Chapter 2
My name is Essak 143. I inhabited a human host body. Her name was Alison Kamitrov. Like I cared. I heard her scream inside my head everyday, trying to fight her way out, shrieking wildly. She had learned long ago that there was no escape from the mighty Yeerk Empire. She knew no host body ever managed to escape while the Yeerk itself was still inside her head. That didn't stop her trying. She was a fool, as were the entire race of humans. One day they would all be conquered. It just happened that this wasn't the time.
I had been aboard the Blade ship when I saw the Yeerk Empire collapsed before my eyes. I had seen the futile attempts of the foolish, morph- capable girl as she tried to kill the human host Tom Berenson, brother of the Animorph leader. I had been there, in my lioness morph, when that happened. She fought bravely but stupidly. She died. And yet, on that day, so did the Empire.
I was a wise Yeerk. I had been there when the first rebellion on the homeworld had started. I was there, inhabiting a Gedd host body at the time, of course, when we stole four fighters and two transporters and escaped into Z-Space, just ahead of the Andalite fleet. I had been there when the infamous Esplin 9466, had been 'born' on my very ship. I had been there on the first attack of the Hork-Bajir homeworld. I had been there when the Taxxons gave themselves up to the Yeerks. I had been there when the first two humans appeared on the Taxxon world.
I had seen many things. But it was the defeat of the Empire that shocked me the most. Months before, the Empire was at its peak. Millions of host bodies were scattered around the galaxy, concentrating on earth, Anati and the Nine-shifter sector. But then it shuddered...and fell apart in one mighty blow. Earth had been defended by the humans, we were driven from the Anati-world and we slowly lost ground in the Rakkam Garroo conflict. Millions of host bodies...bumped down to a mere six thousand in less than a week. It was impossible to comprehend. The Yeerk homeworld was fiercely defended. No Yeerk ships would be leaving the homeworld for a long time. That left one and a half thousand Yeerk host bodies roaming the galaxy, perhaps two thousand more in portable Yeerk pools aboard the few remaining ships.
After the Empire's defeat, the Blade Ship containing less than twenty host bodies and five hundred Yeerks in the ship's pool, escaped earth before the Andalite fleet swarmed the planet and rounded up all remaining Yeerks. We were told via thought-speech communication from the Council of Thirteen that the homeworld was being held prisoner by the Andalite high command. We were also told to find the remnants of Yeerks that still survived in the galaxy and start infiltrating new, vulnerable species ready to start anew...not an easy task with less than two dozen host bodies and a single ship. But we would, undoubtedly, despite the odds, try. A race was picked out for us: the Renola, a largely unknown species, capable of simple space-flight, but with no real weapons beyond clubs and spears. Infestation would be easy apparently. The race would be ours within a year, statistics showed.
But The One had different ideas. He wasn't interested in the Yeerks in general. He was 'told' by a higher power to help us along in rebuilding the mighty Yeerk Empire. He obeyed. Still, the Renola were not on the top of his lists—he wanted bigger, better prey and no one was going to argue with the creature that could erase you simply by touching your skin.
We had found The One lurking in a massive, star-shaped ship. It was massive, matching in size the powerful mother ship that still lurked, biding its time near the planet on the edge of the same solar system as earth. Thinking it an enemy, we had attacked, damaging one of its engines. It was not a recognisable type of ship. Nothing like that had ever been seen in this part of the galaxy. In fact, the unknown ion metals the engines were made up of suggested that the ship wasn't originated from this galaxy.
The ship appeared empty. It showed no life forms, but then again, The One does not give off DNA readings. After all, it is not an actual creature, just a collection of minds, memories and souls merged into one psychical creature that could 'morph', within reason, into any creature it had captured the soul of. We boarded the ship, as planned, and there The One greeted us, telling us of its 'magnificent' plans to boost the Yeerk Empire. We were, of course, intrigued. Perhaps we should have realised The One's immense powers right then and right there and suddenly left. After all, a being of such capability cannot be a leader, just a bully. We soon found out about what The One really was later on when some underling, Vessek 1254 annoyed him for some reason. The One touched Vessek's Hork- Bajir body, killing him instantly. We saw his lifeless body topple, but we saw, just as well, that the dead creature had no soul. It had been removed by The One upon contact. It was then too late to escape. The One had unbeleivable psychic powers, able to see anything that happened on the ship, even when we left the ship to make planetary excursions looking for suitable host species.
The terror was unbeatable. Under Visser Three's command (which I remembered from long ago), you were able to make mistakes as long as the Visser didn't know. But under The One's command, every mistake made was seen by The One as clearly as if he/she/it (who knew) were in the room. No move could be made without The One seeing it and reprimanding it. I remained unaffected, however. The One's power was great, I understood that, but The One himself was not to be feared. He seemed unbeatable, but then again, nothing was invincible. After all, the Empire had seemed unbeatable...and look where it was now...
The One usually remained in his massive quarters, contacting the 'higher-powers'. After these sessions, he would emerge in a flurry, giving us new destinations. We had never reached the Renola planet: instead The One gave us orders to change directions and head for a lonely old planet at the corner of the galaxy, a planet home to the Norshk. We had never heard of them until now, but, according to The One, they were a powerful race of nomads that could be rounded up, one by one until the species was ours. Who were we to argue? I might not fear The One, but I wasn't about to die just because I didn't disagree with his views. That was the job of some incompetent fools.
We were nearing the solar system where the Norshk planet existed when something happened. I wasn't told, nor was I allowed on the bridge yet. I was just given orders to summon The One. Well, actually no ones summons The One. Its more of a 'Ah, excuse me for interrupting your most excellent session with the 'higher-powers', b-but, if its n-not to much trouble, the ship's c-c-captain would like to see you on the b-bridge with...ah...a p- problem.'
It was silly, but nesseccary. I saw one Yeerk who just walked in on The One's session, burned slowly alive and have the Yeerk itself pulled from its host body and cut up. The most horrid punishment for a Yeerk besides Kandrona starvation.
Anyway, I approached The One's quarters slowly, filled with apprehension. I knocked three times on his door, paused for a few seconds then knocked again. This was supposedly time for The One to sever the connection between him and the 'higher-power'. Nonsense, if you asked me. There was another pause then the door opened by itself. I looked inside, spotting The One straight away. Fairly recently, he had stolen the soul of an Andalite prince, but somehow, the process had gone wrong. It seemed the prince was more human than Andalite, the soul-snatching resulted in a misshapen body, half-human, half-Andalite, half-unnamed, foul creature. The One looked like an Andalite, but there were human characteristics. For one, he had a mouth, for another, he only had five fingers on each hand, not seven. He looked up I entered.
'My master,' I said. Normally, the other Yeerks would bow at this moment. I did not. I did not respect The One anymore than Visser Three. Both were fools, trying to be more powerful than they really were.
'You have news for me?' he asked. A simple game, really. He knew what I had come here for, he was just playing along.
'You are requested on the bridge,' I said simply. I did not say 'sir', 'your highness' or even 'almighty one'. He noted this and shifted his stand, raising his tail blade slightly. I said nothing. I didn't play 'suck- up' like the other fools. I hoped The One realised that. He might know everything that happened on 'his' ship, but he could not read minds. And that was my key.
The One looked at me slowly, and paused. It wasn't a nice pause. He looked at me with the look that read 'I own you, so don't try anything stupid, you half-wit'. 'Acknowledged,' he said finally. 'Return to the bridge. I'll be along shortly.'
'Yes...master,' I half-sneered, giving a courteous. Not a 'oh, gracious one, I'm glad to have helped' bow, just a small bow to stop myself from getting killed. But even as I bowed, facing the floor, my lips twisted into a sneer. He hadn't a clue about the plans I had for that monstrosity. But he would soon...oh, he would know and by then it would be too late.
I exited the room. There, standing outside, was a brother of mine Iniss 4943, inhabiting one of the few Hork-Bajir bodies still in the Yeerk empire. Cradling a Dracon beam, he spotted my departure and fell into step with me. I barely glanced towards him. We only spoke about military matters. After all, brothers and sisters are no closer to each other than total strangers. But still, I was jealous. While Iniss was still flaunting a much-wanted host body, myself and most other Yeerks on the ship inhabited weak, pathetic humans and some of us, Taxxons. Still, I didn't want Iniss to think I was jealous.
'What's going on at the bridge?' Iniss asked. He spoke Galard, the universal language. I didn't need to. Hork-Bajir easily understood human language, apart from the complicated words. 'They won't let me anywhere near it.'
'I don't know,' I replied gruffly. 'We'd better go and see.'
The bridge was now clear and people were running in and out of the room in a complete hurry. I entered cautiously, spotting no immediate cause for concern. Until I noticed the huge screen that had been lowered from the ceiling of the room. I glanced between rows of controls and consoles—with a few Taxxons ambling around, looking at strange symbols I even now have difficulty understanding, and twisted knobs that no doubt did something, but not something I could see. As you can probably guess, I was no pilot.
On the screen a list of words were being created. Confused, I glanced at one of the radar scattered around the bridge. I saw a small red dot (that represented us) and, not far away, perhaps thirty kilometres, was another dot, this time orange. It was most definitely a ship, a Yeerk ship of unknown origin. That explained the excitement. The meeting of ships nowadays was rare. Most ships had been sent out to the Renola planet. Obviously this one had lost its way or something. Glancing at the string of words on the screen, it became apparent that (according to them) the ship they were on was called the Enterprise, a deep-space ship from the Federation of Planets. I stifled a laugh. My host was no expert of human entertainment, but even she knew a little about Star Trek.
The controller taking command of communication was no other than Efflit 1318. Not a rival by all means, but also not a friend. We could both see this was a set-up. Either a joke or a poorly set-up trap. Maybe both. Moving closer, I heard Efflit send a request for a visual, two-way communication. So, Efflit had learned a few things from childhood. He had been born aboard the Pool ship twenty years ago. I was there when he had taken his first host, a Hork-Bajir and when he had paraded up and down the room, showing off to me, who occupied a lowly, but important Taxxon-pilot, at the time. He'd been strong-minded and powerful, rising up the ranks to Sub-visser One Hundred and Sixty-two. But he was naïve. He failed to notice a trap when he saw one. He'd been second in charge of the invasion of the free Hork-Bajir valley back on earth. He had failed to notice (but, then again, neither had the visser) that not only were the Hork-Bajir in the trees, waiting for them, but also that the Animorphs were there, ready to attack. Visser Three, Efflit and a few others escaped but most perished when the valley flooded. He was demoted after that and his Hork-Bajir body given away to Sub-visser forty-one. I had laughed about that for days. It served him right. He shouldn't have rushed into things. He should have researched the layout of the land. He should have noticed that the Animorphs and the free Hork-Bajir would be waiting in ambush for them. But he didn't...
Seconds later, a human face appeared on screen. He was quite young, in his early-twenties. Efflit began laughing as the face appeared. 'So, you come from the Federation, do you? And where is Captain Picard?'
The man looked confused...no, panicked even for a few seconds. I saw his eyes dart off screen, but were quickly reverted. 'I've always thought of myself as more of a Captain Kirk,' the man said, full of arrogance. I almost smiled. He was good, oh he was good all right. Even my host body seemed slightly amused.
I saw Efflit nod, defeated. He changed the subject. 'That's quite a ship you have there...excuse me, I don't know your name.'
The 'captain' of the other ship again looked off to one side but only for a split second. 'I am Rakich 4691 of the Flet Niaar Pool.' However, it was done with hesitation, as if the man were being fed his lines. Not something that usually happens to a captain. It clicked.
I went over to Iniss. 'You realise what's going on here, don't you?' I said. 'That's a decoy, not the real captain. Notice the way he paused, as if waiting for his lines to be said by someone else on board the ship. That means he's not the real captain. And that also means they don't want the real captain to be shown,' I mused.
I turned back to the conversation between Rakich and Efflit. 'I might ask the same of you,' the other man was saying sharply. 'I find it hard to imagine what business a ship of the Yeerk Empire has in this far-flung quadrant.'
I saw Efflit's eyes glance towards the Taxxon at weapons. It was the 'turn-the-weapon-on-but-don't-fire-yet' look. The beams were suddenly loaded into the engines, then cross-switched into the emergency engines to stop the real engines overheating and exploding. Efflit turned back to Rakich. 'My business here is classified,' he said simply, his eyes narrowed slightly.
Rakich nodded, almost sceptically as if he knew Efflit wasn't telling the entire truth. 'As is mine,' he said.
For a few long moment, the two ships circled each other, both with powered weapons, like two wolves from different packs spotting a dead turkey for the same time. They would circle the bird, their eyes locked on the other wolf, not wanting to fight unless absolutely nesseccary. This was almost the same situation. Neither believed the other story and were ready to fight, but only if the opposite ship fired first.
I tensed. The Blade Ship had weapons far superior to the other ship. Which was faster was still unknown but I was positive that if the ship attempted to run away, it would be Draconed before it got anywhere, I was sure of that. Still, I was apprehensive. If the cruiser ship fired at the bridge, we'd all die. No question asked.
Rakich broke the awkward silence that was causing controllers on the bridge of the Blade Ship to shift nervously. 'It occurs to me, Efflit 1318, that it would be a tragedy if any misunderstanding occurred here between us.'
'Indeed?' Efflit replied. 'And what misunderstanding could occur, Rakich 4691?'
Rakich sighed. He was playing a part of a deflated soldier, acting as if he were saddened. I could tell. 'There is no empire, Efflit 1318. The empire is finished. I...my crew and I seized this ship and escaped as the Andalites closed in. we had heard that a Blade ship had escaped and survived. We have been looking for you ever since. For more than three years.'
I almost bought it. Efflit obviously did. He took in every piece of information people fed him and believed it. A common fool. Still, he was smart enough to turn this 'Rakich' over to the professionals.
'You will place yourself under the command of The One,' Efflit explained.
The 'captain' of the ship looked genuinely surprised. We had, at last, caught him off guard. I saw his eyebrows rise. 'The who?'
'I command this ship,' Efflit explained calmly, 'but I serve at the pleasure of The One Who Is Many. The One Who Is All. We are not alone, Rakich 4691. We are not this ship alone. We are the seeds of a new empire that will far outshine the old, under the leadership of The One.'
I sighed. The foolishness shined out of him. There he was, going on about The One again as if he adored him. I knew for a fact that everyone on this ship (with the exception of me, perhaps) feared him beyond belief. Any ideas that Efflit and The One were best buddies should be eradicated. And for seconds, he was overly opptimistic. I severely doubted that Efflit's dreams of a new, better Empire would ever come true within his lifetime.
'Um....who is this...this One?' the other guy said.
'I will invoke his presence,' Efflit said, closing his eyes. I knew he was calling out to The One. He already knew of course, all about the other ship, who was aboard it and on what mission they were on. The One had his uses. Suddenly, the entire bridge began to glow in a brilliant light, the kind of light that has such intensity it shows the insides of things as well as the outside. I closed my host eyes. I didn't want my eyeballs burning away. This was, of course, the arrival of The One.
He appeared from the light itself, his face shifting from the many souls he had acquired over the milenia. 'Demonstrating his unbeleivable powers' the others said. I thought it was showing off. He stepped daintily out of the light, his Andalite hooves stepping onto the ship's bridge. I saw him grinning, revealing his gruesome, red-rimmed teeth. I could see the evil radiating from him, an unmatched evil. Visser Three seemed tame to this foul, inhuman beast. Evil shimmered from Visser Three, but with The One, you could almost see the black waves of evil rising from The One's Andalite head. Cold eyes that could have frozen your spine locked onto the guy on the other ship and I knew he'd figured it out.
'Save your tricks for this Yeerk fool,' The One said expertly. 'I see the truth. I see all. Step into view, Jake the Yeerk-Killer. I know you are there. I feel your mind.'
Jake? Jake Berenson? Leader of the Animorphs? The Animorphs that had caused us to lose the battle for Earth? The very same Jake? It seemed impossible. Why would that foul, Yeerk-destroying being be this far in space. And then it hit me. I visibly rocked. The Andalite that The One had taken? No wonder he had looked familiar. It had been no other than Aximili- Esgarrouth-Isthil, Andalite pet to the Animorphs of earth. So? They were hoping to rescue them, were they? Fat chance of that!
I saw a young man, only seventeen of age, step calmly into view. I saw every eye in the room narrow. Everybody here knew Jake's face. Some had fought him on Earth. All had been warned about him. He was the 'Most- Wanted' on the Yeerk list for at least three years. My fists clenched automatically. So, Jake Berenson, leader of the human Animorphs of Earth was here in this quadrant of space? He would never live to see Earth again, I would make sure of that. He had caused the Empire too much trouble for him to go on living.
'I'm here,' Jake said without a trace of fear in his voice.
'You have done well to come this far,' The One said. 'You have come to find your friend. But the Andalite is part of me now. As you will soon be.'
Who would I stick up for in a fight? I despised both The One and Jake Berenson. But who would I want to die first...?
'Can we shoot?' Jake asked somebody beyond my range of vision. He made no attempt to conceal these words. He either wanted The One to think they were beaten. I knew for a fact that the Animorphs wouldn't give up without a fight.
'His Dracon cannon have longer range and greater power,' the man who had called himself Rakich 4691 said. 'And his defensive fields have been enhanced. I doubt our canon can penetrate them.'
It was obvious that this man was no ordinary human. No human would talk about Dracon canon and shields like that...no humans knew to any extent about that kind of thing. An Andalite in morph?
'Thought so,' Jake said. He still seemed unnaturally calm considering he was seriously beaten. 'But we're faster.'
'Yes,' the man replied.
'Ok.' I saw Jake glance around the bridge at people I could not see. Undoubtedly, some of the other Animorphs were also there. My guess turned out correct when he next said, 'What was it, Marco? 'Crazy, reckless, ruthless decisions'?'
I saw his eyes. I saw his smile. None were comforting. I could see that cruel, battle-driven smile as it spread across his face. He was a mouse trapped by an owl. But the mouse always fought back, even though it knew it had no chance of escape.
'No,' I whispered.
'Full emergency power to the engines,' Jake said. 'Ram the Blade Ship.'
My name is Essak 143. I inhabited a human host body. Her name was Alison Kamitrov. Like I cared. I heard her scream inside my head everyday, trying to fight her way out, shrieking wildly. She had learned long ago that there was no escape from the mighty Yeerk Empire. She knew no host body ever managed to escape while the Yeerk itself was still inside her head. That didn't stop her trying. She was a fool, as were the entire race of humans. One day they would all be conquered. It just happened that this wasn't the time.
I had been aboard the Blade ship when I saw the Yeerk Empire collapsed before my eyes. I had seen the futile attempts of the foolish, morph- capable girl as she tried to kill the human host Tom Berenson, brother of the Animorph leader. I had been there, in my lioness morph, when that happened. She fought bravely but stupidly. She died. And yet, on that day, so did the Empire.
I was a wise Yeerk. I had been there when the first rebellion on the homeworld had started. I was there, inhabiting a Gedd host body at the time, of course, when we stole four fighters and two transporters and escaped into Z-Space, just ahead of the Andalite fleet. I had been there when the infamous Esplin 9466, had been 'born' on my very ship. I had been there on the first attack of the Hork-Bajir homeworld. I had been there when the Taxxons gave themselves up to the Yeerks. I had been there when the first two humans appeared on the Taxxon world.
I had seen many things. But it was the defeat of the Empire that shocked me the most. Months before, the Empire was at its peak. Millions of host bodies were scattered around the galaxy, concentrating on earth, Anati and the Nine-shifter sector. But then it shuddered...and fell apart in one mighty blow. Earth had been defended by the humans, we were driven from the Anati-world and we slowly lost ground in the Rakkam Garroo conflict. Millions of host bodies...bumped down to a mere six thousand in less than a week. It was impossible to comprehend. The Yeerk homeworld was fiercely defended. No Yeerk ships would be leaving the homeworld for a long time. That left one and a half thousand Yeerk host bodies roaming the galaxy, perhaps two thousand more in portable Yeerk pools aboard the few remaining ships.
After the Empire's defeat, the Blade Ship containing less than twenty host bodies and five hundred Yeerks in the ship's pool, escaped earth before the Andalite fleet swarmed the planet and rounded up all remaining Yeerks. We were told via thought-speech communication from the Council of Thirteen that the homeworld was being held prisoner by the Andalite high command. We were also told to find the remnants of Yeerks that still survived in the galaxy and start infiltrating new, vulnerable species ready to start anew...not an easy task with less than two dozen host bodies and a single ship. But we would, undoubtedly, despite the odds, try. A race was picked out for us: the Renola, a largely unknown species, capable of simple space-flight, but with no real weapons beyond clubs and spears. Infestation would be easy apparently. The race would be ours within a year, statistics showed.
But The One had different ideas. He wasn't interested in the Yeerks in general. He was 'told' by a higher power to help us along in rebuilding the mighty Yeerk Empire. He obeyed. Still, the Renola were not on the top of his lists—he wanted bigger, better prey and no one was going to argue with the creature that could erase you simply by touching your skin.
We had found The One lurking in a massive, star-shaped ship. It was massive, matching in size the powerful mother ship that still lurked, biding its time near the planet on the edge of the same solar system as earth. Thinking it an enemy, we had attacked, damaging one of its engines. It was not a recognisable type of ship. Nothing like that had ever been seen in this part of the galaxy. In fact, the unknown ion metals the engines were made up of suggested that the ship wasn't originated from this galaxy.
The ship appeared empty. It showed no life forms, but then again, The One does not give off DNA readings. After all, it is not an actual creature, just a collection of minds, memories and souls merged into one psychical creature that could 'morph', within reason, into any creature it had captured the soul of. We boarded the ship, as planned, and there The One greeted us, telling us of its 'magnificent' plans to boost the Yeerk Empire. We were, of course, intrigued. Perhaps we should have realised The One's immense powers right then and right there and suddenly left. After all, a being of such capability cannot be a leader, just a bully. We soon found out about what The One really was later on when some underling, Vessek 1254 annoyed him for some reason. The One touched Vessek's Hork- Bajir body, killing him instantly. We saw his lifeless body topple, but we saw, just as well, that the dead creature had no soul. It had been removed by The One upon contact. It was then too late to escape. The One had unbeleivable psychic powers, able to see anything that happened on the ship, even when we left the ship to make planetary excursions looking for suitable host species.
The terror was unbeatable. Under Visser Three's command (which I remembered from long ago), you were able to make mistakes as long as the Visser didn't know. But under The One's command, every mistake made was seen by The One as clearly as if he/she/it (who knew) were in the room. No move could be made without The One seeing it and reprimanding it. I remained unaffected, however. The One's power was great, I understood that, but The One himself was not to be feared. He seemed unbeatable, but then again, nothing was invincible. After all, the Empire had seemed unbeatable...and look where it was now...
The One usually remained in his massive quarters, contacting the 'higher-powers'. After these sessions, he would emerge in a flurry, giving us new destinations. We had never reached the Renola planet: instead The One gave us orders to change directions and head for a lonely old planet at the corner of the galaxy, a planet home to the Norshk. We had never heard of them until now, but, according to The One, they were a powerful race of nomads that could be rounded up, one by one until the species was ours. Who were we to argue? I might not fear The One, but I wasn't about to die just because I didn't disagree with his views. That was the job of some incompetent fools.
We were nearing the solar system where the Norshk planet existed when something happened. I wasn't told, nor was I allowed on the bridge yet. I was just given orders to summon The One. Well, actually no ones summons The One. Its more of a 'Ah, excuse me for interrupting your most excellent session with the 'higher-powers', b-but, if its n-not to much trouble, the ship's c-c-captain would like to see you on the b-bridge with...ah...a p- problem.'
It was silly, but nesseccary. I saw one Yeerk who just walked in on The One's session, burned slowly alive and have the Yeerk itself pulled from its host body and cut up. The most horrid punishment for a Yeerk besides Kandrona starvation.
Anyway, I approached The One's quarters slowly, filled with apprehension. I knocked three times on his door, paused for a few seconds then knocked again. This was supposedly time for The One to sever the connection between him and the 'higher-power'. Nonsense, if you asked me. There was another pause then the door opened by itself. I looked inside, spotting The One straight away. Fairly recently, he had stolen the soul of an Andalite prince, but somehow, the process had gone wrong. It seemed the prince was more human than Andalite, the soul-snatching resulted in a misshapen body, half-human, half-Andalite, half-unnamed, foul creature. The One looked like an Andalite, but there were human characteristics. For one, he had a mouth, for another, he only had five fingers on each hand, not seven. He looked up I entered.
'My master,' I said. Normally, the other Yeerks would bow at this moment. I did not. I did not respect The One anymore than Visser Three. Both were fools, trying to be more powerful than they really were.
'You have news for me?' he asked. A simple game, really. He knew what I had come here for, he was just playing along.
'You are requested on the bridge,' I said simply. I did not say 'sir', 'your highness' or even 'almighty one'. He noted this and shifted his stand, raising his tail blade slightly. I said nothing. I didn't play 'suck- up' like the other fools. I hoped The One realised that. He might know everything that happened on 'his' ship, but he could not read minds. And that was my key.
The One looked at me slowly, and paused. It wasn't a nice pause. He looked at me with the look that read 'I own you, so don't try anything stupid, you half-wit'. 'Acknowledged,' he said finally. 'Return to the bridge. I'll be along shortly.'
'Yes...master,' I half-sneered, giving a courteous. Not a 'oh, gracious one, I'm glad to have helped' bow, just a small bow to stop myself from getting killed. But even as I bowed, facing the floor, my lips twisted into a sneer. He hadn't a clue about the plans I had for that monstrosity. But he would soon...oh, he would know and by then it would be too late.
I exited the room. There, standing outside, was a brother of mine Iniss 4943, inhabiting one of the few Hork-Bajir bodies still in the Yeerk empire. Cradling a Dracon beam, he spotted my departure and fell into step with me. I barely glanced towards him. We only spoke about military matters. After all, brothers and sisters are no closer to each other than total strangers. But still, I was jealous. While Iniss was still flaunting a much-wanted host body, myself and most other Yeerks on the ship inhabited weak, pathetic humans and some of us, Taxxons. Still, I didn't want Iniss to think I was jealous.
'What's going on at the bridge?' Iniss asked. He spoke Galard, the universal language. I didn't need to. Hork-Bajir easily understood human language, apart from the complicated words. 'They won't let me anywhere near it.'
'I don't know,' I replied gruffly. 'We'd better go and see.'
The bridge was now clear and people were running in and out of the room in a complete hurry. I entered cautiously, spotting no immediate cause for concern. Until I noticed the huge screen that had been lowered from the ceiling of the room. I glanced between rows of controls and consoles—with a few Taxxons ambling around, looking at strange symbols I even now have difficulty understanding, and twisted knobs that no doubt did something, but not something I could see. As you can probably guess, I was no pilot.
On the screen a list of words were being created. Confused, I glanced at one of the radar scattered around the bridge. I saw a small red dot (that represented us) and, not far away, perhaps thirty kilometres, was another dot, this time orange. It was most definitely a ship, a Yeerk ship of unknown origin. That explained the excitement. The meeting of ships nowadays was rare. Most ships had been sent out to the Renola planet. Obviously this one had lost its way or something. Glancing at the string of words on the screen, it became apparent that (according to them) the ship they were on was called the Enterprise, a deep-space ship from the Federation of Planets. I stifled a laugh. My host was no expert of human entertainment, but even she knew a little about Star Trek.
The controller taking command of communication was no other than Efflit 1318. Not a rival by all means, but also not a friend. We could both see this was a set-up. Either a joke or a poorly set-up trap. Maybe both. Moving closer, I heard Efflit send a request for a visual, two-way communication. So, Efflit had learned a few things from childhood. He had been born aboard the Pool ship twenty years ago. I was there when he had taken his first host, a Hork-Bajir and when he had paraded up and down the room, showing off to me, who occupied a lowly, but important Taxxon-pilot, at the time. He'd been strong-minded and powerful, rising up the ranks to Sub-visser One Hundred and Sixty-two. But he was naïve. He failed to notice a trap when he saw one. He'd been second in charge of the invasion of the free Hork-Bajir valley back on earth. He had failed to notice (but, then again, neither had the visser) that not only were the Hork-Bajir in the trees, waiting for them, but also that the Animorphs were there, ready to attack. Visser Three, Efflit and a few others escaped but most perished when the valley flooded. He was demoted after that and his Hork-Bajir body given away to Sub-visser forty-one. I had laughed about that for days. It served him right. He shouldn't have rushed into things. He should have researched the layout of the land. He should have noticed that the Animorphs and the free Hork-Bajir would be waiting in ambush for them. But he didn't...
Seconds later, a human face appeared on screen. He was quite young, in his early-twenties. Efflit began laughing as the face appeared. 'So, you come from the Federation, do you? And where is Captain Picard?'
The man looked confused...no, panicked even for a few seconds. I saw his eyes dart off screen, but were quickly reverted. 'I've always thought of myself as more of a Captain Kirk,' the man said, full of arrogance. I almost smiled. He was good, oh he was good all right. Even my host body seemed slightly amused.
I saw Efflit nod, defeated. He changed the subject. 'That's quite a ship you have there...excuse me, I don't know your name.'
The 'captain' of the other ship again looked off to one side but only for a split second. 'I am Rakich 4691 of the Flet Niaar Pool.' However, it was done with hesitation, as if the man were being fed his lines. Not something that usually happens to a captain. It clicked.
I went over to Iniss. 'You realise what's going on here, don't you?' I said. 'That's a decoy, not the real captain. Notice the way he paused, as if waiting for his lines to be said by someone else on board the ship. That means he's not the real captain. And that also means they don't want the real captain to be shown,' I mused.
I turned back to the conversation between Rakich and Efflit. 'I might ask the same of you,' the other man was saying sharply. 'I find it hard to imagine what business a ship of the Yeerk Empire has in this far-flung quadrant.'
I saw Efflit's eyes glance towards the Taxxon at weapons. It was the 'turn-the-weapon-on-but-don't-fire-yet' look. The beams were suddenly loaded into the engines, then cross-switched into the emergency engines to stop the real engines overheating and exploding. Efflit turned back to Rakich. 'My business here is classified,' he said simply, his eyes narrowed slightly.
Rakich nodded, almost sceptically as if he knew Efflit wasn't telling the entire truth. 'As is mine,' he said.
For a few long moment, the two ships circled each other, both with powered weapons, like two wolves from different packs spotting a dead turkey for the same time. They would circle the bird, their eyes locked on the other wolf, not wanting to fight unless absolutely nesseccary. This was almost the same situation. Neither believed the other story and were ready to fight, but only if the opposite ship fired first.
I tensed. The Blade Ship had weapons far superior to the other ship. Which was faster was still unknown but I was positive that if the ship attempted to run away, it would be Draconed before it got anywhere, I was sure of that. Still, I was apprehensive. If the cruiser ship fired at the bridge, we'd all die. No question asked.
Rakich broke the awkward silence that was causing controllers on the bridge of the Blade Ship to shift nervously. 'It occurs to me, Efflit 1318, that it would be a tragedy if any misunderstanding occurred here between us.'
'Indeed?' Efflit replied. 'And what misunderstanding could occur, Rakich 4691?'
Rakich sighed. He was playing a part of a deflated soldier, acting as if he were saddened. I could tell. 'There is no empire, Efflit 1318. The empire is finished. I...my crew and I seized this ship and escaped as the Andalites closed in. we had heard that a Blade ship had escaped and survived. We have been looking for you ever since. For more than three years.'
I almost bought it. Efflit obviously did. He took in every piece of information people fed him and believed it. A common fool. Still, he was smart enough to turn this 'Rakich' over to the professionals.
'You will place yourself under the command of The One,' Efflit explained.
The 'captain' of the ship looked genuinely surprised. We had, at last, caught him off guard. I saw his eyebrows rise. 'The who?'
'I command this ship,' Efflit explained calmly, 'but I serve at the pleasure of The One Who Is Many. The One Who Is All. We are not alone, Rakich 4691. We are not this ship alone. We are the seeds of a new empire that will far outshine the old, under the leadership of The One.'
I sighed. The foolishness shined out of him. There he was, going on about The One again as if he adored him. I knew for a fact that everyone on this ship (with the exception of me, perhaps) feared him beyond belief. Any ideas that Efflit and The One were best buddies should be eradicated. And for seconds, he was overly opptimistic. I severely doubted that Efflit's dreams of a new, better Empire would ever come true within his lifetime.
'Um....who is this...this One?' the other guy said.
'I will invoke his presence,' Efflit said, closing his eyes. I knew he was calling out to The One. He already knew of course, all about the other ship, who was aboard it and on what mission they were on. The One had his uses. Suddenly, the entire bridge began to glow in a brilliant light, the kind of light that has such intensity it shows the insides of things as well as the outside. I closed my host eyes. I didn't want my eyeballs burning away. This was, of course, the arrival of The One.
He appeared from the light itself, his face shifting from the many souls he had acquired over the milenia. 'Demonstrating his unbeleivable powers' the others said. I thought it was showing off. He stepped daintily out of the light, his Andalite hooves stepping onto the ship's bridge. I saw him grinning, revealing his gruesome, red-rimmed teeth. I could see the evil radiating from him, an unmatched evil. Visser Three seemed tame to this foul, inhuman beast. Evil shimmered from Visser Three, but with The One, you could almost see the black waves of evil rising from The One's Andalite head. Cold eyes that could have frozen your spine locked onto the guy on the other ship and I knew he'd figured it out.
'Save your tricks for this Yeerk fool,' The One said expertly. 'I see the truth. I see all. Step into view, Jake the Yeerk-Killer. I know you are there. I feel your mind.'
Jake? Jake Berenson? Leader of the Animorphs? The Animorphs that had caused us to lose the battle for Earth? The very same Jake? It seemed impossible. Why would that foul, Yeerk-destroying being be this far in space. And then it hit me. I visibly rocked. The Andalite that The One had taken? No wonder he had looked familiar. It had been no other than Aximili- Esgarrouth-Isthil, Andalite pet to the Animorphs of earth. So? They were hoping to rescue them, were they? Fat chance of that!
I saw a young man, only seventeen of age, step calmly into view. I saw every eye in the room narrow. Everybody here knew Jake's face. Some had fought him on Earth. All had been warned about him. He was the 'Most- Wanted' on the Yeerk list for at least three years. My fists clenched automatically. So, Jake Berenson, leader of the human Animorphs of Earth was here in this quadrant of space? He would never live to see Earth again, I would make sure of that. He had caused the Empire too much trouble for him to go on living.
'I'm here,' Jake said without a trace of fear in his voice.
'You have done well to come this far,' The One said. 'You have come to find your friend. But the Andalite is part of me now. As you will soon be.'
Who would I stick up for in a fight? I despised both The One and Jake Berenson. But who would I want to die first...?
'Can we shoot?' Jake asked somebody beyond my range of vision. He made no attempt to conceal these words. He either wanted The One to think they were beaten. I knew for a fact that the Animorphs wouldn't give up without a fight.
'His Dracon cannon have longer range and greater power,' the man who had called himself Rakich 4691 said. 'And his defensive fields have been enhanced. I doubt our canon can penetrate them.'
It was obvious that this man was no ordinary human. No human would talk about Dracon canon and shields like that...no humans knew to any extent about that kind of thing. An Andalite in morph?
'Thought so,' Jake said. He still seemed unnaturally calm considering he was seriously beaten. 'But we're faster.'
'Yes,' the man replied.
'Ok.' I saw Jake glance around the bridge at people I could not see. Undoubtedly, some of the other Animorphs were also there. My guess turned out correct when he next said, 'What was it, Marco? 'Crazy, reckless, ruthless decisions'?'
I saw his eyes. I saw his smile. None were comforting. I could see that cruel, battle-driven smile as it spread across his face. He was a mouse trapped by an owl. But the mouse always fought back, even though it knew it had no chance of escape.
'No,' I whispered.
'Full emergency power to the engines,' Jake said. 'Ram the Blade Ship.'
