"You're right," Jake said.
"Yeah."
I was surprised that he took it so well. I guess I shouldn't have been. We all kind of treat Jake like he's the leader, but he's never been pushy about it.
"What are you going to do Sunday?" he asked.
That took me by surprise again. "I don't know. Some Sundays we go to my mom's grave. Leave
103 flowers and all. But this is the two-year thing." I shrugged. "I don't know, man."
He just nodded.
"But I'll tell you one thing, Jake. A year from now I don't want my dad going to leave flowers at two graves."
104 « I his is wonderful! Wonderful! Flying!»
The six of us were all together. Flying. It was the first time for Ax. He just kept saying how wonderful it was. He wouldn't shut up. It was the most excited he'd been since he'd discovered coffee.
Which was cool, because flying really is won derful.
«These are excellent eyes!» Ax said. «Far better than your human eyes. Even better than my Andalite eyes.»
«Yes, birds of prey usually have great daytime vision,» Tobias said. «l think mine may actually be a little better than yours, though.»
105 «l doubt that,» Ax said. «lt is hard to imagine better vision than this.»
«Remember the good old days?» I asked. «When we used to argue over who had the best jump shot? Now it's who has the best bird eyes.»
We were sailing above a patch of woods. It was almost solid green below us. We had risen high on a beautiful thermal. A thermal is a warm bubble of air that acts like an elevator, letting you soar high with almost no effort.
We hoped there were no bird-watchers down in the woods. We made a very unlikely flock - a red-tailed hawk, a falcon, a harrier, a bald eagle, and two ospreys. We kept some distance between us so it wouldn't be too obvious that we were to gether.
Also, the eagle, who was Rachel, was carrying something that looked like a small TV remote control. She was the biggest bird. She got stuck lifting the weight.
«l have an idea,» I said. «Let's just blow off this suicide mission and spend the day flying around.»
«Sounds good to me,» Cassie said. She meant it to be lighthearted. It sounded just a little too serious.
«There's the quarry,» Tobias announced. «Dead ahead.»
105
W
106 «Dead ahead. Excellent choice of words,» I said.
We made a large circle over the area, looking for anyone who might be in the woods. But there was no one.
We spiraled down from the sky. Down into the deep, open gash in the earth that was the gravel quarry. It was a desolate place. Just a big hole in the ground with some water in the lowest spots.
A few minutes later we were back in our usual forms. Minus shoes, of course. And wearing our motley collection of morphihg clothes.
"We look like a trapeze act from a cheap circus," I said. "Way too much Spandex."
"Don't start with the uniforms again," Rachel said.
It was an old debate. I would say how we needed some decent superhero uniforms. You know, like the X-Men or whatever.
But now, I realized, I shouldn't be talking that way. As if we were all going to be together in the future.
I couldn't tell if Jake had told any of the others that I was quitting. Probably he had told Cassie. I doubted Rachel knew, or she would have said something. The same with Tobias.
And Ax? Who knew with Ax? He was still a mystery to us. It was one of the things I would
107 miss after I quit. I mean, how often do you get to hang out with a real alien?
That and the flying. I would miss the flying. But if I was out, I had to be out all the way.
I guess I must have looked morose, sitting there on a pile of rocks, thinking. Jake came over and kind of gave me a shove. You know, in a friendly way.
"Come on. We need to go back under that overhang. Out of sight."
"Great," I said. "The rocks will fall and crush us and we won't have to worry about the Yeerks."
There was a sort of shallow cave in the quarry wall. Not deep at all, but it would hide us from anyone flying over.
"Well," Jake said. "Let's try this out. Ax? You ready to trigger that thing?"
«Yes. I am very ready, Prince Jake.»
Jake looked around at everyone. "You all ready to go into your various morphs?"
We nodded. All except Ax. See, we were all going to go into morph - our strongest, dead liest morphs - in order to take care of the Yeerk crew when they came. But Ax didn't have any thing but a shark, a lobster, an ant, and a harrier. We figured he was better off in his own Andalite body, which was plenty dangerous.
"Okay, Ax? Do it. Everyone? Morph!"
108 "And let's keep our fingers crossed," I added. "Or talons, claws, or hooves, as the case may be."
Ax pressed a button on the distress beacon. As far as we could tell, nothing happened.
«lt is working,» he reassured us.
So, Rachel, Cassie, Jake, and I began to morph. These were all morphs we had done be fore. There would be no battle to maintain control over the animal mind.
Rachel went into her elephant morph. We figured we might need that brute strength and size.
Jake slowly became a tiger. Cassie used her wolf morph. And I focused on my gorilla.
"What a freak scene this is." I laughed as the changes began. "Anyone who stumbled onto this would think he'd lost his mind."
It was definitely odd. You haven't seen weird till you've seen pretty, blond supermodel Rachel grow a trunk as thick as a small tree and ears the size of umbrellas.
Or Cassie, growing gray fur over every inch of her body, falling to all fours and baring long yel low teeth.
And then there was Jake. Huge, curved claws grew from his fingers. A snakelike tail whipped out behind him. Orange and black fur covered him. And when he was done he was a full grown
109 tiger. Almost ten feet from his nose to his tail. Easily four hundred pounds.
If something deadly can ever be beautiful, it's a tiger.
«Bet I could kick your butt,» I said to Jake.
«Yeah, monkey boy? I don't think so.»
«Hey, I could stomp both of you,» Rachel said. She walked closer, swinging her trunk and flaring her ears out. A moving mountain.
«This is so mature,» Cassie said. «Arguing over who could beat who.»
«Hah. You're only saying that because we can all kick your butt, wolfie,» I pointed out.
«As if!» Cassie protested. «You'd have to catch me first. And I could still be running long after the three of you were worn out and fast asleep.»
«You have an amazing variety of animals on your planet,» Ax said. «Some day, when the Yeerks are defeated, Andalites will come here simply to try out the many animal forms. It would be like a vacations
«Joe Andalite, you've won the Superbowl! Now where are you going?» I said, mimicking the Disney World commercials. «l'm going to Earth to turn into a lobster!»
«l don't understand^ Ax said.
I started to explain, but just then a red light
110 began to flash on Ax's homemade distress beacon. «The response signal! They are coming!»
«Quick! Everyone to your places!» Jake said.
He slunk away, liquid power, to hide in the shadow of a boulder. Rachel pressed back under the shallow overhang. Cassie trotted to a spot to the right of Jake, and I tried not to look like a four-hundred-pound gorilla behind a pile of gravel. Tobias flapped hard, struggling to gain altitude.
SWOOSH!
It came in low, just above tree level, then disappeared before turning to come back.
A Bug fighter. Just as we'd planned.
«Here's your ride home, Ax,» I said.
111 R--FT
Swoosh!
The Bug fighter flew over once again, seemed to pause, then settled down toward the floor of the quarry.
Bug fighters are the smallest of the Yeerk ships. The
y aren't much bigger than a school bus. They have a cowled, insectlike look, except that on either side there are very long, serrated spears pointing forward. So they look a little like a cockroach holding two spears.
The Bug fighter landed as gently as a feather.
I held my breath.
«Wait for it,» Jake said. «Wait for it.»
The hatch opened. Out stepped a Hork-Bajir Controller.
ill
112 The Andalite prince, Ax's brother, had told us that the Hork-Bajir were a good, decent people who had been enslaved against their will by the Yeerks.
Uh-huh. Maybe so. But what they looked like was a whole different thing. Hork-Bajir are big, walking razor blades. They're about seven feet tall, two arms, two legs, and a nasty spiked tail similar to Andalite tails.
There are sword Iike blades raked forward from their snake heads. There are blades at their el bows and wrists and knees.
I mean, let me put it this way: If Klingons were real, they would be scared of Hork-Bajir.
«Get ready.» Jake again.
The Hork-Bajir stepped clear of the Bug fighter. Then, he just stood there.
«There will be a Taxxon inside,» Ax reminded us.
«Yeah. We know,» I said.
Why was the Hork-Bajir just standing there? He should be looking around. After all, he was answering a distress beacon. Why was he just standing there like he was waiting for something?
«0n the count of three,» Jake said in our heads. «0ne . . . Two . . . Three!»
"Tsseeeeerrrr!"
Tobias swooped, falling from the sky at close
113 to a hundred miles an hour. He raked his talons forward and hit the Hork-Bajir's face.
"RROOWWWRR!" Jake leaped from cover. He sailed through the air and hit the Hork-Bajir with paws outstretched, claws bared.
The Hork-Bajir went down hard.
Jake rolled away as the Hork-Bajir slashed the air like an out-of-control Cuisinart.
But just then Rachel rumbled up, as big as a tank.
«0kay, back off, Jake,» Rachel said. «l have him.»
She pressed one big, tree-stump leg on the Hork-Bajir's chest and pressed him down against the ground. She did not crush him, just held him like a bug who could easily be squashed.
The Hork-Bajir decided it was time to stop struggling and lie very still.
Too easy, a part of my mind warned me. Too easy. No Hork-Bajir Controller had ever just given up like that.
But I had other problems. My job was to get inside the Bug fighter. Get the Taxxon pilot.
« Let's go !» I yelled.
I ran forward, loping clumsily on my squat go rilla legs, swinging my massive, mighty gorilla arms. Cassie and Ax were right there with me. Taxxons are disgusting, oversized centipedes, but
114 I wasn't worried. We were more than enough to handle a Taxxon.
But then -
Zzzzzzzzaaapppp!
A brilliant red beam of light sliced the air just inches in front of me. It blocked my way.
Zzzzzzzzaaaapppp!
Another beam of blinding red light. This crossed behind me. It exploded gravel into steam as it traced a path!
«Dracon beams!» Ax cried.
I spun around, looking for cover.
Zzzzzzaaaaappppp!
«Look!» Cassie screamed in our heads. «Up on the edge of the quarry!»
I looked, as the dracon beams formed a cage of deadly light around us. The edge of the quarry above was lined with Hork-Bajir. I looked left. More! To the right. . . more!
The entire quarry was lined with Hork-Bajir warriors, each armed with a Dracon beam. There must have been a hundred of them. We were sur rounded.
Completely surrounded.
«Stay in morph,» Jake snapped. «Don't let them know we're human.»
«Let's charge them!» Rachel yelled.
«No! You can't even climb up that rock face. Don't be stupid!»
115 Cassie called Tobias. «Tobias! You can get away!»
«l don't think so,» he said. «No headwind. It would take me a couple of minutes to flap my way up out of here. They'd fry me before I got clear.»
The reality settled over us. The despair.
«What are we going to do?» Cassie wailed.
«There has to be a way out! There has to be!» Rachel yelled.
«Not this time,» I said grimly.
We were trapped. Outnumbered. Outsmarted.
Finished.
And that was when he came.
116 looked so much like Ax. So much like Prince Elfangor. And yet, so totally different. The difference wasn't something you saw. It was something you felt.
A shadow on your soul. A darkness that blot ted out the light of the sun. Evil. Destruction.
Not the impersonal, programmed destructive-ness of the ants. This was warm-blooded, delib erate evil.
His body was an Andalite. He was the only Andalite-Controller in existence. The only Yeerk ever to infest an Andalite body. The only Yeerk with the Andalite power to morph.
Visser Three.
117 Visser Three, who had murdered the Andalite Prince Elfangor while we cowered in terror.
Visser Three, who even the Hork-Bajir and Taxxons feared.
«Well, well,» he said, thought-speaking to us. «l have you at last, my brave Andalite bandits. Fools. Do you think we never change our frequen- cies?»
«Yeerk!» Ax said in a silent voice loaded with hatred.
Visser Three's main eyes focused on Ax. «A little one,» he said, surprised. «Are the Andalites now reduced to using their children to fight?»
Ax started to say something, but Jake snapped, «Shut up, Ax! None of us communicates with him. Give him nothing.»
Ax fell silent, but he was practically vibrating with rage and hatred for the Yeerk Visser. It wasn't surprising. Visser Three had killed his brother.
But Jake was right. We couldn't get into a conversation with Visser Three. The rest of us still wanted to hide the fact that we were humans, not Andalites. We could too easily slip and reveal the truth.
Visser Three seemed to be enjoying his big moment. «What a colorful assortment of morphs,» he said. «Earth has such wonderful animals, don't you agree? When we have enslaved the hu-
118 mans and made this planet over in our image, we will have to be sure and keep some of these forms alive. It would be entertaining to try some of these morphs myself.»
None of us said anything. At least not any thing that was human. Jake did snarl, drawing his tiger lip back over his teeth.
«Especially you,» Visser Three said to Jake. «That is a beautiful, deadly animal. I approve. In fact, I was going to demand you demorph. But I have a better idea. You see, we have a guest aboard the mother ship. It will be entertaining to show you to Visser One as you are.»
I was sick with dread and fear. But not so afraid that I didn't notice a sneer in Visser Three's tone when he said "Visser One."
«Did you catch that?» Jake asked me in the thought-speak version of a whisper.
«Yeah. Visser Three doesn't like Visser One.»
Visser Three must have given some signal, be cause at that moment his Blade ship appeared overhead, shimmering into view as it decloaked .
The Blade ship is far larger than the Bug fighters, and very different. It is jet-black. It's built like some kind of battle-ax from the middle ages, with two curved ax-head wings, and a long, diamond-pointed "handle" aimed forward.
«We're better off making a run for it!» Rachel said.
119 «lt would be suicide,» I said. «As long as we're alive, there's hope.»
«Yeah. Visser Three is taking us to the Yeerk mother ship to show off for his boss. Some hope.»
But Rachel did nothing. And I did nothing. And we all just stood there, under the watchful eyes of a hundred Hork-Bajir.
They must have landed out of sight while we were busy watching the one Bug fighter.
Ax had used the wrong frequency. The Yeerks had figured out
we were laying a trap. And our trap had become Visser Three's trap.
A couple of dozen of the Hork-Bajir leaped down from the high wall of the quarry and sur rounded us. They kept their Dracon beams leveled at us as the Blade ship landed on the quarry floor.
"Go, obey farghurrash there horlitl" one of the Hork-Bajir said, in the strange mix of English and their own language that they use.
He pointed to the Blade ship. A door had opened in the side.
«l can't fit in there,» Rachel said.
But as she approached the door, the door widened to her size. It stretched and grew as if the metal skin of the Blade ship were alive.
What a pathetic little crew we were, trooping inside the Blade ship. Weak and pathetic and
120 stupid to imagine that we could ever have resisted the Yeerks.
Visser Three was right. We were fools.
This wasn't even my fight, I thought. Not really. This wasn't my time to die.
I guess I wanted to feel angry. But what I felt was numb, as I trooped into the Blade ship with the others. You know, like I wasn't really there, almost. I was past feeling anything, I guess. I just kept thinking, It's happening. It's finally really happening.
The next day was Sunday. My dad would go to my mom's grave. Alone.
It would be a while before he would admit that I, too, was gone.
Just like when my mom died - there would never be a body.
Just like my mom.
121 « I his is not looking good,» I said. I couldn't take the silence anymore.
«No. It isn't. But we're not dead yet,» Jake answered.
«Yet. Why doesn't that make me happy?» I asked. I looked around at the others, all crammed into a windowless steel cube. Black, dimly lit steel walls on all six sides. No door. It was like a coffin.
«We look like some kind of circus,» I said. «An elephant, a tiger, a gorilla, a wolf, and a freak of nature.»
That got some halfhearted laughs from the others. I don't know why I was making jokes. I guess that's the way I am. When bad things hap-
m
122 pen, I tell jokes. But inside I felt sick. Like I had swallowed broken glass.
«Maybe we should just demorph,» Cassie said. «Maybe if they realize we aren't Andalites, they'll let us go .»