Empyrean Iris Story Collection

Hold Your Heart

It is no secret that the human world is a violent one. The things they have done to survive range from disgusting to..... chilling. I have mentioned before, that, despite the human's natural curiosity towards death, they never accept it so lightly. Stories have been told to me, harrowing stories, of dismemberment, cannibalism, and murder all in the name of survival.

Not just that, humans won't just let themselves die, but they refuse to let others die as well. Everywhere else in the galaxy, we understand that death is a natural process. We don't fight it, sometimes things happen. Sometimes the body gets sick, and it's better to allow death than to continue living. Sometimes accidents happen and the trauma isn't worth fixing, or at least no one thought it was because to survive something like that is impossible.

Not for humans.

Don't get me wrong, we don't completely ignore injuries. Having been a trauma surgeon for most of my life, I can attest to this. I can perform almost any procedure on any species given the correct equipment, but having met human doctors, I'm not sure what to call myself anymore. The things they do and CAN do are chilling and terrible, all in the name of survival.

There are some things you just shouldn't do, but of course, humans don't understand that.

***

"F***K F****NG HELL! What kind of ASSHOLE shoots someone in the STUMP?"

All around them, the ship quaked and rocked with the effort of their speed. All around them the crew members lay in various stages of wounded slumped across the bridge, splayed across their chairs or spread eagle on the floor in spreading puddles of blood. Some of them moaned, some of them were silent drifting half in and half out of consciousness.

As of yet, none of them had stepped into the void because of Krill.

He perched now, next to one of the crew members preforming an emergency tie-off of one of the major arteries before the human violently blead out.

At the center of the bridge, Captain Vir slumped in his chair teeth gritted blood dripping down the side of his bionic leg from the bullet hole in his upper thigh... or what was left of his upper thigh.

"ASSHOLES!" Vir snarled, the look in his eyes was livid, manic as he steered the ship towards their only hope for survival.

The nearest human colony on a nearby moon.

Krill was an excellent surgeon, but he wasn't THAT good.

"Captain." Krill called out nervously, "You better hurry."

"I AM hurrying!" The man shouted back. Blood dripped down the base of his chair and onto the floor to join the now spreading puddle already dripping from his bionic leg.

He snarled in agony.

"F***ING PIRATES!"
Krill remained silent as the human ranted. From what he understood, the anger would help keep him conscious. The ship rocked and shuttered even harder as they entered atmosphere. Captain Vir was driving manually despite his injury making a call to the small moon's air space begging for help for his crew as they rocketed towards the ground.

Blood rolled across the floor.

Krill didn't really expect what happened next.

A wave of humans charged onto the ships. They pushed cots on wheels, carried backpacks full of supplies working with a speed and ferocity rill had never seen before. As close as they were to the human medical bay, Krill could only watch as the group flooded out of the ship pulling their fellow humans along with them.