Author's Note: Well, I appear to have made a slight continuity glitch with the books. In book #53, Tom's Yeerk bitches about the idea that 'I should at least be a sub-Visser by now'... while in chapter 11 of my fan fiction, I have already promoted him to the rank of Sub-Visser Twenty-Nine. I would actually assert that this is probably more a KASU than my fault, because how could Visser One's Chief of Security /not/ be a sub-visser at least? But in any case, the "mistake" stands... assume that it this alternate reality, that when Tom bitches to Jake, he'll bitch about not being one of the really low Vissers yet.
Eric
My name is Cadet Sergeant Eric Campbell. And if someone had told me five days earlier that I was going to have an alien slug living in my head /or/ that I was going to kiss the best looking boy in my school, I would have asked them what kinds of drugs they were taking. And yet, there I was, five days later, a veteran of both experiences and more. I'd seen creatures of three or four different alien species, and I'd turned into both a ferret and a flea. I didn't have a battle morph yet, but that was mostly because my new life was keeping me too busy to acquire one.
The knowledge that aliens were real had really freaked me out at first, when the governor had said it. And I guess I knew, even from that first moment, that my budding new B.F. was one of them. I'd almost saved him, but I was still somewhat naieve, and didn't realize the extent of the Yeerk infiltration into our society. I willingly boarded the ambulance that was meant to drag me kicking and screaming into the hands of a merciless enemy. But I was lucky, and instead I met Ewell Five-Nine-Three. Sometimes I call him Ewwww-L, when I want to tease him, but he knows it's good natured. In fact, he knows me so much better than anyone ever could. Every memory I have, he sees. And every memory he has, he shows me.
See, there are a growing number of Yeerks under Visser One's command who feel like this war is ridiculously unnecessary. The entire Yeerk species is composed of less than six hundred million, can you imagine that? China has more people in it than the entire Yeerk race put together. It took awhile, but the sheer grasp of that size has made some Yeerks very vocal about the idea that what they call involuntary hosts, or people who are forced to become Controllers, are no longer necessary. After all, out of a planet of five billion, surely they can find six hundred million voluntary hosts, right? Especially when they have so much to offer. Lifetime companionship, friendship. Symbiosis.
The Yeerks who think that way call themselves the Free Controllinists. It's a pretty lame name, but that's what happens when a social studies teacher leads an extraterrestrial movement. Mister Tidwell taught some of the first Yeerks in the movement about the original American colonists' struggle for freedom, someone played with the similarities between Controller and Colonist... you get the idea. And anyway, it's sort of a nod to the Animorphs, who did a similar thing with their name - Animal Morphers. In any case, it works for us.
One of the tactical risks that resistance members need to keep taking are their methods for host recruitment. After all, principle dictates that the host be voluntary, but tactically the people closest to the high-ranking Yeerks' hosts are the ones that can be most useful. That was how I was recruited. Martin, his Yeerk, a Hork-Bajir named Gwisa Noin and her Yeerk learned that the ambulance was arriving and seized me before the regular Controllers could, certain that my close proximity to Chris might enable me or my new Yeerk to learn something about Visser One's plans, and throw as many spanners into the works as we could.
"You're not taking me! You're not taking me!" I had cried, as Gwisa and Martin dragged me towards the infestation pier that first time. I could see the somber expressions on their faces, but I didn't understand them at the time. Then my head was pushed into the sludge, and Ewell made his first contacts with my brain.
The first thing I felt was Ewell's anxiety - he was very nervous about coming into my brain. And then he tapped open my most recent memories, and I immediately felt his despair.
«Despat, an involuntary,» he cursed. «Listen, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I don't want to do this to you, I really don't. Just... can I stay for a few hours, to put up appearances? Then I'll leave you, I promise.»
Admittedly, I didn't really hear him at first. Well, okay, I /heard/ him, of course... he was speaking directly into my mind. But I wasn't processing it. I was still dealing with all of the shocks I'd received that evening, added to the fact that it was no longer me moving my hands and legs. As Ewell used my mouth to thank Chris/Orkath for receiving me, it finally hit me. «You... you're letting me go?»
«Yes,» Ewell insisted, and it was more than just his words... I could /feel/ his sincerity. He was horrified at upsetting me. He meant it. «I'd let you go right now, but then you'd be killed and I'd be killed. My people have to believe that I'm controlling you. You have to let me tell you how to act, for your own good.» Then Ewell explained to me who he was, and about the Free Conrollinists. And by the time he was finished telling his story, I realized I had been given the most wonderful opportunity I could ever have hoped for in this unpleasantness. By the time he was finished, I was filled with admiration and respect. And I knew what I had to do.
«Stay in me,» I told Ewell.
Of course, this produced waves of joy and gratitude in him, but his thought-speak response was more cautious. «Are you sure? You'd be risking your life, just as I am. It's still nothing like what your old life was.»
By my own will, I aimed my eyes at Chris. I thought about the enemy, the Yeerk in his head, the one who had used my feelings to trick me into thinking that Chris loved me. Had lured me into the trap that, only through God's grace, had not been permanent enslavement. «I'm sure,» I told Ewell. «I want to do my part.»
Ewell sensed my apprehension and tried to comfort me. «He's been a Controller for a very long time,» he said to me. «By now, I'm sure he's come to accept that anything that happens is more his Yeerk's fault than anyone else's. You didn't upset him.»
«He was forced to kiss me, Ewell,» I grimaced. «Straight guys don't take it kindly when they french kiss other guys.»
Ewell shrugged my shoulders - already, we were sharing control of my body, although the random shrug must have looked out of place to Orkath. Fortunately, he was wandering towards the infestation pier already.
«After all the other things the Yeerk has made him do? I doubt any human could be that petty.»
I snickered in my own head. «You really /don't/ know our species very well, do you...»
«Well, no,» the Yeerk admitted. «You're my first human host. Actually only my second host ever. He glanced again over at Chris, being led into a Ramonite box - instantly, I already knew what it was called, without ever having heard the term before. He grinned. «Don't worry,» he said, «Chris will be free soon enough. One of our people is in there with him, an adult with a human confectionary business.»
«So he's in prison with another freedom fighter? How does that help?» I wondered.
The Yeerk stood off to one side, waiting for Orkath's swim in the pool to be up. «It helps,» he explained, «because we've learned that Chris' Yeerk is in line for promotion. He'll be a Sub-Visser... the extent of a Cadet Captain in your Civil Air Patrol. And our agent is morph-capable... he will acquire Chris' DNA discreetly.» I didn't really understand the signifigance of that at first, so Ewell explained (or more accurately, showed me a memory slideshow that explained) about morphing technology and how they had just acquired it. «Not many of us freedom fighters have it yet, but once we have the ability to impersonate Chris' Yeerk, we'll be able to order that all our own people receive the power.»
It had taken a few days to get the plan underway, but we had managed it. Chris was indeed promoted to Sub-Visser Eighty-Three, and in a stroke of luck, we were able to convince Sub-Visser Twenty-Nine that Chris had ordered us to be made morph-capable. Ewell and I both nearly had a heart attack shortly afterwards, when Chris/Orkath asked us to be locked in the morph-capable involuntary cage. We thought that he had somehow discovered our ruse and was going to have us interrogated. But, of course, it was just Orkath being particularly sadistic to poor Chris.
It was very hard to be locked up with Chris and pretend that Ewell was the same type of cruel master that Orkath was. But it was a surge of joy to find out that he had really felt about me the same way that I felt about him. It made the thought of freeing him from Orkath's control that much more sweet. The following day, Ewell and I had been ordered to lead my squadron of Civil Air Patrol cadets to assist in a massive perimeter blockade of the city, and to lead anyone attempting to enter or lead the city to the Yeerk pool for infestation. Martin had joined up as a new cadet a couple of days earlier, as an excuse to stay closer to me, and the two of us stopped a pair of detectives who were looking for Chris, in order to bring him to the out-of-town hospital. We saw it as our chance. We notified the adult who'd acquired the Chris morph and both he and I rode along as fleas in Martin's hair as he accompanied Chris to the hospital. Martin ran to the bathroom as soon as he got there, and we were able to demorph and obtain some clothing from the pediatrics ward.
The Animorph was a surprise. It only made the situation more urgent, though, once Orkath and the detective Controllers began to realize what Craig was. We couldn't let any of them leave there with that information, so, using the element of surprise, we took them by force. Martin morphed one of the detectives, Martin's Yeerk morphed the other, and the ice cream vendor, still in Chris morph, accompanied them back towards the Yeerk pool to begin the process of making sure all of the Free Controllinists acquired the morphing power. So far, our plan seemed to be a roaring success.
Ewell and I got the honor of guarding the real Chris and the real detectives, tied up in the hospital's morgue. It wasn't a safe place to wait out the entire three days that it would take for their Yeerks to starve, but it was proving sufficient for the moment. Ewell and I could only hope that our allies would return soon enough. Otherwise we would have to reveal our presence to the Animorphs in the hospital, and hope that they would choose to trust us instead of just eliminating us all.
With a groan, I heard Chris begin to stir, and I looked up from the dry newspaper article we'd been reading to pass the time. "Sub Visser," Ewell greeted with a grin. "It's good to see you're awake."
Surprise clearly registered on the face, and Chris's voice replied, "Eric?" There was a tenderness to it that impressed me - even though I knew better, I had the irrational thought that it was the real Chris, and not the Yeerk in Chris' head, that was talking to me.
"Yup," I conceded. "Eric. Surprised?"
"You... you can morph me?" Chris wondered.
I smirked. "Well, I can /now/," Ewell responded. "I acquired your DNA while you were unconscious. But it wasn't me who hit you with the bat - that was the ice cream vendor whom you were locked away with a few days ago."
Chris' face took on a puzzled expression. "But... but he couldn't have been infested when he was with Chris..." his Yeerk protested. I could practically see the Yeerk accessing his host's memories, coming to realize that the peaceful calm that Chris had felt when being held by the adult was really the acquiring trance that all animals feel when their DNA is being absorbed. Of course, neither Chris nor his Yeerk had ever been acquired before, so there was no way Chris would really recognize the feelings. All of the morph-capable members of the Free Controllinists can morph at least one other member, though, in case someone needs to be covered for.
"Beginning to realize it?" I taunted, picking up the bat again and walking towards him. "Soon, Yeerk, you'll be dead, and my boyfriend will be free again. Free of your torments."
Chris' eyes widened, but of course, it was only because the Yeerk was widening them. "No, wait!" he objected. "You don't understand, I'm not ev-"
I cut the Yeerk off, swinging the bat once again at Chris' head. The Yeerk was immobilized as Chris fell unconscious. "Sorry, Chris," I explained to the unconscious body, "but I can't risk your Yeerk using your morphing power to get away from this one. I have to keep you unconscious... until he starves."