Tellion swam about in the utter darkness that was her true state. She had little understanding of where she had been taken, only to what she could assume was her final destination. Tellion remembered being transported somewhere, being swished and thrashed about against so many other Yeerks in the cramped conditions of the small container she had been placed in with the rest. She had been smashed and squished into all the rest for such a long time that Tellion felt as if she were going to be crushed by the masses of her Yeerk kin. Then, just when Tellion thought that she would lose all sense of sanity from the weight of her breather pressing all around her, they were all ejected from the small confines of the container and into a larger body of liquid.
It didn't take Tellion long to establish the circumference of her temporary home. It was only a fraction of the size of Yeerk Pool that she had called home, but it was large enough for her to swim around without constantly bumping into all the other Yeerks that were in this small pool.
This had to be the mini-Yeerk pool that had been established in the basement of the healing facility that her team had been transported to. Then that had to mean that their operation was nearing its final stages. Tellion had been briefed by Temrash about how she would acquire her new host.
The assistant to the 'governor' would be given a mild sedative while the 'governor' was undergoing surgery. Temrash would immediately infest him after the healing procedure, and Tellion would also infest his assistant right after once the sedative had taken affect. Tellion had listened in silence as Temrash had laid out his plans for how they would proceed once both subjects had been infested. She didn't say anything to Temrash, opting instead to let him prattle on about his grandiose plans of self-fulling bravado as she tried to prepare herself to receive her new host. Her only true concern left in her life was keeping her Yeerk kin alive as long as her betrayal of the Empire could remain hidden, and the helpless soul whose life she was soon to take away.
Tellion didn't know how she was going to be able to do this again. Stealing Tallaxia's freedom had been harsh enough for her once she had truly come to understand what it was that she had done to that poor being. But now having to take away that same freedom from an unsuspecting native…Tellion was having great difficulty in dealing with that. She thought about trying to reason with this new host, maybe even offer him the freedom that she had once tried with Tallaxia, but Tellion had immense doubts that she would be able to find a peace with this new host. Likely, he would do what Tallaxia had tried to do once she had surrendered control over her and take both their lives.
Tellion hated this existence. She doubted that her new slave would ever be able to understand that she herself was just as much a prisoner of her fate as she would soon make him. Still, no matter how trapped Tellion felt, she knew that somehow, even under the close and dangerous eyes of Temrash, she would have to try and find a way to make her new host's enslavement as painless as was possible. It was the least that she could do for him. And it was all that Tellion felt that she could do herself. Even though she felt more encaged than she had ever been since her first day of self-awareness, Tellion refused to surrender who she knew that she truly was. Even if it meant endangering herself.
Tellion!
Tellion heard Temrash's sharp command through the liquid and into her palp receptors. Knowing that he requested her, Tellion swam over to Temrash and connected her palps to his.
Tellion. Temrash said. I've just received word that the Governor has arrived. He is being prepped for surgery as we speak. Now, the plan is that I will be the first to leave for infestation, and you will follow shortly after. Once we have infested the Governor and his assistant, the rest of the team will begin assimilating the Governor's staff. After the infestation, I expect you to meet with our support personnel and make preparations for transportation of the Kandrona Ray generator and the pool liquid to the Governor's residence.
As you command Temrash. Tellion said, hiding her own distatste for his total lack of regard for what they were about to do to a bunch of unsuspecting victims.
Once he had apparently satisfied his own ego, Temrash broke the palp connection between them and swam away. Tellion didn't hesitate to go in the opposite direction. She wanted to be as far away from Temrash as was physically possible for as long as she could manage.
After he was gone, Tellion opted to just swim about aimlessly. It wasn't like there was anything else that she could do to escape the fate that she had been entrapped in. Time stretched on and on for Tellion, as it always had when she was in her natural Yeerk form. All Tellion could do was sit by and silently wait for her destiny to consume her. A destiny that she had never desired.
Tellion 7854, report for infestation. The command range out through the entire confines of the mini-Yeerk Pool. Tellion 7854, report for infestation.
Tellion stopped swimming when she heard that. This couldn't be right. Temrash was the supposed to be the first to report for infestation. Not her. But the command had come through, and she had to acknowledge the order of the superiors.
Tellion swam up to the surface of the pool, doing her best to block out Temrash's shouts about how absurd it was that he wasn't going first for infestation and that he would make whoever messed up the infestation roster pay dearly for their incompetence. Tellion didn't respond to his cries. They were pointless. It wasn't like he wasn't going to be the one infesting the governor just because he hadn't been assigned first. And she needed to focus on what was about to happen.
And sadly, that was her imminent enslavement of an unsuspecting sentient being. When Tellion reached the surface, she paused for just the briefest of moments to collect herself before she felt something scoop her up from the pool and herself being placed into some kind of container. Once safely enclosed in the container, Tellion was alone again with nothing to keep her company but her own thoughts and worries.
This was it. She was about to embark on her journey once again to becoming a new slave master to a new host. And Tellion wanted nothing more than to just vanish from existence. She found herself dreading the coming screams of terror and the agonizing wails of suffering of a poor spirit being made a prisoner in their own body. She was terrified herself at the thought of having to endure those horrific emotions again.
Tellion was tossed about in the liquid of the container as she was clearly being carried to her destination. Once again, time stretched out for her as she kept hitting into the metal sides.
I wish they would just hurry this up, Tellion thought to herself, this is getting very uncomfortable.
Just as those words passed through her mind, the pace of the movement quickened. So much so that Tellion was roughly slammed into the sides of the container with such ferocity that she was almost afraid that she would be turned into Yeerk mush long before she was even given the chance to infest her designated host.
Ow! What's happening!? She screeched to herself as once again her whole squishy body was smashed against the metal side.
Then, just as quickly as it had come, the container became completely still. Tellion herself tumbled around several times inside the liquid as she tried to let her body slowly wear off the effects of gravitational forces and physics that had tried to flatten her.
Once she had righted her sense of balance with gravity, Tellion swam to the top of the container. Strangely, it was still closed. She stretched out her palp connecters and felt the surface of the lid. It wiggled slightly from her touch, but it remained enclosed.
She had to be at the destination point. Soon enough, one of the controllers at the facility would open the lid to the container, take her out, and place her against the ear canal of her new host. And that would be it. She would be entrapped in her destiny once again.
Tellion, despite all her desires to be something better, would be a slave master again.
Tellion let herself sink back into the depths of the container, hating herself more than ever for daring to be so ignorant. It was absolutely foolish of her to desire for something better than the existence she had become constrained in. Hope was such a silly thing to want. She never should have dared to ever try and believe than there could be anything better for her.
You should never give up hope.
Tellion leapt from the bottom of the container, startled by the sudden voice that had come from seemingly nowhere.
What…she started to speak, but instantly lost all coheasion of thoughts.
Hello…Tellion 7854.
There that voice was again. It was the strangest thing that Tellion had ever experienced. It reminded her vaguely of Visser Three's telepathic words, only this was different. Far different. These words didn't just echo through her mind, it was as if they were coming from both inside her and all around her at the same time. It was very, very disturbing for her.
Who said that! She cried. How do you know my name?
Who I am is of very little importance to you at this moment. The disembodied voice echoed out to her. As for you next question, let's just say that I am someone…who likes to watch things.
Where are you? Tellion demanded. How are you speaking to me?
I'm talking to you the same way that any sentient being would speak to another. As for where I am, well, let's just say that I am everywhere…and nowhere at the same time.
That doesn't make any sense. Tellion stated.
It does for one such as myself. The mysterious voice said. But for one like yourself Tellion, it is something that it far beyond your comprehension.
If I'm so insignifigant, then why are you speaking to me right now? Tellion asked.
Like I said, I watch many things, across distance and time far beyond anything you could even begin the fathom. Sometimes, things catch my attention that warrants a closer look. And you, Tellion, have caught my attention.
But why me? Tellion asked. I'm not anyone important. I'm just a low level tech that everyone orders around for their own personal amusement.
Tellion, one's position in life is not a factor in their determination of greatness. The voice said to her. It is their actions that make one great. And your actions have caused me to pay closer attention to you Tellion.
What actions are you talking about? Tellion asked.
I think you should already know the answer to that question.
No, Tellion said. I don't.
Tellion, you don't seem to realize how truly unique you are among your people. You alone have done what no others have dared to do. Back when your home at the Yeerk Pool was attacked, you showed mercy on an enemy that you had been told your entire life needed be destroyed without the slightest trace of compassion. You saved the life of an enemy, at the risk of your own. And among your fellow Yeerks, you've dared to enact a revolutionary strain of comprehension, a possibility of peaceful coexistence between Yeerks and their hosts instead of forceful enslavement. You've planted seeds of thought into both your dear friend Aftran and young Illim's minds, seeds that may very well grow into something greater than any of you could ever begin to imagine.
Tellion felt herself sink to the bottom of the container. Was she really that important? Had she really done so much that was beyond her realm of understanding? Tellion didn't really even know at the moment.
But above all else, the voice said. You did what none of your kind have ever dared to do. You gave freedom back to your host. Against everything that you had ever been told and known, you alone, among countless Yeerks across the vast space of time, dared to do something that you knew deep inside you was the right thing to do.
For all the good that did me. Tellion said wearily. Tallaxia didn't accept my gift. She tried to kill herself, and me.
Can you really blame her? She has never known anything except sadistic cruelty from your kind since the day Tallaxia lost her freedom. How could Tallaxia believe that your intentions for her were anything but noble?
Enough of this pointless banter! Tellion cried, wanting desperately to change the subject. Why are you speaking to me? What do you want from me?
You've always felt that you were trapped in your own destiny as that of a Yeerk. And I wanted to change your destiny Tellion, because you truly deserve something better than what you were fated for. But unfortunately, that change couldn't come without a price…
My destiny…Tellion thought, What are you talking about?
I don't know if you are ready to accept the full weight of the truth Tellion. It is not one to be taken lightly.
Tell me! she cried out. I want to know what is going on! What is my destiny?
A long, weary sigh echoed all through the entire enclose case. Tellion didn't know that that meant, but she was sure that it wasn't entirely good.
Very well, I suppose it is only fair that you know the full truth. The voice said. I wanted to change your destiny because…
There was a very long moment of silence. That single moment was enough to make Tellion feel as if she were going to lose her very mind. If she hadn't already lost it, since she was speaking to a voice that had no body.
Tellion, the voice spoke her name out slowly, and carefully. Tonight…you were destined to die.
Tellion stopped moving when she heard that. She had suspected her life to soon end, one way or another, but to hear that this was to truly be her last day of existence…
If she were in a host body, the impact of that statement would have no doubt taken her breath away. But she was in her natural state, and didn't have lungs. All she could do was feel her squishy body become as motionless as fabricated metal.
Me? she asked almost disbelieving her own words. Die? What…how?
How do you think Tellion? The 'Andalite Bandits'. The ones that have been causing so much trouble for your forces on this world. Despite your Visser's careful attempts at secrecy, they have discovered the plan to infest the governor. At this very moment, they are attacking the small Yeerk Pool that you were just in. Soon enough, every Yeerk in that pool will be dead. Although, I believe that the one you know as Temrash 114 may yet survive, but I suspect that his days will soon be numbered.
Then I was…it was supposed to be me also? Today was supposed to be my final day of life?
Yes. Just another casualty in this seemingly endless conflict that your people started.
My people? Tellion said. It was the Andalites that first attacked! They were the ones that came to our world to enslave us.
Come now Tellion. the voice said. You pride yourself on being one that thinks differently than the rest of your kind, surely you must know not to believe everything that you are told.
Like being told things from a mysterious voice that has no body? Tellion questioned.
A faint, almost amusing chuckle echoed all around her from that statement.
You are truly unique Tellion. That is why I intervened to spare you.
I still don't understand how you did that.
It was far easier than you think. There was a…slight power surge through the building not long ago. It distracted the infestation clerk while they were entering names into the roster. As you no doubt know, Temrash was supposed to go first among your group. But with that minor distraction, your name was placed over Temrash's. It's not suprising that the mistake wasn't caught. After all, both of your names are very similar.
But you said that altering my destiny would come at a price. Tellion said. What is that price?
Ha ha ha, you're perceptive as always. Like I told you Tellion, you're unique. That's why I wanted to save you.
So then tell me why you did it.
Very well. The bodiless voice said. My intervention to save you is part of a wager, a very small wager, between myself and another.
My life…Tellion said. Is just a wager?
As I said, it is a tiny wager between ones such as us, but completely cosmic in scale for one such as yourself. For your existence is almost minuscule in comparison between ours. Of course, I hope you don't take that in a condescending way. It's merely a statement of what is.
But why am I so important? Tellion demanded, feeling herself becoming lost in the magnitude of what she was being drawn into.
Because you are part of this wager Tellion. The voice told her. You see, this other and myself, we believe that it will be on this world that the fate of the war between your people and the Andalites will ultimately be decided. The other…he believes that should the Yeerk Empire prevail, then your kind will spread out across all of the known galaxy, consuming and enslaving all sentient life. The Yeerks will be the harbingers of untold pain and suffering upon countless billions of innocent lives, an era of darkness that the cosmos have never before fathomed. Because he believes that all Yeerks are twisted, vile, and cruel beyond any trace of a redeeming trait.
Tellion wanted to refute what this voice was telling her, to proclaim that such a statement was a complete and utter lie. But with everything that she had experienced throughout her entire life, and the suffering that she herself had inflected upon others, Tellion didn't know how believe that claim wasn't true.
As if having peered into her very thoughts, the voice responded to Tellion without her saying anything.
But, I believe that he is wrong. I believe that there is light in every being, even Yeerks. And you have helped to show that Tellion. That is why you have been chosen by us. You, willingly, will decide which of us is right in our bet.
You said willingly. Tellion said. You speak as if I have a choice in all of this.
You always have a choice Tellion. The voice said. Every being has free will, a right to choose for themselves.
So what will be my choice?
Soon enough, you will see. He said. I'm sure you noticed that the lid to your container wasn't firmly secured. Well, in a very short time, there will be a minor explosion that will vibrate all through this facility. It will be very minute, but it will be just enough to tip over the container that you are in, and the lid will come off. When that happens, your moment will of choice will come Tellion.
Tellion remained motionless as she heard these words that felt as if they had somehow grasped ahold around her little squishy body.
You can choose to remain protected inside the canister. Eventually, one of your forces will find you and take you back to the main Yeerk Pool, you may even be allowed to return to Tallaxia and your old duties, after all, it's not your fault that the events of today have transpired. Visser Three may even forgive you for this being no failure on your part. You can return to the life that you've always known, and wait for this war to consume you, one way or the other. Or…
That pause in between words felt like the longest that Tellion had ever known in her whole existence. It was enough to drive her mad.
You can leave the container, and take a chance at true freedom for yourself Tellion. However, I must warn you, freedom will have its price. If you choose to follow that path, then you will sever all ties with the Empire forever. You will have to survive on your own, and never again return to anything that you've ever known. To do so would be certain death for you Tellion.
So…this was her choice? Tellion thought. Stay in the miserable, wretched existance that was being a part of the Yeerk Empire, living in constant fear of death hanging over her. Or take a chance at something else, and most likely die for the effort as well. Tellion didn't know what course of action seemed right to her. As she tried to think this through, the voice interrupted her.
Your time is almost up Tellion. The moment of choice is fast approaching. I cannot make this decision for you. The choice is, and always will be, yours to make. Stay in the life that you've always known, or take a chance at true freedom Tellion. And should you choose that second path, you could perhaps save more than just your own life. Then we will see…
See? Tellion questioned. I still don't understand any of this. What could you, what could anyone, possibly ever hope to see in small, insignificant Yeerk like me?
The next words that were spoken rocked Tellion to the inner foundation of her very spirit, for they were words that not only encompassed her own existence, but placed a burden of impossible magnitude upon Tellion.
We'll see if even in its darkest hour…your species is not beyond redemption.
What? Tellion said. I…but…
Make your choice Tellion. the voice said, the last words growing fainter as if the presence was drifting away.
Tellion called out to the presence, the voice, whatever it was. And her answer was nothing. Tellion didn't feel anything physical change in her surroundings, but she still somehow just knew that whatever it was that had been speaking to her had gone away. There was nothing but the black stillness of her present state of being.
Had all that been real?
It seemed real enough. But what would Tellion really know? She might very well be going crazy from the constant state of fear that she had found her life to have become. Tellion only knew that she just didn't want to be a part of any of this. She just wanted to be free of it all.
As she thought of this, a vibration rumbled all through the walls of the container that she was in. It rocked the small metal tube back and forth, tossing Tellion about as if some other force, maybe the one she thought she had been speaking to, were trying to kill her. Tellion smashed into the side of the container again, feeling pain rush all through her frail Yeerk body. Then she felt the inertia of the container falling over.
What? NNNOOO! Tellion screamed as she felt all of the liquid she was in thrash about and tip over. Then for the briefest of moments, gravity lost all of its sense of hold over her, and she was completely weightless as the container dropped from where ever it had been placed.
BAM!
Tellion was rocked as the container struck against a surface, and the lid flipped off. Tellion lashed out with her palp receptors, wildly grasping at the smooth cylindrical surface of her container as the liquid flushed out the opening, threatening to wash her away as well. Tellion was pushed towards the opening by the sheer force of the draining inertia. It was only the final loss of the liquid draining that brought her to a stop, just as she felt the end of her body slipping over the edge. The moment Tellion's squishy body ceased dragging, she took a moment to try and collect herself as the realization of it all struck her.
It had happened.
The container had fallen. And the lid had popped open. Just as the voice had said.
She hadn't just imagined the voice. It was real.
It was all real!
Then that meant…
This was the moment that the voice had spoken of. This was the instant in her life where she was going to have to make a choice.
Stay in the life that she had always known, a slave of perpetual circumstances. Or take a chance at something else, true freedom. What that fabled freedom could possibly be for her, Tellion just couldn't fathom.
Stay or go?
Stay or go?
Stay or GO?
What could she do? As Tellion tried to make some sort of sense from all of this, a memory flashed inside her mind. A memory she had just lived, but felt as if it had happened in another life. It was her last moments of interaction between herself and young Illiam. Tellion heard the words she spoke to Illiam, as if she were speaking them to herself.
Don't ever stop believing that there isn't a better way for you.
Hearing her own words, Tellion's desire for her, and for all Yeerks, to become something better than the enslaving forced that they had transformed themselves into, pushed her over the edge. Her decision had been made.
She WANTED something better than her life. And Tellion was willing to risk her own life to gain that.
Tellion pushed herself around to face the opening of the container. She felt about with her palp receptors. They ran across the entire circular edge, but felt nothing beyond that. There was just empty air. She had no idea where she was, or how far she would fall if she were to push herself out of the container.
Damn how Tellion wished that, just for a single moment, she had the gift of sight again. Just to know if leaving this container was a safe course to follow. For all she knew, Tellion would plummet thirty meters to a hard ground and be smashed into a grisly pulp if she dared to go forth.
But, maybe that was the point. Maybe…she had to take a 'leap' of faith as a sign of her willingness to want this new life to that mysterious voice that had no body.
There's nothing left for me in this life. Tellion thought. I won't be a slave master anymore. I want to be something different. I'll change my destiny!
Tellion didn't know if she was saying that to the voice, or to herself. Either way, Tellion wouldn't hold back anymore. Stretching out her palp receptors, Tellion wrapped their sensitive tips around the curved edges. Using what little strength her flimsy appendages could muster, Tellion dragged herself over the edge.
She fell into the air, and away from everything that she had ever known. She tumbled almost weightlessly through the space, falling for what felt like forever. It was eerily reminiscent to her of every time she had to leave a host and return to the Yeerk Pool. Then, almost as quickly as her plight had come, Tellion felt her squishy body impact into a surface.
It wasn't liquid. It was a somewhat solid surface, but not too firm. Tellion lay motionless for a long time, terrified that she was dead.
But as she felt the pain sensors all along her side rumble from the force of the impact, Tellion knew that she was still alive. Feeling that pain, that was a sure sign that she was alive, and it spurred a sense of urgency in her. She didn't know where she was, or how long she could survive outside of Yeerk Pool liquid without being in a host. Tellion only knew that she surely couldn't last indefinitely, she had to do something. But what? The voice hadn't told her exactly what to do, only that she needed to leave the container if she wanted a chance at another kind of life. Completely at a loss for what she should or could do, Tellion followed her Yeerk instincts and felt around with her palp receptors.
She worked them all across the surrounding surface, taking in and memorizing every sense of her sensitive Yeerk touch that she could. It wasn't as solid as she first thought, the surface had hundreds of little ridges, with a few much larger ones. And it gave slightly when she pushed the ends or her palp receptors into it. Then she felt four different extensions protruding from one end of this surface she was on, with another one extending out from another place. After running her palps across the surface several times, it finally occurred to Tellion what she had landed on.
Thanks to her identic Yeerk memory, Tellion remembered every single detail of the things she had seen and learned. That's how she knew beyond any doubt that what she had fallen on…was a native's hand. There was no mistaking their five digit hands. Tellion had interacted with enough native controllers to know that she was certain of where she was.
But, something wasn't right. If she was laying on a native's hand, why had they not reacted? Why hadn't they instinctively slapped her away, or crush her in their grasp? Tellion was sure that any one of these natives would find her in her true form to be absolutely repulsive. It was in that moment of questioning things that Tellion remembered her mission.
She had been assigned to the assistant to the governor, and he had been given a sedative so that he would be asleep when she was supposed to infest him. And she had just been scheduled for infestation. That's why she was there in the first place. Her only choice now…
…was to infest this helpless and unsuspecting being.
Oh how Tellion hated herself in that moment. She didn't want to enslave another person, but she also didn't want to die. Infesting this native was the only option that she had. There was simply no other way.
Knowing that she likely didn't have much time, Tellion vowed that she would find a way to leave this poor man as soon as she could. She just had to get a bearing of where she was, and what she would do next.
Please, please, please let him understand. Tellion prayed, not really even sure to what, maybe the voice. Maybe to herself. I won't hurt him at all. I'll release him the instant it's safe for me.
Once she had said those words, Tellion began dragging herself, one agonizing millimeter after another across the flesh of this native towards her ultimate destination. The native's ear, and her own entrance to their mind. Tellion had no measurement of time as she stretched out her palp connectors, latched them onto the flesh of this native, and used the feeble strength that she naturally possessed to pull herself just a little bit across the native's body. All sense of time for her was measured in each bit of movement she managed.
Maybe it had taken hours, or maybe only minutes, Tellion would never truly be sure. All she did know was that slowly, and somewhat painfully, she managed to drag herself off that native's hand, up their arm, across their shoulder, then neck, and finally to the opening of their ear canal. Once she was there, it took all of Tellion's mental strength to suppress her Yeerk instincts that were screaming at her to plunge herself into that ear.
I…I won't be a slave master again. Tellion assured herself before stretching out her palp connectors into the depths of that ear canal and pulling herself inside.
She had done this all her life, but this time it felt different. Tellion had no way of knowing really why, but as she squeezed herself into that tight space of the ear, feeling her invertebrate body squish and flatten itself out as she pushed herself towards that screaming desire of her entire existence, something wasn't the same. Maybe it was because she had only infested a Gedd and Nahara before. This would be the very first time that she would be in a native mind.
A mind that she desperately needed to connect to.
As she continued to stretch her body out further and further into the depths, Tellion felt the very tips of her stretched out palp receptors brush against a soft and squishy substance. She had felt this type of texture all her life, and knew that she had found the brain.
Even though she had never been connected to a native brain before, Tellion's Yeerk instincts overtook her and she squeezed herself into the rest of the cranial cavity. Once inside, it took little effort for her to spread herself out across the entire length of the brain. The instant she had encompassed the entire brain, Tellion's control tendrils stretched out by the thousands and began weaving their way into the folds of the brain, connecting to the nerve endings. It only took a few moments from when her connectors began locking onto the nerve ends of the vast complex of that mind that Tellion knew something was wrong.
This mind, wasn't like any that she had ever been connected to. It was not like it had been with Tallaxia, or her older Gedd. In both of them, she had almost instantly been able to map out every part of the brain and where everything was located. The electrical impulses that raced through the countless nerves that Tellion could connect to were like beacons to her, beckoning and leading her to every vital part of the mind that she needed to go to gain mastery over the cerebral functions.
But that didn't happen this time.
Tellion had no way to understand or explain any of it, but there were no electrical impulses to guide her to any parts of this mind that she was connecting herself to. She started to search everywhere, in every corner of this brain. She needed to access the memories of this mind, so that she could process everything that was essential for her to learn how to imitate being a native.
But there weren't any memories to access. Tellion searched everywhere…and she couldn't find them. They should have been there, somewhere for her to locate. Tellion felt herself becoming desperate as she poked and prodded through her thousands of control tendrils to find something, anything to give her a sense of what kind of host she had attached herself to.
All she found was emptiness. There was nothing to be found. Anywhere.
This…didn't make any sense to Tellion. She had never experienced something like this before. She was completely and totally lost in this mind, with no way of understanding any of it. And the experience terrified her. Tellion had never felt more alone than she did in that moment. Her desperation mounting, Tellion began to frantically send out her own control impulses, searching in what was increasingly feeling like a vain hope to figure out this mind so that she could figure out where she was.
Hello. Tellion call out in her own growing desperation. Are you there?
No answer. No electrical impulse response. Nothing.
Please, Tellion assured them. Don't be afraid. I'll explain everything once I figure out where I am. But I need your help to figure out where that is.
Silence was her answer.
Please, just answer me. I…I'm alone and I need your help.
Still nothing was what she received.
Not knowing what she could do, Tellion continued to search about the brain. She sent out another series of impluses into the cerebral connections.
There!
Something happened. A sliver of something. It was, it was…vision!
Tellion saw something!
She sent out more burst impulses, again and again, searching in a desperate bid to isolate the part of the brain where she had witnessed the vision.
There it was again! She saw the sliver of vision once more. Tellion mapped out the brain, utilizing the complex system of processors to finally figure out where the part of the brain this body's eyes were located. Surging with the need to know where she was, Tellion focused all of her mental capacities on that one spot on the brain.
Then her world opened to a new existance as she willed the eyes to open.
Two. Two. There were two eyes. Not six. Not like Tallaxia's. And their range of vision was completely different from the spectrums that Tellion had experienced. Her Gedd host had poor vision, everything had always been blurry except at extremely close range. And Tallaxia had an almost tunnel like vision, but it hadn't mattered with her six eyes that could rotate at almost every angel.
Not these. Their range of rotation was extremely limited, yet their field of vision was far superior. As was their color processing spectrum. Everything was different for Tellion. She had no way of understanding all of these new fields of vison and depth perceptions. But, no sooner than when Tellion had opened her eyes, she became aware of something else.
She was laying down on some kind of elevated surface.
And she couldn't breathe! She was choking on something!
Tellion fired off more of her nerve impulses, trying in a wild attempt to figure out how to move the rest of the body. Even as she tried to locate the nerve impulses that would cause the body to react, she was overwhelmed by the mounting pressure in the lungs that were already burning and contracting from lack of air.
Again, she felt a twitch in the hand. The same hand that she had only a short time ago had been resting on. Tellion fired off a burst of impulses, and felt jubilation surge through her when her control tendrils responded with the jittering of the fingers.
Move the fingers, clench them around the hand.
The fingers moved. Yes!
They clenched.
She hand the hand isolated. The arm nerves were connected to the hand, they were located in the same areas of the brain as the hand. Tellion just had to isolate them as well, then direct their movements with her control tendrils. It only took Tellion a microsecond to do that. Suddenly, she had control over both the body's hands, and arms.
Moved by an almost instinctual desire to preserve both her life and the body that wouldn't speak to her, Tellion grasped wildly at her face. Her feeble and trembling hands grasped around something. Some kind of tube. It was stuck down her throat. It was what was choking her!
Tellion didn't think anymore. She grasped her hands around the mysterious tube and pulled with all her might. With one mighty yank, the odd tube was jerked from the depths of her throat. The instant it was from her mouth, Tellion drew in a ragged, agonizing breath. A hollow, almost voiceless breath came from the depths of her throat as her aching lungs drew in that desperately needed air. Her back instinctively arched as if she were trying to pull in as much oxygen as was physically possible with her body's lungs. As she did, Tellion rolled to her side, and felt a sharp pain in her arm.
Looking at it, she saw some another, smaller clear tube protruding from her arm. Tellion didn't know what that was, but she didn't want it in her. Without thinking she grasped the tube and yanked it from her arm. The sharp spike of suffering that rocketed all through that arm made Tellion almost instinctively roll over, and she fell off of surface that she was laying on.
The side of her face smashed into a hard surface not far below, some kind of floor. Pain exploded all through her head, all of those agonizing nerve jolts rushing up through this body's nervous system and into her control tendrils, making her very frail Yeerk body shudder as she tried to make sense of everything. Every bit of pain that this shape responded to, Tellion felt as if it where her own. Tellion didn't know why, but she pressed her jaws together and shut her eyes tightly as she attempted to understand what was happening to her. It didn't hurt as much as when Tallaxia had tried to kill herself and Tellion, but she felt more connected to this kind of suffering than she ever dared to think was possible for a Yeerk to experience.
Tellion willed what little strength she could muster to try and push herself up from the floor. The hands, the arms, this whole body shook with even the tiniest effort to move this form. Why was this body so weak? Tellion just couldn't understand why this was happening.
She only managed to lift herself halfway up before all the power in the arms failed her and she collapsed to the floor again.
Why won't you speak to me? Tellion begged. I just, need your guidance. I need to know what's happening.
Silence. Nothingness was her answer.
Groaning from both her face hurting, and the sheer struggle that she found in trying to just figure out how to make this body move, Tellion slowly lifted herself from the floor into a sitting position. Then, one agonizing move after another, Tellion just barely managed to pull herself off the floor and brace herself against the bed, the one that she must have been laying on. The legs were much thinner than Tallaxia's, so much so that Tellion collapsed on the bed.
What was wrong with this body? What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she even move? And why wouldn't this host speak to her? She…needed them to talk to her.
Speak to me! Tellion shouted out all through the mind.
Nothing. Stillness.
Grunting, Tellion forced herself to sit up. Even that one action caused such immense agony through this body that she herself felt. Why did it all hurt so much? Why was it such a great strain to even move this body? Why was it so painful to just breathe? And why wasn't this host answering her?
Surely even by now they must have realized that something was wrong with them. But she wasn't receiving any electrical impulses throughout any part of this body's mind. It was… just a shell.
Tellion had never experienced anything like this, and it frightened her. She needed to look at herself. She needed to be able to see for herself what was wrong with her, and this body. She forced the neck muscles to rotate, trying her best to block out all of the agony that raced all through the tendons and ligaments, and all through her as well.
Forcing herself to look around, Tellion couldn't see anything in this entire room gave her even the semblance of being able to see herself. She saw some kind of odd, clearly primitive native machines that surrounded the bed that she had been laying on. One even had that blasted tube that had been stuck down her throat attached to it.
Taking a momentary glace at herself, Tellion saw that her host body was covered in some kind of thin fabric that hardly seemed practical to her. It appeared to serve no purpose other than to cover the body's form. She pulled the edge back slightly and looked down. Yes, nothing but bare flesh underneath. Such an odd thing, these things called 'clothes'. Tellion saw no real need for them, but that was hardly a matter that she needed to worry about. She needed to see herself, and figure out what was wrong with this host body. But where? Where?
Wait. Wait.
Tellion thought, this room was a standard hospital room. She had been briefed of their standard structure during the meeting with Visser Three. She just hadn't paid very close attention to those minor details. There was another room adjacent to this one. Tellion looked across the room, and saw the door that was only slightly closed. Yes, that was the lavatory area. Tellion remembered that there was a specially crafted surface that the natives utilized to observe themselves. Something called a mirror.
Knowing that she needed to see herself to make better sense of where she was and what she need to do next, Tellion forced herself to her feet.
She almost fell down as she put her full weight on them. These legs, these feet, they were so weak. Tellion stumbled across the room, falling against the wall, almost collapsing as she did.
Why was this body so weak? It was getting almost to point of being silly to keep asking that question, but it was one of the only questions that mattered to her in that moment. She knew that the natives were far frailer than most of the host bodies that the Empire had enslaved, but they were not supposed to be anywhere as feeble as this.
Tellion dragged herself into the small room, just barely holding herself up as she did.
"L…lights." she gargled in Naharan. The voice came out all wrong. This body, its vocal cords weren't anything like Tallaxia's. Tellion tried again, this time in her native Gedd/Yeerk language.
Still nothing.
Darkness was all that responded to Tellion. They might turn on if she spoke in the native language, but she only knew a few of their words, and with no memories in this mind to draw from, Tellion didn't have any way of learning how to say the words she needed to in that moment. Growling in absolute frustration, Tellion flailed her arms out. Her hand struck a small lever on the wall with a sharp ping of pain through her palm. But then the room was illuminated with artificial light. It blinded her for an instantly, causing Tellion to shield her eyes. But the moment soon passed, and the eyes adjusted to this new source of light. Finally able to see, Tellion she looked across the room, at an odd surface that reflected everything that was in the room. Even her.
And Tellion felt herself completely at a loss of understanding by the image that she was looking at.
The form that she was inhabiting…wasn't the one that she had been assigned to.
This body, was not her designated host. Tellion could easily tell that by the complete differences in facial structures and body form. She had identified and cataloged every detail of the host that had been meant to be hers, and this one wasn't that person. She didn't know who they were.
Tellion braced herself against the wall to keep the trembling legs from falling out from under her and inched closer to the reflective surface. As she neared the image staring back at her, Tellion took in every little detail.
The skin was a very light color, much paler than the host she was supposed to take. Long hair flowed all down the smooth face, going well past the shoulders. It was a dark reddish hue, not any kind that she had remembered seeing in any being before. As she looked on at the shape of her new 'body', Tellion felt a strange realization come over her.
This body…was female.
Not very well versed in differences between native genders, Tellion weakly patted the chest area. Yes, there were two mounds of flesh that she felt her hands squished against. Not exceptionally noticeable, but they were obviously there is one was looking. The odd sensations that the body felt were unknown to her from touching them. Tellion didn't know what that meant, but she decided to not touch that area again for now. Not until she understood what those physical sensations meant.
Looking up from the chest area, Tellion moved a little closer and stared for a very long time at the alien face that had become her own. The light brown coloration that rimmed the black pupils somehow captivated her. They felt so, gentle and nurturing, almost like how Tellion would have seen herself. She set all of her optical focus on the core of those eyes, searching in what was feeling like increasing vain to find even a shred of the being she was hosting in the reflection.
"Why?" Tellion asked, her weak voice on the verge of breaking. "Why won't you speak to me? I…I don't want to be alone. I need you to talk to me. Tell me what's happening to me, to us."
Silence still. The native that this body belonged to…wasn't there. They weren't anywhere in this mind. It was like they had never existed.
Tellion was alone. She didn't understand this. She didn't know how, or why, she as a Yeerk was inhabiting a host, and was by herself. There wasn't any kind of response from the brain. It was completely empty. She had never experienced this before, and she hated every moment of it. The sadness overcame her like a crushing weight.
Tellion had no way of knowing or understanding how this new body would react to her emotional state, but it did react. Against anything that she felt that could be controlled, Tellion sensed a wetness slipping from her optical sensors, the fluid running down the face's smooth cheeks uncontrollably as her sorrow continued to escalate.
Tellion had seen this before. May time from hosts just before they were reinfested. It was, 'tears'. Yes, that's what the native controllers called it. She was shedding tears. Tellion didn't know why this was happening, or how to control it. Not knowing what to do with herself, Tellion stumbled out of the small room and into the main one.
What was she supposed to do with this body? Why was this one different from any that she had ever inhabited before? What did that mysterious voice intend for her to do now? How was she, a pathetic, lowly Yeerk supposed to show some vastly powerful force that Yeerks could find redemption when she couldn't even understand what was happening to her?
Tellion had so many questions, with not a single answer to make sense of any of it. And she felt so very lost that she almost began to wonder if she had made the right choice. Maybe…maybe it would just be better for her to turn herself over to the nearest Yeerk authorities and accept her inevitable fate.
Just as she let those thoughts pass through her, Tellion heard noise coming from the other side of the flimsy door that was adjacent to her. She curiously turned herself to face that small door. She never understood why, but Tellion wiped away the tears from her face as she heard the noises drawing closer. As she did, the frame cracked open slightly, and a pair of loud, harsh voices filled her tiny room.
"I don't care what happened dammit!" A voice shouted. "You can't keep me from seeing her…"
"Sir! I don't think you understand the situation! We just had a drug nut break into the pharmacy in the hospital basement, and he shot at our security personel. The whole hospital is on lockdown and the police are trying to establish a perimeter right now to keep him from getting away! We've got the damn Governor in the building and they're trying to emergency evacuate him right now!"
"I told you I don't care!" The door swung open and a native entered the room. Their head was turned slightly to look behind them as they were speaking to someone else. "I have a right to see her before…"
The native twisted their head back to face forward, and both their voice and their movement stopped instantly when they saw Tellion standing there. Everything just seemed to stop for Tellion in that next moment as she stared at this native. She didn't know what to do as the native stood completely still in the only possible exit from her.
Was he a controller? Was she about to be apprehended by the Imperial authorities? What was her fate to be?
Tellion had very little understanding of native biology, but she was still able to recognize that this native was clearly male. As he continued to look at her, his body began to jerk somewhat awkwardly. The items he was carrying dropped to the floor, of which he took no notice of. And he brought a hand up to cover his mouth as some incoherent noises were uttered by him. Tellion also had little knowledge of native expressions and actions, and she couldn't understand anything that he was saying. But she didn't interpret any of the actions as clearly hostile. At least, she hoped that was what she was reading in his actions.
As she tried to make sense of his mannerisms, the native male took a single, shaking step towards her.
"My god…" he said in voice that was so low that Tellion barely heard it as he lowered the hand that had covered his mouth. "S…Susan?"
Tellion instinctively dipped her face slightly at what she could only assume was a question, still mimicking her non-verbal responses she had learned from Tallaxia. But she was not Nahara now, and the gesture didn't seem natural in this form since she didn't have six separate eyes located all across the head and didn't warrant a lot of unnecessary head movement.
"Is that you Susan?"
There was that strange word again. Susan.
Susan, Tellion thought, what is a Susan?
She had never heard of a 'Susan' before from the natives. Tellion couldn't imagine what that could possibly be.
Wait. Tellion thought. Tallaxia…Susan? Was that the name of the host body that she had found herself in?
"Tell me this isn't a dream." the native male said, moving closer to her. "Tell me it's really you Susan."
I don't know what you're saying. Tellion thought to herself. I don't know what you want from me. Are you, are you looking for this Susan?
Tellion so desperately wanted to give this native some kind of answer to these unknown questions. She wanted, probably more than this native could possibly understand in this moment, to find this Susan. But she had already looked through every portion of his body's mind. And she had found nothing anywhere in it.
There simply was no Susan. There was just her. Just Tellion. And she had no way of understanding why this was. It frightened her almost as much as when she was afraid of being killed by her superiors.
Her lack of any kind of response didn't dissuade this strange native.
"It's a miracle." he said as fluid began to trickle down the sides of his own face. "It's a miracle!"
He suddenly rushed at Tellion, taking her completely by surprise. Her mind instantly raced to try and process this unexpected. Tellion only manged to take a step back from this charging native before he was upon her. Tellion brought her arms up defensively in a feeble effort to protect herself, but she was easily overpowered by this native. All she could do was brace herself for what she was sure was about to be an agonizing beating by the larger being.
What he did next shattered Tellion's entire concept of reality.
The native male grasped her small head in his powerful hands, and pressed his mouth firmly against hers.
Tellion's eyes went wide with shock and her entire body instantly froze as if she had been blasted by a Dracon beam. A supernova of unknown sensations exploded out from the feeling of her lips touching this native's, racing throughout the rest of the body, and straight up into Tellion herself. The single heart in her chest violently slammed against the rib cage in an instant response to these sensations, giving Tellion the fear that it would explode in that next instant. All of the breath was pulled from the lungs, giving her a feeling of suffocating. But among all of this shock and fear, there was something else. Something that Tellion had never known before in her entire life.
Warmth, and sense of unknown, unexplainable comfort that enveloped her complete existence. It was faintly similar to the joy and hope that Tellion had experienced with Tallaxia, but this was far different in ways that she couldn't begin to comprehend. She didn't know what this unknown feeling was, she had never before experienced such indescribable comfort before, the only thing that Tellion knew for sure was that she never, ever wanted this sensation to end.
But end it did.
As quickly as it had happened, the native male broke his lips from hers. As he did, the last traces of breath weakly escaped from Tellion's mouth. All the strength faded from her legs, and she fell into the native's strong arms. She couldn't think in that moment, all attempts at rational thought were lost in the crushing expanse of these powerful emotions. Still feeling her whole existance in a whirling spiral of things she had never known before, Tellion cautiously lifted her face to meet the native's.
His mouth was curved upwards at the corners, a smile. Yes, Tellion knew of native smiles. But this one wasn't full of mocking gestures or malicious glee. It held the same warmth that she felt was mirroring her own bizarre feelings in that moment. But as she stared up at him with complete bewilderment, the smile on his face gradually faded. It was replaced by, some other kind of look. Maybe, maybe it was, curiosity. But Tellion just couldn't know. Nor could she really even try to comprehend it in that moment. All she could do was reel from the pounding of her body's heart against the inside of the chest cavity as she couldn't break her gaze from the native's face.
"Susan." he spoke softly, tracing his fingers gently down the side of her cheek, sending more waves of radiating warmth through her body again. "Don't you recognize me?"
Tellion didn't understand the words, but she just somehow knew that he was asking her a question. Not knowing any words to say to him, Tellion did the only thing that she knew how to do as a native. She weakly shook her head from side to side, not even sure herself what subconscious expression she was giving him with her eyes. Her response didn't seem to make him happy, instead his expressions twisted into an image that Tellion could only suspect was sadness, but she couldn't be sure. His eyes lowered only for a moment before looking right back at her.
"It's me, Mark." he told her. There was a moment of silence, one that felt to Tellion like the passage of a millennia as she waited for what he was going to say next.
"Your husband."
Tellion could only manage a fait trembling of her lips from the words the native, Mark, spoke to her. The silence she gave him didn't dissuade his next words or actions.
"You don't know who I am, do you?"
Again, Tellion didn't know what he was saying, and could only shake her head again in response. To her own surprise, Mark's smile instantly returned and his face became happy once again.
"I don't care." he said. "I don't care if you don't remember. Your back! That's all that matters to me!"
He wrapped his strong arms around Tellion's frail body and pulled her close to him, enveloping his entire body against hers. As he held her trembling frame, running his hands through her hair and whispering things that she couldn't understand into her ear, one single and terrifying question popped into Tellion's mind in that instant.
Husband. Tellion thought with a mixture of shock, terror, and these new sensations. Wh…what is a husband?!
I just wanted to say a few things so that there's no confusion. I wrote the conversation between Tellion and 'The Voice' the way I did to make it easier to read, but also to show that they were two different ways of speaking. Also, even though Tellion can't understand what Mark is saying, I want the reader to know so as to make their interactions easier to understand. And I also wanted to say thanks for the reviews, I was a bit nervous about making an Animorph fanfiction completely from the point of view of a Yeerk, but I'm glad to know people are enjoying it. Thanks again!