The Present
Cronos threw a bundle of loose wires over his head. The bulky Irken panted slightly and swept the sweat from his brow. He lifted his green eyes upward and gave his partner, Abriam, the go symbol. Abriam, otherwise known as "Abba" to his friends, nodded and twisted the thick green dial that activated the light teleporter, shooting the wires off through space to their intended destination.
"Three day weekend coming up!" Abba called down to Cronos. Cronos lifted his arms in a salute that, to Irkens, meant "ALL RIGHT!"
In the hallway outside, Janis was wishing she could have a three-minute vacation. That was because one of her charges was currently hanging from the ceiling by one spider leg.
"Can't catch me!" Dee giggled, clamoring up over the pipes on tiny metal legs extended from a miniscule ID pack. The three-year-old toddleIrk was out of control again. It wasn't even like Janis could punish her once she caught her. She was the littlest and youngest smeet of Tallest Purple. One did not punish the smeet of a tallest if one wished to keep one's job as a smeet trainer.
If you asked Dee, however, she would have told you she was too cute to punish. Despite her famous genetics, she was the shortest smeet in her hatchling group. Her eyes were oversized for her face. They were a deep purple, darker than her paternal gene donor's eyes had been. They seemed to reflect everything in sight like a wide-angle mirror, creating a carnival mirror effect across her innocent face.
Her curled antennae had been topped with light lavender bows at their bases. The bows matcher her eyes, but not the blue training uniform she wore. A yellow badge pinned on her chest identified her as a military trainee, potentially to become a future soldier or… if fate should happen to favor her… an Invader.
The red-eyed Janis extended her mechanical legs and pursued her young charge. Hugging her stuffed Irken solider tighter, Dee skittered across the pipes, her small size allowing her to duck and dodge to make up for the fact that Janis was considerably faster than she was.
"Pipe games!" Dee cried, taking a suicide-dive towards an open vent in the wall. Slipping easily inside she slid down the vents with a cry of "whee!" broken only by occasional yelps as she bounced over bolts in the system.
"Dee, get back here!" Janis shouted, pounding on the ventilation shaft opening. There was no way she could fit in there!
"Dee got away again, huh teach?" a smeet commented, looking innocently up.
"She does that," another agreed, nodding slightly.
Janis sighed and slid down the wall. There wasn't a single day that she didn't thank the past tallests that there was only one Dee. She lifted her gloved wrist to her mouth, letting the communicator pop out of her glove. "Hey guys. Yeah, it's me again. Yeah, Dee's loose in the vents again."
On the other end of the vent, Dee popped out only to find her little body dangling in midair as she clamped her legs onto an overhanging pipe. Below the metal crusher clamored loudly, turning scrap metal into scrap metal blocks. Dee studied it for a moment. "Looks like Janis eating," she said to no one in particular as she hefted herself and her stuffed Irken onto the pipes hanging overhead. Pretending she was a tightrope walker she stuck her arms straight out and padded along the pipe, completely oblivious to the fact that the thing only a few feet below her would grind her bones and body into Irken jelly should she happen to fall.
She didn't notice one of the antennae bows flutter from her head and down into the jaws of the machine as she ducked through a hole in the walls cut to allow the pipes to travel from the crushing room into the teleportation room.
Dee dropped down from the ceiling in front of a gigantic metal box. "Woooooow," she whispered, looking up and clutching her toy to her tiny chest. "I'm gonna 'splore the cave!" she cried happily, skipping into the box.
Seconds later, Cronos rounded the corner and slammed the lid of the box shut, hefting it up and over his shoulder. Inside, Dee cried out as she rolled from one end to the other. "Help, help!" she cried, pounding on the walls of the box. "Let me out of here!" No response from the outside. "I ORDER you to let me out of here!" Dee tried again, pressing on the lid with both her tiny fists.
Cronos paused for a moment to scratch him antennae. The sound of machines working in the teleportation room was deafening. He couldn't have heard a ship roaring through the room, let alone the cries of one tiny, frightened smeet. And from where he sat, Abba certainly had no idea of what the box contained.
"Throw it on that pile of stuff."
"There, that's all the trash. Are we sending it to Landfillia?" Cronos called back to Abba. The two Irkens weren't really talking; they'd merely become very good at lip reading in the deafening environment they worked in.
"Nah! Tallests want us to send it… to Zim!" Abba laughed as he turned the dials. In a brilliant flash of blue light the pile of trash vanished… along with little Dee.
~
On Earth, Zim's computer yawned. "Incoming transmission from the planet Irk. Prepare to receive," it said, sounding as bored as a computer possibly could.
"Finally!" Zim cried, stretching his arms as he leaped out of his chair. "The shipment of parts for ZIM has arrived. Now I can begin carrying out my hideous plan with their hideous consequences!"
The teleporter lit up as the pile of trash appeared in a flash of light pink light. Of course, Zim didn't see it as trash. His ruby eyes widened when he saw exactly how much he'd been sent, and took it as a sign that the tallests liked him… that they really liked him.
GIR wandered over after a few moments, attracted by the light flashing off the metal pieces as Zim neatly organized them on his shelves. Shiny things tended to attract GIR, after all. As he wandered past the box, he heard a muffled cry.
"Please let me out of here!" a little female voice cried.
GIR's green eyes shone with bright curiosity. "Oooooh, Master, the box is taaalking to me."
"Not now GIR, I'm organizing the supplies."
GIR knocked on the box. The box knocked back, causing GIR to jump three feet back. He stared sideways at the box; in his opinion, the box stared back at him. Giggling, GIR started drumming out a melody on the box.
"GIR! Stop that noise!" Zim cried angrily, storming over and grabbing the robot by the antennae.
"Please let me out," Dee cried, her voice muffled by the metal walls of the box. It was cold inside the box, and getting colder by the minute it seemed. Her tiny body shuddered as she hugged herself for warmth. Wet, blue tears were dripping down her face. "I promise I'll be good," she sniffled. "I'll even let Janis tell me what to do!"
From ten feet away, Zim cautiously pushed aside the locks with a pole. After a few tries that resulted in merely rocking the box back and forth, he managed to pry the lid open.
Dee popped her head up, studying her rescuers intently. One was a short Irken with dark but shiny red eyes. He was dressed in the standard dark maroon and pink military uniform. Standing beside him was what appeared to be a little gray robot with cyan eyes wearing some kind of green hooded body suit.
Dee crawled out of the box, brushing metal dust off her blue uniform. She could see great confusion in the stranger's eyes, perhaps she should introduce herself. "Hi!" she said brightly. "My name is Dee, Irken elite trainee!" With that, she attempted to salute Zim but ended up poking herself in the eye instead.
"I'm gonna play with the baby!" GIR cried, rushing Dee and lifting her up off the ground, spinning the tiny Irken around in circles. At first she was terrified, but once she was convinced the little robot wasn't going to crush her, she giggled and enjoyed the ride.
"GIR! Put that down! You don't know where it's been!"
"Sure I do, it's been in the box!" GIR cried, letting Dee put her boots back on the ground anyway. Dee studied the short Irken intently, drawing herself up to her full height… which, as pitiful as it is to say, was only about Zim's waist level. Thinking it might make her look at least a little bit taller, she stuck her antennae as high in the air as they'd go.
Zim dragged Dee down the halls of his base. "This has to be some mistake. I am ZIM, elite invader. Not ZIM, elite smeetsitter," he grumbled as he plopped Dee on the floor in front of his transmission screen. "You, stay there until I tell you otherwise," he ordered, glaring hatefully at her. Dee stuck out her lower lip and glared equally meanly back at him.
Back on the Massive, Red leaned over Purple, his eyes intent on the other tallests' back. "That's it, that's it, just a little further, if you twist your back a little bit more… come on, push harder… I know you can do it…"
Purple turned around and glared through half-closed eyes at Red, holding out the palm-sized laser with an expression of disgust. "Next time you drop this thing down the floor vents, you get it yourself."
"Can I help it that your arms are thinner than mine?" Red asked innocently. "My hands wouldn't fit between the slots."
Purple looked down at his arms. "Yuck, I'm covered in dust! Disgusting dust that everyone else has touched!"
Red giggled, causing Purple to look up and glare sharply at him. "Oh, so you think it's funny that I got dirty reaching YOUR laser, do you? How would you like it if I wiped my hands on you, huh? Huh?" Purple asked, advancing on Red.
"Get away from me with your germs!" Red cried, floating off with Purple in hot pursuit.
Right when the monitor with the transmission from Zim flicked on, Purple had cornered Red and was angrily shouting "I'm gonna touch you! How do you like it when I poke you? Poke poke poke…!"
"My… tallests?" Zim asked after a pause. They both froze in place and slowly turned their heads towards the screen, in a scene highly reminiscent of The Exorcist.
"Yes, Zim?" they asked in complete unison. Shadows seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and covered their eyes.
"I think there's been a mistake in the latest shipment. I…"
"You're saying we made a mistake?" Purple asked.
"Are you accusing us of making a mistake?" Red cried.
Purple stared at Red. "I just… said that…"
"Yeah, but I said it better," Red answered, turning back to the screen. "Are you… Zim?"
"No, my tallests, no, I would never imply that you, being so tall, would make a mistake and…"
"Then what's the problem, Zim? Is that shipment of supplies not good enough for you?"
"No, my tallests, the shipment was so amazing it was beyond words, but…"
"Then I don't see a problem, do you, Zim?"
"No, my tallests, but…"
"You'll take that shipment and like it!" Purple finally snapped. "And everything in it! It was just… meant for you."
"Everything in it?" Zim asked, his antennae drooping.
"Yes! Now if you'll excuse us, you interrupted a very important debate," Red said, snapping off the monitor.
When he turned around, Purple was busily wiping the dust off his arms and onto Red's back. "GERMS!" Red screamed, shooting off down the hallway with Purple still in pursuit.
Zim looked down at Dee, who looked up and stuck her little corkscrew tongue out at him.