He has someone communicate her recovery to the Yeerks. He paces. He can't wait until they can just buy some Montana instead of being stuck on this ship with far too many people on it.

A while later Leareth finishes the meeting he's having and joins Matirin in pacing. He doesn't say anything at first. 

<I am worried about the former hosts. They seem quite damaged. Obviously important people would have been more thoroughly constrained but also I imagine more effort would have gone into picking unusually competent and careful Yeerks. Among random people there will be more whose Yeerks were casually horrible.>

Slight wince. :I am also worried. It would be nice if we could have a Mindhealer help all of them but there are not very many Mindhealers. Apparently humans have un-Gifted mind-doctors for this but I am not sure what their skills would include, it is not like they would have experience with this specific circumstance: 

Tail-lash. <Maybe they help human prisoners of war. Humans do have a lot of wars.>

Nod. :They certainly do. I can arrange to find out that information, and suggest that we set it up for the freed hosts to see their mind-doctors - maybe Melody can see people who are especially important leaders, or especially damaged, or both: 

<That's a good idea.>

Silent pacing. 

:...I keep feeling as though at some point this should get easier: Leareth sends, heavily. :And then it never seems to: 

He's still so tired. It's a kind of tired he can better work through, now, but he isn't sleeping well and it's so relentless. 

<Are wars on Velgarth not like this? This is - I think this is how I expect everything to be. Everyone is dead and there is endless work ahead and most of it is too late. But occasionally there is Starbucks.>

:I felt like this after the Cataclysm. It felt like - like the universe had fallen deeply into debt and was only falling further every year, when so many people were gone and there were children starving ever single year no matter what I did. Most wars in Velgarth since then have been far smaller-scale, and it is a long time since I have felt this helpless: 

Sigh. :I suspect part of it is Mhalir. It would feel less personal if Visser Three were someone else, whose motives I could understand as straightforwardly evil. This way is so...: Leareth trails off. He doesn't know what the word there would even be. 

Nod. <It feels more personal. I have tried to imagine finding a - me - on the other side of this war. It would bother me immensely.>

:I keep thinking it should feel more satisfying than this. The vast majority of Earth's population have never had Yeerks in their heads, and none of them will ever be involuntarily enslaved, if they want Yeerks it will because it improves their lives, and - they will have the Yeerks' technology, fewer people will starve and die of disease, Earth is going to end up better than it was before the Yeerks came and...surely that should feel like winning something. I think perhaps I am just very tired, though: 

<Maybe you should spend some time with scientists at Earth universities getting caught up on technology.>

:I delegated that to some of my people. It feels hard to justify going myself, and - also like it would just be yet another task on a list that is too long–: Leareth pauses in his stride, frowning. :Which is an uncharacteristic way for me to feel. Possibly it indicates I should throw more effort at getting enough sleep, or something: 

<Possibly. I would expect it to be valuable for you to go yourself because you are the one who has been trying things in your world for two thousand years. We can manage the transition here, if you're worried about that.>

Nod. :I will consider it: He walks in silence for a bit. :My personnel seem to be fairly optimistic about the situation on Earth, at least. How is morale among your people, do you think?: 

<I think there is not a lot of confidence the Yeerks won't betray us somehow, but - the possibility of the war really being over is very motivating.>

:That makes sense. I - do feel confident Mhalir personally will not betray us, but I worry a great deal about what else could still go wrong. At least I have gotten him some protective talismans, to reduce the likelihood of a coup, and I think the chance of that was already dropping now that the announcement has been irreversibly made to the humans here. Earth is not the only planet where we need to win, though: 

<I have been thinking about whether we could use Mhalir to make cleaner progress elsewhere. He could demand meetings and updates with key personnel on the other worlds, and then we'd be able to do much more targeted  - mind control, assassinations, whatever it takes -.>

:Huh. Would he be going in without telling them that the war on Earth is lost?: 

<That's what I would do, if I were trying to betray all the Andalites.>

:That makes sense. Would it complicate you making your report on this to your people, if we still needed Mhalir?: 

<Somewhat. If we're trying to convince them to spare him it's one of the less costly angles on that, though.>

Leareth nods. :I do expect he is the Yeerk on Earth most likely to succeed in those missions. ...And, I think, the one I trust most not to betray us once he is back among his own people: 

<I feel much less sure of that but - we could make arrangements such that it would be very difficult for his betrayal to cost us much more than what we're facing anyway on those worlds if they can't be persuaded to surrender or decapitated with magic. And if you are right then - he should have a chance to make this bloody mess less of one.>