Animorphs: Ressurection

[Estelore]

<In case you have forgotten, Shaun, humans die after no water for three days. You were unconscious for two days; this is day three. I suggest you be more sensitive to the needs of your fellow humans and especially the Leerans, who at this point must be suffering incredibly.> Reli kept the message private. No reason to publicly single him out for being rash.

[Horsefan1023 (Seal)]

Even through Mesa's fog, she could hear Shaun's private comment.  After he demorphed, she said to him privately, and gently, I don't think now is really the time.  This isn't to say I don't approve, but we need to assess our needs first.  And Reli is right--you need water.  She turned back to Reli.  I think we should ration out our water, but in appropriate proportions.  We don't want only a few drops left for the last people and the rest of us completely hydrated.

[Estelore]

<Like I said, I'm letting the rest of you decide that among yourselves. I don't exactly represent a species in majority here. Ehruf, I'll be right back; I want to take a look at what kind of scraps we have to work with in the weapons department.>

Reli stepped over to Marty's side and watched him examining and fiddling with various pieces. Her eyes widened, and she waved at Reyna to approach and take a look, too. Sky knows she might want just to get away from Shaun for a moment...
<Please excuse my interruption, but it occurs to me that along with all the necessary parts for some rather... vintage... Shredders, in here are similar parts for Dracon weaponry. Not to presume anything, but in your schooling, were you ever taught how to assemble a handheld Dracon from its parts?>

Reli picked up a bright green Shredder power supply, a focusing lens, and four slightly charred and twisted segments that she could force with Kelbrid hands into a barrel and grip. After manipulating them for a moment, she twisted the grip to adjust the focal length and intensity, and then she fired the weapon at the nearest small pile of meat. A narrow, pale green beam of light lanced out of the weapon, TZEEET!!

The meat on the surface of the pile was charred hamburger-brown, and the warm smell of cooked meat filled the room.
<There are parts for two more Shredders in here, and if I counted right, I think the other parts will make three Dracon weapons. I can put the Shredders together as easily as this one, but Dracons operate by a slightly different principle and with a nuclear power supply instead of a solar supply. Reyna, if you have any knowledge of them, I'll leave you and Marty to it. If not, I can try to tinker with them. Either way, at least now we have something for you humans to eat.>

[BaronConall]

Ehruf addresses Fisher, <I do not know where these places are, but if your friends are harboring Kel-Spawn, then we are going to Feytheer to contain and possibly treat them.> He regards Reli's suggestion at demorphing with a **** of his head. <Why would I need to change back? I am at no risk of becoming soul-bound yet.>

Ayrow sits near the console, staring at the group.

Jim, in light of the recent news, has made his decision. "It's okay with me if I need to get frozen."He says, a little too detached, walking towards the pods.

I start to notice the dehydration more and more the more we relax. I'm for rehydration. What is our estimated arrival time, Ehruf? I turn to Reyna, realising how much time has passed, We're also going to need to find a way to keep the Visser alive. He can't be far from Kandrona Starvation.

Ehruf looks at me, flicking several switches. <Thirty minutes.> Suddenly, a white-red rift opens before the front of the ship. The ship travels forward, towards the gaping mouth of the rift and upon entering... Nothing happens.
Everything seems just the same. On closer inspection, however, it is revealed that a large present is aproaching, still far enough away to be indiscernible.

<Feytheer.> Ehruf says. <As far as Etheriper as possible, on the outer arm of the galaxy. Roughly 70,000 light years apart.>

[warren_bearclaw]

In response to the matter of food and drink, Marty said. "I'll be fine with a smaller ration. I think I'll be alright with just a bit of water til we land somewhere... strange as it sounds, I don't feel like I'm dying of thirst at the moment." He shrugs, expressing that he doesn't really understand it either. And with a smile, he adds, "And I'm good as far as the food goes for a while... I'm in college, we don't eat that much anyways."
  Marty begins tinkering with the bits and pieces in his hands, laying them out on the floor in a pattern. "Does anyone see any tools I can use here?" He begins rummaging in the bin again, searching.

[Estelore]

Reli told Ehruf privately,

<I was suggesting it for two reasons, the first being that we are both exhausted physically and mentally, and retiring to our own forms would be restorative, as long as the Leerans are able to pilot. The second...>

Reli winced.

<The second reason is that I DO intend to demorph presently, and that will make me instantly the single most appetizing thing in this ship, as far as your Kelbrid body is concerned... and you smell like hunger, too.>

Reli opened up her thought speak to reach Marty and the group.
<You won't feel the thirst immediately, because your time in morph allows your natural bodies to preserve a certain amount of moisture. However, the very act of demorphing takes significant calories, and the process of burning that much energy requires a significant amount of your body's water content.>

[Gumby]

Fisher suddenly realized how blasted thirsty he was. Like a great wave, a dreadful thirst suddenly swept over him, causing him to stagger and swoon a bit. The adrenaline, the fighting, it had all kept his mind away from the thirst, and now it was hitting back with a vengeance.

He staggered back, his hands groping for a resting place. Finding the wall, he collapsed back against it, half-leaning up against it. He listened, more or less with everyone else about the water debacle, about dividing it and so on. He half-nodded in agreement over the Leerans hydrating first, then he loat strength and fell.

Hunger, thirst, and the fatigue brought on by sudden rushes of adrenaline leaving brought him down, slumped against the wall. Ben-David heard, and whipped around to see his leader on the ground, eyes widening in surprise. Then running over to the water reservoir, he grabbed what must have been a Kelbrid cup or something of that sort and filled it up, bringing it over to Fisher.

The rest of his fireteam gathered around him too, concern on their faces. Tipping the cup slowly to his mouth, Ben-David let Fisher drink slowly and carefully. Once the cup, it must have been a liter and a half, was half empty, it passed between the others who finished it off.

The water really did a world of good for the UNSN Corporal, he found new strength pouring through him and he stood up in time to see Marty and Reli tinkering around with the parts for weapons. As a beam of pale green light lanced out and barbecued a hunk of meat, Fisher became much more engaged, letting out a faint "Yeah!" Then curiosity took over and, examining his weapon, asked the Pemalite Ehruf.

"So what exactly does with thing shoot? Energy, projectiles?"

[BaronConall]

<True, yet I have had more time familiarizing myself with this morph than any other here. And I have no objections to raw meat. Kelbrid prefer it that way.> Ehruf responds to Reli. He then taps his head, <And if my internal clock is anything to go by, I still have two and a half hours in this form. I may as well keep my true body from becoming hungry as long as possible.>

He then addresses Fisher, <It's a Kelbrid Zapper. It works in much the same way as this ships weapons. Knock out the prey for herding, farming or eating. It only has one setting, which will knock out any target for approximately two days.>

I speak up from the refrigeration unit. I have since opened the door and grabbed the equivalent of a gallon container, drinking half and pouring the rest over my body. Perhaps now is as good a time as any to get answers. I am still aware that some of you may even have questions for me at this point.

Jim, in the meantime, is still standing in front of the pod, staring blankly at it. Open. Activate. Initiate. Shaper Permitted Action. Please just let me go to sleep and not think about this anymore...

Actions keep replaying in his head like horrors. The gutted Pemalite, the throats of the Kelbrid being torn out. The sickening slaps, cracks and thuds. Reli, leaning down to eat Kage. And the blood. The memories always come back to the blood.

[Estelore]

Reli's head snapped toward Ehruf.

<Two and a half... hours?> Her voice was incredulous.

<The morphing technology we use has a limit of exactly two hours. I presently have twenty-two minutes left safely in morph... and if you are certain of your control, then I will go ahead and demorph. Honestly... this body is hungrier after eating a full meal than my own body is after two days and six morphs without food... and when my own body is hungry, it does not make me a danger to my teammates.>

Reli walked over to the stasis pods and activated them for Kage and Jim, and then she demorphed, fatigue making the process slow.
Three minutes and thirty-two seconds. A new bad personal record.

She walked back to the bin full of tool scraps and shards of metal; she found a piece that had probably once been something like a helmet; it appeared to be watertight at the crown. She used the Kelbrid cup to decant half a liter of water into the helmet and submerged her hoof in it completely.
<Ahh, that is an improvement.>
When she was done, the 'helmet' was completely dry, all internal moisture absorbed from it. She then refilled it as close to the brim as she could and carried it over to Mesa.

<Here; I'm going to go tinker on the weapons a bit more, and then I intend to rest as long as can be done before landing.>

Reli briskly worked together two more Shredders with the parts available; they were markedly smaller than the first one, making the work very delicate, but at least barrels and grips on these were still intact enough to interlock cleanly with each other. Some long strips of a leathery material were mixed in among the tools, and she looped one through the smallest Shredder's trigger guard and tied it loosely around her waist. She took out another strip and tied it perpendicularly to the main loop, putting it over one shoulder... a crude but sufficient sling that wouldn't let the Shredder be easily parted from her. She tested it, firing at the meat pile again. Once again the aroma of barbecue wafted through the cabin.
<Perfect.>

Reli let go of the Shredder completely, and it hung at her side, in reach and out of the way.

<The other two Shredders are designed well to be used by Andalite or human hands; anybody who wants them is welcome to them.> She looked hard at Shaun for a brief instant, but said openly, almost flippantly,
<But that's not an excuse to compete over them or fire them casually on board a moving starship. I would suggest that the Leerans opt for any of the larger weapons, namely the Dracons, because they are typically inoperable to human hands, but tentacles and Hork-Bajir have no trouble with them. That is, once the Dracon weapons are constructed.>

[warren_bearclaw]

Marty pulled his head out of the bin, holding a couple things that might have been tools. "I found some!" He laid the tools in a row beside the parts, and began tinkering with them. Reli soon joined him. Soon, she had pieced together two guns, which worked. Marty smiled. "Awesome." he said. He finished putting the outer casing onto his own contraption, checking it over. He held it out to Fisher. His squad would have much better use of it than he would himself. He looked back at his pile of scrap... he had pleased to see that he had enough for a couple more guns, as well.

[Estelore]

Reli smiled appreciatively as Marty successfully assembled a Dracon pistol.

<You do good and clever work; you are a credit to the innovative capacities of your species.>

[Cobra (Gymn)]

Chris had demorphed and now he sat against the wall, lost in thought. He couldn't believe he lost it!

[warren_bearclaw]

Marty scratched his neck in modest embarrassment. "Well thanks. It just runs in our family, I think.  I mean, it's not every father who teaches his kids to make his own video games before paying for those crazy overpriced ones. I'm a quick learner is all...." He chuckled at the memory, while snapping a particle diffuser onto the power core of a second gun.

[Terenia]

"A Dracon?" Reyna was grateful for the opportunity to leave the uncomfortable moment with Shaun. She scurries over on her hands and knees, not bothering to rise to a full standing position. "I know the theory, but I've never seen a real one." Her voice was thick with excitement, but her thoughts are confused. Why would there be Dracon parts all the way out here when they haven't been in use for decades? She watches is awe as Marty constructs the weapon. It is, unfortunately, too large for her own hand. She isn't sure why she feels so disappointed at this. She has never shot a weapon in her life, and the thought of using one to destroy someone else does not thrill her. Still, they are Dracon weapons.

"May I hold one?" Reyna asks Marty, looking at him with wide eyes, eager to inspect the Yeerk artifact.

[warren_bearclaw]

Marty notices that he's drawing a small crowd. "Yeah, let me just..." he says, trailing off as he finishes the device. "Ow!" he mutters, pulling his finger back as a spark jumps from a wire. He glares at it, then uses something like a pair of tweezers to stuff it into the tangle of other wires before screwing on the outer shell. He really liked the way these came in large chunks... it made assembly much faster. "Here." he said, handing it to Reyna. He smiled. She seemed to be coming out of her own shell more and more. He was sure that she would be really fun to be around when she felt more comfortable.