"Cassie's right," Jake said. "It's time. Let's get going before it's too late."

I followed him along with the others as we crossed alien land, heading for an environment just as alien - the ocean.

I wished I could forget what Ax told us. I wished I could stop seeing the pictures in my head of an Earth without birds and trees. An Earth where the ocean was empty and dead.

"Don't you know whom you're fighting?" the Andalite had asked.

Yes.

Now I knew.

65 Chapter 20

"Hey, I have a stupid question," Marco said.

"What?" Jake asked.

Marco jerked his thumb toward the Andalite, Ax. "How do we get him out of here?"

Jake looked blank. "Um , Ax, I don't suppose you can swim? Swim really well, I mean. We're a long, long way from land."

"I would not swim in this body. I would morph a sea creature."

"Like what?" Marco asked bluntly. "We have to travel far and fast."

"I have acquired a creature from this ocean. It was a large creature who swam close one day.

I stunned him and acquired him. I thought he would be useful if I was to escape."

"What kind of animal? What did he - " I stopped suddenly. I'd felt something. A shadow. I looked up. Through the air of the dome. Through the clear dome itself and up through the water.

It was on the surface. A cigar-shaped shadow riding the surface of the sea.

"That's a ship," I said. "Up there. I think it's stopped."

"Let's get out of here. Now," Jake snapped.

We ran for the hatch.

PING-NG-NG! PING-NG-NG!

The sound echoed through the dome.

"Sonar!" Marco hissed.

"How do you know?" Rachel asked.

"Didn't you ever see The Hunt for Red October? Great movie. Now let's leave. They've found us!"

PING-NG-NG! PING-NG-NG!

We crammed inside the small hatch enclosure, the four of us and Ax.

"Morph!" Jake yelled.

I had already started. I could feel the dolphin features emerging. My friends were beginning to mutate. Water rushed into the chamber, swirling up around our legs.

Ax was changing, too. It almost broke my concentration, watching him. In their normal forms Andalites are strange enough. When they morph it is totally bizarre. Instead of two legs 66 shriveling and disappearing, it was four. And then there were the stalk eyes. And the tail, which lost its scythe blade but split into a new kind of tail, with a long, raked, vertical blade and a shorter lower blade.

The water swept up to my neck, but by that point I was more dolphin than human.

BA-BOOOOM!

The explosion shuddered through the dome. It rattled my teeth. I felt like my eardrums would explode.

"Yeerks," Ax said. He said the word in our heads the way his brother had. With hatred and rage so deep it was impossible to comprehend it.

BA-BOOOOM!

A second explosion! Suddenly the exterior door opened and we swam out in a rush. Four dolphins and one . . .

Shark!

I'd been distracted by the explosions.

Ax had morphed a shark.

" Oh , good choice, Ax," Marco said. "You morphed a shark? "

"Is it wrong?" the Andalite wondered.

"Your species and ours are mortal enemies," I explained.

" Oh . I have a lot to learn about Earth."

"Here's the first lesson - let's get OUT OF HERE!" Marco screamed.

I soared up through the water, angling toward the distant surface. But as I rose I looked behind me. There were two jagged holes in the dome. Water was gushing in like Niagara Falls. As I watched, a third dark cylinder was falling slowly from the surface. Even I had seen enough sub marine movies to know it was a depth charge.

"What hosts have these Yeerks used?" Ax de manded urgently.

"Um . . . Hosts? You mean bodies? Controllers? They use Hork-Bajir and humans," I answered.

"Hork-Bajir do not swim," Ax said. "We may be safe. The Yeerks know little of deep waters. They have no oceans on their world, only shallow pools."

"Good," Jake said. "All they've had here are Hork-Bajir. And Taxxons, of course."

"Taxxons?"

67 "Yes, is that a problem?"

We were near the surface now, just a dozen feet from the bright barrier of sea and sky.

Just then a larger, darker shadow swept over us. A shadow that was dark inside of dark. A shadow that touched your soul. It skimmed just above the surface of the water.

It was shaped like a long battle-ax. Twin semi circular blades at the back, a long, diamond-headed point at the front.

The Blade ship of Visser Three.

Something was falling from it as it passed over us. There were a dozen splashes. I rolled over to get a better look.

What I saw made my flesh crawl.

Taxxons. In the water. Coming toward us.

"Those nasty worms can swim?" Marco yelled.

But the answer was obvious. The Taxxons, ten-foot-long centipedes bristling with dozens of pairs of sharp needle legs, were racing after us. And they were very fast in the water.

Very fast .

From this angle we couldn't see the several red-jelly eyes. But we could see the circular mouth at the top of each vile body.

I had seen Taxxons straining to catch bits of Prince Elfangor as Visser Three devoured him.

I had seen Taxxons, on orders from Visser Three, devour one of their own.

"Tell me," Ax said. "l have the feeling that this body I am in might be able to fight. Is this true?"

I grinned inwardly. "Yes, Ax. Sharks can fight."

"Then, Prince Jake, shall we deal with these Taxxon scum?"

"Don't call me 'prince,'" Jake said. "And the answer is yes. Let's go kick some Taxxon butt." 68 Chapter 21

There were a dozen Taxxons in the water. Five of us. Swimming in a straight line, the Taxxons were faster. But, as we soon discovered, we were more maneuverable.

"Pick a target," Jake said tersely.

I focused on one of the big worms. But I had to force myself into the fight. This was not a shark, and the dolphin's instinctive dislike of sharks was not there to prod me.

I had to find the will to fight in my own, hu man mind. It's not such an easy thing. I had fought the Yeerks to preserve human freedom. Now I fought to help the entire world. Still, fighting doesn't come naturally to me.

And yet, I knew what I had to do. The Yeerks would show no mercy. If the Taxxons won, we would be killed. Or worse.

I powered toward one of the Taxxons as he powered toward me. We were like two trains running on the same track. Head to head.

At the last possible second, with the gaping red mouth of the Taxxon just a foot away, I zoomed sideways, arched my back, and rammed the Taxxon's side.

I expected it to be like the shark - hard, tough, unyielding. It was not. It was like hitting a soggy paper bag with a sledgehammer. The Taxxon burst like a dropped watermelon.

"Aaaaarrrggghhh!" I wanted to throw up. I beat the water with my tail and recoiled from the horrible scene I had created.

All around me the battle raged. Dolphin against Taxxon. And Ax's shark against Taxxon.

Scientists believe that sharks are one of the oldest species of animals still in existence. Nature built them as perfect predators. Perfect killing machines. Nature hasn't had to revise or update them much. They were built right the first time.

Dolphins are very different. Scientists say that millions of years ago, dolphins were land animals. Sea mammals not very different from humans and other mammals. They evolved their way back into the ocean. Part of that evolution included learning to cope with predators - with killer whales and sharks.