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eBook Category: Science Fiction
eBook Description: The reef apes may have been a hit with the audience, but to Louis they were merely the latest step in a carefully planned career path. Nothing was going to stop him from getting what he wanted …

eBook Publisher: Rosetta Solutions, Inc., Published: Asimov's SF, 1992
Fictionwise Release Date: December 2001

22 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [48 KB] , ePub (EPUB) [73 KB] , Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [22 KB] , Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [102 KB] , Palm Doc (PDB) [24 KB] , Microsoft Reader (LIT) [88 KB] , Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [96 KB] , hiebook (KML) [88 KB] , Sony Reader (LRF) [86 KB] , iSilo (PDB) [19 KB] , Mobipocket (PRC) [25 KB] , Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [68 KB] , OEBFF Format (IMP) [36 KB]
Words: 6700
Reading time: 19-26 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

The audience loved it when the reef ape killed the researcher.

Louis Sheldon listened to the commotion and smiled. He backed up the replay to let those who had been caught unaware get a better look.

Click. The primate troop gambolled in the shoals, cleaving to amorphous family units, with young adult males roaming farther afield. Barely four feet tall, the females resembled Ituri pygmies, except for the long, Rapunzel-style tresses that their babies clung to as they floated in the surf. The largest males fell shy of five feet in height, but corded muscle draped their brown bodies from neck to ankle.

The researcher, a lean, wiry man with Nordic features, towered over the apemen, but nevertheless gave them plenty of room. He waded along the fringes of the troop, taking care not to truly mingle. The creatures ignored his familiar presence.

With one exception. The alpha male, perched on a spur of reef just above tide level, monitored the man with a baleful, irrational glare. The researcher failed to notice the surveillance, nor did he see that the creature was picking obsessively at a raw, pus-swollen foot.

The human passed a bit too near a particular reef ape female. With a covetous shriek, the alpha male launched from his rock. He careened through the waist-deep water toward the researcher, who barely had time to turn before he was seized by the neck. Vertebrae cracked. The researcher's eyes glazed.

Screeching, the reef ape held the human below the waves until the spasmodic jerking ceased.

"Reef apes rarely kill," Sheldon told the observers. "They aren't even especially aggressive. But obviously, they've lost little of the strength their progenitors needed to swing in the trees."

The alpha male returned to his rock, snorting, and shook his wet hair off of his shoulders. Nanodocs repaired the researcher's broken neck, flushed the salt water from his lungs, and kick-started him back to life. He rose, sputtering. The alpha male glared again. The man, frowning, strode away from the troop and continued his observations from a safer distance.

The fire in the reef ape's eyes died out. He regarded the remote figure with a distinctly apologetic expression.

Several members of the audience meandered between killer and victim like ghosts walking on the water. In fact, it was they who were part of reality. The primates, the shoals, and the East African sunshine were simulations of a scene that had transpired nearly a year earlier. Louis reduced the action to slow motion to allow everyone to step up close and examine the reef apes in detail.

"Note the bipedal gait, the humanlike noses, the lack of body hair, the pendulous breasts. We've only evolved our Proconsul stock one point five million years into the aquatic phase, and already they've clearly entered the genus Homo. Say hello to your great-great-great grandparents."

On the far side of the simulation dome, a woman leaned down to assure herself that a reef ape baby, floating face down apart from her mother, was truly enjoying its independence and not drowning. The infant raised its head, took a breath, and dunked down again. The woman grinned with the joy only baby antics can inspire.

Louis, without interrupting his narration, gazed at the woman intently, memorizing her features. He marked the moment that she left the dome.