The Invasion (5 page)

“How can they do that?” Cassie wondered. The alien seemed to smile with his eyes.
Their Dracon beams will leave nothing behind but a few molecules of this ship, and … this body,
he said.
I sent a message to my home world. We Andalites fight the Yeerks wherever they go throughout the universe. My people will send help, but it may take a year, even more, and by then the Yeerks will have control of this planet. After that, there is no hope. You must tell people. You
must
warn your people!
Another spasm of pain ripped through him, and we all knew he was nearly gone.

“No one is ever going to believe us,” Marco said hopelessly. He looked at me and shook his head.“No way.”

He was right. If these Yeerks were to wipe out the Andalite’s ship, how on Earth would we ever convince people? They’d think we were either nuts or on drugs.

“I don’t care if he
thinks
he’s going to die, we have to try and help him,” Rachel said. “We can get him to a hospital. Or maybe Cassie’s parents …”

There is no time. No time,
the Andalite said. Then his eyes brightened.
Perhaps …

“What?”

Go into my ship. You will see a small blue box, very plain. Bring it to me. Quickly! I have very little time, and the Yeerks will find me soon.

We all looked at each other. Who was going to be the one to go inside the ship? Somehow we all seemed to agree it would be me. Actually,
I
didn’t agree, but everyone else did.

“Go ahead,” Tobias said. “I want to stay with him.” He knelt beside the Andalite and placed a comforting hand on the alien’s narrow shoulder.

I looked at the doorway into the spacecraft. I glanced at Cassie.

“Go ahead,” she said, sending me a smile. “You’re not scared.”

She was wrong; I was plenty scared. But the way she smiled at me, I wasn’t about to weasel out.

I walked over to the door of the ship and looked inside. It was surprisingly simple. It looked cozy, almost. Everything was a creamy color with rounded edges and shapes that tended to be oval. That was one of the things that helped me to spot the box so easily. It was sky blue and square, maybe four inches on each side. It seemed kind of heavy for being so small.

I stepped up into the ship. There was no chair, just a sort of open space where I guess the Andalite stood on his four hooves while he worked the few controls. There weren’t a lot of buttons or anything. I wondered if the Andalite controlled the ship with his thoughts.

I quickly reached for the box and started to head back outside. But then something caught my eye. It was a small, three-dimensional picture—four Andalites, standing all together, looking like a strange gathering of deer with solemn faces. Two of them looked very small — kids. I realized that this was a picture of the Andalite’s family.

It filled me with sadness to think that here he was, dying, a million miles from his family. Dying because he had tried to protect the people of Earth. I felt a small flame of anger against the Yeerks, or Controllers, or whatever they were, for causing this.

I went back to the circle of my friends.

“Here’s the box,” I told the Andalite.

Thank you.