Two days have passed since Gaz rescued Zim, and even though it was all strange and different to her, she felt as if she was already adjusting to the new normal.
Zim seemed to have a knack at language learning, having learned basics like hello, how are you, hungry, thirsty, me, you, etc… Gaz was a bit surprised at how fast he was picking it up, but relieved. She found that she was learning some of his language as a byproduct as well. He called the language Irketsí, but Gaz decided to call it Irken for simplicity's sake, seeing as his home planet was just called Irk.
As Gaz walked up to her apartment door, juggling groceries in one hand and her keys in the other, she smiled smugly to herself with the realization that she was the first human ever to learn an alien language. Dib would be so jealous... She chuckled to herself. It was hard to pronounce at times, and the grammar was confusing, but she did like how it sounded when spoken properly. Her favorite word so far was sínsaowi, which means star… It rolled off the tongue so nicely.
She inserted the key into the cheap apartment door lock, and jiggled it just the right way to get it to open. She could already hear him muttering to himself on the other side. He's been spending the past two days trying to fix his robot, which she found out is named Gir. The little machine still hasn't powered on and Gaz felt a little bad that she didn't have the right tools that Zim actually needed to fix him. He was making do with some screwdrivers and a pair of pliers though.
She opened the door and quickly shut it behind her with anxiety of anyone looking in and seeing any trace of him. Gaz glanced at his strange suitcase as she walked into the kitchen. Her curiosity as to what was inside it was beginning to burn at her, but he hadn't so much as touched it yet. She thought that he must have had clothes inside, but he said he didn't, which led to her having to buy him some from Kohl's.
Gaz reached into the grocery bags to start unloading, frowning slightly at some of the foods he asked for. That green man eats like a horse, he practically inhaled all the meat in her fridge and freezer on the first day he was awake. But that isn't what gave her pause, it was the sweets. He loves candy, donuts, pixie sticks especially. She even caught him eating straight granulated sugar, which he at least had the decency to look embarrassed about. It was wild that he was still so skinny with that diet, but she chalked it up to his alien-ness.
Gaz shoved a bag of frozen chicken breasts haphazardly into her freezer, finally finishing putting the groceries away. She balled up the brown paper bags and tossed them into the trash as she walked out of the kitchen.
Zim was currently sitting on the living room couch, with Gir almost completely disassembled on the coffee table in front of him. He fiddled with something that looked like a motherboard, trying to adjust it with an eyeglass screwdriver. It was the smallest one Gaz could find.
He had changed out of his ruined pink and black uniform, and was now wearing a dark grey hoodie and black jeans that were too big around his waist and not long enough for his lanky legs. His hoodie sleeves were long enough, but that's because Gaz searched all over for one designed to be 'oversized.' When she brought home all his new clothing, she wanted to facepalm when she realized she forgot to account for the strange metal backpack he has, but he didn't seem phased that the clothes wouldn't fit. He just cut small holes in them, and she watched in amazement that to put on his clothing, he took it off, and then put it back on over the clothing. The small hole seemed to be all he needed to have the room to reattach it to his body.
Zim leaned forward, and the metal thing glinted in the afternoon sunlight. He called it a PAK. It was an acronym, and he told her what it stood for, but she wasn't able to remember it, let alone understand. It was clearly a cybernetic extension of some sort, and it had these crazy spider arms inside it that had attachments like claws or welding torches. Which has been helpful in fixing Gir, but not helpful enough.
Gaz stood for a moment just watching him focus on his work. When he concentrates, his right antennae lifts just a little bit higher than the left one, and always tilts his head to the left side. She found it a bit fascinating, this alien fixing his robot in her living room.
"Hey Zim. How are you? How's Gir doing?" Gaz speaks her words slowly, making sure to enunciate so he can understand. He quickly glanced up when she spoke, and had a momentary look on his face that she couldn't pin down. Almost like he was seeing someone else… It always clears quickly though, and he smiles softly at her.
"Aonga, Gaz." Hello. "Zim good. Gir no good. He… eír eímuch." He put down his tools and pinched his thumb and forefinger close together as if to say 'little'. "Good." He says, and tilts his head side to side, as if he's saying 'so-so.'
"Small good?" She repeated the gesture back to him.
"Mi! Ta, yes." He meant that Gir was getting a little better, but Gaz doubted that slightly. Right now He's just a pile of parts on her coffee table, with the only fully recognizable features being his face plate. She has to admit, if he can make this robot even boot up, he has to have some sort of brains.
"When will he work?" She turned her phone screen on and off so he could understand the meaning of the last word.
"I no….. What word?"
"You don't know? Know." She tapped her own forehead. Charades and pencil drawings have been the way they were teaching each other. It's not a fast process by any means, but it's working well enough. Unfortunately for them, Duolingo does not support Irken, Gaz thought.
Zim seems to like learning, and he smiles whenever he gets a word right, just like a little kid would. He told her that he speaks many languages besides Irken, leading Gaz to think that maybe he was an interpreter or something on his home planet.
Sitting in silence and watching him work was actually entertaining… Gaz would even dare to say it was almost better than playing her gameslave. Almost. All of the technology inside Gir is simply mind blowing… She fantasized a bit about the gaming console that could be built with tech like that. Something incredible for sure.
"Gaz?" Zim said, breaking her out of her thoughts.
"Yeah?"
"Have humans star?"
"What? Have humans... star?"
"Yes, have humans star?" This time when he says it, he points at Gaz, then points at the ceiling.
Gaz frowned at him as she mulled over what he was saying. 'Humans star.' Humans up to star? Have humans gone to star? Oh!
"Are you talking about space travel?" She stood up from her seat to resettle next to him on the couch, and pulled out her phone. Zim's eyes widened in interest as she googled photos of the shuttle program, astronauts, and the moon landing.
"Space travel?" She said, pointing at the final photo of Neil Armstrong on the moon. Zim sighed, and smiled weakly.
"Alsek 'aos." Thank you. Zim looked away from the phone, and sagged back into his chair.
"What's wrong?"
"You space… small. No small, you space… what word?"
"Beginner? Baby?" She asked, hoping he remembered 'baby' from yesterday's language conversation.
"Yes, baby, beginner." He laughs a bit at this. "No beginner space fix Gir."
"Oh I see... You need more advanced parts for Gir. Better parts, right?"
"Yes." He said softly.
"I'm sorry, Zim." She widened her eyes a bit in surprise at the words that fell out of her mouth without a moment's hesitation. Normally she would insist that she doesn't feel bad for people, but… she could feel the emotional baggage radiating off him, and it probably didn't hurt to be a little nice to counterbalance that.
"Yu git." It's okay. "Human one here Earth?"
"Yeah, there are no aliens here." She shook her head as she spoke, not because of any natural body language patterns that she did, but because she wanted to make it clear what she was saying. "You are the first… that we know of."
Zim mulled it over for a few seconds, seemingly weighing some invisible pros and cons.
"Good. No Irkiba." He says, devoid of any tone of emotion. His lips tightened and he looked distressed, but he shook it off to turn back towards Gir's motherboard and go back to work.
"What? I mean, I get that you don't like your planet, but don't you want to be rescued?" Gaz leaned in slightly, hoping to somehow comfort him and softened her voice. "Don't you want Irk to bring you home?"
Zim bared his teeth and slammed the motherboard down on the coffee table so hard she was shocked it didn't break.
"No! No home go. Irk no home." He turned to her, and looked her dead in the eyes. "No, Irk is no good!" He snarled his words, and Gaz pulled back reflexively at the sight of his bared shark-like teeth. "Irk… hungry." Zim reached up and pulled his hoodie collar down, revealing the thick scar on the base of his neck.
"Irk, Irk khí aomu, 'aosóítsiz to kaoveí." His voice was low, and he spoke his words through gritted teeth.
"Kaovei?" She asked carefully. "What is kaovei." They stared at each other for what felt like hours to Gaz. The tension was so palpable she could feel her whole body weighed down in the thickness of the air. Then before she could tell him to stop, he grabbed a screwdriver off the coffee table, and stabbed it into his hand.
"Holy shit!" Gaz's eyes widened and she almost fell out of the couch with how she jolted back in shock. Zim hardly seemed to notice, simply pulling the screwdriver out of his hand, wiped it on his jeans, and calmly placed it back onto the coffee table. The injury wasn't as deep as she suspected it could have been, but it was beginning to bleed. With a straight face, he pointed at the blood seeping from the cut.
"Kaoveí." He whispered.
Her eyes widened as she realized what he meant. Blood. She sucked in a breath as she mentally added Irk to a brand new list of never-go-there. With the shock of what just happened dying down, Gaz snapped herself back into focus to go grab some paper towels and alcohol wipes to clean the cut, knowing that there was no way that screwdriver was sanitary. He begrudgingly held out his hand for her so she could clean it.
"You shouldn't have done that." She said as she wiped the cut. "That was seriously overdramatic." Gaz rolled her eyes and scoffed at herself. She sounded like someone scolding a teenager. But she definitely didn't want him to do that again.
"Ngaoa. Sorry. You know... You know want." He actually sounded sorry, and tired at the same time.
"Do you mean, I need to know?"
"Yes. Irk no good. No good."
"I understand." After applying a clean band-aid to the back of his hand, he flexes his fingers and picks up the motherboard. He fiddles with it a bit, but he doesn't seem to be interested in it anymore. Like he just wants to melt away.
"Zim… where will you live now?"
He didn't say anything at first, so she thought he didn't understand. Maybe she was too quiet, she thought. Gaz was about to try again when he spoke.
"Earth. No Irkiba here." He nods, then whispers quietly to himself. "Aokh li 'e úkeva íkan mí, kaí thóí giv veíg."
Gaz tried to focus. She caught a bit of that, something about life, the word 'I', and 'him'. More things about Irk that are not boding well, she thought.
"Okay…" She started. "You do realize you're green, right? There are no aliens on Earth. You really need to blend in." Right now he looked like a walking emaciated cucumber.
"Green?" He looked at her confused. Gaz blinked back at him, before realizing that they hadn't established colors yet. How on Earth (no pun intended) do you teach someone colors? She sat for a moment, staring into empty space, until she realized. Uh, duh, Gaz, she thought. With coloring pencils and some paper.
"Wait here Zim." She went and grabbed her art supplies and hurried back to the coffee table for their next English lesson. Pulling out a green pencil similar to Zim's skin color, she colored a small block and then pointed at it. "Green." Then she pointed at his hand. "Green."
"Ao!" He says. "Green, non, I green."
Gaz nodded, making a mental note that non is Irken for green.
"Yeah, but that's a problem. You're green, but humans are not green." He nods in understanding and then smiles.
"That no bad! I fix." He waved his good hand a bit as if his worries just floated away.
"How… do you fix green skin." Her eye twitched as she contemplated, not for the first time, the possibility that he might be crazy. What, is he going to dye his entire body? What about his eyes? And his antennae?
"Khodajeítwoírní." He smiled wider and exposed those razor sharp teeth.
"What?" Gaz was starting to get the feeling that Irken is one of those annoying languages with some ridiculously long words.
"Khodajeítwoírní… Human picture."
Now she felt truly stumped.
"I don't understand. What do you mean?" He sighed with frustration at being unable to get his point across, and pointed across the room at a picture of her family.
"Picture?"
"Yeah, that's a picture." He then pointed at a lamp.
"What word?" As he asked, he moved his hand away from the lamp, as if simulating travel from it.
"Uhh… Light?"
"Yes! Picture, light, human." Picture light human… picture through light? Like a projection? Oh! How did she not realize sooner! He's talking about a hologram! She quickly googled hologram and showed him a scene from Star Wars as an example.
"This? A hologram?" He half nods, but he's not paying attention anymore. He's staring intently at R2-D2.
"Yes, yes… hologram." He mumbles. "Robot?" He points at R2-D2. "Human robot? I fix Gir human robot."
"Oh no… you can't. It's not real."
He stared at her in silence.
"Um okay. Real vs. not real. Alright Zim, I am real." She gestured to herself and poked her stomach. "You are real." She pointed at him, and then doodled herself on the piece of paper, adding large fantastical angel wings. "Not real. Understand?"
Zim nodded slowly, and frowned.
"No human robot?"
"No, sorry."
He slumped back into the couch.
"Neírsikh." ...That sounded like a curse word... "Nog al humans kha aoa ad?" He turned to look at her and smiled, but his tone says he's complaining about something.
"Don't be so rude! I know we're no top-of-the-line intergalactic species, but we haven't killed each other in a nuclear war yet, so there's that."
He stared at her for a few moments too long, clearly she lost him,.
"Woí?" What? He laughed slightly and shook his head. "So fast. Slow, pleez! I no understand." Zim can't quite say the word please properly, Gaz notes. But he at least seems to know some manners.
"Yeah, sorry. My bad. How can I put this? I'm sorry humans are baby-brains." He laughs, so he gets it.
"You no baby. You… kha z̀aín. No baby, what is word?"
"Um, adult?" She showed him a picture of the human life cycle and pointed at the adult.
"No, it is z̀aín." He looks frustrated but then just waves his hand as if to say 'nevermind.'
"Yeah, you're right. We can come back to that one another day." And with that, Zim goes back to working on Gir. Gaz was honestly impressed by how well he seemed to be taking all of this. Being trapped on a strange world where no one can understand you must be scary. It's a miracle he hasn't had a full blown mental breakdown yet. Well, she thought, he did stab himself with a screwdriver, but that seemed to be more related to some underlying home-planet trauma.
He's not that bad of a roommate though, she admitted to herself. It's only been two days, sure, but he's relatively clean, and has yet to spread Gir's parts all over her apartment. He even offered to sleep on the couch from now on since it's her apartment after all. He's a lot taller than the couch is long though, so she ordered an air mattress online that should be here soon. The guy is like a beanpole, color included, she thought, snickering to herself. He must be at least six foot six, so the couch can not be all that comfortable. Besides, it's not like he's leaving any time soon. Might as well get an air mattress.
She glanced over at him again, watching as he worked on GIR. It's weird that an alien from another planet can be so… human. Ish. He eats, he sleeps, he doesn't leak toxic goo. She felt that if she was blind or had some extremely strong rose-colored glasses, she could even pretend that she had some foreign exchange student living with her. She rolled her eyes with the thought that the only roommate she can actually tolerate is an alien.
"Agent Darkbootie, this is Agent Mothman reporting in. I detected some atmospheric activity over the appalachian mountains last night and when I went to investigate yesterday, the area was cordoned off by the military. I believe… that an alien crash landed there!"
Dib felt ecstatic. This was the real deal! It was textbook obvious, his atmospheric scanners picked up an object coming in, and when he went to check it out the next day, he couldn't get any closer than two miles away from it!
"Agent Mothman," the dark figure on the other side of the screen sighed. "I got your report this morning, and did some investigating. Even the government channels are calling it a downed aircraft. It was apparently a helicopter that happened to be carrying top secret material."
"Oh sure. Why do you believe the government? This organization's entire purpose is to go against the government!"
"Mothman, I'm not talking about the press releases. Agent Tunafish hacked into government radio channels and listened in, because you're right, this does sound suspicious. Unfortunately for you, all channels were clear and normal, with regular communication about retrieving air missile blueprints."
"But sir-"
"It's useful intel for us, so I guess I can thank you for that, but yet again, this one is a false alarm."
"Sir, if you could just-"
"Mothman! For crying out loud it has been years of you calling this agency with barely anything to show for it! Just, take a break, okay? And quit calling me while I'm trying to have my breakfast!" The screen shut off.
Dib stares at the dark screen and then growled, clenching his hands into fists. Those… Idiots! Probably one of the best examples of alien life fell right on to Earth and those fools believed the government coverup? It's obvious that they knew that someone would try to listen in and they planned for that. It's the government! Coverup is what they're best at! And I won't be able to get anywhere near the site for ages, and by then all the evidence will be gone. What if the alien escaped and assimilated into the human population? What if the world is just a few short days away from alien takeover? What then?
Breathe, he told himself. Focus, and breathe. There's gotta be some proof, somewhere. Sure, the radio channels are seemingly reporting that a helicopter crashed, but Dib scoffed at that. He knew better. Something entered the earth's atmosphere, and last he checked helicopters can't fly into space. Well, maybe a super secret government helicopter… No!
He shook his head at that thought. It can't be that simple. He knew he had prepared for this moment his entire life and he refused to let it go that easily!
"Okay…." He mumbled. "So the object entered the atmosphere here… and then landed here… approximately at 1:30 am on Friday morning, but the government reported the crash to be at 6 am, probably to make a helicopter flight more plausible or something. Now, unless my calculations are wrong, which they never are, that means the government is almost five hours off from the actual crash time. Which means they either aren't able to understand the data the same way I am or they're lying to cover it up!"
He grinned and slammed his hands on the desk.
"A-and the only reason they would lie like that, is to hide the landing of a spacecraft! Yes! It is a cover up!" He yelled triumphantly to the empty space of the RV. "Well, I already knew that, but still."
Dib smiled to himself as he started to form a plan. The government would never tell the general population that aliens have landed on earth, so it's his job to set the truth free! First things first though... "I'm going to need to find a government radio channel that's talking about more than a downed helicopter."