Authors note: Long story short, I loved most of the first half, maybe two-thirds of the Animorphs series. I often thought about writing fanfic (this was in the days before I heard of it) but didn't quite want to invent a character, and wasn't quite sure I could pull off writing one of the group. Well, to make a long story short, another author on this site wrote a painfully good oneshot that has been bugging me for some time now. The original story is called Pragmatism by Chiroptera Jones. Here are my thoughts on what might happen next.
Standard Disclaimer: Not mine, no money, just playin'
"Compassion." Estrid-Corill-Darrath formed the words with her human mouth. "Com. Pash. On."
Cassie smiled tiredly at the andalite in human form. Estrid's hair whipped around her in the wind as they both sat on the fallen trunk of a tree. Cassie had spent most of the day flying in hour-long shifts, trying to improve her maps of this part of the Rocky Mountains.
"I'm glad compassion brings you here, Estrid," She said, "it is nice to see you again."
Estrid suddenly sobered, looking down at the ground. "Cassie, you know that when I came here once before, I was willing to do something that carried a great deal of risk to your people."
Cassie nodded, tugging her windbreaker more snugly around her.
"You made me see what the results of my actions could be. Instead of just enemies and warriors, you made me see-"
"People," Cassie smiled, "no matter what shape we are, we are all just people."
"And deserving of compassion." Estrid said, raising her eyes hopefully.
"Um, Estrid," Cassie began hesitantly, "I'm glad to hear that."
"I know that sometimes we andalites can be arrogant. Ah-rho-gant." Estrid paused, savoring the world. "But you wonder why I would travel all this way to tell you this." Estrid twisted her hands. "I know that you humans are proud of your technology."
Cassie laughed out loud. "Ax has been telling us for years that breaking into a human computer is child's play."
"And normally not something to do, or to admit to doing, but I found ... something." Estrid reached into a pocket and pulled out an iPad. "Something I want you to see." She scrolled through a few menus and then handed the pad to Cassie.
It was some kind of surveillance tape, that was immediately obvious. The angle was high up in a small room filled with some kind of equipment, and inside a locked Plexiglas cage, some kind of basin.
A chill crawled up Cassie's back. She was looking at a small kandrona pool. As she watched, three people came into the room. They were dressed in military uniforms; she wasn't sure what service, but that wasn't really the point, was it?
As she watched the humans acquire the yeerk, and slowly morph and drop into the pool, she asked. "Where is this? How long ago was this?"
Estrid said. "At first I was angry. I thought, they have been using other races for so long."
"How long?" Cassie's tone was sharp now.
"Seven of your days," Estrid said.
They are everyone's days. Cassie could hear Marco's voice in her head.
The room was empty of all but the lone yeerk. A time counter in the corner spun hours by, and eventually another group entered, this time with five people.
Estrid continued. "For any being, such solitary imprisonment, I don't think it is right."
Once more the yeerk was pulled out of the pool, and passed around. It struggled and someone dropped it. There was no sound, but Cassie could tell by the body language that they were laughing. Heat rose in her cheeks.
"More to the point, it's against the law." She said. "It's against the treaty that our government agreed to."
"And perhaps I could have gone to my government, or to yours." Estrid looked doubtful.
Cassie shook her head. "No, you were right not to do that. Are there any more like this one, being kept prisoner?"
"I didn't find any."
Given the computer abilities of even the least skilled andalite, Cassie was pretty sure that meant the government had only dared to capture one like this. The problem was that even if they freed this yeerk, it might only mean that another one would be kept prisoner. And while Estrid could probably set some sort of program in place to find out if it was done again, wouldn't it be better to arrange some sort of publicity, something that would highlight the responsibilities that went with morphing?
Publicity.
"We are going to need a little bit of help on this one." Cassie said.
"Help?"
"Come back to camp with me, Estrid. I need to call Marco."