Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

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Ramirez and the other marines raced through the door, their botos pounding against steel. They had a single moment to register the surprise and terror on the faces of the would-be scientists before the entire room erupted with light. It was so powerful that a few of the aliens fell to the floor clutching at their eyes. Ramirez had thrown a hand up over his face just fast enough though there were still dark spots on his vision as he pulled back away from the light.

"Maverick!"

"Maverick!"

His voice was drowned out by the whirring sound of the machine.

Overhead lights began to burst and shatter raining sparks and debris down upon their heads.

He dove to the side, rolling under a table.

There was a sharp whump, and the power on the entire station went out.

Surrounded by darkness, his eyes were still filled with glowing spots from the blinding light, and it took him a moment before he was slowly able to crawl out from under his table.

It was pitch black, or was it?
He squinted into the darkness just able to make out a sort of half glow in comparison to the bright lights. As his eyes slowly began to adjust from the two extremes he saw the glow pulsing from the inside of the machine where Maverick had been.

He crawled across the ground, feeling his knees and hands crunch over broken glass.

There were many moments of silence before there was a slow whirring sound, and the backup generator kicked on there for the soul purpose of keeping the life support on the station operational.

The room was filled with a dim red glow.

A cool female voice echoed from speakers over their heads.

"Core overload, initiating system reboot. Station power at 1,000%

He shook himself. Ramirez wasn't a science kid of guy. In fact, when he wasn't busy being a jar head, he was too busy worrying about being pretty, both of which he was quite good at if he did say so himself. But it didn't take a genius like Krill to know that 10,000 percent was a lot, especially when it was a fusion core they were talking about.

Which is why he assumed the machine fried itself when the power surged.

He looked up towards the machine blinking in the dim red light, and inside he could still see that bright white pulsing glow.

It was strange.

He crawled to his feet and stumbled over.

"Maverick!"

His heart was hammering in his chest as he pressed his hands against the glass. Oh no! What if she had been vaporized or eradiated. Maybe that's what the power surge was, maybe the machine had fused her atoms together or something.

More feet raced over the glass after him, and he turned to see Adam at his other side trying to help him pry open the doors.

"Do you see anything?"

Ramirez shook his head, "No! No I can't see her."

Inside, the tube was getting brighter.

All around the room there were sounds of moaning as humans and aliens alike slowly got to their feet.

"Detain them!" Adam ordered, and the waiting Drev and humans leaped into action, pinning the scientists to the ground as the two of them tried, to no avail, to pry open the doors.

They were still trying when there was a sudden sharp click, and the doors slid open.

The two of then had been pulling hard at extreme angels, and the sudden opening of the door caused the two of them to spill backwards onto the ground their feet kicked up in the air. Glass shattered and crunched underneath them.