Chapter Four
We took the bus back to Cassie's barn, sitting in relative silence. Marco was sitting behind me, muttering on about how we should never plan a Yeerk-free weekend, as something was bound to come up. Ax was munching happily on the crumbs of some leftover crisps and attracting smirks from some boys in the back row. I sat next to Philip and stared out of the window.
"My dad called me earlier and said something about bringing in some injured birds, so he might be popping in from time to time," Cassie said as we hopped off the bus and walked up the long dirt road towards the barn. Cassie lives on a farm, and is very into animals. The barn where we meet is some hospital for injured creatures which her dad runs.
"Should be no problem," Jake said. "Tobias, you can keep watch, let us know when anyone's coming?"
"No problem," Tobias replied. Tobias, like Ax and the four of us Brits, would have to demorph once we got into the privacy of the barn. Tobias would spend the majority of the meeting perched up in the rafters.
"Anyone want to help me muck out the horse stalls?" asked Cassie as we entered the large red wooden building. The place was filled from floor to ceiling with cages, some empty, most containing some kind of wind animal or bird. Near the far end of the barn were stables for the horses and larger animals. There were a number of smaller rooms where Cassie's father performed medical procedures. It was smelly, noisy, but above all, private.
"I will," said Maggie, grabbing a broom and following Cassie into one of the stalls. Ferdie, having demorphed already, made a half hearted attempted to follow, but gave up as soon as he saw Marco flop lazily down onto a bale of hay.
"Don't strain yourself, Flawless," Philip said, rolling his eyes and beginning his own demorph.
"What? I don't see you doing any work."
I sighed, demorphed, and sat down next to Marco. I felt slightly guilty for not helping Cassie with her chores, but I have no idea when it comes to animals. Especially horses. Tobias and Ax demorphed; Tobias to his usual hawk self, Ax to his weird and wonderful Andalite form.
"I can extend my hologram here as well, if you like," said Erek, who was standing in the entrance of the barn, looking at the group of us.
"It's ok Erek," said Jake. "We get a lot of privacy in here, and like I said, Tobias can spot anyone who comes anywhere near this barn from a mile off."
Tobias finished demorphing and flapped up into the rafters. I got the feeling that this physical separation from the group was also an unconscious attempt to maintain his own space in a metaphorical manner, both as a hawk and as a person.
"So what do we do?" ask Ferdie, getting straight to the point. "We've got, what, twelve hours to make a decision which could effect the whole of California?"
Jake sighed and stared at the ground. I could tell what he was feeling; as a leader, people expect you to make some tough decisions about the war, the battles you face, and your friends. I myself had made many choices which would effect possibly hundreds of Controllers - and their innocent host bodies. Made many choices which could have resulted in the deaths of my team. Made a choice which did result in the death of one of us. So I could understand what Jake was going through; the feeling of having the world resting on your shoulders.
"We've never made a choice which could effect this many people before," he said, confirming my thoughts. "And when we have done, they've usually been in situations where the people we effect - the hosts and the Yeerks - know what's going on." He paused, his eyes dark, his face appearing to age a decade in a couple of seconds. "But right now? No one knows what's going on in regards to this bomb. The public don't know about it. Even the government has no idea. If we make a choice, no'one will know that we did, or indeed why we made that choice. If we let the bomb go off, people won't praise us for saving the world, they'll talk about how we should be executed, as if we ourselves were terrorists."
I nodded. "And even if we set out to stop it, people won't know why or how we did it. The public might not even be aware of what we did. And they won't be aware that we've made a decision which could very well result in their slavery."
"Sounds like just a nice, normal day in the life of an Animorph," said Marco stonily. "Make decisions…kill people…save someone else's life and do it all in secret."
--It's not exactly the celebrated life of the guardian angel, is it?-- Tobias said.
"Why bring it up now though?" Rachel said. "Surely we've been in this situation right from the beginning?"
"Yeah, but this is possibly the biggest and most sensitive mission we've ever become involved in," Jake said. "We've got a mission that isn't just about fighting the Yeerks - it's embedded in a far deeper context. We've got to think about the whole state here. Terrorism's been a hot subject since nine-eleven. A lot of people have become very agitated at the thought of it. People are becoming scared to go to work, scared to travel, scared to vote incase they're targeted. This fear is shaking the very foundations of our society. Are we the ones to increase that fear by letting the bomb go off, even if it stops people from ending up as slaves to an enemy they don't yet know about? And now, because of the Yeerks - this factor the public could never know about - we've become caught up in it. We have to make the decision whether or not to let this bomb go off. We are directly responsible for it's outcome, and that effects the actions and the welfare of the state and the public."
"So, no biggie then?" said Marco, raising his eyebrows. "At least pressure isn't on."
"Would you just keep your mouth shut for once?" said Rachel, glaring at him.
Philip stood up, looking every part the army officer that he was once. "Twelve hours," he barked, attempting to end the morality discussion and steer the conversation towards appropriate action. "That's all we've got. That's just half a day. Less that that now we've spent all this time fannying about."
"So what do you propose?" Jake asked, allowing Philip to take command for a bit. Whilst Philip was an obvious first choice for acting as the leader, his reluctance to take responsibility and the Animorph's respect for Jake had allowed him to take the place of a sort of lieutenant rather than captain.
"A vote, perhaps?" Philip suggested. "Let's make this clean and simple - we don't have time for any messy debates."
Cassie and Maggie placed their brooms and buckets down and sat on the hay bales with the rest of us.
"Ok, but first we have to know what we're voting for," Cassie pointed out. "There's a lot more to the decision than the simple question of 'should we let the bomb go off?'"
"Absolutely," Philip said rather pompously. "Right then. Choice A: we sit back, do nothing, and allow the bomb to go off, thus destroying the Yeerk technology and perhaps several hundred Controllers."
"And several hundred innocent hosts!" Maggie replied. "Plus anyone working in the building who isn't a Controller!"
"Plus offices full of data which might be vital to the running of your state," I pointed out."
"Yes, alright," said Philip, reluctant to be drawn back into the moral debate. So, moving on. Option 2: we-"
"You know, the letter B comes after A, not the number 2," said Ferdie casually.
Marco sniggered, but Philip ignored them both, moving along with military rigor.
"Option 2," he repeated, "we intervene and prevent the bomb going off. We let the FBI know of it's whereabouts, we make sure they take us seriously, and they go ahead with a bomb-squad and neutralize the thing themselves. This of course, will do absolutely no damage to the Yeerks, but it will save several million dollars worth of damage to the city of Sacramento."
"I'm not too keen on that idea," Ferdie said. "We can't get involved in a mission this big, and come out of it without having made a scratch on the Yeerk's plans."
"He sounds just like Rachel," said Marco.
"So you think we should go ahead and let the bomb go off, just because it would make the whole mission worthwhile?" Maggie said, appalled.
"I agree," said Cassie. "We fight this war for the good of humanity, and if that means making a decision to save others, with no benefit to ourselves, then that's what we have to do. That's what we have been doing ever since the beginning."
"Well, it looks like there's a lot of good points that complement both sides of the argument. But we haven't got time to sit on out butts talking morality," Jake intervened. "We have to make a decision. Let the bomb go off, or help prevent it. Do some damage to the Yeerks, or save a whole lot of lives. Yes, or no."