Chapter 2: Transmission

Miira, despite her earlier appearance of flawless calm and coolness, felt like killing something. She stalked down the sidewalk in her human disguise, feeling her anger grow stronger. She arrived at her base, a house a short while from Zim's.

"PIR!" She yelled for her Primary Initialization of the Rising unit.

PIR came and stood at attention. "Yes my master."

"Open a channel with the main ship. I wish to speak to Captain Jebu."

"Yes my master."

PIR was off, and Miira quickly reprogrammed her skin to be its normal green and took out her contacts. Her wig compressed automatically into two nearly microscopic bumps on her antennae. She then evaporated on the spot, and materialized far below in her communications room. Jebu was already on the screen.

"Milady," said Jebu. Jebu wore a translator, as he was not irken and did not know the common language, Inversia, which could be understood by all. 'Milady' was an odd word, but it seemed respectful and was definitely better than the horrid title 'my tallest' that the translator used to automatically choose whenever it found itself speaking to a high rank irken. It had taken a lot of reprogramming to get it wiped from the dictionary chip in the translator's drive.

Jebu rubbed his claws against each other, as was his species' sign of submission.

"Milady," he said again, "How goes the mission?"

Miira sat in silence.

Jebu scratched his head. "Is earth secure? Can we count on success?"

Still Miira made no response.

"Milady?" Jebu drummed his claws on the control panel. He turned to his right. "Grog, I think the transmission froze. Come fix it!"

"Is this mutiny?" Miira's voice was steady and measured. It was a lulling hiss, and the quiet that ensued when she was finished was deafening.

Jebu was confused. "Miira?" he said, somewhat worried.

"Would you guess what I found today, upon landing? Go ahead. Guess."

Jebu opened his mouth, and closed it. Miira's eyes narrowed.

"I caught a strong signal from an irken voop. Using earth's human-made satellites, I triangulated the signal and investigated it. Can you guess where it was coming from?"

Jebu was getting the picture. "I assure you, Miira, um, milady, all of our scans-"

"IT WAS COMING FROM THE BASE OF AN IRKEN INVADER WHO IS FULLY INTIGRATED INTO EARTH'S SOCIETY. THE TALLEST HAVE A FULLY OPERATIONAL WAR BASE HERE. A WAR BASE! IF YOU ARE TRYING TO GET RID OF ME, PLUCK UP THE COURAGE AND CHALLENGE ME TO COMBAT."

Jebu was taken aback. "But the planet earth is not in the irken database!" he said. "They can't have an invader there. To them, it doesn't exist!"

Miira studied Jebu's expression. He seemed genuinely surprised, but she would still investigate this incident later.

"Get off that planet. If it is dangerous, we need to regroup and come up with a new plan." Jebu was trying to regain ground in the conversation.

"No," said Miira. "The invader is alone here, and it would take six months for any irken force to come to his aid. He seems to only be a small threat, but I will continue to observe him to be sure. I approximate that if we stick to our current plan, I can complete my mission in eight to ten earth days."

"Are you sure the invader's threat is that minimal?"

"Yes. And besides what I have already said, The Tallest have invested the majority of their fleet in stamping out that band of rebels, the Resistie. Even if they can spare part of their army to attempt to destroy us, in the six months it will take them to get here, we will have become unstoppable."

Captain Jebu nodded. "Very good, milady."

Miira cut the transmission. "PIR!" she said.

"Yes my master."

"Run a full depth scan on Invader Zim's base. I want to be able to see every inch of his lair, every speck of dust."

"Affirmative. I hear and comply."

Miira rubbed her hands together. She had to prepare for tomorrow.