“But you didn’t do this. Alright, was it your neighbor? Technician McCoy, what are you looking at?”
“Nothing, Chief.”
“Did you do this?”
McCoy looked at the chief’s boots, then at Jack. Coraolis stared at him, willing him to tell the truth. The young technician didn’t answer.
Chief Bergen’s face darkened. “So, you’re going to let me blame a couple of Mikes because you don’t like what they are? Is that it?”
“No, Chief.”
“No? Then what is it?” Bergen demanded.
“It’s not that big a deal,” Jack said. “It was an accident.”
“His silence wasn’t an accident. This outfit is an honorable one, Technician. We don’t pull underhanded garbage. We do our duty, and we get our work done. We don’t hamstring our allies!”
“Yes, Chief.” McCoy’s Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed. “Won’t happen again.”
“Damn right it won’t. Keep that in mind while you’re getting a mop.”
McCoy jumped from his seat and hurried out of the galley. Chief Bergen watched him go, a line deepening between his eyebrows.
“Sorry about the stroganoff, Chief,” Jack said.
“It wasn’t you.” The chief grabbed the napkin from McCoy’s abandoned tray and flicked the noodles from his boots. “I heard about you two. Captain did too.”
“I’m guessing that’s why we have so many guards.” Coraolis offered his napkin as well.
The chief accepted it. “Yep.”
Coraolis looked around the room. Most of the personnel were paying close attention to their trays. They might as well have been invisible.
“Do you really think all this is necessary?” he asked.
“It’s not up to me.” The chief straightened. “But yeah, probably. It’ll keep order on the boat. Visible guards mean that these knuckleheads won’t mess with you. We don’t need that.”
“I didn’t know you cared,” Jack said.
“I’ve been on this boat a long time. Mikes aren’t the enemy. Even an old grease monkey like me knows that. Watch yourselves, that’s all.”
“Maybe we’ll make ourselves scarce. We won’t be doing his pride any favors by watching him clean up,” Coraolis said.
“Agreed. I’m not that hungry anyway.” Jack stood.
They took their leave. Chief Bergen gave them the barest hint of a smile. Coraolis wasn’t sure, but maybe they’d made the man happy. At least they hadn’t offended him. That was something.
***
They returned to the galley after the last meal shift when some tables would be free. They claimed an empty one against the wall. Coraolis brought up a random number generator on his datapad just as Jack dropped a cloth bag on the table. The sound of dice hitting the surface was unmistakable.
“You brought dice too?”
“Of course. You can’t game without dice.”
“You were a Boy Scout, weren’t you?”
“Hey, now that I’m gaming, I just like to know where my dice are.” Jack untied the drawstring and poured out a colorful collection of polyhedral dice. “Grab some six-siders. Let’s see what your Conan is made of.”
Coraolis shook the dice in one hand as a shadow fell over the table. Technician McCoy stood with hands clasped behind his back. He said nothing. They looked up at him. He shifted his weight.
Coraolis wasn’t a fool. He knew McCoy had messed with Jack deliberately. He just hadn’t meant to get the chief involved. Coraolis would rather make peace than repay one slight with another, so he gestured at the seat next to him. “Can we help you with something?”
The tech glanced at the empty seat and shook his head. “This’ll just take a minute.”
Coraolis caught Jack’s eye. He shook his head slightly. There was no trouble coming from behind. It was a pity they had to check for that, but ever since Jack’s troubles in the city, they’d all been careful.
“I want to know why you tried to step in for me with the chief. I set you up,” McCoy grumbled.
“It looked to me like you were about to get more trouble than the prank deserved.” Coraolis shrugged. He hadn’t been thinking about it that carefully. “It just seemed right.”
McCoy frowned, a deep line appearing between his brows. It looked less like anger than deep thought. Cor waited.
“I don’t get it.” He threw his hands up in the air. “I’m not going to go around telling everybody how nice the two of you are. I know it could just be an act.”
“Nobody’s asking you to. We’ve got a job to do here, that’s all. We don’t want trouble.”
McCoy’s frown deepened. “Sure. Well…I’ll leave you alone if you leave me alone.”
“Sounds fair,” Jack said.
Coraolis nodded. McCoy held out his hand, and they shook on it. When they let go, he turned on his heel and marched out of the room, his back ramrod stiff.
“Guess we aren’t making any friends,” Jack observed.
“Maybe not, maybe so. If we show we’re decent enough, it’ll sink in eventually.”
Coraolis started shaking the dice again, letting them rattle against each other. They could worry about McCoy later, along with their reputations. Any progress they made would be measured in millimeters. For now, all they could do was live their lives, and make it clear they weren’t a threat.
***
Slowly, the tension between the Mystics and the E.F. crew eased. Maybe it was because of their actions or getting used to each other through proximity. Before long, they had an audience for their evening gaming sessions. While their audience was invited to join in, no one took them up on it.
Small talk with the crew became real conversation. Even McCoy came around and became as friendly as any of his crewmates. By the time they reached the Amadeus system, they had a small circle of acquaintances.
“I think we’ve got Santiago hooked,” Jack said as they entered the commune chamber. “He borrowed my Player’s Handbook.”
“That’s promising.” Coraolis looked over the commune chamber before closing the door behind them.
“I thought so.” Jack handed him an electrolyte bottle and selected a spot on the floor. Coraolis sat facing him. They rose into the Astral Plane.
Amadeus was a swirl of green and blue. Clouds covered much of its atmosphere with a tattered white blanket. Coraolis moved forward with Jack at his side, leaving Charon far behind. It seemed wiser to keep the ship as distant as possible, in case negotiations went poorly.
Something was off. The planet had a single moon nearly as black as the void around it. Amadeus didn’t have any moons listed on the registry. As he stared at it, one of the larger formations split open, revealing a titanic eye. The ridges became scales, and its mountains unfolded to reveal wings that could enfold the planet itself.
The dragon was in their path before Coraolis could process its sheer size. It filled the astral sky until it was all they could see. Looking away was unthinkable.
Jack froze in place. Coraolis realized his companion had never confronted a dragon this way. The closest he’d come was the day they’d fused with dragons, and they would have been infants compared to this ancient one.
Coils of white fire curled around the dragon’s nostrils. Twin flames ignited in its eyes. Foreboding pressed down on Coraolis, a sense of unwelcome. Its presence pushed their astral selves toward the Charon. The dragon was slamming the door in their faces before they could even make their case.
“Wait,” Jack said.
The dragon took no notice. The pressure bore down on them, insisting they leave. Jack grabbed Coraolis’s hand, and their backward motion stopped. They couldn’t make any headway, but at least they weren’t losing more ground.
“I can hold this.” Jack spoke through gritted teeth. “Try and talk sense into him.”
Coraolis nodded, but he didn’t speak out loud. He reached into himself, calling the dragon within. Words wouldn’t convince a dragon this ancient. He
needed help.
His dragon answered, and Coraolis was surrounded by its ethereal form. Wings bore him up to meet the ancient one’s eye. He caught pieces of their communication. A plea to be heard, the demand that they go away, tinged with distrust of mortal beings. Jack’s own dragon joined in with declarations of love for humans.
It was nothing he didn’t expect, except at the end. The ancient one relaxed some of its rigidity when Jack’s dragon projected hope for a second chance. Coraolis frowned, but it was gone as soon as he tried to grasp the meaning. Maybe he’d misunderstood.
Cor’s dragon faded, leaving him opposite the ancient one. It waited for him to speak.
He cleared his throat. “I represent Earth Fleet and am empowered to negotiate on their behalf. We would like to settle the planet we’ve named Amadeus and collect some of its resources.”
Skepticism filled the ether. Coraolis nodded, acknowledging that feeling.
“I know humans haven’t coexisted well with dragons in the past, but that is changing.” He gestured at himself, then wondered if the motion was too small for the giant dragon. “We will agree to your terms and settle only in areas you designate. We won’t harm local wildlife when taking resources. For now, we only wish to survey the planet.”
The flames in the dragon’s eyes died down. It bent its head once, then turned and flew away to hover near the planet. A cautious sense of welcome washed over Coraolis, and he relaxed.
“You call that negotiating?” Jack teased, as they headed toward the Charon. They were taking their time, giving the dragon every chance to call them back or change its mind. “You gave up everything we had to offer right away.”
“I call it offering something reasonable.” Coraolis glanced over his shoulder. The dragon had curled into a ball again, but one eye watched them. Coraolis got the message. They were welcome on the planet, but trust must be earned.
***
Cor stood in the shuttle’s cockpit, looking at the ruins of an ancient city. With intact walls, a maze of buildings and winding streets sometimes bridged over each other in an intricate dance of architecture and art. Every building was of a uniform black substance that Jack and Coraolis hadn’t been able to identify from the Astral Plane.
They had decided to go to the surface to take samples, and the captain had agreed to let them go. They hadn’t expected signs of civilization.
Jack wanted to explore it, and that feeling didn’t come solely from him. His dragon was urging him forward. It wanted more. He had to agree, he’d never seen anything like it. No life remained on the planet. There was no one to ask.
The pilot put the shuttle down on a hill overlooking the city. Coraolis, Jack, and the away team members loaded up and hiked to the broken city gates.
“I wish the others could see this.” Jack held up his datapad, recording video. He rotated the camera on his device so it would record his face. “You wouldn’t believe this. The buildings have no seams or lines, it’s like they grew as part of this world.”
It was true. The buildings were smooth with wide square bases. They tapered off hundreds of meters above ground. They were too narrow to be pyramids, but too wide to be spires.
“Does it seem strange to you that so many buildings are intact? This place feels ancient.” Coraolis stepped up to the gate and pressed his hand to its surface. His physical senses named it stone. His Mystic abilities said it was something else but couldn’t tell him what.
“Strange, yes. At least the roads have some normal wear and tear.”
Plant life struggled to reclaim the land on which the city had been built, growing through cracks in the paved ground. More robust plants broke the walkway and stretched higher than a person’s head. It made movement difficult, concealing anything beyond the next bush.
Coraolis hadn’t sensed hostility in the city’s depths, but he wasn’t nearly as sensitive as Julia. He paced the width of the gate, keeping his promise to stay outside the city walls until the scouts returned with an all-clear. They returned within the hour. By that time, he was chomping at the bit. His dragon’s impatience didn’t help. At least there was good news to reward the wait. The scouts hadn’t found sign of predators or hostiles. They’d found no sign of life beyond the plants.
The Mystics shouldered their gear and hiked into the city. They slowed occasionally to record the sights, their thoughts, and their feelings. Coraolis found a smooth stone that seemed to be made of the same stuff as the buildings and pocketed it.
He noticed Jack grinning beside him. Coraolis could understand; entering the city scratched an itch unlike any he’d felt before. Maybe that came from the dragon, but it hardly mattered. He wanted to uncover the city’s secrets as much as his dragon did.
Absorbed in their surroundings, the explorers hardly thought to look up. If they did, it was to admire the structure of the buildings, not to survey the overcast sky. When a strange vessel broke atmosphere and landed on the other side of the city, none took notice but the planet’s guardian dragon, who dismissed the ship’s presence as just another mortal construct.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Khiann was entranced by what she saw on the viewscreen. The dragon had returned to a resting state without breaking the Earth Fleet ship into a thousand pieces. Charon went into planetary orbit. Not long after, a shuttle departed the boat, and she tracked it as it entered the atmosphere.
She chewed her lip.
Khiann had followed Charon undetected from the Sol System. She knew the shuttle bore two of their remarkable Mystics, just as she knew two others had remained on their homeworld. She had been watching them since the battle with the Wyrms.
Night Thorn had hidden in their Kuiper belt and observed from a distance. She couldn’t use her abilities without alerting their Mystics, so she’d relied on her instruments. She occasionally reached out when their hemisphere was dark. When two of them left on their mission, she was eager to follow.
Khiann was glad of the decision. While the ancient dragon kept her people from visiting the surface of this planet for generations, it had also kept lesser beings away. In less than an hour, however, humans would be walking on sacred ground, profaning it with their presence. The Lost Jewel was to be just that. Lost.
“This is an outrage,” she declared.
“According to the historical record, Ixhoi has not felt the tread of mortal feet for ten thousand years.” The computer’s voice was all too cheery as it shared the information.
Khiann glared at the viewscreen, having designated it the computer’s face, even though the ship had no such thing. She needed a focal point for her interactions.
“I’m aware,” she snarled.
She punched in commands to analyze Charon’s sensors. She needed to determine where they were pointed, and how she could get past them. Their technology was primitive in many respects, but it would never do to underestimate them.
It had been a simple matter to slip past their ‘mothership’ at the wormhole. Night Thorn didn’t require another ship to get through a wormhole, nor did the rest of the Pirr fleet. That mobility allowed her people to maintain a larger territory than many races. It took fewer resources to explore the galaxy and take the planets they wanted.
The only exception was their ancient stronghold, which had been denied to them for so long.
The ship’s computer beeped worriedly. “What are you doing, Commander?”
“I’m plotting a course to the surface.”
“Standard protocol advises backup.”
The computer sounded all too smug. It was right, of course. It was the height of foolishness to engage an enemy with superior numbers—at least head-on. Khiann was anything but foolish. She would send the message, but by the time help arrived, it would be too late.
“I’ll send a report, but I will not wait for assistance.” She opened a screen to monitor the progress on her scanning algorithm and frowned when she saw how little had been done. “Work at maximum efficiency, computer. That’s an order.
”
The computers’ chime had a sullen ring to it, but the screen soon filled with data. Khiann turned her attention to another floating screen, tracking the humans’ position.
“Where are they going?” she murmured.
“By my calculations, they are landing near the Nexus.”
The center of the world. Every planet in Pirr space had its center. It was always the first landing site, selected by augur and scientific survey to find the most auspicious position. Anything at that location would have special importance. Temples were always built at the exact center, then surrounded by the rest of the city. The humans weren’t just desecrating the holy lost planet, they were about to stomp on its very heart.
“Get me an entry point immediately,” she snapped.
“Yes, Commander.”
She took manual control of Night Thorn and activated its stealth capability. It wouldn’t hide her from the dragon, but it would conceal her from E.F.’s sensors.
The flight from the asteroids to the planet took ten minutes. She kept manual control of her ship while her eyes peered into the Astral Plane, tracking the dragon’s position. When she neared its position, the beast opened one enormous eye.
She held her breath. If it lashed out, there was nothing she could do but try to run. She could but hope the gigantic beast would be slow to react. Mass had nothing to do with speed in the Astral Plane. It was all about power, and a dragon had more of that than any living creature.
The dragon focused its gaze on her ship. She felt its scrutiny through Night Thorn’s hull. It saw her. She put her hand to her hip, reaching for her weapon, but it wasn’t there. It was in its cradle on the wall behind her, ready for when she needed it.
It was for the best. She had the sense of being judged by a mind with more weight and power than she could ever hope to wield. Her paltry weapon would be less than a pin prick if it decided to obliterate her.
She stood still, using childhood exercises to calm her mind. If she carried no hostile thoughts, perhaps that would be enough.
The dragon’s eye narrowed to a slit. She tightened her grip on the controls.
Dragon Wave Page 6
