Chapter 20
We hurtled towards the planet, with the Garatron ship following close behind. I felt the familiar adrenaline rush flow up inside of me. I ran out from the weapons station and into the center of the bridge. Tobias was perching on Jake's shoulder, who was next to Marco and Jeanne, and they were all huddled around a still form that could be no other than Tom. I bit my lip. Was my cousin dead, after all we had done to save and free him? I sincerely hoped not. I stepped in between Marco and Jake, and Tobias hopped onto my shoulder. Jeanne was sitting, with Tom's head cradled in her lap. Jake was shaking, and his lips were pursed, but he was trying to remain calm. Marco looked grim. Menderash was sitting at the control panel steering us toward the planet.
"Where's Cassie?" I asked. "And Ax, and Toby, and General Doubleday, and Santorelli, and Yahal?"
"Probably in the Jahar II managing the controls so they come with us," replied Jake, his voice tight. "Marco, go check to make sure that they are alright. Bring Cassie back with you, and Ax as well."
"Yeah, whatever, I really am the little messenger, aren't I?" grumbled Marco.
I laughed. "Little is right, shrimp." I smirked, but then I changed my face accordingly, because I realized something horrible: I could no longer make fun of him for being short, because in the two years that he had been alive and I hadn't, he had grown to be slightly taller than me. He started to crack up. "You know, just because you've been alive for three years more than me and grew while I was dead doesn't mean you're still not short," I said as I eyed Jake, Menderash, and Tom, who both towered about four inches taller than him, at least. Marco stuck out his tongue before turning around and dashing to the other ship.
You're okay, Tobias said to me in private thoughtspeak. When I saw you before I fainted, you were in really bad shape.
I smiled, but did not say anything because the other people would hear me. I made my face serious again, and bent down to look at Tom. A tear ran down Jeanne's cheek.
He's breathing. Just barely, but he is, Tobias said to every one. I can see his chest rising and falling.
"Thank God." Jeanne's lower lip was trembling.
"Alright, what's going on?" Cassie had burst through the door and was now trying to see how bad Tom really was. When she finally did see the wound in his stomach, still sluggishly pumping blood, she went pale. "Okay," she muttered to herself, "You performed brain surgery on Ax, you can clean and bandage this wound. After all, you do have more medical experience than anybody else here…" Her expression was still one of horror. "I need some water, soap, gloves, a needle, thread, alcohol, antibacterial ointment, antibacterial pills, and a large, clean bandage. Hurry!" She called out to the rest of us.
"Is he really that bad?" asked Jeanne.
Cassie looked at her for a moment, and then nodded. Jeanne looked away, and her shoulders started to shake. A small sob escaped her. After a moment, Jake, who had gone to get the supplies Cassie had asked for, came hurrying into the room. Cassie walked over to where he had put down the supplies, and began to wash her hands in the water he had brought. After about ten minutes, she dried them off, and slipped on the gloves. She grabbed some gauze, which Jake had also brought, and pressed it to Tom's side. She held it there firmly for a few moments, and then removed it. It was soaked through with blood, but the wound was not bleeding as much anymore. Next, she threaded the needle, and began to suture up the wound. Jeanne winced each time the needle pierced the flesh. The wound was huge, and it took her a good twenty minutes to sew an uncountable amount of stitches in his side and clean it out with the alcohol. The wound was deep, and I did not know if stitches would be enough. At one point, she touched a rib, and Tom lashed out in his sleep. Upon closer inspection, Cassie realized that he had a few broken ribs as well. His face was a ghostly white, and when I took his pulse, it was beating very weakly. I bit my lip and crossed my fingers, not wanting my cousin to die so soon after he was freed. I looked at Jeanne, and gave her a weak smile. With a grim face, Cassie placed some gauze over Tom's wound, and wrapped his entire chest tightly with a bandage after rubbing antibiotics liberally around his lesion.
She finally looked up, and said, "Now we can only hope. Do you know if he hit his head when he fell?"
Jeanne nodded. "Yes. He did."
Cassie nodded as well. "Put him in a bed on this ship. Give his head lots of support with the pillows, and somebody needs to be watching him at all times."
As she said this, Yahal, Toby, and Ax walked in. Cassie turned to them.
"Yahal, is there anything we can feed him while he's still asleep?"
Liquefied grass, in injection form, he answered. All of the humans turned slightly green. Do not worry; it has been done before, he said as we looked at him doubtfully. My father told me about it. Only a bit before he was infested, there were two humans he was in charge of returning to earth. Loren and Chapman, I believe their names were. They drank the liquefied grass because there was nothing else we could offer them.
Tobias stirred on my shoulder. Loren? he probed.
Yes. Loren. She had blonde hair, and blue eyes.
With wonder in his voice, Tobias asked, Yahal… Were there any other people, Andalite or human, on that mission?
Yes, Yahal answered. Elfangor and Arbron, both of which I believe you are familiar with, were there.
Really, Tobias said distantly. You will have to tell me the rest of the story some time.
Yahal said he would.
My mother, Tobias said to me privately. Maybe finally we will know what really happened to her and Elfangor.
"Maybe," I agreed softly. Jake turned to me and together we lifted Tom onto Yahal's back, and although an Andalite would normally not let anyone onto their back like a common horse, Yahal agreed in this case. Slowly, we walked to Jake's room on the Rachel. Wow, I loved the name of the ship. When we finally got there, we placed Tom on the small bed, and propped up his head with some spare pillows. Jeanne came in carrying a blanket, which she draped over Tom's still body, and then she looked at us and offered to take the first watch over him. Jake nodded and left, and I followed him out, but as I did, I saw Jeanne bend down and let her lips quickly graze against Tom's.
In the hall, Jake spoke to me. "Do you think Tom will be okay?" he asked, his voice cracking.
"I don't know, Jake," I replied, sadly. "He had better not die on us. I've already lost one cousin, I'm not keen to lose another one now that he's free. Anyway, this cousin is just slightly nicer than Saddler." I smiled grimly, then yelled into the sky, "Sorry, Saddler, wherever you are! You weren't that bad!"
Jake managed to crack a small smile, and then walked back to the bridge. I followed him, and rejoined Tobias.
Look into the viewing screen, Tobias said to me. Does the planet look familiar to you?
I gazed into the screen, where I could see the orange planet looming up before us. Tobias was right; it did look familiar. I could see bright areas of light, and when I looked closer, I could tell that they were cities. We came even closer, and I started to be able to make out landmarks.
Marco had come back into the room, and I suppose he had been looking at the viewing screen too, because he said, "Uh…Jake? Are we sure we want to land on this planet? It looks inhabited… We aren't out of Kelbrid space yet, are we? What if we land on a planet full of those Garatrons- Kelbrids- whatever they're called?" He grinned. "That wouldn't be fun."
"We'll have to try anyway; the ships are too badly hurt to continue much farther. Besides, we need to do something to get away from Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar and the One. Maybe all the innocent people will shield us. Just hope they're friendly."
"And if they're not?" Marco questioned further.
"Cross your fingers," Jake replied.
My lips split into a grin. "Let's do it!"
"We're doomed," Marco muttered.
I shot him a grin and looked back at the planet. I could see details of the cities now; they had bright splashes of color, were built on stilts reaching far into the sky, and looked like large Lego blocks.
Oh no, Tobias said.
"Oh no," Marco agreed.
"I am not giving away my hair this time; I'm still trying to grow it out from before. My hair grows slowly!" I protested, as Jake, Tobias, Cassie, Marco, and Ax, who had walked in a bit earlier, looked at me.
If I remember correctly, these people were quite annoying," commented Ax.
Oh, yeah. 'Will you buy this? I'm selling that! Wow, those are great! Can I chop them off of you to sell them? I know lots of people who would enjoy a pair of human arms! Memories for sale!' These Iskoort bug me," Marco agreed.
Iskoort? Yahal questioned.
"Iskoort?" Menderash asked.
"Iskoort," I said. "Now, Menderash, friend, You have no real love for this human body, right? You wouldn't mind giving up your hair, would you?" I asked as sweetly as possible. "You know, shaved heads really are popular right now…"
"Rachel!" Cassie scolded.
"What?" I whined. "I am not giving up my hair this time!"
The view screen showed the city around us, because we had moved in so close and were near some of the lower levels. We saw a docking port with numerous other ships, and Menderash steered over there. After only a couple of seconds, we landed with a soft bump.
