[FFML] [Fanfic] [Invader Zim]The Little Things [Chapters 2-3]

[Growly]

Parts two and three of my Invader Zim fanfic.
   
   
  ---The Little Things---
  
*Book One: Trainee*
   
   
  -02-
   
  The E Squadron barracks were a mess - that was really the only polite
way to put it. Skoodge looked around as he entered the building - as
Squadron Commander it apparently fell on him to go inside first. But
he knew very well that this 'unwritten rule' was mostly the result of
none of the others wanting to go anywhere near their new barracks. And
it wasn't like they had to, after all - they were scientists, he was
just a lowly sanitation drone. His newly assigned rank made no
difference whatsoever and everyone knew it.
  
A single step inside and dust clouded up around him, cutting off his
vision for a few seconds and making it nearly impossible to breathe.
Immediately, he started to hack and cough, trying to clear his airway
while staggering blindly forward. He'd moved only a few steps before
he bumped into something hard and unyielding. Whatever it was, it came
to just below his chest and succeeded at knocking out what little air
he'd managed to get. The small Irken doubled over with a groan, teeth
bared in a grimace. By the time the pain had given way to a dull
throbbing in his midsection, the dust had settled again, leaving a
powdery coating on every available surface.
  
Skoodge pushed himself to his feet and discovered that as long as he
kept his movements slow and cautious, the layered dust would remain
pretty much where it was. Drawing in a short hissing breath between
his teeth, he proceeded forward, narrowing his magenta eyes in the dim
light.
  
The first thing he noticed was that it wasn't nearly as dark as he
might have expected, given the lack of a lighting system. Nor did it
take a genius to figure out exactly why this was - the far wall was
crumbling, allowing sunlight to filter in. What remained was a jagged
barrier that ranged from about five feet at its highest point to
slightly under a foot at its lowest. Skoodge was no expert on the
matter, but a broken in wall didn't seem like the best way to keep
enemies out.
  
His eyes flitted over the remainder of the room. There were no lurking
predators - surely what the squadron had been fearing when they'd
pressed him to enter first. The room was pretty barren actually, with
only a few decrepit metal bunks, the remains of a table and a few
strips of cloth hanging from the ceiling.
  
As Skoodge continued to survey the area, edging forward - although his
caution was now just as much inspired by a growing sense of looming
danger as it was by the lack of desire to breathe in massive
quantities of dust. His wariness seemed to be unfounded though, as he
reached the back of the barracks and found nothing more threatening
than a few particularly large dust bunnies. He glanced around once
more, letting out a faint sigh of relief before he straightened up
completely. Well, that's that. He couldn't help the smile that crossed
his face as the realization sank in - he was still alive! His antennae
perked as he turned and headed back towards the front, intending to
relay this good news to the rest of the squadron. For the moment, all
thoughts of the ordeal that was surely to come were driven away in a
surge of giddy happiness.
  
No longer was he moving with the typical 'cringe and shuffle' that was
the hallmark of a sanitation drone - he almost had a proper march as
he crossed the dusty room, his eyes fixed on his goal. It wasn't until
he brought his foot down and felt something shifting beneath his
weight that he considered the possibilities that were still inherent
in the situation. Skoodge froze in his tracks, a worse move than
continuing forward would have been - it left his weight unbalanced and
reliant on whatever he was standing on to hold him. He felt it shift,
took a step and promptly had the limb slip out from beneath him -
sending him unceremoniously to the floor.
  
The dust billowed up immediately, obsecuring the room from his view as
he hissed softly, feeling a flare of pain where he'd managed to slam
the side of his head against a metal bunkframe. He struggled to push
himself upright, bracing his weight on his hands and slowly easing to
his hands and knees. As the dust settled, something began to appear in
his clearing vision. It was merely a blob of dusky green at first -
the color interspersed with areas of a darker red. It wasn't until he
blinked and things snapped back into focus that he realized just what
he was looking at.
  
The green he'd seen was an Irken, but not one of his squadron members.
He didn't know them all by sight of course, but it was still rather
obvious that this Irken wasn't one of them. Whoever this poor fellow
was - had been might have been the more apt description, actually - he
was also quite obviously dead. Skoodge was face to face with a corpse!
  
He was back on his feet in a move that was too fast for his mind to
register, not noticing or particularly caring about the dust that
clouded up again at his renewed movement. His panicked thoughts,
mental images of being torn limb from limb that had previously been
quelled, spurred him onward once more. He rushed for the door at a mad
dash, drawing his spider legs in a panic and finding them more
hindrance than help as they caught in the tattered cloth hanging from
the rafters overhead. Quickly he retracted them again; hearing a loud
rip and feeling something brush his arm.
  
His shriek of terror reverberated off of the barrack walls, announcing
his presence to the squadron outside. Skoodge never saw them as he
barreled out the doorway - his vision mostly obscured by the cloth
that had somehow managed to become wrapped around his head. He never
saw them... But he heard them well enough - their own voices rising in
varying yelps and wails of fear, the crashing of brush that arose as
they scattered - presumably running from whatever had attacked him.
  
The flapping cloth that covered his eyes fluttered aside for a moment,
allowing him to see the tree that was rushing to greet him. They came
together with a solid, resounding thunk and it was Skoodge, not the
foliage, who hit the ground with a distinctly unpleasant buzzing
echoing through his skull. It took him a moment or to before he
realized that the buzzing wasn't emerging from somewhere in the
vicinity of the tree that had felled him. He sat up slowly, groaning a
little as he raised one hand to his aching head, touching the sore
area gingerly. Yeah, that was going to leave a bruise - he pulled his
fingers away with a pained hiss, and then looked around.
  
His sight blurred and cleared for a few seconds, dizziness racing
through him. He was alone in the clearing with no sign of an attacker
and no sign of his troops anywhere. 'Great...' Skoodge flopped weakly
back to the ground. He didn't want to try getting up - it had just
occurred to him that he could lie here quietly and maybe the planet's
predators wouldn't even notice he was here. It wasn't like they
wouldn't have a lot of other Irkens to chase around and devour - not
with his entire squadron scampering around out there somewhere. Lying
here would be so much easier than even bothering to go through with
this farce of military training. Grob didn't think his squadron would
make it - surely someone like him wouldn't have been put in charge if
that wasn't the case. It was just the sort of thing that he would have
done in the same situation.
  
No. Actually it wasn't. That was the irony. He wouldn't have put
himself in charge if he'd been the one making the choices. And the
reason he wouldn't have done any such thing was because he knew
nothing about being a military leader. Lead troops? That was a laugh!
If he'd been making the decisions, he would have picked the one who
could lead - who knew about how one could go about surviving on an
alien planet. Someone who would be able to command the squadron well
enough to keep them alive. But that was a laugh too - because a
military leader wouldn't have had any idea what to do with the Irkens
under his command. They weren't soldiers - they were scientists. How
did a bunch of scientists survive under such hostile conditions?
Skoodge wasn't sure, and he knew that was why they couldn't survive.
The odds were entirely stacked against them - unless they could think
like soldiers and act like soldiers. And if that was the case, they'd
survive only if they had a leader who could lead soldiers. Skoodge
sighed and shook his head. That was a very circular argument, and he
couldn't see a solution for it. Well, other than them all dying, of
course.
  
That was just wonderful. Looking at it from that angle, he could only
come to the conclusion that he would be better off just staying right
here and doing nothing at all. It wouldn't make any difference in the
long run whether he led them or just remained sprawled out on his back
under a tree and waited for them to be picked off one by one. Skoodge
closed his eyes, his decision made.
  
He didn't know how long he remained there - he'd actually managed to
sort of distance himself from his surroundings when he felt something
brush against the side of his face and felt his entire body jerk with
fear. He was sitting up before he even realized he was moving, his
stout body shaking a little bit. It was right about then that he made
a rapid 180 degree turn in his reasoning. It was one thing to know
they were all going to die - it was quite another to just wait for
death to come to him. "I don't want to die," Skoodge mumbled,
carefully sitting up and feeling a little relieved when he didn't
immediately feel the world flip end over end. His pak had done a few
repairs and his headache had been reduced considerably - it wasn't
completely gone - but at least that gave him a sense of timeframe. He
hadn't been here long if his head was still hurting.
  
The short Irken struggled to his feet, not bothering to dust himself
off - he never even thought about doing so. He was used to being dusty
and covered with stuff; it was just part of life when one was a
sanitation drone. What mattered for the moment was tracking down his
squadron, or at least as much of it as he could find, and bringing it
back to clean up their barracks. He had no idea just what Grob would
do if he came here and found them with this place still in such a
state of disarray, but he wasn't altogether sure that he wanted to
find out. Then again, just having Grob show up and find no one but
Skoodge at the barracks was just as unappealing a notion. No, he had
to find his squadron. He looked around, and had no trouble spotting
their tracks - it seemed that they'd pretty much gone off in a big
herd in the same general direction, and they hadn't spent any time at
all bothering to cover their tracks either. He sighed and began to
follow the clear pathway, trying not to trip over any of the branches
that had been trampled down by the squadron's passage. It wasn't hard
to follow their trail at all - and it seemed that they hadn't even
managed to go very far. He found the first straggler only a short
distance away, half trampled into the dirt and unconcious. He didn't
even recognize who it was - not surprising given that he hadn't known
their names to begin with. He carefully turned the unconcious Irken
over and double checked to make sure there were no serious injuries -
not that he would have been able to do much to help if there had been,
but at least he thought to check. With a sigh, he stood up straight,
not certain he wanted to leave the wounded Irken there, but not sure
what else he could do. "I'll be back soon..." He muttered, even though
there was really no way whoever it was could have heard him at all.
  
For a moment he remained standing over the other Irken, then he began
to run down the beaten down path, thinking that if he could only catch
up with the rest of them, that he would be able to find a bit of
security in their increased numbers. As he came upon the next two -
both wheezing and gasping and leaning against the nearest trees, they
turned to look in his direction with alarm clear on their faces. One
was male, one was female, but aside from that he could make very
little distinction - certainly he still didn't know their names. Both
of them saw him coming and instead of greeting him with a salute, or
even just by saying hello, they both reacted as though they'd seen a
monster. The male squealed, his voice high and quavery before he fell
over in a dead faint. The female was of a bit sterner stuff though,
and she took one look at her commander and immediately seemed to catch
her second wind, taking off down the trail as though she had a whole
hoarde of slaughtering rat people after her. Skoodge was so startled
that he just stood there blinking stupidly for a moment. He just
didn't understand it - he wasn't that ugly was he? With a
long-suffering sigh, he started out after her, determined to make some
sense of this odd situation.
  
He rounded a clump of trees and saw the rising swell of earth ahead of
him and recognized it as another side of the cliff the barracks was
pressed against - he'd essentially just run in a wide circle around
the raised area. He would have thought it a bit of a waste if he
hadn't seen the group of Irkens milling about uncertainly in the
cliff's shadow. Given the amount of broken branches beneath his feet,
he hardly had a chance to approach them quietly. By the time he came
into their view, all of them were straining to look in his direction.
Some of the trainees had their antennae perked, while others had them
flattened back in fear or unease. They were expecting some kind of a
monster - perhaps whatever they thought had been lurking in the
barracks. Surely they would be greatly relieved to find out it was
just Skoodge?
  
But they didn't seem relieved at all, their eyes went wide as soon as
he came into view, and silence stretched out for a few long moments as
he strode towards them. It was as though they couldn't even find any
words. Then, just as quickly as the deadly silence had fallen, it was
shattered into a million pieces. Someone screamed out something
incomprehensible, and that was all it took to send the entire group
into something like a panic. A couple of them scrambled for cover -
what cover they could find in the mostly barren place against the
cliffside, anyway. More alarming than that, a couple of them appeared
about ready to attack him - one of them even went so far as to pull
the spider legs out of his pak, dropping into a crouch and baring his
teeth. Again, the reaction startled Skoodge. He wasn't sure what to
make of it at all - but he decided to err on the side of caution and
stopped moving towards them. They continued to regard him with varying
expressions of fear and suspicion. Seeing that he was coming no
further, they started to look around at each other questioningly.
  
Skoodge made a soft noise in his throat, faintly annoyed but still not
quite a growl. "What do you think you're doing?" They seemed even more
surprised upon hearing him speak, as though they hadn't been expecting
it anyway.
  
One of them finally spoke up, a little shakily still, "Keep away from
us, ghost! Don't come any nearer or we'll... we'll..." The speaker
glanced around at the others, as though seeking help to come up with a
suitable threat to use. The nearest ones shook their heads, obviously
unable to think of anything. It was ok, Skoodge was a bit too busy
trying to figure out why they thought he was a ghost to notice such
trivial matters. Certainly he didn't feel very ghostlike. He pinched
himself and winced - nope, he was definitely solid. But the other
Irkens obviously didn't seem to realize this fact. With a sigh,
Skoodge shook his head and walked towards them again, determined to
straighten out this obvious misunderstanding. He wasn't sure what he
was expecting as he did it - although the possibility of them deciding
to attack him despite believing he was some kind of spirit was the
most likely in his estimation.
  
Strangely enough they didn't. They didn't even try to attack him. As
soon as he was within a few feet of them, they shrank back as far as
they could against the rock face; one of them even fell to his knees
and sort of cringed. What was going on here? Perhaps they thought he'd
been eaten by a predator - that would have explained why they might
have thought him a ghost, but even so, it seemed like a bit of an
overwhelming reaction for something so very simple. He raised his hand
to prod the kneeling Irken, but stopped halfway through the gesture as
he noticed that his arm was covered with something white. He was
completely covered actually, without a hint of any other color showing
through. He blinked, forgetting about what he was doing for the moment
as he quickly surveyed himself. For the first time he saw the dangling
rags, the wisps of whitish gray dust rising around him faintly with
every movement he made. 'Oh...'
  
'Oh!' Even as the realization hit, some part of him refused to really
grasp it. This was the closest he'd ever had to respect shown to him -
in all the years he'd been alive he had also always been the lowly
one, the butt of everyone's jokes. He was the short, ugly Irken who
was useless for everything but cleaning up after those who were better
than he could hope to be. Except... Except that none of that had any
bearings on what was happening now. A joke he might have been, but he
was a joke that they were taking seriously. For just a moment he knew
what it was like to be tall and he couldn't help but wish that the
moment didn't have to end.
  
As he tried to wrap his mind around what was going on, the gathered
Irkens were becoming more and more confused - undoubtedly wondering
why this horrible spectre was not attempting to attack them. The
bolder trainees were even starting to shift uncomfortably, a move that
Skoodge noticed with a jab of alarm - the last thing he needed was for
them to run him through or shoot him before he had a chance to reveal
himself. The moment of euphoria dissolved under the cold dash of
reality this thought afforded him. He let it go with only the smallest
pang. It had been an appealing dream, but it was just that: a dream.
  
"It's me!" He called out to them, watching the expressions on their
faces change. Surprise and disbelief were warring with superstition
and the process was fascinating to watch. Finally one of them stepped
forward, antennae still flattened back tightly against his head as he
carefully reached out one hand closer to Skoodge. For a brief moment
Skoodge felt the overwhelming urge to yell "Boo!" at the other Irken,
but refrained. One claw jabbed at his chest, lightning fast, then drew
back almost as quickly. Its owner scowled, then reached out and poked
Skoodge again, as though to confirm. The tenseness bled out of his
form as his finger didn't pass through Skoodge after this second
verification.
  
"It is you." The other Irken made a soft noise of disgust and Skoodge
realized that this was someone he recognized. The voice had clued him
in - this was Kru, and Skoodge was quite thoroughly surprised to find
he was among the trainees under his command. Kru wasn't even a
scientist - he was merely a delivery drone, barely above Skoodge in
rank. Apparently, Skoodge mused, he hadn't been the only one to suffer
an unexpected reassignment. Still, he couldn't help but think it was
ironic - if he hadn't been in this squadron, Kru would have been the
lowest ranking. Fortunately for the other drone, Skoodge's status
elevated him immensely. The tone of the taller Irken's voice was a
disappointment though - for whatever foolish reason, Skoodge had been
hoping that the respect for him would last.
  
'Quit dreaming,' The realist in him insisted, 'It could never happen.'
"Yes, it is." He sighed inwardly. "The barracks are secure." He
paused, then quickly accessed his pak's chronometer. They didn't have
much time if they were going to get their barracks into even the
vaguest semblance of cleanliness. "Grob will be expecting us soon... I
don't think it's a good idea to leave the barracks the way they are."
The rest of the squadron was slowly coming over and he did a quick
mental headcount. Thirteen, plus the two he'd passed on the trail -
amazingly enough that accounted for everyone he'd had assigned to him.
  
There was quite a bit of grumbling at this, but they were intimidated
by Grob even if they weren't impressed by Skoodge and they began to
shuffle past him. A few of them bumped him as they passed, a move that
Skoodge couldn't help but think was deliberate. He stood and watched
them pass until the clearing was empty, then he turned and trailed
along after them, feeling shorter than ever.
   
   
   
  -03-
   
  The trip back to the barracks was fairly uneventful after that madcap
dash that he'd been led on by his squadron. He remained trailing in
the rear for the most part and he didn't miss the occasional glances
they would throw him over their shoulders. It didn't take a genius to
realize what they were probably thinking - that he'd done it on
purpose. It was enough to make him want to yank at his own antennae in
frustration, but he didn't really know why it might ever have occurred
to him that they should have thought something else. He was just a
drone, he reminded himself frostily, and a sanitation drone at that.
To expect anything else would be arrogant and to wish for anything
else would be foolish.
  
A short distance back along the path they'd beaten down in their
terror, the troop passed by the Irken male who had fainted upon seeing
Skoodge. He was only just beginning to sit up and look around in
confusion when they started to shuffle past him. When he caught sight
of Skoodge though, still draped in tattered cloth and covered with
pale gray dust, he squealed loudly in alarm, "G-ghost!" He raised a
hand and pointed a shaking finger directly at the barely recognizable
squadron commander and tried to backpedal without ever getting to his
feet.
  
This reaction, while not particularly surprising, was still somewhat
disconcerting to the shorter Irken who'd been placed in charge of
these scientists - former scientists, he reminded himself sternly. But
the reactions of the rest of the squadron were a bit more severe and
markedly less lenient. They shoved past him, forcing him to struggle
to remain on his feet. It was a battle quickly lost when someone
introduced an elbow sharply to the poor unfortunate's midsection.
Skoodge came to a halt beside the downed scientist.
  
"Are you okay?" He wasn't sure why he bothered asking - the likelihood
of a coherent answer was pretty slim. As a long moment passed with
nothing but sputters and not-even-approaching coherent speech, Skoodge
thought he'd calculated those odds pretty well. Therefore he was
startled when the taller Irken managed an answer.
  
"F...fine." From the look on the scientist's face, he wasn't fine.
Instead he was terrified. He probably thinks I'm going to eat him or
something Skoodge mused, not at all surprised by this quick
assumption. He had that brief sensation of pleasure at having a taller
Irken - technically his superior in every way - sitting in front of
him and shaking with undisguised fear. Of course, leaving him like
this was out of the question. Skoodge almost sighed, a quaking idiot
was only marginally worse than one in full control of his mental
faculties, but they already needed all the help they could get if they
were going to survive this planet.
  
"I'm not a ghost," He said, hearing the slight edge in his voice and
wondering when he'd developed it, "I'm Skoodge." Then he shook his
head drawing his lips back in a grimace of distaste, "Get up and go
back to the barracks with the others, we don't have much time."
  
The sheer audacity of his words was not lost on Skoodge - he'd never
expected to be giving orders to someone four inches taller than him
and doubtless with years or even centuries more of training than he
could ever have dreamed of having. But so it was and as the scientist
carefully peeled himself off of the ground, Skoodge felt a rush of
exhilaration. Maybe he could do this after all! As the two of them
continued forward, he couldn't help but notice the occasional odd
looks that the other Irken was giving him – the fear seemed to have
finally abated but curiousity had taken its place. The scientist was
examining Skoodge as though he'd grown another head.
  
The intense scrutiny was almost more uncomfortable than the disdain
he'd fended off earlier, but Skoodge did his best to ignore it. They
were already coming upon the unlucky Irken who'd managed to get
himself trampled earlier. The scientist was still unconscious and
showing no signs of that changing anytime soon. “We'll have to carry
him back...” Skoodge concluded, and the taller Irken beside him looked
at him with a mixture of astonishment and disbelief.
  
“Carry him?” There was a note of incredulity in his voice, and it
didn't take a genius to understand why. Help another Irken without any
promise of personal gain? It just wasn't done! And to ask such a thing
from a scientist who never had to do anything more physical than
walking from their quarters to their lab, well, that was even worse!
The taller Irken's lips were drawn back in a slight grimace, finding
the notion to be extremely distasteful. “I'm sure he'll do just fine
if we leave him there.” He began, looking at Skoodge with an
expression that was very nearly pleading.
  
Skoodge sighed inwardly – he didn't need this. “Something would
probably eat him,” He pointed out and was not surprised when the only
response he got was a puzzled tilt of the head.
  
“So? That means one less hungry thing that could eat us."
  
There was nothing wrong with the logic – in fact, the other Irken had
a really good point. Skoodge was already kneeling beside the downed
scientist and sliding his arms underneath the limp male's body, but it
was obvious that he wouldn't be able to carry (or even drag) the
larger Irken very far without help. He looked up at the loitering
scientist, who had obviously had enough time to regain a semblance of
composure – he was giving Skoodge a look that wasn't quite haughty yet
but one that suggested that he didn't think much of the idea of
stooping to carrying someone. Instead he just watched as the small
Irken tried to move the larger one and failed miserably.
  
Skoodge gave it an attempt, barely managing to slide the unconscious
scientist a few inches before being forced to stop, glancing over his
shoulder in the direction of the barracks. At this rate he would be
lucky to get them back there in the span of several hours – time that
he didn't have. Grob's order to them meant that time was limited and
even if it hadn't been, the wild beasts of this region would surely
converge quickly enough on wounded prey. They were rather like
rank-hungry Irkens in that regard.
  
Frustration bubbled up in him as he tried again, his legs straining as
he pulled the other a little further, his red eyes narrowed as he
looked towards the watching scientist. “Hey, uh...” Well, he couldn't
keep calling them 'hey you', could he? That would get confusing very
quickly. “What's your name?
  
Dusky red eyes widened a little, the scientist he was addressing
hesitating a moment before shrugging. “Ceti.
  
“I'm Skoodge,” He couldn't help the automatic reply – he always
introduced himself when assigned to a new location, despite the fact
that an Irken his size tended to be quickly forgotten.
  
If the slight sneer of distaste on Ceti's face was any clue, he was
not likely to slip under the radar so easily here. “I know who you
are, Commander.” He gave the rank a mocking inflection and Skoodge
laid his antennae back in annoyance. Only a few minutes ago, the other
Irken had been quivering in terror at the sight of him!
  
He couldn't keep a bit of irritation out of his own voice now, “Please
help me carry him s- Ceti.” He'd almost called the scientist 'Sir' – a
gaffe that would have made him even more of a laughingstock. Proper
address or not, Ceti had a stubborn expression that was answer enough.
Maybe it was time to try a different approach. “The longer I have to
spend dragging him by myself, the longer we'll be out in the open for
predators.
  
Ceti's mouth opened, but he didn't get any words out. A loud crash
somewhere off in the brush cut off anything he might have said, and
both he and Skoodge froze in their tracks and stared in the direction
of the noise. There was a long stretch of silence, enough to lull the
two into a false sense of security before another one came – this time
closer. Skoodge could hear a low rumbling now, a particularly ominous
sound.
  
Skoodge yelped out a curse, almost dropping the unconscious Irken he
was dragging. “Help me move him!
  
“Forget it!” Ceti hissed at him, braced to run. “I can get back faster
on my own! There's no way I'm risking my neck!
  
Ironically it was Ceti's fear that served as inspiration for Skoodge.
His eyes widened as a wild thought struck him – it was a long shot,
but it was his only option at the moment. “I swear, if I get eaten
here, I'm gonna haunt you forever!” He growled the threat, trying to
emulate the tone Grob had used when addressing them earlier. Whether
it was a concession to his former ghostly status or an indication that
Skoodge had managed to force a certain amount of intimidation into his
voice, Ceti actually hesitated. His gaze flicked between the shorter
Irken and the relative safety of the barracks in the distance.
  
Skoodge was sure that he'd make a run for it anyway and that he'd be
left to face whatever was coming with only the unconscious form of an
Irken he didn't even know to keep him company in his last moments. So
the unexpected shift in weight caused by Ceti grabbing the downed
scientist by the feet almost sent Skoodge to his knees. He recovered
with only a few stumbles, his grip tightening on the arms of their
passenger as both of them dashed towards the barracks. It was an
awkward run, even with help – Ceti was taller than him and had longer
legs, his own short limbs meant that he was taking five or six steps
for each of the scientist's. Adding to that the fact that he almost
had to crab-walk to move and still keep his grip and it was a wonder
they were making any progress at all.
  
On the other side of their cargo, Ceti was panting, tongue lolling out
of his mouth in a particularly unattractive manner as he wheezed and
gasped. Skoodge doubted he was much better – he could feel a sharp
jabbing in his side that made him want to stop for just a moment to
ease the pain. The thought fled his mind completely as the brush near
where they'd been arguing split open – branches and leaves flying
everywhere as a huge beast emerged from the tangled foliage. The
former sanitation drone's eyes got as wide as saucers but somehow his
legs continued to carry him forward. On the other side of the body
they were carrying, Ceti was coughing out a litany of curses that
seemed out of place coming from someone accustomed to the sheltered
lifestyle of the Sciences. He said something that made no sense to
Skoodge and left the smaller Irken grasping for something to reply
with, “I wish I had a remote!” Really, what was he supposed to say to
that?
  
A roar from behind them reminded him sharply that he would have plenty
of time to think of something if they actually survived this. The
building rose up ahead of them and Skoodge could see several pairs of
wide Irken eyes peering out from the doorway. Then the opening began
to shrink in his vision and he realized with a bit of panic that the
rest of the squadron was tying to close the door. If they succeeded,
it would not only shut the monster out, but the three fleeing Irkens
as well! “Hurry,” He screeched at Ceti, noticing their hope of escape
rapidly disappearing.
  
“We'll never make it!” The scientist whined but lengthened his
strides. Skoodge ignored this nay-saying and darted a quick glance
behind him. The beast was as bad as he'd feared it would be, with a
mouth full of sharp teeth and strings of slobber hanging from its
hungry maw. His antennae went flat against his head, determination to
live rising within him. He didn't want to die – not here on this
miserable planet, not with the humiliation of being a failed soldier
heaped upon his head. Across from him, Ceti was babbling in terror,
his words running over each other in their haste, “They're closing it!
Irk save me, they can't do that! They can't! I don't want to die! I
don't want to die!
  
“Just keep going!” Skoodge yelped back, ducking his head in an attempt
to make himself smaller as they reached the threshold. The moving door
struck his shoulder, sending him careening wildly into Ceti's path. He
could hear the scientist's renewed cursing, although it was largely
incomprehensible. It was barely worth his attention anyway, his focus
was on something more worrisome. His grip on the unconscious soldier
they were carrying faltered at last, his clawed fingers grasping
convulsively but unable to find purchase. The limp form fell to the
floor in front of him, tangling his feet and sending him skidding into
the barracks. He heard the loud crash of the door shutting only
moments before Ceti's weight came down hard across his back and drove
the air from his lungs.
  
Skoodge flailed, trying to scramble out from beneath the larger Irken.
There was some grumbling coming from around them – it seemed the rest
of the squadron wasn't quite so happy about their narrow escape as
Skoodge himself was. When a large body slammed into the front of the
barracks with enough force to make the building quiver alarmingly, he
couldn't help but feel a little sympathy for their point of view. With
someone outside to serve as prey, the creature would probably have
already have satisfied its hunger and left. Could it break its way
inside? Skoodge managed to disentangle himself at last, struggling to
his feet and coughing as the action stirred up the dust even further.
'This is great' he thought, not without some sarcasm. Even if they
managed to get this place cleaned up – and the possibility of that was
already slim enough to be negligible – there was no way they would be
able to report back to Grob on time.
  
The building shook again, the motion wringing a few startled cries and
curses from its occupants. “Maybe it'll give up and go away,” Someone
piped up hopefully. This bit of foolishness was quickly silenced by a
combination of snide rejoinders and silent contempt. A few more blows
against the front wall rapidly silenced any further remarks as the
Irkens hunkered down and kept their eyes fixed on the door. Skoodge
could hear someone muttering under their breath – it took him a while
to realize the other trainee was counting the seconds between the
crashes. Still, as badly built and rundown as the building looked,
nothing had fallen in just yet. Silence stretched out for longer than
it had previously and Skoodge found himself counting the time in his
head as well. The longer the quiet stretched out, the more restless
the squadron became.
  
One of the Irkens eased over to the door. In the midst of the
lingering airborne dust, all Skoodge could make out was that the bold
individual was taller than him – which was no surprise – and very
solidly built. He also had an air of casualness that the shorter Irken
could not help but envy. As the individual in question reached out to
grasp at the handle and proceeded to maneuver the door open a
fraction, everyone in the building went completely still. Skoodge
noticed that the other Irken was holding something in one hand and was
idly rubbing his thumb over it but he couldn't make out exactly what
it was.
  
Nothing rushed in the open door but the trainee closed it again with
slow care before turning back to look at the others. “It's still out
there.” He commented in a rather bland tone, tapping the item he was
carrying against the side of his face. Skoodge recognised it now – it
was a small explosive. It seemed like a strange thing for a scientist
to be carrying around, but who was he to argue with someone carrying a
volatile device like that? It was just too bad that they couldn't use
it on the monster blocking their path without getting themselves
eaten, blown up or both.
  
“We need to find a way to drive it off,” Skoodge said, largely to
himself. The rest of the squadron took it as a statement aimed at
them, their voices rising in baleful mutters. The former sanitation
drone laid his antennae back as he looked at them and saw several
pairs of eyes glaring in his direction.
  
“Why don't you go out there and draw it off for us,” Kru's caustic
voice rang out above the others. If they disliked being drowned out by
a delivery drone scarcely over three feet tall, it wasn't as
bothersome to them as the thought of taking orders from a grubby
little sanitation drone. No one spoke up in Skoodge's defense – it was
clear that he would have a big struggle ahead of him just to get them
to even consider listening to anything he said. The thought made him
cringe back under their combined glares. If Grob hadn't made him
leader...
  
But Grob had made him the leader of this group – whether he wanted the
position or not. If they got out of this alive, the squadron would be
expected to follow his orders as though he was actually their
commander instead of a floor scrubber. It was something he was going
to have to get used to. He straightened up a bit, finding that the
illusion of authority lent him some confidence. They noticed the
change in his stance immediately and regarded him with varying degrees
of wary interest.
  
“We don't need somebody to draw it off,” Skoodge said, considering his
choices more than paying attention to his words. His options in this
scenario seemed pretty limited – either he had to serve as a decoy and
lure the monster away, thus allowing his squadron to proceed to their
destination without being attacked, or he had to command someone else
to do so. The second of those two was likely to arouse the ire of the
troops under his command since his height put him on the lowest rung
as far as value went. An ideal solution, of course, would be to find
away to get rid of the monster without sacrificing anyone – most
especially himself!
  Unfortunately, his unthinking reply had already been taken at face
value and, as expected, it was treated with contempt. Muttered
comments about the improbability of his statement rose like a wave
with a few louder and more biting remarks standing out above the
crowd.
  
“That's a great idea! Why don't we just let it stay out there?!
  
“Why don't we just fill the stupid thing with bullets?
  
“Statistically speaking, the likelihood of it leaving before our
scheduled rendezvous with the other groups is slim enough that it
might as well be considered an impossibility.
  
“What was wrong with the whole 'send someone to distract it' idea?
  
Skoodge shook his head at the nearly overwhelming auditory input,
raising one hand into the air in a gesture for quiet. It went
completely unnoticed, causing him to have to resort to more extreme
measures. “Everyone, would you please quiet down!?” As polite as his
words were, the sheer volume of them was difficult to ignore. All eyes
went to the frazzled little Irken. For his part, Skoodge was so
startled at this ready obedience that he stared right back at him,
flabbergasted. After a long moment of silence, Skoodge cleared his
throat. “I... um...” he faltered and forced himself to continue, “I'm
sure we can find a way to get rid of it without having to send someone
out there.” 'Especially if that someone is me!' he added mentally.
  
Someone only a short distance away shifted uneasily – Skoodge
recognised Ceti's voice when the other Irken spoke, “Do you really
think that's possible?” He sounded more confused than hostile, perhaps
because he and Skoodge had made that very narrow escape earlier.
'Well, that's something anyway.' Skoodge thought.
  
“Or are you just saying that because you know no one would listen to
you if you ordered them to do it?” Kru voiced what most of the
squadron was undoubtedly thinking. “I mean, who here would listen to
someone as short as you just because Grob said you get to be
commander?
  
He had a point, that much was clear. Neither his words nor his tone
were particularly unexpected – what Skoodge hadn't been anticipating
was the eager voice ringing out in response, “I'd do it!” Both Kru and
Skoodge turned to regard the obvious lunatic who had just uttered
those words. The Irken in question was not familiar to Skoodge at all-
he was a little over half a foot taller than the once-service drone
with bright red eyes, a wide smile and a stance that could only be
described as “perky”. The shorter Irken was still struggling to find
something to say to this eager volunteer when someone else took
advantage of the situation, grabbing the obviously young Irken by the
arm and dragging him towards the door. Anyone who didn't scramble out
of the way found themselves knocked down, jostled aside or otherwise
compelled to clear a pathway.
  
As easy as it would have been to let the foolish Irken go ahead and
get himself killed – thus solving the problem for everyone else –
Skoodge couldn't help but feel a little bad at the notion. They would
have been just as eager to do the same to him only moments ago.
'Besides,' a stray thought piped up, 'that crazy Irken is probably the
only one here who might actually listen if I give a command.' Skoodge
stepped forward, “Stop that! We're not going to send him out there to
be eaten!
  
The attention immediately went back to their so-called commander. “Why
not?” Kru again – Skoodge was beginning to really dislike the sound of
his voice. “A real leader would know when to sacrifice someone so the
rest of us don't get mauled!
  
“Someone's going to have to go out eventually,” The explosive-wielding
Irken with the too-calm voice commented, “That this isn't going to go
away on its own.
  
Skoodge looked from one to the other, not certain which of these
comments to address first. He chose to address Kru, mostly because the
difference in their heights wasn't as intimidating – and partially
because the delivery drone was doing a much better job of getting
under his skin. “Grob made me leader. Talk to him if you have a
problem with it.
  
“I'm already talking to you,” The other Irken shot back, “If you're
such a good leader why do you need Grob to tell me so? Why not just
prove it? Get us all out of here alive and maybe I'll consider calling
you 'commander'!
  
That was a challenge, pure and simple. It couldn't be ignored or else
his tentative status as the leader of this group would cease to exist,
except in name. He had one person who would listen to him and a couple
more who might be willing to do so if he could prove he had any ideas
that were worth their time. Besides, they still needed to get out of
this mess somehow.
  
“I will.” Skoodge said firmly, although he still had absolutely no
clue how he could go about doing so. He wracked his brain, looking
around the dilapidated barracks and trying to appear diligent – as if
there might be something among the dust bunnies and worn out bed
frames that could actually help. All he could see were a few
desiccated corpses and the only thought they inspired was, 'I don't
want to end up like them!'
  
“So, if we're not going to lure it away with a decoy, what are we
going to do?” The female voice uttering this question caught Skoodge
off-guard. He turned his head to see who had spoken but only saw
several of the taller males and the odd calm Irken who was still
fiddling with that explosive of his. Skoodge's eyes lit up as a very
strange idea popped into his head. It was a pretty desperate notion
but, considering their situation, it was worth a try.
  
His intent stare did not go unnoticed and several of the other
trainees slowly backed away, leaving the Irken he was scrutinizing
alone in the center of the room. The individual in question blinked
slowly at this, turning his head to look at Skoodge. “What?
  
Skoodge smiled, “I think I do have an idea.” The others stared at him
with varying degrees of confusion.
  
“What's that?” Someone finally piped up.
  
“The thing wants a meal,” Skoodge glanced at the door, his magenta
eyes glittering. “Let's give it one...

  ----

       
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