Dedicated to EzekielRaiden, now that I've experienced the difficulty in expressing scientific insight in Animorphs fanfiction.

Chapter 12

((Are we all so dumb that we don't turn on the lights in the ship?))

It was nice to have acute hearing. We stomped hard and followed each other's noise. Sight was a farce on this planet. There were no stars to see, and definitely no sun. "Yes we are," Matt replied to Marco.

((We're going to be stuck in this morph and have no way back.))

"Oh yeah? What's so bad about being stuck in this morph? A mouth, other people to talk to? There are things a lot worse." Matt projected more emotion then I'd ever heard him do.

"Stuck?" Rruyshah dumbly echoed.

((We can only be in morph for two hours,)) Jake clarified.

"Ah."

((We probably should remorph: I'm guessing we can survive here,)) I hypothesized.

((Okay: Rruyshah and Matt, pause for a little if you don't mind?)) Jake requested.

Matt stepped into his normal role as devil's advocate. "And if we do?"

((We'll morph birds and catch up with you.))

He relented, muttering, "Birds! Rruyshah, don't you want to fly?"

((I think she prefers flying spaceships,)) Marco retorted as he demorphed.

The planet was cold. Not like the Anati planet, but a deep, unsettling cold that seemed to chill each of my atoms separately.

"Definitely r-remorph."

We did so, and waddled ahead towards a teasing Matt, only a few yards away. ((How do you handle these temperatures?)) Jake marveled.

"A pathetic sub…" Improbably, Rruyshah decided to show a little respect and didn't complete that sentence. "You have a Kelbrid body, does that not inform you?"

((Just a Kelbrid body, not a Kelbrid mind.))

((Thank goodness,)) Marco added to Jake and me.

"We could go on forever," complained Matt. "How do we know when we'll find evidence they were here?"

Jake was confident. ((Whoever lives here will remember.))

((We don't know for sure anyone lives here,)) Marco reminded us. ((Somebody, like the Kelbrid, could have come and left.))

"Or been destroyed when the sun went nova," Rruyshah said offhandedly.

((Supernova? Who could survive after that?))

"I'm not sure. I'm beginning to think the atmosphere on this planet is exceptionally thick and keeps heat trapped much more than our planets do."

((Would that explain why we can't see any stars or moons?)) I ventured.

"Oh, it wouldn't be that simple."

"What she means is it's nothing your pathetic human brains can figure out." Matt demonstrated his familiarity with Rruyshah's mannerisms.

((How much science could she actually know?)) I asked Jake and Marco. ((Think about how much she knows about all the planets and stuff: I doubt she's an astronomer, too.))

((She could have a chip.)) Marco had evidently liked my theory. ((I wouldn't push her.))

((And we won't,)) Jake ruled firmly.

"I hear something!" Matt excitedly jolted us back into sound. "It's coming from over that way."

Rruyshah, obviously, could not see which of his limbs he was shaking to point. "What way, sub-low-rank?"

((In front of us and to our left, I hear it too,)) concurred Marco. ((It's like a bunch of beeps?))

"Yeah, yeah, that's it." Matt started with energy, but then trailed off. "Guys, there's no way we can trust them."

((Or it, or whatever it is? We don't really have a choice.)) Jake's decision had already been made.

"Sure we do. We can turn around and go back."

Jake's reply was a surprise. ((Okay.))

"Okay? Okay what?"

((Okay, you can turn around and go back.))

((Or just plain go back, since you've got eyes in the back of your head,)) joked Marco.

"W-wait, what are you doing? You're thoughtspeaking privately to each other-what's your game?"

((No game. I guess I'm just being selfish,)) Jake confessed nonchalantly.

"What, selfish? If you were being selfish, you'd want me to stay here. You wouldn't care about where I wanted to be."

((Uh-uh. See, I just don't want to-don't want to force you into, to anything.)) Jake's composure began to fade: I couldn't tell if it was a charade or façade.

"What does that have to do with being selfish?"

((I don't need to feel guilty about any more things.))

"Okay: Tobias, Marco, somebody explain what's going on."

((We are hearing strange beeping noises-)) All of us could hear them by then. ((and you're trying to decide whether to desert or not,)) Marco zinged back.

"You know what I mean-what's with Jake?"

"Two Kelbrid and two temporary Kelbrid." Either Rruyshah had not learned what "what's with" was, or she was brilliantly sharp-witted. "And something that produces noise."

"I quit. I really do."

((In that case, I ask that you do not help The One, give away information about our mission, or take our spaceship,)) Jake calmly instructed.

"How am I supposed to leave, then?"

((I don't know.))

I heard Matt start stomping off the other way.

((Okay, let's see if we can find what's beeping.))

((Jake, he's going to take the ship,)) Marco cynically prognosticated.

((No he isn't.))

((Then he's going to destroy it.))

((Don't think so.))

((How can you be so sure?))

((He isn't loyal. To anyone.))

((He could have left before.))

((He hasn't been scared of anyone. Not the Anati, not us. But he's scared of whatever's beeping.))

((Just because he can't see it?))

((There are stupider reasons.))

Rruyshah was done with rhetoric. "So what do we do?"

((Humiliate him. Tell him it was something meaningless.))

((Rruyshah, you can probably do that best. Would you mind?))

"Yes…wait, we're trying to lure him back?"

((We're trying to save our ship.))

"I don't deserve this."

((Neither do we.))

With that sort of logic, she was flummoxed. After a second, she took off. "You pathetic sub-low-rank…"

Mercifully, we were spared Matt's half of the conversation. (Actually, it was less than half, since Rruyshah dominated it.) Her obscene tirades, however, were impossible to miss. They must have worked, however: he came back.

In unspoken agreement, we approached the beeps. We'd heard them from a long way off with Kelbrid hearing, so it was a few minutes before we got to their source.

Jake had listened carefully but not discerned anything. ((Are they in some sort of pattern?))

((They seem pretty irregular. Rruyshah, do you understand this?)) Marco risked an insult to homo sapiens.

"No. I understand Galard and Kelbrid language: not random beeps!"

((So they're random.))

"And English," Matt reminded her.

((Don't you know the languages of any of the species you advertise to?))

"No…we concentrate more on understanding their mindsets. Or at least, researching them," she replied.

And then I saw a red beam. Not cynical enough to write it off as a hallucination, I immediately spoke up. ((I saw a flash of something!))

((Like that?)) Marco pointed out another one. That one made contact with one of my nodules, piercing it and sending pain throughout my Kelbrid body. Another rocketed in from a different direction.

((They're shooting! I've gotta demorph.))

It was worse than goaltending. Ignoring the others, they fired at me as I went from hawk back to Kelbrid. And they didn't miss. If I hadn't been able to morph, I probably would have died right there. Instead, Jake took initiative. ((What are you?))

Another shot, another smoking wing. I was cycling through morphs so fast I didn't know what I was doing half the time.

((Marco, battle morphs. Tobias, you too, if you can.))

((We can't fight what we can't see!)) Marco protested.

"One just got me!" Matt swore. The lasers were being fired at all of us now, the nonsensical beeps continuing. "Any better ideas, Marco?"

((We politely say "Hey, please stop shooting at us,"?))

A shot that had been taken as Marco thoughtspoke hit Rruyshah, but that was the last one. The beeps continued, but the lights had halted immediately.

((Why didn't that work with the Yeerks?))