by DawningStar
Cassie--
I reached the Yeerks' building before much time had passed, hoping Jake and the others were all right, still wondering what in the world had happened. Alai had had something to do with it, of that I was sure, but how, and what?
The doors were unguarded. At least, they were now. They'd been pretty well guarded before our attack. I ran through the hallways. I didn't remember much about the layout of the building, but it was as though someone was calling to me from farther in--no, that's not right. More like I called myself farther in, as though some part of me was separate. The part I'd received from Alai.
I skidded to a halt on the polished floor. The other Animorphs were in front of me, and beyond them, in a blood-stained room occupied by Controllers, a horse lay on the ground. A horse that looked just like my own horse morph.
A thought-speak screaming filled the air, coming from the horse who had to be Alai, or more precisely, from the Yeerk who had just tried to infest her. But I hardly heard that. I heard Alai's voice, masked in the screaming, speaking in private thought-speak to me.
Cassie, be remembering this. I am spreading out, going to all timelines and possibilities, and I am no longer being 'alive'. I am not being able to speak for long. But the Time Matrix is joining all timelines, it is being where your journey is beginning. And be remembering Riyadh. Cassie, your possibilities are linking with his.>
There was the hum of a Dracon beam, and I saw Alai fade, first to a purple mist, then to nothingness. Alai, no!> I cried.
Her voice lingered a moment longer. Be remembering, Cassie, and do not be fearing for me...>
The other Animorphs rushed up to me. Cassie, you're all right! How did you get away?> Jake asked, his voice full of relief.
It took me a moment to track what he'd said. I don't know,> I told Jake. I think Alai did it, but I don't know how. Come on, everyone, we should get out of here while we can,> I added. The Controllers in the room were too distracted to look around and notice us, but that wouldn't last long.
And I wondered, just what had Alai meant? The Time Matrix, a machine of incredible power apparently made by the Ellimist, found once by a Yeerk and then returned to its hiding place. No one knew where it was. Only...Alai had said it was where my journey began. Wherever that was.
Then my breath caught. Of course! How could I have missed it? Where we had met Elfangor, and gained the power to morph--the abandoned construction site!
If Alai was right...of course Alai was right, but still...the Time Matrix was probably safer there. We couldn't risk the Yeerks finding it, doing who-knew-what to history. And it would be buried under feet of solid concrete and rock. There was no way we could dig it out.
No, it was better not to tell the others what I suspected. Even for Alai's sake, I couldn't risk the safety of the entire universe.
Riyadh--
I stared at the hologram I was supposed to be working on, and let out a sigh. For a moment I envied humans and most other species, who had a way to show their grief. But Crayak had designed my people, and we weren't even supposed to feel sorrow. The Sharf Den were helping us change that, but none of us could change our structure.
That gave me an idea. I tapped the hologram once and spoke in the changes I wanted to make. Maybe I had no way to show grief--or just about any other feeling, for that matter--but there was no reason the new generations of Time's Children couldn't. Of course, everyone would have to formally approve of it before any changes could be written into the blueprints.
The Sharf Den had assisted us in putting up a building that was perhaps something like a hospital or a nursery on Earth. Since we were Crayak's creation, and we were supposed to remain children forever, it was the only way to continue our race. We would take charge of our own future. And we were making changes to the basic design.
We'd made the new generations longer-lived, made the claws more of a tool than a weapon. Those were changes all of us had easily agreed on. Now we were considering more subtle changes. Like a way to show emotion.
"It is being a good idea," a voice said from behind me. I turned. Lirei stood behind me, her current form that of a young Ongachic girl.
Lirei had been one of Alai's friends, and I knew she understood why I had thought of this particular change. Her eyes were a deep green, and they seemed to be shining now with something more than the usual Sharf Den luminosity. I wondered if the Ongachic people shed tears like humans, and then decided that it didn't make much difference--if Lirei wanted her form to cry, no doubt it could.
"Alai is liking that," Lirei added, and a fresh surge of sorrow came over me. The Sharf Den never spoke of Alai in past tense, but always as though she was just in the next room.
"Yes," I replied softly. "She would've liked it a lot."
Lirei's hand rested comfortingly on my shoulder for a moment. "You are missing Alai very much, Riyadh, are you not?"
I nodded. Of course I was. Turning my full attention back to the hologram, I hoped briefly that Lirei would leave. I liked her well enough, but at the moment I just wanted to be alone.
She didn't go. Her voice hesitant, almost frightened, Lirei said, "Riyadh, you are knowing the stories of the Time Matrix?"
Startled, I looked up at her. She had seemed more scared than I had ever heard a Sharf Den sound before. But there was no trace of it on her face now. "Of course I've heard them, but I never really believed there was such a thing."
"The Time Matrix is being real." There was another pause. Lirei added quietly, "Your possibilities are linking with it, Riyadh. And with the human Alai is gifting--Cassie."
I froze. Didn't even take a breath for a moment. "Lirei? Do you mean...for Alai? On Earth?"
She nodded. I saw the fright on her face now, stronger than before, and now I understood it. "Be telling no one except Cassie, Riyadh! You are doing the job...but if others are finding out..." Lirei trailed off. She hurried out of the room.
I sat utterly still. I swear even my heart had stopped. Then it started up again, pounding quickly. I can see Alai again! Maybe even save her, extend her range!
I stopped that thought. No, I couldn't keep Alai from dying. The other Sharf Den had told me how it happened--how Alai had made a deal with the Drode, herself for Cassie. And perhaps, for us as well.
But if what I'd heard about the Time Matrix was true, that it connected all time lines, all nows as Alai would say, then she would be there. The Time Matrix could collect her from every time, keep her from forgetting. I could talk with her once more.
And Cassie? What did she have to do with this? Well, perhaps she knew where the Time Matrix was. Or maybe there was another reason--something that had to do with her special talent of seeing through time, the gift Alai had given her.
Oh, well. There would be time enough to find that out once I reached Earth. The Time Matrix had to be on Earth, or it would not have been close enough to catch Alai, and it would already be too late.
I saved the hologram and stood up. I just had to get permission to go to Earth. Likely it wouldn't be too hard. After all, Alai had hardly even needed to ask before the other Sharf Den had arranged for our transportation, right? So I shouldn't have any trouble at all.
Cassie--
I stared at Jake, dumbfounded. Everyone else looked much the same. Finally Marco said, "You have got to be kidding me."
Jake shook his head. "I'm afraid not. I got the news from Erek--he couldn't come because the Sharing's doing something big. But he's sure of the information."
"But what could the Yeerks want in the old construction site?" Marco argued. "Nothing's there!"
I winced slightly. "Er...there might be something."
Now everyone was staring at me.
"Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys about this before. Alai said something, and I wasn't even sure if she was right. But...I think the Time Matrix might be in the abandoned construction site somewhere."
"What!" Marco yelled. "No way. There is no way in the world anyone is going to mess with that thing again. I thought the Ellimist would have taken it away somewhere safe!"
No,> Ax said. When we went back in time, we put everything back the way it was. Therefore, the Time Matrix will be wherever it was when Visser Four found it.>
"And you think that's in the construction site?" Rachel asked me. "What did Alai say?"
I tried to remember. "She said that the Time Matrix joined all time lines and possibilities, and she said it was where our journey began. And she mentioned Riyadh." Was that right? It seemed like there had been something else, something about herself.
Jake nodded. "That sounds like the construction site--if she's correct, at any rate."
Rachel grinned. "Then we gotta attack the Yeerks and get the Time Matrix for ourselves!"
Yeah,> Tobias agreed. We can't let the Yeerks get a hold of it again. Who know what they could do with it?>
They could do very nearly anything.>
"That's very reassuring, Ax," Marco commented. "Really."
With a sigh, Jake said, "Tobias is right. We can't sit here and wait for time to change around us--we have to keep the Yeerks away from the Time Matrix. But we need a plan."
Rachel smashed one hand into another. "Hit 'em full on, grab the Time Matrix, get out and hide it somewhere safer. What could be simpler?"
Marco rolled his eyes. "Right, Rachel. That'd be a real walk in the park."
This was normal, more or less. The argument. Rachel wanting a straight assault, Marco advising caution.
So why did I feel like something was very wrong?
Riyadh--
No trouble at all. Right. Famous last words.
I stood before the group of Sharf Den who most often took care of necessary transportation, trying to convince them that this was necessary. It wasn't going well. Usually they would have answered me immediately, yes or no according to the possibilities they saw. But this time seemed to be different. The group had delayed for nearly half an hour now--that's in human timescale, of course. I'd never seen them so uncertain. But they finally seemed to have reached a decision.
The speaker, Tirns, stepped toward me. His eyes were a bright orange--all four eyes, as he currently wore the form of a young Andalite. Riyadh of Time's Children,> he began, you are presenting your request well, and it is being a reasonable one. We are apologizing for our hesitation. But you must be understanding the unusual circumstances in this case.>
I braced myself. If they wouldn't send me, I'd find a way to go myself. No matter what it took.
We are granting you permission to be traveling to Earth.>
I let out my breath explosively.
But you must be understanding,> Tirns warned, why we are not being so quick as you are liking. Riyadh, we are not seeing the results of your trip.>
Now, that was unusual. There were very few things that the Sharf Den couldn't see, especially those who concentrated on the transportation--the two abilities were closely related. The only things Alai had ever mentioned that could block them were...
The breath I had just expelled came back in a hurry. Oh, no, not that! I most definitely did not want to get mixed up with Crayak or the Ellimist again, not now!
You are knowing what that is meaning. Because of this, we are asking you to be reconsidering your decision. If you are going, you must be knowing what the situation is being, so far as we are knowing ourselves.>
Not a hard decision, but I took a moment to think it over as Tirns had asked. "I haven't changed my mind. I still have to go," I told everyone.
Tirns nodded, and I could have sworn he gave a slight Andalite smile. Very well. We are sending you, Riyadh.>
"When?" I asked eagerly, and immediately regretted it. I couldn't get rid of my time-based point of view.
Tirns looked puzzled. Now,> he replied, and I saw his Andalite form shift to an orange fog. The other members of the group shifted as well, surrounding me. Those who were interested in the transit, or were curious, or just wanted to help me out joined them, the colors mixing in strange and lovely combinations.
"Space-time," one, or all--or none--of the Sharf Den murmured. "Time-space. One and the same. We are living in time, through time, in space, through space. Hold the threads of time-space, space-time. Be still. The universe moves."
The fog faded in its turn, leaving me staring, a little disoriented, at a wooden wall. I heard familiar voices through it. The human Animorphs. Then I recognized the wall--I was in the empty stall again.
"--have to keep the Yeerks away from the Time Matrix," a voice said. Jake, I thought. The leader.
Then the words caught up with me. I froze for a moment, frantically wondering if I was too late. If the Yeerks knew about the Time Matrix, my job would become very difficult, even impossible. But no. I couldn't be too late, because the Sharf Den had sent me here. I'd arrived now, and I would leave now, and I would accomplish everything I needed to do between the two.
I'd missed some of the conversation. But there was no point in waiting. I needed Cassie's help, and that meant I would need her friends as well. I stepped out of the stall, suppressing a feeling of grief at the remembrance that this had happened the first time, when Alai was there.
Cassie was already half looking toward me when I opened the stall door. I wondered how much of Alai's gift she had learned to use. Of course, it was possible that when Alai or someone who'd been close to her came near, it enhanced the gift...it's so rare for a human to receive the gift of seeing through time that very little is known about it.
"Riyadh!" she exclaimed at seeing me. A smile lit her face. "Then it was you Alai meant!"
I nodded. "One of the other Sharf Den told me I'd need your help. So I came here."
"Could someone please explain what's going on here?" Rachel asked plaintively. "Riyadh, why did you come back? Is something wrong?"
"Nothing besides what you already know--about the Time Matrix. But there's something I have to tell you about it." All the Animorphs were looking at me. I was a little nervous. What if they refused my help, refused to help me? "When Alai...you know. Died. The Time Matrix was close enough that it pulled her in. Sharf Den don't really die, you see, they just get so spread out among the time lines that they can't show themselves any more, and they forget who they are. But since Alai was here on Earth when it happened, and so was the Time Matrix, and the Time Matrix connects all the different times and possibilities, it's possible Alai's still alive. Inside the Time Matrix." I was babbling. I'd be lucky if they understood even a quarter of all that.
Cassie was the only one who looked enlightened. Ax was frowning, apparently trying to understand. The rest just looked baffled.
"You'll help us in this battle, then?" Jake asked.
I shook my head. "As much as I can. I no longer fight, none of my people do. But I'll help you get to the Time Matrix, and I'll help you use it. You'll need to."
Cassie was grinning broadly. "I'm so happy for you and Alai, Riyadh. I know you've really missed her."
"Excuse me?" Marco interrupted. "I'm sure this is very nice and all, but there's still the slight problem of getting to the Time Matrix, not to mention keeping it away from the Yeerks."
Jake nodded. "Right. We have to come up with a plan..."
Cassie--
I lay behind a pile of rubble. A wolf, hiding in an abandoned construction site.
Erek had been right. Something big was definitely going on. A hologram surrounded the entire area, masking the telltale signs of digging. Human-Controllers and Hork-Bajir worked together with shovels and picks, while Taxxons operated machinery adapted for their many claws. They'd already dug more than four feet into the ground at several different locations. It wouldn't take long for them to find it, surely.
Except that we couldn't let them find it. The first person to get his or her hands on the Time Matrix would win whatever battle we fought here.
I looked at Riyadh, crouched beside me. "You should be able to tell where she is," he murmured. I couldn't read the expression on his face. The bright, solid blue eyes betrayed no emotion. But I heard a mixture of hope and fear in his voice.
I'll try,> I replied uncertainly. I looked out across the landscape, where once we had met a dying Prince Elfangor and received the morphing power. Visualized the Time Matrix as I had once seen it, a tall sphere swirling with iridescent colors.
Nothing. No hint of a location, no images, no flickers.
It isn't working,> I muttered.
I thought I saw a flicker of despair. "Concentrate on seeing time, the way Alai does," Riyadh instructed uncertainly. "Her time-view. Everything happens now. Look through time, to the now when the Time Matrix is visible."
I stared out again. Unfocused my eyes. No longer looking at things, but through them.
I closed my eyes.
David holds a small blue box...
Elfangor stumbles out of a damaged spacecraft, toward five scared humans...
Construction workers lay down concrete, piling heavy brick and stone...
Elfangor digs a deep hole with a human shovel, climbs out, and rolls a large, off-white sphere into it. There. I'd found it.
A violet mist surrounds the sphere now. I can still see it. It's the only thing I can see.
Alai is frightened. I feel her now. How could I have missed it?
I opened my eyes again. Overlaid on the scene before me was the image of the Time Matrix, surrounded by Alai's mist. Found it!> I said triumphantly to the other Animorphs and Riyadh. Five feet to the right of where the Yeerks are digging. Right under that pile of broken concrete they've been throwing out.>
Riyadh made a soft mewling noise that startled me for a moment, until I looked at him and realized it was laughter. "Just like the Yeerks. Burying what they're trying so hard to find."
I bared my teeth in agreement. How will we get to it?>
Won't be hard,> Rachel said from her hiding place at the other side of the site. Once we've scared all the Yeerks away, we can use their equipment. We know where the Time Matrix is, so we'll have it in no time.>
No one's anywhere near,> Tobias called from high above. He was staying away from the exact location of the construction site, so that none of the Controllers would see him and suspect he was one of the 'Andalite bandits'. I'll land and morph.>
Right,> agreed Jake. Ready, everyone…>
There was a moment's tense silence as we all prepared to attack. Beside me, I felt Riyadh coil to spring, taking a deep breath. "You'd better cover your ears in a bit," he whispered.
Now!>
I leaped, growling, from my crouch onto a nearby Hork-Bajir. Unsuspecting Yeerks were bowled over in every direction.
But the battle had hardly started when Riyadh bounded over the rock pile that had shielded us. I prudently retreated and buried my wolf head under my paws, remembering his warning. The other did the same, particularly Ax, though his tail-blade remained active. Many of the Controllers stopped briefly to look at the new alien.
"KEEEEEEEEEE-row!"
The sound had vaguely changed from what I remembered, different in some way. Some subtle shift in frequencies, perhaps, that made it less damaging to Andalite and animal ears.
"KEEEEEEEEEE-row!"
But the Controllers broke and ran, panicking, in the face of the terrible noise. It took little encouragement from the rest of us to get them all to leave.
I glanced at Riyadh. Nice job.>
He looked a little proud, a little embarrassed. "Thanks. I had to tap the memories to figure out how to modify it, but it seems to have worked."
It sure did. Jake, why don't you ever do that?> Marco complained.
I don't know. I guess I never thought of it.>
"Don't try," Riyadh advised. "It wouldn't work very well. And do you really want all the Howlers to be remembering everything you do?"
Good point.>
Marco climbed into one of the construction machines and started working the levers. The scoop swung around wildly for a moment before he got control. Won't be a minute,> he said cheerfully.
It didn't take long to clear the debris from the surface, and the concrete below crumbled easily. In minutes, the gleaming, smooth surface of the Time Matrix was exposed. A faint mist was still visible to me, giving the machine a tinge of color. I glanced at Jake, who nodded. Go ahead, Cassie,> he said. You ought to be the one to do it.>
I advanced on the sphere, clambered past the rough edges of dirt and broken concrete. Reached toward it with one paw.
Riyadh stood beside me. He gazed at the sphere, gave me a fleeting look of entreaty. I nodded slightly. He should be here, with me, if Alai really was in the Time Matrix.
Together, we touched its surface.
A pale whirlwind seemed to rise to surround us…
"Riyadh? Cassie?" Alai's voice, plaintive and afraid, then relieved. "You are being here!"
The whirlwind shifted, iridescent colors surrounding us. Alai's violet mist was the most visible, but others shaded away into an infinite distance.
"I am being so alone," Alai sighed. "The possibilities, they are shifting, changing...I cannot be making sense of them."
Riyadh stepped toward Alai, though I couldn't tell how in the featureless void. "Oh, Alai...I..." His voice broke.
"I am being so very sorry, Riyadh, but you are knowing why." A tinge of forced cheerfulness colored her voice. "Cassie, it is being good to be seeing you again. I am showing you how to work the Time Matrix, so that we can be talking somewhere else."
The image that flashed through my mind was not unlike what I had already done to locate the Time Matrix. I concentrated on the barn, on being at the barn only a moment after we had left--the Time Matrix would transport us to a place better if it could take us through time as well. I held images of all the Animorphs in my mind so that they would be with us.
And I opened my eyes. It had worked. All of us stood in the barn, mostly with looks of bewilderment that were incongruous on the animal faces. The Time Matrix took up most of the room in the barn, swirling colors becoming a passive, luminous gold. Only it was smaller than it had been before. I blinked. Strange how it seemed to shift colors and sizes, almost mesmerizing to watch. I could see it change, very slowly.
That went pretty well,> commented Marco, as we all began to demorph. So is Alai there?>
"I am being here," Alai answered, her voice a little...I don't know. Thin. Her glowing violet mist rose from the Time Matrix, and slowly contracted into the form she'd had the first time we saw her, that of a human child. I got the feeling that it took a great deal of concentration now, far more than it should have.
Jake looked at the Time Matrix and made a face. "Alai, is the Time Matrix giving off any signals that could be used to trace us here?"
"Yes, but I can be blocking them for a small time. You must be moving the Time Matrix soon."
He nodded. "All right. Where can we move it that the Yeerks can't find it?"
Alai shrugged. "That is depending on what you are asking. I can be showing you the way to be concealing it so that the possibilities are being more for good than evil, but there is never being completely sure."
There was a long pause as everyone tried to unravel that sentence. Finally Jake said, "I suppose that'll work well enough. How do we hide it?"
The Sharf Den let out a sigh and looked at me. "That," she said, "is being up to Cassie. She and I must be hiding it."
"Why Cassie?" asked Jake, with a frown.
"The gift I am giving her is allowing her to be safe," Alai explained. "Where we must be going is being...is being dangerous to a human without the gift."
It didn't seem to help much. Marco traded a bewildered look with Rachel. Seeing it, Alai sighed in exasperation. "Through time!" she tried again. "To be blocking the Time Matrix's signal, Cassie and I must be seeing through time! My gift is sub-temporally grounding Cassie, so there is being no risk to her."
"All right," Jake said doubtfully. "If Cassie agrees." He looked at me questioningly.
I nodded. "I'll do it."
Alai smiled at me, in a look of relief. "We are starting, then." She turned to the Time Matrix and touched it. I thought for an instant that I saw her hand dissolve briefly into a violet mist...
The next moment I floated beside Alai, still in human form. "Where are we?" I asked. "And...um, what now are we in?"
"The now where the Sharf Den are beginning," Alai told me. "Look. You must be seeing all."
I did as I was told and looked downward. A small planet was below, its atmosphere a thin layer of protection against space.
Closer still, and I could see the surface of the planet. Plants and animals were there in abundance, but the main thing I noticed were the misty forms of Sharf Den, a billion colors intermingling and separating in some vast dance.
Now Alai and I seemed to stand on the ground, watching the dance. I began to distinguish patterns, to follow individual colors. Then, all at once, as though by some signal, all the Sharf Den stopped. The colors separated in an instant, each becoming its own distinct shade.
One light green Sharf Den began to condense, shrinking and somehow becoming more solid, finally becoming an exact replica of one of the animals I had noticed--a small, furry creature with translucent wings. "Our meeting is complete, Ellimist," he said solemnly. "We have made our decision."
It gave me a brief start to hear him speak. I understood it though it wasn't English, but that wasn't the main thing. I had become used to Alai's strange way of speaking, and to hear one of her people using the past tense seemed somehow unnatural.
AND WHAT HAVE YOU CHOSEN, SPEAKER OF THE SHARF DEN?
There was no mistaking that world-filling voice. The Ellimist.
"The Sharf Den will assist you. We understand the responsibility this will lay on us, and we accept the ability to see and move through time."
ALL ARE AGREED ON THIS? YOU KNOW THE CONSEQUENCES?
"Yes."
VERY WELL. THEN YOU ARE GRANTED THAT ABILITY.
It happened all at once. A sudden babble of voices overlapping, images flashing within and around the Sharf Den. Possibilities, I understood. The million threads that led from each action. Some of the Sharf Den turned into solid forms and clutched their heads, but far more spiraled up joyfully. A few vanished in an outpouring of colored particles, and I knew from Alai's sorrow that these had been unable to handle the sudden expansion.
"This is how we are becoming as we are," she murmured. "This is being our story. And the Time Matrix--"
The image before me changed suddenly. A few Sharf Den gathered around a large white sphere. All of their colors were strangely pale, spread thin.
"The Elders," Alai whispered.
They spread farther, surrounding the sphere. And slowly, they began to sink into it. Colors flashed and faded, mixing and blending. Finally the Time Matrix stood alone, and the colors settled into a faintly luminous off-white. The Sharf Den Elders, near the ends of their ranges, had connected all timelines in this one object.
Then the Time Matrix vanished, and everything changed once more.
It was the Sharf Den planet once more, and in the sky there were ships of a type I had never seen--not that I was any expert on interspatial transportation. But somehow I knew beyond any doubt that they were Howler ships, sent by Crayak to destroy the Sharf Den.
"It is being another game," Alai explained. "Ellimist is agreeing to having all the Sharf Den in solid form, which is meaning the Howlers are easily killing us. And Crayak is agreeing to the game on the Iskoort world--and to sparing the Chee as well, if we are surviving and they are proving themselves."
I shook my head. Games within games within games, the Ellimist and Crayak playing for the universe. We had taken a part in both the battle for the Iskoort and what I supposed had to be the Chee proving themselves.
"Yes. You are greatly helping the Ellimist in both these games," Alai agreed, and I wondered suddenly if she knew what I was thinking. "There are being other limits as well, of course, most too complicated to be explaining. One is that no one is destroying the Howlers. Another, one we are agreeing to, is that we cannot be fighting."
She smiled. "Crayak is being very confident that all is turning out as he is wanting."
I looked at the ships, and thought that there were an awful lot to attack people who couldn't hurt the invaders.
The ships began to land, one by one, in an open field. Clustering around were what I at first thought were animals, but I soon noticed the bright, odd-colored eyes that proclaimed them Sharf Den. Mixed with them were aliens of many kinds I recognized, including humans.
The Howlers began to leave their ships, Dracon beams and fletchette guns held ready in clawed hands. They spoke in a babble of different languages, English among them, and at first didn't seem to notice the Sharf Den surrounding them.
Then a Sharf Den in the form of a young Hork-Bajir stepped forward. "I must be asking why you are coming," he said.
Several Howlers traded startled looks, most likely at the form and the unusual eyes. One aimed his fletchette gun and fired.
A half-dozen darts tore through the air toward the Sharf Den. As they struck, there was a low moan of pain, and the small figure exploded into a pale blue mist that quickly evaporated.
Some of the other Sharf Den let out sobs of grief, but another stepped up to take his place, a familiar human child with deep violet eyes. "It is unnecessary to be trying to destroy us," she said, her voice trembling. "Crayak is misleading you. We--"
A Howler shot at the spokesperson, and she barely managed to dodge. "We are wanting to help you!" she cried. "Please, please, you must be listening!"
One Howler held up a hand, and the others stopped aiming and lowered their weapons. "We've come to kill you all," he said conversationally. "So it doesn't really matter what you say. But go ahead."
The Sharf Den looked to her companions for support. She stood, and continued, "Crayak is creating you only to kill, to be destroying species he is not approving of. But he is never telling you that we are being like you--that we all are being alive, that all are having thoughts and feelings! We are wanting to be helping you, to be showing you why!"
The Howler commander leveled his Dracon beam at her. "A pretty speech," he said, "but the Master does not lie."
The Sharf Den shrank back.
"Wait." The word was spoken very softly at first, but the speaker gathered his courage and repeated it louder. "Wait! What if the alien is right? It would explain the anomalous memory that was added a few months ago, wouldn't it?"
I looked more closely at that Howler. He seemed slightly smaller than the commander, perhaps younger. It was hard for me to tell the difference between Howlers, but..."Riyadh?" I asked softly. "Isn't that Riyadh, Alai?"
She nodded, her eyes fixed on the scene before us.
"And that Sharf Den...that's you, isn't it?"
Alai didn't answer.
"You are dangerously close to treason," the commander warned Riyadh. "The Master has destroyed for lesser offenses."
"I don't care! The memory was from someone who was not People, which means that they have memories--so they must be People too!"
Riyadh flinched backward as he spoke, as if more than half expecting Crayak to blast him into nothingness. I was, too. But nothing happened.
The commander shook his head. "The People's Memory is to share tactics. The anomalous memory was a battle tactic, nothing more." But I half felt him begin to hesitate in some way I couldn't understand.
Emboldened by the lack of response from Crayak, Riyadh replied, "If it's a battle tactic, I like it better than any of the others." He stepped out of line, walked up to Alai, leaned down, and kissed her.
I stared. That was a strange sight. A Howler in full battle array, kissing a Sharf Den who happened at the time to be in the form of a human child half his height.
The kiss didn't last long, more of a brotherly kiss than anything romantic. Riyadh obviously didn't even know what a kiss was or what it was supposed to mean. Alai looked at him, looked past him at the commander. "There is being protection for you from Crayak here," she informed the Howlers. "You must be deciding. The price of the protection is being that we cannot be harming you either, even in defense. But you must be deciding if you are truly wanting your guardian to be like Crayak, who is destroying for a free thought."
Riyadh looked at his commander. I didn't know how, but somehow I could half-see the memories which were being transferred and shared. How Riyadh had felt. The strange sensation of caring, or the beginning of it. Riyadh liked Alai, didn't want to kill her or let her be killed, and by extension he didn't want any harm to come to the other Sharf Den.
And one memory that wasn't Riyadh's at all, or any Howler's. It was me, seen through Jake's eyes, on the Iskoort world. He was running toward me and I was running toward him, and...
I blushed furiously, hoping Alai wouldn't see. I began to see what Riyadh had meant about Jake morphing to Howler. It was disturbing to think of an entire race knowing all your memories, all your secret feelings.
"It is not being such a bad thing, Cassie," Alai said quietly. Well, so much for that hope. "Without that, we are all being destroyed."
She did have a point. "How many things are we influencing in the galaxy, anyhow?" I asked rhetorically. The Ellimist and his games...
Alai looked surprised. "No one is knowing the future for certain, Cassie, not even the Sharf Den. And you are having some familiarity with the chaos theory. What the results of your actions are being, I cannot be knowing for sure. I can only see what is happening in possible nows."
I considered for a moment whether I should explain that I hadn't wanted an answer. Then I wondered if Alai knew that and this was her idea of a joke. Then I gave up on the whole thing and just watched Riyadh.
Now it seemed to be quite a bit later. One by one, the Howlers took off their weapon belts, the fletchettes, the Dracon beams, everything. As each one threw down their weaponry, a Sharf Den came forward. Each Howler was led away, the Sharf Den talking earnestly.
Riyadh stood slightly to one side, speaking with Alai. His face showed slight confusion, which slowly turned to understanding.
"The teaching," Alai said.
And the scene shifted again.
I had seen this place before, though only in a hologram. Leafless trees, their twigs shading from green through silver to a bright pink. Mushrooms, small compared to the ones I had seen in Erek's hologram but far larger than anything on Earth. Animals. Not many, but here and there strange, alien animals flew or hopped or ran around.
And Chee. Several Chee walked among the alien plants and animals, feeding an animal, straightening a broken twig, and generally looking with wonder at their surroundings.
Then--a single Pemalite child appeared, holding the hand of a Howler. The Chee gathered, staring in amazement. A few turned away for an instant, with an almost human look of overpowering joy in their artificial eyes.
"I had wondered about that," I mentioned to Alai. "I mean, is it right to create a sentient race? Or recreate it, I suppose. It just seems like the created people might be taken advantage of, or considered less than sentient."
Alai smiled wryly. "The Time's Children are having a bit of a different perspective on that. Others are creating all of them, after all."
That threw me for a moment, until I realized that it made perfect sense for the Howlers to change their name. They were too well known by now to be able to start over any other way. And Time's Children? I smiled. It sounded a bit like Riyadh had been involved in the choice.
"That makes sense," I responded. "I suppose since the Chee were created as well, there's not much chance of anything like that happening."
And the Pemalite world vanished.
I didn't recognize Earth for a moment, and I was horrified when I did. Familiar and foreign at the same time, this was an Earth conquered by the Yeerks. The sky was a cloudy yellow, thick with smog. What few plants I could see were wilted and dying. I saw no animals.
"Is this the future?" I asked Alai in shock. "Do we fail?"
She shook her head. "No one is knowing the future for certain," she repeated. "This is being a possible after-now. And even if it is becoming a true-now, you are not failing."
"How?"
She pointed. The Time Matrix glowed softly beside us, then floated to a place on the ground. "It is being hidden now, in all nows, but especially in this one. And here--"
Humans gathered around the Time Matrix. Ragged and thin, they were free from the Yeerks but trapped in the ruin of their world. One girl reached out and touched it. I recognized her red hair and bright green eyes...
"Hope," Alai whispered. "In every now is being hope. In this now is being something more."
There was a brilliant flash. The girl--Karen--vanished, and so did her friends. So did Alai. So did everything else.
"Cassie?"
I knew that voice. It belonged to someone important to me. He sounded worried. I didn't want him to worry. There was nothing to worry about.
"Cassie, are you all right?"
Someone else. A friend. Another worried tone. I tried to open my eyes and sit up, but it felt as though there was a heavy blanket pressing down on me. What had happened? Had my trip with Alai made me feel this way?
"C'mon, Cassie, you have to wake up. Your dad might come in."
That was right. Couldn't let my dad know anything out of the ordinary was happening. Didn't want Jake to worry. I struggled to open my eyes, to do anything.
I think she's waking up.>
Another friend. Tobias. Hawk.
"Cassie?"
I tried to reassure Jake that I was fine, just awfully tired, but it came out only as a groan. My eyes opened slowly, and I had to blink several times before the world would come into focus.
Jake helped me sit up. "We were worried about you there for a while," he said, trying for a light tone. "When you and Alai came back, you were unconscious. She said you were all right, it was just the effects of time travel."
"Actually," Marco interjected, "it was more like 'The seeing through nows is being difficult even for one with Cassie's gift.'"
Jake rolled his eyes. "Yeah. Something like that."
"What happened to Alai and Riyadh?" I asked, looking around.
She was looking kind of washed out when you appeared,> Tobias supplied. She looked at Riyadh and told him that she couldn't see him again, because of the way the Time Matrix was hidden. Then he asked if she could come on the trip back to the Sharf Den world with him, so they could talk. I think she did. Anyway, they both sort of shimmered and vanished.>
I nodded. It made sense.
Where did Alai hide the Time Matrix that the Yeerk sensors could not detect it?> Ax inquired.
"I don't think any sensors could find it where she put it," I said. "It's hidden...everywhere. All through time. On many planets. Mostly places the Sharf Den have been, I think."
Ax rocked back, supporting his weight on his back hooves. Yes, of course. That would be the only way to disguise its signature entirely.>
I decided not to mention the last scene. It was probably better not to think of that possibility.
Riyadh--
I'll never see her again. It kept running through my head, over and over again. This would be my last chance to talk with Alai. It had been astonishing that I even had this chance.
So make the most of it, I told myself sternly. "Alai, I wanted to say thank you. For what you did for me, for all of us."
She smiled at me, the warm smile that I had first received from her...well, it seemed so long ago. Another memory. Another lifetime. Alai had been my first friend ever, the first person who showed me what friendship was. Talking and learning together, not taking orders and hunting down people in what we had thought was a game.
"You are being a good friend to me, Riyadh," Alai said. "I am being glad that I am choosing as I am." Doubt crossed her face briefly. "You are not regretting your own choice?"
I shook my head. "I know Crayak will keep trying to get rid of us. But we chose rightly. No regrets."
"No regrets," she repeated. "And you are continuing to be assisting those you are harming once."
"Until the damage we caused is gone, and the game is over." I sighed. "It seems impossible, Alai. But we have to keep going."
"All worthwhile tasks are seeming impossible." Alai smiled. "Until you are completing them."
Usually, I would have reached my destination by now. Either Alai had paused time until we were finished talking, or the Sharf Den in charge of the transit were giving us extra time. "I suppose so."
"You are being the leader of Time's Children, Riyadh. They are looking to you for guidance. We are helping as much as we can, but you are knowing the limits on us."
Me? A leader? I wanted to ask if she was sure, but I knew she was. Sharf Den don't joke about the possibilities they see, and for her to sound so positive, it had to be in almost all of them. "And I won't see you again, will I." I wanted her to say I would, to say that she could still be with me. But I knew better.
"You are not seeing me again. Not within any possibility the Sharf Den can be reaching." She smiled, almost secretively. "Of course, there are being some that we are never seeing until our ranges end."
I didn't understand that, so I dismissed it. I had never understood more than half of what Alai said. "I'll miss you, Alai, so much. I'm no leader. Not without you around."
"You are doing well," she assured me. "You are learning much. Now you must be teaching it to others."
YES, RIYADH. ALAI IS CORRECT.
I knew that voice, though I'd only heard it through other memories. "Of course she's right. She's always right," I told the Ellimist.
Amusement colored the tone. QUITE OFTEN. DO YOU KNOW WHY ALAI'S RANGE HAS ENDED?
"I know she made a bargain with the Drode. For Cassie."
YES. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?
"No," I said defiantly. "No, I don't. Why should Alai have to end her range here? Crayak is wrong!"
There was something like a sigh. PERHAPS HE IS. BUT HE FEELS CHEATED. NOT ONLY WAS CASSIE NOT INFESTED, BUT THE PRESENCE OF THE TIME MATRIX ALLOWED ALAI TO COMPLETE ONE LAST TASK. YOU MUST PROTECT THE PEOPLE YOU WILL HELP NOW, RIYADH. CRAYAK DOES NOT LIKE LOSING A ROUND.
"We already knew that much. Why are you telling me again?"
HE IS MAKING A NEW SPECIES OF WARRIORS.
That was predictable. I still didn't see why the Ellimist would bother to tell us.
I could feel his attention turn to Alai. YOU HAVE DONE WELL, ALAI OF THE SHARF DEN. YOU WILL BE MISSED. THE FORMER HOWLERS OWE MUCH TO YOU.
"They are being well able to take care of themselves," Alai said. "I am doing very little that would not be happening in any case. Be saying what you are meaning," she admonished.
I felt a distinct sense of exasperation. VERY WELL, THEN, I WILL MISS YOU. I AM PROUD OF YOU. YOU HAVE DONE MUCH FOR ME.
"It is being part of the job." Alai turned from the sense of the Ellimist, toward me. "Be remembering," she told me. "All I am saying before is still holding."
I nodded.
And she had gone, one brilliant flare of violet. Truly gone this time, no longer trapped within the Time Matrix. No hope I would ever see her again. Not within any possibility she had seen, which was all of them.
RIYADH, I AM SORRY IT HAD TO BE THIS WAY.
I wanted to yell at him, tell him it shouldn't have been this way, tell him to stay out of my life. I didn't. "It's just like Alai. Do the impossible and make everyone mad on the way out."
INDEED.
"Why are you really here?" I demanded, my anger at him suddenly coming to the surface. "It wasn't to tell me something I already knew. It wasn't to say good-bye to Alai, either."
YOU ARE RIGHT, he acknowledged uneasily. ALAI'S WORK IS DONE. YOURS IS JUST BEGINNING, RIYADH. YOU MUST CHOOSE.
"I already chose," I told him. "I will do what Alai would want. And I'll never work for Crayak again."
There was a hesitation. I wondered why. I WISH YOU LUCK, RIYADH OF TIME'S CHILDREN. YOU WILL BE NEEDING IT.
And I had suddenly arrived on the Sharf Den world, in the center of the transit circle. I felt distinctly uneasy. What could Crayak have in store that was so much worse than what had already happened?
But that would have to wait. For now, I had to share my memories, and take Alai's place as teacher of Time's Children.