Our Summer Vacation...

[Josh (J)]

Once again, Chad heard skittish noises in the background, but he still did the only thing the crab mind wanted him to do: get away. But suddenly, he calmed down. All those feelings washed away, and he was almost totally calm. He wiggled one of his pincers to see if it was really true. I guess it is. Then, he wondered how he could talk. Maybe by thinking loudly it would go through. No...the idea was too ridiculous. But, he was a crab, right? And he was talking to some parrot--er, macaw, no? so, he decided to test it out. <Can anybody here me? Dad? Jo? Brian?>

[warren_bearclaw]

"Um, I think he's trying to get to the water..." I bent down and tried to pick him up... tried being the operative word there. It was kinda funny, I was worried about my friend pinching my finger off. What a day.

"Oh no, you don't." I said. I grabbed the bailing bucket, scooped some water in it, and tried catching my son to dunk him in. Weirdest sentence in my life.

<Can anybody hear me? Dad? Jo? Brian?>

"Chad? Are you okay?" I shouted. I was talking to a crab, hoping desperately that he could hear me, too. Second weirdest sentence in my life. He had stopped scampering all over the place, which was a relieve. I couldn't help but think of what I'd have to tell his mom if he got away. "Yeah, Chad's fine. He's at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Don't worry, though, he's a crab." Oi.

<You have overcome the initial wave of instincts. You should be in complete control now. Well done.>

[radgeek]

"I would like to apologize Tarry, if I can call you that, for giving you a hard time earlier."

[Josh (J)]

Relief washed over Chad as he gained more control of the morph. It was almost...fun being a crab with a human mind. OK, so that was weird. He heard voices ((I did research, and found this: http://museumvictoria.com.au/discoverycentre/infosheets/can-crabs-hear/)), but he couldn't really make them out. Since it appeared that people could understand how he spoke earlier, he did it again. <Hey everybody, I'm ok.> He gave a rueful laugh. <Well, as well as I can be expected to be. I'm fine, Dad.> Then he decided to talk to the parrot. <So, how do I become human?>

[warren_bearclaw]

<No offense taken. I understood that humans often have difficulty accepting strange or new concepts easily.> In response to Chad, he replied, <By the same process that you became what you are now. Picture your human self, and choose to be so. It really is a simple thought-control concept...> The bird was starting to sound a little bit like he thought we should now all about that.

"How 'bout you do that, Chad...." I said. I believed our feathered friend, but I really, really wanted to see Chad as a human again.

<Your father would like you to morph back to human now.>

I raised my hand and said "After he's done, I'm next!"

[Josh (J)]

Chad sighed and said, <All right. And don't get so snippish about it, parrot. This is my first time.> He heard something else in the distance, but focused on the good old, ordinary him. The sloshing began, and what happened was that instead of it going by any logic, out came a huge crab, about five feet big. <Good grief! Is there something else I should know about this?!> he yelled, starting to feel a little scared of living his life as an overgrown crab.

[warren_bearclaw]

<The morphing process is random; it does not follow any sort of pattern.>

"You'd think whoever made this could make it less... like that."

"SQUAAAAACK!!" <Morphing Technology is a prime example of superior Andalite technology. No other civilization is capable of such discovery.>

I rolled my eyes. Birdie has an ego, I thought. "Keep backin' out, Chad. It's working."

[Josh (J)]

<Working, my foot,> he said sarcastically. <I'm a huge crab!> But fortunately, the process continued, and he rapidly changed back into his human self, with strange noises that was enough to make him sick. Great, he thought. First morph in my whole life over. Wow.

[warren_bearclaw]

"Oh.... um" I turned around. See, when Chad had morphed, he'd become tangle in his clothing. We'd helped our little crab buddy out from under his shirt. But now that he was coming out of the morph, I realized what that meant....

"Son.... you might want these." I tossed Chad his bundle of clothing, and looked away as he finished morphing.

[radgeek]

"I think I need to go for another swim," I said before diving off.

[Josh (J)]

"Huh?" Chad said, confused. But he quickly realized and groaned. "Argh..." Quickly dressing, he turned to the parrot. "I think you forgot to include this as part of your little talk, Mr. Parrot." He sighed and sat down. "Now what should we do?" suddenly, the whole thing sank in. They would be involved in a war. So much for an ordinary life.

[warren_bearclaw]

I couldn't help but smile at Jo's method of departure. "JO! It's safe now...."

My son had a point. This was big stuff going on. And I couldn't logically deny it now. "Yeah, now what? You told us that we're silently being taken over. That's not good. When are your people coming to stop them?"

Tarry looked downwards.  <Our forces tried to prevent the Yeerks from making a strong hold here, but they were ambushed. They...>

"So it might be a while is what your saying." I could accept waiting.

<...Your planet is seen as low priority to my people. It might be a very long while.>

[radgeek]

I climbed back in the boat. "How can we tell who's a controller and who's not?"

[Josh (J)]

Chad shivered in the breeze and said, "From what this guy is telling us, I don't think there will be much of a difference. Why, one of us could be one for all we knew. Somehow, I think that's an advantage the..the..Yeerks will have on us."

[warren_bearclaw]

<You are correct. There is no outward sign of a yeerk-infested being. They behave the same, speak the same, and carry on what would be considered a normal life for their host. They hide themselves in a population, slowly infiltrating more and more beings, until they are able to take control by force. Your planet is plentiful. There are many, many people who would revolt, but that is also why they want your planet to such a degree. Your people are unaware of the growing threat that endangers your freedom.>

"So what do we do? We're not gonna just start chopping heads and looking for Yeerks. Could we do like a medical scan or something?"

The bird laughed in my mind. <Hahahaha.... Your kind does not have any technology advanced enough that could detect a Yeerk.> Yeah, the alien-parrot had an ego, alright. <There is one way to identify a Controller. On their homeworld, Yeerks swim in pools that cover most of their planet. They absorb nutrients from the sludge, mainly particles from their sun. These are called 'Kadrona particles' and the Yeerks are dependent on them for survival.>

"Don't tell me that they feed off of sunlight..." I started to say.

<No. Your sun is far too young to be producing noticeable amounts of Kadrona particles. Every three days, a yeerk must leave its host and feed in specially constructed pools that are filled with artificially-manufactured particles. That is how one can tell. After three days without feeding, the Yeerk will die.>