Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Purple and Orange

Dr. Krill sat in his office.

Soft classical music played in the background. He was trying to immunize himself against the affects of music, and found that he could withstand and could even enjoy it if the music was soft enough, and didn't retain a steady beat pattern, or baseline. Though classical music tended to retain some sort of structure and the notes were on a certain beat, he could manage. Music with no organized beat, like jazz was the easiest for him to deal with as his brain did not attempt to recognize any sort of pattern within the music. He liked Jazz well enough, but honestly enjoyed a classical piano piece. Most of them were well over two thousand years old, but they did have a timeless nature about them.

Classical composers that he enjoyed included Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, and others. It was for this reason that Adam had labeled him a basic classical bitch, since most of those were all the popular and well known composers, declaring that he was reverting to type. His type being the stuck up smart guy who listened to classical music.

He didn't see what was wrong with that stereotype.

Apparently Adam was not a fan of classical music arguing that, while it took a lot of talent, he ust didn't enjoy it.

Adam didn't enjoy anything unreasonable it had an unreasonable amount of base, If he had a favorite classical piece it had to be Carl Orff's O fortuna which he said slapped so hard it could cook a chicken. But just like all of the songs Adam liked. O Fortuna could put him in a coma.

A soft knock came at his door.

"Yes?"

"Its me." Dr Katie said, "Can you come out here for a moment, I need a consult."

Krill left the music running while he floated down to the floor and scuttled out into the medical bay. He hadn't been doing anything particularly time sensitive anyway. He was planning a few of the surgeries they were going to attempt on the Forsaken, starting with carapace removal for one of them as it seemed to him to be the most urgent, and following a tendon reconstruction for another Drev. Both of the surgeries were soemthing he had not had the occasion to do, and was, in turn, very excited to try something new.

He stepped into the medical bay where Dr Katie was sitting next to Maverick.

She looked fine from a distance, but as he approached, he could see the human absently scratching at her side. She had a look of mild discomfort on her face, though she didn't seem particularly worried.

"Doctor." She greeted.

"Maverick." He said, pulling up a chair.

He liked maverick, generally speaking. While she was a marine, and so prone to doing stupid things, at least she came to him when she first noticed something was wrong, and not when the problem actually became a problem. With her they tended to catch things early.

He liked when he could do that.

"So what seems to be the issue?"

Dr Katie turned to Maverick, who held up the side of her shirt, "This, some sort of rash or maybe dermatitis or something. Itches like a bastard."

Krill leaned forward to examine the the pattern of bumps that had erupted on Maverick's skin. It was a small patch, about the size of a quarter.

"I wouldn't have come in for something so minor but." She grimaced, "It's killing me."

Krill frowned at her.

"Figuratively."

Katie shook her head, "At first I was thinking it might be ring worm, but the strange coloration, and the pattern doesn't seem to be right either."