A/N: Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

First Tallest

The ring of Illian leaders glared at the image of the now highly recognizable Heve.
"Fool creature, your demands fall on deaf ears!" An Illian who was a darker blue than the others.
"We only want our freedom." Heve said calmly. "I know have a large part of your space armada in my control. Do not force me to bring war."
"War? Fight us with our own ships? Preposterous!" A female Illian squawked.
"Not so farfetched as you might think." Heve said rather darkly. "We have many great minds aboard who have redesigned your pathetic slave vessels into warships."
"You're bluffing." Another Illian spat.
"Then I will prove it." The screen suddenly went blank.
The Illians cooed in confusion and frustration. Suddenly a light blinked on and a second monitor came on. "Sirs! The Salvage station Omina twelve!"
"What about it?" The first Illian demanded.
"It's gone!"
"GONE?"
"Blown to bits! We're getting pelted with shrapnel!" The Illian paused and looked somewhere off to his left. "What? By She'rika! We're being attacked!"
The image on the monitor rocked sharply and the Illian fell over. Three green blurs ran past the screen, there was a terrible squealing sound.
Suddenly a small Irken face appeared glowering menacingly at the collected Illians. "For the Empire!" The Irken screamed in a rather small and squeaky voice then he broke the camera with a section of pipe.
There was a moment of silent shock. Then the room erupted in frightened squawking and calls.
"Order! Order!" The darker Illian cried out.
The room calmed a little.
"We are Illians! Remember that! Stronger than these, these, Irkens!" The last word was spit out like it was dirty. "Round up the other Irken slaves, test them for their suppressors and their control devices, slaughter the ones that think freely. We will not fail!"
There was a rush of agreement and the other Illians cheered their leader for his quick thinking.
* * *
Oey, the little Irken who had been promoted without any signature from an Illian crouched quietly behind an oddly designed table in the females quarters. He was being sought after for testing. A bright-red eyed female named Inna was in the room keeping watch over his hiding place.
Since females had not control devices implanted they were immune to the check. But still Illians would scour their rooms looking for any proof that they might not be loyal.
"You say no males that have no business with you have come here?" The extremely pale blue Illian asked.
"I assure you mighty sir, no unauthorized Irken or any other race of slave has been here." Inna said bowing her head in respect but keeping the gauzy shawl drawn tightly around her face.
The Illian huffed a little but shuffled out of the room.
Once the door shut Inna pressed a small button on the base of a nearby table with sent a controlled the single security camera in the room. It fed one of hundreds of carefully constructed loops into the system. "You can come out now Oey."
The red-eyed male wriggled out of his hiding place. He absolutely adored Inna ever since she sat him down and taught him what little the female knew of the old Irken culture.
"I don't want to hide anymore Inna." He said fidgeting a little.
"You have to. Our Tallest relies on you." Inna put a hand on his shoulder.
"But the others are dying!" He whined low in his throat.
"Only twelve have been identified as traitors. And that's out of thousands that they've checked. Their system is highly flawed." She reasoned. "No fight for freedom is without its casualties." She stroked one of his antenna. "Lament for them my friend but do not let your thoughts only reside with them."
He often marveled at the drastic differences in their speech patterns. "I can't help it. They were Irken."
She put one of her hands over his mouth and touched her forehead to his in a widely accepted gesture of affection. "Yes they were Irken, they will be remembered for their lives given so that others might live free." She lifted her head from his. "Now, you have duties to attend to soldier."
He nodded and reached to a hidden compartment taking out a small container that held bright violet contacts. He put them on successfully changing his identity. "I'll be back."
She nodded and let him leave. "Luck be with you."
He half-smiled back and let the door slide shut.
* * *
"Thank you Oey." Heve said. "Our hopes go to the others. I'm sorry to hear about those of us that were caught."
"And our hopes to you as well." The other Irken said. "Keep free."
Heve nodded. "Keep free." The transmission was cut.
He turned in his chair glancing to the small figure asleep on a bed in the corner. He smiled to himself. Ghar never ceased to amaze him in his enthusiasm, or his deep sleeping habits.
He reached over and pulled a blanket farther over Ghar. No Irken could stand to sleep in the rock hard bed of an Illian. They were insanely uncomfortable. They preferred twisted blankets on the floors to the slave barracks of clumps of straw in concrete cubicles.
There was a knock on the door. He gave Ghar one more look then went to the door opening it.
"My Tallest! I, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean." He had caught sight of Ghar who had woken up and was sitting up in the nest of blankets.
"No, no." Heve said stopping the Irken from taking off. "You did not interrupt. Did you come with news?"
"Yes sir, we found it!"
"Found it?" Heve asked quite confused.
"Irk sir!"
Heve's eyes widened. "Irk? For certain?"
The Irken nodded furiously. "Yes sir! Our split off armada has control of the checkpoint in the area. It's definitely Irk sir!"
"I'll be to the bridge soon, warn the crew."
"Yes my Tallest!" The Irken dashed off.
Heve laughed as he shut the door and bent down sweeping Ghar up into the air. "They found it!"
"What?" Ghar asked finally shaken out of his sleep-clouded stupor.
"Irk!" Heve hugged Ghar closer. "They found *home*!"
"That's wonderful!" Ghar said. His eyes shot open suddenly. "Heve please! You're supposed to go to the bridge! We don't have *time* for that!" His face flushed a darker green.
"Sorry." He set Ghar down. "Get dressed, I'll meet you there."
"Go then!" Ghar said trying to push the much taller Irken to the door.
Heve almost skipped out of the room startling a passing Irken soldier with his cry of happiness.
Ghar shook his head and searched for the rest of his uniform.