| #8: The Alien |
Detailed Plot: A prologue shows us Prince Elfangor's last battle, with Ax having been ordered to get himself to safety in the dome of his ship. As a cadet, he is not allowed in battle, so he follows his prince's orders and goes to the dome. But since the Yeerks attack the main ship and his part of it gets separated, Ax is the only survivor of the battle, and the attack led to his getting trapped under the ocean and saved by the Animorphs. Back in the present, Jake wants the group to relax by seeing a movie (and Ax wants to learn more about humans), so they go to the theater but encounter disaster because Ax flips out over the food. He eats popcorn (and the box it's in), but quickly searches for more food on the floor and causes a scene by trying to take a child's candy. They drag him out of the theater and he gets himself under control again, only to encounter a man who's causing a scene by staggering around and screaming about Yeerks. They witness a dying Yeerk coming out of the man's ear as he is taken away attended by police and ambulances, and someone puts an odd cylinder against the man's neck. Ax is sad because his friends think it is a sign of victory, and he knows the truth. The truth that he's not telling the reader, but has to do with why the Andalites must fight the Yeerks. They're guilty and this is their responsibility, somehow. Ax discusses his "morning ritual" with Tobias (a series of promises and motions he makes every day to rededicate himself to his people and remind himself to be humble). Then he encounters a rattlesnake that tries to strike him, and he immobilizes it and acquires its DNA. Turns out Ax is planning to go to school in human morph, so he can learn about humans. He ponders his bond with Tobias and imagines that if he didn't have his Andalite secrets, he'd call Tobias his shorm, which means the same in the Andalite language as "tail blade." (It refers to the trust such friends would have in each other.) He regrets that he has to keep a wall between himself and the others, but knows that's how it must be. Ax morphs his human disguise and puts on outer clothing. He goes to Cassie's locker with her and is introduced as Jake's cousin, Phillip. He has trouble remembering not to call Jake "Prince Jake." Jake takes him to first period and asks his teacher if Ax can attend with him, but the teacher seems very distracted and short-tempered. Shortly after class starts, the teacher pitches forward and starts clawing at his head screaming about Yeerks. Obviously he is the host of a dying Yeerk. Compulsively, Jake runs to the teacher's side and tells him to just ride it out and wait until he's free of the Yeerk. This may have been a bad move because he has revealed to a controlled human that he knows about the invasion. Now, if the teacher is controlled again, whatever Yeerk ends up in his head will know that Jake knows, and their security could be compromised. Chapman arrives and orders Jake to back off, and he applies a cylinder to his neck, just like the man on the street had happen to him. Jake realizes the teacher and the Yeerk were killed, and that his team's destroying of the Kandrona is responsible for this. Ax tries to reassure him by saying it's war, and admits he has seen this sort of thing before on other planets, because the Yeerks don't leave witnesses. Jake is horrified because he has believed Ax to be "one of them," fighting alongside them, but now that he realizes Ax's loyalty is more with the Andalites--who apparently view humans as undeserving of a real part in the war, undeserving of full disclosure--he knows he cannot trust Ax. Even if he claims Jake is his prince. Instead of shunning Ax, Jake decides to send Marco over to bring him deeper into the fold. They're going to the bookstore to teach Ax more about humanity, and they hope he'll understand what the human race is worth. Ax is surprised when Marco makes a guess very close to the truth: he suggests that Andalites can't interfere with "primitive" humans, and though Marco gets a little sarcastic with him, Ax is left feeling guilty but determined to defend his right to secrecy. First they stop at Marco's to grab the money and Ax ends up messing with Marco's dad's computer. He sees something he perceives as a game, makes sense of it, rewrites a part of it that has errors, and has a quick run-in with Marco's father before leaving for the bookstore. (The conversation is very weird, though, because Marco ordered him to say only "Yes" and "No.") Ax is happily reading his new World Almanac when the Animorphs all descend upon him in various states of panic. Apparently whatever he did to Marco's father's computer resulted in a very advanced discovery and "pushed human science ahead by a century." They're now worried that this new science will draw the Yeerks' attention to the fact that Andalites are involved. Ax realizes that what he has done is point humans toward some important clues to Z-space communication, but he has also broken the laws of his people by giving that technology to humans. He tries to keep his reaction hidden from his human companions, but he forms two objectives: One, he wants to use the technology to change a radio telescope into a Z-space communicator so he can talk with his people and see another Andalite again, and two, he has to destroy the technology so he is not guilty of a breach of the law of Seerow's Kindness. Running alone and chewing on his loneliness, Ax ponders his past and the greatness of his brother, and he runs into Cassie near her farm. She manages to get him to admit that humans are scary because their advancement comes so quickly, even when compared to Andalites, who took three times as long to make the same technological advances. She tells Ax she feels he is lonely, which he is surprised to admit he is; she invites him to morph into Jake and come to dinner at her house. Ax (as Jake) eats Cassie's dad's chili and enjoys it. They make conversation with Cassie's parents and watch a television show. After it's been almost two hours, Cassie and Ax leave the house and discuss their families, and Cassie gets to hear a little about his parents. She gives him a book of famous quotes and asks which star in the sky is his. He shows her. She assures him that the group cares about him and doesn't think of him as "just some alien." He responds by thanking her for the chili and running for the forest. Ax can't sleep, thinking about the possibility of contacting his family using the radio telescope. He decides to confide in Tobias after he assures him they are good friends, but only if he promises to swear by something sacred that he will not reveal his secret to the others. Tobias swears on the memory of Ax's brother. Ax reveals that he wants Tobias's help in getting to the facility that houses the radio telescope (and help playing lookout). Once Ax has morphed a bird and gone with Tobias to the facility, he gets inside, rewrites the computer software, and contacts his home world. Amazingly, he is able to make contact with an Andalite who recognizes his name, and he announces that he is on Earth. The other Andalite, Ithileran-Halas-Corain, asks about the fate of Ax's brother, and he tells him. After a gesture of grief, the Andalite assistant asks for Ax's report, and he pours out a story of what the Yeerks have been doing on Earth. He is shocked that Earth is not lost to the Yeerks and that Ax and his friends have managed to destroy a Kandrona. While explaining, he admits that the humans he fights with have morphing power and that it was given to them by Elfangor. As soon as he states this, Ithileran disappears and the Head of the Council, Lirem-Arrepoth-Terrouss, appears. Lirem is very old and imposing, and he manages to intimidate Ax into assuming responsibility for Elfangor's choice to give humans morphing technology. He does not want Elfangor's reputation to be ruined so he wishes to pin it on Ax. He compares the situation to what Prince Seerow did in the repeatedly referred-to Seerow's Kindness situation, and reveals that it was this prince that gave "a backward species" the technology that brought the Yeerk pestilence upon the galaxy. This prince, like Elfangor, thought he was doing the right thing too, and though Ax agrees with what his brother did because the humans aren't their enemies, this senior Andalite stands firm in his upholding of the law. Despite Andalite help, it's revealed that the Hork-Bajir lost everything too, and Lirem reminds Ax of his heritage. He is not to align himself with humans, and he is not to give them any information. Andalites, he reminds Ax, must be true only to Andalites. Suddenly, Ax is put in contact with his father, and must admit that Elfangor is dead. They complete a ritual in which Ax is acknowledged as the eldest son and responsible for the avenging of his brother. Formalities aside, they begin to exchange heartfelt words when the communication is cut off by a human-Controller entering the room with a Dracon beam, leveled at Ax. The man introduces himself as Gary Kozlar, but Ax demands his Yeerk name and he claims to be Eslin three-five-nine. Surprisingly, though he obviously harbors a hatred for Andalites as deep as all the Yeerks seen so far, this Yeerk wants to cooperate with Ax in killing Visser Three. This is because his mate, Derane three-four-four, was termed expendable and starved to death by Visser Three. Eslin states that Visser Three feeds like an Andalite, and gives him a time and place that the Visser will be running in a meadow, insisting that Ax should do his duty to avenge his brother. Tobias and Ax tell the others about Ax's plan to intercept and kill Visser Three while he feeds, but Jake, Marco, and Rachel are mighty ticked that now Tobias is also keeping secrets. Ax insists that he cannot tell them any of the secrets he is sworn to keep because of the laws of his people. Cassie correctly guesses that it is out of shame, not pride or arrogance or selfishness, that they keep these secrets. Ax admits that he cannot be one of them and does not expect to be because of his loyalty to his people, and he walks away. After a discussion with Tobias about their promises, Ax runs to the appointed place and morphs into a rattlesnake to wait for the visser. Soon he arrives, and Ax manages to get into position and bite Visser Three twice before zipping away. He begins to demorph and is scarily close to a Hork-Bajir, but can't do anything to save himself. Then Rachel appears in grizzly bear morph and saves his butt. He's glad to be saved, but he knows that Tobias has betrayed his trust. Turns out Tobias has a loyalty to uphold to his "prince" too, and Jake ordered him to tell. The poison weakens Visser Three, and Tobias notices that the Yeerk actually jumped out of the Andalite host and into the river. Left without a Yeerk controlling him, the Andalite host introduces himself to Ax as Alloran-Semitur-Corrass, and he begs for death. Ax feels that he cannot kill an Andalite, so as the poison continues to weaken him, Alloran begs for Ax to communicate to his wife and children that he still loves them. Alloran falls unconscious, and the Animorphs--unable to find Visser Three in his Yeerk form or land any more blows--flee the scene. Ax decides to engage in full disclosure with his human friends. He explains the law of Seerow's Kindness and admits that the Andalites gave the Yeerks interstellar travel, resulting in their attack on the galaxy. He also explains to Marco how he eats without a mouth (and it's through his hooves as they crush the grass). Looking at Tobias, Ax believes he can be his true shorm, and he finally feels he has a group he can trust. An epilogue-like chapter shows Ax back at the observatory (having blackmailed Eslin three-five-nine into letting him make a Z-space transmission). Ax contacts Lirem again, tells him that Alloran sends love and hope to his family, and announces that he is defecting to the human team because obeying the laws of the Andalites still led to the Hork-Bajir's slavery, and he refuses to let that happen to the humans. Lirem tries to insult Ax by saying he's just like his brother. Ax takes that as a compliment. Narrator: Ax New known controllers:
New morphs acquired:
Cassie: None Marco: None Rachel: None Ax: Rattlesnake Notable: On the back of the book, Ax advises that the free bookmark inside is not meant to be eaten, but that it does taste good. An inconsistency when it comes to thought-speak appears to come out in this book. At the very beginning, a prologue details Ax with his brother and an Andalite soldier named Captain Nerefir, and Ax's thought-speak is "overheard" when he's "thought-speaking a little loudly." In previous books it's been noted that thought-speak can be publicly sent to everyone in the vicinity like speech, but can also be directed privately like whispering, and it makes no sense that Ax would make a disrespectful joke about the Captain right in front of him and NOT do it in private thought-speak to Elfangor. Targeting thought-speak to a particular individual is not supposed to be difficult, as the humans with no experience grasp it fine. Ax's last words to his brother were "Go burn some slugs," and his brother's last to him were "That's the plan." Ax keeps a diary of human-related factoids in this book, and some of the anecdotes are hilarious. Andalites have three hearts according to Ax's narration, when he explains that his second and third hearts stop beating when he becomes human. It's contradicted in later books when Andalites refer to "both hearts" as though they have two. Early in the book, Ax suggests that Andalites can tell who is a Controller. (He says that for humans there is no way to tell, and that the only way to tell is if you're an Andalite.) This is not explained, and later doesn't always seem to be true. He could be referring to the fact that Andalites and Yeerks have a visceral hatred reaction to each other, but that only seems to happen if they know what each other are. No magical Yeerk-detecting ability appears to be part of the Andalite experience. There is a reference to Marco "dressing like Beavis" in this book, which is another bit that dates it. When the group goes to the movies, they see a Star Trek film and Ax compares the Enterprise to a Hawjabran freighter and a Klingon character to a real race called the Ongachic. While watching a movie, Ax gets distracted by food and starts crawling around on the floor looking for more, ending up separated from his companions. It seems odd that the Animorphs would not have seated themselves on either side of him and stopped him from going anywhere. It seems like an excuse for hijinks and makes the book seem less realistic. Ax suggests early in his narration that something Andalites have done cannot be shared with humans because they might turn against him. He is apparently very aware of this and the humans have no idea. It seems inconsistent that Andalites in human morph cannot thought-speak. (Ax confirms this is the case by saying "And since I was in a human body, I too was restricted to spoken language.") It makes sense that humans can't do it when they're not in a body made possible by Andalite science, but it seems ridiculous that if a morph can speak, the thought-speak ability goes away. It's also contradicted later in the series. Ax also appears to thought-speak while in human morph in this book, since thought-speak tags are surrounding Ax saying "I win" to himself, but it's possible this was supposed to just be Ax thinking and it was unclearly punctuated. Ax reveals in this book that Andalites eat with their hooves. Ax mentions that he has morphed into some animals from the Andalite home world, but so far none of those morphs have shown up in the story. Either they wouldn't be useful, or the author has forgotten he has any options besides Earth animals. Ax doesn't have a sense of aesthetics for humans when he's in his natural form, but as a human male he finds Rachel attractive. Interesting that this comment makes it clear he is heterosexual while morphed, but no other sexual behavior (except for clear distinctions due to sexual dimorphism in the species) crops up for any of the Animorphs while in animal forms both male and female. Surely this is because it is a children's series, but exploring that aspect would have been interesting. Cassie has a picture of Jake in her locker. Ooooh. Ax is estimating and sort of joking when he says it, but at one point he refers to his world as being "about a billion Earth miles from my home world," and later in the story he says his world is "billions of miles away." And interestingly, Ax says "a billion" twice and says "billions" twice in this book. Which is it? "A billion" would make no sense. We have planets in our solar system that are more than a billion miles away. Apparently Ax can speak English while in human morph, but cannot read it. No real explanation for the language ability (as mentioned in a previous set of notes), since Andalites use thought-speak but specific knowledge does not come with the minds when one morphs. Ax does learn to read English very quickly, also with no real explanation. Ax tells his new friends that the Hork-Bajir "used to have a biological time clock that set them all warring every sixty-two years," which seems unlikely when we find out in a future book that they were created as peaceful creatures by a species called the Arn, and no warring tendencies were likely to have been built into them. The word for a person with a morphing talent is estreen in the Andalite language. Ax brings it up while watching Cassie morph, and claims it is an art form on his home planet. This is a bit odd because in later books the Andalite morphing technology is referred to as "top secret." Which is it? The Andalite home world has four moons, and at least two of them are up at all times. While discussing human rituals, Ax notes that Jake's family has a prayer before meals while Cassie's family doesn't. This suggests that Jake's family is more religious than Cassie's. Ax compares human male pattern baldness to older Andalites' tendency to get dull hooves. Tobias once again refers to having a strange fascination with Elfangor, and discusses having been the last to leave the dying alien's side. Again, the reason for this is revealed much later. Yeerks are suggested to have gender and sex. A Yeerk in this book refers to a female he cared about and assigned her female pronouns even before she was in any kind of human body. This sort of contradicts other parts of the canon because Yeerks' mating and reproduction is nothing like humans; Yeerks don't have parents, and it seems unlikely that they'd mate for life. It's unclear really what the naming conventions are for Yeerks at this point; previous books suggest that the first word of their names are a rank type and that the numeral is a ranking within that rank group, but in this book the male Yeerk Eslin three-five-nine refers to his female Yeerk mate as "Derane" even though she was introduced as "Derane three-four-four." Besides the Gedds, it appears that the first alien race to be conquered by the Yeerks was a species called the Nahara. Ax was addressed by an old Andalite named Lirem who said he served as an aristh under Prince Seerow. He said that this happened "centuries ago." According to the events recorded in The Hork-Bajir Chronicles, Seerow's actions made possible the Yeerk/Andalite war in the human year 1966. So either Seerow was a prince for centuries before that, or the Andalites don't count years the same as humans do.
Best lines: Ax: The texture was rough and strange. And the flavor! It reminded me of a food called pizza. But there was just a hint of cigarette butts, which I also enjoy. Although Prince Jake had told me never to eat cigarette butts again. They are bad for you. Ax: But humans seem fascinated by my stalk eyes. One of the humans, Marco, has said they "creep him out big time." I believe this is a compliment.
Jake: "Ax, it's just the bell for first period. Take it easy. People are staring." Jake: "You know what, Ax? You're right to try and learn more about humans. Because you don't know a thing about us. Not a thing."
Marco: "Don't be weird, okay?" Ax (after "making conversation" about sports): Then it was my turn to ask a question. That is how "making conversation" works. "So, did you know that the cream separator was invented in 1878?" Ax: "Give me liberty or give me death." A human named Patrick Henry said that. I wonder if the Yeerks knew before they came to conquer Earth that humans said things like that. I wonder if the Yeerks knew what they were getting into.
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