Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 2

The Shadow

He was lying in bed asleep when the call came through on his implants. The little buzzing in the side of his neck roused him from sleep and he grumpily looked at the clock rubbing his eyes. It was 4 in the morning. He supposed there were worse times to wake up, though the fact he hadn't gotten to sleep until 12 the night before made it a bit more questionable.

Sunny had left around the time he went to bed having tried to keep him company in his paranoia, worried that he would suddenly turn around and see the long dead face of Captain Everett, the captain of a civilian transport turned to cannibalism for some unknown reason, and someone he had been forced to kill with his own hand.

Someone he had been seeing in places he shouldn't be seeing him.

He sighed and rubbed his temples, sitting up and looking around.

He would be the first to admit, that if the viewing window hadn't allowed in the proper amount of ambient light, he would have sprung for a night-light. Even so, he did his best to keep his face away from the floor length mirror as he turned to look down at his implant.

URGENT Admiral to deck 8

He strapped on his leg, pulled on some pants and a shirt and boots before hurrying out of the room.

Waffles stood from her dog bed trotting over to nose his hand with her cold damp snout. He patted her on the head and ordered her to stay as he walked towards the door.

He nearly ran headfirst into Simon who was waiting outside, and honestly nearly screamed, but settled for a strangled yelp somewhere in between, nearly pitching onto the floor.

"Mother-of-hell-Lieutenant."

"Sorry for startling you, sir."

"Do you ever sleep."

"Yes sir."

"That was a rhetorical question." He groaned and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands, "What are you even doing up?"

"I was alerted to a situation before you. They weren't sure if it was important enough to mention, but I deemed it important enough."

"And this situation is.... What exactly." She stared at him with her wide eyes, which she had the strange and unsettling habit of not blinking too often, "The crew is reporting things gone missing, especially down in engineering."

"Gone missing! What do you mean gone missing?"

She looked at him with her head tilted, "I don't understand the question sir?"

His shoulders slumped lightly, "I want to know what has gone missing, why they think it is even missing, and who could have taken or misplaced it if it is."

"WHy didn't you just say so, sir."

He sighed internally. Simon was a very efficient and organized person, but she had trouble with metaphors, turns of phrase, sarcas, rhetorical questions, and getting along with people in general.

"Just little things here and there sir, but enough that the crew is noticing. Almost everyone has misplaced something."

"Right, I see."

He turned to walk down the hall with her listening to the list that she had compiled of all the things that were missing. Most of it seemed sort of innocuous, mostly tools, or spare parts that no one had bothered to lock up, but he knew from looking at the ship's equipment manifests that most of those things (while relatively minor for one of the most expensive intergalactic warships ever built) they weren't without value.

"Anyone suspected so far?"

Simon shook her head, "No sir. Everyone was asleep when the items were stolen and the records of their implants have them in those locations all night. So no one on the day shift was lying. We have been going around asking people on the night shift and should know something sooner rather than later."