A few days later, Carla came home to a quieter house than normal. It was a Saturday, so Hallim and Menhal should have been home, but it was very quiet, the bedrooms deserted. Going through to the living room, Carla saw only Alniss and Kalran sitting there. Alniss was playing with her keys, jangling them around in her hands constantly, watching as the light flashed over them, while Kalran was staring out of the window.

"Hi," Carla said uncertainly. She was a little suspicious about the absence of the others, a suspicion that was confirmed when Kalran looked at her a little guiltily.

"Hi. Good day?"

Carla shrugged. "Where is everyone?"

Alniss and Kalran glanced at each other. "Out," Kalran said eventually. "They went to the park. I was hoping that we could talk."

Carla shrugged again, reluctant but not willing to say so aloud. "I guess."

Alniss looked at her anxiously. "Sit down, honey," she said gently.

Carla settled herself into one of the old, creaking armchairs near the sofa, and pulled one of the cushions into her arms, squeezing it against her body. The sensation of pressure was comforting. Carla had learnt that as a young child and never entirely stopped doing it. She looked expectantly at Kalran.

"I, er… we haven't really spoken since you found out I was part of the peace movement, Carla. I wondered if you… did you want to ask me anything, or…"

"Not really. I know what the movement was."

Kalran nodded. "I know." She glanced at Alniss for help.

"It's just that you don't entirely seem comfortable with it, honey," Alniss said. "We just want to know what we can do to make that easier."

Carla sighed. "Nothing, really. I'm fine with it." She hoped she seemed convincing. "It was just, like, a shock at first."

Alniss nodded slowly. "Are you sure?"

"Sure," Carla said in almost a whisper, conscious of Kalran's very intense gaze on her.

There was silence for a few moments, but Kalran continued to study Carla, making her swallow and look away, pretending to be fascinated by the picture of mountain scenery on the wall. Menhal had found it for a bargain price at a Goodwill, and the Yeerks had collectively exclaimed over it for about half an hour when she'd brought it home, as though it was a Van Gough or something. It was a pretty scene, Carla supposed, the Andes capped with snow, but she didn't really see what the fuss was about.

"You know, we hated what the Animorphs did on the Pool ship too," Kalran said eventually, her voice slow and very quiet. "They… they killed a lot of us."

That was a surprise to Carla. She snapped her eyes away from the picture to meet Kalran's own, staring. "But you… you were on their side?"

Kalran gave a bitter laugh. "Yes, we thought so too. Clearly they didn't feel the same."

Carla watched her carefully for any sign she was lying. She'd assumed, somehow, that the peace movement had been kept safe, but thinking about it now she didn't see how they could have been. Any change to pool schedules for that many Yeerks would surely have been suspicious.

"We'd never have sanctioned something like that, Carla. Please… please believe me. We… we're not murderers."

Carla nodded slowly. "I didn't know…"

Kalran gave an answering nod, twisting her hands together in her lap. "I lost many siblings and friends in the attack. Three of them were in the movement, too. I feel so guilty that I survived…"

"I'm sorry," Carla murmured quietly, her pity genuine.

"I don't think there are any of us who didn't lose at least one Yeerk we knew well. I'm lucky that I didn't lose one of my mates, or a close sibling."

"You have mates?" Carla asked, puzzled, for she'd never heard mention of them before.

It was clearly the wrong thing to do, however, as Kalran's eyes teared up. "I used to… but when we were given the morphing power... Ilkiss and I went first, trapped ourselves as humans, but we didn't know, we couldn't have known… Oglud was allergic."

Carla wasn't quite sure what that meant, not knowing much about the morphing technology, but she didn't want to ask any more for fear of upsetting Kalran still further.

"It means they couldn't take the power," Alniss said softly, clearly sensing Carla's puzzlement.

Carla processed that for a few seconds, then realised what it meant. "So they're still in the Pool?"

Kalran nodded, wiping at her tears with the back of her hand. Carla's stomach twisted in sympathy, while Alniss slipped an arm silently around Kalran's shoulders.

"After a few months of asking, the humans and Andalites guarding the Pool let Ilkiss and I go in and use the computer there to talk with them, but we'll never truly interact again… we'll never touch. And Oglud, they'll… they'll never see again, never move beyond the confines of an artificial Pool, unless they go back to one of the homeworld Pools I suppose, but they'll never have a host."

"They could have me," Carla said instantly, without even thinking.

Kalran raised her damp eyes to look directly at her. "That's so generous, Carla, it's so incredibly kind, but it's not that simple. The human and Andalite authorities simply won't allow hosts of any sort, not even Gedds, and by the Kandrona, Gedds aren't that much smarter than pigs and substantially less so than whales, and humans still kill both of those animals… sorry, I'm rambling."

"It's fine. It sounds frustrating."

Kalran stood up suddenly, breaking the contact of Alniss' arm, and paced restlessly to the window. "It is. It's ridiculous. So many have offered… my own host, Sara… Adam Tidwell… Sak Rimee, Ilkiss' Hork-Bajir host… now you, Carla, and I can't stress enough how generous it is of all of you to even consider it, but the Andalites won't hear of it. And it's not just Oglud, there are hundreds who were allergic to the technology, and a couple of hundred more who can't stomach the idea of leaving their own bodies forever, of making the Yeerk race practically extinct…"

Alniss snorted. "Andalites. They'd murder us all if the humans gave them half a chance."

"Some of the humans would probably be fine with that, too," Kalran muttered. "At first I tried to change it, I wrote to the Animorph Cassie, probably the most sympathetic to us, but I don't know if the letter even arrived. But it soon became clear that there's no point fighting it, they'll never change their minds."

Carla frowned slightly. "You… you could keep trying anyway," she whispered, not wanting to seem contradictory or defiant.

Alniss smiled slightly. "Humans," she said, sharing a glance with Kalran. "You never give up on the impossible."

"Sara's the same," Kalran said, looking back at Carla. "She's been writing every week to anyone she can possibly think of, phoning people… she's looking at setting up a campaign group now. She won't listen when I tell her she's wasting her time."

Carla looked steadily at Kalran, uncertain whether to vocalise the thoughts she had in her mind. Silrin had told her humans were much more persistent than Yeerks, much less willing to admit defeat, but she'd never encountered this in practice until now. "What if she isn't wasting it?"

"She is."

Kalran's voice was so certain and so devoid of hope that it wrenched at Carla's heart, enough to make her forget her inhibitions and speak freely. "You've gotta try," she said forcefully.

"I know you feel that, as a human, but I don't. Yeerks give up hope much more easily when the odds are so steep."

Carla fell silent, but her thoughts were darting around her mind like dragonflies. Could she ever convince Kalran? Could she do anything herself? Why did she suddenly want to so badly? The last thought gave her some pause. Was this sudden desire for action truly for Kalran's sake, or Oglud's, or was it for herself? Carla had never thought she'd have a Yeerk again, but she suddenly found herself wondering what it would be like to be infested again… by someone else, not by Silrin. She'd only ever had the one Yeerk, so it was hard to imagine, and even harder to determine how she truly felt about it.

"Carla? Are you alright?"

Carla was shaken out of her thoughts by the sound of Alniss' voice. "Fine," she said, a little too quickly, as she saw Alniss' eyebrows raise. The Yeerk, however, said nothing more about it.

Carla turned to Kalran. "I understand, now, about the movement. At least, I think I do. I'm sorry for judging you."

Kalran shook her head. "There's no need to apologise. I know the anger of grief, I've felt it myself. That's something that is the same between our species, no matter what the other differences may be."

Carla smiled slightly at that, and held out her hand towards Kalran. "Friends?"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a slight motion of surprise cross Alniss' face. Kalran, on the other hand, smiled broadly as she reached out her own hand. "Of course."