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taxonomites2010-06-24 12:17 am
tailblade.livejournal.com) wrote in taxonomites2010-06-24 12:17 am
Entry tags:
[01] Arrival | Holo
Rachel's memorial service has come and gone. Tobias has disappeared into the woods with her ashes. Jake is depressed and speaks to no one, not even his best friend Marco. Aximili's only remaining ties to Earth are Marco, Cassie, and his fondness for his adoptive home. It is not enough to keep him. He hasn't seen his parents or his homeworld in three and a half Earth years. The war is over, and he will return a hero. It's time to go home.
He's made his farewells to Marco, Cassie, and Jake. He even saw Tobias overhead on his way to the ludicrously makeshift spaceport. He boards the Dome ship that will take him home, and -
Confinement. A small room. Not the Dome ship at all.
<Commander Galuit?> Aximili reaches out with his thought-speak. <Captain-Prince Asculan?> Then, after a pause: <Jake? Marco? Cassie? Tobias?>
Those watching on the tablet will see something they've never seen before. Aximili is visibly alien: he stands on four dainty hooved legs, like a deer, except with blue fur. Instead of the delicate neck and head of a deer, however, he has a narrow, blue-furred torso, frail many-fingered arms, and a flat face. He has two pointed, swiveling ears, three slits instead of a nose, two large green eyes, and no mouth. Which explains the telepathy. But that's not all. On top of his head, he has two eyes mounted on stalks, which are now pivoting in all directions, taking in the room where he's found himself. Then, of course, there's the tail.
Take one look at that tail, and you know it's a weapon. It's long and coiled with muscle, ending in a blade the size of a steak knife.
Aximili is thinking fast. It appears that he is now isolated from the Andalite fleet and his human friends. Much as he hates to admit it, teleportation is beyond the reach of Andalite technology. In fact, it's beyond the reach of any species he knows, except -
<The Ellimist? Is this another one of your games?> No response. Of course, that doesn't mean it isn't the Ellimist. He has the infuriating tendency not to appear when directly summoned. In that case, he has no choice but to play along. Aximili first directs his attention to what appears to be a teleportation device over his head. He points his stalk eyes up at it, while his main eyes keep scanning the room. To his annoyance, he cannot even begin to guess at the mechanism behind it. His best guess is that it makes use of Zero-space, but how could it overcome Z-space's inherent temporal anomalies for instantaneous transportation? This avenue of escape is a dead-end.
Aximili steps toward the pedestal with the tablet, his hooves clacking against the metal floor. He inspects it with his main eyes, keeping the stalk eyes scanning. Then, when he reaches for the tablet, he notices the bracelet on his slender wrist, made out of an alloy he doesn't recognize. He reaches for the bracelet with his other hand and pulls. No effect. It appears to have been embedded in his flesh. To Aximili it seems like a vile Yeerk invention, but if he really were captured by the Yeerks, surely he'd have been infested by now. Besides, they didn't have anywhere near this level of technology, let alone enough remaining military strength. In any case, Aximili has a strategy for getting rid of this bracelet and for getting out of this room.
<Surely you do not believe that you can keep your crude tracking device on me for long,> he announces to whoever has abducted him, though it's mostly bravado, since he still suspects that he's in the Ellimist's power, and there is nothing he can say to intimidate the Ellimist. <Disable it now and show yourself, or I will simply rid myself of it.>
No response. Anyone watching now is about to watch a truly weird spectacle, because now Aximili is focusing on an image of something small, brown, and disgusting: a cockroach.
Tough, chitinous armor crawls its way up Aximili's legs as he begins to morph.
He's made his farewells to Marco, Cassie, and Jake. He even saw Tobias overhead on his way to the ludicrously makeshift spaceport. He boards the Dome ship that will take him home, and -
Confinement. A small room. Not the Dome ship at all.
<Commander Galuit?> Aximili reaches out with his thought-speak. <Captain-Prince Asculan?> Then, after a pause: <Jake? Marco? Cassie? Tobias?>
Those watching on the tablet will see something they've never seen before. Aximili is visibly alien: he stands on four dainty hooved legs, like a deer, except with blue fur. Instead of the delicate neck and head of a deer, however, he has a narrow, blue-furred torso, frail many-fingered arms, and a flat face. He has two pointed, swiveling ears, three slits instead of a nose, two large green eyes, and no mouth. Which explains the telepathy. But that's not all. On top of his head, he has two eyes mounted on stalks, which are now pivoting in all directions, taking in the room where he's found himself. Then, of course, there's the tail.
Take one look at that tail, and you know it's a weapon. It's long and coiled with muscle, ending in a blade the size of a steak knife.
Aximili is thinking fast. It appears that he is now isolated from the Andalite fleet and his human friends. Much as he hates to admit it, teleportation is beyond the reach of Andalite technology. In fact, it's beyond the reach of any species he knows, except -
<The Ellimist? Is this another one of your games?> No response. Of course, that doesn't mean it isn't the Ellimist. He has the infuriating tendency not to appear when directly summoned. In that case, he has no choice but to play along. Aximili first directs his attention to what appears to be a teleportation device over his head. He points his stalk eyes up at it, while his main eyes keep scanning the room. To his annoyance, he cannot even begin to guess at the mechanism behind it. His best guess is that it makes use of Zero-space, but how could it overcome Z-space's inherent temporal anomalies for instantaneous transportation? This avenue of escape is a dead-end.
Aximili steps toward the pedestal with the tablet, his hooves clacking against the metal floor. He inspects it with his main eyes, keeping the stalk eyes scanning. Then, when he reaches for the tablet, he notices the bracelet on his slender wrist, made out of an alloy he doesn't recognize. He reaches for the bracelet with his other hand and pulls. No effect. It appears to have been embedded in his flesh. To Aximili it seems like a vile Yeerk invention, but if he really were captured by the Yeerks, surely he'd have been infested by now. Besides, they didn't have anywhere near this level of technology, let alone enough remaining military strength. In any case, Aximili has a strategy for getting rid of this bracelet and for getting out of this room.
<Surely you do not believe that you can keep your crude tracking device on me for long,> he announces to whoever has abducted him, though it's mostly bravado, since he still suspects that he's in the Ellimist's power, and there is nothing he can say to intimidate the Ellimist. <Disable it now and show yourself, or I will simply rid myself of it.>
No response. Anyone watching now is about to watch a truly weird spectacle, because now Aximili is focusing on an image of something small, brown, and disgusting: a cockroach.
Tough, chitinous armor crawls its way up Aximili's legs as he begins to morph.
[voice]
It's someone's game, kid. Though I ain't ever heard of the Ellimist.
[holo]
<You are contacting me through the communication device, correct?> Even as he "speaks" he's shrinking, and his long, powerful tail is shriveling away. He has no way of knowing with complete certainty that the person speaking to him is not a human-Controller, but he decides that the odds against it are high enough that he can speak freely. <If the transmission includes visual input, please do not be alarmed. The morphing process is unpredictable and occasionally disturbing, but there is no danger.> It's probably a good thing he gave a warning, because right then the cockroach's mouthparts exploded out of his face.
It is a good thing the time of secrecy is over, or else he would have far more to worry about in this situation. <Where is this facility? Do you have means of contacting the Andalite fleet?>
By now, Aximili is covered in the cockroach's exoskeleton, his tail is gone, and his legs have shriveled into insect legs. He's about the size of a cat, more cockroach than Andalite, but he still has his green main eyes coming out of the cockroach's face, and the pair of stalk eyes instead of antennae.
[voice]
[Because that's a disturbing thought if he's ever had one. It's probably best no one sees his facial expression right now. His voice, though, is mostly calm.]
I don't know what an Andalite is, but not much means of contacting anyone except your fellow prisoners, I'm afraid.
[holo]
The stalk eyes thin out into antennae, and his eyes twist into the dim vision of a cockroach. This is not Aximili's favorite morph, but it is the right one for the situation. «No. Cockroaches cannot morph. I am not a cockroach. I am an Andalite. The body you saw before I morphed is my natural form.»
The healthily paranoid part of Aximili's brain is still insisting that this human may be a Controller, but if this place is truly sealed off by extraordinarily advanced technology, then any Controllers here cannot call for backup, and Aximili can pick them off one by one if need be. He wishes once more that his friends were here, but he must adapt to the strange new situation, as he has always done in so many strange situations before. «Perhaps. Perhaps not. There is yet hope of contacting the outside world. That I am still able to morph proves that this place is not cut off from Zero-space, and communications may be sent through Zero-space with the right tools.» He pauses, remembering that very few humans possess the knowledge of Zero-space he has. «Zero-space is where my mass is transferred during a morph. My Andalite body is much larger than a cockroach, so the excess mass must be funneled elsewhere.»
[voice]
So what happens when you turn into an elephant?
[holo]
Careful there, Spade. You're giving this guy an excuse to geek out.
Aximili's thought-voice warms as he turns to one of his favorite subjects. «That is an interesting question. In fact, the first prototypes for the morphing technology only allowed one to morph into organisms smaller than oneself, because no one could yet determine a source of mass for larger morphs. Later, when a scientific exploratory craft took readings in Zero-space, it was determined that mass funneled into Zero-space is not necessarily individualized, which to say that one organic molecule is as good as any other. Upon demorphing, the mass restored from Zero-space may not be the same mass directed there in the first place. A good way to envision this is a "bank" of mass floating in Zero-space, from which anyone may make a withdrawal or a deposit. When I morph a cockroach, I make a deposit to this bank of mass. When I morph an elephant, I make a withdrawal. Of course, none of the aforementioned applies to the brain. The brain must remain individualized in Zero-space in order to maintain a connection between one's original mind and that of the creature one has morphed.»
Kudos to Spade if he understood that.
[voice]
[Yes, maybe the earlier question was someone of a smart-ass thing to ask. Perhaps.]
[holo]
«Yes,» says Aximili simply, as if this is patently obvious. He continues searching along the wall for cracks. «I hope there will not be a need to use it here. Is there danger here, beyond the imprisonment?»
[voice]
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[Visual]
... wait, what was he doing? And how was he doing it?
"Hello? Can you hear me? I'm Martha. Martha Jones. You're in a city called Taxon." And you're turning into a cockroach. Right.
[holo]
«Is Taxon a city on Earth? I do not recognize the name.» He doesn't bother explaining who or what he is, because of course by now everyone on Earth knows about Andalites and their role in averting the Yeerk invasion. And all the while, he's shrinking, shrinking, shrinking.
[Visual]
"No, we're not on Earth. No one knows where we are. I'm Martha. Martha Jones. I'm being held prisoner here too."
[holo]
Aximili is finally completely cockroach. The room seems vast and strange to his senses. He scuttles toward a wall and crawls along it, searching for miniscule cracks that will allow him to escape. Not on Earth. The people here may have been entirely sheltered from the war on Earth, if they have been sequestered far enough away. Yet Martha does not seem surprised that he is not of her species. Perhaps there are other non-humans here as well.
«I am Prince Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, official Andalite liaison to Earth. I would assume you have heard of me, but since you have not been on Earth... I fought in the resistance that defeated the Yeerk invasion of Earth. I am sorry to tell you that there was great loss of human life. I hope that by the time you return, the situation will be much better.»
He pauses in his search along the wall. He's just noticed the infinitesimally tiny bracelet clenched around his many-jointed insect leg, a perfect miniature of the one he was wearing before he began the morph. «The bracelet appears to have stayed with me through the morph. Do you have one as well? I have been unable to see you on the screen due to my currently limited senses.»
[Visual]
She wondered, distantly, if she should bow or curtsy or something.
"I was on Earth a few weeks ago," she said, frowning slightly. There was a chance that he was from some sort of parallel universe, but there was also a chance that he was from a point in her future. Her family - and Mickey, who hadn't even had a chance to join her family - were still there!
"I do," she said, "We all do. There's no trace of the surgery that was used to attach it, but there's no way to get it off."
[holo]
«The amount of time that has passed in your personal timestream may not be relevant,» Aximili points out. «If this is the Ellimist's work, and I suspect it may be, then we may have been transported in time as well as space.»
He searches throughout the edges of the room, but finds no means of escape - not even a crack a few millimeters wide, which is all his cockroach morph needs. «The technology required to create a device that stays in place throughout a morph is beyond any I know. I have a few more ideas about how to remove it, but I suspect that now may not be the best time. Is there another means of escape from this cell, or are you imprisoned as well?»
His theories aren't particularly pleasant. One of them involves morphing back to cockroach and having someone sever the limb bearing the bracelet. Still, he will follow through with the plan, since he strongly suspects that the bracelet is a tracking device. One thing Aximili knows for sure: he will escape. No one, not even the Ellimist, can trap an Animorph for long.
[Visual]
"You need to pick up your tablet - that's the device I'm using to talk to you - to unlock the door. We've got the run of the city, but we can't get out."
[holo]
Upon hearing Martha's instructions, Aximili demorphs. Nothing happens in the same order as when he first morphed; the changes are just as erratic as before, though they are equally swift, and the change is done within the span of a minute. «This "tablet" is not human technology,» he remarks as he picks it up in one delicate, many-fingered hand. «I do not recognize the design.» Gratefully, he walks out into the sunlight, his tail cocked and ready in case of trouble, his stalk eyes scanning in every direction. «The architecture here is an amalgamation of many styles,» he notes. «It reminds me of a Skrit Na collection. Skrit Na enjoy gathering artifacts and live specimens from different worlds and putting them on display.»
[Visual]
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[voice]
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"Well, I don't know any Ellimist, but this place is someone's idea of a game. It's a sort of prison... or zoo, perhaps. Sorry to have to tell you, but we all seem to be stuck."
[holo]
«A zoo,» Aximili repeats thoughtfully. He seems remarkably unruffled for someone who's just been kidnapped and is rapidly transforming into a cockroach. «The Ellimist once proposed housing part of the human population in a zoo of sorts. He, or rather it, also has the power to abduct me and everyone else here.»
Aximili's stalk eyes are now thinning and lengthening into antennae. «The Ellimist, or Ellimists, have incredible power. It, or they, is to us what we are to bacteria. Its motives are beyond what we can surmise. I have been abducted by the Ellimist before. Every time, it resulted in terrible danger.» He is now the size of a rat and still shrinking; he wonders if the human speaking from the communication device can still see him. Perhaps it is better if she can't. He knows how humans can get around cockroaches, especially females. «Are the inhabitants of this "zoo" safe? Is there anything unusual happening?»
Privately, he wonders whether his friends are here somewhere. The Ellimist has never singled him out. No matter what strange place he found himself, the other Animorphs were there with him. Still, if they didn't hear him call their names and they were here, that meant they didn't want to be seen. If they didn't want to be seen, then they wouldn't be found. There's no point in asking.
[visual]
She can't see him any longer, but she does hear him, so he must still be there somewhere, mustn't he? She frowns at the tablet's screen.
"It seems safe, I suppose... but lately, well, some people have been having premonitions of something bad coming. I'm not sure what to believe, myself."
[holo]
Aximili is now fully cockroach. The cockroach instincts scream for him to find a crack in the wall to escape from the light, but he can find none. The room is hermetically sealed. <Remarkable. Even in cockroach morph, I can find no means of escape. Have you found a way to leave your cell?>
[visual]
What an odd place he must come from, where shapeshifting is commonplace yet the concept of premonitions is unknown. She peers curiously at the projection, but it only shows the room, seemingly empty; nary a cockroach in sight.
"If you pick up this communicator thing -- the one we're talking on -- a door should open and let you out. There's a whole city here... though it's not much more than a very large cell."
[holo]
When he hears Charley's explanation of how to leave the room, he begins to demorph. His legs begin to lengthen and thicken, and to his interest the bracelet grows along with his limb, which is sprouting blue fur. He can feel his hearts begin to beat again as he says, «A city? Are there any open spaces? Vegetation?» He feels slightly nervous now, in a way being kidnapped by the Ellimist could not make him feel. He could not last long in his Andalite body if this were a completely urban space. With no open spaces or grassy areas, he would starve, and his mind would rebel from the constant enclosure. He would have to spend almost all of his time in morph. The thought doesn't make him happy.
[visual]
Is Aximili disconcerted by this? Charley can't imagine why, but then again she's not exactly an expert on the mannarisms of shapeshifting aliens. But, well, she has an answer regardless.
"There is rather lovely forest along the southern edge of the city. Nothing on the other side of it, but it's certainly large enough that you might forget you were trapped, for a time."
[holo]
The sunlight coming in from the door calls to him. He steps outside. The human on the communication device was right: the cityscape around him seems to be constructed from many different human architectural styles. He even sees some buildings that don't seem human at all. He keeps his main eyes trained on the screen even as he scans the city with his stalk eyes. «Thank you for helping me. If you should ever require my help in return, I hope I can provide it, on my honor as a prince.»