Later that day they receive a message from King Randale in Haven. The battle is over in Sunhame and they won and none of their mages sustained more than minor injuries. Mardic and Donni want to go to Earth and Sandra is considering it but it depends if they have a non-combat-heavy role for her, she hates fighting. Randi wishes he could give them Vanyel, now that Karse is kind of under control, because Vanyel is objectively one of the most useful people in Velgarth, and he's very motivated about their war, but he also, well, needs a bit more of a break than he's had so far and Randi wouldn't want the Andalites to delay for that, if the Gates are sorted out. Maybe if they're able to maintain some presence in or communications with Velgarth, they can check back in about that later. 

They are planning to maintain some presence in Velgarth, at least at first; they're going to open operations on Earth in a few days and then they'll have a much better sense of the broader strategic picture including whether there are non-combat roles and how long the war is likely to last and so on. 

Matirin does want to make sure it's understood that if anyone is captured he will do his best to kill them, he would not want that causing awkwardness with Valdemar later.

Of course, Mardic said he was expecting that, and he and Donni are game anyway. (Privately, Randi is wondering how much that's why.) Sandra wants more time to think about it and more information, so she'll stay back for now. 

He thanks them again for their help and wishes them godspeed. 

Leareth would like to teach the interplanar Gate technique to two of his mages, for redundancy, but have both of them stay behind in Velgarth. He's going to take Nayoki with him, definitely - partly because if things go disastrously early on and Yeerks show up, and for some reason he can't or it doesn't make sense to just Final Strike, she can set-command him to make his mind and body useless to a Yeerk, and once they've Gated in she can do the block she's testing to make the interworld-Gate knowledge inaccessible. Including to himself, is the inconvenient part, but it seems very bad for it to fall into Yeerk hands, they'll know better after a day of reconnaissance whether they can find a base safe enough to dispense with it so he can raise a Gate back to Velgarth. 

Andalites spend the rest of the day fiddling with minor remaining ship repairs and practicing speaking English, Spanish and Mandarin. Their translation chip provides phonetic word-by-word recommendations but it's always better to have a grasp of the language. 

They do more tests. Magical shields mostly don't show up to sensors, except the ones that project physical force or alter light that passes through them.

Both of those are redundant, anyway. Leareth prepares various shields that provably don't show up, at least to Andalite sensors. 

He has around two hundred and fifty total volunteers, all of whom have at least one of either mage-gift or Healing, though many have multiple Gifts so most of the others are represented. 

He'll bring a dozen people for the initial shuttle pass. All of them, including Leareth and Nayoki herself, have conditional set-commands to shut down their Gifts if taken by a Yeerk, which they're aware of, and have orders to Final Strike or stop their own hearts if captured or if capture looks inevitable. 

(And additionally, unbeknownst to them, have a standard magical compulsion, which Nayoki is skilled enough to have slipped in at the same time as the Mindhealing change without making it obvious, that will if it works compel them to kill themselves if a Yeerk is in the process of taking control. Leareth isn't sure if it'll still work once the Yeerk is partially in control or once their Gifts are otherwise shut down, but they've all committed to doing it anyway - Nayoki could confirm that sincerity - and the hope is that it'll add just a little more wiggle room, more time during the process of being captured when it's not too late. And, of course, if they don't know and it turns out not to work in a given case, for example if someone is taken unconscious, then that information can't be extracted from them later; a Mindhealing set-command might still be apparent from the brain itself, but conditional compulsions just don't do anything if the conditions fail to be met.) 

He picks out ten of his people. They'll be in beetle morphs. He is one of them.

Leareth has written plans, now - well, mostly general policies for his people to follow, two different sets, the one for an appealing win if they can pull it off and the...less appealing one. Blood-magic and compulsions against random civilians are only on the second list.

He checks his shield-talismans and his people's shields and makes sure everyone is well rested. Visits the injured people one more time. The man who lost a lot of blood has had new blood grown for him and is feeling a lot more chipper; the mage with the head injury is awake and talking, though with some forgetfulness and weakness in her right side, but the Healers think that could pass with time and practice.

Mardic and Donni arrive from Haven. Donni looks thrilled, especially about all the fancy shield artifacts Leareth hands her.

Mardic's expression is one of flat, quiet determination. 

:We are ready to go: Leareth tells Matirin, in the morning a couple of days after the victory in Sunhame. :I will be somewhat but not cripplingly tired when we arrive, and how well I can fight will depend on whether Earth has natural reservoirs of magic as Velgarth does, or not. Are your people ready?: 

<Yes.> And they can load the shuttle. It will have space for twelve humans but only if all the Andalites are morphed, and Companions present the same problem with less morph-related flexibility about it.

That's a good point, but Donni's Companion consents to have three people sitting on her to make more efficient use of space, and they only need to bump a couple of Leareth's people to make space. They cram in. It's cozy but tolerable for a few minutes. 

Leareth ends up smushed near the window, where he can see what he's doing with the Gate. He takes a deep breath, and gets started. Doing an unscaffolded Gate on the outside of the shuttle when he's inside it is a challenging experience, but Leareth is very good with Gates and he gets it.

Sharing his mind with Cayaldwin again just to get a heads-up if he seems to be off-course from their last test, he aims the search for Earth. Underwater. Here on the map, this far down... 

Eventually he finds it. Or it feels like he did.

He builds the other side, and brings it up. Stares at the frustrating milky firm, feels for a moment the route where space between between here and there– 

Tells Matirin that he's as sure as he's going to be, and if that's sure enough then Matirin can direct the ship through. 

He directs the ship through. The sensors confirm at least that they are underwater. Nothing is visible out the windows.

Aaaaaand Gate is coming down before it takes any more out of him. Leareth closes his eyes for a moment and leans on Nayoki, who's standing nearest to him, and then extends his mage-senses with curiosity, not that one would feel that much in a Velgarth ocean. 

The shuttle ascends. Announces it when it's approaching the surface of the water. Surfaces.

It looks a lot like a Velgarth ocean, in all directions. The shuttle lifts into the air but stays near the water, because that'll help if the Yeerks do have any way to detect it, and races off towards what it claims is land in the distance, though it can't be seen by the naked eye.

Donni stares out at it in awe. "I've never seen the ocean before." 

Leareth isn't visibly tense, but he's very focused, not in the inward-pointed way he has when he's doing math, but his attention spread out into the world around him, tracking everything. 

The shuttle reaches land. It - doesn't look like there are any people there? It's a rocky beach, kind of scenic. Deserted as far as the eye or Thoughtsensing can see. 

<I propose we mostly get out of the shuttle here and then with one person remaining in it it can do reconnaissance.> That way less will be lost if the shuttle is noticed and shot down, though it'd still be very bad news for the Yeerks to realize they're here.

"I also have two Farseers here and I can scry from an artifact, we can pick three different directions and get a look at the region within a hundred miles or so?" 

<That sounds good.> He has all but two of the beetles disembark and demorph. One person demorphs in the shuttle and another remains a beetle inside the control panel. This last one's presence is a secret.  

The air is very cold, though not worse than north of the Ice Wall Mountains in Velgarth.