Arbron turned quickly, scuttling on his many Taxxon legs and bringing his tubelike red mouth to bear on Elfangor again. At the same time, Arbron dove forward, hoping to stun Elfangor by slamming the Andalite against one of the nearby bulkheads. Elfangor leapt aside again, but this time he decided to take more drastic action. He would not kill Arbron, of course, but Elfangor had no intention of becoming a Taxxon's meal.
Elfangor sliced two of Arbron's foremost legs off with his tail blade, but Arbron still stubbornly charged forward. Taking careful aim, Elfangor cut off another pair of Arbron's legs with his fast moving, bladed tail. Arbron fell to the deck and lay there, helpless.
Just kill me! Arbron raged impotently.
Elfangor was too absorbed with trying to fly the ship, or at least stop it from crashing, to tell Arbron to shut up. And even if he did, Elfangor doubted that Arbron would listen to him anyway. The control console had been half destroyed when Arbron had rammed it, and the ship's flight had become extremely erratic. Elfangor reduced power, trying to get their speed under control.
You can't just leave me like this! Arbron screamed desperately.
I am going to get you help, Arbron. But first I need to land this ship!
Elfangor, you know what happens to wounded Taxxons. You know what they do! Arbron sounded like he was panicking slowly.
I will protect you! Elfangor returned, trying desperately to reassure the other aristh.
The shaking was getting worse, and the lone Skrit that had long since abandoned its post in the cockpit. Maybe, even with all their mental deficiencies, Skrit still possessed the same instinct for self-preservation that any sentient creature had. At the very least, it knew not to stay in a confined space with a hungry Taxxon.
You can't protect me, you fool! You can't stop the hunger! Don't you understand? I ate that wounded Taxxon, I couldn't help myself! Even Alloran couldn't stop himself from indulging in that vile Taxxon hunger!
Shut up! Just shut up and let me think!
Elfangor looked around the cockpit for something that would keep Arbron quiet, at least long enough for him to stop the ship from crashing. Sweeping the room with his stalk eyes, Elfangor saw a bright green panel marked with writing in the Skrit Na language. That was probably where they stored their weapons when not in use.
Tapping the panel with his left hand, Elfangor took out an old-looking Yeerk issue Dracon beam. It was covered in a fine layer of dust, and Elfangor suspected it hadn't been maintained very well. But, that was the case with most Skrit Na things, and Elfangor knew he couldn't expect them to take better care of their weapons than they did anything else.
Setting the weapon to its lowest intensity, Elfangor turned and aimed it straight at Arbron.
What are you doing? Arbron demanded.
I have to land this ship, Arbron. So keep quiet or I'll stun you, Elfangor said, intending only to convince Arbron to be silent.
He did not want to use the Dracon beam on Arbron, and hoped that he would take the hint and remain silent.
If you fire that thing, you'll kill me! You have the settings backwards. That was originally a Yeerk weapon. Setting one is the highest, not the lowest!
Elfangor looked at the Dracon beam in his hand for a minute, before realizing that while Arbron couldn't stand upright anymore, he could still scuttle forward at a good enough speed to make him dangerous. Arbron came rushing and slithering forward, snapping his serrated teeth and slavering. Elfangor recoiled; knowing that Arbron wanted him to shoot. Shoot him, with the Dracon beam on its highest setting.
Elfangor quickly twisted the dial on the Dracon beam to six and fired. He realized then, just as the Dracon beam blasted a gaping hole in the floor of the ship, that Arbron had tricked him. Arbron had always been more familiar with the workings of alien computers and devices than Elfangor himself ever had.
By some quick twist of his hand, the Dracon beam missed Arbron by scant millimeters. Instead, the hot crimson energies burned a two-foot hole in the hull. The ship, already badly destabilized from having most of its controls destroyed, began to pitch and roll even worse now that this latest damage had been done.
Bucking like a dying animal, the Skrit Na freighter crashed headlong into the mountain range. The hull crumpled and ripped open like thin cloth, throwing the passengers out onto the surface of the planet. Luckily, since they had lost a good deal of their height as well as their speed, the impact was not quite fatal. Though it did come quite close to killing Arbron, with his weaker Taxxon physiology.
After three hours, Elfangor slowly pulled himself back to consciousness. He was lying on his side in the dirt, staring up at the unfamiliar stars and three tiny moons of the Taxxon world. At first, he didn't have the slightest idea where he had ended up. All he knew was that he was in a great amount of pain.
But, as Elfangor slowly forced himself to stand, he caught sight of the twisted wreck of the Skrit Na freighter. He remembered then what had happened, how Arbron had been trapped in a Taxxon morph, that Loren was still stranded somewhere on this desolate planet, how Arbron had tried to force Elfangor to kill him
That last thought spurred Elfangor into action, and he swept his stalk eyes around, trying to find where Arbron might have landed. Then, he realized that one of his stalk eyes was blind. Since he didn't have the time to tend to his wounded eye, or to morph so that his own restored DNA would eliminate the wound entirely, Elfangor forced himself to ignore the wound and focus on finding Arbron.
Arbron! Elfangor called, hoping the other was close enough to hear him. But more than that, Elfangor hoped he would answer. Arbron, where are you?!
Nothing. Elfangor kept walking, hoping to somehow find the other aristh among the remains of the Skrit Na ship. Elfangor saw the inside of the ship through the two-foot hole that the Dracon beam had blown in the hull, and he also saw how the ship's engines had been torn almost completely off. He knew that the ship would never be able to fly again.
Right then, Elfangor noticed that his right stalk eye was starting to clear up. Touching it, he found that it had merely been covered with mud. Elfangor ducked into the hole, careful not to scrape his stalk eyes on the edges of the hole.
When he got inside, Elfangor tried calling out to Arbron again. He still received no answer. Elfangor walked around the remains of the bridge, painted in shades of green by the Skrit Na's peculiar emergency lighting.