Irkens did not require sleep, but Voel wanted to be rested before he was to be defending Irk. So, he had decided to sleep the for a long period of time before the trial with the Syndicate. When he had gone to bed, Therron was still quite awake, messing around on his reader playing some brightly colored matching game that played obnoxiously cheery music. Of course, Voel figured Therron would eventually decide on sleeping himself as he seemed to have great enjoyment from spending arbitrary amounts of time unconscious. So, it was no surprise that when he awakened, he saw his fellow leader passed out on one of the floating relaxation tables, supported by all sorts of fine pillows.

The idiot didn't even have his PAK plugged into the charging station. Voel had to hope he wouldn't be at low energy because of mistake. Therron would have to eat more to compensate, not that it was really a problem as the Irken drones would be happy to supply their leader with whatever he required.

Voel stood, stretching out his long legs, arching his back. With a snap of his fingers the hovering robotic orbs flew to him, their spidery metal arms holding parts of his Tallest armor as they clamped the light weight, indestructible chest plate over his broad chest. They spun around, affixing the metal corset until his midsection was tightened to allow room only for his spinal column. The hover-belt was connected with a familiar 'click' and the cape was unfurled as the embellishments were quickly adorned to his armor all while Voel was going through the transcripts of the conversation from the day before. His claws nearly bisected one of the helpful floating droids as it tried to clamp the Tallests' gauntlets to his forearms.

"You should get up Therron. We have a trial today." Voel called to the unconscious lump of Irken flopped over the finest cloths Irk had to offer.

"I don't wanna..." Therron whined, his face still buried in one of the pillows to the point where Voel could only see his antennae poking up from out of the fluff.

"Hmm, is that so?" He looked over his shoulder with disinterest. "Droids, Tallest Purple needs you to get him ready." Immediately some of the little red orbs grabbed Therron's armor from the mannequin (Therron had actually discarded it on the floor the night before, Voel was sure of it, but the droids would put it up every time) while others whizzed over using their mechanical arms to drag Voel's fellow Tallest out of his sleeping cocoon.

"AH! Voel you asshole!" Therron flailed as little metal arms grabbed at him trying to pull him into a standing position. Voel chuckled, enjoying the chaos.

"I'll meet you in the briefing chambers." He smirked as he walked to the door and it slid open with a satisfying 'swish'. He walked toward the briefing chambers seeing a few Irkens looking a tad out-of-it, as if they had gone to some sort of party and their PAKs were still purging the alcohol from their system. A few were walking into walls and tripping over things.

The smallers must have had quite the celebration the other night- odd that he hadn't gotten an invitation. Usually the Tallests received an invite to every function on Irk in hopes they would grace the event with their presence. As he passed through the halls, he noticed a display case had been smashed and his antennae stood straight up with rage. "THERRON!"

"What?" Therron was a good bit behind him looking like he wanted just to go right back to bed.

"Where is Red Death?" He gestured emphatically to the smashed display case.

"Who?"

"Red Death! My spear! Admit it, you took her! You have always been jealous because she is prettier than you are!"

"First of all:" Therron straightened up holding out one finger to Voel looking ready to fight for, perhaps, the first time in his life. "I am the most attractive thing on this ship. That is a cited fact." He pulled out his reader, showing Voel an article about some statue the Irkens back on Irk were building to honor them in which the sculptor described capturing Therron's 'beauty' to be 'quite difficult'. "Secondly: That old thing? I thought you put it in a display case because you were afraid someone might dirty it or somethi-" he cut off finally seeming to see what Voel was so upset about. His posture slouched a little more. "Oh."

"Oh!? My prized weapon is missing and all you can say is 'oh'!?"

"Maybe that's why the Control Brains suggested a security protocol last night." Therron put his hands on his waist surveying the broken case with mild interest.

"Well obviously something was-" Voel stopped, blinking, as Therron's words penetrated passed his anger, registering with his brain. "Security protocol? What?"

"It's the official procedure or system of rules governing security." Therron spoke, Voel held a gloved finger to his mouth willing him to silence.

"I know what the word means." Voel gritted his teeth.

"Well sometimes," Therron straightened himself up taking a defensive stance sensing the anger in Voel's voice, "you don't."

"What security protocol did you run Therron, and why was I not informed!?"

"You were asleep, and you do it so rarely... plus you are pretty aggressive when people wake you." Therron recoiled, clearly uncomfortable with how close Voel was getting to him. "Like right now. You just woke up and now you're yelling."

"I'm not yelling Therron, I'm talking in an authoritative voice. Now what 'security protocol' did you agree to enact!?What was the name of it Therron!?"

"They have names!?"

"My Tallests..." The somewhat pained voice of Sym greeted them as their Chief of Agenda stumbled into the room her hand on her head that same tired expression on her face that Voel had seen in the smallers. She bowed as gracefully as she could. "The Navigators are requesting you refrain from yelling as we all have headaches."

"See?" Therron interjected huffily. "You were yelling." Voel sighed rubbing his forehead. It wasn't like Sym to approach the Tallests as she typically preferred to stay in her office and work. She had never been very social, even toward them.

"I'm not yelling" Voel insisted a little more fiercely than he, perhaps, intended to sound. He pulled Therron to the side, not wanting to discuss things in front of the other Irkens- as they were matters of security. "Therron, what happened last night?"

"I dunno. I got a message telling me that there was danger on the Massive and the Control Brains needed my permission to enact some security protocol so I authorized it then I went to sleep." Therron's explanation cleared up very little and Voel found himself struggling to keep a calm voice.

"So let me get this straight: some crazy party happened on the ship and you had to shut it down. And somehow in all of this, my beautiful spear was stolen." Voel crossed his arms looking accusingly at Therron who looked to Sym as if expecting her to jump to his defense.

"I mean... maybe?" Therron shrugged.

"I don't recall there being a party..." Sym did speak, but her reply did nothing to benefit the purple eyed Tallest. "But I don't recall much as, it appears, I was shot in the head." She moved the ornate headdress revealing a mostly healed wound from what appeared to be a laser weapon. "So, I've been recovering for the last few hours."

"Now why did you get yourself shot?" Therron lifted an antenna skeptically. "That's not part of your job. Don't do that."

"I..." Sym seemed a little taken aback by the sheer obliviousness of her leader as she was temporarily at a loss for words. "Y... yes my Tallest. I will refrain from being shot in the future."

"It still sounds like a party." Voel remarked examining the damage. "I mean, I've been shot before at parties. That's how you know they're fun."

"This is why I never liked going to those Elite parties with you." Therron made a face.

"Coward." Voel smirked. "I'm going to check the security feed on this hallway and then we can get the trial started. Sym, start gathering Irkens to set up the conference chambers. I'll need you to also establish a connection with Capitol Planet. I promised Captain Rose an audience and I intend to deliver her one."

"Yes sir." Sym bowed at the waist before hurrying off toward her office.

"You're really hung up on this spear thing." Therron followed Voel as he flew with the hover belt down toward the heart of the Massive. Voel stopped, turning to face his companion, placing a hand on Theron's armored shoulder.

"If it came down to saving my spear or you, we would be making funeral arrangements."

"Wow, you're a dick."

"I'm mostly joking, now come on." Voel turned back toward his intended location. It took a moment before he heard Therron follow.

"I mean- wait- mostly!? Voel!" Therron hurried along behind him as they made their way into a large, dark, round chamber. The lighting, what little there was, was red, pulsing with an almost living sort of rhythm, like the thumping of a cardiac spooch. Along the walls were wires, hundreds of them, hidden by overlaid screens and panels. In the center, with unblinking lights, dimming and brightening in a steady pattern, was a Control Brain. This was the only one on the Massive. Most Control Brains were beneath Irk, shielded and protected from the harshness of the planet's climate. They were the heart of Irk- the Collective was stored within their ever-expanding archives. The Control Brains were connected as the Irkens were, which was why the Massive only needed the one to be able to function as if it were a small Irken city. Any needs the small populace of the Massive would have- this Control Brain would be able to handle alone.

"Control Brain," Voel cleared his throat as he addressed the computer authoritatively. As it was addressed, the lights on the Control Brain brightened, casting long shadows of the Tallests' elegant form against the opposing wall. "It seems the Irkens aboard got a little wild last night and in the chaos my precious spear went missing. Could you replay the footage from the night before so I can see where it was placed?"

"Ah, good morning Tallest Red." It spoke pleasantly, with each syllable from the synthetic sounding voice, the lights pulsed. "I will check the archived footage." And with that the lights dimmed again, as the brain processed the request. Voel saw Therron fidgeting with his reader out of the corner of his eyes- clearly the purple-eyed Irken had grown bored of Voel's mission. "I am sorry Tallest Red. It appears the cameras were down last night. While there are no obvious damages to the system, foul play cannot be excluded." Voel paused, trying to process the response. It wasn't what he had been expecting. At all.

"Run a diagnostic on the ship. Find out why our cameras were down. I'll need you to help us mediate a trial today so you can't be having system errors." Voel looked at the screens, the cameras all seemed to be working now. However, he could see the lethargy that he had witnessed this morning seemed to be fairly wide spread on the ship. "Therron said you initiated a security protocol last night; so, you must have thought something was up then."

"Affirmative. I requested Tallest Purple to initiate Security Protocol Alpha-Epsilon-01." Well at least the Control Brain didn't seem to have memory problems. "I sensed unauthorized intruders on the Massive and that was the most logical way of purging them."

"Intruders!?" Therron's antennae perked up.

"See, this is the kind of information you need to lead with, Control Brain, you can't just be like: 'Tallest Red' how was your day? Are you well? By the way we're being invaded'." Voel did his best impression of the Control Brain's synthetic, but serene voice.

"You mean besides the Syndicate, right? I feel like I asked you that last night..." Theron was paying attention now, joining Voel in the front of the room.

"You did. My answer remains the same. The Intruders may or may not be associated with the Syndicate; however, they were not one of the Rangers to whom you granted access."

"What kind of intruders were they!? Did they take Red Death!?"

"That is unknown."

"I need to have a talk with those Syndicate Rangers." Voel gritted his teeth.

"Yeah! And that ugly human too!" Therron added huffily.

"That will be difficult my Tallests." The voice never waved from its almost unnatural calm. "There are no Syndicate currently detected on our Massive. It seems they have fled."

"Fled...?" Voel blinked, he leaned forward quite suddenly, his long fingers gripping the sides of the control panel. "Why!?"

"I am afraid, I do not have an answer to that. Have you considered that this might be some sort of threat?"

"Threat? From the Syndicate?" Voel shook his head. "No... it doesn't seem like their style at all. It's something we might do- but not them... at least not to their allies."

"Perhaps they do not see you as allies."

"No," Voel was deep in thought. "No... that doesn't make sense. They came all this way to have a meeting with us because of... some communication error..." Something just didn't seem right. "They wouldn't have wasted their time if all they wanted was a fight. They could have just killed Tenn. We'd have fought them for that... maybe."

"It could have been a fabricated story. We do not have record of a communication error. The likelihood of a communications error being overlooked is very low."

"True, we don't miss much. And I ordered those pizzas just fine." Therron seemed to be easily swayed but to Voel things weren't quite adding up.

"The actions of the Syndicate suggest they desire confrontation."

"If they are behind this, that would mean an all-out war." Voel frowned.

"A war may only be declared by the acting Tallest."

"I know that. But hold on." Voel help up his hand, placing his other one to his head as he tried to think about everything leading up to this point. "There have been communications issues. I think they're telling the truth. Skoodge's coms were completely down to the point we declared him dead and he's fine. And Zim!" He turned back to the Control Brain. "Zim got disconnected from the Collective, we never ordered that! Something else is going on here..."

"It could be more Syndicate tampering."

"I suppose..." Voel was deep in thought.

"I mean Zim might honestly have disconnected himself, he was kind of a wreck." Therron pointed out. It was a valid point, enough for Voel to sigh turning back to the machine in the center.

"What would the war protocol entail anyway?"

"War protocol initiates mass re-assigning. All Irkens will be given military positions in the front lines or aiding those serving in battle." That seemed pretty extreme, but it was about what Voel expected. "And the Collective will be merged into a hive." Voel stopped dead in his tracks. He reached over grabbing a brightly colored drink from Theron's hand (Voel wasn't sure where or when Therron had gotten this drink, but it was irrelevant) as he took a big mouthful and promptly spit it out so he could better emphasize his complete shock.

"I'm sorry, fucking WHAT!?"

"The Irken Might will fight as one. Victory will be ensured."

"And who would be the leader of this... 'hive'." He narrowed his eyes.

"No Irken has the power in their PAK to effectively run such a massive, unified force."

"But you do." The Control Brain's silence spoke volumes. Voel thrust the nearly empty cup back in Therron's hands and Theron looked disappointed at how much remained. "Yeah, no thank you. That sounds creepy as fuck."

"You did not object to it before."

"Excuse me?"

"What do you think Security Protocol Alpha-Epsilon-01 is? We were able to purge the threat through force." One by one the screens began to flicker to the night before. He saw Irkens: navigators, chefs, elites- all of them surging through the ship moving as if they were puppets on strings. The vacant, dead expressions on their faces made Voel squiddly-spooch turn cartwheels.

"Did you do that to US!?" He whirled to face the brain in the center of the room.

"Of course not." Voel felt only a little better upon realizing he had not been walking, zombified through the halls. "The Tallests are not connected the same way as the lesser Irkens. It is a fail-safe established by the first Tallest to prevent a virus from seizing the PAKS of the masses."

"Therron, why would you authorize that!?"

"I didn't know what it did!" Therron looked equally taken aback by the images on screen, his skin had paled and his eyes were wide, he had backed up against the opposing wall. "I thought we just deployed Irken Special Ops or something!"

"Look, Control Brain: I'm not comfortable with the war protocol right now- or ever. I'm going to talk to the Syndicate leaders. We can work this out." He started toward the door. "Also, I want Alpha-Epsilon-01 deleted from our systems." He paused, turning back in the doorway to face the emotionless, red eyed mass of black steel that sat in the center of the room. "Do you understand?"

"No." Voel had started to head back toward the exit when he heard the reply. "I do not think you understand, Voel." It was not surprise that had stopped the red-clad Tallest; he physically could not move. "You are being illogical, irrational, and you have forgotten that you are replaceable." He felt his chest tighten; his vision was starting to grow dim. There was sudden- intense burning pain from his back that was spreading all over him.

"VOEL!?" Therron ran to him as Voel began to hunch over, his hover belt ceased to work and, in a moment, he was keeled over onto his knees. "Mothra damn it Voel are you okay!?" He wanted to scream that of course he wasn't fucking okay but as he opened his mouth all that came out were choked gasps. His fingers reached toward his neck- nothing was there but it felt as if a heavy, burning, metal hand was gripping his neck, slowly trying to crush it.

"Tallest Purple, there is the matter of the war protocol. "

"War protocol!? Are you crazy!? Something's wrong with Voel." Therron's voice sounded rather far away. Voel's vision was swimming he could barely hear anything over the pounding in his head. Irkens did not require air all the time- however this choking sensation was killing him. He felt that searing pain radiating like poison from his PAK, slithering through his veins.

"And something will be wrong with you as well, should the protocol not get initiated." Therron froze, mouth slightly agape as the reality of the situation hit him. It wasn't that the purple-clad Tallest was stupid, but rather, he was unwilling to believe how quickly things had turned. Voel's own choking sounds were the only noise aside from the mechanical hum of the control room.

"I..." Therron's own breathing was sounding choked but that could easily have been from intimidation. "I don't know how."

Therron you idiot- Voel wanted to scream but not even air could slip through the horrible, crushing pressure in his neck and chest- Therron don't do it!

"We can show you. Come, Tallest Purple." Through the growing blotches of darkness, Voel could see the control panel lighting up, awaiting his companion's touch.

"And if I do this, I get to live."

"Of course."

"And what about Voel?"

"He knows too much."

"And this will benefit Irk?"

"All we do is to benefit Irk. We are programmed with nothing but the deepest devotion to our people." That toxic, dripping calm must have been poisoning Therron's thoughts. Voel wanted to scream for him to stop but he could not even lift his head as the darkness consumed his vision.

"First... I want to see our own data. Voel's tricky. I want to be certain he dies." Never before had Voel heard such savageness in his companion's voice.

"As you wish, Tallest Purple. Watch his life trickle away with your own eyes." And that was the last thing Voel heard as his head hit the ground. All of the guards, the luxuries, the fame- all the eyes of the Irken people upon him and this was how he ended.

Alone.

On a cold, metal floor.

Slowly, sound returned to him. He did not try to move- concerned that, if this was a mistake, any sudden movements would alert them to the fact that he wasn't dead. He could hear Therron talking- monologuing more like.

"And that is why I am obviously the best choice for Tallest and have always been. You see, if you had picked just me to begin with, we wouldn't have even had all this Voel killing nonsense. But now he's dead on the floor and someone is going to have to clean it." Therron gave a rather dramatic sigh and Voel felt the heat of anger surge within him.

"Yes, Tallest Purple. We are very much aware. We were aware when you made the argument initially. We did not require further elaboration. Nor did we ask for it." If Therron was going to betray him, Voel could at least take solace in the fact that the Control Brains would have to deal with his pompous ass and overly ridiculous standards. "Now you have spent more than enough time in yours and Voel's personal data. You must initiate the war protocol. We do not wish to wait any further and your insolence is not charming."

"Excuse you, everything about me is charming!" Therron retorted indignantly. "And it's always about protocols with you. It's not about me. Can we name the war thingy, the: Therron Initiative? It has better PR."

"It is irrelevant what it is called."

"Great so we can change the name!"

"Therron," The lack of his title was a sign the Control Brain was getting aggressive. "If you do not wish to end up like Voel, you will do as you are told, and promptly."

"Yeah yeah." Therron sighed. Voel was beginning to hate the sound of his voice as he droned on. "But I have one question: How are you going to initiate a kill command on my PAK when I just disconnected us from the Collective?"

All at once the lights in the room surged a deep, foreboding crimson and the entire Massive seemed to pulse as power poured into those unmoving, electric eyes.

"VOEL WE GOTTA GO!" Therron grabbed Voel by the wrist. Voe tried his best to follow, though his body was still recovering from having nearly been shut completely down. The air was flooding back into his respiratory spooch and he was trying to regain complete use of his limbs. He was really more dragged by his counterpart as the room began sparking.

"I can't... run..." Talking was hard, everything hurt.

"Shit..." Therron pulled him out of the room. All around alarms were beginning to blare. The lighting in the massive had become that same, threatening red. All other lights had dimmed into almost nothing. "That's not good right?"

Voel just gave him a look as Therron sighed taking his Tallest gauntlet and firing a laser at the floor right under his feet. The two fell- the hover belts seemingly no longer functioning and they landed in a small row of chairs in some kind of theater. The theater began moving and Voel's senses were completely assaulted by some abomination of a song being chanted in Irken by lifeless animatronic versions of the Massive's crew.

"Therron... what... the fuck?"

"It's our: Meeting the Tallest Orientation System! Made it myself." He seemed proud.

"It's... a song... telling people... to fuck themselves."

Therron laughed. "Yeah."

One by one, however, the little singing Irkens stopped their happy chittering, the little, beady eyes of various colors and shapes all began to illuminate a familiar red. One by one the heads snapped toward the two Tallests and the little mouths opened releasing a horrible, antennae splitting noise that disoriented them both. The noise was not letting up either as Voel managed to roll himself onto the floor, forcing his arms up to press his antennae flat to his head trying to stop the dizzying vibrations all around him. It was nauseating- he wanted to hurl the contents of his last few snacks onto the floor of this animatronic hell-scape.

All around the lights pulsed and that noise reverberated through the tunnels, engulfing them- completely nullifying their senses.

"WAIT FOR IT!" Therron screamed- at least- Voel was pretty sure that was what was said as the sound had completely drowned him out and Voel was going off of what non-verbal cues he could recognize in spite of his swirling vision.

One moment they were hurtling forward and then-

Silence.

The helmet on the armor had immediately activated the moment they hit the icy vacuum of space. They were floating, looking up at the form of the Massive as it continued on its path without them. Voel watched as everything he knew started drifting out into the stars.

"They're leaving us..." Therron finally spoke, Voel could hear his voice on the small communicator in the helmet. He sounded... lost.

"They tried to kill us." He looked to his companion, floating beside him.

"I... know..."

"I..." Voel sighed, he wasn't good at comforting other Irkens. He wasn't a socialite by any means. "Thanks for saving me... back there I mean."

"Well... yeah if you died, I'd actually have to work."

"Yeah, I guess that's true." Voel laughed but there was no humor in it. It was just an empty noise "I really thought you were betraying me though. I was planning your death."

"I thought about it." Therron's laugh also sounded empty.

"Did you really?"

"No." The silence of space had never felt so stifling. Voel closed his eyes, trying to collect his thoughts. He could not feel anything- the other Irkens- the Collective- he was completely isolated. The thought made his breath catch in his throat as he turned to Therron.

"So... what was the next part of your plan?"

"I..." Therron lifted a finger, then closed his mouth, lowering his hand once more. "I don't really have one? I'm more of a spontaneous sort of Irken."

"Is it spontaneous to die of starvation in space? Because that is the next part of this plan right now. We die of starvation in space." Voel narrowed his eyes.

"Okay, obviously no. I didn't want us to die." Therron retorted.

"But you had no rescue plan."

"Look I didn't have to save you at all!"

"Fine, sorry." Voel hated to admit that Therron had a point. "I'm just grouch because I almost died. But I didn't, and that's because of your fast thinking."

"Exactly. I distracted the Control Brains long enough so that I could use the control panel to disconnect our PAKs from the Collective. I figured if they can't sense us, they can't automatically murder us the way they almost did you."

"Huh..." Voel nodded thoughtfully. "That was pretty smart..."

"Thank you." Knowing how Therron had saved him gave Voel a new respect for his fellow Tallest. It figured he knew a bit about how the Irken's data worked in relation to the Collective. Therron was always snooping on Irkens in order to kill the time. He knew the ins and outs of every relationship on the Massive.

"Hey Therron?" Voel turned to look at his companion.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think anything like this happened to Tallest Miyuki?"

"I dunno, maybe. I thought she just got like... eaten or something."

"Yeah, but could it have been orchestrated by the Control Brains?"

"How would I know that Voel?" Therron finally looked back over at him. Voel shrugged.

"Just making small talk."

"Hey Voel?"

"Yeah?'

"Do you think Cor and Skoop are going to get over their breakup?"

"The Navigators?"

"Yeah."

"They were dating?"

"Sweet Mothra Voel, you have zero awareness."

Voel turned his head to look back into the void of space. He could see the Massive zipping away, growing smaller with every passing second. His ocular implants could see for miles in the star-dusted expanse but he couldn't see much of a way out.

"You think she's out there?"

"Huh?" Therron struggled to turn and look in the direction of Voel's gaze. "Who?"

"Mothra... you think she's really out there?"

"I don't think now's the time to get religious, Voel." Therron relaxed back into his original position. Voel shrugged, closing his eyes again. This wasn't exactly how he wanted to spend his last moments- floating in the cosmos having small talk with Therron. It just felt like he had accomplished nothing. The highest position on Irk and he was here- alone. All his successes had meant nothing. He had given up so much to be Tallest and, in the end,...

Had it been worth it?

"Voel?" He didn't open his eyes.

"Yeah?"

"There's a ship."

"WHAT!?" Eyes immediately fluttered open. Sure enough, a very small, very basic little voot cruiser was gliding its way toward them. Voel quickly oriented himself, his PAK was not working much- even his thrusters were barely responsive so he did his best to flail and wave to try and be as large a target as possible. Sure enough, the little cruiser came to a stop and the door was opened.

Voel grabbed on, offering a hand to Therron and pulling him in the door. The entrance closed shut behind them and the two fell to the ground as gravity returned. Voel tried his best to recover- hoping the smaller who owned this cruiser had not seen him fall.

"We're commandeering this ship." Voel strode forward with unwavering confidence as he spun the driver's seat around and immediately felt his blood turn to ice.

Empty.

No one was piloting the ship.

"No. I am driving." All at once he felt sick. He heard a small gasp from Therron who immediately turned back toward the door to leave. "None of that. Calm down. I am not one of them."

"One of them?" Voel repeated, his antennae straight in the air, his teeth bared. The voice was different- distinctively so. It was more animated had more inflection despite its synthetic nature. It did not sound like any Control Brain he had heard before. "Who are you!? Who sent you!?"

A figure shimmered into view: a hologram. It was pale skinned, with an Irken helm, decorated with five blue lights (pairs of two centered around a central, larger light). It wore Irken style clothing, a black militaristic suit with the Irken letters CB embroidered in red on its chest. Under the helmet the features were distinctively not Irken- more akin to that large headed 'Dib' creature Zim had always been toying with back on Earth, or the Kryptonian. It even had hair- though this hair was blue.

"My Master specifically requested I keep an eye on things here and report back if the Tallests needed assistance." It was no Control Brain of Irk- it had too much alien technology like a Frankenstein of programs- but it was an AI (an advanced one at that).

"And who is your Master?" Voel demanded.

"I will take you to see him." The program turned around and began to pantomime operating the controls of the cruiser. It seemed a little pointless as the hologram could not touch anything and it was piloting through programming- but Voel didn't question it. If anything, the weird behavior assured him that this was no Irken Control Brain.

"Excellent." Voel nodded.

"Any Irken capable of programming something like you is impressive." Therron gave the AI a once-over, "I mean you are as ugly as sin but you're incredibly advanced."

"Yes, my creator is the greatest of all Irken inventors." The AI replied simply. "Now, if you will give me a moment, I shall pass the time with a cultural song- a ballad from the planet on which I was constructed." Voel nodded.

"Go ahead, Computer." It would be useful to hear the song regardless, as it would help Voel; pinpoint where they were headed. The AI nodded pretending to take a deep breath.

"Two billion bottles of poop cola on the wall, two billion bottled of poop cola. Take one down, pass it around: one billion nine hundred ninety-nine million nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine bottles of Poop Cola on the wall..."

"Ah fuck." The Tallests spoke in unison as their expressions changed from relief and intrigue to those of horror. But it was Therron who recovered quickly enough to voice their-incredibly justified- incredulousness at the realization.

"You were made by Zim weren't you!?"