Chapter 29 – Strategy Games
"Beginning entry into outer atmosphere. Three minutes until friction turbulence will begin. Trajectory set in computer routing."
"Twenty minutes to touch down."
"How close will we be to the smeet's landing location?"
The technician ticked away at his keyboard. "Approximately 18 kilometers. 3 kilometers from the estimated center of the IEG signal." He added, anticipating his commander's next question. The leader nodded. "Send the coordinates to the earthling Darkbootie. I want no political loopholes. We're going in with the intention of retrieving the future-Tallest, anything found during the search that may be considered technology beyond that of a D-class planet will be appropriated as evidence for this planet's status upgrade. Got it?"
"Sir!" was the resounding response. Soldiers stood in the entry bay, ready for departure. Their orders were simple. Get the machine. Get the kid. In that order. It was an impromptu mission in an unmapped, potentially hostile environment. None of them understood exactly what they were doing there. The commander had only given the foot soldiers the minimum details. They were to follow a specified signal to a machine. Confiscate said machine, and return to the ship. Two platoons of twelve soldiers were assigned to this task. Two more platoons were assigned to scanning the area for the child irken's pak signals. They would be the only unregistered pak signals.
The remainder of the force was tasked with general control and safety regarding the general population of the planet. Keep the humans out of the way, was the main goal. It would be regrettable if one of them got hurt but as long as casualties were kept to a minimum, the safe recovery of a child was one of the stipulations in the treaty which would keep the galactic powers from coming down hard on the empire.
"We don't know what we'll find out there. Keep sharp and watch your backs. Prepare for landing."
"Sir, yes sir!"
XXX
Darkbootie cursed loudly and slammed his hands on the desk. Zita and Gaz ceased talking and looked at him, though Gaz could not see him on her screen in Bill's lab. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed before hastily typing on the computer. The boss already wasn't happy with him, "But shit's about to hit the fan, so I guess it can't be helped."
"What's going on?" Gaz asked.
Zita shook her head. "I think the irkens aren't being patient anymore."
"They're not just being impatient," Darkbootie said. "They're refusing all communication. They've sent their landing coordinates, and practically announced that their going after PEG."
"Announced it how?"
"They're landing closer to it than to where the kids landed." The older man bit his lip. Nothing this big had happened since Roswell and the networks founding. But this wasn't just a crash, and any cover-up would be impossible. "Agent Kelpi."
"Sir?"
"Get Green-man, Tuna Ghost, and anyone else you can find. We need a gas bomb at their landing location. Do whatever it takes to get the general public indoors and afraid to go out. I don't think the Irkens will come in guns blazing but I don't want to take that risk."
"Yes sir."
Zita sighed as the door slid shut. Across the screen Gaz slouched in her chair. "Why did I have to have the stupid brother?"
"Sweetie, Dib's doing the best he can."
"He's run off again, doing stupid alien work. He promised he'd stop, but it was all a lie. He cares more about his stupid discoveries than he does about his own family." Maybe just four or five more uses of the word "stupid" and she'd be satisfied.
"That's not true."
"Yes it is. If he cared about us, he wouldn't have brought that signal data to Dad. He wouldn't have offered Dad a way to get ahold of the materials he needed to build that stupid machine. He would have warned us about Bill long before the day of the accident, and he would hav-
"Gaz! You know your brother better than anyone. You know he wasn't doing any of that out of selfishness." Zita's outburst shut the teen up. She slouched in her chair and swiveled away so that only her messy purple hair could be seen over the back.
"I could be out there helping but no…" she grumbled to herself. Dib was smart but he was no fighter. She didn't even think their Dad had taught Dib any survival skills like he had for her. Her gamer buddies had better aim than any soldier. Yet here she was, stuck being watched by Zita, like a kid with a babysitter.
"I know it's tough waiting, but we'd only get in the way if we went out there."
You would maybe. She glanced around her. Coffee maker, lots of computers, one lame corded phone, nothing particularly useful. Oh wait… Ugh… that would mean talking. Oh well. Guess it was better than just sitting there, useless.
"Are you sure you wouldn't like me to come pick you up?"
"Yeah." Gaz stood and stalked across the room. Zita craned her neck when she couldn't see the girl on the screen anymore.
"Tired of sitting?"
"Something like that." Strategy games were her specialty. Let the SEN get the civilians out of the way. She was a general of her own army. "Keef." She said when she heard the click of the other line, "Want to play a real war game?"
XXX
Despite the previous tension between the kids, when Zim, Red and Skoodge were put to the task of getting the group through the halls they worked as a cohesive team, with Dib as the commander. Running a maze while avoiding detection was not only a basic drill, but it was a game they all used to play as a class. Who could get through the labyrinth with the best time? It was always fun to challenge one another. Sometimes they watched the older kids settle disputes with a speed run through the course.
There were any number of difficulty levels. From basic cameras, to rotating ones. From a single drunk night guard to a team of armed soldiers actively looking for you. Of course the "guards" were robots and had no actual weapons. If they caught you they'd simply walk you to the exit and put a big black mark on your score card.
None of the three smeets had run such a hard level, but that didn't matter much, since all they had to watch out for in the PEG complex was a few rotating cameras. Any guards that had been there, had met Bill's obsessive paranoia some time ago.
"It's left at the next hallway. The control center is down there," Dib informed them. They turned the corner just in time to see a Bill's back running from the room. A low buzzing filled the air, but only the irkens heard it. "Hold it! Bill!" Dib yelled and started to run after him.
Zim pushed him to the ground, at the same time that Skoodge knocked down M and Red put up a force shield around the whole group. The control room exploded, shaking the foundation and filling the hall with thick black smoke. Since the shields were never made for use on such a large group, Red's barrier came down the moment the explosion settled. Dib cursed and, unintentionally shoving Zim off him, ran to the room.
What had once been sleek state of the art computers was now an electricity crackling mess. The casings to nearly all the computers were dented, and the keyboards and screens were blasted in and shattered.
M grabbed Dib's arm when he made a move for the computers. "We need to get out of here. This place could blow any minute." Dib shook him off.
"PEG won't fail just because it's lost its control room. There are fail-safes in place for that." But PEG failing wasn't the problem now. The real problem was that now there was no way to shut the machine down. If all of the safe-guards did their job then PEG could be self-sustained and continue running for the next 10 years, but they didn't have 10 years if the irkens had already spotted the machine. "We'll have to go to the main room… My security code should still work. We can shut it down manually." But I don't have a computer… He looked at the kids. "Who is best with computers?" Shutting it down manually wasn't hard but there couldn't be any mistakes in the coding.
"That would be Red," Zim said, as a matter-of-fact. Red stood stunned by the vote of confidence. His moment of happiness sunk into guilt when Zim added, "if he can integrate a programing change into an Irken pak then he should be able to assist with what you need."
It's okay. He can think whatever he wants about Red. Just as long as he's safe. Red looked away, wincing at his own thought. "Yeah… I can do it." His voice was quiet, with confidence forced into his tone. Maybe if I succeed at this Zim will be able to accept my apology… It was a long shot, and Red argued within himself as to what was most important. Either way, he didn't know much about Earth's computer coding patterns. Hopefully they weren't too different from back on Irk.
Dib nodded. "Good to hear. Since I don't have a computer with to do it myself, I'll have to rely on you to relay the shutdown sequences as I tell them to you. But, first things first. We need to get to the main reac…tor." An odd look crossed his face. He turned to look at the three smeets. "How did you know he was about to set off a bomb?"
Children who'd just been caught playing with dad's power tools. That's what they looked like. In sync, all three of them clamped their mouths shut. They'd messed up a basic rule of infiltration. Tell the commander everything. It only took a second for Red and Zim to take a step back, leaving Skoodge exposed in the front, mumbling and stuttering an explanation.
Dib heaved a sigh. "You're not in trouble," he said. "Just explain."
"Skoodge tapped the security system." Zim and Red both pointed their fingers. They glanced, and almost smirked, at one another. However, a destroyed friendship cannot be restored so quickly. Zim's smile hardened and he quickly looked forward at Skoodge
"Yeah but I couldn't tell what he was doing until the buzzing."
"Buzzing?"
"Well it was a low frequency radio wave, maybe 3400-4000 quatz or so. I'm not sure what that is in earthling-" Zim coughed lightly and sent out a short message that, 'maybe Dib doesn't want the mathematic details.' "Oh… Uh… Well putting it with the video feed of him carrying something in about an hour before our arrival, as well as seeing an object with buttons in his hand, and that he was running away, brought the obvious conclusion that it was a detonator sending the signal for a bomb's activation…" his voice died into a small squeak, "sir."
It truly boggled the mind. How could they be so intelligent yet still be so childlike. They reasoned things out with minute details that the average human adult couldn't even hope to notice. And even though they had so much history between them, they were able to put that aside and work as a team. 'Exactly how well trained are irkens? … And if their training is this powerful… what will happen when the true irken soldiers land on Earth?'
Skoodge became increasingly nervous the longer Dib stayed silent. Red cleared his throat. He wanted to prove that he wouldn't abandon his friends. That he was trustworthy. "Sir. We're still tapped into the security system. The subject, Bill, has run into west corridor stairs 15-B, still at a run. If we want to intercept him, we will have to move quickly."
Dib pushed his worries aside. One thing at a time. "Alright we'll take the security elevator to the main reactor." The group set off at a run. In the shadows, always one corner out of sight, a pair of glowing red eyes followed in silent stealth.
