They do this. 

There is not an immediate reply.

Emril is kind of shaking. Also she wants to hug Enstat, like, a lot? Unfortunately Enstat is currently in an Andalite who probably hates Yeerks, they all do. 

:Thank you: she says to her in Mindspeech instead, fervently. 

<You're welcome.

You know how to pay me back.>

She does. She just really, really hopes all the other players in this game will let her keep that promise. 

Mardic is with Donni and Rasha in the echoing emptiness of a base that was hastily evacuated in both directions. Watching a radio and the surface sensors and the human television and some tapped phone lines that don't have anything on them right now. They're very willing and ready to Final Strike at the slightest hint of trouble, they have a Companion who would catch something like the gas happening, and Nayoki figured someone ought to stay on Earth. 

Donni is taking apart some piece of technology the Andalites left behind, because of course she is.

:–Donni. Donni, come here right now: 

Donni comes. 

They don't know what to do about the radio broadcast claiming that the Yeerks are surrendering. It's...good news probably? Leareth is maybe alive? Unless it's a trap?

They spend the next candlemark talking about whether or not to reply. Decide against, it's too irreversible and this is so far above their pay grade. 

They try the inter-world version of the comms spell a few times, to get through to someone in Velgarth - they try for Vanyel and another mage - but they're not really strong enough and they only sort-of-learned it, very quickly, and it doesn't work. 

They pace. Wait. Watch the television. Eventually take shifts to get some sleep. 

...Eventually Visser 3 is going to have to get out of Leareth's head, he's running out of morph time. 

<Are we going to have a problem with the compulsion forcing you to explode?> he asks Leareth. 

...No, Leareth doesn't think so, actually. He's more paranoid than Emril and - concerned that means they're going to have to be really careful about not even looking like they might put a Yeerk near him. But he provisionally trusts Mhalir to order his people not to do that. 

<I can leave his head and he will be fine, but we need to be very very careful about not startling him or his mind control precautions might force him to explode> the Visser tells his staff. 

-- they will do their best to be really careful not to startle him. Is that what happened to Dupont Circle.

Leareth, as soon as he has his mouth back, can confirm that he's pretty sure that's exactly what happened at Dupont Circle. Though having your safehouse stormed by dozens of Controllers is a little more than 'startling'. 

...He doesn't have his Gifts back. That's really frustrating. It makes sense that Nayoki's conditional set-command functions differently from the compulsion, and - well, he doesn't feel safe, right now, he feels terrified and helpless and not having magic is really not helping but, well, it seems he can't think his way out of that paradox although he spends a while trying. 

Leareth doesn't mention that this might leave him unable to explode. It's possible the compulsion would override the set-command with less pressure on it, they did not extensively test the interactions under extreme circumstances. 

He's also so, so tired, and still feels awful, much more noticeably so now that he's the one driving his body. "Was I injured badly?" he asks the person in medical-looking clothing. "I feel very terrible right now." 

"You spent a while not breathing much oxygen. I don't think there's going to be long-term damage, your Yeerk would've noticed, but I'm not surprised you don't feel great. You can put the mask back on, if you want." There's one next to his bedside.

He does feel mostly capable of having thoughts, which is at least indicative he didn't rack up actual brain damage. (If he did, maybe Matirin will give him morph about it?) 

Leareth puts the oxygen mask on, and then asks Emril if she can please stay here and, as the non-Yeerked person there, make sure nobody sticks a Yeerk on him. He's exhausted but doesn't think he can sleep otherwise. 

Yes, of course. (Poor Leareth. She can tell that he doesn't have his Gifts back, though she also hasn't mentioned it.) Emril drags a chair over to the hospital bed and sits next to him. It's...weird, seeing the commander of the army she worked for like this, but of course he's a person too, who can be injured and tired. 

...Eventually, once he's asleep, she reaches out and takes his hand. So she can do a bit of Healing while she's here anyway, she thinks, and he'll wake up feeling better. Also he's had such a bad day, an even worse day than hers, and he did such an impressive thing, convincing the Visser to surrender, and it feels unfair if he doesn't, in exchange, get someone to sit with him and hold his hand. 

The Visser's people keep him updated. No one has answered. They may have jumped off planet, or just not be sure what secure communications look like. 

(Is he sure they have to surrender. The Andalites are going to murder them all or at best lock them in pools forever while they debate whether Yeerks ought to be allowed to exist.)

Maybe. Although Leareth is, he thinks, on their side. The bigger consideration is that he's pretty sure the alternatives are all worse. Either the Andalites are going to win, with the resources they still have, or they're going to use their weapon to kill everyone on Earth. Leareth is pretty sure that plan was already laid. 

Mhalir is not, when in possession of all the facts, willing to gamble on a (slim, he thinks) chance of winning outright, when losing means that billions of people die, even if the Pool ship gets away. All the Yeerks locked in pools for fifty years is still better than that. 

It feels so unfair, for Yeerks, who are too decent to kill five billion people, to lose precisely because Andalites are that evil and willing to stoop that low. 

(Alloran is so baffled.)

Mhalir paces in Alloran's body, and tries not to fret unproductively. Eventually manages to pull himself away from watching the computers. Tells his staff to wake him for anything Andalite-related, and gets some sleep. 

In the morning they alert him of a hyperspace jump. About a hundred million miles out. Presumably the Andalites but they won't be able to tell until they get closer.

<Could we broadcast a message to them now, if we wanted to> It would be awkward if it was someone else but how much worse can that really make things.  

They could. The latency on responses will be considerable but messages will work fine.

<Please transmit a short, straightforward message repeating the offer of surrender and asking to discuss terms while the Andalites approach Earth.>