You've probably never seen an Andalite, and you certainly haven't seen Visser Three, so I'll have to describe what I first saw. My first impression was that it seemed to be some alien centaur. There were four lower limbs and a body that at first resembled a horses's -- although they had the strong yet delicate and nimble grace of a deer's -- that were covered with blue fur highlighted with tan. The upper half was humanoid, with a strong torso, arms that seemed almost weak compared to the rest of the muscled, hardened body, and hands with too many fingers. And the head: it was like a human head, but besides shape and arrangement, there was little resemblance to anything human. There was no mouth, and a vertical slit where the nose should be. There were large, almond-shaped green eyes and two other eyes raised on stalks that grew from the top of the head. All of this taken in in half a second. In the second half, you would see the tail. At the end, there was a long tail that ended in a blade, curved like a wicked scimitar. No, more like a reaper's scythe. It arched upward and the tip was just behind and above his head, giving it a scorpion-like appearance. I knew on sight it was deadly. A second look, and I was sure that it had killed many, many people before.

Because even though I didn't know yet, I could feel it, as if it were emanating from him. It was many things, but in one word, it was evil. It felt like something that thirsted for death, death for its own sake, something conneiving and cruel, brutal and savage. It shocked me, maybe more than being thrust into this underworld, because that hadn't seemed real. But I knew upon sight that this was real. Horribly real. I knew with some premonition that if I did not die, if the creature did not kill me, then it would be an enemy forever until the end. And then it spoke, and I got my second shock.

<So. This is the host that Kareis picked. Interesting.> That voice! I heard it, yet didn't hear it except in my mind: this creature was telepathic. A new fear gripped me. Did that mean it could read minds? If it transmitted thought-signals, could it receive them? But something in me rose, slowed the fear, kept it at bay. I clenched my fists to keep them from shaking, and raised my eyes. I looked defiantly at the three of them; the bladed reptile, the creature who appeared to be my father, and the blue alien who stood before me. <Hmm.> he said, obviously commenting on my reactions. <I can see why she would want this one. It doesn't cower.>

It's funny how the mind works. Although I was largely ignorant of what was going on at the time, I knew I was in horrible danger, about to face some doom. But I didn't even perceive the meaning of the alien's words, but I remember thinking "It"? "This one"? So I am an it? Do these aliens think they are superior to us? Then it processed. Someone 'chose' me. And unless I had been very misled by the exchanges between my pseudo-dad and the Blender creature, "she" had picked me to be a host. I dared to speak. It was hard enough to say something to break the silence in class, but to speak in a place like that, took a tremendous amount of effort. But the words came out. They may have been cracked at the beginning and faint with hopelessness at the end, but they did come. "Look," I said, trying to sound assertive, in control, although I thougth then that things couldn't be more hopeless. "What's going on here? You," I motioned to my father, "dragged me down here, then this blender-lizard comes and threatens me, now there's this blue centaur with telepathy saying I don't cower!"

For a moment I had forgotten myself and argued with him just like I had about going out with my friends a little longer or keeping the stray cat. Now that I look back on it, I think how ridiculous it was. The least I could have done was be quiet. However the blue alien seemed to be in a lenient mood. He laughed, a long, full laugh in my head. But it had no humor, no friendliness. It was pure malice, mixed in with what I was sure was expectation, someone looking forward to seeing what would happen next. My pseudo-father stood silent and unmoving, barely looking at me, like a private standing before his commanding officer.

<Yes, I can certainly see why she wanted this one.> Then his voice turned hard, and another wave of dread washed over me. <Gileth six-four-one,> he said, turning one of his bizzare stalk eyes toward the blade monster, <escort our new guest down the infestation pier.> The weird creature half-dragged, half forced me to walk, down one of the piers that extended over the huge pool.

"What's going on?" This was a desperate cry to whoever that apparition of my father was, hoping that it would answer me. "What are you doing?" The answer came from the blue alien, who I was hating more and more each second. Actually, he was talking to my pseudo-dad, but even if he did have the ability to speak to only a single person's mind, he didn't bother to use it.

<Kareis nine-two-four was demoted and is partially being punished with a younger, weaker host. However, on account of her previous services, she was allowed to choose her new host.> There were murmuring from my pseudo-father which I could not hear because I was getting further along the pier. <Apparently she knew this human personally through her former host. I am to supervise this transition, being her direct superior.> What was he saying? That someone I knew had been this Kareis person, and now she had chosen me as her host. But what did these aliens do? Did they take on people's forms to go around as those people? Did they take over people's minds . . ? Just as I was thinking this, I had reached the end of the pier. Without warning, the creature kicked my feet out from under me while made me fall hard on my stomach on the steel pier, my head extending over it, inches away from the swarming liquid mass.

I tried to get up, but instantly the bladed monster was on my back, with one limb pinning me down, the other thrusting my head into the seething liquid. The side half of my face was submerged, and with my ear under there I could hear what sounded like thousands of small objects in there. I couldn't see what was in the pool, though. Then, there was something on my ear. It was crawling into it. I tried to move my hand to tear it away, but I was still held down by the bladed creature. Then, to my utter horror, it continued to squirm its way down through the ear canal, and it hurt horribly. At this point, the creature had let me stand and was holding me in place, arms pinned to the sides. I could use my mouth though. I screamed, all my horror released, as I was forced to let this thing that felt like a slug, going through my ear canal, the pain quickly dissapating with dizziness and disorientation.

There was a mixture of sensations at this time. First there was a esctacy, a giddiness. A feeling of déjà vu, a thought of <It's so good to be back like this again.> This was the pedestal from which I must work. I may not have power or strength or a commanding countenance, but I had a good form. It was the power, the power of standing tall, erect on two strong legs, wonderful eyes that saw the whole spectrum clearly, and glorious five-fingered hands, even better than an Andalite's. What?! But despite my confusion, it continued on: Who cared if this was smaller and younger than my former host? I was still myself, still the great hero. Kareis nine-two-four, Class 1, Visser Nine.  Ah, no. No longer a Visser, class dropped down to 14. My designation was officially something like 125. So great a loss in rank but no worry, if I could do it once I could do it again, and the second time up was always shorter. Besides, this host had an interesting mind, like none I had ever experienced before . . . Was this insanity? Thoughts, memories, concepts that later I would be familiar with floated on the surface of my brain, but I was too confused and afraid to notice them. I thought my mind had snapped and I was going crazy. It was the only explanation.

The bladed creature let me go, helping me to get up, and I stood there on the pier, unable to move for an hour? a second? I had stopped screaming; it was hard enough trying to orient myself. Suddenly, I was aware of a presence. An anathema. In my mind, it was like another person there. Nothing remotely like an alternate personality, this was a totally different consciousness, a different set of memories and thoughts and thinking abilities, the source of those weird thoughts. My thoughts grudgingly crystalized and I was able to identify which thoughts were mine and which ones belonged to the alien's. I was able to feel its triumphant rising, and feel its admiration of my mind that was kin to the admiration of tyrant of a nation he has conquered, and vague pity for me with both empathy and attachment. But I was mostly aware of dread, as I became yet more aware of the foreign personality that seemed to be at the core good and sane, someone I'd like to meet, yet in the end and above everything else twisted, wrought and bent by environment into something bad. Something wrong. Alien.

<Alien,> it spoke, or actually thought at me. <What a strange word. So many meanings . . .>

No no no . . . this had to be insanity. I wished it would be, but the steel-solid reinforcements of my mind in addition to the attentive being that seemed both friendly and malignant at the same time told me otherwise. <What are you?> I thought at it, not trying to conceal my despairation.

Suddenly they came, like a series of silent explosions.

Pictures, words, concepts, senses, ideas. Yeerk: the creature that had crawled from the Yeerk pool. <Me,> it told me. <My people.> They were slugs in the Yeerk pool, helpless by themselves. They needed hosts to move around and do wonderful things like communicate with other species and manipulate matter and fly through the stars. I had just become one of those: I had been reduced to a "host."

<I am Kareis nine-two-four.>

Andalite: the enemy. <Meddling tyrants!> They oppressed the other races, not wanting them to advance as high as they were. They were like Visser Three: Visser Three was the only Yeerk to have an Andalite host. <Andalites may be horrible, but they're the best hosts.>

Many other things bombarded me, most of which I didn't comprehend in my confusion and had to learn later. But one thing, the last thing stuck in my mind and impacted me forever.

The Yeerks were a ruthless and power-hungry race. <Like humans.> No, that I would never believe. They had taken over entire species, like the Hork-Bajir (the reptilian blender that had dragged me around) and the centipede creatures called Taxxons, and apelike Gedds, and many others which I cannot remember the names of. And now they were targeting Earth and humans. Then there was a struggle. It was like two people having a fight, no holds barred, except it was over as fast as if I had been armwrestling with an Olympic athlete: a brief struggle, then my arm went slamming down.

<I'm your master now,> it gloated, <I rule you now. Your body . . .> I could not move, not the slightest fragment of my physical self. <Your mind . . .> it dug through again, this time replaying everything so that it filled my sensations: everything I knew, everything I was, everything I had thought and pondered. All the stories I had read and written, all the friends, enemies <oh, you don't know "enemy" unless you've been in battle,> and people indifferent to me. My emotions, my gestures, my little quirks and pet peeves and mannerisms that formed the exterior me. It was perfectly connected to them all, wrapped around my entire brain and tied to every neuron, using them at will.

<You're a Controller now.>

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