Alright, like promised, saturday update! Things will start getting somewhat tense from this point on, but I made quite a surprise reference up ahead that will give you a hint as to who the Sobrekt are partly inspired on.
Without further ado, enjoy!
Lost
Chapter 2- Under Pressure
The Massive. Somewhere in Deep Space...
Ilk was bored.
VERY bored.
One may think it must be very entertaining to travel around space with the Irken Armada conquering planets, but that's a half truth. It's only fun when you actually have a role and do something.
Ilk had neither. She was the daughter of Almighty Tallest Red and she had many of his quirks, that's right, but by Irken standards she was still ripe and lacked the proper training to actually take part in battle… and daddy dearest wouldn't allow her to take part in battle even if she were.
Besides she never really got to visit the conquered planets, and whenever she did she was always accompanied by a dozen Elites who attacked whoever came 8 inches from her or looked at her funny. What a good impression.
She knew dad and uncle Pur had enemies, but this was ridiculous! She couldn't even go use the restroom alone when escorted.
It wasn't always like this. When she was younger things were slightly different. Her father would take her to Vacatio, Foodcourtia and other interesting places, only the two of them(okay, uncle Pur sometimes tagged along) having fun and spending time with each other.
At some point when she was five, however, something happened that changed everything.
She didn't know what, though. She couldn't remember anything bad occurring at that time, and nobody would tell her anything. Sometimes she even had the feeling the others knew what had transpired and kept it a secret from her, but she tried to dismiss it.
The point is everything changed afterwards.
Dad sat down with her to have a talk, told her about all the enemies the Empire had and would probably try to hurt her to get to him. He said that for her own safety she would always be escorted and they wouldn't be able to go out of the Massive as often as before.
She understood at first, but as time went on she was allowed to go out less and less, until eventually she found herself confined. She was still trained to fight and taught how to defend herself, but in her opinion what was the point if she wouldn't get to actually use those skills?
Plus at times her father had rushed into her room in the middle of the night and awakened her, looking scared out of his wits only to sigh in relief when he saw her in bed, but wouldn't give her a straight answer as to what he was doing there.
Ilk yelped in pain when she cut her finger with her book's page. But instead of putting something on the cut to stop the bleeding, she merely stared it, knowing what would happen next.
Five seconds later the tiny wound closed by itself, stopping the bleeding though the rivulet of pink was still there.
It was weird. This wasn't supposed to happen until she got her PAK. Then again, given she wasn't like everybody else in that manner perhaps she had her own quirks.
Her stomach growled. Oh, right, she hadn't eaten anything since yesterday, and believe it or not being mad at dad could be tiring.
Ilk left her room and went to the cafeteria, where many crewmembers were having their lunch break. Most waved amiably at her, and she returned the greeting silently but with a smile of her own.
She got a good few slices of pizza, some trimisu and went to her usual table, where Bob was having his ten minute break and Koodge was nibbling on a sandwich.
She had never taken height into account when it came to who she associated with.
"So, how did it go with the Control Brains?" Bob inquired.
"Haven't you heard? Usually those kinds of things spread fast around here." Was Ilk's response.
"Well, we did hear they will eventually make you an Invader. Congrats on that."
"I'm not sure if I want to be one. I mean, having to interact with the natives…"
"Yeah, I know, they can be disgusting." Skoodge added. His experience on Blorch hadn't been… nice.
She didn't mean it that way. "Actually, I'm crossed dad was the one who put the idea in their… brains. I mean, why couldn't he just let them run the examination to see where I would fit thingy?"
"Well, he's always saying you'd be a wonderful Invader." Bob said.
"Besides, now that the Tallest actually are considering Earth to mark for conquest maybe they want to send someone else."
"Zim is already there, isn't he?" Ilk said. "They could make his mission official."
"Are you kidding? Skoodge will grow taller before Zim actually succeeds."
Skoodge whimpered. "I'm right next to you."
Ilk noticed a pretty tall Irkenette(not as tall as dad and uncle) with greenish blue eyes elegantly walking into the cafeteria. Was she new? She had never seen her before around here. "Who is that?"
Skoodge turned to the irkenette. "Oh, that's Lena, the new doctor. She's really tall and very good at what she does."
"Plus she's nice even to short Irkens like us…" Bob added quickly.
Nice to short Irkens? That doesn't happen very often.
Now that she recalled, she saw her yesterday briefly after storming out of the Control Brains' chamber. She guessed she didn't cause a good impression because of that.
When Lena started looking around for a table to seat, Ilk waved up her arm. "Hey, over here!"
Lena's antenna twitched as she glanced up at Ilk. "Oh, hi!" she greeted as she walked closer, holding her own tray. "You're Ilk, right?"
Ilk nodded eagerly. "Yes. How about you, I don't think we've been properly introduced."
"I'm doctor Lena, nice to meet you."
Ilk shifted a little to the side to give her some space to sit. "Are you new?"
"You could say so. I arrived just yesterday."
"That's curious. From what I've heard you already seem to have quite the reputation."
Lena blushed. "Well, I just do my job," she noted Bob was rubbing his back with a painful expression. "How's your spine, Bob?"
"I think I'll be the hunchback of Irk very soon..." Bob muttered.
"Nonsense! You just need to rest for a few days and you'll be like new in no time. I'll be sure to mention it to the Tallest."
Ilk stared at Lena in surprise; wow, she was nice to shorter Irkens.
"Ah, Ilk, there you are!" Larb approached their table looking excited. "Tallest Red asked me to start your pre-Invader training. I'll meet you in the combat room in ten minutes, okay? See ya!" With that he walked away, almost skipping happily.
"Lucky him." Skoodge muttered and took a bite of his sandwich. It was no wonder why the Tallest had chosen Larb to be Ilk's tutor.
Ilk let her head fall unto the table with a groan.
"Is something wrong?" Lena asked her.
"Oh, I'm fine. If you don't take into account that dad had the wonderful idea that I'd be a wonderful Invader even though I've told him I don't want to be one so many times I lost count." Ilk responded, exasperated. "Well, I think I better go. Larb is a bit too picky when it comes to time," she smiled at the doctor. "It was nice to meet you, Lena. Guess I'll see you around."
Ilk left her seat and sulked away, muttering something about her father.
Despite her claims that she wasn't fit to be an Invader, her efficiency in all the areas required was, to put it simply, good.
Too good.
Even if Ilk tried to do something wrong on purpose (she even tried to a few times), it was almost as if she was unable to. Like a subconscious tic of doing things well even when she didn't want to.
Naturally this not only strengthened dad's belief that she would make an excellent Invader, but many of the others who oversaw her training sessions started to share that mentality. Even uncle Pur commented during dinner that perhaps being an Invader was her calling after all.
So thanks for that, Uncle Pur!
Sometimes dad went to oversee her training personally, and he didn't need to correct her much. He usually only watched proudly as she succeeded again and again.
Soon the rest of the Invaders were included in her lessons (Skoodge was excluded for being too short, to her dismay) and were teaching her different aspects of infiltration, analyzing and combat.
The only ones she could open up to were Bob, Skoodge and, most recently, doctor Lena.
"Its only a scratch, dad, really." Ilk said, covering her cheek with a hand.
"Still, it should be checked," Red stated matter-of-factly as he carried Ilk in his arms to the infirmary. "First rule as an Invader: never leave a wound for 'later', who knows what kind of bacteria reside there."
By then Ilk found it was pointless to try and convince him she simply didn't want to be an Invader, so she merely sighed. Red felt a great deal of relief; it seemed that spending time with Larb and the others had finally convinced her.
As always the first person he saw when he went in was doctor Lena, who momentarily interrupted her task of checking an Elite's PAK to greet him, her example soon followed by the other doctors and patients alike. "My Tallest."
"Ilk has a cut on her cheek, somebody take a look at it." Red ordered
"It's only a scratch." Ilk insisted.
Lena instantly ushered the Elite aside-contrary to merely pushing him off the medical table- away so Red could place Ilk on top of hers. "Ilk, I need you to uncover the wound."
With a sigh, Ilk removed her hand from her left cheek. There was a small slice mark with rivulets of pink blood running down her face, accidental courtesy of Tenn during the practice with the long spear.
"It's not very deep, My Tallest, a bit of healing solution will do." Lena said after taking a look at the cut.
Red nodded. "Good."
A guard stepped in and saluted. "My Tallest, Tallest Purple requests your presence at the bridge."
Red sighed. Seriously, Purple couldn't handle things by himself for five minutes? He glanced at Lena. "Think you could take care of Ilk?"
Lena nodded. "Of course, My Tallest."
"Ilk, once you are better go back to training, okay?"
Ilk nodded. "Okay, dad."
Lena subtly noticed how Tallest Red offered his daughter a gentle smile, a small head rub and then left. She never imagined she'd ever see any of her leaders offering such a thing to anyone other than each other, yet both constantly did to this smeet.
Lena found Red's smile quite… cute. She kept this thought to herself, of course.
Ilk was very fortunate.
"Okay, Ilk, I'll just put some solution on your cut…"
Ilk sighed, "it won't be necessary."
"It might seem small, but you don't have a PAK yet and it might-"
"I don't mean it because of that."
Lena returned to Ilk's side to find her cut was… gone. "What…?" She leaned in closer and still failed to find the injury. It was almost as if it hadn't been there, but the dried pink blood said otherwise.
"It's… gone?" Lena whispered in awe.
"Told ya," Ilk said. "It's a sort of… Ability I seem to have."
"But how can that be if you don't have a PAK yet?"
"I wish I knew. Just a favour, don't tell daddy or he'll freak out."
Lena smiled. "Tell him what? The healing solution merely did its job."
She winked, to which Ilk giggled. "So you are training to become an Invader?"
The smile disappeared as the smeet looked down. "Well, considering nothing I say will make dad change his mind I guess I have no choice but to… resign." Ilk shivered at the thought. "Besides, the Control Brains can't be overruled, even the Tallest have to obey, so even if dad listened he can't do anything.."
Lena smiled sympathetically. "Surely he didn't have any bad intentions, he just wants what he thinks is best for you."
"I know, but it's frustrating to tell him something that goes through one antennae and goes out through the other!"
Lena wished she could help, but she had been assigned to work as a medic, not a family therapist.
Red hated the Sobrekt.
He really hated their scaly asses.
The reason? There were lots of reasons for that, including what they had done to Ilk, but the most recent adding to the pile involved Foodcourtia having been taken by them. Foodcourtia!
With this it was already five planets taken. The Sobrekt hadn't changed anything in those worlds, they merely wanted to rub in the Irken Empire's face the fact they could take them and get away with it, and not the other way around.
He was surprised they hadn't sent any heads. Yet.
Unfortunately this also meant he wouldn't be able to take Ilk to Foodcourtia; he had promised her he would, it was the few times they could spend time together since the war started.
"Damn it, why couldn't they have taken any other planet?" Red muttered, snaking over his third bag of popcorn. "They could have taken Blorch, Callnowia, the Storage planet, but no! They had to take Foodcourtia!"
"Tell me!" Purple whined glancing into an empty bag of doughnuts. "Where are we going to restock our snacks now?!"
"It's not about that… not completely! I promised Ilk we'd go there!"
"Oh…" Purple took a small sip of soda. "Well, you could try to wear disguises. From what I hear, they still let anyone in there as long as they're not Irkens."
"In case you forgot, the last Irken that wore a disguise near the Sobrekt lost his head and his PAK."
"Don't remind me, I just had doughnuts!"
Red glanced at one of the pilots. "Any word from the Planet-Jackers yet?" As a desperate measure, he and Purple had contacted the Planet Jackers and asked if they were willing to throw Sobr, the Sobrekt homeworld, into their dying sun.
A few clicks on the monitor buttons later: "They apologize, but they are not willing to risk their… heads. Apparently the Sobrekt sent them the head of an explorer as a warning to leave Sobr alone."
See? Not even the Planet-Jackers had the guts to face the lizards. Stupid Sobrekt and their stupid beheadings!
Why hadn't they thought of that before?
Okay, now to think of something to tell to Ilk about why they wouldn't be able to go to Foodcourtia without telling her about the war.
Speak of the digestor, here she came. "Hey, dad, will you take long? The flight to Foodcourtia usually takes a while…"
Red turned to Purple for help, but his co-Tallest only gave him a look that read 'sorry, pal, you're on your own on this one'. Oh, he would so get back at him for this!
"Sweetie, I'm afraid there's been a… complication," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "It appears Foodcourtia is having a… food shortage."
Purple snorted.
"A food shortage on Foodcourtia?" Ilk repeated.
He knew she didn't believe him; he wouldn't believe it himself either if somebody had told him such thing. Damn it, bad start, but it was too late to change it now.
"Y-Yeah. The Foodening just ended and naturally most restaurants are out of stock." He gave her an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, Ilk. I'll make it up to you, okay?"
Ilk was silent for a few moments, but he saw the look in her eyes. She wasn't merely disappointed, she knew he was lying and was aware he was hiding something (sometimes he hated having given her his smarts).
But contrary to expectations she didn't snap at him, wail, complain or protest.
"That's okay, dad, I understand." she said inscrutably before turning around on her heels and leaving the bridge.
Red hated to do this to her. Even more than the Sobrekt, who were to blame for this in the first place.
But he had to think of Ilk's safety before anything else.
He was pretty certain she wouldn't talk to him in a while, but at least she was safe.
He had done it again.
Ilk stomped down the corridors of the Massive, cursing in Irken and calling dad whatever bad words she could think of. Her vocabulary was limited, but she knew one or two insults from earthen movies, and she was directing them at her father.
He did it again.
It's bad enough he doesn't let Ilk out of the Massive alone, but cancelling the one activity they were supposed to do together after days of almost having no time for each other was the last straw.
The worst: he didn't even tell her why! He just made up a pathetic, last-minute lie about why they couldn't go instead of simply telling her the actual reason. She hated that he kept her in the dark like she were still a smeet.
Did it have to do with the Sobrekt? She had heard they were at war with them, but was it that serious?
Normally she would have merely let it slip, lock herself in her bedroom and give dad the silent treatment for the remainder of the day, but she was already upset from the pre-Invader training (which she hated), having been stuck in the Massive without going out for about two months (the longest she bore had been three months when she was eight) and now dad's feeble attempt at lying finally did it.
She was suffocating. She needed to go out.
In the last moment Ilk changed her destination and went straight for the hangar. There were lots of ships there, surely they wouldn't mind if she borrowed one, would they? Besides, the Armada had lots of spacecraft to spare.
Ilk picked an Spittle Runner a few feet away. She made sure nobody saw her as she hopped in, lowered the window and warily took off. If you're wondering how come she can drive a spaceship being so young, she could thank uncle Pur for that. He taught her how to drive one when she turned seven, and it was worth it even though dad grounded them both with no doughnuts for the rest of the week .
To Ilk's relief, nobody paid any attention to her spittle runner as she flew out of the hangar and started heading away from the Massive-was it her imagination or did it look less and less big with each passing year?-and a bit further unto space.
She'd fly for a few minutes, then go back inside and lock herself in her room.
It felt so good to be out of those corridors and away from Larb, who was becoming annoyingly clingy to her in an attempt to get in the Tallest's good graces. Please, he was already out on a pedestal by dad and uncle that Ilk thought it was practically impossible for them to like him even more.
Ilk's antennae twitched when she heard a familiar voice. "Ilk, what do you think you're doing?"
Unknown Vessel. Space nearby the Irken Armada...
"How long have we been following them around? I think I already got blisters from being sitting for so many hours!"
The crocodilian Sobrekt glared at the orange, striped Kryvtor with the big goggles at in the pilot's seat. "Quit whining. Don't go after the azelle, let the azelle come to you."
"Captain, with all due respect, we chase after the Azelle," another Kryvtor, this one a gray violet with darker back and lighter belly, stated. "We're Kryvtors."
"You know what I mean!" Captain growled in exasperation. This is why he wasn't fond of working with Kryvtors, they were too impatient and were always itching to strike as soon as possible instead of waiting for prey to come closer.
However, General Swift promised him they were of the best teams they had, so he guessed he'd have to wait before actually judging.
They had been following the Irken Armada for a while now. The crew's ship, a small Sobrekt cruiser they called the Ibris, was currently cloaked and moving at a slow pace, only fast enough to keep with the Massive.
Their orders were simple: capture the irken-child and bring her to Sobr.
Of course, sending another Indokuro into the Massive was out of the question. The Irkens probably strengthened their securty system since the last… visit, plus the irken-child had rarely left the flagship at all, which made things harder.
So Captain instead decided to wait.
"At this rate I think we'll go through another skin molt." The pilot muttered.
"Don't remind me," the violet kryvtor called out further into the Ibris. "Blue, Echo, how are you doing back there?"
A female kryvtor-slightly smaller, more curved waist and lacking any sort of markings or feather crests-came forward a few seconds later. "Blue's trying to deal with with Fury."
"Fury must be bored out of his scales, I guess." Captain commented, twitching his tail.
"He's an Indokuro, sire. They weren't bred to stay still in one place for long."
The pilot groaned, bristling his sticking out yellow feathers, and turned to the violet Kryvtor. "Anything yet, Foxtrot?"
Foxtrot started pressing keys on the ship's computer, but instead of sighing in disappointment he leaned in closer. "We got a message from the contact."
Captain, the pilot and the female named Echo perked up. "What does it say?" Captain asked.
"The irken-child has left the Massive in a spittle runner. Alone, with no escorts."
"Finally!" the pilot lifted p his arms in relief.
Echo narrowed her eyes and stepped closer to the glass panel. She spotted a tiny bit of pink flying away from the Armada by itself. "Sire, I think it's that one."
Captain smirked. What did he tell you? Patience. "Masouri, follow it and reel it in."
Masouri, the pilot, saluted. "My pleasure!"
The Ibris followed the lone Irken ship farther away.
Oh, my, who hasn't gone through that? Not wanting to work as something but feeling pressure from close people around you? I wouldn't like to be in Ilk's shoes, especially when you end up doing something rash out of spite that inadvertently puts you in danger.
Next chapter: Ilk and her companion get captured, but their captors-and in turn themselves- are taken off-guard by a life-threatening event.
Cookie to whoever spotted the reference! XD.