"You! Y-you're Irken!" gasped Sizz-Lorr.
Austy withdrew further into the confines of the freezer, trembling uncontrollably and avoiding Sizz-Lorr's penetrating stare. Squeezing her eyes tightly shut she envisioned that this was all a dream. It had to be! Her heart pulsed more rapidly when she noticed that the numbing cold spreading through her body was not fading. She was still in the freezer. Fearfully, she opened her eyes only to stare at the befuddled face of her employer.
The violet-eyed Irken raised his right hand and pointed a quivering finger at her form. An astonished expression still hung on his pale green face.
"….a disguise…why…why would you hide being Irken? On Foodcourtia?"
Austy's fists relaxed involuntarily. She failed to notice her rubbery false face slide uselessly out of her grip. She knew she had to say something soon. This whole situation was becoming more suspicious by the instant.
Sizz-Lorr's bewildered expression was fading as his arm lowered. His eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed. "Speak! I want answers!"
"P-please do-don't say anyt-thing!" shivered Austy.
"What!?" spat Sizz-Lorr. He could hear the incessant roar of the customers, irritable in the delay of their food. He didn't have time for this!
"Sir?" called Gashloog, nervously. "Sir! The customers demand their food sir!"
Turning on his heel, Sizz-Lorr was facing Austy again. "Get dressed," he fumed, gesturing to the mask on the floor. "You're moving."
"Moving?" replied Austy in a frantic tone. Was he moving her to another restaurant? Or worse, was he notifying the Tallest? Would she be moving to another planet? Donning her disguise, Austy followed her employer out of the freezer. "M-moving where exactly s-sir?" she said, her voice wavering.
"Register," the violet-eyed Irken growled. "You're trading places with Gashloog. You obviously can't stay in the kitchen."
Overwhelming relief surrounded her. She felt secure for the time being.
"Oh and Austy," said her boss, lowering his voice. "Prepare yourself for a long night. You still have a lot of questions to answer."
Austy felt the sickening nausea return but fought the urge to glance back as she pushed aside the swinging twin doors and approached the short-statured Irken behind the counter.
"So boss says we're switching places?"
Austy nodded, still shaking from the experience.
"Kitchen not working out for you?"
Austy shrugged.
"That's alright," said Gashloog. "You'll get it eventually. Hey, why are you shaking?"
Austy forced a smile. "I was just in the freezer…helping boss with the stock."
Handing Gashloog a spatula, Austy stepped behind the counter. Instantly she recognized familiar faces in the crowd, Shloogorgh's regulars. Although the crowd still retained its hostile atmosphere, a few individuals brightened at seeing the return of their favorite employee.
"Hey, Austy's back!"
"Finally, non-Irken service!"
"She always knows my order, mmmhhmmm…"
Gashloog stared bleakly at his spatula. "At least you like me," he said to the cooking utensil before trotting off into the kitchen.
Austy frowned. "It's not you Gashloog," she thought. "It's just the marvelous reputation of the empire."
Sizz-Lorr peered into a bucket of soapy solution, the reflection of his violet eyes seemingly staring back at him. He dunked a sponge into the liquid, causing his reflected face to ripple and fragment. By now, the large crowd had died down and the restaurant was noticeably quieter. The frycook was relieved. The day had been overwhelmingly stressful and the massive Irken was tired. What he found particularly unsettling was this new information about Austy. He glanced momentarily at the girl before resuming his tedious task, cleaning booth 12. How was it that booth 12 always got so disgusting? The violet-eyed Irken silently cursed the Zorgonean family who always sat here.
An intrusive fear suddenly seized him. What if Austy had been sent by the Tallest to monitor him? If so, they would know about Zim's humiliating escape from him. Twice.
Sizz-Lorr quickly pushed this scenario from his mind. If this was true, she was certainly a talented and well-trained actress. Besides, the situation didn't make sense. Why would she have been on Earth in the first place? Sighing, Sizz-Lorr found himself no less confused than before.
"Sir?" the faint voice barely caught the frycook's antennae.
"Uhhh…Sir?" Louder, more forceful this time.
"Sir!"
Annoyed, Sizz-Lorr spun around. It was Caspos. "Permission to take my 30 minute sir?" said the short, stout Irken, saluting.
"Granted," said Sizz-Lorr, flatly.
"And sir? Shall I have Austy accompany me?"
"No," replied the violet-eyed Irken, glancing sideways at the girl behind the register. "She can take her own break today. I think she's more capable than we originally thought…"
Anxiety was building. Her Irken heart pumped furiously and her breathing, shallow. Gashloog and Caspos were mopping the floor of the deserted restaurant. They would be leaving shortly, leaving her to deal with the wrath of her employer. Although she had reviewed exactly what she was going to say to the frylord many times that day, she couldn't help but feel nervous. Her parents, both biological and foster, had instructed her to never let guard down, that trustworthy people, particularly Irkens, were difficult to come by. Now an Irken in a considerably high rank knew her alias! How could she have been so careless?
As she finished cleaning the last dining booth, Gashloog and Caspos pushed through the twin doors to punch out. Her squeedlyspooch lurched. Minutes later, the pair emerged.
"Goodnight Austy!" said Gashloog.
"Seeya tomorrow!" called Caspos.
Austy half-smiled and waved. They both waved back and exited the restaurant.
"Austy!" yelled Sizz-Lorr from the kitchen. "Come back here and help me with these dishes."
Suddenly feeling very nauseated, Austy stood up and slowly made her way to the kitchen.
"I'll wash. You dry." said the violet-eyed Irken, gesturing to the damp dishes. Austy nodded stiffly.
"Sizz-Lorr glanced at her and narrowed a single eye. "Ease up will you? You're not on trial."
Austy would have laughed if the circumstances had been different.
"And take that mask off!" said Sizz-Lorr, eyeing her false face. "You're not fooling anyone here."
Austy swallowed hard and quickly looked around the kitchen. Sizz-Lorr sighed impatiently.
"Satisfied?" he said with an edge of frustration. "No people, no windows, no hidden cameras."
She flushed in embarrassment before peeling the mask off of her face. The cool air on her skin was a welcome after a long work day. The combined efforts of the mask and sweating had caused her antennae to become plastered to her sticky scalp. She gently shook them free. Next, she removed the rubbery gloves which enveloped her green hands. Flexing her fingers, she noticed how pale and shriveled they were from lack of exposure. Temporarily pausing his task, Sizz-Lorr eyed the true face of the employee he thought he had known. Her long round face was noticeably paler than any other Irken he had ever seen. Probably from obscuring it behind that awful mask. Her long black antennae curled angularly behind her head, characteristic of Irken females. Sizz-Lorr's gaze fell to her eyes. She must have been wearing false lenses that mimicked the appearance of the human eye. They looked outlandish next to her Irken features.
"What about your eyes?" spoke Sizz-Lorr with more curiosity than annoyance.
"Uh…I'd rather leave them. They're painful and difficult to remove." Said Austy. She wasn't completely lying. They really were uncomfortable to take out. But the true reason for avoiding this was Sizz-Lorr had not yet seen her eyes. You could identify an Irken reasonably well by their face, but eyes were a dead give-away. Austy decided the less that Sizz-Lorr knew about her appearance, the better.
"Finished?" asked the massive Irken. Austy nodded. "Good, because I've got some questions."
She froze. He had caught her off-guard.
"Why are you impersonating a non-Irken? Give me a good reason why I shouldn't dial the Tallest right now and tell them." Sizz-Lorr watched her expression inquisitively. He had no intention of doing the latter but he was anxious to see how she would react. The truth was that Sizz-Lorr would be a fool to give a reason for the Tallest to remove her from Shloogorgh's employment. She was hard-working, good with the customers, and could do minor repair work on faulty kitchen appliances; a far better replacement for the incompetent Zim. But, Sizz-Lorr decided, there was no reason for her to know any of this.
Austy was panicking. Everything that she had rehearsed earlier had mysteriously vacated her brain. Frantically, she strained her mind, trying to remember anything that would be of value to her. Suddenly, something came to her, something that she remembered her parents discussing eons ago…
"d.a.d.a.," she said, softly.
"What?" spat the frycook.
"Don't ask, don't acknowledge,"
Sizz-Lorr stared at her for several seconds before turning back to the dishes. "Fine," he said, dully. "If that's the way you want it, so be it."
Relieved, Austy released her breath slowly. It had worked. Because most of the empire's success lay in its relatively secretive military, most Irkens abided by a pact known as 'Don't ask, Don't acknowledge', or more simply, the DADA pact. Although Irken invaders were highly publicized and largely regarded as military heroes of the empire, the DADA pact guaranteed some degree of privacy to such Irkens encoded as preemptive spies and progress evaluation chiefs, involving the details of their missions.
Inhaling deeply, Austy reached for a plate. It was fortunate she was Irken. Irkens only respected the DADA pact when it applied to other Irkens. But then again, would she have been involved in any of this if she wasn't Irken?
A long silence had begun between the pair. It had been about an hour since Austy and Sizz-Lorr had spoken to each other. She was at a loss for words though something was nagging the back of her mind. Although the DADA pact protected her from further questioning, it would not guarantee her safety from Sizz-Lorr reporting or exposing her.
"Excuse me sir?" she said, breaking the awkward silence.
"Hmm?"
"Will I be doing overtime after tonight?"
"Yes," Sizz-Lorr responded, confirming Austy's suspicions. She was still indebted to him. "I need you here every night to begin your training for the approaching Foodening."
"If I may ask sir," began Austy, a bit unsurely. "What exactly is the Foodening? Gashloog told me about it briefly but-"
"We'll discuss that at another time," interjected Sizz-Lorr, not wishing to delve into the details quite yet.
Austy gave a quick nod in acknowledgement of her supervisor's words though silently suppressing her frustration and fear. This place was beginning to feel like a prison. She reminded herself that this was temporary. Once her ship was assembled, she could escape this greasy spoon and be re-united with her family.
It was not long before the pair fell into silence again. No sounds were heard except for the clinking of dishes or the occasional Snacky cab flying by. As he continued to clean dishes, Sizz-Lorr contemplated the upcoming Foodening. He had calculated the arrival of the next one to be about four-five months. That would be plenty of time to train this girl. He had to admit, hiring Austy had been, for lack of a better word, a most interesting experience for himself and Shloogorgh's. The girl was full of surprises. Just when one thought they had begun to understand her, they realized they were barely scratching the surface. Sizz-Lorr knew she liked it that way. In the three weeks since hiring her, he had gained some degree of respect for her. He almost felt guilty for concealing the details of the Great Foodening with her. Almost. The prospect of twenty years vacation time was far too enticing. Spraying another dish with soapy liquid, Sizz-Lorr gave Austy a fleeting look as she wordlessly dried the wet dishes and stacked them neatly. He wondered if she was withholding any more major secrets. He hoped not. He wasn't sure how many more he could take.
A/N: Hello Hello! I never thought I would be coming back to this story to update it! I can't thank you guys enough for your generous and kind reviews. You gave me the kick in the rear I needed (and deserved). I couldn't believe I was still getting hits and reviews on this long after my last update. But I'm so glad I came back to writing it. I really do enjoy writing this and really hope to finish it. Thank you all so much again.
If you did end up reading this chapter, go easy on me. This chapter was definitely one of the hardest ones to write and I believe I stopped updating for the longest time because of I didn't know how to write it and make it good. I'm still not completely satisfied with it. Anyways, I hope you'll continue to read and enjoy it and I promise the next update will not take another four years!
-Ursa