scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/6fbd7o.md

## [RT][WIP] r!Animorphs: The Reckoning, chapter 27 (Rachel)

* Author: u/TK17Studios  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning**
* URL: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5627803/chapters/24759927
* Score: 41

* Created: 2017-06-05T02:06:44

### Post:

[Link to content](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5627803/chapters/24759927)

### Comments:

> **u/CouteauBleu** [+21]  *We are the Empire.* (15 hours later)
> 
> Wait, hold on, what? Another Reckoning chapter?
> 
> But it's barely been six months?
> 
> I am so confused.

>> **u/TK17Studios** [+13]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (15 hours later)
>> 
>> I deserve this.

>>> **u/CouteauBleu** [+11]  *We are the Empire.* (16 hours later)
>>> 
>>> No you don't :(

> **u/LieGroupE8** [+11]  ** (an hour later)
> 
> Whoa boy. Lots of stuff being set up...
> 
> The David situation was entirely predictable, of course. I wonder when one of the Animorphs will decide to check his mind again just in case?
> 
> I'd like to take this opportunity to ask some questions about technology in this universe. 
> 
> 1. In this chapter, Ax says: "Your momentum coming out of Z-space is effectively arbitrary." This seems like too powerful of a technology. Could you create infinite energy by pushing mini-hyperdrives into Z-space, popping them out at large speeds, and harnessing the resulting kinetic energy? Why not use such weapons all the time in space battles, since not even an absorption field protects against such energies? (As the Ellimist [?] says earlier, the pool's absorption field would not have withstood even Visser Three's asteroid. Relevant quote: "The shield was destroyed, on Visser Three’s orders, but it wouldn’t have saved you anyway. The word ‘indestructible’ is a little misleading—Seerow’s engineering is impressive, but it can’t compete with an explosion the size of a million atomic bombs.").
> 
> 2. The morphing technology, like magic in HPMOR, seems like it should be *arbitrarily* powerful. Even setting aside the question of extending the technology to create mass out of nothing or to create things that aren't biological (all of which might be explained by the techno-babble we got from V3's first chapter), morphing still apparently relies on *brain emulation*, which begs the question of why the Andalites aren't a post-singularity species yet. I'm just going to speculate that due to intervention from the Gods, Seerow stumbled upon a piece of biotechnology from a far more ancient and powerful race (such as the Ellimist's original species) and, unable to unravel its full capabilities, hacked it into a version of the morphing tech. I'll also speculate that artificial intelligence is just very difficult in this universe, and somewhat limited in its capabilities. (It's clearly possible, since the Chee exist).
> 
> 3. I believe this question was asked a very long time ago, but if you acquire multiple people and construct a hybrid morph from them, and then activate the brain of this morph, whose mind wakes up? Are the minds of the components all blended together, or is there just no mind at all?
> 
> 4. [Probably not spoilers but](#s "So you can pull objects into morph, and have them when you demorph. But can you destroy matter by pulling it into demorph? So, for example, could you assassinate someone by grabbing them and then demorphing?")
> 
> 5.  [Probably not spoilers but](#s "Does Rachel still have the "bracelet" i.e. the Ongachic Snare from V3's second chapter? At first I thought she would have lost it with the other supplies in the asteroid strike, but then I thought maybe Ax determined what it was for, and so Rachel kept it on her person at all times afterward, so that it was with her after the Ellimist [?] rescued everyone.")

>> **u/TK17Studios** [+12]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (9 hours later)
>> 
>> Ax used the word "effectively" because he didn't want to take the time to explain that yes, there's still a moderately large energy drain and yes, you can only push so close to the lightspeed limit (not .99 or even .9c).  You *could* use this process to harvest kinetic energy, though.  It wouldn't be infinite, but it would be efficient.
>> 
>> Morphing tech has a wrinkle that hasn't yet been fully explained, only foreshadowed.
>> 
>> If you make a hybrid, there's no underlying mind at all.  It's a "feral" brain.
>> 
>> I considered having 4. be true, and having that be a ... disposal method ... that Rachel or David could use, but I decided against it.  Note that if you *eat* something, you can destroy it, so there's clearly some wiggle room there.
>> 
>> For 5. I sort of assumed it got destroyed, but given the circumstances of the fight in the pool and the teleportation and whatnot, it's possible she has it on her.  Thanks for the reminder.

>>> **u/LieGroupE8** [+3]  ** (10 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Regarding 5, it just seemed like [HPMOR spoilers](#s " a carbon nanotube type detail to me, something set up early on and there in the background, not mentioned again until it solves a major problem...")

>> **u/ZeroNihilist** [+6]  (8 hours later)
>> 
>> > The David situation was entirely predictable, of course. I wonder when one of the Animorphs will decide to check his mind again just in case?
>> 
>> Based on what Rachel was thinking, they will do a check as soon as the memories have had time to be fully encoded (1-2 days, apparently).
>> 
>> > Why not use [Z-space projectiles] all the time in space battles, since not even an absorption field protects against such energies? 
>> 
>> Same principle as not using nukes all the time, I think. If you create a precedent for using that technology, you start the escalation that ends with it being used to destroy your homeworld (although that's basically the slippery slope fallacy, non-rational people may buy into it anyway).
>> 
>> It's also possible that they require a lot of setup. Just because you can target an asteroid across the galaxy with arbitrary momentum doesn't mean you can do so instantly. See this quote from the previous chapter:
>> 
>> > A sudden instinct told us not to answer, but it was no use. ‹Then all it takes is a simple rock,› he continued. ‹We will time it to arrive in seven cycles—if you have further business with these Earth-people, conclude it by then.›
>> 
>> "We will time it to arrive in seven cycles" makes it sound like there's non-negligible travel time involved.

>>> **u/LieGroupE8** [+2]  ** (10 hours later)
>>> 
>>> > Based on what Rachel was thinking, they will do a check
>>> 
>>> Wait, where in the text was this?
>>> 
>>> > "We will time it to arrive in seven cycles" makes it sound like there's non-negligible travel time involved.
>>> 
>>> Well, there is some travel time in Z-space, but I assumed that most of the 7 cycles were just the Andalites giving Ax time to carry out his orders.
>>> 
>>> > Same principle as not using nukes all the time, I think.
>>> 
>>> Maybe, but this seems like potentially a more precise weapon than a Nuke. Couldn't you strap a small hyperdrive on a boulder and launch it at a nearby enemy spaceship? Presumably you intend to totally destroy the enemy spaceship anyway. Perhaps there are just more efficient weapons.

>>>> **u/CouteauBleu** [+9]  *We are the Empire.* (16 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> > Maybe, but this seems like potentially a more precise weapon than a Nuke. Couldn't you strap a small hyperdrive on a boulder and launch it at a nearby enemy spaceship? Presumably you intend to totally destroy the enemy spaceship anyway. Perhaps there are just more efficient weapons.
>>>> 
>>>> Maybe its max accuracy is a few hundred kilometers. Handy for orbital bombing, useless for space battles that don't take place in Star Wars movies.

>>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+6]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (16 hours later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Yeah, it's not easy to drop out of Z-space accurate down to tens-of-meters.

>>>> **u/ZeroNihilist** [+4]  (11 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> >> Based on what Rachel was thinking, they will do a check
>>>> 
>>>> > Wait, where in the text was this?
>>>> 
>>>> This part of Rachel's inner monologue after the David thing:
>>>> 
>>>> > It could have happened like that. Happened just wrong, been perfectly timed for the worst possible outcome. I didn’t know. **Couldn’t know, not until a day or two had passed, and the memory had coded itself and we could do a morph check.** And in the meantime—
>>>> 
>>>> Emphasis added.
>>>> 
>>>> > Well, there is some travel time in Z-space, but I assumed that most of the 7 cycles were just the Andalites giving Ax time to carry out his orders.
>>>> 
>>>> I don't recall anything in the story mentioning what the real-space equivalent of Z-space travel speed is. Travel time could be anything from a few seconds to almost three weeks, but if it's on the shorter end of that scale then there's not much point in saying they need to time it.
>>>> 
>>>> Compare "I've timed my letter to arrive in three weeks" to "I've timed my email to arrive in three weeks". Emails have such a short travel time that you may as well say "I'm sending my email in three weeks". This is weak textual evidence, however (it could just as well mean that the Andalites are very precise).
>>>> 
>>>> > Couldn't you strap a small hyperdrive on a boulder and launch it at a nearby enemy spaceship?
>>>> 
>>>> Assuming acceleration was virtually instant and travel time was very low, yes.
>>>> 
>>>> There may be an in-story explanation (e.g. some sort of shield that could work at ship scales but not planet-wide), it may be handwaved away, or it may be that the setting is about to be broken wide open.

> **u/Agnoman** [+10]  (9 hours later)
> 
> >If there is even one survivor of that planet with a Z-space capable ship, they could retaliate in kind
> 
> So if the Earth has a couple of hyperdrives lying about, can't they make the counter threat of "if you destroy our planet, we'll destroy yours?".
> 
> Admittedly it would involve Ax agreeing to levy the threat, as he's the only one with key info such as "how do we use this thing" and "where do we threaten to throw our rock", which I don't think he'd be all too happy with. (And I'm suspecting that there might be other issues or impracticalities I'm not considering. Maybe the hyperdrives they have are too small, or it takes maths and physics that humanity+Ax just don't have).
> 
> But even just  saying "by the way, we've got starfighters here" and raising the possibility would be one hell of a deterrent. If the Andalites think that there's an actual chance of a retaliation genocide, well, that's the sort of thing that makes you think twice.

>> **u/TK17Studios** [+6]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (15 hours later)
>> 
>> Yeah, Lirem might've made a different decision if he knew the humans have a gifted Bug fighter, but even then, he probably would've leaned on Ax's species loyalty.
>> 
>> I don't think it would be possible to convince Ax to threaten the homeworld in truth, though you *might* be able to get him to threaten it as a bargaining maneuver.  But then, if Lirem calls his bluff ...
>> 
>> Of course, you could have Ax just *give* the humans homeworld's coordinates, and *then* call up and say, here's the situation, call off the shot.  But that makes him an open, hunted traitor on par with Alloran, just as much as if he told the Yeerks ...

>>> **u/CouteauBleu** [+8]  *We are the Empire.* (16 hours later)
>>> 
>>> "Hey Lirem! It's me again. Okay, the thing is, I've talked with the humans, and they talked with the yeerk fleet, and we agreed that, if Earth happened to blow up *for any reason*, they would send a rock to blow up the Andalites"
>>> 
>>> "You're bluffing."
>>> 
>>> "Oh, by the way, I'm not actually Aximili. I'm the yeerk controlling Aximili. We know how to bypass earplugs now. So don't blow up our new planet or else."
>>> 
>>> "... Shit."
>>> 
>>> Seriously though, it would be kind of strange if yeerks had the technology to blow up the homeworld of their sworn enemy (and with it, their supply lines and reserve troops) and had just sat on it.
>>> 
>>> Maybe the yeerks only use stolen hyperdrives? Like, the technology is too advanced for Naharans to reproduce, so their only option is to steal hyperdrive from Andalite civilian ships and those are hardcoded to align to the average velocity of the star closest to the exit point?

>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+6]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (16 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> It's only been two years.  I think Alloran's the only Controller who'd really make the connection (the Naharans could figure it out technically, but not strategically) and Alloran *very much wants the Andalite people alive and under his thumb if at all possible.*
>>>> 
>>>> In general, he's strongly life-conserving/life-preserving, Ventura being a notable outlier but not *really* relevant given Yeerk fungibility and seven billion humans.
>>>> 
>>>> Also, Andalites are spread across multiple planets, so even if he takes out the home world, they can then retaliate against every known Yeerk-occupied world.

>>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+5]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (16 hours later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> He'd have to destroy every Andalite planet at once, *and* be confident there weren't any new ones since he took Alloran that he'd missed, *and* be confident that any surviving spacefaring Andalite ships were insufficient to hit back.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Kiiiind of makes you want to start a hidden world somewhere that you don't tell anyone about, right?

>>>>>> **u/CouteauBleu** [+6]  *We are the Empire.* (16 hours later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I kind of thought that was the whole Yeerk MO. Even without the creativity to invent new strategies, they probably understand "Hide from a scary superior enemy, infest new hosts while out of sight" pretty well since they're not the dominant species on their homeworld.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> So their default MO when faced with an enemy with more resources and technology would be to hide and try to infest planets faster than the Andalites can find them; if they infest 10 planets and the Andalites only find and purge 9 of them, they're good!
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Which is a nice parallel to canon!Ellimist's strategy against Crayak, probably one of my favorite ideas from original Animorphs.

>>>>>>> **u/None** [+6]  (a day later)
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Remind me what canon!Ellimist's strategy against Crayak was? I read the series (twice I think) but it's been more than a decade.

>>>>>>>> **u/CouteauBleu** [+9]  *We are the Empire.* (a day later)
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> It's kind of a throwaway plot point in Ellimist Chronicles.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Ellimist starts voyaging from planet to planet and help the natives in subtle undetectable godly ways; then Crayak shows up and starts killing everyone Ellimist helped because he's the bad guy. They keep this up for a while, Ellimist tries to save people but Crayak is just better at killing them. Ellimist starts being depressed because apparently even when he's a god he's a loser.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Short story shorter, after spending some time with Andalite cavemen, he decides that he can just start seeding life on as many planets as he can, faster than Crayak can destroy them. It works, and he creates the Pemalites for that purpose (also fun and pacifism, in the image of his lost people).

>>>>>>>>> **u/None** [+3]  (a day later)
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> Thanks.

> **u/TK17Studios** [+7]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (a minute later)
> 
> Also available on [fanfiction](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11090259/36/r-Animorphs-The-Reckoning).
> 
> [Read me after](#s "Some people will correctly point out and be bothered by the fact that Rachel is yet again not kicking ass.  To that, I say: 1) setting up dominos, and 2) her average  badassery is still going to be crazy through the roof, once all is said and done.")

>> **u/CouteauBleu** [+7]  *We are the Empire.* (17 hours later)
>> 
>> Honestly, just seeing Rachel respond to several pressing crises is kind of fun, even if all she ultimately does is talk to people and slowly go insane.
>> 
>> It's like how one of ME2's best missions was about tracking down and talking to a serial killer, with no combat gameplay at all; when you're the GM, if you want your players to be excited, you need them to have a clear goal and be worried and make important choices under pressure; but you don't need people to shoot things at all.

> **u/philh** [+7]  (10 hours later)
> 
> Why has no individual ever wiped out a planet? Are z-space capable ships particularly hard to come by (maybe like, aircraft-carrier level), or do the species with access to them not produce members with that kind of mentality? (I can come up with plausible reasons why no Yeerk or Andalite, or team of rogue Yeerks or Andalites, would ever do it, but is there a separate argument for all species with z-space capabilities?)
> 
> If it's the latter... what happens when humanity gets their hands on them?
> 
> (Are bug fighters z-space capable?)

>> **u/TK17Studios** [+11]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (11 hours later)
>> 
>> It has happened, in history unknown to Ax, in other parts of the galaxy, and it resulted in the predictable total mutual annihilation.  I think I might manage to squeeze in somewhere that this is why the Skrit Na are itinerant nomads.  But while it *has happened,* with a 'd' at the end, it's not something that *happens,* with an 's.'
>> 
>> Sort of like how nuclear bombs *have been* used in war on Earth, but (at least so far; fingers crossed) they *are not* used in war on Earth.
>> 
>> Bug fighters are Z-space capable.

>>> **u/LeifCarrotson** [+5]  (11 hours later)
>>> 
>>> Nuclear bombs are very difficult to manufacture, requiring resources only available to nation-states to mine, purify, and breed the radioactive materials. Plus a lot of technical knowledge to construct the bomb itself. 
>>> 
>>> Individuals in this story pilot ships with hyperdrives by themselves all the time. This isn't a nuke, it's a car bomb...and those happen all the time. But neither car bombs nor suicide vests have the lethality of a planet-busting nuke.
>>> 
>>> You've run into [Jon's Law](http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/prelimnotes.php#johnslaw). In particular:
>>> 
>>> > So one of the logical ramification is that if drives are too powerful, there won't be any colorful tramp freighters or similar vessels. As a matter of fact, civilian spacecraft will probably by law be required to have a remote control self-destruct device that the Patrol can use to eliminate any ship that looks like it is behaving erratically or suspiciously.
>>> 
>>> One other defense might be as follows: My understanding​ is that you can put nearby matter into Z-space by hijacking. There's no "parking brake", just put your ship near (or around) the other and make the jump. So one defense mechanism would be to have a few Z-space capable ships in orbit, and a monitoring system that watched space near the planet for fast-approaching objects coming out of Z-space. If you see an object, you FTL jump to it (13/14ths light speed is nothing compared to FTL travel), come out of hyperspace, grab it, and jump back to hyperspace with it in tow. Hopefully you pass through the planet in Z-space.  
>>> 
>>> Now, I am not familiar with the mechanics of Animorph Z-space. Perhaps you can just come out of warp at the center of the planet, which makes this defense impossible. Or there is a hyperspace jammer they can turn on, or the planet itself has a hard limit on how close to the gravity field you can jump and the bomb crosses that line in microseconds. 
>>> 
>>> But it seems ridiculous that this universe has no terrorists.

>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+8]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (12 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> "It seems ridiculous that, based on assumptions I'm making that aren't a direct extension of claims in the text, my conclusions aren't in agreement with yours." =P
>>>> 
>>>> Hyperdrives are very difficult to manufacture, requiring resources only available to nation states or large manufacturing powers, plus a lot of technical knowledge. Note that Visser Three's got a giant fleet, but among his thirteen Star Ddestroyed equivalents and starfighter complement, there are fewer than 200 hyperdrives. And he's the MAIN military antagonist active in the galaxy at present.
>>>> 
>>>> I like your descriptions of various defenses, most of which would technically work, against inept or halfhearted attacks (so, like 90% of them). But yeah, a clever enemy would e.g. have the thing pop out of Z-space half a light second out and moving at .6c. And entering and exiting Z-space isn't the sort of thing you can do in a tenth of a second, or multiple times per second.
>>>> 
>>>> There are terrorists in the galaxy, but note that most successful races have stronger-than-human social pressures and hive-minding.

>>>>> **u/LeifCarrotson** [+7]  (12 hours later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> >"It seems ridiculous that, based on assumptions I'm making that aren't a direct extension of claims in the text, my conclusions aren't in agreement with yours." =P
>>>>> 
>>>>> Good summary lol. I'm​ trying to base my assumptions on the text, with some slight extensions based on comparable real science and comparable sci-fi. I'm sorry if I've misunderstood some of the text, but I like to think I'm a relatively careful reader. 
>>>>> 
>>>>> >Note that Visser Three's got a giant fleet, but among his thirteen Star Destroyer equivalents and starfighter complement, there are fewer than 200 hyperdrives. And he's the MAIN military antagonist active in the galaxy at present.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Wow, that's shocking. I guess I forget that Ax and Elfangor are exceptional. I would have guessed the Andelites, with a population of one billion, would have at least a few thousand hyperdrives, if not a million! Humanity, with a population of seven billion, have on the order of 20,000 commercial jet aircraft.  How do these many species and their huge galaxy-spanning societies function in an interstellar context with so few hyperdrives? 
>>>>> 
>>>>> >There are terrorists in the galaxy, but note that most successful races have stronger-than-human social pressures and hive-minding. 
>>>>> 
>>>>> That is an interesting note. A sort of resolution to the Fermi paradox: it is the nature of intelligent life to destroy itself, unless it has strong self-preserving social pressures?

>>>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+8]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (15 hours later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Hearts.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> The Andalites probably do have a few thousand hyperdrives in total, including all military, non-military government, scientific, and civilian ships.  But they're not all that galaxy-spanning ... a few dozen worlds, and that's it, and also most of them are homebodies and don't really have wanderlust.  Elfangor was the Andalites' premier war hero after Alloran's fall, and one of *very* few warriors with a ship under his complete and unquestioned control (i.e. no officers' consensus needed).
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> The Yeerks probably have nearly the same amount of interstellar capability as the Andalites, by now, but that's after harvesting *several* other races and booting up manufacturing capability as quickly as they could.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> The Skrit-Na probably have the *most* Z-space capable ships, given their nomadic nature.  But yeah, what I wanted to show was something like, think of how expensive a real-life X-wing would be, given near-future technology.  We might make a hundred, as the world's largest military power, and it would cost tens of billions (if not trillions) of dollars.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I always thought it was silly in e.g. Star Wars, when ships were treated as throwaway, and you could afford to lose hundreds in any given battle.  If *I* had an X-wing, I wouldn't let it just get potshot out of the sky ... I would be *extremely* cautious in how I used it.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> That's where I got "hyperdrives rare and expensive," and from that, I got "people don't really use them as bombs," which seemed sane from the perspective of retaliation.  Sort of how Ender's Game got retconned such that the Buggers *always* had Little Doctor tech, but they never dreamed of actually using it.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Note that Earth probably *could* produce millions of hyperdrives.  In canon and this AU, Earth is oddly unique in that humans are super prolific given their relative intelligence, and also the ground and biosphere are rich with resources.  That's why V3's bothering to mess with us instead of just saying, *too hard, screw this* and going elsewhere.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> re: Fermi paradox, I haven't thought about it *too* much, because in the end I can always fall back on "the gods did it" (though I want to avoid doing that too often).  But yeah, the fact that most of the species we've seen thus far are either hive-mind-ish (Yeerks, Andalites, Howlers, Leerans), deontologically cooperative (Chee), or hanging by a thread/low-tech (Hork-Bajir, Taxxons) could give clues to the Great Filter in this universe.

>>>>>>> **u/nonoforreal** [+4]  (22 hours later)
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> So, I'm now wondering why Elfangor, who came to earth in the first place with the intention of exterminating humans to prevent them from falling into enemy hands, used whatever experimental method he tried instead of firing a few of these hyperspace bombs you guys are discussing.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Especially since he knows about the godlike aliens meddling. Especially if he knows about their balanced move rules. Even if the enemy stops those relativistic projectiles from hitting, it seems like it gives the guy in your corner quite a bit of future wiggle room to use on your behalf.

>>>>>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+3]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (23 hours later)
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Elfangor was serving as the avatar/Hand of one of the gods, in canon.  That hasn't made its way into this, but it's implied and may end up being confirmed.

>>> **u/CouteauBleu** [+3]  *We are the Empire.* (16 hours later)
>>> 
>>> And then you have those asshole billionaire heirs to Andalite corporations who just go and blow up random planets for fun or to animate their birthday parties.

> **u/Aeroway** [+5]  (23 hours later)
> 
> Oh man, I really want to see if David ends up being evil or not.
> 
> If I may offer a bit of constructive criticism, I'm having a hard time following the conversations and would really appreciate a few more dialogue tags to mark speakers. Especially in conversations with more than 2 people.

> **u/KnickersInAKnit** [+6]  (14 hours later)
> 
> Hold on just a second - how does Z space coordinate-setting work? The Andalites dun goofed and that rock isn't going to be there in 23 days like everyone's assuming. By the time it actually arrives, the Earth will be in another part of its orbit and nowhere close to the rock coming out of Z space. 
> 
> ...hopefully no other planet/moon is in its path when it comes out either. But space is vast, thankfully.
> 
> There's still that extra single shard of Aftran that Tobias gave away in a stasis cylinder. He hasn't remembered about that one yet?
> 
> After joining with Telor, are Temrash and Essak going to be returned like they were? How will they prevent Telor from putting highly modified shards/completely different ones back into Ax and Peter?
> 
> This chapter came out quickly! Glad to see that you're back in the writing groove.

>> **u/TK17Studios** [+4]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (15 hours later)
>> 
>> Remember, Lirem asked for *both* Earth's current position, *and* for the shape and rate of its orbit.  Presumably nailing that to the Sun (and being able to extrapolate the Sun's movements from simple observation) is enough.
>> 
>> I was treating the shard Tobias gave Poznanski as being dead by now, thanks to the fact that humans almost *certainly* wanted to dissect and study it.  Tyagi probably doesn't want to bring that up.
>> 
>> If I were the Animorphs, I'd probably give them Essak, but *not* Temrash.  Ax seems to have a good thing going, all told, even if people other than Rachel react negatively to his ET-call-home decision.  But yeah, there's not really any way to guard against that sort of treachery.  You could try getting a Leeran, or agree to have the Yeerk drain out after 24 hours before getting back in, or have the oatmeal providers do a werewolf contract thing, but all of that is risky.

>>> **u/CouteauBleu** [+5]  *We are the Empire.* (16 hours later)
>>> 
>>> >  Tyagi probably doesn't want to bring that up.
>>> 
>>> It would be nice if one of the Animorphs *did* bring it up.
>>> 
>>> Rachel: So what happened to that shard we gave you last month? We got it from Ventura, so it was probably Aftran, right?
>>> 
>>> Tyagi: *awkward silence*
>>> 
>>> TemrAx: For that matter, what happened to that shard that was in the cylinder Prince Jake offered to Illim?
>>> 
>>> Rachel: *awkward silence*
>>> 
>>> > Remember, Lirem asked for both Earth's current position, and for the shape and rate of its orbit
>>> 
>>> Yeah, I was kind of hoping I could save Earth by nitpicking, but then I checked again, and yup, he did ask for position *and* speed).

>>> **u/Loiathal** [+3]  (17 hours later)
>>> 
>>> > Remember, Lirem asked for both Earth's current position, and for the shape and rate of its orbit. Presumably nailing that to the Sun (and being able to extrapolate the Sun's movements from simple observation) is enough.
>>> 
>>> Right, so after the first rock fails to show up on time, and arrives 4 months late, they'll be able to recalculate. But until they know the time delay, they can't even send a second rock, right?

>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+5]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (19 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> Correct.  The only person with a sufficiently detailed map of the Z-space terrain around the solar system is Visser Three.

>>>>> **u/Loiathal** [+4]  (19 hours later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Gotcha! So I guess that means our time until Earth is destroyed is actually more like 8 months-- 4 months for the first rock to fail, then the Andalites recalculate and send another rock, which takes another 4 months.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Although literally no one realizes this, and Z-space could change between then and now.

> **u/kleind305** [+5]  (a day later)
> 
> >If I may offer a bit of constructive criticism, I'm having a hard time following the conversations and would really appreciate a few more dialogue tags to mark speakers. Especially in conversations with more than 2 people.
> 
> Seconding this.
> 
> Additionally, the thing about Rachel being confused or messed with and having intrusive thoughts is.. confusing. I don't know what's going on and I feel like I've missed something. Can we have an interlude where we see what ellimist and crayak are up to that also functions as a little bit of an exposition dump? I'm getting lost and I don't want to be lost.

>> **u/TK17Studios** [+6]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (a day later)
>> 
>> Unfortunately, at this point, if we showed you what Crayak and the Ellimist were up to, then the jig would be up.
>> 
>> I'll look at more dialogue tags, but in part the hard-to-follow-ness is what you're intended to feel; the key is to make it feel confusing without popping you *out* of the story.

>>> **u/kleind305** [+3]  (a day later)
>>> 
>>> Too far this time, unfortunately. It's just hard to get a frame of reference and grounding for Rachel's thoughts — we don't have an established baseline? 
>>> 
>>> I liked marco's bit with david: a single definitive intervention, clearly showing the contrast. Obviously rachel is of interest to ellimist/crayak — I remember "The Return" — but this tug of war (?) is just confusing. Mystery is not confusion! Confusion is not mystery! These unreliable narrators are too unreliable! I'm going crazy!!

>>>> **u/TK17Studios** [+3]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (a day later)
>>>> 
>>>> Oh.  I think something's being miscommunicated, here—Crayak/Ellimist have zero screentime in this chapter.  Zero screentime in the last chapter, too.  Zero in *most* chapters, really—when they intervene directly, it's usually going to be *quite* obvious.

>>>>> **u/kleind305** [+4]  (a day later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Nevermind, I think I'm just dense. Rereading it, it seems more like simple shock that's preventing rachel from getting a handle on things.

> **u/MagicWeasel** [+5]  *Cheela Astronaut* (a day later)
> 
> So... my office has blocked AoOO for "violence". Very few pages are blocked. At least FF works. Time to get stuck into it. So exciting!
> 
> Another wonderful chapter - after having a hard time following the previous one, I found this one really straight forward, the *in media res* part was easy to pick up, and everything got explained pretty well, only now I'm wondering what David is up to and how we can stop him...

> **u/360Saturn** [+3]  (23 hours later)
> 
> Rachel is wonderful. Perhaps a bit less smart than some of the others, or intelligent in a different way, but that and her recklessness and ruthlessness give her a unique insight into certain situations. In that way she can easily step into the shoes Cassie often wore in canon, as one of the grounded team members. The fact she knows Cassie well *and* can be critical of how *she* would have done things is just icing on the cake.

> **u/jldew** [+3]  (5 days later)
> 
> /u/TK17Studios Does interdictor technology like in Star Wars exist.

>> **u/TK17Studios** [+2]  *Author of r!Animorphs: The Reckoning* (5 days later)
>> 
>> Sort of.  The "gods" clearly have the ability to construct Z-space barriers, Z-space slowzones, and other things of that nature.  However, none of the other characters and races we've seen so far have used any sort of technology that points toward interdictors.

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