We fluttered in a circle at the top of a dome. The crack we'd entered through was high up, almost at the very peak of the dome. And down below us was the Yeerk pool.
"Well," Jake said, "we found our way into the Yeerk pool."
"Yeah. Great," Cassie said darkly. "Now what?"
"Now we figure out how to get that oatmeal in here and feed it to a bunch of human-Controllers," Tobias said.
"You know . . . maybe we don't have to give it to human-Controllers," Cassie said. "l don't know why it didn't occur to me before. But it's the Yeerk that can't resist the stuff, right? So why don't we dump it right in the Yeerk poo! itself?"
"Would it work?" Tobias wondered. "l thought all Yeerks ate was Kandrona rays. Do they even have mouths?"
"Yes," Ax said. "Yeerks have mouths. Or what humans would think of as mouths. Actually, if I remember my exo-biology classes, and sadly, I sometimes -"
"Fell asleep," I said. "Yeah, we know. You didn't like exo-biology class."
"l didn't fall asleep," Ax said, sounding injured. "i merely let my mind wander, and became very calm and restful and not completely alert."
"Did you snore when you got all calm and restful and not completely alert?"
"The point is, on occasion I would pay some attention in class. And I believe that Yeerks have something called osmosis nodes. It's what they use to absorb Kandrona rays, but they absorb other nutrients as well.
They absorb from the liquid of the Yeerk pool."
"So if we dump enough instant maple and ginger oatmeal in this Yeerk pool, they should absorb it, right?" Jake asked.
"Yes, Prince Jake. At least, I think so. Maybe."
"0h, good, I just love risking my life for a "maybe,"" Marco said.
"Hey," Tobias said. "l think we have company. Over there." I looked around. I saw two shiny steel balls. Each was about the size of a beach ball. My echolocation confirmed their size. And they were moving toward us through the air.
"Hunter robots!" Ax yelled. "We should leave!"
"Why?" I asked.
But at that very moment, I had my answer.
TSEEEEEWWW! TSEEEEEWWW! TSEEEEEWWW!
Three narrow Dracon beams fired from the balls. I felt a sharp pain in my right wing. I smelled something burning. And when I looked, I saw a neat, round hole the size of a quarter burned through the leather of my wing.
"Okay, let's leave," I said. I turned and headed for the crack, with all the others alongside me.
TSEEEEEWWW! TSEEEEEWWW! TSEEEEEWWW!
"Aaarrgghh!"
Tobias! He was hit. He was falling, tumbling downward, down to the Yeerk pool below us. I had a weird flash of poor Mr. Edelman falling, and then down I went after Tobias.
Bats aren't all that fast in flight. Fortunately, Tobias had a lot of experience flying. He managed to use his one good wing to slow his fall.
I caught him and grabbed with my tiny but strong little bat feet. Ax and Jake were there in a flash and we flapped madly, hauling him upward.
But the hunter robots were closing in on us.
TSEEEEEWWW! TSEEEEEWWW! TSEEEEEWWW!
"Aaahhh! I've been hit!" Ax yelled. His flying weakened. It was no longer even possible to get Tobias back up to the crack.
"We're bats," Tobias gasped. "I can hang." I realized what he was telling me. If we could get him to the rocks, any rocks, he could latch on and hang. Not exactly a solution, but the only thing we could do.
Down swooped Jake, just in time. He slammed into us deliberately, pushing us toward the sloping rock ceiling. Tobias scrabbled madly and managed to grab some rock with his feet.
The hunter robots came on, almost leisurely. Maybe they had enough intelligence to realize that they had us cold.
"Ax! Do those things have any weak points?" Marco yelled.
Cassie and Marco had flown off through all this. I couldn't blame them.
But I had wondered . . .
"Visual aiming system," Ax groaned. "A lens. Like a human camera lens."
"I see it," Cassie yelled.
BONK!
BONK!
My echolocation "saw" the tiny rocks go flying. They were like bombs dropped from dive-bombers. Cassie and Marco had each grabbed small rocks, dived toward the robots, and released them.
One must have hit. One of the robots began to veer away like it was lost.
But the other was just twenty feet away when it fired. I swept my good wing over Tobias, trying to shield him.
TSEEEEEWWW! TSEEEEEWWW!
The Dracon beam burned the wing off. Clear off. I had a stump of a bat arm. And I fell like a stone.
Down, down, down through the damp air.
Down to the Yeerk pool.
I fell.
I saw Jake and Cassie come for me. But I knew. I knew they couldn't make it.
"Back off, you idiots!" I screamed. And then I hit.
SPUH-LOOSH!
I landed on my back. It knocked the wind out of me. I gasped for air.
But I was under the surface.
I was in liquid the color of lead. But living, seething water. The Yeerks were everywhere! All around me.
I bobbed to the surface. I tried to fire my echolocation, but the liquid kept rolling over me in sluggish little swells.
I was in the Yeerk pool!
That awful fact was like an explosion in my brain. They were everywhere! All around me! They would get me now. I couldn't escape. I flapped my single sodden wing, but all I managed to do was churn the water a little.
I started to call out to my friends. But no. No. They would kill themselves trying to rescue me. No.
Only . . . what if the Yeerks made me a Controller? I would betray all my friends. I wouldn't be able not to.