The Hork-Bajir Chronicles

by K. A. Applegate

The Andalite was on us ... on us ... setting up a shot. . .

  A single, massively powerful Dracon beam lanced from the ground and hit the pursuing Andalite. In the viewscreen I saw the right side of his ship explode. The Andalite pilot was still alive, still fighting to get some control when his wrecked fighter hit a thousand-foot-tall tree.

  "Take us back up!" I ordered.

  Needless to say, Alahar was no longer so frightened or reluctant. We zoomed recklessly through the trees and back up toward space.

  "I'm not showing any Andalite ships now," Alahar said.

  165

  "»

  166 "They've run!"

  "Yes," he agreed. "I'm showing four disabled or destroyed Andalite ships. Seven of ours. Still almost two-to-one for them."

  I nodded. "So it is. But unless they bring reinforcements very quickly, it will be enough."

  167

  DAK HAMTT

  We were not saved by the Andalites. Instead the war simply intensified. The Andalite main fleet was on its way. But it would not arrive for a year.

  From time to time new Andalite forces would show up. They were individual ships that had been on patrol and heard the call for help. A fighter here, a transport there, a few dozen more Andalite warriors to throw into the battles.

  The Yeerks were forced out of my own valley. But they were strengthening everywhere else. The Andalite ships took to hiding in Zero-space, popping out of normal space until they were needed. They no longer had the power to remain in orbit and survive.

  On the ground, Alloran led a valiant effort. But it was merely a holding action.

  There were victories. But at the end of each passing week, there were fewer Andalites and more of my people enslaved.

  168 After six months, the two thousand Andalite warriors had been reduced to four hundred. My forty-two Hork-Bajir warriors were now just twelve.

  We estimated that there were now a hundred thousand Hork-Bajir-Controllers.

  We hid among the Am, for the most part. The Am didn't like it, but they were helpless. Of course, the secret of the Arn was now well-known to the Yeerks. As Quatzhinnikon had predicted, the Yeerks discovered they could not successfully infest the Arn.

  So the Yeerks used the Arn in other valleys as slave labor to mine their raw materials and to build Yeerk ships. When an Arn was injured or worn out, the Yeerks used them for target practice.

  But the Arn in my valley were untouched. The Yeerks had made two attempts to invade the Deep of my valley. We had slaughtered them.

  The Yeerks knew where we hid. And we knew that sooner or later they would come for us.

  I stood on a balcony outside the Arn dwelling I now used as my home. I looked up, but I could not see Mother Sky. All I could see was the blue mist barrier, glowing like no sky could.

  I looked down and saw the seething, molten core of my planet, hundreds of miles down. The far wall of the valley was only a thousand feet away at this point, and I could see Arn busily going about

  169 their daily routines. Here and there an Andalite would trot by, simply hopping over the Arn in its way.

  There was one place where there always seemed to be two or three Andalites. At first glance they were just a couple of warriors talking, relaxing. But they, or others, had been in that same place for days.

  «What are you thinking?» Aldrea asked me.

  "What are those Andalites guarding?" I asked.

  She came and stood beside me. She pressed her small, weak hand against my arm, as she often did. «What makes you think they're guarding any-thing?»

  "Every hour of every day for the last two weeks there are at least two Andalites over there in that same location," I said.

  «They don't look like they're guarding any-thing.»

  "And yet they are there. Every day. Every night. Do you know what it means, Aldrea?"

  «No. I don't»

  "I'm going for a walk."

  «l'll come with you.»

  I went back inside, then down a set of steps to the walkway level. Along the walkway, waiting patiently for the slow-moving Arn. I came to a bridge. The bridges were narrow, infrequent, usually

  170 crowded, and fairly terrifying to Andalites, who were not at all used to heights.

  They were never more than three feet wide. Even a Hork-Bajir raised in the trees found them intimidating.

  Aldrea kept pace with me, steadfastly looking straight ahead and never down. We reached the far side and turned left to get back to the place the Andalites were guarding.

  "Hello, friends," I said to the two overly casual warriors there. "We would like to go in there."

  «Why would you want to go in there?» one of them asked. «Nothing in there for a Hork-Bajir to strain his brain over.»

  The warrior looked past me, saw Aldrea, and nodded respectfully.

  «Why are you guarding this place?» Aldrea asked.

  The two warriors grew less casual. Their tails rose a few inches. Their hands drifted down toward their holstered shredders.

  «Guarding? Who's guarding?»

  "Will you allow us to enter?" I asked.

  «Listen to me, genius, this isn't a place for you. Why don't you go find some tree branches to chew on?»

  Genius. It was one of several sneering terms the Andalite warriors had for Hork-Bajir. I ignored it.

  171 «Listenr you ?» Aldrea began to yell.

  I cut her off. "Simple question, friends. Will you allow us to enter? It only requires a yes or no answer. Yes or no?"

  «Move along,» the warrior said coldly.

  I turned and walked away. Aldrea came up beside me.

  «l guess you have to expect that. The rudeness, I mean. These warriors are under constant pressure, constant danger, far from home. They aren't always going to be very sensitive.»

  "Their insults mean nothing," I lied. "The fact that they are hiding something means something."

  «Let's ask Alloran.»

  "No. He gave the orders to guard that place. I guess we'll have to forget about it."

  Aldrea jumped ahead and blocked me. «Don't lie to me, Dak. You're going to try and find out what's in there. You just don't trust me to help you.»

  I was determined to remain calm. But I wasn't able. Instead I shouted. "We have fought side by side with your people and you Andalites still treat us like inferiors! Like errand-runners or servants or like idiot clowns to amuse you!"

  «They didn't know who you are,» Aldrea said. «They figured you were just some regular Hork-Bajir.»

  172 "Ah, yes. They assumed I was just one of the stupid Hork-Bajir. The simpleminded Hork-Bajir. The expendable, irrelevant, foolish Hork-Bajir."

  «That's not what I meant»

  "Of course it's what you meant," I said bitterly. "You Andalites have more respect for the vicious Yeerks or the cowardly Am than you have for the Hork-Bajir who fight and die at your sides. All that matters to your people is intelligence. Well, I've learned enough about Yeerk and Andalite and Arn intelligence to make me sick."

  All this while, Arn were walking around us and even through my legs, ignoring us.

  «You're upset. I understand that»

  I laughed. "You almighty Andalites. There is no limit to your arrogance, is there? Well, let me tell you something: We may be simple people. But we don't use biology to invent monsters. And we don't enslave other species. And we don't unleash a plague of parasites on the galaxy, endangering every other free species, and then go swaggering around like the lords of the universe. No, we're too simple for all that. We're too stupid to lie and manipulate. We're too stupid to be ruthless. We're too stupid to know how to build powerful weapons designed to annihilate our enemies. Until you came, Andalite, we were too stupid to know how to kill."

  «That's quite a speech,» Aldrea said softly.

  173 «You've been wanting to say all that for a long time, haven't you?»

  The anger had burned itself out. I felt hollow. Not better, not relieved. Just empty and tired. "We were
peaceful people, tending our trees, ignorant of our creators. Unaware of everyone else in the galaxy. Now look at us. Now look what has become of us. The despised children of the Arn. Slaves of the Yeerks. Tools of the Andalites."

  Aldrea stood close to me and pressed her upper body against my chest. I put my arm carefully around her shoulders. We stood there on the walkway for a long time, blind to all who passed.

  «l will help you find out what they are hiding,» Aldrea said. «Tonight, when the Arn are asleep.»

  "You can't go against your own people," I said.

  She looked at me then, with all her eyes. «Dak, I hope it never comes to a choice between my people and . . . and you. But if it does, I'll stand with you.»

  I smiled. I appreciated what she'd said. But I didn't believe it.

  174

  ALDREA

  I went to see Alloran without telling Dak. I asked him what was in the guarded room. He told me very coldly to mind my own business. Alloran had always been arrogant. Now, after months of hopeless battle, he was brutal, distant, and above all, exhausted.

  I pleaded with him. I even took his hand in mine.

  The morphing technology was still so new that most people didn't know how it worked. It never occurred to Alloran, as he felt the strange calm and lethargy steal over him, that I was acquiring his DNA.

  I rejoined Dak in the quarters we remnants of the Hork-Bajir army had taken. «l'm ready,» I said.

  "You went to see Alloran," Dak said.

  I was surprised. I saw Delf Hajool, Jagil's partner, looking ashamed. Jagil himself refused to look at me.

  «Dak, you don't have to use Jagil and Delf to

  175 spy on me. I went to Alloran for a reason. I acquired him.»

  That surprised him. I got some small pleasure out of his expression.

  "The morphing technology? But he must know what you did. His warriors must have seen."

  I went over to Delf and took her claw hand in mine. «lt was just like this, Dak. Alloran felt a momentary peace and calm. As Delf is now feeling. No one watching would even know.» I released Delfs hand.

  Dak nodded. He even smiled. "Good plan."

  «We do want to get in without anyone getting hurt,» I said.

  It was so easy morphing Alloran that I barely knew it was happening. There was no mental change. I still had the same Andalite instincts. But now, as I walked ahead of Dak, I felt the increased physical power of being in a male form. When I turned my stalk eyes back, I saw the heavy tail blade of a male. I also felt the slight male clumsiness, the lack of subtle balance that a female Andalite possesses.

  I marched steadily, unswerving, unhesitating, toward the guarded door. The guards saw me coming, straightened their pose, and stopped talking.

  «Report,» I said. I halfway expected the guards

  175

  to

  If.

  176 to burst out laughing at me. I may have looked and sounded like Alloran, but I didn't feel like him.

  «Nothing new since . . . well, since this Hork-Bajir here, or one who looks just like him, came by with Seerow's daughter today.»

  «Different Hork-Bajir,» I said. «Butthen, they do all look alike. Open up.»

  «Yes, War-Prince Alloran. But the Hork-Bajir?»

  I turned my stalk eyes on him. «Are you questioning me?»

  «No! No, War-Prince Alloran. Not at all.»

  The door opened. The guards stepped aside. «Stay out here. Watch for the girl. She may come back.»

  We went inside. It was a medium-sized room. I saw no Andalites, no Arn. The room was filled with equipment, machinery, much of it glowing and flashing. It was an eerie scene.

  "What is all this?" Dak asked.

  «l have no idea,» I admitted. «Some of this is An-dalite, but I believe most of it is Arn.» I went over to something I recognized: an Andalite computer panel.

  «Computeron,» I said.

  «ldentify user,» the computer's thought-speak voice requested.

  I took a deep breath to drive away the fluttering in my stomach. «Alloran-Semitur-Corrassr» I said.

  177 «Thought-speak identification confirmed. Readyr» the computer said.

  «We will be in very serious trouble if we get caught,» I said.

  Dak smiled. "Aldrea, we've been in trouble since we first met."

  «Computer, identify the purpose of this facility.»

  Fortunately, computers don't understand the concept of a suspicious question. The computer answered.

  «This facility uses Arn biotechnology matched with Andalite computer technology to formulate and produce biological specimens.»

  I frowned. «What biological specimens?»

  «Onkalillium . . .»

  «That's an organic medicine,» I told Dak.

  «And Virus Q-One-Eighteen.»

  My hearts skipped a beat. Why would anyone be creating a virus?

  «Explain the exact purpose of Virus Q-One-Eighteen.»

  «Virus Q-One-Eighteen is a Quantum virus. It is designed to attack a specific type of living creature at the subatomic level, bypassing all possible coun-termeasures. It is designed to cause death within minutes.»

  «No,» I whispered.

  178 "Ask it what 'specific type of living creature'?" Dak demanded.

  For a moment, I just couldn't do it. I just couldn't, because the computer would answer. The computer would tell the truth, and I couldn't hear the truth.

  "Ask it!" Dak snapped.

  «Computer, what species is Virus Q-One-Eighteen designed to attack?»

  «Hork-Bajir.»

  179

  DAK HAMTC

  We stood there, the two of us, motionless. I don't know what Aldrea felt. I know what I felt.

  I was angry, filled with rage at the Andalites for having done this evil thing.

  But beneath the rage was such sadness. Such awful sadness. All for nothing. All the fighting, the killing. For what? The Andalites had seen the truth: We had lost. The Hork-Bajir people would be slaves of the Yeerks.

  This virus was an admission of failure. The Andalites couldn't save the Hork-Bajir. So rather than let them fall into Yeerk hands, they would annihilate them.

  «l didn't know,» Aldrea said. «l didn't know. This is wrong. This is wrong. They can't do this.»

  "It makes perfect sense," I said. "To the brilliant, ruthless mind of an Andalite, it makes perfect sense. They would rather destroy us than have us become tools of the Yeerks."

  180 «No!» Aldrea cried with more force than I'd ever heard from her. «No! That is not how we are. Allo-ran has lost his mind. The Electorate will never support this. Never!»

  "Maybe not," I said. "But the Andalite Electorate is not here. Alloran is."

  «We are not going to let this happen,» Aldrea said. «We are Andalites. We do not destroy sentient species.»

  "What can we do?" I shrugged helplessly at the rows of flashing and glowing machines all around me.

  «Computer!» Aldrea snapped. «Can you place all the Q-One-Eighteen produced so far in one container small enough to carry safely?»

  «Yes.»

  «Then do it!»

  "What are you going to do, Aldrea?"

  «l'm going to destroy the virus and destroy this laboratory. »

  "You'd be going against your own people!"

  She began to change, to morph out of Alloran's form back into her own. She then looked at me through her own eyes again and spoke with her own silent voice. «No. My people do not wipe out entire populations. My people came to protect the Hork-Bajir, not to destroy them. I don't know what

  181 Alloran has become, but he is not one of my people.»

  "Alloran and his warriors will try and stop us."

  «Yes. I know.»

  I smiled, despite everything. Alloran had failed us. My people were doomed now, either way. But in the end, Aldrea was my true friend. She had lied to me, used me from time to time, and yet now, here, in this black moment, she was my true friend.
/>
  "I didn't believe you," I admitted. "When you said if you were forced to choose, you'd choose me."

  «Of course you didn't believe it,» Aldrea said. «l was lying. Once again. But this isn't a choice at all. This can't be allowed to happen.»

  "You and I alone, going against the Yeerks and theAndalites," I said.

  Aldrea nodded. «l guess that is true.»

  "Then from now on, no more lies. No more manipulation. No more Andalite subtlety."

  Aldrea nodded. «Let's just hope that "from now on" lasts longer than the next few minutes.»

  She pointed at a shining, steel cylinder that had risen dramatically from a console. «That must be the virus. Would you mind carrying it? Your arms are stronger than mine.»

  I lifted the deadly cylinder. Aldrea drew her shredder.

  182 «Be ready to run,» she said, and raised the shredder.

  I'd seen many brave deeds since the war had begun. But none braver than that. The Andalite girl turning against her own people to save mine.

  I cared very much for her then. I probably had before that, but that was when I finally realized it. With all her lies, all her inbred Andalite arrogance, all her manipulations, I loved her.

  «Let's blow this place up.»

  She began firing, and I didn't have time to think, only act.

  TSEEEEW! TSEEEEW!

  Consoles exploded. Machinery melted. The room was instantly as hot as sun on the highest branches.

  TSEEEEW! TSEEEEW!

  Buh-BOOOM!

  The guards came rushing in.

  WHUMPF! I hit one on the side of his head using the canister. He went down, unconscious.

  Aldrea calmly shifted the shredder, dialed down the power, and shot the other guard with a low-power blast that left him stunned and stupid on the floor.

  «That should be sufficient damager» Aldrea said. «Let's get out of here!»

  We ran outside, with me dragging the two An-

  183 dalites out of harm's way. The room kept exploding in showers of sparks and sudden arcs of mega-voltage.

  I cradled the container and Aldrea led the way. Down the walkway we raced. The city was empty and as dark as it ever got with the low glow from the core. All the Arn were asleep.

  But then the front wall of the laboratory exploded. The sound echoed all around the valley. No one was asleep after that.