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We charged; they charged. We exploded into each other.
Ax yelled.
I caught a blurred movement.
Turned as the Hork-Bajir's sharp, razor-bladed arm fell like an ax and
buried itself in my hip.
Agony exploded in my brain, driving me into frenzy.
"RRROOOAAARRR!" I screamed, twisting away, staggering as the pain shot a
thousand burning spikes through my body.
Cassie leaped and buried her teeth in the back of a Hork-Bajir's neck.
I closed my jaws around the Hork-Bajir. I shook him until he flopped
like a rag doll.
I tossed him away.
The battle raged, the lush, peaceful, Pemalite ship a nightmare scene of
screams and roars, blood and rage.
"Guhroooar!" Marco, in gorilla morph, leaped down from an outcropping of
rocks and tore into a Taxxon.
"SSSRRREEEE-wah!" It fell, writhing, squirming, its lobster-clawed hands
clicking and snapping in its death throes.
A sleek, powerful tiger hurtled by, pouncing on a Hork-Bajir's back and
burying its fangs in his neck.
The Hork-Bajir staggered. Screamed. Collapsed.
Three huge, fearsome Hork-Bajir had converged on Ax and backed him
to the edge of the small lake.
One darted forward, swiping at Ax with his bladed arm.
Lightning-quick, Ax's wicked, scorpion tail flashed.
The severed arm flew and plopped into the lake.
The Hork-Bajir moaned and fell.
The other two advanced.
Growling, I thundered toward them.
Rose up on my back legs.
And stumbled, pitching sideways as my wounded leg gave out, sending me
crashing into a Hork-Bajir and knocking him to the ground beneath me.
For one, brief moment our eyes met.
And suddenly, eerily, we were more than warriors on separate sides.
We were each other.
And for a frozen moment, the world went still. Then . . .
Slash!
His arm came up, wrist blade out. I jerked my head back and rolled into
him. He slashed again and caught me in the side. I twisted and brought
my right paw around. I didn't have the leverage to slash. Instead, 1 did
what a grizzly wouldn't: I drew back my fist and punched him in the face.
I clambered up off his unconscious body.
The battle was everywhere. And we were losing. The grass was littered
with fallen Taxxons and Hork-Bajir. The air was thick with dying screams
and clogged with the hot, coppery stench of blood.
"Ghafrashl" A Hork-Bajir, charging Jake.
Jake slashing, roaring.
Cassie, hobbling, dragging a broken back leg, snarling and dodging a
Taxxon's claws.
Marco, bleeding, cheek laid open, his huge, powerful hands wrapped
tightly around a Hork-Bajir's neck. Squeezing.
Ax, whirling, slicing, the master of deadly perfection.
But we were losing. Because all alone, surrounded by his Hork-Bajir
guard, Visser Three was morphing. Growing. Some hideous creation from
some far-distant planet.
Huge! Deadly.
We couldn't defeat all his Hork-Bajir and Taxxons. Let alone this monster.
"Ah-hah-hah! Wonderful! Lovely! Perfect!" the Drode cackled happily. "I
love the smell of battle. Oh, J-a-a-ake? Are you dead yet?"
It had reappeared, stepping out from behind the same tree, seemingly
oblivious to any danger.
The Drode grinned its green-rimmed grin.
"You know, Crayak could use you, Rachel. Why stay with these
weaklings? You're already more like us than like them."

"Yes, isn't it? You can survive this debacle. Just do us one small
favor: Kill your tiresome cousin. Crayak would like to see that. So
would I. Kill Jake."
I laughed.
I lunged for the Drode.
It dodged me easily.
My momentum carried me past it, straight into a pair of Hork-Bajir.
Slash!
My other rear leg buckled. Buckled like it was made out of rubber.
I rose halfway up on all fours, but I couldn't reach the Hork-Bajir.
They laughed, seeing I was done for. Laughed at me, at my helplessness.
Then . . . something new. Something steel and ivory, moving at a speed
no human, no Hork-Bajir, no Andalite could match.
It raced for the tree. Visser Three slapped at it with one of his
morphing claws, but the steel-and-ivory creature simply blocked the blow.
I blurted in disbelief, even as a Hork-Bajir leaned over to cut
my throat open.
"No! Nooooo!" the Drode groaned in disbelief.
Erek reached the tree. He punched something into the control panel.
The Hork-Bajir was suddenly moving very . . . very . . . slowly. ...
"Oh, this is not at all what I had in mind," the Drode said.
I rolled aside and reached to gut it.
But my paw was likewise moving very . . . very . . . slowly.
The thought-speak voice of the ship spoke.
And we are very sorry to say that the hostility containment program has
been activated. What a shame to spoil our lovely time with fighting.
Once repairs have been made on all injured parties, we will have to ask
you to leave the ship.>
"And you wonder why Crayak destroyed the Pemalites," the Drode said,
enraged. "What tedious creatures they were. Pacifist androids! What is
the point of machines that cannot kill? They could have ruled the galaxy
with their Chee as warriors!"
The battlefield was frozen. Only Erek and the Drode were able to move.
Erek calmly lifted Tobias from the Hork-Bajir's grasp.
The Drode came over to me. It took in the violent tableau: me and the
two Hork-Bajir.
The Drode leaned close, close enough to whisper so that only I could
hear. "Your friends are all relieved. Are you? Are you happy that peace has been
restored? Or don't you itch for the chance to press those deadly claws
another six inches forward, to tear open that exposed throat?"
The Drode smiled. Cruel. Smirking.
"If you ever find yourself desperate, Rachel. At an end. In need.
Remember this: Your cousin's life is your passport to salvation in the
arms of Crayak."
Then it was gone.
The Pemalite ship carefully, politely, regretfully, packed the Yeerks,
including a furiously enraged Visser Three, back into their modified Bug
fighters.
back and nothing will stop me! You'll die, all of you, Andalite and . .
. and whoever runs this ship, I'll kill you all!> Visser Three said.
Repeatedly.
the ship said.
meet again someday and enjoy some pleasant activities together.>
Once the Yeerks were gone, we morphed and left the way we'd come in. The
ship was polite to us, too. But it wanted us gone, just the same.
It had been only ten minutes from the time we turned off the
interference with the Chee till the point when Erek arrived at the ship
to interrupt the battle. Ten minutes to get from land to a spot three
miles underwater. If it had taken fifteen . . .
The Drode was right about one thing: The Chee had powers that would have
made the Pemalites masters of the galaxy.
All that power. And all the Pemalites had ever wanted was to play, to
learn, to be happy.
Before we reached the surface of the ocean, the Pemalite ship had been
moved. This time to a depth only an android could reach.
It was late when we got home. We were tired. Worn and brittle from a day
harsh with fighting.
We each told our separate lies to our various parents, and were each
grounded. I don't think anyone minded.
I wondered if I should tell Jake about the Drode's foul offer. But I
decided against it. I knew I would never, ever give in. I knew myself.
I did. I knew my limits. I knew.
But what the Drode and his evil master Crayak had seen inside of me was
real. Jake knew it. He trusted me, but there might come a time when he
would doubt. . .
Jake had enough to worry about. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]