43 - 8 - Ax Smart

The freak and geek club. The middle of the night, deep in the forest. Four kids and a bird crowded around a laptop salvaged from a Dumpster and repaired by an alien kid and friend, Ax. An Andalite and brother of Elfangor. Ax's fourteen fingers deftly powered up the unit and dialed up the Internet.

"Ax, this is way cool," Rachel whispered, "but how did you do it? A cell phone? Internet access? That's more allowance than I'll ever see."

"You mean because Macy's has you on that pesky outfit-per-week plan?" Marco sneered.

"I'd like to think that an Andalite who once made contact with his home world could arrange Web access," Jake said.

<It has not been easy,> Ax said somberly. He was using an old car battery for power. All the wires and tape patches spilling from the jerry-rigged setup made Ax look pretty clever to me. <I reconditioned several other discarded computing modules and sold them to Computer Renaissance. I thought the money would be sufficient. I did not know that cell phones and Net access require a credit card.>

"The bank wasn't reassured by the whole 'unemployed alien' aspect of your application?" Marco said.

"That's right," Cassie said. "So I'm helping him. You know the cell phone I'm supposed to take with me, for emergencies only? Well, Dad made a deal with me. I can talk for half an hour a week if I do Saturday morning meds." I watched her locate the cell phone. It was opened up and tangled in a nest of wires. "Ax, you can put that back together, right?" she said, a bit nervously.

<I assure you, Cassie, I know what I am doing.> The screen dimmed and revived. Rachel raised an eyebrow. But then, sure enough, the AOL welcome screen loaded.