-Rachel-
-Your ear is under water.- Marco said excitedly. –I don't have to try to go out and back in because he can't see anyway!-
-OK.- I responded. –So now what? How will he know I'm infested?-
-I guess we'll have to just tell him. Remember, you're Edriss 5942, Sub-visser 52 and I'm going to be Freson 4731, Sub-visser 49- Marco replied, going over the designations we'd memorized earlier. They had been stored in Ganlor's computer.
-It's going to work!- I exclaimed to him in thoughtspeak. -We're going to pull it off!-
-Maybe- Marco said, always being realistic. –It's not over yet.- I could feel his uneasiness as I sat in the vice with my ear in the yeerk pool and Marco in my head.
-What's Ganlor's designation again?- I asked, just to be sure.
-Precor 348, Visser 47- He replied. –Must not be a very important project since he's such a low ranking . . . –
-I think you'd have time to get control by now.- I interrupted. –C'mon, let's go!- I was ready to get the show on the road, giddy almost as if we were going into a battle or something.
-Chill, Xena- Marco admonished, sounding amused. –No fighting unless it's necessary! We'll blow our cover! This is just recon.-
-So tell him already!- I said, annoyed.
-OK, OK, you're right, it's time.- he finally agreed, taking back control of my body. Then aloud in my voice he said: "I have control of my new host, Visser."
-Excellent- Ganlor responded walking over to me and releasing the vice. -Were the two agents planning anything with this trip? Any type of mission? Or was it truly just luck that the two humans we needed to infest came on this trip humans call a honeymoon?-
"It must have been luck, Visser." Marco answered. "They were merely trying to get away from the many humans of Earth for their honeymoon."
-Sounds good.- I approved. –Definitely believable.- ... Then –No, don't smile!- Instantly the smile left my face, but I think Ganlor might have seen it, even though his main eyes were to the computer...
"What is next, Visser?" Marco said in my voice.
-We will be entering the solar system of the Andalite homeworld within 2 standard hours. You must go through your host's memories and determine how best to contact War-Prince Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. Then you can meet him on the homeworld and infest him there. I have promised his body to Iniss 489 – subvisser 13. His current host is Hork-Bajir, but he prefers an Andalite host, of course. Once we have Aximili we will be able to further infiltrate the Andalite homeworld.-
I could feel the evil seeping out of him as he spoke. It reminded me of Visser 3! The arrogance he felt as he revealed the plan he thought was completely foolproof. He obviously hadn't seen the smile, though, good!
"A brilliant plan, Visser." Marco said in my voice. To me he said –Crap! This is worse than we thought. They're trying to infiltrate the Andalite homeworld! Earth won't have a chance if they succeed!-
-Yeah, IF!- I said confidently. -But they won't. Because we've already screwed up a major part of their plan! Nice acting, by the way. Definitely sounded like a lowly Yeerk talking to his visser. 'yes visser, no visser, brilliant visser...' Hehehe.-
-It's not over yet, Xena.- Marco said to me, a smile in his thoughtspeak. –But thanks.- I could tell he was pleased at my compliment.
Meanwhile, Ganlor continued to boast about his brilliant plan. -Yes, isn't it. And the insolent humans did not even suspect! Now we have their top government agents and can use them to infiltrate the human government back on Earth! I shall be promoted soon! Perhaps I will be Visser 46 in a few hours...-
He continued to brag about what he thought might happen and I just tuned him out. Marco kept making little comments, like "of course, visser." and stuff like that, egging him on.
Eventually, he stopped boasting and looked at the computer screen. –I must tend to the bridge.- He said. –You have one hour to infest the male human, brief Sub-visser 49 on the plan, and report back to me. Here, take this shredder. You'll need it.- He handed us a shredder and I/Marco took it.
"Yes, Visser." Marco said in my voice as Ganlor opened the doors and walked confidently out toward the bridge.
Marco ran my body back toward our quarters. Once we got there, he came out of my ear and demorphed.
-Marco-
Boy, was I glad to be human again! We sat down on the end of the bed to talk. I had no idea what to say, though. I looked at Rachel. She was looking at the shredder in her hand.
"I guess I need to take you to Ganlor's quarters and make it look like I'm infesting you." She said, holding up the gun.
"Can I see it? We do have an hour to kill." I reminded her. I'd never seen a shredder up close before.
"I guess." She said, handing it to me. Her hand brushed mine as she handed it to me. I looked down at the shredder, trying hard to ignore the tingles that went up my arm where she'd touched it.
I looked the shredder over, feigned shooting the wall a couple times, and handed it back. Rachel was just watching. She stood up, holding the shredder. "Let's get this over with!"
"What happened to 'Let's do it'? Is that suddenly getting old?" I teased.
She rolled her eyes. "Fine, 'Let's do it!' if you like that better!" She said, smiling at me and pushing me toward the door. "Now, you're my prisoner, so just walk slowly to Ganlor's quarters and no one gets hurt!" She grinned fiercely.
"OK." I said, playing the part. "Just don't shoot me! I'll do anything you want!"
She basically pushed me down the hallway with the end of the shredder. We went into Ganlor's quarters and into the cupboard. After the door was closed, Rachel sat down the shredder.
"Now what?" She asked. "No one can see us, but we can't just go back out – it takes time to infest someone."
"I dunno." I said. "Did you see anything interesting in my head?" I smiled at her and raised my eyebrows, hoping she'd take the hint and elaborate on Tobias' proposal.
"No, but you did." She said looking at me.
"Why didn't you tell anyone?" I asked, cautiously trying to get more information without making her mad.
"That's kind of a long story..." She sighed and looked at the floor. "But I guess we have time, if you really want to know." She looked back up at me, almost hopefully. I think she wanted to tell me!
"Whatever you want to tell me." I answered, trying not to look too interested. In reality, I was dying to know! We sat down on the hard metal floor and faced each other.
"OK." She smiled as she began.
Rachel's Flashback – 3rd Person (not all necessarily spoken).
Tobias, in human morph, walked up to Rachel, looking a little nervous. "Want to go for a walk?" He asked, feeling in his pocket.
"Sure" She replied smiling at him. They walked into the woods a little ways, listening to the birds chirping and holding hands, talking about the impending battle.
He stopped for a moment, took her other hand, and looked into her eyes.
"Rachel, there's something I've been meaning to talk to you about for a long time." He began.
"What is it, Tobias? Is something wrong?" She asked. They sat down together on a fallen tree.
"No, it's just...Rachel, you know I love you, right?" He said, still looking into her eyes.
"Yes, I love you too, Tobias." She said smiling at him, but wondering what he could possibly be getting at.
"Well, I ... I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, but I know one thing. I want to love you forever." He reached into his pocket and got down on one knee. "Rachel, will you marry me?"
She looked shocked for a second, before saying "Of course!" He slid the ring onto her finger, stood up and pulled her to him. He slid a hand into her hair and kissed her, gently at first, but then more passionately until all thoughts of everything but one another were gone.
-End Flashback-
-Marco-
"Whoa!" I said, totally wrapped up in the story.
She kinda smiled at me, looking almost embarrassed. "You can probably guess what happened after that."
I was shocked. "You mean you..." She was blushing as she nodded and looked at the floor. "But that still doesn't explain why you didn't tell anyone," I continued. "I mean, that should have been something to brag about!"
She gave me a dirty look.
"The engagement, not the ... erm ... aftermath!" I almost laughed as I struggled to find a politically correct term. She smirked.
"Do want the rest of the story or not?" She asked in mock anger. She was still smiling, though.
"Yeah," I said, and decided to keep my mouth shut until she was done.
"So an hour later we walked back toward camp. I knew I couldn't hide anything from him after that, so when he asked what Jake had talked to me about, I told him about the plan to kill Tom. Tobias came up with a better plan – we'd go talk to Toby and see if any of the free Hork-Bajir could help us out. They weren't willing to help with the battle, but since it was basically just a rescue mission, they agreed to come in and save me. That's why I'm still here." Rachel continued the story.
"So you were the ones who convinced them to help." I interjected, shocked that they'd agreed to help Rachel and Tobias.
"Yeah." She answered. "A week later, I was supposed to get my period. It never came. I got a pregnancy test and it was positive. I had no idea what to do and I certainly couldn't tell my mom. She would be so mad at me! So I hid in the valley of the free Hork-Bajir to wait until the baby came. I decided that I was going to keep the baby, even if it was difficult, because it was all I had left of Tobias.
"Toby was really nice to me and let me live with her and the other Hork-Bajir. I told Cassie where I was and she came to see me every now and then – brought me human food and such, but she wasn't allowed to tell anyone except my mom where I was.
"About 4 months later, I had gained a bunch of weight, but something felt wrong. The baby wasn't moving around anymore. I told Cassie and she said I should go to a doctor. When I went, the doctor said the baby – a girl – was dead. Now, not only had I lost Tobias, but I'd lost his baby too."
She was staring blankly at the floor while she spoke. It must have been hard for her to tell me. "That's why you didn't come back to school?" I asked gently.
"Yeah." She responded looking at me, then back at the floor. "I just didn't want people to see me like that. I didn't know if I ever wanted to come back, but Cassie finally persuaded me to come home. That made my mom happy, at least. I didn't think I'd ever be happy again."
"Wow." I said, "But Rachel, why are you telling me?" I had to know. She didn't normally tell me stuff like this. Of course, this wasn't a normal mission, and we were getting closer...
She looked up at me with a half-smile. "I ... I don't think now is a good time to explain. Ask me again later. We're running low on time." She looked distractedly around the small room.
I looked over at the yeerk pool. "You're probably right. Ganlor is probably expecting us any minute." I stood up and reached a hand down to help Rachel up. She took my hand and I pulled her up next to me. Tingles. Tingles. I let go. Can't get distracted. "Ready?" I asked.
"Let's do it." Came the reply. I couldn't help but smile.