See any of the many previous chapters for a disclaimer. If you still need one after this many chapters, seek some help. Anyway, enough of this A/N, on with the fic!
"Let me show you to the room where you will be working." Lord Nar said as he led Tak to a small office filled with screens showing random humans on Earth. "We used this to help keep an eye on some of the rebels we wanted to join us and we will let you use this for your job. Are you familiar with the technology?" He asked politely.
"It's the Vortian version of this system, so it's pretty much the same as the Irken. Just a different color." Tak said simply. "That chair looks comfortable, that's an improvement." Tak nodded. She sat down in the Vortian chair and sunk into it, staring at the screens with great intent.
"Do us proud Tak. You certainly did the Tallest proud for what they wanted." 777 said as he headed out of the room.
"That I did..." Tak growled as she turned back to the screens. So you're doing what you did before, not having to try and catch Dib while you're at it but for a different reason for different people. Why does this not sit well? Tak thought as she started to press a few buttons and look at the files that the Resisty had so far. "So you got my old notes? I knew the system was being hacked before I left." Tak laughed. "I at least know where to start I guess, who was I looking for after Frank, Kathy and those other rebel leaders they already have?" She tapped as she went through her old file looking at them with a blank face. "I could use a drink, they abduct any vodka and gin? I grew a taste for Martinis while I was working this the last time..." Tak said as she placed her face down on the desk.
Meanwhile, Dib was with Kathy and Frank as they were thinking of how to explain what was going on to any humans beamed aboard this ship. They were going to have to go over everything from the plans, who the Resisty were, why they were chosen and what would happen to them if Earth was destroyed. Dib spun his fork around and looked at the spaghetti with green marinara sauce listlessly. "Why does this job seem so horrible?" Dib asked.
"Because you know the score." Frank said as he poked at his spaghetti. "You know what is going on and what they are going to face better than they do and you feel like shit for it." Dib perked up and looked at him. "It's war. Being a leader in war will leave you feeling like that." He spun some of the green marinara spaghetti sauce on his fork and lifted it to his mouth. He slowly and cautiously ate it then cracked a smile. "Off topic but somehow that floating cone made spaghetti sauce that tastes a lot like pesto fried green tomatoes. Kathy, you'll have to get his recipe."
"You can't be serious Frank..." Kathy said as she took a bite, wondering about the taste sensation. She chewed the pasta and sauce and smiled. "By god, you're right. This will be great canned when we get home."
"Yeah, when we get home," Frank said. "Clean the farm up and plant a good tomato patch." He said that to keep Kathy's morale up, but he knew there was a very good possibility that they may never come to the farm ever again. Be it from total and complete destruction of the farm, their deaths or even having to start a new life on a new planet. It wasn't to be unheard of at this time. Dib knew that he was seen as a highly respected person in the rebellion groups but he had to admit Frank had a point, sometimes it was just hard to tell people the truth.
"Well, we'll do our best to have the new people settle in." Kathy said. "The goal is to get the Irkens away from Earth after all."
"Are we going to lose our home?" Dib asked. "Tak told me about the Ultimate Solution, I am sure you heard about it over the announcement earlier. How do you say, 'Hey, the Tallest might get pissed we messed with their snacks and in their rage, they'll destroy the whole planet. That'll kill a good 95% of the people on there but you were selected by this group against Irk to be moved to a planet in another galaxy just like your old one'"
"Well, we'd have to work on the delivery for that." Kathy said. "You're right, that does sound horrible."
Tak perused her notes that the Resisty had hacked with mild amusement. It was her old work and all she had to do was pull up the data, see if the person was still alive and then go on from there. The first on the list was a military widow and her son. After her husband was poisoned upon the first arrival of the Irkens when he would not comply with what they wanted his unit to do, she headed out west and they found their way into a resistance group. They were not a major threat but targeted by association. The woman's daughter was part of one of the major groups in Appalachia run by one of the leaders the Resisty already had contact with. "These two will be a good start." She said to herself as she knew that was part of Dave's group was going to be sent aboard when they took the people that were to be part of the Resisty's protection.
"So, you found a few?" 777 asked as he popped up behind Tak.
"AHHHHH!" Tak said as she turned around and smacked him. "Be decent enough to warn someone you're coming in on them while they think they're alone." Dib's father has a bad habit of that too... Tak thought as she remembered when she was with Dib and they were alone, for a moment.
"Sorry." 777 said. "This is our equipment and while Nar trusts you, I don't. I wanted to watch you the whole time. He wouldn't allow it. So we settled on me checking up on you."
"Well, I found two of my lower level rebels. You can see they are the widow and son of a military member the Tallest had killed because he wouldn't play nice with Irk." Tak said. She didn't want to use words like "we", "Us" or even "I" because she couldn't admit to herself what she did and the fact she would have to face people she hurt and lives she ruined that many would not be so forgiving. "They've been taking a lot of the desert squad out by driving up to the Mechadoomer and shooting them out."
777 looked at the picture of the two rebels she selected to be the first on board. He looked at the picture of the middle aged, dirty blonde haired woman with glasses and her 24 year old son who had her hair and glasses as well. They certainly did not look the part of a dangerous rebel. In the file was a picture of the woman's daughter, a 28 year old woman with dark hair and glasses as well, but was noted as part of Dave's resistance movement who had taken a civil war era cannon and taken out many ships that flew too low in the area while misappropriating paper records taken and then put back so that often the Southern Appalachian branches of the Irken military got less supplies than they'd need. "Her daughter looks more like a rebel than the rest from the picture here and that isn't saying much. Maybe the thick eyebrows on her that make her look pissed off all the time. Or she joined that Dave guy's group that can get pretty nasty at times."
"You'd be surprised who can do what in these times. A lot of the rebels I found were not part of any kind of law enforcement or military before the Armada Invaded. We-I mean Irk- broke the shell. People are funny like that." Tak mused as she looked for the rebels she had selected to test the plan with. "And her daughter was with Dave's group for a long time. Those two have a funny past. But you don't care about that."
"And why don't I?" 777 asked.
"Because it's a boring romance story from before the Invasion." Tak said making a motion that showed she was sick.
"Says the love story that's the epitome of Stockholm syndrome." 777 sassed as Tak smacked him.
"Do that again and it won't be a smack, but I will launch you out the airlock and tell Lord Nar you were about to kill me." Tak said. "But losing her husband changed that woman. She and her son weren't my tops, but they'll do."
"Okay, you know how to bring them aboard?" 777 asked as he watched the video of the woman laying to the side of an off road racing truck holding an AR-15 as her son drove around the dessert, kicking sand up around a Mechadoomer, causing it to fire lasers rapidly around its feet and missing them every time while the woman pumped the battery pack full of armor piercing bullets that caused the pack to fizzle, smoke and when it showed signs of being ready to explode, they drove off to a safe distance and watched it. "Nice work on their part." 777 smiled.
"See why I wanted Irk to watch them?" Tak smiled.
"Just press this button and since you already have their coordinates, this will cause a flash of light to appear around them and they'll be sent to the lobby where Dib, Kathy and Frank are waiting to explain to them what happened." 777 said as he pushed a big red button with a person in between two lines and an up arrow pointing to them.
"Good. I got more to go on the list." Tak said. "Any way you can get me something to drink?"
"Soda?" 777 asked. "I know Irkens like that a lot."
"Nah, harder. Vodka, gin and some green olives. Makes an Earth Cocktail called a Martini that helped me get through this last time." Tak said.
"I'll see what we can wrangle up. We don't carry much ethyl alcohol here, but I am sure we came across some in some place..." 777 said.
Dib, Frank and Kathy were sitting in the room given to them to help explain things to the new members of the Resisty's crew that they were bringing aboard. Dib was used to paranormal investigation and dealing with people who had been abducted before the Invasion began so he could pull on that, but this still wasn't quite the same and something felt off. Well, I have Frank and Kathy here. They may be able to help me with this. Suddenly, a bright flash of light appeared and there was an off road truck with two people in it, one holding a gun, making a clicking noise every time she pulled the trigger, showing the magazine was empty appeared in the room. Guess I have to wing it. Dib thought as he looked at the new arrivals. "Welcome to the Resisty. You have been selected for their special program for worthy people. You may know me as Dib Membrane, aka Undesirable Number one." Dib began.
"What's going on?" The blonde haired woman said looking around. "Where are we?"
"Is that?" Frank said adjusting his glasses. "Rachel? I hadn't seen you since your husband died. Horrible. Slow and took his dignity. Had great respect for the man."
"Yeah." Her son said as he got out of the truck. "Are we aboard the Massive?" He asked skeptically.
"You know these two?" Dib asked amazed.
"Small Universe huh?" Rachel said. "Yeah. Those bugs didn't even have the honor to just shoot Clark." She added with a note of anger. "But I heard from some sources you'd been giving those bastards hell too."
"That's why the Resisty put us and Dibby here in charge of welcoming the best to the Resisty." Kathy said looking at Dib's confusion. "Frank worked with her husband when he was in the military and kept contact. Once he died, Rachel and Martin went out west, not wanting anything to do with the area."
"I understand how that'd be painful." Dib said.
"And after I got a report from one of the Coroner's assistants on the real cause of death, we swore to repay those bastards in kind." Rachel said.
"My sister's doing her part with this guy named Dave in Appalachia." Martin said simply.
"I met Dave. He's one of the top rebel leaders the Resisty has contact with. Haven't seen your daughter but she's tough if she's running with Dave's crew." Frank said.
"My sister takes black powder cannons and blows Irken ships out the sky with him." Martin said simply. Dib could tell Martin did not talk much and was rather shy. "She said she has been shot a few times and ended up blowing the humans who did it away with her 1911."
"That's good to hear." Frank said. "Now she'll probably be sent aboard when Dave's crew is, but for now, we're keeping the best of humanity safe so that if something bad were to happen, you aren't killed. The Resisty want to save the ones they can trust and will help them out."
"What do you mean, 'if something bad were to happen'?" Rachel asked.
Dib gulped. Best they know what the worst could be. He thought as he closed his eyes and began to tell them what Tak had explained. "You see the Irkens normally would not have Invaded this planet. Zim was originally sent as banishment. But the Tallest, their leaders," Dib looked at Rachel and Martin to make sure they were following.
"Their leaders. I know what they are called." Martin said.
"Yeah they found out Earth snacks are very delicious. So they came and Invaded. Our plan, well the Resisty plan is to keep disrupting the beams that send them the snacks they love. It will cause them to do one of two things eventually. One, they will not to keep resources this far from their home and main Empire and they'll leave." Dib started.
"And the second?" Rachel asked.
"The Ultimate Solution. They'll just blow the planet up." Dib said simply as Rachel and Martin looked at him shocked.
"So they'll just blow it up. They don't get snacks and they'll blow up an entire planet they came so far to get ahold of?" Martin asked.
"Yep." Kathy added, showing that she understood to help back Dib up.
"That's insane!" Rachel yelled throwing the AR-15 casually across the room.
"It is. I ain't going to say it makes perfect sense." Frank said sympathetically. "But there is a contingency plan so we don't have to figure out how to be space hitchhikers.
"The Resisty found a planet just like Earth in the Andromeda galaxy and will put everyone there." Dib said simply. "But we are trying to preserve the Earth."
"And without someone trying to convince the Tallest otherwise, how would that happen? They seemed pretty bratty and wild when I saw them on TV last." Martin said.
Dib looked at Rachel and Martin and they poked a huge hole in the evacuation plan. Martin was right, the Tallest were pretty rash in their decision making and would be perfectly fine blowing up a planet. If Earth was going to be preserved when the Irkens were chased off, they needed someone to convince the Tallest otherwise. The Control Brains might work, but that would only be if the resources were drained enough. They needed one of their own they trusted to talk them down. Dib looked up and headed out. "Frank, Kathy, Rachel, Martin, catch up, I need to talk to Lord Nar and 777, the Resisty leaders about what you said. We may need to get a double agent in The Massive if we are going to keep the planet."
So how was that? Good? Bad? Long? Short? I know there wasn't much action here but it's coming up, be patient! But as you can tell from any novel, there are chapters that aren't twists and turns but buildup. The thing with the black powder cannon comes from the Civil War Artillery re-enacting I do and the fact that if you load them with a blank, that alone can kill someone with the concussion at up to 50 feet. And you can load almost anything in them to be effective. I don't have much to say here with this chapter's A/Ns, not like you care, but I will state again, I want to wrap this story up by the end of this year so if nothing else, there'll be a lot more in the way of updates. So remember to read, well you just did, and to review. Ciao for now,
otherrealmwriter
aka
Realm.