Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Every Fear

Sunny woke very suddenly. She didn't know why she had, and at first assumed that Adam had shifted in his sleep. She reached out her lower left hand to where he usually lay curled up against her side, but felt nothing. She sat up then, a little confused as to his absence and looked around blearily in the dim lighting which emanated from the climate controlled armor case beside her bed, its pearly white sheen reflecting a delicate rainbow of colors out into the room, giving the impression that she slept inside a cave made of crystal.

It was then she remembered.

Adam wasn't here.

She wasn't with Adam.

She had approached him earlier with the somewhat bashful confession that she would like to sleep alone for the night, quickly tagging on that it had nothing to do with him, and that she loved his company, but she simply needed her time and space alone to spend in her own solitude for the night. She chided herself later for being worried considering that he had simply smiled at her and said that he understood.

In the end she felt worse about assuming he would be upset, than the actual act of avoiding him, which she wasn't, she reminded herself. She just needed some time alone.

But now, she could admit to herself that she had been wrong. Not about needing time alone, that was a fact she still maintained, but being alone at night was not the time for it. She could hardly enjoy her solitude if she was too asleep to notice.

Sunny sighed and tried to lean back into her cushions, but found sleep illusive, sitting up again and finally admitting defeat. Adam probably wouldn't mind if she interrupted his sleep, in fact he would probably be happy to see her, like a golden retriever waiting at the door for its master to return home. He wouldn't ask any questions and he certainly wouldn't make her feel guilty for her mistake. He would be annoyingly accepting of her.

She stretched once and walked over to the door rubbing at the carapace on her head.

The door didn't open.

She frowned and tried again.

Nothing.

"Open door." She commanded

"Access denied, lockdown sequence engaged."

Sunny frowned again, "Lockdown sequence." She said aloud reaching towards the intercom. She called up to Adam's room first. There was no response. She tried one or two more times hoping that maybe he was simply asleep, but after the third time of trying, she knew something had to be off. Adam was a light sleeper in general, he said he always had been, though she was convinced that some of that was a side effect of his moderately reoccurring Post Traumatic Stress and the symptom of hypervigilance.

So clearly he wasn't in the room.

She tried up to the bridge next, but when no one answered, she felt her heart skip a beat or two.

There was always supposed to be someone on the bridge.

The skeleton crew was supposed to make sure of that.

If someone wasn't on the bridge.

Something was wrong.

"Open Door!" she commanded again.

"Access denied, lockdown sequence engaged."

She huffed, "Command override, Sunny."

"Access denied."

She slammed her fist against the wall. That could only mean one thing. Adam had initiated the lockdown. If it had been anyone else, she would have been able to override the system, but this was a command directive, and the computer wouldn't allow anyone of a lower rank to override the access.