Chapter 12

≺So, now what?≻ Rachel said.

She and Ax had already been waiting for us by the dropshaft, and followed us from there. I figured it'd be another long walk.

≺Let's please just go to Visser One's Blade ship first, then Jessica should be safe,≻ Cassie said.

≺I agree,≻ Rachel said. ≺And then we go back to mess up the mothership. How hard can it be? If we'd even just disable their cloaking stuff for a little while, anyone on Earth with a telescope would be able to see a ship this big, right?≻

≺Erek, how hard would that be?≻ I asked through his thought-speak devices.

≺Not nearly as simple as Rachel expects it to be. The mothership is ultimately commanded by its captain. In special situations a Visser can assume command, but that is quite uncommon out of combat, and Visser Three and his army would certainly get in your way. Destroying the cloaking devices is also not an easy task on a ship that big. They have hundreds of generators scattered around the hull, and you'd have to take out a lot of them to actually influence the cloak.≻

≺What about their immunity research? I agree with Ax that we should get rid of that if we can.≻

≺Also difficult, but not impossible. You would need to cut main power to the ship's systems to wipe all localized volatile memory, but all important data is also backed up to two separate computer mainframes to protect it against such outages. Those mainframes have their own small reactors, and don't need power to retain the data, anyway. You would need to destroy their memory banks, or reset them while main power is out.≻

≺Erek, we're not actually engineers,≻ Rachel said. ≺In English?≻

≺Cause a power outage in one place and destroy computers in two other places.≻

≺I like the destroying part.≻

≺Tobias notes that we should try to make more injection patches before we destroy the research,≻ Ax said.

≺Eva told me there's a thing on the Blade ship that should be able to do that, even though Visser One never used it herself,≻ Cassie said. ≺We should be able to just copy the two remaining injection patch things, so we can worry about that on our way back to Earth.≻

≺Here's a thought,≻ Rachel said. ≺Why don't we just steal the whole Blade ship? We'd be able to make as much of that immunity stuff as we want, not to mention that, you know, we'd have a freaking Blade ship! Erek, would you be able to hide it from the Yeerks if we get it down to Earth?≻

≺It'd take me some time to make a hologram that big, but I should be able to do it. Especially if main power is still out on the mothership when you get here. The sensors they'd need to track you to your landing site rely on that, so I would have significantly more time.≻

≺This is madness, Jake!≻ Marco thought to me. ≺Don't forget who we're up against. Just because we had a lucky break just now doesn't mean we'll be able to pull all that stuff off!≻

Cassie spoke up before I could respond to Marco. ≺I'm not sure that's a good idea. Eva says that a Blade ship is normally crewed by almost a hundred Controllers. Freeing or killing all of them would be next to impossible, so Eva would have to send them all away, which is going to look really suspicious…≻

≺But does she think she'll be able to do it?≻ Rachel asked.

≺She thinks so, but she's really worried about it anyway,≻ Cassie said after a pause.

≺You should understand that the effects of the power outage would be seen all over the mothership,≻ Erek pointed out. ≺All Controllers would be on high alert, so you'll have to act quickly and carefully. Especially if Visser One is already making herself look suspicious.≻

The group fell silent, so I spent the next few minutes of walking to the Blade ship trying to think it through.

The way I saw it, we had four options.

The safest one was to have Eva command her crew to drop us off in the forest somewhere as soon as we'd get there, without trying to take care of the immunity research. But then we'd only have a few injection patches to work with, with no good way of making more. Also, who knows how quickly the Yeerks would develop an antidote.

The next safest one was probably to steal the Blade ship as quickly as possible. We'd be able to make as many patches as we'd want, but the Yeerks would still have the means to develop an antidote, so we might still lose that advantage later. Then again, we'd still have our own Blade ship. Who knows what we could pull off with one of those, especially when upgraded with Chee technology.

Then there's the two options where we'd destroy the research first. Especially if we'd also be able to steal the Blade ship, we'd leave the Yeerks in a really bad position. We'd be able to start freeing important people to get them back on our side, and we'd be able to seriously fight back with all the Dracon firepower, too.

But it would be really dangerous. I especially didn't like the idea of having to split up four ways; Eva, Cassie and Jessica on the Blade ship, and the rest of us to our three targets on the mothership. We only had three of Erek's thought-speak extension gizmos, so some of us would be out of the loop. Probably Eva, Cassie, and Jessica, because the rest of us would need Erek to tell us what to do exactly.

≺You're not seriously considering this, are you?≻ Marco said at some point.

≺Why are you so against this? Sure, it'll be dangerous, but we're never going to get anywhere without taking risks.≻

≺I just got my mom back, Jake. I don't want to take risks right now. Steal the Blade ship for all I care, but I want to stay with her.≻

≺Look, Marco, I don't mean to be so cold, but this mission is a lot more important than your mom right now.≻

≺I see,≻ he said snidely. ≺Your brother is important enough for us to risk all our lives for, but you'd inject my mom with an untested drug and then point a Dracon beam at her without even knowing if it's set to stun properly. Got it.≻

I guess he had me there. Our first mission had been to free my brother, and it did not go well.

I sighed. ≺You're right. Going after my brother that time was stupid. But that was months ago. We all know what we're up against now. We need every advantage we can get…≻

≺Let me know how you feel about it when the time comes to put a gun to Tom's head.≻

I didn't know how to respond to that for a while. But then a thought occurred to me.

≺What if you and Cassie swap? Cassie can morph Yeerk, and I have my combo-morph. So you can stay behind on the ship with Eva.≻

≺That's… better, I guess. But I still think going back to the mothership is too risky.≻

I sighed again.

≺I think we should vote on this,≻ I said to the whole group. ≺Steal the Blade ship or not, and destroy the research or not. Marco thinks destroying the research is too risky. What does everyone else think?≻

≺Well, you already know what I want,≻ Rachel said. ≺Jordan isn't sure. She pretty much just wants to get out of here.≻

≺Tobias believes we should stay to destroy the research, and decide what to do with the Blade ship later,≻ Ax said. ≺I will follow Prince Jake's lead, but agree with Rachel and Tobias that we should destroy the research.≻

≺I don't know what to think,≻ Cassie said. ≺I… I really just want to go home, but I don't think we should pass this up… So… I don't know. Eva feels pretty much the same way. She's really worried about Marco, but at the same time is worried about Visser Three continuing the research. As for Jess, um… Tug once for staying to delete – O-okay, I guess she votes to stay. Jake, what do you think?≻

≺I guess we should delete the research before leaving, but I'm worried about only having three thought-speak links when we need to split up four ways.≻

≺Eva, Jess, and I will be fine without one, Jake. No one's going to be stupid enough to challenge Visser One in her own ship.≻

≺I guess…≻

≺I counted five in favor of deleting the research, one against, and three unsure,≻ Erek said.

≺So we go for it,≻ I said. ≺But… Cassie, maybe we can go together? Marco's really worried about his mom, he wants to stay with her.≻

≺Unfortunately, you will need Marco's combo-morph,≻ Erek said before she could respond. ≺You'll need your access token, and it only works when used by the host and Yeerk it was assigned to.≻

≺Then… I'm sorry, Marco,≻ I said using the Yeerk link. ≺Look, we'll be fine. We have to be.≻

He didn't respond. Even his private train of thought seemed mostly silent. I figured he was thinking about his mom. I didn't want to use my Yeerk abilities to infringe on that, so I just left him be.

It took another few minutes of walking to get to the Blade ship. Unlike the Bug fighter that brought us to the mothership, the Blade ship was docked to the outside, so for the first time, we ended up walking along the outer hull.

It was kind of a weird experience, because this was the first time we could actually see outside. Without windows, it was pretty easy to forget that we were floating around in space with absolutely no way out. It felt more like we were in a big underground base, or a bunker, or something along those lines. But now there was no way around it.

The angle was wrong for me to see Earth, but the stars were brilliant, brighter than anything you could ever hope to see from Earth. It was both awe-inspiring and terrifying at the same time.

And then there was the Blade ship. It was a bit hard to see, because it didn't seem to have any exterior lights or windows. It was pretty much just a huge black spot, like the stars were missing in that area.

I knew what it looked like, though. Blade ships look kind of like an airplane, but their wings bend forward from the back. If you'd look at one from the top, it'd almost look like a battle axe. They're bigger than the biggest airplane I've ever seen, though, and the base section is comparatively thicker, too. I figured they had at least four levels, maybe five, with the middle one easily fifty feet wide. Their wings are also thick enough for at least two levels.

They're strong, too. Besides their cloak, they have sci-fi force-field shields, and a bunch of very strong Dracon beams built in. So that Blade ship would be one heck of a new base of operations for us, if we'd manage to steal it.

To enter, we had to go through two sets of airlocks. I figured that the first was part of the mothership, and the second was embedded in the rear of the Blade ship. But I didn't see anything in the connecting hallway that hinted to where they would disconnect exactly.

We passed at least a dozen heavily armed Hork-Bajir on the way. Two of them wore silver security uniforms, the rest wore Visser One's black and gold. All of them stood attention to Eva and Inass one and two as we passed them. They silently ignored the rest of us.

The Blade ship's airlock opened up into a small cargo bay, with another door in the back. Or rather, the front, since we'd entered through the back. It was raised about half a level with respect to the cargo bay floor, accessible from a catwalk-like section with two stairs facing either side of the ship. That door led to a hallway, with a short dropshaft immediately to our right. Eva took us one level up to another hallway just like it. Eventually she turned into a room about halfway along the ship.

The room looked a bit like an operating room in a hospital, for as far as I knew what those look like from TV. There were two human Controllers in there, who shot up somewhat panicky when Eva entered the room. They clearly weren't expecting her.

"Keep this human alive," Eva said simply, and handed Jessica over to them. "And do not hurt her. There is no point in interrogating a human who is too hurt to think."

"Yes, Visser," one of the Controllers said.

"Inass one and two, stay here. It is of paramount importance that the girl stays alive, and that Visser Three and his minions cannot get to her. If her situation changes or she calls for me, notify me immediately. I will be in my office."

"Ka, Visser," both Hork-Bajir said simultaneously, and got in position by the door.

Eva left the room again, and gestured for us to follow.

≺Will she be alright on her own?≻ I asked.

≺Eva said those two medics were the ones who saved her life after she'd practically drowned in that underwater base,≻ Cassie said. ≺She should be in good hands.≻

Eva took us to a second dropshaft further to the front of the ship. She went up to the top floor, one level further up. There, she unlocked a very strong-looking door to a large, luxurious room. It spanned the entire width of the ship, and continued all the way to the front. The front, sides, and ceiling were made up almost entirely of windows, so the view was fantastic. The back wall and floor were mostly black, with gold-colored details. The centerpiece was a large table, with a single, very fancy chair behind it.

≺Nice place,≻ Rachel said. ≺Add a few chairs, and it'll be just perfect for meetings.≻

≺I don't know…≻ Cassie said. ≺Doesn't it just scream "evil" to you?≻

Rachel shrugged. ≺With so many windows, I'm sure it'll look a lot friendlier when it's parked in the forest.≻

After we walked in, Eva pushed a bunch of buttons on a display embedded into the back wall. The door closed, and the windows seemed to flicker for a moment. Then Eva finally seemed to relax.

A moment later, Cassie emerged from her ear, and immediately started demorphing.

≺Is that a good idea?≻ Rachel asked.

"It's fine," Eva said. "There's no surveillance here, the Blade ship doesn't have non-Controller sensors like the mothership does, and I just locked the door and blinded the windows, just in case. Can you hand me your tokens? I can grant them full access to this ship from here."

I reached into my uniform's pocket to grab my token and hand it to her. I also took out the remaining two injection patches and left them on the table.

≺Can't I at least remorph before we do this?≻ Marco asked.

≺Why? We're only like fifteen minutes in.≻

≺I don't know, I just… I just want to say goodbye to Mom.≻

≺I can also just give you control for a minute, you know. That's a lot faster.≻

≺But that's just not the same!≻

Now, under normal circumstances, I'd have just let him do it. But being a Yeerk, I could tell that he didn't actually seem all that worried about his mom. He just didn't want to go with us, and was looking for an excuse.

Until Marco found out that his mom was Visser One, he was always a bit like that about going on missions. Every time we only barely managed to convince him to come along, and every time he'd say it was going to be his last time.

I'd always figured he didn't want to come along because he was worried about what his dad might do if he wouldn't come home one day. When Eva supposedly died, he got so depressed that Marco practically had to take care of him for about a year, so it always made sense to me that he'd want to protect him.

But now… Now I was starting to wonder if he'd just been using that as an excuse for being selfish.

I mean, it's not like any of us want to be an Animorph, or wanted to go on this mission, for that matter. Just like him, I wanted to go back to Earth and cower away. I'm sure the others did, too. But that wouldn't be the smart thing to do, so we silently accept it and try to deal with it. Why couldn't Marco?

≺So, Erek, what do we need to do, exactly?≻ Rachel unknowingly interrupted.

≺I'll walk each of you through the steps independently. Where are you right now?≻

"We're docked to port D2," Eva said. Rachel relayed it for her.

≺Okay. You best get going, then. One of the memory banks is on almost the opposite side of the ship.≻

≺So, do you want to say goodbye or not?≻ I asked Marco, and gave him control over our body.

He sighed, then walked us over to Eva and hugged her.

"Be safe, okay, honey?"

"I'll try, I guess…"

"Jake, you too…" Cassie said. She'd just finished demorphing.

≺We'll be fine,≻ I said, trying to hide how conflicted I felt about Marco. ≺We already got this far, didn't we? They won't even know what hit them.≻

She looked at me worriedly. I think she immediately realized something was wrong. I don't know how she does it.

Marco let go of his mom, so I took back control. ≺Anyway, we're ready.≻

≺Okay, then let's do this,≻ Rachel said.