Chapter 10
During the Decision
Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill frowned to himself as the display on the Aerowing's main console flashed warning signs and alerts at him. He bore his human teeth, a way their species used to express tension and concentration, as he attempted to thread the ship between two missile explosions, then dove the Aerowing around a pair of enemy fighters. His own missiles, annoyingly puck shaped but still effective, bombarded the largest target to reach his goal.
Just a few more human centimeters and…
Boom!
The screen flashed once and was engulfed in red as alien text appeared on the screen. Text that, after a moment, Ax's translator read as 'Mission Failed.' Ax, still only half conscious of his human body's reactions, frowned as a list appeared on the screen. Once again, he was at the bottom of this…strange ranking system. Right underneath the poor numbers of the one called 'Grin', who had apparently only ran this annoying simulation once before quitting. By reading the screen Ax now knew the one called Duke was almost at an even score with Grin, though he had done it more often. The top ranker, and the one who had preformed it the most, was 'NDive', which Ax logically concluded stood for 'Nosedive.'
Ax, in an effort to get back at the strange alien bird he had never met, plunged his human hand into a secret compartment near the front of the cockpit and pulled out a tenth brown object consisting of one large middle disk and two smaller disks on the upper half. The disk was covered in brown sweet topping with lighter brown swirls in a shape that suggested a mouth and a black dot in the middle. There was also lighter brown in the middle of each smaller disk. Lurking inside this confusing but wonderful confection was a layer of crumbly crust, another layer of softer flavorful cream, more crust, then another different flavor of cream, more crust, then more topping.
It was not a Cinnabon but it was still delightful. The compartment that had housed these sugary treasures was labeled 'Nosedive's Bernie the Bear Snack Stash. Donut Steal!' Clearly the youngest of the ducks had left these for other hungry people to find. Clearly these snacks were a type of human donut, another tasty creation in the shape of a circle with a hole in the middle. Clearly the label was an invitation to 'steal' them. More human style humor, no doubt.
Ax had started these simulations as his natural body but then he found the stash and thought that it would be beneficial to attempt them in his human morph, just in case circumstances required it. And, after all, the instructions did state that he was to steal the donuts.
As infuriating as it was to be behind the ducks in these simulations, at the very least they were generous with their food supplies.
As he chewed the wonderful, flavorful food, Ax scrolled through the records of the Aerowing's combat simulator. While he doubted they would get into many firefights, Prince Jake and even Tanya herself agreed that having a few of them familiarized with the Aerowing's combat functions was a good idea in general. Naturally, as the only other person who had even come close to piloting a star fighter, Ax was the natural choice to learn it first. The fact that he was behind the ducks in their system's rankings was more due to the alien's odd technology than any failure on his part. Of course. It was a simple system. He had no idea why the simulations seemed to be beyond his grasp. It might also be the fact that he had not been able to practice on his people's own equipment. It was actually a good thing they had the Aerowing now. He would not be laughed for his poor piloting skills when the rest of the Andalites came. It was clear that, while Andalite methods were superior, he was still out of practice if he wanted to be a pilot on par with Elfangor.
Ax paused a bit in his scrolling, finding a few messages left by the ducks in a sort of forum post designed for letting the ducks leave notes to each other on their rankings and for general discussion. It was enlightening. While some of them were clearly technical discussions, a few of them had devolved into what Ax could only describe as human like bickering. Such as the topic labeled as 'Nosedive is a cheater':
Mallory: How did Dive manage to beat my score again! Tanya, did you recalibrate this like I asked you?
Tanya: I keep telling you, it's fine. There's nothing wrong with my system. Maybe you just don't do well with virtual tests?
Mallory: I ranked the top of my class back at the Academy, HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE!?
Divester: I keep telling you, girly. Video games aren't just for rotting your brain. You should see my top score in Laser Lizards at the arcade back home.
Wing: You mean the one where you always crash and burn right before the fifth level? The one you kept begging Canard to help you finish? That one?
Divester: Don't know what you're talking about bro, I'm the king of Lava Lakes.
Duke: Are we all sure that Dive hasn't hacked this or something. I swear it gets harder and harder every time I try.
Tanya: If Dive can hack this system he's welcome to whatever score he gets.
Divester: Wohooo! Validation!
Tanya: And if I do find out he's been messing with my system he'll be picking grime out of the Migrator's treads for the rest of his life…. although congratulations on correctly spelling the word 'validation.' I'll give you a cookie later.
Divester: So, what you're saying is 'don't get caught'?
Duke: Aww, they grow up so fast…knew that teenage rebellion would kick in eventually.
Wing: Duke, stop corrupting my baby brother.
It reminded Ax of the human banter shared by the Animorphs, although with different context and different relationships. None of the ducks seemed as sarcastic as Marco, and while Mallory and Rachel seemed to have similar temperaments, he could tell that the duck warrior was more mature and even tempered than his human friend. They also did not have the same shared phrases. And the humans almost never spoke of hockey.
"Umm, you know, when I said you could use my simulations I didn't mean 'snoop into our message boards'…or eat Nosedive's snack cakes."
Ax attempted to instinctively whirl around, only to tangle his clumsy human feet and almost fall flat as he just knew humans must do all the time. Fortunately for his cranium Tanya had crossed the distance between them in the Aerowing's cockpit and grabbed his arm so he didn't fall over.
"Thank you…oooo, yew." Ax righted himself. "I do not know how you people can remain upright sometimes."
Tanya expelled air from her nostrils (a dismissive snort?) "Then why are you in human form if you'd prefer the Andalite one?"
"I started as an Andalite, but then I discovered these wonderful circular brown foods! Fooods! Faa Ooods!"
Tanya snorted (again, why?) and grabbed the one he had been snacking on, ignoring his cry of despair. She sniffed it, scowled (Ax believed it was a scowl) and shoved it back in his hands. "Bleh, they're stale. I keep telling him to clean this out if he's going to keep it…he's still going to be angry you ate them all."
"If he does not want them to be taken then why label the compartment with the phrase 'donut steal'. These are a type of donuts, and the instructions do say to steal them."
Tanya's beak parted and she stared at him, then she grinned (happy that he figured it out?). "You know what, I can't argue with that." She looked at the message board and frowned. "…those are public, so I guess I don't mind if you read them, just don't try to break into anything with a lock symbol. Those are classified."
Ax's eyes narrowed at her. "Classified? Why?"
She gave him an (annoyed?) huff. "Because sometimes conversations are private and really none of your business."
Ax wanted very much to argue with her, but he knew that Prince Jake would disprove of it. She still had the requested time to hide her secrets from them, though he could feel it coming closer and closer. He still could not trust her, mostly because what little she had told of relationships between the three apparent intelligent life forms of her planet had made little sense. Still, she was generous enough to let him eat the snack cakes, so perhaps it would be counterproductive to continue the argument at this time. He just had to be patient; he could do that.
He swallowed the last of the cakes and began to demorph back to his natural state, to try once again in his natural form. ((I have a few questions if you are willing to answer a few things?))
Tanya gave him an unreadable (suspicious?) look. "Fine, but I'm not going to answer if you start to be intrusive."
((I understand, but I am curious about something. The one called Mallory is supposed to be a highly trained warrior of your kind, correct? She's in their military?))
"Yeah, she's special forces. One of their top soldiers in fact. It's how we got away with stacking the team with a majority of technical civilians. She and Canard were the only ones with military training and while she's worked and led units in the past, she also has clearance for special missions."
((Then if this Nosedive is a civilian why is his ranking the highest by such a wide margin?))
Tanya chuckled and leaned forwards. "…you keep complaining about me having secrets I keep from you guys…want to have one between us? You can't ever let Nosedive know I said any of this about him, okay?"
Ax blinked. This was new. He thought she didn't like him. Granted a small part of him understood why. He hadn't made it easy for her. Still, this took him by surprise.
((I can agree to that.))
"Nosedive is talented when it comes to machines. Absurdly so. He figured out how to fly this thing, with no previous training, in about thirty minutes. He's the reason we lived through the first strike against the Raptor. He figured out how to fly the Aerowing all on his own and saved us. If it weren't for him we might not have made it. He even built his own vehicle on his own. The problem is he's infuriatingly immature. If he applied himself and actually studied, he'd probably be just as good as I am at engineering."
((I see. But why do you wish to keep this a secret, if I may ask?))
Tanya exhaled. "Oh, couple of reasons. He'd be intolerable if I told him outright. He's annoying enough as it without him thinking he's some sort of genius. Bit like Marco without the paranoia. Also, he might start asking me to teach him."
((This is a bad thing?))
"Ummm, yeah." Tanya said, now looking fully out of the Aerowing's cockpit window.
Ax stamped a hood, dissatisfied. Tanya huffed and shrugged. "If, hypothetically, I was ever to treat him like a sort of apprentice or give him formal training he'd have a very hard time finding a job in that field. Because I don't have formal training or a certificate myself anything I do is unofficial and could, at any point, be seized by the government and I have no way of controlling what they'd theoretically do with that technology. I'm also not owed any kind of compensation for it." She tapped the side of the Aerowing's window. "I designed these things, but I never got, ya know, paid for it. Barely got a nod in thanks in fact. If I were to officially train Nosedive and he ended up liking engineering as more than just a hobby he'd be unable to find a job. All I can do is sort of unofficially let him play around when he can and verbally scold him so I can't be accused of trying to teach him."
Ax paused in shock. ((That seems…grossly unfair.))
Tanya shrugged, seemingly unbothered (but why would that be so, it didn't seem like something a person would be unbothered by…). "Eh, just the way things are." She looked back at Ax and gave him a sort of sad(?) smile. "That's why you can't tell anyone, alright?"
((I…I see.)). Ax shuffled his hooves awkwardly, now a bit sorry he had even asked the question in the first place. Fortunately, considering the time it was, there was a way out of the now regrettable conversation. ((Unfortunately, I do not think I have time to try again. We are supposed to meet the Chee in a few moments, remember?))
"Yeah, that's why I came here. Wanted to remind you what time it was."
Ax laughed. ((We Andalites are not as lost in time as humans are. We always know exactly how much time has passed and what time it is. Why do you think I keep track of the morphing time limit?))
"Huh. Figured you were just good at keeping track of it in your head."
((I am, but it's an instinctual ability, not something that Andalites must learn.)) Ax trotted towards the door. After a few seconds, so they didn't end up jostling each other, Tanya followed. His stalk eyes kept track of her as she followed him, and he attempted to interpret her mood as they exited the Aerowing, shielded and cloaked underneath a tree at the campsite. He still had difficulty with some human expressions, and he knew that his human friends also struggled with Tanya's body language as well. They were closer to her in form and function, but they sometimes didn't truly grasp her moods, and it was even harder for him. He had no idea, for the most part, how she would react in any given situation, and it bothered him. He could, with about seventy percent reliability, understand human body language. He could predict what the other Animorphs might do, but with her it was only still about twenty percent accurate. It was unnerving, sometimes, and it was probably on the top of the list of things that bothered Ax. He might as well be looking at the moods and thoughts of an Ellimist, it was simply unreadable for him. It made her unpredictable and dangerous in a way that the other Animorphs were not. How could he rely on someone he couldn't understand?
And any point she could do something out of the ordinary, like rescuing Marco's mother. But the next time it might not work out as well. The next time she might do something truly foolish or dangerous, and there was no way to tell why or even how she'd do it. It was infuriating.
And it put them, all of them, in danger.
When it happened it was completely unpredictable and random, and to Tanya's annoyance it probably should have happened long before this. She always knew that a process like morphing, tied into Z-space as it was would end up with unpredictable results, and from some of the stories the Animorphs had told her it already had. But ending up somehow popping up in a void of absolute nothingness, after morphing a mosquito in order to drink the blood of some government official that the Yeerks were trying to infest so they could morph said official and perhaps expose the invasion to the human's government hadn't really been part of her general guesses on what playing around with random outside of space dimensions would do to a person foolish enough to mess around with them.
Z-space wasn't like Dimensional Limbo. Limbo, while not directly connected to the real universe unless deliberately accessed through a gateway, was somewhat predictable in its form and nature. It would have to be, as creatures did reside there. Creatures like the Saurians would have died out if it was completely inhospitable, and there would have been no need for cosmic 'jailors' like the B.R.A.W.N units. It was clear that Limbo wasn't just suspension, or it would have been the ancient Saurian prince and his court who emerged from the gate, and not his descendent Dragaunus.
At the very least then, Limbo must have air.
Z-space did not.
It was almost like being in the vault again, only instead of simply running out of air there was simply none here. The fact that she could now see inside of her and her friend's bodies, like someone had opened windows so they could observe their own organs shutting down, was nothing compared to the sheer panic she felt at not being able to breathe once more. Only this time there wasn't going to be a handy monitor she could hack into, and there wasn't a Nosedive here to help draw attention to them. There was just suffocation and the knowledge that they were all going to die and there was nothing to be done about it this time.
Somewhere in her head she could hear Ax's thought speak calls to an Andalite ship. Ah that's what happened. A ship had somehow passed through the extra mass stored in Z-space after the morphing process had completed. Granted it was a nigh impossible chance, a…percentile of some number. She was having trouble grasping the exact percentile it could be though.
There was a slight possibility that her sheer panic had, instead of triggering a trauma response, simply shut down the parts of her brain that were responsible for the aforementioned panic, allowing her to calmly observe what was going on. Sort of like a dissociative episode.
Probably a good thing. There was really no sense in panicking. Poor Ax. He was so close to his people on the ship that was responsible for killing them, but he couldn't get to them. That must hurt….poor kid…he had enough on his mind after learning that Visser Three might have been on his homeworld, acquiring his people's animals…
It was going so dark…
Reality came back with a gasp she honestly didn't need. She still wasn't breathing, at least she thought she wasn't breathing, but it no longer seemed necessary anymore. She shook her head, now able to move and blinked. Before the whiteness surrounding her had been the void of Z-space. Now, it was…snowing? Yes, it was definitely snowing. Blinking through the haze of drifting snowflakes she was able to make out what looked like a door some kind in front of her. With all the snow it was like a door in the middle of nowhere, the building itself was either not real, or so covered by the snow it was indistinguishable.
"Oh…I'm dead…" She sighed to herself, a wave of grief washing over her as she covered her eyes with a hand and choked back a sob. She had to be dead. There was no other explanation. She hadn't always paid attention to what ducks said awaited them in the afterlife, though the general impression was of a vast hockey rink where the greatest of their kind could play each other for the rest of eternity, while everyone else got to watch the best game they had ever seen play out for all time. Grin would talk about it on occasion, but for Tanya it was just more of his usual spiritual wisdom. As much as she liked her friend, if there was a vast hockey game awaiting ducks at the end…
Well, how in the world would she be able to go there?
But the door in front of her looked so warm and inviting. She could see the warm glow of lights beyond it, calling for her to come out of the cold. Was it possible? There was only one way to find out, and there was no other way but forwards.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save you guys…I'm sorry we failed, kids…" Tanya sighed, her mind briefly reflecting on both of her lost teams. She could only hope that the other ducks would find a way to free themselves. She didn't know how but it wasn't impossible for Wildwing and the others. As for the kids she had no clue what happened to human spirits when they died, or Andalites. She could only hope they were safe where they were now.
Blinking away the tears she pushed the door open, almost now fully expecting to see a crowded hockey arena, perhaps with a game already in progress. However, despite the lights surrounding the edges of the door, what seemed to lie beyond was deep, pitch blackness. A deep foreboding sank into her gut, but she shook her head. What was there to be afraid of? The worst had already happened. Gathering her courage, she stepped forwards and through the door.
She could see almost nothing but the faint outline of curved pillars as she walked into what felt like a vast room. It didn't feel like a hockey rink at all. It was so dark she couldn't make out any details. The sense of foreboding growing deeper, she still stepped forwards till she was between the faint outline of two pillars.
Flames roared to life on either side of her as torches on each pillar were suddenly engulfed in fire. The fire spread, jumping to more pillars arranged in a circular pattern around the room, revealing what almost seemed to be a silver ballroom of some kind. Figures stood on the ballroom floor, frozen in time mid dance step. Hundreds of them, maybe thousands. Some of them were clearly ducks, but others had claws and scales mixed with feathers and beaks. Scaleborn like her. And, every so often, long tall figures with not a hint of duck ancestry, but with the heavy scales and sharp teeth of true Saurians.
She jerked back with a cry at the sight of a what could only be a pureblood Saurian frozen in front of her. Not a single feather marred his shimmering blue scales, nothing to indicate that this might just be a particularly Saurian looking Scaleborn. If anything, it looked like a younger, blue, almost handsome version of Wraith. Held closely in the disgusting creature's claws was, unless Tanya was going completely nuts now, what looked for all the world like a female duck. But the woman wasn't struggling or fighting the monster who held her. Rather she had thrown her arms around the beast's long neck and appeared to be frozen mid nuzzle, her beak brushing up against the monster's long neck. They both were smiling like a pair of smitten fools.
As Tanya gapped at the two before her reality seemed to almost brighten even further, as if the fires had brought the scene to life. Suddenly, the two dancers were moving, unfrozen and laughing in joy as the lizard lifted his partner into the air and twirled her. Music echoed through the room as the two twirled away, now animated and dancing in what was almost pure joy. Tanya leaped back as the rest of the room was brought into jarring and unbelievable life. All around her, duck danced with Scaleborn and Saurian alike, as if they weren't all mortal enemies. The tune playing was a joyous, upbeat, old-fashioned number that seemed oddly familiar to her, but she couldn't place where she might have heard it before.
It was horrifying. It should have been horrifying. Ducks didn't just accept Scaleborn like this. Her friends, her teammates, they were an exception. They were all such wonderful people, to accept her as readily as they all had. Canard had done well in making sure they were a functional team before they recruited Wildwing and Nosedive. He had hand picked them all, and he had an eye for team cohesion. He had managed to track down people open-minded enough to work with her. Not that she was special, she was just the only duck in the Resistance that had both the technical knowledge to bring the Raptor down and was someone who Canard knew and trusted. But normal ducks wouldn't do this.
The less said about the Saurians in the room the better.
She backed up, intending to run through the door and out of here as fast as she could. If this was her afterlife she'd rather spend it in the vast void of white outside, thank you very much. But as soon as she turned to race back into the nothingness she found herself colliding with something large and bulky. She looked up and gasped in shock.
It could have been a Scaleborn. It could have been a Saurian. It was hard to tell, as the thing before her seemed to be made of deep, impenetrable shadows. She could make a large, powerful frame almost as tall as Grin's, but without the air of calm gentleness. There was a vague outline of long jaws, almost wolflike jaws, and a pointed triangular head with slitted red eyes. Her eyes. On either side of the wispy skull sat a pair of giant branching antlers, like that of an Earth elk. Her eyes stared at the antlers in sheer horror.
"No…it can't be…"
The shadow thing reached for her and she stumbled back, but it was far too quick for her. She felt its long powerful arms encircling her and drawing her to it. She screamed and attempted to fight back, but she might as well have been flailing at the air. It showed no reaction. Perhaps it couldn't even feel pain.
"Shhh, shhh, calm down, grandchild. It's alright…you must be so confused…I'm so sorry this happened…you're so young, my child." She hadn't expected the male creature's voice to be as gentle as it was…
The thing drew her close to its chest and began to rock her back and forth, as if she really was a child the thing was attempting to comfort. She should keep fighting, she wanted to keep struggling against it…
But why did she suddenly feel so safe?
The creature took a deep breath. "Oh…wait, its not exactly time, isn't it? You aren't really ready to come to us…Good. They may save you yet. I hope they do."
"Don't talk as if you care. Monster." Tanya growled and attempted to pull away, but the creature's grip was too firm for her to escape.
"…what have they told you? You shouldn't be so afraid at the sight of your ancestors…"
Ancestors. She knew how often Wraith spoke of them. She hadn't thought they were real. She thought it was just superstitious nonsense from a senile old lizard.
This isn't real. This isn't an afterlife. You're just having some sort of hallucination right as your brain is shutting down. That's all. This thing isn't real.
And yet she still couldn't shake the strange comforting feeling that washed over her as the beast continued to hold her gently, running its claws over her feathers like a parent would preen their hatchling. It would have been awkward if it had really been happening.
"You must have heard the most absurd lies about us. Do you have any idea who I am?" The creature asked.
Tanya snorted. "Unless antlers like those are common, I have a few guesses." She shook her head. "There's no way you can be my direct ancestor if I'm right."
"Oh, and why is that?" The beast chuckled.
"Because you're a myth, you're not real. You're just a story, something to scare ducklings so they know never to trust Scaleborn like me."
The beast tensed. "Ah, so they have spread his lies."
"You betrayed Drake Ducaine- "
"Drake Ducaine betrayed me!" The beast bellowed, and yet Tanya didn't feel any need to pull away from the creature's sudden rage. "He betrayed all of us!"
Now she did pull away. "That's not true, you- "A sudden jolt of pain raced from her chest and out to the rest of her body, as if something had just shocked her.
"They are taking her back, and this argument is pointless, you know that my son…"
Tanya turned and froze. A thing directly from her nightmares loomed over her, taller than even the dinosaurs that Dragaunus had brought back to life. Taller than the sea monster Visser Three had transformed into. Like the Saurian she had seen before its outline was long and serpentine, but it was far larger than any Saurian had the right to be. Like herself and the smaller monster this new thing had large, red eyes. Like the smaller monster it also had long, sharp antlers on its head, but its antlers curved endlessly in intricate patterns, the sharp ends and edges lined with heavy sparkly frost. It leaned forwards till its head was a few inches from her, and Tanya found herself backed up against the smaller monster, who once again protectively wrapped his arms around her to comfort her despite her growing panic.
"Mother, you're scaring her…" the shadow said with a hint of reproach.
"I think I know why. I am sorry, give me a moment" There was a bright flash, and now the long serpentine being was no taller than her. In fact, she was an inch or two smaller more Mallory's size. The red eyes and the intricate antlers remained the same, and more frost now covered her sharp white scales. A mane of icicles jutted out from her skull, trailing down her back to end in a tail with sharpened ice spikes at the end. The thing seemed to radiate cold. "There, that's better. You have nothing to fear from me, little one. But I'm going to need you to do something for me."
"Na…never!" Tanya shook her head and leaned back further into the now comforting presence of the shadow monster. "I'm not a Saurian, I'm not taking orders from one of your kind!"
The beast snorted. "Child, I'm not your enemy. You are my family, the last drops of it wandering the mortal plane. And I'm not asking for myself. Look around you, little one. These are not all your kin."
Tanya's eyes darted back and forth. The dancing had stopped, and the crowds were looking at her, the lights dimming around them as they stared directly into her soul.
"Deep in Icespire they sleep, suspended between life and death. Waiting for the day when one of my blood returns to set them free. To save them from the doom that drove us from our homeland. We wait on the border between this life and next, with only the memories of better times to keep us grounded. I've been trying for so long to contact my kin, you, and your brother." The beast sighed. "I'm so sorry I scared you so much as a child. It was not my intention."
"Y-you want me to free you? I know what you are, who you are! If you think for one moment I'm going to unleash an evil like you on our world you're delusional!" Tanya winched again in pain as another shock ran through her body.
"We are running out of time." The monster sighed. "We will talk again soon, Granddaughter."
"Not in this life!" Tanya shuddered and gasped once more, the darkness growing closer and closer, so that all she could now see of the nightmare before her was two glowing red eyes.
"Oh, I think we will, little one. You've been close enough to death now. I can see you properly." The creature chuckled. "I am never going to leave you again…"
((Ah, it's awake, tell me, Earth creature, have -you- ever had a tail?))
Tanya jolted awake to the sight of an unknown Andalite looming over her, holding a strange metal stick that was probably responsible for reviving her. She yelped in fear and attempted to hit the unknown alien in the face and scramble backwards at the same time. She struck the Andalite with a fist but only managed to slide off the diagnostic table she had been on and almost broke her beak when she landed. This turned out to be a good thing as a second Andalite tail blade landed where she had been laying before. Granted this second Andalite had only used the flat of the blade but judging from the clang there had probably been enough force applied to break a rib or two.
((Wait, don't! It's just startled! That was my fault, I shouldn't have been leaning so close after I scared the small one before!))
Tanya looked up to see two unfamiliar Andalites standing in front of her. One of them had half stepped between her and his companion, who was glaring at Tanya with his or her main eyes, tail up and twitching in anticipation. There was the sound of footsteps and Tanya turned her head to see Rachel stride across the room they were in to stand next to her and shoot the hair trigger Andalite a glare.
"Back off, you people keep hovering over us, and she nearly died! What do you expect?" Rachel put a hand on Tanya's shoulder and gave her most impressive, angry glare at the Andalites as if daring them to contradict her.
((Technically she was dead for about point oh five Andalite seconds...)) One of the Andalites, Tanya guessed it was the one not looking at her with murderous intent, said helpfully.
((That alien is not like the rest of you, and neither is the flying one. What are they?)) The hair trigger asked, giving them all a stern look that reminded Tanya of many soldiers she met over the years. She couldn't suppress the shudder that ran through her body, and in response Rachel gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Tanya took a few deep breaths, attempting to calm herself down. She could still see the gigantic red eyes of the monster from her…dying nightmare. It had to be a nightmare. They were myths. Not real. There was no way they were real. She could feel herself shaking but couldn't stop it. The fact that it wasn't real was doing nothing to calm her down. Off to the side the other Animorphs begin to edge closer, as if ready to rush to her defense if necessary.
It was Jake who responded to the question, his voice tight and controlled. "She's a duck. Ducks are from Earth."
The triggered Andalite fixed his glare at Jake. ((There are two sentient races on your planet? Impossible!))
"Yeah, well, that's what she is. You usually only find them in Anaheim though." Marco gave her a reassuring smile. She nodded at him. She had no desire to spill the beans about dimensional hopping to some panicking military asshole. By now her heart was finally slowing down to a more acceptable rate.
((Aristh Aximili, is this alien speaking the truth?)) The triggered Andalite stamped and focused his stalk eyes behind him, and only now did Tanya finally spot their last friend, who was twitching awkwardly on his hooves as if wishing to be anywhere else.
((As…as far as I know, sir.)) Ax said meekly.
The angry Andalite narrowed his main eyes at Tanya and probably would have started to interrogate her but then he suddenly turned his head to the door, his stalk eyes swinging around to stare more at Tanya. ((Bah, the captain needs us, Doctor. Let's go.)) The angry one stamped a hoof and focused his main eyes on Ax. ((You will talk to your Earth creatures and explain the situation to them. Make sure none of them cause any trouble. Especially the violent one. I don't trust it. When you are done report to the captain.))
Tanya looked away from the Andalite as her feathers fluffed in anger. It? Even out here? It…It was no consolation that this Andalite probably thought of her kids as 'its' as well. If anything, it made her even more angry. By the time she was able to look back up at Ax the other two Andalites were gone.
Rachel was shaking in anger as she snarled at Ax. "The hell is wrong with you, Ax!? Why did you just stand there, he could have hurt her!"
Ax's body shuddered. ((I…he's the T.O. of the ship. The tactical officer. He's in charge of discipline and security, it's his job to analyze threats…))
"Ax, what's going on?" Jake said in a very very calm voice. By now most of the kids had edged close enough to encircle Tanya, leaving Ax to stand by himself. Tanya took another deep breath and stood up off the floor, still shaking a bit, but she thought that might be the aftereffects of whatever alien defibrillator had brought her back. The only one who wasn't surrounding her was Tobias, who was perched on another metal cot, his head gently swiveling between Ax and Tanya as if he was trying to keep track of both at the same time.
Ax proceeded to explain, or at least explain what he knew. Apparently, the ship that had almost killed them, and saved them, was on their way to Leera to fight to save the mind reading frog people from the Yeerks. Infiltration was impossible on Leera, so the Yeerks had opted for a ground war. To say none of the Animorphs were happy about this was an understatement, but of course Rachel wanted to join the fight, but Ax told them the Andalite captain wouldn't let them.
Tanya couldn't help but feel a stab of pity for Ax as the others grilled him, upset that they were being pushed aside by their friend in favor of his own people. In a way she could understand how he felt. There had once been a time when she had been willing to abandon Earth in favor of going home. She had just missed her brother and the other Scaleborn so much, and she knew that even though they had remained (for the most part) neutral in the war against the Saurians that they still would accept her back, even if she had chosen to join the ducks. But the consequences had been far more costly than she had realized, and a part of her would always feel a bit guilty for, in another time and place, condemning the Earth to Dragaunus' tyranny. As much as she wanted to go home, she was going to make sure that the Earth was safe before she did. At the very least safe from the Saurians. It was the least she could do, for all the harm she had inadvertently done.
But Ax had never learned that lesson. All he knew was that he had been stranded, and now he was home. Of course, he'd leap at the chance.
As soon as their dejected Andalite friend left, no doubt to find a superior officer and get some sort of orders for whatever they did on ships like this, Jake turned to look at Tanya, frowning in concern.
"You alright? You look like you've seen a ghost." He asked.
She took one final deep breath. "Not…that far off." Jake raised an eyebrow at her.
"…did you go to duck heaven for a few minutes? I think I saw something like that on the sci fi channel once." Marco laughed.
"You joke but there are plenty of cases of people dying on the operating table and seeing heaven." Cassie said.
Tanya bit out a bitter chuckle. "…more like duck hell with a close encounter with the devil." She said before she could stop herself.
"Wait, woah, really?...what's duck hell like?" Marco asked.
"It was just a hallucination. People do that sometimes when their brains don't get enough oxygen it…it couldn't be real." Tanya sighed. "I just…" The others were still looking at her in various shades of concern. "Okay, look, can we just save this for later? I don't think we have time to get into a lecture about the historical vs the mythological aspect of Polar Vortex and Great Dragon Kings."
Jake nodded. "True. Right now, the only person who can help us navigate Andalite things is freezing us out. I for one, am not going to just sit around in this med bay waiting for them to throw us a bone. Especially since our home is still under attack."
Rachel sneered. "Next time I see that little turncoat I'm going to- "
Tanya put a hand on Rachel's arm. "Hey, uh, I don't what you to think I approve of how he's acting but…cut him some slack, alright? He's not thinking to clearly and I doubt this is easy for him."
"Why in the world would I do that?" Rachel demanded.
"Rachel this…this isn't unexpected. He's in the military. One of the first things that they teach is obedience to a superior officer. At least where I'm from, and I doubt it's much different for humans or Andalites. He's probably been trained and socially conditioned to you know, just follow orders. It's standard. And he's also been cut off from his own kind for months. I…kind of know what that's like. Remember, I'm sort of in the same situation."
"So what? You going to rush to the nearest duck you see and start throwing us under the bus if one shows up?" Marco asked suspiciously.
Tanya shook her head. "No, but it's a different situation. First, I'm not in the military, I was never taught to blindly obey. Two, I'm Scaleborn, a lot of ducks don't see me as one of them in the first place. Three, the only ducks who I would to be around you are my team, and right now they are all Controllers." Tanya focused a look at Jake. "And I happen to know for a fact that Wildwing wouldn't dismiss you out of hand, since you know more about fighting Yeerks than he does. And he trusts me. If I tell him to listen to you, as a hypothetical he'd listen to me."
He'd listen, but he wouldn't like it. The only reason any of them were okay with Nosedive's addition to the team was because he was technically an adult. The humans were not, but Tanya didn't want to circle that particular topic again, not even in her head. It was frustrating, but there wasn't a good solution out of the situation.
Now, she could be plenty angry at the Andalites for throwing their own kids into wars. She had known that Ax was on the younger side, but since she had never seen an adult Andalite before she had no frame of reference. Now she did and even she could tell how young Ax was in compared to the other Andalites. Unless their doctor and T.O. just happened to be really old specimens.
"I'll hold you to that if it ever comes up." Jake said, still frowning slightly. "We need to get out of this room and find the bridge. You're the only other alien we have, any ideas?"
Tanya chuckled to herself and glanced around the room. She spotted what looked like some sort of computer monitor, a bit more advanced than a human one, and grinned. "Oh, I have a few ideas…"
As it turned out Andalite computers worked via thought and not via a keyboard or a touchscreen. This was fine, in fact if anything once Tanya got the basics of it down it made things even easier. She just had to get used to the mental connection to the thing, which meant having to morph in order to access it. Which was good because she didn't have access to her Omnitool. So, for the next thirty or so minutes the Animorphs lounged around in various stages of boredom as a hyena sat in front of the computer terminal, occasionally wagging a tail and yipping as Tanya slowly but surely mentally hacked an alien computer.
Once she got the hang of the system it only took her five minutes to have the ship's computer completely open to her.
((Well, this is suspicious.)) Tanya stood up, bristling slightly.
"Find anything?" Jake asked.
((Yeah, the captain has been sending secret messages off the ship. They're encrypted, just give me a second…uh oh.))
"Oh, I don't like that sound." Marco straightened up and frowned. "What?"
((He's been sending and receiving coded messages from the Yeerks.)) Tanya's eyes narrowed. ((Hold on, I'm going to send these back to Earth, we can look over them in more detail when we get back…))
"Umm, don't you need, like, a floppy disk for that or a cd or something?" Rachel asked.
((Hahaha, floppy disks.)) Tanya laughed. ((Nope, not if I send it via Z-space. Hate the damn thing but it can be done. It's not really the messages themselves I need, but if I can decode the patterns in the dimensional frequencies, I'll be able to backtrack them and figure out who exactly he's been in communication with and where they are. And when I figure that out, I can look for any other Andalite traitors that might be passing info to the Yeerks.))
"How long will that take if you do it here?" Jake asked.
((Oh, way too long, we'll be in Leeran space in about thirty minutes.)) Tanya turned to the Animorphs and sat back down. ((If we are going to sneak out of here when the battle starts, we need to get moving.))
Jake nodded. "I'm going to assume you know the way to the bridge."
((I know many ways to the bridge. Do you want fast, or do you want safe?))
"Whatever gets us there the quickest of the least risky ones." Jake said. "I want to know what's going on, but I don't' want to get caught. Bugs, some of you go fly the others go cockroach. Tanya, you ready to leave that thing alone and go?"
((Yep.)) Tanya began to demorph, then thought for a second before electing to go cockroach, trying to ignore the relatively gross process of her and others morphing into tiny Earth insects. While she didn't have the natural repulsion for cockroaches like the humans seemed to have the process was still very gross. And as always with insect morphs the eyes were basically useless not to mention her head was only a few inches from the ground. But she had mentally measured the distance between where they had been standing and the nearest duct was, and she could figure out where they were going from there.
((Okay, just follow me.)) Tanya said as they crawled and flew out of the room and into a handy maintenance tube. Calculating the map of the ship she had memorized during her hacking session Tanya was able to navigate them towards the bridge.
In another universe without her they would never have been able to hack into the computer, but also wouldn't spend as much time in that room gathering and sending off that information. In another universe they would have hitched a ride on several Andalites before ending up on the bridge, at least one of them on the T.O.
Perhaps it was a negligible difference. After all, either way, they didn't make it time to save the ship from its own captain's treachery. Nor were they able to save the Andalites on that ship from their doomed fate.
And regardless of how they got there, they were still stranded on Leera.
Except for Tanya.
One moment, from her perspective, she was a fly about to leave the self destructing ship with the rest of the kids, including Ax (who was still mentally reeling at the knowledge that one of his own was a traitor, much less a captain of a ship), and the next minute she was a mosquito. Buzzing around the room she knocked against the window in surprise.
((Huh, what? Why am I a mosquito again?))
((Ahh! Tanya, you're alive!)) Tobias' voice sounded in her head. ((We thought you died in the explosion, what happened?))
((Tobias! Is that you!?)) Rachel's voice was next.
((Ah, good, Cassie, Marco, Ax, you guys here too?)) asked Jake.
((It is Aximili, Prince Jake. And I believe I have somehow awakened the unconscious human. It appears the snapback effect has finished bringing us all back to Earth.))
((Wait, what, but we were just on Leera?)) Rachel protested. ((Tanya vanished first when the ship blew up, then Tobias vanished then…))
((Oh, you went next, Xena.)) Marco laughed to himself. ((And I guess I went after you. Too bad you guys missed seeing the Leeran ocean. It was pretty cool.))
((Indeed, we should leave.)) Ax said. ((The phenomenon we just experienced had a snapback effect. Basically, a part of our essence was still present on Earth, and after a while it snapped us back to our place of origin. Like a rubber band, as Prince Jake said.))
((Huh…that makes sense.)) Tanya admitted. ((In a Z-space way, but it does make sense.))
((Well, I'm glad it makes sense to somebody…and I'm really glad to see both of you are okay.)) Rachel said with a small sigh.
((Oh, you should have heard her go off on Ax, Tanya, we all thought that you got yourself blown up back there. And Ax! Poor guy was ready to declare an eternal vow to the quest of saving your teammates in your stead. Was getting almost to Lancelot levels!))
Tanya chuckled mentally. ((Well, glad to know that if something does happen to me you guys will be there to help them.))
((Yeah, well, I do still owe you.)) Marco said, although she thought that that bit was in private thought speak.
((Alright, we should probably bail. Controllers are starting to swarm the area and I think this guy is ready to march out of the hospital on his own. He practically pushing this Controller out of the way to yell at the guys firing on the bushes Ax was just in…was in a few hours ago…or since we technically went back in time to when we started would it still be…now? You know what, forget it, let's just buzz off. I don't think this guy is sticking around and we can keep tabs on him later. Make sure they don't go after him again.))
And so, they all buzzed off.
Fortunately, like a certain Saurian Overlord they knew, the Yeerks rarely tried the same strategy twice, and the government official left without any more attempts on his life and/or freedom. Personally, Tanya felt like even the Yeerks realized how badly they had bungled the infestation of this particular human, and any more unfortunate incidents would bring scrutiny they didn't need on their operations here. So, the Yeerks took the loss, probably will all the grace and dignity of a rampaging bull in a China shop.
Tanya gave him a day before she showed up in Ax's clearing in her goshawk morph. For a moment they said nothing to each other, but Tanya knew that he knew she was there. She was in morph to do this, not only because she had to fly out here, but because she didn't want to try to have this conversation as herself and risk her tongue twisting around itself trying to get words out.
((Hey, Ax, how are you holding up?)) Tanya asked after a moment.
Ax, who had been sticking his hoof in the river to get a drink, lifted the aforementioned hoof and seemed to consider. ((I…am alright. I am sorry for my actions on the ship. I…I just…))
((Hey,)) Tanya said. ((Believe it or not I've been there. You miss your home, I know what that's like…let me tell you a little story, okay?))
And she told him everything about their time travel adventure. Told of him of Dragaunus' offer to send them home. Told him of how she had begged and begged them to take it. How Wildwing, much like Jake would have, asked them to vote one way or the other. How, right before she would have caved into her homesickness and voted to leave the Earth, their manager Phil, a Phil from the future, transported himself through time and took them to see the results of her selfishness. She told him everything, and Ax was silent throughout the entire ordeal, until, almost thirty minutes later, she was done.
Ax had not looked at her with his main eyes for the entire story, instead looking down at the river as it flowed gently through the forest. He finally looked up and nodded to her, a very human gesture that almost surprised her.
((I…understand. I have focused much on how different we are, but I have rarely thought of what we share. Much like how T.O. Hareli believed that Leerans and Andalites couldn't truly work together. But, he was wrong. The Leeran's themselves showed me that. I…worry that I am selling out to the humans. That if I spent too much time here I will be an outcast from own people. That I will value humans more than I value Andalites. Is that too, something you can understand?))
((I'm…I'm a half breed, Ax. Of course I understand.)) Tanya sighed. ((All my life I've been treated differently by other ducks, and a lot of my clutch think that we should keep ourselves separate from them. Just find a place where we can cut ourselves off from them and never have to deal with them again. But I don't think that's right. There are ducks who accept us, if we work hard enough. Sure, there's always going to be ones that never trust us, but that doesn't mean we should stop trying to work together.)) She ruffled her feathers and continued. ((You know, there are a lot of humans we don't get along with. A lot of them can be just as cruel and two faced as Saurians but…then you find a human like Phil who even though he likes money and seems greedy he still has the capacity to be better, somewhere inside. You have kids like the Animorphs who are fighting a war that most adults couldn't handle. I…unless it a race like Saurians or maybe Yeerks maybe it doesn't matter how different we are a species. Maybe the important thing is how similar we are as people…bit corny I guess.))
((I do not see how corn factors into this, but I get your basic point. It is very similar to what the Leeran's said.)) Ax scuffed a hoof. ((I will try to remember that in the future. You are a very hard person to read, and I sometimes have a hard time understanding your body language. It is very…unsettling.))
((Ah.)) Tanya chuckled. ((That explains a few things))
((I still wish to know more about your kind. I feel that I have had to tell the humans everything about myself, and I want the same from you. But…I am not trying to make you uncomfortable or unhappy. I just want to understand.))
((Alright. Look, there's always going to be some personal things I don't want to share but…give me some more time. I'll think of something to tell you all in a few weeks, alright?)) Tanya sighed to herself. He was trying, it was only fair that she try as well.
((To be fair, you just did share something with me. I appreciate it, Tanya. I would like to know more, but if you are only comfortable with telling me general knowledge, or what your people have done here, then I can be satisfied until you are ready to fully trust me.))
((I can live with that.)) Tanya dropped to the ground and began to demorph. Once she was her normal self she settled herself on a log and met Ax's gaze with a small smile. "Now…since you want stories so badly…want to hear about the time Mallory blew up the toaster?"
((What is a toaster?))
"It's a small device humans use to lightly toast pieces of bread and other bread products. Toasting bread changes how it tastes and also makes it nice and warm."
((Ah! It sounds delightful!)) Ax almost pranced at the thought of this new way to eat human food. He still had so much to learn about human culinary arts!
((Hey…are you two actually hanging out? Do I have to watch out for flying pigs up here?))
((Tobias, come down! Tanya is going to tell me about the time her friend blew up a bread toasting breakfast device!))
((Wait, your friend blew up a toaster? Why?)) Tobais asked as he landed on Tanya's log.
"Honestly, I am not even sure she knows why. Mallory always had issues with technology…you see…"
And so, for a few hours, three unique beings on Earth swapped dumb stories around a log next to river. They didn't always understand what the other was talking about, but they got enough to find common ground.
It was enough.
For now.
Deep within the ocean the Raptor sat, dark and unmoving. So deep that no light penetrated the gloom of the ocean below. Sea creatures swam around it, it had been here so long it was just another obstacle to them.
The Raptor was as silent inside as it was inside. Initially their Lord's rage had echoed through the corridors as he smashed drones apart. The Raptor shook as Dragaunus had bellowed at Siege to fix the damn ship, then bellowed at him to fix the damn transporter at the very least. But nothing had come from it. Siege could not get their pathetic engines to work anymore and without the teleporters they could not go and steal anything to fix them. Couldn't even abandon the Raptor to survive. They were trapped here. Trapped and waiting to die, alone and forgotten by all, including by the ducks it seemed.
It was infuriating. It had certainly inspired fury in Lord Dragaunus, but with each passing week without results their Lord's rage had simmered to quiet brooding.
They were going to die down here. None of them wanted to say it out loud, but the three youngest Saurians now knew it, and had fallen into quiet despair. Even the Chameleon no longer tried his stupid impression and jokes. No one really got angry at him over them anymore. They simply stared at him until he stopped. He honestly wished they would shout at him again, call him names, even kick him around. That would mean they still cared. The quiet was all encompassing, suffocating, and driving them all into silent depression.
All, save surprisingly Wraith.
Perhaps it was because he was always predicting doom and gloom. Perhaps his advanced age gave him a more…expectant view of death rather than fearing it. Whatever the reason, Wraith spent what little time he might have left in various trances, apparently attempting to find a magical solution to their problem. He would occasionally shake himself out of it to walk around and eat his share of their dwindling supplies, but other than that the eldest of them might as well already be lost, looking for solutions from ancestors that had never truly helped them before.
Despite this, Dragaunus would have taken their aid, if he found it. He was getting somewhat desperate, and technology had failed him. Just as Wraith always said it would. That was infuriating as well. Dragaunus sighed to himself as he half lay on his throne, playing around with an old knife he had found in his quarters. Of course, being of Saurian make it was long and spiky and red and would have been more akin to a short sword in the feeble hands of a human or a duck, but to him it was just an old knife. He idly imagined running its dulled blade across Wildwing's throat. No, no, that would be too easy. Over his brother's throat. Then the pretty redhead. Dragaunus had no idea if any of the ducks were involved with each other in a mating way. Disgusting thought, but if anyone took Wildwing's fancy of the two females it would probably be the redhead. Then the thief. He'd cut the thief's hands off first. The big one would go next. He supposed, despite the mild sense of distaste in the back of his throat, he would have to deal with the treacherous Bloodkin next. He'd be quick for that one. Then, when all of his wretched team was laying dead, he would gut Wildwing and let the duck's captain bleed out on the floor at Dragaunus' feet.
Strange how…unappealing these fantasies were becoming. Almost pointless. No, not almost. They were pointless. They didn't make him happy anymore. He wished he could see the sunlight once more. The sunlight would make him happy.
Wraith, who had chosen to sit in a far corner of the Raptor's bridge today, somewhat near the throne, suddenly jerked and gasped, his claws flying to his chest as if the old fool had suddenly been granted a heart attack from their ancestors. If his old advisor had gotten a one way ticket out of this hell then Dragaunus didn't know if he should be happy that Wraith got to die quickly or angry that he was leaving them all to keep suffering.
As usual he defaulted to anger.
"Wraith, if you die on me now than when I die I will fish out your soul from our ancestor's grip, stuff you back into your decrepit old bones and kill you again. Slowly."
Wraith looked at Dragaunus and brought his claws together out in front of his snout. For a moment, nothing happened, then to Dragaunus' astonishment, frost began to circle in Wraith's palms like a miniature snow storm.
The last Saurian Overlord leapt to his feet and crossed the distance to glare down at the frosty snowflakes in the wizard's grasp. "This cannot be…how?"
Wraith blinked up at Dragaunus. "…the last of the Dragon Kings is not dead, my Lord. Polar Vortex survives, and she is back home."
"HOW!" Rage had returned in full force, and Dragaunus welcomed it. "We were on that miserable planet for years, looking for traces of what could possibly remain of our empire! Polar Vortex and the Frostkin were left behind when the rest of us were banished to Limbo! We thought the ducks finished her off! For years I had that backstabbing archaeologist look for hints! I spared those wretched duck works of hers just so she could bring me results! Results she never brought, and now you are telling me, after we've spent a year stranded on this miserable ball of dirt, that the Frostkin are alive BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM!"
"It appears so, my Lord…I saw her."
"YOU SAW THE LAST GREAT DRAGON KING!"
"Indeed, and if perhaps you stop bellowing, I can tell you what she told me." Wraith said, his tone becoming infuriatingly smug.
Dragaunus hissed, smoke curling from his nostrils. "What did she say."
"She has awoken because she is now in contact with one of her kin. A kin that resides here, on Earth." Wraith leaned forwards, a wicked smile crossing his maw. "You know of who I speak, my Lord."
"Oh, that's just perfect, Wraith! Have you noticed, oh brilliant one, how many of that one's kin cause us trouble? That whimpering fool Gerhard never supported us, always giving us false promises but never any real support, despite what the ducks did to his family. DeCoy betrayed us. Mercy gave us nothing but fossils and fairy tales. And one of them, Gerhard's egg kin I might add, is a MIGHTY DUCK! Are you trying to tell me this same Mighty Duck is the reason that you can suddenly now talk to a Great Dragon? Again, HOW! Wildwing would never let his little Bloodkin pet contact a Great Dragon!"
"My Lord, I understand your confusion. I was only in contact with the Great Dragon for a few moments. Enough to…reveal a few things." Wraith chuckled. "Only one of their own blood can be contacted by a Great Dragon, my Lord. And then, unless they know the proper incantations, only when they are sent to the realms of our ancestors, then brought back."
Dragaunus paused. "So…she is dead?" If so it was good news…
"Only long enough for her ancestor to find and latch onto her." Wraith admitted. "But, it reveals an opportunity. Do you really think that Wildwing knows what she really is? We didn't know what she really was until this moment. Think, my Lord, of what this means…"
Dragaunus paused and thought for a moment, then his eyes widened. "She isn't just a Frost Bloodkin, she's descended from Polar Vortex herself…her and her brother…" He suddenly laughed "Wildwing cannot know! If he did even he would reject her!"
"And even if he does not, she might still be used to bring her ancestor back, especially if the King of Frost is not truly dead. Of course, she would have to cooperate with us…but nothing said we cannot apply…certain pressures to her if she is unwilling at first."
"Hmmm, I once offered her and the thief a place at our side, if you recall. They may have rejected it, but that doesn't mean we cannot try again. And, even if she remains…stubborn, there is always her brother." Dragaunus smiled. "And I doubt Gerhard would want anything…unfortunate to happen to his sister…"
"The Frost King mentioned that she will continue to haunt her kin, perhaps by the time we get out of this…unfortunate predicament she will be more amiable to our cause." Wraith said, still smiling.
"Perhaps. I would much rather our foolish cousin come to our side willingly. She's a brilliant scientist. Such intellect would be more valuable willingly serving us rather than serving through threats." Dragaunus pondered. "I suppose it depends on how much of a hold Wildwing has on her."
But before he could ponder more the door to the bridge slammed open, Siege rushing in with a huge smile. Dragaunus was about to shout but the look on his weapon master's face stopped his angry bellow.
"You gotta see this, I found a way out of here!" Siege cheered and Dragaunus blinked. He looked as Siege rushed to a computer and booted it up. "Take a look!"
Dragaunus and Wraith leaned closer to the screen. Wraith was the first to scoff. "It looks like a child's toy."
"I know what it looks like! But look at these readings! It's from space, and it's operational!"
Dragaunus sneered at the screen. Wraith was correct. It looked like a child's toy in the shape of a plump Earth canine with floppy ears. Despite that, it was also clearly alien in origin. He couldn't see any visible weapons. How disappointing. Still, he didn't need it for weapons.
"Toy or no it might be functional enough to bring us and the Raptor to the surface. At the very least it can be scavenged for parts. Siege, prepare an environmental suit! You and the Chameleon are going on a little sea walk. Get to that ship and see if you can get it working. We might just have found our way back to the surface!"
And once on the surface they might be able to find enough supplies to repair the Raptor, at least enough to bring it up from the depths and cloak it once more. It would merely be going to back to square one, but at the very least they would be able to walk on the surface again, be able to find actual food instead of the dried nutrition bars they had been surviving on for the past months. And, of course, be able to see what the ducks had been up to all this time.
As Siege rushed off to find the Chameleon Dragaunus turned back to Wraith. "Perhaps you have been right, perhaps fully rejecting our magical heritage was a mistake…" He pondered. "Perhaps, instead of one or the other, we can use both. Find a way to get our cousin on our side, Wraith. I don't care what spells you must cast or who you must hurt to force her, but if she can bring a Great Dragon back, then the Mighty Ducks will have no way to stop us this time!"
It had been months since Dragaunus had indulged himself in a full-blown evil laugh.
It felt almost as good as freedom sounded.
A/N: Draggy and the Lizard Gang are going to be in for a bit of shock when they finally rise up from the briny deep. But of course if they are now in a shared universe with the Animorphs there's also a nice handy Pemalite ship that no one is using at the moment.
As usual I am making up everything the show never told us about the Saurians and how they work.
There's a reason everyone including the Saurians can tell pretty much on contact what Tanya is, but I am really trying to keep from info dumping everything I've made up. There is going to be a bit of one in the next couple of chapters, but I feel it's justified because of Ax and his constant 'tell me everything!' attitude.
Ax will never admit that he is indeed a bit jealous that he's no longer the Animorph's go to smart alien, but it's also true that he's struggling with understanding her body language, and that makes him unsettled. I'm kinda extrapolating from some of the revelations about Andalites from the Ellimist book. I figure that even though they got thought-speak that body language would still be an important secondary way to communicate even if using your thoughts is now your primary.
Mallory's war against toasters is partly inspired from a Fishyfloat story, because it just sounds like something she'd do in any universe. Mallory, I mean.
Anyway, until next time.