A couple days later, all of the Animorphs were gathered together at the barn.
"What do you mean, we're going to draw straws?" Marco asked, looking over at Cassie with a dubious expression on his face.
"To see who goes with Ax in our next morph," Rachel said, looking down at Cassie's right hand, which was clenched around something they couldn't see. "Ax is in regardless, we need his expertise in aliens. One of us has to go in with him."
"What's the morph?" Marco asked, sounding all the more dubious.
"Spider," Cassie said, opening her hand slightly to show the spider in her palm.
After they'd determined just who was going to morph the spider – Tommy had ended up volunteering, since none of the others seemed particularly comfortable going in with Ax as a second spider – and then they had all morphed into their various bird forms and flew out to the lake where The Sharing was having their outing. Tommy briefly wondered if he'd end up spotting his adopted parents there, then he quickly put the thought out of his mind.
It wasn't important, and it would only distract him if he thought about it too much.
(Time to split up,) Tobias instructed. (The lake is just over that next ridge.)
(Thanks, Tobias,) he said, as he and Ax split off to go their own way.
To find somewhere they would be able to land, demorph, and morph spiders all while remaining out of sight of the Controllers all around the lake.
(Guys, I don't think falcons regularly get into fights with ospreys,) he said, as the playful argument between Jake and Marco started to sound more real than would probably be helpful.
(Is there some sort of special meaning to your conversation that I do not understand?) Ax asked, sounding more than a bit unsettled, himself.
(Yeah, the meaning is that Jake and I are scared, so we're babbling in a desperate effort not to think about it,) Marco said, sounding just as unsettled as Ax had.
(Ah, I'm scared, too. I don't enjoy morphing tiny animals, I keep thinking about all the rest of my mass,) Ax admitted, though he didn't sound particularly happy about that.
(What do you mean, your mass? What happens to it?) he asked, since while it did sound like Ax didn't really want to talk about it, it was clearly something that they should know more about.
(My mass. When you morph something smaller than yourself, your body mass must go somewhere. So it is shunted into Zero-space. Zero-space is the space that ships go through when they travel faster than light. It is unlikely to happen, but there is always the chance that a ship traveling through Zero-space will intersect with a temporarily parked mass.)
(Wait a minute,) Marco exclaimed, before Tommy could try to ask more tactfully about what could happen under those rare circumstances. (You're telling me that, when we get small all the leftover… The leftover stuff, the bones and guts and skin, go bulging into Zero-space like some kind of balloon of human tissue?)
(Of course,) Ax said, seeming like the conversation was taking more than a bit out of him, as well.
As Jake and Marco pressed Ax for further answers, while Tommy tried to reassure them about the uncomfortable information that they had just learned their strange not-quite-a-flock reached the lake where Erek and more than a few members of The Sharing were all going to be gathered together for another meeting.
(Okay, guys, this is where we head off,) Jake said, drawing their attention away from the grim conversation they'd been having.
(And, just so we're clear: I know spiders eat bugs, so do not eat any flies,) Marco said. (Jake and I are going to have more than enough to worry about in fly morph already.)
(We'll keep that in mind, Marco,) he said, wishing for a moment that he had thought to as Ax to talk about that kind of thing with him privately, just so he could have broken the news to them in a better time and place than this.