"How is it moving?" Rowan whispers.

She stands on her toes to get a better view over the wall, putting one hand on Liam's shoulder for stability. 

That would probably be the stubby wings sticking out of the sides, now visible with the decreased distance, as are the scorch marks. It continues to glow and blink with light as it touches down in the nearest open space, avoiding the fallen walls and piles of construction material. 

The blue lights shut off as it touches down.

"Do you think it's aliens?" she asks Liam, still whispering.

"That would be amazing!"

"Also dangerous," he reminds her.

"Let's not go investigate just yet, I don't fancy explaining to Dad that I let you get zapped by an alien because you wanted to know how their spaceship worked."

After a minute of nothing from the pod, she ignores Scott's exhortations to stay back.

She approaches.

"Hello? Welcome to planet Earth?"

<Hello,> says a voice in their minds.

What. The. F-

...he probably shouldn't swear even in his head when there are telepathic aliens around.

Rowan bounces up and down on her toes.

"Aliens! With telepathy!"

Since Allison looks too awed and everyone else is too hidden, Scott takes the lead.

"Hello. Can you hear me? Do you need help? Your ship looks damaged."

<Yes. There was a battle. I will leave my ship. Do not be frightened.>

A sliver of light appears on the ship, expanding in an arc like a waxing moon, slowly making a full circle. 

In the doorway appears the alien, a creature with blue fur, hooved feet, and no mouth. Atop his head sit two stalks, like antennae or horns, that end in eyes, and the tip of his tail is a wickedly sharp, curved blade. 

As he steps out, he staggers, and falls to the ground.

The voice in their head didn't seem to be lying when it - he? - claimed to be friendly, and that doesn't look like a fake collapse. If he isn't lying, and isn't acting hurt to lure them in, then he needs help. Scott is probably closer to qualified than Liam for medical attention, but he might need help lifting the alien.

Giving up on keeping Rowan away from the ship, Liam steps out to join Scott and Allison. 

"Are you hurt? Is there anything we can do to help?" he asks.

<No. I will die. The wound is fatal.>

He sounds apologetic.

"We can help, I can bandage it up and- you're not that different from a human, I can figure this out-"

"What can we do?"

<I am here to warn you.>

Allison looks much more upset than anyone else, but maybe she's just made the jump to thinking of the alien as a person faster than the rest of them - 

More importantly: "Warn us? About what?"

<I am not the only one coming. There are others. They->

He pauses to scream, an echo of pain, more emotion than words, in their minds.

<They are not like me. They have come to destroy you.>

He leans down next to the alien, starting to tear up his shirt.

More aliens?

"So if they're not like you, what are they like?"

<Yeerks are parasites. They enter the bodies of their hosts and control them. Many Yeerks are already here.>

"Control them?"

Stiles has apparently decided it's safe to meet the alien now, and Cassie and David have also followed.

Both siblings shudder. 

Rowan recovers first.

"Why haven't we seen them? What does a 'controlled' person look like? What do Yeerks look like?"

He sends them an image of a Yeerk.

<That is a Yeerk without a host.>

A greenish-grey slug, with a palpable sense of disgust attached to the image.

<Human-Controllers will look the same as their free counterparts from the outside. Hork-Bajir may be more obvious, and Taxxons. There is not much time, however. They are in pursuit and will land here soon. I want to prepare you. Inside my ship, there is something which may serve. You, go inside.>

It's clear that he means Scott, though he doesn't point.

Scott goes.