trans_9 | Productive?

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Productive?

Jack's not sure what he should be doing, he just knows he wants to be left alone to think. In an effort to look productive he's making good on his volunteering to try to get some kind of exploration drones going. First things first, he needs to plan.

He's sitting on the floor in the obs deck with his helipack open next to him, having taken his sketchbook out of it. He has a pencil, a ruler, and a few stencils and is hard at work doing technical drawings. He's getting pretty close to finishing with his current idea, the page is covered in neat, clean sketches and has a few small, square-lettered notes crammed in at the margins.

Jack's pretty absorbed in his work, and as a result he seems happier than any of the crew have seen him yet. This is something he understands and knows how to do.

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And that was when Stacy decided to hit him in the face with a bat.

The furry, flying kind, not a wooden one.

A gust of hot, breath-like 'wind' and a strange-sounding scream were Jack's only warnings before Stacy ejected the ship's resident Andalite from her systems. Fortunately, he was much, much smaller than usual. And had less blades.

< AAAAAAHH! >

SMAK!

||Aximili, you have received five Violations.||

"GYAAAAH!" Jack doesn't know WHAT is touching him, just that it's SCRABBLY and SMALL and FURRY and EEEYUCCCHHH! He lets out an alarmingly feminine scream and tries to wipe whatever it is OFF OF HIM, scooting backward along the floor reflexively with eyes screwed shut.

< Please stop hitting me, my foot is tangled in your hair! > Ax flapped his wings, trying to stay reasonably upright now that he wasn't tumbling end over end through Stacy's tubes. < You are going to injure me if you continue! >

Jack stops. He slooowly opens one eye, cautiously, as if afraid seeing the thing will make it worse.

It does.

"Eep!" he jumps backward again, knocking into a fatty couch. Eyes shut again.

"What are you and what are you doing on my FACE?!" he demands, trying to sound calm but just barely managing to contain hysteria.

Ax said, flapping a bit and trying to tug his foot free. < I was attempting to discover if I could locate the bridge or any other locked off areas via Stacy's ventilation. Stacy disapproved of my exploring that particular vent. Being on your face was entirely unintentional on my part. >

Tug. Tug-tug. Tuuuuug. Ax fired off a burst of echolocation in annoyance.

"Okay, uh, bat-dude. Quit moving. I can get you out of my hair faster if you quit moving." Jack manages to open his eyes again and realize that yes, it is a bat, and yes he REALLY hates it being in his face, but it's not trying to eat his eyes or anything.

< All right. > Ax grasped Jack's goggles with his free foot and wrapped his wings around his body. < My apologies. >

Jack, cringing a little bit, reaches up and carefully unhooks Ax's foot from his hair. "Okay, now please get off my face," he says, wiping his hand on his podsuit.

< Gladly, > Ax said, taking flight again. < And thank you. >

He fluttered behind the statues and landed on the floor. Awkward and unusual for a bat, yes, but Andalites couldn't hang upside-down by their hooves. And back here, the human wouldn't have to watch him demorph.

Ax concentrated and tried not to listen to the crunching noises as his little bat body first doubled, then quadrupled in size.

Jack didn't like the bat much, but that doesn't mean he's not curious about what it's doing on this ship with all these... well, with all these other admittedly weird things. Maybe this makes more sense than he thought it did.

In any case, he has to wonder what's making that noise. Jack creeps over to peer around a statue...

...And right into the dead eyes of some hideous, malformed monster.

Ax was still mostly giant bat, but his wings had withered away, leaving him with bare, bony fingers. His front legs had grown out of his chest to their full length, while his hind ones were still so stubby as to be invisible, with tiny clawed feet fusing into hooves.

As Jack watched, Ax's mouth sealed itself shut and his stalk eyes exploded from his forehead.

Jack does what has always worked for him when faced with something big and horrendous, he yelps and ducks back around the statue. Oh god please make it go away please let it eat somebody else please I'm too young to die!

Ax finished demorphing and peered around the statue with a single eye-stalk, hoping that Jack wasn't about to come around at him with some kind of weapon. He had already been threatened by crew members, thank you.

< It's over, > he said helpfully. < Thank you for not throwing up. >

Jack, by some amazing physiological feat, manages to be even paler than usual. He drags himself up to his feet, using the statue for support.

"I'm fine thanks," he says, a little squeaky. "What are you, some kind of alien?"

< Yes, > Ax said. 

He stepped out from behind the statue and walked over to Jack's now-abandoned notes.

< The bat was an entirely normal bat from Earth, however. > He scooped up Jack's sketch book with the flat of his tail and began to inspect his designs. < We don't have bats on my home planet. >

Jack almost immediately recovers. "Hey, don't touch that!" He runs over, but he's too reluctant to get too close to that tail blade that he's just noticed. Instead, he hovers anxiously. That's his sketchbook!

Ax promptly held Jack's sketch book out to him. Jack might notice that Ax could count to fourteen on his fingers, if he needed to.

< My apologies again, > he said. < Did you design those yourself? >

He was STARVED FOR SCIENCE. Seriously. Brainy only let him abscond with his omnicom so much.

Jack takes the sketchbook back eagerly. It's his, it's one of the few things he has here and he does not want to lose it. It's also pretty personal.

"Er, yeah. I did. People said we need some kind of exploring drones so you guys don't get killed in the vents or something, so..." Jack shrugs, tailing off in grumbly, "yeah what's it to ya" teenager fashion.

But wait... "You know anything about robots?"
Jack's talking to an alien. Aliens, by definition, have really sweet tech. This may or may not be advantageous!

< It isn't my specialty, > Ax said modestly, < But Andalite science is a great deal more advanced that human science, and I have basic competency. >

Fusion weapons. Hah. Humans.

"Okay..." he considers. "You can have a look if you want. I'm just getting ideas down right now. Just... don't turn the pages."

There are things in that sketchbook that it's probably better if nobody save Jack ever sees them. For their peace of mind. And, in one case, Jack's own dignity and ability to deny having a crush on a girl.

Oh Jack. Remind Ax to tell you about the girl he likes who could probably talk science with Brainy.

 Ax said, focusing his main eyes back on the sketchbook. One of his stalk eyes remained fixed on Jack, while the other scanned the room. It was probably a little disconcerting.

 he said after a moment or two. Hmmm. These ideas were actually quite good...

"Jack Spicer. Evil boy genius, prince of darkness. Working on world domination, and on first name terms with THE Chase Young." He brightens a bit at all these invented or dubious honors. Ax, looks like you've found yourself a weird one.

Ax's main eyes narrowed and his tail arched high over his head. He didn't put it to Jack's throat -- he had no desire to have Stacy slam him into a wall -- but this was not a happy funtime Andalite.

< World domination? > he repeated in a manner suggesting he had heard very well what Jack said and would like Jack to either repeat it or cower and take it back.

Jack takes this the wrong way, he shrinks back and flinches but his interpretation of Ax's meaning isn't really as intended.

"Okay, okay! So I'm not really making any progress. But I'm still learning!" he admits. "But I do know Chase Young, I've been in his evil lair!"

Really, he has photographic evidence at home. Autographed, even, because it was the quickest way to make Jack get out.

Ax said coldly. 

And he had no idea who this Chase Young person was supposed to be either, aside from apparently some famous evil person. With an evil lair.

Jack gets it now. "Oh... Don't tell me you're a hero, right? You're probably in league with the Xiaolin Losers... Look, okay, I'm not down on that ten-thousand years of darkness thing. That was WUYA'S FAULT. I just want to be top dog, okay?"

Jack, did it ever occur to you that the big blue centaur alien as no idea who the heck you're talking about?

Ax hadn't been this confused by a human talking since before he had gotten a television. He didn't let it show on his face though, since it would be counter-productive.

< Are you incapable of earning the position of 'top dog' through legitimate means? >

"Uh, yeah. I'm kinda fifteen, a little scrawny if you haven't noticed... I'm real good with the robot armies, though!" Jack babbles a little nervously, flashing a thumbs up on the subject of robots. They never argue with him, he can even build them to be supportive. There was that clone that went wrong once buuuuut he thinks he nailed the flaws in that design and could do it again no problem.

Ax scuffed a hoof against the floor in a gesture of contempt.

< So you would rather take power than earn it, > he said. < Surely you do not expect to be able to hang onto it? >

"I'm working on it. I mean with all the sweating and hard work and planning I've put into it it's hard to say I'm not earning it. It's still a long way off. And Chase is probably going to beat me to it anyway."

He sighs, running a hand through his hair. "And before I did that I'd have to think of a way to make it work out. I mean, I don't want to hurt people but still."

< You would have to keep working on it as long as you had it, > Ax pointed out. < If your world is anything like the Earth I know, people will fight. I read a book of famous human quotations, and one was "Give me liberty or give me death". You are going to have to fight those people when you try to take over the world. Those same people will defend you if you are working within the system. I know which side I would rather be on. >

"The trick is you use the system to your advantage. Sure there are some people you'd have to take out first, but that's what the robots are for. You need strategy." Jack, as it happens, is rather bad at strategy.

"There are ways to get to the top of the system without getting people to hate you. It's just really difficult and it's going to take some work. I've definitely had enough of the supernatural garbage that's supposed to work." No more pacts with ghosts, really!

< It seems as if it would be less work to work through the system without taking what is not owed, > Ax said, flipping Jack's sketchbook closed and holding it out to him. He would much rather work with Dox to construct any robots than risk actually breaking the law of Seerow's Kindness. He had taken responsibility for the Animorphs possessing the ability to morph, but he didn't think that they'd use it to attempt to conquer the world.

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