Chapter 10

Ax

(Sir, we've got an incoming communication from...well, I think you're going to want to see for yourself, sir,) one of the officers of the day informed me. I rubbed my main eyes out of exhaustion - we'd just had another skirmish with Kelbrid scout ships. We'd won the battle, but I felt like every scratch and ding in my ship had hit me directly. I told the officer to send it to my terminal, which he did -

"Hello," said the Kelbrid on my screen. At my hesitation, the alien did it's mandible smile. "What, you don't recognize your old pal Jake?"

Relief flooded through me, but it was immediately followed by suspicion and adrenaline. The Yeerk had told me the Kelbrid weren't capable of deceipt, but anyone could learn. (How do I know this is Prince Jake, and not some Kelbrid scum holding my friend hostage?) I asked combatively. All eyes on my bridge, stalk and main, were on me and my conversation.

The Kelbrid held the smile, but it began to melt into a human one. I relaxed, and it must have been visible, because my officers on deck seemed to relax too. Most of them even put their main eyes back on their stations. I waited for Jake to fully demorph before speaking. (Very impressive, Prince Jake. You managed to take a Kelbrid ship?) I asked, noting the blocky design of the ship he was on in the background of the transmission.

"Absolutely." He quickly filled me in on the situation, which was better news than expected, but I still had doubts.

(Prince Jake, even if you do manage to fool the Kelbrid, what message could you bring to their battle groups that would be advantageous for us?) I asked. I hated to spoil his good mood, but his victory was a minor one in my eyes.

"I'll handle this," Marco said, pushing Jake out of the frame good-naturedly and stepping into view himself. "These battle groups are sure to make up the bulk of these bugs' space navy, right? Well, check it out. We spring a trap. We go around, meet with these Kelbrid, tell them to be at a certain place at a certain time, and then crush them."

I resisted the urge to roll my main eyes, a gesture I'd picked up from Marco, ironically enough. (That would be an excellent plan, except for the fact that even one of these battle groups is probably larger than the whole Andalite fleet. Or human fleet, for that matter. They'd demolish us through sheer numbers, no matter how we ambushed them.)

Marco didn't miss a beat. "What if there were a way to disable or destroy them before we got there?" He didn't wait for me to answer the question. "See, the electro-magnetic pulse thingy gave me an idea. Couldn't we make one to place at the Kelbrid rendevous? That way, they jump in, and bang, they're dead in space. After that, we could pretty much do whatever we wanted. Round up their ships and use them, blow 'em up, doesn't matter. The important thing is that they'll be missing a big chunk of their firepower. Should knock them down enough pegs in order for us to manage a successful defense of your home world, right?"

(That would be a sound plan, except for the fact that the Kelbrid would need a place to rendevous. That would have to be a planetary system. They're scared of deep space - we know that much. They don't leave any planetary orbit until they're ready to scout or strip mine a new planet. Any EMP, or any bomb for that matter, big enough to disable their fleet would most certainly destroy any planet they were staging at. Not to mention the fact that any believable, inhabited planet they might stage from is probably going to be close enough to the sun to make it go nova. Even an EMP has enough juice to destabelize a star.)

"Oh. Well, wait? Why don't we do that?" he asked.

I almost yelled at him out of frustration. (Do what, Marco?)

"Make a star go nova. That is, use it as a ready-made bomb. You guys can do that, right?" he asked.

(Yes, Marco, we can. We wouldn't, but we could. Were you listening? We can't go blowing up a solar system in order to wipe out the Kelbrid. Too many innocents would die. We could end up wiping out an entire race.)

"Are you telling me there are no uninhabited systems out there? No solar system, out of millions, is suitable for this trap?" he asked me incredulously, and I resisted the urge to doubt myself.

(There are thousand of solar systems just like that. Useless systems that it definitely wouldn't matter if we turned them into a blazing nebula. But the Kelbrid, dumb as they are, know better than to step into an obvious trap like that. They'll know that it makes no sense to stage their attack from a planet they don't control when there's any number of closer planets that they do have control of,) I told him. (Now, I really have to get back to -)

Jake stepped back into the hologram and held up his hand. "Ax, I respect and like you. I even might love you, man, you know that. So let me ask you this - do you have a better idea? If we can get the Kelbrid battle groups to an uninhabited, inconsequential system, are you telling me you won't blow it up for us?"

(No, not at all. Like I said, it's a sound plan, if we could get them there. We can't, plain and simple,) I said.

"You can't. We can," Marco said. "These things will believe any story I come up with." I looked to Jake for some support. This plan was just not going to work - he had to see that. He saw me looking and shrugged.

(So, you think this will work as well, Prince Jake?) I asked. (You are asking me to blow up a sun. I've trusted you a million times before and I'll do so again, but -)

"No buts, Ax. This will work. We'll keep you posted," Jake said quickly, almost dismissively. I quickly glanced around to see if my deck officers were listening to their captain being talked to like a child, which they were. I suppressed my sudden anger towards the two of them, reminding myself that they'd saved my life a hundred times over.

(If you come up with a feasable plan, I promise to run it by Andalite high command with my seal of approval. Until then, this is all just speculation. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to run damage diagnostics for the ships under my command. Some of us are out fighting a real fight instead of a pretend one.) I immediately felt regret at the words, but as I'd said before, command was a position of few friends. I simply could not afford to have my men doubt me, even for a second. Jake and I had disagreed before, and he would understand. After all, I had given him the green light to set up his fantasy plan.

Jake didn't look angry, didn't say anything regrettable, but the look in his eye scared me, even through a hologram. "We'll let you know where and when the ambush is going to happen," he said in a cold voice, and cut the transmission. I left the bridge to go to my quarters to think on this unsettling turn of events, and kept my stalk eyes pointed behind me, making sure my crewmen paid attention to their duties and not to their scorned and disturbed prince.