Lev makes a note to figure out which kinds of animals can read books.

"I do."

"Humans are animals, can we morph into humans?"

<You can.>

The Andalite turns their main eyes towards the sky, where their stalk eyes have been scanning. There are other ships descending.

<Quickly. You must hide. Any other questions will have to be asked from a distance.>

Yeah, hiding sounds good. Dennis is gonna run.

Asher runs significantly faster than anybody else.

Lev attempts to run for thirty seconds, doubles over wheezing, and then decides to walk very fast instead.

Karen spends entirely too many seconds deciding whether to ask something else, but eventually she does run. 

When she passes Lev, she grabs his hand and pulls him behind her until they can duck behind a pile of rubble.

(Dennis is actually just gonna keep running. He's not sure what the range on whatever weapons those ships have is, but things in Star Trek can fire from orbit, so he figures he's not far enough away yet.)

KAREN IS TOUCHING HIS HAND!!!!!!!!

KAREN IS TOUCHING HIS HAND!!!!!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Asher ducks behind a pile of rubble to observe what's going on.

Karen is mostly focused on watching the aliens. She's also not gonna let go of Lev's hand, entirely because she doesn't know whether Lev is otherwise going to do something incredibly dumb, like continuing to run and giving away their position.

Bright red spotlights light up the Andalite vessel as the other ships descend. There are two small ones, each a little larger than a school bus, and a larger one that vaguely resembles a battle axe.

You'd think someone else would notice all of these ships landing in the construction site, even though it's getting darker now, but no one comes.

<The Blade ship,> says the dying Andalite. <Commanded by Visser Three, the only Andalite Controller in existence.> 

Okay. Aliens. Focus on the aliens.

(KAREN IS HOLDING HIS HAND!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Andalites must have some kind of protection against getting Yeerked.

<We do not allow ourselves to be taken prisoner. But they cannot use me, I will die within the hour.>

The ships open to reveal more aliens. Some of them are tall brown almost-dinosaurs that are covered in long blades. Others are large black centipedes, twice as long as an adult human. All carry things that look like weapons.

<The tall ones are Hork-Bajir-Controllers. They are a good people, but they have all been enslaved now. Each of them now carries a Yeerk in his head. They are to be pitied. You must be silent; they do not see well in darkness, but their hearing is very good.>

<Those with many legs are Taxxon-Controllers. The Taxxons are evil.>

This is probably a massive oversimplification but she's not really focusing on that right now. She's mostly focusing on trying to breathe very quietly.

Lev is really very very skeptical of the guy who goes around saying that people on the opposing side of the war are evil, although he gives them one nuance point for not saying the Hork-Bajir are also evil.

More aliens exit the ships. The Hork-Bajir scan the darkness for movement. Some of them wander closer to the piles of rubble. One of them ends up ten or fifteen feet away from where Karen and Lev are hiding.

She's breathing so, so, so quietly.

At least he's going to get to die holding Karen's hand, which is an improvement on the previous situation where he was pretty sure he was going to die alone.

<Courage, my friends.>

A moment later the Hork-Bajir return to the ships and appear to stand at attention. Their commander appears. As promised, he's an Andalite. Accordingly, he has telepathy.

<Well, well,> says the other Andalite, in a tone of pure disgust.

He really, really hopes the commander isn't reading his mind right now.

He tries to think quietly. 

(Karen is so pretty.)

Karen is peeking around the rubble while trying to keep as much of herself hidden as possible. If their minds are being read then they're pretty much done for, so she has to hope that's not how this works.

<He cannot hear your thoughts,> says the wounded Andalite. <Not unless you direct them at him. Visser Three is directing his at everyone in the vicinity.>

The Visser keeps on talking. <What have we here? A meddling Andalite? Ah, but no ordinary Andalite warrior. Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, if I am not mistaken. An honor to meet you. You're a legend. How many of our fighters have you shredded? Seven, or was it eight by the time the battle ended?>

He goes on. Talking, taunting, assuring Elfangor that all of the other Andalites in this system are dead and that his dome ship has been thoroughly destroyed. He confirms that his plan to enslave all of humanity. He promises to follow this up by invading the Andalite homeworld and enslaving Elfangor's own family. He hopes they'll resist, so that he can hear their minds scream.

Elfangor strikes. His bladed tail catches the Visser in the shoulder. There's blood; he screams. And then there are lights, beam weapons coming from both sets of ships. 

And then the Visser morphs.

He becomes a horrible monster, a creature with jaws large enough to snap a human in half.

He eats Elfangor, dropping the Andalite prince into his mouth and crushing him. There is a haunting, final telepathic scream as the alien prince is ripped apart.

Karen bows her head and silently prays.

She doesn't super know where aliens go when they die, but it can't hurt, can it.