Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

Empyrean Iris

Ramirez gave him a look, "You know that is really starting to freak me out. How do you know this shit?"

Adam frowned and looked down at his hand, "How crazy would it be if I said..... because I think I've done this before."

Ramirez just gave him a look, "At this point, I have LITERALLY seen everything, and not like your uncle says he's seen everything when he watches a hillbilly ride a tricycle down the street playing the bagpipes."

"That is oddly specific." Adam said, taking his first step into the strange, alien ship.

Inside, the floors and walls were just as white as everything else had been. It was a sort of void that made him simultaneously comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. The door sealed behind them as the last marine entered, and they all clustered nervously together as they walked down the small hallway, and out....

into what could only have been the massive main atrium.

The group of them paused at the base of this room heads craned upwards mouths dropped open.

The room was massive, with two large viewing windows on either side, stretching to touch both the ceiling and the floor. In the center of the room sat a set of stairs that crisscrossed in a repeating X pattern all the way up, at least twenty floors or more, the X pattern giving them a vaguely simplified DNA helix structure. At the center of this structure, a clear tube ran the vertical length of the stairs acting as, what Adam could only assume to be, a lift. Overhead the view was a lattice of catwalks and balconies. . Light poured down from a viewing window at the very top of this room. ON this very first floor there were plenty of small seating areas, and couches, placed next to the viewing windows.

Rec room maybe?

It was hard to tell with how alien the design was.

At the End of the room, Adam could see a massive set of twin doors.

"Um, one question?"

"What question is that." Adam wondered mouth still open and barely comprehending the question.

"How the hell do we plan on flying this thing without a crew?"

Adam frowned, he honestly hadn't thought about it, which was weird because everyone knew that you needed a minimum number of crew to command a ship. Even if it was a skeleton crew you still needed someone. For instance, in an emergency the Omen could be run by at least thirty people if necessary when its capacity was well over a thousand, but still, thirty wasn't nothing.

He opened his mouth and found, rather than confusion, words already forming on his tongue, "Don't worry, she only requires a pilot."

The marines shot him a look again, and he could sense the looks on their faces even through the face plates.

"yeah, yeah I know, freaky. Now come on." He took a step forward and the group jogged after him, bypassing the stairs and heading towards the large double doors.

"What do you think they will do with Kanan?" One of the marines asked, a hint of worry in her tone.

Adam shrugged, "I can't imagine that they will do much, they can't."

"Good of him to stay behind like that." Someone else offered.

Adam nodded, "It was, but I have a feeling he is getting his compensation. He hasn't' seen his wife in what.... Almost a decade now. He deserves whatever time they will let him have with her."

The group grew silent again.

The room was very large, and even at a jog they had only just passed the stairs, and were beginning their journey down the short hallway that lead them to the massive double doors. Or, it had looked like a short hallway, but everything on this ship was in massive proportion to everything else, so it was so distance was difficult to determine at just a glance.