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#36 The Mutation
"This is a terrible thing he has done." Toby Hamee's voice was grave.
I didn't answer. I didn't understand, yet.
Cassie knelt by the side of a Hork-Bajir. He could no longer speak. He could barely breathe. He was laid out on the stainless steel table Cassie's dad uses to perform operations. He was seven feet tall. Too tall to fit easily on the table. His legs hung off. His bladed arms hung off.
He was clearly Hork-Bajir. Just as clearly he was something else, as well.
The barn is a dark place even in the daytime. But now it was gloom inside of gloom. There were rows and shelves of caged, sick, convalescing animals. Mostly quiet. The occasional mutter or growl or chirp.
"Cassie?"
She turned to look up at me. Her eyes were dull with agony.
"He can't get enough air," she said. "His pulse is weak."
"Make fish! He try to make fish-people!" Jara Hamee cried.
I turned to Toby. A seer of her people. More intelligent and articulate than her fellow Hork-Bajir, including her father, Jara.
"Who?"
"Visser Three," Toby said. "Who else?"
"What happened?"
"This is Hahn Tunad. He was not a free Hork-Bajir. Not one of our colony. Now Hahn is free of the Yeerks but he is dying for it." Toby paused before going on. "Hahn and forty-nine other Hork-Bajir were the subjects of an experiment. I have come to understand from Hahn that the visser is obsessed with rediscovering the Pemalite ship. He is very angry that his last attempt was foiled by the being called the Drode. And by the so-called Andalite bandits."
"Okay," I said, watching Cassie wipe a cool cloth over Hahn's bladed forehead. "Go on."
"The visser attempted to produce an amphibious creature. To aid in this deep-sea mission. He failed. When he realized the fifty test subjects were useless to him, he ordered their Yeerks to abandon the now-useless host bodies. They were to be fed to the Taxxons. We found Hahn ... the others were already dead."
Toby nodded toward her distraught father. "They were friends. Long ago."
I tried to slow my racing heart. To breathe deeply. To keep from vomiting.
I knelt by Cassie.
She pointed to Hahn's left shoulder. Just below the blade was - a gill. I'd already seen it. I'd seen the webs between the Hork-Bajir talons and fingers, too.
"Jake, the visser just grafted these gills onto the body," Cassie whispered. "It's as if he and his medical team had no idea of Hork-Bajir physiology. It's all wrong. Totally botched!"
"Feet! Feet!" Jara, more agitated than I'd ever seen him, pointed to Hahn's feet.
"Jake, he can't breathe. I don't know what they did inside, to his lungs . . ."
I grabbed the oxygen mask from the ground where Cassie had dropped it in defeat. Yanked the oxygen tank closer to the makeshift bed of hay bales.
"Jake! You can't. . . it's too late!"
Pushing past Cassie I held the mask to Hahn's mouth. Opened the valve on the tank.
"Jake, you're not doing him any good. He's in pain. No one can help him."
She gently pulled the mask away. From behind me I was dimly aware of Toby's voice.
"Hahn was able to tell us of a powerful new seagoing vessel the visser has built specifically for the purpose of locating the Pemalite ship. It is known as the Sea Blade."
A horrible gurgling rose from Hahn's throat.
"Cassie! Something's caught in his throat!"
"A valve of some sort," she said. "It's malfunctioning. I tried to open it. Tried to keep it from closing further. I couldn't."
Jara stepped forward and gracefully took one of Hahn's hands. "Hahn not die!" he pleaded. "Hahn come with Toby and Jara and be free!"
"No, Father. It is time for Hahn to go Beyond. Our friends, Tobias and the others, will help us destroy the evil that is Visser Three. Help us avenge Hahn's death."
With a terrible sob, Jara knelt and gently laid his bladed head on Hahn's body.
And then there was one less sound in the barn. One less creature breathing.
I moved away. Jara needed privacy. I turned to look up at the window in the rafters. Tobias's favorite passage into and out of the barn. The sky was beginning to lighten. Dawn was approaching.
A new day. A day Hahn and the other mutated Hork-Bajir would never see.
"Jake?"
I looked back to Cassie. Opened my arms. She came to me and we held each other. We held each other until Toby and Jara had wrapped Hahn's body in blankets and taken him into the sunrise.
<Yes, though we can make use of the additional information we received from Toby's spies this morning,> Ax pointed out.
Right after dawn I'd sent Ax and Tobias to the secret community the free Hork-Bajir had established. Their information was sketchy. Hork-Bajir, with the exception of Toby, are not the brightest species around. It's a little like asking a four-year-old to describe a movie.
I didn't answer. I didn't understand, yet.
Cassie knelt by the side of a Hork-Bajir. He could no longer speak. He could barely breathe. He was laid out on the stainless steel table Cassie's dad uses to perform operations. He was seven feet tall. Too tall to fit easily on the table. His legs hung off. His bladed arms hung off.
He was clearly Hork-Bajir. Just as clearly he was something else, as well.
The barn is a dark place even in the daytime. But now it was gloom inside of gloom. There were rows and shelves of caged, sick, convalescing animals. Mostly quiet. The occasional mutter or growl or chirp.
"Cassie?"
She turned to look up at me. Her eyes were dull with agony.
"He can't get enough air," she said. "His pulse is weak."
"Make fish! He try to make fish-people!" Jara Hamee cried.
I turned to Toby. A seer of her people. More intelligent and articulate than her fellow Hork-Bajir, including her father, Jara.
"Who?"
"Visser Three," Toby said. "Who else?"
"What happened?"
"This is Hahn Tunad. He was not a free Hork-Bajir. Not one of our colony. Now Hahn is free of the Yeerks but he is dying for it." Toby paused before going on. "Hahn and forty-nine other Hork-Bajir were the subjects of an experiment. I have come to understand from Hahn that the visser is obsessed with rediscovering the Pemalite ship. He is very angry that his last attempt was foiled by the being called the Drode. And by the so-called Andalite bandits."
"Okay," I said, watching Cassie wipe a cool cloth over Hahn's bladed forehead. "Go on."
"The visser attempted to produce an amphibious creature. To aid in this deep-sea mission. He failed. When he realized the fifty test subjects were useless to him, he ordered their Yeerks to abandon the now-useless host bodies. They were to be fed to the Taxxons. We found Hahn ... the others were already dead."
Toby nodded toward her distraught father. "They were friends. Long ago."
I tried to slow my racing heart. To breathe deeply. To keep from vomiting.
I knelt by Cassie.
She pointed to Hahn's left shoulder. Just below the blade was - a gill. I'd already seen it. I'd seen the webs between the Hork-Bajir talons and fingers, too.
"Jake, the visser just grafted these gills onto the body," Cassie whispered. "It's as if he and his medical team had no idea of Hork-Bajir physiology. It's all wrong. Totally botched!"
"Feet! Feet!" Jara, more agitated than I'd ever seen him, pointed to Hahn's feet.
"Jake, he can't breathe. I don't know what they did inside, to his lungs . . ."
I grabbed the oxygen mask from the ground where Cassie had dropped it in defeat. Yanked the oxygen tank closer to the makeshift bed of hay bales.
"Jake! You can't. . . it's too late!"
Pushing past Cassie I held the mask to Hahn's mouth. Opened the valve on the tank.
"Jake, you're not doing him any good. He's in pain. No one can help him."
She gently pulled the mask away. From behind me I was dimly aware of Toby's voice.
"Hahn was able to tell us of a powerful new seagoing vessel the visser has built specifically for the purpose of locating the Pemalite ship. It is known as the Sea Blade."
A horrible gurgling rose from Hahn's throat.
"Cassie! Something's caught in his throat!"
"A valve of some sort," she said. "It's malfunctioning. I tried to open it. Tried to keep it from closing further. I couldn't."
Jara stepped forward and gracefully took one of Hahn's hands. "Hahn not die!" he pleaded. "Hahn come with Toby and Jara and be free!"
"No, Father. It is time for Hahn to go Beyond. Our friends, Tobias and the others, will help us destroy the evil that is Visser Three. Help us avenge Hahn's death."
With a terrible sob, Jara knelt and gently laid his bladed head on Hahn's body.
And then there was one less sound in the barn. One less creature breathing.
I moved away. Jara needed privacy. I turned to look up at the window in the rafters. Tobias's favorite passage into and out of the barn. The sky was beginning to lighten. Dawn was approaching.
A new day. A day Hahn and the other mutated Hork-Bajir would never see.
"Jake?"
I looked back to Cassie. Opened my arms. She came to me and we held each other. We held each other until Toby and Jara had wrapped Hahn's body in blankets and taken him into the sunrise.
<Yes, though we can make use of the additional information we received from Toby's spies this morning,> Ax pointed out.
Right after dawn I'd sent Ax and Tobias to the secret community the free Hork-Bajir had established. Their information was sketchy. Hork-Bajir, with the exception of Toby, are not the brightest species around. It's a little like asking a four-year-old to describe a movie.