(Visser, it seems to me that we have a standoff,) Ax said, being the only one of them who could really be trusted to speak to Visser Three without giving anything away.
(Don't try to bargain with me, fool. I have forces on the way,) Visser Three snapped.
(I wonder how your Blade ship will smell after you spread your newly-acquired stench through it,) Ax said, in a tone of mocking contemplation.
(The smell… It will go away,) Visser Three said, then proceeded to threaten one of his underlings for interrupting him; Tommy huffed, wondering again just how many of his forces would have cheerfully walked out on him if they weren't so terrified. (You were saying?)
(The smell would go away in about seven Earth days, if you were in the open air,) Ax said, and Tommy wrinkled his nose as the wind began to shift, blowing the stench of the Controllers Cassie had sprayed over to him. (Inside a spacecraft? Air-tight? Closed up? Cramped? You'll never lose the smell. Ever. However, thanks to Andalite chemical technology there is a way to remove the stench. Let the human Farrand go free; he's unconscious and hasn't seen what you are. Let him go, we'll give you the secret of neutralizing the stench, and we all walk away.)
It took a bit more negotiating, of course, but in the end Visser Three gave up and had one of the Hork-Bajir go and fetch Farrand for him. Laughing to himself as Ax told Visser Three and his forces that grape juice would get rid of the skunk smell – when anyone who had ever been camping would know that tomato juice was what you wanted to have if you were in a place where you might encounter skunks – Tommy left with the rest of the Animorphs.
Their next battle probably wasn't going to end nearly as happily as this one had, with the opportunity to laugh in Visser Three's face and the prospect of seeing the tiny skunk family reunited again, but Tommy knew he'd at least be able to hold onto it when things inevitably took a turn for the worse again. That was really all any of them could do, considering what they were up against. Considering how alone they all were.