Chapter 32
15 Years Post Apocalypse
The Silver Dragon
Human Population 35,000,000
“The silver dragon now approaching the Fortress has defining characteristics,” Ian said, looking over the group of defenders he was lecturing, thirty people of every age and sex. He sensed fear from the more intelligent among them, but was careful to stay out of their minds. It was vitally important that he not know their plans. “Male dragons like this one see combat as a ritualized contest with rules of engagement. Because of this, we know he'll approach the fortress from a northeastern direction, two days from now, and he will make no attempt to conceal himself. He is much larger and stronger than Greta and knows it. He will attack in a predictable fashion, allowing us to launch effective countermeasures.”
For emphasis, Ian stood behind a table holding a scaled model of the Fortress and surroundings. The transparent glass model of Greta hung above the larger silver dragon where he was expected to approach, on the northeast side of the map.
Gabe entered the room, dark robes billowing around him, and stood behind the defenders, an angry expression on his face. Ian sighed. Great. “Keep in mind this won't be easy,” Ian continued. “The silver dragon is by far the highest level alien we've encountered, and when we kill him, the rewards from BG will be considerable. By considerable, I mean the kid who brings us food and coffee before the battle will get at least 10,000 credits.” There was quiet laughter from the defenders.
Gabe snorted. “You claim this high-level alien dragon is smart? What makes you sure he won't conceal himself?”
“We've killed thousands of young male dragons over the years. Not one of them has turned invisible before attacking. They conceal themselves when running away, or trying to hide. For a male dragon, turning invisible when attacking is the ultimate admission of cowardice,” Ian responded.
“So what about Greta? What's stopping her from turning invisible, grabbing her hatchling, and making a run for it, leaving us holding the monster bag? That would be the rational thing for her to do.”
“Greta is my concern, and she's not going anywhere. As I was saying, when we kill this silver dragon, Gabe will get a small percentage of BG's reward for his assistance, and we are grateful,” Ian continued lecturing. “But this 500-foot-long, adult, male dragon is too much for any of us to handle on our own. So unless Gabe thinks he can somehow kill our new adversary, all by himself, he needs to be satisfied with his small role in these coming events, and let the rest of us do our jobs.”
Gabe snarled something under his breath and stormed off.
Ian sighed. Welcome to Fortress politics. Gabe, at this point, detested Ian and wanted to take charge. But if Gabe was in charge, he'd push Ian aside and clash with Greta, an alien he disliked and distrusted. This would likely result in their Fortress wizard getting eaten.
“Now, as I was saying, the inhabitants of the surrounding city have been warned of the silver dragon's arrival. They will fight or hide as they see fit. Greta will attack the silver dragon from above as he approaches the Fortress. I, Buddy, and any psychics willing to volunteer will run interference from the ground doing what we can to distract the dragon, protect the defenders of the Fortress, and help the wounded. All young and non-combatants will stay in the underground shelters until it's safe for them to come out...”
***
Ian wandered the Fortress. Finished with lectures and his preparations, he had little to do but wait. He sensed Buddy in the distance, lending a tentacle here, using his telekinetic ability to lift something there. The elephant-sized cat-like alien was doing what it could to help the defenders.
The silver dragon was expected to arrive tomorrow and hundreds of people were working around the clock to prepare for the imminent attack. Ian sensed Sabrina and Crazy Steve talking to Dad about some aspect of their defense. Crazy Steve's five kids ran around, alternately helping or getting underfoot.
Ian did his best to stay out of everyone's way. It was important that he know as little as possible about the plans of the Fortress defenders, to prevent the silver dragon from reading his mind in the upcoming conflict. Even so, it was obvious to everybody that the defense preparations had a lot to do with huge guns. The one Ian saw had a barrel over 30 feet long. He prayed it would be enough.
“Raaaaack. Raaaaack.” Danny, Greta's hatchling, spotted Ian and ran towards him, tripping over his own six feet as he did so. His four wings flapped futility. It would be years before they were developed enough for him to fly.
“Whoa, Danny, you're getting big,” Ian said, “and your sweater is starting to come apart.” Ian moved to the Fortress bench next to the fountain with his sister's statue, so the one-hundred pound, five-foot-long hatchling could climb on his lap. The baby dragon nestled against him, resting his head on Ian's shoulder. Ian rubbed the hatchling's nose. He made mental contact with the hatchling's unformed mind. Who's a big boy? You're so pretty. He was too, covered with green and white scales. Fortunately, he had yet to show aggression towards humans.
“Raaaack,” the baby dragon agreed.
Ian knew Greta was perplexed by the humans who cared more about her hatchling than she did. She thought of her first, and so far only baby, as boy hatchling, and mostly ignored him. Humans, on the other hand, would follow Danny around when he wandered the fortress. And because the hotblooded dragon hatchling was always getting cold, a few women even knitted him heavy turtleneck wool sweaters, one of which he was currently wearing. It was bright pink, extending from Danny's long neck to his tail, with slits cut in it for his legs and wings to poke out of.
“Hi Danny,” Sabrina said, joining them on the fortress bench.
“Raaack,” Danny replied and playfully bit Sabrina's arm. It was a friendly bite, not painful, but Ian would have to break him of this habit before Danny's teeth grew in.
“Sabrina, I wanted to talk to you.” Ian tried to balance rubbing Danny's nose while reaching for Sabrina's hand. “If we survive tomorrow.”
Sabrina smiled and rested her head on the shoulder Danny wasn't using. “We'll be fine.”
“Yes. Well, Greta wants to have a child with me.”
“I see,” Sabrina said. “Okay. I just want to watch. How would the two of you do... that?”
“Yuck!” Ian said. “What Greta means is she wants me to have a child with a human female, much like she did with a male dragon to create Danny. I informed Greta that human babies are very fragile, and she promises to never carry one off, unless she has the birth mother's permission beforehand. I've given it a lot of thought. I believe my child could do a lot worse than Greta as a protector. Greta is not the most maternal of beings, but she keeps tabs on Danny. Any person or alien going after one of her children would be in a world of hurt. Also, the more we can do to get Greta to see human children as like her own hatchling, the better. The thought of having a child scares me, but part of me wants to.”
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“I see,” Sabrina giggled. “So now you need to find a human female who'd be willing to have your child.”
“I know,” Ian said. “Who could want to have my child?”
“Tell you what,” Sabrina said, kissing him. “We'll talk about it over dinner.”
***
Despite Sabrina's reassurances that everything would be okay, he was so nervous he'd been unable to sleep the night before or keep anything down at breakfast. He waited with Buddy and the psychic volunteers. Time slowed down, every minute took an eternity.
Unfortunately for Ian, none of the fortress's gifted were willing to join him in something many felt was a suicide mission.
The group mind Ian had created years ago had decided to hang back, providing support for the defenders from the Fortress shelter.
So Mrs. Wilcox volunteered four psychics convicted of multiple crimes against the Fortress. Their choice had been to help Ian or face immediate execution.
The volunteers turned around and glared at Ian, sitting behind them on Buddy's back. Three of the four had TRAITOR tattoos on their faces. They were the grown children of families that betrayed Mrs. Wilcox over a decade before.
“We're going to form a group mind. Me, Buddy, and the four of you,” Ian looked at the four volunteers chained to a large saddle that went across Buddy's elephant-sized back. The four sat side-saddle, two on each side, facing away from each other.
An alarm sounded from the fortress. A silver dot appeared on the horizon.
“Fuck you,” Erik Saclar said, spitting on Buddy's back.
“The four of you need to stay calm and behave yourselves. You'll be just as safe as Buddy and me. If things go well, you'll get a big payoff from BG. If you resist my efforts to create a group mind, it won't change what's about to happen, but you may not have much of a mind left when it's over.“
“Just as safe? Wow,” Erik responded. “So we're getting Kityskin armor, and super healing boosters like you and your dorkwad brother?”
“If that dragon hits us with his flame, none of those things will make any difference,” Ian responded. “Not even our pyrokinetic will be able to protect us from that much flame. So let's pull together and try not to die.”
He reached out with his mind and formed a connection with Buddy and the four criminals. Three of the criminals were telekinetic. The fourth, the woman, was a pyrokinetic, meaning she could create and to some extent, control fire. None of the four were happy about joining his group mind, but the six of them together were a far greater threat to the silver dragon than Ian alone.
The silver dot approaching the city grew larger.
Greta would be in the air too, silent, invisible, waiting for her chance to strike.
As the silver dragon reached the city surrounding the Fortress, thousands of gunshots could be heard. The entire city knew this dragon was coming, and everyone with a high-powered rifle was shooting at it in hopes of getting a few credits from BG.
The wind picked up, creating a refreshing spring breeze.
The Red Baron came into view, tailing the silver dragon like an angry hornet, firing several missiles. Something sent his plane spinning and tumbling, out of control.
The Red Baron was a good man. Ian hoped he was okay.
It was the wind that caused the Red Baron to lose control. A wind created by the 500-foot-long dragon's psychokinetic abilities.
Dust and debris surrounded the silver dragon. The silver dragon had created a wind vortex filled with uprooted trees, signposts, and garbage of every imaginable sort.
Shit! They were about to be attacked by a giant tornado on top of everything else! This was something Ian never suspected. The silver dragon was a mile away and coming in fast.
The dragon's display popped up.
THIS IS A SILVER DUMDUM. HUMANS DO NOT EXIST TO HIM. NEVER ATTRACT HIS ATTENTION.
The wind howled. There were screams as defenders were picked up and thrown off the ramparts by the wind or hit by flying debris. Ian's group mind, and the second one hiding behind the defenders, did what they could to prevent them from getting hurt.
Buddy's claws extended, digging into the Fortress wall's stone ramparts to hold them steady.
Ian's group mind attempted to engage the silver dragon and protect the defenders. But the silver dragon's mind was like a crystal surface. Even with Buddy's help, their group mind slid off the dragon's, accomplishing nothing.
The wind drowned out other sounds, but Ian felt people screaming orders.
There was a thunderous BOOM! The shock of the weapons nearly knocked Buddy off its feet. A flash from the Fortress temporarily blinded Ian. Looking through Buddy's eyes, he saw they'd scored at least one direct hit on the dragon's neck, blasting away silver scales.
They'd hurt the silver dragon, but instead of the expected counterattack, the silver dragon turned away. His tail smashed the Fortress wall in passing, sending Buddy and riders flying, and burying countless defenders in the rubble. Ian clung desperately to the saddle as Buddy somehow landed on its catlike feet and ran after the dragon. Ian's group mind used their gifts to protect themselves from the over 100-mile-an-hour winds and flying debris.
The silver dragon landed on top of the underground parking garage where Greta lived, coming down hard enough to leave a shallow crater. He raised a giant silver-scaled arm and brought it down, tearing big chunks of cement and tossing them aside, adding to the debris flying around him.
The silver dragon must know Greta was still in the air. Shit! He's trying to reach Danny! Greta had left Danny in a secure nest in the lowest part of the multilevel underground parking lot.
Ian felt Danny alone in the dark, growing frightened.
With an enraged shriek, Greta attacked the silver dragon from above. He twisted around and the two dragons locked in furious combat.
FILTH! UNCLEAN! The silver dragon mind spoke, loud enough for even non-psychics to feel his mental broadcast for miles. The silver dragon believed Greta and her child's association with humans was an abomination to be eradicated from the earth.
Greta's only response was mindless rage. One of them was going to die.
The four drafted members of Ian's group mind wanted to run away.
Fuck you, Ian thought. With an angry roar, Buddy charged, rushing the end of the silver dragon's tail where it was narrow enough for the elephant-sized being to get its mouth around. Biting down, trying to get its teeth through the silver dragon's scales, claws slid over the dragon, failing to do damage.
The silver dragon bit down on something, his teeth covered with greenish-brown liquid. Greta's blood coated the silver dragon's teeth and her otherwise invisible neck. The two aliens were locked in a struggle, and it was obvious the silver dragon was winning.
Ian's group mind attacked with everything it had. The pyrokinetic tried to heat up the dragon's tail under Buddy's teeth. Ian had stashed weapons in case it came to this. Two guns, like the one Crazy Steve and his friend had used to kill that strange Happy Bouncy alien so many years ago, moved up the tail of the dragon. Ian then used their group mind's telekinetic abilities to fire the guns into the dragon's tail at point-blank range. There was a deafening blast. It wasn't clear if they hurt him or not.
The silver dragon flicked his tail, first pulling the six of them forward, then with tremendous force throwing them hundreds of feet in the air. Ian's brave Kitykity companion lost its grip on the dragon's tail, along with most of its teeth. As they went flying, Ian, the only one not chained to Buddy's saddle, was thrown free. He focused the last of the group's mind's power on slowing down and stabilizing Buddy's flight path so they at least would land safely.
Here we go again, he thought, flying hundreds of feet through the air. This was going to hurt.
Before he hit the ground, he heard a high-pitched electrical screech, then a loud sucking noise. The wind and fighting stopped. There was silence.
Ian's last thought was, Hope you come through for us, Gabe.
Then he hit the ground, very, very hard.