Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Risen

They came in legions, a rising tide of white armored soldiers, glowing with the burning golden radiance of their maker powers spilling like a torrent into the docking bay and leaking outward through the corridors: a rising tide of glory and power brimming with possibility for conquest and battle.

A tide: that was getting dangerously close to drowning Adam with barely contained rage.

Adam was not a jealous man, never had been. In fact, it had taken him nearly a decade to shed his status as a doormat and not be overly permissive, but this was crossing the line. Watching people take over his ship was simultaneously infuriating and heartbreaking all at once. Watching another, unnamed, Maker take the helm had been a knife through the heart, and seeing Maker Adham pass down orders to his newly established crew stung almost as much

The crew did not hide their displeasure.

The Bridge crew stood with impotent rage at the corners of the room demoted from their statons and relegated to lumps of flesh no better than discarded furniture. Looking at their faces, Adam could see a mixture of rage and indignation, one or two openly sneering in contempt and barely contained rage as they watched other entities take over their coveted stations, some of which the deck officers had taken the time to personalize.

The feeling was one shared by the crew at large.

Battalions of marines watched with indignation as their battlestations were taken over, and the engineering crew.... Well they threw a fit.

Adam was hardly surprised when Narobi came storming into the room demanding attention despite her grease stained jumpsuit. Fiery honey eyes ablaze with indignton, orange and yellow hair wrap coming partially unraveled in her fury. She marched right up to Adham cutting into one of his conversations and jabbing a finger at his chest, "Who the hell do you think you are."

Adham paused, almost taken aback but frowned, "I am Adham first man a-"

"I know WHO you are, that was not my question. I want to know who you THINK you are and why you think you can bring YOUR men into MY engine room fouling everything up."

Adham frowned, "This is not your ship, Alter. It was, in fact, stolen from the architect, and is one of our greatest weapons in the battle against apollyon, if we are to fight him, I certainly don't want a group of amateurs running the systems."

"Ametures!" the look of indignation on her face was certainly a thing to behold.

Adam leaned over to Sunny, "Here we go."

She stepped closer, "Listen here, I know this ship back forward up and down. I could navigate its systems in my sleep standing on my head in the dark, drunk, and I can guarantee you there is no better person to run the engineering systems than me,"

Adham almost looked amused, "You and your friends have had this ship for less than a decade. I am familiar with this ship for eons, so please go sit with your friends and elt us take this from here." His voice was soft and not unreasonable, but Adam knew what the Maker was thinking.

He saw them as nothing more than children, Nairobi's outburst a tantrum, and he did what any good adult would do, sending the kids out of harm's way and into the corner to play with their toys while the grownups did the real work.

By the time she walked over Nairobi was fuming, her beautiful face twisted into an expression of pure rage, rage that was about to be turned on Adam, who she approached, planting her feet shoulder width a few feet away from him and crossing her arms over her chest, "You want to tell me why the hell we are standing for this" She waved an angry arm at the interlopers, "After years of work, I had just gotten the systems how I like them, and now these assholes just storm onto the ship and take over."