Part 7 – Cogitation

Cassie

"…So then he left and I went home," Marco finished.

It was the next morning, in my barn. Jake and Tobias had just filled us all in on the nothlit situation, and Marco just finished his tale of last night's encounter. Ax wasn't there yet.

"Why would he come into the city?" Jake wondered aloud. "Especially downtown, of all places."

"Probably lonely," I answered as I shoved a pill down a lizard's throat. "Swallow, you!"

(Maybe he felt some sort of lingering connection,) Tobias volunteered. (Something to remind him he was still human.) I felt sad for him, knowing he probably spoke from personal experience. Tobias has had it pretty rough as a hawk. He was trapped in our first battle, and it felt like we'd been fighting this war forever, though it was probably only a year at most. Rachel hadn't told me anything about the red-tailed feathers I saw occasionally in her room, but from her moods I could guess that she and Tobias had had some pretty serious talks about things like that.

Rachel shot Tobias a vaguely disgruntled look. Publicly, she rarely approved of self-pity. "Or maybe he was just being an idiot," she pointed out. "He does sound like one of the assholes at school."

Marco shrugged, idly poking an ant trail with a stick. "He had a major attitude problem," he agreed. "Could be just the rush from the fight, yeah. But you'd think that, going through whatever he'd gone through to acquire that morph in the first place, let alone getting his hands on a blue box, he'd be used to stressful situations at this point."

I nodded slightly. Marco has the ability to see things that most of the rest of us miss. "How would he obtain the morphing power?" I wondered aloud. "The only blue box we know of is…" I trailed off, glancing at the drainpipe where the dismantled parts of the blue box were hidden in the barn.

Rachel tossed her hair. "Remember David? Didn't he put up a blue box on eBay? Did he ever say where he got it?"

"Said he just found it, I think," Jake answered. "But from the reactions of other Andalites when they learned about us, I'd guess blue boxes aren't exactly handed out by the dozen."

(We're getting off track here,) Tobias interrupted. (Look, Marco set up a meeting for tomorrow, right? But didn't you say the Controller was only knocked out?)

Marco nodded thoughtfully. "You're saying the Yeerks know about him, now. The Controller was out cold when I set up the meeting, though, so it should be safe."

"Should be," said Jake wryly, "isn't the same as will be."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "So what's the big deal, then? We go, we pick this guy up, no problem."

"The big deal," Jake sighed, "is what we do after that. Look, I don't think we can make him an Animorph very well. David notwithstanding, I don't think the box works again once you're trapped, right?" He looked to Tobias.

Tobias laughed bitterly. (Trust me, I thought of that a long time ago. No dice.)

"But he knows about the Yeerks now," Rachel pointed out. "This guy sounds nasty in a fight. Personally, I'd rather have him on our side."

"So he can do what, exactly?" Marco countered. "He can't morph, so anything he does is strictly local at best. Add that to the fact that sticks out like a sore thumb, and we're not looking at the most tactically valuable addition to Robin Hood's band of Merry Men here."

"Still," Rachel retorted, "would you rather have him wandering around the woods until the Yeerks find him? Like you rationalized last night, if he becomes a host it'd be nothing but trouble for us."

"Not necessarily," Jake pointed out. "A body like that'd be a real coup for some ambitious Sub-Visser. There could be a power struggle, which would distract Vissers Three and One, and maybe give us a window of opportunity to hurt them more."

"Oh, puh-lease!" I cried. "I can't believe you'd actually consider letting someone get infested just so he could be a Yeerk political pawn."

Jake blinked, and then had the decency to look embarrassed. "Sorry, Cassie."

I stepped slightly into the center of discussion and spread my hands. "Look, you guys can argue about this all you want, but the fact remains that right now, there's some scared, lonely kid in a weird new body wandering around the woods in our backyard. You can keep debating about what to do after we make sure he's safely away from the Yeerks. He can stay with Ax we decide the rest. Okay?"

I put my hands on my hips and glared at everyone. Marco grinned, and then saluted. "Heil, mein Fuhrer!"

(Yes ma'am!) Tobias laughed.

Jake gave me one of his slow, heart-melting sheepish grins. "Okay, then."

Further discussion halted as Tobias cocked his head suddenly. (Ax's here.)

I listened, too. A moment later, I heard the clump-clump of Ax's hooves as he leaped over a fallen log, trotting into the barn with a metal slab, formerly Marco's iBook, now bristling with wires and add-ons, tucked under one blue-furred arm. (Hello, Prince Jake,) he greeted us. (Hello, all.)

"Hello," we chorused. Marco pointed at the computer. "Uh, you'll be able to put it back together, right? Dad doesn't like his stuff messed with."

(I assure you, restoring this relatively primitive device to its former condition will be accomplished with comparative ease,) Ax answered.

Marco clutched his head. "Too many syllables!" he cried. "Brain…melting…" He fell back into a bale of hay, twitching comically. We laughed. Ax just looked nonplussed.

Jake stepped in. "So Ax, did you find anything?"

(Yes, Prince Jake.) He stepped over to the wall and plugged the laptop into Dad's router he uses to check online medications every so often. A few seconds of fourteen-fingered typing later, Ax had called up a local missing persons database.

(As you will see,) he showed us, (there is a young male human of pale complexion who disappeared from his instructional dwelling two of your years ago.)

"It's called a school, Ax." Marco said dryly. "And you've been on Earth forever! Work with the lowly natives already! They're everyone's years! A year is a year!"

Ax just eyed him through his stalks. (….disappeared two of your years ago,) he repeated. Marco just stuck his tongue out.

(I correlated that data with the instructional database,) Ax continued, (and was able to determine his precise identity, as well as the approximate date and time of his disappearance.)

We looked it over. The kid in question was named Scott. He had been a senior in high school, way older than the rest of us, just like Tobias reported. He was darkly-dressed in his picture, with a long face and pale skin. Nothing particularly remarkable about him. Grades were above average in English and history, below average in math and science. No real special achievements. Pretty ho-hum overall.

Tobias fluttered over to a rafter that had an angle on the screen. (Must've been a loner,) he remarked. (I know I was. Takes one to spot one.) Tobias had been a bit of a dreamy dweeb back in his school days, I remembered. He was a favorite target of bullies, and became instant friends with Jake after he pulled his head out of a toilet.

Jake studied the face. "Think I remember him in one of my math classes," he said after a moment. We looked at him. "There was a year when I was doing really well in math and was moved into a class a grade or two above," he explained a bit sheepishly, "and this guy was there. I remember him because he was so much older than the rest of the other high-schoolers. I think he must have been held back a year or something. Never saw him in any other class of mine, though."

Rachel shook her head. "So now what?" she asked.

"Now?" Jake shrugged. "Now we meet him, I guess."

Marco looked vaguely confused. "What, all of us? Look, the guy never saw me morph," he pointed out. "He thought he was hallucinating when he met Tobias, and he hasn't met any of the rest of you. Far as he knows, we don't really exist. You really want to change that and reveal everyone all at once?"

Jake cocked an eyebrow. "Got a better idea?"

Marco rolled his eyes, but shut up.

"…Okay, then." Jake took charge. "We'll hook up here tomorrow afternoon, then go say hello."

Everyone split off and went home. A goose honked at me, and I went to go get the animals more food.