Empyrean Iris: 3-98 Eyes of the Council (by Charlie Star)
FYI, this is a story COLLECTION. Lots of standalones technically. So, you can basically start to read at any chapter, no pre-read of the other chapters needed technically (other than maybe getting better descriptions of characters than: Adam Vir=human, Krill=antlike alien, Sunny=tall alien, Conn=telepathic alien). The numbers are (mostly) only for organization of posts and continuity.
OC Written by Charlie Star/starrfallknightrise,
Checked, proofread, typed up and then posted here by me.
Further proofreading and language check for some chapters by u/Finbar9800 u/BakeGullible9975 u/Didnotseemecomein and u/medium_jock
Future Lore and fact check done by me.
And on Thursday we shall continue with Maker home exploration!
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
Half a month ago
The cool, amber orb sat undisturbed. Its surface was clear and mostly opaque unless you were to look through it at the exact right angle. Like the yolk of a chicken egg, what could be seen of the interior was lined with thin veins of a different color, made black by the light spilling into the orb from the other side, and just inside that something twitched.
The orb jumped slightly and then fell back to resting.
It didn't move for a long time after that, but soon it jumped again, its intervals of activity and inactivity shortening in span until the orb seemed to tremble restlessly like it was shivering in the cold. Just to its sides, two other orbs were beginning to do the same, rocking and tipping from one side to the other with eager movement.
And then…
With the sound of splintering glass a hairline crack erupted around the very outside of the amber orb, now clearly an egg. Inside the creature rocked back and forth madly. The already existing crack ruptured into a line of many branching cracks, like the branching of veins before the entire thing fractured.
Outside, another clear barrier separated watching eyes, as human and aliens alike gathered around the outside of the chamber to lay witness to what lie within.
The birth of the fates.
Or so the crew called them.
It seemed that Admiral Vir's choosing had stuck. There was some questioning along the lines of why he had named all of them with historically female names, but he pointed out that Vrul only had one gender so picking a name in either direction was going to be a moot point. If they didn't like it, they could change it later.
Sunny had helpfully indicated that the names didn't exactly fit with the traditional ways in which Vrul named their children. A five letter word with the last two letters being the same.
He had pointed out to her that these Vrul were special and so deserved special names.
No one had bothered to argue with him past that.
It was hard to argue with the admiral when his logic was sometimes more magical than it was logical.
Inside the room, Krill and Riss were steadily monitoring the readouts inside the glass container. They were less worried now about maintaining proper temperature as the creatures inside were already fully developed, but it didn't pay to be careless.
The first egg splintered, the fractures bowing outward and then erupting into a hail of tiny egg shards. The interior membranous sack inside the egg lost its shape and sloshed out onto the towel carrying with it the tiny shape wriggling and flailing inside where it sat in the goo.
At the windows, the humans and other aliens pressed forward trying to see inside.
Krill quickly undid the outer dome of the containment unit and reached inside, his gloved hands used to withdraw the tiny wriggling creature.
Pressing their faces to the glass they could see the tiny creature was pale, a sort of milky brown color. It had wide orange eyes almost exactly the color of Krill's. Its tiny body was almost... Grubb like in shape, a head at the top and a body that seemed to taper from there. At first, they could see no hands or limbs, until Admiral Vir, taking a closer look, realized that he could see the limbs, folded tightly up against the creature's chest, and held there by a membranous layer of tissue holding them in place.
Krill patted the creature gently on the back, and the group of them watched as its tiny chest expanded for the first time.
It made no noise.
A fact that both Drev and humans found highly unusual, as Drev and human babies were known to be particularly loud.
Riss took the tiny creature from Krill and examined it from head to foot. Inside the little hatchery another one of the eggs had burst open.
"The temperature is a little bit lower than I would have liked."
Riss said.
"Grab a human."
Krill commented as he toweled off the second tiny creature.
“What?”
“You heard me. They might not use their brains most of the time but their body Is always warm.”
The group inched forward.
"I call rank on this one."
Admiral Vir said, and all the humans huffed slightly in annoyance as he looked on smugly at them. Admiral Vir didn't ever pull rank, unless it was an opportunity to hold baby aliens or touch aliens in general before everyone else.
Riss opened the door.
"Should I sterilize or something?"
"No, you won't need to. Until the day that plants can give animals diseases."
He seemed surprised as he was ushered over to a chair and sat down.
Krill instructed that he might as well try bare skin contact with the tiny creature. They weren't sure what kind of interactions Vrul children would have with early exposure to oxytocin, the human bonding hormone, but he doubted it would be anything horrible. In fact, this might be a good way to avoid exit shock which was something small Vrul could sometimes experience.
Admiral Vir did not argue, taking one of the tiny creatures in the flat of his palm, his hand big enough to cup the tiny creature in his hands.
It looked up at him with baleful orange eyes.
"Mmmm this one has your eyes Krill."
Adam commented, holding out his hand for the second tiny creature, darker in color and with eyes that leaned more towards yellow than they did towards orange. The last egg took a little longer to hatch, and when it came out, it was in mostly ok shape, aside from its unusually mottled skin pattern.
"Vitiligo?"
Adam wondered.
"Something similar."
Krill said. "Is there any problems associated with it?"*
Krill paused and shook his head,
"No, not as far as I know..."
Riss had gone quiet and the entire room was looking towards them unsure,
"Is something wrong Krill?"
Krill sighed,
"Of all the cases I have heard, they do not survive longer than a few months after hatching."
The room went quiet,
"But you just said."
"I said I was not aware of any related conditions. As far as I am aware, the lack of pigmentation should not be an issue, as it might be in earth plants. Having done the research, there is no indication that there are related medical conditions, and the reports were vary vague as to the reasons that these particular Vrul died."
The room was quiet.
Adam looked down at the smallest Vrul, mottled creamy white and grey sitting in the palm of his hand, while the other two nestled up against the head of his right arm,
"Have you ever considered that... maybe the council didn't want to keep them alive... because they were too different?”
The silence in the room lengthened.
There was a muttering.
Krill glanced at Riss,
"I… didn't think of that."
"Which seems odd because we both should have considered it."
Against his arm the tiny little creatures wriggled and turned against his warmth, growing still. Adam was worried for the first few seconds, but then stopped, realizing that they were still breathing.
Nothing was wrong.
Krill and Riss had gone quiet, turning back towards their work, cleaning out the enclosure that had spent the last month or so containing the small creatures as they grew.
He was given permission to step out, and the three tiny shapes were passed through a crowd of humans and Drev all of whom wanted a chance to hold them.
"The shroud layer won't last very long."
Krill explained in between,
"Its simply there to keep the limbs safe while the grub grows, You see how the helium sack acts as extra support for the head?"
Sunny looked down at the small dappled Vrul held in the massive palm of her upper hand.
"It's so small."
"Well yes, unlike your species we don't grow to be unreasonably large."
It was only with great difficulty that Adam managed to collect all three of them again, cajoling, threatening and sometimes tricking the other aliens into handing them over, even stooping so low as to order them back to their posts until he and Sunny were the last people left standing.
She gave him a look.
Krill and Riss had stepped out for a moment to finish up their cleaning.
"You are the worst."
"What?"
She gave him a look.
"Ok, ok, I am manipulative and selfish when it comes to holding small baby aliens, sue me."
She rolled her eyes.
It was only because he knew her so well that he could sense a sort of sadness,
"You... would have made a good father."
The comment gave him pause and he looked up at her,
"What do you mean... I sort of already am. The spiderlings, Eris..."
She tilted her head at him,
"I mean traditionally speaking. With the spiderlings that sort of happened at a bad time, and Eris, well she was already fully grown by the time you met her, you never actually got to experience being a father. I can only imagine how great you would be."
She glanced down at his arms,
"If you had one of your own."
He paused shifted the tiny creatures in his arms,
"I don't know about that... I… I'm good with kids, but I don't think I'm responsible enough to have one of my own... too much of a child myself really."
"Or you're underestimating yourself."
”Hey knowing me, even IF I somehow would get a baby child, chances are I would be abducted or would be missing for most of their childhood anyway, being stranded on an alien planet or something like that.”
He paused, tilting his head up to look at her.
The expression on her face was mild, but there was something that seemed wrong,
"... Sunny, is this about..."
He trailed off.
"No, no we already had that conversation. What I said still stands."
She said firmly,
"You are still my first choice. I don't need the whole... Family thing. You are all I need."
He shifted again and looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was listening before he stepped in,
"I mean yes, but... with Conn and the Adapids and... and everything. It must be hard to…"
Sunny shook her head,
"No, no... I will not sit here and be mad about things I can't have just because I can't have them. I never wanted them before, and I shouldn't want them now. If anything... I'm just sad you don't get that chance since I still maintain you would be good at it."
"Well, then I am allowed to think the same thing. You are my family. I don't need anything else."
"Snap."
"Yeah, sue me. Sunny, I lo…"
Adam was about to say something else when there was a sudden buzzing in his implant, and he paused to look down at his open wrist where the notification was flashing bright red against his skin.
Sunny leaned in,
"What is it?”
"Our ship is being hailed."
He gently handed the three small figures to her, placing one of them in three of her four hands as he turned and hurried towards the bridge.
Simon was waiting for him as he stepped in, jumping up from the captain's chair to give him back his seat. Jeffery sat slung around her neck like a very strange looking boa. When Adam approached, he opened his three segmented mouth in greeting, and got a pat on the head for his efforts.
Adam Vir took the seat, quickly readjusting the settings.
Simon stood behind his chair,
"It's the Vrul council, sir."
He frowned,
"The hell do they want!?”
"I don't know, sir."
Simon said, trying to appear professional, but mostly failing as Jeffery sat his head atop hers, mouth open like some sort of demented flower.
"Patch them through."
He stood in front of the captain's chair, hands behind his back.
He wasn't wearing his uniform, but he knew that didn't really matter. The uniform helped, but it was really your bearing that gave you power. He didn't feel it come on, but the rest of the crew could see it from where they sat at the sides of the room.
Adam slowly vanished, morphing like Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde.
Adam Vir, into Admiral Vir. His spine straightened out, he seemed to grow almost an inch. His shoulders opened and expanded, giving him a larger frame. His chin lifted, sharpening his jaw. The smile fell from his face turning into a severe frown that made him look almost twenty years older, an effect helped by the white in his hair.
At 28 he managed to look almost 48 just by bearing alone.
Maybe 50, seeing as he hadn't shaved that morning and the five o clock shadow already added an extra two years.
The screen lit up before them and the council was arrayed before them.
"Council."
Admiral Vir said, inclining his head only slightly. Unwilling to show them the barest amount of courtesy.
"Admiral."
They didn't even bother to greet him beyond that.
He hadn't really expected it.
"What can I do for you?”
"You can stop what you are doing Immediately."
Admiral Vir's back straightened, forehead furrowing into deep lines. The eyepatch only served to make the expression more severe,
"You are going to have to be a bit more specific."
His voice was wound taught like a steel cable ready to break.
"We are aware you are harboring two fugitives. We have allowed Krill to remain because he posed no real threat, but now we hear you have Dr. Riss aboard your ship as well. This is considered harboring a fugitive. If you do not comply, we will be forced to consider legal action."
His lips pressed into a thin line,
"Go right ahead then. I am sure the GA will be very interested in the evidence we have to bring forward against the council if you want to pursue this route."
The Vrul's antennae vibrated angrily.
"This is not about us, this is about you harboring fugitives."
"No this is me granting political asylum to political refugees, who would otherwise be executed, which are two different things all together."
He stepped forward,
"If you continue down this path, I will have no problem bringing forward whatever evidence I need to. The only reason the GA has avoided these issues thus far is to avoid a political eruption. Which I doubt either of us wants."
"You are not authorized to make those decisions for the GA."
"And you are not morally authorized to off people that disagree with you, but here we are."
"Defamation."
One of the Vrul hissed
"It’s only considered defamation if its false, and we all know it’s not."
The council stared at the Admiral, who stood his ground under their eyes.
It was unfortunate then that Sunny walked through the door to see what they were talking about, the Vrul children still held in her arms.
She froze as she saw the council, tried to pull back.
But the council had already seen, rising to their feet,
"WHAT IS THIS!?!”
Admiral Vir turned to look as Sunny backed away.
He turned back took a deep breath,
"Proof, that you have been intentionally tampering with the growth of Vrul children. That you have been creating Deltas for your own gain."
”Blasphemy!”
”Traitorous! Preposterous!”
”OH MY GOD look at the colors!”
”LOOK AT THEM!”
"THIS is an abomination.”
"This cannot be done!"
”This CAN NOT be allowed!”
"Take it up with the GA."
Admiral Vir snarled before shutting down the communications and turning to look at Sunny.
She stood behind him her face grim.
Adam shared the expression,
"That... was bad timing."
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
Thanks for reading! As you saw in the title, this is a cross posted story in its original form written by starrfallknightrise and I am just proofreading and improving some parts, as well as structuring the story for you guys, if you are interested and want to read ahead, the original story-collection can be found on tumblr or wattpad to read for free. (link above this text under "OC:..." ) It is the Empyrean Iris story collection by starfallknightrise. Also, if you want to know more about the story collection i made an intro post about it, so feel free to check that out to see what other great characters to look forward to! (Link also above this text). I have no affiliations to the author; just thought I’d share some of the great stories you might enjoy a lot!
Obviously, I have Charlie’s permission to post this.
Posted Jul 29, 2025, 3:57 PM UTC