Yesterday, December seventh, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. – Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Chapter Seven: Fortune, Fickle Friend
Maltheth-Garinal-Yllin, Lieutenant aboard Battlestation Hulwuth
My hooves beat the grass onboard the orbital battle station above the Yeerk homeworld. For the last few months, this was my home. Like so many other males, I thought I would be married to the fleet for the duration of our war. That all changed during my last rotation back to homeworld. In Andalite terms, the three months of courtship I had with my mate was ludicrously short. Despite their skepticism, I was wonderfully content. To my great delight, it seemed I would not spend as much time apart from her as I had feared. She was an engineer specializing in Z-space harmonics. The military was always keen to hire such civilian contractors to maintain sensor grids throughout known space. As such, her engineering vessel spent most of its time under Hulwuth's protection. Unarmed civilian ships were not encouraged to roam the space lanes by themselves.
She galloped up next to me and stopped. Her thoughts seemed to almost purr. {You know, love, your mother still harangues me to see that you run adequately.} My dearest thought to me. For those not well versed in Andalite jargon, running is, in essence, eating. Like mothers everywhere, Andalite mothers are consumed by an obsessive impulse to see their young nourished. If the maternal instinct was spreading to Aluuria…
{Well, the hours we spend on the command bridge are quite long. But I'll never need any accessory motive to run with you, Aluuria-Jameel-Sinzual.} She came from a very well respected clan and I often teased her, about letting a lout become her mate, by using her full name.
Just then, warning klaxons buzzed a steady hum, indicating that all military personnel were to assume battlestations, and all civilians were to report to a ship or lifepod in case it became necessary for them to flee. The dull hum, however, was not the highest alert. It was mere precaution. Experienced spacers, both of us, we headed to our respective places without hesitation and only brief farewells.
By the time I had reached the bridge, the alert had been downgraded. I found out that an as-of-yet unidentified alien ship had emerged from hyperspace, prompting the alarm. As this was a new alien species, we were under first contact protocols. The War-Prince in charge of the station turned his stalk eyes back at the rapidly accumulating junior officers. {All non-essential personnel can stand down. Preliminary communiqués suggest this will be a peaceful first contact, so all non-essential personnel can stand down.}
Feeling half foolish, and half abused for running throughout the battlestation like an imbecile, I made my way to the docking bay to see what Aluuria was doing at the moment.
Second watch under Commander Galfiya was about as boring as night watches were expected to be. I was working sensor controls, admiring the strange alien craft that had arrived earlier today. It was perfectly spherical! The sensors could identify micro-fractures along the hull, likely places where it would part to allow access. The inhabitants of the sphere were as strange as their craft. The crystal-humanoids were unlike any other lifeform we had encountered. At first, we had surmised that it was perhaps the first ever example of complex silicon-based life, but our science officer disagreed. Our scans indicated the atmosphere inside the craft was more conducive to carbon-based biochemistry.
I was at the stage where my thoughts would invariably turn to Aluuria every so often. She was away from the station at the moment. The alien ship had disturbed some Z-space sensor buoys on its way in-system. They probably thought nothing of it considering few in the galaxy actually paid attention to the Yeerk-Andalite war. But the arrangement of the sensor grid had been jostled slightly, so Aluuria and her fellow techs and engineers had to patch up the hole in our sensors. She was due back towards the tail end of my shift, about a standard hour away.
Suddenly my instruments picked up some unusual readings. {Commander!} I shouted, getting his attention. {I'm reading a huge energy spike in nearby Z-space. There's something huge out there.} In space, a ghostly ripple that indicated a Z-space rift formed. Out of its slight shimmer, a familiar ship emerged. {It's the Enfidul.} I said relieved. The Enfidul was Aluuria's ship. But what of the instrument readings? I checked again. It was still there. The mass hidden just beyond Z-space was enormous. {Wait, it's still there.}
The shimmer didn't die away. Instead, a trio of blade ships emerged amidst swarms of bug fighters. Behind them were strange new ships. These ships looked to be flat, triangular wedges known as 'flying wings' mated together in the shape of a cross. Whatever weapons they possessed must have been very long ranged. The leading edges of the eighty-ish strong new force fired from impossible distances. About a dozen beams of the unknown weapon impacted the battlestation. A fracture was made at the fore section of the bridge, sucking out the commander and another officer before emergency systems could close the gap. Wounded and leaderless, the remaining bridge staff members were shocked senseless. I felt the need to do something. Aluuria was still out there surrounded by Yeerks. I hit the controls for recording data. Sights, sounds, recent crew logs, reports, and instrument readings were being compiled by the computer along with whatever we could pick up in real-time. All the data was sent in a tight-beam Z-space signal to homeworld.
Just then, I could see bug fighters overtake the Enfidul. They ripped apart the civilian vessel with ease, like vermin picking at a carcass. {No!} I screamed. It seemed to shock the crew into action. In a split second I felt the numbness in my body give way to a boiling rage. They've killed my beloved Aluuria. {Captain to the bridge. All pilots report to your fighters, scramble!} I took control of the situation. {Communications, see if you can signal any nearby ships.} Andalite fleet forces roamed the system looking for Yeerk forces that periodically tried to sneak by. They would need to be recalled to help in the station's defense. {Weapons, track whatever targets to can and return fire.}
At the extreme ranges of our shredder cannon, some of the alien ships approached into firing range. I saw shredder fire light the vacuum between us and a couple of the 'crux' ships exploded. For all their firepower, it seemed these new ships were lightly protected. However, that wasn't the case with the blade ships. They could shrug off a couple shredder beams. How I wished at that moment to have a dome ship's tail cannon at my disposal.
The captain arrived in a flurry of indignation. {What in blazes is going on?}
{The Yeerks seem to have a new ship or new allies. A sizeable fleet of these new ships accompanied blade ships and bug fighters here.} I told him.
{Why didn't our long-ranged scans pick up a force this large?}
I hadn't thought about it, but the captain raised an unsettling question. Then the answer hit me. {Sir, that new alien ship disturbed the sensor grid, opening a hole in out detection network. They must have come through the gap.}
{I doubt this was a coincidence then. Those on that sphere ship were deliberately treacherous.}
I realized the truth in the captain's analysis. My blood ran cold and I vowed to take revenge on them. The sphere ship itself, likely realizing their ruse might be exposed, moved towards the attack fleet, seeking protection. It was out of range of our shredders in due time, and I despaired. I searched for something, anything, which would be the instrument of my vengeance. At last, I found they had made a serious mistake. The sphere entered Z-space right underneath one of the sensor buoys. What the Yeerks didn't even know is that new sensor buoys came with a self-destruct mechanism. {Boom.}
The crux ships, enraged at the loss of the sphere ship, focused all their remaining firepower on the station, tearing up the colossal structure underneath the combined weight of its firepower. Arriving Andalite fleet ships inflicted horrific losses on them but they accepted the losses to bring down the station.
Maltheth felt the warmth of light hitting his face and the feel of grass underneath his hooves. Last he knew, he was on the dying battlestation. It seems there is an afterlife after all. His hearts nearly stopped when the distant but recognizable figure of Aluuria graced the horizon and waved to him. He galloped off after her.
The Ellimist looked down on the promising exchange. While he could not cheat death, he could rescue consciousness from the dying. Most peoples in the galaxy had a mythical afterlife incorporated into their religion. But he knew the truth that there was no life after death. However, there was this reprieve that he had built. There was this matrix of worthy consciousnesses that he used to reward his most favored beings. It was also for himself. He could feel the love, contentment, and belonging emanating from such beings and the Ellimist fed off of such delicious auras.