My name is Marco. And I'm bored. I sighed. I was sitting against the cave wall with my legs stretched out, the others had gone outside and sat by the fire, I was too lazy to get up right now, so I stayed in the cave. I looked down to my right, Carman hadn't woken up yet. She opened her eyes, unsteadily sitting up.
"Good morning, angel." I said. "It's already dark." She looked outside, the firelight lit the cave dimly.
"Is everyone okay?" Carman asked wearily.
"Yeah, we took role call, everyone's accounted for. Human and Hork-Bajir alike." I said.
"And the Andilites?" She asked.
"Ax thinks they're in orbit, and Cassie thinks they'll be back tomorrow." I explained, she nodded. "Don't worry, angel, everyone in this valley is willing to protect you if necessary."
"What.." She exclaimed, though not brashly, she positioned herself to face me. "Did you call me?"
"Oh...sorry."
"No seriously, what?"
"Angel."
"Funny, most of the Andilites seem to think the opposite of me. 'The little demon' is used the most to describe me." She said, laughing.
"Well, I certainly don't think that of you." I said, she smiled.
"Besides Estrid and Jordall, no one else has ever said something nice to me." She smiled. "I didn't get to know Rachel much, she was fighting the whole time." She laughed.
"That's Rachel. Xena Warrior Princess." I said. "You do know who that is, right?"
"Of course, I didn't leave the planet until I was ten." She said.
"Only ten?"
"I wasn't scared or any emotion of that sort, I was grateful." She said. "Nothing they've done has hurt me."
"Until now, it's going to change." I said.
"Completely, the food wasn't that great, but I was treated okay." She said. "Some of the Andilites weren't comfortable with it, mostly the males."
"I thought there weren't any women on Andilite vessels?" I asked.
"They're limited to the sciences, though not usually engineering and that area." She said. "It's a science vessel, there's an equal amouth of both."
"Makes sense." I said. "But you always mention Estrid, was she the only one who was nice to you?"
"Yeah, she's great." Carman said, smiling. "Most of the women were nice to me at first, they felt sorry for me, because I had no family, everyone had always been mean to me."
"How long had you been living like that?" I asked.
"Since I was three." She said. "I'd been passed from family to family, and not good ones at that. The day I turned nine, I gave myself the best birthday gift I ever had. I ran away."
"I would have too."
"I lived off the streets for a year, then the Andilites found me." She said. "They took a certain...interest, in me. Only after I told them what I was, of course."
"You're doing that on purpose, keep going." I said, she smiled.
"When I was eight, I found something my parents left for me. A thick book, and a blue box." She said.
"Morphing cube." I said, she nodded.
"The first part of the book, explained who my parents were. Andilites morphed human for a short period of time, and they decided to stay here after I was born. No one on the homeworld approved, so the Andilite government kept it a secret, and said that they just dissappeared. I had a sibling, an older Andiite brother. He was an aristh when I was born, so he never met me. I'm not sure if he knew about me, or if he's still alive. Well, anyway, my parents went on a dangerous mission, and never came back. The rest of the book was all about Andilites, the Yeerks, and all kinds of other things. I finished it two years ago, and I've been morphing since ten. That's how they found me, they saw me morph..and well, they wanted to know how I got the power. So I told them."
"And you trusted them because they were Andilites?"
"Yeah, I figured if my parents were so great - they wrote that whole book themselves, humorous footnotes and all." She said. "After meeting these Andilites, I knew my parents were a rare breed. Estrid being one of them. What about the Andilite in your group? Aximilli?"
"He's gotten more human over the last three years, but he's still got a little bit of arrogance in him." I said. "Plus he can be ruthless, but he's cool. And he really likes Estrid." She laughed.
"Like I said earlier, Estrid talks about him a lot." She said. "But Estrid wasn't assigned to my project until after she met you."
"Guess most Andilites just think of you as a project, not a sentient being." I said quietly.
"Unfortunately, that's the way it is." She said softly, I nodded. "Don't feel sorry for me, you've been through a lot yourself."
"So we're even?" I asked.
She smiled and said: "Yeah, I guess we are."
