Empyrean Iris

Chapter 1

On September 13, 1848 of the human historic record, a male human by the name of Phineas P. Gage is described as surviving, a 3-foot 13 pound tamping rod shot through the left side of his face, frontal lobe, and out the top of his skull. Reportedly he spoke within minutes of the accident and walked away from the scene, though extreme personality changes were also noted after the accident.

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Dr. Krill became aware of the transmission as a frantic buzzing in his right lateral antennae. The sensation was neither pleasant nor unpleasant but sent a shock of awareness through his body encasing both his dorsal and ventral trunks in an eruption of fizzes, tiny bubbles rising uphis insides.

In response, Dr. Krill sent out a shortwave radio burst to accept the transmission as he stepped in to check on yet another of his patients. He performed a quick scan of the unmoving figure with his thermal receptors noting the proper interior heat before turning to survey the Tesraki's injuries. The patient's prognosis was poor, but that was common for those beings whoinitially survived intergalactic slavery rings.

As he was finishing his examination and stepping from the room, a second transmission burst through him bringing the earlier fizzing to a buzzing inner static.

Dr. Krill to the Emergency Bay, Dr. Krill to the Emergency Bay.

Overhead, the internal lights of the bustling medical center lengthened to a critical red. The slight adjustment added an air of urgency to his movements as he turned towards the docking bay calling up one of the railed floor transports which quickly whisked him away, down and onward towards the emergency medical docking bay.

"Preliminary Report?" he inquired as he was pulled swiftly around a corner and down another long hallway. Medical personnel stepped aside for his passing, each barely looking up from their lab results, reports, or patients as he flew past. As the primary trauma physician aboard the intergalactic transit center, he was known to always be in a hurry.

Doctor, we have an emergency SOS from the U.N.S.S Harbinger requesting immediate medical assistance.

Dr. Krill had never heard the moniker U.N.S.S. The sounds were alien to him, in no language that he understood, and he was fluent in many languages and dialects. Even his translation equipment could not decipher the first little bit, but the second part came through.

Harbinger: an entity or thing that heralds the arrival of another.

Quite strange, most GA ships had numbers, not names, and such a strange name to have he thought as the transport took another corner leading him through the optics ward and out onto the central thoroughfare between the two buildings. Resting medical workers and doctors sat under an inky sky lit only by the light of their towering, neighboring gas giant whose massive red and blue surface dominated the greater part of the night sky.

Before he knew it he had passed into the second building, that much closer to his destination. A distant sound of engines roared above in the night sky, the ship drawing ever closer.

"Species?" he ordered as he took another corner.

He didn't have to wait long for the information to come through. A spotty, and somewhat unfinished, biological map of...wait...

"What species is this?" He asked, letting the question hang on the air as he tried to piece through this unfamiliar information set before him.

"Human biological map. 23% completed, data restricted."

Humans?

Dr. Krill had never seen a human before. Sure he had heard about them, who hadn't. Their discovery and eventual involvement in the Drev war had been legendary. The stories that had been brought to them by way of transport vessels and the galactic news feeds had been unbelievable, legendary and almost supernatural. For this reason, Krill doubted many of the stories. As a Vrul, he was a creature of reason, logic and science and he didn't subscribe to impossibilities, rumors or fabrications. If he were to believe anything, he would believe the knowledge gathered by his own senses.