THE ALIEN

AN APPLE

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ii For Michael

1 PRO L OGUE

B efore Earth . . .

<Prepare for return to normal space,> 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 quar ters,
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

2 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.

<ls that Earth?> I asked Elfangor. <l didn't realize there was so much
water. Can you get Old Hoof and Tail to let me go down to the planet
with you?>

<Aximili, shut up!> 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 -

<0ld Hoof and Tail, eh?> Captain Nerefir said. <ls that what they call me?>

Elfangor shot me a poisonous look. <l'm sure this aristh didn't mean any
disrespect.>

3 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 to ward me. He was a frightening
old Andalite. A great warrior. A great hero. Elfangor's idol. <Ah, it's
the ruffian. The wild brat who knocked me over.> He nodded. <0ld Hoof
and Tail, is it? Well. I kind of like the name.> He slowly winked one
eye at Elfangor. <l suppose we'll have to let the ruffian live.>

Suddenly . . .

<Yeerks! We have a Yeerk mother ship in orbit over the planet!> the
warrior at the sensor station cried.

<They're launching fighters! I count twelve Yeerk Bug fighters,> another
warrior cried. <They're on an intercept course. They'll be in fir ing
range in twelve Earth minutes.>

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. <Prince Elfangor? It is time. Launch all fighters.>

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.

<Get to the dome, Aximili,> Elfangor said.

<But I want to fight!> I said. <l can fly a fighter as well as - >

4 <Do not argue with me, Aximili. Arisths do not go into battle. You are
not a full warrior yet. Go to the dome. You will be safer there.>

<l don't want to be safe,> I said. But a war rior, 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:

<Yeerk Bug fighters closing fast.>

<We are entering the outer-gravitational field of the planet.>

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.

<You'll have your chance to fight, Aximili,> my brother said. <Very soon
your fighter will fly side by side with mine. But not in this battle.>

<Yes, my prince,> I said, sounding very stiff and formal. But as he
turned to enter the drop

5 shaft, I couldn't let him go thinking I was mad at him. I said, <Hey,
Elfangor? Go burn some slugs.>

<That's the plan, little brother,> he said with a laugh. <That is the
plan.>

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 nonwarrior 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 to ward 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

6 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 pre monition. Like a waking nightmare.

I turned my stalk eyes away from battle, to ward 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.

<Blade ship . . .> I whispered. <A Visser's Blade ship!>

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!

<NO!>

7 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.

<Ahhhh!>

My knees buckled and I fell to the grass. Everything was spinning!
Wildly, out of control! I could feel the artificial gravity weaken. The
stabi lizers had failed.

The dome was falling. Falling out of orbit.

The dome slid down the gravity well. Down to ward the blue planet.
Red-hot glowing atmo sphere turned the sky above me to fire. Emergency
engines kicked in with a loud WHOOSH!, but they could only slow the
descent, not stop it.

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

8 rushed over the dome. I was sinking! Sinking beneath the ocean of the
blue planet. I was power less. 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.

10 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.

Earth

The first thing an Andalite may notice about humans \ is that they walk
around on only two legs. It is very strange to see so many creatures
balancing that way. But, despite this, they seldom fall over. - From the
Earth Diary of Aximlli-Esgarrouth-lsthlll

My full name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-lsthill.

My human friends call me Ax. I am a young Andalite. I have four legs. I
also have two arms. And I have a tail.

I am told that I look like a cross between a deer, a scorpion, and a
human. I've seen deer in the woods, and I don't agree. For one thing, they

11 have mouths and I don't. And they have only two eyes, while I have four.

As for scorpions, I've only seen pictures. There is some resemblance,
when it comes to the tail. An Andalite tail is also curved upward and
tipped by a very sharp blade.

As an Andalite, I have the power to morph. It's not something we're born
with - it's a tech nology. But we invented it, and we are the only race
in the galaxy that has it.

Except for my human friends, that is.

They can morph, too. But it's thanks to An dalite science. And thanks to
the fact that my brother broke our own laws to give them this power.

The one great problem with morphing is the time limit: two Earth hours.

That time limit was the problem as my human friends and I set about on a
particular mission. It was a mission that required careful planning and
careful timing. It was a mission full of risks.

We were going to a movie.

"So, here's the deal, Ax," Marco explained. "You can watch the first
hour of the movie. But that's it. We can get you to the mall theater,
and you watch for an hour. Then we have to get you back to the woods to
demorph."

A movie. Movies are an important part of hu man culture. I had decided,
if I was stuck on

12 Earth among these aliens, that I should at least learn about them.
Maybe I would never be the big hero Elfangor was, but I could surely
become the biggest expert on humans.

Of course, I would have to attend the movie in a morph. I couldn't go
around in public in my own Andalite form. Humans would have been
terrified. And the Controllers - those humans who are infested by the
Yeerk parasites - would have tried to kill me.

Which would have ruined the entire movie ex perience.

I would have to morph. To take on a different body. But this particular
morph was one I had done several times before. I didn't expect there to
be any problems.

We were standing together under the camou flage of the forest where I
now live. Prince Jake, Marco, Cassie, Rachel, and Tobias were all there.
Although Tobias was some distance away.

"Okay, let's do this," Jake said, making sounds with his mouth to form
words. He glanced at his watch. "Rachel? You have the backup plan ready?
Where does Ax go if he needs an emer gency demorph?"

"The dressing rooms at Nordstrom's. They're big and private. Best
dressing rooms in the mall. Cassie and I will be posted outside the
theater,

13 ready to rush him there if an emergency situation develops."

"And Rachel promises not to stop and shop in Junior Miss on the way,"
Cassie said, grinning.

Jake glanced up to the sky. Up above the tree-tops, a red-tailed hawk
floated on a warm breeze. "Tobias!" Jake yelled.

<AII clear,> Tobias called down in thought-speak. <l don't see anyone.>

Tobias is a nothlit : a person trapped in a morph. It is what happens if
you stay beyond the two-hour limit. Tobias is a human, but his body is
that of a hawk. He has adjusted well to this bizarre new life. He lives
in the forest with me.

For a long time I expected Tobias to ask me the question that must have
haunted him day and night: whether it would ever be possible for him to
escape his hawk body. But he never did. I guess he was afraid of the
answer. So, I didn't volunteer one.

"Okay," Jake said. "Let's do it."

I began to morph. The first thing I felt was a slipping, melting, almost
sickening feeling as my internal organs began to shift around. There was
a scary little jolt as my second and third hearts stopped beating. I
heard a grinding sound from inside my body as my spine began to shorten.

Soon I was in danger of falling on my face as

14 my front legs shriveled. My arms grew thicker and stronger, but two
fingers on each hand melted together to leave me with five-fingered hands.

My shoulders grew wider to support my large arms. And my hind legs grew
sturdier as more of my weight was shifted onto them.

The stalks on my head began to retract, and as they did, my stalk eyes
grew dimmer and dim mer, like someone turning off the light. Sud denly,
they were gone and I only had two eyes.

I dislike that. Having just two eyes is so limit ing. You can only look
in one direction at a time. You can't even look behind you.

My spine continued to shorten. In fact, it sucked completely out of my
tail, which left my tail as limp as a rope. Then the weak remnants of my
tail simply withered away.

"Grab him, he's going to fail over," Prince Jake said.

He and Marco each took hold of me to keep me upright, as my front legs
disappeared alto gether.

"Hey, hey, clothing!" Rachel said, making a face. "Clothing. Don't
forget the morphing suit, Ax."

As my body continued to change, my skintight morphing suit also
appeared. It is a very difficult

15 trick to be able to morph clothing. And all you can manage is
something extremely tight.

"Are you done?" Prince Jake asked me.

I considered. I was standing precariously on two legs. I possessed two
strong arms and ten strong fingers. I was mostly without fur. My eyes
were weak and totally unable to see anything except what was in front of
me. My hearing was good. My mind was functioning normally.

And I had a mouth.

"Yes," I said, using my mouth. "Yessss. Ssssss. Yes-suh. I am in human
morph."

I had morphed into a human. The DNA came from samples I had long since
acquired from Jake, Cassie, Rachel, and Marco. I would have liked to
have Tobias's DNA, but that was not pos sible since he is a nothlit.

My human friends have some differences, but each has only two legs, two
arms, and two eyes. They each have one mouth.

Prince Jake is large and pale in color with brown hair. Cassie is
shorter and darker in color, with darker brown hair. Marco is also
shorter and medium color, with long brown hair. Rachel is taller and
pale and has yellow hair.

None of them has any sort of tail.

"This always makes my skin crawl," Marco said, staring at me in a
sideways fashion. "It's

16 like the four of us were run through a blender. I swear he has my eyes."

"What's gross is I'll look at him and think, 'Wow, is that guy cute,'"
Rachel said. "Then I'll see something that looks like Cassie. Or worse,
like me!"

"What? Rachel in love with her own looks?" Marco said, using an
inflection of his mouth- sounds that humans call sarcasm. Then he looked
troubled. "I'm still not sure this is a good idea. The Controllers could
- "

"Uh-uh," Prince Jake interrupted. "We're not talking about Controllers,
Yeerks, or Vjsser Three. We are taking a break. We've fought one battle
after another. We destroyed the Kandrona. We beat that Veleek monster of
theirs. And now we are taking some well-deserved vacation time. Ax wants
to learn more about humans, so that's what we're doing."

I was never exactly a great student, but I could just imagine how my
fellow Andalites would act when they finally rescued me. They'd ask,
<So, Aximili, what did you learn about Earth?> And I'd have to say, <Um,
well, not much.>

The trick would be to learn about the humans without letting them learn
too much about Andalites. There were things I could never tell the
humans. Things that might make them turn against me.

17 "We should hit the Yeerks again while they're weak," Rachel growled.
"We know the Yeerks won't get a new ground-based Kandrona for another
week. They must still be starving for lack of Kandrona rays. We should
hit them!"

Yeerks are a race of parasitic slugs. They live inside the brains of
other species. They completely dominate the host body, making it a
"Controller." There are Hork-Bajir-Controllers, Taxxon-Controllers, and
more and more human-Controllers. Any human you know might be a
Controller. There is no way to tell - unless you are an Andalite.

I sympathized with Rachel. But I also understood Prince Jake's caution.
No warrior can fight all the time.

"Look, you guys," Prince Jake said. "We hurt the Yeerks. It was a good
job. But we also know that they have a replacement Kandrona being set
up, so don't assume they're weak. Besides, if they are weak, they sure
haven't shown it. I expected to see Yeerks dying left and right, and
former Controllers walking free again. Hasn't happened. Somehow they've
maintained."

"We can't know what is going on with the Yeerks," Cassie pointed out.
"Just because we haven't seen them suffer doesn't mean they haven't."

"Okay, look, here we are again, talking about

18 Yeerks," Jake said impatiently. "We have just come from a very, very
unpleasant battle. And we came very close to ending up dead. And it's
not the first time. So we are going to relax and be normal. We are going
to the movie. And we are going to have fun. And no one . . . Rachel ...
is going to look for a fight."

"Don't you love it when he gets all forceful like that?" Marco said to
Cassie. "He's just so Schwarzenegger sometimes."

"Okay, Ax," Jake said. "Time to get dressed."

"Prince Jake, I am already wearing this gar ment," I said, pointing to
the thing that covered my body. "Wearing. Ing. Ing-uh."

It is an amazing sensation, making sounds with your mouth. Actual words
are formed by vibrating your throat and positioning your tongue. But
some sounds are better than others. "Ing" is a wonderful sound to make.

"Don't call me 'Prince,'" Prince Jake said.

"Ax, you're dressed like an escapee from the Ice Capades," Marco said.

"You can't go out in public wearing tights and a spandex top," Rachel
said. "It's a major fash ion 'don't.' Here."

She handed me a bag. In the bag were items of clothing. It took several
minutes for me to dress successfully. There is a lot to remember,

19 and every bit of clothing can only go on one way. Socks go on the
feet and not on the hands, for example.

When I was done, they all stared at me. Even Tobias flew down to stare.

"Rachel, he looks like he's going to the country club to play polo,"
Marco said. "I knew we shouldn't let you pick the clothes. He's like a
bully magnet. Even I want to beat him up."

"It's a classic look," Rachel said angrily. "Like you're Mister Fashion?
A person who dresses like Beavis?"

"I think he looks cute," Cassie said.

<Well, that's the kiss of death,> Tobias re marked from his perch in the
tree above.

"It is?" I asked.

<Just an expression, Ax-man,> Tobias said. <You'll have fun.>

Ax-man. That's what Tobias calls me some times.

"Come on, Ax," Prince Jake said, smiling. "Let's do this. If anyone
tries to beat you up, we'll protect you."

20 L did not understand the plot of that story," I said.

We were in the movie theater. I was "sitting." This involves bending
your body and resting on the fat deposits halfway down the back of your
body.

"That was a preview, Ax," Prince Jake said. "It's just to give you an
idea what the whole movie will be like when it comes out."

"Yes. I see. Why is the screen flat and two- dimensional? Flat. Flat-tuh."

"Because that's how movies are."

"Ah."

"You want some popcorn?" Marco asked. He

21 held one of the open boxes they had obtained. He moved it close to me.

"Is it food?" I asked.

"Well, sort of," Prince Jake said. "But, Ax? You know how you get around
food, okay? So re member - don't get carried away."

I watched Marco eat some of the popcorn. I did as he did. I stuck my
large human fingers into the box. I removed a handful of the food and
stuck it in my mouth.

I chewed.

The texture was rough and strange. And the flavor! It reminded me of a
food called pizza. But there was just a hint of cigarette butts, which I
also enjoy. Although Prince Jake had told me never to eat cigarette
butts again. They are bad for you.

I took another handful of the popcorn. I chewed it. Another handful.

"This is excellent!" I cried.

"It tastes like it's about a week old," Marco said.

"What are these flavors? What are they called?"

"I don't know. Salt? Grease?"

"Salt!" I said, savoring the very sound of the word. "Salt! And grease!
Greee-suh!"

"Hey, hold it down," someone behind me said. "The movie is starting."

22 "Salt. Salt-tuh. Grease. Greeeesss."

"Ax, don't talk so loud, okay?" Prince Jake suggested.

"Here, just take the box," Marco said.

He handed me the box of popcorn. I quickly ate the rest of it.

"Not the box\" Marco wailed. "You don't eat the box\"

"It tasted of salt and grease," I pointed out.

"Oh, man. Is it time to leave yet?" Marco asked Prince Jake. "Tell me
it's time to leave."

The movie began. It involved humans and nonhumans in uniforms. It seemed
they were in some sort of spacecraft.

"What type of ship is that?" I asked. "It looks somewhat like a
Hawjabran freighter."

"That's the Enterprise," Prince Jake said. "It's not real. It's just
made-up."

"Yes, I know," I said. "I do know what a real interstellar spacecraft
looks like."

Marco and Prince Jake looked at each other. Both smiled.

I quickly became bored by the plot of the movie. For one thing, there
was one character who was clearly an Ongachic female. But in the movie
this creature was called a "Klingon." It made no sense.

However, by accident I made a tremendous

23 discovery: There was more popcorn! It was in boxes on the floor. I
hadn't seen it in the darkness. There was a half-full box right by my feet.

I quickly ate this new popcorn. Then I found something else beside it on
the floor. It was a smaller box. Inside it were three small, brown
globules.

I ate the brown globules.

At that moment, it was as if the entire planet had stopped spinning. The
taste! It was beyond description!

Those brown globules were like nothing I had ever experienced. I felt my
life had changed. I felt myself lifted up out of the world of everyday
senses to some new level.

More! I wanted more!

I dropped to my knees and began to search. I crawled along the floor,
looking for more. It was easier crawling than walking. At least when I
crawled I had four legs. Also, the humans had coated the floor with
sticky substances, which made it easier not to slip.

I found no more boxes of globules. However, there was a small, twisted
plastic envelope. And within that twisted plastic envelope I discovered
a chunk that smelled very similar to the glob ules.

I stuck it in my mouth.

24 Yes! It was the same flavor. The same miraculous, heavenly flavor!
And yet ... there were dif ferences, too. It was crunchier. And there
were other flavors.

The floor of the movie theater was filled with precious items! I crawled
on. I had to squeeze past several seated humans who made loud noises as
I passed.

"Hey, jerk! What are you doing?"

"Get away from me, you freak!"

But I could not be distracted. I wanted more of the amazing brown food!
More!

Yes! Success! Another small box, and this one was half filled with
brightly colored pellets. And yet, inside each pellet, more of the magic
brown food!

More. More! I wanted more!

There! A younger human was holding an en tire box of the brown globules!
But I could not just take them. I must have permission first.

I looked up from the floor at the human. "Please give me your brown
globules?!" I asked. "Globules! Ules!"

"MOMMY!"

"What do you think you're doing?" another human cried.

"MOMMY! He's trying to take my candy!"

I heard a more familiar voice. It was Marco. "Where is he? Jake! Where's
Ax?"

25 "I merely wish to enjoy the brown globules!" I explained to the
screaming child.

Suddenly, I felt Prince Jake and Marco grab bing my arms. They lifted me
up off the floor and dragged me away.

"Globules!" I cried. I snatched for the box the small human was holding.
"Globules!"

26

/ There are many dangers for an Andalite in human morph. For one thing,
there is the constant danger that you will fall off your two legs. The
slightest push and you can topple over. But worse by far is the dan ger
of taste. Taste is the sense that can drive an An dalite mad! Especially
if it involves cinnamon buns or chocolate.

V - From the Earth Diary of Aximili-Esgarrouth-lsthill I

By the time Marco and Prince Jake had half-dragged, half-carried me out
of the theater, I was calm again. We emerged into a brilliant sun lit
area where vehicles are parked.

"Okay, I think we have learned a lesson here," Prince Jake said. "No
chocolate for Ax."

"Chocolate? Chock? Chock-lit?" I said, trying out the word. "The brown
globules are called chocolate? What about the brightly colored pel lets?"

"Actually, the globules are called Raisinets.

27 The pellets are M&M's. Are you under control now, Ax?" Prince Jake
asked.

I couldn't tell if he was angry or amused. "Yes," I said shakily. "I ...
the flavor! It was just so wonderful."

Cassie and Rachel emerged from the mall be hind me. They watched
curiously, but kept their distance. As always, we were careful not to ap
pear to be a group. The Controllers are everywhere.

Suddenly, I heard a thought-speak message. <Hey, you guys. Was the movie
that bad?>

It was Tobias, on patrol far overhead. Of course, no one could answer
him. Humans can use thought-speech only when they're in a morph. And
since I was in a human body, I too was restricted to spoken language.

<There's kind of a thing going on,> Tobias said. <Just around the corner
from you. Some guy staggering around and screaming at the top of his
lungs. Cops are coming,fast. I'm pretty sure I heard the word 'Yeerk.'
He's heading your way.>

Just then, I began to hear it, too. It was a hu man shouting in a loud,
hoarse voice.

"Over there," Marco said tersely.

A man appeared. He seemed to be having dif ficulty standing up. He
leaned against the outer wall of the store and staggered forward. Humans
stared at him and moved away.

28 "Listen to me! Listen to me!" he cried, look ing around wildly.
"They're here! They're here! They're everywhere! The Yeerks are here!"

My human body felt as if it had been jolted with electricity. Human
bodies become very tense when surprised. I could see that Prince Jake
and Marco were having the same reaction.

I heard sirens wailing and drawing closer.

"What do we do?" Marco asked.

Prince Jake turned quickly back to Rachel and Cassie. He made a gesture
with his hand. "Split up!" he said.

"They're heeeeere!" the man cried. "Aaaaah-hhh!" He suddenly clapped
both his hands over his left ear. "Got you! Got you! Die! Die!"

"He's a Controller," I said. "The Yeerk in his head is dying."

Jake met my gaze. "I know," he said. "Been there."

I nodded. Jake had been made into a Con troller, though only for a brief
time. We had been able to imprison him and starve the Yeerk. Yeerks live
in the brains of other species, but every three Earth days they must
bathe in the Yeerk pool and soak up Kandrona rays. Without Kandrona
rays, they starve and die.

Kandrona rays are beamed from a device called a Kandrona. (Actually,
it's a Kandrona Wave/Particle Generator.) The rays are beamed

29 and then concentrated in the Yeerk pool, where the Yeerks feed.

We had found and destroyed the Earth-based Kandrona.

"Why is this happening now?" Rachel asked. "It's been weeks since we
destroyed the Kandrona. Nothing ever seemed to happen. So why now?"

I shrugged my shoulders, the way humans do to indicate ignorance. "I
don't know, Rachel. Maybe the Yeerks have reached their limit. It would
have been a strain on their resources to shuttle Controllers back and
forth to the mother ship. Ship-puh. Maybe something was broken."

"I didn't think things just broke for you space people," Marco said.

"Things break," I said truthfully. "Break. Ake. Ake-kuh."

"Well, whatever. Scratch one Yeerk," Marco said harshly.

The man was screaming now and yanking at his ear. I could just see the
slimy tip of the dying Yeerk as it slithered out of the man's head.

"Can't we help him?"

It was Cassie. She and Rachel had defied Prince Jake's order to split
up. They were with us now as we watched, horrified and transfixed.

"We have to stay clear of this," Prince Jake said. "But maybe it's
finally starting. It may just

30 be this one guy, but there may be more. Finally! I expected this to
start happening weeks ago. Yeerks dying! Controllers suddenly free and
human again." He grinned. It was a savage look. "They'll die, and their
hosts will be free! At first, people will think they're nuts. But when
they have ten, twenty, fifty people all yelling about the Yeerks? They
won't be able to cover that up. Not for long!"

His voice had risen, becoming higher, and the words came out faster. He
was obviously excited.

Suddenly, an ambulance raced up, followed by two police cars, all with
flashing lights and screaming sirens.

"Hah!" Marco said. "I'm sure some of the cops are Controllers, but they
can't all be. Jake's right. The truth will get out! This is going to
work! The truth is going to come out!"

"The replacement Kandrona is supposed to be here soon," Rachel pointed
out. "We should have seen a lot more of this. The Yeerks must have found
a way to keep this from happening till now."

Rachel is a true warrior. She does not underestimate her enemies. She
was not ready to start talking about victory.

But the others were all very happy. They believed that many Yeerks would
die, and the hosts would be free to tell the world the truth.

31 They believed they had won the war.

It made me sad for them. Because I knew the truth. I knew how the Yeerks
operated.

I almost told Prince Jake right then. He has a special reason to be
hopeful. His brother, Tom, is a Controller. There is nothing Prince Jake
would want as much as his brother's freedom.

But I knew this screaming Controller with the dying Yeerk in his head
was just an oversight. Something had gone wrong with the Yeerk's se cret
efforts, but I knew that there would be no witnesses.

I knew what would happen to this poor, shout ing human.

Jake was my prince how, my leader. But if I told him ... it would lead
to questions. And I could not answer questions. Not without revealing
the terrible truth behind the law of Seerow's Kindness.

Humans rushed from the ambulance and the police cars. Most, as Marco had
said, were probably true, normal humans. They grabbed the screaming man,
who was still pulling the Yeerk from his ear.

"Oh, Lord! What is that? He's pulling his brains out!" one policeman
cried in horror.

"The Yeerks! They're here!" the human screamed. "Die! Die! Get out of me
and die! Freedom!"

32 The police surrounded the man and hustled him to the ambulance. It
was hard to see, unless you were expecting it: the moment when one of
the policemen drew a small, steel cylinder from his pocket and pressed
it against the back of the man's neck.

"I can't believe it!" Cassie exulted. "Maybe it's really going to
happen. Maybe people will re alize the truth!"

"They have a real, live Yeerk now," Prince Jake said. "They can't cover
this up forever."

Again I thought of telling them the truth. That the human was already
gone. That the Yeerk slug would crumble into dust. That no evidence
would be left behind.

But even though these humans were my friends, even though we fought side
by side, there were secrets I could not tell them.

I could not tell them how a race of parasitic slugs had come to be a
danger to the entire galaxy.

I could not tell them why we Andalites had to fight the Yeerks. Why we
had no choice but to fight them. Why we hated them so deeply.

We have secrets, we Andalites. And the great est secret of all is our
own guilt.

"This is great," Prince Jake said, smiling.

"Yes," I said. "Great."

33 ft:

s the sun rose above the horizon the next morning, I stood by the small
stream where I drink each day. Rough grasses, mixed with fallen leaves
and pine needles, ran right down to the water. The sun was just barely
visible through a gap in the forest trees.

<From the water that gave birth to us,> I said, and dipped my right
forehoof into the water. It was the beginning of the morning ritual.

<From the grass that feeds us,> I said, and moved back to crush a small
tuft of grass be neath the same hoof.

<For the freedom that unites us.> I spread my arms wide.

34 <We rise to the stars.> I looked with all four of my eyes at the
rising sun.

I sighed. This was really pretty pointless. I had never been a big
believer in all the rituals. I mean, if you're going to be a warrior,
you have to do it. And any aristh who gets caught rushing through the
ritual is verbally reprimanded.

But still, I was about a billion Earth miles from my home world. It was
hard to see why I should still be acting like a good little warrior-
cadet. I was all alone among aliens. Who cared if I performed the rituals?

I bowed low. <Freedom is my only cause. Duty to the people, my only
guide. Obedience to my prince, my only glory.>

I hesitated. Tobias had landed in the tree above.

<The destruction of my enemies, my most solemn vow.>

I straightened up again, then assumed the fighting stance. <l,
Aximili-Esgarrouth-lsthill, Andalite warrior-cadet, offer my life.>

With that, I drew my tail blade forward and pressed it against my own
throat.

Then I relaxed my tail. This was the part of the ritual that called for
contemplation. You were supposed to think about the parts of the ritual
and ask yourself if you were living up to all of it.

The destruction of my enemies, my most

35 solemn vow. That was the part that stayed in my thoughts.

I had not destroyed my enemy. My enemy was terrible and powerful. And if
I tried to destroy him, I would be the one killed.

But that did not matter. What mattered was the enemy. The creature who
had murdered my brother. Not in battle, but as he lay almost help less.

It was the humans who'd told me the rest of Elfangor's story. As the
dome went crashing into Earth's sea, my brother's fighter was damaged by
the Yeerks.

He landed in an abandoned construction site. There were five human
youths passing by: Jake, Cassie, Marco, Rachel, and Tobias.

Elfangor was dying, and he knew that Earth was now defenseless. He told
the five youths about the Yeerk threat. And then he did what he should
not have done. He gave them a weapon to fight the Yeerks.

He gave them the Andalite power to morph.

Never in all of history has any non-Andalite been given the power to
morph. It's against our major law: the law of Seerow's Kindness.

Only one other creature can morph: the Yeerk who invaded and took over
an Andalite body. He is the only Andalite-Controller. There are hun
dreds of thousands of Hork-Bajir and Taxxons

36 and humans enslaved that way, but only one An- dalite.

Only one Yeerk has an Andalite body, and the power to morph.

The Abomination: Visser Three.

The humans told me of Elfangor's last battle. How Visser Three had
morphed into a huge, mon strous creature. How Elfangor had fought to the
very end, lashing out helplessly. How Visser Three had opened his jaws
and . . .

The humans don't know it, but if Elfangor had lived, he would have been
in huge trouble. He would have been demoted, at very least. He would no
longer have been a prince. Elfangor as the great hero would have been
finished.

<The destruction of my enemies, my most solemn vow.>

I had faced Visser Three more than once. He was still living. I had no
excuse, except that I was still just an aristh. If I were a full
warrior, it would have been total dishonor for me.

Elfangor would have had the courage. If it had been me killed by Visser
Three, Elfangor would have gone right after him.

But I guess I'm not Elfangor.

<Hey, Ax-man, what's up?>

<l am fine, Tobias,> I said. Actually, I was not fine. Tobias being
there reminded me that I had something planned for this morning, and I was

37 nervous. Maybe that's why the morning ritual had not left me feeling
calm, like it was supposed to. I was planning to do something very
frightening. I was planning to go to school.

<Not to be too curious or anything, but what was that you were doing?
I've seen you do it be fore. >

<The morning ritual. It reminds a warrior to be humble. And to serve the
people.>

<Sounds good,> Tobias said. <Yikes! Um, Ax? Don't step back. In fact,
don't move at all.>

<What is wrong?> I asked.

<Don't you hear that?>

I listened. <That rattling, hissing sound? I've heard that before.>

<lt's a rattlesnake. Right by your leg. They're poisonous, you know.>

<Ah. No, I didn't know.> I turned to face the snake. I saw it coiled in
the leaves. What I did not see was when it struck! It was too fast! Too
fast to see, let alone avoid.

Luckily, the fangs hit my hoof! I whipped my tail forward and pressed
the snake against the ground, holding it immobile. It squirmed and made
the rattling sound with its tail.

<Better get rid of it,> Tobias advised.

But I had a different idea. I focused on the snake. I began to "acquire"
it, absorbing the snake's DNA into my system.

38 <You want to be able to morph a rat- tle snake ?> Tobias asked,
sounding dubious.

<lt's very fast,> I said. <And I have fewer Earth morphs than the
others. It may be useful someday.> The snake had gone limp, the way
animals always do when you acquire them. When I was done and the snake's
DNA was within me, I used my tail to flip it away into some bushes.

<So,> Tobias asked, ore you still going ahead with your
get-to-know-the-humans plan?>

<Yes. I may be on this planet for a long time. I should be using this
time to learn about hu mans. Even though ... I think I may have behaved
badly at the movie.>

Tobias laughed. He laughed for quite a while. <Yeah. I heard about that.
You just need to stay away from chocolate.>

<l am not prepared for taste. The experience is very powerful. Perhaps I
should not morph into a human anymore.>

<Don't sweat it,> Tobias said. <But speaking of taste . . . you realize
there's this big mystery about you.>

<A big mystery?>

<Yeah. No one wants to ask you because they think maybe it's rude. But
everyone wants to know how you eat with no mouth.>

<How I eat?> I repeated, puzzled. <Well, I have hooves, don't l?>

39 <0oookay,> Tobias said. <l'll mind my own business.>

We started moving through the woods. I ran at a good speed. I enjoyed
leaping fallen logs and dodging through dense patches of thorny bushes.
I was getting to know this forest well.

As I ran and leaped, Tobias flew overhead. At times he would rise
through the canopy of trees and disappear from my sight. At other times
he would flit from tree to tree, silent, swift.

<ln school, during Xenobiology, we had a sec tion on humans,> I told
Tobias. <lt mostly in volved human television programs. News shows.
Entertainment. Music.>

<Music? You mean like MTV? You were watch ing music videos on the
Andalite home world?>

<l don't remember what they were. I ... I didn't pay very much attention
to Xenobiology. I wish I had now. A warrior is supposed to be a sci
entist and an artist, as well as a fighter. But I didn't always enjoy
that other stuff, so I didn't pay much attention. I suppose humans
always pay attention in school.>

<Absolutely,> Tobias said. <That's why I am such an expert on the War of
1812.>

<A war? Tell me about it.>

<l was kidding. I don't know anything about the War of 1812. We're just
about there. Are you ready to start?>

40 We had reached a narrow spur of woods. Nor mally, I would not have
dared go this far because it was surrounded on three sides by human
habitations. But Tobias was overhead, keeping his incredibly keen eyes
open for any danger.

<Yes, I'm ready.>

<Jake and Cassie are coming across the field. Time for you to morph.
Time to get human.>

<Tobias, will you ... I mean, you'll be alone today. While I'm with the
others.>

<What, like I can't get along without you, Ax- man? I have places to go.
Things to do. Feathers to preen. Rodents to eat. Besides, Ax, Jake has
already asked me to fly cover over the school while you're in there.>

I don't know why, but it made me feel better to think that Tobias would
be in the sky above me all day.

Sometimes I think Tobias and I could be true shorm. A shorm is a deep
friend, someone you never lie to, someone who knows all your secrets.
The word shorm means "tail blade." See, it's supposed to mean a person
you would trust so much they could put their tail blade right up against
your throat and you wouldn't even worry.

Sometimes I think Tobias and I could be like that. We are both cut off
from our own people. We're both alone.

But if we were friends, I would have no se-

41 crets from Tobias. And even though he was a hawk in form, he was
still a human. And I am an Andalite. And no matter how much I sometimes
wished for a real friend, there had to be a wall between my people and
the humans. Between me and the humans.

Getting too close to any alien species is a mistake. We are taught that.
We may protect them, defend them, care for them. But they can never be
deep friends.

42 / I have morphed some Andalite animals. And I have\ morphed many
strange Earth animals. But the animalI morphed the most Is the human
animal. They are weak, slow, half-blind, and unstable, but no
Andaliteshould laugh at them. Humans rule their planet. And as the human
Rachel once said, Earth is a tough neighborhood. - From the Earth Diary
of Aximili-Esgarrouth-lsthill ]

J. peered through the trees. I could see a wide, grassy field. On the
far side of the field were several long, squat buildings. There were
large yellow vehicles parked in front. Hundreds of young humans milled
around outside the building.

Prince Jake and Cassie had drawn close.

"Hey, Ax," Prince Jake said. "How's it going?"

<Very well, Prince Jake,> I answered.

"Urn, you're not going to call me Prince Jake today, are you?"

43 <When I am in human morph, I will behave as a normal human,> I
assured him.

"Well, better go ahead and morph," Cassie suggested.

<l think we're clear, but I'll go up and take a look,> Tobias said. He
flapped his wings and rose slowly into the sky.

I concentrated on my human morph and be gan to make the change.

<Still clear,> I heard Tobias call down from above. <There are some kids
about two hundred feet away, but they can't see you.>

I morphed as quickly as I could, while being careful not to fall over as
my third and fourth legs disappeared. At last, I stood on just two legs.
It's both frightening and exciting. I mean, there you are, tottering
back and forth with nothing to hold you up. Your feet can't grip, and
they are too short to be much help in balancing.

All you can do if you start to fall is stand on one leg while you throw
the second leg out to catch yourself. It's very unreliable. I don't know
why humans evolved this way. They are the only species on this planet to
walk around on just two legs, without wings or a tail to hold them up.

And I've certainly never heard of any other in telligent species trying
to walk this way.

"Hey, grab him," Prince Jake yelled as I be gan to lean back.

44 "Got him," Cassie said. She helped support me as I finished the morph.

Last of all the mouth appeared, a horizontal split in my face.

"Are you done?" Prince Jake asked me.

"Yes. I am fully human." the sound delighted me. It's an amazing talent,
this ability to make complex sounds. "Human. Mun. Hyew-mun. Hu man.
Huh-yew-mun."

"Urn, Ax? Don't do that, okay?" Prince Jake said.

"What? What-tuh?"

"That. Where you play with every sound like it's a new toy."

"Yes, my prince. Not a toy. Toy! Toytoytoy- toy . . . Sorry."

"This should be interesting," Cassie said, looking at Prince Jake.

Tobias came swooping low and rested on a tree branch. <lt's kind of
sweet,> he said. <Ax's first day of school.>

"His only day of school," Prince Jake said quickly. "This is just so he
can learn how to be a more believable human. One time."

Prince Jake held up a single finger, indicating the number one.

"Yes, that is one," I agreed. "Now, let's go to school. I am looking
forward to it. To it. Tewit."

45 "Remember, you're my cousin Phillip, from out of state," Jake said
while handing me a bag filled with garments.

"Phillip," I repeated confidently. "Phillip. Lip. Phill-up. Pah."

I like the sound the letter "p" makes.

I got dressed and set off toward the squat building that was the
schoolhouse.

<Have fun,> Tobias said. He sounded just a little wistful in my mind. It
was a strange thing, I guess. I, an alien, could go to his school. But
he could not.

"I will," I called back over my shoulder.

Unfortunately, bending that way made me fall over. It takes practice to
walk on just two legs.

46 A human has only two eyes. Both are on the front of the face. It Is
the same with most Earth species. These human eyes are very similar to
our own main eyes. But humans seem fascinated by my stalk eyes. One of
the humans, Marco, has said they "creep him out big time." I believe
this is a compliment. - From the Earth Diary of
Aximili-Esgarrouth-lsthill ]

There it is," Cassie said. "School. Or, as I like to think of it -
purgatory."

The school was very active. There were large numbers of humans racing
about at high speed. Others moved very slowly and seemed sad or ill.
Many carried books. Most made mouth-sounds.

As usual they were dressed in a shocking vari ety of clothing. Clothing
is not a uniquely human idea, but of course Andalites do not indulge in it.

However, when I am in human morph I must wear clothing. All of my human
friends, even To bias, agree on this. They agree very strongly on this
one point.

47 I saw Rachel and Marco approaching through the crowd of humans.

My other human friends tell me that Rachel is beautiful and Marco is
cute. As an Andalite, I don't observe either trait. However, when I am
in human morph I begin to see that Rachel actually is very beautiful.

But I never see that Marco is cute.

At school, the Animorphs must pretend not to be very close. This is so
any suspicious human-Controllers will not begin to think of them as a
"group."

"Hi, Marco, Rachel," Prince Jake said. "Meet my cousin . . . Phillip."

"Yes. I am Prince Jake's cousin, Philiip," I said. "I am from out of
state."

Marco made a smile with his mouth. "You're from way, way out of state."

"Don't call me 'Prince,'" Prince Jake hissed.

"Nice to see you again, Phillip," Rachel said and winked. Since she was
really Jake's cousin, she would have already met "Phillip." "See you
guys later. Good luck."

"You'll need it," Marco added.

We went inside the school building. It seemed to be nothing but a very
long corridor. It was filled with humans. Along each side of the
corridor there were doors. Some of the doors were large. But there were
hundreds of much

48 smaller doors. I observed people opening the small doors, but no one
ever went inside.

"Where do the small doors lead?" I asked.

"Nowhere. Those are lockers," Cassie said. "Everyone has a locker. See?
There's my locker right there."

We went to Cassie's locker. It was decorated with a shiny pendant. The
pendant had a wheel with numbers on it. Cassie spun the wheel back and
forth.

"Is that a ritual?" I asked. "Chew-ull. Ritual."

"No, that's a lock. It keeps people out."

"Why?"

"So they won't steal my stuff." She opened her locker and began putting
things in and taking things out.

"What is that?" I asked. "Thuh-at. That."

"It's just a picture," Cassie said. She quickly closed the door of her
locker.

"It looked like a picture of Prin ... of Jake," I pointed out. "Why
would you have a picture of him when he is right here and you can see him?"

Cassie shrugged and looked down at the ground. Humans have many facial
expressions. I believe this one indicated either sickness or em
barrassment.

"Come on, Ax," Prince Jake said. He was

49 smiling at Cassie and she was continuing to look sick or embarrassed.
"We'll see you later, Cassie. Time for first - "

Just then, a terrible, mind-shattering sound!

BBBBBRRRRRRRIIIIINNIMNNGGGG!

I spun around. I raised my human arms, ready to use them for defense. I
wished I had my tail. It's a terrible thing to be without a tail in a
fight. But I was ready to do the best I could with my human body.

"Ax! I mean, Phillip. Relax."

BBBBBBBRRRRRRIIIIIIINNNIMNGGGG!

"That noise!" I cried. "What kind of beast is it?"

"Ax, it's just the bell for first period," Jake said. "Take it easy.
People are staring."

"It's not a threat?"

"No. It's not a threat. It's depressing, but not dangerous."

I followed Prince Jake as he led the way down the hall. It was difficult
to forget the horrible noise. When humans are threatened their bodies
are flooded with a chemical that make them hyper-alert, fearful, and
aggressive. The chemi cal is called adrenalin. My system was now flooded
with adrenalin. It was very distracting.

We entered one of the large doors. In side were approximately thirty
humans arranged

50 in small, confining seats. At the front of the room was a large
table. An older human stood there.

"Everyone get to your seats," the older human said.

Prince Jake said, "Mr. Pardue? This is my cousin from out of town. His
name's Phillip. He's just hanging with me today, okay?"

"Just sit. Sit. Be quiet and sit."

I could tell from Prince Jake's facial expression that he was troubled.
He took my arm and led me to the back of the room.

"Take that desk," Prince Jake said.

"Take it where? Wheh-err? Where?"

"I mean sit in it."

I understood sitting. I was getting pretty good at passing for human.

Once, for two days I had to morph Prince Jake and pretend to be him. I
was successful in fooling his parents and brother. Although I later
learned that his parents believed "he" had become mentally ill. When the
real Prince Jake re turned, they took him to see a doctor.

"Sitting in this desk is unpleasant," I said.

"You got that right, dude," a human I didn't know said.

"What is going on back there? Quiet down," the teacher demanded loudly.
"What is ... what. . . wha . . ." Suddenly, he clutched at his

51 head with both hands. "Everyone be quiet! Quiet!"

Now Prince Jake looked very troubled. "Mr. Pardue, are you okay?"

All the other humans stared at the teacher, too. Everyone was very quiet.

"Okay?" Mr. Pardue demanded in a loud, angry voice. "Am I okay? Am I -
aaaaahhhhh!"

Without warning, Mr. Pardue pitched forward. He fell on the floor. He
clawed at his head with his hands.

And he cried. "Yeerk! Get out of me!"

He clawed at his head till blood began to flow.

52 aaaaarrrggghhh!" the teacher cried as he clawed at his head.

One of the humans began screaming. "What's happening?! What's happening?!"

Someone else ran from the room into the hallway and began to shout,
"Help! Help! Help!"

Prince Jake and I sat very still, side by side in the back of the room.

"Stop damaging our body!" Mr. Pardue cried. Then, as if he were
answering himself, he said in a slurred voice, "Get out my head! Get out
of my head! You're finished!"

Prince Jake's gaze met my own. We both knew what was happening.

"That makes two," Prince Jake whispered.

53 "Two that we've seen. Something is going wrong for ... for them."

Mr. Pardue began crying. He began cursing. All the while he writhed on
the floor, and the other humans stood around horrified, helpless.

"Did you know this teacher was a Controller?" I asked Prince Jake,
making my voice very quiet.

"No. He always seemed like a nice guy. I can't just sit here and watch
this!"

"Get OUT OF ME!" Mr. Pardue screamed sud denly.

The Yeerk in the teacher's head was weakening. It was starving from lack
of Kandrona rays. The human host, the real Mr. Pardue, was fight ing for
control.

Suddenly, Prince Jake stood up and rushed to the teacher's side. I was
right behind him. I tried to grab his arm to stop him, but he was too
quick.

"Prince Jake!" I snapped, but he ignored me.

Prince Jake knelt by the teacher's bleeding head. "I know what this is,"
he whispered. "I know what this is, Mr. Pardue. Ride it out. The Yeerk
will die. You'11 be free."

Others were coming closer. Close enough to overhear. "Stay back," I said
to them. "There may be danger."

I didn't know what else to say. It seemed to work. The others stayed back.

54 Mr. Pardue rolled his eyes up to focus blearily on Prince Jake's face.

Prince Jake grabbed the teacher's shoulder in a tight grip. "I've been
there," he whispered. "I've done it, Mr. Pardue. I was a Controller for
a while. I survived. Just hang in."

I searched the faces of the other humans, try ing to see if they had
overheard. Jake was my prince, but this was dangerous, foolish behavior.

Suddenly, the door of the room opened. I rec ognized the human who
rushed into the room.

Chapman.

He is the assistant principal for the school. He is also a high-ranking
Controller.

"All right, kids, everyone out," Chapman snapped. "Everyone out to the
playground. Out of the building. Mr. Pardue is just sick."

"You!" Mr. Pardue cried. "No! Chapman is ... he's . . ."

"I said OUT!" Chapman roared.

The humans fled the room, anxious to be away from the scene of madness.

But Prince Jake did not move. He stayed by the human called Pardue. I
saw his fists clench ing. There was a dangerous light in his eyes.

Chapman looked at me. Then back at Prince Jake. "Jake, you and your
friend get out."

For a frozen moment of time, no one moved. I held my breath. Would
Prince Jake start a fight?

55 If so, I would have to join him. But this was a foolish fight. Prince
Jake could not afford to re veal himself.

I grabbed Prince Jake's arm and yanked him up to his feet. He glared
furiously at me.

"We have to go," I said.

Slowly he nodded. "Yeah. Hope he gets bet ter." He looked at Chapman.
"He will get better, won't he, Mr. Chapman?"

"Who can say?" the Controller answered coldly.

I drew Prince Jake away. He stopped at the door, and we looked back to
see Chapman draw a short steel cylinder from his pocket. He pressed it
against the neck of the weeping teacher.

"No!" Mr. Pardue cried. "No!"

Then, very quickly, Mr. Pardue fell silent.

Prince Jake turned away and ran. He pushed his way through the others,
who were still clustered just outside the classroom. He ran clear
outside. He gasped at the air, as if he did not have sufficient oxygen.

I caught up to him, but it was difficult. He has more practice running
on two legs.

"Prince ... I mean, Jake. Are you sick?"

He shook his head. "Pardue was a Controller. The Yeerk was starving. And
why? Because we destroyed the Kandrona. Me and you and the others. We
did this!"

56 "It was necessary," I said. "We struck a powerful blow against the
Yeerks by destroying the Kandrona."

"Chapman killed him, didn't he?" Prince Jake said. "The little steel
cylinder. Did you see that? Not just the Yeerk, but the real Pardue. He
killed them both."

There was no point in lying anymore. Prince Jake had seen the truth. And
the idea of lying now, here, made me feel unwell inside.

"If the Yeerk inside the teacher had died, the teacher would have
survived and been free," I said. "He would have told other humans what
happened. He would have warned them. The Yeerks can't allow witnesses."

"They're going to kill every host whose Yeerk dies, aren't they?" Prince
Jake asked bitterly. "Every human-Controller whose Yeerk dies is go ing
to be eliminated. That's true, isn't it?"

"Yes."

Prince Jake's face showed an expression. I believed it was an expression
of sickness.

"We did this," Prince Jake said.

"It's war," I said.

"My brother," Prince Jake said. "Tom. He's a Controller. What about him?"

I had no answer. The Yeerks would save as many as they could. But if
their emergency sys-

57 tern was breaking down, they would do what had to be done. They would
eliminate any evidence.

Prince Jake was staring at me. "You knew they would do this?"

I glared back at him. Maybe it was the human adrenalin in my system, but
I was becoming angry now. Angry at the accusing look in Prince Jake's
eyes. "Yes, I knew."

"How did you know?"

I hesitated. Prince Jake did not like my hesitation. He suddenly wheeled
around and pushed me against the wall.

''How did you know the Yeerks would do this?"

"Because it's happened before. You think this is the first planet the
Yeerks have infiltrated? Do you think Earth is the only place where we
An-dalites have fought them? They don't leave wit nesses."

Prince Jake let me go. But he looked at me with unmistakable suspicion.
"I don't like you keeping secrets from me, Ax. I'm your friend. We're
your friends. We should know whatever you know. You didn't tell me about
this."

"Terrible things happen in war," I said. "You did what you had to do.
Destroying the Kandrona was part of that war."

"You can say it's a war," Prince Jake said. "But I hate it."

58 "Love the warrior. Hate the war. War-ruh."

"What is that, an old Andalite saying?" Prince Jake asked sarcastically.

"Yes. My brother used to say it."

Prince Jake looked at me for a very long time. It made me uncomfortable.
"You know some thing, Ax? Sometimes I get the feeling we hu mans are
just pawns in this big game between you Andalites and the Yeerks. We're
just ammunition in this war, aren't we? Too dumb to know what's going
on. Too primitive to be real war-

riors."

"That is not the way it is," I said. My own anger was diminishing.
Prince Jake's suspicion was not.

"You fight alongside us, Ax. As far as I'm con cerned, you're one of us.
But then I find out you're keeping secrets. Rachel and Marco keep asking
me: What do we know about Ax? What has he ever told us about his own
planet, while we show him everything? I told them we could trust you.
Now I wonder. I really wonder. There's no trust when you keep secrets.
You should have told me this is what the Yeerks would do. You know I
have a brother who . . . you know about Tom. I had a right to know what
could happen."

"Maybe you would not have destroyed the Kandrona if you had known it
could endanger Tom," I pointed out.

59 Prince Jake stuck his face very close to mine. "That's what you
think? You know what, Ax? You're right to try and learn more about
humans. Because you don't know a thing about us. Not a thing."

59

60 An Andalite may think that humans are simple, open, \ trusting
creatures. But they are more subtle than they seem to be at first.
Possibly this is because of their spoken language, where no word ever
means just one thing. - From the Earth Diary of
Aximili-Esgarrouth-lsthlll /

My day at the human school ended with the removal of the teacher who had
been a Con troller. Prince Jake went home. I went back to the woods and
gratefully resumed my true shape.

But I spent a very bad afternoon and night. I realized that Prince Jake
and the humans could never be true shorms. I knew there was a wall be
tween me and them. But they were all I had. Without them, I was utterly
alone. And Prince Jake's anger and suspicion had hurt me.

It is a terribly lonely thing to be a billion Earth miles from every
living member of your own people.

61 The next day, Marco invited me to "hang out" with him. This was a
surprise. Marco has never been very friendly, unlike Cassie and Tobias
and Prince Jake. Rachel, too, has never seemed to take to me.

I morphed into my human body and met Marco at the edge of the woods.

"So," he said. "You want to be Pinocchio, huh?"

"What?"

"Pinocchio was a little boy carved out of wood. He wanted to be a real,
live human."

"I do not want to be a human. I merely wish to study them."

Marco smiled. "What a coincidence. And I want to study Andalites."

It took several minutes for me to understand what he was saying. "Oh.
Prince Jake asked you to press me for information."

"Jake was a little ticked off that you didn't tell us everything you
know," Marco said. "Rachel was even more ticked. Come on, we have to
catch the bus. You want to learn about humans, right? I thought I'd take
you to a book store. Smart as you are, you can learn to read English."

"Bookstore? Book-kuh-store?"

"Yeah. Books. Fiction. History. A hundred thousand books all about the
human race. And

62 you get to choose any of them you want. We have no secrets, unlike
certain species I could mention who don't even tell us a little thing
like how they eat with no mouth."

"I see. You open your society to me. Soci-eteee. Teee. And you want me
to do the same in return."

"I told Jake I could cleverly weasel all the in formation out of you,
but he said, 'No, Ax is a friend. Show him we have nothing to hide.
Maybe he'll finally decide to trust us.'"

I felt a pang of guilt. They were treating me with trust. They had never
done anything to hurt me. On the contrary, they had been wonderful to
me. Good in every way.

"I have reasons for keeping secrets," I said.

Marco nodded. "Yeah, we know. Rachel says you probably aren't allowed to
interfere with primitive races like humans."

I was surprised. It was very close to the truth. At first I did not know
what to say.

Marco smiled a cold smile and nodded his head. "So that is it, right?
Kind of too late for that attitude, isn't it? After all, the Yeerks are
interfering with us like crazy."

I had no answer to give. But as I looked around at the street, at all
the humans in their cars, and all the humans lurching along on two legs,
it occurred to me just how defenseless I

63 would be without Prince Jake and Marco and the others.

We had reached the bus stop. Suddenly Marco slapped his pants. "Oh, man.
I left my money at home. We all pitched in for your book fund. I left it
on my desk. Come on."

"Where are we going? Ing? Ing-ahng-ing. That is a very satisfy ing sound."

"Yeah, everybody loves a good 'ing.' We have to run over to my house.
Don't worry, it's just around the corner."

Marco led me down the street. There were houses on both sides. Big, boxy
structures with transparent rectangles here and there.

"That is Prince Jake's house," I said. I had spent time in Prince Jake's
house.

"No, it's just the same model as his house. This is a subdivision. There
are only like five different models of houses. They all look alike.
Welcome to the suburbs. But it beats the place I used to live in."

He was correct. There were only five types of house. Although some had
more grass, and some had less. Also, some houses were decorated with
items that had been placed on the grass.

"What is that decoration?" I asked.

Marco followed the direction of my gaze. Then he rolled his eyes upward.
"That's a Big Wheel."

64 "It is very attractive. Very colorful."

"Uh-huh. I'd love to tell you how it works, but it's the very height of
human technology, so it's secret. Primitive races could get hold of Big
Wheels, and then who knows what might hap pen?"

I am still learning about human mouth- sounds. But I am very sure
Marco's sound was "sarcasm."

"There's my house. My dad is home, working. He sprained his ankle, so
he's using his home computer. Don't be weird, okay?"

"No. I will not be weird. Weeeerd. Weeeeer- duh. I will act like a
normal human."

"You act like a normal human and you'll win an Oscar," Marco said. He
led the way up to his house and opened the door. "Okay, look, you wait
right there by that table. Don't go anywhere. If my dad comes in and
talks to you, just say 'yes' and 'no.' Got it? Yes and no answers only.
I'll run up to my room. I'm gonna call one of the others to meet us at
the bookstore. You're already driving me nuts."

I stood by the table. There was a primitive computer on the table. It
even had a solid, two-dimensional screen. And a keyboard! An actual
keyboard.

I touched the keyboard. It was amazing. An-

65 dalite computers once had keyboards, too. Although ours were very
different. And it had been centuries since we'd used them.

On the screen of the computer was a game. The object of the game was to
spot the errors in a primitive symbolic language and correct them. Of
course, before I could play I had to make sense of the system. But that
was simple enough.

Once I understood the system, it was easy to spot the errors. I quickly
rewrote it to make sense out of it.

<l win,> I said to myself.

"Hello?"

I turned around. It was an older human. He was paler than Marco, but
other features were similar.

Marco had warned me to say nothing to his father but "yes" and "no."

"No," I said to Marco's father.

"I'm Marco's dad. Are you a friend of his?"

"Yes."

"What's your name?"

"No," I answered.

"Your name is 'No'?"

"Yes."

"That's an unusual name, isn't it?"

"No."

"It's not?"

66 "Yes."

"Yes, it's not an unusual name?"

"No."

"Now I'm totally confused."

"Yes."

Marco's father stared at me. Then, in a loud voice he yelled, "Hey,
Marco? Marco? Would you ... um ... your friend is here. Your friend 'No'
is here."

"No," I said.

"Yes, that's what I said."

Marco came running down the stairs. "Whoa!" he cried. "Um, Dad! You met
my friend?"

"No?" Marco's father said.

"What?" Marco asked.

Marco's father shook his head. "I must be getting old. I don't
understand you kids."

"Yes," I offered.

After that, we went to the bookstore.

67 /Books are an amazing human invention. They allow instant access to
information simply by turning pieces of paper. They are much faster to
use than computers. Surprisingly, humans invented books before
computers. They do many things backward. - From the Earth Diary of
Aximili-Esgarrouth-lsthill

J.t was evening of the next day. I was in the woods. I was reading a
book. The book was called the World Almanac. Did you know that twelve
percent of households have a dehumidifier? Did you know that a sheep can
live for twenty years? Did you know that humans used to believe the sun
orbited Earth?

It's a wonderful book.

The book told me many useful things. It took humans only sixty-six years
to go from inventing the first flying machine to landing on the moon. It
took Andalites almost three times as long.

Humans are a very clever species. Someday,

68 if they survive, they could be one of the great races of the galaxy.

Of course, Andalites will always be greater.

I was standing by the stream, with one hoof in the water, drinking, when
my stalk eyes saw a swift shadow falling from the sky.

Tobias opened his wings and shot just over my head. <Ax! Everyone is
looking for you. Stay right here. I have to get them.>

He had kept most of his speed, so he swiftly disappeared above the
trees. But a moment later he was back, with four other large birds of
prey following him.

Tobias took a position on a branch. The others landed on the ground. I
knew then it was the other Animorphs.

They quickly began to demorph. Prince Jake grew out of a falcon's racing
body. Rachel emerged from a huge bald eagle. Cassie and Marco had both
acquired osprey morphs, and were now becoming human again.

I felt a tingling of worry. They had obviously been searching for me,
and were in a hurry.

<What is the matter?> I asked.

<What's the matter?> Marco demanded. <You're asking what's the matter?
I'll tell - >

But just at that point, Marco crossed the line from thought-speaking
morph back to human.

69 His human mouth was still a beak, however, so he just squawked.

I watched Cassie as she made the change. Cassie is a natural estreen-. a
person with an abil ity to make morphing almost artistic. On my planet
it is an art form. There are professional es-treens who change shape in
fantastic, beautiful ways.

Cassie was not a professional, but she had the talent. As she morphed,
she formed pleasant shapes. For a while she had an enlarged osprey's
head, as large as a human head, and vast wings attached to a human body.

When the others morph, they are much less subtle. For them, human parts
simply ooze out, while feathers melt away. It is very unappealing. The
humans find it frightening and disgusting as well, I believe. And they
even recognize that Cassie has a talent for morphing.

"What did you doll" Marco's human mouth had reappeared.

<l don't understand the questions

"My dad's computer. You did something to it, didn't you?"

<!...! merely played the game.>

"Game? GAME?! That was no game, that was my dad's work!"

<No. It was a game. You had to find the errors

70 in the instructions.> Suddenly an idea occurred to me. <0h, I
understand. Your father designs games for children.>

Cassie started to laugh, then silenced herself.

"No, Ax, he writes software programs for high-tech uses. He was working
with astronomers at the observatory. They were designing a program for
aiming the radio telescope at the new observatory."

I nodded, as I had seen humans do. <Yes, it could be used for that
purpose. But it was so obviously full of errors ... I assumed it was a
child's game.>

"If you say 'game' again, I swear I'm going to punch you," Marco said.

Prince Jake put his hand on Marco's shoulder. "What Marco means is, it
was not a game, Ax. His father is going nuts about it."

"My dad says you may have created some whole new branch of computer
software, plus, at the same time, opened up new ways to do astronomy. He
showed it to the guys at the observatory. They are totally losing it!
They're talking about Nobel prizes! I had to convince my dad it was just
an accident. I told him you were an idiot, and you were not the next
Einstein."

<Einstein. Yes. I read about him in the World Almanac. He was the first
human to realize that matter and energy - >

71 "Ax!" Rachel exploded. "Are you not getting this? What if some
Controller hears about this new software? Don't you think they might
guess it was an Andalite who came up with it?"

It hit me quite suddenly. She was right. If those equations were
supposed to be real, not a game, but real. . . Then I had just pushed
human science ahead by a century. Maybe more.

"I think he just got it," Marco said sarcasti cally.

<What is a radio telescope?> I asked Marco.

He shrugged. "Like I would know? What am I, a science teacher?"

"A radio telescope is a telescope that sees by picking up radio waves
and other radiation from outer space," Cassie said.

Marco gave her an incredulous look.

"Not all of us sleep through science class, Marco," Cassie said.

<l see. A primitive sensor. Yes, that would make sense. Of course, with
the changes I made . . .>

"What?" Marco snapped. "What about the changes you made?"

<The changes I made would only . . .>

Suddenly I stopped. The truth ... the whole truth . . . was beginning to
dawn on me. A radio telescope? A huge, high-powered collector of
broad-spectrum energy?

72 My mind raced through memories of classes from a long time ago. I
could almost picture my teacher explaining. . . yes. Yes! With the right
adjustments, the right software . . . Yes, I could bounce the collected
energy back, focus it, modulate it with my own mind, and . . .

And break into Z-space. Zero-space.

I could use the system to send messages through Z-space! I could
communicate with my own world!

I felt it as a blow that made me weak. It was true. I could use that
radio telescope to call my home world. To call my people. My family.

I don't think I had ever admitted, till that mo ment, just how much I
wanted to see another An- dalite.

"Ax, what are you hiding nowll" Rachel de manded.

I tried to concentrate on her question. But my mind was spinning. It
made me feel weak. I could contact my home planet. I could.

But at the same time, there was another truth: I had to destroy this
technology. I had bro ken the law of Seerow's Kindness. I had given the
humans a huge advance in technology!

"Ax, Rachel asked you a question," Prince Jake said tersely. "What is
this? What's up with you?"

My duty was clear. I could not tell my human

73 friends what I had done. I had to erase the dam age.

But before I did that. . . would it be wrong to contact my family? Would
it be so wrong to once again see them?

<l am not hiding anything,> I lied. <Nothing atall.>

74 hey left, and I ate. I feed at dark whenever possible. It is not the
way I would do it at home, but I must always be very careful not to be
seen.

When I run in the open spaces it must either be dark, or Tobias must
watch over me.

My friends tell me that from a distance I look like a normal Earth
animal. A deer, or perhaps a small horse. But if any human saw me
clearly, he would immediately know that I am not an Earth species.

So I eat at night, running wildly through the open grassy fields where
Cassie's farm meets the edge of the forest. I run beneath a single moon,
so different from the moons of my own world. The moon of Earth rises and
sets. On some

75 nights it cannot be seen at all. There are always at least two moons
in our sky. And when all four moons are in the night sky, it is nearly
as bright as day.

Home. Billions of miles away. Sometimes I hurt from thinking about my
home. A warrior has to overcome that. But on nights when I stood alone
in the forest, or ran alone in the fields, I couldn't help but think of
home.

And now it was worse. So much worse, think ing that I could talk to
them, if I really wanted to.

I could turn the humans' radio telescope into a Z-space communicator.
But if I did, I would have broken our own law. I would have given the
humans an advanced technology.

I couldn't do it. I wasn't Elfangor. I couldn't just decide to break the
law of Seerow's Kindness.

And yet, in the back of my mind, there was another thought. I had
already accidentally transferred the software to the humans. It was an
accident, so I hadn't broken the rules. And if I went to the observatory
to wipe out the soft ware ... I would actually be doing the right thing.

I could go to the observatory and erase the software. But before I
erased it, I could use it to call my home. Would that be wrong?

In my memory I saw myself with my father and mother. And Elfangor was
there, too. He was alive in my memory.

76 I remember when I was very little and Elfan-gor, who was already a
great warrior, came home on leave. I barely knew him. I'd seen his commu
nications, but I'd never met him face-to-face. He had been away when I
was born, off fighting the Yeerks.

But we went running together, just the two of us. Me all clumsy.
Elfangor like some creature from an Andalite myth, so fast and so powerful.

It was kind of a shock to me. Until then, I guess I'd thought I was the
most important person in the family. But it was hard to feel very im
portant with Elfangor around.

He didn't say much to me. He didn't give me some "big brother" lecture.
He was just himself. He talked to me the same way he talked to my
parents. He never treated me like a younger An dalite, and that was
great. After that, there was never any question in my mind what I wanted
to be when I grew up: I wanted to be a warrior. I wanted to be like
Elfangor.

And now he was gone. My parents might not even know. For sure they
didn't know I was still alive.

I slowed my run. I was far across the fields. I could see the lights
from Cassie's farm. Foolish! I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I
had grown careless.

I turned to head back toward the forest.

77 "You might as well hang around for a while," a voice said.

<Cassie?>

She loomed up from the darkness. How had I missed seeing her? I looked
closer. Cassie began to change. She kept her own human face, but the
ghostly gray-white mane of a horse. And her legs ended in hooves, not
human feet.

<You morphed a horse,> I said.

As soon as she was fully human she re sponded. "I do that sometimes. I
like running. But don't tell Jake. He'd be mad at me using morphing for
personal things."

<l don't believe he would be angry,> I said. <l am no expert on humans,
but I believe Prince Jake has a special affection for you.>

Cassie laughed quietly. "I doubt it. I'm just a friend. And a fellow
Animorph."

<Then why do you sometimes hold hands and intertwine your fingers?>

"Oh . . .well, you weren't supposed to see that."

<Why not?>

"Dm, it's kind of a long story," Cassie said. "Just forget it, okay? How
is your study of humans going?"

<l have read the World Almanac.>

"So, what do you think?"

<l think humans are interesting.>

78 "Uh-huh. What do you really think?"

I hesitated. She seemed to want a more complete answer. But you can
never be sure with hu mans. Often they become offended by small things.

<l think there is a second reason why the Yeerks wish to enslave your
species,> I said.

"Aside from being able to have a lot of human hosts? Why?"

<They're afraid of you.>

"Afraid of us? Why?" She laughed. "Have you been reading all the stuff
about wars? Humans aren't just about fighting wars. It may seem that
way, but - "

<Every species fights wars,> I said. <ln the past, Andalites made war on
other Andalites. And the Hork-Bajir used to have a biological time clock
that set them all warring every sixty-two years. As for the Taxxons . .
. they are canni bals.>

"Yeah, well, we humans haven't been exactly perfect."

<Every species has something to be ashamed of,> I said. <Every species
carries some terrible guilt.>

She looked closely at me. I could almost see her wondering whether I
meant Andalites as well. But she decided not to ask that question. Instead

79 she asked another. "So if it isn't the wars that bother you, what is
it?"

<You discovered radioactivity in 1896. In 1945 you exploded an atomic
weapon. Forty- nine years. In 1903 you flew for the first time.
Sixty-six years later, you landed on your moon.>

"You really did read the World Almanac, didn't you?" Cassie said with a
smile. "You're saying we do things quickly?"

<l'm saying that if the Yeerks don't destroy you now, they know that
fifty years from now, hu mans will be capable of faster-than-light
travel. And a hundred years from now . . . who knows?>

"How long did it take you Andalites to do those things?"

<!...! don't remember,> I lied.

"I see," Cassie said. I believe her tone of voice is called "disappointed."

<!...>! hung my head. <l am bound by my oath as an Andalite warrior. We
must never give Andalite technology to any other species, and we try not
to, you know, talk about ourselves to other species.> It sounded
pathetic, even to me.

"Not even if it might help us beat the Yeerks? But isn't that what your
brother did, when he gave us the power to morph?"

I could not think of an answer. It was true, of course. Elfangor had
broken our laws.

80 "Did I say something wrong?" Cassie asked.

<Pm not Elfangor,> I said finally. <l'm more like you. Just a young one.
Elfangor was a great prince. My people might understand and forgive what
Elfangor did, because he was an important person.>

"I see," Cassie said. "You know what? Why don't you morph to human and
come inside? You could meet my mom and dad. We're just about to have
dinner."

<l have eaten already.>

Cassie raised one eyebrow. "You've eaten, huh?" She seemed about to ask
me a question, then decided against it. "Okay, but you could still come
in. You don't have to eat much. Just hang out. Come on, it would do you
good."

<Do me good? Do I seem ill?>

"No. Just lonely. You seem very lonely."

The word pierced me. I was surprised how much it hurt.

Yes, I was lonely. But I didn't think the hu mans knew.

<How would you explain to your family who I was?>

Cassie shrugged. "You morphed Jake once, right? So be Jake."

81 I Humans have very odd tastes. They think their music Is beautiful.
They are wrong. It is awful. All of It. And they completely ignore their
greatest accomplish ments: the cinnamon bun, the Snickers bar, the hot
pepper, and the refreshing beverage called vinegar. - From the Earth
Diary of Aximili-Esgarrouth-lsthill

Being in Prince Jake's body is no different from being in my regular
human morph. Except that it is slightly larger. Since the morph was
formed from his DNA, I looked exactly like him. Cassie insisted I borrow
a garment called "overalls" and a pair of boots from her barn before
entering her home. Humans are very particu lar about clothing. I still
do not understand why.

"Hi, Jake. Cassie talk you into helping her muck out the barn again?"
Cassie's father asked me as I walked into her house.

He was a male - as all human fathers are.

82 His hair was dark brown, but it seemed to have been removed from much
of his head. He wore round transparent lenses on his face which, I am
told, are for correcting faulty vision. His corn plexion is darker. He
had the usual number of legs and arms.

"No," I said. "She asked me to eat your food. Food. Ood-duh."

"Well, someone has to eat it. Might as well be you who suffers. I cooked
tonight. Made my world-famous chili."

Cassie's eyes suddenly widened. She looked frightened. "Oh. Chili? Urn,
Jake said he wasn't really hungry. He already ate."

"Is chili a very frightening food?" I asked Cassie.

Her father grinned. "Mine is."

"Is that Jake I hear out there?" someone called from the next room. A
female appeared who I assumed was Cassie's mother. She had dark hair,
but much more of it than Cassie's father. Her hair had not been removed.

She stuck her two arms in my direction and walked toward me. "Oh, you
just get more handsome every time I see you, Jake." She wrapped her two
arms around me and squeezed me briefly. Then she released me. "Are you
staying for some of the Chili of Doom?"

83 "Yes, I asked him to join us," Cassie said. "But he's not very
hungry. In fact, he just ate. So he probably won't want any chili."

Cassie's mother smiled at Cassie's father. "Isn't it just precious the
way she tries to protect him?"

"Too late," Cassie's father said. "He's trapped now. There is no escape."

In order to eat we had to sit down in front of a table. I had done this
before while impersonating Prince Jake at Prince Jake's home. So I knew
how to do it. I knew what a fork was. Also a spoon and a knife.

I discovered that chili is brown and red. It contains several
ingredients and smells a lot. There was also something called jalapeno
corn bread. And there was a bowl of pieces of differ ent fruits.

After so many warnings, I was very nervous about tasting the chili. But
I sensed that Cassie's father would be offended if I did not try some.
So I ate a spoonful.

I think that as long as I live, I will never forget that experience.

The chili was hot in temperature. But it was also hot in a totally new way.

The tastebuds of my human tongue seemed to explode! They burned with an
intensity of fla-

84 vor like nothing I'd tasted before or since. Every nerve in my body
seemed to tingle. Water dribbled from the tiny ducts beside my eyes.

It was not as wonderful as chocolate. But it was intense! So incredibly
intense!

Oh! An Andalite would never understand. This was what being human was
all about. Taste! The glory of it. The incredible wonder of it.

"This is a wonderful food!" I cried.

"Excuse me?" Cassie's mother said.

"Ah HAH! At last. Someone who understands the joy of hot food!" Cassie's
father cried.

I realized I had eaten my entire bowl of that marvelous chili. I wanted
more. That taste! That feeling! I wanted more!

"There's plenty more," Cassie's father said. He filled my bowl again.

"Urn, Jake?" Cassie said. "You really don't have to eat that much."

"I'll eat yours!" I cried.

My eyes were bulging from my head. My skin was tingling. My stomach was
making sounds. But still, I wanted more.

"I love this kid," Cassie's father said. "I wonder if his parents would
let us adopt him. Jake, you are a very discerning, intelligent young man."

"He's insane," Cassie's mother said. "There's no other explanation."

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my leg. I sus-

85 pected that Cassie had kicked me under the table. I looked at her.
She smiled sweetly, and then kicked me again.

"That's probably enough chili," she said. She was staring at me in a
very direct way.

"Yes. That is enough chili," I agreed. I pushed the bowl away. "Chili.
Hi. Chee-lee."

"I used habanero chilies," Cassie's father said. "The hottest substance
known to man."

"Not as hot as the temperature created during nuclear fusion," I pointed
out.

"So how is school, Jake?" Cassie's mother asked.

I knew what this activity was. This was called "making conversation."
The rules were that each person would ask the other person a question.

"It is fine. And how is your work caring for animals?"

"Same old, same old," Cassie's mother said. "Although we are about to
have some new camel babies."

Cassie's mother is a veterinarian at the zoo, a place where nonhuman
animals are kept.

"So, Jake, you think the Bulls are going all the way again this year?"
Cassie's father asked.

I could tell that Cassie was growing tense. She was afraid that I would
not understand the question. But thanks to my reading of the World
Almanac, I knew the "Bulls" were a sports team.

86 "Yes," I answered. "They can go all the way."

Then, it was my turn to ask a question. That is how "making
conversation" works. "So, did you know that the cream separator was
invented in 1878?"

Apparently, they did not know. Cassie, her mother, and her father all
stared at me in sur prise.

After that, we watched television for a while. It was a fictional
depiction of a family. I watched it, and watched Cassie and her parents.

A human family was a good thing to learn about. I had seen Prince Jake's
family. And now I was seeing Cassie's family. They are different in some
ways. For example, Prince Jake's family performs a brief religious
ritual before they eat. Cassie's family does not. And in Prince Jake's
family, the father falls asleep while watching television. In Cassie's
family, it was her mother who began to fall asleep.

"I must go," I told Cassie. "It has been al most two of your hours."

Cassie's mother revived long enough to say that I was crazy, but I was
"still so cute."

Her father winked his left eye at me and waved as I left. Then he
laughed at something from the television.

Outside in the cool evening air, Cassie sighed heavily. "Well, we got
through that without it be-

87 ing too much of a disaster. Come on. I'll walk you out a ways, till
you can morph back without being seen. By the way, here's a book for
you, since you're done with the World Almanac. It's a book of quotes.
Stuff that famous people said." She held it out for me to take.

"Thank you," I said.

I felt strange walking into the dark. Walking away from Cassie's house.
Strange. As if it were cold out, although it wasn't.

"So what did you think of my parents?" Cassie asked.

"I liked them," I said. "But why has your father removed the hair from
his head? Hair. Hay-yer. I meant to ask him, but forgot."

"He's going bald," Cassie said. "It's probably better not to mention it.
It's a normal thing for humans. But some people get sensitive about it."

"Ah, yes. My father's hooves are getting dull. It's normal as well, but
he doesn't like to talk about it."

"What's your father like? And your mother?"

"They are ... just normal parents. They are very nice. They are ..."

"Goon."

"My throat feels strange," I said. "Like there is an obstruction. I am
having difficulty speak ing. Ing. Is this normal?"

88 Cassie put her arm beneath mine. "You miss them. That's normal."

"An Andalite warrior may spend many years in space, far from his home
and family. That's normal."

"Ax. You said it yourself. You may be an An dalite warrior, but you're
still a kid, too."

I stopped walking. I was far from the light of the house. I could change
back into my own shape without being seen. I realized I was look ing up
at the stars.

"Where are they?" Cassie asked, following the direction of my gaze. "If
you're allowed to tell me that."

I pointed with my human fingers at the quadrant of space where my home
star twinkled. "There."

I watched that star as I melted out of my human form and returned to my
true Andalite body.

"Ax, you know that Jake and Tobias and me, and even Rachel and Marco, we
all care about you. You know that, right? You're not just some alien to
us."

<Thank you for the chili,> I said. <lt was won derful^

Once more an Andalite, I ran for the forest.

89 J. spent part of the night reading the book of quotes. I should have
been resting, but I felt dis turbed.

More and more I thought of how easily I could turn the radio telescope
at the observatory into a Z-space transmitter. The idea of contacting my
parents filled me with sadness and longing.

<They could tell me what to do,> I thought. <They could give me
instructions.>

And in another part of my mind I thought, <Wouldn't they be proud that I
was fighting on against the Yeerks? They would all say, "He's an other
Elfangor. A hero.">

I'm not proud that I was thinking that. But I have to tell the truth.
And the truth was, I wanted

90 everyone back home to think I was being very brave, all alone on Earth.

Already in my mind a plan was taking shape.

I found a quiet place and prepared to sleep. I closed my main eyes,
leaving only my stalk eyes open to look for danger. I relaxed my tail
until it touched the ground.

Lonely.

Yes, it was lonely to sleep in a forest on a planet far from home. It
was lonely to be the only one of my kind.

It was lonely knowing that Cassie was asleep in her home, and Marco in
his, and Rachel and Jake. All had homes.

All but me. And Tobias.

Tobias. He would understand. But would he help me? If I did what I was
planning, would he help? And could I trust him?

I raised my tail and opened my main eyes. I knew the place where Tobias
slept. I found him easily. He stood with his sharp talons wrapped around
a branch.

<Tobias?> I called.

<Huh? What? Ax? What's the matter?>

<Nothing is the matter. But ... I have a questions

<l hope it's a good one. I was sleeping.>

<Tobias. Are you my friend?>

91 <That's what you woke me up to ask?> He opened his wings and seemed
to be stretching. <Ax, we are the two strangest creatures on this
planet: a freaky, four-eyed, half-deer, half-scorpion, centaur-looking
alien, and a bird with the mind of a person. We've fought side by side.
We've been nearly killed several times. Of course I'm your friend.>

It surprised me that he would answer so quickly. As if there was never
any doubt what the answer would be. <That's good,> I said. <Will you
keep a secret? Even from Prince Jake? Even from Rachel?>

Tobias was silent for a while. <ls it something that would hurt my
friends?>

<No.>

<Then I'd keep a secret,> Tobias said. <l swear.>

<What do you swear by, Tobias? I have to be sure. What promise would you
never break?>

<Ax, you know I was there when your brother was killed.>

<Yes. I know. You were the last one to leave him.>

<Yeah. I don't know why,> Tobias said. <But something about him ... I
can't explain it, but I was drawn to him. I wanted to listen to him. I
wanted to hear everything he said. It was like . . .

92 like he was a magnet or something. Like I couldn't pull away. Until
he ordered me to leave. I can't explain it.>

<You don't need to explain,> I said softly. Even here, among aliens,
Elfangor was the hero.

<You asked what I'd swear by. I'll swear by him. By Prince Elfangor.>

And so, I told Tobias of my plan.

93 "E.T. phone home." When I found that sentence in Cassie's book of
human quotes, it surprised me. To be honest, it almost scared me. It was
as if it were written just for me. I thought maybe, somehow, my human
friends had discovered my plan and written it there. - From the Earth
Diary of Aximili-Esgarrouth-lsthill

The ,

sun was just coming up over planet Earth.

I performed the morning ritual, as I always did. But I was especially
impatient this morning. I knew Tobias was hunting a morning meal and
would be back as soon as he had finished eating some unfortunate mouse
or shrew.

<Freedom is my only cause. Duty to the people, my only guide. Obedience
to my prince, my only glory .>

When Tobias returned from the hunt, we would go. He would lead me to the
observatory,

94 to the great radio telescope. And, with luck, I would be able to call
my home.

<l, Aximili-Esgarrouth-lsthill, Andalite war rior, offer my life.>

With my stalk eyes I saw a hawk swoop low overhead. Tobias rested on a
branch. He focused his fierce hawk's eyes on me. <Are you done?>

<Yes. The ritual is completes

<Great. Because it is a beautiful day for flying. Thermals like you
wouldn't believe. And a sweet little ground breeze for easy takeoff.>

<Tobias, you understand that you don't have to do this,> I said. <There
may be danger.>

<Yeah, yeah. Come on, Ax. Let's go, already.>

I often go flying with Tobias. The bird morph I have is called a
northern harrier. It is a type of hawk, about the same size as Tobias's
red-tail. Tobias's feathers are mostly brown and light tan, while the
harrier's are mostly gray and white.

I controlled my excitement and worry, and focused on making the change.

The harrier morph is always strange. For one thing, there is a great
difference in size between an Andalite and a bird, even a large bird.

The first sensation was one of falling, as I shrank rapidly.

My stalk eyes went blind and wings grew out of my front legs, which is
very awkward. It causes

95 me to fall forward onto the ground, since I cannot stand on my hind
legs alone.

Besides, my hind legs were busy shriveling down into the tiny yellow,
scaly bird legs. And my tail was shrinking and splitting into dozens of
long tail feathers.

Harriers also have mouths, like humans. Only these mouths are useless
for speech, and have very little ability to taste. On the other hand,
they are wonderful natural weapons. They are razor- sharp, and curved
down into a ripping, tearing hook.

And the talons are excellent. I had long ad mired Tobias's use of his
talons. He can swoop fast and low, just a few feet above the ground, and
snatch up a mouse or small rabbit with those talons.

As I watched, the blue and tan fur of my own body was replaced by
silvery gray feathers. The fur melted away to show the underlying flesh,
and then the flesh became patterned with the millions of individual ribs
of feathers.

I was used to the mind of the harrier, so I had learned to control its
instincts. Its instincts were more forceful than those in the brains of
hu mans.

<l've been meaning to ask you, Ax,> Tobias said. <Not to diss you or
anything, but why is it

96 that Cassie is better at morphing than you are? I mean, you're an
Andalite. But you look just as creepy as Jake or Rachel when you do it.>

<Cassie has talent,> I said a little grumpily. <Morphing does not happen
to be my talent.>

<0h. You ready to fly?>

I checked. I opened my wings to their full three-and-a-half-foot spread.
I flicked my tail feathers. I focused my laserlike hawk's eyes on a far
distant tree and was able to see individual ants crawling up its trunk.

I listened to the forest with the harrier's superior hearing. I could
hear the insects beneath the pine needles. I could hear a squirrel
chewing open a nut. I could hear Tobias's heart beating.

I turned into the breeze and opened my wings. I flapped several times
and lifted my legs clear of the ground. The breeze caught me and I was off.

Even with the breeze, I had to flap hard to get as high as the treetops.
Tobias was already several dozen feet above me. But then, Tobias has had
a great deal of practice.

I swept just above the treetops, flapping and soaring. The sun was
beating down on the tree- tops and heat waves were rising. I caught the
up-draft and shot higher. I was two hundred feet up in just seconds.

I could see Cassie's farm now. And as I cir-

97 cled to use the updraft for more altitude, I could see all the
familiar landmarks: the homes of the others. The mall. The school.

<Stick with me,> Tobias said. <We'll follow the water's edge. The
observatory is north along the coast. About an hour's flying time.>

We reached the ocean. There were cliffs along the shore, and here the
real thermals rose up. A thermal is an updraft of heated air. Flying
into one is like flying into an elevator or drop shaft. The updraft
catches your wings and lifts you up and up and up.

It is a fantastic, giddy, wild feeling.

I wheeled and turned to stay within the thermal, following Tobias higher
and higher.

<We want to get above the gulls,> Tobias in structed. <Sometimes
seagulls get obnoxious. They'll swarm a hawk if they're in the wrong mood.>

It was exhilarating. We were thousands of feet above the ground. Down
below, humans lay on the beach wearing less clothing than usual.
Clothing is a strange human habit. They must wear it all the time.
Except at the beach, when they may wear less.

I don't understand this. The World Almanac had no explanation. Although
I did know that the United States imported 36.7 billion dollars' worth
of clothing.

98 <Keep an eye on that guy up there,> Tobias said.

<Where? What?> I asked, shaken out of my dreamy thoughts.

<A peregrine falcon. He's probably looking to pick off a few tasty
seagulls. But he may decide we look more tender. He's small but fast.
Mean, too.>

I decided to keep an eye on the falcon. Earth is a dangerous, wild
place. At least, if you're a bird.

I thought it must be terrible sometimes for Tobias. He lives in fear of
things that no human would need to fear. He has lost his position at the
top of the food chain of Earth. Hawks are predators, but they are also
prey. Yet he seemed to have accepted his fate. Was it possible he even
preferred being a hawk? Was that why he never asked me why I might know
about him being a nothlit

Or did he think I would refuse to answer, or worse yet, lie?

Fortunately, the falcon ignored us and we flew on, following the
coastline. Soon we had left the city behind. The beaches were gone, too.
The coastline grew more rugged, with waves that crashed in explosions of
foam against jagged bro ken rocks.

A single road wound along the coast below us.

99 There were cars on it, but few buildings. Then, in the distance, I
saw a large white structure.

Actually, several structures. There was a tall building with a dome top.
And arrayed around it in various positions were several large white
flattened bowls. It took me several seconds to figure out their purpose.

<That's the radio telescope?> I laughed. <You're still using dish arrays?>

<Won't they work for ... for whatever it is you're doing?> Tobias asked.

<0h, yes, they should work. If I can gain access to the computers, they
should work very well. It's just that they're so primitives

<l don't suppose you want to tell me what we're doing, huh?>

<Doing? We're flying,> I said.

<Very funny. Suddenly you have a sense of humor. Great.>

100 < I he large building with the dome?> I asked Tobias as I swept
above the observatory. <ls that where the computers would be?>

<Maybe. That's where they have the regular telescope, I think. But they
may have the control centers and computers there, too.>

I looked with my incredible hawk vision. There was a huge, rectangular
opening in the top of the dome. Inside I could see a vast circle of
glass. I laughed in recognition. <A telescope? An actual optical
telescope? What can they possibly believe that !! show them?>

<lt will show them a red-tail and a harrier flying around together,
looking like lost tourists,>

101 Tobias said. <According to Marco, this place isn't really operating
yet. So I don't know how many people will be around. But we need to find
a place to land, so you can morph into something useful, and do ...
whatever.>

<Tobias. Is that sarcasm? The way you ask me what I'm doing?>

<No, it's not sarcasm. I think it's called being snide.>

<Ah. Thanks for explaining. Why not fly straight into the dome?> I asked.

<Why not?> Tobias agreed. He led the way down.

We dived at high speed, rocketing down through the air. The brilliant
white dome rushed up at us. I shot through the open rectangle and banked
sharply right.

It was much darker inside than outside. Below me was the incredibly long
tube of the tele scope.

<l see doors down below. Those are probably offices,> Tobias said.
<They'll probably have computers in all the offices. If we can find one
that's empty.>

<Yes. That would be good. But I will need fin- gers.>

<For. . .>

<For whatever it is I'm doing,> I said.

102 We circled swiftly around the inside of the dome. As I flew, I kept
expecting to see humans below. But none ever appeared.

<This place is awfully empty,> Tobias said.

<Yes. It seems almost abandoned,> I agreed. <Tobias, I am going down. My
morph time is running short. Now is when I should go on alone.>

<Yeah. Gotcha. Good luck, Ax-man. Whatever you're doing, be careful.>

Tobias swept up and out of the dome. I was alone.

I drifted down toward the floor. Down and down, to land on a table.
There was a computer console workstation. But no humans in sight.

I saw an open door leading to what seemed to be a dark and empty office.
I flapped my wings twice and was inside.

Harrier eyes, like hawk eyes, are adapted for daylight. They are not
very good in the dark. But the harrier also has extremely good hearing.
I dimly saw a desk and came to rest on it. Then I concentrated on
listening.

I was alone in the room. I was certain of that. The only human sounds I
heard came through the walls.

Conversation. I could not make out the sounds, but they all seemed to be
concentrated in one area.

<Ax can - hear me?>

103 It was Tobias. His thought-speech was faint. <Just barely,> I
answered. <l'm outside. I'm loo - ing -- a window -- here. I see - ven
--- in a room. --

like some kind of meeting.>

<Yes, I can hear them,> I said. <Can you keep watch over them? Let me
know if they come this way?>

<Yeah. If any -- leaves the - ting, I'll know -- ,> Tobias said.

<l can barely hear you,> I said. <l'm going to morph.>

<Can't ---- very well, but go --- >

My plan was to morph to my normal Andalite form, then quickly move into
my human morph, just in case any humans saw me. But I was tired from the
flight. And morphing is very tiring. Es pecially quick morphing. And if
I had to make a quick escape it would mean passing through my Andalite
body to move back to harrier.

I would never be able to handle that many changes in a short time. I
decided to risk staying in Andalite form.

Besides ... if it worked and I reached my home, I wanted my parents to
know me when they saw me.

I began the demorphing. I could only hope that Tobias would be able to
give me enough warning.

104 Even though I loved being a bird, it was a good feeling when my tail
began to form again. An Andalite without a tail is just sad.

And no matter how powerful a hawk's eyes may be, they can still only
look in one direction at a time. As my stalk eyes reformed, I breathed a
sigh of relief. I could once again see in all di rections.

There was no computer in the office. I was very annoyed by that fact. It
meant I would have to go back into the observatory to use the corn puter
there.

My hooves slipped on the polished floor. I swung my eyes in every
direction, keeping a sharp lookout.

I pushed the chair away from the computer workstation. I began typing on
the antique key board. The screen asked me for a password.

<Password?> I laughed. I disabled the security system and confirmed that
Marco's father's new software was already in place.

Good. That would make it easier. As quickly as I could, I wrote in a
virus that would swiftly transform the software that controlled the
radio telescope.

Since humans had no awareness of Zero- space, they did not understand
that a powerful radio receiver could be tuned in such a way as to

105 create a Z-space vacuum and open a cross- dimensional gateway.

Once I had opened a small hole in Z-space, it was child's play to use
the same receivers to modulate and reflect the background radiation into
a coherent signal. The hard part would be using thought-speech to
control the signal. That would take absolute concentration.

<Still --- out here,> Tobias said.

I hoped the word I couldn't hear was "okay."

It took about ten Earth minutes to adjust the radio telescope. Ten
minutes, and I had moved human science ahead by a century or so.

Ten minutes to completely violate Andalite law.

I was done. The system was ready.

I pressed the "enter" key.

The thousands of lines of computer language disappeared from the
computer's screen.

The screen went blank.

I focused my mind as sharply as I could. I pictured the coherent signal.
I pictured that beam going through my own head.

<Andalite Home,> I thought. <Andalite Home.>

The screen flickered.

A face appeared. It was a hard, suspicious face. But it was an Andalite
face.

106 <Who is this?> the Andalite demanded. <This is a high security link.
You are not an authorized sender. State your name and locations

<My name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-lsthill. Bro ther of
Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. Son of Noorlin- Sirinial-Cooraf and
Forlay-Esgarrouth-Maheen.>

The Andalite stared at me. <Elfangor's brother?> he wondered. <What is
your location?>

<My location is the planet called Earth.>

107 <"C.arth!>

<Yes.>

<ls Prince Elfangor with you?>

For a moment my concentration wavered. I lost the signal. But then, I
forced myself to focus. This was too important to let my emotions mess
things up.

<Who are you?> I asked.

He looked surprised that I would ask. <l am Ithileran-Halas-Corain.
Assistant to the Head of Planetary Communications^

<Thank you. Ithileran, my brother's life . . . ended,> I said. <The Dome
ship was destroyed. I am the only survivor.>

I could see that this was a surprise. Ithileran's

108 eyes were downcast, and he lowered his stalk eyes as well in a
gesture of grief.

<Your brother was a great warrior. And I mourn also for the many other
warriors aboard the Dome ship.>

<Elfangor was the greatest,> I said. <My fam ily doesn't know he's dead.
I would like you to connect me with them. I could get interrupted any
minute.>

<l will do that. As soon as your family is found, I will connect you.
But first, give me your report, aristh Aximili.>

I tried to quickly organize my thoughts. <The Yeerks are here in force.
There is at least one mother ship. Also one Blade ship belonging to
Visser Three, and numerous Bug fighters. The humans are unaware of the
invasion. I do not know how many humans have been made into Controllers,
but there must be thousands, at least.>

I took a deep breath, and tried to hold onto my concentration. How much
should I tell Ithileran?

<Then Earth is lost to the Yeerks?>

<No!> I said sharply. <Earth is not lost. There is a small resistance. A
few humans. Young . . . arisths, like me. I fight alongside them.>

<But surely there is no hope of victory?>

<We have hurt the Yeerks,> I said. <We have

109 destroyed the Kandrona that was in place on this planet.>

That got Ithileran's attention. That definitely got his attention. <You
destroyed a Yeerk Kan drona? How did you manage that? You and a handful
of human youths?>

It was time to tell him the full truth, or decide to lie.

<The humans ... the humans have the power to morph,> I said. <Visser
Three believes they are a small band of escaped Andalites. Earth has
many strange animals, and with the morphing we use those species to
attack the Yeerks.>

<Humans who morph? And how did humans come by this technology?>

<lt was given to them. By Elfangor.>

Ithileran looked startled. His eyes darted to the side and then he
abruptly disappeared from the screen. In his place stood another Andalite.

I was stunned. I instantly recognized the face.

He was very old, and yet his power seemed to vibrate through the screen,
across all the light years that separated Earth from home.

Lirem-Arrepoth-Terrouss.

Head of the Council. Veteran of more battles than I could count. His
appearance on the screen would have made me lose concentration, but I
was too awed to dare.

110 <You know who I am?>

<Yes. Yes, um. Yes. Yes, I know you. I mean, I don't know you, but I
know who you are.>

He ignored my babbling. <l mourn the loss of your brother and all aboard
that ship. Now tell me: Did Elfangor break our laws and give technology
to the humans?>

<Um, well ... the humans were helpless. Our force had been destroyed.
There was nothing to stand between the humans and total domination by
the Yeerks. They needed some weapon.>

Lirem stared at me with a gaze that was known to make great princes
tremble.

<And how have you come to contact us? This is a Z-space transmissions

<l ... I ... I made some modifications to a primitive human device.>

<So, you also break the law. You also transfer technology to the humans.>

<The humans are not our enemies!> I said. I surprised myself by
practically yelling. <They won't have a chance. These few humans are all
that resist the Yeerks on this planet. Elfangor knew that. He did what
he thought was right!>

To my surprise, Lirem did not tell me to be silent. But his eyes grew
darker, his expression more serious than ever. Then he said, <Aristh Ax-
imili, once before an Andalite did what he thought was the right thing.
He transferred tech-

111 nology to a weak, backward species. He did it be cause he thought
they should be able to travel to the stars. Do you know the name of that
An- dalite?>

<Prince Seerow,> I said.

<Prince Seerow. Yes. He was my first prince. Did you know that? Many
centuries ago when I was an aristh like you.> Lirem looked hard at me.
<Do you know what happened because of Seerow's Kindnessl>

<Yes,> I said grimly. <Yes, I know. I have seen what happened because of
Seerow's Kindness.>

For a moment no one spoke.

Then Lirem said, <Young Aximili, your brother Elfangor is a hero. The
people need heroes in this endless war. I do not wish to tell the people
that in the end, Elfangor broke the laws. There can be no forgiveness
for a prince that breaks the laws. Unlike an aristh. So ... I ask you to
think again. Was it truly Elfangor who gave this technology to the humans?>

I couldn't believe what Lirem wanted me to say. He wanted me to lie. He
wanted me to clear Elfangor.

<!...! was wrong when I said Elfangor did this,> I said, too shocked to
argue. <lt was ... it was me. I gave the humans the morphing tech nology^

Lirem continued. <Cut off from your prince,

112 alone, not yet trained, not yet a true warrior, you broke the laws,
aristh Aximili. Is this true?>

<Yes,> I whispered bitterly.

<ln the name of the council, I forgive your er ror^ Lirem said. <What's
done is done. Per haps ... in some way I am too old to see, this may all
work out for the best.>

<Yes,> I said blankly. Why had I done this? Why had I communicated with
my home?

<Aristh Aximili-Esgarrouth-lsthill, you have done a brave thing, taking
on this guilt. I know the temptation to go beyond the law when help ing
a brave people fight the Yeerks. I was an advisor to the Hork-Bajir.
They were our allies, but they were not Andalites. They were not our
people.>

<But. . .> I knew I should shut up. But part of me was getting angry.
<But the Hork-Bajir ended up losing everything.>

Lirem's eyes were cold. <You are an Andalite. You are not a human. Obey
our laws. I am giving you an order: Resist the Yeerks. But give the hu
mans no information and no technology. Do you understand my order,
aristh Aximili?>

<Yes.>

<The fleet is engaged in many parts of the galaxy. We are doing well
against the Yeerks. But it will be some time before we can come to
Earth. Fight the Yeerks. If you are half the hero your brother was, you
will bring honor on your family.>

113 From what seemed like far away, I heard a faint voice in my head.
<Ax --- on the move. --- guy. Think he --- .>

But at that very moment, Lirem said, <Aximili, we have your father. He
would like to speak to you.>

114 Ax >

you hear? -- there's

<Aximili-kala,> my father said. It was his nickname for me.

I couldn't believe it was really him. <Yes, Fa ther. It's me. It's me,
Aximili. I'm on Earth. I don't know how long I can talk, not long.>

<ls your brother there?>

It came so quickly, the question I dreaded. I almost lost the contact. I
desperately wanted to see my father's face and listen to his words. But
at the same time, I did not want to tell him that his oldest son was gone.

And there was another thing I did not want to tell him.

<Elfangor,> my father said. <ls he . . .>

115 <Father. Elfangor is ... he was killed.>

My father looked like someone had punched him. He rocked back.

I looked away. I had tried so hard not to think about Elfangor being
gone. Somehow it wasn't real till this moment. Seeing my father's pain
made me feel my own.

<Did he die well?> my father asked. The question is part of the ritual
of death. It was the question he had to ask.

<He died in the service of his people, defend ing freedom,> I said. This
also was part of the ritual.

My father nodded. <And has his death been avenged?>

This was the part I had feared. <No, Father.>

My father looked up at me. <You are now the eldest son. The burden of
revenge is on you. Do you know his killer?>

<Yes.>

<And does his killer still live?>

<Yes.>

<And do you, Aximili, take up the burden of avenging your brother's death?>

<Yes.>

The ritual was complete. We had both said all the things we were
supposed to say.

<l am so relieved to see that you are still well,> my father said.

116 <Yes. I ... I wanted to see you,> I said. <l couldn't - >

The connection was broken. Instantly, totally. I was staring at a blank
screen.

"Sorry, but you were breaking my heart," a human voice sneered. "I had
to cut you off."

I spun around. A human! He was thirty feet away.

And he was holding a weapon, pointing it at me.

Only slowly did I realize that it was no human gun. The weapon in his
hand was a Dracon beam. Standard Yeerk issue.

"You and I have a lot to talk about, Andalite. Quite a lot."

I was frozen. I could not move. The human-Controller was too far away
for me to hit with my tail.

"Don't try it, Andalite," he sneered. "I'll fry you before you can even
twitch that tail of yours."

But then . . .

"Tseeeeeeeeeerrr!"

Tobias dived from the top of the dome at full speed, wings swept back,
talons raked forward. He aimed for the man's face.

The man threw up his arm. Talons raked the bare flesh of his forearm,
leaving red slashes behind. But the man had held on to the Dracon

117 beam. Tobias flew past. Shreds of the human's shirt hung from his
talons.

I leapt forward. Too late!

"Freeze! I don't want to kill either of you, An-dalites, but I will if I
have to!" the man snapped.

Tobias swooped away to perch on the huge telescope itself.

"I just want to talk," the human-Controller said.

<You're the one holding the Dracon beam,> I pointed out.

Then, he did something that amazed me. He knelt down and placed the
Dracon beam on the floor. He kicked it aside. The weapon went skittering
across the polished floor.

"Now I'm at your mercy, Andalite," he said. "You can use that tail of
yours. Or you can listen to what I have to say."

With my stalk eyes I glanced up and saw To bias.

<lt's up to you, Ax,> Tobias said. <This is your party.>

<Speak, then,> I said to the human-Controller.

"My name is Gary Kozlar," he said.

<Don't waste my time,> I snapped, trying to sound strong and unafraid.
<That's a human name. That's the name of your host body. But I know what
you really are.>

He nodded. "All right. My name is Eslin

118 three-five-nine. And you are Aximili, a young An-dalite
warrior-cadet. Brother of Beast Elfangor. You see, I heard the last few
minutes of your touching conversation."

<Beast Elfangor? So that is the Yeerk name for my brother?>

"Your brother is dead," Eslin snapped. "And so is the one creature in
all the galaxy that I cared about. Her name was Derane three-four-four.
And do you know what they have in common, your brother and my Derane?"

<No. What does my brother have in common with a Yeerk?>

Eslin's human face twisted into an expression of rage. "They were both
killed by the same being."

<Visser Three?>

"As I said, you and I have a lot in common, Andalite." He struggled to
gain control over his human face, but his jaw was twitching as he
explained. "You Andalite bandits did a lot of damage by destroying the
Kandrona. There is widespread starvation. The most important Yeerks,
those in vital positions, or those whom the Visser happens to favor, are
being shuttled back and forth to the mother ship every three days. They
get a minimal dose of Kandrona rays. Enough to keep them alive."

119 <Do you expect me to feel badly?> I asked.

"No, I expect the usual Andalite self-righteousness and hypocrisy from
you," Eslin spat. "Andalites. The meddlers of the galaxy."

<Do not anger me, Yeerk. I said I would listen. I did not say I would
let you spew Yeerk

Eslin made a grim smile. "I knew you'd come. As soon as I saw the new
software, I said to my self, 'Aha, not the usual clumsy human effort,
this.' An Andalite corrected this software. An An dalite who wanted to
use the radio telescope as a Z-space transmitter. I've been waiting for
you. I knew you'd come."

<And here I am,> I said. I felt like a fool. Of course the Yeerks would
have one of their own people in a position at the observatory. It was ob
vious. I had been an idiot. An idiot!

"My Derane ... we came from the same pool. We went through training
together. She and I ... we had been together for a long time. We were
very close. She understood me. But I had this important post at the
observatory, while Der ane was given a minor post. When you Andalite
bandits destroyed the ground-based Kandrona, Visser Three moved quickly.
He said everyone would survive. He said he had found a way. But he lied.
Too many Yeerks, not enough Kandrona

120 rays. It was simple division. So he shuttled so- called important
Controllers up to the mother ship. And the rest. . .

Eslin seemed to notice the bloody gashes on his arm for the first time.
He touched them gin gerly. "You Andalites must love this planet. So many
nasty species for you to morph."

<Was your Derane one of the ones killed?>

"She was 'expendable,'" Eslin said. Then he smiled. "I've had some small
revenge already. The Visser's favorites are shuttled up to the mother
ship every three days to feed. I sabotaged one of the shuttles. That
threw off the feeding schedule. Now some of the Visser's friends are
starving and dying. Like my Derane died."

<That's why we're starting to see Controllers losing it,> Tobias said
privately to me. <That's why it took so long. Visser Three had it under
control till this guy messed with his plan.>

<Are you finished, Eslin?> I asked him. <l've heard your story. Is there
a point to it?>

"Ah. You want the point of the story. Yes, of course. The point. The
point is this: Visser Three inhabits an Andalite body. And sometimes he
feeds like an Andalite."

<What's that mean?> Tobias asked me.

"He feeds like an Andalite, almost alone. He has guards of course, but
they stay back. He is

121 vulnerable. Vulnerable. And I know the place where he feeds."

<Why are you telling me this, Yeerk?>

"Why?" He bared his human teeth in a grimace of rage. "Because I want
him dead. I want Visser Three dead! He killed my Derane. He killed the
only one in the galaxy I have ever had feelings for. He did it. And I
want him to pay with his life, the foul, half-Andalite scum. I want him
DEAD!"

He calmed himself down, at least a little. He pulled a small piece of
paper from his pocket. He placed it on the desk. "Time and place," he
said. "You have a day to prepare."

<This could be a trap.>

Eslin sneered. "I could have killed you here. You have your duty,
Andalite. The burden of revenge. Your brother's killer. Your greatest
enemy. You Andalites are great ones for duty. So do your duty, Andalite."

122

It is very difficult to be in human morph and remem- \ ber that you are
not one of them. That their pain is not your pain. It is hard to remain
apart. Sometimes very hard. \ - From the Earth Diary of
Axlmili-Esgarrouth-Isthlll 1

I hat same evening, Prince Jake called a meeting in Cassie's barn.

My first thought was that Tobias had told the others about my trip to
the observatory. Of course, Tobias still did not know that I had
communicated with my home. But he did know all about Eslin's plan to
kill Visser Three.

Cassie's barn is also called the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. She and
her father use it to rescue wild animals who are injured or sick. There
are always dozens of animals in cages: skunks, foxes, raccoons, birds of
all types. Many are ban daged.

123 It's strange, the relationship humans have to the other animals on
Earth. Some animals they seem to have an enormous amount of emotion for.
Others they hate. I think it has to do with the thing called "cuteness."
But I've never under stood the concept.

And now, I was sure, I never would.

I was not foolish enough to believe that I could take on Visser Three
and survive. Maybe if I planned well, and was lucky, I might get him.
But I would never live to brag about it.

Probably it was just as well. I had no future.

Lirem had "forgiven" me for breaking the law. But I could never be a
warrior now, let alone a prince. I would never be another Elfangor. He
would go down in history as a great hero. I would .be remembered as the
young, stupid little brother who gave the humans the ability to morph.

I had to morph into a human to go to the barn. There was always the
chance that Cassie's father or mother might walk in.

But I felt bad assuming the human body. As the human skin replaced my
own fur, and human eyes took over for my Andalite eyes, I kept
remembering Lirem talking about how he had been an advisor to the
Hork-Bajir.

The Hork-Bajir had lost. The Yeerks had enslaved them. But Lirem had
been true to the laws and the customs.

124 What if he hadn't? What if he had given the Hork-Bajir advanced
technologies? What if he had taught the Hork-Bajir to build spaceships?
Would the Hork-Bajir still be a free people today?

It wasn't for me to decide. I was just an aristh. I would never be
anything more. At least if I destroyed Visser Three, people would say,
<He was a fool, but in the end he died well.>

Somehow that was not a great comfort.

I found the others already waiting inside the barn. Prince Jake was
sitting on a bale of hay. Marco leaned against a stall, standing with
arms crossed. Cassie, as usual, kept busy, feeding an injured baby goose
with an eyedropper. Rachel paced back and forth, her cool eyes narrowing
as she noticed me.

And Tobias . . . Tobias perched in the rafters overhead. I met his
intense, intimidating hawk's gaze. And I saw that from his talons there
hung a strip of bloody cloth. I knew where it had come from. And now I
knew the reason for this meet ing.

"Hi, Ax," Prince Jake said. "How's it going?"

"I'm fine," I answered.

"I figured we should all get together," Prince Jake said wearily. He
seemed to be averting his eyes from me. "We need to think about what
this thing with the Controllers means. We saw the guy at the mall. Then
there was Mr. Pardue. And in

125 the paper this morning there was a story about some guy, some
business guy, who's in a meeting and freaks out. The paper made it seem
like he just went nuts. I'm pretty sure he was another Controller losing
it."

He looked at me. I said nothing.

"See, it's like this, Ax," Marco said suddenly. "We're tired of you
giving us a runaround. Tobias shows up and he's dragging around some
bloody shirt. I ask him what it is, and he won't tell me. Why won't
Tobias tell me? Simple. He must have promised someone he wouldn't. And
who would that someone be?"

There was no point denying it. "I made Tobias promise. Puh-romise. It is
my fault."

"So now you're not just keeping secrets from us, you're getting us to
keep secrets from ourselves!" Rachel yelled. "You need to get some thing
straight, Ax. We're not your little action figures here. We're not toy
soldiers. This is our planet. And this is our fight. You don't control
us, just because you're some mighty Andalite ."

"I am not trying to control anyone," I said.

"Yeah, right!" Rachel snapped. "The informa tion all goes one way. We
tell you everything, you tell us squat. Oh, you sound like you're being
straight sometimes, but you never tell us any thing useful."

"You said you knew the Yeerks would proba-

126 bly destroy any Controller that went bad on them," Marco pressed.
"How did you know that? Has all this happened before, on some other
planet?"

Rachel took over. "We show you our world. We take you in. You see our
families, you read our books, you even go to our school. And then you
keep secrets from us."

I felt battered by their words. They were all true. But I had my orders.
I had the laws of my people.

"We're inferior, aren't we?" Marco said. "That's it, right? We're not
good enough. Back ward little humans. We don't deserve to be treated
like equals."

"That's not it," I said.

"Sure it is!" Marco yelled. "Sure it is! We're just some bunch of
cavemen, aren't we? That's what we look like to you."

Maybe I would have done better if I had been in my own body. My human
body was awash in adrenalin. I was frustrated and afraid and guilty. "I
can't answer your questions!" I yelled. "I can't!"

"You mean, you won't\" Marco yelled. "Rachel's right. We're just pawns
in the big game. It's Andalites versus Yeerks in the big game and we're
what? The towel boys?"

"Look . . . look ... I have to follow the rules."

127 "Do you?" Cassie asked. It was the first time she had spoken. Her
voice was soft and reason able. "Did Elfangor follow the rules when he
gave us the power to morph?"

"I'm not Elfangor!" I yelled. "Can't you see that? I'm not some big
hero. I'm just a young An-dalite, all right? You want the truth? Here's
some truth for you: I'm not a warrior. I'm an aristh. A ... a trainee. A
cadet. A nobody."

"Yeah, yeah, boo-hoo," Marco sneered. "I'm not impressed. We don't want
your sad story, we want the truth. What were you and Tobias doing? Why
did you swear him to secrecy? What's going on?"

"I can't tell you," I said softly. "There's a law against giving aliens
... I mean, any non-Andalite ... our technology. And part of that law is
we can't explain why. Can't. Tun. Can't."

"I am sick of this from - " Rachel started to raise her voice to me
again, but Prince Jake stood up and took her arm. I saw him look at
Cassie. Cassie nodded.

"I can almost understand the part about not giving us advanced
technology," Prince Jake said. "But why all the other secrets? Why can't
you tell us other things, like how you knew what the Yeerks would do?
Okay, so you don't want to give us megaweapons or whatever. Fair enough.

128 But to refuse even to tell us how we fit into this whole
Yeerk-Andalite war? I mean, what's that about?"

"It's about keeping control of us," Marco said.

"It's about power," Rachel agreed.

Cassie was looking at me strangely. "No," she said. "That's not it. It's
not about control. It's about guilt. Shame. That's it, isn't it? That's
what you said the other night. You said every species carries some guilt."

"Guilt? Shame?" Marco asked, looking at Cassie like she was foolish.

But Cassie had found the truth.

"What did you guys do to be ashamed of?" Prince Jake asked me.

"Once we were kind when we should not have been kind," I answered.

"And that's all you're going to tell us?" Prince Jake asked.

I nodded, the way humans do.

"I can't accept that, Ax," Prince Jake said sadly. "If you're with us,
you have to be honest with us. Otherwise ... I guess you'll have to be
on your own. I hate to do that. But you can't be one of us and then lie
to us."

"I understand," I said. "You have been . . ." Once again, I was feeling
that strange choking in my throat. "You've been very wonderful to me. I

129 will always be grateful. Wonderful. Grateful. Ful. The truth is ...
the truth is we would not have been together much longer anyway."

I looked up at Tobias. Only he knew what I meant.

Slowly, feeling as if my clumsy human legs were made of a heavy Earth
metal called lead, I turned and walked away from my human friends.

130

"You can't always get what you want. But If you try sometimes, you just
might find, you get what you need." A famous human named Rolling Stones
said that. I thought it was very wise, for a human.

- From the Earth Diary of Axfmili-Esgarrouth-lsthill /

^____ : ____________________________ */

I he morning ritual is for normal times. The next morning was not a
normal time.

This was the day I would die.

<l am the servant of the people,> I said, and bowed my head low.

The people! The people were billions of miles away.

<l am the servant of my prince,> I said, and raised my stalk eyes to the
sky.

My prince? Elfangor had been my prince. He was dead. Now a human, Jake,
was my prince, and he had discharged me. I wasn't even telling him what
I was doing.

131 The ritual was a lie.

<l am the servant of honor,> I said, and raised my face to look at the
rising sun.

Honor. To die avenging my brother. I felt my insides quiver. It was
fear. I know fear. I've felt it often enough in battle. But I'd never
gone into a fight I knew\ would lose.

This wasn't honor. It was running into the hands of death.

<My life is not my own, when the people have need of it.>

Couldn't I ask the others for help? Couldn't I go to Prince Jake and
tell him?

No. Not without telling them that I had called my home world. Not
without agreeing to tell them everything.

It was time for the last words of the ritual.

<My life ... is given for the people, for my prince, and for my honor.>

I drew up my tail blade and pressed it against my throat in the symbol
of self-sacrifice. I was breathing hard, as if I'd just been running. My
hearts were beating fast.

<That's different,> Tobias's voice said. <That's not the ritual you were
doing the other day. You didn't step into the water this time.>

<Yes. Different,> I muttered. I was angry that Tobias was there.

<You're going to do this, aren't you?>

132 I didn't answer. The truth was, I couldn't stand to talk about it. I
was afraid. Sickly afraid. If I could achieve surprise, maybe I could
kill the Visser. But he had the body of an Andalite adult. A full-grown
male. The Visser was also more experienced than I was. And he would have
guards. There would be Hork-Bajir nearby.

<Kind of cold-blooded, isn't it?> Tobias asked. <l mean, it's one thing
in a battle. But just setting out to assassinate someone - >

<Assassinate?!> I yelled. <He killed my brother! He has humans infested
by the handful. He will destroy you all if he can. He will enslave your
entire race.>

<l wasn't criticizing. I'm a predator myself. But you could use some
help. Tell me where it's happening, Ax. Tell me where you're going to
find him. The others will help. You know they will.>

<l can't. I can't ask for help. Jake is my prince now ... or was ... he
might forbid me.>

<Wait a minute. You mean Jake could just tell you no, and you wouldn't
do it? What if he or dered you to answer all our questions? Then what?>

<Everyone must have someone over him. That is Andalite custom. Each
warrior has a prince. Each prince a war-prince. Each war-prince has a
great leader. And each great leader must be elected by the people as a
whole. And everyone,

133 no matter how great or small, obeys the law. He could not order me
to break our laws.>

<And Jake is your prince. I guess he's mine, too, in a way. You know, he
doesn't think of him self that way.>

<No he doesn't. I realize this.>

<Don't you have a duty to tell your prince what you're doing?>

<Yes. So I guess I'm not very good at being a true warrior,> I said
bitterly. <l'm not much good at anything.>

<l don't think that's true,> Tobias said.

<Tobias? I have to do this. You promised to keep my secret. Will you
break your promise?>

Tobias said nothing for a while. <l won't tell anyone,> he said at last.

<And you won't follow me?>

<l won't follow you,> Tobias said.

<After ... I mean, if I don't return. Just in case. Tell the others
that. . . that I'm sorry I could never tell them everything. There is a
rea sons

<Yeah, no doubt,> Tobias said bitterly. <Well, good luck, Ax-man.>

I ran then. I ran and ran and ran.

It was miles to the secret place-where I would find Visser Three. I
wanted to run the whole way, to run away from my own fear by heading
straight toward it.

it

134 It's what Elfangor would have done. Elfangor, the great hero.

Elfangor would live on in everyone's memory as the perfect warrior. The
shining prince. If I was lucky, someday people would say, <Ah, yes,
Aximili broke the law, but he finished off the Abominations

I would get points for that. People would say I had done well in the
end. Others would say, <What other choice did he have? He was dishon
ored. It wasn't courage that sent him against Visser Three, it was
merely despair.>

And still others would say, <He was just a young fool trying to live up
to his great brother's legacy, poor thing .>

I ran and ran till my chest ached from breathing the heavy air of Earth.
I ran through dried leaves and rustling pine needles. I jumped fallen,
rotting logs, and skirted patches of bram bles. I ran past trees that
did not speak, like the trees of my own world.

Each time I pictured being face-to-face with Visser Three, I went even
faster, trying to outrun the fear.

I was far from any human homes now. Far from human roads. Deep within
the forest. Old forest full of shadows and gloom.

But at last I saw the sun shining on green

135 grass, just ahead. A meadow. Right where Eslin's note had said it
would be.

I stopped running and gasped for breath. I leaned against a tree and
tried to recover my wind. My legs were shaking from a mixture of
exhaustion and fear.

The meadow was beautiful. Green grass and tiny flowers in yellow and
purple. I would have liked to feed there myself.

I crept toward the meadow's edge, always keeping within the shadow of
the trees. I saw nothing unusual. No Bug fighters. No Hork-Bajir. No
Visser Three.

Just the wildlife of Earth: two deer grazing. Squirrels racing up and
down the trunks of trees. A skunk waddling boldly past.

It would be an hour before the time the Yeerk Eslin had given me. I had
an hour to plan and prepare, now that I saw the ground we were on.

I looked at the meadow. A stream, perhaps three feet across, cut the
meadow in half. The grass grew tall by the stream bed.

I tried to guess where the Visser would run. Would he go to the left or
the right? I would only get one chance, so I had to guess right.

I imagined where I would go, if it were me. Visser Three was in an
Andalite body. Maybe he would move like an Andalite.

136 I stepped out into the blazing sunlight and walked to a place I
thought would do. It was beside the small stream. A place where the
grass was a bit shorter, and where it would be easy for Visser Three to
step into the stream. ,

Then, I saw them: the hoofprints. Andalite hoof prints. -

Visser Three. Yes, he had been there, perhaps a few days earlier. Eslin
was right. This was the place.

I had to wait, concealed. Ready to attack at the right time. I could
never hide in my Andalite body. But there were other options.

The rattlesnake. That would be the morph to use. What better way to
strike suddenly than with the body of a snake?

I focused my mind on the snake. I concentrated on the change. I felt it
begin almost imme diately.

It was unlike any morph I had done before. Usually my legs would become
some other type of leg. My arms would become some other type of arm,
even if they were only fins.

But this time there were no arms, no legs. Nothing of my own body would
find an echo in this new shape, except for my eyes and tail.

My legs simply melted away. Withered. Disap peared. I fell to the
ground, a legless stump.

137 My arms shriveled and evaporated.

I heard the sounds of grinding inside my body, as all my bones melted
together into my spine.

I was shrinking, but since I was already lying on the grass, it didn't
seem as extreme as it sometimes did. The stalks of grass grew higher
around my head, and the purple flowers grew larger, but there wasn't the
usual feeling of falling as I shrank.

What I did feel was a terrible sense of utter weakness. I had no arms! I
had no legs!

But my tail ... ah, that I kept, although in a very different form. The
blade of my tail suddenly broke up into a sort of chain. There were
dozens of raspy blisters, all connected. The rattler's tail.

My fur disappeared very swiftly, and over my bare skin scales grew. Like
tiny, interlocked armor- plates that formed a pattern in brown and black
and tan.

I grew a mouth. A huge mouth for the size of my body. I was a tube, and
the open end was my mouth. It was a shocking body. A bizarre body.
Stranger even than morphing an ant or a fish. I was a creature with no
separate parts.

My Andalite stalk eyes went dark. A large, amazingly long, fast-moving,
forked tongue grew in my mouth. But it wasn't like a human tongue.

it

138 This tongue's sense of taste was beyond anything a human tongue
could ever achieve. This tongue tasted the very air.

And then, I felt the feature I had waited for. Huge, long, curved fangs.
Fangs that were each a tiny, hollow needle. Above them poison glands
grew and filled with toxin.

I felt the snake's mind emerge beneath my own awareness.

It was not a hot, driven mind like some animals. It did not overwhelm me
with fear and hunger. It was a slow, calm, deliberate mind. The mind of
a predator. A hunter. A calm, deliberate killer.

And the senses!

The lidless eyes saw strange colors, but they gave me a good range of
vision.

The tongue, which shot out from a slit on the bottom of my mouth,
taste-smelled the air. It brought me an incredible array of sensations:
the scent of grass and earth, the scent of insects, and the scent of
living, warm-blooded creatures.

Just below and behind my snake nostrils were two pits that sensed heat,
especially the levels of heat put off by prey.

Yes, this was a good morph to use. The Visser would not expect me. The
Visser's Andalite body was fast, but it was not faster than the snake. I
knew that from my own experience.

139 I began to move, slithering through the grass. I moved with sinuous
grace, easily, silently. I fol lowed my tongue. It shot out and back,
again and again, sensing, smelling, tasting.

I felt the rattler's mind with my own. It was unafraid. It had no honor.
It had no friends to worry about, no family to disappoint, no laws to
break. It-felt no loneliness. The snake had always been alone.

I settled into the grass and waited, patient, motionless, counting off
the minutes in my head.

And then I felt the vibration of the earth be neath me. The vibration
that was the sound of a Bug fighter landing. Then another. Just two. Not
far away.

It was time.

The Yeerks were coming. Visser Three was coming.

And as I drowned my fear in the calm lake of the snake's predator brain,
I prepared to kill.

And to die.

140

L smelled him long before I saw him. I smelled Andalite flesh. The Yeerk
that was the real Visser Three - the Yeerk inside the Andalite body - I
could not smell.

<Spread out,> Visser Three ordered. His thought-speech was loud, open,
to reach his sol diers. <You! Watch the tree line. You two to the far
side of the meadow. Shoot anything that moves.>

His voice was in my head. I felt churning in a stomach I no longer
really had. I tried to squash my own fear beneath the snake's calm, but
it rose suddenly.

I went over the plan: strike, escape, demorpti, go back for the kill.

141 I would have to demorph before the Visser's guards could come to his
side. And I would have to hope that the snake venom would slow him down.

Then . . . galloping!

Four sharp hooves beating across the meadow. My tongue flicked and
smelled him on the wind.

Yes. He was coming closer.

Yes, he would come to the stream.

A shadow. He was there! Overhead. He blot ted out the sun.

My snake tongue smell-tasted him. My lid- less, always-open eyes saw his
belly overhead like a curved roof. I felt his warmth.

He stuck one hoof into the cool water to drink.

No time to think. He could move at any mo ment.

T-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S!

A sound! What was it?

Me! It was corn ing from me! My tail!

A rattlesnake's tail! It had sounded its grim warning without conscious
thought.

I saw the Visser's head lowered. I saw his two main eyes focus. I could
read the dawning fear in his eyes.

SSSSSS-ZAAPP!

I struck! My coiled muscles fired all at once.

142 My head rocketed through the air. My mouth opened wide. My fangs
came down.

STRIKE!

Fangs sank deep into Andalite flesh. I could feel the venom pumping! I
could feel the poison shooting into Visser Three's leg.

He jerked.

I released.

He tried to back away. He was very fast. But I was so much faster,

STRIKE!

Pump the venom into him. Poison the monster. Poison the Abomination.
Poison Elfangor's murderer.

I drew back. I could taste my own venom drip- pi ng from my fangs.

His tail swept over his head, lancing down at me.

But I was already gone. The blade sliced deep into the ground. I felt
the wind of it as I slithered swiftly away.

<DEMORPH!> I ordered myself.

Still the Visser had not called his guards. He would be wondering. He
wouldn't know how dan gerous the snake was. He wouldn't realize at first
that it was not a true snake. Then slowly he would begin to suspect.

I was racing at breakneck speed through the

143 grass. Behind me my rope body twisted and coiled and released and
slithered. But my head stayed level and straight, flying at ground level
through the grass.

I was twenty yards away when my snake body grew slow and sluggish from
the changes. Tiny legs appeared, just stubs at first. Tiny stalk eyes
grew from the broad top of my diamond-shaped head.

<There is a snake!> Visser Three roared. <Find it! Kill it!>

I struggled on, heading for the edge of the for est.

Then . . . body warmth! A warm-blooded animal. Just ahead of me.

My tongue flicked and smelled an aroma I knew. Hork-Bajir!

Hork-Bajir, the shock troops of the Yeerk em pire. A peaceful, decent
race that happened, as Marco often said, to be built like lawn mowers.
Bladed arms. Bladed legs. Tearing, clawed feet. A slow but deadly tail.
They were all Controllers. All slaves of the Yeerks in their heads.

I could move no further. I was no longer a snake. Not yet an Andalite.
And the Hork-Bajir was just a few feet away.

Too close!

<So,> I thought,<this is how it all ends.>

144 My Andalite stalk eyes had emerged. I was rising slowly from the
grass on my spindly Andalite legs. My tail was forming again.

I saw the Hork-Bajir. And I saw that he saw me.

There was nothing I could do. Nothing I could do but die.

The Hork-Bajir swung his bladed right arm like a scythe. It would hit me
in the neck.

WHUMPH! The Hork-Bajir staggered. His blade arm sliced the air above me.

"HhhhhuuuurrrrrOOOOWWWWRRR!" A roar! But not the roar of a Hork-Bajir.

The Hork-Bajir went flying! Seven feet of deadly, dangerous Hork-Bajir
warrior just cartwheeled through the air.

And where he had been now stood Rachel.

Of course, not the human Rachel with long blond hair and cool blue eyes.
This was another Rachel. Rachel in the morph of a grizzly bear.

The bear was on its hind legs, standing even taller than the Hork-Bajir
had stood. With claws that almost rivaled the Hork-Bajir's blades. And
muscles powerful enough to simply throw a Hork- Bajir ten feet.

"HHHHuurrhhoooorrwww!" the bear growled wildly. <0h, man, I love doing
that!>

<Rachel?> I asked wonderingly.

145 <No,> she said, in that human tone that means sarcasm. <lt's Smokey
the Bear. Finish morphing, you Andalite idiot. Then let's go kick some
Yeerk butt.>

I was almost fully Andalite again. I swept the meadow quickly with my
stalk eyes. Visser Three was in the middle of the field. Two Hork-Bajir
were rushing to his side, bounding through the grass.

Across the meadow at the far end, a third Hork-Bajir looked around
wildly, with his Dracon beam at the ready. He looked in every direction
but up.

From the tree above him something that seemed almost liquid, something
orange and black, dropped, claws outstretched.

Prince Jake!

And in the sky overhead, a hawk wheeled in low circles above the field.

<Two Hork-Bajir guarding the Bug fighters,> Tobias announced. <0ne
Hork-Bajir in the ... Oh, never mind, Cassie and Marco just took him
down. Visser Three and two Hork-Bajir in the center of the meadow.>

<Come on,> Rachel said to me. <Let's go have a nice talk with Visser
Three.>

<He's my responsibility^ I said to Rachel. <l have an obligation of honor.>

146 <Uh-huh. He's all yours.>

Tobias swooped past, skimming just above the grass, rocketing toward
Visser Three.

<You told them, Tobias,> I accused him.

<Yeah, I sure did. I got the idea from you. You're the one who said you
had to obey your prince. Well, I guess Jake is my prince, too. He
ordered me to tell him.>

<How did you know where I was going?> I asked. <l never told you.>

<Puh-leeze. That Controller, Eslin Whatever? He wrote it down, Ax-man.
You forget: I have hawk's eyes. I can see a flea on a cat from a hun
dred feet away. You think I couldn't read that note?>

<You make me very angry, Tobias,> I said.

<Yeah, and you get on my nerves, too, Ax. But we still have a fight on
our hands. Let's go deal with Visser Three.>

We raced toward the Visser and his guards. Rachel, a huge, rolling brown
tidal wave, and me. Above us Tobias flew.

Just as we drew close, I saw Visser Three stagger.

The poison! The venom! It was working.

Visser Three buckled and fell to the ground.

The two Hork-Bajir quailed. They saw Rachel barreling through the tall
grass. They saw Prince Jake, a striped demon coming from the other

147

side. They saw Marco in gorilla morph and Cassie, an eager wolf, teeth
bared.

Tobias had reached the Visser. He soared past him and up, up, up into
the air, beating franti cally.

Worst of all, they saw an Andalite. The enemy they feared most.

<Your Visser is finished,> I called to them. <You can die with him, or
you can run.>

The Hork-Bajir Controllers made their decision quickly. Hork-Bajir can
be very fast, once they decide to run.

The Visser was down. Alone. Helpless, as we came to a stop in a circle
around him. He was as helpless as Elfangor had been at the end.

I looked up. Why was Tobias . . . ?

<No way!> Tobias cried.

He drew back his wings and dived at full speed. He plummeted toward the
earth at racing speed, killing speed! His talons came forward. It looked
as if he would hit the ground. Then . . .

<NO! NO! N0!> Tobias cried. He swooped up and away, back up into the sky.

<Tobias, what is it?> I heard Prince Jake yell in thought-speak.

<He bailed! He bailed! The Yeerk bailed out! He got to the water. I
can't see him. He got away!>

<What?> I cried. <What happened?>

148 <He's out! Visser Three! He's out. I saw him worming his way through
the grass.>

It took several seconds for my brain to comprehend. I couldn't make
sense of it. It was impossible to believe.

<He left his body?> I asked. <Visser Three left his host?>

<He crawled right out of the Andalite head and slithered into the
water,> Tobias confirmed. <There's a fast current. I can't see beneath
the surface of the water that well. I can't see him!>

I looked down at the creature I thought of as Visser Three. But of
course the real Visser was a gray slug, a Yeerk. This body was the body
of an Andalite.

The Visser was gone. Escaped.

The Andalite was breathing, but seemed unable to move. He looked up at
me with his main eyes.

I had faced Visser Three before. I had felt the evil force that flows
from him. That evil was gone now. This was only an Andalite. The Yeerk
was gone.

<Kill me,> the Andalite managed to gasp. <Kill me before he takes me
over again. Please. Please kill me.>

I felt my hearts stop. It was more than I could stand. After years of
being controlled by Visser Three, the mind of the Andalite host was still

149 alive. Still aware. <l may already have killed you, my friend,> I
said. <The snake . . .>

<No. You don't understand. Visser Three . . . he has backup forces
ready. They'll be here in minutes. Half a dozen Bug fighters. They'll
keep this body alive, your poison is too slow.>

<l . . . but you're an Andalite. I can't kill you,> I said desperately.
<l can't. . .>

<He'll take me again,> the Andalite said, begging. <The Yeerks will find
him and bring me to him again. Please. I can't live that way . . .
please. The things I've seen . . . you don't under stand. It's horrible.>

He tried to raise his own Andalite tail. He tried to bring the blade to
his throat. But the venom had weakened him. His tail fell limp.

<l understand^ he said at last, with sadness so deep it burned me to
hear. <Listen ... my name is ... what is my name? It's been so long. And
the poison . . . yes, that's it. My name is Alloran-Semitur-Corrass. I
was once a war-prince. Someday . . . someday, if you survive ... I have
a wife. I have two children . . . someday . . . tell them I still hope .
. . tell them I still have love for them . . .>

<Yes, War-Prince Alloran. I will tell them. Do you have any other orders
for me?>

He reached up with one weakened hand. I took his hand in mine. <Fight
them. They are

150 stronger than you think. They have . . . they have infiltrated . . .
they are on the home world . . . fight. . .>

His fingers were limp. He fell silent, uncon scious.

I set his hand down by his side. I knew that the next time I saw this
face, it would once more be the face of my enemy. The Abomination.
Visser Three.

<We should get out of here,> Prince Jake said.

<Come on, Ax,> Tobias said. <There will be another time.>

151 "Give me liberty or give me death." A human named Patrick Henry said
that. I wonder if the Yeerks knew before they came to conquer Earth that
humans said things like that. I wonder if the Yeerks knew what they were
getting into. - From the Earth Diary of Aximlli-Esgarrouth-lsthill

< We call it the law of Seerow's Kindness,> I said.

We were in the woods where I live. The woods of the planet called Earth.

Two days had passed since the terrible events in the meadow. I had
thought a great deal in those two days. I had thought about everything.
Then I had asked my human friends if they would join me.

"What's it mean?" Rachel asked.

She was standing with her arms crossed. I be lieve it was an expression
of skepticism.

152 <lt means that we are not allowed to transfer advanced technology to
any other race,> I explained. <lt is a very important law. One of our
most important laws.>

"You don't want any competition," Marco said. "You Andalites want to be
able to stay on top. I understand that. But humans are on your side.
We're the ones being taken over."

"Marco," Prince Jake said. "Chill. Let Ax tell his own story."

<Seerow was a great Andalite. A warrior. A scientist. He ... he was in
charge of the first An dalite expedition to the Yeerk home world.>

I saw my human friends stiffen. Tobias flitted to a lower branch,
drawing closer.

<Seerow felt sorry for the Yeerks. They were an intelligent species.
They used a primitive species called Gedds as hosts. But the Gedds were
nearly blind, clumsy, not very useful. The Yeerks had never even seen
the stars. Let alone been able to leave their own planet. Seerow felt
sorry for them. Seerow was a kind, decent Andalite . . .>

"Oh my God," Cassie whispered. "That's the big secret. That's the shame
the Andalites are hiding."

"What?" Rachel asked. "What's the big se cret?"

"Seerow gave the Yeerks advanced technology, didn't he?" Cassie asked.

153 I nodded. <Seerow thought the Yeerks should be able to travel to the
stars, as we did. At first, it seemed like the right thing to do. But
then ... a species called the Nahara. ... By the time we found out, it
was too late. The entire species was enslaved by the Yeerks. Then came
the Hork-Bajir. The Taxxons. And other planets . . . other races were
falling to the Yeerk empire. They spread like a disease! Millions . . .
billions of free people have been enslaved or destroyed by the Yeerks.
Because of Seerow. Because of us. Because of the Andalites.>

For a while no one spoke. I knew what to ex pect. These humans had first
seen Andalites as heroes. Then they had come to be suspicious. Now I had
just confirmed their suspicions. Now they would see that Andalites were
not the great saviors of the galaxy.

"Elfangor broke the law of Seerow's Kindness, though, right?" Marco
pointed out.

<Yes. But I will take the blame for him. Elfan gor was a great hero. His
name would be de stroyed. I'm a nobody. I have taken the blame. If I
help you, and you humans become a new race of conquerors, if you become
the new Yeerks some day, my people will talk about Aximili's Kindness.
And I'll be the one who goes down in history as the new example of a fool.>

I saw Rachel make a small smile and shake

154 her head. Marco rolled his eyes. He said, "Man, and I really was
getting into disliking you, Ax."

I was confused. I expected them to be furious. Instead they were each
smiling.

<Don't you understand? Your world is threat ened by the Yeerks because
of my people.>

Prince Jake nodded. "Yes, we understand, Ax. A long time ago someone
tried to be nice and it was a disaster. This Seerow person tried to be a
good guy. He hoped all the different people of the galaxy would get
along. That we'd all go to the stars together."

<Yes, and the result was terrible.>

"Ax, you don't stop hoping just because it doesn't always work out,"
Cassie said. "You get more careful. You get wiser, maybe. But you keep
hoping."

"Look, Ax," Prince Jake said, "we don't want you to give us any Andalite
technology. We don't want you to break your laws. We just want you to
trust us. Tell us the truth. Be one of us."

"You aren't alone, Ax," Cassie said softly. "Maybe we aren't your
people, but we are your friends."

"Your boy Seerow wasn't wrong," Marco said. "He just hooked up with the
wrong species. We aren't the Yeerks. We're Homo sapiens, jack. Hu mans.
Andalites want someone to cruise the stars with them? We're the ones.
You bring the

155 spaceships. We'll bring the Raisinets and cinna mon buns."

<You'll do more than that,> I said. <You learn very quickly. Someday you
may be greater than the Andalites.>

"No," Prince Jake said. "Because whatever we learn, you'll learn. We'll
do it together. Hu man and Andalite. Andalite and human."

<lt isn't possible,> I said. <We are two different species. From two
different worlds, a billion Earth miles apart.>

<Ax-man?> Tobias said. <Tell me: What does an Andalite want most? What
is it you guys are fighting for ?>

<For freedom, of course,> I said.

<And what do humans want most?> Tobias asked.

"Freedom," Prince Jake said.

"Freedom," Rachel said, nodding her head.

"Freedom," said Marco and Cassie together.

<Freedom,> Tobias said. <Different bodies, different species, maybe. But
who cares? We agree on what matters.>

For a few minutes, I said nothing. I guess I felt a little overwhelmed.
Then, I realized something that made me laugh. <See? It's happening
already,> I said.

"What?" Rachel asked.

<You humans are already teaching Andalites

156 something new,> I said. <You're right. We fight the same battle, for
the same goal.>

"The Andalites on your home world may not like that idea," Rachel said.

<No. They won't. They have their laws and customs. They think they know
what's right. If I ever go home, I'll have a lot to explain.>

<Maybe so,> Tobias said. <But I know one Andalite who would have been
proud of you.>

"Are you with us?" Prince Jake asked.

<Yes, Prince Jake,> I said.

"Don't call me'Prince.'"

<Yes, Prince Jake,> I said again.

"All right," Marco said, rubbing his hands together. "Now that's over
with. And now that we are finally all leveling and telling the truth ...
I think we have one very big question for Ax. One huge question that
will put our new friendship to the test. One gigantic question."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

<What?> I asked nervously.

"How, how, HOW do you eat without a mouth?" Marco demanded.

I laughed. <We eat as we run. Our hooves crush the grass, and the
nutrients are absorbed into our systems, We drink in the same way, by
putting a hoof into water.>

<Ahhh, so that's what the whole thing is with

157 the morning ritual, when you stick a hoof in the water,> Tobias said.

"Morning ritual? What morning ritual?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah, tell us," Cassie said.

<0kay,> I agreed. <l will tell you everything. Everything I know.>

I looked directly at Tobias as I said that. I met his fierce, intense
hawk's gaze. I wanted him to understand that I would answer his question
as well. The question I knew must be burning inside him.

But the question never came. And I heard in my mind an echo of Tobias's
words. <Different bodies, different species, maybe. But who cares? We
agree on what matters.>

Neither I, nor my shorm Tobias, is capable of smiling. But just the
same, there are times when we look at each other, and understand each
other, and smile.

158 U

< You'll do it because if you don't, I'll find a

way to tell Visser Three who set him up,> I told Eslin, the Yeerk traitor.

I was in the observatory. We were alone, just the two of us. Eslin
glared hatefully at me.

"Andalite scum. You couldn't even kill the Visser. What's the matter?
Did he scare you too badly?"

<Just boot up the software^ I said. <l have a transmission to make. This
one time, Eslin, and I will be gone from your miserable life. Do it>

It took several minutes for the Z-space transmission to be established.
And it took a few mo ments more before I was connected to the great
Lirem again.

159 <l won't be able to call again, most likely,> I said. <l have a
message I need sent. To the wife of Alloran-Semitur-Corrass, from her
husband.>

It was kind of nice to see old Lirem's eyes go wide all of a sudden.
See, he knew exactly who Alloran was. What he was.

<Her husband sends his love. He still hopes for the day when he will be
freed.>

<ls that all you have to say, aristh Aximili?>

<No ... I have this to say, too. You tried to save the Hork-Bajir, and
still live by all our laws. Still keeping all our secrets. But you failed.>

<Do not say what you are about to say, Axim- ili,> Lirem warned. <Do not
disobey the laws of our people.>

<l . . . Prince Lirem, these humans are my people now. And, sir, with
all due respect to the law and to you, I won't let the humans be
destroyed as the Hork-Bajir were destroyed. Not while I live.>

Lirem's eyes narrowed dangerously. <lt must run in your family,> he
growled. <You're just like your brother, Elfangor.>

I laughed. <Thank you, Prince. Thank you very much.>

160 Don't miss

TM

My termite body seemed to be moving on its own now. It was like I was a
passenger in a car that someone else was driving.

<ls everyone through?> I asked.

<Yes,> Rachel said.

She sounded distracted to me. Like she was listening to someone else and
didn't want me interrupting. But that was okay, because I didn't really
want to talk to her, either.

I quickly covered the ground to the building. I didn't see that it was
the building, you understand. I just knew. And the terrible thing is, I
never even paused to wonder how I knew.

<What are we . . .> Marco's voice. He didn't finish his thought. I
didn't care.

<Guys?> Rachel asked <Um . . .>

The opening was just ahead. I knew it was there. I knew that other
soldier termites would be guarding the entrance.

I felt no fear.

161 I clambered up from the dirt into the tunnel opening. Familiar
smells. Smells I knew. Home. Home. My place. Where I was from, and where
I belonged.

I smelled the other soldiers with my antennae. They touched me with
their antennae, as I did them. We were of the colony.

The colony.

I raced swiftly down the tunnel. It headed up ward at a sharp angle, but
the angle meant little to me. I weighed practically nothing. A worker
was ahead of me. It extruded a pellet of digested cellulose. Wood pulp.
I quickly gobbled it up.

Within the wood pulp food there were messages. Hormones passing through
the colony, containing information. Vague orders. Indistinct yet
powerful instructions.

I was now caught up in a rush of workers off to obey the voiceless voice
in their heads. Some were off to chew a new tunnel. Others were off to
the egg chamber to rotate the eggs.

And I had my orders, too.

I raced along tunnels lined with chewed and digested wood pulp. Tunnels
cut through the dried wood that supported the building.

I felt side tunnels open on one side, then the next. A tunnel above. Air
flowed faint - but fresh - actually creating a tiny breeze.

There was no light. None. But it didn't matter

162 because I was blind. I was blind, but I was not lost.

What am I doing? an alien voice asked.

I ignored it.

NO! the voice cried.

I had heard the voice before. But it came from far away and it spoke a
language I didn't understand.

NO! NO! NO! Let me go!

I felt a queasy, sickening feeling inside me.

But still I powered down the tunnel, turning here, turning there. Always
moving toward a goal. There was a powerful smell. It was growing
stronger and stronger.

I went to it. I had to go to it.

NO! Let me go! Let me go!

Down the black tunnels. Over and through the packed rush-hour streams of
workers. To the cen ter. To the core. To the heart.

Help me! Help me! the voice screamed.

The voice ... my voice.

The faint, failing voice of the human named Cassie.

Me.

Me!

Ahhhhhhhhh!

Suddenly, I was Cassie again. I knew my name. I knew who I was.

But it no longer mattered. The termite body

163 was out of my control. A stronger will than mine was guiding it.

The termite suddenly emerged into a vast, open space. A space that in
reality was no more than two or three inches across. And yet it felt
like an auditorium to me.

Suddenly I knew who had seized control of the termite brain.

I knew who had brushed my human mind aside.

She was vast. Huge beyond belief. At one end I sensed the termite head
and useless, waving termite arms. From that small head and body there
extended a monstrous, pulsating sack. As big as a blimp.

At the far end was a double row of sticky, slimy eggs, to be picked up
and carried away by worker termites.

The queen.

I was in the chamber of the termite queen. . . .

