Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Dark Source

"Now what exactly are we looking for?" The station master was trying hard not to sound annoyed, though his efforts were futile as his throughs practically shouted across the room at her. She didn't entirely blame him. Her call to president Hunt had effectively stopped commerce onto Earth, and by extension all other earth territories and original colonies.

The bramble colony had been her first call as their agricultural industry was the main source of export on their planet. She had yet to hear anything from them, so it remained to be seen if her warning had been headed.

Vexon Ag.

These were the crates she was looking for.

Beside her, soon to be former president hunt stood with his arms crossed over his chest, a pitena of sweat glittering off his bald scalp. He was nervous, she could what it in his head, though he actively tried not to think on the subject.

"Open them."

The station master huffed under his breath in annoyance but motioned one of his workers forward. The woman, short and round, appearing to some degree like a portly little songbird, waddled up to the crate quickly scanning the transit code that would unlock the crate before eagerly stepping away.

The others did the same, leaving Kelly to move forward.

Her guards were the only ones that bothered to follow her, but their presence here sas simply traditional, perhaps ceremonial in a way. Now that she had already been killed, there wasn't much chance of it happening again. She was probably the most dangerous thing on planet Earth at the moment, or.... Above it, in this case.

Reaching out, she opened the crate with one partially glitched hand. The Stress had brought on a more chronic bout of her condition, leaving her hands, up to her wrists completely comprised of darkness and a galaxy of distant spinning stars.

She ignored it, and everyone else did their best to do so as well as she hauled the crate open.

Looking inside it revealed nothing overtly noticeable, other than the large silver canisters marked with the Vexon logo, and a holographic shipping manifest that promised a large incoming shipment of pesticide to be shipped all over earth.

"Ms. Kelly, the Martian prime minister called. They stopped a similar shipment just as it was being prepared for transit. He wants to know what do do with it."

Kelly thought for a short moment before nodding softly to herself, "Tell him to ship it off world as soon as possible, preferably to the nearest asteroid mining station. Preferably one in a near state of closure. If that is too much then at least get him to quarantine it fff world somehow. I don't know what is in it, but I don't want to risk contamination." The man nodded and she listened as her instructions were relayed over the phone.

She leaned down into the crate, easily lifting one of the silver barrels up and out of its container. The cylinder must have weight somewhere around a hundred pounds or more, but she barely noticed the weight thanks to her status as a Maker. Others looked on in interest and fear, backing away from her as she set the barrel on the floor before her.

"Everyone out, quarantine the room, and don't let anyone in."

For the first time in so many minutes Hunt chose to speak, "Are you sure this is a good idea, Kelly." The hesitation in his voice was understandable, he was thinking bout the void invasion, images flashing through his mind of the deviation, and the scars left on Earth's surface that could still be seen from above, great swaths of land scarred and gone barren for a time as a result of the toxic nature of the void sickness.

"Yes I am sure."

He didn't argue with her, deciding quickly that it simply wasn't worth it. As far as he knew it was impossible for her to get hurt, so if she wanted to endanger herself, than so be it. He stepped away with, what basically amounted to a small battalion of guards, and it was only with some cajoling did she manage to get her own guards to follow. They were good people.