(Yay!! I'm using some web site's spell checker! Yipee! )









The Encounter











Blackness. Jeninel struggled to his feet and slowly waved his hand in the nothingness in front of him in front of him. Hello? He called, hoping he wasn't the only survivor.

Jeninel? Tamanore whispered.

I'm here. Jeninel answered. He frowned as some liquid seemed to begin to drip on his back.

I'm hurt, Jeninel, really bad. He whispered.

Where are you? Jeninel cried.

Look up. Tamanore said so faintly Jeninel wasn't sure he had really heard it.

His stalk eyes, now adjusted to the darkness, peered above him and what they saw almost made Jeninel faint. There was his captain-Prince nearly torn in two. He was impaled on a broken crossbeam like a worm on a hook. Blood was spurting from his wounds, and his legs were twisted at crazy angles.

Glad . . . you're fine, Jen-. Tamanore didn't finish his sentence.

Morph! Morph now before it's too late! Jeninel cried.

It . . . too late . . . already. And Tamanore seized up in pain. Then, suddenly, went limp, never to move again.

Jeninel stood there, for what seemed like hours, but was actually only a few minutes. Finally he called, Titani?

No response.

God, he thought, so he was the only survivor. He began to walk toward the control pad when he stumbled. He bent down to feel the obstacle. Furry, large, Andalite.

Titani.

Is that you, Titani?

No response.

He bent down to check his pulse, and realized he was only knocked unconscious by the impact. Figuring he would wake up soon, he trotted over to the display generators. On He muttered out of habit.

The computer did not respond.

Lights. He tried again.

Nothing.

He walked toward a door and muttered, Open.

The door slid open. The doors were under a different power source than the ship. They were energized by the Andalite's own body heat, so if there were any alive, the doors were sure to open.

He stepped through the frame into the room nicknamed the 'mini room.' The wall was lined with small ships that were used to repair the engines. It was to programmed to respond to hand gestures, so when the Andalite's hands moved, the probes moved. But Jeninel wasn't interested in that right now, he was in the atmosphere anyway; the gravity would ground the ships that were designed for the weightlessness of space. His hand hovered over the button that would open the hatch.

Should he do it?

It would be a way in for any creature that might be outside. Before the crash he had seen a blinding flash of green. Green meant chlorophyll. Chlorophyll meant plants. Plants meant herbivores. Herbivores meant . . . well, they meant carnivores. With a curse he realized he should have at least got a general idea about the planet before the crash, but it was too late now. The engine was destroyed, probably, and he had no idea on what was behind the hologram covered walls of the Explorer 249. He glanced longingly at the sky surrounding him, almost wishing it would fool him into thinking he was in an open plain.

On sudden inspiration, he turned to the far wall, and studied the probes that were lined up on a shelf. He turned one so the scanner could sweep his eyes, as sort of an identification method, then said, On.

The android hummed to life. It was a useful little thing; it was capable of detecting and translating sonic waves, light waves, radio waves, microwaves, zero-space waves, and about a million other things. He let it go and watched it hover. He pressed the purple button that opened the hatch to the outside. After receiving whispered instructions, it zipped outside, like a Kafit bird on a mission. The hatch closed behind it.

He put a tiny lens on one eye, sort of like a contact, and got a first look at this strange, exciting, and never before seen planet.

From the machine's tiny imputer, images flashed before the Andalite's eyes. Two-legged creatures, some were green, with patches of darker green and pale brown. It seemed like wonderful camouflage. But others were red, purple, and others still seemed to have blue legs, and colorful tops. Were they all the same species? Four-legged creatures stopped to bark at the metal thing that whizzed through the air. The android turned, being controlled by Jeninel, paused to peer at the ship. Even from a few hundred feet away, the damage was obvious. The primary engine was a great, black charcoal, but the secondary engine, miraculously, seemed in good condition. The feeding dome had massive shredder tears on the dome, the streams had evaporated, and huge patches of grass were still smoldering.

He wouldn't be getting a few good hoof-fulls of grass anytime soon. He directed the probe away from the ship and turned it toward the creatures that wobbled on two legs. From his limited view, he could easily tell they hadn't even developed a theory about anything Z-space related. Old fashioned terrain vehicles were parked on the ground, and some were holding one of the most primitive versions of a shredder. It was a scene you would see in a holo about a time thousands of years ago. Did they still have chemical engines? They must be fascinating, he thought.

He ordered the machine to return, and from the still activated light wave imputer, he saw some of the creatures pointing up at the probe, and he smiled an Andalite smile as the opening on their face opened as far down as possible, as the probe returned to the ship. A few green creatures followed it until they were under the ship, their mouths still gaping.

After returning the probe to its resting place, he began to think. If he were to go out of the safety of the ship, and siphon the energy intake from the primary engine, to the secondary engine they would have power. Maybe not enough power to get them beyond outer orbit, but they would be able to send out a distress call.

He stood for a moment, debating it with himself. Finally, he decided that he would go out and do it manually, if he brought his shredder.

His fingers rubbed at the handle of his often used shredder, and slowly, he took it out of its holster and prepared for a possible battle. With one hand never leaving his shredder, he once again, pressed the glowing, lavender button to the right of the hatch.

Whooooosh.

The hatch slid open with a rush of air. He glanced down and saw grass about fifteen feet below him. His hoofs began to tingle at the site of grass. How long had it been since his last feeding? Surely hours.

He took a deep breath, and leapt into space.

His legs hit the ground sooner than he had expected, and he tried to absorb the shock wave of the fall.

He managed.

Barely.

With his legs shaking, he stood up, and peered around the unexplored planet. The two-legged creatures were in groups further back, among a few trees. In one tree, he saw four different species of bird! In only a single tree! How many species were on this planet? In the soil he saw tiny black insects, running in a line. In one stalk eye, he saw a few green, two- legged creatures approaching him.

He stared at the two-legged animals, evaluating them. They seemed to have no natural weapons. Of course, that meant nothing. There was a creature on the homeworld that seemed quite harmless at first, but a drop of its saliva could kill a full grown Andalite. Was this creature poisonous, too? If they were, he thought, he'd better not make one of them mad. They could be like a Skrit-Na, angered easily. You never knew with aliens.

He turned to trot toward the engines, but he kept one stalk eye on the creatures, and one on all his surroundings.

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Hi! I have a great fic idea, also a very long one (100,000 words+) It will be a 'what if humans were the z-space travelers, and the ignorant Andalite's were the ones being infiltrated by Yeerks? Hmm? I like it, and I have plenty of ideas for it. I am bored, so I will tell you all why I put the authors on my favorite's list. Don't fall asleep.

Ruby: Because of her story; The Secret. OMG! I was bawling on my way to school because I had just got done reading it! She is such a talented author.

Blue Dragon: Mostly because of her story: The Kelbrid War. It is a must-read. It has the most creative, original, shocking, high quality continuation of #54. Her other 25 stories are amazing as well.

Anifan1: Because she has such an unusual view to the Animorph books. In her stories, the Yeerks are never as bad as they seem, and are, in some way, portrayed as the good guys. The Andalites being bad. She is an interesting read.

Lisa-Ann: Because has so many wonderful stories! A lot of them are very sad.

ucyimd1: Because her stories have such a huge vocabulary, and are very original.

Janaya: Because her stories are short, yet very emotional. The story about a girl going on an airplane for the first time really touched me. When I was 12, I had to fly alone on an airplane half way across the US!

Review!!!