The Hork-Bajir Chronicles

  «Call up to them. Tell them not to be afraid,» I said again.

  Dak raised his face up to the trees. "Do not fear! I am Dak Hamee. I am the seer, sent to teach and to lead. Do not be afraid! These monsters will not harm you. We go to destroy the invaders! We go to kill the Yeerks!"

  Still the Hork-Bajir clung to the bark and the branches.

  "Follow us," Dak cried. "Stay in the trees, but follow us! Watch us and learn!"

  «Watch your seer!» I yelled in bold thought-speak. «Watch him and do as he does. He is the seer! The seer has been sent to lead you. Watch him and do as he does. Watch Dak Hamee, and do as he does! Do as he does! Do as he does!»

  131 "You've come to understand we Hork-Bajir very well in so short a time," Dak said coldly. "A simple, repeated message for a simple people."

  «They need to understands I said. «We are getting close.»

  I could feel the Yeerk camp ahead of us. I could smell the stale stink of the Yeerk pool.

  «When the battle begins I will race for the closest parked spacecraft^ I explained. «The most important thing is that we get a message out to the Andalite fleet. Everything rests on that. It will be up to you to carry on the battle, once it has started. You must not weaken. Attack, attack, attack. Don't give the Yeerks a chance to regroup. Don't forget: The Hork-Bajir in that camp are not Hork-Bajir. They are Yeerks. »

  Dak nodded his horned head. "Have you fought in many battles, Aldrea?"

  I was surprised by the question. «No. Of course not. But I have studied ?»

  "Have you ever killed a fellow Andalite?"

  «No! Why would you ?»

  "You ask me to kill my own people today and to lead my people in killing their brothers," Dak said. "You say they are not Hork-Bajir, but Yeerks. But when the dead have given up their souls to Mother Sky, there will be Hork-Bajir bodies lying dead."

  «Dak, we've been over this and over this!» I ex-

  131

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  132 ploded. «lt's too late to be worrying about all that. This is a war! If you want your people to survive, you will ?»

  "Be quiet, Aldrea," Dak said.

  He didn't shout. He said it calmly, in a low voice.

  "These are my people who will die today. Be quiet, Andalite. Be quiet."

  133

  DAK HAMOT

  We marched up the valley. We marched beneath the trees. In the branches overhead, more and more Hork-Bajir were following us. Hundreds now. All watching, waiting.

  They were chanting as they swung from branch to branch. They were chanting "Do as he does. Do as he does."

  Aldrea had done her job well. She had created a simple instruction for my fellow Hork-Bajir. She was very clever. The Andalites are a very clever species. Like the Yeerks. Like the Arn.

  We had been created by one brilliant species, invaded and enslaved by another. And now a third was using us.

  But as I marched I saw no way out. That was what made me feel as sick as someone who has eaten yellow bark. There was no other way for us. We had become tools to be used by smarter, more powerful species.

  134 "Do as he does, do as he does."

  Suddenly, they were right there in front of us. They had cut down the Speaking Tree. It lay across our path uphill, held in place by a pair of Stoola trees.

  Hork-Bajir armed with shredders stood atop the felled Nawin tree and gaped down at us. Other Hork-Bajir fled before us, rushing back to their brothers. A few fired shredders at us. One monster lost an arm. It meant nothing.

  We stopped just a few dozen yards from the felled tree. We could see the enemy clearly. They could see us.

  There were only twenty or thirty Hork-Bajir-Controllers that I could see. But Aldrea had warned that more would arrive quickly. And, I knew, the Yeerk pool they'd built in the bowels of the felled tree would hold hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Yeerks in their natural state.

  Beyond the tree, to the left, was a spacecraft. Aldrea said it had been an Andalite spacecraft. That was her goal.

  She remained silent beside me, but I could feel her agitation, her eagerness.

  "Are you ready, Aldrea?" I asked.

  «Yes.»

  I focused my mind as the Arn had taught us to do. I sent the simple instruction to the hulking army

  135 of monsters behind us. Their brains, simpler than even the simplest Hork-Bajir, understood the one-word order: Kill.

  "Kill," I said, looking at Aldrea.

  She did not look back at me. Instead she focused all her eyes forward. «For my mother. For my brother. For my father, Prince Seerow. KILL!»

  We surged forward, a mass of demons. We surged up the hill. Great, powerful monsters, careless of gravity, bounded and slithered and shuffled and leaped at the Yeerks.

  TSEEEW! TSEEEW!

  Shredders fired.

  RrrrAAAWWWRRRRR! A monster screamed as it burst into flame.

  TSEEEW! TSEEEW!

  I felt shredder blasts hit the ground beside me. But now I was running ? terrified, but running forward.

  TSEEEW! TSEEEW!

  "Aaahhhh!" I cried as a near miss burned a semicircle in my shoulder.

  «Attack!» Aldrea screamed.

  TSEEEW! TSEEEW! TSEEEW! TSEEEW!

  Shredder fire everywhere. A Jubba-Jubba exploded! A Lerdethak twisted, burning, writhing. But the monsters were under our control. They were incapable of running away.

  136 Only a dozen yards to the felled tree.

  Nine yards.

  Five!

  TSEEEW! TSEEEW!

  Aldrea raced straight for the felled Nawin tree. The monsters were all around us. I felt I must be losing my mind.

  "Aarrrrrggghhh!" A vast, yellow beast looked down to see a hole through its own stomach. A hole that smoked and sizzled.

  We had reached the tree! It was a curved wall above us.

  Up the stairs I ran, now screaming. Screaming in some mix of terror and hatred.

  A Jubba-Jubba simply climbed up the side of the tree, passing me and leaping on the stunned defenders. The Jubba-Jubba grabbed the nearest Hork-Bajir-Controller, opened his vast mouth, and swallowed him from head to waist.

  More monsters clambered up. Hork-Bajir-Controllers broke and ran. But others were rushing up from behind, trying to hold the line.

  I was atop the Nawin tree. I could see the way the Yeerks had cut into it, opening it up to create a pool. It was not water? not water as I knew it, anyway. It was as dark as dirt, heavy, slow. And within it I saw flashes of slugs rippling here and there.

  137 Yeerks. As Aldrea had told me. Those were Yeerks.

  I stood atop the tree and looked around me. Aldrea racing for the parked fighter. Monsters killing and being killed. Hork-Bajir-Controllers firing shredders in panic as they were torn apart. Screaming, roaring, crying, shouting!

  And up in the trees, hundreds of my fellow Hork-Bajir, all watching. Not understanding, but watching to see what I would do.

  "Do as he does," they murmured still.

  "Die!"

  A shout from behind me. I spun. A Hork-Bajir-Controller, rushing at me, blades flashing.

  I ducked beneath the swinging arc of his wrist blade.

  I rose up, pushed his head back, and kicked into his stomach with my foot. The claws opened him up. He fell from the tree, rolled down the side, and landed at the feet of a Gal Hash. The Gal Hash . . .

  It doesn't matter what the Galilash did.

  What matters is that my people, the people I was to lead as seer, had seen what I did.

  "Do as he does!" they cried.

  They began to drop from the trees. And then the final horror began.

  138

  ALDREA

  The battle raged!

  I raced along the front of the log Yeerk pool. Between raging monsters and shouting, shredder-firing Hork-Bajir-Controllers.

  I had never experienced anything like it before. It was not what I had expected. The shouts and cries. The moans of pain. Brilliant explosions going off eve
rywhere. The smell of charred flesh.

  I ran in panic, only barely remembering my goal. I reached the end of the log and turned right, racing uphill again toward the fighter that was parked there.

  No guards! The Yeerks who should have been protecting the fighter had rushed to join the battle. A fatal mistake!

  I ran for the fighter. The Yeerks had even left the hatch open. It was incredible. So easy!

  I plowed inside, skidding to a halt. The noise of

  139 battle seemed farther off now. Like it was happening somewhere else entirely. I heard less shredder fire.

  Focus, Aldrea, I told myself. I was trembling. I stood before the communications panel. The Yeerks had altered some of the controls, but it was still basically a familiar Andalite panel.

  «Computer, activate communications array,» I ordered. «Outgoing message. First address: Andalite home world. Priority one, two-way communication demanded. Second address: Andalite space fleet. Priority one, two-way communication demanded.»

  «Ready,» the computer said.

  «Open channels,» I said.

  «Channels open. Begin message.»

  I faced the panel. I tried to compose my expression. I knew I must look pretty wild. More to the point, I looked young. And female. The Andalite military was almost entirely male.

  «This is Aldrea-lskillion-Falan. I am communicating from the Hork-Bajir home world. I ?»

  Out of the corner of one stalk eye I saw the threatening shape loom up behind me. I spun and whipped my tail around. But the Hork-Bajir-Controller was quick. He blocked my tail blade.

  He delivered a backhanded blow that connected solidly with my face. My legs buckled. I fell to my knees.

  140 "I don't think I can allow you to call for help, Al-drea, daughter of Seerow."

  My head was spinning. But even as I slumped over onto the deck, I thought, Why isn't he using his blades on me? He could easily destroy me.

  The Hork-Bajir-Controller pressed one of his claw feet down on my upper body, pinning me down, helpless, unable to reach him with my tail.

  "Computer. Terminate communication."

  «Communication terminated.»

  The Hork-Bajir-Controller looked down at me. "You've caused a lot of trouble, Andalite. Your friends are busily butchering my people out there."

  «Go ahead. You want to kill me. Go ahead!» I cried with a lot more courage than I really felt. I was sick with fear. And just plain sick from the spinning in my head.

  "Kill you? No, no, no. Not me," he said. "I don't want to kill you. I want to make you my host. I will be the first Andalite-Controller ever. I will have complete access to your every secret, to all the scientific and technical knowledge you possess. See, I've studied you Andalites. I admire you."

  He didn't want to kill me? Then there might be time. Just maybe enough time. I had to stall him. Distract ?

  WHUMPF! The kick came without warning.

  «Argghhh!» I groaned. I nearly passed out.

  141 "Terribly sorry, but I need you to stay put. I'm going to power up this fighter and use its shredders to cut down your little army of DNA mistakes."

  The kick had knocked the wind out of me. I think I actually did pass out, but only briefly. I couldn't move, but I could still think. And what I thought of was a single, simple picture.

  The picture of a Jubba-Jubba monster.

  The Yeerk was busy powering up the shredders. And then busy using the fighter's maneuvering thrusters to turn it toward the battle, bringing the shredders to bear.

  One blast from the powerful shredders at this point-blank range would end the battle. He was actually laughing to himself as he brought the weapons around.

  Then he noticed.

  "Aaahhh!" He jumped back, eyes wide in disbelief.

  I was halfway morphed. Halfway morphed into a Jubba-Jubba monster.

  «l don't guess you Yeerks know about this bit of new technology yet,» I said.

  "What are you doing?"

  I reached for him and closed my huge, three-fingered hand around his neck.

  «What am I doing? Destroying you, Yeerk. This is for my brother. For my mother. And for my fa-

  t

  142 ther.» I tightened my grip. The power in my hand was incredible! I could easily have ripped him apart. I felt the dull monster mind, barely more than a flicker of simplest intelligence, not even sentient. I felt its blunt violence. Its powerful DNA-encoded urge to destroy.

  But I had practiced the morph. I knew how to dominate the monster's instincts. I knew how to keep my own Andalite mind in complete control. And that proved to be a mistake.

  The monster would have snuffed out the life of the Yeerk without a second thought. But I was an Andalite. We are not beasts. The Hork-Bajir-Controller's tongue lolled out. He flailed helplessly. His eyes rolled up into his head. He stopped thrashing.

  I released my pressure. And I still felt the life in his neck.

  I carried him to the hatch and threw him outside. I closed the hatch and secured it. And then I de-morphed.

  «Computer, resume previous communications

  «Begin messages

  «This is Aldrea-lskillion-Falan. I am communicating from the Hork-Bajir world. Designation Sector Five, RG-Two-One-Five-Seven-Eight-Four. Prince Seerow, his wife, and son have been killed. I am his daughters

  143 A face had appeared on the screen before me. A young warrior, oozing arrogance.

  «The announcement of Prince Seerow's death is hardly a priority-one messager» he sneered. Priority one is reserved for messages of the utmost ?»

  I was not feeling patient. I'd been punched, kicked, and stomped. «Then maybe this will be important enough for you: The Yeerks are here. Here in force, in orbit, and on the ground.»

  The young warrior nearly fell over. «What?»

  «l said the Yeerks are here.»

  143

  144

  DAK HAMOT

  The monsters were cut down, one by one, falling over each other, piles of twisted, hideous flesh.

  But the Hork-Bajir dropped from the trees and did as I had shown them: They attacked the Hork-Bajir-Controllers. The first battle in all the history of our people. The first time any Hork-Bajir had killed another.

  I saw the parked fighter begin to turn. Then it stopped.

  I saw a fighter come swooping down from the sky. It hovered above the trees, but did not open fire. The reason was simple: It did not know whom to shoot. Or how. Both sides were intermingled in terrifying hand-to-hand combat.

  Then the parked fighter began to turn again. The swooping shredder mounts came to bear on us. I waited, wondering who was holding the trigger of those powerful weapons.

  145 Then, a faint thought-speak voice, weak from being so far away. «Dak! Get off the log! Get all your people off the log!»

  "Everyone down! Follow me!" I yelled. I leaped to the ground and dozens of my people followed. We ran a short distance down the hill. The Yeerks atop the log cheered. They thought we were retreating.

  The fighter fired.

  TSEEEEEEW! TSEEEEEW!

  The shredder beams sliced into and through the Nawin tree. The beams hit the liquid of the Yeerk pool inside. A huge explosion of steam followed.

  "Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!" Hork-Bajir-Controllers screamed. They fell. Some ran away. Others struggled to get to their feet but were jumped by four, five, six of my fellow Hork-Bajir.

  Suddenly, the log broke in two. It broke open, gushing the contents of the Yeerk pool out onto the ground. The heavy gray water rolled down toward us like the runoff from a rainstorm.

  It washed over my feet. Over my toes. But it left behind a pile of slithering, squirming slugs. The Yeerks of the pool were now helpless upon the ground.

  I did not give the order. My friend Jagil did. Gentle, fearful Jagil. He had learned a great deal in twenty minutes of combat.

  146 "Kill them!" he cried. "Kill them! Do as Dak Hamee has done. Kill them!"

  The remaining Controllers ran.
Ran for their lives. Ran screaming through the trees. I don't know how many survived. Maybe none.

  And my people set about stomping and cutting up the Yeerks who lay on the ground. It was like some nightmare dance.

  Now, at last, the hovering fighter had found a target. It fired at the parked fighter. The blast annihilated the parked ship's shredders. The hatch opened and Aldrea came running out just as the hovering ship fired again and blew the grounded ship apart.

  More fighters were coming down. They were landing and disgorging fresh Hork-Bajir-Controllers and Gedd-Controllers.

  Aldrea came running, breathless. «Time to get out of here!» she cried. «We've accomplished what we wanted.»

  I watched her as she realized what was happening to the Yeerk slugs. What my people were doing to them. Her face changed color. Her breathing stopped. She would not look at me.

  "Yes, quite an accomplishment," I said.

  «We have to get out of here,» she said in a flat tone.

  147 "To the trees!" I roared to my people. "To the trees!"

  They pulled back reluctantly from the slaughter. But they obeyed.

  Obeyed. Me. Hork-Bajir who had never known the word "obedience" now obeyed me. Because I was the seer? Because I was wiser than they? No. Because I had destroyed their past and now they had no choice but to follow me into a future they could not imagine.

  The monsters in our valley were destroyed that day. Only a very few survived. But that was all right, because we didn't need monsters anymore. We had become them.

  148

  ALDREA

  Seven months passed, and the fleet did not come. Not the two months I had expected.

  Perhaps Zero-space had shifted, leaving the Hork-Bajir home world farther away than it had been. That happens frequently. Or maybe the princes simply didn't believe me. Or maybe, maybe, maybe. I went through every "maybe" I could think of. And still the fleet did not come.

  Seven months passed, during which Dak Hamee and I learned the techniques of guerrilla warfare: 1) Strike with the element of surprise at the enemy's weak point. 2) Withdraw before the counterattack can begin. 3) Use the population for support, regardless of reprisals.

  We trained a hard core of Hork-Bajir. We called it the Hork-Bajir army. We captured Yeerk shredders. We attacked Yeerk ground bases. We hid in the trees or among the resentful, fearful Arn. We were brave and resourceful. But we were losing.