Chapter 3 Landing

Chapter 3 Landing on Your Feet

“Ship 1” 2109:

I admired my parents, even in this moment of crisis, they were calm, collected, and it was contagious. They stood in the center of the only open space we had, directly in front of these food dispensers. Other dragons had gathered around to listen to what they had to say, as none of the other nearly thousand of us on this level of the ship had very little to offer in solutions.

We have been deported form Earth 4 and a half years ago, and have been forced to live on this mass prison ship since. Every day our kind would press a tag the humans had forcibly pierced into our ears against a screen to retrieve food. But today, that stopped working, the ship had ran out of food. It was as if my father knew this was coming, and he announced his secret, with all honestly, still bare naked from the day we were captured, as if proving he had nothing to hide;

“I had only been eating every second day, along with a quite few of us. The food lasted much longer than we expected, so that’s a good thing.”

Then my mother stepped in, just as versed in survival as my father as I had found out over the past 4 and a half years. He once gorgeous clothes now tattered and worn.

“We have hidden away these rations over time, in our beds. Not just Darus and I, but several of us. As of now we have a count of these rations, and we know how we can divide them to survive, as bleak as it may seem.”

She took a long sigh and ensured we have everyone’s attention

“We have 25 children on this level under the age of 12, they will be the priority, and will get to still eat every day. We have 31 kids between 13 and 18, and they will get to eat every other day, prioritizing the younger ones.” She took a pause, she knew the next part was not going to be popular. “For adults 19 and over, the remaining eight hundred or so we have left, we will eat once per week”

There was a murmur among the crowd, as she paused to let to information sink in before continuing

“I know this isn’t ideal, but that’s enough to ward off starvation, or at least death, just barely. Those of us who were on the colonist ship 50 years ago know what this is going to be like. We are not going to arrive healthy nor strong, be we will arrive in a living state”

That’s when Dad stepped in, his hand in front of him.

“We need to keep what food we have left, I’m going to ask those who stashed some away to bring it here now. We’re going to place some of those who are still strong on a guard rotation, and we are going to keep this food very safe, but very public. Also the stairwell.” He pointed towards the back “We are going to barricade it off. If you have loved ones on another level, I’m sorry, but this is the only way. Over the last 4 years I talked to people on other levels and encouraged them to hoard away food as well for this time, but there is no guarantee they did. We only have enough to get everyone on this level through, and when food runs out on the other levels they will try to come and steal ours. You’re free to leave to another level of the ship if you wish, but know that if you leave we will not let anyone come up those stairs”

Over the next few hours dozens of dragons made their way up to the front of our level. We piled the packets neatly in rows and layers, because without pen and paper we could not have any sort of running inventory other than what we kept in our heads. One it was all piled up, impressively some quick math was done, and we had roughly 30,000 of these packets of food. The math worked, at least for now, we could survive for another 6 months.

Those of us who were still strong went to work, including myself and my parents. We tore apart some of the beds closest to the stairway leading down to the other levels, and were able to create a crude barricade. Strangely but proudly, we noticed a the next two levels down were following our example. My parent had not only inspired the dragons on our level, but seemingly the entire ship. I hoped for them, if they were even remotely as smart as this, we would all survive, all 30,000 of us. At least those 30,000 who were still alive.

All this planning ahead would prove to save us, but wasn’t entirely needed. Dad had planned for the full 5 years, but 3 months later, while I was doing my part to guard the food, the lights turned red again, and a few seconds later everyone was hurled towards the front of the ship as we finally dropped from warp, 4 years and 9 months after our odyssey began.

“Ship 3”

The human Captain stared in slight shock as the two dragon warships that intercepted them floated so closely he could nearly see into the command deck of the opposing ships. He was taken off guard at the size of the ships.

“Send the message again, on all the frequencies this time, not just the ones in the intelligence files” He paused “Manually check the translations as well”

“Yes sir” said a crew member behind him as he started tapping away at a keyboard while reading the message aloud “We have 30,000 of your kind, we only wish to return them to their home culture and leave peacefully”

“Yes, try resending” he ordered. The small bridge stood silent and waiting a response

On the surface of the city planet below, the Guild Leader of this territory, Chen, was walking briskly to his next meeting. This one was about profit shares from one of his many large companies. He was dressed in very nice and very expensive business attire. A gray jacket, almost resembling a blazer of a human suit, lapels on his shoulders of his holding company’s logo. Straighten pants leading down to the traditional bare talons. His wings in large sleeves with the top portion and claw poking from the top. He wore the tassels from his horns proudly indicating his position of Guild Leader. One of his many assistants ran up to him.

“Chen, sir! Sorry to bother you, but this is important and happening in orbit now!” he said as he handed Chen a rectangular device. As Chen took it, a holographic display popped up and draconic text started scrolling down the translucent display. He read the words intently, and started asking questions.

“We don’t know this race that brought them?” He asked

“No, sir, we don’t. In their first message they called themselves ‘yu’man’” he mispronounced, assuming the H was silent.

“30,000 isn’t very many, keep this very quiet for now. Does any one else know there are there yet?”

“No sir, only the 2 warships we sent to intercept”

“We have no idea what they have as far as disease, and a pandemic would be terrible for my markets, do NOT let that ship land. Engage any assets you need”

“yes sir”

“And keep me up to date, you may enter this meeting is anything develops” as he handed back the device. “If they do try to land, blow them out of the sky and make sure it’s hot enough to kill every last cell”

The assistant nodded and walked form the direction, opening the display again and started typing something out with his finger into the display

The entire human crew of the ship watched the display, waiting for something to appear. They were becoming sure the attempts to contact had failed. But patience would prove fruitful after 20 minutes text began to appear. It came through as draconic, but the computer translated the text underneath, it simply read “You may not land, we do not want your disease”

The captain of the prison ship stood up straight and then turned to look at the warships pointing guns at the vessel. He spoke, firmly, and decisive.

“Prepare to release the pod, we will leave it in orbit”

One of the crew members gasped as one spoke up “Sir, we can’t just leave 30,000 to d-”

“Not one of us on this ship are going to give up our lives to save 30,000 of these reptiles” he stood firm and turned to the crew member in question “They’ve likely been out of food for days or weeks now, we certainly can’t take them back. Carry out my orders and if you wish I’ll note your objection in my logs”

“Yes sir!” the crew member sat back down in her chair and started tapping at her screen.

“Comms send a message; ‘since we cannot land, 30,000 of your kind will be left here in orbit, they are your responsibility now, you better be quick, there is only enough air for 24 hours’”

“Aye sir” As the comms officer started typing away on his keyboard as well.

Moments later the ship shuddered as the pod was released, floating in orbit above the city world, powerless, completely dark inside for the dragons who were left behind. The remaining frame and propulsion of the human vessel turned and quickly jumped to warp directly back to Earth.

Chen sat in his meeting with several of his elite business partners, delighted at the results and even more pleased with the projections. Graphs showing upward trends displayed in a hologram coming from the center of the table. The assistant from earlier opened the door and walked silently to Chen, handing him the device once again. The room was silent as Chen read the text. His expression went from the happiness of more profit to an irritated state. But that was when he got an idea and looked across the large table at one of business disciples.

“Saros!” he said loudly, as if the attention of the room wasn’t already on him and him alone.

“Yes sir?”

“One of your companies, I believe the one that makes mobile devices, the current operator is caught up in some sex scandal isn’t he?”

The other dragon looked puzzled, unaffected by the accusation as it was normal “Yes, he killed a prostitute, but what relevance does th-”

“The people might boycott your brand, you’re hanging in by a thread last I looked at the reports on your companies, people aren’t buying your brand, so, I’m going to throw you bone here” Chen slid the device across the table. “Save these mere 30,000 from orbit, make you and your companies look like a hero, and you’ll regain some ground”

The other dragon picked up the device and started to read. After a moment he looked up, puzzled, at Chen “Why are you doing this?”

His answer was blunt “I can’t be fucked to, it’s an expense that’s not necessary and does me little good. But it could help you, and if we’re all rich then I’m richer, it’s that simple. My only order is one of the Guild Leader, you quarantine those workers for a year before they can be in the general public, we don’t need an illness outbreak affecting productivity” He paused waiting for the other dragon to say something. “Well? Get to it to!”

The other dragon got up and left the room. The prisoners of ship 3 would be rescued, and after a year would be put to work in the general population.

Ship “2”

I crawled as quickly as I could along the beds, Deakon was right behind me. Hiding as I went along as another outbreak of violence had taken hold among the dragons. Food had run out months ago, and those who were smart enough to hide some away were trying to defend their small hoard to their death. Often when these huge fights broke out multiple dragons would also come after me, blaming my purple scales for their bad luck. Deakon would always defend me, but he had become weak with starvation now, barely able to follow along. I’m not sure how at this point I was stronger than him, perhaps because he gave me so much. Over the past 6 months he would come to the defense of those who were smart enough to hide food. They would often but not always reward him with a ration pack, then he would share it with me. As we crawled along and came out between two rows of the now wrecked beds, a dragon hit the floor beside us, knocked down and bleeding, his assailant looked down at him. “FOOOOOOD” he screamed at his victim before diving down onto the body and sinking his teeth into the victim’s neck. Deakon pulled my tail and gestured for me to come back.

We retreated into a relatively calm area where some arguing was still happening, but that was not far enough. Forever etched into my memory is the sickening wet sound of that dragon’s flesh being torn from their bones. I glanced in that direction and saw two more had joined in the murder. Deakon grabbed my face and turned me to meet his gaze and whispered “Don’t look”

I felt fear, the strongest fear I had ever felt to this point in my life. It was as though I could feel the fear of every dragon on board this prison ship. I knew our kind had a darkness inside them from the way I was treated on Earth, but this was true nature of our kind in an emergency. I sank my face into his chest, pressing my eyes closed and trying to ignore the sounds. Tears running down my cheeks as I reflected on my short life, certain that my short stay alive would be over very soon. My thoughts turned dark, wondering if it was really worth it, wishing I had been killed as a hatchling as people said I should have been. I could feel the ribs on the front of his chest and that moment I knew there was no one left to protect me. He had fallen too weak, I was too small to defend myself.

I felt a tug on my left wing but I kept my face buried in Deakons chest, but then it pulled again, much more violently this time. I turned my head and here I was face to face one more time with that bully, Larx. He was nearly just as skinny as Deakon now but still somehow had the energy to try one more time. My vision was blurred from my tears but I looked at his hand and he had a shiv of some kind, made from metal from somewhere.

I stood up and turned to face him. I thought I would have given up, I thought for sure I was about to die, possibly Deakon as well for protecting me all these years. I didn’t know why but instead of my heart sinking, instead of accepting my final fate, something welled up from within. My eyes stopped watering and something strong came up from my very being. This wasn’t just for me, it was also time to protect Deakon. I stared deep into his eyes, and uttered a single word;

“Go” I said calmly

“Wh-what? I’m going to kill you now, your think you can just tell me to g-”

“Go now. Drop that weapon, and go now” I ordered him and something came over his expression. It wasn’t fear, it wasn’t laughter, it was nothing. His face, his eyes, his entire body took a sudden turn. Instead of threatening he was now calm. I breathed in as deep as I could and let out a sound, nearly roar but also screaming “GO!”

Larx dropped the shiv. His expression stayed blank.

“And never bother us again, Larx” I said as he turned his back and walked away seemingly in a daze.

I turned back to Deakon, his head now slumped onto his shoulder, and the fear returned. I rushed down in front of him and shook his shoulders “Deakon?” and he didn’t move. I grabbed his muzzle and lifted it to face me “DEAKON?” I yelled, fearing the worst. He stirred and his eyes opened to meet mine.

“I’m so tired, Exodus” he whispered.

The crying started again as I leaned against him. He felt so limp and I was so afraid.

“I just need some sleep” he whispered into my ear, but something told me this wasn’t about to be sleep, and my intuition was never wrong…

But then without any warning the lights went red.

Ship “1”

**It took several hours just to locate a site to land. This gave Titan’s military a chance to mobilize. The ship has sent out the message like the others, and it was received. But no response was ever sent. The humans took this as permission to land and Titan saw it as gaining 30,000 more slaves. But there was someone on that ship he would want.

In the middle of a large overgrown construction site, where a building was to be put up but construction was never really started, the large prison ship set down on the ground. It released the prison section underneath it as planned, but as the ship lifted to take off back to Earth, two small but heavily armed military craft opened fire on the part of the ship that was taking off, driving it back to the ground in a fiery crash, luckily toward the opposite side of the pod from the door.

Soldiers and equipment swarmed in. As some of the soldiers and equipment started putting out the flames of the crashed ship, others started on working on the door to the prison left on the ground beside the dying vessel. The surviving human crew of 4 left alive was taken captive, however one died shortly after from injuries.

The prison pod was a different situation. The door initially opened as planned by the humans, but the opening was immediately barricaded by Titan’s military to prevent escape. A processing area was set up first to ID every dragon stepping off first. Then an area the length of 3 buildings was fenced in for the arrivals to be herded into. Armed soldiers were placed along the perimeter to prevent anyone from leaving until they were allowed.

A few hours later the barricade was opened. The first one off the ship was Gar, who had pushed his way to the front knowing he would eventually be rewarded for “Bringing the escapees back”. As he stepped into the light he immediately submitted to the retinal scanner they were using to ID everyone.

Gar’s information came up on the nearby screen being monitored by a low ranking solder and Gar stopped in front of the station waiting for them to realize who they had.

“Sir, come take a look at this!” yelled the soldier behind the screen

A higher ranking dragon came over and read the screen. Only his name and rank came up on the screen, the rest reading “Classified” The officer took a moment to process then looked at Gar

“Welcome home sir!” he stood at attention.

“Get me some fucking food and a uniform” he ordered.

We had no idea which world we had landed on, but Dad did say he had a bad feeling, almost as if he could smell the air before he could even get outside. We were overall in good shape, though a bit thin and very hungry. We were patient and took our time getting off the ship, making sure everyone else on our level had left. Dad even took the time to walk around and make sure there was no one alive left behind.

20 hours after we landed we stepped out the door and Dad’s biggest worry had become reality. He recognized the place instantly, it was the very world he had escaped from along with the other colonists. As we stepped off our eyes were met with the scanner, but before Dad’s information was even on the screen someone pointed him out. It was Gar, on Earth he was a neighbor from a couple places over. He was always kind of a creep. I knew something was off about him and now it made sense.

“There, that’s Darus, and his mate Sorah beside him!” he shouted “That one!” he pointed at me now “One of his sons!”

The soldier scanned my eyes and a moment after the one behind the screen shook his head and said to the superior “No info on this one”

“Of course not!” Gar butted in “He was hatched on Earth, he wouldn’t even be thirty yet” Then the other soldiers nodded in agreement.

All three of us were grabbed and they started putting restraints on our wrist and ankles, but oddly enough, not our wings. As this was happening Gar approached us, asking me first “Your brother, where is he?”

“Fuck you!” I yelled and was met with a fist to the face from the officer beside him. Gar turned his attention to my father

“Where is your other son?” he demanded “I know you have two, where is the other?”

Dad looked down at the ground, Mom followed “Lost, we lost him on the way, you won’t find him” It wasn’t exactly a lie.

Gar had a disappointed look on his face, he was hoping for four to turn over, not three. “You’re being detained, for conspiring against our Guild Leader, and leading away his property.” Gar said proudly “You’ll be taken to prison while Titan decides your fate” and he signaled for the other officers to take us away. “Same place where you are taking those humans you captured”

We were pushed away and gunpoint towards a sort of armored vehicle. As we were pushed along I glanced back at the crowd now vacated from our prison. Strangely some were being handed water and food from our own kind. Dad noticed this as well and he whispered to me “Someone is going to be in trouble for letting them have food”

“Shut up” yelled one of the soldiers pushing us along.

As we approached the vehicle the door was opened and to our surprise 3 humans were already sitting inside, chained up, their uniforms burnt and one of them bleeding from their head. They looked very afraid as we were stuffed inside with them. The door was closed and we sat there inside for a couple hours, seemingly waiting in case there were more prisoners to take along with us.

After a few moments, my mother, annoyed for having to sit with our own captors of the last 5 years spoke up. “So how does it feel?”

“Please, don’t hurt us” one replied out of fear.

My father looked up at the human, “Don’t worry, we are better than you”.

Sandpit;

The ship came down on the outskirts of a small city. Landing in a wide open space, crushing some small brush and cacti looking plants and stirring up a mini sandstorm as it landed. Some shacks stood nearby, a couple of homes made from cement or mud. The inhabitants coming out the doors or hanging out the windows to watch everything unfold.

The ship had sent it message as intended, but the received hundreds of responses from various gang leaders and groups. Confused by the torrent of text the human crew decided to just find a place and drop off the pod.

The ship touched the ground, the loud engines never slowed down. A few moments later it released the pod and then rose again. It went back to space and headed back to Earth. To the crew on board, ship one was the only ship to have been deemed a success. To the dragon prisoners it transported it was the largest failure. Of the nearly 30,000 that were forced onto the ship, only 20,000 stepped off.

This pod would sit here until it decayed and became part of the ground centuries later. The first year the horrible stench of death and decay constantly seeped out. It was so powerful the nearby residents would move away. The monument to human hatred now existed on an alien world where no human had ever set foot.

Among the last to leave the ship, from the top level, was the purple dragon now named Exodus, and Deakon who tried to protect them. Deakon was too weak to walk far, but slumped over Exodus’s shoulder they made it to the outer edge of the city. This would be Exodus’s turn to save Deakon.**