Visser One Again
(Author's note; A sequel to "The hidden cube", which follows "the plan". this is part eight in the series.)
"Marco?" Jake whispered. He prodded gently at his friends shoulder. "Marco! Wake up!"
Marco turned his head away, still sleeping soundly, and didn't notice the people around him. But his hand still held Larynia's.
"It's no use," Tobias said. "He hasn't slept in days." He shrugged. "Neither would I if… well. Let him sleep."
Jake nodded.
Rachel shook her head sadly. Her hand was up, rubbing her forehead again.
Tobias smiled. Rachel had just been freed from being a Controller. "Feeling weird?"
"Yeah," she said. "Can't believe he's… gone."
Jake nodded. "Felt the same way. But it goes away."
Then Larynia's eyes opened. The three of them looked down immediately.
Rachel sat down next to the Andalite and smiled. "I'm Rachel," she said. "Look, I…"
But Larynia had close her eyes again. She wasn't getting any better; and no-one could do anything about it. Not without getting that morphing cube that Cassie had hidden so long ago.
Cassie had known where it was. But Jake had killed her. To let her escape infestation after the defeat.
Dizzy… a faint whisper of a Larynia's usually clear voice said. Where's Marco?
"Asleep," Jake said. A stalk-eye, surprisingly clear, swiveled to look up at him.
I am not getting better, am I?
Jake opened his mouth to answer, but wasn't sure what to say. When he made up his mind, Larynia had drifted off into unconsciousness again.
Jake stood silent for a few moments. "We need that cube," he said suddenly, making both Rachel and Tobias flinch from the sudden sound.
Jake straightened up and walked silently away.
"Have you and Theresa made any progress?" Rachel asked.
Theresa was one of the Chee; one who knew a little about morphing cubes. About how to find them.
"No," Tobias replied. "We found the energy beam, but I can't remember how it works. My Yeerk had a nasty habit of letting my mind 'sleep' while he was doing something important. Which means I don't remember it."
"Energy beam," Rachel said, hooking her arm under Tobias's and leaning slightly towards him. They started walking away as well, leaving the sleeping Marco and Larynia alone. "I'm sorry, I know nothing… I don't think I do, anyway. But I'll give it some thought."
Ax felt his eyes opening. His mind was forced awake by Ilriss, the Yeerk.
Your time ends today, he said silently, ignoring that the Yeerk wanted to tell him something.
Not if I can help it, Ilriss replied. He made Ax's tail tug at the ropes, but only with the effect of pulling his arms painfully upwards.
The tail could easily pull hard enough to break the arms. But that would leave the blade sheathed and tied to broken arms instead of whole arms. It wasn't worth it.
You can't, Ax said. He could see that he was still in that cave. Hork-Bajir and humans - all of them free, Ax knew - guarded the entrance. Half-asleep dogs, lying in the shade under a nearby tree, kept an eye on them all. The camp was full of dogs. If he escaped the cave, he wouldn't escape the camp.
Ax's hands were tied to the sheath of his blade, behind his back, his front legs were locked together, and that collar around his neck was still attached securely by a heavy chain to the wall.
It was a very insulting way to treat an Andalite, but very effective. Ax couldn't leave. Which meant that Ilriss, inside Ax's head, couldn't leave either.
You'll starve, Ax said. You know it. Filthy Yeerk.
Ilriss, always fast to punish him harshly for anything similar to an insult, ignored the remark. For the first time. Ax never knew what the Yeerk thought or felt - Ilriss was very skilled at hiding things from his host - but he was very sure that Ilriss was scared. How could he not be?
Rachel is free, Ax continued. Her Yeerk starved yesterday. You'll be dead by noon.
Shut up, slave.
Ax laughed bitterly. His mind was playing, over and over, his life ever since Ilriss had become his dictating master. Yes, he agreed. Slave. For a few more hours…
Ilriss tugged again at the tail. He pulled at the collar. He wriggled Ax's front legs, trying to free them.
He failed.
Theresa pointed down. "There!" she said. "That's it."
Tobias nodded. But as his eyes searched the area for anything familiar, he grew uncertain. "It doesn't look like it…" he said. The spot was bathed in sunlight, but it was impossible to compare to how it had looked…
"No," Rachel agreed. "But that's the place of the battle. The place of the defeat." She laughed bitterly. "Visser One ripped it apart looking for that escafil device. I don't think we'll find anything."
"Possible," Tobias said darkly. He halted the camo-bug in mid air and let it hover. "But he doesn't know how to look."
"I hope I'm wrong," Rachel added quickly. "But…" she shrugged, leaving the sentence unfinished.
"I know," he said. "Theresa, you've got the energy beam?"
"Yeah," Theresa said, biting her lip - or making her hologram project the picture of her biting her lip. "Do you think it'll work?"
"Maybe. We're landing." And Tobias made the camo-bug lower itself downwards, slowly.
As it landed, Rachel opened the door and leaped out. She was holding a dracon, and as she inspected the area closest to the camo-bug she kept it ready.
"Safe," she called.
Tobias switched the controls to stand by and made sure his mental link to it was working. Then he helped Theresa carry out the energy beam - even though any Chee could have carried the weight alone, the thing was very clumsy to carry after it had been modified.
"Now then," he said, as they set it down on the ground. "This thing will show up on every sensor within miles, if we're unlucky. If so, we're outta here. Jake told me not to take any chances."
Theresa looked over the switches and then her hologram flickered away.
"I hope this works," she said.
"Me, too."
Theresa, now a dog-like android of metal and patches of white, opened a small hatch on the smooth surface of the original part of the energy beam. She put her hand in it, connected a few wires to her fingers, and nodded.
"You know what type of energy it is?" Tobias asked worriedly. "You can duplicate it? Can you program this thing?"
"I think so," said Theresa. "We've been over this. Let's try it before it's too late."
Rachel kept an eye on their surroundings. She nodded as Theresa spoke. She, if anyone there, knew very well how closely the Yeerks watched that specific place.
"And if you can't, then just search all energies and you'll have to recognize the morphing energy yourself."
"I remember, Tobias," the Chee said. "I'm an android. I don't do forgetting."
Tobias grimaced. "I know. It's just that Marco will have my hide if we return without that cube."
Then he flicked a button and the energy beam switched on. A soft buzzing was heard, that gradually grew louder and louder.
"Here goes nothing," Tobias muttered.
Rachel kept an eye on the quickly darkening sky. Hours had gone by. She was getting bored. Theresa stood with a look of concentration on her face - or would have if androids could have displayed feelings on their face, that is - and Tobias was busy watching the screen and running up to the camo-bug to check the area with those scanners.
Nothing was happening. She threw her dracon into the air and caught it in one hand. Having nothing else to do, she tossed it up again. At the horizon the sun was disappearing in a display of colours. The red clouds didn't reflect the beauty of a sunset as the white ones had before the defeat, but the sun itself was the same brilliant streak of yellow and orange and red.
Tobias pulled his gaze from the screen on the energy beam and walked again up towards the camo-bug.
"Getting anywhere?" Rachel asked Theresa.
"I've got a faint reading of an unknown energy not far away," the Chee replied. "Could be it. I'm trying to focus this thing better."
Rachel nodded. She watched the horizon again, seeing the last of the sun sinking out of sight.
Tobias's head appeared in the doorway of the camo-bug.
"Hurry!" he snapped. "Yeerks coming!"
Rachel sprang to her feet. "Where?"
"West," Tobias said. "Don't know how many. Theresa, we're leaving!"
But the Chee didn't move. "Not now, I've almost got it! How much time?"
"Three minutes, maybe less." Tobias grabbed a shovel from inside the camo-bug and threw it to Rachel. He took another for himself and leapt out. "Where is it?"
"Nineteen, maybe twenty meters straight that way," Theresa said and pointed. "Or something like that. It's not too far under…a wonder they didn't find it…"
Rachel rushed off in the given direction and started digging. Tobias looked at the screen briefly, frowning, counting the given numbers quickly in his head and trying to estimate the energy in a way that Kelrok had done often, but he himself never known how.
"Go dig," Theresa said. "I'm getting a positive here, and it looks more and more like morphing energy."
"How do you know?"
"I'm comparing it to the energy coming from you and Rachel. Dig!"
Tobias ran up to Rachel and shoved the shovel as deep as he could into the ground. Digging in the dry, cracked ground seemed almost pointless. It was hard work, almost impossible to do much more than scrape the surface… and it seemed especially so when he knew they were low on time.
"Try a decimeter to the left," Theresa called. "It's a meter below, maybe only a half."
Tobias shifted the spot for digging and saw Rachel do the same. They took turns digging at the spot, ripping the ground up as fast as possible.
"I'm sensing bug fighters energy coming fast!" Theresa warned.
"How many?" Rachel asked. She fingered the dracon at her belt, making Tobias take an extra turn of digging.
"Two."
"If we're in the camo-bug, two won't be a problem," Tobias reasoned. "On the ground…"
"We're dead," Rachel finished. She took a deep breath. She squinted in the darkness towards the camo-bug and Theresa by the energy beam. "I'm just spending my first day of freedom in years. I'm not intending to get caught now."
"Conclusion?"
"Dig faster."
"Of course," Tobias said, and pushed the shovel down deep again.
The small pit in the ground grew deeper and deeper - slowly. Hurried on by the knowledge of the coming bug fighters, the hole was half a meter deep by the time Theresa cried out that they may be down to seconds. Then she added that they must be very close by then - and that the thing was an escafil device.
"I'm sure it's it," she said. "So now we have no choice. We have to get it out."
"What do you mean, no choice?" Tobias snapped. "Of course we have a choice!"
"No we don't," Rachel said. "If we leave now, the Yeerks will se we've dug here. They'll wonder why, and dig on deeper. And then they'll get the stupid cube. We leave with it, Tobias, or not at all. The Yeerks aren't getting the cube. NEVER."
Rachel and Tobias kept digging, this time even faster. For they could see the lights of the bug fighters closing in, preparing to land not far away.
"I'll dig," Rachel said finally. "You help Theresa get the energy beam into the camo-bug. Hurry!"
Tobias gave her a look to make sure she was certain, and when she nodded, he darted away.
"We're finished with this," he told Theresa and threw the shovel into the camo-bug. He pulled her hand out of the hatch, and together they lifted the clumsy thing and carried it - slower than wanted - towards the camo-bug. When they had lifted it up completely (and Theresa had turned her hologram back on) Tobias glanced towards the bug fighters.
They had landed; people were coming out. From the way they moved; Hork-Bajir.
"Can you fly this thing?" he asked the android and received a quick nod. "Good, power her up - quickly!"
Then Tobias turned back towards the fanatically digging Rachel and called; "Rach! We're leaving!"
He could see Rachel drop down on all fours and dig in the put with her fingers. "I found it!" she called triumphantly.
"Good," Tobias replied. "cause the Yeerks are meters away!"
And maybe a hundred meter or so away, the Hork-Bajir were closing in. There were a dozen of them! Too many. Too many!
Tobias looked at Rachel as she stood up, clutching something tightly, and began running.
"Systems powered!" Theresa announced. "Weapons almost ready… oh, gosh - I can't use those anyway! I'm non-violent!"
"Hurry!" Tobias called again.
Rachel fell. She tripped over a root and fell forwards, landing on her face.
She had dropped the cube. Tobias took the few steps towards her, pulled her to her feet and hissed at her to get into the camo-bug.
Then he bent down and picked up the escafil device.
It was in his hand. All that power, and a symbol for more. The escafil device was finally theirs! They'd save Larynia. Go back in time, convince the Andalites… They were going to undo the defeat!
He breathed an order at himself. "Now. Quickly. Camo-bug. Go."
Tobias straightened. He heard the camo-bug buzzing softly behind him as it rose a meter or so into the air. He heard Rachel call for him to hurry.
He lifted his face.
Hello, Animorph, a familiar voice hissed. We meet again.
"Visser One!" Tobias gasped. How had he gotten there?
Yes, I believe so. Visser One got something deadly in his eye. He readied his tail. He held out his hand. Give me the escafil device.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Author's note;
Oooooooh, I like this... hehe.
(Author's note; A sequel to "The hidden cube", which follows "the plan". this is part eight in the series.)
"Marco?" Jake whispered. He prodded gently at his friends shoulder. "Marco! Wake up!"
Marco turned his head away, still sleeping soundly, and didn't notice the people around him. But his hand still held Larynia's.
"It's no use," Tobias said. "He hasn't slept in days." He shrugged. "Neither would I if… well. Let him sleep."
Jake nodded.
Rachel shook her head sadly. Her hand was up, rubbing her forehead again.
Tobias smiled. Rachel had just been freed from being a Controller. "Feeling weird?"
"Yeah," she said. "Can't believe he's… gone."
Jake nodded. "Felt the same way. But it goes away."
Then Larynia's eyes opened. The three of them looked down immediately.
Rachel sat down next to the Andalite and smiled. "I'm Rachel," she said. "Look, I…"
But Larynia had close her eyes again. She wasn't getting any better; and no-one could do anything about it. Not without getting that morphing cube that Cassie had hidden so long ago.
Cassie had known where it was. But Jake had killed her. To let her escape infestation after the defeat.
Dizzy… a faint whisper of a Larynia's usually clear voice said. Where's Marco?
"Asleep," Jake said. A stalk-eye, surprisingly clear, swiveled to look up at him.
I am not getting better, am I?
Jake opened his mouth to answer, but wasn't sure what to say. When he made up his mind, Larynia had drifted off into unconsciousness again.
Jake stood silent for a few moments. "We need that cube," he said suddenly, making both Rachel and Tobias flinch from the sudden sound.
Jake straightened up and walked silently away.
"Have you and Theresa made any progress?" Rachel asked.
Theresa was one of the Chee; one who knew a little about morphing cubes. About how to find them.
"No," Tobias replied. "We found the energy beam, but I can't remember how it works. My Yeerk had a nasty habit of letting my mind 'sleep' while he was doing something important. Which means I don't remember it."
"Energy beam," Rachel said, hooking her arm under Tobias's and leaning slightly towards him. They started walking away as well, leaving the sleeping Marco and Larynia alone. "I'm sorry, I know nothing… I don't think I do, anyway. But I'll give it some thought."
Ax felt his eyes opening. His mind was forced awake by Ilriss, the Yeerk.
Your time ends today, he said silently, ignoring that the Yeerk wanted to tell him something.
Not if I can help it, Ilriss replied. He made Ax's tail tug at the ropes, but only with the effect of pulling his arms painfully upwards.
The tail could easily pull hard enough to break the arms. But that would leave the blade sheathed and tied to broken arms instead of whole arms. It wasn't worth it.
You can't, Ax said. He could see that he was still in that cave. Hork-Bajir and humans - all of them free, Ax knew - guarded the entrance. Half-asleep dogs, lying in the shade under a nearby tree, kept an eye on them all. The camp was full of dogs. If he escaped the cave, he wouldn't escape the camp.
Ax's hands were tied to the sheath of his blade, behind his back, his front legs were locked together, and that collar around his neck was still attached securely by a heavy chain to the wall.
It was a very insulting way to treat an Andalite, but very effective. Ax couldn't leave. Which meant that Ilriss, inside Ax's head, couldn't leave either.
You'll starve, Ax said. You know it. Filthy Yeerk.
Ilriss, always fast to punish him harshly for anything similar to an insult, ignored the remark. For the first time. Ax never knew what the Yeerk thought or felt - Ilriss was very skilled at hiding things from his host - but he was very sure that Ilriss was scared. How could he not be?
Rachel is free, Ax continued. Her Yeerk starved yesterday. You'll be dead by noon.
Shut up, slave.
Ax laughed bitterly. His mind was playing, over and over, his life ever since Ilriss had become his dictating master. Yes, he agreed. Slave. For a few more hours…
Ilriss tugged again at the tail. He pulled at the collar. He wriggled Ax's front legs, trying to free them.
He failed.
Theresa pointed down. "There!" she said. "That's it."
Tobias nodded. But as his eyes searched the area for anything familiar, he grew uncertain. "It doesn't look like it…" he said. The spot was bathed in sunlight, but it was impossible to compare to how it had looked…
"No," Rachel agreed. "But that's the place of the battle. The place of the defeat." She laughed bitterly. "Visser One ripped it apart looking for that escafil device. I don't think we'll find anything."
"Possible," Tobias said darkly. He halted the camo-bug in mid air and let it hover. "But he doesn't know how to look."
"I hope I'm wrong," Rachel added quickly. "But…" she shrugged, leaving the sentence unfinished.
"I know," he said. "Theresa, you've got the energy beam?"
"Yeah," Theresa said, biting her lip - or making her hologram project the picture of her biting her lip. "Do you think it'll work?"
"Maybe. We're landing." And Tobias made the camo-bug lower itself downwards, slowly.
As it landed, Rachel opened the door and leaped out. She was holding a dracon, and as she inspected the area closest to the camo-bug she kept it ready.
"Safe," she called.
Tobias switched the controls to stand by and made sure his mental link to it was working. Then he helped Theresa carry out the energy beam - even though any Chee could have carried the weight alone, the thing was very clumsy to carry after it had been modified.
"Now then," he said, as they set it down on the ground. "This thing will show up on every sensor within miles, if we're unlucky. If so, we're outta here. Jake told me not to take any chances."
Theresa looked over the switches and then her hologram flickered away.
"I hope this works," she said.
"Me, too."
Theresa, now a dog-like android of metal and patches of white, opened a small hatch on the smooth surface of the original part of the energy beam. She put her hand in it, connected a few wires to her fingers, and nodded.
"You know what type of energy it is?" Tobias asked worriedly. "You can duplicate it? Can you program this thing?"
"I think so," said Theresa. "We've been over this. Let's try it before it's too late."
Rachel kept an eye on their surroundings. She nodded as Theresa spoke. She, if anyone there, knew very well how closely the Yeerks watched that specific place.
"And if you can't, then just search all energies and you'll have to recognize the morphing energy yourself."
"I remember, Tobias," the Chee said. "I'm an android. I don't do forgetting."
Tobias grimaced. "I know. It's just that Marco will have my hide if we return without that cube."
Then he flicked a button and the energy beam switched on. A soft buzzing was heard, that gradually grew louder and louder.
"Here goes nothing," Tobias muttered.
Rachel kept an eye on the quickly darkening sky. Hours had gone by. She was getting bored. Theresa stood with a look of concentration on her face - or would have if androids could have displayed feelings on their face, that is - and Tobias was busy watching the screen and running up to the camo-bug to check the area with those scanners.
Nothing was happening. She threw her dracon into the air and caught it in one hand. Having nothing else to do, she tossed it up again. At the horizon the sun was disappearing in a display of colours. The red clouds didn't reflect the beauty of a sunset as the white ones had before the defeat, but the sun itself was the same brilliant streak of yellow and orange and red.
Tobias pulled his gaze from the screen on the energy beam and walked again up towards the camo-bug.
"Getting anywhere?" Rachel asked Theresa.
"I've got a faint reading of an unknown energy not far away," the Chee replied. "Could be it. I'm trying to focus this thing better."
Rachel nodded. She watched the horizon again, seeing the last of the sun sinking out of sight.
Tobias's head appeared in the doorway of the camo-bug.
"Hurry!" he snapped. "Yeerks coming!"
Rachel sprang to her feet. "Where?"
"West," Tobias said. "Don't know how many. Theresa, we're leaving!"
But the Chee didn't move. "Not now, I've almost got it! How much time?"
"Three minutes, maybe less." Tobias grabbed a shovel from inside the camo-bug and threw it to Rachel. He took another for himself and leapt out. "Where is it?"
"Nineteen, maybe twenty meters straight that way," Theresa said and pointed. "Or something like that. It's not too far under…a wonder they didn't find it…"
Rachel rushed off in the given direction and started digging. Tobias looked at the screen briefly, frowning, counting the given numbers quickly in his head and trying to estimate the energy in a way that Kelrok had done often, but he himself never known how.
"Go dig," Theresa said. "I'm getting a positive here, and it looks more and more like morphing energy."
"How do you know?"
"I'm comparing it to the energy coming from you and Rachel. Dig!"
Tobias ran up to Rachel and shoved the shovel as deep as he could into the ground. Digging in the dry, cracked ground seemed almost pointless. It was hard work, almost impossible to do much more than scrape the surface… and it seemed especially so when he knew they were low on time.
"Try a decimeter to the left," Theresa called. "It's a meter below, maybe only a half."
Tobias shifted the spot for digging and saw Rachel do the same. They took turns digging at the spot, ripping the ground up as fast as possible.
"I'm sensing bug fighters energy coming fast!" Theresa warned.
"How many?" Rachel asked. She fingered the dracon at her belt, making Tobias take an extra turn of digging.
"Two."
"If we're in the camo-bug, two won't be a problem," Tobias reasoned. "On the ground…"
"We're dead," Rachel finished. She took a deep breath. She squinted in the darkness towards the camo-bug and Theresa by the energy beam. "I'm just spending my first day of freedom in years. I'm not intending to get caught now."
"Conclusion?"
"Dig faster."
"Of course," Tobias said, and pushed the shovel down deep again.
The small pit in the ground grew deeper and deeper - slowly. Hurried on by the knowledge of the coming bug fighters, the hole was half a meter deep by the time Theresa cried out that they may be down to seconds. Then she added that they must be very close by then - and that the thing was an escafil device.
"I'm sure it's it," she said. "So now we have no choice. We have to get it out."
"What do you mean, no choice?" Tobias snapped. "Of course we have a choice!"
"No we don't," Rachel said. "If we leave now, the Yeerks will se we've dug here. They'll wonder why, and dig on deeper. And then they'll get the stupid cube. We leave with it, Tobias, or not at all. The Yeerks aren't getting the cube. NEVER."
Rachel and Tobias kept digging, this time even faster. For they could see the lights of the bug fighters closing in, preparing to land not far away.
"I'll dig," Rachel said finally. "You help Theresa get the energy beam into the camo-bug. Hurry!"
Tobias gave her a look to make sure she was certain, and when she nodded, he darted away.
"We're finished with this," he told Theresa and threw the shovel into the camo-bug. He pulled her hand out of the hatch, and together they lifted the clumsy thing and carried it - slower than wanted - towards the camo-bug. When they had lifted it up completely (and Theresa had turned her hologram back on) Tobias glanced towards the bug fighters.
They had landed; people were coming out. From the way they moved; Hork-Bajir.
"Can you fly this thing?" he asked the android and received a quick nod. "Good, power her up - quickly!"
Then Tobias turned back towards the fanatically digging Rachel and called; "Rach! We're leaving!"
He could see Rachel drop down on all fours and dig in the put with her fingers. "I found it!" she called triumphantly.
"Good," Tobias replied. "cause the Yeerks are meters away!"
And maybe a hundred meter or so away, the Hork-Bajir were closing in. There were a dozen of them! Too many. Too many!
Tobias looked at Rachel as she stood up, clutching something tightly, and began running.
"Systems powered!" Theresa announced. "Weapons almost ready… oh, gosh - I can't use those anyway! I'm non-violent!"
"Hurry!" Tobias called again.
Rachel fell. She tripped over a root and fell forwards, landing on her face.
She had dropped the cube. Tobias took the few steps towards her, pulled her to her feet and hissed at her to get into the camo-bug.
Then he bent down and picked up the escafil device.
It was in his hand. All that power, and a symbol for more. The escafil device was finally theirs! They'd save Larynia. Go back in time, convince the Andalites… They were going to undo the defeat!
He breathed an order at himself. "Now. Quickly. Camo-bug. Go."
Tobias straightened. He heard the camo-bug buzzing softly behind him as it rose a meter or so into the air. He heard Rachel call for him to hurry.
He lifted his face.
Hello, Animorph, a familiar voice hissed. We meet again.
"Visser One!" Tobias gasped. How had he gotten there?
Yes, I believe so. Visser One got something deadly in his eye. He readied his tail. He held out his hand. Give me the escafil device.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Author's note;
Oooooooh, I like this... hehe.
