Chapter 11
So, this is a little thing, but I want to point out that Jake has never called Visser Three "The Abomination" before. Ax has. It's the Andalite name for him, since they're so disgusted that he took over an Andalite, and that's "defiled" Alloran. It's just not a term Jake would use. Jake doesn't consider Andalite bodies especially sacred or blessed. He might call him "the monster responsible...", or something. I know it's little and not very important, but it's what I mean about not getting Jake's narrative voice.
Chapter 12
Ax, they're everybody's minutes. Ok, I know I'm being enormously negative in these comments and I'm sorry about that. Am I being too nitpicky?
I think they're pretty fair. The point about Jake's Shakey narrative voice is a good one.
Personally, I'm still on the fence about the book, as it was very paint by numbers up until it went completely bonkers in the last few chapters. I'm usually here for bonkers, so we'll see if it sticks the landing.
Also, this is a delightful exchange:
<Is this good luck or bad luck?>
<It's our luck.>
Slip through the construction yard and meet an alien! Only the alien is a defeated prince fighting a parasitic horde. But you get a great weapon to fight! Only it will traumatize you for the rest of your life to use it and fight. Then, you figure out how to really hurt the Yeerk invaders. Only you have to watch as it slowly kills people you know and you can't react to it. And next... You get the idea.
The Animorphs, ladies and gentlemen.
Marco is weirdly horny in this book.
This is so bizarre. How many ancient alien societies have been hanging around on earth??
Oh, lol, that's the beautiful part
This is so bizarre. How many ancient alien societies have been hanging around on earth??
on Earth, just off the coast of [REDACTED]
You can sort of handwave the Chee away by saying, well, probably they're everywhere and Erek just heads up the local chapter, but the other really big coincidence is that Elfangor just happened to live (and therefore stashed the Time Matrix in, and attempted to return to, and met the kids in) the same place where Visser One established the Yeerk invasion of Earth.
There's an alternate universe where the Skrit Na kidnapped Loren from New Zealand, and so after Elfangor gives the kids the power to morph in a construction site on the outskirts of Auckland and the Yeerks take off in their bug fighters after killing him, they start surveilling and trying to fight back only to come to the puzzled conclusion that nobody is a Controller and the Yeerks just don't seem to be around - that Elfangor guy was fretting over nothing!
An Elimist did it.
Chapter 13
quote:
We flew away from the city toward an open expanse empty of buildings - and, hopefully, of the blue, gilled creatures.
The light grew dimmer away from the heart of the city. I could more clearly see the dome of the vast cavern. Pinpoints of what had to be artificial light dotted the "sky" but became duller the further we flew. Wide streaks of charcoal-colored cloud obscured many of these "stars."
We flew away from the busy streets of the city until we reached miles of fields. Rubbery tangled vines of green, yellow, and aquamarine covered the ground like a thick, dense blanket of writhing snakes.
<What is that crap? Rubber snakes?> Marco commented nervously.
<It does look kind of - alive, doesn't it?> Cassie said.
We landed several feet apart. All except Tobias, who remained airborne as our lookout.
My talons gripped the slimy stems and my wings remained slightly flared for balance. The stems bobbed with the weight of the owl's body but held.
<I believe these plants are growing in water,> Ax said.
<Kind of like water lilies? Their pads can hold the weight of big fat frogs,> Cassie said.
<See?> Rachel said. <Nothing to be afraid of. Just plants. Bizarre plants, but ...>
<Just demorph everyone.>
Within minutes we were four kids and an Andalite. Balanced precariously - especially Ax - on the shifting floor of seaweed. About to morph again to owls and join Tobias above. About to fly out of this place, this hidden nightmare.
<Jake! Watch out!>
"What the ... !"
A heavy weight like a prickly blanket was thrown on my head and shoulders and back. I fell to my knees. My body rocked and bobbed as if I'd been tossed on a waterbed.
"Jake!" Cassie cried. "What's happening?"
We'd been captured! Netted! The five of us, a tangled mass of arms, legs, hooves, and tail.
"Not good, Jake, my man," Marco mumbled. "Just got a mouthful of seaweed over here."
"Everyone. Stay calm," I ordered.
"Calm?" Rachel hissed. "Battle morphs and we're outta here!"
"No!"
Then I saw our captors. Three, six - ten of the large-eyed, blue, gilled creatures. They pulled the net tight around us, shoving limbs back through the net's open weave. Finally looping the ends of the net together. They worked silently and swiftly.
<Jake!> It was Tobias. <They came up out of the seaweed. I didn't ... they were so fast ... I'll follow them and find a way to break you out.>
Stupid of me. I had Tobias watching the skies. But this was a world of water.
Now they began hauling us across the vines, bouncing, sinking into the water, then back up again. I was shoved into Ax, practically in his belly, my arms tangled with his legs.
"Ax, answer Tobias," I ordered in a whisper. "Tell him it's okay. Tell him to stay out of sight. And to be careful."
Ax transmitted my message via thought-speak.
WHUUUMMPPF!
Tossed almost upside down!
"Ow," Cassie muttered. "Ow, ow, ow."
"Jake, this is insane!" Marco said. "Rachel's right. Let's bust out of here. Now! No way these guys are going to be able to haul a bag of gorilla and grizzly!"
WHUUUMMPPF! WHUUUMMPPF! WHUUUMMPPF!
"We don't know where the visser is," I said. "Don't know what Hork-Bajir might still be loose. We don't even know if these guys might be infested," I said in between getting mouthfuls of dank water. My knees were crammed into my chest and my left arm was already going numb. But as uncomfortable as I was - as we all were - I knew we just couldn't risk morphing. Not out in the open,
in full view, with the visser on the loose.
<I would be happy to sever the net with my tail blade and free us, Prince Jake,> Ax said tightly. <You and the others would not have to morph.>
"No. Not yet anyway. We don't want a fight with these guys. They're civilians, as far as we know. We don't know what we're up against. We wait. Watch."
"I hope you're right about this, Big Guy," Marco muttered.
WHUUUMMPPF! WHUUUMMPPF! WHUUUMMPPF!
So did I.
I mean, they might be civilians, sure, but they also have you all captured in a net, which sort of makes them the enemy. I'm not saying kill them, but Ax can cut the rope and they can probably force their way past.
Chapter 14
quote:
Across the field of bobbing seaweed. Back into the heart of the city. Across the splintery wooden dock. To the large doorway at the base of the pyramid structure.
Dragged like a sack of potatoes. Or garbage.
We were bruised. Battered. Cut.
Afraid.
Yanked across the threshold. Then pulled across a cold, slimy stone floor. The passageway was dark.
From somewhere in the distance I heard a shrill cry.
The voice was Hork-Bajir. In pain.
"Is that ..."
"Yeah," I whispered.
I was now pretty sure I'd made the wrong decision.
They hauled us to the center of a large room.
WHUUUMMPPF!
And unceremoniously dumped us out of the net.
There was no chance to prepare for who or what we might meet. The room was dim. Lit by the same strange, pinpoint light source we'd seen first in the gallery of ships.
But the room wasn't so dim that I couldn't see a throne against the far wall.
"Real velvet?" Rachel whispered. "I'm impressed."
The cushions were purple. The throne itself was gold, encrusted with pearls and colorful shells. Or pretty good imitations of the real things.
And on the throne sat another of the blue, gilled creatures.
A woman. Dressed in a loose gown woven, I guessed, from some sort of plant. It had a rubbery look not unlike the vegetation we'd just been dragged across. Around her neck were draped ropes and ropes of pearls.
"So do we kneel or bow or scrape our foreheads on the floor?" Marco muttered. "I mean this is some kind of a queen, right?"
Ax stepped forward, tail blade partially raised. At the ready but respectful.
On either side of the woman stood a line of ten guards. Blue, gilled men armed with an assorted collection of spears and handguns. One carried a bow and arrow. Another carried a.50 caliber machine gun with an ammo belt draped over his shoulder. Another a mace, at least I think that's what they were called, a club with an iron head studded with spikes. One had a matched set of beautiful, ornate dueling pistols.
The woman squinted her huge, tennis-ball-sized eyes.
Think of an orange cut in quarters. Each eyelid was the size of one of those quarters.
Then she cocked her head and spoke. "Ni hau."
"That's Chinese," Cassie whispered. "But I don't know how to answer."
The woman spoke again. "Hvordan har De det?"
"Scandinavian?" Rachel wondered. "I wish she'd try a Latin-based language. I wouldn't be able to answer, but I could at least try and fake it."
The woman shifted impatiently on her cushioned seat. "Guten tag. Wei geht es Ihnen?" she demanded.
"Okay, that's German," Marco said under his breath. "We're getting closer. Some similarities to Eng -"
"Bonjour!" she cried.
"Uh, bonjour, madame," I blurted. "Parlezvous I'anglais?"
"Of course," she replied arrogantly. "Since the latter half of the twentieth century English has been considered the international language of commerce and intellectual discourse on the Surface. As Surface-Dwellers you must know this."
In a day full of weird, this was one of the weirder moments. She was a blue-skinned, gilled woman with webbed feet and eyes the size of Whoppers, and she was lecturing me in flawless English.
"Attitude?" Marco muttered. "From a queen? Now there's a surprise."
"I am indeed the queen of the Nartec," the woman declared, rising from the throne. "My name is Queen Soco. And my hearing is quite acute."
"My ... my friend means you no disrespect, Queen Soco," I said quickly. Placatingly. Remembering the shackled Hork-Bajir. The cry of the Hork-Bajir. The mummified crews and passengers. The Japanese flyers sitting there in a mockery of a briefing.
"Good. Because it is usual for visitors to our kingdom - I am assuming you are not trespassers here to do us violence? - to behave with the proper decorum."
"Yes, Queen Soco. We are visitors from the, uh, Surface. We, uh, we come in peace," I said.
Feeling like I was Captain Picard in some old episode of Trek. Acting all calm and polite and respectful on the outside, while inside I was tense and alert - and afraid.
"You are the leader," Queen Soco stated. "You speak for the others. Good."
SLAAAP! SLAAAP!
With wide, webbed hands, she clapped twice.
"I require that you be my guests this evening at a traditional Nartec feast," she went on. "I want to know how you came to the land of the Nartec. And I am extremely curious as to the four-legged blue creature that seems to accompany you as a pet."
Ax stiffened.
"The creature is quite magnificent."
Ax relaxed. About an inch.
Queen Soco gestured to the door behind us. An armed male Nartec came forward and stood beside us.
"In the meantime, Naca will be happy to escort you on a tour of my palace. Within these walls you will see many wonders of the Nartec civilization."
"Thank you, your highness," I said.
Marco raised his eyebrows at me.
What else was I supposed to say? What was I supposed to do? I was stalling. Waiting.
The guard called Naca gestured for us to precede him to the door. I turned to go - and was stopped by Queen Soco's loud and final words.
"Do not attempt to escape, Surface-Dwellers. That is not a suggestion. It is an order."
Have to think there's not much more offensive to Ax than calling him a pet.
There's an alternate universe where the Skrit Na kidnapped Loren from New Zealand, and so after Elfangor gives the kids the power to morph in a construction site on the outskirts of Auckland and the Yeerks take off in their bug fighters after killing him, they start surveilling and trying to fight back only to come to the puzzled conclusion that nobody is a Controller and the Yeerks just don't seem to be around - that Elfangor guy was fretting over nothing!
Yis, Brit, but I'm not certain how flightlusnuss ind the ubility to lay iggs one-third your body weight is going to hulp in the fight against Vesser Three
quote:
"Of course," she replied arrogantly. "Since the latter half of the twentieth century English has been considered the international language of commerce and intellectual discourse on the Surface. As Surface-Dwellers you must know this."
Well then why didn't you start with that you dummy
Thinking a bit more, I think the book might have benefited from an in media res start on the hunt for the Sea Blade, if you really just don't care about the mission set up and want a book about weird alien Atlantis.
Well then why didn't you start with that you dummy
But then how could she style on them by being a polyglot?
She's demonstrating her power by demonstrating her knowledge without grandstanding about it.
This book is so bizarre. This is weirder than the time they were sent to an alien mall arcology to fight hive mind battle children. I don't really think it's working? I think the series is at its strongest when it deals with the emotional or psychological consequences of their war. Alien world building can be and has been fun but just.... suddenly there's an Atlantis because why not.
edit whoops there's a new page
And its within a few minutes swim of the other hyperadvanced alien civilization's secret underwater ship crash site
I wo der how many different aliens have just cruised by earth by the end of the series
Chapter 15
quote:
We sat around a large round, massively constructed table made of salt-weathered beams. No doubt cut from one of the more badly destroyed wrecks the Nartec Searchers had found and hauled back to their bizarre city. It might be a hundred years old. Or twice that old.
Our chairs were constructed of odd pieces of lumber. Cobbled together timber. A few sported patches of cracked leather on the seats and seatbacks. One was decorated with an inlaid pattern of cracked and dirty mother-of-pearl.
Those sitting nearest the queen, at the head of the table, sat in a bizarre collection of deck chairs and captain's chairs.
Plates heaped with raw fish sat before us on the table. Some of the fish were whole. Eels. Small sharks. Octopus. Others were cut up into chunks, kind of like sushi. A few stainless steel bowls, no doubt some fairly recent salvage, were filled with seaweed. Each of us had a mug of something green.
Marco held up his mug for me to see. His still had a shadow of a logo emblazoned on it. Russian letters and the outline of a nuclear sub.
We were unwilling guests at this traditional Nartec feast. I mean, how comfortable can you feel when you're making a command appearance and doing it under the watchful eyes of at least fifty armed guards standing at attention all around the room.
Trapped. We couldn't run and we couldn't morph. Not while the Nartec watched.
Not while Visser Three was possibly still on the loose.
He could be anywhere. In this very room. Morphed to some tiny watchful creature. Waiting to make his own escape.
Wondering what humans were doing in the world of the Nartec.
Putting two and two together. Remembering the whales that had damaged his precious Sea Blade. Realizing the "Andalite bandits" were not Andalites after all.
Stupid! I should have thought of it, should have realized that morphing and fighting our way out of the nets was the lesser of two dangers. Had I been drawn here by my own curiosity? Had I fallen prey to my own fascination with this impossible place?
Should have fought our way out. If a few Nartec were hurt ...
Should, should, should. I hate the word.
I glanced at Rachel. Her lips were set in a thin line.
Cassie's eyes were wary.
Marco grimaced at the pile of fish in front of him.
And where was Tobias!
Captured? Held in another part of the palace?
Would we suddenly hear the tortured screech of a red-tailed hawk, as we'd heard the screams of Hork-Bajir?
Queen Soco took a sip from her cup and then fixed us with her wide round eyes.
"Now that you have seen the wonders of my palace, I am sure you have many questions to ask. What would you like to know about the Nartec, Surface-Dwellers?"
<Perhaps you should ask her to explain the origin of her people, Prince Jake,> Ax said privately. <The story might provide valuable information that will help us understand our present situation. And make possible our escape.>
It was a good idea. And about the only one we had.
I asked.
She folded her arms over her chest. Closed her eyes and kept them shut for a long minute while I sweated and wondered if I'd committed some offense.
Then she opened her eyes again, but kept her gaze elevated. It was a ritual, I realized, seeing the respectful reactions of the other Nartec.
"This is the story our people have told since the Beginning. This is the Sacred Truth, told again and again, down through the ages. The Sacred Truth of the Kings and Queens of the Nartec."
I had the feeling Marco was suppressing a desire to make some sarcastic remark. I shot him a hard look. He contented himself with only rolling his eyes ever so slightly.
"Many thousands of years ago, the Nartec lived on an island in the middle of the Great Ocean," Queen Soco intoned. "Very slowly, subtly, over time, the island began to sink. Each generation built higher and higher walls around the island to keep the Great Ocean from swallowing the people. With each passing year the walls became higher, higher - hundreds of feet tall. Marvels of engineering!"
The Nartec nodded in agreement. A silent chorus playing its part.
"Still, it was inevitable that the pressure of the Great Ocean would cause these protective walls to wear and to bend. Closer and closer they grew until the top of each wall met the top of another and formed a ceiling to our world.
"Then the Great Ocean closed over the Nartec. The island continued to sink. Perhaps it is still sinking."
Queen Soco paused to eat a small hunk of white fish.
<A strange and improbable tale of origin, Prince Jake,> Ax commented. <Obviously it has become distorted over the years of telling until now it is more myth or legend than truth.>
I nodded to Ax, and Queen Soco went on.
"What is important is that the Nartec did not die," she said. "We adapted to our new underground, underwater world. Over time we discovered alternative sources of light. Like that produced by the narna rocks that blanket our roofs and ceilings.
"And, of necessity, our bodies changed, too. At an impressively rapid rate. We became amphibious by an act of supreme will."
Ax commented privately. <Even without the necessary experimentation, I am fairly certain the light produced by the "narna" rocks Queen Soco mentioned is radioactive. No doubt this radioactivity hastened the rate of the Nartec's mutation.>
I nodded again slightly to show Ax I'd heard.
"Thus did we come to build this magnificent city. Thus did we survive and prosper. And thus did we come to be the rightful rulers of the One Ocean and all lands touching her."
The crowd nodded and seemed satisfied. They sat back, relaxed and began to eat again.
Queen Soco took another drink from her cup and continued. Her voice was less formal now. She met my gaze.
"Of course the Nartec continue to study the technology of sunken oceangoing vessels constructed by the Surface-Dwellers. We study construction techniques and food storage methods. We learn of navigational equipment and other electronic devices that might be of use to us. From the large oceangoing pleasure boats we learn about the changing styles of Surface clothing and furnishings and
recreational activities. And if there are survivors of the wrecks that bring these vessels to us, we study them, too. That is, until we have learned all we need to know from them."
"Here it comes," Marco mumbled.
"And then?" I asked. Though I knew the answer.
Queen Soco smiled faintly, amused. "Then they are preserved to become part of our storehouse of knowledge."
"You kill them and stuff them," Rachel said.
"Exactly."
So, this is basically the story of Atlantis. The story of Atlantis originally comes from Plato, in his works, the Critas and Timaeus. The story that he tells is that Atlantis is an island, a great kingdom that goes to war with Athens. Eventually their hubris costs them the favor of the gods, and an earthquake sinks them beneath the waves.
Chapter 16
quote:
"Yeah, stuff this?" Marco muttered under his breath.
I shot everyone a look. Stay calm, it said. Like that was possible.
Ask another question, Jake. Get all the information you can. Maybe it will - "AAAAGGHHH!"
Cassie flinched. Rachel started to rise from her chair but a look from Marco made her sit back down.
Ignore the wail of another Hork-Bajir from somewhere in the bowels of the building. Stay focused, Jake.
Where was Tobias?
"Queen Soco, what are your plans for the Sea Blade?" I asked congenially. While digging my nails into the old, soft wood of my chair.
"In the past," she said, sitting back in her chair, "the Nartec have sent Searchers to the Surface of the Great Ocean. They have traveled in vessels built with the technology and materials made available to us by the salvaged vessels of the Surface-Dwellers.
"However, none have ever returned. It is assumed none survived the journey to the World of Sun.
"You must understand that this is not the fault of the Nartec Searchers. Rather, it is an indication of how the technologies of the Surface Dwellers are terribly flawed."
Queen Soco sipped from her cup and then continued.
"But with the Sea Blade! It is clear to us that a more intelligent, advanced people than mere Surface-Dwellers built such a magnificent vessel!"
<Yeerks! We Andalites could easily build a ship to put the Sea Blade to shame,> Ax said tightly.
"Our plans are these," Queen Soco continued. "We will send a carefully selected and trained crew of Searchers to the Surface in this powerful new vessel. We will take whatever oceangoing vessels we encounter. We will mount raids on the Cultures of the Sun! We will conquer villages, towns, cities - even larger land masses! We will show all Surface-Dwellers how powerful and advanced are the Nartec! "The long centuries of our exile are over!"
Several Nartec became so excited they began slapping the table. All nodded and smiled.
I kicked Marco under the table. He shut his mouth.
"That is a noble purpose," I said politely. Quickly. "I have one more question, Queen Soco. It's about the crew of the Sea Blade ..."
Now Marco kicked me under the table.
<Prince Jake, I do not think it wise to interfere ...>
I faked a small cough. "Excuse me. I was just wondering what ..."
"No more questions, I think," Queen Soco said abruptly.
She smiled and gestured with a webbed hand. A female Nartec promptly removed Soco's empty cup and plate. "Now I have a question for you, Surface-Dwellers," she said. "Where is your ship? I know you did not arrive in the magnificent black vessel. I know the Sea Blade does not belong to you."
I
had no answer. I shot a glance at Ax. His face was unreadable.
"I see." Queen Soco rose from her chair. The meal was over. "Perhaps you need some time to create a plausible lie. Or to come to your senses."
Halfway to the door Queen Soco turned to lace us. We were still sitting motionless at the table.
"I will discover the truth, Surface-Dwellers. Have no doubt of that. But I am also a magnanimous queen. Feel free to further explore the Nartec world. We will meet again later." And then she grinned. "Perhaps."
The door closed behind her.
I smiled awkwardly at the remaining Nartec, then led the way out of the room. We paused in a small chamber adjoining the main hall.
"We are so out of here!" Marco grabbed my arm. "There is no reason - NO REASON - for us to hang around. Do you hear me Jake!"
I shook off Marco's hand. "I hear you. And if you don't lower your voice, the entire Nartec people will hear you, too. Ax? Cassie?"
"I'm with Marco," Cassie whispered.
"I'm not happy about bailing without having found the visser," I said grimly. "Or destroying the Sea Blade. Queen Psycho may have delusions, but she could still do a lot of damage with the Sea Blade."
<The Yeerk vessel could sink any human vessel,> Ax agreed. <It could also carry out Dracon attacks on Earth's coastal cities. However, eventually human defenses would be able to crush it by sheer weight of numbers.>
"Cool. So we leave it to the navy, and we book out of this nightmare," Marco said. But then I saw his eyes cloud. He looked disturbed.
"What?" I asked him.
"I was holding a mug from an old Soviet nuclear sub. They may have more than Dracon beams to play with."
"You don't think the missiles survived?" Cassie demanded. "Aren't they protected with all kinds of computer codes and so on?"
Marco nodded. "Yeah. Absolutely. And the Nartec probably can't beat the security measures."
<Probability is not certainty,> Ax said grimly.
"Great. So Queen Psycho maybe has nukes. Wonderful."
"And what about Tobias?" Rachel demanded. "We're going to leave without him?"
I shook my head. "No."
"That's your decision? We stay?" Marco asked.
"I could put it to a vote," I said with a smile for my old friend.
Marco shook his head. "I'll follow you, Big Guy."
"Okay. Look, we have the run of the place. So, A) we find Tobias, B) we destroy the Sea Blade. And C) -"
"C - we haul our soggy butts out of here and forget this lunatic asylum even exists?" Marco interrupted.
"Got that right," I said.
There you go.
The fact that they're mutated humans rather than aliens is what really pushes this one over the brink. Bless.
The fact that they're mutated humans rather than aliens is what really pushes this one over the brink. Bless.
Gotta love radiation.
The threat of Queen Soco using the Sea Blade is something they should want to stop considering what they just learned in VISSER. If Yeerk technology and following that the Yeerk presence becomes public knowledge then Visser Three and his subordinates could justify an open war since it's something he really wants to do.
100%. It's been a while but I feel like in the past - especially 11, maybe? - they've had plans that explicitly revolved around the idea of being able to publicly reveal the Yeerks' presence on earth, whereas with what they know now they should be doing everything they can to conceal it.
I agree with Jake here, letting themselves get caught and seen as humans alongside an andalite while V3 is loose is maybe one of the most confusingly dumb decisions he's ever made and it really feels just like bad forced plot contrivance. Also it legitimately IS Atlantis this is so dumb this feels like a weird fanfic.
Sadly, no chapters tonight. Internet service in underwater Atlantis isn't the best,
Chapter 17
quote:
"What's your take, Ax?"
Ax looked up from the pile of books and ledgers on the scarred wooden table in front of him. We'd continued our tour in the palace's library. If you asked me, the most interesting room in the palace.
I don't think of myself as narrow-minded. But I was still waiting to discover one of the "wonders" of Nartec civilization.
Human mummies - especially those made from the bodies of prisoners and slaves - are not my idea of high culture.
Neither are hidden torture chambers or room after room of scavenged, mostly decrepit stuff, randomly piled and stacked
But the library. A place filled floor to ceiling with shelves. Those shelves lined with documents made of some vegetable material. Pounded. Woven, maybe, into sheets of "paper."
Pages bound together by some tough and stringy substance. Marked with what Marco jokingly guessed to be the ink of a giant squid.
Who knew? Maybe he was right.
In addition though to these mostly indecipherable Nartec scrolls were thousands of waterstained human books in every imaginable human language: ships' logs, novels, atlases, maps, and charts. Everything that might have sunk with a ship or been thrown over the side in centuries.
Naca, our own private watchdog, escorted us to the large room and stood at attention just inside the door.
We weren't trusted not to attempt to escape. But we had been trusted with the Nartec's plan to conquer Earth with the Sea Blade. And now we were trusted with the Nartec's entire written history. What did information matter to prisoners who were going to die before they could tell tales?
But the flip side of the coin was: Why waste time? Why not kill us right away? why make nice?
<Prince Jake, assuming the basis of Queen Soco's story is true and the Nartec originated on the Surface - that is, on planet Earth - and given the Nartec's apparently accelerated rate of adaptation to this underwater environment - an acceleration confirmed here in these ancient but remarkably wellpreserved and annually updated population records ...>
"Like births, deaths, plagues, natural disasters?" Cassie asked.
<Yes,> Ax confirmed. <As well as a detailed running account of each Nartec generation's physiological and biological evolution - or devolution - from a land-dwelling mammal to a completely amphibious creature.>
"Devolution?" Rachel glanced over her shoulder and gave Naca a falsely bright smile. "What do you mean by that?" she asked tensely, turning back.
<It is my assumption - and you must remember that without proper experimentation and my own documentation ...>
"Ax."
<Yes, well.> Ax straightened his shoulders in a way that made it clear dealing with lowly humans was a sacrifice for a lofty Andalite.
Especially an Andalite who'd been referred to as a pet.
<I believe the Nartec are self-destructing. They are profoundly inbred. As I believe humans know, insufficient variety in the gene pool can lead to deterioration over time. The Nartec population is dropping. Fertility is dropping. Infant mortality from birth defects is rising. Life spans are shorter.>
"You mean they're on the brink of extinction?" Cassie whispered.
<Yes. The high levels of radioactivity have allowed them to undergo accelerated rates of mutation. But now the destructive mutations are beginning to pile up. And they have insufficient sources of new genetic material.>
"Why?" I asked.
Cassie had the answer. "Fewer ships sinking. They must have been breeding with limited numbers of surface humans, survivors of sinking ships."
Ax nodded. <It would be at best a short-term and dangerous fix. The new breeding stock would no doubt have resulted in a relatively large number of Nartec born without their unique adaptations: gills and webbed feet.>
"So their dreams of conquering Earth are -"
<The desperate act of a race that knows itself to be doomed.>
"How horrible," Cassie said. "An entire people - gone."
"Oh, yeah, I'm weeping over here." Marco snorted. "These people are planning to mummify us. After killing us. And if those Hork-Bajir screams are any indication, after torturing us. As far as I'm concerned," Marco added, "the Nartec can just devolve to extinction right now."
Cassie coughed and looked embarrassed. "Actually, Marco, they may try to breed with us first. Or at least extract our DNA, if that's possible with their technology."
"Marco may finally get a girlfriend," Rachel said with a laugh. "Of course she'll have gills ..."
I grimaced. "Look, we've got an immediate threat here. The Nartec have captured the Sea Blade. We can't let them take it to the surface."
"Which means?"
"Which means," I went on, gently closing one of the old books on the table, "that we have to either destroy the Sea Blade right where it is or steal it from the Nartec. Use it to get out. Then destroy it."
"How are we going to destroy it at the dock?" Marco hissed. "It's sitting right out in the open. Right in front of a palace filled with armed soldiers."
Rachel said, "We slip away from this Naca guy - knock him out first if we have to - morph and ..."
"And what?" Cassie shook her head. "What's a grizzly going to do to a ship the size of the Sea Blade? Even if we sink it the Nartec could probably raise it and repair it. These are people who manage to drag entire supertankers across two oceans."
"Cassie's right," I said. "Our only choice is to steal the visser's ship. Get it away from the Nartec. Destroy it later using the ship's own weapons."
<Prince Jake, I wonder if I might mention a possibility we have not discussed?>
I nodded.
"Why do I know this is something I don't want to hear?" Marco said.
<Has it occurred to you that Visser Three, using his many morphs, might still be aboard the Sea Blade?>
I nodded. "Oh, yeah, Ax. It's occurred to me."
So, to sum up, even though they had magic evolution, somehow, to let them live underwater, their population is too small and inbred to be viable. This is a real thing (the bottleneck, not evolution suddenly giving you gills), and in small isolated populations, you find all sorts of genetic disorders. It happens to people, but it's a big thing with dog breeds and also thoroughbreds. The horses, for instance, have all sorts of things wrong with them, and they've become very vulnerable to injury. This could probably be mitigated if they were allowed to breed with other breeds of horses, but since only purebred thoroughbreds are allowed in horseracing, the breed is just getting weaker and weaker.
Chapter 18
quote:
"This area surrounding the palace is inhabited by those Nartec of better families," Naca said solemnly. "Those of great wealth and prestige."
Naca stood erect, carrying what I believed to be a German, World War II vintage submachine gun, and pointed toward the artificially lit "roof" of the Nartec world. Incongruously, there was a sword in the scabbard at his waist.
Two other Nartec guards had joined us when we'd left the palace. They flanked our little group.
Silent. Keeping a particular watch on Ax. Their odd collection of scavenged weapons at the ready.
Marco sidled up beside me and drew me back, out of earshot of Naca.
"We can take these guys, Jake," he said.
"Maybe," I said.
"They've got it coming. Is that what's bothering you? If you're worried about hurting some, hey, these people are evil squared. They could go one on one with the Yeerks in the Evilpalooza."
I shook my head and smiled at Naca. "We've tried dozens of times to take down Visser Three," I said. "Always failed. He's hard to beat. Hard to get to. You think these guys did it? I don't. I think he's here."
"We don't even know for sure he was on the Sea Blade. He may -"
"He was on it," I said. "He doesn't delegate glory to his subordinates. If he found the Pemalite ship he'd be the man again. For the Yeerk hierarchy, the Council, all would be forgiven. He's here."
Marco shrugged. "Okay. He's here. Let's leave him here and get out."
Naca was moving us along, and looking suspiciously at me and Marco. "If we can get out of here, so can he, Marco. The Sea Blade is going to be dust, Marco. Vapor. Visser Three isn't going to have it, and neither is Queen Soco."
We were walking along again, tourists in the land of the weird. With a blue tuna-man for a guide.
"The Nartec who specialize in law, medicine, and other such professions," Naca continued, "dwell in the area just outside the central part of the city. Those Nartec employed in the trades - such as those who make our clothes and sell our food - occupy a more remote neighborhood."
With a disdainful flip of his webbed hand, Naca gestured to the distance.
"Finally, those who scrape together a living in an obscure or illegal manner inhabit dirty, shantylike towns on the outskirts of the Nartec world. There is no point in my taking you to see such places. They are unpleasant and not at all important."
"Nice to know discrimination is alive and well among the Nartec," Cassie mumbled. "I feel so ... at home."
I listened vaguely to Naca's tour guide routine. Pretended to be really interested in a small building decorated with a carved and painted wooden prow. The kind shaped like the body of a woman with arms held tightly to her sides and legs that kind of disappeared somewhere.
And now that I was paying attention, a woman wearing not a lot of clothes, either.
"Any apartments for rent in this building?" Marco asked.
Slowly, steadily, we were moving away from the dock, away from the center of town.
Every move seemed natural. Too natural. Too casual. Every move too smooth. Too practiced.
I had the sudden conviction that Naca had done this before. Many times. I wondered how old he was. How could I tell with one of these creatures?
Old enough to have been alive in World War II? Had he led the Japanese flyers on this same path?
If only we had Tobias. I missed my eyes in the sky. My air force.
We were approaching a building built out of the center portion of a white-painted ship. Bow and stern were gone. The superstructure was intact. A sort of baroque office building perched at the top of steel cliffs.
There was a faint outline in red. The outline of a cross.
"This was a hospital ship," Cassie said.
"Yes," Naca agreed. He nodded like he was pleased. "I would like to show you our medical facilities."
We were on a causeway over a canal. The causeway was narrow, built of the gray, steel catwalk of some ship.
No signal had been given, but I was sure the trailing guards were moving closer. Sure that fingers were closer to triggers. Hands tighter on the hafts of spears.
"Not necessary," I said tightly. "I'm sure it's a great hospital."
"But it is a great scientific treasure of our people," Naca insisted. "Queen Soco would be mortally offended if -"
"I don't like hospitals," I said.
No illusion: The guards were moving closer. But they could only get two abreast onto the causeway. Ax had drifted back to bring up the rear. Ax would take down both guards before they thought about squeezing a trigger.
I shook my head, feeling fairly secure. "I don't think so, Naca."
What happened next happened so fast I had time for only one thought, one last stab of regret.
Amphibians, Jake. Amphibians.
With a rush the hidden Nartec shot up out of the water on both sides of the causeway.
Not thinking three dimensionally.
quote:
I listened vaguely to Naca's tour guide routine. Pretended to be really interested in a small building decorated with a carved and painted wooden prow. The kind shaped like the body of a woman with arms held tightly to her sides and legs that kind of disappeared somewhere.
And now that I was paying attention, a woman wearing not a lot of clothes, either.
"Any apartments for rent in this building?" Marco asked.
are these teenage boys so horny all of a sudden! Either it's no longer just been "a few months" since they met Elfangor at 13, or (actual answer) this not-very-good ghostwriter thinks you're supposed write all teenage boys like characters in American Pie.
edit - lol that was a throwaway reference but I just checked and American Pie still would've been in theatres while the ghostwriter was working on this
Tbf you can't have an underwater adventure without sexy mermaids.
I mean, it's out of character for Jake, who only has eyes for Cassie, but Marco creepin' on hot mermaids to hide his terror and despair seems pretty on point.
I reckon Marco has always been a flirt, but never a perv
I reckon Marco has always been a flirt, but never a perv
Marco (and Jake) are the types who go "let's hang out as dogs for attention and scritches" and not the types who go "let's morph something small and sneak into changerooms/bathrooms". That was more of David's deal.
Chapter 19
quote:
I woke up, eyes open suddenly.
I tried to move. Couldn't. I was strapped down on a table. Facedown.
Shot a look left, right, Cassie on a table beside me. Stainless steel operating tables. Beyond her I caught a glimpse of Rachel, likewise strapped down. Marco? I couldn't see him, but he could be next to Rachel.
Ax?
I twisted my head as far as I could.
"Do not squirm or resist, it will accomplish nothing," Naca said. "Soon you will be injected with a concentrated liquid from the ablata weed. It will render you peaceful and compliant."
His bug-eyed face loomed over me. Two new Nartec faces as well.
"And then what?" I asked.
"And then we will make an incision from the top of your skull, down to your buttocks, then down along the back of each leg. Your ribs will be removed, then your internal organs, and eventually the rest of your tissue."
"What are you doing this for?" I demanded, a little frantically.
"Your organs and tissue will be processed to extract the helical molecule that controls heredity and later employed to augment the development of -"
"There are easier way to get new DNA, you idiot!" Marco yelled.
Naca continued unperturbed. "Then, your skin and bones will be stuffed and preserved to be used in our educational facility."
"Okay," Rachel said. "Jake? Now can we kick these guys' butts for them?"
The answer was yes. But I couldn't say it. Couldn't say it because something had happened to my mouth. My lips were rubber. My face was frozen. My hands were tingling.
The injection!
I couldn't move. Couldn't ... but it really didn't matter. What was I getting so tense about? No need to get all worked up.
"Jake ... I ..." Rachel said. Then, slowly, from far away ... "Never mind."
I knew what was happening. I knew we were being drugged. Knew it meant death. Knew it meant me and my friends being eviscerated, stuffed ...
Couldn't manage to hold on to.the outrage.
Couldn't ... focus.
All lost. Didn't matter.
Faces swimming above me, around me. Huge eyes. Blue skin. Knives in their hands. Cold steel on my neck ...
A new face. New Nartec. Carrying a mace, an ancient, medieval club. Like Sir Fishalot.
Hah-hah-hah ... what?
He looked at me.
Then he slammed the butt of the mace into Naca's ribs. Naca went down, sinking with magical slowness past my face.
A dreamy, upward swing caught the next Nartec on the chin. The third one turned and ran.
I heard a door slam. Heard a wheel spin.
Then the mace-wielding Nartec was back. He was back, but not the same, anymore. His rubbery, blue skin was now covered in a spreading pattern that looked a lot like feathers.
So Tobias has come to save the day. Good job, birdboy.
Chapter 20
quote:
It took several minutes for my head to clear. By then Tobias had morphed back to the red tailed hawk. There was loud banging on the door of the operating room.
"Tobias? Nice to see you, man."
Rachel gave him a hug - or as close as she could come with a bird. Then she yelled at him, "Cut it kind of close, didn't you?"
<Hey, you try finding your way around this nuthouse. Those Nartec morphs are weak, slow, and easily tired out of the water. They're much stronger in the wet. But probably not ten percent of the population is strong enough dry to go on a long walk. This Naca guy is one of the lucky few. Like the guards they let you see. My morph was not so good.>
I nodded toward the closed and locked steel hatch. "Bad guys out there?"
<Yep. Lots of them. One by one they aren't too tough, but fifty of them, armed, is another thing.>
"Now about Ax?"
<Oh. He's in there.>
He pointed to a second, smaller hatch. Rachel spun the wheel lock and yanked it open. Cold air blew out. It was a refrigerator. An airtight one.
Ax stepped out looking about as mad as I've seen him.
<I suppose my DNA was not good enough to improve this pathetic species,> he said archly.
"Don't complain," Cassie said. "You wouldn't have enjoyed the extraction process."
<I am not afraid of needles.>
"They use the entire body. Grind it up and process it, and stuff whatever is left," Cassie explained.
<Ah. Well, they are merely mutated humans. One can only expect so much.>
"I screwed up," I said. "I forgot they were amphibious. That's how they surprised us on the causeway. But they don't know we can fly." I pointed at the round, open porthole. "They'll get in here soon. Let's be somewhere else."
We morphed. The Nartec broke down the door just as the last of us cleared the porthole and took to the air.
<Where to?> Rachel said.
<The Sea Blade. Visser or no visser, I've had it. We're taking that ship and getting out of here. Tobias? Can you get us back?>
<Oh, yeah. I've gotten to know this city pretty well in the past few hours.>
<I'm glad you're okay, Tobias,> Rachel said. <I hate it when you don't get taken prisoner with us.>
<Yeah, well, I was worried about you, too.>
Tobias led us back to the air over the dock. We landed in an alley not much different from the alleys we used at home. Trash is trash, I guess, anywhere in the galaxy. It was the equivalent of two blocks to the Sea Blade.
<Okay. Demorph. Then let's get ready for a fight. We go in hard and fast.>
<You mean Rachel-style?> Marco mocked.
<Yeah. Let's do this Rachel-style.>
Feet and paws and pads pounding, hooves clopping, we ran toward the wooden dock. Through the narrow Nartec streets. Across stretches of sand and mud and shells.
Past staring Nartec citizens. Mothers pulling their kids out of the way. Vendors crying out as we pushed over carts and stands in our path.
A tiger, a bear, a wolf, a gorilla, a hawk, and an Andalite, we managed to be in strangest sight in this, the strangest of places.
<There it is!> Cassie cried.
I heard voices rising. The dim rumble of a crowd forming.
<Prince Jake. I believe word of our escape has reached Queen Soco.>
<Yeah. Tobias! Do you see a way into the ship?>
<It's wide open. A main hatch just behind the raised bump on its back.>
<Show the way.>
Tobias dove for the open door. Slowed so we could see where he went. He was first inside, but Rachel was just a few feet behind. Several Nartec tried to block her path. She hit them like a runaway bus.
Nothing stands where a grizzly bear charges. Nothing made out of flesh and blood, anyway.
We piled through in her wake. She grasped the edge of the heavy, metal door with one massive paw and -
WHAAAMMM!
Threw the door shut and with Marco's help slid the bolts into place and secured the latches.
<Prince Jake.> Ax's voice was grim. <I request some assistance in removing the visser's former crew from their stations.>
We hurried on through a corridor that led into a central control room.
And stopped dead in our tracks at the threshold of the bridge.
<Oh, God ...> Cassie gasped.
Mummified Hork-Bajir.
Sitting upright in the various chairs for pilot and other crew. Standing at a video display screen! Leaning over a radar map.
I swallowed hard to keep the bile from rising in my throat. <Forget them,> I snapped. <Work around them. Push them aside, we have no time.>
Though the mummified Hork-Bajir weighed considerably less than they had alive - with bones and blood and muscle - it still wasn't easy to remove their stiff bladed bodies from the crew's stations.
And it wasn't easy to touch them.
Knowing they'd been breathing only hours before.
Remembering the Hork-Bajir cries I'd heard while in Soco's palace.
Remembering Hahn.
<Ax? Can you operate this thing?>
Ax stood at the main control panel on the bridge, his back to us. <The ship has been adequately repaired. At least as far as I can tell. However, there is a security protocol I must now attempt to bypass.>
<Tobias? There's a porthole. What's up outside?>
He fluttered over and looked outside. <Not good, Jake! We've got a crowd gathering. And it's not happy. Maybe a hundred of them out there. Armed.>
I ran over to look out the porthole. It was as he'd reported. A crowd of Nartec armed with spears, rifles, flamethrowers, machine guns, swords, clubs, grenades, and longbows.
The crowd was on the move. Coming for us.
<Ax?>
<Nothing, yet,> Ax said, his voice agitated. <The security protocol is far more complex than I had hoped - or assumed. I cannot access the ship's weapons until ->
Buh-Boom!
Sheeeeeeewowww!
WHAMMMM!
The Sea Blade rocked violently in its berth.
<We're under attack!> Rachel cried.
I saw smoke curling from the barrel of a five-inch naval gun mounted atop Queen Soco's palace. More and larger guns were slowly traversing, bringing their barrels to bear on us.
They couldn't miss at this range. The Sea Blade had been crippled by a pod of killer whales. Those shells, some as heavy as small cars, would blow the Sea Blade apart.
I mean, that would solve the problem of them getting their hands on the Seablade. Also, so much for the "never acquiring an unwilling intelligent being" rule, which, to be fair, is more of a suggestion.
If a 5 inch naval gun can wreck the Sea Blade wouldnt the Nartec attack be crushed by the USN in like five minutes?
If a 5 inch naval gun can wreck the Sea Blade wouldnt the Nartec attack be crushed by the USN in like five minutes?
Eh, a submarine that's in drydock under the range of several guns vs a submarine with super-lasers (or whatever Dracon beams are) that might also have nukes seems pretty different. But yes probably!
If half a dozen whales can disable the Sea Blade, torpedoes certainly can, but who knows how long it will take (and how much damage it can do) before they come up with solutions to things like the Sea Blade being invisible to sonar/radar/visuals.
quote:
Ax stepped out looking about as mad as I've seen him.
<I suppose my DNA was not good enough to improve this pathetic species,> he said archly.
"Don't complain," Cassie said. "You wouldn't have enjoyed the extraction process."
<I am not afraid of needles.>
"They use the entire body. Grind it up and process it, and stuff whatever is left," Cassie explained.
<Ah. Well, they are merely mutated humans. One can only expect so much.>
Ax rules
Getting annoyed that he wasn't worth being ground up for his genetic material and then getting snooty that they weren't even doing it right is probably top three Ax things so far.
If a 5 inch naval gun can wreck the Sea Blade wouldnt the Nartec attack be crushed by the USN in like five minutes?
In Chapter 16, Ax says that while the Sea Blade outclasses any individual human ship, it shouldn't be too hard for human navies to take it down, but Jake realizes that the real threat is that they've seen at least one boomer down there and doesn't want to risk a Nartec nuclear attack.
Getting annoyed that he wasn't worth being ground up for his genetic material and then getting snooty that they weren't even doing it right is probably top three Ax things so far.
Snooty Ax is way better than flavour-induced speech impediment Ax
Chapter 21
quote:
<Ax, sooner would be better than later,> I said.
<Or too late,> Tobias said.
Bun-Boom!
The five-inch gun had fired again.
Sheeeeeeeewwwwww!
The shell screamed toward us.
WHAAMMMM!
My tiger paws kept me from falling over from the impact. But Ax sprawled, scrambled back up.
<It blew the outer hatch!>
<Here they come!> Tobias reported from his perch near the porthole.
I heard rapid, rushing footsteps on the deck outside.
<How are we going to dive with a blown hatch?> Rachel demanded.
<Ax? Stay on it. Tobias, rear guard. Everyone else, with me!> I ran toward the outer hatch. That was the place to stop them.
I reached the hatch and waited, braced for the onslaught. It was quick in coming. A body of Nartec came swarming. But a swarm can't move through a hatch designed for Hork-Bajir in single file.
A spear lanced by my head, and shredded my left ear. It was followed by the Nartec who had thrown it, wearing at least three other crude weapons on his body.
I backed up, waited till he was framed in the hatchway and leaped. I hit him, paws out but claws retracted. The impact knocked him back into his brother Nartec.
A Nartec warrior nimbly leaped over his fallen friend and I batted him down in mid-leap.
One after the other heavily armed Nartec warriors swarmed toward me.
Old and young. Each one grasping a weapon. Another weapon strapped to his side or back.
Some with knives held in their teeth.
Walking arsenals.
We were trapped! Nothing to do but to fight!
And now, someone had decided to go to more modern weapons.
BlamBlamBlamBlamBlam!
Twanggg!
The machine-gun bullets ricocheted off steel bulkheads. One passed through my right hind leg.
Another through the haunch directly above it.
The pain staggered me. My right rear leg was weakened. I backed up, gave way to Rachel.
She moved with the deceptive grace of the huge grizzly bear and more than filled the opening.
BlamBlamBlamBlam!
Hhhhoooroarrrrr!
An unwary Nartec leaped at Rachel, armed only with a sword. Rachel grabbed him in a bear hug. Literally. One massive arm wrapped around the helplessly struggling mutant. She held him with absolute ease. His weight irrelevant to her power. And she used him as a shield.
The gunfire stopped instantly. The Nartec saw that they could not fire without killing one of their own.
But they evidently felt safe enough using spears, swords, and other handheld weapons.
Rachel had only one hand free. That was enough for the first dozen or so attackers. But then ...
"RROOOOAAARRR!"
A harpoon, clear through Rachel's right shoulder!
With a loud grunt she broke off the shaft.
With a ham-sized paw she swatted at the head of a Nartec rising to his feet. He fell back.
But now Rachel gave way, staggered back as the wound took its toll. The Nartec poured into the gap.
Marco punched and pounded. Cassie tore and shredded.
Tobias joined the battle. The Nartec's oversized eyes made clear targets for Tobias's talons.
We were fighting hard and fast.
But still the Nartec flooded the room!
They weren't great warriors. They were physically weak. Some ran away in panic. But they had weapons. And they had courage.
They kept coming, pouring into the dock, pushing through the doorway, filling the corridor ...
CLAAANG! CLAAANG!
Harpoons bounced harmlessly off the Sea Blade's hull. I glanced up through a porthole to see more Nartec scrambling up the sides of the ship, their webbed hands and feet helping them climb.
THWAP! THWAP! THWAP! THWAP!
The Nartec's slapping footsteps on the deck above us.
<Ax!>
<Progress. But not enough to attempt launch.>
We couldn't lose this battle! We couldn't let the Nartec use the Sea Blade. We couldn't let the ship survive.
And we had to get back to the surface!
I bit and tore, leaped and scratched. But we kept backing up. Back to the bridge. Back to where Ax stood working feverishly. In seconds we'd have to pull him into the battle. And then ...
We were cornered. There were just too many of them! They were exhausting us with sheer numbers.
Blood ran down my haunches from the points of handheld spears. The harpoon wound in Rachel's shoulder oozed badly.
Cassie was panting, her sides heaving, her right front paw partially gone.
Marco had a short sword protruding from the black, leather chest of his gorilla morph. Shocking to see. Even Tobias was wearing out from struggling to gain altitude over and over again in the small, relatively low-ceilinged space.
From diving, talons outstretched. Raking one Nartec face after another.
Something had to give.
Something ...
BOOUUUSSSSHHHH!
This has been the most onomatopoeic chapter yet
Chapter 22
quote:
BOUUUSSSSHHHH!
A massive blast of heat and light from the corridor!
Ten, twelve Nartec at the mouth of the hall fell to the floor, their skin smoldering. They crawled away, desperate to escape.
<What the heck was that!> Marco yelled. He held up his right arm. The dark coarse hair was singed from sturdy fist to shoulder.
<The visser!> Ax hissed. His stalk eyes were turned back toward us, his main eyes still glued to the computerized control board.
<How can you tell?> I demanded.
<It is the Luminar. A beast from a moon of the planet Slegabb Five. What else but the visser in morph!>
Into the control room came the Luminar. A blinding glow! Blasting heat!
Heat emanating from the very skin of the beast. Seven feet of blowtorch!
Two short arms and two stubby legs protruded from a bulbous body. Sausagelike fingers. A wide smile, crackling with electricity.
A bleeding Nartec scrambled to his webbed feet and tried to scurry past the creature, into the corridor.
The Luminar extended one fat finger toward the Nartec.
SSSSZZZZZ!
Fried! A charred body collapsed in charcoal flakes to the floor.
I felt my stomach heave. The smell was revolting!
<Okay, we didn't need that,> Marco said.
The Luminar pointed again. At each living Nartec still in the control room. Wounded or whole. And before they could scream or cry or run ...
SSSSZZZZZ! SSSSZZZZZ! SSSZZZZZ!
Piles and heaps of charcoaled Nartec flesh! Before any of us could - could what? Save the Nartec, our enemy? Absurd. And yet, though we hadn't asked for this battle, though the Nartec were prepared to murder us, though we had all the moral right of self-defense, we had tried to avoid causing casualties.
The visser was simply killing.
The Nartec ran in final panic. And now there was no one in the room but us and the visser.
With a grin that sent tingles like painful static electricity down my spine, Visser Three slammed the inner door shut.
<I hope I haven't broken your concentration, Andalite.>
<Not at all,> Ax replied coolly.
<Good Then you may fire engines as soon as possible. Oh, that's right.> The visser chuckled. Small licks of flame shot from his mouth. <You can't - unless I help you.>
I swallowed my disgust and spoke to him. <What makes you think you'll be going anywhere with us, Yeerk?>
<Because you need me, fool. Your pathetic morphs were not successful in holding off the Nartec. Clumsy warriors though they are, there are many of them.> The visser chuckled. <And they have many, many weapons. Now that they have failed to retake this vessel, they will destroy it. You may have noticed the large cannon atop the palace. Primitive human weapons, but very effective at this
range.>
<And why would we trust you! Why should we believe you're not going to kill us, too, the minute the ship takes off?>
The visser-in-morph took a step further into the room.
Involuntarily I stepped back from the intense heat flowing from his body. We all did.
<You should trust me because you must. And because I need you to man this ship.> He gestured toward the piles of Hork-Bajir and shrugged. <My crew is - how shall I put this - incapacitated?>
<Jake, don't trust him,> Marco warned privately.
<And what if we say no?> I said. <What if we force you off the ship right now?>
The visser chuckled again. <In that case we all will die. In one unpleasant way or another. You will be fried. Burnt beyond recognition. I will be tortured and mummified or ingloriously murdered by an antique Earth weapon.>
<Prince Jake.> Ax's voice was tense. <I am still unable to breach the security protocol.>
I shot a look at my team.
Rachel growled menacingly but had stepped back to lean against the wall.
Marco was on the floor. The protruding sword still stuck out awkwardly in front of him. The pain must be awful beyond imagining.
Cassie held her front right paw off the ground, her body trembling.
Tobias favored his left wing.
This was insane! An impossible situation!
Maybe. Maybe not.
<Everyone,> I said privately. <I'm going to ask the visser to turn off the security protocol.>
<Yes, Prince Jake.>
<Jake, are you nuts?> Rachel hissed.
<Sometimes,> I said. <Let's hope now isn't one of those times. Timing is everything. Be ready. Be very ready. The moment will come.>
I turned to face Visser Three.
<We accept your ... offer.>
Dramatic teamup music!
A beast from the moon of Bagels 5, that is basically a walking toaster?
quote:
Tobias joined the battle. The Nartec's oversized eyes made clear targets for Tobias's talons.
Tobias' time to shine. Next week: Ax goes into battle against the many-handed mutants that live in the caverns deep below the city.
A beast from the moon of Bagels 5, that is basically a walking toaster?
The ghostwriter had to pull an all-nighter and hammered this chapter out at their keyboard right on breakfast time. The last chapter is probably going to involve the Visser morphing an amorphous soupoid from the H'Cnul Cluster
It's extremely out of character that Ax was awake in class to learn about the creature from Slegabb Five.
KA was a Star Trek nerd with a penchant for naming stuff via anagram of billboards she saw out her window so it wouldn't surprise me to learn that Slegab 5 was in the notes she gave the ghostwriter