Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

The Polaris Pattern

A film of ice coated the outer hull of the ship, and despite her size, the previous day's blizzard had pushd the snow banks so high, that the empyrean was nearly covered under a layer of white. Some enterprising marine had managed to dig a tunnel out and onto the icy tundra above, a vast plane of ice sonar stated was many miles deep above the surface of a frigid ocean, not unlike Jupiter's Europa

Inside, the mixed human and alien crew incubated in a tense quiet. Many of their support systems had been turned off, and the cloaking shield remained active by day.

Things had not exactly gone well with the council of zealots, and despite Adam doing everything he could to explain himself, all they saw was their destroyed temple, and their missing prophet.

Now Adam stood on the bridge staring out at a wall of white snow that had nearly covered the empyrean's forward view screen.

"Damn," Ramirez muttered, "I think the proper measurement used in times like this is a metrick fuck ton of snow."

Somewhere on the bridge, Adam could sense Conn's aura of approval.

Behind him Sunny sat in one of the support seats lounging, carefully running a porous stone over the razor edge of her spear.

Dr krill floated nearby examining the snow with a measure of distaste. As a plant based lifeform, he did not appreciate cold climates, the colder it was the worse it was. Based on the empyrean's sensors, the weather outside was somewhere in the -50 range, hostile but livable with the right equipment, a fact that bothered krill to no end. The ship itself was rather warm of course -50 was nothing compared to the vastness of deep space, but even if the cold was a problem, the fallen snow over the outer layer of the ship had slowly melted on the inside and then refrozen into an insulating wall of ice.

The empyrean herself was rather cozy here where she rested planetside, and here is where she would stay for the time being.

More than a little aware of their newly cold climate, the Empyrean had adapted marvelously, heating the ship up to a nice, even seventy six degrees before liberally distributing hot chocolate and cyder despite the inventory technicians indicating that they hadn't acquisitioned either for their trip. With the distribution of hot chocolate came the addition of mittens and hats for crew members with low resting body temperatures. That left Maverick with a new set of mittens, and a beanie covered in snowflakes, which the empyrean insisted she wear despite being inside.

Sunny received the brunt of the Empyrean's attention, however, and it was more than clear that the Empyrean was not above giving certain crew members special treatment. Those of them that knew about Sunny's condition was well aware of the Empyrean's interest in her, and, for this reason, Sunny had received a cloak with hood and four sets of mittens along with a big warmed glass of water root tea.

She wouldn't have worn the mittens,but the empyrean had made some sad sort of beeping sounds, and she didn't have the heart to say no.

"What do you think happened to General Kanza." Krill wondered, "Think she's dead?"

Adam gave a snort, "Not in the lightest. I won't believe that bitch is dead until I see the body."

From where she sat on the floor, Maverick gave a grunt and adjusted her mittens around her mug of hot chocolate, "hard to say. I mean he did dump her into a lake of boiling water. Adam is half maker and he still probably wouldn't survive that. As far as we know Kazna is fully mortal, but with some void enhancements, so maybe she could survive."

"She will survive on the power of pure spite,'' Sunny said never taking her eyes of the edge of her blade as she twirled it lazily through her mittened hands, "Besides, we probably don't want her dead anyway. Imagine Kazna with the power of a Maker with the backing of the oid."