Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Little Star

Adam adjusted the collar of his shirt, "Any sign of him."

"Afraid not sir, we've sent out probes, Captain Koslov is heading the search, but so far we haven't found hide nor hair of the Leviathin."

Adam sighed, "Like searching for a needle in a hayfield in Ohio."

"Do they do hay in Ohio? I thought it was corn?"

"The metaphor still stands, Smaug is the worlds biggest needle, but we are searching for him across the entire universe..... How about radio beacons, have you tried those yet. I was never sure how he communicated, but I have a feeling he would notice if someone was trying to contact him."

"Yes sir, we have, and we will keep trying."

Adam sighed and buckled his belt, "Fine, Call me immediately if there's any news, I would be there with you, but I made a promise to someone, and it isn't a promise I am willing to break."

"Don't worry Sir, we understand."

The comm link went dead and he took another deep breath.

"No joy?"

He turned to look at where Sunny was lounging on the bed mostly obscured in a tangle of blankets and pillows, her golden eyes peering out from their depths seeming to glow almost luminously in the half dark.

"No, no trace of him, but that's expected. We try to keep track of him, but when he cant warp at will, that becomes kind of an issue." He reached up to run a hand through his hair more out of worry than out of any desire to control the unruly tangle that had plagued him since childhood. They had left what the crew had recently dubbed "The archive" only a day or so ago, handing over control to the 'experts' mostly xenolinguists and ancient historians. Everything within the archive vault would have to be transcribed, recorded and sorted . Each silver ball contained what must have been hours of material, and there were thousands of little silver balls upon the archive shelves.

The experts estimated that it could take years for them to go through all of the information, much less understand it all.

Adam himself felt rather useless in the whole affair, but walked over to where Sunny was still laying and leaned down to kiss her cheek before standing back up.

She blinked at him, "Be careful, and don't cause trouble."

He sighed, "Tell Conn that."

Sunny huffed slightly, "I don't suppose the possibility of him accidentally getting hit by a city bus are all that high."

He snorted, "Unfortunately not." He squeezed her hand once before stepping away, "I should be back soon, but knowing earth, and knowing Conn...."

"And knowing you, anything could happen." She finished.

He grinned at her, the expression rather lopsided the way he knew she liked it, "You know me too well."

He gave her one last wave before turning towards the door, watching it hiss open and stepping out into the hall before turning, and nearly jumping out of his skin.

Conn was floating there with a predatory grin on his porcelain white face , "Good morning, sweetheart."

Adam ignored the pet name.

Conn had been trying them out for a few days, and Adam found they only seemed to get worse when he rose to the minor annoyance, "The hell are you wearing." He demanded head moving up and down the starborn's body.

"I thought we could match!" Conn said with some measure of enthusiasm spinning in a circle.

Indeed they did match, jeans, t shirts flannels and.... Where the hell had Conn gotten a leather jacket.