He thinks the Andalites should be looked at too. They're probably all going to need leave and if he makes it universal then it's not an indictment of anyone's particular coping (or a suggestion they were too unbothered by the Yeerk), but it still might be useful to know if anyone took it particularly badly and certainly to look for anything else the Yeerks could have done. 

:I am worried about Leareth: Nayoki admits to Matirin, in private Mindspeech. 

<I expect we will have a bit of a time getting him to take some leave. Are you worried about - more than that ->

:That, yes, and he is not wrong, his taking a break would be unusually costly to us. And - he might take this especially badly. Even if it is true that the Yeerk they put in him immediately was convinced to surrender and end the war. He - would find it very terrible, I think, to be without his Gifts and have so little control when the stakes were so high: 

Honestly it's people who don't find that horrifically traumatizing who he has trouble understanding. <I get the impression Melody is very good at this. Perhaps you can persuade him to see her. I would expect her to work with constraints such as mostly wanting to be in working order for treaty negotiations.>

Nod. :Thank you for telling me that, I have not had a chance to speak with her much at all. I mostly - feel better having registered this worry to someone else: 

<I can definitely try to look out for it.> Bouts of madness all around, apparently. 

Vanyel is also worried about Leareth but hasn't talked to anyone about this except Yfandes. 

He paces. Tries to practice the motion he'll need to do, reachreachreach through two hundred miles of thin air, just the right bearing, he should run right into them...

Matirin also paces. They come up on Earth. It looks innocent and unperturbed. They're going to have to explain what happened, to the local humans, pretty soon. He is actually looking forward to that part, talking to people is fun.

He directs someone to direct the steering computers in a trajectory that'll leave them hovering over the same specific spot on Earth.

Vanyel puts his hand on Yfandes' neck. :Whenever you're ready: 

<Now.>

He follows the bearing and pushes his Thoughtsensing out-out-out with Yfandes at his back, searching for minds far below through space. The ground looks very pretty from this distance, through the windows. Of course he can't see the people at all, much too far away. 

There are some minds, though. Mostly they want to be out of here as quickly as possible.

All right, focus in on each one, he's not trying to read thoughts just sense the bright-glow of the mind, are they separated, are there any overlapping in that very specific eerie way. 

There are not.

He takes a little extra time, to be thorough. 

:Clear: he tells Matirin. :Nine Andalites, seventeen humans: 

Matirin tilts his head slightly. <Should be eight Andalites.>

:I know, that was what Leareth said. I counted twice, though. There's nine: 

<If Visser 3 were in morph, that'd look different to your Thoughtsensing, right?>

:...Morph looks different but I wasn't specifically checking for that. Still anchored on them, I'll check now: Pause. :Definitely not a morph: 

Tail-lash.

<Visser 3 has an Andalite host. But I don't see why he'd - we didn't insist, that one knows a lot more strategic information...

...I think we should still send the mage down to Gate them out, and then we can ...figure things out from there.>

:That makes sense: 

The mage can do that. Someone else who can do blind-Gates on a bearing gets him to the surface, a half-mile away, and takes down his terminus very fast. If it's a trap they're only risking one more Adept. 

No trap is apparent.

Then shortly later nine Andalites and seventeen humans are going to be in Velgarth, in the forested area with an odd depression of dead plants recently vacated by a Dome ship.