Hey, all. No, I'm not dead, though there were episodes in the last six months that made me wish I was. And I haven't given up on either of my stories. And for those who emailed me, whether out of concern for me, my stories, or both, I appreciate it (in varying degrees).
Cassie
"How could they just write off an entire planet like that!" I said to no one particular.
We were back in the boys' room. After Rachel's and my outburst in the conference room, all involved parties- and by that I mean everyone but Rachel and me- had decided everyone needed some time to cool off and think.
Thinking was good; we were still taking in a lot.
But I was mad. And disappointed.
"They're human beings," I said. No one answered me right away. They probably expected this of me. I'm regarded as the conscience of the team. Of course I was expected to rant and rave when the rights of people were being violated.
Even Rachel, who had backed me up before, was silent, brooding. She had called SG-1 out in the conference room, but she, was probably realizing now that a fight lay on Earth. Rachel just wanted to be where the fight was. And she was probably coming to agree with SG-1's assessment of the situation. Rachel was an eyes-on-the-prize warrior, doing whatever it took to win. Sometimes she truly scared me, scared all of us, and it was all we could do to keep her from leaving morality in the dust.
But I suspected that even her inner warrior was conflicted on this. Which would inflict more pain on the enemy? Umbra or Earth?
Of course leaving Umbra and striking at the Yeerks and Goa'uld on Earth now was a more pressing issue for most of them, and it made a measure of strategic sense. Plus as far as I could tell and from what SG-1 had told us, we just didn't have the ability to oppose the Yeerks on Umbra and guarantee Earth's safety. Well, relative safety. Everything backed up the decision of the SGC. Even I saw that now. Marco and Ax had probably seen it right away. They were the top strategist among us. Tobias and Jake had likely figured it out a just a beat after them.
But still…
"Cassie."
I looked up. It was Jake.
"I know how you're feeling," he said, a little awkwardly. "You're pissed, disappointed, and saddened. And you have every right to be."
I sighed. "I know this move makes sense, but… just leaving them to be enslaved? 'Beat the Yeerks, don't become them,'" I said. "Isn't that what we've always said? How does this live up that? It's things like this that chisel away at our credibility, our morality. Maybe even our humanity."
Jake squatted so we were eye to eye. "The fact that you're so distraught over this proves your humanity's still there," he said. "And this bugs all of us, so maybe there's hope for the rest of us, too. But you may be right. Maybe it does pick away at us. Maybe all we can do is hope that we have enough of that credibility, morality, and humanity left when this war's over."
"Things would be so much easier if we didn't have to fight that way," I sighed
"Unfortunately, the Yeerks don't give us that choice."
We were silent for a moment. Finally, I was about to say something else when the there was a knock on the door. Without waiting for a reply, Colonel O'Neill entered the room.
"Just thought you'd like to know that Carter's gate search program has spit out a list of possible addresses for the Andalite homeworld."
"Finally, some good news," Marco said. Then he paused and raised an eyebrow. "Right?"
"Umm, maybe," Colonel O'Neill replied. "It's… Well, it's." He frowned. "Ya know, I'll just let you talk to Carter. Come on, she's in the control room."
We all started to morph fly for the trip to control room. We moved around the SGC in morph, since no one wanted to explain to Senator Kinsey what a bunch of teenagers were doing in a top secret Air Force base on the off chance we ran into him in the corridors. However, O'Neill stopped us.
"That won't be necessary; we have been granted a blessed respite from Kinsey."
"What do you mean?" asked Jake, still mostly human.
"I mean the senator has shipped out."
(You did not release him?) Ax asked with alarm.
"Well, yes and no. We told him that we did believe that you were a threat, and were trying to deal with you with arousing your suspicions, so it was taking time. Hammond suggested that he was better off at the Alpha Site and he was eager to go."
"Wait, what's the Alpha Site?" Jake asked.
"Oh, have we not told you yet?" O'Neill shrugged. "It's one of our off-world bases. Completely off the grid. Kinsey'll be out of our hair for a while. Means your accommodations will get better, too. Now let's go." He gestured out the door.
We filed past O'Neill into the corridor. Ax and Tobias hung back in the room a moment to morph human, just because it was easier to move around the tunnels and elevators of the SGC as a human. As I passed the colonel, he and I exchanged glances as I passed him. His expression was unreadable.
O'Neill led us to the control room. General Hammond, Teal'c, Dr. Jackson, and Carter were already there, along with a bespectacled sergeant I didn't know. As we arranged ourselves among the banks of computer, I couldn't help but stare at the stargate yet again. All the opportunities and problems that ring presented…
"Alright, Carter. They're here. Now, let's hear it," O'Neill said.
Major Carter swung around from her computer monitor. "Yes, sir." Then she addressed us, gesturing to a monitor overhanging the workstation. "The gate search program has compiled six gate addresses in the vicinity of the Andalite homeworld. Five came from the Ancient database and one came from the Abydos cartouche. As far as we can tell, these coordinates are on the extreme edge of the gate network, about as far from Earth as you can get and still be in the galaxy."
"So can we start narrowing it down?" Jake asked.
"Well, we've dialed the Goa'uld address before. It didn't connect, so we can rule that out. The other five we'll have to mark off the hard way. We already have several MALPs prepped."
"Wait, way even bother with a MALP?" asked Daniel. "Can't we just send a signal through? Surely the Andaltites have the capability to receive our transmissions." He glanced at Ax, who nodded.
"We don't know for sure who or what is on those five worlds. There could be something to which we don't want to announce our presence. The MALPs allow for more anonymity," replied General Hammond. He turned to Major Carter. "We have no teams due for a day, so the gate's free. You can begin dialing these addresses immediately."
"Yes, sir." She nodded at the sergeant. "You can start with the first Ancient address."
"Yes, ma'am." His fingers flew across the keyboard. There was grinding noise. We all looked out the control room window to see the inner track of the stargate, full of strange symbols, begin to spin.
A lot more went into opening the gate on Earth's end than when someone on another planet dialed in. CLUNK! A clamp-like device came down on the inner track and it lit up. "Chevron one encoded," the man at the console announced.
The gate spun some more. "Chevron two encoded."
"Is that really necessary?" Marco asked. "Surely the thing would work without you announcing every step of the way."
The guy glared. "It's my job." Then, almost defiantly, "Chevron three encoded!"
The Animorphs all kind of smirked at Marco, who looked slightly put out. Finally, after three more encoded chevrons, a different announcement.
"Chevron seven locked."
KA-WOOSH!
Once again the bizarre horizontal geyser exploded out of the stargate. Even though we had seen it before by now, and were about twenty-five feet away behind bullet-proof glass, I still took a step back. I noticed some of the others doing the same. The SGC personnel, however, didn't flinch. This was old hat for them.
Major Carter nodded at the technician. "Send the MALP."
A hefty little six-wheeled device with a robotic arm on the ramp leading to the stargate started moving toward the portal. According to Major Carter, the thing was covered with all kinds of sensors and transmitters to determine if the planet was habitable and to attempt to communicate if anything was there.
A few moments after the probe disappeared into the gate, Major Carter announced that telemetry was coming in. As images appeared on the monitors in the control room, I sincerely hoped that we weren't looking at the Andalite homeworld.
The landscape was dark and blasted, illuminated only by the glow of the open wormhole and lava flows scattered across the field of view. A tornado could be seen whipping across one lava lake.
"Uhh, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this isn't the planet we're looking for," Colonel O'Neill said. "Carter?"
"No, sir. Radiation, temperature, atmosphere. The area around the gate at least is completely uninhabitable. And unless there are areas like this on the Andalite homeworld, I think we can scratch this one off the list."
"There are no such wastelands on my world," Ax said. "These radiation levels and temperatures are far too high, and there are more active volcanoes in this image than there are on my entire planet."
"We're going to have to leave the MALP," Major Carter said. "Not only is the environment deadly, but I don't see a DHD."
"Well you have more of them, right?" Rachel asked impatiently. "Let's just go to the next planet on the list."
"Why would there even be a stargate on planet like that?" I asked, as the wormhole shut down. "Who would use it? What could use it?"
"You have to remember that the stargate network was created millions of years ago," Dr. Jackson said. "That planet was probably a lot like Earth when the Ancients first put a gate there."
Right, forgot about that. Million-year-old interstellar portals.
Blows the mind.
One hour and three planets- one address didn't connect- later, we were no closer to finding Ax's homeworld. We were about to give up and assume that the planet just didn't have a working stargate on it when Colonel O'Neill suggested that we try the address taken from the Goa'uld archives again.
"Ya never know," he said. "Gates get buried; they get unburied, right? Dial 'er up, Walter."
With a resigned, "Yes, sir," the sergeant- Walter- dialed the gate once more. He did his standard chevron call out almost automatically until he got to the last one. He sounded almost surprised as he said, "Chevron seven, locked!" and the stargate sprang to life.
Colonel O'Neill looked smug. "I'm full of good ideas."
"Don't gloat just yet, Jack," Daniel reminded him, "we still don't know if this is the right planet. In fact, it's not likely that it is, since this is a Goa'uld- charted world and we've seen no indication of Goa'uld- Andalite interaction."
"Come on, Daniel. Sixth time's the charm," O'Neill said. "This'll be important, I can feel it."
"Good-discovering-new-allies-or-technology important or bad-uncovering-a-huge-new-threat important?"
"Considering our track record, I'd say it's 50-50."
"Guys, we're getting a signal from the MALP." Major Carter called there attention back to the monitors.
The screen was pretty dark, save for the dim glow of the stargate behind the camera and a brighter light a short ways in front of the probe.
"I believe the stargate is located in a cave," Teal'c said.
"Yeah, hold on," Major Carter said. "I think we can drive out of it." A light on the MALP turned on. "It looks pretty level."
The MALP passed what I had come to identify as a DHD, a controller for the stargate, and moment later emerged from the cave into a scene that was reminiscent of the first planet we tried, in that it was a scene from Hell. Oh, it was probably a different part of Hell than the first planet, but Hell all the same. The sky was a sickly shade of green, with lighting arcing across the dark clouds, occasionally striking the ground in the distance. The surface was dry, rocky, and barren, except for the occasional bizarre plant that grew up about a foot or so, then spread out horizontally in a wide net. A few yards in front of the probe, the land sloped down sharply, allowing for a panoramic view of the surrounding, lower landscape.
Below the rise that the MALP was on was a small lake, almost circular. More lakes, all rough circles, could be seen dotting the view to the horizon. Except they weren't filled with water. Instead they were filled with a sludgy grey liquid. With growing horror, I realized what this planet was. Gasps around me told me that I wasn't the only one. We had all heard the stories; Ax had shown us images. But it was the Pools dotting the surface that made it glaringly obvious what we were looking at. I spoke before anyone else.
"That's the Yeerk homeworld."
Colonel O'Neill turned to Dr. Jackson. "I think this falls under bad important."
Thanks for staying with it. And I've learned by now to put no mention of when the next update might be.