The Alien (2 page)

E
arth . . .

The first thing an Andalite may notice about humans is that they walk around on only two legs. It is very strange to see so many creatures balancing that way. But, despite this, they seldom fall over.

— From the Earth Diary of Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill

My full name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill.

My human friends call me Ax. I am a young Andalite. I have four legs. I also have two arms. And I have a tail.

I am told that I look like a cross between a deer, a scorpion, and a human. I've seen deer in the woods, and I don't agree. For one thing, they have mouths and I don't. And they have only two eyes, while I have four.

As for scorpions, I've only seen pictures. There is some resemblance, when it comes to the tail. An Andalite tail is also curved upward and tipped by a very sharp blade.

As an Andalite, I have the power to morph. It's not something we're born with — it's a technology. But we invented it, and we are the only race in the galaxy that has it.

Except for my human friends, that is.

They can morph, too. But it's thanks to Andalite science. And thanks to the fact that my brother broke our own laws to give them this power.

The one great problem with morphing is the time limit: two Earth hours.

That time limit was the problem as my human friends and I set about on a particular mission. It was a mission that required careful planning and careful timing. It was a mission full of risks.

We were going to a movie.

“So, here's the deal, Ax,” Marco explained. “You can watch the first hour of the movie. But that's it. We can get you to the mall theater, and you watch for an hour. Then we have to get you back to the woods to demorph.”

A
movie
. Movies are an important part of human culture. I had decided, if I was stuck on Earth among these aliens, that I should at least learn about them. Maybe I would never be the big hero Elfangor was, but I could surely become the biggest expert on humans.

Of course, I would have to attend the movie in a morph. I couldn't go around in public in my own Andalite form. Humans would have been terrified. And the Controllers — those humans who are infested by the Yeerk parasites — would have tried to kill me.

Which would have ruined the entire movie experience.

I would have to morph. To take on a different body. But this particular morph was one I had done several times before. I didn't expect there to be any problems.

We were standing together under the camouflage of the forest where I now live. Prince Jake, Marco, Cassie, Rachel, and Tobias were all there. Although Tobias was some distance away.

“Okay, let's do this,” Jake said, making sounds with his mouth to form words. He glanced at his watch. “Rachel? You have the backup plan ready? Where does Ax go if he needs an emergency demorph?”

“The dressing rooms at Nordstrom. They're big and private. Best dressing rooms in the mall. Cassie and I will be posted outside the theater, ready to rush him there if an emergency situation develops.”

“And Rachel promises not to stop and shop in the junior's department on the way,” Cassie said, grinning.

Jake glanced up to the sky. Up above the treetops, a red-tailed hawk floated on a warm breeze. “Tobias!” Jake yelled.

Tobias called down in thought-speak.

Tobias is a
nothlit
, a person trapped in a morph. It is what happens if you stay beyond the two-hour limit. Tobias is a human, but his body is that of a hawk. He has adjusted well to this bizarre new life. He lives in the forest with me.

For a long time I expected Tobias to ask me the question that must have haunted him day and night: whether it would ever be possible for him to escape his hawk body. But he never did. I guess he was afraid of the answer. So, I didn't volunteer one.

“Okay,” Jake said. “Let's do it.”

I began to morph. The first thing I felt was a slipping, melting, almost sickening feeling as my internal organs began to shift around. There was a scary little jolt as my second and third hearts stopped beating. I heard a grinding sound from inside my body as my spine began to shorten.

Soon I was in danger of falling on my face as my front legs shriveled. My arms grew thicker and stronger, but two fingers on each hand melted away to leave me with five-fingered hands.

My shoulders grew wider to support my large arms. And my hind legs grew sturdier as more of my weight was shifted onto them.

The stalks on my head began to retract, and as they did, my stalk eyes grew dimmer and dimmer, like someone turning off the light. Suddenly they were gone and I only had two eyes.

I dislike that. Having just two eyes is so limiting. You can only look in one direction at a time. You can't even look behind you.

My spine continued to shorten. In fact, it sucked completely out of my tail, which left my tail as limp as a rope. Then the weak remnants of my tail simply withered away.

“Grab him, he's going to fall over,” Prince Jake said.

He and Marco each took hold of me to keep me upright, as my front legs disappeared altogether.

“Hey, hey, clothing!” Rachel said, making a face. “Clothing. Don't forget the morphing suit, Ax.”

As my body continued to change, my skintight morphing suit also appeared. It is a very difficult trick to be able to morph clothing. And all you can manage is something extremely tight.

“Are you done?” Prince Jake asked me.

I considered. I was standing precariously on two legs. I possessed two strong arms and ten strong fingers. I was mostly without fur. My eyes were weak and totally unable to see anything except what was in front of me. My hearing was good. My mind was functioning normally.

And I had a mouth.

“Yes,” I said, using my mouth. “Yessss. Ssssss. Yes-suh. I am in human morph.”

I had morphed into a human. The DNA came from samples I had long since acquired from Jake, Cassie, Rachel, and Marco. I would have liked to have Tobias's DNA, but that was not possible since he is a
nothlit
.

My human friends have some differences, but each has only two legs, two arms, and two eyes. They each have one mouth.

Prince Jake is large and pale in color, with brown hair. Cassie is shorter and darker in color, with darker brown hair. Marco is also shorter and medium color, with brown hair. Rachel is taller and pale, and has yellow hair.

None of them has any sort of tail.

“This always makes my skin crawl,” Marco said, staring at me in a sideways fashion. “It's like the four of us were run through a blender. I swear he has my eyes.”

“What's gross is I'll look at him and think, ‘Wow, is that guy cute,'” Rachel said. “Then I'll see something that looks like Cassie. Or worse, like me!”

“What? Rachel in love with her own looks?” Marco said, using an inflection of his mouth-sounds that humans call “sarcasm.” Then he looked troubled. “I'm still not sure this is a good idea. The Controllers could —”

“Uh-uh,” Prince Jake interrupted. “We're not talking about Controllers, Yeerks, or Visser Three. We are taking a break. We've fought one battle after another. We destroyed the Kandrona. We beat that
Veleek
monster of theirs. And now we are taking some well-deserved vacation time. Ax wants to learn more about humans, so that's what we're doing.”

I was never exactly a great student, but I could just imagine how my fellow Andalites would act when they finally rescued me. They'd ask, And I'd have to say,

The trick would be to learn about the humans without letting them learn too much about Andalites. There were things I could never tell the humans. Things that might make them turn against me.

“We should hit the Yeerks again while they're weak,” Rachel growled. “We know the Yeerks won't get a new ground-based Kandrona for another week. They must still be starving for lack of Kandrona rays. We should hit them!”

Yeerks are a race of parasitic slugs. They live inside the brains of other species. They completely dominate the host body, making it a “Controller.” There are Hork-Bajir-Controllers, Taxxon-Controllers, and more and more Human-Controllers. Any human you know might be a Controller. There is no way to tell — unless you are an Andalite.

I sympathized with Rachel. But I also understood Prince Jake's caution. No warrior can fight all the time.

“Look, you guys,” Prince Jake said. “We hurt the Yeerks. It was a good job. But we also know that they have a replacement Kandrona being set up, so don't assume they're weak. Besides, if they are weak, they sure haven't shown it. I expected to see Yeerks dying left and right, and former Controllers walking free again. Hasn't happened. Somehow they've maintained.”

“We can't know what is going on with the Yeerks,” Cassie pointed out. “Just because we haven't
seen
them suffer doesn't mean they haven't.”

“Okay, look, here we are again, talking about Yeerks,” Jake said impatiently. “We have just come from a very, very unpleasant battle. And we came very close to ending up dead. And it's not the first time. So we are
going
to relax and be normal. We are
going
to the movie. And we are
going
to have fun. And no one . . .
Rachel
. . . is going to look for a fight.”

“Don't you love it when he gets all forceful like that?” Marco said to Cassie. “He's just so macho sometimes.”

“Okay, Ax,” Jake said. “Time to get dressed.”

“Prince Jake, I am already wearing this garment,” I said, pointing to the thing that covered my body. “Wearing. Ing. Ing-uh.”

It is an amazing sensation, making sounds with your mouth. Actual words are formed by vibrating your throat and positioning your tongue. But some sounds are better than others. “Ing” is a wonderful sound to make.

“Don't call me ‘Prince,'” Prince Jake said.

“Ax, you're dressed like an escapee from the Winter Olympics,” Marco said.

“You can't go out in public wearing tights and a spandex top,” Rachel said. “It's a major fashion ‘don't.' Here.”

She handed me a bag. In the bag were items of clothing. It took several minutes for me to dress successfully. There is a lot to remember, and every bit of clothing can only go on one way. Socks go on the feet and not on the hands, for example.

When I was done, they all stared at me. Even Tobias flew down to stare.

“Rachel, he looks like he's going to the country club to play polo,” Marco said. “I knew we shouldn't let you pick the clothes. He's like a bully magnet. Even I want to beat him up.”

“It's a classic look,” Rachel said angrily. “Like
you're
Mister Fashion? A person who dresses like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo?”

“I think he looks cute,” Cassie said.

Tobias remarked from his perch in the tree above.

“It is?” I asked.

Tobias said.

Ax-man. That's what Tobias calls me sometimes.

“Come on, Ax,” Prince Jake said, smiling. “Let's do this. If anyone tries to beat you up, we'll protect you.”

I
did not understand the plot of that story,” I said.

We were in the movie theater. I was “sitting.” This involves bending your body and resting on the fat deposits halfway down the back of your body.

“That was a
preview
, Ax,” Prince Jake said. “It's just to give you an idea what the whole movie will be like when it comes out.”

“Yes. I see. Why is the screen flat and two-dimensional? Flat. Flat-tuh.”

“Because that's how some movies are.”

“Ah.”

“You want some popcorn?” Marco asked. He held one of the open boxes they had obtained. He moved it close to me.

“Is it food?” I asked.

“Well, sort of,” Prince Jake said. “But, Ax? You know how you get around food, okay? So remember — don't get carried away.”

I watched Marco eat some of the popcorn. I did as he did. I stuck my large human fingers into the box. I removed a handful of the food and stuck it in my mouth.

I chewed.

The texture was rough and strange. And the flavor! It reminded me of a food called pizza. But there was just a hint of cigarette butts, which I also enjoy. Although Prince Jake had told me never to eat cigarette butts again. They are bad for you.

I took another handful of the popcorn. I chewed it. Another handful.

“This is excellent!” I cried.

“It tastes like it's about a week old,” Marco said.

“What are these flavors? What are they called?”

“I don't know. Salt? Grease?”

“Salt!” I said, savoring the very sound of the word. “Salt! And grease! Greee-suh!”