Tobias and Me 8

The plan was about to be set into motion. I was nervous as I was the one in charge. Jake was the one who should be commanding both Cat and myself, but he wasn’t here. It was just me and Cat on an alien world far from home.

Ready? I asked her.

Yes. Cat replied, trying not to show how nervous she was.

I looked down at the Hork-Bajir and wondered how to draw them out. For now we weren’t in their eyesight, but that would change very quickly. In a few minutes we would have had to made our move or fail.

Stay behind me and wait for a Hork-Bajir to leave the rest of the group. I told her. Or make a distraction somehow to attract one. Just don’t sound too human.

With that I flew away from her. I thought of how to attract the group’s attention. Yelling? Attacking them? Just showing that I existed? But how to also have it so that one wouldn’t join the others in chasing me?

I didn’t have time for subtlety and dove down while letting my hawk beak screech. This attracted all the Hork-Bajir and they pointed their Dracon beams upward.

I flew back up to try to escape getting killed, but a few tail feathers were singed in the process. Wow! Holy shit! That was beyond stupid. I turned around and tried to see if at least one Hork-Bajir was gone. Nope, they were still all there.

I swooped and tried to lead them around. Hoping, all the while, that Cat would somehow lead a Hork-Bajir away from the group. I had to continually dodge enemy fire as they didn’t let up an inch. They kept firing away and I kept trying not to die.

If I was injured and had to morph to fight them, then I would have to kill all of them. I couldn’t do that even if I tried. And what if any of them called back to base to tell the other Yeerks about me before they died? No, morphing something like a Hork-Bajir to fight them wasn’t an option at this point.

Probably should have done that before I did what I was doing now.

But I couldn’t change plans now. I flew up and checked how many Hork-Bajir there were. Yes! One was missing! Now all I had to do was lose the Hork-Bajir and go back to Cat.

Which was really easier said than done.

I saw a thick group of trees and lead the Hork-Bajir there. Every flap of my wings had me dodging Dracon beams. When I got them to where I wanted them, part of my wing was shot and I wobbled in the air.

I steadied myself and found myself able to fly away, but I kept flying lower and lower.

Tobias, I did it! He’s knocked out! I acquired him! Cat shouted and I could tell that she had been repeating the same thing for awhile now.

Good! I said and looked around for her.

You’re hurt. Cat said softly as I landed by her on the ground.

I’ll be fine. I reassured her. Morphing only affects DNA so this isn’t permanent. You need to demorph to acquire him.

Cat was silent for a minute. In that time I was able to reflect on a few things. The fact was that she really did care for me. The way she had acted when she saw me made that clear. It wasn’t just the care you gave someone rescuing you, it was something more. Or was that just me? Was that only what I was hoping she was feeling?

The other thing was more physical.

The others were right that my usual look nowadays seemed like I was always about to murder someone. While I knew that Cat cared about me, how she was looking at me seemed deadly no matter her intention. How did the others deal with that look?

I already acquired him. Cat finally said. I just morphed so that I could communicate with you. You didn’t answer for awhile.

Thought-speak has limited range. I explained. I was out of range.

I’m going to demorph, will you look away?

If the Controller wakes up I’ll need to know. Sorry.

Cat just nodded and demorphed. I was highly embarrassed of having to look at her while she demorphed. She was a good looking woman, but she didn’t want me looking at her. I was intruding. If she had wanted me to look at her it would’ve been an entirely different matter. I would’ve been enjoying myself, to say the least.

To distract myself from this awkward moment I kept a careful eye on the Hork-Bajir. I was ready to attack him if need be. I couldn’t morph a Hork-Bajir quickly enough, but I could give Cat a chance. Luckily the Controller didn’t move.

I breathed a sigh of relief after five minutes of waiting for her to morph again.

You sure you’re up for that much morphing in a short amount of time? I asked.

“I don’t have a choice.” Cat said as she finished her morph. “Wow.”

Calm mind. I said as I started to morph a Hork-Bajir.

I seemed to fly upwards as I grew. I gave a sigh of relief when I saw that my wound had healed. I knew that was going to happen, but I was still happy about it.

“So what are we going to do about him?” Cat asked and pointed to the Controller when I had finished morphing.

I looked around and then started cutting into a tree. I made a nice little hole in the tree that would be nearly perfect for the Controller.

“So we’re just going to put the body into the tree until he wakes up?” Cat asked and I cringed.

“You don’t have to watch if you don’t want to.” I said slowly.

“Watch you kill him.”

I nodded slowly. It wasn’t like it was an option I wanted. I didn’t want to kill an innocent being, but the Controller would say what he had seen and that couldn’t happen.

“It’s us or them.” Cat said in disgust.

“You don-“ I began.

“Yes I do.” She said and then helped me slit the Hork-Bajir’s throat and stuff him in the tree.

It was in this moment that I wanted Cassie to be there to stop us. For her to tell us that we were wrong for doing this. But she wasn’t.

As some blood dripped down my arm I looked at Cat’s Hork-Bajir face. She didn’t deserve this. She didn’t deserve to have any of this happen to her. Without meaning to, I touched her face and she looked into my eyes. I tried to show, with a look alone, how sorry I was for her.

Cat put one of her hands on my face and we stood like that for a few minutes.

“We should go back home now.” I told her.

She nodded and we put our hands by our sides.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All of Tobias and Me