Disclaimer: K. A. Applegate owns the Animorphs.
I have loved the Animorphs series for ten years now, and I still can't seem to let them go. I hope that you enjoy this story.
A Gift for Visser Three
My name is Delmar 372. I am a Yeerk, with a human host – a rarely hired private investigator called Howard Randel. I am an unambitious Yeerk – I like swimming gently in the Yeerk pool, nudging into my brother and sister Yeerks, and watching human television. I have found that in life, it's often safer for a Yeerk to be unambitious. Particularly on Earth. I like my life quiet and safe.
There is nothing quiet and safe about a knock on the door at quarter to seven in the morning. My host's human wife, Elina, looked up from brushing the hair of our daughter, Cayden, currently host to Oslar 943, and frowned.
"The post is not usually this early."
"I'll get it," I said moodily, leaving my toast. I like toast. It is one of the better human inventions. Opening the door I groaned silently, and fixed a false smile on my face. My neighbour, Hedrick Chapman, host to Iniss 226, stood on the doorstep, dressed for a day at the school. In his driveway I could see his wife and daughter preparing to leave for the day.
"Hedrick, what a surprise. Can I invite you in for coffee?" His smile was as empty as mine. We did not like each other, the two of us yeerks, even though our hosts had co-existed very happily for years.
"Not today Howard, got to get to school." He glanced at the sky and sniffed. "Looks like rain. Keep an eye on the sky today."
"Thanks for dropping by!" I shouted loudly, waving him off, then shut the door, feeling a little sick. We yeerks had code words to enable us to chat amongst our human families. By mentioning the sky Chapman had passed on a summons for me to the Blade Ship. Summons to the Blade Ship did not come casually. Visser Three preferred not to invite hordes of people aboard as it would just be too easy for an Andalite to slip on in morph. If you did not have a specific job on the Blade Ship you only went on it by special invitation, and a considerable percentage of those invited did not return. Visser Three had a mercurial temper, and a tail blade that wreaked havoc amongst his subordinates.
My nerves communicated themselves to my host, resulting in a queasiness in his stomach which put me off my toast, but I ate it anyway, smiled and chatted with Elina, and offered to walk Cayden to the bus stop. Once I had kissed Elina goodbye and Cayden and I were walking together she turned to me and said, "So what was that about it?"
"I've been summoned to the Blade Ship," I said. She frowned, overly serious for a nine year old, the Yeerk inside peering at me through a child's eyes.
"You haven't done anything have you?"
"Don't think so."
"Oh." Silence, then, "Here's my bus." She reached up and hugged me, a gesture not entirely for show. We were quite close as Yeerks, and got on well. "See you later."
"I hope so." I waved her off, then walked four blocks to an old car park with a rusted barrier which would never rise again. Vaulting it, I was greeted by the Taxxon pilot of the cloaked Bug Fighter that served the needs of the Yeerks in our neighbourhood. "To the Blade Ship," I told him, then fidgeted restlessly in the passenger seat, doing my best to ignore the giant slobbering creature to the right. Taxxons are not pleasant animals to share small spaces with.
With a soft lurch we took off, then accelerated up, through the clouds, towards the cloaked Blade Ship. My host pretended he wasn't interested, but he always loved it when we flew in the Bug Fighters, up above the world, up to the stars. The Blade Ship itself was permanently hidden from radar and human eyes, but it emitted a small signal which the Bug Fighter was tuned to receive, and so we found it easily enough. One minute we seemed to be flying aimlessly into space, and the next we'd passed through the Blade Ship's shields and it was before us, impossibly close, startlingly large and menacing. We docked in a large hanger alongside three other Bug Fighters and as I disembarked I was approached by a human controller, who directed me to follow him.
Following at a quick march I was led down various corridors, up two decks, and then stopped outside a doorway. The controller keyed a number into its keypad, and then nodded me through curtly. Taking a breath, I stepped into what seemed to be a meeting room.
My host's heart stopped.
Visser Three stood alone in the room, behind a long oval meeting table ringed with chairs. Frantically I looked back, as if expecting the controller who had led me here to yank me back, explain that we'd got the wrong room. Instead the doors swished shut.
You are Delmar 372?Visser Three enquired. He stood perfectly calmly by the table, resting one hand on a large cardboard box which sat on it. His Andalite host looked strangely out of place in the carpeted room – rather larger than life, the blue of his fur vivid against the brown of the wooden furniture, the cream of the carpet.
"I am," I said nervously, stepping forward. The Visser jerked his head.
Good. Then don't keep me waiting and come here. I scurried to his end of the table, keeping a respectful distance from him and his tail. It hung quite low today, as if he was relaxed, curving towards the floor and then lifting again so that the big blade was about level with his haunches. If it was raised above his shoulders I would be in trouble. He could crack it over his own head in a second, and take off mine. Your host is a private investigator? Visser Three enquired. I nodded.
"Yes Visser." He smiled coolly.
Good, then perhaps you can help me with a mystery.
"Yes Visser." I wasn't sure I could manage much more than that at the moment. Fear was still making my host's heart beat fast, but despite myself I was curious. It didn't look like I was about to die just yet. The Visser gestured at the cardboard box, which was large enough to hold a football.
This was placed at an entrance of the Yeerk Pool today, by an unknown person. It is the fourth to have appeared in the last 12 days. I came a little closer and bent my head. Strong black letters covered the top of the box, written in a firm hand.
"A gift for Visser Three," I read aloud.
Open it, he commanded. The tape holding it shut had already been cut through, so it was not hard for me to peel back the flaps and lift off the layer of card underneath them.
"Oh God." An involuntary reaction. I turned away and clutched the edge of the table.
You have not seen many human heads? Visser Three asked curiously.
"Not on their own," I admitted. But I was a Yeerk, not a human, and so I was able to turn back fairly quickly, and examine the head with scientific interest. It's another species, I told myself, just another species, an animal relic to study. Howard had a lot to say about that, but he wasn't important right now.
You may lift it out, Visser Three said calmly. It has been examined by my scientists. I had it repacked so that you could see how it arrived. With a remarkably steady hand I reached into the box and scooped under the back of the skull, lifting the staring head out from its cradle of stained tissue paper. The eyes were open and filmed, the mouth closed, the skin a rich brown and yet strangely pallid, and cool to the touch. It was an African-American man's head, with short fuzzy black hair. I turned it this way and that, paying special attention to the severed neck. The cut surface was rather messy, with jagged edges and brown clumps of congealed blood.
His Yeerk name was Alden 485, Visser Three said calmly. I glanced up, surprised. He had come closer, so that he was standing over my shoulder, uncomfortably intimate.
"He was a Yeerk?"
Yes, they all were. All four heads, from four controllers. Each one came in a box, covered with identical writing.
"Who's sending them?" I asked, and then felt foolish when he laughed, a short snort which left no echoes, delivered as it was in thought speak.
That is what I want you to find out, Delmar 372. Shakily I put the head down on the table.
"Me?"
I am told your host made a living out of finding things out. You continued this after you infested him, with some success.
"Yes," I said carefully. "But cheating spouses and divorce cases is one thing-"
Consider this the next step in your career, Visser Three said coolly. I swallowed. Only an idiot would flat out say no to a Yeerk Visser with an Andalite tail which he was currently swishing gently back and forth in a thoughtful kind of way. Visser Three smiled and stepped away, back to his original position across from me, the box between us. Excellent, then it is agreed. I will tell you the details and you will discover who is doing this, and why. His main eyes darkened. I am extremely interested in the why. If this is a threat to me it is a strange one. I carefully lifted the head back into the box. He gestured to a chair. You may as well sit. I did, and he paced, his Andalite hooves scuffling over the carpet.
The first head appeared 12 days ago, in a box at an entrance to the Yeerk pool, addressed to me. It belonged to a known member of the Resistance, a terrorist who was about to be apprehended. The second head came three days later. Again it belonged to the host of a worthless individual, a scientist who had promised me he could find the answer to living without Kadrona rays. He had failed me, and was due to be fed to the Taxxons. The Visser stopped his pacing and turned to face me. You understand, at this time there were those who thought these... 'gifts' were meant in the true spirit of the word. Perhaps someone was taking it upon themselves to deal with the small nuisances that plagued me. He resumed pacing, his tail twitching in an unnerving way. But then another head appeared, three days later. It belonged to the host of Emrus 835, a loyal Yeerk. A Sub Visser. And now this one. A seemingly loyal engineer. He gestured at the head, back in its box. Then he waited, patiently, leaving a silence for me to fill. The unnerving calm on his face was belied by the increased tempo of his tail twitches, so that I found myself speaking to distract him.
"Perhaps it is the work of the Andalite Bandits?" I suggested somewhat desperately. They were famously Visser Three's bête noir. The coolant supply broke? Bandit sabotage! The Fighters' navigation system malfunctioned? Bandit sabotage! The grass in his fields tasted bitter? Well, you get the idea. The Visser reached into the box and lifted the head back out, balancing it in both his weak Andalite hands. He turned it upside down and ran a finger over the severed edge.
A saw made this cut, not an Andalite tail blade. Or a Hork Bajir blade. Why would an Andalite bother with a saw? He replaced the head thoughtfully. Until I see evidence to the contrary, I believe this to be the work of a Yeerk. You will discover who.
"Ok," I said, still feeling rather lost. "And I'll find out why for you too." Visser Three smiled nastily.
For your own sake Delmar 372, I hope so. He waved a hand, dismissing me, and I stumbled up with a sense of relief. I was going to walk out of the room alive! I was being favoured with a mission. I didn't want it, and it would disrupt my unambitious quiet life, but if I was chosen for this task then at least it suggested Visser Three didn't have any questions about my loyalty. Half-bowing I backed out.
You will be sent all the details of the previous heads, the Visser said calmly, his attention back on the head in the box, one stalk eye watching me go. Report back to me in one feed cycle.
"Yes Visser."
Oh, and Delmar 372?
"Yes Visser?"
Find out what happened to the Yeerks. I swallowed nervously.
"The Yeerks?"
Yes. He looked up, met my eyes with his main ones. The Yeerks were missing from all the heads. Find out why.