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

[pandion]

<Don't necessarily, but if we had a plan set up to get one it'd be handy if we ever needed to convince a lot of people at once or someone in authority that there are aliens invading.>

[aeskhyne]

"Hell if I know," says Trouble. "I mean, sure, if we can get somebody who knows how to pilot one, maybe we can steal something. But it's not like Aspret spent a lot of time analyzing their security. Oh - that guy who got shot in front of Robin was an escaped host, by the way. Aspret saw him make a break for it. Happens once in a while, but they almost never get as far as the door."

[pandion]

<They ever get farther than that?>

[aeskhyne]

"Not that Aspret ever heard about. And if they did, somebody'd track them down and kill them. They're really serious about not letting anybody know they're here."

[pandion]

<Where does Visser Three live when he's at home?>

[aeskhyne]

"Who the fuck knows. Blade ship, maybe. His security's top-notch. The guy's kind of a tool, though. Like, that important project Aspret was assigned to - she got kicked off and demoted because he overheard her saying that what he was asking for was impossible and made no sense. He gets into these moods where he'll kill anybody who looks at him funny."

[pandion]

<What was her project?>

[aeskhyne]

"...It's top secret, it's never gonna get off the ground, and she really doesn't want us to know what it was because if the Yeerks somehow get the idea that we know about it they're bound to figure out she talked to us."

[pandion]

<So she didn't tell you or you don't want to tell us?>

[aeskhyne]

"So I'm not gonna tell you unless you can think of a really good reason why you need to know or we find out about it some other way."

[pandion]

<Because you think we'd change something that would give the fact that we talked to Aspret away?>

[aeskhyne]

"Because she really didn't want you to know, and from where I'm sitting I don't see it helping you any."

[pandion]

Bella writes something down.

<The local pool - where are the entrances, how guarded are they, do all the Controllers know each other?>

[aeskhyne]

"They don't all know each other - there's too many. And you can't tell by sight who's in somebody's brain. There's a whole bunch of entrances - one in the used bookstore, one in a McDonald's, one in our school, one behind a bus station, two more Aspret's never come in by, and then there's a tunnel going to a hangar way out of town where they keep a bunch of Bug fighters, but she's never been down it. They guard it, but they're not expecting an Andalite strike force - they're gonna think we're Andalites, even Aspret kept catching herself thinking of us as Andalites and she sure as hell knew better. We could probably get in and out pretty easy as bugs or something, until they figure out we exist."

[pandion]

<After they find out the place is doused in pesticide?>

[aeskhyne]

"They could install a filter at all the entrances that disintegrates unauthorized lifeforms. They haven't because it's a huge pain and they don't think they need to."

[pandion]

<Unauthorized - individuals? Species? Weight ranges?>

[aeskhyne]

"Species."

[pandion]

<So we could still get in if we were morphed Yeerks, or humans, or the other host types.>

[aeskhyne]

"It'd just about have to be humans," he says. "The other host types almost never poke their noses out, 'cause of secrecy, and a Yeerk slurping along the floor would be out of place as hell."

[pandion]

<Well, yes, but we could go in stacked Yeerks-in-humans if that were a good idea for some reason, and if we ever acquired Hork-Bajir such a filter probably wouldn't zap us, though it'd still be risky.>

[aeskhyne]

"...Who in who?"

[pandion]

<I don't have an actual plan contingent on us presenting through a filter that isn't installed for purposes that don't exist as three humans instead of five such that we need to figure out a configuration today. I'm just noting that the constraint is 'go in as humans, Yeerks, or other host species' and not 'go in as humans' - come to think of it, unless Visser Three likes having equipment around that can zap him, Andalite morphs would probably be safe too.> (Write, write.)

[aeskhyne]

[pandion]

<Anyway. How - unified, I guess, is the Yeerk population? Are the ones on Earth generally on board with the infiltration effort or is there a chance of dividing them against themselves?>