Animorphs - The Decision Part 8

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 hearing the Andalite sensors,"; I said.

8Oh, that's what that is?"; Ca.s.sie remarked. 8Almost like music."; We flew on, low, occasionally sc.r.a.ping on jutting rocks. Then-- 8Whoa! Pull up! Pull up!"; Ca.s.sie 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 Ca.s.sie 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 hoa.r.s.e 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.

CHAPTER 19.

We stood, in our own bodies, amid the filthy, reeking waste the Taxxons had left behind. We hadn't found Tobias.

Rachel was alternately crying and raging.

Marco was sitting, silent. Ca.s.sie kept holding on to Prince Jake. And Prince Jake kept pulling away to pace, to mutter to himself, to wonder half-aloud what he should have done. What he could have done.

I stood off by myself. I couldn't help feeling that I was to blame. I was humiliated. I felt sick. I had turned away from my friends and trusted my own people instead. One of my own people had betrayed us. And the rest of my people ... well, they had probably fought well and bravely. But they had lost.

Just like the Hork-Bajir war. We had lost again, and condemned another race to slavery under the Yeerks.

And what a race! The Leerans were amphibians. They could travel in water or on land, although they built their cities underwater. But the terrifying thing was that the Leerans possessed limited but very real psychic powers.

Leeran-Controllers would be able to see past morphs and into the mind inside. It would be impossible to fool them for long. And if Leeran-Controllers were ever brought to Earth, their powers would soon reveal the truth of the Animorphs.

Not that the Animorphs would ever likely be able to return to Earth.

It was Ca.s.sie who shook me out of my dark thoughts. In a whisper she said, "Ax. I don't think Jake wants to have to ask you again, but what do you think we should do?"

8I don't know. We've lost. We're on a strange planet that will soon be under Yeerk domination. We've failed the Leerans, as we failed the Hork-Bajir. As we are failing the humans."; Past Ca.s.sie's head I saw distant red flares from Yeerk ships dropping from orbit to land more and more troops on the continent. Soon the continent would be an impregnable garrison of Yeerk forces.

"Tell me more about the Leerans," Ca.s.sie said.

I shrugged. 8I don't really know any more than you know. They are amphibians. They live primarily in the oceans. Originally I suppose they came on land to lay their eggs. Now I suppose their technology allows them to do all that in their underwater cities."; "So why do they even care about what happens on the land?"

8They wouldn't care. Except that the Yeerks can use the continent as a base for attacks against the underwater cities. Other than that, I don't suppose the Leerans would even ... care ...

what ..."; I stopped breathing. Yes! Of course! Of course that would be Galuit's plan.

"What? What is it?" Ca.s.sie demanded sharply.

8Prince Jake!"; I cried.

"Yeah?"

8We must reach the ocean. If I am right, some Andalites will be in the Leeran cities. In any case, we must get to the sea as quickly as possible!"; "Why?"

I hesitated. 8Prince Jake ...

Jake ... you must trust me. We cannot stay on land. We have to reach the water."; Prince Jake looked at me for a long time.

"Okay," he said at last. "I trust you."

8One more thing,"; I said. 8If at any time it seems the Yeerks may catch us, if it seems they might take me alive, you must not let them. You must destroy me yourself rather than let them take me. Promise me."; "What? Why?"

8Because I think I know what is going to happen. And if I am right, this defeat will become the greatest victory in Andalite history. And that information cannot fall into the hands of the Yeerks. No matter the price. No matter what.";

CHAPTER 20.

The continent was small by continent standards, but it still took the rest of the night to reach the sh.o.r.e. We morphed birds and flew. We stopped when we were near the two-hour limit and rested. And all the while I wondered if there was enough time left.

We flew above scenes of recent carnage.

Burned-out ground skimmers, crumpled Andalite fighters and Yeerk Bug fighters.

As the sun rose on Leera, I looked down and saw a still-smoldering Andalite ground attack ship crumpled into a Yeerk ship. They had hit so hard that you couldn't tell where one left off and the other began.

And then, finally, there was the sea. It stretched forever, brilliant blue, far more vivid and bright than the oceans of Earth, which are usually gray.

I tried to look around and spot some landmark.

Some outline of coastline that would seem familiar from my faint memory of the holographic maps.

But it was just endless miles of muddy shallows, overgrown with rushes and reeds and strange yellow trees that swirled horizontally.

8Big ocean,"; Rachel said. 8How do we--"; 8How do we what?"; Prince Jake asked.

It took several seconds for us to notice, to realize.

Rachel was gone!

8Rachel!"; Ca.s.sie cried.

8Rachel!"; We searched the sky. Nothing. Not even our powerful raptor eyes could see anything. No clue. No sign. Nothing.

8What's happening?"; Marco demanded, angry because he was afraid. 8She was just here!

She was talking!"; 8Ax, what is this?"; Prince Jake asked. 8First Tobias, now Rachel!"; 8I don't know. I don't know."; 8Maybe someone on the ground shot her,"; Ca.s.sie moaned. 8Oh, G.o.d, Rachel!

Rachel!"; 8There was no Dracon flash,"; I said.

8ationothing. One second she was there. The next second she was gone."; 8Maybe it was someone or something on the ground,"; Prince Jake said. 8We have to get out of here. Into the water!"; We dove from the sky. I knew no one had fired at us, but I dove as fast as the humans.

Whatever was making my friends disappear, it scared me. Whatever it was, I didn't want to be in its sights.

Down we dove, wings back.

Splash!

I went under, plowing into the warm water. I instantly began to demorph. I bobbed to the surface, already more Andalite than harrier. The water saturated my feathers, but the feathers were disappearing. I sucked air in through a nasty hole that was part beak and part Andalite nose.

I dove under again, and finished demorphing. I surfaced and found Prince Jake, Ca.s.sie, and Marco all treading water, finishing their own demorphing.

"Dolphin morph!" Prince Jake said.

"Ax, you'll have to morph your tiger shark."

"Wait, no!" Ca.s.sie said. "We don't know what's in this ocean, but the Yeerks thought hammerhead sharks would be the baddest things around, right? That's why they wanted to create shark-Controllers to fight in this ocean. We should all go shark."

"Yeah. Good point," Jake agreed.

"Okay, then. Let's go shark. And everyone watch everyone else. We've had two people disappear. We're not going to have a third!"

Shark, I thought, and began to perform the morph.

I should explain the Earth creatures called sharks. They are fish. They breathe by extracting oxygen from the water itself, using thin membranes called gills.

But there are many fish in Earth's oceans.

Only a few are called sharks. Some sharks are pleasant, peaceful eaters of plankton.

Others are small and prey only on smaller fish.

But there are some sharks that humans call "man-eaters." These sharks are swimming killing machines. If it is possible to imagine a Yeerk having its own natural body, a body perfectly adapted for the Yeerk's ruthlessness and destructiveness, the shark would be that body.