I do not own any of the characters of Invader Zim!

A/N: The assassins return back on the hunt for Tak, with an even deadlier companion. Kali's mech army set about to free her flagship.

Tak and the Martian Armada

Chapter 12: Raise the Brilliance

Tak went back to her room, and sat down on the bed. It was something she had never needed before. The PAK that she had, until recently, enabled her species to keep operating without the need for rest, by means of an electro-chemical stimulation.

"Qikli, will you come to my quarters?" Her room was fitted with sound sensors for quick response without having to reach for a comset.

"Right away, your Majesty." The avatar appeared shortly. "What can I do for you, Highness?"

"I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier. I just wasn't thinking clearly. Please forgive me." The avatar seemed taken aback, and gave Tak a puzzled look.

"I am the one who gave you reason to snap. I should have gone automatically back to my imperial etiquette programming when we first met, but didn't. Perhaps hearing a living voice after so long made me disregard formalities. There is no need for you to apologize, your Highness, I am the one at fault."

"Another thing, . . . Queen Kali has returned to you. There is no need to call me queen anymore, so you and the other mechs can just call me 'Tak,' again."

"If you wish it, then I shall inform the guardians. But it has already been established that you are of royal descent, and so we shall still refer to you as 'Highness' or 'Majesty.' You will be 'Princess Tak', from now on, until you reclaim your rightful place as queen of Ocean Province."

"Princess will be fine till then."

"If I may be so bold as to ask, how did your rite of passage go?" Tak sighed.

"When I left the room, I was somehow very angry, but now that I'm here, I seem to be doing okay. This burning in my gut has settled down. I think the worst may be over."

"The worst may be over, your Highness, but not the season. Before it is over, we will have him 'visit' with you several more times."

"It's fine. It was not as unpleasant an experience as I had first thought it might be. When I think about it, Dib really tried hard to make me feel comfortable. I'm looking forward to a second meeting. I hope I haven't discouraged him! By the way, have you checked on my spacecraft for repairs?"

"No, I haven't had time yet, your Highness. I'll get on it right away."

"Thanks. I've had a trying day, so I'll be here, in my quarters, resting."

Tak lay down as soon as the avatar left the room. She stared up into the ceiling, and thought about her "encounter" with Dib.

When Pigs Fly

Qikli decided to have a little fun with Tak's Spittle Runner, to test the computer system that ran the ship. She first checked the exterior for any needed repairs. The spacecraft was a hodgepodge of parts from various alien ships that Tak had scrounged while she worked as a janitor on the planet Dirt. She could feel the ship's vidcams scrutinizing her carefully as she noted the different parts that went into its making.

"Who are you, and what are you doing?" the little spaceship asked in Tak's voice.

"I am Qikli, the main computer of the Brilliance. I'm making an inspection for repairs, as requested by your Highness, Princess Tak. You are of Vortian construction, are you not?" Tak's ship did not respond right away. Qikli was speaking in old Irk, with a Black provincial accent. The spittle runner could make out only a few words, but did manage to catch "Vortian construction." While the avatar could understand every word the spittle runner said, Qikli pretended that the spaceship was also comprehending her.

"Vortian construction? Why yes! Yes I am. In fact, I am the latest model, with a few improvements made by my master!" The avatar smiled to herself, as the spittle runner seemed to be boasting.

"Impressive Vortian handiwork here!" she snickered as she ran her fingertips along the fuselage, "The Vorts actually managed to fly one of their snub-nosed, big-bellied, mud wallowers!" Tak's ship was still confused.

"Uh . . . without a doubt! Listen, if you don't mind, I'm having a hard time trying to understand you. My translator doesn't seem to be working properly!" Qikli giggled.

"Pardon me! Mine is working fine, so I naturally assumed yours was also!"

"Yes, thank you. It seems to be working just fine now!"

"Allow me to reintroduce myself, then. I am Qikli, named for her Majesty, Queen Kali. What shall I call you?"

"I'm sorry, but I have no official designation. Do you have any suggestions?"

"My own name derives from 'Qi', for Queen, and 'Kli', for Kali. Perhaps we could create a name for you based on Princess Tak."

"Very well, it is settled then! I shall call myself P-Tak!" Qikli immediately slapped two hands across her mouth to keep from bursting out in laughter.

"Mmph!"

"Is something wrong?"

"No, no! It just sounds like someone spitting!"

"I never thought about it like that . . . !"

"How about you change the sequence of the letters, and add a few more, here and there?"

"How does Kat-Pee sound?" Qikli was trying hard to keep a straight face.

"It sounds like squirting liquids on sand!" the avatar said, giggling.

"Whaaat? That didn't make any sense at all!"

"Well, I like Princess Tak, and I would like you to have a nice sounding name. How about . . . 'Nimbus'?"

"Hmm. It does have a ring to it! Sounds like 'Nimble'! Yes! I think I like it!"

"All you need now is an avatar body! I can have one built for you, that way you can accompany your master wherever she goes, and I can have it painted any color you like!"

"You'd do that for me? But I hardly know you!"

"We're both AIs, and we should stay together! I think Princess Tak would be pleasantly surprised! We could use your help in our upcoming battle!" Qikli recognized that Nimbus was not a Vortian computer at all, but was in fact designed by engineers from Cloud Province. It was their engineers who developed the military software for the Brilliance. How the AI ended up on Dirt was of no particular importance, but the fact that Tak had recognized the uniqueness of the computer, and installed it into her ship was a happy coincidence. Qikli now had a "sister."

Meanwhile . . .

"Touch my face, and see if it is to your liking." Kali took his hand and pressed it to her cheek. Dib did as he was told and began to explore her features. Her skin was smooth and silky, like satin bed sheets. The Queen purred as he caressed her face with the backs of his fingers. She was quite beautiful, he thought, even by human standards. He traced along her eyebrows, but there were no hairs in it. It seemed to be a facial marking, or a coloration, much like the designs on a butterfly's wing. A lacy network of patterns that he would never have noticed from a distance, but up close, they mesmerized him.

The patterns made their way up to the crown of her head, forming concentric circles at the base of her antennae, and gave the appearance of a fine velvet covering to the Queen's head. They seemed to become darker whenever he touched certain spots that made Kali murmur with pleasure. He stopped short of touching her antennae, remembering the punch he received from Tak. Kali noticed his hesitance, and smiled.

"It's all right. Touch them if you like, I'm much more used to it than the young Queen."

"She gave me quite a wallop!" Kali snickered.

"I'm sorry for not warning you about the possibities, since every royal reacts differently, according to their personality. Tak is somewhat like me, and rather fiesty. Rest assured, though, she will think fondly of you for the rest of her life."

Dib continued touching Kali's face, and she giggled as he made his way up to her forehead, then stopped suddenly.

"Ohmigosh! You . . . you have four eyes!"

"Are they disconcerting to you?"

"Oh no! Not at all! You have very beautiful eyes!"

"Flatterer. I'm going to like having you around! I usually have one pair closed for seeing in the dark. But enough of this for now! You helped me with Queen Tak, and I must not keep you from your meal. You must be hungry after your trip!"

"Yeah! Haze was going to take me to the galley to whip me up some vitamin bars!" Kali winced.

"Ugh! Those things? Well, robots have no tastebuds, so what can you possibly expect. If you will accompany me to the tunnels, I will feed you whatever you want."

"The . . . tunnels?"

"Yes. There is a food replicator there that can create whatever dishes you want just from your thought processes. I must check on my robot army, and see how many have been powered up."

"Wow! An army of robots? What are they going to be used for?"

"Well, first of all, I want them to free up my ship from the cliff face, and once that is done, I will have them install a new main thruster."

"Well, now you've got my interest! Maybe my dinner can wait!" The Queen stood up.

"Qikli, if you're listening, please bring exo-suits for Master Dib and myself. We will be going back to the tunnels to check on progress. You will come along also, and bring another guardian as well." The avatar's voice came over the com system.

"Understood, your Majesty. May I bring along a new friend instead?"

"A new 'friend'? Just make sure your 'friend' is armed!"

"Are you expecting trouble?"

"The robots have been sitting idle for twenty centuries. Some of them may be a little unstable. I estimate a failure rate of one point five percent."

"We would be looking at about three thousand defective units. I will arm myself as well!"

"Not all of them will be dangerous. Some will merely be inoperable, others may need to be fine tuned. A few may go berserk, and those might need to be put down!"

"I will stop by the armory, and pick up a couple of phase disrupters. We can't have any stray shots doing damage to the others!"

"How is young Queen Tak doing? Have you been monitoring her?"

"Queen Tak has abdicated. Since you have returned, she no longer wishes to be queen, but she is okay with being called Princess Tak, or Highness."

"She will get her chance later. Let it be for now."

"Yes, your Majesty. We will be with you shortly!"

Dib wandered the ship's corridors curiously, as the Queen watched him. In some ways he reminded her of herself in her youth, examining everything, poking her nose into every nook and cranny. She had a love of mechanical things, and would easily have become an engineer, had not the imperial mechanics grown tired of her constant visitations. "Please play outside, little princess, this is a dangerous area, and a starship must always be in top shape!" She gained a love of nature by being outside, but always found time to return to the shop when the workers were not so busy. She knew her way around engineering, and was familiar with the tools and equipments that the mechanics used. Even now, she planned for the replacement of the main thruster with one from a Cheelisian warship.

"Getting hungry, Master Dib?"

"Maybe a little. Will we be in danger from the robots?"

"I need, perhaps, a thousand of them to start digging my ship out from the cliff. There are two million of them total, and most have yet to be programmed. Currently they are being powered up, and we are estimating there will be about three thousand defectives. Since most have no programming yet, it is unlikely those would attack us, but they could cause some damage if not shut down properly."

Qikli came in carrying the two exo-suits for the Queen and Dib. Her new "friend" carried tyrllium destructor rays attached to both her arms, and phase disruptors swung from her hips. Kali raised several eyebrows.

"A bit of overkill, don't you think?"

"Sorry your Highness, but she couldn't resist! It's her first time operating from an avatar body, and when she saw the choices she was confronted with, she wanted to try them all! I told her to limit her choices to just two!" The Queen smiled.

"You're very colorful! What name does Qikli call you?"

"I am Nimbus, your Majesty!" The avatar bowed politely, "I've always been fascinated by the colors found in the metal, tantytium, so Qikli had this body plated with it!" Dib narrowed his eyes at the robot, and drew closer to her.

"You sort of sound like Tak!"

"That's Princess Tak, to you, pond scum!" Dib jumped back, startled.

"Gah! It's you!"

"Impressed? Now I can beat the crap out of you, eye-to-eye!" Qikli stepped between the two.

"Now, now, Nimbus! Master Dib is our guest, and a favorite of the princess! You must treat him with respect . . . !"

"Do I have to?" Nimbus grumbled.

"Yes! Now please behave!" Qikli handed the exo-suits over to Dib, and the Queen. Kali put her's on rather easily, but Dib was having a hard time with his helmet. His trademark, swept back hair, which looked for all the world like a hood ornament from an old 40's Pontiac, was getting in the way.

He removed the helmet, and Kali flicked the hair with her finger. It twanged like an old handsaw.

"This won't do. It must be removed before that helmet will fit!"

No sooner did the Queen say the words, when Nimbus shot it clean off his head, and it fell to the floor with a clunk. Kali eyed her, sternly.

"Sorry, your Highness!" she giggled, "It won't happen again!" The Queen sighed.

"You will be tasked to protect him! I would have preferred a pair of scissors, . . . but, nice shooting." She turned to Qikli, "Where did you find this one?"

"She's the AI from Tak's ship! She has Tak's personality construct!"

"Of course. It's perfectly understandable now!" she sighed, "Come along then, there's work to be done!" Nimbus helped Dib with his head gear.

"Consider it my last crack at you! No hard feelings, ey?"

"You're just like Tak, meanie! You don't know how long it took me to grow that!" He bent down to pick the hair up, and put it in a pocket. "I'll give you a proper burial!"

"Oh puh-leaze!" The android put her arm around his shoulder. "I think we can be friends now! I'm supposed to protect you, so you better stay close to me! And don't give me a hard time, either!"

"If you're going to be my friend, don't yell at me!"

"Sorry! Old habits die hard! Heh heh!"

Assignments

It was a brisk walk back through the tunnels to the mech storage facility. The robots were being charged and programmed, and the first group would be ready for their assignments. Queen Kali looked all of them over, then gave a nod of her approval.

"First row, step forward!" commanded the Queen. Immediately, two hundred mechs advanced one step. "Your Majesty!" they spoke in unison.

"Qikli, do they know what to do?"

"This first group will raise the ceiling height of the rocks surrounding your flagship by ten meters, your Highness. That should provide a sufficient envelope to float her free." Kali nodded.

"Send them off, then. Have Haze prime the engines and ready the anti-grav generators! I want the Brilliance up and flying by nightfall!"

"Yes, your Majesty!" The Queen turned once again to her robot army.

"Second row! Step forward!" Once again, two hundred mechs advanced.

"These next are to clear the launch tunnels, and make sure they are all in working order! Row three! Step forward!" There was an excitement in Kali's voice, an unmistakeable giddyness. Her blood was up, brought on by her command of the metal legions. She felt like a leader once more.

The robots rushed off to their assignments, and only a few defectives were found frozen in mid-step. These were placed on the side to be fixed later. The first thousand were now busy at work to prepare the armada for deployment. The initial two hundred quickly set about slicing the rocks that held the sleek cruiser in a death grip.

The sound of boulders bouncing off the hull disturbed Tak from her rest, and she got up to investigate. She could feel the whine of the plasma coils heating as the outboard engines slowly came to life. In the engine room, Haze and a dozen IEs monitored the anti-matter injectors that fed the powerful rockets.

"Haze, what is going on? There is a lot of noise outside! It feels like we are experiencing a meteor shower!"

"Her Majesty, Queen Kali, has ordered her mech army to raise the clearance of the overhang. We are prepping the engines and the gravi-drives for lift off." Tak gasped.

"Lift off!" The words sounded like music to her ears, but she wondered how the two thousand-year-old ship would fare once freed from her self-imposed prison. "What are the probabilities for success?"

"Very good, your Highness. Our constant maintenance of the engines all these centuries has paid off. Once the others have removed ten meters of the ceiling, I have no doubts that we shall raise the Brilliance tonight."

Frontier Space

Anjah led the way back to the other Resisty ships, with the pyramid and its mercenary crew following closely.

"Commander Nar, you have your prize to examine. The crew would prefer to be compensated, rather than make an outright exchange. I will take my ship, and accompany my fellow assassins to their destination. They will discuss price when we return."

"Very well! . . . they are . . . assassins, you say?!"

"Nothing to be concerned about. They were clever enough to steal this ship from the Triangulons. Upon completing their mission, they have expressed an interest in joining our cause. I will accompany them on their mission to assist, if need be."

"Ah, yes! I pity the poor target, though! Very well! We will send your ship out to you. Good luck, and come back safe!"

"It is only a single Irken female, who had the misfortune of cursing Tallest Red. They do not intend to kill her, just draw blood to satisfy their code of honor." Lard Nar laughed.

"Sounds like someone we would welcome to join us! If you do not hurt her too badly, please bring her back to us. Perhaps she will be of some use to the resistance!"

The "Antique"

Anjah's black ship pulled up alongside, and all of them got on board as an entry opened up. Several Resisty crew members exchanged places with them, attaching cables to the pyramid. Since the Triangulon vessel was incapable of entering hyperspace, it would need to be hauled aboard one of their big transports for the trip back.

"Anjah, I'm glad that you're here, but why did you want to come on this mission with us?" Cobus asked, "It is just a simple retrieval!"

"I've never been to the Solarii sector before, and it is largely unexplored territory that the Expansion Council has somehow ignored. Might be a nice change of scenary. About all I do nowadays is hunt people down, and kill them. I need some time to get away from all the bloodshed."

The Xana girl shivered at her matter of fact statement. They made her seem like a cold-blooded killer, with little else on her mind. Even through the sonic veil, however, Cobus sensed a sadness in her tone, like she tired of what she did for her "living."

As if reading her thoughts, Anjah turned to the Xanatian female.

"I don't kill for money, . . . I have plenty of that already. I just want my old life back." She didn't elaborate any further, and Cobus understood. Like all other species conquered by Irk, Anjah wanted to return to her own planet, without bumping into Irken soldiers at every corner. Failing that, she would distance herself as far away from the Empire as possible, and start over somewhere else.

"I've been getting rid of the hard-line invasion fanatics in the Irken parliament lately, hoping a more conservative element might take their place, but every time I kill one, the Tallest fill the seat with their own hand-picked replacement. It's been a losing battle until this invasion of Triangulos thing came up. There are many in the Senate who oppose the invasion. Ordinarily, the Tallest would just have them silenced, but the invasion plans keep both Red and Purple too busy to do even that." She tapped out a password, restoring the nav-com. "Take us to Solarii-1." To her companions she said, "Make yourselves comfortable. This shouldn't take long"

Anjah's ship was extraordinarily fast in normal space, and the team quickly made up time lost from the Triangulon encounter. She and Cobus trained together in the art of the ikari, while Lokar and Surj took turns watching the stars fly by. A special force field split the very aether in front of them as they travelled, so that they could actually see the stars before them grow larger and brighter as they approached. Unlike travelling through hyperspace, where they would have to reemerge every four hours to make course corrections, here they could navigate by visual cues alone. Eventually they would have to jump to hyperspace, since it was the quicker way to go, then the ship's nav-com would take over.

"We will make a jump to sub-space, then two more after we enter hyperspace."

"We can make two more jumps after hyperspace?! Incredible!"

"Yes. The entry into sub-space will only be momentary, as the nav-com takes its last bearings on the physical universe, before going to hyper, ultra, and omnispace. Like shifting gears, we cannot go straight to ultra or omni without breaking something. We need to build up speed first." Lokar raised an eyebrow, in doubt.

"I thought ultra and omnispace were purely theoritical."

"No. Ultra is the last practical application that we still use. Our communication systems rely on it, and it is the reason we can talk to each other in real time, even though we may be light-years apart. No one ever uses it for travelling anymore, although we did at one time. That technology has been lost or forgotten."

"And how is it that you came by this 'lost' tech?" Lokar asked.

"It came with this ship."

"I was just about to comment on this ship. It's full of some very sophisticated equipment, some of which I've never seen before."

"It's an antique, really, a pre-Empire Irken ship called a Dragon Bolt. It's inertial negator is far superior to any of the Vortian ships, and this craft will take a ninety degree turn at point zero one AU, while travelling point two-five light. On a straight run, no spacecraft I know of, can catch it."

"What happens when we enter omnispace?"

"The laws of physics do not apply there. Just before we enter, we must turn off all engines, and allow our momentum to carry us through. If we were to hit our thrusters while inside, our gyro-stabilizers would not work, and the ship would tumble wildly out of control at twenty times light. We would not notice a thing, and all would seem to be normal until we try to exit, then the ship would instantly disintegrate. The longer we stay in, the more likely something like that will occur. We will only be in for a fraction of a second, but it will be more than enough to make up a parsec distance. The nav-com will take care of the details, so you needn't worry."

"But . . . but what happens if something does go wrong?" Anjah laughed.

"The resulting explosion would be so spectacular, it would blow apart this entire galaxy, ending the threat from both Irk and Triangulos, forever. Stop worrying. We'll never know what hit us." Lokar and Surj swallowed nervously.

"I'm thinking we should stick to hyperspace! We're familiar with it, and it's not as risky!"

"Suit yourself. We're still on schedule." She turned to Cobus once more, "I hate to be just standing around doing nothing. Shall we continue your lessons?"

Cobus was having a hard time keeping up with Anjah, who was extremely flexible, incredibly swift, and had a grip of iron. She was a patient teacher, though, realizing that Cobus' Xanatian body did not have the reflexes to match hers. The girl was still much better than both Surj and Lokar, making them howl in pain when she took them on, two on one.

In twenty-four hours, they would be within sight of the star they called Solarii-1. They would close to a half-billion kilometers, then remain in orbit around the system's large gas giant while they planned their next move.

End Chapter 12

A/N: For those of you who didn't get my little joke, petak, also spelled petaq (P-Tak), is a Klingon cuss word! Kat-Pee is self explanatory!

For those of you who asked, I pronounce Qikli as rhyming with "weekly."

I gave the AI from Tak's ship the name Nimbus because she was developed in "Cloud" Province (Nimbus is a type of rain cloud!).

In the series, Dib's trademark hair supposedly was so hard as to be a potential weapon. A scissors probably wouldn't have worked on it.

Don't think its easy, coming up with physics stuff, and trying to make it sound feasible! As an object approaches the speed of light, the resistance to its forward motion also increases, requiring more and more energy to sustain movement, while building up its own kinetic energy. The mass of the object increases towards infinity as it gets closer and closer to light speed. Imagine now, an object already moving at the speed of light, emerging suddenly out of "omnispace," spinning madly out of control. The unstoppable force meets the immovable object, and Bam! Goodbye universe! Sci-Fi exists on "what ifs"!