So I finally finished the second chapter. I hope you like it.
This chapter is dedicated to my brother Max, since it's his birthday today.
Disclaimer: I don't own Animorphs.
Loren's story – chapter 2: Great, more aliens
I hurried down a narrow hallway, which was still lit by the blinking I passed a huge cocoon. What was that supposed to be? Were they raising giant butterflies?
Slowly a plan stared to form in my mind: I would look for the bridge or for whoever flew this ship. Then I would somehow convince them to fly back to earth and let the boy and me go – preferably near a hospital, for the boy's sake.
I knew this plan still wasn't perfect – there were still many problems left, like: How could I tell them what I wanted since they obviously didn't speak English? And why should they even want to help me?
But I didn't worry about that right now – I'd figure something out when I reached the bridge.
Whenever I saw an open door I looked inside. I thought that way I'd find the bridge sometime.
After about half an hour, I'd found a few smaller storage rooms, some filled with stuff from earth, others with things I didn't recognize – I guessed these were from other planets. Twice I came across rooms which I thought were private quarters.
A while after I had passed the last of these I noticed that boxes started to show up along the hallway. Even through I didn't know what that meant I decided to take it as a good sign – at least it was a little change.
A few minutes later I notice another door straight ahead. But this time I was sure I had finally reached the bridge: Huge windows showed the stars outside, different screens hung on the walls and technical looking devices stood below them all.
As far as I was able to see, five aliens were in the room, two of the cockroaches and three like the one one in the clearing. So my first guess had been right and they really worked together.
Since none of the aliens was looking in my direction I managed to sneak quietly onto the bridge.
Once I was there I quickly hid behind another one of the boxes. Now all I had to do was to find a way to convince them to fly back to earth.
Alright, Loren, I told myself. First step: What do you know?
That was close to nothing: I had been kidnapped by two alien races. They worked together, even through the cockroaches appeared to work for the others, judging from the way they were ignored and what they did: one was cleaning up for example. The other three all seemed to be in higher positions, but there was only one among them who carried a weapon, so I guessed that this one was the captain. The weapon itself looked pretty much like the one I had been shot with in the clearing. If I could only get hold of it somehow. That would probably make them listen.
I needed a distraction. There had to be a way …
Suddenly the whole ship shook. The aliens seemed to be taken aback by this. In an instant I jumped up. A second later I had crossed the room and I was holding the gun-thing, before the aliens even realized that I was there.
The captain froze when he noticed me pointing the weapon at him. He looked scared, but I wasn't sure – it was hard to tell emotions on an alien face. The other two like him also looked shocked and didn't move.
The only ones who didn't react to me in any way were the two cockroaches, who just kept working as if nothing had happened.
Could they really be that stupid that they didn't notice a girl attacking the bridge?
Well, that's not my business, anyway, I decided.
I looked the captain straight in the eyes and ignored the developing smoke – there definitely was some damage, maybe even in the engines. But I wouldn't change my plan.
"So Mr. Captain, you turn this ship around right now and get the boy and me back to earth or I'll shoot!"
I tried to sound as brave and determined as I could, but the alien just looked confused. Oh, right – they probably didn't speak English, like the one in the clearing.
Before I was able to think about an alternative plan, the alien suddenly focused on something behind and beside me. Great, what has happened now?
I turned around and saw – guess what? Two different aliens.
Just how many alien races were out there? I had been in space for not even half a day and here was the third one I encountered.
These two looked a lot like centaurs, except that they hadn't got mouths and seven fingers on each hand. Instead of a nose they had three vertical slits. But their eyes were more shocking: Two of them were right where you would expect therm and had a bright green color. The other two were stalk eyes on the top of their heads.
However, the worst thing was the tail. Each of them had a tail like a scorpion with a big, dangerous-looking blade on the end. Oh, and another thing: These aliens were blue.
The one who was slightly in front stepped forward.
"Freeze, horse-boy.", I told him.
Something about their looks made me sure that these two new aliens were males.
And they had these blades …
I pointed the weapon at the new aliens. After all, the others didn't have weapons anymore.
"One move and I pull the trigger. I don't know what this gun will do, but I'm willing to bet you won't like it."
I was really getting annoyed now. I had been thinking I had the situation under control, and now these two showed up ang everything changed.
Still I was determined to look as self-confident as possible.
The captain behind me said something, but of course I didn't understand a word. When I looked back at him he winked at the blue alien.
So, were they on the same side, too?
The others gave me a different impression: They didn't answer or react to him. In fact, they looked as if they didn't know what to do as well.
And then.. then blue alien in front looked straight at me and said (Um … whoever you are … whatever you are, don't fire that weapon. Put it down.)
Finally I understood someone. But put the weapon down? No way.
"Yeah, right." I answered. It was only then that I noticed something odd.
"Hey. Hey, wait a minute! I can hear you in my head, but you're not really talking."
That was strange. At least it explained how they could communicate without a mouth.
(I am in charge here,) he told me. (Drop the weapon!)
"No!" I wasn't going to be kidnapped by another alien race. There was no way I'd give in. "Uh-uh. Nope. I don't think so, horse-boy. I'm tired of being kidnapped and dragged off by giant cockroaches and little green men from Mars."
Now the other blue alien started talking, too.
(Excuse me, but we are here to rescue you) he told me.
(Exactly) the first one added. He spoke like I was a little child.
(What these Skrit Na have done to you is wrong. That's why we captured this ship.)
Before I could even react to this, the other one cut in again. (What little green men? They aren't green. The Na are grey.)
Man, as if I hadn't seen this myself. Did he have to take everything literally?
But that wasn't the point here. I narrowed my eyes and focused on the first alien.
"I'd already captured this ship before you two came along. Me and the other guy."
Well, I had to give him some credit. Without him I'd probably still be in the storage room.
"And we're both just kids, which shows you that these Martian jerks aren't all that tough. He's in the back, knocked out. The other guy, I mean. But I grabbed this gun away from Twinkie here"
The two newcomers looked at each other, then the first one addressed me again. (Well, we don't mean you any harm. How about this idea? You can keep the Dracon beam, just don't point it at anyone.)
Dracon beam? I looked down at the weapon. Strange name.
"It's called a Dracon beam, huh? What does it do?"
The second one answered right away: (It fires an energy beam which causes an exceedingly painful death. Which is why we'd really prefer it if you didn't fire it.)
„Oh. A phaser. Like on that old Star Trek show. I can't believe they took it off the air. Now it's just repeats."
What was I doing? Talking about Star Trek? They probably didn't even know what this is!
Exactly: They looked at each other and shook their heads.
Then the second one stepped forward and went over to the controls – at least I thought that's what these things were. The other one started talking to me again.
(If you come with us, we'll treat you well. And we'll return you to your home planet.)
"Earth?"
Return home? Back to my mom? That sounded pretty good.
(Is that the name of the third planet in this system?)
"Yeah."
Well, I hadn't been able to see if we were still in the right system, but I hoped so. And the third planet was definitely Earth.
(And you are an Earther?)
I almost laughed. These guys really didn't know anything about earth.
"Human. That's what we are: humans. Me and the other guy."
(And we are Andalites. My name is Elfangor. This is Arbron.) He pointed at the guy on the controls.
I looked the two Andalites – it was good to be able to finally call them by name – over again.
"You look like centaurs, only with scorpion tails. And the extra eyeballs up on top of your head ..."
They seemed to be alright. They had promised to take us home and had told me their names. Maybe I could trust them. Probably. I turned the weapon – the Dracon beam – round and held it out for Elfangor.
(Thank you) he told me and reached out to take it.
His fingers brushed mine and somehow this finally made me realize how unbelievable all of this was.
"My name is Loren. This is all kind of amazing. Most humans don't even believe in aliens. But, well, here you are. Real and everything. Unless I'm dreaming."
I still couldn't fully believe that this was real. Maybe I'd just wake up in my bed at home.
(Do humans dream?) Elfangor asked me. He sounded surprised. Did he really believe that some races didn't dream?
"I do", I answered him. "Every night"
There was something in his eyes and somehow I knew he was smiling. (So do I. But I suppose we have very different dreams.)
Now I had to smile, too. It was possible that our dreams were as different as our lives. But I had the strange feeling that there were things we had in common.
"Maybe", I told him. "Maybe not."
Please review and tell me what you think.