Empyrean Iris

Chapter 2

Hemispherectomy — A type of procedure perfected and performed by humans, which requires the removal of one hemisphere of the brain, usually done to treat seizure disorders resistant to medication, or other surgical intervention.

WARNING: Procedure only possible on human subjects.

Captain Adam Vir of the U.N.S.S Harbinger awoke to a horrible itching sensation high on his upper thigh. He wasn't quite sure where he was or what was going on, but one thing was for sure: this couldn't be allowed to last.

He cracked his eyes only to be immediately and forcibly blinded by the overhead lights. Weakly, he raised his hands to block out the beams, the action causing him to feel stiff and woozy. Something was blocking the vision of his right eye leaving everything dark. With spasmodic motions, he reached up to his face running a hand over the bandages wrapped around his skull.

That was weird. He couldn't remember an accident.

It took a while for his vision to adjust, and once it did, he ended up with more questions than answers. Despite what he thought had been blinding light, the room was actually rather dim. The floor was a matte grey/purple color, and strips of eerie blue light wound around the top corners of the room casting a bluish glow upon the strange equipment, which surrounded him.

Could he be dreaming? No, he felt too disjointed to be dreaming.

He groggily turned his head to look down at his body, which was practically plastered with tiny little sensors adhered to his skin: on his hands, on his neck, on his chest, on his stomach, and so on. He even had an IV in his right arm, which was placed surprisingly well.

A moment of clarity came when he realized there was no bed in the room! He was suspended in the air, legs and arms floating freely within a relatively restricted area alien abduction style. He was curious about the technology that allowed this, and while it was cool, he didn't exactly appreciate the cold breeze that licked seductively down his spine like an icy lover. He tried to move, tried to sit up like he would have on a bed, but his attempts failed leaving him floundering in mid-air.

He tried to call for help, but nearly choked on his own dry tongue gasping and coughing against the sandpaper plastered to his throat. Off to his left side—the side he could see from—one of the strange machines began blinking. He tried his best to summon up some spit to wet his throat and call for help again. It was a pretty good attempt, if failing miserably was the goal. The machine began to blink more frantically.

He drew in a large breath determined to make himself heard this time, but at that moment, one of the walls to his right dissolved away, and a figure stepped through the opening. Surprises like that were surely not good for his heart at a time like this. The machines by his side began blinking with even greater urgency as he tried to tug himself from the forces that still held him in place.

"Relax," the creature said as it approached slowly, "I am the doctor that performed your surgery and am here for the post-op examination."

"Surgery?" Captain Vir wondered, a single eye dropping to look at this 'doctor' distracting from his earlier questions. "Cool," he heard himself murmur. An alien stood before him. It couldn't have been more than three feet tall looking like some sort of cross between an ant and a bacteriophage. It had four lower limbs: two sticking out from the front and two sticking out from the back; each of its legs had a single joint at the analogue of a knee bent at about ninety degrees to just before ninety degrees. Unlike an ant, the trunk of its body rose from the junction of its four legs rising into something that resembled a torso with a chest and shoulders. On its upper trunk, it had four limbs: two on either side of the torso stacked on top of each other. In this way its anatomy was almost human.