Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Beam Me up

His whole body hurt. Pain branched through him like splinters of ice following the path of his veins and pulsing with every beat of his heart.

It felt like he was on fire.

Cold fire.

Or fire that was so hot or cold that his body couldn't tell the difference anymore, but to him it felt col. Adam knew what was happening to him, despite the haze and confusion every time he opened his eyes, inside his head he knew perfectly what was going on.

Though the voices outside were distant, and his body seemed to be separated from him by a thousand miles, he knew where he was and what was happening.

He was sick.

Though he didn't feel sick.

That might have seemed odd to explain, but he felt more trapped than anything else, trapped and held captive inside his own head as the enemy attempted to break him down. He could feel it inside him, attempting to get inside his head, feed on his very soul.

But there was some hope.

At least he thought.

While this thing could ravage his body all it wanted, there was a certain sense that it couldn't get to his mind so easily, though it was trying, and that in a way was the reason Adam felt it was less a sickness and more a captivity.

Torture.

He had had the flue before, been so sick that his entire body rebelled and he wanted to crawl through the floor and into oblivion, but that hadn't bee personal. This was personal, and it was about him.

It was trying to break him down, and it knew where he was weak.

This wasn't sickness at all, it was capture, captivity, and compliance, just inside his own body.

Fine

If that's how it wanted to play, he would play .

What they didn't know is that Adam had been trained for this sort of thing.

No one might have assumed it but the TransSpace Ariel combative academy had had one final unit in their schooling, a unit that was top secret, heavily classified, and strategically concealed from UN human rights groups, not that it wasn't heavily regulated, controlled and monitored at all times for violations, but there were certain factors of the government who would throw a hissy fit if they knew what had been going on.

If they knew what nineteen-year-old Adam had been put through.

It was an archaic practice, borrowed from military operations two thousand years in the past, but military research indicated had some benefit in helping students survive the worst possible situations.

Capture.

And torture

Behind enemy lines

***

Adam Vir lay prone in the tall grass with his head cocked to one side. All around him the forest was alive with the sounds of birds and animals. Running water trickled somewhere distant, and the long uncut grasses filled his nose with the heady scent of summer.

A summer that was sweltering.

Inside his flight suit, he was sweating like a pig.

He had been airdropped in about five clicks north of this position, with everything he would have if he was ejected from a compromised jet, and an instructor provided safe word if things were to go wrong.

The class had giggled at the use of "safe word" one recruit whispering that it was "Kinky." Too bad for them their MTI Sgt Kimball had overheard that comment, and pointed out that there was nothing kinky about being tied up and locked in a box.