Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Forced Cooperation

He lay with his back exposed to the open air, cool night air swept in from the balcony and cooled the condensation from his skin. His heartbeat slowed gradually over the intervening minutes until he could feel it only as a soft pulse within his chest. He lay with his head partially resting against Sunny, one arm around her chest. He was sort of half dozing in the lazy late night moment. He Felt sunny's body shake slightly and turned his head in place to look at her with mild confusion. The dim glow from a holo-projection washed over his face, lighting the front of Sunny's chest face, and neck with dim blue light.

"Something funny?" He muttered groggily

She snorted again, softly, "Just looking at these old pictures. Do you remember when we used to hate each other."

"Ugh don't remind me, I still feel guilty about that."

She patted him on the back, the rough surface of her hand cool against his skin, "Don't worry, I forgive You. Would hardly have married you if I hadn't."

"yeah I was kind of an asshole, and besides, YOU never really hated me."

She contemplated the image she was looking at for a moment, "Maybe not."

Adam cringed and hid his face against her chest, "I said some.... Objectively xenophobic stuff to you a couple times."

"You know what, I can forgive that since I did rip off your leg rather violently the first time we met"

"I AM glad we can joke about that now." He said, though his voice was teasing, "Still sorry about the way I treated you to start off with. Wasn't very sporting of me on occasion."

Sunny shrugged, "Turned out didn't it."

"I think young US would be....."

"Disgusted, flabargasted, horrified?"

"Soemthing like that."

***

She stood alone standing aloof to the side of the group Listening to the marines tease and play with each other. They were a lot like children, marines, but at least they could stand her presence. The rest of the ship was not entirely comfortable with her, not yet. Sunny held a helmet under one arm. The idea of a space suit was foreign to her , but at the end of the day it was simply another suit of armor.

"Going to an alien planet to touch some alien things." His voice carried through the ship, sung intentionally badly to an unknown tune. Sunny was becoming more and more familiar with singing now. You had to be when humans were involved . She was also getting better at differentiating human voices, which had originally, all sounded the same to her.

Captain Vir came sliding around the corner on his wheeled shoes, nearly colliding into a crate but managing to dodge out of the way at the last minute. He had a large smile on his face rows of pearl white teeth glittering in the light. Reflected UV light rolled over his pale sable Fur.

"Alright ya crayon eaters, lets move o-" He paused, his eyes falling on Sunny. The look on his face died and his expression grew rather icy."

"What is she doing here, and who gave her a suit."

The dark skinned human from earlier stood up from behind the jet she was working on, wrench in one hand bright yellow bandana tied neatly around the top of her head. She brandished the wrench like it was a weapon, "If the Drev is going to exist on this ship, Captain, she's going to have to pull her weight. You can't let her be here and simultaneously ignore her."

He crossed his arms, "I think you'll find that I can, see watch this."

He turned his head to stare intently at the floor next to Sunny's feet, "Wow, someone did a really good job mopping this morning A plus work."