Even though we had said a brief "hello" to Jill right after clocking in, it had been just that. Brief. She sometimes stopped by to check in on employees, partly to eliminate time wasting, but also to make sure there weren't any major problems. So, her stopping by was completely routine.

Still. I was glad Hallit was controlling my body. After all, she could keep my heart from racing, not to mention my voice steady, as she greeted my boss.

Okay, technically, Jill hadn't hired me. The district manager who worked at the corporate headquarters handled all of that, and I had only seen her on staff training days. I wasn't sure she even remembered who I was. For all intents and purposes, Jill-being role of a manager-was one of my supervisors. Yes, just one of them. Everyone here was held accountable to anyone with a "manager" in their title. And while they didn't do the hiring or the firing, any one of them could put a complaint she (or, in approximately 50% of the cases, he) had with me in my record, and that could lead to "disciplinary action".

All of this was theoretical. In the time that I'd been working there, I'd never had any problems with my coworkers, the customers, or any of the higher ups. Not that this was a major feat. I mostly just did my work quietly. Avoided contributing to any trouble making-which I knew existed. It helped that I was willing to filled in for anyone who asked me to-as long as it meant I didn't have to work on Sundays-even when it meant working more than forty hours, or back to back shifts, or extra split shifts. Not that I felt taken advantage of. After all, everyone was expected to pull their weight, and when I'd needed coverage for the few days surrounding Leah's wedding, there had been no problems or even complaints.

Still, if I had to be completely honest with myself and Hallit, I would say that I more than pulled my weight.

Granted, none of this would matter to the potential Yeerk in Jill's brain, but I liked to think that Jill knew.

"Hi, Jill," Hallit said, straightening up from the carton of shampoo she was unloading.

"Hello, Rachel," she said, giving me her standard smile. Pleasant, professional, what I privately called "work friendly". "Just got in?"

Hallit shook my head. "I'm working a split shift today, so I was in earlier and had a few hours off. I got back about an hour ago."

"Eight hour day, though?" Jill wrinkled her nose. "Not fun. Did you take your breaks yet?"

The way the rules worked, everyone was entitled to a fifteen minute break for every four hours you worked. So, you were actually working three and three quarters hours for every four. You could do whatever you wanted during that time, just as long as you stayed on the site. Meal breaks, in thirty minute increments, were unpaid (and optional) and could only be used after you worked four six consecutive hours. I never bothered with those, preferring to eat during my 15 minute breaks.

"This morning, yeah. Not this afternoon, but I'm in until 8:30, so I was thinking around 6:30 or 7:00."

Jill nodded. "Okay, just remember to take them. There's been some trouble with employees not taking their breaks and then filing complaints with corporate. Wanting to count it as paid days off, instead." She made a face. "Not something you'd do, I know, but all of the managers have been told to make sure their staff takes their breaks during their shift."

Hallit nodded again, and it looked for a minute like Jill was about to leave, but then she spoke again, her voice a few decibels lower than usual.

"By the way. You mentioned last month that you had started going to Sharing meetings?"

"Yeah, I'm still going. They're really fun," Hallit replied, and I could feel hesitancy in her voice. Even though I couldn't read her thoughts, I was pretty sure she was wondering if she should mention, then and there, that she just became a full member.

She nodded, rather more enthusiastically than necessary. "Have they told you about full membership?" Before Hallit had a chance to respond, she continued. "I became a full member last week. If you think being an associate member is cool..."

"Oh, I became a full member three days ago," Hallit said, nearly interrupting my boss' sales pitch.

She blinked at me, then smiled. A little knowingly.

"Well, then. I should ask for your name," Jill-or rather, her Yeerk-told me. Well, told Hallit, since at this point, it was Yeerk speaking directly to Yeerk.

"Hallit five-six-two," my Yeerk responded, with a slight nod. Possibly a sign of respect, although in all probability, she was speaking to a peer, and not a sub-Visser or Visser.

Jill's Yeerk made a nod back at me/Hallit. "Sorren seven-three-eight," she told me.

(Hallit? What do those numbers mean?)

(Virtually nothing, unless they're in the two hundreds or one hundreds,) she explained. (We're essentially peers.)

(Well, I guess that's easier for her than had you been a sub-Visser,) I joked, which got an internal laugh from her.

Hallit paused, and I could tell that she was accessing her own memories, probably trying to recall if she knew this Sorren. "I don't believe we've met before. Which pool were you born into?"

"Hett Simplatt. Yourself?"

"Sulp Niar, around the time of the seizure of the home world."

"Ah, then you are approximately three cycles my senior," Sorren calculated.

(Cycles?) I prodded.

(Not the feeding kind. She's not nine days younger than me. We use them the way you humans would use "year",) came Hallit's voice, a little abrupt. Then, (Sorry. It's a little difficult to keep track of two conversations at once.)

Giving her a mental nod, I said, (Got it. Mum's the word.)

"Yes, that sounds accurate," Hallit replied. "Your birth was after the Andalite massacre of the Hork-Bajir? I was not fortunate enough to receive one as a host when the planet was first discovered. I had to make due with a Gedd until I was promoted."

I was dying to ask Hallit about the massacre, but as I had just promised to keep my silence, I did. Besides, I figured that she'd fill me in on what had happened later.

"Yes, my siblings and I were born shortly after that virus infected the race." Jill-well, Sorren-made a vague motion towards me. "Is this your first human host?"

Hallit shook our head. "Third, but the first who hasn't resisted."

Sorren's face lit up a little. "Voluntary, then?"

"Yes," Hallit replied, and I could feel her pride at this.

"Mine's...cooperative," Sorren explained, choosing her words carefully. "I've allowed her the status of voluntary so that she won't be placed in the cages, and possibly injured by well meaning but vigilant guards. However, she's still not entirely..." Sorren paused before concluding, "I suppose that she needs some more time to adjust to her new life as a host."

Hallit nodded and made our face look understanding. "Well, the average adaption period for new voluntary hosts is a month, and if she hasn't tried to escape, then you were wise to allow her to be classified as voluntary. You've fed twice since having been assigned to her?"

At my mental confusion at the last part, Hallit explained, (Jill became a host a week ago, remember? So, Sorren will have fed at least twice.)

Oh.

"Three times. I was notified at the end of my second day out of the pool that I would receive a human host, and asked to feed immediately beforehand in case there were any problems with resistance. Unfortunately, that's altered my feeding schedule, and it will probably take me a month before it can be fully regulated. Still," she added, gesturing at her body, "it was probably necessary to feed beforehand."

Hallit nodded empathically. "'Do not deplete your kandrona supply before attempting new ventures,'" she said. "To quote the late Council Member Salran two-zero-three."

"Exactly." She glanced at her watch. "I need to be going. Manager meeting in fifteen minutes. I might need to stop by later, if there is news of any new shipments."

At my inner confusion, Hallit explained, (I think she means new Sharing members among the employees.)

Ah. That made sense.

Hallit nodded. "I'd better finish unpacking these boxes. Nice to see you again."

Another nod, and Sorren was off.

Once we were by ourselves, Hallit let our a short breath, but kept the conversation between us in our heads.

(That went relatively well,) she said. (Jill's nearly a voluntary host, from the sound of it, and your human boss' Yeerk is not my superior.)

(I guess. What do you think Sorren meant, though? About Jill?)

Hallit gave a mental shrug. (Depends how she became a full member, really. Sometimes, like in your case, they take a prospective voluntary host into a room and give an explanation, then allow them to ask questions. But with larger groups, there's often not enough time for that. So, they take the group to the pool, and their Yeerk has to explain everything after infesting the human.)

(That sounds awful,) I mused, and I could see why some people might be involuntary after going through that. At least, in the beginning.

(Well, it's certainly a cause of stress for both of them. It's possible that Jill fit into that category. Or, perhaps she was able to ask questions, but unlike you, realized that while there was no way out, she didn't particularly want an alien residing in her head. I didn't want to ask too many questions right away.)

(No, I agree,) I told her. I was quiet for a few minutes, thinking about Hallit and Sorren's talk while Hallit performed the unpacking and restocking. Then, I remembered what Hallit had said about the massacre of the Hork-Bajir. (Hallit...?)

(Yes, the massacre.) Hallit gave a mental sigh. (One thing that you should know is that the Andalites originally landed on our home planet and, at first, only saw the simpler forms of life. Including the Gedds. You haven't seen any, yet, because on this planet, they're kept in menial positions. The Yeerks with them are just starting out with hosts, so their tasks are lowest on the scale. Their senses are very poor-dim eyesight, for example-so they can't be given any major responsibilities. They are about as intelligent, without a Yeerk inside them, as a human monkey. Barely sentient.)

As she spoke, she sent me pictures of them. What struck me most was that their legs were of uneven lengths. They must have figured out a way to walk with this problem, because in the images, they weren't constantly stumbling over.

(The Andalites, at first, paid little attention to the Gedds, but after visiting for a few days, they noticed Yeerks leaving the ears of the Gedds and entering pools of water nearby. They also saw different Gedds in the state of what's commonly referred to as "infestation", or the Yeerks entering their ears. It should be noted, Rachel, that on the home world, my brother Yeerks did not construct cages to keep the Gedds from running away. I rather doubt that infestation was as regulated as it is now, with a Yeerk being assigned to a host. More likely, when Gedds went to drink water, a Yeerk who happened to be nearby would know, via sonar, and utilize them as a host. Back then, there are far more Yeerks than hosts, and many Yeerks went their entire life without having a host body. The older ones I have spoken to say that they lived happy enough lives, and it wasn't until after the Andalites invaded and the war began that the need for taking more powerful hosts came about. They realized that their world had changed with this invasion, and Yeerks would have to join together to fight back and reclaim the home world.)

(But you were born after the Andalites invaded?) I asked her, watching as she moved to another aisle of products, box in hand.

(Yes, immediately afterwards. I was one of the first to be born in an artificial pool, which Seerow had constructed before the invasion began. You see, Rachel, Seerow was the sole Andalite who advocated for us, saw us as an intelligent species, and wanted to give us the power of space flight. To explore other worlds with our Gedd hosts, and experience senses from other sentient creatures who were in favor of an alliance.) She laughed. (Some of my brother Yeerks claim that he even allowed a Yeerk in his own head, briefly, but that could just be legend. At any rate, after the portable pools were constructed, we suspected foul play, and a few Yeerks in their Gedd hosts attempted to defend the pools from other, less sympathetic, Andalites. They used that as an excuse to go to war with us. Some Yeerks and their Gedd hosts managed to escape on a spaceship with a portable pool, where I was later spawned with nearly a thousand other siblings. We knew that we needed to find better host bodies than the Gedds if we were going to regain our home planet.)

I could feel Hallit's anger at the Andalites, but also her admiration for Seerow. Her sorrow at her home planet-which she herself had never visited-being taken away from her race by the violent and ruthless Andalites. Yet again, I wanted to help her fight to win back what was rightfully hers. And, of course, millions' others.

(I'm so sorry, Hallit,) I told her, softly.

My hands formed fists before Hallit realized what she had done, and immediately went back to putting items on the shelves.

(Thank you, Rachel. Anyway, we encountered a few species that could be utilized as hosts, but their senses and intelligence were not much better than a Gedd's, and their numbers were small. Fewer than a hundred in all. So, when we came across the Hork-Bajir planet, we were greatly surprised to find a species that was so built for fighting. Of course, they hardly knew that their blades could be used for that purpose, since they only ate tree bark, and used the blades for that. But with our help, they could become powerful fighters against the Andalites. There were thousands of them, and as I told you before, they were hardly more intelligent than a human toddler. So, while there was a small resistance-ironically, led by Seerow's daughter Aldrea-it was easy to utilize them and form an army.)

(But the Andalites killed them all in battle?) I guessed.

She visibly shook our head before stopping. (No, what they did was base and cowardly. Instead of fighting us directly, War Prince Seerow developed a virus that would attack and kill off the entire Hork-Bajir population. He called it a Quantum Virus. Once airborne, it would infect and destroy the entire race. Leaving us without hosts. Some of the Yeerks were Hork-Bajir were on space craft when he released the virus, and a very small number of Hork-Bajir were immune, or at least, able to recover. The rest were killed. And, Rachel, it was hardly a painless death. We went from having hundreds of thousands of warrior host bodies to only a few thousand. Moreover, Hork-Bajir live very short lives-ten to fifteen years-and it's rare for a single female to be able to birth more than three offspring before they enter the equivalent of "menopause". So, our numbers remain nearly as low as they did after the virus broke.)

(So, you were a little better off than you were before, but the Andalites really set you back,) I told her. (How awful for you.)

They were hardly closer to reclaiming their home world than they had been when the invasion started.

(We came across the Taxxons several years later, and because of their extreme hunger, they were more than willing to team up with us in exchange for fresh meat. Which we have more than provided for them,) she told me. (And their instincts are excellent for piloting ships and fighting in non physical combat battles. But they don't have the physical power that Hork-Bajir bodies do, and as someone who's had a Taxxon as a host for over two years, the battle over hunger is a constant one. They don't feel it nearly as much as we do, when we're in control, and they make decent companions. Still, we now have that battle to fight, and it's nearly impossible not to let those instincts take over.)

I gave a mental shudder. (Too bad you can't "turn off" that instinct, or something.)

Hallit gave me a warm mental smile. (Some day, perhaps. After we've reclaimed our home world, and are working with the best human scientists. Maybe there's something that the Andalites can do about it-once we infest those who can help us. It will be a wonderful day when they're no longer a threat to our world and our species.)

(They sound like arrogant bullies, except maybe Seerow,) I told my Yeerk. (And the sooner they're gone, the better.)