Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Anti-Void

The meeting had been almost a month in the making. The very thought of its existence was a secret heavily guarded, and the location of which was only decided hours in advance. Eventhen, there would be no ambassador shuttles, or luxury cruisers, or even ships marked with the seal of any interstellar government agency. When the ships arrived they were all, some form of mining, or shipment vessel, all of which were not out of place in the Hathor Colony system, one of the largest human-run mining operations this side of the universe.

Hathor was a colony that had specialized for almost a decade in deep asteroid penetration mining specifically for elements including palladium, osmium, ruthenium and rhodium. The system received several hundred shipments per month including dozens daily. Specifically, Hathor metal could be found in almost 80% of microchips, engines, and alloys that were sold on the interstellar market.

The delegates arrived carefully, sandwiched back to back with legitimate shipments, ans ushered from their ships appearing as representatives for other electronics and alloy companies, all except for the celex delegation, who came in smuggled in a duffel bag, and the Anin delegation who made their entrance in the guise of bodyguards.

All the delegations were met by the senate leader of the hathor colony. Hathor didn't have a president or prime minister. In fact,its system was, most notably, the only pure democracy in the entire galaxy, and worked that way simply because its population was so small. Even so, they still needed a single person to represent them in intergalactic matters, and that is where their senate head came in. The man, named Jicari, had no real power over anyone else, but he was in charge of leading the meetings and setting the minutes.

And it was he who met each delegation in the hangar, and led them back through a series of tunnels towards where the meeting would be held. Little did the delegates know that, Arcadia's intelligence director Conn, and Ex emperor lord celex were planted around corners in the labyrinth where they would be able to screen each person for void infection as they went by.

Truth be told having Conn and Celex there, was an intelligence nightmare for everyone else, but right now there were more pressing matters in the universe than a few aliens capable of reading people's minds.

Arriving this way, it took the better part of a day to actually get everyone settled, but once it happened there was an impressive collection of delegates, sitting in the open cavern air of hathor colony. The cavern was a series of plateaus jutting out from a sheer rocky cliff face. Overhead the ceiling was so distant, it was trapped behind a soft haze, and the artificial sun gave an almost bluish atmospheric quality to the distant ceiling.

Each ledge was covered in a gentle growth of squishy green and blue moss. An artificial river ran through the center of the small city, which was stacked high instead of wide.

A paradise hidden away inside an asteroid.

It was all very impressive.

A fact which Jicari heard many times from the visiting delegates.

All in all, it was a pretty impressive turnout, there was someone from almost every colony and planet in the system.

Soon-to-be president Kelly, of earth was there, and though she had not yet been voted into office, political experts said that preliminary election polls left no doubt for who was going to win the election. Current president hunt was notably absent. Then of course there were members of the Tesraki economic board, the Bran GA senator, The queen of the Burg, who had come far from the little grub they had installed on the throne not so many years earlier.

Still young and inexperienced, she was accompanied by her royal advisor, zaran, previous consort to the original queen. Then of course there were the Mikes, and the lumins, the Finnari, the gromm, and the Drev.