Leeran Morph

<Morph the Leerans,> I said.

Yes! the Leerans cried. Yes, morph us. Take our water jets. As long as you stay away from other Leerans, you will be safe from psychic probing.

Cassie said, <We don't like to ->

Yes, a Leeran responded, reading her thoughts. You do not like to morph sentient creatures. You respect our freedom. But we offer you this freely. We have read what is in the mind of Aximili the Andalite. We know what he suspects, and we know that even among the Andalites there are traitors. So, friends, carry our DNA and help to free our people from the Yeerks.

We rose to the surface. I demorphed. The humans demorphed. We lay there treading water, rising and falling on the gentle Leeran swells. The Leeran sun was still low on the horizon, coming up on another day. It turned the water golden around us.

I reached and pressed my hand against a Leeran's slimy yellow flesh.

Where sky meets sea, Andalite, human, and Leeran are joined as allies, my Leeran said. Each with our weaknesses. Each with our strengths.

It moved me somehow, as ludicrous as it might have looked to an outsider. Humans and an Andalite wallowing clumsily beside big, yellow "psychic frogs," as Marco called them. Three species on a world conquered by the Yeerks. We probably would have seemed pathetic to any Yeerk who happened to see us.

<A fellow Andalite told me we were weak because we are not united. We do not speak with one voice,> I said. <But this union does not feel weak.>

<Free people who get together to defend freedom are never weak.>

It was Marco who said that. Maybe you can see why, despite all their strangeness, I like humans. And I was starting to like Leerans.

We let the Leerans go their own way to their underwater caves to recover from their injuries.

And we began what might be the most bizarre morph any of us has ever done. The physical part was strange, but no more disturbing than any number of Earth creatures I've morphed. The powerful webbed feet in back, the four sinuous tentacles, the neckless head were almost ordinary compared to the body of a fly or a cockroach.

It was the new sense that was stunning: the psychic sense. It wasn't that I could read every thought in the heads of Prince Jake and Cassie and Marco. But I could feel enough of their secrets to be embarrassed for them. And, of course, for myself. Because my own secrets, my vain little ideas, my pretensions were all open to them as well.

I could see so clearly that Marco was hoping for some news of his mother, Visser One. He wondered if she was here on Leera, if she had survived our last encounter.

I could see and feel Prince Jake's crushing weight of responsibility. The way he kept running things through in his mind, over and over again. Trying to figure out what had happened to Tobias and Rachel. Desperate to find a way to protect the rest of us.

And I could feel Cassie's mind as she cried for Rachel and Tobias. As she wondered whether we were doing the right thing. As she dealt with the aftereffects of the violence we'd just endured.

<Well,> Marco said, obviously uncomfortable. <I would just like you all to know that whatever thoughts of mine you're reading are totally made up. They aren't real.>

<Same here,> Prince Jake said quickly. <Absolutely.>

<Hey,> Cassie said, <they are just morphs to us, right? Lots of times we have trouble controlling the brain of the morph. But we usually handle it. So maybe ->

<Maybe since these are just morphs to us, maybe we can turn off the psychic thing!> Marco said, clutching at the idea.

Then, one by one, I felt their minds close to me. And I closed my own.

It seemed suddenly very lonely as we grabbed the water jets and rode away through the brilliantly alive sea. Suddenly very lonely.

But I guess each species feels most comfortable when they are just themselves. And for humans and Andalites, secrets and lies and the loneliness of privacy are natural.