Taken by the Alien Dragon Read online

  I threw back the few milliliters of herbal zest water left in my flask and swished it around in my mouth before swallowing. After shaking off the crumbs of last night’s dinner of protein crisps that clung to my sleeve, I strode to the door which led directly into the bridge. No doubt, Wrigo and Oyna would tease me about falling asleep in here again.

  “Even though you do not have any younglings of your own, your common sense knows better than your words.” The staccato clack of Oyna’s beak, which dominated the bridge during tense moments, was as loud as if I were standing beside her.

  I pivoted away from the door and went to the opposite one, which opened to the main hallway outside the bridge. I peeked out before slipping into the hall, then stomped up to the main door of the bridge. I didn’t want them to think I was spying. I would never find better first lieutenants than them. I’d fought hard to attain a position most humans had never done as an independent entrepreneur with a fleet this size.

  I stifled a smile and strode into the room. “ETA of our most honored guests.”

  “One solar approximately if they maintain their current speed.” Oyna tapped the screen. She shifted one of her eyes my way while the other stared ahead. Her ability to literally focus on two things at once never ceased to amaze me and was why neither Wrigo nor I could match her speed.

  Wrigo sailed by me with what looked like his version of a smile. “I need to confer with Enziji. I will be back shortly.”

  “How is his presence affecting you?” Oyna asked.

  “His? What? You mean them, the Drakon, right? Do you think the Drakon know I’m here? That I killed one of them?” I glared down at my sleeve, spying another crumb from dinner the night before and brushing it off with a flick. Perhaps I should have stayed clear of this sector for another year.

  “I doubt they do, I...” Her beak clacked the way it did when she was nervous or frustrated. Her feathers stuck out all over her head. “Captain Esmerelda, off duty for a minute, please.” She must be upset to call me by my first name. She would always call me Captain even on my deathbed.

  “I am listening.” I sat at my station in the middle of the bridge.

  “You never talk of them. And then today of all the days, the young one appeared.”

  “Them…” My kids? “What young one?” Oh, yeah, the little fluffball in the containment cell. “I don’t think the short one is a kid. There are plenty of short beings.” I was one of them, the shortest on the ship at five feet nine inches.

  “Have you ever encountered one as small as him?” she asked.

  “No, but it’s —”

  “Wrigo said you were...bothered by his presence here.”

  “Did he? I’m not. I’m fine. Anyway, it won’t be here long.”

  “But it is your son’s birthday, isn’t it? Or is it your daughter’s…” The dimple above her square mouth deepened and her eyebrow went from a perfect thin line to a tent.

  I needed to set a reminder. No one, alive, knew that I had not, could not, and never would have a child, and they never would.

  Oh, fuck me to Earth and back, I should have made my son and daughter twins or stuck to a single kid. I bent my head, propped my elbow on the console and angled my head away from her just enough that I could keep an eye on my screen, which still showed the Drakon ships rapidly approaching. At times like this, I wished I had worn my hair down. An eighteen-inch curtain of hair and my arm were a more effective barrier against Oyna’s gaze.

  I risked a peek her way. My Nadegvum lieutenant’s eagle eyes were still trained on me and full of concern.

  Wrigo came back and sat at his station on my left. Oyna faced forward but her left eye darted my way more often than usual.

  Whew, faux motherhood was exhausting.

  A trickle of guilt eked through me, but I shook it off. Somehow, human women had gotten a reputation as being as fertile as rabbits. A total myth, which appeared to be impossible to debunk, and made it dangerous for women to travel without the risk of abduction. Infertile women didn’t fare well anywhere in the universe.

  A single kid might be a fluke but if you had given birth to two you were thought to be extremely fertile. That was the impression I had wanted to give. I needed to be seen that way back then, and I still did if I was ever caught on the wrong side of a wall of zarkenite bars again. As long as others thought I had value, it could — and in the past had — buy me time to escape. Not that I planned on being captured ever again. I’d blow a hole in this ship and any other before I’d let that happen willingly, and so would any of my crew.

  “Oyna, we can talk after we find out if the Drakon want to kill me.” I broke off when the interloper’s coordinates started increasing in the other direction. “Wrigo are these readings correct?”

  He peered over my shoulder. “Yes, they’re headed away from us.”

  “The luck of the cosmos is with us.” Oyna grinned.

  “Almost,” I said. I tapped a pointed nail at the single vessel headed away from the other Drakon, but not directly toward us either. “A scout using stealthy procedures?”

  “Why else would it be seemingly unaware of us, but on course to pass so close, within firing range.”

  “Sly.” Oyna drilled her green and pink striped nails on the glass console. “It’s too small to do our fleet damage. It is possible that it is non-Drakon.”

  “Scan its schematics.” I zoomed in on the ship. “Its physical markings and electronic signature indicate it’s Drakon, but it could be someone else.”

  “A sophomoric tactic but effective against minor and major adversaries.” Wrigo tapped his fingers on his temple. “Their home world is in this quadrant.”

  “Its readings are Drakon, too.” Oyna hopped out of her seat.

  “They’re rich,” I said. “Who knows what will be inside?”

  “A small fighter can’t have much cargo but the vessel itself is worth more than what we just procured,” Wrigo pointed out.

  “What other presents do you think he’s bringing us?” I asked.

  “Please, let us find out,” Oyna said.

  “Have Lognx release the fighters to escort our guests in,” I said.

  A slow maniacal grin spread across Wrigo’s face as he hunched over his console and Oyna’s wicked cackle echoed across our small bridge. I tapped in the authorization codes to lock onto our prey’s coordinates.

  I rose and put my face right up to the screen. Oyna and Wrigo stood on either side of me. Condensation blotted out the lone vessel, a blinking tiny white disc.

  “Visual and audio,” Oyna directed the bridge assist system. The cockpits of the two fighter pilots displayed on either side of the central battle monitor.

  “Disable him in stealth mode, if you can, then reel ‘em in,” I said.

  “Affirmative,” each pilot replied.

  Green miniature replicas of our fighters approached the Drakon ship from opposite directions without so much as a peep from our prey.

  Twin arcs of blue shot from both our fighters and joined, encircling the Drakon’s white disc. The Drakon’s ship was trapped in our encapsulating shield. A vessel of its size was incapable of breaking away.

  I let out a long whistle. “Got ‘em.” Another Drakon conquest.

  “Do you think they can breathe fire?” Oyna’s mouth dropped open further. It hadn’t closed completely since we snagged our scaly spy.

  “The last one we blasted into the nether galaxies didn’t.” I plucked at the intercept body shield under my chin which flapped if I wore for it for more than twenty-four consecutive solars.

  “It is a good reputation to have, true or not.” Wrigo bent over his console. “I will confer with Enziji about any specialized restraints we might need for the Drakon.”

  I opened a link to Lognx. “Any visuals of the interior of his ship?”

  “He is one hundred percent immobile and penetrable.” Lognx’s craggy response came through immediately and didn’t hold a bit doubt.

  A pale sil
ver and white giant of a Drakon, its wings half expanded, appeared on the screen. He jabbed at his console and paced back and forth. He reminded me of some ancient being who belonged in the snowy Colorado slopes I called home as a child, not a fire breather.

  “The hard part is over.” I cut my eyes over to Oyna, whose mouth was ajar as she ogled the seven-foot Drakon. “But I should go down to the flight bay and see that he gets into a cell.”

  “Me too—”

  “I will accompany you—”

  Wrigo and Oyna spoke at the same time, their voices loud and eager. They jumped to their feet, nearly toppling me. I backed out of the bridge into the hall while they faced off in a staring contest.

  Before I got to the lift, a breeze swept my hair over my shoulders and clicking sounded behind me. Without turning around, I said, “You won this time, Oyna.”

  She fell in step beside me, shaking her candy-cotton pink and white feathers that grew down the middle of her head all the way to her waist. “I owe him my first male child now… sorry, Captain. So, Wrigo said that the bay hands have every kind of restraint possible and ready for him.”

  I patted her shoulder and by the time we got to the cargo area, her cinnamon colored face lost its guilty expression. I wished I could tell her that there were no kids pining away for me in Colorado or anywhere else, no one at all beyond our motley bunch. Best if I stuck to my usual modus operandi that had worked so far: the less I spoke about my fictitious kids, the less others would.

  The prisoners put down their trays, looked up, and called out as they always did no matter how many times they were reprimanded. “I’ll be glad to bid our current guests a final adieu.”

  “Later for your requests,” Oyna yelled above their shouted questions and demands. She unclipped and pointed her pulse shield rod at the most vocal one, the Luhap. Two trays lay at his feet. My eyes immediately went to the other side of the cell where the little being sat huddled in the corner, its chin resting on its knees.

  Hell, I meant to move the little thing to someone else’s cell. No time now.

  I strode ahead to the lift but Oyna was too observant not to notice what had obviously transpired between the two. “Did you eat the young’s food?” Her voice was deeper and colder than I’d ever heard it.

  He shuffled away from the bar and glared over his shoulder at the poor creature who remained silent. “No!” the liar shouted.

  “Oyna, we have a fire breather to contain.” I pointed down, toward the flight-cargo bay.

  She had already detached her taser from her belt and shot it into the Luhap’s thigh. He grunted and dropped to his knees, then fell over. She waved the back of her wrist over the entry reader and tapped in the access code. She swept into the cell and had the fur ball’s little paw in her hand.

  The little thing’s short legs ran along beside Oyna as she hustled it into the lift between us.

  “Alright then.” I cast a wary eye at the little miss or mister. There was nothing visible to indicate which.

  It stepped closer to Oyna and stared out the transparent walls and down into the flight bay.

  “I apologize, Captain.”

  “Put it in a cell with one of the others.” I waved a hand at the row of ten cells, which normally contained miscellaneous cargo.

  Oyna’s mouth dropped open and she looked down at the little creature like I’d suggested beating it. “All of them are four times as big as him.”

  “It’s temporary,” I said. “By the way, you don’t know it’s a he.”

  “You are male, aren’t you?” It spared her a quick look but went back to gazing out the lift.

  I pointed to its ponytail fur, which didn’t look like it had any bands or ties to keep it in the three tufts on its head. “These usually indicate a girl in my former world.”

  “Gender is not easily identifiable in our young,” she said. “I cannot know how hard it is for you without yours but—”

  I waved my wrist over the access pad and the door slid closed. “If it gets incinerated, it’s going to be your fault.”

  A shriek came from behind me. Oyna and I spun around. The small creature’s eyes were aimed at the seven-foot Drakon being herded from the docking door on the right by the Uedox twins who weren’t an inch under seven feet themselves. The Drakon looked to be no less than a foot taller than them. Jaegly flew in circles around them aiming a tranq gun as big as his body.

  My mouth suddenly dry, I swallowed hard and whispered, “Holy shit, he is bigger than that last one we took out.”

  “The only one,” Oyna said in a hushed tone, as if the Drakon could hear our conversation from all the way up here. He couldn’t, but he damn well could fly up here, easily.

  “He will be the second,” I said.

  Oyna’s short wings fanned out. “How big do the Drakon get?”

  “They can’t come much bigger than him.” As soon as the lift stopped, I unclipped my blaster from my waist and Oyna stepped out beside me with hers drawn too. We joined the circus whose main attraction was making its way back into his ship, dragging the twins behind him. Their taser wands seemed to have minimal effect on him.

  His hands were shackled in front of him. Why’d they do that? Those wings probably made it challenging, but I didn’t like the way he seemed to move about as if his hands were free.

  The twin behind him prodded him forward while the other in front motioned him ahead.

  The Drakon dropped to one knee and expanded his wings, whipping my hair into a bird’s nest. Wisps of pink and white feathers flew about Oyna’s head. The kid took off behind us, back to the lift, I assumed. It must be young. That was exactly what I’d do if I were a child: run flat-out as far away from this giant Firestarter as I could.

  “Why isn’t he muzzled already?” I shouted. I would feel much better when he was behind zarkenite bars upstairs. Better yet, the cell designed for combustible material where he could breathe all the fire he wanted. The only thing he could incinerate would be himself. But the gigantic beast wouldn’t fit unless we dismembered him.

  “We had better help them.” I stepped forward with blaster and taser extended in front of me.

  “Captain, no, let me. My wings will give me enough advantage.” I didn’t bother pointing out that wings didn’t seem to be helping Jaegly. Or the fact that I, too, had wings—bought and paid for, thank you very much.

  Oyna flung herself into the melee, her short wings flapping. She took flight for about a minute, before the Drakon flicked her rod out of her hand. She careened, flailing all the way back to the ground trying to retrieve it.

  The twins and Jaegly rushed him from all sides.

  Oyna retrieved her rod and was back in the air, pelting him with mini tranq darts. Three blue flags were stuck in his tail, another on his left side, and one in his neck.

  “Get that fucking collar on ‘em,” I yelled.

  His head jerked my way, his space-dark hair longer than mine whipping about his head. Black inky pools eyed me like I was the lunch he was about to barbeque.

  I flipped the switch at my side to release my wings. They swooshed open while I held my breath. My left foot lifted automatically, the way I’d trained for hours to prepare my body for lift off.

  He lunged toward me before my right foot was in the air.

  I squeezed my blaster’s trigger at the same time his wing swept under my foot, knocking me flat on my ass. My wings whined and died. Gasping, I scrambled to my feet as Jaegly swept in and dropped the collar over his head while Oyna swooped in and secured the muzzle over his mouth.

  Got him.

  4

  Moddoc

  Dozens of voices bounced off my eardrums, jabbing into my skull. “Come here,” they called in a cacophony of dialects from across the verse.

  Where did they want me to go? Why? To do what?

  I forced opened my eyes, which seemed to weigh as much as a cave full of Thirren ore. Two dark eyes stared back at me.

  “Almordae?”
/>   The creature’s nose and hands were brown, not like hers. Its body was covered in fur like the mythical creatures in the stories I made up for her, except this one had no tail and walked on two legs. It was not real. Her eyes were almond, like many Drakon. Had Almordae’s spirit come in the form of this being? Was she preparing me to cross into spirit form, to join her and her mother?

  I closed my eyes again and shook my head. When I opened them again, the being vanished. Was it the medicine in those darts? A hallucination? A simulation? No. This group could not know about my daughter, and they did not have access to our data. If they were capable of breaking the crafter’s security, it would take them more than a single rotation to do so. By then, I would be free or dead.

  Had more time passed than I remembered?

  My mind had turned against me. It wasn’t her spirit. It wasn’t Almordae. I angled my head left at the blank white wall, then right. She was gone.

  Come back, Almordae. I need to go with you.

  What image would be next? A mythical Tzmeorc or Almordae’s ghost? Even her ghost would be welcomed. A moan ripped out of mouth. My ragged throat and parched mouth hurt so much I didn’t want to swallow the little saliva I had left.

  “You, in there,” a raspy voice rose above the others, from near my feet.

  Was that voice in my head, too?

  Wiggling the restraints up the bar, I rose from the chair as quietly as I could and looked to the right. The white wall jutted out into the hall, blocking my view. Whoever was in the next cell could easily be a member of their crew trying to get information, a tactic used by many, so I remained silent.

  “We have to work together to get out of here,” he said. “Do you have anything on you?”

  If they were shackled, I did not know how that was possible. If I were unshackled, I could heat the bars with my fire and pry them free over time, when their tranquilizers were completely out of my system.