Tobias's Legacy Part 4
The Others 2
Prologue
We are coming out of Z-Space… now,
Alisi-Tetnar-Acrat, Andalite Aristh, pressed a button on her console.
Coming out of Z-Space, Captain Demol, she announced.
Good, he replied, now, let us rendezvous with your sister.
She nodded.
Sir! an Ops officer cried, Bug fighter!
On screen, Demol said.
A cockroach shaped ship appeared on the view screen. It fired a Dracon beam, and hit the starboard Shredder.
Shields are down to… 34%, sir! We also lost a Shredder.
Return fire! he snapped.
A green beam of light shot out from the remaining Shredder.
The blast hit the bug fighter directly on the cockpit shield.
Blast took them down to 15%, sir, the Ops officer said.
Okay, fire again,
The Shredder fired again. At the same time, the Bug fighter fired.
Sir! Forward stabilizer is gone! The Bug fighter is gone, as well.
Suddenly, a piece of debris floated towards them.
Evasive maneuvers! Demol cried.
But, he was too late.
They would never make it to Earth.
Chapter 1
My name is Anthony.
Anthony, the Protector of the World. Defender of the Human race.
I've been empowered with the power to change. Into any animal I touch. It's an amazing power. At this time, I haven't tried it yet, but I guess it's powerful.
It started the day before. My best friends Robbie, Ziana and Adam, plus my sister Meg, her best friend Tanya and I were biking in a park, when a spaceship appeared. It was the ship of an Andalite, a race of aliens that tried to protect other species from a threat. The Yeerks.
Imagine a slug, the size of a small rat. It's green and slimy. It has no eyes, or a mouth, or a nose. Now, here's the bad part.
They are parasites. They infest a creature and take over its functions. They walk, talk and eat like a normal. On Earth, they are everywhere.
My friends and I will destroy the threat.
If we can.
The day after we had met Kandil-Morin-Pantar (Kandi), we would hold a meeting with her.
It was Sunday, so I had the day to myself. I called Adam and Robbie, and then Meg called Ziana and Tanya. We would all go biking over to the city and hang out there.
Yeah, right. We had a meeting with an alien.
Chapter 2
We all met up at the park's pond.
"Alright," I said, "let's see what Kandi wants us to do."
Everyone nodded.
We rode to the forest. Kandi was there, waiting for us.
Greetings, friends, she said.
"Hey Kandi," I said.
Follow me, she said.
We did. Into her ship.
I will tell you about myself now, she said, I was raised on a planet approximately 2.58 light-years away. I lived in a scoop not far from the Central City. I had one sister, Alisi-Tetnar-Acrat. She is a scout on a warship.
She strode over to a computer and activated it.
Computer, holograph enslaved species,
On the screen appeared a list of races. There were Taxxon, Hork-Bajir, Nahar, Gedds and much more.
The Yeerks have spread through the galaxy like a disease. They never stop for mercy or kindness. They enslave, or destroy.
"Wow," Ziana whispered.
The screen flickered off.
"Now what?" I asked.
You must learn to morph,
We all nodded.
"Well," Robbie said, "let's do it!"
Chapter 3
After an hour of practice, we finally morphed. My first morph was a kafit bird, a native of Kandi's home world. It scared me when it hissed at me. I jumped back just as it clawed at where I had been a half second earlier. Fortunately, Kandi tranquilized it.
"Thanks," I said, somewhat shakily.
I touched the bird's front left wing. I felt a tingle as its DNA flowed into my hand.
Then, I morphed.
First, my wings Fwished! out of my sides. They were leathery and yellow.
My back elongated and twisted. A beak grew out, and my vision widened. It was great.
SPROOT! SPROOT! Talons burst from my hands, but I felt nothing.. My hands melted away.
I had morphed.
After another while, I learned how to control animal instincts, thought-speak, and direct thought-speak. After that, I demorphed.
The others also acquired the kafit. They morphed and went through the same process.
Until Ziana lost control.
KREEEEEEE! KREEEEEEE!
I jumped back again.
"Zi! Calm down!" I cried.
She hissed and glowered at me. She was not happy.
She flew to attack me.
"AHHHHHH!" I yelled as I body checked her.
She fell to the ground, hissing.
Control the animal instincts! Kandi yelled.
The kafit squirmed and squealed.
Then, it fell silent and still.
O-okay. I'm in control.
"You sure?" I squeaked.
Yeah, I think so. I mean… she trailed off.
I say that we demorph. Robbie said.
Everyone agreed.
Chapter 4
After we demorphed, we sat around and chatted with Kandi. She found Earth interesting. Primitive, but interesting.
After about an hour, Kandi's computer went off.
"You have mail," I muttered, "and loud mail it is."
It is a distress beacon! she cried out, It is from an Andalite ship!
"What?" we all asked in unison.
She ran to the computer.
Alisi! Demol! No!
"Kandi? What's wrong?" Meg asked.
My sister and her mate have been attacked, and are crashing! she said.
"Where?" Zi asked.
Approximately… 3 miles north of here.
Everyone looked to Zi.
"What?" she asked. Then she got the picture.
"Let's go, leader!" Adam grinned.
We found birds. With Tanya's help of course. She was great with animals.
We acquired the DNA an then morphed.
We flew to the appointed location. We saw a glint in the sky.
"Here it comes," Meg whispered.
It was the same size as Kandi's fighter. It looked the same as well.
Same pod on the front, same triangular section in the back. The tail gun. The other guns mounted on the front.
And it was going to crash.
Alisi! Kandi called, I can see that your forward stabilizer has been damaged. If you bleed your engines, you may be able to stabilize.
Then, the ship stopped rocking back and forth. It had stabilized.
Kandil! We are ready to land. a voice said. It sounded female. Thank you for your assistance. Unfortunately, our crew, aside from one officer, have died from the multiple attacks.
They will be remembered.
The ship came in for a landing. It wasn't the smoothest landing, by far, but they were safe.
The door opened, and three Andalite bodies moved into view.
Kandil! Human-Controllers! the female voice cried.
Chapter 5
Kandi put her up hand.
Alisi, there is no threat.
The female Andalite Kandi called Alisi looked confused. It was hard to tell, having four eyes and all.
What do you mean? There are humans here!
They are… friends. Kandi said. That got all of us.
Friends? But they…
"Um, excuse me?" Ziana suddenly said, "But we know all about you Andalites."
A male voice, deep and threatening, said, How do you know of us?
Kandi looked kind of frantic. She looked every which way, then slung her head.
I told them all of it.
That got the big male going. His eyes widened, his nostrils flared.
I saw Kandi flinch. Of course. Private thought-speak.
After about two minutes of this the male turned and entered the ship.
Alisi came over to Kandi and embraced her.
Kandi turned and said, This is my sister, Alisi-Tetnar-Acrat. She is the first mate of the ship KafitScreech. The male that was out here was Demol-Tela-Corall. He is the captain of the ship.
We nodded, unsure of what to say.
That is the highest rank of an Andalite, aside from Electorate, or Council member.
We nodded like we knew what she were talking about
Then, Demol came out of the ship.
I am sorry for how I behaved earlier. But, as you know, it is a law to not transfer technology from one species to another. But, the laws have been broken many times lately.
I nodded.
You should all go home for now. Kandi said.
We all agreed.
We turned and walked back to Kandi's ship.
"Hey Robbie!" I said, full of energy, "You want to do something? I mean, we could shoot some hoops at your house, or something."
Robbie stiffened.
"Uh, sure, I guess so."
I took this as a sign. I didn't say anything though.
We all split up and decided to meet again the following day, after school.
Robbie and me rode to his house. He led the way, but took the long route. I wondered why.
When we got there, and Robbie saw that his dad's car wasn't there, he eased up.
"Hey Robbie, what's wrong? You seem jumpy."
"Sorry," he muttered.
I decided to back off.
But then, when he was taking off his sweat-shirt, I noticed a bruise in his back.
What the…
"Hey, Robbie, there's a bruise on your back!"
"What?" he squeaked.
Finally, I got the picture. So many clues. He being jumpy, excuses about sudden pain.
He was being abused.
Chapter 6
"Hey Zi, do you anything about Robbie's dad?"
It was night. I had left Robbie alone for the rest of the day. I figured that his closest friend in the world may be able to help. So, I called Ziana.
"I know that he works at the construction site down on Albany. He also goes to a bar on Second every Friday, Monday and Tuesday."
"Okay. Thanks."
"Why did you want to know?"
I told her what I had seen.
"That's terrible! I mean…"
"Look, don't tell anyone. I think Robbie wants this to be a secret for now."
She didn't agree, but I talked to her.
"Oh," she said before hanging up, "He's part of the Sharing."
Gabe came over about an hour later. Her grandfather had died of a heart attack. Or at least that's what we had all been told.
I was convinced that he was a Controller before he had died. Maybe he didn't get to a Yeerk pool quick enough.
So Gabe and her family were here for a few hours. Gabe and I stepped outside and spoke for a while. We kissed for a while, then went inside.
The adults were talking about the outbursts that Gabe's grandfather had. Now Gabe stiffened. Like she knew about the Yeerks.
I glanced to Meg. Her eyes widened.
"I'll be right back." I told Gabe. She nodded.
I ran upstairs. Meg followed.
"Did you see that?" I whispered.
"No. I didn't see your girlfriend get all weird after someone said the word Yeerk. I didn't notice how she looked like she was going to faint."
"I can't believe it! Not Gabe."
Then, I don't know how, but I thought of something I saw on the Internet, about the Sharing being evil, run by aliens.
Gabe, her grandfather and Robbie's dad were all in the Sharing. A connection?
"I think we may have a problem."
Chapter 7
I went to school the next day. Gabe was there. She was talking to some girl in her class. I went through all of my classes, think of her.
Then, afterwards, I went to Zi's. Everyone was there.
"Gabe's a Controller," I blurted out, "and so was her grandfather."
"I saw it too," Meg confirmed, "and it gets worse. I saw Gabe's grandpa rubbing his ear every once in a while as well. Gabe did the same thing a lot yesterday."
Robbie looked up, "My father does it too sometimes…" He sounded sad.
"Guys, this is not good." Adam said.
"You think?" Meg growled.
"Look, I really hate to say this, but I think that Antoine's right." Adam folded his hands together. "The Sharing and Yeerks have to be connected. I saw this guy a few weeks ago in the mall screaming about slugs in his head. You know who he was?"
"Who?" Tanya asked.
"Edwin Clark, the second most important member of the Sharing. He's in the papers all the time. So, the cops carried him away. A few days later, he was normal. The paper said that he had been going through seizures. Yeah, right."
At that moment, I saw the newspaper.
"What date is that?" I asked Zi.
"It's from yesterday." Zi said.
I picked it up.
"'Doctor Jakob Richmond,'" I read, "'Head of Medical Sciences in New York, will be move to our city on Wednesday with his daughter, Nicky. He will arrive on time for a Medical Convention that will be held at James A. Kilmer Recreational Hall on the following Sunday. Bodyguards, for his protection, which have been volunteered by the Sharing, will follow Richmond throughout town. A speech will be given about many topics, including lifestyles, medicine, The Sharing, world trade, politics…'"
"Hey," Tanya said, "wasn't he in that dream of yours?"
"Yeah, he shot me with a Dracon beam."
"He's got to be a Controller as well." Meg said.
"Okay, we know that the Yeerks use the Sharing to get hosts, but what about the branches everywhere else? Like where else are the Yeerks hiding out? I know that there are at least twenty eight branches through-out the US."
Robbie had thought of something that none of us had.
"We can't win…" Tanya said.
This is book four.