I'm being really ambitious about these updates. It'll never last. I just wanted to get this chapter up on my birthday. :D

Disclaimer: Most of this is the intellectual property of KA Applegate. You know.

All of Feiranel's fatigue vanished as she raced up the slope of the hill to my aid, unclipping one of the huge shredders she carried on her back. Reaching the crest, she unloaded round after round of heavy fire on the Yeerk ambush. One shot took out the Dracon cannon before it could reload, and another caused a Human-Controller to crumple to the ground.

(Morph! I'll cover you!) She didn't need to order me to do it. I had already ducked behind the cover of the rock formation and begun the transition to the fearsome alien predator. There were still flashes of light as Dracon beams sliced through the hilltop and rained havoc on the small grove of trees. I could no longer see Feiranel. She must have charged the Hork-Bajir.

I could hear the thoughtspeak of the Abomination. (Oh Andalite warriors! You have been foolish! Why would we have needed to track you when we could see within a few human miles that your tracks were following a straight line!)

I cursed to myself. Stupidity! And all the Yeerks would need to do after we were dead is follow along that same line to discover our downed ship.

Well, we weren't dead yet.

Visser Three continued to taunt us. (Why would I need to waste my Hork-Bajir's time on your trail, when I could intercept you in the location of my choice with a small army and kill you myself. I have a morph that I've saved especially for occasions like this!)

I couldn't see him, but I knew that he had begun the morphing process. I was nearly fully ungach. If we were to survive, Feiranel and I would need to be very far away by the time the Visser had completed his own morph. That gave us perhaps three human minutes. Maybe less.

(Poor little Andalite warriors. Perhaps I should have let you continue. Didn't you know you were about to run straight into a human city? A human city that is filled with my people, one which I have made my stronghold!) The Visser crowed triumphantly.

I emerged from behind the boulder. The Dracon fire that had threatened me in Andalite form barely singed my hair. It was time for me to show the Yeerks how the ungach killed.

The ungach was fast, but it's teeth alone would be an ineffective tool to take down the large prey that it hunted. When an ungach killed, it put its head between its forelegs. It's neck was quite long and muscular, for once it had needed to reach the ground to harvest the short native grasses of it's planet. Now that long neck was a tool for killing.

With its head down low and the sharp points of it's razor-sharp antlers flexed forward, the ungach would charge at its prey. Perhaps, without the benefit of its great speed, the antlers would not be so effective a weapon. And without the bladed antlers, the speed alone would not be as useful. But with both, the ungach will slam into it's prey with an immense force, usually killing instantly.

As the three Hork-Bajir moving to intercept me soon found out.

They weren't armed; their limited hand movement makes Dracon beams cumbersome. But then, in most cases, Hork-Bajir are weapons in themselves.

I hit the first one square in the chest and he died immediately, skewered by at least four of my spear-like prongs. The second I hit with my left antler alone, but I pierced his neck and he lay there bleeding and fading. The force of the impact wrenched my head a little to the side, so I missed the third, who leapt over my deadly horns and began to slash away at my back. He only grazed my body thorugh the ungach's shaggy fur. I bucked him off and trampled his groaning body.

I could see Feiranel engaging two other Hork-Bajir at the same time with ease. Four other bodies littered the ground around her, one completely blackened from short-range Shredder fire. She was a magnificent warrior to watch in action. I had not seen her fight since I left the academy, but now she was a fully grown fighter. And beautifully deadly. So I focused my attention on the Visser and what remained of his human entourage.

The humans and their Dracon beams broke ranks and scattered as I guided my charging body in their direction. A few hit the ground, rolled and continued to fire at me. I took a few solid hits and shuddered in pain. Other humans just lay there where they landed. I assumed they were faking death. Yeerks are cowards.

The Visser was partially morphed into a huge, amorphous being. Luckily, it was taking a long time to complete. He was still covered in blue and tan Andalite fur and skin, and was unable to move.

(Alcolrec!!) Feiranel screamed in my head. I whirled away from the Visser's rapidly changing bulk.

She had been bleeding profusely, but now blood gushed from a deep gash in her shoulder. This was not what had made her scream. She had incapacitated one of her Hork-Bajir opponents, but the other had completely severed her tail and was standing over her defenseless form menacingly.

I was shocked. What would become of a warrior without a tail? As I ran to aid her, another Hork-Bajir leapt up at me from where he had been hidden in the tall grass. Without pausing I swept my horns forward, and pierced his torso with their prongs. I tossed my head effortlessly and the seven foot tall Hork-Bajir went flying through the air, behind me. I did not bother to see where he landed.

I watched Feiranel coolly dispatch the last Hork-Bajir with one of the smaller shredders she had holstered at her side. Then she slumped to the ground and did not move. From the corner of my eye, I saw the Abomination complete his horrifying transformation and begin to move in our direction.

I charged towards Feiranel, but as I did I rotated the angle of my horns so that the blunt underside was turned upwards. As I neared her prone form I slowed, and scooped my warrior protector gently into the harmless cradle formed by my horns. Well, perhaps I was a little rough. I was in a hurry.

The creature the Visser had morphed was moving towards us. I was desperately injured from the point-blank Dracon fire I had sustained while dispatching the Human-Controllers. I needed to stop and demorph. I felt dizzy. But I did not wait for the Visser to show us exactly why he had picked that particular morph. He could save that for another day, and another ambush.

I felt the strength and toughness of the ungach welling up within me as I used it's swiftness to carry myself, and Feiranel, far away from the battlefield.

------

Feiranel was unconscious for most of the ride I gave her. Sometimes when I stopped to demorph, she would stir, but she was weak from losing so much blood. She seemed to be coated in it. Her tail was hanging from it's base by a thread.

I changed direction. I knew I had to skirt the human city that the Visser had mentioned. At one point I even crossed some obviously inhabited human lands, but by this time it was very late at night, and I disturbed no one. It was dark, and I could see the lights of human civilization on the horizon. I avoided them, and kept to the darkness of the woods. I could not sense any pursuit, and the erratic path I took ensured that the Visser would not be able to use the technique that had trapped us before.

I was never lost. I am very good at orienting myself spatially, and so by the time this system's sun began to rise, the human city was behind me, and I was nearing the site of our ship's crash. I had pushed my ungach body to it's limits, and made good time. I felt dead.

I was apprehensive as I approached the area where our ship had crashed, because the Visser had known by our earlier trail the axis along which our ship must be located. I could only hope Controllers had not found it in the night. Then that would be the end. I trusted that with daylight on the way, no Bug fighters would be able to do aerial surveillance.

If I could get to the ship first, I could hide it's presence in a matter of hours. The Visser could send all the men he wanted to search the area afterwards. All he knew was that we were traveling in one general direction to reach our ship. He did not know how far we would be traveling in that direction. Once I could disguise the ship's location he would never find it. If I could find it myself.

I stopped near a rocky outcrop that poked through the treetops, and lay Feiranel in the grass. She still did not move. Her hearts beat faintly. She was going to die. Her only hope was that I could find the ship and administer medical aid. If she had not been in such robust physical condition she would have been dead already.

I demorphed to Andalite and immediately began a second morph. A kafit bird, from my own homeworld. Soon I flew above the trees, searching for a sign of the downed craft. I uneasily scanned the horizon for enemies at the same time.

I almost didn't find it. At the end of a fruitless two hours of searching, I landed in a clearing to demorph. My choice of that location was nothing more than a natural Andalite affinity for open space that happened to be there as my time limit neared. And as I demorphed, I saw it. It had made impact at a low angle, skimming above the earth for some time. I could see a small furrow at the edge of the field where it had scraped against the ground. And I could see the tree at the edge that it had wrapped around and reduced to splinters.

It was a miracle. It had crashed in such a way that it had produced a minimum of damage to the surrounding environment. I was confident that it would never be seen from the air, for it had landed far enough out of the open field that it was visibly shielded under the cover of the trees. All that time I had been scanning the treetops for a horrific crash site. If I had not landed at that particular end of that particular field, I would not have found it.

I flew back to Feiranel at top speed. When I demorphed I noticed her eyes were open. (I'm sorry I had to leave you. I've found our ship. You must be in a lot of pain, but soon I'll have a medical kit to fix you up!) I tried to sound upbeat.

(…A lot of pain,) she repeated sullenly. Then she said something so quietly that I could not make it out.

(What?)

(Kill me,) she stated weakly.

(No!) I recoiled. I had come so far. We had made it! We had escaped! We were alive! Why would she ask for death?

(Kill me,) she pleaded.

(Look, if it's about your tail, there's an Escafil device back on the ship). She shook her head. (No, not the one I've been modifying. Another one. I'll bring you back to the ship, and then go catch an Earth creature. You will morph, and when you return to your Andalite body you will be whole once more.)

She kept shaking her head at me. (You know I can not, Alcorec.)

I stared dumbly. Those jealous whispered rumors at the academy were an evil truth. Her allergy was real. Feiranel would die. Even supposing I could heal her wounds, she would take her own life. An Andalite without a tail was never really alive afterward anyway.

She had been such a great warrior.

I didn't say anything. I morphed ungach and carried her cradled in my antlers to our ruined ship.

-------

(You have to kill me.)

She lay unmoving on the bed I had made for her on the table in the room at the stern of our ship. But her eyes were alive, and glistened in a way that belied her imminent death. I had bandaged her wounds and done all I could for her.

The ship was in much worse shape than the details of it's crash indicated. The Shredder attached to the back had been blown completely off in the initial dogfight. The impact with the tree and ground had completely crushed the nose of the ship, rendering the main chamber, where most of the controls were located, a crumpled mass of metal and wires. The rear engines and primary generator had caught fire when a leak in the fuel tank had ignited. This fire in the back of the ship had also incinerated our Z-space transponder and the spare that was kept for back-up. Commutations with my people were completely cut off.

The secondary generator was intact, as was the atmospheric propulsion system. The latter was useless with the pitiful amount of fuel that remained in our last, dangerously damaged, tank. But the former would power itself for a long while, and provide enough energy to maintain a bootleg cloaking device and several minor systems. And one other thing.

I'm sure I've mentioned that this particular ship was an older model. In fact, it was built before we Andalites had learned to use Z-space for intergalactic travel. It was built in the old days, where space travel was a tedious process, involving light-years of travel and many Andalite-years of time. I can vouch for the fact that there is nothing pleasant about extended travel in space. Feeding is done intravenously, and even the best company could get old. The scientists of those days had circumvented this by developing bio-stasis chambers for space farers. This technology kept the body absolutely frozen in a state of sleep throughout the duration of the journey. It was never used in modern times. Now, most distances could be journeyed in the space of a year, and in the comfort of a Dome ship. No one had to travel in the confined space of a fighter-class ship for more than the length of a month.

Our scout ship had been modified in countless ways over the years, and no one had used the biostasis chambers in centuries. They esited as nothing more than a relic of more primitive days. Feiranel and I had used them as closets to store supplies.

Now they would save her life.

I had activated the chamber about an hour ago, waiting for it to power up and running diagnoses to check on all of its systems. It worked perfectly despite its long period of disuse. Feiranel had drifted in and out of consciousness.

(Warrior Feiranel, I cannot kill you.)

She stared accusingly at me.

(I am placing you in stasis, here on this ship. The Andalite fleet will be here shortly, and when they do you will receive the best of care up on the Dome ship. The military doctors may have the capacity to reattach your tail.)

(It's ruined,) she stated flatly. (I'd rather die.)

I know she wanted to protest as I dragged her upright and leaned her gently into place in the bio-stasis chamber. Once I closed the lid, her body would be frozen at both the biological and chemical level. Her brain would not think. She could not even dream. But more importantly, her cells would not deteriorate. She would not age, and her wounds would not fester. There was a chance that if a trained surgeon arrived, her tail could be reattached and still retain movement. But it was badly damaged. She would never be the warrior she had been.

(Don't do this, Alcorec! Just kill me now. I'll lose my tail, and I'll have to face the shame of having run away from battle!) This last burst of emotion surprised me.

(I ran away. Not you. If I hadn't we would both be dead. Now you will live to fight another battle.)

I looked at her. She did not look convinced, but she seemed resigned to the fate I had determined for her. She was too weak to protest further. (Alcorec..,) she whispered softly in thoughtspeak.

(Feiranel.) You see, I knew what she wanted. She was an Andalite Warrior, and she would ask me to avenge her. She would ask me to kill Visser Three. I felt honored by this last display of kindness. (I will destroy him in your name. I will make the Abomination pay for what he has done to you.)

She actually laughed. In her helpless state, she actually laughed. I did not yet know this for a fact, but what would ultimately turn out to be her final words to me were cruel. (Alcorec,…you are a miserable warrior… and a coward. You could not kill the Abomination. No… you must…. stay alive. No matter what. Tell my father…. ) She smiled at me, weakly and brutally. (You should have killed me… with honor, Scout…)

I did not let her see how much her words had hurt as I slid the door of the stasis chamber shut and activated the process which would suspend her from the world of the living.

Until the Andalite fleet arrived, I would be alone.

I didn't expect reviews to be so addictive. Whenever I get online now I compulsively check to see if anyone has left feedback. I need a hobby.

I'm a little disappointed by the dearth of reviews so far. So, if you're reading this and you like it, leave a review. If you're reading this and you hate it, leave a review (and tell me why). If you're reading this and you're bored, let me know about it in a review.

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