Empyrean Iris

Chapter 29

Captain Vir leaned back against the table, staring at Sunny. As he did soft paws padded over the floor and Waffles came up to his side nosing his hand with her snout. He patted the top of her head. The muscles in his face relaxed, and no matter how hard he tried to be angry, it just wasn't working, and his shoulders relaxed. Despite that he tried to keep up his bite of contempt, "So helpful of you."

The Drev glowered back, her golden eyes narrowing. He fought the desire to look away, the throbbing in his vanished leg intensifying, "Because my prowess during battle was so detrimental."

Her voice was stiff, but he saw the triumphant change on her face when he was able to say nothing against her. She was right – unfortunately – she had been very useful, and she was a phenomenal warrior. Not like he was going to tell her that.

His nails dug into the side of his arm, "Look we made a good team, but that doesn't mean I want to make this permanent. You got what you wanted, you got aboard this ship, but no one ever said I had to keep you. So next planet we come to, I am going to dump you off like a sack of potatoes and pray to god I never see you again."

She stood stepping forward so that her cold shadow fell over him. It was probably just a trick but he felt as if the room went ten degrees colder. He stopped leaning and stood straight breathing, coming suddenly faster than before.

Fear.

"If I wanted to hurt you, I would have done it already." He watched as she pointedly looked down at his leg.

"The war is past, human, and your anger at me is futile. If you set down the grudge, maybe it wouldn't block your view so much and you would be able to see that I am here to help you not to hurt you."

He bared his teeth, "Pretty words for a killer."

"I did not kill you. In fact it was you who killed many of my brethren. You spilled our blood over the rock and moss of Anum –our homeworld--, and yet you want to play the victim here." She waved a hand towards the sky, "Your people attacked us from a distance, killed our children in their sleep, and yet I am the butcher." He paused, struck by her words, jaw working. He had never thought of it like that, "If I am a butcher, then you are a mass murderer."

His mouth opened, and then closed.

She mirrored his posture, both of her arms crossed, "Look, human. If you wish me to play your games, then I will stoop to see the world as you do. But be wary of that decision because you don't appear as a paragon of virtue yourself."

He paused leaning back against the table, his heart hammering. A part of him wanted to completely ignore what she had to say, but another part of him knew she was right, and it made him sick to think. His hands were clenched into white-knuckle fists at his sides, and at that moment he wanted nothing more than to refute her arguments, but he knew he couldn't.

Anger boiling towards the surface and near impossible to control, he took a step forward and brushed past her out of the room.

It was leaning towards night, and the light aboard the ships had been dimmed. He wasn't worried about missing something important.

He tried to keep his thoughts on the trivial things, the ship engines, and the warp and their upcoming mission.

But he was finding it hard to focus.

At his side, Waffles looked up at him with her large brown eyes wide with concern. She wasn't wearing her service vest, but that fact made her no less of a service dog, and she kept tight to his side sensing his agitation. He was thankful for her presence, of course, she had saved his life on more than one occasion, she was the reason he had recovered after the war, but... a part of him just wanted to be alone, to return to bad coping habits where he might find comfort even if it wasn't so good