«l can't tell one gigantic planet-sized cow from the next,» Marco said.
«Tobias and Ax? Toss your heads a little. We want the right nostril.»
With a startlingly loud noise, the back gate of the truck swung open. The large man and a very thin man were conferring.
"I have never seen driving like that! No wonder the driver took off. He must have been drunk. He must be a lunatic!"
"Hey! Those are bulls!"
"Well, I'll be a ... transported like this? This really is nuts!"
The skinny man narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Andalite bandits?"
Ill
113 The large man laughed. "I think an Andalite could figure out how to drive a truck. Besides, even an Andalite isn't stupid enough to morph a steer or even a bull and walk into a slaughterhouse. They'd have to be idiots."
«Could not have said it better myself,» Marco muttered.
From the building, awful smells reached my nostrils: blood. Manure. Blood. Biological rot. And more blood.
And more blood.
112
Down a narrow chute we went. Three steers moved ahead. Then me. Tobias was behind me.
Over the mouth of the chute was an arch. The Gleet BioFilter.
The first steer reached it. I saw a flash of light, followed by a faint sizzling sound. I could not see them from this angle, but I was sure a number of fleas, flies, lice, and assorted other small creatures had been killed.
«Get as far into our nostrils as you can,» I instructed my friends in fly morph.
«l'm in so far I can see your brain,» Marco said.
«That is highly unlikely.»
114 I reached the BioFilter. I felt a slight tingle, like static electricity. Then I was through.
«Marco? Cassie?»
«We're fine,» Cassie said. «But it's good to get deep. I saw a real fly get zapped for being too close to the outside.»
«We're still here, enjoying our little field trip in Cow Nose Caverns,» Marco reported.
«0kay, everyone get ready,» Prince Jake said. «This isn't going to be pretty if we're too slow.»
A moment later, Rachel reported, «We're through!»
«Hit it!» Jake said.
I felt a tickle as Marco and Cassie exited from my nostrils. Four nearly invisible flies disappeared quickly from view. Leaving Tobias and me alone.
Very, very alone.
«So,» Tobias said. «Seen anything good on TV lately?»
«Are you attempting to distract us from our fear by engaging in irrelevant conversation?»
«Yeah.»
«ln that case, I did enjoy watching The Simp-sons. I assume that they do not represent some variant species of humans but are in fact humorous pictorial exaggerations of humans?»
«Yeah. They're cartoons.»
«Cartoons, yes. They seemed to be related to
115 humans but lacked a sufficient number of fingers^
«0h, God!»
«What?»
«Look! Look!»
I looked up. I could not see directly in front of me because other cattle were blocking my view. But as the chute turned a corner I saw a horrific vision: dozens of cows hanging by their rear legs. They seemed almost to be flying. Flying as they were carried along by an overhead conveyor belt.
Flying and no longer alive.
It was a bewildering scene. A confusing assembly line, full of separate events and actions.
Cows are not highly intelligent animals. An intelligent animal, smelling the blood, catching this brief glimpse of the future, would have bolted, kicked, fought.
But no, maybe that is not true, either. Maybe an intelligent animal would understand that it was doomed and attempt to face the inevitable calmly.
In any event, neither Tobias nor I were cows. And neither of us was intellectually impaired.
«Forget this!» Tobias said.
«We must wait for the others to return,» I managed to say.
One noise was louder than the others. And getting nearer all the time. It was straight ahead.
117 I craned my neck. I was taller than the steer ahead of me.
I looked past him, and at first did not understand what I was seeing. The lead steer came up to a place where pneumatic forces pushed the sides of the chute in, locking the animal in place.
A man, acting with practiced ease, whipped shackles around the back legs.
A second man held a large tool against the head of the steer. The tool had a cylinder on top.
He squeezed a trigger.
BANG!
The tool jerked. The steer fell. In its forehead was a hole.
Instantly it was jerked into the air by its legs.
I counted two more steer between me and the killing gun.
I have faced death in battle. But never as a dumb beast going to slaughter.
«l have changed my mind,» I said. «Let's get out of here.»
116
L began to demorph.
No time!
BANG!
Another steer died.
I refused to move forward.
"What do they expect, sending bulls?" a man grumbled. He stepped over to me. He was carrying a tube with two small prongs on the end. He jammed the tube a -
Zzzzappppl
«Aarrgghh!»
The pain was incredible. I moved forward without intending to. Closer!
I had stopped demorphing.
«Morph!» I screamed at myself.
118 BANG!
The last steer ahead of me died.
I resisted again. No! No! No!
I dug in my hooves. But now I was demorph-ing, and from the big bull hooves my own more delicate hooves were emerging. I could barely support my own weight. The man with the shackles would see that. . .
But it would be too late!
Zzzzaaapppp!
Zzzzaaapppp!
The man with the stick rammed it twice. Once in my rump. Then low, under my belly.
The pain!
«Ax!» Tobias cried.
I staggered. But I staggered . . . forward!
My head was clearing slowly.
Fooosh!
The sides of the chute pressed in, holding me tight, immobile.
Morph! Morph! Morph!
«Ax!» Tobias cried. «Ax! AX!»
My eyes watered. My head was swimming. I was confused, lost, dazed.
I looked to my right. The tool was coming for me. Coming straight toward me. I could see the man's finger on the trigger.
Then ... a new form. Large . . . brown . . . looming up behind the man . . .
119 «Hey, buddy! Take the rest of the day off,» Rachel said. She swung one massive grizzly bear paw.
The man with the killing tool dropped like one of the steer.
«Cutting it kind of close, aren't you?!» Tobias demanded angrily.
«Sorry,» Rachel said.
I realized I was shaking. Trembling.
Other humans were running now. Many running away. Some running toward us. Toward the bear.
I could not stop trembling. Could not stop the shaking. I was demorphing and shaking.
But even so, I noted the humans who were heading toward the bear, not away.
Controllers, of course. Normal humans would seek to escape. The Controllers among them knew the significance of the bear. They knew - or thought they knew - that it was an Andalite in morph.
Dozens left their stations, grabbed long knives, grabbed powered saws, and came for us.
«So much for anything subtle,» Rachel said. «lt's going to get hairy.»
She grabbed the sides of the chute with her two front paws and pulled. The wood ripped away easily. I pushed through and out and away.
And just then, my own stalk eyes began to
120 function and I could look back and see my own tail. My own fast, deadly, accurate tail.
I was a grazing animal, like the ones who were fed to this killing place. But I was not a cow.
?
?Watch out, that guy has a chain saw!» Tobias yelled.
A human-Controller rushed at me with a long, powered saw. The saw screamed.
FWAPP!
Now the human-Controller screamed.
«He no longer has a chain saw,» I said.
121 «L-ome on, follow me,» Rachel said. «The others are in trouble. I just came to get you guys.»
«Well, there was no need to rush,» Tobias said. «You could have waited, oh, about another millisecond!»
«Hey, I said I was sorry.»
«Which way?» Tobias demanded.
«Far corner, over there,» Rachel said. «Go! Ax and I will catch up.»
Tobias was hawk once more. He flapped and took off, swerving and dodging through skinned, gutted carcasses. Rachel and I took the slower route: through the human-Controllers and their knives.
122 We try never to kill any Controller. And humans, in particular, since my human friends have a certain sentimental fondness for others of their own species.
So we were careful. We were restrained. I applied my tail blade with restraint.
But it was difficult. I had been badly frightened. As frightened as I have ever been. And irrational as it might be, I resented the human-Controllers who were even now attempting to butcher me.
We forced our way through the human-Controllers. Forced our way as dripping carcasses floated above us on the conveyor. My hooves scrabbled over spilled entrails.
What we found at the far end of the blood-soaked slaughtering floor was another battle.
Prince Jake in tiger morph. Cassie in wolf morph. Marco in gorilla morph. Tobias, wheeling and plunging to rip and tear.
They were surrounded, cut off, hemmed in by a growing army of human-Controllers.
And worse: Hork-Bajir were pouring into the battle from two directions.
Prince Jake's back was to a closed door. He was roaring and slashing and using his powerful jaws, but the situation was desperate.
They were hemmed in. Cornered. Trapped.
123 Rachel and I might be able to join them, but then we would be in the same trap.
«Jake! The door behind you!» Rachel cried.
«Can't get it open. We need more muscle! Hurry!»
Rachel turned her huge, shaggy grizzly bear head to me, even as she swatted a human-Controller with a backhand that sent him flying.
«Well, Ax, all we have to do is go through about fifty Hork-Bajir, bust down that door, and find a way out of this hellhole.»
«Yes,» I agreed. «Let us begin.»
Rachel dropped to all fours. She let loose a hoarse roar and charged.
No Andalite accustomed to our more pacific animal life could possibly understand what a grizzly bear charge means. Even most humans would fail to imagine it.
Grizzly bears are not lithe and graceful like the big cats. They are more like dogs. They move with a rolling, lopsided gait that at first seems almost tentative, as if they might stop at any moment.
But then you begin to realize how large they are. And you begin to realize that, awkward or not, they are very fast. And you begin to realize that you are puny, pathetic, weak, and insignificant. You begin to realize that this bear, this
124 rolling, shaggy, unstoppable monster, can kill you from the mere impact of his shoulder hitting you.
I saw all of this on the faces of the human-Controllers before us. Saw their indifference become concern and turn to terror and panic, all in seconds, as Rachel charged.
HHHHHHHROOOOARRRHHHH!
"Run!" many voices agreed.
"Stand fast! Don't run!" one man cried. He planted himself before Rachel. He stood firm. For approximately one and one half seconds.
Then he ran. As Rachel barreled past him he swiped at her with a knife. The knife sliced at fur. He might as well have been swatting at an Andalite Dome ship with a tree branch.
«Rachel! Hork-Bajir!»
Two big Hork-Bajir leaped at her, their arm blades flashing. I whipped my tail left, right. One Hork-Bajir dropped. The other hesitated, just long enough for us to pass him.
We plowed into the defensive knot of our friends.
«0n behalf of General Custer, let me welcome you to the last stand,» Marco said as he sank his gorilla fist into the midriff of a Hork-Bajir warrior.
«This the door?» Rachel yelled.
«Yeah! Can you bust it down?»
Rachel reared up on her hind legs. She had to
126 duck her head as split cow carcasses came by, always holding to their stately pace.
She put out her paws and slammed her weight against the door.
WHAM!
Nothing! The door did not budge. And now a triumphant roar went up from the surging, pressing mass of enemy warriors, human and Hork-Bajir.
We were trapped. Outnumbered.
Then we heard the hated thought-speak voice we knew too well.
«How fitting,» Visser Three exulted. «The end of the Andalite bandits comes here in a slaughterhouse. Take them! Seize them! Butcher them! Yes, butcher them!»
125
«Rachel!» Prince Jake said tersely. «Hit it again!»
WHAM!
Rachel hit the door again. No effect!
Slash!
A Hork-Bajir-blade cut opened right across my chest. Not deep. Not painful. But frightening.
Cassie was covered with matted blood. Marco was using only one arm. The other hung limp. Prince Jake was attacking, attacking, attacking with all the violent ferocity of his tiger morph, but he was tiring. Tobias was having difficulty maneuvering in a "sky" filled with floating cow carcasses.
«Hey! There's a keypad!» Rachel yelled.
127 I turned one stalk eye. There was a keypad. Not a Yeerk design, certainly. Too primitive. But then many of the people working at the facility were not Yeerks.
«Ax!» Jake yelled.
«l will try,» I said. I backed away from the battle, yielding my place to Rachel.
I snapped my tail. My blade shattered the cover of the keypad. I reached in and twisted two wires together.
The door opened.
We plowed through the door. Bloody, exhausted, scared, injured.
Rachel closed the door behind us. I leaped to access the keypad on this side of the door. I ripped out every wire I could reach. Not an elegant solution, but effective.
«Geez, I could have done that,» Marco muttered.
A sudden silence descended. Through the door came only muffled sounds of hammering.
«They'll get through before long,» Tobias said.
«Visser Three will pour every Controller he has into this place,» Marco said. «He'll bring them down from orbit. He'll have thousands of them here!»
Only then did we look at the room we had entered.
128 It was, in most respects, identical to the room at the animal testing laboratory where the chimpanzees had been caged. Rows of cages. Left and right. A concrete floor and white tile walls. Bright lights.
But there was one very significant difference. Where there had been chimpanzees, there were now humans.
Two dozen humans occupied the cages.
They did not move. They did not turn to look at us.
«Are they dead?» Rachel asked.
I said, «No. Bio-stasis, I believe. They can be released from bio-stasis and function normally.»
«What the . . .» Cassie said. Then she reared up on her hind legs and placed her paws against the bars so she could look at a chart on the outside of the nearest cage. «Project Obedience,» she read. «Medication effectives
She moved to the next cage. «Project Obedience. Medication effectives
«What medication?» Tobias asked.
«Doesn't say. Just mentions "Formula Seventy-one.'^
I spotted a computer console. Definitely Yeerkish in design, quite modern. By Yeerk standards.
It was powered up, open, not protected. Someone had been using it quite recently.
130 «Project Obedience,» I said to the computer.
«Define.»
It replied in a simulated human voice. "Project Obedience is the brilliant insight of our great and glorious leader, Visser Three, hero of the Taxxon rebellion, Scourge of the Andalite fleet, Conqueror of Earth."
«Good grief.» Rachel glanced at the motionless humans in the cages.
"Project Obedience is designed to us genetically engineered biological components to erase those portions of the human brain responsible for freewill."
«Say what?» Marco said.
"Project Obedience has successfully tested Formula Seventy-one on chimpanzees, an Earth species related to humans. One hundred percent success has been achieved, thanks to the genius of Visser Three!"
«How exactly do you program a computer to kiss butt like that?» Tobias wondered. He was resting wearily atop one of the cages.
"And human testing has now shown Formula Seventy-one to be one hundred percent effective on humans as well! Phase Three is now ready: The widespread dissemination of Formula Seventy-one through the human food supply, followed by the rapid conquest of planet Earth!"
129
For a moment no one spoke.
Then Marco said, «They're gonna put some magic formula in meat and it's supposed to take away free will?»
«l believe it is designed to suppress those portions of the human brain responsible for free will,» I said.
«That's insane!»
«lf it worked it would allow the Yeerks to take over the entire human race without a fight,» Rachel said.
«Reduce people to mindless automatons,» Prince Jake agreed.
«This is why we're getting killed? Over this?» Cassie demanded.
131 «What, this isn't serious enough for you?» Marco demanded angrily. «l mean, this could enslave the entire human race within weeks!»
Cassie laughed, almost pityingly. «0h, please. No way this works.»
«0ne hundred percent effective^ Prince Jake countered.
«lt's a lie,» Cassie said simply.
«You just don't want to face reality,» Rachel said harshly. «l mean, come on! The Yeerks are far more advanced than we are scientifically. They can do this!»
«No,» Cassie said firmly. «They can't. Come on, we should unfreeze, or whatever, these people. We have to free them.»
«You can't free them,» Marco said. «Don't you get it? They've already lost their free will! We unfreeze them, they'll do whatever the Yeerks order them to do. Turn on us! Attack us.»
«We are NOT leaving humans in cages,» Cassie said angrily.