longer there. "He was just. . . what is happen"Seerow is sleeping well now," he said. ing?"

  "Yes. For the last few days, since the ships

  "Nightmare," the small, brown creature said. stopped arriving with all that noise." She had taken my son's place. "You're having a A huge buildup had begun. The Yeerk forces, nightmare."

  the forces we had fought, would be doubled.

  "Seerow!" I screamed.

  "I fear for him, Aldrea."

  The young Andalite sneered at me. vive. We had accepted that. As well as anyone

  "Seerow! Dak! Come to me, come to me, let can accept the death of a loved one, or their own me . . . where are you?"

  death.

  But I could not accept it for Seerow, my son.

  "Seerow!"

  Our son. Could not. And yet I could see no way I woke. Cassie, the human, had run to plunge out.

  our face into cold water.

  I looked to the little cradle of twigs where he I looked around, through her eyes. The lights lay.

  had been darkened for sleep. The Andalite

  "What will become of you, my sweet little stood at rest, with a single stalk eye open, watchone?" ing. Jake, the leader of the humans, had awakHe sat up. Too young to speak, and yet he ened.

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  73

  "It's okay, Jake," Cassie said. "She just had a nightmare."

  Seerow. Dead after a life as a Yeerk host. Dak. Dead, I knew not how. All of them, all our brave soldiers, all gone.

  A nightmare. A dream of death from a person already dead.

  Three days had passed. Three days of having the strange, sad, secret Andalite-turned-HorkBajir in my head. Sleeping with her on the hard, cold deck. Awakened shaking, sweating, wanting to tear my head open with my bare hands as I felt the awesome grief of her nightmares. Eating with her, if you could call the concentrated nutrient pellets food. Going to the bathroom with her. A lot more togetherness than I'd have preferred. Bad enough figuring out how to pee in a toilet designed for Hork-Bajir. Worse doing it with an audience in your own head.

  74

  75

  We had gotten good at sharing control of

  "I don't see why we couldn't have gone Zspeech. I controlled everything else. I had gotten space the whole way," Marco whined. used to it. I still didn't like it.

  Ax and Aldrea both laughed. Then they realThe Arn had stayed at the helm, ignoring ized they were both laughing at the same thing us for the most part. I'd learned nothing more and they both stopped laughing.

  about him. Was this really some voyage of re"Just say it," Marco told them. "I am but a demption for him? Aldrea doubted it. And she poor Earth man, unable to understand the ways knew one hundred percent more about the Arn of the superior Andalite beings."

  than I knew. Jake was talking with Quafijinivon

  "Hork-Bajir," Aldrea corrected him. when we translated out of the blank white noth Ax began. ingness of Zero-space into what now seemed to A flash of green streaked by.

  be the warm, welcoming black star field.

  "Shredder fire!" Aldrea yelled, and suddenly I The Arn checked his sensors.

  was up and running toward the front of the ship.

  "Quafijinivon says we are now in Hork-Bajir She had taken control of my body! It was so sudspace. We may pass the Yeerk defenses unnoden, so effortless. ticed. Or not," Jake announced. "We should get Ax reached the "bridge" first. He leaned his ready. We don't know what we'll be walking into. torso forward and looked over Quafijinivon's I want everyone —"

  shoulder.

  Marco held up his hand like he was asking a

  Ax said. Then he clarified. question.

 
  "Yes, Marco."

  Harassing the Yeerk defenses.>

  "Do we have correct change for the tolls?"

  "Can we outrun him?" Jake demanded. Jake blinked. Then he grinned. He and Marco

  "They're between us and the Arn planet," have been best friends forever. Marco knows how Quafijinivon answered. "We're smaller. It's possito knock Jake down a peg when Jake starts takble we could outmaneuver them. But it would ing his fearless leader role too seriously. place us well within their firing range." Jake sat down on the floor across from

  Tseeeeeew!

  me/Aldrea.

  The Andalite fired again. A miss! But the 76

  77

  cold, hard data from the computer made it clear tor everything they have at us. We'll all be killed exactly how close it had come.

  and so will the Andalites."

  "Fire back!" Rachel burst out. "Knock out one

  "Here he comes," Toby said.

  of his engines or something. Enough to keep him I looked — and my stomach rolled over.

  busy until we can land. They can't follow us The Andalite fighter was on us. Seconds from down."

  firing.

  Quafijinivon's red mouth pursed thoughtfully. This time he wouldn't miss.

  "Young human, that pilot is an Andalite warrior. One of the best trained fighters in the galaxy. I cannot hope to win a battle with him." Ax and Aldrea both said roughly the same thing, which translated to human vernacular was,

  Tobias said. He was flapping a little nervously, being tossed around as the Arn swung the ship into an evasive maneuver.

  "So we let him shoot us down?" Rachel demanded. "There's one of him, eight of us. Or nine."

  The Andalite fighter was coming back around in a tight, swift arc. In a few seconds his weapons would come to bear on us.

  "Ax?" Jake asked.

  Ax pleaded.

  "No!" Aldrea interrupted. "If the Yeerks pick up a voice transmission, we're dead. They'll vec78

  79

  A jolt of electricity, my hair tingled, Rachel's hair was standing straight out from her head, a blond halo. The air crackled blue. Then Rachel's hair dropped back into place.

  The acceleration stopped instantly. I'd been straining forward and now, released, I tripped and fell like someone who's been tugging on a rope that snaps.

  Marco landed sprawled all over me. He put his finger to his lips. "Shhh, don't tell Jake. You know how jealous he is."

  Ax reported.

  "Slow, that's good, right?" I said. I put my Ax leaped. He dragged the willing Arn out hand to my lip and saw blood on my fingers. I of the way and grabbed the controls.

  didn't even remember hitting anything.

 
  "No, not good," Aldrea said. "He's decided burn!> Ax cried.

  we won't or can't shoot. He's coming in slow to

  WHAM!

  make sure of his shot."

  I flew back into Toby. We both crashed to the

 
  engine,> Ax said.

  Everyone who'd been standing was pinned

  The cabin went dark except for the glow from against the left side of the ship. An invisible the control panel. And then I realized my feet force pushed me, forced the air out of my lungs, were no longer glued to the floor.

  squeegeed my cheeks back against my ears.

  "Ax, can we outmaneuver him? Yes or no?" Tseeeeew! Tseeeeeew!

  Jake asked.

  The Andalite fighter fired.

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  Jake ignored his answer. "Aldrea?" gently, caressing the targeting crosshairs till they She knew what he was asking. I felt her amcentered on the Andalite's right-side engine pod. bivalence. Her hesitation.

  Had she retargeted because of Ax's threat? Or

  "Yes or no!" Jake snapped.

  had she always intended to aim for the engine?

  "Yes," she said. She seized control of my In either case, a miss would likely mean a direct body again, pushed off from the ceiling and hit on the Andalite ship itself.

  floated weightlessly in beside Ax.

  H M M M M M M M M . . .

  "Cripple him if you can. If not. . ." Jake said.

  TSEEEEEEW!

  Ax pleaded. A single shot. The red Dracon beam punched

  "My decision, Ax-man," Jake said gently. "Althrough the blackness. Stabbed at the Andalite drea, it's your show."

  ship. Then a pale, orange explosion. The engine Aldrea wrapped a restraining strap over our pod blew apart. The Andalite ship spun wildly, shoulder to keep from floating away. My hands falling away from us.

  moved, taking a large, ornately designed joystick

  "Yes!" Rachel cried as she drifted in midair, obviously constructed to accommodate Horkalmost upside down. "You clipped an engine!" Bajir fingers or Taxxon pincers. Aldrea's eyes, my

  Ax yelled. M u l t i eyes, were glued not to the slowly growing image ple . . . I count four!> He swung his stalk eyes of the Andalite fighter, but to the tactical weabackward to look at Jake.
  They are coming to finish him off.>

  "Computer, go to manual firing mode," my

  "Can he fly?" Jake asked.

  voice said.

  across the field of stars and come to rest on the

  "They won't attack us," Marco remarked. Andalite ship. Dead on the cockpit.

  "They see we fired on the Andalite. We're a bona

 
  blade would be at your throat now,> Ax said in

  Ax said acidly.

  not miss.>

  "We just keep flying, we're home free," Marco Aldrea moved my fingers again, ever so slightly, pointed out.

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  83

  Quafijinivon said, "Yes, yes! Keep flying." At that speed, that angle, you hit the left-side One by one we looked at Jake. "Nah, I don't leader and —>

  think so," he said.

  "And the debris will shred the following Marco smiled. "I had a premonition you'd say ship!" Aldrea said enthusiastically. that."

  Ax hit lateral positioning thrusters for just a

  "Ax? Aldrea? Four of them. If we fire on the second, then we drifted, seemingly without Yeerks, will the Andalite figure it out? Will he join power.

  in?"

  The Yeerks saw us in their line of fire, split

  Ax said.

  TSEEEEEEW! TSEEEEEW!

  "Okay," Jake said. "Wait. Wait till you can't We fired.

  possibly miss your first shot. Then, boom! Boom!

  BOOOM!

  Boom! Boom! Four shots. Hit or miss it'll conThe left-side lead Bug fighter blew apart. fuse the Yeerks, scare the slime off them." Tseeeeew!

  Four Bug fighters loomed up from the brilliant The Andalite fired. The right-side leader excrescent of the planet below, racing around their ploded.

  orbit toward us, engines blazing.

  The left-side leader plowed into his partner's The Andalite ship seemed to be drifting now, debris. An engine erupted. Ripped loose, sliced helpless.

  open the entire back end of the Bug fighter,

  "Is he really —" Marco asked.

  which spun, then BOOOM!

  "No," Aldrea said. "He's hurt but not that Three Bug fighters down in less than ten secbadly. He's playing dead to draw the Yeerks in. onds.

  He'll take one last shot. That's his plan. One shot The Andalite fired his one good engine and and then die."

  went after the remaining Yeerk. But not before It was Tobias, the instinctual flier who saw the giving a slight roll to his ship. A sort of wave. possibilities.
  Ax said.

  Andalite, the Yeerks may hesitate to shoot, thinkEveryone started cheering. ing we're friendly and they might hit us. They'll

  "Good shooting, Ax and Cassie!" Rachel split left and right to get a safe angle of attack. crowed.

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  85

  "Yes, good work," Jake said much more quietly. "We may have just alerted the Yeerks, made things harder. So take five seconds to celebrate, then get ready to land. Be ready for battle morphs if needed."

  Aldrea said. ALDREA

  Down. Down through the clouds, through the atmosphere that made the hull scream. Down to my home. The planet I had never left, and yet now returned to.

  "The Yeerk automated defenses appear to have accepted our codes," Quafijinivon said.

  "That would be a good thing?" Rachel asked.

  "If they did not accept our identification they would have targeted us with ground-based Dracon cannon. We have another threshold to cross when we enter the valley proper."

  I hadn't seen it from space since I first arrived with my family. My father, in disgrace, but acting as though he didn't know that this was a deadend, irrelevant assignment for an Andalite whose 86

  87

  name had become a derisive joke, a synonym for had control of my body. If she didn't, I may not

  "fool."

  have been able to remain standing.

  With my mother, just happy to have new, unThe trees! The trees! So many gone. The valclassified species to study. With my brother, who ley walls had been scarred, stripped. The Yeerks felt our humiliation so much more deeply than had cut deep gashes into the valleys to make me.

  level spaces.

  All dead, of course. I'd seen them die in the

  "You must remember that it has been years blistering Dracon beam attack from low-flying since you last saw your home," Quafijinivon told Yeerk Bug fighters.

  me.

  It was not a beautiful planet, at least not to But it wasn't the years that had ravaged the Andalite sensibilities. An Andalite sought intrees. It was the Yeerks. More than half of them, stinctively for the vast expanses of open grass, gone. Pieces of most of the others had been the delicate pastel trees, the meandering rivers blasted away.

  and streams.

  I said to Cassie.

  the impact of the asteroid or moonlet that had Even before I . . . before I died, some of the erased its former character. The surface was trees had been destroyed. But now it was as if barren, cracked, and fissured. The cracks were the planet had been massacred. For the trees miles wide and miles deep, with shockingly were the planet.

  steep sides. Life on the planet existed now only

  "We appear to have been accepted and regisin those valleys. tered by the inner-defense grid," Quafijinivon There the giant trees soared. There the Horksaid, breathing a sigh. "This is fortunate. We Bajir had once lived in peaceful ignorance, praispass within a hundred yards of Dracon cannon in ing Mother Sky and Father Deep, harvesting the the valley walls."

  bark, avoiding the monsters that guarded the

  "I can't believe we haven't reached the depths of the valleys.

  ground yet," Jake said. "How tall are these We skimmed the barrens and then, suddenly, trees?"

  dropped into the valley. Dak's valley. My valley. I knew he expected me to answer. But I

  I looked and was suddenly glad that Cassie couldn't.

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  89

  "The largest are two thousand feet tall," remained a mystery. We would be landing, soon, Quafijinivon answered. "The trunks a hundred and I didn't even know my own mind. I did not feet in diameter. They are a masterpiece of Arn trust the Arn. I did not like the Andalite, but bio-engineering."

  trusted him to be what he was.

  Cassie asked I didn't know the humans, not even the one softly.

  whose brain I shared. The one named Jake had

  I begged. I hated the weakness performed well.

  in my voice, but I couldn't bear to look anymore. But I did not know what was ahead. I knew

 

  only one thing: Whether the Arn was true to his She did. But then, she looked again. And I word or plotting some betrayal, it didn't matter. I looked, too. Because even now, scarred and had seen what the future held for my adopted blasted, raped and despoiled, it was my home. world. And all my doubt, my cynicism born of ex"Two minutes," Quafijinivon said. "We will haustion, was wiped away.

  land just above the vapor barrier, within the forI, who had never left, was back. And I would mer range of the monsters we created to restrain make the Yeerks pay. No matter the cost. Hork-Bajir curiosity."

  I sensed the human, Cassie, reading my emoI felt the tension rise in Cassie. This was all tions, listening for clues. I was being careless. I alien to her, of course. A strange world. closed my mind to her and sealed off my emoFor me it was familiar, and yet not. I had, in tions.

  my mind, never left. The years had not passed. The change seemed sudden, massive, shocking. The destruction of decades in the blink of an eye. But it was Toby who interested me. This was her ancestral home. A place she had never seen, but that must, in some way, be part of the substructure of her Hork-Bajir mind. She was staring out of the window with curiosity, even fascination. But Hork-Bajir faces show little emotion. What she felt, if anything, 90

  91

  Yeerks don't come here now that all the monsters are dead. And, of course, they think all the Arn are dead as well." He gave a sad, dusty-sounding laugh.

  He led the way to the ship's exit bay. I couldn't help noticing that his legs were slightly unsteady.

  When I stepped onto the ramp, I was struck by how bright it was outside. That's really all I noticed at first — t h e intensity of the light and the way the sky almost seemed to glow.