Chapter Text
My name is Cassie. And I was in the process of leading a gaggle of twenty-four humans plus another human-controller out of a meat production facility where Yeerks had been attempting to create a way to suppress or destroy free will. They couldn't, of course. The lead scientist, whom Ax and I were now escorting out of the building at the front of the pack, told us as much. He said he would rather die of Kandrona starvation than face Visser Three. My friends Jake, Marco, Rachel, and Tobias took up the rear of our procession. The scientist led us out of an emergency exit, and we fled from the pounding of the door to the labratory we'd found the humans in.
<I have a question,> Ax asked the scientist, as we finally reached an alleyway's end near the edge of town. <A scientific inquiry.>
"Andalites," the man said without any particular anger. "At least your people genuinely appreciate science."
<The chimpanzees. You said your formula was ineffective because sentience cannot be separated from free will. So I must ask: Did the formula work on the chimpanzees? Are they, in fact, sentient?>
As he spoke, the humans we had rescued dispersed in various different directions. Jake gave them instructions on where to go.
"The chimpanzees?" the scientist replied to Ax. "The formula had no effect. But was it because their will remained unaffected? Or merely because there was no free will to affect? We do not know."
<I know,> I said. <Obviously, it's because their will remained unaffected. We saw that with the humans we just freed.>
"What about me?" The scientist lamented. "I can't go back now; Visser Three will kill me, and he may kill the other scientists as well."
<You're okay to die by Kandrona starvation?> Jake asked. <Are you going to do that at the home of your human's host? The Empire will just find him again and re-infest him.>
<Jake,> I said to him in private, but then so that the scientist could also hear me, <I have an idea that might be able to save both of them.>
<Both of them?> Jake asked, but his tiger face appeared to think about it for a moment before he said <Ah, I see. Well, you do what you think needs to be done. We'll all go back to...> he paused for a moment, remembering the human-controller in our midst. <...our base.> Jake, Ax, and the others ran into a nearby empty building, presumably to demorph and remorph some birds to get home.
Still in my wolf morph, I turned to the man. <Okay,> I said, <I have a plan that will allow both you and your host to survive this Andalite-Yeerk war, but you have to do exactly as I say. I promise I will not hurt you. Will you work with me?>
The man - or rather, the Yeerk controlling him - looked hesitant, but then he nodded. "I'm at your mercy," he said. "I'll do whatever you say. I suspect you Andalites have some sort of small Kandrona generator of your own at your base, wherever it may be?"
<Something like that,> I answered. <First of all, though, I must ask your names. Both of you.> I was still trying to do my best to sound like an Andalite, since we had not quite secured this controller, and there was still a small chance he might be re-captured by the Yeerk Empire.
"Um, well, my name... my host's name is Robert Enolam." He paused, then said "Doctor Robert Enolam." Perhaps his pause was listening to his host.
<And your name?> I implored.
"I am Akdosh four-three-two," was his reply.
<Akdosh,> I addressed him, <I have a place of shelter for you where I can explain my plan further, but we must remain as unseen as possible. Though I am in wolf form at the moment, perhaps it would be possible for you to pretend that I am a very large dog.>
As luck would have it, I noticed an abandoned rope a few feet away in the alleyway we'd been talking in, though it would be hard for a human to see in the diminishing light from the setting sun. I raised my right foreleg to point at it. I decided to keep up the Andalite farce a little while longer.
<It is my understanding that humans go for walks with dogs with ropes like that attached to the dog's neck. I can give you directions to the safe house, and you just have to pretend you're walking me.>
"Humans do not walk dogs with rope, they use leashes, but we don't have any other options, I suppose." Akdosh walked over and picked up the rope, making a crude loop at one end and put it loosely around my neck. More forcefully, he inquired "And you're sure that the place you're taking me to has a way for me to receive Kandrona where the Empire can't find me?"
<Yes, but I don't think you have much of a choice at this point. It's trust me or die for failing Visser Three, yes?>
His shoulders slumped, defeated. "Lead the way," he said with resignation.