My name is Elfangor.

  I am an Andalite prince. And I am about to die.

  My fighter is damaged. I have crash-landed on the surface of the planet called Earth. I believe that my great Dome ship has been destroyed. I fear that my little brother Aximili is already dead.

  We did not expect the Yeerks to be here in such force. We made a mistake. We underestimated the Yeerks. Not for the first time. We would have defeated their Pool ship and its fighters. But there was a Blade ship in orbit as well.

  The Blade ship of Visser Three.

  Two Yeerk Bug fighters are landing on either side of me now. The abomination Visser Three is here as well. I can feel him. I can sense his evil.

  I cannot defeat the visser in one-on-one combat.

  I am weak from my injuries. Too weak to morph.

  Too weak to fight.

  This is my hirac delest — my final statement. I have formed the mental link to the thought-speak transponder in my fighter's computer. I will record ix

  my memories before the Yeerks annihilate all trace to resist. The human race cannot fall to the Yeerks of me..

  the way the Hork-Bajir race did.

  If this message someday reaches the Andalite I have given the morphing power to five young world, I want the truth to be known. I am called a humans. Children, really. But sometimes children great warrior. A hero. But there is a great deal that can accomplish amazing things.

  no Andalite knows about me. I have not lied, but I I have no choice but to hope. Because it was I have kept the truth a secret.

  who created Visser Three. I who caused the abomi-This is not my first visit to Earth. I spent many nation. I cannot go peacefully to my death, know-years on Earth . . . and yet, no time at all.

  ing that I created the creature who will enslave the I landed here now in this construction site be-human race.

  cause I was looking for a great weapon: the Time I came to this place, this empty construction site, Matrix. The existence of this weapon is also a secret.

  looking for the weapon I know is hidden here. But So many secrets in my life . . . mistakes. Things I there is no time now. No time .. .

  should have done. All the strands of my strange life The visser is here. He is laughing at my weak-seem to be coming together. It all seems inevitable ness. He is savoring his victory over me.

  now. Of course my death would come on Earth. Of This is the hirac delest of Elfangor-Sirinial-Sham-course the child would be here. Of course it would tul, Andalite prince. I open my mind in the ritual of be Visser Three who would take my life.

  death. I open my mind and let all my memories —

  I am too weak to locate the Time ship now. I will all my secrets — go to be recorded by the computer.

  die here. But I have left a legacy. Visser Three thinks This is not just a message to my own people. I he has won our long, private war. But I've left a little hope that someday humans will read it as well. Be-surprise behind.

  cause humans are also my people. Loren . . . and I have given the morphing power to five human the boy I have just met, but not for the first youths.

  t i m e . . .

  I know that in doing this I have broken Andalite law. I know that this action will be condemned by all my people. But the Yeerks are here on Earth. Visser Three is here. The humans must be given a chance x

  xi

  T w e n t y - o n e y e a r s b e f o r e The Yeerks were loose. Like some terrifying disease, they spread their evil from planet to planet.

  They took species after species. They crushed all resistance.

  Their spiderlike Pool ships roamed throughout the galaxy. Their armies of Taxxons and Hork-Bajir, all under the control of Yeerk slugs, rampaged —

  killing, butchering, enslaving.

  They were annihilating entire planets.

  Only we Andalites stood against them. But we had been caught off-guard. Our mighty Dome ships, each more than a match for anything the Yeerks had, were spread too thin. Our spies, even though they used top-secret Andalite morphing technology, were unable to penetrate Yeerk secrets.

  For five years our princes had fought the vissers of the Yeerk Empire. They said the war could go on for another fifty years . . . another hundred years.

  We were outnumbered. We had fought many battles and lost too many of them. But arrogant as I was, I was confident that if only I could get into the sliced me up twenty different ways in less than a fight, I could make a difference.

  second.

  I, Elfangor, was going to become a great warrior, Maybe. Sometimes I thought I'd be faster and a prince, a hero.

  better if it was a real battle, not just a lesson. I was I was posted as an aristh, a cadet, to the Dome sure if my life depended on it, I could win.

  ship StarSword. But so far, after six months in space In any case, Sofor was not my enemy. He was looking for an elusive Yeerk task force, I had not ex-my teacher.

  actly proven myself to be a great hero.

  according to my instructors.

  I watched his main eyes, but it wasn't easy. His

  Sofor yelled his thought-speak loudly just like Sofor had taught me.

  enough that half the ship probably heard him.

  he re-on my four hooves, just like I was supposed to. At minded me.

  the same time I had to think about where my Suddenly . . . FWAPPP!

  weight was centered, and whether the tilt of my up-I fired the muscles in my tail! The bladed tip per body signaled when I was going to strike, and cracked the air, it moved so fast. I could barely see whether the grass floor under my hooves was un-my own tail as it struck.

  even, and whether my hands were out of the way, The blade arched over my head toward Sofor's and about a million other things a warrior should face, and I thought, Hey, maybe old Sofar will end know for tail-fighting.

  up with a new scar. If I landed a blow on Sofor, I'd Sofor was bigger than me. He was a full warrior, be a hero with every poor aristh who had ever suf-while I was just a lowly aristh — a warrior-cadet. If fered under him.

  this had been an actual battle, Sofor would have Then . . . SWOOP! FWAPP! FWAPP! FWAPP!

  2

  3

  Sofor blocked my tail blade with his tail, turned it I shook my head. What was I doing, getting aside, and in about a tenth of a second delivered smart with Sofor? What was the matter with me?

  three lightning blows. One to each side of my head, Was I insane?

  and a third that left his razor-sharp tail blade pressed

 
  uppity arisths.>

  If Sofor so much as twitched, he could remove The old warrior laughed at his own wit, turned my head from my shoulders.

  away, and went galloping off across the grass,

  Sofor said with a holding his tail as high as an Andalite half his age laugh.
  most have hit me . . . if I were asleep!> I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I looked around He laughed again and pulled his tail away.

  the circumference.

  I muttered.

  think you were running across any well-kept area I regretted the words the instant they were out on the home world. But when you look up, you see of my head.

  that you are in space, protected only by a clear plas-Sofor turned his stalk eyes toward me. He had a tic bubble, a dome.

  dangerous expression. I saw other warriors off running across the grass,

  I stam-feeding and playing and practicing their skills. But mered. But I was staring at the scar below his eye none seemed to be watching me.

  the whole time.

  I replayed the fight with Sofor. How had he

  had given me away?

  4

  5

  What was the matter with me? Was I actually

  I said.

  mad because Sofor was faster than me? Of course Arbron kicked lightly at the grass with one hoof he was a bett

er fighter than me. He'd been in more in a gesture of contempt. Then he said the insult battles than I could imagine.

  that went with the gesture.
  of the air?>

  Through my stalk eyes I saw someone coming