"Weird dreams about the ocean?" Marco said. "No. I've had weird dreams about falling from the sky and landing in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and playing croquet with King Friday. I've had weird dreams about Mulder and Scully investigating Scooby-Doo monsters. I've had dreams about that hot chick from Baywatch... well, actually, I guess that does involve the ocean."

We had gathered in a room on the lower level of the house. A window had been opened so that Tobias could perch on the frame, while the rest of us sat on several pieces of fabric-covered furniture. These were arranged so that most of them were facing a large black box with a convex screen, which I assumed to be a primitive communications device. Parts of the walls were covered with framed pieces of paper that had images of various Humans on them. On closer inspection, many of these were images of Cassie and their parents. Some showed Humans who might have been other relatives. And a few also showed various Earth animals.

"Which hot chick from 'Baywatch'?" Lee asked, "Was it Stephanie, Samantha, or-"

"Oh, my god," Rachel interrupted, "You actually think Stephanie was hot?"

Lee crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Hey, just because I don't like being a girl, that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to be attracted to-"

"Lee, I'm not questioning your orientation," Rachel said, "Just your standards."

Lee rolled his eyes,

"Whatever. I've had a few weird dreams about the ocean, but that's nothing new. It's been happening off and on since I moved out here. It's always the same - just an endless expanse of water piling up against the sand. Nothing else. Not even any hot lifeguards in bikinis."

This last part was accompanied with an exaggerated smile as he turned his head to look directly at Marco.

"If you two are done drooling over ladies in bikinis," Jake interrupted, "Maybe you can tell me if anybody else happened to catch the 6:00 news last night?"

"At 6:00?" Cassie said, "No, I was watching 'The X-Files' with Dad."

"I was helping my little sisters with their homework," Rachel said.

I was watching a baseball game at the park, Tobias said. Honestly, even if I wasn't stuck like this, I never really watched the news anyway.

"And I spent the night reading comic books, playing computer games, and otherwise trying to convince myself that I'm still a normal kid," Marco added with a smile. The smile drained away in a matter of seconds. "Let me guess. There was something on the news that you think might be connected, wasn't there?"

Jake nodded his head. "Fortunately, they repeated it for the 9:00 news, and I was able to find a spare videotape to record it. Cassie, mind if I borrow the VCR?"

Jake pulled a small rectangular object from a large bag laying on the ground, walked over to the communication device, knelt down, inserted the object, and pressed a few buttons. Tobias flapped over to sit on the back of a chair where he had a better view.

"All right, guys, pay attention," Jake said. The communication device now showed a recording of Humans in suits sitting behind a desk.

"Sorry, I had to record the whole news program so Tom wouldn't get suspicious," he apologized. "I'll fast-forward to the part I wanted to... ah, here we go!"

The recording played at triple speed for a few minutes, then stopped. The frozen image on the screen now showed three Humans standing at the beach. One of them was holding a large, jagged piece of blue-gray metal. I could feel my heartrate increase at the sight of the ocean behind them, and I fought to stay calm.

"This guy says he found that thing on the beach yesterday morning," Jake commented, "Thinks it might have washed up after that storm a few days ago. They'll have a better view in a second... here!"

The recording froze again, showing a close-up view of the metal. Quite unmistakably, there was writing on it. I recognized it at once.

"I believe those are Andalite letters," I said, rising up from my chair to take a closer look.

"I thought so," Jake said, "When I went into Elfangor's ship to get the morphing cube, I saw some kind of writing on the walls. I'm almost positive it matches that piece of debris here."

"Perfect match," I said, "This is definitely Andalite script."

"Are you sure?" Cassie asked.

"Absolutely," I answered, "Unfortunately, I cannot translate them."

I think I can, Tobias volunteered.

"Let me guess," Marco said, twisting around to face Tobias, "Another side effect of that Vulcan mind-meld Elfangor did?"

Yes.

"Ah. So he actually did give you something useful after all."

Hey, don't forget, that's also how we found out about the Yeerk pool.

"And how did that work out for you?" Marco said, frowning. Tobias remained silent, but I noticed their feathers puffed out slightly so that he appeared to be larger.

"Oh, wait - it didn't work out. We got our asses handed to us, YOU got stuck as a bird, and we didn't accomplish anything useful-"

"You succeeded in liberating a Hork-Bajir Seer," I interrupted, "However unintentional it may have been."

Marco's frown changed into a glare, and his hands clenched into fists. I sensed that he wanted to argue the matter further, but Jake put a stop to it.

"Focus, guys. We're getting off-topic. Now, Tobias, what's written on the wreckage?"

Ah, yes. 'Danger, confined space, no entry without required permit'.

"Is that all?" Cassie asked, "Just some kind of hazard label?"

Guess so.

"Wow," Marco groaned, as he leaned back in his chair, "Wow. That's got to be the most boring secret message ever. Right up there with 'be sure to drink your Ovaltine'. What a waste of-"

"It's not a waste of time," Cassie argued, "Don't you see? It proves that an Andalite ship must've landed out there off the coast. And I think there might still be somebody alive out there and they're trying-"

I didn't hear just what Cassie though the Andalites were trying to do. Just seeing a recording of the ocean had made me feel ill, and suddenly I was feeling even worse. My vision had become blurry, there was a terrible buzzing sound that felt like it was coming from inside my skull, and my breath was coming in short, ragged gasps. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cassie collapse to the floor, and then Tobias. And then, a moment later, I lost consciousness.