Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Eyes of the Council

Half a month ago

The cool, amber orb sat undisturbed. Its surface was clear and mostly opaque unless you were to look through it at the exact right angle. Like the yolk of a chicken egg, what could be seen of the interior was lined with thin veins of a different color, made black by the light spilling into the orb from the other side, and just inside that something twitched.

The orb jumped slightly and then fell back to resting.

It didn't move for a long time after that, but soon it jumped again, its intervals of activity and inactivity shortening in span until the orb seemed to tremble restlessly like it was shivering in the cold. Just to its sides, two other orbs were beginning to do the same, rocking and tipping from one side to the other with eager movement.

And then.

With the sound of splintering glass a hairline crack erupted around the very outside of the amber orb, now clearly an egg. Inside the creature rocked back and forth madly. The already existing crack ruptured into a line of many branching cracks, like the branching of veins before the entire thing fractured.

Outside, another clear barrier separated watching eyes, as human an alien alike gathered around the outside of the chamber to lay witness to what lie within.

The birth of the fates.

Or so the crew called them .

It seemed that Admiral Vir's choosing had stuck. There was some questioning along the lines of why he had named all of them with historically female names, but he pointed out that Vrul only had one gender so picking a name in either direction was going to be a moot point. If they didn't like it they could change it later.

Sunny had helpfully indicated that the names didn't exactly fit with the traditional ways in which vrul named their children. A four letter word with the second letters being the same.

He had pointed out to her that these Vrul were special and so deserved special names.

No one had bothered to argue with him past that.

It was hard to argue with the admiral when his logic was some times more magical than it was logical.

Inside the room, Krill and Riss were steadily monitoring the readouts inside the glass container. They were less worried now about maintaining proper temperature as the creatures inside were already fully developed, but it didn't pay to be careless.

The first egg splintered, the fractures bowing outward and then erupting into a hail of tiny egg shards. The interior membranous sack inside the egg lost its shape and sloshed out onto the towel carrying with it the tiny shape wriggling and flailing inside where it sat in the goo.

At the windows, the humans and other aliens pressed forward trying to see inside.

Krill quickly undid the outer dome of the containment unit and reached inside, his gloved hands used to withdraw the tiny wriggling creature.

Pressing their faces to the glass they could see the tiny creature was pale, a sort of milky brown color. It had wide orange eyes almost exactly the color of Krill's. Its tiny body was almost.... Grub like in shape, a head at the top and a body that seemed to taper from there. At first they could see no hands or limbs, until Admiral vir, taking a closer look, realized that he could see the limbs, folded tightly up against the creature's chest, and held there by a membranous layer of tissue holding them in place.

Krill Patted the creature gently on the back, and the group of them watched as its tiny chest expanded for the first time.

It made no noise.