I was awakened from my sleep by Zim shaking my shoulder.
"Leeme'lone," I muttered. "Whatever you want it's got seven months. Let me sleep."
"We don't have seven months. Wake up, we're here."
"What do you mean, we're here?"
"Apparently our, ah, advanced computer has issues with practical jokes. It did the suspended animation while we were awake, and didn't tell us."
"That's a relief," I muttered, rolling over.
"I'm not kidding, kid. Wake up right now or I'm going to tell GIR to wake you up."
"I'm up!" I shrieked, flying out of bed. "Have mercy!"
"That's what I thought."
I blinked.
"Am I speaking English again?"
"Nope. You better learn to distinguish between languages soon, though. There's about fifty of them where we're going."
"Perfect."
"You sure are a sarcastic little guy. Was everyone on Earth like that? I can't remember."
"Pretty much everybody. I'm hungry."
"Good for you. Come on, we're about to land, you want to be strapped in for that."
"Okay then."
I want into the main part of the ship and strapped myself in. I could see out the window a huge purple planet, revolving a little quicker than it probably should have been. We were getting closer to it at a speed I guessed would have been frightening if I hadn't been so far away from any vantage point. Did that make sense? Ah, well. I don't really care.
"Ah, home away from home," Zim murmered. "Arkania."
"What's here, anyway?" Dib asked.
"What's not here? This place is like a circus, a freak show, and a flea market all rolled into one."
"Ooooo, neat." I said.
"Stay away from the dark blue places. They're full of rogues, thieves and scoundrels. If you take anything into there, you won't get out with it unless you steal it back about ten times."
"Double neat."
"No, kid. Not neat. Stick with me. If any of us get separated, it's going to be a whole ordeal getting back together."
"Okay then."
"Tiz, you really need to try to speak English, okay? You're driving me crazy," Dib said sympathetically.
"You think I like not being able to talk to people?" I asked.
"You did that just to annoy me, didn't you," Dib mumbled.
At this point, we dropped below the cloud level and the planet's surface became visible. I gasped. I couldn't help it. I had never seen so many people in one place before. Mom steered toward a port, which was slightly less crowded than anything else. And, just because she was Mom, she dipped so low over the planet's surface I think we took someone's head off. I might be imagining it though.
The ground, or what I could see of it, reminded me of an Indian bazaar. Every spare inch was covered in a cloth, piled with things for sale. Thin paths wound between carpet-covered booths and stalls. There wasn't a humanoid alien I could see. Everyone had six arms or ten legs. There were giant spiders and things that looked like giant waffles. It was enough to put any freak show on Earth out of business.
"One other thing," Zim said off handedly. "Do not refer to anyone at all as an alien. It is not a good thing to be referred to as. People will take offense. And on Arkania, when they take offense, they usually take something else, too."
"What?" Dib asked.
"I would tell you, but you'd be sick, and it would smell," Zim said with a sly smile. Then the ship rocked as were caught in what felt like a magnet's grip. Mom let go of the controls, and we were gently guided into a parking space on what looked like a really big, upended mouse maze. Only there were empty squares, all over, in levels. We happened to go onto the very top level. We climbed out of the ship, looking around at the close square of metal around us.
"I hate to ask," Dib said nervously, "But how do we get down onto the ground?"
"Well, duh," Mom said moving to the opening. "We jump."
"Come again?" Dib and I said in unison. All I could see was purple sky, and ships flying about randomly.
"Look, it's not so bad. There's a rappelling thingie here," Zim said, gesturing to some ropes.
"We get to climb down this whole thing? How fast can we go?" I said excitedly.
"Yeah, what he said," Dib said. "There's no way we can just jump down this thing."
"Oh, you don't have to, Dib," Zim said as he, Mom and I started putting on the rappelling gear. "You can just stay here and make sure the ship doesn't get stolen. Watch out for the green guys with the black eyes. They'll take you with them for the long trip." He winked.
"They eat stuff you'll miss."
Dib paled, and hurridly started putting on the rappelling gear.
