Chapter 3

"Be ready," Prince Elfangor instructed, taking his place in the small fighter. "I will need you to be ready to fire immediately."

"I am ready, my prince." I felt this nagging feeling, like this would be a losing battle for us Andalites. But, no, that was impossible. We were ready for the Pool Ship and any Bug fighters the Yeerks would have there.

Out into the battle! Our fighter lanced through space toward a group of Bug fighters.

TSSEEEEWWWW!

Dracon beam fire! Elfangor dodged easily in a simple evasive manuever.

TTTSSSSAAAAPPP!

I fired! The green beam hit the Bug fighter's engines. Together, Prince Elfangor and I disabled Bug fighter after Bug fighter, my spirits rising higher and higher with each one. We were going to win! There was no way the Yeerks could defeat us!

That's when I felt it. A tremor that rolled through my mind...a wave of coldness... a premonition. It was like being in a waking nightmare. Even before I turned my stalk eyes to the screen, I knew what I would see. It appeared like a shadow against the gray-white light of the single moon, shaped like some twisted battle-ax. The Blade ship of a Visser.

I watched, my hearts sinking, as the dome was separated from the Dome ship and fell toward the deep blue on the planet below. The rest of the ship tried to turn to meet the Blade ship, but the Yeerk vessel was faster. The Blade ship fired, three times, and in an explosion of light, the rest of the GalaxyTree was gone.

"Prince Elfangor...!"

"I know, Saria...I know...Aximili..."

TSSSSEEEEEEWWWW!

My thoughts had strayed from the present battle for too long! The Dracon beam hit our small fighter, damaging it substatially. I turned one stalk eye to my prince for orders.

"This battle is over," he said quietly, his eyes full of sadness. "Right now, we have a mission. I am taking us down to the planet."

TSSEEEEWWW!

As the beam hit, the fighter rocked, knocking me off my feet, and an explosion of sparks burned both Elfangor and me severely. My prince had a long burn that covered half of his right side, while my left foreleg was broken and my right sprained. Both of us climbed to our feet and Elfangor continued our decent to the planet. He did not have to tell me what we were going to do; I could guess. He was planning to go back to find the Time Matrix.

Our fighter decended over a flat area of what appeared to be a concrete foundation with half-finished walls around the perimeter. Elfangor landed carefully, then stumbled from his injuries. I staggered over to him as quickly as I could and slowly helped him to his feet.

"We are both too weak, my prince. There is no way we will be able to find the Time Matrix in this condition."

His stalk eyes turned to me in surprise, but he nodded. "You are correct, Saria."

My ears perked up when I heard noises from outside the ship. "It's safe. We won't hurt you."

I turned my stalk eyes toward the hatch, keeping my main eyes on Elfangor as I steadied him against me for support. "Humans?"

He nodded.

"Please, come out. We won't hurt you."

"I know," Prince Elfangor replied. He looked at me and spoke in private thought-speak. "They will be frightened. But...they may be able to help...or perhaps we can help them."

I nodded, shifting all my weight off my broken leg.

Then, I heard the gentle human voice again. "Can you come out?"

"Yes. Do not be frightened."

"We won't be frightened."

I helped Prince Elfangor over to the hatch, and he pushed himself off of me gently, standing on his own. He opened the hatch, and we looked at a small group of five human youths.

"Hello," said the human who had been the one communicating with us. He was a young male with brown hair and just two gentle brown eyes. They all stood only two legs and had two strong arms. There were three males and two females in all. I could see the fear in their eyes, but they were not so scared that they ran away.

"Hello," Prince Elfangor and I both said.

"Hi," the remaining four greeted. They were all grinning now, an expression made by turning up the corners of their mouths. I could also see, although it was dark, tears filling the eyes of the other brown-haired male.

"He feels it, too," I told myself, smiling with my stalk eyes. "He feels the connection."

Suddenly, Prince Elfangor staggered, falling out of the ship and to the ground. The male who had spoken tried to grab him and hold him up, but he slipped from his strong alien hands and fell back to the dirt. I limped over to my prince's side and knelt next to him, holding his hand as he had done for me once before when I had been injured in training. It is a human sign of support, I think. Whatever it meant, I could tell it made him feel better.

"Look!" the darker-skinned human female cried. She pointed to the burn on Elfangor's right side. "He's hurt."

"Yes. I am dying."

The human male with longer black hair spoke now. "Can we help you? We can call an ambulance or something."

"We can bandage that wound," the female said. "Jake, give me your shirt. We can tear it up and make bandages."

"No. I will die. The wound is fatal."

"NO!" the one the female had called Jake cried. "You can't die! You're the first aliens ever to come to Earth. You can't die."

"We are not the first," I said quietly. "There are many, many others."

"Other aliens? Like you?" It was the male who had spoken first.

Elfangor slowly shook his head. "Not like us." He stopped as he cried out in pain, echoing terribly inside my mind. I felt him dying. My stalk eyes swiveled to the humans, and I could tell that they felt it, too.

"Not like us," I finished for him. "They are different."

"Different?" Jake asked. "How?"

Elfangor turned all four of his eyes on them. "They have come to destroy you."