Chapter 5

"What just happened?" Visser Five's eerie voice shouted at us; his glowing yellow eyes turning to a dark red. Given that was all we could see of him, it was quite disturbing. "Where is the Andalite?"

Sub-Visser Thirteen looked at us. "Say nothing," she ordered. "Make him work for his information."

Visser Five laughed again. Though it did not sound like laughter to me, I guessed that the flanged, rumbling sound that followed the Sub-Visser's orders was whatever passed for an expression of amusement for Visser Five.

(Rachel, what's going on? The door won't open!)

Tobias! I thought. He was stuck outside in the corridor. I couldn't morph and reply to him. If I did that, then Visser Five would know that he had more than one member of the resistance with him than just our resident Andalite.

(Rachel?) Tobias repeated. (Rachel? Hellooooo?)

For just a second, Tobias sounded like Marco, and for that, I wanted to clip his wings and cook him for Thanksgiving dinner. Sub-Visser Thirteen could have replied, but that nifty device she'd invented to use Thoughtspeak out of morph had been destroyed by Visser Three.

"You are a fool, Eskrill," Visser Five said, his eyes moving closer to the screen. And then, we all got a glimpse of the Visser's true form.

The yellow, colour-changing eyes belonged to a creature that, to me anyway, looked more like the Incredible Hulk than anything else. The Visser's host body was a colossal, monstrous green creature with scaly, rough skin and what looked like miniature versions of Hork-Bajir blades coming out of its forearms.

The host was definitely not small, but I couldn't see anything more of the body; it was dressed in long, black robes that covered the chest, stomach and legs completely. The face was weirdly human-like; the ears were smooth and curved, and the lips small, but black instead of pink.

"Do not address me familiarly," Sub-Visser Thirteen growled. She looked at the image of the Visser on the screen, and smirked. "Those robes belong to a Councillor of Thirteen," she said, smiling broadly. "A bottom-feeding mudilo like yourself does not deserve them."

I could have sworn that I heard something outside. It sounded like hooves trotting on the deck plating in the hallway.

Ax! I thought excitedly. But I immediately dismissed the idea. There was someone else with hooves we knew all too well.

Jake, the Sub-Visser and I all turned and ducked as the bridge door literally exploded at us in a conflagration of steel and who knows what other weird alien metals the thing was made of. In a second, I saw him.

The Abomination.

Visser Three.

Who had all too recently had a freakish makeover. Visser Three stood in the doorway, which was just big enough to contain his colossal frame. As if a Yeerk in the body of a full-grown Andalite War-Prince wasn't scary enough, Visser Three had upgraded himself to a super-host that he'd had the un-Yeerklike originality to make himself.

The body was like an Andalites'; centaur-like, with a long tail ending in a fearsome weapon. Unlike an Andalite, the face had a mouth, lined with shark teeth, and patchy skin that was blue fur in places, and green scales in others.

"Your master has arrived!" Visser Three boomed. Oh yeah, did I mention this thing talks, and doesn't use thought speak?

Sub-Visser Thirteen trembled with rage at my side. Jake looked stoic but brave. I, of course, just stood there. Visser or not, I wasn't scared of some slug.

"Visser Three," Visser Five said, bowing his head. "I was unaware your ship had arrived."

With a dramatic slashing motion of his tail, as if to take off someone's head, Visser Three took a few steps onto the bridge, and looked casually at the screen that Visser Five was speaking to us on.

"Where are you, you imbecile?" Visser Three demanded. "You allowed these insurgents access to the command centre of your vessel?"

Visser Five looked unsure of what to say.

"Where are you, fool?" Visser Three yelled.

There was an uncomfortable silence. Visser Three was standing just in front of me, about five metres away. I knew I could make it to the door if I ran fast enough. I wasn't sure though if I could make it out to the hallway before Visser Three lopped off my head with that nasty tail of his.

Tobias! I thought, remembering that he'd been out in the hall, keeping guard. Why hadn't he warned us that Visser Three was coming?

"I am in the auxiliary control room on Deck Five, Visser Three," was Visser Five's uncertain reply.

Visser Three's tail swung slowly from side to side with the rhythm of a metronome. He looked down at me and Jake. "What did she promise you to make you betray me?" he asked, looking at me with his red eyes.

"Making you shut up," I snapped back at him.

I realised what I'd said too late, and half expected Visser Three to detach my head from my neck with a nice clean slice from his tail blade.

Instead, his monstrous host body laughed, and his tail continued to swing in the air, not killing anyone; which was very out of character.

"Shall I join you on the bridge, Visser Three?" Visser Five asked from his hidey-hole on the other side of the transmission.

Stopping his tail in mid-air and smiling at the screen, Visser Three shook his head. "There is no need."

Visser Five's green, Hulk-ish face looked puzzled. "Might I ask why, Visser?"

The hybrid's shark-teeth smile became a mad leer. "I have already sent someone for you."

There was a flash of a blade shining the in semi-light behind Visser Five on the screen, a muffled cry of guttural Hork-Bajir speech, and a sound like swords hitting each other. I heard Visser Five yelling in Galard; his voice sounding distant.

In Visser Five's place, a Hork-Bajir appeared on the screen; a Hork-Bajir that looked oddly familiar.

"He got away, Visser," the Hork-Bajir said.

I looked back at Visser Three. He was gone.

But in his place, I saw a silver and ivory statue. For just a moment I thought I was looking at a Snoopy cartoon gone into the Star Trel century. Then I realised who it was.

"Erek the Chee," Jake said with a laugh.