Irken Down Under

by Anabelle Bogus

Lat was an Irken scientist with an oblivious and ignorant attitude, and yet a high IQ, once they find themselves in a situation and forget all common sense, they find themselves at Earth, specifically, in Tasmania, Australia. They soon found an ally, but many adventures are to pursue these two characters after their meeting, you'll see!

Episode 1

Pilot

Lat yawned as they boredly sat in the conference room where Invaders were being sent to planets, there was a sudden disruption in the middle of the gathering, but they couldn't exactly see what was causing all the commotion. After they left the gathering, they decided to get a snack. The Irken had trouble reaching the slot with her unusually small pak legs. Lat huffed in annoyance as they tried harder to reach the slot, hungry for a snack. In the end of their struggle, they ended up breaking that one snack machine. Realizing what they had done, they freaked out, feeling as if they had just committed a heinous felony and had become a wanted criminal. In their extreme panic, they grabbed as many snacks as possible and ran off to their ship. They quickly put the snack in the ship and entered the ship, hurriedly taking off in a random direction. Lat was so hurried and scared, they hadn't realized they had hit the button to send the boosters into overdrive. Due to this error, the ship flung itself in the random direction Lat was going to at light speed, making the small Irken let out a shrill screech of terror.

As their ship slowed down, they opened their eyes to see what looked like fire surrounding their ship. Lat's purple orbs grew dull as they fainted onto the floor of their ship, unaware of their arrival at a new destination, the lush Tasmanian rainforest. They also weren't aware of the person in the distance having seen the crash with their binoculars. This person had dark caramel brown skin and icy white hair, as well as oddly neon blue eyes behind their glasses. This odd character took a picture of the crash site from where they stood and hurriedly ran back home to a fairly large house that was mostly still a wooden brown color. "Something crashed in the forest! It was like a spaceship!" They yelped, their stepmother rolling her eyes and replying, "Sure something did, Alex, and I guess that means pigs could fly too!" Alex huffed and pouted. They ran off into their room and logged into their favorite website on their laptop to see yet another video from 'AgentMothman'. Alex watched the video to see him ranting about bigfoot using the belt sander in his garage and smiled, politely commented, 'That seems pretty cool! I think I found an alien crash by my house, but yet again my stepmom doesn't believe me, god do I hate her.' They soon logged out, unaware of what was going on with the alien ship they had discovered as storm clouds began to cover the sky.

Back to Lat, They groaned as they slowly woke up tired and in a daze. They shrieked as they felt water pour onto their skin and scooted into the back of their ship. "SHIP! CLOSE THE GLASS!" They yelped, the glass closed and they sighed in relief. They noticed a few different creatures pass by outside and took many different samples with the scientific technology implanted into their ship. They soon had samples from a kangaroo, a beetle, and somehow a goat. How a goat ended up in Tasmania, who knows, but somehow it was there. Lat experimented with the DNA they collected, trying to refine it. They did many things to try and refine the DNA of these animals and eventually made a serum. They looked around the outside of the ship for a test subject but, unluckily, couldn't find one. They looked at their own wrist and gulped, quickly injecting the serum into themselves. They opened the glass of their ship and seemed okay for a few seconds, until they released a blood-curling scream in pain as they felt the forms in their body quickly shift and transform. They cringed as they felt their squeedilyspooch seem to rip into separate sections and different organs actually built for use on Earth. The transformation was quick, and exhausting. Lat said to the ship, "Ship, use vocal recognition and rescan the user's organic compound..." They demanded. The ship scanned them. "New DNA identified, user has biologically been altered, Save DNA data for future usage of ship operations? Confirm or Denied." The ship robotically responded. They sighed. "Confirm, It will be quite useful knowing with this new DNA and form I am somewhat adapted to this planet, but how do I move with these, ahem, new appendages?" They queried, looking at their tail and large hind paws. The ship replied in its usual robotic voice, "Shall I provide you a base-making machine to fit in with this planet's standards in this area to potentially collect more data?" Lat nodded, replying, "Yes, Confirm."

A small slot in the ship opened up, providing the Irken with a small box with a drill nozzle on one side and a button on the other. They slowly came to the edge of the ship, unsure of how to walk, and soon pressed the button, dropping the machine on the ground where it drilled into the ground and quickly connected to the closest source of energy, which was a power plant a few miles away. The machine quickly constructed what seemed to be a large two story house that looked like it was made of wood and had many working appliances. Lat looked around, as she was in the attic of the newly-made building, which was actually a landing area for her ship. They shakily hopped out of the ship with a yelp and slowly made their way to an elevator, demanding to go to the main floor. They were soon taken to their wanted destination, the elevator revealing itself to be disguised as a fireplace in the setting of the disguised part of their new base. They began to shakily make their way around and sat on the couch. They looked at the television screen in front of the couch and yowled, "COMPUTER! Show me how to use these weird limbs!" They sat and watched as their legs were scanned and the monitor in front of them began to show multiple videos of how kangaroos bounced around and how they would even balance on their tail to powerfully kick an opponent. "Interesting.." They muttered.

Meanwhile, Alex was now back at the area where they had seen the crash, gaping at the sudden and new house that had appeared out of nowhere. They screamed and ran towards the area, excited. They had to avoid many obstacles in order to reach their destination, but once they did they stared up at the house, excited. They walked up to the door and knocked on it. "Hello? Anyone home?" They asked. Once they had asked this, Lat perked up at the sudden knock and yelped, demanding the computer to give them a hologram disguise. Two robotic arms came from the roof to attach a watch onto their wrist, which covered their body in a human hologram, a tan, gender-neutral human with brown hair and green eyes. They hopped over to the door, the hologram making it appear like they were walking. They slowly answered it with a small, "Who are you?" Alex looked at the hologram and tilted their head. They then asked, "Are you an alien?" Lat's eyes widened in surprise, "How did you know-I MEAN OF COURSE NOT!" The altered Irken huffed at their fumble in wording. The human before them rolled their eyes, "Don't lie to me, I saw your ship crash! Anyway, I just wanted to ask if you would like an ally on this planet, someone to show you the customs, rituals, and languages of this planet, someone like that." Lat squinted. "How do I know you won't turn me in to the authorities of this planet?" Alex hummed in thought, then answered, "I don't exactly respect the beliefs of many authorities on this planet, and anyhow, my own caretaker isn't really respectable." Lat thought for a bit, and slowly came to their conclusion, "Alright, but you will take refuge in my base and you must be marked with a unique Irken laser tattoo, to prove you're my 'slave' so that no other Irken or race can claim you as their source of information." Alex gulped, a little frightened at the fact 'Laser' and 'Slave' were in the same sentence. The human hesitantly began, "Uhm, will the laser tattoo be, err, painful?" Lat huffed and retorted, "Of course, but only a little, it kind of feels like the stinging of tiny needles against your skin." Alex sighed in relief and nodded. "Alright, well, I guess that's alright…" Lat snickered as they closed the door and a few minutes after that screams of pain could be heard. Alex laid down on the couch, wincing, "You lied you jerk!" Lat laughed, "Of course I did! If I hadn't, you wouldn't have agreed to do it!" Alex growled, "You're rude.." Lat snorted, "I know, Now inform me of your human rituals!" Alex pouted. "Not now, I need to rest.." Lat huffed, going to the fireplace and requesting to be taken to their bedroom, the elevator taking them down to the requested room, their hologram was deactivated as they hopped into said room and curled up on their circular bed. They yawned and softly closed their eyes, soon wandered into sleep.

Episode End