Grand overseer Xorick takes Adzuki on a tour of the councils archives when something catches his eye .
stowed and forgotten in the dusty shelves rests a damaged smeet incubation canister an older more bulky mondle than what Irk now uses ,
the cracked glass of the discarded chamber a bitter reminder of one of irks greatest tragedies that almost felled the empire.

pulling it from its crypt and setting it on the ground Xorick invites the ruby eyed alate to take a closer look at it.
feel its weight , understand the quality of the equipment and perhaps even realise just how much force it had taken to reduce it to such a state.

"do you know what this is Adzuki?" Zorick asked softly pushing the vessel toward her.

in the dim light of the archive vault his liquid golden eyes held a mournful glance matched by the softness of his tone as bitter memories welled up from the deepest hiding places of the taller irkens mind.

Adzuki reached her hands out supporting the hefty glass and metal vessel , it was cold to the touch and the amount of dust on its surface suggested that it had been stowed for quite a long time.

she was a little confused by his question , this was a smeet incubator. wasn't it? although she had never seen one up close before
its shape , size and weight were not exactly what she had expected however . the incubators that were in use nowadays were half the size of this one and a quarter of the weight.


tracing her hands over the thick green glass she looked back to Xorick.
" it's a smeet incubator right?" .... " why is it down here .... what happened to it?"


glancing back up at the taller golden eyed irken Adzukis questions came with significant concern in her tone.
she had noticed there were a few more incubators still stowed on the racks all in similar condition.

the look in Xoricks eyes caught her by surprise , it was one of a deep sadness , perhaps even regret.
he was difficult to read at the best of times but in this moment it felt like he was trying to convey something important to her .
something that could only be said with the heart , something that required a moment of vulnerability.


Adzuki felt a little awkward venerable , tender moments were not something she had come to associate with Xorick.
seeing him like this was strange , she didn't want to believe that an irken of his caliber was even capable of feeling like that.
but there he was , down at her level , with softness in his words.


being near the damaged vessels stirred all manner of suppressed things for the golden eyed irken.
the pair of them held in their hands one of the first incubators that were in the malfunctioning smeetery that had been the cause of Irks first 4 years of planet wide darkness.

the last smeet this chamber had held perished along with so many more making up that initial genocide.
he lingered on the memories for a moment. the disaster and the chaos the followed it.


Adzuki squinted her eyes a little trying to better read Xorick's face , he hadn't answered her yet and she wondered if he had heard her.

before she could ask again Xorick addressed her questions.

" its here as a piece of history " he finally spoke " these were at the center of horrible screaming overload day"

"it's one of thousands that were destroyed that day , as well as their contents "

"their contents ? " Adzuki queeried "dose that mean that .... "

Xorick nodded " the final count from the tragedy set irk back 3 whole generations of smeets. it almost destroyed the empire"


looking back down at the damaged glass the weight of his words was starting to set in. the history of horrible screaming overload day did not mention the smeetacide at all , just that irk was plunged into a 4 year blackout.

what Xorick was telling her in the dim light of the archive was the first she had heard of the true nature of the disaster. it was well before her time but learning of it put an uneasy twist in her squeedileyspootche.


"w-why show me this?" "why tell me"

it was a lot to take in for the shorter irken she wasn't sure how she should have felt in that moment.

anger? that something like that not only happened but was kept so secret.

sadness? for the loss of life.

or should she feel pity for the bastard who had enlightened her , after all he had lived thought it and was on the forefront of cleaning it all up.


Xorick let out a little sigh as he considered how to answer her. it was no accident that they happened across it whilst looking for other items in the archive.
he had taken her here deliberately with the intent of gauging her response.


he felt it was import for her to know the fragile state of the empire and come to share his views of the smeetery systems. that machine births alone would doom them to extinction.

her reactions satisfied his curiosity for the moment , and seeing the ruined incubators had hopefully planted the seeds that would lead her understanding her roll later in his grand plans.


" because its important Adzuki" " irk needs to safeguard itself , not deny its past"

something felt off to her about the way he worded that very last part but she wholeheartedly agreed with what he had presented to her just now.

with that the irken with eyes of liquid gold took back the incubator gently putting back on the rack where he had pulled it from standing as he did so.

"sir?" Adzuki asked but he didn't respond instead humming a little as he scanned the adjacent shelves for the item that they had actually come to the archives to retrieve.

"ah there you are!~" he chirped as he collected what looked like an external hard drive from a small libary of similar items.

"well we should get going then Adzuki , spending too much time down here isn't advisable"

"uh ... right!" she gave a little salute then quickly ran over to his side as he started to walk back down the archives hall toward the exit.
she turned to take one last glance back at the place where the incubators were sitting on the rack.

giving them scrutinizing look .

the whole experience had been very strange .