Thanks to everyone who reviewed!
Answering your questions/comments:
Lady Chocho: You're much welcomed! And thanks much for the quick review! (how'd you get that up so fast? I couldn't even access the new chappie that fast!)
The check-out counter girl: you liked the pressure lock? scratches head in confusion I thought that'd bore ppl to death and only after much deliberation included that part b/c I couldn't get around it!
Brutal2003: aww... thanxs! Thanks for the review and the totally laid-back attitude... really stress-relieving!
Anonymous-cat: thanks for reading my story! I really appreciate it and I'll try to update more often.. if its possible...
Weetzybat: is that sarcasm I'm hearing? Be careful or I'll sic my pupster on you! (and then you'll be sorry! He'll lick you to death! evil laugh hahahahaha!)
And you liked the pressure lock? That was the part that was holding me up.. I was like, DH, nobody's gonna wanna read about something that dull! It's like reading someone's lab manual for cryin out loud!
Rachel9466: there, did I get the numbers right this time? sheepish look I felt pretty dumb when you told me I'd gotten your name all wrong!
-reflection in the milk: that's what I stare at every morning...
-yeah, you got me on the spelling.. what like 2 times....what can I say? I'm a moron
-and with the units, yeah that was perdy dumb too... although, I do remember thinking at some point while writing that that I should make them "Yeerk" units of distance and temperature, why I didn't I don't rightly recall. Maybe I didn't think people would recognize them... I dunno... but I'll go back and fix them sometime. Thanks for catching all that stuff! And I didn't think that was "cranky" at all... I do that ALL the time when I review other ppl... keeps the author honest and on their toes!
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Disclaimer: I'm really hungry and I'm going to make myself one of those bean and cheese microwave burritos as soon as I post this....mmmmm donuts.....
Yeah I don't own Animorphs. I'm starving
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On the Blade Ship:
Omeria's panicked screams rang sharply through my head.
"Omeria!" I called to Sub-visser 67 over the radio link. "Omeria! Omeria!"
Omeria did not reply.
I tried on a different radio frequency this time. "Sub-visser 67! Report!"
Still no answer.
"Omeria! Report!" I called growing desperate for her reply.
This time I was answered, but only with the loud cracklings of static.
Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.
"Sub-visser15!" I yelled sharply as I turned to the Hork Bajir at the helm of the bridge. "What in the Hell is going on?!?"
Sub-visser 15 returned my frustrated gaze. "Visser One, I can't contact a single member of Omeria's team." He reported. "I've tried hailing them over all the common frequencies, but they are not responding. For unknown reasons, their radio and video units are off-line."
Off-line?
"Visser Two," I said, turning my attention to those remaining on the alien vessel. "Can you contact Omeria?"
There was a short delay as he tried.
"Negative." Visser Two paused. "Efflit, I don't like this," he said anxiously over his helmet radio.
His group of five Controllers, stood nervously in the smaller red oval room.
"Neither do I." I replied grimly. "But this is our ship now." I reminded him. "Take your team and try to find out what happened."
Watching the main viewing screen, I followed Visser Two and the other four Controllers as they made their way back to the blasted entrance. The group then turned right and headed down the hall where Omeria's team had traversed.
It was eerily quiet. The alien craft had no air so sound waves were only propagated through the metal floor and the Yeerk's thermal suits, making the clamping of the Controllers' boots strangely muted.
The five turned a bend in the iced red passageway and were faced with the entrance to the larger oval shaped room.
"This is where we last heard from Omeria," I cautioned Visser Two over his helmet radio.
He nodded, and his team hesitantly filed into the room.
"Dirty Andalite!" Someone cursed in shock.
There was Omeria and the other four Controllers, strewn mercilessly across the floor of the ruddy oval room.
Visser Two cautiously approached Omeria's body. It was lying face down on the frozen metallic floor. The same technology that heated the thermal boots also insulted the outer coverings of the thermal suit, so although Omeria's body contacted the frozen surface of the floor, it did not freeze to it.
Visser Two tentatively prodded the body. "She's breathing," he reported in relief. Then he reached for her body and gently rolled her over.
And gasped in horror. "Look at her face!"
Omeria's face was twisted in violent pain, her unblinking eyes shining in unseen terror, and her lips forced into a soundless scream.
"Dirty Andalite." Visser Two muttered under his breath in abject disgust.
Never had I viewed such an intense look of pain or fear. Even under Esplin's totalaristic rule, and his merciless executions, I had never seen the degree of terror that was painted across Omeria's face.
The sight of Omeria was sickening. I felt bile rising up my host's esophagus, and it took a few moments of concentration to force it back down.
And yet she was breathing. She was alive.
Visser Two lightly shook her body. He tapped her shoulder and rapped upon her helmet. He called her name several times.
But Omeria did not respond. She did not even blink.
Visser Two finally raised his eyes from the sight. "Yaban?" He called to another of his team. "How are the others?"
The other four Controllers were in the same state as Omeria. Slumped on the frozen metallic ground and unmoving, their faces disfigured in pain and fear. They were breathing and had strong pulses, and yet nothing Visser Two or his team did could rouse them.
"It's no use, we can't wake them." Visser Two decided finally. "We'll take them back to the Blade Ship."
We couldn't afford to lose any Yeerk or any hosts. We were too few.
"Do we know what caused this yet?" I questioned.
"No, we're working on it," Visser Two replied.
The rest of his team was scattered about the oval room, searching for any clues that could explain what had befallen Omeria and her party.
"Visser!" Yaban suddenly interrupted. "My scanner is picking up an increase in the amplitude of the alternating current."
Visser Two turned to face Yaban, his face paling.
"Visser, the amplitude is increasing-- and quickly."
Just like Omeria's group before they'd been attacked.
Remembering Omeria's face, I quickly made up my mind to abandon the investigation into her attack. Preservation of those who were still able-bodied was much more important.
"Get out of there!" I commanded Visser Two and his team over the radio links.
Without need for further urgings, the five Controllers fled the red oval room, leaving Omeria and the other four bodies. The Controllers re-entered the smooth red-flushed hallway and raced down it, back tracking to the blasted entrance.
As they ran, Yaban called out his scan-readings. "250 megaFreads! 275! 294!"
The five reached a fork in hall and Visser Two plunged right. "This way!" he gasped. "We're almost there!"
A steady beating sound accompanied the wheezed breathing of the running Controllers, and I recognized it as my frantically pumping heart.
Hurry!
Hurry!
"365! 380! 396!" Yaban yelped.
They had nearly reached the entrance now. I could see it at the horizon of the main view screen.
"415! 425!"
"What's that light?" Visser Two yelled.
The scarlet-flushed hallways slowly filled with a flickering blue light. The light pulsed steadily like blood through an artery.
They were almost at the entrance. I could see it clearly now, and into the docking terminal beyond.
"465!" Yaban's voice shrilled. "465! It's holding steady! Why's it holding steady?" He asked in confusion.
Then we saw it.
A flickering blue creature with flashing red eyes.
Its form was indistinguishable-- a transparent cloud composed of a swirling mixture of sapphire, azure, and cobalt. As the colors swam in the mist of blue, flashes of light like tongues of flame rippled throughout the creature's body. The effect was like viewing a floating body of water shimmering under the noon sun.
The creature was beautiful, until you noticed its eyes. Red. Glowing. Cruel. They gleamed with an ungodly light and were the only portion of the creature that seemed to have any substance.
With those cruel lidless eyes, the creature leered at the Controllers.
Its prey.
"RUN!" I yelled.
But the creature was blocking the exit.
"Dracons!" Visser Two commanded, as he fumbled for his own. Grasping it his gloved hands he trained it on the creature. "Fire!"
Five beams of deadly Dracon fire soared towards the leering monster.
All five passed harmlessly through the blanket of blue mist, scorching the frozen bulkhead behind it and sending up a cloud of vapor, but leaving no noticeable hurts on the creature itself.
The blue thing approached the five unhurried, seeming to glide over the smooth red floor of the corridor.
"Fire again!" Visser Two yelled.
Again, the Dracons emitted their deadly red lasers, but the weapons seemed to have no effect on the monster, and slid through the lucid blue field effortlessly.
"Fire at will!" Visser Two directed and intermittent beams of red flame were hurled at the blue creature.
Each blast proved as ineffective as the previous attempts.
Finally Yaban tossed his Dracon aside in disgust.
"DIE!" he screamed, as he charged the glowing blue haze. Fists raised, Yaban threw a hard blow to the creature's face, aiming for the great red eyes.
And passed through its face unhindered.
The blue creature's face twisted into an amused sneer as Yaban's face contorted in sudden pain.
Yaban screamed and suddenly stopped. I did not need to hear the dull thud as his body fell clumsily onto the hard ground to know that he was gone-- his body now reduced to the same state as Omeria's.
The blue creature gazed steadily at the remaining four Controllers. Delighting in their terror.
"RUN!" Visser Two yelled and the four fled. With Visser Two at the head they ran past the monster, aiming for the docking terminal.
A scream and a soft muted thud. The monster had felled another.
Visser Two reached the terminal. Avoiding the jagged edges of the blasted entryway, he dived into the terminal.
Another scream.
Visser Two risked a glance behind him.
Another scream.
There was the monster, with its newest victim.
Visser Two was the only one left between the monster and the Blade Ship.
"Efflit," Turin's voice called over the radio link with quiet and sudden resolve. "Get the Blade Ship out of here. Now."
"Visser Two!" I protested. "Turin don't!"
"DO IT!!!"
I turned to sub-visser 15 at the helm. "Begin the undocking sequence of the docking terminal."
I heard a rumbling noise indicating that the Hork Bajir had complied and that the undocking sequence was beginning.
My eyes were glued to the main screen.
Visser Two calmly approached the blue monster. I watched as he passed out of the docking terminal and back through the blasted entrance. His booted feet clanged lightly as he entered the red hall.
"Perhaps you can defeat a Dracon beam or a Human Controller." Visser Two said quietly. "But how do you feel against a polar bear?"
White fur sprouted over Visser Two's face as he began the morph.
"TURIN DON'T!" I screamed.
But it was too late.
I heard a crunching noise as Visser Two's human bulk suddenly increased by a factor of more than ten, and a sickening rip as his human-sized thermal suit did not.
The tear in the thermal suit was probably small, but even a small nick would cause the air in the suit to leak out, and the deadening cold to leak in.
In a matter of seconds Visser Two was dead.
(Author's note: normally, I'd make this a new chappie, but I don't feel like it!)
I stared at the view-screen dumbly.
Visser Two was gone.
His video monitor was still active, although it was now positioned towards the ground.
I watched the monitor grow brighter, as the creature passed by Turin's body.
(I am hungry, but it is dead.) I heard a dark voice ooze, in a tone that made my blood freeze. Regan whimpered in the corner of my mind. (What a waste.)
The blue light continued past the body.
Turin's body.
"VISSER ONE!" The urgency in Sub-visser 15's tone was pressing.
I looked up slowly at the Hork Bajir.
"Visser, the docking terminal is not responding!" He cried. "I have re-pressurized the docking terminal, to counter the pressure seal, but the terminal will not move!"
I stared at him, unfathoming.
"The alien vessel is forcing a magnetic lock on it. We cannot remove the docking terminal!" he continued in a frantic voice.
As if to highlight the urgency of the situation, the Hork Bajir changed the perspective on the main-viewing screen. I was now seeing the docking terminal with the evil blue creature heading down the hall towards the sealed entryway of the Blade Ship.
"Can it get inside the ship?" I asked wearily.
Could it enter the sealed entryway?
Sub-visser 15 shrugged, helplessly. "I have no idea."
"Let's assume the worst-- that it can."
It was silent as my words filled the bridge. My words and their implications.
The creature would reach the entryway any second. If it could open the door-- it would be a genocide. The New Yeerk Empire would be obliterated. All the hosts. All the Yeerks. Dead.
I cursed Esplin-Nine-Four-Double-Six once more. For under the former Visser's decree, the Blade Ship did not contain escape pods. That fool, Esplin, believed that a retreat was more shameful than a loss.
Evacuation of the Blade Ship then was not an option.
"If we fired up the Blade Ship and tore the docking terminal off?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
"All the air in this ship would immediately escape and we'd all die." The Hork Bajir answered hopelessly. "Not to mention the sudden pressure loss would cause our veins to explode."
I stared back at the view-screen. The creature had reached the end of the terminal and the Blade ship entryway.
I held my breath. Would the creature be able to enter?
The door through the entryway slid open effortlessly.
Like the docking terminal, it too was magnetic.
"Dirty Andalite!" I swore out loud.
The creature was now inside the Blade Ship. It was in the Pressurization Chamber, a small enclosed room between the docking terminal and access to the Ship itself, but it was only a matter of time now before the creature reached us.
The doors of the Pressurization Chamber, like all the other entrances on the Blade Ship operated under magnetic laws.
(Author's note: the docking terminal has a "Pressurization Chamber," think of a Decontamination room. I explained how the Chamber worked in the last chappie, but later axed it b/c I thought it'd bore ppl to tears. Perdy much: you lower the pressure in the docking terminal. The Controllers go into the Pressurization Chamber and the pressure is altered to that of the docking terminal. The Chamber leads into the docking terminal, and this is the only way in or out of the docking terminal. (the whole point of the Chamber is to ensure that the pressure inside the Blade Ship and the docking terminal are not affected by passage to or from either.))
"Sub-visser 15, take Security and get down to the docking terminal and hold that thing off for as long as you can!" I ordered.
The Hork Bajir nodded and taking seven Controllers from the bridge left.
I addressed those remaining. There were ten: 4 Hork Bajir and 6 humans. "Come with me, all of you, our biggest priority is for our defenseless brethren in the Pool."
I left my bridge then, and headed for the Pool Room. The lights in the halls were flashing in orange alert, and everywhere Human and Hork Bajir Controllers scrambled in a frantic rush.
From somewhere on the ship I heard screaming.
It was on the ship then.
Calling up all the courage I possessed, I forced myself to ignore those death-cries, to counter the rising fear that was threatening to overthrow me.
Reaching the Pool Room, I sealed the magnetic doors behind me, and with them the cries of those outside.
"We know that the creature can manipulate the magnetic door-locks," I explained to the ten fearful Controllers behind me. "So we must also barricade the door. Use anything you can find to do this!" I instructed them.
Chairs, tables, spare Kandrona disks, pool purifiers, using everything we could find we formed a small barricade.
When we had finished, I sat back to wait the inevitable.
Visser Two had dubbed this day as the beginnings of the New Yeerk Empire.
Today would most likely be its fall.
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Tech-Notes: I'm a geek and had to reason this stuff to myself... if anyone cares:
1. The "pressure seal" on the docking terminal has a "release" valve, so that when the Controllers blasted open the alien ship, the sudden pressure flow from the alien ship to the pressure-less docking terminal didn't blast the terminal off.
2. The "sound" of clanking boots from the Controllers walking on the alien craft or the thud of falling bodies comes from the sound waves of the striking object reverberating through the metal floor, through the Controller's thermal suits and through the air inside the suits to their ears (and hence the radio units and back to the Blade Ship). It is not heard in the same way as we're used to b/c the alien vessel does not have air to propagate sound waves.
I tried to make the only "sounds" that Efflit hears over the radio come from objects striking metal.
3. The alien vessel is way..way.. below freezing, but the Controller's thermal suits do not freeze to it b/c the outer surface of their suits are specially insulated with materials that have an extremely low freezing point. (This also keeps the suits from freezing in place). However, a small rip in the thermal suits (which would be made of very strong, but supple material) would allow the temperature inside the suit to drop dramatically. It would also force all the air the Controllers breath out of the suit, and the pressure inside the suit would drop as the air escaped. So essentially Visser Two dies from: cold, no air, no pressurization forcing his blood to explode his veins.... Although, considering that he'd be frozen as soon as the temperature drops (anyone else ever play with liquid Nitrogen?) how he dies is prolly anyones guess...
4.The alien ship is "diamagnetic" b/c the One is repelling the magnetic force himself. He's a master of magnetism and other things, besides, but I'm not going to say more about that.
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So.. yeah, this was kinda long and stuff, but what the heck! And since I was actually admonished for thinking of cutting a lot of the tech-stuff, I went ahead and just wrote everything that I was thinking down here....
Uhmmm yeah, so's I did a lot of the "science" fiction part, but if anyone ever thinks that I've maybe gone over the top with the tech-crap just lemme know! (this it the kinda stuff I do at school everyday, so's I'm so ingrained in it that I don't know when to stop anymore... can anyone guess my major?)
Yeah, but so... the next chappie will hopefully be up sometime within the next year... (j/k ya'll! I'll make it sooner than that!) I think I might do one more of the Efflit chappies or just go ahead and leave ya'll hangin as I move to another POV.
Anyways, I'd much appreciate it if you'd review so's I know ppl's are reading this...(come on, if I spent x # of hours writing this, can't you spend 30 seconds writing "DH I think you need to get off you acid-trip?") pretty please!!! I'd luv you forever!
DH