Chapter 1: Family Reunion

Far above Earth's atmosphere, past the satellites and avoiding detection, a small, silver spacecraft zoomed through the blackness. Powerful cameras had been installed on the outside of the craft and were surveying the blue and green planet's surface. The ship held high-tech alien engineering, powerful weapons, and one smallish but quite angry pilot and her robot.

The pilot looked over the screens displaying the cameras' views of the planet below them. She was growing increasingly frustrated as they revealed no sign of who she was searching for. Losing her temper altogether, she shouted, "I'VE HAD IT WITH THIS! Ten years, Phobos," she said, addressing her robot companion, "Ten whole years of searching, and not a sign of her in this whole bloody galaxy!"

She continued to monitor the screens, pulling on her silky antennae with anxiety. Phobos asked tentatively, "If I may be so bold, Mistress, I'm wondering how much longer we should keep up this search."

She whirled around to glare at her robot. A blue spark darted across her silver eyes in much the way it did with her sister. Phobos shrank back. She muttered, "There is no way we are turning back now. She's been missing for fifty years, and we have looked almost everywhere she could possibly be. I could scarcely believe it when she was reported missing, just disappeared off the face of Planet Dirt. I'm breaking all sorts of laws doing this, of course, but she's my sister. I could care less what the Tallest tell me to do in this situation. As a matter of fact, I'm getting sick of following their orders anyway. If that makes me a Defective, well, then," she said bitterly, "I don't really care to be normal."

Suddenly, a high pitched signal sounded from the radar screen. She looked over to see a purple blip on the screen coming towards the gray triangle that represented her ship at an incredible pace. She looked out the windshield, and sure enough, there was a tiny purple craft about half the size of their ship careening towards them. Alarmed, the pilot threw the ship into reverse to avoid a collision. Then she got a better look at the craft. Was it a trick of the eyes? No, the pod was definitely Irken technology. She backed the ship up to the pod as close as she could so as to allow any passengers to board. There was a hissing noise as the airlocks on both crafts opened, and a thud as the other Irken boarded the ship. Phobos raced to the back to help. The pilot followed, and was struck dumb by what she saw.

An Irken that looked almost exactly like her had crawled into the ship, except she wore purple instead of black, her eyes were purple instead of silver, and her antennae were curled in back, while the pilot's had three long zigzag shapes. She noticed that the Irken had a SIR unit with her. The four stood staring at each other for several moments, and then the one in black ran forward and grabbed the other in a huge hug. Through her tears, she said, "I missed you so much."

When she let go, the other said sort of dazedly, "Kezzi? Is that you?"

The pilot grinned. "Yes, Tak. It's good to see you again. Why were you in that escape pod?"

Tak's eyes narrowed in rage. "It's all his fault," she hissed.

Her sister asked, "Whose fault? What happened?"

Tak related the entire incident, from her escape off of Planet Dirt to how Zim, a notorious Irken troublemaker, had tried to get her to be his 'love pig' and ended up thwarting her plot for world domination. Kezzi had definitely heard of Zim before-there were few Irkens who hadn't. He had caused a planet-wide blackout when he was just a newborn Smeet, and went on to ruin The Tallests' plan for galactic conquest, Impending Doom 1. She hadn't heard the latest news about him, however. She asked incredulously, "Zim is down there? Trying to take over that planet?"

Tak replied, "Yes, but he's doing a god-awful job of it. But because he seems to have all the luck in the world, only two humans know his true identity. And one of them doesn't even care."

Kezzi thought for a moment. "So, you have a human disguise? Can I see it?

Tak pressed a button on the device attached to one side of her head, and all at once, her appearance melted into that of an ordinary Earth child. Her skin turned a whitish-pinkish color, she grew deep blue hair, and her purple eyes transformed into heavy-lidded ones with purple irises. Her SIR unit morphed into a black cat. Kezzi was very impressed. She couldn't tell the difference between her and any other human. She asked, "Could I get a disguise like that?"

Tak gave her a funny look but said, "Sure. I've got a spare Disguise Simulator here somewhere…" she dug around in her pocket and took out a small device. "You just clamp that to your head and a pair of goggles will come out. Then you use the buttons on the side of the goggles to scan through disguise options. But, why do you need this?"

Kezzi smiled mischievously. "I think you deserve another try at taking over this dirty rock. And this time, you'll have a little help from the family."

Tak looked surprised, and then gave a horrid grin. "I like the way you think, Sis."

With that, the two sped off toward the planet beneath them, with an ingenious plot unfolding in their twin minds.