The Stranger Page 9

  * have been the last of his strength, he shoved a desk in place to block the door. less-than l'm hurt badeagreater-than Marco said. less-than like gotta morph out, man. greater-than less-than Do xeagreater-than Jake said. less-than Everyone. Demorph. greater-than less-than l'm okayeagreater-than I said weakly. less-than Racheleagreater-than Tobias said. less-than Your left arm. greater-than I stared blankly at my left paw. It wasn't there. It was a stump. less-than Demorphingeagreater-than I said. I focused on my hu man body. My weak but healthy human body. Morphing is done from DNA, fortunately. DNA is not affected by injuries, so injuries do not fol low you from one morph to another. Exhaustion does. As my human body emerged from the vast bulk of the grizzly, I felt so weary I was afraid I might faint. Through human eyes, I saw a scene of carnage. The Hork-Bajir lay sprawled around the room. Most seemed to be breathing. None were conscious. All were bleeding from claw-and- teeth wounds. Unfortunately for the Hork-Bajir, they could not simply morph out of their injured bodies. "Everyone okay?" Jake asked, sounding as weary as I felt. "Yeah, but that was way too close," Cassie said. We were in a large office. I could see that now with my human eyes. Desks lay splintered. The carpet was ripped into ribbons. The walls were gouged. Floor-to-ceiling windows formed one wall. They were shattered. I remembered the Hork- Bajir falling, and shuddered. There was a door in one wall. "Through there?" Marco suggested. "Let's try it," I said. I staggered toward the door. It was not locked. A bare room. Tile floor. White painted walls. The wall of windows was blocked by heavy cur tains. The room was empty but for a large, massively built platform in the very center. It was a steel pedestal, maybe three-feet- high, eight-feet-long. And atop that pedestal was a machine the size of a small car. It was shaped like a cylinder, tapered to dull points on both ends. It gleamed brightly, like new chrome, as if it had just been polished. And it made a slight, low humming noise. As I approached I felt my hair stand on end from the static electricity. It was warm in the room, very warm. It smelled like lightning. less-than The Kandronaeagreater-than Ax said. "The Kandrona," I echoed. For a full minute we all just stood there, gap ing at it. "Rachel?" Jake said at last. "We need you to morph again. Can you do it?" I nodded slowly. "Elephant?" "Elephant. I don't know how else we're going to do it. We don't have any tools or anything." I morphed the elephant. Tobias flew outside to make sure there were no pedestrians below on the dark sidewalk. It took every last ounce of power that ele phant had. But the Kandrona did move. It did, slowly, in jerks and starts, slide across the floor. And when at last I shoved it through the win dows, it did fall the sixty stories, to smash into the concrete below.

  *

  We did it," I whispered as I returned to my normal body. "We destroyed the Kandrona." "We have to get out of here," Jake said. "The Yeerks will know. They'll be all over this place." "So, what does this mean?" Marco asked. "We did it. But, what does it mean? Have we changed the future?" EVERYTHING CHANGES THE FUTURE. I groaned. "Somehow I knew we'd hear from that guy again." A REPLACEMENT KANDRONA WILL BE HERE IN THREE OF YOUR WEEKS. IT WAS ALREADY ON ITS WAY. "Are you telling us this was all a waste?" Marco demanded. Ax said, less-than No, Marco, it was not a waste. Three weeks with only the Kandrona aboard the mother ship? In three weeks' time they will suffer greatly. They will fall behind in their schedule. Many Yeerks will perish. Three weeks is not a waste. greater-than "Don't you mean three of our weeks, Ax?" Marco teased. "Is it enough?" Jake demanded loudly. "Is it enough? Have we changed the future?" There was no answer. Just silence. "I don't think he knows," I said. "He showed us a possible future. But you know what? I don't believe the Ellimist really knows the future any more than we do." "What makes you so sure?" I laughed. "Because wherever it is that the Ellimist exists, and whatever he's up to, and whatever game he's playing, and no matter how mighty he is, he has butterflies, too." Then, an amazing thing. Laughter that welled up from inside us, and echoed through us, and made us all smile as if we were fresh and full of energy. HA, HA, HA, HA. AS I SAID, YOU ARE A PRIMITIVE RACE, AND YET YOU ARE CAPABLE OF LEARNING. I smiled. "Come on, guys. Do you have the energy for one more morph? I feel like flying." At first we saw no evidence that the Yeerks were suffering. I don't know how they did it, but the Yeerks managed to maintain. It wasn't until later that we learned we had done them terrible damage. But that is another story. Two days later, I took the bus over to my dad's apartment. He was packing up his suitcase to leave. "Hi, Rachel," he said when he opened his door. "I wasn't sure you were coming over." I shrugged. "You're too disorganized to be able to pack all by yourself." He smiled a sad smile. "Thanks." "Yeah. No big thing." "I would have come and picked you up," he said. "Sweetheart," my dad said, "you know you can always change your mind. You can always come live with me." "I know, Dad." He smiled sadly. "You know I'll miss seeing you as much. Even though I'll be here every chance I get." "I know that, too, Dad," I said. I gave him a little kiss on his cheek. He patted my hair and

  I cried. I closed up his suitcase and zipped it. "You going to be okay without me here to take care of you?" he asked. "I can take care of myself," I said, wiping away the tears. We took the elevator down to a taxi that was waiting. "Come with me to the airport. I'll send you home in the cab." I shook my head. "No, I have stuff to do." He smiled. "I understand. You probably have something very important to do with your friends." It was a joke. "Absolutely," I said. "We have to save the world." My dad laughed. "If anyone can do it, honey, it would be you." Then the taxi drove off. I looked up in the sky. A lone hawk circled high overhead. less-than You coming, Rachel8greater-than Tobias called down to me in thought-speak. I nodded my head so he could see. Yes. I was coming.

  * Don't miss

  t J. raced for cover, looking for a place to morph back to human. Big stomping feet were landing all around me. They were slow, but man, they were big. Everyone was totally overreacting. I mean, give me a break, I was two inches long! How scary could I possibly be? Then it occurred to me. The house! We could run inside, race down to the basement where no one would be, morph back real fast, and then .... Well, and then there I would be, just me and an Andalite. Great. That wouldn't look too strange. less-than Ax! Stay with me. We need to demorph. Then you have to do your human morph real quick, okay8greater-than less-than like have the feeling, Marco, that this was not a good idea. greater-than less-than Nah. Everything according to plan. greater-than Zoom! Over the threshold onto the patio! Zoom! Into the house itself! Zoom! Past a hyster- ical Darlene, who was on the couch with a pillow over her head. Zoom! Along carpet till we hit linoleum. Suddenly, the scent of dark places. Mouse places! Yes, it was going to work! We ran across a step and leaped, falling . . . falling . . . plop! to land on the next step. Again and again, step after step, at a speed that felt like we were flying rockets. It was cool! If you overlooked the fact that it was maybe slightly stupid. less-than Don't worryeagreater-than I called to Jake in thought- speak. less-than We're in the basement. We're going to demorph. Just make sure no one comes down

  to the basement looking for mice. greater-than We lost our pursuers. No one followed us down the steps. And even as I ran, I started to demorph. I was halfway back to human, a strange mix of mouse tail and huge ears and human legs

  -

  a scary-looking creature. The way Mickey Mouse would look if he'd been invented by Stephen King. Ax looked even worse, half mouse, half An- dalite. Just as I was thinking, "Hey, this will all be fine," the entire world just flew apart. Crrrrr-Runch! Sunlight streamed down! The entire roof had been ripped away! The entire roof! Wood and beams and concrete just shattered and ripped and fell in huge chunks. I couldn't even make sense of it. I mean, the entire world around me was just being shredded. Shredded, like the universe was being run through a food processor. Then I saw it. It was gigantic! Enormous!

  A creature that seemed to be made of nothing but teeth and blades and destruction. It was like twenty Hork-Bajir glued together and given dragon wings. B-R-R-A-A-A-K! It was ripping the house apart with unbeliev able power. The noise was ter
rifying. The scream of rip ping wood. The shattering crunch of concrete being torn up

  - just torn up, like it was nothing! Pipes bending. Wires sizzling and popping as they exploded into showers of sparks. "Look out!" I yelled to Ax with my now-human voice. Beams were falling around us. Splinters were flying through the air. I barely noticed that I had finished morph- ing. I was human again. Somehow Ax had kept his concentration and was fully in his human morph. We were defenseless. Two weak kids without a weapon between us. Above our heads, where there had been a house just seconds before, the beast hovered in the sun. It looked down at us with a dozen weird eyes that seemed to be stuck here and there at ran dom. It stared at us the way I'd seen Tobias stare at his prey. It was going to destroy us. There was no ques tion in my mind. And no question that it could. "Oh, man," I moaned. "I don't like this." Then ... the eyes all flickered at once. The beast seemed uncertain. And to my utter relief and utter amazement, the thing began to disperse. It became dust again. Just a cloud of dust that thinned and dis appeared. I was shaking so badly I couldn't stand up. But I was alive.