<I don't have an actual plan contingent on us presenting through a filter that isn't installed for purposes that don't exist as three humans instead of five such that we need to figure out a configuration today. I'm just noting that the constraint is 'go in as humans, Yeerks, or other host species' and not 'go in as humans' - come to think of it, unless Visser Three likes having equipment around that can zap him, Andalite morphs would probably be safe too.> (Write, write.)
<Anyway. How - unified, I guess, is the Yeerk population? Are the ones on Earth generally on board with the infiltration effort or is there a chance of dividing them against themselves?>
<Okay. Other aliens besides Yeerks, Andalites, Hork-Bajir, and Taxxons who might be relevant at all?>
<How likely do they think Andalites showing up and saving the day is?>
He shrugs. "There was that one ship that Elfangor came off of, but nobody acts like they're expecting another one."
<And all Elfangor's shipmates were wiped out, like Visser Three said? Or was he posturing?>
"Down in flames," Trouble confirms. "That's the story. So if he was lying, he lied to his own side too."
"Good question. I'm not sure," says Trouble. "He got the job from Visser One, and that's pretty much all I know about Visser One, so maybe Visser One will come back or maybe somebody'll get promoted."
"There's a Council of Thirteen back on the home planet, and they're the big bosses. Then there's Vissers - no idea how many - the lower the number, the more important they are, and a bunch more Sub-Vissers with the same deal. The rest of them have numbers too - Aspret is Aspret 112 - but that just means they're the umptieth Yeerk born with that name."
<Are the local Yeerks in pretty regular contact with the higher-ups?>
"Well, Aspret sure wasn't. If anybody else was, she didn't hear about it or it didn't seem important."
"What, are these ones in contact with them, you mean? No. The higher-ups might be; the grunts aren't."
<Interstellar communication is expensive? No one thinks it's important? They're on radio silence for security reasons?>
"I think it's more like a hierarchy thing. You have to get a ways up the ladder before you're allowed into the fancy shit."
"...Being useful," he says at last. "Like Aspret's biochemistry, or Visser Three's Andalite host. The Yeerks want to conquer or destroy every other species they can find. The better somebody is at helping get that done, the more stuff they get."
<Did she have any guesses about the chemical warfare stuff?>