Empyrean Iris Story Collection

Hearing Things

Captain Vir lay flat on his back on the operating table one arm lifted over his head per Krill's instructions giving the small doctor better access to the wound on his side. It was only moderately deep, and had managed to stop bleeding on its own before becoming a problem.

Krill finished up the last stitch with his surgical precision and floated back from the table, "Finished, how are you feeling, Captain?"

Captain Vir sat with painful slowness looking down at his newly stitched wound, "I'm alright." He leaned forward rubbing the heel of his hands against his temples, "Just a little headache is all....." He squeezed his eyes closed, "Low oxygen is a bitch."

Krill moved forward as the Captian lifted his head examining each of his eyes, "Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" Captain Vir waved him away, "I'm alright, I promise."

Krill wasn't so sure, "Captain.... If you hit your head it might explain...."

"It might explain what I saw?" The captain cut in, "Krill, there is a 0% chance that I hallucinated that entire thing. I passed out, yeah, but if they hadn't come to help me, I would have died. I would have dropped my hand from the hole and my blood would have boiled out of my ears. If they hadn't stopped me, I would have continued to spin until I eventually spun into the sun. And lastly, it doesn't explain how I ended up floating back the other way, unless we are going to completely ignore Newton's 1st law of motion."

Krill went silent then before tentatively, "Captain.... There has never been any evidence of sentient life that can survive in a vacuum. We went back to the spot that you talked about, and there was nothing there."

"They can fucking fly, Krill, of course they wouldn't have stuck around." He rubbed his hand against his head some more eyes squinted shut, "Damn.... I think I may be getting a migraine." He shut his eyes against the lights, "Can we argue about this later, I think I may be dying."

Krill sighed but nodded, "I'll give you something for the headache. In the meantime, I want to keep you here for observation just in case it IS head injury related." He held up all four of his hands to cut the Captain off, "You said you passed out, it could have happened then. I just want to make sure you're ok."

The man rolled his eyes and then winced, "Alright, Alright, you won't find a damn thing, but ok." Reaching over, he slid off the metal operating table and onto the floor pulling his shirt over his head with a grimace and following Krill back into the hospital bay where a row of at least twenty beds were lined up ten on one side and then on the other. Krill motioned him to one of the beds, and he sat, as the small surgeon ordered the lights down and handed the captain a set of pills and a cup of water.

"Where is everyone?" He wondered glancing towards the door, "Thought they would at least be interested in hearing about the strange aliens, even if you say they were a hallucination."

Krill scuttled over to his place and inflated the hydrogen sack so he was floating comfortably in front of one of the holographic projection stations, "I told them on pain of death that if they didn't leave you to heal up, than I was going to send in a petition to the admiral to redo ALL of their medical reports. Another thing you humans and Drev have in common, you don't like doctors.... Now, get some sleep or I will smother you with that pillow."

The captain gave a weak grin, "So violent of you." But he did as told resting back on the bed and adjusting the pillow to cradle his aching head. If he could just lay still enough, than maybe it would go away.

***

He woke up in the middle of the night like he had been shocked. An electoral current seemed to run through his body and he bolted straight upright looking around in the near darkness, "hello?" he asked, "Is someone there?" But there was no sound, Krill had obviously stepped out of the room for a few minutes to speak with one of the crewmen. He could hear the sound of distant voices through the walls of the ship. He couldn't tell what they were saying as they were separated half a foot of steel.