| #54: The Beginning |
Detailed Plot: The book starts with Rachel narrating about how she's scared to die. She has, after all, been sent to kill Tom, acting as Jake's insurance policy. She becomes a grizzly bear. Meanwhile, Tom is talking to Visser One on the communication screen and telling him the Andalites are on their way, which should mean death for the visser while Tom escapes. But then Tom spots Jake on the visser's ship and doesn't know how he survived. He panics and tries to shoot at the Pool ship, but Jake gives Rachel his order: Go. One of Tom's Yeerks notices her and shouts "Animorph!" which pleases Rachel after being called an Andalite all the time; she's happy that they finally know who they're fighting. Rachel attacks. Rachel wounds Tom, but she'd kind of forgotten that the Yeerks were morph-capable. She finds herself having to face many wild animals, but instead of being scared, she's happier than she's ever been in her life, feeling that this is her moment. She knows it's them who should be scared. But she takes a lot of punishment at the hands of enemies who can regenerate, and she ends up dazed from blood loss when Tom attacks as a snake. She manages to follow Tobias's direction--sent through the view screen as he watches their battle--to grab the snake and bite its head off. Tom's Yeerk is dead, and so is Tom. Rachel demorphs because she's dying, but she's surrounded by wild animals. She spits out the snake, looks at the screen and tells Tobias and the others a last "I love you," and then the polar bear Yeerk kills her. She finds herself face to face with the Ellimist. She demands to know why the Ellimist can play games with the fates of individuals and worlds, and he explains his story to her, but not to the audience. Rachel understands why she can't be saved, but wants to know at least if she made a difference, and the Ellimist says she did. That's all that matters to her, and after it's all over, Rachel knows no more. Narration switches to Jake. He's shell-shocked at losing Rachel and his brother and doesn't know how he'll ever explain it. Toby comes in announcing that the Yeerks surrender if they can get morphing power, but Jake is still in shock and can't answer her. They have to explain to Toby that Jake has just lost two members of his family, and Toby answers that her father also died in this battle. Marco answers for Jake, agreeing that the Yeerks will get their morphing. Ax says the Andalites might not allow the Yeerks to morph, but Marco figures they're the ones who won this war so they can decide what the losers get. Cassie informs Jake that he still has a job to do--the exact right thing to say--and he realizes all his feelings and explanations can wait. He gives orders for Visser One to disgorge from Alloran's Andalite body, Ax to contact high command and the Andalite media, and for Cassie to find Erek. Cassie picks up narration, grieves for Rachel in disbelief and feels regret over Tom, and goes off to find Erek. They figure it's time for him to get off the ship if he doesn't want the Andalites to find out about the Chee. They have a short discussion about what had to be done, and Cassie finds herself defending Jake for killing seventeen thousand Yeerks as "a diversion." Erek tells Cassie to take care of Jake since she'll be needed, and he departs. Alloran is knocked out cold and Visser One was given instructions to vacate his body. He does so and Marco sticks him in a briefcase. The other Yeerks are a bit cowed to see their boss in a box, and they're pretty cooperative. Ax carries out his orders to contact command and ends up with an Andalite called Offeran-Jibril-Castant, and Ax tells him the Pool ship was taken over by the Earth Liberation Army. He thinks they're Controllers, though, especially since they're being hailed from a Yeerk ship. They try to tell the Andalites about the Blade ship that's escaping--Tom's ship, even though Tom is dead--and they figure that's a trap. Then Visser One's host body, Alloran, gets up and starts talking to Offeran. He finds that the ship they've contacted is named after Elfangor, and he asks to talk to a high officer, which turns out to be a prince named Asculan-Semitur-Langor. The prince is about to shut them down because he isn't going to negotiate with a visser, but Marco makes a comment drawing attention to the fact that this broadcast is patched into the Andalites' civilian net as well. Jake takes advantage of that to point out that they have gotten the Yeerks to surrender and now it would be uncharitable and warlike of them to not negotiate peace talks. It'd make the military look terrible in the eyes of their people, so Prince Asculan is forced to listen. The speech Jake makes convinces Asculan that he can't blow Earth up and has to make peace with the humans, especially since they're willing to partially credit the Andalites. He throws in some props for Ax and makes it clear how well their two peaceful races are going to get along, and then Asculan wants to know who the heck Jake is. Marco introduces Jake as President of Earth. Jake goes along with the whole thing as the Andalites board, and he starts trying to negotiate for morphing cubes for the Yeerks but the request is summarily denied. Jake wants to just stop fighting--he tried and failed and how can the beaten Yeerks and Taxxons really blame him?--but Marco advises Jake not to give in because the Andalites will think humans are pushovers. Jake's negotiations are bolstered by Ax issuing a challenge, which he legally can't do without the support of a prince . . . luckily, Alloran still technically holds his title and gives that support, so Ax is allowed to challenge Asculan. The "challenge" turns out to be mainly a political thing: they'd have to present evidence and let the Andalite electorate vote. But as Asculan won't actually engage in the challenge unless they're sure their side will win, it may not come to that. Turns out to work out for the best: Asculan lets them have four morphing cubes for their purposes, elevates Ax to prince status, and appoints him the go-between for Andalites and humans. As promised in the negotiations, the remaining existing Yeerk ships are given the chance to surrender or fight, and those that decided to fight get destroyed. Ex-Controllers, with Andalite help, assist in flying the Pool ship, which houses the prisoners of war and gives them access to Kandrona rays. Ax gets a ship because of his prince status, and they use it to land in Washington and speak to the press. Jake, Ax, Cassie, and Marco address the questions, but Tobias acts as if he doesn't hear them. At one point he just flies away and no one knows where he's gone. Rachel's body is found by Andalites, floating in space where it had been sent by Tom's Yeerk's followers before they escaped. She's returned to Earth where she gets cremated and they have a memorial for her. It's attended by everyone, a huge funeral--even the President makes a speech. All the other Animorphs do too, and Tobias arrives toward the end, flying in to perch on her urn. He asks permission from Rachel's mom and Jake before he takes the urn away into the sky, which is what everyone thinks she would want. Narration skips a year into the future. Marco's the one making most of the TV appearances because he's funny and has a stage presence, but since Jake is very heavy and serious and Cassie always starts philosophizing about morals, it's mostly Marco that they go to. Spielberg makes an Animorphs movie and Marco gets a book ghostwritten about his life. Cassie writes a book too, but Marco's is received better. He gets an acting job playing a mutant on a television show, and continues to do advertising gigs--which results in great money, a great love life, and everything he's ever wanted. And he's perfectly happy with this turn of events; it doesn't make him feel empty at all. Cassie's post-war life involves an official position representing resident aliens. She's helped securing the Taxxons in the rainforest as large snakes (as promised), getting the Hork-Bajir a new habitat (Yellowstone!), and taking veterinary classes because she still wants to be an animal doctor. Arbron, the Taxxon nothlit, got killed in the rainforest by poachers, but Marco believes it was probably a relief. His burial happens on the Andalite home world. And Andalite tourism becomes popular--they like to come to Earth and try human morphs, which of course involves lots of eating. Marco's interested to find that civilians from the Andalite world aren't as arrogant as the military ones. And Jake's post-war life is not so hot. He's offered everything from teaching positions to marriage proposals, but Jake only wants what he can't have. The guilt from the war, missing Tobias and Rachel, and the distance between himself and Cassie all weigh on him. Nobody's seen Tobias since Rachel's funeral. But then they have to come together again to testify in Visser One's trial. Cassie asks Marco how Jake's been, since originally they'd made a promise to see if they could "be together" a year after the war and they still weren't really in contact. Marco says he thinks he's depressed, and that he's seen him visit Rachel's memorial quite a few times--which they suspect Rachel would hate. Cassie and Marco feel they're the real two survivors of the war, and that Jake isn't over anything. But he's supposed to be at the meeting and they're both looking forward to seeing him. Jake, for his part, feels that he still cares for both of them but thinks his feelings don't really translate to "after the war." He's called to the stand to testify against Visser One, and one of the visser's lawyers says Jake is unfit to be a witness because he's a war criminal himself for killing seventeen thousand Yeerks. Jake feels weighed down by the guilt, but just answers questions after the objection is overruled. He's disconnected from the proceedings and doesn't do a good job testifying against Visser One. Later, in his hotel room, his friends clobber him and throw him in the ocean. Jake morphs to dolphin and swims, finding a little bit of actual enjoyment for the first time since winning the war. The others chase him, and when they're finally worn out they sit on the beach and talk. Marco's angry that he screwed up testifying, and says he needs to do this right, but Jake feels that if Visser One is a war criminal then so is he. Cassie, Marco, and Ax try to get him to understand that the Yeerks started the war, and that he helped Earth win. He has a hard time understanding how come just because humans were the overall victims it means he's incapable of committing a war crime, but they try to get through to him and manage to mostly do so. Cassie seems disturbed that Jake admits to having regarded the Yeerks as filthy slugs who deserved their death, though. In any case Jake agrees to do a better job on the stand the next day. This results in Visser One being sentenced to prison for twenty-two war crimes. Two years later Ax is commanding a ship in space, on the trail of the Blade ship. They instead find a very large vessel that has DNA traces and no life signs aboard, and Ax decides he and his crew should investigate it. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Jake has decided to do something with his life. He's written a book, taught a few military classes, and started hanging out with Marco again. He's not too disappointed that Cassie is seeing another guy who has goals and values similar to hers, but he's not really dating himself. Then he gets a notification from Andalites that Ax's ship got destroyed. Turns out the DNA they'd detected was from a polar bear--the same Yeerk that killed Rachel--and the Blade ship was inside the alien vessel. Their ship got fired on by the alien ship and their engines didn't work, and though they tried to retreat they were hit by pirates and their life support went. Ax's first officer Menderash was the only survivor, and he's there to report that the last thing he heard was Ax calling for Jake. First Officer Menderash also says that the Blade ship escaped into Kelbrid space. The Kelbrid are a race whose space territory borders the Andalites', and they're not supposed to go into each other's territories--they leave each other alone. So, since Andalites can't break this taboo, Menderash decides to become human--for good, becoming a nothlit on purpose--and says they can take a Yeerk ship into space and try to save Ax. The narration switches to Cassie, who's climbing a mountain with her significant other, Ronnie. They both work as go-betweens for the government and the aliens. She's trying to phase out of her life as "Cassie the Animorph," even though the media's still making movies about them and pointing out tabloid-like sightings of Tobias. But as she's reflecting on her life moving forward, she sees a peregrine falcon coming and knows it's Jake. He tells her what's happened with Ax and she volunteers to come help because of her loyalty to Ax, but Jake insists that she should stay and help protect the Hork-Bajir since that was one of their purposes in fighting the war. He also wants her to tell him where Tobias is so he can recruit him, since Tobias was Ax's shorm. And he believes Marco will go as well. After Jake leaves with the info he needs about Tobias, Cassie feels she's said her last goodbye to Jake. Jake, as a wolf, follows Toby to see Tobias. The three of them are spied upon by a couple of campers who snap pictures, and Jake tells Tobias that Ax has been taken prisoner. Tobias still feels angry at Jake for sending Rachel to die and breaking his heart, but he can't abandon Ax. Jake and Tobias go to Marco's and recruit him. Marco wonders whether Jake is doing this to make up for old mistakes, and he admits that maybe he needs another war. Marco knows Jake needs his tactical genius, but Jake needs to keep his bravery and not get scared and not question himself. So, off Jake goes with Marco and Tobias, including Menderash and two recruits from one of Jake's classes. In order to get to the Yeerk ship they'll be using to follow Ax, they have to overpower a couple of Andalites and steal one of their ships to get to it. This they do with a minimum of effort, and then they fly on out. But according to Andalite custom, Menderash wants to name the ship. They decide to name it the Rachel. Off they go in their new ship, and it takes months before they finally find the Blade ship. Really, it finds them. They meet through the view screens and Jake's recruit Santorelli plays the captain while Menderash feeds him lines to say. He pretends to be a Controller and introduces himself to the captain of the Blade ship, who's known as Efflit 1318. They both claim to be on classified missions, and Santorelli tries to convince him that there is no such thing as the Yeerk Empire anymore, but then Efflit wants them to submit to leadership under The One. They don't know what that means. The screen changes to a view of Ax, but clearly possessed by something terrible calling itself The One. It knows Jake is there and calls him out, and Jake isn't sure how to beat this evil thing, but he decides they should do what Rachel would have done, and decides to ram the Blade ship with the Rachel. An author's note says it's appropriate for the Animorphs to go out fighting. Narrators: Rachel, Jake, Cassie, Marco, Ax, Tobias New known controllers:
New morphs acquired:
Cassie: None Marco: None Rachel: None Ax: None Tobias: None Notable: Jake's morph at the beginning of the book is stated to be a Bengal tiger. The tiger he actually acquired was Siberian; this is a continuity glitch since there was no other tiger acquisition adventure. A line stating that Tom's Yeerk screamed with Tom's mouth is inaccurate because he does it in thought-speak. Marco discusses having released a book about his life with the assistance of a ghostwriter. It's notable that Applegate acknowledges ghostwriters here since many of the Animorphs books were written by them. This book uses thought-speak quoting within thought-speak--as in, a thought-speaking Andalite quotes what another Andalite said in thought-speak, and the same symbols are used--but one of the thought-speak quotes was never closed. No big reunion drama or really any notes at all were made about the fact that Jake's parents were alive. They have to have been because Jake mentions buying them a house and then moving out. Mostly none of the parents are followed up on. Marco seemed to be very stuck on his parents being back together before the war ended, but he doesn't mention them at all in the post-war story and it's never mentioned what became of his dad's marriage to another woman. It's never mentioned whether Rachel's dad was found or whether he'd been taken during the phase of the war when the Yeerks were trying to seize the Animorphs' families. Her mother cried at her funeral but her dad wasn't mentioned. Cassie's parents aren't discussed. And Tobias, who fought for the chance to get to know his mother, doesn't appear to associate with her at all. Interesting that Jake calls the male recruit by his last name but the female recruit by her first name. Best lines: Rachel: I did what I do better than anyone. What Jake counted on me to do. I attacked.
Rachel: "Did I . . . did I make a difference? My life, and my . . . my death . . . was I worth it? Did my life really matter?" Jake: I had ordered my cousin to execute my brother. How would I ever explain that? Erek: "A diversion? You're going to tell me you needed a diversion so Jake massacred seventeen thousand sentient creatures? A diversion?" Marco: I don't want to say I'm ruthless, I'm not. But I have the ability. I can see the ruthless way clearly. I have to sort of add the morality back into the equation after the fact. Jake: "At this point we have to set aside the necessary ruthlessness of war, the suspicion and hostility, and turn instead to the more satisfying duties of making peace."
Asculan: "Who exactly are you?" Marco: Humans weren't freaked by aliens--they'd been expecting them for years and were just relieved they weren't The Borg. Cassie: In the public imagination, Jake was still some melding of George Washington and Patton and Batman. Marco: "You have to trust your instincts, not your doubts."
Marco: "So what do we call her?"
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