The day was nice. Good thermals, good sun, nice temperature, and good mice for lunch. I breezed over the town—the woods, the field, the highway, the school…There was Jake and Marco, trying out for the basketball team this spring. At the gardens, Rachel and Cassie were petting a hyena and talking. Over in the woods, Ax grazed lazily.
And I was flying.
I saw a bathroom door opened at the Gardens. While I was sure nobody was watching, I swooped down, scared some pigeons away, and blew under a stall door.
I started to morph. I shot upwards, and my feathers became fingers and skin. Two talons melded and turned a tannish color and became bare feet. Wings became arms and my head, human.
Human.
I Walked out and checked myself out in the mirror. I practiced smiling a little. I sometimes forget to use facial expressions.
My morphing outfit was a white tee and swimming trunks, but I figured nobody'd care. I walked out of the bathroom and located Rachel and Cassie. I smiled at them.
"Tobais! Hi, what are you doing here?" Rachel beamed.
"I just thought I'd check this hyena out." I lied. I petted it and it growled at me.
Cassie led us out of the pen. "She's a youth, and Rachel and I acquired her. Hyenas are strong, ferocious scavengers."
"I can't wait to kick butt." Rachel laughed, "Rrrrrr!"
"I'll stay as a hawk. Although that hyena could come in handy." I said.
Just then, Cassie's mom walked out into the sun. She blocked the sun with her hand and greeted us. "Hi, Cassie, Rachel…Tobais right? Well anyway, I'd suggest you stay away from the animals. Some Kind of disease has been going around the predators and we think humans could catch it if we're bitten or scratched."
"We'll be careful, mom." Cassie agreed. I was suddenly gracious that the Hyena had only growled at me.
Cassie's mother left. "Predators only…could this be the Yeerks or something?" Rachel wondered. "I mean, they might have realized we were getting all of our morphs from here and decided to kill off all of the animals…"
We considered the information. "We'll keep an eye out. We'll go check out the other animals." Cassie said.
I was relieved to get away from the hyena. I realized my face was expressionless and I put on a content little smile.
I saw a sign that read "Monkey Cage" A bunch of some kind of monkeys (??? the kind with Tails ???) were howling and hooting inside. A man was handing out pieces of fruits for kids to toss to the monkeys.
Rachel and Cassie stopped to watch the monkeys. I saw from the corner of my eye two small girls with blonde hair yelling out:
"Here monkeymonkeymonkey!"
"Nice fruit! Eat fruit ooh ohh ahh ahh!"
"Here you go come and get it!"
"Monkey monkey!"
The monkeys reached out for the food but the girls wouldn't let them have it unless they came closer.
"I wanna pet one."
"I wanna have one for a pet!"
"Do you know any monkey songs?"
"Ten little monkeys?"
"What's that?"
"How should I know?"
So they proceeded to make up a song, that went remotely like this:
"Ten little monkeys want some froooot."
"Ten little monkeys like to hooooot."
"Ten little monkeys come real close!"
"Ten little monkeys…um what rhymes with close?"
"Hmm, Close, Hose? Rows?"
"Close Hose?" Echoed the other, "Does that rhyme? Oh well! Ten little monkeys hit by a hose!!"
I giggled and tapped Rachel on the shoulder. We watched the two girls giggle and sing for a few minutes. Then they turned on us.
"Who do you think you are?"
"Why dust thou stare at us so?"
One blinked her eyes and walked up to me. she put a finger in my face. "This one," She said—I held my breath. It would be terribly embarrassing to be beat up by someone her age—"'s name is Tobais."
"Ooh, this one is Rachel." Her sister points at Cassie.
"Who's this?" One asked me, pointing at Rachel.
"That," I said, suddenly knowing exactly who these two were, "Is Xena: Warrior Princess."
"Aha! I knew it was Xena something." She lied.
"Hey, You're Kalipso and Carin, right?" Rachel asked. I nodded. The twin girls nodded too.
It had been so long since we'd encountered the Oshes last. Almost a month. I had the time to think about them a lot, but I guess the others forgot a little.
"Which one is which?" Cassie asked Rachel, who shrugged. The girls broke out into a short, fragment of a song that they'd obviously created themselves:
"Check us out!"
"We're twins you see,"
"Carin her, Kalipso me…"
"Or Kaly is it, here to there,"
"And Carin who is unaware?"
"We see now that you're so mixed up,"
"That your eyes are goin' nuts,"
"It's Kaly, Carin, Carin, Kaly,"
"No who's how's if's and's but's!!!"
We looked at the girls standing sheepishly for a moment, then-- "How are you doing?" Rachel asked.
"Fine, fine, Everybody's fine." One of them said. A lie.
"What's wrong?" Cassie asked.
"Oh, it's just…"
"You can tell me." Cassie said, with her smooth caring voice.
"Timmy lost his heartstone and it's all my fault." She wailed in one big breath.
"we were at the Zoo looking for it." Her sister backed her up.
"I think we need to get somewhere private." I said. "besides, my time's almost up."
We went into the bathrooms, and I demorphed. The others morphed pigeons. We fluttered out, scaring some teenagers, and headed towards my meadow across the highway. I could hear the faint yell of one of the teens back at the Gardens:
"No way I'm going In there! What's the matter with this place? The 7-11 has better bathrooms than here!!"

Chapter Two
Narration: Kalipso

Land. WHUMP. Change back.
A flash of blue from my heartstone, and I was converted to my true, Osh form. Carin landed besides me and changed back, too. We waited for Rachel and Cassie to Demorph (it takes them so long!)
"Ok, so what's your story?" Cassie finally asked me. I squared my shoulders and bent my back haunches to sit.
"So it was mostly my fault," I confessed. Usually my sister was part of it, but she wasn't this time. "Jai told us that Timmy is so wild because his heartstone is the same as Joey's. So I took it while he was sleeping and swapped it with mine. (the colors are just about the same.) Well I wore his out of the apartment, Carin and I went to the mall while everybody was still sleeping, and when we got back to the apartment, his stone was gone from my neck! I was in a panic so I took mine back and pretended nothing was my fault.
"It worked, he wasn't wild anymore, but now he's super hyper and worried. And we've been looking everywhere, we really have but it's nowhere and I lost it and it's all my fault!" I wailed.
"Shh, it's okay." Cassie said to me, "What is a heartstone exactly and maybe we can help you find it."
Hmm. I never knew the Animorphs didn't know about Heartstones. I removed the necklace from my neck.
CARIN, HELP ME OUT. I said in telepathy.
"A heartstone is connected to our heart."
"It's what makes an Osh an Osh. Without one, they don't have any powers and they can't morph."
"The heartstone has great powers. If we're not careful, someone bad could harness the power and control it."
"It's the same color as their eyes, always."
"If the heartstone is destroyed, the heart is destroyed, and vice versa." I finished.
[WOAH! So you mean Tim could be in serious trouble?] Tobais asked.
I nodded. "And if the stone gets into the wrong hands, they could either kill him or use his power." I felt a big not of tears crawl up to my throat and start to choke me. Cassie rubbed me behind the ears and it made it a little better.
"This is important. Rachel, do you still have Zoe's number?" Cassie said urgently.
"Please don't tell Timmy I did it! He'd hate me forever!" I wailed. "Just tell him I…told you about it, K?"
"Okay." Rachel said. She started digging through her pocket.
"Rachel? Zoe and Jai aren't here on Earth." Carin said.
"Where are they? On the Hardra ?" Rachel asked. I shook my head.
"They're on Hondala."

Chapter Three

Narration: Ax
I was grazing quietly, thinking of my family when Tobais swoops down and crashes into my right flank.
I bucked and took a few steps back as Tobais picked himself up and fluttered onto a branch and told me of the news. In minutes we were all gathered in Cassie's barn.
"Do I sense a trip to an Alien planet?" Marco said. It was a joke, but we all knew that it would be true.
"I have called up Erek. He said he should come along." Jake said. "Yes, Marco, we are going, and we're counting on Kalipso and Carin to tell us all we need to know."
Kalipso and Carin are Twins. They are a species called Oshmarrons, And they are young. Younger than me. They both have blue manes somehow managed into ponytails and bright blue eyes.
It was about a month ago when we first met the Oshes. There was a Robotist, Jai, two 'average kick-butt teens' Zoe and Dana (at least that's what they titled themselves) an Android named Flame, the Commander of the battleship Hardra XII Joey and his Twin brother Timmy. After going onto their ship once, we picked up Kalipso and Carin, who where basically stowaways.
Carin Began. "Hondala means 'Land of Mountains and Snow' in the native language. The name suits—the place is a bunch of snow covered Mt. Everests. Four different species of dragons live on the planet and are it's main inhabitants."
"Oshes often go there on business, to get fuel and stuff, but Jai and Zoe might be out on a date or something." Kalipso put in,
"Hondala isn't in reach of Communications from here, so we can't just call them in. We'd have to go there ourselves."
"That's wonderful." Rachel murmured, "How do we get there, then?"
"We don't," Kalipso laughed.
"What?" Asked Jake.
"We don't go there. We go to the Hardra XII!!!"

Bad. What a word. Three letters in the Human language that meant so much.
Marco, Jake and I were assigned to break into the yeerk pool and find out if the Yeerks got the Heartstone. The girls and Tobais, Jake concluded, (or as Marco simply put it, the 'girls') would be getting ready for the trip.
"So you're doing the fun part?" Rachel said, annoyed. "While we do…what?"
"You're going to get the Chee to pose as us until we're back, like the North Pole thing. Plus you have to go with the twins and somehow contact the Hardra." Jake said for the eighth time. Rachel sighed.
"Come on Cassie, let's go."

Chapter Three
Narration: Carin

"So who can we contact?" Cassie asked, "If not Timmy?"
"Joey's not here, either, and Dana's coping with Timmy. Flame's here I think, so we can get to him, but otherwise it looks like we're by ourselves." Kalipso said.
"So how do we get into your apartment?" Rachel asked.
"We can morph. That's easy." Cassie suggested.
[Can the transporter thing communicate with simple thought speech?] Tobais asked.
"I. . .I don't know!" I cried. I gave a forlorn look but then brightened. "But Kaly and I have Osh thought speech!!"
"Great. So, what morph do we use?" Cassie wondered, "Fly would be to small . . . Unless we get inside the building first!"
"Meaning?" Rachel asked, putting a hand on her hip. Kaly and I copied her. (we love copying,)
"Just follow me." Cassie said.

Kaly, Cassie, Rachel, Tobais (as a human) and I were entering the apartment place. There was a big lobby with a pretty carpet and elevators. We walked into one elevator.
"Ok, what level?" Rachel asked Kalipso.
"Five."
"Good, that should be enough time for us to morph. Everyone ready?" She asked. Tobais was already demorphing so he'd have enough time. Kaly and I changed in a couple seconds and we waited for Cassie and Rachel to finish the morph. It was really gross, especially when the arms SPLOOTED out of their chests and the wings…never mind.
The door opened and five flies buzzed out. I saw a zillion little images of doors, and finally found door One-Oh-eight. We landed on the floor and walked underneath.
Wires, wires, wires. This was Jai's room. Where we were headed.
[We could get tangled in this jungle!] Cassie said. I led the way to the other room where the communication equipment was being held. Timmy was pacing in the other room.
I'M CHANGING BACK TO OPERATE IT. I said. I quickly changed back to my Osh form and started madly searching for the communicator.
"I think I found it." I whispered. I held up the small pocket sized computer and started it.

PASSWORD:
Jessuniac

I typed.

DESTINATION:
Hardra VI

I typed. It took me to a screen showing a camera view of somebody. "Hello?"
"Hello, who is this?" Came the voice. It was Joey. "Kalipso? What do you need?"
"Carin." I corrected, "I need to transport some people."
"Ah. Stand by." A new person walked up.
"What species?" She asked, like a Librarian, I thought.
"Human and Osh."
"Home species?" Was asked me. A home species is the species you're born as.
"No. Two Oshes six humans. No, five humans, one other. No, No, Two Oshes, four humans, and two others." I said.
"Stand by. What time of departure?"
I thought. WHAT TIME DO WE LEAVE? I asked Cassie.
[About ten tonight. I hope that's enough time.]
"Ten P.M." I said. She nodded and asked: "Where to?"
"Hardra Six, Cadet dorm 1011." That was my dorm. We needed some privacy when we arrived.
"Ten tonight, room 1011. Gotcha." Then the screen went black.
[Boy, you didn't even really need us, did you?] Tobais laughed. [And, how does that work?]
"It's so long and complicated that we couldn't explain." I lied. Boy am I a good liar. Nobody even suspects me or my sister. I don't know how it works either, except for that it works and we have to study it in P.K. school for three weeks.
[Hey! Timmy! He's, he coming!] Cassie yelped. I converted to my fly form. As fast as I could. But I did it right as I saw him standing in the door.

Chapter Four
Narration: Jake

Yeerk pool. I wondered why I decided WE had to go. It should have been a job for all of us.
But Noooooooooooooooooooo.
"Okay, you sure this is the best way?" I asked Marco. He nodded, and we began to morph.
"Sure, this will be Flurrn.." I said as my lips disappeared.
It's not that I was upset about the morph. I was dead scared. And it took a long time to acquire it. And Erek's help.
A Yeerk.
Ax refused to morph a yeerk, or let anyone in Yeerk morph into his head.
"I've had a yeerk in my head once before and I would have killed myself first!" He cried. He was a human and we were sightless, senseless Yeerks.
It was quiet for a while. Very quiet as I felt the shoe beats pacing around. Finally I felt the rush of air and then…
Ear! Ear Ear Ear! I struggled to get inside.
[Do not take control of me!] Ax said sternly. I agreed and found the Brain.
Using some sort of sense I hooked up to all of his memories. I tried not to look. And then the sight kicked in. Boy it was different than morphing something. I was inside of Ax.
Inside.
I focused Ax's eyes on Marco. [I'm picking you up.] I said.
[So you're inside him? Good going Jake!] Marco cheered. I grabbed him, dropped him, and caught him. Ax squeezed his hand around Marco.
[Hey, Jake!]
[It's Ax.] I explained.
[Let's get this over with.] Ax sighed and we headed towards the door.
[Hopefully the Gleet BioFliter won't Zap me.] Marco said worriedly. We passed through with no difficulty. We inched over towards a dark corner after descending the stairs, and Ax started yelling at me to get out.
I slithered out of the Ear and felt Ax shiver. Marco and I started to Demorph, and Ax was already a human.
"Let's find the computers." Marco said. There was a building to our left. We slipped inside. I spotted the computer instantly. Marco logged on.
"There's no mention of the word Heartstone, but there has been a secret item added into the file that I can't access. It has a lot of energy. I bet that's it. It's called, "operation Blue."" Marco said.
"And the heartstone is blue, too? oooooo?" Ax said. I nodded.
"We should get out of here. Come on. We could get caught. So they do have the stone. Looks like we'll have to act fast." I said.
We morphed.

Chapter Five
Narration: Cassie

[Carin! Come on, fast!] Rachel yelled. She finished changing and we bolted out the door over Timmy's head.
"What the…Carin, come back! What's going on? Come on!" Timmy yelled but we were already gone.
HE WON'T COME AFTER US. USUALLY WHEN WE LOSE OUR STONES, WE DON'T WANT TO RISK EVEN GETTING SCRATCHED. I DON'T KNOW. WE'RE SAFE. Kalipso said.
We blew out the door, and went into the parking lot. We hid behind some vans while demorphing. We caught our breath and headed towards the McDonalds.

"Have you seen Any of them?" I asked Kalipso. We were patrolling the Mickey D's, looking for Ax, Marco and Jake, while sipping sodas.
"None. I hope they're Ok." Kalipso said.
Just then Ax staggered out from the freezer. He straightened his step and walked over to us. He was shivering.
"Let's go." He said. We all walked out of the McDonalds and found our way into an alley. A yeerk slithered from Ax's ear, and he jumped backwards away from it. It started demorphing into Jake. Another Yeerk dropped from Ax's hand and changed into Marco.
After we'd all caught our breaths, I asked:
"Did you find out?"
Jake explained. "They have the Heartstone. I figure that we can go get Zoe and Jai in the time it takes for them to find out how to use it. With their help, we can get the stone back."
"Let's just hope so." Rachel murmured.

That night, at nine, Erek and some of his pals were already posing as us. We waited in the woods, small talking and all that until ten.
I shivered. It was cold, and all I had was my morphing suit and it was about forty eight out.
"So." I said. "Anyone know any good jokes?"
"I do. What do you get when you cross an Andalite and four cold kids?" Marco asked.
"Forget it. I don't want to know." I said. "Marco, Cassie asked if you knew any GOOD jokes." Rachel teased.
"Why is an elephant large, gray and wrinkled?" Marco asked. "It's a good joke."
"Whatever." Rachel said.
"Because if it was small, white and round, it would be an aspirin!" Marco laughed, but nobody was listening. We were watching in amazement as our skin started to tingle. "What's going—" Jake asked.
"It's ten. We must be being transported!" I exclaimed.
My skin disappeared under a mass of sparkling gray, and then that was all I saw. It was different from the first time we were taken to the Hardra, but I don't know how. I closed my eyes.
When I opened them again, I was in a dorm.
Not all messy like Jai's was, but actually so clean I didn't think it was a dorm for a moment.
The carpet was light blue, and the walls were deep. The ceiling was black. The beds were twin beds, spaced apart like a hotel, and the sheets and covers were black, white and blue. The beds were made and there was not a speck of trash on the floor. The dressers had only two notebooks on it, and a few pens placed on top, very organized. There was a small window out into space.
"Sorry, we didn't have time to clean." Kalipso said sheepishly. For a few moments I wondered if she was lying, which she probably was, but then Carin spoke up.
"You need to be Oshes. Or Humans. Or…I don't know. Be something." She said. "Ooh, I have an idea!"
before she could say anything, she opened her bathroom door. three small creatures rushed out.
They were small, cat sized, and had four feet and a lizard like tail with shaggy fur underneath. On their suprisingly round head, two antennas stood straight up like a cricket. They all had two different colored fur.
"You can morph them." Kaly said.

Chapter Six
Narration: Barre

Hello. My name is Barre. I'm a Clanamal. I'm cute. Here is my story:
Well, I was walking down the hall of my mothership the Hardra when I hear something in a room. Hey, it was Kalipso and Cairn's room! I opened the door a little and peeked in.
"You can morph Them!" Kalipso exclaimed.
"What? What are they?" Said a human creature.
An insult! Anyone should know what a Clanamal is. I am the best Clanamal. I have color-change fur and cute eyes.
I walked into the room. Carin sighted me immediately.
"What you do with Karrie Marrie and Terrie?" I wailed.
"Hello Barre. Barre, meet my friends." Carin said. I said hello.
"Wait, you mean we have to morph these sentient creatures?" One Human asked. What did that mean?
"Sentient? Nah! These kids are far from sentient." Kalipso said.
"Barre wanna be sentiment!" I wailed. Nobody listened.
"Wouldn't someone notice if there were duplicates of them going around?" the Girl human with yellow hair asked.
"Hmm." Carin thought. Then the big horse thing said In my head,
[The Frolis maneuver?]
"What?" Asked the humans.
[Remember what I did to create my human morph?] He asked.
"No." I answered. He was talking to me, right? Still nobody listened to me.
"All right. Tell us how." One of the boy humans asked, petting Karrie, Marrie, and Terry. Then he pet me. Ooh I love being pet.
"Got them. Now what?"
Each of the humans, the bird, and the horse petted me. Ohh I loved it.
[Concentrate…okay, you have to really focus. It's not the hardest thing to do but it's really close…]
I stopped listening. I was bored. Carin petted me. I felt better.
I watched as the Strangers morphed into Clanamals. Then I listened when they talked to me in my head:
[These creatures . . . Clanamals? They aren't too bright.] One said.
[I have an urge to roll over.] said another.
"What going on?" I asked. A new Clanamal walked over to me.
"Hello." It said. I forgot the other conversation. Someone was talking to me!
"hello! My name is Barre."
"My name is Cassie."
"Hello Cassie."
"Hello Barre."
[Can we get going here?] a Human/Clanamal asked.
[Sorry, I was getting used to the voice.] Cassie said. I think it was her.
Kalipso, Carin, and the Humans left. They locked their three pets in the bathroom before they left. I opened the door and followed them…

Chapter Seven
Narration: Rachel

It was basically the same as before: Black ceiling, white walls. Then we ended up in the food court. It was still filled with laughing, talking Oshes and Oshes morphed as humans. I walked around cautiously, not wanting any of the Oshes to read my mind and find out that we weren't just Clanamals.
This would have been the second time I'd been in this very room.
We all waddled up to the 'Zapper' as Kalipso called it, and waited in line. The line wasn't as long as we expected and it went fast.
[Remember, we have an hour left in morph time.] Ax said. I stepped up to the machine. Finally we reached the Battle bridge. It was a long, semi-circular hallway, one side looking out into space. There was a second level below us, and we were standing on wire mesh looking down onto it.
[Cool.] Marco said.
Osh warriors in a hurry ran past, not really noticing us. They must have had a battle or something to go to.
We came to a door marked 'Main office' and Kalipso and Carin led us inside.
The morph we were in was odd—I was smart and could talk a little, but I felt like I was in cat morph. The smells, the sensitivity… It was way past perfect.
The Main Office had many smells, sights and sounds. Everywhere there were Oshes talking about something or another. I could swear I saw some teens loitering around.
"Hello, Kaly, Carin." Joey Greeted. He walked over with a folder in one paw. "You need something?"
I tried to Say, "Hello Joey, We're looking for Zoe and Jai," But it came out, "Hello Dotee weeyr lookin' for Zoey and Jai."
Joey blinked in supprise, then smiled. "Oh it's you. Very clever." He tossed the folder onto a desk. "Let's go check the universal scan."
[The What?] Marco asked. The commander led us into a quiet room and shut the door.
"The Uni-Scan can pick up any Osh and their location. You just have to enter their number code. Let's see, I don't remember Zoe's but Jai's is 44993802882345. Yeah, that's it. So, scanning…"
We waited for the holographic screen to pop up and we saw a small green light flashing. "Found em', but we're too close in to see where they are." Joey said. He typed something in and the screen Zoomed out, and out two more times.
I was looking at the outlines of a ship. Not the Slayer or the Hope, but a ship. It had a large frame, shaped like one of those Star Trek ships, (whatever it is they look like) and It was red and black. Small, red dots blazed across the screen.
Joey gulped. So did Kalipso. So did Carin.
"Call in Blaze's Regiment." Joey said into the computer in a wavery voice, "And Skilian's. Ready the Starfighters." He turned to us. "We have a… slight problem."

Chapter Eight
Narration: Joey

Guh-reat.
"It's the Zerek Mothership." I explained, as calmly as I could—howbeit I found myself pacing wildly around the room, a bad habit I guess. "They've captured them. This is really bad, anything could happen!"
The Animorphs began to demorph. When Jake was finished he spoke to me. "Anything we can do?"
Marco was short to follow. "Yeah, we're experts on alien missions."
"Didn't you say that before?" Rachel said. Marco gave her a hateful glance.
"We need to help. You know that Timmy's stone is lost and we know that the Yeerks have it. You're right, anything can and will happen, fast. This could be the end of Earth!" Cassie exclaimed. Jake put a hand on her shoulder.
"We could use some fighters to make up for Zoe and Jai in the Starfleet." I sighed, "But do you know how to drive?"
"I drove a Yeerk ship." Jake said, "And Ax could figure out the controls."
I bounded out of the door and ran out of the Main Office. The Animorphs ran after me. I exited onto the battle bridge and barked out orders:
"Blaze!"
"Yessir!" The Lionawk walked up to me. A Lionawk is sort of a mix between a Raptor (bird raptor) and a Female lion. They are excellent shock troops, and Blaze is an Osh/Lionawk. He has his own fleet of Lionawks.
"Get your team ready. You're going out first."
"Were are we going?" He asked me.
"We're leading a rescue/attack on the Zerek mothership. NOW!"
"yes SIR!" He yelped. "ATTENTION TROOPS!" He yelled. Eighteen Lionawks saluted and followed him towards the shipping docks.
"STARFLEET!" I called. Eight fighters circled around me. They are my best—Zoe and Jai are the other two. Each one had a silver ear band and Veldons strapped to their Tails. "Rev up your engines. We're heading for the Zerekian Mothership, NOW!" They gave me a Vel's up salute (spreading and sweeping the Tails as an act of loyalty) and bounded towards their ships.
I called back to the Animorphs as I Climbed into my own ship. "You and Ax climb into the Hope. She's easier to drive than Jai's. Betsy can drive His."
"Who's Betsy?" Marco asked, right as she walked up. Betsy is a dragon, a young dragon, about as large as a Great Dane. She hopped into Jai's ship and revved up. The Animorphs helped Ax jump into The Hope and somehow they started Zoe's Ship. I turned to my own Ship, the Milky Way.
Revved up. Goggles On. Starting spin mode. I turned towards the wall of blackness. I tapped the acceleration pad twice and I zoomed off.

Chapter Nine
Narration: Ax

I could figure out the controls easily.
Rachel demanded the weapons station, and sat down in the chair. I was standing, seeing as sitting would be a little hard for me.
[if this is the acceleration, than to rev up I'd press it. To accelerate, I'd tap it. Okay. Rachel, I believe that the weapons are normal lasers. This should be the turbo-lasers, and this should be the normal lasers.] I revved up, spun around, and took off like the Oshes had done.
"Oh, you mean this joystick thing? Got it." Rachel said. "This is fun and I haven't done anything yet!"
"I was just thinking—what is a Zerek?" Jake asked. He was sitting in the back, pondering over something.
"We can ask Joey when we get there." Cassie said.
[We have radios. If I can turn them on we can ask your question now.] I said. I pressed a few green buttons and then we could hear quite clearly—
"Milky way, this is Milky way II do you copy?"
"I copy. Blade, do ya hear?"
"I hear dad."
"Don't call me dad Martin."
"Dadadadadadadadadad."
"Martmartmartmartmart."
"Matmatmatmatmat." I heard Flame's imitating voice.
"Hey, how'd Flame get up here? I thought Kalipso said he was on Earth!" Marco exclaimed.
"Oh, hello, who is this?" Asked Joey to us.
"We're the Animorphs." Jake said.
[Our ship is the Slayer.] I said. But I believe the radio did not pick up thought-speech.
"We're the Slayer, do you read?" Rachel asked.
"Hiya. Ready?" Someone asked. "By the way who are you?"
"Guys, this is Martin, he's my oldest son." Joey said, "Martin, long story, later."
"Hi." Jake said.
"Here's the plan: Flame, and three of you will go inside the ship, while the rest of us lead on a aerial attack." Joey explained.
Almost immediately, Rachel shouted, "I'm going in! No way I'm going to be stuck with the easy part."
"Um, if the aerial part was easy, I would be going with you." Joey said.
[I will go inside. I know a lot about computers, yet I know very little about Zereks.] I said.
"Zereks." Joey said.
"Zereks." Flame echoed.
"So?" Marco asked.
"Let me explain:" Joey started, "Zereks were developed around when we were. We have the same dating system. They thrive off of stolen information, usually from us. The first rank are the normal Zereks. They are practically 'used' if the commander wants to attack, they do the dirty work. The lower ranking 'zerekatrons' have black plastic suits and are trained as normal shock troops and fighters. The next level would be a Zereima. Few of these. In this level, they capture a powerful body and do a medical transplantation which puts their brains together. The Body has no idea what possibly could be going on, and they sort of black out until the Zerekima dies—which actually kills them both. The final level is a Zerek Goddess. They don't even have bodies, they are respected by every Zerek there is a and if you see one, kill it."
[I see.] I said, [Sounds like a yeerk, the Zerekima.]
"yes," Joey said sadly, "It does."

The final decision was this: Rachel, Tobais, Flame and I would go into the Mothership. It was a dangerous mission, Joey had said, but he thought we could 'pull it off'.
It took a while for me to land the spacecraft. First, we had to transfer from Zoe's ship to Flame's. We had to put on the cloaking so they wouldn't shoot at us, then we had to slip into their battle bridge and land, cloaking STILL on. We prepared to leave the ship.
"I'm teleporting outside, behind those boxes. As for you, I'd try a good morph." Flame said, and he disappeared.
[I think We should morph flies. Then when we are clear from the Zereks, we can morph to Wolves so we can run faster if we are seen.] I commented. We began to morph.

When we finished the gossamer morph (we had cracked the door of the ship) we buzzed out and spotted flame. He must have sensed us because he slipped down a narrow hallway.
Everything Joey had said was true. Most of the Zereks had nothing but their slimy skin and ugly faces, many had black suits making them Zerekatrons. Although I saw these, I saw no Zerekima. As much as the idea of being locked away just like a controller horrified me, I wanted badly to see one of these.
The hallway was dark. I began to demorph, as did the others. When I was my self again, I rested a second and began the wolf morph.
My fur turned gray at first, and then it grew longer. My arms shriveled away and my upper body began shrinking down. My legs stretched and re-formatted, and my tail became shorter and shaggier. I opened my eyes and my nose kicked in, and I could smell every thing that had walked in that very hall in that month.
My morph was complete. So were the other's. Flame stayed in his Osh form. It was similar to the wolf, anyway.
"This way. I know these corridors by heart. For real." Flame said. We followed him down hallway after hallway.
And I started to get a very, very bad feeling.

Chapter Ten
Narration: Tobais

The hallway got squished and we started walking single-file, Flame, then Me, then Rachel, then Ax. For a moment I thought of the last time we went single file, with Nat. I shuddered. [Flame, where're we supposed to go?]
"Right here." Flame whispered. We peeked around the corner at a door with a big lock on it, and four zerekatrons pacing around.
[What do we do?] Rachel asked.
WHADDYA THINK? Flame asked back.
We charged! Flame jumped the first one by supprise, and gave him an electric shock. I'm guessing he died. I took out another one, and Rachel another, but Ax's Zerek was darting down the hall.
"Don't chase after him! He's going for the alarm. Just get Zoe and Jai out." Flame instructed. He gave the lock on the door a challenging stare, and I beeped—I'm guessing that it was un-locked. It was handy to have an Android around, Eh?
We bounded inside. It was dark, but there were some lighted strips of plastic or something—like neon—in the back of the room.
"Light—Bonds." Flame said, "A restraint. Try to wake them up and I'll find the computer they generate from."
[How do you know they're sleeping?] Rachel asked, heading to the back of the room.
"Their heartbeat rate is slower, They can't hear us, and why wouldn't the Zereks do that to them?"
[Oh.] Rachel said. Flame got to work on the computer. I walked over to Zoe and Jai.
They were curled up around each other, sleeping soundly. They were restrained by the Light-bonds, which I saw were only bright lights. I had no idea how light could do that but I guess it worked.
RRRZAAP. Off went the Light bonds. The room was dark again.
[Guys, wake up!] I cried. Ax pawed at them until they were wide awake. They morphed Wolves, just for cover.
"Hold on!" Flame cried, madly typing something into the computer. Suddenly a hologram of Zoe and Jai sleeping appeared and the light bonds were in place.
"Let's skidoo." Flame murmured, headed out.
I walked out the door. Ten Zerek warriors stood waiting for us.
They had the basic figure of a Hork-Bajir, except its skin was slimy and red. It had no tail, and was a little bit taller. It carried no arm or leg blades, but it had a mouth full of sharp, sharp teeth, and it carried a weapon.
[Those are Osh lasers. They must have stolen them.] Rachel said, [Prepare to attack.]
[Come on.] I said, and I lunged at the nearest one.
I extended my wolf claws, and leapt. I bared my teeth and hit head on into his stomach. I fell off, the Zerek unhurt. I jumped up again and lunged for him before anything could happen.
Something did happen.
The Zerek lifted back an arm, and prepared for the punch…
[TOBAIS!!!!!]

Chapter Eleven
Narration: Jai

[TOBAIS!!!!!]

It wasn't Ax. It wasn't Rachel. Wasn't any of us Oshes.
I looked at Zoe. She Me. Me, Flame. Rachel and Ax lunged right after Tobais was punched into the wall
. I calmly used my mind and heartstone to freeze them. VERY, VERY SUBTLE APPROACH, JO. I said in a calm sarcastic voice. The Zerek melted into Joey, and his clear blue eyes had a pang of regret in them. "He was gonna kill me." He whined.
I changed back into my Osh form. "Not quite. Why am I always the responsible one? How'd you get to be the commander?" I asked.
"That's the third time this month someone's said that to me, so shut it." Joey complained.
"Proves Why." I shot back.
[Come on guys! We have to bust it before there's more trouble!] Came Cassie's voice. She must have been one of the Zereks.
We marched along the hall, taking down everything we saw. We reached the battle bridge.
"Okay, Run, and kill anyone who stands in your way." I instructed. The StarFighters (as Zereks) and Animorphs (as Wolves and Zereks) plus two Oshes and an android burst out and headed for the ships that they'd parked there. Zoe and I climbed into the Hope, my ship that Betsy had driven here. The SF's got into their vehicles and we all zoomed off.

"Thanks for rescuing me." Zoe said over the radio.
"You're welcome." Cassie said. "We need you on Earth."
"Earth? What's happening?" Joey asked.
"It's confidential. Sorry." Jake said quickly. We turned on the private message and locked Joey and the others out of it.
"Kalipso lost Timmy's heartstone, and we need your help to find it." Rachel said to Zoe and I.
"Kalipso? But how—"
"It dosn't matter. If we don't get the Stone from the Yeerks, the universe is doomed." Jake said, "And we can't tell Joey, because Kalipso and Carin requested you guys only. And they can't find a way to tell Timmy that they did it, so…"
"I see. Losing or stealing someone's stone is a crime. The OCCD will be down their necks. So, now we're the Mafia, right? Cool, I can do Mafia." I said. They laughed un-easily.
I turned off the private message.
"----AND WILL YOU PLEASE LET ME INTO THE STINKING CONVERSATION?!?!?!!?!" Joey was screaming.
"Sorry, small difficulty for a moment. I was worried, too." Zoe explained. "Our communications went out."
"Suuuuuurre. Just trust old Cheese-head to be the gullible one." Joey muttered.
We laughed. Just then, the Hardra came into view. It was like a white ghost in the blackness of space. (Sorry about the fluent descriptions, but hey I'm a part time writer besides being a robotist!)
"Bye, Joey, we're going to Earth. Do your cheezy commander thing." Zoe said, "you know, mwa ha ha?"
"You know I really think we should lock her up." Joey said.
"We're late, We're late, for a VERY important date…" I sang—(not the emphasis on 'very')
"Cheezy…" Thought Joey.
"Bye!" We all called, departing for earth.
"Ooooohh Kayyy." Joey agreed hesitantly. "MWA HA HA HA!!!"
"That's the Jo we know and love!" Zoe cried.
"Cheezy." Joey said in a sneer, and he turned towards the Hardra…