Chapter 14

I explained what happened while we ran. Especially Ax was very suspicious of the whole thing, but he still agreed that there wasn't much Ekfis four could do against us once we'd reach the Blade ship.

Two of Visser One's huge Hork-Bajir were standing guard by the docking port when we got there. Ekfis stopped running when he saw them, and looked back at me.

"But that's Visser One's ship! I'm not going in there!"

"Yes, you are," I said. ≺We're here,≻ I said to my friends. ≺But Ekfis is having second thoughts. I could use some help.≻

Moments later, one of the two Hork-Bajir pulled out his Dracon beam and headed towards us. ≺Haff Ekfis. Here now!≻

Ekfis and I both put our hands up. After all, both of our designations started with Ekfis, and I wasn't sure what Eva had ordered the Hork-Bajir to do, exactly.

But the Hork-Bajir was only interested in Ekfis four. He grabbed his arm and started pulling him towards the airlock.

Ekfis turned to look at me with an expression that was as angry as it was terrified. "You tricked me! You're with Visser One!"

≺No, I'm not,≻ I responded to him in thought-speak.

"H-huh?"

Eva was waiting for us in the airlock. The Hork-Bajir who'd grabbed Ekfis proudly presented him before her. "Karrap Naghar haff Ekfis four," he said.

"Yes, I can see that," Eva said, and gestured for us to follow her into the Blade ship.

≺Is it a good idea for them to come, too?≻ I asked her.

Eva didn't respond until she closed the outer airlock of the Blade ship behind us. "Don't worry about them. We made them immune, and then their Yeerks killed themselves. They'd seen Cassie, after all, so we had to do something."

"Jake!" Cassie called when the final airlock door opened. She immediately flew into my arms. "I was so worried he'd tricked you somehow… And you're hurt! What happened?"

"Just a bit of an explosion. I'll be fine."

She let go of me pretty quickly after that. She probably realized she was actually hugging Marco, in a way. Then Eva hugged me, so I handed control over to Marco for a while. He didn't really say or do anything other than hug her back, though.

≺So, what's our status?≻ I asked after a few seconds.

"Ax is trying to work out how the ship works," Cassie said.

≺Doesn't Eva know?≻

"Visser One never used the controls directly," Eva started explaining, and let go of Marco and me. "Usually she'd let her crew fly the ship, although sometimes she'd get angry and take control through a sort of thought-control interface. Like how the dropshafts work, but more advanced. Ax and I tried to get that to work earlier, but it won't listen to us. It's probably programmed to only take commands from Visser One."

"What are you planning to do with him?" Cassie asked me before I could respond. She was looking at Ekfis, while Ekfis awkwardly stared at a wall. The Hork-Bajir was still restraining him.

≺I'm not sure yet,≻ I said. ≺But I assume that this ship has at least one of those prison cells, right? Maybe we should just leave him there until we get to Earth, and then figure it out from there. Let's focus on getting everyone to safety, first.≻

Cassie didn't respond. She just continued looking at Ekfis pityingly. But Eva nodded.

"Karrap, can you take Ekfis four to the cells?"

Karrap gave the Hork-Bajir equivalent of a nod and silently pulled Ekfis along. The other Hork-Bajir followed behind.

"I'll go with them," Cassie said. "Tell Ekfis what's going on and everything. At least, we trust him enough for that, right?"

≺Yeah, fine,≻ I said. ≺He's already seen your face, anyway.≻

Cassie quickly caught up with them. "S-so, you're Ekfis four and… Jerry, right?" I heard her ask in the background, just before they dropped out of sight along the dropshaft.

Eva had been operating a small control panel near the airlocks in the meantime. "Ax, can you hear me?"

≺Yes, Eva. The intercom is working.≻

"I'm pretty sure I've just sealed and locked the airlock. For as far as I know, we should be ready to go."

≺Understood. I believe I have worked out the undocking sequence, but I could use your help with that on the bridge.≻

I followed Eva there. It was just straight ahead along the center hallway of the ship.

The bridge was, well, pretty much what you'd expect. There were large windows all along the front and sides of the room, with control panels and displays underneath them. The hind section was raised a few feet above the front section, with ramps leading down on either side. The command seat was at the front of the raised section, so if you'd sit there, you'd look over any crew walking around and sitting at the terminals along the lower section.

The view wasn't as spectacular as it was in Visser One's office, because the ceiling didn't have windows. Of course not – Visser One's office was right above the bridge, so it would've been in the way.

I could still only see stars. Earth was probably below us, just out of sight.

Everyone except maybe Jordan was already demorphed. Rachel was sitting in the command seat, with Tobias perched on top of its backrest. Ax was frantically walking back and forth between control panels, and Eva quickly joined him. I didn't see Jessica or Jordan, so I figured they were elsewhere on the ship. Probably the medical room.

Rachel had swiveled around in her chair to face us when we entered the bridge. She was smiling maniacally.

"Hey, guys."

≺You seem excited,≻ I said.

"Uh-huh, I can get used to this," she said, kicking back against a railing to make the chair rotate back around. "Go to hyperspace! Man the photon cannons! Kill me some Yeerks!" she daydreamed.

≺I thought you guys decided I was the leader?≻ I joked. ≺Shouldn't I be in that chair?≻

"Nuh-uh, I got here first. And it's so cushy and awesome!"

≺Well, I'm glad someone's comfortable,≻ Tobias responded, struggling to hold on as Rachel kept turning the chair around. ≺Meanwhile, I can't wait to get back to Earth, and fly like hawks are supposed to.≻

I heard some clicking and banging sounds from the back of the ship and felt a slight jerk soon after.

"Uh… Was that normal?" I asked.

≺Yes, we have finally undocked,≻ Ax said, still rushing around.

"Awesome!" Rachel said. "They don't even know what hit them!"

≺Look, Jake, as I'm sure you've noticed, my whole body hurts from that explosion and all that running,≻ Marco said, in a way that immediately killed my mood again. ≺So if you would finally get out of my head? I'd like to demorph.≻

≺Right, sorry,≻ I said, and commanded my Yeerk instincts to leave him, hopefully for the last time. He caught me, then set me down on a nearby chair.

I felt the ship jerk into drive just as I started demorphing, much like the Bug fighter had. Almost home, I thought, although the feeling of victory wasn't nearly enough to drown out the horror of being part-Yeerk part-human again.

I finished demorphing just in time to see all the control panel displays suddenly turn red all at the same time. There was a bit of a jerk again, too. Ax and Eva looked at each other confusedly.

"Uh, red means bad, right?" Rachel asked.

≺We seem to have been locked out of the controls,≻ Ax said.

"W-well, don't look at me, I don't know what this is!" Eva said.

≺What happened, exactly?≻ Erek asked.

≺All terminals are showing an authorization failure message, as if someone or some automated system has assumed command,≻ Ax said.

"Guys, we're moving, look!" Rachel said.

We were turning, to be exact. Right back to the mothership. We were far enough away from it that it was just a little dot in the middle window at first, but it was visible nonetheless. Then it slowly started growing.

≺The Blade ship is taking us back to the mothership,≻ Ax stated. ≺I'm not sure how to stop it.≻

He looked at Eva, who helplessly shrugged and shook her head in response. Tobias spread his wings nervously. The rest of us just stared.

≺Go to the engineering sections,≻ Erek suggested. ≺You should be able to manually stop the ship from there. That should at least buy you some time.≻

Ax didn't need to be told twice, and rushed off into the hallway to the back of the ship. The rest of us stayed behind.

≺Should we try to help him…?≻ Tobias asked after a few seconds, but no one responded. We would all need Erek to walk us through the process, but only Tobias could have a two-way conversation with him right now, and I'm sure the controls weren't designed to be operated by a red-tailed hawk.

"Eva, is there any way off this ship?" I asked a few seconds later.

"J-just a single escape pod. But it's only built for one adult. M-maybe I could squeeze in there with Jessica if the rest of you morph something small, but it's not designed –"

The ship suddenly jerked sideways wildly. I lost my balance and hurtled into one of the control panels, which was fortunately still disabled, because I pressed all kinds of buttons on my way down.

The lights turned off as I fell, and there were some awful metal-on-metal scraping and banging sounds. It was like the ship was tearing itself apart around us.

There was a lot of screaming, too. I don't remember if I screamed, but I probably would have.

The ship stabilized after a few seconds, and some of the lights turned back on. Not all of them, though. I wasn't sure if it was like the emergency lighting on the mothership, or if some of them were just damaged by the sudden movement.

≺Jordan sounds like she's hurt!≻ Tobias said. I didn't hear her, but a hawk's ears are much better than a human's.

"J-Jordan?!" Rachel yelled in panic, jumping up from where she'd fallen. She almost fell over again immediately and groaned, clearly having hurt herself on her way down from the command seat.

It takes a lot more to stop Rachel, though, especially when she's worried about her sister. She awkwardly stumbled off the bridge. Tobias flew after her.

"Marco, are you okay?" Eva asked as she pulled herself back to her feet.

"Yeah," he groaned.

≺The engines appear to be disabled, now…≻ Ax announced from the back of the ship. Even he sounded a bit shaky, for as far as that's possible with thought-speak. I don't think even he expected the override to be this violent.

≺Guys!≻ Tobias called out. ≺Jordan is stuck under some kind of machinery that came crashing down right through the ceiling panels. She's screaming her head off, but I'm pretty sure she'll be okay if we get it off of her and she morphs. Rachel and I are morphing grizzly and Hork-Bajir to do that right now, but it looks really heavy.≻

≺I will help as well,≻ Ax said. ≺You are in the medical bay, correct?≻

≺Yeah.≻

Eva had returned to the control panels in the meantime, and pushed a couple buttons. A speaker embedded in the control panel came to life, relaying Jordan's panicked wails from the medical bay.

"Do you need more help?" Eva asked.

≺Cassie and the two Hork-Bajir just rushed in to help as well, I think we'll be okay. Just find a way to get us back to Earth. Ax, you too, you're of more help on the bridge. We'll manage with the two Hork-Bajir.≻

"Jake, can you hear me?" Cassie called over the intercom.

"Yeah, are you okay?"

"Y-yeah, I just fell into a wall, I'm fine… I um… I just wanted to add that Ekfis and Jerry are really worried about the state of the ship after what just happened, they said it's not designed to deal with sudden movement like that… They're still in the cell, but they offered to help us deal with any damage and get the ship under control again."

"Even after you told them who we are?"

"Yeah. Both of them want to help, if only to mess with Visser Three."

"I don't trust Ekfis," Marco said. "I think it's stupid we even brought him here. For all we know, he's the one who took over control through that thought-link thing, and is now trying to get to engineering to turn the engines back on."

"I really don't get that impression, Marco…"

"He's a Yeerk, Cassie. You can't trust a Yeerk. Period."

"Well, do you have a better idea?" I asked.

"Not yet. But we're not going anywhere anytime soon, so let's not do anything rash."

Ax had rushed back to the front section of the bridge during the discussion, and was scanning along the control panels with all four of his eyes worriedly.

"Ax, what do you think?" I asked.

≺I am not sure. We seem to have stopped with respect to the mothership at a distance of about three of your miles, but many of the ship's internal systems were damaged, and we are still locked out.≻

≺Hmm,≻ Erek said. ≺I'm afraid I'm not sure what to do, either. I know a lot less about Visser One's Blade ship than –≻

Ax interrupted him. ≺Prince Jake, it appears that we have also been transmitting a distress signal, and the sensors have picked up that Visser Three's Blade ship just left the primary cargo bay of the mothership. They are heading in our direction.≻

"Terrific," Marco groaned. "Of course Visser Three would be the one to come for us."

"And he's hailing us!" Eva called out.

≺The connection will open momentarily,≻ Ax warned. ≺He will see us unless I disable the camera. Prince Jake?≻

"Do it, Ax!"

I'd figured that by 'disabling' he'd meant pressing a button somewhere, but he wasn't that subtle. He grabbed Eva's Dracon beam and fired at a tiny panel just above the middle window.

It didn't stand a chance, and instantly exploded into a cloud of fiery smoke. It left a hole much deeper than I'd expected the hull to be thick judging by the windows, but apparently those windows were actually just really convincing displays. The middle display flickered, and started showing swaths of impossible colors near where the Dracon beam had hit.

Just a second later, the displays lit up to show a view of Visser Three's Blade ship's bridge. Or they tried to, anyway. They showed most of Visser Three's head and body in bright shades of green and pink. It almost made him look funny, or at least not as dangerous as he actually was. But Visser Three was nothing to sneeze at.

"Visser One, it appears that you are having some trouble with your ship," he said in an electronic voice. His ship must have been translating his thought-speak into normal speech.

If it weren't for the sparking noises coming from the damaged panel, you could've heard a pin drop. I think every one of us was holding their breath. Even Jordan had quieted down over the intercom.

"Perhaps one of your servants decided to end your reign of madness before you could fully betray the Empire?" he added.

"What are you talking about?" Eva said. She looked terrified, but still managed to sound somewhat confident.

"I am not a fool, Visser One. Your careless attempt to steal project six-five-three's research material for yourself has not gone unnoticed."

"Well, neither has yours. The Council will certainly hear of your attempts to spy on the project after control was rightfully handed over to me."

"By all means, do inform them. It will only strengthen my case, as I have already informed them that I have the data backed up on my Blade ship. They commended me for doing so after I reported your transgressions, and are currently in deliberation over stripping you of your rank entirely, on multiple counts of treason and conspiracy."

"Th-that is preposterous!"

"Is it. We shall see. I would advise against trying to leave. I might just interpret that as an act of aggression."

Visser Three and his bridge disappeared from the screens.