20 Completion of Training (1/2)
Ivan woke up as to the sun was just rising above the horizon. Rays of light filtered in through the window of the room and shone onto the bed. He felt the soft weight on his arm as Iris lay against him, covered by nothing but the thin sheet of the bed.
He could feel her soft tail wrapped around his waist and the subtle movements of her chest as she breathed. Iris seemed to sense him waking up though and opened her eyes slightly with a composed smile. She shortly closed them again though, simply lying there peacefully with her head on his shoulder.
A brief squeak sounded as Valeria opened the door and snuck into the room. She saw Iris practically lying on top of Ivan but showed no outward sign indicating surprise or nervousness.
”Some people are here to pick up Iris,” Valeria calmly spoke while looking at the two.
Valeria had completely recovered from her body's malnourished condition over the several months of eating full meals. She looked much more like a normal young girl, and even her chest showed minor signs of development, but not one of the hunters she trained with would dare underestimate her because of her small stature.
”Are you ready?” Ivan turned his head to look at Iris who seemed determined to go back to sleep.
”Mhmm,” Iris hummed lightly in response and kissed Ivan on the cheek before climbing out of bed. She was inwardly embarrassed putting her clothes on as Valeria nonchalantly watched, but kept a calm smile on her face which made her thoughts impossible to guess.
Valeria walked with her to the door where an armed convoy were waiting with Yukeli to pick her up. Yukeli had told Ivan she was due for a compulsory health check, a benefit of ensuring that she remained healthy and could aid Ivan to the utmost of her capabilities. This was merely pretence that they both used with neither one of them exposing the true reason behind this inspection.
They took Iris to a medical facility, where several senior doctors inspected whether she had fulfilled her 'duty'. Just as she had expected, they took several samples before giving her a full checkup and sending her back to Ivan.
*****
Ivan never cared about the Folkien Empire taking some of his DNA, simply because they would never be able to examine it due to its four-dimensional construction. Not even Mazur could do this with the most powerful three-dimensional microscope. Perhaps the realized it was a hopeless endeavour, as they didn't force Iris to have intimate relations with him again.
Their daily life returned to normal after that one night together, but there were a few changes. Whilst they weren't constantly intimate with one another, Iris no longer slept on the couch but would sleep in Ivan's bed, whether he was there or not.
Iris couldn't be said to be in love with Ivan, but she was truly grateful toward him after all the support and guidance he had given her in order to be in control of her own life. The Vulpes society had a strong social conformity on the importance of a woman's purity and who they dedicate it to, so after giving her virginity to Ivan, decided in her heart to remain by his side for as long as she can, perhaps even coming to truly love him in the future.
Ivan also wasn't in love with Iris, but he appreciated her beauty and she was never an inconvenience by his side. She took care of his schedule and supported him however needed. The distance between the two of them became closer even in public, sparking a massive interest from the public media who rapidly made them into a celebrity couple.
Mazur's expectations of the employees to be able to learn the galactic common language in a year was also accurate, as they only took eleven months to be able to proficiently speak and write it.
The Poseidon was outfitted to hold a crew of 500 people. This mean there were 500 primary stasis pods, and another 500 as backups for any additional crew or to replace a damaged unit mid journey. This total of 1000 stasis pods were the primary reason Ivan had only chosen to hire a thousand people at once.
Mazur spent countless long nights modifying all these stasis pods to turn into evolution pods. The nanobots had been prepared, while Ivan had collected massive amounts of four-dimensional matter to use as fuel for the acceleration. Mazur had also made some modifications to the process, such as an autoregulatory system which will adjust the four-dimensional matter quantity in the pod to ensure enough elements are present at all time.
As everything was prepared, Ivan summoned all the new employees to the Poseidon. Nearly a thousand Vulpes men and women entered the cargo hold nervously. There had been countless rumors and conspiracy theories as to what it was like on Ivan's spaceship, but nobody had seen the inside.
The sides of the cargo hold had been separated into a thousand cubicles with standard partition walls, 987 cubicles which had the evolution pods prepared. Once everyone was on board the Poseidon, the cargo hold closed and Ivan addressed the nervous employees.
”Welcome,” Ivan stood in front of everyone with a smile, Mazur, Iris, and Valeria standing by his sides. ”We are in the final procedure before moving to where we will be establishing our base. At this stage, I will prepare you will full information as to where that is, and how we will be getting there.”
There wasn't a single person who wasn't curious as to the answers of these questions. It was the most closely guarded secret that even Iris and Valeria were unaware of.
”Many of your people have been curious about my eyes, ears, voice and other aspects which don't match up with anything you could consider normal. This is actually very simple. The miners, hunters and other basic jobs most likely wouldn't understand, but the scientists will. The answer to this whole riddle is actually the Mazur and myself are not three-dimensional beings. We are four-dimensional.”
Just as Ivan suspected, most of the new employees were confused, but the intellectuals, and even some others were so shocked their eyes seemed to be poking out of their heads. Iris, and especially Valeria, were not intellectuals, so they didn't understand the significance of the matter and didn't feel any shock.
”The location you we will be moving to is not within normal space, but subspace, otherwise known as the fourth dimension. This is the single greatest secret of Celestial Trade Incorporated, and anyone who reveals this news will be hunted down and executed, so I hope you all understand the seriousness of this confidentiality.”
”Three-dimensional beings are incapable of being able to comprehend the fourth dimension, let alone enter it. As a matter of fact, three-dimensional matter cannot even enter the fourth dimension as the atomic bonds will rapidly break apart as it turns into pure energy.”
”As employees of Celestial Trade Inc. You all will be undergoing a forced evolution into four-dimensional beings just like Mazur and myself. It is highly unlikely you will have a change of appearance as significant as Mazur, considering none of the genes in your body have been artificially modified, but there will be some changes to your sensory organs, such as your ears and eyes, during the process. Are there any questions before we begin?”