Erek King

Erek King is a fictional character from the Animorphs series by K.A. Applegate. He is a member of the Chee, a pacifistic android race created by the Pemalites. Erek King was the name of a real Animorphs fan who won a competition on the Animorphs Official Site to have his name included in one of the books. Erek was originally intended as a minor character, but ended up becoming one of the most important secondary characters in the series.

After the destruction of the Pemalites at the hands of the Howlers, Erek, along with the rest of the Chee, escaped to Earth, and has lived there for thousands of years, using incredibly advanced holographic technology to pass as human. In an early book, Erek, through the use of the Pemalite Crystal, reprogrammed himself to remove his inability to do violence and slaughtered about two dozen Hork-Bajir in less than five minutes, but, unable to cope with the memory of violence and unable to forget it, he vowed never to fight again. The Pemalite Crystal was discarded (see Chee). The Animorphs befriended Erek after learning he was a spy against the Yeerks- having pretended to become a voluntary host, Erek had subsequently tapped into the Yeerk's memory rather than the other way around, providing the Yeerk with Kandrona rays he generated himself to stop it escaping, and Erek - and most of the other Chee - assisted them whenever they could, whether it was passing them sensitive Yeerk information, masquerading as the human Animorphs while the real Animorphs were away on a mission, or even assisting the Animorphs on some of the missions (such as #26: The Attack). Generally Erek was the Animorphs' 'default' Chee ally, although on one occasion (in #38: The Arrival) Ax asked the Chee posing as Erek's father for assistance in hacking into an Andalite computer.

As the series progressed Erek became a more important character, until the final battle in #53: The Answer and #54: The Beginning, in which the Animorphs forced Erek's hand, taking advantage of his non-violent programming to force him into acting in situations that he felt were morally reprehensible. After the defeat of the Yeerk Empire, Cassie told Erek that Jake said for him to leave the ship if Erek wanted to keep the Chee identity secret since the Andalites were coming on board. This was not a friendly parting since Jake (and maybe others) blamed Erek for the death of Rachel since Erek drained the Dracon beam so Jake would not be able to defend the ship and possibly kill others, while Erek was horrified by Jake's decision to vent the Yeerk pool, killing those Yeerks feeding therein. The Blade Ship manned by Jake's brother Tom was going to fire on the Pool Ship thus Rachel had to attack Tom to stop it. Both ended up dying. Erek left telling Cassie to take care of Jake since Jake would need her. The series does not mention what happened to him or the other Chee after the battle's end.

Known identities

Mentions of Erek's previous lives include a laborer that assisted in the construction of the Great Pyramids of Giza for the Egyptian empire, a citizen of a country ravaged by Attila the Hun, a witness of the first performance of Hamlet by William Shakespeare in the 16th century, Catherine the Great's hair dresser, Ludwig van Beethoven's valet, Louis Pasteur's assistant, and President Franklin Roosevelt's butler. Furthermore, Erek has also passed as Marco on several occasions — despite his tendency to clean Marco's room, much to the Animorph's dismay.

Appearance

Erek's primary hologram, as described by Marco in Book 10, is that of a human boy. He has "brown hair, just a little over his ears." Erek is about five feet tall, a bit shorter than Jake. Marco says he looks strong and confident.