by Stella Sky
I laughed at the attention to detail and realized that I was not the first Drackon guests they encountered, and they probably had had a few hotheads in the past. However, I was a captain; that new information was power. I wanted to soak in as much information as possible just in case I would need it later.
"Michael, I would enjoy your guided knowledge. Please also point out the buildings of the city beyond the windows," I said to him. Michael's face lit up as he obviously enjoyed feeling useful. As we walked, he informed me of the building layout of the base. He pointed out buildings in the distance, including the registration building. Finally, we were at the living quarters building and he showed me to my very large and ample living space.
"Your meeting with the Earth Councilis in an hour and I will fetch you then to guide you to that meeting. Until then, this green button here will contact an assistant for anything you shall need."
"Thank you, Michael,” I said as I moved into my living quarters and quickly freshened up, splashing water on my face. Then I sought out my brother and the crew and offered them the same information the king told me.
"Did the king say when we are to return to Mooreah?" my brother asked.
"We did not discuss that matter. But I do think we are at the mercy of Earth and most likely will find a ride on the next bride cargo ship," I said to him.
"And when will that be? The sooner we are out of here, the better," my brother said. I knew what he was thinking; he wanted me far away from Felicity because he had never been anxious to leave a planet before. Usually after a long journey in space, he was more than happy to spend time on the planet stretching his wings and exploring, as he was a very curious young Drackon.
"I myself am more than happy to spend many months here on Earth. It is a beautiful planet; the human females are beautiful and the people are hospitable. I am anxious to explore and to go for a flight," one of my crew members said. The others joined in, in agreement with him.
"I will know more after this meeting with the Earth Council, which the king himself is attending. This is a very serious matter with the purists and we all must remember that the humans may look at us differently after they find out that there is a faction that is against them and their females. Stay quiet, stay close. We cannot afford to show any odd behavior that may endanger our well-being while here on Earth. It is very important. Do not take flights without me and do not explore the city without my explicit permission; is that understood?"
"Yes, Captain," they said in disappointed unison.
"Good. Now, my quarters are stocked with beverages and food, and have a great view of the city. Come with me, take leisure there in the captain’s quarters," I said to them with a smile.
There was an uproar of cheer and light mood as they patted each other on the back and followed me to my living quarters. At least it would keep them occupied and not feeling antsy to get out and explore. Here they could eat and drink and relax with a view. They were all excited and happy as they settled in and raided the kitchen, all except my brother, who was pouting and frustrated. I walked over to him and said, "I'm counting on you to keep an eye on the crew. Do not let them get too drunk or out of line. Can I count on you?"
He straightened up his back and his demeanor changed. He was glad to have an assignment, "Yes, Captain, you can count on me.”
I slapped him on the back and said, "Good. I am off to meet with the council and your king. I will report back as soon as I am able to on the results of this meeting."
As soon as I opened the door, the assistant guide, Michael, was standing in the hall waiting for me. I nodded at him and he led me off to the Earth Council meeting. As I entered the large, round room with several human males and females in uniform sitting around a table, they greeted me with a smile and stood up.
"Captain Ky-Vesa, it is a pleasure to meet you. We are honored to have you as our guests and your crew. I am Council Member Jennifer Mendez."
"Counsel Mendez, I have been ordered by King Caspin Rykor to not began this meeting without his presence. The king will be attending this meeting through communication. Can we set that up?"
"The king? Yes of course. Michael, will you set it up immediately?" Michael scurried away to a wall panel console and every member took their seat and waited. I was offered a seat in the middle of the table, next to Mendez. We all waited as communication was established to King Caspin Rykor. As soon as he appeared, the entire council stood up and Mendez greeted him. "King Caspin Rykor, as always, it is an honor to speak with you. The council and I are ready to commence the meeting when you are."
"Mendez, it is good to see you as well. I always enjoy my conversations with Earth, but I must inform you that this meeting is unfortunately a dark one," King Caspin Rykor said to them. There was a low chatter of murmuring from the council, as they were not expecting this to become a dark, political conversation. I tensed up as I readied myself for anything.
"The floor is yours, King," Mendez said to him as the council sat down in their chairs, ready to hear what the king had to say.
"It is with great regret that I inform the Earth Council about a new faction that has risen here on Mooreah. Know that this is a radical faction and that I, the king, do not back their beliefs or violence. This faction has become known as the purists. They are a hostile, ignorant group of Drackon that has come to be against the Drackon and the humans mating.
“They are called purists because they have the belief that the Drackon should keep the bloodline pure and only of Drackon blood. Now, as you know, I am a hybrid myself and my mother was a human female, Queen Marissa. I do not hold the same beliefs as the purists and for two years, we have ignored them as a radical group and nothing more.
“Every Drackon is allowed to think freely; they are allowed to mate with Drackon female or human female according to their own wishes. It is not something that our government forces on anyone. But now the small, radical faction of purists has grown and they have grown out of control and have become violent. Therefore, I must inform you that it is not an asteroid field that damaged Captain Ky-Vesa’s ship. In fact, he was engaged in battle against the purists.
“The purists were attacking a cargo bride ship full of human females. They attempted to destroy the ship, but Captain Ky-Vesa stepped in and saved the cargo ship. In doing so, his ship suffered massive damages and your Earth ship rescued his crew. We are in great gratitude for such a rescue."
There was an uproar amongst the councilmembers. Everyone was in shock.
"Quiet! Please! The king is not finished. He still has the floor. We are all in shock and have many questions, but allow the king to finish," Mendez shouted over the council. They grew quiet and sat back in their seats.
"I understand your outrage. I feel it too. But I know that amongst humans, there are groups of terrorists that also try to force their beliefs on to you using violence. That is all this is to us, and we mean to squash it. We apologize in keeping this faction a secret from you, but that was my call. I wanted to squash this radical group and dismantle it without causing any tensions between Earth and Drackon. We value our peace with Earth; I myself am half human. I hope that you will remember that," the king said.
"Thank you for informing us of this radical group faction. What is to be done?" Mendez asked the king.
"I think it would be safer to stop all cargo bride ships until this rebellion of the purist radicals can be squashed. We do not want to put any human females in harm’s way. That being said, I would be much obliged if a ship could be given to Captain Ky-Vesa and his crew in order to return to Mooreah. He is much needed in the oncoming battle against this faction."
"Yes, that can be arranged, and the council will discuss the halt of cargo bride ships and registration of human females. We also have their safety in mind. We do not want to send them into space when they are a target for this new, radical group," Mendez said.
The king continued, "Yes, it is best if—"
BOOM!
The entire
building shook under our feet. There was screaming and the lights flickered off and on. I could hear King Caspin Rykor shouting, "What has happened? What was that?"
Everyone was on their feet, running to the large, glass windows overlooking the city. In the distance was a large, black and gray mushroom cloud rising into the sky. It was obvious that a bomb had gone off.
"That is the registration building!" Mendez shouted. I turned and looked at her in shock. Felicity was there. I grabbed Michael, who was clearly shaken, and shouted, "Grab my crew! Tell them their captain has ordered them to fly to the damaged building and help any in need! Go now!" Michael ran out the door as I heard Mendez shouting orders for emergency services to go to the registration building. I stepped back away from everyone and in a flash shifted into dragon form. For a second, everyone turned and stared at me. I had no time to explain as I ran forward and jumped, bursting through the glass window and off the twentieth-story floor, spreading my wings and taking flight towards the destruction, toward Felicity. I had to save her.
Chapter 5
DR. FELICITY MALTRA
After landing on Earth, I was a bit disappointed that Drin did not seek me out to say goodbye. I had grown fond of him after our time together in deep space. But I had matters of my own to attend to, now that we were back. I had to focus on my career and the next move for me now that this research mission had been interrupted.
I met with my superior to let him know I was available for other assignments. I wanted to be on the top of the list, as I did not plan on taking any time off and I needed the distraction. Drin and his brother were very mysterious and I felt like they were hiding something, but I did not know what it could be. Then it hit me: I could find out more if they were registered.
The registration archives contained personal information on each Drackon warrior that was seeking a human female for bride. I had connections inside the registration system and could easily access the database. The more I thought about getting access to Drin’s personal files, the more excited I grew and hastily made my way down the hall after meeting with my superior. That's when I saw him, Drin. Once again, I rambled on, making up excuses in order to get away from him. If I stayed near him any longer, I would probably wind up kissing him and creating a huge mess. And inside the Earth Council building was no place to get caught kissing a Drackon captain when I was trying to be taken seriously as a doctor.
That is how I wound up digging through the Drackon personal files inside the registration building. I scrolled the screen, looking for Captain Ky-Vesa, his brother, or any of his crewmembers. I came up empty with each search that I did. I even searched by year to see if they had been registered in the past, but decided to become unregistered, but again I found nothing. It was actually a little strange considering that most Drackon warriors were registered at one time or another. But these warriors were not.
"Did you find what you were looking for, Dr. Maltra? The building is closing shortly,” the assistant archivist asked me as she walked over to my workstation.
"No, I did not. Thank you for your help," I said as I got up and moved away from the workstation. Moments later, I was walking out of the front door and across the courtyard. I could not get it out of my mind how mysterious Drin was. He was a captain, after all, and most captains were documented with some information, but I could not find any. Was it because he was a hybrid? A part of me was impressed that he was not registered and wasn't simply looking for a human female to call his own, like some sort of property. I was glad to know that he would not be matched soon with a female. I walked across the courtyard and stopped in my tracks as I realized that maybe he didn't want a human female at all, and I was a human. Why did this bother me?
My thought was interrupted as I heard a very high pitched whistle. I looked left and right and could not figure out where it was coming from. Then I looked up into the sky and saw a very bright, pink flame, almost like a flare, arching across the sky toward the registration building behind me. It was then that I realized that it was a missile of sorts.
"Bomb! Air raid!” I shouted as loud as I could. Then I dove, throwing my entire body into a drainage ditch on the side of the courtyard.
BOOM! The explosion was loud and violent, creating a moment of complete loss of hearing in my ears that was replaced by a ringing. I covered my hand with my arms and hoped that large pieces of rubble and debris would not land on me. It was a terrifying moment, and I was shaking.
Finally, my hearing came back just in time to hear parts of the building falling and crashing onto the ground. There was a lot of loud screaming and commotion. I was still curled up in the fetal position with my hands over my head, waiting for the worst of it to pass. Hoping that I would stay alive.
When it was clear that the environment had grown more stable, I sat up in the drainage ditch. There was rubble all around me and dust on my body. I climbed out of the drainage ditch and was shocked by what I saw. A large corner of the massive registration building was gone. It had been blown up in the explosion. I looked around and saw that there were many injured people lying on the ground. I climbed out of the ditch and ran toward the injured in the courtyard. I found a woman who was bleeding from her leg and crying. I tore off a piece of fabric from her skirt.
"You're going to be all right. Try to calm down to slow your heart rate. I am going to tie a tourniquet around your leg to stop the bleeding," I said to her. She nodded her head yes. I tied the piece of fabric around her leg tightly stopping the flow of blood.
"Wait here; help is on the way,” I said to her as I moved away from her and to the next injured person, helping them, and the next, and the next, doing what I could. Then I felt a strong rush of wind hovering above me. I looked up and into the sparkling, silver wings of a weredragon. He was backlit by the sun and the burning fires from the building and smoke in the sky. I could not see his face, only the silhouette of his large form and wings.
"Felicity," the familiar voice said as he came down to his feet. Then I saw him. It was Drin, in weredragon form. My mouth fell open at the awesome sight of him. He was massive and beautiful with blue, green, and silver scales along his body that seemed to blend together in iridescent colors.
"Drin, what are you doing here?" I asked him.
"I came to rescue you, Felicity," he said, stepping toward me. "Are you hurt?" he asked.
"Rescue me? I am fine. I don't need saving. But you can help me. You are strong. There are many people trapped under large pieces of concrete and brick. Help me," I pleaded to him as I ran toward a group of people buried under rubble. Drin ran alongside me, moving quickly and then ahead of me, as his large stride was three times mine. He put his hands underneath a large slab of concrete and then began to lift.
"Don't worry! I'm going to pull you out!" I told the man with his leg trapped underneath the slab of cement. As Drin lifted it, I put my hands underneath the man's arms and pulled him out of the rubble. "I got him! Drin I got him!" I shouted to him. Drin gently let the slab of concrete down and I was very impressed with his amazing strength. Then I suddenly felt the wind pick up. I looked up to see four Drackon warriors flying above us.
"Captain Ky-Vesa! We are here!" Eral shouted. It was Drin’s crew in weredragon form.
"Here, help these people trapped under the rubble! Lift and rescue any trapped!" Drin ordered his crew. I scrambled from one injured person to the other as they were pulled. Emergency services had arrived and were helping as many as possible. With the arrival of emergency services, it gave me time to think, time to think about who could've done this. Were we still in danger? Who would bomb the registration building full of harmless people? It did not make sense to me. It made me angry.
Seven hours later, I was exhausted and still helping everyone in the courtyard along with Drin, his crew, and emergency services.
"Felicity, you have to stop. You are exhausted. We landed on Earth almost twelve hours ago and you have been going ever since. You need to take care of yourself. Allo
w me to take you back to your living quarters," Drin said to me.
I pushed him aside and said, "No, there's too much to be done."
"And if you end up hurting someone by making a mistake because you are exhausted? What then?" he said as he put his hands on my shoulders and made me face him. He was right. I did not want to admit that he was right, but he was. I looked around and saw that there were very few injured still in the courtyard, and all of them were being attended to.
"I suppose you are right, Drin. It looks as though every person has someone attending to them now. I do feel extremely tired." As soon as I said it, I felt my body go into exhaustion and I stumbled on my step.
"I've got you," Drin said as he wrapped his arms around me. Then he picked me up and scooped me into his arms. Before I could say anything, he flew into the air. It was enough to wake me up as I looked around at the sun setting on the horizon. It was a beautiful sight after staring at the aftermath of the explosion for so long.
"Are you at the base?" he asked me.
"Yes, I am in the same living quarters as you and your crew. It is the same building," I said, wrapping my arms around his neck. I felt very safe in his arms, high in the sky, away from everything. I allowed myself for the first time to feel taken care of, and Drin was good at it. His strong physique was perfect for safety; even the scales of blue, green, and silver were armor. I did not think anything could harm me as long as I was in his arms.
