Chapter 7

"How does this work?" I asked Elfangor.

*The activation process is simple enough. Simply place a hand upon a face of the cube.*

I'll be honest, I wasn't thrilled with that idea, simple as it sounded. I had been a little wary of carrying the cylinder, and this cube was definitely putting out some kind of energy. I could feel it. You know how people say they can feel the electricity in the air before a thunderstorm? It was like that, but so much more concentrated. Maybe I was imagining it, but I could swear I felt a deep hum through all the tissues of my body.

But I held out a hand. The others joined me. It was a little reassuring that all of them had the same trepidations that I had. It made me feel a little better that I wasn't the only one afraid to touch the cube.

I cannot begin to describe the experience accurately. It was as if every cell in my body was being electrocuted and deep-tissue massaged all at one. The power surged through me, I could feel it in my eyes, in my toes, in my freaking teeth.

All of us fell backwards.

"Fuck me sideways!" Marco blurted, eloquently.

"Cockass sons of bitches!" Rachel exclaimed. I didn't know her to be so heavy on the profanity, but I was beyond curse words myself.

"Hot dildo monkeys!" Now that one shocked me almost as much as the cube. I have never, ever in my life known Cassie to curse.

The part that's really hard to put into words is that it hurt every bit as much as it felt like pure bliss. It's like getting soaking in ice water and being burned alive at the same time. It was hot and cold, literally anything my nerves were capable of experiencing, they experienced.

It hurt more than anything ever had, and I immediately wanted to touch it again.

*Apologies. I should have warned you there would be some neurosynaptic feedback. It passes in a few moments.*

"Jesus Christ," Cassie breathed. "That's… that's not right, Elfangor."

"Why did you not get shocked?" Tobias asked. He and I were the only ones to get through the process without swearing.

*I've already been exposed to the Escafil technology. It is something that only happens the first time.*

"So now what? We just touch an animal and we can turn into it?"

*Essentially. You have to concentrate on the creature you are acquiring, and you must visualize the process mentally. It takes a fair degree concentration, both to initiate the morphing process, and to control it.*

"Control it?" I asked.

*While in morph, you would have all the natural instincts of the creature. Sometimes this is beneficial, others not as much. For example, the natural abilities of the - you said it is called an osprey, yes? - enabled me to fly. It is certainly not a skill I have as an Andalite. But conversely, its natural instincts made it uncomfortable to travel in your human vehicle.*

"How does this work, anyway?" Marco asked.

"Yeah, I'm not really a science buff, but I'm kinda curious about that, too," Rachel said.

*There are actually laws among my people that make it illegal to offer this technology, but the punishments for explaining it would be far worse.*

"You broke the law to give us this?"

Elfangor looked at me with those bright green eyes. In many ways, talking to him was something like talking to an android. He actually reminded me a little of Data from the Star Trek: Next Generation reruns I used to watch with my dad. But he had this way of quirking his head, of moving his eyes. It really looked like he was smiling through his eyes.

*If I die on this planet,* he said in a surprisingly upbeat tone, *then my government cannot punish me.*

Tobias laughed. "It's not illegal if you don't get caught, huh? Does anyone else think it's weird that we got alien technology with a shoplifter's mentality?"

"Seconded," Marco said. "But does that mean you won't tell us how it works?"

*The rules of my people have little bearing. In truth, the underlying principles of the technology are orders of magnitude beyond human comprehension of quantum mechanics.*

"So we're not smart enough to understand it? That it?" Rachel said with her arms crossed.

Elfangor seemed to parse that for a long moment. *Today, when we went to the beach, we traveled in Jake's vehicle. This technology is familiar to you, yes?*

"Duh, I'm not stupid."

*Explain to me the technology underlying human transportation.*

Rachel blanked. "What?"

*I wish to illustrate a point. Please, could you explain how Jake's vehicle works.*

"Whuh, I… Seriously? Fine. The engine runs on gasoline. It's mixed with oxygen and ignited inside compression chambers, and the expanding gases move pistons to move a crankshaft."

Tobias looked surprised, but Marco, Cassie, and I knew better. Rachel is not a dumb, frilly blonde. She is way more into cars than I am, really.

*Do you know the chemical composition of gasoline? Do you know the processes involved in combustion? Do you know the metallurgical specifications of the internal components?*

"Uh, no, should I? I mean it does what I need it to do, and I get the gist of it."

*This is the way I understand the morphing technology. It took Escafil a lifetime to develop this technology, and I only understand some of the principles, but much of it is beyond my understanding, and the extent to which I do understand is still likely more than you would comprehend.*

"Well can you give us anything? What's the simplest you could make it?" Marco asked.

*The device imparts to the user something you would most closely equate to nanotechnology.*

"We have nanites in our systems? Cool." I was astounded with Tobias's ability to roll with things. He just made peace with everything as it came.

*The technology is powered through zero-space resonance fields. Essentially you create a clone of the source creature, and any difference in mass is compensated through z-space extrusion.*

"Z-space extrusion?" I asked.

*Z-space is a source of limitless energy. Energy can be condensed into mass.*

"E=mc2, huh?" Marco scoffed.

*Between the z-space fields, the genetic analysis, and the biological cellular acceleration, this is by far the most complex technology my people have ever developed.*

I didn't know what to say to that. But I had to say something. We were given access to what Elfangor had said could perhaps be the greatest accomplishment of his people. "We're honored that you would share this with us."

Elfangor did the smiling eyes thing again. *You are most welcome.*

"I hate to cut this short, but we have work tonight."

Marco was right. We had a shift from five to one. "So, we know Chapman is a Controller. We need to keep tabs on him for the next seventy-two hours, right?"

*Yes. The Yeerk must return to the pool within that timeframe.*

"Well today is Saturday. We're probably going to be okay for the weekend, but what are we going to do for Monday?" Tobias asked.

I looked at Elfangor. How were we going to get an alien to school? "Monday is a problem for later. For all we know, Chapman is at the pool now. Three days could potentially be Tuesday. The sooner we have him on surveillance, the better." But as I said that, I had a thought. "Elfangor, how long can your brother stay in the Dome Ship?"

*The ship is very well supplied. Even assuming the atmospherics have been compromised, he would have enough food, water, and oxygen for a month, if not longer.*

"But we can't leave him alone at the bottom of the ocean. We do have to get him, don't we?"

Elfangor nodded. *His location is known, and he is a considerable distance offshore. It will be challenging to reach him.*

"So for now, we focus on Chapman. Ideas?"

"I can call Melissa, see if she's okay with me staying over."

The idea of Rachel spending all night in the home of a known alien parasite didn't sit well with me at all. "Are you sure? You know if Chapman's one of them, then Melissa could be one, too."

She nodded, her face resolute. "That's why I want to go."

"I don't like the thought of you going alone."

"She won't be alone."

We all looked at Tobias. He was usually so quiet, so reserved. But ever since Elfangor, he had been stepping up when the moment called.

Rachel shook her head. "Melissa isn't going to just have boys over."

Tobias looked at a red-tailed hawk sitting in a cage beside him. "I wasn't planning on showing up at the front door."

That got a round of bare silence. "Dude, you're sure about this?"

"Look, someone's going to have to go first, Jake. The sooner we try this out the sooner we can get used to it."

His words hit me harder than I would've thought possible. Not because they were profound but because he tore down the thoughts within my own head. I hadn't formed the idea into words yet, but hearing Tobias speak, I realized I had been afraid. I was worried if we did this, if we morphed, even just once, that we were signing up for the Andalite's war. I knew we were talking about spying on our vice principal, I knew we were already involved. But I hadn't had enough time from the cube to now to put it together just how deep we were getting. This wasn't just helping Elfangor. This was joining him.

But Tobias was not wrong. We were going to have to get used to this.

"Okay. Rachel, you okay with some aerial back-up?"

She shrugged. "I guess."

Tobias placed his head gingerly into the cage. The hawk didn't move, but Tobias was very much aware of that razor sharp beak.

*Concentrate on the animal. The technology will do the rest.*

His fingers touched the hawk, and the hawk seemed to deflate somewhat. Cassie started moving immediately.

*Do not worry. The animal is fine. There is a cataleptic effect to the acquisition process. Tobias, do you feel the animal?*

He nodded. "That was kind of a rush. I felt like a pulse of energy."

"Like the cube?" Cassie asked.

I was curious about that myself.

"No, not like the cube. This was… I can't explain it. Like a vibration, maybe? It didn't shock me or anything."

*Are you ready to try morphing?*

"Ready as I'll ever be."

*Concentrate on the change, and it will happen.*

Tobias closed his eyes and for a second, nothing happened. But then we saw the hairs of his arms dissolve away. His skin goosebumps, and from the follicles, little plastic-like translucent quills poked through. He looked like a cactus. The quills on his forearms expanded faster, longer. It was almost like he had pencils jutting out from the skin, and the quills extended further still.

His hands melted into almost fetal stumps as the bones in his fingers fused. The bones in his forearm arched, bowing. The sound of it was sickening.

"Tobias, you doing okay?"

But he didn't answer me. He couldnt.

His face extruded outward and his nose and upper lip merged. The skin became glossy and hardened, like it had become plastic as well. His eyes turned gold, his neck lengthened.

And as his chest bones bulged to become a wishbone, he started to shrink.

He disappeared into his t-shirt, and I bent down to pick it up. I'm not sure why. I could say it was so we didn't have a hawk panicking as it was trapped in clothes, but honestly I wasn't thinking that far ahead.

The small chicken boy under the shirt was a horror.

But the quills had become fuzzier as the games of the feathers finally exploded outward. The colors of the feathers deepened, going from a translucent waxy color to whites, browns, and reds.

The hawk screamed, and then beat its wings and flew up into the rafters.

"Tobias!"

I felt Elfangor's hand on my shoulder. *The first time in a morph is always the most extreme. Give him a few minutes. Tobias, you know us. Concentrate.*

The hawk turned its head about thirty degrees one way then the other. Birds have more bones in their neck I was to find out later, so that they could twist in ways human necks simply couldn't. The hawk beat its wings again, then settled.

*Holy shit. Holy shit, I'm a hawk. Guys, I'm a hawk!*

"You're doing the telepathy thing that Elfangor does," Marco noted.

*I am?*

*The technology preserves our thought speech.*

"But how can Tobias do it? He's not an Andalite."

*All communication originates in the brain. Whether a species communicates vocally, chemically, or through other means, the ideas originate in the brain. Your species is not able to link mind to mind in the sense that my species does, but the mechanics of thought speech is nearly universal. As you speak, the speech centers of your brain activate. My species is simply able to perceive that phenomena.*

"So, can you read my thoughts?"

*Only if you wish me to hear them. It is how I can understand your language.*

"So when we're in morph… Can Tobias hear my thoughts?"

*Yeah, dude. I can, and I don't appreciate you perving. I don't need you looking up my tailfeathers.*

"Shut it, Ten-Piece!" I called, stifling laughter.

*No, only if the creature is natively capable of thought speech,* Elfangor said, seemingly amused.

"Other aliens can thought speak?" Cassie asked.

*It is not unique to Andalites, but only a handful of other species communicate in this fashion. Verbal communication is far more common. Other species communicate chemically, and some even through electromagnetic fields.*

I looked at Tobias, perched menacingly in the rafters. "Are you going to be okay in morph?"

*The hawk instincts were a bit disorienting, but I think I got this.*

*Remember, you can only stay in morph for two hours.*

*I got it, I got it. Two hours. Rachel, would you mind setting an alarm on your phone? An hour forty, please?*

"As you wish, hawk boy."

"Has Melissa answered your text?" I asked. "Is your mom cool with it?"

"Yeah, Melissa actually seems kinda excited. And mom's cool with it. Cassie, you wanna come?"

"I might come over later, but I have chores to finish here and church in the morning so I can't spend the night."

"Jake, we have to get going," Marco said. "It's after three."

I nodded. We both needed to go home and change for work, not to mention drop Rachel off at Chapman's before our shift. "Tobias, you may as well demorph. No sense eating up your time limit till Rachel gets over there."

*I can fly off ahead of you guys. If you want.*

I thought about it. I'd already said the sooner we had eyes on Chapman, the better. Still, I was worried about Tobias going out on his first morph alone. Maybe I was paranoid, maybe I was just cynical, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen.

I looked at the pile of clothes on the barn floor. "Tobias, you realize you're going to be naked when you demorph, right."

Tobias turned his hawk head to his clothes. *Fuck. I had not thought of that.*

*The z-space field is mutable. With practice, you should be able to extend the field enough to morph clothing.*

"Tobias, fine, just go. I'll grab your clothes. Marco, Rachel, go wait in the car. Elfangor, you need to call your brother and get some sleep. You're gonna have to let us take this one, tonight," I said.

*Yes. Let us hope that Aximili has good news.*

Rachel and Marco headed out to the SUV and I started picking up Tobias's clothes. Elfangor began morphing. His blue fur turned tan, his human arms were absorbed into his chest. His face elongated, and his stalk eyes went rigid, extending and branching. In about a few minutes, he had become a black-tailed deer, a buck. The osprey hadn't been the only animal he'd acquired this morning. We figured if we were going to have bring an alien in and out of the barn on a quasi-regular basis, he needed to be able to blend in a little better.

And just like that, he was gone. Deer are amazingly agile, and it took but a few bounds for him to disappear out if the barn and into the wooded creek bed beyond.

And Cassie and I were alone for the first time since last night.

"So…," I said awkwardly.

"Yeah. So."

"Is this as weird for you as it is for me?" I asked.

She laughed. "Which part? The shape-shifting alien part, that our principal is an alien, or the dating thing?"

"The alien stuff is easier."

She arched an eyebrow. God, she was cute. "Aliens are easier than dating?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe the reality of it hasn't set in yet. Elfangor needed help, and we helped him. We needed information, and we figured out a way to get it. There's a next step, you know? Like I could tell what was supposed to come next. But this, us, I… I really like you and I don't want to screw this up."

She kissed me on the cheek. "You were my first kiss, Jake. Did you know that?"

I felt her arms around my shoulders as she let me hold her. "You were mine."

"My dad is a little overprotective. I don't know how to talk to him about us."

"I'm not going to push," I said.

She put her hand on my chest. I was sure she could feel my heart pounding. "But what if I want you to push?"

"Oh, you're bad, Cassandra."

"Go to work, fearless leader. I have chores. I'll text you."

I kissed her once more, savoring the taste of her on my lips.

"I'll miss you," I said.

"Oh, look who's suddenly just a puppy. Go to work, before we get caught."

I gave my mom a hug as I came in. I had dropped off Rachel and Marco so they could both get ready. I'd be picking both of them up again in about an hour or so.

"Hey, Jake, haven't seen you yet today," Mom said.

"Yeah, went to the Boardwalk with my friends for a bit. Wanted to hang out with Cassie."

"Oh, so your father wasn't lying, huh? You do have a girlfriend."

"I… Mom, I'm not sure. I really like Cassie. But we've been friends forever. I spent so much time trying to figure out how to get out of the friend zone, I don't think I really thought about what'd come next."

She laughed. "Ah, the drama of young love. Everything is always such a crisis in your first relationship." My mom is a couples therapist. That's probably relevant. "You're learning. And I'm glad you feel you can talk to me about it. I couldn't talk to my parents about dating till I was in college. The only thing I'm going to say for now is go slow. I know all the lovey-dovey-touchy stuff is new to you - it had better be new to you, young man - but don't forget she's still your friend."

"She's still my friend, mom. I still want to hang out with her with Marco, Rachel, and Tobias."

"Tobias." Mom made a face.

Mom liked Tobias. She actually really liked Tobias. And that was the problem. Before his mom had vanished, our moms had been best friends. She'd gone baby shopping with her, taken the two of us to the zoo together, and so on. She and Loren had been nearly inseparable the way I'd heard it. And I don't think anyone besides Tobias missed her more than my mom. In a way, I wonder if my mom didn't miss her more. Tobias had only been eight-years-old when she vanished, and my mom had known her for a long time by then.

"Mom, you okay?"

"I'm okay," she said, wistfully. "I'm okay."

"Mom?" I asked. "Do you…," I sighed and just went for it. "Do you still have your old photo albums? The ones with Tobias's mom?"

I could see the emotions etch across her face. If I'd slapped her, I don't think she'd have been any more stunned. "I...I still have them. Why?"

"Tobias. It's been a long time, mom. I know you miss your friend. But I honestly don't think Tobias has seen his mom's face in years. I was wondering-"

She pulled me close and held me like I was a little boy. She kissed the top of my head like she used to do when I was little. "You're a good kid, Jake." She wiped tears from her eyes. "You're off next weekend, right? Invite Tobias over. I think it's overdue we had a talk."

I went upstairs and grabbed my work clothes. I was headed to the shower when I ran into Tom in the hallway.

"Hey, squirt," he said.

"So, you had a late night, too, huh?" I asked. I had yet to get any kind of explanation for his late night weekends.

"Yeah, I've been volunteering at The Sharing on weekends. Dad didn't tell you?"

I shook my head. The Sharing is on par with The Boys & Girls Club. It's a community outreach program and there's a few chapters in the Greater Bay Area. "What got you involved in The Sharing?"

"What else? Girls."

I rolled my eyes. I had nothing to say to that, really. I couldn't blame him or anything. "So why were you out so late?"

"Checking up on me, squirt?"

"No, but you said to cover for you, and I don't think Mom would need excuses if you were volunteering."

He shrugged. "We were working till about ten or so, and then decided to hit the beach for a bit of senior time. A lot of my friends are leaving soon."

That made sense. My last day was Thursday, the Eighth of June. But Tom's graduation ceremony was next weekend. That's why I had off. But I hadn't given much thought to how life was changing for Tom after high school. I didn't know what to say to him.

"I gotta get a shower before work and I have to pick up Marco and drop Rachel off at Melissa's before we go in."

"Now you see why I didn't want the car?" Tom said. Tom either took the bus, rode his bike, or got someone to pick him up. And that someone, often as not, was me.

It was maybe forty-five minutes later that I was once again in my SUV, Marco riding shotgun, and Rachel in the center row, holding her backpack. The Chapman house was only a few blocks from the movie theater and fortunately for what we were doing, there was a small grove of trees adjoining his property. The plan was that we would stop a little short of Chapman's house and hide Tobias's stuff in the underbrush. That part was going to hinge on Rachel being able to find Tobias and get his attention.

That turned out to be a non-issue though. Within a minute of letting Rachel out, a hawk had swooped out of the trees on the other side of Chapman's house. Hawks see very well, and they don't miss much. Tobias had seen us coming the second I had turned the corner.

We waved to Rachel as we headed to work. We parked in the same garage as yesterday, and we walked the same few blocks as always. We were actually just a few minutes early.

The beginning part of the shift is always the most intense. We were about an hour before the next showing, and the last of the matinee tickets had been sold.

We spent the next few hours shilling popcorn, nachos, and fountain drinks. I cleaned the bathrooms while Marco swept the lobby and hallways.

We made some small talk with our coworkers. We joked that Craig had come to work stoned again. The shift wore on, and I felt normal. It was easy enough to forget about alien invasions and Elfangor alone in the woods when the real world was keeping you busy. It was easy because those things still seemed unreal.

It was hard to include Elfangor in the same reality as popcorn and ticket prices. I looked at the movie posters along the walls, the bright marquis lights in the lobby, the smells and sounds of a normal everyday cinema.

This was the world I knew. It was the reality I accepted without questioning it.

But Elfangor was real too.

I couldn't just forget about him when the moment changed. This was my life as I knew it, and I knew some part of my brain was trying to forget the unspoken dangers of what we had gotten into in the last twenty-four hours.

God, what had I gotten into?