Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Jellyfriend

It was good to be back on the ship, good to have the crew together again, though Simon's obvious absence was noted. She was still getting used to having her own ship, eager to run actual missions, to command a crew to prove that she could do it. Adam, for his part, did miss her, she had been a good foil to his disorganization , however it would be a pity to waste a talent like her on simply being first mate for the rest of her life.

His new choice was Lt. McCaster, the young man had given up a lot to be part of his crew, a promising career in the UNSC, and most certainly proportions . Just like the rest of them he would be labeled as a traitor.... So young too.

Adam sighed, wondering why he had to feel so old when he had barely seen three decades of life. McCaster wasn't that much younger than him, maybe five years at most, and he had grown up a lot since joining the crew. Adam was letting him pilot the ship now from the auxiliary piloting station. Some captains preferred not to fly their ships themselves, though Adam had rarely passed up the opportunity to do it himself.

Now, McCaster needed practice.

Right now he was slow and cautious, but overtime his confidence would grow. In a jet it was easy to tell where you were in relation to the rest of your jet. The bubble canopy made it easy to see where everything was, and the vehicle was small enough that you always seemed in control.

With a ship as big as the Omen, that was harder.

Adam stared at their new destination, a small star cluster on the rim of the milky way galaxy. The had talked about their plans in great detail back on Arcadia, his exoplanet named by popular vote of the citizens, and they had all had a collectively difficult time deciding what was going to happen from here.

They knew generally what they wanted.

To keep earth safe

To protect the Universe

To thwart the Void.

But it was difficult to know where to start. The void had been quiet since Kelly's death, and while everything had changed, it had now become their new normal. The worlds were still spinning governments were still functioning and people were going on with their lives. As of yet it was hard to see what they could be doing to stop all of it.

Etium, the Tesraki Adam had fought with in the Drev war, Claimed that he had an idea, and vanished shortly after, though no one had heard from him in some time. Adam had to admit that he was worried, the little Tesraki had only just begun to recover from the war, and his confidence was coming back in slow chunks. He worried how well he would fend for himself out there I the vast universe.

Adam hoped to see him again.

But until then, they would have to wait, to respond to the dangers, and as of yet there didn't seem to be any.

So, it only seemed right to do what they always did.

What they were good at.

Deep space exploration.

Everyone loved seeing new planets and discovering new species. If you discovered it, you got to name it, and now that they weren't following GA or UNSC rules, you also had the potential to adopt pets.

They had already gone back to Jeffery's planet on a multitude of occasions, befriending and luring plenty of the strange snake species away to populate their own little asteroid.

Adam had returned to a familiar planet, with a hill where he and Sunny had gone on one of their first real dates, and while there he had been pleased to find the strange Dodo like birds were still there eager to be picked up and played with.