The music was there again. In full force, sweeping over her senses, alternately relaxing and tensing her muscles, doing with her what it would. Jessica lay on the couch, her hair splayed around her, her eyes closed and her mouth open. There was even a line of drool soaking into the couch cushion. She didn't notice the giggling little robot as it climbed up to sit on her shoulders and tie her hair in braids—knots—while humming along with the unmistakable sounds of the pipe organ. It tugged on her emotions, played on a combination of fear and delight, and brought her spirit and mind to a realm which she'd perhaps only dreamed of before. It was the most beautiful realm in the world the realm of music. The realm closest, perhaps, to what things really were. If only she could visit that realm by herself instead of leashed to this little alien but how glorious it was. How glorious he was to give her this gift! She found her voice wavering along with the music, singing wordlessly, her desperate desire to join with Zim in creating this glorious world of sound. It was not an urge she often succumbed to—he did not approve of her beastly caterwauling' one bit. She knew he shut her out the problem was not in her technical execution she knew it. She knew so many things when she existed in this realm, but she saw them from a distance, feeling only how beautiful and glorious the experience was, and caring nothing more than to be a part of it forever. Intellect played no role in this world. Why did the music always have to end?
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The song seemed to go on forever, but even when Zim lifted his fingers from the keys, the song played on, the instrument remembering through a highly advanced system of computerized sensors just how it had been played. There was work he wanted to do, important work, and for the moment he could let the computer take over. It was not so efficient, he'd found, as doing the playing himself after all, the computer had no feeling, while Zim put his own AMAZINGNESS into the music.
Leaping onto a lift that swiftly transported to him an adjoining room, Zim shut his eyes for a moment and let the remembered music and the actual remaining sound wash through him. It was, oddly enough, calming, taking parts of him to a place where everything made so much sense—but no, that was foolishness. Extending his mech legs, Zim leapt from the lift station to a platform and a control console strictly controlling the temperature and moisture. He glanced over the reading levels; all was in order. Unlike some projects, this did not require adjustment; his charges in this room did not change their needs. Earth wood was, of course, inferior in needing these stable setups, but it was a necessary factor and hardly a difficult one. Zim turned from the console to survey the room.
Up on counters, pedestals, shelves, and many other fabricated solid surfaces, were instruments musical instruments. Ancient things from cultures Zim had never heard of perhaps even from the remnants of Irk's old culture, as well as every Earth-designed instrument Zim had gotten his claws on. And of course, his improvements on those instruments. His unmatched mechanical and acoustic understanding had allowed him to correct many imperfections in every human-made piece of comparative trash he had. More sound. He needed more sound and he would figure out, with his amazing mind, how to get more sound. Stepping over to one surface, he reached out a gloved hand to touch the smooth, varnished surface of a violin. Although it had proven surprisingly difficult to master, at least compared to the simple setup of the press-a-key-get-a-sound instruments, Zim had immediately picked up on its incredible range in all aspects compared to them, and identified its unique tones to being very Earth-like. Its voice was like a human's, but beautiful. The alien sneered. Yes, beautiful. At least now, now that he had improved it, and used his vast and superior understanding to make it beautiful. Because he had made it. And he was amazing. Already he was figuring out ways to run extra strings where they would be affected easily by the resonance, and ring immediately when an exact pitch was played. In fact, he was working on a design with which he could use nothing but the power of the sound waves to draw music from many instruments at once. Picking up the instrument and its bow, Zim stepped over to an adjoining workstation, drew down a sensor and a manufacturing arm, and got to work.
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Dib whispered. The laptop's screen flashed, and a series of indictator lights blinked in a pattern along a couple of his devices. Many would've thought a sound screen impossible to build. Maybe even his dad. But what human technology couldn't do yet, Irken technology could. And that was block sound waves with little more than a simple command okay it wasn't a simple command but it was all you needed. Dib had experimented with sound, who hadn't? He'd seen glass shatter with nothing but sound. He'd seen foundations tumble to the ground from its influence. And his remote sensors were definitely picking up on sound waves coursing through that alien's base. Shutting them up would make his job so much easier. And if he could believe his computer—and he knew he could—he'd just managed to do that. An elated grin crossed his face as Dib got to his feet and attempted to brush the melted snow from his pants. He would beat Zim. He would do it no matter how much work it took. What else could he do, on such a backwards world as he lived in? Now was the time to act, before the alien realized what was happening which could be quite some time, if he was down underground Dib, had, after all, only sealed the underground rooms from the outside, not from each other.
Stepping over his equipment and onto the sidewalk, Dib checked carefully to make sure it was well hidden, then ran towards the glowing green house, his boots slapping against the concrete.
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The sound was gone. It had stopped. All of a sudden, dropping Jessica's mind like a hot brick and jolting her painfully back to reality'. Although the painful jolts of her hair being yanked on were certainly not helpful to the sensation—
she cried, struggling to sit up and pushing the robot off of her onto the floor. GIR giggled insanely, then frowned as if just noticing the absence of the music. The music stopped, GIR Jessica said uncertainly. Wasn't that the second time today? Maybe even the third? She didn't know. This had never happened more than once not during the day, anyway. She shook her head.
I can fix it, giggled the robot, and it sprinted over to the piano in the corner, vaulting onto the bench and crashing its costumed black paws onto the keys. Jessica winced at the dischord, and GIR pounded down again, shrieking with joy. Her wince turned into a cringe as agony lanced through her mind and her heart, causing Jessica to grip her head quickly.
she managed. Why did this hurt so much? Listening to banged piano keys should not be painful uncomfortable, maybe, but not—GIR banged a few more times, and she was barely able to stifle her screams. Something was wrong. Something was horribly wrong. Where was Zim? Where was his music? A groan slid from her lips. Where was she when she really needed him?
She heard her name, faintly, struggling through the awful, jarring sounds of GIR's banging on the piano. She heard its shrieks rise in greeting to this new voice, but she could not understand what it was saying. She heard the new voice yelling something else, but she couldn't understand it, either. Vaguely she felt cold hands grabbing her arms, felt an arm around her waist, and then the faint sensation of being lifted, although she didn't feel like she could feel or think about anything outside of the pain coursing through her skull. She didn't even feel the cold when she was dragged out the front door of Zim's house, nor did she comprehend the desperate, reassuring male voice jabbering at her. The piano key banging suddenly stopped, and she heard a single piercing yell from the robot before the front door slammed: