Chapter 7

Cassie looked down at the diamonds Rachel had put into her hand. "These are really pretty, sure. But they would seriously obliterate all the life on this planet for them? They would destroy all of the beauty in nature for rocks and metal?"

Marco looked at her like she was crazy. "Of course they would! What, are you new here?" He got up and started pacing, fired up. "Who do you think we're dealing with? Even the Nazis could be negotiated with. These are the Yeerks, Jack. They don't give a damn about anything that lives on this planet, especially humans. And I'll tell you another thing – I'd much rather them burn down the earth before making the entire human race a bunch of slaves."

Jake gave Marco a cool look. It wasn't even directed at me, and it made me feel chilly. "You need to relax," he said in the low, silky tone he uses when somebody's starting to make him mad. I saw why – while Marco had been ranting and raving, Cassie had started to cry. She wasn't weeping uncontrollably or anything, but the thought of everything on Earth dying in a hellacious ball of fire had started a few tears from her. Jake walked over and put his arm around her. "Don't worry, Cass. We'll stop them. It's what we do, right?" He tried a goofy smile on her, and it worked. She choked a laugh through her tears and gave him a grateful smile in return. And no one, not even Marco, made a comment about it.

Rachel had a weird look in her eye. It wasn't just the usual gung-ho attitude she carried around like a handbag; this was different. "Would it be such a bad thing if they decided to do that? I mean, it would take people a while to figure out what was going on, but eventually, they'd figure out the invaders are here and it's time to fight back, right?"

Ax and Erek, from two different races, somehow wore the same expression – pity. Erek, not oblivious to Cassie's discomfort, didn't want to go into details. "Yes, Rachel, it would be a bad thing. And the people wouldn't figure anything out until it was too late."

Rachel wasn't happy with that. "What do you mean? People are smarter than you think, Erek; when the Yeerks start vaporizing everything in sight, they'll figure it out."

Erek seemed to realize he was going to have to say it out loud, regardless of Cassie's feelings. "You don't understand, Rachel. The Yeerks aren't going to go door-to-door, shooting people. They're not even going to use that massive Dracon cannon on the Pool ship to wipe out whole cities. It'll be much, much cleaner – they'll simply set the sky on fire."

(What?) I blurted. I had expected something sort of like that, but not just a flat declaration of the impossible.

Erek turned to look at me, and he looked glad that I had finally grasped the seriousness of the situation. "They'll use quantum mechanics to set off a chain reaction. Earth's atmosphere has enough oxygen to catch fire, it just needs the right kind of spark. The Yeerks can do that. One second, the creatures of Earth will be going on about their business. The next, they'll be inhaling superheated atmosphere. Within seconds, before they even know what's happening, they'll be dead. Everything."

To my extreme surprise, this didn't make Cassie sad; it made her mad. Furious. Angrier than I'd ever seen her. She jumped up. Her face had gone ashy, except for two small spots of blood high up on her cheekbones. When she spoke, it was through gritted teeth. "No way are we letting that happen. I don't care if we have to steal a Bug fighter right now, take it up to the Pool ship, and set them on fire. Out of all the evil, horrible, atrocious -"

"I know," Jake said, cutting Cassie off gently. "I feel the same way. But honestly, Cassie, we're not facing any different if the Yeerks win the way they're going on about things now. Nothing's changed. We still have the same job."

Marco was apparently through with being scorned. "You're wrong, Jake. Everything's changed. At least the way things are, we have a chance. It's about a million to one odds, I'll give you that, but it's a chance. If the Yeerks start playing with these diamonds and figure out that they're primo…if they decide they could take the resources here and use them to take the Andalites…" he let it hang. We all knew how much as the Yeerks hated the Andalites. There could be nothing greater than being able to conquer them, make them slaves. They'd give up us humans in a heartbeat to get the Andalites. Not even Ax argued with Marco. He was right, and everybody knew it.

"So what do we do?" Rachel, sounding as frustrated as I'd ever heard her, asked Erek.

"All is not lost," Erek said soothingly. "Even now, the Chee Net is coming up with a plan. We know that there's no way to stop the Yeerks from getting hold of all the samples of materials they need. We just don't have the manpower."

"You mean we don't have the manpower," Marco corrected him glumly. The Chee aren't allowed to commit acts of violence. They can't even do things that might make violence possible.

Erek didn't take offense, just acknowledged Marco's correction. "Yes. That's what I mean. Anyway, we can't stop them from taking what they need. But, in order for our plan to work, we have to make it seem like we're trying to stop them. The Yeerks must believe with all of their black hearts that the Andalite bandits are trying their hardest to stop them from obtaining the precious items they want."

(And how do we do that?) I asked cautiously. This was sounding dangerous. Let me rephrase that – just being alive was dangerous for us. This was sounding borderline suicidal.

"The Yeerks are planning a daring, simultaneous robbery of multiple sites. When that happens, you must be ready to fight. You will have to go to stop them, only you'll know ahead of time that that's impossible. You just have to make it convincing."

"Let me get this straight," Marco said. "This will be a little different from our usual idiotic shenanigans in the following way – we're actually going to risk our lives in a fight that we already know we're going to lose."

Erek just smiled. "Have you ever heard the saying about losing the battle, but winning the war? That's what this will all be about. You'll have to lose the battle to win the war. Because if you lose this war, the one right in front of us…well, it'll be the last war in human history."