Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

A Pirate's Life

Captain Tola Chan was rocked awake by a violent jolt, falling from her bunk and onto the cold steel of the deck as her entire ship vibrated around her. Warning sirens began to blare causing the room to pulse with deep red light as she staggered to her feet and raced for the door, still half asleep, feet bare against the cold metal as she raced down the hall and towards the bridge.

Captain Chan forced her way onto the bridge even as her name was being called over the intercom. Despite an attempt at competent professionalism, the voice over the intercom was one of near panic. She raced forward, bare feet cold on the deck below her as she forced the night shift lieutenant out of her seat.

She was awake now, hastily pulling her hair into a tight bun out of her face.

"Someone give me a damn status report, what hit us?" She assumed soemthing had hit them, it was really the only explanation on what could cause a ship to move like that.

Just before her, the signals lieutenant scrambled to scrape together a satisfactory answer, the agitation of the moment thickening his Slavic accent, "I don't know captain, I can't, see anything o the radar, either long or short range. There.... There are no signals. I...."

"Then use your eyes lieutenant." She barked, "What do you see."

It was a pointless and redundant question, as all of them, including her could see that there was nothing out of forward view screen, and no indication that their ship had been hit by anything at all despite the jolt they had all felt earlier, and the sirens which continued to blare over their heads.

"Captain, ship systems are reporting a malfunction on B deck Airlock.'

With those words came a nervous shift around the room

"Seal the deck B outer bulkhead." She ordered before, "What kind of malfunction."

"Not sure yet, the system isn't responding I..."

And that's when she felt the cold barrel of a gun pressing into the soft skin behind her ear. No one else noticed at first, to intent on their tasks working the problem, but she was left silent and wide eyed, watching as, in one coordinated movement, her entire bridge was subdued before they even had chance to make resistance.

"That would be your onboard airlock system being hacked by advanced codebreaking AI technology. Don't worry, there's nothing you could have done to stop it." A shiver ran up her spine. The voice that spoke was soft, and conversational, but somehow managed to permeate the room. The entire crew turned and froze, only now becoming aware of the heavily armed squad of what could only have been pirates holding each of them at gunpoint.

"Lets just stay calm everyone" The voice continued, "We are not here to harm you or you people, follow our orders and behave, and no one has to get hurt. Stand, put your hands behind your head and lay down on the floor keeping your hands behind your head. If you make a move that we deem to be hostile, you will be dealt with." The voice sighed, "For risk of sounding like the world's biggest cliché, don't try to be a hero."

Someone giggled, "You've always wanted to say that haven't you."

"Not the time."

"Sorry sir."

Captain Chan stood from her chair and went to her knees like the others, though she was stopped before she could lay down as the man holding the gun to her head took a step around in front of her forcing her to crane her neck up to look at him.

It was only now she noticed the slight whirring noise when he moved, how the weight of his footsteps was somehow heavier than they should have been. Every step, and every stride was quick and fluid, in a way that.... just wasn't normal.