Monkey Business

When Geem, Shyla, Banto and Lini visited Earth, met Benny, and decided to liberate the dogs from the local dog pound, they ended up with more than they bargained for.

Two weeks before the Toba snuck into the shelter, the local police, DEA, and animal control officers were part of multi-agency bust, taking down a local drug lord on his rural estate miles outside the city. In addition to all the normal pictures of proud law enforcement officers posing with bags of pills, bundles of powder, piles of cash, and a table full of weapons - everything from fully auto rifles to a collection of rusted pistols that probably wouldn’t even fire – there was another picture that ran on a dozen TV news shows: six confused officers looking at several dozen monkeys that the drug lord had smuggled in as part of his private exotic zoo.

While the half dozen agencies were trying to figure out what crimes specifically had been committed, who’d get to prosecute the various criminals for them, and what sanctuary to send the exotic animals to, the monkeys were stashed in the only place available - the local dog shelter which had an extra room. As it turned out, the dog shelter was entirely unequipped to handle their new guests. Dogs don’t have prehensile fingers and thumbs, but monkeys do - which meant that it took about five minutes until the cage doors were open and the Monkey Business began.

Over the following weeks the staff waged war with the monkeys’ ability to escape, trying everything from twisted wire to zip ties to hose clamps to keep the cage doors shut, but the monkeys outwitted the staff each time. Eventually the staff effectively gave up, knowing that the next morning they’d return to a shelter overrun by monkeys, and resigning themselves to the daily routine of ushering them back into their cages.

…and this is where the Toba outsmarted themselves.

While Geem, Shyla, Banto and Lini were ferrying the dogs out of the shelter and into their shuttle, the monkeys were slipping through the open shelter door, creeping through the shadows, and making their way unseen into the Leinhard’s shuttle.

By the time the stowaways had been discovered the Leinhard had already left the Sol system, on the way back to Quantum Prime …and the Monkey Business was just beginning.