," she whispered. "I guessed at your measurements. Hopefully these will be comfortable enough."
"At this point, I'd take burlap on my feet," he said, digging through the bag and finding thick socks. He tugged those on immediately and sighed, warmth covering his chilled toes. He pulled the clothes out, changing as quickly as he could manage while Koza navigated the car away from the shrubbery and trees covering the tunnel exit.
Leo smoothed the top over his arms, the cloth just a touch too big for his body. "I look like a hippie," he snorted, choking on a laugh. "God, if they could see me now."
"A hippie…?"
"Fight the power," Leo grinned and slipped the battered long coat on. "Never mind, it's uh, something out of human history. And God knows I'm sure that the flower power stuff never happened once Thade changed everything."
Naira exchanged glances with Ari, both wearing expressions of bemused confusion.
"I see," Naira murmured, "A human rebellion then? Against whom?"
"The powers that be…the government, that kinda thing…" Leo finished dressing and sighed once more, wearing boots for the first time since his landing, "Protesting wars, establishment, and all that jazz."
Koza laughed. "That's fascinating. We have that in its own way. Chimps like Ari, like me, like...well Naira doesn't count, I suppose, but we are part of the anti-establishment. We believe in the rights to all sentient beings, humans included. Fortunate for you, isn't it?"
"You really got a way with words," Leo caught his gaze in the rear view mirror, giving him an unfriendly smile. "Don't ya?"
"I would think you'd be grateful for my efforts and those of Ari's. A little respect goes a long way, Leo."
"Yeah well courtesy and respect are two way streets." Leo crossed his arms, glaring out the window. He heard an intake of breath, a smothered laugh from Naira beside him.
Naira leaned forward. "Ari, pass me the folders, please? I want Leo to look at them in greater detail."
She pushed the folder between the seats, glaring at him. "What more can you hope to know when you spend all your time bickering with our only help?"
"I'll say nothing further as long as he can maintain the peace as well." Naira flipped the folder open and spread the pages out for Leo. "Here, these are the lines I jotted down from the statue. As we discussed, the lines readjusted point to beyond the monument and these lines were etched into the stone itself. Do you see anything different in this light?"
Leo squinted at the pages, frowning. "I wouldn't say they point beyond it, I'd say they point behind it."
"Behind the monument, though? What would be the point in that if they aren't directed at something specific?"
"Unless he intentionally did that to indicate the statue," Leo shrugged. "Obviously he wanted me to see this."
Ari rested her head to her palm, considering that, "What if he meant...under it?"
"Under it...?" Leo echoed. He glanced at the sketches again, the way the lines formed. "Makes me wonder who gave him the idea to use the lines, crafty fucker that he was."
"Could you...well..." Ari looked about, flustered. "I mean, in your experience with Thade, could you describe him?"
Leo snorted. "He looks like the one on the statue. He looks like Calder, kinda, only shorter with these nasty, angry eyes. He was all over the other version of, uh...yeah. He was determined to kill me, one way or the other."
"Other version?" Naira tapped the page with one finger.
"Nothin', it's nothing," Leo muttered.
"Leo, if you're withholding information that may aid us in helping you..."
"Trust me, you're better off not knowing, Doc." Leo pushed at the papers, flipping the top one over and tracing the curve of the line with his thumb. "They called him General Thade, so I guess he was their military go-to guy."
Ari leaned between the seats more, her eyes wide and eager. “When you say other, please, tell me what you mean?"
"I met another you, ok?"
Her mouth fell open. "What..."
Leo sighed. "The name's the same, the clothes, the way you sound, I thought it was you when you first stomped into the lab an' saw me there, but I was wrong."
"You knew my name, I wondered how," she clasped a hand to her mouth, stunned.
"Her name was Ari. She was the daughter of a Senator and one of those liberal bleeding hearts. She didn't like how the humans were treated on her planet either. She helped me escape along with other humans too," Leo trailed off and stared out the window. "She's you, just...another version of you."
"I must say, that sounds remarkably similar to Ari in this life," Naira rubbed his chin, "A mirror image even, and a liberal chimp that rescues humans. Fancy that."
"Pity that we should have so few of those," Koza snapped, bringing the car around a sharp corner. "Hold on tightly, we have company."
Leo whipped his head back at Koza's warning. A line of patrol cars flooded the road in the distance, the sirens wailing and flashing red and blue. He swallowed over the instinctive fear, his mouth dry. "You might wanna speed up there, bud."
Naira gripped the sides of his seat, his eyes shut as Koza darted around another corner and into a narrow alleyway. "Thade, but I hate car rides," he muttered, looking a touch queasy.
Ari hunched down in her seat, her fingers picking nervously at her bag. "Koza, do you know another way to the memorial?"
He nodded, pressing down harder on the gas pedal and sending the car forward with a jolt. "We can come up through one of the side roads. We'll need to leave the car before we reach the grounds, but if we go on foot, we'll risk the patrols."
"The patrols are already on us, we don't have much choice," Ari glanced out the rear window. "If we were on foot, they'd have us by now."
"Hold on to your seat, Leo!" Koza shouted, slamming his foot down on the gas pedal. The car shot forward, bursting through the alleyway. The car narrowly sideswiped another, the blare of the horn startling Ari. Naira groaned, holding his head in his lap as Koza manipulated the car, careening them around various corners, the wheels squealing under them.
Leo felt his stomach flop and leaned down as well, holding tightly to the seat. "The fun never ends," he said between clenched teeth.
X
Riva twisted his fingers anxiously in his lap, watching the swarms of guards exiting the building, Senator Sandar seated next to him in his luxury car. He twisted his fingers tighter, nearly squirming under the steady gaze of Sandar.
"Do you know of the old stories, the legends, Riva?" he asked finally, breaking the muffled silence inside the vehicle, "Of early ape kind?"
Riva rubbed his fingers and nodded. "Yes, my grandmother told me tales at night before bed, n-no matter what my mother said. She didn't like the stories…" He clamped his mouth shut abruptly and looked down at his hands. "That is...I, she...believes in things...she's not a activist or anything like that," he mumbled a moment later.
"There's no law against being a human rights supporter, Thade knows that." Sandar exhaled a long breath and nodded to the driver at the front of the car. As the engine started, he smiled a weary smile and shook his head. "It's simply not a favourable thing in our society."
"Sir..." Riva hesitated and then surged forward with his question heedlessly. "Leo disagreed with the legends when I had him in his cag-, uh, his confinement. He scoffed and made claims about T-Thade, sacrilegious things. I was...Could you tell me what he meant? Surely Thade was no...Criminal."
Sandar simply shook his head, a sad wisdom to his face. "I'm afraid what we've been led to believe is nothing but falsehoods, Riva. It appears that what the human claims is true."
"That cannot be," Riva choked out in a horrified whisper. "It..."
"It is. There's a level of secrecy you cannot imagine revolving around Thade and Leo. Everything we know, everything we've taught and spoken of, every last thing is a lie."
Riva stared at the Senator, stunned into silence. "Calder knew...didn't he?"
"I believe so." Sandar folded his hands on his lap, seemingly shrunken in his regal clothes, a heavy weight on his shoulders. "Our only hope is to find Ari and Leo before Calder does."
Riva bit the inside of his cheek. "Sir, Leo said he, h-he crash landed on the memorial. Perhaps he went there?"
"The question is why," Sandar murmured. "Isn't it always the question?"
X
Deep inside the science facility, beyond the usual high security clearance, Calder swiped his pass card through the door lock. "Open or I'll re-wire you," he growled when the alarm beeped on the unit. He looked down both ends of the empty hallway and smashed his fist down on the security unit, cracking the plate around it. The alarm blared once, and then faded. He hit it again, sending the shards down to the tiled floor and kicked the door open.
The door smacked back against the wall, revealing the darkened room to Calder.
He smiled, wedging the door shut behind him. With just a few of the lights lit, he made his way deeper into the room, his heart pounding with excitement. In his rage towards Leo and Sandar, he'd taken a moment to stop and plan. And if he were to punish Leo appropriately...He tugged the sheet off of a long cage, laughing as he did so.
A culmination of years of work, a weapon at it's finest, a marvel of steel, a weapon that they had developed to be used in the army should the need for such a device ever occur. The cloth pooled on the ground, the frame of the machine glinting in the dim light, a great hulking piece of mechanical genius, all sharp edges and long ridges.
"The Menscheaffe," Calder whispered reverently. A proud smile curved his mouth.
He slipped the simple metal bar locking the cage and opened it, his heart beat racing. "You will get your chance to shine. And that human will suffer, Thade, how he'll suffer..."
Calder hurried about in the room, securing what he needed. He smashed more containers open, pocketing the contents, files he couldn't bear to leave behind and the keypad to the Menscheaffe.
"I know precisely where you're going, my dear Leo," he laughed, climbing into the seating area of the giant walking machine, poised to destroy the building as he left. "Oh yes, I know..."
X
Author: veiledndarkness
Warning: The usual disclaimer, not my property, just playing with the characters. Takes place shortly after the end of Planet of the Apes (2001).
Summary: In the darkest parts of the human mind lies the ability to be needlessly cruel and inhuman, a baser nature that separates us from the animals.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
X
Naira hurried Leo into the waiting vehicle, looking back over his shoulders every few seconds. "Quickly now, buckle yourself in," he gestured, stepping in behind him. The door slid shut and Leo shivered, wincing as the movements across the seats jarred his stiff and sore joints.
"I guess it's too much to ask for a pair of socks or something," he muttered, tugging the long belt over his shoulder, clicking it into place. To his amusement, the seatbelt style hadn't changed since he'd last been on Earth.
Ari twisted around in the front passenger seat. "Yes, Koza was kind enough to bring you something a little less, well, obvious. Your lab clothes will give you away in a large crowd."
"As if the fact that he's human will be less noticeable should he wear clothes made of hemp?" Naira snapped, "Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous..."
"There's no disguising what he is, but if we can help him look like less of a science slave, then maybe we'll get closer to the Thade Memorial, hm?" Koza chuckled and shook his head. "Those clothes you force on them are no better than serial bars or tattoos marking your property, that is, when it occurs to your kind to put some clothes on them!"
Naira rolled his eyes. "Oh for Thade's sake, it's not a stigma to wear fleece!"
Ari took a bag from the front seat and handed it to Leo, ignoring the bickering chimps. "Here Leo," she whispered. "I guessed at your measurements. Hopefully these will be comfortable enough."
"At this point, I'd take burlap on my feet," he said, digging through the bag and finding thick socks. He tugged those on immediately and sighed, warmth covering his chilled toes. He pulled the clothes out, changing as quickly as he could manage while Koza navigated the car away from the shrubbery and trees covering the tunnel exit.
Leo smoothed the top over his arms, the cloth just a touch too big for his body. "I look like a hippie," he snorted, choking on a laugh. "God, if they could see me now."
"A hippie…?"
"Fight the power," Leo grinned and slipped the battered long coat on. "Never mind, it's uh, something out of human history. And God knows I'm sure that the flower power stuff never happened once Thade changed everything."
Naira exchanged glances with Ari, both wearing expressions of bemused confusion.
"I see," Naira murmured, "A human rebellion then? Against whom?"
"The powers that be…the government, that kinda thing…" Leo finished dressing and sighed once more, wearing boots for the first time since his landing, "Protesting wars, establishment, and all that jazz."
Koza laughed. "That's fascinating. We have that in its own way. Chimps like Ari, like me, like...well Naira doesn't count, I suppose, but we are part of the anti-establishment. We believe in the rights to all sentient beings, humans included. Fortunate for you, isn't it?"
"You really got a way with words," Leo caught his gaze in the rear view mirror, giving him an unfriendly smile. "Don't ya?"
"I would think you'd be grateful for my efforts and those of Ari's. A little respect goes a long way, Leo."
"Yeah well courtesy and respect are two way streets." Leo crossed his arms, glaring out the window. He heard an intake of breath, a smothered laugh from Naira beside him.
Naira leaned forward. "Ari, pass me the folders, please? I want Leo to look at them in greater detail."
She pushed the folder between the seats, glaring at him. "What more can you hope to know when you spend all your time bickering with our only help?"
"I'll say nothing further as long as he can maintain the peace as well." Naira flipped the folder open and spread the pages out for Leo. "Here, these are the lines I jotted down from the statue. As we discussed, the lines readjusted point to beyond the monument and these lines were etched into the stone itself. Do you see anything different in this light?"
Leo squinted at the pages, frowning. "I wouldn't say they point beyond it, I'd say they point behind it."
"Behind the monument, though? What would be the point in that if they aren't directed at something specific?"
"Unless he intentionally did that to indicate the statue," Leo shrugged. "Obviously he wanted me to see this."
Ari rested her head to her palm, considering that, "What if he meant...under it?"
"Under it...?" Leo echoed. He glanced at the sketches again, the way the lines formed. "Makes me wonder who gave him the idea to use the lines, crafty fucker that he was."
"Could you...well..." Ari looked about, flustered. "I mean, in your experience with Thade, could you describe him?"
Leo snorted. "He looks like the one on the statue. He looks like Calder, kinda, only shorter with these nasty, angry eyes. He was all over the other version of, uh...yeah. He was determined to kill me, one way or the other."
"Other version?" Naira tapped the page with one finger.
"Nothin', it's nothing," Leo muttered.
"Leo, if you're withholding information that may aid us in helping you..."
"Trust me, you're better off not knowing, Doc." Leo pushed at the papers, flipping the top one over and tracing the curve of the line with his thumb. "They called him General Thade, so I guess he was their military go-to guy."
Ari leaned between the seats more, her eyes wide and eager. “When you say other, please, tell me what you mean?"
"I met another you, ok?"
Her mouth fell open. "What..."
Leo sighed. "The name's the same, the clothes, the way you sound, I thought it was you when you first stomped into the lab an' saw me there, but I was wrong."
"You knew my name, I wondered how," she clasped a hand to her mouth, stunned.
"Her name was Ari. She was the daughter of a Senator and one of those liberal bleeding hearts. She didn't like how the humans were treated on her planet either. She helped me escape along with other humans too," Leo trailed off and stared out the window. "She's you, just...another version of you."
"I must say, that sounds remarkably similar to Ari in this life," Naira rubbed his chin, "A mirror image even, and a liberal chimp that rescues humans. Fancy that."
"Pity that we should have so few of those," Koza snapped, bringing the car around a sharp corner. "Hold on tightly, we have company."
Leo whipped his head back at Koza's warning. A line of patrol cars flooded the road in the distance, the sirens wailing and flashing red and blue. He swallowed over the instinctive fear, his mouth dry. "You might wanna speed up there, bud."
Naira gripped the sides of his seat, his eyes shut as Koza darted around another corner and into a narrow alleyway. "Thade, but I hate car rides," he muttered, looking a touch queasy.
Ari hunched down in her seat, her fingers picking nervously at her bag. "Koza, do you know another way to the memorial?"
He nodded, pressing down harder on the gas pedal and sending the car forward with a jolt. "We can come up through one of the side roads. We'll need to leave the car before we reach the grounds, but if we go on foot, we'll risk the patrols."
"The patrols are already on us, we don't have much choice," Ari glanced out the rear window. "If we were on foot, they'd have us by now."
"Hold on to your seat, Leo!" Koza shouted, slamming his foot down on the gas pedal. The car shot forward, bursting through the alleyway. The car narrowly sideswiped another, the blare of the horn startling Ari. Naira groaned, holding his head in his lap as Koza manipulated the car, careening them around various corners, the wheels squealing under them.
Leo felt his stomach flop and leaned down as well, holding tightly to the seat. "The fun never ends," he said between clenched teeth.
X
Riva twisted his fingers anxiously in his lap, watching the swarms of guards exiting the building, Senator Sandar seated next to him in his luxury car. He twisted his fingers tighter, nearly squirming under the steady gaze of Sandar.
"Do you know of the old stories, the legends, Riva?" he asked finally, breaking the muffled silence inside the vehicle, "Of early ape kind?"
Riva rubbed his fingers and nodded. "Yes, my grandmother told me tales at night before bed, n-no matter what my mother said. She didn't like the stories…" He clamped his mouth shut abruptly and looked down at his hands. "That is...I, she...believes in things...she's not a activist or anything like that," he mumbled a moment later.
"There's no law against being a human rights supporter, Thade knows that." Sandar exhaled a long breath and nodded to the driver at the front of the car. As the engine started, he smiled a weary smile and shook his head. "It's simply not a favourable thing in our society."
"Sir..." Riva hesitated and then surged forward with his question heedlessly. "Leo disagreed with the legends when I had him in his cag-, uh, his confinement. He scoffed and made claims about T-Thade, sacrilegious things. I was...Could you tell me what he meant? Surely Thade was no...Criminal."
Sandar simply shook his head, a sad wisdom to his face. "I'm afraid what we've been led to believe is nothing but falsehoods, Riva. It appears that what the human claims is true."
"That cannot be," Riva choked out in a horrified whisper. "It..."
"It is. There's a level of secrecy you cannot imagine revolving around Thade and Leo. Everything we know, everything we've taught and spoken of, every last thing is a lie."
Riva stared at the Senator, stunned into silence. "Calder knew...didn't he?"
"I believe so." Sandar folded his hands on his lap, seemingly shrunken in his regal clothes, a heavy weight on his shoulders. "Our only hope is to find Ari and Leo before Calder does."
Riva bit the inside of his cheek. "Sir, Leo said he, h-he crash landed on the memorial. Perhaps he went there?"
"The question is why," Sandar murmured. "Isn't it always the question?"
X
Deep inside the science facility, beyond the usual high security clearance, Calder swiped his pass card through the door lock. "Open or I'll re-wire you," he growled when the alarm beeped on the unit. He looked down both ends of the empty hallway and smashed his fist down on the security unit, cracking the plate around it. The alarm blared once, and then faded. He hit it again, sending the shards down to the tiled floor and kicked the door open.
The door smacked back against the wall, revealing the darkened room to Calder.
He smiled, wedging the door shut behind him. With just a few of the lights lit, he made his way deeper into the room, his heart pounding with excitement. In his rage towards Leo and Sandar, he'd taken a moment to stop and plan. And if he were to punish Leo appropriately...He tugged the sheet off of a long cage, laughing as he did so.
A culmination of years of work, a weapon at it's finest, a marvel of steel, a weapon that they had developed to be used in the army should the need for such a device ever occur. The cloth pooled on the ground, the frame of the machine glinting in the dim light, a great hulking piece of mechanical genius, all sharp edges and long ridges.
"The Menscheaffe," Calder whispered reverently. A proud smile curved his mouth.
He slipped the simple metal bar locking the cage and opened it, his heart beat racing. "You will get your chance to shine. And that human will suffer, Thade, how he'll suffer..."
Calder hurried about in the room, securing what he needed. He smashed more containers open, pocketing the contents, files he couldn't bear to leave behind and the keypad to the Menscheaffe.
"I know precisely where you're going, my dear Leo," he laughed, climbing into the seating area of the giant walking machine, poised to destroy the building as he left. "Oh yes, I know..."
X