Dib snatched his coat from off of the ground behind him, wriggling into it as he ran towards the ship. If he was going to be facing other aliens again, then he needed to look like a proper paranormal investigator while doing it.

After passing a few pummeled trees, the ship loomed up before him, glinting rust-orange in the sun. He hadn't seen enough ships to get a proper idea of this one's comparative size; it was bigger than Zim's voot, smaller than the Irken Massive, perhaps comparable in size to a large Earth house. That was about as accurate as he could get.

"I think that's an Irken ship," said Zim, footsteps crunching as he came to stand beside Dib. He brought out some kind of optical port from his PAK and squinted into it. "Computer?"

Dib just barely heard the computer's muffled response: "Ship is an IK-219 model Colonizer, size small."

Zim frowned. "That model of Colonizer was discontinued ages ago! And besides, the logo's wrong!"

Dib looked up. Sure enough, etched in silver on the ship's hull was a symbol, but not the Irken Armada insignia that he had come to know and loathe. At first glance, it just looked like a heart, but then he spotted a tiny pointed shape at the bottom and realized that it was a stylized Irken head with large, curving antennae. It was made up of sweeping curves – no harsh corners, no leering mouth. Acting instinctively, he whipped out the notepad and pen that he always kept with him, jotting down a quick sketch of the logo.

"Oh, great. What did you morons do?" demanded a familiar voice behind him.

Zim nearly jumped out of his skin, and Dib jerked around to find Gaz standing there nonchalantly, arms crossed, GS4 dangling from one hand. He frowned. "I didn't do anything!"

"Neither did Zim!" exclaimed Mr. Refers-To-Himself-In-The-Third-Person.

Gaz half-opened one eye. "Really? Something weird happened, and you two aren't the reason why?"

Gir peeked out from behind Zim and whispered, "I know…I'm scared, too."

The front hatch of the ship dropped open with a clang.

Dib hopped back, startled – then immediately leaned forward to try and see what he could make out of the ship's interior. It mostly looked like vague darkness…at least until a sharp humanoid shape, vibrantly colored, strode out to stand against the opening.

A female Irken glared down at them with deep purple eyes, as if she were looking at a film of pond scum staining her shoes. Dib's heartbeat spiked. She had swapped out her purple uniform for an orange version of the same outfit, and a silver logo matching the one on the ship's hull gleamed on her chest, but there was no doubt in his mind as to who he was currently looking at.

"Tak?!" he cried.

"YOU!" Zim shouted, clenching his fists. "You've finally come to seek your revenge on Zim, haven't you?!"

Tak cleared her throat. "I—"

"HAVEN'T YOU?!"

"I really wish that were true," she snapped, baring her teeth. "Zim! The leader of the Kri Society has requested your presence for a meeting, so come up here and let's get this over with!"

"HAVEN'T YOU?!"

"Wait, the what society?" echoed Dib.

Her eyes barely flicked over to him. "This doesn't concern you, human."

"HAH!" Zim puffed out his chest and smirked. "So you were too scared to come and face me alone, eh, Tak?! You had to join up with some…DOOKIE society, just to—"

She tossed up her hands. "You know what, I don't have to deal with this. He's all yours, sir!"

With that, she stepped to the side, not quite out of sight. A clunking sound rang out from within the ship – metal boots against a metal floor, Dib thought – and somebody else stepped out and stood before them.

Tak had said "sir," but he was almost certain that the newcomer was a female Irken; she had coil-tipped antennae, plus long, prominent eyelashes. That was the first thing he noticed. The second thing was how tall she was, definitely comparable to an adult human in height. Based on what he knew about Irkens and their height-based hierarchy, this meant that she was probably someone important (a new Tallest, possibly?). He was also struck by how…non-evil she looked. Her face, creased here and there with age, had a gentle expression that he wasn't used to seeing on Irkens, and her oblong green eyes held no nastiness or scheming. Her outfit (orange again; what's with all the orange?) was a more elaborate version of Tak's.

"This is a horrible idea, you know," Tak complained to the tall lady. "He's already insufferable."

"Tak, please, I don't need you to make this more difficult than it already is," the woman replied. She walked down the ramp and towards the gawkers on the ground. "…Zim?"

Dib managed to tear his eyes away from her long enough to peer over his shoulder. Gaz, standing directly behind him, looked as apathetic as ever, but Zim…

With his arms at his sides and his antennae flattened against his head, Zim's posture was more subdued than Zim had ever seen it. Not only that, but the way that his eyes were ever-so-slightly narrowed…it was as if he thought that he had seen this lady once, years ago, perhaps as a glimpsed face in the back of a crowd, and was now trying to work out just when and where it had been.

The lady smiled sadly. "You don't remember me, do you, Zim?"

Shockingly, he said nothing, only squinted a little harder.

"I'm not surprised." She closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head. "You were so young the last time I…well, I sort of expected that you wouldn't remember your old Mameen."

That last word had a visible effect on Zim; his brow furrowed, and his antennae flipped up slightly. "What? No," he said, in a bizarrely calm tone of voice. "You…you aren't her."

Her eyes widened. "You remember?!"

"I remember Mameen," he responded, somewhere between puzzled and defensive. "But you can't be her. I mean, she's sort of…dead."

"No. That's only what they told you."

"It's what I know!" Zim frowned deeply. "Some dissenter shot you – her down. I watched the trial on TV from the Smeetery. There was this little grub guy, he was so pathetic-looking, and Tallest Miyuki had him executed for the murder of her successor, and the creche-carers told us about how that's what will happen if we go against the mighty Irken Empire! And they dropped him into a pit full of starving, rabid prisoners of war, from—"

"The planet Blorch," finished the lady. "I know. He was devoured alive by slaughtering rat people. I'm not even sure who that guy was…probably someone that the Empire wanted to get rid of anyway…but he wasn't responsible for shooting me down. He was just a decoy."

"I thought he was a Meekrobian."

She sighed. "He was a plant, Zim. I mean, not the kind of plant that grows from the ground – the Control Brains were just using him to prevent Tallest Miyuki, and everyone else, from looking into the matter too closely."

He pushed out his lower lip and crossed his arms. "Lies! Lies and dookie!"

The lady was silent for a moment, pensive and resigned. Then: "The last time I saw you, I told you to keep asking questions. It's said to see that you've lost that inclination."

His antennae snapped back against his head, as if she'd just struck him.

Dib decided to use this break in the conversation to speak up. "Um, excuse me, but can somebody please tell me what's going on?!" He pivoted on his heels, turning to take in everyone's reactions, but apparently he was the only one who'd decided that this stuff was worth any attention. Gaz was fiddling with her GS4. Gir and Minimoose appeared to be playing pat-a-cake. Even Tak, standing in the ship's opening above them, looked bored.

The tall lady faced Dib, blinking. "Oh? I'm sorry, where are my manners?" She leaned over him and extended her hand. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Mala, former Elite Commander of the Irken Empire."

He regarded her offered hand suspiciously, then gave it a single, perfunctory shake. "I thought your name was Mameen?"

"No, no!" She chuckled. "Mameen isn't a name. It's an Irken familiar term for 'mother' – something like Mama or Mommy, if I've got your language right."

Dib recoiled. "Mother?! You mean…Irkens have parents?! Zim has parents?!"

"Of course not!" Zim interjected; it seemed that no matter how he was feeling, he wouldn't pass up an opportunity to contradict Dib. "Even if this…this so-called Elite is who she says she is, she is not Zim's mother!"

"No," she agreed, "but that's always what you called me, right from the start. Do you remember that? The very first time I went into the Smeetery, how you came up to me and asked, 'Are you my Mameen?' That feels like such a long time ago…oh, what was I saying before?" She shook her head. "Anyway, yes, my name is Mala. As for you, young man, would I be correct in the assumption that you are Dib?"

With a jolt, Dib stumbled a few steps back from her. "Why do you know that?!"

"Oh, I've been keeping tabs on the situation here for a while," Mala explained. "I had to make sure that Zim was really on this planet, so I got in touch with…my Earth contact. Anyway, you and Zim spend an awful lot of time together, so I know a bit about you…"

While he was trying to think of an intelligent response to that, Zim's mental state seemed to snap from befuddlement into anger. He marched up to Mala, jamming a finger into her chest – which was a long reach for him, but with some stretching, he managed to get there. "Hey, listen up, you…you supposed mother-lady!" he yelled. "You have some explaining to do! First you land on my planet, interrupting my glorious mission with your claims of being my Mameen! Then you say that Irk was faking your death, and now you admit to spying on me?! My Mameen wouldn't have just watched me from afar like that! She would have come back to me, her favorite and most incredible smeet, as soon as she could! You are dripping with disgusting, slimy lies! If you're really Mameen, then why didn't you try to call me before now, eh?! Eh, eh?!"

Mala stared down at him. "You don't need to speak to me like that, young man."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Zim shrank down under her gaze, cowed and obedient out of nowhere. Dib thought: No matter what he says, he definitely believes that she is who she says she is. He never just bows over to anybody like that. But all this alien woman had to do was open her mouth, and he shut up like…well, like a kid being scolded.

Zim suddenly scowled at him. "What are you saying, human Dib?!"

"Huh?" Dib realized that he had been thinking out loud, muttering his conclusions to himself, and he flushed pink. "N-nothing! I wasn't saying anything!"

"The short answer to your questions, Zim, is that I was waiting to come and find you until I had made someplace safe for you," said Mala. "And now I finally have that place: the Kri Society."

Zim looked quizzical. "Eh? 'Kri'?"

"Kri," she repeated. "As in, the opposite of Irk. And we want you to help us save the universe."

He stared at her. "Irkens don't save the universe. We conquer it."

"Yes, well, that's sort of the entire problem." Mala waved her arm towards the ship behind her, where Tak was still lingering in the hatch, monitoring a readout on some kind of floating screen and looking singularly unimpressed. "If you'll come inside for just a few minutes, I can explain everything."

"I'm not falling for that one!" he declared. "You'll just take off the second I set foot in there, whether I want to come with you or not!"

She held up her right hand. "No tricks, Zim. I swear it on Tallest Miyuki's grave."

"…hmm…hmmmm…" One finger tapped rapidly against his chin. "…ugh, I guess so! But only because I find your fakery amusing! And a few minutes is all you'll be getting from ZIIIIIIM!"

Mala smiled, and for a fleeting moment, Dib wondered if that was how all moms smiled when they'd finally gotten past the token protests of their offspring. Having never had a mother, he honestly didn't know. "I appreciate that. Shall we get this over and done with, then?"

With that, she headed back into the ship, her boots clunking against the ramp. Zim hesitated, then called, "Gir! Minimoose!" and trotted after her. Her legs were so much longer than his that he practically had to run in order to catch up with her.

It didn't take long for Dib to decide to follow them. He still had no real idea of what was going on; the conversation he'd just heard had left him with more questions than answers, and for any half-decent paranormal investigator, finding out more was a no-brainer. Unfortunately, hie hadn't gone five steps before his path was blocked by Tak.

"Where do you think you're going?" she demanded.

"Oh! I, uh, I'm…" His tongue flailed in his mouth. Honestly, he'd nearly forgotten that she was still standing in the hatch.

"I don't believe that Elite Mala invited you inside," she said coolly. "And we have no business with humans." She shoved him back, hard enough that he struggled to keep his footing, and darted inside the ship to close it up.

Only when the hatch had mostly retracted did Gaz finally lower her GS4 slightly. "Are we done? Good, let's get out of here. It's hot and the bugs are eating me alive and…"

She looked up just in time to see Dib take a running leap at one of the trees overhanging the Kri ship, grab a high branch by the tips of his fingers, and swing forward to catapult himself onto the roof. He peered down at the nearly-closed hatch, evidently decided that the gap was too narrow for him to fit through without being squished, and promptly ran up and across the dome-like metal structure to try and find another way in.

Gaz clenched her fists so hard that the game console's plastic casing trembled and groaned in her hands. "Idiot!"

Everything resembling a door on the ship's roof was sealed tight, not responding to even the strongest of kicks, but that was only a minor inconvenience for Dib. Settling down cross-legged on the curved surface below him, which was pitted and streaked with the remnants of many rough voyages, he reached into the largest interior pocket of his coat and produced his laptop. Brute force had never been his style – why break when you could sneak?

The ship was an IK-219 Colonizer; he remembered Zim's computer saying so. He quickly accessed his database of Irken interstellar vehicles (courtesy of Tak's old ship, fortuitously downloaded before said vessel was destroyed during the Florpus incident) and located the relevant entry. Within a minute, he'd reached the outer boundaries of the Kri's computer system. Now he just had to wriggle past the firewall…which, he noticed, had been modified slightly, patched with imperfect-but-clever traps that might have tripped up a lesser hacker…but he soon made short work of that, too.

A window popped up on his screen: OPEN TOP DECK MAINTENANCE PANEL Y/N?

"Yes," he said aloud.

Nothing happened. He craned his neck, trying to see where the panel had opened, when a small trapdoor retracted directly beneath him and dumped him inside.

Dib landed on a narrow, rickety catwalk, which swayed like an ocean liner for several long seconds after his painful descent, leaving him to wait for several long seconds until he judged that it was safe to stand. The catwalk ran the circumference of the round room beneath him – the bridge, according to his database – and since a multitude of cables snaked across the ceiling above him, it was presumably used for repairing those, as well as for getting out to the roof if the need arose. He warily checked around for a ladder or staircase, not wanting to move any more than he had to on such a precarious perch, but then the sound of voices drifted up from below, and he realized that he didn't have to go anywhere: this was already the perfect place to eavesdrop.

"Well, that's convenient," he said to himself, before very cautiously laying flat on his stomach and staring straight down at the scene unfolding beneath him.

At first glance, the bridge looked like it was full of standard Irken equipment, but a closer inspection revealed that everything was worn out and oft-repaired. Just about every piece of technology showed signs of having been patched up and some point, and a few items looked like they were held together with nothing but electrical tape and positive thinking. And, of course, there were the Irkens themselves; Mala, Tak, Zim, Zim's evil minions, and four other figures dressed in identical orange uniforms, all of them clustered near a central console.

"Here we are!" Mala's voice rang out cheerfully.

Zim was clearly not very impressed with the ship; Dib couldn't get an accurate read of his facial expression from this height, but his tone of voice was unmistakable. "Ugh, look at this dump! Did you dig it out of the trash or something?!"

"Er, sort of," admitted Mala. "We salvaged it from the planet Garbagia. Anyway, Zim, meet the troops! There's Tak, of course, my First Officer; this is our Chief Navigator, Tee—"

"If he touches my console, I'm going to break his fingers," said a female voice, apparently belonging to an average-sized Irken near one of the computer screens.

Mala cleared her throat. "Our Head Technician, Blis—"

"Hi." This response came from a stout female Irken who lurked at the back of the group. "Please never talk to me again."

"…our Battle Strategist, Tenn, I'm not sure if you've met her, but she was also an Invader—"

"We were creche-mates, actually." Yet another girl's voice. The speaker this time looked remarkably like Zim, at least from a distance.

"Ah, of course, I should have remembered. And you definitely know Skoodge!"

"Hey, Zim!" Okay, so there was another boy here after all. A chubby but enthusiastic boy, shorted than all of the girls, who apparently was the only one actually excited to see Zim. "Welcome aboard! Wow, with you, me, and Mameen here, it's just like old times, huh?"

Zim sighed dramatically. "Oh, Skoodge, you're as gullible as ever. I supposed that you believed this faker as soon as she said that she was Mameen!"

"Um…she is Mameen." Skoodge was clearly confused. "Hasn't she told you about what happened to her?"

"I was about to," interjected Mala. She drew herself up straight, sweeping her gaze across he assembled crew members before settling on Zim. "You want to know why the Kri Society is trying to save the universe?"

He nodded.

"It's because, after years of tearing this universe apart and putting it back together in whatever way they choose, the Irken Empire has become more extreme than ever. They've appointed a new Tallest, who is planning to—"

"It smells like dirt pudding in here!" exclaimed Gir out of nowhere, yanking the green doggie hood off of his head.

One of the girls, Tenn, let out a bloodcurdling screech and flung herself under the nearest chair. "AIIIIEEEEE! GET THAT THING OUT OF HERE!"

"Oh, are we screamin' now?" asked Gir brightly. "I wanna scream too! AAAAAAAAAHHHH—"

Mala leapt into action, snatching Gir into her arms and clamping one hand over his face; he kicked his legs happily, probably assuming that this was all a part of some game going on in his head. When his shrieks had been sufficiently muffled, she asked with obvious concern, "Tenn? Are you all right?"

"…I-I…" Tenn slunk out from under the chair and stood up, her hands clamped across her own shoulders. "I…yes. Yes, I'm fine. S-sorry."

Mala hesitated, as if debating whether or not to go and assess her shaken-up crew member, then shoved Gir back at Zim. "Young man, please control your SIR unit. Tenn is…sensitive…about them."

"You hear that, Minimoose?" said Zim. "Keep an eye on your robot brother! And Gir, don't bother us while we're talking!"

"Yes, my Master!"

Mala dropped down into a large, cushioned seat that must have been the captain's chair, massaging her temples. Doubtlessly, she was starting to get an idea of what everyday life with Zim was like now. "Where was I…? Oh, yes, the new Tallest. He has decided that the Irken Empire should no longer just be content to rule the existing universe. So he's contact a plan whereby the Irken Armada, headed by his newly commissioned flagship, the Hypermassive, will completely destroy this universe and replace it with a new, worse one, in which Irkens will be not only rulers, but gods!"

Dib nearly stopped breathing. He'd dealt with Irkens attempting to destroy the Earth several times before…but now they were going after the entire universe?!

"What?!" exclaimed Zim. "That's…that's BRILLIANT! Almost as brilliant as something I would have come up with!"

Mala smacked herself in the forehead. "No, Zim, that's bad!"

"Eh?! Irkens finally ascending to their rightful place as ultimate overlords of the universe is bad?! My Mameen, loyal soldier of the Empire and successor to the Tallest, would never think so! I knew you were a phony!"

"Zim, even if I were still an Elite Commander, I still wouldn't approve of this plan!" she snapped. "Trying to replace the entire universe is idiotic hubris! It's physically and mathematically impossible for any currently known beings to survive something like that!"

"How do YOU know?" he challenged, crossing his arms. "Have you ever tried?"

"No, and I don't intend to! And even if we could survive it, life wouldn't be worth living, not with the Empire in control!"

"You speak of blasphemy, fake-mother! Why would my Mameen ever spout such hideous comments?!"

At this point, Mala had grown so agitated that she could no longer contain herself, and she sprang out of her chair like a bullet ricocheting out of a gun. "Because what I am trying to tell you is that the Irken Empire is responsible for shooting me down!"

Zim stiffened. In the blink of an eye, he was back to that odd, perplexed-but-eerily-calm state that he had exhibited outside, and up on that catwalk, Dib finally recognized this behavior as a way to avoid dealing with emotional contradictions. He'd never really considered the emotions of Irkens before – they primarily just seemed to be evil aliens whose only feelings were rage, bloodlust, and triumph over enemies – but now it occurred to him that the truth might be a bit more complex than that. After all, Mala was appealing to Zim by invoking a parent-to-child bond, even if she wasn't his biological mother. That implied that Irkens felt some form of attachment…maybe even love?

Now that was uncomfortable thought. He returned his attention to the exchange happening below him.

Zim said plaintively, "That's not true. Everybody respected you, and you were Tallest Miyuki's favorite! She would never have ordered you shot down!"

"You're right, Zim. She had nothing to do with it. You remember when I left you and Skoodge for the last time, how I was supposed to fly to Devastus and train a new class of Invaders? That was all a setup. The Control Brains went behind Miyuki's back to take me out of the picture so that I would never rise to power."

"Why?"

"Because I didn't meet their standards." Mala began to pace the floor. "I'm not like normal Irkens. I'm too…empathetic. It was never enough to get me marked as defective, because I was tall, I was strong, I always got the job done, I never moved so much as a toe out of line – but normal Irkens don't do things like, say, get attached to a couple of random smeets. So the Control Brains watched me, decided that I was a threat, and finally took me out of action."

He almost appeared to be considering this, but it was like his mouth couldn't stop running even while his brain was processing what he'd heard. "You're delusional. The Control Brains serve the Tallest! Everyone knows that!"

"Yes, that's exactly what they want you to think." With a sigh, she flopped back into her captain's chair. "My voot was shot down over Irk before I had even left the atmosphere. While the false trial to sate Miyuki was happening on the surface, I was held captive underground for years, being probed and examined. What was causing me to care so much about my fellow Irkens? What flaw had surfaced in such a high-ranking Irken as myself? If the Control Brains could find that out, then they could prevent it from ever happening again. But as long as they kept me alive, I could hope that I would escape someday, hating them more and more all the time. By the time I got my chance to break free, everything had changed. Miyuki was gone, few people remembered who I was, and you and Skoodge were off-planet. Staying on Irk would have meant recapture and death. So I set off and began work on…this." She waved her hand at the ship, her crew, and the Kri Society generally. "For you."

Zim's antennae lowered, then raised again. "For me?"

"For you and Skoodge and every other Irken who has worked hard and remained loyal, only to have Irk turn its back on them. That's who these ladies are – I met them during my travels, and recruited each of them once I learned what Irk had done to them. And now, finally, I've come to you. Because I'm your Mameen. Because I always wanted better for you. I'm offering you everything that I could never give you when you were my smeet. Will you accept it?"

There was silence throughout the bridge. Dib found himself waiting on bated breath to see how Zim would respond.

Then, finally: "…you do realize that I am Irk's finest Invader, right? If I went up to this new Tallest and offered to join forces with him, he would accept me without a moment's hesitation…"

For some reason, this statement provoked a lot of heated muttering among the girls, but Mala turned around and hushed them. "Let him finish."

"If I said I wanted to do that, what would you do to stop me?" demanded Zim.

"Nothing," said Mala. "It's your choice."

He mimicked her actions earlier and began to pace, treading a circle on the floor. After three or four rotations, he stopped abruptly and said, "Your falsehoods do intrigue Zim. And I need to make contact with this new Tallest before my infiltration of Earth can continue, and since he apparently doesn't know how to answer his communicator…"

He looked behind him at his robots; Gir was keeping himself entertained by playing with Minimoose's nubs. "What do you think?" asked Zim. "Should we travel with these inferior rebels for a while?"

Gir tilted his head. "I like Mameen! She's nice!"

"Hey, she's my Mameen, not yours! …eh, I mean…all right, then. We have decided to accompany you for the time being. But don't expect me to just turn my back on Irk and swear allegiance to your Kri Society! Zim serves no one but ZIIIIM!"

"I can live with that," said Mala, who stood up once more, placing her hand on Zim's shoulder. "Welcome aboard, my smeet."

"Yeah, yeah." He rolled his eyes — but, Dib couldn't help noticing, made no attempt to dislodge her hand. "You're lucky that I don't hop into my voot right now and report you all to the Irken authorities! Fortunately, these ideas of yours are fairly entertaining."

"I can share a lot more of them now that you're coming along," she promised. "All right, ladies and Skoodge, let's set a course for our next destination!"

There was assorted groaning from all of the girls, none of whom seemed very happy that Zim would be accompanying them. Only the other boy, Skoodge, seemed glad of the newcomer's presence.

Up on the catwalk, Dib's heart and mind were both racing. The conversation had revealed so many developments: non-evil Irkens! A resistance movement aiming to stop the Irken Armada! After standing against Zim for so long, he finally felt as if he had found a group of kindred spirits that might even listen to him and support his ideas. He could have a chance to not only save the world, but also the entire universe…

What was the Kri Society's plan? Could Zim really be convinced to turn to the side of goodness if his adoptive mother figure was involved? Dib had to know.

There was a sudden jolt, and the catwalk began to rattle softly beneath him — that must have been the ship's engine coming on. The Kri weren't wasting any time. Well, who would, when the fate of the universe was at stake? There was a time for sitting around and waiting, and there was a time for—

A hand reached out and snatched him by the back of the coat.

Dib gasped as he was wrenched back sharply, and before he had a chance to react, his head was being twisted around painfully to face — "Gaz?!" he cried. "What the — how did you get in here?!"

"You left the panel wide open behind you," she snarled. "Dib, get your brainless butt out of here right now. The last thing you need is more fodder for your crazy alien obsession."

With a sharp tug, he managed to free himself from her rasp, taking a single step back. "No."

Her eyes burned wide in the dim light. "What did you just say to me?!"

"Gaz, it's different this time!" he exclaimed. "These aliens are on our side! See, there's this new evil Tallest who wants to destroy the universe, but they're going to—"

"I don't care! You are coming with me if I have to pull off both your arms and drag you home by the bloody bone stumps!"

"I'm not just going to sit around at home knowing that we're all in trouble, and that Zim may or may not cause even more trouble on top of that!"

Gaz's eye twitched. "Dib, listen to me. I don't care what you do. If you want to run around and get yourself killed in outer space, that's not on me. But Dad will care if you die, and if he's upset, then I'm upset, so let's get out of here!"

Really? She was trying to guilt him with the Dad card? "Dad won't care."

"Yes he will!"

"No he won't! He never does!"

"Back during the Florpus thing—"

"Yeah, okay, he saved us there, but what was the point?! It's not like he believes me about what happened then! It's not like he cares about anything that I have to say!"

Her hands tightened into fists, and she seized the front of his shirt. "Oh, that is it! We're leaving right now, and as soon as we get off this ship, I'm going to make you wish that you were never—"

THUNK!

Both brother and sister threw their eyes toward the ceiling. The maintenance hatch that had been open overhead, beaming down a dusty stream of light, had just snapped shut.

"Uh-oh," said Dib.

Gaz opened her mouth, no doubt ready to spew a stream of outraged insults in his direction before beating him flat into the ground, but she didn't get the chance to utter even a single scathing comment. The ship's engine revved into a roar and then a scream, and then the two of them were shoved unceremoniously to the floor by the force of gravity as the Kri ship launched into the Earth's atmosphere.