Chapter 9 Apprentices

Chapter 09 Apprentices

We walked through another market, one we haven’t seen in the two years we lived here. There was no real public transportation aside from a sort of light rail that ran through the busier parts of the city, and we had no reason to leave our little section, so there was much of this city we never explored. This included the space port on the north east corner, and the route to get there, and where we were walking to. It was busy, dragons bartering at market stands and going in and out of the many stores. Just like the market near where we lived, it was also a mix of old and new, basic and complex. Stands next to each other seemed to come from completely different worlds. We got a few looks from passers by, Glavous was wearing a long hooded caplet, even in this heat, but much of his gold scales were exposed. Exodus in their mixed up suit, almost more of a costume at this point.

Glavous wasn’t really that out of the ordinary, rare, but not unseen, not unheard of, in fact, of a city this size there would like be several other dragons adorned in gold scales like him, But Exodus was the odd one, completely covered from head to toe, only their horns were visible, white, like every other dragon’s horns. It was them receiving the majority of the looks, but not disrespectful or a look of slight fear or superstition, but more looks of curiosity. Why were they covered? A burn victim? Or maybe they were really ugly or had some sort of deformity? Our conversation was very little, something that worried me, as I had hoped to have more conversation, get to know this golden dragon who was taking us away, of our own will of course. We wandered through the market at a slow sort of browsing pace, a thought came over me, why are we taking our time? Didn’t we have a ship to catch? But I didn’t get to contemplate this for very long before Glavous walked toward a market stall. Drawn to some small animals in cages. They looked like smaller versions of raptors from Earth’s prehistoric record, but instead of feathers or feathery fur like they were depicted on earth, these were mostly bare scaled, except for a furry mane that ran from the top of the head down their back an onto their tails, and smaller, standing less then 40 cm tall. They were stacked about 3 high with a couple stacks on each side of the stall, but as we walked closer I noticed the stall was selling meat, laying in ice but covered by a glass barrier to keep them cool and the dirty stealing paws of others out. That’s when I figured it out, these were for food! It appears the vendor was selling a choice, still live, or be freshly butchered by the seller, or you could buy cuts from him as well, ready to cook.

Glavous leaned into Exodus, telling them something that I the time seemed very strange to me, “Exodus, you’re going to need a pet”

“A pet? Why a pet? We can barely support ourselves..”

“It isn’t for you enjoyment, though that would be a secondary perk, it’s for you to train with!” Glavous explained, somewhat quietly as the conversation was weird “You need someone to practice making a link with, someone to give ideas to, and the sort” The two walked up to the stall and I followed them. The small raptor looking animals were all alert, clawing at the cages they barely had enough room to turn around in, the stall owner noticed our arrival and heartily shouted.

“Oh you three look hungry! How about some nice daoma meat to fill you up!” He pause to take in the reaction, he could tell we were interested but not quite in what, then pointed into the ice fill display of cuts “The cuts are only 2 coins, 3 for the top quality and bigger cuts, and 8 coin for a whole fresh if you got a big meal to prepare!”

“We’re interested in live” responded Glavous

“Oh! Enjoyers of the freshest of meat I see! Well I got several left as you can see, the live whole are 6 coin”

Glavous turned to Exodus “Take your time and pick one” He pointed to his head “Make sure it’s one you connect with!”

The stall owner clued in, and chuckled “Oh! A pet for your kid! Yea they make okay pets, but can be a little disobedient”

Exodus glared at the seller for a moment, a death stare he could not see being shot in his direction from behind their goggles, Glavous stepped in to correct him as Exodus starting checking out the small lizards. “They are an adult” he chuckled “Just looking for a little companionship, that’s all” and he smiled back.

A few moments later Exodus had made their choice. They pointed to one in the middle of a stack, slightly darker than the rest, a grayish color, the fur on the mane matching in color and slightly shorter in length, there was a tint of purple around it’s brown eyes. It trilled back at Exodus. “For a pet I’m not sure you’d want that one! Hatched this spring and it’s been a pain in my ass, knocks over the feeder and clawed through the fence four ti- You know what if you really want that one I’ll even let it go for a discount, 4 coin!” Glavous dug his fingers into a satchel on his hip and pulled out 5 coin and handed it over. Was this guy secretly rich?

“Have an extra coin for your day too” He smiled, but as he did so Exodus opened the front of the wire cage.

“No! Don’t!” The seller yelled “That one will run before you can even know where it went!” It did in fact run, but not away, it leaped from the cage and into Exodus’ chest, as they caught it and held it tightly. The stall owner paused then laughed. “I’ve never seen it do that, but oh well, it’s out of my hair, good luck with it okay!”

“Take care and I hope your day is energetic!” Glavous stated, and odd goodbye, but we started our walk toward the spaceport again. After a few steps Glavous pulled a device from one of his other satchels, like a small tablet similar to one that humans would make, but this looked thicker and sturdier. I’m really starting to think this guys is secretly rich. Other dragons around had similar devices, used to communication or personal organizing. I’ve heard some can even take pictures. He tapped at the screen of it a few times. Then spoke to us “Our transportation is nearly ready, but they are also impatient, we have a couple more stops to go then we will be there.” He looked me up and down “Deakon, the next stop is about you, I wish not to train someone in such ragged things”

He was referring to my now completely tatter cloth, and imaginary top. I had replaced the one I came from Earth in a couple years ago, but now this was was worn, torn, and stained as well, but I wasn’t rich “Sorry, Glavous, I don’t have a lot of money to buy anything new, I’m assuming what little I have I’ll need to keep myself fed for a whi-”

“I didn’t ask you how much coin you had, I said I cannot train my master of the flame in such a poor presentable state” He sighed “It’s nothing to do with being poor I assure you, the universe doesn’t recognize coin when it distributes it’s power, it’s about being proud and confident in yourself, and trust me, the little bit helps” He pointed to a stall, outfits, cloths, tops and the like hanging from it’s shade and lay on the table. “I’ll buy you something new, it is also to help with making an impression with Duke”

Fine, I’ll let this suspiciously rich dragon buy me some new clothing, if things go wrong in the next while at least I’ll have some new cloths to wear. “Okay, I’ll pick something” I said and walked to look at the selection. I took a few moments to decide, ignoring the price tags, partially on purpose in case I chose something with a high price tag, to see if I would be asked to make another choice. I picked a red cloth, and a hooded top in a matching color, a little longer than most, I was tall after all. “How’s this?” I asked Glavous

“Red is a fine choice, really!” He smiled in approval “The color of flame!” I hadn’t even thought of it, I was just drawn to the vibrant red. He didn’t even look at the tag, and asked the seller a total, which he didn’t even haggle with, and just handed over the coin. I was rather surprised.

I was also happy, it did look nice, I took the bag off my shoulder, the one Exodus and I found a long time ago to keep our few belongings in, I opened it up and stuffed the top inside, to which Glavous tilted his head. “It’s hot, I do like it, I’ll wear it when it cools down” and he nodded. I took off my cloth, stuffing it into the bag as well, and threw the new red one around my waist. It was nice, square, and hung to my knees, a little lower than I was used to, but it did look nice.

We continued on and Glavous did have one more stop to make. To our surprised he quickly stopped to buy a bottle from a stall, alcohol was widely available of course but considering the nature of Glavous I was surprised to see him buy some. “You drink?” I asked

“No, this isn’t for me, it’s a fine bottle to bribe Duke with!” He explained. I nodded slowly, wondering just what sort of bribe, but I took the opportunity and grabbed a cheap bottle for myself, well, maybe for me an Exodus. I gave the seller the coin from what little I had, then slipped the bottle into our bag. I don’t think either of the noticed.

We walked more, slowly the stalls and market gave way to more modern buildings and stores, as we were walking Glavous suddenly stopped, and stared into a window. A gray two toned flight suit stood in the display, held up by a fake dragon inside of it, it looked as if it covered the entire fake model inside of – oh no, how rich was this guy?!?!

He walked in, I read the sign above the door as I followed, ‘Sond’s Space Supply and Surplus’ in Dragonis, simple. As we entered it was like a small hardware store, various tools and items on shelves, a couple of small displays. There was a teller behind a counter, she smiled at us as we entered “Hello! Welcome to-” She paused and noticed the daoma in Exodus’s arms “Oh, I’m sorry, we don’t allow animals in the store”

“This one is well behaved!” Glavous spoke up, how the hell could he know that we’ve had it for 10 minutes “We’re here to inquire about the suit in the window!”

Realizing there was a big spender in the store suddenly made Exodus’s pet no longer an issue. “Oh! Of course we’ve got quite a few in stock in the back as well! Which one of your is this for?”

Glavous pointed at Exodus, and they pulled a hand from under the animal to raise it, they already knew “This one!”

She looked at them slightly puzzled by the current outfit, but smiled “Sure! Let’s get you sized up!” She opened a drawer under the counter, retrieved a coiled up length of tape, and let it roll out from her hand, it had markings along it’s length, plain and simple measuring tape, but in Draconis units. As she walked out from behind the counter she said something that made Exodus and I tremble “Lets get you out of that costume so we can take a measurement!” We looked at each other nervously, Glavous picking up on the problem.

“It’s fine Exodus, it’s only one person, and we’re leaving right away, it’ll be of no issue, okay?”

“Issue?” she seemed puzzled “What could be an issue?”

Exodus sighed, and handed the daoma to me, I held it in my arms for the first time and looked up and me and chirped, seemingly already comfortable with me. Slowly Exodus lifted their hands in front of them and removed a glove. The clerk gasps when she saw their purple hand come out of the glove, but after a moment of visible discomfort she collected herself “It-it’s fine, sweetheart, I’ve seen lot of things working in a spaceport” She really wanted her sales commission today.

“And it’s okay, I won’t give you nightmares, okay?” They tried to nervously joke, but I noticed their face spikes starting to turn a little purple.

She helped Exodus strip down, and she took measurements, kicking the suit-costume thing we made aside as she moved around the short purple dragon. Measuring their arms, inseam, chest, waist, tail length, then coming to their side “Okay, I need you spread” Exodus nodded and extended out the wing on her side, she looked and the tape and for a moment was puzzled “You’re going to be a small in everything, but your wings are going to need a large!” She shrugged it off “Okay, I’ll be right back!” She disappeared for a moment towards the back room of the store.

“Well this is a little uncomfortable” Exodus said, standing nude, and blatantly purple in the middle of a public store, the daoma trilled in a response.

I turned to Glavous “Okay, Mr. Moneybags, time to fess up!” He looked at me puzzled “Are you secretly rich or something?”

“Oh, well technically yes, I have access to nearly unlimited coin and currency” He said, nonchalantly, making my jaw drop “I could buy one of the ships in the spaceport right now” His toned turned “But it’s meant for my purposes, and my purposes alone. Luckily, as my students, you are part of that purpose” He turned to Exodus but spoke to us both “Unfortunately my goals cannot simply be bought” he smiled “That’s what you are for!”

The teller returned with her arms full of various parts of the flight suit. Suddenly I felt the urge to stay quiet, I knew being rich on this world was also a good way to get robbed, it was better to stay quiet about the topic of money. She started helping Exodus into the new suit, “Tail first” she held the body portion behind them, and their long tail slipped into the sort of sleeve meant for it. Next the legs, they stepped in and pulled them on like pants. Next was the wings, they had to contort a little here, but got their wings through the two large holes in the back. Then their arms were put through the sleeves. The next part was different, well, it was all different. She pulled a large piece from the pile and started sliding them over their left wing, pulling it tight to the body, and starting zippering it to the hole in the body suit. She repeated the process for the other side but explained as she went along “I’d recommend you just leave these attached, it’s easier to get it on alone rather then zipping up behind yourself” She stood in front of Exodus, she was obviously more comfortable now, realizing that purple was just another color morph, rare as it may be. “Okay, Sweetie, spread them out! Let’s make sure this fits!”

Exodus spread inside the suit, their wings nearly the width of the small store. That’s when I noticed she was right, Exodus had a small frame, but big wings, all the times I flew with them in the desert I never really studied that hard, or perhaps the enclosed space of the store made it more obvious. Perhaps in the last couple years I had been busy looking at other parts. Exodus shook their wings, making the fabric fall into shape with their wings, somewhat stretching with the wing. “I don’t know what it’s supposed to feel like, but it feels okay until I’m fully spread, then it gets tight.”

“That’s exactly how it’s supposed to feel! Lose to allowing freedom of the wings for flying a ship, but tight enough to prevent catching on things” She explained “So sounds like it’s fitting good, let’s try the gloves and helmet next!” She helped Exodus into he gloves, they fit, surprisingly, like gloves! Then after Exodus slipped the helmet over their horns, the front sliding over their muzzle and the underside require a zipper to close to accommodate going over a dragon head, then the neck sort of snapped to the collar of the body, she gave it a twist and it locked into place.

Exodus stood, covered again, only two purple feet standing under the suit, The face consisting mostly of a one way visor, appearing black to us. “I can see actually pretty good now too, better than the goggles!” they announced.

“Good! Now for the boots!”

Exodus pointed at the black boots with the straps next to the pile that was their costume “But I like my boots!”

“You can wear then sure! But the boots are included, so you may as well try them on to have some spares!” she explained. Exodus sighed and reluctantly shoved their foot into one as she held it, then again for the other side.

“They are comfy, you’re right, good spares!” but then they started pulling their feet out “But I do love my black boots” and they pulled their boots over and started slipping their feet back into their ‘sexy boots’ The teller chuckled a little but once they got back into their own boots they actually did somewhat go with the outfit.

“Okay! Well there you are sweetie! A new suit, and I think it looks much better than what you came in with, well a LOT better!” and she actually smiled at them, knowing a purple dragon was hidden underneath. “Now about payment…”

“Here” Glavous spoke “I’ll be paying, but, obviously I’m not carrying enough coin in my pocket, I hope you have-”

“Connection to payment? Of course, that’s an expensive suit but we also sell even more expensive tools and things, so of course we don’t expect our customer to pay in raw coin. Over here at the counter please, Sir” and she guided Glavous over as she made small talk “It would be dangerous to carry 10,000 coin on a person in public” I overheard as she walked away, my jaw dropping. “would you like me to take care of this trash?” she asked pointing at the old costume.

“NO!” I was surprised at Exodus’s response “No, please, I lived in there for 2 years, I’m a little attached”

“Sure thing, sweetie! I get it!” She produced a cloth tote bag from behind the counter as Glavous fumbled with buttons on a pad “Normally this would be for carrying out the suit, but you’re going to wear it out anyways, you can use it to carry your old one” An affirmative beep came from the computer, till, magic payment machine thingy sitting on her counter.

Exodus stuffed the old costume in the tote with the new boots then took the daoma from my arms “Give my back my Chickadee” they said calmly.

“Chickadee? Like the little Earth birds? Also that’s it’s name?” I asked

Exodus nodded “I remember seeing them a lot as a kid, and I really don’t know our own zoology much yet. He’s full of energy and ready to hop around like those tiny birds do all the time”

“He?”

“Yea, we know each other pretty good now okay?” I couldn’t see their face, I knew they were smiling.

“Time to go, Duke is nearly ready, and he will leave without us, just out of spite” Glavous came up behind us and gestured us out the door. The next customer passing in through the door just we went to leave, a tall fuzzy creature with yellow fur, black spots, and a feline like face, wearing what looked like their version of the same thing Exodus now had on, but just the body portion. The teller gave them a warm welcome like she did with us as we left.

“You did good in there Exodus, I know what you did” He said, after we only got a few steps away.

“What did you do?” I was rather curious, I noticed their spikes had changed, but still didn’t have a clue what really happened.

“I just gave her comforting thoughts, just to help her relax” They explained “I promised no nightmares right?”

We didn’t need to walk far, we were very close to the space port. That made sense considering the space supply store we just visited. We came around a corner to an open field, various landing pads held multiple craft. Almost all of them dragon vessels, but a couple here and there we from other species or maybe just designs that weren’t traditionayl similar to ours. Dragon craft and ships are shaped generally like us in flight. Wide triangles, usually, but not always with a tail section sticking out the back with thrusters on it, to help with maneuvering. We only walked past 6 of this ships before we found the one we were looking for, I recognized Duke, working with 3 others to push a large crate on a flat wheeled thing into a small ship. He looked up and noticed Glavous and us walking towards them.

“Oh you made it, come give us a hand would you? Hey are those Clay’s employees?”

“They were, yes, they’re coming with my as students now”

“Nooooo, no no no I can’t just feed mouths for free” he protested.

“They will be my students and your apprentices, they can earn their place” He retorted, this was news to me.

“What can they even do? This ones looks like a pilot, please tell me we have another pilot” he pointed at Exodus

“Hey! I’m so good you don’t need another!” shouted one of the dragons who was helping, she was rather annoyed at potentially being replaced it seemed.

“Don’t you seemed overworked!?” Duke yelled back “Just for the busy times, we need 2! You’re still number one, Valthy!” he turned back to us “Well, let’s have it, what did Glavous bring me?”

“We’ve never flown before, no” Said Exodus “Not a ship or craft anyways” and Duke looked at them suspiciously wondering what that meant.

I was caught off guard, I stumbled, I didn’t have any skills really, but Glavous interrupted, the bottle he bought was shoved into Duke’s chest, and Glavous spoke before I did “We will find out what they are good at, then teach them, then in a couple years you will have masters in those crafts”

He growled but then looked down at the bottle to study it for a moment, realizing it wasn’t a cheap bribe. “Okay, apprentices, help get this crate on board! It’s the reason why we’re here, it’s the inner assembly to small warp driver coil, and it’s really heavy!” I walked towards the ship, dropped our bag just inside this cargo door so it wouldn’t get forgotten and got behind the crate, a red dragon patting me on the back as I took a place.

“Okay Apprentice, let’s see what you got! We’ll get it rocking, push with us, and on the count of three push with everything you got!” The others started pushing it in rhythm, getting it rocking, and I joined in, and as they got a rhythm going suddenly she yelled in time with the rocking “ONE! TWO THREEEE!” and we all pushed with everything. The cart popped up in the front into the ship and slipped into tracks made for it “GO GO GO!” she yelled as the back wheels hit, the momentum carried it over the lip and into the ship. We could fly through space faster than light, and communicate with other aliens, but we had to push this part weighting several tons by hand.

“Okay, lets get it strapped down and let’s go!” Duke looked at me “At least one can push!” But looking at Exodus his expression turned somewhat angry “No pets though!” he pointed at Chickadee being held against Exodus’s chest

“This is a service animal, Duke” Glavous always knew just what to say it seems “It’s meant to help them, and it’s required, I will take full responsibility for it if you wish”

“That animal AND these two then, if they prove to be dummies and can’t do anything you can pay for their space okay?”

“Duke, you have my word, it will be fine. Believe me in time you will be glad you have let these two join your station” Glavous put his hand on Duke’s shoulder “It will be fine”

Duke growled a little before turning away “Rrraa you two are lucky you’re friends of Clay! Anyone else I’d leave here on the pad! OKAY! Let’s get this thing strapped in and ready to go!” preempting his order the one he called Valthy early hit a button beside the door and it started to lower closed. After throwing some straps over the crate and making them tight They walked up some stairs going up to another area above and towards the front of the ship. I followed them to the flight deck of this small ship.

I got my first look at ship operation, and it really surprised me what I saw. Of course I had heard form others about flying ships, some only briefly mentioning it was with their wings, but I never imagined this. Valthy laid tummy down on some sort of padded mount. It looked maybe similar to a human motorcycle, the handlebars having some of the basic controls, a couple panels to either side holding switch and knobs for operating some of the more complex stuff. She put her wings to each side, into two devices sticking out from each side of the stand holding up her wings and her tail lay into a channel coming out behind the stand she mounted. She threw some switches and the small ship started coming to life, whirring and groans as various things fired up, atmosphere propulsion and hydraulic pumps for some controls. She started saying some things as she ran the controls through it’s paces and checks, random words to me, things like “flight surfaces, good” and “run up test is good”. She lifted up a screen in front of her, and started typing and hitting buttons then stopped. A few moments later some more text came up on the screen. “Okay, we’re third up, maybe 5 minutes”

“Alight, that’s a good lineup to get out today!” responded Duke

Exodus’s curiosity got the best of them, very curious about what was happening, a bit surprising to me they asked “What does that mean?”

“Which part?” Valthy asked

“All of it really, but ‘third up’?”

“Oh, it means we’re third in line to take off! We can’t all do it whenever with so much traffic around or someone will crash into someone else, so there’s a controller that says who comes in when, and who goes out when.” As she explain a box of green texted popped up “Oh! That’s us! Have a seat okay, leaving atmosphere can get rough!”

Exodus scurried to a seat and sat down, clutching their daoma tightly, two rows along the back of the flight deck, more seats than there were of us. There were straps but Glavous was the only one who put any on. This is when I got to witness something really cool. Valthy pushed up on the handles in front of her, and the ship responded nearly instantly with a groan that quickly turned to a roar. Just like that we were airborne, moving straight up. It wasn’t her hands controlling anything but the throttles, her wings and tail were actively controlling the craft as we lifted. She wasn’t just flying the ships, she WAS the ship! Once we were a few meters off the ground she slowly tilted her feet forward, changing the direction of thrust from down to back, and we started flying forward, more like you would expect, more like a dragon. She started to climb, more and more upwards, I watched out the large window in front as slowly over the next few minutes the sky grew less and less blue and darker and darker, stars started to become visible, and sun shining into the cockpit growing brighter. Finally, 40 minutes after we left the ground, I was in space again for the second time. Valthy punched in some things on her keyboard again, but then suddenly turn to Duke.

“We’re free of atmosphere, Duke, this one in the pretend flight suit was pretty curious, why don’t we let them have a go?”

“What? Just like that? You’re pretty trusting with your ship! I wouldn’t let a stranger fly mine so quickly!” He did consider though, for a moment “It may not be a bad idea, to see where they are both at” Both? I was going to get to fly it too?

Exodus bolted out of their seat, I hadn’t seen them this excited in a long time. They turned and put Chickadee back into their seat “Stay here a minute” and the small reptile looked up and remained suspiciously obedient. Valthy leaned up and stepped off the control mount as Exodus walked over first, nearly bouncing.

“Okay, just lay on it just like I did, you’re a bit short so we might have to adjust a couple things but we’ll see how you reach things first” Exodus climbed on and put their wings into the same rests that hers were on, grabbing onto the rest with their wing “thumb”, a small protrusion we have from our wings, and yes, they’re like thumbs. Next they settled the bottom half of their wings to the other end of this skeleton cradle, the wing “fingers” nesting into place naturally. Lastly they wiggled their tail, but it was already nestled into the same channel behind the control mount. “Get comfy” She said as Exodus wiggling, their new flight suit was perfect timing, allowing their wings to be used without being seen. “Okay, if you screw up really bad I’m going to throw it into autopilot to recover while I kick you off the mount and then take over” She took a deep breath before telling them the secret and pointing to a switch “The controls are locked straight, that’s where I left them, pull this toggle down on both side to unlock the controls, and the ship will resume responding”

Exodus took a deep breath themselves and then flicked the toggles on both sides. Suddenly the ship lurched up and to the right, responding to where Exodus had the controls when they activated them. Valthy started to yell something to help them correct, but before the words left her mouth Exodus already had it corrected, just like that, even I was surprised!

“Wow! It IS really just like flying! It’s a bit off but I can get used to this!” Exodus exclaimed, their voice full of pure joy.

“What do you mean just like flying? You corrected it instantly like you’ve done this, I thought you said you never flew before!”

“I said we’ve never flown a ship before, we’ve flown ourselves before! A lot!” They answered.

“That’s a joke, no one can really fly!” She retorted, I think she was feeling like she was being teased.

“Valthy, it was Glavous that brought them here, and he’s a weirdo, so maybe they are weirdos like him!” Duke butted in, now standing behind the control mount “Time will tell I suppose. Well go ahead shorty, show us how you fly around then!”

“Maybe, hold on? I’m not sure how this works yet” After the brief and sudden warning Exodus threw the ship into a barrel roll, ended up perfectly level from where it started, then went again the opposite direction, and started giggling. Oddly we could all feel the roll, but where no were close to tossed around.

“I have a question” I spoke up, suddenly everyone but Exodus was staring, as they were busy trying out different direction and fun maneuvers. “Why are we flying in all different directions but not really feeling it?”

The red dragon spoke up, before Duke could start “It’s called inertial dampening, it leaves just a little like we felt, for feedback to the pilot. It’s a feature in the gravity plating in the floor.”

“Can you show me how that works sometime?” I was already curious myself, when I was a kid, before the prison ship, I used to watch Mam and Dad fixing things when they had to, helping out when I could. I suddenly felt like that kid again, just wanting to know how it all works.

“Sure, it’s a bit advanced though, it actually works a bit like warp coils, similar tech” She answered.

“I uh, don’t actually know how that works either” I admitted to knowing nothing, but instead of annoyance her face actually showed some interest, I was wondering why, perhaps she liked to teach, or was some nerd that loved to ramble on about these things. Maybe she saw me a fresh clay to mold. I didn’t get to think on that long before Exodus spoke up.

“Deakon, you need to try this!” They shouted

“Okay! Okay I’ll try too!” and I stepped toward the mount, expecting to just switch places but Valthy butted in.

“WAIT wait wait!” she exclaimed, pressing on Exodus’s back to keep them there “NEVER EVER get up from a mount without the controls locked or autopilot engaged okay? The ship could fly out of control instantly then we all get squished into the walls, there are some moves even the inertial dampeners can’t compensate for!” She pointed at the toggles again “Make sure you’re going perfectly straight, then switch the toggles to lock. Okay, gently, yes, like that. Okay now is a good time” Exodus flicked the toggles, moved one of their wings to make sure the ship didn’t respond, then got up. Valthy was a little surprised “What made you want to check to make sure it’s locked like that? I didn’t tell you to!”

“It just seemed like a good idea? Is that okay?” They seemed shy now, like they had done something wrong.

“No! Actually you kind of saved me there, that’s an important thing to check before dismounting” She smiled at them “You kind of are a natural!” Valthy turned to me “Okay, Deakon is it? Your turn! You’re a bit taller than me and lot taller then your friend, take a moment to adjust here okay?” I laid myself down on my tummy on the mount, put my wings in the same mounts the other two did, my tail resting into the channel to the rear. I put my wings as straight as I could as if I was gliding. And nodded to Valthy. “Okay, when you’re ready, those two toggles beside the throttles, those in front of you. Flick them both at the same time to unlock each side.

I took a deep breath and flicked the switches, instantly the ship leaned in the opposite direction than it did for Exodus, and a little down for me. But I instantly picked up what exodus said, I pretended I was gliding! I accidentally over corrected at first, moving my tail up slightly brought the nose back to level, but I wasn’t expecting how responsive the giant machine was to my input, and leaned again but to the right. I quickly regained that oversteer and got her level again. After a few seconds of the nerves to go away, it felt natural, just like I was flying, I was the ship, the ship responded to me.

“Well, looks like we got a couple pilots here!” Valthy announced

“Hang on” Duke interrupted “We are going to find out what else they are good at, but we’ll take a week or two when we get to let them decide and see what the are good at”

Then Glavous also stepped in “I also insist that I get a large percentage of their time, they are after all here for my purposes!”

“We’ll see about how that all works out, Glavous”

That’s when I looked over my shoulder that them “Hey, do we get a say?!?”

The both looked at me, both smiled, and both joked “No!” I laughed and turned my haed forward again, realizing a the screen in front of me seemed angry “Valthy, what’s this?”

“Oh, you’re just WAY off course is all, I had already pre-loaded our trip back to the station when we took off, you can ignore it for now, have some fun with her!” While having some fun, doing some of the same silly stuff Exodus did, including a big loop, Valthy started talking to the others, mostly Duke, “It would be nice to have a couple more hands moving the ships around, Some days I can’t keep up even when Micah helps out!”

“Okay, if they want, you can have them a few hours a week, but I don’t want them learning on my good ships, we’ll get one of the ones in the junkyard up and running for training when we can” he explained

“Seems like a fun side project we have time for!” The red dragon spoke up, she seemed a little annoyed to have more put on her plate, but I took my chance.

“Show me how, and I’ll help get it going!” I said from the control mount “I know nothing right now but I’m a fast learner!”

“Sure! We can figure it who’s doing what when we get back though” She smiled at me, I think she’d make a great teacher.

“Okay, speaking of getting back, let’s get going” Valthy said, so I started getting straight, assuming I’d be giving up control. “No you’re fine, but you see that screen you made angry? Let’s make it happy, turn to your left until it goes green, then a line should appear, you’ll have to finesse it until that line is centered, then we can jump into warp.” I nodded as the instruction, and turned. After a few seconds the screen started fading to green, then the line appeared as she said, I eased it into the middle but it was above the spot I intuitively thought it should go “Okay, bring down the nose a little, you can do it by wing or by tail” I pressed down my tail, pretending my spade was steering us a little, just like in the air, and the ship responded. “Get her nice and straight now, then lock the controls, ALWAYS lock before going to warp okay?” She watched the screen, and my wings “Good! That’s straight enough for the autopilot to take it, lock your controls” I flicked the two toggles beside the throttles back to where they were when I got on. “There’s an autopilot switch on the panel to your right, flick that up!” I did as she instructed. “Okay, now to go to warp, there’s a big toggle between the throttles, go ahead and throw that thing in the up position” I took my right hand off the throttles, not that I got to use those much yet, and pressed up on the big red toggle, it took a surprising amount of effort to flick, probably to prevent accidental engagement. The ship groaned from both sides, and we started gaining speed, very quickly, and a lot of speed, the stars started turning into streaks, then into a tunnel around us as we broke the light barrier. The groan from the ship increased in frequency as the coils loaded harder, pushing up our speed. “Okay” She read from the display “We’re already at factor 2, we’re underway! Technically you can still fly at superluminal speeds, but it’s better to let the autopilot keep it nice and straight. Congratulations, you just flew us into light speed! The control mount is dead now, you can get off if you like”

I got off the mount and walked over to sit with Exodus, but the red dragon stopped me. “I thought you wanted to look around?” she said.

“Yes! I’m really interested to see how things work!”

“Okay, follow me, My name is Kelly, by the way”

“Deakon” I nodded and followed. She explained it would be a 5 day trip back to the space station. It was a place Duke had built mostly himself at first, just to repair some ships for business partners. He asked Kelly to join, to help fix things and build the station. After some time they had started recruiting more help. Oddly they didn’t get paid directly, rather they were fed by Duke and given a place to live. They shared the earnings from repairing the ships, spending very wisely at first, only on food.

She also explained how our faster than light drives worked, making a very compressed gravity wave in front of the craft or ship, and generating an equal anti gravity wave behind the ship. This used a lot of power. One thing dragon technology was good at was generating and using too much power. Fusion power cores have been miniaturized, and instead of heating steam to spin turbine like human fission, the cores had a direct electrical output, making them insanely efficient and powerful compared to other species. Technology wise, dragons where somewhat behind everyone else (especially in compute), except in this one part, no one could replicate our power generation. On the 5 days back to the station she talked my ears off, along with her electrician, Lask, about ships systems, how things worked, different techniques to fix them, all sorts of things. By the time we reached the station I think I had found my place with them, I was going to learn under Kelly, eventually working along with Lask and her other two mechanics who were waiting on the station.

Exodus spent most of the trip back training and playing with their new pet, and talking with Valthy about flying, they had found their interest, and Duke needed another pilot who could go and fetch parts and move the sips into dock at the station to be worked on. But also said, to Valthy’s annoyance, that more would be beneficial to have other skills, “You can’t just move ships and shuttles all day, we don’t have enough going on, you seem smart, I’m going introduce you to Pike when we get back too” he said a couple times.

Five days with very little privacy was hard for Exodus, but they did figure out with their wings free to move int the new flight suit, they could hold them up around their head and slip up the helmet to eat and drink without anyone seeing them. Eventually we arrived at Duke’s station. It was elongated and not very big. But also there looked from the outside at least to have plenty of room for 12 to live in comfortably. A large dragon ship was at one end of the station, surrounded by some extensions of the station itself, one of the ships getting some sort of major repair. I guess it wasn’t just smalls ones he worked on. As we got close I could see several more ships floating close to the station, they were awaiting their repairs, but off in the distance I could see more floating in a group. Duke explained that was his “junkyard”, a collection of broken crafts and ships for scavenging parts from. Valthy expertly docked the nose of the small ship to one of the connections to the station.

The others went through the airlock first, being greeted by their friends, we walked through last. Noticed by a tall green dragon with nearly yellow under scales and wings they spoke up first “Oh, I didn’t know we started a passenger service, or, are these new workers?”

“New workers!” Said Duke “Drito, if you could be so kind as to take them to the upper deck and show them their new quarters, we need to get this coil unloaded and over to the shop”

“Sure! That’s my job after all” they playfully bowed to Duke “Come with me and bring your belongings, I’ve got a couple free places still” I grabbed our bag of our only possessions, Exodus carried Chickadee and the tote bag with their old costume in it “I’m Drito, I’m in charge of, well I guess you can say ‘hospitality’ around here. I cook and serve the food for the others and our guests, along with some other duties I like to help out with.” We walked along a corridor “This way is our living section” they pointed into an open area as we passed. “We usually eat here, our common area.” There was a table and some stools, a counter with some appliances and a bar like area. Drito paused at some stairs in front of us “Down this way is where guests stay, sometimes they need to hang around while their ships is getting the work done, so this level is like a hotel of sorts, but those of us who live here reside on the upper level” They started up the narrow stairs and we followed to the second level. It did seem nicer, some personalized decorations from the others were on parts of the walls. They walked to down the corridor in front of us, pointing at doors as we went along, telling us who’s room was who’s, names of dragons I hadn’t met yet, but Duke’s was first just off the top of the stairs. We went about three quarters down the corridor, and Drito pointed to a door. “Glavous has a big suite, he said he needed the space for study and exercise. We weren’t using that room for anything so he got it” We walked a little further “These two rooms on the right are free, you can have them both.”

Exodus paused, I knew why, because I felt the same, but they spoke up first “Can we both have the bigger of the two? We’ve been together so long it wouldn’t feel right sleeping in separate rooms in a new place”

“Oh! Oh of course! I didn’t realize you two were a couple!” They grinned

“Oh! We’re not, we’re just very close” I said, noticing Exodus’s head dropped a little towards the floor.

“Well, we’ll have to move a second bed in, there’s enough space for two in the second room” Their expression had changed a little, almost disappointment “I can help in a little while, I do need to get to the kitchen soon though, so after we all eat, that’s when I’ll come back and help, show you both were to get things and where to put your used blankets. You do your own washing around here though, so I do ask you make an effort to clean up after yourselves” They started to walk back but turned back to us for a second “Oh, there’s is a bathroom between every second suit okay? You’ll likely be sharing it with a couple others. And I’d recommend locking up anything important, I trust our crew with my life but sometimes we get some shady characters around. I’ll see you in the common area for food in about an hour, okay?” Drito walked back down the corridor and as they left we walked into the larger room of the two choices we had. It wasn’t a lot of space, and would be a little less once we had a second bed in here, but there was enough space to stretch our wings without hitting the walls

OUR WINGS!

“Exodus! How are we going to practice flying?”

They though for a moment “I think we should ask Glavous, I bet he has an idea!”

“I hope so, I don’t want my wings to weak again like they did before” I was suddenly worried about that, but having food around as well may mitigate that. “I hope this bathroom has a shower in it” I walked back out into the corridor as Exodus placed their daomo on the floor, the little raptor followed us around. I found the door to what I thought was it and opened it. Inside, a hole in the floor with a button on the wall above it, yup, typical dragon toilet. But there was also a small sink and the entire inside of the room seemed to be made out of some sort of plastic. There was a water head hanging in the corner and it dawned on me, this is what humans would call a “wet bath” a toilet, shower, sink, general hygiene place all built into one, the water when you showered would drain into the toilet. Though this was basic space stuff, it seemed so luxurious to me, probably to Exodus too, we did just spend 2 years on the street, and 5 years before that on a prison ship with no shower at all. I looked forward to using this!

We didn’t really have anything to unpack, so decided to explore the station, little Chickadee following us around. We found the kitchen, Drito was busy making food for 15 of us, but gave Exodus a little piece of meat of their pet. It wasn’t long after before everyone had gathered for the food. We chatted as we ate, getting to know the knew crew. Of course had just spent 5 days with Duke, Valthy, Kelly, and Lask, and met Drito earlier. But there was now Pike, a short thin dragon, his specialty was anything software or systems related. Olto was a tall thick strong dragon, I actually thought she was male until she corrected me, then her voice made more sense. She was the welder and fabricator here, also a pretty good machinist. Olach, Sond, and Micah were Kelly’s mechanics. They could work on anything but Kelly was in charge, she delegated who fixed what, and knew each of their strengths. Then there was Shash, she was the administrator for the entire thing, and did billing to the customers, handled the accounts and money, and coordinated the coming and going of ships. She was probably the busiest of everyone here. Argin was an average sized blue dragon, he was in charge of getting and growing food, yup, growing. There was a small hydroponics operation on board, and this was where a large portion of the food came from, fresh fruits, berries, and vegetables. Dragons are omnivores not vegetarians by nature, so meat still had to be brought in. That was something else they did, leaving the station often to get get food.

We all actually talked for a few hours after, I told them stories of Earth and our time as street rats, they told us stories of funny or strange things that had happened at the station over the years, Exodus remained mostly silent but opened up a little and said a few things towards the later part of the evening. Soon everyone started to make their way to sleep to start the next day’s work. Duke and Glavous stayed behind though. They of course asked Exodus about the suit, they simply said they needed to be covered completely at all times.

They seemed to start negotiating our time between them, at least with our input now. We agreed to 4, 8 hours days with Duke’s, then 3 days to ourselves. In return for this, we would get the free food and our room. Glavous argued even though we stayed in one room we should get a second for extra space, Duke argued the others worked 6 days to keep a room to themselves. Duke won that one. I don’t know why Glavous wanted us to have extra space, we had nothing, but he told us later it would have been for training. After our 8 hour days, Glavous would have us for 2 hours every day we worked, alternating between Me, while Exodus took a break one day, then we switched, then both of us on a 3 day cycle, but on our days we didn’t work for Duke, he wanted the full day. I didn’t know what our training with him entailed yet, so I was apprehensive to accept it, but promised him I would try, and so did Exodus. Duke had opened his bottle from Glavous during this negotiating, though he wasn’t drunk he was enjoying it, but by the end Duke had one more condition. Chickadee, was our responsibility and ours alone, he really didn’t like an idea of an animal on the station, and the idea of it making a mess was even worst. “If I step in that thing’s shit even once, I’m having it for dinner!”

The next morning were woken up by a knock at the door, apparently we had slept in, we didn’t know, we had no clock! “I’ll fix that right now!” Duke said with his authority. He took us to the administrative area, sort of an office off the main docks where his clients would pay and be briefed about repairs and such. He unlocked a cabinet and pulled out two white boxes, locking it back up behind himself and set them down. I was shocked at were this went. “Here, two devices for you both. You can set alarms in these, tell the time, and most important, I can message you and send you things that you need to know. Set schedules and all kinds of goodies. These ones have cameras so you can send me pictures of repairs or parts when you need to. These things do NOT leave the station though! And be very careful we can’t just afford to give these away!” We opened the boxes to the shiny new devices, I felt like I was in the future, well, at least caught up to everyone else? They were thick, build for the sturdy duty of being a rough repair specialist. Pike came along, luckily, the tech specialist, and helped us set everything up, get our names into them, and there was a group feed for the station, where everyone could just openly send messages and pictures. Pike bragged it was a program of his own design. Exodus caught on pretty fast, opening programs and finding out where stuff was, a scheduler and the messaging program. These were more like a tablet than a simple communication device. Though Glavous’s was of a different origin, he was in Pike’s messaging program as well. “Get an alarm set for 6 in the morning, we have breakfast and get to work by 7, you’ll be done at 4 with your hour lunch break”

“Seems kind of early?”

“You’re in fucking space, Deakon, it’s really irrelevant” he laughed “Oh, Pike, you should take Exodus for today, and see if they can help you out, you’re one of the busiest here and really need someone to help take some of the work!”

Pike spoke softly, kind of a quiet guy, but also firm “You’re right, I’m very busy, too busy to teach someone right now!”

“Think of it as an investment! Sure you’ll be backlogged a bit for a while, but if they work out you can get twice as much done and be caught up in no time!”

“Well, okay I can try, but understand I’m already behind, and this will make things even slower at first” Pike explained

“Yea I know, if you need time to catch up let me know and they can also go find other areas to work in. Valthy wants to flight train them too” Duke explained. I was a little jealous, I want to fly too. Duke turned to me “Kelly is waiting for you in our shop, the large place down the end of the corridor, don’t make her wait any longer!” I nodded and walked off to the part the section where they referred to as the ‘shop’ a large open area full of tools and machines where they working on parts that had been removed form ships, and kept their tools. Pike took Exodus to their lab.

“We’ll need to set you up your own terminal, that shouldn’t take long” Pike’s lab was spacious but the large amout of clutter made it feel small. There were shelves of open circuit boards, a space for micro soldering but cluttered with test leads and random parts. The space was mostly dark, except for bright lights above the working areas. Just inside the door however there was a terminal, four displays in a grid with a draconic keyboard in front. Oddly this space as clean and free of distraction. “First I want to see if you can even understand what it is I do. I’ll teach you a little program to write and see if you grasp it” He pulled out the chair in front of his terminal, it was worn, but a hole in the lower back for a tail, and shaped to accommodate wings “Have a seat!”

Exodus sat down, a little confused on what to do, they’ve never been in front a screen before, but was going to keep that to themselves. Pike starting walking them through what a function was, the basic layout of how to program in the most common program language he used, there were others but this one was easiest to start out. He told Exodus exactly what to type, and they slowly got it out, fumbling though the gloves.

“Don’t you think you can be faster without the gloves on?” he asked, getting somewhat impatient

“I can’t, sorry, it’s too much for most people” Exodus explained “everyone is scared of me when they know.”

“What, are you a ghost inhabiting a flight suit or something?”

Exodus laughed, but thought about it for a moment. Pike seemed trustworthy despite his current impatience. “Okay, can you keep a secret?”

“If you can type faster you can tell me the secrets of the universe and I won’t ever tell a soul”

“Well, okay” Exodus got up and pressed the button beside the door and it slid closed. They slowly tuned to Pike and took a deep breath “Okay, no going back on your word okay?” And piked nodded in agreement. Nearly shaking, Exodus slipped off a glove, exposing his purple scales.

“Oh good, you’ve got all your fingers!” Pike said a little confused about what the big deal was. Exodus was surprised but confidently removed the other glove while sitting back down, but turned to other green dragon for a moment.

“You’re not freaked out or worried?” They sheepishly asked

“What? Like some superstitious old weirdo? No of course not! Wait is that why you cover up all the time? Just because your purple?” He asked and Exodus nodded “I’m smart, I know better than to believe in all that stuff!” He thought for a moment “If you take the helmet off you could also probably see the screens better too!” Pike walked over to the door and pressed a second button, a red light indicating it was locked. Exodus took a deep breath again and reached up to unlock the ring keeping the helmet attached to the body suit and clipped it apart, then unzipped under the neck and chin so it could be lifted of their head. They took it off and looked at Pike with their own eyes.

“See, you’re fine! Lets try typing it out more!” Exodus typed away, it was much easier and they quickly caught on to where the letters and syntax was laid out. “Yea, that made a big difference, but I can still tell you’ve never typed before!” Pike pointed out.

“I’ll work on it, in my spare time too, okay?” Exodus said and Pike patted their shoulder “But Pike, please don’t tell anyone, I’ve put up with a lot of abuse in my life over this, even if the other don’t care like you, I’m not ready, okay?”

“Sure! You have my word, our little secret! Does anyone else know?”

“Deakon does of course, and so does Glavous” They told him “No one else but those two and you”

“It’s safe with me!” Pike looked at the door “I hope people aren’t thinking something weird is happening with the door locked all the time in here, we’re not making out or anything” he laughed. “Oh, I don’t mind if you bring your daomo either, a little more company could be great for us too!”

“Noted!” and exodus went back to typing things out again, while they did so Pike started setting up a second terminal for Exodus to use regularly, meaning he liked what he saw and would teach them.

Pike seemed to blush for a moment “You’ve also got pretty eyes, it’s a nice orange!” Exodus smiled, it’s very rare to get a compliment about their appearance.

I flopped down on my bed, we had moved one in for Exodus like we had planned, They laid on their own beside me, goofing off with the daomo. The others had decided I could learn some things, but in the meantime they did need a general laborer, so I got to a lot of physical work and learn along the way. I was okay with this, learning by doing, and even though it was my first day, I did learn quite a bit. We had left the door open and Glavous poked his head in. “I hope your not forgetting your time with me!”

“Of course not! I said “I just need to breath for a moment” and I got up off the bed.

“Exodus, I’d like to start with both of you today, and bring Chickadee!” Exodus nodded in their suit and came with us, the daomo closely behind. We went to Glavous’s suite, and it very much was a suite. He had a large soft gray rug in the middle, his bed off to one side, with many simple decorations depicting what I assumed were the elements he trained in. Some symbols I didn’t understand, like a flexed arm and one that looked like a ghost or upside down raindrop, among others. “Have a seat you two!” he said talking with his backs to us for now while he fiddled with things. “First off, the people on this station are aware of my abilities and do not fear them, so you can openly practice here without any sort of need to hide it. That’s one of the reasons I chose this place. The second being a chance to learn other trades and skills.” He turned back to us, a candle in his hand like before “I’m actually surprised they haven’t asked either of you anything yet, as they do know you’re associated with me. In fact Drito is a lesser mage in one of the elements, I did ask them to train with us as well but they declined, and insisted it wasn’t their fate”

“Which element?” Exodus asked

“That’s up to them to show you, if they so choose” He handed the candle to me “I think you know what to do” and he smiled. I did, I took a breath in, concentrated hard, and now knowing how to do it, I breathed out a small flame, lighting it. I was happy it didn’t take multiple tries, I hadn’t done anything in days but the power was still there, it appears it didn’t atrophy like a muscle. “Very good! Just so you aware I did have Kelly disable the fire suppression in my quarters, when the time comes, you can exert yourself without worry! Now, keep that candle with you, and light it multiple times through the day.” he instructed “Once you can do it with little effort we can move onto bigger things, within a week I hope”

He turned his attention to Exodus “Your task is one that will please the entire station!”

They just just finished taking off the helmet but was intrigued “Oh? What is that?”

“Your daomo, you’re going to potty train it!” He explained “Make sure it doesn’t leave a mess for the other to unexpectedly find with their feet!” Exodus looked a little taken back, but agreed “Good, it’s easy, I know you’re already bonded so it should be easy, simply show it was to do in it’s mind, it’s a creature, and animal, so it doesn’t think in words. Show it how to do it, and do it without any physical interaction, this challenge should take less than a week to accomplish” Exodus kind of laughed but after a moment of thought they agreed. “Your daomo, Chickadee, will be a very useful tool in you education with me, eventually you will learn to control him directly, and even be able to see through his eyes.”

“It’s not going to hurt him is it?” The asked, concerned about the pet’s health

“Heavens no, of course not, if anything it may absorb some of your power over time, and it will become more than just a pet, more like a familiar” Glavous explained

“But I’m no witch!” they exclaimed

“Well, not like the terms you are thinking no” Glavous laughed at the thought “One more thing, your wings, I know you’re concerned about losing the ability to fly again, so I’m going to show you how to prevent that in this place.” He stepped back between two ropes hanging from the ceiling, I had assumed they were some sort of decoration but they did have a purpose after all. He hooked the tops of his wings into two loops at the ends of the ropes and leaned forward, using his wings to prevent himself from landing on the floor. “Find yourselves two cables or ropes similar to this, and every morning lean into them as I am now, then use your wings to pull yourself back” He proceeded to do so himself as an example. “Do this 20 times every morning, then 20 times in the reverse direction. This will keep the muscles in your wings developed and ready for use”

That’s when it dawned on me “Glavous, you can fly?”

“Of course I can! I could very likely outfly you both in speed and distance! This is one of our talents that has been lost to time.” he paused “I do hope time will return this ability to our people” He seemed to be lost a thought for a moment before coming back “Remember these daily exercises, Deakon, your candle, and as I said, don’t be shy around the others here! Exodus, your pet, in 7 days will be trained well. And to your both your wing exercises. Furthermore my door is always open to you both should you need assistance or advice in your practice. I know I said two hours a day, but for today we are done while you can concentrate on your task. Tomorrow I would like you, Deakon, and Exodus the day after.” He smiled “You are free to stay here to practice or go back to your own room, I am now going to take some time to exercise my own mind”

A week later, Glavous was right, Chickadee would use the washroom just like and of us dragons, only it couldn’t reach he flush, but it was better than finding random shit on the floor. Duke was pretty impressed. It didn’t stop there though, in the following months it would learn to bring Exodus items or take items to other as Exodus wanted. It followed them anywhere on the station they went. Pike apparently really enjoyed the company. Exodus did learn a lot about systems, and together the two of them eventually caught up on that side of the work, and were able to get ahead and work on extra things. Exodus also taught themselves about servos and motors and was able to create a few new things. A better system to help Argin with the growing food.

Exodus took a strong interest in the hydroponics. They did a lot of reading and helped in their spare time. Eventually convincing Duke to expand on it so we could all be more self sufficient and cut down on trips to other worlds for food. We built a second bay onto the station just for growing food and a few months after that we actually had more than we could eat. The leftovers being composted and used to fertilize the plants.

As for becoming pilots, Valthy did get the chance to teach us both. Exodus because an exceptional pilot, it seems they were talented in so many things. I was pretty good too, Valthy at the end saying I’d be better than her with more hours, but she was always amazed and how naturally Exodus just flew. Exodus was the second choice after Valthy to fly, moving ships into docks. I got to move a few around too and often did the run-up tests on freshly repaired ships. Micah knew how to fly ships but I found out was a pretty aweful pilot, smashing up a few customer’s ships before we ever arrived, but he made up for it by being a great engineer like Kelly.

As for our powers, Glavous was correct about Exodus, within a year they could posses Chickadee directly, see the world through their eyes and control exactly what the animal did. Myself, however, was a sadder story. Three years of trying and I hadn’t progressed much. I could breath a larger flame now, and Glavous did teach me to throw fireballs from my hands. I kept practicing every chance I got, oddly Kelly and the others did see me practicing often but didn’t comment much. Sond was actually pretty interested, eventually asking Glavous if he could learn, but sadly he was turned down. Glavous did let him down easy, telling him it would be possible to train under someone else someday, but now was not the time for him. Glavous was concerned, he kept saying he knew there was great power inside me, he could see it directly, but it seemed as though something was blocking me.

I never lost track of my goals though, I thought often of Mom and Dad, and my brother Jake, with everything I knew now I should find them soon. I can transport myself if I had a ship, I knew how to fly it now!

3 years after we joined the team, Duke came to tell us something, something that would change my life forever.

“I got a message from a business partner, there’s an alien ship adrift only a couple dozen light years away, it just crossed into dragon territory. No body else knows about it yet. I want you and Exodus to take my ship and bring it back. We can either scavenge it for parts, or if it’s in good enough shape we can fix it up” There was a pause “Fix it up for you two, it’s time you had one of your own, the extra ships would really help us out”

“For us?” Exodus exclaimed

“Yes, It’s been very busy here again, I want to increase the size of our little commune, meaning I need more space, if you two had your own ship to live in then we can give that space to someone else! Plus you can do more parts runs, Valthy isn’t able to keep up.” Duke had a look of ambition on his face “I have big plans!”

Duke gave us his personal ship, the “Talon” a smaller craft, we loaded it up with tools and food. The plan was to search for one month, if we didn’t find it, come back. The position we were given was two weeks away. His ship was faster than the cargo ship we came here on, giving us a better chance of getting to it first. We left Chickadee behind on this, Drito, in his typical friendly manner, offered to feed him. We left and headed in the direction we were given, I felt kind of excited, our first big solo adventure!