Chapter Text
Mertinia, Nailana and Romicala were standing on the bridge of the ship called the Ilariona, named after one of the most famous Andalite scientists, under the command of the only recently returned War Prince Alloran-Semitur-Corrass. They were three of only ten female arisths that had been allowed in the military since the first contact with the humans, which had led to hundreds of young women applying for training, and had been specifically requested for this mission. The commander was in a corner, talking to his second in command, Noorlin-Sirinial-Cooraf and the head scientist, Forlay-Esgarrouth-Maheen. The ship suddenly shuddered, dropped out of Zero Space and then the proximity alarm began to sound.
Everyone aboard went to the front observation window. Outside were hundreds of small yellow, egg-shaped ships, that no Andalite had ever seen before. Before anyone could react, they opened fire at a point just a few metres away. The dome was hit by the remains of the Yeerk ship that had been waiting, cloaked, for the right moment to attack. The unknown ships turned all at once and flew away at an enourmous speed. It all happened in a matter of seconds and left the Andalites with the question of why a species they did not even know should decide to help them, but they were grateful none the less.
But their helpers were quickly forgotten, as they looked at the nearest planet and realized that they did not knew where they were. Alloran and his officers left the bridge and walked to the fighters. They were planning to land on the planet and see if there was life on it. About one hour later they sent a call and ordered the rest of the crew to come immediately. After arrival, all of them were really surprised. The planet was like nothing they had ever seen before.
The grass was yellow, purple and white, the trees were full of unknown fruits and there was no sign of life in any direction. They split in four groups, each walking a different way. After a seemingly endless walk, Mertinia spotted a fire only a few metres away. Next to it was a big tree that had been hollowed out in the middle. The creature that stood in the hole was even stranger than the whole planet. It was a bit like the butterflies on Earth, but with much bigger wings in every imaginable colour.
It also walked on two legs and had a tail that seemed like it could cut the head of a Hork-Bajir off with just one strike. At first it did not do anything to let them assume it was dangerous, but as Mertinia curiously came closer it pulled some kind of weapon out from behind the back and pointed it at her. She stopped and raised her hands to signal that she was not armed. The creature was apparently satisfied, it laid the weapon on the ground and kicked it away.
Then it looked directly at her and she felt thoughts forming in her head that were not her own, it was a bit like thought-speech, but more focused on feelings than actual language. It was a form of communication that had been created to get around language barriers and Mertinia realized that the creatures, they called themselves Javians, were more intelligent than she had first assumed. She pointed her hand at herself and told it her name. Then she pointed to the others and introduced them as well. After she was done, the creature repeated the gesture and said: "Karillia." So it was a woman.
After the introduction Karillia led them a short distance into the hills, where a carefully hidden city appeared out of nowhere at a gesture of her hand. A short distance away was a high tech spaceport with the yellow egg ships that had attacked the Yeerks. But these were not the only ones, there were a few others as well, some of them so big that an entire Andalite dome ship would fit inside. Karillia turned back to Mertinia and projected an image of screaming Javians in her head. According to her that had been a Yeerk attack on a Javian research outpost, that had killed hundreds of men, women and children, making the entire Javian species, that had settled on more than a hundred planets in this system, an enemy of the Yeerks. Karillia promised that she would talk to her government about a possible alliance. She would contact the Andalites as soon as she had an answer. They said goodbye and the Andalites returned to their ship, where they would wait a week. If there had not been a message until then, they would continue their way to Earth.