Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 2

Void Dust

It had been sleeping , it had been sleeping for a very long time. No one could have known the eons that passed away quietly while it rested in the darkness, cradled by the universe which had spawned it. It was deep within the quiet and the darkness where the cloud cocooned it and protected it from the outside universe.

Not that it much needed protection.

It would know if something was coming, the darkness it had built around itself was thick, and any disturbance would alert it as it could feel the ripples and disturbance of the cloud.

Lying beneath it in the darkness, the ancient starborn lay quietly in the darkness. It had been here for almost as many eons, playing dead and not daring to move a muscle. It could see nothing, but based on the mind of its friends, now long gone, it knew that it could not move without alerting the creature to its presence, and subsequently becoming pray.

It did not know where it's companions were, floating off in the darkness with their bodies cracked and their juices sucked from their insides. They imagined that anything bumping against their arm or leg might be the the corpses of one of their fallen, but still they lay still never dreaming to look up, just knowing that even the slightest move would cause chaos.

Besides, the soular energy in it's ribbons had died away millenia ago, and there was no way it would be able to move fast enough to retreat from the thing sleeping in the darkness. So there was only to wait, for thousands of years before and thousands of years after as new stars were born and died, and the entropy of the universe brought it closer and closer to collapsing.

In the cold madness of their mind they imagined the universe collapsing in on itself as would be inevitable and found itself wishing for that feeling the madness tugging at the string in their thoughts.

The darkness around them was so silent and oppressive.

The only sound came from the thoughts of the great creature that lay in the darkness, and they dare not push to far as the creature might notice their presence as well. The only thing to do was lay quietly and let their mind die away into nothingness as the eons turned into eternity, without even a glimpse of infinity left.

***

Adam sat in the pilot's chair as he wanted, controlling the strange craft as he had been directed by one of the mikes. He had offered to take his ship in, but they had insisted he take one of theirs. This small ship was capable of micro warping, and so could be taken into the abyss without him gambling on his entire ship and everyone inside. He didn't bring very many people with him, only a scientist or two who had interest in studying blackness more closely. He didn' need warriors. If there was going to be combat, it would take place inside the ship.

He pressed his hand against the glowing dome on the console before him and slowly accelerated forward. tThe controls of this strange ship were pretty dummy proof and relatively easy to handle. He would have bet any layman could have flown one in space to some degree of success, though, at an offer to being able to fly an alien ship, it wasn't like he was going to let anyone else take his place.

"Anything." he radioed back to the ship.

"Nothing you signal is still clear, beginn the first microwarp progression in ten."

He reached forward flipping the switch that would prepare the ship for a microwarp, and then turned the dial to bright green to indicate that it was going to be a microwarp burst. The mikes said that the micro warps weren't exactly the most pleasant thing ever, but it probably shouldn't bother a human all that much.

He was sort of flattered by their faith in humans, but still braced himself as the countdown began.

There was a sudden jolt as the end of the countdown came, and his stomach crawled down into his belvis and his heart jumped up into his throat. The world turned itself upside down three or four times in quick succession, hardly allowing him to get his bearings until finally they jerked to a stop.