My name is Emily. Just Emily. I can't tell you my last name or where I'm from, not because of the Yeerks, but because the stalkers.
Stalkers are people on the internet. They get your personal information, track you down, and then do terrible things with you. They can even kill you.
I've never been attacked by a stalker. Nor do I intend to be.
I can tell you my age. I'm twenty-one years old, as of November, 2004. Can't say the exact date- too risky. You know how stalkers are.
Jake, Cassie, and the others couldn't say who they were because of the Yeerks. Now, it no longer matters, because all of them except Cassie are dead.
At least, we think they are. They disappeared a couple of years ago and we haven't seen them since.
I'm glad they're gone. It made it much easier for the HYA to get set up. Now that they were no longer there to protest against it, it became that much easier for the whole thing to take place.
The HYA is the Human Yeerk Alliance. Well, technically, it's the Host Yeerk Alliance, but as the members in it are mostly human (I'm serious, less than 1 of our members are Hork-Bajir, and there are no Taxxons or Gedds), the "Human" part stuck. At least, among the human members.
You probably heard of the Peace Movement if you've read the Animorphs books. And you know about voluntary Controllers. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that there were some people who wanted to stay with their Yeerk after the war. In these semi-rare cases, the relationship was symbiotic.
That's how it was with me and Tarash.
I heard about the Yeerks through the Animorph books. Of course, the war was going on at the time, so I didn't have much information to go by. I did, however, try to locate Mr. Tidwell. I wanted to be a voluntary host, but I also wanted a decent Yeerk. I had no idea how many decent Yeerks were out there.
It took a lot of googling and phonebook searching, but I finally found him. He put me in touch with the part of the movement that was closer to where I lived at the time. I spoke to the person there, and explained that I'd like to join the movement. The person was thrilled, and within days, I was paired up with Tarash.
We get along pretty well. It was a little hard in the beginning, since she could read my thoughts and everything, but the embarrassment faded after the first few weeks. As a way to make up for this inadvertent invasion of privacy, Tarash showed me some of her memories. She also didn't hide her thoughts from me…usually.
She was nice. Very considerate…she never searched my memories without permission and often let me have control. She became my best friend. I guess it's true when they say a true friend knows all about you, and likes you anyway.
I had no idea that Tarash 514 was a Visser at first. She didn't tell me, and I didn't ask. I had assumed that all of the Yeerks of the Peace Movement must be low ranking, because how else would they be able to maintain anonymity? And surely, being anonymous was the only way to get away with being a member of the Peace Movement.
I also didn't know right away that Tarash had founded the Peace Movement. Some people mistakenly think that it was Aftran 942 who founded the movement. Well, she didn't. She was an early member, but she certainly didn't invent the whole idea. Aftran simply joined it after she freed Karen; this made Visser 3 suspect her and put her on trial on a hunch. That's all. The Yeerks of the Peace Movement generally consider her to be brave and a great asset to their cause, but she did nothing spectacular.
Anyway, back to the Human Yeerk Alliance.
As I was saying, it shouldn't come as a surprise that those who held symbiotic relationships with their Yeerk would want to stay together. Of course, this wasn't a very popular opinion near the end of the war. Earth had just been saved, and the Andalites were very willing to give Yeerks the morphing technology instead of simply stamping them out of existence. The idea that anyone would actually want to stay with their Yeerk…well, it was horrifying.
People like me and Tarash did the only thing we could do; steal spare kandronas, bide our time, and wait.
It was our luck that the involuntary ex-Controllers were attracting attention. More layoffs than usual, a high number of people seeking treatment from therapists. It was estimated that about forty million people had been taken by the Yeerks. Thirty five million were probably taken involuntarily. Twenty-five million had been laid off from work, and there was a rise of nearly thirty million who were currently seeking treatment.
There was no guarantee that these were the same people, of course. That kind of information simply wouldn't be released, on account of it being private. But it was definitely enough to make psychologists and sociologists wonder.
They gathered up as many involuntary ex-Controllers as they could find and did a study on them. Some of it consisted of surveys, a lot of it was experimental and fieldwork oriented. The researchers were able to find data from over three thousand involuntary ex-Controllers, which was quite a large number.
The results wouldn't be surprising to people like me and Tarash, but they would be for the rest of the world. You see, the involuntary ex-Controllers weren't exactly recovering. The few who had been infested late in the war were shocked, but generally moving on. This was about 10 of the total population of the hosts, and less than 5 of all of the involuntary ex-Controllers.
I know I'm boring you with this information, but I promise there's a point to it.
So, life was pretty hard for the involuntary ex-Controllers. Some had trouble with speech and basic motor skills. Most had trouble "getting over" what had happened to them. The last few years had been so torturous that, without medication and intensive therapy, they had no chance of recovery. Problem is, there's no pill available for post-Yeerk syndrome, nor were there any therapists or psychologists sufficiently trained to deal with this kind of thing.
The sociologists and psychologists felt that it would have been kinder on the former hosts to put a Yeerk from the Peace Movement in them and slowly have them regain control and deal with the memories. In this way, there could be an adjustment period instead of a rapid shift from total slavery to total bewilderment.
Many scientists were not pleased with these results, nor their indications. It seemed to border on allowing some Yeerk control, even if it was voluntary and/or helpful. Some other scientists repeated the survey on the same ex-Controllers; others performed the experiment on different involuntary ex-Controllers. The results remained the same, which strengthened the original argument. Moreover, some involuntary ex-Controllers even claimed that they would not object to the benefits of a Yeerk, since it was mostly the hopelessness from lack of control and occasional mental torture that drove them to this state.
There was a large controversy for awhile, but finally the ex-Controllers' side was taken. Since many of them were not opposed to temporary infestation, the scientists decided that some involuntary ex-Controllers would be temporarily infested by known peaceful Yeerks. (Not all Yeerks had been given the ability to morph, since some were spread out into the far ends of the galaxy. At the time, it didn't seem worth it to try to track them down and hand them the morphing power; now, it was.)
The results of this experiment were so successful that it caused members of the HYA to come out of hiding and promote their cause. Since they stressed the voluntary infestation of humans, and made it clear that they were only staying on their host's wishes, they were tolerated.
Of course, there was some opposition to the entire thing, especially by the Animorphs and their families. Nasty rumors started, saying that these Yeerks were out to infest the human race because of their delusional instincts of running the universe. Some Controllers' houses were attacked by the equivalent of the KKK. Generally, however, the HYA managed without any major trouble; no one became a casualty, even though there were a few close calls.
Currently, the Yeerks and hosts are looking to receive rights from the government. Since it was accepted that Yeerks and humans were two different beings, Yeerks wanted citizenship of whatever country they lived in…mostly the United States. They wanted to be able to vote, too. They also wanted to be allowed to run for political parties if their host was interested. So far, all that was allowed was an unofficial, iffy rule stating, "Don't see, don't tell" which allowed the Yeerks and humans to exist without major interruption by authorities. The HYA was looking to change this.
Tarash 514, of course, had founded the HYA. She had the leadership skills. I was quite proud of her, and glad that she had been willing to take the risk and stay in me after the war was over. It would have been easier for her to choose to become a nothlit…but I guess that since I was more than voluntary and we were friends, she was willing to take the risks if I was.
Just a short time ago, Cassie joined the HYA. As a result, the attacks have ceased and the government seems to give us more consideration. Tarash thinks that things are looking up, and before long we'll have equal rights and opportunities.
I am currently a sophomore in college. All of my friends know about Tarash. I told them during the summer before my sophomore year; a few in person, and the rest on the phone. They hadn't heard much about the war other than the general bits; most of the Controllers were on the west coast, not in Pennsylvania. So, they knew what Yeerks were and everything, but they didn't know the specifics of the war. I kept everything down to the basics; some Yeerks were good, I had found a good one, we became friends, and we wanted to stay together.
They were quite understanding about the whole thing. I was afraid that they would consider me as crazy, delusional, and perhaps I am. Even so, they weren't angry at me for not telling them earlier, and some even wanted to become hosts for members of the HYA. This was becoming quite common throughout the country, so much that new Yeerks had to be scouted out and bred to find enough Yeerks for the willing hosts.
What's really cool is that Tarash can help me on tests and stuff. She doesn't give me information that I don't already know, just what I've forgotten. Since every student has the ability to do the same, it's not considered a breech of the Academic Behavioral Code. Even so, I try not to take advantage of it, since I want my grades to be mostly my own.
Tarash is still a Visser (Visser 5, to be precise), since the HYA decided to uphold the ranking system and maintain the Council of Thirteen. Tarash hopes that, one day, we will be able to serve on it. I hope it won't be for awhile; I'd like to finish college first, and it seems like a long distance to travel. Tarash understands my sentiments.
Of course, during the times I have a major paper to write or a test to study for, I think that serving on the Council before I graduate might not be the worst thing in the world for me.