Hey there.
People call me Mad Dog Curtis. M.D for short.
My best pal forever, as thick as he is, is Solo. You have to love the
guy, he's decent, responsible, a wacko and a bit on the slow side.
I'm responsible too, don't get this the wrong way round, but my
responsibilities differ a way when you compare Solo and I.
Solo thinks he's Noah and the Beehive is his Ark. Ashley
doesn't help one bit when Solo goes all goo-goo with animals, in fact, she's
also kind of a anti-violent advocate herself as well as being so…nature
preservative.
It's not that I don't care, how can't you not care about preserving
whatever's left from Earth, but you know, I have a different philosophy when
it comes to this; why bother with preserving? Let's get Earth back to have
plenty of Earth for Solo and Ashley to go all mushy over.
The Beehive is the SWAT mother ship, SWAT for 'Save-the-World-from-Alien-Tyranny'. We're more than that I suppose, we're the human punks of this century. More metal, less skin. We're what men are made out of, and what women would die to get hold of…we are-
"Get in there you animal."
"Urgh!" I tripped and tumbled to the ground.
BOOOOM!
My arm slammed the metal table as I went down. "Ow!"
"And stay in there."
The Masi locked the cell, spat at me from behind protective bars and walked down the aisle.
"I'll get you, you-"
"Save your breath."
I turned round, surprised, "Hey I thought I had this supreme cell booked all for myself." I walked to the man seated on the twin bunker bed. He had the upper bunk.
"What? Call this a high tech, uroopa?"
"What no good quality services?"
"Can't you judge by the hospitality of this dump?"
I scratched the back of my skull, stuck my hand out, "Curtis, Mad Dog Curtis, people call me M.D."
The man reached out from the top bunk and extended an arm, he must have been around thirty. "Tetrass." He sat up, "Masi, I'm a fighter pilot."
"Oh really?" I said, he must have recognised me as SWAT by my looks, "What did you do to get thrown here?"
"One bitch of a major general threw me in here." He looked at me with cool green eyes, "Don't ask what I did, you probably don't want to know."
"Nah, I love a good story."
"It involves a major general."
"Good, that's even a better story, I'd love to hear what you did to the Masi."
"Nay, not a Masi, Asi, the Asi. How can a he be a bitch?"
I shook my head, then snorted, "No kidding. She threw you in here too? Did she get to call you animal too?"
"Oh yeah she did, if I recall correctly she said I was a 'demented circus monkey'."
"You're here because?"
"I wanted to play dirty. She had one of my pals at the wrong end of a burning fighter, the other was blown to bits by being cocky. That's two friends down." Tetrass sighed at that.
"I'm sorry."
"Me too."
Silence.
"I just can't believe it you know? Like I said I'm a fighter pilot, up to then I pretty much thought I was invincible. I'm the best of the best. And so were my friends, I was in command in our last mission, I should have spotted it, if I did then, Rex wouldn't have suffered as much as he has."
"What didn't you spot?" The way he spoke, it was mesmerizing, his eyes held a mischievous intensity; he didn't look like the usual Masi. He lived for today and wouldn't bother himself with tomorrow, that's pretty much why he was here I supposed.
"His cocky attitude, usually, he's not like that, but I guess he was trying to show off to Ausi, the stupid idiot thought there was a chance he could, you know, hook up or something."
"Your friend's got bad taste."
"No kidding."
"Uhuh, and Chase was all like, hey, Rexy, pal, you should have chosen another profession because guess what? You're no pro in this one."
"This Chase guy, he's the joker of your group or something?"
"Qualified clown I tell you, I didn't find his remark all too amusing
though, neither did Narl. But Chase is dead too, Narl is off in his head and had
himself settle with his brother's family. I should have either done what Narl
did or…"-he shook his head sadly-"Oh I don't know."
"Must have been rough."
"We were in deep. Too deep."
"What was your mission?"
"No harm in telling you." He shifted, leaned his back against the
wall. "Unit Istar, highly classified, all Sasi work which they
wouldn't for your life admit to doing, they wanted me and my friends to
capture a few Andalites, fifty they were, I think, anyway. Asi was
supervising."
I stood up, "No kidding, man!"
"What?"
"Oh, he was right!"
"Who was?"
"That kid Lynn, and the Animorphs."
Tetrass looked up startled. "The Animorphs, are you sure they confused
my cell with the bug house or something?"
"Okay look." I said, "Here's the big picture; we've got
Animorphs back from deep freeze, Sasi had them frozen up, until now,
they've taken 'em back. At first it didn't add up, I kept on thinking why,
why, why? And then Lynn tells me that the Sasi are trying to mass-produce
a virus, deadly to the Andalites, these Andalites that you captured? Lab
specimens."
"Lynn? Lynn Berolscky?" He questioned. "He's a relative of Asi
right?"
"Right. Only they say he's a mad man, I don't know, what do you
think?"
But he wasn't listening to me, he was looking behind me, slowly I
turned. A guard was walking down the aisle towards us; he had a bunch of keys in
his hand. He placed them off a hook and turned round a corner.
I saw Tetrass's face light up in a smile.
"What?"
"You want to break out of here?" He asked in a low voice.
"Why not?"
Tetrass swung off the bunk and pressed his face against the bars, "I
think I could reach it."
With that, he lifted what looked a lot like an awfully sharp knife took
aim, shot it in the middle of the ring that held the keys together, I noticed
that there was this fine white silk leading from his knife's handle I tracked
the end and found that it lead to his hand.
"Make the bunks look like we're in them."
I threw some pillows underneath the heavy cover and stood by Tetrass's
side. This guy was really going to get us out!
He gave the silk thread a yank and the keys slid towards us. He grabbed
them and twisted the lock open, I thanked god that they still hadn't changed
locks into something classier and helped myself out.
After Tetrass had retrieved his knife I put the keys back were we found
them and we managed to creep into a storage room, no one was in there and no one
is likely to come here to get us. "What do we do now?"
"We meld in." Tetrass said, "First I have to get my Si off, I need
your help."
"I thought you can't do that, you know, after they mark you like
dogs."
He ignored my remark and took out a sharp metal needle, he handed it to
me, "I want you to push it in just a few millimeters from the communicator,
then twist it a few and pull it out after exactly four seconds. That should
disable Trek 45, it's a system alarm in the Si. It would wipe my memory out
and sent it to the Sasi."
"What if I miss any of these steps or do one wrong?"
"The slightest mistake and I'm a fried doggy."
"What?"
"I'm going to get one nasty shock, the equivalent of the charge would
be like getting struck by lightening three times, it is not likely that I
survive."
"Okay, okay." I muttered, I found the communicator and started to jab
the needle in, but froze. "How far do I dig in?"
"No more than a few millimeters, if you go beyond that you will manage
to pierce my skin. And even though you find piercing attractive, I'm telling
you that I despise the metallic parts of your body."
"Oh really?" I said as I slid the needle and counted to four and
yanked it out, "My dad thinks so too."
"I'm not surprised."
"It's all the talking that we ever do, sorry we don't talk much and
even if we do, it's arguing."
"What you don't have the father and son thing going on? Didn't talk
too much?" He gave me a look, then cast a glance at my mouth, "Maybe it's
'cause it's a difficulty to speak when you've got a bolt fastened to your
tongue."
"A stud." I said, I started to yank off his Si, "You didn't get
electrocuted."
"Just out of curiosity; do you light up like a Christmas tree if you
get struck by lightening three times?"
"Long time since I saw a Christmas tree."
"Pity, I like the whole lights thing, I always was fascinated by
Christmas, my family were really into it."
"Uhuh, the really into it part for my father was getting me to chop up
the tree for fire wood."
"Life time experience, no doubt." He looked at me, "So you were
around before the defeat, the last Christmas, you saw it?"
"I loved the idea of setting that huge tree up with lights and singing
the o'l Christmas songs, the Andalites joined in too you know." I paused,
"and now the government wants to wipe them off existence."
"Are you so sure about that?"
I looked up at Tetrass, he was working on a computer unit, rigging up an
escape route.
"How do you mean?" I asked.
"Think about it, why would our government really want to annihilate
them, that's not what they want on mind, what they want to do is gain the
upper hand, they want control, and power, but we're talking governments here, human
governments, how are you going to gain control? By wiping off all your
enemies?"
"Well, yeah, then no one would question your control."
"No, come on, we're talking humans here, lets not forget that, besides, we're not like the Yeerks, our style isn't shoot to kill."
"Then what is it?"
Tetrass sighed, "I got it, I got it, it's what the entire thing's
all about, I've heard Asi talking about a so called 'plot' I've also
heard a friend of mine talk about it too, Sasi stuff."
"And what is the plot."
"It ironic," Tetrass said suddenly, "That's what they're aiming
for, the irresistible irony of it."
"What is?"
"You don't get control and power by smearing your enemies, you do it
by setting lines, and then when they cross the lines you show them their place,
our government will only feel 'home' if they know they're the most
powerful, but how could they be? By rigging up insurance, the virus, they start
giving orders and if the Andalites refuse things are going to get nasty."
"This is supposed to be ironic?"
"That's the plot, the irony you'll get later."
"I don't get it, why not just waste your enemies?"
"How can you have a monopoly without losing contestants? What the
government is doing is competing against the races, you and I both know how
close we are in terms of power to the Andalites, if our government rises to
theirs, which is exactly what's happening these days, we'll be equals, the
virus cuts power off the Andalites and our government gets it's monopoly, and
it's only happy about it if there are a bunch of losers to shove around."
"So, they don't just want power and control by itself, they want
control and power over the other races…"
"Exactly." Tetrass confirmed, "Got us a fighter, Doggy dog."
"M.D." I said.
"Whatever." He paused, inhaled sharply. He looked at me startled.
"What?"
"Something is going to trigger the chain to absolute control for our
government, it's been bugging me, you know? Why not just grab control now, why
wait until the Andalites crash and burn by themselves?"
"What's the trigger?"
"Earth. When they snatch Earth back they'll get their monopoly."
"You mean if our government gets Earth back it's going to be time for
them to enforce their power?"
"Yes."
"Shit," I said, then repeated, "shit, a world run by the Sasi
entirely? Wake me up when this nightmare is over."
"We've got to stop them." Tetrass said quietly, "If they get what
they want then the universe is not going to be a happy place anymore."
"What do you mean we've got to stop them." I stood inches from his
face.
"We've got to stop them from taking Earth back."
"No! We want Earth back, what are you a moron? We fight everyday to get
Earth back!"
"If you want human communism to return, you can let Earth be taken by
our government."
"But that's not our problem! If our government turns mean against the
other races that is defiantly not our problem!"
"Yes." Tetrass said, "It would be. Don't forget that the people
have their expectations."
"You're wrong!" I cried desperately.
"Earth cannot fall back in the hands of humans, not now, consequences
faced would insure the birth of the 'new Yeerks'. You don't want that
anymore than I do, do you?"
No.
But I couldn't see why we could get Earth back.
The irony hit me so hard and unsuspected that I burst out laughing,
Tetrass stared at me like maybe I was a little mad.
"What is it Doggy dog? What's so funny? You've got a joke, then
share it."
"It's ironic that Earth is only safe in the hands of our enemies,
isn't it?"
"You find that laughable?" He looked at me with a strange look,
"Shut up you young fool."
But I couldn't, I was overwhelmed with a fit of laughter, I hit the
ground my stomach and back aching.
Tetrass glared, "I see why they call you Mad Dog."
Through blurry tears I nodded, I managed to get up and shoved Tetrass,
"Let's insure that Earth stays with the Yeerks, it can't possible be that
hard, could it?"
Tetrass shook his head again. "The new Yeerks man, it's us."
"Now that's irony." I laughed.
He shoved me, "No that's scary."