It has been the looooongest couple of days, and the only reason Vanyel slept reasonably last night is that Earth has really good drugs for that. He stops where he's walking, sags with relief. :Gods. I'm so glad. Thank you: A pause. :How did it go? Did they take the planet without too many casualties?: 

<It seems to have gone about as well as could be hoped. All the essential Yeerks were captured. Casualties were, well, higher than in most space battles you win since there was all the tail-to-tail fighting but very reasonable given what we were trying to achieve.>

:That makes sense. Gods, Leareth must be so tired. He had to do so many things. I - have fought some very ridiculous battles before and I still don’t think I could ever do half a dozen Gates to goddamned orbit in ten minutes, even if I weren’t allergic to Gates specifically:

<People who morph you are not allergic to Gates, are they?>

Vanyel stops walking again, frowning. :...Huh. No, I don’t think so. I hadn’t really thought about it, but Leareth’s morphed my mage-gift and done Gates with it for sure:

<Do you still have it in morph as him?>

:- I haven't tried that. Because I hate Gates: 

<Huh. It might be suggestive about what the problem is at least.>

They're going to be waiting for Leareth's ship to get in for a while anyway, so Vanyel morphs him and tries a Gate.

...Nope that doesn't fix it at all. He drops the half-finished Gate and demorphs, which - helps slightly with the headache? Huh. But doesn't get rid of it entirely. 

:That did not work: he tells Matirin. :Still have the problem: 

<Ah well. The war should in any event be over soon.>

Waiting is still really stressful even though he knows Leareth is fine, he's not really going to be able to focus on work, so Vanyel morphs a hawk again and dive-bombs trees for a while. 

Matirin paces in his usual shape.

When someone wakes him for the transfer to the shuttle, Leareth gets up, blinking, and this time obtains some coffee to drink on the shuttle trip, so he'll be more alert for filling Matirin in on the mission.

He's feeling less groggy anyway, he must have finally slept off most of the backlash from the ridiculous number of Gates; he's still tired, both moving and thinking feel more effortful than usual, but he can keep going on momentum for a while. 

Mhalir is more nervous than Leareth. He's not entirely sure why. 

Matirin meets them when they land. <Congratulations.>

Leareth is in Andalite morph, accomplished as soon as he had bolted down his caffeine. (He has no idea how one would consume coffee in Andalite form, probably they can somehow...) 

<Thank you. It went - about as well as we could ask. I have all of their computer data on the other Yeerk-held planets; I have not had a chance to do more in-depth reviewing of it, but I think we can accomplish the rest of this straightforwardly and quickly. I have already sent a message to the Andalite homeworld asking what reinforcements they can provide, if I am able to Gate ships to the appropriate locations.> 

Matirin's tail snakes over to Leareth's and curls around it. Andalite instincts say that this is GOOD and also ...some other, confusing thing.

<I'm really glad for you both. It's - going to be very busy from here, right, we've got to stay ahead of all the courier ships...>

Awwwww that's adorable. 

...Huh. Leareth relaxes into it, letting the Andalite instincts lead so his own tail twines around Matirin's. Or maybe Mhalir's prompting, he can't actually tell for sure, he's been letting Mhalir swap into control of his body whenever he wants because he's so damned tired. 

<Yes. I have a tentative timeline figured out, we do not know for sure how many couriers got out or where they went, but we know which planets have what travel distance. I can do it, I think, if your homeworld makes the preparations I requested and has the information ready when I check in again, but - I ought probably leave tomorrow, as soon as we have gone over things, so that I can space out the Gates as much as possible.>

He really doesn't want to, he just got back, but, well. War. 

<Yes. I could go as well, if you think it'd be helpful, I think Nerefir has things well in hand on Earth.>

It's sort of inexplicable how badly Leareth wants that. He can't tell if it's for a good reason, but... <I would appreciate being able to space out the planning discussions more as well. If you are sure. Whichever ship we take should not be going very close to the actual combat, so it will be safe enough.> 

<I will need some time to arrange things here but I can plan to leave tomorrow.>

 <Anything eventful here on Earth?> Leareth doubts it, he wasn't even gone for two days, it only felt like two weeks. 

<No. Vanyel worried about you.>

<Really? I was fine. ...I suppose I would prefer, in future, to avoid plans that require me specifically to do all of the Gates. It went smoothly, but if it had gone less smoothly, I would have been exhausted at a very inconvenient time for it.> Sigh. <A couple of my mages are very close to mastering interworld Gating as a technique, but we cannot afford to delay for that. I think possibly I should take this into account and plan for fewer ship boarding parties, or only use those in cases where we can obtain video footage that my other mages can use at close range.>