Jagged Fabrication
Jagged Fabrication – By
Dana Pull
Lightening streaked across the
sky, as Chaed, Reao, and Muyyer watched their new teacher do a
few things they had never seen before. It was always a pleasure
and exciting experience to watch the great Seerow, who had flown
to them in his starship.' They were still working at
figuring out how he did it. Geigher stood in the back, his Gedd
host's eyes twitching. He always stood in the back, never
really coming up to the front unless Seerow called on him to try
something new. But one thing was for sure, he was always willing
to get in on the hands-on things.
This here is the reactor
chamber. It stores and maintains the energy needed to keep this
ship aloft, and all of its major functions working. Seerow
said. But his speech was also something bewildering. Instead of
speaking through the mouth, which even for the Farlan, it was
hard, Seerow spoke from his mind, and all his thoughts were heard
in their heads. Seerow was called an Andalite. He was blue, like
the host bodies of their Gedds, but stood about 3 heights taller,
with four legs for support, a long tail with a hideous spike at
the end and two prehensile eyes on top of his head. He
didn't consume food, however, and it puzzled the Farlan.
Now, who can tell me what is
it that I just said? Seerow called out to the crowd of
Farlan. Geigher almost immediately rose his hand in the back.
Seerow pointed to him and nodded. Geigher?
Through the Gedd's slurred
speech he said, "The reactor maintains and distributes
energy to the rest of the ship, its most at work when the shields
and weapons are in use at the same time during combat. There are
other standard reactors, smaller, of course, in the rest of the
ship, that will simultaneously turn on if the main one's
power is not efficiently being distributed." There was no
doubt about it, Geigher was the quickest learner of the group.
Seerow made an expression with his
face that showed happiness. A smile. Yes! Very good, Geigher,
you are learning very quickly! Geigher nodded and calmed, the
expression on his host's face not changing. And then he
left. He always left the sessions early. But it didn't seem
to bother Seerow, after all, his quickest student shouldn't
need to stay for further explanation. He already understood
everything about the starship. And so the session ended. Chaed,
Reao, and Muyyer met up afterwards to talk.
Chaed bent down near a small
puddle, and slipped out of the Gedd, as Reao and Muyyer. In here
they could communicate easier and more privately. Reao murmured,
"Is it just me, or does anyone think that Geigher is
learning a little too fast? How come it's so
difficult for the rest of us?" He swam back and forth in
confusion. Chaed tried to answer, but hesitated. Muyyer floated
there, clicking. Off in the distance, another Farlan was sitting
quietly. Muyyer beckoned, "Who's there?" The
Farlan twitched and shot up to the surface, re-entering its own
host. And within seconds, Gedd hands dipped in and fished out the
three. And then in swift movements, killed them all. They were
dropped back into the puddle. Geigher hobbled off triumphantly.
4 months later
Seerow ended what may have been
his last lesson with the Farlan. They had been learning quite
well, especially Geigher, who learned right on the spot and
seemed very interested in genetics. Oddly, though, he seemed to
leave the lessons more frequently everyday. And the strange
disappearance of three of his regular students made Seerow
skeptical. But nonetheless, things like that happened all the
time, everywhere, on every planet. It was no more unusual than
anywhere else.
A knock came at the door of
Seerow's lander, and so he went to it, releasing the door
manually because the ship was shut down.
"Good morning, teacher."
Good morning, Geigher. How
goes everything with your mock genetics? Anything new? Seerow
asked his top student.
"Nothing much new, noI
heard you were leaving?" Geigher asked, with false
innocence, looking sadly up at his teacher. Yet another
manipulation. Seerow just nodded, leading Geigher back to the
door.
Do not worry, my friend. What
I have taught you will be very useful, and hopefully, we can meet
again someday. If you'll excuse me, I have some things to do
before I leave. Seerow said. And Geigher was out the door in
the dirt, alone. But his mind was plenty busy.
"How naïve you are, Seerow,
to consider me a friend." With that, Geigher left the lander
site, and walked a little ways to the swampy forest. There,
dozens of other Gedds were flipping through their holo-textbooks,
and quizzing each other. Geigher just peered at them all
sardonically. "And how naïve thesemy people, no, not
my people, my potential enemies, how naïve they are to think of
me as a friend," he muttered to himself. A couple of Gedds
hobbled over to Geigher.
"What do you want?"
Geigher asked, peering at them; three total. One of them stepped
closer. "We want to know what you knowwill you teach
us?" The others nodded quickly. Geigher's mind burst
open with ideas. These people could be my comrades perhaps.
Maybe I can expand my knowledge!' He nodded.
"Yes, I will teach you, but
you must promise to do everything I say, even if it's
against your judgement, and even if it endangers some of our own
people. Are you willing to kill for the knowledge? Not that
I'm saying that there will be killing just yet. But if you
are going to know what I know, you're in, and in forever.
Never out. Agreed?" Geigher asked them. One of them fled.
Geigher quickly hopped in his way, and the other two grabbed him
by the legs.
"You're in or out,"
one of the others said. The Gedd in their arms just flailed.
Geigher opened his book bag.
"Hold his mouth, do not let
him yelp," Geigher said. The others clasped his mouth shut,
while Geigher pulled out something hideous. An Andalite weapon, a
shredder, as they had learned to call it. He placed it up to the
Gedd's neck. Hideous squeals came from the captive.
Zzew! The Gedd fell limp. A small
slug plopped out of its ear, and one of the others picked it up,
tossing it in his mouth, chewing it until it died and spit it
out. Geigher seemed insanely pleased. "Come friends, we have
much to learn." The new group carried the body and buried it
in the sand behind a tree.
The next night, Seerow's
lander was already powered up and hovering in the middle of the
grassy area where he would be taking off. Geigher and a few of
his comrades stood in the back, watching. A few others had joined
them in the shrill of the night. Under Geigher's hideous
display of power the night before, it was hard not to bend to his
will.
My friends, Seerow spoke
up, standing on the ramp leading up to the craft. His arms waved
with excitement. Today I leave you with knowledge that will
help you achieve flight among the stars. The power to explore,
and to know. The power to see. I give you the knowledge of
science and math to understand. And with that, I will not doubt
your excellence. Goodbye, my dear friends. The Andalite
walked up the ramp, and the door closed. With one last wave
through the cockpit shield, the lander took off into the sky and
disappeared.
The crowd dispersed, feeling
empty, hollow, and lonely. But at the same time, invigorated, and
full of ideas. Geigher's troop went the opposite direction
of the tribe. Within minutes, they were huddled together,
contemplating their victorious siege to come.
2 years later
The morning was awake with
ambition. The Farlan Aero-Space factories were mining, the
Central Government, though weak at the heart, was growing at a
steady pace, and in the grassy plains, the first land speeders
and small rockets were being tested.
About eight miles west of the
major Farlanic city of Ginn, a small group of geneticists were
working silently in their labs. Concealed underground, this
renegade band of Farlan geniuses were able to do their work in
peace. Geigher, a Farlan with a lust for power, ran the small
group, whom now had increased to thirteen members. Dwep, his
second-in-command, filled in ideas and calculated things when
Geigher didn't want to think. A new project was underway,
and the whole scientific community down there was excited.
The Project was unofficially known
as Project Y. The letter "Y" stood for the Farlanic
word "Yeerk" or "big cousin." On the verge of
creation was a new species, similar to Farlan in their looks,
though four times as large, but capable of controlling much
larger hosts. Dwep, not counted as one of the
Thirteen,' only knew about the project, but not why
it was taking place.
The young scribe wandered into his
master's office one day to contemplate. It was empty of
course, because the Thirteen were all in the labs all day.
Geigher was always ahead of the others, making sure everyone was
on time, doing what they should be doing, and knowing about everything.
Dwep noticed that a few of the shrewd cabinets in Geigher's
office had been left open. Curious as he was, he stepped closer,
looking inside.
The cabinets were filled with
piles of papers and stacked folders. On the top was a black
folder, filled many pieces of paper. On the tab, the label,
"Our Plan." Dwep looked up from the cabinet and opened
the folder warily. Inside, scribbled in the language that the
Farlan had invented, was a list of dates and proposals. One of
such was "Generation 348, mid-cycle, eighth day – Clone
the laboratory tests and test them in Gedds. If successful, clone
them by the hundreds." Dwep blinked.
He sat on the floor and continued
reading. As he flipped the page, he noticed grotesque pictures
and nightmarish weaponry. All kinds of vehicles, and at the
bottom of the page, a date and the words, "Burn Ginn down.
Burn it all. Take all free Farlan." Dwep shockingly dropped
the folder, scattering the papers about. Geigher? Engineering
these organisms for evil?? Footsteps were heard coming from
the door. Dwep stumbled over and tried to pick up all the papers.
But he didn't get any farther than one paper before he was
shot in the back with a shredder. Disgusted, Geigher carried out
the corpse and laid it to rest in the swamp behind their labs.
The loss of Dwep only seemed to
make their work more easy. Known now as the Circle of Thirteen,
the group of geneticists worked round the clock to perfect their
creations. During the mid-cycle on the seventh day, the first
Yeerk was successfully born.
New senses, new surroundings,
they flooded my brain. Brain? What's a brain? Yeerk? What
are they saying? Blue figures swarmed around the glass container.
How did I know it was glass? How did I know who I was? I am
Yeerk, I thought. Allegiance. Justice. Revenge.
One of the scientists, Qabber,
noticed movement in the Yeerk's brain. "He's
certainly alive. Look! He's swimming!" All thirteen of
them cheered. Geigher stepped forward and pressed his Gedd nose
on the glass. He smiled at his child, his creation, his weapon.
It swerved around and around, adjusting to its environment. And
then it stopped, looking back at him. This process lasted long
into the night. Geigher did not take his face off the glass, and
the slug didn't move from its stationary position in the
tube. In the morning, The number of Yeerks in the tube had
multiplied to three.
"If I may suggest,
sir--" Oyami started. Geigher just solemnly looked at his
creations.
"I cloned them myself, Oyami.
Within time they will mate," Geigher seemed to have an
insane expression on his face, but Oyami shrugged it off as
You're the boss.' In the next couple of days, The
bottom of the tube was a mass of the three writhing slugs.
"They're twining,
getting ready to reproduce. Soon we will have hundreds."
Geigher said to a nearby Farlan. His comrade just nodded, and
again, that night, Geigher stayed up with his Yeerks, watching
them complete the sexual process, and then in the morning, as
they began to splinter away into grubs, as the Farlan did.
"YES!" Success! Geigher
hobbled around happily, tiredly, insanely. The tube teemed with
life, the small grubs swishing around, thousands of them! The
geneticists filled the lab and all crowded around the tube. The
room was filled with compliments from the other scientists. Their
long-term work had paid off. The Yeerks were born.
The next couple of weeks were
shared with the Yeerks, and teaching the newborns how to use Gedd
hosts. These hots of course, were taken from the surrounding
landscape from the hives they had built. Gedds lived in den-like
hive structures, piled on top of each other. They barely moved on
their own.
The first Yeerk created was named
Ermo. His offspring, all entitled to a number, Ermo 3409, for
instance, was the 3409th Yeerk grub to divide away
from the rotting three bodies only weeks before. Teaching the
Yeerks was no difficult task. Because they were bred from Farlan
DNA, they shared the same instincts to take over a host and
control it. And so, after the first generation of Yeerks were
born, so began to second, and the third. In one month, the Yeerk
population had gone from 3,000 to 80,000.
Not all of them had hosts of
course. With this kind of advanced mating, the Gedd reproductive
cycle could not keep up. But aside from that, Oyami had noticed
that they were way behind their schedule. Their plan to attack
Ginn had been long overdue. He pointed this out to Geigher.
"Of course not yet, I was
waiting to build up an army! Tomorrow, tomorrow,
tomorrow" Geigher replied, trailing off, walking along
the immense pool dug into the ground. It was too hard to manage
the population of slugs in tubes anymore, so a Yeerk
Pool' had been built to ensure their comfort. Another night
came, and the lab officials left their hosts to sleep. The
morning only brought horror.
Oyami was the first to re-enter
the lab. What he found nearly made his host's heart stop.
Geigher's host body had been ripped apart, and there were
streaks of black burning earth running up and down the floors and
ceiling. Geigher's insides were strewn apart on the floor,
each organ splayed out in a different pattern.
With horror in his eyes, Oyami
glanced over at the pool. It was bubbling. No, not bubbles,
Yeerks. Jumping up and down. Their combined echolocation clicks
penetrated his eardrums. He clutched his head. Then a burning
sensation down his spine. He snapped his neck to find more Gedds
running at him, with shredders in hand. And then he was gone.
Kepling 4301 tried to reconnect
the computers that had been damaged in the attack. Geigher's
body was tossed aside, thrown into the pool to feed on. Others
wiped out the rest of the colony. Yukni 34 walked in, nudging
Kepling.
"Are they all dead?"
Kepling asked, getting the computer to start up. Yukni nodded,
showing Kepling a folder. It was black, and on the tab it said,
"Our Plan." Kepling opened the folder and looked
through the papers.
"It was found in the
Creator's office," Yukni said, pointing off toward the
exit to the lab. Kepling nodded again, still looking at the
folder. Then he looked up at Yukni.
"Gather the rest of us,
we'll meet at the surface at dusk. We're carrying out
this attack. We'll take over, if our creators wouldn't.
But first, I want these eleven Yeerks to meet me in the
Creator's office in six hours. You too. We have some things
to discuss."
The room was silent. The Yeerks
requested were in a circle, Kepling standing on a stone. Their
eyes were on him. Kepling held up a limb and spoke.
"I have gathered you all here
because each of you have been special in one area. This meeting
is to let you all know that this is the beginning of a society.
You are all members of our new Council. Taken from the number of
our Creators, we are the Council of Thirteen. If a lower rank
gives you attitude, you know how to deal with them. Just think of
what happened to the creators. We will control the others, they
are the workers, while we are the hive."
The group stood for a moment in
silence, adhering to the new words, spoken. But they understood,
and by the end of the meeting, four minutes before they should be
at the surface. The crown of the Yeerk Hierarchy was created.
Kepling was made Emperor, as well as head of the Council.
The trip to the surface did not
take long. The Yeerks had figured out how to run the land
speeders up the slopes to the surface, and quickly transport
their 10,000 some odd regiments upward to the night sky. The
Council left last, closing up the lab.
Kepling was hoisted into the air
by two of the other Council Members. The black folder curled up
into a megaphone amplified his voice, into which he yelled.
"Yeerk people! Tonight, we
attack the Farlan! With our creators gone, we are free to carry
out their wishes! We will control the planet! The Yeerks before
you in a line are the Council of Thirteen! Treat them with
disrespect, and the privilege of having a host will be taken
away! Tonight, we are one unit! But tomorrow! After the capital
has been seized, ranks will be awarded! And in the coming years,
or knowledge will take us past the stars, and to the Andalites,
where we will destroy them! We will destroy the Andalites! They
only taught our creators that they were better! But tonight and
on, we prosper! We will prevail! We will succeed!"
The crowd went into an uproar.
Kepling jumped down and pointed to a pile of shredders, almost
400 of them. The crowd ran towards the pile and after four
seconds of frenzy, the pile was gone. The shredders could be
heard powering up. Next, from a secret storage room, that had
only been discovered days ago, the hideous-looking crafts and
land speeders depicted in the Creator's files were rolled
out to be used.
The army of ramshackle troops
assembled in front of the exposed labs, pointing towards Ginn,
still far in the distance, but all the more a point of
perseverance. And so they started on a trek that wouldn't
last more than a day. By nightfall the next day, Ginn was theirs.
11 months later
Spacecraft were being manufactured
left and right. Factories everywhere, built by Yeerks, and
maintained by Yeerks. The city of Ginn was now a metropolis of
interstellar achievement. Kepling looked down upon his city and
smiled devilishly. From his glance at the window he turned and
faced a large table. Seated was the Council of Thirteen.
"My friends, look how far we
have come," Kepling said. He walked over to his empty seat
and hopped up. Yeerk power had seized the planet.
A Yeerkish broadcast: "Farla
is no more. With all living Farlan imprisoned, the planet is
ours. The spread of cities will soon commence. The planet will be
teeming with Yeerks, and ou rise to power will be fulfilled. But
never will Geigher's legacy be fulfilled until the Andalites
lay in heaps of death. Soon, our time will come."