Efaen remains where she is, watching the others go to contend with the dead child. She frowns a little at the way Claxter jumps up to help with the situation, wondering why he cares so much when there is a whole ship full of humans and Yeerks who will likely grieve over the events, and be quick to assist Tess and Chris.
Most likely, she thinks to herself, he just enjoys sticking his tail where it does not belong. Her own mental use of the Andalite phrase makes her frown a little as she watches Claxter. Well, she reasons with herself, I can't very well say he sticks his 'nose' where it doesn't belong. Andalite noses aren't very protrusive at all.
Satisfied with her rationale, she turns away, resuming her seat on the grass some distance from the Andalites, near the stream. She sits cross-legged, contemplating the alien biosphere that looks so real. She can almost forget that she is trapped in a tiny bubble, floating in space. Even if it were not a mirage, though, the slice of Andalite home is not particularly comforting. The only thing she can appreciate is the relative openness of it. No matter how much she denied her Andalite roots, she could never get comfortable with the underground tunnels of the rebel base, and even the wider hallways of the the Corvus facility had made her feel claustrophobic.
<<While we're at it, how about a hot shower,>> Aya suggests wistfully. <<Maybe a hot tub? My parents had a hot tub, you know. I only got to use it a few times, because they said I was too young to be around all those chemicals.>> She trails of, her distant memories of a childhood on Earth no more comforting than her more recent memories.
<<I need to learn as much as I can about the Andalites here,>> she tells Lanath. <<Keslin will be relying on my memory, at least at first. Do you think we can gain access to the personnel files?>> Her reluctance to help Keslin, her mistrust of the leader who has already shown a penchant for using her, is tempered somewhat by their desperate situation.
