After a long hiatus, the next chapter is finally up! And it's a doozy. Exposition and revelations. I finished this chapter at 3 AM, so expect there to be some grammatical and spelling errors. Hopefully they're minor. And if anyone has tried to email me in the last month, month and a half, or so and never got a response. There was some glitch with my mail that was sending a lot of stuff to the junk folder. Which of course never gets checked. It's corrected now, so I should respond to emails I get (unless, you know, I just don't like you...Kidding!)

Rachel

Everyone stared at Jake. For a moment no one spoke. I took advantage of the lull to glance around the room. Typical board room, with one long conference table in the middle. What caught my attention, however, was the thing on the other side of the window that dominated the long side of the room. Some kind of ring made out of stone or metal, I couldn't decide on which, with a ramp leading up to it. What also caught my eye were the gun emplacements and missile launchers that they had aimed at the ring. I took a note of them. Whatever the ring was, it had the potential for trouble.

Col. O'Neill finally spoke. "So what's your story?" he said, in an amazingly conversational tone considering the circumstances. "Need a System Lord ousted? Planet under attack? Have a rebel faction threatening to destroy humanity? Come on, we've heard them all."

The general shot O'Neill a strong look before turning to us. "I'm more concerned with how you got into this facility." He squinted at Ax. "And what the devil are you?"

Ax bristled. (I am an Andalite,) he said tersely.

The general glanced at Teal'c. The large man caught the look and turned to look at Ax, eyebrow raised. "It is not a race with which I am familiar, General Hammond."

I watched the officers during Hammond's and Teal'c's exchange, looking for any sign of that familiar hatred or disgust. I saw nothing beyond concern and curiosity.

Jake raised his hands. "How we got in here isn't really important right now. What is important is the threat to Earth."

"Um, yeah. We know. There's at least one Ha'tak in range of Earth," Jackson said.

'At least one- what?" Jake rubbed his bridge of his nose. "Look, I don't know what-"

I was getting impatient. It was very possible that someone down the spiral staircase in the corner had heard us and security was being called. I was ready to speed this up.

"We're not talking about any Goa'uld or whatever," I snapped. "We're talking about the Yeerks, Parasitic slugs that have enslaved dozens of races and conquered several worlds. They have incredibly advanced technology and so far they've been nigh-unstoppable. And they're here. They're here now. They've been here. Do I have your attention?"

"Well,… yes," Jackson said, with a "deer-in-the-headlights" kind of look from my outburst.

Suddenly alarms began to wail. Crap! We were busted! The whole base would be on top of us. I tensed, calling forth the grizzly bear DNA inside of me from dormancy. I had just begun to bulk up when a new voice cut across on the PA system.

"Unscheduled offworld activation!"

Security wasn't rushing through the door, and I noticed that Maj. Carter had moved away from the wall alarm, so I paused the morph. Unscheduled offworld activation? What the heck did that mean? I glanced at my friends. None of them were giving any indication of morphing in reaction to the alarm. Instead they were staring into the large chamber through the window where something was happening to the ring. In the conference room, the general was getting up from the table. "I better see what this is about. SG-1, keep an eye on our guest," he said, and disappeared down the staircase in the corner of the room.

"Soooo, what was this you were saying about alien enslavers?" O'Neill said.

None of us answered, we were too busy watching the scene unfold in the adjacent chamber. Lights were coming on in sequence along the circumference of the circle as armed troops rushed in to the room to train their guns, including the stationary emplacements, on the ring. I suddenly remembered my earlier thoughts about the ring being threatening.

"Umm guys, I think we should-"

I was cut off when the final light came on at the top of the ring. We all gave a jump as a jet of what looked like water erupted horizontally from the middle of the ring with a loud "KA-WHOOSH!" The jet settled back into the ring, forming a "pool" that shimmered and rippled in the middle of the circle. With a weird whirring nose, a metal plate, kind of like a camera shutter, came out of the inner edge of the ring and covered the well.

"What the heck is that thing!" Cassie said, not taking her eyes of the ring.

I turned to face the officers as Jackson answered. "That's the Stargate," he said, looking a little puzzled. "You're not familiar with the Stargate?" Seeing blank looks he continued. "Chappa'ai? Annulus? No?"

"Umm, no," I said. "Is this thing supposed to be common knowledge? When the military discloses some big new toy it's usually on CNN or the Internet or something."

"Wait, you're from Earth?" Carter asked.

"Born and raised." Cassie said.

"OK, yeah, sure. Maybe you three," O'Neill said, pointing at Jake, Cassie, and me. "But there's no way I'm going to believe that about him." He pointed at Ax.

(You are correct in assuming that I am not from Earth,) Ax said rather impatiently. (I am an Andalite.)

"Yeah, so you told us. Never heard of it," the colonel said, either not catching Ax's tone or choosing to ignore it. I guessed the latter. "So how'd you fall in with these guys?"

"Wait," Jake said, stepping forward. "I want your general here too. I don't want to repeat this."

"He's here," came Hammond's voice. A moment later he emerged from the stairs. The Stargate or whatever it was evidently shut down. There was another whooshing sound and the light playing on the back of the wall of the Stargate's room disappeared. "That was SG-11 reporting in," the general said to the four soldiers. Then he turned to us. "But that can wait. I believe you were going to tell us what's going on."

"Oooh-Kay," Jake took a deep breath. He was nervous. We all were. The last time we brought someone on the inside things had not gone well. "OK. I'm Jake. This is Cassie, Rachel, and Ax." He knocked on the widow into the office and Marco and Tobias, in human morph, appeared in the doorway. "And this is Marco and Tobias," Jake finished the introductions.

"I hope you didn't disturb anything in my office," Hammond said tensely.

I thought about us using the phone. "Absolutely not," I said. Marco nodded.

"Wait. Ax?" O'Neill asked incredulously.

(My full name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill.) Ax replied.

"Oh." I could see O'Neill silently trying to get his lips around Ax's name. It didn't take him long to give up. "Ax it is is!"

Jake went on. "And we are-"

Marco interrupted. "The Animorphs."

Jake shot him a dirty look, then shrugged. "Yeah, we're the Animorphs." I searched the listening faces for any hints of recognition, hatred, or disgust. Nothing.

Jake continued, "Listen, the Yeerks are here. They already have thousands of human hosts and they're getting more everyday. So far we've been the only thing that stands between them and the planet."

"OK, pardon me for asking, but how can a group of teenagers and a, um, Andalite stand against an alien invasion?" Jackson asked.

Cassie answered. "The Yeerks have their weaknesses. For one, they want to keep the invasion quiet. They want to quietly infest people until they have enough people- Controller is what we call a Yeerk infested being- to quickly seize control of the planet with minimum fuss and bloodshed. Since the Yeerks won't bring their full power to bear, it's easier for us to run interference, but that's really all we can do. Interfere. Also, we have allies; some are rebel Yeerks within the invasion's ranks."

Jake sighed. "But our greatest weapon is the morphing power."

I watched. Still no evil Yeerk twinkle in their eyes.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to be a little bit more specific," Col. O'Neill said. "Morphing power?" He turned looked at Ax. "And I'm still curious about why you're hanging out with these kids."

We turned to Ax. He grudgingly answered the colonel.

(The morphing power is a technology of my people. It allows us to become any animal we touch.) I noticed SG-1 exchange slightly excited glances at this. (As for my place with the Animorphs, I was stationed aboard an Andalite Dome ship that engaged a Yeerk task force above this planet. The battle did not go well. I was the only survivor. My human friends found me.)

"And you gave them the morphing technology?" Maj. Carter asked.

(No, that was my brother, Elfangor. He landed on Earth and gave my friends the morphing power right before he was murdered by Visser Three.) You could feel the hatred in Ax's thought-speak.

"Who?" O'Neill seemed oblivious.

Ax's face hardened. (Visser Three. The Abomination. The only Andalite-Controller in the galaxy and the leader of the Yeerk invasion of Earth.) Ax trained all four of his eyes on the people at the table. (Here, I will show you what we are up against.)

Ax

Andalites have the ability to transmit images with their mind through powerful thought-speak. Elfangor did it to my friends when they first met and he told them of the Yeerk threat. Now I felt it necessary to give these officers a taste of the Yeerk War.

I showed them an unhosted Yeerk, swimming in the sludge of a Yeerk Pool. Then I showed them what we had seen in the Pool under my friends' hometown: people's heads being forced under the surface of the steely gray sludge of the Pool and humans and Hork-Bajir screaming as they waited helplessly in cages as their enslavers fed on Kadrona Rays.

I showed them an engagement between a mighty Andalite Dome ship and a Yeerk Pool Ship. Images of the Hork-Bajir homeworld, ruined by the war, flashed through their minds. Then I showed these humans our latest battles. Marco taking a dracon beam to the chest. Jake's spine being severed by a Hork-Bajir blade. I concluded with an image a Visser Three, cycling through his most terrifying morphs. All of them gave a noticeable shiver as I let them feel my hatred for the Abomination.

After I had finished I spoke. (That is what we are up against.)

The soldiers were silent.

Jack O'Neill

We were all kind of in shock after Ax's montage played through our minds. We had all seen some pretty disturbing stuff, but these were just kids…

After Ax's slideshow, the kids etched out the rest of the details, like how the Yeerks had to leave their host every three days to feed in the Yeerk Pool, and how the Yeerks used their Hork-Bajir shock troops. They also told us about their little encounter with Kinsey and how they got into the SGC. Shock me, shock me, shock me, the senator had lied to us. Most likely he had wanted to get the Animorphs on a dissection table at Area 51. After the kids had finished, I got the feeling that they still weren't telling us everything, but heck, any secrets of theirs were probably secret for a good reason. At their urging, Hammond agreed to seal the mountain for three days to weed out any possible Yeerks in the base, despite my insistence that if the Yeerks knew about the gate, we'd be in even deeper then we already were.

Carter finally asked the question I knew she had been dying to ask. "How does your morphing technology work, Ax?"

(I cannot say. Sharing technology with other races is in violation of Andalite laws.)

"Your brother did."

(He had no choice.)

"This sounds familiar." Daniel muttered.

I looked at him. "You getting the whole Tollan vibe too?"

"Oh, yeah."

I turned to Ax. "Let me guess. You gave advanced technology to an inferior species and they horribly abused it, resulting in chaos and destruction."

The Andalite blinked several times. (Well,…yes, but how did-)

"We've heard this story before. Alien technology is a touchy thing to pass around, apparently."

"Maybe we can discuss the technical side of this later," Hammond interjected. "Right now I'm more concerned about the Goa'uld and Yeerk threats to Earth."

"Maybe if we wait they'll destroy each other," Daniel said hopefully.

I noticed one of the kids- Marco I think- raise his hand, looking for all the world like a kid in class. "Actually, we're kinda still in the dark about all this Goa'uld and SGC stuff, so, uh, feel free to enlighten us."

"Well it is highly classified, but I think under the circumstances, we can waive the nondisclosure agreements just this once, eh General?" I said to Hammond.

"Agreed. Take it away."

"Uh, OK. Well, then uh…Major?"

Carter hid a grin as she started explaining the Goa'uld, our allies, the Prometheus and F-302s, and the Stargate. Teal'c and Daniel offered up additional information, while I contributed my own accumulated wit and wisdom. Sometimes, I had to get Carter back on track when she started going into the supergenius physics side of things and the kids' eye started to glaze over.

When she finished, the kids were speechless. Then they all were blurting questions at once.

"How can the Goa'uld not meet the Yeerks and Andalites."

"How many worlds does the gate go to?"

(How does your hyperdrive work?)

I rubbed my eyes. "For crying out loud…" I muttered. "Hello, people! Parasites. Aliens. Threat to Earth. We can discuss that other stuff later."

"OK, then," Jake- who was obviously the leader- said. "Back on track. We know that you can't find the Goa'uld ship. What about the Yeerks' ships. Could you pinpoint those?"

"Depending on how they're cloaked and where they are, it might be possible." Carter said. "However, our one platform capable of attacking them is Prometheus, and it's currently undergoing maintenance."

"What kind of ships do they have?" Hammond asked.

Tobias answered. "They have one Pool Ship. It's huge and armed to the teeth, but it is not what you would call agile. The Blade Ship is smaller, but it's probably just as well armed and it's much more maneuverable. There are also several more support ships in orbit, and both the Blade Ship and the Pool Ship house a number of Bug Fighters, and they have dozens, probably hundreds, more Earth-based Bug Fighters."

Ax continued. (The Yeerk weapon of choice is the dracon beam, a concentrated-beam energy weapon. The dracon cannon on the Pool Ship is easily capable of vaporizing a city from orbit.)

"Can Prometheus handle that?" Daniel asked.

"The Asgard shields are able to take a beating," Carter said. "But depending on the Yeerks' shield capability we might not do too well offensively."

This sounded slightly pessimistic. I felt there was a need brighten the outlook.

"Come on, Prometheus can go toe-to-toe with a Goa'uld mothership."

"One mothership, sir. Prometheus would be going up against two Yeerk capital ships, several support ships and who knows how many fighters."

"Always the pessimist."

"It's my job, sir."

"Hey, wait a minute!" One of the girls- Rachel- said excitedly. "Maybe the Stargate goes right to Andalite homeworld! We can bring in the cavalry right under the Yeerks' nose! Then we would kick their butts, right?"

(I don't know of any Stargate on my world,) Ax said, turning one of the eyes on top of his head toward the Stargate. (However, I am just an aristh. My not knowing doesn't mean anything, if this operation here is any indication.)

"So then it is a possibility worth exploring," Hammond said. "Major, if Ax here gave you enough information, could you calculate if there's a Stargate located on his homeworld?"

"I could find the Stargates in that area of space, sir. We'd have to try them to see if they go to the Andalite world."

"I'll want you to get on that, then, Major. Any more ideas?" He directed that last question toward the Animorphs.

"Umm, actually, I have a question," Marco said. "How many human-settled worlds are there? You know, just out of curiosity." He glanced at Jake, who hesitated for moment, but then nodded.

"Hundreds, perhaps thousands of worlds are inhabited by humans," Teal'c said. "All moved there by the Goa'uld from Earth to increase their pool of slave labor." The big guy frowned. Well, frowned bigger. "I fail to see how that pertains to Earth's security."

"Well, have you seen any signs of Yeerk activity on any of those worlds?"

"Nooo," Daniel said hesitantly. "But then we haven't really been looking. We've found artifacts that we haven't been able to place, but most of them were on the order of several hundred years old. Why do you ask?"

"Just want to know my enemy," Marco said, but I noticed him giving Jake a shrug.

Before I could think better of it, I said, "There has been some strange activity on 208."

General Hammond gave me a stern look, "Colonel…" he said in a rather discouraging tone.

I, however, was not to be daunted. "Come on, sir. We've told them everything else."

"The activity on 208 is undergoing ongoing investigation so we can figure out what actually going on there," Hammond said. "I don't think we should disclose it now."

"Well, maybe they can help us figure it out." I turned to the kids. "You seem to have alien experience."

Hammond looked exasperated. "Very well, go ahead."

"Thank you, sir." I focused on the Animorphs. "A few months ago we explored a planet that we designated P3Y-208. The locals call the planet Umbra. We-"

"It's a moon," Daniel interrupted.

"Daniel?"

"Well, it's moon, not a planet." He turned to the teenagers in the room. "Umbra is Latin for Shadow. Umbra exists in the shadow of the gas giant that it orbits around. The culture and the technology indicates Roman ancestry and-" He stopped, apparently noticing that I was glaring daggers at him.

"Daniel, that is not relevant at all."

"Could be," he muttered under his breath. I ignored him.

"Anyway, the inhabitants of this moon were friendly, and were happy to strike up relation with Earth. The best part is, Umbra is rich is minerals that we, but not the Umbrans, have use for. We-"

Now it was Carter cutting in. "Umbra has large deposits of both naquadah and trinium, which we use for advanced technology-"

"For crying out loud! Can I get anything said without being interrupted!" I exclaimed.

Carter looked sheepish. "Sorry, sir."

"You know what, I'm tired of being interrupted, you just finish the story."

"Sir?"

"Tell them our experience with Umbra, Major."

She sighed, and turned her attention to the Animorphs, who looked amused by our exchange.

"We sent a team under SG-11, an engineering team, to lead a mining survey. There are some abandoned Goa'uld mines on the moon, and getting those up and running again would be far easier than starting an offworld mining operation from scratch. Shortly after they arrived they began giving reports of a strange craft seen in the Umbran sky that was clearly alien in origin. The Umbra's don't have the technology to get anything flying. As suddenly as the craft appeared, it disappeared, and it hasn't been since."

"So, we're not the only planet that gets UFOs," Marco muttered.

"SG-11 is still there, finishing up the survey, but ever since the craft was spotted, SG-3 was sent to provide backup in case anything happened," Carter concluded.

"Well, now apparently, there is more happening on Umbra," General Hammond said.

"Sir?" I said.

"SG-11's latest report said they saw something moving in the night sky. It was big, it was bright, and it was slow. Too slow to be a meteor, and it didn't burn up."

Uh, oh, I sensed were this was going.

Hammond sighed. "SG-11 thinks it's a ship."

Marco

"So some System Lord has come back to reclaim long ignored territory." Jackson said. "It's probably in response to Anubis' recent advances."

I had a different theory for the ships near Umbra. Judging by the worried looks on my friends faces, they had the same theory. From what SG-1 had explained, the System Lords were seriously bad news, but what about compared to our enemies? I didn't know.

"Did SG-11 send any pictures of the craft they saw on Umbra a few months back?" Jake asked.

"Several." Hammond said. "Major, could you bring up SG-11 report on the craft on Umbra?

"Yes, sir," Carter went over to the computer along the conference room wall. She pressed something and a screen came down from the ceiling in front of the SGC logo on the wall. She finagled with the computer a moment until a digital projector displayed a picture on the screen.

"That's our UFO," O'Neill said.

Judging by the trees around it, the craft was about the size of a VW Beetle. The thing had all manner of sensory equipment sticking out of it. Antennae and satellite dishes and panels. And it had a fearsome, really familiar design. All hard angles and sharp edges.

I didn't want to say it. "Please don't tell me that you think that that thing looks rather-"

"Yeerkish?" Rachel finished.

Ax confirmed our fear. (That is a Yeerk long range probe.)