As he awoke from his meditative trance, having been monitoring the growth of the small crop of Nikhau he had cultivating, Darkon reflected on the odd things that had happened to make this course of action appealing to him. Nikhau were, as all Radam knew, used for patrolling the territories that the Radam had conquered through the use of either their Teknomen or the huge Galigau beasts that were bred to shatter the defenses of planets that were known to be particularly resistant.
However, the simple fact was that he did not have the energy needed to produce even one Galigau beast; even the three Nikhau that he was cultivating forced him to divert the stored power needed to create more Teknomen into their bodies. It was a troublesome situation, and he would often find himself wondering in his more introspective moments if there was another Warlord who had been forced into adopting these tactics. Forced into waiting and hiding like this.
Personally, given what he knew of the Radam and their methods, he doubted it. Most of the planets that his fellow Warlords had been assigned to were more advanced than this one – which did make them somewhat more dangerous to deal with, yes – but then his fellow Warlords were either in possession of a probe ship and all of the energy-reserves that such a possession implied, or they had the good fortune to have easy access to a power-plant. Radam trees could be made to draw energy from their own chemical processes, yes, but it was a slow and inefficient process; it also required him to prioritize more than he personally wished to.
His experiences with the Warlord who had originally brought him into the ranks of the Radam – Omega – provided Darkon with knowledge of how a Radam invasion of a target planet was meant to go. However, Darkon was still forced to concede that Omega and his forces had made planetfall in one of the power stations that supplied energy to the inhabitants of Chelna, his former city. Given what he was forced to deal with during his own efforts on this Earth planet, Darkon often found himself wondering if even Lord Omega himself would have been able to conquer Navris so easily if he and his forces had been operating under the constraints that he was forced to contend with.
He was inclined to doubt it, sometimes; even with all of their power, Teknomen were still in need of rest and nourishment if they were to be an effective fighting force.
XXXX
As her mom drove the both of them back home, Rachel turned over what Shara had been saying to her and Cassie in her head. Apparently, the Radam were even worse than she'd thought, being able to reach out and control their enslaved soldiers – Teknomen, which were pretty much like super-powerful versions of human-Controllers – remotely with their minds. It was really creepy to think about someone being able to do that, but the fact that their eyes glowed when they were using their telepathy to communicate meant that that kind of control would be obvious to anyone who knew what they were looking at.
Heck, even if someone didn't really know what they were looking at, the sight of someone whose eyes were glowing in weird colors would be a big tip-off that something was up.
Another thing that made the Radam a bit less scary than the Yeerks – though not by much, considering what they could do – was the fact that a Radam Teknoman was easily distinguished from a normal person by the red irises of their eyes, and the fact that the eyes themselves glowed subtly in low light. This would make it a heck of a lot easier to tell who was working for the Radam and who wasn't, just by looking at them. At least the Radam couldn't hide behind normal people or just blend into a crowd, the way the Yeerks could.
Another thing that set the Radam apart, making them easier to cope with than the Yeerks in some ways, was the fact that all Teknomen – according to Shara, who was a Teknoman, so she had to know what she was talking about – could sense each other over short distances, or longer depending on how hard they were concentrating on locating what they were sensing. Sure, that would only really work for Shara or Slade, but it was still yet another advantage that Rachel was happy to have.
When her and her mother made it back to their house, Rachel bid the other woman goodnight after telling her that she had had dinner with Cassie and her family. It was even true this time; that food had been really good, and she'd had an interesting talk with Shara over the leftovers. She might have been okay with lying to her mom when it was necessary for the mission, necessary for the Animorphs' survival, but Rachel was always a bit relieved when she could tell the truth; if only because thinking up all of those stories got kind of tiring sometimes.
Making her way up the stairs, she yawned widely and then stopped by her sisters' room to say goodnight. After everything that had happened today, Rachel was more than ready to spend some quality time with her bed and blankets. Finally back in her room at last, Rachel changed into her pajamas and quietly settled down to sleep.