Empyrean Iris Story Collection

The Cult

Each species is different.... Thousands upon millions of minds making up the soul of the galaxy, each species more divergent than the other, yet somehow so similar, like looking at a fractured image through a prism, so strange. Through all my years traveling across galaxies, links on a chain around the neck of the universe, I have found one thing that links them all...... religion.

Not, perhaps, in the way that you are assuming, for you see each species is so different that to compare their belief systems would be like comparing a grain of sand to a beating heart. You see perhaps a better word would be belief. The Rudi believe in law, law is their religion bureaucracy is their god, and contracts their bible in cannon. The Vrul on the other hand have their science, they have fact and logic and truth sometimes completely at odds with the bureaucratic system of the Rundi. Then there are the Tesraki with their economics; god being compared to the all mighty dollar, saints replaced by those with good business sense.

Of course there are other examples, probably more familiar to you, The Drev and their spiritual naturalistic religion held up by the fiery warlike spirits of the volcanic mountains. Strange that humans can be altogether so similar and so different. Each species is known to have one religion, one belief system that defines them whether it be logic or science, but man, he can find or make his gods. Like the Rundi his religion may be law, or perhaps he subscribes to science, the knowledge of things that are only seen, but perhaps he looks to something he cannot see, but feels on the inside. Man does not ask your permission to believe, does not follow his brethren. For thousands of years man has evolved changed where the other species have not.

Suppose it makes sense that a human would be the one to bring out change in the rest of the universe weather knowingly or not.

***

Commander Vir stood at the helm of his ship staring out into the vast darkness of space, a darkness split only by the serene polished globe of the Tvek home world. Despite the quiet serenity the glassy planet seemed to portray, something wasn't quite right. He had received a transmission from the chairwoman of the galactic assembly not days ago about strange behavior being exhibited by the Tvek.

They had stopped answering calls from their galactic ambassador, and when they did, they spoke nonsense. Something about preparing for something important being too busy, needing to please someone. Who that someone could be, they had no real idea. As un-advanced as the Tvek were, the galactic assembly worried that some outside influence was pushing them into their strange ways. As far as they knew this sort of behavior wasn't particularly normal for the Tvek species.

Commander Vir turned to the intercom and called down to the docking bay where three teams of marines had been ordered to ready themselves under the watchful eye of Sunny. He planned to set out in three strategic locations across the city close enough to meet up but far enough not to be caught in the same trap if something had been laid out for them.

He handed off the bridge to his second in command and made his way down to the docking bay, there was no telling what they were going to find, and Commander Vir had a strange feeling that whatever it was wasn't going to be good.

And if there was anything he had learned, from other aliens about humans, ironically, human instincts were some of the best in the business.

***

They arrived planeside just as the star was cresting over the horizon, delicate rays of white light rolled across the glassy stone and out onto the strange rose-tinted trees. The downy fluff that had lingered in the air the last time he was here, was conspicuously missing, likely out of season for this type of plant. On first inspection, there didn't seem to be anything amiss with the not-so-distant city.