Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Animorphs. (Except Inest, and then only sort of.)
Chapter Fourteen.
Cassie.
I could not believe what a complete idiot I'd been.
I could only just believe what I'd done –albeit not quite intentionally –to my friends. I'd been willing to rip my own emotions apart, and I'd somehow not quite realised that I'd be doing the same to theirs. Me. I'd failed to see that. Me, the person who knew people better that anyone else in the group. Little sympathetic Cassie.
What had the war done?
Stupid. I'd been stupid. I'd thought I was doing the right thing, and, well, I hadn't.
I mess up that way, sometimes.
Jake was…still angry. No, angry was a mild way of putting it. I knew he was happy to see me alive, but that happiness seemed to be feeding his anger.
Rachel was not so angry. I'd expected her to be worse than the others, but she wasn't. I mean, she was still pretty irritated. But not nearly as bad as I'd thought.
By the time we reached Erek's house, I was mired in my own guilt. The others seemed to be more cheerful, however.
Erek wasn't there. We stood around, feeling stupid. I felt more stupid than the others because I was wearing my morphing outfit and no shoes. Think you've ever felt like a dork? Try standing in someone's front garden, barefoot, with a blue aerobics outfit on.
"He should be here in half an hour," Marco said, glancing at his watch.
"We might not have half an hour," Jake said grimly. "If the Yeerks have detected the ship…"
"They probably won't have," Rachel said musingly. "I mean, they haven't detected the other one, have they? Except for that time it sent out a signal, when the Chee went down."
"That's right," Marco said, nodding. "Chances are, unless this new ship is broadcasting something the Yeerks can hear, they won't find it. And since no Yeerks have shown up in the last two weeks…"
"We can probably say that they don't know it's there," I concluded.
"Emphasis on 'probably'," Jake said.
"It's as good as we're going to get," Rachel said. "I could morph eagle and go check it out, I guess." She gave me a wink. "I mean, if Cassie can take on whatever the Yeerks throw at this ship, I can wipe the floor with them."
Despite myself, I smiled.
"No," Jake said. "You'd need Cassie to show you where it is, and…and Cassie's staying here."
Marco gave him a sly look. "Worried about her, oh Glorious Leader?"
Jake hesitated, and shot me a look which said, I don't want to risk losing you again.
I gave him a look back which meant, You won't ever need to.
Aloud, Jake said, "Look, splitting the group up right now is not something I want to do. Besides, Cassie should be the one to tell them about this."
"How do I do that?" I wondered.
"Easy," Rachel said. "Just tell them."
"You mean, tell a million-year-old android that his creators are still wandering the universe and a ship full of them has landed on a mountain in the national forest?" Marco grinned. "Yeah, I bet that will go down well."
"They'd be pleased, wouldn't they?" Jake said.
"Or else they'd think we were pulling some kind of practical joke," I told him. "Remember, they've spent thousands of years believing that…"
"Oh, yeah." Jake frowned. "Well, we'll just have to hope."
We stood around for a while longer. I shifted around and blew on my fingers. Just as I was wondering if Erek would show before I got frostbite, the gate swung open.
"Hey, guys," Erek said, smiling faintly. "Any reason for the surprise visit?" He looked at me and frowned. "Cassie?"
"Hi, Erek."
"Can we discuss this inside?" Marco interrupted. "Maybe it's just me, but discussing monumentally important alien goings-on in your front garden does not sound like a good idea."
"'Monumentally important alien goings-on'?" Erek asked. "Okay, sure, come in. Good to see you, Cassie. Everyone thought you were dead."
"I gathered," I muttered.
----
Erek's kitchen was warm. It was also indoors. I was surprised at how weird being inside felt –although, given the closest I'd got to 'inside' lately was a cave, maybe that wasn't so surprising. I helped myself to a biscuit.
"So. What's up with you guys?" Erek asked.
Jake shot a glance at me. "Cassie saw a spaceship land on a mountain out in the forest."
Erek frowned again. "A Yeerk spaceship?"
"Not unless the Yeerks have gone into building large green ships with no weapons lately," Marco muttered.
Erek went very still. "Large green ships with no weapons?" he said, carefully.
"Large, green, Snoopy-shaped ships with no weapons," I confirmed.
"You mean…"
"There is a Pemalite ship sitting on a mountain out there in the forest," Rachel said bluntly.
Erek's hologram flickered. For a moment I saw the android underneath. The very Pemalite looking android.
"And you've been out there for the last three weeks?" he asked, looking at me.
"Yes." I hesitated. "Erek…that ship isn't empty."
The hologram flickered again, rather more violently. Erek seemed to be having some trouble retaining his human appearance. I didn't blame him.
"They all died," he said, his voice full of barely restrained emotion. "They all died."
I shrugged helplessly. "Erek, that ship is occupied –or was, last time I checked. I don't know how. I don't know how any of them survived or how they got here or even why they came here, but the fact remains that if the Yeerks find them, we're done for. They are done for. And…"
"Yes." Erek nodded, his hologram stabilising. "I…thank you for telling us."
"So," Marco said, breaking the silence, "are we going to stand around in Erek's kitchen or are we going to make tracks shipwards?"