"Absolutely not!" Membrane thundered.
"But Dad, its important!" Dib pleaded.
"Son, I can abide your nonsense as long as you keep it to yourself. If you want to study the paranormal, then you have to use your own equipment."
"But-"
"No buts. My telescopes are only to be used for real science. Now go and play with your sister, I'm very busy." Membrane shooed Dib from his basement lab. The lab door slammed shut behind Dib.
He sighed. "Okay, who else has a telescope I can use? There are no real observatories in the area, and I can't sneak into Dad's studio... that only leaves..." A chill ran down Dib's spine as realized there was only one option.
Zim's telescope.
-
Dib peered out from the bushes through his head set mounted binoculars. He was wearing his all black spy suit he had used when he scouted out Zim's crescent space station.
There was Zim's home base, with it's gaudy colors and sharp angles. He moved around the cul-de-sac, rolling between telephone poles and bushes, until he was on the outside of Zim's fence. He peeked around the corner into Zim's yard. The gnomes were pivoting back and forth on their bases, sweeping every inch of the yard. Dib could see, through his goggles, that their eyes were emitting infrared lasers. He watched for a minute, memorizing the pattern, then he jumped out and ran to the door when there was an opening. He rang the door bell, and moments later he was greeted by Zim's Robo Dad.
"I I I alreadddddy told yooooou. I don't wannnnnt what yoooour sellllllinnnng." The robot's speech synthesizer was clearly malfunctioning, although Dib wouldn't put it past Zim to have programmed it to talk like that. Dib quickly leapt into the room before the robot slammed the door on him. He got a surprise when he landed though.
When he touched down, he found himself sliding across the floor and colliding with the wall. Dib groaned and struggled to his feet. "What is this? Some kind of booby trap?" Dib asked. Then he smelled the peculiar lemon fragrance filling the room. "Wait, this is just dish soap."
"IT SURE IS!!"
Dib jumped and fell back to the floor. He rubbed his head and looked up into the bulging googly eyes of Gir's dog suit.
"Oh. It's just you, Gir," he said, annoyance edging his voice. He got up and asked, "Where's Zim?"
"Oh he's not here right now," Gir answered. "AH CAN TAKE A MESSEGE!!"
Dib scowled. "No thanks."
"Okey dokey. You wanna play with me?" Gir opened his chest compartment and pulled out a toy gun. "I JUST GOTS IT TODAY!!" The little robot scooped some kind of intake on the toy through the layer of soap on the floor. Then he pulled the gun's trigger. A flurry of bubbles floated out towards Dib, popping on contact with his clothes. "TAG!! YOU'RE IT!!" Gir then ran away, unimpeded by the slick floor, giggling manically.
"Well, that was annoying..." Dib muttered. He then looked up at the tangle of cables that made up the ceiling.
"Uh, hi, Mister Zim's House... Computer... thingy," Dib started. "Could I use your telescope for a minute? I need to see something."
The Computer was silent.
"...Please?" Dib added.
"Fine," came the Computer's reply.
The floor opened beneath Dib, and he slid down a long tube. He was screaming, but from the thrill, not from fear. He wasn't too worried about the Computer springing any traps on him. He had spied on Zim enough to know that the Computer had little interest in Zim's mission, much less attacking enemies. Unless Zim was here to explicitly order Dib's capture, he would be fine.
He hoped.
Fortunately, the ride ended with him landing in a chair on a floating platform, and not a holding cell. Dib was a little awed by the size of the spherical room. The platform drifted over to a large instrument jutting down from the ceiling. Dib looked at the various levers used to control the telescope. They all pointed at him like some kind of probes. He grimaced. Maybe this was some kind of torture chamber.
"Select viewing target," the Computer prompted. Okay, so it was a telescope.
Dib put his eye up to the lens. The eyepiece, sized and shaped for Irken eyes, was uncomfortable, but Dib could see just fine. "Alright then, Computer, target Jupiter." The large gas planet appeared in front of Dib. He tried to spot Mars near the giant, no easy task, considering six Mars' could fit in Jupiter's red spot. He frowned after searching for a minute. "Zoom out." Jupiter got suddenly smaller. Dib searched the new open space. He tested a lever near his hand. The 'scope moved accordingly. He began trying the other controls, and soon he was maneuvering the telescope as if he had built it. He still couldn't find Mars though. He zoomed back in on Jupiter, but there was something different. An orange spot was moving across the gas planet's surface, and it wasn't part of the cloud system. He zoomed in more, and Mars came up to meet him, crystal clear.
"Got it!" Dib exclaimed. "Hey, Computer! Can you plot that object's trajectory?"
"Processing... planetoid is on collision course with Earth. However, speed and power levels indicate that impact is not occupant's intent. Infiltration seems more likely. At this rate, planetoid will be within range by 6:40 tomorrow night."
"Infiltration," Dib mumbled. "Looks like the storm is coming."
-
Tak worked quickly with her torch. She needed to seal up this hull breach before she lost all her oxygen.
The tiny escape pod suddenly lurched sideways, bringing the fresh seal forward to collide with her face. She dropped the torch and covered her face. Then MiMi's claw smacked the back of her head, nearly clipping her brain tube.
"Curse you Zim!" she cried out loud. "Of all the places to send me drifting into-" Another impact rocked the pod. "-it had to be the asteroid belt!"
Another impact set off a siren. "Warning. Hull breach aft," the alarm informed her. She snatched the torch out of the air and pushed off the floor to float aft in the micro gravity.
It was a good thing Irkens didn't need sleep, because she had been getting pummeled by space rock and fixing hull breaches for three months straight. She had welded up so many holes that the whole interior looked like it had melted. Not to mention MiMi's parts, her snacks, and her emergency tools all drifting around, since she had nothing to tie them down with. Those had covered Tak head to toe in cuts and bruises. Worse still was the fact that her oxygen was draining rapidly. She had enough for now, but if she didn't get a break, it would all end up in space.
She sighed and rested her head on the hull for a moment. Her muscles ached and her bruises were sore. The Irken body was not built to withstand this kind of punishment for so long. She let her eyes drift shut. Let herself rest a moment. So quiet now.
She suddenly snapped into alertness. Quiet? It couldn't be.
She pushed off the back wall to the windscreen, dodging a six pack of soda on her way there. She looked out the screen and saw the asteroid belt shrinking into the distance. After bouncing around like a pinball for two months, she had finally ricocheted out of that nightmare. Relief flooded over her. The worst was over.
Or so she thought.
As the pod slowly turned, Tak found that she was quickly approaching Jupiter. She slumped her shoulders. The gas giant's intense gravity and high atmospheric pressure would crush her as she fell into it. That is, if the hurricanes didn't get her first.
It wasn't fair. Ever since she was smeeted, Tak had always worked so hard to achieve her goals, but it never worked out. She had spent long, hard Irken years training to become an invader, but Zim had made her miss her exam and be assigned to planet Dirt. She spent fifty years building her own ship, SIR unit, and her plan to impress the Tallest, but once again, Zim destroyed her hopes of becoming an invader. Now, after working for months straight to keep this bucket together, a swirling ball of gas was going to crush her hopes for revenge. And her.
She glared at the large planet, as if she could push it away by staring at it. But the pod's slow spin took away even the minor satisfaction of her stare down.
It couldn't end like this! And yet it had to. She had already tried formulating an escape plan, dozens of them, months ago. She had considered every pod part, every tool, every one of MiMi's pieces. Nothing could save her.
She sighed with resignation. "Computer?" she asked. "How long until we enter the planet's atmosphere?"
"At current speed and velocity, we will reach the planet's gravity well in twelve hours. Once caught by the planet's gravity, we will accelerate exponentially, and enter atmosphere in another three hours," a feminine voice responded.
Tak guessed she would be dead within an hour of reaching the atmosphere. That gave her sixteen hours. Sixteen painfully long, yet tragically short hours.
Jupiter spun lazily into her view once more. Only a miracle could save her now, but she had never done anything to deserve one, so she didn't get her hopes up. Instead, she plucked a bag of chips from the air and pictured every painful thing that could ever happen to Zim.
A/N: Huh. That Tak part came out a little angsty. Whatever, look for Chapter Five within the next two days. Oh, and before I go, I wanted to thank Slurpee Monster for giving me my first review. Your cookie is in the mail.