I do not own Invader Zim okay? I'm glad to see so many people like this story and yes, there needs to be so much more DATR out there in the fandom. I might try making a sequel to Taboo, once again only if there is demand. I kind of flopped on my last sequels... I also encourage you readers out there who love this pairing, take a stab at it on your own. But enough of this A/N, on with the fic!

Tak looked up at the ceiling of the cabin she shared with Tenn thinking on their discussion. Yeah if there was one thing she found herself wishing for, other than to kill Zim, was that death would take her quickly. She felt like she was just rotting away on that planet and her skills were not being put to good use at all. Turning, she looked out the porthole and sighed. Space could be beautiful but with how things were going, she didn't know what to think.

"Who knows what kind of beings we'll meet there." Tenn said as she turned over on her bunk.

"Hopefully they're intelligent. Getting tired of most of these Irken morons." She sighed.

"Hey!" Tenn said indignantly sitting up.

"Not you." Tak said.

"That's better." Tenn said. "Now relax."

"Yeah." Tak said as she turned over on her bunk closing her eyes.

Back on Earth, Dib was laying in his bed, staring out at the Cosmos, like he usually did wondering what was out there and what he picked up. Darkbooty and Tuna Ghost did not get back to him yet, so he didn't have a report on what they thought it was. They had more access to the Swollen Eyeball's files than he did. He would not gain access to those until he had graduated high school, something that Dib thought rather arbitrary in the first place. He had proven time and time again his knowledge and intellect and skill were much higher than that level but the leaders would not make a special case for him. He pulled out his telescope and looked around for a place not too far away but in the country to get a better view of the stars. One of the biggest downsides of living in the city was the light pollution unless there was a blackout. When an explosion at his father's lab had taken out the power grid for 3 days when he was 13, he had some of the best stargazing in his life while Gaz was looting every remote for batteries for her Gameslave at that time. She had then made some solar powered chargers for her devices since then, something that Professor Membrane was proud of and within 6 months, Membrane Labs marketed something much based on her design.

Finding a clearing about 15 miles away, Dib slid down the anchor line of the power line to the ground for the house using his hair and headed into the garage where he had kept his dirt bike. It was something he had bought from a classmate for cheap and repaired himself but it was great for heading into the country to go into areas that a car just couldn't do and walking would take too long. On hunts for creatures like Bigfoot or ghost hunts in abandoned houses in rural areas, this made a perfect vehicle.

"Where you going?" Gaz said as she opened the door to the garage, heading to her car.

"Where are you?" Dib asked.

"The Midnight Opening of Vampire Piggy Hunter 4. I paid extra for the special collector's pack and I hope it does not disappoint." Gaz said as she walked past her brother. "I spilled, now you."

"The woods. Want to do some stargazing in a clearing I found." He said as she started up the dirt bike.

"You know you shouldn't be riding that thing on the city streets?" Gaz said.

"No one cares." Dib said rolling his eyes. "You know how many cops I have driven right past on this thing?" He said as he secured his telescope and some supplies on the back cargo hold as the engine revved.

"Whatever. I suggest you don't let dad find out you left this late on a school night." Gaz said. "It's your senior year. You're supposed to be getting serious now. No more of this 'para-science'" She said in an imitation of her father.

"Oh ha ha very funny." Dib said dryly. "See you at school tomorrow! Don't wait up." He waved as he headed out of the garage and to the clearing in the woods.

"Whatever. Just if you come in after me don't be noisy." Gaz said as she shut the door on her car.

If he was going to see something that might give him a clue on what that transmission was, he was going to have to go to a spot away from the city and a place where he could be alone. He wasn't worried about getting accepted into college because he knew that even without his father's influence, his grades alone stood out among the rest. It wasn't like school offered a challenge or anything, something he had hoped college would give him, if nothing else, it would give him a break from being picked on by the usual bullies in his mind. Now when Darkbooty said he needed to get "serious" he meant pick a paranormal specialty. There were many types, cryptozoology, astrobiology, parapsychology, metaphysics, and he didn't want Dib to be a paranormal jack of all trades. From whatever field he wanted to specialize, Darkbooty would then guide him on what to major in to get Professor Membrane to stop nagging him. Both could agree that the man was a brilliant scientist, but rather limited in his thoughts.

It was about a 45 minute drive from the city to the clearing Dib had mapped out and once he had approached the clearing, he got out his equipment and looked at the recording on his phone where it had come from and pointed his telescope to look at it. "Now then, let's see what we can see..." He said as he placed his eye to the lense and looked out.

"Meal time. All of you chosen slobs, head to the mess hall now!" Red said over the intercom as Tenn shook Tak up.

"Huh? What? Huh?" Tak said as she looked around.

"Didn't you hear? Meal time." Tenn said.

"Fine." Tak said as she jumped out of her bunk and followed Tenn. It was nice having a familiar face on this voyage but she could never get used to how the Tallest were acting. As they headed to the Mess Hall, Tak tapped Tenn on the shoulder.

"What is it?" Tenn asked Tak.

"Why are the Tallest themselves on this mission? I've been wondering about that since they told me I was to be here." Tak asked.

"I don't know. I just want the chance to redeem my name. I mean I was this close" Tenn said holding her finger and her thumb a millimeter apart "to having Meekrob in our possession. Then an order gets screwed up, I get malfunctioning SIRS that ruin my base and I'm exposed and fighting for my life. The Tallest help me and when I am back on Irk, suddenly I'M the bad guy. Like yeah, I was just supposed to take that shit and ruin our chances with Meekrob even more. If I left there was still a chance one day I could go back and finish the job."

"How?" Tak asked. She knew Tenn was smart but had some naive moments.

"Meekrob drops their guard, thinking we left them for good." Tenn suggested.

"Really? I mean this is Meekrob we are talking about." Tak said.

Tenn paused as they reached the Mess Hall. "You got a point there. I guess that one mixed up shipment ruined a lot for Irk."

"But you didn't get the shipment mixed up." Tak said as they entered the cafeteria to find it rather empty with a few food service drones behind the counter and two other Irkens in there, both male.

"Oh hello!" The short stalky one said looking over with a friendly wave. "Didn't know you two would be here. Got some real muscle now!"

"Skoodge!" Tenn said as she remembered him from the Great Assigning. "Why are you here? I thought you did conquer Blorch."

"Yeah but I was the first to conquer a planet and the Tallest didn't like that." Skoodge said.

"I thought the Almighty Tallest killed you." Tenn said worried. "I saw the recording of the Organic Sweep and you were shot out of the cannon!"

"Yeah, I'm all better now. The Tallest said if this mission is successful my honor would be restored." Skoodge said.

"Who is that with you in the straight jacket?" Tak asked, narrowing her eyes at the one very Irken she had hoped to never, ever, ever see again.

"Well that is-" Skoodge began but Zim cut him off.

"I am Zim! I am here to prove my worth as an Elite to the Almighty Tallest by enduring these special ops tests before we even get to our final destination! They promised to make me a nice base on Solus if I do this." Zim yelled from his straightjacket.

"They couldn't muzzle him too?" Tenn said rolling her eyes.

"WHY YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Tak yelled as she jumped over to Zim, grabbing him and pushing him onto the floor and punching his face in. "You are the reason I couldn't take my Invader test! You are the reason I was disgraced to Dirt anyway and you will pay!" Tak said as a claw grabbed her from behind and pulled her up.

"See I told you this might happen." Red said.

"No you didn't" Purple said.

"Yes I did!" Red said as he sighed in futility. His co-Tallest was an idiot and he was not about to waste time arguing a point with him. "Tak get off Zim! We have him isolated away so he won't bother you. We thought that meal times could be different, but guess not. Meh, gives us a reason to just shove Zim a tray and let it be done."

"Well no disrespect intended, My Tallest," Tak said, words bitter in her mouth, "But why is HE here? I thought he was sent to Foodcourtia to be banished."

"Sizz-lorr had enough of him." Red said. He motioned for Tak to come closer to him. Bending down he whispered to her, "We're hoping he just dies. We told him he'd be made an elite Invader if he lived and we're putting him through all these tests before we get there to make sure, but we just want him out of everyone's antenna." Seeing how Tak reacted to the comment he tried to cover up. "We don't think YOU will die on this trip. You Tenn and Skoodge are too good for that. No need for you to worry."

"I think I will just get some snacks." Tak said as she walked away from Red.

"I saved you some Pepperoni balls! These things are delicious with this dip!" Tenn said as she held a tray up for Tak. "Join me over here!"

"Fine." Tak said as she sat down next to Tenn. She bit down on the pepperoni ball. It was decent enough for the type of food that would be served on an expedition. She had expected some dried waffle biscuits that would have to last them until they had finished the mission.

"Mind if I sit here guys?" Skoodge said as he sat down across from Tenn.

"Free mess hall." Tak said

"I can't wait to see what kind of snacks they have on this new world they are wanting us to explore." Skoodge said. "I hope it's as good as ours."

"Don't know. Haven't heard many reports from this part of the galaxy." Tenn said earnestly.

"Meh one alien race is like another. And it's not like we are trying to Invade. We're just going to see what they have and that be that." Tak said.

"Hey guys, look what hit the ship!" Purple said as he came in holding a golden disk. "It was on this spacecraft that was just floating about. It has this record thingy on it I pulled off." Purple looked around. "I know we had a player in here somewhere." Purple said as he floated over to a tall box and stuck it in a slot. Classical music and greetings in various languages started playing.

"Hello from the children of Earth..." Red said. "Looks like there was a few other things to look over too. Pull it out, I'll study this, this is where we are heading anyway."

Tak looked over. If there was one thing she was pretty good at, it was decoding messages. "My Tallest, wait up!" She yelled.

"Yes Tak?" Red said.

"Need some help?" Tak said.

"Might." He nodded. "We'll find out more from these children of Earth and why they sent this into space..."

Dib sighed and looked at the night sky. It was starting to cloud up, meaning his night was going to be cut short. However he adjusted his telescope to one of his favorite sights to follow, the old Voyager 1 probe. He knew about the golden record that was designed to attempt to communicate to aliens. While it just floated there, it was like a sign that some people in high places didn't completely dismiss the idea of aliens. He looked up only to find it gone. "It can't be..." Dib checked the location on the telescope's coordinate system. "Yeah, that's where it should be..." Looking at his watch, he saw it was 1 in the morning, but this could not wait. He quickly paged Darkbooty.

"What is it Mothman? You do know what time it is and we haven't found much." Darkbooty said slightly annoyed.

"It's gone! Voyager 1 is just gone!" Dib said

"No way, let me check." Darkbooty said. He stepped away from the screen for a few minutes and looked through his own telescope and data he could retrieve as a lowly NASA janitor. "Well now... This is important... I'll tell you what I find from NASA as soon as I can."

"You do that. This could mean something big." Dib said as he looked up at the clouding night sky as rain began to fall.

So how was that? Good? Bad? Short? Long? Like the real world references I worked into this one? It's really interesting when you research the Golden record on Voyager 1 and it is officially in interstellar space now, so that would be a good marker to show their progress. And of course, Dib and the Swollen Eyeball would be very interested in it. But enough of that, remember to read (well you just did) and to review. Ciao for now

otherrealmwriter

aka

Realm.