Empyrean Iris Story Collection

The Challenge

General Cosma stood at the head of the small shuttle just behind the pilot's chair lording over her domain with a steely eye. Her soldiers sat stiffly in their seats with their weapons resting softly on their laps. The rest were aboard the human ship patrolling and ready to quell any sense of uprising. She knew better than anyone the kind of problems humans can cause. Break their spirits, not their bodies, they have this way or rebuilding themselves when you break them apart.

She had proof of that too.

The human "Captain" Slumped on his knees at the center of the ship. His hands were tied behind his back, his wrists locked to the ankles of his legs. His head was bowed, the human did not move. She was quite pleased with her soldiers, with herself. After the war she had spent many long hours planning her revenge against the humans. She was forced to learn about the squishy disgusting creatures in her search for answers.

The Galactic Alliance should not have made access to medical and psychological studies so widely available. With the help of the rest of the Drev they had perused these documents to find the truth of humans, their true weakness. Sickness wouldn't do, injury wouldn't do. Physically, the creatures were surprisingly hard to kill, and she didn't wish to kill them.... She wished to do something worse.

She could see it now in the posture of the human, the defeat written alone the lines of his body as he lay kneeling at her feet. The human that had killed her mate, and the closest human to the Galactic Alliance she could think of. The other Drev tribes spoke with each other about alliance with the galactic community, a thought that made her skin crawl and her insides burn. The last thing she wanted was an alliance, she wanted war, she wanted to destroy them all for what they had gone and done. It would take much longer for her plans to unfold on a galactic level, but, for now, she would take her personal revenge.

Looking down the line of her soldiers, she caught sight of the bright metallic blue shape hunched in the darkness of the back corner. It was quite a beautiful color for carapace, rather rare, but it hardly mattered when the height was taken into consideration. Cosma's daughter, Sunny. Compared to her elder brother, since birth had failed to maintain family expectations. Even despite her good breading, she had been born to short, to stubborn, and with too much a mind of her own. She had embarrassed the family repeatedly for years and years bringing Cosma to the brink of just letting her go in the volcanic lands. She wasn't a particularly good soldier, but she had played her part this time.

She was a good spy.

Cosma had come up with the idea during the night while reading over one of the papers, slowly trying to peace out the strange alien language coming across something called "pack bonding". Apparently humans had the capabilities to socially bond with pretty much anything. It was strong enough to bond with other species, and even with inanimate objects. They were known for being surprisingly gullible and trusting if given the right circumstances, so she thought..... it couldn't hurt, but who would be expendable enough to try.

A daughter desperate to win her mother's favor perhaps? Yes.... That would be good enough. She would be small enough for the humans anyway, less threatening.

And it had worked, Worked so much better than she could have imagined. She chuckled at the thought. The human actually seemed to have thought they were allies, friends even. Oh how niece could he have been. Like a Drev could ever be friends with a human. Besides, even Sunny wouldn't have been stupid enough to foster such a bond. Friendships weren't for rue soldiers, and Sunny was desperate to be a good solider.

Outside, in the vastness of space, the reflected light of their moon broke through the darkness cutting through the window and onto the human's porcelain skin. It was a stomach churning sight, like the dried skin of a maggot, or a mossworm. She stepped forward grabbing the human below the chin and lifting his head.