The Arisths
Book Two: The Escape
Part 2
Author's Note
As you may have noticed, you didn't need the pronunciation key that was in my last author's note. You do, however, need it this time, so here it is:
Soggor: Soe- gor
Saccronian Beetle: Sak- crone-ian
Anvarian Cloaker: An- var- rian Cloke- er
Once again, the Anvarian Cloaker is a K.A.A. creation; I just made up the name. It's the chameleon creature from book #30: The Reunion.
Enjoy,
John
I woke in The Golden Nebula's sickbay with a headache. It took me a few seconds, but I finally remembered what had happened. We had captured a Skrit Na ship, in a risky plan to acquire morphs at a zoo on the Skrit Na world. We needed the Skrit Na on the ship to gain access, using either the Skrit or Na morph, depending on which one tended the animals. We thought we had stunned all four of the Na, but it turned out that one wasn't the last thing I remembered was the Na firing his Dracon Beam right up against my head. Obviously, it hadn't been on kill. A computerized clock told me I had been unconscious for a few hours. I got up and walked to the bridge, across the many different grasses of the ship's floor.
Almost everyone was on the bridge: Caroof at the controls, Maheen looking out a view port and my younger brother Assinko standing in a corner, his tail drooping. I didn't see Terace anywhere.
So, you're finally awake. Maheen walked over. She looked troubled.
You were shot on stun, She explained. The Na tried to shoot you again, on a higher level this time, but Assinko killed him. She pointed over to my depressed brother.
He and Terace had an argument over it. Terace was angry because Assinko disobeyed his orders when he killed that Na. Assinko said something about him not being a War Prince and how he was tired of him barking out orders. She paused. Terace just stalked off and Assinko has been in that corner since then. Caroof downloaded the Skrit Na ship's computer and he's sorting through the files now.
I walked over to my brother, but he didn't want to talk. I looked for Terace, and found him in the rec room, tail fighting holographic Hork Bajir. Each time he sliced one it fizzled and disappeared. The holograms were specially designed so that every time a blade, or horn for that matter, it gave off an electrical shock. I saw him cleave and slice the hologram Hork Bajir, until there was none left. And then I walked in.
Hello, Terace. I said
So, you're awake.
Yeah, I, um, heard what Assinko said and, well…
It's okay. It doesn't matter, really.
No, it does. I know you feel some sort of duty to be our leader. I know what that's like. I have a duty to look brave, so that you guys don't lose morale and-
Terace turned around to face me. Esgarrouth, you don't have a duty to do that. We've got enough morale to go around. I mean, look at your brother, he's always gung ho about everything. And Maheen, she's got her sense of humor… no matter how bad it is. And you, well, yes, we do think of you as the brave one, but hey, every one of us have gotten scared at some point. It's really not that important.
I guess you're right, I said. Well, anyway, where are we holding the Skrit Na?
In the cargo bay. It's down the hall, to your left.
I left, feeling mildly relieved.
The cargo bay was largely empty, save the three Na and five Skrit who sat tied up in the middle of the room. I went over to them and acquired the DNA of one Skrit and one Na. The Skrit just sat there silently, not being intelligent enough to understand what was going on. The Na spit at me and sat there glaring. I went to bridge to inform the others, and finally, it was time to land on the Skrit Na planet. We flew through the gigantic crowd of ships in orbit, narrowly crashing into a Hawjabran freighter, until we reached the atmosphere.
It was night on the Skrit Na world, and lights of every color, draped over buildings, shone brightly. There were streets, mostly high- rises that were clogged by many creatures of many different species. We found docking cradles, large, circular walls that held a ship when it landed, and landed in one that was empty. Even the docking cradles hinted at the variety of species on this planet, holding everything from spider- like Yeerk Pool Ships to figure- eight shaped Desbadeen craft. The moment we landed, we all morphed to Na, which was a strange morph indeed.
Morphing is never logical or predictable, and this time my eyes changed first. They bulged and became black, which gave me an odd, tinted view. But what these eyes did to the light was spectacular! Instead of just a light, I saw multi colored rays coming from the lights in a dazzling array. So this is why the Skrit Na liked lights so much. Anyway, my head started to grow and my stalk eyes darkened and disappeared. My ears were sucked into my head, leaving nothing but small holes. The three vertical slits that made my nostrils melded together into a flat nose. My front legs shriveled and disappeared, and my hooves on my front legs turned into five toed feet. Two of my seven fingers disappeared, leaving me with only five. My blue- tan fur was sucked into my body, and my skin became gray.
Finally, the morph was done, and I turned to the others, who were also finishing their morphs.
Weird. Said Caroof as he opened the door and we walked down the ramp into the docking cradle, and then Caroof code- sealed the door. We were not the only ones in the docking cradle. There were Skrit technicians and a Na in charge of the cradle asked us questions, which we replied to in pre- rehearsed answers.
"What is your business on the Skrit Na world?" He asked.
"We are here to buy and trade goods at the local bazaar." I said.
"Your ship, it is Andalite, yes?"
"Yes. We bought it from the Yeerk Empire." I lied.
"How long will you be staying?"
"A few hours."
"Very well. You will be charged hourly fees." That's the Skrit Na for you, always thinking of wealth or personal gain.
We left the docking cradle and entered the crowded streets. We passed through crowds of many different species, and finally reached the nearest zoo. It was a fenced off area, with Ramonite cages. Ramonite is the material we Andalites use on our ships. It can be formed into any shape and become transparent or opaque on command. The cages were completely transparent, so that you could see the animals inside, but when the Skrit Na went in to feed them, we noticed, they made the cages opaque. This was going to work out perfectly for us.
We past by many animals: Kaftids, Lerdethaks, Flaar (from my home world) and Desbadeen Limners. We decided we could get into the cages using Skrit morphs, since they were the manual laborers and obviously took care of the animals. The Na morphs, we learned were not a total waste, as the Na were needed to give commands to the installed computer in the Ramonite. So we decided one of us should stay in Na morph and open the cages.
We picked water and insect morphs before our battle morphs, because the former were easier to acquire, as you were able to pet them (if you wanted…). First we acquired a Saccronian Beetle, a maroon insect with four wings, by stealing one from its cage. The insect cages weren't guarded in any way, I guess because nobody would want to steal one. Any way, we stole one, quietly acquired it in a corner where nobody would see us and returned the beetle.
Our water morph was the Lebtin Javelin fish, a flat, and disk like fish with stalk eyes that could spit spears at attackers. To acquire it, we simply snuck into a place around the aquarium where we could not be seen and acquired it. With this done, we worked on how to get into the cages of our battle morphs.
We followed a group of Skrit Na around, trying to learn the password to open the cages. It turned out the password was "N'quaq", the name of the conqueror of wild beasts in Skrit Na mythology. It actually made sense. We saw how the beasts were stunned using Dracon Beams and we stole five; one for each of us. We broke off from the group and searched for battle morphs. Terace was first to decide, so he, myself, Assinko and Maheen morphed to Skrit.
The Skrit morph was much odder than the Na. Instead of loosing legs, I gained ten, insect legs and my usual four legs became like them. Once again, my two part body formed one, hulking exoskeleton. My arms became very much like my legs, only a bit more flexible. My face bulged outwards into and oval, and a small mouth with two mandibles appeared. I kept two of my nostrils, which didn't change much, mostly staying two vertical slits. My eyes bulged and became red, tinting everything that color. My stalk eyes suddenly went dark and became straight and thin, forming two antennae. These were joined by twelve more, all over my head. Finally my tail disappeared and the morph was done. The Skrit, I noticed, didn't have very strong instincts, except a need to do whatever they were told.
We walked over to a particularly large cage, where Terace's battle morph was: The Antarean Bogg. It was a gigantic monstrosity, with two tentacles for arms and legs as thick as Hork Bajir trees. Its head was a bulbous oval, with an evil, fang filled grin and two red eyes. It had a thick tail to support itself. I felt a wave of fear wash over me, as I saw the mouth that an Andalite could easily fit into.
Caroof walked up to the cage and said "N'quaq." A hole simply formed in the cage and we walked in.
"Opaque." Caroof said.
The Antarean Bogg spotted us immediately and roared with hunger.
"RRRRRAAAAAAAWWWWWWWGGGGGGG!"
Fire, NOW! Yelled Terace and we started to shoot our Dracon Beams.
TSSSEEEWWW!
TSSSEEEWWW!
The beast howled in rage, but didn't seem to be tiring. On thick tentacle whipped towards us…
TSSSEEEWWW!
It stopped. The Antarean Bogg looked at us with fury and collapsed. Terace immediately demorphed and acquired it.
And that was how we acquired them from then on. The rest of us picked battle morphs and stuned them, alternating the Na morph every time.
Assinko picked the Anvarrian Cloaker, a giant beast with a thick colorless exoskeleton that would change colors to camouflage it. Its legs were clawed and it had a disk- shaped head with two, red eyestalks.
Caroof decided on the Kaftid, a giant with stout legs, leathery wings to small to carry it and a tube like mouth that spit acid.
Maheen chose the Dule Fansa, a large purple monster, whose eyes and mouth were on its torso, had two legs and arms that ended in three, red, cone- shaped claws. These claws could extend on elastic like skin like a missile, spearing its attacker.
Just as we had finished getting the Dule Fansa, the Ramonite cage opened behind us, and two, heavily armed Na came in. This wouldn't have been a problem, but Maheen was still in her Andalite form.
"Andalites!" one sneered. "Visser Ten will pay a hefty price for you."
They raised their Dracon beams.
FWAPP!
Not fast enough! Maheen had cut both Dracon Beams in half with her tail. We ran for the exit but a Na came to block us, holding a small dagger. Then…
"AAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!" A cone shaped claw ran through the Na's chest and pinned him to the wall. Blue blood started to pour from the wound. The Dule Fansa, now awake, shook the dead Na off its claw and turned to us. We ran out the door, quickly demorphing as we went and trying not to lose our Dracon Beams. I turned one of my stalk eyes around to see the remaining Na yelling into a hand held radio.
"Level five emergency! We have illegal, unregistered aliens in the zoo! Andalites! Level Fi- AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHHHH!"
As he was talking I saw a Dule Fansa claw go through the back of his head…
We ran, Skrit Na security on our heels. We got split up some how, I don't know why. All I know was that one minute we were together running through a shocked crowd, the next Terace and I were alone.
This is just great! I said, as Dracon Beams flew by me.
This way! Terace said, pointing at a cage.
We ran to it and yelled "N'quaq" simultaneously. We jumped inside the opening, which immediately closed.
Computer, I said. Lock the door and make the cage opaque.
The computer didn't answer of course, but the openings in the box were sealed, and the cage became opaque. Breathing hard, we turned to see what animal was in the cage. At that point my hearts stopped. I was looking at a hulking, muscular gray skinned creature, with two arms and legs. Its face was an almost flat rectangle with two, small black eyes and a fanged mouth. Two long slender horns stuck out the back of its head. It's sinewy arms ended in hands with five serrated claws on each. I had heard of this creature once in school many years ago: a Soggor.
The Soggor let out a roar and lurched towards us, bearing its fangs and claws. Terace and I started firing at the exact same time.
TSSSEEEWWW!
TSSSEEEWWW!
The Soggor took the hits and kept coming. We fired again and again, until it seemed pointless. Suddenly, the Dracon Beams power ran out, but it didn't matter, the Soggor was now upon us. Terace struck with his tail catching the Soggor in the shoulder. The beast turned to Terace and made a sideways swipe at him. The claws caught him on the right side of his back on his upper torso, tearing through his side. One claw looked like it was going to go into his head, but only cut off his right stalk eye. Terace fell, clutching the four gashes in his side and the stub that had been his eyestalk. Green blood ran furiously from the wound. It then turned to me and pounced. The giant monster knocked me to the ground, and opened its jaws wide. I only had one chance left. I reached out and touched it and began to acquire it. The Soggor went into a daze, and I crawled out from under it. Terace had morphed to Na, healing the wounds. I morphed to Na also and we left the cage.
There was no sight of the others, and we decided to walk back to the ship in an attempt to find them. There was only one problem. The Skrit Na had procured Anti- Morphing technology, a failed experiment by the Yeerks to forcibly draw someone out of morph. We had no idea if the Skrit Na had fixed it or not, but we didn't want to find out. And so we decided to steal a ship, being the only way, we decided, to avoid the streets, which were crawling with Skrit Na security brandishing Anti- Morphing Rays. Terace and I could have morphed Kafit bird, but the Skrit Na would probably notice a bird flying free on their world and either force us to demorph or lock us in a cage at the zoo.
We easily found a docking cradle with a Skrit Na ship in it and convinced the cradle manager that it was ours. We got onboard and demorphed, ducking, so as not to bruise our eye stalks on the low ceiling. We went to the bridge and discovered… a Na in the pilot seat. He turned around and the shock on his face at seeing two Andalites was easy to identify. He leapt at us, attempting to strangle me with his bare hands. We grabbed him and brought him the entrance, where we roughly threw him out, much to the surprise of the Skrit Na in the docking cradle. I saw the Na reach for the doorway, but he was too late, we had closed the door. Out of the bridge view port, we saw Skrit Na scrambling out of the docking bay in an attempt to save them selves from incineration. A few seconds later, we were flying.
We flew low over the brightly lit city, looking for the docking bay. Doing this distracted us, so I literally jumped when a red light started flashing and beeping.
Incoming ships! I yelled to Terace. He immediately jumped in front of the weapons station, while I took the controls. The computer identified our pursuers as Skrit Na ships; three exactly like ours.
A Na voice crackled over the radio.
"Surrender, Andalite criminals, or we will be forced to shoot you down."
Criminals? The Skrit Na are calling us criminals? Now this is an all time low! I said.
How do they know it's us? Terace asked.
I bet one of the Skrit Na in the docking cradle put a tracking device on the ship before we took off. I said.
TSSSEEEWWW!
TSSSEEEWWW!
The Skrit Na had opened fire on us, signified by red Dracon Beams lancing by us.
Fortunately, the Skrit Na are not known for their good aiming.
TSSSEEEWWW!
More fire, only this time the shots connected.
Hey, the Skrit Na are getting better. Terace said grimly.
But a new voice over the radio proved Terace wrong.
"Do not worry, Skrit Na enforcers. Your friends from the Yeerk Empire, Visser Ten, will kill the Andalites."
The voice was deep and guttural, that of a Hork Bajir, and apparently a Visser (a Yeerk general, for those who do not know).
I looked down at the computer display of the Yeerk ship following us, and once again my hearts stopped. It was blacker than black, shaped like some primitive weapon, like a double bladed ax. It had two, curved, blade- like wings in the back, and a diamond shaped cockpit. A long shaft connected the two parts.
A Yeerk Blade Ship.
I tried to evade it, flying higher and dodging between buildings, but the Dracon Beams kept hitting us, causing serious damage. And suddenly, our engines were hit and the controls did not respond. We went into a deadly spiral-
Right towards a Skrit Na sky scraper.
Prepare for collision, I yelled. We're going down!
TO BE CONTINUED…