Empyrean Iris Story Collection

The Race

They had landed on Omega 9 a couple hours ago upon request of those planeside.

They disembarked at the designated landing zone Catpain Vir at their head Sunny and Krill at his right and left with a chosen group of the crew following behind. Upon seeing sunny, the massive crowd parted and scurried out of the way whispering and fidgeting. Sunny either didn't notice or didn't care.

Captain Vir glanced around the crowd of assembled species, "What do you think this is all about?" He wondered at Krill.

"Couldn't tell you Captain, looks kind of like a fair."

The man nodded absently.

Sunny craned her neck over the crowd, as tall as she was, it wasn't hard, and she pointed with an outstretched claw, "There, sir."

Just then the crowd parted and a pudgy little Anthraky trundled forward, stopping to stare up in awe at the human, and the towering Drev standing behind him. He took a step back towards the crowd.

"Captain Vir, of the USPC and adjunct of the Galactic Assembly, what can I do for you?"

The small creature swallowed hard glancing at Sunny before continuing, "Well, we had hoped to call in your services for extra security. The Omega 9 race tends to become a little rowdy, and....." He glanced at Sunny, "We thought that a crew of humans would be a lot of help."

"Race you say, what kind of race." The human's interest was piqued. Krill did not like the sound of that, he had that sound of a human that was about to do something stupid.

"Oh, well, it is a perilous all terrane team race that-" Krill groaned internally, knowing the human had been hooked at the word 'perilous' "Goes for hundreds of miles, each leg of the race is timed and at the end all the times are compounded to find the fastest team."

The captain had an odd grin on his face, "What are the rules?"

"You will have a five-member team of a single species, no motorized equipment is allowed for use, otherwise, you can get from point A to point B in any way you like. The entire team is expected to preform each leg of the race. If someone is injured, you either find a replacement or drop out."

The man grinned, "So, are you still accepting teams, or has that closed?'

The creature blinked in surprised and looked the human up and down, "I uh, if you can get ready that fast, than I suppose."

The Captain Grinned, "Awesome. The rest of the crew would be happy to help with security."

He left the small creature dumbfounded turning towards his ship with the biggest grin.

***

Captain Vir patted Sunny on one of her large arms as the Drev sulked by the starting line, "Maybe Next time Sunny." Krill did not understand in the slightest why she would want to join these humans in this stupid venture, looking down the sheer face of the cliff, he really didn't understand how they planned on getting down without dying. All of the other teams were lined up there too using their intervening time to make tight harnesses of rope and elaborate pulley systems, but the humans were standing there in nothing but helmets and jumpsuits as if they planned to toss themselves to off the cliff.

As the starting horn was readied, the humans moved back a bit forming up a tight line. Sunny took a glance over the cliff and down towards the distant red flag that was there target, marking the next checkpoint, and the start of the next race. She turned her head back to the humans, and then looked down at Krill, "Where is their rope?"

Krill gave a deep sigh, "Knowing them they have some OTHER insane way of getting down."

She lifted her head and watched as they pulled their goggles down over their faces.