(This is a Priority Three distress message. There is not much time. Find me. Find me!)

The voice echoes in my head, so loud it feels like my skull is about to shatter. For a few moments, I can feel myself simultaneously floating underneath the surface of the ocean and laying on the floor in Cassie's house. But the ocean fades away, and I find myself lying flat on my back, soaked with sweat, and somebody grabbing my shoulder.

"Toby!" a voice rings in my ear, "Toby! Wake up!"

How long had I been unconscious? Desperately, I focused on demorphing, and was relieved that I could feel my body beginning to change.

"Hey, it's all right. You're fine. You were only out for five minutes. You're nowhere near the time limit."

I was partway between Human and Hork-Bajir. Steadying my nerves with a few deep breaths, I concentrated. Shifted back into the Human morph. Marco helped me back up into a sitting position. Nearby, I could see Rachel and Lee kneeling down over a lump of ruffled brown feathers.

"Tobias? Can you hear me?" Rachel said, "Come on, wake up."

As she reached out to touch Tobias, his eyes opened. Suddenly, his eyes opened, he flipped up onto his feet, and flared his wings open.

"Hold still!" Cassie instructed, "Don't scare him. I think his hawk instincts just took over."

The hawk's eyes moved wildly back and forth, as if searching the room for some imminent threat.

(Tobias,) I said, hoping a Thought-Speech message might be less alarming for him, (You are safe. Remain calm.)

After a moment, Tobias seemed to relax, folding his wings back and lowering his head.

(What just happened?) he asked.

"Well, I remember arguing with Marco," Cassie said, "And then I had that dream again, only it was so much more intense than last night."

"I think I felt something, too," Rachel said. "I could almost hear a voice calling for help."

"All right, hands up, everyone who heard a psychic message just now," Marco said. Everybody raised up a hand, except for Tobias and myself. "I was afraid of that," he sighed. "Obviously, it's not just a figment of somebody's imagination, like I was hoping. So, what did you three hear this time?"

"'Priority distress message, find me.' Nothing else. But I don't think we really need much more than that now, do we?" Cassie said. "We know there's part of an Andalite ship somewhere off the coast, and it's close - if the debris is washing up here, it might be right inside the Channel Islands."

"All right. So there's part of an Andalite ship somewhere out there," Marco said, waving his arm in a westward direction, "And somebody on board is calling for help. Now what are we supposed to do about it?"

"We try to rescue them," Rachel said, "Obviously."

"But how? What do we do, morph whales or dolphins or something and just cruise around until we find a spaceship?"

"Well, there are some dolphins over at the Gardens," Cassie suggested.

"No, I mean... how fast do you think we'll find what we're looking for? Because I'm pretty sure it's going to take more than three hours," Marco said, frowning. "There's a lot of territory to cover out there. There's a good chance we'd have to demorph at sea before we even find this Andalite. Not to mention how we'd even get him back to shore, IF we find him."

"That's a good point about demorphing at sea," Lee said, "I don't know how to swim, so if I have to go back into this body when we're out in deep water..." he shook his head. "Doesn't matter if we're one mile out, or a hundred, I'd be in real trouble. Toby? What about you?"

"I cannot swim," I admitted, "No Hork-Bajir can. There were no large bodies of water on our homeworld, just a few shallow streams and ponds. At least Humans can float. I seriously doubt that my body would. I belong in the trees, not in the water."

"See?" Marco said, "Trying to pull off a rescue like this is going to be dangerous, and I'm not sure it's a good idea."

"But we can't just do nothing," Rachel protested, "Maybe it doesn't mean anything to you, Marco, but Elfangor died trying to save us, and if there's another Andalite out there who needs help... Jake, we have to at least try, right? Back me up here."

Marco didn't say anything. He just leaned forward in his chair and looked at Jake and Rachel with an expression I couldn't decipher.

"I've got an idea," Jake said, "We go ahead and morph dolphins, but we'll stay close enough to shore that we can get back in half an hour. Just see what's out there, then we can decide whether or not to go farther out."

The room was silent for a moment as we considered Jake's plan. Lee spoke up first.

"I'll do it," he said.

"Seriously?" Marco groaned, "You just told us you can't swim, and you're volunteering for a deep-sea rescue mission. Are you crazy?"

Lee laughed.

"Ten minutes ago you were arguing with a hawk about how useful it is that he can read an alien language, and you want to know if I'M crazy? ¡Por supuesto! ¡Tú también!"

I didn't understand what Lee had said, but Marco did.

"I walked right into that one, didn't I? All right, I'm in, too. You're wrong, Rachel, the Andalite's sacrifice does matter to me. I just think it would be a poor way to repay him by getting killed doing something dangerous without thinking it through first."

"I can't just ignore that distress call," Cassie said, "I'll be right there with the rest of you."

"All right, so that's five of us," Jake said, "Tobias? What about you?"

(I think I'll have to sit this one out,) Tobias said, (I don't have to worry about demorphing anymore, so in theory I could just spend all day flying over the water, but I can't actually see anything under the surface. Maybe if I'd been stuck as an eagle... besides that, I can't just flap my wings all day - I need to catch the thermals from time to time, and I don't know if I can find them out at sea. I really, really don't want to suddenly find out I can't stay airborne when the nearest land is too far away. I can try and keep an eye on you while you're close to shore, but I can't do any more than that.)

"I understand," Jake said, "Toby? How do you feel about the plan?"

I didn't answer right away - my throat had dried out, and I couldn't quite manage to speak.

"Toby?"

"I... I will need some time to consider it."