Chapter 8: The Awakening
Let us let the Tallests have a bit of privacy now. Let us go far from the Massive; all the way to a little backwater planet in the midst of a podunk galaxy - a planet so technologically behind the times that they still think digital watches are pretty cool.
Dib paced circles about his room. So many times had he followed this back and forth route that his path in the carpet was visibly more worn down than the rest. And still he paced.
The boy's mind raced,creating plans and then discarding them just as quickly. There had to be a way to stop the alien menace! Sure there had to be. How many of Zim's weaknesses had he found anyway? Water, meat, polka music... Yet none of it did any good! Zim still remained undiscovered. How could the world not see what was so glaringly obvious?
'Maybe there's something I can use in Dad's lab,' Dib decided. What could it hurt to look. Prof. Membrane was forever building stuff. He moved from one project to another like a scientific whirlwind. It was just too bad that Prof. Membrane didn't believe in the paranormal because otherwise he would've made the perfect ally for Dib.
The young, big-headed boy crept down into the basement lab. The light was on, for which Dib was grateful. In the dark, the lab looked too much like a set from "Frankenstein" for Dib to be comfortable in there. Equipment and inventions mingled everywhere - here a bunsen burner, there an attempt at a new and improved Super Toast. Dib never knew what he would find in the lab, but at least he could always count on it being in the same state of organized chaos. Dib planned on figuring out his father's organization system one day, and figured that when he did, he'd be solving one of the great mysteries of the universe.
Prof. Membrane busied himself in front of a large, man-shaped container. Dib had seen this scarcophagus thing before, but he'd never daired to ask what it was for. He was half-afraid that he'd discover that his father was experimenting on humans. "Give up your secrets," Dib overheard the professor mutter. "I know you've got more for me..."
"Dad?" Dib squeaked.
The professor whirled around. "Son! What are you doing here? Finally come to learn what Real Science is all about?"
"Ummm..." Dib twiddled his fingers and stared at the floor. He didn't want to get this old argument resurrected again. He and his dad would always see things differently. Dib understood Real Science perfectly well; he just preferred paranormal science. There was just something thrilling about uncovering the unknown - even if you couldn't get people to believe you.
Prof. Membrane never gave up trying to convert his child, though, and today would be no exception. "You know computers, yes? Come! Let me show you this!" The professor led Dib around to a console that was hooked up to the tank. Bits and pieces of schematics flashed across the screen, pulling back to become part of a larger whole being assembled in the background. Suddenly the flashes stopped, and a smiley face lit up the corner of the screen. The blueprints were for a giant plasma cannon. "No, no, no!" the professor moaned as he deleted the schematics. "Why does it not understand that we need peaceful things?"
Unable to believe what he'd just seen, Dib's mouth gaped open of its own accord. "What is all this, Dad?"
With a flourishing wave, Prof. Membrane gestured to the tank. "This, son, is our family's greatest scientific tool! From its knowledge, Membranes have built many marvelous machines to improve mankind's way of life." The professor lifted Dib up so he could see in the window at the head of the tank.
Dib found himself staring through a haze of fluid at a green, resting face. An oxygen mask covered the creature's mouth, yet Dib had no doubt that the creature was Irken. Not Zim, but still... "You've done it, Dad!" Dib cheered. "You caught an alien!"
The professor looked back and forth between Dib and the tank. "Alien? Nonsense, son! It's merely a giant, super-advanced, mutant bug captured during the first World War." The professor began pounting out various parts of the containment structure. "It's been kept on life support since its capture. All of the body's functions are regulated normally, but the injuries it sustained during its capture have somehow cut off all higher brain functions from the body. But the knowledge, son! The knowledge is still there! And once we learned how to access it, the knowledge became ours!"
"How do you know all this?" Dib asked skeptically.
Prof. Membrane motioned to a preservation case holding a decrepit old book. "Your several-times-great-grandfather's journal reveals everything about the creature's capture, son. And now, if you are ready for the challenges of Real Science, I will turn the creature over to you so that you also may create great things."
Oh, such a dilemma! Did Dib dare turn down this great opportunity and continue after Zim on his own? Or did he lie to his father about his intentions for the alien and use its knowledge to destroy Zim?" "I'm ready for Real Science, Dad." The lie came surprisingly easily.
It took Dib nearly three days to get all of the equipment moved into his room. Dib had decided early on not to work down in his Dad's lab - too many opportunities for Prof. Membrane to realize that Real Science wasn't being conducted.
Dib rubbed his hands together gleefully as he settled himself in front of his computer monitor. The time had come to see what secrets the alien held! Unlike his father, Dib knew that the ID Pakon the Irken's back held its mind. Which meant that the damage to the Pak was probably all that kept consciousness from returning to the body. And so, Dib - being the clever lad that he was - had hooked his computer right into the ID Pak.
How did one search through a mind, though? Pulling up the ever-trusty File Finder, Dib typed in "Earth" for the keyword, and then picked the new drive labelled "Unknown" to search. A listing of files popped up, but the filenames appeared to be just random numbers and letters. Dib picked one and ran it through a generic media player.
Onscreen, a female Irken appeared. She was staring in rapt attention at Earth from a ship's cockpit. Dib nudged up the volume as the woman pointed to the planet. "Just look at it, Red," the woman murmurred. "I've never seen anything like it! All that green and blue and white... It's so beautiful!" Well, that attitude was certainly far different from Zim's; it didn't even sound anywhere close to someone who was bent on world conquest, for that matter.
Arms, which Dib assumed belong to the Irken in the tank - who must be Red, wrapped around the woman's waist, pulling her close. "Let's hope all that beauty isn't hiding danger," the male purred. "I only want to get this mission over with so I can get you back home safely."
Dib closed the window at the sound of the woman's warm laughter. These two - and where was the woman now? - seemed almost human. Were the rest of the memories like this? Was Zim really just some sort of aberration while these two represented the ordinary Irken populace? Or had Dib just stumbled on a rare happy moment?
Dib sighed and started to turn off his computer when another memory file started playing on its own. A shiver raced down the boy's spine because he knew he hadn't opened anything. Thunder and faint gunfire rumbled through the speakers as the interior of a home appeared onscreen. Nervously Dib watched, despite the feeling that he should close everything up and unhook the alien from his computer. The events which led to Red's coma played across the screen.
When Red was shot, Dib had to hit the pause button and make a run for the bathroom. His stomach heaved almost as soon as he got his head over the toilet. Dib couldn't believe he was letting the creature get to him like this! The boy kept telling himself that it was all a trick. The Irken wasn't human, after all. It was an alien... An alien monster... An alien monster who bled... An alien monster who loved...
When Dib returned to his computer, the file was just as he'd left it, but a chat window had also appeared. The alien's first words onscreen directly addressed to Dib provided a simple message. "Help me."