Smoking Chimp Story: Smokin' Apes

Hey guys,

Let me know what you think. Originally I wanted to try something else for this assignment, but due to the smoking ape, along with some other limits I placed on myself, I was not able to do what I originally set out to do. Thus, I compromised.

Let me know what you guys think

Some things I'd like you to to consider:

• are the series of events and the descriptions clear
  
• does the story have a flow that keeps you as the reader interested
  
• the ending is sudden and leaves the reader without many answers, does this take away from the story as it is.
  

P.S. Thanks again Pete for the help.

Enjoy.

Smoking' Apes

The sign on the door still read “Dr. Eli Lucius.” Devon Knocked on the door.

Devon could hear footsteps, coming closer from within the laboratory, mingle with light vocal squeaks and whines. The door opened.

“Hi,” The man who answered the door looked to be in his late twenties. “Dr. Devon Sands, right?”

“Yeah,” Said Devon, still taking in the young lab assistant. He didn’t look like a lab rat, his hair was fashionable and his complexion well kept. A slight tinge of envy nipped at the back of Devon’s mind, as he became aware of his pasty skin and his doughy mid section.

“I’m Mark, come on in,” The lab was neat and orderly like most others at the university, but unlike the others this labs had an element of decor that was more refined then the usual pictures of family, and geek humor set up by most researchers. A few bamboo plants, a bonsai, a picture frame showing Mark and a second young man. They seemed close, thought Devon. He tried not to stare at the picture.

“I left all of Professor Lucius’ stuff exactly how it was,” he pointed to the screen desk near the cages, “of course I’ve been taking care of Lucy, but that’s a given.” He walked over to the large cage against the wall against and squat down to eye level with the Chimpanzee who was still whining for attention.

“Lucy,” Mark spoke to her like one would speak to a child, “Do you want to meet Doctor Sands?” The ape looked at Devon and then scurried toward the back of the cage.

“I’m sorry Doctor she’s a little shaken up, I don’t know what they told you but the Professor, came in the night…” theree was a pause, as if Mark couldn’t finish the sentence,” the night before he died.”

“No, nobody told me about it,” Devon was not surprised though. Doctor Lucius had been difficult to get a hold of for the past two months before his death. No body knew what had been doing. “What was he doing here?”

“I don’t know, when I came in Tuesday morning I found him passed out at his screen desk, and Lucy was pretty agitated.” Mark eyes became watery, he clenched his jaw and bit back his frustration, “I’m sorry Professor, I thought I was helping him, I called a cab to take him home... that was the last I’d seen him.”

Devon wasn’t sure what to do. He was afraid that Mark would begin to cry, and wondered whether he should say something reassuring to the research assistant. There had been rumors about the university about Professor Lucius. Devon folded his arms “I’m sorry, It must be hard,” Devon Mumbled the words more than spoke them.

Before Devon had a chance to say anything else Mark had relaxed his jaw and blinked away his watery eyes. “Sorry, it’s just been a rough couple of days.”

Devon nodded.

After a few minutes, Mark was looking better and gave an embarrassed laugh “, so how can I help you?”

“Well,” Started Devon, “The University wants me to find out where Doctor Lucius was in his research, why haven’t we been able to get ahold of him over the past two months, and if I can continue where he left off.”

“Well, there hasn’t been much research going for a while now.”

“What do you mean?” If Doctor Lucius abandoned his research the university would not be happy.

“Well,” Mark pulled up a chair at his own desk, “I think about two months ago, after Professor Lucius came back from his uncle’s funeral, he asked me to look after the lab for a few days, and to take care of Lucy.”

Devon had pulled out a notepad and began taking notes, “So what happened after a few days?”

“Nothing, he didn’t show up, he didn’t call,” There was a hint of anger in Mark’s voice, it wasn’t until a week later that I got an Email from Professor Lucius telling me that he would be absent for a while, and that I should tell the university that everything was fine. I didn’t hear from him since, I called, I even went to his home. Nothing. Until...” Marks jaw began to shake again.

“It’s okay, I don’t need anymore.”

Mark nodded.

“Mark what can you tell me about the research, about Lucy?”

“Lucy,” The new topic made Mark look a little more relaxed, “well, she’s probably the most important Primatological specimen ever found.”

“Why is that...?”

Devon was interrupted by Lucy’s high pitched whining. She had emerged from the back of the cage and was making hand gestures. Devon had researched chimpanzees and chimpanzee communication but he was unfamiliar with the words that Lucy was signing. At least He was never familiar with an ape to use that specific sign. He pointed at her with his pen. “Is she asking for what I think she’s asking for?”

Mark stood. Obviously not thrilled about what he was about to do. “Yes, she is.” As mark walked up to the cage he pulled out a cigarette, and handed it to Lucy. Producing a lighter from a pile of bedding, she lit the cigarette with two hands. “Somehow during her transport here, she picked up a pack and lighter, we haven’t been able to wean her.”

Devon wasn’t sure what to think of that, “Where did Lucy come from?”

“Huh?” Mark was looking at Lucy with disapproval, she was smiling, “Oh, The Professor was researching Religious Memes among refugees, in the northern Congo; this was During the Sudan War in 2034.”

“How did Doctor Lucius jump from refugees to Chimps?” Devon was aware that Doctor Lucius had several Doctorates, but that was still a bit of a sudden Jump.

“It wasn’t too difficult,” mark Shrugged, “A colleague of his was studying Lucy’s troop in the area and asked Professor Lucius to help.”

“What did this Colleague need help with?”

“Lucy and the rest of her troop began fashioning stone tools.”

Devon stopped writing notes, “What do you mean?”

“I mean exactly what I said,” mark turned around and looked directly at Devon, “Lucy and the rest of her troop back in Africa learned that by striking two stones together that they could make jagged rocks that they began throwing animals that they would hunt.”

Devon still could not bring himself to write any of this down, “Are you suggesting?” Devon didn’t want to finish.

“Yes. Members of Lucy’s troop are found to have shorter fetal periods, are born on average two weeks earlier than your average chimp allowing for a fontanel.” He turned and looked at Lucy and said the next words almost as if he didn’t believe them himself, “Their brains are more fully developed at birth.” He paused for a moment and looked back at Devon, “and what to they do? They take up smoking.”

Devon sat speechless. This couldn’t be possible. “Professor Lucius had an ape specimen that is a step closer to human intelligence than anything has ever been... and he just dropped his research?”

“Maybe you’ll be able to find something in his notes, I have no idea why he disappeared, or why he...” Mark stopped for a moment, “Why he killed himself. I don’t think I want to know.”

The two sat in silence for a short time, only Lucy’s quite whines could be heard while she was between puffs.

“Doctor Sands,” Mark was the first to speak, “I need to get going, I have to meet my husband for dinner, will you be okay locking up her before you leave?”

It took Devon a moment to take in what the research assistant had just said, “Oh, yes, I’ll be fine.”

As the young lab assistant left he stopped and turned at the door, “Doctor.”

“Yes,” Devon wasn’t sure what to expect.

“When I found Professor Lucius that morning, he looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks, he seemed paranoid, and he left Lucy very agitated, I’m not sure what he was doing, but maybe that will help you.”

“Thank you,” Devon watched the lab assistant close the door and leave. The office was quiet. The quiet was so loud that it swallowed almost all sounds.

Devon sat at the desk of Doctor Lucius. The touch sensitive top of the desk displaying a screen saver of rain drops sliding along the strands of a spider web.

When Devon touched the orb on top of the desk screen a voice came from nearby speakers, “Name and pass code, please,”

“Doctor Sands, University override, The white kitten had had nothing to do with it,” Devon used the orb to sign his mark on the screen.

“Override acknowledged, good evening Doctor Sands.”

“Evening Alice,” Devon took a deep breathe, “Alice, please pull up the research Data of Doctor Lucius. Parameter is 'Lucy'” The Screen filled with an array of video, audio, text, and picture files. But still there seemed to be at least two years worth of Data.

“Well, Lucy,” he looked at the Chimp, wondering what was capable of, “We have a long night ahead of us” She looked at him; there was a sad look in her eyes. She motioned for a cigarette. Devon looked into a drawer of the screen desk and found a pack.

As Devon sat, motionless and quite, reading, watching, listening to the early research of Doctor Lucius, and as Lucy sat smoking her cigarette motion sensors of the lights kicked off and went to sleep. The lab became dark, but for the glow of the screen desk and the cigarette.

Some of the earlier files dealt with Professor Lucius’ observations of the troop in the wild, but eventually those were replaced by observations done in the lab.

Around nine at night, after four hours, Devon was tired, his eyes caused the shadows of the lab to seem as if they were moving. He rubbed them with his palms and leaned back in the chair. He had been reading about the period during which Lucy was learning Primate sign language, but he couldn’t keep focused. Something was bothering him.

It was a strange feeling that he had since he began scanning through the files, and as he sat there, the files laid out in front of him, he suddenly realized what it was. Mark said that Lucius had fallen asleep at his desk. But even the most recent file was dated just over two months ago. What, Devon wondered, was the professor doing here?”

“Alice, Search, new parameters,” he checked his watch, “Search for files opened or created January 11 and 10 of 2037.” The massive assortment of research files vanished and a new file Dated 01/11/37 2:00 am sat alone on the search field. It was titled “Lock.”

“An immersive?” Devon whispered under his breath. It wasn't unusual but none of The Doctor other files where immersive.

"Alice, begin a corruption scan on Lock."

A bar appeared over the File showing the progression of the scan. Devon walked over to the cage. Lucy wasn't sleeping, but at least she wasn't asking for a cigarette. "You know this things will kill you, cutie."

Lucy Came up to Devon and hugged him through the cage, and then pointed to the lock on her door. "You want me to let you out?"

Lucy signed "no," but then immediately signed the words, "Out, Lucy, out."

Devon laughed a bit, "I don't think I trust slightly smarter Chimps just yet."

Again she signed, "Out Lucy." But by this point Devon was no longer paying attention. The voice of Alice had announced that the scan was done, "No corruption found, Password required".

Devon once again gave his clearance.

"I'm sorry Doctor Sands, your clearance has been rejected, please supply the appropriate keyphrase."

"Great," Said Devon, "any ideas Lucy?"

Lucy Began signing for a cigarette. Devon began reaching into his pocket, but stopped. Lucy had begun to Sign "No" and then again signed "cigarette" again.

Devon exhaled his frustration, "I guess being smarter also makes you indecisive huh." Devon walked up with the Cigarette.

Lucy was standing on two legs. She took the cigarette with one hand but kept pointing at the desk with the other.

"Ok, what do you want now," Devon was liking this ape less every minute.

Again she signed "cigarette."

"You already have a..." Devon stared at the Lucy amazed. He couldn't believe what he was thinking.

"Alice," Devon bolted back to the screen, "Open File: Lock. Password: cigarette."

The Screen went blank, "Access Granted, Doctor Sands, a jack is required to interface with this file."

Devon Grabbed one of the jacks, from the mount on the corner of the desk. He connected one end behind his ear with his own interface, and then another end into the computer. He felt the tingle and saw the progress bar in front of his eyes work its way from left to right. "Launch File."

There was a tingling warm feeling that swirled through Devon's head, and within a few moments there appeared in the room images that seemed to surround him. The images were an overlay, having substance only in his head. They did not exist in the outside of the controlled hallucination of the immersion program.

The images became clear. The file created a virtual space in Devon's mind that was now superimposed, without flaw, Devon's vision of the physical world. As the virtual entities took shape Devon perceived that cubes where set on the desk before him. Each one was emanating and internal light. They sat in two outer columns of three, and a central column of four. The central column extended out of the square created by the two outside columns. The First cube of the center sat before Devon, above that was the second witch sat between and below the first outside pair. The Third cube of the central co;umn rested in a point central the first and second pairs of the outside columns. The fourth sat between but above the last pair of outward cubes, alone. But there was an eleventh point.

Centering the Second and third outward pairs, Devon saw nothing. It was empty.

As the ten cubes sat before Devon, he could feel each one pulse with energy. He new in the back of his mind that this was little more than an illusion, but the realism of the experience filled him with an anxiety he could not understand. There was something troubling about the cubes, or more accurately, he thought, behind the cubes.

As he surveyed the cubes he became aware that each cube pulsed at a different frequency, like notes of descending order. With a deep breath Devon touched the cube nearest to him.

The cube's pulse became a low constant throb and all at once the other cubes went silent. Devon removed his hand from the cube with sudden fear. It was not the sudden change of the cubes behavior that frightened him, but something much more subtle. He was not, in fact, completely sure that he had heard it.

He once again touched the nearest cube, again it throbbed. Devon sat and listened for any change. There was something deep, far beneath the hum. Something whispered. Devon held on this time, and listened hard. But the whisper became no clearer.

He suddenly had a thought "Alice, I thought there was no file corruption."

"There is no file corruption, but a part of the file was modified."

"How was it modified?"

"I have a record of information from this file being copied and moved to another file, named Key."

"Could you bring up Key?"

"I'm sorry Doctor Sands, that file was copied then deleted immediately after its creation."

"Shit." Devon sat back in Doctor Lucius' chair, the cubes laid out before him.

What is all of this, he wondered, what was The Professor doing. His head swam with thoughts about what he was looking at, and what it meant. Did this file have something to do with The Professor's death?

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Lucy. She shrieked and banged her cage.

"What is it now, Lucy,"

The Chimp was agitated. She was back to asking for, "Out, Lucy, Out, Lucy."

Devon breathed "Christ," he removed the jack and stood up. He paced back and forth in front of the screen desk. The voice of the whisper played in the back of his head. Lucy was yelling.

Breaking his train of thought, he leaned up against Lucy's cage. His forehead between two of the bars. "What about you Lucy? Any ideas?"

"Out, Lucy."

Devon laughed, "The Doctor didn't tell you were he put the key did he, silly monkey?"

"Lucy," She signed.

"I know, 'Lucy out,' I know."

Lucy whined and shook her head. There was something serious about her exaggerated head shake. Something Devon saw in her eyes. There was something different about Lucy, He reminded himself that there was something about her, different from any other Primate he had dealt with.

"Alice," he was back at the screen desk. “Search records... where there any external drives attached to the computer on January the tenth and the eleventh?"

"Running search," immediately records showed that two separate drives where used one on the tenth and one on the eleventh. The external drive used on the eleventh was named Lucy.

"Alice, what was the format of external drive: Lucy?"

"Biological."

Devon was now looking at Lucy. She was standing on two legs looking back at him.

"Human?"

"No."

Devon couldn’t believe it. "Alice, check again, No known, non-human brain on record has ever been able to safely store data. Confirm "biological" and "non-human" parameters."

"I'm sorry, Doctor Sands, The biological drive lacked human capacity or performance parameters, but it did not register as corrupted, therefore could not have been human."

Lucy was looking back and forth from Devon to the screen, "Out, Lucy,"

Devon Jacked for the monitoring interface behind Lucy’s ear. It was there, but it wasn’t a standard monitoring interface, it was a full interface. The scar tissue was old. Lucy was wide awake.

Devon let Lucy out of the cage and brought her to the desk. Just as he did with himself, he interfaced Lucy with the desk. A small icon of an apes hand print showed up on the surface. Devon opened the drive. There was a file named “Test” dated seven months ago, and another named “Key” Dated January 11th.

It was running.

"No wonder you haven't been sleeping,"

Lucy signed, "Out, Lucy." Devon was beginning to realize just what he was dealing with, and how blind he had been before.

"Don't worry we will," Devon was concerned. It wasn't the Key file that was causing Lucy to have sleeping problems; it was a hash file, a barrier protecting the key file. It's probably why she's been so agitated, he thought. But there was something else. Having Alice probe the Key file he learned that the hash was not keeping him out but rather keeping the key in.

"I'm sorry, Doctor Sands, but any attempt to remove Key from the external drive will cause corruption to the drive itself."

Finally tired and out of ideas he decided there was nothing left but to see what the doctor was hiding.

"Alice, Run files Lock and Key."

With his own headjack he could now see the immersive as it was meant to be experienced.

The immersive filled all of Devon's vision with black. The darkness was filled with sounds. Chaotic and inhuman. The light that came next was bright and blinding and when it receded all that was left was the set of ten cubes, but this time the eleventh point was emanating it's own light.

Devon and Lucy watched as a shining orb manifested from the light, rose over their heads and shattered. Its infinite particles spread across the virtual space.

Devon thought that he was now looking at a starry sky, but he after a moment he realized that that was not the case. The dust from the orb had formed specks of light in the blackness, but they did not fill the whole space, rather they clustered together to over the form of an empty orb. As the immersion lifted the scene, of the room was coming back into focus.

Devon couldn't understand where the silence had come from. Nor could he understand why the world moved so slowly. Why couldn't he here anything, he wondered, as he impacted the floor.

All at once the world came back, the sounds of gunfire filled the room, a bright light, followed by silence. Lucy was on the ground next to him. Devon's hands were cold and wet.

Devon was seeing the world through the eyes of someone else, someone who was no longer him. It was becoming more distant. Someone was squatting near his body. The name tag read "Mark Goodman" below that, "Lab. Assistant."

The last sounds Devon ever heard was someone calling, "Professor, don't go. What did you see? WHAT DID YOU SEE? MILES, GET HELP." The Light was gone.