Empyrean Iris Story Collection

A Beautiful Mind

Krill walked at the heals of his human captain holo-board tucked under one of his extra arms mimicking the behavior he had seen from other humans aboard the ship. Commander Vir walked in front of him with his uniform hat tucked under one arm. The long white hallway was full of orderlies scurrying about in all directions like ants through a destroyed anthill.

"What are we doing here commander."

The human turned his single green eye upon the Vrul doctor. His usual cheery smile had been almost completely replaced by a more serious expression. It was strange how the human face could do that, seemingly restructure itself to appear ten years older. When he smiled he looked his age, late twenties, when he put on his serious face, he aged almost a decade and a half. It was a useful tool as commander of the first intergalactic fleet of spaceships, but it was unnerving as hell.

"I have decided that it's time you see something, something very important if you want to understand humans." Krill had to hurry to keep up with the human as he sped up aimed for a large reception desk at the end of the hall.

"What do you mean."

"You'll see."

They stopped before the desk, and a smiling orderly looked up from behind her computer, large framed glasses making her eyes look bigger than they should have been. She glanced down over the desk at Krill who stood very business like in his tiny white lab coat. He didn't usually wear one, but the humans had insisted it made him look more professional.

"Commander Adam Vir. I am here to see Corporal Davis."

The orderly glanced down at her computer, gave a smile, "Oh I see, right here." She stood from her desk handing them two visitors badges, "Put these on, and then follow me." Krill pinned the little badge to the front of his lab coat as he scurried down the hall after the two humans. The woman swiped a card, admitting them through a set of doors and into the interior of the building. There was one long grey carpeted hallway and many doors on either side. There were a lot of large white windows that looked out onto the surface of the martian planet, and its hazy grey sky and red soil.

Passing down the corridor, Krill saw many groups of humans milling about near couches and chairs, always overseen by one of those white-coated orderlies. The humans themselves seemed pretty normal, through a disproportionate amount of them had not changed out of their night clothes, and wore large oversized sweatshirts.

The woman they were following took them through another set of doors, and then ran her key-card, "We call this the Venus Ward." The three of them stepped through the door and into a large open room. Another three or four orderlies stood about the room staring in towards the center where sat a large set of couches and comfortable beanbags.

Krill noticed right away that something was off. The humans that sat in the middle.... well , they weren't..... He couldn't put a finger on it. They LOOKED perfectly human, but as if there was something..... lacking . A few of the humans sat huddled on the couches arms around themselves rocking sharply back and forth. They stared forward with unseeing eyes mouthing words to themselves that no one else would understand. A few of the humans had curled themselves into balls and subsequently fallen asleep curled in heaps of clothing that only appeared human on close inspection.

Occasionally a human would turn to look at them, and the way they looked suggested that the human was completely cognitively there. He could see it in their eyes, the curious nature with which they followed the movements of the alien and the Commander. One of them stood and approached. By all rights the human seemed completely normal, but the eyes were heavily sunken, the skin seemed to hang about it's skull, its hair was stringy and limp. The body below the clothing was rail thin.