“Jump!” screamed Erion and Raan together. The Tanker was twenty feet off the ground now and rotated slowly. Delta Ten started to run after it and launched himself into the air. Erion and Raan, leaning perilously out of the hatch, held out their hands to him but he missed them by an inch and fell back down to the ground.
He stood looking up at them as they rose into the sky and thought he heard Major Dubois calling to him. It sounded like, “Raise your hands, Del.” There didn’t seem to be any point to the manoeuvre, but he did so and then saw the young dragon bearing down on him. He leapt up, caught one of its feet and was lifted into the air to follow the Tanker as it rose through the clouds.
“Come on, Dragon, Come on!” Erion and Raan urged it on as it frantically beat its dark grey wings to catch up with them, while its heavy burden hung from one leg. The Tanker flew higher into the atmosphere and the hatch automatically closed.
“No!” Raan pounded uselessly on the door mechanism as the craft left the atmosphere and entered the darkness of space.
“Leave it, Captain,” Erion touched his arm and he turned sadly away.
“Major!” It was Del on Raan’s comlink. “Open the emergency outside airlock.” They rushed to the other side of the cargo bay, where a heavily riveted, oval airlock door was situated behind some boxes. Raan and Erion hastily moved them aside and tried to peer out through both windows. The dragon, with Delta Ten hanging from its leg, was still keeping pace with the Tanker; but only just.
“Come on,” Raan’s nimble fingers entered the code that was written by the side of the pad to engage the manual emergency override. A small panel slid aside to reveal the manual release for the outside hatch. The tanker was leaving the atmosphere and once it did that, it would engage its star drive. There would be no way for a flying dragon to keep pace with it then. Raan grasped the manual handle, pulled it down and the outside hatch of the airlock slid aside. The gap inside was about eight by eight feet. Not much room for an android and a dragon, but they were going to have a try. The dragon, wings flapping steadily, seemed to make a last effort and Delta Ten jumped inside. He turned back to the hatch as the dragon started to fall away, totally spent by the effort, leaned outside and caught it by a wing. There was a silent scream as the soft, leathery fabric ripped, and a bony spar snapped, but Del had a hold and wasn’t going to let go. He hauled the big creature inside and nodded to Raan, who closed the outside hatch. There was a subdued hiss as the air pressure equalised then Raan opened the inside hatch. Delta Ten and Raan helped the big creature out of the tiny airlock space and it sat on the floor, one wing flapping uselessly. Erion spotted the comlink on one of its talons.
“Thank you, Prince Grennig,” she said.
“Thank you, Major,” it countered. “Thank you for saving me.” They could hear its voice in their heads and they could also sense the pain it was in.
“How did you do that?” asked Erion, while Delta Ten was calling for medical aid for Prince Grennig.
“We can store oxygen reserves and move our warm blood to protect important organs, should the need arise,” he answered. Trenee have always been able to skim the atmosphere. It used to be a popular pastime many years ago, but I have never done it before.” He sounded quite pleased with himself. “I am the first of the Young Dragons Club to have achieved this. I shall invent a new medal.” He lifted his head with pride, then looked at Delta Ten. “I hoped your android frame could withstand the intense cold and lack of oxygen.”
“I am grateful that you took the chance to come back for me,” Delta Ten bowed low.
“And I am grateful that you pulled me into the airlock. I was about to become unconscious.”
“We try never to leave a crew member behind,” said Erion, patting a talon. She looked up, suddenly. “We saw Hal and Starfire being carried here!”
Kaura opened his claws to let Hal and Starfire slide gently off the mound of earth and come to a stop on the Tanker floor. A voice in Starfire’s head was urging her to let go of Hal, but she couldn’t, and it was Hal’s blood stained hand, touching hers that made her release him. She got to her knees, surrounded by scaly dragon legs and realised that, even if there was some sort of rudimentary healing facility on board, it would be for dragons, not humans.
“We understand, Starfire,” the gentle voice was back. “Follow our instructions, please. Take the healer and place it over the wound.” She carefully placed Hal on his back and pressed some sort of square pad over the gaping wound in his chest. It felt warm to the touch and vibrated slightly beneath her fingers. Hal’s breathing seemed to improve and hope rose in a tide of relief. Hal touched her hand and she looked down at him and grasped his fingers.
“You’re going to be fine.” He tried to speak and she had to bend right over to hear him.
“I don’t think so, Lieutenant.”
“No, they’re really advanced, Hal. They can fix you up.”
“Starfire,” he said quietly, “I got to leave now.”
“No, you can’t go,” she said desperately. “We have to stay together. Don’t you dare die!” His eyes closed and she hauled him half upright and cradled his body.
“Hal?” her voice choked and his eyes flickered open. He smiled, weakly and lifted a finger to brush her tears aside.
“You gotta be strong now, Lieutenant.”
“Hal!” she cried again as his hand fell away. His grey eyes stopped focusing on her and she knew he was gone.
“Lieutenant Starfire is unscathed,” said Grennig, then hung his head, “but Hal is mortally wounded.”
“Oh no,” gasped Erion, looking at Raan in shock. Raan threw Grennig a hard look.
“Where is she?” There was a little jolt and the lurch in their stomachs told them they had gone to light speed. They would be safe now.
They found Starfire in the next compartment, sitting on the floor with the little dragon on her lap. It was squeaking and whistling loudly and she looked up at them.
“I don’t know what it wants,” she said, dully.
“Giver her to me,” said a warm voice in their heads and they turned to see a massive dragon’s head, leaning down towards Starfire. It opened its jaws and Starfire placed the noisy little dragon into the cavernous mouth. “She is hungry,” said the voice. “I shall take her to her mother.” It lumbered off and Raan and Erion sat down either side of Starfire. Raan took her hand.
“How is he?” he asked, gently. Starfire turned a tear stained face towards him.
“We almost made it,” she sniffed. “I saw that little dragon and stopped to pick it up. I couldn’t leave it behind. I couldn’t keep up and Hal took the baby so I could run faster. He was shot from behind. Kaura picked us up and we flew to the Tanker. They put something on his chest and he stopped bleeding. He was getting better, he really was. Then he said he couldn’t stay, and…. and then he died in my arms, right there, lying in the dirt. She burst into tears and Raan placed her head on his shoulder, stroked her hair and rocked her like a baby.
She calmed down a bit after a minute or so, drying her puffy eyes on her sleeve. “Are you two okay?” she sniffed.
“Cuts and bruises, is all,” said Raan. His face was grazed and dirty and Erion had a bruise on her head, but they were relatively unscathed.
“We got them all away then?” asked Starfire.
“A few were injured by the shooting, but their scales protected them from serious harm,” said Erion, softly, “but we got everyone away and the tunnel closed. We didn’t leave anyone behind.”
“Grennig broke his wing, helping Del get in the tanker, though,” said Raan. “We’d better go back to him and see if he is all right.” They weaved their way through giant, scaly legs and found him, roughly where they had left him. He was roaring, loudly, and a slightly smaller dragon was trying to bind the broken wing with thick twine. Every time she lifted the binding in her claws, Grennig shifted his wing away and it flapped uselessly against the deck. There was a lot of loud roaring and it didn’t ta
ke a genius to figure out what was going on.
“Prince Grennig!” Everybody looked up at King Kaura. Both of the dragons stopped moving and looked down. “You are an embarrassment to your position of Prince in the Royal Household. Now take it like a Trenee and stop that yelling!”
“Yes Father.” The smaller dragon bound up the wing quite quickly now Grennig held still. There was some squeaking and definitely some quiet, agonised moaning, but eventually the other young dragon stood back with obvious satisfaction.
“There, you great lump!” the voice was unmistakably female. “How did you do that? Probably slipped getting through the door.”
“On the contrary,” Delta Ten stepped forward. “Corporal Grennig was very brave. He saved Major Dubois and Captain Raan and he flew back for me, despite the fact that he knew he would not be able to save himself. He is a true hero.”
“I shall be recommending him for the Rebel Alliance Hero’s medal, Your Highness,” put in Erion. “It is only awarded to those who risk their lives to save others.”
“Then you should also award it to yourselves,” he said, gently. He lifted a slightly muddy spur towards Starfire and she touched it, briefly. “I have someone here who wishes to speak with you.” He stepped aside and a slightly smaller Trenee walked in. She opened her huge mouth to reveal a little, baby dragon sitting in a pouch just inside her jaws. It bounced up and down and whistled excitedly when it saw Starfire and reached its stubby front legs out to her. Starfire picked it up and tickled it behind its ears before handing it back.
“Words cannot convey the joy I feel in my heart,” said a soft voice. “This is the first clutch that we dared to raise in the hopes you would find us a home. We have named her Starfire, Hal, Erion, Raan, Delta Ten, in your honour.”
“Thank you,” stuttered Starfire, she had never had anyone named after her before.
“We shall call her Lucky Star, for short, for that is what she is. Lucky that you came to Serrell, lucky that you decided to help us and lucky that it was you and Hal that found her.” Starfire bit her lip and looked up, putting on a false smile for the little dragon’s mother. She had lost many comrades in battle and she knew she must not let Hal’s death drown her in sorrow, but this didn’t seem real somehow. She desperately wanted it not to be real. She bowed her head to the baby’s mother.
“We are honoured,” she said.
“Hal is a good man, Starfire,” the dragon’s kind tones invaded her thoughts.
“He died,” she said, knuckling away a large tear that trickled down her cheek. “If I had run faster, he wouldn’t have had to come back for me. He wouldn’t have been shot.”
“Don’t be sad, Tehr Starfire,” the dragon’s voice was full of joy. “He isn’t gone.”
“Would you like to see your friend?” Kaura motioned with his wing and pointed the way.
“But… but …” Starfire’s mouth opened and shut like a fish as she struggled to keep up with this new turn of events. All the Trenee stood quietly aside for them as they hurried down the length of the tanker, and one gently touched Starfire’s shoulder as she walked through a partition hatch.
Hal was sitting on the side of a bed, hastily made out of packing cases and blankets. He stood up, a little unsteadily and tucked his shirt into his jeans. He picked his gunbelt up from where it lay on the bed, swung it around his lean waist, buckled it and tied the bottom of the holster to his thigh. His left hand fumbled in the breast pocket of his shirt.
“Shit, has anyone got any ‘rillos?” he asked a slightly annoyed voice. “I’m all out.” Starfire could not bring herself to speak, so Erion said, quietly,
“How do you feel?”
“Okay,” he said, warily, then looked around when he realised everyone was staring at him. “What? What is it?” Starfire walked slowly towards him and touched the front of his black shirt. It was stiff with dried blood and she tried, without success, to undo one of the small buttons. He looked at her with a baffled, but slightly amused expression as she looked down and tried to blink her tears away. He hooked a long finger under her chin and lifted it up. “What the frag is wrong with you?”
“He has no memory of the incident,” said Kaura.
“You were shot running towards the Tanker,” she said. “Don’t you remember anything?” He thought for a moment.
“I remember running, then there was a little dragon that shit on me.” He frowned in concentration. “I don’t remember anything else till I woke up here and found I’d lost my cigarillos.”
“Starfire thinks you died,” stated Raan flatly.
“He was dead,” reiterated Starfire. “I know what death looks like. I have seen people die before and he looked like that.”
“He was very near death, Starfire,” admitted Kaura, kindly. “You were in shock and you rushed out. The healer did its work and managed to save him.” Starfire shook her head.
“Well whatever happened, you’re okay now,” said Raan, grinning from ear to ear.
“Yeah, thanks,” muttered Hal to the nearest Trenee, not really knowing what was going on. The dragons moved away and they stood around for a few seconds, not knowing what to say.
“I’m going up top to see Thirty Seven,” said Starfire suddenly, handing Hal a black cigarillo. She wanted to hug him, but she knew he wouldn’t have liked that, not in front of everyone. She hit him instead.
“What was that for?” He rubbed his arm.
“For being a pain in the arse.”
“I think I’ll come with you, Lieutenant,” said Erion, wrinkling her delicate nose.
“Let’s all go,” suggested Raan. It was quite a long walk past a lot of dragons.
“No shit?” Hal was at the back of the little procession, talking to Raan.
“Yeah, Starfire said you really died, man. She was crying and everything.” Hal digested this monumental piece of information and sensed Raan was waiting for some sort of profound, personal statement.
“What I really need is a clean shirt,” Hal fingered the dried blood on the front of his shirt and tried to brush the grey, powdered dragon poo off his sleeve.
“I think there’s a Vanity at the back of the pilot section,” said Raan. “Shame it ain’t big enough for dragons though.”
“Yeah,” Hal watched Raan light his cigarillo and dial it round to vanilla in the hopes that the aromatic vapour might mask the sharp, ammonia smell of a lot of frightened dragons in a confined space.
“Thirty Seven, am I glad to see you,” Starfire smiled at the big, black robot in the pilot seat. “Bob, is that you?”
“I am one of the Bobs, yes,” answered the other robot, acting as co-pilot.
“I am relieved that you have recovered from your wounds, Hal,” Thirty Seven rotated his head all the way round and tilted it up another ten degrees to look up at him.
“Thanks, Thirty Seven, so am I.” Hal looked around for the Vanity. It was a small, standard one, just outside the pilot section that didn’t do clothes and bodies together. Starfire took off her flight suit and hung it up as it was covered in blood and mud, and Erion shrugged out of her jacket and lent it to her.
Hal took off his black shirt with difficulty because of all the dried blood. In the end, he undid the buttons he could and pulled it over his head. He leaned in through the open the door, hung it up on one of the clothes hangers next to Starfire’s flight suit and programmed the machine for a quick clean and repair.
Hal had the torso of a battle worn fighter. His upper body was covered in scars that he hadn’t bothered to smooth out with a mediheal. The one that had caused his latest demise showed as a small round scar in the centre of his back, just below his shoulder blades and had emerged through his ribcage to leave a jagged, round exit wound at the front. He saw everyone staring at the map of his life etched on his body and narrowed his eyes.
“What?” They had seen him naked before, but they hadn’t really taken that much notice. Raan’s lithe body was smooth, soft and blemish free. According
to Starfire and Erion, he spent more time in the Vanity than a teenage girl getting ready for a night out. The two men really were from the opposite ends of the scale. Thankfully, thought Erion, they overlapped in the middle where courage, comradeship and honour resided.
It was over a ten hour trip in hyperspace for Tanker Ten and the human contingent spent their time in the tiny crew lounge at the back of the pilot section. They all had a turn in the ship’s basic Vanity Unit, ate a small meal and then slept for most of the way. They hadn’t had that much sleep the night before and soon nodded off on the scattered armchairs throughout the crew lounge. Delta Ten woke them with an hour to go till normal space and they, yawned, stretched and drank some coffee. They all used the Vanity again, and when Tanker Ten made its final approach to Manta Six, they were all wide awake and ready to leave.
Tranter and Vermillion were waiting at the front passenger ramp. Erion tried to look regal, but ran the last three steps and jumped into Tranter’s arms.
“I thought you were dead,” he said, tenderly, holding her close.
“No, that was Hal,” she answered. Tranter looked up to where Hal was talking to Vermillion. She put her hands around his neck and drew him close, “I’ll tell you all about it later.”
Chapter 21
Hal and Tranter arrived back on Manta Six with news that they managed to get in touch with Benty Tabbert. Her husband had been transferred to Terrell to supervise the building of the new Starport there, so Vermillion and Kaura had allowed The Rebel to use a mobile shield generator for one time only, to hide it while it was on the surface of Terrell.
It was a very surprised Commander Tabbert that opened a service hatch to let them in to its upper levels. He went with them to a small apartment that Hal had borrowed for the day from one of his contacts.
Starfire and the Space Dragons: A Grennig Crew Adenture Page 26