Chapter 2
"A couple of Andalite guys came to the base where I teach," Jake said. We were cruising down some highway in his Jaguar convertible. We were going down to pick up Marco.
I was trying to speak as little as possible. I was still angry at Jake for sending Rachel alone on the Blade ship. I guess I hold grudges longer than most people.
For the first time since the war, I morphed. Currently, I was in my human form. It was nice, actually. The wind whipping through my hair, and feeling the rush of air blasting at my face. All feelings I hadn't experienced in a long time.
If I had stayed in my hawk morph, it would have been hard to stay in one place without ruining the car. Even though I didn't like Jake, I didn't want to mess up his stuff. Plus, it would look a little weird if a red-tail hawk was in a car.
"Ax's ship, Intrepid, came upon what appeared to be an abandoned alien ship. He took himself and some of his crew to the ship because there were signs of Earth-based DNA, even though no life-form was on the ship."
That got my attention. Until then, I had mostly been looking at the passing scenery. "Earth-based DNA? But how…" Why would there be any living thing from Earth that deep in space? I was puzzled, and that made me angry. I wasn't used to being stumped.
"Ax found the source of the DNA. They were polar bear hairs." Jake stopped speaking. He looked at me impassively, but I knew he was trying to read my emotions.
That was a waste of time for him. I hadn't been human in so long, I forgot how to make facial expressions. Mostly I had the intense stare of a hawk.
Polar bear hairs? How would those get there?, I wondered.
Then it hit me. A polar bear killed Rachel. The Blade ship. It must have been the same Yeerk. All of a sudden, I was back to that horrible day on the Pool ship. I tried to speak, but my mouth wouldn't make any sounds. I was choking up.
"Suddenly, the ship fired on the Intrepid. Many Andalites died, and the ship was severely damaged," Jake continued. He acted as though he didn't notice my reaction. "The Blade ship emerged from within the alien ship, and both blew away into Kelbrid space."
"Who are the Kelbrid?" I interrupted. I had never heard of these aliens before. Ax had a tendency to blabber about aliens, but I didn't recall him ever saying something about Kelbrid aliens.
Again, I was stumped, and that made me madder at myself.
"Nobody knows much about them, even the Andalites. Supposedly, they have a treaty with the Andalites. No Andalites enter Kelbrid space, and no Kelbrids enter Andalite space," Jake replied.
"So the Blade ship is allied with these Kelbrid?"
"I don't really know. The first officer of the Intrepid will be with us. His name is Mendaresh, and he's permanently in human morph. He might know more, but that's all he told me."
I knew that Jake wasn't telling the whole story, but I didn't feel like pressing him for information. Ax was captured? That didn't make sense.
All Andalite warriors would rather kill themselves than be captured. And yet, the first officer of his ship said he was still alive. Unless the Andalites had changed their military doctrine, he should be dead by now.
But why would the first officer trap himself in a human body? That confused me. Giving up an Andalite body for a human body was like trading in a nice meadow for a space in captivity.
"Why did he become a nothlit?!" I asked, trying to sound surprised. I had forgotten how to alter the sound of my voice to show emotion.
"If he entered Kelbrid space, he might trigger off a huge war between the Kelbrid and Andalites," Jake said.
That made sense. We didn't exactly want to go and start some huge interstellar war. All we wanted to do was save Ax.
"Okay," I said. I didn't say anything else. My mind was spinning with all this new information. I hadn't thought so much since the war.
"We're just about there," Jake said. We were now in Santa Barbara, which is where Marco lived. It was one of the few things I knew about my former friends.
"I'm going to demorph," I said. It was getting close to the two-hour limit, and I didn't want to get stuck in my human body.
I hopped in the back seat and concentrated on the hawk. And I felt the changes begin.
Morphing is never logical. I've seen some gross things. Watching someone morph from an insect back to human would make anyone want to hurl.
CRAAAAAAAAACK. My bones became smaller as I transformed back to hawk. My toes became thin as they became talons.
My nose was sucked into my face as my mouth grew out and formed into a beak. A feather pattern appeared over my skin, as it transformed into reddish-brown feathers.
WHOOOOOSH. My arms were sucked in a little as they became wings. My arms flattened out, so that they could flap and keep me aloft.
After a couple more minutes of shifting, cracking, and realigning, I was in my natural body. A red-tail hawk.
"We're here," Jake announced. He got out of the car and started walking to the front door.
I spread my wings and flew out of the car. It was a nice day, so I was able to catch a thermal and glide.
I wondered if Jake thought I would fly away. The idea had passed my mind, and I found it fairly enticing. But I wouldn't run away and not save Ax. Jake knew that, and he trusted me.
Marco's house was huge. It had tons of space. Why would he need so much space?, I wondered.
The backyard was huge as well. He had an enormous pool, as well as a few palm trees growing around as well. Marco must have been making a nice amount of money.
Marco himself was in the pool. But he seemed to be changing. His skin was a sort of greenish-blue, and his skin looked crustaceous. He was morphing a lobster.
I remembered when Ax, Marco, and Jake had used that morph to escape Controller cops. They morphed lobsters and hid in tanks. One problem: they were in a restaurant. Marco nearly got cooked for dinner.
Someone answered the door. It must have been a servant, a butler, something like that.
Jake walked in and spotted Marco at the other end of the pool. He was smiling a little, as if he were remembering a fond memory.
"Well, if it isn't Lobster Boy," Jake remarked.
Marco must have said something to Jake in thought-speak. I couldn't here it.
"Uh-huh. Some reason why you're morphing to lobster?" Jake queried.
I was getting impatient. This was a waste of time, and every minute we wasted, Ax was being taken further away.
Marco must have replied, because Jake said, "Well, then it's a good thing you have the ability to turn into a lobster, because otherwise, what would you do? I mean, normal people, they drop their keys in the pool, they're just totally helpless. Those keys stay down there. Forever."
I could tell Marco knew something was happening. He stopped becoming a lobster, and morphed back to human.
"You seem perky, today. You want something to drink?" Marco asked.
"What are you going to do, morph to cow and squeeze me out a glass of two percent?" Jake retorted?
Marco had a curious look on his face. "I take that as a no? Wetherbee? Can you bring out a diet Coke?" he said. The servant went away to fetch the drink. "There's definitely something wrong with you, Jake. You're being way too clever. Way too quick. What's up? You finally go on Prozac?" Marco said.
Jake winced a little. I guess Jake never acted this way. Marco could tell Jake wasn't hiding anything. As I said before, Jake doesn't do a good job of concealing his feelings.
Marco flopped out on a long chair, while Jake sat down. Jake looked up at me and smiled a little. Marco looked up, and saw me. He sat up suddenly.
At that instant, Marco knew something was wrong. He had a shocked look on his face. He knew I hated Jake for what he had done to Rachel. He knew I would never go with Jake unless it was important. Very important.
Marco drank his Coke. His whole body was trembling, as if he were freezing on this hot day. He was scared, nervous.
"You're about to ruin my life, aren't you?" Marco said. It was more of a statement than a question.
"That depends," Jake answered.
"Yeah, right," Marco said sarcastically. "So, what is it?"
Jake told Marco everything he had told me. With every sentence, Marco looked like he knew he was trapped. He was going to come with us. There was no question about it. I knew he would whine for awhile about losing his wonderful life, but he would come.
I got tired of staying in the air. I swooped down and landed on the table between Jake and Marco. I could hear better from down here than up in the sky.
"So where's the other Horsewoman of the Apocalypse?" Marco asked of Cassie.
"Cassie? She's not coming on this one," Jake responded.
"Good for you," Marco said with a nod. "At least you have that much sense.
"She's doing what she needs to be doing," Jake said. Wrong thing to say.
"And I'm not?" Marco replied angrily.
I would have said something then, but I didn't want to get Marco upset. He already didn't want to go. He would come, but he would be very reluctant.
"So now, you're rounding up the whole gang, huh?" Marco said. "Like one of those over-the-hill-gunfighters movies? Like our parts should be played by Clint Eastwood and James Garner?" He gave me a look. "And Foghorn Leghorn?" he added.
Marco, you're not even twenty. I'm old, for a red-tail. You, you're not even old enough to drink, I said.
"Yeah? Well, I aged in gorilla years," Marco whined. He looked at me and Jake. I wasn't impressed by Marco's behavior, and Jake seemed to be irritated.
It had been three years since I had last seen Marco. I would have thought he had grown up a little. He still acted like a child, the same way he did when we first started fighting the Yeerks, a distant six years ago.
Marco was annoyed, and when he was annoyed, he tended to say things that got other people mad. This wasn't going to be fun.
"You sure you're up for this Jake?" Marco pressed. "You haven't been exactly living the American Dream since your last war."
Jake's face turned a little red. Marco was mad as well. Great.
I was a little curious what Jake had done after the war. But I didn't care. I didn't feel like hearing their stories, and then getting pity dumped on me. I had moved on.
"Well, maybe we live and learn," Jake shot back.
"What have you learned?" Marco snapped. "You've been all depressed, and now you see a way out because someone's giving you another chance to play war?"
"Maybe," Jake said softly.
Marco groaned, as if he hadn't wanted to hear that. "Okay, Jake-man, I'll cut the baloney if you will." He leaned towards Jake.
Finally. I had been waiting for Marco to say something useful.
"You're my friend. Ax is my friend. On a good day I can even stand the flea-bitten buzzard here."
Flea-bitten buzzard? That made me mad at Marco. But I had put up with his insulting remarks for three years. I could deal with it.
"…been messed up behind some hard decisions you made," Marco continued. "And now you want to go make more hard decisions?"
"I learned from my mistakes," Jake said defensively. "This time, maybe I'll do it differently. Some things at least."
Marco sighed. He was about to give Jake his two cents. And if Jake got battered by Marco's words, I'd be glad. I never talked to Jake about his decision to send up Rachel with Tom. I'm not that kind of person. Maybe Marco would do the job here, and make Jake realize what he's done.
"Okay, Jake, I'm in," Marco started. "I'll go with you. You know that. But here's what you need to realize going in: If you're in charge you're going to end up right back in the same swamp you didn't like the first time."
"Marco, I-" Jake began to say.
"Shut up for a minute," Marco said. Jake fell silent. "Listen, if I'm putting my life on the line with you again, the price you pay is to listen to me now. Back in the day, Jake, you made more heavy decisions than any ten men would have to in a hundred lifetimes. You made life-and-death calls. You got us up to our butts in alligators, and you got us back out. And, sorry, it's not what people think, that you were some kind of military genius. I'm better at tactics than you are."
Jake had this stony look on his face. I was happy to see that arrogant smirk wiped off his face.
And humble, too, I added for no reason.
"It's true, and Jake knows it," Marco resumed. "Jake, you won because you didn't scare. You didn't panic, you didn't scare, and you didn't play a part or strike poses wondering what history would think. You made the right calls without regard to all that. But then, when the shooting was all over, you started questioning everything you did. You armchair quarterbacked your entire life and decided you made mistakes. Well, no kidding. Surprise: You're not a god."
"This time I won't make mistakes," Jake said.
Yeah, right, I said to myself.
"Don't tell me that. You want a zero-screwup fight?" Marco asked.
"I got Rachel killed," Jake said.
At that point, I zoned out. Whenever I thought of Rachel, I spiraled back in time to the final battle, the day we captured the Pool ship.
For the millionth time, I remembered standing on the bridge of the Pool ship. I was in my human morph, looking at the viewscreen. Rachel was there, surrounded on all sides by Yeerks in morph. She was so close, and yet so far away.
"I love you," she said to me.
I had been crying. I knew she was dead, and nothing could save her. I was helpless, standing there, knowing, watching, crying.
Why had life been so cruel to me?
"So, you're in, right?" Jake asked Marco. I shook myself out of my funk.
"Of course," Marco said with a deep sigh. "What's next, fearless leader?"