Authors: K. A. Applegate
The Alien
B
efore Earth . . .
I was on the bridge of our Dome ship. It was an amazing moment. I had never been on the bridge before. I'd always been stuck in my quarters, or up in the dome. It was an honor to be on the battle bridge with the full warriors, the princes, and the captain himself.
It was because I was Elfangor's little brother. An
aristh
like me, a warrior-cadet, wouldn't have been on the bridge otherwise.
Especially not an
aristh
who had once run into Captain Nerefir so hard he'd fallen over and ended up bruising one of his stalk eyes. It was an accident, but still, it's just not a good idea for lowly cadets to go plowing into great heroes.
But everyone loved Elfangor, so they had to tolerate me. That's the story of my life. If I live two hundred years, I'll probably still be known as Elfangor's little brother.
We came out of Z-Space, or zero space, a realm of white emptiness, back into normal space. Through the monitors I saw nothing but blackness dotted with stars. And there, just ahead of us, no more than a half million miles away, was a small, mostly blue planet.
I guess I had been thought-speaking a little loudly. Elfangor was worried that War-Prince Nerefir might have overheard. But I was sure I hadn't been that loud. I mean, I really didn't think that â
Elfangor shot me a poisonous look.
didn't mean any disrespect.>
I think my brother would have liked to throw me out of the nearest airlock right at that moment.
Slowly Nerefir turned his two main eyes toward me. He was a frightening old Andalite. A great warrior. A great hero. Elfangor's idol.
Suddenly . . .
Captain Nerefir turned his face and his main eyes toward my brother, while his stalk eyes kept watch on the monitors. The humor was gone from his face.
But Elfangor hadn't waited for orders. He was already halfway out the door. My tail banged into the doorway as I plowed after him.
do not go into battle. You are not a full warrior yet. Go to the dome. You will be safer there.>
safe
,> I said. But a warrior, even a warrior-cadet, has to obey orders. Elfangor was my brother. He was also my prince.
I could hear the thought-speak announcements coming from the bridge:
Elfangor and I came to a pair of dropshafts. Warriors were zooming down, heading for the fighter bays. I would have to go up to reach the dome. The upward dropshaft was empty.
It made me angry. Everyone was fighting but me. When it was all over, Elfangor would be an even bigger hero, and I would still be the little brother. The child.
Elfangor hesitated for just a moment before rushing on. He arched his tail forward. I reached forward with my own tail, arching it up over my back. We touched tail blades.
battle.>
It was the last I saw of him.
He disappeared down the dropshaft. I went upward to the great dome. The dome was the heart of our ship. It was a vast, round, open plain of grass and trees and running water from our home planet, all covered by a transparent dome.
I was alone there. The only nonwarrior on the great ship. The only one without a battle to fight.
I could see the blue planet above me, hanging in a black sky. It had a moon, just a dead ball of dust. But the planet looked alive. I could see white clouds swirling. Its yellow sun's light sparkled off the vast oceans.
This planet was known to be inhabited by a reasonably intelligent species. We had learned a little about them in school.
My main eyes were drawn to the brilliant flares of engine exhaust as our fighters lanced toward the onrushing Yeerks.
I was far from the battle bridge now, beyond the range of their thought-speak. I heard nothing in my head. And my ears heard only the sound of a gentle, artificial breeze ruffling the leaves of the trees. I stood on blue-green grass and watched tiny pinpoints of light as the battle was joined in orbit above the blue planet.
And then . . . I felt it. A tremor that rolled through my mind. A wave of coldness . . . a premonition. Like a waking nightmare.
I turned my stalk eyes away from battle, toward the dead moon of the blue planet. And there I saw it. A black shape against the gray-white light of the moon. A shape like some twisted battle-ax.
Our fighters were all away. Our Dome ship had massive weapons, but the Blade ship was fast and maneuverable. Too fast!
The warriors on the battle bridge had no choice. They had to separate the dome in order to be able to fight. I felt a grinding, crunching sensation as the dome was released to drift free of the main line of the ship.
Then . . . silence as the dome floated free.
Slowly, the rest of my ship rotated into sight. Without the dome it looked like a long stick, with the huge bulge of engines on the far end, and the smaller bulge of the battle bridge in the middle. They were trying to turn to meet the Blade ship.
Too slow.
The Blade ship fired!
Dracon beams, bright as a sun, lanced through space.
The ship fired again. Again. Again.
An explosion of light! A silent explosion like a small sun going nova.
The ship . . . my ship . . . blew up into its separate atoms. One huge flash of light, and a hundred Andalite warriors died.
WHUMMPPPFF!
The shock wave hit the dome. It was translated into sound. The grass beneath my hooves slammed up at me. A terrible rattling, shaking, heaving.
My knees buckled and I fell to the grass. Everything was spinning! Wildly, out of control! I could feel the artificial gravity weaken. The stabilizers had failed.
The dome was falling. Falling out of orbit.
The dome slid down the gravity well. Down toward the blue planet. Red-hot glowing atmosphere turned the sky above me to fire. Emergency engines kicked in with a loud WHOOSH!, but they could only slow the descent, not stop it.
The dome hurtled at shocking speed down and down and down through the atmosphere. Down toward the sparkling sea.
Crrr-UUUUUSSSSHHH!
The dome hit water! Boiling, steaming water rushed over the dome. I was sinking! Sinking beneath the ocean of the blue planet. I was powerless. Terrified.
Alone.
After an eternity, the dome crunched heavily onto the ocean floor. Looking up, I could barely see the surface of the water a hundred feet or more over the top of the dome.
I climbed shakily to my four hooves. I was standing on a vast, open plain that was a piece of my own planet. A blue-green park, hidden deep beneath an alien sea.
And there I waited for weeks. I sent out thought-speak cries to my brother. I knew he would save me . . . if he still lived.
But in the end, it was not Elfangor who found me. It was five creatures from the planet. Five “humans,” as they call themselves.
They were the ones who told me of Elfangor's last minutes of life. He had broken Andalite law and custom by giving these humans the power to morph. I was shocked, but tried to hide it.
And they had witnessed Elfangor's death. His cold-blooded murder, by the Yeerk overlord: Visser Three.
Visser Three, who slaughtered my helpless, wounded brother.
Visser Three, the only Yeerk ever to infest and control an Andalite body.
Visser Three, known to all Andalites as the Abomination. The only Andalite-Controller.
He had killed Elfangor, and I had inherited a terrible burden. By Andalite custom, I would be required to avenge my brother's death.
Someday I would have to kill Visser Three.
