There was a flash.

Then Rachel and Marco were gone.

<WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER--I mean, them?!> Tobias exclaimed.

The Helmet with the gun-like thing looked up in the tree. <Did that creature just talk? I was under the impression humans were the only species capable of speech on this planet.>

"What. . .where are they?" Jake looked at Ax and gave a discreet nod. Ax began demorphing to Andalite.

The Helmet peered at something on the handle of the gun. <Oh, they're fine. They've simply been sent back in time approximately . . .two hundred and thirty of your years.>

"Why would you do that?" I blurted out.

The Helmet waved its arm, which I assumed was an alien form of shrugging shoulders. <It's a way of temporarily removing them from our presence.>

"Temporarily?" I said, breathing a sigh of relief. "You can bring them back?"

<Of course, as soon they have witnessed enough battle. Then we will buy their memories to be sold to the Iskoort.>

"WHAT?!"

<Well, what did you THINK we were doing on this planet?> The Helmet said. <Enjoying the scenery?>

"Trying to steal our blue box?"

<Oh, dear me, no,> He/she laughed airily. <We just heard that you might let us power up our ship, that's all we wanted. We don't need to STEAL it. The Helmets are a much more honest species then that.>

"How did you know about our blue box?" Jake demanded.

<Well, if you've encountered the Helmacrons. . .word spreads fast around the galaxy, you know?>

<Correct me if I am wrong,> Ax said. <You travel from planet to planet, sending them back in time, in hopes they will acquire interesting memories, then buy their memories from them. Then you sell these memories to the Iskoort?>

<Well, yes. You can find plenty of species that sell their memories quite cheaply, while the Iskoort pay much more for them. But, you see, we don't just send them back and hope they stumble upon something interesting. We make sure we send them to significant times and places in the planet's history, preferably battles.>

"Oh."

"And where did you send Rachel and Marco?" Jake asked, looking worried at the fact that his cousin and best friend were, according to these Helmets, at some battle in history, but relieved that they were planning on bringing them back--alive.

The Helmet once again consulted the gun, which, I guess, would really be called a time machine. <The date is April 18,1775. The place is Lexington, Massachusetts.>

I knew that name. "Lexington and Concord?"

<Oh, no,> Tobias moaned. <They sent them to the Revolutionary War. April 18th, that's the night of Paul Revere's ride. The first battle of the war happens the next day.>

"Marco and Rachel?" Jake exclaimed. "At the Revolutionary War?!"

A scary little image of a battlefield exploding, British soldiers in red uniforms flying everywhere, and Rachel cackling in the background, entered my head, but I tried to push it away. Marco was there with her. He wouldn't let anything like that happen.

The image came back, this time with Marco sitting off to the side, bound and gagged.

"This could be bad," I said unnecessarily. No doubt Jake and Tobias were having similar thoughts.

The Helmets looked ecstatic. <You think they will acquire interesting memories?>

<That's the understatement of the year,> Tobias muttered.

The redhaired girl had been quiet ever since Marco and Rachel had disappeared, but now she grabbed my arm and said, looking scared, "Cassie? What's going on?"

I stared at her. "How do you know my name?"

She looked a little disappointed. "You don't remember me? Well, I guess I DO look different now, and it has been awhile. And I couldn't remember what it was you guys called yourselves, so I just said Andalites, but. . ."

Now Jake was staring at her, too. "Who are you?"

"Are you sure you don't remember me?" She shook her head, and sighed. "It's me. Karen."

Chapter 6