Chapter Ten

‹Prince Jake,› Ax said. Trying not to complain but on edge. He had demorphed and was walking as an Andalite – there was nothing around to witness him in his natural form, as far as I could tell. ‹I do not understand why you and Marco are so concerned about morphing. The chances of being on the negative end of a Z-Space error is astronomical.›

We were all wearing out. It was hot. Maybe hotter than Death Valley. Maybe hotter than anywhere else on the planet. Geography wasn't exactly my specialty on Earth.

I could have asked Ax, but I wasn't even sure I wanted to know the answer. It was hot the same way Antarctica had been cold, and I wasn't sure how much longer we'd hold out since we were moving away from the water.

"Ax," I pointed out. "You know we can't morph anyway. A bunch of Earth birds flying across, or coyotes, or anything else – we'd just attract attention. Not that many humans have had morphing power."

He stayed silent. Ax wasn't actually irrational enough to think unnecessary morphing would be a good idea – attracting attention would have been an unnecessary risk. But it was hard to accept anything in the heat. I guessed the heat was a lot even for people native to this planet – it would explain why the distance had been considered an issue.

"Jake, if we don't morph we're going to have to pull over. Find some shade. Or something. I've never sweated this much. We're going to need water."

I looked around. There was no shade. It was as flat and barren as I ever could have imagined a place being. Marco was right, but unless we turned back and went to the lake we weren't going to find shade or water anywhere.

I could morph. I could fly up there, just long enough to see where the nearest stop was. If my morph could handle the heat, anyway.

"Ax, how warm is it?"

‹A hundred and twenty of your degrees, Prince Jake. And it is increasing quickly.›

Marco whistled. "So we're going to die, pretty quickly, if we don't get cooled down."

I'd heard enough. "Okay, I'm morphing. Not long – if the temperature's still going up no morph we have is going to be able to take it that long. Just long enough to see if we retreat or if they've put something out there for people to stay at. I think our bird morphs would be able to take this better than we can – but honestly, I'm not sure, and I'm fairly sure they can't handle it being like, two-hundred degrees or whatever."

"Barbeque," Marco laughed.

It took a while. I was already so hot, so tired, that I could feel the changes slowing. Bone churning, reshaping, hollowing out. One of my legs became a wing, one of my arms became a leg and began lowering down. Marco grabbed me before I could fall over.

"Is it just me or is this treeg mea -" my head, mouth, and throat were reforming and I lost my ability to speak.

Until, eventually, I was a peregrine falcon. A really, uncomfortably warm peregrine falcon, getting warmer.

‹Be right back,› I told them. I flapped hard a few times until I managed to rise off the ground, and headed up for a better view.

I could feel it just getting warmer and warmer around me. It wasn't a small, gradual change in heat. It was stepping outside just after sunrise on a day that was going to hit over a hundred. It was sticking a cookie sheet in a preheated oven. Pushing in, uncomfortable, but dry.

I circled once, twice. I laughed, almost manically.

‹I see something. It's not that far. It's...› I realized I didn't have a way to navigate them. But I didn't want us showing up as a bunch of Earth birds when we were heading out to steal live animals from this planet's zoo.

‹Uhm, Ax.› I circled around. ‹I'm flying toward it right now. Can you navigate that way to make sure we get there?›

‹Yes, Prince Jake.›

I circled back down, and demorphed. I could feel the sweat instantly beading out.

"We have to hurry. We should, uh..."

I felt like I was missing something. Forgetting something important. But as I was thinking that Ax began to morph human again.

That had been it. I couldn't have him show up at the place as an Andalite. We couldn't risk it getting to the Kelbrid that there were Andalites here. At least, Andalites that had any choice in the matter.

"I would think the Kelbrid would be trying to take the Andalites at least from the zoo," Marco said. It was in a halting, rasping voice. It made me feel the heat around me even worse.

Or maybe it was really just getting that warm around us.

"You might be right."

"Andalites. Getting caught. This is. So embarrassing," Ax's speech was slowing down worse than our own.

"At least he never tried to play with the word 'embarrass,'" Marco whispered to me as lowly as possible. Being careful that Ax didn't hear him.

I felt like that should have made me laugh. I didn't laugh much anymore, but I felt there was something funny in there. Still, I didn't care as long as we got out of the sun fast.

Ax led the way. It wasn't far off, but with the heat getting worse every minute it wasn't very easy. There wasn't even any wind.

No one spoke for the most part until we finally saw the door. It looked quiet and I could only hope it was a business at this point.

I walked up, past Ax, and knocked.

A Cryhali opened the door, looking at me. "Come in," he said. Or she, I couldn't really tell.

Marco, Ax, and I were brought down a long flight of stairs, and I felt the air around me cool. Air conditioning, or maybe just going from the heat of above ground into the rock below ground. Either way, I was relieved. I felt tired in a way I hadn't felt in years, sick type tired.

At the end of the flight of stairs, the Cryhali – I thought it was a younger one – handed me a glass. I downed it, as Marco and Ax did the same with glasses handed to them.

"Water has never tasted so good."

"The air," I muttered. I sat down suddenly.

"You people, you're pretty crazy, you know this right?" The Cryhali spoke jaggedly. "No one smart hangs around the Plate except for dusk or dawn." He – or she – laughed, and the others joined in.

"Keep drinking, keep drinking."

"The Plate?"

"'The Plate'" he mimicked – I was fairly sure it was a he now. "Yes, The Plate. Are you and your crew suicidal? Didn't anyone tell you about this? Or are you working with the Lows? You know, the shady businesses."

I shrugged at Ax and Marco helplessly. Ax was about to thought-speak but the Cryhali continued without waiting.

"You don't try to work with the Lows unless you really need to. They'll trap what they can and they don't care at all about whether or not you come back. Just one of the many changes brought on by our world being torn apart and corrupted so many times. But you come out to the Plate, you die, they keep whoever you gave up. See? Permanent slave payoff."

‹How high does it reach out on the Plate?› Ax asked.

"Oh, it can get over boiling point on the surface. Even with our air conditioning on, it's gonna get pretty hot in a few hours. You wait, you stay til dusk. Then try to finish your journey like hell, because it's only going to get cold when night falls. Your planet must be pretty cushy, heh? Thin-skinned creatures like you." He laughed.

‹Thank you,› Ax said. Politely, considering he was fairly aggravated that he hadn't thought of these things. ‹May I ask your name?›

We got an unpronounceable jabber. Finally, "Call me Jane" as the Cryhali walked off to join her friends, laughing at our inability to communicate in her own tongue.

"Man, we're going to need chips that allow us to thought-speak," Marco muttered, "So much for learning the language of places you visit."

"Until dusk. That's almost three days."

"Yeah, and those guys back in the town were trying to get us killed! Or at least, didn't care about whether or not we died. For all we know they're taking apart the Researcher right now. What about Tobias? What about Leah?"

I stayed silent. What was there to say? I'd screwed it up before we'd even started, looking for a way to appease to others.

Marco looked at me almost like he was disappointed. Like he'd seen something he'd expected, but hoped he wouldn't see anyway. "Well okay," He continued, "We wait here until the climate gets survivable outside, then fly the heck over to the zoo and try to locate these people and get them out. Hey, maybe their ship is working and has an Xbox. That wouldn't be so much to ask for, would it?"

"Xbox?"

"It's a game, Ax-man. It was a console that came out while you were all busy being a Prince and all. Heck, it's been a few years since then, who knows what they'll have? 'Andalites and humans unite' and all that."

I watched, feeling distant, as Ax looked confused and dejected at the idea of a human seeking or preferring the idea of a human technology over their own. Or Andalites and humans sharing technological prowess in the future.

I tried to sit down. The seats around me were designed for aliens with quite a different shape, so I found a spot by the wall where I could sit on the floor. Leaned against the wall of the place, feeling the cool stone in comparison to the heat I had felt outside.

Three days. It would be three Earth days before we hit nightfall. Before it would begin to cool down enough for us to move on.

I felt my eyes dragging and my thoughts slowing down. The effort it would take just to stand up. Marco and Ax were talking, distracted, but I felt the full force of the heat, exertion, and the amount of information just hitting me like a semi going down the freeway.

Well, I thought, might as well start off with a night.

I fell asleep with Marco and Ax still chatting in front of me.