Visser Five paused for a breath, and Visser Thirty-two wondered what was coming next. The hunter's smile slowly dissolved, to be replaced by a quizzical look. One of pure curiosity.

"Incidentally, Visser Thirty-two, do you know what this creature is?"

A hologram appeared: one of a biped covered entirely in space-black armor. Visser Thirty-two was thankful, for the first time, that he didn't have a mouth. He was mostly thankful that he didn't have lips and a tongue, though. Licking or biting one's lips was impossible when one possessed neither.

The Visser's former host was staring into the recording device, crimson eyes alight with killing joy. He was winding up for a slash, legs bent, with his right hand wrapped around his silver blade. Visser Thirty-two remembered the way he had licked his lips in anticipation of the slaughter that was just beginning, and the Visser had a feeling that he would be doing the same when confronted with this image if not for his aforementioned oral deficiencies.

Careful not to let Visser Five see what he was doing, Visser Thirty-two quickly made a copy of the image. Hearing again the laughter of the Navari as he killed all the Hork-Bajir who opposed him, and remembering the way he would land in a half-crouch and look around before going after new prey. Visser Thirty-two knew that he was probably halfway across the galaxy by now, with the speed he had been traveling when he left. He would probably never come back.

No, Visser Five, I have never seen a creature like that before.

You are lying to your own superiors? Alloran asked, sounding shocked.

They would not have the power to take him on, Visser Thirty-two said offhandedly, distracted. Nor could they find him if he did not wish to be found.

Alloran mulled that over, wondering what had made the Yeerk so much less arrogant. Could he know this alien personally? Looking at the image on the display, Alloran studied the figure.

It was uniformly black, the only other colors being the red eyes and the bright silver blade the creature held. Alloran caught only a fleeting glimpse more, before the image disappeared and was replaced by a starfield. The starlines soon appeared to stretch into infinity, and then they were replaced by the unbroken blankness of Zero-Space.

***

The temperature was dropping ever lower, and soon not even the symbiotic bond between the Teknoman and the teknopod would be able to save them from freezing to death. So, instincts imbedded in the semi-sentient mind of the pod itself began to alter the chemicals within. The outer skin grew thick and tough, and the fluid slowly began to ice over.

But, instead of forming jagged crystals that would damage its still-living cargo, the gel merely thickened. Forming first a slush, then a jello-like substance as the liquid grew ever colder. Finally reaching its lowest possible temperature, only a few degrees above that of deep space.

Darkblade's own heartbeat was slowed to a crawl, and his body temperature lowered to just a few degrees above that of the teknopod itself.

***

Visser Thirty-two ordered the crew of his Blade ship to alert him when they found the Andalite, then he retired to his quarters. Concealing the disc with the copied image in his fist, the Visser strode calmly past his assorted underlings, impatient to view the recording again. Once he was back inside and had secured the door behind him, Visser Thirty-two quickly located his personal holographic projection unit.

As a Sub-Visser in charge of security, he had often taken schematics for potential defense systems to study further in his quarters. He had done the same for advance troop-placement schedules, to spot and correct any inefficiencies or errors. Now, though, he was using it for purely personal reasons.

Something he had never intended to do. Placing the disc in the projection unit and activating it, he watched the image resolve into a miniature version of his former host's armored form. Staring into the minute eyes, he wondered where the other was right now.

Why is this alien so important to you, Yeerk?

Visser Thirty-two ignored him. The panel beside his door sounded once, and he quickly deactivated the projector.