Chapter 6
Rachel
Yeerks! the Andalite said again. The lights were turning and heading for us.
There is no more time. You must decide!
"We have to do this. How else can we fight these Controllers?" Tobias asked.
"Easy: We don't!" Marco cried.
"I'd like more time, but there's no choice. I'm in," I said.
"Yeah. We've got to do this," Greg said.
"Jake?" Cassie asked. Jake looked at the Yeerk ships. They were circling closer, like dogs sniffing for a scent. Then he looked at each of us.
"We have to," Tobias said.
"You're right. We've got no choice," Jake decided.
The each of you, press you hand against one of the sides of the square.
We did. Marco ended up putting his hand in my square as to leave room for the Andalite's hand. There was a tingling when the Andalite placed his hand one the cube. Then, once the tingling passed, he removed his hand.
Go now! Only remember this- never remain in animal form for more than two of your Earth hours. Never! That is the greatest danger of the morphing! If you stay longer than two hours, you will be trapped in that form forever, unable to return to human form.
"Two hours," Jake repeated. The Andalite suddenly was overcome with a different fear. He was staring at the sky with his main eyes.
Visser Three! He comes.
"What?" Jake asked. " What's a Visser? Who's a Visser?"
Go now. Run! Visser Three is here. He is the most deadly of your enemies. Of all Yeerks he alone has the power to morph. The same power you now have. Run!
"No, we'll stay with you," I said, digging my feet to the ground. "Maybe we can help." Even as I said it, I knew we couldn't. It would have been suicide for sure. Again, the alien smiled with his eyes.
No. You must save yourselves. Save yourselves and save your planet! The Yeerks are here. We looked up, and the two lights had been joined by a large black... I guess you'd say a shadow, but it seemed darker than that.
"But how are we supposed to fight these... these Controllers?" I demanded. I mean, he didn't even tell us how this morphing thing works. I got the 'touch and absorb' thing, but, really, what other information did he leave out?
You will find a way. GO! he commanded.
"He's right! Run!" Jake ordered. We ran. I spotted a crumbling wall, and motioned for the others to follow. At some point, I realized that Tobias had stayed behind with the alien, the Andalite. Jake must have realized it too, because he and I both turned back to look at them at the same second. Tobias was scrambling away from the alien, and had almost reached us when a spotlight came on over the alien's ship. We were all away from the ship by this point, thankfully, and the approaching alien ships began to kick up the dirt, erasing our footprints.
"Thank you for small miracles," I heard Greg mutter as we made it behind the wall.
Slowly, these Bug fighters touched down. I could see where they got their name. They were a little bigger than the Andalite fighter, and shaped like legless cockroaches. Ew. There were small windows like eyes on the forward head of the bug. And on either side of the head were two very long, very sharp, serrated spears.
The both of them touched down on either side of the Andalite ship.
"Okay, you can wake me up any time now," Marco muttered. "I've had enough of this dream."
The larger ship began to descend, and I can't begin to tell you the fear I felt when I saw it. I was paralyzed. I couldn't even breathe right.
The ship looked like it was going to crush a rusted earthmover, but at the last second, it just casually fired a beam of red light, destroying the thing.
It looked like an old battle-ax, and the 'handle' had a triangular point on it, which had to be their bridge. This thing was eight or ten times larger than the Bug fighters.
It landed. A door appeared. Cassie took in a deep breath of air, as if she was about to scream. I don't know what stopped her, but I'm glad. And a little envious, since that was more than I could do at the moment.
They leapt from the ship, whirling and thrusting and slicing at the air- creatures that looked like walking weapons. They stood on two bent-back legs, and had two very long arms. On each arm, there were curved horn-blades growing out of the wrist and elbow. There were other blades at their bent-back knees, and two more blades at the end of their tail. They had feet like a T-rex.
But it was the head that was the creepiest, and the scariest. (If you tell anyone I said that, I will hurt you) A neck like a snake, a mouth that was almost a falcon's beak, and, from the forehead, three daggerlike horns raked forward.
"Oh, God," someone muttered. At this point, it might have been me.
Hork-Bajir Controllers. I jumped. The Andalite's words were fainter than before, strained, like someone yelling from far away.
"Did... you guys...?" Jake asked. I nodded.
"Yeah," Greg and I said together.
The Hork-Bajir are a good people, despite their fearsome looks. But they have been enslaved by the Yeerks. Each of them now carries a Yeerk in their head. They are to be pitied.
"Pity. Right. They're walking killing machines. Look at them!" I said.
Our attention was drawn away by a new form that crept out of the Blade ship.
"Oh, God. Oh, God," the same person from before muttered.
Taxxon-Controllers. The Andalite was trying to give us as much information as he could before he died, trying to prepare us for what we were planning to go up against.
Taxxons are evil, the Andalite spat.
"I think I would have guessed that," Marco muttered.
The closest animal to the Taxxons would have to be a centipede. A centipede that was twice as long as a man, and if you tried to hug one, your arms wouldn't even make it halfway around.
Not that you'd WANT to hug one of these guys.
The lower two thirds of their bodies were supported by dozens of tiny legs that moved like a spider, and on the top third, which was held upright, had the same tiny legs, but they were smaller., and had little lobster-claw hands.
The top of them, oh, that was the most disgusting part. They had four eyes, each like a wiggling blob of red Jell-O. And at the end, pointing straight up at the air, was a round mouth, ringed by hundreds of tiny teeth.
Taxxons and Hork-Bajir swarmed out of the Blade ship. And then a Hork-Bajir turned in our direction. With a single bounding step, he was almost right on top of us.