OK, I'm back to my normal posting dates. I'd like to thank everyone so much for their comments. It makes checking my email for updates that much more enjoyable. I hope you enjoy this new chapter.
Dib woke up, still a little startled by the new bedroom. In his sleepy daze, he kept forgetting where he was. He always seemed to start his days, if it even was day back home, falling out of bed, and then remembering where he was when he didn't hit the ground.
Apparently not even the Irkens have discovered how to create artificial gravity. Although Zim did offer to magnetize the ground so that Dib would stick to it, Dib had the suspicion that if he ever fell, he wouldn't be able to get back up. After all, it was kind of fun to float around the place. It was sort of like swimming through air. He felt like he was one of the astronauts he watched on TV when he was four, when humanity was still trying to go into space.
He pushed off from the wall and flew to the door like a superhero. He was getting used to the zero gravity. He still had a little bit of trouble with his inertia, but he was getting better at figuring out how much force to use. He guided himself down the hall to the living room/ control room where Zim was still flying the ship. For the past week, Zim has only left his seat three or four times.
Dib floated over to Zim sitting down, which involved hovering just an inches above the seat, in the co-pilot seat.
"Did you have a good sleep?" Zim asked as Dib set the seat to lean back for a better view of the Universe.
"Fine. Although zero gravity sleeping makes me have a lot of drowning dreams."
"You'll get used to it."
"Are we there yet?" Dib asked, looking deep into the distant black dotted with faint signs of stars.
"Almost," Zim said.
Dib looked harder into space trying to see any sign of where they could be going. Zim had been quiet about where they were going. The only thing Dib knew was he would love it, and that Zim said so with a grin. They didn't talk about much these past few days. Dib was comfortable with the silence most of the time.
Despite the excitement of their departure, things quickly settled into an easy relaxed pattern. Wake up, watch the universe pass them by without even seeming to move, eat something, watch alien TV frequencies, which weren't as entertaining as they were when he was a kid looking for proof of aliens to show everything who called him crazy.
Dib tried to remember when he stopped trying to prove to everyone he wasn't crazy. He was pretty sure it happened a little while after Zim came around and started all his plots to take over the Earth. Back then, his goal slowly changed to saving the Earth from proving that he was right. Thinking back on it, he was really self involved for someone who would put his life on the line to save people who really didn't deserve it.
And not long after he made it his life's mission to save the Earth, putting off all needs for friendship, acceptance, and sleep, he started to loose interest in it. Maybe on some level he knew Zim wasn't putting his all into it, and he was matching Zim's level of effort, meaning he was putting all his energy and life into one action, and neither of them were really trying. He'd almost feel bitter about it if he didn't know that things still turned out somewhat decent. And as long as he convinced himself that all the crap that has been happening lately would have happened whether or not Zim had ever landed on Earth.
"How much longer until we get there?" He asked.
"Soon," Zim said, his grip tightening on the wheel.
That was another thing Dib did to entertain himself. Usually it was something he started when commercials about Grindippity Doos or something like that started to get repetitive, but today felt like an especially dull day. Annoying Zim was a piece of the past that didn't fade away when he realized Zim's feelings for him, and it definitely made an otherwise dull day just a little more fun.
"How soon is soon?" Dib asked.
"Soon enough."
"So how soon is soon.."
"Go away!" Zim yelled, cutting off Dib's sentence before he finished it. "You're acting like a child," he muttered under his breath.
"At least I don't look like I'm still a child."
"At least I'm not a smelly, hairy, ugly human!"
"At least I'm not an annoying, tiny, bug-like alien!"
Zim spun around in his seat to glare at Dib. His red eyes looked like they were burning. "Well at least I'm not a species that's so stupid they believe anything anyone says. An alien could walk right up to them and say 'I'm human' and they would just nod. Oh wait, that has happened."
"At least I'm not incompetent to the point that the only way my species can deal with me is to throw me to the other side of the universe."
"Don't think they didn't want to. But they are so dumb, they couldn't even come up the the fuel to get you past your own moon."
"I doubt it. Most people just ignore me and forget I exist. But you've had members of your species try to kill you," Dib said, pointing a finger at Zim, "I can't say anyone but you has actively tried to get rid of me."
"Yeah, well at least I don't have a parental figure that locked me up in a small cold space."
Dib's eyes grew wide at that. Zim suddenly realized what he had said and quickly went quiet, focusing on the space ahead. Neither of them had spoken about that day. All Zim needed to know was that Membrane had kidnapped Dib and locked him up in that room. Dib didn't want to talk about it, and Zim didn't push it.
"That wasn't all that he did," Dib said. Just remembering that day brought the feeling of being electrocuted back.
"What?"
Dib sighed. He hated to relive that moment, and he hated even more that it made Zim's last argument stronger. "Never mind," He said, "It's nothing. I was just saying stupid stuff."
"OK," Zim said.
Dib wondered for a second whether Zim believed him when he said it was nothing, or whether Zim was just dropping it because he didn't want to deal with it. Dib pretended to watch Zim's driving with interest, but after days of watching him, it lost the interest. But it beat filling the silence with meaningless words.
The next few hours were filled with silence as Dib tried to pick out which tiny dot in the distance was their destination. He eventually decided that a small purple looking speck in the middle of the shield was where they were going, but he changed his mind when he realized it was a small piece of rock that had lodged itself into the material.
"So, you're still not going to tell me where we're going?" Dib asked, getting bored again.
"Nope," Zim said to Dib's expectation. There wasn't a single time that question worked. "But I know you'll love it."
"You keep saying that," Dib grumbled to himself, "So why did you pick this mysterious place that I'd like?" He asked. Dib hadn't asked Zim that question yet.
"I have some friends who live there. I thought you'd like to meet them."
Dib almost did a double take at that comment. "You have friends?"
"What? You think Zim would be friendless like you?"
"I'm not friendless!" Dib yelled.
"You not? Name one besides those 'friends' who pushed you away at the first sign of trouble. Family doesn't count."
"Well..." Dib said, trying to think, "I have..."
"You were an outcast. You didn't have any friends. Even I, Zim, could make more human friends than you did."
"You're an outcast too. They hated you just as much," Dib said, trying to save his pride, but he could tell that was a loosing battle. He knew he never had any friends, but it didn't matter. But it still hurt having someone call him on it.
"Even if they hated Zim, they still listened to me," Zim said, "They even stopped acknowledging your existence after a certain while."
"Yeah well... You're a creepy looking alien!" Dib shouted, angry at himself for loosing to Zim.
To avoid facing anymore humiliation and frustration, Dib stormed out of the control room and into his bedroom. He knew it was childish, but it was just about the only retort he had left in his book. He couldn't even get the exit right because he pushed too hard on his seat and ended up nearly flying past the door.
He leaned against the wall in a huff. He hated that Zim was right. No one even acknowledged him. Zim, his sister, and on the very odd occasion, his father, where the only ones who even spoke to him. And only Zim ever made eye contact for the past few years. Maybe he was some pity case. Someone not deserving of anything but pity, who deserved to be looked down upon. All he had was Zim. His sister was rarely any help, his father was part of the problem, most people won't even look or talk to him, and the only human beings in the universe who actually gave a few hours of their time to care, threw him away just as quickly. He really was the lowest of the low.
Dib pushed down so that he could sit on the floor in the corner of his room. He hoped Zim wouldn't come in. The last thing he needed was for Zim to see how much he had gotten to him. Dib didn't want Zim to know how right he was about Dib, and that Dib really was more of an outcast to his species than Zim. Zim might have his species want to kill him, but Zim still had a few friends. Dib had nothing.
He could hear Zim just outside his door. He tried to get into a more dignified pose rather than the nearly sobbing mess in the corner of the room he was in now. He tried to get to the bed, but he moved so hastily that he over shot it. Luckily Zim didn't seem to want to go into the room. He just passed by, muttering something or other.
Dib felt a little relieved, but he could hear Zim coming back again. Maybe Zim just overshot the door again. Dib managed to pull himself into a stable floating position on the bed. And waited for Zim to open the door, but instead he could her some other door being opened and closing. He waited for a few moments more, and he could hear the same thing again. Zim was still muttering something, but he was saying it so quickly that Dib couldn't make it out.
Soon he could hear a door open and close again. Dib tried to guess where it was coming from, but he couldn't place it. After a few long minutes of waiting there was still quiet. Dib sat up, making him fly in circles a little bit, as he realized that things were too quiet. Even when all Zim did was drive, every so often he would curse at a piece of rock that came close. Quiet Zim worried Dib.
Dib flew over to the door. He needed to check up on Zim. Hopefully Zim was just still flying the ship and was quiet because he felt bad. Sometimes Zim would go quiet for a little while when he felt bad. Dib looked outside the hall in case Zim was just standing outside, waiting for Dib to come out, but the hall was empty, and things were still too quiet. Dib was starting to panic a little. What was Zim doing that was so quiet?