the departure

[instar]

Trouble did a very good job of not leaving breadcrumbs leading to the other Animorphs any more than was already inevitable. Still, the cops - who may or may not have been Controllers - talked to Bella just because Trouble has been known to hang out with her; they talked to Renée a little too. Bella thinks she did a good job of affecting ignorance and dismay. Andi didn't, but Andi defaults kind of expressionless anyway even though her braces have been off for a year and a half.

At school - now in its very last days - everyone knows that Trouble borrowed fifty dollars from Amber Jefferson and made off with it. Amber is very gossipy and can afford to lose fifty bucks; he chose well.

Bella hasn't heard from Trouble - or for that matter Aspret - yet.

Comments

[aeskhyne]

<I figured that the best way to make running away look good would be to actually do it. So I did. Got back yesterday. Are you guys alone in there, can I come in and demorph?>

[pandion]

<We're alone in the room, but Renée is home. Maybe stand in the closet and be ready to morph Robin if she comes up the stairs.> And she opens the window.

[aeskhyne]

In comes a pigeon. He makes for the closet.

[pandion]

Bella and Andi remain in each other's shapes for the benefit of thoughtspeech. <Where'd you go?>

[aeskhyne]

"Vegas," says the closet. "Then Forks, in morph, just for the hell of it. Pigeons are really good navigators."

[pandion]

<How's Aspret taking to duckhood?>

[aeskhyne]

"Haven't seen her," he says, opening the closet door slightly so they can hear him better. "She seemed pretty happy when she left, though."

[pandion]

<Good.>

[instar]

<Did she take to it like a duck to water?> asks Andi innocently.

[aeskhyne]

Trouble snickers softly.

[instar]

[pandion]

<Can I unauthorize the use of my body to make terrible jokes?>

[instar]

<Nope!>

[pandion]

<Oh well. Anyway. Do we know interesting things about Yeerks now?> Bella asks, reaching for a notebook and a pencil.

[aeskhyne]

"Yep," says Trouble. "First interesting thing about Yeerks: they can dump whole memories on you when they feel like it. Aspret gave me a bunch. It was easier than figuring out everything we might possibly want to know and then telling me in words, but it makes it harder to just start summarizing."

[pandion]

<...Okay, where does that leave us in getting the info out of your head?>

[aeskhyne]

"If you had Aspret here to ask her questions, what would you want to know first?"

[pandion]

<Where the pools are, how they're guarded, stuff about Yeerk tech - what they have, how to sabotage it, how to steal it - anything the Yeerks know about the likelihood or likely effectiveness of Andalite intervention, if there are any other aliens making themselves relevant out there, if there are any other strike points besides the three day cycle, odds on whether we can talk other Yeerks into becoming ducks-or-something without getting sold out, if they know anything Elfangor didn't get a chance to tell us about morphing, anything cultural or psychological useful for picking Controllers out of a crowd or spooking them.>

[aeskhyne]

"...First, Bella, first," he says, giggling softly. "Not first through tenth."

[pandion]

<Tech first,> Bella says after a long moment's thought. <What they have besides their sluggy little selves, space travel, beam weapons, and pools.>

[aeskhyne]

"Okay..." He chews on his lip. "I mean, that's most of it. They stole a lot of their shit from the Andalites - there's some history there, but Aspret wasn't around for most of it so she's kind of foggy on the details. They've got three different kinds of spaceship here. The one we saw that looked like an axe is Visser Three's Blade ship, that he usually keeps hidden on the ground somewhere, and then there's a Pool ship in orbit and a bunch of Bug fighters - those're the little guys. The Pool ship has a big Yeerk pool on board; the Blade ship has a smaller one. When they can, though, they like making pools on the ground. They name the ones on the ground when they're big enough; the one under Phoenix is called Selt Arash. Aspret was born there - she was one of the first. She got up to a host so quickly because she studied biochemistry while she was in the pool; they have computers they can access in there."

[pandion]

<How does an in-pool Yeerk do computing?>

[aeskhyne]

"They hook up to the interface like they'd hook up to a brain. Basically. The connection's not nearly as good."

[pandion]

<Do you think we could steal a ship? Do the laser guns have stun settings or do they only come in 'vaporize', and either way could we get ahold of those? How do the pools work - how can we throw a wrench in the works?>

[aeskhyne]

"The zap guns are called Dracon beams. At maximum power they vaporize; lower settings burn things, lower than that will stun, and the lowest just hurts like hell. They keep track of 'em, and anybody who loses one is in deep shit, but we could probably get our hands on one if we tried. If you keep asking me three questions at once, I'm gonna keep forgetting the other two by the time I'm done answering one."