Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Incarnation

Krill had never not been afraid, but this time he wasn't alone.

Dr. Katie sat across from him, long dark hair spilling down onto her scrubs, large brown eyes wide with shock made even wider by the lenses of her glasses. She may have been a doctor, but she could have easily fit the human movie trope of- unreasonably attractive librarian.

"You aren't serious." She said

Krill nodded , outside the room, and down the hall, he could hear the sound of running feet and tromping boots battering at the floor of the Empyrean. Waylayed on their trip, once again, the Empyrean had taken a detour at the Europe colonies within the Jovian system. Pockets of void resistance fighters had made the system a hell in space, and Adam had been unable to pass up the request for help levied on him by the governor of Io.

"I can't just do that, not without permission...."

"Permission from who?"

Katie stammered, paused, bit her lip and then tried again, "From .... Adam."

"Not his decision."

She wrung her hands, "But krill, you, if you die-"

"If I die, you are more than capable of taking my place ."

He didn't miss the incredulous and skeptical eyebrow raise that she leveled at him, it was an expression that could only truly have the full effect when used by a human.

There are 42 muscles in the human face, two eyes with visible white sclera and eyebrows upon the eyebrow ridges, which, while they help to keep sweat out of the eyes, also helped to harness the full effect of the human nonverbal communication . The entirety of the human face was designed for communication , and over the past few years Krill had come to read expressions with the same unconscious know-how of any human .

He reached on one small, frail hand and placed it over her strong, human one. Despite the skeptical eyebrow, he could see the fear in her face too, the tightening around the corners of her mouth, the hardness of her jaw, the set of her lips into a thin line against her pale skin.

"I am tired of feeling useless."

Katie shook her head, "But Krill that's stupid. You-"

"Yes yes, best surgeon in the galaxy. What would we do without you, how could we go on etc etc. Katie, there are plenty of great doctors in the world, but very few of them who can harness Anima power." He continued to pat her hand, "I am tired of hiding in the background while my friends go off to die in glorious battle. I hate having to watch it and I will tolerate it no longer

She looked at him with a pained expression, "I don't think I could live with myself.... If I killed you."

"Than Don't/"

***

Krill's words had not been comforting. The little doctor that tried his best of course, and the fact that he was placing his life in her hands was, well it was certainly the greatest compliment he could have given, but even so.

No pressure.

She was being asked to fill the shoes of the greatest surgeon who had probably ever lived. Four arms and four separate cortical hemispheres, not to mention the ability to float which was sort of handy when it came to operating. Krill's Vrul body was almost meant for the surgical suite.

But her....

Well she had only two clumsy human arms and only two cortical hemispheres of which neither could operate independently, and even if they were separated, like they occasionally were in extreme cases of epilepsy , only one hemisphere of her brain was capable of speech.