by Bruce Marcom
“Dragon World is a Class C planet with three moons. Scanners indicate a few hundred different species of dragons and related life forms. The moons have mostly dragon kind on them as well. Dragonclaw is a dead moon; Dragon's Moon is Class B: icy but livable for humans; Dragon's Head is Class C with heavy fog and rains,” 42 reports.
“Prepare my transport. Go to Dragon's Moon and stay in orbit. Girls with me. Commander Gartooth you have the Com. Nelma, inform Doc to meet me in Launch Bay D,” Eve orders.
“Yes, milady,” Nelma says, pressing some buttons on her console. “Doc, report to Launch Bay D.”
At the launch bay, they meet Doctor Farshe, who is putting on an environmental battle suit inside Eve's shuttle. The shuttle is more of a giant-sized fighter that can carry about twelve people. A 50-year-old human male in a Space Marine uniform is standing at Eve's fighter.
“Your Highness, would you like some Marines to accompany you?” General Pace asks.
“I appreciate your concern, General. However, in this particular situation they would be more harmful then beneficial,” Eve says. She gets in the large fighter and goes up to the front with the Doc in tow. Her two daughters get into the pilot seats and begin take off procedures. They take off after a few minutes pass, exiting the bay and heading down to the moon's surface.
“Why are we going down to this frozen moon?” Doc asks with a pondering look on her face.
Eve replies, “Someone needs my assistance. Xaqu, stay with the ship. Chaca, suit up. You are coming with the Doc and me.”
“Ahh, Mom! Why do I get stuck on the ship?” Xaqu whines.
“I need you to be ready to take off at a second’s notice, okay?”
“Yes, Mother,” she replies with a grumble.
Chaca says, “Yes! Finally, some adventure!”
“You sound like Gothica. I miss her. She is a famous singer now, gave up the life of being a space cowgirl,” Eve says, thinking about Gothica.
“Landing at the spot you indicated,” Xaqu says.
“It's a blizzard out there. We are going in that big cave entrance over there. Stay close; use your computer binocular goggles to see. And both of you stay behind me,” Eve instructs.
The exit door opens and they run out into the windy blizzard. The door shuts behind them. They run about 90 feet into a large cave. They slow down and begin walking in their environmental suits behind Eve, who is only wearing a white leather outfit with a matching hooded cloak. Eve appears to be immune to the effects of the weather. They continue walking deep into the winding tunnel where they encounter alcoves and larger chambers filled with silver metallic dragons. The dragons become alert to the intruders entering their lair. They stand up and spread out, hissing threateningly.
Eve speaks in Ancient Dragon, with a booming voice that echoes in in the cavern. I do not wish to harm all of you, but I will if you interfere. She pulls down her hood and glowing magical dragon symbols are all over her face. The dragons immediately back down and begin slinking into their caves in fear.
Chaca whispers to Doc, “They seem to be afraid of us.”
“It is neither you nor I they fear,” Doc says, glancing at Eve in front of them.
“Oh.”
They continue walking until they enter a larger chamber that has a large gold dragon lying on the ground and wrapped in hundreds of giant magical chains. The huge dragon has scars that indicate he has endured unbearable torture. Also, there are three enormous silver dragons that rush over to where the intruders have entered.
Eve says in Ancient Dragon, You really want to rush to your deaths, Juka, Haergi, and Bareki?
The dragons stop suddenly at the sound of their names in Ancient Dragon from this small creature.
“Who are you, and how do you know our names?” Juka asks.
Eve says in a commanding voice, “I know the names of all dragons everywhere, for I am the Mother of Dragons.”
“Bah, never heard of you. You shouldn't mess with dragons, tiny one. We are powerful, and we will kill you.” Haergi begins to release his breath weapon.
“Nauigei,” Eve says, pointing her hand at Haergi. A magical beam hits Haergi as he is engulfed in magical fire and is almost instantly incinerated. As his ashes float around the spot where he once stood a few seconds earlier, Eve says in Ancient Dragon, You have no idea what real power is.
The other two back off in fear.
Juka’s attitude almost instantly reverses. “What do you want from us? We are just simple dragons trying to survive.”
“Humph.” Eve says. “Release the prisoner and I may let you live.”
Juka says, “We can’t. Those chains were made with Dragon Magic that was cast by Zaqu.”
“Zaqusuiga, hmm... Okay, back up.” Eve issues her command and then begins an enchantment, bending to touch the chains. The chains stop glowing. Eve waves her hand in front of her and the chains rattle and fall off the gold dragon, hitting the icy floor with a ferocious sound.
“Scales, can you hear me?” Eve asks, talking in his large ear. The dragon appears to be unconscious. Eve begins to cast a spell as her hands light up. She touches the gold dragon's metal body. The dragon begins to glow a bright white and his injuries disappear one at a time. Eve is noticeably weakened by this, and the two silver dragons think this is their chance to attack. Eve, reading their minds, doesn't even turn around. Instead she says, “Don't think because I am weakened that I can't hurt you. Besides, my daughter can clearly kill both of you at the same time without much thought.”
Chaca uses telekinesis to grab both of the silver dragons, picks them up about six feet off the ground, and then releases a massive forked lightning that strikes both of them. Their roars of pain echo through the caverns, sending fear to all the dragons inhabiting the area. Chaca releases their lifeless bodies and they slam into the frozen ground.
Scales’ eyes open with all the noise. He is slightly dazed, but slowly starts to rise as the 60-foot gold dragon's head almost scrapes the ceiling. He suddenly remembers where he is.
“Scales, how do you feel?” Eve says as Doc scans him.
“Much better now. Thanks for coming for me. Your telepathy range is impressive. You truly are the Dragon Empress,” Scales says with obvious gratitude.
“Thank you. How did you end up here? Your herd speaks so highly of you,” Eve asks.
“I disagreed with the treatment of the smaller herds on Dragon World by the larger ones. My herd is one of the smallest. Well, the ruling gang of thugs jumped me and couldn't seem to kill me so they imprisoned me here on this moon. The silver dragons agreed to keep me here as long as they got to put a silver dragon in the ruling gang,” Scales explains.
“Why would Zaqusuiga help them by chaining you up?”
“He didn't. The chains were made by him a long time ago. The gang was just using them on prisoners as punishment.”
“I need all of their names, so I know exactly who I’m going to kill when I go down to the surface,” Eve asks.
“That is a tall order; there are ten of them. I don't think you can take on that many.” “Just leave that to me. Let's go,” Eve says.
“Okay.”
They head out of the tunnel and Eve assures the other silver dragons that everything is going to be okay. They go back out to the ship and the ships take off without Eve. She had previously told them to wait on the battle station. What she has to do next, she has to do alone. Eve changes into dragon form and heads down to the planet surface with thousands of dragons following behind her.
Scales says, “Wow, you are one big freaking dragon. I feel like a dragon toy next to you.”
“Heh, I get that a lot. Heading to Dragon Mountain below.”
They fly on until they reach a rocky mountain range that has a clearing in a valley. Eve flies over the mountain, blotting out the sun over the range. She comes up to a clearing that is filled with sitting dragons. There is a cave entrance that is about half way up from the ground and carves a hole in the sid
e of the mountain. There are six dragons at the entrance of the cave. Eve's sudden appearance causes chaos and panic with the dragons down in the valley and the six sitting on cave entrance. Eve lets out an earth-shattering roar that makes the whole mountain range tremble. Eve lands with her eight legs clearing out most of the dragons below. The sky is filled with so many dragons flying overhead that the valley is darkened because of the shadows.
In a thunderous voice, Eve speaks in Ancient Dragon. I am Evella Noctu, the Dragon Empress. I am here to claim this world and all of the dragons in this area of space as mine. I want the heads of all those who dare challenge my leadership.
She grabs four of the dragons she is looking for at the mountain cave entrance and bites off their heads. She releases her massive acidic plasma breath into the cave entrance, blasting the rest of the mountaintop and causing an avalanche. Four more of the hunted died inside the cave.
“I want Fertid and Vqazie NOW!” Eve screams with anger.
Scales captures Fertid from behind as he tries to escape.
“I got Fertid!” Scales yells back.
Eve turns her massive body around and sees the two dragons rolling around on the ground. She grabs Fertid with her mighty claws and eats him. You could hear the bone chilling crunches as her teeth ground the dragon up into little pieces. Eve scans the area, trying to pick up Vqazie's thoughts. The huge black dragon had fled into space when he saw Eve coming. Eve sends a telepathic message to her daughters to stop him from escaping into space. Xaqu and Chaca scan the area while in orbit, for a dragon matching his description.
“I got one on tracking. It’s flying right past us,” 42 says.
Xaqu and Chaca link together and grab the dragon, holding him in place. Chaca sends a message to Eve that they got him. Eve flies up, grabs the black dragon, and brings him back down to the mountain. She kills the last gang leader in front of the dragons down there.
Eve says, “We are now all one big herd under one ruler: me.” She starts broadcasting her words via telepathy to all dragons in this region space. “It is time dragons come out of caves and become a great civilization, not only to insure the survival of our kind but also to prosper and advance as a race. No more cave dwelling for us. We will build cities, have education, develop technology, offer medical assistance, strengthen our economy, government, and military, and include any other things that great civilizations have. We will come out of the dark ages and become a Society of Dragons. We will carve out our area of space and expand as we see fit. We will create great hatcheries that will house and protect our future generations and ensure they will survive and progress as we do. I will show you how to achieve all of this. At first, we will need allies that are not dragons to help assist us so that we can learn what we need to in order to achieve our goals. We will also invite non-dragons that benefit our empire to become citizens. For the first two years, there will be a 100% tax rate to all the citizens in order to generate the money required to build cites on each of our planets and educate in masses. You will not need money to begin with, as there is nothing to buy yet. After the cities are built, services and the market will be open to sell goods. The tax rate will drop down just enough to cover the government, military, and health services. For right now, everyone bring all the minerals, metals and gems you can to put into the treasury. Drop them right here where I am digging this large pit to house all of it for the moment.
“I have a few hundred thousand skilled craftsmen and educators coming to this planet from other races, such as the Wolfkin, Katin, and the Consortium Empires, to help build our empire. They will start coming this week. All dragons must learn to get along with other races. We can learn much from them and develop our own culture as well. I have already drawn up a basic plan regarding all of these matters and created the first fifty Dragon Laws, which everyone will receive now. As time passes, I will add more laws to help govern our new society.”
All the dragons have mixed emotions about this grand plan, but decide to try it anyway to see if it will actually help the dragon race. Many of them have questions, which Eve answers to the best of her ability. She realizes there is a long road ahead with a lot of bumps along the way.
***
Over the next three years, over a billion workers and educators come to dragon space to help in the largest construction project ever assembled in history. At first, there were some clashes with the dragons and the “outsiders” but Eve made some brutal displays of punishment to discourage this from happening again. All of the cities being built have a humanoid section where the workers stay. Some of the workers have become citizens of the Dragon Empire and will remain there after the construction projects are completed. Ten major cities have been constructed; all have complete banking, education, medical, and market systems, and all the things that come with modern cities. The construction crew moves to the other planets in Dragon Empire and starts building cities and space ports there as well. Dragons make up 50% of the work force after they learn the Wolfkin language. The schools are flooded with dragons learning science, math, technology, medicine, and other disciplines.
Great hatcheries are built underground. Doctor Farshe and her staff monitor and study the whole reproduction process of each species of dragons. The birth rate increases over 1000% and the hatchlings leave after the second year out of their shells to be with their parents. Doctor Farshe has become the leading expert on Space Dragons; even the dragons start to come to her for all their ailments. She expands her practice to include all of the new dragon interns coming out of Dragon Medical School, so they will have jobs and learn on site.
Dragons are the wealthiest customers the Doctor has ever had. Some think she will be the richest doctor that has ever lived. She married the Grand Chancellor and had two kids, a boy and girl, after the first year of this project. She has homes on both the Wolfkin home world and Dragon World. The capitol city of Dragon World is called Paradise. Eve has a grand palace that is so spectacular it has bumped up the number of tourists visiting Dragon World just to see the palace.
Scales has been promoted to General of the Dragon Legions, which was the military for Empire. He was sent to several different military schools in an exchange program with other empires. He was an expert at tactics, logistics, and forming military units. Dark World became the office military training base of the Empire, as well as where they manufactured all of the ships, weapons, and other military gear for both dragon and non-dragon forces. The humanoid troops and dragons practice military exercises together to improve their tactics and minimize losses. The Dragon Intelligence Agency was formed as the spy network for the Empire. It is also based on Darkworld. Eve's two daughters designed all the new ships, weapons, and armor for the military and defense forces. They also created some acid resistance body armor for the dragons, as acid is the main weapon used to repel dragons. The suits also have communication devices to help transmit and receive combat instructions.
The defense force, called DDF (Dragon Defense Force), is actually the police force, which is headquartered in Dragon World. They mainly act as the police, enforcing the laws and planet defense of all the planets in the empire.
***
It is a typical day in the city of Paradise on Dragon World. The sun shines brightly as the temperature rises to just a slight chill. Everyone is happy, content with life. Dragon World, particularly the city of Paradise, has become a major hub in this section of space. The city had a population of over 100 million citizens and took up a large portion of the planet. The space port was huge and millions of people traveling to do business or vacation here from all over the galaxy. A few hundred thousand dragons come here to get services and products for dragons that cannot be found anywhere else. The other planets in the Dragon Empire are not yet as developed as Dragon World. It would be another few years for those planets to come up to the same level of development as the Home World.
Inside the throne room of the palace, Eve is conducting her daily audiences. These usually c
onsisted of political issues, but were also sometimes legal issues that the courts couldn't handle because of the severity of the case. Eve acts as the “Supreme Court,” or the last word on any case. Only certain cases could be sent to Eve personally.
Bailiff says, “Bring in the prisoner.”
Two large black dragons pull a brown female Earthy Rock Dragon into the large chamber with magical chains wrapped around her. She falls on her hands and knees in front of the throne, which sits about six feet off the ground.
An orange dragon lifts up a computer pad and begins reading. “I am Chief Justice Verdur. This case was referred to the Empress because the Justice Council could not agree on an acceptable punishment for this convict's crime. Delguia was convicted of brutally beating her smaller mate and children, putting them in the hospital on more than one occasion. This last time she almost killed her mate. The court defers punishment to the Empress.”
Watching in the back of the room are her mate and three younglings, each about 3 years old. Eve sees them then looks down at the prisoner. She thinks to herself, It's hard to believe a mother could act in such a manner.
Eve says in an authoritative voice, “Speak.”
At this point, the prisoner is crying uncontrollably. “I am sorry! I just can't help it. I was raised that way. I have a problem with my temper.”
“And instead of seeking out help with the problem, you beat your family? You had your chance on more than one occasion to fix your problem and you did nothing,” Eve says with finality.
“Oh Great Empress, may I speak?” her mate says from behind the group at the throne.
“You may.”
He continues. “I know my mate has issues, but she is still the mother of my children. I really don't want them to grow up without a mother.”
Eve thinks about it for a few minutes then gives the sentence. “Rise, Delguia, and hear your sentence. You are sentenced to the Hagla mining prison for ten years of hard labor. You will have mandatory anger management counseling sessions once a week. I will allow you to see your family one time a month with supervision as long as your behavior improves. You will be eligible for parole in five years, so you better listen to the councilors and do what they say. This is my judgement. “
