NEXT CHAPTER WOOT! Sorry for the wait. One more to go after this!
If you want to check out my art from this story and other tidbits from the characters in here check out 'breeding-project-ask' on tumblr
Red hovered into the med bay. Mik had requested his presence (very politely and very discreetly). On any other day Red might have been more curious or concerned about the request, but today was the day that the planet jackers handed over their planets. True to his word, after the transfer Purple immediately ordered the planets to be destroyed. The look on the planet jackers' face was priceless. And the look on Purple's face made the bridge seem too warm and his armor a bit too suffocating, especially when Purple gave him that knowing and sly look. Red couldn't remember what he said to dismiss the planet jackers. He didn't remember much of the walk back to their rooms either.
Thankfully they had discovered that if they walked instead of using the hover belts it more often than not caused their smeet to fall asleep. Red sort of remembered Purple placing their smeet in his sleeping pod, his PAK programing confirmed the smeet's presence in the pod. But what he remembered the most was Purple; the look in his eyes, the smirk on his face, the feel of his skin and his scent that saturated the air.
Red was still riding the blissful feeling after such an intense mating. It wasn't often that Purple became so dominating in their matings. Usually there was an equal amount of control between the two of them, giving and receiving pleasurable feelings to each other, well until the last moments when Purple tended to take control. However there had been a few instances where Purple took control like today and his scent…his touch…his tongue…
"My Tallest?"
Red's vision was suddenly filled by the medic. "Stop that," Red scowled and pushed Mik's head down back to the level it should be at.
"My apologies, my Tallest," Mik said as his PAK legs retreated back into his PAK. "But I called your name several times and you didn't respond. Are you well?"
"I'm fine," Red snapped and crossed his arms defensively, hoping the flush on his face wasn't too prominent.
Mik peered up at him, studying him and Red resisted the urge to look away. Instead he glared the medic down. "Ah. I see," Mik said his antennae perking up as he nodded to himself in a reassuring manner.
"What do you see?" Red asked still defensive.
"Oh well, I was concerned that you might have some form of sugar deprivation since a lack of concentration and a limited awareness of one's surroundings are sure signs," Mik said casually as he walked back over to his desk to look for his reader. Shlen had been using it to log in the smeet's data and run it through several programs to look for patterns and analyze the findings.
"However," Mik continued as he shuffled through the various readers on his desk looking for the correct one, "Other signs such as flushed facial skin—identifiable by the slight tint of blue, a faint sweet smell from your scent, glazed unfocused eyes all accompanied by wide smile are indications that your state is a side-effect of a successful mating. Temporary and non-threatening, instead of a cause for concern it can be a positive sign that a pair of Irkens are well-matched and compatible and are either already a bonded pair or have potential to become one. Ah!" Mik said finding his reader and holding it up triumphantly. He turned to Tallest Red and frowned as the flush seemed to have become worse.
"My Tallest, I understand your attachment to Tallest Purple is necessary and important as a bonded pair," Mik said trying to be understanding, but this was important. "But I need you to focus. An issue has been brought to the Control Brains' attention and they have tasked me with finding a solution. I thought it best to consult you on this before approaching Tallest Purple."
Stunned and fighting off an intense bout of embarrassment, Red did his best to pretend that he wasn't completely mortified by Mik's comment. "Yes? What is it?"
"Um, well," Mik adjusted his blue goggles as he looked down at his reader. Red frowned, when did the medic get those? He hadn't noticed the medic wearing them before, his mind previously occupied by Purple. He would have asked if he cared more. "Firstly, the Control Brains said that you have yet to present the smeet before them."
"They wanted us to?" Red asked.
"Apparently," Mik said and continued to the main issue. "It has also been brought to their attention that Tallest Purple has been particularly… destructive lately."
"Yeah," Red said a bit distracted by all the memories of what happened after those destructive bouts.
"My Tallest," Mik said rather loudly to regain Tallest Red's focus. "This is a serious matter. Some of those ships were our own!"
"Well, they shouldn't have said anything about our smeet's size," Red said. He thought Purple had been completely justified in permanently demoting the commander that dared to say he thought their smeet would be bigger.
"My Tallest," Mik said with a patient sigh. "The smeet Maroon is very tiny."
Red gasped. "That that back! I'll have you thrown out the airlock, Control Brain Representative or not!"
"My Tallest," Mik said some of his frustration leaking out. "This is what the Control Brains are concern about. It is understandable and expected that as parental units you are going to be protective of your smeet, but you cannot keep destroying ships that are stating the obvious. The smeet is small, but he is growing. In these past two weeks he has already grown one inch. His neck muscles have developed to the point where he can almost sit up on his own. He will be a strong tall Irken, but not every Irken has been supplied with the information about smeet development. Until the rest of the populace can be educated you can't keep blowing them up.
"The breeding project on Irk is progressing. Several hundred Irkens have successfully paired and are currently smeeting. But until those smeets, and your own, grow into adulthood the smeeteries will not have any new DNA. So destroying our own ships is not advisable."
Red scowled at Mik, but he could see the medic's logic and gave a resigned sigh. "Fine, but what would you have us do?"
"Perhaps it would be best if the smeet was not present on the bridge."
"Yeah, that's probably the best but then what about our shared duty hours? Purple and I are on Tallest duty together. Going to shifts all the time won't work. I was able to do it while Purple wasn't able to come to the bridge, but we work better when we're both there. And we aren't going to leave the smeet unattended. Even with the pod's monitoring program, we don't like leaving the smeet alone in a room for too long. If he wakes up or needs attention while we are on duty then what?" Red asked bringing up several good points.
Mik nodded as he thought. These were all good arguments. The smeet shouldn't be left alone, but neither should either Tallest be left alone on the bridge too long either. That wouldn't fix the destructiveness.
"My Tallest!" Mik exclaimed excitedly as a most wonderful idea occurred to him. "You can leave the smeet here when you are on duty!"
"Why would I do that?" Red stared down at him. "Purple barely tolerates the tests you run as it is, why would he, or I, let you have the smeet for more?"
Indeed, that had been Mik's initial thought. It would be good to run some tests without the Tallests breathing down his antennae, but he also wouldn't dare to do any without Tallest Purple's consent. However, there was more to research than running tests.
"I wouldn't conduct any experiment or test without your or Tallest Purple's permission. It would be purely observational, I would only interfere when required too," Mik said only getting more excited.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Red asked suspiciously.
"Feeding, changing, and providing stimulation. I have been researching the offspring development of other species and many provide non-destructive playthings for their offspring to interact with. There are also visual stimulus that is provided to encourage the infantile brain to develop and learning tools that will help teach the smeet simple concepts and information," Mik said his arms flailing around by the end to show his excitement.
"And you have these playthings and learning tools already?"
"No, not yet, but my team on Irk is working with me develop them. Once our designs are finalized I will send them to the technology and development department for them to create. Your smeet would be perfect for testing out these products and—" Mik cut himself off when he noticed Tallest Red's glare. "—No, no, My Tallest, it's not like you are thinking. It's just like having soldiers test out new weapons." Red's eyes narrowed further. "But there is no chance of these exploding," Mik hastily added.
"I'll talk to Purple about it," Red conceded. He would never admit it, but it wasn't a bad idea. If there was anyone qualified to watch over their smeet, it was Mik. He knew the medic would never harm their smeet, Purple just didn't like seeing Mik look at Maroon like a science experiment. "When do the Control Brains want us to show them Maroon?"
"I would go as soon as you are able," Mik said.
"Purple is feeding Maroon now, then he usually falls asleep for an hour. After that we have a little time before we need to be on the bridge again. We'll go after Maroon wakes up," Red decided. "I'll see if Purple agrees to you watching the smeet, if he does after our meeting with the Control Brains we'll bring him here."
"Yes! Thank you, My Tallest," Mik wiggled his antennae respectfully but Red had already turned to leave the med bay.
By the time Red returned to their quarters Maroon was sleep in his pod. He found Purple lounging on their couch, his armor in a pile on the floor. His antennae quirked, to signal he knew Red had entered the room, but his attention was drawn to his reader. Red would have thought that Purple was looking over their messages, if not for the self-satisfied grin on his face.
"What are you looking at?" Red asked after removing his own armor and leaning over the back of the couch to look down at Purple.
"This," Purple sat up and shifted so Red could look over his shoulder at the reader. Purple was on a community message board that members of the Massive could post on. Usually it was informal complaints like who ate who's nachos, ongoing bets among the smallers, and others bragging about their own accomplishments. The Massive was named such for a reason, if an Irken wanted to communicate with another and they didn't know their personal PAK code to send a message then this was the way to do it.
He and Purple never really bothered to pay attention to the site, anything of importance was always sent to them directly, but sometimes one Irken would catch another doing something stupid or hilarious and they'd post it on here. Laughing at another's expense was always fun. However, the message group Purple pointed to was entitled 'Smeet Sightings!'. The post was filled with pictures of them carrying Maroon in the halls, a few of them on the bridge or coming out of the med bay.
With the pictures were descriptions like: 'My spooch almost exploded, I turned the corner and saw the Tallest with the smeet!' and 'I swear the smeet looked at me!' and 'On the bridge he yawned!' and 'Look! The smeet thinks Tallest Purple is a snack! I just might die looking at this.' This was followed by a picture of Maroon trying to bite Purple's finger.
The pictures were nearly endless at all angles and some not even in focus. Most pictures were taken directly from PAK memories so if the Irken wasn't focused the image wouldn't be exact or framed properly. Some were from the camera function on readers or from a PAK's camera, which was used mostly for data transferring. Irken didn't usually share their PAK memories unless it was something particularly funny or interesting.
Some Irkens didn't post pictures but short descriptions of things they'd seen or heard about the smeet. These posts read like 'I heard the smeet giggle and now my face can't stop grinning,' and 'I saw the Tallest again in the bridge with the smeet, they look so amazing,' and 'the smeet looked at me! AHhhhhhhHHHh!' There was one Irken that also kept posting and bragging about how he was the first to make the smeet giggle by having Purple punt him across the hall.' Several Irkens posed about how they wished Purple would kick them too, and that they would trade snacks to hear about it."
Red grinned. "Our smeet is very popular."
"Of course he is," Purple said then turned to grin at Red, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "I've logged onto the message board anonymously. Watch this," he said then got up and went over to the Pod. With the reader's camera Purple took a picture of Maroon as he slept. Sitting back on the couch he made a new thread and titled it 'Super Awesome and Super Rare Smeet Picture' then he posted the picture of Maroon sleeping.
Within seconds Purple's reader wouldn't stop dinging as Irkens commented on the picture. The first few were just random jumble of syllables or screaming. Red figured that was from Irkens who weren't typing but having their readers transcribe for them as they did other things. Several posts were about how they were dying or felt like their spooches had ruptured. Many were asking who it was that posted it and how they got the picture. There were a few posts expressing concern for the poster, saying that if they snuck into the Tallest quarters Tallest Purple was going to kill them. However, there were several posts asking 'My Tallest?!' correctly guessing that such a picture could only be taken by one of them.
Purple chuckled and pulled up another screen and began typing and humming to himself with satisfaction. Red came around and sat next to him and Purple shifted to use Red's lap as a pillow, his long legs draped over the arm of the couch. Red watched as Purple pulled the message board back up and messaged back.
If you want more, send monies to this account.
Purple pulled the other screen back up and grinned as monies came pouring in. "Look at this, Red, Maroon is indeed popular."
While Red was pleased that his smeet was so popular to the point that Irkens would pay monies for pictures, something about it didn't sit right with him. "I don't know, Pur," Red said. "I don't like this. I don't mind that they take pictures when we're out but selling pictures of our smeet makes me feel like we're selling our smeet. We have monies, I don't like making more this way."
"Red," Purple put down the reader giving him a patient look. "These monies aren't for us."
"Then who are they for?" Red blinked down at Purple.
"For Maroon," Purple said going back to watching the monies pour in. "I've been thinking about this since I found out smellers were trading snacks and monies for stories or better pictures. Why should the smallers benefit from our smeet? If they want to praise and worship our smeet, our smeet should gain something from it too. We're the Tallest, we get monies for being amazing and for our work as Tallest. Even as soldiers we got some monies to spend, but until Maroon matures and can enter the academy he will have no monies of his own. When he grows he's going to want to spend monies for his own stuffs. Doing this will give him plenty of monies and it will also stop greedy Irkens from getting too bold and chancing punishment by sneaking into our rooms."
"How so?" Red asked impressed that Purple had thought all this up.
"Eventually, the Pak and hallways pictures won't be enough, how could it be? Our smeet is amazing why wouldn't they want to look at him? If I carefully supply better more amazing pictures then they won't try to get them themselves."
"How will that stop others?" Red asked. "If you are making a lot of monies from rare pictures won't other Irkens try to do it too?"
"Undoubtedly," Purple said not seeming concerned. "Which is why I am doing this anonymously. It will lower their guards. Eventually someone will try and if we catch them we will make an example of them. So if I ever find pictures other than the ones I have taken, then I will hunt down that Irken and destroy them so fully that there won't even be a sliver of their Pak left. And I won't be sneaky about it," Purple said his voice holding a dark maliciousness that made Red wish Maroon took much longer naps. "It will only need to happen once and then they will all be more than willing to pay whatever price I put if they want more quality pictures."
"You are amazing," Red said and brushed his finger along Purple's antennae, not wanting to be the only one wishing for longer naps.
Purple shivered as his eyes closed at the touch. When he opened them the look he gave Red had his insides squirming around. "Of course I am," Purple said and without breaking eye contact he reached over to place his reader on the table. Reaching up he slid his fingers around Red's neck to grab his head and pull him closer. Purple leaned up and he pulled a more-than-willing Red closer until their mouths met and their tongues entwined.
Red was beginning to wonder if they could see how long Maroon would sleep for, when they heard a distinct noise coming from Purple's reader, it was echoed by an alert in their Paks that they had received a message.
Purple groaned and pulled back reaching for his reader. "What do they want now?" he asked knowing that the message was from the Control Brains. "A confirmation for a meeting with them today?" Purple frowned as he read.
"Oh yeah," Red said shaking the lingering sweet scent from antennae. "I was going to tell you that once Maroon wakes up we should go show him to the Control Brains, apparently they want to see him personally."
"And you didn't tell me this sooner because?"
"You are very distracting," Red said lowering his antennae and waving them in Purple's direction.
"Is there anything else I distracted you from telling me?" Purple asked, his voice teasing and a little smug.
"Actually, yes," Red said hoping the conversation would go well.
Purple held his happily flailing smeet and scowled as they approached the doors leading to the Control Brains. "I don't know why I agreed to this," he said again.
"Because it makes sense," Red answered next to him, knowing that Purple wasn't talking about the visit, but leaving their smeet with Mik.
"If he does anything—"
"—You know he won't," Red interrupted. "You're much too terrifying," he said briefly touching Purple's antennae with one finger. Purple jerked his antennae out of the way and glared at him with a slight blue flush to his cheeks. "And amazing."
"I know that," Purple said tartly as he opened the door and stepped into the Control Brain's chamber. The three massive brains were waiting for them, alert and humming.
"Welcome Tallest Purple, Tallest Red," the center Control Brain boomed. "Step forward so we can scan the smeet, Maroon."
Purple obeyed and stepped onto the center platform in front of the railing. A tendril came from the ceiling and washed the smeet in a red light. Maroon blinked several times and rubbed his eyes as the light was very bright. Another tendril came down as the scanning one retreated. The end of this one was shaped like a blunted Irken hand. One digit poked his feet and the little smeet kicked back. It then lightly poked his head and Purple grinned as his fearless smeet grabbed the affronting finger and tried to bite it. Having no teeth the metal didn't feel good and it didn't taste good if the unhappy face Maroon made was any indication. He stuck out his tongue and blew a raspberry at the tendril.
"No," Purple lightly chided his smeet. "We can't blow up the Control Brains." To pacify him he tapped Maroon between his eyes. The little smeet grabbed the familiar finger and began chewing on it, gurgling happily. He liked this Large One so much!
"Adorable," the center Control Brain said making Purple and Red snap their heads up, not sure if they heard that right.
"The smeet's growth is progressing well," the left Control Brain said as all tendrils withdrew. "Head Medic Mik is sending us copies of all his data. We also approve of the plan for Head Medic Mik to observe and supervise the smeet while you are on Tallest duty. While it is important to keep a firm rule, further culling of our ships and soldiers is not recommended."
"We must congratulate you both on your efforts," The right Control Brain said. "Your cooperation with Head Medic Mik has been beneficial to the Breeding Project on Irk. Several hundred Irkens are currently smeeting and we have received requests from many of them to join in a Union. As the first Tallest and Irkens to create a smeet and join in a Union, you will be setting an example for the Irken race. Proceed with this in mind."
"Once every thirty days we require that you present the smeet, Maroon, to us so we may see in person his progress," the center Control Brain added. "If you do this we will overlook the unnecessary loss of Irken soldiers."
"We'll bring him as you asked," Red responded. He was a little disappointed that he wouldn't see evil Purple as much, but he agreed that when the smeet was present Purple didn't hesitate to retaliate and instead of causing issues with the Control Brains it was easier to let Maroon stay with Mik during their Tallest duties.
"Good," the center Control Brain said. "Keep up the good work. We are greatly pleased with this smeet. You are dismissed," the brain said then all three hummed once last time before going into inactive mode.
The three of them exited the Control Brain's room. "What would you like to do now? That was shorter than I thought, we have some time before our duty hours start," Red said. Purple cradled their smeet in one arm, his other hand being gently chewed on by Maroon. A small fond smile ghosted across Purple's face and Red felt like his chest was swelling with warmth.
"I want to see how Maroon likes nachos. I think the ones at the bottom that are soaked with cheese would be soft enough for him to eat," Purple said and looked down thoughtfully at Maroon. "I wonder when his teeth will start to grow? There are a lot of snacks I want him to try."
"Hm," Red said thoughtfully as he watched his smeet naw on Purple's finger. "When he does grow teeth that's going to hurt."
Purple frowned. "Maybe I should stop letting him, we already lost one of our fingers, I don't want to lose anymore," as he said this he removed his knuckle from Maroon's mouth.
His smeet looked up at him with wide, wet, woeful eyes. The corners of his lips turned down and began to tremble. Before he could start crying, Purple let the smeet chew on his bent finger once more. The smeet instantly regained his happy mood and he made soft gurgled noises.
"Chewing on stuff makes him happy, but I don't want him to chew on stuff that should hurt his teeth, or me." Purple said feeling conflicted.
Red poked his smeet's cheek and Maroon latched onto Purple's hand with his two tiny ones and glared at Red. Red bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. "Maybe we design something that's safe for him to chew on even when he starts to get teeth."
"That should be easy enough to do," Purple agreed an idea already coming to his mind. He'd draw up something later and send it to the technology and engineering team.
"I'll order some nachos to be sent to our chambers," Red said as his Pak extended a reader for him to type into.
"No," Purple said stalling Red. "I'm in a good mood. Let's go to the cafeteria and let the smallers bask in our amazing presence. We haven't gone down there since all this stuff started. Besides I'm curious to see how the others react on the forums. We haven't taken Maroon out into the different areas of the Massive yet." Purple flashed him a cheeky grin, "It should be interesting."
Red grinned back, knowing that Purple loved all the attention his smeet was getting. Their smeet was amazing of course all the other Irkens would fall over themselves to be able to see him. "We should make a formal introduction, race wide. It would be selfish to not let Irkens off the Massive be able to see him."
Purple looked down at his smeet. Not too long ago that idea would have terrified him. Not only would making a race-wide announcement like that confirm that he was female recessive, it would also confirm that Red had mated with him. It was still a bit unnerving that the announcement would reach all those Irkens on Irk who would know exactly how a smeet was made.
However, he wanted to send a very clear message to the other Irkens that had that part of their Paks activated: Red was his. If he ever came into contact with other Irkens that could mate, if they caught Red's sweet, sweet scent he wanted them to know that no matter what, even if they were Tall or gave Red snacks or monies or other tribute, that Red was his mate. Let the other inferior Tallers and smallers pair up with each other. Let them lament over the fact that their smeets would be inferior to his own. His smeet shared his and Red's DNA, Maroon was going to grow to be the perfect Irken. Those other Irkens could only hope that their own smeets would grow to be even half as amazing as Maroon was destined to be.
Yes, a formal announcement would be good. Purple could flaunt his mate and his smeet to his race. He had come from nothing, he broke all the rules, he made himself superior in every way. No matter how his life started out, look at where he was now. If anyone found out about his past or mocked his recessive-ness, he would destroy them. He was the best because he had the best, the best title, the best mate and the best smeet. How could anyone mock him now? They couldn't. If they did there had to be something wrong with them, only a defective Irken would argue with him.
Purple felt the corners of his lips twist up as dark thoughts filled him mind. Let them come. Let them try to dispute his claims. He didn't destroy a Pak, alter his own, rebel against the Control Brains and claim Red as his own just so some smaller inferior Irken could question him. Let any that disapproved of him come forward. He would show them that no one could stand in his way.
"You sure you don't want to go back to our chambers instead?" Red asked, an odd tone to his voice causing Purple break away from his thoughts to study his mate. Red's antennae were up and tilted towards him, twitching slightly. The skin around Red's cheeks was slightly blue and his eyes were slightly glazed over. A moment later Purple picked up on the scent coming off of Red.
His own antennae twitched, wanting to rub against Red's and soak in more of that delicious scent. The look on Red's face was very tempting, he knew that look very well now. He didn't see it all the time, but when he did it promised a mating with Red where his mate would let him have total and complete control.
Tempting. Very tempting. Very delicious.
Purple resisted the urge to taste the air with his tongue. He wondered how that scent would taste paired with nachos. He wondered how much he could take control. How long would Red make that face? How long would his mate remain submissive? How long could Purple savor this feeling Red gave him before he indulged in it? Would Red eventually snap and become dominating and drag Purple back to their chambers to mate, only to give in at the last moment and let Purple have control again? Or would the promise of a later mating be enough to keep Red submissive until they mated?
Purple couldn't help himself and his tongue darted out to taste the air, so sweet. So, so tempting. Only Red could make him feel this way, respond this way. Until Red's scent went back to normal Purple's mind would be filled only with thoughts of his mate. In this, even when Red was submissive, he still had a hold over Purple.
"So?" Red prompted catching Purple's gaze and holding it.
"I said I wanted to bring Maroon to the cafeteria," Purple said feeling drawn into his mate's heated gaze. They could always go later.
"That's what you said, did you change your mind?" Red asked with a small smirk.
Purple realized it then. Red knew. Red knew exactly how he was affecting him. When Red was completely submissive, when he allowed Purple to have total control Purple loved it and often he couldn't resist the offer.
This was a challenge then. Purple smirked back. "No, I won't change my mind."
"We'll see," Red openly grinned, acknowledging that Purple had accepted this contest. "After you," he gestured for Purple to continue.
Purple flashed Red a grin before going forward, however after a few moments he didn't feel Red next to him and looked back slightly confused as to why Red hadn't followed. He was surprised to see Red just behind him and he paused so Red could catch up, but Red also paused staying a step or two behind him. Purple frowned in confusion until Red grinned knowingly at him.
"I said 'after you' and I meant it," Red said.
It took a moment for Purple to fully understand, but when he did his spooch went into overdrive. He couldn't believe Red, it had to be a ploy, a bluff. Red was just trying to get him to submit to his submission. However, even knowing this it couldn't stop Purple's face from flushing or his antennae from pointing themselves in Red's direction. Red's grin widened and Purple pulled himself out of his daze. Straightening himself he turned back around.
"Fine, then. Let's see how long you can bare to keep this up," Purple said and continued onwards to the food court. He thought for sure that Red wouldn't be able to hold out. Red was a Tallest, they both were, and neither one of them had shown respect to the other in all the years that they had been the Tallest. They were just in the hall, there weren't that many Irkens around. There was no way Red could continue being submissive to him when they got to the food court.
Purple sat at the table in a slight daze. He held Maroon on top of the table but he wasn't really paying attention to him. Maroon, for the most part could hold himself up but he still had trouble with balance so Purple had one hand wrapped around his smeet, making sure he couldn't roll backwards off the table. Recently, Maroon had made the discovery that he had toes. To the little smeet the only logical thing to do with such appendages was to put them in his mouth. However, the squirmy things never stayed still and grabbing and holding onto them was proving difficult.
If Purple had been paying attention he probably would have tried to keep his smeet's feet away from his mouth, but his attention was on his tall counterpart standing at the food counter and ordering snacks.
When they walked in, Purple still in front, Red picked a table and told Purple to sit and that he would go get them food. Purple gapped at Red and watched with wide eyes as Red did just that. Unable to do much else, the situation so shocking, Purple sat at the table and watched Red. He wasn't the only one to notice Red being submissive to him. In the corner of his vision he saw a few Irkens point and whisper in their direction. Purple was nervous that they would completely reject the idea or start looking down on him, afterall Red was the most amazing Irken ever, how could Purple treat him like a smaller?
His antennae went on high alert and he was able to pick up on a conversation that two smallers were having after noticing Red's odd behavior.
"Did you see that? Tallest Red is treating Tallest Purple like he is the taller."
"Why would he do that?"
"I don't know, maybe he did something to make Tallest Purple angry and is trying to make up for it?"
The other Irken gave a short laugh. "Are you kidding? If Tallest Purple was angry he wouldn't be calmly sitting with the Tallest Smeet Maroon. Half of us would be out of the airlock by now."
"Are you two stupid?" a third Irken joined in the conversation. "Tallest Red is obviously showing respect to Tallest Purple because he smeeted the amazing Tallest Smeet Maroon."
"But I heard that Tallest Red helped create the smeet."
"Yes, but Tallest Purple's body is the one that created the smeet. Clearly if he was chosen to make a smeet in his body, he would be treated as superior. And just think about it," the Irken continued. "Every time you look at Tallest Smeet Maroon don't you just feel like you want to worship him, and feed him snacks, and put your claws on the sides of his sweet face and just hold him until your Pak explodes!?" the Irken said their voice taking on an odd desperate tone.
"Hey, hey, calm down, breathe!" one of the others advised. "You'll overload your Pak."
"Yeah, think of something else like death and destruction. Just this last cycle there were three-"
A high-pitched whirring sound distracted them all. Purple looked to the sound and saw a smaller standing not too far away. His bulging eyes were fixed on Maroon and he was making high-pitched squeals in sync with his PAK. "He's just sooooooo," the smaller squeaked out, his hands curled into fists and trembling as he squished them against his face. A moment later smoke appeared from behind him, coming from his Pak.
"Hey! Calm down!" Another Irken shouted from across the way, but it was too late.
With a weird popping sound, the squealing Irken's eyes went blank and he fell face first onto the ground, his PAK sending out sparks.
"Ah, there goes another one," an nearby Irken commented.
"I'll call the medic drone," one said with a sigh.
Not long after a small medic drone appeared with a hovering platform and used his Pak extension to pickup the unconscious Irken and carry him away.
"So, yeah," the three Irkens near Purple continued their conversation. "Four, there have been four Pak overloads just this cycle. Until the new upgrade to our emotional filters comes out, you have to be careful when looking at Tallest Smeet Maroon. You got the memo right? Excessive attention on the Tallest Smeet can cause Paks to overload. You gotta look and think about him in moderation."
"Yes, I know," the Irken replied in slight irritation. "But it's not an easy thing to do."
There were some sympathetic noises from the other Irkens.
"The Tallest truly are almighty if they can remain unaffected by the Tallest Smeet," one commented.
"Ah, that's what I was getting to," the third Irken continued. "Obviously their Paks are perfect and would never explode, but that doesn't mean the Tallest are not affected by the Tallest Smeet. You know what happened on the Bridge. Around the Tallest Smeet Maroon, Tallest Purple is even more awesome, terrifying and merciless."
"That makes sense, but what about Tallest Red? Why would be treat Tallest Purple as the taller one?"
"How can he not treat Tallest Purple as the taller? His body created a smeet that can make Irkens explode by having others merely think of him, and now Tallest Purple is known across the galaxy as the most ruthless Irken to have ever lived. Tallest Red is obviously doing this to appease Tallest Purple and thank him for creating such an amazing smeet. If not for Tallest Red keeping Tallest Purple happy surely we would all be dead. Nothing we have is worthy enough to give to Tallest Purple as an offering, so Tallest Red is representing the entire Irken race by showing respect to him."
The other Irkens made agreeing noises and their voices drifted off as they continued their conversation, the line moving once again as Red left the counters. In his hands he carried two trays full of foods and snacks.
Red's face twitched as he tried not to laugh. Purple's face was flushed blue, his eyes were wide and he had the most comical shocked expression on his face. As he neared the table, Purple shook himself out of his daze. Looking away from Red he scowled at the table, the blue on his face only becoming more pronounced.
Red placed the trays down and leaned a little closer and whispered so only Purple would hear him. "Should I feed you too, my Tallest?"
Purple closed his eyes and visibly shuddered as Red's scent spiked the air. He glanced at Red with glazed eyes and hissed in irritation. "Don't bother sitting, just bring the snacks with us," Purple mumbled as he stood.
"Where shall I bring them?" Red asked angling his antennae into a submissive pose.
Purple shivered again. "Ah, room, just bring them to our rooms," he glared at Red once more but even his stubborn nature and his unwillingness to lose couldn't overcome what he was feeling. "I won't ask you what you want," Purple told him, referring to their key phrase they used to use back in the Academy when one lost in a challenge. Funny how Red winning a challenge between them was what sparked them into becoming mates. Back then he hadn't expected that Red would ask to touch antennae, but now that Red had won again Purple knew what to expect. "I already know what you want."
Red grinned at him, knowing that he had won their little challenge. "Shall I follow you back?" Red asked.
"Irk it, Red!" Purple hissed in a low voice, one hand going to the table for support. He had no control over his body and he had to resist squirming and moaning as his organ wanted to come out, but found it difficult when he was still wearing his under clothing. At Purple's reprimand Red stood tall and put his antennae back into a neutral pose. Purple narrowed his eyes, but Red behaved and didn't say anything more. "I'm going to drop Maroon off in the med bay, I'll meet you back at our chambers."
Red nodded and Purple turned to leave, "As you wish, my Tallest," Red said just loud enough for Purple to hear.
Purple's knees buckled a little as a shiver of pleasure ran up and down his spine. Once it passed he whipped his head around to glare at Red. "Don't make me drop our smeet," Purple hissed.
"You wouldn't," Red assured him, seeing how both of Purple's hands were protectively curled around the little smeet. Purple's glare intensified making Red smirk. The angrier Purple became, the larger effect Red knew he was having. "Take as long as you need, I'll wait for you," Red said and picked up the two trays.
"I'm going to murder you," Purple hissed.
"It would be an honor to die at your hands," Red responded.
"Ugh! Just go!" Purple snapped not trusting himself to be able to walk away just yet.
Red titled his antennae back once more, though his smug grin didn't match the submissive gesture. Purple watched him for a moment then Red paused and turned back towards him. Sensing that Red was going to do something outrageous, Purple quickly spun around and booked it out of the food court. He was close to losing it, his body reacting to Red's every gesture and he was afraid that if things went much farther he would just grab Red and taste him right there in front of every Irken present. Of course, he would then have to kill them all afterwards because Red was his anyone who tasted Red's scent or saw how Red was when they mated needed to perish because that Red only belonged to Purple. And if he killed them all he would get reprimanded by the Control Brains again which would be a pain. They might put a lock on his Pak again as punishment. He needed his Pak. He needed it to do hold down Red so he could taste and touch his deliciously addicting mate.
With this thought in mind, Purple stormed into the med bay startling Mik and his assistant Shlen. They instantly became alarmed as Purple only came here when it was necessary. However, before Mik could say anything Purple thrust the smeet into his hands.
"You're watching him for the next few hours. If I find out that you have done something weird, I will personally launch you from the air lock," his tone was so frightening that Mik could only nod as Shlen had immediately ducked under the desk to hide. "Good," he said then promptly turned around, however at the doorway he turned back to glare at Mik. "Do not disturb us under any circumstances," he warned then left.
All three Irkens left in the med bay watched Tallest Purple leave in stunned silence.
"What do you think happened?" Shlen asked finally crawling out from under the desk.
Mik was also trying to figure that out. He knew that Tallest Red was going to talk to Tallest Purple about leaving the smeet with him while they were on duty, but currently they were not scheduled to go to the bridge just yet. He hadn't received any messages either, so he knew there wasn't any emergency on the Massive. If there had been he would have been asked to prep the med bay just in case. Especially since Tallest Purple tended to be more destructive as of late.
Then there was Tallest Purple telling him not to disturb them. He never said things like that about their duties as Tallest only when…
"Oh!" Mik said in understanding. "I see, yes, that is the only logical conclusion," Mik mumbled to himself as he looked down at the smeet.
"What is?" Shlen asked.
"The Tallest are re-affirming their bond as mates in a Union. Tallest Purple has put us in charge of caring for the smeet as they will be unable to complete the bonding ritual with the smeet present. Tallest Purple doesn't like to be apart from his smeet, but it is necessary this time because they will only mate when the smeet is sleeping and today the smeet napped earlier and will not sleep again until the end of this cycle," Mik explained then paused for a moment as he thought. "We should contact Irk about setting up facilities where drones can care for the smeets so bonded-pairs can reaffirm their bonds even after the smeets are hatched. If we start now, such centers can be in place before the smeets arrive."
"I'll message them right away," Sheln said sitting back in his chair at his work station.
"Yes, see that they—" Mik's sentence was cut off by the loud and unhappy wail coming from the smeet. Mik immediately became distressed as he had never heard such a sound coming from the smeet before.
The smeet was not happy! The Large One left and he didn't come back! He was not happy at all. He'd never been apart from them before. When he slept they would always be there when he woke up. How could they go and leave him behind? He wanted them near. They were gone and he was very upset! He wanted them to come back, right now. He didn't want to be alone. This made him very sad. Didn't they want him around anymore? Didn't they know that he missed them? Didn't they know that they were his favorites? Why were they gone? Why?
Mik panicked as the Tallest's smeet continued to cry. Thinking that something was wrong he set him down in one of the medical pods, specially designed to scan the small smeet, however the scans showed no signs of ill healthy or injury. He checked the diaper, but it did not need to be changed. Grabbing a snack he tried to feed the smeet, but the wailing smeet just knocked it away.
This greatly worried Mik, he knew the smeet liked this snack, there was no reason for him to refuse. Feeling hopeless he and Shlen continued to run through every scan they could think of but nothing seemed to placate the distressed smeet and they had no idea what had caused him to become so upset. It was enough to make Mik want to cry too.
There was a whimper next to him and Mik turned to his assistant.
Shlen's lower lip trembled, "We broke the smeet!" he wailed and began crying exhausted, frustrated, and completely at a loss of what to do.
Mik became panicked, how was he supposed to calm the two down? What should he do? Who could he consult about this? There was no one! He was supposed to be the expert!
Wait!
Hastily, Mik pulled out his personal communication device in his Pak. The screen's waiting symbol appeared several moments before it finally connected.
"Dib-human!" Mik cried out when the human's face filled the screen. "Help!"
"Hi—what? What's going on?" The human pulled the device away from his face as the level of noise coming from the room was too much to be bear his ear.
"For what reasons do smeet of your species make such noise?" Mik asked helplessly. "My scans show no signs of illness and he is not injured. He is clean and he is refusing snacks. What do I do?"
"What makes you think I'd know anything about Irken smeets?" Dib asked a bit perplexed. He hadn't received a call from the medic in along time. Mik made a high-pitched kneening and desperate sound. "Okay! Okay! Let me think. Was he startled? Did something scare him? Like a loud noise?"
"No, nothing but his own screaming. It started not long after he was left in my care. Could it be something in the lab? Something that I missed?" Mik looked around helplessly, ignoring the fact that his assistant had curled into the fetal position and was sobbing about being thrown out of the air lock.
"Left in your care?" Dib repeated. "What happened to the Tallests?"
"They are spending time reaffirming their bond, they cannot do so with the smeet present."
"They made you a babysitter so they could go have sex?" Dib asked and in the background there was a faint protesting wail, which Dib seemed to completely ignore. "That's—" Dib paused in his judgement. "No, wait, nevermind. That's totally normal."
"Babysitter?" Mik repeated the unfamiliar word. "I don't see how sitting on him would help. Would it help?" he asked willing to try anything at this point.
"No!" Dib protested loudly. "No, it's just a word for the person temporarily taking care of someone else's baby. The baby started crying when his parents left, right? That's normal, he just misses them and is crying because they left."
Mik blinked at the screen then turned to look at the smeet. "I should return him right away!"
"Wait!" Dib called out and continued once he had Mik's attention. "It's fine, you don't need to get them. Parents need to have breaks too, especially if they are a new couple. You just need to hold him and comfort him. Show him he isn't alone. Or you can try to distract him with toys or a plushie or a pacifier or something," At Mik's blank expression Dib raised an eyebrow. "You didn't give him any toys to entertain him? No soft blankets he can snuggle? No huggable plushies to comfort him? No pacifier he can suck? Babies like those a lot."
"Oh, yes we are in the middle of trying to develop playthings that stimulate the smeet's brain and promote growth," Mik said in understanding.
"Dib-thing, how do you know so much about worm-babies?" Zim asked suddenly appearing next to Dib. An idea must have occurred to the exiled Irken because he gasped and pointed dramatically at Dib. "You have betrayed me! What female human filth dared to touch what is mine and create filthy human offspring with you?"
"What?" Dib cried incredulous. "I don't have any kids! This is all basic human knowledge, which you would know if you were human, which you aren't. ALIEN!" Dib suddenly shouted upwards to the ceiling causing Zim's antennae to perk up in distress. He hastily looked around. Dib pointed to Zim and continued to shout. "WE HAVE AN ALIEN RIGHT HERE! LOOK! LOOK AT THIS ALIEN!"
"GAH!" Zim tried to cover his antennae with his hands, "What are you doing you stupid human? Are you trying to get Zim killed?"
Dib grabbed Zim's face and shoved him off screen. "Calm down you space dweeb," the human said looking mildly amused. "We're in your underground base, who could possibly hear me?"
"Master, you're an alien?" A small metallic voice said causing Dib and Zim to turn and Mik could see Gir, Zim's unstable and weird SIR unit standing behind them. The little robot pulled up the hood of his green Earthen dog disguise. "I have to tell Mr. Squirrel!" he screamed in delight and activating his rocket boots he bust through the ceiling.
"No! Gir! You'll expose us to the human filth and ruin our mission!" Zim shouted after the robot and used his PAK legs to climb up the hole after the faulty SIR unit.
"You don't have a mission, you dork!" Dib shouted up after Zim. Shaking his head, Dib returned to the screen. "So, yeah, anyway I can send you some images of what babies on Earth use and you can see if anything might be useful for you, or you can adapt them for what an Irken smeet might like."
"You are not worried?" Mik asked.
"Naw," Dib waved away Mik's concern. "Gir has like extreme ADHD, I'm sure something will distract him before he even makes it out of the house. Either that or Zim will use his brain for once and distract Gir with the TV. Nothing can hold Gir's attention like the TV can. Besides, I'm sure Gir just wants to play with Zim."
"I see," Mik said, though he didn't really understand. "How did you acquire such knowledge about the care of offspring if you have had none yourself? Do they really teach such things to your whole species?"
"We get the basics in skool," Dib said. "But for a few summers in Hi-Skool I worked at my Dad's lab. The work was super boring and easy so I had a lot of free time. One day I ended up near the lab's daycare center—a place where people who work there can bring their kids that are too young to be alone—and they were short staffed and asked me to help. Taking care of babies and little kids is a lot of work and much more entertaining than lab stuff so I often went over to help after that."
"Ah, yes we are thinking of creating similar facilities on Irk for Irkens with bonded pairs," Mik said. "But it is true that after smeeting the Irken parental units will eventually need to go back to their jobs. So setting up such facilities at those Irkens' work places will decrease the number of causalities," MIk mused out loud.
"Causalities?" Dib repeated with a quirked eyebrow.
"Well, if the behavior of Tallest Purple can be applied to all smeeting Irkens, then when the parental units are with their smeets and in front of other Irkens they become very protective and violently reactive towards others who interact with their smeets."
Dib nodded, "Yeah, I can see that happening. It's going to be tough finding people that those parents can trust. Zim is paranoid about everything, I imagine other Irkens are like that too. One time I was watching him eat this really weird snack and he accused me of wanting to steal it from him even after I told him that I didn't even like Irken candies because they are all too sweet."
"Oh," Mik thought about that. "Yes, that will be a challenge." One he was going to have to brainstorm with his team to solve. "Oh," Mik said seeing that the images the Dib-human spoke about had been sent to his computer. He pulled them up and looked them over. "Yes, I think these will work well, some minor adjustments and upgrades, these soft ones cane be easily made here. Plushie you called them? And the are good for comforting upset smeets?" Mik asked for confirmation.
"Yeah, and the pacifier is something babies like to suck on. Well, for human babies it mimics when they are being fed and everyone likes eating so that's why that works. Oh, and toys that are safe to chew on are good for when their teeth start to come in," Dib said.
"The smeet also likes to chew on things, I will have one made right away, hopefully these will help comfort the smeet. Thank you, Dib-human. I will report on your continued cooperation on this matter to the Control Brains," Mik said as he sent all the plans to the engineering team with a message to make the items and send them to him as soon as they were ready.
"See that you do," Dib said losing some of his friendly tone. "As long as they hold up their end of our bargain, I'll do what you ask," his voice became flat and the smile he had previously vanished.
Feeling slightly uncomfortable, Mik nodded. "Of course," he shouldn't have made mention of their agreement. The human was most helpful, but when reminded of their agreement he became rather unpleasant to talk to. Mik had been careless in bringing it up. "I can assure you that the Control Brains have no intention of removing Earth from the list. And, um, thank you for the images Dib-human."
"Sure," Dib said. "Good luck getting him to stop crying," he said then ended their call.
Mik didn't take offense to the human's short tempter. The Engineering team sent him back a message saying that they could make some of the items and have them sent up in half of an hour. Until then he would try the other strategy the human mentioned of holding the smeet.
Recap: Maroon becomes an Celebrity, a social Idol, an internet sensation. Also Red discovered Purple's biggest kink: Public submission. And Red is more than willing to give up a little of his reputation if it means he can rile up Purple. ;) The results of this discovery will be in the next and final chapter.
