Shift - Arbron

As it turned out, the three sstram controllers were the highest-ranking yeerks at the secondary port, and were all from the same pool. Somehow, they were almost… cordial in their questioning.

"I suppose we are done, taxxon," said the robed sstram, turning to the two on its left. "Yes?"

The black-garbed sstram nodded. "But to be sure, we'll be keeping a close eye on you."

"Which is why," the sstram in the green outfit continued, "you'll be reassigned to our personal taxxon guard unit."

Icy tendrils of fear stretched out and wrapped themselves around my heart as I digested the meaning of their words.

"Seee?" was all I could say, what with my mind being a complete mess at that point in time.

As one, the three of them started laughing.

Mere hours later, we were on a Blade Ship, with the taxxon world growing smaller in the transparisteel viewport. The three Sub-Vissers had not bothered to share our destination with me, which did wonders for worsening my anxiety. My future was as uncertain as a djabala's moods, and not for the twentieth time, I wondered if they were taking me away to be interrogated.

The Living Hive remained silent. While I could feel the pulsations of its presence at the edge of my mind like the errant thought-speak of an andalite child that was being disciplined, it chose to say nothing.

I resolved to do the same, even if it was to cost me my life.

xxx

"- interestingly enough, the taxxon species possesses a hive mind in addition to each individual's sentient intelligence. The individual taxxon is apparently capable of voluntarily immersing its consciousness within this… …isolating itself from it.

"The mechanics of this bizarre dual state of consciousness is claimed by the hive mind itself to be a relic of taxxon evolution. According to interviewed individuals under the influence of the hive mind, the species originally was entirely reliant on a centralized consciousness to survive in the wake of an asteroid impact… … the extreme conditions, the hive mind induced a pathological fear of starvation in the species as a pre-emptive measure towards its own survival.

"Over time, however, the development of sentience in the taxxons led to increased independence… …worship of this primitive common intelligence... …the species' alleged evolutionary roots as one with a hive mind are evident in how the taxxons' inherent gluttony can be disabled only by the hive mind, as well as the distinct lack of emotions… …periods of time outside of the hive mind's influence.

"Curiously enough, the hive mind appears to be more than a mere telepathic phenomenon. Provided more than one taxxon is within a reasonable distance of another – the bounds of which are unclear – even taxxons entire solar systems apart are reportedly capable of tapping into the hive mind. Such incidents suggest that this 'hive mind' is possibly a form of synergism of telepathic energy between taxxons as opposed to the conventional hive mind (as demonstrated by the helmacrons).

"Still… how does the Living Hive's personality make it across the dark morasses of space between worlds? This-"

- Arbron's hirac delest, File 3 of 13. Partial document recovered and archived by the Institute of British Exo-Datalogists, circa 2015.

xxx

Strangely enough, I was not killed by the Sub-Vissers, or anyone else under their command. A few years of taxxon time passed, maybe a few decades of andalite time, and only goodness knows how long it was in terms of any other planet's orbit. But time went by, without us ever returning to the taxxon world.

They had dealt with the supposed rebellion as best they could, and had somehow decided to keep me as an assistant despite the lack of a yeerk in my head. Oh, they did try to pry into my mind, but their lack of knowledge of the Living Hive's powers ensured that their efforts were futile. Curiously enough, they never did figure out that the Living Hive could only be invoked if there was at least one other taxxon close at hand, and so their attempts at probing taxxon minds with all sorts of machinery ultimately failed.

Something deep inside me suspected that they knew what I was, though. Perhaps not exactly, but they definitely knew more than they were letting on. My suspicions were confirmed when one day they summoned me to the laboratory on their personal Pool Ship. I was delivered to the main dock, and instructed by a nahara technician to head to the main research complex, where the three sstram were waiting for me.

They had never summoned me to their personal laboratories before.

And yes, they commanded a Pool Ship between the three of them. It usually orbited the sstram home world, and was, as far as I could gather, the mobile location for all of the Yeerk Empire's most current scientific research. Within its sterilized corridors, laboratories and chambers lay an unthinkable arsenal of biological as well as chemical weapons – several thousand tons of concentrated death.

I walked past eerily silent laboratories and specimen cells, seeing things I wished I could erase from my memory. Clearly, they were well along their plague research, as well as their surgical experiments. About halfway to the laboratory, I saw a pair of hork bajir wheeling out a mak on a metal trolley – its thorax had been cut open to reveal what appeared to be a mass of squirming larvae.

A wave of nausea surged up in my gut and believe me it takes a lot to override the taxxon's natural immunity to nausea. It was with great relief that I finally found myself at the main laboratory, just a short walk away from the main pool.

The blast doors to the laboratory slid open, revealing a cavernous chamber fitted with what looked like scientific equipment pilfered and assembled from a dozen worlds and civilisations. After taking in the sights with my compound eyes, I saw the three of them standing behind a strange, yellow creature with a squat body. It had been chained to the deck, and its large, glowing eyes were bulging in their sockets.

Andalite!

What remained of my days as an exo-datalogist matched a name to the strange-looking creature. A leeran, of all species.

A telepath.

"Are you sure?" asked the robed sstram, which I now knew as Orvak two-seven-two, or Sub-Visser Fifty. He was the second of the triplets.

Orvak two-seven-three, the triplet who preferred black clothing, shrugged. "Better be sure, leeran, or we'll flush you out of an airlock."

The psychic amphibian gaped at them, and its eyes flashed. Beneath its wide maw, four tentacles flailed about and curled in on themselves, as if it were mulling over a particularly troubling though. After a while, it nodded.

Andalite. This time, though, it sounded less convinced.

All four of them directed their gazes in my direction, and waited for my reply. Seconds went by sluggishly, as I tried to reconcile the thoughts flashing through my mind with the web of carefully-woven lies I'd told them over the last few years. Dutifully, I walked up to the translator pad on the wall, and tapped out my rebuttal to the leeran's outburst.

"It. Saw. Memories. Taxxon. World. Port. Attack. Pool. Ship. Esplin."

Even I was surprised when the rudimentary lie detection apparatus Orvak two-seven-one deployed right after that declared me to be telling the truth. Of course, there were other taxxons on the Pool Ship, but I had learned from past experience that most of their devices worked to an appreciable extent. Later that day when I was helping them apply electrodes to the leeran's brain, I still felt more than a little guilty.

When I found out that they'd purchased the leeran from a Skrit Na trader, and that the leeran had actually been mentally unstable, I felt a little less guilty.

The abrupt shift in my state of emotions worried me. Was I turning into a feral taxxon?

Living Hive… speak to me.

Please.

xxx

"- taxxons lies in their mental ability, the anati are physically unique. Capable of surviving in the most brutal of environments, the anati are uniquely adapted to their world's extreme climate conditions.

"Most worlds… … four seasons… …Anati's atmosphere pulled back by tidal forces exerted by its seven moons… four seasons of varying intensity! Sandstorms… …scorching sunny seasons where the desert sands are molten and winters where metal ores shatter… …even entire days when the atmosphere is rolled back and the planet's surface is exposed to the vacuum of space.

"This… … of a flexible exoskeleton in the anati species. The plates of their exoskeletons are heavily reinforced by a mineral-rich diet, leading to incredible durability which allows them to hermetically seal themselves within their own natural armour. Anati specimens have demonstrated tolerance of both freezing and melting conditions, the vacuum of space… …intense atmospheric pressure of… …prolonged submersion, and even… … Dracon blasts up to and including setting six.

"Infestation is proving… … difficult. Slow metabolisms and the ability to seal their entire internal physiology off from their environment… …specimens to date only successfully infested after being forcefully detained in an airless environment for one Standard week.

"- One is arriving tomorrow."

- Arbron's hirac delest, File 10 of 13. Partial document recovered and archived by the Institute of British Exo-Datalogists, circa 2017.