4:22 pm
When I woke up I had a blanket draped over me and a pillow put under my head. There was also a door over the cave's entrance, I walked out and looked over the colony. The sky looked a lot more threatening now, I could feel the weight of incoming bad weather in the air.
A Hork-Baijar was waiting outside my door.
"Afternoon sir, Rachel call you, ask to attend meeting, go to largest hut on other side of river." He said. I noticed that I was the only one still asleep. Afraid I'd be late and miss something I ran towards the hut. Rachel met me halfway there.
"Wait a second," She said. "I'm sorry for the way Jake acted towards you, he's had rough though, most of our missions have failed miserably and he's taking it hard, he's had to be even more cautious that usual because he's afraid one of will be killed, I think he's a bit too cautious but, look Erik we've been planning a big mission, one that may help us out a lot, it may even turn the tables, it's not like yours but it may work, I think we're going to need your help though. That's why I asked you to come here, Jake may give you some trouble but he'll give in. He knows he needs help and he'll accept it eventually, just wait him out.
"Wait with your friends, and I'll try to talk him into letting you come in." She walked off, I saw where my team was waiting and went over to them. It wasn't long before Jake came out Any thought that Jake had warmed up to us, or that Rachel had softened him up was dashed when Jake told us to: "Keep our interfering asses out of his meeting."
"Jake," I said. "I know you don't like having 8 other humans you don't know very well joining your fight but I assure you that we can help you, and I also can tell you that you need our help."
"Really? Because I don't have any evidence that you can even fight, or that you've done a bit of good." Fred decided to fill Jake in on what we'd done, OK that's understatement, one of the things you don't want to do is imply that Fred hasn't been doing a good job, he'll tell you real quick what he's done. Fred grabbed Jake by his shirt and slammed his back into the hut.
"For your information white boy," He sneered into his face. "we've done a hell of a lot of good, break down in Yerk interstate communication: us, Sharing leaders being accused of sexual molestation: us. Death of Visser 8, us." As if to emphasize his points he slammed Jake into the wall after every "us".
"Who's Visser 8 we've never heard of him." Fred slammed him into the wall again.
"You're damn right you haven't, that's because he was gunned down by Amy here as he was leaving a Yerk pool location. We have as much a right to be here as you do, we are trying to help you, so will you please just let us in." He dropped Jake, Jake caved deciding it wasn't worth arguing with us. (or possibly having to fight Fred.)
"Okay you can go in, but if you hit me again I'll drive you all away with the Hork-Baijar, and I mean that." Fred looked like he was ready to hit Jake against the wall a few more times but resisted We entered the hut and the meeting began. Erek, a member of an android race known as the Chee began.
"OK I'm glad to see we have some new members so I'd like for you to introduce yourselves to the group." I stood up and introduced my group and told them our story. When I got to the part about intercepting Andalites transmissions I noticed Ax (the only Andilate member of the Animorph team.) stiffen slightly. When I finished my story I sat down. Marco clapped sarcastically.
"Four more years, Four more years!" He chanted, earning him a dirty look from Rachel. And a middle finger from Jerry. Erek stood back up.
"With 8 new morph-capable members," He said. "This may make our attempts here easier. Now to fill in the new guys us Chee have been watching the Yerks closely and have been trying to find areas to hit. We have been able to find the location of a Yerk database. It's hidden under the guise of an internet company. The business has it's regular operators and IT guys working 9-5 but in the center of the building" He stopped and held out his hand, the hologram that he emitted changed into a one story square building. A red dot appeared in the center. "Is what they say is the main transmitter for E-mails and the like, but we think it might actually be a listing of every human controller in America.
"If we could get our hands on a copy of this it would let us know what we're up against. And it would give us a chance to warn other people, particularly key members of government. Now security is pretty tight, visitors can't get past the first of four areas. In order to get there we need to go into the bathrooms, which are safe, no cameras, and morph you'll need to fight your way into the main room to get the information, this won't be easy but with our newest arrivals it may work out.
"If we get in there we'll have a problem though, the list is likely encrypted there is no way we'll be able to get into it in a timely manner, so we need to hope that someone got sloppy and left a password hanging around, if not then we'll have to catch someone and force them to comply and that will increase the likelihood that we get caught and that…"
"I can take care of the password." Jerry interrupted.
"What do you mean?" Erek asked.
"I'm a hacker, I can get into any system in ten minutes max."
"Okay then we'll need someone to guard him and make sure he gets in there, Jake, you think you can handle that…"
"We'll handle it," I said. "All I need you to do Jake is make sure no one comes into the computer room while he's in there."
"Whoa, what in the Hell makes you think anyone of you coming with us?" Jake asked.
"The fact that you need Jerry with you, and the fact that I don't trust anyone further than I can throw em until they prove themselves to me, the only one of you that I'd trust to guard Jerry is Rachel, no offense guys," I said when Cassie looked hurt. "you guys need us anyway, there is not way that you are going to be able to bust through with only 6 people"
"Burst through?" Cassie said. "why can't we just sneak in?"
"Fumigation,." Erek said. "They have an exterminator come in and fumigate the place every week, using a special Yerk formula, harmless to anything higher that rodents, but it would kill you the moment we went into any insect morph."
"So we have to burst in full force? Is that worth it?" Cassie asked, then she asked the question that had been bothering me. "What if this is a trap I mean a database with every controller on it, sounds a bit too convenient for me."
"Well," Erek said. "I know it seems that way but we've checked and re-checked I think this is real. Are you going to go through with this?" Jake didn't seem to take long to think about it.
"Yeah, I'll do it."
"Erik?"
"we're in." I said. "when do we leave?"
"Tomorrow. We'll need to take a train. Meeting adjourned." As we walked out I pulled my team aside for another meeting. We sat down outside of Karen's cave. The fading sunlight set the mood perfectly as each face was dimmed by a shadow. James said what we were all thinking.
"Database that could tell us who we can trust or not, in an area within a few hours of here, smell like an ambush to you?" He asked. Amy spoke next.
"I know and even if it isn't how do we know this isn't a red herring, you know, how do we know that the information is actually accurate the whole thing stinks to high heaven. Have the Chee lost their touch or something?"
"Well no," Erek said, startling me so badly that I started to go into my Jaguar morph instinctively. "But I am impressed that you noticed that, Jake's gotten to the point where he just goes where I tell him to." I had begun to reverse the changes my morph had begun. To put the feeling in perspective, imagine breaking a bone clean in two, resetting it without morphine, and then breaking and resetting it again all in about thirty seconds.
"We," Erek was still saying. "Have enough moles in the Yerk army to know that this information is real, I mean you would need a database somewhere right, and blade ships can't have them because they're all armor and weapons. Bug fighters are too small and combustible, and pool ships, well they say that there's only one of them for every 2 invasions so that wouldn't be possible.
"As for the accuracy we're going to check whatever we get against a list of known controllers if even one of them isn't on it then we'll dump the list. I can assure you Erik, that this is not a suicide mission. Plus the security, I mean it is too much to just be a front for a trap, there is something in there that they don't want anyone to see." I looked Erek dead in the eyes.
"Erek, if you turn out to be lying to me I will make you pay," I said. "do you understand? If one person dies, on this mission, one person, then I'll take it out of you ass, or whatever you androids have. I am trusting you and that isn't something I do much with people I just met, the only reason I'm even sending my team on this mission is that you need Jerry, and I don't send my teammates into battle alone if I can help it."
"You have it on my honor that no one will be killed." I decided to trust him, and he kept his word, come to think of it this was the last mission I was on with no casualties.