Chapter 20

Marco

There was no way I was going to be able to sleep.

We were in Z-space once again, this time heading for the Yeerks' home planet. The idea was a little frightening, but there was way more positive emotion about it than I thought there'd be. As 'enlightened' warriors, I guess we were supposed to be above the idea of revenge. I savored it, though. For years, those slugs had terrorized us on our own turf. They were the aggressors, we were the weak little humans mounting the bravest defense we could. We beat them, a real-life David verses Goliath. After so much fear and suffering, I'd thought I was finally going to be able to give it a rest. Then come the Kelbrid – but that was different. I actually had a choice to fight, and I have no doubt that I chose correctly. Maybe it was out of gratitude to the Andalites, maybe it was just to do what I could to keep my friends safe; whatever the reason, there was something right about leaving my home and defending the 'good guys.'

By now, the Andalite and Earth space forces had to be nearly decimated. The Kelbrid were effectively stopped – that was the mission. We didn't want it to happen like it did, but if that was the end of it, it would be worth it. We could rebuild, get on with our lives.

But no. The Yeerks in general, and Harvis in particular, couldn't leave us in peace. I had no doubt in my mind that as soon as they had the ability to do so, they would first target Earth, then the Andalites. I don't know what made me so sure Earth would be the first on their list, but I just had a feeling. A strong one. Because they've never been thwarted before, I thought. Sure, the Andalites hurt them, slowed them down at times. But before Earth, they'd never had a real defeat. Never had a species they wanted to take deny them. I knew enough about Yeerks to know they weren't going to take that lying down, not if they had a second crack at it. And we gave Harvis that chance. Wrapped it up in a pretty bow for him.

Despite all these racing thoughts, I guess I fell asleep. Exhaustion can do amazing things to a person. Next thing I knew, a loud but gentle noise was echoing around the room I was sleeping in. It sounded like a really annoying alarm clock, and for a moment I thought I was back home, on Earth. Several thought-speech shouts pulled me out of the half-dream, and I bolted off of my mat.

On the bridge, it was chaos. Jake was on the communicator, shouting orders. Ax and Dron were talking urgently, not bothering to keep their thought-speech private. I saw constellations through the viewport, and as I watched, they were eclipsed by a bug fighter screaming by, so close to us I could have sworn I heard the sound of metal on metal.

"What the hell's going on?" I shouted, more than three-quarters awake now. "I thought we were in Z-space!"

"We had to stop to plot around a small Z-space rift. I don't know what happened – there were bug fighters waiting for us when we came out of Z-space. I don't know what happened," Cassie kept saying. A Dracon blast rocked our ship, and the lights dimmed for a second.

(We're running on auxiliary power, Prince Aximili!) Dron yelled. (I'm going to try to get us into formation with the Taruffs!) The starfield rotated so rapidly it made me dizzy, and for a moment, my feet left the ground. (Artificial gravity is on the fritz! Hold on, everyone!)

When I looked up again, we were only a short distance away from a big, oval-shaped Taruff ship I recognized as Amni'bel's Royal-class cruiser. The cannons on her ship, seemingly pointed straight at us, began doing their weird, bubble-in-sunlight effect. I ducked reflexively, like that would do any good. Three of the energy spheres screamed past our hull. For a moment, I'd thought they'd hit us – the ship rocked twice, and the artificial gravity and lights cut out again, longer this time.

(Two bug fighters off our tail! Cassie, check the scanners. Where are the rest?) Ax demanded.

"I don't know! I'm not seeing any more," she said anxiously. Ax pulled up a sensor grid of his own, and after rapidly scanning it, settled back on his haunches.

(I think that was all of them, the whole ambush,) he said. (How did they know? How is Harvis reading us so easily?)

"I don't know, Ax-man, but I think this makes it pretty clear that our element of surprise is gone," Tobias said. That was one thing we were counting on – the Yeerks wouldn't be expecting us to jet straight for their planet. This ambush made it obvious that they'd already anticipated our move.

While the Andalites tried to get all of the ship's functions back to normal and Rachel complained about the slow charge time of the lasers on the ship, I gestured to Jake to let me use the communicator. I keyed it for a broad-band transmission. "Hey Lok, you still out there?"

"Ta-tu," he replied almost instantly, and I let go the breath I didn't realize I'd been holding. "Three honorable kills for me."

"Nice work, man. I'd give anything to have a fighter here, to be out there with you," I said truthfully. There was nothing worse than being shot at without a way to defend yourself.

Lok grunted. "Dock with the princess' ship. Your Mako fighter is on board."

I let that rattle around my brain twice, and I still didn't comprehend. "What are you talking about? I watched that thing crash and burn on the Trunsk home world!"

He grunted again, longer and more deeply – a Taruff laugh. "Not the same fighter. Same design. Our engineers had the schematics from when they modified our own fighters. The princess had an exact replica built in your honor. It was supposed to be placed in the Royal Courtyard as a monument to your bravery, but when she knew we would be fighting together again, she brought it."

"Nice! I'll be right over!" Ax started toward Amni'bel's ship without me having to ask, but before I could say more, Rachel took the microphone from me.

"Lok! It's Rachel. Please tell me you brought me one, too. I am so sick of being a sitting duck."

"I am sorry, sun-hair. There is only one." The big guy sounded upset. "You know that I would be honored to fly with you."

Rachel looked disappointed, but she let him off the hook. "That's all right, Lok. Don't feel bad. Someday soon, we'll fly together again."

I gave her a sideways look. "How come you're only nice to Lok?"

"Because he's so much cuter than you," she shot back, mock-sweetly.

I was about to get her back with a comment about blue babies with blond hair, but Ax cut me off. (Prince Jake, the battle has knocked out our Z-space drive. I do not think it is repairable, even if we had the proper equipment. Which we do not.)

"That's okay. I'm sure Amni'bel has room on her ship for us. Personally, I'm tired of this thing, anyway," Jake said. Nobody argued with him – I knew I, for one, was sick of sleeping on the floor.

Tobias said something quietly to Jake. I didn't catch much of it, but I distinctly heard the word 'Kandrona.' I heard Jake's reply. "We'll talk about it once we get aboard Amni'bel's ship. We have to regroup anyway; not that we had much of a plan to begin with, but this changes everything." He said something else, but his voice faded as I walked toward my 'room.' I was anxious to gather my few personal belongings and get off this ship. The poo-bot scurried between my feet, almost tripping me, and I cursed. The sooner, the better I thought to myself.