The Answer (Animorphs)

Animorphs Books


name = The Answer
Narrator = Jake
Number = #53
Release date = April 2001
Cover art = Jake morphing into an anaconda
Cover quote = All questions are about to be answered...
Author = K. A. Applegate
Illustrator = David B. Mattingly
Pages = 157
Preceded_by = The Sacrifice
Followed_by = The Beginning

"The Answer" is the fifty-third book in the Animorphs series.

Plot summary

Sensing that the end is near after the destruction of the Yeerk pool, Jake, Marco and Tobias watch as the Pool Ship lands amidst the crater. Tobias, however, learns of another Yeerk pool under construction, and Jake decides to delay its progress by taking out the Taxxons. Tom acquires a jaguar morph, and both Jake and James lead their teams to battle.

In the ensuing confusion, Jake finds himself underground and at the mercy of a trio of Taxxons. To his astonishment, however, one turns out to be the "nothlit" Arbron, missing since the enslaving of the Taxxon homeworld. Arbron, the newly-appointed leader of the Taxxons, tells Jake to return to him the next night with the promise that the Taxxons may become nothlits themselves, and the Taxxons will fight alongside the Animorphs. Jake goes to Cassie for help in choosing a morph, and she selects an anaconda. Jake, with his friends in tow, returns to Arbron and makes his pact with the Taxxons.

Surprisingly, the Yeerk infesting Jake's brother Tom appears as well, claiming he and some of his followers will also aid the Animorphs, in exchange for the Blade Ship and safe passage after the war's end. Suspecting a trap, Jake agrees while setting his own plan into motion. Arbron's Taxxons are set to destroy the new Yeerk pool. Marco and Cassie capture Chapman and bring Erek King to Jake, who tells the android that Chapman will be killed if Erek does not help them. Rachel is sent on a mysterious mission.

Jake also enlists the help of an army general in the area, General Doubleday, and the auxiliary Animorphs, to form a distraction. Tom betrays them to Visser One, but the Animorphs had anticipated this, and manage to avoid the trap. This is done through Erek; when Tom delivers "Cassie" to Visser One, a Taxxon (Tobias in morph) "eats" her, which is actually a projection by Erek. He is then "taken" away by Hork-Bajir, who are actually Toby and her allies. Tom is given command of the Blade Ship to put the Taxxons back in line.

On the Pool Ship, the Animorphs and Erek set about disabling systems. Erek disables the laser cannon, but by then much of Doubleday's division and the auxiliary Animorphs have been annihilated. Tom betrays the Visser yet again and swings to battle the Pool Ship. The Animorphs drain the Yeerk Pool to provide a distraction. Erek disables the engines, and the ship becomes effectively useless.

The Visser, battle-weary and apathetic, confronts them on the bridge and warns of Tom's danger. Tom hails from the Blade Ship and crows about his apparent victory. However, when he sees Jake in morph, he realizes that he has been tricked, and orders the Blade Ship to aim and fire. Jake orders Rachel, who is hiding on the Blade Ship, to attack.

Contributions to the Series' Story Arc

*The Animorphs make an alliance with the Taxxons.
*Rachel sneaks aboard the Blade ship, while the remaining members of the team board the Pool ship and eject the contents of the onboard pool into space, killing thousands of Yeerks.
*Jake proposes to Cassie. Cassie declines, consenting to a year after "all this is over".

Morphs

*Jake: anaconda
*Tricia: rhino
*Tom: jaguar

Trivia

*This is the first book written fully by Katherine Applegate since "The Separation" (#32).
*The storyline of Arbron in this book is a leftover plot point from a 'Chronicles' book that Katherine Applegate was planning to write about Taxxons, featuring Arbron as a rebel leader.