Chapter 18
Yes, he said quickly, IamaGaratron. His voice came so quickly that you heard it first, and understanding came a minute or two later.
I recognized him from one of our earlier missions, when the Inspector came to observe Visser One's, the Visser Three's, methods to conquer earth. The Inspector was the only one with the host body of a Garatron; Visser Three had been jealous, especially because the lightning speed of the Garatron outdid his Andalite host body. Visser Three, however, had an advantage over the Inspector: he had the Andalite morphing power. We nearly were killed in the Yeerk pool when Visser Three asked the Inspector to show him how easy it was to capture us. However, Ax morphed rattle snake and bit the Inspector, allowing us to get away. We never learned more about the Garatron, or if there were any other Yeerks possessing Garatron hosts. I was dumbfounded that we had finally found another one.
The Garatron continued. However,wearealsoknownastheKelbrid,totheAndalitesatleast. Theyfirstmetwitha
troupeofGaratronthatspeakadifferentdialect,wheretheycalltheGaratrontheKelbrid.
Jeanne was starting to whiten. The Garatron ship did look quite ferocious.
"It's okay, Jeanne, I'll protect you," I told her.
She gave me a withering look.
"What, what did I do?" I whined.
The Garatron continued to glare at us. IhavetoldyouwhatIam,nowtellwhatyouare, he demanded.
Jake looked at him. "We are human," he stated. "Except for that over there, that is a red-tailed hawk," he said, pointing at Tobias. I looked around for Ax, relieved to see that he had obviously morphed into human before coming onto the bridge. "This is the ship the Enterprise, on a peaceful reconnaissance mission for the United Confederation of Planets."
I snickered, despite the fact that there was a very mean looking Garatron staring at everybody on the bridge, including me. It was our own little joke; we had figured that nobody in this part of the universe had seen the old Star Trek reruns.
"My name is Captain Kirk, and this is my faithful crew," Jake said. "Now what is your name?" he asked with a glare.
MynameisCaptainBarvaritunLarumianHartar, the Garatron said coldly. Andyouwilladdressmeassuch. His eyes, all four of them, looked even harder, colder, and more distant. Now,youwilltellmeexactlywhyyouarehere,when youobviouslycamefromAndalitespace. WedonottolerateAndaliteshere.
Jeanne went even whiter. I stepped forward. Jake had said it himself; I was the best BS artist on this ship.
"We are just exploring. We are not these Andalites you speak of," Jake said to Barvaritun Larumian Hartar. I looked at Ax. Although his human facial expressions are still not very good, I could tell that he looked like he had eaten something sour. Something very sour. Menderash looked as though he would be sick. I did not blame them; Andalites are very proud and they probably hated for us to pretend as though we did not know them.
Verywell, the Garatron said with a hard stare. Youwillescapethistime. Butbeware,especiallyifwefindthatyou areAndalitesorcarryingAndalitetechnology. Nowleave.
"You will not order me on what to do, Garatron," Jake said. He was getting pretty good at this entire first-contact-with-a-new-alien-species-so-we-had-to-look-strong thing. "We will leave of our own choice though, we did not come to fight."
Barvaritun Larumian Hartar's eyes flashed. Verywellthen, he said angrily. Go,butdonotexpectawelcomeas kindasthisthenexttimeyouwanderintoGaratronterritory. The communications screen flickered and went blank.
Jeanne went over to the Jahar II and told them that we would be leaving this area, and we would extend our force field over them to allow us to stay connected. The engines fired up, and we speeded away from the Garatron ship. Ax demorphed, and Cassie came onto the bridge of the Rachel.
"What did the people on the ship say, Jake?" She asked.
"They were the Kelbrid, also known as the Garatron, you know, what the Inspector had as a host body?" I answered her.
Her face clouded over for a moment. "What did they say?"
This time Jake answered her. "They told us to get out of their space, or they won't be nearly as friendly next time," he said. "Like they were friendly this time."
"They looked remarkably like Andalites, didn't they?" she questioned.
There were similarities, but it is obvious that we are unrelated and Andalites have bodies much better suited to life, Ax said as he puffed out. Andalite arrogance, I wondered if they would ever get over it.
"I wonder what the relationship between the Andalites and the Garatron really is," she muttered quietly to herself. "It would be so strange for aliens from different galaxies to evolve to look so similar."
The rest of the crew of the Jahar II filed in, and we all stood in the bridge, while Jake told everybody else what had happened. Tobias fluttered over onto Rachel's shoulder, and she smiled at him. Jake and Cassie were holding hands. Thinking that this was my big chance, I headed over to Jeanne, but walked off when I saw her holding Tom's hand. Disappointed, I stood and sulked, but I knew that I would get over it. I had no chances with Jeanne from the beginning. She was more Tom's age anyway. Fooey.
Menderash spoke. "We came here only to get Prince Aximili, and because we are in enemy territory with two real Andalites and one Andalite ship, I suggest we go back to earth. We will be safer there." He looked at Ax. Ax looked at Jake. Jake sighed.
"I suppose that would be the wisest thing, tomorrow, we will start for earth." He smiled. Tom and Rachel smiled. They were thought to be dead by the world, and they would finally see their families again. It was hard to tell with Tobias in his hawk body, but even he looked excited. Jake had a glint in his eyes I had not seen there since his parents were taken. Cassie had a small smile on her face and she squeezed Jake's hand.
"Well, that's it folks, we're going home!" I exclaimed with a stupid grin on my face. I may have been bored to death before we left, but that did not mean I did not want to go back and see my parents, the girls, and I would not kill for a fresh hamburger. Dried food, after a while, just loses its appeal. I grimaced. I was starting to sound like Ax. Slowly, people filtered out of the bridge and into the other rooms. Thinking about the soft bed I would finally be able to sleep in again in just a few weeks when we made it back to earth.
