The Fight for the Future

By: Andalite Girl

(I dedicate this story to my friends Hinkell, Huntsman, and Ficher. And of course to my dog Worf.)

Prologue

“Qu’Plah!” LT. Commander Worf cursed at his captors. “ I will kill you!” He tried to lunge at a human controller, but the Hork-Bajir held him firm.
Then Worf caught sight of something that made his heart stop. Deanna Troi, was standing in the middle of the complex, laughing. “ Deanna,” He whispered, “ DEANNA!”
She strode right up to him. “ Hello Worf,” She said with her silky voice.
What a pleasure it is to find you here. We had your infestation scheduled for later but…” She shrugged.
“ You are involved with these… these creatures?!” Worf snarled, almost at a loss of words.
Deanna smiled that smile that had always made his knees weak. She tilted her head up and whispered in his ear. “ Hon, I’m in charge of it.” She turned toward the human controllers and motioned toward the pier.
They dragged the Klingon to the end and pushed his head under the sludge. Worf felt something push into his ear canal and to his total surprise he heard a voice in his head.
< A Klingon host! Most wonderful! >

Chapter 1 Jake

I plopped my butt down on the sofa and turned on the TV, hoping to find a good game on. No luck, all the channels either had golf or one of those lame soap operas on. No doubt Ax would be thrilled. I thought.
I got up, paced around the room, got a coke and drank it. Then I sat down and drummed my fingers on the arm of my chair for a little while. I got up again and started pacing around the room.
Board. I never used to be board. Of course that was when I was an Animorph and I had way too much stuff to do… like save the world. But now it was over. We won and for a few months I was completely happy to become a normal, board 16-year-old again.
But now… now sometimes I want to do something. Anything to be important again. Just for the simple pleasure of knowing that I, Jake the animorph, did something worth while. That I made a difference and I still could make a difference.
YOU STILL CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Suddenly he appeared, as an old man, right inside my living room. Of course I knew the guy he was an Ellimist. He was one of the most powerful creatures in the galaxy.
“ What do you want?” I demanded.
My friends and fellow animorphs also appeared in my living room with a flash of brilliant light. “ Whoa!” Marco
commented when he saw me. Then he turned and saw the Ellimist. “ Whoa!”
 Ax grumbled. 
“ I come to you with a job offer.” The Ellimist said.
“ A job offer?” Rachel repeated.
The Ellimist nodded. “ Yes, you see the Crayak and I have reached another impasse. I trust you remember the last one.”
I did, we had to travel to another world to fight the Howlers. Not my favorite mission by far.
“ You had hurt the Crayak greatly by driving the Yeerks away from this planet. This is his chance to get his full
strength back again.” The Ellimist continued. “ Your job… if you do wish to accept it… is to keep that from happening.”
 Tobias asked.
“ I can not tell you that.”
“ Oh well great!” Marco said snidely. “ Thanks but no thanks. I already have a job at Burger King which I was at by the way before you zapped me here.”
“ Are you really happy, Marco?” Cassie asked in a quiet voice. “ Are you happy,” She pointed to a window that showed the out side. “ With this life?” Marco looked like he wanted to say something but the words never came out of his mouth. He ended up just looking at the floor and shaking his head.
It was at that moment that I realized something very important. It was not just me who had gotten antsy with normal life. It was all of us. We were all bored and hating it.
“ So where is this job?” I asked breaking the silence.
A ghost of a smile appeared on the Ellimist’s face, he must have been reading my mind. “ The question should not be ‘where’ as it should be when. It is in the 24th century. If you take on this job then I ask that you be
willing to give up the life you lead now and to sever all the connections with your friends and family.”
< What is this, Men in Black? > Tobias asked
I motioned for us animorphs to gather around in a circle. It was kind of pointless because the Ellimist could probably hear us. Hell, he probably knew what the answer would be.
“ Lets do it!” Rachel said.
“Wait a second Rachel.” Cassie said. “ I think we should all agree do this or we should all agree not to do this.”
< Well I say yes. > Tobias put in. < It gets dull being a regular human trapped in a hawk body. > I swear if he were human that he would be grinning.
“ Yes,” Marco said simply.
“ I can’t believe I am doing this, but yes.” I said.
Cassie smiled. “ Well if you’re in then I guess I should be too. Yes.”
As one we all looked at Ax. He had not spoken yet and it was basically up to him whether or not we go.
He shifted uneasily on his hoofs, aware of the decision he was making. He said stiffly. < It is my duty to go where I am needed. >
“ I’ll take that as a yes,” I said turning to the Ellimist. “ We have decided to-“
Within a blink of an eye we were all hanging in the realm known as the N dimension. Where things are visible inside and out and where the strands of time itself were like long ropes stretching into the distance.
IT IS DONE. YOU ALL NOW HAVE PERSONAS AS IF YOU ACTUALLY LIVED IN THIS TIME.
I didn’t even have the time to yell “ What?” before I was gazing into a piercing light ahead of me. I tried to move my hand to cover my eyes but then I looked down and saw that I didn’t have hands.
Or a body.
Suddenly the whole world seemed to shimmer around me and took shape. I was standing in a small room on a raised circular platform with lights on the bottom. Just ahead of me was a young man about 23 or so. He was working on a control panel and did not seemed concerned that 6 people just materialized right in front of him.
I heard Cassie gasp quietly as the man looked up. He had some kind of a strange ridge along his nose and markings around his temples. Not human.
“ Welcome to the Enterprise,” He said. “ Sorry about the transporter trip, something strange happened and I had to keep your patterns in the buffer a little longer then usual. But I got you out in one piece.”

Chapter 2 Cassie

We all kind of stared at the guy for a few seconds until he blushed and looked at the control panel.
“ I… I think that we should get out of here.” I said. I was closest to what looked like a door so I stepped off the platform and walked toward it looking for some kind of a doorknob. To my total surprise the door slid open
to reveal a hallway. The door closed behind us with a soft swoosh.
“ Cassie?” Rachel said in a shaky voice. I turned around to face her. Ohmygod! I thought, It’s Rachel at 21! She was several inches taller, her blond hair tied back into a sever bun. She was wearing a grayish one-piece jumpsuit with darker blue around the shoulders and a small gold circle on her collar. And she was carrying a duffel bag. I felt a strange weight in my right hand and I realized that I was carrying one too.
I looked around at the others. They had all grown older, were dressed in the same suit and had all had a duffel bag. Even Ax and Tobias who was in his human morph.
 Ax said as he picked disdainfully at his suit. < Andalites do not wear artificial fur.
We have our own. >
Marco stepped in the middle of our circle we had formed. “ Ok, ok, let me get this strait. One: We are actually in the 24th century. Two: We all look about 21…”
“ Shhh.” Tobias said. “ Someone is coming.” Two guys walked around the corner. One of whom stopped and looked at me.
Hi I’m Wesley.”
“ I’m Cassie.”
The other one, a short black guy with a gold band covering his eyes, elbowed Wesley in the ribs. “ Come on Wes, we’re late for the debriefing.”
Wesley smiled regretfully. “ Gotta go, see you later Cassie.”
I smiled back. There was something likeable about him. “ Yeah,”
Wesley and the other guy walked off.
Marco continued. “ Three: Cassie is already flirting-“
“ I was not!” I protested. I still liked Jake and nothing would change that.
“Yeah right! Better watch out Jake. You have competition- OW!”
Rachel had calmly walked behind him and grabbed the base of his neck.
Marco, shut up.” Then she released him.
He rubbed the back of his neck. “ Jeez Rachel, that was a nerve. Just because your part of security…” Marco stopped talking. His eyes were wide.
“ How does he know that?” Rachel asked. “ And how come he is right?”
“Guys,” Jake said urgently. “ I think we have learned something very important here. Look deep inside your memories, its like we have led two different lives. Animorph and… this.”
I tried to think of my life and suddenly it was all there for me to see. From blurry childhood memories to the moment I joined star fleet to become a doctor. “ That is what the Eliminate meant! ‘ You all have personas as if
you actually lived in this time.’ It’s like were all here the whole time!” I said.
Marco grinned at Ax. “ I have this memory of me kicking your ass in a flight simulator.”
< Yes, but I also had a memory of your shuttle craft almost blowing up in reentry because you didn’t have the right structural integrity. > Ax countered.
Jake rolled his eyes and hefted his duffel bag over his shoulder. “ Let’s find our quarters. We look like a bunch of morons here.”
“ Uh, do we even know where our quarters are?” Tobias asked.
I quickly searched my fake memories for an answer. “ They told us right before we beamed on bored. It should be on this deck about 20 doors down.” I started walking in the general direction.
“ Yeah, yeah, I think she’s right.” Rachel said catching up to me.
We found our quarters esily and went inside. There were about 10 or so bunk beds and an open space for aliens who didn’t need beds. As ensins we had to share our rooms unlike senior officers who practicly got suites.
“ I get a top bunk!” Rachel cried throwing her duffel bag up on one.
“ I can’t believe that they let guys and girls in the same room.” Marco said. “ Not that I’m complaining.”
Jake grinned. “ Maybe they trust us in this century.”
It was good to see Jake relaxing a little. He didn’t joke with Marco once we won the war. I guess all of us were not really in the mood for joking. Its not like we were sad about winning the war or anything. We were just
depressed about all the things we had done to win it. There was lots of spilled blood on our hands.
I think this major change of scenery helped rejuvenate us.
Jake spoiled my good mood with his next sentence. “ I think we need to get back on track. The Ellimist brought us here to stop what ever the Crayak is up to, but the problem is we don’t know what we have to stop.” He raised one eyebrow as if to say “ Got any suggestions?”
< The Ellimist did mention that it would not be a battle. > Ax said helpfully.
“ At least not out in the open.” Tobias added. “Who ever it is may just be waiting for chance to pick us of one by one.”
“ We could use our morphs to get away and spy.” I said. “ By the way, Tobias, do you know if your in a human morph right now or are you back to being a morph capable human?”
Tobias shrugged and seemed to concentrate. His face started to grow out and out like the beginnings of a dolphin morph. Then he reversed the process and went back to human. “ Guess I’m like you guys now.” He said with a hint of sadness in his voice.
Rachel went over to him and gave him a quick hug. “ You could always use the holodeck and become a hawk again.”
“ Yeah I guess so.”
Jake sighed, “ I think we should always know where everyone else is. So if anyone comes up missing…” He let it hang. “ I already know that Marco and I are to work on the bridge around O six hundred.”
“ I’m going work in sickbay.” I said.
Rachel grinned her lunatic grin. “ I am going to tour the ship with Lt. Worf.”
 Ax complained. 
Tobias laughed a little. “ You guys get all the fun. I get to work on a broken down shuttle craft.”
“ Well we should get some sleep.” I said. “ Tomorrow is going to be a big day.”

Chapter 3 Ax

I stood there stunned as I gazed into the bawls of the ship that was engineering. It was huge, twice the length of
Cassie’s barn and about as long. In the center of the huge complex was the warp core, a tube in which
matter and anti-matter came together upon dilithium crystals. It made it possible for the ship to travel at
faster-than-light speeds with out using Z-space.
In short, the warp core is the one invention that proves humans are able to think for themselves.
“ You must be ensign Isthill.” Said a voice behind me. It was coming from a short dark human with a high tech band around his face. My fabricated memories told me it the chief engineer. Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge.
< Yes sir I am he. > I said deciding to play the role of my persona.
La Forge gave a curt nod. “ Welcome aboard ensign. Normally I would assign someone to give you a tour but right now we are in the middle of one hell of a problem.” He paused as someone gave him a data pad to read. “ I would like you to run a level 2 diagnostics on the non-essential systems.”
< Right away sir. > I said as I went over to a spare terminal. At once I saw what he was talking about. Energy.
A lot of energy was missing. Just missing like it wasn’t even there. This was very serious, if the ship got in a hostile situation then we would not be able to raise shields or even fire back. In fact the warp core was
barely capable of puling warp factor 7 when it should be able to go to 9. Wait, why do I even care? I thought. This isn’t my ship. No but I’m on it. I answered myself. I will care a lot if this ship explodes or loses life support.
I finished the diagnostics and handed the results back to La Forge. “ Good work,” He said. “ There is a problem with a terminal in shuttle bay 4. I want you to go take a look at it.”
I nodded and started toward the direction where shuttle bay 4 was. But inside I was seething. I was a trained andalite warrior cadet! The only andalite serving in star fleet. Not some low life repair workman on a human
ship. If this is what the 24th century was like then I wanted no part of it.
When I got to my destination I tapped the membrane keypad to open the door, but nothing happened.
< Probably broken down too. > I muttered as I reached for the pad again.
Before I pushed the correct button, however, the door slid open to reveal the one place that every andalite fears. A YEERK POOL! My mind screamed.
I didn’t even have time to react before the clawed hands of Hork-Bajir pulled me in.

Chapter 4 Marco

I groaned as I walked into the turbolift. My first day on the bridge and I had frozen up! Right in front of the people who could either make or break my career and I, had frozen up.
“ I feel like such an idiot.” I muttered under my breath.
The other guy in the lift, a humanoid with pale skin, yellow eyes and a bad hair cut looked at me. “ I believe that we have not met before. Are you new to the ship?”
“ You could say that,” I said not really interested in small talk. “ Just came from the academy.” And that 20th century, I added silently.
“ Ah, well if it was any consolation you performed adequately on the bridge.”
I wanted to roll my eyes. This guy sounded just like Ax. Meanwhile the guy kept on talking. “ Perhaps you are in need of a place to relax, to chat, to chew the fat, to socialize, to-“
“ That sounds good to me.” I interrupted. “ What is it?”
“ It is called Ten-forward.” He said.
The lift stopped the doors opened to reveal my deck. I steeped out. “ Maybe I’ll go there. Thanks… Ah…” I didn’t know his name.
“ Data.” He said as the door closed.
I shook my head in amazement. Of course the walking dictionary would be called Data. I started toward my quarters and stopped. No one would be in the quarters at this hour and Ten-forward sounded like fun…I turned around and took another lift.
Ten-forward, as it turns out, is a bar. I shrugged and walked to the counter and sat down. In front of me was a lady who looked a lot like Whoopi Goldberg with a big hat. She was busy cleaning some cups and wasn’t paying any attention to me. I cleared my throat to get her attention. It didn’t work. “ Uh, miss? Do you have anything non-alcoholic?” I asked.
That got her attention, she looked up in shock and almost dropped the cup she was holding. I grinned, looks like word of my good looks had already gotten around the ship.
“ Guinan, what the devil is the matter with you?” Said a voice beside me. I turned around to look and almost fell out of my chair, because sitting right next to me was the second most powerful man on the ship.
Commander William Riker.
“ You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He remarked to the woman, totally ignoring me.
Guinan continued to stare. “ I think I am.” She said.
Now I was getting a little annoyed. “ What? Do I have something on my face?” I demanded.
Suddenly she grinned a giant grin and said. “Will, I think we have an answer to our problems.”
“ Oh really?” Riker said dryly casting a suspicious glance at me.
Guinan nodded and all the noises of the bar dimmed out as what looked like a saran wrap bubble enclosed Riker, Guinan and I.
Only Guinan wasn’t Guinan anymore.
She/he was a Chee.

Chapter 5 Rachel

I paced back and forth. My first day on the security team. I had spent 4 years training in the academy for this day, this job. 4 years of hard work leading up to this. Of course I hadn’t really spent 4 days in this century,
much less 4 years but my fabricated memories seemed real enough.
The bulkhead swooshed open without warning and Lt. Worf walked in. He didn’t greet me or even nod. I guess that wasn’t his stile. Instead he tossed a pack of something to me and said, “ You have 30 seconds to assemble this.”
I caught the pack and quickly unzipped it. Inside were the parts of a phaser rifle. I took out the parts and put them together well below the 30-second mark.
Worf glowered at me. “ 12 seconds, most impressive.”
You know damn well that’s nearly a record. I thought. But what I said out loud was “Thank you sir.”
He handed me a data pad. “ These will be your duties for the next six months. You will mainly be working in shuttle bay 4.”
The strangest thing happened right then. Worf’s eyes got wide for an instant and his right hand jerked to the side like he didn’t have control over it. Then he was his normal self again.
“ Are you alright?” I asked.
His glare deepened. (If that’s even possible) “Get to your post ensign.”
I walked out of there as fast as I could. “ God, what crawled up his ass and died?” I wondered to no one in particular as I walked to shuttle bay 4. It certainly wasn’t my fault that he was having weird spasms.
Anyway, I had come to the bay entrance. What was in there that needed my attention anyway? Oh well. I touched the keypad and the door opened to reveal… A YEERK POOL!
I was frozen in shock as a Hork-Bajir pulled me in. Then I got my wits back. “LET ME GO!” I shrieked as I tried vainly to wiggle and twist free.The Hork-Bajir still held on to my arm and broadly led me to the infestation
pier.
I stopped struggling long enough to look around. I counted maybe ten Hork-Bajir in all. The kandrona was in plain sight, buzzing away right over my head and making my hair stand on end. There were about 100 people in cages around the pool and 20 people ahead of me in line… one of them was Ax! He was slumped over like he had been knocked out.
“ AX!” I screamed. “AX!” Oh if only I still had that phaser rifle I would… time stood still as I realized what an idiot I was being. Morph!
I focused on my grizzly bear morph. I wanted those pick axe claws. I craved that enormous brute power that only the grizzly had. I started to grow taller.
Here’s the thing about Yeerks in the 24th century. They didn’t know a damn thing about morphing. My Hork-Bajir kind of gaped at me until I was over half way morphed. I swung a clawed paw at his stomach and he went down.
With eyes still mostly human I looked over at Ax. He was nearing the end of the line. <AX WAKE UP! >This time he jerked awake. He snapped his tail and knocked a Hork-Bajir in the pool.
By now more controllers had figured out what was going on more or less. They started drawing dracon beams. < Let’s get out of here! > I said.
< Yes. > Ax agreed. He plowed his way through the line, easily catching up to me. Together we ran for the door with missed dracon shots lancing over our heads.
Ax found the door first and opened it. < Rachel you must demorph. > He said calmly as we barreled down the corridor. I focused on my human body. Unfortunately my legs and arms were the first to change back. I crumpled to the ground, not able to support 700 pounds of bear weight. Then my body started to slowly
shrink. Too slow!
Ax, however, seemed to be poking around the wall. He suddenly exclaimed. < Ah this will be adequate! > When a door I didn’t see opened to reveal a storage closet. I heaved my still shrinking body inside with Ax right behind me.
The door closed right as a whole mob of controllers ran past us.

Chapter 6 Tobias

I sighed as I crawled under the shuttlecraft with my tool kit. The ventral plasma relays had been blown out as a result of sloppy flying. But did the pilot have to fix it? Nooooooo. That was my job. The job of an lowly ensign
who-
Suddenly I heard footsteps and muffled voices. That’s funny. I didn’t notice anyone in here but me.
The people were coming closer and closer. Now I could tell who it was by their voices. Lt. Huntsman, Ensign Hinkell and Ensign Ficher. They stopped right by the shuttlecraft I was working on and I could hear their
conversation clearly.
“-Going along perfectly.” Ficher said.
“ Good, we need as many of them as we can get. Are all the senior officers infested?” Huntsman demanded.
“ Almost,” Hinkell replied. “ Except for La Forge, Riker and of course the android.”
Ficher voice turned cold as ice. “ The Klingon almost discovered us! It was just chance that he happened to blunder into shuttle bay 4. Your people should have taken care of that.”
“ The point is that we didn’t get exposed.” Hinkell said carefully. “ It was my pool brother himself who caught him.”
“ My people are working on a way to deactivate the android.” Huntsman stated.
“ Just make sure there aren’t any mistakes in the process.” Ficher said. Or my fellow Vissers and I will make the last three of your days… very unpleasant.”
Then they walked away.
Shuttering I tapped my insignia. Jake had to know what was going on. “ Smith to Rollins.”
“ Rollins here.” Jake said.
“ Are you alone?”
“Yes.”
“ The Yeerks are here man. The Yeerks are here.”

Chapter 7 Marco

“Erek?!” I yelled.
Erek nodded and seemed pleased. “ That’s what I thought. Riker this is Marco, one of the Animorphs I was telling you about.”
“ Wait a second.” Riker said. “ That was in the 20th century. Wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” Erek said still looking at me. “ How did you get here?”
I was just recovering out of my shock. “ Uh, the Ellimist kind of appeared and offered us a job here.”
“ Ellimist?” Riker wondered.
“Maybe you should explain from the beginning.” Erek said.
So I did. I told Riker about how we came across the power to morph, how we all fought for three years and how we won. Finally I recounted how the Ellimist offered us a way to get out of our boring lives and to fight again.
“ It is good that you’ve come here then.” Erek said solemnly. “ Because the Yeerks are on this ship.”
“What!” I yelled. “Why didn’t you guys guard against it happening again?” I glared at Riker who shrugged.
“ In the late 21st century World War III had pretty much destroyed everything. A lot of our history was lost. That’s
why the 20th century is known as post atomic horror.” He stood up, careful not to get out of Erek’s hologram. “ Come on. There are only two other senior officers who are not infested. La Forge and Data. We should hook up
with them and then get your friends. There is work to be done.”
“ Oh one more thing!” Erek took Riker’s and my insignia and snapped them in half. “Now you can’t be traced.”

Chapter 8 Jake

“The Yeerks are here man. The Yeerks are here.”
I took a deep breath. “ Tobias are you sure? Positively sure?”
“ Oh yeah, I’m sure.”
That familiar rush of adrenaline flooded my system. Yeerks!
“Tobias, we all need to meet up. I’m in my quarters right now. Do you know where that it?”
“ I can find out.”
“Ok. Rollins out.” I tapped the insignia to end the communication.
As quickly as I could I contacted Rachel, Ax and Cassie. I could not get a hold of Marco for some strange reason or another. He could already be one of them. Anyone could be one of them… Sweat trickled down my spine like little ants dancing along my back. Didn’t want this, didn’t need this… Yeerks…
I pounded my fist against a wall. I had it all…normality, freedom, even blessed boredom. And I had given it all up. “Why!?” I yelled as I pounded the wall. No, it wasn’t a wall anymore. It was a bloody tunic…
“No Marco!” I yelled.
The others were all crowded around me, so close, so close but not able to help him. None of us could help him. I wanted to curse at them, scream at them. Why is this happening? How could you let this happen? Look what you have brought him too! You damn fools.
Marco looked at me and gasped, “ Jake… why?”
“Marco,” I moaned. “ Forgive me… I tried.” We tried to save you. To save her. But it was too late… everything was too late… I’m sorry. So sorry."
He was spacing out, losing his grip on reality as all the numbweed and Fellis did its work. But he had strength enough to grip my shoulders.
Kill me,” He whispered. “ She’s dead, please, please kill me.”
I woke up.
I was still in my quarters, sitting against the wall that I was pounding earlier. What the- was that a daymare? Some sort of vision? Was I losing it?
I looked back on what happened, but the details were blurred. “She’s dead.” Marco had said. Who was she? Not Cassie or Rachel… somone else, more important, somone closer to him… but who?
And what the hell was Fellis and Numbweed anyway?
Take one thing at a time Big Jake. One thing at a time. Focus on the Yeerks, think of weird ass visions later. You don’t have time.
I nearly jumped in the air as someone knocked on my door. It had to be one of the others. No one in the 24th century knocks. “Come in!”
The door opened and Rachel, Cassie, Tobias and Ax rushed in. Once they caught sight of me they all started to talk at the same time.
I held up my hand. “Hold it. One at a time.”
Rachel started talking quickly, very unlike her. “ We… Ax and I ran into a Yeerk pool. Actually we were ordered to go there, by La Forge and Worf. We escaped and ditched our insignias after you called, but they could still be looking for us.”
“Jake,” Tobias said. “ We couldn’t raise Marco on communication and it’s likely that the Yeerk pool is shielded…”
“ He could be down there.” Cassie whispered, clutching compulsively at the bottom of her shirt and worrying it between her fingers. “ They would know everything…”
I gripped her arm to make her pay attention, “No, we can’t start thinking like that.” I said, pushing the memory of the vision in the back of my head. “ We have to think on the here and now. If Marco is-“ I couldn’t finish, the
memory played across my mind again, threatening to overwhelm me. “ Well then we will deal with it.” I turned to Ax, “How many people, do you think, were in the Yeerk Pool area?”
< 130,> He answered. “ And maybe 5 Hork-Bajir controllers.”
“ We need a game plan.” Rachel said.
SWOOSH.
Without warning the door opened and Marco, flanked by 4 human controllers walked in. I automatically grabbed for my phaser attached to my belt and aimed at one of the controllers with a beard.
Ax swung his tail and pressed the blade against Marco’s thought. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Rachel begin to change into a Grizzly and Tobias begin to morph into a red-tailed Hawk.
Amusement flickered in the bearded controllers’ eyes, “ Well they are fast. That’s for sure.”
A controller who looked like the clone of Whoopi Goldberg, put her hands on her hips and said, “ What the HELL are you guys doing? PUT your phaser down Jake! And you! Rachel, stop your morphing. We do
happen to be on the same side.” Then she did something incredible… She let down her hologram.
“ Erek?!” Five voices said at the same time.
Ax let down his tail while I put away the phaser and Rachel and Tobias demorphed.
“ Well I guess I should start from the beginning,” Marco said ruefully as he rubbed his throat. He went on to tell us of how he came across Erek, and who these people were.
“ Do you know how much of the ship is infested?” Cassie asked when he finished.
“ No, not really.” Riker said. “ A lot though. Probably as much as ninety percent.”
“ It was only pure luck that we avoided capture.” Data said.
“ Yeah… I had no idea what shuttle bay 4 was.” La Forge said to Ax, Sorry.” Rachel started to think out loud, “ What we need to do is to destroy the Yeerk Pool. Then the Yeerks will all starve within three days.”
“ Good luck Rach,” Marco said snidely. “ If we blow up the Yeerk Pool, then we end up blowing a major part of the ship.” There was something that was missing. I knew it. I just didn’t know what it was. Some part of the puzzle, yet to be discovered.
“ Too bad we just can’t eject the who thing out into space.” La Forge mused.
“Why not?” I asked.
“ Because of the people Jake.” Cassie said. “There would be people in the shuttle bay too. Not just Yeerks.”
“Wait!” Marco walked into the middle of our little group. “ I think I have an idea.”
“First time for anything,” Rachel muttered.
Marco ignored her. “ What if we chased everyone out before ejecting the Yeerks.” He turned to Data, “ You don’t need air, do you?”
“No,”
“Great then you could do the ejecting.”
“ I really hate to burst your bubble.” Riker said. “ But do you really think that 6 scary animals are going to chase
away a hundred people and-what do you call them- Hork-Bajir?”
Erek grinned, “ What about 60 scary animals commander.” Suddenly the whole room seemed full of lions, tigers, bears, Andalites, Elephants, gorillas, and birds of prey. “ They can’t attack anyone… my programming would not allow it. But they could run around. It certainly would not be my fault if people were frightened.”
“It just might work.” La Forge whispered.
“It will work.” I said.

Chapter 9 Jake

< Everyone ready?> I asked, we were standing right out side the door to shuttle bay 4. I had morphed a tiger, Rachel a Grizzly, Tobias a hawk, Marco a gorilla, Cassie a wolf and Ax, was is own self.
The plan was simple: Go in a scare the crap out of people. Data was to do the actual ejecting and Riker was going into watch his back. La Forge was in engineering, somone had to cover up the ejecting of a thousand Yeerks into space, and mask any emergency communication to the bridge.
Erek was to follow us in also, but he would be there to project the holograms.
One by one everyone said yes, they were ready.
Data tapped the membrane pad and the door opened.
ROOOAAAAARRRRRR! I leapt inside first, followed by the other animorphs and about 60 or so scary holographic animals. Rachel has said that the Hork-Bajir were dumbfounded by her morphing earlier … well now they were ready.
TSSEEEEWWWW!
Dracon beams began to fire, hitting the holographic animals. I jumped onto a Hork-Bajir, snapping at his neck. He slashed but missed. I swung at him with one giant paw. With what must have been the last of his strength his
got up and ran.
The others were fighting too. They didn’t have a chance against us. the living Hork-Bajir broke and ran for the exit.
< Marco! The cages!> I yelled.
But Marco was already there, ripping at the locks and setting the people free. They ran out of the cages and looked around, confused.
< Run for the exit!> I yelled < The exit!>
They started running, but then something terrible happened. The last Hork-Bajir, the one that got away from me, turned and fired a single shot.
It sailed through the air and hit commander Data in the chest.
I started to run but Riker had gotten to him first. A big gaping hole had been burned in Data’s chest, exposing wires and mechanical parts. His yellow eyes were staring blankly ahead.
“ He’s dead.” Erek said softly from behind me.
I looked around and realized and he, Riker, the other animorphs and I were the only ones left in the shuttle bay.
< Erek, can you eject…>
“No, my programming won’t allow it.”
“ I can do it.” Riker said.
Ax looked at him < Commander, that would be suicide.>
“ I am well aware of the consequences Mr. Isthill.” Riker said stiffly, but a ghost of a smile appeared on his face. “ Now get out of here before I change my mind.”
We demorphed and headed for the exit, but right before I walked out I turned around. “ Thank you commander.”

Chapter 10 Jake

We all waited outside the door out of respect. It was the least we could do. Riker had been a good man, a brave man. We didn’t hear the sound of the air rushing out of the shuttle bay on the other side. There was only
silence.
Suddenly the Klingon, Worf came running around the corner flanked by a whole team of security officers. I guess La Forge could only cover up the sensor readings for a short time.
“It’s too late,” Rachel said abruptly. “ He already ejected them out into space.”
One of the controllers by Worf took out his tricorder and scanned, he went pale. “ She’s speaking the truth sir. They’re all gone.”
“That cannot be!” The Klingon controller yanked the tricorder out of the man’s hands and repeated the scan. “Human filth! I will make sure Visser 2 plans a slow death for all of you!” He aimed a phaser at us. “MOVE!”
We started to walk. I was calm, utterly calm. So were the others. I don’t know why, I guess that after awhile you kind of get immune to the fear of death.
What was this guy going to do? Kill us? HA! He had only 2 or 3 days to do it in then he would be as dead as I. Only Erek, hiding behind the form of Whoopi Goldberg, seemed nervous.
“ Shouldn’t you morph?” wondered quietly as we walked.
“No,” I whispered back, they would just shoot us half morphed.” Better to die as a human or as a animal, not some mix of the two.
We were taken up to the bridge. The bridge personnel all glared at us as we walked past. They must have known what we had done. Fine, glare all you want. It won’t do you any good in three days.
“Visser,” said Worf. “ I have brought you the bandits.”
Visser 2’s host body turned around to face us and it was all I could do to keep my knees from buckling. For it was the Jean Luke Picard.
The Captain of the Enterprise
Visser 2’s host body must have been a very great man. The kind of guy you looked at and knew, just knew that he was a natural, powerful leader. Lie to him? Try to trick him? Out of the question. He knew about everyone and everything that was in his ship. You didn’t mess with this guy. You just didn’t.
That combined with the Yeerk’s evilness that seemed to flow from his like a dark shadow and… he was downright scary.
He strode up to us. “ So,” He said with a light French accent, “ You are the ones that are going to make the next three days… interesting.”
I nodded, a jerky movement.
Picard’s eyes turned hard and cold. If looks could kill I would be a little pile of ash sitting on the deck. “ Do you know what it is like to die of Kandrona starvation!?” He demanded without actually yelling. I had a feeling
he never yelled. He didn’t need to. Without meaning to I nodded again. Big mistake. He drew back and punched me right in the jaw. I fell back into Cassie and Ax.
Kandrona starvation is the worst death any sentient animal can have.” He said softly, thinking to himself. “ And I’ll be damned if I will let that happen.” Visser 2 abruptly turned to his fellow controllers and gave a curt
nod.
One of the officers spoke to the computer. “This is Councilor Troi. Initiate self distruct sequence alpha, beta,
eight, zero, one, charlie.”
“No!” Cassie gasped. “ There are fourteen hundred people on this ship! You can’t!”
“Silence!” Visser 2 snapped. “ If she speaks again, shoot her.”
Then Worf spoke to the computer. “ This is Lt Worf, innate self distruct sequence omega, beta ,zero, charlie seven.”
Finally the Visser 2 spoke, “ This is Jean Luke Picard, initiate self disturct sequence one, four, six, omega, alpha, charlie. Set for 10 seconds.”
“Approved,” Said the computer, “Initiating self destruct sequence in ten seconds. Nine, Eight, Seven…” A hand found mine. It was Cassie’s I squeezed and she squeezed back. “Four, Three, Two, One…”
And then there was only whiteness.

Chapter 11 Jake

The whiteness faded away I was standing in front of a man. We all were, all of us animorphs.
“Saint Peter?” I wondered.
The man snorted, “ Hardly. You may call me Q”
“ Q?” Marco asked. “ Does that stand for-“ A piece of ductape covered Marco’s mouth.
The Q clapped his hands sarcastically. “Bravo, you’ve saved the day. The Ellimist said you would but…” He shrugged. “Ellimists sometimes lie.”
Rachel exploded. “ Are you nuts!? Everyone died!”
“You are very foolish indeed.” Q said. “ If you died then how could you be talking to me?”
“ I don’t understand.” I said.
“Oh of course you wouldn’t. It’s way over your primitive little heads.” The Ellimist appeared then, as an old man.
It was a lose, lose scenario… but you lost correctly.
“You hypocrites!” I screamed. “ You knew this would happen all along? Why didn’t you stop it? Fourteen hundred people died when they shouldn’t have and all you can say is ‘We won.’ You have the power to bring them back! So why not do it?”
It is not my place. The Ellimist said simply.
< Typical Ellimist.> Ax said. < Typical lies. You can do it, but you will not. Why?>
Q rolled his eyes. “ Pish Posh, your petty worry for people you don’t even know is so… mundane.” I was about to yell at them again but Q cut in. Would it ease your little minds to know that I do not intend to let them die… yet? I owe the human race a favor so I suppose I could save their lives.” He sighed. “ After all, Picard is my favorite human sparing partner.”
“ What will happen to us?” Rachel asked. “Will we go back to the ship?”
I do have another job for you. This time it is not lose, lose… but it will be long term. Possibly even permanent.
“ Give us a few minutes.” I said as I turned to my friends. “ What do you guys think?”
“ I don’t like it.” Rachel said. “ But I… don’t really want to stay on the ship.”
Marco ripped the tape off of his mouth. “ I guess I will go.”
“ The ship isn’t really the life I want to live.” Cassie said, “ And I don’t want to go back to Earth.”
“ I want the ability to fly.” Tobias said. “Then I will go.”
“Ax?” I asked.

Then the memory of the vision once again appeared in my mind. I groaned and almost collapsed.
“ Jake!” Rachel cried.
“I’m ok, I’m ok.” I said standing up. “ Earlier I had… I don’t know… some sort of a vision.”
Cassie looked worried. “ What kind of a vision?”
“ It was so real” I said. “ But all the details are gone. All I really remember now is Marco speaking.”
“ What did I say?” Marco asked.
I took a deep breath. “Kill me. She’s dead. Kill me.”
Everyone was silent.
Marco finally shook his head. “ I still want to go. I’m not about to be scared off by some vision… but Jake?”
“ Unless I’m infested, don’t kill me. No matter what it can’t be that bad.”
He looked around at the others. “ You got that?”
“ I don’t know.” Rachel said. “ I personally want to kill you everyday.”
We all laughed a little and turned toward the Ellimist and Q “ We have decided to go.”
Very well. You will have personas as before.
Good luck.
And I was suddenly in another place entirely.

Epilogue

““Qu’Plah!” LT. Commander Worf cursed as he fought “ I will kill you!” He lunged at a scary looking alien and snapped its neck. Suddenly it all froze, the aliens, the landscape, everything but Worf.
A door appeared out of nowhere and Troi walked thorough it. “I’m sorry,” She said looking around “ Did I disturb you?”
“Not at all.” Worf said gruffly, “ I was just finishing up. Can I help you?”
Troi smiled her gentle smile, “ Yes actually, I was wondering if you were in the mood to have dinner, say in my quarters?”
Worf actually came close to smiling. “ I would like that.” He spoke to the computer “End program!”
Everything around him vanished and a grid took its place. Lt., Worf and Troi walked out of the holodeck to
have a relaxing dinner.

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