THE FORCE
ABOARD THE HUMAN MOTHER SHIP PLANET
EARTH
STANDARD HMS TIME: 14:11
DATE: 04/06/2020
LOCATION: PRESERVE SECTOR A-214
LYNN
"I
suppose it's weird." I said. "There are a lot of things going on at the
same time."
"What
do you mean?" Jordan asked.
I
looked up at her and nodded at the animorphs, they were playing around near a
nearby waterhole. I suppose they have a lot of talking to do, now that they were
out of danger. A sem-i was with them, Shrag I think, he was answering
questions Cassie had for him. I've been told that she has an eye out for
wildlife. She was asking him about the preserves.
"Well,
mom passed away I've got a new sister and you found yours as well as a
cousin…"
"That."
She said quietly. She seemed distracted.
"It
must be strange," I said.
"What
is?"
"Your
older sister being younger than you." I said with a smile, "You wake up in
the morning and they tell you; guess what? You have a younger sister."
"But
she used to be older than me."
"Not
much older, now she's younger than you, but not by much. What changed?"
She
shrugged, "It's like she's back from the dead."
"You
talked to her?"
"Yes
I did."
"It's
not that bad." I said, "At least she's alive, you thought you lost her."
"It
was hard explaining Sarah and mom and dad. They're dead for sure."
"You
thought Rachel was dead for sure."
She
shrugged again, "I don't know Lynn…" She looked into my face curiously,
"You seem to get better every day."
"I'm
past my confusion." I said quietly.
What
a joke, past my confusion, I was much more confused than ever, now instead of
listing to the voices in my head I've got a bunch of Sasi's dictating
every move I should make, my life had gone rapidly down hill.
"I'm
glad to hear that." She said.
"Is
she anything like you?" I asked.
"Who
Rachel? No." She said, she smiled and leaned against a tree, she watched her
with distanced eyes. "She's been reckless, brave, nowhere near responsible.
But determined. Like our cousin."
"Like
you even."
"It
runs in our family." She said.
"Something
tells me this isn't what's keeping you busy."
She
looked at me and I saw a beginning of a smile tug at her lips, but it left just
as fast as it came.
"Well?"
I asked, swatting away a few flies.
"Well
back when I didn't know a thing about the war and Rachel was still the eldest,
she used to come back home in a bad mood, her tongue sharp and her
tolerance…well there was no tolerance, anyway, that's not it, at times Marco
would drop by and…"
"And?"
I pushed.
"Well."
She said blushing, "At that time I thought he was cute and…oh, I don't
know."
"You
like him?" I suggested.
"But
I'm older than him."
"So
what?" I said, "You know that changed. My mom told me that back on Earth
that kind of thing mattered slightly."
"And he's so short."
"That
really matters? Where's your sense of judgment? I thought it was character
that mattered to you girls."
She shrugged helplessly,
flicked an ant that had been climbing her uniform.
"Come on." I said as the Sem-i
walked off, "I want to get to know them better."
"Sure."
We stood up and walked towards
them, Jake turned at our approach, and the rest turned their attention as well.
"Rachel, Jake, all of you."
Jordan said, "This is Lynn, I've told you about him."
"Pleasure to meet you."
Cassie said.
"No, the pleasure's all
mine." Cassie blushed slightly.
"Look, guys, I have to go."
Jordan said. Glancing around her.
"What? You're on call?"
There was a light in Rachel's eye. "Take us with you."
"Sorry, I can't do that."
She said, "Besides you need to take it easy for a while."
"We've been taking it easy
fro twenty years, what are you talking about?" Rachel demanded.
Jordan just shook her head and
walked away. Rachel kicked at the grass. "It's not fair."
I laughed, "You want to fight
them?"
"Sure I do, don't you?"
"Sorry, by that I meant join
the M.A.S.S."
"The who?" The rest of them
came to hear this. Jake and Cassie sat on a dead tree log, Marco sat on the
ground opposite to me. Tobias perched beside Cassie and Rachel too joined them
on the log. The Andaite trotted towards us.
"The human military. Don't
you know anything?" I laughed again, "Oh, wait you are serious, you don't
know anything do you?"
Marco shook his head, "Can you please
explain?"
"Sure, M.A.S.S,
they stand for the four basic divisions in the human military."
I said, "M,
is for Masi they are the male human warrior. A, is for Asi
they're the female human warriors. S, is for Sem-i they are
cadets. And the other S is Sasi. They run the war council. They are
the war council."
"Asi!" Rachel
said, "It was that woman who talked to me."
The others looked at
her, "You've had someone to talk to you? How come? We were just taken right
here." Marco said, "Right?" he asked looking at the others.
They all nodded but
the Andalite said, That was not my case, I was questioned.
"You were what?"
"You don't
say." I said wiry.
"What do you
mean?" Marco asked me.
"Let me guess. That
women you saw," I said nodding at Rachel, "couldn't possibly be the same
one that talked to your friend here, could she?"
She identified
herself as major general Asi.
"Same here."
I rolled my eyes,
"She's my aunt."
Marco raised an
eyebrow, "She is?"
"Yup, she isn't a
nice person to have around, believe me I know." I rolled my eyes gain, still
acting up to my script as the indifferent stupid jerk, "Major general Asi,
she's who got the government to open a division for female warriors."
You allow your
females to fight?
"Yeah, what's
wrong with that? We're short in numbers and casualties are frequent. Besides,
it isn't like they fight for us, they fight besides us." I said
defensively.
"What did they ask
you?" Jake asked Ax.
They were unusual
questions, they asked me about you mostly and how the rest of you treated me,
they also asked me about our incident with Estrid.
"Why would they
want to do that?" Marco wondered. He leaned back on the ground and stared at the
stars. He rolled a small twig between his teeth.
I acted as if I was
screwing my brains for an answer then I gasped to get their attention. "I
think I know why!"
Why? Tobias
asked.
"Well, our
government and his," I nodded at Ax, "where never at good terms, basically,
everyone thinks that sometime after we win this war with the Yeerks, the human
government and the Andalite government are going to be at war."
"What?" Rachel
asked, "Why?"
"I'm not quite
sure why, but I know that half of it was to settle score for what happened on
earth. The rest is because…well, the humans want to knock the arrogant urge of
the Andalites, show them they're not the lords of the universe. It pisses us
off, from what I've heard, the Andalites brag even in defeat."
"That sounds like
the Andalites we all love and know." Marco commented, leering slightly at Ax.
"So, what do we do
about all this?" Rachel wondered.
"We don't do
anything." I replied, "Leave them to sort it out by themselves."
"Wait." Cassie
spoke up, she had been silent all along, "you're saying a war, killing more
people over what? Is it worth it?"
"We have no say in
this." I said, "The Sasi have their minds made up unofficially."
"Hey. Wait, we had
a good reason to fight the Yeerks, they're parasites who destroy entire
civilizations, habitats and planets, but," Cassie said, "we're going to
fight Andalites how stupid is that? Can't you just settle things down by
talking?"
I was quite, "It
never occurred to me that way, I had a feeling they had done something
disastrous…but I don't know."
"See?" Cassie
said triumphantly, "It's easy when you sit and think about it."
I have a feeling
'our' government isn't going to think about it this way. Tobias
muttered. Shifting slightly.
"Yeah," I agreed,
"They're not. Look, er, what happened with that Estrid Andalite?"
"Oh, her? Long
story." Marco said.
"No, come on tell
me." I said, "That is, unless you have something else to do."
"We don't."
Cassie said. But she didn't continue.
"Look, its like
this." Marco said, "We've been waiting for back up ever since we started
fighting this war, and in the middle of this battle, a group of four Andalites
were fighting with us, we decide to check'em out, we assumed that, at first
the main fleet arrived, but they were in fact, just some fresh hell." He
paused, "They said that their mission is to assassinate visser three but this
wasn't what they were after."
They planned to
unleash a virus that will kill the Yeerks only it could prove fatal to humans as
well, but that was unacceptable we stopped them.
"I see." I said
slowly, "They told you to say that? Confirm it or something?"
They asked me
whether or not their mission was to assassinate he Visser. I told them the
truth. Ax said.
I shook my head,
"I'm not getting this, if they knew that was their real mission why ask him
to confirm it, doesn't make sense."
Maybe they
didn't know. Tobias said.
I shook my head,
"If they knew their supposed mission they'd have known the truth as well,"
then I added solemnly, "little is
overlooked by them."
I managed to stop
myself flinching; I realized that the words that came out of my mouth, I've
heard them before, from Asi.
'Very little that
happens, Lynn, is overlooked.' I felt myself
shiver. I could see her self-composed looks, the hardcore eyes. Did the military
have a lot to keep from the public? Or even the government? I wasn't sure, but
I wondered, why would a military take someone like me for the job, they could
have easily taken someone else. Unless…unless I was an expendable piece, a
worthless adversary.
Was I an
adversary? I didn't know, but could I find out? I glanced at the force in
front of me, six in all, seven with me, if they were capable of being potential
enemies of the Yeerks could they help my uncover the secrets?
No, then they'd
have to know my secret as well, was this what Asi and that Sasi person,
Mac were bargaining for? That I wouldn't allow anyone find out the truth?
I felt all alone
suddenly, isolated, away from help. I couldn't turn to any friends for help
but them…the animorphs? They…they looked out for each other.
Could I reach for
them?
Will they help me?
I wasn't sure.
Not the least bit.
"Well." Jake
said, "They could hold it against the government. You know, prove that it
really did happen."
I nodded, "By
recording it, that way they couldn't deny."
"Yeah, right."
Marco said, "They still could deny. You know that. How easy is it to say;
you're setting this up."
"No." I said,
"It isn't easy."
They all looked at
me.
"Look, " I
said, "What did they tell you when you woke up?"
"That they found
us in a fighter." Marco said, "Look where are you heading with this?"
I felt the color
drain from my face, Mac told me we kept them under deep freeze, and he didn't
mention a fighter.
I stared at them,
what was really going on here? And why, why had they kept them under deep
freeze?
I cast a look
around the preserve, was anyone near us? No. Could I tell them? Could I really
trust them?
I sat down at the
ground, "I have something to tell you."
"Yeah what?"
Marco said.
I bit my lip and
looked at the distance, if they caught me I was going to get maximum charges, I
knew that, but I felt desperately lonely and confused, "First you have to
promise me you wouldn't tell anyone, anyone
about this, I need to know if you're as true as your word."
They sensed the
seriousness of my voice, I wouldn't be surprised if they saw me as a different
person, I was abandoning the script, for good.
"What's
wrong?" Cassie asked me.
I looked at the
ground then up at them, I looked at their leader Jake, "I need your help to
find something, the Sasi, I have a
feeling that they're keeping a lot of secrets."
They stared at me,
they didn't know what to say.
"This entire
thing is suspicious, look the only reason I'm here is to spy on you." I
said, "That's what they told me to do, gain your trust, see what you'll be
up to."
Cassie smiled
slightly, "Well, you'll have our trust, at least you're warning us."
I looked at them
desperately, how could I explain? I realized that this was not the first time I
reached this situation, "They told you that they found you deep-frozen in a
fighter, right? That's all BS." I paused, "The Sasi
had you on deep freeze."
"What?" Marco
said, "Why would they lie?"
"That's not
all, I've…I've heard something, I overheard it…well they acted like I
was invisible!" I half raged, my memory was back in that office, back with Mac
and Asi.
"What's all
this about?" Rachel said, "Why would they use you anyway?"
I smiled, it was a
thin cold smile, "Because I'm expendable."
"How's
that?"
"Wouldn't you
like to know." I said, I paused, looked around and for a moment or two
considered telling them everything I knew. Right back to…to, you know, the
reason I've got myself into the situation.
Mac's bargaining
chip.
You are lost, I
thought to myself, if telling them doesn't work you are seriously lost, if it
does, then Mac loses.
Let's hope Mac
loses.
Yeah, hope. The
problem is, I didn't believe in hope, my situation is hopeless, if I told
them everything chances are they'd be suspicious of me, they wouldn't trust
me.
If I didn't tell
them I'm going to stay the way I am, afraid of everybody, dreading what would
happen if what I did leaked into the public. Wouldn't be able to trust anyone.
They'd think
I'm nuts, listening to voices in my head, the severe headaches, my previous
past of autism, later faking autism to cover up the murder.
I killed my
father.
I fell sorry for
him, and for me, bitterly, but if I was capable of killing; planning and caring
out, purposely, the cold-blooded murder of my own father. Who else was I going
to kill?
Again, I felt
confused, lost.
Tell them?
No, they'd know
everything.
Don't tell them.
You'd stay the
way you are, locked in your own fear and would fall to obey the voices again.
The voices. What
did they think?
But they weren't
there; I'm going nuts, I thought, I placed a hand on the side of my head,
looked at the animorphs in what I hoped were calm eyes.
I wanted to rip my
brain out.
I wanted the
confusion to end.
I also wanted my
headache to pass.
Do I tell them my past?
No.
Trust only
yourself.
Tell them only about the goverment.
