Contacting Him

He'd been so busy working he'd almost forgotten about the guilt weighing on him. That was until he realized Laes was up and moving around on his own.

Despite having some difficulty with walking, his former cellmate seemed eager to access one of the working computers.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Lard Nar decided to approach Laes.

"I just need to use the computer for a couple minutes, please," Laes spoke even though his father appeared to be trying to get him to settle down.

The older Vortian was holding his son's shoulders, keeping him standing in place.

"Look son... contacting someone right now when you've just started walking is a little..." He paused for a moment and let out a small sigh before asking: "Do you know their Communication code? I can call them for you."

"He's called me so often I've memorized it," Laes responded, clutching his head with his hand while his bad arm was pressed against his mid-section. "I see it every time I close my eyes. And thanks, but I really need to be the one talking... please? I just need a couple minutes."

"Alright, sure," Laes' father easily relented, and he removed his hand from his son's shoulder. "Just don't overdue it ok? Your mother is really worried you know? We're really glad you're up walking around, but you just suddenly blurted out a whole bunch of things then sprung out of bed like it was on fire."

"Sorry... I've just been..." Laes dragged a hand down his face. He winced, and his good arm wrapped around his middle too."I've had a lot to think about... since I couldn't move for these past few days it's all I've been doing."

"How many times do I have to remind you about how horrible your injuries are?" Filik asked as he walked over to the two Vortians. "You need to calm down or you're going to end up wrecking yourself waaay beyond experimental repair."

"Well um... no one is really in charge of who can use the computers and who can't..." the confused looking Vortian with a clipboard who happened to be the one standing the closest to the devices responded. "But uh... how far away is this call your making? Because if it's outside of the galaxy it's not going to work... we haven't made an amplifier strong enough to boost the signal so..."

"It's... a lot galaxies away..." Laes remarked, deflating a little. "If we could use another Irken signal it would work..."

"Oh wow," Filik crossed his arms and his antennae flattened. "Really? You're just going to steal one of our signals right in front of my face?"

"No no," Laes sighed, and he carefully reached to rub his forehead. "Look um, this planet had Irken programs and signals and everything before the worms attacked. Some of them might not be working right now... but we're technically still conquered by the Irkens so... borrowing would be a better word."

"I could build an amplifier..." Lard Nar offered, gripping his arm and keeping his gaze lowered.

Laes glanced at him. "If I cant find a signal then I'll probably need you to do that."

"Fine, I won't complain," Filik decided, though he still sounded somewhat unhappy about it. "But before that... who are you trying to call?"

"Um..." Laes glanced to the side and managed an uneasy smile. "An acquaintance...?"

"You need to be a lot more specific," Filik insisted.

"He's uh... an old work buddy..."

"Is there a reason you're not using his name? Filik asked, squinting at Laes. "Do I know this guy or something?"

"Well... he was known to be... a little crazy maybe...?" Laes offered, and he let out a nervous chuckle.

The Vortian with the clipboard decided now would be a good time to start slowly backing away from them since he didn't appear to want to involve himself with whatever they were talking about.

Lard Nar lifted his eyes and stared for a moment at Laes. "You're not talking about... Laes, you can't be serious about calling him... he's... unstable."

His former cellmate and co-worker turned to look at him. He felt the guilt settle in his chest. His mouth felt dry. He couldn't swallow.

All he wanted to do was keep apologizing for getting Laes involved in this mess..

"I wasn't just impaled when I was on the Massive," Laes told him, wrapping both arms firmly around his mid-section again. "I also learned something... but I need to talk to Zim to see if its true or not."

"Did he say "him" or "Zim?" Filik asked, looking at Laes' father for the answer.

"Don't you remember the first wormish thing we ever saw?" Laes questioned, sounding hopeful. "Who was the guy who said he made it?"

"Zim..." Lard Nar answered, but he still found it hard to believe that the Irken defect could be useful in any kind of situation... especially a life or death situation.

"Ok, that time I heard his name," Filik commented, flicking one of his antennae forward. "You know getting involved with that Irken defective is stupid right?"

Laes slowly lowered his arms back down to his sides... he looked like he was trying to appear more confident about what he was saying.

"This is going to sound crazy... but if what I heard is true, Zim might be operating off of two programs... one that's Irken and one that isn't. If I'm right, one of the programs is from an advanced race of people that are older than both Irkens and Vortians."

"He's just defective," Filik insisted. The navigator was glaring at him.

Zim was probably the worst thing that happened to the Empire lately... so talking about him was likely not any Irkens' favourite activity.

"But where did his defectiveness come from?"

Filik hesitated. No Irken ever wanted to admit there might be something wrong with the Empire, never mind the ones in control of it: the Control Brains.

"You've probably never thought about it right? So is it really so crazy to think that defective program might have come from a race of people who were so advanced they could have made the Control Brains, your PAKs, and maybe even somehow Vortians?"

"This epiphany of yours is really something, but how did you learn all of this? And if it's true, how is talking to your friend Zim going to help?" Freedo asked.

"It sounds like your head was damaged in the confrontation you had with my Tallest," Filik remarked, slowly shaking his head. "That's really too bad. I was maybe kind of starting to tolerate you."

"Bandeval told me some of it... because he was defective... and well... the Tallest told me more about it because he was wondering why defectiveness was becoming a thing, so he looked into it," Laes responded, and he touched the place where the large scar was under his shirt. "And um... I guess he decided he didn't actually want me to know after he told me... because apparently Irken defectiveness can be triggered by... well... us..."

Laes closed his eyes and gripped his head with one hand while his other arm wove its way around his middle again.

"I... I know it's a lot to think about... I've already had days to think about it and it still sounds crazy to me... but I couldn't just not say anything about it... not when there is a problem that can potentially be fixed."

Filik pulled down his neckband and smiled. His postured had changed. He looked more relaxed now.

"Yes. It does sound crazy doesn't it? I thought so too when I first read about it."

Laes eyes opened when he turned to the Irken technician surprised.

"You've heard about it too Filik?"

"Nope. I'm the one who told you about it, remember?"

"You told me...?" Laes repeated in confusion. Then his expression lightened, and his hand lowered. "Oh. So you were in there. I thought you might still be inside the Tallest's PAK after what you said but..."

"Well, I didn't want to take complete control over this one since now I have to fight to stay in control, but I figured I could speak up for a bit. Filik might freak out afterwards though, so you might want to prepare for that."

Lard Nar looked from Laes to Filik. Suddenly they were talking like they were old friends... but then the Irken had been hanging around Laes' cot a lot when Laes was bedridden. Maybe they'd struck up some kind of mutual ok-ness with each other then?

Still, Filik was talking about himself in third person. The only other Irken who did that was Zim.

"Lard Nar," Laes spoke as he grasped his wrist.

Their faces were inches apart, so Lard Nar recoiled as much as he could while still being held on to.

"We um... haven't really talked much lately and I totally abandoned you and the Resisty so I could work my way back to Vort and get locked up all over again, so I know you're probably pretty disappointed with me... but I'm serious about this..."

He sucked in a breath.

"I know it's stupid and selfish to ask for your help when it has something to do with Irkens when they killed your whole family ...I can't even imagine how painful that is... so I totally understand if you want to ignore everything I say and keep hating them because their goals lately have been really bad..."

He paused for a moment, giving Lard Nar some time to catch up before continuing.

"But there are non-combative Irkens too... you probably saw some on Foodcourtia right? They aren't evil. They were just living their lives like anyone else... and it made me realize... you know the bad guys are always going to be the other guys. For us it's the Irkens. For the Irkens it's us, but I don't think it has to be that way. So, um... yeah sorry. That's all I wanted to say."

He let go of Lard Nar's hand, and the former leader of the Resisty rubbed his wrist and took an uneasy step back.

His former cellmate had displayed a whole lot of emotion, and now he was struggling to figure out what he should do...

He hated Irkens. They killed his family. Everyone he loved and cared about was gone because of them.

He glanced over his shoulder at Darden.

Although he couldn't say he hated all of them... not anymore.

Then suddenly it was like Laes' legs stopped working, and the pink-skinned Vortian collapsed face-first onto the cracked and broken floor.

Filik folded his arms over his chest and tilted his head back a bit.

"Didn't I tell you you'd wreck something if you didn't calm down? Vortians must have some kind of listening problem or something."

"That's not funny Bann," Laes groaned as he propped himself up with his good arm. "You're just being creepy on purpose..."

The Irken technician laughed. "Ok ok," he extended his hand to Laes. "I thought my impression of Filik was pretty good though."

"Of course it is... you have his voice."

"So you have a split personality then?" Freedo guessed, pointing at Filik.

"You could call it that," Filik responded, taking Laes by his bad arm and pulling him back to his feet. Then he placed the Vortian's arm over his shoulder to keep him steady. "I'm another program inhabiting this Irken's PAK, but my presence here is temporary so it probably won't cause any lasting side-effects."

"You don't sound very confident about that," Laes commented.

"Well the first person I tried it on isn't here so I haven't been able to ask him if there were any lingering problems or not."

"And you?"

"Me?" Filik pointed at himself. "I should be dead, so I think I'm doing pretty good considering that."

"Laes..." Lard Nar finally decided to speak up. "I... I need to think about all of this."

"Yes, yeah... that's fine... I um, needed to think about it for a while too before I decided anything," Laes admitted with a small smile. "Sorry for springing this on you all of a sudden."

He turned to his father.

"You don't need to ask us son," Laes' father responded before he could say anything. "You know your mother and I will always support you one hundred percent."

"Unless it's murder," Laes' mother responded as she approached them. She reached for her partner's hand and stood close to him.

"Personally I'm ok with it if it's murder in self-defence," Freedo admitted.

"As long as we don't need to have another talk about what counts as self-defence and what doesn't."

Lard Nar felt he needed to walk away.

What was all of that...? Was Bann really Filik?

He felt his chest tighten, and he gripped it as he turned into the hallway. He pressed his back against the wall and closed his eyes, slowing his breath.

He heard boot-steps. They stopped in front of him.

"Are you feeling ok?" Darden's concerned voice sounded very close.

Lard Nar's eyes snapped open, and he looked up at the Irken. His hands were shaking. He wanted to find a quiet place to lie down for a while, but working on the energy barrier was more important.

"Darden..." he crouched down and wrapped his arms around his legs. "What would you do if I killed one of the Tallest?"

The former soldier raised an invisible brow. "I doubt that would be possible."

"But if it was possible?"

The Irken didn't respond right away. He was probably giving the question some thought. Then he spoke: "I would kill you in return."

Of course... that had been a stupid question to ask.

"But then, I think I would also restrain my Tallest if he tried to kill you," Darden admitted sounding uncertain. "However..." his tone lowered. "After either scenario there wouldn't be reason for me to live afterwards."

"What about Laes?" he asked. "Isn't it your mission to protect him?"

"My mission is to protect him until I can find someplace safe for him to be, and once this barrier has been activated, I believe my mission will finally be complete."

"Then..." he hugged his legs closer to his body. "What will you do after we finish the barrier?"

"I'm not used to having choices... but as I can no longer self-destruct as I've been ordered to do, I'll let you decide."

"Me?" Lard Nar questioned, surprised. "But... why me?"

"Because you earned my respect," Darden answered. "There's no other reason..." he stooped down and offered him his hand. "I will stay by your side for now, so stand."

Lard Nar hesitated, but he did end up accepting the Irken's hand.