Chapter 2:
Fiona
“Are we there yet?” came the warm, honey-filled tones that entered through the sliding doors of the main ship deck. The voice belonged to Christina Dalhousie, my raven-haired friend and fellow communications expert working as a diplomat between the Earth and their space relationships.
I was the lucky one who had been assigned to go to Dobromia. I couldn’t say I was excited about the mission. In fact, I’d practically spent the last two years saying that the creatures didn’t exist: some urban legend designed to scare people out of exploring space.
As if we needed another one.
But here I was, ready to meet these apparent ‘dragon-men’ with a patronizing smile and some paperwork that would allegedly assure that we were now allies. As though Weredragon shifters would be bound by paperwork.
I’d only just made it to Dobromia; our ship still rolling slowly along the darkness. As though my best friend had a built-in radar, Christina somehow knew we were close to stopping.
“Yes,” I finally responded. “Just landed. I assumed that’s what jostled you out of your princess-like coma?”
“Dobromia!” Christina cheered, a bounce in her voice coming through brightly as she pressed her hands up against the port window. She was young. Just twenty-years-old now, celebrating a birthday on our way to the shifter planet.
“Dobromia,” I repeated a bit dimly. “Not as… bright and cheery as I thought.”
Christina watched me with a wet-eyed blink and offered me a lecturing look. “Yeah, Fi, they were plunged into darkness. For like, years now. You want to have a little sympathy?”
“Never said I didn’t,” I corrected quickly casually. “Just, dark, is all.”
“You should be happy to be here,” Christina lectured. “I worked hard to get you this gig, okay?”
“Never said I was ungrateful,” I said with a slight laugh, “But it’s a real talent, the way you speak for me like that. Do you use your magic mind-reading with Tom, too?”
“Shut up,” the black-haired vixen said with a chuckle, now waving me off.
Christina had moved into space communications two years back when she married Tom, a higher-up in space relations. She had raved about it ever since. Of course, Christina was a big proprietor of change because change, to her, always meant something good. A new career, the beginning of her marriage, of children, and homes by the ocean.
My experience of change wasn’t for a new start as much as it was a virtual life-explosion with me left alone, picking up the pieces.
I exhaled a full sigh through my nostrils, causing a burning wind to course through my body. The ship stopped, and through the window, we could see a vague, small light in the near distance.
“That’s them,” Christina said and immediately stood from her seat, all business. “They said they were sending their diplomat out to us. We’ll chit-chat in here, and then they’ll take us down to the Westfall region.”
“That’s where the big… hole-err,” my voice lilted, and I raised an unsure brow to my friend. “The… the caves are?”
She nodded. “They call it the Octantis Colony.”
“Right,” I nodded. “Right.”
Christina’s eyes darted easily to mine as we heard a quick rap-tap-tap on the outside door.
“You ready?” she asked with a lilt in her tone, trying to sound excited but unable to shield the slight nerves that crawled through her.
“Yeah, let’s go,” I said with a tone that didn't reveal whether I was looking forward to our new adventure or not.
I didn’t want her to know, but I was nervous. I had been doing missions like these for five years, ever since I turned twenty-one, but none of the creatures I met were ever part Dragon.
I just wanted to know what they looked like. Were they human-sized? Did they have wings? What did they smell like and feel like? I knew that once I could answer these questions, I would be just fine. Or, at least a little more settled than before.
Christina unlatched the heavy door to the outside world, and my mouth gaped. The creature stood up in the doorway, illuminated by the blinding white lights of our ship. He squinted at us at first, probably unfamiliar with such bright light after years of living under the shade of night.
Stupidly, I breathed an audible inhale at the sight of him. He was nearly seven-feet-tall with fire-red hair that shot out like a mane. His eyes were pale yellow with long slits for pupils. The man had dark skin with snake-like scales that cascaded a shimmering red throughout his body. He wore a heavy cloak and reached his hand to me directly.
“Greetings,” he said and didn't wait for me to slip my hand into his before pulling his clawed fingers away.
It was as though he'd only been taught half of our human-gesture. I wanted to tell him that a handshake usually required two hands to actually... well, shake. But I thought better of it. Probably not the friendliest way for me to start off our peace talks.
“Greetings,” I nodded and exchanged uneasy eye-contact with Christina.
Christina smiled at him, but I could tell she was shocked. Someone had made a sketch of the creatures before we arrived; the kind of crudely drawn caricature you'd see on a cocktail napkin written in lipstick as some sleazy bar. But nothing compared to the real thing.
My partner looked behind the red shifter at the door behind him. She asked unsurely and then finally said, “You don't have an associate with you?”
“He's back on our rover,” he replied quietly.
“How come?” Christina asked.
He looked at us quizzically then, like he hadn't anticipated us questioning him and I immediately became unnerved.
“We thought there would be an escort,” he said without missing a beat. His slit eyes roved about the room with a quiet calculation, and he continued, “Don't you have a security team with you?”
I swallowed. He wanted us to provide security? I almost snorted. Surely a bunch of humans on foreign terrain would be better security than a half-man, half-beast.
“We have a few downstairs,” I lied. In truth, they were out surveying the land. We hadn't expected to run into the representatives so soon. It was only myself, Christina, and a blonde girl named Elizabeth, who we all called Libby.
“Ah,” he said. “Well, my name is Tesyduss, and I'm the one you'll be speaking with about Earth negotiations. Shall we get started?”
“Sure,” I offered.
Christina and I sandwiched the man between us as we walked down the sleek corridors to the only thing close to a boardroom our ship had. We sat at a long built-in desk, and I pulled out an electronic notepad that contained our agreement.
“Coffee?” I asked and immediately my face flushed at the idiocy of it. This guy probably had no idea what coffee was.
The red shifter blinked and then gave a genuine shrug. “Alright.”
Christina brought the instant cup to him and provided the complimentary cream and sugar packets on a saucer next to the mug. Tesyduss looked down at it fondly and thumbed the sugar between his thumb and forefinger. He instinctively ripped the package open and poured it into the black liquid.
“This,” he said, taking a dramatic pause for emphasis as he pointed down toward the mug. “Is amazing.”
Christina smiled, looking pleased with herself before the red shifter leaned forward on the table, staring down into his cup in wonder.
“We commend you on your frontline battles here on Dobromia. I don't know if you're aware, but your army has been helping defend our planet against predators in the meantime,” the shifter explained.
“We've heard the reports,” I smiled politely, looking down at the documents in front of me. “I hope by now you have a better grasp on your feelings about our alliance?
“Yes, of course. We are ready to go ahead with it.”
“Great,” I said with a quick breath. “I know your...” I referenced the paper and felt my hand begin to shake a little, “your D'Karr had a few issues with our alliance that's had us stalled for a little while.”
“Hmm,” he grunted.
“So, there are a couple bullet points here that I'm sure you've gone over by now,” I said mindlessly, the same way I had done for years now. “Earth requires complete peace between our planets; that's a given. We will supply you technology and artificial light and promise to have Dobromia growing food within a five-year timespan. In the meantime, we'll take groups of Weredragon refugees to the Earth in groups of...”
My mind wandered, and I looked up at him. Suddenly, it occurred to me that I hadn't heard so much as a festive interjection or a subtle 'okay' from him since I started speaking. He wasn't even looking at the document in front of him. He was just looking around nervously, inspecting our ship.
I felt a sudden change in his demeanor as we heard footsteps on the floor above us. Heavy footsteps.
“Everything alright?” the red shifter asked slyly, flicking his wings back and slapping the tips of them against his chair uneasily.
“Funny,” I said, my hand now reaching for the laser pistol at my side. “I was just about to ask the same thing.”
Christina had the knuckle of her pointer finger embedded firmly between her teeth as the tension in the room rose. The shifter and I locked eyes, and a smile crept up the side of his lips. “That must be your associate,” she said nervously and went to the door.
“Christina,” I warned, and she looked at me seriously then.
“What?” she asked, sounding childlike.
I cocked my head to the side as if to say ‘no’ and Christina turned on her heel before her eyes darted skyward at the commotion above us.
I could hear Libby's screams from the floor above, her body being dragged down the staircase as another shifter came in from the airlock. I grit my teeth and the red shifter and I began a battle of the eyes. He glared at me and then exhaled a slow breath.
A massive shifter with sprouted yellow wings stepped in holding Libby out by the neck. She wailed under his grasp and Christina began screaming and throwing her hands over her mouth. I could only hope her shrill cry alerted our security outside, if they were still alive.
“What's this about?” I said, stone-faced, refusing to give him the satisfaction of my inner panic. “Libby, what happened?”
“They’re all dead!” the blonde managed to shriek out before the shifter smashed her body hard against the wall.
The red shifter I had been speaking to stood quickly, and his rubbly skin gripped my throat from across the table. I could feel the rocky scales against me. I let off a few warning shots from my pistol before his thick tail whipped the weapon clean from my hand.
“You humans value honesty, don’t you?” the red shifter grinned, raising me from my chair and pinning me up against the wall.
I wanted to tell him ‘not really.'
Humans weren’t notorious ‘truth-tellers.'
But, I also wanted to live, so I cocked a brow at him that said he should continue.
“I’m not interested in a treaty,” he snapped and looked over at the shifter now standing in the door, holding a screaming Libby in his grasp while Christina cowered on the floor with her arms covering her face.
“You don’t say?” I croaked out.
“Nope,” he said. “But I’m really interested in taking your ship.”