Underground, just as the Blade ship was taking off, the teknopod was repairing the damage that had been done to itself. As the alien plant began to assess its new surroundings, it discovered that wherever it now was, there was no other source of Radam energy that it could detect. That left it with the more inefficient method of drawing nourishment from the local soil.
Extending structures which would act as a root system, it found that this soil was rich with nutrients. As the network of rootlike growths began to spread, the semi-sentient pod began to piece together the limited data it had gathered. This was obviously an unknown planet, since it could not detect any sources of Radam energy.
The Teknomen that the pod was programmed to create would need a leader, someone who would be able to make them into an effective army. So that they could conquer this unknown planet.
The rootlike structures pushed deeper into the soil, and at the same time they began to push the soil out of the way, burrowing deeper into the forest floor. The hole that the Yeerks had originally dug had been a foot-and-a-half deep; the pod's slow burrowing had already increased that depth to two feet by now.
Early the next afternoon…
Far from the area of the forest where the Radam pod lay, a bright, fiery orange light was flying high up into the sky, on its way to a prearranged place. Once the light had reached the peak of its trajectory, a pair of bright white beams shot out of the ground.
The beams were aimed at the orange light, but just as the white beams were about to strike it, the orange light countered. Striking out in its own defense. A wave of golden yellow light erupted from the orange light, impacting against the white beams and starting a chain reaction. The sky in that area seemed to tear itself apart, briefly flashing a midnight blue before returning to its normal hue.
After the event, there was nothing left to suggest that there had been anything out of the ordinary here except for a strange charged feeling in the air.
The Blade ship, two hours later…
Visser Three paced the length of his station aboard the command-bridge of his Blade ship. He had given Alloran a severe mental beating after getting back to his quarters, and right now the Andalite seemed to be laying low in his corner of the mind. Just then, another strange reading appeared on the sensor screen.
Unlike the previous one, this was not a lifeform reading. It was some kind of energy burst. Visser Three was currently in his human morph, since Alloran hated being in the form of an unsteady, half-blind, tailess animal.
"Yeven, get over here," Visser Three said, loudly enough that the Human-Controller would be sure to hear him.
Yeven Nine-Three-Six was one of his more intelligent Human-Controllers; at least enough that she knew not to annoy him by making him wait. Sure enough, Yeven was hurrying over right now.
"Can you tell me what this is?" Visser Three asked, indicating the readings with a wave of his hand.
Yeven came up to the sensor display console, and the Visser leaned against one of the farther stations, so as not to get in her way. He watched as Yeven began to study the readings. She seemed to be taking longer than she usually did, and Visser Three was beginning to grow impatient with her.
He demorphed, since he was closing in on his two-hour time limit, and also because he found his Andalite form to be more intimidating.
Well? What did you find?
"I - I don't know, sir. I've checked and rechecked the readings, and they still don't make any sense. Whatever this energy was, it's a kind I've never seen before. It seems to have a few things in common with solar plasma, but other than that, I don't know what to make of it."
Visser Three sighed, annoyed. He took a look at the readings for himself, and found that they were, in fact, incomprehensible. Turning away in disgust, Visser Three stalked off the bridge, heading back to his quarters. He hated mysteries.