Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Pick Your Poison

Thomas sat at the table on the Omen feeling strange and out of place. It's not that he wasn't used to being on a space ship or anything, he was, but he had gotten used to how things work on captain Kozlov's ship. The men and women he met there were a lot harder and a lot more..... jaded then the crew of the omen. If there was one thing he could say about his brother's crew is that they seemed mostly happy and mentally sound.

If any of them happened to have dark pasts, they hid it well.

Sunny and the Drev might be the only ones with tragic pasts worth talking about, but even so it didn't seem to bother them. Where Captain Kozlov's ship was full of hardened veterans, the omen was full of weirdos, not that he minded. The other thing was that he got to see his brother in action, which was odd, since after years and years of being the big brother, he wasn't used to seeing the youngest of the Vir family in charge of anything.

Even if he did feel out of place, it was nice to see his brother in his element.

They were standing on the command deck around the "war table" as Adam had called it. Thomas had tried not to roll his eyes, but no one else had seem phased. Everyone else included. Ramirez, Maverick, Sunny, and her older brother Kanan. Others joining them included their resident medical officers Dr. Katie, who Thomas couldn't help but notice was very pretty, and Dr. krill, who he had been familiar with for the past few years.

Adam stood above him, still wearing his hand-me-down leather jacket, though he had at least had the decency to change into some real pants.

"So, as for what we know about the intergalactic drug market."

It was strange to hear about this from Adam.

It was strange to hear about this at all. Thomas had been under the delusion that he was going to be safe from drugs while in space. As it turned out, he just ended up where they were playing the game faster and harder.

"The intergalactic drug trade wasn't really an issue until humans came along."

"Nobody is surprised." Maverick muttered.

"Aside from some light drugs used by the Tesraki and the Rundi, there was really no market for hard drugs. Though you can imagine as humans have expanded outward, there have been multiple discoveries of different plants which have qualities similar to the drugs we have on earth." He looked to his team, "You all remember stardust."

There was a grimace and a muttering around the group.

"Since it's discovery its estimated market value is about 1000 credits per ounce."

There was a murmuring up around them..

Maverick snorted, "Should have just been a drug dealer."

"Anyway, before humans came along this intergalactic drug market was rather small and survived on the use of Shiri, and Calva, one which is a mild stimulant similar to Adderall and the other which is a mild depressant. When I say mild, this would be like chewing on a Coca leaf to stop a toothache. Human drugs appeared on the market about half a year after a treaty was signed with the GA, it started with the sell and trade of Marijuana, which can be used by, Rundi, Drev, and Tesraki to some affect. Despite this being our most mild human drug, it has been known to cause severe symptoms of dependance ad addiction in other alien species. Alcohol, since we are counting this under the drug tab, does not work on any plant based species, nor does it work on a species that's natural digestion requires the use of fermentation, like the Drev."

Dr Katie was taking notes, as was Sunny.

Adam paused and grinned, "Fun fact."

Sunny rolled her eyes.