No dedication this chapter. I've decided I don't have to do all of them.

Chapter 11

"I mean," Marco griped, "they have a Blade ship, we have a Blade ship."

"Marco, if we're going to have the same arguments again, can we at least do them somewhere else? It's cramped in here. Actually, I should be asking Jake. Jake-"

He cut Matt off. "I don't need your input. If you don't have anything intelligent to say, I don't have to hear it."

Marco raised his eyebrows.

((I'm not sure what's with him. I think a part of him wants that same atmosphere we had like in Cassie's barn, but he's obviously not going to tolerate annoyances from Matt.))

"Yeah."

"Yeah what?" Jake snapped his head around by instinct, like an animal.

"Yeah, um…yeah, Matt, shut up."

"All right. Eh…so Marco, do you think it's possible that they could survive without oxygen? Some of them, I mean?"

"Hey," Marco tilted his head a little and got that look on his face like he was about to figure something out, "what's to say the Kelbrid can't?"

Jake's eyes flashed briefly with hope, but that quickly passed. "The Kelbrid."

"Hey, we're "who"s, not "what"s," Matt sidetracked us snidely.

((Matt told us to close the door, so I'm guessing they need to breathe something.))

"Rruyshah, what are the atmospheres of these planets?" Jake asked.

"I don't know." She sounded both defensive and touchy: I hoped she hadn't learned "whaddaya think I am, a walking encyclopedia?".

"Which implies that there is one," Marco smirked. "And due to either some help from the Ellimist or incredible luck, the Kelbrid have been able to breathe just about everything." He paused. "So have we."

"And that is quite a good thing," Matt obliquely threatened, "because if you didn't, the way we've been treated, we might not be very keen on helping you."

There was an uneasy pause, then all of us, Rruyshah included, repeated, "((Keen?)) ".

After the humans (really, they were in the minority) stopped laughing, Jake cast a critical eye on Matt. "Why are you here?"

"'Cause she made me come."

I heard a noise from Rruyshah, like she wanted to respond, but Jake kept going. "Why is she here?"

"Because she wants to rescue her boyfriend."

He deadpanned it to such a degree it almost sounded like he was serious.

Jake looked over at Rruyshah, trying to keep from laughing. "I suppose I should ask you. Why did you come here?"

She didn't respond.

"Rruyshah, this is important. We all have to be in this equally."

"I won't tell you anything with Matrex around: he'll use it against me."

Jake exhaled. "Marco…eh, Tobias…sorry about this, but could you occupy Matt…somewhere else?"

((Could I? Yes.)) After seeing his miserable look I quickly added, ((Of course I will.))

"And if I don't go with you?" challenged Matt.

"Then we wait here," Jake ruled.

He waited a second, as if to see if he'd renege, but finally gave up. "Okay. Come on, Bird-Boy."

I flinched at my old nickname, but flew ahead of him to the room he'd been using. A second later, Marco joined us as well. "I don't know how Jake can think he's in charge on this ship. She's the ultimate slavedriver." He paused. "Besides, like, a Yeerk."

((Or The One.))

"So what is it, anyway?" Matt asked.

"We don't know," Marco told him. "We're guessing it's some sort of mind-meld."

"So there isn't like one person in charge of all the others, like the Yeerks?"

"Again, we don't know."

He paused. "Why are you here?"

"'Cause Jake made me come," he winked. "No, we're rescuing our friend Ax."

"Oh yeah."

We waited for them to finish, Marco tapping his foot to exaggerate the delay loudly and repetitively enough that I finally took the bait. ((You'd rather be out in the darkness?))

He surprised me: "Sure."

"Sorry, Tobias, but you can't protect him from me. Isn't that right?" Matt had everything going but an evil cackle.

"You started scaring me. Then you annoyed me. Now you're just disturbing me." Marco shook his head and turned to exit.

((You want to interrupt Rruyshah?)) I privately chastised him.

He paused, then stepped to the door. "Which of them do you think is the rock?"

I analyzed him, trying to see if there was something I was missing. ((The rock?))

"As in "between a rock and a hard place"."

I hovered between Marco and Matt before Jake called us back. "Okay, we're set to go?"

"Should we morph them?" Marco asked.

Jake froze, having not considered this angle. Then, with a careful mix of strength and flattery, he addressed the Kelbrid. "Would you be willing to let us acquire your DNA? We know that you have adapted to many environments, and that might help us on different planets."

Rruyshah took her time. "How does that process work?"

"They'd have to touch us, and then our DNA would soak into them." For once, Matt proved more knowledgeable than Rruyshah. "Do you have a morphing cube here?"

"It doesn't matter," Marco said sharply before Jake could assent. "Once we've received the power, we can acquire DNA indefinitely."

"That's not what I asked you."

"No."

Even if Jake hadn't said "Yes" simultaneously, I doubt he would have gotten away with it.

"Okay then." Matt presented his offer. "You give us the morphing power, we let you acquire our DNA."

No! Marco mouthed to Jake. He didn't seem to notice. "Rruyshah, what do you think?"

"I don't care. You can acquire me."

"No way, Rruyshah, listen to me!" Matt raged. "Don't you want to be able to morph?"

"Changing shape? Generally that does not go well."

Jake walked up to Rruyshah and touched what we assumed was the top of her head: the purplish-pinkish-tannish area between the blue wave that encircled her head and the purer purple opening at the very top. She seemed to recoil a little, but quickly went into the acquiring trance.

"You go ahead, Tobias," Marco waved me ahead. "I kinda like seeing her quiet."

I landed and stretched out my wing to one of her feet. It was always a little uneasy acquiring another sentient creature. As her DNA entered my bloodstream, I wondered vaguely if her aggression would carry over. Finally, Marco went. When we'd broken the connection, she stumbled blearily towards the exit. "That was not fun."

"Wait for us," Jake held up a "stop" hand as he began to morph. I watched for a second, to see how he would react. Seeing as he didn't start killing me, I concentrated and followed suit. It was difficult. I paused a few times: having Rruyshah and Matt apparently watching me threw me off.

My eyes changed first. They blurred together, then stretched into the blue wave. Before I could comment on this, my mouth had imploded. My wings were absorbed into a body that grew rapidly as six legs sprouted off to join the two I had. As those final two lengthened, I wavered off-balance with only six Kelbrid feet on the floor. Metallic nodules popped out of my knees. As I looked around (not physically turning my head: I could see in all directions at once), I noticed all five of us glimmering. Finally, I felt the top of my head tear open.

"Is this my mouth?" My own voice sounded loud to me. Whatever was picking up sound was more sensitive to it then even hawk ears.

((No, you're just speaking with it.)) Marco finished up his morph.

"Okay, are we ready?" someone asked.

((Who was that? )) I used thoughtspeak to distinguish myself.

((Jake. My bad. Um, Animorphs-Rruyshah and Matt, that's what Tobias, Marco and I called ourselves- )) I noted the past tense. ((use thoughtspeak. We can all tell Rruyshah's voice from Matt's.))

Opening the door was an adventure all its own, albeit one that made us sympathize with the Kelbrid a little more. But we managed it, and a minute or so of not suffocating was enough for us to set out into the blackness.