| #40: The Other |
Detailed Plot: Marco is relaxing at home, having some much-needed alone time, when he sees an unsolved mysteries show advertising footage of an alien. When he sees the clip, he can tell it's an Andalite, and figures it had to be Ax. When he goes to Ax's scoop and talks to Tobias and Ax, they watch the clip back and conclude that this Andalite is not Ax or Visser Three. It's got to be someone else . . . because he's missing his tail blade. Ax seems disgusted at the idea of an Andalite who's cripped in this manner. Marco, Tobias, and Ax go into the woods to check out the place the video seemed to be filming. After seeing nothing suspicious, Ax thinks they should demorph because they've been in morph for a while. So they demorph but while they're doing so a possum nearby starts morphing too--into an Andalite. And it's a very powerful, bodybuilder-looking Andalite; clearly he could beat Ax in a fight. They freeze, but Tobias attacks from the sky and the new Andalite uses his tail to beat him out of the sky. Marco is horrified as the new Andalite pins Ax, but then they begin to talk and it becomes clear this guy thought Ax was Visser Three. When that's cleared up, he introduces himself as the fighter pilot Gafinilan-Estrif-Valad, and says the crippled Andalite is a famous fighter pilot named Mertil-Iscar-Elmand. Gafinilan's tone when dealing with Ax's instinctive disgust toward the idea of a vecol is very reproachful, and he demands respect for his comrade. Since Ax isn't Visser Three and Gafinilan thinks he will be there soon, he orders the others to leave and forget they ever saw him. Of course, they don't do that, and follow him in morph. (Tobias wakes up after being knocked out of the air and seems to find himself flight-worthy, so he follows too.) They find that Gafinilan goes to a hidden cave, morphs human and puts on clothes he had hidden there, and enters a house. They wonder why Gafinilan didn't seem to have much of a reaction to Marco being a human with morphing technology. They decide to go talk to Jake. After an Animorphs meeting, it's decided that Marco and Ax should say they're on a mission from their prince and go meet with the Andalite--who apparently has a human identity as Henry McClellan--and try to find out what's going on. Tobias flies surveillance as usual, and while Marco is flying around as an osprey, he sees Gafinilan in the house's greenhouse, gardening. He flies too close, gets zapped by a security system, and then gets threatened directly by Gafinilan as he holds a shredder on him, standing in Andalite form. He orders Marco to land and demorph, so he does. And Gafinilan confirms that Marco is indeed human and that someone broke the law of Seerow's Kindness to give morphing powers to him. Ax runs up and defends Marco, saying that they're "the resistance" on a mission from their prince. And Marco tells him they suspect him of being an ally to the Yeerks, which upsets him. The Andalite says he wants to talk to their prince and that sending children is an insult, but then when they offer to leave, he unexpectedly invites them inside, so they follow him and get to see his secret chamber. Gafinilan tells the story of his ship crashing, wings locked with the crippled Andalite Mertil's ship. Gafinilan has morphing powers and Mertil does not, so he was able to eventually get a human morph and acquire an alternate "loner" identity, but Mertil stays in isolation because of his severed, irreparable tail. Marco doesn't understand why he can't meet Mertil, but Gafinilan and Ax both seem to think the isolation is proper. Gafinilan invites Ax to try illsipar root with him, which is clearly something Ax misses and enjoys. They engage in consuming it and Marco wanders away to look at the greenhouse plants. He encounters some bees, which puzzles him. How are the bees getting in and out? He acquires one and decides that will help him find out. When Ax and Gafinilan come out of their trance, the older Andalite seems to think he's proven that he's not a Yeerk traitor and invites their prince to share illsipar root. Ax is about to explain that Jake isn't an Andalite, but Marco distracts them to avoid passing that information on, and gets stung by the honeybee in the meantime. They agree to pass the invitation on to their prince, and leave the premises. Marco doesn't feel right about letting Jake meet Gafinilan until he further checks the place out, because something stinks about it. The Animorphs meet at the mall and discuss Jake's intention to meet him as soon as possible, but Marco decides he's going in and Rachel picks up on his paranoid instincts, deciding to cover his invasion. Marco looks bees up on the Internet and finds out they're social insects, which scares him after his experience with ants, but he doesn't have time to try the morph before heading out to Gafinilan's place with Rachel. They land as birds, find the bee hive, and let Marco try his morph. He gets a little caught up in trying to work on doing the hive's bidding, but then Rachel helps him get a grip. He has a close call with a robber fly trying to kill him, but then he gets rid of it (with Rachel's help) and finds his way into Gafinilan's house. Gafinilan himself is in the greenhouse, and he pays Marco no attention, so he goes on into the rest of the house and notices there's no smell of another Andalite inside the house. Mertil clearly doesn't live there. When they meet again, they determine that Gafinilan may be hiding an illness--Soola's Disease--which is why he cultivates illsipar root to dull the pain and which is why he is looking for another Andalite to acquire. Andalite society discourages deliberately becoming a nothlit, but they think Gafinilan was hoping to acquire Visser Three's Andalite and now hopes to acquire Jake (thinking he's an Andalite). They don't know what happened to Mertil or whether the videotape of him shown on television was a mistake. They decide to hatch a plan for everyone but Jake to get inside as bees to be in place for backup while Jake meets Gafinilan in human form. This works out well and Jake gets invited inside, but Gafinilan wants him to "demorph" and Jake refuses, saying he prefers to talk in that form. Gafinilan begins to get upset and insists on a demorph, and Jake says he won't until he knows what Gafinilan really wants. Gafinilan does indeed start threatening Jake, but the others are inside ready to provide backup and they make it clear Gafinilan is outnumbered. Jake talks him into giving information. It's true that he has Soola's disease, and it's true Mertil isn't there anymore, but the problem is that Visser Three kidnapped Mertil only to find out he's "useless" since he's a vecol, and he made a deal with Gafinilan that if he brings one of the Andalite bandits to him, he'll trade Mertil back to him. The Animorphs are surprised he would trust a Yeerk, but he feels he has no choice and that his friendship with Mertil means more than betraying others. But the "Andalite bandits" decide to help Gafinilan rescue Mertil, and they know the vecol is moved constantly. Ax keeps making comments about why they'd risk their lives for such a person, and the others think it's kind of sick that Ax hates someone who's handicapped so much. Marco is suspicious of Gafinilan and reminds Jake that he was ready to betray them, so they should be ready for it if his loyalty switches again. All he cares about is getting Mertil. And since he has a special closeness with the other Andalite which lets him hear his thought-speak across incredible distances, he knows that at that time he's in the old train yard. They fly there and spot Hork-Bajir, so they know they're in the right place. They land in their bird morphs and go to battle morphs. They can hear Mertil thought-speaking telling them they should go, but of course they don't listen. Unfortunately a Hork-Bajir spots them and their element of surprise is busted. Battle ensues, and Marco ends up having to climb a ladder and jump onto a moving truck. The human-Controller driving the truck then tries to hit him, but soon enough Rachel saves him, and the Yeerk runs away. Inside the truck is Mertil, and Gafinilan cuts him out. They meet the Andalite without a tail, and find that he can't imagine why they wanted to rescue him either. Ax is able to greet him respectfully and tell him he'll remember him "how he was," which seems acceptable to Mertil. They realize that Gafinilan doesn't see very well because of his disease, and that's probably why he didn't see Marco morphing the first time they met. They escort the Andalites back to the human house Gafinilan keeps, and figure the Yeerks will leave them alone since neither is of use to them. Knowing that Gafinilan is going to die, Marco goes one day to Mertil while Gafinilan is posing as McClellan at his workplace, and offers to let him join their group and have some companionship once his friend is gone. Narrator: Marco New known controllers:
New morphs acquired:
Cassie: Honeybee Marco: Honeybee Rachel: Honeybee Ax: Honeybee Tobias: Honeybee Notable: This book is ghostwritten by Gina Gascone. Marco sucks at math if he thinks himself and his five friends are .1 percent of the planet's population. An Andalite who's missing his tail blade is called a vecol in the Andalite language. Two new Andalites show up in this book, and their names are Mertil-Iscar-Elmand and Gafinilan-Estrif-Valad. The Animorphs always take great care to not be seen as a group too often, just in case Yeerks associate them with each other in a peculiar way. This seems a bit of a silly thing to worry about, but it seems especially silly if it's just taking caution to the greatest possible degree and then not continuing to be cautious once they get together. In this book, they make a big show of not having "planned" to meet there but then talking out in the open about Andalites and Yeerk vissers. It's not clear why they think they shouldn't be seen together but don't seem to take any precautions against being overheard. Marco claims he "wouldn't have time" to try out his bee morph before his solitary mission, so instead he did Internet research on bees to find out what he could expect in the way of bee instincts. This makes no sense. They have a history in the more recent books of morphing very quickly when it's necessary--within a couple minutes--so it seems ridiculous to not try out a possibly disastrous morph because you "don't have time" if you have time to read about it. This is the first time an Animorphs book has suggested that someone can be "allergic" to the morphing technology or be otherwise unable to accept it. This is also the first time anyone's emotional closeness has been said to amplify their thought-speech. Mertil and Gafinilan can hear each other's thought-speak if they're on the same planet. When Marco is in honeybee morph, there is a quote about how a color called "bee-purple" is "the color between yellow and ultraviolet on the spectrum." There are lots of colors between yellow and ultraviolet on the spectrum that humans can see just fine, though "bee-purple" is said in this book to be too intense for the human eye to see. In fact, the actual term "bee's purple" really is a mix between ultraviolet and yellow, but it is not "between the two on the spectrum." It is part of the ultraviolet section of the spectrum that humans can't see, while bees can't see red. Best lines: Marco: I guess Ax and Tobias were doing whatever red-tailed hawks and aliens do on an off night. Marco: Time flies when you're scared peeless. Tobias: "Okay, I'm getting a complex over here. I'm a nothlit. A freak. Whatever. My best friend is an alien with blue fur. My girlfriend is human--when she isn't in morph. How about we don't talk about 'normal' anymore. Or 'average' or 'natural.' Please."
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