Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Polaris

Sunny staggered as the ship came out of warp lurching forward with one foot and throwing up one hand to catch herself against the viewing deck wall. A strong hand caught her from one side, and she looked down to see Adam had her by one arm his feet planted like the roots of a coiltree. The man had not been phased in the slightest.

"I remember when we used to have to strap ourselves in for warp." He said mildly.

"I remember that time you pissed yourself." She teased

He blushed, "You weren't there for that, and in my defense a lot of people did. We were warping without dampeners, which is practically fatal to some species."

"Sure, whatever pissboy."

He shot her a look crossing his arms, "Fine, I guess you don't want to see the surprise." He turned his head away his back facing her.

She sighed and rolled her eyes, "Oh come on, I want to see the surprise."

"No no, Pissboy does not want to show you the surprise."

She crossed her arms, "Maybe if I offer to apologize.... And do the thing that he likes?"

The human turned to look at her with his one good eye tilted his head thoughtfully for a moment and then nodded, "Very well."

He stepped forward towards the observation window, "Prepare to be amazed." He slammed his hand against the button with one hand. Sunny lifted a hand to cover her face as the room was flooded with burning orange light. As her eyes adjusted, she found herself looking out into space upon a star, or three stars to be more accurate.

The UV dampened viewing screen allowed her a closer look as much of the light was reduced to save her eyes.

She saw one very large star, in a coupling with a much smaller bright white star, both of which were circled by a third star distant from that.

"Behold, Polaris."

Sunny's eyes widened, "Eedacheel?"

"She's technically three stars. The big one is Polaris Aa that little one is Ab and that distant one is B, all together they constitute what we know as the north, or in your case, southern star." He opened his mouth to continue speaking, but just as he did Simon burst through the doors and onto the main deck.

"Admiral! You have to see this."

Adam frowned in mild annoyance, having ordered Simon not to disturb him unless absolutely necessary. Then again, he did tell Simon this, and sometimes the two of them had different ideas about what absolutely necessarily meant. Simon had a tendency to assume that almost everything was necessary , and Adam had a habit of putting things off to be less important than they probably were.

"I want you to think for a moment lieutenant. IS anyone dying, is the ship going to crash, or are we being hailed by a warlike alien species bent on the destruction of earth."

Simon paused to really consider this question, and Adam sighed.

"No sir, but do signs of alien life count?"

***

Sunny had not expected that, and clearly neither had Adam as they both found themselves standing on the bridge in awed silence staring at the images slowly filtering in from their onboard telescope, which was having no difficulty sending images to them that were as crisp and clear as a reflection on a still lake.

"What-is-that?" Adam muttered in astonishment as he stared at the viewing screen before them.

"I don't know." Simon muttered softly