Chapter 7

Light. Incredibly bright light, burning down on me from overhead. I was lying on my side, with my legs and arms in bracers and my head forcibly pointed upwards. My tail blade was held at my throat by another metal bracer.

A disembodied voice called to me. "I must say, Visser Three is obviously more incompetent than even I have given him credit for," Sub-Visser Thirteen hissed from somewhere nearby. "If you are the Andalites he has had so much trouble with, I am thoroughly unimpressed. And don't bother trying to morph. You will find that to be impossible."

I focused on my harrier again. I tried to bring its DNA out from within me and to become the harrier. Nothing happened.

I tried again with my human morph, and even a flea. Nothing, not even a single cell changed.

"I have a device here than inhibits the energy you need to morph," the Sub-Visser said in a singsong voice of triumph. "Thank you for being such willing test subjects. Both of you"

Rachel! Did this Yeerk know that Rachel was human? I hoped not.

(I demand to know where my comrade is!) I snarled.

Sub-Visser Thirteen came into view. She stood over a metre above me, and brought her face down to within millimetres of my own, and glared at me. "You are hardly in a position to make demands, Andalite!" she jeered.

(Answer me, or I will tell you nothing!) I growled. My tail twitched beneath the restraint.

The Sub-Visser came even closer to me. "Actually, by the time I'm finished with you, you'll be telling me everything you know."

I could actually smell the human-Controller; she was so close to me. Humans unfortunately, do not have the most pleasant aroma.

(I have been trained to resist torture,) I said sternly, keeping my four eyes locked on the two of the Yeerk. (You will not break me.)

The Sub-Visser lifted her head up and backed away with an indignant snort. "You are right," she said brusquely. "Andalite arisths are trained to resist torture. That much I have learned from Visser Three." The Sub-Visser went out of sight for a moment. I sighed. Perhaps she had accepted the futility of her actions.

(Ax!) Rachel cried in thought-speak.

(Rachel!) I replied. She was still in morph, or else thought-speak communication would be impossible. (Where are you?)

(I'm right in front of you,) Rachel replied weakly.

I swivelled my stalk-eyes around a full-circle, and there she was.

(I can see you, Rachel.) A bald eagle was trapped inside what appeared to be a glass box, in Sub-Visser Thirteen's hands. Though the box seemed to be glass, I knew it was transparisteel, or Ramonite…something far too tough for animals to break.

"I agree, Andalite," Sub-Visser Thirteen crooned. "I cannot break you. But I'd wager that Andalite females do not have as great a resistance to torture as males."

I laughed as Rachel told the Sub-Visser what to do with herself in a traditional, archaic Earth fashion.

"Such language, from a noble Andalite warrior," the Sub-Visser sneered. "I'm almost shocked. Perhaps so much time on this planet has worn away at your smugness just a little too much."

(Release Imzadi-Ziyal-Corrall at once, Yeerk!) I commanded. (I will not barter with you. Either you release her, or you will be truly made to suffer.)

The Yeerk eyed me with incredulity. "And lose my only bargaining chip? I think not."

Rachel called to me. (Imzadi?) she asked dubiously.

(The name of one of my classmates at the Academy,) I replied. (She was much like you.)

Sub-Visser Thirteen placed Rachel's box down on a computer console. "I have a proposal for you, Andalites," she said.

(I will have no dealings with you,) I snapped. (I have no intention of repeating Seerow's mistakes.)

"Ah yes, Seerow," Sub-Visser Thirteen said wistfully. "I knew him. He was kind and generous. Open-minded too. A trait the rest of your kind could do with acquiring."

The Yeerk's attempt at humour, what humans call a pun, was less than amusing.

(State your demands,) I hissed. Dealing with a Yeerk was a terrible idea, I knew, but I approximated that Rachel had less than fifteen minutes of morph-time left. I had to act.

"Much better," the Yeerk snickered. "I have something you want, Andalite." The Sub-Visser glanced casually at Rachel. "And I don't just mean your fellow terrorist here." She smiled terribly and glared at me. "I can give you Visser Three."

My hearts began to race. Was this Yeerk sincere? I had no way of knowing…but her proposal was too tempting to ignore.

(Go on,) I said sternly.

Sub-Visser Thirteen's smile widened. "Your piety is matched only by your corruptibility, Andalite," she laughed bitterly. "Very well, my proposal is thus. I will slip you in through the Yeerk pool's security grid, and you will kill Visser Three for me."

My hearts raced ever faster. (Is that it?)

"Not quite. As you may have guessed, Visser Three's death will benefit me enormously. It is of the utmost importance that no one know I am behind this." The Sub-Visser levelled a Dracon beam at Rachel. "Therefore, to ensure your compliance, I will keep your friend here until you bring me Visser Three's tail blade as proof of his death."

I shuddered in my restraints. To remove a dead Andalite's shorm was to desecrate his body in the most terrible way imaginable. Perhaps the Sub-Visser did not know this. But then again, perhaps she did, and she was testing me.

Either way, I could not leave Rachel in her hands. If the Sub-Visser discovered that Rachel was human, she may decide to double-cross us and hand us over to Visser Three for execution…or worse, she could simply have Rachel infested.

(I will make sure Visser Three dies,) I said grimly. (I accept your proposal, with one condition.)

"Name it," the Yeerk snapped.

(You will keep me, instead of Imzadi. I am of a higher rank, I am therefore a more valuable hostage.)

Sure enough, like a Skrit-Na who had just been given the best trade deal of his life, the Sub-Visser immediately said yes.

Suddenly, the restraints around my arms, legs, neck and tail tightened.

"Just a precaution," the Sub-Visser said. "Your friend here will take me to your Prince, and we shall return when the Visser has breathed his last.

(That was not part of the agreement!) I shouted.

"Consider the terms of the agreement altered," Sub-Visser Thirteen laughed.

She opened the box with Rachel inside it, but kept the Dracon beam aimed squarely at me.

Rachel fluttered out slowly. She made no aggressive moves. I was thankful.

"There's a good Andalite," the Yeerk mocked. "One wrong move and…" she paused. "What's your name?" she asked me.

(Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill,) I hissed.

"One wrong move, and Aximili will find himself with the biggest headache of his life."

Rachel hissed, but remained calm.

(I'll tear her damned eyes out!) Rachel shrieked to me. (I'll make her really, REALLY regret this!)

I calmed myself to reply. Despite my precarious situation, Rachel and I still had a mission to complete.

(Rachel, you must stay with her, but stall for time. You only have ten minutes of morph time left, but you must not lose her. We need Sub-Visser Thirteen alive as bait for this killer.)

Rachel growled, and nodded at me.

The Sub-Visser glanced down at her. "I do hope you two aren't planning anything. After all, we have a Visser to kill."

I expected a snappy reply from Rachel. Both of them were out of my sight…no sound.

What was wrong?

(Ax!) Rachel screamed.

Suddenly, the table I was restrained onto tilted itself so that I was perpendicular to the floor.

"Is that right, Sub-Visser?"

It was Visser Three, and yet at the same time, not Visser Three.

The human Sub-Visser whirled around half a full turn, and instantly a hand clamped itself around her throat, and lifted her half a metre from the floor into the air.

I could hardly believe what I was seeing. Standing a scant few metres from me, holding up a fully grown human will little apparent effort, was…what I can only describe as a monster.

The body itself was Andalite in shape, with four hoofed legs, a slender torso with two arms and a tail, but the rest of it was completely alien to me. The head itself had a long, pronounced snout with a set of shimmering white teeth bared in a terrifying grin, and two deep red eyes which moved from the Sub-Visser to myself, and back again. The monster's ears were not tipped with Andalite points, but were curved and human-like.

The arms, which on an Andalite like myself would be thin and slender, were thick and rippling with powerful muscles, and each of the many fingers were tipped with sharp, obsidian claws that shone in the low light of the Sub-Visser's laboratory, and the blue Andalite fur was tinged by green, scaly skin underneath, with patches of pink scattered randomly about.

The tail blade was a shape not unlike Visser Three's blade ship, with the crescent-shape of an Andalite shorm replaced by a semicircular axe.

As the scarlet eyes burned onto me, I was certain of one thing. Whatever terrible monster held Sub-Visser Thirteen's life in its hands, was not Visser Three.