Twins of Irk
"This is an absolute disaster!"
A tall female Irken paced the small conference room. Two other Irkens of about her height sat at the table with grave looks in their red eyes. The purple-eyed female turned on them.
"A horrendous breach in protocol. This cannot be allowed to continue!" She gripped the back of a chair and leaned in on them dangerously.
"Surely Nursery Watcher they cannot be identical through their whole life." One of the red-eyed males said a bit shakily. "I'm positive one will turn out to be taller than the other, eventually."
"Eventually?" The female asked narrowing her eyes.
"Well." The other male started. "So far they are identical, but I doubt that will continue for much longer."
"Bah!" She pushed away from the chair and started pacing again. "I want this matter absolved now!"
"We could inform the Tallest that,"
"No! Not even the Tallest is allowed to know of this." She cut in sharply. "For generations our area has been engineering Tallests without the knowledge of the populace. We will not start now." She roughly pulled out a chair and sat down heavily. "We can fix this and make it look like an accident at least since killing one of them is against regulations."
The two males nodded. "But how?" One asked. "This has never happened before."
She tapped her lips with a spindly finger. "Place one in the Invader tanks and the other in the Thinker tanks. At least one of them should make it to Tallest and either way we'd have a good leader."
"A very good plan Nursery Watcher." One of the males said. The two started to get up.
"One other thing."
They paused dreading something horrible.
"I want only one of these embryos to be recorded as our creation. The other, the Invader one, will be labeled a gene accident in our private databanks. I want this problem erased from our archives, no one must know this was our fault."
"Yes Nursery Watcher." They said before leaving.
* * *
"Pid are you paying attention?"
The little purple-eyed Irkens' eyes snapped open wider. "Yes Archivist." He said sitting at attention.
The old Irken whose' eyes were a dull ruby didn't look impressed. "See to it that you continue to pay attention Pid, you have much to learn."
"Yes Archivist." Pid looked down back at his monitor that was scrolling down lists of great Irkens of History. He absolutely despised these lessons. But there was only so much infant programming could teach an Irken. The rest had to be learned manually.
He was a great deal taller than those in his hatchery age group. Which meant he was defiantly going to be of great influence when he reached his full height. Already, in hid adolescence, he was thin and spindly. Most Irkens were short and skinny, but Pid was taller and skinnier than most. It was almost embarrassing the way people looked up in awe at him.
He almost wished he were someone else.
Almost.
* * *
"Tin! Tin! Tin!"
The chant echoed through the obstacle course as the tallest Invader-programmed Irken of the crowds hatchery age sped through the course. He leapt and climbed, flipped and dived his way through the difficult trail with his class cheering him on.
They were all supposed to be going through it but the Invader class never gave up the chance to rally.
His name was Tin and his eyes were a brilliant red. He jumped across a wide void making it to the second rope rather than the first like most would. The crowd went wild as he again skipped a rope across the dangerous fall.
He came to a wall one was supposed to climb down to reach the end. He did an impressive turning back flip off the sheer drop landing expertly on his feet. He stood up to his full height and held his arms high in triumph.
The crowd of Invader class children rushed him cheering and howling wildly. They came up to just below his rib cage since he was vastly taller than them. Already his body was skinnier and very spindly. The sign of a Taller.
He howled with them catching his breath from the run. He loved the attention and reveled in the affections the few females in the Class were directing at him now.
"Very Impressive Tin."
The group died down and filed into Rank. Tin did as well standing at perfect attention as their instructor paced through the crowd. "Very impressive indeed." The older Irkens' pale red eyes glanced along the obstacle course. "I dare say if you don't reach the height requirement for a Taller you'll make the best Invader I've ever turned out of here."
"Thank you sir." Tin said not moving an inch from his spot.
"You can all learn from Tin. He's fast, agile and tall." He glanced down the row at the shorter Invader children. Particularly a very head-strong if not incompetent one he'd rather not have had placed under his command. "I want you all to run this course for the rest of the day. Report to the mess hall for late-day-meal." He watched the small Irkens rush to go at their set task.
Tin watched the old Irken walk away. And for some reason, at that moment, he almost wished he was someone else.
Almost.
* * *
Tin sat around a table in a bar called 'The Flaming Nacho' with a few of his taller comrades. They weren't old enough to drink anything above an 1.2 alcohol content but they could still have a few things there.
"I'm telling you Tin, you're a shoe in for Head-Invader." A far shorter but taller than most Irken called Gig said.
The other Irken with them called Bis nodded. "A female might even consider you for a full court-ship."
Tin waved the topic away. "I might make Head-Invader but I don't know what female would have and Invader male, and the females in our class would be too deep in their own missions to care. Besides, at the rate I'm going I'll make Taller and get out of the military."
"You know that never happens." Bis said gulping his drink.
Tin shrugged.
"Hey look, Thinkers." Gig said pointing across the bar.
Two purple-eyed Irkens came in. One was obviously taller than the other. He also didn't look like he wanted to be here.
"What are they doing in Invader territory?" Tin asked in a low voice.
"Damned if I know. Maybe they just want a drink."
"You know Thinkers, they get weird programming. I heard about one that went on a killing spree last hatching cycle. A female, red-eyed. She went on some sort of rampage stabbing people with pens if they didn't answer her questions correctly." Bis said eyeing the two Thinkers.
"I never heard of that." Gig said scowling at his drinking buddy.
"Shut up, they're coming this way." Tin hushed them.
The shorter of the Thinkers passed their table briskly but the taller one met eyes with Tin curiously. But in the end he walked on by to sit with his companion.
"Hey Tin, he looks as tall as you."
Tin blinked. "What?"
"That Thinker, he's as tall as you."
"You're kidding."
"No, Gig is right."
The three turned to the Thinkers huddled together in the back of the bar talking quietly to themselves. The taller one eventually turned his head seeing them staring. Only Tin didn't look away immediately. He did eventually turn back to his drink.
"That's just creepy." Bis said. Tin ignored him.
* * *
"What do you think that was about?" Pid asked his companion Fer.
Fer shrugged. "Invader class males. They're strange. They go berserk you know."
"That's just hearsay." Pid said blinking slowly.
"No I'm serious. There's supposed to be some insanely wigged out Invader out there. A real short one that's totally crazy. Claimed he was 'Lord of something-or-other', not sure what it was."
"That's just nonsense." Pid typed in the drink he wanted on the menu bar. It slid out of a hole in the table and he took it.
He watched the three Invaders they had passed by get up and leave. He almost spit out his drink on seeing the height of one of them.
"Mother of Irk, that one's as tall as you!" Fer exclaimed.
"No, surely not. Invaders never get to my height."
"Well he certainly is a big one then."
"Fer honestly." He saw Fer shrug and the conversation was supposedly banished. But somewhere Pid knew Fer was right.
"This is an absolute disaster!"
A tall female Irken paced the small conference room. Two other Irkens of about her height sat at the table with grave looks in their red eyes. The purple-eyed female turned on them.
"A horrendous breach in protocol. This cannot be allowed to continue!" She gripped the back of a chair and leaned in on them dangerously.
"Surely Nursery Watcher they cannot be identical through their whole life." One of the red-eyed males said a bit shakily. "I'm positive one will turn out to be taller than the other, eventually."
"Eventually?" The female asked narrowing her eyes.
"Well." The other male started. "So far they are identical, but I doubt that will continue for much longer."
"Bah!" She pushed away from the chair and started pacing again. "I want this matter absolved now!"
"We could inform the Tallest that,"
"No! Not even the Tallest is allowed to know of this." She cut in sharply. "For generations our area has been engineering Tallests without the knowledge of the populace. We will not start now." She roughly pulled out a chair and sat down heavily. "We can fix this and make it look like an accident at least since killing one of them is against regulations."
The two males nodded. "But how?" One asked. "This has never happened before."
She tapped her lips with a spindly finger. "Place one in the Invader tanks and the other in the Thinker tanks. At least one of them should make it to Tallest and either way we'd have a good leader."
"A very good plan Nursery Watcher." One of the males said. The two started to get up.
"One other thing."
They paused dreading something horrible.
"I want only one of these embryos to be recorded as our creation. The other, the Invader one, will be labeled a gene accident in our private databanks. I want this problem erased from our archives, no one must know this was our fault."
"Yes Nursery Watcher." They said before leaving.
* * *
"Pid are you paying attention?"
The little purple-eyed Irkens' eyes snapped open wider. "Yes Archivist." He said sitting at attention.
The old Irken whose' eyes were a dull ruby didn't look impressed. "See to it that you continue to pay attention Pid, you have much to learn."
"Yes Archivist." Pid looked down back at his monitor that was scrolling down lists of great Irkens of History. He absolutely despised these lessons. But there was only so much infant programming could teach an Irken. The rest had to be learned manually.
He was a great deal taller than those in his hatchery age group. Which meant he was defiantly going to be of great influence when he reached his full height. Already, in hid adolescence, he was thin and spindly. Most Irkens were short and skinny, but Pid was taller and skinnier than most. It was almost embarrassing the way people looked up in awe at him.
He almost wished he were someone else.
Almost.
* * *
"Tin! Tin! Tin!"
The chant echoed through the obstacle course as the tallest Invader-programmed Irken of the crowds hatchery age sped through the course. He leapt and climbed, flipped and dived his way through the difficult trail with his class cheering him on.
They were all supposed to be going through it but the Invader class never gave up the chance to rally.
His name was Tin and his eyes were a brilliant red. He jumped across a wide void making it to the second rope rather than the first like most would. The crowd went wild as he again skipped a rope across the dangerous fall.
He came to a wall one was supposed to climb down to reach the end. He did an impressive turning back flip off the sheer drop landing expertly on his feet. He stood up to his full height and held his arms high in triumph.
The crowd of Invader class children rushed him cheering and howling wildly. They came up to just below his rib cage since he was vastly taller than them. Already his body was skinnier and very spindly. The sign of a Taller.
He howled with them catching his breath from the run. He loved the attention and reveled in the affections the few females in the Class were directing at him now.
"Very Impressive Tin."
The group died down and filed into Rank. Tin did as well standing at perfect attention as their instructor paced through the crowd. "Very impressive indeed." The older Irkens' pale red eyes glanced along the obstacle course. "I dare say if you don't reach the height requirement for a Taller you'll make the best Invader I've ever turned out of here."
"Thank you sir." Tin said not moving an inch from his spot.
"You can all learn from Tin. He's fast, agile and tall." He glanced down the row at the shorter Invader children. Particularly a very head-strong if not incompetent one he'd rather not have had placed under his command. "I want you all to run this course for the rest of the day. Report to the mess hall for late-day-meal." He watched the small Irkens rush to go at their set task.
Tin watched the old Irken walk away. And for some reason, at that moment, he almost wished he was someone else.
Almost.
* * *
Tin sat around a table in a bar called 'The Flaming Nacho' with a few of his taller comrades. They weren't old enough to drink anything above an 1.2 alcohol content but they could still have a few things there.
"I'm telling you Tin, you're a shoe in for Head-Invader." A far shorter but taller than most Irken called Gig said.
The other Irken with them called Bis nodded. "A female might even consider you for a full court-ship."
Tin waved the topic away. "I might make Head-Invader but I don't know what female would have and Invader male, and the females in our class would be too deep in their own missions to care. Besides, at the rate I'm going I'll make Taller and get out of the military."
"You know that never happens." Bis said gulping his drink.
Tin shrugged.
"Hey look, Thinkers." Gig said pointing across the bar.
Two purple-eyed Irkens came in. One was obviously taller than the other. He also didn't look like he wanted to be here.
"What are they doing in Invader territory?" Tin asked in a low voice.
"Damned if I know. Maybe they just want a drink."
"You know Thinkers, they get weird programming. I heard about one that went on a killing spree last hatching cycle. A female, red-eyed. She went on some sort of rampage stabbing people with pens if they didn't answer her questions correctly." Bis said eyeing the two Thinkers.
"I never heard of that." Gig said scowling at his drinking buddy.
"Shut up, they're coming this way." Tin hushed them.
The shorter of the Thinkers passed their table briskly but the taller one met eyes with Tin curiously. But in the end he walked on by to sit with his companion.
"Hey Tin, he looks as tall as you."
Tin blinked. "What?"
"That Thinker, he's as tall as you."
"You're kidding."
"No, Gig is right."
The three turned to the Thinkers huddled together in the back of the bar talking quietly to themselves. The taller one eventually turned his head seeing them staring. Only Tin didn't look away immediately. He did eventually turn back to his drink.
"That's just creepy." Bis said. Tin ignored him.
* * *
"What do you think that was about?" Pid asked his companion Fer.
Fer shrugged. "Invader class males. They're strange. They go berserk you know."
"That's just hearsay." Pid said blinking slowly.
"No I'm serious. There's supposed to be some insanely wigged out Invader out there. A real short one that's totally crazy. Claimed he was 'Lord of something-or-other', not sure what it was."
"That's just nonsense." Pid typed in the drink he wanted on the menu bar. It slid out of a hole in the table and he took it.
He watched the three Invaders they had passed by get up and leave. He almost spit out his drink on seeing the height of one of them.
"Mother of Irk, that one's as tall as you!" Fer exclaimed.
"No, surely not. Invaders never get to my height."
"Well he certainly is a big one then."
"Fer honestly." He saw Fer shrug and the conversation was supposedly banished. But somewhere Pid knew Fer was right.