Chapter 6
"All right, let's get this over with," Prince Jake said.
It was the next day, and we were once again in Cassie's barn. Cassie's parents were both out, so we had decided it was a perfect time to test out the Yeerk morph.
Rachel, Hannah, and Tobias still didn't want to infest anyone.
Not that I blamed them.
They were not there in the barn, instead they were flying reconnaissance over a meeting of The Sharing that Kevin had told us about. They were taking careful note of when Visser Three arrived, where his vehicle came from, how many guards he had.
Trying to find a weak point.
A small opportunity for us to attack.
Prince Jake had made it very clear the mission was purely for intelligence, and they were not to engage under any circumstances.
Jordan, Cassie, Prince Jake, and I were standing in a loose circle. Marco was in osprey morph in the rafters, providing a lookout as Tobias usually did.
"Well… who wants to go first?" Cassie asked awkwardly.
For a long time, nobody spoke.
Finally, Jordan broke the silence. "Fine. I'll be the first one to get infested. It was my plan after all."
An even longer silence. Nobody seemed eager to morph the Yeerk.
With a shock, I realized I was even more afraid of morphing the Yeerk than I was of getting infested.
"All right Jordan," Prince Jake said. "Nobody wants to volunteer, so pick whoever you want to enter your head."
Jordan grimaced. I could tell she didn't want to put anyone on the spot.
After a long, awkward silence she finally spoke. "Cassie."
There were a couple reasons why she might pick Cassie. Cassie had morphed a Yeerk before. Cassie was the most compassionate of the group. Perhaps because Cassie was also a female.
Cassie sighed. "All right," she said simply.
And then Cassie began to morph.
I'll be honest, I looked away. Yeerks are disgusting enough on their own, and turning into a Yeerk was a whole new level of disgusting, as the Humans might say.
{I'm done,} Cassie said after about a minute and a half.
I looked at the small, gray slug in Jordan's hand.
"Remember Jordan, you can back out at any time," Prince Jake said.
Jordan nodded. "I have to do this. It was my idea, I can't sit idly by and watch someone else do this."
And then Jordan pressed Cassie against her ear canal.
Jordan's face contorted in pain, then disgust as Cassie wormed her way inside.
{All right, I'm in,} Cassie said after about ten seconds.
"Are you alright? Is Jordan alright?" Prince Jake asked.
{I'm fine,} Cassie answered. {I'm letting Jordan control her mouth, so she will be able to answer for herself.}
"Jordan? Are you doing okay in there?"
Jordan didn't say anything for a couple seconds. Then, she smiled. "I'm okay. I just tried to nod, but I can't control my head anymore."
Nobody said anything for a few seconds. I wondered if Jordan and Cassie were communicating internally.
Jordan walked back and forth a couple times. I realized Cassie was just getting used to controlling the Yeerk morph.
Jordan/Cassie reached her hand out and moved her fingers back and forth. She jumped up and down a couple times, and then, to my amazement, she ran and did a sort of sideways flip off the ground, bouncing off her hands before landing back on her feet.
Jordan laughed. Or was it Cassie?
{I've never been able to do a cartwheel before,} Cassie said. {That was amazing.}
After a couple more minutes, Cassie announced she was coming out.
Jordan tilted her head to the side and cupped her hands under her ear. As soon as Cassie was out, she started demorphing. Jordan set her down on the ground as she grew larger.
I noticed Jordan was trembling a little bit.
Prince Jake noticed, too. "Are you all right, Jordan?" he asked.
Jordan nodded, but she still looked shaken up. "It was just a really weird experience," she said. "I can't believe there are people who do that voluntarily."
{I can't either,} I admitted. And yet, I was about to become a voluntary controller. Albeit for a very short time, and the host of someone I trusted, but still. The principle was the same.
Cassie finished demorphing. "That was weird," she shuttered. "Sorry if I gave you the creeps, Jordan."
"No problem," Jordan responded. "You want to go next?"
Things moved quickly after that. Jordan morphed Yeerk and infested Cassie.
Then Prince Jake morphed Yeerk and infested Marco, while Cassie took Marco's place in the rafters.
Marco morphed Yeerk and infested Prince Jake.
Each infestation lasted about 20 minutes.
Finally, it was my turn.
"All right Ax, are you ready?" Prince Jake asked. We had decided he would be the one to infest me.
{As ready as I'll ever be, my Prince,} I responded.
Prince Jake began to morph. I didn't look away this time.
I watched in a mix of horror and awe as Prince Jake's limbs withered away into nothing. His skin grew slimy and gray.
The whole time, he was shrinking.
His hair shrank back into his head.
Still the shrinking continued. Smaller and smaller, Prince Jake became.
The only human thing remaining of him were his eyes, but they too soon disappeared.
Finally, the morph was complete, and Prince Jake lay on the ground, a gray slug about four inches long.
{All right Ax, I'm ready if you are,} Prince Jake said.
I picked up the Yeerk.
The enemy.
It's just Prince Jake, I told myself.
I felt a sick urge to throw the slug onto the ground and grind my hoof into it.
I was trembling as I pressed the Yeerk to my ear.
I felt the nightmarish feel of my ear canal being forced open, and the foreign flesh forcing its way inside.
It's just Prince Jake, I reminded myself.
But it didn't help.
My breath was coming in short, ragged gasps.
My fingers were trembling so hard I knew the others could see.
Suddenly, I realized I no longer could control my own fingers.
Panic!
I think if I could move my own fingers I would have ripped the Yeerk out of my head right then and there, irrelevant of it being my Prince.
The loss of control spread throughout my legs, my tail, my stalk eyes.
I wanted to scream, but I no longer could control my own voice.
And then the Yeerk was fully inside of me.
{Ax? Are you doing all right?} Prince Jake asked.
I wanted to say yes.
But at the same time, my mind was going crazy.
A Yeerk! Inside my head!
It's Prince Jake, your ally, your friend.
A Yeerk!
I could feel Prince Jake reading my thoughts.
{I'm sorry Ax, I didn't realize how wrong this felt to you. I'm going to leave,} Prince Jake said.
{No, it's okay,} I said quickly. {If the others can do it, I can do it.}
{Are you sure? I can feel your discomfort.}
{I have to do my duty,} I said. {Regardless of my personal feelings.}
{Okay,} Prince Jake responded.
I felt him move my tail and a new wave of nausea spread through me.
I saw Marco looking at me with concern.
"Ax? Jake? Are you guys alright? Say something," Marco coaxed.
{Something,} Prince Jake said.
I saw Marco crack a grin.
"Of course you would," he muttered, still smiling.
{Ax, I'm releasing control of your thought-speak, so you can talk to the others. I'm going to communicate using the thought-speak from the Yeerk morph.}
{Hello? Can you guys hear me?} I asked. Marco and Jordan both nodded.
I still felt like I had been violated, but I was slowly getting used to it.
I could feel Prince Jake moving my stalk eyes.
{Okay, it's been long enough,} Prince Jake said. {I'm going to come out and we can switch…}
{No it's okay,} I said quickly. {Let's proceed with the next stage of the plan.}
The truth was, I was trying to avoid morphing a Yeerk for as long as possible.
As uncomfortable as being a controller was, morphing a Yeerk would be even worse.
I knew Prince Jake could read my mind, but he decided not to comment.
{All right, Ax wants to proceed with the next stage of the plan,} Prince Jake said aloud.
And then, without trying to, my body began to morph. I realized that Prince Jake was morphing for me.
A new wave of panic swept over me, but I quickly squashed it. Or maybe Prince Jake squashed it. Who could tell?
I was now over halfway into my human morph.
This part of the plan was simple. Morph human, and see what happened to Prince Jake. If Prince Jake felt any pain at all, he would immediately reverse the morph and leave my body.
All good so far. As the humans say, 'so far so good'.
{Are you still doing all right, Ax?} Prince Jake asked me. I knew he would be able to see the answer in my head before he even asked the question. He just asked out of formality.
{I'm okay,} I answered.
The morph was now complete. Prince Jake walked me around the barn a couple of times. I realized with a shock that I didn't feel any of the instability I usually felt when I moved on two legs. Of course, Prince Jake was used to moving on two legs.
{Ax? Jake? You guys still alright?} Cassie inquired from the rafters.
"I'm okay," I answered with my human lips. I realized Prince Jake had given up control of my lips so I could still communicate.
{This is weird,} Prince Jake said with the thought-speak that came with my human morph. I realized with a chill that it was my voice.
{I don't have any control or awareness of my Yeerk body,} Prince Jake continued with my voice. {However, I can still decide to let Ax regain control of certain parts of his body. It's as if I am a Yeerk, instead of being a morph of a Yeerk. Additionally, I can't use the thought-speak that comes with the Yeerk morph.}
"Sounds like Yeerk-Jake is in Zero-space for sure, then," Marco said.
{Sure seems like it,} Prince Jake agreed.
{I wonder if that means Jake's two hour time limit is paused?} Cassie wondered.
"Presumably, yes," I said with my human lips. "Although it goes without saying that we should not test that theory."
{Agreed,} Prince Jake said.
I felt a shudder run through my…our?...body. I couldn't tell if it was Prince Jake's reaction, or mine. Perhaps both. The thought of being trapped in Yeerk morph was unthinkable.
Time to move on to the next part of the test.
{All right, Ax,} Prince Jake said privately. {Who would you like to morph the second Yeerk?}
{It doesn't matter to me,} I answered honestly. I just wanted to get this over with.
{Jordan,} Prince Jake said out loud. {Go ahead and morph Yeerk. Ax has an hour and forty minutes left in morph, and assuming my time isn't paused, I have an hour and twenty minutes.}
"You got it," Jordan said, and began the change.
Prince Jake watched with my human eyes as Jordan morphed Illum.
Things had gone perfectly so far. But this was the make or break moment. Would Jordan's plan work?
"Hey, I just thought of something," Marco said.
"What?" I asked.
"Say Jake morphs a Yeerk and infests you, and then forced you to morph a Yeerk and infests Jordan, and forced her to morph a Yeerk and infest me…"
{Okay, we get the idea,} Prince Jake said. {Is there a point?}
"Not really, I was just curious," Marco admitted. "It would be like Inception. How many layers deep could we go?"
{Yeerk-ception?} Cassie asked.
{What is Inception?} I asked Prince Jake privately.
{It's a movie,} he explained. {The idea is that people have dreams inside of dreams, inside of dreams. It's pretty confusing honestly.}
{Ah,} I said. {Do humans make movies confusing on purpose?}
{Not usually,} Prince Jake said.
Jordan was done with her morph by this point.
Prince Jake picked her up with my human hands. {Ready Ax? Jordan?}
"Yes," I answered out loud.
{Yes,} Jordan echoed.
Prince Jake pressed Jordan against my human ears.
It was like Deja Vu. The wet Yeerk flesh once again forcing its way into my head.
A few agonizing seconds later, Jordan was inside.
{Jake? Ax? Are you guys alright?} Jordan asked.
{Yes,} I answered.
{Yes,} Prince Jake concurred.
I felt another wave of nausea as Jordan now controlled my body.
"How is it going?" Marco asked.
{Good,} Jordan answered. {I have control.}
{Can Jake control anything at all?} Cassie asked.
{No, it's like I've been completely cut off,} Jake said. I realized he was speaking privately and only Jordan and I could hear him. Jordan repeated his thoughts out loud for Cassie and Marco to hear.
"The Yeerk making physical contact with the brain is seemingly effortlessly able to control the morphed body," I said with my human lips. Thankfully, Jordan had allowed me to retain control of them.
"All right, seems like your plan is going to work," Marco told Jordan.
{Don't be so sure, we should do a couple more tests first,} Jordan said. {Jake, Ax? Both of you try as hard as you can to demorph.}
I imagined my Andalite body. My tail, my stalk eyes, my hooves. Most importantly, my brain without a Yeerk in it.
Nothing.
A felt another wave of sickness.
{I'm sorry to do this, Ax,} Jordan told me privately. {I can leave right now if you want.}
{No, it's okay. Just get it over with, we're almost done.} I said.
{How does the memory reading work?} Cassie asked. {This plan will be useless if Visser Three will be able to find out our identities.}
{I am able to see Ax's memories, but not Jake's,} Jordan said.
{I can still see Ax's memories, but not Jordan's,} Jake said privately. Jordan once again repeated his words for the others.
"I can not see anyone's memories," I said. "I can sense vague emotions, but that's it."
{Jordan, I assume you're able to read my internal clock?} I asked privately.
{Yes,} she confirmed.
{I think this is a great plan,} I told Jordan. {If we are successful, we will have hurt the Yeerks very badly.}
I felt a surge of pride from Jordan.
{Can you think of anything else to test?} Jordan asked Prince Jake and I.
Neither one of us could.
{All right, I'm coming out,} Jordan announced.
Jordan slithered out and immediately began to demorph.
Prince Jake was in control of my body once again.
My human body began demorphing without my input, reverting back to Andalite form.
{Are you still doing okay, Ax?} Prince Jake asked privately.
{I'm okay,} I answered.
Soon I was fully Andalite again, and Jordan was fully human once more.
{All right, I'm coming out,} Prince Jake said.
I felt my body come under my control once again, piece by piece. Prince Jake plopped out onto the ground, and was demorphing before he even hit the ground.
I took a few steps back to give Prince Jake room to demorph.
I felt relieved to be able to control my body once again.
I was still shaking very slightly by the time Prince Jake was fully human.
"Well, we think this plan of Jordan's will work," said Marco.
{Yes, it will work,} I agreed.
"We just need a time and place to execute the plan," Jordan said.
"Ax, would you like to morph Yeerk now and infest me?" Prince Jake asked.
"Or me?" Jordan added.
{Not right now,} I said. The thought of morphing a Yeerk still disgusted me.
Prince Jake arched an eyebrow at me, a human expression of surprise.
You've been inside my head, Prince Jake, I said silently. Please understand why I don't want to do this.
Prince Jake got the hint. "Okay, we can do that another time."
Hopefully never, I added silently.
Just then, Cassie announced, {Rachel, Hannah, and Tobias are coming back.}
Rachel, Hannah, and Tobias flew in the barn.
Cassie fluttered to the ground as Tobias took her place in the rafters.
Cassie, Rachel, and Hannah began to demorph.
{We've got good news and bad,} Rachel said. {Gather round and we'll tell you all about it.}