The Smeet

The Doubt

Perhaps the hardest part on having a young smeet on board the Massive was the fact that they were still in the middle of Operation Impending Doom II. This meant that at a young age, Ilk witnessed things most her age wouldn't see until after completing the basic training.

This included watching how planets marked for conquest by her father and uncle were went through the Organic Sweep, its inhabitants either were exterminated or enslaved, and the planetary conversion team turned their home into... whatever dad and uncle fancied at the time. The last planet they conquered was made into a shopping mall, and its citizens forced to work in it.

The odd thing? Ilk didn't like it. There, she said it!

Everybody said their species was superior, and as such they could do as they wished, stomping out on inferior creatures to expand their Empire. Well, Ilk lacked that mentality. Superior or not, they were still invading someone else's home, destroying it and turning it into something else without any regard for how its natives would feel.

Ilk didn't dare tell her father this, however. He looked so happy every time they conquered another planet she didn't want to disappoint him, especially if he eventually wanted her to become an Invader herself (hopefully not).

She was surprised to learn Zim was not a real Invader, but that his 'mission' on the backwater planet named Earth was a ploy to get him away from OID2 and keep him from ruining it; apparently his knack for destruction was a bit too much even for Irken standards, and it ended up in him ruining the original Operation Impending Doom and nearly causing the end of their civilization.

Ilk knew she should hate Zim, but... Okay, she liked him, satisfied?! She didn't know why, though, maybe it was because he was the only Irken who was actually honest 98% with her; everyone on the Massive, her father and uncle included, sugarcoated or hid things from her sometimes. She'd give them a honesty percentage of 75%.

Besides, watching Zim break stuff was funny.

"Zim, how is it like to be an Invader?" she asked him through video-chat that night. She kind of didn't feel like joining the post-planet conquering party.

"Ah, so My Tallest's smeet wishes to become an Invader just like Zim!" he said in delight. "Well, all you have to do is gather vital information about your assigned planet's defenses and study the dominant species, then you disable their defenses and call the Armada for the Organic Sweep!"

"Yeah, I know that part," Ilk pointed out, lowering her antennae. "What I mean is how does it feel to interact with the native people? I mean, they must be interesting..."

"The hyoomans? Interesting! NEVER! I assure you, they are the most pathetic, disgusting earth-worms you'll find in the whole universe!"

"EARTH-WORMS!" Zim's defective SIR unit, also known as GIR (Ilk barely contained a laugh when she recalled what uncle Purple said the 'G' stood for), popped out in front of the screen, holding a bucket filled with squirming, slimy pink worms.

"GIR, get those things out of the lab, you're spreading germs everywhere!" Zim snapped, pushing the little robot out of the way. "Anyway, I can tell you more when your father and uncle bring the Armada to take his puny rock! I'm pretty sure you'll want to see the almighty Zim in action personally, right?"

"Yeah, sure, Zim." Ilk said with a small giggle. She felt bad for him not knowing his mission was an excuse to keep him away from the Armada.

A few hours later, when Ilk was in the kitchen looking for some trimisu before uncle Purple ate it all again, she had to hide under the table when she heard him and dad coming in. Thankfully, she was so small it wasn't a problem to hide inside one of the pots.