Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Impetus

Hundreds of eyes glittered wet with tears like crystal. Hundreds of palms were pressed flat against the glass surface of the viewing windows, a hundred lips spoke the name of the celestial body that presided over the universe .

Revelation

They said, the words tasting with a new familiarity, their bodies filled with a sense of homesickness that was so painful it was almost a physical expression. It was like that moment when you are trying to think of a word, but is just on the tip of your tongue, just out of reach. Looking outside they felt as if they knew where they were going, how to navigate, what to do but it was..... difficult to conjure up the memory that should have been there.

Adam was glad tat Conn had chosen not to join this for this mission.

He had thought it was too dangerous to be near behemoth with his ability to read minds, and he might have been right, but to experience the thoughts and feelings of an entire ship as they looked out over Revelation and the axis of the universe.... Adam didn't see how they wouldn't be too much for anyone.

Standing on the bridge of his ship, in a welling pool of golden light, he was glad he was wearing a helmet as unbidden and unwanted tears sprang to his eyes and wetted his cheeks, almost involuntarily.

He had to keep his hands hard at his sides against their futile desire to wipe at his face.

Before him others were doing just that.

He could have stood there and looked at this view forever, longed to rejoin it, as looking upon it somehow made things feel.... Better.

The pain of life faded away, all the bad memories, pain and hurt, were simply trivial under Revelation.

It was a powerful feeling, one that might have taken other men and women in, but Adam forced himself to shake off the feeling.

"Alright, enough gawping, we have work to do."

The tremor in his voice was nonexistent under the modulation that Fealty placed over it, and Adam could hear the AI humming to itself in pleasure as he took his seat, making a note to get the seat restraints fixed when he had the chance, "Everyone clean yourselves up if necessary and then get back to your stations! Remember why we are here and what we are dong."

The crew continued to look longingly at the glowing star before them, but slowly, one by one they went back to their stations and their work, a few people standing to hurry out of the room before returning some minutes later, generally wearing a fresh pair of pants.

"Someone throw up a filter over that screen, I can't concentrate."

There was reluctance, but the crew did it, and the world before them was robbed of it's golden light. The filter they used took most of the yellow out of the scene before them, muting the star itself while leaving the blue nebulae and the planetary systems intact.

"I want an analysis on the planetary system as soon as possible, how many planets, energy signatures, the whole nine yards, do what you have to do."

The crew got to work and Adam tapped his fingers against the armrest.

"If I was a weapon of mass destruction created by celestial beings where would I hide?" He muttered to himself elbow resting on the chair arm. He turned once to glance at Lord Avex, "Lord Avex are the cloaking shields still up?"

"Yes, cloaking shields are still up, though what good they will do against Maker technology remains to be seen"

Yes their new cloaking technology was a marvel of Celzex engineering, the newest and best tech, the sort of thing the Celzex weren't likely to share with them in times past, but now, specifically for this mission Lord Avex had mane an exception, but even the technology of the most advanced species in the galaxy was questionable up against this.