Shooting over the heads of the Hork-Bajir Controllers, Elfangor inscribed several tight circles inside the almost cylindrical shaft. Inwardly, Sub-Visser Seven cheered for him, but outwardly he acted outraged.

"Shoot it! Shoot it!"

"But sir, one of the Taxxons may be hit!"

Sub-Visser Seven had a reputation for being completely ruthless, and now was another chance for him to prove that he had earned it.

"I really don't care," and that was the truth, he did not care at all about any of the Taxxons. "Shoot it! Kill it! Shoot it now you fools!"

They obeyed, and none of them said anything more about the Taxxons. Elfangor escaped, as the Sub-Visser had suspected he would, using his bird morph.

Keeping up the pretense of being livid when he was bursting with secret pride was something that Sub-Visser Seven had long become accustomed to. As he watched Elfangor's morph vanish out of the mouth of the tunnel, Sub-Visser Seven chuckled softly. It was nice to be proven wrong, but only when you were hoping for something you thought would be impossible.

The Sub-Visser wondered when he and Elfangor would meet again.

***

Elfangor flew as fast as he could out of that awful cavelike tunnel and into the bright sunlight of the Taxxon planet. He never thought that any planet could look as lovely to him as the surface of the Taxxon homeworld after his time in those stifling tunnels. Elfangor was feeling a profound exhaustion after having so narrowly escaped a painful death, but there was also an equal measure of elation at having survived against such great odds.

I made it! Elfangor shouted, laughing to no one. I made it out! I'm alive! I'm still free!

Not caring that there were no other Andalites to share in his triumph, Elfangor took a moment to savor it. Then he pulled his focus back to the task at hand. What should his priorities be now?

Alloran and Arbron. They were still stranded somewhere on the planet. And there was still the Time Matrix, which was the only reason that any of them had come to this desolate planet in the first place. Elfangor allowed himself to relax, knowing that his two companions would most likely be able to take care of themselves.

Out of the corner of his left eye, Elfangor saw something that he could not at first make sense of. Then, as he was able to see it more clearly, his soaring optimism plunged. It was the Jahar, landing in the middle of a Yeerk spaceport! It did not seem remotely possible, and yet it was happening right in front of his eyes.

Once the Jahar had touched down, it found itself the target of numerous Yeerk weapons, Dracon beams mostly. Turning to look back the way he had come, Elfangor spotted a mag-lev car. Somehow, though he couldn't have said how, Elfangor knew that Sub-Visser Seven was aboard that particular car. The Jahar settled uneasily into a docking cradle that was designed for a Bug fighter, just as Sub-Visser Seven's transport ran down a pair of Gedds.

The Sub-Visser himself exited first, followed by four of his six lieutenants. Elfangor suspected that the other two were not merely waiting in the tram for the Sub-Visser to call for them, he seemed volatile enough to kill his own underlings when provoked. Flying high over the heads of the Yeerk security forces, Elfangor tried to plan his next move.

***

Sub-Visser Seven, swaggering toward the Andalite ship with all the arrogance that his position afforded him, was in reality wondering what such a ship was doing on the Taxxon homeworld in the first place. What did the Andalites aboard think they would accomplish by landing on a Yeerk controlled planet? Besides dying, of course.

But, when the ship's hatch opened, it was not an Andalite that stepped out onto the barren dust of the Taxxon planet. It was a type of biped. At first, this was all that Sub-Visser Seven noticed about the creature. However, since all of his underlings were thoroughly bewildered by the appearance of these new aliens, he decided to take another look.