A world hangs in a universe of blackness, turning gently. A green world, blue oceans gleaming, fretted with layers of snowy cloud. On the screens of the approaching cruiser it looks utterly harmless and rather pretty.

"Is that the one?"

"It is indeed. Third planet of a golden G-type star, oxygen-based atmosphere, carbon-based lifeforms. Earth."

"Where should we start?"

"Heh. Let's go abduct a couple of the meat things and see what we have to deal with."

"Can I do horrible experiments on them?"

"Sure! Then we can turn them inside out and put them back, and see if anyone notices. Then we destroy the planet."

"This is going to be the best interstellar rest stop ever built."

Dib's wide eyes widened further. If he had just heard what he thought he had, there was no time to spare. Earth was in even greater danger than before! They were going to destroy the planet to build some kind of alien truck stop! He hurried downstairs from his observatory. Gaz was installed on the couch, playing her Gameslave.

"Gaz, where's Dad?"

"Taping his show. Then he has to invent a time machine, or something. Don't bug me."

"Gaz, this is important!" Dib shouted, running a hand through his unruly hair. "Earth is in mortal danger!"

"Earth is always in mortal danger," she said, looking up, "according to you."

"Well, I'm right! Aliens are gonna destroy the planet and build a truck stop here!"

Gaz snickered, her attention back on the game. "You mean this isn't Zim's fault?"

"I bet it has something to do with him," Dib muttered darkly. "I have to tell Dad! We've got to do something, Gaz, we can't just sit here and let Earth be destroyed."

She sighed. "Dib, give me one good reason why I should believe you?"

"Because I'm right! I'm always right!"

"Not good enough. Go away, Dib, this is a difficult level."

Fuming, Dib hurried back to his room. It would serve her right if the aliens did destroy Earth. Skeptics. He hated skeptics. Logging on to his Swollen Eyeball Society network, he searched for something, anything, that might help.

"Lalalalalalala! Lalalalalalala! Lalalalalalala! Lalalalalalala! Lalalala—"

"Would you PLEASE turn that crap off?" Zim rubbed at his forehead, feeling a migraine beginning to throb. "Gir, I'm trying to get some work done here. There's an unfamiliar ion signature approaching Earth."

"What's that?"

"Someone's coming. And I don't know who they are."

"Yaaaay!" Gir bounced happily around the observatory. "I'm gonna dance like a monkey!"

"No, Gir, that's bad. Nobody should even be in this sector of space. This is Irken property." He sighed, punched in some coordinates. The Earthinoids' network of satellites kept screwing up his signal. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

Gir bounced over to him. "Awwww! Somebody needs a hug!"

Zim groaned. "Get off me, Gir. Go play with the gnomes, or something."

"Gnomes are mean," Gir chirped. "They win the starin' game all the time!" Zim quirked an eyebrow at him, but decided not to ask.

"If I give you a cupcake, will you go away?"

"Mmmmmm...." the little bot mused, head tipped to one side. "No."

"You sure? Cupcake, Gir....?"

"I love cupcakes!" He caught the rather stale one Zim tossed to him and disappeared upstairs, possibly to stare at the gnomes. Alone again, Zim bent once more over his controls. He had to know who was coming, and why.

"Ooh! Look, down there! Some kind of large settlement!"

"Yeah. Hey, you want to go abduct subjects?"

"Definitely. Which runner should we take?"

"I think the saucer. It seems appropriate."

The bridge of the cruiser is suddenly empty. On the massive screens the Earth is so close individual cities can be picked out, glowing with their massed streetlamps. The faint clang of docking bay doors opening can be heard, and shortly a sleek saucer-shaped craft appears on screen, slicing down through the atmosphere with a faint whining sound.

Dib was in the back yard with his spotter scope, trying to see if any of the satellites he knew were out of place, when it happened. Time after time he had imagined this, the silver disk sliding out of the darkness ablaze with spinning lights and coming to hover over the city. He half expected a voice like Karellen's in Childhood's End to boom out across the sky, but the only noise was a high-pitched hum. He stood transfixed as the ship drifted easily closer; it was only when its shadow had reached the streetlight on the corner that he turned and shrieked "GAZ!" to the silent house.

"What?" She was standing at her window in pyjamas. "Stop yelling like that, you freak."

"Gaz! Look up!"

She did, and slowly her eyes opened as wide as Dib's, their almond-gold strangely muted in the odd half-light. "Holy.....That's not Zim." She disappeared from the window, and a moment later came running out to join Dib in the yard.

"I told you," said Dib, but his voice held no note of triumph. The air seemed suddenly very cold around them. Gaz wondered what it would be like, when the death beams finally erupted from the saucer. She knew that was going to happen. It always did, in the movies and in her games.

I wish Zim was here, she thought suddenly, and felt like crying. She still didn't understand what had happened between them last month, when he and Dib had been so ill, but she couldn't ignore it. There was something new in her mind every time she saw the green boy. Something frighteningly powerful.

She looked up to the saucer, which had paused over their house. Everything she'd ever known to be true was falling to ashes. She didn't know what to believe anymore. Dib's hand found hers, and clung tight enough to hurt.

They gasped as a hole irised open on the bottom of the saucer.

And time froze.

Only a squirrel, huddled trembling against the wall of the house, watched the boy and the girl, locked in time, rise slowly into the sky on a ray of dark blue light. Only the squirrel saw the look of abject horror on their faces, as the hatch slid shut behind them, and the ship shimmered and was gone.