I always thought of the Andalite Chronicles as coming after book 13 in the series, but I think that's just something arbitrary I latched onto. They were published in the same month.
To a large extent it is just an arbitrary choice. Like you said, they came out the same month, and neither of them spoil the other, nor do you need one to help you understand the other. I'm slotting this one in first for no particular reason.
Note to those who haven't read it....the Andalite Chronicles is about twice the size of a normal Animorphs book. So lets hope people enjoy it. I guess we'll see if you do tonight.
ALLORAN DID NOTHING WRONG
Something something, organ-liquefying genocide virus
Nah he was fully justified and I will die on this hill
He turned his back to a chapman
This, however.... ALLORAN DID ONE THING WRONG
The Andalite Chronicles-Elfangor's Journey: Prologue
quote:
My name is Elfangor.
I am an Andalite prince. And I am about to die.
My fighter is damaged. I have crash-landed on the surface of the planet called Earth. I believe that my great Dome ship has been destroyed. I fear that my little brother Aximili is already dead.
We did not expect the Yeerks to be here in such force. We made a mistake. We underestimated the Yeerks. Not for the first time. We would have defeated their Pool ship and its fighters. But there was a Blade ship in orbit as well.
The Blade ship of Visser Three.
Two Yeerk Bug fighters are landing on either side of me now. The abomination Visser Three is here as well. I can feel him. I can sense his evil. I cannot defeat the visser in one-on-one combat. I am weak from my injuries. Too weak to morph. Too weak to fight.
This is my hirac delest - my final statement. I have formed the mental link to the thought-speak transponder in my fighter's computer. I will record my memories before the Yeerks annihilate all trace of me ...
If this message someday reaches the Andalite world, I want the truth to be known. I am called a great warrior. A hero. But there is a great deal that no Andalite knows about me. I have not lied, but I have kept the truth a secret.
This is not my first visit to Earth. I spent many years on Earth ... and yet, no time at all.
I landed here now in this construction site because I was looking for a great weapon: the Time Matrix. The existence of this weapon is also a secret.
So many secrets in my life ... mistakes. Things I should have done. All the strands of my strange life seem to be coming together. It all seems inevitable now. Of course my death would come on Earth. Of course the child would be here. Of course it would be Visser Three who would take my
life.
I am too weak to locate the Time ship now. I will die here. But I have left a legacy. Visser Three thinks he has won our long, private war. But I've left a little surprise behind.
I have given the morphing power to five human youths.
I know that in doing this I have broken Andalite law. I know that this action will be condemned by all my people. But the Yeerks are here on Earth. Visser Three is here. The humans must be given a chance to resist. The human race cannot fall to the Yeerks the way the Hork-Bajir race did.
I have given the morphing power to five young humans. Children, really. But sometimes children can accomplish amazing things.
I have no choice but to hope. Because it was I who created Visser Three. I who caused the abomination. I cannot go peacefully to my death, knowing that I created the creature who will enslave the human race.
I came to this place, this empty construction site, looking for the weapon I know is hidden here.
But there is no time now. No time ...
The visser is here. He is laughing at my weakness. He is savoring his victory over me.
This is the hirac delest of Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, Andalite prince. I open my mind in the ritual of death. I open my mind and let all my memories - all my secrets - go to be recorded by the computer. This is not just a message to my own people. I hope that someday humans will read it as well. Because humans are also my people. Loren ... and the boy I have just met, but not for the first time ...
There's your opening! So, just for some info, when this first being sold by Scholastic Book Club, it was sold as three books, the first one of which was Elfangor's Journey. Scholastic figured that kids wouldn't buy such a long book. When the book was released in book stores, the three books were combined.
So, as we can tell, this is Elfangor's story, as a flashback. Hopefullly, we'll figure out how Elfangor created Visser Three, why he was on Earth before, and who Loren is.
Chapter 1
quote:
Twenty-one years before ...
The Yeerks were loose. Like some terrifying disease, they spread their evil from planet to planet. They took species after species. They crushed all resistance.
Their spiderlike Pool ships roamed throughout the galaxy. Their armies of Taxxons and Hork- Bajir, all under the control of Yeerk slugs, rampaged - killing, butchering, enslaving. They were annihilating entire planets.
Only we Andalites stood against them. But we had been caught off-guard. Our mighty Dome ships, each more than a match for anything the Yeerks had, were spread too thin. Our spies, even though they used top-secret Andalite morphing technology, were unable to penetrate Yeerk secrets.
For five years our princes had fought the vissers of the Yeerk Empire. They said the war could go on for another fifty years ... another hundred years.
We were outnumbered. We had fought many battles and lost too many of them. But arrogant as I was, I was confident that if only I could get into the fight, I could make a difference.
I, Elfangor, was going to become a great warrior, a prince, a hero.
I was posted as an aristh, a cadet, to the Dome ship StarSword. But so far, after six months in space looking for an elusive Yeerk task force, I had not exactly proven myself to be a great hero.
In fact, I had proven myself to be a clumsy, slow-witted, and quite possibly hopeless fool. At least, according to my instructors.
<Aristh Elfangor! How many times do I have to tell you: The killing blow should be as graceful as it is fast!> Sofor yelled his thought-speak loudly enough that half the ship probably heard him.
I stood facing him, trying to stand light and easy on my four hooves, just like I was supposed to.
At the same time I had to think about where my weight was centered, and whether the tilt of my upper body signaled when I was going to strike, and whether the grass floor under my hooves was uneven, and whether my hands were out of the way, and about a million other things a warrior should know for tail-fighting.
Sofor was bigger than me. He was a full warrior, while I was just a lowly aristh - a warrior cadet. If this had been an actual battle, Sofor would have sliced me up twenty different ways in less than a second.
Maybe. Sometimes I thought I'd be faster and better if it was a real battle, not just a lesson. I was sure if my life depended on it, I could win.
In any case, Sofor was not my enemy. He was my teacher.
Sometimes the same thing.
quote:
<Watch my eyes, not my tail,> Sofor said. <My main eyes, you nitwit, not my stalk eyes! Keep your main eyes on mine, your stalk eyes on my tail.>
I watched his main eyes, but it wasn't easy. His left eye had a huge scar running right beneath it. I tried to focus all my thoughts down to nothingness, just like Sofor had taught me.
<Your mind will never know when it is time to strike. Only your instinct can guide you,> he reminded me.
Suddenly ... FWAPPP!
I fired the muscles in my tail! The bladed tip cracked the air, it moved so fast. I could barely see my own tail as it struck.
The blade arched over my head toward Sofor's face, and I thought, Hey, maybe old Sofar will end up with a new scar. If I landed a blow on Sofor, I'd be a hero with every poor aristh who had ever suffered under him.
Then ... SWOOP! FWAPP! FWAPP! FWAPP!
Sofor blocked my tail blade with his tail, turned it aside, and in about a tenth of a second delivered three lightning blows. One to each side of my head, and a third that left his razor-sharp tail blade pressed right up against my throat. The blows stopped just a hair from cutting my skin.
If Sofor so much as twitched, he could remove my head from my shoulders.
<Not bad, Aristh Elfangor,> Sofor said with a laugh. <Not bad at all. That strike of yours could almost have hit me ... if I were asleep!>
He laughed again and pulled his tail away. <Remember, don't think about it, do it. You're too intellectual. You think too much. You should be a scientist, not a warrior. There's no time for thought in a fight. There is only time for your training to join with your instinct.>
<I guess even you must have forgotten that once,> I muttered.
I regretted the words the instant they were out of my head.
Sofor turned his stalk eyes toward me. He had a dangerous expression. <What did you say, Aristh?>
<Nothing ... just ... um, nothing,> I stammered. But I was staring at the scar below his eye the whole time.
<Ah, I see. You've noticed my little scar. Yes, quite a nasty cut. Know how I got it?>
I shook my head. What was I doing, getting smart with Sofor? What was the matter with me? Was I insane?
<I got this scar from my own teacher. He wasn't as sweet and understanding as I am. He didn't like uppity arisths.>
So Elfangor was a little bit of a smartass as a young man.
quote:
The old warrior laughed at his own wit, turned away, and went galloping off across the grass, holding his tail as high as an Andalite half his age would.
I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I looked around the dome to see whether anyone else was watching me be humiliated. The dome of a Dome ship is a circular area about a third of a mile across.
It is filled with grass, trees, ground rushes, and flowers. There is a lake in the middle and a stream that runs around the circumference.
It's as much like home as it can be. You'd almost think you were running across any well-kept area on the home world. But when you look up, you see that you are in space, protected only by a clear plastic bubble, a dome.
I saw other warriors off running across the grass, feeding and playing and practicing their skills.
But none seemed to be watching me.
I replayed the fight with Sofor. How had he known the exact second when I would strike? What had given me away?
What was the matter with me? Was I actually mad because Sofor was faster than me? Of course he was a better fighter than me. He'd been in more battles than I could imagine.
But it still made me angry. I didn't like people laughing at me. And I didn't like losing.
Through my stalk eyes I saw someone coming up behind me. He'd been hidden by a stand of trees. I recognized him immediately, of course: Arbron. We were the only two arisths.
Great. More bad news. I didn't really like Arbron much. He was very competitive with me. And still he never seemed to take anything seriously.
<Well, hello, Elfangor,> he said. <Having fun with the old Yeerk-killer?>
<Hello, Aristh Arbron,> I said, so stiffly I sounded like my own father. <I don't think it's very respectful to refer to Sofor as the old Yeerk-killer. He is a full warrior, after all, and our personal combat instructor.>
Now Arbron laughed at me. <Yeah, right, Elfangor. Like you're so respectful. Teach me to be as respectful as you, pleeeease.>
He laughed again, and I was starting to get even angrier. It was bad enough having Sofor laugh at me. At least he outranked me. But Arbron was just a lowly aristh like me. Lowlier, because I had four days seniority over him.
<This is a Dome ship, not a play field,> I said.
Arbron kicked lightly at the grass with one hoof in a gesture of contempt. Then he said the insult that went with the gesture. <Elfangor, when are you going to get your hooves back on the grass and out of the air?>
<Some of us actually care about being better fighters. The people need us. These are evil times.>
Arbron laughed. <You don't fool me. You're not some mighty prince or hero. You're just another scared, confused aristh on his first big deep-space mission. And by the way, you shift weight to your left hind leg when you get ready to strike. That's how old Sofor knew.>
I was getting ready to say something really crushing to Arbron, but just then there came an announcement. It was a direct-beamed thought-speak summons.
<Arisths Elfangor and Arbron to the battle bridge.>
I stared at Arbron. He stared at me. We were both frozen in place. Our argument was totally forgotten because we were both busy being shocked and horrified.
See, it was impossible. Neither of us had ever been to the battle bridge. The battle bridge was where the captain was. And the captain of a Dome ship is like one of the ancient gods. I mean, captains don't even look at arisths.
<What did we do?> Arbron asked anxiously.
<I don't know,> I moaned, <but it must have been really out of line.>
<We're in trouble. We are in definite trouble,> Arbron said.
So what's everybody think so far? I really like this book, personally.
Oh heck yeah.
I forgot it starts with Elfangor as a bratty teen just like the animorphs, too. It's a fitting touch for a children's book to start with that mindset and follow it up along to adulthood.
Also the immediate demystification of Elfangor as just a nerd like everyone else
This is my first look at this book, and the alien nerd teen POV stuff is going to be interesting.
If I'd gotten my hands on this book as I kid, I would never have stopped reading it!
All the Chronicles books are great. This is probably the weakest of them and it's still excellent.
The best, IMO, would be a tie between (just chucking the titles in spoilers in case people don't know them, and I guess they give away the POV) Ellimist and Visser. Ellimist is a fantastic space opera that stands on its own as an independent story, Visser is probably the most "adult" of them, I remember it being really dark, and it's the only one that takes place in the present day and actually pulls the Animorphs in.
The Andalite Chronicles-Chapter 2
quote:
A Dome ship is built with the dome at one end and then, far away, far back, there are the three huge engines. Zero-space engines, and you probably know how powerful those are. Connecting the dome to the engines is a long, long shaft. Inside this shaft is the place where everyone has their quarters - their private areas.
For arisths, the quarters are tiny. I mean, extremely tiny. If you want to turn around you have to back out into the hallway. In my quarters I have holograms of my father and mother, of course. Plus a wish-flower representing the little brother I'll be getting in a few years. The Electorate has voted to
allow more children to be born since we're in a war now. They say if the war goes on for long and there are lots of battle deaths, some families may even have three and four children.
Personally, I don't think it will come to that. And even having one sibling is bad enough. Now, in addition to the morning ritual and the evening ritual, I have to do the wish-flower ritual. And you have to do the wish-flower ritual at the wish-flower, of course, which is in my tiny quarters. And you can imagine how impossible that is!
The interesting thing I take away from this is, well, first, the war isn't going well, and second, that the Andalites practice a really strict population control.
quote:
My entire back half sticks out into the hallway and people are jostling past while I'm chanting,
<We welcome our hopes embodied, we welcome a new branch of the tree, we welcome ...> So on and so on.
It's not easy being an aristh. Naturally, warriors and princes get bigger quarters. And of course the captain has quarters so big he can practically play driftball in there.
But the captain isn't usually in his quarters. He's usually on the battle bridge. That's where Arbron and I were heading, as fast as our hooves could carry us down the long central shaft.
<We're dead,> I said. <There's no way the captain calls us to the bridge unless we are in huge trouble.>
<Maybe it's something good,> Arbron suggested. <Maybe he wants to tell us we're doing well in our studies.>
<Yeah. Right. Or maybe he wants our advice,> I suggested sarcastically. <Captain Feyorn, the hero of like a thousand space battles, probably wants the advice of a pair of arisths.>
All the while we were running. Running past the closed doors of various private quarters and storerooms and plasma conduits. Our hooves clicked on the hard, rough-textured floor. A prince stepped out of his quarters and I practically ran him down.
<Sorry!> I yelled. <We've been called to the battle bridge!>
The prince rolled his eyes and shook his head. But he knew: When the captain calls, you don't waste time.
As we neared the battle bridge we saw more and more people in the hall. We weren't the only ones heading there. And then I started to notice some fighter pilots moving off toward the fighter bays.
You can always tell a fighter pilot. There's a swagger they have. It's almost like there's a special light that seems to shine on them.
When I'm a full warrior I'm going to be a fighter pilot.
<There's going to be a battle!> Arbron said.
<Yeerks!> I said. <We're going to burn some Yeerks!> I hoped I sounded tough and fierce.
We barreled into the battle bridge just as the tactical officer; Prince Nescord, bellowed, <Where in a dark sun are those two arisths?>
<Right here, sir!> I said.
<Here, sir!> Arbron echoed.
The tactical officer - the T.O. - looked at us like we might be a couple of pieces of dung stuck to his hoof. Then he turned to the captain. <Captain, the two arisths are here.>
Of course the captain already knew we were there. They say Captain Feyorn can practically see through walls. He knows everything that goes on aboard his ship.
He stood in the center of the room, with the T.O. on his right and Prince Breeyar, commander of all fighter squadrons, on his left.
The room was circular, with bright monitors glowing and computer screens reeling off data.
Holographic monitors created images in midair, and there were sound-speech info-tags and thoughtspeech computer warnings.
Warriors working on the battle bridge often used hand signals between themselves so that the thought-speak noise wouldn't become a jumble.
At the front of the battle bridge was a large, holographic image showing the space around us. We were in normal space, not Zero-space, so the background was black, filled with bright stars.
<Magnify,> the T.O. said.
The hologram of space grew more detailed. Suddenly it was as if actual stars, each as big as my fist, were hovering inside the battle bridge.
<Isolate the target and magnify,> the tactical officer said.
Now the hologram showed just a slice of a single star. It was an average yellow star. I glanced up at the readout above the hologram. It showed that the star had nine planets, gas giants on the outer edge, smaller planets in tighter orbit. The sixth planet was front and center in the display. It had a rather beautiful set of rings.
<There he is,> Prince Breeyar said. He was very calm, but you could tell he was a predator looking at prey.
I searched the hologram of space for a clue. Then I saw it: a tiny, bright point that was moving against the background of the ringed planet.
Was it a Yeerk ship?
<I think we have a Skrit Na raider,> the captain said.
<Yes, Captain,> the T.O. agreed. <He's accelerating. He'll be able to go to Zero-space in twenty minutes. Sensors show he came from the third planet in this system.>
<On-screen,> Captain Feyorn said.
Suddenly the hologram shifted and we were looking at a small planet with a single large moon.
The planet was blue with swirls of white, and land masses that were brown and green.
<What do we have on this planet?>
<There is a sentient species there. They have achieved orbital space flight and have landed on their moon. Sensors show presence of nuclear weapons. And we're picking up transmissions in various parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. All in all, probably a Level Six civilization. I would recommend ->
No points for guessing what planet that is.
quote:
The captain cut him off by raising one finger on one hand. Then the captain turned his head and his main eyes toward Arbron and me.
He looked right at me. Right at me. I felt my blood turn to sludge and my brain grind to a halt.
<Tell me, Aristh, the situation: We have a Skrit Na raider leaving a Level Six civilization. Twenty minutes till he's safe in Zero-space. What do you recommend?>
No, this wasn't happening. The captain really was asking my advice. Clearly I was dreaming.
<What do I recommend?> I asked, feeling the knife-edge of panic. <Um ... um, dispatch fighters on an intercept course?>
<Is that a question or a statement?> the captain asked.
I sucked in air and tried not to faint. <Dispatch fighters for an intercept. Send two on an intercept course, and bring two up behind on a chase vector.>
<And you,> the captain said, turning his awful gaze on Arbron. <What do we do when we intercept? And why?>
<The Skrit Na are smugglers and renegades. And they sometimes serve the Yeerks. So we board the Skrit Na ship and check for any violations.> He said it perfectly. Like he had rehearsed.
Then he blew it. <And if they put up a fight, we put some tail into them!>
The captain, the prince, the T.O., every warrior on the bridge, and I all stared at Arbron like he was insane. Which he obviously was. You don't say <put some tail into them> to the captain! That's something you say in a schoolyard fight.
I assume the Andalite equivalent of "kick their ass".
quote:
The captain looked at Prince Breeyar and the tactical officer. He shrugged. <I guess we'd better do what the two arisths say, eh? The big one looks like he's ready to faint. And the other one thinks he's you, Breeyar.>
That got a laugh from everyone on the bridge. <Launch fighters,> the captain said. <Oh, and those Skrit Na ships are so cramped inside we'd better send along a couple of our people who can move around in there. Now. Who do we have that's small enough to fit inside a Skrit Na freighter?>
Suddenly, I realized that everyone on the battle bridge was looking at me and Arbron. And then I realized we were both younger and smaller than anyone else.
And that's when I almost did faint.
The captain was going to send us into battle.
So, our two brave young Arisths are going into their first action. Here's hoping they don't screw it up.
Chapter 3
quote:
<Okay, who takes the helm, and who takes weapons?> Arbron asked.
<I have four days of seniority over you,> I said coolly. <I take the helm.>
I could see that he wanted to argue. He wanted to fly the fighter, of course. But there was no chance I was going to miss out on flying my first combat mission. No chance. And I did have seniority.
<Okay,> Arbron said coldly. <You fly it. I'll shoot. Not that we'll be doing any shooting.>
The inside of a fighter is not exactly roomy. This was an older model, built for two, but it was still not exactly big.
<Figures they'd give us an old piece of junk Model Fourteen to fly,> I said, staring at the controls as if I'd never seen them before.
<What did you expect them to give us? A brand-new Model Twenty-two?>
For a second I forgot that this was my first official combat command. I shot a glance at Arbron, and the two of us almost burst out laughing.
<This is great,> I said.
<I just wish it was Yeerks, not some old Skrit Na,> Arbron said.
I closed my main eyes, leaving only my stalk eyes open. I wanted to focus. I had been trained on fighters, of course. I was pretty good as a pilot. But still, I was going to be flying alongside Prince Breeyar in his personal squadron. Everyone in the squadron was a great fighter pilot. And Breeyar could just about fly a fighter through a black hole and back out again.
I deeply did not want anything to go wrong. The thought of how humiliated I'd be if I missed a turn or something was too awful to think about.
<Power up,> I told the ship's systems. <Prepare for launch.>
You could feel the old fighter come alive. The monitors glowed. The floor hummed and vibrated up through my legs. I touched a screen with my fingers and the viewport became transparent. We could see directly out now, through an actual window, not just a screen. Of course we were still in the fighter bay inside the Dome ship, so there wasn't anything to see.
<Automatic launch sequence begins in ten seconds,> the prince called. <Simultaneous drop. Go to burn on my mark. Acceleration standard.>
<Weapons powered,> Arbron told me.
<Five seconds to launch,> the computer said.
<Please don't let me screw this up,> I prayed. I thought I'd said it silently till I noticed Arbron nodding in agreement.
<Two seconds,> the computer prompted.
<Hold on,> I said.
FWOOOOOSH!
We were blown out the hatch, out into black space. Ahead of us, four other fighters, all Model 22s, dropped from the bottom of the Dome ship's fighter bay.
<Intercept team, go to burn,> the prince said with total calm.
Two of the fighters lit up their engines. With a brilliant blue glow, the two fighters flashed out of sight into the black of space.
I waited with my fingers just millimeters above the engine control pad. I was not going to miss my cue.
<Chase team, go to burn,> the prince said.
I punched the control pad and it was like we'd been kicked in the back.
SHWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOF!
We were out of there! Out! Of! There!
Unfortunately, we had taken off so fast we'd shot right past the prince's own fighter.
<Ahhhh! Oh, no! No!> I ordered the computer to match velocity with the other fighters.
Something I should have done to start with.
<Hello, Elfangor! Hello-o. You forgot: These old Model Fourteens accelerate faster from a cold start,> Arbron pointed out.
The next thing I heard in my mind was the prince. <You may want to ease back just a little, Aristh Elfangor,> he said.
I was relieved he didn't reprimand me. But I was burning with embarrassment. There it was: my big chance to look like a veteran. And I'd looked like an amateur.
My guess is that Breeyar is more amused than angry three.
quote:
I maneuvered my fighter back into formation behind the other two chase fighters. Arbron brought the Skrit Na raider up on the holographic imager. It was very different than any Andalite ship. Our fighters were elongated ovals with two long, cylindrical engines attached by stubby "wings" on either side. Our main weapon, or shredder, arced overhead much like an Andalite tail.
The Skrit Na ship was round, with tapered sides. It looked like a fat disc. You could hardly even see where the engines were, and the Skrit Na had blinking colored lights all around it. I guess they find that attractive or something.
<Intercept in place,> came the report from the two intercept ships. They had gone into a dangerous Maximum Burn to get well out in front of the Skrit Na and cut off escape. Now we just had to sneak up calmly behind them.
Then ...
<What the... . Sir, there is a second Skrit Na ship out here! It was hidden from sensors by the rings of this planet. Repeat, there is a second Skrit Na raider.>
Prince Breeyar rapped his orders. <Okay, you two on intercept go after the new target. Everyone else, with me.>
I looked at Arbron. We both nodded. It was getting more complicated now. We could actually have a fight!
Suddenly a bright blue engine flame shot from the bottom of the nearer Skrit Na.
<He's running,> the prince said. He sounded calm, but you could still tell he was excited. There isn't a fighter pilot alive who doesn't enjoy a good chase.
The Skrit Na ship hauled. And we hauled after him.
Then, to my total shock, the Skrit Na fired his weapons!
<Hey, look out!> Arbron yelled.
A thin beam of greenish light lanced toward the prince's fighter. It missed!
<Whoa,> the prince laughed. <That woke me up. Return fire, but only if you can hit the engine pod underneath. Repeat, aim only for the engines. There may be innocent creatures on that ship.>
A split second later, the prince fired and missed. His wingman fired and also missed.
It hadn't even occurred to me that Arbron would actually want to take the risk of shooting. But then he said, <So, Elfangor, how about if we just see how fast this old tub will accelerate?>
I didn't need to be asked twice. I punched up Maximum Burn, and we went to one-tenth light speed in about three seconds!
<Yaaaahhh!> WHAM!
<Yaaaahhh!> WHAM!
The acceleration was outrageous! The compensators were slow and we were thrown back against the bulkhead.
I fought to get back on my feet and to the controls. I renewed my thought-speak link to the computer. <Boost the compensators!>
The computer adjusted and we climbed painfully to our feet. Arbron reached his weapons station and took aim. I heard the hum of the shredder powering up, followed quickly by the sound of firing. Hmmmm. TSEEEEWWW!
<Yes! Yes! Yes!> Arbron yelled.
The shredder beam sliced through space and burned away a section of the Skrit Na's engines.
The blue engine flame died instantly.
It was the most beautiful thing I'd seen up to that point in my life. But at the same time I felt a wave of jealousy that Arbron had taken the shot and not me.
<Good job,> Prince Breeyar said. <Nice flying, nice shooting.>
Of course he only complimented us because we were arisths. I mean, for the regular pilots it would have been no big deal. But who cared? Prince Breeyar had said we did a good job.
<He said "good job,"> Arbron said to me. <He did actually say it, right? I wasn't imagining things?>
<The prince said "good job,"> I confirmed, relishing the words.
At that moment I just loved being alive. I even loved Arbron, as annoying as he was sometimes.
This was why I'd joined the military. This was why I'd become an aristh. This was what it was all about. <All right, my little arisths,> the prince said affectionately. <Now that you've given us all a lesson in good shooting, show us how you board an enemy ship. Don't forget to download their onboard computer. Is either one of you qualified for exo-datology?>
<Aristh Arbron is a very qualified exo-datologist,> I said truthfuly.
Arbron gave me a dirty look. <Well, you are, Arbron,> I said defensively.
See, it's kind of a slight insult to say an aristh is good with computers. That's like a technician thing, not a warrior thing. Even though warriors are supposed to be good at all kinds of science and art as well as fighting.
I feel like this also tells us about Andalite society, or at least Andalite military culture.
quote:
<Good,> the prince said. <And, hey, don't bang your stalks on the low ceilings over there.>
<Yes, sir,> I replied. <No problem.>
I was on top of the universe. I was a hero-in-waiting. Practically a prince already. The war with the Yeerks would be over just as soon as I could get in the game.
I was a fool.
He was, as the fact that this was 21 years ago, and the war with the Yeerks still isn't over shows. But it's the arrogance of youth.
Hey Visser Three - that's what a good leader looks like.
I meant the captain, but the prince too.
quote:
The captain looked at Prince Breeyar and the tactical officer. He shrugged. <I guess we'd better do what the two arisths say, eh? The big one looks like he's ready to faint. And the other one thinks he's you, Breeyar.>
That got a laugh from everyone on the bridge. <Launch fighters,> the captain said. <Oh, and those Skrit Na ships are so cramped inside we'd better send along a couple of our people who can move around in there. Now. Who do we have that's small enough to fit inside a Skrit Na freighter?>
I really like the interactions between the Andalite cadets and officers. You get a lot of it in this book. It reminds of Starship Troopers and Horatio Hornblower.
Ax has a very straightforward, direct way of talking, with an almost flattened affect. Maybe it's that Elfangor is talking to other andalites here, and Ax's talking to humans means the way he's expressing himself is different, but there's a massive shift in tone from how Elfangor's voice was in the first book, and Ax's in all the following books, and how casual Elfangor and even the higher-ranking andalites are talking here.
Part of it could just be the desire to make the books more readily accessible and by translating the andaliate speech into modern idiomatic tones?
But I really like to think Andalites are just big dumb nerds and only act aloof and cool around other species and when they're alone they're really just absolute nerds still.
I mean, if anything, it solves the question about whether Andalites have a sense of humor.
But as to their differences in tone, there's a few things. First, obviously, this is an Andalite ship, and with the exception of Elfangor and Arbron, these are all seasoned warriors who are comfortable around each other, so a lot of the formality just isn't there. The Captain knows his Princes and trusts them, and they know when to be casual and when to be formal and serious, which is what happens when people have worked together for long enough. Ax, on the other hand, is stuck on an alien world, and isn't entirely comfortable with the humans yet...they use words and concepts he doesn't understand, their values are alien, and they're just strange.
On top of that, I get the impression that Ax has lived his life in the shadow of his brother. I get the impression they didn't know each other very well, because of the age difference and because Elfangor was in the military as a fighter jock the whole time, but that Ax was raised on tales of his noble, heroic brother, who he'd never live up to. Now that Elfangor is dead, that pressure has to be magnified tenfold, especially because Ax knows his name is in disgrace on his homeworld because he took the blame for giving humans morphing technology....another sacrifice he was forced to make to protect the reputation of the great Elfangor. Elfangor, as far as we can tell, doesn't have that. He's not expected to live up to some impossible standard. He's free to just be himself.
Finally, Andalites are people, and their personalities differ. We see it here in the way that Elfangor and Arbron interact. Elfangor is a lot more serious than Arbron, who sees the world as a big joke.
Fun fact: he's not saying it, but the Skirt Na ship - leaving Earth - is a flying saucer.
quote:
Warriors working on the battle bridge often used hand signals between themselves so that the thought-speak noise wouldn’t become a jumble.
This seems weird. Couldn't they just thought-speak directly to each other? Though it does seem like most Andalites just thought-speak out loud to everyone like Visser Three
I think the issue is, there's open-broadcast speech going on to the point where you can't really whisper to one another and still make it out. It isn't like telepathy-irc where you can focus just on the direct messages, for Andalites I'm imagining it's the same as trying to talk over announcements in a busy workplace.
Fun fact: he's not saying it, but the Skirt Na ship - leaving Earth - is a flying saucer.
Wait till you see the Skrit Na.
I think the issue is, there's open-broadcast speech going on to the point where you can't really whisper to one another and still make it out. It isn't like telepathy-irc where you can focus just on the direct messages, for Andalites I'm imagining it's the same as trying to talk over announcements in a busy workplace.
Ah, that makes sense.
What a fun chapter!
So the Andalites practice pretty rigid population control and demographic planning. Is that because they're herd herbivores, and "get" carrying capacity in a way that humans don't? Is it because their highly evolved civilisation takes ecological issues into account? Is it to form a contrast with humans and our hideously rapacious approach to the environment?
So many cool questions.
Also- this only just occurred to me- Andalites need the "green space" of their dome ships so they can run around and feed; they can't just fill a freighter with tins of beans to avoid starving. They're just as hobbled to big vulnerable chunks of infrastructure as the Yeerks. (Only their stuff is prettier and much, much less evil.)
Fun fact: he's not saying it, but the Skirt Na ship - leaving Earth - is a flying saucer.
I was picturing it in my head while reading the description, and thinking: heeeeyyy.....
All the Chronicles books are great. This is probably the weakest of them and it's still excellent.
Huh, that's weird. This was my favorite of the books back then. Not that Hork-Bajir was bad, I guess, but I don't think I read any other Chronicles or other non-main-series books; just a couple more Megamorphs.
Oh, and I have Visser, too. Huh. I don't even remember that book.
What a fun chapter!
So the Andalites practice pretty rigid population control and demographic planning. Is that because they're herd herbivores, and "get" carrying capacity in a way that humans don't? Is it because their highly evolved civilisation takes ecological issues into account? Is it to form a contrast with humans and our hideously rapacious approach to the environment?
I always got the impression they're a sort of combination of super advanced eocologically-respectful utopian society, plus they're just naturally herd animals who like open grassland and prefer a non-crowded planet. I think it's in this book that Elfangor explains they don't have cities at all.
The weird thing, looking back on it now as an adult, is that they have a very strong warrior culture. The war with the Yeerks I don't think has been going on for more than 50 years or so, and we also don't get the impression the Andalites have built up any sort of galactic empire. So either there have been other interstellar threats in the past (which I don't think we ever hear about) or they just really, really honour what must have been a very rapacious and bloodthirsty Viking-esque past among their own kind.
Huh, that's weird. This was my favorite of the books back then. Not that Hork-Bajir was bad, I guess, but I don't think I read any other Chronicles or other non-main-series books; just a couple more Megamorphs.
Oh, and I have Visser, too. Huh. I don't even remember that book.
This is a great book, particularly the third act. All the Chronicles books are stronger than even most of the best books in the main series, even though they take you away from the established main characters. I dunno, maybe I read them all around age 11 or 12 when I was really getting into space opera science fiction, and the Chronicles books deliver that in spades.
Yeah, after abandoning years series just after David, it was Hork-Bajir that made me get back into them.
Is there a place online with the flipbook animations? I remember liking this one
Found it
https://www.reddit.com/r/Animorphs/comments/29qca5/animorphs_flipbook_gif_project/
Contains spoilers kinda, but this books one is pretty cool
Here's the first part of it, look at that skrit na go
So the Andalites practice pretty rigid population control and demographic planning. Is that because they're herd herbivores, and "get" carrying capacity in a way that humans don't? Is it because their highly evolved civilisation takes ecological issues into account? Is it to form a contrast with humans and our hideously rapacious approach to the environment?
It's reminding me a lot of the 90s vision of what Japan would be like in the future. Very clean, bright, prosperous, very rigidly controlled society and sensitive to the environment, a lot of rituals and mysticism about what we'd consider mundane things, and the whole Andalite warrior thing being considered almost a caste apart that's supposed to be cultured and knowledgeable but hold the work of engineers in contempt in practice strikes me as very classically samurai.
I think we learn in later books that andalites are basically dominated by their military command due to the war, and the civilians are getting tired of them and their unaccountability. Which really implies that this *wasn't* the case before the war. So presumably the samurai-ish warrior poet caste ran in parallel to the rest of society, rather than ruling it?
The Andalite Chronicles-Chapter 4
quote:
I guess most people know about the Skrit Na.
But in case you don't, I'll tell you what I know.
The Skrit Na don't care what anyone else in the galaxy thinks about them. They don't belong to the Yeerk Empire. They aren't one of our allies. They don't care about laws or customs or anything.
All the Skrit Na care about is collecting things and owning things.
The Skrit Na are unusual in another way: They are actually like two different races. The Skrit look like huge insects, almost as large as an Andalite. They have fourteen legs and six sets of antennae, and aren't really very intelligent. But the Skrit each eventually weave a cocoon and a year later, out of the dead Skrit there pops a Na.
The Na are a whole different story. The Na have four very slender legs. Sometimes they rear up and walk on just two legs, using the other legs as hands. They have large heads shaped like Andalite heads, only they have just two huge eyes.
Skrit Na are constantly going to peaceful planets and kidnapping the local species. Sometimes they perform medical experiments on them. Sometimes they just fly around with them and then let them go. But often they carry local creatures away to add them to zoos on the Skrit Na home world.
Yep. The Na are Greys, which makes sense with the saucer.
quote:
Like I said: a weird species. No one understands the Skrit Na. Personally, I don't think they understand themselves.
I pulled our fighter up alongside the damaged Skrit Na ship and turned on the tractor beam to hold the two ships tightly together.
The Skrit Na decided to make it easy. I guess they figured they'd made us mad enough. Skrit Na are no match for Andalite power.
I married my hatch to the Skrit Na hatch and popped it open. I equalized gravities and marched as boldly as I could into the captured ship, with Arbron just behind me.
There was smoke in the other ship. And there seemed to be storage boxes strewn here and there.
Two clumsy Skrit lumbered past, kicking through the debris. The ceiling pressed low, and I had to duck my head or risk bruising my stalk eyes. A pair of cocooned Skrit were more or less glued to a corner of the ceiling. One looked about ready to hatch a Na.
There were three Na that I could see. The Na captain was pressed back against his command console. He looked scared. But not of me. He was glaring angrily at a bizarre creature that had a Skrit Na hand weapon, a modified Yeerk Dracon beam, pointed at the Na captain.
The bizarre creature stood just a bit shorter than me. And what was incredible was that it stood on just two legs.
Just two. It had arms, but you could see that it didn't use them to walk. They wouldn't have been long enough.
The creature's face was the same size as mine, but rounder. There were two small bluish eyes on the front of its face. And the lower third of the face was split open horizontally.
Many species have such openings. They're called mouths.
Its body had no fur, but did have brightly colored skin that seemed to hang loosely in some areas.
Its upper body was covered in loose, almost billowy, white skin with tiny pastel patterns. Its two legs were covered in a rough-textured blue skin that stopped suddenly at its hooves. The hooves were white and adorned with what looked like thick threads or cables laced together.
But what caught my eye was the hair that sprouted from its head. It was long and wavy and as gold as a yellow sun.
"Freeze, horse-boy," this bizarre creature said, making the sounds with its mouth. It turned the Dracon beam on me. "One move and I pull the trigger. I don't know what this gun will do, but I'm willing to bet you won't like it."
Of course, at that point all I heard was gibberish sounds. The translator chip, which all members of the Andalite military have implanted in their heads, requires a few minutes to begin to understand new languages. Some languages it never does get right. Fortunately, almost all species can understand
our thought-speak since it works at a level beyond mere words.
"Be careful, Andalite friend," the Na captain said. "They are savage, violent beings. Crazy! Wild! Oh, yes! This female is a vicious beast! Better to kill her! Or even better, let us cage her again. Yes, yes, that would be best. As soon as you mistakenly fired on us, she sprang up and grabbed my
weapon. Wild and dangerous, oh, yes!"
The translator chip handled the Na language easily. I didn't bother to answer the Na. Everyone knows Skrit Na will lie to anyone about anything.
The Na captain winked one of his big eyes at me. As if he and I were on the same side. His fellow Na officers all looked scared. The Skrit went on with their simple duties like nothing was happening.
To be honest with you, I didn't know what to do. I was as confused as the Skrit Na.
The only one who seemed to have a clue was the bizarre two-legged creature herself.
<Talk to her,> Arbron suggested. <Use your charm, Elfangor.>
<Um ... whoever you are ... whatever you are, don't fire that weapon. Put it down.>
"Yeah, right. Hey. Hey, wait a minute! I can hear you in my head, but you're not really talking."
Suddenly the translator chip had heard enough. It began providing instantaneous translation. I could understand her.
<I am in charge here,> I said firmly. <Drop the weapon!>
"Uh-uh. Nope. I don't think so, horse-boy. I'm tired of being kidnapped and dragged off by giant cockroaches and little green men from Mars."
<Excuse me, but we are here to rescue you,> Arbron said.
<Exactly. What these Skrit Na have done to you is wrong. That's why we captured this ship.>
I spoke like I would to a child. Obviously, this species was primitive. They didn't even have tails.
Barbarians!
quote:
<What little green men?> Arbron asked. <They aren't green. The Na are gray.>
The female narrowed her already narrow eyes. The Dracon beam in her hand wavered. "I'd already captured this ship before you two came along. Me and the other guy. And we're both just kids, which shows you that these Martian jerks aren't all that tough. He's in the back, knocked out. The other guy, I mean. But I grabbed this gun away from Twinkie there." She jerked her head in the direction of the Na captain.
The translator chip had no translation for the word "twinkie." Evidently "twinkie" was some kind of word for "alien."
<Well, we don't mean you any harm,> I said as calmly as I could. <How about this idea? You can keep the Dracon beam, just don't point it at anyone.>
The female looked at the weapon. "It's called a Dracon beam, huh? What's it do?"
Arbron answered before I could suggest he shut up. <It fires an energy beam which causes an exceedingly painful death. Which is why we'd really prefer it if you didn't fire it.>
"Oh. A phaser. Like on that old Star Trek show. I can't believe they took that off the air. Now it's just on reruns."
I had nothing to say to that because I had no idea what she was talking about. I looked to Arbron.
He shook his head. No, he didn't understand, either. Translator chips have limits.
<If you come with us, we'll treat you well. And we will return you to your home planet.>
"Earth?"
<Is that the name of the third planet in this system?>
"Yeah."
<And are you an Earther?>
"Human. That's what we are: humans. Me and the other guy."
<And we are Andalites. My name is Elfangor. This is Arbron.>
Arbron had gone over to the nearest Skrit Na control panel. He was downloading a copy of all their computer files as Prince Breeyar had ordered. It's standard procedure whenever you board an alien craft.
"You look like centaurs, only with scorpion tails. And the extra eyeballs up on top of your heads ..." She seemed to hesitate. Suddenly she turned the Dracon beam around and handed it to me, handle first.
<Thank you,> I said. I reached to take the Dracon beam from her and my fingers brushed hers.
For some reason I looked at her long golden hair.
"My name is Loren," she said. "This is all kind of amazing. Most humans don't even believe in aliens. But, well, here you are. Real and all. Unless I'm dreaming."
<Do humans dream?> I asked her, surprised.
"I do. Every night."
<So do I. But I guess we have very different dreams.>
Then Loren smiled. It's a thing humans do by turning the corners of their mouths upward.
"Maybe," she said. "Maybe not."
Elfangor's met his very first human! It's Loren, and she actually seemed to have the situation in hand when they showed up/
Chapter 5
quote:
We led Loren over to our fighter, and then we carried the second human across. He was unconscious. Bright red blood ran from a cut above his left eye.
<Red blood?> Arbron said. <Red? Yuck.>
I was trying to act more mature than Arbron, but to tell you the truth, blood that color creeped me out, too. Still, I didn't think humans looked ugly or anything. Not like the Skrit or Taxxons, which are seriously ugly species. Nor did they look dangerous, like the Hork-Bajir.
Mostly they looked funny. I'd never seen a species that walked on just two legs without even a tail to help with balance. Arbron said what I was thinking.
<All it would take is one little push and they'd fall right over. Earth must be hysterical! Humans falling forward and back, falling all over the place. No wonder they are so primitive. They probably spend all their time just trying to stand up.>
We were almost back to the Dome ship when the second human woke up. We'd left the Skrit Na to try to figure out how to fix their ship. That was their problem.
Hey, no one told them to shoot at us. Right?
"Unh," the human moaned.
He was larger than Loren. Maybe two or three inches larger. His hair was brown, not golden, and it was cut short. His eyes were also brown, not blue like Loren's.
Loren went to him and bent her legs in such a way that she could kneel down beside him. Arbron and I exchanged a look of amazement. It had to be hard to kneel like that and not fall.
"Hey, kid, you okay?" Loren asked.
The wounded human opened his eyes and blinked. He stared hard at me. "What happened?"
Loren shrugged. "Now we have a different bunch of aliens. Who'da guessed there were so many people zipping around outer space? Are you okay? That big cockroach popped you pretty good back there."
<You have nothing to fear,> I said gently. <You are safe now.>
The human felt his wound and looked at the red blood. He seemed almost as grossed out as I was. But he climbed to his feet. Which involved using his hands, I noticed. Humans seem to have stronger hands than we have.
<I am Elfangor. This is Arbron. We are Andalites. We will return you to your home planet.>
The human nodded slowly. "Telepathy. You use telepathy to talk." His gaze traveled to my stalk eyes, back to my face, then to my tail. "That tail is a weapon, isn't it? Is it poisonous or does it just cut?"
I decided right then that I didn't like this human as much as Loren. I didn't like him much at all.
<I politely told you my name, human,> I said coldly. <Now, I require your name.>
The human gave me a look that seemed insolent. Although who can really tell what an alien facial expression means?
"My name is Hedrick, actually. But I prefer my last name. Most people call me by my last name: Chapman."
I plan to talk about this later in the book.
quote:
"I think these Andalites are okay," Loren said to Chapman. "At least they're better-looking than the last bunch. And they've promised to -"
"Shut up," Chapman snapped. "I'm not interested in the opinion of a kid."
"Kid? Hey, you big jerk, who was it that got the weapon after the ship stopped moving? Me. And who was it that was cringing in the back, begging for mercy? You. And anyway, I'd be surprised if you're even a year older than me."
Chapman's face grew pink. A fascinating thing to watch. He clenched his jaw tightly. "And now it seems your heroics were pointless. We're prisoners again. And I have a feeling we won't be grabbing guns away from these Andalites."
Suddenly, he lunged forward toward the Dracon beam in my hand! Without even thinking, I whipped my tail forward and pressed the blade against Chapman's throat.
Chapman laughed. "See that? See how fast he was? Couldn't even see that tail move." Again he gave me an insolent look. "What did you say your species is called? Andalites? Well, I have a feeling you guys are a little more dangerous than you pretend to be, despite all your polite talk and promises."
I felt like a fool. Not for the first time that day. The human Chapman had been testing me.
<We need to prepare to dock with the Dome ship,> Arbron reminded me.
I went through the docking procedure, moving the fighter back inside the fighter bay. I concentrated on my work, but I was upset. I didn't like the human named Chapman. I didn't like his suspicion toward me. After all, we had rescued him from a future as a zoo animal on the Skrit Na home world. He should be grateful.
But maybe that's the way humans are. I've heard there are species that can't handle anyone helping them. They'd rather die than ever be in debt to someone.
But judging by Loren, not all humans were that way.
Not your problem, Elfangor, I told myself. Just turn the humans over to the captain. Not your problem at all.
But I was wrong. The humans were my problem.
In fact, I was about to have lots of problems.
Not too much to say about this chapter, other than it has Chapman in (or at least a possible Chapman), but how did everybody like the Skrit-Na?
Somehow I didn't connect the skrit-na to grey men when I read this as a kid. I think it shows that KAA is having fun with this. But if I remember the rest of the book correctly this is just the first instance where she has fun with human history/culture and a lot of where we are at is thanks to the events of this book
Here’s the first part of it, look at that skrit na go
YES
I always got the impression they're a sort of combination of super advanced eocologically-respectful utopian society, plus they're just naturally herd animals who like open grassland and prefer a non-crowded planet. I think it's in this book that Elfangor explains they don't have cities at all.
I would happily read another dozen books about how centaur-scorpions with no cities managed to achieve space flight. Space opera is such a fun genre.
It's reminding me a lot of the 90s vision of what Japan would be like in the future. Very clean, bright, prosperous, very rigidly controlled society and sensitive to the environment, a lot of rituals and mysticism about what we'd consider mundane things, and the whole Andalite warrior thing being considered almost a caste apart that's supposed to be cultured and knowledgeable but hold the work of engineers in contempt in practice strikes me as very classically samurai.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I love these moments where the series' sheer 90s-ness shines through: techno-samurai, Whale Jesus... someone upthread described Rachael's family as "90's middle class rich" which swamped me with a very unexpected wave of nostalgia.
LOREN
Loren fucking rules, despite only showing up in this book and in 49. You get such a strong sense of who she is. You can see a lot of Tobias in her as well with how quickly she grasps aliens stuff, despite how she never(?) raised him
I would happily read another dozen books about how centaur-scorpions with no cities managed to achieve space flight. Space opera is such a fun genre.
I still want to know how the fuck Andalites invented computers before books.
LOREN
Loren fucking rules
I still want to know how the fuck Andalites invented computers before books.
Twelve-year-old me assumed that they invented books millennia ago, but abandoned them in favour of computers sufficiently far back that only Andalites who pay attention in history lessons are aware of them. Dammit Ax.
A wizard ellimist did it
I never read The Andalite Chronicles although I know I've read more of the mainline books. I wish I had though because so far it's really good.
Twelve-year-old me assumed that they invented books millennia ago, but abandoned them in favour of computers sufficiently far back that only Andalites who pay attention in history lessons are aware of them. Dammit Ax.
Looking back on these books, I'm reminded that a lot of what we know about the Andalites, we know from Ax. And Ax repeatedly stresses that not only was he the Andalite version of a cabin boy studying to become a midshipman in a Horatio Hornblower book, he was uncommonly non-bookish even by Andalite warrior standards.
Twelve-year-old me assumed that they invented books millennia ago, but abandoned them in favour of computers sufficiently far back that only Andalites who pay attention in history lessons are aware of them. Dammit Ax.
Lol ok this is a great way to justify it.
Also,
LOREN
Loren fucking rules,
I just reread the entirety of the Andalite Chronicles last night because we got up to it.
It's good.
As for the Skrit Na, I think this is the first mention of star-faring aliens not affiliated with the Yeerks or the Andalites? Obviously they can't be just random bumbling idiots like Elfangor describes them if they've developed interstellar flight, but I don't know if they'll ever appear again in the series. Just random 'hey, space is weird' color.
As for the Skrit Na, I think this is the first mention of star-faring aliens not affiliated with the Yeerks or the Andalites? Obviously they can't be just random bumbling idiots like Elfangor describes them if they've developed interstellar flight, but I don't know if they'll ever appear again in the series. Just random 'hey, space is weird' color.
It's not. There are the Pemalites, the Chee, and the Howlers mentioned in the Android, and in the Alien, Ax, while watching the Star Trek movie, mentions that Worf looks like an Ongachic female, and that the Enterprise looks something like a Hawjabran freighter. Other than the Chee, (who probably don't count as starfaring anymore) the Skrit-Na are the first non-Andalite aliens we actually meet not part of the Yeerk Empire, though.