The Stranger (12 page)

R
achel!> Cassie yelled a warning.

Jake said.

I figured out the eight blurry figures were Hork-Bajir when I was about three feet away from slamming into the first one. By then it was too late to stop.

“Kill the
gaffnur
Andalites!” a Hork-Bajir cried in the weird mix of languages that they use. “Kill
fraghent
Andalite
halaf
kill all!”

Suddenly I realized I was cut. A searing pain radiated from my shoulder.

I swung my paw and hit the Hork-Bajir in the head. He fell, but as he fell he slashed with his tyrannosaurus feet, and ripped a second cut in me.

From that point on, it was a nightmare of terrible images that seemed to float in and out of my hazy vision.

I saw Cassie, with her bone-breaking jaws sunk into the throat of a Hork-Bajir.

I saw Ax, his tail like a deadly bullwhip, lashing, cutting, lashing again, till one of the Hork-Bajir stood screaming, holding his own severed arm.

I saw Jake and a Hork-Bajir locked in a deadly embrace as they rolled and slashed at each other with superhuman speed.

I saw Marco fighting with one arm as he held his own sliced stomach together with the other hand.

And everywhere, snarling, growling, raging, roaring noise.

“Die,
gaferach
, die!”

“RRRROOOWWRRR!”

I couldn't tell who was winning. I couldn't tell who was hurt. It all became one long cry, one long scream of rage. Hork-Bajir and Animorph. Alien and animal.

We were flesh-and-blood creatures thrown into a meat grinder. Thirteen deadly animals locked in a combat to the death.

I felt the bear weakening as he was cut again and again by Hork-Bajir blades. I was losing blood. The human part of me knew that. I could feel my strength ebbing.

I charged again and hit a Hork-Bajir in the stomach. I carried him along with my momentum as he slashed wildly at me.

CRAAAASSSSHHHH!

I'd hit something! Glass. It had shattered.

A window! I had shoved the Hork-Bajir through the window.

“
AAAAAAaaaarrrrr!
”

I heard the Hork-Bajir's cry, dying away as it fell.

A sudden flash of movement, as something came zooming through the shattered window.

“
Tseeeeeerrr!
” Tobias screamed as he spread his talons forward and struck the closest Hork-Bajir, raking his eyes.

The battle had turned!

The Hork-Bajir had had enough. Maybe it was hearing one of their fellows fall sixty stories. Or maybe it was Tobias's arrival, strengthening our side. But whatever it was, the remaining Hork-Bajir ran.

Three of them ran. The rest would not be running anywhere.

Marco grabbed the crumpled door and slammed it back in place. Then, with what must have been the last of his strength, he shoved a desk in place to block the door.

Marco said.

Jake said.

I said weakly.

Tobias said.

I stared blankly at my left paw. It wasn't there. It was a stump.

I said. I focused on my human body. My weak but healthy human body.

Morphing is done from DNA, fortunately. DNA is not affected by injuries, so injuries do not follow you from one morph to another.

Exhaustion does.

As my human body emerged from the vast bulk of the grizzly, I felt so weary I was afraid I might faint.

Through human eyes, I saw a scene of carnage. The Hork-Bajir lay sprawled around the room. Most seemed to be breathing. None were conscious. All were bleeding from claw-and-teeth wounds.

Unfortunately for the Hork-Bajir, they could not simply morph out of their injured bodies.

“Everyone okay?” Jake asked, sounding as weary as I felt.

“Yeah, but that was way too close,” Cassie said.

We were in a large office. I could see that now with my human eyes. Desks lay splintered. The carpet was ripped into ribbons. The walls were gouged.

Floor-to-ceiling windows formed one wall. They were shattered. I remembered the Hork-Bajir falling, and shuddered.

There was a door in one wall.

“Through there?” Marco suggested.

“Let's try it,” I said. I staggered toward the door. It was not locked.

A bare room. Tile floor. White painted walls. The wall of windows was blocked by heavy curtains. The room was empty but for a large, massively built platform in the very center.

It was a steel pedestal, maybe three feet high, eight feet long.

And atop that pedestal was a machine the size of a small car. It was shaped like a cylinder, tapered to dull points on both ends.

It gleamed brightly, like new chrome, as if it had just been polished. And it made a slight, low humming noise. As I approached I felt my hair stand on end from the static electricity. It was warm in the room, very warm. It smelled like lightning.

Ax said.

“The Kandrona,” I echoed.

For a full minute we all just stood there, gaping at it.

“Rachel?” Jake said at last. “We need you to morph again. Can you do it?”

I nodded slowly. “Elephant?”

“Elephant. I don't know how else we're going to do it. We don't have any tools or anything.”

I morphed the elephant.

Tobias flew outside to make sure there were no pedestrians below on the dark sidewalk.

It took every last ounce of power that elephant had. But the Kandrona did move.

It did, slowly, in jerks and starts, slide across the floor.

And when at last I shoved it through the windows, it did fall the sixty stories, to smash into the concrete below.

W
e did it,” I whispered as I returned to my normal body. “We destroyed the Kandrona.”

“We have to get out of here,” Jake said. “The Yeerks will know. They'll be all over this place.”

“So, what does this mean?” Marco asked. “We did it. But, what does it mean? Have we changed the future?”

EVERYTHING CHANGES THE FUTURE
.

I groaned. “Somehow I knew we'd hear from that guy again.”

A REPLACEMENT KANDRONA WILL BE HERE IN THREE OF YOUR WEEKS
.
IT WAS ALREADY ON ITS WAY
.

“Are you telling us this was all a waste?” Marco demanded.

Ax said,

“Don't you mean three of
our
weeks, Ax?” Marco teased.

“Is it enough?” Jake demanded loudly. “Is it enough? Have we changed the future?”

There was no answer. Just silence.

“I don't think he knows,” I said. “He showed us a possible future. But you know what? I don't believe the Ellimist really knows the future any more than we do.”

“What makes you so sure?”

I laughed. “Because wherever it is that the Ellimist exists, and whatever he's up to, and whatever game he's playing, and no matter how mighty he is, he has butterflies, too.”

Then, an amazing thing. Laughter that welled up from inside us, and echoed through us, and made us all smile as if we were fresh and full of energy.

HA
,
HA
,
HA
,
HA
.
AS I SAID
,
YOU ARE A PRIMITIVE RACE
,
AND YET YOU ARE CAPABLE OF LEARNING
.

I smiled. “Come on, guys. Do you have the energy for one more morph? I feel like flying.”

 

At first we saw no evidence that the Yeerks were suffering. I don't know how they did it, but the Yeerks managed to maintain. It wasn't until later that we learned we had done them terrible damage.

But that is another story.

 

Two days later, I took the bus over to my dad's apartment. He was packing up his suitcase to leave.

“Hi, Rachel,” he said when he opened his door. “I wasn't sure you were coming over.”

I shrugged. “You're too disorganized to be able to pack all by yourself.”

He smiled a sad smile. “Thanks.”

“Yeah. No big thing.”

“I would have come and picked you up,” he said. “Sweetheart,” my dad said, “you know you can always change your mind. You can always come live with me.”

“I know, Dad.”

He smiled sadly. “You know I'll miss seeing you as much. Even though I'll be here every chance I get.”

“I know that, too, Dad,” I said. I gave him a little kiss on his cheek. He patted my hair and I cried.

I closed up his suitcase and zipped it.

“You going to be okay without me here to take care of you?” he asked.

“I can take care of myself,” I said, wiping away the tears.

We took the elevator down to a taxi that was waiting.

“Come with me to the airport. I'll send you home in the cab.”

I shook my head. “No, I have stuff to do.”

He smiled. “I understand. You probably have something very important to do with your friends.” It was a joke.

“Absolutely,” I said. “We have to save the world.”

My dad laughed. “If anyone can do it, honey, it would be you.”

Then the taxi drove off.

I looked up in the sky. A lone hawk circled high overhead.

Tobias called down to me in thought-speak.

I nodded my head so he could see. Yes. I was coming.

B
efore Earth …

Captain Nerefir said in thought-speak.

I was on the bridge of our Dome ship. It was an amazing moment. I had never been on the bridge before. I'd always been stuck in my quarters, or up in the dome. It was an honor to be on the battle bridge with the full warriors, the princes, and the captain himself.

It was because I was Elfangor's little brother. An
aristh
like me, a warrior-cadet, wouldn't have been on the bridge otherwise.

Especially not an
aristh
who had once run into Captain Nerefir so hard he'd fallen over and ended up bruising one of his eye stalks. It was an accident, but still, it's just not a good idea for lowly cadets to go plowing into great heroes.

But everyone loved Elfangor, so they had to tolerate me. That's the story of my life. If I live two hundred years, I'll probably still be known as Elfangor's little brother.

We came out of Z-Space or zero space, a realm of white emptiness, back into normal space. Through the monitors I saw nothing but blackness dotted with stars. And there, just ahead of us, no more than a half-million miles away, was a small, mostly blue planet.

I asked Elfangor.

Elfangor said quickly. He looked slightly sick and cast a dubious glance at Captain Nerefir.

I guess I had been thought-speaking a little loudly. Elfangor was worried that War-Prince Nerefir might have overheard. But I was sure I hadn't been that loud. I mean, I really didn't think that —

Captain Nerefir said.

Elfangor shot me a poisonous look. aristh
didn't mean any disrespect.>

I think my brother would have liked to throw me out of the nearest airlock right at that moment.

Slowly Nerefir turned his two main eyes toward me. He was a frightening old Andalite. A great warrior. A great hero. Elfangor's idol. He nodded. He slowly winked one eye at Elfangor.

Suddenly …

the warrior at the sensor station cried.

another warrior cried.

Captain Nerefir turned his face and his main eyes toward my brother, while his stalk eyes kept watch on the monitors. The humor was gone from his face.

But Elfangor hadn't waited for orders. He was already halfway out the door. My tail banged into the doorway as I plowed after him.

Elfangor said.

I said.

Arisths
do not go into battle. You are not a full warrior yet. Go to the dome. You will be safer there.>

safe
,> I said. But a warrior, even a warrior-cadet, has to obey orders. Elfangor was my brother. He was also my prince.

I could hear the thought-speak announcements coming from the bridge:

Elfangor and I came to a pair of drop shafts. Warriors were zooming down, heading for the fighter bays. I would have to go up to reach the dome. The upward drop shaft was empty.

It made me angry. Everyone was fighting but me. When it was all over, Elfangor would be even more of a big hero, and I would still be the little brother. The child.

Elfangor hesitated for just a moment before rushing on. He arched his tail forward. I reached forward with my own tail, arching it up over my back. We touched tail blades.

my brother said. this
battle.>

I said, sounding very stiff and formal. But as he turned to enter the drop shaft, I couldn't let him go thinking I was mad at him. I said,

he said with a laugh.

It was the last I saw of him.

He disappeared down the drop shaft. I went upward to the great dome. The dome was the heart of our ship. It was a vast, round, open plain of grass and trees and running water from our home planet, all covered by a transparent dome.

I was alone there. The only non-warrior on the great ship. The only one without a battle to fight.

I could see the blue planet above me, hanging in a black sky. It had a moon, just a dead ball of dust. But the planet looked alive. I could see white clouds swirling. Its yellow sun's light sparkled off the vast oceans.

This planet was known to be inhabited by a reasonably intelligent species. We had learned a little about them in school.

My main eyes were drawn to the brilliant flares of engine exhaust as our fighters lanced toward the onrushing Yeerks.

I was far from the battle bridge now, beyond the range of their thought-speak. I heard nothing in my head. And my ears heard only the sound of a gentle, artificial breeze ruffling the leaves of the trees. I stood on blue-green grass and watched tiny pinpoints of light as the battle was joined in orbit above the blue planet.

And then … I felt it. A tremor that rolled through my mind. A wave of coldness … a premonition. Like a waking nightmare.

I turned my stalk eyes away from battle, toward the dead moon of the blue planet. And there I saw it. A black shape against the gray-white light of the moon. A shape like some twisted battle-ax.

I whispered.

Our fighters were all away. Our Dome ship had massive weapons, but the Blade ship was fast and maneuverable. Too fast!

The warriors on the battle bridge had no choice. They had to separate the dome in order to be able to fight. I felt a grinding, crunching sensation as the dome was released to drift free of the main line of the ship.

Then … silence as the dome floated free.

Slowly, the rest of my ship rotated into sight. Without the dome it looked like a long stick, with the huge bulge of engines on the far end, and the smaller bulge of the battle bridge in the middle. They were trying to turn to meet the Blade ship.

Too slow.

The Blade ship fired!

Dracon beams, bright as a sun, lanced through space.

The ship fired again. Again. Again.

An explosion of light! A silent explosion like a small sun going nova.

The ship … my ship … blew up into its separate atoms. One huge flash of light, and a hundred Andalite warriors died.

WHUMMPPPFF!

The shock wave hit the dome. It was translated into sound. The grass beneath my hooves slammed up at me. A terrible rattling, shaking, heaving.

The dome hurtled at shocking speed down and down and down through the atmosphere. Down toward the sparkling sea.

Crrr-UUUUUSSSSHHH!

The dome hit water! Boiling, steaming water rushed over the dome. I was sinking! Sinking beneath the ocean of the blue planet. I was powerless. Terrified.

Alone.

After an eternity, the dome crunched heavily onto the ocean floor. Looking up, I could barely see the surface of the water a hundred feet or more over the top of the dome.

I climbed shakily to my four hooves. I was standing on a vast, open plain that was a piece of my own planet. A blue-green park, hidden deep beneath an alien sea.

And there I waited for weeks. I sent out thought-speak cries to my brother. I knew he would save me … if he still lived.

But in the end, it was not Elfangor who found me. It was five creatures from the planet. Five “humans,” as they call themselves.

They were the ones who told me of Elfangor's last minutes of life. He had broken Andalite law and custom by giving these humans the power to morph. I was shocked, but tried to hide it.

And they had witnessed Elfangor's death. His cold-blooded murder, by the Yeerk overlord: Visser Three.

Visser Three, who slaughtered my helpless, wounded brother.

Visser Three, the only Yeerk ever to infest and control an Andalite body.

Visser Three, known to all Andalites as the Abomination. The only Andalite-Controller.

He had killed Elfangor, and I had inherited a terrible burden. By Andalite custom, I would be required to avenge my brother's death.

Someday I would have to kill Visser Three.