Jake was acting really weird. When he came back from Marco's on Saturday evening, he pretty much ate about five helpings of food at dinner.
"Didn't you eat earlier at Marco's?" Mom asked, looking a little concerned.
Jake paused. "Well, yes, but your food is much better. Better. Terrrr."
(Has Midget gone crazy?) I asked Terlin, staring at my younger brother.
He shrugged. (Growth spurt, perhaps?)
Maybe. Jake had just turned thirteen a few months back, and even though I still called him "Midget", he was pretty tall for his age. Not as tall as I was, but I had a few years on him.
We finished dinner, and I headed back to my room to finish up my homework. Terlin and I would be heading to the Yeerk Pool the next day, and then, we had a Sharing meeting that afternoon. Jake was still yapping about how great the food was, which was strange enough, but he also kept sounding out words, which made him sound like a kid just learning to talk.
(Do you think he and Marco started doing drugs?) Terlin wondered.
I made a face. (I hope not. They're pretty young for that. Besides, aren't they really big on drug education at school? Seems like there are posters everywhere about how dangerous they are.)
Not that posters would make kids decide not to experiment. All the same, I trusted Jake. He was a good kid. More than that, he was smart enough to stay far away from The Sharing, and his grades were pretty good.
(You're not going to...you know? Try to recruit him, if he's having trouble?) I asked.
Troubled kids were a hot market for the Yeerks. You take someone who's depressed or having trouble at school or even just feels like they're alone, convince them to attend a few meetings, and before you know it, you're being asked to become a full member.
They've said that close to 80% of "troubled youths" are voluntary. No idea if that number is real of not. I've seen the cages and the voluntary area. There were always way more people in the cages when Terlin went to feed.
(I won't,) Terlin promised. (Anyway, your brother has made it very clear that he wants nothing to do with The Sharing.)
(Yeah,) I agreed. (Which is weird. Not that I'm complaining, or anything. I don't want him to be an involuntary Controller. But, he seemed to be having a good time at the barbecue. Then, he didn't want to go to any other meetings.)
I wasn't complaining, exactly. It just seemed strange. Most people attended a couple of meetings before deciding that it wasn't for them. They usually stopped after The Sharing started putting on pressure about helping others and giving of yourself to the greater good. It was one thing to hang out at barbecues and other fun teen activities. Another to sacrifice your time, and, eventually, your body.
Was Jake doing drugs? Or something just as bad?
Almost worse than Jake's outright strange behavior was the fact that he kept giving me these dark looks. I'd more or less accepted that we had become distant ever since I joined The Sharing. I'd tried to make time for him, but over the past few months, he had been the one to reject my attempts at friendship. Granted, he'd just turned thirteen, and that was the universal age for being a moody teenager. Even so, I'd always thought that moodiness extended mostly to parents, and not to older siblings that you had previously gotten along with.
Okay. I could accept that we weren't as close as we used to be. I was no longer the one he'd run to with scraped knees, if Mom or Dad wasn't around. He didn't ask me to check his closet and under his bed for monsters-which he'd stopped asking Mom and Dad around five, but went to me about it until age seven or so. Even so, those dark looks, almost ones of hatred, were new.
It hurt. The only silver lining was that if Jake wasn't even talking to me like I was human, if I'd somehow done something to make him hate me, then the chances of me or Terlin or whatever Yeerk I would be assigned if Terlin ever got promoted (he was hoping he wouldn't be, or not outside of my body) would be nearly zero. If Jake ended up infested, it would be by force, and the empire generally avoided this course of action.
(It's a phase,) Terlin assured me, during a break in homework. (Jake is your brother. He loves you-he even hero worships you.)
(I just hope he's not on drugs. Isn't weed supposed to make you really hungry?) I wondered.
Terlin sent me a mental shrug. (My other human hosts' knowledge of illegal drugs is as lacking as yours.)
I had to laugh. (You could have just said you have no idea.)
(I have no idea,) he retorted.
Then, Terlin gave me a mental hug.
A big one.
Yeah, Yeerks can give their hosts hugs. Terlin says that they're called "mental hugs", because, obviously, they occur inside your brain. It's sort of a release of endorphins to your brain, but it's way more powerful than that. When Terlin gives me a mental hug, I don't just have this feeling of happiness, the way I would if I ate ice cream or shot the winning basket at a game, or was watching a good movie. For one thing, I actually feel like I'm being hugged, physically, but there's also this combination of almost good association there, as well. Like, I'm not just being hugged, but I'm drinking hot chocolate on a cold night, and I've just stepped into a warm shower, and I'm suddenly five and sitting on my mom's lap, and she's giving me a bear hug.
Powerful stuff, mental hugs.
Terlin says that there are also levels of them. The first level just feels like a hug, without much of the other imagery or experiences associated with that. The second level is when some of that stuff kicks in. The higher you go, I guess, the more of that you feel. All the way up to level 10, which could almost kill a regular host like me.
Terlin told me that, unless something really bad happens, he doesn't feel comfortable advancing the hugs past a 3.5. I've only had a 3.5 a couple of times, and the first was when I had to see Visser Three eat the poor Andalite prince who was already dying. Did I mention that Visser Three is totally evil? I would be totally shocked if his host mind was actually aware of anything at this point, given all the poor guy has gone through.
Anyway, needless to say, I felt a lot more optimistic about things after the hug, and was happy to sit back in my mind while Terlin did my homework. He was using loose control, so I could move if I wanted, but I didn't. I was still paying attention to the answers he was writing and the chapters he was reading. I wasn't an academic overachiever, but I didn't want to get behind, either.
Afterwards, it was still kind of early, so we read a few chapters in this book that Terlin had got from the school library, and then went to bed.
(Tom,) Terlin told me, as I pulled the covers over my body, turning on my side, (I won't do anything to hurt you or your family.)
I had to smile at him, despite my nerves. (Yeah, I know. Thanks, though. For telling me.)
(Would you like a Yeerk song?) he asked, gently.
Yeerks couldn't force their hosts to sleep, not without long term damage. Or, so Terlin believed. All the same, there were ways to ease someone like me into sleep.
One of those was Yeerk songs. If you could even call them "songs", because they didn't have words. It was kind of like just the music to a song you knew, without the singer singing the lyrics. Except, like, ten times weirder.
In a good way. Yeerk songs were really relaxing, and Terlin had told me, once that they were technically considered "lullabies", because they had been used for baby Yeerks as much as hosts.
At almost sixteen, I was way too old for lullabies, so I just called them "Yeerk songs".
(Yeah, sure. Hear any new ones?) I asked, yawning again.
There were supposed to be thousands, but Terlin had only started paying attention to "collecting" them since infesting/teaming up with me, so he only knew about ten. When he fed in the Yeerk Pool, he tried to collect more for his mental library.
It wasn't anything that would worry his higher ups, if they found out. Using Yeerk songs to get your host to sleep or leave you alone was one of those "approved" non-torture methods that the empire liked as well as the host.
Since Terlin wasn't a total empire loyalist torturer, he obviously didn't use those methods on my mind. Even when I probably got on his nerves, just a little. Hey, I was human, and he was living in my mind. We were bound to bug each other, sometimes.
(Yes, three new ones.) He smiled, proudly. (I'll collect more, tomorrow.)
(Great. Not that I don't mind repeats, but when you tell me there are thousands...) I yawned again.
(Yes. You want to be well versed in Yeerk culture,) Terlin teased. (Despite not wanting to hear any of our stories...)
(Really? We're on that again?) I complained. (Look, I get that most of them aren't 'how Falsit broke his first host', but I'm not an empire Yeerk, okay?)
Terlin sighed, and I got the sense I'd hurt his feelings. (All right.)
(Okay,) I sort of grumbled. (But not tonight.)
He sort of perked up at this. (Thank you, Tom.)
(Yeah, yeah.) I closed my eyes. (You going to start the music?)
(Yes.)
The musical notes began, and I could feel myself relax completely as the song eased me into sleep.
The next day, after Terlin refueled his body with Kandrona rays, we headed to a Sharing meeting.
I'd never seen Visser Three so angry. Heads were going to fly, and even though Terlin took a seat in the middle, away from his immediate gaze, we were both terrified that we would be next.
Basically, the Andalite bandits had struck again. Visser Three had orchestrated this new clinic to be opening within the next week or so. Not out of the goodness of his heart. Anyone who checked in as a patient would check out as a Controller.
It hadn't been a very popular decision. Sure, more hosts were good, but doing this pretty much guaranteed involuntary hosts. Wasn't the point of The Sharing to find Yeerks nice, cooperative voluntary hosts? If they were going to throw out the playbook for recruiting voluntary humans, why not just close The Sharing and start grabbing everyone on the streets and infesting them?
(Because Visser One wants a secret invasion,) Terlin explained. (We have millions of Yeerks and thousands of hosts. You have billions of people. It's easier to recruit than start an all out war.)
Easier for the Yeerks, he meant. Terlin might be nice to me and my family, but he was still a member of the Yeerk Empire. Although, kind of a "in name only" member at that.
Anyway, the Andalite Bandits figured out where the clinic was and attacked, full force. Rumor had it, they boiled the Yeerks in the pool alive. Ouch. That had to hurt.
(It was probably half as painful as Kandrona starvation,) Terlin put in. (On the other hand, it only took a few minutes, rather than three days. Unless you're sentenced by a Yeerk Visser or Sub-Visser with vast knowledge, and then it can take weeks.)
(Okay. When you put it like that, a better way to go.) I rolled my eyes at him. Inwardly, of course. Terlin had an iron clad grip on my mind, on my body.
A few months ago, this would have totally freaked me out. I would have been in mental tears, probably, and fighting like a crazy animal for control. Now, though? It wasn't exactly comfortable, knowing I had zero control over my body and only about 10% awareness of most of my senses-eyesight excluded, which was at 100%-but I trusted Terlin, and besides, the meeting would be over in an hour, and I did not want to be in Visser Three's line of fire today.
Or any day. But especially today.
Not only were exactly three hundred and twelve Yeerks boiled alive, one of them was Temrash 114, who had been assigned to infest the governor. Not that Visser Three regarded a Yeerk dying in such a way as something to grieve over. Yeerks were almost as replaceable as hosts. Still, the destruction of the clinic meant that the governor would go somewhere else for his surgery, and without his assigned Yeerk available to seize his new host-well, it was a total loss. It was like losing a battle and one of your most trusted leaders had been one of the casualties. Okay, so Visser Three had plenty of other leaders or followers to use for future surprise infestations, but the whole loss was making him (or, at least, the rest of us) rethink this whole "let's secretly infest thousands of people by pretending to be doing a good work for the community" plan.
Did I mention that he was ticked off?
Andalite bandits, 1. Yeerks, 0.
Despite having a Yeerk inside my head, Terlin and I weren't too upset that this plan failed.
Not that we'd tell anyone, of course.
By the time the meeting had ended, Visser Three had killed ten Hork-Bajir and maimed four of the human Controllers who had been involved with the project.
Really, he'd acted with considerable restraint.
A/N: At some point, I might do a one-shot of how Jake's three days with Temrash looked, given that he hadn't controlled Tom before. In all likelihood, Jake's time with Temrash was a little less unpleasant due to this, but Temrash was still present when Tom was infested, and he was still very good at lying. Plus, Temrash can still show Jake how hosts give up using his own memories. Without giving away any spoilers, I'll leave it at that.
My plan is to skip ahead in the next chapter, because as things stand, there's only so much character development that can take place without Tom knowing why Jake has suddenly become Mr. Crankypants.
Any written feedback would be most welcome!