Ryn splashed cold water on her face for the third time. She gripped the platinum trim of the sink, trying to get her hands to stop shaking. A hollow, heartless reflection stared back at her with judgmental eyes. The coldness of her own reflection dimmed the shine of the diamonds on the walls. They won’t pick it. They can’t. What are the odds?
The sound of waste being sucked into the vacuum of space forced Ryn to regain her composure. A woman emerged from one of the stalls, her affluence spreading through the bathroom, practically choking Ryn out. The woman took notice of Ryn’s nametag, “Ah, so you are the one giving tonight’s presentation, yes?”
“Yes ma’am, I’m thrilled for all of you to see what our company has been working on,” Ryn awkwardly reached out to shake the woman’s hand.
“Uh, yes I’m hoping my husband didn’t waste our credits on this little business venture, you’d best have something marvelous up your sleeve,” she said with a disgusted yet tyrannizing look, keeping her hands to herself. The woman finished washing her hands and left Ryn alone.
The bitterness left simmering in the bathroom was the least of Ryn’s worries.
“Ry honey you got five minutes before this thing gets going. Where are you?” A voice slithered through her earpiece.
“I’ll be out in a minute, just washing up,” She replied hastily, throwing her hair into a bun. Suddenly one of her contacts popped out, revealing her pupil-less, jet black eyes, confirming her heritage as a hermithian. She let out a panicked squeal and fumbled with the contact before shoving it back into her face.
After triple checking that her eyes appeared human, Ryn returned to the bridge of the ship.
Hundreds of wealthy shareholders chatted excitedly in the ships bridge. It was basically a giant gathering hall that acted as a viewing spectacle for passengers. The Capitan stood on a platform high above the crowd for all to see. He twisted a cartoonishly large steering wheel around like a child playing pirate. The wheel did nothing of course, the ships flight path was automated. Something about seeing a man in a captains hat spin a wheel around made investors feel more comfortable about the ships navigation.
The shareholders attention was drawn towards the windows, watching eagerly as the ship travelled through space at light speed. Shades of yellow and blue swirled past the windows, filling the room with light.
Even with hundreds of passengers on board, the S.S. Manifesta Sors had ample space for anything it’s rich inhabitants could ever want. A casino, set up with a giant leaderboard to see who had made and who lost the most money. A newly installed M3500 Star Splitter that allowed the most wealthy to pay for an opportunity to shoot a star out of the sky. A dining hall that offered cuisine exclusive to some of the most far corners of the galaxy.
Ryn attempted to politely excuse herself through the massive crowd of aristocrats. She momentarily lost her footing and bumped into a man with silver hair. He turned to face her and Ryn braced for the worst. The man had a large scar across his face. It slashed through his right eye and deformed his nose. Instead of wrathfully scorning Ryn he simply raised an eyebrow, “I thought this was a luxury ship, why in gods name would they have you wear that?” He gestured to her glorified flight attendant uniform.
Ryn nervously bowed before him, “my sincerest apologies sir.” She then politely excused herself and continued making her way towards the captains platform.
She jogged up the ships spiral staircase with her head down causing her to nearly slam into Thompson, her “partner”.
“Christ Rah, you nearly knocked me into the crowd of degenerates down there!” He grabbed Ryn by her shirt, “are you gonna be good to give this presentation? Or am I gonna have to fucking do it? Cause you’re not getting paid squat if I have to speak a single word to these diamond loving money sacks. You hear me Rit?”
“So sorry Thompson. Also that’s not my nam-“
Thompson quickly cut her off, “Apology not accepted now hurry up and get up there, you were supposed to start two minutes ago.” He released her and gave her a shove up the stairs.
When she reached the platform the ships Capitan was holding a microphone, spouting nonsense to keep the big wigs happy below, “so then I told my first mate to slot in the rest of the turbo boost and we jetted our way straight from the space squids iron grip! That’s when I turned to my crew and said: drinks are on me.” The Capitan’s ramblings were met by laughter from the audience. He noticed Ryn standing at the edge of the platform and a large, sinister smile crept across his face, “and now ladies and gentlemen, the wonderous announcement you’ve all been waiting for!” He turned and handed the microphone to her, whispering in her ear, “Don’t fuck this up.”
Ryn stared out into a sea of the wealthiest people in the entire galaxy. She took a deep breath, swallowed her nerves, and began the presentation, “hello everyone, I am extremely excited to be sharing this life changing business opportunity with you.” Ryn wiped the sweat from her brow and carried on, “we all know the galaxies resources are limited. It’s the number one thing that stops us from expansion, from growing our empires– excuse me, your empires,” she corrected herself. “But now you are finally able to take what’s yours by investing in our product. Jackson if you would be so kind,” she gestured to her other team member.
From the far reaches of the bridge, a drone flew over the heads of the rich and landed at Ryn’s feet. “Thank you Jackson,” she spoke into the microphone. With a puff of smoke for dramatic effect, the top of the drones cargo hold began to open up. Ryn reached down and grabbed what seemed to be a jar full of a green gas. “I would like to present to you all what we are temporarily calling the GV93. I won’t bore you with the details of it’s origin, what you need to know is that this little container is capable of providing you with all the resources you could ever need. Inside lies a dormant virus that becomes active when exposed to air.” Ryn paused for a moment to release her shaking fist, “This little container is capable of ridding an entire planet of… pesky biological entities.” This was met by a gasp from the audience. “Fear not,” Ryn forced herself to carry on, “this container is indestructible and can only be opened with a special tool. For demonstration purposes, we have flown out to a planet rich with resources that we know many of you have had an eye on,” as soon as she finished speaking, the ship came out of light speed revealing the planet they would be using the virus on.
Ryn reeled back in horror as she stared out the window at her home planet. For a moment she couldn’t move and blood began to pour out of her nose. Then, all at once panic rushed in and she started to hyperventilate. She dropped the microphone, making a high pitched noise that pierced everyone’s ears.
“Do something!” the onlooking Capitan shouted at Thompson.
Thompson sprung into action, picking up the microphone and haphazardly shoving Ryn down the stairs. “Sorry about that everyone,” he began, “anyways, we know that many of you have had your eyes on these rebellious hermith-i-whatevers for many years now. They are just sitting on a gold mine, refusing to share any of it. So for today only, we are auctioning off the opportunity to wipe these resource hogs off the map.”
“If the planet becomes inhabited by a virus then how would we gather their resources?” a billionaire shouted up at Thompson.
“Excellent question! I was hoping someone would ask. The virus only targets biological entities, so once the planet is rid of life, which happens very quickly mind you, we also provide you all with state of the art drone and remote operated mining equipment,” Thompson’s pitch created a lively buzz in the audience. He saw an opportunity go off script, taking advantage of the excitement, “we are actually starting the auction right now! That’s right I wanna hear numbers folks! I know you and you especially have had your eyes on this planet for a while!” he pointed to two random audience members.
Chatter continued amongst the crowd for a few moments before someone shouted, “four billion units!” Then another, “nine billion!” Then another and another. Each bid caused Ryn’s heart to beat faster and faster. She was unable to stand and began digging her fingernails into her hands, drawing blood. The Capitan crouched down next to her, “what did I just say two minutes ago?! You are so fired after this, I’ll make sure of it.”
“Two hundred billion units!” another voice called out. This silenced the audience, most had been out bid. Thompson was about to yell sold when another gentleman spoke up, “one trillion units.” This was met by huge gasps from the audience. The man who spoke was the same man Ryn had run into earlier. He smiled ear to ear, staring up at Thompson who didn’t hesitate to yell, “Sold! Sold to Mr. Brunswicky!” After jumping up and down a few times Thompson regained his composure, “Come with me sir, I want you to do the honors.” Thompson then grabbed the viral container and ran downstairs to show Mr. Brunswicky to the planetary cannon.
Ryn stared out into the vastness of space, watching as the ammunition she held not moments ago flew at an incredible speed towards her home, destined to kill everyone she had ever loved.
I really hope you enjoyed reading this week’s post as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read what I have to say.
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