The Encounter (4 page)
Authors: K. A. Applegate
I banked left around a tree, then flapped my way back up into the sun. I climbed hard and fast, using a lot of energy. The exercise helped distract me. It’s hard feeling sorry for yourself when you’re working out big time.
After a while I was able to catch a nice thermal and get some easy altitude. I could still see the little wolf pack, moving like it had a single mind, flowing around the trees, swift and sure.
I tried to imagine what it must be like to be a wolf. The amazing sense of smell. The incredible hearing. All that confident power, those ripping teeth, the cool intelligence.
Maybe later I would ask Jake or Rachel about it.
Then you could ask them what it’s like to be human. Maybe they can tell you about that, too
, I thought bitterly.
Stop it, Tobias
, I ordered myself.
Stop it.
I guess I felt that if I ever started to feel really sorry for myself, I might never stop.
I kept a sharp eye out on the sky above, but it was probably still too early for the ship to come. If it even came. There was no reason to think it kept some kind of schedule.
Then, down below, I saw something that caught my attention. There was a convoy of trucks and Jeeps moving along a narrow, snaking dirt road. Maybe five
vehicles. They had the markings of the Park Service. But they seemed to be in a big hurry.
They drove to a lake that I had just glimpsed up ahead. By the shore of the lake, they pulled off the road. Then, to my surprise, several dozen uniformed men jumped from the trucks and began to fan out through the woods.
They were carrying guns. But not rifles or even pistols. I could see them clearly. They were carrying automatic weapons.
Suddenly, movement in the sky! What the—
To my left I spotted a pair of helicopters. They zipped just inches above the trees. They began to circle the lake. These also had Park Service markings.
This is all wrong
, I told myself.
These guys don’t act or move like Park Rangers. These guys move like an army.
And as I watched, half a dozen of the armed men surrounded a small patch of bright yellow. It was a tent.
Two people—they looked like college types— were cooking over a little fire outside the tent.
I could see the expressions of total amazement and fear when they suddenly realized they were surrounded by six men with automatic weapons.
The two campers were marched back to the nearest truck and driven away at high speed.
I don’t know what story the two campers were told. Maybe the Park Rangers told them there was a dangerous fugitive in the area. Or maybe they said there was a forest fire. I don’t know. I just know those two campers were out of there before they knew what hit them.
The two choppers circled the lake. Then they landed in a small clearing at the far side of the lake at the same time.
It was more than a mile away. Far, even for my hawk’s eyes, in the slanting light of afternoon. But I could still see what came out of those helicopters.
Out they leaped, one after another.
Seven feet tall. The most dangerous-looking creatures you’ll ever want to see. Foot-long, razor-sharp blades raked forward from their snake heads. More blades at their elbows, wrists, and knees. Feet like a
Tyrannosaurus rex.
The shock troops of the Yeerks.
Hork-Bajir warriors.
H
ork-Bajir!>
The first time I’d seen them was at the construction site. I was still fully human then. It was while Visser Three was taunting the fallen Andalite. The five of us had been cowering behind a low wall. A Hork-Bajir had been within a few feet of us.
The Andalite told us they had once been a good people, the Hork-Bajir. That despite their fearsome appearance, they were a gentle race.
But the Hork-Bajir were all Controllers now. They all carried a Yeerk slug in their brains. And they were no longer gentle.
I made a sharp turn back. I had to warn the others. I passed over a group of the Park Rangers and swooped low enough to read one man’s watch. My friends had been in morph for more than an hour.
Great. Low on time, and the Hork-Bajir are here.
I soon spotted the wolf pack, still trotting along resolutely, never tiring. Pausing only for Jake to pee.
I dived toward them. Just over their heads I pulled up suddenly.
“Yowl! Yip! Rrawr!”
They yelped and scampered around. Jake bared his fangs at me.
I came to rest on a decayed log.
Instantly, as if on command, the others started fanning out around me, encircling me. The five of them were acting like a wolf pack surrounding prey. In their own way they kind of reminded me of Hork-Bajir.
No answer. Jake snarled a brief command at one of the others.
Wait a minute.
Five?
Five wolves?
Jake, who wasn’t really Jake, leaped at me.
Whoa!
Wolves don’t usually hurt humans, but they will definitely eat a bird when they’re hungry enough.
And one thing you don’t ever want to see is a hungry wolf, yellowed fangs bared, gold-brown eyes glaring, fur bristling, coming at you.
I flapped my wings hard.
The big male wolf went shooting past. Barely. But the rest were all around me!
I flapped again and got airborne, but just a few inches. I was skimming wildly over the pine-needle carpet, flapping for all I was worth, with five determined wolves hot on my tail.
SWOOOOM!
I caught the tiniest headwind, but it was all I needed.
I was up! Up and out of there, while the wolves yowled and snapped their powerful jaws in frustration below me.
Ten minutes later I found a second wolf pack. This time I counted.
Four
wolves.
Still, I was cautious.
Rachel asked,
Rachel said.
say go for it,> Marco muttered
do this,’ it would make me so happy>
I went airborne again, but this time I stayed close by.
They moved in a cautious circle around the phony Park Rangers. But I could see that the Rangers had spotted them. They tensed up, then relaxed when they saw it was just a wolf pack minding its own business.
I decided to get some altitude. Unfortunately, since there were no convenient thermals, I had to flap
my way up. I was a few thousand yards high, able to see my friends and the lake, when I felt its presence again.
I looked up.
The invisible wave. The slight ripple in the fabric of the sky. It was there. It was moving slowly overhead. Even more slowly than before.
And then, as I watched, it was invisible no more.
D
on’t act suspicious or freak,> I called down to the others.
It was huge. But the word
huge
doesn’t really begin to describe it.
Have you ever seen a picture of an oil tanker? Or maybe an aircraft carrier? That’s what I mean by
huge.
Compared to this thing, the biggest jumbo jet ever built was a toy.
It was shaped like a manta ray. There was a bulging, fat portion in the middle, with swooped, curvy wings, one on either side. On top of the wings
were huge scoops, like air intakes on a fighter jet, but much bigger. You could suck a fleet of buses in through those scoops.
The only windows were in a small bulge at the top. The bridge, I realized. Focusing on it, I could see the shadowy shapes of Taxxons inside.
But mostly that ship was just big. Really big. As in, it blocked out the sun, it was so big.
Suddenly, out from behind the ship, a pair of Bug fighters zipped into view. We had seen them before. They are small, for spaceships. You couldn’t park one in your garage, but you could land it on your front lawn. They look like metal cockroaches with two serrated, spearlike protrusions pointed forward on either side.
Suddenly one of the Bug fighters went
shooting right past me, low and slow. I could see in the window. Inside was the usual crew: one Hork-Bajir and one Taxxon.
The Taxxons are the second most common type of Controller. Imagine a very big centipede. Now imagine it even bigger, twice as long as a man. So big around, you couldn’t get your arms around it if you wanted to give it a hug.
Not that you’d ever want to give it a hug. Taxxons are gross, disgusting creatures. Unlike the Hork-Bajir, who were enslaved against their will, Taxxons chose to turn their minds over to the Yeerk parasites. They are allies of the Yeerks. I don’t know why, and I probably don’t want to.
The Bug fighter shot past, not interested in me. The huge main ship sank slowly down toward the surface of the lake.
Marco, of course.
>You know, I hate to be a pessimist,> Marco said,
They had reached the shore of the lake and were prowling along, looking like wolves should look. But they were also glancing regularly up at the massive ship. I worried a little that some Controller, human or Hork-Bajir, would notice that they were paying a little too much attention.
Then something began to happen.
From the belly of the ship, a pipe began to lower into the water. Then a second pipe, and a third.
!>
I could hear the sucking sound. Thousands, maybe millions of gallons of water being sucked up into the ship.
But I understood what Marco meant.
where they can just make their own air and water,> Marco mused.
