Disclaimer: Guess what?! KA Applegate just sold me the Animorphs copyright! I OWN them!! I own them ALL!!

Oh, wait – NO. Sorry. Just my little delusion, there.

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Rachel

Erik's report had been accurate. There was one Hork-Bajir, one Taxxon and a Chee "Controller". Sending the four of us in all at once wasn't just overkill, it was slaughter. Ax knocked the Taxxon away from the controls with a wet splap of his tailblade. Cassie ripped it apart. I got the Hork-Bajir once Marco had wrenched the Dracon beam from his hand. Ax was already at the controls. My little beady eyes looked at Cassie, who was dragging the bodies out of the way.

That was too easy.

Don't say that. Cassie replied. You'll jinx us.

She's right, Marco said. Makes me nervous. Rach, why don't you go see if Jake and Tobias need any help?

I nodded my bear head an turned to the door.

Whups. Guess not.

Erik and his Chee friend Matt were standing in the door way. Between them was an older, tired-looking, beat up Japanese man. Blood was pouring from his temple. And he was rubbing his ear.

He is freed? Ax asked, one stalk eye appraising the man. Erik nodded.

A Hork-Bajir came through the doorway behind them.

Tobias, I really hope that's you. Cassie said.

Yeah, it's me. Flying in an enclosed space is really difficult, so I think I'll stay like this for a bit.

Jake came after him, demorphed already. He ran his hand through his hair.

"All right. Ax, you know where we're going?"

Ax nodded, a habit he'd picked up from us. The location is clearly marked on the map. I could have gotten us there when I was a child.

The Japanese man turned, startled, and looked at Jake, apparently noticing him for the first time. He spouted something in rapid Japanese.

"He wants to know if you're one of them." Erik translated. Jake smiled, shook his head.

"I'm Jake." He stuck his hand out, trying to put the poor man at ease. The man cocked his head.

"Jaiku?" Jake nodded. The man clasped his hand awkwardly, obviously not used to the whole shaking-hands thing. "Toshida desu." He said with a slight bow.

"His name is Toshida." Erik said. Jake nodded again.

"Demorph, guys. Well, Tobias can stay in morph, if he wants."

Toshida stared in total amazement as our menagerie of animals slowly became human. He turned to Erik and asked him a question as Matt pulled up a chair for him. Erik replied in Japanese.

He is asking if you are animal spirits. Ax said. We all turned and stared.

"How do you know?" I asked, confused. Ax smiled his Andalite smile.

All Andalites have a universal translator implanted in their heads at birth. It just takes time to translate a new language.

Cassie's eyes lit up. "Cool! So you can understand any language?"

As long as I have a sufficient sampling. How do you think I learned English?

We all kind of looked at each other. No one had ever bothered to ask.

* * *

Nearly an hour later, we had all been introduced and had briefed Toshida on what was going on. We had also learned that he spoke a little English. Not much, though. He kept throwing Japanese words in at the weirdest places.

Meanwhile, Ax was going through the ship's log with his spare eyes, trying to pick up as much information as he could. After all, you never knew when a bit of obscure information might come in handy.

Cassie, Marco and Jake were off in the corner, holding a heated argument that ran along the lines of "what are we going to do with him?" Personally, I was more worried about the task at hand.

There was something wrong. I didn't know what. Maybe it was because the first part of the plan had run so smoothly. I couldn't remember any other mission that had worked this well for so long. The ones that came close were usually the ones that resulted in a horrible, screaming, bloody massacre.

Or maybe I was being paranoid. Strange, for me; usually that was Marco's job.

I went over to Tobias, who was standing by the window.

Look. That's the Land of the Rising Sun. Beautiful, isn't it?

I looked. Straight ahead was a long stretch of coastline, illuminated by the sun. It was beautiful.

Times like this make me wish Tobias was human again. Totally human, I mean. Two hours is just not enough time. Not when any day could be your last.

Prince Jake. I believe we may have a situation.

Ax immediately had the full attention of the entire room.

"What is it, Ax?"

I just ran a surface diagnostic. It would appear that the Visser has implanted a tracking device on the ship's hull without the crew's knowledge.

It took us a second to digest that.

"Are we being followed?"

Ax brought up a new screen, clicking away with his many nimble Andalite fingers.

There is no reading, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. They would be tracking us from orbit, from the Blade ship.

Marco looked over at Erik and the other Chee warily.

"Is this routine?"

Erik shook his head. "No. Any Yeerk ship can be tracked by the Blade Ship, but it is possible to turn the mechanism off. We would only have been bugged if the Visser had reason to suspect that the system might be disabled."

Cassie nodded grimly. "This ship was a prime target if the 'Andelite bandits' found out about it. He was expecting us."

"So how do we fool him?" I asked.

Don't deviate from the flight path. Pretend that everything is normal. They can only track our route, right? Tobias said. Jake nodded, turning to Ax.

"Ax. When we took over the ship, how far did the ship veer off course before you took control?"

Less than two miles.

"Would the Visser notice that?"

Maybe. It's unlikely.

"Well." Cassie said. "We can only hope."

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