Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

In the Boblight

Emperor Avex sat at the helm of his ship, shrouded in all the opulence and glory of the Celzex empire. Surrounding him sat the greatest minds of this Celzex generations carefully monitoring their screens and systems, with numbers and markings unreadable by their onboard visitors. The Celzex may have made an alliance with the humans, but that didn't mean they weren't intent on keeping at least some of their secrets. At his side, Admiral Vir gingerly made his way across the floor, avoiding a flurry of tiny bodies that erupted from nearby cracks and crevices, only to vanish under consoles, and into cracks in the walls.

Celzex ships were built like that, with many small hiding places. Lord Avex wasn't sure how many of the tiny bodies belonged to him, and didn't really care. His first wife might have card, but only because she had a habit of eating her own offspring when it was convenient.

Avex had never really gotten a taste for it.

Even now, he could see the human staring hungrily at the floor, and had he not known the human better he might have assumed the man was hungry for a midday snack. More likely, he simply wanted to pick one up and hold it. It had taken a while to come to terms with the fact that humans found them irresistibly adorable rather than warlike like they had first assumed in the earl days of their acquaintance, but Avex consoled himself with the fact that, even if the humans thought he was adorable, none of them would dare say anything.

Even his own father, who had the luxury of changing his shape to a more suitable warlike form, did nothing to question Avex, a face he was pleasantly surprised at, especially after hearing about his father's past.

Celex stepped into the room just then, bending down sharply and scooping one of the scampering celex children off the floor. Gingerly stepping around any other tiny bodies still running for cover, he walked over to Admiral Vir and deposited the tiny creature in his hands, "Here" he said, "Before you explode."

Indeed it did seem that Admiral Vir was ready to erupt, a smile of pure delight crossing over his face, one green eye bright as he cradled the tiny body to his chest. Humans have incredible bonding instincts. If he had just met Adam, Avex would have assumed it was his paternal instincts kicking in after the birth of his children, but by now he understood that that's just how humans were.

Celzex have no parental instincts to speak of. His relationship with his father had only been as good as it was because he had proven himself to be a worthy warrior, but turning to watch Adam gently stroking the tiny ball of fluff, he made a mental note not to let his wife eat that one, though with Adam's track record he half expected the human to smuggle it away in his pocket.

Avex honestly wouldn't care.

Finally managing to control himself, the human stepped forward brows knitted together in a valiant attempt at seriousness as he said, "So, how is this going to work." The look was somewhat undermined, by the gentle way in which he cradled the small body in his hands. Avex honestly expected the tiny Celex to bite him, but instead it curled up and nuzzled against his hand, somehow totally secure in the arms of an alien stranger.

Humans tended to have that effect.

"If our calculations are correct," he turned to look at Adam, "And when I say if, I actually mean because our calculations are always correct, and we are absolutely sure, we have determined that this is the optimal location."

The 'optimal location' in question was a patch of nondescript empty space some 92.5 million miles from arcadia, or approximately 8.3 light minutes. From here, you could probably have seen Arcadia with a powerful enough telescope if you knew where to look, except for the fact that Arcadia was a dark planet illuminated by basically nothing.

However, all of that was about to change.

This day had been YEARS in the making, the planning for which had started almost as soon as terraforming began on the dark little planet. Over the past few months animals and plants had been introduced onto Arcadia, that, though capable of living in the dark, were better able to survive in the presence of light.