TAC

[takenalive]

And then a new Hork-Bajir stepped forward.
<So, how are you enjoying the war, Aristh Elfangor?> he asked in Andalite thought-speak.
War-prince Alloran! In Hork-Bajir morph!
Alloran spun. Before the sub-visser could so much as twitch, Alloran had pressed his wrist blade
against the Yeerk's throat.
<Don't move, Yeerk. Don't even breathe,> Alloran said. <Call off your men. Do it, or I'll laugh
when your head goes rolling across the ground.>

<Now here's what we're going to do,> Alloran said. <The two humans and my two friends and I are going aboard the Jahar. And you, Sub-Visser, are coming with us. Once we're off the cradle, we'll toss you back out. How does that plan sound to you, Yeerk?> he demanded, tightening his hold on the sub-visser.
"Do I have a choice?"
<There's always a choice, Yeerk. I can cut you right out of that Hork-Bajir and feed your impotent slug body to my friend the Taxxon here. That's one choice. Or you can order your men back down the ramp. All the way down.>
"Whatever became of the Andalite reputation for kindness and gentleness?" the Yeerk mocked.
<What happened? We left that image in the ashes of the Hork-Bajir home world.>
<I was there. My name is Alloran-Semitur-Corrass. War-prince Alloran.>
<Leave him,> Alloran said. <Aristh . . . I mean, Warrior Arbron is a casualty of war.>


<Did you think I had ended up like Arbron back there? Trapped? A nothlit? No, Aristh Elfangor. I am still myself.>
Alloran sneered. <Ah. Now you want orders. When I ordered you to flush those pools full of Yeerks out into space you disobeyed me. But now you want orders. Now you want to be told what to do.>

<Silence, you young fool!> Alloran snapped angrily. He glared at me, enraged. <We don't have time for that yet. No, first we have to take care of the business you kept me from taking care of. That Taxxon ship full of Yeerks is still in its cradle. Still filled with Yeerk slugs. What do you think I've been doing the last day and a half? I've been hiding in shadows, morphing and demorphing, watching that ship.>
For the first time since he had demorphed, he turned to face me. He glared at me with his main eyes. And that's when I saw the look. That's when I saw the rage. The mad rage.
<The most important thing in war is to destroy your enemies, Aristh Elfangor. Nothing is more important than destroying your enemies. Do you understand?>
He turned his stalk eyes toward the sub-visser. <You understand, don't you? You Yeerks understand.>
<And so I will,> Alloran said. <Open the hatch, Aristh Elfangor. The sub-visser is going to see if that Hork-Bajir body of his can fly!>
<Slow to dead stop,> Alloran ordered. <Altitude?>
<Dead stop,> Alloran said. <Appropriate. Now open the hatch.>
<Get out, Yeerk,> Alloran said to Sub-Visser Seven.
<Close the hatch,> Alloran said a few seconds later.
<Now we go back and fry that transport ship,>
Alloran said briskly. <Good to see you've grown up a little, Aristh Elfangor. Take us back over the southeastern corner of the spaceport. Maintain present altitude. Then we'll go pick up our missing Time Matrix, eh?>
He seemed cheerful. As if, for a moment at least, the madness were past. But I knew it wasn't over.

<By making deals with the Yeerks?> Alloran laughed. <The Yeerks don't make deals. They enslave.>
Alloran aimed the shredder. He aimed it carefully, taking his time. He focused it on the transport ship that contained thousands of helpless Yeerk slugs.
<Fire, Aristh Elfangor,> he said. <I said fire. Fry those Yeerks. You let them live, now you finish them. Undo your mistake, and no one will ever have to know about your earlier cowardice.>
<Do it, Elfangor,> Alloran hissed.

I pulled my hand away, and in a blur of motion I felt Alloran's tail blade press against my throat. <You think you can fight a clean war, Elfangor? Is that what you think? Or are you one of those who are happy enough when someone like me does the dirty work for you?>
<They are the enemy. Hypocrites! You're all hypocrites! We lost the Hork-Bajir war because of weak, moralizing fools like you! Because of fools like you, I am disgraced and shunned and sent off on trivial errands with nothing but arisths under my command.>
<What is the difference how you destroy the enemy?> Alloran demanded. I had no idea what he was talking about anymore. He was off somewhere in his own head. Lost in his own memories.
<What does it matter if you kill them with a tail blade or a shredder or a quantum virus?>
That was Alloran's secret. That was his disgrace. The Yeerks had accused us of using a quantum virus against them. We had denied it. Every Andalite believed it was just another filthy Yeerk lie.
Alloran stared at me. <I cannot have a weak, cowardly fool like you messing up —>


<And while you so considerately worked to clear away the Time Matrix, I revived Alloran and transferred myself into him. The first and only Andalite-Controller! It was so kind of you to knock the old warrior out for me. I didn't know how I was ever going to take him. He was a wily creature. A bit mad, of course, but he knew war. You saw how ruthless he was in tossing out the poor Hork-Bajir who played the role of me. Yes, Alloran was a warrior.>

There was no decency in war. Alloran had tried to teach me that. I'd learned it too late.

I disobeyed my prince and caused him to be enslaved by the Yeerks. The Yeerks will now learn everything Alloran knows about our defenses. Everything he knows about the capabilities of our weapons. Everything he knows about the locations of our ships. At least he wasn't a scientist, so he can't give them morphing technology or computer software. But he will still be the greatest intelligence victory in Yeerk history.

He sounded exactly like Alloran. But I knew that Alloran's mind was a prisoner in his own head now. He could watch, listen, feel, but not control. The Yeerk in his brain controlled him now. The Yeerk moved his arms and legs and tail. The Yeerk decided when each breath would be drawn. The Yeerk aimed his eyes and formed his thought-speech.

<You forget I control Alloran. And this was his ship. I know all the ship's secrets. There is a small
supply of emergency hoods. Alloran kept them for just such an occasion. Alloran decided you had
formed some pathetic feelings for this human female.>

<Alloran is so right about you. You're a moralizing, arrogant, weak-willed little fool.>

And to my horror, I saw the Yeerk slug. It was wrapped around Alloran's brain, sinking into every wrinkle and crevice, sinking deep between the four segments. I could literally see the flow of thoughts and emotions. I saw inside the slug that was Visser Thirty-two. I saw the way the Yeerk mind drew memories from Alloran and sent back orders. I saw and felt the impotent rage of Alloran as he lay helpless in the Yeerk's grasp.

I could see Alloran's past in flashes of wild action and wild emotion. I saw the terrible moment when Alloran stood amidst battlefield slaughter on the HorkBajir home world. I saw the ground piled high with Hork-Bajir and Andalite dead. And I saw the actual decision deep in Alloran's despairing brain, the decision to release the forbidden Quantum virus. I felt his bitterness when even that evil measure failed, and the Hork-Bajir were lost to the Yeerks. I saw the retreat of the shattered, beaten Andalite force.

<Young warrior, do you think I don't know what happened to Alloran? Do you think I don't know about the Quantum virus he unleashed in the battle for the Hork-Bajir world? Alloran was my friend. When we were young arisths together he was a gentle, decent youngster. And funny! He loved to joke and play tricks.>
<Alloran?> I blurted without thinking.
<Yes. Alloran. But war does terrible things to people. Some it raises to greatness. Others it destroys. You did not mutiny against Alloran. You defended the beliefs he used to hold dear.>