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It was dim inside, a slight amount of light coming through the quartz crystal windows.  There were four seats and at the rear of the craft, water from when it had sunk.  Holding onto the various consoles, Milo moved further back, until the water was as high as his knees.  There were four sarcophagi here, not unlike those used to bury apes of higher class.  All but one was open; this last bore a skeletal corpse in a white uniform – from examination, Milo could see that it had been a female.

Moving back through the ship he saw a light blinking on one of the consoles.  Peering down at it he moved away some muck and read: FUSION ENGINES AT 71%.

Fusion engines!  Milo was aghast at the word.  He’d only seen it once before, in the writings of Virgil which were now forbidden.  His ancient teacher, Dante had shown him them before Zaius and the council had ordered them destroyed.  Virgil believed that man had broken the time barrier and been able to travel through it.  Milo rubbed his eyes.  He had to save this vessel! Had to!

April 3976

Milo wiped sweat from his face with rough towel.  There before him lay the ship.  In secrecy, assisted by several of his students he knew he could trust – all chimpanzees – he had smuggled horses and equipment out to dead lake.  No one had tried to stop him.  In the last year prior to this craft arriving, he had kept a low profile, not wanting Zaius to close his classes.  His title in the past would have been Mathematician/Engineer, but to the apes he was just that chimp with the odd ideas.

It had been a struggle getting the ship ashore.  Logs covered in grease were used as rollers, but even with ten horses and twelve healthy young chimps, they had just gotten it out of the water.  Looking at the ship and then at his own meager equipment, Milo felt a surge of jealousy.  Several times he had been tempted to tell Zira and Cornelius about this discovery, but all it was so far was salvaged.  Having been inside several times, he thought it could be made to work, to fly again.  That would be an accomplishment even Zaius couldn’t deny!  Perhaps it was time to end the Orangutan hold on Ape civilization and return things to the way they had been under Cesar, a return to Chimp rule!

Walking back to his tent, Milo looked around and removed the ancient books from a hidden pocket in his pack.  One was A History of Spaceflight the other was a Physics text that had helped him in his theories.  Flipping through the book on spaceflight he stopped at a photograph of the ship he was looking at.  It was amazing, but there in a separate picture was the captain of the vessel, a Colonel George Taylor!  Milo stared at the picture and turned the page.  There were two more ships like the one before him, but subtly different.  They appeared shorter.  Closing the book and putting it away, Milo walked over to the ship.  Lysius, with other students was washing down the hull.  Climbing a rough wooden ladder, Milo entered the cabin.  He knew that he could figure out how to make this ship work again.  But without the missing hatch he’d climbed in through, he couldn’t make it fly.

Clambering down past the seats to the cryogenics (although he didn’t know what they were, he had surmised they were to lie down in) chambers.  He stared at the broken one.  He’d had the corpse removed and set aside for further study.  In a storage locker to the rear he’d discovered four space suits complete with helmets.  Could he fly the ship with a broken hatch in one of the suits?  If he had to he would.  He was determined to bring his fellow apes out of their apathy.  Knowledge should never stand still.

"Doctor Milo!"  A voice called from above.  Milo cocked his head and headed back toward the hatch’s passage.  There at the top, staring down was Xyla, a handsome young chimpanzee female and an excellent student.  "What is it?" He called up.

"Come see what we’ve found!"

At the excited urgency in her voice, Milo clambered up and out of his ship, for that was how he thought of it.  It was his ship.

Xyla shot down the ladder and ran to a wagon.  Milo followed.  On it were two male students, both using towels to dry off.  Milo smiled wryly.  Many of the younger chimps had followed his lead, learned to swim and enjoyed it.  Milo was proud to have circumvented another ape myth; that they couldn’t swim.  As he walked closer to the wagon, he felt his breath go short.  There, partially covered, lay a white disc… Could it be?  Milo covered the last few yards in a near frantic leap.  It was!  It was a disc of metal like the ship itself!

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