"YEEEEEEAHHHHHHHH!" Chase screamed in our ears, laughing crazily, "Another load coming up, this is soooo cowboy style."
"Will you shut up?" I snapped.
"Cool, keep your cool cowgirl, chin up and eyes out we're getting us
a cow herd." He laughed again.
"If he laughs like that one more time." Rex told me, "Then he
wouldn't just be getting on your nerves, he'd be getting on mine as well."
"Amen," I muttered.
"Hey," Tetrass said suddenly, "Everybody, four o'clock."
I looked as he directed, I frowned, I watched as a battered Andalite
fighter started running into Z-space.
"It's them." Narl said, and it clicked the second he started
talking, "The tailless fighter, vecol, as the Andalites say. And the
left main engine shot. It's the one that got away."
"We can't let them go thinking they'd been lucky, let's show them
what it really feels like when being attacked by humans fighter pilots,"
Tetrass laughed, "Or what do you think." He laughed again, "Okay boys and
girls, a notice for the sane, and the insane, V-formation again, Narl? Ausi? You
two go up behind them like last time, but this time, don't shot past,
they're expecting that, I want you to make for the cockpit like you're going
to ram them then side-off. And double back. Graze the sides while you're at
it, we wouldn't want them to get comfortable."
I pushed a lever and tripled my speed, soon I was shooting towards the
cockpit in blazing speed, beside me, Narl's fighter kept pace.
"I don't think this is the time to mention this, but I need a
pit-stop." Chase said.
"Tough luck," Tetrass told him "You should have gone when we loaded
the last batch in. It's gonna have to wait."
"Oh, bummer." Chase grumbled, "I knew he'd say that."
In my view shield I saw the fighter loom up and fill my two-seventy
degree vision, at the edges I spotted pinpoints of stars and a nearby planet.
'Sharp left, skim surface.' I thought, gripping the control stick, and the computer responded, the
fighter jerked ninety degrees and hurtled down the length of the fighter, I felt
my wing bite and I was out of there, I doubled back, crossing Narl's fighter.
"We're approaching." Narl said, "You've got about twenty
seconds and we're back."
"Good." Tetras said, "Chase, Rex, with me-" Tetrass stopped
mid-sentence,
The battered fighter had fired up all power and begun to race towards
Rex's fighter.
"He's coming to you." Narl warned.
"Yeah I know." Rex said lazily.
The Andalite fighter aimed the double shredders lined underneath each
stubby wing and fired. Rex countered left, but he was hit anyway. Too slow, Rex
had started feeling cocky, mistake. Deadly mistake.
"Arrr!" He yelled in frustration, "I'm frozen, dam it, the
system malfunctioned!"
"Rex watch out!"
"Yahhhh!" Chase screamed. Not laughing this time.
I watched silently as the battered ship dropped beneath Rex's speeding
fighter and opened fire point blank range at his belly.
BOOOOOOM!
The ship blew to up in a brilliant explosion. Tetrass and Chase turned
sharply away to avoid being pulled with the explosion; the shock wave hit me and
Narl hard.
"NOOOOO!" Narl screamed, "REX!"
"They're running again!" Chase cried out in disbelief.
"Hey no way are they going to run off, they're dead meat!" Narl
growled angrily.
I watched as if miles away, I wasn't exactly concerned that one of the members was dead, disturbed slightly, but I kept on thinking about what kind of lie I'd have to right in my report, sure, for the Sasi they'd get the truth, but what about his family? Does he even have one?
Idiot. Why did he have to get himself shot? He's just given me a load of paper work to do and an unwanted meeting with his relatives. You see, I couldn't just tell them that he was shot while hunting for Andalites, no. That was a secret.
I watched as Narl tried to blast the cockpit off.
"Hey." I said angrily, "Remember the mission. The objective is not to kill the Andalites but to keep them alive."
"For what?" Narl challenged, "You know, throughout this mission you've been telling us squat, we get nothing, and now, my best friend is dead and I want answers. So now I'm asking, why do you need the Andalites? Why are we shooting at them?"
"Do not shoot the fighter." I said coldly. I DNA scanned the half dead fighter, what I saw in there surprised me, only one Andalite. But with him were ten humans, a bird DNA and strangely, three cheetahs' DNA and a Yeerk DNA. "That is an order."
I had a feeling I knew who was on that fighter, most of them anyway. I called the transport.
Tetrass disabled the fighter.
The transport arrived, dragging in the battered Andalite ship and the remains of Rex's fighter.
We docked on, I didn't talk to any of the pilots that were with me, my work was done, I have in possession all the fifty Andalites needed.
Nevertheless, Chase and Narl blocked my path. "You better have-"
"Get out of my way." I said.
"No I wouldn't not after I-"
"If you refuse to get out of my way, be assured that you will pay very dearly for it." I may have sounded in control and unafraid, but the look Narl was giving had started my heart racing.
"Get out of her way boys. You heard her, she's finished here, we're going home. Rex never made it because he wasn't on the look out, his problem, if he hadn't grown cocky then he might have altered his course, and if he had altered and the fighter malfunctioned, well, we'd have helped him." Tetrass. Figures.
I should have just gone, but as I looked at Chase I couldn't check my impulse. "Turns out you didn't need that pit stop anyway." I said.
"Wha-" He looked down.
I left the docking bay, smirking to myself.
But I knew, as I headed towards the main room of the transport, the new prisoners would be there, and knowing who they were wiped the smirk off my face. So the little creep decided to get smart with us. I'll show him smart, just after I tell him how much trouble he's in.
I entered the room.
There was a commotion, humans shouting and I had my second surprise, as a bounce I had six SWAT members, this wasn't going to be bad after all.
"Lynn." I said easily, "Why, we were all terribly worried, we thought you were… lost…I wouldn't have dreamed that you would run away."
"You!" One of the SWAT members snapped angrily, he must have identified me.
"Asi!" Another gasped, the look on her face was one of pure horror, so they did know what kind of reputation I had, too bad.
I laid a hand on Lynn's shoulder and gripped it firmly, "You want to know how much trouble you're in?"
"No." He said unhappily, "I'd rather wait."
I laughed, he didn't. Apparently he missed the humor.
I called one of the guards that stood by the entrance of the room, "Take him, keep him in a holding room, and make sure he stays there."
He took Lynn away, I watched as he was led off, shoulders slumped. I didn't feel the least bit sorry for him.
I looked at the SWAT members, six in all, I offered them a smile, "It was so kind of my relative to drag in not just you"-I nodded at the Animorphs- "But SWAT scum, you animals are going to be thrown in the cages you belong to, and its going to be a long time since you'd get out of there."
Some of them stiffened, other looked scared, but one of them stepped forward. Brave, very brave, "I'm not afraid of you. I know what kind of mischief you military people are doing, you know what? I don't even think the government knows anything about it, say, what happens if I tell them something?"
"You wouldn't be able to," What he said had defiantly angered me, a nineteen year-old kid, threatening me! What was this a joke? "You'd be too busy sitting military prison, my little friend."
He looked defeated, he looked at the ground.
"As for you." I looked at the Animorphs, "It's a good thing you believed little Lynn's stories of government conspiracies. The boy is off in the head, what you don't know about him is a lot."
"We saw the files." The one called Marco snapped.
"Saw the files?" I asked, I watched him with a skeptical eye, but my brain was spinning, "Lynn broke into the system, whose computer did he use?"
"It doesn't matter." Jake said, "Point is, we saw them and we know what you're up to."
"What are we up to?" I asked. I motioned for another three of the guards to lead the SWAT human garbage out; I leaned against a chair and gave him my most serious look. Including all my attention.
"You're up to revenge, crude and simple," Rachel spat, I watched her carefully, "Just 'cause the Andalites were going to throw a genocide re-play of the Hork-Bajir war, you think this justifies making a virus to attack the Andalites with."
"It's wrong, and stupid." Cassie added.
I shook my head slowly, pityingly, "What do you know about this war? You may have known about the war twenty years ago, but we have reason to believe that the Yeerks are starting to infiltrate the Andalite home world, and soon, there are going to be more than just one Andalite controller. There are going to be much more than that. The fighters we destroyed and captured, they're all controller all of them, or at least we DNA scanned, to check. Then we attacked, captured the fighter and sent the Andalites home, simple, that's why we were patrolling just off their home planet."
Perfect lie. Smooth, very smooth. Well I stopped thinking about it this way when Marco asked me something I had not though of, "We don't have a Yeerk with us, why did you attack us?"
I stared, my brain raced to find a way out, were any of the SWAT members partner with the enemy? I didn't know I couldn't remember what flashed across the screen after I had DNA scanned the fighter for life forms, however I found an answer, I opened my mouth to speak-
"But we did. Cricket, he said he and a Yeerk were partners." Cassie said.
Marco slumped.
"That's not all, I was suspicious of the number of humans and the discovery of three cheetah DNA, we attacked, no one was hurt."
We destroyed one of your fighters. The Andalite said.
"That was no loss, he had grown cocky, the same thing would have happened if we really were against the enemy, not your fault, his."
I relaxed a little bit, I made sure it wasn't visible, as a solider you're trained to display the minimum of emotions.
I stared at the ground; they had carpeted floors on the transport, carpet? Red with off-white flowers, yellow orchard floral patterns and little green leaves, I tried not to frown, who on or off Earth designed this carpet?
"That still doesn't explain the file." Marco said.
"What?" I looked up from the ugly carpet.
The file. The one Lynn and I broke into. The Andalite demanded.
I sighed, looked at the ground and then cast a look at the ceiling; I tried to think of another lie, easy. I looked down again and played with a stray fabric line that had been ripped slightly off my uniform, I twirled it round my finger and snapped it off. I found the wording for my lie.
"You broke into the files, sure, but who read it? I don't suppose you could read Ach-ims? We no longer write files in English, they're coded, and most are written in a number of different dialects known only to humans. Secrecy is important for survival in this war."
"You're lying." Rachel snapped, "I'm pretty sure this is a lie."
Yeah, why would Lynn lie to us, wouldn't make sense. Tobias piped up.
I pushed off the chair I was leaning on and spoke calmly to Rachel, "Be careful what you accuse me of, Rachel, Lynn is a troubled boy, you don't know anything about his history, or his past, least of all his medical history, well, most of it is about his mental health."
"What?" Cassie said.
"Major general Asi, we are having a few difficulties with Lynn. Whenever you are finished from whatever it is you're doing, I'd like you to head down sickbay we are currently trying to restrain him from hurting not just us but himself as well. If any progress is reached I will inform you. From Sick bay Doc."
A message from my Si, so he said he was a doctor, who he was though didn't matter much. I walked slowly round the table to get closer. "As a child, Lynn was autistic. He was cured of it, but it came back, not really, he faked it actually."
"What?" Jake said.
"He used to be autistic-" I started to repeat.
"That's not what I meant, I meant 'what' as is in, you're joking." He said.
I leaned close to his face, "Do I look like I'm joking to you?"
"Hard to tell." Marco muttered.
"Why did he fake it?" Cassie asked.
"To cover up for his work." I said, "Cover his dirty work, he didn't want anyone to know."
"What did he do?"
"He was responsible for the cold blooded murder of…a human." No need to tell them who exactly, not yet anyway.
Cassie gasped. "No, no, Lynn wouldn't do that, from what I've seen of him he isn't like that."
"Maybe you'd think that," Marco told her, "But the world isn't pretty. And for how long had we seen Lynn anyway? A few days is all."
"We want proof." Jake said. "You're just telling us things."
"I'm a major general, I wouldn't lie about personal records."
"Still, it wouldn't be much to ask for, is it?" Jake asked.
"No." I agreed. "Come this way, I'll show you how unusual Lynn behavior could be. I just had a report, about Lynn, they're having trouble with him."
What sort of trouble? The Andalite asked.
"Behavioral, I'm telling you, he is a troubled child." I said, I led the way; before I entered the next corridor that was sure to lead for sickbay, "only one of you." I stopped them. "You can't all go in."
"I'll go." Jake said, and then to the others he said, "you wait here."
I led the way again, with Jake walking beside me, as I entered a bend I started to hear Lynn's yelling. What a racket.
I entered the sick bay, and there he was, no surprise, face red with rage, screaming about something. I couldn't make out the words.
Two Masi were in there, no doubt heard the racket and ever so helpfully tried to assist. The doctor was loading a hypodermic needle with something that would probably knock him out; Lynn was yelling something about voices and how much his head was hurting.
The doctor kept repeating that, "Everything is going to be alright." And one of the Masi received foot under the belt he staggered backwards, clutching himself.
Lynn was oblivious to our presence; he seemed concerned with the doctor's needle more than anything else. "GET IT AWAY FROM ME!"
"I've seen enough." Jake said. And he stepped outside where the others were waiting. They looked at him, hopeful, like maybe I was lying. Jake shook his head.
"As you see," I said, "Lynn is not exactly normal, and if you excuse me,"-I spotted a captain and a Masi heading towards us, they were going to see that the animorphs are transported to the mother ship-"I have work to do."
I turned heel and walked back into sickbay, I wanted to have a word with the doctor.
"No, no, noooo, no, no, nooooonooono." I heard Lynn moan, he was finally held down against a bed.
As I reentered I caught sight of the fallen Masi getting up to his feet and the doctor stepped in and jabbed the needle in Lynn's backside. He groaned and slumped on the bed.
I stood over him and looked at the doctor.
"His condition is getting worse." He said, then he looked up at me, "You do know what I'm talking about do you?"
Lynn was loosing consciousness fast.
I nodded.
"Lynn's behavior as well as personality is going to alter, dramatically. This is just evidence of it."
"Because of his tumor?" I watched as the doctor emptied another syringe of something into Lynn's bloodstream. Lynn tried to push off but his hand flopped helplessly. Soon he would stop moving.
"Yes."
"And it isn't operable?"
"No, I don't think so, it had been going on for a long time."
"What will happen to him as it progress?"
"As I said, you will begin to see dramatic changes in his personality, he would be experiencing severe headaches, maybe start loosing his eye sight, after a while he'd be in a comma, ultimately, he'd die."
"And how much has he got left, doctor?"
"I'm not so sure, it's hard to tell with brain tumors, if you want an optimistic estimation, I'd say four, five years, if you wanted to face reality, no more than twenty eight months."
"Is there any way to slow it down?" I asked him.
He sighed, "There are a couple of treatments, not at all nice, chemicals, radiation…"
"The Sasi want him alive for a time to come," I said, "And by the way,"-I looked down at Lynn's silent form-"I don't want him knowing that he's going to die, I don't want him to know that he's got a fatal illness."
"May I ask why?" The doctor asked.
I looked at him, "Do your job. Doctor. I'll probably come back later for him."
"You're giving him over to the Sasi?"
"Yes, they want him under their roof." I shrugged.
A Sem-i entered the sickbay, he looked around and his eyes kind of lit up when he saw me, he headed over, "Major general Asi?"
"That would be me." I answered. A joke, on my part, everyone knew who I was.
"Some guy called, a few minutes ago, and he said he had a message for you, concerning something private."
"Who?" I demanded, was that Mac?
"Some guy called Isis. And all he said was yes." The Semi said, "That's his message; yes."
"Thank you." I said dismissing him, I headed towards the docking bay; I had an appointment with the council heads of Sasi. And they're big on punctuality.
So he said yes, he agreed to take Annabelle in, well, Annabelle and her brother. But her brother wasn't going to see much of his sister, and she was going to see much of him.
Isis, was he really going to be a cure for my troubles, or just another of the many mistakes of my life? I didn't know, but I was going to find out.