The story involved a young man, either high-school or college aged, and a few of his friends. An alien lifeboat breaks up near earth and individual escape mechanisms result in several aliens landing in rural areas in the southwest-some ill, some injured, some dead. One live one lands near the protagonist, who keeps it alive. Elements of the US government start trying to track the aliens down with the goal of confiscating their technology, the protagonist and his friends try to save and hide the aliens. Somehow in the process the protagonist either gains some of their powers or gets access to some of their technology. Eventually the group of friends foil the government and the president, and leave earth for unexplored places.
I thought this was a Vincent Berg story, but reviewing the synopses of his stories on sol I didn't see anything that looked like a match.
