| #18: The Decision |
Detailed Plot: One day, Ax goes to the mall hoping to get the Cinnabon store to give him a job so he can buy cinnamon buns. The manager ends up taking pity on him and offering him a cinnamon bun from a tray of stale ones, but Ax goes and tries to eat them all and requires the paramedics. Not pleasant. This comes out in an Animorphs meeting later, when they're all waiting to meet with Erek the Chee. When he arrives, he passes on the information that a very important man in the Secret Service, a guy called Hewlett Aldershot the Third, is in a coma in the hospital and the Yeerks who control that hospital aren't letting on that he's there. He was put in the coma after getting hit by Chapman's car. The Chee smell a rat and want the Animorphs to check it out. The Animorphs group heads to the hospital in bird morph, noting that Mr. Aldershot is indeed in a coma in the bed and is being watched over by Controller doctors. Visser Three in human morph is there, even, and they overhear him abusing the doctors and telling them to heal the Secret Service agent so they can infest him and gain access to Earth secrets. The doctors aren't very optimistic about Aldershot's recovery, and Visser Three admits that it's possible to at least temporarily steal his DNA and morph into him to serve some purpose, but he still wants the man healed so they can get one of their people in a permanent position. But Visser Three notices there are seagulls spying on him, so he becomes suspicious and attacks. But the morph he uses is a kafit bird from the Andalite home world, and as he attacks Ax with it, he's alarmed. Has Visser Three been to his home? He's very disturbed by this image, but nevertheless after a short battle Ax ends up having to demorph and face Visser Three both in Andalite form. Ax is very brave and does not back down, but Visser Three believes the other seagulls around are also Andalites and he thinks he is surrounded and outnumbered, so he retreats. Ax feels like a failure for coming face to face with Visser Three and not destroying his brother's murderer. While discussing Visser Three's plan to morph into Aldershot, the group realizes they could do that themselves if they got his DNA, and that it might be possible to warn his boss--someone even higher up in the Secret Service--that there is an alien attack going on. (And obviously, they'd have the proof; they can prove something's going on by morphing if they need to.) Cassie is against the idea because she believes humans should not use the identity of other humans, not even in war. But she does come up with a way to get the DNA despite that; she suggests they all morph into mosquitoes and get some of Aldershot's blood. That way they can acquire the DNA from it. Ax causes a distraction by flying into the hospital and morphing to his natural form. He attracts some attention from non-Controller humans as well as finally the Controller guards, but he manages to keep the counterattack to a minimum (on behalf of innocent humans in the hospital) by pretending he wants to defect to the Yeerks' side. Of course, once he's in a smaller room with the guards, he admits that this was a deception and he attacks the guards and jumps out the window. This has provided enough of a distraction for Jake and the others to get into the room as mosquitoes. Ax is in the bushes getting shot at, so he makes himself very small by becoming the mosquito too, and finds that he has a hunger for blood. Jake calls to him and suggests he come up and nibble on Mr. Aldershot, so he obeys and bites. Shortly thereafter, he's suddenly in space. He and the Animorphs are all in Z-space in their own bodies, and Ax can see a ship coming. It's full of Andalites, so he calls out to them and asks them to save him. He blacks out, but wakes up on the ship, and is recognized as Elfangor's brother when he reveals his name. Ax is given the chance to explain what happened, and the fact that they're alive after their "extruded mass" was hit by the ship's magnetic field in Z-space is a scientific breakthrough for the Andalites. The captain of the ship catches Ax in a lie--he's forced to admit that he was the one who gave the humans the morphing power, even though it was really his brother--but the captain understands that he was ordered to lie. But he also finds out that the ship is on its way to Leera to join the battle, where the Andalites are outnumbered three to one. The humans are stranded far from home, but Ax feels that he is home among his people, and feels bound by their laws and orders so that he is no longer required to respect Jake as his "prince." Ax is conflicted, but feels his loyalty lies with the Andalites. He tells his human friends that they aren't allowed to move about the ship, and goes off to join the captain. Despite being an aristh, Ax is allowed on the bridge. The ship moves into position above Leera, and the T.O. asks Ax what he thinks of the battle situation. They discuss strategies, but then when they're moving into position, suddenly the controls aren't working and the ship is trying to land behind enemy lines. It's then that the captain suddenly whips out a Dracon beam, disables everyone on board (including slicing off the T.O.'s tail), and gleefully announces that he is in league with Visser Four, who's good friends with Visser Three. Ax tries to warn his human friends about the captain and hopes they can help stop him from relaying the information about the humans' morphing capabilities, but it turns out the Animorphs weren't just sitting there waiting in their room. They're on the bridge and saw and heard everything that happened. Cassie, as a flea actually ON the captain, begins to grow to distract him, which is just enough for Ax to strike. He tries to tail-fight the captain, but in the meantime the T.O. grabs the weapon the captain dropped and vaporizes him. He then tries to take command of the ship, but it's too late and it crashes. The T.O. orders Ax and the others to morph something small and escape out the hatch, and he plans to destroy the ship (after inflicting maximum damage on the enemy) so they can't be taken by the Yeerks. His parting words request that Ax try to prove him wrong about species working with each other; maybe they really are stronger together than apart. Out on the Leeran planet, the Animorphs find themselves in fly morph drifting around unsure of the plan. They're in between where the two forces are going to attack, but they don't know the best course of action. Tobias takes a look around and reports the positions of the good guys and the enemies. Ax is wrestling with guilt and fear over having trusted a traitorous captain, and he's temporarily useless, but Jake says he needs him. Rachel makes snide comments about Andalites and how the next one they meet might sell them out too, and Ax reflexively threatens her life with his tail blade. But soon enough he backs off and Ax decides that he will trust Jake as his prince no matter what until or unless Jake asks him to do otherwise. The group decides to morph bats and try to make it to the Andalite forces, where Ax assures them they can trust an Andalite prince named Galuit-Enilon-Esgarrouth. They decide not to engage in any battles or trust anyone else until they get there. But a battle erupts and the bat-Animorphs are swept up in it, and the Andalites lose. The Yeerks are celebrating and the Andalite ships nearby are retreating. And Tobias is missing; he "disappeared." But then Ax comes up with an idea that involves trying to go into the water, and asks Jake to make sure that the Yeerks don't capture him alive because he thinks he knows what is going to happen and the Yeerks can't find out what he knows. They morph hammerhead sharks and hit the oceans. There they see astounding underwater scenes in clear water, but they're demoralized by their difficult odds and also by the fact that Rachel has now also disappeared with no explanation. The remaining four go toward the Leeran cities but encounter some Leerans on underwater jets, and they think they're allies, but the Leerans are Controllers and proceed to taunt Ax by showing him that they know exactly who he is and that the others are humans. They attack with deadly spears only to find that they aren't exactly deadly to sharks, and then the sharks attack them and start tearing into them with their teeth. During the battle, one of the Leerans manages to wrest enough control from its Yeerk master to deliver a telepathic message to Ax, asking him to rip off the back of his head where the Yeerk is. This he does (and asks the others to do), but even though it seems like it should be fatal to partially rip off a creature's head, it actually frees the Leerans and leaves the Yeerks to die in the ocean. The Leerans reveal that they can regenerate most of their body parts and that they will be fine. They thank their liberators. Then the Leerans offer them the opportunity to acquire their DNA and morph into them, taking their water jets and infiltrating. This they do with the Leerans' permission, and when they attempt the morph they realize they're accidentally reading each other's thoughts. Ax picks up on Jake's feeling of crushing responsibility, Marco's worry about his mother being Visser One, and Cassie's anxiety over Rachel and Tobias missing combined with her dealing with the aftermath of the battle. They figure out how to turn off their sensitivity to each other and go forward. They end up at a place called the City of Worms and meet up with the Andalite prince, Galuit, who knew they were coming because Leerans sensed their business and told him. Ax has difficulty dealing with the fact that he promised to only take orders from Jake, but after he explains to Galuit that Jake is his prince, Galuit deals with the situation and asks Jake whether he'll lead Ax and the others into the battle. He agrees, asking pertinent questions and seeming brave, and earns Galuit's respect. Galuit reveals that the whole battle on the continent was a trap for the Yeerks and that they were trying to lure them to attack the underwater cities, at which point they'd be destroyed by quantum bombs. But since the ship with the traitorous captain never participated in the battle and never armed the bomb switches, the plan is failing. Galuit asks Jake, Ax, and Cassie to participate in this plot to go arm the switch (because of the variety of morphs they have and the experience they possess using them in battle situations), but Marco is out of the fight because he too has disappeared. The science officer postulates that they're being dragged back to Earth because whatever mass they left there is acting as an anchor. Jake figures they have nothing to lose by going on this mission. Off they go: Three hammerhead sharks swimming in a river trying to get in to arm the switches through a pathway guarded by Leeran-Controllers and a cave lined with snakes that snap at anything that comes near them. First they encounter Leeran-Controllers, and these guys figure out both what they are and what they're there to do, so they scramble to escape and tell some nearby Hork-Bajir what the plan is. But though the good guys manage to rip the Yeerks out of their Leerans, it's not before they relayed the message about bombs to some Hork-Bajir who ran away. They have to hurry and deploy the bombs or the Yeerks will know their secrets. But as they rush to find the cave entrance, Cassie also disappears, so it's Jake and Ax alone. They morph to bat so they can echolocate in the dark cave, and though they are able to maneuver somewhat, the snakes start tearing up their wings. They make it to the area where the switch is supposed to be, but then Jake is gone too and Ax is on his own. When Ax finally makes it to the place where the switch needs to be armed, he's nearly stopped by Hork-Bajir blasting through the ceiling. But he hits the switch and provides the code, and then uses the communicator to ask the commander to start the countdown immediately instead of allowing him time to escape. The Hork-Bajir try to kill him and disable the weapon, but they're too late . . . and then Ax disappears, sucked back to Earth. Suddenly they're all mosquitoes again, and though they arrived back after experiencing a different amount of time on Leera, they are all returning to their mosquito bodies at the same time. Ax almost gets swatted by Mr. Aldershot, who is inexplicably awakened from his coma. The Controller doctors are pretty shocked too, and a bunch of them are still trying to kill Ax from where they think he's in the bushes. They decide to run because they have no orders regarding Aldershot, and the Animorphs end up meeting at the mall later to discuss the day's events. Everyone who was yanked away earlier gets caught up on events, and Ax demands to eat cinnamon buns.
Narrator: Ax New known controllers:
New morphs acquired:
Cassie: Mosquito, Leeran Marco: Mosquito, Leeran Rachel: Mosquito Ax: Mosquito, Leeran Tobias: Mosquito Notable: In a previous book, the planet of the Leerans was mistakenly referred to as "Leeran" (repeatedly). Now in this book (and from then on) it's referred to as "Leera." It seems odd that Ax is so perplexed at one point that Visser Three has a kafit bird in his morphing repertoire. After all, Visser Three's host body is Alloran, an Andalite military officer, and that guy probably had plenty of morphs before he was infested. Ax's own brother had a kafit bird to morph into because it was a morph offered in training; why would it be so odd that Alloran (and therefore Visser Three) had been exposed to it? However, Ax suddenly being obsessed with "what if the Yeerks have been to my planet?" seems a bit silly when considering that in a previous book Alloran used his brief seconds of freedom to tell Ax that the Yeerks had "infiltrated the home world." When Visser Three morphs a kafit bird, it's unclear what happens to a Yeerk if it uses a host body to morph something with a head smaller than a Yeerk. Is the Yeerk being somehow shrunken and incorporated bodily into the animal that's being morphed? If the creature is too small to fit a Yeerk inside its head, it seems like the Yeerk shouldn't be able to morph it, though if the Yeerk itself had morphing powers that would be different. Ax's narration also mentions that the kafit bird has six wings, but in another book it's said that it has six pairs of wings. It's odd that DNA can't be acquired from a dead animal, but it can supposedly be acquired from blood that's been removed from the source. It's not clear why that is or where the dividing line is between when a part of someone is a good source for acquiring DNA or when it's no longer useful because it's "dead." Ax decides to use himself as a diversion at one point, thinking he can distract Controllers by appearing as an Andalite. But when he flies into a hospital room in harrier morph and begins to morph back to his natural form, the sleeping human in the hospital bed near him wakes up and sees him. This seems like an unusually foolish thing for Ax to do; in a hospital run by Controllers, it was certainly possible for anyone who's been admitted there to have been infested. It turned out this kid had not been, but it still seems like unnecessary risk in exchange for a silly joke (where Ax tells the girl, who thinks he's a fairy, that he's an Andalite). Leerans apparently have a deity named Cha-Ma-Mib. An Andalite tactical officer named Harelin gets his tail sliced off in a battle, and Ax comments that he's sure the guy would rather die than live without a tail. Perhaps it's just unclear overall, but it seems like it was established that all Andalite military get the morphing power. Since the Animorphs have repeatedly used it to heal their injuries, it seems that as long as this T.O. could live long enough to morph where he wouldn't be seen, he could heal his wound and regrow his tail. Why would Ax be assuming this guy was going to "live without a tail"? It also seems odd that the T.O. would blow up a hundred Andalites when theoretically some of them also could have morphed and escaped to fight. The aforementioned T.O.'s full name was Harelin-Frodlin-Sirinial, but the first couple times he was mentioned, his name was written as "Hareli," without the final N. The Leeran thought-speak is normally relayed in underlined, italicized text instead of the greater-than/less-than brackets usually used to indicate Andalite and morphed creatures' thought-speak. However, even though this underlined/italicized text convention was used the first time a Leeran-Controller showed up in a previous book, Yeerks piloting Leeran hosts in this book used normal thought-speak until it was the actual Leerans speaking to their shark-morphed saviors. Ax's narration identifies this thought-speak as different, but there's no explanation for why it wasn't "different" when the Yeerks were speaking to them using the Leerans' telepathic speech. Leerans are capable of regenerating body parts. A continuity glitch: At one point everyone demorphed and so the only person who should have been able to use thought-speak was Ax. (Tobias wasn't there.) Despite that, Jake was twice quoted as relaying his words in thought-speak even though they'd just been ordered to demorph and no one had re-morphed anything else. The doctors weren't optimistic at all for the revival of the Secret Service agent in a coma. And yet for some reason he wakes up out of the blue while the Animorphs are biting him as mosquitoes. It's unclear how doctors could think someone was irreparable and then he'd awaken with full consciousness and no lingering after-effects. Best lines: Ax: I am very good at passing for human, if I say so myself. I have learned the customs and habits perfectly so that I seem entirely normal. Ax: Marco and Rachel were just chilling. That's what humans call it. I believe it refers to the fact that when humans sit very still and do nothing, their body temperature drops. Thus, "chilling."
Cassie: "We can't all morph the same mosquito. Only females suck blood. Males are useless."
[After Ax lies about wanting to defect to the Yeerks' side] Captain Samilin: "Elfangor was my friend as well as my prince. I'll believe he broke the rules. I'll never believe he did wrong." Ax: It's a terrible thing, living when so many others have died. It's terrible because no matter what you do, a single thought keeps popping up in your head: I'm glad it wasn't me. I'm glad it wasn't me. Ax: "I made a mistake trusting Captain Samilin. I made a mistake dismissing all of you. You have . . . you have kept me alive and befriended me for a long time. All I can say is that none of you knows what it's like to be completely cut off from your own people." Ax: "I will consider Jake my prince until he says otherwise. You are my prince until you, and only you, say otherwise."
Leeran-Controller: "But . . . but the haru-chin spears are deadly!" Marco: "Free people who get together to defend freedom are never weak." Ax: I guess each species feels most comfortable when they are just themselves. And for humans and Andalites, secrets and lies and the loneliness of privacy are natural.
Galuit: "I have need of you to save this planet from the Yeerks. Will you--"
Ax: "We were all yanked away at the same moment, so naturally we all arrived back at the same moment. Yanked. Yanked is a strange word. Yank. Yank-kut."
Ax: I laughed using mouth-sounds. "Hah. Hah-hah. Hah. Hah. Hah." Ax: Sometimes the people who are your own can be very different from you.
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