things like copiers and computers and fax machines and desks and cubicles, we ran. Rachel was in the lead, a huge, lumbering truck on four legs. Her roars mixed with the endless scream of the alarms. ScreeEEEEET! ScreeEEEEET!

  ScreeEEEEET!

  Suddenly, another door, a dead end. Rachel hit it with her shoulder, and the door was gone. There was a big room beyond. High ceilings, open space, a lobby sort of room. Windows! I could see faint stars through the tinted glass.

  Escape was just a hundred feet away.

  Freedom! Life!

  And all that stood in our way was twenty men: human-Controllers, armed with automatic rifles. And behind them, two dozen or more Hork-Bajir warriors.

  Rachel's bear had very poor vision, especially in this dim light. she asked. I said.
  many.>

  DcreeEEEET! ScreeEEEEET!

  ScreeEEEET!

  The alarm was howling. And then, a far worse sound: Cha-Klick!

  The human-Controllers had cocked their rifles, chambering a round. If they fired, we'd be

  blown apart before we could twitch.

  A human-Controller stepped out in front. She was a nice-looking, middle-aged woman wearing normal street clothes. She had bleached blond hair. She could have been someone's grandmother.

  "S. The Andalite bandits," she said. Her face was twitching with tension, but she tried to sound calm. "You've done me a big favor. When I turn you over to Visser Three he'll promote me two grades. Maybe three!"

  <0r he may decide to destroy you

  for letting us get this far.> Ax said

  coolly.

  "Surrender. You can't escape," the woman snapped. "I'd rather take you alive, but the Visser would still be happy to have your corpses." We stared at her. And we stared at the muzzles of the twenty automatic rifles that were leveled at us.

  I held up my hand. Between my thick, brute fingers I held the Pemalite crystal.

  The woman turned as pale as her hair.

  "Give me that."

  I shook my big gorilla head.

  "Lower those guns," the woman snapped.

  "What?" some guy behind her yelled. "We have them!

  We have them cold!"

  The woman's jaw twitched again, but she stayed in control. "What do you think a bullet would do to that crystal?"

  "But the odds that a bullet would hit the crystal

  ... It's not going to happen."

  The woman smiled grimly. "That crystal is worth more than the mother ship and everything in it," she said. Then she started yelling. "You want to shoot? Go ahead, fool! If you hit the crystal, you can explain it to Visser Three."

  She got a grip on herself while the guy who had spoken out decided he was not interested in explaining anything to Visser Three.

  "All human-Controllers, back. Weapons on safety," the woman snapped.

  The rifles faltered, then lowered toward the ground. But I knew better than to breathe a sigh of relief. See, I knew what was coming next.

  The woman looked right at me and smiled.

  "Hork-Bajir, forward."

  The Andalite who'd given us our powers had told us that the Hork-Bajir had once been a gentle, decent race before they were all enslaved by the Yeerks. All Hork-Bajir were Controllers

  now.

  But it was hard to believe the Hork-Bajir had ever been the sweethearts of the galaxy. They were death on two legs: seven feet tall, eight, if you counted the forward-raked blades that protruded from the top of their snake-heads. They had blades at their elbows, blades at their wrists, blades at their knees. They had huge claw-feet like

  tyrannosaurs, and a short, thick tail that ended in cruel-looking spikes.

  They were walking razor blades. All sharp edges and lightning speed.

  I've fought Hork-Bajir before. And I can

  count. Two dozen Hork-Bajir was at least a

  dozen more than we had any hope of defeating. Then, behind the Hork-Bajir, beyond the retreating human-Controllers, outside the building,

  staring horror-stricken through the glass, I saw Erek.

  Erek, who could do nothing at all to help us. Who was helpless to do anything but witness our slaughter. I felt like throwing up. The fear was all over me. The fear was surging through me, washing over me, drowning me from inside and out.

  We were going to lose.

  We were going to die.

  And life, any kind of life almost, is so much better than being dead.

  "Attack," the woman said. Her voice was nearly a whisper.

  The Hork-Bajir leaped forward, a wall of

  slashing, whirling blades.

  Right in front of me!

  SEEEEWWW!

  A huge Hork-Bajir slashed and a bright red line cut across my black leather chest!

  I swung my fist and hit the Hork-Bajir

  hard enough to fold him in two. But another leaped over him and came at me. I blocked his arm, but he kicked at me with his clawed foot.

  I fell back. I looked down and saw a

  hole in my stomach.

  A hole! I could see the gorilla's insides!

  My insides. My insides!

  I screamed in

  thought-speak, as the gorilla bellowed in agony. The Hork-Bajir leaped on top of me. I

  swung again and knocked his legs out from under him. He toppled down, but landed beside me. My left hand went to his throat and I squeezed. I

  squeezed with all the strength I had. The

  Hork-Bajir slashed at me again and opened a gash in my hairy arm. But I kept my grip tight.

  I screamed as the Hork-Bajir twitched and scrabbled wildly and began to jerk

  uncontrollably.

  The battle raged all around me.

  Screams. Cries. Bellows of animal

  rage. The garbled roars of the Hork-Bajir. Even the guttural roar of the human-Controllers, who watched and cheered the Hork-Bajir on.

  I saw Jake leap through the air and close his jaws around a Hork-Bajir's face.

  I saw Rachel swing her paw and open up a

  Hork-Bajir like someone cleaning a fish.

  I saw Cassie dodging swiftly, biting,

  backing away, lunging to bite again, red foam flying from her muzzle.

  And Ax, striking again . . . again . . . again with the deadly speed and perfect accuracy of his Andalite tail.

  But we were losing. It would be over in a few seconds. We were losing.

  <0h, God!>

  someone screamed. Maybe it was me, I don't know.

 
  me!>

 

 

  It was all one combined thought-speech scream. And still the alarm howled its screeEEEEET!

  I felt my grip weaken on the throat of the Hork-Bajir. But it didn't matter anymore.

  It was safe to let him go.

  My vision was red. Red and fading.

  I felt a sharp stab as another Hork-Bajir sunk a blade into my gorilla heart.

  None of it mattered, though. It was all coming to an end ... all coming to an end. . . .

  Through a red mist I saw a face on the other side of the glass. Erek. Somehow, in the battle, I had ended up not far from the wall of windows. Erek was just a few feet away. Just on the other side of the glass.

  I felt something hard in my palm. The crystal. I crawled. A vicious Hork-Bajir

  kick, and I went sprawling right against the glass.

  <0h . . . no.> I said.

  I could see the damage the kick had done.

  I was dead. I could feel my brain shutting down. Human-Controllers were closing in around me, hammering me with the butts of their rifles. With my last ounce of strength, I rammed my fist through the glass.

  I felt strong fingers pry open my hand. I felt the fingers lift out the crystal.

  And then . . . later, much later, someone

  slapped my face.

  "Morph back, Marco. Morph back! Do it!"

  -L woke up on the ground. Not a floor, the ground. Dirt and leaves.

  I sat up very fast. I looked at my body.

  "Human!" I said. I wanted to cry from the sheer relief of being myself again. Myself and alive. I looked around. Jake. Cassie. Rachel.

  Ax. All there! All human! Except for Ax,

  of course.

  Tobias was perched in the tree above us.

  Someone else was there, too. I heard a voice sobbing.

  "You okay, Marco?" Jake asked.

  "Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. Man, I was so

  close to being dead!"

  "You were," Jake said solemnly. "He gave you an electric shock to start your heart again."

  "Who did?"

  Jake jerked his head toward the source of the crying. It was Erek, sitting in the dirt with his head down.

  "Where are we?" I asked.

  "Little bunch of trees, just down from Mat-corn. Or what's left of Matcom."

  "How did we get here? How did we get out of that place? We were toast!"

  Cassie came over and sat beside me. "You saved us by getting the crystal to Erek. He used it. He rewrote his programming. He's the one who . .

  ." She looked away. "He . . ."

  "He took care of the Hork-Bajir," Rachel said. "I saw some of it. I was still conscious." I was confused. "How did Erek take care of the Hork-Bajir?"

 

  Ax said.

  I almost laughed. "Erek took out two dozen Hork-Bajir?"

  No one laughed with me. Erek had stopped sobbing. I thought,

  Why would a robot cry?

 

  Ax said.
  human-Controllers. All of them.>

  I stood up. I could see the Matcom

  building. It was only a few hundred yards

  away. There was a big hole in the front glass. I had a very bad feeling about what was on the other side of that glass. All I could think of to say was,

  "All

  of them?"

  "It lasted about ten seconds," Rachel said. She closed her eyes, trying not to remember what she had seen. But I guess the images weren't easily shut out. She opened her eyes again, and to my utter amazement, I saw tears.

  That's what brought the horror home to me -Rachel's tears.

 
  brutal.> Ax said.
  brutal, and very swift. He carried us here. He revived you. He even reattached my arm.> I saw a scar on Ax's left arm.

  "He hasn't said anything since then," Cassie said sadly. "He won't talk to any of us."

  "He saved us, though, right?" I said.

  "Yeah," Cassie agreed, smiling a deeply sad smile. "He saved our lives. And lost his own soul."

  I went to Erek. I wanted to thank him. I

  wanted to tell him he'd done what was right. He'd beaten the bad guys. Saved the good guys.

  He stood up as I came over.

  "You okay, man?" I asked him.

  He looked at me with holographic human

  eyes. Maybe he had to

  choose

  to make them cry. Maybe he had to choose to give them that empty, hollow look. I don't know what the connection is

  between the android Chee and his projected human body. But his expression answered my question.

  No. Erek was not okay.

  "You saved our lives, Erek," I said.

  "How do you . . . how do you live with the memory?" he asked me.

  I knew what he meant. See, win or lose,

  right or wrong, the memory of violence

  sits inside your head. It sits there, like some lump you can't quite swallow. It sits there, a black hole that darkens hope, and eats away at everyday happiness like a cancer. It's the shadow you take into your own heart and try to live with.

  I shrugged. "I guess I try not to think about it. I try and forget. And after a while, the nightmares don't happen as much."

  Erek put a finger to his head. "Android," he said. He made a bitter, ruined smile. "I can't forget. See? I can never forget . . . anything."

  I looked at him. Already in my own human

  mind, the memories of that night's horror were fading. The flash of blades and the pain and the sickening feeling of my fist closing around the

  Hork-Bajir's throat . . . they were being covered over by scar tissue.

  What if I could never forget?

  What if all those memories were fresh forever?

  I realized then why the Pemalites had forbidden their creatures to kill. The Chee lived forever. Forever was a long time to remember what Erek had done.

  "I'm sorry," I said.

  Erek nodded. "Yes." He held out his clenched fist, palm down. I knew what he was doing. I didn't want it. But I held out my

  own hand, and took the Pemalite crystal from him.

  "I've changed my programming back," Erek said. "We ... I ... maybe at times I can tell you things. Information. But I'll never fight again. I can't join this war, my friend." He walked away. We went to our homes and

  crawled into beds our parents never knew we'd left.

  I was beyond exhausted. But I couldn't sleep. Too many images. Too many memories. And I

  was afraid of the nightmares.

  There are evil things in life, and I guess there are times when a human being has to fight those evils. I closed my eyes and wandered lost and afraid through my nightmares.

  And already, my mind was forgetting.

  Teah! Yeah! Go boy!"

  Homer ran flat out, kicking up divots of sand as the Frisbee soared over his head. With a burst of speed, Homer got out in front of the Frisbee, jumped, pivoted in midair, and snatched the disc out of the air. His jump carried him to the water's edge and he landed in the surf.

  "Yeah! Good boy!" Jake said.

  "Not bad," I said. "He's not quite that Frisbee dog we saw on TV, but he's not bad."

  "Hey, that was a

  professional

  Frisbee dog. Homer's just in it for the sport. Homer doesn't even have any endorsements." Homer came trotting back across the sand with the Frisbee in his mouth.

  It was a week after our battle for the Pemalite crystal. Jake and I were at the beach. Tobias was high overhead, riding the thermals. I didn't know where the others were.

  And my hair had finally grown out a little. But I'd gotten used to having it shorter. I decided to keep it that way, just to spite everyone. There weren't that many people on the beach because it was a little too chilly for lying out. Instead, people came down and flew kites, or walked along, looking for sand dollars and shells. And they played with their dogs. Jake knelt down and tried to take the

  Frisbee from Homer. But Homer, like just about every dog in all of history, refused to give it up.

  "They just don't get the point of this whole game," I said. "You throw, they catch, they bring it back for you to throw again. Why is that so hard to figure out?"

  Jake scratched right behind Homer's ear, and Homer dropped the Frisbee. "Oh, they know how to play the game, all right," Jake said with a laugh.

  "For them, the game is "I throw, they catch, they bring it back, they get a good head scratch, then

  they give up the Frisbee.""

  But just then, Homer lost all interest in the Frisbee. Two dogs were trotting by, tails in the air. Homer jogged over to greet them. They sniffed each other by way of introduction, then took off,

  running like the giddy, happy, always-excited, dog goofs they were.

  It made me smile to watch them.

  "It must have been a nice place," I said. Jake knew exactly what I was talking about.

  "Yeah. A planet where the people were as sweet and decent as dogs. Yeah, that would have been okay."

  "I ran into Erek at the 7-Eleven yesterday," I said. "I think he was looking for a place to

  "accidentally" run into me. Anyway, he gave me a phone number. He says it's an

  absolutely safe phone. He says the Yeerks

  couldn't tap it or trace it if they tried."

  "Yeah? So?" Jake asked.

  I shrugged. "So, he says if we ever need him we could leave a message at that number. And if he has something to tell us, he'll record a message for us."

  "Huh," Jake grunted. "Think anything will ever come of it?"

  "I don't know," I said honestly. "But I think the Chee are going to go on fighting the Yeerks. They'll just be doing it in their own way." I reached into my pocket and drew out the small, diamondlike crystal. "I still have this, by the way. I don't know what to do about it. Erek didn't even want to talk about it. But this is the

  most powerful computer ever created. It could rewrite the Ghees' programming. It could take over every computer on Earth. The Pemalite crystal. We almost died getting it. What am I supposed to do with it?"

  Jake and I stood there, looking down at more power than any human had ever held in his hand.

  Suddenly, I realized we weren't alone.

  Homer and the other two dogs were standing right in front of us, watching us. I know this sounds crazy, but I swear some flicker of intelligence appeared in those laughing dog eyes.

  The three of them looked at us, and we looked back.

  I held out my hand, palm up, to show the dogs the crystal. Homer scarfed the crystal out of my hand as if it were a dog biscuit. But he didn't

  swallow it, just held it in his teeth, where it glittered like a diamond.

  The three dogs turned and ran down the beach. They ran into the surf and splashed out into the water, paddling for a dozen feet or so.

  Then they came back to shore, and had a glorious time shaking themselves violently and spraying water all over two old ladies who were hunting shells. Maybe someday the Pemalite crystal will wash back up on some beach somewhere. Maybe

  by the time it does, we'll be as wise as the race that created it.

  "Homer!" Jake yelled. He threw the Frisbee.

  And all three of the dogs, happy, silly,

  loving fools that they were, went racing after it. Don't; miss

  It was crowded inside the Bug fighter.

  Especially because Ax takes up a lot of room. But we huddled together and looked over Ax's shoulders as he worked the controls. And we looked past Ax, out through the transparent panels at the front of the Bug fighter.

 
  to handle.> Ax said.
  design is strange. Some controls are

  psychotronic. But others require physical

 

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