Notes:
--None. ^^;; Just go read!
Chapter 13
Ankulei-Shloroun-Dristhfill
By Aura Kage
…And we must quickly get away from here in the space of approximately three days, or else risk either staying on this planet for an unwanted, prolonged amount of time, I finished gravely. The humans cluttered around me, sitting down on the rather cool sand, stared.
"Staying on this planet for an unwanted, prolonged amount of time as opposed to what?" the dark-haired human male named Marco asked. There was a bit of strange emotion in his tone of voice, but I could not quite place what it was.
As opposed to staying on this planet forever.
"Ah. I see! It all makes sense now!" Marco cried, standing up and waving his considerably strong human arms about. He continued to flail his arms, gesturing wildly. "See, obviously, Crayak is up to something here. And the Ellimist, obviously, wants us to stop him, in his own bizarre, twisted kind of way. And, obviously, we do have to stop Crayak, because whatever Crayak's doing has something to do with us, because otherwise the Ellimist obviously wouldn't have called us on this stupid mission in the first place because we wouldn't have cared about this stupid mole-ridden planet! I mean, obviously, right?"
Everyone blinked slowly.
"Err…I'm confused," another human, Santorelli, stated.
Humans seem to be confused quite easily, I agreed, nodding my Gyuren head. I was nearing the time limit – I would soon have to demorph, or risk being trapped in this body forever. Obviously, I did not wish this to happen, so I demorphed.
"And to add to our problems," Jake said, "there's still Ax. Ax and Tobias. We don't have a clue where they could be, or if they're…well, you know. Dead."
And according to my collected data from this place, I believe that some type of war or battle might break out, I said, continuing my speculation upon the fact that the Kelbrid had faked their harddrive. Or, at least, that there is some sort of very great dispute between the Gyuren and the Kelbrid.
"We don't even know who the Kelbrid are," Menderash growled. "For all we know, they could be listening into this very conversation. They could be in the air around us. They could be one of us."
There was a moment of silence in which the humans exchanged glances all around with their fellows. Poor, paranoid species.
I think it would be impossible that we would be one of the Kelbrid, I said, stating my opinion to assure the group. We have, afterall, not suffered any sort of damage…unless we were Kelbrid before we came here, or some event transpired that I do not know about.
"You seem to be ve-ry sure of yourself," Marco said, narrowing his eyes at me. I was taken aback. This human – suspected me? Why? Had I done some conspicuous thing?
I am not a Kelbrid, I told him hotly. Had I been one, surely I would have been able to kill you all by this point using the Gyuren morph, or even one of my many own acquired morphs! Or perhaps a crossbreed morph. I have in the past attempted a particularly dangerous cross that included the chorra, the phlerryl, and the particularly bizarre creature from a planet in your very own solar system located on the planet you call Saturn. If I were to again morph into all of those, I would be armed with poison, flight, flame, and a very considerable amount of blades mounted on my body, as well as great strength and senses. You would have little chance to escape.
"Alright!" Marco yelled. "I get it, I get it. Good grief, it was just sarcasm."
"Don't you remember? Andalites don't know much about that wonderful human trait," Cassie said dryly.
Marco rolled his eyes. "A world without sarcasm…what's this immensely large universe coming to? I mean, it's enough that…oh, nevermind. I'm tired of saying it."
"What we need to know," Jake said pointedly, rubbing his hands together, "is what we're going to do from here. Okay, Ax and Tobias are go…I mean, not here presently. We are all capable of some sort of battle morph…well, except Menderash, but he can come in later, with all of the technical stuff. As far as we know, the Gyuren or whatever aren't our enemies, and we probably don't want them to be our enemies, either. We still don't know who or what the Kelbrid are. We are basically and literally a group of people – and aliens – on a foreign planet with nothing to do. Any suggestions?"
We find the ships you used to land here in the first place, I said matter-of-factly. Jake winced.
"Um…yeah, we could do that. Except…"
"Except what?" Cassie prodded.
"Except they weren't exactly ships," Santorelli explained. "The Rachel – the actual ship that we used to get here in the first place…she was attacked by the Bladeship. We escaped via escape pods."
"And those are not capable of flight," Menderash stated pointedly. "Even if we somehow fitted it with some sort of booster or engine, they are not physically adapted to flying. They are much too large, much too heavy. The anatomy's just all wrong."
"So…so we're stuck here?" Jeanne said bleakly, crestfallen.
"Not exactly," Cassie said, tilting her head slightly and looking skyward, thinking. "You said that the Rachel was attacked, afterall, by the Bladeship. And the Gyuren mentioned the Kelbrid as well, so it's most likely that the Kelbrid are here. And if they are, they're probably capable of space-flight."
"So all we need to do is find out where they keep the big boys and do a little destructive baby-sitting," Marco said cheerfully. "You know, literally."
"It's not that easy," Santorelli pointed out. "We don't even know where these Kelbrid are, much less what they're capable of. I say that Cassie and the Andalite do some more –"
"Anku," Cassie disrupted in a mutter.
"Excuse me?" Santorelli looked at the human confusedly. "What…what did you say?"
"I said, Anku," she said, her voice rising bitterly. "'The Andalite' has a name, and it's Ankulei, Anku for short."
There was another period of silence in which all eyes were trained on Cassie – including all four of mine, as I deemed the landscape too harmless to watch over. Apparently, this was a strange thing for Cassie to say, somehow, but I could not see why. However, I was very glad that she had rose to my defense when the human had called me merely "the Andalite" and refused to acknowledge that I was an individual.
Oh! Now I understood Cassie's anger. It had to do with the Alienists that had assaulted me in the space between buildings yesterday on Earth. I understood that though we had quite a large problem presently, others were still transpiring elsewhere; and was painfully aware that Fradulan was most likely going mad back on my own homeworld, searching for his decol.
"Cassie…" Jake said, concern clear in his voice. "Cassie, what's wrong?"
"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Cassie stood up suddenly, her expression and words ablaze with fury and anger and rage that had been penned up in her store of emotions for far too long. "What's wrong?! I tell you what's wrong! What's wrong is that I have had my share of ignorant people who don't give aliens an ounce of respect or decency, Jake! What's wrong is that there are people down there who trap morphed Andalites until they become a nothlit! A nothlit! They trap them, keep them for two hours, and if they try to demorph then they get killed! Killed!
"And even worse with the Hork-Bajir! Do you know what people do? They – they murder them, murder them in their own homes! And then you know what? They take a nice big knife and rip away all of their blades, their body parts, Jake! They take them and sell them on the black market!"
"Whoa, Cassie…" Marco murmured quietly from the side. "God, take a chill pill…"
"I will not take a 'chill pill,' and you just shut up, Marco!" Cassie screamed, turning on him. Marco flushed in embarrassment and seemed to cower at Cassie's ill-concealed rage. "You've had it nice and easy ever since the war ended, haven't you? Writing books, hanging out with your hot girls from the cover of…of magazines! Being a millionaire, right? Well, guess what? It hasn't been all that easy for me, alright?! ALRIGHT?! I've had to make sure the damn Anti-Alienists down there don't kill off the Andalites and Hork-Bajir, and you know what? I. Have. No. Help. At. ALL. Does the President care what her Representative-for-Who-Cares-Whatever does? No, of course not. Does Ronnie, great Governor-of-Whatever, care about what happens? No, of course not. Does the world care that eventually all this prejudice will just grow and grow and grow, and soon the Andalites will get angry and release the stupid Quantum Virus and kill us all? NO, OF COURSE NOT!"
"Cassie," Jake said in a low, soothing voice, standing up carefully and approaching her with the care and tentativeness one would take with a wild animal, arms outstretched. "Cassie, calm down."
Cassie opened her mouth for another angry retort, but by now her voice was hoarse and worn from screaming – she clenched her fists and looked away, tears running down her face, and Jake embraced her gently, stroking her hair and eventually leading her away to the far side of the Julasara tree – which was actually quite large, despite the fact it was merely a tree.
I glanced at Marco with one stalk eye – he was standing there, dazed, frowning sullenly and obviously wondering what was wrong. There was another awkward interval of silent looks and uneasiness.
There have been ordeals on Earth that, I am sure, have been extremely difficult for Cassie to pass, I informed them. These Anti-Alienists she speaks of caught me, and they attempted and almost successfully trapped me in a human morph. Had it not been for Cassie, I would have probably been killed.
That was true. Had she not appeared just after I finished demorphing, the Anti-Alienists would have most likely come back and shot me with their primitive, yet lethal, artillery.
Menderash, who I now knew used to be an Andalite himself, looked completely appalled and disgusted and enraged. "That is horrible," he spat. "And surely she is correct – the Andalite high-command would have most likely carried out some sort of revenge against these humans that take our technology and use it against us."
The humans that were actually present had nothing to say to that, but they did seem rather affronted and humiliated. I do not blame them. I still feel for the Hork-Bajir lives that were taken by the Quantum Virus…
Not all are evil, I said gently. There were several that helped me on my travels on Earth, and they were quite courteous. Afterall, the actions of some do not represent the actions of all.
"And boy do we know that," Marco said half-heartedly, giving a mirthless chuckle. "God, there are still some that blame Americans for what happened during the 1860's."
And what happened during the 1860's? I asked politely.
He opened his mouth to answer, then thought better of it and shook his head. "Nah, you don't want to know. But…it was really bad. And it involved a difference outside that lots of people didn't approve of."
Humans are very non-tolerant of things that are different, I agreed, and again felt that I had insulted them again. I gave an Andalite frown. I am sorry, I did not mean –
"No, no, you're absolutely right," Santorelli said. "One of my ancestors, a great-great-great-however-many grandfather was actually in the Civil War."
You fight wars amongst yourselves? I asked incredulously.
"Well, actually…" Santorelli frowned uncomfortably. "Marco's right. You don't want to know about it."
And I felt that I agreed with them.
~
When Cassie came back to the group, she seemed much more composed, though her eyes were still tinged red from her tears. She also seemed very…relieved. I'm sure that she had been wanting to release those words from her mind for quite a while, and though this wasn't exactly the most convenient place nor time to do so, the outburst had come all the same.
And it was better when emotions didn't interfere in thoughts. They usually muddled up logic. Not that I was cold-hearted. I have my share of emotional turmoil myself.
"Anyway, we've still got to figure out what to do," Jake said bleakly, looking around and seeming only very slightly fazed by the prior events. "Any…any suggestions?"
There was no response. Even I was lost for words. What were we going to do? There seemed to be no open options.
"Well, you know, since all the sane choices are gone," Marco pointed out, "we can go in."
"In?"
"In. You know, insane. As in, do something so completely strange and weird and stupid that it would somehow, in a very remote and significant way, actually be the right thing to do," Marco explained.
"Uh…right."
"So, then, what is this insane thing that we must do that must qualify as so insane it will work?" Jeanne asked naively. I looked at her through the peripheral vision of one of my stalk eyes – there was something about her that I disliked very, very much…but I could not explain what it was. Perhaps it was the way she so frequently glanced at me with dark eyes; I wondered for a moment of she was "Alienist," then became logical and realized that she could not be, if she were on this team. Most likely it was only that she was daunted by me; it seemed not a lot of humans had before actually met Andalites, though they were educated of them by "movies."
"Well, see," Marco started tentatively. "These Gyuren…obviously, they hate the Kelbrid. And if we said that we hated them too, and we could somehow prove that we are not the Kelbrid, and if we could show them what awesome super-powers we have…well, you figure out the rest."
"An alliance," Santorelli said, nodding. "I like the idea. But how…are we going to do it? I mean, they know that we're missing. They're probably looking for us right now."
"That is incorrect. They are not looking for you right now," said a gruff voice behind us. I was the quickest to turn, blade at ready – but before I could even blink or react or think some coherent thought, a brown blur snatched it in a deadly grasp, tightening my tail in an extremely painful hold. And before any of the others could do anything, they had been caught as well.
"They are not looking for you right now," the speaker repeated, stepping up to the center of the custody-taken…the custody-taken us and glaring defiantly at all with dark eyes. He was wearing a band around his forehead and upper arms, which looked to be – even in the distorted light – a metallic cerulean blue. "They have found you."