I'm astonished to find Gaz there before me. She plays on her Game Slave 5 in the cockpit. I approach the ship and rub my fingertips across the perfectly round windshield. It's been so long since I've flown. That ship never ceased to give me a hard time in Tak's voice.

"I just washed that," she shouts, getting out and facing me.

"Thank you so much for bringing this," I say, hugging her.

Quickly realizing my mistake, I let her go. Eyes wide, she glares at me. Her knuckles crack before she punches me into the face. I hear her incoherently threaten me with something that sounded like it involved beavers. I hold a hand over my swollen eye.

"I'm sorry, I-I-I just got excited."

"Don't ever touch me or your head is as good as gone. Now I'm going to leave before you do another stupid thing that'll piss me off."

She starts to angrily walk off.

I call out, "Gaz?"

"Make it quick."

"Don't forget me."

She rolls her eyes and keeps walking away. I know what to do now. I have my computer and Tak's ship.

"If I pair them up I can search for any signs of Irken activity," I tell myself, jumping into the cockpit.

"You again? Aren't you supposed to be locked up?" the ship groans in Tak's thick Irken accent.

Ignoring the condescending voice, I connect my computer. The ship strangely giggles. I shrug it off and search for any signals from Irken machinery.

"Looking for Zim?" it asks.

It's uncanny how similar its voice is to Tak's. If I didn't know better I'd think it was Tak.

"Yeah, do you know where he is?"

"Maybe."

"Why do you have to be so difficult?"

"Because I don't like you."

"Just bring me to him."

"No."

My swollen eye starts to throb. Before the ship notices, I hack into its systems. It seems to think Zim is in a base orbiting Earth.

"I need to get there," I say, placing my finger on the screen.

"All right, but I hope you fail. Miserably."

"You haven't changed a bit."

I smile as we take off. It's almost comforting to hear the ship's voice, even if it hates me. It mentioned Zim without me asking. His existence is nearly concrete. Because of Dwicky, I still have this small sliver of doubt.

A loud metal thud jerks me awake. I press my face to the windshield of the ship. Pinks, reds, and purples cover the massive Irken base orbiting the Earth. Shrinking down in my seat, I gasp and cover my mouth.

"I-I-It's r-real?!" I croak.

For a moment I had thought that Gaz and I built this ship. That maybe I convinced myself Tak and Zim and GIR were real. I've built impressive stuff before. But this base, it's enormous. Not even my dad could create something this elaborate and alien. The Irken race must be real. And Zim has to be inside.

"Did you piss yourself yet?" the ship asks.

"Get me inside."

"You'll get caught."

"I don't care. I need to get in there."

"All right."

The ship flies me in through a small open hangar. It closes immediately after we enter. Strangely, nothing flies out to shoot us nor do any alarms go off. My eyes shift to my computer. I search for any signs of Zim, but the ship can't find anything. The metal walls in this place must be thick. I bet if he's in here he's doing his best to keep from being detected. Who knows how NASA and other space organizations haven't found this. Oh right, they "don't have enough funding" to do shit.

Once the ship lands, I leap out. I make sure to grab my laptop.

"Wait for me here," I command.

It groans, "Whatever. It's not like I have anything better to do."

"Do you have any weapons you could lend me?"

"Nope. You're defenseless. Good luck. Not."

"Thanks," I say sarcastically.

I blindly run off down a hallway. As soon as I find a computer monitor I hack into it for information. Damn it. I don't have the Irken translator on here. I wirelessly link up with the ship. Looking through a map, I find the main control room. He'd have to be there getting ready for something.

"I don't know what you're doing, but I'm going to stop you from doing it," I say out loud.