Empyrean Iris Story Collection

A Sunny Day On Earth

It was very pretty, blue and green glass orb swirling with big swatches of white and grey. Sunny pressed her face against the window as Earth grew in her vision. Captain Vir and Krill sat in the pilot and copilot seats as they approached speaking to each other over headsets as the roar of the engines rattled through the cabin. She was forced to buckle herself in as they careened towards the atmosphere. The Captain was a very good pilot though and kept their entry at the perfect angle, breaking into the stratosphere slowing the ship to a coasting speed as he spoke to one of the lading towards through his headset.

The shuttle was rather small, so he was cleared to take it to a designated landing zone of his choice.

The captain turned autopilot on for a moment and turned to look at Sunny, "Look Sunny, I know I promised you that we would do fun things while here, but my family is kind of..... Wary of the Drev after the war, so it might be best if you hang out in or around the shuttle when I'm with them. Can you do that?"

Sunny shrugged, a human expressive gesture she had picked up, and turned her head to look down at the passing forest. It was more beautiful than anything she had seen before. She had never seen anything like these trees, they were so green, and such pleasant colors for a death planet.

They banked over a low rise, cutting over a wide basin. Below her, Sunny could see signs of civilization, roadways cut in strict grids across the lush landscape, small settlements of houses peered up through stands of trees. Small ribbons of water trailed across areas of open grass. Captain Vir called in the position of his landing to one of the towers cutting low over the trees before setting down in a small clearing amidst the trees a few hundred yards away from one of the settlements.

Using two peddles and two joysticks, he lowered the craft to a soft thud on the grass before cutting the engines leaving the group of them in silence. Krill peered out the window likely scanning for something likely to kill him.

Captain Vir moved to open the hatch filling the cabin with a wash of crisp mountain air. Sunny tilted her head back to breathe in the fresh smells allowing the warm breeze to run across her skin. Vir grabbed a duffle-bag and unclipped the dog from her seat allowing the creature to bolt off into the woods. Vir clapped Sunny on the shoulder, "Take a look around stay safe, and I'll be back in an hour or two, sound good?"

She nodded excited to go explore the forest. Krill floated behind Captain Vir as he cut into the trees leaving Sunny standing alone in the long grass of the meadow. Turning her head towards the sky Sunny took a deep breath and fell back into the grass staring up at the delicate eggshell blue of the sky. The smells were incredible.

She lay there for what felt like hours napping softly in the gentle touch of the star overhead. When she finally decided to roam around, the clearing had enough strange life to entertain her for hours. She found a strange flower behind the shuttle and examined it for a moment before moving around to the other side and then stopping dead in her tracks.

There were three small creatures standing in front of her huddled together. They were maybe about krill's height with wide human-like eyes but oversized heads and short limbs. Sunny stepped back rising to her full height.

And the creatures let of a piercing scream.

***

They sat outside laughing and talking. The entire family was here ranged around the backyard as groups of children played towards the fringes of the yard. Captain Vir leaned back on the lawn chair enjoying the rays of an earth sun and breathing in the clear mountain air.

A sudden round of cheering broke around the yard and he opened his eyes to see his brother David and his fiancée walking down the stairs into the backyard. David was grinning his fiancée had on an awkward smile.