Twenty-five years had passed since the end of the Yeerk-Human war, and in a small lab located not far from the original Yeerk Pool, true peace between the two species was about to begin.
At least, that's what Molly Albright believed, as she waited for her once former Yeerk to be administered the drug that would change him back into his true form.
Yeerks didn't have genders, she knew. They took on the gender of whatever their host was. Since Lertam had been her Yeerk prior to the end of the war, it would have been more accurate to refer to Lertam as a female. Except, they had been closer than most Yeerks and hosts-even voluntary ones, which she had been-and when Lertam had been given the option to morph human, they had both thought that morphing male might make sense. Because, with the expected legalization of human nothlits marrying born humans, Molly and Lertam could see if their close friendship would lead to a romantic relationship.
It did not, as it turned out. Their feelings for each other were clearly platonic.
Lertam chose the human name of Luke, and tried to live out his life as a regular human male. The age of his morph had been approximately twenty-five, which was the same age as Molly at the conclusion of the war.
But life was harder for nothlits of Yeerk origin than any of them would have guessed.
Maybe, they all should have been able to see what would happen. Maybe, had they told the Yeerks that morphing human or anything sentient was off the table, the deaths and violence could have been prevented. The Yeerks could have chosen animals, any animal in the world, but that was the extent of their options. The Taxxons, after all, had agreed to morph snakes. To escape the crippling hunger and, at the same time, increase the population of those endangered species.
Perhaps, allowing them to choose human morphs had been the mistake.
Not that it would have mattered much, in the end. Their quality of life, stuck in a body not their own, would always have been worse than a Yeerk with a willing host. Or even a Yeerk without a host, content to live in a pool with their brother and sister Yeerks.
Lertam was watching Molly now, studying her face. She managed a smile through her nerves, trying to reassure her Yeerk that she was not worried. It had been twenty years since he had last been inside her mind. Could he guess her thoughts after all this time?
Maybe.
She did believe that everything would go according to plan. The drug had been tested and had been proven to be effective. Yes, there had been lives lost in the early stages of its development, but those participants had all been willing, and knew of the safety concerns. This was not Nazi Germany, where the quest to expand science was done at the hands of poor Jewish children and other coerced participants. No, everyone had known what they were signing up for.
Thanks, at least in part, to them, every nothlit would be provided with this cure. An injection to undo the downside of Andalite technology, the curse of being trapped in the form they took when they morphed and remained in that form for more than two hours.
"Still want to host me?" He asked her, holding her hand.
She nodded. "If, of course, you still want me as your host. I'm almost fifty. Hardly the twenty year old you met."
He squeezed her hand. "That's hardly old, for a human. For a Hork-Bajir, though, that would be some kind of medical miracle."
Molly snorted. Hork-Bajir didn't live past ten Earth years on their home planet. Even now, with life prolonging technology, most died before the age of twenty. She'd seen a news story about the current oldest living Hork-Bajir, a seer who had just turned twenty-three. Yes, a fifty year old Hork-Bajir would certainly be a medical miracle. At least, with today's technology. In another twenty-five years, who knew what would happen? The life spam of humanity had certainly increased in the last hundred years, and that was only a fragment of the amount of time they had been living on this planet.
"I want to be your host," she told him, still holding his hand. "I wish I could have been your host all of this time."
"I feel the same way, tamli," Lertam replied, blinking rapidly.
Right after the way, any infestation had been limited to Yeerks of the Peace Movement. Of which there were approximately three hundred remaining. It didn't matter whether the "empire Yeerks", as they had been called, had hosts who wanted to remain with them. Or had even had a host to begin with. Several thousand Yeerks fit that description, either being newly spawn or simply not chosen to have a host. Even a Gedd.
Only the Yeerks of the Peace Movement could be trusted, the government believed. Molly believed that Cassie had pushed even for this. Of course, there had also been protests. Riots, even. Humans who wanted to keep their Yeerks. No one wanted forced infestation, but they had good relationships with their Yeerks, and didn't want to be alone in their heads again.
So, a compromise was reached. All Yeerks who had been part of the Peace Movement could stay with their hosts, if their hosts wanted them. Any Yeerk of the Peace Movement without a host could have a human who wanted a Yeerk. There had been over two hundred unhosted Yeerks, and by the time word got out, those had been spoken for. Not literally, of course. There was an application process. But there were thousands of voluntary humans, and most of them had to be turned away.
The rest of the Yeerks were expected to become nothlits.
Except for a few hundred who had treated their hosts so poorly that they would join Visser One-metaphorically-in a virtual pool to live out the remainder of their lives without a host. Also, it was rumored, with only the minimal access to Kandrona rays. The rays would not shine on the pool constantly. Instead, every two and a half days, they would be turned on for two hours. It would give them enough time to feed, but not feel full. This would be their fate for the remainder of their life. Which would be a long one. Yeerks couldn't commit suicide without assistance.
Some people, including Molly, believed that it was too gentle of a punishment for them. Not that she had ever had a cruel Yeerk, but she'd known from the stories.
Over the first year after the war, which was about how long it took for the cubes to be distributed among the Yeerk population, most of the remaining Yeerks did become nothlits.
Except for another five thousand, who were allergic to the technology. They were sent back to a pool separate from the one holding the Yeerks who tortured their hosts. One with constant Kandrona rays, and better pool nutrients.
It had taken an additional five years for those to be allowed to infest humans. After numerous marches and petitions and overall awareness spread by Cassie and other former voluntary Controllers, newly elected President McCain signed the senate bill that these Yeerks could be given to voluntary humans. On a strictly voluntary basis. It was a bill that the former one term President Gore had rejected. Not, Molly imagined, that it would have done much to get him elected for a second term. His abysmal failure to protect humanity from the 9/11 terrorist attack, among five others that followed in the next thirty-six months, ensured his status as a lame duck practically before the 2002 midterms. But that was another story to tell.
McCain's Yeerk Human Alliance Law, as it was later named, allowed any human to become a host for any viable Yeerk, short term or long term. The law was vague enough that the states could pass their own laws regulating consequences for host abuse and age limitations, in addition to limiting Yeerk reproduction in that state.
Whether the implementation of voluntary infestation and the allowing of Yeerks to reproduce-mostly on their own terms, at least in California-was proof that these Yeerks were decent, or that Yeerks as a whole were decent and it was only the empire that had perverted their minds, destroyed their culture, and simply brought out the worst in them, Molly didn't know. She only knew that there had been no reports of any host abuse in the past twenty years. People visited the pools, even those without Yeerks. Because the Yeerks would breed, and even with the extra five thousand, there was barely enough for half of the humans who still wanted a Yeerk in their head.
By then, the term "Controller" had been termed a slur. Humans who chose to have a Yeerk in their head were symbionts. They were not infested with a Yeerk, but partnered with a Yeerk.
Molly had applied for Yeerk partnership whenever it had been made available, but her name had never been chosen. Truthfully, she didn't mind. Her sole Yeerk during the war had been Lertam, and if she were to be honest with herself, any Yeerk except Lertam would feel like a poor substitute.
Most Yeerks had been forced to become nothlits. They could choose any animal or a combination of human DNA for their morph, but they had to pick one and stay in it, monitored, for the entire two hours. Molly had been there when Lertam had received the morphing power and morphed human.
The problem, she and others knew, was that nearly everyone knew who the nothlits were. Even if the nothlit had not personally abused a human, or not enough to disqualify them from receiving the morphing power, many people associated nothlit with former empire Yeerk. Torturers. Evil alien slugs who enslaved races, stealing their bodies and their minds. And now they were here, taking on the physical form of humans, expecting to be treated as any other American.
They were, quite literally, illegal aliens. Nothlits would never be given social security numbers. Never be allowed the right to vote. Never eligible for any sort of government benefits, however long they lasted before the money ran out. No, they were truly the lowest of low. Most couldn't even get hired in a minimum wage job, because who would hire a Yeerk when there was a human who would do the same work? They couldn't even negotiate by saying they would do the job for less without being laughed out of the establishment.
Not ALL of them, of course. Lertam had been one of the lucky ones. Molly had married Mark, a Yeerk sympathizer who had his own business, and gave Lertam a decent job that easily paid his bills. He moved into an apartment nearby, and acted as a godfather to her two children, Sandra and Jackie, now ages 16 and 19.
Lertam had told Molly that while he was grateful to have a human body, he still missed his Yeerk body. Missed the pool. Even missed living inside of her head, being able to communicate with thoughts and emotions rather than vocally.
Molly missed it too. More than she allowed herself to admit. Because if she started dwelling on what she'd lost-and it had not just been her-well, then she might give into despair.
Ten years ago, scientists began to develop a cure for what they called "the condition of nothlitism". Molly wondered, like many others, if the sudden government grants that came in were a way of nodding to the nothlit Yeerks. A way of apologizing, for forcing them to take on another body. Of acting too hastily in a way that cost millions their quality of life, and at least thousands their actual life.
Because even though symbionts were protected, and anyone who intentionally harmed a symbiont would be charged with a hate crime and an accompanying jail sentence of up to ten years in prison-and it was enforced-nothlits still received no such protection. They weren't treated as war criminals by the government, many policemen tended to look the other way when a nothlit was killed.
Murdered.
Now, finally, a cure was ready. All nothlits were allowed to be given it, free of charge. Even the ones who took on the form of an animal.
They used a technology that would replicate Andalite thought speech to broadcast the news about a cure, periodically, over a period of six months. Worldwide. Based on the response, it was estimated that over 90% of the Yeerks who became nothlits now wanted to receive their cure. Wanted their old bodies back.
Lertam would be the first to receive the official, FDA approved drug, but he would be far from the last.
Perhaps the remainder were happy enough as animals. Perhaps, they were waiting to see if there were any side effects.
Then again, they had been hunted down and slaughtered by angry humans.
Molly and Lertam waited in silence for the biologists to arrive and administer the dosage.
It felt like hours, but when she checked her phone, it had only been fifteen minutes. A few minutes after that, the door opened, and a few scientists in lab coats and goggles arrived.
"Lertam three-four-eight of the Hett Simplatt Pool and Molly Albright?" a dark haired man asked.
Both nodded.
"And, Ms. Albright, you wish to have Lertam three-four-eight partner with you after his condition has been reversed?"
Another nod.
One of the other biologists checked her notes. "He has no history of host abuse that would disqualify him. She was voluntary for the full duration of their time together during the Yeerk War."
Not at first, Molly thought, remembering the early days. But things had changed before he'd been in her head for a month. Lertam had never been cruel to her, even when she'd been highly resistant. But despite, or perhaps because, of her eventual change of heart, he remained loyal to the empire. Too hesitant to join the Peace Movement.
Had he done so, they could have had an extra twenty-five years together. But, then, she might not have met Mark and had her two beautiful girls.
It's working out, now, she told herself.
As though he had read her mind, Lertam squeezed her hand and smiled at her.
They asked a few more questions to verify their ages, then and now, and other mundane details. Finally, the dark haired scientist revealed a rather large syringe containing dark green liquid.
Lertam visibly flinched. Whether it was related to the DNA of the people he'd acquired, or something in his own mind, he'd always been afraid of injections. And this one, from what Molly remembered, was at least twice the size of the kind you would use to treat the common cold, or vaccinate your children.
"There's no pill version? Or even a liquid?" he asked, and Molly could see he was trying to pull it off as nonchalant.
The female shook her head, smiling in what Molly hoped was a sympathetic manner. "It has to enter your bloodstream directly."
"Half of our fatalities were from other methods of administration," the dark haired man muttered. "Probably could have been prevented, had we known then."
Molly exhaled sharply and crossed herself, an instinct from her fifty years as a devout Catholic. Well, forty-three, she supposed. The Church taught that the age of reason was at seven. She'd certainly never missed Mass without cause for the first six years of her life, though, and she had been baptized as a baby...
She forced her thoughts back towards her Yeerk. "Will you be okay?"
He laughed. "Guess I have to be. It will take more than an abnormally large needle going into my arm to stop me from getting my body back."
"You hadn't heard? We have to inject it into your eyeballs. Both of them." This came from the third scientist, a pale blonde man who had been silent up until now.
This resulted in a chuckle from the other man, and a slap on the head by the female. "How many times do I have to tell you not to use the eyeball joke?" she admonished.
He shrugged, looking-or at least pretending to look-sheepish. "Sorry, Lertam."
Lertam had the grace to roll his eyes and laugh. "Let's get this over with."
The female doctor nodded, and began to place her hands in surgical gloves. She removed an alcohol pad from her coat pocket, and liberally swabbed Lertam's left arm. Molly squeezed his right arm, but he was looking anywhere but at the syringe.
"On three, then. One. Two." He rammed the needle in, and even Molly winced.
"What happened to three?" Lertam practically yelped.
"Easier if you're not expecting it," the female explained. "A few more seconds, and we can take it out."
Lertram swore-in Galard-under his breath as the liquid left the syringe and entered into his arm. "How long before I change back?"
"Two hours before the changes begin. After that, about five minutes before your natural body completes the change," she replied.
"The morphing itself, or changing back? Lertram won't feel any pain, will he?"
"No, we were able to produce the antidote so that the patient will not feel pain. Lertam, do you remember morphing human?" He nodded. "It will feel like that."
"They told us that Lertam will still have the morphing technology when he returns to his Yeerk body. Is this correct?" Molly asked.
"Yes. All later participants were able to morph back, and any morphs they had acquired prior to becoming a nothlit remained part of their biological DNA. Lertam will be able to morph at will, and acquire any other animals or humans he likes. Within the Law of Sentience, of course."
The Law of Sentience was essentially the code that the Animorphs had gone by during most of the war. All sentient beings must give their expressed permission before their DNA could be used. This meant more than simply verbal agreement. The paperwork that needed to be processed rivaled government bills, and it needed to be notarized by five witnesses.
Officially, anyway. Still, newly restored nothlit Yeerks were unlikely to break the law, especially since doing so would mean spending up to sixty years in prison.
That is, in the Yeerk Pool with limited rays.
Lertram had known all of this, as had Molly. They had read and reread the documents provided. Still, it helped to receive verbal reassurance.
"Any other questions?"
Both of them shook their heads.
"We'll be back every fifteen minutes to check on you. If there's a problem," the female handed Molly a device "press that, and someone will be there within thirty second. But only if you think it's an emergency."
Lertam and Molly glanced at each other, and then nodded at the scientists.
"As soon as the reversal is complete, Ms. Albright, please fill that container with water and place your Yeerk in it. We need to be present for the inf-for the partnership," the female corrected herself.
"Certainly. Thank you-all of you-for this." Molly could feel her voice becoming shaky, and she forced a smile. "It's more than I had hoped for."
To her surprise, the female doctor came over to her and put a hand on top of hers. "My mother was a voluntary Controller during the war. She lost her Yeerk when they flushed the pool. Peace Movement. She was one of the first to receive a Yeerk from the Peace Movement, but she says there's not a day that goes by when she doesn't mourn for Aldris. She passed last summer. I know that she would be so happy that people like you have a second chance with their original Yeerk."
Molly swallowed hard, unable to speak. Fortunately, Lertam was able to say what she wanted to. "We're so sorry for your loss."
The doctor nodded, and then left the room suddenly, and the two others followed after her.
The two hours passed slowly. Neither spoke much, and despite having their phones and reading material with them, neither could concentrate on either for very long. It was a relief when the biologists appeared every quarter hour. It meant that time was passing.
Shortly after the eighth visit, Lertram's body-well, his human morph-began to change. Molly watched in fascination as her Yeerk slowly resumed his natural form. She'd been there when he'd morphed human, and the process of changing back was no less disturbing. Andalite technology didn't do anything to make the morphing process look anywhere near normal, much less attractive, and either human technology couldn't improve upon it, or it hadn't been a priority.
Still, it seemed...natural...for Lertam's body to change back into his regular form. Not as abhorrent as when he'd first morphed.
Once the change was complete, she gently picked her Yeerk up from the chair, and placed him-her, now, since Lertam would be living in her head in only a few minutes-in the container of water. Then, she waited.
The next ten minutes went by even more slowly than the previous fifteen, but the biologists appeared, at last. Smiling widely, she showed them the small container of water with her Yeerk.
Her Yeerk. Just the words filled her with happiness.
The female was smiling at her. "Ready?"
Molly nodded, then picked Lertam up, and held her Yeerk to her ear.
It may have been twenty-five years since he'd last crawled into her ear, but it felt as familiar as though he had only taken a break to feed. She remembered the sensations of Lertam entering her head, even enjoyed the loss of control, because of what it meant.
Of course, Lertam handed control back to her as soon as the connection to her brain was complete. She was relieved. It would take some time, she knew, to adapt to a Yeerk able to control her body. But they'd spoken about that on numerous occasions. They would take everything slowly.
She could feel her Yeerk's wonder at being in a host body again. In sharing her mind again.
(It's been so long,) Lertam told her. (But this is right.)
She smiled, internally and externally. (Welcome home. Welcome back, raschli.)
Lertam sent long mental hug. The kind she hadn't received in over two decades. (Thank you, tamli.)
The end
A/N: If you've read this far, please take a minute to leave feedback!
Additionally: "Tamli" is the term I coined that a Yeerk calls their host when they have a particularly close bond. "Raschli" is the equivalent term for a human to use for their Yeerk.