My name is Tobias.

I've talked to an alien. I've listened to its telepathic "voice" in my head. I've tried my best to welcome it to our planet and to represent the human race, as best I can, to our interstellar ambassador.

And then, I had to go back to school.

It was the longest day I'd ever spent not paying attention in class. I wanted to doodle on every sheet of notes—the arc of the spaceship, or even the brave, mysterious face of the alien himself. But it had to be secret, I remembered. If anyone could be a Controller, then maybe even the classmates trying to copy my notes...

But the truth is, I wasn't even that worried about the prospect of the mind-stealing parasites. Which sounds funny, I guess—maybe you'd think that being told about an evil empire coming to take your planet would weigh on your mind a little more. I couldn't stop thinking about the first alien, though. Aximili. How he'd survived—morphed—back from all the wounds he'd sustained, how he immediately tried to warn us about the threat we faced. I knew I had to see him again, to speak to him. I was almost jealous of Cassie for having access to the woods, that she'd gotten to be the first one to pick his brains and talk to him. It was ridiculous, I knew. I was just a kid, it wasn't like I had my own yard or anything. All the same...

I ate lunch with the others, that day. "We have to go back," I pleaded. "There has to be something we can do, to help."

Cassie looked nervous, but said nothing. Marco jumped in. "Are we sure this is real? I mean, not that you guys are crazy or anything, but this is all a little..."

"Of course it's real," said Rachel, "what do you think?"

"Hey," said Jake. "We don't need to all decide together. If you want to go, go. If you want to leave it be—then leave him be. Just don't talk about it, be reasonable."

"Jake," said Marco. "You really think I'm going to let you go off into the big scary woods to talk to you-know-whats on your own? You need a babysitter."

"Just like we need one in the construction site, right?" Rachel asked.

"I just don't want to pressure anyone into it," said Jake.

"I'm going," I repeated. "Whatever happens, I want to be part of it."

"Me too," said Rachel.

Jake nodded, and Marco flipped his hands over in a helpless expression. "See what I mean?"

There was still the rest of the day to get through—Mr. Pardue in science, Ms. Paloma in history class—and I focused on that about as well as I had in the morning. Again, I could have made the excuse of "the world could be overrun by aliens tomorrow, what's the point of dissecting cow eyes today," if I wasn't buzzing in excitement. The other alien had been real, too, and he was still here.

I had to get directions to Cassie's place—her dad's a vet, but they take care of wild animals rather than pets, so I'd never had to take my cat there. Of course, like most kids, I'd been to The Gardens, the theme park and zoo where Cassie's mom worked. But beyond that, I didn't know Cassie too well, or any of the others, besides Jake, who I'd seen from sports growing up. Jake's older brother Tom was a great basketball player when he was our age, and while I've never been a basketball guy, I'd seen him around. Still, the rest of us shared something. In a way, I was okay with having a secret—it brought us closer together.

Jake and Rachel had already gotten there by the time I showed up, leaning my bike outside Cassie's barn. "Is Marco even coming?" Rachel asked.

"He'll show," said Jake. "Give him time."

Sure enough, he pulled in ten minutes later, waving. "Come on back," said Cassie, nodding to the fields beyond the barn.

"Is that all for taking care of animals?"

She laughed. "Not anymore—this used to be all used as a farm, back in the day. I should show you the cows sometime."

"I see enough cows in second period," Marco sighed, "no thanks."

"Axim...Ax," Cassie abbreviated, "wanted to look at them today. Apparently he thinks quadrupeds are where it's at, but I'm guessing they didn't make much conversation."

"So, what, he just walked out here? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of, you know, a hideout?"

"Not in morph," said Cassie. "He said he was going to turn into that little...djabala again. And something about being able to keep track of time in his head? I didn't understand."

We drew nearer to the forest. "This is still yours?" I asked.

She shrugged. "It's a national forest, so technically no. But he shouldn't be disturbed here. I hope..."

Through one stand of trees, then the next. I started to wonder how much rain it took to keep all those grasses growing so tall—we didn't get much precipitation, which was great for kids playing sports and aliens making camp, but I hadn't really considered it in the context of mother nature. Maybe I should have been paying attention in science class, after all.

‹Who goes there!› It was Aximili, and he was ready to strike—tailblade arced up from behind him in what I could only figure was an aggressive stance. Maybe there wasn't much of a need to hide. With a weapon like that growing out of him, he could go tearing through any hallway without much trouble.

"Ssh. Ax?" said Cassie. "It's us."

He looked us over, as if trying to see whether any of us had been infested overnight, then lowered his tail. ‹You came back! All of you.›

"Of course we did," I said. "School's boring when we could be talking to aliens."

‹You must remain vigilant,› he said, ‹and hope that you get no closer to the other visitors to this planet.›

"So what's all this about spying?" said Rachel. "Cassie said we could help."

‹Come back this way,› he said, leading us between another stand of trees.

Once we came to a clearing, he produced the blue box that Rachel had drawn from the spaceship the night before. ‹This is the Escafil device,› he said. ‹It is used to transmit the morphing technology—the power I displayed the other night.›

"Transmit?" said Jake.

‹We Andalites are not born with the capacity to morph. It was only a relatively new discovery that gave us the power—military officials first, then some civilians. Some people reject the technology entirely. But it works on the level of DNA, which means, potentially, any animal species could adopt it.›

"Any animal species?" I asked. "So, like, the djabala—they turn into other creatures on your planet, too?"

"I don't think he means animals, like, wild animals," said Rachel. "You mean, like—humans."

Cassie's eyes widened. "That's how we could spy? By using that to turn into...what?"

‹Any animal that you touch, you could acquire its DNA. Then, you concentrate on the animal to transform into that species.›

"Like a bug, a fly on the wall?" said Marco. "Literally."

"Only problem is, we don't know who or where these Yeerks are," said Jake. "We can't spy on them any better than you can."

‹But you can investigate humans on your own, watch where they come and go,› said Aximili. ‹Yeerks require nutrients to sustain themselves, like any life form; they must feed at a Yeerk pool at least every three days.› The idea of the "pool" flashing through my mind brought with it all sorts of connotations, somehow sent through the telepathy—not water like our own planet's depths, but some kind of alien material. ‹These would be hidden somewhere where the general public could not happen across them—at least, not if the infiltration was still total rather than all-out warfare.›

"Much better idea, we follow everyone around until they go somewhere suspicious."

"Not everyone," said Rachel, "people in positions of authority, that you'd want to make sure were trustworthy. Then you could warn them, alert them to the threat..."

"You're really serious about doing this," said Marco. It wasn't a question, more another fact to get accustomed to, like the fact that the blue box gave people superpowers or the fact that we were talking to an alien who didn't have a mouth.

"Yeah," I said, turning away from Aximili—for a moment I envied his stalk eyes, I wanted to take everyone in at once. "I...I dunno where to start, really, I don't know if we can be any use. But this is bigger than me, bigger than..." Than any of us, I wanted to say, but it felt a little insulting to say that to Aximili. He was the first—not the first alien. What had he called himself, an Andalite? The first of them to come to Earth. "I mean, I'm in." I didn't want to tell the others what to do, but it really did sound like the human race was at stake. I wasn't sure who wouldn't rise to the occasion, if they were the only options available.

"Me too," Jake was saying, we all were, and Aximili seemed to exhale more deeply.

‹Place your hand on the box,› he said, ‹it shouldn't take long.›

I reached out. It felt mostly just like a square box—not too impressive, in the wake of the spaceship we'd seen. The others crowded in around me, each pressing their hand to a different face of the cube. And then there was Aximili's—more fingers than ours, but still a different blue from the box.

Then it felt like a shock. Not painful, just a jolt—I wasn't sure whether it ran on electricity or what kind of alien power it used, but it only lasted a moment, and the cube went inert again. Aximili calmly took it back.

"That's it?" Rachel asked. We didn't feel any different.

‹That's it. Now, when you touch another creature, you can acquire its DNA.›

"There's some in the barn," said Cassie. "Could we try it?"

‹Of course. But be careful—some morph's instincts can be overwhelming at first. You need to make sure the animal's brain does not overshadow your own. And you must return to your original human body—again, concentrate on its image in your mind, and it will reformulate—within...two of your Earth hours.›

"Why two hours?" Cassie asked.

‹You would become trapped in that body, unable to demorph.›

She gulped. "Well, then. Maybe you can come with us, to spot us, for a while?"

"How are we even going to keep track?" I asked. "I mean, a fly on the wall is going to be slightly noticeable wearing a watch."

"Also slightly breaking the laws of physics," said Jake.

"Also that."

‹I have an aptitude for measuring time,› said Aximili. ‹As long as I am in morph alongside you, there should be no difficulties keeping track.›

"You're going to have a hard time fitting into Cassie's barn, though," said Rachel.

"Could you morph one of us?" I asked. "I mean, we're animals—uh—like, not-plants, or however you meant it."

"Like a clone?" Cassie asked.

‹Yes. However, if I were to temporarily interact in human society, it might be better for me to create a composite of your DNA. If I acquire each of you, I can merge the DNA into a single body—a human, but none of you individually.›

"That would be cool," said Rachel. "Then you could even go out and meet other people, for a couple hours anyway."

"It would be a blend of all our DNA? So you could, like, acquire two people, and then show them what it would look like if they had a kid?" Marco asked.

"Now you could," said Jake, nodding down at the Escafil device.

"Man, it sucks about the fighting aliens thing, there are some serious uses for this power."

‹May I?› Aximili asked. ‹Acquire you, that is?›

"Of course," I said. "We're in this fight, now, what's a little DNA between friends?"

‹Friends?› he echoed. ‹I appreciate all of you being willing to join me, to fight for your planet, but you need not offer your friendship. I am far from my cousins, and I cannot say when the Andalite fleet will return to drive out the Yeerks.›

"Your cousins are part of the fight, too?" Jake asked.

‹Ah, no. My—my fellow Andalites, my people. Our families are small, before the war, my parents do not have—brothers or sisters. But someday, the fleet will return.›

"It sounds like the fleet didn't have a great night last night," said Marco. Aximili stepped back. "Hey! What I'm saying is, this can't be easy for you, any of it—all this technology stuff—you don't have to do it alone. I mean, this still feels pretty crazy, but we want to help. Maybe we can even be, wait for it, friends."

Aximili's eyes seemed to light up again. ‹Thank you,› he said, and took Marco's hand. For a few seconds, Marco seemed unfocused, staring into the trees, even after Aximili pulled away.

Then he blinked, laughing. "Huh. All right. So now you've got a copy of my DNA somewhere in there?"

‹Indeed! As you see, the process is brief, and perfectly harmless for the organism being acquired—you go into a bit of a trance, but that's only momentary.›

"Cool," I said. "Bring it on."

The box had been one thing, but holding hands with an alien was different. I guess I just kind of zoned out for a moment—the next thing I knew, I felt peaceful, which was pretty strange in the midst of the "welcome to an interplanetary war, here are your powers, stay under wraps" treatment. All the same, I felt like there was nowhere I'd rather have been.

‹Thank you,› he said to me, moving on to acquire the others.

"My pleasure," I smiled.

A few minutes later, Aximili had acquired all of us, and was ready to morph. Even if he wasn't shrinking down to the size of the djabala, it was a pretty impressive change—his tail and stalk eyes melted away, while his body changed from blue to light brown, somewhere between Marco's skin tone and mine. His back legs vanished, and he lurched awkwardly, clearly unused to balancing on two legs.

"Whoa," Cassie said. "Morphing works on the level of DNA—guys, maybe look away—"

I turned, and soon after, I heard a voice from behind me. "Hello? I am a human now. Now-uh. Do you see? S-s-s-see."

"Do you stutter?" Marco asked.

"The instincts of this b-b-ody are to speak. Pee-kuh. It-tuh is new to-oo-oo me."

I glanced behind me, and sure enough, he hadn't been able to "acquire" any clothing. "Okay. Yeah. You're not going to be able to walk around in Cassie's barn like that." But as I turned away again, I heard a crash. "Are you all right?"

"It is hard to balance-lan-suh on two legs. Eg-eg-egs. Is this nat-ch-chural for all of you-oo?"

"Yeah, it's one of our species-wide talents," said Marco. "Spaceships, morphing devices, fighting aliens is not our scene, usually, but walking around on two legs is our special bonus ability."

"Maybe not today," said Cassie. "Aximili, want to morph back? We'll try to find clothing for you next time, so you can go out in public."

"I have some old stuff I've been meaning to get rid of," said Marco, "go for it."

"Would yours even fit?" Rachel asked.

Marco rolled his eyes. "I'll find something," said Jake.

Silence from behind us, and then a reply in the telepathic language. ‹I am fully demorphed now.›

"Sorry about that," I said. "We'll have something better for you next time."

"Yeah," said Cassie. "I'll see what's new in the barn, we can practice acquiring morphs. Tomorrow?"

"I guess so," said Jake. "Who needs basketball practice when we have this, right?"

"Two hours is the limit," I said, "but we could practice on our own before then?"

‹Technically, yes. I would not recommend a wild or unfamiliar animal.›

I laughed. "Wasn't the plan. Anyone want to meet Tony?"

"Who's Tony?" Rachel asked.

"My cat."