Empyrean Iris

Chapter 19

Captain Vir would have shot the Drev, and he could have shot her had it not been for an even faster acting marine, who caught his hand before the sights could be properly placed on the creature's chest. Krill ducked to the side in the ensuing violence. The humans collapsed in on themselves.

Krill cowered behind one of the shuttle's struts hiding his face until everything went silent.

He could hear heavy breathing.

"What the hell!" Someone snarled.

He peered out from behind the leg of the shuttle to find that it had taken three marines to waylay the captain from his original intent, which Krill could have only assumed was murder.

The thought made his entire system run cold; the fact that a human was capable of such acts was so strange and heinous to him that he – not for the first time – considered running away. If the human could just snap like that, then there was no reason he couldn't and wouldn't do it at any other time.

Krill cowered back further as he caught sight of the human's remaining eye.

Livid was not a word strong enough to describe what he saw there. Sure there was nothing extraordinary about the anger, not when it came to the textbook definition. The brows were thrown, the pupils were expanded, the forehead was furrowed, and the face was twisted into a snarl, but beyond that, he could sense something else, in the way the human's body curled protectively in on itself, the way he bent over his missing leg hand resting against a thigh that no longer existed.

Fear, deep and abiding fear, fear cradled in the arms of anger.

When he looked into those eyes, Krill felt a sudden abiding fear himself, a kind of visceral horror that convinced him that someone was about to die, and maybe it was going to be him.

"Captain, Calm down!" One of the marines shouted. Another marines had his arms wrapped completely around the man, as if to restrain him from moving forward. It was only Krill who noticed, the man wasn't moving forward at all, he was pushing back.

Away from the Drev.

Drev, who did not flinch once.

Where Krill cowered behind the strut of the shuttle, she stood tall and erect against the onslaught.

Her cool golden eyes blinked very slowly.

After a while the human's anger slowly cooled. Krill watched as the man's hands trembled.

"Are you done?" she asked.

He spat at her though the distance between them was far enough that his bio attack fell short.

She looked down slowly and then back up unimpressed.

"What do you want, scarab?" The human snarled. His teeth were bared, like an injured animal aggressive because of the wound, though not because of its nature.

Krill had never seen the man behave like this.

He scooted further behind the shuttle.

She tilted her head slightly to one side, "I have information you might be interested in."

"That doesn't answer my question." The human hissed. His chest was heaving rather heavily. His face and neck were so red, Krill was worried he was about to burst a blood vessel. Even from here, he could see the veins pulsing in his neck.

No matter the reaction the human gave, , the Drev was not swayed. She stood very still and calm like a mountain against the howling wind.

"You don't need to find the Tesraki."