I found Ax very suddenly, in fact.
THWAPP!
A tail blade was pressed against my throat.
"Hey, it's me. Please don't remove my head. I use it sometimes."
"Marco!"
"We were just trying to figure out whether we should try and rescue you or go join the fight outside," Tobias said in his now-unfamiliar human voice.
"We accessed the central computer for this facility. But before we could discover anything, you came in."
Ax led me over to a glowing, three-dimensional computer display. It was weird, the way most of the place was like any standard, boring human office. Like an insurance agent's or a school secretary's office. But I guess the Yeerks didn't want to be stuck messing with human-level computers.
"Roooaaaarrrr!"
Jake's tiger roar sounded a little frazzled.
"We need to get out there and help them," Tobias said.
"No," I snapped. "They can't be helped by us rushing out there. Visser Three is coming with more Hork-Bajir. He's morphed this giant snake from planet Whatever."
They stared at me like I must be hallucinating or something.
"Look, it's him, okay? I saw it through the porthole. A huge yellow sea snake with Hork-Bajir alongside. Who do you figure that would be?"
"He cannot have had time to hear about a battle down here," Ax pointed out. "lt's too quick to be a rescue mission."
"I don't think it is a rescue mission. I think
it's a coincidence. I think he happened to be on his way here."
"Just our bad luck," Tobias said.
"Maybe not," I pointed out. "Visser One and Three are rivals. Visser One let us escape to mess with Visser Three. This may work for us. But first things first. Ax? Start questioning that computer."
I couldn't believe I was standing there so calmly while Jake, Rachel, and Cassie were probably fighting for their lives. But I guess I'd had a good look at the ruthlessness of the Yeerks. I'd seen it in Visser One's cold eyes. I'd heard it in the pitiless voice that didn't care one tiny bit that I was the son of the body it now controlled.
I guess there are times when the only way to survive is to be as ruthless as the enemy. To destroy before you can be destroyed.
"As we guessed," Ax said, staring with his main eyes at the computer readout. "The Yeerks are invading Leeran. It isn't going well for them.
Most of the Leerans are resisting. Since the Leer-ans are psychic, it's impossible for the Yeerks to deceive them. So the Yeerks have decided to forget about stealth and go to a straight invasion by force. "
"But it's a watery world, so they can't rely on Hork-Bajir," I said.
"It's true. The hammerheads
are being reengineered to allow for Yeerks to make them Controllers.
The shark-Controllers will be the troops in the war for Leeran."
"Great. Now can we get out there and help Rachel and the others?" Tobias demanded.
He hadn't waited for an answer. He was already demorphing. Red-tailed feathers were sprouting from his hands.
"Ax, can you find a way to remove these things in our heads?" I asked.
Ax communicated mentally with the computer. "There is a liquidation program but it's heavily encrypted. The only other way the implants can be liquidated is in the event this facility is completely destroyed."
"What?" Tobias said. "You can't eliminate these things without blowing up the whole place?"
"Yes. It's so there would be no evidence left behind if something goes wrong. But in any case, we don't have a way to annihilate this facility."
"Ax. How do they keep the water out of this place? How do they keep it from flooding? If it were just air pressure our ears would be seriously imploding."
"Force fields, I assume. Modulated to hold the water back while allowing animal life-forms to enter and leave."
"Can you reach the controls?"
"Done."
"Can you turn off the force fields? Without letting the Yeerks know?"
Ax laughed derisively. "l'm an Andalite. No simple, derivative, unimaginative Yeerk computer presents any difficulties to me, you know, unless it's specially shielded."
"What are you doing?" Tobias demanded, once more back in hawk morph.
"You let the water in and we'll all be killed."
"Destroy the facility and it may trigger the liquidation of these head implants," I said. "Ax, can you build in a five-minute delay?"
"Five minutes?" He communicated with the computer by thought-speak.
"Done. In five minutes, millions of your gallons of water will come rushing into this place."
"We'd better all have gills before then," Tobias said.
"Yeah. And those who can't grow gills ... I guess they'll wish they could."
We ran from the room. I morphed as I ran. I morphed into a gorilla.
We were going into a fight. And although the gorilla isn't a mean or aggressive animal, it is amazingly powerful.
By the time we reached the door to the outside, I was done. Tobias was already flying, and Ax was Ax.
I threw open the door to the outside. Actually, I forgot I was in gorilla morph and opened the door so hard it ripped clear off its hinges.
What I saw was a scene of destruction. There were injured Hork-Bajir lying crumpled around the facility. There was a reeking, squashed Taxxon being munched on ravenously by a fellow Taxxon. Rachel in grizzly morph, Jake in tiger
morph, and Cassie as a wolf had done some serious damage. But now they were cornered, almost surrounded by wary but determined Hork-Bajir.
Visser One, my mother, was striding toward them, seemingly unconcerned.
As she went, she was kicking the wounded Hork-Bajir, demanding they get up and fight. Half a dozen had already rallied to her.
"Five minutes," I said tersely. "Less. Then, we have to be in the water."
"With gills," Tobias reminded me.