Chapter 9

"Amy… I think she's waking up."

I opened my eyes to a blinding light above me, and all around were heads gazing down. I must have blacked out. I had a headache.

"You okay?" It was Kiani's voice.

I rubbed at my sore temple and pushed myself up from the dusty floor. "Yeah, I'm fine." I uttered.

Bert was there. Isaac was still standing motionless behind on the tables. I heard a snuffling nose at my side, and when I turned to look the terrier stepped its front feet onto my thigh, still with that dopey dog smile on its face.

((Hey! Hey, you're awake!))

"This is too real," I groaned. "Too bloody real."

Isaac spoke up, cold and unemotional. "Now that we've all recovered, could we move this forward?"

"Hold on, feisty," Bert laughed. "I haven't even given him his treat yet!"

He waved the bone-shaped doggy treat in front of the dog, whose attention was immediately grabbed.

((Is that for me? For me?!))

"George, mate," Oliver said. "What's got into you? Stop enjoying this!"

((What's not to enjoy?!)) George retorted. ((I'm so happy! Bloody hell, that bone smells good! Give it!))

"What happened to your manners?" Bert asked humorously.

((Please! Oh, please give me the bone!))

"Better." Bert launched the bone treat across the floor, and George went barrelling after it in that graceless doggy galloping way. "Good boy!"

"Oh god!" I whined. It wasn't George. It was some travesty of nature. "Make him change back!"

((Relax, Amy,)) George said as he returned, still chewing at the treat. ((This is great! I'm so happy!))

"The domestic dog is very excitable," Bert said. "George is feeling it. It would be completely different if he morphed a squirrel."

"You're seriously having fun, mate?" Oliver asked of George.

((You have to try it! Hey, Bert, you got anymore treats?))

"No more. You got the only one, a reward for being the first volunteer."

"You want us to do it, too?" Oliver asked.

Bert laughed. "Of course! Who's next?"

I thought about it. I looked at George who was licking his lips, having scoffed down the entire treat in a short space of time. His tail was wagging. It didn't seem to go badly for him. Perhaps his jaw had been healed, as well. One thing was for certain: these Andalites were real. Surely no Human technology could come anywhere close to this.

"Make him change back," I told Bert. "Guys, we shouldn't do anything till we know we can change back."

"Yeah, right." Kiani agreed.

Bert nodded. "So very paranoid, huh. Okay then. George, why don't you change back? Just think about becoming yourself. Put that image in your mind."

"With clothes on." Isaac added sternly.

((Really? But this is so much fun!))

"Just change back, George!" I ordered. "Just so we know you can."

((Fine…)) He grumbled. He really had been enjoying himself, but at my inadvertently strict order his tail stopped wagging and he gave me the eyes of a guilty puppy-dog.

The change back was a little faster. Whether it was because he'd found how to do it, or the ecstatic dog mind had provided him with the necessary buzz, I couldn't tell, but his mood once more Human than dog had visibly shifted. So had his jaw, back to its natural place.

The change was no less disgusting though. Thankfully, our stomachs were already empty. Bert and Isaac were completely unfazed by it.

It was good to see him back, even if he was in very minimal clothing. He rubbed at his jawline and his chin, checked his hand and rubbed it again. "That's weird… How the bloody hell does it work?"

Isaac sighed. "If you would like an academics lesson, you'd be asking the wrong people."

"Alright, steady on." George replied.

"How was it?" Kiani asked of him.

"Being a dog? Amazing! It's like I was actually a dog! The nose is incredible. I could smell everything. Lots of chemicals in this place that don't smell great. Might be some dead rats around somewhere, too."

"You seem a little less sceptical," Bert chuckled. "Think your friends should give it a try?"

George nodded. "Sure. Oh, and you were right about the jaw thing. This would be great for hospitals."

"Sure it would be," Isaac interjected. "But for now, no. You are the privileged few, and you won't tell anybody. Not even a hospital."

"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Kiani huffed. "Okay, I'll give it a go."

She closed her eyes and seemed deep in concentration. A few seconds went by, and then she stopped. She got down and sat on the ground. Wise. When she closed her eyes and concentrated again, small changes began to occur. Her canines began to protrude from her lips, and her hair began to whiten and shorten.

I looked to Oliver who was stood over her, and he looked back. "Shall we?"

"Might as well." He said with a blank expression.

I sat down and slapped all the resulting dirt from my hands. The concept of what I was about to do ran through my mind, and it couldn't wholly comprehend. I was going to become a dog?! How would it work? How would it feel? What if I couldn't turn back?

George had done it. He was much braver than I was. I couldn't let him show me up, though.

Fuck it. Time to become somebody's pet pooch.

I closed my eyes and concentrated, like we had been told. It was hard, because I could still hear everything around me, including the shifting and squishing of bones and organs as the others changed. Their groans of horror and discomfort, too.

"You're losing, Amy." I heard George said. I didn't care, but it was his way of trying to motivate me.

Maybe he hadn't noticed, but I'd felt myself changing. It was my shoulder. They were spreading to the sides, and they quickly went past what a Human could naturally do. It didn't hurt. It just felt extremely unsettling. It felt sickening.

My fingers went from a splayed state on my lap to the small, padded doggy digits. I could feel the claws replacing my fingernail. I wanted to throw up. For a moment, the changes stopped, and I knew I'd stopped concentrate. I tried again, and the changes continued.

"Fuck me…" George gasped. "Is this what it looks like? Jesus…"

I tried to respond, but what I meant to say turned into gibberish on the way out. Shifting my tongue in my mouth, I noticed how different it had become. Nothing about my face was built for complex language anymore. Just primitive woofs and growls and the occasional whine. It was time to open my eyes.

The world certainly looked different as a dog. It felt different, too. And smelled different. And the rest… I realised that I was still in a sitting position, held up by my tail like I was a tripod, with dog arms hanging uselessly in front of me. I pushed and fell forward, bounces onto four legs and struggled to relieve myself of the baggy clothing surrounding me.

The smells! They were everywhere! I lifted my snout and sniffled. The sights around me meant very little, as did the sounds. It was all about those smells.

George was right. Something smelled long dead, probably some rodent or maybe even a bird. There were a lot of strange smells accompanying it that I couldn't understand. However, I could certainly understand the smell of two other dogs. When I decided to finally utilise my eyes meaningfully, I saw two exact copies of myself nearby, sniffing at each other in areas only dogs would ever sniff.

How disgusting… I bundled over to join in.

"You guys are sick." Somebody said. Some Human male. Completely uninteresting, because I couldn't smell food coming from his direction. These two dogs were bound to be more fun! I sniffed at them, and after some curious work I came to the bizarre conclusion that everything about them was the same, smells and all!

"Hey you!"

A big Human head descended towards me! His head was bald on the top, and he was smiling. His tone was friendly. I hadn't been given attention in at least a minute.

I jumped forward as he bent down and licked at his face. He laughed and petted my head. I liked being petted. I wanted more.

"Is there a Human in there somewhere?!" The Human laughed. "Speak to me if there is, or you don't get any more pettings."

Human? In me? But I was me! I was dog!

((I think I'm getting the hang of this.))

That was a female Human's voice, but it wasn't normal. It came from inside and outside, like an echo…

Oh, wait… we were doing a morphing think. We were practising. I was actually a Human.

Damn it. I was beginning to enjoy myself.

((Hello?)) I thought towards Bert. ((Can you hear me?))

He ruffled the top of my head with a meaty hand. "There you go!"

I was much more aware of my actions at that point, and stopped the constant sniffing and begging for attention. The dog wasn't the proudest beast, and I felt I had a little too much self-respect to just let its instincts take over. Kiani voiced a similar opinion. Oliver took a little longer to get over that hurdle, but soon we'd all conquered the dog. It was time for the next stage of training.

Isaac overrode Bert's willingness to allow us more time to enjoy the excitable dog morph and told us to turn back to Human. It was much the same as becoming dog, but in reverse. No less revolting and traumatising, and I was feeling shaky afterwards. At least I managed to morph back into some limited, tight clothing. Oliver and Kiani weren't so fortunate, and both scrambled to get their old clothes back on.

All back to normal, Isaac unfurled his impatiently folded arms. "You've tried your first morph, which is excellent. This is the perfect time to remind you that not all morphs will be so easy to conquer. You will have to fight the instincts of each animal, and some are more volatile than others. When you do it again in the future, make sure there is always somebody at hand to bring you to your senses. Do not all morph simultaneously."

We confirmed our understanding with muted yeahs and nodding heads.

He leaned forward on one of the tables. "And can you remember the time limit?"

"Four hours?" Oliver recalled tentatively.

"Yes. Four hours. Any longer, and you will be trapped in that body until we return from wherever we may be at the time. You will never regain your old body, regardless."

Again, we nodded. We understood.

"Next, we must show you the enemy," He spoke. He pushed himself away from the table and wandered to a stool which, like the two main table, had something beneath hidden by a rag. It could have been a birdcage beneath, judging by the shape. Gently, his hands pulled away the rag.

We scooted closer for a better look as the object came into view. It was a big jar filled with a dull green jelly-like substance. There was something held static in the middle.

"Looks like a slug." Kiani commented.

But I could see that it was no ordinary slug. It was stumpy, and it had tiny little appendages. They looked like fins. The body didn't look to have the same texture as your average slug, too.

"This is a Yeerk," Isaac explained. "They all look like this with little variation. It may not look like much, but they are a very intelligent race, and they are able to control a host body almost flawlessly.

We squeezed up to see closer. Reactions among us were a little underwhelmed. "Sure looks like a slug…" George said, reflecting on what Kiani had suggested. "Got little fins there."

"Are those antennae?" Oliver asked quietly.

I nodded. "Looks like it."

Kiani stood up straight and away from the jar. She spoke to Isaac incredulously. "You're telling us that these are the invaders taking over the whole Earth?"

"Yes." Isaac blandly replied.

Oliver chuckled. "Doesn't look all that impressive. Think they've got self-esteem issues?"

"Take this seriously," Isaac snapped. "They are far more powerful than you believe them to be. They have conquered many races prior to ours."

"What races have they conquered?" I questioned. "Aliens as well?"

Isaac gestured towards the two much larger tables still covered in rage. "We'll show you."

I suddenly had a very bad feeling, looking at those tables. In that instant, I knew that it wasn't just old machinery and tools cluttering them up.

Was I really just smelling dead rats and chemicals?

In one quick swipe, he pulled off the two rags.

"Oh, fuck!" Oliver yelped. "Fuckin' hell!"

Kiani covered her mouth and scurried backwards. She was about to throw up again, amidst whines of pure horror. George didn't move or say a word, but turned a shocking white.

I put a hand over my mouth and nose, bombarded by the mixed scents of death and preserving chemicals. "Oh god, oh god…"

Everybody apart from George must have backed away several feet. Bert jumped in to calm us, but that wasn't going to happen. Turning into animals? Fine. Slug with fins? Fine.

Huge bladed lizard and clawed toothy maggot? Not fine.

"These are the two most common alien hosts the Yeerks have brought to Earth." Isaac said, as if his words would register with any of us.

Oliver was almost laughing. Disbelief, fear, unknowing. It was driving him to hair-pulling crazed laughter. "You're taking the piss," He mumbled. "You're taking the piss…"

"I'm not doing this," Kiani growled. She was refusing to even look at them. "Oli. Oli! We're going. We're going right now."

"What the fuck are they?!" Oliver asked to nobody in particular. Then he indeed started to laugh. Kiani tugged roughly at his shirt.

I took another hard look at the two monsters, and with it came another waft of the smell mixture. I hoped to God they didn't smell like that when alive.

"George," I spoke. He still had hardly moved, but he looked to me when I addressed him. "We should go, too. This is fucked up."

Isaac was quick to stop us with the bang of a briefcase on the table beside the lizard monster. It was a black briefcase just like the previous one we'd received. "If you leave, you forfeit your right to this. There is one-and-a-half million pounds in this room, and it's all yours, but only if you agree to continue."

That stopped us all in our tracks (aside from George who was on no track to begin with.) I stared at the briefcase, placed just behind the dead body of the horrible monster.

I would never have to worry about money again. Never.

"We can't do fuck all with your money." George said, finally coming back to life.

I followed his logic quickly. "He's right. We can't bank it or spend it. We can't show a contract. The money's not usable!"

"This is some setup," Oliver asserted. "It's a load of rubbish!"

"Let us out of here, you creeps!" Kiani squeaked.

Isaac groaned, and it almost turned to a yell of frustration. "So paranoid! Do you want me to get it into your hands another way? Is that what you want? I have to hold your hand through it all?"

Before he could continue, Bert took the reins. "We can arrange another, legal way for you to receive the money. Would that settle the issue?"

"Not really." I said.

"If it makes you feel any better," Isaac growled. "These creatures are only here to show you what you may witness in your tasks. You should never be in a position where you have to get close. Your job is to observe Yeerk activity. We're not asking you to give them all hugs and kisses!"

Kiani and Oliver had calmed down somewhat. We all exchanged uncertain glances, still shaken and on the verge of breakdowns.

But that offer was not something you just refused.

"So, what are they?" I asked.