Empyrean Iris Story Collection

Donating Blood

She looked over at him in surprise, "Oh, Good morning, Krill."

"GOOD MORNING..... GOOD MORNING. You know what I do not consider a good morning is when I walk into the room, and you are bleeding out the crew. Put that back where it came from or so help me.....!"

The human looked on in confusion, "Krill what are you on about."

"I DO NOT SUPPORT EXSANGUINATION."

Katie held him back with a hand as he tried to grab the needles from her, "Krill KRILL! Stop, Stop. I'm not hurting them. This is a safe procedure, besides we need this blood to give to someone else in an accident. Where do you think we get all the blood that we use in our surgeries."

Krill paused staring at her in horror, "you harvest the blood of our own species.!"
"Blood doesn't spring up from the earth Krill, Yes we have to borrow it."

"Borrowing implies that you are giving back." he retorted.

She rolled her eyes high into the air, "Ok, we TAKE blood, krill. We take it and we give it to others so they can use it when they are dying. 1/10 of their blood mass isn't a big deal, some extra orange juice, hydration, and a few days and they are back to normal. They barely notice anything other than an elevated heartbeat."

"I hold great issue with this. I still don't see that losing blood could be good for you."

"Than you can hang out with us and make sure that none of them die." She said pushing him back a bit while the commander leaned back in his seat.

"Oh, hey Katie..... I should probably tell you something before we start this." The commander was saying. Dr Katie nodded absently while she worked on him tying a tight bandage around his upper arm as she prodded for a good vein on his left arm.

"Well you see, there is this thing that happens every time I give blood, and it only happens when I give blood. It's not a big deal."

Krill could tell she was only half listening... something that people tended to do when the commander was still trying to get to the point.

"So anyway, the thing is that I-"

Dr Katie's eyes narrowed in concentration as she stuck the needle through the skin which whitened around the puncture wound and then raised upwards a bit.

"Ok.... nevermind we are doing this right now." The man said. Krill heard something go wrong with the man's voice before he saw anything, and he turned just in time to see Adam's eyes roll back in his head. He sagged downwards head lolling to the side body going limp.

Doctor Katie stepped back in surprise and Krill leaped forward.

"WHAT DID YOU DO! YOU KILLED HIM."

Dr. Katie quickly moved her hand to his neck, and then to his wrist, "No, I did not KILL him krill, he passed out."

She hurriedly brought one of her tecs over with a heart rate monitor hooking him up .

"Look at his blood pressure krill accused."

Dr Katie glowered at him, "yes, I see it krill, and that is likely why he passed out. Sometimes that happens. There are some people who experience a sudden drop in blood pressure when needles are involved and they pass out. He should be up in a few seconds."

Krill did not like this at all in any way whatsoever, "It's not ok for people to just PASS OUT. ANd now you expect him to magically wake up any second. Passing out is not a good thing, doctor, and you of all people should know that."

"You know what Krill, I do not appreciate your attitude today. Not one little bit." She said removing the needle and adjusting the chair so the man was lying flat on his back.

"I don't appreciate coming into work and seeing you, unannounced, stealing blood from the crew."

"THEY SIGNED UP KRILL."

"WHY WOULD ANYONE SIGN UP TO GIVE AWAY THEIR VITAL JUICES. IT'S CRAZY!"
Katie threw up her hands, "Haven't you been telling us for ages how crazy we are."
Adam moaned and his eyes flickered open, " -told you that I pass out every time..... But if you give me a warning when you are going to put the needle in I can usually stop it." At first his voice was slurred but slowly returning to normal as he propped himself up on one elbow, "Why don't we try this again, but this time warn me before you do that."

"NO!"

Katie glared at Krill but turned back to him, "I'm afraid I agree with the Cheif, I can't let you do that."

The man frowned, "What part of, that happens every time, are we not getting. Just try again, promise it'll work this time."

Krill raised a hand, "Probably passing out because your body is like OH SHIT my blood is getting stolen."

"Why does this bother you so much." Katie snapped

"Adam frowned, no that isn't it. I don't know what it is, I am not afraid of needles really in any way. I don't mind them. I can get shots just fine, I can get stitches just fine, but for some reason every time they draw blood I just suddenly pass out. I'll be fine one second completely normal no issues, and the next second I am out. HOWEVER, give me a warning and I can use my pilot training to keep the blood in my head instead of in my legs where it WANTS to go."

"No." Krill growled

Katie glowered at him. Adam tried to keep the two of them apart, "WOAH, slow your roll you two. He turned his head to krill, "Look, this is something we have been doing for over 2000 years. We need to do it because other people lose blood, and we need to be able to do our magic thing and save them. Humans are only durable if they have enough blood to keep their hearts going. All of these people here are volunteers and I guarantee most of them will not pass out like I do. Krill, seriously, what would you suggest we do."

"Can't you get synthetic blood or something. If you can 3D print tissue, I am sure you can make analogue blood."

"Yeah sure we can synthesize it, but it is super expensive and potentially dangerous if done wrong. And we are neither rich enough or brave enough to trust that, but you know what is great at making blood, oh yeah, the human body

Krill tried to argue with them, worried about his friend, but Dr. Katie was being just as stubborn as Adam was, and with Krill's grudging supervision, they drained him of 10% of his blood volume, but made him stay there for a good fifteen minutes nursing an orange juice after his fainting spell earlier.

It really had not been Krill's expectations to walk in on Dr, Katie doing her best vampire impression, and he greatly worried what he was going to walk in on her doing to his crew later.

Krill wasn't entirely sure why this little thing about humans made him so insanely mad, frustrated and confused. First of all, the fact that humanity intentionally drained their own bodies of blood, a vital liquid that kept humans alive, brought oxygen to their cells, and carried the systems that allowed them to fight off infection and disease, but no they just gave it away like it was no big deal, like blood loss didn't have serious consequences that included.... Well death.

Additionally the human body KNEW it wasn't supposed to be happening, so it was normal enough for people to just go off and pass out as their blood pressure dropped significantly allowing blood to pool in the legs instead of in the head where it needed to be. And they all acted like it was no big deal all to save people that they may not even know.

They harvested blood like it was oil or some other sort of resource you would use to power your car. Did they get compensation for any of this? NO, the answer was no, most of them just showed up and decided to give it away. There was not one time in Krill's life where he had ever wanted to give away any part of his vital system, but somehow these humans had managed to convince each other that that was a good thing. Yeah he understood that they needed blood in order to save people, but the fact that humans had ever even thought of that was entirely insane.

Ah yes, if you lose some of your, I will give you mine to keep you from not dying. Yes the flowy goo liquid that runs through my body, would you like some? What is your flavor A B O AB? This one is a very good vintage, I promise it carries no transmissible diseases. Oh and while I am at it why don't you just go ahead and take one of my kidneys, a lobe of my liver.

How about I just rip my heart out of my chest!

What was next?