Chapter Text
We left the interrogation room with Torrelli's unconscious body locked inside.
Eva, Tom, and I walked slowly down the halls with our hands at our sides. Cornell walked close behind us with his gun drawn. Others saw us, but ignored us. And why wouldn't they? Captain Cornell was a high-ranking officer, and we were trespassing on a secure military base. Escorting us at gunpoint was the opposite of suspicious.
"Where are you taking us?" Eva asked, for some reason. He didn't answer, obviously.
Once we were outside the building, he quietly said to us, "If you try to run because you think I won't shoot, remember that I don't need all three of you."
We didn't run. We let him herd us across the base.
Should we have resisted more? Iniss and I weren't sure what to do. Even if we got away from Cornell, it'd take ages of running to get back to our cars. It's not like we could ask the other soldiers for help. We're strange civilians and he's your fellow officer, but he's the bad guy, take our word for it.
We knew that Captain Cornell was a traitor to Squadron 91. And pointing a gun at us made him our enemy too. But that didn't make Squadron 91 our allies. Nobody, including me, knew what they actually did here. Would stopping them be a good thing?
On the one hand, Former-Sergeant Torrelli was an evil vampire and any organization he worked for couldn't be all that good. But on the other hand, Torrelli said Cornell's plan would put the entire planet in danger. The chance of Torrelli telling me the truth about anything was about 1 percent . . . But not actually zero.
Speculation was pointless. Unless we got that gun away from Cornell, we didn't have a choice. He was forcing us to help him with . . . something.
I thought to myself - as much as I could with a Yeerk in my head. <Assuming Torrelli was right and his plan is to set this mysterious 'Beast' loose, why does he need our help? What does he expect us to do?>
Iniss responded, <He doesn't need our help. He just needs us nearby so he has someone else to blame it on.>
I winced. <Damn. You're right, aren't you?>
<That's hardly uncommon.>
We were walking towards the largest hangar on the base. I estimated it was the very center of Zone 91. It was about 15 stories tall, with doors big enough for a monster from the Hork-Bajir planet. Those doors were already open, but slowly closing with the sound of a loud motor.
"Faster," Cornell hissed at us.
There were two guards outside. They looked confused as we power-walked towards them. But Cornell held out his ID badge. "I'm ordering you to stand down and let us through. We're on an urgent assignment from Captain Torrelli."
No doubt they felt conflicted by 1, a direct order from a familiar and higher-ranking officer with security clearance, and 2, three people in black suits they had never seen before who obviously didn't have clearance. But before the two of them could do their job and shoot us, we stormed past them into the hangar.
The heavy doors shut behind us with a deafening THUD! We were now inside the heart of Zone 91.
Danger aside, Alison would be so jealous right now.
The outside looked like an aircraft hangar, but inside there were no planes. It was mostly computers. Giant boxy ones like a wall of lockers with blinking lights and also small modern ones set on workbenches. There were also scanners and printers churning out long spreadsheets. There was other high-tech stuff I didn't recognize, but it was all distinctly Earth technology.
There were also people. Military men with dress uniform and medals, and scientists in white lab coats. They gave us confused glances as we marched by. Then they recognized Captain Cornell and returned to their duties.
We reached the very center of the hangar. There we saw something that was definitely not Earth technology. It was on a large pedestal and surrounded by glass, like an art piece in a museum. It was a big metal box with smooth corners, about eight feet long, hollow and open on one side, minty green in color.
Most people wouldn't know what it was. But ever since the Andalites arrived on Earth, we'd been studying the blueprints of their ships. We knew the equipment they needed on long journeys.
Eva stared at it. "Is that a . . . ?"
"I think it is," I answered.
She whispered to me, ". . . Should we tell them?"
"I wouldn't."
"Keep moving," Cornell said quietly.
We passed the . . . alien artifact . . . and continued to the other end of the building. Jutting out from the wall was a big booth. Cornell slid a key card (Torrelli's?) through a scanner on the side, and the doors slid open.
The inside was empty. It was an elevator.
He gestured with his gun again, and the three of us silently stepped inside ahead of him.
With four humans huddled inside, the doors closed. The elevator went down. Not far, maybe one story.
As we went down, I glanced at the gun he was pointing at Eva. Now that we finally had no one watching us, I briefly considered grabbing the gun. But a struggle would be a stupid idea in such close quarters. Projectile weapons aren't like lasers with a stun setting. Unlike in action movies, a stray bullet could easily be fatal even if it was only in your leg or shoulder.
I glanced at Tom, really really hoping he understood that and didn't try anything stupid.
The elevator opened. No "ding". We all stepped out into the new room. It was smaller than the room above. Like a long hallway with a low ceiling and bad lighting. At the opposite end were another set of elevator doors. Both the left and right walls were lined with a row of tables stretching into the distance. Each table had its own object. Alien objects.
Now I understood. The thing upstairs was a decoy. Even if someone managed to break in that far, they would assume that was the big secret of Zone 91, not bothering to check if there was any more in the back. This was were the good stuff was hiding.
We walked along, Cornell covering our backs, examining each table we passed. The metal crate upstairs was probably the largest complete alien device the government found. Down here were mostly fragments, but they looked useful. I recognized living metals. N-alloys. A broken piece of hull from a Skrit Na saucer. Hey, that looked like a vortex filtering coil - We could use that.
We reached the second elevator and Cornell opened the doors. We went inside and did the whole thing over again. Only this time, we were going down a lot further.
As the elevator sank down and down and down, I looked at Cornell. I realized his face was a little paler than before. He was sweating and his eyes were bloodshot.
This wasn't just nerves. He was starting to look sick. That's not really a good sign for a trigger-happy kidnapper.
Eva spoke up softly, like she was trying to calm a skittish animal. "Listen, that gun really isn't necessary. If you just explained what your plan is, maybe we'd be willing to help. I gather that Zone Ninety-one is locking up some kind of . . . creature? The Beast? And you want to give it its freedom?"
"No!" he snapped. "I would never set it loose. Never! I'm not trying to get it out of the Cage. I'm trying to put something in."
Oh. Okay. That means my old theory was shot and I actually had no idea what was going on. That's what I get for listening to Torrelli.
Before we could ask him any more, the elevator opened and Cornell ordered us out.
I couldn't tell how deep underground we were. The new room was much, much larger and completely empty. Concrete walls. Fluorescent ceiling lights came on automatically as we entered. The opposite wall was mostly one giant metal door, with a small keypad and a big wheel on the front, like the vault of a heavy-duty safe.
Cornell walked past us and typed on the keypad. He finally wasn't watching us.
I casually began undoing the buttons of my suit jacket. He must have heard me or something because he turned and aimed the gun at me in a panic.
"What? I'm hot," I said impertinently. I opened my jacket, showing him that I wasn't concealing a weapon or wire or whatever he was scared of. I slipped the jacket off and carried it on my arm.
"Don't move," he ordered. He typed on the keypad again and then the giant door swung open.
Iniss and I noticed several things simultaneously.
1: The next room was just like this one. Large, brightly lit, lots of space inside. Our guts told us this was the end of the line - The very deepest part of Zone 91.
2: The center of the room had a big metal box. Pitch black. Twelve feet tall. I had no way of knowing how thick the metal was, but it looked solid enough. It had one door with a keypad and a card scanner. Alarm lights, currently off and silent, mounted on the roof. This must be the "Cage".
3: A device was on the floor and a mess of wires connected it to the card scanner on the Cage. It took an extra second to recognize it from the pictures Eva had sent me. It was another Venber computer, just like the one Donald Duck - excuse me, Don Alddak - got from The Five. Numbers and computer code flashed across the screen.
4: The Black Box that started this whole mess was also on the floor, connected to the Venber computer by a second string of wires.
5: What's-his-name . . . Bob Dubois was there, sitting cross-legged on the ground with his hands tied together and duct tape over his mouth. His eyes pleaded at us for rescue.
Once I absorbed all of this, my first instinct was to get that tape off so he could talk.
<What for?> Iniss asked.
I thought this over. <Good point.>
Didn't matter. Without Cornell's permission, Eva rushed over and ripped the duct tape off.
"Ow! Will someone please explain what's going on?!" he whined.
"Step away, everyone!" Cornell waved the gun around. He had gotten even paler in the last minute, and he was breathing heavy, like he was in pain. Yeah, something was seriously wrong.
Tom and I got Bob to his feet and we all moved to the side, giving Cornell a wide path to the Cage.
He stepped over and bent down to the Venber computer. Still gripping the gun, he used his free hand to stick Torrelli's security card into the device. "Now that I have the card, that should be enough to hack it open, even without the code," he mumbled.
"How do you know how that device works?" Eva asked.
Cornell ignored her. He kept mumbling, "This is a mess. I was trying to help it, and it turned on me . . . It wants the black box . . . If I give it that, it says it'll let me go . . ."
He stood up and stepped back. He was looking at the Cage. Not us.
I still had my suit jacket draped over my forearm. I calmly and slowly stepped closer to Cornell's back.
That's when the Venber computer lit up in a bright red color. All the numbers scrolling on the screen were replaced with the Galard word for "success".
The siren lights on the Cage began spinning around. And the giant, foot-thick door slowly swung open.
We all stared inside. This was the big secret hidden in the deepest part of Zone 91. The so-called Beast.
It was smaller than I expected. About human size. It stood in the center of the Cage, wrapped up in thick chains connected to the inner walls and roof. It was also attached to an I.V. tube and computer wires. Instead of duct tape, it had a steel plate wrapped around the lower half of its head.
Iniss didn't know what it was. But it was somehow familiar to me. Where did I see it before?
Then I remembered. A long time ago, Elfangor, Loren and I found an old book from the Skrit Na. It was an encyclopedia about ancient legends and mythologies from across the universe. It included a drawing of the creature that was now in front of me.
A monster that looked like it was made of steel, and ivory, and molten lava.
"No," I breathed. ". . . No, no, no, that is not possible."
"What is it?" Eva asked me.
Torrelli was telling the truth after all. If this was what I thought it was, it really was the Most Dangerous Thing in the Universe.
I wasn't scared - Okay, that's a lie. And Iniss would never admit it, but he was scared too. But we were also angry. Things that don't make sense always make us both angry.
"It's not supposed to be real. It's a myth. A ghost story aliens tell to scare each other. Stories about the ultimate killing weapon, wandering loose somewhere in the universe . . . What the HELL is it doing on Earth?!"
"Chapman, talk to me," Eva said, keeping her eyes on it. "Is it some kind of . . . robot?"
"No," I answered. "It's a cyborg. Half organic creature, half machine. Two separate things that were fused together to make something worse than either of them were alone."
It stared at us with eyes that were like blue robin's eggs.
"It's called the Howler-Chee."
.
This is what I learned in that mythology book.
In ancient times, there two species. The peaceful Pemalites. And the violent Howlers.
No one knew the Howlers' true name. Each species used their own language's word for "howler", or some equivalent translation, to name them after the sound they made. They were a race of warmongers. One day they would simply drop out of the sky and destroy your planet, without even explaining why.
The Pemalites were highly intelligent in a universe that was still young. They were also peaceful, opposed to all forms of violence. They built androids - an entire race of mechanical people, called the Chee. The Chee were powerful and indestructible. They were also self-aware and felt emotion like a living creature. They had free will, except they were programmed to follow the Pemalites code of pacifism. They could never hurt another creature, no exceptions.
The Howlers attacked the Pemalites . . . And this is where the legends get murky. Some say the Pemalites reprogrammed their androids, turned them into weapons to fight back against the Howlers. Others think a single Chee malfunctioned and went rogue. Some say the Howlers captured a few Chee and experimented on them, trying to reverse-engineer their own androids. Maybe it was a freak accident. Maybe it happened to the entire species, or it was only to a single individual.
Regardless of how, all the legends agree that at some point, a new creature was created. A hybrid. Howler and Chee combined into a single entity. And it was driven insane by its conflicting halves. It went out of control and attacked both sides of the war.
In the end, the Howlers, the Pemalites, and the Chee were all wiped out. Whether they were ever even real was reduced to mere speculation. Only the Howler-Chee survived, and is still out there stranded on some planet, waiting to destroy any travelers unlucky enough to find it.
Or so the legend said.