May 5, 1998
It had been nearly a month since my fourteenth birthday, so naturally I decided to take up smoking. Getting cigarettes is ridiculously easy in Crystal Clear Waters, North Dakota, some hick-town outside of Piedmont. Crystal Clear Waters. That was the full name of the town. I'd been living here since February. Moved in during the middle of a blizzard. That was tons of fun. It was early May and still the snow would not go away.
I was hanging out by the convenience store where I bought the smokes. I coughed as I took the first puff of the cigarette. If my father ever caught me smoking, he'd have a fit. Not that I gave a fuck.
This kid named John Howard came up to me. "Hey, David."
John wasn't my friend. He tried to be, but given the way my father moved us around all the time, I wasn't in the habit of making friends. "What do you want John?"
"David, do you know what today is?"
"Ignorance Appreciation Day?"
"Cinco de Mayo" John clarified.
I chuckled and began to walk the three miles to home. "Cinco de Mayo is Mexican Independence Day, and there isn't a Mexican family in all of Crystal Clear Waters. Why should that matter to us whities?"
"Tradition," John tried to explain to me, "The football jocks at the high school pick one incoming freshman and put them through the 'special initiation'."
"Special initiation?" I repeated. I ceased trying to understand anything these backwater, redneck fucks did.
"They handcuff 'em to a post inside a pigpen and leave them there for the night. They call it 'Stinko de Mayo'"
That was too stupid I had to laugh. "Fuckin' rednecks, I swear to God."
"It's not a joke, David." John tried to warn me. "You know Josh Di Rotti?"
"No."
John rolled his eyes at my indifference. "He's the guy who tried to start a fight with you. You wouldn't fight, so when he finally cornered you and dared you to do your worst, you punched his girlfriend."
I laughed. "Oh yeah, him. What about him?"
"His brother Emilio is captain of the football team. I'm just saying they might be looking for you as this year's Señor Stinko."
"But I'm not an incoming freshman. My dad got new orders. In six weeks I'm moving to Georgia. I don't know if they'll be bigger rednecks than the ones here, but at least it'll be warm. Either way, I'll be free of the lot of you." I said. "I ain't worried about it."
"Well you should be, David." John warned. "Emilio Di Rotti is not forgiving if you humiliate his brother."
"Whatever, dude. Later." I said as I left John and started walking down the road to my house.
Twenty minutes later, I was still walking when, WHACK! Something struck me in the back of my head. I lost consciousness.
I woke up and my face was leaning against glass. I looked through the glass and I could see the sun setting over Sparkling River, the river that runs through Crystal Clear Waters. I realized I was in a moving car and my head hurt.
"Uhhhh." I grumbled.
"Howdy, Davie." Said a voice. I hated it when people called me Davie.
I was in the middle seat of a van. I looked behind me and in the backseat were Josh Di Rotti and his girlfriend Regan Fleuve, the same one I'd punched. "Josh. What the fuck!"
The van stopped. The door opened and I was dragged out by two high schoolers. Football jocks. Josh's brother, Emilio Di Rotti and Chris Shedding. The older boys were bigger and stronger than my fourteen-year-old self. I couldn't get away. I could if I was angry enough, but I was still out of it from being knocked unconscious.
"Welcome to Di Rotti Farms." Emilio said. "Here are your lovely accommodations for the night." He said leading me into the pigpen.
I fought them, but they managed to handcuff me to a fence post of the pigpen with my arms behind me.
"How you like me now, Davie?" Josh taunted me.
"About as well as I did before," I said, "which is not at all!"
"Shhhhh. Don't be shoutin'. You'll disturb your roommates."
My roommates were about fifteen pigs. Josh pointed to a particularly large and fat one. "This here is Guts."
"And they say people don't look like their pets." I quipped back.
"I raised Guts from a piglet. He's a good pig." Josh explained. Stupid Rednecks are always toting around their farm animals as if they were their children. "Guts is my prize hog."
"Does that mean you buy him dinner first?"
Emilio answered my question with a punch to the stomach. Emilio then faced me.
"David Hunting? Congratulations, Hombre. You are this year's Señor Stinko!" Emilio said to me as he blew smoke in my face, causing me to cough. "Here's your sombrero and your cigarette."
Chris put a sombrero on my head and a cigarette in my mouth. He lit it for me. I took a puff and coughed, knocking the cigarette into the mud.
"Happy Stinko de Mayo. See you in the morning." Emilio said to me as he walked away with a laughing Josh and a chuckling Chris. Regan turned her head behind her to glare at me.
For hours I tried to get free of the fence post. As the sun set and night fell, I tried to break it, lift it, anything. Cold wind was blowing and it eventually blew my sombrero off so that it landed near the trunk of a nearby tree.
I got so frustrated I kicked a sleeping pig. It squealed at the hit, but didn't do much else. I kicked it again and it got up and squealed louder at me. I kicked mud on its face and it decided to headbutt me in the balls. I went down. After a minute I got back up onto my feet and soccer-kicked the little piggy in the face. The pig hit another pig, and soon I had woken up the entire pen. They all started squealing like crazy and they began to stampede. They broke the gate that held them, and trampled everything, including me.
I think I passed out again. I woke up later; my entire body hurt, the stampede had broken both the post that held me and the handcuffs themselves, my arms were free. Apparently, no one in the Di Rotti house woke up from the stampede.
I slowly arose from the pile of pig shit, pig slop, and my own blood I was lying in and stood up. One pig remained in the pen. Guts.
I looked on the ground and there was a piece of the wooden fence lying around. It looked like a stake. I picked it up and made my way toward Guts.
As the sun rose, Chris, Emilio, Josh, and Regan came out of the house to check up on me. When they saw that not only was I not there, but the pigs were gone too, they freaked out.
"Shit! The pigs are loose!" Josh said.
"Where do you suppose David went?" Chris asked.
I was up in the tree with a sombrero full of surprise.
When my four captors came close to the tree I let loose the contents of the sombrero.
They were showered in pig's blood and guts. Guts' guts.
Regan started to scream. The others all shouted variations of 'what the fuck?'. I jumped out of the tree and threw something at Josh. Josh caught it and then realized what he caught. Guts' head.
He started screaming like a banshee. Chris rushed me, but I was sufficiently pissed and awake enough to lay him out in one swing. Emilio rushed at me, and since I didn't think I could take him on, I pulled out the stake I'd used to kill Guts and stabbed Emilio in the side. He cried out in disbelieving pain and went down like a ton of bricks.
"YOU STABBED ME! MOTHERFUCKER, YOU STABBED ME!"
Josh was on his knees now, still crying at Guts' head. He felt me approach him and he backed up and glared at me. He's glared at me before, but there was something new in his eyes. Fear.
And I liked it.
I looked at Regan. She wasn't even aware that I was there, she was running around covered in pig blood like a woman possessed. I looked once more at the weeping Josh and I threw my pack of cigarettes at him. I decided to quit smoking.
I limped away from the Di Rotti farm, following Sparkling River to the main part of town. You'd think it would be the pig shit that would be the most overpowering smell, but it wasn't. It was the pig blood. I got covered in it when I slaughtered Guts. I saw a bicycle ride toward me. I recognized the rider. John.
John saw me and stopped. I stopped walking.
"Jesus! What happened?"
"I'm Señor Stinko." I said, I decided I didn't want to be covered in blood anymore and I waded into the river.
"Whose blood is that?" John asked me tentatively.
"It's pig blood." I reassured him as I washed the crap off me. The waters of Crystal Clear Water were in fact crystal clear. I looked in them and I saw my reflection.
I didn't like what I saw.
I came up out of the water, sopping wet and freezing. I looked at John and he had this look of fear on his face.
"In six weeks, I am gone. You all can forget I was ever here." I said.
"We'll never forget you were here." John said.
By the time I had walked home, I was nearly frozen to death, but that was the least of my worries. My parents didn't even realize I was gone, dumb fucks.
I took a warm shower to get my body temperature up and to get rid of any remaining blood and shit. I stood there naked in the shower as the soothing water ran over me, with my head against the wall, wondering what I had done.
My father promised that this next move would be the last one, so I made a deal with myself, once I get to Georgia, to not be so 'David-like' and to actually build a life. Start over. That way, I wouldn't have to hate myself anymore.
I was never charged with anything. I really should have been, but I guess no one wanted to admit that the Captain of the Football Team was stabbed by an eighth-grader. Or maybe they were afraid of me.
That's okay, so was I.
July 24, 2000
I was in a mood. Not a pissy one. I was very lonely. I had been traveling for four days by myself in zero-space with only Ayla as company, and ever since "The David Hunting Show" incident, I've been afraid of being left alone to my own devices.
The thing that I was afraid of most, Stephanie, has been defeated, so now I'm afraid the monster that defeated her. Me.
And I realized that the person I've hated most in world has never been Sub-visser 509, Jake, Visser Three, Brett Taggert, or even my father.
It was me.
I have always been a loner. Long before the Animorphs. I didn't make many efforts to make friends in the myriad of cities I've lived in. Except Peach Haven, and by accident, California, New Jersey.
But now I see clearly what happens when I'm alone, away from the eyes of friends, where I needn't account for myself, and it was the lack of accountability that does me in. Away from the eyes of friends I've done horrible things.
I've beaten a controller's face unrecognizable. I've viciously attacked my father. I've viciously attacked andalites for no good reason. I've used horrible secrets against rivals.
What I did to Visser Three was the first time I let my friends see, but that was for everyone to see. I don't know how many eyes it opened, but it certainly opened mine.
I couldn't tell Melissa what I had done. I broadcasted it for all the Yeerks to see. I boasted of it in front of the Animorphs, and yet when it came to tell the one person whose opinion matters most to me, I couldn't. Because I was ashamed.
Melissa. I couldn't believe she saved my life three times, and all without the morphing power.
If she had the morphing power, she'd be a formidable force. It's just . . . . I don't know. Our relationship has been strange. Now she thinks she loves me. And I don't know if I do. Or if I ever will. It makes me wonder if we have a future.
And then I think about Stephanie. I still have feelings for her, and despite the sub-visser's claim that it was her in Stephanie's head that made me feel true love, I wasn't sure. Could she have been lying? Is that what she meant when she said she was ready to tell the truth?
"We are now leaving Z-space." Ayla announced. As we translated into real space, I realized we had nearly landed on top of the planet. "Estimated time of arrival: eighty minutes."
I decided to check up on our special guest. On the lower deck, next to the Cold Pod room, I've established what I call the Holo Pod room. Using Pemalite technology, I can suspend someone in a zero gravity field, and through further holographic technology, the someone in question would have no idea that they weren't where they thought they were. What is this good for? Animals of course. Currently, the leopard I captured is the only permanent resident, with the buffalo a temporary one.
We entered the Hork-Bajir atmosphere and prepared to make our way to Quafijinivon's lab. I had called ahead, and Quafijinivon told me that the newly created Neo-Hork-Bajir had been able to secure a small area on the surface with which I could park Proteus. I found the field, but it was a tight squeeze. I saw Hork-Bajir running around down there. I prepared Bone for exiting the ship. I got him out of his Holo Pod, and he looked at me funny. He started to morph into human and I told him "no". He understands that word. I led him out of the Holo Pod room, through the twists and turns of my ship, and to the side hatch. As soon as we opened the door, twelve strangely colored Hork-Bajir leveled Dracon Beams at us.
"All right. What'd I do?" I ask.
"Greet tal no noz?" said one of the Hork-Bajir, a female.
These Hork-Bajir were different. Normal Hork-Bajir are greenish brown, these guys were bluish-purple!
"Yes, he is, and we should speak English for our guests." Said a new Hork-Bajir voice. The Neo-Hork-Bajir put down their dracon beams and a regular Hork-Bajir stepped forward. He looked at me with appreciation in his Hork-Bajir eyes.
"Mr. Hunting. When you said you were coming, we were expecting a Bug Fighter." Said the Hork-Bajir. "Not an entire Blade Ship. Especially one so . . . oddly colored."
I point to the purple Hork-Bajir. "My ship is oddly colored?"
"You'll have to talk with Quafijinivon about that." He said cordially.
"I plan to."
"I saw you once before at the colony on Earth, but did not introduce myself." Said the Hork-Bajir. "I had other things on my mind at the time, but it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"You speak eloquently for a Hork-Bajir." I said.
"It is not the Hork-Bajir that is talking." Admitted the Hork-Bajir. Or should I say, Hork-Bajir-Controller.
"You are a controller?"
"Yes. For the time being. Walk with me, Mr. Hunting, and we will talk of many things."
"I came to speak with Quafijinivon." I insisted, motioning to Bone to follow me.
"I will lead you and your animal to him."
The Neo-Hork-Bajir had built a shuttle train that goes from the surface to Quafijinivon's lab, so we arrived in a matter of minutes.
"How can you hold this fort down?" I ask during the ride. "Why haven't the Yeerks blasted it away?"
"We take great pains to conceal it from them. And we have fought bitterly for it." Said the Hork-Bajir-Controller.
When we arrived I saw that there were other normal Hork-Bajir running around doing things. There were also humans!
As I led Bone to the lab, a middle aged woman approached me and grabbed my hand as we walked.
"God Bless you, David Hunting. What you and the other Animorphs are doing is a Godsend for our planet. It is righteous that you fight them, but remember peace."
"Um . . . thank you? I will." I answered and she smiled and left me to go about her business. "Freed hosts?" I asked the controller.
"Yes. We capture as many as we can and kill few. We try to get the yeerks to surrender to us, but some will not, and they die of Kandrona starvation." The controller said with pain in his voice.
"This pains you, yeerk?" I asked.
"Of course. They are my brethren. I cannot convince them that your and Quafijinivon's vision is the only way. They continue to choose the wrong way because it is all they know." Said the controller. "And my name is Kirag four-one-zero, by the way, and this is my gracious host, Laet Caffaj" He said motioning to his Hork-Bajir body.
"Pleasure to meet you, Kirag, and um, you too, Laet? I take it he's voluntary."
"A noble self-sacrifice." Kirag said. I have never heard a yeerk speak so well of his host before. "He is a good person."
Bone wiggled his head.
We arrived at Quafijinivion's lab and I called out to him. "Quafijinivon?"
"David Hunting!" said the old Arn as he walked out. "What is this chore you have for me? I am still busy trying to design our great vision."
"It's this buffalo. It accidentally acquired the morphing power, acquired a few sentient morphs, and well now it's a freak of nature. It can't control the morphing nor understand what's happening because it isn't sentient . . ."
"Ah, I see. Say no more, I will fix the problem." The Arn said confidently. "What a magnificent animal. May I sample its DNA? It would be most helpful to my research and the war effort."
"I don't see why not." I said.
"It will take me a day to complete this. Feel free to take refuge in our colony. I am very excited. Hojerval'c! Dr. Mercer! Assist me please!"
A neo-hork-bajir and a fifty-year-old human rushed to the side of the old arn. They led Bone into the inner part of the lab. Hopefully, they'll find a way to take away his morphing power. That way he'll just be a regular buffalo again. I hope.
"Do you need my help, Quafijinivon?" Kirag asked.
"No, Kirag. You have not slept since your feeding cycle. You will tire Laet out, not to mention yourself."
"You have not slept either, Mentor."
"I will sleep when I am dead. That day is rapidly approaching. Go, Kirag."
"Mentor?" I asked.
"I have learned a lot from Quafijinivon." Kirag said.
"You said you saw me at the colony on Earth." I said.
"Yes, please let us get somewhere less chaotic and I will tell you my story."
We went inside one of the Arn-made rooms. The room had definitely benefited from the humans they've freed. It had decorated to give it a warm, human touch.
I sat down on a soft couch made of who knows what while Kirag sat in a stone chair and told me his story.
"I was stationed on Earth. I worked directly under Visser Three as part of his science division. My specialty was biotechnology. My host was involuntary, a human scientist named John Rochelli."
"Do they usually do that? Put yeerks with hosts that are like them?"
"Yes, they hope that human curiosity will make them complacent to our control. In John's case, it worked to an extent. He hated me for imprisoning him, but was fascinated by our technology and science. He loved watching me work, while loathing me at the same time.
"I did good work for the Empire. I mutated a life-form we found on Saturn to pick up morphing energy. I helped inoculate our people for thousands of annoying Earth viruses and infections. I created a way to mutate sharks as to create shock troops for Leera. I got to work under Visser One that time; she is only slightly less monstrous than Visser Three.
"But then Visser Three started getting insane. He made me work on a formula to take away human's free will. I knew it could not work. I knew it was impossible. My years of trying to quell John's hatred of me were proof positive of that, but the Visser wouldn't listen.
"But the last straw, was when Visser Three told me to make the Hork-Bajir amphibious. I didn't want to do it, but they made me. I told them my ideas, but something got lost in translation. Maybe I made a miscalculation, maybe Visser Three's impatience made us sloppy. Either way, it was a disaster."
"I know. I saw him." I said.
"Yes, well. I refused to mutate anymore Hork-Bajir. Then the rebels came to free the Hork-Bajir. I lead them to the cage where we kept them. One of the hork-bajir in that cage was Laet Caffaj. The other human-controllers there started to shoot human guns at Jara Hamee and his warriors. In the crossfire, I was shot by one of the human bullets in the stomach. Perhaps accidentally, perhaps on purpose, I'm not sure. I had betrayed my fellow yeerks, so perhaps I deserved it. John was slowly dying. His wounds were fatal. I was content to die with John (a better death than I deserved), when Laet Caffaj came to me and tried to save me. I told him to leave me; I was going to die anyway.
"Then the strangest thing happened. John insisted that I leave him and carry on without him. John practically commanded me to devote the rest of my life to freeing people from the Yeerk Empire. Including the yeerks themselves. Imagine that! A host commanding his yeerk. I repeated his command out loud for Laet to hear and another strange thing happened. Laet offered his body to me. Laet told me to use his body, escape, and help free Hork-Bajir.
"I did not want to, but I decided that my life was not my own anymore. I had to serve my Penance for imprisoning John, and if Laet wanted to help than he would. I entered Laet and took control. I grabbed John's dying body and left the compound following Jara Hamee to the colony.
"Forever I will be glad that John was still alive when we made it to the valley. He got to see the free Hork-Bajir. It was the last thing he ever saw. I buried him there in the colony. A human grave amongst Hork-Bajir. Freedom fighters all.
"Toby told me of the experiments being done by Quafijinivon. I decided I had to get there somehow."
"How'd you make it?" I asked.
"Luck. That's the only explanation I can give. I was lucky." Karig said. "I really should've been caught."
"So what do you do?" I asked.
"I have been teaching the Neo-Hork-Bajir English mostly. I've also helped out Quafijinivion. That has been exciting. All of my great yeerk biotechnology is a baby's toy compared to the sophistication of Quafijinivon's work. And thanks to me and the human Tony Mercer and one of the neo-hork-bajir named Hojerval'c Kasaldra, the technology will not die with him."
"Hojerval'c Kasaldra? That's a strange name for a Hork-Bajir." I said.
"We let the neo-hork-bajir name themselves. Hojerval'c took that name because it's a mesh of hoji (which means big), dervel (which means brain), and nal'c (which means strength). He took Kasaldra because it's a mesh of Cassie and Aldrea, whom you are familiar with."
"Nice." I said. "If I were to tell Cassie she had Hork-Bajir named after her, she'd be humbled and embarrassed."
"I mostly have been helping Quafijinivon with your vision. I have attempted to control several different versions, but they all had some sort of flaw. We should be able to have a perfected specimen soon, and then Laet will be free."
"How does Laet feel about the arrangement?" I asked.
Karig snorted. "It was his idea. Sometimes, if he has a desire to fly through the trees, I'll empty myself in my private yeerk pool and just chill out until Laet comes back for me. He always comes back."
"That's awfully trusting of your host."
Karig snorted again. "If he left me bodiless in my pool, that would a fair—" Karig began to cut himself down again when he stopped mid-sentence.
"What?"
Karig fidgeted like he was embarrassed. "Laet has asked me not to speak so negatively about myself."
I started laughing. "You two are so weird, you deserve your own TV show."
Karig laughed. "John and I did both enjoy 'The Odd Couple'"
"With all the free humans and hork-bajir running around, how many yeerks have you gotten to surrender?"
"Twenty-four, though I have no way of knowing whether it is true surrender or possible mutiny."
"I have some yeerk technology on my ship, the ones used for memory dumps. I can give you some of that."
"Thank you; that would be of great help to us."
"I also have nine yeerks who have surrendered to me. One is very enthusiastic about this. The others not so much. Maybe they'll be safer here."
"Hmmm, yes. Quite." Karig said to himself. He got up and headed to a panel on the wall. He touched a button and began speaking into the panel. "Nomar? Can I see you?"
A minute later, a neo-hork-bajir stood in the doorway. "Yes, Karig, you wished to see me?"
"Nomar Jaraket, will you please take some of your troops and a yeerk-case and follow Mr. Hunting to his ship. Collect the nine yeerks who have surrendered to our cause and transfer them to our yeerk pool. Mr. Hunting will also give you some technology. Deliver that directly to my quarters."
"Yes sir." Nomar said as he left.
"David Hunting, this is where we part for the night. I'm going to get that sleep that Quafijinivon so delicately recommended. The sun is about to set over our planet, it maybe time for you to sleep as well."
"Maybe. Good night, Karig." I said.
I made my way to the shuttle that would take me to where Proteus was. I was met by Nomar Jaraket and three other Hork-Bajir. A Neo and a regular-hork-bajir (regular hork-bajir as a race I learned later were referred to as Unas) carried what looked like a cooler between them. We boarded the shuttle and I noticed what was conducting it. A Gedd.
"You've freed Gedd-controllers?" I asked Nomar.
"Yes, the Gedds are, in their natural state, far worse then are Unas cousins," Nomar explained, "but some, like Haw'ee here have benefited from Quafijinivon's treatments."
"rrr-You got rrr-that rrrr-right." Said the Gedd, whose name might be Haw'ee.
"You mutated them?" I asked.
"Only those that wanted it." Said Nomar.
We got to Proteus and Nomar's troops took the nine yeerks. I handed Nomar an extra set of the yeerk memory dump technology. Then I went to bed.
We raced through the castle. I was falling behind the others. The Paladin rode atop a blue horse, but the horse had the head and tail of a dragon. A small gnome in jester's clothing was riding on the rump of the dragon-horse, giggling away. The witch with the pale features and the black garb floated along side the Paladin with her own magic. A small dark-skinned fairy flew about the Paladin.
"Dark Knight! Hurry! We must escape here!" the Paladin cried out to me.
Trolls appeared. Big, ugly, stone-skinned things. The trolls faced us and were about to charge when something dropped on them from the sky. It was a man with bird-like features. Legs like a bird, a head like a bird, but a torso and arms like a man. He had large wings sprouting out of his back. He carried a mace.
"Thank you, Avian." Said the Paladin.
"No problem." Said the Avian.
"We attack!" said the Paladin.
"This is insane!" said the gnome.
"Let's do it!" said the witch.
We began to attack the trolls. The Paladin crushed many a troll with is battle axe, his orange and black striped cape billowing in magnificence. His blue dragon-horse, dispatched trolls with its mighty tail. The Witch blasted the trolls with her violent, dark magic. The gnome fought acrobatically, confusing the trolls. The avian flew and bashed trolls with his mace. The Fairy dispatched the trolls with her harmless sleep enchantments or by bounding them with flowery vines.
I drew my gigantic, bejeweled sword and swung at the trolls. I would miss and hit the walls of the castle, removing chunks of stone.
"Be careful Dark Knight, you'll destroy us all!" warned the Paladin.
We vanquished the trolls and continued to make our escape. I saw a princess in an open and empty dining hall.
"I will go for the princess!" I said.
"Let us help you." Said the Avian.
"I will go alone." I insist.
"We must leave now." Said the Paladin as he rode away.
I entered the dining hall; I approached the princess, her white, royal robes hugging her curvy form. She looked at me, smiled, and laughed a bubbly laugh.
Then she turned into a pile of Yellow Sludge with an evil face! The sludge shot out its arms at me. I attempted to slice them off with my sword, but they kept coming. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder.
I turned around to face an amazon warrior. She had grey eyes and pale, blond hair. She threw a flying 'circle-thing' disc weapon at the sludge monster, driving it back. "Dark Knight, we must leave now." She said.
I followed her out when I heard the cries of the sludge monster. Inside the sludge monster, the real princess was trying to get out!
"Wait! I want to go back to the princess!" I cried out.
The amazon grabbed me. "No, stay with me!"
A blinding green light filled the hall. "David!" said the light.
I woke up. I looked around my quarters. I was in Proteus, my home.
"Whaaa." I said as I slowly pulled my brain from the quicksand of slumberland. "Ayla?"
"Yes, David, you told me to wake you when the sun rose. Point of interest, night is 13 hours here."
I shot up. "Really?" I asked. I'd slept for 13 hours? Then why did I feel so damn . . . . not rested? I remember having a dream, but I forgot what it was.
I got up, got dressed, and left the ship. The morning dew of the Hork-Bajir world smelled very nice, and around my ship there was activity. Neo and Unas Hork-Bajir were working. Humans and Gedds were also doing something. They appeared to be trying to get the attention of the others. As if some big announcement was about to be made.
I walked to the growing crowd and I approached a human man.
"What's going on?" I asked him.
"Mr. Hunting! Um, Hojerval'c Kasaldra has an announcement to make."
"$Good Morning, my fellow Hork-Bajir. Good Morning, friendly Gedds!$" started the neo Hork-Bajir in Galard, then switching to English, "Good Morning, friendly Humans. This is truly a good day for us. As you know, our home is under constant threat of attack from the unenlightened yeerks."
"Unenlightened?" I repeated. Man, they must have really bought in my idea.
"As such," Hojerval'c continued, "our great leader, Quafijinivon, is a little busy working on 'more important matters' to create suitable protectors for us."
'More important matters' got a few knowing chuckles from the mixed audience of humans, hork-bajir, and gedds. I realized that Quafijinivon must have told them about my Ultimate Solution.
"However, thanks to an appropriate template DNA sample supplied to us by the Animorph David Hunting," Hojerval'c continued, causing me to cringe at the reference to me as an Animorph. I didn't feel like I deserved to be called that, "the human Tony Mercer and I have lifted the burden off our beloved leader and solved this problem. Tony?"
"Thank you, Hojerval'c." Started the human named Tony Mercer, a black male in his fifties. "In the tradition of the monsters of Father Deep, I present to you: the Buffa-Titans!"
The ground shook as five figures came into view. The creatures were at least fifty feet tall! And they looked just like greek minotaurs. They stood on hooved legs about the size of tree trunks. They had a wispy buffalo tail and two humanoid arms. Their heads were completely buffalo, including horns.
What the hell did I start?
"Our friends: Hyperion, Koios, Romulus, Typhon, and Saturn!" Tony introduced as each Buffa-Titan stood at attention at the prompt of their individual names. Besides subtle height and build differences, the only way to tell them apart was what appeared to be colored ascots around their necks. Saturn wore orange, Hyperion wore blue, Koios wore yellow, Romulus wore purplre, and Typhon wore dark green.
What the fuck did I start?
The audience clapped and cheered and then went about their business. The Buffa-Titans just stood there looking around. The one called Koios seemed to be preoccupied with a tree branch directly above his head and kept pulling at it.
What did I do? I brought that Cape Buffalo here to fix him and keep him from morphing again, and I inspire some crackpot human scientist with alien technology to create monsters? I went to go talk to the human named Tony Mercer.
"Dr. Mercer, can I have a word with you?"
"Mr. Hunting." Tony greeted me. "My my. When they told us you were I child, I didn't believe them, but you don't look any older than my son."
I ignored his nostalgia and launched into a verbal attack. "What the fuck is the Frankenstein shit? What are you doing creating monsters like this?"
"We needed protectors." Hojerval'c answered as if he didn't understand why I was disgusted. "All the original DNA blueprints of the old monsters were destroyed. With the DNA from the buffalo, we were able to create new ones from scratch."
"If you needed protectors, build robots. Don't play God."
"David, as a fellow human you understand how technology is prone to misuse. They lack discernment. Now animals on the other hand . . ." Tony rationalized.
"Are these things even sentient?" I asked.
"Barely. They understand their purpose." Tony answered. "I thought you would approve. You, the designer of that rather ingenious creation our Leader is trying to engineer."
"No! That and this are two way different things. How the hell did you make five giants in thirteen hours?"
"It really isn't that hard." Hojerval'c said. "Age and maturation is relative. I myself, if I were a Unas Hork-Bajir, would still be only about two feet high, not the six feet I am now."
"Did Quafijinivon approve this?" I asked.
"We don't bother him for minor things."
"You call this minor?" I yelled practically hysterical. I'm always worried about the consequences of my actions. If I never brought Bone to this planet, Tony Mercer and the young neo Hork-Bajir would never have created these things. Is this the catalyst that destroys the Universe? Is this how I fulfill the prophecy of the Beast? Not by playing God myself, but by inspiring others to play God?
"I want to talk to Quafijinivon." I insisted.
"The Leader is still experimenting. We are not to disturb him." Hojerval'c said.
"Fuck that. Let me speak to him."
A few minutes later I was face to face with the last arn in the universe. "Quafijinivon! Do you know what your lab monkeys have done?"
"No, I don't. I can't keep track of them when I'm spending all my time trying to engineer your Ultimate Solution, especially when I'm distracted by a simple, but time-consuming chore given to me by you, which, by the way, was a complete success." Quafijinivon answered laying the snide a little. He then switched to sarcasm. "Don't worry, no thanks are necessary. You're welcome."
"Sorry. It's just that, they've just created five sentient monsters to be used as basically living shields against the Yeerks. I mean, what did you start?"
"Me? This is all your fault!"
"My fault? How is this my fault? I've been on Earth."
"The Neo Hork-Bajir found out what I was working on and they became inspired to help carry out your vision. They were suddenly overwhelmed with the notion that it was their job to 'enlighten' the yeerks to the new way. To end the war. It wasn't my idea to turn this place into a refugee camp for every ruttin alien the yeerks happen to lose. It was you that inspired that. I just wanted to create a little group of Hork-Bajir warriors to give them just a little chance to claim their planet back, but no! You had to seduce me into making your Ultimate Solution which has turned my humble band of freedom fighters into some intergalactic Underground Runway."
"I think you mean Underground Railroad."
"Whatever!"
"This is all my fault." I realized.
"You say that like this is a bad thing." Quafijinivon said, sounding genuinely concerned.
"I'm just worried about what this will do in the long run. I mean, have we really considered what this will do? We're going to turn yeerk against yeerk."
"It's too late now. You've set the wheels in motion. Besides, even if it was your idea, it's not your call to make. This is not your planet, human. It belongs to the Hork-Bajir."
"I guess you're right." I said. "So, you fixed the Buffalo?"
"Yes."
Good, now it can't morph anymore.
"Are you sure?" I asked.
Quafijinivon sighed in annoyance. "Yes, of course I'm sure. He was able to acquire and morph a number of animals without problem."
"Wait . . . what? What do you mean he's morphing? Why's he morphing?" I asked.
"I don't understand. You told me that he was not sentient so he couldn't control his morphing, so you wanted me to . . . ."
"Take away his morphing power!" I said.
" . . . . . . oh." Quafijinivon said. "Oops."
"What 'oops'?"
"I misunderstood. I thought you meant that he was not sentient and couldn't control his morphing. So I . . . . . ." Quafijinivon wavered, ". . . . made him sentient."
"What!" I screamed.
Just then, two Buffa-Titans came into the lab. They were smaller versions of the five giants I had met earlier, only about 7 feet tall. Still, they were humongous enough.
The two 'Mini-Titans' were wrestling and fighting roughly. They were identical. One had a lime green ascot on. The other had no ascot. I guessed that one was Bone.
What did they do to him?
Bone knocked the Mini-Titan down violently and the defeated beast did not rise.
((Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!)) said a thought-speech voice. ((You Lose! I am Master!))