| #52: The Sacrifice |
Detailed Plot: Ax and Rachel, plus James of the auxiliary force, are flying around trying to investigate what looks like a military occupation. They observe that people are being herded onto trains by Hork-Bajir and human-Controllers and don't want to go, which answers the question of whose side these military folks are on. They have to decide whether to help immediately or report back to Jake for instructions. They haven't figured out what to do yet when morphed Controllers in bird form attack them, sending James to the ground with a broken wing. To fight the Controllers, they have to fly into the train tunnel, grab onto a train, and hold on to escape the pursuers. Ax comes up with a good idea and cuts the lights when their pursuers catch up, and Rachel in owl morph and James in lion morph make short work of a bunch of Yeerks. Ax worries about Rachel enjoying the fight too much and reflects that people like her are shunned on his world--same as people like James are shunned because of their handicaps. He wonders whether the Andalites or the humans have it wrong. When Ax goes to take care of the last falcon-Controller, it begs for its life and says it just wants to wait the five more minutes in morph that it has before it becomes a nothlit. Ax pities it and lets it go, but shortly after he thinks he hears Rachel attacking it. He figures he's going to tell Jake that Rachel shouldn't go on missions without him because she lacks control without him. Rachel wants to go on and follow the train to its destination, but Ax and James figure they need to talk to Jake and have a good plan. Rachel agrees to just do some spying--no fighting--and let them report back. Ax wishes there was a competent Andalite commander around and that someone understood him. Back at the camp, Rachel has come back from her spy mission and reported that the train tunnels are extended through Taxxon digging, allowing Yeerks to take humans straight to the subterranean pools. Rachel thinks bombing the pool would be an excellent way to take out the Yeerks, but since Jake's parents or brother might be down there--not to mention plenty of innocent humans and Hork-Bajir--Cassie and Jake are reluctant to do it even if it will help them win the war. They strategize, calculating the odds that the governor and her people are still uninfested, and wondering if they can risk putting the whole resistance team on one mission. Cassie cites bad karma as a reason against fighting so dirty, and Jake blows up, telling her he wishes they had a choice. Ax is puzzled by how Jake is treating her like it's her fault they lost the morphing cube, since only the two of them know that it actually is her fault. Ax is confused by the changing loyalties and relationships. Ax morphs a raccoon and scurries off with the Z-space transponder in the middle of the night. He communicates with some Andalites from his home planet's military and it becomes clear that the Andalites have decided to "quarantine" planet Earth--meaning they're suggesting letting the Yeerks have it and working out a symbiotic relationship between Yeerks and humans. Obviously Ax is not super happy about this, but he's also giving the Andalites what they need in order to understand the situation. He withholds the truth about the Yeerks having the morphing cube, but overall he appears to be cooperating with the Andalite military, whose first action if they can't work out a deal with the Yeerks will be to destroy everyone on Earth. They have to stop the invasion, but they're willing to let humans become a casualty. Back in the group discussing how they're going to bomb the Yeerks, Cassie announces that she is out and so are her parents. They aren't willing to sacrifice innocent lives for the goal. Rachel starts harassing Cassie for a better idea while being condescending, which results in Cassie pointing out how Rachel's violent tendencies disgust her, and then Jake turns on Cassie for "making decisions for him" and Cassie admits in front of the whole group that it was her fault Tom got away with the morphing cube--because she stopped Jake from killing him. Ax and Marco are horrified, and Jake comes around a bit and acknowledges that Cassie made a mistake that she is sorry for. She admits she was arrogant and that she endangered everyone, and they decide they don't have room in this for individuals' agendas in the war. They're going to have to figure out how to collectively win this thing. Ax isn't listening. He's too busy focusing on his hate for Cassie. Toby the Hork-Bajir seer announces that her people are tired of hiding and that they will fight, and Jake has to figure out what their exact goals are. They want to get the Yeerks off Earth, but they don't want to send them running to some other species either, so the idea comes up to make them the Andalites' problem by chasing them into Z-space. When Jake asks what the Andalite commanders might do in that situation, Ax gives no information, and Jake seems suspicious. He acknowledges that their first step needs to be to blow up the central Yeerk pool. Ax is very confused as to why Cassie's even still being included in the planning if she's done something so traitorous, reflecting that if she were an Andalite she'd have been killed for her crime. He starts seeing the whole human group as idiots and thinks maybe he needs to go tell the Andalite commander that they need to quarantine Earth very soon if they're going to do it. Cassie agrees that she's going to go along with what they want to do even though everything she believes is against it. She decides that since she has no better plan, this is the best they're going get--and they're going to try to let people make a run for it before the bombs go off, since the Yeerks will die of starvation even if they don't die at the site. Ax decides that he needs to talk privately with Cassie. He needs to understand her motivation in letting the Yeerks get the morphing cube, and if he can't understand it he won't see any reason why the Andalites shouldn't destroy the whole planet. He reminds her that her actions betrayed his brother's trust. She explains that this was about something bigger than Tom and Jake as well; she knows there's a Yeerk resistance, and knows some Yeerks don't want to enslave humans. She thinks it's wrong to punish them all for the power-hungry ways of their leaders, and she thinks morphing might be a way out for those Yeerks. Ax has to admit to himself that he has made similarly huge decisions against the advice or desires of the Animorphs, and that he was willing to take pity on the Yeerk who wanted to stay in bird morph so it could be free, but he doesn't want to believe he's anything like Cassie, so he looks for other reasons why they're not alike. He reminds her that the falcon could have been lying and that Visser One will probably give morphing powers only to those most loyal to him. He still feels Cassie is a traitor and won't give her his forgiveness. Ax wanders away and thinks about how he'd believed Rachel to be dangerous but that people like Cassie--and his own species' example, Seerow--are more dangerous. He's trying to figure out why, if his brother was so wise, did he do something similar to what Seerow had done and give morphing technology to humans? What did Elfangor know that Ax does not? Tobias comes out to talk to Ax and notes that he saw him talking to the Andalites, though of course he doesn't know what they said because it was all private thought-speak. Tobias wants to know whether the Andalites are going to blow Earth up, and Ax is surprised that Tobias would suspect such a thing. But since the Yeerks are concentrated on Earth, it just makes sense in Tobias's opinion. Tobias claims he sees everyone in this war--including the Yeerks--as just trying to survive, and thinks maybe Cassie's right about trying to figure out how to give the Yeerks the bodies they want. They'd still have to figure out the morality of giving away DNA of sentient species, but something's got to give. Ax realizes that the "What would Elfangor do?" question was already answered when he chose to give morphing technology to the humans, and he decides to throw in his lot with the humans even if it means he'll die. But he won't lie to the Andalites, so he just does not contact them. The Animorphs team members--with the auxiliaries--go into the woods with the Animorphs' parents and begin their plan to get explosives from the National Guard. Rachel's mom keeps complaining and expressing fear about protecting their kids, and Ax points out that Rachel's the one who makes everyone else afraid. Tobias helps Ax lead the parents to where some National Guardsmen are performing some repair work on a water main, and they pretend to be lost campers. Marco's dad becomes the spokesperson and tells a story about how a bear wrecked their campsite and they ran with whatever they could carry--and got lost. While talking to the Guardsmen they determine they're probably not Yeerks, and the Guardsmen rescue them and let them sit in the truck to go back to the base to get treatment. Hork-Bajir come out and disable the remaining Guardsmen, and the Animorphs land in the truck and hitch a ride back to the base. Since Marco's dad lied about having chest pains, the Guardsmen radioed ahead and got clearance to come in for treatment, and so they're waved right through without searches. Once they're inside the base, the drivers go to help the passengers out but the Animorphs disable them and the parents get in to drive the trucks instead. Then they search out where the large explosives might be on the base. Marco and Tobias had already figured out where the warehouses are, and the whole group (with the help of the auxiliaries) goes after the guards to disable them. They find the warehouse with the weapons, have the Hork-Bajir load up the trucks, and run while alarms are going off. Jake is able to get Marco to stop running after his dad even though he's still over in the medical area. They have to retreat and Jake won't risk leaving Marco behind. They're stopped by soldiers blocking the entrance, and Rachel tries to force her mother to ram the people standing in the way, but Ax pulls her away and saves the people, pretending Jake gave the order and Rachel didn't hear it. Jake gets out of the truck and reasons with the guy in charge--Captain Olston--and he uses Ax's morphing and the Hork-Bajir's presence to prove the governor wasn't making things up during her announcement. The captain doesn't want to trust someone as young as Jake (despite the support from Rachel's mom, whom he knows). Jake explains that he would like to have the soldiers' help, but that he will fight them if he has to. Then a human-Controller from the ranks tries to kill Jake and the other soldiers have to subdue him. When the captain insists that his commanding officer told him the invasion story was a big hoax, Jake has to tell him his major is a Yeerk, and so he has to act on his own. Together, Jake and Rachel's mom convince the captain to help him save the world. Ax ponders how Rachel's mom came in useful after all, and how the captain listened to her so she must have some authority when it comes to humans. Rachel comes over to apologize to her mother for trying to force her to ram people, and Ax is disturbed to see her cry. He relates to her a little, knowing that they both never got to have a childhood. The Animorphs and their parents say some farewells--just in case they don't get to see each other again--and since Ax and Jake have no family to bid goodbyes to, Ax addresses Jake and claims that he will serve him. Jake gives him his "don't call me prince" line. In the attempt to get the explosives down to the train lines, the soldiers run into Controllers who are herding humans on to the subway--they're just people who have been grabbed from their houses and pushed into the trains. Captain Olston meets with his Controller major and a fight breaks out between the Animorphs and the morph-capable Controllers. The battle goes fairly well (even though Ax has to be rescued from a polar bear sitting on him), but Ax panics when he sees a bunch of dead wolves and realizes Cassie might be one of them. He realizes he never hated her, and somehow she picks up on that when it turns out she's already demorphed and she's fine. Jake then has to decide who's going ride the train and risk probable death. They settle on Cassie, Ax, and Marco. Jake wanted to go but they insisted he was too important. Off they go, and the fact that they speed by without stopping at a station alerts the Yeerks that there's something wrong, so they attack. Then Hork-Bajir show up, and so does James (as a red-tailed hawk) to help the Animorphs fight. The shooting had dislodged an electrical cable which ended up electrocuting the Hork-Bajir. Once that danger is over, they're about two minutes from impact. Marco wants to arm the detonator but Cassie agrees that they need to give the people in the Yeerk pool five minutes to evacuate. Ax agrees with her so Marco's outvoted. But then they have to decide who's going to arm it, and Ax wins the coin toss. They morph to roaches to help them survive the impact, and Ax arms the detonator just as he loses his fingers. The train hits the pool and they demorph, having survived. Cassie tries to warn people about the impending bombs and some of them start running. Ax chops cages' locks and tries to free human and Hork-Bajir hosts, noticing in the process that some human-Controllers helped humans who weren't infested. But Visser One is in the pool and he morphs to a huge monster, threatening the Animorphs. But Marco reminds him that there are bombs in that train and he has to morph to save himself. The three Animorphs morph to birds and hightail it out of the pool area as fast as they can, witnessing terrible stampeding on the way. They make it out, but just barely. Witnessing the destruction, they see that the downtown area has more or less caved in completely and there is terrible damage everywhere. Ax is depressed about the bodies, and so is Cassie. They know Jake's family could be down there and they'd never know. Ax is also disturbed that some of the people who died were obviously Yeerks in the peace movement--reminding him that yes, that movement is real and not all Yeerks are monsters. It's terrible that winning can be so depressing. But just when they figure they can't get any more depressed, Visser One's Blade ship flies over, assuring them that he survived. Obviously humanity can't ignore the invasion anymore, and over the next three days there will be a lot of starvation for the Yeerks. This is a big blow, and Ax knows he won't be able to explain to the Andalites why he helped the humans do this. But he knows that even though his feelings are complicated, he knows where his loyalties lie. Narrator: Ax New known controllers:
New morphs acquired:
Cassie: None Marco: None Rachel: None Ax: Raccoon (possibly not acquired during this book) Tobias: None Notable: This book is ghostwritten by Kim Morris. The ages of the Animorphs are pretty vague throughout the series, but Ax's narration in this one says the original human Animorphs are "now of the age to be attending what humans call 'high school.'" This shows they're definitely somewhere in their early teens, though when Marco created the term "Animorphs" in the beginning of the series he joked that it was another word for "idiot teenagers with a death wish." At one point Rachel uses the phrase "big 'ole bomb." What is the apostrophe representing as missing? If you're going to abbreviate "old," it'd make more sense to write "ol'," or if you're going to do it phonetically "ole" will work, but there's no reason for an apostrophe before the O. Chapter 8 has multiple glitches with thought-speak versus mouth-speak. People who are not morphed talk in thought-speak several times with regular quoted passages being used the next time they speak. Also, Ax narrates that he shifts his weight from one leg "to the other," suggesting there are only two, and possibly suggesting he is in morph but probably isn't since he has no reason to be. Ax refers to the Yeerks being a plague on "the galaxy," which contradicts Marco's joke about the Yeerks being from a different galaxy in a previous book. Best lines: Ax: We have the ability to speak without using our mouths. This is very fortunate considering Andalites have no mouths. Ax: A lawyer seems to be an odd type of human. Intelligent but in a way that is not terribly useful. Ax: Marco was correct in stating that nuclear weapons, fairly primitive explosives by Andalite standards, are very difficult for the average citizen to procure. This is a good thing. Cassie: "Okay. Then it's wrong. But let's do it anyway. I'll learn to live with my conscience. We all will. I don't have a better plan. I guess this is as close as we'll get to defeating the Yeerks without being the Yeerks."
Cassie: "You think I'm a traitor, don't you?" Ax: Seerow had let loose a plague of Yeerks upon the galaxy. The rest is history. A sad, violent, destructive history of conquest and war. Planets ravaged and ruined. One species after another enslaved. Countless dead. All triggered by an act of kindness. Yes. The Cassies of the world were infinitely more dangerous than the Rachels.
Soldier: "I've never seen anything like this. Hey there, fella. Hey!"
Cassie: "Coin toss." Marco: "The saddest thing is that this is our greatest victory. And I've never felt more depressed in my entire life."
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