The Decision

  CHAPTER 15

  I stood there like my hooves had been nailed to the deck. It wasn't possible! An Andalite ship's captain a traitor? Or was he a Controller? No one moved. The computer guided the Ascalin down, down to sweep slowly forward, just a few hundred feet above the rocky ground. In seconds we'd be down. T.o. Harelin was bleeding profusely from his severed tail. But I knew he would rather die than live without a tail. The humans! It hit me like a Dracon beam blast. My human friends were back in the sick bay. The captain knew their secret. In a matter of seconds, so would the entire Yeerk Empire. The news would flash to Visser Three. There would be no going home for them. Ever. And Earth, like Leera, would fall to the Yeerks. 8Prince Jake! Tobias! Cassie! Marco! Rachel!"; I cried in private thought-speak. 8If one of you can hear me, you must escape! The captain is--"; 8The captain is a dirtbag,"; Marco's thought-speak voice said, startlingly clear and close. 8What? Where are you?"; 8Oh, gee, Ax, we decided not to just sit in our room with our hands folded like good little girls and boys,"; Rachel said. 8Sorry."; 8Ax, we are on the bridge,"; Prince Jake said. 8We saw what happened. Or saw as well as we can in these morphs."; 8Prince Jake, it is absolutely vital that Captain Samilin be stopped!"; 8We can't take him out,"; Cassie said. 8We would demorph too slowly. But I happen to be on the captain, and I can definitely distract him."; The Ascalin was settling toward the ground. Through the front viewport I saw row after row of Hork-Bajir, all with weapons drawn, totally surrounding the landing area. 8Do it, Cassie,"; I said grimly. 8Distract him and I will do the rest. We have just seconds!"; I stared, riveted, as a flea too small to be seen became a flea too large to be ignored. It grew on the captain's back, larger, larger, with twisting, morphing features. 8What is--"; the captain yelled in surprise. FWAPP! I struck! My tail blade whipped forward, aimed for Samilin's neck. He jerked back, dodged. My blade hit his upper right front leg a glancing blow. All around the room flies and cockroaches no one had noticed began to grow as my human friends demorphed. But now the captain swept his Shredder toward me and I struck again. FWAPP! The weapon flew from his hand and skittered across the deck. It was the captain and I, tail to tail. We faced each other, each quivering with energy and focus, each waiting for the opening that would allow us to swing the killing tail slash. I flashed on the scene with Visser Three. This was the second time I had gone tail to tail with an enemy. This time my foe would not escape. TSEEEWWW! T.o. Harelin! He had snatched up the fallen Shredder and fired. The captain sizzled, looked horrified, then disappeared. 8Computer!"; the T.o. yelled. 8Emergency override, switch controls to manual!"; WHAM! Too late! The Ascalin hit the ground hard. I was thrown off my hooves. My human friends, all back in their own bodies now, went rolling and tumbling. Only the T.o. managed to stay on his feet. 8Computer, emergency liftoff!"; 8Unable to comply,"; the disembodied voice said. 8There is severe main engine damage."; I saw Harelin rock back on his hooves at this news. 8Humans, remorph! The only way out of here is to be invisible. Aristh, you, too."; 8I'm not running away!"; 8allyes, you are, Aristh Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. You and the humans will escape and get word of this evil to the commander. That is an order."; 8But--"; 8Do you know how to take an order?"; he roared. 8allyes, sir."; 8Morph something small. I'll blow you out the emergency hatch. Get as far from the Ascalin as you can. You won't have much time. Do you hear me?"; I knew then what he was going to do. I knew he had no choice. He could not allow himself to be taken by the Yeerks. He could not allow any of the Andalites on board to be taken alive. And there was simply no way to escape this trap. 8Prince Jake, we all have to morph small. Um ... um ... flies! Morph to flies, and fly up to the ceiling of the bridge. There's an escape hatch."; I noticed Rachel looking at me with total disdain. Then she looked to Prince Jake. "What do we do?" "What he said," Prince Jake said. "Do it." I focused my own mind on the fly morph. I expected T.o. Harelin's face to reveal surprise or horror as I began to undergo the changes. After all, flies are pretty horrific even by Earth standards. But the T.o. wasn't interested. He was staggering now from the loss of blood. And he was making an announcement that would be transmitted throughout the ship. 8To all warriors and crew of the Ascalin. This is the tactical officer. The captain is dead. We are surrounded. No chance of escape. Nothing to do now but inflict the maximum damage on the Yeerks. In three minutes I will begin firing all ship's weapons. The Shredder flashback will cause the ship to explode."; He let this sink in for a moment. 8Perform the ritual of death, my friends. Thank you for your service to this ship. You die in the service of the People, defending freedom."; I was shrinking rapidly. The deck was rushing up toward me. Insect legs and insect antennae sprouted from me. But I was Andalite, at one with every Andalite on the ship. From all over the ship, a hundred thought-speak voices spoke the words of the ritual. I couldn't help but join them. 8I am the servant of the People,"; I said. I should have bowed my head, but I no longer had a head that could bow. 8I am the servant of my prince."; All over the ship I knew my fellow Andalites were raising their stalk eyes upward. 8I am the servant of honor,"; I said, and heard the echo of all those strong voices. 8My life is not my own, when the People have need of it. My life is given for the People, for my prince, and for my honor."; I fired the fly's legs, started the wings beating, and flew up toward the escape hatch. I have never felt worse than I did at that moment. So many would die. And I would live. 8.Aristh?"; the T.o. said weakly. 8allyes?"; 8Maybe I was wrong. Maybe different races can be stronger together. Go with your humans and prove me wrong."; The escape hatch blew open before I could answer. A powerful rush of escaping air launched me out into the Leeran dusk. 8Jake ... Prince Jake,"; I said. 8We must get as far away as we can."; We flew, rolling and tumbling through the air, riding the strong breeze wherever it took us. When the Ascalin blew itself up, we were safe from the blast. And safe, too, from the thought-speak cries of a hundred dying heroes.

  CHAPTER 16

  8Okay. Now what?"; Rachel said. I didn't have an answer. I couldn't think. I just kept turning it over and over in my mind: An Andalite ship's captain had turned traitor. It was impossible. Because the more I thought about it, the more I realized he could not have been a Controller. The Ascalin had been in space for weeks. In order for a Yeerk parasite to have lived in Captain Samilin's brain, it would have to have had Kandrona rays. There was no way for even the captain to conceal a portable Kandrona aboard the ship. 8I said ... now what?"; Rachel repeated. 8I don't know,"; I said. 8Well, if you don't, who does?"; she demanded. 8What are we going to do? Fly around looking for the nearest Dumpster so we can see if there's a tasty pile of rotting fruit? Come on, we need a plan."; 8I ... I ... I don't know what to do."; 8We need to find a way home,"; Marco said. 8Obviously, thanks to Captain Benedict Arnold back there, this whole war is going bad on us. I didn't think the almighty Andalites did things like that. I thought it was just us poor, dumb, primitive humans who'd sell out to the bad guys."; 8How about everyone getting off Ax's back?"; Tobias said. 8allyeah, poor Ax,"; Rachel sneered. 8He throws us over in a flash for his big deal captain who, oops, turns out to be a traitor."; 8Rachel, I don't think that's really fair,"; Cassie argued. 8Fair? Fair?!"; Marco yelled. 8If it wasn't for us totally ignoring Ax and his precious captain, Ax would be dead back there along with--"; 8I wish I were!"; I cried. 8I wish I were back there with them. I wish I had died with them."; I had not intended to say that. And I did not mean it. Not really. I wanted to live. I felt terrible about it, but I wanted to live. 8Okay, everyone shut up,"; Prince Jake said at last. 8That was rough, what happened back there. A lot of good guys just died. Everyone is hyped up. So let's just chill."; He waited a few moments before going on. 8Here's what we do. We keep flying till we're near the two-hour limit. We won't get far in these bodies, even with this breeze, but we want as much distance as we can get."; We flew in silence, seeing the strange planet through the distorted compound eyes of flies, hearing almost nothing, smelling things we could not identify. We were alone in silence with our thoughts. And after a while I almost wished the yel
ling and accusations would start again. It's a terrible thing, living when so many others have died. It's terrible because no matter what you do, a single thought keeps popping up in your head: I'm glad it wasn't me. I was glad it wasn't me. We landed amid a tumble of rocks that would hide us from view. We demorphed. From what I could recall of the display on board the Ascalin, we were in a no-person's land between the Yeerk and Andalite forces. The battle could sweep over us at any moment. "Okay, I'm calm now," Rachel said as soon as she had emerged from the fly morph. "So now that I'm calm, same question: Now what?" "What do you think about having Tobias take a look around?" Prince Jake asked me. 8I don't know,"; I said. Prince Jake looked at me with a narrowing of the eyes and pressing together of the lips. The expression is "annoyance," I believe. "Tobias? Go up and take a quick look," Prince Jake said. Tobias flapped up from the ground. Prince Jake looked at me. "Now, listen up, Ax. I know you're feeling bad. For lots of reasons, probably. But you feeling bad doesn't let you off the hook." 8What hook?"; "Look, we got Andalites shooting at Yeerks. We have no humans in this fight except for us. Maybe you're not the big expert, but you know more than we know. So snap out of it." Tobias circled overhead and came quickly back down to land somewhat painfully on a point of rock. 8We have about a thousand heavily armed Hork-Bajir on one side, coming toward us fast. They're backed up by these kind of big, flat, oval ships flying maybe a quarter mile up and firing Dracon beams. Taxxons coming behind them. And over there, we have about two dozen Andalite ships, also low down, and maybe a hundred tough-looking Andalites on the ground. I may be wrong, but I don't think the good guys are gonna win this round."; 8We should try and reach the Andalite forces,"; I said. 8Why, so some other Andalite traitor can rat us out?"; Rachel said harshly. My tail blade was at her throat before I knew it. She stared at me with cool, blue human eyes. "What's the matter, Ax? Does the truth hurt? You blew us off so you could suck up to Captain Creep back there. If we go and find more Andalites, what happens? You tell us to go sit in a corner and be nice while you start yes, sir-+ and no, sir-+ the next Andalite you see?" I pulled my tail blade back, horrified that I'd gotten so emotional. I felt the anger drain away. Rachel was right. 8I made a mistake trusting Captain Samilin. I made a mistake dismissing all of you. You have ... you have kept me alive and befriended me for a long time. All I can say is that none of you knows what it's like to be completely cut off from your own people."; 8One of us does,"; Tobias said quietly. 8All I can do is say I'm sorry. And I will consider Jake my prince until he says otherwise."; I turned to face Prince Jake, focusing all my eyes on him. 8ally are my prince until you, and only you, say otherwise."; For once he did not say, "Don't call me prince." Instead he said, "Fine. Now what I want to know is this: Is there anyone on the Andalite side we can be totally sure of?" It was a hurtful question. I felt the last of my pride melting away. 8The commander. If he were a Yeerk spy, this entire battle would already be lost."; "It looks pretty lost to me," Marco said bluntly. 8Force Commander Prince Galuit-Enilon-Esgarrouth lost his entire family to a Yeerk raid on an Andalite outpost. His entire family: wife and three children. They died rather than be captured. Their bodies were fed to the Taxxons. We can trust Prince Galuit."; I sighed. 8And we probably should trust ... no one else.";

  CHAPTER 17

  It sounded simple: Reach the Andalite forces. But it is a very dangerous thing, advancing toward a lot of angry, very dangerous, very heavily armed, very nervous warriors. 8The automated defensive grid will fire at anything in the air that comes too close,"; I warned. 8Anything. If it is more than a few feet above the ground the sensors will pick it up, target it, and fire."; "This ground is too rough to walk over," Cassie said thoughtfully. "And it's getting dark. We could try smaller birds. The seagull morphs again. No, wait! Bats! Not as fast, but very agile. And with echolocation we can fly close to the ground even in the dark." "To the bat morph, Robin!" Marco said, with cheerfulness that seemed totally out of place. "We morph, then we fly, hugging the ground the whole way," Jake said. "Once behind Andalite lines we try and figure out a way to reach this Prince Galuit." He looked at me. "And whatever happens, we stay out of this battle till we reach Galuit. Understood?" 8allyes, Prince Jake."; Prince Jake looked at me with an unsmiling mouth. Then he said, "Don't call me prince," and formed a small smile with his mouth parts. 8allyes, Prince Jake,"; I said. I had been in bat morph before, and after doing mosquito and fly morphs it seems almost normal. It has fur, for one thing. And I find fur very comforting, even when it is dark brown and very different from my own blue. But bats are almost cripples on the ground. Bat legs are stunted and clumsy, and their front legs--or arms, whatever--are encumbered by leathery wings. Being unable to run is disturbing for any Andalite. I focused on the bat, this strange creature from a strange planet so far away. I shrank, down and down as if I were falling. As if I mi ght fall into one of the thousands of bubbles in the volcanic rock beneath me. My front legs withered and left me almost facedown on the rock. My tail blade crinkled, like a burning leaf. The crinkling, withering worked its way up my tail. I couldn't help but picture the tactical officer in those horrible moments after the captain had struck and cut away his tail. I hadn't liked T.o. Harelin. He seemed to me like too many older officers: full of prejudices and arrogance. But he had been a true Andalite. He had died a hero. Now my hind legs began to shrink, staying perfectly symmetrical till they were quite small. Then, at the last moment, tiny claws replaced the hooves. My arms moved back, rotating a few degrees around my body. My fingers elongated relative to the rest of the arm, which was shrinking. Skin began to grow in loose, gray-then-black folds. It hung down from my arms as if I were wearing very loose human clothing. Clothing is pliable fabric designed to cover the human body. Sometimes as protection against the cold. But mostly, as I understand it, because humans believe much of their body to be unacceptable. They are right, of course, but they cover all the wrong parts: There is nothing uglier than a human nose. The loose-hanging skin tightened and became wings. My ears grew larger. And of course, like almost all Earth creatures, I acquired a mouth. I could see quite well. Not as well as a bird of prey, but almost as well as a human. But sight is not the special power of bats. The special power bats have is the ability to fire a series of ultrasonic sounds that bounce off solid objects and send back a sonic picture to the bats. The Leeran sun was dropping fast. The bat eyes were already straining to see. But I had a perfectly clear picture of the rocks around me. 8Okay, let's go find this Andalite honcho,"; Marco said. I flapped my wings and flew. Once more in the company of my human friends. I felt strangely at home. As though, despite Prince Jake's anger and Marco's sneering and Rachel's outright suspicion, I belonged with them. For some reason at that moment, even with the images of death aboard the Ascalin fresh in my mind, I saw myself far away, in a very different body, eating delicious cinnamon buns with a mouth. I wanted to be back there. I wanted to be back on Earth. Captain Samilin had sold out to the Yeerks. Was I selling out to the humans?

  CHAPTER 18

  I flapped my leathery wings and fired my echolocation bursts and flew just inches above the rocks. The bat's echolocation sense created a sort of picture, like a sketchy line drawing, with edges all sharp and clear and surfaces just sort of scribbled in. I dived between rocks, and rose just millimeters before hitting obstructions. I turned left, right, left in sudden, acrobatic jerks. 8This is insane!"; Marco yelled. Insane can mean several things when used by Marco. It can mean "stupid" or it can mean "fun." I think in this case it meant fun. Because as insane as it was, it was exhilarating. 8allyee-hah!"; Rachel yelled, then laughed her feral, dangerous laugh. Soon it was a sort of precarious game: How close could I fly to the jagged rock edges without ripping a wing or crushing my fragile bat bones in an impact? And it took my mind off darker, muddier thoughts. Then the exquisitely sensitive bat ears, the ears that could hear the echoes of hypersonic echolocation heard something new. A hum. A vast, pulsating hum that grew and grew as we flew on. 8Prince Jake, I believe we are heari
ng the Andalite sensors,"; I said. 8Oh, that's what that is?"; Cassie remarked. 8Almost like music."; We flew on, low, occasionally scraping on jutting rocks. Then-- 8Whoa! Pull up! Pull up!"; Cassie cried. She was in the lead. I shot upward. TSEEEWWWW! The blast of the Dracon beams and Shredders was deafening. The flashes were blinding to the bat's eyes. Hork-Bajir, twenty at least, were piling up against a group of three Andalites and two Leerans. The fighting was intense. It would be over in a few minutes. It would be a slaughter. But Prince Jake had ordered us to stay out of it. And I would not abandon him and my human friends again. And yet, a phalanx of Taxxons was moving in to finish off the wounded Andalites who had already fallen. To my surprise, it was Cassie who said, 8Jake, we should do something."; 8Didn't I say we had to stay out of the battles?"; Prince Jake demanded. 8allyeah, that's what you said,"; Tobias answered. 8So what are we really going to do?"; Prince Jake hesitated. Then he said, 8Okay, let's rescue them. Land, demorph, remorph, fast, fast, fast!"; But before we could land, the entire rock bowl where the Andalites and Leerans stood exploded. Ka-Booom! The shock wave sent me spinning through the air. I landed on my back, half-unconscious, deafened, blood in my eyes. And overhead the Yeerk ground attack fighter swept by to the hoarse cheering of the Hork-Bajir. A huge, clawed foot landed inches from me. Hork-Bajir ran over me, stampeding in a forward rush, ignoring the tiny, winged creature that was me. They fired their Dracon beams steadily, yelling with triumph in their voices. I heard no answering Andalite Shredders. The Yeerk forces were advancing. The Andalite line was broken. 8Prince Jake!"; I called. 8Tobias!"; 8Get in the air!"; Prince Jake yelled back to all of us. 8Everyone who can fly, up! Get up!"; Could I fly? Yes! I rose from the ground just as the first wave of Taxxons came rushing forward. Taxxons are huge, long worms. Like Earth centipedes, only much larger. Taxxons live in a state of eternal hunger. Desperate hunger. They will eat anything--dead or alive. Even their own fallen or injured brothers. I fluttered past an open, questing Taxxon mouth. I saw a fellow bat, flying just a few feet above me. I saw it very clearly. And then, in an instant, it was gone. Simply gone. 8Where's Tobias?"; Rachel cried. 8Tobias!"; I cried. 8He ... he disappeared!"; 8What do you mean, he disappeared?"; Prince Jake demanded. 8I saw him. I was watching him. And he just disappeared."; Now, twenty feet up, I could see more of the battlefield. The line of Hork-Bajir was already far ahead of us. Taxxons writhed across the dark landscape below. If there were Andalites anywhere nearby, they had been destroyed. In my mind I pictured the tactical display aboard the Ascalin. I could see where we were and where the forces had been arrayed. 8We've lost,"; I whispered, not sure if anyone even heard me. 8We've lost."; As if to confirm my grim realization, I saw the engine flares of a dozen or more distant Andalite ships rising from the surface of planet Leera. Rising, and running for their lives.