«Magnify,» the TO. said.
The hologram of space grew more detailed. Suddenly it was as if actual stars, each as big as my fist, were hovering inside the battle bridge.
«lsolate the target and magnify,» the tactical officer said.
Now the hologram showed just a slice of a single
13 star. It was an average yellow star. I glanced up at the readout above the hologram. It showed that the star had nine planets, gas giants on the outer edge, smaller planets in tighter orbit. The sixth planet was front and center in the display. It had a rather beautiful set of rings.
«There he is,» Prince Breeyar said. He was very calm, but you could tell he was a predator looking at prey.
I searched the hologram of space for a clue. Then I saw it: a tiny, bright point that was moving against the background of the ringed planet.
Was itaYeerk ship?
«l think we have a Skrit Na raider,» the captain said.
«Yes, Captain,» the TO. agreed. «He's accelerating. He'll be able to go to Zero-space in twenty minutes. Sensors show he came from the third planet in this system.»
«On-screen,» Captain Feyorn said.
Suddenly the hologram shifted and we were looking at a small planet with a single large moon. The planet was blue with swirls of white, and land masses that were brown and green.
«What do we have on this planet?»
«There is a sentient species there. They have achieved orbital space flight and have landed on their moon. Sensors show presence of nuclear
14 weapons. And we're picking up transmissions in various parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. All in all, probably a Level Six civilization. I would recommend -»
The captain cut him off by raising one finger on one hand. Then the captain turned his head and his main eyes toward Arbron and me.
He looked right at me. Right at me. I felt my blood turn to sludge and my brain grind to a halt.
«Tell me, Aristh, the situation: We have a Skrit Na raider leaving a Level Six civilization. Twenty minutes till he's safe in Zero-space. What do you recommend?»
No, this wasn't happening. The captain really was asking my advice. Clearly I was dreaming.
«What do I recommend?» I asked, feeling the knife-edge of panic. «Um . . . um, dispatch fighters on an intercept course?»
«ls that a question or a statement?» the captain asked.
I sucked in air and tried not to faint. «Dispatch fighters for an intercept. Send two on an intercept course, and bring two up behind on a chase vector.»
«And you,» the captain said, turning his awful gaze on Arbron. «What do we do when we intercept? And why?»
«The Skrit Na are smugglers and renegades. And
15 they sometimes serve the Yeerks. So we board the Skrit Na ship and check for any violations.» He said it perfectly. Like he had rehearsed.
Then he blew it. «And if they put up a fight, we put some tail into them!»
The captain, the prince, the TO., every warrior on the bridge, and I all stared at Arbron like he was insane. Which he obviously was. You don't say «put some tail into them» to the captain! That's something you say in a schoolyard fight.
The captain looked at Prince Breeyar and the tactical officer. He shrugged. «l guess we'd better do what the two arisths say, eh? The big one looks like he's ready to faint. And the other one thinks he's you, Breeyar.»
That got a laugh from everyone on the bridge.
«Launch fighters,» the captain said. «Oh, and those Skrit Na ships are so cramped inside we'd better send along a couple of our people who can move around in there. Now. Who do we have that's small enough to fit inside a Skrit Na freighter?»
Suddenly, I realized that everyone on the battle bridge was looking at me and Arbron. And then I realized we were both younger and smaller than anyone else.
And that's when I almost did faint.
The captain was going to send us into battle.
16 «Okay, who takes the helm, and who takes weapons?» Arbron asked.
«l have four days of seniority over you,» I said coolly. «l take the helm.»
I could see that he wanted to argue. He wanted to fly the fighter, of course. But there was no chance I was going to miss out on flying my first combat mission. No chance. And I did have seniority.
«Okayr» Arbron said coldly. «You fly it. I'll shoot. Not that we'll be doing any shooting.»
The inside of a fighter is not exactly roomy. This was an older model, built for two, but it was still not exactly big.
«Figures they'd give us an old piece of junk Model Fourteen to fly,» I said, staring at the controls as if I'd never seen them before.
«What did you expect them to give us? A brand-new Model Twenty-two?»
For a second I forgot that this was my first official combat command. I shot a glance at Arbron, and the two of us almost burst out laughing.
17 «This isgreatr» I said.
«l just wish it was Yeerks, not some old Skrit Na,» Arbron said.
I closed my main eyes, leaving only my stalk eyes open. I wanted to focus. I had been trained on fighters, of course. I was pretty good as a pilot. But still, I was going to be flying alongside Prince Breeyar in his personal squadron. Everyone in the squadron was a great fighter pilot. And Breeyar could just about fly a fighter through a black hole and back out again.
I deeply did not want anything to go wrong. The thought of how humiliated I'd be if I missed a turn or something was too awful to think about.
«Power up,» I told the ship's systems. «Prepare for launch.»
You could feel the old fighter come alive. The monitors glowed. The floor hummed and vibrated up through my legs. I touched a screen with my fingers and the viewport became transparent. We could see directly out now, through an actual window, not just a screen. Of course we were still in the fighter bay inside the Dome ship, so there wasn't anything to see.
«Automatic launch sequence begins in ten seconds^ the prince called. Simultaneous drop. Go to burn on my mark. Acceleration standards
«Weapons powered,» Arbron told me.
18 «Five seconds to launchr» the computer said.
«Please don't let me screw this up,» I prayed. I thought I'd said it silently till I noticed Arbron nodding in agreement.
«Two secondsr» the computer prompted.
«Hold on,» I said.
FWOOOOOSH!
We were blown out the hatch, out into black space. Ahead of us, four other fighters, all Model 22s, dropped from the bottom of the Dome ship's fighter bay.
intercept team, go to burn,» the prince said with total calm.
Two of the fighters lit up their engines. With a brilliant blue glow, the two fighters flashed out of sight into the black of space.
I waited with my fingers just millimeters above the engine control pad. I was not going to miss my cue.
«Chase team, go to burn,» the prince said.
I punched the control pad and it was like we'd been kicked in the back.
SHWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOF!
We were out of there! Out! Of! There!
Unfortunately, we had taken off so fast we'd shot right past the prince's own fighter.
«Ahhhh! Oh, no! No!» I ordered the computer
19 to match velocity with the other fighters. Something I should have done to start with.
«Hello, Elfangor! Hello-o. You forgot: These old Model Fourteens accelerate faster from a cold start,» Arbron pointed out.
The next thing I heard in my mind was the prince. «You may want to ease back just a little, Aristh Elfangor,» he said.
I was relieved he didn't reprimand me. But I was burning with embarrassment. There it was: my big chance to look like a veteran. And I'd looked like an amateur.
I maneuvered my fighter back into formation behind the other two chase fighters.
Arbron brought the Skrit Na raider up on the holographic imager. It was very different than any Andalite ship. Our fighters were elongated o
vals with two long, cylindrical engines attached by stubby "wings" on either side. Our main weapon, or shredder, arced overhead much like an Andalite tail.
The Skrit Na ship was round, with tapered sides. It looked like a fat disc. You could hardly even see where the engines were, and the Skrit Na had blinking colored lights all around it. I guess they find that attractive or something.
intercept in place,» came the report from the two intercept ships. They had gone into a danger-
20 ous Maximum Burn to get well out in front of the Skrit Na and cut off escape. Now we just had to sneak up calmly behind them.
Then . . .
«What the. . . . Sir, there is a second Skrit Na ship out here! It was hidden from sensors by the rings of this planet. Repeat, there is a second Skrit Na raider.»
Prince Breeyar rapped his orders. «Okay, you two on intercept go after the new target. Everyone else, with me.»
I looked at Arbron. We both nodded. It was getting more complicated now. We could actually have a fight!
Suddenly a bright blue engine flame shot from the bottom of the nearer Skrit Na.
«He's running,» the prince said. He sounded calm, but you could still tell he was excited. There isn't a fighter pilot alive who doesn't enjoy a good chase.
The Skrit Na ship hauled. And we hauled after him.
Then, to my total shock, the Skrit Na fired his weapons!
«Hey, look out!» Arbron yelled.
A thin beam of greenish light lanced toward the prince's fighter. It missed!
21 «Whoar» the prince laughed. «That woke me up. Return fire, but only if you can hit the engine pod underneath. Repeat, aim only for the engines. There may be innocent creatures on that ship.»
A split second later, the prince fired and missed. His wingman fired and also missed.
It hadn't even occurred to me that Arbron would actually want to take the risk of shooting. But then he said, «So, Elfangor, how about if we just see how fast this old tub will accelerate?»
I didn't need to be asked twice. I punched up Maximum Burn, and we went to one-tenth light speed in about three seconds!
«Yaaaahhh!» WHAM!
«Yaaaahhh!» WHAM!
The acceleration was outrageous! The compensators were slow and we were thrown back against the bulkhead.
I fought to get back on my feet and to the controls. I renewed my thought-speak link to the computer. «Boost the compensators!»
The computer adjusted and we climbed painfully to our feet. Arbron reached his weapons station and took aim. I heard the hum of the shredder powering up, followed quickly by the sound of firing.
Hmmmm. TSEEEEWWW!
«Yes! Yes! Yes!» Arbron yelled.
22 The shredder beam sliced through space and burned away a section of the Skrit Na's engines. The blue engine flame died instantly.
It was the most beautiful thing I'd seen up to that point in my life. But at the same time I felt a wave of jealousy that Arbron had taken the shot and not me.
«Good job,» Prince Breeyar said. «Nice flying, nice shooting.»
Of course he only complimented us because we were arisths. I mean, for the regular pilots it would have been no big deal. But who cared? Prince Breeyar had said we did a good job.
«He said "good job,"» Arbron said to me. «He did actually say it, right? I wasn't imagining things?»
«The prince said "good job,"» I confirmed, relishing the words.
At that moment I just loved being alive. I even loved Arbron, as annoying as he was sometimes. This was why I'd joined the military. This was why I'd become an aristh. This was what it was all about.
«AII right, my little arisths,» the prince said affectionately. «Now that you've given us all a lesson in good shooting, show us how you board an enemy ship. Don't forget to download their onboard computer. Is either one of you qualified for exo-datology?»
24 «Aristh Arbron is a very qualified exo-datologistr» I said truthfuly.
Arbron gave me a dirty look.
«Well, you are, Arbron,» I said defensively.
See, it's kind of a slight insult to say an aristh is good with computers. That's like a technician thing, not a warrior thing. Even though warriors are supposed to be good at all kinds of science and art as well as fighting.
«Good,» the prince said. «And, hey, don't bang your stalks on the low ceilings over there.»
«Yes, sir,» I replied. «No problems
I was on top of the universe. I was a hero-in-waiting. Practically a prince already. The war with the Yeerks would be over just as soon as I could get in the game.
I was a fool.
23
I guess most people know about the Skrit Na.
But in case you don't, I'll tell you what I know.
The Skrit Na don't care what anyone else in the galaxy thinks about them. They don't belong to the Yeerk Empire. They aren't one of our allies. They don't care about laws or customs or anything.
All the Skrit Na care about is collecting things and owning things.
The Skrit Na are unusual in another way: They are actually like two different races. The Skrit look like huge insects, almost as large as an Andalite. They have fourteen legs and six sets of antennae, and aren't really very intelligent. But the Skrit each eventually weave a cocoon and a year later, out of the dead Skrit there pops a Na.
The Na are a whole different story. The Na have four very slender legs. Sometimes they rear up and walk on just two legs, using the other legs as hands. They have large heads shaped like Andalite heads, only they have just two huge eyes.
Skrit Na are constantly going to peaceful planets
25 and kidnapping the local species. Sometimes they perform medical experiments on them. Sometimes they just fly around with them and then let them go. But often they carry local creatures away to add them to zoos on the Skrit Na home world.
Like I said: a weird species. No one understands the Skrit Na. Personally, I don't think they understand themselves.
I pulled our fighter up alongside the damaged Skrit Na ship and turned on the tractor beam to hold the two ships tightly together.
The Skrit Na decided to make it easy. I guess they figured they'd made us mad enough. Skrit Na are no match for Andalite power.
I married my hatch to the Skrit Na hatch and popped it open. I equalized gravities and marched as boldly as I could into the captured ship, with Ar-bron just behind me.
There was smoke in the other ship. And there seemed to be storage boxes strewn here and there. Two clumsy Skrit lumbered past, kicking through the debris. The ceiling pressed low, and I had to duck my head or risk bruising my stalk eyes. A pair of cocooned Skrit were more or less glued to a corner of the ceiling. One looked about ready to hatch aNa.
There were three Na that I could see. The Na captain was pressed back against his command con-
26 sole. He looked scared. But not of me. He was glaring angrily at a bizarre creature that had a Skrit Na hand weapon, a modified Yeerk Dracon beam, pointed at the Na captain.
The bizarre creature stood just a bit shorter than me. And what was incredible was that it stood on just two legs.
Just two. It had arms, but you could see that it didn't use them to walk. They wouldn't have been long enough.
The creature's face was the same size as mine, but rounder. There were two small bluish eyes on the front of its face. And the lower third of the face was split open horizontally.
Many species have such openings. They're called mouths.
Its body had no fur, but did have brightly colored skin that seemed to hang loosely in some areas. Its upper body was covered in loose, almost billowy, white skin with tiny pastel patterns. Its two legs were covered in a rough-textured blue skin that stopped suddenly at its hooves. The hooves were white and adorned with what looked like thick threads or cables laced together.
But what caught my eye was the hair that sprouted from its head. It was long and wavy and as gold as a yellow sun.
&n
bsp; "Freeze, horse-boy," this bizarre creature said,
27 making the sounds with its mouth. It turned the Dracon beam on me. "One move and I pull the trigger. I don't know what this gun will do, but I'm willing to bet you won't like it."
Of course, at that point all I heard was gibberish sounds. The translator chip, which all members of the Andalite military have implanted in their heads, requires a few minutes to begin to understand new languages. Some languages it never does get right. Fortunately, almost all species can understand our thought-speak since it works at a level beyond mere words.
"Be careful, Andalite friend," the Na captain said. "They are savage, violent beings. Crazy! Wild! Oh, yes! This female is a vicious beast! Better to kill her! Or even better, let us cage her again. Yes, yes, that would be best. As soon as you mistakenly fired on us, she sprang up and grabbed my weapon. Wild and dangerous, oh, yes!"
The translator chip handled the Na language easily. I didn't bother to answer the Na. Everyone knows Skrit Na will lie to anyone about anything.
The Na captain winked one of his big eyes at me. As if he and I were on the same side. His fellow Na officers all looked scared. The Skrit went on with their simple duties like nothing was happening.
To be honest with you, I didn't know what to do. I was as confused as the Skrit Na.
28 The only one who seemed to have a clue was the bizarre two-legged creature herself.
«Talk to herr» Arbron suggested. «Use your charm, Elfangor.»
«Um . . . whoever you are ... whatever you are, don't fire that weapon. Put it down.»
"Yeah, right. Hey. Hey, wait a minute! I can hear you in my head, but you're not really talking."
Suddenly the translator chip had heard enough. It began providing instantaneous translation. I could understand her.
«l am in charge here,» I said firmly. «Drop the weapon!»
"Uh-uh. Nope. I don't think so, horse-boy. I'm tired of being kidnapped and dragged off by giant cockroaches and little green men from Mars."
«Excuse me, but we are here to rescue you,» Arbron said.
«Exactly. What these Skrit Na have done to you is wrong. That's why we captured this ship.»
I spoke like I would to a child. Obviously, this species was primitive. They didn't even have tails.