.
The beach wind spilled against our wings as we soared over the sky on our patrol, looking alertly for members of the human resistance. It was the Yeerk's honored duty. It was a mission of monumental importance. It was…
It was…
«A half-eaten cherry lifesaver!» I cried, glancing through our morphed seagull eyes at the food below. «Man, that's criminal. We /can't/ let it just lay there like that.»
«It /does/ seem regretful,» my Yeerk agreed, mirroring my discontent. «Why would you humans waste perfectly good food like that?»
The Yeerk had cautioned me, before morphing the seagull, that it would make me regret anything I tried to do or say if I got control of the morph before he did again. But apparently the seagull's instincts were, in some ways, more than a match for both of us.
«It's not their fault,» I half-heartedly griped, coming to the defense of my species. «It's just-- oh, hey, that guy's got lasagna!»
«Mmm, I bet it would be so juicy to just dip our beak in and..» The Yeerk realized what he was saying and tried, also half-heartedly, to play his role as overlord. «I mean, umm, silence, slave. You're distracting me. I should be looking at the people.»
«None of them are going to be here, you know,» I commented. «If they know about the plan with the National Guard, they're going to be doing something to bust it up. The only reason we're even here instead of rounding up National Guard troops is because of our date with Eric.»
«True,» the Yeerk conceded, arcing our left wing so that we did a spin in the air. After a moment, he said, «Hey, since this isn't exactly life and death at the moment, you wanna try it?»
«Try what?» I asked curiously.
«Flying.»
For a moment I was so shocked that I couldn't even /think/ of a reply. The idea that the Yeerk would even ask was almost shocking. I had become so accustomed to being controlled that I hadn't even really fantasized about what it would be like, to be drifting through the air on my own. To have control of the eyes, the wings, the beak.
«I'll take that as a yes,» the Yeerk chuckled. «Okay, control's yours in three.. two.. one..»
I was grateful for the warning. Going limp like I had at the hospital a year ago would have been potentially fatal up here in the air. Still, my flight was nowhere near as graceful as the Yeerk's had been. «What do I do?» I asked him.
«Use the seagull mind,» the Yeerk advised me. «It knows how to fly.»
I reached out with my mind, like they always tell you to do on dumb movies like Star Wars, and I could feel the seagull mind brushing against my own. I tapped into its instincts and, using the knowledge, guided my seagull body off to the left. «Woooo!» I cried, but in private thought-speak. «This is amazing!» With another tap into the seagull, I learned how to dive, and I did, joining my seagull brothers and sisters in snatching chunks of bread that a small human was throwing up into the air.
«Well,» my Yeerk said with an almost paternal pride. «Good job.»
«Thank you,» I said giddily.
«You've got the makings of a fine Yeerk, the way you handle that seagull mind.»
That statement soured my mood considerably. I felt angry. I felt immoral, anger directed within. «You take control again,» I said testily, the first time I'd ever voluntarily given my body over. But it didn't matter. The Yeerk had made it's point, and it knew it.
«So,» the Yeerk said, «why didn't you ask the seagull what it wanted? Why didn't you co-exist?»
«That was a dirty trick,» I muttered.
«I didn't mean it as one,» the Yeerk said sincerely. «I just meant for you to enjoy something that I had. But you see, now, how it is for us. How we become so excited by the new sensations that we hardly consider the mind beneath us.»
«But I backed off when I realized what I was doing,» I retorted.
The Yeerk half-laughed. «And if your species had not yet realized what you had, and would shun you for backing off? What then?»
«I wouldn't care!» I declared. «What's right is what's right, whether the rest of society agrees or not.»
«I see,» the Yeerk said. «That is why you have made your sexuality known to your family, your friends, your school.»
My chastened silence was all the answer the Yeerk needed. «Not so simple anymore, is it?» he said satisfactorally.
I did not have an answer.