Jacob Nyles:

Karl's face was white. Sheer, blood-less white. And we couldn't even see the cages from here. She pulled a box that was too heavy off the stack, and nearly fell. But she recovered long enough for me to get there, and grab the other end. Good thing too. It was one of my boxes.

"Karl. Look at me," I said. I wasn't calm.

But I was. It was weird.

((Compartmentalization. Interesting…)) Esplin murmured in the back of our head.

The woman's eyes skittered to mine.

"Focus on what you're doing. Ignore the rest. You can deal with it later," I said, keeping my voice low.

She nodded stiffly. I hoped to God she wasn't going to crack up on us. She'd seemed pretty durable, hardly batting an eye at Jett…

Maybe this had been too much, too soon.

((There's no way to ease into this, Jacob. No one can be prepared for a Yeerk pool)) Esplin told me.

"I'm right here," I whispered, squeezing Karl's shoulder.

Esplin 1894:

I was mildly impressed, and worried at the same time. Jacob was keeping perspective, for the moment, but only because Karl was worse off than he was. If she stopped needing his help, we'd probably be back to random emotional outbursts. Which were in no way pleasant, not to that extreme.

((We are in position. Initiating sabotage)) Torfan told us tensely, which meant Dr. Helaine was probably the one performing the actual sabotage.

"Boxes are set, start lighting the fuses," I whispered, checking our stolen wrist watch. There were five boxes, each with fuses of varying length. If tin man had known what he was doing, then the fuses were set for six, nine, twelve, fourteen, and fifteen minutes.

If he'd gotten the fuses right.

Neither Jacob, Torfan, nor I had known enough about slow-burn fuses to be of any help.

"Karl, let's go," Jacob whispered. The woman nodded robotically, and fell in beside us, as we made our way out of the maze of shelving. The hard part was coming.

An "open-air" cafeteria (resembling a food court within this enclosed cavern), squatted to our right. Work lights had been strung up on poles, suspended over the area (which Jacob thought was of similar size to six or seven basketball courts smashed together). Plastic picnic tables, the kind available at any community sports center (likely appropriated from the stadium above us) littered the area.

"Looks like a pot roast," Jacob muttered. We counted maybe sixty or seventy controllers sitting, eating, talking, laughing… mostly human, but there were a few Gedds ambling along, as well as a Hork-bajir passing through. No taxxons. No taxxons anywhere.

Good.

They were probably busy tunneling, in the unfinished area on the far side of the pool.

I moved Jacob's wrist, checking the watch again. The first box would be exploding in three minutes, give or take forty seconds.

In theory.

"Now what?" Karl asked, leaning in close, as if sharing a joke… but her face was turned towards us… and it was terrifyingly blank.

"We need to blend in… let's go get some food. I think that one's supplying hot dogs," Jacob said, studying the line of small buildings that were serving as mini walk-through restaurants. Most looked like "generic" versions of modern fast-food chains. Hamburgers, chicken, hot dogs, pizza… and bark? (for the hork-bajir, I assumed).

((Let's avoid the one serving bark)) I suggested.

((Agreed. We have enough fiber in our diet already)) Jacob grumbled.

If there is a God, as Jacob believes, then he doesn't like us very much.

The scream made us jump several inches. Karl yelped something in a language we didn't know. Or it had been two words at once. Again, we didn't know.

We spun, staring at the shelves behind us… and the angry balls of burning reds and greens spitting up into the air, with the occasional screaming bottle rocket, spaced every 5-6 seconds. The distraction was three minutes early.

"What the hell?" a man stumbled past us, dropping his tray of food.

"Is it a drill?" one woman asked, confused.

"Fire teams!" someone screamed, (probably a sub-visser. An actual visser would have sounded more threatening, I think).

People were grabbing portable extinguishers, and rushing for the distant fireworks, while another team was grabbing fire hoses, and struggling to unroll the wheels, as they pushed their load towards a blocky structure (probably a water main, or pump room). Everyone was moving. Except for Karl and Jacob.

"Get moving, report to your team!" a dark skinned man snapped, shoving Jacob's shoulder.

"We're new!" Jacob said, letting panic enter our voice. We were green. Newbies. Possibly even second-gens.

"Oh for— fine, stick with me!" the sub-visser (we were pretty sure he was) growled.

"Yes sir," Jacob said, relieved.

The man started off towards the shelves. He was dressed like a postal worker, Jacob noted.

The sub-visser had a holstered dracon-beam riding at the small of his back. It was a bad spot if you needed to draw quickly… but a good spot to carry for concealment. More importantly, it was a good spot for someone behind you to draw your weapon on you.

Jacob simply took note of the placement. The sub-visser had not yet drawn his weapon. This was an accident of some kind.

The humans were unaware of us, after all, and the andalites could not have penetrated this far without our knowledge.

We were safe.

I could feel the fierce excitement welling up within Jacob.

He loved chaos and confusion.

He was ill-suited to a "normal" life.

It was something we had in common.

((Jacob, several controllers have surrounded the generator complex. They are carrying crude incendiary suppression devices. They have not attempted entry at this time)) Torfan notified.

We couldn't answer back.

It couldn't be helped.

Jacob Nyles:

The roman candles and bottle rockets had set some of the nearby cardboard pallets on fire. Plastic shrink-wrap is very flammable. I hadn't realized that.

((What was in box two?)) Esplin asked.

((I don't know. Why?)) I asked. Tin man had done the packing. We hadn't seen the contents.

((Because it's right there)) Esplin pointed out grimly. She pointed my eyes at a box no different from the others… unless you had an essentially photographic memory.

The sub-visser was standing right in front of the box, shouting orders, pointing and organizing the controllers fighting the spreading fires with human fire extinguishers, while their buddies were trying to drag the hoses this far into the shelves. The extinguishers couldn't do more than slow the fire down.

((If one box is causing this much damage...)) Esplin trailed off nervously. An actual full blown fire would be disastrous in an enclosed cave, atmospheric filtration be damned. Ash was a bitch on any filter.

((Death by smoke inhalation)) I said grimly, glancing in the direction of the cages… cages I couldn't see. I could hear the screams though.

"What do we do?" Karl shouted in my ear.

"We wait!" I answered.

"For what?" Karl demanded.

I smiled, and made the wait and see gesture. We just had to look useless. Or wait for the fireworks.

"You two! Go help with those damned hoses!" the sub-visser barked. I nodded, and ran.

Then more screams filled the air, but not from bottle rockets. I looked over my shoulder. The Catherine wheels were about as loud as a roman candle. It was the controllers who were screaming.

"Holy shit!" Karl yelped, as a seemingly demon-possessed flaming hoop flashed past overhead. Very close overhead. It was also spitting sparks.

((Esplin)) I said calmly, swatting out the pinpricks of pain in my hair.

((What?)) my friend demanded.

((I believe box two contained Catherine wheels)) I told her seriously.

I'm not sure what Esplin called me, but I assumed it wasn't nice. I don't know Galard.

((()))

I checked the watch again. Twelve minutes had passed since the Andalites had begun their sabotage… but twenty minutes had been an estimate. At least twenty minutes. Possibly longer.

The fire works would keep going off without our assistance. That diversion was covered.

It was time for my primary diversion.

I pulled out my communicator.

"Joker to Tin man, come in, Tinman," I whispered.

"Yeah?" Tin man asked.

"Are you still in position?" I asked.

"Yes. But I don't know how much longer I can pretend to be fixing this engine," the carjacker replied tightly.

"Problems?" Esplin asked.

"Maybe. Some ass hole called road side assistance. I had to knife a couple tires to keep them busy."

((How dare someone try to be helpful)) I scowled.

"How long will it take to fix the tires?" Esplin asked, ignoring my snark.

"I can fix them in about four minutes. These guys? About fifteen minutes?" Tin man guessed.

((That should be about perfect)) I guessed. It sounded about right.

((It will have to be)) Esplin said grimly.

"What are we doing now?" Karl asked, as I grabbed an empty (I guessed) fire extinguisher up off the ground.

"We're improvising," Esplin sighed. We hadn't discussed this plan with the andalites.

Only Tin man.

He hadn't liked it.

But he did agree.

"Where are we going?" Karl asked, irritated. Clearly she wanted a straight answer. She also wasn't looking at the fluid in the pool we were jogging next to.

"We get to be big damned heroes," I said.

"That usually gets a lot of people killed," Karl observed grimly.

"Yes it does," I agreed.

Something exploded with incredible force behind us.

Sonofabitch, I thought blearily, clutching my ringing head, on my knees.

((He used our TNT)) Esplin snarled.

"What happened?!" Karl shouted.

I sort of heard her.

((Judging from the pain, our right eardrum probably burst from the pressure differential)) Esplin hissed.

((And the left?)) I panted, clutching my right ear.

((Probably still intact, since we can hear Karl))

Someone stopped, and grabbed my shoulder. I squinted blearily up into the light of a flashlight. A hork-bajir with caps on its blades brushed past the Gedd that was carrying the human flashlight.

"I'm fine!" I shouted, as if deaf. The Gedd's yellow eyes squinted, before the awkward monkey-like creature shrugged, and shambled off after the hork-bajir, towards the explosion.

The lights were off. About half of them anyway.

((Cover of darkness. This plan might actually be possible)) Esplin mused.

Esplin 1894:

The agony from Jacob's ear brought a whole new meaning to the sensation. Something I had no taste for. Tin man would suffer for this. We were close to the elevated booth, near the infestation pier. The booth that controlled the electric locks on the cages.

A booth shrouded in darkness, now that most of the lighting had failed.

Jacob mounted the steps. He glanced around quickly… before bringing the fire extinguisher down hard on the distracted human's back. The woman was dressed for an executive meeting of some kind. A meeting she would no doubt be late for. We also took her pistol.

"We hold these truths to be self evident—" Jacob whispered, as I used his hands to bypass the safeguards on the control panel, to allow all of the cage locks to be disabled at the same time.

that all sentients were created equal, I finished silently.

It only took one man, hammering on a gate to show the cage to be unlocked.

From there, many tested their own gates as well.

And then the pandemonium began. These were former hosts. They remembered how they had entered—

—and they wanted out.

"Karl!" Jacob snapped, grabbing the woman by the collar of her uniform, and hauled her into the booth. It was dangerous below. Not out of direct malice. No… the humans were simply trampling anything that fell, be it one another, or hapless enemy.

((Jacob, what are you doing?)) Sonili asked over our communicator.

"Your mom wanted a distraction, so I'm giving her one," Jacob answered quietly.

Gun fire began to strobe in the sporadic pools of darkness, as well as the occasional blood-red spear of a dracon beam.

There were hundreds of controllers.

There were thousands of humans.

"They're getting butchered," Jacob said tightly.

"They're taking casualties… but they are not being butchered," I retorted, as a hork-bajir was dragged down by no less than seven men and women.

It looked like a wave of humanity slamming into the chokepoints around the exits… overwhelming the guards, trickling up the stairs and ramps…

The area was now mostly safe, aside from a few human stragglers.

I glanced at the phosphorescent markings on our watch. Twenty-two minutes had passed.

"Let's head for the service entrance," Jacob said, chambering a round in our new pistol.

We had to cut through the cages to do so.

All of the doors stood open… like broken jaws of some cheated predator.

Which was when we found three cages that had not opened.

Or at least, cages that the occupants had not immediately burst from.

The human hosts stared at us, uncertain. Jacob was carrying a gun. We were probably a controller.

We are a controller.

He put a finger to his covered lips, and the humans nodded back slowly. Men, women (young and old), as well as children were huddled in the tiny cages. Jacob peeked out again, checking for approaching Yeerks, but so far, the controllers were too busy trying to survive the sudden mass-escape to pay attention to humans still within their cages.

"I can take you with me, it will be dangerous… but you will have a chance for freedom," Jacob said, only loudly enough to be heard over the screams. There were nearly thirty people in the cages.

The humans filed out, sticking close to the cages.

"Move casually, keep the children in the center… follow close," Jacob whispered harshly. Then we started off towards the service entrance we'd entered through. We wouldn't be going on foot though…

Our truck was empty. It had room for thirty people.

Standing room, at least.