Chapter 6

Jake's orders came with urgency and control. ((Jeanne, you're closest. Find Tobias and stay with him. Cassie, find the building and do what you can to keep anybody from entering. Marco, Sarge, start heading this way.))

((Jake,)) I called back as the white suits studied me and spoke in a foreign language. ((I'm outside. The rear of the building collapsed. Two of the white suits are here.))

He became silent as he considered his options. ((What else can you see?)) he eventually asked.

I took my eyes away from the suited aliens and, with blurry eyes, investigated the surroundings. It was like a trench in the ground, but not like the Mak roadways' smoothened cuttings. The land was rough and dark, and I could see no signs of life other than the suits that spoke to each other frantically. Or at me. I could barely tell.

((It… It looks like a ditch,)) I reported. ((Nobody else here.))

I peered back up at the very moment that I felt more rocks being pulled away from my damaged body. One of the suits reached down to me and placed a gloved hand against my chest, then my arms. He was still talking, and a little more calmly this time. The second was working hard to remove the rocks that compressed me.

Jake's voice grew closer. ((Assume the public can see what's going on. Get in there, get Tobias, and let's start heading for the ship. We have forty-five left in morph. Go!))

Then, very faint in my head, I heard Santorelli speak up. ((Boss, we found a kind of space chart! Looks useful.))

((Take it,)) Jake ordered. ((Then get over to our position as soon as you can. Tobias is the priority.))

((I can see the building!)) Cassie announced. ((Lots of dust, and there's a crowd gathering. Two of the white suits are stopping anybody from going in.))

The white suits above me were trying to pull me out. The one pulling away the rocks had almost finished and was inspecting my legs that were, without a doubt, broken beyond repair. The other was checking my vitals, talking to me like he was trying to get a response. I couldn't, even if I tried.

((I'm finding a way around!)) Cassie said. ((I won't be long, Tobias!))

With my blurred vision, the next few seconds seemed almost unreal in the Mak homeworld's orange ambiance. As I continued to look up at the faceless suit that cared for me, a large black paw swung from the side, almost too quick to see. It crashed to the side of the suit's head, and he fell harshly away and out of my view. The black paw shifted, and the outline of a Black Bear reared up as the second white entity was thrown violently to the side.

((Jeanne?!)) I gasped. ((How did you…?))

She disappeared from view without immediate reply, and I heard the faint noises of additional paw slams.

((Jake!)) she called. ((I am by Tobias! The people in suits are unconscious!))

Even he sounded perplexed. ((…. How?!))

((I have knocked them out,)) she replied with that thick French twang.

The rubble around me shifted again, and the bear came back into view, its big nose approaching my face. My vision was clearing up, and I caught sight of her eyes.

((Jeanne, I hope nobody was around to see that…)) Jake grumbled.

She responded, ((there is nobody. I made sure, Jake.))

((You're a bear?!))

That was Cassie. I couldn't move to see, but Jeanne's head movement implied Cassie's arrival into the deep ditch behind the line of buildings.

((She's what?!)) Jake barked.

((I have rescued Tobias,)) Jeanne said back, as if the statement alone explained everything. ((They are unconscious.))

Cassie sprinted into view, and her Mak eyes swooped over me with concern. ((Wow… Okay, Tobias. Demorph.))

Jake heard Cassie's suggestion and pressed for clarity. ((How does he look?))

((Legs look like Play-doh gone wrong,)) she replied glumly. ((He isn't moving anywhere.))

Jake was quick to agree with her previous order. ((Demorph, Tobias. The rest of us are nearly there. Nobody will see you.))

I didn't need another invitation and began the process of demorphing. As I did, the space around me began to open up, no longer compressed by the small gap of rocks that had collapsed around me. My vision started to improve drastically, and the area became more detailed. The ditch I had collapsed into was shallow but blocked either side by large walls and buildings. It looked almost like a drained waterway, a lazy slice through the town.

Cassie was sitting by my side, and even in the foreign Mak eyes, I couldn't miss the worry. Jeanne, on the other hand, was nearby, still proud in her bear morph. Before her lay the pile of two unconscious bodies in white radiation suits.

Another Mak arrived just as I had finished demorphing. Jake calculated the situation carefully as I rustled my feathers and clutched close to the rocks around me, keeping out of sight.

He was most interested in Jeanne. He walked right up to her, occasionally glancing down at the bodies. I noticed him waving the comms device over them, sending images through to Menderash. ((Mendy says it was approximately a minute and forty-eight seconds from the moment Tobias was reported injured to the moment you arrived here. How did you morph bear so quickly?))

((I morphed quickly, Jake,)) she explained innocently.

Jake wasn't buying it. ((I'd like to have a private talk later, back on the ship.)) Then he lifted his comms device. ((Mendy, seen enough?))

His muffled voice entered our heads. ((These suits are used to avoid bodily contact; the material makes that clear.))

((You said before,)) Jake uttered, ((that the Kelbrids are thought to secrete toxin.))

((Yes. I would highly advise care when acquiring their DNA.))

((You're jumping the gun there, Mendy,)) Jake chuckled bitterly. ((But yeah, I think we'll need to. We'll wait for the others to get here and set up sentry.))

((Jake,)) I said once it was apparent their conversation was over. His Mak head turned, and he waited for what I had to say.

((Yeah, Tobias?))

((There are no Yeerks here,)) I told him. ((They're all gone. The Kelbrids saved the Mak.))

A short while later, Marco and Santorelli arrived. Santorelli delivered a collection of sheets to Jake, who had also taken the Mak drawings I had gathered earlier. He had a lot to think about, and at times I felt I could almost see the cogs in his head churning, working tirelessly to piece together the facts. He told us to set up a sentry, a job the two latest arrivals volunteered for. They placed themselves on either side of the ditch, a hundred meters or so away from us.

((I would exercise extreme caution,)) Menderash warned through the comms device as we prepared to acquire the DNA of our captives. ((And immediate morphing. I know nothing of this Kelbrid toxin, but the morphing technology will rid the body of it. I recommend morphing back to Mak.))

((Noted,)) Jake replied. ((Okay, let's get this done ASAP. Jeanne, demorph. Tobias, you acquire first, then morph Mak and take Marco's place as sentry. Whoever isn't Mak, keep yourself hidden in the rubble.))

((Got it,)) I replied, hiding the shakiness still present after nearly being crushed only shortly before.

((Area clear,)) Santorelli grunted, and Marco followed up with the same declaration. It was my signal to move in.

I spread my wings and flung myself from the rocks that had trapped me, a warm breeze quickly encircling me before I descended to land on the suited torso of one of the bodies. Jeanne's small bear eyes watched over me curiously, and then she began to change, Human features becoming apparent on the hairy bear body.

Jake stood over the unconscious Kelbrid and reached down to the head. With thick Mak claws, he adjusted it left and right, taking care in the knowledge that the creature within could be highly toxic. When he lifted the head forward, he found a way to open the suit, and with delicacy, he pulled open the seal. The suit beneath my talons loosened.

Jake pulled the hood over, folding his fingers so that he didn't come into contact with the material's interior skin. The Kelbrid's head was exposed. It was a dark purple color, and the vine-like growths grew like thick dreadlocks from its head, smooth and slimy like the arms of a squid or an octopus. The face lacked them, though, instead giving way to a cat-like face. The prominent nose had three nostrils that flared as the Kelbrid breathed, and below them was a mouth occasionally interrupted by the protrusion of brilliant white, sharp teeth. The thick neck disappeared down into the rest of the suit, but we didn't need to see anymore.

((Here goes…)) I sighed, bouncing over to grasp onto the nose of the Kelbrid, clinging on hard enough to stick but not to pierce the skin. I feared that doing so would unleash whatever toxin swam through the alien's system.

I instantly began to acquire, and at first, I felt nothing untoward. I thought that no toxin was being absorbed into my skin. After all, the slime present on the vine-like growths on the Kelbrid's back wasn't covering the face.

((I've got the DNA,)) I said, jumping from the Kelbrid's face and to the ground by the side.

I had to morph Mak next, back into a healthy body that still had legs. I started the morph, but an incredible stinging sensation hit me across my lower body. I gasped out my pain and my body seized! I fell into the dirt with a disturbing twitch down my side.

((Tobias!)) Jake shouted. ((Morph! Now!))

I could feel an aching in my talons. The rest of my body was struck with an agonizing paralysis, convulsing around me as my brain struggled to keep control. ((Morphing!)) I reassured. ((God, it burns!))

((Just concentrate, Tobias!)) Cassie urged.

I grew larger, but still, I couldn't move. Without the others' developed morphing skills, I had no way of telling what was changing and when. I needed my blood to change, and my organs, too. My nerves needed to morph to rid themselves of the toxins before the affliction entered my brain.

The feeling came over me. An inner numbness approached, and my vision faded to darkness…

And then it was lifted! The control of my limbs returned, and I pulled myself back to a seated position with a shuddering sigh.

I completed the morph and stood up, rubbing off the dirt that had gathered. Jake, the fully-demorphed Jeanne, and Cassie all stared.

((I've almost died twice in the last half hour,)) I said. ((Normal service resumed, I guess.))