Disclaimer: Just like I said in The Contact, I don't own Animorphs. Please don't sue me! Although Christmas is coming up, and it would be a nice present! * Smiles sweetly *
A/N: This is the sequel to my story The Contact. You will not understand this if you did not read that. This is the second story in the trilogy The Continued, and is a continuation of #54. Yeah! Anyway, after you finish, make sure to fill in that little magic box at the bottom of the page. J
The Carried
My name is Tobias.
And I just identified creatures that have supposedly been extinct for sixty-five million years as being alive.
Maybe I should back up and explain.
Six years ago, a dying Andalite prince landed on earth and gave me and two of my friends a powerful weapon to fight the Yeerks, a parasitic alien that burrows into your ear and takes over your body, which was the power to morph. At the time, the Yeerks were trying to take over earth, but of course, you know that. While we fought, we found Ax, the little brother of the Andalite prince, and somehow because of some very strange circumstances, my uncle. After three years of fighting, we managed to defeat the Yeerks, with a small amount of help from the Andalites. However, in the final battle, Rachel Berenson, my girlfriend, was killed. I lived in solitude for three years after that, grieving for her. Six months ago, we, being me, Jake, who is the leader of the Animorphs, as we call ourselves, Marco, who is Jake's best friend and another Animorph, and Cassie, who was Jake's girlfriend during the war and the final one of the six Animorphs, learned that Ax had been captured. Jake, Marco, and I went to go save him with three other people, but we left Cassie behind. Cassie became afraid, and thinking that we would need her help, she followed us with three others. Right before leaving earth's solar system, a meteor hit their ship, causing an explosion that sent them backwards in time three years. While there, Cassie managed to save Rachel and Tom, Jake's brother, before returning to this time. To make a long story short, she saved us and Ax, and since then we have been on the run from the Kelbrid, a species that has a treaty with the Andalites that makes it illegal for one of the species' members or technology to go into the other's galaxy. After they destroyed our ships, we bought a new one that had been found dead in space. When we were looking in the cargo hold, we found holding tanks for the frozen bodies of many Mercora, a species we thought died sixty-five million years ago at the same time that the dinosaurs did.
And that is how I came to see creatures that have been supposedly extinct for sixty-five million years.
Mercora?! But that's impossible! exclaimed Ax.
No, I told him. Look at them. Hundreds of eyes. Flat. Brightly colored. Large. Have a claw. They are most definitely Mercora.
Cassie started across the large storage space to look into the tanks holding the aliens. She touched her hands to the glass-like substance, but then pulled them away and started rubbing them vigorously. She brought her eye close to the tank and looked in, squinting against the vapors surrounding the animal. She stepped back in shock. "Tobias is right," she said, "It is them. Slightly different, but still recognizable as Mercora."
Unless they have been frozen like this for millions of years, Ax stubbornly protested, It is physically impossible for an advanced, sentient creature to remain unchanged so as to be still recognizable after sixty-five million earth years.
Go on up and take a look for yourself, Ax-man, I told him.
Ax galloped toward the tanks, and peered inside. His shoulders sagged.
"See? Don't disbelieve Tobias with his super-hawk-vision!" Rachel laughed.
"I wonder what they're doing in here," Cassie pondered.
"Ax, could we unfreeze them?" asked Jake.
I believe it would be possible, Ax replied. We still need to learn how to work the controls of this ship first, though.
Jake said, "I think we should probably go tell Marco and the others what we found, what do you guys think?"
One by one, we all agreed. The five of us rushed back to the bridge, where Menderash and Yahal were still fiddling with the computer. Marco was talking to Sandra, and Jeanne was nowhere to be found. I guessed that she was in Tom's room, making sure he was all right. Santorelli and General Doubleday were both laughing about some joke the General had just told. Toby was standing aloof, staring off into space. She missed her own people, the Hork-Bajir.
"Hey, Marco, guess what we just found in the storage hold?" Jake asked, half joking and half stressed.
"Umm… those little peanut packets they give you on plains? Boxes and boxes of those? Those might actually be better than those horrible preserved things they call food on the ship…"
"Remember the Mercora?"
"Yeah… What about them? Did we just find a colony of them? I refuse to eat any broccoli. They can't make me!" Marco joked.
Cassie said, "Umm… Actually, we did find some Mercora…"
"What?!" Marco nearly fell over. "Dude! Those things have been extinct for over sixty-five million years! What's with that?"
Just then Jeanne and Tom walked in, Tom looking completely normal, except for a bit tired.
"Tom?" Jake asked, uncertain. "Why are you standing up?"
"Oh, I just morphed and demorphed. Healthy DNA here, it was only my body that was hurt."
Jake smiled. "Great! You're feeling better then?"
"Just a bit tired. Besides that, never better!"
There was another moment of silence, but then Sandra finally broke it. "Okay… What are the Mercora?"
Marco jumped at the chance to show off his knowledge to his latest crush. "Well, once we got transported back through time sixty-five million years, in the same way Cassie was taken back when she saved Rachel and Tom. Anyway, while we were there, we met these aliens that used to live on this planet, because theirs was destroyed when a black hole drew in their sun. These aliens were called the Mercora, and were pretty decent guys, except for the fact that they introduced broccoli to earth. They tried to help us come back to our time, but then took the explosive we were going to use so they could destroy the comet that was about to hit earth right on their colony. We gave them the explosive, but we had to make it useless first…" His voice trailed off for a moment. "If the comet had not hit, humans would not have evolved and dinosaurs would still rule the earth. We had to let the comet come. The impact of the comet on earth closed the Sario Rip and allowed us to come back home. Their legacy lives on though: my mom still makes me eat broccoli." He made a face, and Sandra gave a quiet giggle at his joke, although the situation was serious.
Yahal cut in. We believe we now know how to use the controls. Shall we lift off?
Jake nodded yes, and there was a tremor through the ground as the engine pods turned on, and then we were in the sky. Acceleration was fast, and we were in space before we even realized it. We were all still tired, and decided to sleep and deal with the Mercora in the morning. Wanting to speak with Rachel before I went to sleep, I morphed human and followed her to her room. However, when I got there, I was surprised to find Cassie already sitting near Rachel whispering excitedly. She held out her right hand, and Rachel looked at something on Cassie's finger. They both gave excited squeals, and then Cassie got up and left the room.
On her way out, she passed me, and with a bright smile on her face, told me that she thought Rachel would want to talk to me. I went into Rachel's room, where she looked up surprised, but then invited me to sit down.
"Guess what!" she exclaimed. "Jake proposed to Cassie only a few hours ago!"
I put a smile onto my human face. I had to consciously think about doing it. I really was not used to human facial expressions anymore. "That's great!" I said, with much more enthusiasm than my face showed. For the next two hours, we talked about everything, from Cassie and Jake's engagement to wondering if another hawk had taken my meadow back on earth. I was so glad that Rachel was back.
"I love you," I told her.