Real life stinks and so does the urge to not complete what I've started. The weather is also horrible so that's just dragging me down or I would have had this posted ages ago. Sorry for the long delay.
Chapter two and the beginning of the cameos that I had a contest for. I'm enjoying these characters immensely though I'm not sure I'm doing them justice. Oh well. Lol I tried guys. I hope you're just as happy with them as I am because I'm going to kidnap them till I feel they have served their purpose. Which they may not be let go until the end of the story. Send cookies and I may reconsider letting them go. Lol.
And the cameos inspired me! I would like someone, anyone, to write down ideas or even at least a thousand words of the day in the life of either your cameo character (since I know you'll love to include them I want them as well!). Pick a character and create a story with that character in the day of a life of….. I get to tweak it a little of course, but I'll leave it mostly alone unless you let me have free range.
Anyway, on with the story!
Words- Regular speech
Words- Thoughts
Words- Chapters and changes
(Words)- Bez speech
Chapter 2 –To the Rescue—
Narrator's P.O.V….
A small, ancient looking ship sat dead in space as another larger craft seemed to stalk the poor thing. A sudden movement by the larger craft proved that its captain wanted to destroy the smaller craft and would spare nothing to do that. It rocked wildly as the ship was hit with several blasts from the other ship's weapons, causing a small section to be knocked loose to free float in space.
"By the Lady Tallest! Lak, we can't keep this up. The ship is going to pieces. We didn't escape just to be blown to bits," an Irken like creature said, fingers flying across control panels left and right. He stood about six feet, two inches not including his antenna. His gold, green eyes scanned over the various panels with amazing speed. Two wasp like wings flitted time to time with his nervousness.
"And Min can't be under this much stress," a human girl of six foot, some inches said from the side of a heavily breathing Irken. Her dirty blonde hair was braided messily and roughly down her back, a smudge of what looked like grease on her cheek. Her clothes showed age and wear that could only mean that it was her only outfit or one of only a handful. "I know for a fact it's not good for the baby."
"I can't believe you went into labor Min," Lak shouted over her shoulder and the sounds of battle. The pale Irken who was sitting at the helm took the chance to glance over her shoulder at the two. Standing she would have been around five foot, six inches but sitting she seemed only half that. Her orange blue eyes caught the pained expression on Min's face before turning back around in her seat. "And Jace, why are you calling on that sad excuse for a Tallest. She's a dictator who would kill her own young and eat them so they wouldn't over throw her."
"Shut up Lak, I don't need to hear you two bicker. It's not like I planned giving birth now," Min growled. She resembled her mate but with butterfly wings and only stood five foot, seven with gold, blue eyes. "Giving birth wasn't exactly my fucking pan you know! But, I'm soooo sorry if my labor is interfering with your battle!" she screamed at the end.
"Min, don't listen to Lak, she didn't mean anything by what she said," the human almost cooed soothingly to the Irken beside her. She slipped her hand into Min's and gave it a firm squeeze while smoothing her antenna with the other hand.
"I hope the mayday we sent out gets to someone, and I hope they get here soon," Jace said nervously. He shifted showing his nervousness more.
A tug on Lak's tattered sleeve drew her attention to a small SIR unit by her side. "What is it KIA?"
He pointed to a monitor where a new silver speck was quickly growing I size. "Seems like another ship ma'am. We may go boom! I hope it's a big boom. I like big booms."
"Well, great, this couldn't get any better," Lak muttered wanting to bang her head off the consoles.
"What couldn't get any better?" the human asked with a frown looking toward Lak.
"We have another ship coming our way," Lak said plainly flipping a few switches and almost getting thrown out of her seat.
A cry came from Min as she fell out of the make shift bed they had constructed for her and a yelp from the human as she tried to stop Min from crying.
"Min!" Jace cried as he abandoned his post to rush to her side.
"KIA, take the controls," Lak shouted, rushing to the aid of the others as the ship shuddered and shook.
She stumbled as she came to the human's side.
"I think I'm losing the baby," Min gasped with tears in her eyes. "I don't want to lose the baby."
Jace cradled her head against his chest and rocked her back and forth unable to say anything. The human started to cry herself. Lak looked to KIA who was watching her. She opened her arms as he leapt into them and she hugged him close.
Suddenly, the comms crackled to life. "Unknown vessel, cease firing or we will commence in defending the party you are attacking. You have only seconds to comply."
"Wha? Did you hear that?" the human gasped.
"I did and I can't believe it," Lak almost whooped as she scrambled to get to the front of the ship.
The voice on the comms counted down and when the ship did not stop firing and began to fire on the other ship the sound of rumbling was heard. Then silence. No one quite wanted to move for fear of everything starting up again.
The comms crackled to life. "Vessel, we have stopped the attack and have noticed you have severe haul damage. We are going to bring your ship onboard for repairs. Is there anything else you need?"
Lak looked over her shoulder at the others. "We thank you for your quick response to our mayday. Thank you also for helping with any repairs we need to make."
"You're welcome," came the reply.
Min suddenly screamed in pain and a gasp came across the line. Several murmurings on the other side followed. "Vessel, we are bringing you in quicker than we anticipated. If I'm not mistaken, that was a birthing scream."
"You better hurry the hell up or so help me, by the Lady Tallest, if I lose this baby I'm going to kill all of you," Min roared startling everyone on board.
A laugh rang across the comms. "Madame, you will be fine along with your child. We have the best medics on board and my crew tells me your ship is docked. A medical team is already there to take you to the med bay so you won't have to deliver on your ship. I will see you in med bay."
There was a small shiver across the ship and the doors burst open as an obvious medical team ran into the small ship. It was a precise flurry of activity that left the crew amazed. They were even more amazed as they, themselves were ushered out into the awaiting ship so fast everything went by like a blur.
They were taken through the ship so fast that they had no clue where they were headed or where they had just been. The rush slowed as a final set of doors opened. The crew took Min to one corner of the room where it looked like several nurses were waiting. Jace tried to follow but was held back by a rather large alien that they had never seen and made to sit still on a bed. The human and Lak were soon pushed onto beds themselves.
The rush calmed to a thrum of activity as they were checked over thoroughly. The murmur of voices behind the curtain that hid that corner of the room increased and Min cursed very loudly before she gave a loud audible sigh then began praising them all in the same breath.
The sound of doors caught their attention and they turned to see three people walk into the room. One was a male Irken and the other two human, one male and the other female.
Lak eyed them warily. The new comers eyed them just as warily.
Lak trained her eyes on the female human. "You must be the captain?" she asked.
The female human laughed. "Nope, thank you for the compliment though. I'd never be able to do this job if I got paid for it."
"Why couldn't we be the captain?" the Irken asked motioning to him and the other human.
"Female voice across the comms," Lak deadpanned turning her gaze onto the Irken.
Suddenly a loud cry came from the corner of the room where Min was.
"One more push my girl! Come on, you can do it!"
"Jace! You are never touching me again you bastard!" Min screamed from behind the curtain.
Jace's eyes grew wide as he looked at the curtain as several other curses flew at him.
"Good job, my lady, keep going. Almost there."
Suddenly, with one final scream and a huge sign, congratulations were heard. Then a soft exclamation, more whispers of an argument were heard.
After a few moments the curtains were pushed aside to reveal a thoroughly exhausted Min. One of the nurses came forward, her arms full. She was trying to blow a few stands of sweat drenched hair out of her face unsuccessfully.
"Min and the babes are doing perfectly fine," she said giving up but grinning all the same at Lak and her company.
The male Irken that had come forward brushed the few stray strands of hair out of the girl's face. She murmured thanks as she shifted the bundles in her arms carefully.
"Babes?" Jace asked confused. "I thought Min was only pregnant with one child?"
"Well…. No, two. That's why she gave birth so early. Not enough room in there for two of them. Would you like to hold one of them?" she asked motioning to the at the moment quiet babes in her arms.
He walked over in awe and looked at the babies. Both were tiny but a healthy color and had long antenna; just like their mother. Their eyes weren't open at the moment to see what color they were but they were amazing in his eyes. Carefully he took one of the babes in his hands. The little one whimpered only a moment before nuzzling Jace's thumb.
"Amazing," he said breathlessly.
"Come on, everyone can come see how Min is. She's probably worried about you guys now that she's not so worried about the babes," the nurse said motioning to the corner of the room.
Everyone worked their way to the exhausted looking Irken on the other side of the room. She smiled up to her mate as he held one of their children.
The nurse handed the other babe back to its mother with a smile.
"They're beautiful Min," Jace smiled as he looked down to the little life in his hands.
"They're adorable!" the human that came with the rescued crew almost squealed. "What are their names?"
"Thank you Grace. The little girl I was thinking of naming after Lak and you. Lace maybe? I kinda like the ring of that name," Min smiled. "And the little boy after either the captain or the sip we're on now. As a way of thanking everyone."
"Why not Bren then?" the nurse asked with a grin. "I'm sure Bez and I would be honored to our souls if he was named after us."
Lak, Grace, Jace, and Min looked at her startled. She took a step back and gave the survivors a bow. "Let me introduce myself and a few of my crew. I am Captain Wren Crouse of the living ship Bez. My two first officers are Rachel Burkett and Zim."
Rachel waved and Zim offered a smile and a nod.
"Curtis is the ships psychiatrist. We are glad we could help you when you were in trouble and we offer our home to you as long as you wish to stay."
Rachel's P.O.V….
"Wren, you need to stop doing that, you're going to give someone a heart attack," I said as I giggled motioning to the four we rescued. "A rescue is no good if they keel over from shock."
Wren grinned, "I should but I was a little busier earlier. The smeets did not want to wait for a proper introduction. If there was a little more time I would have made a proper introduction."
"At least we're safe, aren't we?" the human girl asked.
I nodded. "On Bez everyone is safe; you have nothing to worry about."
Out of the corner of my eye I watched Wren get called to the side by a crew member with a vid screen in hand. They exchanged a few words before the crew member handed off the vid to Wren and left. She was looking it over as she came back to the group. Waving to me to continue without her for the moment she frowned over the screen.
"So," I began. "Our introductions are done with, what about you?"
The one female Irken without wings nodded to each in turn as she introduced us to her crew. "Min you already know and is the one that gave birth. Jace is her mate. Grace is the human with us. I'm Lak. KIA, my SIR is somewhere around here."
As if on cue a scream of excitement rang through the medical bay. Three SIRs came cavorting into the room. GIR was in front, CADIE behind him, and what could only be KIA after her. They each had a shirt tied as capes around their heads with a pair of someone's underwear on their heads.
GIR stopped in the middle of the group. "I am Super GIR! I will protect all panties from ebil!" he squealed striking a pose.
"And I am Cosmic CADIE! Side kick to Super GIR! I will defeat ebil and save any panties from all wrong doings!" she squealed herself. She pointed to KIA. "That is Captain KIA, protector of panties and defender against ebil also."
"Together we are the Panties Squad! We are protectors of all panties and underwear alike!"
All three SIRs posed dramatically before us, then giggled like mad before running out of the room.
"Rachel, weren't those your's?" Curtis asked slightly confused scratching his head.
My right eye twitched. "Yes." I growled out quickly. "If you'll excuse me for a moment, I need to go kill GIR…"
Curtis' P.O.V….
I watched as Rachel left as calmly as she could. She was so cute when she got mad. And a double plus was that I got to see two pairs of panties that I have never thought I had seen before. I looked over at Wren and Zim who were trying hard not to laugh at what just happened.
"The classics never die," Wren giggled wiping tears out of her eyes."
"The classics?" I asked raising a brow.
"It's happened before," Zim explained handing Wren a tissue. "But we only had GIR before. Now it's like GIR cubed and it's even funnier now."
Lak, Grace, Jace and Min looked that the three of us slightly confused.
"She's not going to hurt them is she?" Grace asked.
"The worse she'll do is kick GIR across the room for instigating what they did," Zim said. "KIA will be perfectly fine, don't worry."
"Now, I was going to report before the SIRs interrupted that I have the list of things wrong with your ship, unfortunately it's easier to count what isn't wrong," Wren said.
Lak signed and rubbed the area between her eyes. "Do I even want to know what isn't wrong with the ship?"
"Well, the toilet for one," Wren started, "and the lights. But the rest can wait till later."
"Wow," I muttered. "At least you can see while using the bathroom."
"Curtis," Wren warned with a growl. "Behave, Rachel may not be here to chastise you but I have no problem doing so."
"Yes, Ma'am. I think Rachel actually said she was going to give you that privilege anyway."
"That she did," she smirked quite evilly. "So behave."
"Back to our ship," Lak said snapping her fingers to get our attention. "Is there anyway you can fix it?"
"Of course there is. Some of our mechanics have seen that model before so they can fix it. But they're going to need to do a more thorough scan of your ship to see the true extent of damage. This was a preliminary scan." Wren said giving Lak a straight answer. "The second scan will take a couple of flins(1). It may take a varst(2) though before we can completely fix it unfortunately. But I can get the ship top priorities fix if you wish."
Lak sighed heavily again and pressed her palm to her forehead. "You don't have to put a rush on it. Rushing will do more harm than good." She turned to the others, "Would that be a problem with you guys?"
Grace shook her head, "Right now we're probably safer here, on this ship."
Jace frowned. "We probably should let the ship be fixed properly, not quickly. I would also like to stay for a while to make sure Lace and Bren are doing well."
"I want to stay for them too," Min said looking down at the sleeping bundle in her arms. "I thought I almost lost them once, I don't wan to be in the middle of no where if something happens to them."
"Then we'll find you rooms and get you settled," Zim said. "And fresh cloths if you want them?"
"Yes," Lak grinned. "New clothes would be great. I don't think I could stand smelling myself much longer."
"I don't think I could take much more of smelling you either," Grace said with a playful grin.
Lak glared at her while Min giggled before breaking into a large yawn.
"Then it's settled," Wren said. "We'll get you settled in your rooms. Jace can stay here for the night to wait for Min to recover for a move tomorrow. Do you mind sharing a room Lak and Grace?"
"We've lived together for several months. I think we can handle a room now," Lak grinned.
"At least you guys don't hate each other," I said. "Several others would love to go at each other's throats by now."
"It hasn't come to that," Grace started to say
"We escaped together, we can live together," Lak finished.
I laughed, "That seems to be the motto for this ship as well."
There was a confused look on the faces of the saved crew. "We'll explain later," I said. "Way too long of a story at the moment."
"One that will take as long as it will to get your ship fixed," Wren laughed. "Now, come on, I'll see if we can find you guys a room."
She motioned toward the door and for them to follow. I followed them as well along with Zim as we bid the others farewell.
Zim's P.O.V….
A couple kakes later….
Standing in the docking bay, I took the time to look at the ship our refugees had come in on. It must have been as old as the dirt caked on it and then some. Having knowledge of this type of ship and just who had built it. I was slightly concerned.
"So we're sure it was them? That is a model of their ship," I asked a fellow Irken in the docking bays softly.
Runez nodded. "I'm not mistaken, that is a ship of the Warirkens. It's old but well kept and was perfectly space worthy until the other ship attacked them."
"I thought the empire destroyed the Warirkens," I muttered rubbing my chin, still looking the ship over.
"All the history points to it," Runez said. "But Min and Jace prove that they aren't quite as dead as history said."
"Min and Jace are but lesser Warirkens. They are almost servants to the higher ups above them and those are the one's I'm worried about," I frowned. "We only thought we had them destroyed because we had surprised them. That was the only way of defeating them."
Runez shook his head, "Still some of the worse years of Irken history. Where the Irken Empire split between the Irkens and the Warirkens. And where the council of four split and thousands of Irkens died."
"And when Irkens began to use the birthing tubes and paks just to give us an edge on the Warirkens," I said with a shake of my head. I slapped Runez on the shoulder, "enough about that though. Do you think you can work a miracle here?"
Runez ran a hand over his antenna and head then across his face. "A miracle is what we're going to need," he muttered. "We haven't finished all the thorough scans yet to give a better report on it. But I think we can get this wreck in order and probably give it a face lift so none of our people attack it."
"We don't need that," I winced.
"No we don't."
I smiled at Runez, "I'll leave this in your capable hands then Runez."
"Thanks sir."
I patted him on the shoulder and turned to walk away, my mind on the mystery of the Warirkens. That is until Runez' tentative voice spoke up again.
"Sir?"
"Hm?" I asked stopping and turning to look back at him.
"I just wanted to say, sir, that almost all of the Irkens on board right now think of you as a true leader. If anything happened to the Tallests, we would follow you in a heart beat. That goes for the Captain too. Many of us would give our lives to follow both of you."
"Why Wren? She's not an Irken and she may be tall for a human female but she sure isn't the tallest. So why follow her at all?"
"Because she is your equal and you her's," he said standing taller and straighter than before. "She has gone out of her way to help whomever she can, whenever she can, but she also has the ability to keep her head in a fix and can command and head without making us feel like lesser beings. That's including our size.
Many have actually begun to hall her one of the greatest leaders, the kindest Tallest, they've ever had. A human as a leader of the whole Irken Armada could only make us greater as a people."
Runez suddenly became embarrassed by his speech seeing as a few other Irkens had paused during it to watch how I would reply. Several humans that were in the bay had also stopped to see what would happen.
Before I could reply, a soft voice came from behind me. "I will then say I'm quite flattered by your dedication Runez. Do you in this room feel the same?"
I turned to see Wren standing behind me. Her hair was cascading over her shoulders and down her back. It had gotten so much longer since we first started out. She had changed into a more casual uniform which, in my opinion, looked much better than her formal ones. She had an unreadable expression on her face as she looked at me and everyone in the bay.
Several people nodded yes in the room and a few even added that they would follow her and I to the death.
"I couldn't ask you to follow me to your deaths. You are my friends, my colleges, my family. It would hurt me to see all the faces I have come to love be harmed because of me," she said softly.
"It would be worth it though," Runez said gaining his courage back. "You've taught us in these few varsts to no just follow orders because we have to, but because we want to follow them. We actually have passion for what we believe in now because of both of you and Rachel has helped too. She's helped us when you've both been too busy with other business of the ship. All of you have helped more than you know."
Wren smiled softly as she stepped toward me as several chorused what Runez has just said. She stood beside me and took my hand in hers, her hand much smaller now than before.
"I am honored then," she said, her voice strong but slightly shaking with emotion. "I have learned so much from everyone on board that I don't know what I'd do if I didn't know any of you. If anything would happen, I would be honored to lead you, my fellow crew members."
A small cheer arose among the crew and Wren blushed as I kissed her forehead. I knew this would be a moment that somehow would change everything.
Rachel's P.O.V….
I peeked into the med bay to see who was about. Spotting a nurse, I perked up. Walking into the room I stopped the nurse. "Loatus," I greeted.
"Rachel! Whatever are you doing here?" Loatus said a little startled.
"Well… I need to ask a question."
"Ask away, though I'm not sure how much help I can be," Loatus said doubtfully.
"Well, this one you will be ale to. I was wondering if there was any possibility that I could study to work with children medically."
The nurse blinked at her then smiled. "I think that we may be able to teach you something about that."
"Yay!" I cheered happy to have something to do that wasn't as physical as working out constantly.
Curtis' P.O.V….
"Now, where did I put that vid screen?" I frowned as I looked through the office.
I knew I had a screen somewhere in the room that had a few important files on it that needed transferred over to the personnel files, but I couldn't find it any where. I had turned over chairs and cushions, knocked the couch onto it's back, and checked all the desk drawers and still couldn't find anything. All I wanted to do was get this last bit of work done with so I could have at least the next two days to spend with Rachel all to myself. And if I had lost that stupid vid, my secretary was going to be after me for years to come. Not my idea of a nice time together personally.
Then I heard it, the sound that made me twitch.
"Dun duh," followed by giggles.
"Dun duh…"
"Dun duh, dun duh…."
"If you have stolen that vid, I'm going to kill you," I snarled scanning the room for any clue where those SIRs were.
"Dun duh, dun duh, dun duh, dun da!" three insane SIRs screamed leaping for me out of no where.
I grabbed GIR by the antenna, CADIE by the leg and somehow caught the third by the leg also. KIA and CADIE hit each other with a loud clang and several giggles.
"Let's do it again!" CADIE squealed.
"No, no doing it again," I snapped, "where's my vid screen?"
"I dunno," CADIE said blinking at me innocently.
I narrowed my eyes, "Where is my vid screen?"
"Klarl had it!" GIR giggled.
My gaze shifted to him. "And I'm supposed to believe yo-o-u…why?"
"Cause."
"Not good enough."
"Cause I'm cute!" CADIE giggled smiling at me and sticking her tongue out as well.
I growled at them and they all pointed to the ceiling. I looked up to find the vid I was looking for stuck to the ceiling.
"What the hell?" I gaped looking at it. "What the hell did you do? How did you get it stuck up there?"
"Jelly!" All three squealed.
"Jelly? As in jelly you eat? Or what sort of jelly?"
"Grape jelly to be exact," KIA said.
"What the hell?! I'm going to kill you three!" I roared.
The three SIRs dropped to the floor after wriggling out of my grip. They all giggled insanely as they ran out of the room leaving me twitching and still snarling. A small slurping sound caught my attention and I happened to look up. The vid, being attached with grape jelly, decided that it didn't wish to stay on the ceiling and started to fall. In that split second I had the oddest thought and wondered if the rule of bread smeared with something applied here as well as on Earth.
My question was answered when the vid fell and landed, jelly side down, right on my face. The vid was perfectly fine after the fall, jelly and all. I myself was in need of a shower now that I had jelly in my hair, over my face, and splattered over my clothes. And oddly enough, I still had a twitch from earlier.
There was a knock on the door and someone peeked their head into the room. It was Zim and he looked around the room.
"Curt, I saw those three SIRs run from your room. Did they break anything?"
"Oh no, nothing was broken," I said more calmly than I felt wiping a little jelly off my face and onto my now ruined shirt. "I may be killing three SIRs later though."
Zim spotted me and his eyes grew wide. "What in the name of Irk happened?"
"I don't want to talk about it," I grumbled as I cleaned the vid in my hand on my pants and another glob of jelly fell from the ceiling to land on top of my head. My eye twitched again.
"I think that I'll go check on Wren and see if I can give Rachel the message that you may be a little late today," Zim said as he slowly back out of the door way and it slid shut behind him leaving me twitching with my pent up anger.
Narrator….
"So crew, anything new?" Wren asked walking onto the bridge.
Two crew members reached to her with vids in their hands ready to give it to her as soon as she sat down. Looking over and even signing one she was bombarded with status reports that she took with ease.
After a nice pause in reports she asked, "How is the ship's repairs coming on the saved vessel?"
One of the maintenance men groaned, "Ma'am, we'd e better off starting from the bottom and just building a new one."
"That bad?" she winced.
"Yes, I mean, we could do it. It would just be faster to build one than to fix this one," the mechanic said running a hand over his head and antenna.
"Do you have the basic build and floor plans for the ship?"
"Of course we do Captain, first thing we did," the mechanic said almost indignant at the idea that they may not have the plans.
"Then start with the new ship. Take all the personal items off their ship, send it to their rooms and scrap the old ship. Start with a new one."
The mechanic blinked at her. "Make a new one?"
"Yes, start afresh. If it can't be fixed then remake it. Simple as that. No point in beating a dead horse to work as some humans would say," Wren said with a shrug.
"What?"
"An old Earth phrase that means there is no point in trying to work and make something work if it won't or can't."
"Oh!"
"Yeah, so just rebuild the ship to better specs and have fun doing it," Wren said grinning to the mechanic.
"Yes ma'am!" the mechanic saluted as he dashed off the bridge.
"At least a few people will be extremely happy and busy for a while," Wren smiled.
Zim walked onto the bridge only to spot Wren. He smiled as he made his way over to here. "So, how do you think our guests are settling in?"
"Not sure actually, but with the updates Bez is giving me, they're doing fine. I think Min is finally well enough to leave med bay with the twins."
"That's good news," Zim smiled. "I was wondering if you had a moment. I need to tell you something."
Wren hesitated for a moment but nodded, unsure of what to make of the request. She appointed someone to take charge of the bridge then followed Zim to her office. She sat down behind her desk only to watch as Zim paced the width of the room.
"What's up Zim?" she finally asked.
"I have some information about the ship and two of the crew we rescued."
"What information?" Wren asked with a slight frown.
"The ship that the crew was traveling on was a Warirken ship and Jace and Min are Warirkens. I though them to be extinct or wiped out. I saw proof though that they weren't through them," Zim said shakily.
"Warirkens, a fully separate race of the Irkens or were there just genetic differences that a rose and challenges that caused the split?"
Zim blinked at Wren and she just smiled back. "Logic, my dear Zim. It's the similar characteristics that both of the races share. I could tell just by looking. But I do want to know the story behind everything. At least your version."
"You always amaze me Wren."
"You always love to remind me of that." She smiled at him.
Zim finally sat down across from Wren. "It started thousands of years ago when the Iren race was about at the point that your race was in technology. Genetic anomalies were seen before that, but it seemed like there was an explosion of births with genetic anomalies and soon there was an almost equal amount of the anomalies and 'normal' Irken. But since they were still different from the 'normals' they were treated as lesser. In the end they took as much pushing as they could before everything went hell bound so to say. A civil war broke out between them and it lasted several years, a good hundred years, before the normal race created the hatchery and that side lead one final assault, an all or nothing assault, and they thought they had destroyed the abnormals.
It seems we were wrong. Hard to tell what advancements they have made since then or how many there are. Not even sure how they survived but I have a feeling this is a bad thing Wren. This doesn't bode well."
Wren stood and walked around her desk to stand beside Zim's chair. During his explanation he had leaned forward with a somber expression across his face. Gingerly, Wren reached a hand out and stroked an antenna of his, feather light. Almost instantly he began to relax.
He looked up at her as she rested a hand on his shoulder as the other continued to stroke his antenna. "I'm worried Wren."
"I know you are my hero. I am too. It's my turn to reassure you. We won't let anything happen. We're better than that or them."
"Promise?" he smiled cheekily, it not quite reaching his eyes as he encircled her waist with his arms.
She smiled at him and rested his head against her chest. "I promise." She stroked his antenna once more before placing a kiss on his forehead. He hmmed as he listened to her heart beat enjoying the moment with her.
Narrator….
"Maybe this is a bad idea," Brace said worrying her bottom lip. "We have no clue where we are and no plans of the ship to even figure out where we are."
"It it's going to take forever for out ship to get finished then we need to know about this one," Lak said peeking around a corner.
"What about what the Captain said, that this is a living ship. What is that supposed to mean?"
"Many Captains think their ships live and breath, and she's slightly insane I think. So pay no mind to her Grace," Lak said as she waved her friend's comment off.
"This is her ship though," Grace hissed.
"But she's insane."
Grace glared at the back of Lak's head. Sometimes Lak was just too difficult to deal with and all Grace wanted to do was take a shower or bath or something that didn't include a dust that was used on their ship. It had been years since she had had a real, true bath at all since being abducted and she was being kept from that long awaited bath because Lak insisted on investigating the ship. Lak's insistent urge to do something as stupid as now was just exhausting.
Grace looked up suddenly startled to see that Lak was missing and one Zim walking before her. Knowing it was too late to halt her last step she collided with him and they both went sprawling. Grace carefully and slowly opened her eyes which she didn't know she had shut. Zim's vid screen had skidded next to her hand and he was slightly confused as he was level with the floor.
"Huh..." he muttered looking to see who had been the reason behind this. Spotting Grace as she sat blushing he smiled at her. "So you're the reason behind my sudden abruptness one the floor."
"I am so sorry sir," she murmured looking at the floor.
"Eh, I'm used to it. When you have two SIRs that seem to appear out of no where, it happens a lot."
"I should have been watching where I was going though. And I probably shouldn't even be wandering the halls," she blurted out blushing even more at her babbling. It didn't seem to help that her nervousness was through the roof.
"Nonsense," Zim said standing. "Bez is your home, if only for a small time. You have every right to wander if you wish. Best way to lean the ship too, I did it myself. And if you're on any floor and get lost, there are emergency chutes that can take you anywhere, so you can find a section you're familiar with. Though most of us use it for everyday errands, makes them much more fun." He added with a wink.
He held out a hand to her, she looked at it and then took the offer. "Thanks, I'm still sorry about that."
"No problem Grace. Try not to get into too much trouble, ok? And if you get lost, remember the chutes," he motioned to one on the wall behind him. "Or ask someone. Anyone would be willing to help. Don't worry about any language barrier either, if it's a Sharshan you ran into, Bez translates automatically now so there's no confusion."
"Sharshan?" Grace asked confused.
"You'll know them when you see them," Zim smiled. Then picking up his vid screen, "And if you're wondering, your friend tried to be covert down the corridor to the left. Try to keep her out of trouble."
"With Lak, trouble is her middle name," Grace muttered.
Zim laughed then pushed her in the direction Lak went as he went on his way. She smiled to herself as she tried to find Lak.
Rachel's P.O.V….
I was skipping down a corridor gaining odd looks from all those around me. It could have been that I was just happy or that I had too many helpings of mashed potatoes only a little while ago or something completely different. I was just in a good mood and I didn't think anything could change that.
Of course, I should have never thought anything could change it because that's the cue when the SIRs would appear. But I was watching for them. I was keeping a really good eye out for them.
I paused for a moment to peek around the corner into the nest corridor. Nothing was there. I mentally cheered and continued around the bend humming to myself.
I went to turn another corner and ran into two of the crew members from the other ship. Quite literally ran into too. They both looked up at me from the floor blinking owlishly a little startled. Tilting my head to the side I looked at them.
"What in the world are you two doing?" I asked.
"Learning the lay out of the ship. We didn't want to keep asking for directions," Lak said as she stood up and started to brush herself off.
I offered a hand to Grace, who smiled at me gratefully. "Why didn't you just ask Bez?"
"This ship can do that? It's programmed to reply to certain commands?"
"Uh… Noooooo.." I started to say rocking back and forth on the balls of my feet. "Bez is living, quite sentient and likes to talk sometimes. So he's willing to help."
"Right…" Lak started to say.
"It's true, isn't it Bez?" I said patting the wall of the ship.
"I think she's been in space too long," Lak murmured to Grace.
"Lak!"
"What?! Ships aren't living! Not my fault she's a wack job."
(Rachel is quite right in mentioning that I'm sentient. I've just not spoken to you because of the attack. If you wish, I would enjoy staying connected with you.)
Lak gaped at the ceiling of the hall and Grace had covered her mouth to stop a yelp. I grinned bigger. "Told you so!"
"But how?"
"Wel Lak, Wren would be the est person to answer that, she knows more about Bez that even the mechanics. Ta for now! I have a date with my boyfriend tonight that I must get ready for!" I giggled before skipping past them.
Narrator….
"I think I'm going back to the room, grabbing my things and taking a shower," Grace said turning about. "After that, I'm going to go to sleep. This will all make more sense , I'm sure, when I have slept myself out."
"Yeah…. I think I'm going to have to agree with you on this one," Lak said following Grace back to the room.
Bloody hell!!! That was long. Now I know why I put this chap off for so long. Took too bloody long to type. Ebil ebil hand writing didn't help at all either. Enjoy it! Remember the offer and don't forget to review!
*gasps* Forgot to add in a few definitions so here they are!
(1)------Flins – about a week and a half by Bez's time
(2)------Varst - a little over a month
(3)------Kake – a little over an hour for those who don't remember.
