Elfangor's Journey, Page 4

«l designed her myself. I call her the Jahar. It's my wife's name.»

  47 «Prince Alloran, what is our mission?» Arbron asked.

  The prince sighed a little, but when he spoke he was firm and correct. «We are to take these two aliens back to their planet, erase their recent memories, and rejoin the StarSword whenever we can.»

  «Transport work,» I said. I didn't exactly sneer, but I felt like sneering. We were just running a silly errand.

  "Excuse me? Erase my memory?" Loren said. "No one is erasing my memory."

  «lt's necessary,» I said as kindly as I could. «Your civilization is not ready for what you've encountered. If you go back to your Earth, you'll have to have all memory of this erased.»

  The two humans looked at each other. The one called Chapman made a snorting sound from his nose. Loren made a facial expression that looked troubled. At least that's how it looked to me.

  «Let's move, arisths,» Alloran ordered. «Load the aliens. The captain wants to go to Z-space five minutes from now, and by then we have to be well clear of the Dome ship. Your personal belongings have already been brought from your quarters.»

  No one was in a good mood as we walked up the ramp into the Jahar. The humans were stone-faced, angry, perhaps afraid. Arbron and I were

  48 both grim, feeling we'd been shoved off on some stupid side trip. And Alloran could not have been exactly thrilled, either. He was a great war-prince. And here he was running errands with only a pair of arisths under his command.

  The one good thing was the Jahar. It was as beautiful inside as out. There were small but luxurious quarters. And there was good green and blue grass under our feet, not hard steel. By some trick of gravity manipulation Alloran had even created a small waterfall in one corner that went down, splashed into a pool, then fell back upward to fall all over again.

  Alloran took the helm, which left Arbron and me with nothing to do. He executed a smooth launch out of the docking bay, and then, suddenly, we were out in black space, looking up through the real windows at the Dome ship.

  The StarSword was silhouetted against the bright rings of the sixth planet.

  "Oh, my God," Loren gasped. "That's Saturn!"

  As I watched, the StarSword's engines glowed brilliant blue and the Dome ship picked up speed. Faster and faster, till suddenly, with a flash, she translated into Zero-space and disappeared.

  "Faster-than-light travel?" Chapman marveled. "It's physically impossible!"

  «True. But Z-space travel doesn't involve going

  49 fast. It involves tunneling through anti-space, what we call Zero-space, and then back into the normal universe at another point,» Arbron said.

  "But I suppose you Andalites keep the secret to yourselves, eh?" Chapman said.

  «Not always,» Alloran said darkly. «Once we shared it. The result was the Yeerk Empire that threatens all decent species. Be glad you are safe on your simple planet, alien. The galaxy is not a happy place to be anymore.»

  Alloran entered the destination into the computer. We would make one brief Zero-space jump to approach Earth. But Z-drive travel is not very precise. Even if we were lucky, we'd probably emerge a million miles from Earth itself. It would be a trip of many days to get there.

  «Make the aliens comfortable, arisths,» Alloran ordered.

  «Prince, afterward may I use your ship's com-puters?» Arbron asked. «l have a copy of the Skrit Na download and I thought I spotted something strange. »

  «An exo-datologist, eh?» Alloran said with a slight sneer. «The new ideal: warrior, scientist, artist. It's not enough to be a fighter anymore, eh? They want a gentler, more balanced, more intellectual sort of warrior nowadays.»

  Arbron looked helplessly at me. «l guess so,

  50 War-prince Alloran. I mean, that's what they teach us, anyway.»

  For a while Alloran said nothing. He just stared blankly, not at anyone. Or at least not at anyone in that room. «The Electorate wants war without slaughter. They want a clean, neat, honorable war. Fools.»

  I was shocked. You didn't call the Electorate fools. You just didn't.

  «Sir. . . ,» Arbron asked timidly. «The computer . . . ?»

  «What? Oh, yes. The computer. Why not? Use it all you like,» the prince said. «We're in for a long, boring ride.»

  51 It was a long, boring trip. We came out of Zero-space halfway between the orbits of Earth and a planet Loren called Mars.

  We had to travel through conventional space. And we had to keep our speed down so as not to distort time too much. If we'd gone to Maximum Burn all the way to Earth, we'd have gotten there in a few hours. But on the planet, years would have passed. That's relativity for you.

  I had little to do. Alloran brooded alone at the helm, or else went to his quarters. And Arbron seemed to have found some project to keep him busy. He spent his time at the computer, muttering.

  It was a side of Arbron I'd never really seen. Mostly he never seemed to take anything very seriously. At least he never took me seriously. But now he was spending days at the console.

  Whenever I asked him what he was doing, he'd just say, «Unraveling a mystery.»

  So I spent most of my time with the two humans. Or at least with Loren. Chapman was as

  52 brooding as Alloran. I stood beside Loren at the window, and looked out at the blue and white planet.

  Loren did a thing she called "sitting." It's funny to see at first. But of course very practical for a two-legged creature.

  "The brown-and-green parts are land," Loren was explaining. "The blue is ocean. Water. See the bright white at the bottom? That's ice. It's called Antarctica. It's very cold."

  «What sort of ice? Frozen carbon dioxide? Methane?»

  "Water. Just frozen water."

  «Ah. Of course. That would make sense. And where do you live?»

  "Well, see that continent there? The one on the upper left part of the planet? See where the line between night and day is? Almost right on that line." She bit her lip. A lip is a mouth part. "My mom must be dying from worry. I've been gone for four days already."

  Dying? Humans could die of emotion? «Yes, but soon you will be home. Then she won't worry anymore. Maybe she won't have to die.»

  Loren smiled. "That's just an expression."

  Then I noticed that there were glistening drops in her eyes.

  53 "Do you have a mother at home? Does she worry about you?"

  I felt a little uncomfortable talking about my parents. An aristh in deep space can't start getting all homesick. Especially since Prince Alloran was nearby, able to overhear everything.

  «l guess she does. My father doesn't, though. He was in the military, too, when he was young. Of course, we had peace then. I guess maybe they do worry I'll get hurt or whatever.»

  "We just had a war," Loren said. "That's . . . that's what happened to my dad. He was in it. He didn't get killed or anything. But he kind of... I don't know. After he came back I guess he couldn't cope with reality. So he left."

  I saw Alloran's stalk eyes swivel to look at Loren. It was practically the first time he'd even noticed her.

  «You have wars?» I asked. «But you don't have space travel. Who do you fight?»

  Chapman arrived then, having arisen from a nap in his quarters. "We fight each other," he said. He winked one eye. "So, Loren, Daddy went nutso, huh? Another whacked-out 'Nam vet? I guess some guys can't take it."

  Loren's eyes went wide, and then she turned on Chapman.

  54 But it was Alloran who spoke. «Have you been in a war, human?» he asked Chapman.

  "Me? No. Of course not. That war's over."

  «Then be quiet, fool. Those who have been to war understand. Those who have not have no opinion worth hearings He looked directly at Loren. «Even those who return from war may never really come homo

  Alloran turned his stalk eyes back to the helm, and said nothing more. Chapman shrugged, but I could see he was intrigued by Alloran.

  So was I, to be honest. What was he
talking about? I'd never heard of an Andalite warrior coming back from the war unable to cope, as Loren had put it. Or "whacked-out," as Chapman had said. Why would Alloran feel such sympathy?

  "Anyway . . . ," Loren began, "tell me this. When you erase my memory, I won't remember any of this? Not even you?"

  I didn't answer. What could I say?

  "It's okay, I'm not mad at you," Loren said. "You're taking us home. And you saved us from those Skritchy Noses."

  «Skrit Na,» I corrected.

  "I know. It was a joke. Maybe not a very funny joke, I guess."

  «Ah. Humor. Yes, Arbron does that sometimes.»

  "But not you?"

  55 «l guess I'm not very funny.»

  Loren tossed her head in such a way that her long golden hair shimmered very nicely. "That's okay. I like serious guys. I guess if my memory is going to be erased, it won't hurt if I ask questions. So. How come you don't have mouths?" she asked.

  Chapman seemed to snap out of a reverie. He'd been looking at Alloran. Now he joined the conversation. "Loren, how can he answer that question? He doesn't have a mouth. We do. Why do we have mouths? Stupid question. I have a better question." He looked closely at me, focusing first on my stalk eyes, and then back down on my main eyes. Like he couldn't make up his mind where to look.

  "Look, Elfangor, maybe we got off to a bad start, you and me. I wasn't in a great mood, you know? But hey, you guys are really missing out on something here. Do you have any idea how much money we could get for this technology on Earth? I mean, you could ask for anything!"

  It was my turn to laugh. «What would we do with Earth money?»

  He shrugged. "Okay, forget money. How about power? We could snap our fingers and have all the presidents and prime ministers on Earth waiting on us. We could rule."

  «We're Andalites,» I said, «not Yeerks. We aren't interested in ruling other species.»

  56 "Ah. Well, that's good, I guess. Yeah, that's a good thing. But we could bring peace to Earth. No more wars."

  «Okay. That's it. That's it. Elfangor!» It was Ar-bron. He'd been totally absorbed in staring at the computer display. He'd barely spoken for the last two days.

  I went to him. I was glad to be away from Chapman. He bothered me. He was completely different than the human Loren.

  «What is it?» I asked Arbron as I came to stand beside him. I looked past him to the computer display. It showed a power field, lines of intensity in three dimensions. But it also showed lines extending strongly into Zero-space.

  It was impossible. A simulation of some sort. A fake.

  Arbron turned only his stalk eyes toward me. «This is from the Skrit Na ship. From the computer download. It was encrypted, but I broke the code. I've been going through the ship's log. A bunch of stupid stuff, mostly. Junk. But yesterday I found this. I've been trying to figure it out, because, see, there's no way these sensor readings can be right. But now I think I've got it. I know what it is.» He turned all the way to face me. «Elfangor, I think this isrea/.»

  For several seconds we both just stared at each

  57 other. «This can't bef» I said. «Any first-year student could tell you this is impossible. Unless . . .» I felt a chill run up my spine. «Alloran! Prince Alloran! Sir, you should see this.»

  The prince turned away from the helm and trotted back to us. «What is it, arisths?» he said wearily. But then his stalk eyes focused on the screen. A second later he was staring with full intensity at the image there. «Computer. Cross-check for any visual files!» To Arbron and me he said, «They would have made more recordings!»

  And then it appeared. It simply appeared on the computer screen.

  It was perfectly spherical. A simple white sphere.

  It looked harmless, even dull. And yet it was the most dangerous, deadly weapon any race had ever created.

  Because of what it was, it could not be physically destroyed. But it had been hidden. As we watched, dumbfounded and afraid, the computer replayed the Skrit Na computer log.

  It had been hidden on the planet called Earth. It had been buried deep in the ground in a desolate-looking area of blowing sand. And a huge stone pyramid had been raised over it.

  Hidden for fifty thousand years.

  Hidden on an insignificant planet at the far end of the galaxy. And now it had reappeared.

  58 "Hey, what's the matter with you guys?" Loren asked. "You all look like you've seen a ghost."

  «The Time Matrix!» Arbron said. «l thought it was just a myth.»

  «The second Skrit Na ship!» I yelled, suddenly realizing the truth. «The Skrit Na dug it up. They have it aboard the second ship, the one that escaped into Zero-space!»

  I looked to Alloran. To my surprise, his eyes were alight with fierce pleasure. «The Time Matrix! Hidden for fifty thousand years, and now dug up by the Skrit Na. The deadliest weapon in all of galactic history . . . and no one but us to go and get it back.»

  It was as if Alloran were suddenly ten years younger. «Elfangor! Arbron! Get back on that Skrit Na computer log, both of you. We need to know where that second ship ran to! Now!»

  He turned to Loren and Chapman. «l apologize, aliens, but we cannot take you straight back to your planet. There is no time to waste. The existence of the entire galaxy is at stake!»

  Arbron looked at me and sent me a private thought-speak message. «l guess we may still get a chance at being heroes.»

  59 Arbron and I tore that Skrit Na computer download apart. And before we translated into Zero-space we had a destination in mind. One of the last places in the universe that any sensible Andalite would ever want to go.

  The Taxxon home world.

  As we spent timeless time traveling through the blank white nondistance of Zero-space, Alloran called a council. It was just for the three of us, but the Jahar was too small for us to keep the two humans out. They squatted on the floor near our hooves.

  We excluded them from our thought-speak at first, keeping our conversation private.

  «Taxxon home world is our destination^ Alloran said. «But the Skrit Na would not be taking the Time Matrix there. So I believe the Skrit Na don't know what they have. They saw strange power patterns and decided, with the usual Skrit Na simpleminded-ness, to steal first and figure it out later.»

  «l agree, sir,» Arbron said. «lf they knew they

  60 had the Time Matrix they'd do one of two things. Head straight for the Yeerk home world to sell it to the Yeerks. Or else head home to use it for their own people. But the Taxxon home world is -»

  "Hey. Hey!" Chapman interrupted. "You're doing your little telepathy thing and keeping us out. I'm not an idiot."

  «This does not involve either of you,» I said curtly.

  Chapman stood up and grabbed me roughly by the shoulder. I twitched my tail out of reflex. No An-dalite would ever grab another Andalite.

  Chapman laughed rudely. "You don't scare me. I know you can kill us both. But that's not your style, is it? Dragging us off across the galaxy is your style."

  «We have an emergency,» I said. «We regret that we cannot take you straight back to your planet. However -»

  "However nothing," Chapman said. "This little trip involves danger, doesn't it? You boys are in deep. Like I said, I'm not an idiot. I can see you three are tense. I can see you're worried. Wherever it is we're going, you're scared. Which means me and the girl here should be afraid, too, right?"

  Loren stood up and looked right at me. "Is that true, Elfangor? Are you taking us into danger?"

  61 I turned one eye toward Alloran. He nodded slightly, giving me permission.

  «Yes, Loren,» I said. «We are going into terrible danger. If we are taken, the two of you will be killed or enslaved.»

  Chapman's eyes blazed. "You're dragging us into a battle and we can't even know what's going on? Is that Andalite fairness?"

  I started to tell the annoying creature to be silent, but Alloran spoke.

  «You two aliens have a right to know what y
ou are being "dragged into," as you put it. We are going to a planet of creatures who are allies of the Yeerks. The Yeerks are parasites who seize control of the bodies and minds of other creatures. The Taxxons have been enslaved this way. By their own choice.»

  I said, «The Skrit Na have apparently discovered the long-lost Time Matrix. This is a device that allows people to move forward or backward in time. It is the most dangerous weapon imaginable.»

  "Why would a time machine be a weapon?" Loren asked.

  But Chapman had already figured it out. "Duh. I go back in time and change history to wipe you out in the present. I could kill your parents before they had you, and you'd never exist." He grinned. "Better yet, I could go all the way back in time, back to

  62 prehistoric days and find the earliest ancestors of humans and kill them. The entire human race would cease to exist." Chapman laughed. "I see why you guys are worried. If these Yeerks of yours get this thing, it's bye-bye Andalites."

  That did it. I didn't like this creature. I didn't care if he was just a primitive alien, I didn't like him. I pushed my face close to his. I brought my tail up into a threat position. «You'd better understand something, human. If it's "bye-bye" Andalites, it'll be "bye-bye" humans, sooner or later. Who do you think keeps the Yeerks from conquering every sentient race in the galaxy? We do.»

  "Maybe I'm with the wrong aliens," Chapman sneered. "Maybe it's too bad I wasn't grabbed by the Yeerks. They sound like the winners."

  To my surprise, Prince Alloran actually laughed. «You may be right, human. But you'd better hope you're not. I've seen what the Yeerks do to captive planets. I was there when the Yeerks took the Hork-Bajir world. Pray to whatever primitive gods you have, human, that the Yeerks don't ever take your world.»

  I shot a glance at Arbron. He was as surprised as I was. Alloran had been there at the loss of the Hork-Bajir world?

  The loss of the Hork-Bajir was the single biggest disaster in our war with the Yeerks. The Hork-Bajir

  63 were the slave warriors of the Yeerk Empire now because we'd failed to save them.

  translation to normal space in one minute,» the computer announced without emotion.

  «Okay,» Alloran said, breaking the spell he had cast over us all. «We'll be coming out of Z-space fairly close to the Taxxon world. The area will be thick with Yeerk ships. The Jahar has excellent stealth shielding, but we may still be detected. From now on, we are on battle alert»