VI: May, 1994

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"Hi, Mom," Marco said from the kitchen table. It was getting to the end of the school year, so he was actually doing his homework, for once. He was surrounded by his notebook and his binder, all covered in a variety of doodles that proved that he hadn't been paying total attention in class. Stick figure superheroes dropped boxy trains and anvils on what I assumed were either teachers or kids he didn't like very much. Godzilla tore through a series of blue ballpoint rectangles. A spaceship with checkmark Martians landed on the red circumference of a C.

If only he knew. "Hey, squirt. You're doing your homework early," she said to my son.

He rolled his eyes at the nickname. "Dad said I could watch Beavis and Butthead if I finished my writing homework."

Had I been in control of my body, I'd have mentioned that I didn't approve of him watching that show, as young as he was, but Edriss didn't care. She didn't want to deal with friction bringing it up with Peter would cause. Sometimes she listened to me when it came to raising my own child, and often she'd follow my cues to being nurturing, but just as often she'd do what was easiest. She had, I thought, no interest in Marco's future beyond keeping him oblivious. Which left me, parenting yet not parenting my son, working yet not working at my job, seeing and commenting and advising on everything but simultaneously, essentially absent.

She said, "have him check your spelling when you're done" and started dinner.

"Mom?" Marco said in a tentative voice. "I got in trouble in math class today."

"Oh?" Edriss said borderline apathetically.

"Yeah. I was kinda drawing some silly pictures trying to make Jake laugh, and I got caught."

I could feel Edriss' irritation. She was incredibly busy these days. She was working on a campaign to elect a Yeerk as mayor of the city, and there were precious few months to organize before the election. This success was incredibly important to her, as she'd be submitting it to the Council of Thirteen with her appeal to be promoted. She expected promotion to Visser Three, perhaps Visser Two if one of the other candidates messed up along the way. Having to pick Marco up after detention or sit in on a meeting with his math teacher was not on her itinerary. "So did they give you a detention?"

Marco shrugged. "Mr. Epstein says if I go to chess club this week I don't have to go to detention. They have an odd number of people or something."

"So why don't you do that?"

"I don't know how to play and I don't want to get taught by a bunch of dorks," he said, as if it should be obvious.

Edriss looked through my memories, looking for chess. She was pleased with what she found. A strategy game, complex and with nearly infinite possible sequences. I felt a sense of admiration from her – among her fellow Yeerks she'd become so successful because she did not underestimate humans. She admired, like a visitor at an art gallery admires, our senses of strategy and tenacity. The many virtues she also possessed, and some that she lacked. "Maybe after dinner I can teach you how to play."

"After Beavis and Butthead, you mean." Marco finished his writing assignment and walked over to the cabinet to find the stapler. I could see that he'd spelled the "field" in the title "Artifacts We Saw on Our Field Trip" incorrectly, with the i and e reversed, but Edriss didn't mention it. Peter probably would.

"Sure, after Beavis. You want alfredo sauce or marinara?"

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"I mean, it's not like I have to go every week, just this one day. I don't have to be great at it."

"But don't you want to be great at it?" Edriss said eagerly, as she continued to explain the finer details, to the point of my son being more than a little bored by it. Castling, en passant, Alekhine's Gun. "You know I used to play chess in college, right?"

"Yeah, but you were a nerd in college, Mom. With goofy hair." He grinned, amused by his own audacity.

Edriss grinned back, mockingly. "What did I do to deserve such a charming child?"

They played the first game. Edriss dove deep into the crevices of my mind to find the strategies I'd used in college, the proper way to set a trap, the way to execute a bewildering assault of higher-powered pieces. On top of those she layered her own conniving mind. She beat Marco in less than five minutes.

"Why did you leave your king open like that?"

"I thought you'd go easy on me, since I'm your only kid and all."

I felt something indecipherable from Edriss upon those words. Not regret, not sadness, but something like deflation. But none of it crossed our face. "One more try? I'll go easy on you this time."

"Nah. It'll be better if you don't."

Edriss won again, but this time it took her seven minutes. And again, but in ten minutes.

Marco flicked his little white king with his fingers. "One more time."

"You sure? I beat you pretty badly that time. No pawns, no pieces besides your king…"

"One more time," he said evenly.

{Your son doesn't like losing,} Edriss said to me privately.

{He doesn't like quitting when he knows he's improving,} I said back.

He did better this time around. Edriss set traps and he avoided them, and more surprisingly, he set his own trap and took her queen. A clever set-up and sacrifice with the white bishops left Edriss bereft of rooks. He smiled when he took her knight, but the smile was grim. Maybe he knew that he still didn't have the advantage.

My pager went off. Edriss had set it for 8:45. At 9:30 she had an intergalactic call with her mentor, Garoff, a member of the Council. Disrespecting a Councilmember would sink any chance she had at promotion. She stood up quickly, knocking over a bishop as she did. "Well, squirt, it's been fun. I've got somewhere to be. Consider yourself the winner."

He looked at me skeptically. "It's pretty late."

"Well, you know how those politicians are. Oh, don't forget to read a chapter of Watership Down. You need to have it finished by next Thursday." She leaned in and kissed him on the forehead. She would most certainly not let me do it, with such an important call coming up. I would be able to sabotage her simply by breaking my own ankle. "Bedtime's 10 o'clock. Love you."

On her way out she said goodbye to Peter, who was doing something for his work on the computer. She got into my sedan and started driving towards the apartment downtown, the secret location in my name where she kept so many of her communication devices, and her personal Kandrona. Easier to keep it in some half-abandoned apartment complex across town than worry about my kid or his friends running across it. As we drove, we spoke amongst ourselves, my hatred for her simmering beneath the usual conversational atmosphere.

{It's a shame. Your son is very intelligent, if those chess games are anything to go by, but he'll never survive in a Yeerk-dominated world. Too trusting.} She tapped into my memory of driving and took us speeding across town. For some reason, having her drive with the same reckless abandon I always had was infinitely more terrifying.

{He adapted pretty quickly, once he knew you wouldn't go easy on him.}

{But he had to lose first. He lost three times and he never won the fourth. There will be no second or fourth chances when we've taken a significant enough portion of the population.}

I was used to her confidence. It didn't mean I believed her, but I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of a rebuttal. If she wanted someone to gloat to, I wouldn't make it interesting for her.

{And his spelling is atrocious,} she said, trying to push my buttons by chipping at my maternal pride.

I sighed internally. Edriss tended to get arrogant and condescending when she was set to meet a Councilmember. She felt she had to behave more like a proper Yeerk, I imagined. Yeerks that were not supposed to empathize or bond with their hosts, or, God forbid, think of their hosts as anything other than a shell. {Keep our eyes on the road, will you?}

The apartment complex was run-down and dirty, occupied by a smattering of fairly unscrupulous tenants, but Edriss never feared burglary, with her security systems. Since she'd gotten a personal Kandrona, I always hated going there, every three days at the least. Once she had to worry about her promotion, she didn't let me play the escape game.

Instead she drugged my body into sleep, and by the time I woke up each time she was back in my head. As hard as I tried, I never could stay awake long enough to attempt an escape. I knew, logically, that there was no way my mind could stay conscious with that much anesthetic in my system, but it didn't stop me trying. Or stop the disappointment when I didn't last.

But tonight was not a time to feed. We arrived fifteen minutes before she was set to communicate with Garoff, and she used the spare time to adjust our makeup and hair in the mirror. I doubted Garoff would care about such minor adjustments to this unfamiliar body, or even know the difference, but it seemed to make Edriss feel better. I considered telling her that only a human would apply extra lip gloss before an interview with a superior, but thought better of it. She was ignoring me anyway.

Finally, with a beep, the transponder in the center of the room turned on, and a blue-ish holographic form of a robed Hork-Bajir appeared. "Visser Ten, report for debriefing."

"Visser Ten reporting to Councilmember Garoff." My voice sounded different when she spoke to the Council. More flat, a respectful monotone. Yeerks did not use inflections the way humans did. "The situation on Earth continues at the predicted-"

Garoff cut her off. "Before we begin, Edriss Five-Six-Two, I must bring you sad news from the Mak home-world. It appears that a Mak rebellion has taken the lives of some of our most treasured military leaders."

Edriss' surprise and anticipation made my body's heart skip a beat.

"Unfortunately, the lives of Visser One, Ertim Seven-Eight-One, and Visser Two, Filtan One-Six-One, have been lost in the pursuit of victory. A moment of reflection, if you will."

Edriss stood perfectly still, pretending to mourn, as Garoff pretended to mourn as well. I knew full well that nobody in the conversation actually gave a damn about the fallen Vissers.

Garoff's hologram leaned in. "Between you and me, Edriss, this could be an opportunity for you. I've had a few words with the Council about your future if you show significant progress on Earth. Your appeal for promotion will be considered with the finest of candidates."

"Councilmember, I thank you greatly for the-" Edriss began, then stopped suddenly as Garoff held his clawed hand up.

"Edriss Five-Six-Two, should you deliver the highest executive position in the city to Sub-Visser Eighty-One, I believe it's quite probable your name could be on the shortlist for a newly vacant position. Complete your assignment on Earth, Edriss, and you will be Visser One."