March 14, 2000
One Year. Tomorrow it'll be one year. One year ago I was a new kid starting a new school. A year ago, I was human. I was a virgin. I was average.
Now it has all changed. I'm not a virgin. I have been decimated by the one woman I have ever completely loved. I fell in love with another, found instant gratification with a third, and found a much more lasting and peaceful satisfaction with a fourth. I'm not average. And I'm barely human. I can turn into all sorts of birds and beasts. And I just may be the Beast. I have met more aliens than I can list. I've been infested by one. And I have killed.
It's been one year since a chance encounter, a fateful discovery, or a bad choice (I'm still not sure which) condemned me to a life of war.
And One Year later, I finally make some progress.
We were on the Hork-Bajir planet. Three days ago we were approached by an Arn named Quafijinivon, the last of his kind. He wished to engineer a species of Neo-Hork-Bajir using samples of Hork-Bajir DNA from the Free Colony of Terra Firma. He was my way. As long as there was one of them and he had the capabilities, he was only way my plan was going to work.
Fuck you, Puck. And fuck you too, Calvca. I will change my destiny for the good.
But first we had to do this one task. Before their deaths, Aldrea-Iskillion-Falan and Dak Hamee hid away a giant yeerk transport of weapons. They would be the arsenal for the Neo-Hork-Bajir. But only Aldrea could find the weapons and Aldrea was dead.
So we did the next best thing. Quafijinivon had the Ixcila of Aldrea, her stored persona. And we "installed" it into Cassie. Wasn't my first choice. Anyway, with Cassie possessed by a dead Andalite, the Animorphs, Toby, and Quafijinivon all head to the Hork-Bajir planet to recover Aldrea's weapon stash.
Need I tell you we were successful?
After the mission, I talked to Quafijinivon about my idea. Like Calvca, he thought it was insane, but could work.
Did you get the sample? I said in a tub.
"Yes. This creature is quite magnificent. And quite deadly. Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Positive." I said as I finished demorphing. "Now you should have enough samples to make my idea."
"Yes and anything else I can simply engineer from scratch. This is not the most complicated thing the Arn have ever created."
"So it'll work?"
"Biologically, yes. Politically, unknown. I'm not sure they'd go for it."
"They will. I'm almost sure of it."
"What if this makes them even more of a nuisance?"
"They're only a nuisance because they have to be. This will solve that."
"I hope so, David." Quafijinivon said solemnly.
"Me, too."