The Fallen Invader

Chapter 13: The Smeet

The baby, no, Smeet, in front of me, was absolutely tiny. It was about eight inches tall, and had a thin body. Its expression was unreadable. It just stared at us, endlessly.

"Come on, Dib, let's go." Zim stated, walking away.

"But what about the baby?"

"Leave it. It can't be trusted." He snapped.

I tried to leave. Really, I did. But those eyes. I knew if I left it behind, those eyes would haunt my dreams.

Of course, I didn't intend to keep it permanently, especially considering it could potentially be dangerous, but I at least wanted to get it out of the Planet Jackers' ship. I had a feeling the little Smeet wasn't supposed to be there, nor did it want to be.

When I attempted to reach out towards it, the Smeet darted back into the bag of chips it was hiding in before. I just took the whole bag at that point.

Zim shook his head at me in disapproval, but there was no time to argue. We had to get back to Earth, back to our graduation... Oh no...

"How am I gonna hide this from Dad?" I asked after we got back into the Voot.

"That's your problem. You shouldn't have taken a random Smeet."

"Oh, come on! It was all alone in that cupboard! I bet those Planet Jackers were planning to eat it or something! If it were you in that situation, wouldn't you want me to help you?"

"That depends. Would it be before or after our truce? The point is, all she knows is what's programmed into her PAK, and she's just been abducted by an unfamiliar alien race. The proper protocol is to destroy you."

Of course, I was concerned about the whole "potentially being murdered by a baby" thing, but my focus was on something else Zim said.

"How can you tell the gender?"

He laughed at me, as if I'm supposed to know this sort of thing.

"The antennae. Males have straight ones, females have curled ones." He explained.

I peeked into the bag once again, and was met with the Smeet's endless stare again. It was right on the borderline between cute and creepy. I wasn't sure what to make of her. I wanted to ask Zim more questions, but he already seemed irritated enough, so I decided to let him cool off first.

Finally, we made it back to Earth. The ceremony went on without us, as if nothing happened. We weren't gone too long, since everyone was still there, taking pictures with their families outside the hi skool, but we were still too late.

We bumped into Gaz first. She did not look happy.

"You two are going to regret this! I swear, I WILL DESTROY... Oh, cool, chips."

Before I could say anything, she snatched the bag from me, opened it up, and saw what was inside.

"What did you guys do?" She asked in an accusatory tone.

"Don't blame me, I had nothing to do with this! I told Dib not to take it home!" Zim replied.

Gaz snickered. "Oh my god. Dib, did you get pregnant with an alien baby? And just out of hi skool, nonetheless! What's Dad gonna say?" She teased.

"Shut up. And don't tell Dad about this. I rescued her from some other aliens. As soon as I figure out where she's supposed to go, I'll send her on her way. I'm just waiting for a certain SOMEONE to give me more information!"

We kind of just stood around for a while making awkward small talk until Dad finally came back from crying his eyes out in the bathroom. I do feel bad that I missed graduation, but come on, I wasn't gonna let everyone die for the sake of one stupid ceremony.