Chapter 9
I am so so sorry. Fear. Worry. Guilt. So much guilt emitting from them. If I had known something like this was a possibility, I never would have left you like that! I swear! I'm heading back right now!
"It'sssssookaaay." Kailah slurred sleepily, her head flopped back as her body was both limp and smooshed as she sat wedged between Dib and the side of Zim's ship. "Zim's spacity ship goes very zooooom... we're coming to yoouuu." She giggled groggily.
No! Kailah. This is not okay. They thought back sternly with a hint of anger-mostly at themselves. They only ever called her 'Kailah' on very rare occasions; usually if she was being stupid and needed some common sense knocked into her. I should have realized something was wrong a lot sooner! You never should have gotten this bad, I am so sooo sorry! They were running as fast as they could back towards her.
"Choommmp, I'm okaaay, reeaally~." She insisted in a soft sing-song voice. "I'm flying in a spacity ship! We're coming to you, very faaast! Faster than a plaaane~. We'll find out what happened to your kind soon. I prommmmisssse."
"What is she going on about now?" Zim demanded in a sharp voice.
"I think she's talking to the Loughran," Dib said, a hint of worry in his voice. "Maybe she hit her head when she fainted earlier? Either that, or her condition is a lot worse than I thought…I uh, don't think she realizes she's talking out loud."
Kailah. Right now I couldn't care less about the rest of my kind! Whatever happened to them has happened. I can get my answers later. Right now, I care about you! And no matter how much you insist, I know you're NOT OKAY!
"It'sfiiinnnne" She slurred again.
...You're dying, and it's all my fault... The words whispered softly as they leaked through the Bond, almost drowned out by the immense amount of sorrow and guilt that came with them.
"Deal." Zim reached out with one hand and gave a large toothy grin that sent a very unsettled feeling of regret to the pit of Dib's stomach the instant their littlest fingers locked together.
"Deal." Dib agreed in a tight voice before he let go and let his hand fall to his side.
Zim then spun on his heels and marched out of the classroom without another word, his boots clicking loudly as he went.
Which left Dib to scramble to grab both his and Kailah's backpacks. He slung both bags over one arm then tried to help Kailah up to her feet with the other.
She was dead weight.
"Pinkie promise." She giggled in his ear as he tried to pull her arm around his shoulders for leverage.
Dib struggled to lift them both to their feet, he stumbled a little while trying to keep his own balance between the girl and the bags throwing off his weight...it was not easy! He could feel a few of the other students watching him and whispering to each other. But Dib had more important things to worry about than what his peers thought about this whole situation (then again, Zim had basically admitted to being able to answer Dib's questions about aliens in front of the whole class...no, more important things to worry about right now).
"...I panicked." He muttered, his ears starting to burn with embarrassment as he finally managed to stand while supporting (what had to be more than half of) Kailah's weight. Though, that response was a lie, he very much had thought the whole 'pinkie promise thing' through before he finally thrust his pinkie into Zim's face-but seeing how loopy Kailah was right now, he didn't want to admit just how much thought he had put into such a silly and childish plan. The last thing he wanted right now was for her to think him crazy or a freak...or have her laugh at him.
He hated when people laughed at him...and he especially didn't want her laughing at him. Or thinking him an insane freak...
Dib struggled to the door under the weight of Kailah and two backpacks. When he finally managed to reach the empty door frame it was no longer empty.
Ms. Bitters glared down at him with that permanent disappointed scowl of hers. "And where do you think you're going, Mr. Membrane?"
"The uh," Dib glanced between Kailah and the teacher nervously. "Nurses office?" He tried. "She uh, just fainted. And maybe hit her head? Plus she's really pale and…" He trailed off as Ms. Bitters bent closer to glare and inspect Kailah.
One of the students shouted from behind him, confirming that she had just collapsed, though they missed why. Because of course they weren't paying attention, Dib thought bitterly, even with all the yelling and a possible fight, they'd rather ignore him. Pretend he didn't even exist.
The young girl smiled sleepily up at the teacher. "We're going to Oooohiiiiioooooo!" She stretched out the word in a silly sing-song voice then giggled with a lopsided toothy grin as her head lulled back and her knees seemed to give out, forcing Dib to practically hold her up with a grimace.
Ms. Bitters scowled harder and stood to her full height. "Very well," She said to Dib. "but take the hall pass." She indicated a large three by four foot rectangle of laminated cardboard with large bold letters reading 'MS. BITTERS' HALL PASS' leaning up against the wall near the door.
Dib frowned at it, unsure how he was supposed to carry that, two backpacks, and Kailah, all at the same time. Not to mention the part where he wasn't actually going to the nurse, and was in fact on his way to lead one alien to another in order to save the girl's life. He looked back up at Ms. Bitters, who was still blocking the door and giving him that ever-present scowl.
Dib sighed, then reached out with the arm currently occupied by the two backpacks. He fumbled for a moment to grab hold of the top corner of the large hall pass. Ms. Bitters stepped aside and watched as he dragged Kailah, their backpacks, and the pass out into the hall.
No sign of Zim...Where'd that alien jerkface go?
Kailah mumbled something sleepily into his ear that he wasn't able to comprehend as she leaned more into him in the same moment and threw him off balance. He stumbled sideways a few steps before he caught himself. Once he had his balance again, he purposely dropped the hall pass-just out of sight of the classroom door-and used both hands to hold Kailah up as he practically dragged her and made his way towards the front of the skool.
It was a slow process, he was pretty sure that she was only a step or two above actually sleepwalking at this point. She kept mumbling, her words too slurred together and quiet to really make out anything past a word or two, mostly it sounded like reassurances?
Though really, the worst part had to be that her feet were dragging on the ground so bad she was practically on her knees!
"Come on, at least work with me!" Dib said through gritted teeth as he dragged her through the hall. He finally made it to the doors and kicked one open, then braced his shoulder against it to keep it propped open as he pulled Kailah through.
"Ssssorryyyyy." It sounded more like a soft groan than a word. Kailah lifted an arm to help him hold open the door and took a step forward. She ended up missing it by several inches but kept leaning forward as if expecting to make contact with the door at any moment. Dib watched as she stumbled forward a few steps, arm still outstretched. He quickly tightened his grip as he realized she was-
"H-hey! HeyheyHEY!" He said in a panic as Kailah's foot missed the first step and she started sliding quickly down the concrete staircase. Dib lunged forward to grab her arm as she slipped out of his grip. If one of the backpack straps hadn't gotten caught on the door's handle at that moment, her weight probably would have dragged the both of them right down the stairs.
Dib kept a tight grip on the bags and Kailah's arm as they pulled him in seperate directions. The girl ended up falling into a sitting position with a loud 'oof' on the third step from the top, her elbow still firmly in Dib's grip.
He let out a loud sigh of relief, his legs shaking slightly with adrenalin.
Dib made sure Kailah was safely stationary on the step and wasn't going to move before he finally dropped her arm and turned to unhook his backpack from the door's handle. He readjusted both the bags, one on his back, the other firmly slung across his chest, then he moved down the stairs so he was a step below Kailah. Dib helped her up to her feet, he pulled her arm back over his shoulders again while wrapping his other arm around her middle to get a better grip in case she decided to suddenly change direction again.
Now, with a much better hold on everything, Dib made his way carefully down the stairs.
"Alright." Dib said a moment later as he reached the bottom of the staircase. "Where did Zim go off to?" He wondered allowed, pausing and looking around the skool yard for any hint of that green skinned alien.
Kailah mumbled something in response and her head rolled onto his shoulder.
"W-what?" Dib asked, suddenly uncomfortably aware he had one arm wrapped around her waist.
"I saaaid," Kailah mumbled only slightly louder than before. "I dunnooo."
Dib sighed, Ah, so nothing useful. He tried his best to ignore the hot feeling on his face, attributing it to the early morning sun and the struggle of lugging around practically all of Kailah's weight from the classroom to here. And after that little scare on the staircase, of course his heart would be beating a bit harder and faster than normal! That was to be expected.
He leaned his head to the right so he could just reach his glasses with his free hand, and turned on the Thermal setting. He straightened up and slowly scanned the area for any hints of Zim.
The world was an almost dizzying mix of blues, greens, whites, yellows, and oranges. With a few hints of red flying past as cars drove by.
There!
A pretty sizable-and pretty hot-blob was lowering from the sky to land across the street, right in the abandoned lot behind the closed restaurant.
Dib started walking-half dragging Kailah as he went. He crossed the street the second the coast was clear, and headed excitedly towards the bright orange and red blob.
As he rounded the corner of the rundown building, Dib saw a cooler (almost completely green/blue with a few hints of dim yellow) humanoid shape with a bright orange spot on it's back. It was moving around the large orange blob, as if inspecting it.
So, whatever Zim was, he seemed to be cold blooded! Neat! But why was his backpack giving off so much heat? Oh! Duh. It was probably a portable heat source! How else would a cold blooded creature be comfortable and so energetic in this cool autumn weather!?
Dib tried to push those thoughts aside for later as he struggled for a second to switch his glasses back to Normal mode, then a loud gasp of excitement ripped through him. A giant grin split his face in half as he stared at a large, deep purple spaceship!
A SPACESHIP! An Alien Spaceship! A Real Alien Spaceship!
Well, maybe large wasn't the right word? But it was certainly larger than a small car! And the engines looked to be about as tall as-if not taller-than Dib himself! It looked like there were four engines total, two in the front and two in the back. Probably to help with quick and precise flying in zero gravity! Dib thought excitedly. A real life Alien Spaceship! Dib was right! Zim was a real life honest to goodness space alien!
Yeah, of course Dib knew Zim was an alien! But this ship really proved it! Really made that fact click in his mind. Zim was from outer space! Zim was an alien!
And look at the Windshield! It took up just about half of the front end of the craft! The view must be amazing! Out in space, stars and planets all around! A small part of his mind noticed an odd triangle shaped insignia painted on the craft, but he couldn't make himself focus on its possible meaning, cause it was a spaceship!
Wait, hold up. It looked like it only had a single bench seat? And it didn't look like there was any space behind that, not even storage space?...How were the three of them supposed to fit in there? It didn't look much wider than the back seat of his dad's hover car...
"GIR!" Zim shouted, snapping Dib's attention back to the present. What was Zim suddenly so mad about?
The large round windshield opened up and-
"Puppy!" Kailah said excitedly, taking a few stumbling steps forward, pulling Dib with her as he was caught off guard by her sudden enthusiasm.
A...thing in a green dog costume jumped out of the spaceship and landed on two legs. It looked up at Zim with dead fake eyes-a little felt tongue permanently sticking out of it's stitched mouth-and saluted.
"Is the Voot ready?" Zim asked it, his arms folded behind his back in a casual yet authoritative stance.
"Yes, Master!" The green dog replied in a tinny voice, still holding the salute. It then added with a high pitched giggle as the salute dropped, "I packed it full of spiders I found at the base!"
Spiders?!
"No, GIR. That's bad." Zim scolded, though his voice sounded more like he was talking to a child he'd caught eating a cookie before dinner than actually being mad about what the green dog just said.
"I wanna pet the puppy~" Kailah whined and stumbled forward again, Dib tightened his grip, not trusting what ever that thing was. Zim finally seemed to notice the two of them.
"About time." He said, folding his arms across his chest as he turned to face them. "Now. Take Zim to the Loughran."
"Yeah, yeah." Dib muttered as he was dragged towards the thing in the dog costume. Kailah kept struggling and wiggling in his grip, trying to get closer to it. Dib finally gave up trying to hold her back and let go. She fell to her knees next to it with a lopsided grin.
"So cuuute~" She cooed and started rubbing her hands over the thing's head. "Who's a good puppy? You are! Yeeeesss you aaaareee!"
As she started with the weird sleep-drunk baby talk, Dib shook his head and turned to Zim. "Will the four of us be able to fit in that thing?" He asked skeptically as he dropped both backpacks onto the ground, rolling his shoulders stiffly once they were free of all the extra weight.
"I AM!?" The dog screamed excitedly and flopped onto it's back as Kailah started rubbing it's belly, stubby limbs waving in the air. "I'M A GOOD PUPPY!?" It laughed crazily in an annoyingly high pitched tinny voice. Dib gave it an uneasy look before turning back to Zim.
"Eeehhh?" Zim gave Dib a confused look. "Oh! Yes! Of course!" He suddenly said with full confidence as he placed both his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest smugly. "GIR!" He snapped, turning towards Kailah and the green dog. "Stop playing with that stoooopid hyuman!"
"Awwww" The dog rolled over and got to its feet before running over to Zim with squeaky little steps and hugged his leg. "But she likes me!"
"I don't care, GIR." Zim said simply as he pried the dog off his leg. "Go back and guard the base. I have very important business to take care of!"
"Yes, master!" The dog saluted then froze, not moving.
"...Now, GIR." Zim said in a tired voice.
"Ooooooh" The dog lowered its arm then let out another crazy, high-pitched giggle before it's feet exploded in a blue fire and it was suddenly flying erratically away through the air. Dib jumped back and watched it in open mouth amazement. If no one reported seeing that, he'd rip out his own hair!
Kailah burst out laughing as if it was the funniest thing she had ever seen in her life.
Zim growled in annoyance and turned back to Dib, folding his arms tighter across his thin chest. Dib closed his mouth and forced his eyes back on the alien, he could tell by that slight scowl on Zim's face and the way he stood that he was ready to get this 'deal' over with.
"Right." Dib agreed. He bent and picked the backpacks back up. "The sooner we leave, the sooner we can get this all over with." He stood up and faced Zim, giving the still laughing Kailah a sideways look he asked, "Want to help me get her in the ship?"
"No." He responded flatly, not budging from his crossed arms stance, his face somehow both bored and annoyed.
Dib sighed and his shoulders slumped at the thought of having to drag all that dead weight up and into the ship alone. He should have expected as much. He walked over to the ship, slowly drinking in all it's pink and purple goodness as he tossed the bags up and onto the floor of the cockpit. He could feel Zim's unhappy scowl prickle on the back of his neck as he did.
Dib then walked over to where Kailah was trying to catch her breath after laughing so hard at the sight of a green dog flying through the sky. As he tried to get her up to her feet, he kept one eye on Zim. Kailah was still mostly dead (albeit giggling) weight, who seemed to have momentarily forgotten how her legs worked. And every time she slipped out of Dib's grip and thumped back onto the ground she erupted into new bouts of laughter, which made picking her back up all the more difficult.
As Dib struggled, Zim climbed into the ship and pushed the bags into the far corner with his boot. Zim then sat down and started typing away on the console as he waited. If he had a nose, Dib was certain that it would have been wrinkled up in disgust.
After about two minutes of struggling, Dib finally managed to drag Kailah to the side of the ship. He paused to catch his breath and looked up at the ship as he tried to think of the best way to get her inside. Should he try pushing from below, or climb in and try to pull her from above? Would it be easier to just get her to piggie on his back and climb in? He looked back at Kailah, who looked like she was starting to fall asleep after that laughing spree.
"Zim's patience has run away." Zim snapped suddenly.
"Wha-?" Dib tried to ask, he turned to look up at Zim but was quickly cut off before anything else had a chance to even leave his lips.
A long, thick metal cable exploded out of Zim's backpack and-fast as a snake-coiled around both Dib and Kailah in one fluid motion. Dib let out a surprised yelp and tried to struggle free from the too-tight-coils, but before he could do anything more than a slight wiggle, he felt the ground disappear from under his feet and wind rushing past his face. The cable unwound and dropped them into the ship before Dib could truly process what was even happening. The cable disappeared back into Zim's backpack with a metallic hiss-snip!
And just like that, Kailah and Dib were squished on the bench seat of the ship next to Zim, give or take several inches.
The windshield snapped shut with a woosh, and just as Dib was trying to wrap his mind around how such a large cable could fit inside such a small metal pack he was slammed with the reality that he was inside a real life alien spaceship!
And all other thoughts left his mind.
With a thrill of a roller coaster drop in reverse, the ship shot into the air with a few quick button presses from Zim. The ship paused and hovered about a mile above the skool.
A MILE! They just traveled a whole mile STRAIGHT UP in less than two seconds! And Dib didn't even feel any ill effects from the G-force or anything!
Dib watched with excited fascination (and what he was certain was probably the largest, most stupid, and childish grin he's ever worn in his life, but he didn't even care, cause he was in a spaceship!) as Zim tapped away on the console-Oh how he wished he could read the alien writing! Dib was pretty sure though that Zim had just turned on some sort of cloaking device; as the outside of the ship that was visible through the windshield seemed to shimmer and become transparent. His eyes soaked in every little detail: the pinks and purples of the interior, the buttons and switches and levers, the city far below with cars crawling along the roads, the blue sky stretched all around them, a few wispy clouds scattered about, the annoyed and impatient look on Zim's face, the sleeping form of Kailah, the smoke trail below, most likely left by that thing in the dog costume, a flock of geese-
"Dib-stink!" Zim snapped, pulling Dib's attention back to him. "Zim will not hesitate to cut off your pinky if you do not keep your end of the Deal." He growled.
"Wha-oh right!" Dib unconsciously clenched his fists against his legs to protect his pinkies. "Yeah, the Loughran..right." He turned to Kailah and nudged her with an elbow, when she gave a sleepy hum he asked "Which way is Chomp?"
She raised an arm without opening her eyes and pointed due East, then twitched it perhaps ten degrees south. She held it there for about three seconds then her arm dropped like a sack of potatoes and her head rolled back as Zim grabbed the yoke and turned the ship in that direction.
Dib watched every little movement Zim made, trying to memorize what every button did, absorbing everything he could. He was in a spaceship! A real alien spaceship! How cool was that!
There was a lot of alien writing that Dib couldn't even try to make any heads or tails of. Dozens of symbols that he was certain meant something but he couldn't even begin to interpret any of it. Which ones represented letters? Which were numbers? Was it like English where each symbol was a single letter? Or like Chinese, where one symbol could be a whole word or even a phrase? How did the language work? What did it sound like? Was it easy to learn?
The only thing that was even slightly familiar was the steering mechanism. It was a simple 'Y' shaped yoke, similar to something you'd find in an airplane, and it seemed to work with the same principles to a plane as well. Dib watched as Zim gripped it with both gloved claws and held it steady. Dib tilted his head to look below the console and noticed that there didn't seem to be any floor pedals, so altitude must be controlled by the buttons on the console instead? Planes use floor pedals for that, right? Or were those pedals for steering? Dib actually didn't know, now that he thought of it...but either way, the lack of floor pedals would explain why Zim kept pausing to press one or two of the buttons as he drove. Dib scanned the console with his eyes and tried to decipher any indicators on speed or altitude, but it was all so alien that he couldn't make any sense of it. And that not knowing was thrilling!
Too bad Dib was still a little too nervous about Zim threatening to chop off his pinkie, he already had dozens of questions he wanted to ask, but didn't want to risk losing his fingers by asking them just yet.
"It'sssssookaaay." Kailah slurred sleepily after a few minutes, her head flopping back further onto the headrest. Dib jumped a little, so enthralled by the experience of being in a real alien spaceship, that he'd momentarily forgotten she was there, smooshed between him and the side of Zim's ship (she had to be squished so that Zim had enough room to reach the whole console without touching Dib). "Zim's spacity ship goes very zooooom... we're coming to yoouuu." She let out a sleepy giggle.
Dib raised an eyebrow at her. She had her eyes closed and for all intents and purposes looked like she was sound asleep, though her breathing still seemed a bit labored and her face was still uncomfortably pale.
"Choommmp, I'm okay, reeaally~." She insisted in a soft sing-song voice. "I'm flying in a spacity ship! We're coming to you very faaast! Faster than a plaaane~. We'll find out what happened to your kind soon. I prommmmisssse."
"What is she going on about now?" Zim demanded in a sharp voice as he reached over to tap a button in front of Dib then returned his gloved claw to the yoke.
"I think she's talking to the Loughran," Dib said, looking at her worriedly. Her face seemed oddly at peace, looking at it made a large, hard lump form in Dib's stomach. She almost looked like a corpse in a casket. "Maybe she hit her head when she fainted earlier? Either that, or her condition is worse than I thought…I uh, don't think she realizes she's talking out loud." He glanced at Zim with a nervous shrug.
"It'sfiiinnnne" She slurred again, making Dib wince.
Zim gave her a confused one-eye squint then turned his attention back to the controls in front of him, tapping on three buttons right next to the yoke in quick succession.
"It'sokaaay. Dib's with mee. And Zim's fiiiinne. He haaasn't done aaanythiing bad, remmmber?"
Dib turned his gaze back to the controls but kept his ear turned towards her.
"You should turn aaaaround aaaagain. We're commin. Aaaannnd you should get to the pooodd." She reached a hand up slowly and rubbed at her eye sleepily. "Yeah...Slowly, but yeah."
Dib glanced out the windshield and could see several lakes and ponds quickly passing below them, they were well over Michigan already! Amazing!
Kailah cracked one eye open for a moment then closed it, her whole body relaxing slowly and her breathing seeming to become more even as she fell asleep.
"How fast are we going?" Dib asked, turning to Zim.
"Eh? Oh, uh…" Zim waved one hand around as he mentally did the conversion. "650 miles per hour? Give or take, Zim is flying slow so we don't pass over the Loughran."
Dib almost laughed, Zim thought six hundred and fifty miles per hour was SLOW?! How fast could this ship go!?
"As part of our deal-" Dib began but hesitated when Zim gave him a sideways glare, he cleared his throat and tried again, this time trying to keep his voice more casual. "As part of our deal, am I allowed to at least ask a few basic questions about you? Like your species name, or that metal thing on your back? Or anything about your ship? Or-"
Zim growled to cut him off. Dib quickly shut his mouth and watched as Zim tapped on the console four times-in seemingly random places-then placed both claws back on the yoke.
Dib watched him closely, not really sure what any of that button pressing did just then. He glanced over at Kailah and was ecstatic to see she was starting to get some of her color back!
"Zim will answer one of those questions,"-Dib's head whipped back around to look at him excitedly-"because I do not want your filthy hyuman tongue calling it by the wrong name. But no more or Zim gets your pinky!" He pointed-what would be considered-his thumb towards the metal thing on his back. "This is called a PAK. That is all Zim will say!"
A pack, ok, cool. Simple enough. But what does it doooo?! Dib bit his tongue and practically sat on his hands, not wanting to risk his pinkie. He tried to think of non-Zim related alien questions as his left leg started to wiggle.
"How many other aliens are there...in the universe?"
Zim gave him an annoyed look then rolled his eyes and focused back on his driving. "Schmillions."
Was that even a real number?
"Uh, okay. And how many of them are intelligent? Like, how many have formed civilizations and such?" Dib's leg started bouncing.
Zim's PAK started making a whirring sound, Dib paused and glanced over at it. It sounded eerily similar to when his Laptop was getting close to overheating and the fan turned on to cool it. Dib's eyebrow rose in curiosity.
"Trillions." Zim replied in a clipped voice. Dib noticed the fan noise winding down and his leg started picking back up. Was the PAK like a computer? It was definitely a heat source of some kind, and seemed to have wires stored inside that Zim could manipulate at will? How exactly did that function? What else could it do?
"And how many of those," Dib asked, leaning back slightly to try and get a better look at the PAK, "Have managed to conquer space travel?" His leg continued to bounce slowly.
The PAK started making that whirring sound again, Dib then saw with some mild shock and loads of fascination that it seemed to be embedded right into what would be Zim's spinal cord!
So, it's like he has a computer hooked right into his brain? And-...wait is it glowing?!
"One hundred twelve thousand thirty two." Zim said as his PAK went silent again and the glow dimed to nothing.
"Whoa! So few?!" Dib brought his attention back to Zim, wide eyed. "Well, I mean, 112,032 isn't a small number, but out of trillions of intelligent species?!"
Zim smirked smugly, "Very few are clever enough to create the technology powerful enough to make it past their own solar system. Roughly 63% of that number were actually gifted ships from other races that discovered their planets while exploring."
Dib tilted his head back thoughtfully-his leg still going at a slow steady pace-he guessed that made sense. After all, even with his dad-the world's smartest scientist of all time- they've only managed to send probes out to pluto. And nothing maned had made it past the moon so far...though, Dib mostly blamed government funding and his dad's lack of interest in anything space related, rather than the technology itself. He was certain that if his dad actually put in any effort, Earth could be space bound within the next two decades. He pushed his glasses up his nose and paused, frowning softly, actually...if his dad really went all out, the human race could be space bound within the next five years...
His leg slowed to a stop and he put his hand back in his lap, pushing the thoughts away for now. He looked out the windshield, as far as he could tell they were still over Michigan.
"What do you know about Loughran?" Dib asked casually, his eyes tracing a busy highway below.
"Zim will not answer that question." He said firmly.
Dib glanced at him curiously. By the way Zim refused to acknowledge him-and instead focused on a section of the console right in front of him (that Dib guessed to be showing their altitude as he noticed it showed a mini version of the ship set in a crossline), Dib guessed Zim didn't actually know that much about Loughran past their name and whatever allowed him to make the ID to begin with. Probably too proud to admit that he doesn't know anything more, too.
"Alright," Dib shrugged casually. "Well, Kailah gave me some good info on them so I guess it's okay that you don't know anything." He pretended to look outside while keeping Zim in his peripheral.
Zim growled and his grip tightened on the yoke, he glared at Dib out of the corner of his eye. "Zim knows plenty."
"Nah, man, it's cool." Dib said with a shrug. "If you don't know anything about Loughran, I can come up with something else to ask."
"Zim will not fall for these silly word traps of yours, Dib-stink!" He suddenly leaned towards Dib, eyes narrowed threateningly to slits and teeth bared.
Dib chuckled nervously and held up his hands in surrender, silently wishing there was enough room in the ship for him to lean away from the alien.
"Alright, alright." Dib said. "You caught me, sorry." He waited for Zim to pull away and go back to driving the ship before he lowered his hands back down. "And by the way, my name is Dib. Just Dib. And I don't smell." He grumbled.
"You reek." Zim growled.
Dib's lip twitched, half annoyed, half amused by Zim's response. He crossed his arms and leaned back in the seat, trying to think of another question as he observed the lettering on the ship's pink console.
"Have any other aliens ever visited Earth before?"
"Ehh…?" That whirring sound again. "Yes."
"Really?!" Dib sat up, excited "Which ones? How many? When? How often? Do aliens really abduct cows? How many humans have that kidnapped and experimented on? Did aliens really build the pyramids? What abou-"
"SILENCE!" Zim gripped his plastic helmet-like wig with both claws and squeezed his eyes shut with a fierce grimace. The alien then opened his eyes and glared daggers at Dib. "Your voice is so annoying!" He hissed, in a much more annoying voice, Dib would like to add. "No more questions!"
Dib pouted and opened his mouth to protest but something stirred to his right and he glanced over to see Kailah rubbing at her face with both hands. After a moment she lowered them and looked around the cockpit with a slightly confused-yet alert-expression.
"Hey." Dib said, trying to sound as casual as he could while his eyes darted quickly across her face. She was almost completely back to her normal color, her eyes didn't seem as bloodshot as they had been, her breathing seemed less labored, and she seemed fully alert and aware of her surroundings. All really good signs.
She sat up and leaned forward, looking out the windshield with awe.
"So, that wasn't a dream?" She whispered. "We really are in a real alien spaceship?" She turned to Dib with an awed look and he couldn't help that large goofy grin from returning to his face.
"Yup!" He replied and his left leg started bouncing excitedly again.
"Stop that!" Zim snapped and slapped his knee.
"Ow! Jerk!" Dib glared at him as he rubbed his now stinging knee.
Kailah snorted in amusement then scooted forward a bit on the bench to look past Dib at Zim. "Hey..."
Zim narrowed his eyes and looked at her out of the corner of his eye.
"You're gonna want to start slowing down." Kailah said in a polite mater-of-fact voice. "We're really close." She pointed down at a thirty degree angle, slightly to the left of their flight path. "They're down that way, maybe five miles?"
Zim glared harder, not seeming pleased at the way he was being ordered, but he adjusted the flight path and speed of the ship without saying anything. Dib looked out the windshield as the ship started its slow descent. Kailah leaned down and started rummaging through their bags. She found her lunch bag and pulled it into her lap, she unzipped it and started very enthusiastically eating her lunch.
Dib watched her with a confuzzled expression as she started with the sandwich, wolfing it down in four bites, she then chugged her chocolate milk in a single breath. She stuffed the whole string cheese into her mouth at once, chewing it as she ripped open the bag of chips and started upending them into her mouth, quickly catching and eating any spilled crumbs. When she was done, she stuffed all the trash into the bag and tossed it back onto the floor.
"Zim?" Kailah said, leaning forward a little bit more to try and catch his eye.
"What." He replied icyly, not happy at all, and honestly probably disgusted by her display of hunger. Dib was more of a weird mix of impressed and concerned.
"I just wanna say...I'm really, truly, sorry about what happened yesterday." Kailah shifted and tucked one leg under herself so her back was leaning against the side of the ship and she was facing Zim. Dib pressed himself into the seat and watched.
Zim seemed...shocked? Confused? Baffled? He kept his eyes forward and gripped the yoke tighter, the corner of his lip twitching down. Was he mad that she was bringing it up? Was he upset that she was apologizing? Dib half wished Zim was easier to read, with his alien features it was sometimes difficult to get a true read on his emotions.
"There was a lot of confusion, and fear, and a bit of miscommunication." Kailah continued, her voice very sincere as her hands seemed to play with each other nervously. "But I really should not have reacted that way. I should have never attacked you like that. And I'm really sorry. It was stupid. Really stupid of me, and I just want to say; both of us are truly sorry for how we reacted yesterday." She paused and looked down. "And I also want to say thank you, too."
Dib saw Zim stiffen.
"Thank you? For what." He asked through clenched teeth. What emotion was that? He seemed...really uncomfortable? Angry? Offended?
"For agreeing to fly us out here." She kept her eyes on her hands in her lap and squeezed them together nervously. "For...saving my life."
Dib gave her a worried and sympathetic look. Kailah seemed to feel his gaze on her and glanced up. She gave him a sad half smile, a silent thank you to him in her eyes.
"Again," She said, now more to Dib than to Zim. "I was really stupid. I'm sorry." She looked out the windshield for a moment then sighed. "Yeah, I was like a frog in a pot of water...I really should have seen that sooner..."
"A what in a pot of what?" Zim asked sharply, seemingly annoyed about...something.
"A bit more to the south." Kailah replied calmly, pointing. As Zim adjusted the ship with a growl she started to explain: "It's an expression, though, probably not a very common one?"
Dib shrugged when she looked at him for confirmation, it wasn't one he'd ever heard of.
"Yeah," She let out a small, nervous laugh and her hands squeezed together again. "Probably not a very common one." She repeated with a soft sigh.
Zim growled in annoyance.
"What does it mean?" Dib asked for him.
Kailah pulled her gaze away from the windshield, "Hm? Oh! Right, sorry!" She rubbed at her nose, embarrassed. Dib wondered what Chomp was saying to her. "Well, it comes from a science project-I think. Basically you have two frogs," She glanced at Zim, unsure. "Frogs are a type of animal that live on Earth. They're cold blooded and live in or near water-"
"Zim knows what frogs are, hyuman!" He snapped.
"Oh, okay." She gave Zim a friendly smile (Dib wondered if she actually wasn't bothered by Zim's blunt rudeness, or if she was just pretending to not notice it since he was doing them all such a huge favor). "So, anyway," She looked at Dib, pretending to explain it to him, her hands moving as she spoke, "in this experiment, you have two frogs. One is placed in a pot of room temperature water and set on a stove." She hesitated, Dib guessed she was debating on whether or not to try explaining what a stove was. When Zim didn't give any indication of recognition one way or the other she continued. "The uh stove, is turned on and the water is slowly brought to a boil. The second frog is set in a pot of water on the stove that has already begun to boil." She glanced out the windshield again as she spoke, her hands falling to her lap as her voice grew soft and distant. "The first frog sits in the water, unable to tell that the temperature is becoming dangerously hot, because it's changing slowly over time. Meanwhile, the second frog recognizes the dangerous temperature of the water right away, and it quickly hops out...The first frog is slowly cooked alive."
Zim chuckled darkly, but as Dib made the connection he felt his own face pale. She really was dying earlier, and she hadn't even realized it.
"Here!" Kailah said suddenly and her whole face lit up. She brought her other leg up onto the seat and stood up on her knees, placing both hands on the console-careful not to hit any buttons-and pressing her face into the windshield. "Right here!"
Zim stopped the ship midair and rapidly typed away at the controles. The ship slowly started a vertical descent. Dib watched with excited curiosity as Zim's claws flew across the console, the ship easily maneuvered through the thickly packed tree branches without so much as a scratch!
Once the ship was firmly on the ground, Zim raised the windshield and Kailah practically spilled out of the ship headfirst as she quickly climbed out. She struggled to righten herself, arms and legs shaking slightly. She wasn't even fully on her feet before she started yelling with joy.
"Chomp!" Kailah had a huge grin on her face and her arms spread wide to either side, as if expecting a hug.
Dib followed her out of the ship-a lot more gracefully. He watched her curiously, thinking about how, just yesterday, she had seemed pretty upset with the Loughran. She even practically just admitted that they had almost killed her-even if it wasn't intentional. Why was she suddenly so excited for this reunion? Maybe she was still loopy?...No, she seemed to be lucid again-
Suddenly remembering his glasses, his hand flew up to turn on HD mode.
The colors and details all around exploded into vivid and vibrant details as the settings on his glasses switched over. All at once, the trees were no longer a single shade of green or brown, but dozens upon dozens of different shades of each. With hints of the early yellows, oranges, and reds of fall that either hadn't been visible before switching his glasses setting, or Dib simply hadn't noticed them. Even though it was mid morning, Dib could actually see hundreds of stars up in the clear, iridescent blue sky! Insects shimmered in the air all around: gnats, ladybugs, bumblebees, june bugs, shield bugs. All of them almost seemed to be glowing and leaving after images behind them as they zipped by. Dib took all of this information in in a heartbeat.
Then, out from the underbrush in front of them exploded a five foot tall, seven foot long, brown and black feathered dinosaur!
Dib almost screamed.
HOW HAD HE FORGOTTEN TO ASK WHAT THE LOUGHRAN ACTUALLY LOOKED LIKE?!
Dib's jaw dropped to the forest floor in disbelief as this brown with black stripes dromaeosaur ran full speed towards Kailah! The dinosaur skidded to a halt on the leaf litter and used it's remaining momentum to quickly wedge it's neck into the crook of hers, laying its chin flat between her shoulder blades and both wings wrapping around her whole body. Kailah's arms wrapped tightly around them in response.
Dib starred in stunned amazement, he could see it clear as day with his glasses! As he observed the Loughran, he noticed that it almost seemed to have an odd shimmer to it? The longer he stared, the more obvious it was. It was almost like...Chomp was very slightly opaque? They weren't seethrough in any sense of the word, but they weren't completely solid either? It was more like someone turned their opacity down by 10%, maybe a little more...just enough for it to be noticable, but not enough for you to really see anything through them.
That must be how Zim could tell that Chomp was invisible to humans, Loughran probably had this weird opaque look to them no matter what form they took? Dib wondered if Kailah saw them like that too, or if they were completely solid thanks to the Bond...he'd have to ask her later.
Hugging the Loughran fiercely, Kailah whispered something that Dib couldn't hear.
Author Notes:
The frog experiment thing is real, though I do apologize if I didn't explain it well enough...I blame Kailah's current mental state lol
Now, pay very close attention, there's some "blink-and-you-miss-it" foreshadowing in this chapter *evil giggle*
Though, honestly, I like to think I've had a lot of foreshadowing sprinkled in so far (many of which hasn't paid off yet), but the foreshadowing here will have big consequences next chapter ;)
