The Monkey and Squirrel fight for freedom. (10 page)

“You select ten open space workers, then get them aboard the shuttle that's about to dock, you're going to help build a new space station, now get going'.” with that Tman stopped.

“Is that it for now?” asked Ernest.

“It is, that was the end of the pleasant period and the dawn of a darker one. Here are my notes so you can fill in the details, who taught me what and when, plus all those I taught. Give me a few days.” requested Tman.  

“OK, I'll go now.” signed Ernest.

That took a long time, thought Tman, and it was a long time ago.

“Tman how’s it going?” asked Chatty when they met up the next day.

“The biography?”

“Yes, I'm up to date on engineering projects.”

“It's not too bad, thinking back over my life makes me feel old, thirty years is a big chunk of my life. Thinking about it is the problem, then I don’t I still feel young. It's a form of torture for me, just wait until it's your turn.” signed Tman.

“They have already pumped me for what I know about you, I'm not regarded as central to our history.” replied Chatty. 

“I've just got up to the worst part of my space life, what made it feel worse was it came immediately after the best experience of my life up to that point.” signed Tman.

“I understand your reluctance, to relive it, but we need the next generation need to know, they will never know humans like we do!” pleaded Chatty.

“I know, I know, it's uncomfortable not really painful, so I'll carry on. Is it me or are these menus getting longer?” asked Tman.

“They are, the cooks just love to expand their repertoire, the menu is colour coded as to what is available each day.” replied Chatty.

“So they don't end up cooking the same thing every day. When they get bored with that, they cycle through the changes again, they have really thought this out.” observed Tman.

“Just chose something, so we can eat, analyse it later.” grumbled Chatty.

“Sorry I didn’t know you were hungry, just a second.”

With that they ordered and ate.

A few days later, Tman met Ernest again.

“Hi Ernest, did you find my notes useful?”                                         

“Very, thank you.”

“Well you can have them again, after this session.” signed Tman.

“You're a bit chattier today, ready whenever you are.” signed Ernest.

“Building a station, was a lot harder than maintaining one. You start out with a basic life support unit. It was just us monkeys, with umbilical connections for our suits. We build out from the unit, the humans came and went with the shuttles, it was better when they did the minimum. Simply dump the materials within easy reach of the runabout, inspect the work we had done and give us the latest assembly instructions.

The real pains, would insist that we do some assembly work, while they 'supervised' by telling us how badly we were doing it, but never how to do any better. It was dangerous to try to build at the same time as receiving deliveries. Standing orders clearly said no construction close to the shuttle, it could get damaged, angry men said do and we couldn't argue. We thought the first phase was bad, but the next one was worse, once we had built a large habitable volume, human supervisors moved in.

They subjected us to a verbal battering, as they worked us to exhaustion, some of this was the ambitious schedule, but most of it was the angry men. Angry because they saw us as stealing their jobs, a few understood we had no choice and one or two of them tried to explain to the others. It made no difference, we monkeys were very conveniently placed for them to vent their anger. The fact we were completely blameless and defenceless, counted for nought with them. They worked hard to make our lives as miserable as they could, but I still found it preferable to being the pet of a teenage girl.

Remember I told you Elf had given me his tool belt when he left, it had proved very useful for working in space. It fitted over my suit and held more tools than the suit was equipped to carry, it saved a lot of messing about. One of the angry men was more aggressive than the rest, saw me with the belt then demanded it from me, with a vindictive torrent that accused me of stealing it. I had no way to stop him, I tried to explain with the text pad, but he just knocked it away.

With no other way to complain, I left a message in the communication space, Knowledge and co had created, I expected sympathy at best, certainly no action but I had underestimated Elf. He used his union connections and contacted the union man on station. There was a big argument, that Dave the union man won, the offending human was called George Bluster, he had been angry at the universe for a long time. George had been forced to admit that stealing from slaves was beneath contempt. After he had ignoring an invitation for a quiet chat with,

'what do you want you union retard', not a natural union member.

Dave's counter, 'I hear you have been stealing from slaves you low life!'

Resulted in the laughter of his colleagues, George let loose an angry tirade of excuses and rationalisations blatantly ill thought out followed, resulting in far more laughter at his expense.

The upshot of this was he couldn't hate us more, but the others weren't as badly deposed towards us monkeys. I got the tool belt back with all the tools and the union man had taken down a peg or two someone he had found to be a right pain in the posterior. When the union man brought me my tool belt, as George wouldn't, he said,

'It’s a pity I can't sign you all up as part of the Union you really need us, still we have done what we can for you. A non human welfare officer will be appointed to look after your interests, unfortunately it will be tacked on to a managers role so a lot will depend on personality.'

'I replied on the text pad, you could not have done more, I understand and am grateful for your efforts. I will never have a way to repay you, most union men have been the kindest humans I have met, may I have your name?'

'I'm touched' Dave replied, 'I have done so little for such high praise, I am sorry the human race has treated you so badly that you're so grateful for such a small kindness, my name is David Singe, do you have a name?'

'The-man or Lad to my friend’s monkey and human respectively I typed on the pad.'

'That’s acceptable to you?' Dave asked.

'Yes we have no great feelings about names; I'm only attached to Lad by good memories. Freedom is what we really want.' I typed out.

'If we could get it for you we would, then we could sign you up to the union. Joking aside, hidden away out here, out of public view there is no way to generate the campaign fund it would need. The union has other priorities even if it did have the money. We're supporting Anti-Slavery international in their fight against all forms of human slavery, child labour, debt bondage, forced marriage (children particularly), human trafficking, forced labour and not forgetting traditional slavery being the main areas of concern. You have not been forgotten, but you are not top of the list, sorry but it is a Human list. You can check on their web site if you like.'

On the pad I replied, 'At least we're on the list, what you have told me does not inspire hope, the fight against slavery has been going for over two hundred years and it's still with you.' I typed out.

'Nearly two hundred and fifty actually, but it’s important to keep trying. If you could free yourselves and find a safe place to hide, is the best you can hope to achieve in your lifetime frankly.' Dave replied.

'An effort of will is required to even think about being free, trying to think about escaping to freedom just gives me a headache and makes me feel dizzy.' I typed out.

'You poor soul, I didn't know you're not even allowed to dream of freedom.' sympathised Dave.

'I can't even argue with an order that would destroy the station and kill us all, blind obedience is the program.' I typed out.

'I don't see there being human work crews up here for much longer, you're working far too well for your own good. We wanted a competent engineer to oversee the work, management changed the wording in the requirement from engineer to person. I think you know what that means.' said Dave.

'Another management role, at least it will be their lives at risk to.'

'It's not your fault but I'm a bit down now, I thought I'd achieved something significant for you, but I've barely scratched the surface.' Dave said sadly.

'Cheer up, you have achieved something, I have my belt back and except for George, the humans are now easer to work with. Far more than I believed possible when I groused to the humans I call friend, can I add you to that small number?' I asked via pad.

'You can, I think it must be an exceptional group.' said Dave.

'They are in my experience, but I only know their nick names, so do you know someone nicknamed Elf?' I asked via pad.

'Only casually we are not close friends, but he will know me as Torquay, one drunken weekend after a heavy conference.' explained Dave.

'The only drunken humans I've seen I found frightening.' I typed out.

'Not me when I've had too much I tell everyone I love them, just before I fall asleep in a corner. Anyway if there is anything I can help you with while I'm here please ask, helping the helpless makes me feel good about myself, maybe a bit selfish but it’s the honest truth.'  confessed Dave.                               

'It's the best offer in town, thanks again; I hope we can 'talk' again some time.' I typed out. With that we said our goodbyes and parted.

George didn't return after his next rotation ground side, he had opted for a ground side job.

As the work went on, the ratio of monkeys to men increased. Dave managed to smooth relations with the human crews that made all our lives easier.  One day David came to see me to tell me that next time he went ground side he wouldn't be back, I told him I'd be sorry to see him go, but keep in touch you know how, he replied I will.

He did for a few years, but later he got involved in politics and soon had no time. Apparently politics is hard work if you take it seriously.”

“This Dave had a big influence on you, greater than the first team you worked with?” Ernest interrupted.

“No that first experience was intense we bonded emotionally, we lived together in the same unit, working on tasks as a team. I was truly one of them and the only monkey with my own room, it was easier for them to relate to me as an individual, when the others arrived it was a crowd. We treated them as people, but it wasn't as easy for the humans to relate unless their personality’s resonated. As Sparks and MEIQ119B39/622, Hacker to his friends.

Dave was different, we worked in different areas, I got to know him as a friend, not a mentor from the start. I still exchanged messages with Knowledge and Elf up until we severed our connections with Earth. Latterly after they retired, it usually was when they got sentimental around Christmas, what was I up to, their news about the old team.

Sparks after being in business with Plumber for few years, sold his half of the business to Plumber, then settled to a comfortable retirement with his family back in Jamaica. Even with the two meter sea level rise, property and the cost of living was still cheaper than in England. Plumber had carried on making a fortune, with his solar powered air conditioning systems. A few years later he retired to a nice villa in his native Australia, with a very attractive young mistress and had developed a permanent self-satisfied smile.

Afro-man had retired to a specialist home in his beloved Scotland years before, eventually he lost his last tenuous connection to the real world and died not long afterwards. After we got the humans off the stations, I received  messages from Knowledge about the stresses on the station. He had obviously downloaded the design specifications, they were surprisingly close to the actual stress readings, for a back of an envelope calculation, as he called it. He was concerned we might not have sufficiently re-enforced the station, I gave him a copy of the actual station plans showing all additions, he came back with 'you crafty beggar, I'm pretty sure that ion engine is not part of the original design, if you've got the time and materials feel free to try these additions to your re-enforcing', it carried on like that until we went to radio silence.

The same sort of thing with Elf, both wished us well in their last messages, I'd told them we were going silent, but I told no human where we were going. The surprise was a message from Dave the day before we fired the boosters on the evacuation ships. It was simple straight forward advice, run as fast as you can, run as far as you can, then find a good place to hide. I'll try to run some interference to buy you some time, sorry I can't do more, he signed it Torquay. I don't know how effective his efforts where, but the political uproar certainly helped limit the short term response. Last time I checked the net his political star was rising, he was even referred to as a statesman, a professional politician, I know with well hidden ideals. George popped up into politics not long after; he was one of founders of the Humans Supreme party, pointing the finger at Dave, shouting 'he must have helped them, the traitor to the human race.'

It didn't take much effort by the media to find an old co-worker who told the story of how, George was humiliated when he had been found stealing from slaves and he was a low life beneath contempt.