Twins of Irk
Kilew narrowed her eyes from the shadows at the small Irken restrained in a chair. He struggled quite a bit. Her poor insane son. He, like Fer, had originally been intended to be a Nursery Drone and placed to watch Tin. But in a programming accident Invader programming had been hardwired to him. Two sets of nanites intended to teach the child his job in life had warred over his mind. The effects were horrifying.
He had started out as a normal Invader-class child. But the battle between the tiny robots wore that away quickly. He became irrational, hard to control, nearly impossible to predict and a raging pyromaniac. She had no intention to let her remaining son fall away to nothing because of a programming error. Not when her other son had just died by the hands of a Soon-To-Be-Tallest.
"Let me go! You fools! You will all pay for holding me like this!" The young Zim screeched.
"Zim." She barked.
Some back-up section of his Nursery programming kicked in. He recognized her voice, who she was to society and who she was to him. His antenna backed and his eyes widened in immediate submission.
She took a step into the light. "You know who I am?"
He nodded and seemed to whimper. Was he frightened of her? He shouldn't be.
She placed a hand on his head. "It's all right my son. Soon you will be much better. I'm sorry it took so long for me to rectify this mistake. But I had to see if you would do well on your own." She looked up to a male that had been standing to the side. "Take him to get his brand removed and prepare him for a programming overhaul. I want him with Invader programming."
"Yes Nursery Watcher." The male approached Zim.
Zim looked up at her reaching for her with his eyes. "M-mother?" He asked. He looked nothing like his brother but he sounded like him.
"I'm sorry. This is for the best." She looked to the male again. "I don't want him to remember anything about the Nursery." She looked back down at the ruby eyes that mirrored his father. "Or me."
"No, please! I'll be good! I promise!" Zim fought but a quick sedative quieted him.
Kilew left the room without a backward look to her son. But at least he would live.
* * *
The Nursery hummed along in its task. Computerized measurements were taken of each growing child. It was still a long time before the next hatching cycle but sometimes the young came early. And so tiny Irkens skittered along the vast walls of embryos on small robotic legs.
They checked each tank separately and carefully checking their findings with the computers. The little creatures would be the first living Irken any of these newborns would see. They would later recall them as others in their hatchery-age that just 'went somewhere else'. That was the point behind their diminutive size. They were easily forgotten.
A few eyes wandered to one of their kind that hovered obsessively near one tank in particular. It didn't matter to them that she was not running over to check the other children. This was her child, one that would join their under-sized ranks.
A male Irken with green eyes lowered himself along the wall to her. Her child was located along the floor level of tanks. "Wen, has a name been assigned to him?" He asked peering through one of the observation openings.
She touched the cap on the tube that was buried in the wall. "His name is Fen. His brand is being constructed now."
The overly curved 'S' mark was a reconstruction of melanoma in a Nursery Drones' skin. Nanites worked in a pattern concentrating the special cells so the skin became almost black, but it was actually an intensely dark green. No Nursery Drone could remove it on their own if they wished to, this way no Drone could easily abandon their post.
"How lovely that the traitorous Fer will be remembered through a child."
Both tiny Irkens looked up to see a fairly tall figure.
"Geiu." Wen said not hiding her disdain. It was because of HIM she had to rely on a child to continue Fers' memory.
"You are not supposed to be in the Main-Hatchery room Taller one." The small male said.
"And what are you going to do to stop me Rev? Bite my ankles?"
Wen put a restraining hand on Revs' shoulder. "What are you doing here then Taller?" She asked. "If you're here to further damage Fers' name then you can just leave. It will not be tolerated."
"And if I am here to do that?"
A collective hiss issued from the twenty or so under-sized Irkens along the massive walls of the Hatchery. Second sets of teeth shows sharply behind the normal squared ones most other Irkens had, claws on ungloved hands extended to twice their normal length.
Not only were they to be the newborns first encounter with others of their species but they were the Hatcheries last line of defense.
"Fer was good to us. He did not hold our height against us." Rev hissed. "We will defend his honor."
"I see." Geiu said. He held a small black device. "I suggest you all back down. Or I will press this button and row after row of your yet-to-be-borns will be dismantled by their own instruction nanites."
The other drones froze. "You wouldn't." Wen said. "You can't. You're a Nursery Drone, like us. You protect."
"I protect the Tallest." Geiu interrupted. "Not the general population. And trust me little one. Your child is in the first row that will be destroyed if you do not do as I say little one."
Rev pushed his antenna forward in hostility. "What would you have her do then Taller?" He said the last word like an insult.
"Only to do what Fer failed to do." He held out a small silver device. "Inject this into the Soon-To-Be-Tallest Tin, and I will hand this over to you to have destroyed." He waved the black thing in his hand at them.
Wen looked to Rev, he held no answer for her. Her antenna backed, head lowered and she held out her hand for the silver device.
* * *
Tin yawned as he scrolled through a bit of his 'homework'. Despite the attack on Pid and the death of Fer he still had a load of things to read through.
He blinked at the monitor and switched it off. It was too much boring to deal with for one day. He got up and stretched, his antenna brushed the ceiling.
"Wow I'm tall." He remarked to himself reaching up to touch the ceiling. His face fell when he remembered he was made to be like this.
"Depressing isn't it?"
Red eyes snapped to tiny pale ones.
"To realize you were designed instead of just born." Wen said in hollow tone.
"How did you get in?"
Wen made a motion like a shrug, but her small size blurred it into a nod. "Does it matter?"
"You could have just come in through the door." He crouched down lower to her. "Is something wrong?" He was very wary. Maybe something had happened to Pid, something might have actually happened to him.
"There will be." She said.
"What do you, OW!" His hand recoiled. He had been reaching to her, she looked like she was about to collapse into tears. He rubbed his hand finding a pinprick in his skin welling with blood. "What was that?"
"I'm so sorry, I had to. They were going to kill him. I had to." Pencil thin arachnid legs erupted from her back and she leapt up to the ceiling and disappeared into an open air vent.
Tin stood up and rubbed his hand. He had a very bad feeling about this.
Something in his chest constricted. He felt like he was suffocating. He stumbled and fell to his knees panting hard.
Light spilled over him. The door had opened. "Tin?"
Oh no, not him.
Tin looked up blindly seeing Pid at the front door. "Run." He croaked.
"Tin are you alright?"
Tin did the only thing that came to mind. A quick lash with an arachnid leg that missed its mark made Pid back away. "Run, now."
Pid stood there a moment more. It was when Tin roared at him that he turned and bolted.
* * *
Kilew watched with a heavy heart as Zim was slowly led across a hall. He was going to have the last of his programming erased and redone. His personality would be wiped and replaced with one more easily controlled. He would not remember her.
Some one squealed as a tall Irken crashed into the hall. She immediately recognized Pid. He looked like a Kevnar beast was on his tail.
It was when Tin burst in after him on arachnid legs screaming like said Kevnar beast that she realized what had happened. Geiu would pay.
Tin carried a staff tipped on either end with a deadly blade, he had taken it from one of the display walls. His red eyes burned with a blood lust as he howled and dashed after Pid.
The few others in this section of the hall scattered in fear from the rampaging soldier. Pid could barely keep ahead of him.
Kilew ran as fast as her old joints would let her. She was old by any Irken standard but panic gave strength. She grabbed Zim up from the guards that guided him to his fate. "Not just yet boys!" She cried to the startled males.
She turned Zims' head and eyes to Pid. "Do you see that Irken?" She asked.
"Yes." He said.
"Protect him." She gave the small Irken a gentle push towards Pid. She turned to the guards. "Get a tranquilizer!"
Tin used the staff to vault himself at Pid. He landed on his fleeing prey pinning the other Irken down. A growl escaped him as he inhaled the scent he was now programmed to destroy.
"No, Tin, please." Pid struggled to reach his blade and saw the deadly ends of Tins weapon rise.
He closed his eyes tight only to feel Tin get off him. A loud thump issued from the side and rampant snarling from Tin, no, from Tin and someone else. Pid opened his eyes to see who the second person was.
A short Irken hissed and raked at Tin with claws. The taller of the fighters threw the smaller off him and tried to regain his bearings.
Zim shook his head clear of stars and growled.
Pid watched at Tin got up, tried to attack only to be knocked to the ground again by a full-bodied counter-attack by this other Irken. Arachnid legs and small spatters of blood clangs and splashed together from the two.
Tins' confused mind saw Pid as the only threat. But this other creature kept hurting him! He was becoming frustrated. He turned open mouthed on the little attempting to use tooth and claw on the intruder.
Zim leapt, used his extra legs to support him and kicked Tin in the jaw. Tin squealed in pain grabbing at his face. A final enraged growl, Tin grabbed the small Zim and flung him into a wall.
Zim hit with a sickening sound and feel limply to the ground.
Pid pulled out his Ghala blade and stood ready to defend himself. He wasn't jumped from behind this time.
Tin retrieved his own weapon. It had been lost when Zim had crashed into him that first time. He tapped one bladed end on the floor and hissed. He lunged and once more never saw Pids' movement as the Ghala pinned the staff.
Tin wrenched his weapon up. A sharp snap and one of the three prongs broke from Pids' blade.
Tin lunged again but Pid couldn't pin the longer weapon with only two prongs. He caught up the staff between the remaining blades as it darted for him. He pushed away from his body and tried to spring away.
Maybe if Tin hadn't been a solder Pid would have made it. But a quick reach and the purple eyed Irken was thrown on his back, smacking his head on the hard floor.
His sight swam from the quick action and equally quick stab of pain. All he could recall was Tin above him raising his own broken blade above him. Then the red-eyed giant falling over with something red tipped sticking out of his neck.
And then, Pid blacked out.
Kilew narrowed her eyes from the shadows at the small Irken restrained in a chair. He struggled quite a bit. Her poor insane son. He, like Fer, had originally been intended to be a Nursery Drone and placed to watch Tin. But in a programming accident Invader programming had been hardwired to him. Two sets of nanites intended to teach the child his job in life had warred over his mind. The effects were horrifying.
He had started out as a normal Invader-class child. But the battle between the tiny robots wore that away quickly. He became irrational, hard to control, nearly impossible to predict and a raging pyromaniac. She had no intention to let her remaining son fall away to nothing because of a programming error. Not when her other son had just died by the hands of a Soon-To-Be-Tallest.
"Let me go! You fools! You will all pay for holding me like this!" The young Zim screeched.
"Zim." She barked.
Some back-up section of his Nursery programming kicked in. He recognized her voice, who she was to society and who she was to him. His antenna backed and his eyes widened in immediate submission.
She took a step into the light. "You know who I am?"
He nodded and seemed to whimper. Was he frightened of her? He shouldn't be.
She placed a hand on his head. "It's all right my son. Soon you will be much better. I'm sorry it took so long for me to rectify this mistake. But I had to see if you would do well on your own." She looked up to a male that had been standing to the side. "Take him to get his brand removed and prepare him for a programming overhaul. I want him with Invader programming."
"Yes Nursery Watcher." The male approached Zim.
Zim looked up at her reaching for her with his eyes. "M-mother?" He asked. He looked nothing like his brother but he sounded like him.
"I'm sorry. This is for the best." She looked to the male again. "I don't want him to remember anything about the Nursery." She looked back down at the ruby eyes that mirrored his father. "Or me."
"No, please! I'll be good! I promise!" Zim fought but a quick sedative quieted him.
Kilew left the room without a backward look to her son. But at least he would live.
* * *
The Nursery hummed along in its task. Computerized measurements were taken of each growing child. It was still a long time before the next hatching cycle but sometimes the young came early. And so tiny Irkens skittered along the vast walls of embryos on small robotic legs.
They checked each tank separately and carefully checking their findings with the computers. The little creatures would be the first living Irken any of these newborns would see. They would later recall them as others in their hatchery-age that just 'went somewhere else'. That was the point behind their diminutive size. They were easily forgotten.
A few eyes wandered to one of their kind that hovered obsessively near one tank in particular. It didn't matter to them that she was not running over to check the other children. This was her child, one that would join their under-sized ranks.
A male Irken with green eyes lowered himself along the wall to her. Her child was located along the floor level of tanks. "Wen, has a name been assigned to him?" He asked peering through one of the observation openings.
She touched the cap on the tube that was buried in the wall. "His name is Fen. His brand is being constructed now."
The overly curved 'S' mark was a reconstruction of melanoma in a Nursery Drones' skin. Nanites worked in a pattern concentrating the special cells so the skin became almost black, but it was actually an intensely dark green. No Nursery Drone could remove it on their own if they wished to, this way no Drone could easily abandon their post.
"How lovely that the traitorous Fer will be remembered through a child."
Both tiny Irkens looked up to see a fairly tall figure.
"Geiu." Wen said not hiding her disdain. It was because of HIM she had to rely on a child to continue Fers' memory.
"You are not supposed to be in the Main-Hatchery room Taller one." The small male said.
"And what are you going to do to stop me Rev? Bite my ankles?"
Wen put a restraining hand on Revs' shoulder. "What are you doing here then Taller?" She asked. "If you're here to further damage Fers' name then you can just leave. It will not be tolerated."
"And if I am here to do that?"
A collective hiss issued from the twenty or so under-sized Irkens along the massive walls of the Hatchery. Second sets of teeth shows sharply behind the normal squared ones most other Irkens had, claws on ungloved hands extended to twice their normal length.
Not only were they to be the newborns first encounter with others of their species but they were the Hatcheries last line of defense.
"Fer was good to us. He did not hold our height against us." Rev hissed. "We will defend his honor."
"I see." Geiu said. He held a small black device. "I suggest you all back down. Or I will press this button and row after row of your yet-to-be-borns will be dismantled by their own instruction nanites."
The other drones froze. "You wouldn't." Wen said. "You can't. You're a Nursery Drone, like us. You protect."
"I protect the Tallest." Geiu interrupted. "Not the general population. And trust me little one. Your child is in the first row that will be destroyed if you do not do as I say little one."
Rev pushed his antenna forward in hostility. "What would you have her do then Taller?" He said the last word like an insult.
"Only to do what Fer failed to do." He held out a small silver device. "Inject this into the Soon-To-Be-Tallest Tin, and I will hand this over to you to have destroyed." He waved the black thing in his hand at them.
Wen looked to Rev, he held no answer for her. Her antenna backed, head lowered and she held out her hand for the silver device.
* * *
Tin yawned as he scrolled through a bit of his 'homework'. Despite the attack on Pid and the death of Fer he still had a load of things to read through.
He blinked at the monitor and switched it off. It was too much boring to deal with for one day. He got up and stretched, his antenna brushed the ceiling.
"Wow I'm tall." He remarked to himself reaching up to touch the ceiling. His face fell when he remembered he was made to be like this.
"Depressing isn't it?"
Red eyes snapped to tiny pale ones.
"To realize you were designed instead of just born." Wen said in hollow tone.
"How did you get in?"
Wen made a motion like a shrug, but her small size blurred it into a nod. "Does it matter?"
"You could have just come in through the door." He crouched down lower to her. "Is something wrong?" He was very wary. Maybe something had happened to Pid, something might have actually happened to him.
"There will be." She said.
"What do you, OW!" His hand recoiled. He had been reaching to her, she looked like she was about to collapse into tears. He rubbed his hand finding a pinprick in his skin welling with blood. "What was that?"
"I'm so sorry, I had to. They were going to kill him. I had to." Pencil thin arachnid legs erupted from her back and she leapt up to the ceiling and disappeared into an open air vent.
Tin stood up and rubbed his hand. He had a very bad feeling about this.
Something in his chest constricted. He felt like he was suffocating. He stumbled and fell to his knees panting hard.
Light spilled over him. The door had opened. "Tin?"
Oh no, not him.
Tin looked up blindly seeing Pid at the front door. "Run." He croaked.
"Tin are you alright?"
Tin did the only thing that came to mind. A quick lash with an arachnid leg that missed its mark made Pid back away. "Run, now."
Pid stood there a moment more. It was when Tin roared at him that he turned and bolted.
* * *
Kilew watched with a heavy heart as Zim was slowly led across a hall. He was going to have the last of his programming erased and redone. His personality would be wiped and replaced with one more easily controlled. He would not remember her.
Some one squealed as a tall Irken crashed into the hall. She immediately recognized Pid. He looked like a Kevnar beast was on his tail.
It was when Tin burst in after him on arachnid legs screaming like said Kevnar beast that she realized what had happened. Geiu would pay.
Tin carried a staff tipped on either end with a deadly blade, he had taken it from one of the display walls. His red eyes burned with a blood lust as he howled and dashed after Pid.
The few others in this section of the hall scattered in fear from the rampaging soldier. Pid could barely keep ahead of him.
Kilew ran as fast as her old joints would let her. She was old by any Irken standard but panic gave strength. She grabbed Zim up from the guards that guided him to his fate. "Not just yet boys!" She cried to the startled males.
She turned Zims' head and eyes to Pid. "Do you see that Irken?" She asked.
"Yes." He said.
"Protect him." She gave the small Irken a gentle push towards Pid. She turned to the guards. "Get a tranquilizer!"
Tin used the staff to vault himself at Pid. He landed on his fleeing prey pinning the other Irken down. A growl escaped him as he inhaled the scent he was now programmed to destroy.
"No, Tin, please." Pid struggled to reach his blade and saw the deadly ends of Tins weapon rise.
He closed his eyes tight only to feel Tin get off him. A loud thump issued from the side and rampant snarling from Tin, no, from Tin and someone else. Pid opened his eyes to see who the second person was.
A short Irken hissed and raked at Tin with claws. The taller of the fighters threw the smaller off him and tried to regain his bearings.
Zim shook his head clear of stars and growled.
Pid watched at Tin got up, tried to attack only to be knocked to the ground again by a full-bodied counter-attack by this other Irken. Arachnid legs and small spatters of blood clangs and splashed together from the two.
Tins' confused mind saw Pid as the only threat. But this other creature kept hurting him! He was becoming frustrated. He turned open mouthed on the little attempting to use tooth and claw on the intruder.
Zim leapt, used his extra legs to support him and kicked Tin in the jaw. Tin squealed in pain grabbing at his face. A final enraged growl, Tin grabbed the small Zim and flung him into a wall.
Zim hit with a sickening sound and feel limply to the ground.
Pid pulled out his Ghala blade and stood ready to defend himself. He wasn't jumped from behind this time.
Tin retrieved his own weapon. It had been lost when Zim had crashed into him that first time. He tapped one bladed end on the floor and hissed. He lunged and once more never saw Pids' movement as the Ghala pinned the staff.
Tin wrenched his weapon up. A sharp snap and one of the three prongs broke from Pids' blade.
Tin lunged again but Pid couldn't pin the longer weapon with only two prongs. He caught up the staff between the remaining blades as it darted for him. He pushed away from his body and tried to spring away.
Maybe if Tin hadn't been a solder Pid would have made it. But a quick reach and the purple eyed Irken was thrown on his back, smacking his head on the hard floor.
His sight swam from the quick action and equally quick stab of pain. All he could recall was Tin above him raising his own broken blade above him. Then the red-eyed giant falling over with something red tipped sticking out of his neck.
And then, Pid blacked out.