Alloran's Choice

by K. A. Applegate

  «Fire, Aristh Elfangor,» he said.

  «What?»

  «l said fire. Fry those Yeerks. You let them live, now you finish them. Undo your mistake, and no one will ever have to know about your earlier cowardices

  My finger reached for the firing pad.

  «Do it, Elfangor,» Alloran hissed.

  64 My finger hovered above the pad. It was war. In war, you destroyed your enemies. AHoran was my prince. You obeyed your prince.

  But ten thousand defenseless Yeerks? With one movement of my finger?

  No.

  I pulled my hand away, and in a blur of motion I felt Alloran's tail blade press against my throat. «You think you can fight a clean war, Elfangor? Is that what you think? Or are you one of those who are happy enough when someone like me does the dirty work for you?»

  «They are defenseless,» I said as calmly as I could.

  «They are the enemy. Hypocrites! You're all hypocrites! We lost the Hork-Bajir war because of weak, moralizing fools like you! Because of fools like you, I am disgraced and shunned and sent off on trivial errands with nothing but arisths under my commands

  65 «War-prince Alloran, I honor you, but-»

  «What is the difference how you destroy the en-emy?» Alloran demanded.

  I had no idea what he was talking about anymore. He was off somewhere in his own head. Lost in his own memories.

  «What does it matter if you kill them with a tail blade or a shredder or a quantum virus?»

  Quantum virus? No. No. Even after all the horror I had seen, I was shocked.

  «You . . . you used a quantum virus? You used a quantum virus on the Hork-Bajir world?»

  A quantum virus is a sort of disease of space-time. You see, it slowly breaks down the force that holds subatomic particles together. It slowly disintegrates whatever it affects. Living creatures affected with a quantum virus find their very molecules breaking down. It can take days, weeks of agony.

  That was Alloran's secret. That was his disgrace. The Yeerks had accused us of using a quantum virus against them. We had denied it. Every Andalite believed it was just another filthy Yeerk lie.

  Alloran stared at me. «l cannot have a weak, cowardly fool like you messing up -»

  I saw it out of the corner of my stalk eyes. A sudden movement. Not fast, but unexpected.

  Chapman!

  66 He leaped at Alloran and swung one of his strong human hands. With tightly clenched fingers he hit Alloran on the side of his head.

  Alloran's head snapped back. More in surprise than pain. But it was enough. I swung my tail hard and fast. I turned the blade away and slammed Alloran's head with every ounce of power I had.

  He dropped like a stone. He collapsed to the deck in a heap. And I saw triumph on Chapman's face. Triumph.

  I should have known then. I should have realized.

  Instead, I went to the medical kit and with shaking hands pulled out a tranquilizer hypo. I emptied it into my mad prince. It would keep him down for hours.

  "Now what?" Chapman demanded.

  «Now what?!» I shrieked. «Now what? I just knocked out my own prince!» I was sick. Sick down to my bones. But there was no one else to turn to. No one else to make decisions. As stupid as I had been, it was still up to me.

  «We have something to pick up,» I said, forcing calm into my thought-speak voice. «Then we are getting as far from this evil place as this ship will go!»

  Chapman nodded, as if satisfied.

  Loren came over. She put her soft human hand

  67 on my chest wound. It had begun to scab over but the exertion of knocking Alloran out had opened the wound again. She tore a strip of fabric from the bottom of one of her artificial skins. She tied it around my chest to protect the wound.

  «Thank your» I said.

  "Is life always this insane for you space cadets?"

  «Oh, yes,» I said bitterly. «lnfiltrate the Taxxon home world, help inspire a Taxxon civil war, mutiny against my prince, and locate the Time Matrix, all in the company of a pair of strange, two-legged aliens.. . . Business as usual.»

  I was busy watching the ground below, looking for the place where I had crashed the Skrit Na ship. But I saw Loren's smile.

  "Hey. You made a joke. I didn't think you did humor, Elfangor."

  «When the world goes mad, what else can you do?» I thought of Arbron. Still making little jokes, even when his life was a wreck. «l wonder if Arbron knew the world was mad?»

  Loren just looked sad. But then she forced a smile again. "Speaking of crazy ... did I see you driving up in a bright yellow Mustang back there?"

  «lt was a wonderful machine. Primitive, but strangely enjoyable.»

  I cut thrust and peered closely into the screen. «There it is. We're going down. I need to clear away

  68 the wreckage so the tractor beam can grab the Time Matrix.»

  I landed the Jahar in the narrow valley, a few feet away from the wreckage of the Skrit Na ship. I grabbed a handheld shredder, opened the hatch, and hurried outside.

  It took several minutes to burn away the wreckage of the Skrit Na ship and reveal the Time Matrix.

  It was for this that so much horror had occurred.

  For this most powerful of all weapons.

  It sat there amidst the wreckage, so harmless-looking. If the Yeerks had known this was here, they would have stopped at nothing to get it.

  It was lucky Loren never told them while they held her captive. Lucky that Chapman never told them.

  Lucky.

  And lucky that I had been able to hold off the Hork-Bajir. And lucky that we had been able to get away from the spaceport without being pursued.

  More luck.

  Too much luck.

  I really was a fool. I felt a cold shiver crawl up my spine.

  I was behind the Time Matrix, hidden from the Jahar. And suddenly, I knew what was happening back inside the Jahar while I worked to free the

  69 Time Matrix. And I knew what I would see when I walked back around that off-white globe.

  Trembling with despair and exhaustion, I set the shredder for its next to lowest setting. I would have to duplicate Arbron's feat: three quick shots. Yes. Three.

  I sucked in deep breaths, and then I bolted at top speed.

  I leaped from behind the Time Matrix.

  Loren, raising a Dracon beam in her hand!

  I fired!

  She dropped, twitching wildly from the energy pulse.

  TSSSEEEWWWW!

  Chapman fired! But he was weak and shaky from what he had just endured.

  I fired! The human dropped to the dirt.

  But there was one more left. I knew it. I knew, and I knew that I had very little time.

  Sudden movement! I spun and fired! Missed! No, not a complete miss. I had stunned his right arm. The hand holding the Dracon beam dropped, useless.

  He stood there, rage on his face. Alloran. War-prince Alloran-Semitur-Corrass.

  But not really Alloran anymore.

  For the rest of my life I would remember that

  70 moment. The moment when I looked for the first time, upon the abomination.

  You see, Alloran was no longer Alloran.

  «Very good, Aristh Elfangor. It took you a while, but you figured it out in the end.»

  «Sub-Visser Seven,» I said.

  «Yes, but not for long. The Yeerk who made the first Andalite-Controller? The Yeerk who captured the fabled Time Matrix? I'd say I can count on a major promotion. Wouldn't you?»

  71 I raised my shredder and pointed it at Allo-ran ... no, at Sub-Visser Seven.

  «You made Chapman a Controller. You were in his head. That Hork-Bajir I thought was you . . . just a trick.»

  «Of course. And another of my people made Loren one of us,» he sneered. «And while you so considerately worked to clear away the Time Matrix, I revived Alloran and transferred myself into him. The first and only Andalite-Controller! It was so kind of you to knock the old warrior out for me. I
didn't know how I was ever going to take him. He was a wily creature. A bit mad, of course, but he knew war. You saw how ruthless he was in tossing out the poor Hork-Bajir who played the role of me. Yes, Alloran was a warrior.»

  The truth hit me like a brick wall. It was true! I had made it possible for the sub-visser to take control of Alloran!

  I had created the abomination!

  «Chapman told us about the Time Matrix, of

  72 course. But we needed you to show us where it was. The attack by the Mountain Taxxons could have disrupted everything, but you know, in the end it was convenient. It kept you from growing suspicious. You were too busy worrying about your fellow aristh. You didn't even have time to wonder how the two humans just happened to be waiting for you. You didn't wonder why my troops let you escape.»

  I had done this! I had created this abomination! I had delivered the Time Matrix into the hands of this vile creature!

  «But you know the best part?» The sub-visser laughed. «l really couldn't have let you burn that transport ship full of my people. Chapman didn't know about the Yeerks in that transport, so neither did I. And if you'd gone along with Alloran I'd have had to try to stop you. So would my brother Yeerk in the human girl. It was one thing to sacrifice the poor fool who played the role of me. But ten thousand Yeerks? No, I'd have had to act, and then you and Alloran together would have most likely made short work of me.»

  I couldn't breathe. I had failed. Failed so enormously that the entire Andalite species was at risk!

  «But no, Elfangor is one of those good An-dalites,» Sub-Visser Seven sneered. «You don't go in for slaughtering the helpless, do you? Hah-hah!

  73 Wonderful! Your qualms delivered Alloran to me. Alloran and the Time Matrix. Mine!»

  «Really?» I said faintly. «l seem to be the one holding the shredder.»

  «There are a dozen Bug fighters closing in right now. You've lost, little one.»

  «You'll be a cinder by the time they get here,» I threatened.

  «No, you won't kill a helpless foe,» he sneered. «l have no weapon! I am your prisoner! Hah-hah! I surrender to you, Elfangor. I surrender!»

  He spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness as he laughed at me. Laughed.

  «You're right, Sub-Visser. I won't kill you.» I squeezed the trigger. The stun-setting knocked the foul Andalite-Controller to the ground.

  I ran to Loren. I dragged her unconscious body up the ramp into the Jahar. Then, after a second's hesitation, I dragged Chapman aboard, too.

  I was just beginning to try dragging the sub-visser to the ship when the first wave of Bug fighters blew by overhead. They shot past, then began to inscribe tight circles, coming back toward us.

  Two more Bug fighters. Then two more. The sky was filling with Bug fighters. I would never get the Jahar off the planet.

  Unless . . .

  Had Sub-Visser Seven informed his people that

  74 he might be in an Andalite body? Surely. Surely he would have. He would have had to, just to avoid being accidentally shot by his own people.

  But could the Yeerks tell one Andalite from another?

  I raced to the ship, tore open the medical kit and yanked out a stimulant hypo. I ran back to the unconscious sub-visser and i emptied the stimulant into his bloodstream. It would revive him in less than a minute.

  Bug fighters were hovering overhead now, some preparing to land. I ran back to the Jahar, closed the hatch, and punched up the ship-to-ship communication.

  The face of a Hork-Bajir-Controller appeared on my communications screen. It stared at me with the fury and distaste Yeerks always show for Andalites.

  I stared straight back. And in loud, arrogant, harsh thought-speak I said, «What? You don't recognize your sub-visser? Hah-hah! I have done it, you fool! As I said I would. I have acquired an Andalite body!»

  The Hork-Bajir eyes wavered, uncertain.

  If I showed any hesitation, I was lost. If I was to pass as a Yeerk sub-visser, I could not show any doubt. «You see the Andalite down on the ground?»

  "Yes. . . Sub-Visser Seven."

  75 «Goodr you're not blind as well as stupid. I want to see him run. Do you understand me! As soon as I have lifted off, make him run! And then, when he is good and tired, when his knees buckle with exhaustion, make him dead. Dead! And if you fail me, I will feed you to the Taxxons. Sub-Visser Seven, out»

  I switched off the screen without waiting for an answer. Maybe it would work. Maybe not.

  I keyed the controls, lifting the Jahar gently from the ground. I switched on an exterior view and panned the viewfinder till I framed the sub-visser. He was just climbing to his feet.

  I'll give the sub-visser credit for one thing: He was not an idiot. He knew instantly what was happening. He broke into a run, just as a hovering Bug fighter fired a Dracon beam near him.

  I let the Jahar drift casually over the Skrit Na wreck. Focusing all my attention, I powered the Ja-har's tractor beam and latched it onto the white sphere of the Time Matrix.

  Sub-Visser Seven was running at full Andalite speed across the sand, pursued by teasing, taunting Bug fighters that seemed to enjoy shooting within inches of him.

  The Jahar rose, with the Time Matrix in tow. I pulled the machine closer and closer, snugged it up into the Jahar's belly, and lashed it in place with energy ropes. We rose up through the atmosphere of

  76 the Taxxon world. Up through the weird, bright clouds.

  Only then did it begin to dawn on the Yeerks.

  The ship-to-ship snapped on. An ugly, suspicious Hork-Bajir face glared at me. "Sub-Visser Seven, planet control respectfully directs you to land."

  I tried bluffing some more. But when I refused to immediately turn back and land, they knew.

  Tactical showed a swarm of Bug fighters rising up from the surface of the planet. But it was too late.

  I punched up a hard burn and prepared to lose myself in Zero-space.

  77 "So, this is Zero-space," Loren said, looking out through the viewport. "We've been in it for a full day and I still don't understand what it is."

  I directed my stalk eyes to the viewport. I saw blank white. Empty, whiteness. «Zero-space isn't anything, really,» I said quietly. «lt's antispace. You know, like antimatter and antigravity? Well, Zero-space is antispace.»

  I had explained this at least twice during the last day. But I guess she was trying to make conversation.

  She'd been through one of the worst experiences any creature can endure: She had been made a Controller. I couldn't believe she was even managing to talk without weeping.

  Fortunately, the Yeerk in Loren's head had been at the end of its feeding cycle. Yeerks feed on Kan-drona rays. Every three days they must drain out of their host and return to the Yeerk pool to absorb Kandrona rays.

  So I made a deal with the hungry Yeerk. I could

  78 keep Loren tied up and wait for the Yeerk to starve to death. Or the Yeerk could come out willingly. I agreed to put it in deep hibernation. To freeze it. The Yeerk decided hibernation was better than death by Kandrona ray starvation.

  I kept my word to the Yeerk. After it crawled out of Loren's ear, I froze it. And then I ejected it from the ship into the vacuum of real space. Someday it might be found and revived. More likely it would sink into the gravity well of a star and be incinerated.

  Especially since I made sure to eject it close to a sun.

  Maybe that wasn't living up to the spirit of my deal with the Yeerk. But somehow, I just didn't care. My notions of proper behavior had brought disaster.

  I was a fool. A silly child living out storybook notions of decency and fairness.

  There was no decency in war. Alloran had tried to teach me that. I'd learned it too late.

  "Have you decided where we're going, Elfan-gor?" Loren asked gently.

  "He doesn't know," Chapman said. He spent his time now sitting in a corner, glaring darkly at the two of us. Sub-Visser Seven had been inside Chapman's head. If that had taught the fo
olish human a lesson, it sure didn't show. "Elfangor is confused. Isn't that right? He screwed up bad . . . Arbron

  79 trapped in one of those centipede bodies, Alloran made into the first-ever Andalite-Controller. Almost lost the Time Matrix. Gonna be tough explaining all this to the folks back home, eh?"

  I ignored him. Back home. What was home anymore? Was I supposed to return home? Home to my parents? Run free on my old, familiar grass? Spend my days with my old childhood friends?

  I wasn't a child anymore. My home was still there, but I would never belong there again.

  Loren came over to me. "Elfangor. Snap out of it. We're going in circles in Zero-space."

  «Yes. I know.»

  "You did the best you could. You're just a kid, like me."

  «l am an aristh in the Andalite military. I disobeyed my prince and caused him to be enslaved by the Yeerks. The Yeerks will now learn everything Alloran knows about our defenses. Everything he knows about the capabilities of our weapons. Everything he knows about the locations of our ships. At least he wasn't a scientist, so he can't give them morphing technology or computer software. But he will still be the greatest intelligence victory in Yeerk history»

  Chapman shook his head. "Guess I was right to throw in with the Yeerks, eh? You Andalites are going down. Unless ..."

  80 Loren glared at him. "Why don't you shut up?"

  Chapman just grinned. "Unless you Andalites use the Time Matrix thing. Go back in time, find that first little tribe of Yeerk slugs. Kill 'em and the entire Yeerk species is gone. Gone and never even existed. What do they call that? Oh yeah, genocide. You up for a little genocide, Elfangor?"

  I just shook my head wearily. «Don't waste your time taunting me, Chapman. It won't work.»

  Loren looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"

  «He's trying to goad me into using the Time Matrix. Remember, he's been a Controller, however briefly. Sub-Visser Seven left him instructions, just in case something went wrong. Chapman knows that to use the Time Matrix I'd have to return to real space. My guess is that the Yeerks placed a homing beacon on the Jahar. If we return to normal space, we'll light up every Yeerk sensor within a million light years.»

  I could see from the dark rage on Chapman's face that I had guessed correctly.

  At least I'd gotten one thing right. I wasn't fool enough to fall for -