Chapter 4

{Prince Jake,} I said in private thought-speak once we were both in our bird of prey morphs.

{Yes, Ax?}

{Do you mind if I talk to you privately for a minute?}

{Sure, any time. What's going on?}

Prince Jake landed in a tree at the edge of Cassie's farm.

I landed in a different tree a couple hundred human feet away, to appear inconspicuous to humans.

Of course, we were still within thought-speak range.

{Given that you are probably about to see inside my mind, I wanted you to hear this from me,} I began.

That sounded stupid, I thought to myself. That makes it seem like I wouldn't have mentioned it at all if not for the Yeerk morph plan.

Prince Jake remained silent.

{Prince Jake, I have considered going against your wishes and contacting the Andalite homeworld, despite being outvoted. I have not made any actual plans to do so however.}

Prince Jake sighed. {Ax, every one of us has intrusive thoughts sometimes. It's nothing to be ashamed of. It's normal.}

{There's more,} I confessed. {I was seriously considering asking Jordan to come with me, considering her opinion on the situation. I knew she would most likely say yes. I also knew we could go while Kevin was impersonating her at your human school, and nobody else would know.}

{Ax, I have something to confess too. I think lying to the Chee and contacting the Andalite military was tactically the correct decision. But morally? I don't know. My brain wanted to say yes. My brain wanted to say that one Chee potentially dying is worth killing thousands of Yeerks. But if I had voted like that, it would have been a tie. 4 to 4. And I don't feel confident proceeding with a plan that was a tie, especially such an important decision. So I made the safe decision to abstain from the vote.}

{Prince Jake, your human decision making procedures are foreign to me. But in the Andalite military, it is unthinkable to even ask a subordinate for their opinions. A prince would order their subordinates to do what they considered the correct thing to do. And as you know, I have taken you as my Prince. And I will do as you order. But by even considering disobeying you, I have done a bad thing. A dishonor, in the Andalite view. And as such I apologize.}

{Ax, you shouldn't have to apologize for that. As a leader, I recognize your Andalite customs regarding authority. But I am not an Andalite. I am a human. I want my people to respect me, not because they have to, but because they want to. I also realize that forcing you to decide between your loyalty to me, and loyalty to your people is a shitty decision to have to make. And it's wrong of me to make you even consider that. You should do what you consider to be the right thing. All I ask is that you don't withhold helpful information from us, or do anything that hurts us.}

{Thank you, my prince.} I said.

{Ax, if you want backup for whatever you need to do, just let me know. I would be happy to help.}

{Thank you, Prince Jake.}

{Oh, one more thing.}

{Yes?}

{Don't call me 'Prince'.}

A couple human hours later, I was in my scoop in my Andalite body. Tobias was with me, in his red tailed hawk body. We were watching my television to pass the time.

The show we were watching was called 'Animal planet', an educational show regarding the animals of Earth. This episode was about sloths in South America.

{Hey, Tobias?} I asked.

{Yeah?}

{Do you remember when we went to the observatory and contacted the Andalite homeworld?}

{Yes, why do you ask?}

I told Tobias about my conversation with Prince Jake.

{So you want to go to the observatory and contact the Andalites again?} Tobias wondered.

{Well, yes,} I admitted. {But there is another reason I want to go.}

{What is it?}

I hesitated. I knew what I wanted to say, but I didn't want Tobias to think I was trying to manipulate him.

{I miss my family,} I said honestly. {It's been over two years since I've seen them at all. Last time I contacted the Andalite homeworld, I spoke to my father for about thirty seconds, before being interrupted. My parents probably think I'm dead.}

{But you also want to inform the Andalites of the convoy going to the Hork-Bajir homeworld, don't you?}

{Yes,}

{Ax, I think it's wrong to lie to the Chee. I've already said my opinion on that, I don't want to get into this argument again.}

I tried to come up with a retort, but I couldn't.

Some people are able to understand the brutal necessities of war.

And some people let emotions get in the way.

I believed no matter what I said, I wouldn't be able to convince Tobias that potentially losing one Chee was worth the risk, when we could deal such a huge blow to the Yeerks.

Tobias simply couldn't see as I could.

So I decided to drop the matter.

Just then, an osprey flew overhead.

{Hey, Tobias, Ax,} it was Cassie.

{Hello, Cassie,} I said.

{Hey, Cassie,} said Tobias.

{I heard back from Mr. Tidwell and Illum. They are free tonight, and ok with us acquiring Illum. We're meeting at Marco's house at 10:00 p.m.}

{Sounds good, see you then,} Tobias said.

Cassie flew away.

I couldn't really get invested into animal planet after that, I was too preoccupied with tonight.

I couldn't convince myself that it was real.

I'm going to morph a Yeerk, I thought.

And then I was going to infest others, and let others infest me.

It was insane, as Marco would say.

It was unheard of for an Andalite to morph a Yeerk. If I had even mentioned the idea of morphing a Yeerk around other Andalites, they would ridicule me. They would think I had something wrong in my head.

As far as I knew, no Andalite had ever morphed a Yeerk.

And I was going to acquire one tonight.

I excused myself to go feed. I ran across the grass, my stalk eyes forced back by the wind.

It felt good to recharge my strength. But it didn't make me feel better about tonight.

I'm going to morph a Yeerk.

But I knew, deep down, it was the right thing to do.