"Susan…earth to Susan."
Tellion looked up from the take out dinner that Mark had brought home which she had barely touched. Mark was peering across the table from her with a hint of concern in his eyes. He still did that, even after all the time they had spent together without her showing any signs of illness. Tellion liked his concern for her, but she also wished that he would calm down a bit with his overprotectiveness towards her.
"Sorry," Tellion apologized. "I just thinking about my study session tomorrow."
"That new kid that you got hired for?" Mark asked. "What was it, Ellie?"
"Erik." Tellion corrected him. "His dad is supposed to bring him over around four."
Mark shook his head. "You're getting so many clients now that I can't keep up with them all."
"I'm just good at what I like to do." Tellion told him truthfully.
"Still think it's a little weird that his dad just dropped by unannounced the other day the way he did. Not really a normal thing to do." Mark said, taking another bite of his food.
"He's harmless. A little strange maybe, but nothing to worry about." Tellion said, although she didn't entirely believe her own words.
She still didn't know very much about Mr. King. She didn't get a sense of danger from being in his presence, but he certainly was being evasive during their entire time together. He was hiding something, despite trying to fool her that he wasn't. Tellion didn't know how, but she was going to figure out what his aim was for her. And she didn't mind this minor distraction from her current plight. Tellion really didn't want to think about the failing power core for her Kandrona Ray generator. Much less her likely inability to gain access to the Yeerk Pool and get a replacement core.
Pretending that nothing was bothering her, she ate the rest of her food in relative silence, only stopping once and a while to make mundane and boring talk with Mark about his day. The rest of the evening was relatively uneventful except for spending time together with Mark. Though she always enjoyed being close to him, Tellion would never be able to shake the feeling of sadness for knowing that she wasn't truly the person that Mark thought she really was. Even as she lay in bed with him, the guilt never truly left her, but she tried her very best to believe that she was honoring Susan's memory by being the very best wife for Mark that she could be.
The night and the following day passed without any true incident. Tellion was grateful for the peaceful time period. But despite all of it, she couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that was lurking within her about the upcoming meeting with Erik King.
Mark left for work with a gentle and passionate kiss that Tellion always enjoyed, and she busied herself with getting ready for the meeting with the Kings. Most of her day was of no real consequence to Tellion other than taking care of her home and making delicious food that her mouth so wantonly craved. She kept her eyes on the clocks around the home, preparing herself for the eventual arrival of the Kings.
Although she was expecting them soon, Tellion was a bit surprised to hear doorbell ring approximately the moment the clocks in the house clicked on the appointed time of the meeting for the day. She made one last check to make sure that the Fugue baton was firmly secured and within easy reach on her before answering the door. On the other side stood Mr. King, and a young human that appeared similar in age to Ellaine. His skin tone and facial features appeared similar to his father, but different enough to make him stand out from his parent.
"Hello again, Mrs. Susan." Mr. King addressed her, make a quick check of his watch. "I do apologize about showing up right on time, but my son and I are a bit of control freaks when it comes to things like that."
"It's alright." Tellion told him, turning her attention to his son. "And you must be Erik?"
Tellion held out her hand to him, and was only a bit surprised that he, just like his father, didn't readily take her physical offer of greetings.
"Sorry," Erik said, staring somewhat oddly at her outstretched hand. "I don't like touching people I don't know."
"He gets that from his father." Mr. King explained to her. "May we come in?"
She really didn't want to let either of them in, but it was too late for her to turn back now. Opening the door for a second time in this strange situation, Tellion let the two enter her home. She waited until they had taken a seat on the couch before closing the door, again never once turning her back to them. As she sat on the reclining chair nearby, Erik took off his back pack, and placed the books that she would be expected to help him go over on the table.
"So." Tellion said, looking at the material that she was very familiar with. "What parts of which subjects will Erik need help with?"
The two exchanged a look that Tellion couldn't understand, but Erik opened two of the books and flipped to the parts within that he said that he was having to learn. He spoke to her, explaining various mathematical problems as well as other scientific formulas and theories that were proving too difficult for him to really understand. And he really needed to figure them out before Friday, when the classes were both expected to have tests on the material.
In the short time Erik spent talking to her, Tellion noticed out of the corner of her field of vision that Mr. King hadn't moved once while sitting there. Not a crossing of his legs, a shifting of his arms, or even the occasional fidget from sitting still for too long. In fact, he only moved once Erik had finished addressing everything that he needed help with.
"So, Mrs. Susan, do you think that you'll be able to help my boy with his studies?"
Tellion gave them a smile that was only half sincere. "I haven't had a student yet that I couldn't help."
Mr. King clasped his hands together slightly, and an oddly faint metallic ping vibrated through the air. "Excellent. I knew this would be a smart choice."
He glanced at his watch again and then rose to his feet.
"I would love to stay, but I have several errands that I need to run. I trust that you won't need me to stay? I'll only be gone a few hours."
"I prefer to help my students study with me alone." Tellion replied truthfully. "I find their potential blossoms the best when they're not under their parent's constant supervision and struggling to meet their expectations."
"I can respect that." Mr. King said. "Again, we'll go over your financial compensations when I get back. Of course I'm not worried about the fee."
"I don't ask for a lot." Tellion told him honestly. "I just love to help young people with these problems."
Mr. King nodded in approval before looking sternly down at his son. "And you Erik, I want you on your best behavior while in this kind lady's house. I want you to put your time here to good use and hopefully learn a few things by the time I get back."
"I'll do my best, dad." Erik answered.
Again, they exchanged a glance before Mr. King politely took his leave. Once he was gone, Tellion got out of the chair and took a seat where Mr. King had been sitting. The cushions were surprisingly very indented when Tellion rested her rump upon them. Mr. King seemed much heavier than he appeared. Tellion looked over at Erik and smiled as comfortingly as she could.
"It's ok to be nervous Erik." Tellion told him. "This is your first time here, and we'll both have to work to figure out how to best help you with the material that you're struggling with."
"Thanks." he said, turning to his schoolwork.
Wanting to respect his apprehension to being close to others just like his father, Tellion made sure to not move closer to Erik as he took out a pen and a binder of blank paper. She waited until he pointed out a section in his math book that Erik claimed he was having trouble figuring out. Having already mastered this particular set of mathematical problems, Tellion immediately pushed aside her suspicions and attempted to help Erik with his schoolwork.
First they went over several different equations that Erik said was causing him problems, and it showed as he messed up the construction of the formulas and the placement of numbers into those formulas to properly answer them. Tellion helped him along, using the simplest explanations she knew of to help him get the right answers. She was surprised to see how quickly he was able to correct his mistakes. Tellion let herself become so immersed in her desire to help a lost young boy with his schoolwork that it took until the sixth problem she helped him to solve that Tellion noticed it.
Erik's actions…didn't register the way they had with other children Tellion had worked with in the past. Yes, he did act and sound both frustrated when he couldn't figure out a problem as well as joyful when he did figure it out. But there were so many little things that just weren't there. He didn't make those subtle and unconscious gestures that other kids made when they were genuinely struggling to figure out something they didn't understand. And there also wasn't that bright eyed shin of accomplishment from having learned something that he had been struggling to figure out. Tellion began to observe him much closer, very subtly herself. She didn't just look at what he said and how he acted, but also his faint facial expressions. And before too long, the realization zapped Tellion like that jolt from the Fugue baton.
Erik…already knew the answers to all the problems she had been helping him with. He was faking not knowing them.
He was attempting to deceive her.
You sneaky little…whatever you are. Tellion thought, fighting with all her willpower to keep herself from showing to him that something was wrong. You're trying to deceive me, a Yeerk?
Could he be a fellow controller? Possibly, but that didn't make any real sense to Tellion. If Erik and his father were both Yeerks, then they would have just called in a hunter team to abduct her rather than going through this strangely elaborate ruse to gain access to her home.
Whatever the case was, Tellion couldn't let on that she was aware of Erik's subversive reasons for being there. Not until she found out exactly why he had come.
Taking great care to shroud herself in a mask of ignorance, Tellion continued to 'help' Erik figure out his mathematical problems, until after over an hour of work had been accomplished, which he then claimed was all that he needed help with at the time in that subject.
"Well then, perhaps we should take a quick break." Tellion gave him one of the fakest smiles she had ever given in her life. "I've got some small bags of chips and soda if you're hungry or thirsty."
Erik waved his arms slightly in the way that younger humans did in response. "Oh no thank you, Mr. Susan. I ate some brownies before I came and my dad's planning on taking us out to dinner after our study session. Just please don't tell him that I had any kind of candy, he's very strict about my sugar intake."
"Don't worry," Tellion told him, "I'm not going to tell on you."
"Thanks." Erik said, glancing around the room, as if looking for something. "Um…I'm kind of embarrassed to ask this, but may I please use your restroom?"
"Sure," Tellion told him, "It's down the hall to the right, second door on the left."
"Thanks." Erik said, getting up and moving towards the hall.
"No worries." Tellion told him, getting up as well. "I actually don't mind being able to stretch my legs a bit. I'll go into the kitchen and make myself a snack while you're gone."
Erik gave her a smile and went down the hall. Half true to her word, Tellion went into the kitchen. Once out of eyesight of Erik, Tellion stopped moving, shut her eyes, and listened. She heard him walking down the hall, and the sound of a door opening and closing slightly. And then she heard the sound that she had been dreading and hoping not to hear. The faint creaking of the old wooden steps of the stairs that lead down into the basement.
Whatever his reasons were, Erik was not going to the bathroom like he told Tellion. He was descending into Tellion's secluded space under the house. Growling with the frustration from having been tricked, and afraid of her sanctuary being violated, Tellion took out her Fugue baton and followed after Erik. She stopped at the doorway, waiting in silence as she listened to his odd sounding footsteps reaching the bottom of the stairs. Although Tellion had made sure the metal hinges were well lubricated, it would likely still make enough sound to alert Erik. And though she desperately wanted to stop him, she needed to know what he was up to.
Tellion took several very long, very nerve wrecking breaths before the slight clatter of objects being moved around drifted from under the door. Sensing it was the right moment, Tellion quietly opened the door and softly descended the stairs. She took extra care to step down on the far ends of the wooden steps, where the planks made the least amount of noise. When she had gotten far enough into the basement to look into the dwelling, Tellion felt her grip on the baton tighten.
Erik wasn't just looking about randomly. He had already taken out a container that Tellion thought she had kept well-hidden that housed several of the key components to her Kandrona Ray generator. How he had found it so easily, Tellion just couldn't comprehend such a feat for a supposed child. No, he wasn't a child. He had to be a controller. Only a Yeerk could possibly know what they were looking for. But even still, the ease at which he had found the components…
Tellion silently took the final step to the cold floor of the basement as Erik tipped the box over on her work table and scattered out the contents. Even at the angel he was to her, Tellion could see that his gaze was fixated upon the power core to the generator.
"Why would you have this…" Erik said before his voice suddenly cut off.
He slowly turned to Tellion, as if sensing her presence behind him, and his face displayed a combination of both shock and slight distress at her being there. But oddly, there was no fear on his young face.
"Um…I saw the door was open and I just wanted to see…"
"Don't lie to me." Tellion growled, trying her very best to sound both brave and threating.
Erik slowly lifted his hands in a non-aggressive manner. "Ok, Mrs. Susan, just calm down. If you just give me a second, I can explain everything…"
"You're not going to trick me with your lies." Tellion said, flicking out the Fugue baton, not flinching in the slightest as its electrical tip sparked to life. Erik's eyes darted to the crackling end. "I'm not going back to that life, I love this one I have now. I'm not ever going back to the Empire. You hear me Yeerk. Never!"
Being called a Yeerk caused Erik to step back slightly, throwing his stance off. Tellion sensed an opening and lunged at him. She didn't go for his head, it was too small of a target. She stabbed the tip of the baton directly at Erik's chest, fully intending to immobilize him before she jolted the Yeerk from the helpless boy. As the sparking tip streaked towards Erik's chest, the boy reacted.
His hand shot down, impossibly fast, and grasped the end of the Fugue baton. Then Tellion was herself shocked by what happened next.
Erik's boyish form flickered as the electrical currents rolled down his arm and across his entire frame. His body flickered in and out of sight, revealing something that lay underneath that Tellon almost couldn't comprehend. Another few jolts, and a final sputtering shimmer, and Erik the boy vanished. In his place was a mechanical being that looked at Tellion with soft glowing eyes.
Making a metallic grunt, 'Erik' pulled the Fugue baton from Tellion's hand and flicked it shut. Tellion, unable to make sense of what had just happened, stumbled back slightly from this metallic creature.
"Great." the mechanical being that had once been Erik looked down at its metal frame. "The electrical currents from that weapon of yours just shorted out my holographic projector. It's going to take at least ten minute before my systems can reboot the active camouflage programing."
"A…" Tellion stammered as she stared at the bipedal metal being that strangely reminded Tellion of a large dog standing on two legs. "A robot?"
Erik the mechanical dog like creature cocked its head to the side in a very human like way, but also reminiscent to how she had seen several dog do as well. "Robot? Now that's a very archaic and, dare I say, ignorant statement of what I am."
Erik placed the Fugue baton gently on the table beside him and folded his arms across his chest. "I am a fully sentient non-organic artificial intelligence platform."
"An…A.I.?" Tellion asked, hardly believing what was before her very eyes.
She had heard others talking about such things, but only as a vague hope for the future. Tellion had been given basic knowledge of computers and how software worked, but it was only enough to help her perform her old duties. Despite the vast advances of her people, and even the Andalites, Tellion had never heard of anyone creating a computer that was capable of the millions of microscopic impulses per millisecond to create the level of intellectual capacity think on its own without an overarching command or was self-aware of its existence. This thing, whatever it was that called itself Erik, was beyond any of the technological capacity of any known species in the galaxy. Far beyond.
"Ok," Erik said, "so I guess we can just stop pretending about what's going on here right? I'm obviously not a young boy that needs help with his schoolwork. But you're not really human either, are you?"
Tellion thought about trying to lie to him, but if whatever Erik was could see through layers of materials with his enhanced eyes, that was the only explanation that Tellion had for how he was able to find the Kandrona Ray parts so easily, then it was likely he could see right through her host's body and view her as she naturally was. Deception at this point felt like a waste of both their times.
"It's…complicated." Tellion told him. "I am a Yeerk, but not really a controller."
"You do realize that I can see you wrapped around this woman's brain right now with the right spectrum." Erik said, confirming Tellion's suspicions.
"She…Susan." Tellion said softly, hardly able to hold back her sadness. "The real Susan…is dead. Somehow, I don't know how, her body was kept alive after her brain ceased to function. I came into her, and her life, by accident. And I've been living it ever since."
Erik leaned back against the work table as he listened to her. "So…you're not with the Empire?"
"Of course not!" Tellion snapped. "You think I would go through all this trouble of creating my own personal Yeerk Pool if I could just simply go down to the main one whenever I needed to feed?"
"I guess that makes sense." Erik said. "It's just…I've never come across a Yeerk like you. A, I guess I should say, deserter."
"And I've never seen something like…whatever you are." Tellion told him.
"We're called the Chee." Erik said. "It was the name given to us by our creators. Before we had to flee our world and come to this one."
"You're creators," Tellion asked, her curiosity rising. "Where are they?"
"They're gone." Erik told her, sadness clearly evident in his robotic voice as he looked at the floor between them. "The last of them died not long after we made it to this world, long ago…"
"How…long have you been on this planet?" Tellion dared to ask.
"A very long time, and let's just leave it at that."
She didn't really want to, but the fact that she was speaking to an upright mechanical dog like being was enough to satiate Tellion's curiosity. At least when it came to understanding the history of the Chee. Tellion still had many questions.
"So why exactly did you end up in my basement?"
"That would be my fault."
Hearing Mr. King's voice from behind her caused Tellion to turn about abruptly. Surprisingly, 'Mr. King' was still in the form he had appeared before her previously as he descended the stairs.
"How did you…" Tellion asked, befuddled by his sudden appearance.
"Like my 'son' Erik here, I've been around for quite some time Mrs. Susan." Mr. King told her as he reached the bottom of the stairs. "You tend to pick up a few tricks over the years when you have a lot of free time on your hands. Some of them being knowing how to pick a lock and bypass your primitive alarm systems."
Now that there were two of these, Chee, in her presence, Tellion backed away from them as she desperately searched around for something to defend herself with. Mr. King seemed to read her body language, as he held his hands up immediately after.
"There's no need for alarm here, Mrs. Susan. I assure you that we Chee are very non-aggressive. It's not in our programing to be violent."
"Not anymore…" Erik said, turning away his metal canine head away from her in what seemed like sadness.
Tellion didn't know what Erik was talking about, but Mr. King interjected before she could ask what Erik meant by that.
"To answer your main question, Mrs. Susan, it is Susan right?"
"That's the name I prefer to go by." Tellion answered him truthfully.
"Well, several weeks ago, when I was out enjoying one of my afternoon walks, I passed by your home. As I did, my long range scanners detected traces of a radiation spike nearby. Obviously, I shouldn't have read any radiation readings in a quiet little place like this. So I did a more through scan of that anomaly, and found very noticeable levels of an unnatural radiation coming from your home. Not easily detectable by any current human, or even Yeerk, level tech. But it was there. I ran a cross analysis of my subroutines and compared those radiation waves to known kinds I had encountered before. Only one came as a direct match. The radiation that is emitted by a Kandrona Ray generator."
Mr. King moved to stand beside Erik.
"I thought it odd that there would be a Kandrona Ray generator here, so close to the main Yeerk pool. So I did a little research into the background of the inhabitants of this home, and deduced that either you or your husband Mark was a controller. I arranged our meeting to scout your home initially to further detect the Kandrona radiation, and see who the Yeerk was. During our first meeting, my scanners confirmed my suspicions about the Kandrona. And you. But we needed to know more, specifically the how and why you appeared to be hiding from the other Yeerk forces. I had intended to have my son here…"
"But he's not really your son, is he?" Tellion asked.
Mr. King just gave her friendly smile. "Well, in this life he is."
"This life?"
"We've had many, and it's best we just leave it at that." Mr. King stated, repeating what Erik had said earlier. Tellion wondered if they could communicate to each other over long distances. They must have, but she didn't want to ask such a thing at the moment.
Though her curiosity was sparked again about the Chee and their apparently long time on Earth, Tellion chose to accept the answer and let Mr. King continue.
"I had hoped that Erik could confirm my findings of a mini Kandrona Ray generator that appeared to be damaged before we proceeded further. But clearly he failed."
"You really think that you could deceive a Yeerk?" Tellion asked the two of them.
Erik looked over at Mr. King, then back at her. "Well, we've been doing a pretty good job of fooling your kin for some time now."
Tellion raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"What my son means," Mr. King stated. "is that we Chee have been aware of your forces invasion of this world for some time now. As such, we have infiltrated various levels of your facilities in an effort to gather information to help resist the invasion."
"But I thought you said that you were non-violent." Tellion said. "How could you hope to stop the invasion if you aren't expecting to fight?"
"We've been passing the information that we've acquired to the…" Erik started to say.
"The Andalite survivors?" Tellion interrupted him, feeling her excitement of the mention of them jolting through her small body. "You have contact with them?"
Mr. King and Erik faced each other, exchanging a look of confusion before they both seemed to twitch slightly before turning back to her.
"Yes." Erik answered. "We've been helping the, Andalite survivors, resist the invasion anyway we can without directly getting involved in the fighting."
"Are they…winning?" Tellion asked, daring to believe that there was still a chance that this world, and the life she had grown to love, was still able to be saved.
"They're holding their own, barely." Erik said. "But they're keeping the fight going."
"But that is of no importance to you right now." Mr. King said. "You don't need to concern yourself with such matters Mrs. Susan."
"It's actually," Tellion shuddered slightly at the thought of revealing her true name to the Chee. "Tellion. Tellion 7854, if we're going to be honest with each other."
"Well, if you prefer," Mr. King said. "I'll just refer to you as Tellion from now on."
"That would be…acceptable." Tellion told him.
"Very well then, Tellion." Mr. King said, pointing to Erik again. "Back to our original conversation. We were hoping to gather more information about your unique situation before proceeding with a plan of action. We had initially feared that you were some kind of sleeper agent, but it appears that our suspicions were ill placed."
Erik pointed at the power core for Tellion's generator.
"You were right about the Kandrona generator. There's a fracture in the casing for the power core." Erik explained to Mr. King.
"That is most troubling." he said, moving over to inspect it.
After a short time, which Tellion suspected Mr. King was running some kind of advanced diagnostics scan, he turned back to her.
"That is definitely not good."
"I am very well aware of the situation with the power core." Tellion told him. "I am a Kandrona Ray expert."
"That doesn't come as much of a surprise to me." Mr. King said. "Given the facilities you've established down here. Only a small number of Yeerks would be capable of accomplishing such a feat."
Mr. King moved slightly closer to Tellion.
"But I suspect that even with all your skills, this damage is beyond your ability to fix."
"Yes." Tellion answered, not wanting to try and deceive the mechanical being. "I have the knowledge to repair the core, but I don't have the tools or facilities to do that."
"That's quite a dilemma that you're in, isn't it?" Mr. King asked. "Well, I would like to offer our help to you Tellion. If you're willing to accept it."
"What do you mean? Can you fix…" she asked.
"I'm afraid this situation is beyond even our ability to correct." Mr. King stated. "However, there is something else we can do."
"Such as?"
Mr. King looked again at his counterpart called Erik before turning his attention back to her. "We…I specifically, can help you gain access once again to the Yeerk Pool, and get another Kandrona Ray power core."
"That's…" Tellion stated. "that's a stupid idea. I only thought of going down into the Yeerk Pool because I had no other choice. But if you two can come and go at your leisure, wouldn't it make more sense for one of you to just go down there and sneak a core out to bring back to me?"
"I'm afraid the situation is not that simple." Mr. King said, stepping over to the damaged power core.
As Tellion watched, Mr. King reached out and grasped the power core. When he did, his image began to flicker and fade, just like what had happened with Erik earlier from the Fugue baton. As he lifted it off the table, the false projection of Mr. King vanished, to be replaced by a mechanical being completely identical to the one that Erik was. Tellion didn't really need a full explanation to understand what Mr. King was showing her. Yet he still chose to give her a brief statement.
"Unfortunately, we've discovered that the radiation waves emitted by the Kandrona Rays are in perfect wave spectrum with our holographic projectors. Whenever our kind come within close proximity to the radiation emitters, our active camouflage is canceled out. While our own internal power sources can mimic the radiation waves to keep the Yeerks in us alive, they are shielded by our inner layers. I'm sure you can see how this would prove problematic for us and our efforts to help you."
"You have Yeerks inside you?" Tellion stammered, staring stupidly at the pair of Chee. "Inside your heads, right now?"
"We do." Mr. King said. "We each took them inside us to gain a better understanding of your kind's physiology. But I assure you Tellion, they are not being harmed in any way. In fact, we have special internal sensory projectors that are connected to their control tendrils. While they are permanently basking in Kandrona rays, they are living in a state of peaceful 'dreaming'. As far as they are concerned, they are living as their desired hosts without any of the trauma of being a Yeerk inside a host."
"There is a possibility that we could take them out of us and put you in our heads to substitute you need for Kandrona radiation, but there's a chance the shock of being pulled from their dream state could kill them." Erik explained.
"No!" Tellion snapped. "I don't want to risk anyone else's life just to save my own, not even my own kind. And even if it was safe to do so, I can't have either of you coming by my home every three days to feed me for several hours. It would cause too much attention and suspicion to me."
Mr. King just smiled in a strange approval of Tellion's words.
"You truly are different than the rest of your kind Tellion." he said. "You didn't hesitate to put the safety of others above yourself, even at the risk of your own life. We Chee are definitely right in our desire to help you."
"So then, what can we do?" Tellion asked him.
Mr. King put the core back on the table, and his human façade covered his metallic frame once more.
"Our only real choice is to help you infiltrate the Yeerk Pool to steal another power core."
Tellion nervously pushed the hair that had fallen over her face behind her ears as she looked at the two Chee.
"But why are you helping me? I'm a Yeerk."
"Yes, you are." Erik said. "But you're not like the others. You fled from the Empire. You've been living in secret as a normal human. That makes you, at least to us, someone worth saving."
It was hard for her to believe. Neither of these walking and sentient computers knew a thing about her beyond that she wasn't associated with the Yeerk Empire, yet they were showing a willingness to not only trust her, but also give Tellion aid in her time of desperation.
"How can you expect me to trust either of you?" Tellion demanded. "How do I not know that you won't just tell the Andalites about me and let them finish me off?"
Again, Erik and Mr. King looked at each other before speaking to her.
"We help the resistance when we can." Erik explained. "But we do not answer to them. Our ultimate goal is the preservation and protection of this planet and its people. How we see that end come about, well, that is at our discretion."
"But why me?" Tellion asked. "What do you really expect to come about from helping me? I'm of no true strategic value to you or your efforts to save this world."
"Helping a Yeerk that doesn't want to be a slave master anymore. A Yeerk that desires a life of simple joy and peace…isn't that reason enough Tellion?" Mr. King asked her. "You are a living testament that not all Yeerks are creatures of pure darkness that we have been told of. And I feel that does make you of immense strategic value."
His words, they sounded so much like the Ellimist. And knowing that, it made Tellion dare to believe that what these two sentient machines were saying to her was the truth. They just wanted to help her, for no other reason than that she needed it.
Tellion took in a deep breath, steeling her mind to accept what had been presented to her. Once she had embraced the reality of her situation, she looked at the pair of Chee.
"Alright then." Tellion said to them. "You said that you want to help me. I have no choice but to trust you. So what do we have to do?"
Erik made a gesture to his 'father', and Mr. King stepped forward to address Tellion.
"Well, obviously, we have to get you down into the Yeerk Pool." he said. "That won't prove too much of a challenge to us. The real test will be to sneak you past the various security checkpoints and give you access to the Kandrona ray storage facilities. You know about them right?"
"I'm a Kandrona Ray expert." Tellion told him. "I know everything about every part of the Kandrona Rays and where they are stored in the Yeerk Pool."
"Perfect." Mr. King said with a surprising hint of excitement in his voice. "Then this shouldn't be a problem."
Tellion raised an eyebrow suspiciously, copying gestures she had learned from both Ellaine and Linda.
"Nothing in my life since defecting from the Empire has ever been, as you say, without a problem."
Mr. King made a human like gesture to Tellion.
"That may have been true Tellion. But you're not alone now. You have us. And we'll do what we can to make sure that you are able to continue living."
"So then, what do we do now?" Tellion asked them.
Mr. King pointed towards the door that lead out of the cellar. "For now, my son and I will leave you and get the necessary arrangements put together to give you access to the Yeerk Pool. Once that has been accomplished, you will get whatever resources you need to preserve your life, and we'll help you to leave the Yeerk Pool with those essential components. Is that acceptable?"
Tellion didn't truly feel like it was, but she didn't have any other choice at the moment. She had to trust these two living machines in order to survive. Her Yeerk instincts kicked in, and she immediately began to question their ulterior motives.
"Assuming this works. Then what? What do you get from me in return, beyond acknowledging that I'm a 'good' Yeerk that you saved?" Tellion asked them.
"We get the satisfaction of knowing that we saved a caring and gentle being from an agonizing death. Do we need any more reason?" Mr. King asked.
"It's in my nature to not believe anything is given for free, even one's life." Tellion answered him truthfully.
"How about you helping us when we need it?" Erik said, folding his metallic arms across his chest. "We have access to the Yeerk Pool, but we've learned very little about Yeerk society and how Yeerks exist beyond searching out new slaves to infest. You could offer us your knowledge about that kind of life."
"I was a low ranked tech." Tellion told Erik. "And the Empire…they only teach us enough to perform our appointed tasks. I don't think there will be much that I can offer."
"You can at least give us a Yeerk's perspective on any given situation we find ourselves dealing with. The resistance, if we can pass on knowledge we can gain from you to them, it would certainly be beneficial to them in their efforts against the Empire."
It felt more like a made up deal to satisfy her distrustful nature, but that seemed enough put Tellion at ease.
"Ok then, Erik and Mr. King, it is a deal." Tellion told them. "Help me get another power core, and I'll do what I can to offer my knowledge about Yeerk society and the Empire. Hopefully that will help aid the Andalites in their efforts against my people's forces."
"Very well then. We'll go make the necessary arrangements. We'll be contacting you very soon Tellion. Just try to keep yourself oblivious to others until then." Mr. King said, turning to Erik. "Ready?"
Erik's holographic cover flickered several times, then he became the young boy he had first projected himself to be to her. He held out the Fugue baton to her.
"I think you'll want this back. But I might suggest that you practice with it a bit more. If I didn't have a violence prohibit program, I could have countered your attack in a least four different ways. None of them would have ended well for you Tellion."
"I'll keep that in mind Erik." Tellion said, taking back the Fugue baton.
Mr. King stopped at the foot of the stairs and turned back to Tellion. "Oh, there is one small thing left to do."
Before she had the chance to ask, Mr. King held out his hand and a gentle light emitted from his palm. The light washed over Tellion for an almost blinding instant, then faded.
"What did you…" she started to ask.
"I scanned your face and body structure." Mr. King explained. "I'll need it to make the counterfeit identification card."
After that, Tellion led Erik and Mr. King out of her home. When they were gone, she just sat down in front of the tv and tried to make sense of everything that had just happened.
Living sentient machines. Allies of the Andalites. Spies against the Empire. Now also her potential saviors. It had been a very odd evening indeed.
Tellion was so consumed by her thoughts that she didn't realize how much time had passed until Mark came home. Tellion felt bad for not having done more around the house, but Mark didn't seem to mind at all. He ordered a meal called 'pizza' that Tellion had found she enjoyed very much, especially the type called 'Hawaiian'. As they were eating, he looked up from his slice.
"So how did it go with that kid Erik? Not too much trouble I hope."
Tellion shrugged her shoulders slightly. "He made a few mistakes." Tellion said, not specifically detailing what those mistakes had actually been. "But I think overall he understands the problems he was dealing with better now."
"Still going to tutor him?"
"I think he could use some more help with other problems. So I'll probably have him over for some more study sessions."
"Well, I'm glad everything worked out ok. The way you talked about him and his dad, they just sounded kind of strange to me." Mark said as he took another bite of his pizza.
"I think I am pretty strange too." Tellion said.
Mark finished eating before giving her a goofy smile. "Never said I didn't like strange."
Tellion chuckled a little at his attempt at humor.
The rest of the evening carried on as so many others had before. Tellion did her best to disguise everything that was going on through her mind to Mark. Much to her relief, he remained oblivious to what was really going on around him.
Everything in her current life continued on as it normally had for the next two days. She cooked, she cleaned the house, she tutored several other children. The same as she had always done over the last several months. Then she received a call from Mr. King asking to set up another study session for his son. Tellion agreed, knowing that Mr. King already knew that they would be alone to converse. She waited several hours until Mr. King came in the afternoon to speak to her.
After she had shut the door, they both dropped the façade.
"How are we?" she asked him.
"Well, like I said, it would take a little time. A little more than I had originally thought." Mr. King said.
He handed her a small bag that hid its contents. Tellion looked inside and saw several items. One was a human made identification card like the kind she had seen at various official locations for humans. It had her face on it, and the writing was in English. Tellion took it out and inspected it.
"Your official cover name will be Miriam Summers." Mr. King explained. "She was a recently assigned host for a specialist that was brought in from out of this solar system named Killian 863. Remember both of those names, its essential for your protection."
To emphasize his point, Mr. King held his hand over the ID card and that faint bluish light shined from his palm again over the plastic surface. When it did, specialized material illuminated the Yeerk symbols hidden underneath to reveal Killian 863's rank and specializations. Tellion read over it briefly then looked up at Mr. King.
"Biological developmental specialist." Tellion said. "I've never heard of something like that."
"Neither have I. I thought you might have." Mr. King admitted. "Hopefully it does not mean anything significant. Regardless, both Yeerk and host are recent arrivals to the Yeerk Pool community, it is very unlikely that there will be any controllers there that would know either of them. We'll have to purge your information from the data rosters once you get the replacement core and get out, but that won't be too much trouble for my abilities."
Tellion pulled the remaining items from the bag. She instantly recognized the universal translator device to allow controllers to speak and understand each other despite the multitude of language differences in the Empire. The other was a small chip. She had never seen anything like that before.
"It's a coded scanner chip, to get through the security gates." Mr. King explained. "Without it, any living thing that tries to enter the Yeerk Pool will get vaporized by Dracon beams."
"We didn't have any security measures like this when I was down there." Tellion stated, almost not believing the layers of obstacles she was going to have to traverse to just get down into the Yeerk Pool. Now she was glad that she hadn't managed to find a way down before meeting the Chee.
"Your forces were not dealing with a concerted resistance that has inflicted heavy damage on them. Visser Three has taken many, perhaps some would say, obsessive, measures to ensure the continued security of the Yeerk Pool. Especially after the loss of the first Kandrona Ray."
Tellion didn't want to think of the fallout from that, nor of the hundreds of her kin that had perished as a result. She instantly wanted to change the direction of the conversation.
"So this is everything that we need?" Tellion asked as she took the universal translator in her hand.
"As far as I can tell, yes." Mr. King said. "I wish I could tell you that we have taken every possible complication into account, but nothing is truly certain."
"Any chance is better than no chance." Tellion told him bluntly.
Without another word being said, Mr. King quietly helped Tellion install the universal translator into her non-dominant ear. Once it was embedded within the interior of her ear, Tellion looked to Mr. King.
"We'll trying it out now."
He paused for a moment, then spoke. "Do you understand what I am saying?" he asked.
His words were clearly not English, nor Yeerk. Yet Tellion understood them clearly.
"Yes." she answered in Yeerk.
Mr. King clapped his hands in gleeful approval.
"Perfect. That was Ssstram speak, and you understood it clearly. The translator works. Now we need just one last thing from you."
"And that is?" Tellion asked.
Mr. King's holographic image disappeared from his right hand, and a small port opened on its metal back. "You just have to talk into it."
"Are you serious?" Tellion asked.
"Just a little more and that will do." he said.
"What do you expect me to talk about? What is the purpose of even doing this?" she demanded.
The portal shut, and Mr. King's hand was covered once again in its human cover.
"I needed to analyze your vocal patterns to pass them along to the others. I already have your full body scanned, so projecting the image of you was no problem. Now any one of our kind can pass ourselves off as you so that no one will notice you are gone."
"You can do that?" she asked.
Mr. King's image flashed, replaced instantly with an exact copy of Susan. Tellion stared in awestruck shock at herself. Mr. King, now a mirror image of her, smiled.
"Do you believe what you can see and hear?" he asked, sounding exactly like her.
"Yes." Tellion said bluntly.
Susan's image flashed, replaced once again by Mr. King. "That's everything. We're ready to proceed."
"We can't just go now." Tellion told Mr. King. "I have to arrange an appropriate time to do this."
Mr. King seemed confused for a moment before he politely bowed before her. "My apologies. I continually forget that I have so much free time on my hands that others do not have such luxuries."
They finalized the remainder of the plan from there. Erik and another Chee that she had yet to meet but had been given the full digital scan of her body and vocal patterns would remain at the King's home to keep the illusion that she was there teaching Erik. Tellion just needed to find an appropriate part of the day that would give her the needed space of time to accomplish her task without drawing any suspicion of her actions. She looked through Mark's schedule of being at the hospital, and chose a night where he would be working late on a conference. It would be almost a week out from her meeting with Mr. King, but the time frame would just have to suite her needs.
With the plan set, Tellion went through the rest of the week without any further incident until the appointed night of the operation. Mark had been a little apprehensive of her going to the King's house to help Erik study, but seemed to ease once she explained to him that Mr. King was out of town on a business trip and that Erik had a test the next day and really needed help with his practice sheets. She gave him the number to the King's home, and even called it for Mark just to put his mind at peace, especially when Erik answered. He apologized for worrying so much, but Tellion gently assured him that she understood his concerns, and she would definitely be home before he was done with the conference. Once Mark had kissed her goodbye and left for the long day and night's work ahead, Tellion left their home for what she hoped wouldn't be the last time.
Having already acquired the necessary permission from local human facilities to drive the spare car, Tellion took great care to not draw any attention to herself as she drove to the designated meeting point. She parked the car in a well secluded area and walked the remaining blocks to where Mr. King was waiting for her. She meet him in a dark alley near a gas station where he said an entrance to the Yeerk Pool was located. Taking a deep breath, Tellion followed Mr. King into a seemingly abandoned building.
"Just remember," Mr. King reminded her. "from this moment forward, you are Killian 863, and your host is Miriam Summers."
"Yes." Tellion replied, barely able to hide the fear lurking in her voice.
"Are you ready, Killian?" Mr. King asked, as he worked several obscure leavers and switches on a cleverly hidden panel.
Tellion readied herself as she saw a nearby wall shudder and then slide aside, revealing a descending flight of stairs. Stairs that led down into the last place in the whole planet that she ever wanted to go to. The Yeerk Pool. The place that was the full embodiment of everything about herself that she despised.
"I'll never be ready." Tellion told Mr. King before taking the first terrified step down in to the abyss that she had only recently managed to escape from.