by Scott Baron
“Charlie?” Rika said a few days later when he came to see her in her suite.
“You remember?”
“Not exactly,” she said haltingly. “But we were friends, weren’t we?”
“Yes, we were.”
She sat silently in thought a long moment.
“Will you come talk to me again tomorrow?”
“Every day. I’ll even take you for a run, if you like,” he said, remembering how she had tortured him on the base obstacle course to prepare him for their mission.
Rika smiled at the suggestion. “I’d like that Charlie. I’d like that a lot.”
He left her a little while later, joining Leila for dinner, the pair taking a long stroll after, then retiring to their bed, wrapped tightly in each other’s arms.
In a different suite, Hunze sipped a mug of tea while Bawb carefully cleaned his magical weapons and stowed them away, along with the radiant braid of Hunze’s hair. He ran his fingers over the golden locks, then closed the case, sliding it under the bed before walking to sit with the young woman staring at him so intently.
“You know,” he finally managed to say. “We haven’t talked about what you did back there. On that day.”
“I did what was necessary, Bawb. And I would do it again without hesitation.”
“I know you would. But––“ He hesitated. “We also have not discussed what you said when we faced Malalia.”
Hunze’s warm smile broadened. “What more is there to say?”
“It’s just that, you said it was freely given, your hair.”
“And it was.”
“Yes. But you also said something else.”
Hunze placed her mug on the low table and slid close, looking deep into his eyes. If anyone had been watching, they would have sworn the deadliest assassin in thirty systems trembled slightly as she placed her hands atop his.
“I did, Bawb. And those words were true. It was given of love.”
The tension between the two crackled as strongly as any spell might until the dangerous man known as the Geist, for once, and finally, let his guard down, pulling his love in close with a kiss.
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Two more weeks of excavation had passed, and enough limestone to build their own mountain had been removed from the collapsed caverns while workers carefully shored up the walls, protecting against collapse. Charlie visited frequently, Leila at his side, the two helping guide the work in the right direction.
It was astonishing, the hand-in-hand work put in by Chithiid, humans, cyborgs, and AI-powered machinery––all of it collaborating to save their friend. They had arrived in a time unfamiliar to them all, and had been embraced with open arms. This was the kind of future world Charlie could live with.
He was standing just outside the mouth of the excavation site when a powerful rumbling shook the ground, nearly knocking him from his feet.
“Cave in!” a man yelled, running from the gaping maw of the caverns.
A massive plume of dust, forced up from the depths of the Earth spewed out into the sky, accompanied by a giant burst of flame.
“They hit a gas pocket! Everyone get clear!”
Charlie breathed deeply and smiled, savoring that familiar charred odor hanging in the air. That wasn’t gas smoke. Oh no. He knew that smell quite well.
With an explosion of rock and debris, the form of a massive dragon burst into the sunlight, wings flapping hard for the first time in millennia.
“Ara, it’s me!”
Nothing but noise and confusion filled his head, like the shrieking of a hundred maniacs locked in their cells, howling a chorus of insanity. The Zomoki turned her feral eyes on him and roared, landing hard on the ground in front of him.
“Aranzgrgghmunatharrgle!” he shouted into her mind, using the damn near impossible name he’d forced himself to finally learn. “Ara, it’s Charlie. You’re free. Please, calm down.”
The mighty dragon flapped her wings and spewed flame into the air, but then, slowly, she settled down, the soothing energy of the sun’s rays soaking into her for the first time in so very long.
“Is it really you?” she asked, blinking in the bright light, a shaky unease in her voice.
“Yes, it’s really me.”
“But what are all of these creatures around me. And these tech-magic machines?”
“We’re on my world, Ara. Remember? And these are the people who live here. They’ve all banded together to help rescue you.”
A tear formed in one massive, golden eye, then rolled slowly down her cheek. “Then this is not another dream?”
“No. You’re really free.”
Ara slowly calmed herself further, forcing deep breaths into her lungs. Her first truly fresh air in millennia. The tension and panic around her eyes gradually relaxed, and when she turned her golden gaze on her friend once more, Charlie recognized the warmth behind those eyes.
“I have something for you,” he said, taking the last jug of the Balamar waters from his pack. “Open wide.”
The men, aliens, and AIs all watched in fascination and horror as the terrifying monster’s enormous mouth opened wide. Her teeth were enough to fuel more than one man’s nightmares for quite some time. Then, impossible for them to comprehend, Charlie leaned into the beast’s mouth.
“You’re not going to curl up into a hardened ball again, are you?” he asked as he emptied the jug onto her tongue.
Ara swallowed the small taste of the waters, a shiver of pleasure running through her body. “No, Charlie. This is far less water than before.”
“Good.”
“And I’ve been absorbing energy from the small rivulet that has been trickling through the cavern all this time. It brought me traces of the sun’s energy every day, and, though I may not look it, I am actually stronger than before. I’ve just been stuck in a cave for... How long has it been?”
“About two thousand years, give or take.”
Ara fell silent. Even for a Zomoki as powerful and old as she was when captured, a hibernation that long had never been heard of. She let out a little sigh, accepting the news as best she could. “That has got to be some kind of record,” she joked.
Charlie beamed, tears of joy on his cheeks.
“It’s good to have you back.”
“It’s good to be back,” she said, sitting up and shaking mightily, the dried old scales flaking off and falling away, revealing her gleaming red form, bright in the sun’s light.
“What ever did happen, Charlie?”
“That is a long story, my friend. And boy, do I have a lot to tell you. But you’re free for the first time in ages. How about you and I go for a little flight? I would love nothing more than to show you around my world.”
Ara lowered herself to the ground, and the men surrounding the excavation site watched in awe as the tiny human climbed up onto the massive dragon’s back.
“Thank you all!” Ara bellowed, shocking the onlookers as she took to the skies.
Several of the AI ships that happened to be flying in the region that day had thought they were perhaps having a processor malfunction when they saw what appeared to be an actual dragon soaring alongside them.
“Is that a man on its back?” one asked in utter confusion before making a bee line for the nearest service depot to have its synapse relays checked.
But indeed, it was. A man and a dragon, flying free. In time, they would learn all about her, the mythical being, from a galaxy far away. But for now, the dragon named Ara and her bonded friend reveled in their reunion, flying free in the Earth’s sun’s warming glow.
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