Shades of Purple

The End of her Life...

Irk holds a different concept of weddings.

For starters, there's no 'religious' concept to them; it's merely a formality between two Irkens who wish to spend the rest of their lives with each other. Other lifeforms would call it a 'contracted arrangement for mutual company' rather than the usual 'love compromise' involved in the process. It is not a representative of some omnipotent being living somewhere in the sky that conducts said procedure, but the Control Brains themselves. The couple merely introduces a petition to be 'wed', which may take months (the stand-by list is very long) to be revised and may be approved. If you were fortunate enough to have your petition fast-forwarded to the top, all you had to do was present yourself before a Control Brain to program your civil status as married, or 'claimed', through your PAK.

In other words, Irken weddings aren't such a big thing. Simple, with no big after-parties to gorge yourself in sugary snacks, empty, overly-sentimental and poetic 'vows' that will hold no significance in a year or the female having to wear a showy colorless garment.

Naturally, Tenn felt overwhelmed with hers for including most of the mentioned above.

"You look dazzling, ma'am!" one of the many seamstress drones chirped, proud with her work.

Tenn looked at her reflection in the mirror. The dress covered her shoulders almost fully, flowing down into a gracefully draped neckline; it was a loose fit which made the dress look comfortable, yet elegant and stylish. The waist was thin, but in a tight fit. A cloth ribbon was wrapped around her and tied on one side. The skirt reached all the way down, nearly covering her feet, and was the same length all around. It had so much glitter and sequins that Tenn found it too extravagant. White held little significance in this kind of events, as it was reserved for the scientific and medical areas. Instead, her 'wedding' gown was made of a deep fuchsia fabric matching her own eyes.

"The Tallest will certainly be pleased," the same seamstress said, proud of her work. "Be sure to tell him who made your dress!" Tenn sighed. Of course, that's all she cared about.

After a few more adjustments, another irkenette clad in white medical colors made some check-ups, including a full PAK scan, height, pulse, eyes, lekku*, etcétera. Tenn couldn't help but shudder uncomfortably, especially when she thought of the reason this check-up was being made in the first place. The medic drone nodded in approval and stepped out of the room. Tenn heard her say 'she's ready' to somebody in the corridor. 

Seconds later one her escorts said in a gruff voice. "It's time to go, ma'am."

She had been dreading those words, but nevertheless, she made her way out of the changing room, ignoring the over-enthusiastic waving of the head seamstress, and into the hall. Her escort, two members of the Tallest's Imperial Guard, pricked their lekku ever so slightly. Did she really look that good? They quickly turned away, of course. Nobody was allowed to stare at her for too long; if they had been in the presence of her soon-to-be-husband they would have already been thrown out of... the closest thing to an airlock on Irk.

Speaking of Irk, the event would take place in her capital, the great planetary metropolis whose lights could be seen from the atmosphere. The Irkens had long eradicated every single patch of nature to replace it with buildings, machinery, towers, etcétera. The only exception was the fortress and palace of the Almighty Tallest, which had acres of gardens, forests and even a lake of unpolluted water. Courtesy of Tallest Miyuki.

Tenn was escorted into a long, sleek-looking ship the Imperial seal marked in black on the sides: a slik cruiser of the expensive variety. It was a sort of warning to the rest of the Irken citizens that this ship either belonged to the Tallest or was transporting a very important person (usually the Tallest themselves). The privileges of this were that whoever was driving, and its passengers, could not be detained or arrested by Irk's Aerial Traffic Control, also known as IrkATraC. As the ship joined the flock of hundreds of ships, all with varying sizes and shapes but sharing the same color shades of fuchsia and violet, flying through the city Tenn couldn't help but notice how all the vehicles made way for them as they passed. She sighed. There it goes her hope that she could at the very least earn more time through the traffic jam. How naive on her part.