"Hello," the alien said, in that silent way that you only heard inside your head.

"Hi," we all said back.

8 To my surprise, the alien staggered. He fell out of the ship to the ground. Tobias tried to grab him and hold him up, but the alien slipped from his grasp and fell back to the dirt.

"Look!" Cassie cried. She pointed at a burn that covered half the alien's right side. "He's hurt.

"

"Yes. I am dying," he said.

"Can we help you? We can call an ambulance or something," Marco said.

"We can bandage that wound," Cassie said. "Jake, give me your shirt. We can tear it up and make bandages." Cassie's parents are both veterinarians and she's totally into animals. Not that this was an animal. Not exactly, anyway.

"No. I will die. The wound is fatal."

"NO!" I cried. "You can't die. You're the first alien ever to come to Earth. You can't die." I don't know why I was so upset. I just knew that way down deep inside, it hurt me to think of him dying.

"I am not the first. There are many, many others."

"Other aliens? Like you?" Tobias demanded.

The alien shook his big head slowly, side to side. "Not like me." Then he cried out in pain, a silent sound that echoed horribly inside my mind. For a moment, I had actually felt him dying.

"Not like me," he repeated. "They are different."

"Different? How?" I said.

I will remember his answer forever.

He said, "They have come to destroy you."

9 CHAPTER 3

"They have come to destroy you."

It was strange, the way we all just knew he was telling the truth. No one said "no way" or "you're making it up." We all just knew. He was dying, and he was trying to warn us of something terrible.

"They are called Yeerks. They are different from us. Different from you, as well."

"Are you telling us they're already here on Earth?" Rachel demanded.

"Many are here. Hundreds. Maybe more."

"Why hasn't anybody noticed them?" Marco said reasonably. "I think someone would have mentioned it at school."

"You do not understand. Yeerks are different. They have no body, like yours or mine. They live in the bodies of other species. They are . . . "

I guess he couldn't think of a word to explain Yeerks, so he closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate. Suddenly a bright picture popped into my head. I saw a gray-green, slimy thing like a snail without its shell, only bigger, the size of a rat, maybe. It wasn't a pretty picture.

"I'm guessing that was a Yeerk," Marco said. "Either that or a very big wad of slimy chewing gum."

"They are almost powerless without hosts. They - "

Suddenly we felt that blast of pain, straight from the alien. I could also feel his sadness. He knew his time was almost up.

"The Yeerks are parasites. They must have a host to live in. In this form they are known as Controllers. They enter the brain and are absorbed into it, taking over the host's thoughts and feelings. They try to get the host to accept them voluntarily. It is easier that way. Otherwise the host may be able to resist, at least a little."

"Are you saying they take over human beings?" Rachel asked. "People? These things take over their bodies?"

"Look, this is serious stuff," I said. "You shouldn't be telling us. We're just kids, you know.

This is like something the government should know about."

"We had hoped to stop them," the alien continued. "Swarms of their Bug fighters were waiting when our Dome ship came out of Z-Space. We knew of their mother ship and were ready for the Bug fighters, but the Yeerks surprised us - they had hidden a powerful Blade ship in a crater of your moon. We fought, but . . . we lost. They have tracked me here. They will be here soon to eliminate all traces of me and my ship."

"How can they do that?" Cassie wondered.

10 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.

11 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."

"I, um . . . was that your family? That picture?"

"Yes."

I'm real sorry," I said. What else could I say?

"There is something I may be able to do to help you fight the Yeerks."

"What?" Rachel demanded.

"I know that you are young. I know that you have no power with which to resist the Controllers. But I may be able to give you some small powers that may help." We all looked at each other. All except Tobias, who never took his gaze off the alien.