The Story That Took So Long to Tell...And Has Evolved in the Telling Begin Transmission 32551.02 Accessing Data Files… Prompt: T-gl: ******-****** Prompt Accepted… Loading… _________________________________ Prologue My name is Myitt-195. I am now known as just Myitt. And I am a Yeerk, if you didn't realize that from my name and designation. I was born on my homeworld, in the pool we call Taon Yerralash, during the time of Peace between Andalite and Yeerk, the time before the Rebel Revolution. An ironic title for the event. I and the majority of my friends and siblings were taken from the only world we ever had known by a stolen Andalite ship of my people, who fought to get past the Andalite patrols orbiting our planet. What follows is the story of my life, the story of my brothers, and of my sister, and of how I came to Earth. What also follows is the account, in full, of how I came to be a traitor and looked upon by the Council of Thirteen as a criminal warranting instant death by the Yeerk general, Visser One. In other words, if Visser One finds me, I am to be put on trial with the certain verdict of death. The reasons? Well, I shouldn't get ahead of myself. I'll start at the beginning, as most histories should. Yeerk Date: Generation 685, mid-cycle Earth Date: 1966 It was night. I could sense it. Whenever night fell, the acid rains started. I didn't mind the rain; you need to get used to it when it rains every night. I was blind, in my natural state, of course. I hadn't had a host yet, and I was anxious to someday receive one, what with the information we were hearing about wars and Andalites and Hork-Bajir and strange, new, wonderful worlds. I was young then, a young Yeerk barely out of grubhood into maturity, still expecting at any time to by whisked off to some far-off battle. It was wishful thinking, I knew, for a Yeerk as young as I who hadn't yet gone through training. And I knew that far off above the sky I had never seen there lay in wait the Andalite fleets, fully alerted to the revolt on the far side of the planet. As I swam, blind and helpless but content amidst the warmth of the blessed Kandrona, I pondered when I would ever leave, if I would ever leave, if the fleet of my people would stop and rescue us. I sought my brother Reven. He was always in tune with rumors of Andalite-Yeerk relations, and besides, he had common sense, and he was always quick to make a jest or laugh. I eventually found him through sonic radar, loitering around with the current and conversing with, of all people, my sister Larin. She was quite the opposite of Reven, bold and confident, and she rarely cared for anything besides the war and the Empire. We spoke in Yeerkish, naturally, but the text will be in English for human convenience. <Reven!> I said. <Hey, glad I found you. Any news on the fleet? I'm dying to get out of here…have an adventure, go along with the military and all, y’know? Oh, hi Larin.> <Hello Myitt,> replied Reven. <No, nothing new as far as the fleet goes. There have been rumors, as you know, that they're heading this way...but at any rate if those rumors really are true, how will they get past the Andalites without getting blasted? They’re quick to react to their betrayal, from what I’ve heard of their mobilization.> <Those damn Andalites, always so smug and confident, who do they think they are bossing us around and keeping us here blind and helpless when we should by right be cruising around the galaxy? Hello Myitt.> Larin, of course. What can I say? She always had been that way, and she still is today. <The Andalites can be frustrating, but after all, it was our people who betrayed their trust,> said Reven. <What kind of filthy rebel-talk is that?> snapped Larin. <Hey, hey, calm down you two. Anyway we can't be sure of anything until when and if the fleet heads our way.> I said. <Oh shut up!> raged Larin. <You two really think they'll come, eh? Well, let me tell you. If they do come back, what makes you think they'll choose to rescue Taon Yerralash, of all pools?> <There's a good chance they will. Rumors are that the priorities are here, Hett Simplatt, and Feran Turall away east, from what I hear,> countered Reven. <Rumors, always your stupid rumors, Reven! The Andalites are powerful. Very powerful. After all, they're a Class-Four species! Formidable, far too dangerous to infest, although we all would love to have their bodies,> Larin said. <Wouldn't we all?> I said. <But until now we'll just have to wait.> Our little conversation was interrupted, of all things, by the sounds of Dracon and Shredder fire, and the vibration of running feet and voices. <What the..?!> I cried. I "saw" Reven turn towards the vibrations and noise on sonar. <Hahah!> he exulted. <I knew it, I knew it!! Of all the times for them to come, they choose the moment when we talk of their arrival!> For it was, as it turned out, the fleet of our fellows, who had evaded Andalite trackers until they were well across to our side of the planet. And to our complete bewilderment, they chose in their haste to land at the nearest pool. Ours. * * * So it was that the two ships landed and transferred the inhabitants of our pool into an artificial pool on the main ship. Being at that time still young and inexperienced, we were to undergo training as soon as possible, and if enough Gedds were to be spared then a choice few would be given hosts. When the day finally came for myself to take training, I was more than excited. I was ecstatic. I was nervous, as well. There were stories of people who had freaked out, who had gone temporarily insane from the sensory input, the strange feeling of another person in your head, the vastness of being in a huge body after spending your life small and blind. Nervous as I was, I remained determined to go through training. The group of us who had been chosen to undergo training for that particular day were arranged in a line in the pool. I was fifth in line. It just so happened that my other brother, Rykker, was behind me in line. I turned to talk with him. He was nervous, as much as I was. <So…hi Rykker,> I said, trying to act casual. <You nervous?> <Y-yeah a l-little bit…> he managed to say. <Myitt, do you believe all those stories? I mean what if they’re true…what if I end up going insane or…or something…what if...> <Whoa, calm down Rykker. It’ll be okay. Enough “what ifs” for now, alright?> <Yeah, yeah, sure, yeah,> stuttered Rykker nervously. I sighed. He really needed to calm down. He’s always been a paranoid kind of person, but he’ll get a job done, and he’d die for what he believes in. A brave guy, when you get down to it, despite his persistent paranoia. We waited for about another hour and fifteen minutes. A time that seemed like an eternity that stretched on forever. Finally it was my turn to infest the Gedd host. I swam forward as I sensed the head submerge on sonar. I located the opening to the ear, and swam up to it, hesitating. I let my instincts take over, and felt around with my palps, entering the ear canal slowly and carefully, thinking that perhaps somehow I’d make some mistake, I’d do something wrong, kill the host, kill myself in a split second. Okay, come on Myitt. Don’t be a hypocrite, you told your brother not to worry, there’s nothing to worry about. I thought. It was a tight fit. I squeezed myself down and plowed through the ear canal, excreting a painkiller to numb the canal. I pushed aside tissue and punctured membrane, unable to use sonar or do anything but feel my way blindly through the inner ear. Minutes passed that seemed like years. I kept moving forward, when suddenly I found what my instincts told me to seek: the brain, alive with zapping neurons and cells! It was like being shocked; and yet, something told me this was what I has been striving to reach. I pushed myself down, flattening out and around the entire expanse of the brain, wrapping around it, barely knowing what I was doing as instincts guided me. I sank into every crevice, every fold of brain matter, and as I sank into the tissue I began to feel my very neurons and flesh connect with the snapping, wild nerve cells of the brain. I began to explore, opening the part of the brain that controlled sound, and the noise of buzzing computer equipment and data from the consoles behind me was amazing, beautiful, beyond description. I took several deep breaths, not knowing what I was doing, I’d never breathed with lungs before. I moved my head slightly clenched my fists. Yes, this was good, this was very seriously a good thing. The power! I was huge, vast, unimaginably strong compared to what I had been. Then came the moment when I touched the part of the brain that controlled sight. I opened my eyes. At first it was confusing, blurred, I didn’t know what was happening. Sonar, this was sonar, right? I blinked and held control of the sight centers, and the picture became clear. I stood gaping at a captain in a Gedd host, and beyond him at two Hork-Bajir typing furiously at what I later found to be a computer console. I blinked again. Amazing! It was dazzling, insane, I stood reeling inside my own head at this new discovery. I was seeing! Real shapes, colors, pictures, three-dimensional reality! Not sonar, not feel, no, this was so much better, this was beyond all words. I took in every color, every shape, every shadow and every light, it was something to be savored and not forgotten. Absolutely amazing! And it was also so unfair, unfair that my people should remain blind while other species lived in glorious worlds of sight. As I stood, dumbfounded at this wonderful experience, I also heard a voice crying, moaning in the back of my mind. What? What was it…and then I realized. The host! It was jabbering in the strange Gedd language. I couldn’t yet understand what it was saying, I hadn’t had time to search the areas of language, but the silent, trapped voice of the host held one thing: despair. And then, it was time for me to leave the host. My 15 minutes was up. That was all we were allowed to have. I leaned back over the pool and reluctantly released the host, and returned to the pool. The moment of sight was glorious, stupendous, and it will be something I shall never forget as long as I live. But also the despair of the crushed, feeble Gedd host will stay with me, and that defeated Gedd helped spur my decisions later in my life. * * * It was only a few weeks after I had undergone training for the first time when I received my first host. I and most of my pool-mates were assigned Gedds. I had obtained a female, and thus became a female entity. I was becoming relatively used to being in a host, and had gotten the hang of infestation. My life as a Gedd wasn’t very exciting, I wasn’t in any battles and I was mainly a communications technician on several different ships. Over time, our technology had increased tremendously. We had already began to build the first ever true Yeerk ships, and weapons called Dracon beams which resembled the Andalite shredders I had seen shipboard. We were all issued them, much to my satisfaction. You tend to feel safer with a weapon, especially in a Gedd body. As I said, nothing particularly interesting about this time in my life…something I would miss later on. At least then I was safe. A militant Loyal, at that. Funny how things turn out… I spent a total of seven Earth years in that host. Though they were relatively uninteresting for myself, it was the direct opposite for the Empire. Sprung from the recluse of the homeworld, the Yeerk Empire had grown from its infancy and in less than a decade from when it was formed it grew to unimaginable numbers and strengths. Before long we had taken an interest in the Hork-Bajir planet, and I was issued a host from this new frontier. My Gedd host had grown old, and had the misfortune of losing nearly all of her sight. This made life rather difficult, almost as bad as being hostless again, and so I moved on to the Hork-Bajir host. At the time it seemed like the right decision, but looking back I feel bad that I could’ve done something to help my former host. I didn’t know any better. Youth, you know. Yeerk Date: Generation 689, early-cycle Earth Date: 1973 Finally I had received a Hork-Bajir host. The senses were different, more acute. And I was even larger! Taller, stronger than anything I had ever imagined. It was amazing. Unfortunately, it was also in this host that I experienced some very, very frightening times. Battle became a regular part of my life, and I wasn’t the only one to learn quickly the policy of ‘live and let die.’ Those were harsh times. * * * Yeerk Date: Generation 700, late-cycle Earth Date: 1996 Rumors were building in the western part of our growing Empire, rumors of a new planet, one that harbored a Class-Five species. This was, of course, Earth. I didn’t arrive on the planet until five Earth years after the former Visser One landed and established a proper invasion, in the Earth year 1996. I remained in my Hork-Bajir body for a year, until my host was mortally wounded in the battle of the Great Fleet against the Andalite Dome Ships that had entered Earth’s orbit. The Andalites were caught off-guard, and the then-Visser Three destroyed their main Dome ship in his own Blade Ship. It was an unnerving sight, seeing the Andalite ship burn, and its Dome crash to Earth. A shivering sense of foreshadowing. At any rate, my Blade ship had been damaged severely by Andalite fire, and I was brought into port with injured ship and body. Long story short, I managed to escape (barely) as my Hork-Bajir host died, and I recovered slowly aboard the Pool Ship’s shipboard facilities. My ship was also repaired, and believe me, it’s still in good working condition. It took a year of recovery before I was to be given a human host, a decision I believe the Council highly regrets. * grin * I was transferred to a Bug fighter and brought to Earth, to one of the growing but secret Yeerk establishments on the planet. This one was on the Northeast coast of the country known as America, and the main city I was brought to still has a very great underground pool. The state was Massachusetts, and the city was Boston. A human host was waiting for me there, an involuntary one, but at least it was a host. She was a female, young according to human standards, being three and ten years of age, but human children often proved useful. They aren’t suspected. After all, this wasn’t the Hork-Bajir homeworld. This was a stealthy invasion. My new host lived in the suburban area of Boston, and I adjusted to life on Earth fairly quickly. She resisted at first, violently. However, while I kept my control over her, I was shocked by the degree of intelligence humans had. They weren’t docile or clumsy like Gedds and Hork-Bajir were. They were more like Yeerks than anything, so it was easy to relate to my new host and her feelings. My thoughts delved back to my earlier days as a young soldier, and my feelings of regret for taking a Gedd host. The more she and I talked, the more I was convinced that I couldn’t hold myself superior to humans. We became friends, as much as a Yeerk and its host can be friends, and she eventually chose to become a voluntary host under my guise of being in total control of her. For, in fact, I did give her control when she wanted or needed it, as a part of our friendship and my simple regret for doing the things I had done in the past. She had been a member of the local group The Sharing, having joined from some friends of hers being members, and was considered a full member when I first entered her and took control. The time now was late 1997, and I was beginning to change my whole outlook on imperialism and the Empire itself. I spoke to my brother Reven, who had by chance or fate received a then-17-year-old male human host from a nearby town. He was my younger brother, and yet had an older host. Typical. I also contacted my brothers Rykker and Corliss, who lived in the western United States and in the recently-invaded United Kingdom, respectively. All three of them had the same general feelings about their human hosts as I did with mine. Something was very different about these humans, that we all agreed on. They couldn’t be dismissed as sub-Yeerk, not when you got to know them. Now, my three brothers had been talking with others of our kind who held those same values. They met regularly, discussing both ethical and political issues, and questioning the power of the Empire in secret. This was the beginning of the Yeerk Rebellion, in honor and irony of the Rebellion of old when the first of our people broke free from our Andalite mentors. This new Rebel group seemed very radical to me, but I helped my brothers and friends in their campaign. However, tactics of explanation and careful evidence soon turned to ones of guerilla warfare against the Empire. When the first of several violent attacks against the Yeerk fleet in orbit came about in the summer of 1998, the Empire was caught off-guard and shaken at its foundations. We didn’t notice that my sister Larin was watching us. Watching, but never helping. My brother Reven was captured with Larin’s aid to the Empire during a failed sabotage of the Pool Ship. He was tried as a traitor to the Yeerk Empire in front of the Council of Thirteen later that year, and sentenced to death by torture and starvation. His final memory deposit of the sentence carried out was given to us to read and listen to, as a threat and a warning. Rumor is that my sister watched him die, and for her actions I scarcely call her kin anymore. It was a bitter blow to our growing Rebel force, and to my remaining brothers and I. Our first capture, and our first death. Some of our ranks began to have second thoughts about what we were doing, realizing the life-threatening danger of it all. * * * Things had begun to heat up. During the next three years, I would fight for our rapidly growing force, as my brothers became high commanders and the founding members won prestige for the setbacks we caused to the Empire. Another force is working against the Empire, for it cannot be us alone that are causing its crumbling. The so-called Andalite bandits are working against the Council’s orders in ways even we could not have hoped for. There are a few of us who remain in contact with them, and so we know their secret. The downfall of the Empire from within is inevitable, but will we live to see it? I can only hope that we will. The fight continues. Epilogue I, too, was captured, nearly a year and a half after the death of Reven. That was late 1999. I was tried before the Council of Thirteen, as my brother was before me. My former commander, now Visser Twenty-Nine, and the high ranking Visser Three were there to bear witness against me, as I tried to bring any evidence to light to spare my life. In the end, I admitted my crimes and acknowledged my charges. The evidence I gave was truthful, but anything further would risk myself being found in contempt of the Council, making a mockery of them in an attempt to lie. I didn’t want to anger them any further. I was sentenced to death by torture and Kandrona starvation. You may ask why I am alive to write this, then? I was allowed to survive, quite frankly. The details of my sentence I wish not to explain, but I was allowed to leave on pardon of sentence during its administration. I suspect one of two things: that my sister Larin set me free in reconciliation for our brother’s death; or a far worse-sounding explanation, that I was implanted with a device that would monitor my every move until the Empire has enough information to corral the Rebellion and put a final end to us all. I hope the latter is not true, but at any rate due to this suggestion by a colleague I must try to reveal as little information as I can. The time as I write this is now 2001, Yeerk Date Generation 703, early-cycle. These days we of the Yeerk Rebellion are forced to work long hours on meager supplies of Kandrona, thus a good number of us have starved or succumbed to the oatmeal drug. Many of us are on constant borderline-starvation, and as time runs short we must attempt to delay the Empire in its cancerous expansion throughout the galaxy. Still, our thoughts are with this small, blue-and-green planet in the middle of nowhere, space. Perhaps Earth can be saved…
Begin Transmission 32551.02 Accessing Data Files… Prompt: T-gl: ******-****** Prompt Accepted… Loading…
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Prologue
My name is Myitt-195. I am now known as just Myitt. And I am a Yeerk, if you didn't realize that from my name and designation. I was born on my homeworld, in the pool we call Taon Yerralash, during the time of Peace between Andalite and Yeerk, the time before the Rebel Revolution. An ironic title for the event. I and the majority of my friends and siblings were taken from the only world we ever had known by a stolen Andalite ship of my people, who fought to get past the Andalite patrols orbiting our planet. What follows is the story of my life, the story of my brothers, and of my sister, and of how I came to Earth.
What also follows is the account, in full, of how I came to be a traitor and looked upon by the Council of Thirteen as a criminal warranting instant death by the Yeerk general, Visser One. In other words, if Visser One finds me, I am to be put on trial with the certain verdict of death. The reasons? Well, I shouldn't get ahead of myself. I'll start at the beginning, as most histories should.
Yeerk Date: Generation 685, mid-cycle Earth Date: 1966
It was night. I could sense it. Whenever night fell, the acid rains started. I didn't mind the rain; you need to get used to it when it rains every night. I was blind, in my natural state, of course. I hadn't had a host yet, and I was anxious to someday receive one, what with the information we were hearing about wars and Andalites and Hork-Bajir and strange, new, wonderful worlds. I was young then, a young Yeerk barely out of grubhood into maturity, still expecting at any time to by whisked off to some far-off battle. It was wishful thinking, I knew, for a Yeerk as young as I who hadn't yet gone through training. And I knew that far off above the sky I had never seen there lay in wait the Andalite fleets, fully alerted to the revolt on the far side of the planet. As I swam, blind and helpless but content amidst the warmth of the blessed Kandrona, I pondered when I would ever leave, if I would ever leave, if the fleet of my people would stop and rescue us. I sought my brother Reven. He was always in tune with rumors of Andalite-Yeerk relations, and besides, he had common sense, and he was always quick to make a jest or laugh. I eventually found him through sonic radar, loitering around with the current and conversing with, of all people, my sister Larin. She was quite the opposite of Reven, bold and confident, and she rarely cared for anything besides the war and the Empire. We spoke in Yeerkish, naturally, but the text will be in English for human convenience. <Reven!> I said. <Hey, glad I found you. Any news on the fleet? I'm dying to get out of here…have an adventure, go along with the military and all, y’know? Oh, hi Larin.> <Hello Myitt,> replied Reven. <No, nothing new as far as the fleet goes. There have been rumors, as you know, that they're heading this way...but at any rate if those rumors really are true, how will they get past the Andalites without getting blasted? They’re quick to react to their betrayal, from what I’ve heard of their mobilization.> <Those damn Andalites, always so smug and confident, who do they think they are bossing us around and keeping us here blind and helpless when we should by right be cruising around the galaxy? Hello Myitt.> Larin, of course. What can I say? She always had been that way, and she still is today. <The Andalites can be frustrating, but after all, it was our people who betrayed their trust,> said Reven. <What kind of filthy rebel-talk is that?> snapped Larin. <Hey, hey, calm down you two. Anyway we can't be sure of anything until when and if the fleet heads our way.> I said. <Oh shut up!> raged Larin. <You two really think they'll come, eh? Well, let me tell you. If they do come back, what makes you think they'll choose to rescue Taon Yerralash, of all pools?> <There's a good chance they will. Rumors are that the priorities are here, Hett Simplatt, and Feran Turall away east, from what I hear,> countered Reven. <Rumors, always your stupid rumors, Reven! The Andalites are powerful. Very powerful. After all, they're a Class-Four species! Formidable, far too dangerous to infest, although we all would love to have their bodies,> Larin said. <Wouldn't we all?> I said. <But until now we'll just have to wait.>
Our little conversation was interrupted, of all things, by the sounds of Dracon and Shredder fire, and the vibration of running feet and voices. <What the..?!> I cried. I "saw" Reven turn towards the vibrations and noise on sonar. <Hahah!> he exulted. <I knew it, I knew it!! Of all the times for them to come, they choose the moment when we talk of their arrival!> For it was, as it turned out, the fleet of our fellows, who had evaded Andalite trackers until they were well across to our side of the planet. And to our complete bewilderment, they chose in their haste to land at the nearest pool. Ours.
* * *
So it was that the two ships landed and transferred the inhabitants of our pool into an artificial pool on the main ship. Being at that time still young and inexperienced, we were to undergo training as soon as possible, and if enough Gedds were to be spared then a choice few would be given hosts.
When the day finally came for myself to take training, I was more than excited. I was ecstatic. I was nervous, as well. There were stories of people who had freaked out, who had gone temporarily insane from the sensory input, the strange feeling of another person in your head, the vastness of being in a huge body after spending your life small and blind. Nervous as I was, I remained determined to go through training. The group of us who had been chosen to undergo training for that particular day were arranged in a line in the pool. I was fifth in line. It just so happened that my other brother, Rykker, was behind me in line. I turned to talk with him. He was nervous, as much as I was. <So…hi Rykker,> I said, trying to act casual. <You nervous?> <Y-yeah a l-little bit…> he managed to say. <Myitt, do you believe all those stories? I mean what if they’re true…what if I end up going insane or…or something…what if...> <Whoa, calm down Rykker. It’ll be okay. Enough “what ifs” for now, alright?> <Yeah, yeah, sure, yeah,> stuttered Rykker nervously. I sighed. He really needed to calm down. He’s always been a paranoid kind of person, but he’ll get a job done, and he’d die for what he believes in. A brave guy, when you get down to it, despite his persistent paranoia. We waited for about another hour and fifteen minutes. A time that seemed like an eternity that stretched on forever. Finally it was my turn to infest the Gedd host. I swam forward as I sensed the head submerge on sonar. I located the opening to the ear, and swam up to it, hesitating. I let my instincts take over, and felt around with my palps, entering the ear canal slowly and carefully, thinking that perhaps somehow I’d make some mistake, I’d do something wrong, kill the host, kill myself in a split second. Okay, come on Myitt. Don’t be a hypocrite, you told your brother not to worry, there’s nothing to worry about. I thought. It was a tight fit. I squeezed myself down and plowed through the ear canal, excreting a painkiller to numb the canal. I pushed aside tissue and punctured membrane, unable to use sonar or do anything but feel my way blindly through the inner ear. Minutes passed that seemed like years. I kept moving forward, when suddenly I found what my instincts told me to seek: the brain, alive with zapping neurons and cells! It was like being shocked; and yet, something told me this was what I has been striving to reach. I pushed myself down, flattening out and around the entire expanse of the brain, wrapping around it, barely knowing what I was doing as instincts guided me. I sank into every crevice, every fold of brain matter, and as I sank into the tissue I began to feel my very neurons and flesh connect with the snapping, wild nerve cells of the brain. I began to explore, opening the part of the brain that controlled sound, and the noise of buzzing computer equipment and data from the consoles behind me was amazing, beautiful, beyond description. I took several deep breaths, not knowing what I was doing, I’d never breathed with lungs before. I moved my head slightly clenched my fists. Yes, this was good, this was very seriously a good thing. The power! I was huge, vast, unimaginably strong compared to what I had been. Then came the moment when I touched the part of the brain that controlled sight. I opened my eyes. At first it was confusing, blurred, I didn’t know what was happening. Sonar, this was sonar, right? I blinked and held control of the sight centers, and the picture became clear. I stood gaping at a captain in a Gedd host, and beyond him at two Hork-Bajir typing furiously at what I later found to be a computer console. I blinked again. Amazing! It was dazzling, insane, I stood reeling inside my own head at this new discovery. I was seeing! Real shapes, colors, pictures, three-dimensional reality! Not sonar, not feel, no, this was so much better, this was beyond all words. I took in every color, every shape, every shadow and every light, it was something to be savored and not forgotten. Absolutely amazing! And it was also so unfair, unfair that my people should remain blind while other species lived in glorious worlds of sight. As I stood, dumbfounded at this wonderful experience, I also heard a voice crying, moaning in the back of my mind. What? What was it…and then I realized. The host! It was jabbering in the strange Gedd language. I couldn’t yet understand what it was saying, I hadn’t had time to search the areas of language, but the silent, trapped voice of the host held one thing: despair. And then, it was time for me to leave the host. My 15 minutes was up. That was all we were allowed to have. I leaned back over the pool and reluctantly released the host, and returned to the pool. The moment of sight was glorious, stupendous, and it will be something I shall never forget as long as I live. But also the despair of the crushed, feeble Gedd host will stay with me, and that defeated Gedd helped spur my decisions later in my life.
It was only a few weeks after I had undergone training for the first time when I received my first host. I and most of my pool-mates were assigned Gedds. I had obtained a female, and thus became a female entity. I was becoming relatively used to being in a host, and had gotten the hang of infestation. My life as a Gedd wasn’t very exciting, I wasn’t in any battles and I was mainly a communications technician on several different ships. Over time, our technology had increased tremendously. We had already began to build the first ever true Yeerk ships, and weapons called Dracon beams which resembled the Andalite shredders I had seen shipboard. We were all issued them, much to my satisfaction. You tend to feel safer with a weapon, especially in a Gedd body. As I said, nothing particularly interesting about this time in my life…something I would miss later on. At least then I was safe. A militant Loyal, at that. Funny how things turn out… I spent a total of seven Earth years in that host. Though they were relatively uninteresting for myself, it was the direct opposite for the Empire. Sprung from the recluse of the homeworld, the Yeerk Empire had grown from its infancy and in less than a decade from when it was formed it grew to unimaginable numbers and strengths. Before long we had taken an interest in the Hork-Bajir planet, and I was issued a host from this new frontier. My Gedd host had grown old, and had the misfortune of losing nearly all of her sight. This made life rather difficult, almost as bad as being hostless again, and so I moved on to the Hork-Bajir host. At the time it seemed like the right decision, but looking back I feel bad that I could’ve done something to help my former host. I didn’t know any better. Youth, you know.
Yeerk Date: Generation 689, early-cycle Earth Date: 1973
Finally I had received a Hork-Bajir host. The senses were different, more acute. And I was even larger! Taller, stronger than anything I had ever imagined. It was amazing. Unfortunately, it was also in this host that I experienced some very, very frightening times. Battle became a regular part of my life, and I wasn’t the only one to learn quickly the policy of ‘live and let die.’ Those were harsh times.
Yeerk Date: Generation 700, late-cycle Earth Date: 1996
Rumors were building in the western part of our growing Empire, rumors of a new planet, one that harbored a Class-Five species. This was, of course, Earth. I didn’t arrive on the planet until five Earth years after the former Visser One landed and established a proper invasion, in the Earth year 1996. I remained in my Hork-Bajir body for a year, until my host was mortally wounded in the battle of the Great Fleet against the Andalite Dome Ships that had entered Earth’s orbit. The Andalites were caught off-guard, and the then-Visser Three destroyed their main Dome ship in his own Blade Ship. It was an unnerving sight, seeing the Andalite ship burn, and its Dome crash to Earth. A shivering sense of foreshadowing. At any rate, my Blade ship had been damaged severely by Andalite fire, and I was brought into port with injured ship and body. Long story short, I managed to escape (barely) as my Hork-Bajir host died, and I recovered slowly aboard the Pool Ship’s shipboard facilities. My ship was also repaired, and believe me, it’s still in good working condition. It took a year of recovery before I was to be given a human host, a decision I believe the Council highly regrets. * grin * I was transferred to a Bug fighter and brought to Earth, to one of the growing but secret Yeerk establishments on the planet. This one was on the Northeast coast of the country known as America, and the main city I was brought to still has a very great underground pool. The state was Massachusetts, and the city was Boston. A human host was waiting for me there, an involuntary one, but at least it was a host. She was a female, young according to human standards, being three and ten years of age, but human children often proved useful. They aren’t suspected. After all, this wasn’t the Hork-Bajir homeworld. This was a stealthy invasion.
My new host lived in the suburban area of Boston, and I adjusted to life on Earth fairly quickly. She resisted at first, violently. However, while I kept my control over her, I was shocked by the degree of intelligence humans had. They weren’t docile or clumsy like Gedds and Hork-Bajir were. They were more like Yeerks than anything, so it was easy to relate to my new host and her feelings. My thoughts delved back to my earlier days as a young soldier, and my feelings of regret for taking a Gedd host. The more she and I talked, the more I was convinced that I couldn’t hold myself superior to humans. We became friends, as much as a Yeerk and its host can be friends, and she eventually chose to become a voluntary host under my guise of being in total control of her. For, in fact, I did give her control when she wanted or needed it, as a part of our friendship and my simple regret for doing the things I had done in the past. She had been a member of the local group The Sharing, having joined from some friends of hers being members, and was considered a full member when I first entered her and took control. The time now was late 1997, and I was beginning to change my whole outlook on imperialism and the Empire itself. I spoke to my brother Reven, who had by chance or fate received a then-17-year-old male human host from a nearby town. He was my younger brother, and yet had an older host. Typical. I also contacted my brothers Rykker and Corliss, who lived in the western United States and in the recently-invaded United Kingdom, respectively. All three of them had the same general feelings about their human hosts as I did with mine. Something was very different about these humans, that we all agreed on. They couldn’t be dismissed as sub-Yeerk, not when you got to know them. Now, my three brothers had been talking with others of our kind who held those same values. They met regularly, discussing both ethical and political issues, and questioning the power of the Empire in secret. This was the beginning of the Yeerk Rebellion, in honor and irony of the Rebellion of old when the first of our people broke free from our Andalite mentors. This new Rebel group seemed very radical to me, but I helped my brothers and friends in their campaign. However, tactics of explanation and careful evidence soon turned to ones of guerilla warfare against the Empire. When the first of several violent attacks against the Yeerk fleet in orbit came about in the summer of 1998, the Empire was caught off-guard and shaken at its foundations. We didn’t notice that my sister Larin was watching us. Watching, but never helping. My brother Reven was captured with Larin’s aid to the Empire during a failed sabotage of the Pool Ship. He was tried as a traitor to the Yeerk Empire in front of the Council of Thirteen later that year, and sentenced to death by torture and starvation. His final memory deposit of the sentence carried out was given to us to read and listen to, as a threat and a warning. Rumor is that my sister watched him die, and for her actions I scarcely call her kin anymore. It was a bitter blow to our growing Rebel force, and to my remaining brothers and I. Our first capture, and our first death. Some of our ranks began to have second thoughts about what we were doing, realizing the life-threatening danger of it all.
Things had begun to heat up. During the next three years, I would fight for our rapidly growing force, as my brothers became high commanders and the founding members won prestige for the setbacks we caused to the Empire. Another force is working against the Empire, for it cannot be us alone that are causing its crumbling. The so-called Andalite bandits are working against the Council’s orders in ways even we could not have hoped for. There are a few of us who remain in contact with them, and so we know their secret. The downfall of the Empire from within is inevitable, but will we live to see it? I can only hope that we will. The fight continues.
Epilogue
I, too, was captured, nearly a year and a half after the death of Reven. That was late 1999. I was tried before the Council of Thirteen, as my brother was before me. My former commander, now Visser Twenty-Nine, and the high ranking Visser Three were there to bear witness against me, as I tried to bring any evidence to light to spare my life. In the end, I admitted my crimes and acknowledged my charges. The evidence I gave was truthful, but anything further would risk myself being found in contempt of the Council, making a mockery of them in an attempt to lie. I didn’t want to anger them any further. I was sentenced to death by torture and Kandrona starvation. You may ask why I am alive to write this, then? I was allowed to survive, quite frankly. The details of my sentence I wish not to explain, but I was allowed to leave on pardon of sentence during its administration. I suspect one of two things: that my sister Larin set me free in reconciliation for our brother’s death; or a far worse-sounding explanation, that I was implanted with a device that would monitor my every move until the Empire has enough information to corral the Rebellion and put a final end to us all. I hope the latter is not true, but at any rate due to this suggestion by a colleague I must try to reveal as little information as I can. The time as I write this is now 2001, Yeerk Date Generation 703, early-cycle. These days we of the Yeerk Rebellion are forced to work long hours on meager supplies of Kandrona, thus a good number of us have starved or succumbed to the oatmeal drug. Many of us are on constant borderline-starvation, and as time runs short we must attempt to delay the Empire in its cancerous expansion throughout the galaxy. Still, our thoughts are with this small, blue-and-green planet in the middle of nowhere, space. Perhaps Earth can be saved…