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Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Hork-Bajir Chronicles-Chapter 16
Dak Hamee

quote:

We have many tales, we Hork-Bajir, of Father Deep. Father Deep and Mother Sky gave birth to us, their children. Mother Sky gives us air and light. Father Deep gives us soil and water. Both are necessary for the trees that sustain us.

But Father Deep is also the place from which monsters come.

No Hork-Bajir has ever entered Father Deep and lived to tell of it.

Now we were entering the Deep. We had passed the zone of bright bushes and distorted flowers at the edge of the Deep. No trees grew here. But things still lived, even now, with the blue mist all around us, concealing us from our pursuers.

<This atmosphere appears to be breathable,> Aldrea said. 

�Yes. I can breathe.� My voice sounded flat. It seemed to die in the air. As though the sounds could not possibly get from my mouth to Aldrea�s ears.

I was frightened. I knew we would die. But I also knew that it was better to die here in Father Deep than to be killed by the Yeerks.

Father Deep was ours. Of our world. Of the Hork-Bajir. I would die like a Hork-Bajir.

The world around us became a deeper blue. Light seemed to come from below us, glowing all around us. It was a blue fog. Thicker and thicker, till I could barely see Aldrea though she was only a few heights away.

I waited for the monsters to leap out and seize me. My skin tingled, awaiting the deadly touch.

But nothing came.

<The temperature is rising as we descend,> Aldrea said.

I realized I was walking on lush, thick grass. As we descended ever farther, the fog seemed to be thickening. Aldrea was no more than a blue shadow within blue mist.

I�d heard nothing of our pursuers. Not a sound since we�d entered the Deep. Had they been frightened off?

Beside me, a shape emerging. A monster?

�Aldrea?� I said, my voice quavering.

Closer, closer � a Gedd!

TSEEEEWWW!

A flash of light. Not the beam I�d seen before, but something like a ball of lightning.

�Rrrr-aaarrrgghh!� the Gedd screamed.

A touch on my arm.

I leaped and spun around.

<It�s me,> Aldrea said.

�Rrr-aaarrr arrrgghh!� the Gedd cried.

<This atmosphere is too dense for a shredder,> Aldrea said. <It�s a weapon designed for a vacuum, or at least for a decently clear atmosphere. He got flashback. Shredder energy absorbed by the atmosphere and reflected.>

The Gedd continued screaming, but his voice was deadened by the mist as we went down, ever down, into the Deep.

Suddenly, I felt a tear in the mist, a breath of wind. For just a moment I could clearly see a pair of Gedds standing ahead of us! Their shredders were aimed. And now, looming up beside them, I saw the Hork-Bajir who had attacked us before. The one who had run away.

�Don�t fire those shredders, you fools,� the Hork-Bajir ordered. �Can�t you hear Arklan screaming?�

<Two Gedds and you, Hork-Bajir-Controller, against the two of us?> Aldrea laughed. <Without your shredders, you don�t have the guts.>

The Hork-Bajir nodded. �The shredders will be safe enough up close.� To the Gedds he said, �Wait till we are within five feet, then fire!�

The three of them ran straight at us. Aldrea dodged left. I dodged right.

WHUMPF!

I slammed into something that cried out, �Rrrrrrr!�

A Gedd! I was on the ground. The Gedd was beside me. Then, in a flash, the creature Aldrea had called a Hork-Bajir-Controller was standing over me. He drew his own shredder and pressed the end of it against my head.

I could see the mad glee in his eyes. I could see his finger tightening on the trigger.

And then �

The Hork-Bajir was yanked straight up off the ground. Up into the air, as if he�d been launched by a bent branch. He flew up, then stopped.

I saw the two massive, three-fingered hands of the Jubba-Jubba close around the Hork-Bajir�s chest. I heard a cry. A roar. And the Hork-Bajir�s body fell to the ground on top of me.

A body with no head.

�Aaaahhhh!� I cried in terror.

The Gedd beside me rolled to his feet and began to run. A three-fingered hand reached down out of the mist and snatched the Gedd up.

No part of the Gedd fell back to the ground. No part of his body, at least. The shredder clattered a few feet from me.

In panic I got up on my hands and knees and crawled to the weapon. I grabbed it in my hands.

My clumsy fingers fumbled with the unfamiliar device. My too-large fingers found the trigger. I aimed it upward.

The three-fingered hand came down, down, down toward me.

I aimed the shredder.

FWAPP!

It was too fast to see! The mist swirled, revealing where the lightning movement had come from.

FWAPP! FWAPP!

Aldrea�s tail flashed again and again, and there came a roaring howl like nothing I had ever heard or imagined. A huge, three-fingered hand fell to the ground.

Fell and lay there. Dead. Severed from the monster.

The monster screamed in rage.

<Get up! We must run!> Aldrea cried.

I got up. I moved. I dropped the shredder, not wanting to hold it any more.

The Jubba-Jubba monster did not follow. For the first time in history, a monster of Father Deep had been defeated.

Andalite tails....they're something.

Chapter 17
Aldrea

quote:

Dak looked at me like I was some sort of mythological deity. I had injured the monster. I guess no one had even done that before.

But it had been a close thing. I hated to admit it, but a big, male Andalite warrior could have done it with a single tail strike. It took me three.

And yet I had done it.

I felt satisfaction, no more. My war was not against these monsters, as Dak called them. My war was with the Yeerks.

�We should get away before more monsters come,� Dak said.

<No. By now the entire area back up there above the mist will be crawling with Yeerks. They can�t afford to let me live. They can�t let either of us live,> I added hastily. <They�ll bring down all the Gedds they have, and all the Hork-Bajir, too, if they have more of them.>

�Then we must stay within the Deep,� Dak said grimly. �We must stay here in the realm of monsters, while my people are taken by these Yeerks.�

<Maybe your people will fight.>

�No. They will be taken. They will be made into slaves of the Yeerks. They will not fight. I might have saved them. Instead I followed you, Aldrea.�

I didn�t know if he was angry at me, or angry at himself. Both, I guessed. Would he leave me?

No. He cared for me. We had more in common than he could ever have with any Hork-Bajir. It was too late for Dak: He knew that the stars were not flowers. And having learned so much, he still needed to learn more. He was hungry for it, for ideas, for knowledge, for skills. And only I could feed that hunger.

No, he would stand by me, I was sure of that. He would hate himself for making that choice. But that didn�t matter, not now. All that mattered now was destroying the Yeerks.

<Dak, eventually, we must find a way to contact my people,> I said. <We may have to steal a Yeerk ship. We may have to fly, Dak. We may have to go up into space.>

It was what Dak wanted most, I knew. To experience space. To fly up to the stars. It was a promise he could never refuse. A bribe.

Dak stopped walking. I stopped and turned back to face him. <What�s the matter?>

�You did not have to say that, Aldrea. You do not have to hold out a ripe Nawin cone to make me stay with you. All this time together, Aldrea, and yet you don�t know that I would sacrifice anything for you?�

I could only stare. Stare and burn with humiliation. He had seen right through me. I felt small and shabby. I should have said I was sorry. But that, too, would have been a lie.

You see, at that moment, nothing mattered to me. Nothing but erasing the pain of watching my family burn. What Dak thought of me, even what I thought of myself: None of that really mattered. Dak would stay with me. And I would find a way to pay the Yeerks back.

<Dak, do you have any idea what is farther down in the Deep?>

�No, Aldrea. Already we have gone farther than any Hork-Bajir ever.�

<Let�s go farther still,> I said. There was no other option.

We walked more slowly now, always downhill. It was a nervous walk. The mist was all around us. We had seen one of the monsters already, and I now knew they were not mere myth.

But I was pretty sure we had lost any Yeerk pursuit. At least for the moment.

And yet, although we Andalites are not superstitious, we do have our own ancient myths of dark, deep places within the ground. Places of fear and loathing. And those myths were surfacing in my mind now.

�The mist grows thinner,� Dak said.

He was right. I could see him more clearly. And now I was beginning to be able to see down the slope a short distance. Nothing but scruffy, blazingly red and green and blue bushes. No monsters. Not that I could see, anyway.

Down and down we went. Hour after hour. Down, ever down, through a weird twilight. Without being attacked. Without seeing any more monsters. Had our small victory scared them off?

I swiveled my stalk eyes constantly. And then I happened to look up. The sky was brilliant blue. <It�s some kind of vapor barrier,> I said. <Somehow the atmosphere down here in the Deep interacts with the atmosphere in the valley above us and forms a layer of vapor. The blue color must be a by-product of the interaction.>

I tried to run through my basic chemistry and get some idea what we were breathing. I came up with some possibilities. None of them exactly comforting. Still, the air, while horribly humid and thick, was breathable.

�Down here one cannot even see the valley above,� Dak said. �A creature living here would think the blue mist was the sky.�

He was right. Only the source of light was below us, not truly above. I knew that beyond the blue barrier it was night. And yet the blue glowed, reflecting light.

As we went ever downward, the light brightened. It was still a sickly, unnatural light. More radioactive than radiating, if you know what I mean. But at least we could see.

And what we saw was that the landscape around us was home to a bizarre array of the brightly colored bushes and a few stunted, twisted trees that Dak refused to acknowledge were trees at all.

Here and there, absurdly fast streams cut through the sparse, tired grass and into the bare rock underfoot. You could hear the water racing, having gathered momentum all the way down from the valley above. Some streams were quite large, eight or ten or fifteen feet across.

We began to realize that the ground was leveling off just a little. It was almost as flat as the meadow where we�d built our scoop. Flat, by Hork-Bajir standards.

But the land seemed to stop or fall away, less than a quarter mile ahead.

We advanced cautiously, slowly. And then, quite suddenly, we could see the end of the land. It simply stopped.

�What can this be?� Dak asked.

 I admitted. <It�s your planet.>

�Not this part of it.�

Step by step, closer, closer. Till we stood on the very edge of the cliff. I arched my upper body forward. I could not imagine how Dak could deal with the height, standing on only two legs with nothing but a tail to help support him.

I looked down, fearful.

Then I looked down again in utter astonishment.

It was a chasm. Sheer cliffs on both sides. Sheer as walls. I could see across the chasm to the farside far better than I could see straight down.

The walls of the chasm were covered in an amazing, intricate filigree: windows, doors, walkways, arches, open spaces cut back into the cliff. All connected vertically by stone stairways.

Thousands of feet below, below all this incredible construction, maybe tens of thousands of feet, was the valley floor. It was not as bright as a sun. But it was bright enough to cast shadows upward from every stair and arch and windowsill.

It glowed red and yellow and seemed to seethe with slow, sluggish movement.

We were looking at the molten heart of the planet.

I mean, they're down in Father Deep, but what does this mean?

# ? May 30, 2021 04:51

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# ? Apr 28, 2024 10:26

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

It means KA Applegate did some creative brainstorming to come up with a unique idea for a planet. I give her 9/10, because it's one I haven't seen in any other scifi.

# ? May 30, 2021 05:21

WrightOfWay: Jul 24, 2010

Its definitely impossible but it is a very cool concept and that's more important.

# ? May 30, 2021 06:32

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

Yup. Rule of Cool overrides pretty much everything else.

# ? May 30, 2021 08:27

Bibliotechno Music: Dec 30, 2008

Epicurius posted:

The Hork-Bajir Chronicles-Chapter 16
Dak Hamee
Andalite tails....they're something.

Chapter 17
Aldrea
I mean, they're down in Father Deep, but what does this mean?

I really really love the world building that�s gone into this book. And I�m so excited about this trip into Father Deep! I have some of my most vivid Animorphs memories from this book. Isn�t the construction within this chasm the work of a highly intelligent pteranodon-type species?

Aldrea and Dak�s relationship is very interesting. One thing I�m noticing is the dichotomy between Dak�s/Hork Bajir�s emotional intelligence (strong communities, empathy, etc) and the scientific intelligence of the Andalites. Aldrea describes her family, even to the last moment, as individuals pursuing their separate interests within the same space rather than as a cohesive family unit; we get some of this in the Andalite chronicles, as an effect of the nature of a far-flung spacefaring race. But THAT is exactly why Aldrea finds that Dak Hamee is impossible to lie to. With the loose family ties, her parents might have believed (or pretended to) a similar lie, and if Dak was of ordinary Hork Bajir intelligence she could easily fool him. But he has both kinds of intelligence. It seems, too, that he can (or is more easily able to) feel things more deeply than she, as she�s not used to this kind of deep emotional connection.

There�s definitely an element of the Noble Savage here, but on an individual level Aldrea and Dak Hamee�s interactions are very interesting. Especially when you consider the sterile, distant nature of the Animorph�s suburban setting, and all the kids� secrets and lies. All that human and andalite superiority and intelligence stands in stark contrast to Hork Bajir society, including the warlike assumptions about tree bark harvesters being walking weapons.

# ? May 30, 2021 14:01

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 18
Esplin 9466

quote:

In an instant I had learned one of the terrible drawbacks of having a host body. A host body can be hurt. And the pain cannot be filtered out. The very capability that gives us control ties us into the pain.

The Hork-Bajir had slashed me with his blade. He had aimed the blow well. The spine of my host body was cut in two. All of the body below my chest ceased to exist.

I lay helpless. No one came. For a very long time I lay there, staring up at the night sky through the ominous Hork-Bajir trees.

I saw spacecraft landing. I heard the grunts of Gedds, rushing around in futile pursuit of the Andalite.
Only hours later did anyone come looking for me.

They dragged me aboard the nearest fighter and ferried me back up to the transport ship. I drained back into the Yeerk pool. I was blind again.

Blind, and being interrogated mercilessly.

<Where did the Andalite girl go?>



<How many Hork-Bajir were with her?>

<Only one.>

<What happened to Carger?>

<He ran away. Beyond that, I don�t know.>

Over and over again. And the more I was questioned, the more I learned. A total of seven of our people had passed through the blue vapor barrier. One had survived to tell wild tales of huge, shambling monsters appearing out of the mist.

Eventually it was decided that the Andalite girl must have died, too. If these monsters had killed our people, surely they had killed the Andalite as well.

Only I disagreed. <Just because some Gedds were killed, just because Carger was killed, that does not mean the Andalite died.>

<Do you mean to imply that an Andalite girl is stronger, braver, more resourceful than our own warriors?>

<Yes,> I said. <Yes. The Andalites did not become the dominant species in this part of the galaxy by being weak or stupid or cowardly.>

But no one listened. And I was left to wander, blind, around the home that had once been my entire universe and was now a filthy trap.

At last, days later, when enough Hork-Bajir had been taken, I was given a new host body. A new Hork-Bajir.

�We have sent strong, armed parties into the blue mist,� Akdor told me. He now had a Hork- Bajir host body, too. �The monsters are real. They have killed more of us. We found the bodies of the others. We searched for the body of the Andalite, but did not find it.�

I listened, trying not to gloat too openly.

�It seems you were right, Esplin-Nine-Four-Double-Six. Now you will go back to the surface. You will find this Andalite. You will destroy her.�

�Yes, Akdor. I will. And if I do, what will be my reward?�

�You will be made a sub-visser. How many troops will you need?�

�None, Akdor. I will go as a spy, not a conqueror. I will pass as a Hork-Bajir. I will find the Andalite. And I will kill her.�

But of course, I was lying. You see, I had already realized one very important thing: From now on, the host body one had would be an indication of power. Already there were lines of distinction between Yeerks who had Gedd hosts and Yeerks who were given the new, powerful Hork-Bajir
bodies.

These Hork-Bajir would be our shock troops.

But there was still one host better than Hork-Bajir: Andalite.

Yes, the Yeerk who could take an Andalite host would be more than a mere sub-visser. The Yeerk who could take and hold an Andalite host would be a visser, at the very least. And someday, who knows? A seat on the Council of Thirteen?

�I will take care of this matter, Akdor,� I said. �I will deal with the Andalite.�

Putting aside his obsession with getting an Andalite host, I still find it amazing how nobody listens to Esplin about Andalites.

"You know, there are four Andalites. If you wait, you can probably kill them all with one blast."
"No, we're not going to wait"

"The Andalite must be dead. After all, none of our Gedds could survive."
"Don't count her out. Andalites are tough, smart, and resourceful."
"No, she's dead."

The Yeerks are underestimating the Andalites the same way the Andalites underestimated the Yeerks.

Chapter 19

quote:

Father Deep. That�s what the Hork-Bajir called it. They thought it was the land of monsters, below the mist. But the zone of monsters was fairly narrow.

I now had some understanding of the layout. The upper valley, above the blue mist barrier, was Hork-Bajir land. A land of steep inclines and gigantic trees.

Beneath the mist was a somewhat more level belt that encircled the valley. In this zone of dense fog and eerie plants, the monsters lived.

Now we were in the third zone: no longer a steep valley, but sheer cliffs. Cliffs that were covered by a complex of walkways, stairways, arches, carved-out plazas, homes, businesses � They had every imaginable feature of a moderately advanced civilization but one: They were empty. No one seemed to be living here.

 I said.

�What is a portable sensor?�

<It�s a device you can carry that performs a number of functions. It would tell us how old this place is. I don�t know if all this was created last week, last millennium, or at the dawn of history.>

We were descending the cliff face by an endlessly long stairway. Every few dozen feet, the stairway would broaden out into a landing. A walkway would cross the landing. Along the walkways we could see doorways.

I was primed. Ready. Expecting attack at any moment. But the silence seemed to speak of emptiness. Emptiness everywhere in the valley around and below us.

Not that I wanted to think about what was below us. If I strayed off the steps, I�d fall. I�d fall for a very long time, down, down till I hit the exposed core of the planet.

Of course, long before I hit actual bottom I�d be incinerated. But that wasn�t a very comforting thought.

We reached yet another landing and we both froze. This walkway was different. It was broader by far, chiseled deeper into the cliff. And a hundred feet down the walkway we could see some sort of vast opening.

<Shall we investigate it?>

�Why not?�

So we headed down along the walkway. And there, on our right, we came upon the opening. An opening so vast it could have been a hangar for a fleet of ships.

We stepped into the opening. It was nice to move away from the cliff face and that precipitous drop. But the size of this space was intimidating. I felt I should bow my head. You could play three separate games of driftball at once in that space. The sound of my hooves echoed off stone walls I could not even see in the gloom.

<What do you suppose this place is?> I asked.

Dak just shook his head. He was looking up in wonder, searching for the roof we knew was above us but couldn�t see in the deep shadows.

<It�s an open place, at least,> I said. <We could stay the night here. We need rest. And I don�t think the Yeerks will come after us anymore tonight. Even if they did, how would they find us in this absurd maze of walkways and openings?>

�It would be good to rest,� Dak said. �We cannot stay in any of the smaller dwellings we saw. Too small. Too confining.�

I certainly agreed with that. No one wanted walls around them and roofs above them if they could avoid it. On board a spacecraft it was inevitable, but this space was so large it might almost have been an open field.

�No trees,� Dak said. �And the flat, horizontal angle of the floor is disturbing to me.�

<But, on the positive side, no Yeerks.>

�Yes. We can sleep here.�

 I said.

Dak slept as Hork-Bajir do: He relaxed his legs and slumped down into a sort of sitting position, with legs splayed out in front and thick tail providing a third support. His head fell forward, chin to chest.

He was asleep instantly, as far as I could tell. I was jealous. Sleep isn�t always that easy for me. For most Andalites. We are a watchful species. My mother explained it to me once when I found myself unable to sleep for several days.

<We no longer have predators to attack us,> she�d said, <but evolution does not just throw away adaptations that were necessary once. The animals we evolved from were prey for millions of years. They lived in vast herds, always watched by hungry predators. This was before we developed our tail blades and we had no protection but speed. We still feel the need to watch for predators. It may be a million years before we lose that instinct.>

My mother was good at explaining things like that. It�s what she did. She was a scientist. Like I was supposed to be.

But now she was dead. In part because we Andalites had begun to forget that instinct for caution. We had forgotten that even though the predators on our own world had died out, there were still predators loose in the galaxy.

Or at least parasites.

I stood there in the gloom, in the faint reflected glow from the valley floor, and I remembered the searing light of the shredders as they ripped my family apart, atom by atom by atom.

I had to find a way to contact the fleet or the home world. Nothing would save this planet now but the appearance of a full-fledged Andalite war fleet.

That meant Z-space communication. A radio signal would take decades to reach anyone. I needed advanced Zero-space transponders.

And the only ones on this planet were aboard the ships the Yeerks controlled.

No need for concern, Aldrea, I said to myself. Just walk up to the nearest Yeerk landing area, tell them you want to borrow the fighter, initiate contact with the home world, and suggest they rush directly to our assistance. Nothing whatever to worry about.

I looked at Dak, asleep, his forehead horns raked forward, arms bent to keep the blades outward.

He would be hard to attack while sleeping, I thought. From behind, the tail spikes. From the sides, the arm blades. From the front, the horns.

He�d said he would do anything for me. He�d said it in a way that � no, that was ridiculous. We were different species. Totally, completely different.

And yet I enjoyed spending time with him. I enjoyed talking with him. I missed him when wewere separated.

Perfect, Aldrea, I laughed to myself. He�s covered with blades; he�ll soon be seven feet tall; heeats with his mouth; and he swings through the trees.

I was just lonely, that was it. There were no Andalite males around, and I was at the appropriate age for an interest in males. If there had been an interesting Andalite around, I�d have cared nothing about Dak.

There are no Andalite males, I reminded myself, and even if there were, you have no choice butto care about Dak. At the very best, the fleet would take two months to arrive. And this strange, bladed creature is your only friend.

Two months. If I could reach my people. If.

And if I could not reach my people, could Dak reach his? Could the simple, placid Hork-Bajir be made to rise up and save themselves?

Was Dak Hamee the seer ready to become Dak Hamee the general?

Begin the shipping. (Please don't begin the shipping.)

# ? May 31, 2021 05:54

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Also, this isn't related to this book, but I saw it and thought of Tobias:

https://twitter.com/buitengebieden_/status/1398592444434993156

# ? May 31, 2021 06:06

Rochallor: Apr 23, 2010; ふっっっっっっっっっっっっｃｋ

Epicurius posted:

The Yeerks are underestimating the Andalites the same way the Andalites underestimated the Yeerks.

Maybe Visser 3 is a half decent commander but his assumption that the Animorphs are Andalites is screwing with his expertise. He did pull off a pretty big win in the last book.

# ? May 31, 2021 07:07

WrightOfWay: Jul 24, 2010

Rochallor posted:

Maybe Visser 3 is a half decent commander but his assumption that the Animorphs are Andalites is screwing with his expertise. He did pull off a pretty big win in the last book.

I think Visser 3's problems as a leader in the modern era go beyond just the false assumption that he is opposed by Andalites. Killing his subordinates constantly, for one. And also just generally being pretty bad at the kind of subterfuge that the current stage of the invasion requires, which is why it's interesting that his plan to track down Aldrea is to use stealth and subterfuge.

# ? May 31, 2021 07:31

von Metternich: May 7, 2007; Why the hell not?

Epicurius posted:

The Hork-Bajir Chronicles-Chapter 12
So Dak has now learned what murder and intentional killing is. There was an earlier book that said that the Hork-Bajir would have regular wars every 65 years or something like that, but this book retcons this, making the Hork-Bajir peaceful. Dak Hamee now becomes the first Hork-Bajir to purposefully use violence against another.

This isn't necessarily true, the Arn could have set a biological clock for war every 57 years or whatever as a means of population control and preventing the Hork-Bajir from developing any kind of civilization. Hork-Bajir don't seem to live very long, so it's possible Dak has never met someone who remembers it, if it's towards the end of the cycle.

# ? May 31, 2021 07:57

Tree Bucket: Apr 1, 2016; R.I.P.idura leucophrys

"Esplin" is a really satisfying name to say.

# ? May 31, 2021 08:25

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

Epicurius posted:

"You know, there are four Andalites. If you wait, you can probably kill them all with one blast."
"No, we're not going to wait"

"The Andalite must be dead. After all, none of our Gedds could survive."
"Don't count her out. Andalites are tough, smart, and resourceful."
"No, she's dead."

The Yeerks are underestimating the Andalites the same way the Andalites underestimated the Yeerks.

And what a grand irony it is that when he eventually subplants everyone above him who doesn't bother listening to him, he falls into the exact same trap of hubris that they did, ignoring everyone below him who might actually be on to something or just outright silencing dissent through violence. The only thing keeping the Yeerks from scoring horrifying blowout victories was no one listening to Esplin, and then Esplin listening to no one...

# ? May 31, 2021 09:22

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

I think it's a big misstep to make Visser Three (think the cat's out of the bag on this spoiler) a thoughtful, smart, erudite character here. I can buy him as an arrogant megalomaniac narcissist in the main series - villains like that aren't actually interesting, certainly they're less interesting than more intelligent villains like his twin brother or Visser One or even the lacklustre-now-that-we've-revisited-him David, but hey, it's a children's series and if you want to have a cartoonish villain that's fine; such people do exist in real life and do attain great power in real life. (I believe this more than ever after Trump.) But the idea that he used to be someone like this, and has now changed into who he is... sorry, nope. This should have just been a different, one-off character.

Tree Bucket posted:

"Esplin" is a really satisfying name to say.

Agreed and also probably a real word or an approximation of one; I remember KA saying she used to make up all her words based off real ones. "Nothlit" is an anagram of "Hilton" and Visser is the Dutch surname version of Fisher. (edit: I just googled it and Esplin is an obscure Scottish surname.)

Also, correct me if I'm wrong - are Seerow and Barafin the only Andalites we've seen whose names don't begin with vowels? Aldrea, Aximili, Elfangor, Alloran, Arbron...

# ? May 31, 2021 11:20

OctaviusBeaver: Apr 30, 2009; Say what now?

The Jahar was named after Alloran's wife iirc.

# ? May 31, 2021 11:52

Bibliotechno Music: Dec 30, 2008

nine-gear crow posted:

And what a grand irony it is that when he eventually subplants everyone above him who doesn't bother listening to him, he falls into the exact same trap of hubris that they did, ignoring everyone below him who might actually be on to something or just outright silencing dissent through violence. The only thing keeping the Yeerks from scoring horrifying blowout victories was no one listening to Esplin, and then Esplin listening to no one...

We�ve seen what infestation has done to Alloran, so it�s not a far stretch to imagine that decades(?) of sustained psychological warfare against his host has done some damage to Esplin�s psyche (and risk assessment). Either through the sheer effort of subduing the mind of an Andalite military commander or (more interestingly, I think) Alloran waging an internal war of his own against the Visser.

E:

Epicurius posted:

Also, this isn't related to this book, but I saw it and thought of Tobias:

https://twitter.com/buitengebieden_/status/1398592444434993156

Did you know that thermals are warm updrafts of air, rising in a column?

Bibliotechno Music fucked around with this message at 15:17 on May 31, 2021

# ? May 31, 2021 15:14

Acebuckeye13: Nov 2, 2010; If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling
1-800-GAMBLER; Ultra Carp

Epicurius posted:

Also, this isn't related to this book, but I saw it and thought of Tobias:

https://twitter.com/buitengebieden_/status/1398592444434993156

This reminded me of when I visited Yellowstone late last year�there was a Red-Tail that was actually hovering right above the shore of Lake Yellowstone at sunset, riding the breeze. Almost as soon as I got my camera out, he dropped down to pick up a mouse, and I got the whole thing on camera (Albeit slightly out of focus :argh:

)

Second coolest thing I got on camera that day, Yellowstone is awesome.

# ? Jun 1, 2021 02:41

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 20
Dak Hamee

quote:

the middle of the night I woke. I told Aldrea to sleep. And I waited.

I did more thinking that night than I had ever done in my life. I had seen amazing things. I had seen terrible things. And now I understood that I had to do more than just follow Aldrea.

I did not believe Aldrea was bad, not in the way the Yeerks were bad. But Aldrea had lied to me. Aldrea was an Andalite first, my friend second. And she was hungry for revenge against the Yeerks.

It was up to me to figure out what to do to save my people. But I had no ideas. No Hork-Bajir had ever faced this problem before. I was helpless.

I stood, thinking, for hours. Then, slowly, the diffuse light from below was replaced by a brighter, cleaner light from above.

It took me a while before I realized that somehow, the light really was from above, even though I knew there were thousands of feet of rock above me.

I craned my neck back and looked up.

�Aldrea! Wake up!�

Aldrea�s eyes snapped open. All four of them. The stalk eyes slowly turned to look upward.

There, in the center of the vast, domed roof, was a hole. The hole was the bottom of a shaft. The shaft was as big as the trunk of the Tribe Tree.

Without speaking, we moved beneath the shaft and looked straight up. Up into clear, open sky,

thousands of feet above us. So far away that the circle of sky looked smaller than Aldrea�s eye.

But the shaft itself was filled with light. It glittered. It seemed almost to be alive, as though the walls of the shaft were moving and each movement sparkled.

<Like diamonds,> Aldrea said.

Light glowed from the shaft, and slowly the walls of the vast cavern became visible. I had expected smooth, gray or tan rock. But this was not mere rock. The walls of the cavern were covered entirely in swatches and patterns of strange colors. Blues, greens, oranges. Not smooth at all, but
quilted.

Peering closer, I could see that all the patches of color were of a similar shape: short wings � arms � feet � heads!

<They�re alive!> Aldrea cried.

The walls of the cavern were covered in living creatures of every imaginable shade.

Then, in a moment I shall remember for all of my life, the creatures woke up. At the same instant, ten thousand eyes opened. Each glittered like a star. Ten thousand glittering eyes stared down at us from left and right and above.

Down they came, slowing their fall with their short wings. Each of them was no more than half my height, but there were so many!

They fell and fell and fell, landing noiselessly. They stood on four legs. They had two elongated arms. They had faces dominated by the glittering eyes and small, red mouths.

�They�re chadoos!� I blurted. �Like large chadoos. But so colorful!�

<Not chadoos, just distant relatives, I think,> Aldrea said.

The creatures began to walk past us, ignoring us as if we weren�t there. They were heading calmly out of the cavern, turning left or right along the walkway outside.

But half a dozen of the creatures headed straight for us. One in brilliant purple spoke.

�What are you doing here?� he asked.

�He speaks my language,� I said to Aldrea.

�How I communicate is irrelevant,� he or she said. �You heard me. You understand. Therefore, answer my question.�

�We are � I mean, I am from above.�

�Yes, yes, I�m not an idiot. You are a Hork-Bajir. What are you doing here, Hork-Bajir? There are no trees here. There is no bark for you to eat.�

I shrugged. I looked at Aldrea, waiting for her to jump in. But she seemed as taken aback as I was. �They were chasing us. We came here to escape.�

�Who was chasing you?�

<Yeerks,> Aldrea said.

�What are you?� the creature asked Aldrea.



�This is not your place, Andalite. It is not your place, Hork-Bajir. Leave.�

The creature turned and began to walk away.

�No,� I said.

The creature stopped.

�No?�

�No,� I said firmly. �You will explain who you are. What this place is.�

�We are the Arn,� the creature said. �I am named Quatzhinnikon.�

<Do you realize that the Hork-Bajir don�t even know you exist?> Aldrea demanded.

�Of course they don�t. We don�t want them to know. That�s why we created the various species of creatures who live in the zone of separation. We wanted to keep the Hork-Bajir on their side of the zone. Now I must go. I have work to do.�

He started once again to leave. I grabbed him. I wasn�t rough, but I was firm.

�Ahh! Ahhh!� Quatzhinnikon cried. A dozen Arn turned to stare. They were horrified, afraid.

�Answer our questions,� I said.

�Are you threatening me?� Quatzhinnikon whimpered.

I started to say �No, of course not.� But Aldrea answered for me.

<Yes, we�re threatening you, and you appear to be appropriately frightened. So answer our questions and spare us the arrogance.>

Quatzhinnikon gave her a poisonous look with his glittering, diamond eyes. �You are not part of the balance. You will upset everything. I will not help you.�

In a flash, Aldrea�s tail was at the small creature�s throat. <We�re in a hurry. We don�t have time to be diplomatic. So let me make this simple for you - Answer us, or I will twitch my tail and your head will go rolling across this floor. Do you understand?>

I can�t say I was completely shocked. I�d begun to get a fuller picture of Andalites in general and Aldrea in particular. But Quatzhinnikon was definitely shocked.

�Everything will fail now,� he moaned. �The careful balance we�ve built!�

But he told us what we wanted to know. He answered our questions.

When he was done, I wished he hadn�t.

in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.-Ecclesiastes 1:18

Chapter 21
Aldrea

quote:

We went to a different place, along a walkway, down more stairs. Just another Arn hole in the wall, at first. But then Quatzhinnikon touched a blue pad set into one wall.

The wall opened.

Behind the wall was a long, long room, dug deep into the bedrock. The room was filled with row after row of long cylinders. The cylinders were covered in dust. It had been a very long time since anyone had been there.

Quatzhinnikon walked past the cylinders, row after row of them. At the far end of the room I saw what could only be a large computer console.

<Well, well,> I said. <Not simple cave dwellers after all, are you?>

Quatzhinnikon went to the console and stepped confidently up to a bank of strange controls. He pressed several buttons. And on the wall behind him, a huge viewscreen appeared.

It showed a lush, green and blue planet in orbit around a red giant star.

�Twelve thousand years ago,� Quatzhinnikon said.

The screen showed something new twirling through space. An asteroid. It was impossible to judge the relative size, but it was big.

�An asteroid in unstable orbit,� Quatzhinnikon explained. �Each year, another near miss. We knew it would hit us. We tried to build spacecraft to escape. But we failed to manage anything more than local spaceflight. We were interested in biology, not physics. We made it as far as the uninhabitable second moon. No farther. So all we could do was wait. And recalculate the orbit and wait some more. And then ��

On the screen we saw the asteroid suddenly plow straight into the planet. The impact was shocking. The entire planet shuddered. Pieces of it went flying off into space. A vast cloud of dust and smoke enveloped the planet, slowly settling over the course of years.

When the dust and smoke cleared, the planet was very much changed. Huge cracks had formed from the impact of the asteroid. Huge cracks that formed a belt of valleys around the planet.

�Much of the atmosphere was gone,� Quatzhinnikon explained. �A few thousand of us had waited on the moon, frozen in stasis. We awoke to find that.� He pointed at the planet.

�We returned to our home world to find everyone dead. Our entire species. The air was unbreathable, except in the valleys. But even there, the balance was precarious. A hair too much carbon dioxide, a shade too little nitrogen, and even the impact valleys would die.

�So we went to work to understand this new environment. We needed a mechanism for controlling the atmosphere.�

<The trees,> I said. I knew then where this was going. I turned one stalk eye to look at Dak. He had not figured it out yet. Should I silence the Arn? Should I stop him before he revealed the truth to Dak?

�Yes, of course. The trees,� Quatzhinnikon agreed. �Different species, each subtly different in its use of carbon dioxide and its production of oxygen. The perfect balance, the perfect mix, that�s what we needed. But they would require constant care. And we were not willing to become a race of treeherders.� Quatzhinnikon seemed to hesitate. As if he had read the doubts in my own mind. Should Dak know the truth?

<So you created a race of tree-herders,> I said. <Right here, in this room.>

�Yes. In this room we used all our genetic skill to design and build a species that would be perfectly adapted to caring for the trees, preserving them. We made them bark-eaters. We gave them bodies perfectly adapted to the task.�

Dak�s eyes widened. He looked at me, disbelief on his face. I nodded slightly.

<Yes, Dak,> I said. <This is your creator.>

Dak looked at the Arn in shock. But he did not fall to his knees or tremble in awe. He was surprised, not impressed.

<Why the monsters?> I asked.

�To keep the Hork-Bajir separate from us,� Quatzhinnikon said. �You see, intelligence was not necessary for tree-herders. The Hork-Bajir, as we called them, were intellectually inferior. We felt it was best if they lived in ignorance of us. So for twelve thousand years they have lived beyond the blue mist, kept away by the genetically engineered horrors they call monsters.�

I swear I was ready to show the self-satisfied creature my tail blade. <You arrogant, contemptible -> I began.

To my surprise, Dak cut me off with a raised hand. �You created the Hork-Bajir?�

�Yes,� Quatzhinnikon said. �Or at least my people did.�

�Then you need us,� Dak said flatly.

Quatzhinnikon looked warily at the towering Hork-Bajir. �Yes. I suppose that�s true.�

�The Hork-Bajir will be destroyed. Enslaved and taken from this planet,� Dak said. �You will lose your tree-herders. The Yeerks are already destroying us.�

Quatzhinnikon shrugged. �What can we do? We have no weapons.�

�The monsters,� Dak said. �You control them, don�t you? How else would you be able to keep them within the narrow band that separates your people from mine?�

Now it was my turn to be surprised. That had not occurred to me. But Dak was right! The Arn had control of the so-called monsters.

Quatzhinnikon gave Dak a hard look. �Of course. You�re one of the smart ones, aren�t you? A seer. We never could entirely eradicate that one bundle of genes. We did our best, but still, from time to time, one of you will arise.�

�Yes, I am a seer,� Dak said calmly.

�You�re a freak, is what you are,� Quatzhinnikon said. �A dangerously unstable element. It was our one great failure: One in ten thousand Hork-Bajir is born with intelligence that rivals that of the Arn.�

�How do you control the monsters?� Dak asked.

�You�ll ruin everything!�

�I will save my people,� Dak said. �In saving them, I may save yours as well. The Yeerks will not be frightened off by the blue mist and children�s stories of Father Deep. They will come for you next. Help us now and you may live.�

Later I complimented Dak. <You have learned to go right to the point. You�ve learned to always keep your own goals in mind and not be distracted.>

�Yes,� he said. �I am beginning to learn ruthlessness. I have had a very good example to follow.�

I knew what he meant. But I wasn�t going to acknowledge it. What could I do? Laugh and say, <Yes, we Andalites certainly are good teachers when it comes to ruthless self-interest.> It might have been true, but it would have been stupid to admit it.

He�d caught me off guard. I didn�t know what to say. <Y-y-yes, the, um, the Yeerks are good examples of ruthlessness, aren�t they?> I stammered.

Dak smiled.

Good job, Dak. Also, what must it be like to learn your religion is a lie, and you're not really the chosen one, but the result of a lab error?

# ? Jun 1, 2021 05:08

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

The obvious question is whether this came out before The Matrix Reloaded- I'm 99% sure it did.

# ? Jun 1, 2021 05:15

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Wait... how does that relate to the Matrix? I barely remember the sequels. (And yeah, it looks like the second Matrix movie came out in '03)

# ? Jun 1, 2021 05:28

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

Neo learns in Reloaded that he's not the chosen one but rather an expected anomaly. I'm not getting into whether that was the machines loving with him, but it's a similar revelation.

# ? Jun 1, 2021 05:31

Pwnstar: Dec 9, 2007; Who wants some waffles?

The Arn are not cool dudes but I still like them because they are represented to us by a fussy old man who is constantly annoyed at the antics of the main characters.

# ? Jun 1, 2021 06:13

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Maybe it's a nice change of pace that the ancient race who built all the old technologies are secretly all still around and living in a society, rather than the typical long-dead civilization that inexplicably left behind functioning machines, but this still feels out of left field. In all these thousands of years no one has ever upset the balance before, for any reason, including any Arn or past seers? It took a simultaneous invasion by multiple alien species?

I guess for a one-off children's book you pretty much have to paint with a fairly broad brush.

# ? Jun 1, 2021 10:38

Ravenfood: Nov 4, 2011

Fuschia tude posted:

Maybe it's a nice change of pace that the ancient race who built all the old technologies are secretly all still around and living in a society, rather than the typical long-dead civilization that inexplicably left behind functioning machines, but this still feels out of left field. In all these thousands of years no one has ever upset the balance before, for any reason, including any Arn or past seers? It took a simultaneous invasion by multiple alien species?

I guess for a one-off children's book you pretty much have to paint with a fairly broad brush.

Hork Bajir don't exactly have robust information storage structures. Could easily be that it has been disrupted, many times, and doesn't survive the lifespan of the seer.

# ? Jun 1, 2021 11:35

Cythereal: Nov 8, 2009; I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Getting serious shades of the Wookiees in Star Wars here. The Star Wars EU revealed that Kashyyyk was an artificially terraformed planet whose forests were intended for agricultural purposes, and the Wookiees were imported by the race that did the terraforming to be caretakers for the planet's forests.

# ? Jun 1, 2021 13:21

Bobulus: Jan 28, 2007

Saw this interpretation of an Andalite on twitter today and it reminded me of the 'no torso' thing from the first pages of the thread:

# ? Jun 1, 2021 20:58

Grammarchist: Jan 28, 2013

Cythereal posted:

Getting serious shades of the Wookiees in Star Wars here. The Star Wars EU revealed that Kashyyyk was an artificially terraformed planet whose forests were intended for agricultural purposes, and the Wookiees were imported by the race that did the terraforming to be caretakers for the planet's forests.

If memory serves, there was a cultural taboo about using claws for violence there as well.

# ? Jun 1, 2021 21:56

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Sorry, personal issues means I need 5o put off the next two chapters until tomorrow. Sorry again about that.

And I'm pretty sure the Star Wars Wookie lore postdated this book. I think it comes from the 2013 video game Knights of the Old Republic.

# ? Jun 2, 2021 05:15

Rochallor: Apr 23, 2010; ふっっっっっっっっっっっっｃｋ

The secret species controlling everything comes from the original game, which would have been '04, I think. I played through it not too long ago and don't remember any lore dump regarding the Wookiees, but it would fit in with other things in the game. Using claws in anger was definitely a crime in KOTOR 1 though. Either way, both that game and the MMO come out well after the book.

# ? Jun 2, 2021 05:24

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

So basically there is an Andalite Ki-Adi-Mundi out there at this moment going "What about the Yeerk attack on the Hork-Bajir?" to Alloran via hologram. Gotcha.

# ? Jun 2, 2021 09:36

Grammarchist: Jan 28, 2013

The last transmission of Seerow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asssf6oPMYY

# ? Jun 2, 2021 18:02

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 22
Esplin 9466

quote:

Fitting in with the Hork-Bajir had been pitifully easy. The host body I�d taken was named Fet Mashar. His friends had seen him taken into a fighter. They had seen him being dragged away by Gedds.

And yet when I reappeared among them very few questions were asked. I simply said, �I am back.� And the Hork-Bajir would say, �Yes, you are back.�

I began to realize that we Yeerks would have a very great advantage as we went conquering through the galaxy. We might come across races that were smarter, more powerful, more dangerous than the Hork-Bajir. In those cases, we could infiltrate slowly. Take one host at a time, build slowly, never letting our victims know what was happening until it was too late.

But those tactics were hardly necessary here. We were able to simply set up a ground base and do business in the open. We were capturing and infesting a hundred Hork-Bajir a day. That number would rise every day as we acquired more and more Hork-Bajir hosts to do the hard work.

In fact, even my efforts to infiltrate the Hork-Bajir were unnecessary. The first Hork-Bajir I asked gave me the name of Dak Hamee as the Hork-Bajir who�d been in touch with the Andalites. Dak Hamee and a friend of his named Jagil. We looked for Jagil to infest him, but he couldn�t be found. Nevertheless, we were soon quite sure of the name Dak Hamee.

Dak Hamee was not my main concern, though. It was the Andalite I wanted. And I learned her name, too. Aldrea. She was, as she had said, the daughter of Prince Seerow.

The irony was too perfect. The fool Seerow, who had blathered on about peace and brotherhood while Akdor and the others had prepared to attack, had a daughter. Obviously, the daughter was less a fool than her father had been.

But had she somehow survived the trip into the mist? No one had seen her these last two days.

There would be an armed expedition into the mist once we were strong enough. For now there was the simple work of rounding up Hork-Bajir from all over the valley and bringing them to our hastily dug Yeerk pool.

This new Yeerk pool had not been easy to create. The ground was at such a slant we�d have had to dig out thousands of tons of dirt. So a better way was found. We used a shredder to cut down a big, hollow tree the Hork-Bajir used to communicate. The tree fell sideways, landing level. It rolled to a stop, held back by the other trees. After that it was a simple matter to burn away the outer covering on the top, creating a very long, narrow Yeerk pool.

It was, actually, an impressive sight. The tree was over a thousand feet long to begin with. We burned away most of that, but it still left us with a two-hundred-foot-long log. Lying on its side, the trunk towered overhead, more than sixty feet. We built stairs going up one side and down the other, with narrow platforms around the open pool.

We did all that. But we did not mount shredder cannon on this log. Nor did we keep a secure perimeter. Why bother? The Hork-Bajir were completely harmless.

I was not in command of the Yeerk pool. I was not responsible for what came next. Although, to be honest, I wouldn�t have thought to do anything different. Still, I wasn�t blamed. The Yeerk who was blamed was later executed. He was slowly starved of Kandrona rays. Very slowly. It took him
weeks to die.

However, I was there that terrible evening. I was there, laughing and joking with other excited new Hork-Bajir-Controllers. We all loved these host bodies. We were all sure these hosts would make us the match of Andalites in personal combat.

With these bodies we could build the things we could never have built with clumsy Gedd hosts. We would build our own weapons. Our own ships! Vast, powerful ships that would make the galaxy tremble.

All the races of the galaxy would be our hosts. Our slaves. And when we were strong enough, we would go after the arrogant overlords, the meddling fools whose fleet kept our home world imprisoned. In our lifetimes we would attack, defeat, and enslave the Andalites.

It all seemed so easy then. Ten minutes later, we knew better.

I was standing by the edge of the pool, joking with my twin. Yes, of course, I am a twin. But I am the primary. He is the secondary.
We were talking about tactics for fighting with Hork-Bajir blades when we heard the cries. I peered into the darkness beneath the towering trees.

�Aaarrrgghh! Aaahhh! Help! Help!�

The cries of several voices. All terrified. All panicked. Followed by the sizzling noise of shredder fire. And beneath all that, a low rumbling roar.

I saw Hork-Bajir and Gedds running our way. Stumbling as they ran. I loosened my shredder in its holster.

And then they appeared. You can have no possible idea how horrifying that sight was.

A line of creatures advanced. But creatures like nothing I had ever imagined. Huge, freakish, foul creatures with twisted bodies and massive hands and bristling horns.

But as frightening as this weird army was, what frightened me more, what made it all seem terribly dangerous, was a small, bluish-purple figure standing at the head of this mob. A single Andalite girl. Beside her stood a lumbering Hork-Bajir I assumed must be Dak Hamee. It was Aldrea. The daughter of Seerow.

She seemed beautiful to me. Is that strange? I suppose it is. But there is a compelling beauty in the sight of someone seemingly so small and yet so dangerous.

And even I, her enemy, could not help being impressed by the sweet irony of it all. Seerow, who had freed us without knowing his peril, was now replaced by Aldrea, who would send us back to the Yeerk pools. Or to death.

Yes, there was something beautiful in that small, delicate, dangerous creature.

Someday, I would tell her how I�d felt at this awful moment. Someday, I would live inside her head and I would tell her that I had admired her on this day.

Someday, when she was my host.

Little creepily intimate there, honestly.

Chapter 23
Aldrea

quote:

It took us a day to learn the mind-control techniques the Arn used to control their monsters.

Mind-amplifier implants were placed just under the skin of our scalps. We trained at broadcasting simple commands and simple images to the genetic freaks the Arn had created.

It took another two days to assemble the creatures from all around the valley. In the end, we had more than a hundred.

They were a circus of twisted DNA. The Arn had not missed a trick.

The Jubba-Jubba, like the three-fingered monstrosity that had attacked us.

The Galilash, fourteen feet tall, with green-and-red reptilian flesh and razored tentacles.

The Gorks, only three feet tall but twenty feet across, shuffling, twelve-legged horrors with snapping, extending mouths on all sides.

There was a monster called a Lerdethak, a bizarre tangle of living vines surrounding a ravening mouth. And then there were things the Hork-Bajir had never seen long enough to name. Things with mouths that could chew down a tree, things with needle-sharp quills ten feet long, things that squirted acid.

It was a sad, sick collection. In a better world, a world of peace and justice, someone would have punished the Arn for what they had done. Twisting life to make monsters is an evil thing to do.

But their evil served our purpose.

We had an army.

We advanced up the slope, up out of the mist. A hundred nightmares behind Dak and me. Silent and relentless, we advanced.

 I said. 

�They will be afraid,� Dak said. �So will my people.�

<You have to try and get your people to come along with us. To fight beside us.>

�How do I do this?�

<Show them. Show them what to do and they will do it.>

We had miles to climb before we�d reach the Yeerk camp. Hork-Bajir hid in the trees above us, cowering, staring, whimpering as the army of terror marched beneath them.

<Call up to them, Dak,> I said. <You are their seer. This is your moment!>

He gave me a look I�d seen more and more often from him. A look of sullen anger, resentment. That was to be expected. I understood. He resisted turning to violence. That just meant he was a decent creature. But he would come to see the necessity of fighting. He would see I was correct. When the Yeerks were destroyed and his people were free once more, he would see.

<Call up to them. Tell them not to be afraid,> I said again.

Dak raised his face up to the trees. �Do not fear! I am Dak Hamee. I am the seer, sent to teach and to lead. Do not be afraid! These monsters will not harm you. We go to destroy the invaders! We go to kill the Yeerks!�

Still the Hork-Bajir clung to the bark and the branches.

�Follow us,� Dak cried. �Stay in the trees, but follow us! Watch us and learn!�

<Watch your seer!> I yelled in bold thought-speak. <Watch him and do as he does. He is the seer! The seer has been sent to lead you. Watch him and do as he does. Watch Dak Hamee, and do as he does! Do as he does! Do as he does!>

�You�ve come to understand we Hork-Bajir very well in so short a time,� Dak said coldly. �A simple, repeated message for a simple people.�

<They need to understand,> I said. <We are getting close.>

I could feel the Yeerk camp ahead of us. I could smell the stale stink of the Yeerk pool.

<When the battle begins I will race for the closest parked spacecraft,> I explained. <The most important thing is that we get a message out to the Andalite fleet. Everything rests on that. It will be up to you to carry on the battle, once it has started. You must not weaken. Attack, attack, attack. Don�t give the Yeerks a chance to regroup. Don�t forget: The Hork-Bajir in that camp are not Hork-Bajir. They are Yeerks.>

Dak nodded his horned head. �Have you fought in many battles, Aldrea?�

I was surprised by the question. <No. Of course not. But I have studied ->

�Have you ever killed a fellow Andalite?�

<No! Why would you ->

�You ask me to kill my own people today and to lead my people in killing their brothers,� Dak said. �You say they are not Hork-Bajir, but Yeerks. But when the dead have given up their souls to Mother Sky, there will be Hork-Bajir bodies lying dead.�

<Dak, we�ve been over this and over this!> I exploded. <It�s too late to be worrying about all that. This is a war! If you want your people to survive, you will ->

�Be quiet, Aldrea,� Dak said.

He didn�t shout. He said it calmly, in a low voice.

�These are my people who will die today. Be quiet, Andalite. Be quiet.�

I just want to say, honestly, I love Dak here. He understands this whole thing so much better than Aldrea does, and he understands that he and his people are being dragged into a war that they don't want to fight, and he realizes he's going to do terrible things, and that even if they "win", it's his people who are going to suffer.

# ? Jun 3, 2021 04:27

CidGregor: Sep 27, 2009; TG: if i were you i would just take that fucking devilbeast out behind the woodshed and blow its head off

quote:

�You ask me to kill my own people today and to lead my people in killing their brothers,� Dak said. �You say they are not Hork-Bajir, but Yeerks. But when the dead have given up their souls to Mother Sky, there will be Hork-Bajir bodies lying dead.�

<Dak, we�ve been over this and over this!> I exploded. <It�s too late to be worrying about all that. This is a war! If you want your people to survive, you will ->

�Be quiet, Aldrea,� Dak said.

He didn�t shout. He said it calmly, in a low voice.

�These are my people who will die today. Be quiet, Andalite. Be quiet.�

Kind of tangental, but this is pretty much word for word the exact reason why the whole "we can't kill helpless yeerks in their pool" debate always fell flat for me. It's literally the only time you CAN kill them without also killing another (usually innocent) creature. It's a tragedy that never really seems to get enough focus and I'm glad Dak really draws attention to it here.

# ? Jun 3, 2021 06:17

Grammarchist: Jan 28, 2013

It's weird to feel "proud" of a character, but Dak Hamee mustering up the strength to tell Aldrea to piss off and let him face this his own way was really great. He's come a long way since we met him.

# ? Jun 3, 2021 19:28

Culex: Jul 22, 2007; Crime sucks.

He tells Aldrea to be quiet several times...

quote:

“You’ve come to understand we Hork-Bajir very well in so short a time,” Dak said coldly. “A simple, repeated message for a simple people.”

Good job, Dak! You are great.

# ? Jun 3, 2021 19:38

Pwnstar: Dec 9, 2007; Who wants some waffles?

The terrifying moment of being swarmed by 100 hosed up monsters made Esplin need to assemble his own collection of hosed up monster morphs so he wouldn't be scared ever again.

# ? Jun 3, 2021 21:17

Remalle: Feb 12, 2020

Isn't the Lerdethak the morph he used when they were in the Amazon?

# ? Jun 3, 2021 21:37

Ravenfood: Nov 4, 2011

Remalle posted:

Isn't the Lerdethak the morph he used when they were in the Amazon?

Yep! It sounded familiar so I checked.

# ? Jun 3, 2021 21:50

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

CidGregor posted:

Kind of tangental, but this is pretty much word for word the exact reason why the whole "we can't kill helpless yeerks in their pool" debate always fell flat for me. It's literally the only time you CAN kill them without also killing another (usually innocent) creature. It's a tragedy that never really seems to get enough focus and I'm glad Dak really draws attention to it here.

I don't think the debate in the books is "Should we kill Yeerks in the pools", exactly. The Animorphs set out to destroy the Yeerk pool in the first book. At another point, they destroy the Kadrona Ray, knowing it's going to kill Yeerks, and the only time they feel moral qualms is when they learn the Yeerks are willing to kill the hosts of the dead Yeerks. They're even ok with putting the oatmeal in the pool, even though they know it's going to destroy the Yeerks' sanity.

It becomes a moral debate in a case like Elfangor's from the Andalite Chronicle, where it's "These Yeerks are under our control and helpless. Should we treat them like POWs, or should we kill them all?" That was the debate between Elfangor and Alloran. Elfangor's argument was "These are our prisoners now. We have a moral and legal duty to take them back to the Andalite Homeworld and keep them in confinement", and Alloran's was "No, these are THINGS that don't deserve the rights of prisoners, and I outrank you, so kill them all."

If anything, this book complicates the issue even more, because we find out there are Yeerks who are psychologically incapable of taking a host at all. These are Yeerk civilians who can never be soldiers, but destroying the Yeerk pool would kill them to. Is that justified? And you can maybe argue it is, because, after all, there's been plenty of area bombing of cities that led to the intentional death of civilians in Earth history, but it does complicate the question.

# ? Jun 3, 2021 22:29

Strategic Tea: Sep 1, 2012

It sort of depends - presumably they wouldn't waste space on an invasion ship carrying yeerks who are unwilling or unable to take a host?

Or even if they do bring them along, are they not basically using their own people as hostages against more moralistic races? A bit like a modern dictator - topple me and you'll hurt my people more than you'll hurt me!

# ? Jun 3, 2021 23:15

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# ? Apr 28, 2024 10:26

Mazerunner: Apr 22, 2010; Good Hunter, what... what is this post?

Strategic Tea posted:

It sort of depends - presumably they wouldn't waste space on an invasion ship carrying yeerks who are unwilling or unable to take a host?

Or even if they do bring them along, are they not basically using their own people as hostages against more moralistic races? A bit like a modern dictator - topple me and you'll hurt my people more than you'll hurt me!

Well the yeerks do have the ability to communicate amongst themselves in the pool, and even use limited technology (the simulations and such that Esplin studied andalites from), if I've interpreted that correctly.

So there could be a bunch of yeerks running logistics and the like from the pool. Also at least for now there's a huge backlog of too many yeerks, not enough hosts, so those who don't want hosts can move themselves to the back of the line without causing too much issues I guess.

which would make them not frontline soldiers, but still part of the war effort

# ? Jun 4, 2021 00:40

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > Let's Read Animorphs! The Whole Series! Ch-ch-ch-chaaanges

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