The Island Experiment

by Erica Rue

  The tea cooled quickly in the night air, and soon she was resting in the makeshift Ficaran camp, indifferent to where anyone else was, grateful that the pain might subside enough to permit sleep.

  Before she nodded off, she managed to type out a few letters for Dione.

  Alive.

  Her friend wouldn’t understand that this check-in was a little more meaningful than the others, but that was fine by Lithia. Sleep weighed heavily on her body. She had a feeling the nightmares would be too tired to come get her tonight.

  29. DIONE

  The parrots had settled down for the night, but Dione was wide awake. They’d been taking turns napping all afternoon and evening under the sitac tree, leaving the parrots and whoever was on guard to watch out for threats. Once the dragons had fled, the birds had squawked and sang, clearly irritated that she was in their space, but Oliver told them that as long as they didn’t try to pick any of the fruit from the tree, or even off the ground, the birds would eventually calm down.

  Despite the noise, she’d taken a very refreshing nap and was now wide awake in the late-night darkness. Brian stirred next to her when she sat up. She smiled.

  It felt good that she didn’t have to keep a wall up between them anymore. Being angry with someone was exhausting, especially when you still had feelings for them.

  With a yawn, Brian rolled to his back and stretched his arms. He opened his eyes sleepily and grinned at Dione before sitting up next to her.

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked in a low voice.

  “You.”

  “And how cute I am when I sleep, right?”

  “Yeah, the way you drool is adorable,” she teased.

  “I know,” he replied, leaning in for a kiss.

  His lips felt familiar, like they belonged on hers, and she lingered before breaking away. She nodded to his still-sleeping father, but he just laughed quietly and shrugged.

  “He doesn’t care,” Brian said.

  “I do.” She rested her head on his shoulder, enjoying the peaceful moment.

  “Fair enough.” Brian instead took her hand in his. “Your hands are cold.” His were warm, and she snuggled closer to him. Even though the air was relatively warm, nights on this island were much cooler than the days.

  “I know. According to Lithia, I’m cold-blooded. She’s not exactly precise with her biology vocabulary.”

  “Cold-blooded?”

  “When an animal can’t produce enough heat internally, they rely on external sources like the sun.”

  “Oh! Ectotherms,” he said. “My dad taught me out of some of the biology books we have.”

  “Yeah, like snakes or lizards.”

  She and Brian exchanged a look, like they’d just had the same idea.

  “The dragons are lizards. What if they’re ectotherms?” Dione said.

  “That’s strange, though. Wouldn’t a dragon be an endotherm, since they can create fire and all?”

  Dione shook her head. “It actually makes more sense for it to be an ectotherm. Think about it. If you need an external heat source to survive, what’s better equipped to live this way than a creature that can make its own heat source?”

  “Check the listing,” Brian said.

  Dione pulled up the list of nightmares on her manumed. “Yep. Ectotherms. You know what this means, right?”

  “They’re slower when they’re cold, like at night,” Brian said. “Unless their fires keep them warm enough.”

  Dione nodded. “Even with the fires, it’s nothing like the heat of the sun. It would also limit their range at night. They wouldn’t stray far from their fires.”

  In their excitement, they had failed to keep their voices down, and Oliver woke up.

  “What’s all this noise about?” he asked, rubbing his neck.

  “We think that the dragons will be slower at night since they’re ectotherms,” Brian replied.

  “I think I know where you’re going with this, but I hope I’m wrong,” Oliver said.

  “If we go now, we might be able to catch them sleeping, or at least lethargic. That, combined with the song, could give us enough of an edge.”

  Oliver grimaced.

  Dione didn’t blame him. She was anxious about encountering the dragons again, but this had been the plan all along. Why was Oliver so hesitant now? “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “That encounter we had a few hours ago. It’s the first time I’ve seen a dragon in years. I’d forgotten how vicious and clever they are. Even with the song, I don’t see how we can do this.”

  “Aren’t you curious?” Brian said. “Don’t you want to get off this island?”

  “Of course. But I’m not eager to get myself killed right after I’ve been found,” Oliver replied.

  “That ship is our only way home,” Brian said.

  Dione smoothed the goose bumps on her arms. If it still flew, that statement was true for her as well. “We’ve come this far,” she said. “Isn’t it worth it to check it out?”

  Oliver nodded. “It is. These dragons are not to be underestimated, though. They’re smart and ruthless, far beyond any other animal I’ve encountered.”

  The trio set out, walking slowly in the dark. With no flashlight, and hesitant to use a continuous source of light like a glowglobe that was impossible to turn off, they followed Dione, who led the way by the light of her manumed.

  “The good news is that I doubt we’ll run into any dragons out here at night,” she said. “Based on our experience this afternoon, I’d say they’re daytime hunters. Like most lizards, they’re probably sleeping at night during the colder hours. Is there anything else we should be looking out for?” She directed her question toward Oliver.

  “I don’t go out at night if it can be avoided, and we’re outside the region where I’ve spent most of my time. I can’t give you many specifics, but the usual suspects, like snakes, spiders—oh, there are glider tree frogs, too.”

  “Glider tree frogs?” Dione asked.

  “I don’t think we’re close enough to water to see any, but they like to pounce out of the branches. Had one land on my face once. Instant numbness wherever its hands and feet landed. It walked down my neck before I brushed it off, but it got the side of my mouth. I couldn’t eat right for a week.”

  “Got it.” Snakes, spiders, and dive-bombing frogs. Oh my.

  “It’s getting lighter,” Brian said.

  Dione looked up. Sure enough, moonlight spilled freely onto the forest floor.

  “The undergrowth is thinning out,” she said. This was not what she had expected as they neared the center of the island. Everything should have been getting thicker and wilder, but knowing what lay at the island’s interior helped her piece it together.

  “Look,” she said, pointing to a blackened patch of earth. The scorch mark confirmed her hypothesis. “The dragons keep the jungle thin here.”

  “We’re getting close,” Oliver said.

  After that revelation, their conversation ceased and Dione turned her manumed’s light off. Not only could the moonlight reach them through the sparse canopy, the underbrush, a tripping hazard, was not as thick, undoubtedly thinned by periodic dragon fires.

  An orange dot appeared in the distance, which she soon recognized as a fire. It was well into the night, but they had finally reached their destination. The orange dot flickered, and the hairs on her arms stood on end. A dragon had crossed in front of the flames. They were awake.

  Oh, no. They lounged by the fires they had made. They were warm.

  She tapped Brian, who was leading the way, on the shoulder, and whispered. Even though the fires were still distant, there could be others patrolling the woods.

  “Those fires will keep them warm,” she said. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

  “We can’t turn back when we’re so close,” Brian whispered. “Even if they’re awake, we can still do this.”

  Oliver sighed. “We’ve come this far. All right. Let’s go
for it.”

  Dione grabbed Brian’s hand and squeezed it. He was too much like Lithia. Headstrong and reckless. That was why they made a good team. On the other hand, she was naturally cautious. That was one of the reasons she’d come with him to this island despite being mad at him. She’d been worried about what he’d do if he came here by himself.

  Still, she felt Kepos changing her, wearing away the part of her that hesitated, that looked before she leapt. She was beginning to doubt their decision to find the colonizer.

  She pushed these thoughts aside and followed Brian and Oliver toward the fire. Dione pushed back against the tightness balling up in her chest by mentally singing the digits of pi to the tune of the dragon song.

  They had the song. It was enough to banish the little pack of dragons that had found them earlier. It would protect them long enough to get inside the colonizer.

  She had always imagined seeing her name followed by the letters Ph.D., but now she imagined a new epithet to complement her name.

  Dione Quinn, Dragon Slayer.

  30. DIONE

  Dione marveled at the sight before her. They had stopped just before the forest thinned into a mere smattering of trees. The earth ahead was charred and mostly bare, except for some small shrubs and clusters of weeds. The colonizer loomed in the background, clearly visible across the expanse.

  The ship was massive. They had approached perpendicular to its body, near one of the ends. She couldn’t see the other end, which stretched into the trees. Apparently, the dragons were concentrated on this side.

  The area the dragons occupied was a wasteland, and everything smelled burnt. Like Lithia’s baking. Dione smiled. Soon she’d be back with her friends. And Oberon. She’d have to own up to what she’d done, but she wasn’t worried about that anymore. Helping Brian had been the right choice.

  There was one large bonfire that burned bright enough to leave spots on her vision. A handful of dragons were retrieving sticks and branches that had been stacked in piles throughout their… camp? She didn’t know what to call it. Then, with a flick of their heads, they tossed the sticks onto the fire.

  They were watch fires, probably intended to keep them warm and alert at night.

  Fascinating, she thought before catching herself. No, terrible. Very bad news for us.

  The dragons were both terrible and fascinating. She would focus on surviving, but what a great subject for a paper—no, thesis—these dragons would be. Try as she might, she couldn’t turn that part of her brain off.

  Dione furrowed her brow and scanned the landscape. Dark shapes dotted the expanse in front of her, none of them moving. Only a few were awake and keeping watch, and they were on the opposite side of the colonizer. Why? Did they have predators? Dione hadn’t seen anything in the wild or in Jameson’s records that could stand against the dragons. A rival dragon clan? No, this had been the only bald patch on the island from above.

  Brian was studying the dragon-peppered expanse before them.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure yet,” he answered, still distracted.

  She followed his stare, watching the dragons pace this way and that. “Do you—”

  He cut her off. “They’re guarding something.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t know what they’re guarding against. I doubt they have any predators here,” she said.

  “No, it’s not that. The way they move. They’re not focused on the outside. I mean they are, but not exclusively. They’re protecting something. Can’t you see it?”

  Dione could not see it. Whatever subtle behavior or pattern he was observing was for his eyes alone. As curious as she was, she was also tired and so, so close to seeing Lithia and the professor again. She had been rehearsing what she would say to Oberon on their walk here.

  “We should wait somewhere safer while we get our bearings,” she said.

  Father and son didn’t seem to hear her. They were wrapped up in their own conversation.

  “I see it,” Oliver said. A moment later he gasped. “Brian, it’s a nest!”

  “Exactly!” Brian said. “It’s not a typical patrol of the perimeter. They’re guarding that specific area.”

  After another minute, Dione saw it, too. “The nest is inside the end segment of the colonizer,” she said softly.

  “We need to get out of here.” Oliver’s excitement shifted into fear. “However violent they were in the jungle, they’ll be even more tenacious in their attack if they catch us this close to their nest.”

  “Dione says this ship is a colonizer,” Brian said. “It brought the original colonists here. Jameson had a way of coming back to it safely, and we just found that. The song. We can do this. We’ll never have a better chance, and even if we did wait days, maybe even weeks, for more people to come, do you really think a large-scale, assault-style attack would yield better results? Reducing or eliminating engagement with these creatures is the way to go. I’m going to check it out by myself.”

  “Brian—”

  “No. Victoria will come in here, guns blazing with what little ammo she has left, and get a bunch of people killed. Or she won’t come at all.”

  Dione disagreed. “I think she’s learned her lesson. If we explain the nest to her, she’ll exercise caution. She’s not stupid.”

  “No, but she’s too stubborn to take recommendations. I have a better chance if I go alone. This is stealth work, and I’ve spent years avoiding the Aratians while smuggling. I know I can do this,” he replied. “Before any Ficarans come here and get killed because of my intel about the colonizer, I have to make sure the fabricator is here. I won’t be gone long.”

  Dione bit her lip. She did not want to go near that colonizer, especially if the dragons had a nest inside, but Brian was important to her. He had risked a lot to help her and Lithia when they first arrived on Kepos. Since then, she had gotten to know him better. Despite his flaws, he had the best interests of his people at heart. Sometimes it made him stupid, though, like Lithia, always charging off on some idiotic plan. And just as she looked out for Lithia, she’d be there to help him.

  She put her hand in his. “You don’t even know what to look for,” she said. “I’m coming, too. It’ll go faster with me there.”

  “You don’t have to,” he said.

  “I know,” she replied.

  “I’m going to stay here,” Oliver said. He was watching the dragons with that same intent stare Brian had earlier.

  “What?” Brian asked.

  “Just while you scout things out. I can keep an eye on the dragons and let you know if anything changes. Watch your backs, in a way.”

  “Are you sure?” Brian asked.

  “Yes, I’m sure.”

  Brian pulled something from his pocket. “Here’s my communicator. Be careful.”

  Dione couldn’t read Oliver’s face in the moonlight, but he took the communicator from Brian’s outstretched hand and hugged his son once more.

  Brian and Dione headed into the woods, moving parallel to the massive ship. They were going to the opposite end. Based on the thickening vegetation, there would be fewer dragons there. Or maybe the entire ship was filled with dragon eggs.

  Or baby dragons, she thought.

  How many eggs did a dragon lay? Were baby dragons any less dangerous? Though her general anxiety about traveling the island had diminished since they found Oliver, she felt the tightness in her chest return.

  To get her mind off that feeling, she turned her focus to the stimuli around her. The hazy quality of the predawn light. The sound of Brian’s breathing. The textured exterior of the dark, metallic ship. It was divided into segments, and they had just passed the smallest one. The dragon-infested one.

  Soon they passed the place where the dragon segment was joined to the next. The dragon-infested segment was smaller than the middle segment, though it had the same dark, textured exterior. Often colonizers had identical, self-sufficient segments so that different locations in a
system or on a planet could be colonized, but Jameson had chosen specialized segments. The middle segment was longer and much bigger, but it was eclipsed by the first segment, which was larger still. She had seen it when they first arrived at the island via Flyer, but she had been so focused on the dragons, she hadn’t realized how big it was. It made sense. Jameson had brought a few hundred people with him.

  She glanced back at the smallest segment. She hoped that the separation between each segment had kept the dragon nest confined to that one, and that the fabricator wasn’t in that section.

  A twig snapped, and Brian stepped in front of her, as if to protect her. Dione resented that instinct for a moment, until she realized Lithia would have done the same.

  A single dragon walked by, closer to the ship than their hiding place. It hadn’t seen them. Something was poking from its mouth. Dinner?

  No. It held a small bundle of sticks. Incredible, she thought. They’re gathering kindling for their watch fires.

  “Brian, the fire and claws aren’t what make these dragons so dangerous. They’re more than vicious. They’re intelligent. I’ll bet they make plans and anticipate what their prey will do. Back when they had us surrounded in the tree, I thought I was keeping them distracted with my shots, but now I’m wondering if it wasn’t the other way around. They were keeping me distracted while their friend crawled around to the back of the tree to attack.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me,” he said. “I may be good at recognizing patterns, but you definitely have more experience with animal behavior.”

  “The good news is that there aren’t many dragons over here,” she said. They all seemed to be clustered at the end of the colonizer where they had left Oliver. She had only noticed a few sleeping at intervals near the ship on their walk.

  “That’s what worries me. The ones who are awake are probably out scavenging for kindling. It will be harder to spot them and avoid them. And the rest will wake up soon.”

  “You’re right,” she said, looking to where the ombré sky was fading from black to navy to light blue. “We need to get inside the ship.”