The Encounter Read online

  There was a sickening crunch as her knees changed direction. Her legs shrank and thinned and grew fur.

  Suddenly she fell forward, no longer able to stand erect.

  It had taken about two minutes.

  Cassie was now a wolf.

  “How is it?” Jake asked.

  Cassie jerked suddenly at the sound of his voice and spun around to face him. She bared her teeth and snarled a warning that would have made a Taxxon back up.

  She had very impressive teeth.

  “Let’s all stand really still,” Jake said.

  “Good idea,” Marco agreed. “Really, really still. Because those are really, really big teeth.”

  Everyone stood motionless. They had all been through similar experiences. We knew what was happening. Inside the wolf’s head, Cassie was fighting to gain control of the wolf’s wild instincts.

  she thought-spoke at last.

  “Are you sure?” Rachel asked warily.

 

  “Then I’m extra glad I put on deodorant,” Marco joked.

  Cassie turned her wolf head this way and that.

  Marco laughed at the guilty look on Rachel’s face. “Oooh, busted by Cassie the wonder-nose.”

  “Let’s get busy,” Jake said. “The two-hour clock is now running. Tick-tock.”

  One by one they each stole a glance at me. I’m the handy reminder of what happens if you stay in a morph for too long.

  CHAPTER 7

  I was jealous.

  I mean, okay, if you ever have to be stuck as an animal, I think being a hawk is the coolest choice of all.

  But still, I was jealous. My friends were really enjoying being wolves. I guess it was a strange experience for them.

  I flew above the forest, skimming the treetops, while down below they ran. They moved so fast it wasn’t always easy for me to keep up. Not that their actual speed was so great. It’s just that they never stopped. Never rested. They just moved at a constant ten miles an hour or so. Over fallen logs. Between trees. Under bushes. Nothing even slowed them down.

  Well, actually, that’s not completely true. Two things slowed them down a little.

  One was Jake. He was the dominant male. In wolf packs that’s called an “alpha.” So he had a special wolf job to perform.

  Rachel demanded after his fifth stop.

  he admitted.

 

  he admitted.

  Cassie explained.

 

 

  The other thing that slowed them down was when they stopped once and started to howl. It was Jake who started it. It caught everyone by surprise. Including Jake himself.

  “OWWW-OOOOOOO-yow-yow-OOOOOO.”

  Marco started to say, but then he was doing it, too. “Yow-yow-OOWWOOOOO!”

  Cassie and Rachel weren’t far behind.

  “OOOOO-yowww-OWW-OOOOOOO!”

  I heard the yowling, of course, so I took a quick turn around a tree and headed back to them. I demanded. >We’re in a hurry here. You guys can only stay in morph for two hours. Why are you wasting time howling?>

  Jake admitted sheepishly.

  Rachel said.

  Cassie suggested. Which sounded perfectly reasonable. Until you saw that “Cassie” had her head tilted back and her snout pointed at the sky and was yodeling like an idiot.

  I flapped my wings and broke out from under the trees. The city and the suburbs were far behind me now. We had traveled pretty far in an hour’s time. It was about the same time of day as my second sighting of the invisible ship. The time when it had been heading toward the mountains.

  I swooped back down into the trees. Rachel said.

  I banked left around a tree, then flapped my way back up into the sun. I climbed hard and fast, using a lot of energy. The exercise helped distract me. It’s hard feeling sorry for yourself when you’re working out big time.

  After a while I was able to catch a nice thermal and get some easy altitude. I could still see the little wolf pack, moving like it had a single mind, flowing around the trees, swift and sure.

  I tried to imagine what it must be like to be a wolf. The amazing sense of smell. The incredible hearing. All that confident power, those ripping teeth, the cool intelligence.

  Maybe later I would ask Jake or Rachel about it.

  Then you could ask them what it’s like to be human. Maybe they can tell you about that, too, I thought bitterly.

  Stop it, Tobias, I ordered myself. Stop it.

  I guess I felt that if I ever started to feel really sorry for myself, I might never stop.

  I kept a sharp eye out on the sky above, but it was probably still too early for the ship to come. If it even came. There was no reason to think it kept some kind of schedule.

  Then, down below, I saw something that caught my attention. There was a convoy of trucks and Jeeps moving along a narrow, snaking dirt road. Maybe five vehicles. They had the markings of the Park Service. But they seemed to be in a big hurry.

  They drove to a lake that I had just glimpsed up ahead. By the shore of the lake, they pulled off the road. Then, to my surprise, several dozen uniformed men jumped from the trucks and began to fan out through the woods.

  They were carrying guns. But not rifles or even pistols. I could see them clearly. They were carrying automatic weapons.

  Suddenly, movement in the sky! What the—

  To my left I spotted a pair of helicopters. They zipped just inches above the trees. They began to circle the lake. These also had Park Service markings.

  This is all wrong, I told myself. These guys don’t act or move like Park Rangers. These guys move like an army.

  And as I watched, half a dozen of the armed men surrounded a small patch of bright yellow. It was a tent.

  Two people—they looked like college types— were cooking over a little fire outside the tent.

  I could see the expressions of total amazement and fear when they suddenly realized they were surrounded by six men with automatic weapons.

  The two campers were marched back to the nearest truck and driven away at high speed.

  I don’t know what story the two campers were told. Maybe the Park Rangers told them there was a dangerous fugitive in the area. Or maybe they said there was a forest fire. I don’t know. I just know those two campers were out of there before they knew what hit them.

  The two choppers circled the lake. Then they landed in a small clearing at the far side of the lake at the same time.

  It was more than a mile away. Far, even for my hawk’s eyes, in the slanting light of afternoon. But I could still see what came out of those helicopters.

  Out they leaped, one after another.

  Seven feet tall. The most dangerous-looking creatures you’ll ever want to see. Foot-long, razor-sharp blades raked forward from their snake heads. More blades at their elbows, wrists, and knees. Feet like a Tyrannosaurus rex.

  The shock troops of the Yeerks.

  Hork-Bajir warriors.r />
  CHAPTER 8

  Hork-Bajir!>

  The first time I’d seen them was at the construction site. I was still fully human then. It was while Visser Three was taunting the fallen Andalite. The five of us had been cowering behind a low wall. A Hork-Bajir had been within a few feet of us.

  The Andalite told us they had once been a good people, the Hork-Bajir. That despite their fearsome appearance, they were a gentle race.

  But the Hork-Bajir were all Controllers now. They all carried a Yeerk slug in their brains. And they were no longer gentle.

  I made a sharp turn back. I had to warn the others. I passed over a group of the Park Rangers and swooped low enough to read one man’s watch. My friends had been in morph for more than an hour.

  Great. Low on time, and the Hork-Bajir are here.

  I soon spotted the wolf pack, still trotting along resolutely, never tiring. Pausing only for Jake to pee.

  I dived toward them. Just over their heads I pulled up suddenly.

  “Yowl! Yip! Rrawr!”

  They yelped and scampered around. Jake bared his fangs at me.

  I came to rest on a decayed log.

  Instantly, as if on command, the others started fanning out around me, encircling me. The five of them were acting like a wolf pack surrounding prey. In their own way they kind of reminded me of Hork-Bajir.

  I said.

  No answer. Jake snarled a brief command at one of the others.

  Wait a minute. Five? Five wolves?

  Jake, who wasn’t really Jake, leaped at me.

  Whoa!

  Wolves don’t usually hurt humans, but they will definitely eat a bird when they’re hungry enough. And one thing you don’t ever want to see is a hungry wolf, yellowed fangs bared, gold-brown eyes glaring, fur bristling, coming at you.

  I flapped my wings hard.

  The big male wolf went shooting past. Barely. But the rest were all around me!

  I flapped again and got airborne, but just a few inches. I was skimming wildly over the pine-needle carpet, flapping for all I was worth, with five determined wolves hot on my tail.

  SWOOOOM! I caught the tiniest headwind, but it was all I needed.

  I was up! Up and out of there, while the wolves yowled and snapped their powerful jaws in frustration below me.

  Ten minutes later I found a second wolf pack. This time I counted. Four wolves.

  Still, I was cautious.

  Marco asked.

  I said. I flapped down to a low branch and rested my wings. I was still a little shaken up from my close call with the wrong wolves.

 

  Cassie said.

  Jake asked.

  I said.

  Cassie asked shakily I said

  Marco said with distaste

  Rachel asked,

  I said

  Marco said thoughtfully.

  I said

  Jake said

  Rachel said.

  Marco muttered

  I told them

  Jake warned They took off, with Jake in the lead

  Marco said.

  I went airborne again, but this time I stayed close by.

  I said Rachel replied

  Cassie advised

  They moved in a cautious circle around the phony Park Rangers. But I could see that the Rangers had spotted them. They tensed up, then relaxed when they saw it was just a wolf pack minding its own business.

  I decided to get some altitude. Unfortunately, since there were no convenient thermals, I had to flap my way up. I was a few thousand yards high, able to see my friends and the lake, when I felt its presence again.

  I looked up.

  The invisible wave. The slight ripple in the fabric of the sky. It was there. It was moving slowly overhead. Even more slowly than before.

  And then, as I watched, it was invisible no more.

  CHAPTER 9

  Don’t act suspicious or freak,> I called down to the others.

  Rachel gasped.

  Cassie cried.

  It was huge. But the word huge doesn’t really begin to describe it.

  Have you ever seen a picture of an oil tanker? Or maybe an aircraft carrier? That’s what I mean by huge. Compared to this thing, the biggest jumbo jet ever built was a toy.

  It was shaped like a manta ray. There was a bulging, fat portion in the middle, with swooped, curvy wings, one on either side. On top of the wings were huge scoops, like air intakes on a fighter jet, but much bigger. You could suck a fleet of buses in through those scoops.

  The only windows were in a small bulge at the top. The bridge, I realized. Focusing on it, I could see the shadowy shapes of Taxxons inside.

  But mostly that ship was just big. Really big. As in, it blocked out the sun, it was so big.

  Suddenly, out from behind the ship, a pair of Bug fighters zipped into view. We had seen them before. They are small, for spaceships. You couldn’t park one in your garage, but you could land it on your front lawn. They look like metal cockroaches with two serrated, spearlike protrusions pointed forward on either side.

  I called down to the others.

  Marco asked. The Bug fighters are circling the lake. I guess they’re looking around for trouble>

  Jake advised dryly. I did my best to look like a normal, harmless hawk. Doing normal hawk things. But the main ship was unbelievably intimidating. I mean, nothing that big should be floating in the air.

  Suddenly one of the Bug fighters went shooting right past me, low and slow. I could see in the window. Inside was the usual crew: one Hork-Bajir and one Taxxon.

  The Taxxons are the second most common type of Controller. Imagine a very big centipede. Now imagine it even bigger, twice as long as a man. So big around, you couldn’t get your arms around it if you wanted to give it a hug.

  Not that you’d ever want to give it a hug. Taxxons are gross, disgusting creatures. Unlike the Hork-Bajir, who were enslaved against their will, Taxxons chose to turn their minds over to the Yeerk parasites. They are allies of the Yeerks. I don’t know why, and I probably don’t want to.

  The Bug fighter shot past, not interested in
me. The huge main ship sank slowly down toward the surface of the lake.

 

  Marco, of course.

  Rachel said.

  >You know, I hate to be a pessimist,> Marco said,

  Cassie pointed out mildly.

  Jake said.

  They had reached the shore of the lake and were prowling along, looking like wolves should look. But they were also glancing regularly up at the massive ship. I worried a little that some Controller, human or Hork-Bajir, would notice that they were paying a little too much attention.

  I said.

  Marco agreed.

  Jake said.

  Then something began to happen.

  From the belly of the ship, a pipe began to lower into the water. Then a second pipe, and a third.

  Cassie said.

  I could hear the sucking sound. Thousands, maybe millions of gallons of water being sucked up into the ship.

  Marco said. He laughed.

  Rachel demanded. >

  But I understood what Marco meant. I said.

  Marco said.

  Cassie cried.