<I think it is - maybe easier to be a human like my father than it was to be an Andalite like my father. ...that may have been in significant part the war, by the end, wars are never easy on people who have pathological issues with authority, but - I think it was hard even before that, when he was a child. And - I enjoyed how the humans argued. They hated each other so much! They were mostly terribly wrong about almost everything they cared about! But - but at least they'll rarely all be wrong. And if you have a lot of psychological diversity I think you're more able to - make do with lots of very strange circumstances. If humans had found Yeerks first...>

<Some humans would have immediately tried to have sex with them, one imagines. While others tried to convert them to six different one true religions, none of which have gods that even exist as far as I can tell. It would have been messy, but - fascinating. And likely very different.>

<It would have had some good things that Andalites couldn't have had even if Seerow had not made a terrible mistake.

We do have a much better body plan though.>

<Which you are never going to let me forget.> Snuggle. Very carefully, he caresses Matirin's flank with the flat edge of his tail-blade. He has no idea if this is something Andalites normally do, but it's very tempting. 

Matirin leans in, very carefully, and then does the same thing back. <I do not think I have to remind you! You noticed all by yourself.>

<...I suppose so.> And for once, in that brief moment, he's not thinking about the peace efforts or the politics or even his classwork; he's just there, in the moment, with Matirin. 

They can eventually head down to sleep with the rest of the herd, and in the morning Leareth keeps going with his Gate-work. 

There are various annoying complications as his people try actually building the components he designed, and getting the magical artifacts to play nicely with the mage-energy generator and computer control systems, which Leareth wants to set up to do the planar routing as well, that's the hardest part to teach other mages.

A month later, though, the first version is finally done. It still needs a mage supervising, but the skill requirements are simple and easily teachable, and the destination routing can be entirely controlled from a computer terminal. For now there's just the one option, for the other end of it on Earth, but hopefully soon there'll be other termini elsewhere, and eventually the ability to do unscaffolded blind Gates to the surface of any planet they have hyperspace coordinates for.

Leareth does all the final tests, but doesn't immediately tell the Andalites watching that it's complete. That night he asks Matirin if they should do some sort of opening ceremony for it. 

He thinks they should! He can think of three hundred people they ought to invite. Also, it's kind of unfortunate but it was inevitably going to happen eventually, someone put together a translator for Yeerks that works through the electrical signals they can send in the Pool. In light of this they're ready to take custody of the Yeerks they want to put on trial; he will do his best to delay Mhalir in particular, both so he and Cayaldwin can finish their work and because he thinks it'll be helpful if the other trials have already happened and peoples' thirst for blood - not that Yeerks have any - is a little sated.  

<Congratulations> he says to Leareth, while he's figuring out who he would be inclined to invite.

<Thank you.> It's hard to spend much time enjoying the success; Leareth's mind is already several steps ahead, planning out how much time he can dedicate to visiting Earth - probably he can just take his computer and coursework there and work in the field while Mhalir is with Cayaldwin, he doesn't want to actually leave the site while Mhalir is on the base around Andalites, which is probably excessively paranoid but still. And now he's mildly stressed about the trials again, not that there's much he can do about it, either Matirin will be able to delay or he won't. 

Leareth is quieter than usual that night, half-lost in thought, but he's content to go over Matirin's list of invitees, and think through ways to make the presentation flashier and more memorable. 

<You should also make some recommendations to High Command on security for Mhalir and the others while they're here. Not that I would expect any Andalite to attack one of our own bases - I feel fairly confident Alloran specifically wouldn't - but ->

<It seems worth doing anyway, though. I already have some notes on it, I can write them up more neatly for your High Command.> His tail waves in the approximate Andalite equivalent of a sigh. <I think I will go to Earth the day after tomorrow. I am behind on some things related to Velgarth, and I ought speak with Mhalir directly about the precautions.> 

<That makes sense. Tell him - I know the waiting is difficult. I hope that part at least will be over soon.>

<I will pass that on.> It's by no means as bad as the war, in terms of ongoing stress, but Leareth, too, is hoping that soon the uncertainty will come to an end. One way or another. Hopefully his preferred way.

They do the ceremony. Leareth prepares a bit of a talk on the principles behind Gates, explains how to safely use it - including the security codes, now computerized rather than done via keying the artifacts to specific mages, they really don't want just anyone walking through this Gate.

And then he raises the first ever Gate directly to Earth's surface. 

It works! The Andalites are suitably awed. 

It's not even tiring at all, which is delightful; he needs to interface magically with the Gate, to activate it, but not channel any significant power. (He probably could have set it up to be entirely automated, but requiring a mage with the right training adds another layer of security, in addition to the guards and shielded room.)

Leareth explains the planned next steps for the space Gates to move ships, tentatively projected to be done six months from now, and then he hangs around to answer the guests' questions. The Gate to Earth can stay up for a while so that the Andalites herds can mingle, closely watched on both sides and with a log kept of everyone who crosses. 

Andalites are very cooperative about security; they've been at war for as long as many of them have been alive. They race around between the worlds, comparing the grass (the homeworld's grass is tastier) and the air and the sky. Some people with clearance and Gift-morphing want to try activating the Gate themselves.

Leareth can supervise some practice with activating the Gate! Once people are competent enough at the technique, he can add them to the list of authorized users. And then if someone needs a Gate up in the middle of the night for some reason, they won't even have to wake him, it's going to be glorious. 

Eventually he peels himself away back to his room to finish some work for his class, and plan out his next few days on Earth. He's ready to sleep pretty early, it was a tiring day, but he waits to check in with Matirin before heading to bed. 

Matirin wants to show him an article published this week in a magazine of current events, arguing that Yeerk governance should be restructured after the trials and noting in passing that the author doubts executions of Yeerk leadership will be productive or improve Yeerk government, though they should definitely be removed and probably prevented from controlling people ever again.

<Oh, interesting. I will take that to show Mhalir, I think.>

He wonders, vaguely, if 'prevented from controlling people' would rule out Mhalir being an observer in Cayaldwin's head. He hadn't recently been doing it with any of the usual compulsions, but it wouldn't actually matter to add that, it's not like Mhalir would ever try to seize control anyway. Maybe occasionally if Cayaldwin was too lost in thought to be focused on updating the modelling program. Leareth supposes it wouldn't be an unbearable sacrifice sacrifice if Mhalir had to work from a fishtank and communicate via Thoughtsensing, since everyone relevant is Gifted or can morph Thoughtsenser, but it'd certainly be inconvenient.

Leareth wants to tail-fight with Matirin and then snuggle and pet each other for a little bit, but not too long because he's exhausted and would like to make an early start tomorrow. 

Matirin is not going back to Earth with him but wishes him well and demands that he come back occasionally and get progress updates on arranging, and also delaying, the trials.

Leareth still intends to spend about half of his time if not more on the Andalite homeworld, so he hopes to still see a lot of Matirin. He'll be back in a few days. 

In the morning he leaves early, and greets the herd on Earth, thoughtspeaking Cayaldwin to let him know that he's headed off to collect Mhalir and will be around for the next few days so they can work on morph research. 

Oh good! He's made some progress but he makes progress much faster with Mhalir and has been annoyed not to see him.

Leareth is apologetic about that! His current thought is that he'll try to get on a schedule of alternating three-day stretches, so he can be nearby when Mhalir is among the Andalites for one iterations between Yeerk pools, and then return him to Amanda and go attend his classes and all that. 

He Gates himself over to Mhalir's base; he's sent a message ahead, so Mhalir knows he's coming, but not much on the content of their meeting.

Mhalir has been trying to make progress on his own to show Cayaldwin as well, partly because it turns out that spending 100% of his time on politics leaves him kind of miserable. (He never realized until just a few months ago how much of the last twenty years he spent miserable.) He, too, finds it much slower going and has been frustrated about it. 

"It is good to see you," he tells Leareth. "You look well. Congratulations on the permanent Gate." 

Leareth is in human form, he vaguely remembers Mhalir mentioning that Amanda found Andalites scary, and besides, he first met Mhalir wearing this face, and it seems odd to be an Andalite for him. 

"Thank you. I have some updates from the Andalite homeworld." And he explains about the Yeerk communication setup for the trials, and shows Mhalir the article Matirin pointed out to him. 

Mhalir listens, patiently, and reads the article.

"I see," he says finally. "It - could be worse, I suppose."

Does Amanda have any thoughts on it?