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Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Hork-Bajir Chronicles-Chapter 6
Aldrea

quote:

<How are you getting along with your young friend?> my father asked as we galloped across the grass together, side by side.

<Dak? Oh, fine,> I said.



I shrugged. 

<Well, I understand that Dak is almost a friend to you, Aldrea, but we have a mission here. We are supposed to be learning about the Hork-Bajir.>

Actually, Father, I thought privately, we are supposed to be watching out for any possible Yeerk interest in this planet. I didn�t say that, of course. My father chose to pretend this was some kind of scientific mission. Even now he didn�t want to accept the fact that the Yeerks were marauding around the galaxy.

He still preferred to think it was just the Yeerks who had stolen the ships who were guilty. He clung to the belief that the main population of Yeerks were in favor of peace with Andalites.

We would get transmissions from the home world. News that the Yeerks had attacked a moon colonized by Skrit Na and taken additional ships and weapons.

News that the Yeerks had attacked and seized a Hawjabran colony ship. They had attempted to infest the Hawjabrans, but had failed because Hawjabran brains are not centralized, but spread in small nodes throughout their bodies. They had left the Hawjabrans to die. Their ship�s life support
had been knocked out in the attack. An Andalite courier had come across the ship, drifting, with eight thousand Hawjabrans frozen in the vacuum of space.

News that a group of Ongachic minstrels had been taken and successfully infested. Fortunately for the Ongachic race, they�d long ago abandoned their planet. They are entirely a nomadic, spacefaring race now. The Yeerks would have to hunt down literally millions of Ongachic ships spread in every direction through the galaxy. The Ongachic race would survive.

This isn't the first time that either of these species have been mentioned. If you remember, in an earlier book, the Animorphs took Ax to a Star Trek movie, and he noted the Engerprise looked like a Hawjabran ship, and that Worf and Star Trek Klingons looked like female Ongachics.

quote:

But, my father kept insisting, the Yeerks on their home world have been peaceful, these years since the attack that destroyed his honor.

I didn�t point out that the Yeerks on the homeworld had no choice - An Andalite fleet was parked in orbit above them, ready to shred anything that tried to come or go in the system.

 I said. <But I feel like a spy or something, transcribing it all into the computers.>

My father turned his nearest stalk eye toward me and made a small smile. <I�m proud that you wish to keep Dak Hamee�s trust,> he said. <But after all, he is Hork-Bajir, not Andalite. I don�t think they would even understand the concept of trust, or of �spying,� as you call it.>

<Dak understands more than you might think,> I said. More every day, I added silently.

We turned and headed back toward the scoop. It was uphill heading back. I ran slowly enough for my father to keep up.

<The Hork-Bajir I�ve encountered barely function at the level of a small child,> my father said sadly. <The Yeerks were so fascinating. Highly intelligent, yet so limited physically. It�s as if the Hork-Bajir are the exact opposite: physically impressive. Mentally � well, simple.>

 I said. <He can read now, and write. And he can do basic math. He�s up to calculus. I think he may be capable of n-dimensional geometry.>

My father frowned. <Your mother has studied the intellectual capacity of Hork-Bajir. I assure you, they are not capable of reading. Not more than recognizing one or two words. And certainly no math beyond what they need to keep track of family members.>

I sighed. I�d been through this before. My parents both assumed I was just exaggerating. Barafin believed me, but he didn�t care. Barafin was becoming depressed by the Hork-Bajir planet. There were no other Andalites to recreate with. And of course, Andalites cannot climb trees. Barafin spent his days near the scoop, playing combat games with the computer.

My father wasn�t much better. He�d given up trying to communicate with the Hork-Bajir. They simply had nothing to say that interested him.

My mother was happier, of course. She would go off and study the different trees and the various other animal species.

With my father withdrawn, my mother busy, my brother depressed and indifferent, I was left to myself. So I spent time with Dak. And we explored the valley together.

I had learned to walk on a slant, coping with the slope of the valley. But Dak, like all Hork-Bajir, spent most of his time in the trees. Hork-Bajir are able to run out on branches and leap through the air to the next tree. It�s as fast as running along the ground, and easier, when the ground is always
at a slant.

One day we were going along this way, me on the ground, my muscles aching from coping with the slope, and Dak leaping easily through the trees, when I saw it.

<Dak! What is that animal?>

�The small, feathered one? It�s called a chadoo.�

It was no more than two feet long and covered in deep blue feathers. It had four short legs and two elongated arms ending in claws. It moved by racing along branches and then leaping through the air, much as Dak did. But the chadoo had skin flaps that caught the air like an airfoil, so that it could
glide.

�Would you like me to bring it to you, Aldrea?�

I hesitated. What I was thinking of doing was wrong. My parents would be furious if they found out.
If they found out.

<Yes, can you catch it?>

�Of course,� Dak said with a laugh. He used his wrist blade to make a horizontal slash in the tree bark. A pale, green-yellow liquid oozed from the gash. He collected some of this on his claw-tip, and held it out to the chadoo.

The little blue creature came running. Dak gathered it up carefully and dropped the twenty feet to the ground.

�Here it is,� he said, holding it out toward me.

<Dak, do you understand the idea of a �secret�?>

�I have learned very much from you, Aldrea. But I have not learned this.�

<A secret is something you know that you never tell anyone else. So that if I tell you something, only you and I will ever know it.>

He looked troubled. �What is the purpose?�

I sighed. Dak had come an amazing way in a very short time. His ability to speak was incredibly improved, for example. And he now fully understood the concept of planets, stars, and galaxies. But he was still Hork-Bajir. And I was still Andalite.

<Trust me,> I said. <And never tell anyone what you are about to see.>

I placed my hand on the chadoo. And I began to acquire the animal�s DNA.

I'm pretty sure this isn't allowed.

Chapter 7
Aldrea

quote:

I said. <It may seem frightening. But it isn�t magic. It is a new technology we have developed.>

�Technology. Science. Spacecraft and computers,� Dak said.

<Yes, like all those things. But different, too. My parents don�t even know I have this technology. They don�t know that I�ve used the Escafil Device.>

�This is a secret,� Dak said.

<Yes. Dak � I am going to become a chadoo.>

He had no answer to that. I wasn�t surprised. The morphing technology is so new that there are even Andalites who doubt its safety or usefulness. Fortunately, I had a friend back on the home world whose mother was one of the designers of the Escafil Device. She had shown it to me. I�d used it.

<Just don�t be afraid. Trust me.>

I began to morph the chadoo. It was only the second time I�d morphed. So as much as I was telling Dak not to be afraid, I was telling myself, too.

I began to shrink. My legs grew shorter, more stunted. My belly sagged toward the ground. My tail seemed to simply wither, as if it were very old and dead and drying up at hyperspeed.

Dak jumped back, eyes wide.

<Don�t be afraid,> I told us both. <It won�t take long.>

My stalk eyes darkened and disappeared. An opening formed like a cut or sore in the front of my face. Tiny, red teeth sprouted.

My fur grew shaggier, longer. Hundreds of individual hairs twined together to form feathers.

I was on the ground now. My legs were stumps. My arms had grown stronger and longer, relative to the rest of my body. Skin flaps extended down my sides, stretched between back leg and foreleg.

I was no longer Andalite. I was a chadoo.

I looked out through chadoo eyes. Just two, and only able to see in one direction. It made me feel blind. But they were good eyes, despite there being only two. They saw brilliant color and even more brilliant lines and shapes.

They were eyes adapted for spotting handholds while gliding through the air.
I
found the mouth the strangest thing. It felt so wrong, having this gaping hole in the front of my face. It�s silly, but I felt like it was a wound.

The chadoo�s brain and instincts were gentle enough. This was not an environment with predators. The chadoo was almost tame.

<It�s still me, Dak,> I said.

�You have become a chadoo,� he said.

<Yes, but my mind is still the same. I�m still Aldrea. And in a little while, I will change back. But first, I want to know what it�s like in your world, up in the trees.>

I had seen some of the valley from the ever-slanted ground. But now I saw the true Hork-Bajir world.

I raced for the trunk of the nearest tree. My four stubby legs each ended in a sharp little claw, and these claws propelled me up the trunk at a shocking speed. Small as I was, and as large as the tree was, the rough bark looked more like a desert plain from the Untouched Wilds on my own world.

I was moving vertically, straight up. I saw an endless expanse ahead of me. To my left and right I saw what might have been the curvature of a small moon or asteroid. The vertical surface curved away, out of sight.

Far ahead of me - upward, that is - I saw what seemed like an entire new tree. It was a branch perpendicular to me. Massive. Huge. Surging up out of the gently curved bark plain.

Dak Hamee kept pace, just behind me. When I paused to look back I became aware of how high up I was. How I was hanging from a vertical surface. If I had let go, I�d have fallen straight down onto Dak.

I paused at the base of the branch. Perspective was bizarre. Up was forward. Down was back. Left and right were emptiness.

�You are really Aldrea?�

<Yes, Dak.>

�Then, come. I will show you my world.�

We raced up the tree with Dak in the lead. A hundred feet, two hundred feet, three hundred feet. The valley wall was a hundred feet away now, but always still there.

Higher and higher we went, and yet there remained this bizarre fact that the ground was not so much below us as it was beside us. In the other direction, however, away from the valley wall, there were only trees.

�Follow me!� Dak cried. He swung easily from the trunk onto a massive branch that grew toward the valley center.

My little chadoo legs scrabbled to keep up. I raced along the branch. Now I was far, far above the ground, because while it sloped up behind us, it sloped down before us. With each few dozen steps along the branch, I was another ten feet above the ground.

I was beginning to get a glimpse past the trees out into clear air. But we had only begun our wild climb. We reached the end of the branch. It was so narrow now that I had to hold on by wrapping my stubby legs around and beneath the branch.

�See that treetop?� Dak asked, pointing. �We go that way.�

<How?>

�You are a chadoo, yes? The chadoo knows.�

And with that, Dak squatted low, coiling his powerful leg muscles, and leaped into space. He bounced the branch. Down ten feet, up ten, down twenty feet, up twenty, down thirty and up � at the top of the arc, he leaped!

He soared and fell, and with a wild grab of his right claw, snagged the top of the next tree. One claw-hand wrapped around the crown of the tree, and he swung around it, not once, but twice, three times, four times! The crown bent way over from his weight, but it did not break.

It was the most thrilling thing I�d seen before or since. The wild glee of the young Hork-Bajir, swinging madly, five hundred feet above the sloping ground. Swinging and laughing, and then, my hearts - I mean my heart, because the chadoo only has one - stopped. Dak released and fell from sight!

I raced to the end of the branch, trusting the chadoo to know what to do. It did. I ran, simply ran, no jumping, no leaping, straight off the end of the branch. Ran straight into the air.

My four feet pushed out, stretching the skin flaps. I felt the wind beneath me, felt it ruffle up into my feathers, felt it fill the skin flaps.

I had lift! I was not merely falling. I could turn my blunt head and change direction. I could raise or lower a leg and change direction even more quickly. I glided along a curved path toward the treetop that still quivered from snapping back.

My thin, strong arms reached and grabbed the tree crown. I swung once around, and down below me, on yet another tree branch, I saw Dak. He was looking up and grinning - a thing Hork-Bajir do with their mouths.

I released and glided down to him.

From then on it was a game. Dak led the way and I followed. A wild, insane romp, leaping across the void, snatching branches from midair, scampering, leaping again.

But always Dak led the way. Tree to tree, along a path he knew as well as I know my own meadow back on the home world.

The trees were changing. The bark became thicker, the treetops higher and higher. At last we reached a tree that made every other tree look like a bush. From the base of its downhill side to the crown, it was two thousand, one hundred and nineteen feet high. My mother measured it for me days later. I didn�t tell her why.

It was almost half a mile tall.

�That is the Tribe Tree,� Dak said. �The tree of my people. That is where the elders meet.�

I peered at the tree and could see, here and there, platforms, hundreds, thousands of feet up. There were Hork-Bajir there, milling around. The more I looked, the more platforms I saw and the more elaborate they were. Up and up, far over our heads, the platforms twined around the Tribe Tree.

There were hundreds of Hork-Bajir in the tree. Not stripping the bark, but stacking bark carried in by a steady stream of Hork-Bajir.

�Come,� Dak said. We raced and leaped and soon I was clinging to the bark of the Tribe Tree itself. Clinging and climbing. Up and up.

<Remember, don�t tell your fellow Hork-Bajir who and what I am,> I said.

�They would not understand if I told them,� Dak said simply.

We climbed forever. We climbed till I could not imagine that there was still more tree above us. We passed platforms where Hork-Bajir ground up bark. Where they cut bark into strips. Where they bundled bark with string-vines.

And there were other platforms where Hork-Bajir simply sat and seemed to be telling stories. Almost like classrooms, I realized.

Slowly we emerged from the surrounding trees. We climbed till I could see clearly out over the void, across to the far side of the valley. We climbed till I could glimpse the lip of the valley behind us.

Down below, what seemed a million miles below, I saw the toxic blue at the very bottom of the valley. What the Hork-Bajir call �Father Deep.�

There was a narrow platform built at the very top of the Tribe Tree. I went up onto it.

<I�ve been in morph for a long time,> I said. 

I began to demorph. And a few minutes later, I stood on my own four hooves where no Andalite could ever possibly belong.

With my own proper Andalite eyes I could see in every direction at once. I saw the sheer valley wall behind, the endless trees spreading left and right, the far side of the valley, many miles away.

The sky, not as red and gold as it should have been, spread above us, dwarfing the valley. And down below, so far down that I felt nauseated by the drop, I saw a slice of the terrifying �Deep.�

I don�t know why, but the Deep drew my gaze, even more than the stunning, magnificent vista all around me.

I looked down at the Deep. I looked away and then back down. Near the edge, the trees disappeared, replaced by eerily colored plants in twisted shapes.

<Dak. What is in the Deep?>

He looked at me as if I�d been reading his mind. �I don�t know,� he admitted. �I only know what my people say.�

<What do your people say is in the Deep?>

�Terror,� he said simply. �They say that terror is in the Deep.�

Probably not related, but a few years before the book came out, they released a sequel to the original X-Com called "Terror from the Deep".

# ? May 25, 2021 05:17

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# ? May 25, 2024 21:03

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

I gotta say this story's obsession with intelligence and relative mental ability and the simple-minded goodness of the noble savage race except for The One!! who is smart is really skeevy. This must be why it rubbed me the wrong way back then and it has not aged any better.

# ? May 25, 2021 06:40

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

The start of this book slots right into a super niche genre of sci-fi books that I liked reading when I was a kid in the 90s, back before YA existed as a marketing genre and I'd just pluck whatever off the library shelves, of "kid's parents get stationed on a remote planet and they get dragged along." Literally cannot think of a single other book that fits into that other than this, but I remember reading a bunch of them.

Fuschia tude posted:

I gotta say this story's obsession with intelligence and relative mental ability and the simple-minded goodness of the noble savage race except for The One!! who is smart is really skeevy. This must be why it rubbed me the wrong way back then and it has not aged any better.

IIRC the noble savage thing sort of gets subverted later - and maybe don't highlight this spoiler even if you've read it, because I had totally forgotten this part until what you said made it twig - when we discover the Hork Bajir were genetically engineered by a smarter species living down in the blue, purely to keep the trees cultivated, and were deliberately kept dumb, and Dak gets rightfully pissed off (or at least sad) about it.

# ? May 25, 2021 09:11

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

I'll point it out when we get to it, but there's one moment in this story that is entirely too emotionally complex for a young adult book. It's possibly one of the most poignant things I can remember reading.

# ? May 25, 2021 09:19

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

This thread has made me realise: I really truly love space operas with interesting species and strange planets.

# ? May 25, 2021 09:41

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Good news, we have at least two more books in that category in the pipe after this one!

Incidentally in that vein I'd really recommend Philip Reeve's YA series Railhead, which is a great space opera in the same sort of vein, written by an author of KA's generation who also clearly grew up watching Star Trek, BSG etc.

# ? May 25, 2021 09:46

Yadoppsi: May 10, 2009

freebooter posted:

The start of this book slots right into a super niche genre of sci-fi books that I liked reading when I was a kid in the 90s, back before YA existed as a marketing genre and I'd just pluck whatever off the library shelves, of "kid's parents get stationed on a remote planet and they get dragged along." Literally cannot think of a single other book that fits into that other than this, but I remember reading a bunch of them.

Le Guin wrote a short story about an anthropologist bringing her son and daughter with her when she went to study a planet of stone-age "humans." The daughter was too young to remember the life of ease and technology they left behind and elects to stay on the planet when her family leaves. IIRC Le Guin explored the fears of "going native" and how it comes from a chauvinistic/colonial mindset.

# ? May 25, 2021 10:00

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Hork-Bajir Chronicles-Chapter 8
Esplin 9466

quote:

It didn�t take long for me to become the reigning expert on Andalites. No one else cared. But I was fascinated..

Esplin has learned the focus of expertise. Pick a subject nobody else cares about.

quote:

I had �seen� only for a few moments through the Gedd�s eyes. But I could try to imagine the life of a four-eyed Andalite. I had to stretch my imagination to picture what it was like to run. To live most of your life directly under the sun and the stars, with only a transparent atmosphere to protect you.

How can a Yeerk, used to the warm intimacy of the Yeerk pool, truly understand what it is like to have four legs, to run, to see, to feel, to manipulate objects at will with delicate, precise hands? To have a deadly tail?

It�s not possible. Not really. But I came closer to understanding than anyone else in the pool. I inserted my palps into the computer interface and I read with virtual eyes. And I used that computer simulation of sight to watch, again and again, every stored visual image, still or moving.

Slowly, slowly, I began to understand my enemy. To understand their impressive strengths. But also to see their weaknesses.

The Andalites might have been the dominant species in this arm of the galaxy. But they were not invincible.

Months went by, and slowly the memory of those few amazing moments in the Gedd faded.

Others were called to assume hosts. I was not.

But then it happened. Palp to palp, the message came to me. Esplin 9466 to the infestation pier!

There was a new species to try. After failures with the Hawjabrans and only the few Ongachics, our wandering assemblage of spacecraft had found a new planet. With new creatures.

Three had been seized from the surface and brought aboard. One was for me.

I was not briefed. I was not given any explanation. I was simply to swim to the infestation pier and wait.

I waited, desperate to control my own excitement. A host! Any host, so long as it had eyes!

Suddenly, I felt the splash as the head was thrust beneath the surface. My senses felt for and found the ear opening. I rushed, afraid that I might fail somehow, afraid this chance would be taken from me.

Instantly I knew this creature was very different from a Gedd. Entry was much easier. The ear canal was large and unobstructed. I released my toxins to numb and dilate the ear, but I wondered if it was even necessary.

I slithered and squeezed till my palps touched the brain. Ah! Very different from the Gedd brain. The brain was divided into lobes, two fairly smooth, one deeply wrinkled. I sank myself into the wrinkles, into the cracks between the lobes. And then I tied in to the brain.

It was not the shock of that first infestation, but it was a revelation!

Hearing was excellent. The sense of smell was almost as good as my own. I opened the eyes. Ahhh! I cried silently. I had thought the Gedd�s vision was all that vision could be. But this creature�s eyes were wonderful. The colors so vivid. The lines so clear. I could see depth with amazing precision.

I looked around at the room. Once again, I saw the limited, narrow Yeerk pool that was my whole universe. But my eyes were drawn not to the ship around me, but to my new, personal ship: this body.

One thing was instantly apparent: This was no Gedd. This was no Hawjabran or Ongachic. This body reminded me of the Andalite bodies. It would be fast. It would be powerful. It would be �Dangerous.

I opened the creature�s memory, looking for its own pictures of its life. I wanted to know what it could do.

I felt a resistance. A mind within the brain. Stronger than the tired, beaten Gedd. This creature was attempting to fight me!

There was only one possible response.

Total and complete control.

Get out! Get out! the creature screamed in silence.

<Scream all you like,> I sneered. <You belong to me now.>

The creature�s mind began to race, searching for some way to stop me. But, of course, there was none. It threatened. It cried. It begged. I felt its desperation, its panic, its fear. And I laughed at the feeble attempt to throw me off.

<Threaten me?> I said, mind to mind. <What will you do? Your body is mine now! Your eyes are mine! Your limbs are mine!>

I was giddy. I was in a state of ecstasy! I could crush this mind with ease. It was sad, almost, how easily I defeated the creature. It was feeble compared to me. It had no power to throw me off. No power to retain control.

I opened the creature�s memory and looked. At first the images were wild, insane, inexplicable. But then the context became clearer. I used more of the memories to get a better understanding.

I saw the world of the creature through its own eyes. I saw its fellows. Its friends. I saw its life
�

Stripping bark for food. Leaping through the tall trees. Sitting at night and telling stories handed down from generation to generation.

�Well, Esplin-Nine-Four-Double-Six, rrrr-what do you-rrr think?�

It took a moment for me to make sense of the sounds. I listened to see if I could find the source of the sound. And then, it occurred to me: I could use the sense of sight. I could use sight and sound together to pinpoint the source of the sound.

I looked. I moved my eyes and looked again.

Two Gedds stood nearby. I knew that one was Janath 429, a very old Yeerk, and very wise. The other was Akdor 1154. It was Akdor who had led the uprising against the Andalites.

It was Akdor who had first understood the concept of using a host body to act as a predator. It was Akdor who had personally killed four of the Andalite scum.

Akdor moved his Gedd mouthparts and spoke.

�I rrr-asked rrr-what you think. You study-rrr the rrr-Andalites. Can this body be rrrrr-used to fight the Andalites?�

It was Galard, the new language we had learned from the Ongachic hosts. It is the common intergalactic language. The Yeerk language was impossible to speak with Gedd mouths. Even Galard came out distorted.

I lowered my eyes and looked down at the body I now owned. I saw blades in several locations. Blades that were used for stripping the edible bark from trees.

It was all so new. So new to all of us. We didn�t know anything about the galaxy then.

But I tried to imagine. I saw an Andalite. I pictured this new creature. I placed them together in my imagination. It was hard. Hard to imagine with sight.

�Yes,� I said in a harsh, guttural voice. �These creatures will be our weapons.�

Akdor and Janath stared at me.

�Then rrrr-we will take this-rrrr species,� Akdor announced. �We will make them ourrrrrs. This rrr-planet is wherrrre we make ourrr stand! On this planet rrr-we will build the foundations of a true Yeerrrrk empirrrre!�

I was there. Do you understand what this moment was, what it meant? I was there when Akdor announced the birth of the Yeerk Empire.

�So, what arrre these crrrreatures called?� Janath asked me.

I was surprised. Neither Akdor nor Janath knew the name of the species whose doom they had pronounced.

I searched my new memory, ignoring the pitiful, wailing cries that came from the shadow of the creature himself.

�They call themselves Hork-Bajir, Akdor. Hork-Bajir.�

So, the Yeerk serpents have come to the Garden of Eden. And we also meet Akdor, the leader of the Yeerk Rebellion.

Chapter 9
Dak Hamee

quote:

<What is that sound?> Aldrea asked. 

�It is the Speaking Trees,� I said.

It was seven weeks since Aldrea had become a chadoo for the first time. Since then she had done it again, more than once. But this night she was Andalite.

I liked it best when she was Andalite. I could not care about a chadoo. I did care about Aldrea, the Andalite. She had taught me. She had shown me an entire universe unknown to my people.

I was still greedy for knowledge, but Aldrea had begun to say that I knew all she knew. Was this true? It didn�t matter. I needed Aldrea the way the leaves need Mother Sky. There was no one else for me to talk to.

In many ways, I was no longer Hork-Bajir. But when we were together and I looked at her delicate shape, I knew that I was not Andalite, either.

<Your trees have the gift of communication, like Andalite trees?> she asked.

�No,� I said, smiling. Aldrea had said that Andalite trees could speak in a way. Guide trees: Garibahs. But I was not sure I believed it. Our trees did not speak. �We call it the language of the trees, but it is only what we Hork-Bajir use as our primitive communicators. At night the great sound speaks from across the valley. It is how we speak with our brothers and sisters of the other two tribes in the valley. The sound is made by stretched vines. The vine is soaked in rain. Then it is stretched tight, vertically, between high branches and low branches.

�Three of these vines are strung this way, all in one chosen tree. The tree must be a very old Nawin tree, for Nawin trees become hollow with age. One vine must be ten times the height of a Hork-Bajir. The second must be seven heights. The smallest five heights.

�Two Hork-Bajir climb out on branches and hold a long, straight sapling. This sapling is drawn across the vine, creating a deep sound.�

<Resonance,> Aldrea said. <It�s almost a type of music.>

�Yes. Sad music tonight,� I said. �It is the southern tribe. They tell us that three of their people have been taken to Father Deep.�

I listened some more to the low, long, sad notes that vibrated around the valley, echoing from the walls.

�They say that Father Deep has created new monsters. They are � small. That�s strange. The monsters of the Deep are always larger than us. Yet these were small. Two legs � long arms � yellow eyes.�

Suddenly I felt Aldrea�s hand grab my arm above the wrist blade. It was not the first time she had touched me. Usually, I enjoyed the fact that she would grab me for balance, or playfully slap me in pretended upset, or take my hand as we watched the sun turn red. But this was different.

<Can you ask them a question?> Aldrea said. Her thought-speak voice was intense.

�Yes. But as you can see, this system is primitive. Not like an Andalite would make.�

<Dak, your people have their own strengths,> Aldrea said. <Ask them about these �monsters�. Ask them � ask them whether these monsters moved in a clumsy, unbalanced way when they walked.>

I hesitated for a moment. My people had accepted that I was a seer. But I was still young. It was not for me to ask those of the Speaking Tree to transmit messages.

But Aldrea seemed determined. Upset. Or as upset as an Andalite ever becomes. They are not an emotional people.

So I turned and cried into the darkness, shouting toward the Speaking Tree. And a moment later, the much louder, closer sound of our own Speaking Tree rang out, a deep, mournful sound that echoed down the valley.
�What is it that you fear, Aldrea?� I asked her.

<I�m not sure,> she said.

�You do not know if your fear is realized, Aldrea,� I pointed out. �But you know what your fear is.�

Aldrea laughed. <You keep surprising me, Dak. Every day you�re sharper, smarter. You learn so quickly! Your use of language, your perception � It�s incredible. You could enroll in any Andalite academy tomorrow and ->

�Thank you,� I interrupted her. �I have learned from you. I have even learned to recognize when someone is trying to avoid answering a question.�

Aldrea formed the strange Andalite smile with her eyes. 
But just then the answer was coming from the southern tribe.

�They say these monsters walked in a strange way. As if their legs were different sizes,� I translated.
The smile disappeared from Aldrea�s eyes. <They are,> she said. <Their legs are different lengths. We never could figure out why they evolved that way.>

�Who are they?�

<They�re called Gedds,> Aldrea said.

�Are they from another planet, like Andalites?�

<Yes. But the Gedds aren�t the problem. The problem is what those Gedds represent.> She turned all her eyes on me. <Dak, you are the seer. You were born, you say, because your people would need you.>

�Yes, I was born a seer because you Andalites were coming. We had need of one who could learn from you.�

 Aldrea said softly. <But we were both wrong. You were not born because of the coming of Andalites. You were born because the Yeerks are here.>

Yep. The Yeerks are here. This is not good news for the Hork-Bajir.

# ? May 26, 2021 05:13

Gwaihir: Dec 8, 2009; Hair Elf

I finally caught up on this thread and I've been tempted to rush ahead reading the books myself since I dropped off the series as a kid somewhere back in the book 13-15 ish range, but I really like your commentary on each chapter. So I'm just gonna have to wait! This one residually is really good though, a look at the other perspectives outside our usual earth focus is a little overdue I think.

So much absolutely wild rear end poo poo went down in these books that I just take memory holed, too.

# ? May 26, 2021 06:34

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

Rochallor posted:

The only governmental system we get is the Vissers with the Council of Thirteen above them and that's all military, no civilian government. It's possible that the whole Yeerk presence in space is a military junta, since the Andalites blockade the planet presumably right after this. There could be a whole civilian government on the Yeerk homeworld wondering what the gently caress is going on, since no Andalite is going to risk going down to the surface after Seerowgate.

This theory doesn't line up, since the Yeerks broke the Andalite blockade sometime between the sixties and the nineties. In book five, last page of chapter 20,

Visser 3 posted:

<You see, Visser One, I have taken the Andalite bandits. The crisis is over. Your trip here is wasted, and you can return to the home world>

Which I suppose explains how Visser 3 knows what the Yeerk world looks like in the Andalite Chronicles.

# ? May 26, 2021 08:08

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

I always assumed KA just retconned that down the track, but it would actually make a lot of sense if the Yeerks are powerful enough to have thrown off the Andalite blockade by the 1990s, since they're presented as being of more or less equal strength in this war.

edit - Although if Visser Three knows what the homeworld looks like, they must do it pretty quick, since Tobias would've been born in the early '80s and so the Andalite Chronicles can't be taking place much later than ten years after this.

freebooter fucked around with this message at 08:21 on May 26, 2021

# ? May 26, 2021 08:15

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

freebooter posted:

I always assumed KA just retconned that down the track, but it would actually make a lot of sense if the Yeerks are powerful enough to have thrown off the Andalite blockade by the 1990s, since they're presented as being of more or less equal strength in this war.

edit - Although if Visser Three knows what the homeworld looks like, they must do it pretty quick, since Tobias would've been born in the early '80s and so the Andalite Chronicles can't be taking place much later than ten years after this.

Regarding the blockade of the Yeerk homeworld, lets just say that's something that KA isn't entirely consistent about.

# ? May 27, 2021 03:54

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Hork-Bajir Chronicles-Chapter 10
Aldrea

quote:

�What are Yeerks?� Dak Hamee asked me.

I sighed. <They are another species. Different from you or me, from Hork-Bajir or Andalite. Hork-Bajir and Andalites both walk freely in the world. We eat bark or grass. The Yeerks are different.>

�Are they predators? You taught me about predators.� Once again, I was shocked. In the course of a few months Dak Hamee had gone from speaking a sort of childish pidgin to speaking as well as I. His grasp of concepts was sure and swift. The gap between him and the other Hork-Bajir was vast and growing every day. The gap between him and any Andalite � well, there no longer was an intellectual gap.

<They are not predators, at least not in the usual way. They are parasites. You see, they �>

�What? They what?� Dak pressed.

But my brain had just stopped working. Frozen.

And then, quite suddenly, it began to race in sheer panic.

<Oh, no. NO! They�re in orbit!> I cried.

�The Yeerks?�

<They�re in orbit! This is the time of night when my father beams his report back to the home world. If they�re in orbit they might intercept the message!>

I was already running. Flat-out, tail tucked down, laboring, gasping as my muscles screamed from the pain of fighting the ever-present slope.

Dak loped along as fast as he could, but on the ground I was faster than him. I left him behind.

With my stalk eye turned back I saw him leap into the trees. He would move better up there, in his natural element.

But Dak was no longer my concern. I had to stop my father from broadcasting! I had to stop that transmission.

I was two miles from the scoop. Two miles of the weird running required on this planet: serpentine, up a few yards, down a few yards, advancing always, but adding twice the distance. It was simply impossible to run any other way. Uphill, downhill, running around the massive trees.

I was extremely upset by the time I came in sight of the lights of the scoop. Upset because I knew in my hearts it was too late. My father has always been very precise. Very punctual. And my internal clock told me that the message had gone out fifteen minutes ago.

Still I ran. I could make out the lights of the scoop. I could see shadows and silhouettes as my father or mother or brother moved in front of the lights. I could imagine every detail. My mother working at her computer, entering a precise DNA analysis of some strange, new flower she�d found. My brother playing a holo game, lancing imaginary enemy ships. My father � my father standing quietly on his own, thinking, remembering, imagining. Dreaming his hopeful dreams.

That is the picture I want to hold onto, forever.

Not what happened next.

Kid's book, everybody. Also, even though Aldrea pointed it out, I'll reinforce that Dak Hamee is the intellectual equal of anybody else in the book, and probably smarter than some of the other characters.

Chapter 11
Esplin 9466

quote:

I had enjoyed two days in my new Hork-Bajir body. It was still a wonder to me. A miracle.

The only unpleasant part was the constant, nagging cries from the Hork-Bajir mind. It wasn�t that he refused to accept the new reality. He was simply too stupid to know what was happening. Too stupid to understand.

I walked throughout the ship now. It was built for Andalites, of course, so most of the floor had once been growing, green, red, and blue grass. The ceilings had been wonderful holographic images of an Andalite sky.

Andalites hate confinement. I knew that about them. I knew that they were building a new generation of spacecraft that would be called �Dome ships.� These Dome ships would actually have huge, artificial parks. Grass and trees and open sky.

But the grass on this transport had long since died. We had no use for grass. And we have no fear of confinement.

Here and there were yellowed patches that had managed somehow to struggle on, but for the most part the underlying steel mesh was visible.

Visible! The very idea was new to me. That there were things one could see, and other things one could not see.

The Andalite ship was built for transport. But there was a transparent portion of the hull I could look through with my eyes and see the other ships in our little armada.

Nearby, close enough to see, were a pair of Andalite fighters. We had four altogether. Plus the two transports. We had also seized a small Ongachic craft and three Skrit Na ships. The Skrit Na ships were slow but well-armed. The Ongachic ship was faster but carried no weapons.

Down below, filling half my field of vision, was the Hork-Bajir planet. It was the first planet I had ever seen. It was infinitely different from feeling, smelling, listening to descriptions. To see it, hanging there in space � it was overwhelming. So huge! So strange.

�Esplin,� a voice said. I turned to see another Hork-Bajir host body.

It was Carger 7901. I had known Carger for a long time. But I had never liked him. There had always been something too crude, too violent about him. Too ambitious. And now Carger was one of my few fellow Hork-Bajir-Controllers.

There was talk of creating new ranks. Everyone said that if we were going to become a conquering army, we would need a hierarchy. The ancient Council of Thirteen would remain all important.

But beneath that would come something called �vissers� and �sub-vissers.�

Carger had already begun to refer to himself as a sub-visser. No one had contradicted him.

�Esplin. Come with me.�

�Why?�

�Don�t ask questions,� Carger said. �Just come.�

I followed him. He led me toward the docking area just behind the bridge.

There we met up with two Gedd-Controllers I didn�t know. And Akdor was there as well. �Rrr-we have just rrrrreceived an interrrcept coming from the surrrrface below,� he said tersely. �An rrr-Andalite broadcast.�

I felt the surge of hormones within the Hork-Bajir body. The surge that came with fear or the anticipation of action.

�Therrrre is an rrr-Andalite outpost on the planet. Rrr-the brrrroadcast was not encoded. We believe there arrrre just fourrrr Andalites. They must be rrr-killed. Immediately, before they can discoverrrr ourrrr presence here.�

Carger smiled with his Hork-Bajir mouth. �I will be honored to command the attack.�

�No doubt you rrr-would,� Akdor said tersely. �But you are only going so that rrr-we can put those Hork-Bajirrrr bodies to use. We will attack from the rrr-Andalite fighter crrrraft. But if all four of the Andalites are not killed, you two will go after the sur-vivorrrrs.�

I�ll admit I felt a qualm at that. Unlike the others, I knew about Andalites. I knew how advanced their technology was, and how dangerous. I also knew that even without any other weapons, with tails alone, they were dangerous.

But I would have died rather than admit those doubts. This was the path to power. To be there, in the first combat use of Hork-Bajir hosts, would be an important thing.

And if Carger could call himself a sub-visser, why shouldn�t I be one as well?

Two of the Andalite fighters were brought in to dock with the transport. Carger and I went aboard one.

It was a short ride down to the planet surface.

Half an orbit, then down through the thin atmosphere. The two fighters stayed close together in formation. I had taught our pilots that concept. I had learned it from studying the Andalites. Spacecraft in formation are harder to attack.

Not that we expected to be attacked. There were four Andalites on the planet surface. But no ship.

Down we went, skimming across the surface of the planet. And then, down, down into one of the huge valleys.

It was dark on this side of the planet. Night. Eyes do not function well at night. But it didn�t matter. We knew where the Andalites were.

We came in just inches above the treetops.

�Pilot,� I said. �My studies of Andalite methods reveal that this ship possesses a visual augmentation device.�

The pilot - a Gedd-Controller, of course - snorted like I was a fool. �We know ourrrr ship,� he said. He flipped on the viewscreen. And there on the screen, I could see the Andalite dwelling. A �scoop,� they call it.

I saw that one Andalite was working at a computer interface. A smaller, younger one seemed to be cavorting, playing some game. I saw a large, probably male Andalite standing at the edge of the scoop, looking out into the darkness.

�Looking the wrong way,� Carger laughed. �Look up, Andalite. Look up and see your death!�

The Gedds joined in the laughter. Laughter: the ability to express joy with mouth sounds. So much that was new!

But I did not laugh. �I see three Andalites, not four,� I said.

�The fourth is probably inside the scoop,� Carger said.

�No. Andalites never take shelter unless they must. In the depth of a cold night, or to avoid harsh weather, or to fend off an attack. Or when they must serve aboard spacecraft. Andalites are creatures of the open spaces. They hate being confined in any way. They become nervous and afraid if they don�t have large areas in which to run.�

Carger sneered. �You are quite the Andalite-lover, Esplin.�

I felt a prickling of the skin on the back of my neck. It is a Hork-Bajir fear reaction. Fear of Carger.

�I will kill more Andalites if I know their habits,� I said gruffly.

The two fighters were now no more than three hundred feet above the scoop, engines on very low to avoid being heard or seen. Another tactic I had discovered from my study of the enemy.

�Shredderrrr powered. Tarrrget rrr-acquired,� the Gedd pilot said.

�There are only three Andalites in view,� I said. �Wait till the fourth one joins them.�

�Wait? Fool. Shoot!� Carger demanded.

�No! The remaining Andalite will see the -�

�I said shoot!� Carger roared. �That is a direct order from your sub-visser! Shoot! Kill them now!�

So, having an expert on something advise you is a good thing. They know their subject and they can give you the information you need for better decision making. The problem, of course, which we know from both real life and the book, is that having an expert on something does you no good if you don't listen to them. If Carger had listened to Esplin....well, the book might be shorter. Also, you can see the whole Visser/Subvisser thing starting to happen among the Yeerks, for all that it's ad hoc.

# ? May 27, 2021 04:08

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

Carger? Too brutal and ambitious?
:thunk:

# ? May 27, 2021 04:42

cptn_dr: Sep 7, 2011; Seven for beauty that blossoms and dies

I learnt it from watching you, Carger!

# ? May 27, 2021 04:45

ANOTHER SCORCHER: Aug 12, 2018

Given how even-keeled and introspective Esplin has been in this book, is it safe to say decades of holding other sentients prisoner combined with Alloran�s distinctive personality made him the Visser we know and love?

# ? May 27, 2021 07:07

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

Wait, Esplin is Visser 3?
I have trouble remembering Yeerk names.
On that note, how do they work? Is Esplin a type of rank, or a "batch" signifier, or a unique name? Is the number an ordinal level or a nominal ID code?

# ? May 27, 2021 08:59

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Tree Bucket posted:

Wait, Esplin is Visser 3?
I have trouble remembering Yeerk names.
On that note, how do they work? Is Esplin a type of rank, or a "batch" signifier, or a unique name? Is the number an ordinal level or a nominal ID code?

I think Esplin is like a given name, and that combined with the serial number is a unique identifier. Aftran's brother had a different name. And in the case of twins, like Visser 3's twin infesting the not-Bill Gates who we met a while ago, they have the same number but are designated "the lesser" or "the greater", like ancient Roman names.

# ? May 27, 2021 09:48

Gun Jam: Apr 11, 2015

Tree Bucket posted:

Wait, Esplin is Visser 3?
I have trouble remembering Yeerk names.
On that note, how do they work? Is Esplin a type of rank, or a "batch" signifier, or a unique name? Is the number an ordinal level or a nominal ID code?

Earlier books (2 and 6, I think?) had all names as rank-number, with lower the better ; later ones retconned it so only the (sub)visser work like that, the rest is just their name.

# ? May 27, 2021 09:52

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

Tree Bucket posted:

Wait, Esplin is Visser 3?
I have trouble remembering Yeerk names.
On that note, how do they work? Is Esplin a type of rank, or a "batch" signifier, or a unique name? Is the number an ordinal level or a nominal ID code?

Fuschia tude posted:

I think Esplin is like a given name, and that combined with the serial number is a unique identifier. Aftran's brother had a different name. And in the case of twins, like Visser 3's twin infesting the not-Bill Gates who we met a while ago, they have the same number but are designated "the lesser" or "the greater", like ancient Roman names.

Yeah, it's given name-birth order number. So Esplin-9466 was the 946th recognized birth of whatever trinity of Yeerks spawned him and his twin. In the cases of twins, the last digit of their designation is repeated and one is designated "the greater" and the other is designated "the lesser". It's completely arbitrary who's chosen for what distinction and yet the division curses the one dubbed "the lesser" to a life of being shunned from Yeerk society for not only being a twin, but the lesser of the two twins.

# ? May 27, 2021 10:20

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

quote:

My brother playing a holo game, lancing imaginary enemy ships. My father � my father standing quietly on his own, thinking, remembering, imagining. Dreaming his hopeful dreams.

This is one of the scenes I really remember - the disgraced official, exiled to the alien world, staring out the window at the mist lost in his thoughts, unaware he's about to be obliterated.

And the bit where Aldrea says he was "very precise, very punctual" is just exactly how I'd imagine Seerow. A diligent, conscientious public servant; a good person who is just too nice to realise that not everybody else is a good person too.

ANOTHER SCORCHER posted:

Given how even-keeled and introspective Esplin has been in this book, is it safe to say decades of holding other sentients prisoner combined with Alloran�s distinctive personality made him the Visser we know and love?

Yes, I think this is a much better explanation than KA just wanting to write from a Yeerk's perspective and wanting to make that Yeerk a known character and not finding writing from the POV of a megalomaniac to be very interesting, so.. I'm going with this.

It's really the introspection that makes the difference, right? The level of thoughtfulness and intelligence. Modern Visser Three is basically Trump.

# ? May 27, 2021 12:36

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Tree Bucket posted:

Wait, Esplin is Visser 3?
I have trouble remembering Yeerk names.
On that note, how do they work? Is Esplin a type of rank, or a "batch" signifier, or a unique name? Is the number an ordinal level or a nominal ID code?

It's a spoiler that won't be revealed until the end of the book, so it's not that you forgot anything, but yes.

And I ask people again, please don't spoil plot points.

# ? May 27, 2021 15:16

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

Epicurius posted:

It's a spoiler that won't be revealed until the end of the book, so it's not that you forgot anything, but yes.

And I ask people again, please don't spoil plot points.

Wait, that's not a spoiler. We learn Visser Three is Esplin 9466 from Fenestre in book 16.

# ? May 27, 2021 15:22

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

disaster pastor posted:

Wait, that's not a spoiler. We learn Visser Three is Esplin 9466 from Fenestre in book 16.

Looking back, you're right. Technically, we do. I think KA is still expecting you to be surprised, though.

# ? May 27, 2021 15:32

Edna Mode: Sep 24, 2005; Bullshit, that's last year's Fall collection!

The book summary on the inside of the dust jacket also just straight up says it.

# ? May 27, 2021 15:54

ANOTHER SCORCHER: Aug 12, 2018

Epicurius posted:

It's a spoiler that won't be revealed until the end of the book, so it's not that you forgot anything, but yes.

And I ask people again, please don't spoil plot points.

Oops I�m sorry, I thought both the Fenestre book and the Andalite Chronicles told us the name.

# ? May 27, 2021 16:52

HisMajestyBOB: Oct 21, 2010; College Slice

He could be Visser Three's twin. Don't they have the same name?

# ? May 27, 2021 16:58

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

HisMajestyBOB posted:

He could be Visser Three's twin. Don't they have the same name?

They do have the same name. In the Andalite Chronicles, Visser Three is "subvisser (something)"

# ? May 27, 2021 17:10

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

I was trying to lead into GEE WHO DOES CARGER SOUND LIKE but got preempted

# ? May 27, 2021 21:52

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

nine-gear crow posted:

Yeah, it's given name-birth order number. So Esplin-9466 was the 946th recognized birth of whatever trinity of Yeerks spawned him and his twin. In the cases of twins, the last digit of their designation is repeated and one is designated "the greater" and the other is designated "the lesser". It's completely arbitrary who's chosen for what distinction and yet the division curses the one dubbed "the lesser" to a life of being shunned from Yeerk society for not only being a twin, but the lesser of the two twins.

Does that mean yeerk spawnings produce a thousand young? That has big implications for yeerk ecology...

# ? May 28, 2021 01:14

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

Tree Bucket posted:

Does that mean yeerk spawnings produce a thousand young? That has big implications for yeerk ecology...

It means whatever the hell KA needs it to mean depending on the book because authors are notoriously sus at understanding how numbers work in real life :v:

# ? May 28, 2021 01:39

ANOTHER SCORCHER: Aug 12, 2018

Tree Bucket posted:

Does that mean yeerk spawnings produce a thousand young? That has big implications for yeerk ecology...

Yeerks are weird as parasites too because they don't seem to actually get anything out of infesting their host other than control over motor functions. While that is obviously significant, most parasites rely on their host for some sort of sustenance. Yeerks still require kandrona - and seemingly only kandrona - while infesting a host which makes them more akin to autotrophs like plants rather than heterotrophs like animals.

This seems to suggest that Yeerk ancestor organisms evolved to use their parasitism as a means of spreading from pool to pool on the homeworld, probably initially just hitching a ride without the ability to influence the hosts behavior the same way some seeds evolved to survive consumption and passage through an animal's digestive system as a means of spreading. I could imagine the pre-Yeerk slowly evolving a way to influence the host to become thirsty, to head towards a pool, like how a cordyceps fungus makes an insect climb up high in order to spread its spores. Eventually that became full-blown mental domination.

Given their autotrophy, pre-Yeerks would make up the very bottom of the ecosystem and be eaten by everything. Gedds probably spent millenia scooping pre-Yeerks out of pools to eat before having the tables turned on them. Meanwhile the Vanarx we saw in Book 2 was going around and opportunistically sucking the pre-Yeerks who were hitching a ride out of those Gedds' heads.

ANOTHER SCORCHER fucked around with this message at 02:24 on May 28, 2021

# ? May 28, 2021 02:17

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

nine-gear crow posted:

It means whatever the hell KA needs it to mean depending on the book because authors are notoriously sus at understanding how numbers work in real life

While this is assuredly true, it is still so much fun coming up with stuff like-

ANOTHER SCORCHER posted:

Yeerks are weird as parasites too because they don't seem to actually get anything out of infesting their host other than control over motor functions. While that is obviously significant, most parasites rely on their host for some sort of sustenance. Yeerks still require kandrona - and seemingly only kandrona - while infesting a host which makes them more akin to autotrophs like plants rather than heterotrophs like animals.

This seems to suggest that Yeerk ancestor organisms evolved to use their parasitism as a means of spreading from pool to pool on the homeworld, probably initially just hitching a ride without the ability to influence the hosts behavior the same way some seeds evolved to survive consumption and passage through an animal's digestive system as a means of spreading. I could imagine the pre-Yeerk slowly evolving a way to influence the host to become thirsty, to head towards a pool, like how a cordyceps fungus makes an insect climb up high in order to spread its spores. Eventually that became full-blown mental domination.

-and we can speculate that Yeerk sentience is a by-product of the density of nerve matter needed to mesh with a host brain.
That said, it's also worth considering Seerow's off-hand comment that Gedds and Yeerks have a symbiotic relationship. This makes sense: cognitition is a hugely expensive process for an organism to maintain (the brain accounts for a fifth of a human's energy needs, according to doctor google.) The gedds as a species have gotten around this problem by outsourcing it entirely to the yeerks. The gedd species gains all the benefits of an advanced nervous system with none of the associated costs; the yeerks, after all, gain their energy by soaking up kandrona rays in a big pond.

# ? May 28, 2021 02:35

Soup du Jour: Sep 8, 2011; I always knew I'd die with a headache.

I have my own idea as to Yeerk development, but it�s going to have to wait a few more books

# ? May 28, 2021 02:42

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Hork-Bajir Chronicles-Chapter 12
Aldrea

quote:

There was no warning. No warning, except for the awful feeling in my stomach, the churning, awful feeling of dread.

TSEEEWWWW!

TSEEEWWWW!

The shredder beams fired from the sky. Not too far up. They had come low, snuck closer, and hovered, lights off, hidden by trees and darkness.

TSEEEWWWW!

TSEEEWWWW!

The scoop exploded. The air pockets in the construction material superheated in a microsecond and exploded. The moisture in the ground, in the grass and soil turned to steam in half the blink of an eye and exploded. Everything that could burn, burned.

And everything can burn in the heat of a shredder at full power. Everything.

<NOOOOOOO!> I screamed.

I felt the blast of heat on my face. I felt the concussions roll across me like waves.

<NOOOOOO!>

TSEEEWWWW!

TSEEEWWWW!

The scoop was all flames and explosion. I didn�t see my family burn. I didn�t see them, but I knew it was happening.

A hundred feet away, less, they were already dead. Dead with the first shredder blast.

<AAHHH! AAHHH! AAHHH! AAHHH!>

I couldn�t stop screaming.

The two stolen Andalite fighters fired. Again and again. Fired till what had been our scoop was nothing but fused glass. Molten slag.

<AAHHH! AAHHH! AAHHH!>

Someone grabbed me. I whipped my tail without thinking, enraged, terrified.

Dak Hamee took the blow on his left arm. My tail blade sliced through half his wrist blade. A small blade piece fell to the ground.

The shredder fire stopped. What had been our scoop, what had been my family, glowed red in the night. It would be days before the heat dissipated.

�You must get away!� Dak said fiercely.

<They�re dead,> I moaned. <No, no, no, no.>

�You must get away!� he said again.

<They�re all dead!>

�The ones who did this may come to check, to be sure of what they have done,� Dak said. �They must not find you.�

<What does it matter? Oh, my mother. My father. Barafin! Barafin!>

Dak grabbed me and turned me away from the awful scene. He took my head gently in his two claw hands and made me face him. But as a Hork-Bajir, he didn�t understand: My stalk eyes could all too easily stay riveted on the glowing red wound that had been my life.

�As you said, Aldrea, this is why I was born a seer. To save my people from these Yeerks who have done this evil thing. But I cannot do it alone. You must help me.�

<Help?> I sobbed. <Help what?>

�Help me to understand � to understand this evil,� Dak said. �Will you help me understand this evil?�I was sick. So sick with fear and hatred I wanted to die just to make the sickness stop.

But Dak had shown me a way to live. A reason to endure the violence eating away at my insides.

<No, I won�t help you to understand,> I said. <But I will help you kill Yeerks. That, I will do. I will help you kill them. And kill them. And kill them! And kill them all!>

I screamed in powerless rage at the sky where I knew the Yeerks were hiding.

<Kill them all!> I cried. <Kill them all!>

There's kind of an irony here in that, in the earlier Cassie book with Afran, Aftran pointed out that Seerow is the only Andalite the Yeerks don't hate, because he was the only one who ever treated them with a modicum of respect. So to have him killed like this, witn the Yeerks not even knowing who they killed, is a kind of sad irony, with Seerow, who never meant anything but good for them, becoming one of their victims.

Chapter 13

quote:

I was still shaking. My face still burned from the awful heat. My mind was reeling, swirling, crazed by what I had seen.

All I knew of Andalites and the galaxy beyond my planet was what Aldrea had told me. She had not told me of such things. She had not told me of weapons. Of wars. Of Yeerks.

I knew none of these things.

I knew that there were monsters who lived in Father Deep and sometimes rose up to take unwary Hork-Bajir who had gone too far down the valley walls.

But those were monsters. They did not use spacecraft. They did not strike, invisibly, from the sky.

I knew this, though: When monsters attack, a Hork-Bajir must run away. If one monster attacks and fails to drag you away, another monster may be drawn by the noise and attack as well. These Yeerks might be like that. They might still attack again.

Aldrea was not listening to me. I took her arm with my hand and pulled her away. I made her follow me into the shadows, away from the horrible glow.

I had to tell the elders of this. Nothing like this had ever happened. They had to know. They would have to decide �

No, I realized. I would have to decide. They would look at me and say, �Dak Hamee, you are the different one. You are the seer. Tell us the way.�

I stopped running. Aldrea stopped, too.

�I must decide,� I said. I felt as though a Tribe Tree had fallen on me. I thought I had learned so much. I thought I was wise. But I knew nothing!
�I�m not ready,� I said to Aldrea. �I don�t know what to do!�

Before she could answer, I saw two Hork-Bajir coming toward us, running. They must have seen the lights from the sky.

�Do not fear, brothers,� I said to them.

�Oh, we�re not afraid,� one said to me. His tone was strange. Different.

He walked straight toward me. As he drew close, I realized I did not know him. Was he from one of the other tribes in the valley?

Ssslash!

He struck me with his wrist blade! I was cut in my chest. I could see the blood. I could see that the skin was separated, as though a large mouth had been cut into my chest.

It caused pain.

�Why did you -�

Ssslash! Ssslash!

He struck at me, using his feet and elbow blades!

I was cut again. I was bleeding. The left side of my face was deeply gashed. It had all happened in the blink of an eye.

�Forget him, get the Andalite!� the other Hork-Bajir yelled.

The second Hork-Bajir leaped at Aldrea. He was slicing the air with his blades, whirling and slicing, as if doing a sky-dance.

<Dak! Fight back. These aren�t real Hork-Bajir!> Aldrea said.

�What?�

<Fight them!> Aldrea yelled, and she swung her tail, whipping it forward so fast that the air cracked. The small blade on the end of her tail struck directly into the chest of the second Hork-Bajir.

He leaped back, hissing furiously.

All I could do was stare. I was bleeding. I was cut in many places. I felt pain. But more, I felt confused. How was it possible for a Hork-Bajir to cut me with his blades? It was not an accident, like sometimes happens when we are harvesting bark.

We were not harvesting bark. This Hork-Bajir had cut me. Deliberately! Why?

�Ignore the stupid one, help me get the Andalite! She cut me!�

Now both Hork-Bajir turned to Aldrea. They moved closer, slashing madly at air, drawing closer all the time. They circled, forcing her back against a tree trunk.

If they kept slashing and moving toward her in that way, she would be cut. She would be cut so badly that she might die. I had seen Hork-Bajir who had been accidentally cut. Once an old, weak Hork-Bajir died from the cut.

Aldrea�s tail quivered, poised.

A sudden leap! Both Hork-Bajir jumped at Aldrea, blades flashing. Aldrea�s tail whipped again and again.

She tripped! One of her legs buckled and she sagged to one side.

�Die, Andalite filth!� one of the Hork-Bajir screamed.

His blades flashed.

I looked at my own wrist blades.

Aldrea screamed in rage and terror.

I held out my arms and saw the blades there. It was as if I were seeing myself for the first time.

Something happened then. It was as if I had been given the power to look right into the heart of Father Deep. I could feel a terrible knowledge, a terrible understanding. I could feel � power.

<Dak! Help me!>

I jumped on the back of the closest Hork-Bajir. I swung my arm as hard and as fast as I could. My wrist blade sliced into his back. It sliced through the muscle. It sliced through his spine.

Every muscle in his body went limp instantly. He fell back, unable to move his legs.

I leaped at the other Hork-Bajir, but he was backing away, turning, running.

�Carger, you coward!� the crippled Hork-Bajir cried.

I stared at my wrist blade. It dripped with blood.

<Gedds!> Aldrea yelled.

I followed the direction of her main eyes. Two loping, strange, small monsters were approaching. They held small machines in their hands.

<We have to run!> Aldrea said.

�Run?� I was still staring stupidly at my own blades.

The Hork-Bajir at my feet groaned. His arms moved weakly. His legs moved not at all.

Aldrea bent her upper body to bring her face very close to the wounded Hork-Bajir. <Whatever your name is, Yeerk, go tell your masters: First your treason destroyed my father, and then you murdered him and my entire family. But you will not have this planet. We are the Andalites, you parasite worm. And we�ll see you all dead. You and your entire filthy race. Tell your masters that.>

The two creatures Aldrea called Gedds were rushing forward now, raising the small machines in their hands.

<The daughter of Seerow will show you the other side of the Andalite character,> Aldrea said to the crippled Hork-Bajir.

Then Aldrea and I ran.

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.

# ? May 28, 2021 05:39

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Hork-Bajir Chronicles-Chapter 14
Aldrea

quote:

My family was dead. I was the only Andalite within many millions of miles. I had no way of communicating with my people. The Yeerks had come to the Hork-Bajir world, and only Dak and I knew. I�d known that the Hork-Bajir were peaceable. I�d had no idea before this that they simply did not understand the very concept of fighting.

They were among the fiercest-looking, most physically awesome, sentient species in the galaxy.

They were walking weapons. Deadly from head to foot. But they didn�t know it. They didn�t know what it meant.

They were perfect targets for the Yeerks.

We ran, easily losing the Gedds. We kept moving, always downhill, not knowing if we ran from real pursuers or merely from phantoms. I tried to figure out what to do. But my mind would not let go of the picture of shredders reducing all I cared about to fused, glowing slag.

�Tell me about these Yeerks,� Dak asked me, panting.

That much I could do. <They are a parasitic species. They are able to live on their own in something called a Yeerk pool. But they prefer life inside the body and brain of other species.>

�How is this possible?�

<The Yeerks are as they have evolved. They are parasites by nature. Evolution has equipped them to do this. On their own world they infest a species called Gedds. You saw some Gedds back there. My father was the first Andalite to make real contact with them.>

Dak looked surprised. �You have lived among these Yeerks?�

<Yes. We � my father and mother were sent to study them. And to learn if we could make allies of them. Or to learn if we had any reason to fear them.>

Dak nodded. �This is what your parents did here, too. Am I correct? They were sent to study us.�

<Yes. But there was a difference. We knew the Yeerks to be highly -> I stopped myself.

Dak waited for a moment. Then he finished my sentence for me. �You knew the Yeerks to be highly intelligent. Unlike Hork-Bajir. You were interested in them for their intelligence. And you feared them for the same reason.�

<Yes, Dak. It was their intelligence that interested us.>

�It is why your father and mother had no real interest in us. We are a stupid species.�

He sounded bitter. Not at me. Not at Andalites. But at his own people. Like he was ashamed of them.

<Intelligence isn�t everything,> I said. <My father is � was � brilliant. But the Yeerks tricked my father. He taught them about the world beyond their planet. He taught them about written language, about the very concept of manipulating matter, toolmaking, sight, art, everything. He trusted them. He thought they were grateful. He thought they would be content.>

�Your father made a mistake,� Dak said. �The Yeerks were content. But by showing them all they did not have, they began to want more. They wanted to be like you. Like Andalites.�

I turned my stalk eyes to stare at Dak as he trotted beside me. How did he cut so quickly to the heart of the problem? How could he guess how the Yeerks felt?

Of course. Because he felt the same way. He, too, was jealous of what we Andalites had. Jealous of our power, our knowledge, our intelligence.

Dak Hamee has basically identified the cruelty behind Seerow's Kindness. It wasn't just the giving of technology. It was teaching the Yeerks that they were deprived and inferior to the Andalites. Their entire worldview and sense of contentment was destroyed. That wasn't his intention, of course, but that was the effect. (KA is, as we've seen, a Star Trek fan, and knows about the Prime Directive.

quote:

<The Yeerks slaughtered most of the Andalites with my father,> I said. <They stole Andalite ships. They escaped into space. Since then they have been looking for suitable host bodies.>

�And now they have found them,� Dak Hamee said darkly.

<Yes.>

�My people will be unable to stop them.�

<Maybe not,> I said eagerly. <You Hork-Bajir could be very dangerous, very powerful fighters, at least in close combat. One-on-one you could even challenge an Andalite warrior.>

Dak laughed. �My people do not understand �parasites.� They will never understand that these creatures will steal their bodies. They will listen to what we tell them, then they will go on with stripping bark and playing and caring for their children.�

<Maybe not. You are the seer. You were born to teach your people a new thing. Maybe you were born to teach your people to fight. Maybe your purpose is to teach Hork-Bajir to kill Yeerks.>

�I hoped I had been chosen to show my people all the things your father tried to show the Yeerks. I wanted to teach them music. Writing. Art. I wanted to teach them to keep track of time, the passing of years. To make tools, to build. But your father gave those things to the Yeerks, and now we see the results. Maybe I was a fool to think that knowledge would make my people happy.�

<There will be time to think about all that after we find a way to annihilate the Yeerks,> I said. <We can save your people, if they will learn to fight! They don�t have to be destroyed.>

�Yes, they do,� he said quietly. �Either they will learn to fight and hurt and kill, or they will learn to be slaves. Both will destroy them. Killers or slaves. They will be one or the other. Killers or slaves.�

I stopped and grabbed Dak Hamee�s arm. I deliberately moved my fingers down to the blade at his elbow. It was almost as hard as an Andalite male�s tail blade. And just as sharp.

<If the choice is between being a killer and being a slave, be a killer. You did it back there. It isn�t so hard to learn.>

�And that�s what you want for me? To be a killer?�

<If necessary, yes!>

Dak slowly removed my hand from his blade. He was careful not to cut me.

I met his gaze. Hork-Bajir are not good at concealing their feelings. They�ve never tried to learn the art of lying. So I could see what was in Dak�s mind and heart.

�There is much I still have to learn about Andalites,� he said.

I looked away. It is hard seeing disappointment in the eyes of someone you care for. And yet, his contempt for me changed nothing. He had no choice. His people had no choice. Would I help make them a race of killers in order to stop the Yeerks? Yes. A thousand times over, Yes. The creatures who had murdered my family would pay. No matter what.

TSEEEWWW!

The tree trunk just inches to my left exploded! Splinters struck me, cut me. The concussion and light stunned me.

But it was a handheld shredder, not one of the high-powered weapons from the fighters. I caught a glimpse of Gedds loping toward us, closing in from two sides.

Somehow they had tracked us. And more had been brought down from the orbiting ships. They were above us uphill. The only way to run was downhill.

<They�ve found us!> I cried. <Run!>

We ran. We were faster than the Gedds, but I knew they would call in the fighters. And we could not outrun the fighters.

TSEEEWWW! TSEEEWWW!

�We must go to Father Deep,� Dak said.

<Can we survive down there?>

�Can we survive here?�

We raced down the valley, down and down toward the glowing, blue mist the Hork-Bajir called Father Deep.

One of the things this book does, that other books don't really do, is let us see the Andalites from outside. The Animorphs have Ax as an Andalite model, of course, but they like him, they find him funny, and by the time they meet him, they're already caught up in fighting the Yeerks. For the Animorphs, the Andalites are like the second coming....they'll come someday, and they'll save everybody. Plus, for the Animorphs, this whole war is a secret war. For Dak Hamee, though, he's facing an outright invasion of his people by the Yeerks, and he can see how this war is going to change his people, one way or another. This gives him his own view of the Yeerks and the Andalites, and he's able to see them through a less charitable light.

Chapter 15
Aldrea

quote:

Down, down, always downhill. My leg muscles screamed in pain. I wanted to stop and morph into the chadoo. But there was no time. The Gedds were coming. And I could hear them talking on their communicators, trying to bring the fighters in for the kill.

We were being saved by the topography of the planet. The Yeerk fighter pilots seemed confused. They didn�t know whether they should position themselves above us or straight out from us. It was a problem an Andalite would have easily solved. But the Yeerks were still new to the entire world of sight. The trees, the sharp slope baffled them.

But not for long.

TSEEEEWWWW!

A two-foot-wide hole burned straight through the trunk of a tree just ahead of us. The hole smoked but the tree trunk did not explode.

TSEEEWWWW!

A shredder beam ripped a trench in the ground beside us.

Still we ran. A nightmare of terror. Pain in every cell of my body. Wounds oozing blood. Muscles desperate for rest.

Down and down and down. And now through the trees I could catch glimpses of the glowing blue. Already the air was thicker.

How many miles had we run? I was running at full speed, heedless of obstacle. Panic speed. Terror speed.

Ahead of us, a knot of five or six scared Hork-Bajir. They huddled together, watching the sky, watching the shredder fire, grotesque faces made even more grotesque by fear.

�It�s Dak Hamee!� one cried. �Dak Hamee! Seer! What is happening?�

�Run! Run away!� Dak cried.

TSEEEWWWW!

Shredders reduced two of the Hork-Bajir to vapor. A third was hit by the edge of the beam. He lived long enough to see that his legs, his body below the waist, was gone.

�Run away! Tell everyone to hide!� Dak screamed. �I have to help them, show them!� he said to me.

<It�s us the Yeerks want,> I said. <If we stay with these people they�ll be in greater danger.>

Even as I said the words I knew I had lied. It wasn�t us the Yeerks were chasing. It was me. All Hork-Bajir were the same to the Yeerks. It was the Andalite they wanted to kill.

But Dak accepted my warning. He followed me down the hill, leaving behind the terrified Hork- Bajir.

No time for guilt. I had to survive! Only I could reach my people and bring them to annihilate the Yeerks. Only I could ensure vengeance. What were a few scared Hork-Bajir compared to the need to kill the Yeerks?

The air was thicker still. It was like breathing cold steam. But the extra oxygen renewed my strength.

Suddenly, there it was below us. The trees were gone. The ground was open. Swirling, blue mist glowed dangerously.

But right then my choice was not between a long and happy life on the one hand and death on the other.

My choice was to live for a few minutes more or die right then. I chose to take the few minutes.

I plunged into Father Deep.

Of course, the Hork-Bajir view Father Deep with terror.

# ? May 29, 2021 04:46

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Epicurius posted:

He taught them about written language, about the very concept of manipulating matter, toolmaking, sight, art, everything.

That's got to be an oversight on KA's part? Like... written language, maybe, but surely they'd been infesting Gedds long before Seerow showed up? I figured they already had a sort of very rudimentary surface Gedd-infested society. Certainly they already knew about sight.

# ? May 29, 2021 08:16

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

freebooter posted:

That's got to be an oversight on KA's part? Like... written language, maybe, but surely they'd been infesting Gedds long before Seerow showed up? I figured they already had a sort of very rudimentary surface Gedd-infested society. Certainly they already knew about sight.

Sure. One assumes an oversight, or an oversight on Aldrea's part, or just a rant by an angry Aldrea exaggerating her father's generosity towards his murderers.

# ? May 29, 2021 23:12

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Maybe the Yeerks just never really thought that much of the Gedds, or the surface world of their planet, which by all accounts seems like a kinda lovely place. They must have been infesting them for a very long time, since that other creature has evolved to suck them out of heads, but maybe it's just something they do sometimes without having much of an urge to build a surface society. Maybe most of them are happy just echolocating away down there in the sludge, and it's whatshisname's band of revolutionary ideologues that are the driving force behind the empire and the war.

# ? May 30, 2021 00:24

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# ? May 25, 2024 21:03

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

freebooter posted:

Maybe the Yeerks just never really thought that much of the Gedds, or the surface world of their planet, which by all accounts seems like a kinda lovely place. They must have been infesting them for a very long time, since that other creature has evolved to suck them out of heads, but maybe it's just something they do sometimes without having much of an urge to build a surface society. Maybe most of them are happy just echolocating away down there in the sludge, and it's whatshisname's band of revolutionary ideologues that are the driving force behind the empire and the war.

I mean, we're told earlier in the book how traumatic infesting the Gedds is for a lot of the Yeerks who were made to do do it onboard ship....terrifying, sickening, awful, so I can see it as one of those things that on their home planet, Yeerks didn't do unless they had to or had the type of personality that wanted to.

# ? May 30, 2021 00:51

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