Generations

**Kata Hamee**


"Do you ever wonder what is up there?" Kata Hamee asked, as she had many
times before. She stared with her nearsighted eyes up at the bright blue
sky.

"What is up where, Kata?" her friend, Ala Hullan replied. She turned to
peer at Kata from the tree she had been stripping.

"Up there," Kata replied, point a long clawed finger up. "In the sky."

Ala stared at Kata, then craned her long neck to look up. Then she looked
back at Kata, then looked back up.

"I see nothing," Ala finally answered slowly.

"Maybe there is something up there. Hiding. And we can't see it. Maybe--"

"I see nothing," Ala repeated, sounding confident of herself. She brought
her head back down, then slashed at the tree. A piece of bark fell from the
trunk and landed in the container on the ground. "There is nothing up there.
Help me strip this bark, Kata."

Kata sighed and plodded over to the tree Ala was slashing at with her
wrist blades. The Old One of their tribe, and Kata's relative, Toby Hamee,
often told her stories of how the world was when she was a young Hork-Bajir.
She also told stories of their ancestors, how they lived in a beautiful
place with tall, tall trees so high you couldn't see the top even halfway
up. Toby Hamee said her father told her that Hork-Bajir would get sweet,
delicious bark from some of these trees, better than the bark they had in
their colony, though that bark wasn't too bad. There were also many trees in
this old world that would communicate with one another. Kata, nor any other
Hork-Bajir there, had ever known these magnificent trees. Not even the Old
One, who was ancient. The trees all of them had grown up with were fairly
tall, but not as massive as the Old One had described. None of the trees
talk to the Hork-Bajir or to each other. That was because, Toby Hamee always
said, their ancestors came from a very different world far, far away. The
Old One said that the planet they live on now wasn't theirs. It belonged to
a race of people called "humans".

Toby Hamee was nothing like the other Hork-Bajir of Kata's tribe. She was
different, somehow. She told Kata that she was a seer. She said that she
believed Kata was one as well.

Sometimes Kata didn't believe her. Kata did not feel special. Kata felt
like a regular Hork-Bajir, with family and friends. She harvested bark some
days, swung through the trees others, and sat with her tribe to hear stories
at night.

But other times, Kata did wonder. She wondered whenever she stared at the
sky, contemplating what could be out there. Whenever she started talking
about things her friends didn't understand. When she continually made
marks-- pictures-- on stone. When she used numbers in different ways, other
than keeping track of how many people in her tribe. When she grew bored of
everyday life and longed for something more. That was when Kata began to
believe and hoped the Old One was right.

That particular day was one of those days. Kata slashed at the tree,
catching the bark as it fell. She placed it in a round, open container that
had a handle one holds to carry it back to the rest of the stored food. The
One Old told Kata these things were called "bass-kits". Kata thought that
was a strange word. It was "English", which is, amazingly, just one of the
many complex human languages.

Kata had never seen a human. When the Old One attempted to describe one to
her, Kata could not picture it. Why would they not have blades? How did they
get bark to eat without blades? And how did they steady themselves without a
tail? What was this strange thing called hair? And why would their skin be
such an unusual color, and at that, varying colors? Toby Hamee said that
humans could see better than Hork-Bajir with their colorful eyes, and they
were smarter than most Hork-Bajir. She also said a very small group had once
possessed the power to morph, which she said was changing shapes. Until they
had been killed, however.

It was also a rule in Kata's tribe, as well as all other tribes, never,
ever to leave the valley they live in. It was said that the Outside was a
terrible place, with an ugly yellow, blue, and green sky. There were no
animals and plants were all dead. Loud creatures roamed across the ground
and through the sky that flew and spit streams of burning light at anything
that moved. There were slugs in the water that would crawl into a person's
ear and take control of them so they wouldn't be able to strip their own
bark or use their own mouth. The slugs used Hork-Bajir blades to do harm to
other living creatures, which no Hork-Bajir in their right mind would ever,
ever do. It was said that there were huge, fat, smelly works that have
mouths on the top of their heads and would eat anything living without a
moment's hesitation. Toby Hamee had said that many humans died because of
all these creatures and the rest have been enslaved. This was always enough
to frighten even the most mischievous child into never having a second
thought about wandering out of their Valley.

As Ala and Kata talked, Kata trying not to get too over Ala's head and Ala
trying to keep up with her, a fairly loud noise suddenly erupted from
somewhere a fair distance away. Kata shot a glance up at the sky, for the
noise seemed to be coming from there. Then she saw it.

"Ala!" Kata cried out, reaching out to grab her friend's arm. She
frantically pointed upward. "Ala! Did you see it? Did you?"

Ala looked alarmed. "See what?" she queried, sounding upset. She looked up
at the sky. "It looks the same to me as it always does, Kata."

Kata's happily excited expression faded. "You did not see it, Ala?"

Ala shook her head slowly. "No…"

Kata sighed deeply and dropped her arms. "Oh well," she finally said. "I
guess it was just my mind playing tricks on me."

She turned back to the tree and gave it a hard thwack with her blade,
cutting a little deeper than intended. Other than that, Kata tried hard not
to let her frustration and disappointment show. Ala just stared at Kata,
puzzled, then shrugged and turned back to her tree.

Kata thwacked her tree again, and again she cut deeper than she had
intended. Every once in a while, she would glance back up at the sky, hoping
to catch another glimpse of what she was so absolutely sure she had seen.

After glancing up at the sky so much her neck was beginning to ache,
finally getting discouraged, Kata saw it. The same unusual streak of light
that had never been there before. And her heart began beating at a faster
rate. The tingling excitement ran through her once again. The streak of
light, whatever it was, seemed to be trying to get somewhere very quickly.
Kata stared up at the sky as she had done many times before, and she
wondered.

Where are you going?


**Erek**


"Report Akran Five-One-Two."

"So far, out of the five ships that have been searching, nothing
significant has been discovered," Erek replied dutifully. He was staring at
the screen in front of him, showing maps and charts. He pressed buttons on
the keypad to change the view.

"Significant?" his official, Sub-Visser Seven repeated. He glared at Erek
with the narrowed eyes of a human. "And who here decides what exactly is
significant?"

"You, sir," he said, a bit sarcastically. A bit too sarcastically.

The under visser stared at Erek icily. A shiver ran down his spine. Why
did he do that? What was he thinking when he talked back to a Sub-Visser?
Oh, he was dead.

But Sub-Visser Seven did not shout or order any executions. He just
dropped the evil look. He grinned, though he could never get rid of those
sinister features, and walked over to Erek. Suddenly, he was right in Erek's
face.

"You're absolutely right, Akran. I decide what is significant around here.
I make the decisions. And until the Visser returns, I get to decide who
lives and dies." He looked Erek right in the eyes. "You are new here. You
are just barely a grub, with a young, weak human as a host. But I can only
give you so much slack. Slip up one, two more times, and you may never live
to see our home sun again. Remember that."

With that, the Sub-Visser turned on his heels and stalked out of the room.
Erek glanced around the circular room at the other computer operators.
Hork-Bajir, Taxxons, Gedds, and humans were all staring right at him. As he
glared at them, they all quickly turned back to their screens.

Oh, how Erek hated that stuck-up Yeerk, He almost wanted to have Visser
Three back.

Of course, he was the original Visser Three of the beginning of the
Invasion. Supposedly, no Yeerk could ever duplicate the "genius" of this
"military mastermind". He had overseen the invasion of Earth after Visser
One left for other projects. He was the one in charge when the Yeerks
finally openly invaded Earth and took over. A few years after Earth was a
Yeerk planet, however, the Visser, who was about to be appointed Visser One,
died under mysterious circumstances. It was rumored and a popular belief
that Visser Six, who was next in line to be Visser Four, was trying to get
to the top faster by picking off the higher ranks. There was no proof of
this, but it was very likely. He had gained the position of Visser Three,
which was where he was now.

"Looks like you've gotten yourself in a bind, Akran," said a voice next to
Erek. He turned his head to the side, and there was a tall Hork-Bajir
standing next to him. Hork-Bajir were tall enough, but this creature was
tall, even for his kind. Almost eight feet tall. Erek just scowled at him.

"What else is new, Jilam?" he muttered. Jilam just chuckled, a deep, gruff
sound from the Hork-Bajir's throat. A human habit from an alien throat.

Jilam and Erek were very, very different from the other Controllers in the
room in one way. The rest of them were really Yeerks in control of their
hosts. Jilam and Erek, on the other hand, had control of their Yeerks. Also,
they were not human or Hork-Bajir. They did not really breathe or have blood
coursing through veins that did not exist. They were not flesh and bone.
Erek and Jilam were metal and holographic images. They were two of the very
few of their kind left in the universe.

The Chee, which was what they were called, had been almost totally wiped
out by the Yeerks. Not unlike the way their creators, the peace-loving
Pemalites, had been eliminated by those wretched Howlers.

The Yeerks had discovered a way to disable the Chee. They were simply
androids, and could be turned off. There was only one way, though, and one
had to have possession of the crystal first. The Pemalite crystal. They
thought they had seen the last of that cursed thing. "They" being the
Animorphs and the Chee. But after the last of those brave fighters had
perished, the Chee got sight of it again. For some, it was the last thing
they ever saw.

It seemed impossible. How? They had thrown the crystal into the ocean!
What were the odds if it ever being seen by sentient eyes again? A billion
to one? A trillion to one? More? But the minority eventually won out. And
now the large numbers of Chee have dwindled to six. Six. That number. Six
Pemalites when they arrived on Earth, all horribly suffering and dying
already. Six young, morph capable fighters, all crushed fairly easily by the
Yeerk forces. Six years before the Yeerks began an all-out attack. Six days
before Earth fell. And now six remaining Chee, hiding carefully, trying to
evade their own form of death. Six was a jinx number. What would that number
have in store for them in the coming years? It hurt Erek to think about.

He had personally known the Animorphs. Back then, his holographic disguise
was a young human. He had posed as a Controller, just as he was currently
doing. He had seen the fall of Earth with his own eyes. The Andalite forces
never even came. The snobby, self-appointed Lords of the Galaxy. They never
even bothered with little old Earth. Erek snorted, and Jilam looked over at
him. Erek just continued working at his station, ignoring him.

After hours of searching the ground for signs of… well, Erek wasn't sure
exactly what, a sound came from the speakers in the ship, to indicate an
announcement was about to be made.

"All troops report to the base immediately to greet the return of the
great Visser Three," a gruff, non-human voice said. Great, Erek thought. The
Visser was now "convincing" the fools how wonderful he was.

After the ship had landed in a large field of dirt, along with about
twenty other ships, the Controllers filed out of the door that appeared.
There used to be ports where the ships landed, but someone had been
sabotaging them and they were unusable. Erek grinned to himself.

"What are you grinning about?" Jilam asked him quietly, stepping over the
remains of a Controller that had disobeyed his superiors weeks before.

"Oh, nothing," he replied as they joined the uniformed troops lined up in
rows in the dirt field, four sides surrounding a Blade Ship, originally of
the old Visser Three's design. There was talking and shouting as the troops
assembled themselves, but as the door slowly appeared in the side of the
ship, everyone quieted down until nothing could be heard but the wind
whistling through the crowd. A black-haired human female stepped out of the
darkness of the door and called out to the troops.

"I present to you, your great and esteemed leader, Visser Three!"

As the woman stepped out of the way, the sound of hundreds of feet
stamping once and people doing salutes all at the exact same time rang
through the quiet air of anticipation. Out of the darkness came a blue,
hoofed leg. Then another. A few steps, and the Visser was out of his ship,
waving to his troops with his seven-fingered hands. He had a
triangular-shaped head, with three vertical slits, rather than a mouth. He
had large, almond-shaped, emerald green eyes, and two stalk eyes growing
from the top of his head. All these features were set in a sinister way,
just as the Sub-Visser's had been. A scar ran down from the right stalk eye,
around the right main eye, down all the way to the chin.

The Visser's upper body was that of a delicate blue human. At his torso,
though, began the fur, and the rest of the body that looked like a deer with
blue and tan fur. The fur was faded with age. Finally, at the very back,
stuck up so everyone would know his power, was the strong tail, with a
scythe-like blade at the end. The air about him was evil, and one could feel
his power just looking at him. Many were made nervous in his presence. That
is because this Visser Three followed the former visser's legacy in so many
ways, including a very important one. This Visser was also an
Andalite-Controller.

Erek had known this Andalite before he was taken. But other than think of
him being infested, he rather preferred to imagine he had died like all his
friends.

Erek watched as the Controller walked down the rows, greeting his troops.
He managed to stay far in the back. Even though he did not have the same
hologram he had had before Earth was taken over, he still did not like to be
anywhere near this controller.

Suddenly, the Visser looked right at Erek. Their eyes met, and a second
chill ran down his spine. But the Yeerk did not know who he was. So he
casually turned the body of Axmilli-Esgarrouth-Isthill back toward the ship
and reentered the darkness from which he had come.