In a place of near complete secrecy, as it was of the upmost importance to the continuation of the ever superior irken race, laid vast dimly lit room. The expansive floor was a collection of thick tinted metal sheets jointed together with strong curving beams, and its ceiling was lost in shadow. Two blue gridded walls stretched on for miles in every direction, blurring together at the farthest reaches of even the most enhanced vision. In the center of every square in the grid was an articulated disc containing three narrow pink lines.
A strange hollow humming filled the room. Its origins were unknown, but the official governmentally accepted theory stated that it was simply collective noise from so many incubators being run at the same time. Knowledgeable irkens with inclinations towards more adventurous speech claimed it was the sound of millions of smeets growing at once. A deeply alluring idea existed that the hum was in fact the beautiful dreams of the unborn smeets made audible by their stunning intensity, but this traitorous notion was very hushed as it was also governmentally accepted theory that irkens had evolved to rely completely on technology for all mental activity.
In the forest of identical discs, one suddenly became unique. The three pink lines engraved on its surface widened into a sort of triumphant green face, testifying to the readiness of the specimen it represented. A nimble robotic arm reached down and gave the disc a slow turn with its three slender fingers. The arm pulled the disc, which was in fact the head of a long birthing chamber, smoothly from its cell. A second arm quickly caught the other end of the chamber before it could fall even one inch towards the ground.
The birthing chamber was a dull glass tube filled with clear thick green liquid. Both ends of the tube were covered by riveted metal caps connected with a singular thin rod running the length of the glass. It contained a seemingly misplaced hinge at its center. Bubbles rose in the disturbed green goo, caressing the small limp body of a smeet. The robotic arms bent the chamber at the odd joint, shattering the tube and sending broken glass and the tiny smeet on a short lived journey to the ground.
The small green body lay slumped in the remnants of its old home. It was still, lacking any motor functions whatsoever. It was simply an empty vessel, awaiting the gift of a mind. A third arm positioned itself behind the smeet, extending two pincers to heat and tenderize the skin on the center of its back. It then produced a shiny beetle-like object called a pak, which it placed on the steaming skin. From the underside of pak snaked two unseen cables that connected themselves to the spinal cord of the little green creature. A fourth and final arm shot a burst of electricity into the smeet, causing it to jump to attention. It blinked its innocent sapphire eyes and twitched its sleek curled antennae, showing no sign, no inkling of a hint of the bloodshed and pain it would cause in the inevitable future.
"Welcome to life, irken child. Report for duty." A deep voice resonated from every surface, a tremor across the smeet's antennae.
"Please," asked the child politely, "How do I come to be here?" She shifted her antennae in curiosity, looking above her at the shadowed source of the arms. It was not an average question that a smeet might ask, as not many smeets were yet advanced enough to ponder their place in the universe. But the voice had been programmed for any circumstance.
"All will be explained, irken child," the voice replied, expressing no apparent emotion.
The floor beneath the irken's feet shifted into a slippery funnel, and the child fell down a cold narrow pipe. At first it seemed the smeet's frightful travel was at the hands of gravity, but the tunnel made several swift turns at odd angles making it clear that some other force was pushing the creature along. In a bright vault somewhere below, the end of the tube moved to deposit the smeet in a small brown chair.
"You are two minutes old, little smeet. Prepare to be filled with the whole of irken knowledge," declared the voice.
The irken made no move, staring up into the red sensor of an ominous machine. Fat cords shot from the machine and swiftly attached to key points around the smeet's head and back. The child started to spasm and writhe, overcome with the incoming information. The history of the universe, the whole of math and science, anything and everything- all within its grasp.
"UPLOAD COMLETE!" Boomed the voice. "You have been given a name. IDENTIFY YOURSELF."
The child blinked. "I am Miyuki, smeet code 195568905BJF of the new order." Miyuki felt a strong sensation of pride that she had been created into such a divine race. Knowledge of the universe swam within her superior mind, and she felt unique; needed.
The chair rose and unceremoniously dumped her onto a moving belt which carried her into the next room. Miyuki looked back and saw another smeet going through the download process, just like her.
Hoses flew from the walls and sprayed her down with grey disinfectant, and an excessively greasy machine forcibly put a plain silver smeet's uniform around her body. Miyuki checked herself over as the uniform seamed itself together, and found that her clothes were thankfully devoid of grease. The moving belt then took her to another room, where she was plopped into a chair and lined up with hundreds of other smeets in front of an incredibly long steel table. Even as she sat there, more chairs with smeets came rushing in behind her to partake in the next event.
Miyuki already knew from her database of irken knowledge what would happen here. The first meal of an irken was the most important. Being the first semi-solid matter to be digested, it calibrated a smeet's pak and squeedly spooch. As she looked down the line of young irkens, she could already see food being fabricated. A rather jerky beat up robotic arm created a purple mess of carbohydrates in a flash and spattered it into a small depression in the table in front of each child. When the fabrication arm reached Miyuki, she took a moment to study it, noting its movements and routine. It was a simple device, running on a rugged track that was set in the ceiling. She was of a mind that such an inferior outdated instrument had no place serving her, a perfectly superior irken smeet. In suppressed annoyance, Miyuki watched its shaky glide until it was out of sight. She then directed her attention to the disgustingly goopy 'food' that it had set before her. She didn't want to eat it, and had almost convinced herself that she didn't need to eat it, but her squeedly spooch felt oppressively empty, and she eventually gave into the chunky purple slop. The first bite was surprisingly sweet and good. It was so good that Miyuki ate the rest without any further thought. She then sat back and pondered her superiority.
Oh, the joys of being superior. She was an irken, and irkens were better than anything else. She was indeed wonderful, superior, irken Miyuki. And how many beings could say they were superior? Not many. That was a hard thing to be able to say. In sudden bubbling happiness, she turned to her left neighbor. He was a slouching male smeet who ate slowly and already had food stains in his uniform.
"Greetings. I am Miyuki, and I am superior because I am irken," she said. She studied the child, reveling in how much better she was than him.
He turned to face her, purple goo dribbling down his chin.
"Uuuh… Hi. I'm… Blorg. I'm superior because I- because I-" he thought for a moment. "Uuuuh… I guess I'm superior 'cause I'm irken, too."
Miyuki smiled appropriately, but she thought it very unsettling that this dribbling idiot was allowed to call himself superior. She turned to her right.
"Greetings," she repeated. "I am Miyuki, and I am superior because I am irken."
The female next to her seemed to brighten.
"Hey! I'm irken, so I must be superior, too! My name is Miyu- no, that's your name. My name is Blo- no, that's not it either. My name is…. My name is…" The smeet started to stutter, trying to remember that one simple fact that was just beyond her grasp.
Miyuki turned to face forwards, now deeply troubled. At that moment, smeets had stopped lining up, and the incredibly long table curled into a circle. A group of fully grown irkens rose up from beneath the floor in the center of the ring on a gigantic hovering platform.
"GREETINGS, SMEETS!" called an incredibly loud voice.
"Greetings," the smeets answered in half spirited tones. Miyuki's clear determined voice stood out over the others, and a few young irkens looked her way like bewildered livestock.
"VERY GOOD, smeets. I present to you the leaders of our government, the absolute rulers and deciders of fate, THE COUNCIL!"
The smeets cheered as the apparent announcer twitched his antennae rapidly in submission and indicated the twelve richly adorned irkens sitting behind him. An old male irken got up from his seat to address the young.
"Let me begin by saying that it is an absolute honor for you to stand in our presence today," he said. The smeets nodded eagerly.
"And let me express how pleased I am to see so many equally superior irken faces out there." There were several cheers this time, but mostly more furious nodding. Miyuki kept still. Equally superior? she thought, thinking of Blorg and whatever-her-name-was. She looked across the circle of smeets, judging them. Some were snoring, and some balanced on their chairs funnily. Many had traces of purple goo on there uniforms and mouths, and several were coated from head to toe. Most were fidgety or made faces, and over half of the bunch could be caught doing stupid embarrassing things, like sucking on their antennae, or poking each other for amusement.
How could any of those creatures be 'equally' superior to her? How could any of those creatures even be considered superior to anything? With a sinking feeling, she realized the answer. They were considered 'superior' for the same reason she believed she was. They were irken.
The old council member had continued on with his speech about rules and regulations and what was expected from such a magnificent group of individuals, but Miyuki was no longer paying attention. Her world had become a depressing downward spiral, in which she frantically searched for her place in reality.