My Yeerk swore in fury as the fighter rose out of sight. {Get them!} he bellowed as my front legs rapidly flowed into arms. {Get them! Send out a fighter!}

{No!} yelled Visser Eight. {Don't send anything! Not yet!}

Xanos swung around to aim my half-leopard half-human stare at him. {What are you thinking?}

{The locator,} Visser Eight sneered, {as if you had the right to question your superior in the first place. It's finished - it's completed; we'll run it and find them much more easily than we would if we sent clumsy Bug Fighters out!}

I couldn't imagine calling those sleek machines clumsy, but Xanos acquiesced. I noticed also that he resumed his deferential tone after his moment of defiance.

"Yes, Visser," he agreed with slightly garbled language. "We can still run it without Sub-visser Twenty?"

He paused and his eyes widened slightly. {Of course we can run it,} he snapped, but I understood that it hadn't occurred to him before. {I am Visser Eight, and I have built my life on Yeerk technology. I can run anything.} As an afterthought, he added, {You simple fool.}

{You're right,} I told Xanos, almost in excitement. {He can't run it.}

{I can tell,} he laughed. {If I expose him for what he is, my rank may rise.}

Visser Eight turned and led the way back to our laboratory. He entered the password and the smooth metal doors slid open, incongruous with the slimy rock walls of the cavern. He stepped in and eyed the pyramid as a dreaded enemy.

"I'm afraid I'm not skilled with this device," Xanos said a little mockingly. "You'll have to take care of it."

{Of course I'll take care of it.} Visser Eight shifted from hoof to hoof for a moment in what I gathered was an unusual gesture for a Yeerk visser. From what I can tell, from all my experiences before and since, they don't show anxiety often.

Suddenly his eyes brightened. His hand stretched forward, resting on the pyramid. It flew over the different lights and displays of the device with a jerky, unnatural movement, but still a confident one.

It made no sense for a moment. And then -

"You're using your host!" Xanos cried in shock.

Visser Eight's many-fingered hand snapped back. {I'm a Yeerk visser,} he said arrogantly. {I don't need to use my host. Do you honestly think that Andalites are superior to Yeerks?}

"I think that Andalite is superior to you," Xanos spat. "You're a fraud. And now that the sub-visser is gone, there's no one to make your inventions for you."

Fwapp. An Andalite tail blade rested at my throat. {Yes, there is.}

"What, pray tell?"

I admired Xanos at that moment; I felt his fear of death but he didn't show it at all. I on the other hand was tense, worried, not ready to die for the Yeerk's insubordination.

Visser Eight twisted his eyes into what I assumed was an Andalite smile. {My host.}

There was a moment of tense silence. Then Xanos nodded and stepped back submissively, and Visser Eight withdrew his blade.

{I don't understand,} I muttered.

{Then let me explain it to you,} Xanos offered condescendingly. {His host is an Andalite - an intelligent one, at that. He's just an aristh, the lowest level of Andalite military - like a cadet - but apparently he's a quick learner. He's picked up the parts of Sub-visser Twenty's device that escaped his Yeerk. In short? Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill can run that device, but Visser Eight cannot.}

{I see,} I lied. The Yeerk knew I was lying but didn't deign to explain further.

"You've done very well for a technology-illiterate Yeerk."

Visser Eight accepted Xanos' mixed compliment. {Yes, I have. I've taken advantage of my situation to attain the two things that matter most to Yeerks.}

"And what are they?"

{Power. And, in lieu of power, the appearance of it.} Visser Eight was relaxing rapidly. {You're just the equivalent of an aristh yourself, Xanos, despite your morph-capable host, so I'll explain it to you. Appearance is all that matters to us. If we can't achieve things ourselves, well, we don't have to - all we have to be able to do is pretend. And pretend well. And terrify others into compliance - which is just another form of appearance. We, Xanos 208, are actors. That's all.}

"Explain further," Xanos requested, and I could almost see him forming a case to prosecute the visser, if the opportunity ever arose. He wanted to keep him talking. Visser Eight was only too happy to comply.

{Acting is the only skill a Yeerk needs. Everything else has been given to him. Earth is rife with host bodies; our society itself is rife with technology. If we can pretend to deserve what we want, we'll get it, simply put.

{Here on Earth we have all the opportunities we need to refine our acting skills. We - or at least the Yeerks with human hosts - practice constantly on their colleagues, peers, and family. If we can give a semblance of our host's personality, we won't be found out. That's all we need.

{And then there are people like me, for example. I was born almost entirely devoid of skills. I will never be a warrior. I will never be a scientist. Battle terrifies me and science confuses me. I say this frankly because, Xanos, if you ever did speak out and prosecute me as you're considering right now, no one would believe you. They would point to my accomplishments - the accomplishments I stole from others. Therein lies my talent.}

"You don't deserve to have the rank you have," retorted Xanos.

{But that's where you're wrong, Xanos. I do. Think of what I have done; think of the people I have fooled; think of the many steps I have climbed without making any contributions, only taking what was given to me. no, Xanos. I deserve my rank more than anyone, because I took a simple, foolish, cowardly slug and made him into a Yeerk visser.}

I would have closed my eyes in something like ecstasy, if I could have. I felt an indescribable emotion - complete, free, stripped of the pretense and politeness that I had worshiped.

{I want to be one of you.}

Xanos paused as I distracted him. {What?}

{No. I was wrong. I am one of you.} My voice shook. {I want to give myself to you. I'd be one of you if I could. I wish. I want. why couldn't I have been born this?} I screamed suddenly. {Just a slug! Just a slug in a filthy, slimy pool with the potential to become anything in the world. you're lucky, Xanos, do you know that?}

{What are you talking about?}

{You're lucky because he's right! You are nothing! You were born nothing! But this is the ultimate in capitalism - steal what you can and never contribute to the society you stole it from. You are free, Xanos, don't you understand? I want to be this!}

{You're insane, human,} he snapped. {It doesn't matter if you agree with us. You're a shell. Your acceptance of our ideals means nothing except that I'll never have to deal with a host rebellion.}

{It means everything,} I whispered. {I know what I should have been.}

{You're insane,} Xanos repeated.

I had lost myself in feverish thought. Almost numbly, I finished: {At least I know who I am.}