Asking around: what is your best guess about why Menderash heard Aximili say <Jake> from the Blade Ship?
I guess I didn't realize there was a debate.
I always just figured Ax was telling Menderash someone to go to for help in dealing with this problem. It's not like there are that many people named Jake who are familiar to most andalites, so Menderash could easily figure out that Ax was asking for Jake Berenson, not Jake Gyllenhaal.
Like when you fall and injure yourself, and yell to your sibling "get Mom!" Or how The Da Vinci Code opens with the murdered guy telling his daughter "find Robert Langdon." You know someone who can help; you send the non-imperiled party to fetch them. Jake is reasonably qualified to deal with The One, because he's one of the few people with morph-combat experience who can safely enter kelbrid space.
HOWEVER, to play devil's advocate: Ax could be calling out to Jake instinctively, because he's distressed and he's called Jake's name to get help during past battles. Or Ax could have tried to send a longer message, such as «Please tell Jake Berenson that this is a being whose exact nature and weaknesses I shall now go on to describe...» but only one word made it through. Or when Ax encountered The One, it took on Jake's face, and Ax was saying «Jake?» as in "what the heck are you doing here?" Or Ax meant to call out for Menderash, but embarrassingly enough got his names confused in a moment of extreme distress.
