The Alien (13 page)

Then . . . galloping!

Four sharp hooves beating across the meadow. My tongue flicked and smelled him on the wind.

Yes. He was coming closer.

Yes, he would come to the stream.

A shadow. He was there! Overhead. He blotted out the sun.

My snake tongue smell-tasted him. My lidless, always-open eyes saw his belly overhead like a curved roof. I felt his warmth.

He stuck one hoof into the cool water to drink. No time to think. He could move at any moment.

T-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S!

A sound! What was it?

Me! It was coming from me! My tail!

A rattlesnake's tail! It had sounded its grim warning without conscious thought.

I saw the Visser's head lowered. I saw his two main eyes focus. I could read the dawning fear in his eyes.

SSSSSS-ZAAPP!

I struck! My coiled muscles fired all at once. My head rocketed through the air. My mouth opened wide. My fangs came down.

STRIKE!

Fangs sank deep into Andalite flesh. I could feel the venom pumping! I could feel the toxin shooting into Visser Three's leg.

He jerked.

I released.

He tried to back away. He was very fast. But I was so much faster.

STRIKE!

Pump the venom into him. Poison the monster. Poison the Abomination. Poison Elfangor's murderer.

I drew back. I could taste my own venom dripping from my fangs.

His tail swept over his head, lancing down at me.

But I was already gone. The blade sliced deep into the ground. I felt the wind of it as I slithered swiftly away.

I ordered myself.

Still the Visser had not called his guards. He would be wondering. He wouldn't know how dangerous the snake was. He wouldn't realize at first that it was not a true snake. Then slowly he would begin to suspect.

I was racing at breakneck speed through the grass. Behind me my rope body twisted and coiled and released and slithered. But my head stayed level and straight, flying at ground level through the grass.

I was twenty yards away when my snake body grew slow and sluggish from the changes. Tiny legs appeared, just stubs at first. Tiny stalk eyes grew from the broad top of my diamond-shaped head.

Visser Three roared.

I struggled on, heading for the edge of the forest.

Then . . . body warmth! A warm-blooded animal. Just ahead of me.

My tongue flicked and smelled an aroma I knew. Hork-Bajir!

Hork-Bajir, the shock troops of the Yeerk empire. A peaceful, decent race that happened, as Marco often said, to be built like lawn mowers. Bladed arms. Bladed legs. Tearing, clawed feet. A slow but deadly tail. They were all Controllers. All slaves of the Yeerks in their heads.

I could move no farther. I was no longer a snake. Not yet an Andalite. And the Hork-Bajir was just a few feet away.

Too close!

I thought,

My Andalite stalk eyes had emerged. I was rising slowly from the grass on my spindly Andalite legs. My tail was forming again.

I saw the Hork-Bajir. And I saw that he saw me.

There was nothing I could do. Nothing I could do but die.

The Hork-Bajir swung his bladed right arm like a scythe. It would hit me in the neck.

WHUMPH! The Hork-Bajir staggered. His blade arm sliced the air above me.

“HhhhhuuuurrrrrOOOOWWWWRRR!” A roar! But not the roar of a Hork-Bajir.

The Hork-Bajir went flying! Seven feet of deadly, dangerous Hork-Bajir warrior just cartwheeled through the air.

And where he had been now stood Rachel.

Of course, not the human Rachel with long blond hair and cool blue eyes. This was another Rachel. Rachel in the morph of a grizzly bear.

The bear was on its hind legs, standing even taller than the Hork-Bajir had stood. With claws that almost rivaled the Hork-Bajir's blades. And muscles powerful enough to simply throw a Hork-Bajir ten feet.

“HHHHuurrhhoooorrwww!” the bear growled wildly.

I asked wonderingly.

she said, in that human tone that means sarcasm.

I was almost fully Andalite again. I swept the meadow quickly with my stalk eyes. Visser Three was in the middle of the field. Two Hork-Bajir were rushing to his side, bounding through the grass.

Across the meadow at the far end, a third Hork-Bajir looked around wildly, with his Dracon beam at the ready. He looked in every direction but up.

From the tree above him something that seemed almost liquid, something orange and black, dropped, claws outstretched.

Prince Jake!

And in the sky overhead, a hawk wheeled in low circles above the field.

Tobias announced.

Rachel said to me.

my
responsibility,> I said to Rachel.

Tobias swooped past, skimming just above the grass, rocketing toward Visser Three.

I accused him.

I asked.

I said.

We raced toward the Visser and his guards. Rachel, a huge, rolling brown tidal wave, and me. Above us Tobias flew.

Just as we drew close, I saw Visser Three stagger.

The toxin! The venom! It was working.

Visser Three buckled and fell to the ground.

The two Hork-Bajir quailed. They saw Rachel barreling through the tall grass. They saw Prince Jake, a striped demon coming from the other side. They saw Marco in gorilla morph and Cassie, an eager wolf, teeth bared.

Tobias had reached the Visser. He soared past him and up, up, up into the air, beating frantically.

Worst of all, they saw an Andalite. The enemy they feared most.

I called to them.

The Hork-Bajir-Controllers made their decision quickly. Hork-Bajir can be very fast, once they decide to run.

The Visser was down. Alone. Helpless, as we came to a stop in a circle around him. He was as helpless as Elfangor had been at the end.

I looked up. Why was Tobias . . . ?

Tobias cried.

He drew back his wings and dived at full speed. He plummeted toward the earth at racing speed, killing speed! His talons came forward. It looked as if he would hit the ground. Then . . .

Tobias cried. He swooped up and away, back up into the sky.

I heard Prince Jake yell in thought-speak.

I cried.

It took several seconds for my brain to comprehend. I couldn't make sense of it. It was impossible to believe.

I asked.

Tobias confirmed.

I looked down at the creature I thought of as Visser Three. But of course the real Visser was a gray slug, a Yeerk. This body was the body of an Andalite.

The Visser was gone. Escaped.

The Andalite was breathing, but seemed unable to move. He looked up at me with his main eyes.

I had faced Visser Three before. I had felt the evil force that flows from him. That evil was gone now. This was only an Andalite. The Yeerk was gone.

the Andalite managed to gasp.

I felt my hearts stop. It was more than I could stand. After years of being controlled by Visser Three, the mind of the Andalite host was still alive. Still aware. I said.

I said desperately.

the Andalite said, begging.

He tried to raise his own Andalite tail. He tried to bring the blade to his throat. But the venom had weakened him. His tail fell limp.

he said at last, with sadness so deep it burned me to hear.

He reached up with one weakened hand. I took his hand in mine.

His fingers were limp. He fell silent, unconscious.

I set his hand down by his side. I knew that the next time I saw this face, it would once more be the face of my enemy. The Abomination. Visser Three.

Prince Jake said.

Tobias said.

“Give me liberty or give me death.” A human named Patrick Henry said that. I wonder if the Yeerks knew before they came to conquer Earth that humans said things like that. I wonder if the Yeerks knew what they were getting into.

— From the Earth Diary of Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill

W
e call it the law of
Seerow's Kindness
,> I said. We were in the woods where I live. The woods of the planet called Earth.

Two days had passed since the terrible events in the meadow. I had thought a great deal in those two days. I had thought about everything. Then I had asked my human friends if they would join me.

“What's it mean?” Rachel asked.

She was standing with her arms crossed. I believe it was an expression of skepticism.

I explained.

“You don't want any competition,” Marco said. “You Andalites want to be able to stay on top. I understand that. But humans are on your side. We're the ones being taken over.”

“Marco,” Prince Jake said. “Chill. Let Ax tell his own story.”

I saw my human friends stiffen. Tobias flitted to a lower branch, drawing closer.

“Oh my God,” Cassie whispered. “That's the big secret. That's the shame the Andalites are hiding.”

“What?” Rachel asked. “What's the big secret?”

“Seerow gave the Yeerks advanced technology, didn't he?” Cassie asked.

I nodded.

For a while no one spoke. I knew what to expect. These humans had first seen Andalites as heroes. Then they had come to be suspicious. Now I had just confirmed their suspicions. Now they would see that Andalites were not the great saviors of the galaxy.