Empyrean Iris Story Collection

Queen of the Journey

There is something indomitable about the human spirit. It's something no one, not even the humans, will ever truly understand. There are two ways of doing things in the rest of the galaxy. You can be isolated, and individual that understands only the genetic knowledge of his species. You may interact with others, you may have family units, but you will never understand those around you on a personal level. Or you can be connected, this comes in many forms, a hive mind or a collective well of knowledge the entire species pulls from. They understand each other quite fully. No one is ever alone.

But then there are humans, I won't start by saying that humans are special or unusual because I think that has been said before. What I want you to understand is that humans are isolated in their knowledge of themselves. There is not a specie wide well of knowledge from which they can pull their behavior and understanding. There is not a template by which they live their lives, yet, somehow they can experience a welling of empathy to understand others around them. They seem to know the struggles of their fellows without the hive mind to connect them.

Not only this, but no matter where the human comes from, there is always an understood knowledge of thing humans can connect with. They speak of the same anthems, stories, photographs, and memories like they all have a personal connection. Though the humans were not born with a hive mind to connect them, that did not stop them.

They made one.

They share their knowledge by casting it out into the ether, to an unknown server of vast knowledge to access at their leisure no matter their location across the galaxy,

I know it sounds farfetched, but because of this man-made hive mind, the humans understand each other's experiences in a way that any other species like them will never understand their fellows. A human from earth and a human from Mars may still understand each other and connect over the same things.

They have been doing this for thousands of years.

***

"Keep moving, human!" Captain Vir stumbled a bit against the weight of the slap delivered to the back of his head. Krill could hear the sound of his bionic leg desperately trying to react to the imbalance and keep the man upright.

With a glower, the human turned to the alien soldier eyes narrowed. He probably would have spit at the creature, but the aliens had taken precautions against the human's poison breath, placing a spit shield over his nose and mouth. Not only that, but the human's hands were bound behind him.

A soldier grunted turning to ignore the human to look down at Krill, "What do we do with this one?" He asked

A slightly larger beast, likely the soldier's commander, trundled up turning to look down at Krill's small, trembling frame, "He has chosen his side, let him suffer the same as they."

Krill was pushed aggressively forward violently careening towards the ground, saved only by a last minute inflation of his hydrogen sack.

Behind him, the creatures laughed cruelly.

Up ahead, Captain Vir had turned to watch him. Krill desperately looked to the human for an idea, and while the man's gaze was reassuring, Krill didn't dismiss the worried twist of the human's lips as he stared around at the hulking soldiers.

Like a big, slow tide of dripping syrup, the herd of humans trudged slowly down the mass corridor at the behest of their captors. Isolated instances of rebellion were put down with extreme prejudice leaving the rest of their counterparts cowed.

Krill kept to the captain's side seeing out his quiet confidence and indomitable optimism to trick himself into thinking they would be alright. He could see the human's brain working, gears grinding along in his head as he tried to think his way out of the situation.