Animorphs Reborn #1 The Sanctuary (Sequel to Animorphs #54)

Animorphs Reborn #1 Chapter 3

The One was yelling at us now, very unhappy that we had just been handed to him on a silver platter, and then taken away from him before he could think of taking a bite. "I believe you got served." I said smugly to the viewing screen with his shimmering picture. He was flickering from Ax to something much more metallic, more robotic. It made his coldness seem much more cruel, as if his metal structure caused him to hate all living things.

He didn't say anything.

I spoke too soon, the end of one of our wings was hit by a Dracon blast, it didn't hit us for long, maybe half a second, we hadn't managed to turn fast enough to completely avoid it.

I was sure we would see smoke billowing from the ship if we weren't in space - but we were, and it just looked like a hole in the hull.

"Menderash, run a scan on that wing of the ship!" Jake yelled suddenly moving, it was strange after we all stood still for so long. "Determine the damage."

We all knew if it broke into the Rachel, past the strengthened seal that kept our air supply and the pressure at survivable levels, we would all be dead. It was lucky we thought ahead, and always sealed off any areas we could, in case anything like this happened.

I was one of the lucky ones, my cabin, mine and Jake's cabin were in the part of the ship with the damaged wing.

"Oh man, of course I'm the one that loses my room!" I complained, at nobody in particular. "I give up my life of fame and fortune to find my friend, and what do I get? Nothing!"

"Marco." Jake shot a warning glance at me. He had lost his room too, so I shut up.

Jeanne sighed at me. She got annoyed at me pretty quickly. I knew she was about to give in to my frighteningly good looks, and was trying her best to cover her undying love for me.

Okay, maybe not. She thought I was short and immature. Or knew. Just like the new Animorphs, but they hadn't seen me in a battle yet. They didn't know what I was capable of.

Nobody else paid any attention to me, they were lost in the heat of the battle. We all watched the screens, showing visuals from every angle of the ship. We watched them, and when we had enough, we watched Menderash, visibly straining under the stress of trying to keep us all alive.

Jake looked at Menderash desperately. "What's the damage?"

"They have breached the ship." he replied, his voice strained and he was speaking through clenched teeth, extremely focused on trying not to get hit again.

"Can we go to Z-space?"

"It would be very dangerous, and the chances of us keeping all our possessions and the rest of the ship are slim."

"Captain Jake," Santorelli said, "If we flee now it could take months to find the Blade ship again."

"No, they know we're out here, they'll be looking for us now." I said.

Santorelli appeared amazed that I said something serious. That actually made sense. I smirked, he'd be seeing a lot more of that.

Jake nodded. "Can we do it?"

"Yes, Prince Jake" He inadvertently stole Ax's joke, reverting to the Andalite system for addressing your superior.

I felt a stab of pain of the memory of Ax, I didn't know where he was, I didn't know what The One did to him. I wasn't sure I wanted to know, but even with all his alien weirdness, I wanted him back.

"Do it."