Chapter 8

We re-entered the abandoned bunker, dropping portable lighting fixtures along the way like breadcrumbs through a dark, haunting forest. At the end of the journey was the room we'd pulled Ax from, now without its suffering occupant. We lit it up brighter, and it was quickly illuminated enough to search without issue. It was as big as all the others we'd walked through; every room we'd seen was the same. Whoever the dominant race on the moon had been was not one for interior design.

Menderash was then the victim of a forceless interrogation, just as we assumed Ax would be above ground. Before we started searching through Ax's few belongings, I decided to begin.

"Mendy, are you going to tell us what happened onIntrepid?" I insisted.

He glanced at me reluctantly. Maybe he'd hoped that I'd just ignore it. He didn't know me well. "You never wanted to know before?"

"Sorta seems pertinent now," I said.

"Sounds like somethin' went down that you ain't proud of," Santorelli added assertively, leaning against a wall and waving dust away from his face.

Menderash scowled irritably. "Why do you think I would force myself into this Human body? Why would I do it if it weren't for some portion of guilt?"

"Loyalty to your Prince," I suggested. "Duty."

"No," he replied. "Maybe there's some loyalty behind it, but no. I did it because I hated the thought of being the coward who killed his Prince."

I grabbed at my hair in frustration but restrained the other aspects of the anger I felt at that moment. I kept my voice low and monotonous. "What happened on that ship? What did you do?"

"When The One attacked the ship, it overloaded the essential systems. I was on the bridge, and all at once before me, the crew guiding the ship were killed. Electrocuted. It was like the ship itself was coming alive because, at any moment, something would blow, or something would move. Everything on board was trying to kill us."

I tried to picture it in my mind. I saw Andalite crewmembers scurrying through darkened corridors. I imagined streams of hot compressed air bursting onto passers-by, and I saw grass purification robots barging into and breaking ankles... All in all, it was a bizarre and scary scene.

Menderash continued. "Within minutes, most of the crew were dead. There were bodies on the floors. It seemed to move through the ship like a virus: not entirely taking everything at once but spreading. I remember standing in one hall and seeing it… approaching. Static items on the walls would start to shake, and the artificial Suns would dim, one by one. It was coming for me like it was coming for everybody else… so I ran aft.

"I knew the ship was gone. I'd been onIntrepidfor most of my career, so I knew it inside-out. Prince Aximili did not. He thought he could saveIntrepid. He tried to send anAristhinto the command center to activate the backup generators. I stopped theAristhand told him to follow me. I suppose, in a way, it was insubordination, but I didn't know whether to disobey command or commit my crew to suicide. I told Prince Aximili… I told him that the ship was lost. I told him to head for the escape pods aft of the ship."

"And did he?" Santorelli asked.

"No. He wouldn't listen to me, and he took the remaining crew. There were five… no, six. They donned insulating protection and tried to take back the bridge. I couldn't convince them to escape, but I couldn't go with them. I thought it was stupid to be killed so needlessly. I went aft to the escape pods and began to program an escape route for the only active pod at the dock. When I stepped inside, I saw Prince Aximili entering the dock. He'd lost all the remaining crew, and he was running. The virus was chasing him. It was like the dock was trying to eat him. I… I didn't know if he'd get to the pod and not bring us both down."

"So you shut him out…" I concluded.

He glanced down regretfully. "I can't say that my resentment for his decisions didn't… influence mine."

I felt cold. In a way, I understood why Menderash would keep such an account to himself. It was an admittance of guilt. Of insubordination, cowardice, and an act that could easily be labeled manslaughter. Part of me felt so agitated as to want to lash out. I looked at Santorelli, who looked a little more ambiguous. Perhaps my close ties to Ax were pushing me a little harder into unwanted emotions.

Menderash added, following a silent pause, "I have to redeem myself for decisions I would not make again."

I nodded lightly. It was all I could do. In the end, Menderash was doing all thathecould do. Sure, he'd made a split-second decision that was wrong and vindictive, but I, too, had made bad calls in the past. He'd made a great sacrifice to make up for his mistakes. He'd given up his own body. What more could be asked?

That thought process calmed me. "Okay. Now we know," I said.

"You better hope he's doesn't chop your nuts off," Santorelli warned.

"Alright, alright," I sighed, raising a palm to Santorelli. "We're here for a reason. We still have to find out what we're dealing with here."

Santorelli started to inspect the lamp that Ax had been using. It was dim in comparison to ours, and it was flickering defiantly. "Think he's suspicious?" he asked me.

"Yeah," I admitted. "Yeah, he is. For one thing, there aren't any Kelbrids around. Remember the message? He was acting like they were practically banging on the door."

"Yeah, I remember," Santorelli replied.

"It could be possible… The Kelbrids held Ax hostage for at least one year," Menderash spoke. "Who knows what kind of mental torment they put him through? He could be on the threshold of psychosis. Perhaps he seems sane now, but we should never underestimate the unpredictability of the mind. He must have been suffering extreme paranoia while sending the message."

I thought it a valid point, but there were so many factors in the muddled mix. "It still doesn't explain why the Kelbrids aren't here looking for him. We know what these advanced races are like. You can't go anywhere without getting some kind of tracker being attached. Look at Marco! Even our supposed allies were tracking us! I can't believe for even a second that Ax hasn't been fitted head-to-tail with chips and trackers and God-only-knows what else…"

"I think it's him," Menderash reiterated. "Iknowit's him."

"I know him better than you do," I replied matter-of-factly. And it was true. "Come on; we need to get looking."

There was a surprising number of items that Ax had brought into the bunker, some things more surprising than others. My priority was to find anything that would indicate the type of vessel he'd brought to the moon. I imagined it would be some kind of small transporter. An escape pod wouldn't seem a reasonable assumption since The One's system was fixed onKyritlyp.There were no escape pods on fixed military bases, so far as I knew. Any indication of how Ax would somehow even get to a ship, alone and undetected, would also be appreciated.

The fact that any of this happened at all… it seemed almost miraculous. Everything about it.

Nevertheless, I still held onto some hope.

There was one single jug where I imagined he drank from. It was bone dry and probably had been for a while. I saw no signs of any food or supplement, so he must've only had the water. I noticed the size of the jug. It was large enough - if filled to the brim - that it would take much of Ax's strength to transport it.

"Hey, Sarge," I called over. He was inspecting a small, nondescript black item. "Tell me if you find some kind of bag. Or a box."

"Roger that!" he replied.

I dove back into my search, pushing aside the jug and finding some loose items bundled up against the walls. Small rags, mostly, covered in dust and dirt. Ax must've been wiping it from his fur. There were so many!

Something was off about it. I noticed it just as I started to look away. From a certain angle, I could see a sparkle. There was something other than rags in that pile. I pulled them aside and wrapped my fingers around a golden barrel.

"He took a gun," I said to the others. I showed it to them. It wasn't too dissimilar to the rifles we'd often seen Kelbrids handling, but it was a smaller, handheld firearm. Like those rifles, it was gleaming and golden. "Definitely a Kelbrid weapon."

Santorelli wandered over, and I handed it to him. He looked over it like it was a trophy. "Nice! One for the collection."

"Another reason why the Kelbrids would be after him," I said glumly. "I can't imagine they want Kelbrid technology in Andalite hands."

"Does that include a communications panel, Jake?"

Menderash was kneeling over something on the opposite side of the room. He leaned over to give me a clear glance. The item was dull, grey, and cylindrical; perhaps a foot tall. Interested, I joined him beside it and squatted down for a closer look. "How do you know it's for communications?"

"I'm not familiar at all with Kelbrid technology, of course," he explained. "But this device has instruments that would imply communication." He placed a hand beneath a protrusion coming from the side. "This looks like a microphone. There are also signs of a speaker at the back, and we know that he was able to send messages."

"Think you could figure it out?" I asked.

"I can try…"

I stared up and down the surprisingly bland item. It looked like a throwback to the '80s. "If it stores messages, maybe we can see if he's sent anything else. I don't believe for a moment that, in all the time he was down here, he only sent one."

"Should we bring it back to the ship?"

"Yeah. We'll keep it away from Ax."

Menderash narrowed his gaze at me. "You really think this is a trap, don't you?"

"Have you forgotten already?" I grumbled. "We assume the worst. That way, we're not caught off guard."

"Hey, boss!"

We both looked at Santorelli. He was standing centrally in the room. "Searched this side. Found a few things. Nothin' interestin'."

"Did you find a bag?" I asked.

"Not one. Not even a box, or nothin'."

I nodded. It was a vital clue nestled within my multiple hypotheses. "There's too much here for him to carry on one trip alone. Would you agree with that, Mendy?"

He didn't want to answer, I could tell. He took another glance around the room, and his head bowed acceptingly. "I would agree. One Andalite could not transport all of this alone."

"This is becomin' one helluva headache…" Santorelli said correctly.

I quietly agreed and then said, "Let's get this stuff to the ship. Mendy, I want you to stay with Groof and try to figure this comms panel out. The rest of us will question Ax. We'll get to the bottom of this soon."