by Ramy Vance
“All right, all right. Makes sense. I’ll get the rest of the guys together and go take care of this. If you run across any other leaks, let us know. Don’t want this place falling apart while everyone is out.”
The guard walked down the hall as he radioed for the rest of the guards in the facility. Once Brath was certain the guard was out of earshot, he went around the corner and motioned for the rest of the team to come forward.
Alex silently clapped her hands before patting Brath on the back. “I would never have thought you were the one who’d have the gift of gab. I’d upgrade you from bronze to silver.”
Brath took a quick bow, his smile a little less smug than usual. The gnome looked like he was genuinely happy with the compliment. “Nice thing about being a gnome is when you start rattling off mechanical jargon, everyone takes your word. Everyone assumes we’re always working on their crap.”
Gill pointed down the hallway and said, “Come on, this way to the stables.”
Brath and the rest of Team Boundless went running down the halls toward the stables, hoping to get there before anyone noticed them, Gill checking his map every couple of seconds just to make sure they didn’t run into anyone.
Finally, they arrived at the stables. Alex opened the door, and they stepped through. Her heart sank as she saw the state they were in.
Chapter Four
The stables were nothing like those in the Wasp’s Nest. These seemed to be in complete disrepair. It was hard to tell the last time a dragon had been in the place.
Computer equipment was torn up, and there were cables and internal mechanical pieces all over the floor. It looked like a bomb had gone off inside a massive computer. Alex wasn’t certain how she was going to make heads or tails of what to do for Chine.
She had a very limited idea of what changing equipment and maintenance was going to be like. Alex had only seen the equipment attached before. She hadn’t gotten to the part of training where she was taught how to detach anything.
Boundless wandered around the stables. All the other members looked confused by the state of the stables as well. “Isn’t this a dragonriders’ facility?” Jim wondered out loud. “How the hell do they take care of their dragons with everything so…busted up?”
Brath leaned over the side of the area that the dragons were usually kept. It didn’t look like anything had been there for some time. “Maybe they don’t have any dragons,” Brath suggested. “This place looks like it hasn’t been used for years.”
Alex tapped one of the computers and then hit its power button. The machine remained off. “That’s probably why they aren’t mounting a rescue party for Roy and Toppinir—they don’t have the resources. I thought they were just being jerks. How did this happen?”
Gill sat down in the control center of the stables. “No idea, but it isn’t good. It couldn’t have been funding. Myrddin has a nearly infinite budget. Perks of being an alchemist. Whatever happened here must have been something else. Who knows? We should focus on our situation.”
“You’re right. Let’s get this sorted out.”
Alex reached out telepathically to Chine. Where are you guys?
A mighty roar ripped through the air. Alex looked up at the opening in the ceiling. The dragons were flying overhead. They zoomed down into the stables, gracefully separating and taking up residence in the augment section of the stables. “Gill, can you get this stuff back online?” Alex asked.
Gill took a look at the main computer of the control center and sighed. “Yeah, I probably can. Might take a bit of time, but I’ll get it running.”
Alex hit her comm and patched to Jollies. “Hey, girl, how’s the search going?” she asked.
Jollies’ voice came through the comm, frantic and panicked. “I’m in the war room, but there isn’t a holograph. I can’t find it. I’m going to fail the only mission I have!”
“Hey, hey, calm down. Hold on; we’ll figure this out.”
Alex ran over to Chine and jumped down into his resting spot. The dragon rose when he saw her. Hey, Chine, can you do me a favor?
Chine stretched out his wings slowly as he nodded. What do you need?
Jollies’ eyes. She’s having a hard time finding what she’s looking for. Maybe if she had an extra set of eyes, it could help her out.
Chine closed his eyes, and Alex took that as a yes. She came over to the dragon, sat down beneath his wings, and closed her eyes.
Alex felt a tickling behind her eyeballs, a soft scratching like something was moving around in the back of her skull. When she opened her eyes, she was no longer in the stables. Everything around her was moving very fast—far too fast to make any sense of it. “Hey, Jollies, slow down,” Alex shouted.
Jollies froze, or at least, Alex thought that she had stopped moving. Alex’s viewpoint had at least stopped moving. “Uh, Alex?” Jollies asked.
“Don’t worry about anything. I’m just looking through your eyes so I can give you a hand finding the holograph map. That’s all.”
“Wait, you’re looking through my eyes? How many fingers am I holding up?”
Alex couldn’t see Jollies’ fingers and chuckled. “Jollies, you have to look at your fingers for me to see them.”
Jollies laughed nervously and said, “Oh, okay.” She raised her hand in front of her eyes, holding up three fingers.
“Three fingers. Now can we get started? And fly slow. I’m not used to looking through your eyes.”
Jollies started to fly around the room, moving slower. “This is so weird,” Jollies admitted. “Are you in my head or something? Can you read my mind?”
“No, I’m just seeing through your eyes. It’s a psychic link, but I don’t think I can read your mind or anything like that.”
Chine’s thoughts broke through Alex’s. Not yet, but with practice, your psychic powers might be as strong as mine one day.
Alex did a double-take, switching back to her own eyes for a moment so she could see Chine. Wait, what? Are you saying I have psychic powers?
Didn’t Myrddin tell you? That’s why our connection is so strong. The spell Myrddin crafted for you was not merely new eyes. It’s a psychic link, which means you have psychic powers. The beginnings, at least. They need to be worked, like a muscle.
Alex was giddy about the idea, but she figured she’d come back to that later. The mission needed to be their priority. “All right, Jollies, we’re looking for a giant holomap. Can you take a look around so I can get a better view?”
Jollies and Alex slowly scanned the war room. Like the stables, the war room looked like it hadn’t been used much in ages. What had happened to this facility?
It was obvious where the holographic map was supposed to be. There was a large platform in the middle of the room where it would have been projected. It would have been easy for everyone in the room to see it from that vantage point.
“That’s where it should be,” Alex said. “That spot right there.”
Jollies flew to the platform and looked around, taking her time when Alex reminded the pixie that she needed to concentrate on not moving too fast. Alex could see the spot had been outfitted for a projection. “Hey, Jollies, can you test the lights in the room?”
Jollies replied, “Sure,” as she zoomed over to the light switch on the wall. She flipped the switch. The lights remained off.
Alex switched back to her own eyes, jumped up, and leaped back into the main section of the stables. “Hey! Gill! Is the electricity running to this room?”
Gill whirled around from the computer he was tinkering with. “Let me check,” he replied as he pulled up his HUD visor. After a couple of seconds, he pushed his visor back down and said, “Nope! It looks like most of the power’s being routed to other parts of the facility.”
“Route the power back to this room and to the war room. That should fix Jollies’ problem, at least.”
Gill flashed Alex a thumbs-up and started messing around on his dragon anchor. After a couple of secon
ds, the power cut back on, and the lights turned on in the stables.
Alex closed her eyes and concentrated until she felt the tickle in the back of her head. When she opened her eyes, she was seeing through Jollies’ eyes, and she was looking at a bright green holographic map. “Perfect,” Alex said. “Jollies, can you upload the map to your dragon anchor? Along with any important information?”
Jollies nodded, disorienting Alex. “Yeah, I can manage that.”
“Let me know if you have any more problems. Head back to the stables after you get it.”
Alex returned to her own vision. “All right, Jollies has the map,” Alex told everyone. “Now all we have to do is get these dragons taken care of. How are things going, Gill?”
Gill stood up from the computer system, sighing and shaking his head. His face looked grim. “Not good. Even with power routed to the stables, we aren’t going to have enough to get any of the augment stations working.”
“Can you explain what that means in English?”
Gill jumped down onto the main platform of the stables. “It means we can remove what we’ve put on our dragons, but we aren’t going to be able to replace the weapons—and that creates a problem. The longer those augments are on are dragons, the more damage there’s going to be.”
“Wait, what? I thought if we did the maintenance, it wasn’t going—”
“That’s not how it works. The augments aren’t meant to stay on for extended periods of time. That’s why you have to do maintenance.”
Alex threw her hands up in frustration as she paced. “Okay, Gill, I’m hearing a lot of problems, but I’m not hearing any solutions,” she moaned. “I just don’t know enough about this stuff.”
Gill placed his hand on Alex’s shoulder and smiled at her reassuringly. “We aren’t screwed,” he said. “The power’s back on. We can still take care of the dragons, and I’ll work at seeing if I can get any more systems back online. Until then, though, you’re going to have to get your hands dirty.”
The rest of the dragonriders had come over to Alex and Gill. As Gill was preparing to speak, Jollies rushed through the door, almost flying into Alex’s face. “I got the map!” she squeaked.
Alex gave Jollies a high five and said, “That’s great,” as Gill cleared his throat to speak. “Oh, sorry, didn’t mean to steal your thunder,” Alex apologized.
Gill replied, “You didn’t. And it wasn’t going to be an exciting statement. Have any of you performed maintenance on your dragons before?”
None of the team said anything. Gill sighed. “Have any of you read through the manual on performing maintenance? Did any of you do any research after our initial lessons?”
More silence. Brath awkwardly coughed, which only made the silence more uncomfortable. “All right,” Gill went on. “It’s going to be pretty simple. You’re going to use your dragon anchors to drain the draconian fluid from where the augments rest on your dragon’s skin. The fluid will be stored in your anchor. The fluid has a myriad of different—”
Alex interrupted Gill, saying, “Uh, do we really need the science lesson right now? How about you give us the CliffsNotes so we can get up and running.”
Gill nodded and continued, “All right, you’re going to drain the fluid, store it in your anchor, and reattach the augments. If I can get the system going, we’ll put some new ones on, but it’s unnecessary. They’ll be good after being drained. We should get to it.”
The riders split up, looking for their dragons in the stables, which didn’t take long. Alex jumped down into Chine’s holding area and reached out to his mind. So, you know the drill, right? she asked.
Chine raised his wings as he stood, allowing Alex easier access to his chest and claw augments. Ah, yes, my favorite part of my service to the realms—being taken care of and groomed like common livestock.
Alex approached Chine and stood in front of his chest. She looked down at her dragon anchor, uncertain of how she was going to detach Chine’s armor and how she was going to scoop out the draconian fluid.
Waiting was unnecessary, though, because Alex’s dragon anchor began to glow the same color as the flashing green light on Chine’s chest piece. Alex reached out to the blinking light.
The chest piece contorted, plates of steel rolling back. It was the same kind of nano-tech Alex’s armor was made from. The chest piece created a hole the size of Alex’s wrist. “I put my hand in there?” Alex asked.
Chine nodded as Alex curled her bottom lip. “Am I putting my hand…in you?” Alex asked.
“Yes, into my chest. It’s the easiest way to drain my fluids. It’ll allow the augment to continue sitting there without my blood burning and searing the piece to my flesh.”
“Jeez, sounds terrible.”
“The first generation of dragons sacrificed a lot so we’d have the technology we do today. Their sacrifices should never be forgotten.”
Alex took a deep breath and plunged her hand into Chine’s chest. The dragon winced as Alex felt her dragon anchor start to warm up. It went quickly from warm to searing. Alex almost screamed in pain, and the dragon growled under his breath.
If she hadn’t been so concerned with Chine’s well-being, she would have pulled her arm out as soon as it had started to get uncomfortable. But this was necessary to keep Chine’s blood from melting the armor into his skin. This was her part.
Alex could feel the heat traveling from her skin to her bone. It felt like her entire skeleton was catching on fire. And then it was suddenly gone. She pulled her anchor out, and the chest augment settled back into place.
Chine shook his wings and huffed out a cloud of black smoke. “Just five more times,” he grumbled. “Save the neck anchor for last. It’s the most painful.”
Alex nodded as she got started, working her way through each anchor, draining the draconian fluid. Her skin took fire, then her bones, the heat boiling up in her body to such a degree she felt like she was aflame on the inside. Then, just as quickly as it started, nothing.
After she had drained all of the lower augments, she climbed up on top of Chine and raised her hand above his anchor. Her anchor and the dragon’s started to blink in rhythm, then a hole opened up on his back. Alex knelt and plunged her arm into it.
Chine let out a roar of pain as he flinched. Alex felt the fire shoot up her arm, faster than it had before. Flames were burning behind her eyes. There was no feeling in her arm. It was as if it had been dissolved. Then Alex felt her arm being forced out of the hole.
Skin and scales grew over the wound until the nanotech covered everything. Alex leaped off Chine’s back as the dragon reached up and stretched. “Glad that’s finally over,” he said. “Now we just need to wait for the rest of them.
Alex took a seat next to him. She felt sick to her stomach, and the world went black at the edge of her vision. Even though she fought it, she slipped into a deep sleep.
Chapter Five
Alex felt like she’d been sleeping for a lifetime, but when she woke up, hardly any time had passed. Chine had nudged her awake, and now she lay staring at the sky through the open ceiling of the stables. What happened? Alex asked.
The dragon curled his tail around Alex to prop her up. A side effect of our mental link, your latent psychic abilities, and the draconian fluid.
You know, just because you’re using words, it doesn’t mean you’re making sense. How about we try again, but you assume I don’t know how any of that works?
Chine chuckled before he started speaking again. The anchor has to do something with the fluid. It recirculates through your body and processes it as waste. But there are some riders who have different effects. You seem to be one of them. And that means the draconian fluid, or dragon’s blood, as it should properly be called, makes you stronger, akin to the dragon-blooded of old. You might be the closest we’ve had to one in a long while, but don’t let it go to your head. It just means our bond will be stronger.”
Alex yawned as she stretched, still trying
to shake off her sudden sleep. Well, that’s good to know, I guess. How’s everyone else finishing up?
Chine reached out telepathically to the rest of the dragons, and after a few moments, told Alex all the dragonriders had finished their maintenance. Jim had finished working on his mech a while ago. “Okay,” Alex said. “Guess it’s time to get moving.”
Alex walked out of Chine’s area and approached Gill, who was still tinkering with the central computer system. “No luck getting it online?” Alex asked.
Gill turned to face Alex. He looked exhausted. Apparently, the maintenance process had been hard on him, too. For all his book knowledge, the drow had been unprepared for the reality of taking care of their dragons. “No, not the entire system, but I was able to glean more information from the system using the map Jollies brought. Our coordinates are all entered and updated to our links.”
Jim, Brath, and Jollies walked up to Alex and Gill, looking pretty beat. It would have been nice to have a moment for everyone to catch their breath. Jim was the only one who looked ready to go, but he was the only one who didn’t have to process the dragons’ blood.
Alex sat down next to Gill. “Maybe we should all just chill for a little—”
An alarm blared through the stables as the power came back on. Bright red lights flashed as a voice shouted over the intercom, “Intruders! Intruders! The stables are compromised. Security on the way.”
Gill leaned over the computer, trying to see what could have tripped the alarm. “Damn it,” he muttered. “I must have brought the security system back on when I was going through the map.”
“Well, forget chilling, then! We need to ride!”
Team Boundless each went to their own dragon. Alex leaped down into Chine’s stables, landed on his back, raised her anchor, and then they were off, soaring into the sky as the alarms blared behind them.