#47 The Resistance

[horkbajir]

Marco nodded toward Toby, the young Hork-Bajir with special powers. The "seer." She's pushing seven feet, nearly as tall as the largest male Hork-Bajir.
Most Hork-Bajir aren't terribly bright. Toby is the exception. Some Hork-Bajir say she's clairvoyant, that she sees the future before it happens. All of the free Hork-Bajir look to her for guidance and advice.
Toby stood in a circle with Ax, Marco, Cassie, and Rachel. Tobias was perched on Rachel's shoulder. The other free Hork-Bajir stood with Marco's parents, listening from a distance.
"What is it, Toby? What happened?"
"We raided a Yeerk facility yesterday, Jake," she said. "A day's journey from here. We rescued four of our people." She paused and looked down at the stream. "But one of our warriors was captured."


"There's no other way," Cassie agreed. "Even with our help, Toby, you can't fight an army of Yeerks. They have sophisticated weapons. Lots of reinforcements. There are fewer than a hundred of you." Cassie gestured to the crowd of Hork-Bajir. "Not more than sixty of you who are fit enough and old enough to fight."
"It's not fair," Rachel said angrily.
<No,>Tobias agreed. <But what choice is there?>
Toby was silent. Her expression showed nothing. She turned to Ax.
"The forest is too thick for the effective use of Bug fighters, isn't it?" she asked. "And the valley's too narrow."
Ax's stalk eyes scanned the closely spaced trees. <That is true. But that fact only improves the odds by a very small percentage.>
Toby turned to me now. "Will you help us defend our valley, Jake? Our home?"
I was getting a little annoyed. Toby didn't seem to get it. If we tried to fight the Yeerks, we'd be slaughtered.
"We want to help," I said. "But not if it means setting you up to lose."
Toby looked up into the trees, then turned to survey the camp. She planted the stick she was holding into the yielding ground. "This valley is our home," she said loudly. "We will not give it up. We'll stay and fight."


"Jake," Toby said. "No Yeerk will drive us from this home. I am willing to stay and fight and so are my people."
Grunts of accord rose from the free Hork-Bajir spectators.

They're going to fight with or without us," Cassie said, awed. As if maybe she'd suddenly changed her mind about what our role should be. "They're risking everything for their freedom."
"We have to respect that," Rachel said. "And we owe it to the Hork-Bajir to help."
I still couldn't believe what had just happened.
<This is just plain amazing,> Tobias said to us privately. <These Hork-Bajir know who they are and what they want.>

Toby smiled the strangely frightening Hork-Bajir smile.

I began to draw a rough map of the area in the dirt with a stick. Toby walked over to where I was crouched down.
"Thank you," she said.
"Yeah, well .. . I just hope your people understand what they're getting into. It ain't gonna be pretty."
"They understand much more than you give them credit for, Jake. They've been called upon to defend themselves before. They've been through a lot."
I nodded sheepishly and looked back at the dirt map.
After a while, I ventured further into the camp to check on the battle preparations. With advice from Rachel and Ax, the Hork-Bajir were positioning platforms in the trees.
A Hork-Bajir with a bundle of small tree limbs on his back and a coil of rope in his hand would scramble up a trunk, using heel and wrist blades to climb. Like a telephone repairman in fast forward. When he'd get about thirty feet up, he'd dig his ankle blades in firmly, lock in with both knee blades, and lean back. With both hands free, he'd lash the branches together. In about ten minutes, there was an elaborate but perfectly camouflaged platform.
When the builder finished, he'd climb onto the platform to test its strength. Then he'd descend quickly, move to another tree, and begin again. Younger Hork-Bajir then climbed to the completed platforms and stocked them with spears and arrows. Weapons the female Hork-Bajir were turning out with speed, efficiency, and skill. It was unbelievable to watch.
Hork-Bajir elders, the few who weren't quite as quick at climbing as they used to be, dug pits and trenches all over the camp. After one was dug, the very smallest Hork-Bajir children were lowered into it to place pointed wooden spikes into the dirt. Whoever fell into these holes would come out looking like Swiss cheese. If they came out at all. With the spikes in place, the kids were hauled up to help cover the pits. First with twigs that spanned the opening. Then with leaves that formed a bed to conceal it completely.

Cassie put her hand on Toby's arm. "Even if you survive, you'll have to go into hiding. Where will you go?"
"If we're forced to withdraw temporarily," Toby said calmly, "we'll go to the hills."

Toby's eyes dropped.
"I'm sorry. We don't think of you as freaks, but the average guy on the street? Toby, humans can't even deal with other humans who root for a rival football team."
"Yes," Toby said slowly. "I've learned that humans don't care for groups unlike their own."

For a moment, Toby said nothing. "But are we really that different from you?" she said finally.
She turned toward camp. Toward a Hork-Bajir who bent low to the ground and scooped her crying child into her arms. The child had fallen. The mother carefully raised the child to her shoulder and gently patted its back.
No, the Hork-Bajir weren't really that different at all.


We approached the outskirts of the colony. A dozen Hork-Bajir, eerily visible in the flickering torchlight, stood in two rows on either side of the path. Toby stood in the middle.
"Welcome," she said. "We're honored by your presence. We thank you for your help."
The campers didn't speak. They just walked on through the canopy of branches and the towering, bladed extraterrestrials.
"How did you know we were coming?" I asked Toby.
"The trees whispered something about new friends who would take up our cause. Human friends who would join our fight," she said. "I see things, Jake. Many things."

Toby had a diagonal slash across her chest and blood dripping from her fingers, but she was seeing to her people. Comforting, commending. Explaining that it was time to leave the valley. At least for a while.

"You know they'll be back. Not today, but soon."
She nodded. "I know, Jake. But we won today. It may not feel like victory, but the valley is ours now. Forever. We've paid for it."
She took a deep breath. "We'll stay away until the war is over. We know we have to. We had our chance to fight for freedom. That's all we really wanted."
"Toby," I said softly, "I don't know how the war will end."
"No. But it will. And someday . . ." She hesitated. She knew as well as I that if the Yeerks won out, she and the other free Hork-Bajir would be enslaved.
I finished her thought for her. "Someday," I said, "you'll be able to return."
She looked at me, eyes full of hope.