Chapter 5
"No, Tobias! Go to the others. Save yourself!"
She was trapped! Surrounded by Hork-Bajir. She had been trapped right after she demorphed.
I flew down to the ground and started morphing to Andalite as fast as I could. She wouldn't die! She couldn't die.
"No, Tobias! Save yourself!" she cried out again.
I'm not going to lose you! I shouted back. The morph was almost finished. There was still a flicker of hope left.
"Go, Tobias! You can't save me!"
I was fully Andalite now. I charged ahead. I would save her!
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
Four steel fences fell from the ceiling and formed a cage. I was trapped. I couldn't reach her!
I swung my tail at the metal bars. They didn't break.
Had to save her. Failing was not an option.
I demorphed and morphed to fly. I could fly through the little cracks and get out.
Hold on, Rachel! I'll get to you!
As soon as I was out of the cage, I demorphed. I would make it.
Hold on! I'll be right- I saw the blood on the floor. Not the green blood of the Hork-Bajir.
Red blood. Human blood.
I flew up into the sky and looked over the circle of Hork-Bajir. I looked down, and instantly wished I never had.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I yelled.
Rachel was lying on the floor. There was a slash mark made by a Hork-Bajir on her neck. Blood was flowing from the wound.
Rachel, I cried. Rachel!
No answer. Her eyes were open, staring right at me. Eyes that no longer held life.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I repeated again. I swept down and raked a Hork-Bajir in the eyes with my talons. It didn't matter.
I was too late. I had failed.
TSEEEEEEW!
A human-Controller was shooting at me with a Dracon beam. I flapped away, away from the Yeerks, away from Rachel.
I reached my friends, who were waiting outside. I landed next to them.
Jake, Rachel's dead, I told Jake. She was killed.
Jake nodded, as though he knew all this already. "Why do you think I chose Rachel to do the job?" he said calmly. "Only she would do it. She died as she would have wanted to-in battle."
What's wrong with you! I raged. Your cousin gets killed and you act like it's just another casualty of war. What's wrong with you!
"People die in war," Marco piped up. "Get over it."
Jake doesn't care about you, someone said. You're his warriors. He used you. When you die, he'll just replace you.
Don't listen to him, Tobias! another voice chimed in. It's all just a dream!
You know it's true, Tobias. Jake and Marco see Rachel as just another person who got killed. Another warrior who died a warrior's death.
He's lying!
Don't let him confuse you!
You know
it's true, Tobias.
No! You know
the truth, Tobias. You know it!
"Captain, to the bridge!"
I opened my eyes. My friends were gone. There was no factory in the distance.
It was a dream. Again.
I ruffled my feathers. My hawk body had broken out in a sweat. I was shivering.
It was another dream where I tried to save Rachel, but I wasn't in time. She died just before I could save her.
I had these dreams often. After the war, I woke up every night, just to realize I had a nightmare, and I was still perched on my tree's branch.
Eventually, the dreams became less frequent. They still occurred, though. Every nightmare, it was a different scenario. Rachel would be drowning, she'd be trapped at the Yeerk pool, she was trapped at her house.
Each time, I tried to save her. Each time, I was a little too late.
Jake had already left the room. Mendaresh must have left the speaker on, because I could hear Jake talking.
"What is it?" Jake asked.
"That was my question," Marco mumbled under his breath.
"Ship approaching in normal space, Captain," Menderash called out. "They've hailed us. Standard inquiry: our point of origin and destination."
This sounded like trouble. I flew out to the bridge, just behind Santorelli and Jeanne. They looked like they had been sleeping.
"Okay. Answer them," Jake commanded.
We gave the hailing ship our story. We were the Enterprise, a deep-space exploration ship from The United Federation of Planets. Jake and Marco thought it was a joke, but I thought it wasn't smart. If it was the Blade ship, the human hosts would undoubtedly know about Star Trek, and would ask us who we actually were.
That would be a problem.
"Receiving response. And a request for visual, two-way communication," Menderash said.
Uh-oh, I said. I knew that our joke would get us into trouble. Stupid move on our part.
What an
idiot. To think anyone wouldn't know about Star Trek.
So, he
messed up once. Everyone screws up. So have you.
"What do we show them?" Santorelli inquired.
"Not me. If it's the Blade ship, they may recognize me. Or Marco and Tobias, for that matter," Jake replied. He paused, and looked around at everyone. "Santorelli, you're the best B.S. artist aside from Marco. So you're the captain. Jeanne, you stand with him. Everyone else out of view. Narrow the audio channel to pick up Santorelli only." He waited. "Okay, open communications."
The viewscreen came to life. The image of a human man came up. He was laughing.
I had a bad feeling about this. Yet, when I looked at him, I thought he laughed like Santa Claus.
What?! Concentrate, I told myself.
"So you come from the Federation, do you?" the man said. "And where is Captain Picard?"
Santorelli sent a panicked look at Jake. Jake had a worried, puzzled look on his face. He never was good at making up things.
Look at
Jake. He doesn't even know what to do. Some leader you follow, Tobias.
Marco will
cover him.
Shut up! I told myself.
"You've always thought of yourself as more of a Captain Kirk," Marco whispered.
Leave it to Marco to come up with the wise response. Hopefully, the Yeerk wouldn't suspect anything.
Told you so.
"I've always thought of myself as more of a Captain Kirk," Santorelli said cockily. Marco grinned. I wasn't sure whether he was amused or terrified. I was a little nervous right now. And terribly distracted.
"Sensor confirmation: It's the Blade ship," Mendaresh whispered.
Now I was a lot more nervous. And I was no longer distracted. I was completely focused now.
The Yeerk captain said, "That's quite a ship you have there…excuse me, I don't know your name."
Marco made a slashing motion before Santorelli screwed up. "You're Rakich-Four-Six-Nine-One of the Flet Niaar pool," Marco said.
Santorelli repeated it, word for word.
The Yeerk seemed satisfied by the response. "I am Efflit-One-Three-One-Eight of the Sulp Niar pool. Well met. And what exactly are you doing here, brother? And how do you come to be flying a new cruiser-class ship?"
"I might ask the same of you," Santorelli retorted. "I find it hard to imagine what business a ship of the Yeerk Empire has in this far-flung quadrant."
"He's powering up his weapons and maneuvering to bring them to bear," Mendaresh said softly.
"He thinks we're from the Yeerk Empire," Jake replied. "Maybe to hunt him down as a traitor."
"My mission here is classified," the Yeerk captain said in a lower voice.
"As is mine," Santorelli shot back.
Something wasn't right here. The Yeerk was way too calm. He should have been ecstatic to meet his brother Yeerks. He had been alone for three years, outcasts in the galaxy. And yet, he seemed indifferent to the fact that we were Yeerks.
The Blade ship and the Rachel maneuvered for what seemed like eternity. Each ship was trying to get a better position to shoot. But we were getting closer. We had passed the moment of escape.
It had all come down to this showdown.
My heart was pounding away.
Jake said, "We have to blink first." He told Santorelli what to tell the Yeerk.
"It occurs to me, Efflit-One-Three-One-Eight, that it would be a tragedy is any misunderstanding occurred here between us," Santorelli said.
"Indeed? And what misunderstanding could occur, Rakich-Four-Six-Nine-One?" the Yeerk asked coolly.
This wasn't right. The guy was too under control. As if he knew what was actually going on.
"There is no empire, Efflit-One-Three-One-Eight," Santorelli said with a sigh. He acted as though he were telling a depressing story. "The empire is finished. I…my crew and I seized this ships as the Andalites closed in. We had heard that a Blade ship escaped and survived. We have been looking for you ever since. For more than three years."
Efflit nodded, as though he knew all this. I could tell that he didn't believe a single word of our story.
Guys, maybe- I began to say.
"You will place yourself under the command of The One?" Efflit asked abruptly.
"The who?" Santorelli blurted.
Marco looked around at all of us. Everyone shrugged. Marco was scared stiff. His face was paler than usual.
Efflit went on. "I command this ship, but I serve at the pleasure of The One Who Is Many. The One Who Is All. We are not alone, Rakich-Four-Six-Nine-One. We are not this ship alone. We are the seeds of a new empire that will far outshine the old, under the leadership of The One." The human that the Yeerk controlled had the look of a wild, crazy man. One who was drunk with power.
"Um, who is this…this One?" Santorelli asked.
"I will invoke his presence," the Yeerk responded. He closed his eyes and raised his face.
"Okay, this is unexpected," Marco said.
I half expected Marco to make some crack about the guy praying. But I guess he was too nervous to make jokes. My hawk body was agitated. It took a lot of control to keep the hawk mind from flying away.
The screen went blank. All of a sudden, the image of the human-Controller disappeared.
What the --- I demanded.
Then the screen came alive. The whole bridge was bathed in this glowing, searing light coming from the screen. It was as if the bridge was translucent and a really bright light had been turned on outside the ship.
Everything was lit up. Then the light started to become dimmer, and the outline of an alien face appeared.
Something was wrong with this alien. The face kept shifting, from a robotic face, to an elfish outline, and finally into the image of my shorm, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. Except he had a mouth, and in his mouth were many red-rimmed teeth.
This couldn't possibly be Ax, and yet, it was his face.
What was happening?
Ax? I whispered disbelievingly.
The One spoke. "Save your tricks for this Yeerk fool. I see the truth. I see all. Step into view, Jake the Yeerk-Killer. I know you are there, I feel your mind."
The voice told you that this alien wasn't guessing that Jake was there. It knew Jake was there. It probably knew that Marco and I were here also.
Jake stepped in front of the screen.
"I'm here," Jake said.
"You have done well to come this far. You have come to find your friend. But the Andalite is part of me now. As you will soon be," it said.
Jake stared back at the shifting faces of the alien. I could feel the evil, the corruption, the malevolence of The One in every one of those faces. It couldn't possibly be just confined to just the Blade ship. Was this Crayak? Or one of Crayak's minions?
I didn't know. The evilness of The One was making my thoughts a jumbled mess.
"Can we shoot?" Jake asked Mendaresh. He knew there was no point in concealing his words.
"His Dracon cannon has longer range and greater power. And his defensive fields have been enhanced. I doubt our cannon can penetrate them," Mendaresh answered vaguely. I knew what he was doing.
He was completing his hirac dilest, his last statement.
He knew we were going to die.
"Thought so. But we're faster," Jake said calmly.
"Yes."
"Okay." Jake took a deep breath, and I could tell he had just made his decision. He looked at all of us, with a sort of sad grin. "What was it, Marco? 'Crazy, reckless, ruthless decisions'?"
Marco nodded, wishing he could take back those words.
Jake smiled a weirdly familiar smile.
A smile I had seen a million times before.
Rachel's smile.
"Full emergency power to the engines," Jake ordered. "Ram the Blade ship."