Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

A Plan to Unite

Dr. Vall was sitting in her office. Out of all the creatures on the Vrul home world beside the council, she was one of the most powerful creatures on the face of the planet. She had access to and control of almost 100% of the young alpha population in the city, and still.... she had what amounted to no power at all. Despite what an outsider might see looking in, she knew exactly where she stood with the council.

She had made the mistake early in her career of questioning some of the methods laid out before her by the higher ups, and it had almost ruined her career, in fact, there had been talk of putting out a termination order for her The council had argued that she was mind sick and experiencing psychological problems during that time. Personally, she had felt fine, so there were two explanations, either on, she was crazy and really good at hiding it or two the council said she was crazy until she started having their opinion.

It was, complicated.

Once upon a time she had coveted this job, thinking that it would be the height of her career, she would learn so much and do so many thing and changed the way the world worked, but I the end she was a glorified administrator and a figurehead at best, She did none of the science, and she made almost none of the decisions. It was her job, to take the decisions of the council and pass them off as her own.

She hated it.

But what else was there for her to do? She saw what happened to others when they attempted to defy the council. They ended estranged from their own species, relying on the kindness and charity of aliens to support them. They lost what it meant to be Vrul, yet, at the same time, she wasn't sure she understood what that meant.

She tried not to think about it. The more she thought, the more likely she was to be punished that's always how it worked, independent thinking led to ideas, and if those ideas slipped out than they tended to lead to losing your job and your life.

Best to keep quiet.

She was in a half state of trance when the door opened, two of her cortical hemispheres shut down for maintenance. In other species that might have been called sleep though she was not fully unconscious. She could have turned off three hemispheres of her brain and still functioned quite well, but like most Vrul she didn't prefer it, thinking was harder, and it was just easy to doze while parts of her brain slept.

When the door opened however, she became alert t, and the hemispheres of her brain began to reboot.

She shifted and turned in her seat.

Turning towards the doorway, she was surprised to see a Vrul that she was sure she had never met before.

How could she be sure?

Well number one she had a photographic memory, and number two ,she would remember a Vrul that looked like this anywhere. It wasn't something that you could have missed or forgotten. Her mottled grey/brown against white skin was quite striking, and something she was sure the council would never have allowed.

She shook her head, wondering if she was just imagining things, but the image didn't go away, in fact, the young Vrul moved closer. And that was clear enough, the Vrul was very young, probably under two cycles old maybe more maybe less give or take a microcycle or two, but she worked with enough young Vrul students to recognize them on site.

Though, there was already soemthing odd in the way this one moved.

Eerie.... Fluid, but somehow jerky as well.

The young Vrul did not seem to rely as heavily on the helium sack as they did on their legs, and the simply way in which they moved was just..... disconcerting.