The Alien (7 page)

Cassie was not a professional, but she had the talent. As she morphed, she formed pleasant shapes. For a while she had an enlarged osprey's head, as large as a human head, and vast wings attached to a human body.

When the others morph, they are much less subtle. For them, human parts simply ooze out, while feathers melt away. It is very unappealing. The humans find it frightening and disgusting as well, I believe. And they even recognize that Cassie has a talent for morphing.

“What did you
do
?!” Marco's human mouth had reappeared.

“My dad's computer. You did something to it, didn't you?”

“Game? GAME?! That was no game, that was my dad's work!”

Suddenly an idea occurred to me.

Cassie started to laugh, then silenced herself.

“No, Ax, he writes software programs for high-tech uses. He was working with astronomers at the observatory. They were designing a program for aiming the radio telescope at the new observatory.”

I nodded, as I had seen humans do.

“If you say ‘game' again, I swear I'm going to punch you,” Marco said.

Prince Jake put his hand on Marco's shoulder. “What Marco means is, it was not a game, Ax. His father is going nuts about it.”

“My dad says you may have created some whole new branch of computer software, plus, at the same time, opened up new ways to do astronomy. He showed it to the guys at the observatory. They are totally losing it! They're talking about Nobel prizes! I had to convince my dad it was just an accident. I told him you were an idiot, and you were not the next Einstein.”

World Almanac
. He was the first human to realize that matter and energy —>

“Ax!” Rachel exploded. “Are you not getting this? What if some Controller hears about this new software? Don't you think they might guess it was an
Andalite
who came up with it?”

It hit me quite suddenly. She was right. If those equations were supposed to be real, not a game, but
real
. . . Then I had just pushed human science ahead by a century. Maybe more.

“I think he just got it,” Marco said sarcastically.

I asked Marco.

He shrugged. “Like I would know? What am I, a science teacher?”

“A radio telescope is a telescope that sees by picking up radio waves and other radiation from outer space,” Cassie said.

Marco gave her an incredulous look.

“Not all of us sleep through science class, Marco,” Cassie said.

“What?” Marco snapped. “What about the changes you made?”

Suddenly I stopped. The truth . . . the
whole
truth . . . was beginning to dawn on me. A radio telescope? A huge, high-powered collector of broad-spectrum energy?

My mind raced through memories of classes from a long time ago. I could almost picture my teacher explaining . . . yes. Yes! With the right adjustments, the right software . . . Yes, I could bounce the collected energy back, focus it, modulate it with my own mind, and . . .

And break into Z-Space. Zero space.

I could use the system to send messages through Z-Space! I could communicate with my own world!

I felt it as a blow that made me weak. It was true. I could use that radio telescope to call my home world. To call my people. My family.

I don't think I had ever admitted, till that moment, just how much I wanted to see another Andalite.

“Ax, what are you hiding
now
?” Rachel demanded.

I tried to concentrate on her question. But my mind was spinning. It made me feel weak. I could contact my home planet. I
could
.

But at the same time, there was another truth: I had to destroy this technology. I had broken the law of
Seerow's Kindness
. I had given the humans a huge advance in technology!

“Ax, Rachel asked you a question,” Prince Jake said tersely. “What is this? What's up with you?”

My duty was clear. I could not tell my human friends what I had done. I had to erase the damage.

But before I did that . . . would it be wrong to contact my family? Would it be so wrong to once again see them?

I lied.

T
hey left, and I ate. I feed at dark whenever possible. It is not the way I would do it at home, but I must always be very careful not to be seen.

When I run in the open spaces it must either be dark, or Tobias must watch over me.

My friends tell me that from a distance I look like a normal Earth animal. A deer, or perhaps a small horse. But if any human saw me clearly, he or she would immediately know that I am not an Earth species.

So I eat at night, running wildly through the open grassy fields where Cassie's farm meets the edge of the forest. I run beneath a single moon, so different from the moons of my own world. The moon of Earth rises and sets. On some nights it cannot be seen at all. There are always at least two moons in our sky. And when all four moons are in the night sky, it is nearly as bright as day.

Home. Eighty-two light-years away. Sometimes I hurt from thinking about my home. A warrior has to overcome that. But on nights when I stood alone in the forest, or ran alone in the fields, I couldn't help but think of home.

And now it was worse. So much worse, thinking that I could talk to them, if I really wanted to.

I could turn the humans' radio telescope into a Z-Space communicator. But if I did, I would have broken our own law. I would have given the humans an advanced technology.

I couldn't do it. I wasn't Elfangor. I couldn't just decide to break the law of
Seerow's Kindness
.

And yet, in the back of my mind, there was another thought. I had already accidentally transferred the software to the humans. It was an accident, so I hadn't broken the rules. And if I went to the observatory to wipe out the software . . . I would actually be doing the right thing.

I could go to the observatory and erase the software. But before I erased it, I could use it to call my home. Would that be wrong?

In my memory I saw myself with my father and mother. And Elfangor was there, too. He was alive in my memory.

I remember when I was very little and Elfangor, who was already a great warrior, came home on leave. I barely knew him. I'd seen his communications, but I'd never met him face-to-face. He had been away when I was born, off fighting the Yeerks.

But we went running together, just the two of us. Me all clumsy. Elfangor like some creature from an Andalite myth, so fast and so powerful.

It was kind of a shock to me. Until then, I guess I'd thought I was the most important person in the family. But it was hard to feel very important with Elfangor around.

He didn't say much to me. He didn't give me some “big brother” lecture. He was just himself. He talked to me the same way he talked to our parents. He never treated me like a younger Andalite, and that was great. After that, there was never any question in my mind what I wanted to be when I grew up: I wanted to be a warrior. I wanted to be like Elfangor.

And now he was gone. Our parents might not even know. For sure they didn't know I was still alive.

I slowed my run. I was far across the fields. I could see the lights from Cassie's farm. Foolish! I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I had grown careless.

I turned to head back toward the forest.

“You might as well hang around for a while,” a voice said.

She loomed up from the darkness. How had I missed seeing her? I looked closer. Cassie was in mid-morph. She kept her own human face, but sported the ghostly gray-white mane of a horse. And her legs ended in hooves, not human feet.

I said.

As soon as she was fully human she responded. “I do that sometimes. I like running. But don't tell Jake. He'd be mad at me using morphing for personal things.”

I said.

Cassie laughed quietly. “I doubt it. I'm just a friend. And a fellow Animorph.”

“Oh . . . well, you weren't supposed to see that.”

“Um, it's kind of a long story,” Cassie said. “Just forget it, okay? How is your study of humans going?”

World Almanac
.>

“So, what do you think?”

“Uh-huh. What do you
really
think?”

I hesitated. She seemed to want a more complete answer. But you can never be sure with humans. Often they become offended by small things.

I said.

“Aside from being able to have a lot of human hosts? Why?”

“Afraid of us? Why?” She laughed. “Have you been reading all the stuff about wars? Humans aren't just about fighting wars. It may seem that way, but —”

I said.

“Yeah, well, we humans haven't been exactly perfect.”

I said.

She looked closely at me. I could almost see her wondering whether I meant Andalites as well. But she decided not to ask that question. Instead she asked another. “So if it isn't the wars that bother you, what is it?”

“You really did read the
World Almanac
, didn't you?” Cassie said with a smile. “You're saying we do things quickly?”

“How long did it take you Andalites to do those things?”

I lied.

“I see,” Cassie said. I believe her tone of voice is called “disappointed.”

I hung my head. It sounded pathetic, even to me.

“Not even if it might help us beat the Yeerks? But isn't that what your brother did, when he gave us the power to morph?”

I could not think of an answer. It was true, of course. Elfangor
had
broken our laws.

“Did I say something wrong?” Cassie asked.

I said finally.

“I see,” Cassie said. “You know what? Why don't you morph to human and come inside? You could meet my mom and dad. We're just about to have dinner.”

Cassie raised one eyebrow. “You've eaten, huh?” She seemed about to ask me a question, then decided against it. “Okay, but you could still come in. You don't have to eat much. Just hang out. Come on, it would do you good.”

“No. Just lonely. You seem very lonely.”

The word pierced me. I was surprised how much it hurt.

Yes, I was lonely. But I didn't think the humans knew.

Cassie shrugged. “You morphed Jake once, right? So be Jake.”