DING!
The doors to the freight elevator opened. The Hork-Bajir wavered, distracted.
Tseeewww! Tseeewww! Tseeewww!
Dracon beams burned. Inches above us.
And now …
Tseeew! Tseeew!
Shredder fire! The sound, so like a Dracon beam, was different enough for any Andalite aristh to recognize.
Tseeew! Tseeew!
Shredder fire, point-blank at the wall of tight-packed Hork-Bajir.
Four Andalites jumped from the elevator like bucks clearing a fence. They were everywhere at once. Firing. Whipping their tail blades with deadly precision.
They were magnificent.
I fought beside a young female.
She had impeccable timing. She was dangerous. She was beautiful.
CRASH!
The hallway wall collapsed and the battle spilled back into the interior office space of the building.
The female kept up a steady stream of fire as we forced back the Hork-Bajir line.
Windows shattered. Desks splintered. Plaster, tangles of wire, and debris poured from the ceiling.
The Yeerks were losing.
Suddenly, the shrill sound of police sirens penetrated the noise of battle.
The visser did not deign to respond. He slammed his way past a Taxxon, leaving the creature oozing goo from a deep gash.
The battle was over.
Shell-shocked Hork-Bajir began gathering up their dead, Taxxons waddled back down the stairwell, dragging what meat they could take away with them; to disappear into some secret basement hiding place.
Then, through a cloud of plaster dust, I saw one of the Andalite warriors jump over the body of a fallen Hork-Bajir and land face-to-face with Visser Three.
Of course! These Andalites were not under Prince Jake’s orders.
The Andalite lifted his shredder. It would be a point-blank killing.
I felt a surge of hot joy in my heart.
Visser Three looked at the Andalite.
The Andalite’s eyes flickered and his finger hesitated on the shredder.
Fwapp!
With the flat of his tail blade, the visser smacked the weapon from his assailant’s hand.
The one he had called Arbat let out an Andalite curse.
Visser Three leaped to safety behind a phalanx of Hork-Bajir.
Prince Jake said,
The female turned.
An hour later, we were in Cassie’s barn.
Cassie’s family runs the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. At any given time, the clinic houses several dozen wounded or ill creatures. Often exotics.
There are also squirrels, rabbits, pigeons, and grackles. Common creatures that come and go, drawn by the seeds and oats that lie scattered in and around the barn.
“No doubt about it,” Marco said, waving a copy of The Chronicle. “A propaganda mill for Yeerks. Part three in a five-part series on The Sharing.”
The Sharing exists to recruit human hosts, willing and unwilling. It poses as an innocuous family-oriented group.
For every Yeerk that has a host body, there are thousands of Yeerks that do not. They live in a dank pool where they feed on Kandrona rays. And wait.
They wait for host bodies.
They would not wait much longer.
“Not so fast, Ax-man,” Marco warned.
For the first time since I’d found myself stranded on Earth, I felt that the future might be hopeful.
So I did not understand the look of wariness and pity transmitted from face-to-face.
Cassie. To Rachel. To Prince Jake. To Tobias. To Marco.
Marco spoke. “If I’ve learned one thing, it’s this: It may walk like an Andalite. It may talk like an Andalite. But that don’t mean it is an Andalite.”
“He’s right, Ax.” Cassie held a defanged pit viper she had found abandoned in the schoolyard. Gently she pried it from her arm and placed it in a large tub beneath a heat lamp.
“We know it’s hard for you, and that you’re lonely a lot of the time,” Cassie continued. “But … ”
“But we have to be realistic,” Marco finished. “This might be the fleet. Or it might be some fresh hell.”
Prince Jake crossed his arms. “How do we know these new Andalites aren’t Yeerks with Andalite host bodies?”
“In a world where slugs can take over entire civilizations, anything is possible,” Marco reminded me.
“Funny you should mention Leera,” Marco said. He did not say anything more. He did not have to. There, for the first time in my life, I had learned that even an Andalite may be a traitor.
Another look passed from face to face. This time, it appeared to be one of amusement.
“Ax,” Cassie said. “I think you have what is commonly known as a crush.”
“A feeling that makes it hard for you to see the truth, if the truth is unpleasant,” she explained.
“Yeah, you know, like the way Cassie can’t see that Jake is really just a pinhead,” Marco said.
Prince Jake threw a horse comb at Marco that Marco dodged. Marco and Prince Jake are best friends. This sort of behavior appears to be typical of male friendships.
“Until we figure these guys out, let’s just hang loose,” Prince Jake said.
“Yeah. Like maybe not change our minds about who is in charge and who isn’t,” Rachel said bluntly.
I felt myself flush. In the Leera incident I had changed my allegiance from Prince Jake to the Andalite officer who betrayed us.
I was still ashamed of this. But I had sworn never to abandon my prince again. Unless it was at his command.
Shame was quickly replaced by anger.
“No, I don’t,” Prince Jake said firmly. And with a sharp look at Rachel he added, “Neither does Rachel. I just don’t want you to do anything without talking it over with us first. Okay?”
&n
bsp; I said angrily.
I left the barn and galloped until both my hearts were pounding. I was angry, but that emotion cooled quickly enough. The emotion that replaced it did not cool.
She was beautiful.
She was so beautiful.
KEEERRRACCKKKK!
I leaped out of range before the tree limb could fall on me. The limb I had severed with one blow of my tail.
Tobias is interesting. A nothlit, but now an almost voluntary one. He has lost his human life, but not his human friends. He belongs. But at the same time, he does not belong.
Like me.
Perhaps that is why he is my true shorm. What humans would call a “best friend.” Or “soul mate.” That and the fact that my brother was Tobias’s father.
I assumed the attack position again.
Even though I am only an aristh — what humans would call a cadet — in the Andalite military, I had undergone rigorous training at the academy. Tail fighting is a sport, an art, and a deadly combat skill.
I had a feeling that I was about to be tested. I did not want to disgrace myself.
Cinnamon buns!
I paused. I am extremely fond of cinnamon buns. I am so fond of them, it is hard for me to restrain my joy in eating them.
I have now had much practice eating cinnamon buns. But from time to time, I still have difficulty containing my enthusiasm for the taste sensations that come from these tasty treats.
This is one of the things I must explain to my people: the incredible joys of acquiring human morphs and using the mouth to ingest intensely flavored items.
I began to morph a northern harrier. The blue-and-tan fur of my body began to grow longer and shingle. Layer upon layer of feathers appeared upon my shrinking body.
Tobias said.
We flew over the main part of town. Together. But not close. If Tobias and I were seen flying in tandem, it might attract attention. Yeerk attention.
Once we had landed safely on the mall roof, Tobias began morphing to human.
The sharp angles of his scowling hawk head blurred and rounded out. Flesh appeared on his face first. It swirled and rippled like dough as it arranged itself into human eyes, a human nose, and a human brow.
His bird legs grew enormously long until what began to protrude was no longer bird leg, but bone. The bone formed a femur, a patella, and a tibia. Claws became toe bones.
Flesh poured down the bones like liquid and molded thighs, calves, and feet.
I concentrated. I would have to demorph to Andalite before morphing to human.
Though we have agreed that it is immoral to acquire the DNA of sentient creatures, we also have agreed upon exceptions now and then. I acquired a bit of DNA from Jake, Marco, Cassie, and Rachel. Thus, when I am human, I vaguely resemble all of them, but duplicate no one.
It is a moral compromise.
We have all learned to make them.
The question was how I could make such opportunities available to my fellow Andalites once they landed and defeated the Yeerks.
“Come on,” Tobias said as soon as I had morphed from Andalite to human and was properly dressed in my artificial skins. “Let’s hit the ’Bon and the Taco Bell.”
I followed Tobias toward the small stairwell off the roof used by workmen. Through that door and down two flights of stairs was a door that led into the mall.
We heard the commotion the moment we entered the first floor. It was coming from the food court.
“Beanzuh! Beanzuh! Zuh!” I heard a girl shout.
“Somebody get security!” a woman yelled.
“What’s going on?” someone else asked.
“Some girl went berserk in the food court,” another person answered. “Eating everything in sight and yelling like a lunatic.”
Tobias raised an eyebrow. “Which answers the question of whether the Andalites have landed.”
We ran.
“Beanzuh! Jelly beanzuh! Beanzuh! Zuh! Zuh!”
We forced our way through the crowd that had gathered around the food court.
A girl around Cassie’s age sat crouched in front of bins of blue, green, yellow, red, and black jelly beans at the Candy Land store. She wore a Burger King tunic and slacks. Backward.
A harassed-looking young woman was trying to persuade her to get away from the bin.
“So sweet. So delicious!” The girl was almost weeping with joy. “The taste … overwhelming!”
“Well. This is not good,” Tobias said. “Your little friend Estrid?”
“I believe that is likely.”
Estrid ignored the Candy Land lady. She crammed more bright pellets into her mouth, rolled her eyes, seemed to be transported by pleasure.
A mall security guard moved toward her. “Okay. Let’s go.”
Tobias hurried forward and put his hand on the guard’s arm. “No wait! She’s my sister. She’s having a bad reaction to her medication.”
“The green are the best!” Estrid said.
The guard looked hard at Tobias. As if he weren’t sure whether or not Tobias was telling the truth. “She’s on drugs?”
“It’s a seizure thing. She was dropped on her head when she was a baby.”
“No, the blue! A blue that saturates the very soul with pleasure!”
“Then we should call an ambulance,” said the Candy Land lady.
“I like the red ones,” a kid in the crowd called out.
“It’s happened before,” Tobias said. “We know what to do. She calms down …”
“Yes! Red! Red-duh!”
“… Eventually. We have some other medicine at home. If we can just take her with us, everything will be fine.”
We both moved toward the shrieking girl.
“But …” the security guard said.
“We’re fine,” Tobias insisted. “Fine. Come on, sis. Let’s go home.” Tobias took one arm and I took the other.
Estrid looked at each of us, and then let out a horrible, ear-piercing scream. “Nooooo! Beanzuh!”
“Now, sis,” Tobias soothed. “Don’t make a scene.”
“Sssssseeene. Sssseeeeenuh. Nuh. Nuh. Nuh.”
While she was momentarily diverted by the novel sounds her mouth could make, I leaned close and whispered, “It is I, Aximili. You are having a reaction to mouth-pleasures. It will be fine. Come with us and be quiet.”
On our way to the door we used to access the mall, I saw a girl inside the doorway of Express. She was examining some artificial skins.
And she was an exact replica of the girl we were half-carrying, half-dragging. Her long hair was red and very wavy. Her eyes were deep blue. And her face was covered with cinnamon-colored freckles.
Cinnamon. Delicious.
“Hey!” a male voice shouted behind us. “What are you doing with my sister?”
Tobias turned. “Holy … come on!”
In order to look behind in human morph it is necessary to turn one’s head. A dizzying action on only two legs.
I did so and understood the cause of Tobias’s alarm.
A very large young man and four of his companions were chasing us.
“She must have morphed his s
ister. He thinks we’re abducting her! Great,” Tobias wheezed. “Haul buns.”
“Bunzzzzz,” I repeated, unable to resist the impulse. “Zuh. Zuh. Zuh.”
“Please, Ax,” Tobias yelled, breaking into a run. “Not now!”
We escaped from the mall. It was not our most challenging escape.
Estrid morphed to kafit bird and flew away. But not before I had arranged for a meeting with her superior. We needed to know what was happening with the Andalite invasion force.
Or, at very least, we had to warn them about the dangers of morphing humans.
A few hours later I was in the air, in harrier morph.
Prince Jake was on the ground. Traveling in wolf morph. It would have been unwise for me to travel long distances through the woods in my own true body. I live in some fear that human hunters might see me and shoot me as a deer. Shooting deer is a human sport. Human hunters are apparently unaware of the fact that deer are harmless herbivores.
In the distance ahead, beyond the fence, I could see thick trees around a shallow pond. The scene fit her description.
Estrid had refused to guide me to the Andalite ship. She was not authorized to reveal its location. Commendable caution. But she had agreed to arrange a meeting with her commander in this spot.
Estrid was waiting at the edge of the thicket.
How odd that the sight of one of my own people should seem so strange. It was almost disturbing, somehow. It made me feel lonely, which made no sense. Why should the sight of this single, lovely female make me feel lonely?
I flew a few hundred yards ahead of Jake and landed on the ground in front of her. I demorphed quickly. If this was all somehow a Yeerk ambush, then my presence would trigger the attack. Better me than my prince.
I stood, awkward. Waiting. No Dracon beams. No Hork-Bajir. No Taxxons. No ambush.
Before I could respond, I saw her main eyes widen. One stalk eye whipped around. Jake had approached and begun to demorph.
The Arrival Page 2