ANIMORPHS #52: THE SACRIFICE

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Late that night it was easy to take the Z-space transponder without being seen. Under cover of darkness I was able to leave the camp without any Hork-Bajir or human look-out spotting me.

I ran as far from the camp as I could. I would not have much time and I did not want to bring the Yeerks too close to the camp.

As soon as I reached what I considered to be a safe distance, I activated the Z-space transponder. I listened as the waves warped and wove through galaxies, finding their way to the Andalite home planet.

After a short delay, there was a response. Coded, yes. But a code that had been carefully worked out. Numeric but spoken. I will simply translate.

<Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthil?>

<It is I.> I gave the password to clear the channel for communication.

<Report,> came back the curt command.

<It is just as you predicted,> I told Jaham-Estalan-Forlan, a war prince and chief of the Andalite military. <The human resistance is rapidly losing its effectiveness. There is infighting. Tensions. Discipline is breaking down.>

<They know nothing of our previous communications?>

<They know nothing,> I confirmed.

<Good.>

<The Yeerk concentration here is escalating. They are forcibly transporting thousands of humans to the central Yeerk pool via the subway system. In retaliation, the resistance is planning the destruction of that central pool.>

Jaham-Estalan-Forlan made a sound of impatience. <Do they truly believe they can defeat the Yeerks by destroying only one central pool?>

I felt a need to defend my friends. <It is all they can do - for now.> Then I realized my defense would only increase Jaham-Estalan-Forlan's contempt for the human race. He would think that if the resistance could muster no better defense than my excuse-making, they would not be worth saving.

<The high command has met and made their decision. If the Yeerks are indeed concentrating on the planet Earth, we must allow their plan to continue. Once the bulk of the Yeerk race has been transported, the planet can be quarantined.>

Quarantined.

A polite word for consigning the human race to a life of slavery under the Yeerks. I thought about Jake. The others. Tobias. After all our time together, I felt affection for them.

<Aximili? Did you hear me?>

Yes, I felt affection. Love, even. But I was still an Andalite. I was still a soldier. And this was still a war. <I heard,> I responded.

<Do nothing to hamper the Yeerk concentration on Earth. Stop the resistance's attack on the pool. We must let the Yeerks believe they have won. Do you understand?>

I did.

Would Jake?

Would the others?

Never.

<Once the planet is quarantined,> War Prince Jaham continued, <we will be in a position to negotiate. We will mediate a peaceful symbiosis between humans and Yeerks.>

I wondered if this was an accurate description of the Andalite High Command's intention. The High Command might disdain the humans, but they knew from my reports that humans were very ingenious. Very determined. Very tenacious.

Millions of Yeerks with human hosts would constitute an intolerable threat.

A quarantine would never hold. Not even if every ship in the Andalite fleet were assigned to police the perimeters of Earth's atmosphere.

The Yeerk-Human axis would push out. And it would conquer everything in its path.

<Has there been any change in technology acquisition?> Jaham-Estalan-Forlan asked.

I knew I should tell him that the Yeerks were now in posession of morphing technology.

But I did not. <No,> I said.

Perhaps I would tell the truth later. I wanted time to consider. To think how such a revelation would affect the Andalite High Command's plans for the planet.

It was an undisciplined decision, my decision to withhold the truth. It was not my place to second-guess the decisions of my superiors. Perhaps I had been on Earth too long.

Immediately, I regretted the lie. But I had given my answer. It was too late to reverse my earlier statement.

War Prince Jaham would immediately question my motives for lying in the first place.

Besides, suddenly I could hear Bug fighters in the distance, drawn to the signals they had picked up from the Z-space transponder.

Quickly I severed the connection to the home planet and began to morph to horned owl, an excellent form of night transport. The Zero-space transponder was small enough to carry in my talons.

By the time the Bug fighters were hovering over my previous position, I was winging my way unseen back to camp.

Quarantine.

Quarantine.

Quarantine.

The word repeated and repeated in my head. It was a politic way of saying what could not be said over any channel of communication, no matter how secure. Because it was something that could not even be said in the chambers of the High Command.

The stated goal would be to quarantine.

The orders would say to quarantine.

But what everyone would understand is that a quarantine would be impossible to sustain. To enforce a quarantine, the Andalite fleet would be forced to engage.

And once they engaged, they would annihilate the planet and every living thing on it. Yeerk and human.

Quarantine was the first step toward genocide.

The High Command had made its decision. The Yeerk conquest of the galaxy would stop here on Earth.

The camp came into view. I wished I could just keep going. Perhaps become a nothlit. Be free of the terrible burdens of secrecy and betrayal.

I remembered the Yeerk falcon. Five minutes away from freedom.

But the price of that freedom was high.

Maybe too high.

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