Chapter Six: The Monkey in the Iron Mask
A pulsating beam of light, or which appeared to be pulsating, stretched across a desolate portion of the Chronosplane. If anyone were to be watching this beautiful sight, it truly would have been beautiful. Fortunately for this beam of light there was one who was looking at it. More fortunate was that this being wearing something on its face that looked like an iron mask had already caressed the beam, gently, almost lovingly, without restraint.
It pulsed vibrantly for it desired the touch of matter upon its plasmatic, pulsating, lighted membrane. It was a superstring and Darius Protheus had just manhandled it. But this wasn’t the first time for him. This was the second time. And as they say, the second time is always better than the first.
The Simian Circle of Elders had gone ape over the fact that Claudia and Simia still had not shown up for court. Fretting and pacing back and forth was Just Dice, the presiding judge, who obviously did not have power over this court anymore.
“Gene, what would happen if they don’t find this other person?” Sonoro’s eyes kept pace with the pacing judge. Gene didn’t seem to be paying attention to him. “Gene, what...?”
“You know, I’m not going to hit you this time since you are genuinely concerned for your safety.” Still, Gene didn’t look at Sonoro, nor did it appear that he was paying attention to him.
“Sorry.” Sonoro was at a loss. He didn’t know what or how to ask questions anymore.
“OK, let’s see if we can go and trace their route and find them.”
“Me? But I’m not a detective.”
“Neither am I. I’m just the defense attorney, but I’m going to give it a try. Want to help?”
Sonoro was about to ask what he could help with, but didn’t. Some mutated simians learn slowly but fast enough not to get hit too repeatedly often. “How can I help?”
Gene was gazing intently at the surface of the table in front of him. Placing his hands palm up on it, he blinked three times. A smile crossed his face and he stood up. “Elder Simians, may I have your attention for a minute, please?”
Every simian in the room stopped what they were doing and stared at Gene. Just Dice stopped in mid-pace and opened his mouth. “Go ahead, Gene.”
“If it were to avail the court, and please the Elders and the Judge, may I suggest that I, Gene Simians, and the mutated simian Sonoro Holfrost be excused from the court for a period of time tantamount to a big time for a private council?”
“Very well. Unless the Elder Simians object, I relinquish to the defense attorney.” Just Dice gazed around the room. No simian spoke. “Then it’s agreed. You may have your time for council.”
“I thank the Circus.” He grabbed Sonoro’s hands whisking him off his seat, and both Simian and mutated simian exited the court.
Claudia and Simia were walking across a different section of the Chronosplane. The path was green with patches of grey light, slight bumps appeared at the surface at uneven intervals and was overall not that exciting to look at. “Simia,” Claudia had guessed by now that Simia wasn’t taking her to the court house, place or whatever they called it. “Where are we going?”
Simia looked at her and stopped walking, which prompted Claudia to stop also. “Claudia, there is no reason to believe that anyone will be getting a fair trial. Not with those male apes goofing off and not trying to get to the bottom of this. There is no possibility, chance or purpose wise, that a mutated simian from your dimension could have pulled any of those strings.”
Claudia nodded. She still wished Charlie was here to verify all the Physics this monkey was telling her.
“I’m not a monkey, I told you. We’re Simians here, more appropriately, Simianoids, which is the name our revered Simiala Simitima gave us when she created us.”
Clauda nodded again and hoped that one day she could understand all this.
“I think there is something much more sinister here than the Circus has led us to believe, and by us I mean Gene and I.” She paused, still looking at Claudia. “They’re trying to hide something, or trying to not believe something. That has always been the case. Ever since Dahellish Duharma transcended from the Chronosplane, all of Medsimia has been in a quiet chaos.”
“What does that mean? Who’s Dahellish Duharma? And what’s Medsimia?”
“Medsimia is our center of civilization. That’s where Simius Dei began his career and that’s where he ended his existence.” She sighed because she remembered the time of Troubles when Darius and Simius constantly were at verbal war with each other. “We’re not going there. I think we should head to where we can actually see the big strings.” Claudia’s eyes brightened. “Yes, you’ll be the first non-Simianoid to see one of the great strings in all its glory.”
“Oh boy! Charlie will be sooooo jealous. He always talks about them.”
Simia smiled and grabbed .Claudia’s hand. “Then, let’s get going. Adventure awaits us.”
“Do you know what heresy is and what a heretic does?”
“I think so,” Sonoro answered a bit confused.
“It’s like throwing a, pardon the term, monkey wrench into the machine. A heretic, as the word itself describes, deviates from the standard straight path of any given system. It’s like an arc in the middle of a field of lines. Or a triangle in a room full of quadrangles. Does that make sense?”
“I guess so,” Sonoro wasn’t quite convinced at his own conviction.
“They’ve always said that ‘He’ wasn’t going to be vanished forever. The Oracle foretold that when the last of Simius Dei’s disciples transcend the Chronosplane, ‘He’ may find the strength to come back and try to rule the Chronosplane, again.”
“Who?” At least this wasn’t a ‘what’ question.
“Darius Protheus, the only known heretic of the Chronosplane. He is an intelligent Simianoid, intelligent to have gone against Simius Dei for so long without batting an eyelid. My hunch is that he is back and he is mad.”
“Oh, so…” Sonoro tried to think of a way to avoid that word. “… how do you think he might have come back, and for…” again he hit a verbal wall. But Gene saved him.
“I think he’s the one who pulled the string. He is the only one capable and knowledgeable enough to do it. And he has the motive. Throwing the entire Chronosplane into chaos might give him the opportunity he needs to regain control. Medsimia will welcome him back with open arms, and everyone would have forgotten about Simius Dei.”
“And that’s a bad thing? I mean is it?” Sonoro had no idea who this Doritos Morfeus and Simius Day were, but he was sure they were important people.
“Of course. Darius will give us back autonomy from Simiala Simitima, and then we would be alone in the Universe to deal with all the cataclysms in the Chronosplane.”
“Who’s Simiala Smith Ima?”
“She’s our creator. We can never go against our creator.”
Darius touched the string for the third time, his iron mask glowing white hot from the energy transfer. The String vibrated joyfully as more matter come in contact with it. It sang a vibrating song of happiness and fulfillment as Darius gently caressed the surface of the light beam. He knew that this had to be that last time for today or he would wear down the String. His plan was coming together, more or less.
A smallish Simianoid approached him but stopped a ways off; close enough to be heard, though.
“Sir, uh sir?”
“Yes, Titius?”
“May I remind you of what you wanted me to remind you, sir?”
“Will you stop being so polite and courteous to me? I don’t know what or who you think I am, but there’s no need to so obsequious around me, you understand!” He shouted loudly as he turned around, his iron mask and space suit glowing white hot from touching the String. This only made the smallish Simianoid more afraid of him.
“Yes, sir! Yes, sir! I didn’t mean… no sir, uh no. I just meant to remind you that it’s time for you to take a break from the string, sir!” And he ran away.
“Damn Simitimians! Such slavish attitude! Damn Simius! He created a bunch of sycophants and babbling idiots. This time, I won’t give in that easily.” He climbed down from the rocky perch and sat down on the grown well below the String. Looking up at it filled him with a strange type of joy. “I’m almost done. And she’ll have to come and deal with me.”
Multi colored walls of light sped their way through Claudia’s body, again, but she was getting used to these now. The changing landscape signified that they were crossing over into another part of the Chronosplane. “Which way are we going?”
Simia looked at her askance, but decided to answer her anyway. “This way.”
“Oh,” and Claudia realized that she had no idea why she asked where they were going. “So, tell me more about his sinister Simianoid you mentioned before.”
“Darius Protheus was and still is the only heretic to ever be born into the Chronosplane. Actually, he wasn’t really a heretic except that he went against the teachings of Simius Dei. He believed that Simiala Simitima, though she is our creator, had abandoned us during the times before the Great Gathering around the Big Bushes.” Then she stopped. Quickly, she grabbed Claudia’s hand and slinked down behind a medium sized thing that looked like a green rock.
“What?”
“Shhhh!!!” was all that she said.
Then Claudia realized that there were voices nearing them.
“So you think heresy is a bad thing since it goes against heterodoxy,” the speaker’s voice sounded unsure of what he was saying.
“No, no! Orthodoxy! Heresy is against orthodoxy. Heterodoxy is what heresy is all about. Can’t you keep those ideas separate?” It was obvious that this speaker was very condescending.
“Oh, yeah, sorry, that’s what I meant. So, you think that Darius has come back to commit more heterodoxy?”
“You don’t commit heterodoxy, you believe in heterodoxy. You commit heresy. Ok, ok, let me go slower. Darius is a heretic because he believes in heterodoxy, thus, this makes him commit heresy. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah, sure. So he’s a heretic and that’s not a good thing, I gather, which means he thinks differently than others who follow the same ideas. Did I get that right?” This time the speaker sounded proud of himself.
“Yes, Sonoro. You may not be lost to me after all. So, he has come back to the Chronosplane since the transcendence of Simius Dei has left our orthodoxy in jeopardy. The only other Simianoid that was responsible for keeping order in the Chronosplane was Dahellish Duharma, who also departed the Chronosplane. It’s this time of trouble that has allowed Darius to break the bonds of his confinement and allow him to transgress back into the Chronosplane.” Here Gene paused because he smelled something. “Did you take a bath today?”
“What?”
Simia nudged Claudia and whispered, “great, you’re about to meet the defense attorney for the accused.” She got up and Claudia followed right behind her.
The two females, the Simianoid and the mutated simian, saw another mutated simian on the ground unconscious with another Simianoid standing over him shaking his head.
“Gene Simians, it’s been a while.”
“Simia Fatala, how nice to see you.” He crossed over the undulating terrain to the two females. “Don’t mind the mutated human on the ground. His vocabulary seems to be lacking somewhat.” He ducked. “It’s not the word, miss Fatala.”
“I know, but it’s always nice to see you duck.” They hugged.
Then they kissed.
Claudia stared in bewilderment as she had never seen two monkeys kiss so passionately before. She walked over to the man lying prone on the ground and turned him onto his back. “Are you all right?”
Sonoro opened his eyes, saw Claudia and said, “Mom?” She slapped him.
“Do I look that old to you? I’m only 30, you know.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I was dreaming that I was home. This is so depressing.” He assumed a sitting position and started sobbing. “I’ve never committed a crime before, now I’m being accused of doing something that made this whole dimension go wrong.” He looked up at her. “Are you the disjointed one?”
She smiled. “Yes, but I think that’s the one disjointed in space and time. I think Just Dice used the word ‘unstuck’. You’re not responsible for it. That’s why we’re here instead of at the Circus.”
“Oh. You’re looking for Darius too?”
“Not really looking for him since finding him would probably mean that we die, but trying to figure out how to get clues and evidence that he is back and responsible for this Pulling of Strings incidence.”
“I see. Oh my god, I’ve never seen two monkeys kiss like that before.”
The two Simianoids stopped and turned to him, and in unison reproached him, “we’re not monkeys, damn you.”
“We’re Simians, but more exactly Simianoids.” Then she turned to Gene. “I guess we can team up. Four is better than one.” Gene smiled and took her hand.
