Yem’s fingers tugged his hazmat suit on, covering every inch of him, not baggy, the fabric stretchy enough it wasn't compressing him.
GarZaCorp, the leading waste management in the galaxy finally arrived to take Qwortar’s hazardous waste from the rotting disease. Yem came out of the ship, his eight feet towered over the Qwortarians in their regular forms.
“Yem!” He couldn’t tell the difference between the Qwortarians, so Yem responded with a grunt, and he held out the paperwork. One of those creepy long eye stalks bent over the clipboard until the manager, signed off on the rate and other details of the transaction. “The barrels are all set for you. Don’t tip them though, they are mostly full of liquefied organic material.”
“Gotcha.” Yem’s pair of left arms hung loose at his side, his right hands rested on his hip, large muscles defined by the fit of his suit. “Anything else I should know?”
The Qwortarian’s eye stalk bobbed. “The warehouse is pretty full.” Yem took a couple steps towards the door, past the shadow left by the overhang. His seven grape sized eyes took it all in. Barrels shoved so close together there was no room to walk through. “You realize that if I go overweight, you owe GaZaCorp a fine.”
“Yes yes.” The Qwortarian jogged over to hold up the clipboard again. “I signed all the lines, so you can get to work.”
Yem nodded and pulled up their hood. Fitting the thin mask over his face he nodded to the manager. With a high pitched whistle the Qwortarians all scampered off.
Yem’s twelve abdominal muscles flexed as he lifted two barrels at a time. Most of the barrels sloshed a little, and Yem was glad the Qwortarians had properly sealed each and every one of them well above the minimum standard required by GaZaCorp.
It took Yem hours to lead all two hundred barrels. The final barrel got a spot of honor, the analyzing station. Sealed inside glass walls, with slots for thick rubber gloves to slip through, Yem fit the analysis hood over the lid. Punching in the dimensions of the barrel was the last thing Yem had to do. before he stood back and watched.
With a camera on the inside of the hood Yem could see the seals carefully removed and the various tools approach the opening. This barrel was one of the few that hadn’t sloshed. Something about its contents allowed it to congeal, and it had become a purple, green, and brown semi-solid mass.
“Well, well, well.” Yem muttered to himself. “Computer, what did you find?”
“Analysis shows the substance is organic in nature. Compound ratios match the Qwortar biological data on file. Including presence of Qwotarian DNA.”
“Heh.” Yem grinned. “Seems I have to go collect some extra funds. Decomposing intelligent life was not listed in the contract.” So Yem lumbered off in search of the first friendly Qwortarin to get some money.
Word count: 493
