Slowly Moving Forward

He only managed to get through one disk before the ship's computer made him aware he had entered sector 22.

There was a lot of information on these disks. Maybe all of his questions about the Empire and the Control Brains really would be answered.

There wasn't a lot of information about the Invader's though... instead the disk he was currently watching delved more into Irken history, before their ancestors were taken and forcibly altered with the PAK system.

His people used to only obey the queen who was physically larger than any of the drones... she was the mother of the colony... he kind of zoned out during that part... but everyone was unquestioningly loyal to her. When the Invaders brought in the Control Brains and started forcefully attaching PAKs to the drones, the programming they received was loyalty to the Invaders, rather than the queen.

There was a lot of confusion. Those without PAKs fought with those carrying them as though they were enemies of the colony. But soon those with PAKs outnumbered those without.

The queen was killed... her loyal followers were also killed.

Invaders put themselves in the position of the Queen. They programmed the Irkens to forget their former loyalties and obey them.

But there was a faulty code... something within the Control Brains... and his people rebelled before the Invaders' project could be fully realized.

Sometime after this must've been when the Irkens figured out how to alter the Control Brains and overwrite the code the Invaders' implemented... changing the loyalty back to a queen... or a Tallest. It looked like by that time a male Irken could also grow to be the largest in the colony...

Did the Invaders do that on purpose to further confuse the drones' former loyalty..?

Tallest Miyuki had been the first female Tallest in a long time, and under her rule, the Irken Empire flourished more than it ever did.

Defectiveness was an Irken showing loyalty and devotion towards anything besides the Tallest and the Empire, which was being caused by the original program the Invaders implemented.

Zim was the worst defective in the history of defectives...not only did he have no loyalty for the Tallest or the Empire, but he actually saw himself as superior to these things... because he saw himself as an Invader and the current program as a bunch of mistakes overwriting the original one.

Hopefully the other disks had more information on them...

It was all fine and good to learn more about his people's history... there were even bits and pieces of this information in their own archives, but so far there had been no information regarding the Invaders themselves.

That wouldn't have been much of a problem if his people weren't currently at war with these advanced parasites. It would be nice to have information that would give him a clear advantage, but oh well.

Sevai seemed to be a defective, although Invaders probably used a different word.

Did Sevai survive?

He shook his head. There was no time to think about that right now.

The coordinates he'd been given was for a mostly empty ice wasteland of a planet... there was nothing but large masses of ice and snow. There was also no nearby star, so the planet was very dark.

Why the helk did the Jackers want to meet here of all places...? Did they think the Invaders wouldn't look for them in this wasteland?

He was irritated. It was a good thing his armour had a built in warming and cooling system otherwise he wouldn't leave the ship. Why should he fly to this inconvenient planet to speak to a few surviving Jackers who obviously needed his help much more than he needed theirs?

He huffed as he switched off the ship's power. Hopefully the engines would start when he returned.

As soon as the hatch opened he was met with a strong frozen wind that stung both his eyes and his antennae. He was pretty sure he already lost the feeling in his face too.

"My Tallest," one of his followers was running to meet him.

He sort of recognized this guy... it was Larb probably.

The Irken invader stopped in front of him and gave him a salute. He was shivering, and somehow icicles managed to form on his antennae.

"S-sir, th-there are s-sixteen surviving J-Jackers here waiting t-to meet with y-you," Larb managed to inform him through chattering teeth. He pointed towards a large dome shaped rock building off in the distance. "I-in there."

There were only sixteen of them left? He frowned.

The Jackers didn't have a very big population to begin with... but there were really only sixteen survivors?

Maybe there were more in another location. The ones he was meeting with now could just a fragment of their total number...

The survivors must have been the ones who were off planet looking for 'fuel' to keep their sun burning, and while they were gone the Invaders zapped their planet into nothing.

"Well?" The Tallest looked down at his shivering follower. "Show me the way."

"Y-yes, sir..." Larb responded, and he seemed to be making quite an effort to pick up his feet. It looked like they were being weighed down by ice-blocks or something. His legs were probably frozen.

"Th-the entrance is... c-clearly marked..." he offered, hinting that the Tallest should go on ahead.

Red sighed and nearly rolled his eyes as he moved past his frozen follower and continued towards the dome.

There was a stone path leading to the gaping entrance. His followers must have made it in anticipation of his arrival... the dome was definitely Jacker's technology.

As soon as he entered the large room everyone's attention fell on him.

All of the Jackers were wearing bulky armour, so the only visible part of their bodies were their faces and forearms.

They looked unhappy. Their planet was gone and the few survivors were gathered here on this frozen wasteland of a moon.

Red smirked and crossed his arms. "So, who wants revenge?"

"I didn't know this place had a kitchen," Veena remarked.

She was standing near the entrance to the room with her arms crossed. For whatever reason, she seemed to have decided to take a break from her projects and follow him here.

"That's because you hardly look up from your screen," Lard Nar remarked.

This of course offered the question of how she'd been getting her meals... did she have a secret stash of snacks somewhere?

It was more likely she was getting other people to fetch things for her.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

It seemed like she decided to shrug off that comment.

They used to argue almost constantly back when she was with the Resisty.

That was before the resistance had given themselves that name...

If she stayed they probably would have argued about that too.

She probably would have come up with a better name.

He glanced away from the kettle he was using to regard her.

"I'm making tea," he replied.

"You drink tea?" She questioned, raising an invisible brow. "You never did before."

"I'm not making it for me."

"Then why are you making it?"

Sevai wasn't eating anything, and he' only had a few sips of water.

If the Invader continued to refuse both food and drink, he was going to make himself sick.

Lard Nar had worked with a few different people when he was an engineer on Vort Lab 9. Then when he became the leader of the Resisty, he escaped from his planet and ended up with resistance members from all over the galaxy.

The Invaders weren't familiar to him, but he always did his best to try to understand how others understood things.

Sevai was worried about eating food from Vort, but he seemed to enjoy drinking tea.

"I'm making it for Sevai," he decided to answer.

"The Invader?" Her tone lowered a little. She didn't sound very happy.

He glanced at her. She was scowling at him.

"Yes the Invader," he replied.

"You really are a bleeding heart aren't you?"

His gaze shifted back to the kettle. It was boiling now.

"He's no longer involved with the people who captured Laes..." he said as he switched off the kettle.

There were more technically advanced ways of instantly making tea, but he still preferred this method... doing things simply like this was kind of relaxing.

He dug into one of the nearby cupboards and found a cup. It was impressive that the building was already stocked with cups, plates, instant meals, and other things that were usually overlooked.

"Are you sure?" She sounded skeptical, or maybe annoyed.

"Yes, I'm sure," Lard Nar responded before moving to the sink.

He held the cup underneath the tap and the water poured out automatically.

He just wanted to give the cup a quick rinse.

"You should be questioning him about what his people are planning to do to Laes, or Vort for that matter, not catering to him."

The water shut off, and Lard Nar turned to look at Veena again.

"Sevai's own people poisoned him. They were going to have him imprisoned. He's lost everything."

"So what?" Veena questioned, narrowing an eye as she uncrossed her arms. She pointed accusingly at him. "Laes was captured by this guy's people, and I bet he knows where their prison is located, or at the very least he has information on who does."

She lowered her hand while placing the other one on her hip. "He's withholding that information because he's still loyal to his kind. He might not have been involved in Laes' kidnapping, but he's also not doing anything to help us get him back either."

"He's still recovering."

"He can talk can't he?"

Lard Nar sighed as he rubbed his temples.

"I'm not going to keep arguing with you Veena..." he was tired of defending his actions. "I'm working on it... ok? Can we just leave it at that?"

"You haven't been unravelling their mess all day," She stated. "But fine. Play nice with that Invader if it makes you feel better," she said before leaving the room.

Veena wouldn't understand the mental connection he shared with Sevai... she hadn't bothered to deal with the refugees from wrecked and enslaved planets either when she'd loosely called herself a member of the resistance.

She was a good hacker and programmer. No one would ever doubt her skills, but she definitely lacked empathy.

That's why he'd been keeping an eye on her work. He wanted to make sure that the Irkens she reprogrammed weren't going to end up being research fodder... or worse... she might reprogram them to obey only her.

So far she seemed to be doing everything properly. He had a pretty strong hunch why she was cooperating more than usual, but he wouldn't say it out loud since she'd definitely hit him for it.

Once he finished making the cup of tea, he left the kitchen and began walking back to the lab.

If he wanted to start an argument with Veena, he could have brought up her lack of concern for Laes when he initially didn't return... but that wouldn't benefit anyone. All it would do was make her angry since she hated admitting she was wrong more than anything else.

"Here."

Sevai stared at the steaming cup that was being held out to him, but he made no move to take it.

"What is it...?" he asked.

"It's tea," Lard Nar answered.

"Ah... this is your version...?" he questioned, forcing a smile. He was still sitting on the edge of the cot, so accepting the cup would be an easy thing for him to do. "You needn't have troubled yourself..."

Lard Nar sighed as he withdrew it. Then the Vortian lowered his head... a sign of submission?

Sevai sat up straighter and he held out his hand.

"I will accept it..." he said, feeling rather nervous.

This was just like when he was made to ingest different substances to see if it would poison his kind or not... How were the scientists to know what could be consumed unless he tested it properly? That had been Delarla's argument...

Even though both Laes and Lard Nar had shown him a considerable amount of trust, he was struggling to do the same.

He squared his shoulders and looked at the cup with determination.

If he drank a little, it most likely wouldn't hurt him.

Lard Nar handed him the cup.

Despite the hot beverage inside, the outside was cool to the touch.

"The tea I drink is made from the nectar of my planet's largest flowers," he explained as he held the cup close to his face so he could have a better look at the tea. It was a pale pink colour. His antennae could only detect the faintest aroma of something not exactly sweet. Leaves perhaps? Or petals?

"Your planet lacked flora... it did not have any type of biodiversity..." explaining things to himself or to others usually calmed him.

This was what he was trying to do. He still wasn't wearing any clothes which meant the Vortians were probably going to run more tests on him.

Perhaps drinking this tea would even force him to lose consciousness.

"This is why my people resurrected some plants and animals from your fossil records... your planet was also given many parks... it is healthy for a planet and its people to have places like this..."

He brought the rim of the cup to his mouth and took a sip. He nearly cringed.

The bitter taste definitely overwhelmed the sweetness...

"Do I have to drink all of this...?" he questioned, mustering a small polite smile.

Lard Nar smirked before turning his face away and covering his mouth. His shoulders shook a little. Was he upset...?

"I apologize for my rudeness," Sevai quickly said.

Of course the Vortian would be upset with him... Lard Nar had taken time to prepare something for him, and he was rudely trying to reject it.

He took another sip.

The flavor really wasn't very good, but he didn't want to insult Lard Nar.

"You don't have to force yourself," the Vortian spoke. He was standing normally now, and he was even smiling a little. "It's fine if you don't want to drink it."

"Thank you..." Sevai commented, returning the cup. "I apologize for being so finicky... I really do appreciate your efforts."

"It must be difficult being separated from your people," Lard Nar acknowledged. "I know it takes time to adjust, but the medical team is a little concerned about your lack of appetite."

The Vortian didn't sound upset, but he had lost his family and many of his friends during Vort's brief struggle with the Irkens.

Lard Nar really should hate him for what happened.

"My people can go quite a while without eating..." Sevai started to explain.

He stopped himself. How much information should he continue to give...? He wasn't sure.

"I suppose I could try eating fruit... just..." he hesitated. "Do your people coat them in poison...?"

"No, we air grow them in a very sterile environment, so there's no need to spray them."

"If that's the case... ripe fruit should be ok."

"I'll go get you some," Lard Nar offered as he turned to leave.

"Could I..." Sevai hesitated again. It would be better to ask than continuing to worry. "Could I have clothing..? Or are your people planning to run more tests?"

Lard Nar glanced back at him. "Your pants are being washed, but they're probably dry by now. I'll see what I can do about a shirt."

Sevai bowed his head. "Thank you."

He was very grateful that Lard Nar had decided not to treat him as a hostile entity despite the other Invaders forcibly imprisoning Laes.

If he still had any kind of standing at all, he would have used it to try to rescue the Vortian...

Shortly after Lard Nar left there was some kind of disturbance in the lab. A few Vortian scientists rushed in with one of those floating cots. He could only see a little from where he was sitting on the bed, but it looked like most of the Vortians had stopped working and were gathering near the largest free space in the room.

Carefully he rose to his feet, and he began to take slow and deliberate steps towards the lab. He wasn't planning to leave the room however since he wasn't dressed and he wasn't sure if his legs would give out if he tried to move around too much.

Using the door frame for support, he leaned forward a little and looked over the heads of the group of Vortians who'd gathered together but were keeping a respectful distance from the few scientists who were running around grabbing machinery and bringing it over to the cot.

Lying unconscious in the cot was one of his own kind. Their wings were bloody, and they appeared to be unconscious.

His chest constricted almost painfully. He grasped it as he took a step back. He wasn't paying attention, so he nearly lost his balance when one of his knees decided to buckle.

Fortunately he was able to hang onto the door frame...

Another one of his people entered the lab.

Sevai recognized Kosiker right away. The normally stoic security officer drew close to the unconscious one lying on the cot. His usual expression of indifference was gone. Instead he looked worried.

The injured person had to be Diu... there was no one else who could get the security officer to behave like this.

Kosiker's hands were bound behind his back. He had some blood on his uniform as well, but it didn't appear to be his blood since he was moving around without any difficulty.

Then an Irken entered the room and grabbed Kosiker from behind.

Sevai's eyes widened and his mouth parted a little in surprise.

That was the failed Irken project... the one he accidentally created.

This was his fault... he collapsed to his knees.

The defective Irken had gravely wounded Diu. There was no other reasonable explanation.

When he raised his head, he saw Kosiker striding towards him with a very angry expression on his face... he must have escaped the Irken's grasp.

Sevai tensed and turned his face away, bracing himself for an assault.

"Why are you still alive?" the question was direct and accusing.

Sevai risked looking up at Kosiker who was standing over him.

"I apologize..." he said as he clasped one of his arms close to his body. "There were circumstances outside of my control... it was never my intention to avoid imprisonment..."

"When Delarla finds out you survived you'll be-" Kosiker's voice cut off when the failed project's hand landed on his shoulder.

"I said we were dropping off Diu, then leaving, remember?" the unsuccessful project stated.

Kosiker continued to glare down at Sevai without uttering a word.

"Right..." the strange Irken experiment remarked before pulling Kosiker backwards. "We're leaving."

"Wait..." Sevai spoke, reaching out a hand in a stopping motion. "Please explain what happened back on the ship... how were you able to... to become what you are...?"

The failed Irken project's gaze turned away from the lab. Those large red eyes were staring at him.

"I feel like I should know you..." Then the Irken smiled. "Oh right. You're the guy who tried to delete me."

"Your data should have been deleted... I watched it get deleted... I made sure of it..."

The Irken squinted an eye at him. He was still holding on tight to Kosiker's shoulder.

"You deleted a copy," the failed experiment remarked. "By the time you deleted it, I was already inside your ship's network." He used his free arm to shrug. "After that all I needed was a host which you unknowingly provided."

He had made a grave error just like his ancestors had done in the past. His family line really was a blight in his peoples' history, and somehow he managed to continue it.

"You better hope I never see you after today..." Kosiker growled a warning before he was led back into the lab towards the access to the hallway.

He never meant to create something completely unpredictable like this... the Irken virus wasn't stable.

Sevai watched until he could no longer see them.

He couldn't make himself move off the floor... so he gave up, lay on his side, and shut his eyes.

Kosiker hadn't needed to strike him... the security officer had made his feelings perfectly clear even without the use of violence...

There was no place left for him among his people, and no one had ever been allowed to exist beyond the collective.

As soon as Delarla found out he was still alive, she would end him herself...

The Vortians quickly became concerned with his lack of movement and his current placement on the floor however, and with their encouragement, he did manage to return to his cot.