Chapter 3
We traveled to the U.S. customs building for Andalite tourists as fast as we could. Once there, we went into the cafeteria, where Andalite ship captains tended to congregate before heading back to the home world. The site of a Hork-Bajir made heads turn; for the most part, they stayed in Yellowstone. I looked around, and saw a shapechanging mess, from which formed an Andalite. I went to go talk to him, and General Doubleday and Toby followed. The Andalite looked at me as I approached.
"Hello," I said. "My name is Cassie, and these are my friends, General Doubleday and Toby."
I am Yahal-Corass-Jahar. Well met, Cassie.
"Nice to meet you. What are you doing on earth? Are you a tourist here to try our cinnamon buns, or a pilot, or on a mission of some other sorts?"
I am a pilot, I fly the Andalite tourists here for their vacations. I just dropped off the latest passengers on my ship, the Jahar II. My ship was named after my father's beautiful ship, which was sucked into a black hole and destroyed twenty-five earth years ago. Unfortunately, my father did not go down with his ship.
I was quite taken aback by his statement. I sensed that he loved his father from the way that he talked about him, and because he told me that his ship was named after that of his father's. However, I was confused by his last statement. "Unfortunately? What do you mean? Did you want your father to die?" I demanded of him.
No! He answered back, sounding rather defensive. No. I love my father. It is just that, well, my father, at that time, was the new host body for who was then Visser Thirty-Two. My father is Alloran-Semitur-Corass.
"What? What did you say?" I asked with more than a note of surprise in my voice. "Your father was the host body to Visser One?"
Yes. He was. But now, he is free. Finally, free.
"I know..." I started to say, but I drifted off, not believing what I was hearing. Yahal was Alloran's son? I pitied him, I really did. His father was dishonored after releasing a quantum virus onto the Hork-Bajir homeworld in order to keep the Yeerks from enslaving them all. After he was infested, Alloran became known as the Abomination, and his name became a curse among the Andalites. This Andalite must have suffered horrible teasing and the such as a small child. He would have been an outcast. I started to speak again. "I know that he is free. I was there when the Yeerk left him."
You? You're Cassie the Animorph? I had no idea, I am so sorry, he said, flustered, as he bowed. My father always speaks fondly of you and your friends, and of how you kept the Yeerks at bay for so long, and of how you freed him. I am sorry. I did not give you the respect that you deserve.
I started to blush. "Yahal, we did what we had to. I am not proud of what I did, I just know that we tried to do right. We never even expected to win. And when the Andalite main forces never arrived... We thought that we were finished. We just tried our best, and everything worked out. Well, almost everything." My eyes started to tear, as I thought of Rachel, Tom, Jara Hamee, James, the other auxiliary Animorphs, and the horrible depression Tobias and Jake were still in. "We did what we had to."
And I thank you for it, Cassie. Without you, my father would still be a prisoner in his own mind.
I ran through the plan in my head. We needed a willing pilot, preferably an Andalite. Yahal sounded as though he was greatful enough to help us. But would it be okay? I did not know. I did not want to exploit Yahal's thankfulness, but it would not be the first time I used somebody's weak point. And that was not something that I was proud of. "Yahal," I started. "I need your help."
