The Assignment

Star Trek – Animorphs

The water thrust a flailing Tobias up and over smooth river stones.

It pounded my back, spine bent against the pressure as I gagged. Air. Black streams dripped between my eyes, dripping from the horns to run over mottled green forearms.

Arching up against the flow, squinting through burning eyes, I took several hurried breaths and willed my hearts to slow.

It gets easier the second time. Eager, my pulse skyrocketed, calming slowly as my elbows pushed out to find purchase. To prop up my chest.

I spat out the last of the pit water. Where was I?

The ceiling curved wide, a squashed bowl just high enough to walk across if I ducked. In human morph, I might feel my hair brushing the rough stones in places.

As Hork-Bajir, I had to keep from flinching. No sky. Only earth. To the ends of the cavern, still with shadow, no darker holes or obvious exits. Not even a door.

I could be trapped. But there must be a way out. Why would Moorguenn lead me to a room neither of us could leave?

Okay, I can think of one reason. I groaned and wrenched a shoulder socket, stretched to the right. To grip a jagged rock, barely visible in its sharp angles against my mound of river stones.

My entire body raised muscle in the effort to slowly, painfully, pull myself out of the water.

I collapsed to the floor. Dull aches set so deep they may well have bruised my soul. Yes, this is what it took to spend this morph's strength. It explained the ferocity of a battle with one.

Excited shrills vibrated the skin over my ear receptacles. Peeling my eyes open, one at a time, set fresh fire to them. I lifted my head.

Another alien. I let my head flop. Sighed. Raised it again, nodded respectfully as I could.

«Hello.»

Not the one I'd known for about thirty minutes, forty-five, but just as eager. It seemed a racial attribute.

Or Moorguenn could be contagious.

Its flubbery lips spread in a very human smile. Razor needle teeth glinted hollow, translucent. Jagged and thin as needles. It said something. The movement of a thick tongue didn't match the sounds of it talking.

Sitting up let me rub grains of dirt from my face. Resting hands in my lap, legs carefully propped in front of me, I stopped the flow by simply interrupting.

«Stop. Sorry, I can't understand you.»

It did. The smooth head tilted to the side, eyelids at half-mast.

«I'm-»

I stopped. Ran the last few minutes through my head. Glanced at my ankle, wondered at the nothingness, the lack of aching pain. Touching it did nothing. My claws slipped over the broken blade, nerve exposed like a broken tooth.

How was that possible? It hurt all the way here - but nothing. It should be agonising.

A hard look at the water, the paved river stones an unnatural road bump to speedster travellers, set the Eirin to fidgeting. I glanced back at her. It. Them.

Their hands could sure move fast.

«Sorry. I'm a friend.» Acting on impulse, I reached out and patted her hands. They stilled under mine. «Moorguenn brought me here. Yes,» I added at its quiet trill, hoping that meant it knew that particular name, «I'm here to help. A friend.»

Hopefully not your only friend. I craned my neck.

A lump on the far side of the cave. Suddenly pain-free, a scramble to my feet moved the curious alien back several steps. Its feet left shining marks on the ground.

«Just going over there.» I pointed, already walking. The quiet passing was marked only by the squelch of mud beneath my feet.

I'd taken a few steps when louder, repeated slaps of flippers on stone followed my own.

Moorguenn's bulk curled into a fleshy ball. Her black eyes met mine in a fluid swivel of neck, the cuts on her arm now clean and free of blood through her black water. Dints in that distinctive five-star pattern still marked her as the Eirin I knew.

I knelt beside her. Asuf's legs stretched out before me.

«How is he? Is he alive?» A pause. «Moorguenn?»

No response. I wouldn't have understood her anyway, but the silence bothered me. I had to see. Over her shoulder, I blinked, momentarily stunned.

Asuf lay bare to the waist. Not a Reddie any longer, shirt discarded. The rags lay as if thrown against the wall.

His burn went further down than I thought. From a few inches above his ear, down across his face, neck and collarbone. It sliced down in an angry black scar, the skin parted to show red, fresh blood. Sluggish to move.

But the blood moved. His blood was still moving.

«He's alive?» Painful hope stained my thought-speech. It transferred more than I'd wanted. Images of friends, of countless won battles.

Marked more by what we chose to forget.

Moorguenn didn't look at me, intent on her four fingers over Asuf's neck, his face. But her snout did dip. And again. She nodded 'yes'.

Yes. I sat back. Sat forward again, arms tight 'til the tendons strained.

«Is he going to stay that way?»

Now the Eirin gave me a look. Nudged my chest. Looked me up and down and jerked her head to point my attention away. To the other Eirin, the nameless alien waiting and fidgeting right behind me.

My neck prickled.

Moorguenn turned her back.

«But-»

Cool, almost surprising, the second one's hand laid on my shoulder. Icy skin leeched fever from it. The alien's face somehow arranged itself into simple concern.

I may be reading into things, but sympathy came across most species in a similar way. Softer around the eyes. A downturn at the lips. Open and willing to take whatever pain came its way.

Knowing a few aliens, one a close friend, let me see it quickly. It wanted to help.

«Okay. Okay, that makes sense.»

Can't keep running forever. And Moorguenn - blurred in drops of aggravated tears - knew what she was doing. I hoped. More than I did. And Asuf was still alive.

Now, I sighed and let my tail droop on the floor, it was my turn. My face felt numb.

Could be the black water. Could be magical Eirin juice. Disney princess aliens... I shuffled after the second one, directed in gentle grips on my arms and even my head to curl up against the cave wall. To rest.

I let it pull a rough string blanket over my ankles and stopped it, my hand huge on its narrow wrist.

«Wait,» I gravelled, trying to see the Eirin clearly. «I can't sleep yet. Have to... I have to do something first.»

It tested my grip. I let go, watched it backpedal and pretend not to do so.

Hmm. «Maybe turn away.» That sounded like a question. «This'll be pretty gross.»

Moorguenn barked. The second Eirin tilted its head and flippered back to Asuf's side, trilling a rising note to the woman working on my friend.

I took in a breath and let it begin. Thought hawk. Red-tailed hawk.

Bones cracked. Beak shrank, pug-like, into my head. Horns withdrew before the feathers came, an ugly green chicken with two perfectly good arms protruding out at disproportionate sizes.

They rested on either side, too heavy for non-existent muscles to lift, and began to shrivel when the rest of me already seemed perfectly feathered avian.

Then it started again. I held in the scream this time. At first.

When the exposed bone grew out, blackened and burnt, I couldn't help it. I whimpered. Hated it. Tried not to move.

Agony. Like it was new. Like every time, the morphing technology stopped giving me the good stuff and let me feel my future as a winged predator sear into nothing all over again.

A one-winged hawk. My talons clenched the floor. It beat at my side, my last wing, before I kicked the hawk instincts aside and wobbled across the cave on claw alone.

«I'm back,» I said. «How is he?»

Moorguenn's look held all the exasperation of a Rachel told not to go full grizzly.

Her eyes shifted to my wound and widened. A string of wordless sounds fell from her mouth, something high-pitched and keening. She might be worried. I set my trademark glare on Asuf, instead.

A mass of pale pink algae nestled in the crook of his neck and shoulder.

Ends bleached, twisted in the alien's hands. Like the strands in the tunnel of love. I shook myself. Despite the lack of natural light, some form of phosphorescence in the air let movement and some objects show against the dirt.

Moorguenn scooped at her side and took a piece of dull metal to curl the algae, squeezed what turned out to be handles and sealed off the ends.

A light groan drew my gaze back to the man. Fluttered eyelids drew my breath to hold, each eyelash in relief for my sharp sight.

She touched my wound.

"TSEEEEEEEEEEER!"

«Aaghh!» I shouted.

Hands up, Moorguenn nevertheless 'frowned' at me. The babbling slipped over me like a firehose. Harsh, unnecessary and powerful in the passion of that constant Eirine undertone. Talons planted, I glimpsed her through a haze. Huh. Where did that come from?

It gained another level. In volume. I rubbed the side of my head against my remaining wing, the low hiss cutting my next words down.

Where did that coming from?

Asuf?

By his hip. On the floor. Partially under rags... I hobbled to them. The hiss, dry and crackling, grew louder as I picked the tattered pieces up in my beak.

The satchel lay there. Wet but, to my rising interest as I tossed the lid open, not waterlogged. One of the blocky bits of equipment made the hiss. It ruffled my feathers. As Moorguenn continued, on a proper tirade, it flowed along with her.

It made noises. I leaned in.

"...unfortunate soft-hearted little..."

No. Really? Could this be what I thought it was?

"...of course it didn't matter that I tried to..."

Tugging it out of the satchel required more force than my landbound lightweight lifter could manage. I listened, fascinated.

"...going to live, no thanks to..."

«Okay, Moorguenn,» I inserted in the space of her stopping to click, apparently irate, «I've gotta thank you for helping us. You've been a great help. Thank you.»

Her mouth hung open. It shut with a soft plip. Moorguenn peered at me, squint suspicious.

«So it turns out,» I announced and gave the satchel an obvious yank, «that good old Asuf left us a translating device. I think. And,» a flutter of my good wing avoided being crushed by Moorguenn's big old flipper, «that means we can finally get down to business.»

She scooped it into her hands. A box. Few buttons or levers, if any. Simple. Useful.

My kind of alien technology. Er, human-alien.

She pawed it. Hesitated. Looked me in the eye.

"HHhhghhpppl blppltl plt."

The box spat out a short string of English. "Theodore likes poop."

«...Um.»

Her whole face brightened.

"You can understand me! I can understand you!" Moorguenn gushed. She flushed a healthy lavender.

«Yes, yes, wonderful,» I said. It kept startling me, trying to fold wings in a comfortable shuffle when every twitch sent pangs through my whole body.

"I saw that." Another try at touching kept me leaping. Not exactly built to dance on these talons, I held my tail up, levering for balance. "I can help."

«Can you grow limbs back?» I veered behind Asuf, noting the colour returning to his face. «Because otherwise, we have more important things to do. Like the evil, intergalactic slugs? Remember them?»

She soured. "I need his help for that. You're injured."

«So is he. What do you need Asuf for? He's not the guerilla fighter,» I said. She kept changing the subject. Not focused at all.

"And you are?"

I stared. Disbelief. «Yes? Isn't that why...?»

Oh. Oh, great. Of course. I'm an idiot.

Why would Moorguenn think I had any clue about warring with Yeerks? She'd never met me before. Hadn't visited my Earth, probably hadn't seen the real depths the slugs could sink to, hadn't made decisions to keep her up at night wondering what might be.

All the Eirin knew was that I could shapeshift and kill Yeerks. That might be enough in her eyes to be of use, but in the vein of giving advice? Of helping to fight back?

«I've fought Yeerks for a while now. Not on my own, but in my own fighting force. I know how they think. How to kill them.»

"Do you know where they came from?"

«From my world. Uh, universe.» Probably. «They're aliens to us, but seeing as I'm here, I have to assume we came the same way. To your planet.»

A rude sound. The box translated it as "Hmm."

«I didn't bring them here,» I added hastily. «But now? I'll do whatever it takes to get them off your world. At least until I find my way home.»

"And then you'll go. Leave us behind," said the joyless machine. "Where this human would provide the might of the entire Federation, save us from ourselves. Do you see why we would prefer his help?"

«I see it. But I'll do what I can. He's not very helpful right now, after all.»

It felt somewhat like buying myself time. To do what? To kill Yeerks?

No. Well, yes, but buying allies, a safe place, could be wise.

That's what I told myself.

"...We will see. But first, I'll see to that burn. Rest, Teddy." The squat alien bent over at the waist, fixing me with those expressive eyes. A gentle croon underlaid her words. "I will take care of you both."