CHAPTER 10: The Singularity Era
Aurana
As much as I hated to admit it, I was beginning to enjoy being with Aximili. I don't know why, there was just this peaceful, simplistic, understanding feeling to it all. He wasn't obstinate or contemptuous as I expected most disdainful Andalites to be.
A quiet silence filled the room, and both of us looked out the door of the shed, each thinking our solitary thoughts.
The trees swayed in the wind and a cold updraft filtered into the room. The sun had already reached its highest point in the sky and began to descend down on the horizon. The sky, a light blue, grew darker. It was around the time of Earth's year where days become shorter and nights seemingly longer.
Wildflowers shot up from the ground in patches around ancient trees, either lushly green or a fiery red, orange, and yellow blend creating the illusion of a tree ablaze.
Beyond the trees and into the sky I could faintly see a crescent moon hang, bursting in a luminous white light that was relatively invisible until nightfall.
"Aximili," my voice broke the silence, "is your planet as beautiful as this?"
Aximili gazed out to the scenery awhile. My planet is much more sophisticated, he said at first, then but not so diverse in it's biological nature. Everything is very different here, new and bright and deviant. On my planet there are little oceans and major ecosystem differentiations. Hardly any mountains, but we do have hills, though more grassland than anything else. Our flowers are much different, ranging from ones that grow taller than humans and dark, deep colors, to ones smaller than blades of grass, almost in crystal like colors, such as blue zircon or aqua...
I sat back and closed my eyes, imagining this planet of Aximili's. Putting an imprint in my mind, and putting myself there, freed me from this despicable fate I faced.
What about your planet? Aximili tore me from my thoughts.
I snapped back to reality and turned to look at him. I shook my head. "You would never want to go there. It is dark and filthy. Yeerk pools are everywhere, and where there are no Yeerk pools, little environment is actually growing. Some animals inhabit there... but it is simple, crude, and dim. In a couple places, there are landscapes larger than some of the Earth's states that are made up of nothing but hard, rocky ground so strong it cannot be perforated so as to create new Yeerk pools. The sun tries to burn through the thickly overcast sky, but somehow rarely penetrating it. It is gloomy and depressing, and everyone's thoughts there are bent on someday receiving legitimate hosts and being able to travel the stars to some planet and actually become something important."
How dismal.
"Truly. You're lucky to even be able to see the stars at night. On my planet we are accustomed to Kyrath Leiyt Xyrak. The Singularity Era. It is one day in a year where our sun and two moons align, creating a sort of beam which penetrates through the clouded sky and gives us a view of three surrounding planets and three point four million stars."
That is at least something nice... correct?
"Last year that day was the worst day of my life," I admitted. "That night, two point three thousand Yeerks, five complete Yeerk pools, were chosen to board a ship and be transported to planets the Yeerks either have taken over, or are planning to take over. Such as this one. Since we are... blind in our natural state, I was not able to see it."
There are others currently being conquered by Yeerks?
"Not now... the Yeerk Empire is trying to focus all of its' power to this one considering it has such a large population. But for every human there are three Yeerks unassigned to a host. The Yeerk Empire is hoping to change that very soon..."
And if the Yeerks win over this species?
I felt this as a downhearted approach to the question. As if there was no hope. As if it was to be expected. I gave a downhearted, but truthful, answer.
"They plan to use the humans to conquer other species. Many others. Until they are able to conquer a species capable of defeating your people," In seeing Aximili begin to grow angry and decided to change the subject. "Let us talk about something else. Something... less depressing."
Such as...?
We ended up in a heated discussion of whether or not a human could become a Prince/Visser sometime in the near future, when a bear ambled in.
Hello Rachiliett, Aximili said.
Hello Aximili, Rachiliett said. We have talked to Erek. He wants to talk to you. It seems we're a go on that plan of yours. Erek says there may be a way to do it; you won't have to do another shift.
Alright.
Good luck.
Goodbye, Aximili stood up and turned to me. Goodbye Aurana.
"Goodbye Aximili," my eyes shined. A thought struck me as I gazed out the door, his leaving in commence.
"I am not going to seem him again, am I?" I asked Rachiliett.
Yes, you are, she said mildly. Tomorrow, when-
"No you don't understand. I will not be alive tomorrow."
Rachiliett bristled. What?
"I was to return to the Yeerk pool tonight. I thought you were planning to starve me."
Rachiliett jumped up. I'll be right back. Don't move.
Apprehensively and glanced back at the pole I was tied to. "I do not believe I could even if I tried."
Half an hour later, after wondering why these bandits cared whether or lived or died, I heard voices outside the shack. I listened in as best I could.
"We've all got to come. As a group. In human morph again. This time we pull sticks to see who gets to be Yeerk."
"This is so stupid. Making us controllers. How low can we go?"
"Marco? Shut up."
"Gladly."
I heard a crunching as if a sound of leaves, and a few seconds of silence.
"No! This is so unfair."
"Deal with it."
"Marco we could trade places if you'd like."
"You're only too kind."
"Yeah maybe you could take up a few hints once in awhile."
"And maybe you could go stick your head in a-"
"Guys quit it. We have a job to do. We don't have all the time in the world."
"Let's go."
"And so the idiotic teenagers with a death wish venture on with the doomed words hanging in the air..."
"Didn't I tell you to shut up?"
"One could only wish."
"Let's do this already."
"Commencing morph..."
Confused and slightly annoyed, I heard no more. Three minutes later when they entered I pretended to be surprised that they had come at all.
Aximili walked over and untied me. I stood up, and leaned on the wall shakily, because I had not been used to walking again yet and my muscles had become cramped.
I looked at them all and found only three. Aximili... and two others I could not place.
One of them, a boy with dark brown hair and eyes, offered a hand to help me back up again.
"We're going to the Yeerk Pool, Aurana. We are still not sure you are in the Movement, thus for the time being you will live. At the pool, do not take an extended amount of time; we will keep your host under surveillance and directly after you are to come back here with us. Cooperate and you will live."
I took the hand and stood up again. "Why are you letting me live?"
This question seemed to take them by surprise. He answered, "We are still not positive that you are in the movement. As well... we believe it would be wrong to take a life without a chance. You and your host seem... close."
"In other words, you are still deciding," I said bluntly.
"Yes," we began to walk out the shed. I stepped in front of him and spoke.
"And you are?"
"Prince Jacobriel. This," he gestured the other Andalite in human morph, "is Caella, I believe you've met her. And you've already met Aximili."
I glanced at Aximili. "Alright... and thank you for showing me this leniency."
I followed them out into the woods. It was so wonderful to be out in the open air again, I realized. I breathed in deep and took everything in at once. I did not stop to think how lenient these Andalites were being toward me. Possibly NeVar, who was a friend of mine in the movement, was correct in his conclusion that they are not as bad as I had judged them to be.
"Enjoying it?" Aximili asked me.
I smiled. "Yes, every second."
"My favorite time of day is sunset. It brings a whole new meaning to the sky. On the Andalite homeworld, things are much different. We have different gases contained in the air and they aren't as beautiful as it is here when those particles burn off."
I looked up into the sky. "A sunset is efficient here yet I believe the time of night is of exceptional quality. While it does remind me so much of Kyrath Leiyt Xyrak, I can see many things from outside my host's bedroom window. Millions and millions of stars... planets often as well. Once I believe I saw my home world, but I could have been mistaken."
A cool breeze blew fresh air and crickets chirped away in unseen hiding places. The sky began to grow dark as we walked along.
"What is Kyrath Leiyt Xyrak?" Caella inquired.
"A certain time on our planet, sort of like a human holiday," I continued with the explanation.
"So what was it like when you first entered your host?" Jacobriel asked when I was finished.
"Awed. I had to force myself to go to sleep the first week I received my host, but even so every evening after I became pretty much used to it, I would do what humans like to call stargazing, searching for familiar stars and planets and such," I smiled at the memory.
"I was like that way when I first came to this planet," Aximili spoke up, "except I was awed at the different types of stars and planets I had not seen before. Earth is nothing of any expectation."
"I agree."
We walked in silence again, but I did not mind it.
It began to become dark as a pink/orange glazed sky swept into a dark, deep, and blue tone as we arrived at the mall. We went inside, and then into The Gap. The Andalites were able to get inside without any trouble, so I figured they had half of their people morph Yeerk and the other half pretended to be the host.
We walked inside and after they assured me I was to be killed if I so much as mentioned their being here, I turned to them. "Stay here. If you go any further they will suspect you are due to get rid of your 'Yeerk'. Ana will come for you."
They stayed and I went, leaning my ear over the Yeerk pool. I closed my eyes as I excited my host and landed, blind and deaf once again, inside the water, soaking up the Kandrona Rays almost instantly.
I tried to clear my mind, but for some reason, couldn't. Always, I seemed to be thinking about something.
And yet my mind told me I was wrong.
Aurana
As much as I hated to admit it, I was beginning to enjoy being with Aximili. I don't know why, there was just this peaceful, simplistic, understanding feeling to it all. He wasn't obstinate or contemptuous as I expected most disdainful Andalites to be.
A quiet silence filled the room, and both of us looked out the door of the shed, each thinking our solitary thoughts.
The trees swayed in the wind and a cold updraft filtered into the room. The sun had already reached its highest point in the sky and began to descend down on the horizon. The sky, a light blue, grew darker. It was around the time of Earth's year where days become shorter and nights seemingly longer.
Wildflowers shot up from the ground in patches around ancient trees, either lushly green or a fiery red, orange, and yellow blend creating the illusion of a tree ablaze.
Beyond the trees and into the sky I could faintly see a crescent moon hang, bursting in a luminous white light that was relatively invisible until nightfall.
"Aximili," my voice broke the silence, "is your planet as beautiful as this?"
Aximili gazed out to the scenery awhile. My planet is much more sophisticated, he said at first, then but not so diverse in it's biological nature. Everything is very different here, new and bright and deviant. On my planet there are little oceans and major ecosystem differentiations. Hardly any mountains, but we do have hills, though more grassland than anything else. Our flowers are much different, ranging from ones that grow taller than humans and dark, deep colors, to ones smaller than blades of grass, almost in crystal like colors, such as blue zircon or aqua...
I sat back and closed my eyes, imagining this planet of Aximili's. Putting an imprint in my mind, and putting myself there, freed me from this despicable fate I faced.
What about your planet? Aximili tore me from my thoughts.
I snapped back to reality and turned to look at him. I shook my head. "You would never want to go there. It is dark and filthy. Yeerk pools are everywhere, and where there are no Yeerk pools, little environment is actually growing. Some animals inhabit there... but it is simple, crude, and dim. In a couple places, there are landscapes larger than some of the Earth's states that are made up of nothing but hard, rocky ground so strong it cannot be perforated so as to create new Yeerk pools. The sun tries to burn through the thickly overcast sky, but somehow rarely penetrating it. It is gloomy and depressing, and everyone's thoughts there are bent on someday receiving legitimate hosts and being able to travel the stars to some planet and actually become something important."
How dismal.
"Truly. You're lucky to even be able to see the stars at night. On my planet we are accustomed to Kyrath Leiyt Xyrak. The Singularity Era. It is one day in a year where our sun and two moons align, creating a sort of beam which penetrates through the clouded sky and gives us a view of three surrounding planets and three point four million stars."
That is at least something nice... correct?
"Last year that day was the worst day of my life," I admitted. "That night, two point three thousand Yeerks, five complete Yeerk pools, were chosen to board a ship and be transported to planets the Yeerks either have taken over, or are planning to take over. Such as this one. Since we are... blind in our natural state, I was not able to see it."
There are others currently being conquered by Yeerks?
"Not now... the Yeerk Empire is trying to focus all of its' power to this one considering it has such a large population. But for every human there are three Yeerks unassigned to a host. The Yeerk Empire is hoping to change that very soon..."
And if the Yeerks win over this species?
I felt this as a downhearted approach to the question. As if there was no hope. As if it was to be expected. I gave a downhearted, but truthful, answer.
"They plan to use the humans to conquer other species. Many others. Until they are able to conquer a species capable of defeating your people," In seeing Aximili begin to grow angry and decided to change the subject. "Let us talk about something else. Something... less depressing."
Such as...?
We ended up in a heated discussion of whether or not a human could become a Prince/Visser sometime in the near future, when a bear ambled in.
Hello Rachiliett, Aximili said.
Hello Aximili, Rachiliett said. We have talked to Erek. He wants to talk to you. It seems we're a go on that plan of yours. Erek says there may be a way to do it; you won't have to do another shift.
Alright.
Good luck.
Goodbye, Aximili stood up and turned to me. Goodbye Aurana.
"Goodbye Aximili," my eyes shined. A thought struck me as I gazed out the door, his leaving in commence.
"I am not going to seem him again, am I?" I asked Rachiliett.
Yes, you are, she said mildly. Tomorrow, when-
"No you don't understand. I will not be alive tomorrow."
Rachiliett bristled. What?
"I was to return to the Yeerk pool tonight. I thought you were planning to starve me."
Rachiliett jumped up. I'll be right back. Don't move.
Apprehensively and glanced back at the pole I was tied to. "I do not believe I could even if I tried."
Half an hour later, after wondering why these bandits cared whether or lived or died, I heard voices outside the shack. I listened in as best I could.
"We've all got to come. As a group. In human morph again. This time we pull sticks to see who gets to be Yeerk."
"This is so stupid. Making us controllers. How low can we go?"
"Marco? Shut up."
"Gladly."
I heard a crunching as if a sound of leaves, and a few seconds of silence.
"No! This is so unfair."
"Deal with it."
"Marco we could trade places if you'd like."
"You're only too kind."
"Yeah maybe you could take up a few hints once in awhile."
"And maybe you could go stick your head in a-"
"Guys quit it. We have a job to do. We don't have all the time in the world."
"Let's go."
"And so the idiotic teenagers with a death wish venture on with the doomed words hanging in the air..."
"Didn't I tell you to shut up?"
"One could only wish."
"Let's do this already."
"Commencing morph..."
Confused and slightly annoyed, I heard no more. Three minutes later when they entered I pretended to be surprised that they had come at all.
Aximili walked over and untied me. I stood up, and leaned on the wall shakily, because I had not been used to walking again yet and my muscles had become cramped.
I looked at them all and found only three. Aximili... and two others I could not place.
One of them, a boy with dark brown hair and eyes, offered a hand to help me back up again.
"We're going to the Yeerk Pool, Aurana. We are still not sure you are in the Movement, thus for the time being you will live. At the pool, do not take an extended amount of time; we will keep your host under surveillance and directly after you are to come back here with us. Cooperate and you will live."
I took the hand and stood up again. "Why are you letting me live?"
This question seemed to take them by surprise. He answered, "We are still not positive that you are in the movement. As well... we believe it would be wrong to take a life without a chance. You and your host seem... close."
"In other words, you are still deciding," I said bluntly.
"Yes," we began to walk out the shed. I stepped in front of him and spoke.
"And you are?"
"Prince Jacobriel. This," he gestured the other Andalite in human morph, "is Caella, I believe you've met her. And you've already met Aximili."
I glanced at Aximili. "Alright... and thank you for showing me this leniency."
I followed them out into the woods. It was so wonderful to be out in the open air again, I realized. I breathed in deep and took everything in at once. I did not stop to think how lenient these Andalites were being toward me. Possibly NeVar, who was a friend of mine in the movement, was correct in his conclusion that they are not as bad as I had judged them to be.
"Enjoying it?" Aximili asked me.
I smiled. "Yes, every second."
"My favorite time of day is sunset. It brings a whole new meaning to the sky. On the Andalite homeworld, things are much different. We have different gases contained in the air and they aren't as beautiful as it is here when those particles burn off."
I looked up into the sky. "A sunset is efficient here yet I believe the time of night is of exceptional quality. While it does remind me so much of Kyrath Leiyt Xyrak, I can see many things from outside my host's bedroom window. Millions and millions of stars... planets often as well. Once I believe I saw my home world, but I could have been mistaken."
A cool breeze blew fresh air and crickets chirped away in unseen hiding places. The sky began to grow dark as we walked along.
"What is Kyrath Leiyt Xyrak?" Caella inquired.
"A certain time on our planet, sort of like a human holiday," I continued with the explanation.
"So what was it like when you first entered your host?" Jacobriel asked when I was finished.
"Awed. I had to force myself to go to sleep the first week I received my host, but even so every evening after I became pretty much used to it, I would do what humans like to call stargazing, searching for familiar stars and planets and such," I smiled at the memory.
"I was like that way when I first came to this planet," Aximili spoke up, "except I was awed at the different types of stars and planets I had not seen before. Earth is nothing of any expectation."
"I agree."
We walked in silence again, but I did not mind it.
It began to become dark as a pink/orange glazed sky swept into a dark, deep, and blue tone as we arrived at the mall. We went inside, and then into The Gap. The Andalites were able to get inside without any trouble, so I figured they had half of their people morph Yeerk and the other half pretended to be the host.
We walked inside and after they assured me I was to be killed if I so much as mentioned their being here, I turned to them. "Stay here. If you go any further they will suspect you are due to get rid of your 'Yeerk'. Ana will come for you."
They stayed and I went, leaning my ear over the Yeerk pool. I closed my eyes as I excited my host and landed, blind and deaf once again, inside the water, soaking up the Kandrona Rays almost instantly.
I tried to clear my mind, but for some reason, couldn't. Always, I seemed to be thinking about something.
And yet my mind told me I was wrong.
