"Great," I said. "The rocks will fall and crush us and we won't have to worry about the Yeerks."

There was a sort of shallow cave in the quarry wall. Not deep at all, but it would hide us from anyone flying over.

"Well," Jake said. "Let's try this out. Ax? You ready to trigger that thing?"

"Yes. I am very ready, Prince Jake."

Jake looked around at everyone. "You all ready to go into your various morphs?"

We nodded. All except Ax. See, we were all going to go into morph - our strongest, deadliest morphs - in order to take care of the Yeerk crew when they came. But Ax didn't have any thing but a shark, a lobster, an ant, and a harrier. We figured he was better off in his own Andalite body, which was plenty dangerous.

"Okay, Ax? Do it. Everyone? Morph!"

"And let's keep our fingers crossed," I added. "Or talons, claws, or hooves, as the case may be."

Ax pressed a button on the distress beacon. As far as we could tell, nothing happened.

"It is working," he reassured us.

So, Rachel, Cassie, Jake, and I began to morph. These were all morphs we had done before.

There would be no battle to maintain control over the animal mind.

58 Rachel went into her elephant morph. We figured we might need that brute strength and size.

Jake slowly became a tiger. Cassie used her wolf morph. And I focused on my gorilla.

"What a freak scene this is." I laughed as the changes began. "Anyone who stumbled onto this would think he'd lost his mind."

It was definitely odd. You haven't seen weird till you've seen pretty, blond supermodel Rachel grow a trunk as thick as a small tree and ears the size of umbrellas.

Or Cassie, growing gray fur over every inch of her body, falling to all fours and baring long yellow teeth.

And then there was Jake. Huge, curved claws grew from his fingers. A snakelike tail whipped out behind him. Orange and black fur covered him. And when he was done he was a full grown tiger. Almost ten feet from his nose to his tail. Easily four hundred pounds.

If something deadly can ever be beautiful, it's a tiger.

"Bet I could kick your butt," I said to Jake.

"Yeah, monkey boy? I don't think so."

"Hey, I could stomp both of you," Rachel said. She walked closer, swinging her trunk and flaring her ears out. A moving mountain.

"This is so mature," Cassie said. "Arguing over who could beat who."

"Hah. You're only saying that because we can all kick your butt, wolfie," I pointed out.

"As if!" Cassie protested. "You'd have to catch me first. And I could still be running long after the three of you were worn out and fast asleep."

"You have an amazing variety of animals on your planet," Ax said. "Some day, when the Yeerks are defeated, Andalites will come here simply to try out the many animal forms. It would be like a vacation."

"Joe Andalite, you've won the Superbowl! Now where are you going?" I said, mimicking the Disney World commercials. "I'm going to Earth to turn into a lobster!"

"I don't understand^ Ax said.

I started to explain, but just then a red light began to flash on Ax's homemade distress beacon. "The response signal! They are coming!"

"Quick! Everyone to your places!" Jake said.

He slunk away, liquid power, to hide in the shadow of a boulder. Rachel pressed back under the shallow overhang. Cassie trotted to a spot to the right of Jake, and I tried not to look like 59 a four-hundred-pound gorilla behind a pile of gravel. Tobias flapped hard, struggling to gain altitude.

SWOOSH!

It came in low, just above tree level, then disappeared before turning to come back.

A Bug fighter. Just as we'd planned.

"Here's your ride home, Ax," I said.

60 Chapter 15

Swoosh!

The Bug fighter flew over once again, seemed to pause, then settled down toward the floor of the quarry.

Bug fighters are the smallest of the Yeerk ships. They aren't much bigger than a school bus.

They have a cowled, insectlike look, except that on either side there are very long, serrated spears pointing forward. So they look a little like a cockroach holding two spears.

The Bug fighter landed as gently as a feather.

I held my breath.

"Wait for it," Jake said. "Wait for it."

The hatch opened. Out stepped a Hork-Bajir Controller.

The Andalite prince, Ax's brother, had told us that the Hork-Bajir were a good, decent people who had been enslaved against their will by the Yeerks.

Uh-huh. Maybe so. But what they looked like was a whole different thing. Hork-Bajir are big, walking razor blades. They're about seven feet tall, two arms, two legs, and a nasty spiked tail similar to Andalite tails.

There are sword-like blades raked forward from their snake heads. There are blades at their elbows and wrists and knees.

I mean, let me put it this way: If Klingons were real, they would be scared of Hork-Bajir.

"Get ready." Jake again.

The Hork-Bajir stepped clear of the Bug fighter. Then, he just stood there.

"There will be a Taxxon inside," Ax reminded us.

"Yeah. We know," I said.

Why was the Hork-Bajir just standing there? He should be looking around. After all, he was answering a distress beacon. Why was he just standing there like he was waiting for something?

"On the count of three," Jake said in our heads. "One . . . Two . . . Three!"

"Tsseeeeerrrr!"

Tobias swooped, falling from the sky at close to a hundred miles an hour. He raked his talons forward and hit the Hork-Bajir's face.

"RROOWWWRR!" Jake leaped from cover. He sailed through the air and hit the Hork-Bajir with paws outstretched, claws bared.

61 The Hork-Bajir went down hard.

Jake rolled away as the Hork-Bajir slashed the air like an out-of-control Cuisinart.

But just then Rachel rumbled up, as big as a tank.

"Okay, back off, Jake," Rachel said. "I have him." She pressed one big, tree-stump leg on the Hork-Bajir's chest and pressed him down against the ground. She did not crush him, just held him like a bug who could easily be squashed.

The Hork-Bajir decided it was time to stop struggling and lie very still.

Too easy, a part of my mind warned me. Too easy. No Hork-Bajir Controller had ever just given up like that.

But I had other problems. My job was to get inside the Bug fighter. Get the Taxxon pilot.

" Let's go!" I yelled.

I ran forward, loping clumsily on my squat go rilla legs, swinging my massive, mighty gorilla arms. Cassie and Ax were right there with me. Taxxons are disgusting, oversized centipedes, but I wasn't worried. We were more than enough to handle a Taxxon.

But then - Zzzzzzzzaaapppp!

A brilliant red beam of light sliced the air just inches in front of me. It blocked my way.

Zzzzzzzzaaaapppp!

Another beam of blinding red light. This crossed behind me. It exploded gravel into steam as it traced a path!

"Dracon beams!" Ax cried.

I spun around, looking for cover.

Zzzzzzaaaaappppp!

"Look!" Cassie screamed in our heads. "Up on the edge of the quarry!" I looked, as the dracon beams formed a cage of deadly light around us. The edge of the quarry above was lined with Hork-Bajir. I looked left. More! To the right. . . more!

The entire quarry was lined with Hork-Bajir warriors, each armed with a Dracon beam. There must have been a hundred of them. We were surrounded.

Completely surrounded.