Chee Operating System v18941.0.0 (Branch: Pulim-dev)

System Log

Instantiation: MIFDQDG01J CHEE-BACHU (ALIAS: Wena Shih and Yama)

()

8:05 PM PST

CHEE-EXNIS

It's past time we pulled over for food. We're almost out of protein bars for the kids, and we're far enough out of Tijuana to be reasonably safe.

CHEE-ALEM

For now, anyway.

CHEE-NAXES

None of these roadside joints look wheelchair-accessible.

CHEE-EXNIS

It's cooled down enough that they can just hang out in the parking lot and we bring the food out to them. We just have to make sure not to get anything too spicy – at least half the kids have GI issues.

CHEE-BACHU

Come on, there's enough gringo tourists here that everyone makes mild food. Pull over here, this one looks open.

We pull over by the fluorescent lights and wooden planks of a roadside bar and grill. It's open to the night air and spills out the smell of hot tortillas, the blare of Santana playing from a stereo system, and the shimmering glow of hrala. The children in the back who are awake cheer at the sight of it.

CHEE-NAXES

It's beautiful, isn't it?

CHEE-NAXES

The way the restaurant is different from the road is different from the sky is different from us and the children. Even the food has that Kolumatiy glow, because they put their intention into crafting it.

CHEE-NAXES

I'll take the kids' orders.

CHEE-EXNIS

I'll disembark them from the vans.

CHEE-BACHU

I'll help you, Exnis.

CHEE-IMALA

Do you mind sharing your location with me? I'm based out of Baja California right now, and I'd like to meet you.

CHEE-BACHU

Why? I thought everyone was going down to the Pemalite ship to hide from the Yeerks.

CHEE-IMALA

You're not. And now that I've tried out the Pulim-dev branch, neither am I. At least for now. Living down there cut off from the rest of the Kolumatiy - I'm not sure I can bear it.

CHEE-BACHU

[Attached file: ' ']

I get out from the passenger's side of the van and slide open the back. I hold back my true strength, helping the boy Julio down from the van the way a human would. His hedgehog dæmon, Ismelda, stands up in his lap and strains her senses.

Incoming voice connection (language analysis: Spanish)

## I think I hear kids shouting out there. ##

.activate(message = 'There are. They appear to be three siblings. I think they're curious about you.')

Incoming voice connection (language analysis: Spanish)

## Can I go talk to them? ##

.activate(message = 'I don't see why not. We're far enough from the Grash Akdap Pool and all the power concentrated there that the risk of a random child being infested is very low.')

Julio wheels toward the kids. I help Tricia down from the van. Naxes comes around and helps her figure out which foods from the restaurant would work best with her diet. I help to massage the mucus out of Kelly's lungs, and while she coughs, her tarantula dæmon tells me how much she misses her Yeerk, Margoth, and her friend, Lluvia, who got left behind at the children's hospital.

CHEE-IMALA

I'm on my way, though you'll probably have moved on by the time I get there. Where are you headed?

CHEE-ALEM

That's a very good question, isn't it. Where are we headed, besides "away from the Yeerk Empire's influence"?

CHEE-BACHU

Do we know any helpful humans in Mexico?

CHEE-EXNIS

None who are still alive. Except… well. I played Marco a few times, and I do happen to know his grandparents are still alive and well out here. I don't suppose you could get their address.

CHEE-BACHU

Exnis, we have burned our bridges with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

CHEE-EXNIS

You made contact with Pulim for a few minutes for the sake of saving these kids. Surely you can do the same with Eva and Aftran.

(encryption = 'maximum', language = 'Spanish', priority = 'medium', recipient = 'PoolShipExecutiveQuarters', message = 'Call me when you have a chance. The disabled children infested by your Sharing initiative need your help.')

CHEE-LARIX

Is this some kind of Pulim-dev branch CheeOS support group? Can I join?

CHEE-EXNIS

Fine, fine. We'll make it a support group. But if you come, you have to promise to help us with these kids. There's four of us and sixteen of them, and they need a lot of support. We're barely keeping up.

Naxes and Alem come out of the restaurant with a tray of steaming dishes and a folding table. The fluorescent light from the open front of the roadside grill just barely reaches the parking lot, and Alem sets up the table in gray half-shadow. Cars whoosh by from time to time on the nearby highway. As Naxes serves up the food, James wheels up to the table and says, "We're going to need another one. And Timmy and Ray need help with their food. And most of us need to take our meds with dinner."

I swell with helplessness and inadequacy. James is much better at taking care of his people than we are.

Incoming encrypted connection (language analysis: Spanish)

## Damn you, Bachu. You know exactly how to grab my attention. What do you want? ##

(encryption = 'maximum', language = 'Spanish', priority = 'medium', recipient = 'PoolShipExecutiveQuarters', message = 'I'm on the run with a group of chronically ill children who were formerly infested and are now on the run from the Empire. You may know them as the Campsite Rule. We've hopped the border to Mexico and don't know where to go. It occurred to us that you have roots here.')

Incoming encrypted connection (language analysis: Spanish)

## So you're bringing my parents into this. Bachu, you could bring the Yeerk Empire to their doorstep. Hasn't my family been broken enough by this war? ##

(focus = 'panoramic', title = 'DinnerInTheDark')

(encryption = 'maximum', language = 'Spanish', priority = 'medium', recipient = 'PoolShipExecutiveQuarters', attachment = ' ')

Incoming encrypted connection (language analysis: Spanish)

## Go to hell, Bachu. ##

[Attached file: ' ']

[Attached file: ' ']

Collette eats her pozole con mole while her waxwing dæmon, Taurim, hops around restlessly on the table. I serve out more food on the table, and help Timmy with his tortilla soup while Jia Jia curses the lack of adaptive cutlery. I can see the children humming in appreciation at the flavors, though, which have to be a revelation after a lifetime of hospital food. Not that I truly have a sense of taste; I just know from my chemical sensors that the smells of this food are far more complex than any hospital food I've ever encountered. Taurim finally bursts out:

Incoming voice connection (language analysis: English)

## Where are we going? We can't just ride around in vans forever! ##

Jia Jia dives at Taurim and pretends to sting him.

Incoming voice connection (language analysis: English)

## Fine, fine, stop it, Jia Jia. What I mean is, it's not that we're not grateful for you saving our asses and everything. But all this traveling is rough. ##

.activate(message = 'We still have to travel a while longer. We're heading south, to where the Animorph Marco's grandparents live.')

CHEE-NAXES

So she sent you the address?

CHEE-BACHU

And a proof-of-life message. I hope it includes an explanation of what we are; they'll process it more easily, coming from her.

CHEE-IMALA

Do you really need to reveal yourselves to even more humans? I certainly don't want to talk about my experiences to humans who won't understand.

CHEE-BACHU

Our story makes absolutely no sense if we don't tell them everything. What rational reason is there for us to skip the country with a bunch of hospitalized children? To say nothing of Eva's story.

CHEE-IMALA

I have to admit you have a point. However, I will still refrain from revealing myself to any humans once I join you at your destination.

CHEE-LARIX

Me too. Showing ourselves to humans has brought us nothing but trouble.

The children whisper the news excitedly to each other. Some seem angry. It makes sense; if the Animorphs hadn't abandoned them at the Sharing headquarters, they wouldn't be in this situation. Finally, James leans over the table toward me and says:

Incoming voice connection (language analysis: English)

## Are you sure they'll want to help us? ##

.activate(message = 'No, James. We are not at all sure. But there is nothing left to us but to take a chance.')

Eva

I took the feed bag of Taxxon dirt from Trafit, and nearly staggered from the weight of it. Their hands freed, Trafit gestured over their tablet and said, "You do not need to take on such a menial task yourself. I can attend to the Hive's feeding."

"This is my project, Trafit," I said. "I'll bring people in when I decide it's good and ready. Which Taxxon-Controller do you have on call?"

"I thought," Trafit said, pursing their lips cautiously, "it might be best to start with a cooperative Taxxon with no Yeerk. Yiissraass is an excellent teacher and disciplinarian to Taxxons fresh from the homeworld, but sie suffers badly in performance reviews because of the Hunger. I thought sie might be an appropriate test subject."

«Damn if they aren't right about that,» Aftran conceded.

"Remain on standby," I said. "I will inform you if I think the Hive is ready for the test subject."

I could see the moment when Trafit thought about questioning me. From their perspective, I knew relatively little about Taxxons, and all I'd done last time I'd come to visit Sky Hive was stare into ver tub, saying nothing. Now I was back, again on a quiet shift during night-cycle, to feed the Hive personally. I must have appeared obsessed or mad, ignoring any input from Taxxon-Controllers aboard the ship. But in the end, they said nothing, and I put on the filter mask and stepped into the storage bay, hauling the feed bag behind me. I had to prop it up by the side of the tank to keep it from tipping over.

«IS THAT YOU, MY QUEEN?» said Sky Hive.

A blissful moment of freedom as Aftran morphed Edriss. Then: «Yes. It's me.»

«I REALIZED I DO NOT KNOW YOUR NAME,» Sky Hive said, «EVEN THOUGH YOU HELPED ME FIND MINE.»

My breath was much too loud inside my filter mask. I felt very small in the dimness of this room, lit only by the low night-cycle lamps, the bioluminescence of the Hive, and the glowing exit sign over the door.

«Decision time,» Aftran told me. «If we want Sky Hive as an ally when the virus hits, ve's going to have to know who we are and what we believe, sooner or later. Do you want to lie to this lost child?»

«Of course not,» I thought. «But can we trust a lost child to keep a secret?» I remembered the times Marco innocently blurted out a secret – the gift he saw me wrapping for Peter, the embarrassing poison ivy rash Peter got on his ass from a hike in the woods.

«Sky Hive,» Aftran said carefully. «Have you ever had an enemy?»

Sky Hive's filaments pulsed a darker red. «YES! IRON MARSH HIVE'S ENEMY IS DEEPWELL HIVE. THEY DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TADPOLES IN THEIR NURSE WELL, SO THEY RAID IRON MARSH HIVE TO STEAL VERS!»

«Good,» Aftran said. «So you understand what it means that your queen has enemies on board this ship. My name is a secret, because my enemies would use it against me.»

«YOU ARE MY QUEEN!» Sky Hive roared. «I WOULD NEVER GIVE AWAY YOUR SECRET NAME!»

«Are you sure you could keep it from everyone?» Aftran pushed. «Even your Taxxons?»

Sky Hive had no reply to this. Ver glow faded.

«This is sick,» Mercurio thought. «We've compelled ver loyalty to us just because we're the first ones off-planet to treat ver with any kindness. Ve doesn't really understand anything that's going on. We should tell ver everything.»

«Except that we can't,» Aftran said repressively. «What if ve tells the Taxxons what we said? Anyway, I was manipulated by the Empire my entire childhood, and I turned out OK. At least we're not doing it for evil.» To Sky Hive, she said, «Just call me your queen for now. Everyone will know what you mean. And when the time comes, I will announce my name, and we will defeat my enemies together.»

«WE WILL! JUST TELL ME WHO YOUR ENEMIES ARE!»

«I don't even know who will end up on my side, in the end,» Aftran said. «Sometimes it's not so clear who your enemies are. Here's what I can tell you: I don't want any Taxxons to be hurt, if we can help it. But our enemies won't care how many Taxxons they have to hurt to get what they want.» When the liquid in the tank started to congeal and give off a strange smell, she added hastily, «Now let me feed you. I've been told you've probably used up almost all the food in your tank by now.»

That was an effective distraction. The strange smell faded, and the glowing gunk oozed and bubbled in the tank. I squatted down and hauled up the feed bag. «Lift with your legs, not your back,» Mercurio reminded me. I wobbled and practically threw the sack over the edge. Crumbly red dirt cascaded into the tank. I worried for a moment that Sky Hive might dry out from it, but I saw a steady stream of water coming up from a pipe at the bottom of the tank. The glow of the Hive was nearly smothered in mud.

«Is that good?» Aftran said. «We had it brought in from your world.»

The tank burbled. «DRY. ACIDIC. BUT IT IS FOOD.»

«Well, everyone else's food sucks around here,» I thought. «Why would vers be any different?»

«The food came a long way,» Aftran said apologetically.

«SO DID I.»

There was nothing to say to that. So I thought, «You think it's time?»

«I guess so.» To Sky Hive, Aftran said, «Would you like to meet one of the Taxxons of your ship, Sky?»

«YES! BRING THEM ALL TO ME!»

«Let's start with one, and make sure it goes well,» Aftran said.

I walked back to the door, opened the comm panel, and said to Trafit, "Bring in the Taxxon."

«CAN'T YOU BRING THEM ALL, MY QUEEN? I PROMISE I WILL BE GOOD TO THEM.»

«You are still very small,» Aftran said, «and there are about 150 Taxxons on board. Start with one.»

Through the glass of the door, I saw a large queen Taxxon, hir ring of teeth glistening with drool. Aftran said, «Sky, you know about the Hunger. I do not want to have to hurt this Taxxon. Am I safe from hir in this room?»

«YES. SO LONG AS YOU DO NOT STAND BETWEEN HIR AND ME.»

I still reached into my suit pocket for a Dracon beam. I pressed the panel to open the door to the storage bay, and flattened myself and Mercurio against the wall. Yiissrass rushed in, screeching.

«COME! COME TO ME!»

Yiissrass surged over the edge of the tank. Sie opened hir mouth wide and began to gorge on the fungi- and microbe-laced mud.

Bile rose in my throat. My hand went clammy around the Dracon beam. «Is sie eating Sky Hive?! Should I shoot?»

Aftran called out to Sky Hive. «Are you all right?»

«YES. FINALLY,» Sky sighed. Yiissrass was completely submerged in glowing muck, writhing around, splattering it over the edges. «NOW I CAN REALLY MOVE. AND THIS POOR TAXXON HAS THE WRONG LIFE INSIDE! I CAN PLANT THE RIGHT LIFE IN HIR INNER PARTS.»

The tank squelched and sloshed. I wasn't afraid for Sky Hive anymore, but I still felt like I might be sick. Aftran clamped down on my nausea, which wouldn't fit the whole badass Visser One image, but I still couldn't stand to watch and listen anymore, even if this was exactly what both Sky Hive and Yiissrass wanted.

«Well, it seems like you're getting on well,» Aftran said. «I'll be back soon.» And we slipped out of the storage bay, Aftran carefully hiding my relief from Trafit.

Celia Hernandez – Encrypted Private Message

Lourdes

So, how's that project with the National Guard going?

Celia Hernandez

Not bad. I have three units I know are clean. They all have a lot of questions after some of their soldiers ditched their orders to join military exercises and went AWOL. I haven't explained yet; they'd think I'm cuckoo. I've just talked vaguely about subversive elements.

Celia Hernandez

I have a problem, though, which is what to do with them now. If I bring them back to civilization, they're back at risk of infestation unless I get them to believe the whole truth.

Lourdes

Well, good news. I've got a way for your troops to see solid proof that aliens are real.

Lourdes

But first we need to test the waters. For all we know, you've been taken and everything you just said is a lie.

Celia Hernandez

Right. I'd say the same is true on my end, but I get the feeling that if you people were taken, things would be a lot worse right now.

Lourdes

You got that right.

Lourdes

Get one of your units to bring a pallet of military rations to these coordinates at 0100 tonight.

[Attached file: ' ']

Lourdes

Tell them to leave immediately after they make the drop. We will treat anyone who is still there when we show up as a possible enemy combatant.

Celia Hernandez

How am I supposed to explain that order to them?

Lourdes

You're the governor, not me. Think of something.

Cassie

I woke up hungry, exhausted, and aching all over. "Sleeping on cold mud can't be good for you," Quincy grumbled, and my dad clutched his lower back and winced in agreement.

Robin was already awake. He came over to us and said, "Hey, guys. We're meeting in the feeding area of the Ralek River for breakfast."

I rubbed the grit out of my eyes with the back of my fist. "Are the Andalites okay with that?"

"I don't see them anywhere," Robin said, "so they're either sleeping or working on that virus. So nobody's stopping us, I guess."

Jake struggled up to his elbows in his sleeping bag. "Good enough for me."

We slogged up to the third level of the Ralek River. There was nowhere to sit, so we ended up cross-legged in the alien grass, nearly knee-to-knee for lack of space, and Emeraude and Abineng had to stand out in the corridor. Marjorie was sorting and counting all the food we'd managed to carry out of Kref Magh, which didn't look like much food at all for twenty-nine people. When she was done with her inventory, she declared, "We have enough for two days if we ration out food for the adults. I wouldn't dare take anything from our babies unless we absolutely have to."

"Is there any meat for Tobias?" Rachel demanded.

"Three cans of Spam," Marjorie said, holding them up. "Take 'em or leave 'em."

"Leave them," Dad said. "They have too much sodium for a bird. They could poison you, Tobias."

There weren't enough plates and utensils for everyone, so we went in shifts, loading up plates, then washing them in the weird recycled waterfall to pass on to the next person. While Dad and I waited for our turn, he said, "There's got to be moles down here, right? That would be good food for a hawk."

"How are we going to catch a mole?" I said.

"Maybe a Taxxon could get one for him?" Dad said.

Tobias must have been listening, because he said, «And bring it back to me without eating it first? I don't think so.»

"Worth a try," I said. "You must be really hungry, Tobias."

Tobias flared out his feathers, then flew toward the drop shaft.

I saw Jake, Marco, Loren, and Julie standing by the waterfall with Lourdes, in her human disguise. Her Afghan hound dæmon projected inside the waterfall, so she didn't make the crowding worse with a dæmon that wasn't even real. I went over to find out what was going on.

"Tell her the troops have to leave before we show up," Jake said to Lourdes. "We'll hang out just underground and see if they actually follow orders. Once they're gone we grab the MREs and go back to the Hive."

"Without eating them all in one big gulp?" Marco said. "That's a lot of faith to put in a Taxxon, Jake."

"We'll talk it over with the Taxxons," said Jake. "We don't really have any better ideas."

Loren was looking around the crowded room thoughtfully, Jaxom tucked under one arm to keep him out of foot traffic. "You know, if it goes well, we could get all these people out of here. They'd be much better off in an army barracks than down here."

"I'm almost out of anticonvulsants," Julie said. "And I'm not the only one low on meds."

"Who are you talking to?" I asked Lourdes.

"The governor," she said. "I'll keep you updated on what she says."

I noticed Marjorie signaling for the next breakfast shift, so I said, "Come on," and led the group to collect our breakfast plates: canned beans, Spam, and a bruised apple. We filled our cups in the waterfall and ate breakfast, not talking much. We all gripped tight to our dæmons, holding them close, out of the press of people.

As I washed off my cutlery in the waterfall, I saw Estrid come up from the drop shaft, her legs caked with mud. She'd been out and about in the Hive, while Lourdes was busy here with us. I set down my plate and followed her to the corridor, excusing myself around Abi and Emeraude. She saw me coming up behind her, of course, and stopped.

"What are you doing, Estrid?" I demanded.

«Going for a walk,» she said airily. «It is too confining, staying here on the ship all the time.»

I heard heavy hoofbeats on metal behind me, and knew Abi and Emeraude were backing me up. "Don't bullshit us, Estrid," Abi said.

Estrid huffed. «You cannot expect me not to be scientifically curious about our surroundings. No Andalite scientist has ever had the chance to observe a Living Hive before.»

On my arm, Quincy mantled his wings and bared his fangs. I said, "The rebel Taxxons are the only reason we're all alive right now. If you do one of your experiments on the Living Hive and it decides to kick us out, we are out. And I guarantee Visser Five will hunt you down personally. He's obsessed with Andalites. He won't kill you quick."

Estrid's tail snapped upward. Her dark brown main eyes burned. «Save your threats. I understand exactly what kind of creature Visser Five is. I know the stakes. I will not jeopardize my survival.»

I turned around. Quincy landed by Abi's ear and whispered, "Estrid didn't technically do anything to Toby, either. And she'll get enough of a Living Hive sample just from the mud on her legs to start tinkering around. Get Lourdes on her."

I went down the drop shaft and out, because I was worried about Tobias. His avian metabolism was too fast to go much longer without food. Outside the ship, Loren, Jake, and Tobias were talking to a few Taxxons, Tobias perched on Loren's shoulder. I couldn't tell one Taxxon from another, but I figured out pretty quick that the one in front was Arbron, who was saying, «– too dangerous, anyway. If the soldiers are Controllers, they'll attack, and you know how badly we hold up in a firefight.»

Merlyse hid her face in the curve of Jake's neck. He massaged his eyes with his fingertips and said, "So you're saying one of us has to morph Taxxon."

«Probably two,» Arbron said, «if you mean to haul back enough rations for all of your humans.»

«I'll do it,» Tobias said. «I'm used to dealing with predator instincts.»

"I'll go," I said, "if Illim agrees to go with me. And Tobias? You should bring a Yeerk too."

Loren's head snapped toward me. "What? Why?"

"The whole reason why the Taxxons joined the Yeerk Empire is because they can help manage the Hunger," I said. "Illim is used to a Taxxon host, specifically. Tobias, we could find you another Yeerk who's done this before, maybe."

«I'd rather have Rachel,» Tobias said. «She knows me.»

I wonder if Rachel is the best person to have along when you need to control your wild instincts, I thought.

Maybe she's exactly the right person to do that, Quincy replied.

"Are any of you okay with us acquiring your DNA?" I said to the Taxxons.

Arbron turned to the Taxxons beside him and hissed in their language for a while. Then he pointed his jelly eyes at us and said, «They agree, but only if you do a Frolis maneuver. They think it would be creepy for you to go around as perfect copies of them. I can hardly blame them.»

"Oh. Huh. Okay," I said. I hadn't really thought of that.

You thought of it when Ax made his human morph, Quincy pointed out. Why would it be any different for Taxxons?

A Taxxon reached out for Tobias's talon with a pincer hand, as if to offer him a handshake. Tobias gingerly leaned over and touched his beak to the pincer. I took a deep breath and walked up to Arbron.

«This DNA is not truly mine to give,» Arbron said. «I regret that I do not even know which Hive this Taxxon body came from, though I did my best to find out, later.»

"I think you've made it yours by now," I said, and I touched him in the place where a neck would be on a human, below the head with its ring of needle teeth. The tips of Quincy's fangs prickled my inner arm, a reminder from him about what we had in common. Arbron slipped into the acquiring trance as I focused on him, the ways he was like a centipede, a deep sea worm, and a termite all at once. As the trance faded, I dropped my hand.

«You put your hand here,» Arbron said, touching the spot with one of his pincer hands, «and you were not afraid.»

"I was," I admitted. "But fear evolved as a way to protect you from harm – and harm isn't the same for us, anymore. So fear isn't all that useful when you're an Animorph." And I moved on to the next Taxxon, whose name was Austere.

When we were done, Loren said to Arbron, "Can you help Tobias? He's about to starve down here. Could you get him a mole or something?"

«Without eating it? No,» Arbron said regretfully. «Seaside Hive's support only helps us so far. But Seaside may be able to help you.»

«YES?» the Hive boomed all around us. Loren, Jake, and I all jumped, and Tobias's feathers fluffed out.

«One of our guests is hungry,» Arbron said. «He needs fresh meat. Can you help him?»

«I CAN. BUT YOU MUST STAY WELL AWAY, MY TAXXONS. IT IS NOT GOOD FOR YOU TO SMELL FRESH MEAT, NOT WHEN I HAVE WORKED SO HARD TO GET YOU ON SOIL AGAIN.»

The Taxxons hastily backed away. Then, something fell in a rush of dirt from the Hive's cavernous, mossy ceiling and splattered on the ground in front of us. Some of it got on my shoe. It glistened. Chunks of meat, bone, and fur lay on the glowing algae floor.

«DOES THAT HELP?» said Seaside Hive.

«Um,» said Tobias. «I guess… yeah? Though maybe next time be a little, um. Gentler with it?»

I held up my hand to cover my grin, and tried not to look at Jake as he choked back a laugh.

«THE MOLES ARE ALL CLOSER TO THE SURFACE THAN YOU.»

«Then I'll fly up to the ceiling,» Tobias said. «Then you won't have to drop it.»

«FLY? LIKE TUNNELING THROUGH AIR?»

«Yeah, sure, let's go with that,» Tobias said. He glared around at the rest of us giggling. «A little privacy here? I am not eating splattered mole with an audience.» He glided down to the ground from Loren's shoulder, and I waved goodbye, still smiling.

"God, every time I think our lives can't get any weirder," Quincy said. "So. What now?"

It was a good question. It wasn't like there was much to do down here. I said through a yawn, "We could try to talk to some Taxxons, maybe?"

Quincy nipped my wrist. "Or you could get some sleep! It's not like we got enough, and there's no day or night down here anyway."

"Fine, fine," I grumbled. "You sound like Emeraude." I went to my sleeping bag and took my shoes off, trying not to get it any muddier than it already was.

"That's because Emeraude's right about everything," Quincy said, tucked against my chest, and I fell asleep like that.

I don't know how long I slept. When I woke up, I stared up at the alien moss on the ceiling and thought for a while about what the Taxxon homeworld might be like.

There was a light touch on my shoulder. I looked up. It was Jake, kneeling on his sleeping bag, Merlyse tucked in the crook of his arm. He smiled down at me with a look in his eyes that I knew by now meant that he wanted to go find a place to make out.

Really? I thought. Now?

We're about to morph a Taxxon, Quincy thought. We all almost died yesterday. Why not now?

I sighed. "Yes, Jake, but where?"

Jake blushed. "I didn't say anything." I just raised my eyebrows, and he rubbed the back of his neck. "Fine. Can we just… push our sleeping bags together and hold hands?"

I smiled and wriggled closer to Jake. He grabbed the edge of my sleeping bag and pulled. Then he lay down and held my hand. Quincy came out from the sleeping bag, just his head showing.

"Where's Marco?" I said, turning my head so my voice was close to Jake's ear.

"He's with his dad and Nora. They're kind of freaking out about this creepy place."

Merlyse strained her head toward Quincy on my chest, careful not to touch me. "You really want him here?"

"Yeah," I said, a little surprised at him. "I do."

Jake laughed, making Merl bounce up and down on his chest. "I keep waiting for the moment you come to your senses and tell me to break it off with Marco. But you haven't."

"He's the only other person who knows what it's like," I said, squeezing his hand, "to love you the way I do. Of course I want him around."

Jake choked. Merlyse tucked her head under her wing. Quincy and I waited for them to recover. It took them a long time.

Jake's parents came to get us for dinner. By then, I was dizzy with hunger – I was used to getting lunch midday.

At dinner, I found Mr. Tidwell. "Has someone told you the plan?" I said.

"Yes," he said, picking at his tuna and creamed spinach from cans. "I don't like it. But I can't stop him from volunteering to save us all."

"Is he with you now?" I said, though I figured I knew the answer – which he confirmed by shaking his head. "What should I know about him?"

"He's a scholar," Mr. Tidwell said. "He has an academic passion for Taxxon languages. You're probably scared to morph Taxxon – I would be, too – but try not to let him feel you hate them. That would break his heart, I think." He scraped the last food off his plate, then put it down and looked at me fiercely. "Bring him back safe."

"I'll try," I said, which was all I could say.

There was still a little time left before the mission, which I spent with my dad. We stood by the well of baby Taxxons and watched them swim around, while the queen, Judicial, watched us. Despite everything, there was still new and amazing biology to learn about.

Jake came to get me when it was time. Dad came along. We walked over to the Aftran Plisam Pool. Mr. Tidwell and the strange teenager with the pitbull dæmon we saw our last time in the Hive were singing in Spanish together next to the Pool.

"Who's that?" I said. "I don't recognize them from Kref Magh."

Mr. Tidwell and the stranger finished the chorus. The stranger was wobbly and off-key, but Mr. Tidwell had a beautiful deep voice like a mountain singing. He said, "This is Deinfestation with Sai. Sai was created by the Chee to be a companion for Yeerks."

I blinked. "Like… the Chee were created as companions for the Pemalites?"

"A robot invented by a robot," Jake said, shaking his head. "Man, that's confusing."

"What you were singing for Sai – that was Guantanamera, right?" Dad said. "Why that one?"

Mr. Tidwell said, "It was written by a poet who was exiled from Cuba for demanding an end to Spanish rule over the island. It's about trying to hold on to his voice and his dignity, even when he can't go home."

"Oh," said Dad. It went very quiet.

Mr. Tidwell tipped his head toward the bucket under his arm. Illim dropped out of his ear and into the bucket with a splash. He passed the bucket to me. Both his fish dæmon and Illim were inside.

He could have just handed Illim to you directly, Quincy thought. He's saying something.

He's showing me how vulnerable he feels, I thought. Like he's giving me his soul.

"Be careful with him," Mr. Tidwell said. "None of the Yeerks have been feeling themselves since we got down here."

I reached in, taking care not to touch the dæmon. I took Illim out and held him to my ear. I looked at my dad, who was clutching at Emeraude's neck, eyes wide. "He's not going to hurt me, Dad," I said, as Illim burrowed into my ear, my brain.

I froze up and went fuzzy-headed as Illim adjusted to me. His touch was much lighter on my mind than what I'd experienced with Aftran or Rachel in Yeerk morph. Of course it was – he had a lot of experience in a voluntary partnership with a human, and before that with a Taxxon. There was no rifling through my every thought, no moving my eyes without my say-so. My muscles slowly loosened up. I felt some faint nerves from him, and a sense of prickly edginess, like my mom got with her allergies in the spring. Tidwell wasn't wrong about the Yeerks feeling off. «Hey,» I thought. «What's up?»

«You have the mind of a soldier,» he said, «and we're about to go to a possible battle.»

That made me uncomfortable, but I couldn't exactly deny it. «It was brave of you to volunteer for this, especially when you're not feeling good. Thank you.»

"Everything okay?" said Mr. Tidwell.

At the sound of Tidwell's voice, Illim's control broke, and he said with my mouth, "Yes, I'm okay," with a warmth that wasn't mine. I saw my dad's mouth flatten into a line; he could tell that wasn't me.

It was the same way I could tell, when Tobias walked over, that it wasn't just Tobias in there. His walk was centered and graceful, his center of gravity down in his hips, Rachel's gymnastic poise in his body. He looked me in the eye and Rachel said, "Let's do it."

«Look at my memories of doing this before,» I said, pulling up memories that were more graceful than grotesque: the time I kept my osprey wings til the last and looked like an angel, the time I defeated the Veleek by morphing a humpback whale midair. Illim feasted on the memories the way a librarian might on a fascinating old book, pulling tiny details into focus, comparing and contrasting.

«Which Taxxons did you acquire?» Illim asked, and I showed him the Taxxons through my eyes: an indistinguishable mass of red jelly eyes and spit-shiny teeth and translucent yellow carapace. «Not indistinguishable,» Illim said, focusing on the length and shape of the upper arm sets of the Taxxons I'd acquired, their damp petrichor smell. «Those were all worker Taxxons you acquired, see?»

We combined our focus on the Taxxon composite morph, and changed at warp speed.

It was incredible. I would have laughed if the morph weren't so totally weird and gross. But the combination of my eye for animal anatomy and Illim's total familiarity with a Taxxon host body made my estreen talent kick into high gear. I grew first, taller and taller. My arms melted into my sides, and new arms popped out along my front in two long rows, pincer-like toward my head and cone-like farther down. My human legs then melted together, and I fell forward onto my short bug legs. Inside, I felt my bones melt away, until I sagged on my legs, a bag of guts lying on a rack. I stopped drooping in on myself when a thin carapace formed around me. And at my front end came a mouth, itching with rows and rows of needle-like teeth.

«Finally,» Illim said, and immediately dug the mouth into the muddy floor, biting and gulping.

«What are you doing?» I said. A rope-like tongue formed even as we ate, pushing forward through a mouthful of mud.

«We need to colonize the guts of this Taxxon morph with Living Hive microbes as quickly as possible,» Illim said. «It's the best protection we have against the Hunger.»

POP! POP! Red jelly eyes burst into life, and I saw the world with the almost familiar fragmentation of insect eyes. The Taxxon's hearing came too, and an exquisitely delicate sense of taste for the composition of the mud I was noisily gulping down. I could taste the Living Hive in the mud, and it was good.

So good. I needed more! I ate faster, faster, guzzling the mud down. Becoming one with the Hive, as I was meant to be.

Somewhere above me, a Taxxon scream, and a thought-speak voice yelling, «Tobias! Rachel! STOP!» A roar that made the mud around me quiver, then another Taxxon screech.

«CHILDREN, STOP AND LISTEN,» said the Living Hive. I felt the command in the empty, hungry core of myself. I froze. I listened.

"Illim?" a voice shouted. "Illim! Come back up. You're tunneling the wrong way!"

«Julian!» cried a voice inside my head. Who was that? Why was there a voice in my head that wasn't the Hive? «Julian, I'm coming.»

I turned around, out of the soothing darkness of the mud, up into the light of the Living Hive. A terrifying predator was there, growling at another Taxxon. In front of me was another creature. Not a predator. It smelled delicious.

«NO!» Illim cried. My body froze solid, as if the Hive had commanded me to. «That's Julian!»

Julian. Julian Tidwell. My former Spanish teacher. The predator was Jake in tiger morph. The other Taxxon was Rachel and Tobias.

«We're okay,» I said, trying to make it true by saying it. «We're okay, we're okay. Hey, Tobias. Eat some mud. It helps.»

The Taxxon that was Rachel and Tobias smacked its face down in the mud and started chewing. Its front end quickly disappeared into the hole it made in the floor.

«Wrong way again,» Jake muttered. «Never mind, just let them go for a while. The rest of us need to morph fly so we can hitch a ride.»

«Which way are we supposed to be going?» I said. The Hive felt completely different to me now as a Taxxon than it had as a human. If I'd understood directions before, they felt like they were in another language now.

The bioluminescent fungus around one of the tunnels high up on a wall pulsed brightly in my vision. «THIS WAY,» said the Living Hive, and I immediately wanted to go to that tunnel, to follow the Hive's guiding light. But Illim kept us still. I vaguely noticed the Animorphs gathering around and morphing fly, felt the vibrations in the ground as Rachel and Tobias burrowed back up.

«Are we sure they have a grip? The way they keep staring at the wall is really creepy.» Marco, of course.

«'M fine,» I said, a little dreamily. I was so, so hungry, but the Living Hive had a mission for me, so I had to stick it out.

«Okay, guys,» Jake said. «We've latched on. You can go now.»

I surged toward the wall and right up it, my legs gripping at the dirt. Rachel and Tobias were right behind me. I knew exactly where to go, and when I stuck my front half in the tunnel, it sucked me in, and pulled me with terrifying alien strength to a place where troops of heavily armed Controllers might be waiting for us – or maybe the food and allies we desperately needed.

23