The Dragon's body ballooned outward and burst open. The head struck the ground and bounced, throwing the beams from its dying headlights across rib-like structural supports and glistening fabricators, now open to the air. Steam puffed from the inner recesses of what had once been the animal's body, and was now a life-support module.

Victor should have predicted what happened next. It wouldn't have changed his decision to...what was Merchant screaming at him? "Murder an innocent creature and their only hope for survival." But they needed pressurized oxygen and the Dragon's internal organs were designed to pressurize oxygen. Now they had access to those organs. If Victor had warned Merchant, she might have tried to stop him. Then again, they might have done something about the other Dragon.

The animal reared over Merchant's head and brought itself down between the biologist and Victor, wings splayed, engines growling, face plates pulling back to expose the nozzle of its flame thrower.

Victor dove away from the stream of fire the beast belched at him.

You had to really work at it to dive in Titan's 0.15 gees. Victor had a good couple of seconds hanging helpless in the air while he contemplated the choices he might have made.

At least the stupid animal tracked him with its fire. The body of the first Dragon didn't catch. The precious oxygen in its compressors did not explode and kill them all.

Ah, the floor. Victor braced for impact. Instead, he pressed down before bouncing off it, sliding across the floor.

Thank God he hadn't jumped the other way, or he'd have flown out the window and into the cold, empty air. Thank God he didn't need to be touching the ground to work his handshake gauntlet.

He wiggled his fingers and factors detached themselves from the body of the dead Dragon and scuttled across the floor toward its enraged mate.

"No."

For a second, Victor couldn't figure out the telemetry. Then he got it. Merchant had stepped on one of the factors. Just put her foot on the irreplaceable tool and smudged it from existence.

"¡miércoles! Do not...do that!" It wasn't easy to land, control his factors and speak English all at the same time. "If that thing raises the temperature in here, the oxygen will explode. Right? So control the Dragon."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Control her? You killed her mate." Merchant was shaking so hard, he could see the tremors through her environment suit. But she slid to the side, much more practiced at moving on Titan, and rolled to her feet. Now, standing between the Dragon and the wall of the cave, the biologist spread her arms and legs and broadcast white noise from her suit's transmitters at maximum volume.

The Dragon reared back.

"Bhaag ja!" she shouted. Or something like that. "Hoosh!"

"Good," Victor said. "If you can make it go — "

"Drive a mother away from her offspring? Don't be ridiculous."

"Offspring?" said Victor.

Three giant metal slugs tumbled away from Dr. Merchant. She followed them, yelling and waving her arms at the Dragon — the mother? — which stretched its neck toward her. But it couldn't flame her without harming its young and it couldn't reach her before the first Dragonlet crawled over the edge of the window and dropped out of the hangar.

"Yes," she said. "Good. Now you, help me!" The biologist ducked and skidded toward the other baby Dragons, heading one off as it humped toward the safety of its mother's side.

Victor shuffled after the other as fast as he dared. The adult Dragon looked up at him and Dr. Merchant took the opportunity to grab her baby and heave it over the edge.

The Dragon turned back to blast her and Victor kicked the last baby, which rolled up like a giant pill bug and plopped out the window.

The mother Dragon screamed across the AM band. It scooted sideways across the iron floor, head dipping, wings rotating back into flight position.

"Go away." Merchant lowered her arms. "Bhaag ja."

The adult was much more graceful than the young had been: an elephant seal rather than a giant maggot. Its long, sleek body twisted in the air, coiling around a parachute/jellyfish shape Victor realized must be one of the Dragonlets in flight mode. When mother and child touched, factors moved and the parachute condensed into a little lump on the Dragon's fuselage. The nosecone moved, questing for the other Dragonlets. The wings flexed and tilted.

"Once she brings the Dragonlets back," said Dr. Merchant, "she will kill us for what we did to her family."

Victor turned back to the corpse of the first Dragon, which was already chugging away at fabricating its first human-compatible oxygen canister. Water and food would come next, rendered out of the petroleum these monsters used for blood.

"Well," he said, "at least we'll be alive for her to kill us."