Part 12 (1/2)

It was a race between falling Hork-Bajir and me.

Tseeewww!

ZzzzaaaaPPPP!

The Dracon beam stabbed at me, missed, and boiled a bright blue cabbage into steam.

Just a few more feet!

Suddenly, my hands were pressed on the cold metal. The code! What was the code?

My fingers flew.

Tssseeeputer. 8Warning. This system is armed.”; I collapsed, leaning back against the cylinder.

Galuit had said once they got confirmation that we had armed the system, they'd wait half an hour to give us time to escape.

Half an hour would be too long. The Yeerks would be able to disarm it by then.

A huge Hork-Bajir hit the ground right in front of me.

I punched the built-in communicator on the cylinder. 8This is Aristh Aximili,”; I said. 8Do it now. Do it now! Blow the Yeerks off this planet!”; ”Fils.h.i.+g Andalite!” the Yeerk inside the Hork-Bajir screamed.

I was calm. Shockingly calm.

8Detonation in ten seconds,”; the computer warned.

”Disarm that weapon!” the Hork-Bajir commander yelled, switching to Galard, the interstellar language.

8Seven ...”; 8I don't think so, Yeerk. This time you lose. This time, you die.”; 8Five ...”; The Hork-Bajir raised his Dracon beam in rage. ”You'll die first, Andalite sc.u.m!”

8Three ...”; He squeezed the trigger.

The Dracon beam fired. Point-blank range. Five feet from my face.

8One ...”; I literally saw the Dracon beam stop. The beam stopped in midair as time froze. I heard a ”pop!”

And suddenly, I was no longer there.

CHAPTER 28.

I felt the warm, human skin beneath my six legs. 8What?”; I yelped.

8What the ...?”; Rachel yelled.

8Whoa! Whoa, I am serious: Whoa!”; Marco cried. 8This is way too strange.”; I was back. On Earth. In mosquito morph.

We were all back. All back! And all at the same exact moment.

We were in the hospital room, surrounded by human-Controllers who were busy firing human guns out the window at the bushes below. Still trying to kill the Andalite.

Me.

But that was not the biggest problem I had. Because right then, as I sat on vibrating human flesh, surrounded by giant hairs, a huge, sky-filling object came hurtling down toward me.

8ationo way!”; Rachel yelled. 8Ax, move out!”; I fired my wings.

The object, five fingers each as big around as a large tree, came slapping down at me.

”Ow!” said Hewlett Aldershot the Third, as he slapped the spot where I'd been busily biting him.

”Ow!” he said again.

”The human! He's awake!” one of the human-Controllers said.

”He's not supposed to wake up yet!”

another moaned. ”He's in a coma!”

”What do we do?”