Putting those thoughts out of his mind, Elfangor guided the Jahar over the fragments of the Skrit Na ship. Locking on to the Time Matrix with the Jahar's tractor-beam, Elfangor piloted the Jahar higher. The tractor-beam pulled the off-white sphere snugly against the Jahar's belly, where Elfangor lashed it in place with energy ropes.

The Jahar rose slowly through the atmosphere of the Taxxon planet, passing the strangely bright clouds and heading back to space. That was when the Yeerks began to suspect something. Elfangor was contacted by another one of the Hork-Bajir-Controllers at the base.

"Sub-Visser Seven, planetary control respectfully directs you to land."

Elfangor tried to bluff his way out again, but when he still refused to turn around and land, they knew that he was not who he was pretending to be. The Bug fighters turned back toward the Jahar, closing in around Elfangor like a noose. By that time, though, Elfangor had already ordered the ship's computer to go to Maximum Burn.

Elfangor was quickly out of the gravity-well of the planet. Soon after that, he lost himself in the white void of Zero-space.

***

A day later…

"So this is Zero-space. We've been in it for a full day, and I still don't understand what it is," Loren said, staring out the forward screen.

Zero-space isn't anything, really, Elfangor answered, looking at Loren through his stalk eyes. It's antispace. Like antimatter and antigravity. Zero-space is antispace.

In truth, Elfangor was amazed that Loren could speak at all, let alone be so blasé sounding about something that still awed even him sometimes. The Yeerk in Loren's had, luckily for them, been at the end of its three-day feeding cycle. Elfangor had therefore made a deal with the hungry Yeerk: it could either stay in Loren's head and starve to death, or it could come out and Elfangor would put it in stasis so it could possibly be revived at some later date.

The Yeerk had chosen the second option, and Elfangor had frozen it like he promised to. Someday, the Yeerk might be found and revived. But it was more likely that it would fall into the gravity well of a star and be incinerated. Especially since Elfangor had made sure to eject it close to one.

Maybe that could be considered not being true to the spirit of his deal with the Yeerk, but Elfangor didn't care anymore. He had failed utterly, so what was the point in trying anymore? Besides, as Alloran had said, there was no such thing as fair play in wartime. Elfangor had learned that, too late to change anything that he'd done, but he would remember it.

"Have you decided where we're going, Elfangor?" Loren asked, cutting in to Elfangor's self-recrimination.

"He doesn't know," Chapman snapped. "Elfangor's confused. Isn't that right? He screwed up royally. Got Arbron trapped in one of those centipede bodies. Then, as if that wasn't stupid enough, he managed to get Alloran made into the first Andalite-Controller in the galaxy. It's gonna be really tough explaining all this to the folks back home, ain't it?"

Elfangor ignored Chapman's blathering. Home. There was no place for him on the Andalite world anymore, so 'home' had become a word with no meaning.

"Elfangor, snap out of it," Loren said suddenly. "We're going in circles in Zero-space."

Yes, I know.

"You did the best you could, but you're still just a kid. Like me."

I am an aristh in the Andalite military, Elfangor said bitterly. I disobeyed my Prince and caused him to be enslaved by the Yeerks. They will now be able to learn everything Alloran knows about our defenses. Everything he knows about the capabilities of our weapons. Everything that Alloran knows about the locations of our ships. At least Alloran wasn't a scientist, so he can't give the Yeerks morphing technology, or any of our advanced computer software. But still, it will be the greatest intelligence victory in Yeerk history.

"See?" Chapman said smugly. "I was right to throw in with the Yeerks. You Andalites are doomed. That is…" he grinned tauntingly at Elfangor.

"Why don't you just shut up," Loren snapped.

Chapman ignored her. "Unless you Andalites are willing to use that Time Matrix thing. Go back in time, find that first little tribe of Yeerk slugs, and kill every one of them." Chapman spread his hands, palms up, speaking as if it was all so simple. "What do they call that again? Oh yeah, genocide. Think you're up for a little genocide, Elfangor?"

Don't waste your time taunting me, human. It won't work.

"Huh? What are you talking about, Elfangor?" Loren asked, slightly confused.

I have no doubt that Sub-Visser Seven left instructions with this human, just in case his plans were to fail. To use the Time Matrix I would have to drop out of Zero-space. And the tracking beacon that the Yeerks have no doubt placed on this ship would broadcast my location to any Yeerk ship in this vicinity.

Chapman seemed to deflate after Elfangor had finished speaking, and Elfangor knew that he had guessed right. He was not that stupid, his previous actions notwithstanding. He was not going to fall for some stupid Yeerk ruse… Wait!

Maybe that was just what he should do. He remembered that his old Dome ship, the StarSword, was going to be meeting up with another ship to search for an elusive Yeerk task force. They were supposed to be meeting the other ship in the Graysha nebula. Two Dome ships, the fleets of fighters from both, and the Jahar should be enough to deal with whatever the Yeerks could bring to bear.

Elfangor turned to the navigation controls, typing in the coordinates for the target nebula.

"You have a plan now, Elfangor?"

More or less, he muttered, already beginning to second-guess his meager plan. There is a place called the Graysha nebula. We don't know much about it, but there are rumors of a sentient species in that area. And there are also rumors that the Yeerks are exploring the nebula. My old ship, the StarSword, went there to see if they could find a Yeerk task force they were pursuing.

"So, we're going to go there? Elfangor… is this nebula any closer to Earth?"

I'm afraid not.

"Am I… am I ever going to get back home?"

Loren, I will do my best.

"And we've all seen how good Elfangor's "best" is," Chapman sneered, making quotation marks in the air with his hands. "You might as well kiss Earth good-bye."

"Why don't you shut up, you idiot," Loren snapped at Chapman.