| #38: The Arrival |
Detailed Plot: All of the Animorphs except Tobias begin this book in roach morph, hiding out on a pipe above a room where Mr. King--Erek's father--is being tortured. Mr. King is an android, so the torture is not painful to him, but the Animorphs are worried that a Dracon beam could kill him. The Yeerks are attempting to beat the truth out of Mr. King about why he's snooping in the newspaper office. (The Chee had suspected the newspaper of being Yeerk-controlled because of an article they'd done on The Sharing, so Mr. King had snuck in to find the truth from their computers, and had gotten caught.) The Animorphs demorph in the room next to where Mr. King is being tortured, assume battle morphs, and make their own door. They dispose of the two Controllers, but it turns out the whole thing was a trap. The article on The Sharing had been done to lure them in, and Visser Three was ready with Hork-Bajir and Taxxons to attack them. Jake orders Marco and Rachel to help get Mr. King out, which they do, and and then Rachel stays back to help fight while Marco runs out and has Mr. King use his hologram to disguise them both as a parked car. They battle the Hork-Bajir and Ax is attacked by Visser Three himself, but after Jake and some of the others manage to take the freight elevator out of harm's way, suddenly Ax is saved by random Andalites! One of them almost kills Visser Three with a weapon, but when he recognizes the Andalite and says his name, it surprises him enough for Visser Three to disarm him. Nevertheless, the Andalites are not beaten and Visser Three has to run to hide behind his shock troops. Jake doesn't know who they are or why they're there, but he thanks them for their help and tells them to get out of there since the cops are coming. Ax calls after them wanting to know how he can find them, but the female called Estrid-Corill-Darrath says they'll find him, and she knows his name. Back at the barn, the Animorphs agree that The Sharing is controlling the newspaper, but Ax is disappointed to find that the humans don't necessarily trust the new Andalites. Marco finds it necessary to remind Ax that even Andalites can be traitors, as they found on planet Leera when one betrayed them. They can't trust these people just because they appear to be true Andalites. But Ax wants to, because it's been a long time since he's been with his people. Because he is so adamant that these Andalites must be on their side, Rachel doubts his loyalty, and he is offended because he has sworn he will not betray Prince Jake. He then leaves to cool off, and finds himself thinking of Estrid and marveling over her beauty. Ax begins to put himself through training rituals in case he is to be tested by his new company. Tobias suggests that maybe the two of them should go look around and see if there are any signs of Andalites landing on Earth, and decide to go to the mall for Cinnabons and tacos. But once they're there, the first thing that happens is they witness a girl getting taken out by security for eating everything in sight, shouting things about beans while using the same exact kind of emphasis on spoken words that Ax does when he's in human morph. This seems to answer the question of whether Andalites are on Earth. Ax and Tobias cover for Estrid and help her get out of the mall, and she agrees to arrange a meeting with her commander. When Ax arrives for said meeting, Jake is with him, which violates what he was asked to do--Ax was supposed to come alone. But Jake told Ax to disobey that request, so he did. The two from the Animorphs team get to meet the new Andalites: Gonrod-Isfall-Sonilli, Arbat-Elivat-Estoni, and Aloth-Attamil-Gahar. Gonrod is the commander, and Jake notes that he is not a prince. Estrid privately asks Ax not to tell the commander that she morphed a human and lost control. He agrees to keep her secret. The meeting does not go very well, as Jake is curious about whether the Andalites are there to support him and Gonrod is more interested in just having the Animorphs quit fighting. A power play ignites, with Gonrod getting more and more angry that Jake steadfastly refuses to obey his orders, and when Gonrod won't acknowledge that Jake is Earth's commander, he and Ax begin to leave. Gonrod gives an order to fire at Ax because he's being insubordinate. However, they can't fire because Marco and Cassie are poised below them as snakes, ready to poison them if they fire. Ax disarms Estrid when she begins to take aim. Gonrod is at a loss, but Arbat is able to converse with Jake, who simply says that he's through playing games. He knows they're not the big Andalite fleet that's supposed to be coming to wipe the Yeerks off of Earth. He wants to know what they're doing there and whether they can function as equals. They explain that the actual Andalite fleet is diverted for a more intense war elsewhere and Earth has to wait. But this group is on Earth because they have a mission. While introducing their ranks (including the information that Aloth is an assassin), Gonrod embarrasses Estrid by saying she's assigned to the mission by mistake. Clearly he has no faith in females. She decides to prove herself by attacking Ax as a demonstration, and unexpectedly gets him down. He returns the attack and the subordinate two male Andalites start betting on which will win. Ax ends up getting Estrid down with a very simple move that he remembers from academy training, and they are impressed. Arbat tells Ax that he knows why he fights Visser Three--for revenge on his brother's death. But Arbat says their mission is to assassinate him for a similar reason. Arbat's brother is Alloran--Visser Three's host body. Back at the barn, the Animorphs discuss their options. They're disappointed to learn that the Andalites aren't planning a rescue mission of Earth anytime soon. Ax wants to know if he can collaborate with Arbat to assassinate Visser Three, which Cassie is against and Rachel and Marco are for. But Jake seems deflated because he knows they can't hold off the Yeerks forever, and knowing the Andalites were on their way was what kept them going. They discuss the capabilities of the four new Andalites, which might have been unwise because Ax noticed a bird that isn't acting like the others hopping around Cassie's barn, so it could have easily been a spy. Regardless, they figure these Andalites are just on a political, personal mission, not really out to help Earth. Rachel and Marco get into a physical fight, which makes Tobias leave, and suddenly the whole group starts breaking up. Cassie says if the war's unwinnable she can't justify continuing to kill Hork-Bajir, and Rachel says she's through with all the moralizing. Marco suggests he's just gonna go live the good life while he can, and they all abandon Jake. Ax stays, but Jake says he's releasing him from his oath. Ax heads outside and thought-speaks to Estrid, who he knows was watching because her rabbit morph was suspicious. She says he can come with them and that he will be happier with his own people. Ax asks Estrid not to tell the others that Jake lost control of his warriors, because he very much respects Jake. She agrees to keep his secret in exchange for keeping hers. Ax is shocked because her loyalty should be to her commander, and he's not sure what to think. They go to the Andalite ship--an old, obsolete one. Ax notices that Estrid doesn't use her eyes like a warrior should either. He's confused. The other Andalites arrive in the ship and greet him. This time he's even further confused by Arbat, who gives Ax his trust and respect far too easily. What do they all want from him? Aloth takes him to a chamber where he can stay, and admits that none of the Andalites are the military's usual. They discuss female arisths, the fact that Arbat is a teacher and not a warrior, and other things that make Ax confused. Gonrod seems jumpy as he and Arbat question Ax about Visser Three, and then Estrid tells--not asks--Gonrod about her plans for the afternoon. She's definitely not a soldier, and no one tells her she keeps breaking military protocol. Ax wonders who the heck Estrid is. Based on some comments Aloth made, he concludes that Estrid is possibly Arbat's niece. Estrid and Ax go through The Gardens to discuss animal morphs, but she ends up getting distracted and wanting to eat human food as a human again. Ax arranges for this to happen and gets her some M&M's. They both become human and he notices she is an estreen, the same thing Cassie is--a talented morpher. Once they're both human, they have M&M's, and then they kiss, which is Ax's idea to show her another use for mouths. She concludes that it is not as pleasurable as chocolate. Morphed as birds, Estrid and Ax fly over the town, and he briefly considers just convincing her to run away with him, but he knows it wouldn't be so easy. He tells her he wants to see his human friends one more time before they depart, and then they come upon Rachel attacking a restaurant (owned by a Controller) in grizzly morph. Why? Cassie is at the restaurant as well, and she morphs an owl and flies away. Ax and Estrid follow her. She arrives at her barn and they see Marco lying around reading, and Cassie demands that Marco help her. He refuses and says Rachel can have fun if she wants. She appeals to Jake, who's hanging out there too (supposedly because his brother's been annoying him all day, so he had to get away). They refuse to help, and Cassie freaks out and tells them to get out of the barn. Ax tells Estrid he is disappointed in how they're falling apart, and it must be their feeling demoralized by certain defeat, but she sort of makes fun of the humans and calls them an inferior species. Ax wonders if he himself sounds that arrogant when he talks about Andalites. Back on the ship, Ax takes the first watch, but decides to use the computer to look at personnel records. He hits an encrypted file right away and Aloth comes in to threaten him. He tells Ax what he wants to know, though--and admits that he and Gonrod were prisoners before being sent on the mission, and Arbat just wants to kill Visser Three as advertised. Ax is confused again by his situation--he doesn't think of these people as "his own kind." Nevertheless, he goes on the mission with them, with Estrid ordered to stay behind on the ship. They infiltrate an Inner Sharing meeting and try to attack Visser Three. Arbat was given the first shot, but because Alloran is his brother, he has trouble aiming the shot and misses. Ax tries to get the shot but by the time he gets up the nerve the visser has moved. They all attempt to attack him but no one is successful, and Aloth gets injured, after which Ax witnesses Arbat shooting him to stop the Yeerks from infesting him. They escape, and agree collectively that Aloth's death was unavoidable and that Gonrod took evasive action for strategic reasons, not cowardly ones. They then make plans to attack the Yeerk pool, which Gonrod does not want to do. Arbat makes it clear that he can assume control if he wants to and Gonrod doesn't object. The Yeerk pool will be attacked. Ax decides he needs answers and flies out from his quarters, unwatched, to get Mr. King, who can hack the Andalite computer easily since he is an ancient android. Using this info, he finds that everyone except Estrid is listed as being dead officially, and Estrid isn't in the system which means she isn't an aristh. Ax investigates the forbidden second floor of the ship and finds Estrid there, where she's doing something suspicious with vials. He demands the truth of her and she admits that she is Arbat's student and a prodigy, but not an aristh. She learned tail-fighting from her brother, who's a tail-fighting prodigy in the Andalite military. And Arbat's been using her genius to whip up another virus that's supposed to kill the Yeerks. She hasn't gotten it to stabilize yet, though, which means it might also kill humans if it mutates, which is likely. She claims that it's okay if all the humans die because they've got to stop the war. Ax disagrees, of course, citing the Hork-Bajir losses and pointing out that the Andalite race is collectively ashamed of its hand in exterminating so many of them. But then Arbat arrives and admits that Ax has it right: this mission is in no way approved by the official Andalite military, which is news to Estrid. He locks Ax and Estrid in a cage, takes the virus, and goes out to introduce it to the Yeerk pool, danger to humans or not. Estrid says that Arbat believes humans weren't worth saving, and admits that Arbat was in the barn morphed as a bird so he overheard everything about the Animorphs' little fight. Ax admits that he knew that and that they'd all suspected spying by the Andalites . . . and then it turns out the Animorphs are all there, having put on a show to make the Andalites think they were out of the fight. None of it was real, and now they're ready to stop one criminal Andalite. They sneak down to the Yeerk pool in human morph and try to figure out which human-morphed person is really an Andalite. They identify one man who looks behind him too much (a trait Andalites usually have if they're in morph, because they're used to having extra eyes), and figure it's him. The human-morphed Arbat is startled when Estrid yells out to him, and he grabs a Hork-Bajir's weapon and fires. The other Animorphs begin to attack, and Ax asks Estrid to demorph so they can fight. She freaks out and tells Ax she doesn't care if the humans die because they aren't her people. Ax decides he doesn't like her. Ax demorphs and dives into the fight, helping his friends, and is surprised to see that some humans inside cages are making a human shield to stop Yeerks from shooting their friends. (The Yeerks won't kill the hosts without orders.) Arbat escapes but is recaptured by Marco. Eventually he gets away one more time and tries to introduce the virus into the Yeerk pool, but then Gonrod arrives, having burned his way through the entrance with his ship, and Arbat's vial (and his hand!) are vaporized. They escape, and Arbat gets eaten by Taxxons. They have to wait a day to go back to Andalite space, so Ax takes Estrid to the mall for a cinnamon bun so she can have it as a going-away present. She asks why he likes humans and whether it's about their food. He pretends that that's the reason, but really he's realized that they are willing to risk their lives for what they believe in, and that he has seen them do it. Estrid asks if he'll come back with them to the Andalite world. He says no, and she asks whether he still doesn't like her. He agrees that he doesn't, and lets her go. His real friends are those on Earth, and when Cassie holds his hand for support after they leave, he's moved to tears. Narrator: Ax New known controllers:
New morphs acquired:
Cassie: Snake (pit viper) Marco: None Rachel: None Ax: None Tobias: None Notable: This book is ghostwritten by Kimberly Morris. Odd that subordinate Yeerks are cautioning against killing a person because Visser Three will be furious at the loss of a host body. Visser Three constantly kills host bodies unnecessarily. If it was really about preserving hosts, Visser Three would hold a host until the Yeerk inside starved, then re-infest the person with a different Yeerk. Of course, Visser Three is also a hypocrite, so it's possible that he would be angry at an underling doing something he himself would do, but in general he does not act like host bodies are precious. Usually, if one of the Animorphs is morphing to an animal that shares some characteristics with humans, those features will morph into the animal version (e.g., arms will become front legs, human noses become animal noses, etc.). But in this book, instead of having his ears migrate up to the top of his head like every other morph so far, Jake's tiger ears pop out of his hair before his human ears disappear. This is really an inconsistency, because while there's not a whole lot of logic to morphing in general, it does seem to have some general rules, and this description broke them. In a previous book, Ax refers to having his second and third heart stop when he becomes a human, leaving him with one heart. This is the first place where it's clearly stated how many hearts Andalites have. But twice since then--once in The Andalite Chronicles and now again in this book--an Andalite refers to "both his hearts." Question is, which account is correct? When Tobias and Ax find Estrid at the mall in human morph, it's made clear that she nabbed the DNA of another customer at the mall because they see the same person there. But it's never made clear how the heck an Andalite got into the mall to acquire a kid's DNA. The Andalites the group meets in this book are named Estrid-Corill-Darrath, Gonrod-Isfall-Sonilli, Arbat-Elivat-Estoni, and Aloth-Attamil-Gahar. All are male except Estrid. It seems ridiculous that Jake and the other human Animorphs would go into the Yeerk pool in their actual bodies. Especially Jake, whose brother is a Controller. He has another human form he could have used, though they were short on time. Just seems like an unnecessary, ridiculous risk. Best lines: Ax: We are the resistance. We fight the Yeerk invasion until help from my home planet arrives. Or until we die. The latter possibility seems ever more likely.
Marco: "Thanks, Spock. Sure you're not a Vulcan?"
Rachel: "Let's rock and roll." Ax: It is a moral compromise. We have all learned to make them. Ax: Shooting deer is a human sport. Human hunters are apparently unaware of the fact that deer are harmless herbivores.
Estrid: "I told you to come alone."
Gonrod: "You are an untrained human child, playing at war. We are highly trained warriors. You and your band, whoever they may be, will cease to fight. That is an order."
Jake: "Now we stop playing games. You're not the Andalite fleet. And I'm not going to snap a salute and say 'yes, sir!' We deal as equals. Which, to be honest, is generous of us under the circumstances."
Ax: "They have another use for mouths."
Ax: "I have learned something, Estrid. These are my people. Anyone who believes in freedom, anyone who resists tyranny, anyone who pursues peace is 'my people.' Andalite, Hork-Bajir, or human."
Estrid: "What natural weapons do these humans' bodies have?"
Estrid: "Is this as delicious as the jelly beans?"
|