Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Domestic Threat

"Why do they insist on shipping the bodies back to earth, why don't they just do that thing where they dehydrate the body and then shake them apart?"

"Maybe that's because not everyone wants their ashes scattered in space."

"Well its not like we have room to burry people on earth. You know ground burials are illegal now."

"Maybe they want to be put in a jar on the family mantel. I don't know and it's not my job to care."

"So you would be ok if they just disposed of your corpse to go floating out in space forever."

"Well its not like I'm in there anymore. If you believe the government my soul has gone off to the far edges of the universe to fight a holy war for the architect."

"Sounds like some kind of shitty version of Valhalla."

"You know what, I don't mind the idea of Valhalla."

The voices faded away slowly as they moved up the hall, the overhead lights flicking off as they left that sector of the building. Inside the small outgoing storage room, five silver caskets lay for some time, unmoving in the quiet darkness.

And then something shifted.

Had there been anyone in that room to observe they might have assumed the zombie apocalypse had finally come to earth. They might have even run screaming I the other direction as one of the coffin lids quietly clicked open, before slowly inching upwards. A hand clasped the outer edge of the box fingers gripping the cold metal as the body hauled itself upright, pushing the casket lid completely open.

Adam stepped out into the quiet darkness crouching low to the floor. His mechanical eye glowed green in the dim light cast from the hallway, and he had his head tilted slightly to one side, listening for any slight sound.

When he heard nothing he walked over to the far casket and tapped softly on the lid.

It hissed open a moment later and Sunny appeared pulling the oxygen mask from her face.

The other lids hissed open one by one until there was only one left. Adam frowned and walked over to where it lay silent at the back of the room and then knocked quietly on the lid. There was a shuffling inside before the lid opened and Maverick sat up looking rather bleary.

Whispering through the comms Adam said, "Good morning sleeping beauty. Have a nice nap."

Maverick yawned and rubbed her eyes, "Actually I did thanks for asking."

He turned to look at the rest of his crew, "And you?"

There were a couple of nods from Sunny and Ramirez, but by the dark circles under Desmond's eyes Adam might wager to say that he hadn't slept for the entire journey, which was a real pity considering they had been in their own death beds for something going on sixteen hours. Adam stretched, popping his neck and flexing his arms. Maverick twisted sharply from side to side, cracking her spine up most of its length.

Ramirez gave her a look of horror, and she grinned at him.

Sunny bent down to touch her toes, before standing to stretch all four arms.

"Alright, gather up your oxygen tanks and close your lids. When they open everything up, I don't want any obvious evidence that someone was here. He reached down and pulled a dark hat from his pocket, stuffing it over his head to conceal his light hair while the others did the same.

Sunny was going to be a lot harder to hide, but they had planned for that. If she was any taller they might not have tried it, but at seven feet tall she was still within the range of possibility for a human. Sunny reached down to zip up the massive sweatshirt she wore, pulling a hood down over her face. Along with the dark black sweatpants she looked human enough. Maybe like an NFL linebacker out for a stroll, but it was going to have to do.