Chapter 4
His eyes had given it away. I could see this human—this Jake Berenson—was a genuine leader. A leader not afraid to take risks, a leader willing to sacrifice not only himself but all those around him for freedom. But he would only allow his friends to die if he was also killed. And that was his weakness. He could not just sit there and watch his friends die. I would hunt him down and kill him personally. He had done tremendous damage to the Yeerk Empire, reducing it to nothingness. I couldn't let him get away with that. But...But first, I myself had to survive...
Jake had not only sentenced my fellow Yeerks and I to certain death, he had sentenced himself and his fellow Animorphs to die. Or at least I thought so. I saw everyone else, especially that fool, Efflit standing around in shock, staring up at the impossibly calm face of Jake Berenson. No one could guess what was going on in his mind; after all, he'd just sealed the death tickets of dozens of beings, Yeerk and free humans.
I for one, was not going to stand around and die. I spun around, wide- eyed, even before Jake had given out that death-inducing order. I ran on human legs I long ago had mastered. If Jake's instructions were going to be followed, I would have zero time to get off the ship. From out of the corner of my eye, in the split-second it took me to exit the room and start hurtling down the corridor, I saw The One simply vanish, leaving the bridge ultimately darker than it was before.
I knew where the escape pods where. I'd been in this ship for other three years now. I know every corridor, every room like the back of my hand. I rushed down the metal main corridor, then turn right. I could feel the Blade ship slowly turning. Obviously, the ship had missed and were circling to finish it off.
'Hey, Essak!'
I sighed. It was the fool. Efflit 1318. Normally I would have stopped, turned slowly around and replied wittily, but now was not the time for stopping and cracking jokes. Within seconds the entire ship could explode, killing us all. Wisecracks were out of the question.
I saw the two escape pods. There was room for only a few humans, two Hork-Bajir and one Taxxon. They were circular with the front half-made out of reinforced glass. I saw a smart Hork-Bajir-Controller leap into one of the escape pods, followed by a human I didn't recognise. I leaped for the other one.
'Essak, don't leave me behind!' I heard Efflit yell. Looking back, I saw him running as fast as his old host body would allow him down the corridor. 'Essak, wait! I don't want to die!'
A classic coward. Nobody wants to die, I thought bitterly. No need to go broadcasting it.
'Essak!'
I hesitated. Waiting for Efflit would waste time, precious time that could result in my death. But leaving now...that was a classic Yeerk move. 'When the race against time is on, save yourself. Wait for nobody.' It was an old Yeerk saying the Council of Thirteen had told me in my youth. But then again, did I want to be like every other Yeerk in the galaxy? Sitting in a vat and exiting their host every three days? No, I wanted to be different. I wanted to do something different. The new empire would need every Yeerk it needed, after all...
No, the empire would survive perfectly without Efflit 1318. I started to close the door. But no, Efflit was quick, despite his host's body's fragile body. He dived towards the door. But nothing, not even the old man flinging himself into the opening would stop the door closing.
I closed my eyes and shuddered. No one wants to see someone severed at the waist because of a fast moving door. And yet...beyond the odds, Essak was still clinging to life even as the door vacuum-sealed itself.
'Essak 143...' I heard him mutter. I noticed that his eyelids were drooping. He was dying. His heart had practically stopped working. His lungs no longer contributed to his slowly-failing bodily organs. 'Essak 143...die! You...haven't heard...the...'
'Heard the last of you?' I joked as Efflit 1318 died before me and as both escape pods were thrust from the bottom of the Blade ship into space. Small engines instantly started propelling them away from the imminent danger of the Blade ship. 'Oh I think I have,' I continued, laughing at what was left of his dead body. 'Oh I think I have, Efflit 1318...'
An explosion. Silent in the vacuum of space, but that didn't stop the shock wave shooting in every direction away from the Blade ship. The shock wave bumped into the escape pod and was instantly translated into sound. A flash later and the entire Blade ship went up in what was now a huge cloud of pressurised steam that instantly cooled in the near-absolute temperate space and froze. A brilliant light extended out for kilometres in every direction. How many Yeerks had died? Two dozen at the most. Nothing compared to the loss of the seventeen thousand back on the Pool ship on earth, but still a huge loss when the Empire was still scrambling to grab a foothold of the ever-changing Universe.
No time to be saddened. I had to think clearly. At the moment, both escape pods were firing themselves forward, but sooner or later, they'd stop and I would have to take up the job of pilot. No time to think of...my brother! My brother had been aboard when the Blade ship had exploded. My only surviving sibling...destroyed...
No, wait! The other escape pod. A Hork-Bajir had scrabbled inside. I had seen it only for the smallest amount of time There was always the possibility that it was my brother...After all, there were a total of six Hork-Bajir-Controllers on board. There was a one-in-six chance that the fleeing Hork-Bajir was in fact Iniss, my brother. Not that I was deeply concerned, of course...I mean, I was born with a hundred siblings. If I stopped to cry at the death of every single one, I would spend my entire life crying. But this was my last brother...it was my duty not to cry, but to at least grief...
'Your brother is indeed dead, I'm afraid.'
That voice. That cold, almost-mechanical, familiar voice. The One. No mistaking that monotone, yet at the same time, insanely cruel voice for anyone else.
He appeared, shimmering from air, at the side of me, taking the form of a human. After all, his stolen Andalite body would have trouble wedged in the small escape pod. His cold, hellish seemed to burn right through me and his nefarious smile was no better.
'I...I thought you'd...' I stammered, not believing my luck. I had just escaped the single most devastating disaster since the start of the new Empire's birth, and the most nightmarish creature possible, one I thought had perished in the explosion, had appeared right next to me.
'Died?' The One laughed his manic, corrupted laugh that made me shudder beyond the limits of my body. 'No, you see, I don't die. I cannot die. I am incapable of dying. I was not created to die...I was created to kill.'
'Really?' I said, reverting to my cool, calm, confident self despite the fact that probably the most powerful, yet most malevolent creature in the galaxy was sitting next to me. This was the creature that could cause my organs to explode just by saying the right word. This was the creature that could not only kill me, but also erase every evidence that I had ever existed simply by touching me.
'Yes,' The One replied. 'Your brother is dead, as if everyone else who was aboard the Blade ship, with the exception of three Yeerks beside yourself.'
I frowned. Three? Besides myself? I only counted two controllers leaping into the other escape pod—a Hork-Bajir and a human. Could another controller have managed to get in without my noticing? No, I realised as I looked over at the opposite escape pod. Only a Hork-Bajir and human sat there...So what was The One talking about? Who was the third Yeerk?
'If I had my own way, I would abandon your pathetic species and leech onto another, more powerful race,' The One said, 'but I have my orders...' He paused dramatically. 'I cannot leave until you have found your feet and that attack on the Blade ship has not helped things dramatically.'
'Can't you somehow revive the dead bodies?' I wondered out loud, forgetting for a second about my legendary grudge against The One. I instantly regretted it as soon as it slipped out of my mouth. I was speaking kindly to a potentially enemy that would have to be, undoubtedly, be exterminated. 'I'm sure you can do it, what with you being all-powerful and all, can't you?' I sneered, trying to cover up my tracks.
'Oh, yes, I'm perfectly capable of that,' The One said, equally maliciously. 'No doubt about that. But there are rules...rules that cannot be broken. Lines...lines that cannot be crossed. And one of those rules, one of those lines, is that I cannot revive dead bodies, no matter how severe the case may be.'
A brilliant white light crossed our path. The lights of a passing ship. The 'Enterprise', I realised suddenly, or whatever the stupid ship was called. The human-manned ship! The Animorphs! Jake Berenson! It skimmed across our path, shaking us in the wake as it passed at high velocity.
'Their fuel is slowly expiring,' The One said, allowing his 'human' face to remain expressionless. 'They have, at most, nine days before they start floating around in deep-space. They are heading towards a not-so-far- away planet. It is one of many planets with settlements belonging to the same species of alien. They are going there hoping to find and 'borrow' another ship to return home in. They will succeed...unless we stop them.'
STOP THEM, bellowed a magnificent voice that seemed to penetrate my entire brain, forcing me to clasp hands over my human ears and wail in terror. The voice was from an unknown, but unstoppable evil that appeared from nowhere. An evil that matched the evil of The One itself.
'The higher powers have order me,' The One said simply. 'I must obey. Will you accompany me in destroying these foul, morph-capable humans?'
A question I had dreaded. Who did I want dead the most? The One, of course. But the death of the Animorphs would also deeply satisfy me. After all, with the Animorphs out of the picture, I could concentrate on expelling The One from the galaxy. But...but The One was an enemy. I couldn't side with him, even to defeat a common enemy. That would be wrong...But then again, with The One's trust at my side, I could lure him into a trap.
Idiot, I scolded myself. The One cannot be fooled. He knows all.
No, I wouldn't help The One.
But...but then...a memory that I wasn't sure I even had...I saw the seventeen thousand Yeerks, all defenceless, without hosts to be able to fight back, all flushed out into the dead of space. All of them died. It had been slaughter. A massacre. Annihilation. And there, in the background, was Jake Berenson's smug face as he realised what he'd accomplished.
Yes, I would help The One exterminate Jake and the rest of his followers. But it would me who would kill Jake personally. The One could exterminate the rest of them, but Jake was mine....
Hi to all the people who have been reading my story. I really appreciate your support and desperately need feedback to find out what I'm doing right and wrong. After all, this is my first fan-fic so don't be too hard.
I'm planning a total of around 15 chapters in all, although that can change. Unless a lot of people enjoyed my work, I probably won't be doing anymore stories, so e-mail me if you have anything to say.
His eyes had given it away. I could see this human—this Jake Berenson—was a genuine leader. A leader not afraid to take risks, a leader willing to sacrifice not only himself but all those around him for freedom. But he would only allow his friends to die if he was also killed. And that was his weakness. He could not just sit there and watch his friends die. I would hunt him down and kill him personally. He had done tremendous damage to the Yeerk Empire, reducing it to nothingness. I couldn't let him get away with that. But...But first, I myself had to survive...
Jake had not only sentenced my fellow Yeerks and I to certain death, he had sentenced himself and his fellow Animorphs to die. Or at least I thought so. I saw everyone else, especially that fool, Efflit standing around in shock, staring up at the impossibly calm face of Jake Berenson. No one could guess what was going on in his mind; after all, he'd just sealed the death tickets of dozens of beings, Yeerk and free humans.
I for one, was not going to stand around and die. I spun around, wide- eyed, even before Jake had given out that death-inducing order. I ran on human legs I long ago had mastered. If Jake's instructions were going to be followed, I would have zero time to get off the ship. From out of the corner of my eye, in the split-second it took me to exit the room and start hurtling down the corridor, I saw The One simply vanish, leaving the bridge ultimately darker than it was before.
I knew where the escape pods where. I'd been in this ship for other three years now. I know every corridor, every room like the back of my hand. I rushed down the metal main corridor, then turn right. I could feel the Blade ship slowly turning. Obviously, the ship had missed and were circling to finish it off.
'Hey, Essak!'
I sighed. It was the fool. Efflit 1318. Normally I would have stopped, turned slowly around and replied wittily, but now was not the time for stopping and cracking jokes. Within seconds the entire ship could explode, killing us all. Wisecracks were out of the question.
I saw the two escape pods. There was room for only a few humans, two Hork-Bajir and one Taxxon. They were circular with the front half-made out of reinforced glass. I saw a smart Hork-Bajir-Controller leap into one of the escape pods, followed by a human I didn't recognise. I leaped for the other one.
'Essak, don't leave me behind!' I heard Efflit yell. Looking back, I saw him running as fast as his old host body would allow him down the corridor. 'Essak, wait! I don't want to die!'
A classic coward. Nobody wants to die, I thought bitterly. No need to go broadcasting it.
'Essak!'
I hesitated. Waiting for Efflit would waste time, precious time that could result in my death. But leaving now...that was a classic Yeerk move. 'When the race against time is on, save yourself. Wait for nobody.' It was an old Yeerk saying the Council of Thirteen had told me in my youth. But then again, did I want to be like every other Yeerk in the galaxy? Sitting in a vat and exiting their host every three days? No, I wanted to be different. I wanted to do something different. The new empire would need every Yeerk it needed, after all...
No, the empire would survive perfectly without Efflit 1318. I started to close the door. But no, Efflit was quick, despite his host's body's fragile body. He dived towards the door. But nothing, not even the old man flinging himself into the opening would stop the door closing.
I closed my eyes and shuddered. No one wants to see someone severed at the waist because of a fast moving door. And yet...beyond the odds, Essak was still clinging to life even as the door vacuum-sealed itself.
'Essak 143...' I heard him mutter. I noticed that his eyelids were drooping. He was dying. His heart had practically stopped working. His lungs no longer contributed to his slowly-failing bodily organs. 'Essak 143...die! You...haven't heard...the...'
'Heard the last of you?' I joked as Efflit 1318 died before me and as both escape pods were thrust from the bottom of the Blade ship into space. Small engines instantly started propelling them away from the imminent danger of the Blade ship. 'Oh I think I have,' I continued, laughing at what was left of his dead body. 'Oh I think I have, Efflit 1318...'
An explosion. Silent in the vacuum of space, but that didn't stop the shock wave shooting in every direction away from the Blade ship. The shock wave bumped into the escape pod and was instantly translated into sound. A flash later and the entire Blade ship went up in what was now a huge cloud of pressurised steam that instantly cooled in the near-absolute temperate space and froze. A brilliant light extended out for kilometres in every direction. How many Yeerks had died? Two dozen at the most. Nothing compared to the loss of the seventeen thousand back on the Pool ship on earth, but still a huge loss when the Empire was still scrambling to grab a foothold of the ever-changing Universe.
No time to be saddened. I had to think clearly. At the moment, both escape pods were firing themselves forward, but sooner or later, they'd stop and I would have to take up the job of pilot. No time to think of...my brother! My brother had been aboard when the Blade ship had exploded. My only surviving sibling...destroyed...
No, wait! The other escape pod. A Hork-Bajir had scrabbled inside. I had seen it only for the smallest amount of time There was always the possibility that it was my brother...After all, there were a total of six Hork-Bajir-Controllers on board. There was a one-in-six chance that the fleeing Hork-Bajir was in fact Iniss, my brother. Not that I was deeply concerned, of course...I mean, I was born with a hundred siblings. If I stopped to cry at the death of every single one, I would spend my entire life crying. But this was my last brother...it was my duty not to cry, but to at least grief...
'Your brother is indeed dead, I'm afraid.'
That voice. That cold, almost-mechanical, familiar voice. The One. No mistaking that monotone, yet at the same time, insanely cruel voice for anyone else.
He appeared, shimmering from air, at the side of me, taking the form of a human. After all, his stolen Andalite body would have trouble wedged in the small escape pod. His cold, hellish seemed to burn right through me and his nefarious smile was no better.
'I...I thought you'd...' I stammered, not believing my luck. I had just escaped the single most devastating disaster since the start of the new Empire's birth, and the most nightmarish creature possible, one I thought had perished in the explosion, had appeared right next to me.
'Died?' The One laughed his manic, corrupted laugh that made me shudder beyond the limits of my body. 'No, you see, I don't die. I cannot die. I am incapable of dying. I was not created to die...I was created to kill.'
'Really?' I said, reverting to my cool, calm, confident self despite the fact that probably the most powerful, yet most malevolent creature in the galaxy was sitting next to me. This was the creature that could cause my organs to explode just by saying the right word. This was the creature that could not only kill me, but also erase every evidence that I had ever existed simply by touching me.
'Yes,' The One replied. 'Your brother is dead, as if everyone else who was aboard the Blade ship, with the exception of three Yeerks beside yourself.'
I frowned. Three? Besides myself? I only counted two controllers leaping into the other escape pod—a Hork-Bajir and a human. Could another controller have managed to get in without my noticing? No, I realised as I looked over at the opposite escape pod. Only a Hork-Bajir and human sat there...So what was The One talking about? Who was the third Yeerk?
'If I had my own way, I would abandon your pathetic species and leech onto another, more powerful race,' The One said, 'but I have my orders...' He paused dramatically. 'I cannot leave until you have found your feet and that attack on the Blade ship has not helped things dramatically.'
'Can't you somehow revive the dead bodies?' I wondered out loud, forgetting for a second about my legendary grudge against The One. I instantly regretted it as soon as it slipped out of my mouth. I was speaking kindly to a potentially enemy that would have to be, undoubtedly, be exterminated. 'I'm sure you can do it, what with you being all-powerful and all, can't you?' I sneered, trying to cover up my tracks.
'Oh, yes, I'm perfectly capable of that,' The One said, equally maliciously. 'No doubt about that. But there are rules...rules that cannot be broken. Lines...lines that cannot be crossed. And one of those rules, one of those lines, is that I cannot revive dead bodies, no matter how severe the case may be.'
A brilliant white light crossed our path. The lights of a passing ship. The 'Enterprise', I realised suddenly, or whatever the stupid ship was called. The human-manned ship! The Animorphs! Jake Berenson! It skimmed across our path, shaking us in the wake as it passed at high velocity.
'Their fuel is slowly expiring,' The One said, allowing his 'human' face to remain expressionless. 'They have, at most, nine days before they start floating around in deep-space. They are heading towards a not-so-far- away planet. It is one of many planets with settlements belonging to the same species of alien. They are going there hoping to find and 'borrow' another ship to return home in. They will succeed...unless we stop them.'
STOP THEM, bellowed a magnificent voice that seemed to penetrate my entire brain, forcing me to clasp hands over my human ears and wail in terror. The voice was from an unknown, but unstoppable evil that appeared from nowhere. An evil that matched the evil of The One itself.
'The higher powers have order me,' The One said simply. 'I must obey. Will you accompany me in destroying these foul, morph-capable humans?'
A question I had dreaded. Who did I want dead the most? The One, of course. But the death of the Animorphs would also deeply satisfy me. After all, with the Animorphs out of the picture, I could concentrate on expelling The One from the galaxy. But...but The One was an enemy. I couldn't side with him, even to defeat a common enemy. That would be wrong...But then again, with The One's trust at my side, I could lure him into a trap.
Idiot, I scolded myself. The One cannot be fooled. He knows all.
No, I wouldn't help The One.
But...but then...a memory that I wasn't sure I even had...I saw the seventeen thousand Yeerks, all defenceless, without hosts to be able to fight back, all flushed out into the dead of space. All of them died. It had been slaughter. A massacre. Annihilation. And there, in the background, was Jake Berenson's smug face as he realised what he'd accomplished.
Yes, I would help The One exterminate Jake and the rest of his followers. But it would me who would kill Jake personally. The One could exterminate the rest of them, but Jake was mine....
Hi to all the people who have been reading my story. I really appreciate your support and desperately need feedback to find out what I'm doing right and wrong. After all, this is my first fan-fic so don't be too hard.
I'm planning a total of around 15 chapters in all, although that can change. Unless a lot of people enjoyed my work, I probably won't be doing anymore stories, so e-mail me if you have anything to say.
