Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Forced Cooperation

The mechanic placed her hands on her hips wrench included , 'You're being an ass."

"No I'm-"

"What would your mother say."

He stuck his lower lip out a bit, 'You don't want to know what my mother would say because it probably shouldn't be spoken in polite company."

The mechanic's eyes narrowed and the hands on hips position somehow, grew more serious. The marines shifted rather uncomfortably, Sunny looked back and forth between them, there was something here she didn't know ho to read, but Captain Vir went from defiant to meek in a few seconds flat looking down at the floor, 'Okay okay, you're right, I'm sorry."

"Not me you should be saying sorry to."

He turned his head in Sunny's general direction, "Sorry." He lifted his head, "Alright scarab, come on, I guess you're coming with us to poke at cool plants." His sudden switch confused Sunny a bit, from grouchy to downright excited as he led th group of them onto the shuttle. Sunny kept to herself in the back where she could observe quietly.

Sitting next to her, one of the Marines leaned over to nudge her. He had dark curly hair and an unusually symmetrical face for a huma. Humans didn't have color like Drev to differentiate the pretty ones from the ugly ones, but they did value their symmetry, at least she thought they did, "don't worry, He'll warm up to you. Eventually he will realize you're an alien and you'll be best friends."

Across from her the little alien doctor krill sighed, "Unfortunately."

"Oh come on doctor, you love it."

"I most certainly do not!"

He said as much but Sunny ot the distinct impression he was lying to himself. The Doctor followed the captain around like a lost puppy. They were very good friends even if the doctor didn't want to admit it.

Their ship touched down and the group of them filed out. Sunny kept her spear to one side as she looked around the strange new planet. Th rock was mostly a dull sort of grey, and the sky overhead was similar. It wasn't a particularly pretty place. Compared to Anin it was downright hideous.

The looked around and found the Captain had landed them in a low, bowl like canyon. A small stream of water trickled through smelling oddly of sulfur though she saw no hotsprings, there were no clouds overhead. The captain was already off, despite the protocol which had been read to her from the marine handbook, bent over some rock examining a particularly uninteresting geode, or at least Sunny thought.

Well if he wasn't' going to protect himself, than she supposed she would have to do it,

She walked over examining their surroundings, None of the marines moved to stop her as they might once have.

Captain Vir looked up from his rock, "You're blocking my light"

She shifted to the side.

"Your aura is interfering with my chakras."

Sunny frowned, "Are those words made up?"

"All words are made up."

She did her best not to roll her eyes. It was a human habit she had already picked up and it was a hard habit to shake in the first place. Captain Vir kept grudgingly silent after that letting her tag along behind him while the other marines fanned out in a loose circle to protect the other, more experienced scientists collecting samples and taking readings .

No one noticed the two of them as they made their way up the little valley arnd around the corner into what appeared to be some sort of T intersection. The valley here was wider, but steeper on both sides, and there was some sort of fungus growing on the sides of the canyon generally pinkish in color. Sunny was already bored,