Chapter 9 – Severing Ties
"Oh, come on. How can you not like the White Stripes?" Dib asked Tak while walking through the darkness.
"I just don't," Tak answered, but with a smirk, delighted that she was having a conversation with her beloved Dib, even if it was about something stupid, "They don't seem to have the same energy that most of your rock music does. And I must say that Meg White's drumming is pretty sloppy."
"Okay, I'll admit that much," Dib said, eyes shifting, "But still, you could feel the emotional impact of their divorce in their first album. It had a tremendous power to it."
"Dib," She said back, raising one eye to him, "You can't make a good love song when the love is a false one."
"But that's not what it was about," Dib said, "Besides, I thought irkens weren't romantic. How do you know about love songs?" Dib was not rude about the question, but rather said it in a tone of curiosity. The question caught Tak off guard; she blushed and hoped that Dib could not see it, yet her disguise still read her bodily read-outs and let her cheeks go red.
"I've studied much of your culture," Tak answered.
"Any other reason?" Dib asked, curious about the blush he saw. It made him happy to see that he, the paranormal geek who barely makes ends meet, caused the woman he loved to blush, which, in turn, caused him to blush.
"No, no other reason," Tak responded. She said it rather quick and hurried, as if trying to hide something or fight something back.
"Are you sure? You blushed when I asked," Dib inquired.
"Don't make me slap you again, human," Tak said with a smirk, pointing at him. She then lowered her arm and looked at the floor awkwardly; Dib's eyes looked down as well. They then looked back up at one another and stared for what seemed like a split second and an eternity simultaneously, their eyes never leaving one another's, both of them blushing again. They then broke away and continued down the hallway.
Dammit, Tak thought to herself, I should have kissed him. I love him, and the poor sap wears his emotions on the outside and already shows his liking back. Why didn't you kiss him, Tak, you moron? You've seen enough humans do it in those crappy romance films.
Dammit, Dib though, I wish I could voluntarily kiss her without having my head handed to me.
Just then, I felt really light headed.
But seriously, just then, Tak's codec began buzzing in her ear, like a gnat that just will not leave one alone on those hot summer days, whenever the weather permits them to take what they like, yet still not having enough mind to hold any sense of direction, much like the callers sending her this noise on frequency 140.85.
"Well, hello, Tak," Tallest Black said in a muffled voice, his gas mask making him sound even more mechanical than his actual voice already had, "I gather things are not going as you would have thought." Tallest Black and Blue had been known to occasionally breathe toxic gases that would have killed any other irken. It was rumored that having been to as many planets as they had, their lungs had somehow mutated to either using it as a life sustaining fuel, while others thought it might be something else, a more selfish reason.
"Sirs, my entire team has been wiped out," Tak responded, "But I'm still going to get you those samples."
"Don't bother lying to us, Tak," Tallest Blue said, his voice also muffled by a gas mask, "We already know your alternate plans if things went wrong. You forget that we had mind scanners within both the office and the transport truck."
"Alright, I admit it; I hate you guys," Tak said, "So what of it? Don't tell me you put some sort of virus in my body that's going to kill me over time so you don't get your specimen?"
"No," Tallest Black said, "Nothing that elaborate. In fact, this whole thing was staged. We knew a team would have no chance at retrieving the specimen without getting killed, so we thought we would take the opportunity to test the bio-weapons' capabilities. We assembled an expendable team of all those who either failed in their training or failed as invaders; who better to lead them than one who dropped out in both areas?"
"We read your profile, Tak," Tallest Blue stated, "You're brash and rebellious, despite having an intelligent enough mind to think of complex invasion methods. You left your duties on planet Dirt in order to pursue an invasion you weren't even authorized for in the first place. Then, you assault another officer in your reassigned position out of a personal vendetta."
"That's not what it was about at all," Tak shouted.
"Wasn't it? It seemed otherwise," said Tallest Black.
"We also, however, noted your resourcefulness and perseverance," Tallest Blue proceeded to say, "Which is why we put in a little insurance policy."
"What about your precious specimen?" Tak asked, not fully comprehending. She then tossed another codec with the set frequency of 140.96 to Dib, who then hooked it up to his ear and tuned in to Tak's frequency to hear the conversation.
"This ship can crash into the planet you seem to love so much for all we care," Tallest Black said, "The only budget cuts we made were for building more ships and not because the Ripley monkey destroyed the Freyr. We'll build another ship and take more specimens from LV-426. But with the nuclear blast the Odin is going to make in San Jose is enough so that nothing can live in the desert that will formerly be known as the USA's west coast for the next 5,000 years." Dib felt nauseous at hearing this.
"But aren't you the least bit interested," Tallest Blue asked with an almost child-like laugh, "as to what we're doing to insure that you go down with the ship?"
"What the hell are you planning?" Tak growled.
Gaz and Zim continued to run towards the hanger through the darkness, still holding hands. Gaz was leading the way but she looked back at Zim for a moment and smiled, despite the fact that she knew something bad was about to happen. The problem was that this vision was unclear.
"Question," Gaz stated, "Why is it that some of these doors can open with the power out while others can't?"
"Security levels," Zim stated in a matter-of-fact tone, "Low level doors run on backup power."
"Well, duh," Gaz said, "But what sort of doors require higher security electricity?"
"I guess we'll find out as we go along," Zim said, his voice starting to get somewhat sheepish.
"You mean you don't know?" Gaz asked, irritated, "This is one of your armada's ships. How can you not know?"
"Hey, every ship is different," Zim fired back, "They never put me in charge of one of these, those pitiful fools who don't understand what ZIM could do with such immense fire power."
"Fair enough," Gaz said, "I guess I'll just make due with having to try each door with the limited battery I have."
"Huh?" Zim asked, confused.
"I can run bypasses on doors with my GS-4," Gaz said, as they walked through the door to the hanger.
"By the way," Zim began, "Why do they call them Game Slaves? That always confused me."
"They contain the spirits of past dead Slave Labor Graphics members who did not want to pass on," Gaz stated bluntly, "Finding employment for those who refuse to pass on, that's what Game Slaves are about. I thought it was just an urban legend until I discovered this stupid 'gift' of mine."
"Oh," Zim said in a bewildered understanding.
"Anyways," Gaz continued, "We've got to hurry; something really bad is about to happen." With that, she opened the cockpit of the Brynhild.
"See, we have a way of remote detonation on your Gudrun and Brynhild," said Tallest Blue.
"No," Tak gasped under her breath.
"And we shall demonstrate this fact," said Tallest Black, "within five seconds."
"Hey, I got it," Gaz said as she felt something flip over inside her chest and then fall out as it had in the jeep, writhing on the floor in a pool of blood before vanishing into her imaginative smoke, "Now lets get out of here."
"Took you long enough," Zim said, holding her up by her feet, but not without peeking upward as he had earlier, this time on purpose. She was making him wait with her weight, so why shouldn't he steal a peek? Gaz hopped down, grabbed Zim's arm, and began counting the seconds as they took off.
Five.
They ran up the ramp to the door.
Four.
They skidded into the hallway.
Three.
Gaz hit the panel on the blast door.
Two.
The door took its time shutting.
One.
"Hurry up!" Gaz shouted as the door finally closed.
In an instant, a good portion of the ship shook with a violent thrash as flames shot from behind the window of the blast door. Gaz and Zim both felt the shock and collapsed onto each other as the floor still shook.
Dib and Tak both suffered the same shock and struggled to regain their balance. There was a sinking feeling within both of their guts, not because of the shock but because of what that shock meant.
"Now, you have no chance of leaving alive," said Tallest Black, "especially with the escape pods on the other end having no power."
"Best of luck trying to get them back online while also trying to destroy the ship," Tallest Blue said in a mocking tone, still muffled by the gas mask. With that, they both signed out of their frequency.
