History - Arbron

If there is one thing we Andalites fear, it is enclosed spaces. We had evolved on the grassy plains of our home world, pack animals by nature. Once a species of wandering and defenseless herbivores, we had eventually developed our tail blades to protect ourselves from the various predators that existed on our planet.

Hmph, just listen to me talk. As if I can still consider myself to be an Andalite. Where I was once uncomfortable merely by being aboard a space craft, the narrow, convoluted tunnels we were passing through now barely fazed me. Perhaps it was the Taxxon's instincts that caused me to feel less discomfort in the cramped confines of their traveling warrens.

The very instincts that were powerful enough to drive me into the crazed hunger earlier might have also been strong enough to overcome my inherent claustrophobia.

As I pondered the ability of the Taxxon's natural instincts to overwhelm reason and fear, I was drawn along the seemingly endless length of the dark tunnel by a gentle vacuum. Where the vacuum came from, I could not possibly guess, but it was somehow soothing being moved around in it. Two of the three Taxxons that had found the crashed Skrit Na ship were already ahead of me, whereas the third was behind me, along with the two cocooned Skrit and the single mobile Skrit that they had agreed to take as food in place of Elfangor.

We had found Elfangor just several meters away from the ship, lying unconscious on the hard-packed dirt of the Taxxon planet's surface. Miraculously, he had survived being thrown out of the ship during its violent descent.

((BE CALM, ARBRON,)) the Living Hive's voice spoke up in my mind, ((WE ARE SOON TO ARRIVE AT THE MAIN COLONY.))

With a soft and wet-sounding PLOP, I fell out of the tunnel's exit and landed in an undignified heap on some moist, loamy soil. Struggling to get up onto my slowly-regenerating legs, I looked up, and very nearly exclaimed with shock at what I saw.

There were Taxxons everywhere! They were crawling all over the massive underground chamber, going about their own business. Innumerable tunnels dug into the walls of the chamber were visible, leading to places that I didn't want to think about.

I felt a rush of fear shoot through my mind, not all of it my own - the Taxxon in me was equally afraid of being cannibalized by its own people.

((IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN HERE. ALL TAXXONS ARE MY OFFSPRING AND BRETHREN. ONLY THOSE WHO ALLY THEMSELVES WITH THE YEERKS SHALL END UP CONSUMING EACH OTHER, WITHOUT MY GUIDANCE TO KEEP THEIR BASAL INSTINCTS UNDER CONTROL.))

Abruptly, the hunger in my Taxxon's mind became vastly diminished. If the Living Hive wanted to prove a point, it certainly did so rather impressively.

Liberated of my fears and appetite - at least for now - I began to observe the Taxxons that were moving about in their natural environment. Somehow, the Taxxons in here all seemed to look slightly more active than those which I had seen working for the Yeerks. They also looked different, though my mind struggled for a bit to compare them with the Taxxon specimens I had seen before...

It was then that it struck me - they were all much thinner than the Taxxons in the Yeerk space port. Where the Yeerk's Taxxon workers were bloated worms that slithered around slowly, these Taxxons were sleeker and thinner. I even observed some of them with numerous scars and healing wounds decorating their slimy bodies. Doubtlessly, food was scarce in the wilderness of this planet, and they certainly looked the part.

((IT WAS NOT ALWAYS LIKE THIS.))

((What?)) I replied nervously. The Living Hive's had already been using its apparent telepathic powers to pluck some bits of information from my mind for a while now, but I still found it somewhat unnerving, ((What do you mean, 'it wasn't always like this'?))

((I SHALL ENTER YOUR MIND, AND YOU SHALL UNDERSTAND THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS THAT LED TO OUR HUNGER.))

((What could possibly have happened? An asteroid collision?)) I asked the Living Hive.

((I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE SCIENCE OF IT ALL. ALL I REMEMBER IS THAT A STAR FELL, AND THAT WAS WHERE OUR CURSE BEGAN.))

The chamber was plunged into darkness, and images began to form in my mind of their own volition.

I stood in the middle of a grassy clearing, a warm, relaxing breeze blowing in my direction. Tall trees bordered the clearing, with dense clusters of undergrowth liberally covering the ground beneath their leafy canopies. Birds and insects chirped and sang all around me, giving the clearing a sense of extreme serenity.

((Where am I?)) I asked no one in particular.

((THIS WAS HOW OUR WORLD USED TO BE.))

Momentarily stunned by the Living Hive's declaration, I could only reply with a meaningless, ((Uh?))

((THIS WAS THE STATE OF OUR WORLD, BEFORE THE STAR FELL FROM THE SKY.))

((Ah, so it was an asteroid or meteorite that damaged your world,)) I said, nodding my head slightly.

The Living Hive remained silent, and before I could say anything more, the sky darkened.

((What? Living Hive?))

Suddenly, the entire sky lit up with an intense, glaring light. The air became progressively hotter, slowly turning the grass into cinders and the trees into kindling. Soon enough, the landscape was charred and blackened, the clearing where I stood now little more than a lifeless piece of land.

In the distance, there was a titanic explosion, as the asteroid or meteorite impacted on the planet's surface. The ground quaked severely, nearly causing me to topple over despite the Taxxon's low-slung body and widely spread legs. The air now reeked of smoke and something vaguely sulfurous, as it became drier and hotter.

The landscape around me shifted shapes, until I stood in a tunnel illuminated by phosphorescent algae. Up ahead of me were several crustacean-like creatures, with four glowing red eyes each. They moved with eerily synchronized steps, their eyes looking all in the same direction.

Out of the blue, the tunnel shook, bits of dirt falling from the ceiling. The four creatures rapidly began scrabbling at the ground beneath their numerous, stick-like legs, clearly trying to tunnel their way to safety. But it was too late - the tunnel collapsed as the earthquake continued, and the creatures were all crushed by the falling ceiling of the tunnel.

((THOSE WERE THE TAXXONS, IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE STAR FELL FROM THE HEAVENS.))

I stood there, still suspended in the illusory realm, my mind slowly absorbing the meaning of the Living Hive's words. So the Taxxon home world had once been a planet that could sustain life, but which had been devastated by an asteroid impact. But what I still couldn't understand was how an entity such as the Living Hive had evolved.

((YOU HAVE SEEN OUR HISTORY,)) the Living Hive boomed, ((AND YET YOU FAIL TO UNDERSTAND.))

((But... How? How did you become into such a powerful being?))

((I AM NOT A 'BEING', ARBRON. ALL TAXXONS ONCE SHARED A COMMON KNOWLEDGE, A SINGLE CONSCIENCE. I AM MERELY THAT SAME CONSCIENCE GIVEN A MEASURE OF INTELLIGENCE.))

Common conscience... Intelligence? ((You are the evolved form of a primitive hive mind!))

((USE YOUR OWN WORDS FOR IT YOU MAY, BUT YES, THAT IS THE GIST OF IT.))

My mind reeled with the sudden realization of how the Taxxons had become the way they were today. The collision would have made food scarce, and as such, their hive mind had evolved into something much more intelligent than circumstances usually permitted. Hence the Living Hive.

But what about the hunger?

Once again, as if to show off its awesome mental might, the Living Hive supplied me with an answer, ((I MADE THEM AFRAID, ARBRON. IT WAS THE ONLY WAY.))

((Why, though? They could still forage without the 'curse', as you put it.))

((I ONLY WANTED THEM TO SURVIVE. BUT I OVERSTEPPED MY BOUNDARIES, AND EVENTUALLY, THEY BECAME MORE RAVENOUS THAN I WOULD HAVE ALLOWED FOR.))

((What does fear have to do with hunger?))

((THEY ALL FEAR WHAT THEY MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO GET... AND I MADE THEM FEAR BEING HUNGRY.))

Finally, I understood what the Living Hive had done, out of desperation to save the Taxxon species. It had instilled a pathological fear of starvation in them, which sort of explained the ravenous nature of a Taxxon.

In a way, I began to pity them - an entire species of terrified over-eaters. They ate not to survive, but due to the phobia of wasting away when their basic needs weren't met.

Eons ago, that very fear had allowed their species to survive the massive food shortage that blighted their world. But now, it was something that had led to enslavement of their species, and the sickening cannibalism that Taxxons were infamous for.

A thought struck me, and I voiced out my query to the Living Hive, ((Living Hive, why didn't you try to order your Taxxons not to follow the Yeerks?))

((AS I EVOLVED INTO WHAT I AM TODAY, SO DID THEY. I NOW ONLY HAVE INFLUENCE OVER THOSE WHO WISH TO OBEY ME.))

((You cannot force them to bow to your will?))

((TO DO SO WOULD KILL THEM.))

For the first time ever, I felt sorry for the Taxxons. They had been granted the most unfair of circumstances by which their species was to survive on, and had wound up enslaved. Fate was cruel, indeed.

((LAMENTING THE PAST DOES NOT LEAD TO FREEDOM!)) announced the Living Hive forcefully, ((WE HAVE DECIDED TO DO WHAT WE CAN TO DRIVE THE YEERKS FROM THIS WORLD. THE QUESTION IS... WILL YOU HELP US?))

I remained silent for a while, and the Living Hive mercifully left me some peace and quiet to think in.

I could never go home again.

I would never be free of this body ever again.

With a pang of hurt, I realized that I could no longer call the Andalites my species.

((ARBRON?)) this time, the Living Hive's voice was softer, and almost seemed... caring.

((I will help you fight the Yeerks,)) I declared firmly, ((How many Taxxons can you spare for fighting?))

The Living Hive answered my question, and the next one, and the one after that.

And all the while, deep inside my hearts, I cried.