The hatch opened.

<Loren! The shredder…. Shoot!>

The hatch door flew open with a boom. Loren fired!

TSSSEEEEWWW!

A Hork-Bajir warrior fell back. An arm appeared, reaching past the collapsed Controller and aiming a Dracon beam.

An Andalite arm!

TSSSSEEEEWWWW!

The Dracon beam fired. The shot missed me but hit Loren and knocked her, already unconscious, into me. With only three good legs, I fell hard to the deck on my numb arm. Loren landed on top of me.

The evil Yeerk creature who had stolen Alloran’s body pushed past the Hork-Bajir as I struggled desperately to get out from under Loren.

The visser was in! He was aboard the Jahar!

I had one chance. One. And then let the Yeerk kill me! I swung my tail, aiming blind. The visser jerked back reflexively. But I wasn’t aiming for him.

The tip of my blade hit the console. And to my great pleasure I heard —

TSSSSWWWWEEEWW!

The Jahar fired her shredders. Point-blank range. Point-blank range into the belly of the Blade ship.

<Noooooo!> the visser screamed.

Kuh-BOOOOOOOM! The Blade ship tore loose of the Jahar.

FWWOOOOOSSSH! The hatch was open to space. Air blew from the ship, sending it into a spin. Everything that wasn’t bolted down flew toward the open hatch.

The unconscious Hork-Bajir was thrown into space. Chapman’s unconscious body slid toward the opening. The visser was knocked down.

But even as he lay there, the Yeerk visser aimed his Dracon beam at me. <You’re a real source of agitation, Elfangor. Now, die!>

In despair I whipped my tail.

WHUMPF! Something hit us hard, just as the Yeerk squeezed the trigger.

TSSEEEEWWW! The Dracon blast missed me!

I was gasping for air. The oxygen was gone. The Jahar was spinning out of control through space.

The visser slammed against the walls as we spun wildly. Loren’s body rolled away toward the hatch, but now the automatic safety devices of the ship were slowly closing the door.

We spun, and through the window I saw flashes of Andalite fighters half-covered with living rock. And Yeerk Bug fighters now suffering the same fate.

I saw, in a wild, spinning flash, the Blade ship, one blade shot away.

And then … coming at us … rushing toward us … an asteroid!

FFWWWUUUMMMPPP!

The asteroid latched onto the poor, dying Jahar. And in wild, crazily pitching flashes as I was tossed helplessly, I saw the window going dark. Half-covered now. Half-covered by living rock!

The asteroid had us!

I was slammed violently by acceleration as the asteroid moved away from the battlefield, holding the Jahar in its death grip.

The Jahar’s compensators were off now. The ship was dead. Half-swooning from lack of air, I staggered up, fighting the insane force of acceleration.

Air! We needed air!

The emergency environmental power unit should have come on. But the ship’s power was dead, drained away by the energy-eating asteroid.

Air!

My lungs screamed. My hearts hammered madly, circulating useless blood. The manual emergency tanks, I had to … to …

But maybe it didn’t matter…. Maybe it was pointless to fight. Arbron … gone. Alloran … worse than gone. Terrible things … terrible sights …

Let it all end. It was fine without air. Fine to suck with your lungs and feel nothing. I was sinking, down, down, down.

No need to worry. Nothing to be afraid of.

Let it end, Elfangor.

Just let it end….