Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Grief

***

The humans were doing soemthing strange again, and Dr. krill was watching with great interest. They were all clustered in a great bunch around a table in the "mess hall" their voices clamoring towards the ceiling in a rush of rolling hums and rising growls. Their hands flicked forward and back with quick dexterous movements belied by their large hulking bodies. The way their fingers moved was almost delicate as they passed the small colorful cards between each other.

At the center of the table one of the humans had compiled a large heaping pot of colorfully wrapped food items Krill had come to learn were high in one of the human's favorite ingredients: glucose. As he watched the humans pushed the glucose squares into the center of the table, hiding their cards from each other and tapping the table with their fingers.

"I call."

"I raise."

There was some grumbling.

"Never mind, I fold."

"Let me see your hand."

"No, It wasn't any good anyway."

The captain grinned past his eyepatch one good eye crinkling at the corner, "Fake It tell you make it is what I always say."

"Too bad you aren't very good at faking it." One of the other humans teases, his white teeth flashing in the light.

It was hard keeping track of all of their names, but he swore he had seen this human before. Then again all humans looked the same to him, like they were stamped from the exact same cookie cutter mold.

"Yeah, captain, you are a terrible bluff." Said another human this one small and light haired, he thought this one was female, but even between the genders it was hard to tell which human was what.

"Maybe I am just bluffing that I am terrible, so that it will create an expectation which I might use to my advantage later?"

"You aren't nearly smart enough for that." Someone said as they tossed another glucose square into the circle.

The captain was about to do the same when the implant on his left arm lit up bathing the table below him with a delicate blue light. He frowned and reached down turning his head to take the call through his subdermal implants eyes still on his cards, but his mind away from the game.

The table's conversation dulled to a low roar as the man took his call.

"Hello, this is Captain Vir speaking."

The other humans were busy watching their cards, but Krill kept his eyes on the human's face, which he watched with some interest. It was likely because of this that he was the only one to see the change in the man's face as unheard words were spoken through a neural connection. His bright eye darkened, his lips parted slightly, the furry line of his eyebrow jumped sharply in the middle of his forehead which had now creased and wrinkled with the expression on his face.

Krill didn't know how to read human facial expressions very well, but he had come to learn that the human forehead was a good indicator of genuine strong emotion. Forehead activation was always a signal of authenticity in humans.

The man stood abruptly causing the others to look up at him in surprise.

He gave them a rather weak smile, which none of them seemed to pick up on, "Gotta take this call" his voice was chipper, though with his observation, Krill could detect it's brittleness. The captain hurried from the room, and Krill couldn't help but follow, scrambling after him in curiosity, which was too extreme to overcome the guilt of following someone who clearly intended to have a private conversation.