When people write about the future either the humans are free or the Yeerks have won. Here is a future where both sides have found a better way. But if Yeerk nature can be better than we think, we know our own human nature and how a single person can take control of the entire world.
Utopia
Grinder was all-powerful.
Grinder was authority.
Grinder was life.
Grinder was God.
In the year -02, Grinder would have been considered a tyran, a bloodthirsty dictator.
Right now, as the year 1000 dawned, he was God.
In honor to the new century, he had had a message spoken to all of Gaâ, to all of the world he had under his power. He had wished them well, and reminded them not to forget to keep their karmas clean, and to continue to revere his name twice a day. Of course, he himself had not spoken, a qal had done that for him.
Everything was peace. The whole world was in peace. If someone broke a law, committed an offence, there was a strict penalty. The offender could be tortured for a varying amount of time. Major criminals would be personally tortured by him, then be confined for an amount of time. The confinement was a terrible experience. Some were driven mad by it.
Cameras were placed in every room, every street. The Control department was strictly controlled by aliens, Gedds mostly. No human could be allowed to peek into their compatriots' secret businesses.
Scientists regularly made huge technological advances. Average life span was 180 years. With so much longer to live scientists could go further in their researches. The ozone layer was repaired - all old trash from the 0 years had been burnt as energy, then the world had relied on solar, wind, tidal, and wave power. Rare nuclear factories still produced a small portion of electricity, in the far north.
Families were limited to one child only. Population was severely controlled. The estimated number on the whole of humans was around 5 billion. Not too many, or there would be starvation.
A message appeared on his screen. An offence report; a habitant of the MS-219 section had not been for several days to a temple. Usually that was torture for an hour. Sighing, he got up and quickly put on the costume he wore when he appeared to his people - a thick, pitch black robe, and a black mask with blood red contours, and a flowing black cape, with a red design of a snake on it. The serpent was the symbol of divinity. Very old religious books, from before the 0 years, indicated the serpent as an evil animal, the cause of original sin. He arrogantly defied the past, decadent religions.
Accompanied by attendants, he mounted into the Lacta, a brand new ship, top of the current technology. It resembled a lot the old Andalite fighter ships - of course, most of today's technology was based on Andalite technology.
He arrived at the Imprisonment Area quickly. As Grinder briskly walked down the corridors, people stepped out of his way and bowed their heads in submission. In the torture room, a young man, in his fifties, was dragged towards him. He looked fine, but his eyes were screaming pain from the recent torture.
"Hathyn Mallveet, you have not rendered worship to your Lord for five days. What is the meaning of this absence?"
Mallveet looked up, in his eye. Shocked, then furious at such insolence, Grinder swiped at Mallveet as quickly as an Andalite tail. His implants left profound cuts in his cheek, much like a feline's claws. Implants were still rare, but made their bearers all the more deadly.
"You think you're God," said Mallveet under suppressed rage. "You think you're all powerful. But you aren't. You're not immortal. We'll kill you."
"You doubt of your Lord's power. You doubt of my power. But you can't kill me. Do you know why, you vile mass of rotting organs? Because I am God. I have power over all life on this planet, my power reaches out to the entire solar system, it expands to the entire galaxy! You are but a flick of isignificant dust! You will pay for your insolence, your sanity will be sruched beneath my wrath. Then we shall see." Grinder smiled cruelly.
"Confine him for a cycle!" he ordered. Two guards seized Mallveet and plunged his head into a bowl full of steel liquid, rich with Kandrona rays. Mallveet attempted to struggle, but it was useless. The Yeert slithered out of his ear, unable to resist the sweet nourishment. Mallveet started screaming in desperation.
"Dystim! NoooOOOOOOOoooo, don't leave me! NooOOOOooo…"
But it was too late. Mallveet's Yeert had tasted the delicacy and joy of real Kandrona rays, and would never be able to become dependant of it for more than three days. Dystim's and Mallveet's mental connection was broken, they had become two separate beings.
Mallveet was sobbing in desperation, crying in despair. Most were driven to madness when they were deprived of their Yeert, and even if they got their companion back it would be different. There would no longer be the common mind, both human and Yeert would be capable of hurting, betraying the other.
This precious balance had been adopted ever since the Milky Way treatee, between Yeerks and humans. Grinder found he'd like to refresh his memory on those warring years. He went to the Palace library, and the librarian gave him the appropriate infodisk. Grinder plunged into the memories of a thousand years ago, before year 0.
The time of the Seerow War.
It was the official reunion, the big meeting between Andalite, Yeerk and human. John Forrest represented the human race. Prince Samir the Andalites. The newley promoted Visser One, the Yeerks. The ongoing war had caused many deaths on three sides. At leats, here they agreed - the massacre must stop.
"Andalite Prince Samir, authorities have been extremely deceived by your government's decisions. Quarantine is not the option for Earth. Right now our numbers are greatly reduced, but within a few years a breakthrough could easily be made."
The quarantine was a bad plan and has been abandoned.
"The Yeerks' initiative was originally to conquer Earth, I admit. But we are now open to more suggestions."
You have no business in integrating yourself to Earth. It is not your planet, as far as I know.
"The Yeerks must go to other worlds, we need host bodies. Are you condemning us to remain a weak, retarded species, in the shallow pools of out home planet?"
We suggest nothing of the sort. But the Yeerks should find a more peaceful way of developing themselves.
"We have no other way than to infest hosts."
"Perhaps there is a way. The Animorphs have often mentioned some other planet where a close parent of the Yeerks live in total symbiose with their hosts. The Yeerks themselves genetically modified themselves to suit only their hosts."
"That is a brilliant suggestion, Prince Samir, but due to your troop's repeated attacks we do not have the facilities required for such a project."
"I believe there is a possibility, along those lines. Some accounts indicate a rather good collaboration between voluntary hosts and their Yeerks. What incommodates people so much is, I believe, the fact that the Yeerks have total control of their host's body. I believe a solution would be to deprive the Yeerks of their ability to control their hosts, so that the link bewteen human and Yeerk is much more friendly. And perhaps some device, that can replace the Kandrona pool, so the Yeerk can be independent. Such symbiose would, before long, create a true mental link between human and Yeerk. This way, the infestation would rather become vital to the human's mental health. And social scientists are advancing the theory that this would be like some sort of, er, best friend, both would be in total harmony. A true symbiose. But, I repeat, Yeerks must be totally deprived of their faculty to control a body."
Silence.
Mr. Forrest, I hope you fully understand the irrationality of this idea? A symbiose between humans and Yeerks, they'd be off conquering the universe afterwards!
"That is a wondrous suggestion, and may be the best solution. After all, a quarantine would have had the same effect, just somewhat harsher. Mr. Forrest, many Yeerks have been expressing the desire for a peaceful collaboration, and few actually wish to control their hosts. My people simply wish to experience the sights and smells and sensations of a world, as in our natural state we are blind and deaf. We would have to test the idea first, and things would be made much more quickly if the Andalites offered techological help."
Mr. Forrest, think about what you are doing! You are condemning the whole human race to slavery!!!
"Not at all. With your biological technology, the Yeerks' capability to control their hosts can be removed. It would be a perfect symbiose."
Then, would you consent to release your Hork-Bajir hosts?"
"Yes, of course, if the Yeerk-human symbiose goes onto all the planet."
Prince Samir sighed, and agreed to help the symbiose.
(Here there was an insert from Samir's hirac delest a few years later)
Humans were mad to suggest such a thing! No doubt, once they had the humans, the Yeerks would spread like a disease. But the modifications were made, and tested. Baby humans who grew up with a Yeerk in their heads were in fact much more healthier, lived longer, were happier. It was shocking to see the real mental bonds between the two. One of those Yeerks was removed from its host. The results were terrible. The Yeerk, once it had tasted the real Kandrona rays, was no longer satisfied with the synthetic ones. And the human became nearly mad - he would all the time sob about being frightened without a friend, that they missed having someone to talk to, someone who shared their opinions, who thought the same way they did. When the two were put back together again they barely recognized eachother, and the Yeerk was destroyed by the human's immunity system, since it could not control it.
Young humans who were infested too at birth, and had infested parents, were even more at peace, in harmony. We took a Yeerk away from one of those humans - he became insane.
Grinder took of the glasses. He'd never known what it was like to have a Yeert, or Yeerk, in his head. He'd been born accidentally, but had been found then raised in a rich family. He'd quickly gone to power, with his ideas on peace and harmony. The world was still in a bad state after the Seerow war. Now he had power over the entire planet.
He was God, immortal, all-powerful. He controlled the world. He'd practically forgotten his past, illusioned himself in his supreme divinity.