Alloran is as usual with the Companions and is happy to head north with Leareth's mage.

Leareth greets him. He's still human, he figured it would be less awkward if Alloran recognized his appearance, but damn it, he's always more tense in Velgarth than on Earth and he badly misses the 360-degree vision and built-in weapon.

He hands over the tablet first. :Melody said you needed this. Do you mind if I morph Andalite?: 

<I do not mind that. Melody said you preferred it and you are right to do so.> 

That gets a smile from Leareth. He morphs; he's efficient at it, and has enough control of the order of changes to make it somewhat less gross. 

He paces. Andalite bodies are good for that, too, he's often noticed he can think better while in motion but if he paces all day as a human his feet hurt.

<I wanted to discuss our tentative plan for taking out the Yeerk high command> he says. <I - think you are not going to like it, but I do want your advice on how to minimize the risk.> 

<Oh?>

<We think the other Yeerks have no way of knowing what has happened on Earth. So - if Mhalir were to return and claim victory, they would not know to be suspicious. Which could give us a valuable window of time in close proximity to all of the Yeerk leadership, with them still unawares. However. The only way I can see to pull it off, involves myself going in, morphed as you. With Mhalir in my head. I doubt I can impersonate him successfully to the Yeerk Council for long, and I certainly cannot do it and lay compulsions on everyone within range at the same time.> 

<He will betray you immediately. Was this plan his idea?>

<No. It was mine. I - am not as confident as you are that he will betray me, and I can and will take precautions against it. Velgarth mind-control works on Yeerks too. He will not be able to override me or use my Gifts, and I will also be able to read his mind the whole time, he has no way of stopping that. If he does decide not to cooperate, it will be - inconvenient, but not much worse than if I had gone in alone in the first place, I would just have to compel him not to yell at me and then do my best to pretend to be him.> 

<How do you know that Velgarth mind-control works on Yeerks.>

<We have tested it extensively. First on an Andalite with Yeerk morph, then we arranged to kidnap a human Controller and use their Yeerk for some live tests. Said Yeerk would almost certainly have refused to cooperate with said tests if the mind-control had not worked. We have since used it for various tactical purposes and never had any difficulties. I believe the plan for any voluntary Controller program for humans on Earth would involve all of the Yeerks being under a compulsion to let their host override them whenever they wish.> 

<They could be pretending so they can betray you when it's important. Or Visser Three could have found a way around it other Yeerks do not know.>

<We can read their minds. I am - well, a very paranoid person, I have been reading all of the Yeerks' minds whenever I am in their presence. They could not have concealed it from me; almost no one has control of their own thoughts in that way.> 

Sigh. <I do not see when or how Mhalir would have learned how to evade it. He...is very smart, though, and if anybody could outwit me it would be him. We could put him under the Heralds' coercive Truth Spell, but of course that assumes he cannot evade that as well. So there is some unavoidable risk. That being said, I think it is unlikely even he would never have let slip anything even in his thoughts. Which I can read from a substantial distance, not just from the same room, so he need not know I was there at all.> 

<Why do you suppose he would have agreed to this, if not so he can betray you?>

Tail-shrug. <...Because he knows the resources I have, that I can and will win this war, and he prefers that fewer of his own people die in the process? We can certainly take the planet by force, they do not know of Gates either, but it would be bloody, with many casualties on both sides. This way would be much cleaner.> 

<I would not find that a compelling reason to collaborate, if you were conquering us. If the war is bloody and messy there is the chance of an unexpected outcome, or a signal successfully reaching space, or a triumph due to capabilties the enemy did not know about. In surrender there is no hope. 

Has Visser Three ever sincerely believed he was in immediate danger, while under magic constraints that supposedly prevent him from controlling a host? If he did not seize control under those circumstances I would believe that he could not.>

<...Not that I am aware of. He has been in my head, but I am even more able to defend myself than he would be using my body. He does not have the compulsions in place with his human host. I - could probably arrange such a test, though.> 

<It seems worthwhile, if you mean to endanger yourself on a mission with him. If he did see an opening to capture you, he would not believe that the defeat of his people is inevitable. And with your abilities it might well not be.>

<I know. It is a risk; that is why I came to you for advice. I will go in with the usual set-command, such that if he attempts to use my Gifts they will instead end up blocked to both of us. We are close to certain Yeerks cannot get around Mindhealing modifications, since they alter the brain at a deep level, much more substantial than compulsions. I could also arrange scenarios that would be likely to prompt thoughts about the matter, when he is unaware anyone is there to read his mind.> 

Swish swish. <Put him, under those constraints, in someone who means to kill him, and see if he miraculously manifests some way to stop them.>

<...I will consider if there is a way to arrange it. I do not actually want him to die, it would still be quite costly to the peace efforts at this point to lose him.> Leareth's tail swishes as well. <Anyway. I did wish to ask you about Mhalir's relationship with the Yeerk Council, what you remember of it, and about their other politics. In case I end up deciding it is not worth the risk and need to go in alone and pretend to be him, and - just to have more context, in general.> 

<Of course.> And Alloran is happy to share everything he knows. Visser Three liked two members of the council of thirteen, and found most of the rest hard to work with; most of them were just as evil as he was, and not as clever, so sometimes Visser Three had to persuade them of his evil plans because they'd gotten stuck on different evil plans. He remembers some details and some conversations reasonably well.

It's very useful, and Leareth commits it to memory as well as he can, takes some notes on the key bits - slightly inconvenient to do in Andalite form while walking, but he's practiced - and thanks Alloran at the end. 

<And - would you like to spar, if you are not too tired from this?> he asks. <Melody said that you might be interested, and I enjoy it very much.>

He's curious how good Alloran will be. Mostly his Andalite instincts haven't been yelling about Alloran's body language, but they're just walking, not doing anything complicated. 

Tail-swish. <I am out of practice.>

<I understand. I have scarcely a month of practice and had not even had this body before that point, so I am not that good. Honestly it might be more of a fair match than my usual ones, I am constantly losing to all of Matirin's people.> 

<But you know how to spar safely?>