Jake

"Ram the Blade ship," I said.

>Jake> , Tobias said in thoughtspeak, I'm sorry.

"For what?" Marco replied as the ship rotated so that it would impact the Blade ship, if only a little. "Going to the bathroom all the time?"

He did have a point. Tobias's trips to the toilet were more frequent than we might expect. Obviously, we didn't want him to do his business out in the main cabin, but even for a bird...

>No, well, yes, well>... Tobias's thoughtspeak shut off as he entered a morph. No-a demorph.

"What the-" Marco began.

"I told you not to-"

BANG! Not only did we hit the Blade ship, we crashed through it so much if we opened the door, we could walk into it. And that's what I did, waving Marco, and Tobias-no, Cassie, and the others behind me.

Ax was standing there, waiting for us. >Jake>, he said. >It is good to see you. The mouth you saw was a hologram.>

"How are you? Have you been taken over by that-that-"

>It is not a takeover. It is a merging. I am part of something greater than any being or species could imagine, something you soon will experience.>

"You're evil, that's what you are," said Cassie. I wanted to tell her to shut up, to get back in the ship where it was safe, but she kept talking. "We will not join you."

>Really. Observe her!> Ax-was it Ax? gestured to Jeanne, who now had the same calm look on her face that Ax did.

"Marco," she said. "I know you can talk sense into your friend. Come and be part of me."

Menderash and Santorelli, the others who had come with us, were looking even more confused than I felt. Shrugging, they turned to each other.

"Don't!" I yelled.

"It will happen anyway," Menderash replied. "Better that it is easy than hard." And suddenly they, too, were "merged" into The One. Or whatever it called itself.

>He was right> said Ax. >You have faced me before. You know I will be victorious.> For a moment his four eyes gleamed red-maybe. It could have been the Blade ship's lighting.

"That...that was a dream," I said, struggling to maintain my hold on reality. "You tested me."

>And you lost.> There was no illusion this time. Ax's eyes were as dark and as evil as Crayak's, and so were Jeanne's, and Menderash's, and Santorelli's, and-

"No," I gasped, staring at Marco.

"Jake," he whispered. "It's okay. Just come with me. You don't need to be feeling this way."

Cassie's eyes flickered. She was losing it, too. All of a sudden she regained her composure and strolled over to the others. One of them.

>It's over, Jake. I have beaten you. Let us end this.>

I couldn't look at Santorelli or Menderash or Jeanne, who I'd brought along to lead to their doom. Couldn't face my best friend, or what had become of him. Couldn't handle Cassie's eyes.

I stared at Ax. I was here to rescue him, and I had a duty to do. "You can't win, Crayak."

The humans now part of this monstrosity just laughed. >I no longer need a name like that. I am no longer one mind. I use the minds of others now. Sacrifice yours, Jake.>

All four eyes gleaming red. I stared them down as they drained the hope from me. And at the very moment it was all lost, and I was about to give in, I smiled. "Hey, Mr. One, or whatever I'm supposed to call you. Aren't you curious as to how we got here?"

>No.>

"I think you should be. I mean, getting a spaceship and flying it right where you were? Could normal beings pull that off on their own? No way!"

>Your point?>

"My point is that there's no way we could have done it. And we did it. Which means only one thing. We had help."

>Help?>

"A nudge, here or there. A few laws of physics being violated. Just your normal...interference."

>MEDDLER! >With a thoughtspoken yell that could have knocked the earth out of orbit, Crayak shot out of the minds on the spaceship. I could almost feel him, or it, crashing with the Ellimist as they physically met in an explosion of energy.

Ax stumbled, then stood upright.> I am...I am...>

"Free," Marco responded. "We all are."

Cassie was silently crying as she mouthed, "Thank you. Thank you, Jake."

By this time, Ax was acting a little more normal as he turned to those who had come with us. >And thank you, as well. There are thirty-five others on this ship who have just now been released from that evil. Can you take them through Z-space to their home planets?>

"Yes sir!"

>Good. Thank you. I will accompany these others home.>Ax pointed to Marco, Cassie, and me.

"How are you supposed to go back with a hole in your ship?" Marco asked.

>Veenborsh metal?> It'll repair itself, of course.

"Oh, riiight," said Marco, nodding his head. "Duh."

Cassie laughed. "Let's go home."

In annoyance over FFN's lack of correct orientation for the thoughtspeak symbols, Ember Nickel.