Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

What's Right

The earth hung, a vast orb of blue on a silver chain of stars, from where Adam stood on the viewing platform he was backed by the sun blazing at his back through the cold reaches of space. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he watched as the leviathan was slowly hoisted into place by way of gently accelerating aircraft. Massive gravity fields pulsed at the creature's belt, the only reason they had managed to get him off of earth's surface again.

He looked smaller back here in space, where he had no comparative references to measure his size against, but still, as one of his glimmering blue wings unfurled slowly catching the light of the sun and absorbing that energy into its glimmering sheet, Adam couldn't help but marvel. Considering the circumstances, one might have assumed he didn't have time for marveling.

The Beast had appeared in more locations, and now there was a report on his desk that detailed a sudden outbreak of sightings all across human provinces.

The one thing in common.

Cosmic Exposure Dissociative Disorder.

Mental health institutions all across the world catering to the rare occurrence of CEDD had reported tragedies inside their wards where one or more patient exhibited shocking behavior, glowing red auras, and protruding bone spikes before growing violent with other patients and staff members. Despite the best efforts of hospitals and police units, who had attempted a variety of nonlethal restraining methods including and not limited to tranquilizers, tasers, stun batons, and even neural disruption had proven insufficient.

In all cases, incidents of the Beast had been forcibly put down. In some tragic cases entire hospital wings had been wiped out by a single instance, while in other cases brave staffers, patients or law enforcement had been forced to forcibly put down the incident by any means necessary. Incapacitation by way of secondary injury had not been enough.

The only time death occurred was as a result of a severed spine or damaged central nervous system. The results had been tragic, and devastated family members were flooding forward demanding to know why their loved ones had been forcibly removed, and why they weren't allowed to see the bodies. It was that part that was causing the most issues, perhaps if they had been able to see, they wouldn't be so concerned with the UNSC and what it was secretly testing, but the fact of the matter was that the public was not ready for the knowledge inside that vault.

Adam laughed when he thought about that, weren't there plenty of sci-fi movies out there that proved that sort of thinking by government bodies didn't tend to turn out well? Had had become part of the oppressive overlords who kept their people in the dark?

He didn't think so.

And he had a few reasons for thinking that.

Number one, all of the instances of the beast that had sprouted thus far, had direct ties to him. Hijan, Lord Calex, his father, and the UNSC space division was small enough that he had met each and every one of the men and women who later developed CEDD at some point. The truth about why the families couldn't see the bodies.

They didn't know if they were contagious or not.

The truth about why the UNSC didn't want people to know the truth.

Because it would fundamentally alter religion.

Thousands of years of practice under gods with different names and they had finally proven his existence.

The Architect was the closest thing they were to ever have to a god.....

No one was right.

The chaos that would cause would be..... it would be untold.